I adapted this from the parsley thief blog: http://www.theparsleythief.com/2010/10/fall-bruschetta.html (Fall Bruchetta)

But I am Australian (hence the Autumn) and I am also lazy. So this is how I did it.

Chop up a butternut pumpkin in to cubes, microwave for less than 4 minutes (I did 4 minutes… which was too long)
Put some bread on to grill with some oil/butter whatever.
Chop up two red onions quite fine, cook gently with red-wine vinegar (I didn’t have balsamic) and a tiny bit of brown sugar.
Add half a tablespoon of paprika, a small amount of cinnamon and chop an apple up (with skin) and chuck it in the frying pan.
Add the pumpkin to the pan. Cook together.

Top the toasted bread (which you have finished off in the toaster because it was taking too long in the oven) with some ricotta and then the bruchetta mix. Eat.

What I would do differently.

In hindsight, I think would add honey to this recipe, not brown sugar and remove the apple so you get that wintery feel without it tasting like a dessert. Caramelise the onions for longer. Cook the pumpkin less. Take or leave the ricotta. Use staler bread.

But… it still tasted really good.

Saffron & Nutmeg

Broccoli & Bacon Soup

1. Cut up a pack of bacon (however much you like) into small squares
2. Cut up an onion
3. Put the onion and bacon in a big pot with a teaspoon of minced garlic and brown
4. Peel and cube one potato
5. Cut up two (or more) big heads of broccoli
6. Add 1L of Vege stock to the pot
7. Add the potato and broccoli
8. Cook until the potato and broccoli are soft
9. Stick mix and blend the lot together
10. Eat!

and this recipe (for once) is entirely my own – and if I might say so, tastes extremely good.

image source

• 1 kg onions (chopped)
• a teaspoon or so of butter
• a slosh of olive oil
• 3 teaspoons of brown sugar
• Worchester sauce
• 1/2-1 cup red wine
• 1L beef stock
• 2 cups water
• A bit of cracked pepper

Chop your onions. Put the butter and oil in a pot and melt, add the onions, brown sugar and a few sloshes of worchester sauce. Caramelise/brown the onions. Add the stock, wine, water and a bit more worchester sauce and some cracked pepper. Cook away and let sit for a bit or eat up straight away with good bread and butter.

This recipe was adapted from several french onion soup recipes I looked at.

image source

*image uploader is working again! It appears I had a faulty plugin mucking things up.

and now two of these grow in my backyard. No dressing required

She’s hilarious and the food is divine.

I haven’t eaten it for years, so when I saw the recipe for pineapple upsidedown cake on the Parsley Thief, I had to make it. Very easy although the cake itself is quite low and I had to use pecans because I forgot to buy walnuts. I also made the vanilla sauce and can’t wait to eat both together. I’ve never cooked with vanilla bean before and I now understand why it’s worth the extra expense.

Oh glory!

While I’m on about cooking. I did wind up making that poppy seed cake (see the photo). It wasn’t the same as the one I was trying to replicate and not close enough to even just omit the sour cream topping, but it was quite tasty. Sadness, the search must passively continue.

(I am on the look out for a recipe for a poppy seed cake that is really dense poppy seeds with almost a pie crust on the top it is semi-sweet, quite moist but not airy. A cafe I sometimes frequent makes it, I should probably just ask for the recipe, but I kind of doubt they’ll go ahead and give it to me.)

See the recipe here.

This was good but could be better. I’m not very good at cooking chicken, I tend to over-do it because I’m too paranoid it wont be cooked and it winds up dry/chewy. Any tips anyone?

Chicken breast strips dipped in flour, then egg/milk/garlic, then breadcrumbs/parmesan with mashed potatoes, spinach and a sauce thing of cream-cheese/gherkin-spread/chives.

Blog of the day to: The Parsley Thief