Have iPad - Will Travel…Anywhere

I really don't know what I would do one without my iPad.
Currently I am looking after my 2 youngest grandchildren.

While their parents are having a well earned holiday in the snow.

My daughter emailed me a list of things relevant to the girls
I picked it up on my iPad Email, copied the txt and pasted it in Notes.

I also made a list of all the things I can't live without, while I'm away.
You know, the camera, plus charger, plus chord to connect to computer for downloading.
There’s also the ipad charger which is a multi-tasker and charges the phone as well.

When I first started my blogs, It was all about food, (really still is, but I must sing the praises of this Gadget, The iPad)…Anyway I filled copious notepads and diaries,

which then had to be typed onto the computer,

Now I sit in front of the TV,
writing on the Notes App, about the programmes, I have recorded on My Sky.
Then I email them to myself. Voila there they are, already typed and ready to go on my Mac.

Must just drop in here, how fabulous My Sky is.
I used to religiously tape, every cooking programme I fancied.
Watch it, replay, make notes, wipe, ready for the next nights viewing, then cook.
Blog that recipe and start all over again.

At the beginning, Chefs were rather precious about their recipes but slowly most of the Food Networks have great Web pages, with almost anything you want to make.
I can go online, find a recipe from a Chef who has inspired me... and I want to trial...copy and paste it into Notes (which is synched into my iPhone)
Using my Shop Shop List (which is also synched to my iPhone)
Compile the ingredients onto Shop Shop

Pop the phone into my purse and a-shopping we will go.
To cook, place iPad on bench.
Open up my recipe and away we go.
Cook away. Make any notes
Email finished product to my Mac

Download pictures from the trusty camera
And I'm ready to go with a new blog.
Get rid of all that paper.
AND on the Notes App, each page is dated and there is an index making it easy to find everything.

So onto more delights.
I have loads of book Tucked Away in my Kindle.

So, farewell the box of heavy books, I usually used to lug around.
There also TV shows, Movies right from iTunes.

And to keep me up to date Wunder Radio

I can tune into any local or overseas station that I fancy.
Our friend Stu hosts a show on Eastside FM radio in Sydney on a Thursday
I can tune into him while I am cooking, cleaning or blogging.
Even listed to Mark Kennedy on 2UE on his midnight to dawn shift a few weeks ago.

On top of that s of course the games...favourites are
solitaire in 3 variations

And the fads,
Flight plan,

Angry birds,

Scrabble.

So I can pick my emails, read and comment on my FB page,
Read the paper.
All of this before I get out of bed.
Oh and I forgot my granddaughter Mia showed an excellent app called Relax and Rest

Have trouble sleeping? Turn this on, when you are ready to sleep and this lovely lady does the whole Yoga wind down, to totally relax you and work out all of the stresses of the day.

Another excellent App is My Net Diary.

Easiest way of recording what you eat everyday
Also synched to the iPhone and the Mac
I have just quietly dropped about 5 kilos over 6 weeks.
No stress…even room for a wine or 3

So the list goes on.
Oh how about the Maps and GPS

And another thing, We had a power cut the other night....cant find a torch, use your iPad. (Actually I have used my phone before today, as have many of you, I'm sure) The iPad is  mush better because of their size. Bigger Screen...Bigger light.

Thanks to the Taymacs who lent this to me, and Then, gifted it to me...you have changed my life.
I will never be bored in retirement.

All I need is for my iPad to do my exercise for me and my life is close to perfect.

Vegetable Soup-How to Peel Garlic in a Flash

That Vegetable Bin in the fridge, has bits and pieces of Vege in there. All looking a little tired.
My favourite Phrase 'Waste Not, Want Not'. came to mind

Carrot, red onion, parsnip, kumara celery and red cabbage.
Peel and chop
Just heat a tablespoon of oil and throw in the prepared vegetables
Season with a tablespoon of Vegeta and some freshly ground black pepper
Cover with water
Bring to the boil
Simmer till the vege are tender
Take half of the soup and blend
Return to the pot, stir and serve
Great quick lunch.

