Quick note...

You've all seen my pasta before, so I didn't feel the need for another blog about it. So this is just a heads up to let you know we got a house, and if you don't hear from me for a while, we haven't got net at the new joint yet. Plan is to get it transfered over on Friday, when we start moving, but we'll see how we go.

Mojo Pork Wraps

Mojo Pork Wraps

I saw this on the 'What's for dinner?' thread on the forums at taste.com.au and though it would be nice to try. I couldn't be bothered with mashed spuds at the moment, what with wrestling Master Newborn to feed enough to put on weight instead of lose it, and waiting for real estate agents to let us know if we have a house to move into, plus I had tortillas left in the cupboard from the tortilla satay stack I never got around to making. So I thought with a bit of lettuce, some fried onion, and maybe a bit of tomato, this could make a nice light change. Probably more suited to summer than the middle of winter, but you know... *points* Look, 4 1/2 day old baby... I'm not feeling like cooking much!

Shown before folding - check out that gorgeous orange colour on the outside!

Here is the recipe as copied from the forum.

MOJO PORK
1 kg pork loin chops or chicken breasts
100ml freshly squeezed orange juice
50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
50ml freshly squeezed lime juice
50ml olive oil
8 – 10 cloves garlic
¼ cup fresh oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Combine the juices, oil, garlic and oregano in a blender or processor. Pulse the mixture until finely chopped, then season with salt & pepper.
Place meat into a large snap lock bag and pour over the marinade. Seal the bag and place into the fridge and marinate for at least 8 – 12 hours, preferably overnight.
Before cooking, remove the meat from the bag and pat dry with kitchen paper. Discard the marinade.
Pan fry the meat until there is no pink left in the middle. Delicious served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables of choice.

I used 5 loin chops, and everything else as stated, only I was lazy and couldn't be bothered getting the food processor out, so I chopped it by hand for that "rustic" feel.

I found the oregano and lime to be too strong for myself and DP, though the kids both liked it. I only marinated for a few hours, but that was well and truly long enough. Next time, if I were to try this again I'd use honey in place of the olive oil, or perhaps pineapple juice instead of lime.

Menu Plan Monday - the week that most likely not be ;)

Monday Hamburgers
Tuesday Mojo Pork Wraps
Wednesday Penne ala SilverMoon
Thursday Steak and 3 veg w/ onion gravy
Friday Chicken and sweetcorn soup (with h/made rolls)
Saturday Calzones
Sunday Tuna sandwiches

Our little one was born early Friday morning, so not a lot of cooking was done over the weekend. Tomorrow we hope to hear back from a real estate agent about a new house to move to as well, so hopefully this menu will be ignored because we are moving, and not just because I'm feeling lazy :D I'd like to be out of here by the weekend, that would be fantastic, but we'll see how we go.

Sunday is my nephew's birthday, undoubtably my sister will have an afternoon tea for him, so we'll be getting home too late to cook anything, have not eaten enough to skip dinner, but have eaten too much for a big meal. Nothing really spectacular this week, just trying to make things easy on myself. Next Monday DP and I celebrate our 5th anniversary so I'm going to go all out for that. We don't celebrate Valentine's Day so this is the one "special" day a year I get to show how much I love him by pouring my heart and soul into my cooking. Let's hope our youngest doesn't interfere with those plans!

As usual check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for literally hundreds of other menu plan blog posts.

Born yesterday...

The first huggle with Miss Two

The whole family (except me, behind the camera lol)

We'd like to introduce Master Almost-48-hours-old. (That blog name is going to change rather frequently I suspect) Born 06/06/08 at 1:27am, at home in the bath. DP delivered him by himself, and we were home from the hospital by lunch time. Master Newborn is feeding well and seems to be the perfect specimen of health.

Normal blog transmissions to resume shortly. ;)

Coughs and colds and hamburgers.

I is sick. Hamburgers from the fish and chips shop. Still pregnant.

Look, Cute kittehs!

The Edible Word: Scrambled Eggs, Grilled Cheese and Mushrooms.

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Ever since last Thursday, when I finished reading the book, I've been wondering what I could cook for The Edible Word - a new blog event run by Stephanie and Cath (from Dispensing Happiness and A Blithe Palate respectively). The Edible Word is a foodie book club involving (in Stephanie's words) "a little reading (it IS a book club), a bit of cooking, and hopefully, a lot of fun. We thought it would be an interesting challenge to build a blog event around a food-related book (where the characters cook, eat, talk about food or are otherwise obsessed with food — an example is Like Water for Chocolate).

