Rigatoni, pork sausage, sage, tomato, garlic and chilli

Playing catch up today, after a week of not feeling on top of the world, thanks to my Sydney flu!

 I loved making this dish, the flavours whilst cooking had my mouth watering from start to finish, and it was so awesome to sit down and eat.
It always seems the simpler the pasta sauce recipe the better the pasta sauce, and this one makes no exception, the flavours from the sauce are incredible and very it is very hard to say no to a second serving.

I made a slight adjustment to the recipe, pulling back a little on the chilli flakes, I only added about ¾ teaspoon, instead of the 2 listed in the ingredients, and am glad I did as it was quite spicy and had it been any hotter, would have been too hot for our liking.

The pork sausages come from our local IGA store and they are the best, we will often have them just panned fried on a weekend with a light salad, they are very good tasting sausages, put them in a fantastic sauce like this one and you have to end up with a great meal, just be sure there is plenty of crusty bread on hand

Roast pork chops with apples, onions and sage

 

Found this recipe interesting due to some of my favourite ingredients, pork, sage and apple.  It also reminded me of a Donna Hay meal I blogged a couple of weeks back “cider glazed pork” and I somehow expected it to taste much like it, but it was quite different really.

I think this dish is an ideal summer meal, the flavours were light and refreshing and great for the fact that it was an easy meal to prepare and quick to cook.  I served the meal with Brussels sprouts and green beans and these went well with the apple and pork, I really enjoyed mopping up the tasty sauce with some crunchy Italian bread.

If you would like to try it for yourself you will find the recipe here.

Chicken and Pasta

It was nice to be home again tonight after having a lovely weekend away in Sydney for a wedding.   For the past four days it seemed like all I did was eat food, read about food and eat some more, and the food at the wedding was amazing, plenty of it and very well done from start to finish.

We started off with a huge antipasto plate, followed up by a very tasty mushroom tortellini and for the main it was either a rack of lamb or a chicken breast with camembert cheese.  

I had the lamb and it was so tender, table etiquette went out the window a little though when I picked up and chewed the bones, it was very nice.  Jo had the chicken, which she enjoyed very much, the dessert included spearmint ice-cream, chocolate mousse, a chocolate coated strawberry and a little lemon curd tart, to say we were full after all that would an understatement.

We stayed with our friend Princess Mary’s, at her place in Willoughby, which is a great location being close to the city and surrounded by fantastic cafes and restaurants.  Mary has a library full of cook books, which kept me busy and I was able to nick a few recipes from the wonderful collection of books, just hope I can read my writing ok now!

As nice as it is eating out and being waited on is, it was great to get home tonight and prepare dinner for Jo and myself, it was nothing to fancy though, as we have not shopped and there is little in the house.  I made a very simple tomato sauce, following a recipe I pinched out of an Italian cookbook, unfortunately I cannot remember what it was called, but the recipe looked simple but tasty and that is exactly what we got.  I crumbed some chicken to go with it, using fresh breadcrumbs and adding a tablespoon of fresh lemon thyme, salt and pepper, a ¼ cup of grated pecorino cheese, a tablespoon of dried Italian herds.  For the sauce I minced a small onion and cooked it in oil over a moderate heat until it was translucent, then added a minced stick of celery, a handful of chopped parsley and a crushed clove of garlic, mixed in with the onion and cooked slowly for 10-15 minutes.  Whilst the celery was cooking I dice up ten very ripe tomatoes, these where added to the pan along with a generous sprinkling of salt and cracked pepper, after mixing the tomatoes in with the other ingredients, cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once the sauce is cooked remove from the heat and stir through a handful of freshly torn basil. I cooked up some spaghetti and once cooked drain the water off then stirred through half the sauce, then placed the chicken on the pasta and spooned more sauce over the top.  A very simple but tasty dinner!

Thanks for having us Mary, and for the fantastic recipes, can't wait to try them out!

Chicken wrapped in prosciutto with roast veggies

Dinner tonight was inspired by a Donna Hay recipe I found on her WebPages, I say inspired because I did not have the correct ingredients and so improvised a little here and added a little there, the result was a very tasty, easy to prepare meal, just the thing for a Wednesday night when you have a bag to pack and a few odd jobs needing attention.

Donna’s very simple recipe called for a few sprigs of thyme, not having any I went with some freshly picked rosemary, which is simply placed on the chicken breast, which is then sprinkled with salt and pepper and finally wrapped in a slice of prosciutto. 