Now I have an excellent hint
Peeling Garlic
Normally I cut the root end off and bash it
The skin just comes off.
BUT here is a really easy way and you are left with an un-bashed clove of garlic.
Just pop the garlic into the Microwave
Zap for 10-12 seconds
Onto the bench and the skin just slides off

Perfect

Best Beef and Red Wine Stew-Wonderful for a Sunday Lunch

I saw this Beef Stew on TV the other day and was quite excited about all of the flavours.
I made it for the “Sunday Lynchers Lunch Club” that we have going, six of us once a month and it was a huge success, they loved it. Beautiful tender meat with a deep rich sauce, with Brussels Sprouts scattered in there. Ginger, herbs with a hint of citrus.
Originally, it called for Beef Cheeks but they are not easy to acquire, so I went for Cross Cut Blade steak. This is without doubt, in my opinion, the best cut of meat for casseroles.
All of that connective tissue, just melts away and you are left with tender pieces of beef.
The Chef on TV (I'm sorry, I don't know who he is, but he was French, and was guesting on Nevin's Home Cooking programme...) made a Bouquet Garni, which was excellent and also a little bag with dried Cepes.
I did that, but next time I will not bother with the bag of Cepes.
Obviously he didn’t want the actual mushrooms, just using them for flavour.
I think the best idea is to soak the cepes in water and use the liquor…perhaps one could use the actual plumped up mushrooms for something else.
I also made a quick stock, using the trimmings of the beef, carrots, and onions.
Sprig of thyme and a bay leaf
Some salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bring to boil and simmer for about 30 minutes
Strain and reserve
Waste not want not

So for 6 people
1 Kilo Cross Cut Blade Steak , fat removed and cut into 2-3 cms cubes
2 tablespoon flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons Olive oil


3 Medium onions peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
3 medium carrots cut into rings
75 gms semi dried tomatoes


Make a Bouquet Garni of
Zest of orange
30 gms chopped ginger
Peppercorns
Fresh thyme
Bay leaf

Make another bag of dried cepes 25 g
Or alternatively, steep the mushrooms in boiling water, for about 20 minutes and reserve the liquor.
Bottle red wine
1/2 litre of water or beef stock

Garnish
About 200 gms of Brussels Sprout leaves
Grated Ginger about 2 cms
Grated zest of a small lemon

Method
Toss the cubed meat in the seasoned flour and brown in a skillet
Using 2 tablespoons of oil
Remove and place in your casserole dish
You will have to do them in batches

Add another tablespoon of oil and add onions
Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Saute till soft
Add garlic, semi dried tomatoes and carrots
Toss around and cook gently for another few minutes

Add red wine to pan to deglaze.
Bring to the boil
Reduce down for a couple of minutes

Meanwhile prepare your little bouquet garni
Add to casserole dish

Add to wine along with the Cepe liquor and the stock

Tip into casserole dish
Make sure the meat and vege are covered
Into a 180C oven
Cook for about 30 minutes
Turn down to 160C and gently cook about 2 hours

Just before it is ready
Blanche the Brussels Sprout leaves in boiling salted water for about 1 minute
Drain and run under cold water to keep the colour.

Toss in with the Stew
Grate the ginger and lemon zest over the top and serve with Mashed potatoes.

A real treat.
After they had gone look at the remains.
An excellent lunch

The next morning, the Beloved washed the wine glasses. A work of art I feel.
It was scary taking this piece of art apart.

Puff Pastry Made by My Own Hand- Lets Make Pissaladiere - French Pizza

I have been making lots of pastry recently but never really the elusive Puff Pastry.
Its not really hard just takes time
You need to allow at least 4-5 hours to go through the process.
This recipe yields 500 gms completed pastry
Only 2162 calories for the lot.

Rachel Allen was demonstrating how to make this beautiful Pastry and she made Pissaladiere.
The renowned French Pizza.
I have been caramelizing a bunch of onions. This will be dinner tonight.

200 gms Strong Flour
200 gms Good Unsalted Butter
Cold water with a squeeze of lemon juice
You will have to judge how much water the flour will absorb try about 100 mls first and add little by little till you get the dough right.

Make a dough with the flour and water
When it has formed a ball

Wrap in plastic
and sit aside in the fridge for 30 minutes
Meanwhile take the butter out of the fridge,
Lay on plastic and bash it into a rectangle
Wrap up, back into fridge till ready to roll
On a lightly floured work bench
Ro;; your dough into a rectangle

Place bashed out butter on top
Brush any excess flour off the pastry
Fold edge into middle
Keeping g the edges neat

Turn the pastry
And roll out to a long rectangle again

Brush off excess flour again and fold edges into center as before

Neaten the edges and make a dent in it this show you are on your first round of rolling
Wrap and back into fridge for 30 minutes
So we now have it out of the fridge and start to roll again on a lightly floured bench

  Rememberalways roll away from you, turn to do other end
Brush excess flour off
and start to fold again

 Bring the back end into the centre

and turn around and roll again.

