Taste - no need to be a Masterchef

I am far too cynical to enjoy most reality TV, but Masterchef holds a scintillating charm - you have to admire people that can take a zucchini and an anchovy and turn it into a 3-course gastronomical delight. The judges aren't ridiculously critical and watching people cook delicious concotions makes entertaining telly without the need to resort to stories about perverts with erections (yes I'm talkin' about you, All Saints**). My brother in law would've been a serious contender for MC but he lives in Canada - a few Christmases ago, he put together the tastiest lunch in our little Edinburgh flat (yeah, he gets around) which was no mean feat considering all we had in the cupboard was rice, tinned peaches and Strepsils. Anyway, whether you are into cooking or not, you've probably seen or visited Taste.com.au , an online recipe resource combining recipes from several good food publications (including my current economic-hardship/domestic goddess mag of choice, Super Food Ideas . It's less than $3 and just makes you want to buy a pretty apron and bake all weekend!).

So, thanks to my new arsenal of cookery instruction, the past few weeks have seen truckloads of gourmet dishes gracing our dinner table. Some, like the roasted lemon chicken (above)have been a massive hit; others, like tonight's Cous Cous Tabouli Salad, almost got me voted out. Actually the salad was tasty, I just mucked up the cous cous (yes it is possible!) and it ended up, erm, mushy. Ew.

When you're cooking for a fussy 28 year old and a 3 year old who's favourite foods are broccoli and peanut butter (not together, as far as I know), many of the recipes here are fantastic for finding healthy, fast, affordable meals that get vegies/protein/other healthy things into them and have little waste. The recipe below is another winner courtesy of Taste and you can make enough for leftovers the night after, which quite frankly is of high importance to most of us - as much as cooking and nutrition are important, who wants to do it at the end of every day?! Enjoy...!

Chicken & Cheese Pasta Bake

Ingredients (serves 4)
1 x Basic roast chicken ingredients (see related recipe)
400g dried tortiglioni or rigatoni pasta
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small red onion, finely chopped
500g jar tomato pasta sauce
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
100g baby spinach leaves

Method

Follow steps 1 to 3 of Basic roast chicken recipe. Remove skin and meat from chicken. Discard skin and bones. Roughly chop flesh.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water, following packet directions, until just tender. Drain. Return to saucepan.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion. Cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes or until tender. Add onion mixture, pasta sauce, chicken, 3/4 cup cheese and spinach to hot pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Toss gently until well combined.

Spoon pasta mixture into a 7cm deep, 24cm x 19cm (base) baking dish. Top with remaining cheese. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden and heated through. Serve.

**Not to put you off your dinner or anything, but apparently the guy in All Saints with his willy stuck in a chair after a vigourous sans-human partner humping sesh, got out safely. Phew.

Friday Happy Things

2 things this morning that make me smile:

1). My new weekly blog for Kidstylefile: http://www.kidstylefile.com.au/category/news-and-reviews/ this week shoes, next week, swimwear, the week after, more freebies....I jest, I jest. Seriously, if you're a parent and love shopping, keeping an eye on Kidstylefile is well worth it: daily deals, news and reviews on new products, and a very comprehensive store and label directory. Bargains + cute new stuff = well worth it!

2). I feel guilty when, like the other night when we went out and got burgers, I can't be bothered (or am too stinking hot) to cook anything decent, despite an array of "quick and healthy"-style cookbooks. I actually do like cooking, and thankfully Charlotte is a good eater and not particularly fussy especially by 2 year old standards, but mustering up something healthy and tasty 7 nights a week, after a full days working/parenting/cleaning/shopping (ahem) is sometimes too much. So when I read this and this it made me feel a bit better that an awful lot of other people serve up frozen/canned/slapdash concotions. Quite frankly, last nights quick stroganoff with fettucine and corn cobs (I know that sounds weird, but Charlotte loves corn with a passion and at least its a nice vegie serving for her) is in comparison, quite gourmet. Better buy another cookbook to keep up the good work...

Things That Don't Piss Me Off, Vol 1.

As an antidote to the cynical, gen-Y saractic rants of mine that are ever so popular, it is nice to sit back and think about things that don't in fact, get one's goat. I had a rare 1o mins to myself today in which I did the following things that make up points 1 & 2:

1). Flip through your cd collection and bring out an oldie that you suddenly go "omg! like, i totally haven't listened to that for ages, man!" and pop it on at full volume. It's easy to sing along because you never forgot the words in the first place and you still get that tingly, inspiring feeling from the first few chords....it doesn't matter if it's a high school compilation (100% Hits 1996 was a winner, if I remember correctly) or something you found in your parent's record collection, just play it damn you! Today's record is what my brother and I affectionately refer to as "the tits", which not only sounds wonderfully weird when other people hear part of our conversation, but because this album, quite simply, is THE tits (fyi, this is a good thing. like the way my cleanser is the dogs bollocks of cleansers, if something is the tits, well I guess it's mildly anti-feminist but you know, it's good). It's better now than it was in 1997 because the whole Britpop thing died in it's Doc Martens about the same week Be Here Now was released, but in hindsight it's a rollickingly, in yer face, we're-doing-this-because-we-can epic that is so refreshingly positive (even if it is in a white-powder-induced kind of way). Doc Martens are back, and thus so is my teen years record collection. Madferit.

