I've never tried frozen vegetables before but thought I would buy some for nights when we are both working thinking they would be easy to just steam in the microwave or varoma if I have rice cooking. I've tried both of these ways and the vegetables seem very water logged and not nice and crisp like we are used to. I've tried cooking for a shorter time period but then they seem hard and still taste very watery. Do others use frozen vegetables and if so do you have a problem with them tasting watery? or how do you cook them to eliminate all the water?

I was thinking tonight I will throw them in a hot wok and sear them to have with rice and the hoisin chicken. Maybe I should be defrosting them on some paper towel to drain the water, but that seems to defeat the purpose of them being quick and easy??

I'm thinking of getting some of Helen's super scrubbies but she is only selling them either in a bulk pack or as a set with the spatulas. I've already got the spatula's, and dont' want 12 scrubbies or want to spend $54. i'm also happy to split the smaller ones up as really I'm only after one of the extra large and one or two small.

If anyone is interested either post here or PM me.

This curry has been a family favorite for quite a while and I've now adapted it to cooking in the PC and it worked very well. I've adapted the original recipe slightly to make a very mild curry the kids are very happy to eat?

1 kg of beef or lamb ( we've only ever used beef)
1tblsp ghee or oil
2 onions chopped
2 gloves garlic
2 green chillies, seeds removed and chopped
1 tbsp ginger
11/2 tsps turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1/4 tsps chili powder
1 tsp salt
400g can tomatoes
1 cup coconut milk

Drop garlic and ginger onto TMX blades at sp 7 for 5secs
Add onions and chillies and chop sp 5 for 5 secs. I generally then stir to get everything to the bottom of the bowl and chop again on sp 5 until our liking which is a fairly fine chop.
Chop meat into 3cm cubes
Fry garlic and onion mixture in oil or ghee until just soft
Add all the spices and stir until fragrant
Add the meat and cook stirring over a high heat until the meat cubes are well coated with the spice mixture.
Stir in salt and tomatoes
Put lid on PC and bring to high pressure cooking for 30 mins
Release pressure ( I use the quick release method but you could use the natural of preferred)
Add coconut milk and simmer uncovered for another 5 minutes or until sauce has thickened slightly.  
Serve sprinkled with fresh coriander and chopped cashews if desired.

I found my PC comes to pressure with just the juice from the tomatoes but depending on how much juice is in the tomatoes and on your pc
you may need to add a little water And then use some cornflour in with the coconut milk at the end.

My kids have always loved this simple curry just served with rice.

This recipe is from Family Circle classic Essential Curries book.

After the horrors of this year and needing to cut our big family holiday short earlier in the year, I'm wanting to take a quick break away during the September school holidays. We are thinking of Bali or Thailand but would like to stay away from the bogan Aussies ( no offense meant) that tend to congregate in the likes of Kuta. There are 4 of us, DH, DS, DD(17) and DS (12), our preference is to stay in one room but if we need to we are happy to book two rooms. We would normally go on auctioned packed holidays and I've never just organized a relaxing do nothing week. All ideas , suggestions and recommendations  appreciated.

We are having a BBQ fundraiser on Sunday and we need to slice 10kgs of onions. We plan to do them in our old food processor or with the v-slicer but would like to know how far in advance they can be sliced. My DD needs to do the job and she won't have time to do them all on Saturday evening so I was thinking if she could do a few kgs each day, double bag them and keep them in our old fridge we wouldn't all need to chip in and help.

After quite a bit of thinking and procrastinating I've joined up to take part in Dry July. I would class myself as a moderately heavy drinker, and I'm sure I'm going to really struggle without it for a full month. I've recently had a family member who also battles mental illness diagnosed with late stage cancer, and while the hospital staff are amazing you realise just how much more could be done for both patients and their families. I've only just joined up so don't have my page up and running just yet but I've included links to both my fundraising page if anybody would like to donate, and also the main website in case there are any other TMXers who would like to join.
http://www.dryjuly.com/profile/nadinebarnes
http://www.dryjuly.com/about/

I've never included links before so hope they work.
Nadine

I would like to make some BBq sauce and thought there was a thread with lots of responses on here but could only find a couple with a couple of comments. do people have a favourtie BBQ sauce recipe and if so which one?