The breasts are then placed in a dish and, doused with a little olive oil, I also sprinkled a little dukka and fresh parsley over the top, the dish then went into an oven preheated to 180C for twenty minutes.   To accompany the chicken I roasted vine ripened tomatoes, potato and sweet potato, which I coated with some olive oil then coated in a little French onion soup mix, this is a great way to have roasted veg and for some green I steamed Brussels sprouts.

For a sauce I brought a quarter cup of dry white wine to the boil to which I added a tablespoon of red currant jelly, then lowered the heat to simmer, reducing the wine by half.  Added a cup of chicken stock and brought it to the boil before reducing to a simmer and adding a heaped teaspoon of eggplant chutney.  After the chutney has cooked for a few minutes, mash with a fork, then thicken sauce with a paste made from cornflour and water.

My father in law watched on as I prepared the meal and was very excited to see we were having that stuff again, because he enjoyed it the last time he had it, he was speaking of the prosciutto and I can’t blame him for getting excited as the flavour is awesome!

Strawberry Shortbread

Surprised myself this morning when I entered the world of baking again so soon after a very trialling day yesterday, but I did have some strawberries I brought to do this shortbread tart and with having guests for dinner every night I haven’t been venturing to far of the beaten track in the kitchen, staying with tried and tested meals such as prawn saganaki (Sept 7) and kotopoulo tava (Aug 3).

I have found it funny redoing these meals, my memory does not serve me so well and I have been reading and reading recipes thinking “I can’t remember that”.  It really shouldn’t surprise me that much as I had a dance teacher once who would often pull aside his more advanced students before a class and ask them to show him the steps to one dance or another, as he could not remember the sequence of steps.

Well I danced around that kitchen this morning, cooked up a yummy breakfast for Jo and myself and then started in on my shortbread crust for my strawberry tart, and it was quite simple really, though I seemed to have made a lot of mess for such a simple little tart, so I hope it tastes good enough to be worth the effort, but it won’t matter really, because this was more about the cooking than the eating, nice way to spend Sunday morning.

Lemon Meringue Pie

I have never made lemon meringue pie before, as a child I watched as my Mother would make it a hundred times over, and I never got tired of watching the meringue coming out of the oven, all fluffy and looking so good all you wanted to do was eat it.  I have never tired either of the way a lemon meringue looks when cut into a slice ready to be served, the crunchiness of the crust, the bright yellow of the lemon and the fluffy white meringue with brown tips on top, amazing looking dessert.  Having said all of that, I can never remember being a big fan of eating lemon meringue pie, odd but true, it is a bit like people who love to fish but hate to eat seafood, could never understand that.

Just as I could never understand why I was overcome this afternoon with a blonde moment, it came a few minutes after what looked like the perfect pie crust came out of the oven, I was very proud of it, it looked so good, brilliant really for a first ever effort, well I thought so anyway!

Then came that blonde moment, I thought to myself, “self, that looks great, but it would look even better if it stood alone, without the pie dish to hold it in place, as it sort of gets in the way of its visual beauty” so I proceeded to turn the pie dish upside down, gave it a gentle tap, and yes you guessed it, I had one smashed up mess on my workbench!  Lesson learnt!

A new pie crust is in the oven and it is going to look great in the pie dish, right where it is meant to be, just hope it tastes as good as it is going to look, as I am baking it for my Mother in Law, who is in hospital recovering from brain surgery, funny, half an hour ago I was thinking I needed brain surgery! Move over Mother!  Anyway, since deciding to make Mother a lemon meringue pie, I have learnt that she makes a mean pie herself, so mine better be good!

Part 2

I learnt another thing this afternoon, if you drink three cups of brewed coffee and then eat the left over meringue straight out of the bowl, you are going to be jumping out of your skin, hyper man is what I am!

Pie crust take 2

Anyway it is ok to make mistakes, this is how we learn, and the second pie crust looks even better, and should be better too, as I found the original not to have been cooked all the way through.  I also learnt a new setting on the oven which ensures the base of the pie dish gets more heat than the top, and I left it in a little longer too, so fingers crossed it will be perfect!

The recipe said to let the lemon filling cool before filling pie, mine was very cool, not sure what the go is with the meringue though, seems to be so much of it, nice and fluffy though, it is looking great!

Apart from the 3 cups of coffee and the sugar hit from left over meringue, this had me jumping out of my skin, looks awesome, I have never seen a meringue this high before!  I am HYPER MAN!