2). People watching, provided it doesn't turn into stalking, is a brilliant and mostly free past time. I always seem to do it when my notebook is sitting in a most un-useful place, such as on my desk, but it's still interesting to watch people and wonder about them. What have they done today? Where are they going? Where in all hell did they get those fugly fug excuses for shoes (sorry)? Admittedly it's more interesting sitting in the window of a cafe in London or in a piazza in Venice, but sometimes we must make do with what we have. Today I noticed alot of people wearing their ipods on their sleeves in their best attempt to get mugged by gangs of shool kids.

3). Mashed potatoes are not the healthiest thing one could eat, nor are they great for thighs/waistlines or probably arteries, but after a chilly day they are the best thing ever to dig into at dinner. Especially with lots of butter, garlic salt and/or a dollop sour cream mixed in. Mmmmm.

4). Ugg boots. OMG I SAID IT. Around the house only (I take them off to answer the door ffs, such is my cringing love for my oversized fleece lined boots), my toes and ankles are toasty warm and feel loved. I bet they are sitting in there with cups of tea and a buttered piece of banana bread with a good book. Bliss.

Should positive things be a weekly list, a little slice (mmm, slice) of affirmation? Is it too much Dr-Phil-self-help wanky OTT mumbo jumbo? Let's face it, being sarcastic is more fun...but indulgence even more so.

Home-style cooking is not just for Nannas

I don't mean to stereotype with that title, insinuating that all Nannas wear frillly aprons over floral frocks and are constantly placing freshly baked pies on their windowsills - I know a good few Nannas for whom cooking means placing a takeaway lasagna on a dinner plate. I just mean that thanks to tv chefs and magazines such as Frankie, baking (as well as sewing, but I'm shit at that so refuse to acknowledge it) has become uber-cool. Either that, or my friends and I are truly getting old/growing up - whichever way you want to look at it. This morning over coffee we discussed a) the chore of doing the groceries b) that we all have shopping lists c) shared recipes that are awesomeness in a dish and are thus are satisfying for husbands after a long hard day at work d) the best places to buy in bulk so you don't have to run to the supermarket every other day (like I do. I have more petrol vouchers than you've had hot dinners). I mean JESUS. But it gets better, after coffee we trotted off to Myer, not to look at shoes like we used to but straight upstairs to the Homewares department. At any rate, whether we are getting old before our time or simply exploring that side of our femininity that previous generations picketed so hard against (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, no?) there's no doubt that hearty home cooked dinners are hipper than the latest It-bag, and that the yummy smell of baking wafting through the house is more awesome then any perfume even J-Lo could concoct.

Thus, here is a yummy winter casserole-thingy, tried and tested this very evening (with success, especially with my 2 year old). I did have to make a few alterations because Coles were inexplicably out of both garlic and zucchini, but it's a relatively healthy veggie and protein intake:
Mediterranean Chicken Bake*

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Ingredients** (serves 6)
1 tbs olive oil
6 small (about 600g) chicken drumsticks
6 (about 1.5kg) chicken thigh cutlets
1kg chat (small coliban) potatoes, halved
2 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
95g (1/2 cup) kalamata olives
2 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
125ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine
Sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Heat the oil in a 3L (12-cup capacity) flameproof, ovenproof baking dish over medium heat. Add the chicken drumsticks and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned all over. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the chicken thigh cutlets.

Add the potato to the dish and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from heat. Add the chicken to the potato in the dish and top with tomato, olives and garlic. Sprinkle with rosemary. Pour over the wine. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and potato is tender. Serve immediately.

**I'm a bit of a chicken-racist in that I only eat the white breastmeat, but you can slice up some fillets instead of the thighs/cutlets and it works very nicely. Plus, use less normal potato and subsitute with a bit of sweet potato/carrot/zucchini, and chuck in some bacon and onion before the potato for a bit more flavour, and 1/2 cup chicken stock works instead of white wine if you live in Tassie and can't get grog at the supermarket. Oh, and if you use a much as this recipe suggests you'd be feeding 6 very fat people. I made less than 1/3 and we have leftovers for tommorow.

I have a post coming up about the always delicious Frankie magazine, but this month they published a very simple scone recipe that Charlotte and I tried on the last stuck-indoors rainy afternoon. If you don't mind little floury footprints, handpronts and streaks all over your kitchen, baking is what all the cool kids do after playgroup. Frankie picked the brain of Victoria's CWA president for this recipe, so you know it's hearty:

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk, more as needed
A pinch of salt

Sift flour and salt together - if you dont have a sifter, just stir it around a bit. Admire the little holes that salt makes in flour. Make a well in the middle of the flour, and mix in the milk and cream with a knife (get a grownup to do it if you're prone to stabbing). Stir it til it's all mixed in. Turn the dough onto a floured board or benchtop and knead it gently - don't let it get too sticky. Pat it out to about 2cm thick and cut out squares or diamonds with a scone cutter or knife (I alwasy thought scones were round, so being the true rebel that I am made neat circles with a glass. Hmph.) Bake in a fairly hot overn for 10-15mins, then leave to cool.

Serve with jam and whipped cream, or butter, or Nutella, or whatever you please....add caster sugar, dates or sulatnas for a sweet scone, or cheese, herbs, mustard or curry powder for savoury. Savoury not too crash hot with jam.

For obvious reasons cooking might not catch on with the model set backstage, but that doesn't make it uncool. It's therapeutic and last night Gordon Ramsay was on telly swearing at some butchers as usual, but he inspired me to google for some recipes. **Which admittedly is where I found the Chicken Bake. Cooking: F*** Yeah!