 Once again when rolled brush excess flour and fold once more into 3
Put 2 dents into it to let you know you have passed the 2nd roll out.
Back into fridge another 30 minutes
I decided to go for the 4 roll out option
so after it had been through the 4th turn

I let it rest and then rolled it out.

Its is so silky quite unlike frozen pastry. I just loved working with it.
Not so good for the Lo-Cal but
if it is your main meal... a 90 gm disc = 389 KCals

If you are frugal with your topping, its not a bad meal and bloody tasty at that.
So I am going with the Pissaladiere the Southern French Pizza
Very simple I do add a little sugar to help the caramelisation
Caramelised Onions
Peel and slice 2 large onions
2 tablespoons olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar

Just gently saute the onion in the olive oil
Season with S & P and sugar
This will take about 20 minutes
Set aside


Black Olives stone removed
Anchovies
Red Roasted Pepper
Thyme leaves
Sprinkle of dried oregano
1 egg beaten with a little water
What can be simpler than that

Roll out the pastry and cut into disc about 10cms
Brush with egg wash. just to the edges don't go over, this could stop the layers from rising

Top with caramelised onions
Place anchovies, black olive and roasted red pepper
Pre-heat oven to 200C

Line a baking tray with baking paper
Bake about 15 minutes, if not golden enough
You can pop back in for a few more minutes.

Let cool a little before serving
Lovely

They are a bit skew whiff
But tasted amazing
I have frozen some more discs, for future lunch/dinner
So if you have some time try this pastry worth every fay calorie
I also made 2 vol au vent just for practise

Nice snack for Dale later today

Spicy Vege Soup - Its Lunch Time Again

When we moved house a couple of decades ago, I left a large full on kitchen to one, that is about a third of the size of the old one.
So I got rid of all the mixers, blender etc and bought small versions of them.
I also had the misguided thought, that I would need lots of bench space.
Well not so. My small kitchen has catered for up to sixty people.
Organization is the key word.
Anyhow these mini appliances served me well, but now that I am at home, cooking, cooking, cooking, I decided to upgrade to a grown ups food processor, which does it all. I love it.
Yesterday, when making lunch, first it was kneading the bread dough,
Then slicing all of the vege for my soup.
Then pop on the blender, done!

This morning I made breadcrumbs with the leftover bread…then popped
the little whisk attachment on and now meringues are in the oven.
I don’t think I have ever made meringues before.
I may have made the odd Pavlova, but not the little things.
Thought I would make a treat for the little grand daughters,
to take on their road trip to Rotorua.
Little Pink Clouds

Sandwiched them together  with some Ganache
They should keep their sugar levels up

Onto the soup
My friend Rex sent me his favourite Chili Bean soup.
I didn’t have all of the ingredients.
But I was curious about the addition of cabbage to his soup.
I had 1/4 Cabbage left in the fridge so I decided to try this version.
This is a keeper.
Funnily enough the Cabbage along with the Carrots, add sweetness to the soup.
I did add a little bit of sugar just to boost the flavour.
I also used the spices from my Spicy Bean Soup you will find here.
This is very Lo Cal
3 normal ladlefuls only 106 Kcals
Leaves room for bread and a little butter



Olive oil 3 tablespoons
1 med onion, sliced
2 med carrots, sliced
1 med parsnip peeled and sliced
1 kumara peeled and sliced
1/4 cabbage chopped
2 cloves garlic sliced
1 can Cannellini beans
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Coriander
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne
1 tablespoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Celery salt
1 tablespoon Vegeta
1500 mls hot water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
The whole soup yields
Cals 819
Weight 2707 gms

Sauté onion till soft
Add spices, oregano, celery salt, Vegeta and sugar and cook few minutes
Add carrots, parsnip and kumara

Stir and cook gently to get the sweetness out of the vege

About 8 minutes
Add cabbage
Stir well
Add hot water
Bring to boil
Simmer about 15 minutes

Add beans
Simmer just a few minutes
Add red wine vinegar
Taste and adjust seasoning with Salt and pepper
Leave about an hour
Take out half of the vege
Blend and return to pot

Serve with some nice bread.
Here's the recipe...click here

This is from my Calorie Counting Blog.
Now, a quick word about the bread.
If you would like the bread with a nice crust.
Just flour the tin
And sprinkle the top of the dough with flour
before baking.
When it cooked take out of tin and back into the oven for another 5 minutes.
This develops a really nice crust

For a softer crust, oil does a good job.