Straight out of the oven, not bad!

It was looking pretty good straight out of the oven too, then I took to it with my new toy, a gas torch my SIL Pammy gave me as a gift this morning, guess I had to try it out, was a bit shocked when me bloody meringue caught fire though! I can tell you, but all was OK I blew it out quickly and the end result was not too bad for a first attempt I am happy!  

Mum's never looked like this!  Where did all that meringue come from?

All that is left now is to taste it, but unfortunately that is going to have to wait till after dinner tonight!


Well it was a fifty fifty verdict with the taste, some said spot on, whilst other said it need to be a little more tart, for me it was spot on, but then I don't get to vote!


The pie crust was awesome!

Chicken Involtini a la Jack

Funny how your memory works as you get older, I shopped today for ingredients and as I went around I pictured what I was going to make, remembering how the last time I made it I put it together etc etc then I got home and had a look at the recipe, looked nothing like it, looked around a little more and then realised I had combined 2 or 3 elements from 2 or 3 recipes, no matter it all sounded good as I shopped so I have put it together to see how it goes, the stuffing smelt great whilst I was cooking it and what I have started for the sauce was pretty good too.

Chicken stuffed with roasted capsicum, spring onion, capers, garlic, lemon thyme and sage, feta and Romano cheese, salt and pepper, oh and prosciutto, in fact we have prosciutto three ways, fried, baked and a slice rolled in the chicken breast , all this finished with a white wine and cream sauce and served with asparagus, squash and Brussels sprouts.

Well it seems I got things right, for a minute during dinner I thought Graham my Father in Law was about to wet his pants, he seemed to be having convulsions at one stage, I started to think he was allergic to something and had creepy things crawling all over his face as he was rubbing his face and head saying oh my, oh my or something to that effect.
To make the stuffing, I roasted a red capsicum for 20 mins in a 180C oven, which I also slid in a tray lined with baking paper with 3 rashers of prosciutto on top, when the capsicum came out I peeled the skin off and finely sliced it up, it then went into a hot pan which I had a couple of knobs of butter slowly sautéing away.  I then added 3 finely sliced spring onions, 3 rashers diced prosciutto, a tbsp of fresh lemon thyme, a tbsp freshly torn sage, 2 tbsp capers, a clove of garlic crushed, and a little salt and pepper.  I cooked this filling for 3 minutes, tossing it as it cooked, then just before taking it off the heat I added 50g feta cheese which I crumbled up and tossed a few more times to combine.  This all went into a bowl to cool down a little before I added a ¼ cup of grated Romano cheese.  The pan then went back on the heat along with a 100ml of dry white wine to de-glaze the pan, making sure to get the melted cheese off and other stuck bits, I let the wine reduce to about half and then put it in a bowl and set aside.
I beat each chicken breast with a mallet to about 5mm thickness, sprinkled salt and pepper over the meat, then laid a strip of prosciutto over the top, then spooned the stuffing over the top, rolled it all up the best I could, pinning it together in the shape of a roll with toothpicks.  The rolls went in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
I cooked the rolls for a few minutes in butter over a medium heat, turning ¼ turn a time ensuring the rolls were completely browned, then transferred them to a roasting dish, poured the butter over the top and put them in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes.  Whilst the chicken roasted, I added the wine put aside earlier and added a ½ cup of chicken stock, which I reduced by half before adding ¼ cup cream and a couple of cranks of pepper.

Plated up with steamed asparagus, squash and Brussels sprouts a strip of roast prosciutto and cream sauce, absolutely divine!

Cider glazed pork

They say the simple things in life are the best, and that is just the way it is with this meal, so simple to prepare and oh so tasty.  The recipe is one featured in my most recent acquisition a cookbook by Donna Hay titled “no time to cook”.  Jo gave the book to me as a gift, just out of the blue and it is a beauty, full of fantastic recipes and how to tips, many of which will be tried and tested in this household before too long.

It’s funny how people react differently with food, some say barely anything at all, whilst others are very vocal both with their comments and their oo’s and ah’s, yet they have enjoyed the same meal.  I am happy to say we have someone staying with us of the later kind at present, and her delight at some of the food she has enjoyed has been shared with all of us, right down to the visual evidence of her enjoyment as she raised her plate to her lips to drink the cider sauce that lay upon it.

