Finding joy in the everyday

I LOVE mushrooms and so do my family. But I do know people who don't like them and I find this very strange!! Life without mushrooms sounds rather dull to me. As you know, I love facts and figures so I couldn't go past some information on the humble mushroom ( source ):  * A 100g serving of mushrooms contains more dietary fibre (2.5g) than 100g of celery (1.8g) or a slice of whole-wheat bread (2.0g). * Mushrooms contain more protein than most vegetables.They are excellent for vegetarians and vegans (which is why I buy them for my son). * Mushrooms are low in kilojoules: 100g of raw mushrooms contains just 100 kilojoules. * Ancient Egyptians believed that mushrooms grew by magic, because of the way they could appear overnight. * Mushrooms are one of the few natural sources of vitamin D, which is essential for healthy bones and teeth. Amazing fungi! * Mushrooms are a great source of B-vitamins: it contains Thiamin (which controls the release of en...

Dear Blogging friends and family,  Welcome to Tuesday (if you are in Australia, or Monday for those elsewhere),  A little bit of fun to brighten up your day (!!) After sharing with you last week the pink bathroom, I though it would be fun to visit some 1950's kitchens and yes, I was able to locate a few pink ones plus yellow, green, blue and white!! Colour, or more correctly the pastels was very fashionable in the 1950s. They make our modern kitchens look rather lacking in character.  What do you think? — fan or not? Women of the 1950s were so proud of their new kitchens. They had come out of the war years and wanted something bright, new, slick and "advanced" and they were compared to kitchens of previous decades. They came with all the mod-cons and made cooking easier than ever and I can imagine women eager to cook in them.  Whilst I wouldn't want a 1950s style kitchen in my own house, they do bring back sweet memories of my childhood as...

In one year you will eat 1,095 meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). With life expectancy around 80 years for a woman, you will consumer 87,600 meals in your life time. If you are married for 50 years, you will prepare 54,750 meals for your husband. That is a lot of cooking and eating!! Each of those meals you cook for your husband, you have decided on what to cook, how healthy it will be, the cost, the length of time it will take, what food you need to buy . . . . you have been one busy lady in the kitchen. As wives we all have a responsibility to cook healthy meals for our husbands and the best and cheapest way of doing this is by home cooking. It isn't hard, it doesn't take as long as you might think and it tastes 100% better than anything you buy in the shop.  My mother was a great home cook and she taught my three siblings and I how to cook and I have passed on those skills to my sons. I am forever thankful for having a mother who gave us these inval...

My kitchen - the hub of the house and one of my favourite rooms. It is a simple kitchen, quite small (petite) but has everything I need and I love working in it. It is particular lovely in winter when it is warm and cosy. My sons spent many hours sitting on the stools watching me cook and eager to lick the bowl and wooden spoon when I had finished baking. Its a space full of very fond memories and one or two that aren't so good (but that's life). This is the view looking into my kitchen. I have a lovely large window at the end which makes washing up enjoyable.  No, we don't own a dishwasher - something that raised the eyebrows of the company who designing our kitchen! They couldn't understand how a woman could cope in a kitchen without a dishwasher. With only two of us, we really don't create that many dishes and I quite enjoy washing up.  Yes, red is a favourite colour of mine and I have quite a few bit splashed around my kitchen.  Red says "cheery ...

Photography by Joluise Many American pumpkin recipes ask for pre-cooked tinned pumpkins (squash). I don't like using tinned products (were I can avoid them) and we can't buy tinned cooked pumpkin in Australia anyway. So, I was very excited when I came across a recipe for cupcakes (by Jamie Oliver) that did not require any pre-cooked pumpkin. And best of all, I can use fresh left-over pumpkin in my fridge.  You do need a food processor to make this recipe (thinking about it, you could grate the raw pumpkin), but everything is made in the processor - very quick and easy. I made a couple of changes to the recipe. Firstly, the recipe says to keep the skins on the butternut pumpkin (squash), I removed mine. Secondly, I didn't have any walnuts, so I used sultanas instead. Worked just as well.  I made a version of the frosting (icing) using vanilla extract and not a vanilla pod.  Link to recipe - this contains lots of photos and a wonderful step by step ins...

