One sheet of puff pastry, two pears and a bowl containing the following ingredients all mixed together – 1/2 cup castor sugar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of flour (to thicken the juice).

I told my family this was apple strudel and they loved it.  The second time I made it I told them the truth it was pear strudel and no-one touched it.  So third time round I solemnly swore to make the apple strudel and I did, using pears and they ate it and loved it.

Preheat oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Peel and slice up the pears very thinly and then mix them into the sugar, flour and cinnamon mixture.  My pears in the pictured version were not sliced thinly enough.

Mix one egg and 1 tablespoon of milk together in a container to make up an egg wash.

Layer the pear cinnamon sugar mixture out evenly across the top of the puff pastry sheet leaving room at the bottom to seal it shut with some egg wash.

Roll the pastry and apple up (kind of like a jelly roll). and seal the bottom with some egg wash.  Carefully transfer to a baking tray and place sealed side down.

Seal the ends and cut 4-6 slices across the top to let the steam out.

Brush egg wash across the top and put into the 200C oven for approx 30 to 45 minutes.

When finished eat it all up before your family find out about there is ‘apple’ strudel in the house or they will want some.  Or just tell them it is really pear and watch ‘em run for the hills.

Mmmmm I love spring salads.  This one has a very mild chilli pepper in it, so mild infact that it tasted not unlike capsicum with just a little bit of extra zing, not much though, just a hint.

Been enjoying lots of turkish bread and wraps with yummy fresh salads.  Occasionally I splash out and add some tinned fish or left over corned beef.

Man I worked hard at this one.  I took photos to document each stage of creation and had a special blog entry all planned out.  But that ain’t goint to happen because unlike the previous pumpkin and chickpea curry I made this one is all BAD BAD BAD.

Hubby and I think the mistake was that I put the coconut milk in the curry itself.  Last time I made coconut rice to go with the curry.

So I’m pressing the reset button and trying again.

In the meantime seek out some of this stuff for it is the most super doooper secret ingredient for curry ever.

This one is a huge fav. of Annie’s.

I peel and grate 2-3 potatoes.  Then dump all the grated potato into a clean cloth and wring the juice out of the potato – it needs to be very dry.

Cut up a couple of strips on bacon into small pieces.  Put bacon piece and potato into a bowl.

Whisk one egg and add to the bacon and potato mix.

Heat some oil in a fry pan on medium heat.  Spoon potato mixture in and cook on both sides for approx 4 minutes.

You can also make a giant potato cake and just add all the mixture in one go.  It doesn’t’ get as crispy around the edges but it is yummy.  I cut it into quarters and flip each quarter separately rather than trying to flip the whole frypan size potato cake.

Heidi is still not a fan but I’ve found this is a great way to fill Annie and my tummies at lunch time and makes a pleasant change from bread and sandwiches.

We’ve been having many of these meals lately.   This was a quick and easy stir fry.

What I wanted to note about this was the sauce.  I purchased a bunch of Canton sauces when they were on special recently but I find one bottle of sauce is waaaaaaaaaaaay too much for our stir frys.  Struck by inspiration I used half the bottle and emptied the other half into a ziplock bag which I have frozen.

Further struck by inspiration I plan to slice up a variety of stir fry veggies and put them all together into a ziplock bag to freeze along side the sauce.

That way when the need for dinner of desperation next strikes I have the ingredients standing by ready to go.

Smiley Saturday time again. If you want to join in then click on the Smiley Saturday link above and head over to Lightenings to enter your Smiley Saturday link.

This made me smile

The first time I’ve used all 4 burners on the stove at once.

Back Left – corn on the cob

Back Right – tinned spaggetti (or noodle soup according to my youngest)

Front Left – fried carrot and zucchini sticks with bacon strips

Front Right – whole baby red potatoes (peeled)

An odd evening meal to be sure but I’m determined to use everything we have in the house and not buy any extras.  I can’t seem to go into a Supermarket these days and walk out having spent less than $30, so I just don’t go in at all.

I’m also Smiling about the things kids say.