Yes, this meal was that good! If you’d like to try it you will need,
4 x 150g pork cutlets (or medallions)
Sea salt and cracked pepper
1 tbsp veggie oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/3 cup sage leaves
250ml apple cider (I used Monteith’s, a NZ product full of apple flavour)
80g red currant jelly
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Method
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper.  Heat oil in pan over medium heat, add pork and cook for 2 mins either side.  Remove pork from pan and set aside.  Add the garlic, sage, cider, jelly and vinegar and cook stirring occasionally, until mixture is reduced by half.  Return pork to the pan and cook a further 5 mins or until pork is cooked through.

Donna’s recipe includes 150g green beans which she adds to the sauce in the last five mins, I served the meal with roasted potato, steamed broccoli and green beans.

By the way, my Father in Law was home late so he ate by himself, at the end of his meal I spied him too, lift his plates to his plate to his lips to drink the sauce upon it, yes it really is that good!

Mum’s Sweet curry n rice

Driving home from Rockingham the other day when I rang my Mother to ask for her recipe for a sweet curry.
Mother proceeded to tell me throw in some of this and a bit of that and oh don’t forget this, the list went on and on and on, and never was there a quantity mentioned, no tsp, no tbsp, no half a cup or anything like it!  She ended up saying and don’t drown it!   Don’t drown it? I asked, drown it with what? I had to ask, water of course she said, this was the first time water had been mentioned, that’s my Mother and that is just the way she cooked day in day out for years for her flock of 12.
She had mentioned just about everything in her pantry, so I thought well good enough for her good enough for me, only thing is there is a few more exotic ingredients in my pantry than Mum’s, so my sweet curry was the spiciest, hottest sweet curry I have ever tasted, the flavours of Mum’s where there, as was the yum factor, but it had an enormous spicy finish, which saw Johnny Cash pay me a visit around 1:30 this afternoon!

I actually cooked the curry on Sunday night for Monday night’s dinner, one because it makes for an easier Monday night and two because curry always tastes better the following day, and this curry was no different, the spiciness had mellowed marginally overnight but the overall flavours had intensified, much to my Father in law’s delight!

If you want to make your version, include whatever amount you like of the following ingredients,
1 onion, 2 carrots, Plum Jam, Mustard Pickles, Fruit Chutney, BBQ sauce, Tomato Sauce, Curry Powder, Sultanas, an Apple or two, for meat use Beef, Lamb and you could probably do Pork if you desired and water, but don’t drown it!  All these things can be found in Mum’s pantry, in mine I also found 4 Red Chilli’s, an extra tbsp of curry, a red Sweet Paprika and a big splash of Sriracha Sauce (Hot Chilli Sauce), 2 Tomato’s and I used Beef Stock over water, which with the Plum Spread I had gave the sauce a beautiful rich colour.  For the meat I used a kilo of Topside Steak cubed and I dusted the meat with all purpose flour before adding it to the curry sauce.
The method is simple, cook the onion for a few minutes until softened a bit, add the curry powder and cook until fragrant, throw in everything else, leaving the meat and water (stock) till last, cook for an hour or so, until meat is tender and the sauce has thickened, serve with steamed rice, I added some sliced tomato on top, just to cool things off a bit!  Other than that this Sweet Curry Beef was kick arse!

Joy's joy

Joy's was released for good behaviour for the day, which meant we will be having the odd visitor or two, which had Jo in a flap because she had no biscuits!  No problem Jack can bake, is here!

I used Julie Goodwin's, Mum's Chocolate cake recipe from her book "Our Family Table" for the cake and then googled Chocolate ganache for the icing, which is so easy to make you could get a five year old to do it, the ganache that is!  I had some white chocolate in the cupboard so I decided to whack some of that on it too and ended up with this cat's bum effect, looks pretty cool hey! BTW the cat has had some drugs, that is why his face is so twisted!

And I can tell you it tasted bloody beautiful, to corn a phrase oft used by my dearest MIL!

Horses for courses, one, two , three

Lemon thyme and garlic prawns
Arroz de perol (Rice with chicken and runner beans)
Passionfruit pavlova roll

Had expected my Mother in Law for dinner tonight, but she did not make it, she is still stuck in a hospital bed where she has been since being flown in from Geraldton by the RFDS last Saturday, waiting for an MRI, and still she waits.  Brilliant isn’t it?  Speaking with her nurse earlier today, when she advised me that emergency cases can be waiting up to two weeks for an MRI, really isn’t good enough is it?
I hope your reading this Julia!

