Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: tarasis on January 02, 2011, 09:03:38 pm
-
Hi all, now I've made it through the initial vetting and Xmas is finished I thought I'd say HI :)
I'm Rob, my missus is Bob and we got a Thermomix earlier this year after she was won over by a couple of demo evenings last year. Its really her toy but as she is out at work and I am the stay at home dad I tend to use it more than she does :) The Thermomix has replaced a Magimix that we've had for 6 years, though honestly apart from using it to make baby food it didn't get used that much.
We're Brits living in Germany (which makes getting some ingredients fun), been here for 4.5 years now. We've 2 kids who are 5.5 & 4, they are very picky eaters indeed more so than I am (no veggies, no fruit), so I tend not to use the TM much for day to day use.
I'm joining the forum in part to join in, ask questions and hopefully say thank you when I try a recipe :)
The TM just played a large role in the meals we did over the Xmas period, we used it to make:
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3022.0 (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3022.0) Chicken Korma x2 - First attempt was okay, second (with more spices) was gorgeous.
http://tenina.com/2008/06/na-na-naan/ (http://tenina.com/2008/06/na-na-naan/) Naan bread - I rolled it a bit thinner than the 5mm but was still great
Rustic loaf from one of the books - multiple times, still cant get the end result to be consistent
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1788.0;prev_next=next (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=1788.0;prev_next=next) Soda Bread - Though as I'm from Northern Ireland, the end result is more like Wheaten Bread in terms of look and taste (just without the wheaten flour) than actually soda bread. Tasted great though and lasted for a while.
http://simonesthermomixessentials.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/pams-gingernuts-recipe/ (http://simonesthermomixessentials.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/pams-gingernuts-recipe/) Gingernuts - Again made twice, though that was because we needed a batch to use as the base for a Lime & Mascarpone Cheesecake. First batch was slightly on the wrong side of gooey but that second batch was to die for and was more of a melting gooey.
Tomato Soup - no idea what recipe
For 2011 I plan to get into using it more and I'm going to order the English Indian Thermomix cook book :)
-
Hi and welcome.
The TMX is great for hiding veg in food for fussy kids. Mine eat pretty much anything but I still add a bit of extra hidden in a lot of meals, lol.
What sort of foods do your kids like?
Pasta? Mine love creamy tomato pasta (sort of the edc creamy salami fettucine - but no salami) which I put a fair bit of veg in.
No fruit? what about icecream?
I'm sure others with fussy eaters can give you some ideas on fussy eater friendly foods.
-
Hi rob and welcome. Great to have another bloke on board ;)
-
Hi Rob, yes I agree with Meagan, great to have another male on our forum. We don't have too many and excuse me if I refer to 'the girls' on here sometimes ;) ;) Thanks for sharing the recipes you've tried with us, loved the way you set it out and made comments afterwards. Looking forward to hearing more about what you do in the kitchen.
-
Hi Rob and welcome - Yay another male :D :D Great to have the men on board to show that anyone and everyone can and do use the TMX.
p.s. I love SAH dad's too ;) ;)
-
Welcome Rob :)
You've found the right place for recipes, help, tips and some banter thrown in ;)
-
Welcome Rob. Lovely to have a SAD on the forum.
-
Hi and welcome to the forum Rob. :)
-
Hi Rob, you are on fire with the recipes, i'm tending to cook the same things and now need to branch out! Enjoy the forum. Jenny :)
-
Welcome to the forum Rob & Bob. What part of Germany are you in? Wayne and I were in Bavaria a year ago and loved it.
-
First, hi everyone sorry for not getting back sooner. Thank you all for the welcome, it was lovely.
Good to know there are some other SAD's floating around here (seriously SAD? ... Hmm actually probably a little apt, I do find being a SAD tough)
More a sciency type, so improvising recipes / adapting existing ones is not my thing. Prefer following explicit instructions :)
Zan - will invesitage, kids are very fussy. Ice-cream has to be vanilla or chocolate, not keen on Pasta other than Spaghetti Carbonara, Spaghetti Bol (and then only sometimes, last attempt on Friday, oldest wouldn't touch it, youngest ate it), Lasange, Bread, Bread, Bread and nor Bread, Fried Rice, Bacon and Breakfast Cereal :) oh yeah Nutella
Judydawn - happy for referring to the girls, growing up I used to mostly hang out with girls. Preferred their company :)
Trudy - we are near Hamburg (Buchholz, 15km away, state of Niedersachsen). I'd probably enjoy it more if I could speak a decent amount of German but I use English with the kis all the time so I don't learn that fast and getting to a course isn't possible at the moment.
