cheesy three-bean bake

I felt like something cheesy today, but also something on the reasonably-healthy side. If you like simple dishes, this is the one for you. This served both of us well and was a filling early dinner. You can’t beat baked beans!

All you need is a few ingredients:

1 regular sized can of baked beans in tomato sauce
1 regular sized can of three-bean mix (usually contains chickpeas, butter beans, and some other kind of bean)
granulated parmesan cheese
grated cheddar cheese
1 sliced tomato
salt & pepper

To assemble, you tip the 3bean mix into a sieve and rinse under the tap until all the syrupy bean goo is gone. Then tip it into a smallish baking dish. Add your can of baked beans. Stir together until evenly mixed. Sprinkle with parmesan. Sprinkle with a generous amount of grated cheese. Top with tomato slices. Sprinkle tomato with a bit of salt and pepper. And then bake until the cheese is golden.

I actually baked this in my Tiffany Snack Master, which is like a mini oven that you usually make cheesies or small pizzas in, or to heat pies or toasted sandwiches, etc. I find it actually does a pretty good job of these kinds of quick-baked dishes too. The serving per person was about the equivalent of one whole can of baked beans, so the dish fit in the mini-oven very nicely. You get a good crispy cheesy top, too, and it did a great job of condensing the flavour of the tomatoes too.

All up a pretty tasty dish! I think I’ll do this again next time I feel like beans

22 years of good food

After the turbulence of the weekend, my birthday didn’t really turn out as I had planned, but overall it proved to be one of the most memorable, albeit very laid back. The boy ’schwein woke at 5.15am for work, and before leaving made me a breakfast of the best homemade granola with a small jug of milk and a bowl of King Island Dairy yoghurt. I was so impressed - his granola is good! If he wants to make me that every day, I won’t complain!! Then he brought me a warm plate, fresh from the oven, with two croissants from the local bakery which he filled with honey ham, Swiss cheese, and Dijon mustard. Although I was initially a bit grumpy because I had to wake up at 6, everything tasted fantastic and I felt very spoilt.

The house was in dire need of a clean, so seeing I was up early I decided to tidy up, which eventually got extended to a full-blown dust, vacuum & mop. Then I gave the cat a bath, gave the bathroom a scrub, and then a shower for myself. Because I started so early it was all done by 10am!

We had initially planned to go out for lunch, so he came home from work early. But after the huge breakfast I wasn’t really hungry enough. So instead we stayed home. We bought some organic potatoes and 2 leeks from the supermarket the other day, and it was a chilly enough for something warm, so I decided on a dinner of potato and leek soup. It turned out really really well, and tasted pretty luxurious once topped with a slice of bread and cheese, and toasted under the grill.

Today we continued the birthday celebrations with an extravagant afternoon tea with his Mum (who also had a birthday recently) & her partner. We made homemade scones with strawberry jam and whipped cream, and bought a coffee & walnut cake, and another cake that was kind of like a giant Swiss pastry filled with custard and walnuts. With a few plungers of good coffee, a few cruisy records on in the background, and some great conversation, it turned out to be a nice and relaxing arvo for all.

Ah, the power of food to make things seem brighter.

Potato & Leek Soup

1. 1 medium saucepan - fill 2/3 with potatoes, roughly cubed; cover with water; boil until softened.
2. Tip out 1/2 the water, and replace with approx 1 litre milk.
3. In a separate pan, saute finely sliced leeks in some butter until translucent. When ready add to potatoes.
4. Add 2 stock cubes.
5. Use a potato masher to break up the potatoes.
6. Cook and mash until soup is thickened - by this time the potatoes have broken up enough to no longer be lumpy.
7. Add salt and white pepper to taste.
8. Ladel into bowls. Top with a peice of crusty bread, sprinkled with a generous amount of grated cheese and a crackling of pepper.
9. Toast under grill.
10. Serve and enjoy!

this doesn’t look very extraordinary, but i assure you…

If you smelled the aromas of the stocky broth, the melty vegetables, the perfectly squidgy dumplings, the tasty chunks of corned beef… and warmed up a few ladels after another pretty blah day at work, I’m sure you’d agree… It’s quite potentially heaven in a soupbowl.

Ahh… the joys of Autumn. Cool weather, new green growth, 2 days break as of tomorrow, and my birthday on Tuesday. Life is good.