In Joy’s absence we, two of her daughters and I, had to push on through three courses by ourselves, it was hard work, but we managed ok in the end, Pam was a tad hungry and polished off two helpings of dessert, and that was after asking for a bigger slice first time around!

We started out with some very tasty lemon thyme and garlic prawns on a bed of rocket which had been doused in a French mustard, Spanish vinegar and EV oil dressing.

For our main course we had rice with chicken and runner beans (Arroz de perol), a Spanish dish, somewhat like a risotto or paella.

The flavours in this dish are intense  thanks to the method of cooking one ingredient for a long time before adding another and then cooking that just as long and so on, building up a layer of flavours before eventually adding the rice to cook at the end for twenty minutes or so, the entire dish with preparation is a good two hours of cooking time, but it is so worth it for the end result, it truly is amazing, the best dish of it’s kind I have ever had the pleasure of eating.

For the grand finale, we enjoyed sharing, and I must take the opportunity here to thank Pam for sharing, so thanks Pam, a rolled pavlova filled with passionfruit cream and a sweet yet tangy passionfruit sauce over the top.  This pav is so easy to make, it is about 10 minutes in making the meringue, 15 minutes to cook it and then a few minutes to spread with cream and roll, and it is without a doubt TO DIE FOR!

Sorry you could not be here with us Joy, we missed your good company, but there will many more opportunities to come, so we’ll just make up for it then, hope you enjoy the snack pack the girls have packed for your lunch tomorrow and I hope it stands up to the hospital food!

Pork involtini

Click link for recipe for Pork Involtini

My sister-in-law from Geraldton, and her young family are in town at the minute and the first thing she asked when I saw her was "when are you going to cook for me!" So I sent her an SMS yesterday asking when do you want to come and what do you want?  Her swift replies came "tomorrow night" and then "I don't know Jack, something with pork or beef"  

I had hoped she we make it easy for me and say something like, how about a nice red curry, something you can knock up in 5 minutes and away we would go, but no, not our Pammy, Pammy was wanting some thing a little more on the gourmet side, which meant I needed to 1. find a recipe and 2. do some shopping and in a hurry.

Thank God I have a reliable source of recipes in Gourmet Traveller, 5 minutes browsing their site and I had the perfect recipe, one I could prep up the night before to make life a little easier, being mid week, of what already has seemed to be somewhat hectic.  

Unbeknown to Pam, I have liking for pork myself, and in particular for pork tenderloins or fillets if you prefer and this dish really was outstanding, both visually and for flavour, I served the meal with brussel sprouts, steamed baby carrot, apple mash and a red wine reduction made with beef stock, red wine and strawberry jam.

Whilst I was preparing the involtini the night before, I asked my father in law, if he preferred apple pie or pavlova for dessert, as he said he liked both, I remembered I still had a serve of Pav left from Sunday night, which I offered to him thinking, he won't want it as he was already well fed, but no Graham ate the lot, then suggested maybe we could have apple pie tonight, because it would be better for Pam.

So I duly made apple pie, Graham's favourite dessert, so I found tonight, just after being told pavlova is Pam's favorite! good one Graham, I was happy to have had apple pie myself though, so I am not complaining!

The pie is labelled Lassie, after our guest of honour whom I learnt last night was a sheep herder in her youth, apparently she loves the feel of lambs wool to and takes the opportunity to sit on it whenever the opportunity comes along, even if the sheep is still wearing it!

