What are you cooking today?

[judydawn]

For lunch today I made a mince meat curry (I'll post the recipe in mains) with Bron's garlic steamed rice.  Found there was nothing like this in the cook books so had to concoct my own out of sheer frustration. 

Then this afternoon I made the buttermilk bread from the everyday cookbook which turned out better than my first attempt because I put it into a square baking tin rather than just on a tray which caused it to spread too much in my first go.  I also made Bron's varoma creme caramel flan late today and it will be later tomorrow when I upend that to see how it went.

[Paul]

Thanks JD.  One of the challenges of living in a regional centre is finding things like good butter.  As the regions has a huge number of restaurants, you can get this stuff at wholesale food places.  However, I have bought a lot of things which turn out to be rancid or off, because of the travel distances involved to get things here.  The supermarkets here are crap, too!  Woolies is slightly better than Coles, at least I can get the butter there.  We do have good local produce, but the supermarkets don't stock it.  Last year I was in the UK, and their supermarkets are so far ahead of ours on quality and organic produce.  We just seem to focus on the cheap and nasties, mass produced crap.  I could happily spend an entire month inside a Waitrose supermarket in the UK.

[judydawn]

OK so where do you live Paul?  I only shop in Foodland so you can imagine how little I can get there A trip to the  market is such a joy - to see all those wonderful foods in one area.  Now that is a place I could spend a whole day in quite easily but my visits are few and far between because of lack of time. Besides that, it costs me a fortune when I do go in because I want to buy everything I see   You have to go with someone who is interested in food too otherwise you find yourself rushing around because you feel the other person is bored with it all - and I'm not talking about DH here, he would never go food shopping with me.

[brazen20au]

think yourselves lucky you aren't eating gluten free!! LOL

though, i grew up in the country, a town of 6500 with one supermarket so no competition. i was an adult before i knew that mushrooms didn't need peeling and i can tell you that many of the vegies we had no choice but to buy i would reject as half rotten these days  mind you i now buy when i can from a farmers outlet so most of the F&V are lovely and fresh, some have come straight from the farm that morning

[Thermomixer]

Couch Grass tea?!?!  You mean, there's a purpose for it on my plot other than to challenge my weeding skills???  That sounds brilliant.  Regretfully, I have no shortage of it at all.  What is the tea good for, do you know?

Supposedly good for cleansing the liver ?? 

[judydawn]

My biggest problem with supermarkets these days is that fruit doesn't taste like fruit.  Unless I get it from someone with a tree in their backyard, it just doesn't seem to taste right.  You buy hard nectarines, by the time they are ripe enough to eat, they are all black inside and get thrown out.  Oranges aren't nice and sweet and juicy like the ones Mum had on her tree and I long ago stopped buying peaches.  Guess the kids of today don't know the difference but us oldies remember what fruit used to taste like.  

[Thermomixer]

When I were lad .....  Have to agree, the better supermarkets around Melbourne are in areas where there is competition.  The quality and variety varies so much between suburbs too-especially with different ethnic mixes.

We also have good markets.  Talking to Nico and the Perthites here, we are much better off in Melbourne for variety and choice.

[brazen20au]

i just tossed out the peaches i had finally bought to make that peach and passionfruit jam for mum. i knew it was the wrong time but i bought them anyway! they were disgusting

(my farmers outlet store mostly stocks in season only, though they do import a few products from QLD)

[Paul]

Well maybe I'm complaining too much...Melbourne, where I grew up, is definitely better in terms of what's available, with the migrant cultures and the markets.  Coles and Woolies are generally crappy.  We have a couple of the larger IGA supermarkets run by Italian families which source local produce (and the parking is better too!).  We have Rusty's markets, where you can get good local produce, especially Asian and tropical, but there's a lot of stuff at this market which is shipped in.  A lot of good stuff is grown on the Atherton tablelands, driven 2000km to Brisbane and then sent 2000km back to our supermarkets, so it's not surprising it's not fresh.  One of my favourites is the raspberry trick.  Try to sell them for $12 a punnet and no-one buys them.  So they go mouldy and on sale for $3, and no-one buys them so they are thrown out.  I wonder how often this happens, asking unrealistic prices?

We do have some great food wholesalers here though.

I should stop complaining.

[I Love Bimby!]

Our outlets are crappy and pathetic too.  When ever I catch up with JB she does a bit of a shop for me of the things I can't get here.  Sadly I even enjoy going to coles near her - I can't  believe the difference to ours!

[bron]

Have made a quick apple crumble whilst the oven was still hot, OMG absolutely delicious, will post teh recipe later, but no photos as they demolished it within 2 minutes!

[I Love Bimby!]

OK - cheating a bit but here's my "TO DO" list for today:

Gluten Free Bread
Raison Bread (varoma bread)
Sausage Rolls
AND.... drum rolll...... the Black Bottom White Chocolate Cheesecake from this years Calendar - I have been drooling over this all year and resisted the urge to make it, however I am going to Nan's for dinner tonight so will whip that up to take out and show off....

So I'll go for my run first - cos I won't want to after I've made it...

[brazen20au]

yum, sausage rolls are exactly what i feel like!

so far i've made buckwheat pancakes for breakie and 2 loaves of cyndi's Gf bread (still in oven, smells like one might be nearly ready)

have also organised my baking cupboard thank goodness, after a trip to bunnings (or bugs bunnings as emelia calls it LOL!) yesterday for bits and pieces before someone was killed by the avalanche of baking trays 

[I Love Bimby!]

Would love to see how you organised it Karen!  Mine's a bit of a jumble, but we're just renting at the moment.  But once I buy somewhere....

The pantry cupboard was becoming an avalanch too... things would randomly tumble out of there.  Thankfully the Tupperware order arrived just in the nick of time to help organise the chaos.  Now just have to start planning for the rest of the pantry and what I need to order...

[brazen20au]

i just got more tupperware for my pantry  (hosted and got it half price )

i did take a pic of my cupboard, will upload it shortly and share