SJ Foodfiles ...

This is just some of the food being cooked and eaten in Cafe la Joolz otherwise known as 'our house'. 

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 Bread rolls - this has become a weekly ritual at some time or another, making sure there are always some in the freezer.

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 Gus made this chicken dish and cannot for the life of me think what its called or where the recipe is ... I think it might be an Ainsley Harriot dish.

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Added:  No, it was a Women's Weekly recipe from their book Roast.  The recipe is here.
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... will hunt it down as it was yummy and a good one pot dish...

 A batch of cherry shortbreads as Brianna was home...

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 A date loaf, just because its yummy to have with a cuppa...

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This is the first time we have cooked Pork Belly.   Gus can take all the credit for this...

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 It was slow cooked for a couple of hours then put under the griller to crisp up the crackle...

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It was lovely and tender but the crackling is so naughty!

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 We had a friend coming to stay (for Angus' 50th) who is a coeliac.  I wondered what she might be able to eat.  Friday night we had 10 for dinner so I just bought hot chickens from the supermarket and broke them up into a big baking dish and kept them hot.  I carefully removed some breast meat with out skin (which has the seasoning on it) so Pauline could have that.  I made a potato salad using Kraft Potato Salad dressing which is gluten free.  I made a coleslaw using homemade boiled salad dressing which used White Wings Cornflour which is gluten free (Nurses brand is not).  We also had a lovely big tossed salad full of veggies so she could have that too.  Really no bother.  For dessert I made a big fruit salad using a can of fruit salad and added apple, orange, banana and passionfruit and had that with icecream.  After the party on Saturday night, a few people landed back at our place so we ordered pizzas.  I knew Pauline couldn't have pizza (our pizzeria is not gluten free) so I had made some mini quiches a few nights previous and froze them.  I used gluten free plain flour for the pastry and made sure other ingredients like my margarine, sour cream and stock powder were all GF too.  The filling was just egg, bacon, zucchini, fresh sweetcorn off the cob, parsley, sour cream and tomato.  She said they were delicious! I also bought GF bread for her to have for breakfast and she enjoyed having grilled cheese under the griller.  She bought her own cereal to have for breakfast also.  Before they left on Sunday, we had barbecue chops and gluten free sausages with the left over salads.

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 A very lazy smoko for the staff - packet carrot cake cupcakes for Angus' birthday.  The birthday person has to supply smoko for all.

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 This is another recipe I have seen on facebook.  Vegetable Tian - recipe here 
Saute an onion with garlic and line the baking dish...

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 Layer the vegetables - squash, potato, zucchini and tomato in the dish...

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 Sprinkle with mixed dry herbs...

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Sprinkle with grated cheese (mine was low fat so it didn't melt and bubble very nicely) ...

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 I served it with a chicken and mushroom parcel from Lenards.

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I never seem to have ginger on hand when I need it so I bought a big knob of it and portioned it up and bagged it and froze it.  Now when I need a bit, I can just get it out, peel it and grate it as usual.

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 I was given a big bag of lemons, fresh off the tree so I got to and used a few up straight away.  We had fish Saturday night for dinner so I made a lemon butter sauce and I also used one in my gin & tonic!   ;)

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 I love curried egg so while I had some of my homemade salad dressing on hand, I boiled up 2 eggs, added curry, salt and pepper and a bit of dressing...

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 This would be lovely in a sandwich but I just spread it on my toast for breakfast.  I have a cast iron stomach!

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 I made a batch of School Cookies, I have posted a recipe here on Simply Joolz.

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 These are yummy with fruit in them or you could sneak some choc chips in too.

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 Muffin pizzas - I couldn't find any pitta breads at the supermarket so English muffins had to do...

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 Very yummy on a Saturday night....

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 To get rid of a few more lemons, I made Julie Goodwin's Lemon Lime Tart - a video of Julie making the pie is here. and the recipe on her site is here.

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The pastry is really short so I roll mine out between baking paper then flip it into the pie dish.  If it cracks, just mend it with bits of pastry until it looks alright.

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 I blind baked the shell for 10 minutes...

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 Then filled it and baked for about 30 minutes until just firm.

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 Absolutely delicious, very tangy!

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 More bread rolls, this time bigger ones (8 instead of 12)...

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Last night I made a batch of vegetable soup - roughly chop pumpkin, carrot, onion, celery, potato, zucchini and I had a handful of sad looking cherry tomatoes so they went in too.  Add some chicken stock powder or liquid and some water to nearly cover the veggies and simmer away for 30-40 minutes until all tender.  Season with salt and pepper to your taste.   I blitz mine with a Bamix stab blender to make a smooth soup.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream and one of those bread rolls!

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That has me all up to date.  Not much happening here other than lots of office work, filing stuff away after the End of Financial Year...yuck!

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Enjoy your hump day!

Cheers - Joolz xx

SJ Food Files ...

 Catching up on all things foody, here's what we've been eating.  When Bri comes home, I go into wholesome, feed the girl mode and ... I think she likes it!  She requested Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie.

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 I cut back on the butter and cream in this recipe because we would all have had heart attacks and I used bought short crust pastry too.  The filling was delicious but I forgot to take a piccy of it before we ate...\~

 Instead of 'heavy' cream, I used this Philadelphia 'cream for cooking' which is 60% less fat than normal cream.  It worked really well.

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 Another night we had a rolled roast of pork with roast veggies...

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 I made Kaiser rolls but I am still having trouble with them rising properly...  Anyone got any hints?  I have 2 different lots of yeast which are fresh and in date, I use warm water (baby's bottle warm).  I have tried dissolving the yeast with sugar and water first and also just putting it in dry with the flour...  I just don't seem to get a good rise...

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This chicken dish is an Annette Sym recipe- Chicken with walnut, cranberry stuffing.  I used dried apricots and cranberries as I don't like walnuts.  You place the stuffed breasts (floured) into an oven bag and bake them - they came out so tender I could cut them with a spoon!

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 A good old favourite of mine - Tuna Mornay

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Easy chicken tacos with barbecue sauce...

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 This salsa was so easy and delicious to make...

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and finally - a butter cake with butter cream.  I made this to take on our camping trip and we forgot to eat the damn thing!

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 It's been so good with a cuppa each day...

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My next mission is to make these when the girls come home on the June long weekend - Jam Donut muffins!

I got this recipe off Facebook - Mom's Recipe Collection - so if you are on fb, look it up and join her page.  There are lots of great recipes and ideas.

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That brings me up to date, apart from last weekend's camping trip which I will put up a bit later.

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One other thing - such tragic sad news for Oklahoma with the killer tornadoes that have caused such devastation and destruction.  My thoughts are with all those affected.

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Stay safe, Joolz xx