Cooking Time :-)

Yes it was Wednesday Lunch time again and my lovelies put in an absolutely stirling effort! I have had to concede cooking everything from scratch and using some jars of things but, well that is the way the world is turning and while I may NEVER do it at home, I need to (finally) accept that that is what everyone else is doing.

The theme for this week was "Quick and Easy Chinese". The menu included:

Beef in Black Bean Sauce with Noodles
Spring Rolls
Lemon Chicken
Chinese Barbeque Pork with Noodles
Chicken and Cashews
Vegetable Stir Fry

I didn't get to try everything but can highly recommend the Lemon Chicken and Chicken with Cashews. Absolutely beautiful and much better than your local restaurant :-)

I need to add that the yellow color from the photo came from the light in the kitchen - not the actual color of the dish :-)

All recipes are up on yeswecancook.

Wednesday Lunchtime

We went from cooking a Malaysian banquet today to a Hunt and Kill menu in a matter of minutes. For the uninitiated, "Hunt and Kill" is to check out what you have floating around the kitchen (fridge, freezer, pantry, herb garden) and create something from that.

So our delicious menu was:

Beef and Mushroom Pie
Chicken and Vegetable Pie
Macaroni Cheese
Big Garden Salad

I was doing something else constructive when we served lunch so I forgot to take photos (doh) and I forgot to send the recipes home (doh) so YesWeCanCook will be updated on Saturday night when I am at work and have time to do such things :-) Or maybe Friday evening depending on how busy Friday gets ....

Anyway, despite my doh's, I had a ball, my lovelies learned something new and ... well have I mentioned that Wednesday lunches are my favorite days of the week?

Wednesday Lunchtime - From Turkey to Morocco

Have I said before that Wednesday cooks are my absolute favorite time of the week :-)

There was a staff meeting on today so we cranked up the music, danced a lot and cooked up a storm. My lovelies worked together like a well oiled machine and their creations were fabulous. Very proud of them I was :-)

Anyway, today's menu was:

• Fattoush
• Tabouleh
• Chickens Baked with Onions and Sumac on Flat Bread
• Za'atar Bread
• Baba Ghannouj (Eggplant Dip)
  
• Muhammara (Hot Pepper Dip)
• Hummus
• Moroccan Tagine
• Egyptian Rice
  
• Spicy Couscous
• Mixed Green Salad with Yogurt Dressing (Yogurtlu Karisik Yesil Salata)
• Cucumber and Yogurt Salad (Laban Khyar)
• Barbequed Lamb with Chermoula
  

All recipes are up on YesWeCanCook.

Wednesday Lunches

I have got a bit behind with posting these but tonight was the night to catch up!

I have just posted the Thai Menu and the Greek Menu so the following recipes are now available on YesWeCanCook.

Fresh Spring Rolls

Mee Goreng

Spicy Beef Salad with Nam Jim Dressing

Green Chicken Curry

Thai Fish Cakes

Greek Salad

Greek-Style Chicken

Keftedes (Meatballs)

Tzaziki

Spanakopita (Spinach Pie)

Patates Fournou (Garlic Potatoes)

Baklava

Bon appetit!

Mexican Everywhere

It was Mexican day at work and, if I do say so myself, it was one of our best ever!

On the menu:

• Chimichangas
• Chicken Enchiladas
• Chicken with Green Almond Sauce
• Quesidillas (pictured)
• Guacamole
• Chunky Salsa
• Refried Beans
• Fresh Salsa

Absolutely fabulous :-)

All recipes are on YesWeCanCook.

Lunch Cook

Today I came up with the somewhat obtuse theme of "Get Stuffed or Sticked" for out lunch menu. This translated through to:

Creamy Tuna Vol e Vonts
Stuffed Mushrooms
Haloumi Kebabs
Lamb Koftas
Chicken and Chorizo Skewers
Stuffed Baked Potatoes

All recipes are up on YesWeCanCook.

