Meat balls and rice in tomato basil sauce

looks average but delish

This one is also known as porcupines.  It so funny, I have been calling it porky pine meatballs and did not realise until today that it was actually named after the animal porcupine with little rice spines.  Haha geez I can be an idiot sometimes. 

Anyway, so you add the rice to mince meat and some other ingredients.  It is really delicious especially if you bake it in tomato soup.  I did not have tomato soup so have used tomato pasta sauce.  Thanks to Dave the absolute ledend who lives next door who opened the jar.  Also ingredients, you can really add any vegetable to it as well.

With this recipe I have also added some fresh herbs from my yoga centre's garden which will give it a lovely flavour.

Ingredients

• 500 grams mince meat
• 1 cup rice
• 1 tin tomato soup or a jar of tomato pasta sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 egg
• 1 large carrot - shredded
• 1 large zucchini - shredded
• 1 large brown onion - diced
• 1 hand full of herbs - basil, oregano, parsley, also some mint - break it up into pieces
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions 

1. Preheat your overn to 180 degrees celcius. 
2. Add all of your ingredients into a bowl and mix together.   
3. Roll into meat balls approximately 5cm in size and put in a casserole dish.   
4. Combine your water and pasta sauce then pour over the top of the meatballs. 
5. Bake for one hour.   

Serve with mash potato and peas or whatever vegetables take your fancy.

Enjoy!

Cathy Leonard's Baba Ghanoush

This recipe is from my new friend and art teacher Cathy Leonard. It was so funny to hear that when Cathy was cooking Buba Ghanoush, the eggplant exploded in her oven. So beware of exploding eggplants okay. 

 

baba ghanoush



Also, Cathy is a talented artist.  She does pop art impressionist of famous people like Johnny Depp, Audrey Hepburn, David Bowie etc, and it has been really popular.  A lot of people are buying her work.  I love her work and she's an absolute gorgeous girl too.  So pleased to meet her. If you want to see her paintings she has them on Facebook, so see Cathy Leonard's FB. 

Anyway, here is her recipe. 

Buba ghanoush:

1 or 2 eggplants cooked untill very soft, either in a hot oven (pricked with a fork) or straight on the flame (Char grilled).

1 heaped tblspoon tahini

1/2 to 1 lemon, juiced (to taste, start with 1/2)

generous amount of salt an...d pepper,

Cumin 1 level teaspoon

a little extra virgin olive oil...add whilst blending to get a nice consistency.
1-2 cloves garlic

paprika to garnish.

Method:

Put the eggplant into the oven whole. Prick the skin (so it doesn't explode) and cook it in a hot oven until really soft and juices are running out and the skin gets black.  When it's done, you can put it in the fridge to cool it, and make the dip later or even... the next day if you want.

I didn't get a photo of the explosion,(embarrassing) but will post the dip it's self then.
Take off as much of the blackened skin of the eggplant as you can and put in a bowl with all ingredients except paprika and olive oil. Blend this, adding a little olive oil at a time to get a smooth consistency...up to 2 tblspoons should be enough.

adjust to taste (Lemon, salt)

then garnish with Paprika and extra oil. :))

Donna's potato bake

Donna Jenkins is my cousin on Mums side.  We've been great friends since our childhood and it's awesome to see our children are playing together.  We usually catch up during my holidays at Mount Gambier to visit family and friends. 

Donna made a delicious potato bake when I was holidaying with the family in September 2010. The french onion soup and cream are a great combination.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• Potatoes -  approximately 10 potatoes (1 1/2 per person)
• French onion soup - 1 packet or more if required
• Cream - 2 cups
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Peel and thinly slice the potato for each person. 
2. Put half of the potatoes in a cassarole dish. 
3. Combine cream and 3/4 of the french onion soup and pour about half of the mixture over the top of the potatoes. 
4. Add the remaining slices of potato and then pour of the rest of the cream/french onion mixture.
5. Sprinkle the remaining french onion soup of the top of the potato to give it a more crunchy taste. 
6. Cook in a hot oven for about one hour. 
7. To cook more quickly soften the potato in the microwave first before finishing off in the oven

Charlie's mini pikas

Last weekend Charlie and I made some pizzas for our lunch.  Charlie really loves pizza.  In fact it was one of his first words, pronounced "pika".

As you can see from the photo he was pretty happy about making his own delicious pizza. Too bad it ended toppings down on the floor just a few seconds after taking this photo. 

I'm still teaching Charlie about keeping the plate straight and the seven second rule.  Don't worry, he ate Daddy's pika instead.

Ingredients

- tomato paste

- cheddar cheese grated

- ham shredded

- red capsicum cubed

- mushrooms sliced

- basil

- mini pita bread

Anything goes with these types of pizzas. We were just using what was in the fridge.

Instructions

1. preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius

2. cut up your ingredients

3. using a spoon cover the pita bread with the tomato paste and then add all of the other ingredients

4. Cook the pizzas for about 10-15 minutes.

Nanna Jenkins' sausage rolls

Estel Jenkins

Nanna used to always make the best and most delicious sausage rolls.  There would always be sausage rolls ready for her family when they visited.  Everyone loved them and they would be gobbled down very quickly.

Ingredients

500g sausage roll meat
1 large carrot, grated
1 large onion, finely cut
1 egg, lightly whisked
salt and pepper
puff pastry, already rolled into 30cm by 30cm squares

Instructions

Preheat oven to 220c.  Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl.  Cut the pastry into halves.  Place a small amount of the mixture along the edge of the puff pastry and roll.  Brush the edge of the roll with milk and with some extra egg mixture brush the tops of all of the sausage rolls.  Bake in the oven for about 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown.