It's very quiet around here................maybe everyone is making their Christmas Cakes (me - not)? Maybe everyone is enjoying the sunny whether because it's not raining? Maybe everyone has hibernated in the South Island because of the snow? Maybe everyone is having a holiday? We are all going about our different ways obviously.................

I have just planted my vege garden and dinner tonight is leftover from last night - pasta, prawn and surimi salad with steamed asparagus spears.

What's everyone up to - I wonder?
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2016 09:40PM by Dawn.

We have had a busy weekend out enjoying the sunshine Dawn. Well mainly sunshine although I did have to sit at Snowplanet last evening watching my youngest race.
My broad beans are ready for picking and we received the most magnificent punnet of strawberries from Clevedon today.
Almost crisp and oh so sweet.
Love this time of year!

We went to Napier for the weekend. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed wonderful meals at a couple of restaurants. Yes, we sampled wines, as you do when you are with a Wine Tasters Club.
Our mixed lettuces are growing well, as are our tomatoes and strawberries. At least some of them will be ready to eat very soon.
I have bought and eaten several punnets of strawberries, some not quite as ripe as I would like but I couldn't wait.

Our garden is in full flourish and we are enjoying our freshly picked broad beans and strawberries which is a bit surprising considering we are having a cooler and wetter than average spring.

Grabbing the small bit of fine weather to get outside, have thought about Xmas cakes but that's as far as I've got!

I've been down with the flu for the last three weeks - never felt so sick in my life!

Now that I'm back to health, I have a massive appreciation for my health and its stuck in my mind how we often take it for granted until something bad happens or we lose it.

If you don't have your health you have nothing

My appreciation for food and taste is slowly coming back after no food, or salty packet soup. My appreciation for my garden and spring flowers has a whole new meaning after living in a darkened room unable to even look at the light on my phone.

I'm starting to think about Xmas - I might try something new this year - Xmas Cake/ dessert wise
Being an Italian family I quite liked the idea of Italian Bomboloni


Italian Bomboloni

DAWN....

Maybe its the calm before the storm

Aha Ingrid0....................think you'll be correct! With Christmas looming there's bound to be a Foodlover's cooking storm happening around here within the next few weeks.........

I'm about to shop to get the ingredients together to make my favourite Christmas cake, so I'm a bit like Stephanie D..........thinking, thinking...........
Regards,
Dawn.

Sorry about your flu, IngridO. Our health really is our wealth.
I like the sound of the Italian Bomboloni, especially if I am expecting a crowd.

Dawn, I am doing the thinking......thinking as well. I usually like to make a Christmas cake but I am finding fewer and fewer of the younger generation like them. Maybe we've become too spoilt or have moved away from tradition but my childhood memories of Christmas food is the cake and the shortbread.

I'm not sure if I'm still counted as the younger crowd - LOL - in my early 40's? maybe the middle crowd

I don't mind Christmas cake - although the Artificial cherries turn me off a bit - and what are the little jelly like green bits?

I usually find its all too heavy for our summer Christmas.

I would happily eat Christmas cake in winter!

IngridO - the green bits might be angelica, or I have seen green artificial cherries - ick.

I love glacé cherries in my fruit cake. I've just checked my packet of Pam's Glacé Cherries and they are real, not artificial. Yes, they do contain preservatives, citirc acid and natural food colour, (plant based).

The artificial cherries are in the premixed fruit mix. Any "apricots" in the premixes are often fake too. They're just sugar/gelatin jelly lumps" (like the "cherries" in Cadbury's Black Forest chocolate are "cherry flavoured jellies" ). Some breakfast cereals/muesli have fake dried fruit in them too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/05/2016 12:25AM by J1.

The thought of fake fruit is a massive turn-off. Yuck!!!

Ive just been given a Webber BBQ so currently planning on moving my cooking to the balcony and giving the stove a break for the summer.
Im looking at ideas and ways to mix it up a bit on the BBQ.
Ill be cooking lots of seafood, mussels and whole fish. Id also like to give smoking a try.
I hear you can bake things such as cakes and bread on the weber so will give that ago too.
Vanessa

We recently bought a Weber Q2000 gas barbecue and I'm bowled over by how well it deals with roasts. I follow the instructions to the letter (heat up for 10 minutes on high, cook with lid down), use the disposable Weber convection tray, and we love the delicious smoky flavour it adds. So far I've roasted a spatchcocked chicken and a butterflied leg of lamb, each marinated 24 hours beforehand, and tonight I will try some Coastal Spring Lamb loin chops.