It was so lovely to be back in the kitchen. I am not sure what a couple of the new lovelies knew what hit them but everything was on the table on time and all recipes were a success so I am not complaining :-)

So now I begin the planning for next week - heading back to a Mexican theme this time.

Missing Wednesday Lunch

I have really enjoyed having time off work but I really do miss my Wednesday Lunches. I rang work to get numbers last night so I can pull some ideas together. One of my lovelies let me know that I wasn't allowed to take holidays anymore - they are missing Wednesday Lunches too. I asked him if I should come back with something easy because there are new lovelies I haven't met or come back with a bang.

His answer was quick and definite - something big! Which is a great answer but now I have to start thinking :-)

Oh the hardships of my life lol....

Wednesday Lunchtime

It was barbeque time in the house this week - and not the "sausage in a bun" kind either - a real one (well as real as our time constraints, skills and budget allows) and no lettuce to be seen :-)

Our menu was:
Satay Chicken Skewers
Chipolatas Wrapped in Bacon
Cheese-Stuffed Beef Rissoles
Barbequed Corn Cobs
Pasta Salad
Greek Salad
Cucumber Salad
Potato Salad with Dill Dressing

It was fabulous. The lovelies chopped, and combined and cooked their little hearts out. I got a birthday present and "Happy Birthday" choir surprise (as well as multiple renditions of "The Pearly Song" (which has no real tune but the words go something like "Pearly, twirly, she's so swirly and not so hurly, she's our Pearly" - gotta love a hyper-active teenager lol).

All the recipes are up on YesWeCanCook (a little late due to my relaxing holiday).

And yes, I made the potato salad which was just delicious but Abbey and a lovelie made the Greek and Pasta Salads and they were better ....

Copycat Day

Lunch was a bit different today - we had copycat recipes. Yes they were popular, and yes we will be having 'real' food from now on. This was certainly a one-off :-)

Menu:

• KFC-style Coleslaw
• KFC-style Twisters
• McDonald's-style Big Macs
• Oven Fried Chicken Nuggets with McDonald's-style Sweet and Sour Sauce
• Vegetarian Subway-style "Sandwiches"
• Rosemary Potato Wedges with Chilli Cream
• Aussie Meat Pies

Surprisingly the lovlies struggled to get some of the recipes cooked in time but I blame myself for that - I complacently didn't pay attention to some of our more usually confident cookers. Sigh ... oh well ... life goes on ....

All recipes are available on Yes We Can Cook.

Wednesday Lunchtime

We went for soups again today - although I was trying to focus on more filling soups that could be served for a main meal.

Menu:
Mexican Soup with Cornbread Muffins
Cream of Chicken Soup
Pea, Zucchini and Bacon Soup
Curried Lentil and Pumpkin Soup
Vegetable, Bacon and Risoni Soup

Sides:
Cheesy Pita Toast Triangles
Potato Soda Bread

All recipes are on Yes We Can Cook :-)

And I was feeling a bit flat until I got lots of positives from the lovelies. Okay they are hard work some days but days like today somehow make it all worth while :-)

Cooking Bliss

I was back with my lovelies in the kitchen today - have I mentioned that Wednesday is my favorite day of the week lol

With one eye on the budget and another aware that a head-cold was sweeping through the house - effecting motivation as it went - we did a "pasta sauce" theme today (quick and too easy) and it was divine!!!!

Sauces were:

• Beef Ragu
• Boscaiola
• Carbonara
• Alfredo
• Tomato
• Arriabiata

I forgot to make the salad but we did have a delicious sourdough garlic bread on the side. Okay it was a carby lunch but it was delicious.

