pita pizza

This is what I took to work for dinner last night.  I had to have 2, as one was not going to be enough, but I guess 2 is a little piggy.  They are a small size though.

These pita breads make perfect pizza bases and I really like them as they have nothing crappy in them.
I have a special technique when it comes to these pizzas as I start them off in the cast iron fry pan on the hob.  Put what you want on it and then put it in the pan and gently cook till the bottom of the pita starts to brown.  Then put the pan with the pizza in the oven on grill and grill till the cheese has gone golden and bubbling.

For this pizza I just added what was in the fridge.  There was some tomato onion jam that was left over from the beef sandwiches that I made in the weekend so that was my base (put on quite thickly), then went on the ham,  chopped red pepper and of course the mozzerella cheese.
Once it was cooked I added some rocket, basil and a squeeze of lemon.
They are really thin and crispy with a soft chewy topping.
Yum I feel like one now...I just might.

anna s' famous bacon and egg pie

On Sunday we had our annual 'Monty Cup' cricket match, 'Fathers against Sons' (in recognition of Montys' birthday).  The sun was shining, the competition fierce and the food and drink fabulous.  I had high hopes to take lots of photos but got to caught up in the game and the company.
This is Annas' famous bacon and egg pie, apparently made with 30 eggs. This pie is as legendary as the cricket match itself.  This picture is from last years match as unfortunately I put my barefoot right in the middle of this years pie, still no one complained and every last piece was eaten.

P.S the boys won and there were no injuries this year.

dinner on sunday

We had a family dinner at my sisters house on Sunday.  What a beautiful hot day.

This is the entree we had which was really good.
Prawns, crumbled chorizo, roasted pumpkin with rocket and aioli and a stunning city view to boot.

sown the seeds

Yes I got my hands dirty last weekend.  I finally planted some seeds in my new raised bed.

 It has taken a long time to get to this stage and I thought I'd better get a move on or summer will be over.  I do not know what I am doing when it comes to vegetables and I have not had a lot of success in the past with previous attempts elsewhere in the garden,  so I have high hopes for the raised bed.
Herbs I have no problem with.  I think it is because I am impatient and don't do things correctly.   I have sown beetroot, cauliflower, lettuce, parsley and chive seeds in a very random dispersal, so lets hope things will grow.  It all adds to the mystery.
I do have an irrigation system now too.

The raised bed could not be possible without the expertise of Chris and his wonderful construction skills.  As you can see nothing would possibly grow in that clay.
Now it is filled with a beautiful combination of high grade top soil and compost.
I will keep you up dated with how I get on...

blue cod with prawn salsa

This is what we had for dinner last night.  The blue cod came courtesy of my sister and brother in law.  It came from the Chatham Islands and for those who don't know, the Chatham Islands are 800 km east of the South Island of New Zealand..
It is the most devine fish I have tasted, dense and sweet.
It was simply panfried in butter and olive oil and light dusted in flour before hand.  I used cornflour for Finns.

For the salsa put together what ever you have in fine dice.. I used


1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
8 tomatoes
2 avocados
1 fiercely hot green chile
1 mango
1 tablespoon of finely chopped coriander
zest of 1 lime
250g of chopped cooked prawns


The dressing was a combination of palm sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.
The salsa goes really well with corn chips too...

This is my ultimate favourite dinner...
actually some shoe string fries and some aioli  on the side and it would be perfect,  oh don't forget the wine...

photos by Jacob

triple cheese grilled sandwich

As I had plenty of caramelised onions and tomato sauce left over from the other nights dinner and plenty of cheese in the fridge I thought grilled cheese toasts for lunch were in order.
Firstly. toast the bread lightly, then add your tomato sauce, onions and grated cheese.  I grate all 3 cheeses (mozzarella, parmesan, gruyere) in a bowl and mix together before adding them on top of the onions.
Put under the grill until golden and bubbling.  Finally top of with black pepper and some fresh thyme.
Good melting cheese is essential.

angus beef sausage in a bread roll

Last nights dinner was mean't to be mashed potato, sausages with onion gravy but I changed my mind when I saw these bread rolls at 'New World' and decided that it would be quicker to put the sausages in a bun instead.  The bread rolls were very good.
The sausages are 'Angus beef with garlic' gluten free of course,  not that you can see them hiding in there.  Finn had to have his own gf bread.
I caramelised some onions and attempted to make a BBQ sauce which didn't quite work out how I wanted it too.  It tasted nice but it wasn't a true BBQ sauce, next time I will follow a recipe.
Cheese was also added as requested.  All in all pretty good.
Par boiling the sausages and making the sauce and onions earlier in the day make for a fast put together dinner.