Delicious!

Just had to post a picture of what I made for dinner last night, because it looked so good on the platter! Mum and Dad gave me the book "Delicious - More Please" for Christmas and it is out of there. Highly recommend the Greek Lamb Meatball Salad!

Afternoon Grazing

Nibblies are fun to make and even better to eat.  I planned some lovely grazing and celebrating of the start of the school holidays this afternoon so I thought it would be a good idea to make a nice bit of afternoon tea! To start with, I made some thai chicken balls (Mum gave me the recipe *ages* ago and I had never made them... so good) and some couscous cakes, spiced with cumin and coriander, which turned out pretty nicely as well.

To finish off, we had some rum balls (actually whisky balls) made with some of the off cuts of last week's wedding cake.

Now it's back into the kitchen to get back onto Sarah's wedding cake!

herbaceous |(h)ərˈbā sh əs| adjective of, denoting, or relating to herbs (in the botanical sense). ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from Latin herbaceus ‘grassy

purple sage

These are the herbs that I bought at Hall markets today... and can you believe it - I have actually planted them and watered them already, just to prove that buying them was more than good intention. I love growing my own herbs, it is just that sometimes I am not that good at it. I have had moments of unexpected success though. I once grew enough basil to make two huge batches of pesto (which was so good btw).

Apple Mint

We recently moved house and I discovered a huge amount of lemon thyme growing outside near the tap. I think Rex may have spent some time sleeping on it, but it seems to be really quite healthy. Funny story, I asked Dale to go and get some of it the other night and he was about to chop some Diosma from the garden, pink flowers and all. Anyway, the point is that the little patch of lemon thyme inspired me to have a go at growing herbs again :-)

pineapple sage

Lastly, here's a great, easy recipe for basil pesto:


Ingredients - 90g basil leaves, 4 cloves of garlic, 50g pine nuts, 100g parmesan, 185ml olive oil.


Put the basil leaves, garlic and pine nuts into the food processor and process until finely ground. Add the parmesan and mix together. With the food processor running, add the olive oil in a slow steady stream. You can keep this in a jar for some weeks... it keeps even better when you put a layer of olive oil over the top. Delicious with pasta, on sandwiches and with chicken etc.