All recipes are up on YesWeCanCook :-)

It's Cooking Day

Yes the calendar told me it is Wednesday so that must mean it was time to cook with the lovelies. As promised, we had food from the Szechuan province of China and what a bounty they prepared! I must say upfront that we did take out some of the kick (chilli heat) but we do that everytime out of respect to those that don't have cast-iron taste buds like yours truly. The benefit was that the seasonings were more "at the front of mouth" so no-one complained (at least to me lol)

The menu:

• Kung Pao Chicken
• Rustic Steamed Beef
• Szechuan Pork Tenderloin
• Orange Chicken with Red Chillies
• Tossed Noodles with Ginger and Spring Onions
• Hot and Spicy Szechuan Noodles (Dan Dan Mian)
• Stir Fry Vegetables (pictured)
• Rice

Everyone worked hard and the individual dishes were delicious, the combination divine :-) All the more reason to celebrate was the disjointed nature of the group - lots of visitors in the house meaning in individual lovelies left for a few minutes (or many minutes) here and there and dishes were done as a bit of a combined effort with everyone stirring something that wasn't their original dish.

Recipes are all loaded on Yes We Can Cook.

Cooking Days

It was cooking group day and I leaned out on a very thin limb and set the theme as "vegetarian". Now I am pleased to report that the sky didn't fall in, nor did any of the lovelies collapse at the lack of meat in a meal - in fact they even ate some of it - the staff knocked off the rest lol.

So the menu was:

• Two Potato Soup
• Mushroom and Walnut Scrolls
• Vegetable Strudel
• Wendy's Zucchini Slice
• Caramelized Onion, Olive and Feta Tart
• Layered Potato Cake
• and
• Curried Vegetable Burgers (which we served as a fritter)

All recipes have been posted on the work blog YesWeCanCook.

As you can see I also skillfully avoided including tofu and all other 'contentious' vegetarian options that were bound to just push the 'acceptable food' boundaries that little bit to far lol.

Next week we are doing Chinese again, even though I did explain (quite explicitly) that it wouldn't taste like the local Chinese restaurant because we weren't going to use packaged sauces and we were going to look at more regional food options. I guess that means that the sky might still fall next Wednesday ... I will keep you posted :-)

Cooking Lives Again

After last weeks disaster, cooking group is back on track ... well almost anyway - still have two lovelies who don't know how to follow a recipe.

Anyway, made the recipes very, very simple this week - I used items from my mental bag of recipes- to- teach- 6- year- olds. I don't mean that in a negative way at all - I just rate recipes based on developmental skills (ability to read, follow directions, complexity of skills involved and the like) as well as my assumed experience of the age group. Last week I used the recipes- to- teach- 10- year- olds and some of my lovelies generally struggled with the reading of the recipes.

This week I selected the theme of "Mighty Mince" and is was a long way from being boring :-)

The menu was:
Savoury Mince with Soft Polenta
San Choy Bau
Tortilla Stacks
Pastitsio
Steam Dim Sum with Lemon Soy Sauce
Vege-Loaf (as opposed to meatloaf ... and yes the chickpeas were crushed - or should that read 'minced' lol)
and a big Garden Salad

So next week I just need to come up with even easier recipes for two lovelies, but I think we can motor on a bit from here. Gotta love Wednesdays :-)

It's Soup Season

Okay I know I still have plenty of my barley and vegetable soup left but tonight I was in the mood for something else.

I made a dashi broth then added lemongrass, lime rind, ginger, lime juice and chilli. Once that had steeped I though in some vermicelli rice noodles, some paper thin pork slices and mushrooms.

Served piping hot it was nothing short of light and delicious.

Wonderful Wednesday

It was time to spend some time with the lovelies in the kitchen again. Have I mentioned how much I love cooking group lol.

Well today we headed west again - yes we cooked Indian. Okay I know we have done it before but apparently that was so long ago it was worth the re-visit (and none of our lovelies were around).

Anyway, this time the menu consisted of:

Beef Vindaloo
Chicken Tikka
Mixed Vegetable Curry
Cauliflower and Potato Curry
Spiced Green Peas (Ghoogni)
Potatoes and Carrots (Aloo Gajjar)
Chickpea Fritters
Cucumber Raita
Dhaal
Chapatis (homemade of course)

A veritable feast to behold I can tell you!

