Burnt chops

I have a pasta maker which normally sits on the shelf gathering dust, but not anymore! I tried the fresh pasta recipe in the Thermy and it was super easy. I love making pasta with the kids, but the kneading puts me off making it more regularly. We made fresh pasta tagatelle with meatballs. The kids loved it. Tonight my husband made a pasta dish which was very easy and would have cost less than $8 to feed a family of four. I brought some cute dishes today to take ingredients to demos.

I invited myself to mums today to cook lunch for them and practice some of the recipes. Mum was great at helping. I wasn’t!. Although the food turned out great I remembered why I have never really enjoyed cooking:
1. Being well organised
2. Having the right ingredients
3. Being practical
I am not any of the above. Today was a ‘omg what I am I getting into moment’ I need a LOT more practice. I was a bit bummed out when I came home afterwards and cooked a yummy looking chicken ‘valoute’ meal, and all my husband did was complain how he didn’t like steamed chicken. Fair enough if he didn’t like it, but how about using some manners like saying ‘thanks but I prefer chicken cooked differently’ rather than ‘ew yuck I hate slimy chicken’ (actually the chicken was rubbed with Tarragon, looked moist and had a yummy sauce. It was served with mashed spuds and a green salad). Feeling bleh.

Yep I have decided to become a consultant! I wasn’t looking for another job as I already work five days a week, but if I can help people have healthier lifestyles and better food its pretty cool. Feeling excited

My kids aged three and six have discovered the best toy ever: my Thermomix box. I really hope I don’t have to send my machine away as the box now has a monster face drawn on it. They have been playing in it constantly and even the cat has been going for rides in it.
I made porridge again this morning, yum.
Ginger crunch with fresh ginger from my garden, fruity dream for the children, sundried tomato and red capsicum dip and for tea I made a smoked fish pie using the varoma. I absolutely love how it makes a beautiful creamy white sauce as I normally find it hard not to burn the sauce or eluminate the lumps. I love how you just tip the ingredients in together and a few minutes later its ready. Fantastic!

Only a few more days until the school holidays finish (sigh).
So today was about trying some ‘Go too’ recipes that we will be able to access quickly when life returms to normal. I would have liked to get some groceries and cook lots of meals to freeze, but car problems meant we couldn’t go anywhere. I made a tasty mushroom rizotto for tea for my husband and I, also an omlette in the varoma for the kids. I made a pretty basic recipe for them with pesto and cheese. The omlette was light and fluffy. It will be great when our chickens finally start laying again and we can make omlettes regularly. Both of these recipes will be used a lot in our house.

1. Tell partner you are attending a Thermomix demo
2. Get given a breadmaker by host at demo (She no longer needs one as she has a shiny new Thermomix)
3.Return home with breadmaker and tell partner it’s a Thermomix that you have just purchased.
4. Watch partners jaw drop to the floor!

Sarah (my sister) thought that was a great trick to play on her partner.

The problem is she really wants a Thermomix now. I was looking after her four year old today and when she came to pick her up, Sarah decided to stay for tea as it looked so scrumptious. (Garlic and herb pull apart loaf, coleslaw and fresh salmon cooked in buttermilk & vanilla custard for dessert) Yum

Thank heavens for my Thermomix!. It was my sons birthday party today at the roller skating rink and boy did the machine get a work out! I was super impressed with the fruit sorbet. I made this at 8.30am with kiwifruit, banana and frozen berries. It came out so fluffy and pink. I put it in the Thermo server and was hoping it would keep frozen for an hour but it kept frozen for two and a half hours!. The kids loved it. The other thing that worked really well was the gingerbread men. I set up a little table and the kids enjoyed decorating them with icing and smarties. A tradition in our house is to have ‘party toast’ or ‘party weetbix’ (which is just sprinkles on top) It’s quick and easy and the kids love it. Anyway, we had ‘party porridge’ this morn in the Thermomix. It was beautiful and creamy and easy peasy. (I normally burn it and it puts me off making it, but there is really nothing like having hot porridge on a cold winter morning.

It is my second day of having my lovely brand new shiny Thermomix. I had planned to cook porridge this morning, however the neighbour knocked on our door early this morn as our 26 cows had managed to escape and were running down the road. I love living on the farm most of the time but today definitely wasn’t a ‘loving the farm’ moment as it took quite a while to catch them. I found a gingerbread recipe online and made three batches for my sons birthday party tomorrow. The kids can decorate their own gingerbread men tomorrow which should be fun. I made baked pesto flatbreads, two lemon cakes and my husband made peanut butter. (Next time I will have my own homemade pesto for the flatbreads but the supermarket didn’t have any basil) For tea my husband cooked butter chicken, rice and naan bread for tea which he said was very good. I just worked out how to use the reheat function and heated up the mushroom rizotto from yesterday, however I haven’t got the hang of the reverse function yet as I managed to turn the rizotto into baby food. Oops.

Guess what got delivered today? Whoop whoop. I was pretty stoked to get my brand new shiny TM 5. I invited my parents, father in-law and my sister to come for a demo (Thanks Glenis). My sister and my parents had to come to check out what all the fuss was about as I may have been talking about it quite a lot. Ok constantly!. My father in-law came (albiet reluctantly), however he enjoyed seeing mum and dad and tasting the delicious food. My children (age 3 & almost 6 and my 4 year old niece were very impressed by the sorbet and the custard. I can see that we will be making lots of those two recipes. I froze the left over sorbets in iceblock moulds for delicious healthy iceblocks that will be devoured another day. My husband made a tasty vegetable soup for tea and I made some foccacia bread and some banana choc chip muffins. I was impressed he got straight into using it. I can’t wait for more cooking tomorrow.

Yep, it feels a bit like Christmas eve as my Thermomix arrives tomorrow so I am super happy. I’m not super happy to have to get up early and tidy my house though. I was planning on doing it tonight but I went onto the recipe community website and somehow got engrossed in checking out dishes and lost an hour!. I have saved a couple of great recipes to make later this week. I am thoroughly enjoying saving my fav recipes and creating shopping lists with the website. How clever is that?