So...what's involved? Well, we'd like to start this book club with the book Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs. The story is about a food tv star who's approaching 50, not too thrilled about it, and dealing with the various characters.

Now, the deadline for this blog event is Saturday, and given you all know how pregnant I currently am (41 weeks today!) I was starting to despair of ever getting this one done. But after Stephanie took the trouble to get me a couple of the book (sent over from America no less!) I would have felt terrible about not posting anything. My first thought was cake. I read the first chapter online off Kate Jacobs' website (link above) twice, and what struck me most was that Gus (the lead character) like to make cakes. But I didn't really find that was a stand out point of her character throughout the book, and also, from a practical point of view, we don't eat a lot of sweets. Sure I could have taken the route that I did a few days ago with the Mini Mars Bar Cheesecakes and made a cake to freeze for when guests came around, but I've always thought "real" cakes were a bit fragile for that, and although it's doable, (my mum does it with sponges!) it's not likely something that would work if I tried. One of the main characters was spanish, so there was a lot of spanish influenced food, and I would have been more than happy to try a new dish for the event, but all of them seemed to be seafood, which neither DP or I eat.

The main character, Gus, the aforementioned cooking show host who is turning 50, sees herself as a nuturer. She looks after others, and tries to solve their problems, mostly by cooking for them. There's a little of me in that character. I love to cook for people. I cook food for dinner that I don't like because I know that DP and the kids like it (ie my very scone-like pizza scrolls) or meals that bore me as a cook (steak and three veg) because I know DP loves it. Which is why, at 41 weeks pregnant, at 10:30pm at night, instead of heading off to bed to wade through a little more of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, I found myself in the kitchen, cooking. DP and I had just finished watching CSI: New York, and DP had mentioned how hungry he was, prompting me to psychosomatically start feeling a little peckish too.

Standing in front of the stove, thinking how much a Gus type thing to do this was, I was stirring the scrambled eggs, when a part of the book came back to me. I didn't pick this snack on purpose, I made it because DP loves scrambled eggs, but can't cook them for himself (apparently) and I hadn't made them in a while. But as I was stirring, a scene in the book came back to me, as I said. Gus's eldest daughter was making scrambled eggs, and repeating the well worn phrase that her mother had always used when teaching her how to cook them, when her mother finished the phrase. The poor girl who was alone in her own apartment thought she was going mad until she realised her mother was on the Today show, cooking the exact same dish.

I didn't hear voices while I was cooking, and unlike Aimee, I didn't get distracted by the sight of my mother on television, and forget about my eggs until they were a rubbery mess. I did slightly burn the edges of the homemade bread with grated cheese under the griller, but that had more to do with the fact that I sliced big, thick, rustic slices, that were, lets be honest, uneven. So some edges cooked quicker than the others. But my mushrooms were all buttery and garlic-y, and the eggs were perfect, all fluffy and light. And that's another small thing I have in common with Gus - I know that good eggs require patience.

Have a look here for the round-up for The Edible Word, and in the meantime, grab yourself a copy of Comfort Food. It's a good, light read, whether you're a foodie or not.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday Lasagna
Tuesday Takeaway
Wednesday Chicken Parmagiana with chips
Thursday Kebobs with rice
Friday Pumpkin Soup with homemade rolls
Saturday Homemade Chicken Ravioli with Creamy sauce
Sunday Sausage Rolls

Didn't get around to the Satay Stack last week at all, but I think I may leave that till after Master One-week-overdue is born, as it does involve a lot of different steps. All of this week's menu is subject to change at the drop of a hat, because DP doesn't cook in the same style as I do. Master Four was born at 41 weeks, 6 days, and Miss Two was born at 41 weeks, 2 days, and today marks the 41 weeks mark for Master One-week-overdue. Undoubtedly he'll be born sometime this week. Otherwise next week we'll be eating nothing but curry, taking very long walks, and getting up to other things best not mentioned on my mostly G-rated blog.

As usual check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for literally hundreds of other menu plan blog posts.

My monthly reads - May

Weetzie Bat - Francesca Lia Block
The Big Over Easy - Jasper Fforde
Great ideas for (tired) parents - Michael Grose
The Fourth Bear - Jasper Fforde
Lyra's Oxford - Phillip Pullman
Comfort Food - Kate Jacobs

The last is not a cookbook by the way, it's by the author of Friday Night Knitting Circle, and it was very good. I read it for The Edible Word, a food bloggers book club event, which you will hear more about sometime in the next week. I'm slowly weaning myself off Packrat, so perhaps I can get the total books read up a little next month.