On the weekend I made a leek and feta quiche using a recipe from The Happy Larder blog . It was delicious, easy to make and one I will make again.  Here is the link to the recipe  and I would certainly recommend it to others.  I made a few changes - I added bacon and parmesan cheese to the recipe (the latter I added with the Cheddar cheese) and as you can see from the photo, I included some cherry tomatoes as I have too many and needed to use some up.    The pastry is very simple to make, and one I made in advanced (I used the food processor and it took only a couple of minutes) which made the whole dish so much quicker. This pastry can be made and frozen and as Kristen points out on her blog, freeze it in a disc to make it quicker to defrost. There really isn't much need to buy bought pastry if you have this in the freezer!! And for busy cooks - it really can't get much easier! Home cooked meals are the way to go!!! Dinner: Leek and feta quiche ...

A pork butchers shop by Edouard Jean Dambourgez If I want a really good cut of meat, I send my husband off to our local suburban butcher and he always come back with an excellent cut of meat.  DH has built up a repoire with the butcher and now gets special treatment. The other night we had a beautiful piece of pork (cooked on the Weber barbecue over coals) prepared by the butcher and it would have to be the best pork I have had in a long time.  And the crackling . . . well . . . that was perfect!!! Our butcher only uses local farmers and hand-selects the animals for slaughter.  We know we are getting quality and surprisingly, it isn't over priced.  Sadly with the growth of the supermarket chain, the local butcher, baker or the fruit and veg shop are being squeezed out and with that we are loosing the personalised service and quality of food.  I often find the local supermarket are pricey and certainly not great when it comes to the quality of their...

M y son gave me a lovely surprise on Satruday. He baked and drove arond to my house (I hope he didn't speed) with these beautiful crusty breadrolls just in time for my lunch.  The butter melted on the roll as my husband and I shared one. They were SO good.  I had one for lunch with the baked ham and lots of mayonnaise, yummy:) I was always determine the teach my children to cook, to love food and to understand what healthy food was (compared to rubbish foods). This wasn't hard to do as they were expose to cooking, the preparation of food, the smells of food cooking and the buying of food all their lives (just as I was as a child).  This teaching hasn't stopped, whenever I learn some new about food, I pass it on to them so they too have this knowledge. This is how we were all taught about food, sadly I think it is a dying skill. Each Saturday I would bake the weeks supply of cakes, muffins and biscuits, you can imagine how good the house smell as all this was...

Sourc e K is for KITCHENS For me the kitchen is the heart of the home, a place that should be inviting, warm and cosy. It also should be the classroom for our children, a place where they learn to love food and develop their cooking skills which they will one day take away with them and pass on to their children. I am not one for expensive contemporary kitchens with shiny surfaces that look like a laboratory and appear never to used for fun. I want a kitchen that looks like a family uses it every day, a place that is a safe and pleasant sanctuary for all. If you aren't happy with your kitchen you aren't likely to feel completely comfortable working in every day.  Because we are in the kitchen every day of every year!!  And according to Nigella Lawson " make it suit you, and not the universal customer. Make it an extension of your personality. " You don't need to bring in builders to create a warm cosy kitchen with personality.  Having a kitchen re...

Chunky style whiskey marmalade Mrs Beeton describes the kitchen in the following way: "It must be remembered that it is the great laboratory of every household , and that much of the "weal or woe" as far as regards bodily health, depends upon the nature of the preparations concocted within its walls".   I have been experimenting in my great laboratory . . . making whiskey marmalade jam. Now, I do not like marmalade jam . . . never have, never will.  However my DH and son love it . . . so this jam was made completely with love.  It wasn't until I got home and looked at the fruit did I discover that these are from the USA and not local! I used 4 large oranges and 2 medium lemons. All peeled and cut up (chunky style), placed in a large saucepan with 6 cups of water. Cooked for 1 hour until the peel was soft. What gorgeous colours After 1 hour, measure the fruit mixture, allowing 1 cup of sugar (1/2 dark brown & 1/2 white) per cup of fruit mixture....

I was reading the November edition of the Australian Women's Weekly and came across a great idea "Flavoured Salts" - these would make excellent gifts or something you could make for yourself.  I had to give it a go. Photo taken from the November 2011 iPad edition of the Australian Women's Weekly magazine R osemary and cumin salt   ( to use on lamb) Mix together 1 cup of sea salt flakes 1 tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary 2 teaspoons of cumin seeds 1 teaspoon of grounded black pepper Mix the ingredients together     Stir over low heat for about 3 minutes or until the salt is fragrant. Remove from heat, cool.  Store in an air tight container It certainly smells good and I can't wait to use this on a lamb roast as a rub. Lemon and chilli salt   (use on chicken) Combine 1 cup of sea salt flakes finely chopped (thin strips) rind from 2 lemons 2 teaspoons dried oregano Stir over low hear for about 3 minutes until the sal...