The Joy of Leftovers

Ratatouille

I don’t know whether it has something to do with my itinerant Forces childhood, or intense laziness, but I always cook for an Army!  After all, if you are going to chop one onion, might as well chop 3!  I have learned to ask at our nearest Fruit & Veg shop for ‘cooking’ bananas and tomatoes, and they know to offer me trays of spoiled or cheap fruit for Jam.

Freezers have gone out of fashion (we have 5 but then we buy in bulk, live a long way from a shop, have whole beasts in the freezer and are always prepared for flood!) but when we have lent small chest freezers to friends over the past few years they have realised the value of having fantastic home cooked meals on hand for the days when you come home too tired or frazzled to even think about cooking.

But if you don’t have a freezer, you can still reap the benefits of a 3 hour stint in the kitchen which feeds the family for a week.  Here are some of our family favourites, always on hand in the freezer for quick, easy and homemade meals.

 

Passata

This is so easy to make in a big pot and freeze for use as pizza topping, the base for spaghetti bolognese, pasta sauce, or chop zucchini and eggplant into it for ratatouille.  Or add stock, chopped vegetables and pasta for minestrone.  Or blend it for thick Tomato Soup.  Passata is so versatile and easy to make – chop onions and garlic and fry in balsamic and olive oil until soft.  I whizz the tomatoes now in a food processor rather than waste time chopping them.  Add salt & pepper, a good handful of mixed herbs – chopped fresh or dry and leave to cook on the stove for 8 hours, simmering and reducing slowly.

 

Lentil Stew

Recipe here

 

Hommous

This is so easy to make, so much better than anything you can buy in the shops, and lasts for lunches for 10 days.  Forever in the freezer.

Rinse and drain two or three cans of chickpeas and blend with 3 or 4 cloves of garlic, plenty of lemon juice, ground cumin, salt, pepper, a few heaped tablespoons of tahini and olive oil as required.

 

Lasagne

I hated making lasagne until I got the Thermomix but now making a white sauce is so easy I need to make it more often (I always forget about lasagne!).  It’s a great way to put sneaky veg in with the passata to thicken it up and make sure recalcitrant family members get their five a day!  Make one and freeze one or make one big enough that it lasts for a few days for brown bag and school lunches.

 

Apple Crumble

Cooking apples are cheap and just need chopping and chucking in a pan, half covered with water, to boil and then simmer for hours.  Freeze half for later, and make crumble for now.  I use oats, desiccated coconut, pecans or almonds, sultanas and a bit of butter.  Whizz before adding the butter and then mix slowly until it forms clumps.  Spread on top of the apple and bake for 40 minutes or until sizzling and golden.  You will have plenty leftover for desserts during the week and breakfast with yoghurt.

 

Spaghetti Bolognese

Pull out a passata and defrost in a bowl of warm water while browning an onion in a pan (always use balsamic as well as olive oil when frying onions to give depth of flavour and sweetness).  Brown the mince slowly, making chopping motions with your wooden spoon to break up clumps.  Add the passata when the mince is all brown and juices released.  Add a pinch more salt and pepper and leave to simmer slowly for an hour.  Spag Bog one night, mince on toast another.

 

Moroccan Chickpeas recipe here . . . 

 

And of course, Soup!  Whatever is in abundance or suits the season.  Current favourite (Leek glut!) is Leek & Potato, but soon it will be Pumpkin and Sweet Potato & Chilli in winter.  I love Minestrone, and our neighbour makes a mean Pumpkin and Potato Soup.  Any soup served with crusty sourdough is a weekday winner for me & mine!

 

What are your family favourites that keep giving during the week?

 

 

 

Wheels, Wine and a Ring

Thanks for all your worried emails re my wobbly wheels!  It turned out that the bone-rattling rides over the roads around here have been loosening the nuts on my bolts and THAT’S why the wheel fell off!  Actually, on consecutive runs over the next few days I found first the nut, then the washer, then the bolt at various stages on the farm road!

So it wasn’t too expensive, and I got my car back on Monday (phew!) and got back into the daily grind of winding up to the office in Comboyne.  It’s been raining for a week now.  So my grass is growing and so are the weeds!  Phoenix has learned to chase the cows away from the water troughs on command, because they love to drink all the horses’ water rather than sliding down the bank to the river and then trying to clamber back up the greasy slopes.  George has been very quiet because the lady who looks after Marcia has been away so he has been at home with her.

Ged finally wined and dined me on Friday.  We are sampling local restaurants so we can recommend fine dining for the folks when they are here in March.  We went to a little BYO restaurant called Fusion 7 with a bottle of Australian Sparkling I had been recommended to try for the wedding.  One sip and I was grimacing as the sugary sweet bubbles tasted like alcoholic lemonade to me – gross!  Back to the drawing board on something cheaper than the Widow for the wedding guests!  But the food was FANTASTIC.  Truly excellent food in this tiny little restaurant in Port Macquarie of all places.  Very pleased with that.  Ged had to drink most of the bottle, but even he couldn’t stomach too much of it!  Needless to say, I drove home!

We put the deposit down on the ring so it’s a work in progress now – 12 pink diamonds in a platinum channel setting – practical for my hard working life, pink diamonds because they are rare and exclusively Australian and platinum because it lasts and hopefully so will we!

We spent the weekend at a succession of parties with Ged’s family.  I was the entertainment as far as I can work out!  The fiancee was wheeled out in front of an enormous number of rellies (haven’t they heard of condoms???!!) at first brother Denis’s 34th Birthday Party on Saturday night, and then dad Denis’s (I know, I know, WHY do people name their children after the father?) 70th on Sunday.  I liked his sister very much, and ditto the next brother up.  I didn’t think much of the eldest but then as Ged used to work for him I know too many tales out of school!   Now I know how intimidating all the out-laws must find OUR family!! And right now I have sworn off a McCarthy Christmas (where can I run, where can I hide??) but who knows, I may mellow as the merryness of the season melts my hardened heart . . . !