Now I have to admit that I have virtually no confidence that anyone actually *really* followed their recipe - going to have to go through that next week but anyway - things were eaten, complimentary comments were made to the respective cooks and we got through it in one piece. Can I really ask any more ha ha ha?

I will have all the recipes on Yummy Tucker tomorrow :-)

Japanese Cooking Group

Today we cooked Japanese and boy the lovelies cooked. I must admit that I was surplus to requirements fairly shortly in - which is actually ideal if you think about it from a 'teaching' perspective :-)

I say upfront that we had a menu that heavily featured chicken today and that was only because the lovelies are cooking red meat for every other night this week!

So the menu we planned was :

Miso Soup
Japanese-style Sesame Green Beans
Ginger Chicken
Yakisoba Chicken
Yakitori Don
Teriyaki Chicken
and ....
Sushi!

Yes Miss Kyles came in and showed us all how to make sushi (and what wonderful sushi it was). One of the lovelies did try and claim Miss Kyles' Sushi Queen crown but I made it clear that I thought the crown was undisputedly placed exactly where it should have been with Miss Kyles :-)

So with the wonderful Miss Abbey making sure the table was perfect (including candles) and being a super kitchen helper, the lovelies cooking their little hearts out, Miss Kyles wowing them with sushi and a kitchen full of laughter, fun and a willingness to learn I would have to say that today was one of the best Cooking Wednesday's ever - both in the class component and the quality of the food produced.

I am even going to post all of the recipes over at Yummy Tucker!

So thank you ladies, thank you lovelies and thank you for all of those who helped and ate and made the lunch as good as it was :-)

Mexican Madness

Today was cooking group day - and we were heading south of the border. I was most insistent that we would have 'real' Mexican food - no yellow boxes and no Tex-Mex - but time is a constant constraint so I had to concede compromise here and there. I also had to end of the mild end of the fire scale - just out of respect for those who don't have iron guts like me :-) But I did provide jalepenos for those who wanted to kick it up a notch :-)

So our menu was:

• Beef chilli
• Vegetarian chilli
• Refried beans
• Salsa
• Corn cobettes
• Mexican rice
• Mexican spiced chicken
• Corn bread

We made out own spice blends (very satisfying) and cooked from scratch. I did initially plan to turn our tortillas into chimichangas, quesadillas and enchiladas but our team took a vote and we decided burritos would be just fine.

So, now that I am taking requests, next week is Japanese food (with Kyles as our resident sushi queen sharing her expertise), followed by an Indian feast.

Wednesday Cooking

Today's cooking group was a Chinese-themed banquet.

Menu was:

• Char Sui Pork and Vegetables
• Steamed Pork Buns
• Mongolian Lamb
• Szechuan Beef
• Stir Fry Vegetables with Cashews and Noodles
• Rice

Not a bad effort for 3 lovelies (one who didn't know how to cook) and a colleague! lol

You just gotta love Wednesdays :-)

Wednesday Lunch

We had "Italy, Italy, Italy" as our theme for cooking and lunch today.

The menu was:

• Carbonara Sauce
• Arrabiata Sauce
• Napolitana Sauce
• Spaghetti
• Gnocchi with Sage and Butter Sauce
• Giant Shells Stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach
• Giant Shells Stuffed with Mushrooms
• Pumpkin Risotto
• Garden Salad

I guessed before I got there that my meat would be still frozen (I forgot to call last night and remind someone to pull it out of the freezer) so I just rearranged things for an almost vegetarian spread instead (the carbonara sauce had bacon in it). I am nothing if not flexible :-)

I think we all worked really well together - and although it
was a really easy cook, we got it all done sooner rather than later so it was very stress free.

Some of the recipes (like the risotto) I just passed on verbally while others, like the sauces, I actually had a written recipe for the lovelies. Now I have to admit that is more good luck than anything - I had made those sauces before and documented them accordingly. I keep forgetting that most folks like recipes written down and don't just automatically file them away in their memory banks like a certain MG :-)

Oh yes, I made my $3 a head budget :-)