Sunday roast and a last minute Pavlova

The fun in the kitchen continued today, with some of southern family members being in town and coming to dinner tonight.  I had an inkling that this was on the cards yesterday whilst shopping as I was about to choose a nice chicken to roast, then for no apparent reason swooped up the last double chook pack left on the shelf.
We don’t get to see the southerners that often so it is a real treat to have them over for dinner, about ten minutes after the news they were to join us, further news came of Luke joining us, as he too was keen to see his Mummy and brother.
So at 3:45 I thought well in that case I am going to need a dessert, so I quickly pulled up Donna’s site and entered a search for dessert, I had 3 recipes returned the first being a Pavlova, something I had been wanting to try out, a quick check of the fridge and pantry revealed I was an egg, a carton of cream and some fruit short to complete the perfect pav!  I rushed off to the shops for my ingredients, working things out in my head as I went, I figured if I was back and had the pav in the oven by 4:30 I should be fine.
I put my skates on and rushed back to the house, threw stuff on the bench as I rushed around getting everything together, ran back to the computer to print the recipe in the middle of beating eggs, it was crazy, but I was pleasantly surprised when I had the meringue in the oven by 4:10, twenty minutes ahead of schedule, which was a good thing because I had not got to read the bit about letting it cool down in the oven.  It is due to come out in 25 minutes and just quietly it is looking unreal.
Well that was as far as I got before there was a knock on the door and my dinner guests where here, 2 hours earlier than expected, not that it mattered because there is always plenty to talk about and catch up on, Jo arrived home about 20 minutes later and I was able to potter around and get the pav out and the roast in as I had planned.
I was very impressed with my timing of everything, when we sat for dinner and the seven o’clock alarm sounded, we were eating by 7:03, I had told Jo six hours earlier I would have dinner on the table for 7 PM!
Dinner was delicious, every single mouthful in my books anyway, hope our guests enjoyed it as much as the cook did!  The stuffing I made for the chickens was awesome, the best I have ever made, or tasted, I know I probably should not critic my own cooking, but it was good.
For the stuffing I diced an onion, and a rasher of bacon, 1 tablespoon each of fresh oregano and sage, added 1 ½ cups fresh breadcrumbs and 2 table spoons of butter and massaged the butter into all the ingredients until the crumbs were evenly moist, it was very tasty and flavoured the meat nicely.

To go with the chicken I had roasted potato, sweet potato, baby carrots, parsnip, peas and a yummy bacon and mushroom cauliflower au gratin, and gravy of course.

But the Pavlova was the champion on the night, the meringue was so light and fluffy, it just melted in your mouth, I had mixed berries and passionfruit on top of vanilla cream, all the guys had second helpings it was so good.

Fennel crusted pork with apple mash

Got this recipe off Donna Hay’s site, and it made a very tasty meal, one I was a bit dubious about to begin with, due to the apple mash, but it was so nice and the fennel seed crust made a great flavouring for the meat, it was very nice indeed.
I have come to love pork fillet, the meat is so tender and juicy and there is no fat at all, a great way to eat pork.  I served it up with the apple mash and caramelised onions as suggested and also some silver beet and green beans.
The only thing I would have changed, I think next time I will make a gravy to go with it and it would have been better also if I had my wife here to enjoy it with me, but she’ll be back tomorrow, she'll probably be glad not to be here tonight after me eating all them onions!!

If you ever look at a Donna Hay recipe and think that is too easy, it will be, but you can bet it is going to taste great, just as this meal did, so go for it!

Savoury muffins

Note : The recipe that inspired me is called Savoury Spinach, Feta, and Roasted Pepper Muffins, but I changed it a bit as I thought if I added, "fresh Roasted Capsicum, Bacon, Romano Cheese and Mushroom" to the end of the title, it was getting a bit long, so Savoury Muffins it is!

What can a bloke do when he is left home alone for a weekend?  Bake of course, bake!

I have always loved to bake stuff, just haven’t done a lot of it, because the only thing wrong with baking is you make enough for 8 to 10 people and most the time, since I started cooking I have either cooked for one or two, and my gorgeous wife is not a big fan of cakes and desserts.

Well I may have an answer today whilst browsing other people’s blogs I came across this recipe for savoury muffins, it looked easy enough to do, only make 12 muffins, which with Jo girls help will be easy for us to knock off.   So I currently have 12 muffins baking away in the oven making house smell amazing!

The savoury part of the muffins recipe called for spinach, roasted capsicum out of a jar and some feta cheese, all of which sound great,  and as my boss gave me some fresh home grown spinach I thought that a great opportunity to use some of it in the muffins.  Also I love roasted capsicum, but could not bring myself to use stuff out of a jar, so I roasted 3 small capsicums for 20 minutes, then put them in a plastic bag for 5 minutes before peeling the skins off and dicing them up, I also added a big field mushroom thinly sliced and 3 diced rashers of cooked bacon, because anything savoury should have bacon and a ¼ cup of grated Romano Cheese.

I just had a quick look at them in the oven and they are rising beautifully, will have them out in another 5 minutes, to cool off on a rack, and can’t wait to try one they look soooo gooood!

Mmmmmmmmm couldn’t help myself, just took them out of the oven and had to try one, it is still hot so the cheese is yummy and gooey , made the right decision with the roasted capsicum too it is yummo!

Eleven ten to go!