Wait there's more

Hot on the Heels of the Randall Investment Property in Cairns trip (RIP Cairns), check this out. After a trip to Indonesia and China, Senator Richard Colbeck has claimed $13,744 for overseas study in Honkers from 7-9 September 2012, for the Senator and his wife. That's expensive yum cha...

Pasta with seasonal vegetables

I'm down in Hay (southern NSW) at the moment, working on a cotton farm*. Suffice to say, it is hot, dry and dusty, and it is only spring.. This was a midweek meal I conjured up for my Fijian Flatmate, Swannie. 1 bottle of tomato passata (Italian brand, from the local IGA choose a good quality brand with herbs and a little garlic and onion blended in the sauce) 3 or 4 good quality fresh tomatoes, skin removed, deseeded and roughly chopped handful of button mushrooms, cleaned and halved 1 medium zucchini 2 tbsp olive oil, or in this case I just used canola oil parmesan sea salt all you do is toss the mushrooms in the oil in a medium saucepan for a couple of minutes, to brown them slightly add your tomato passata, skinned and deseeded chopped tomatoes season well with sea salt at this stage cook for 15-20minutes with a lid on, until the tomatoes have cooked and the sauce is fairly thick add your sliced zucchini and cook for 15minutes until the zucchini is done and the sauce has thickened. serve with wholemeal spaghetti, top with parmesan cheese and chopped parsley. swannie the fijian loved it.. *that's another story

Pea, tomato and parsley Pasta

It's been a while since the last post, sorry about that folks.

I made this very simple but tasty dish from a few ingredients sourced out of desperation (the pub kitchen was closed).  But it works - flavour wise, and hip pocket wise.

1 tin of garden peas, drained (if you have fresh peas, even better)
1 bottle of tomato passata
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
sea salt

wholemeal spaghetti, cooked al dente

cook your pasta to your liking in plenty of boiling water and salt, drain and set aside to keep warm

in a large saucepan, bring to the boil the tomato passata, add in your peas (mine were flavoured with a little mint), a good pinch of sea salt and the olive oil. Simmer gently for a couple of minutes.

Add your pasta and stir through, turn the heat off and keep warm whilst you pour the wine.

Serve in large pasta bowls with slices of crusty italian bread, top the dish with grated parmesan and a good handful of fresh parsley.

Simple, healthy, and supremely tasty

Heatwave in Southeastern Australia

yesterday it was 42 degrees Celsius.

at 12am last nite it was still 35 degrees, now it is 7am and 31 degrees (the lowest it has been overnight) and the hot northerly is picking up.

today's forecast is for 44 deg C.

spare a thought for the poor souls in Hay, about 1.5 hours away from Griffith. Today's maximum is a whopping 46 deg!

Griffith forecast for the next week:

Sat 5/1  44C
Sun 6/1  44C
Mon 7/1 41C
Tues 8/1 42C
Wed 9/1 36C
Thurs 10/1 39C
Fri 11/1 42C

Which colonel is head of which Country's army..



Colonel Gaddafi? not anymore...



Colonel Sanders, he feeds a lot of people..

the winner is...

Ol'Big ears..Colonel in Chief, Australian Army!

nambawan pikinini bilong misis kwin

what uniform is that! checkout the P.O.W.'s medals!!

the Prince on tour in Papua New Guinea speaking in Pidgin...coming to Oz today

Chicken with Okra

I received a bag full of home grown okra the other day from a new friend, for those who don't know it is a long green or purple vegetable that looks like a chilli but is not hot.  It doesn't have a lot of taste, but has soft texture when cooked well.

This dish was made in a French style, with butter and cream, you can just use vegetable oil and stock if you wish.

4 chicken legs, skinned
1 1/2 cups home made chicken stock
good knob of butter
1 tbsp grape seed oil
1 onion, diced finely
2 tbsp dijon mustard
2 handfuls of okra, cut and washed

In a frying pan, brown the chicken legs in hot butter and oil. Season with sea salt.
Set aside in a warmed casserole dish (I use my italian dish)
Add onion and fry gently for a couple of minutes in the oil and butter until clear (about 2 minutes)
Add stock to the pan and deglaze.
Pour the onion and stock over the chicken
Add sliced okra, and spoon dijon mustard over the chicken.
Season with more a little more salt if necessary (be careful if stock is store bought)
Cook with a lid on in a medium oven about 180deg C for 50 minutes
To thicken the sauce, remove chicken and okra from the dish, and pour stock into a sauce pan, bring to boil, add a knob of butter and 1 tbsp cream.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and okra in a large serving bowl.

Delish