On Monday I'll be trying it on hot-smoked salmon, using a convection tray for the wood chips and a rack on top of that. I think I'll heat it up until the chips start to smoke then turn it off and put the salmon in for 12 minutes, which is the timing I used with our old smoking box.

TPANDAV I'd be interested to know how the salmon turned out. We haven't got a bbq but thought of buying a small Weber one for the two of us. We used our bbq a lot when we lived in Auckland but the evenings are quite cool here in the Deep South and we haven't actually missed a bbq greatly. I'd like one more for the convenience of cooking certain things outside. - My apologies,,gone off topic here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2016 10:15AM by Chris.

TPANDAV the convection trays sound very useful. We don't have a Weber, but I've looked at the disposable Weber convection trays on their web site and they would fit our hooded BQ. When you say you love the smoky flavour it adds for roasts, do you mean you are using smoker chips as well for your roasts? (This sounds like a silly question).
Regards,
Dawn.

Dawn, I don't add smoker chips. The convection tray allows a bit of smoke from fat drips to circulate around the meat, just enough to give a mild charcoal flavour.

Thanks for that TPANDAV. Sounds delicious!
D.

Just to digress- needed a new BBQ at beach house. We use BBQ's all year round both at home and at beach. Our beach house has narrow doorways so with measurements written down off we went shopping. Found a purchase, checked specs online, spent the day making up the BBQ only to find the wheels on trolley weren't included in specs. So BBQ returned, money refunded and now on a another shopping mission.

Hi Dawn - love the rejigged title - suits our meanderings here to a t!

Thanks Heather. When I saw Chris's apology (hello Chris!) for going off topic when I really thought she hadn't, I decided t change the title to something a little more appropriate, given that it could have gone in any direction as a result of my original post here. It is nice that Foodlover's forums have livened up a lot since then!

BTW I'm still 'thinking' about Christmas and cakes - the action hasn't happened yet!!
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2016 10:06AM by Dawn.

Chris Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TPANDAV I'd be interested to know how the salmon
> turned out. We haven't got a bbq but thought of
> buying a small Weber one for the two of us. We
> used our bbq a lot when we lived in Auckland but
> the evenings are quite cool here in the Deep South
> and we haven't actually missed a bbq greatly. I'd
> like one more for the convenience of cooking
> certain things outside. - My apologies,,gone off
> topic here.

I heated some wood chips, tea and rice in a container in the barbecue for 10 minutes, by which time there was a lot of lovely smoke. I put the cured salmon fillet in on a rack and left the heat on medium for five minutes then turned off the heat and left the salmon in for a further 5 minutes. It looked cooked so I took it out rather than overcook it. Left the salmon to cool for about half an hour. It was perfectly cooked, still translucent but not wobbly, but I would have liked more of a smoke character. Next time I'll leave the salmon longer with the heat off and see if that gives more smokiness.

Same here Dawn.

TPANDAV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chris Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > TPANDAV I'd be interested to know how the
> salmon
> > turned out. We haven't got a bbq but thought
> of
> > buying a small Weber one for the two of us. We
> > used our bbq a lot when we lived in Auckland
> but
> > the evenings are quite cool here in the Deep
> South
> > and we haven't actually missed a bbq greatly.
> I'd
> > like one more for the convenience of cooking
> > certain things outside. - My apologies,,gone
> off
> > topic here.
>
> I heated some wood chips, tea and rice in a
> container in the barbecue for 10 minutes, by which
> time there was a lot of lovely smoke. I put the
> cured salmon fillet in on a rack and left the heat
> on medium for five minutes then turned off the
> heat and left the salmon in for a further 5
> minutes. It looked cooked so I took it out
> rather than overcook it. Left the salmon to cool
> for about half an hour. It was perfectly cooked,
> still translucent but not wobbly, but I would have
> liked more of a smoke character. Next time I'll
> leave the salmon longer with the heat off and see
> if that gives more smokiness.
Thank you, TPANDAV. I use a similar recipe (tea leaves and sugar) and cook the salmon placed on a cake rack over high heat in a roasting tin. It works very well but the kitchen smells for a while - hence the thought of doing it on a bbq outside.

Stephanie D - I made my Christmas cake two days ago and it's all wrapped up in tin foil and in it's cake tin. Yipee!
Regards,
Dawn.

I made one too. Still have more to make,presents, but have made a start.

Well done! I usually make more than one too, but not worried as long as I've got one done. The other one is used during the year.
D.