So what did I get from Aussie Farmers Direct for my $35AU this week? Lots and lots of my fav. foods thats what.

4 x Pears
3 x Sundowner Apples
3 x Golden Delicious Apples
5 x Bananas
4 x Carrots
1 x Avocado - my most fav. fruit in the whole entire world.
2.5kg bag Chat Potato
2 x Broccoli
3 x Brown Onions
3 x Murcott Mandarins
1 x Baby Bok Choy (Shanghai)
1 x Cos baby leaves punnet
4 x Oranges
1 x Lemon
1 x Sweet Potato
3 x Zucchini Green
1 x Asparagus Bunch
1 x Tomato Cherry Punnet

Now for confession time.

Wow! I have nothing to confess this week :: Happy Dance :: we used everything. The celery got chopped up and put into little bags in the freezer to add to meals. Pear got turned into more apple and pear butter. Everything else was eaten during the week. Now that is awesome.

Sadly without pictures because I’m not that awesome

I’ve been sending hubby to work the last few days with stunning salads and tins of flavoured tuna (ALDI is best for real deep flavour and not watery sandwich tuna, plus good prices).  I did have to supplement a few salad ingredients from Coles to those provided in our Aussie Farmers Direct box, but hubby had been enjoying the change to his lunches.

I spent Friday cooking up a bunch of meals to freeze for hubbys lunches.

Chickpea and Sweet Potato Curry – using some Chana Masala spice mix provided by one of the Indian mums from PreSchool.  OMG that is some awesome curry and you can bet your bottom dollar I will be making it again.  Hubby may not actually get to eat any of this one because I love it so much.  Made up a big pot of coconut rice to go with it and help reduce the heat a little.  Got 5 single serve meals and 1 family size.

Chilli Beef with carrots, zucchini, onion and celery – this I made in the slow cooker, put the beef and veggies in and added a pot of tomato salsa dip from ALDI.  No extra liquid.  With mashed potato this made up 6 single servings.  It is good but not as awesome as the curry.

Spag. Bol with grated zucchini and carrot.  I’ve made this one before.  Got another 5 single meals out of it.

So there is hubbys lunches for a fortnight at least along with his Scroggin snack and some meals for me.  All Good

Heidi was very excited when the doorbell rang at 5.50pm on Thursday afternoon, she ran to look out the window and started yelling out to me “Is farmers direx”, “You get the box mummy”, “Is my farmers direx”.  Awww.  Nothing like a little indoctrination.  Then she did a happy dance while I opened the box.

So what did I get from Aussie Farmers Direct for my $35AU this week?  I couldn’t find the list of what was in the box so hopefully I’ve got it all, I’m typing this up as I put it all away.

4 x Pears

3 x Sundowner Apples

3 x Granny Smith Apples

4 x Bananas

1 x Lemon

1 x bunch Asparagus (mine mine all mine!)

1 x massive bunch of Celery (Mel can I interest you?)

4 x Carrots

2.5kg bag Red Washed Potato

2 x Broccoli

3 x Brown Onions

3 x Murcott Mandarins

1 x Red Onion

1 x 100g salad mix leaves

4 x Navel Oranges

4 x Tomatoes

1 x Rockmelom

1 x Red Capsicum (Bell Pepper)

Now for confession time.

I’ve thrown out the iceberg lettuce, it is not going to get eaten here at all.

I was so happy with the way my scalloped potatos turned out that I decided to use the same white sauce for a broccoli – cauliflower Gratin.

I used a whole head of cauliflower and a bunch of broccoli, the same amount of sauce as in the potato recipe.  Cook the cauli and broccoli in the microwave first then put into an oven proof dish. Cover with the white sauce and bake in 180C oven for 20 minutes.

The corn I put into a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes.

And the steak was my luxury item – Scotch fillet steak, fresh from the butcher.   I did cheat and cook it on the George Foreman Grill but it was delicious anyways.

The Verdict – This was divine.  Yummy veggies, the cauli and broccoli gratin was even nice reheated for dinner the next day.  And of course steak, yum.