Hi, I'm Judy from South Australia

[judydawn]

Today I posted my first recipe and made some comments on a few that I have tried from this site.  I must say, because they are tried and true, I am more impressed with them than those in theThermomix recipe books I have.  So many recipes are disappointing and need tweaking which is a waste of time and money as far as I am concerned. What we need are more recipes from normal, everyday cooks who are smart enough to convert their favourite recipes (I have trouble doing that unfortunately) or can come up with new ideas.

I have had mine for about 6 months now.  My daughter went to a party and kept saying 'Mum would love this machine" so she had a party and 3 were sold on the night. I find it great for cakes and desserts (although we don't eat a lot of high calorie foods) but am disappointed with main meals. Still, I wouldn't give it back for the world as it is such a clever little machine which just needs tastier recipes to try in it.

There are only the 2 of us in this house so I find I only need to cook 3 or 4 times a week and eat leftovers or go out for meals the rest of the time.  My husband has MS so he doesn't eat a lot at the best of times and most of the desserts I have to eat on my own which is not good for the waistline. Mum doesn't mind me taking bits and pieces around to her to try.

I love this site and spent hours on it before actually committing fingers to keyboard and joining you all.  Looking forward to finding many interesting recipes in the future, thanks everyone.  Regards Judy

[brazen20au]

welcome judy!!!

funnily enough i often find that when i make my own recipes a second time they don't work as well LOL i guess that's why the womens weekly triple test their recipes lol!!!

some of our fave recipes from the book are the pasta fagiole recipe and the pasta recipe that has the tomato sauce with salami  in it.

[Master Moderator]

Judy. Hi. Great to have you on board. Thanks for the positive comments about this forum. Really nice to hear your kind words.

Have a great time here and with your new friends.

Admin

[cookie1]

Hi Judy
Welcome to the forum. I agree it is really helpful. When I am converting recipes I look in the books for my guidance and go from there.  I did my first Varoma meal last night and it really wasn't the best. I'm pretty sure the mistakes were mine and not the recipe or machine.  Second time lucky.

[UnConundrum]

Hi Judy, nice to meet you

[Amanda]

Hi Judy, welcome to another South Australian!

[Thermomixer]

Hi Judy,  welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your husband's health issues.

It would be great if you make any of the dishes and they do or don't work to post and let us know too.  It really is important that we get the best out of our forum.  We don't want people wasting time or money.

Good luck.

[trudy]

Hi Judy,

Welcome to another South Aussie!!!!!   Enjoy this forum, I have found it such a help, still haven''t mastered the varoma though!!!

Trudy

[judydawn]

Join the rest of us Trudy as far as the varoma is concerned.  I have only done Chicken and Cashews Pge 107 Everyday Cookbook but it was lacking taste and I had to cook the vegies for 20 minutes (there are heaps of them in that varoma tray!) as I don't like my vegies too crunchy.  Will do it again one day but will use some black bean or oyster sauce to add a bit of oomph to the sauce - far too bland as it is.  Tend to shy away from the varoma but this is never going to help me master it. 

[brazen20au]

do you like wontons judy?  one of the other karens here in canberra did a delicious recipe for them for the varoma (which is virtually the only time i've used it too lol)
http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/2008/10/varoma-adventure.html

[judydawn]

If they are the steamed wontons you are referring to Karen, I only printed out that recipe yesterday and asked DH if he would eat them and he said yes so I will give them a go sometime next week. Fridge is still full from yesterday's cooking day so I'm having a rest in the kitchen until that is all eaten.  Not so easy for you younger mums with children or growing teenagers - I know how much they eat when we have the grandchildren staying!

[wombleydoo]

I really like the varoma bread (recipe in the bread section). It looks a bit anemic, but it's very soft and moist. The Varoma Chicken Chilli dumplings are sooooo nice!

[judydawn]

Thanks Cathy but what book are those 2 recipes in, can't find them. I don't seem to have a specific recipe book for the varoma but I do have 'Full Steam Ahead' and they don't appear to be in there.

[riv_mum]

Both of those recipes are on the forum - dumplings under mains, bread under breads.

As for the main recipes in the cookbooks - I too found them to be slightly bland when i first started using my TM but now after 6 months I am enjoying the taste of fresh food and raw ingredients.

Unfortunatly our diet before TM was full of artificial flavours and flavour enhancers. A result of this diet was a change in taste perception to the point that we expect all food to be bursting with strong flavours. Unfortunately most raw ingredients cant compete with the artificial ones which makes us think they are bland.
After months of making all our food from raw ingredients using TM and completely eliminating MSG, flavours and other enhancers, our taste has adjusted and we now enjoy the taste of fresh food.
The great thing about TM is that you can always adjust a recipe to suit your tastes. Adding herbs, garlic, ginger will add more flavour and you can adjust the amount.
Not every recipe is going to suit everyones taste - Im not a big curry person so havent even tried those recipes yet, but i love the stirfrys - chicken and cashew nut (i add a clove of garlic and a teaspoon of stock concentrate to the sauce) and the sweet and sour pork is excellent as it is. I dont make meat balls just use stirfry strips. I find the times to be reasonable accurate (give or take 5 min) as stirfrys traditionally have crispy vegies and I enjoy them that way.
Maybe we can add a Tweeking section where people can add suggestions to improve recipes in the books. This would make it easier for the producers to change them when they edit and republish in the future.

[judydawn]

Thanks Riv Mum for your comments and yes you are probably right.  I've done the sweet & sour meatballs w/vegies too and although this is a dish we would probably only have once a year, I have marked it with 'do exactly as is' but next time i would only do 1/2 qty for the 2 of us so that we don't have leftovers. I love curries but wasn't at all happy with fast chicken curry pge 96.  Went to a cooking demo and they had Nico Moretti from W.A. there so when it gets cooler I will try his recipe for Thai chilli chicken and basil from the pamphlet handed out that night. I bought his recipe book but there isn't that much in there for the TMX although my daughter has cooked his coconut cake out of her copy many, many times and everyone wanted the recipe.