Here’s the soundtrack.

eggs benedict, the cheats way

We’ve had eggs benedict for brunch 2 days in a row now. It’s pretty damn good. And with this portion size, it pretty much gets breakfast, lunch and dinner out of the way in one hit! In this version, we used packet hollandaise sauce, which was made from oil rather than butter. This made it a lot lighter than usual. That said, we didn’t put much on because it’s pretty rich (and also ‘cos we didn’t have much left!). Because I made up this plate for an early lunch, I added a cheese slice underneath the egg. This was a bit of overkill in hindsight. I served it with ham lightly pan-fried in olive oil. The alfalfa sprouts were a magnificent touch; they really cut through the creamyness and made it taste a lot healthier. A bit of cracked pepper on the sauced eggs was a nice touch. All served on a base of multigrain bread, it was very yummy dish. Although not quite the same as the real stuff, I have to recommend the packet versions of hollandaise sauce - it’s a lot quicker and more convenient. We got ours from Coles, and although I can’t remember the brand name, it was in a black packet, and endorsed by some kind of Chef (i.e. one of those chefs who have brought out a food line). All up this dish only took me about 10 minutes to whip up, so in this sense not having the real sauce was a good trade-off. I’m sure Gordon Ramsay would kill me, but in his words “f*ck me” if I’m going to spend my time off making hollandaise sauce!

Poaching eggs is a simple process, and very fast to do if you know how. Put the kettle on. Put a shallow saucepan on the stove. When boiled, pour the kettle into the saucepan until there’s about 2-3 inches of water in it. Add a capful of vinegar - white, brown or cidar are all suitable. Turn on the heat to medium. When the water comes to a fast simmer, turn the water down a touch. Use a fork to swirl the water to make a whirl in it. Crack an egg in to the whirl, close to the surface of the water. Do it slowly so the white stays in contact with the yolk. The fresher the egg, the better. Repeat for as many eggs as you want. Keep the water on a slow simmer until whites are cooked and quite solid, and yolks to your liking. Make sure to drain on the spatula for a few seconds before transferring to your toast. There’s nothing worse than soggy toast!

Bon appetit!

the simple rissole

The plate of a million sauces (I forgot until now how delicious chips & gravy is. MMmmmm…)

Rissoles are yummy. But like a good burger, the recipe needs to be just right, or else it just doesn’t taste right. And personal preferences seem to vary. I personally think less is more, flavour-wise. Asking around at work and elsewhere, I found that some prefer the addition of condiments (tomato sauce, bbq sauce, Worcestorshire sauce, etc) to the mix itself to achieve the right taste. Either way, you be the judge. Here are two recipes we’ve tried, the first for the rissoles pictured above, and the second for the rissoles my Mum makes. Post your own opinions and rissole recipes for us all to try in the comments section underneath!!!

tuna mornay - simple!

Tuna mornay is a great midweek meal idea. It’s quick to make. It takes a minimal of ingredients - most from the pantry. It can be served with a variety of side dishes, or none at all. And it’s great for dinner the next day, or lunches over a couple of days. It has nice simple flavours that are wholesome and creamy. It’s a nice way to spend a cool autumn evening, curled up on the couch with a bowl of tuna mornay fresh from the oven. Here’s the ingredients & method we used …

DIY cheeseburgers: how to get that fastfood flavour at home

Have you ever tried to make a cheeseburger at home but it didn’t taste right? Well here is a way of getting some of that distinctive burger-chain flavour in your next attempt. It not only produces mouthwatering burgers, but costs you a lot less & feeds a lot more than a trip to Maccas or HJs! Quantities shown serve 3 to 6 people.

rigatoni with deliciously creamy blue cheese sauce

If you like cheese, this is for you. I wouldn’t usually use nearly an entire wedge of blue cheese for one meal, but on this occasion the block was getting a bit old and needed to be used. I also wasn’t planning to put any other major ingredients in - such as bacon or mushrooms, etc - and wanted the cheese flavour to be dominant. The result? Completely, utterly, creamily, deliciously wonderful blue-cheesy goodness. Yum!

chicken and chips on a budget

Junk food alert!

Ever wanted to submit to the junk food ads that bombard us daily, but don’t want to waste so much money? Been to Chicken Treat and realised that the chicken’s good, but the chips are soggy and the side dishes taste awful? Here’s our solution! (plus you get useable leftovers!)

lazy day lasagna

I’m not sure why I decided to make lasagna this afternoon. It probably had something to do with the fact that I’ve had a packet of lasagna sheets sitting in the pantry for months, and the other day bought another packet on special, and when I got home to unpack the groceries thought ‘I really should get around to actually making use of that one day’.

So anyway, we appeared to have most of the ingredients for it today, so lasagna was finally made. I thought that this time I’d follow the recipe on the back of the box because it sounded pretty good. It’s called ‘Nonna’s Lasagna Bolognese’, from the Rinoldi 10 sheet (250g) Instant Lasagna packet. Here’s the recipe, with a few tweaks that I made to suit the ingredients I had on hand.