Chicken Deep Dish Style - Looking for Sunday Lunch for The Family?

Thursday at Grandmas
Its busy
"Planking" by Cleo 

Computers and colouring in by the others

Once upon a time when we were first married, we were invited to dinner.
Diane the hostess made this chicken dish. We loved it.
Of course I asked for the recipe and Diane introduced me to the Triple Tested Recipe Book compiled and published by the Lower Hutt Plunket, as a fund raiser.

Over the years I have made several of the recipes. Funnily enough I reckon I have cooked more out of this book than most of the hundreds of other books I own.
I loved the names.

This one 
Chicken - Deep Dish Style 
then we have
Veal Roast That Can Wait
Down Easy Pudding and so on.
Many a dinner party in Wellington, was created from this book.

So back to the recipe it tastes like Old Fashioned Roast Chicken
All those herbs in with the bread, just delicious
If there is any left over it is even better the second day
Thought it would be excellent to serve the Grandkids
They loved it.



So back to the recipe.
There are 3 stages
First cook the chicken
Make the bread mixture
Make the White sauce

Chicken
1med size chicken
1 carrot rough chop
1 parsnip rough chop
1 onion cut into quarters
2 cloves of garlic sliced
Thyme, rosemary, sage and parsley
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
Water enough to cover the chicken

Put everything in a large pot
Bring to boil and simmer for about an hour
Cool in the water
Remove chicken
Take meat off the bones and put to one side
Reserve the stock

Bread
1/2 a baguette about 300 gms
Cut into 1 cm cubes
1tablespoon chicken stock powder
1 small onion finely minced
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper
2 beaten eggs
1/2 cup hot milk

Toast the bread in the oven till golden
Place in a big bowl
Along with stock powder, herbs vege, salt, pepper
Eggs and milk
Mix well till the bread has absorbed everything

White sauce
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons flour
4 cups hot reserved stock
Salt and pepper
2 eggs beaten

To make the white sauce
Melt the butter in a pot
Add flour and stir well
Cook about 4 minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste
Add stock
Whisk and bring to boil
Simmer stirring till thickened
Taste and adjust seasoning
Add beaten eggs and mix well

Now to assemble
Grease a gratin dish
Layer 1/2 of bread mix
Add 1/2 chicken meat

Cover with half of the sauce
Repeat with the remainder chicken, bread and finishing with the sauce

Pre-heat oven to 180C
Bake for 1/2 hour
Till golden and bubbling

Remove, let sit for at least 20 minutes
Cut into slices just like Lasagne

 Serve

Spicy Bean Soup- Serve with Garlic Bread- What a Lunch

My daughter Katie and her friend Justine... here they are flanking our friend Mr Heinz

both make this lovely healthy Bean Soup.
Heaps of Protein from the beans, lots of vege and some cayenne to get your blood buzzing!
I ruined the health bit, by serving it with Garlic Bread, which was oozing with lovely Herby Garlicky butter.

Juice TV staff were very pleased with this.

The recipe below would feed 4 people as lunch.
6 people as a Starter, of course, I trebled the recipe for the staff lunch

You can use any stock you like
Vegetable for the Vegies in your life or Beef, Chicken.
I made stock from a Bacon hock, really means winter to me.

SPICY BEAN SOUP
1 cup /can black beans drained
1 cup or can of kidney beans drained
2 bay leaves

30 mls olive oil
3 carrots chopped
2 celery sticks
1 onion chopped
1 -2 cloves garlic crushed
Sea salt
1 teaspoon cumin, ground
1 teaspoon coriander, ground
1/4 -1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
50 ml red wine
5 cups Beef/Chicken or Bacon stock
1 cup of water
Salt and pepper.

Garnish with fresh coriander and sour cream (optional)


Heat oil
Aadd carrots onion celery and garlic and
Cook over low heat for 8-10mins

Stir in cumin, coriander, cayenne and oregano
Salt to taste

Add the wine stock and water
Stir to mix all the ingredients together
Add bay leaves
Bring to the boil
Reduce heat, then cover and simmer for about 20mins - stirring occasionally.

Transfer half the soup [including the solids] to a food processor or blender.
Process till smooth.
Return to the pan and stir to combine well.

Reduce the soup a bit and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Serve with the garnish