RECYCLE MIXING

SEVEN Mix masters is the limit.

Really.

Yesterday a work colleague plonked a box down on my desk.

It contained a great old mix-master he'd found at an op-shop, still bearing the price tag for the princely sum of eight dollars.

Bargain!

This is the second mix-master someone from work has found for me. 

It's also the only one with a plastic bowl - so practical as it will bounce rather than shatter if I drop it.

Tonight I shall use to whip the butter and sugar for a chocolate cake - it's the perfect size for creaming these ingredients.

But cycling home last night with the booty in my backpack I have decided this is it - seven is enough for any keen cook.

Scrambled not stirred

FRESH eggs collected from under the hen make one of the best breakfasts.

This morning I made scrambled eggs with pepper and basil.

Bliss.

Just take on egg and beat with a hand beater.

Add some cream or milk and beat gently

Sprinkle in some chapped basil

Put the rye bread in the toaster (or better, on a grill pan)

Pour the egg mixture in a non-stick pan greased with butter

Push the mixture into the centre of the pan until almost cooked

Slide onto the toast and add some cracked pepper.

Thanks girls.

Recipe recycling

LAST night after a lovely day driving around Daylesford (great Sunday market and vintage train ride), visiting Trentham (darn it Du fermier was closed) and then wandering around Castlemaine for the festival, visiting the city at gallery, various weird and wonderful exhibitions and having a yummy lunch courtesy of the Dhaba food van (loved that Punjab curry), I sat in front of the fire tearing out recipes from a heap of food magazines.

Here's one I inend to bake tonight....

American style rhubarb and ginger pie

As a dedicated buyer of these glossy magazines which cost a mere 20 cents at the local op-shops - a leviathan saving on the $7 plus cover price - they offer great value for money. Once these magazines have been read through they are then passed on to other friends.

Often no recipes makes the cut but once one does, I go through it to make sure it's within the realms of my skills, budget and taste buds, then riiiiiippppp and paste, in it goes to my big cooking scarp book.

If the recipe is an absolute genius, then I pass it on to friends too.

This project started around 30 years ago and I'm still using recipes i culled from newspapers back in the day. Some recipes have never been tried and eventually are pasted over with something more suitable but the big majority have had their time in the sun.

There's something very satisfying about the serendipity of the recipes too.
Lat week a friend in my fire brigade swapped me some rhubarb for eggs and low and behold, while toasting my toes i came across half dozen recipes for rhubarb and ginger pies!

So after I finish planting out the seedlings, cleaning the chook house and run and re-planting the front nature strip garden now the new footpath has gone in (thanks to the workers who did their best and left most of the garden intact), I'll settle down and bake those pies.

Now autumn is firming in charge, they'll be the prefect way to finish off a day of pottering about in the garden.

You say tomato...

Making your tomato sauce out of ingredients you picked a few moments earlier is one of life’s heady pleasures. In fact it’s so damn good it’s a wonder the club of Rome haven’t put out an edict banning the activity.

After all the rain, Sunday's sunshine was bliss.

So I spent most of the day harvesting some of the nine varieties of tomatoes I grew over summer – as you can see this batch was mostly cherry and Tommy Toe.

It’s great as a pasta sauce base, or as a pizza spread or to enjoy on home made bread fresh out of the oven - Alas, I gave the chooks the leftover bread before I remembered to photograph it for the blog.

This time I used an adaptation of a Stephanie Alexander recipe From The Cook's Companion – it works a treat.

And the photo? It has not been digitally altered, this is a the colour of the tomatoes and they smell and taste amazing.

Ingredients

2 kg ripe tomatoes, roughly sliced

4 brown onions, sliced

10 garlic cloves, crushed then sliced

1 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil - check out olive oil via consumer watchdog CHOICE 

Salt and black pepper, freshly ground

A large handful fresh basil or oregano leaves torn into small pieces – I like to add both

Method

Heat oven to 180c

Tumble tomato, onion and garlic with oil and put into a casserole dish with lid

Bake at 180C for at least one hour until the tomatoes have collapsed, their skins are wrinkled and golden-brown, and juices are flowing – it will smell divine.

When tomato and onion are soft, press everything through the coarsest disc of a food mill. If I am making a pasta sauce straight away then I’ll add the skins to give some more texture…

Season to taste and add the herbs.

This freezes well.