Used the Thermomix again this evening for Chicken in Yoghurt http://bit.ly/f3w8Qw the taste was nice, though a little burny (will try again soon but probably leave the Chillies out, as it was we used red and not green as we couldn't get green) as an after taste. We just did naan bread with it, rather than rice & naan this time.
Going to try the other half of the naan dough as a pizza base tomorrow, I like thin bases, so hoping it will work out.
-
Welcome Rob. Have fun with your machine. Plenty of recipes here for you to try.
-
Welcome Rob and good luck with your TMX journey.
With regard to learning German, have you come across the Radio Lingua site? They do introductory courses for learning languages free (although you do pay for extras) which I think are good. If you are interested, do a web search for "Coffee Break German".
-
Hi Rob,
I don't know if your kids will go for it - luckily mine did, we give them "ice cream" which is made from bananas, frozen fruit (normally raspberries) and yoghurt. They love it and we normally make sure there are a couple of chopped up bananas in the freezer so we can throw it together at the end of a meal. My son had quite a few allergies when he was smaller including eggs, nuts and 160b which is a food colouring in most vanilla ice creams so luckily for us this is the only ice cream he's really known but it's a great way to get fruit into them too!
-
Welcome Rob! :) Have you tried Fried Rice in the Thermomix?? So yummy, and easy! You might have to change the ingredients a bit to what they'll eat... (This is my recipe here (http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/thermomix-fried-rice.html))
That ice cream sounds delicious, Chaotic!!
-
I don't know if your kids will go for it - luckily mine did, we give them "ice cream" which is made from bananas, frozen fruit (normally raspberries) and yoghurt. They love it and we normally make sure there are a couple of chopped up bananas in the freezer so we can throw it together at the end of a meal. My son had quite a few allergies when he was smaller including eggs, nuts and 160b which is a food colouring in most vanilla ice creams so luckily for us this is the only ice cream he's really known but it's a great way to get fruit into them too!
Hmm, thats an idea though I'm not sure about the Bananas. Its one of the few things my wife reacts too (she gets an itchy throat if she eats/drinks something with Banana in it) and so we haven't given it too the kids ... actually thats possibly a fib, we may have given mashed banana to them when we first started introducing them to solids (though more often something like Sweet Potato) I know its only 4 years go but I don't remember now.
Guess I will make up a batch and see how the kids fair with it. I'm sure with some chocolate / coloured sprinkles and a wafer near by they'll try it.
Welcome Rob! :) Have you tried Fried Rice in the Thermomix?? So yummy, and easy! You might have to change the ingredients a bit to what they'll eat... (This is my recipe here (http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com/2009/08/thermomix-fried-rice.html))
Hi Quirkycooking, hello to you too. Its quite funny I was looking at that recipe the other day, I was slightly freaked out by the look of the egg :) but thanks for pointing it out.
I haven't yet tried FR in the Thermomix, normally using a Wok/Frying pan (minced beef with a bit of spice, streaky bacon (only sort I can really get here) and then egg cooked in bacon fat) while the rice usually boils in a pan. A friend bought me a steamer a couple of years ago as a present but she bought a big one that wants you to cook a minimum of 3 cups worth of rice and best will in the world the kids and I don't eat that much (certainly not without endangering my waste line).
I am going to give your recipe a try, but as you say I'll have to mod the recipe slightly for their tastes.
Mind I plan on trying Spaghetti Carbonara next, either the one posted by Thermomixer (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=900.0) or this one from Bron (http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=899.0) (except the kids will only eat Spaghetti or Lasagne, won't touch other types of Pasta - grr). I have my own, non Thermomix, recipe that I made up which is similar to that used in a restaurant in Hamburg called Vapianos (awesome place that cooks pasta dishes while you stand, kind of fast freshly cooked italian food) but haven't tried converting to Thermomix yet.
-
Welcome Rob and good luck with your TMX journey.
With regard to learning German, have you come across the Radio Lingua site? They do introductory courses for learning languages free (although you do pay for extras) which I think are good. If you are interested, do a web search for "Coffee Break German".
Thank Katya, I hope it will be a fun journey :)
As to the German, no I haven't come across that site and I'll look into that more (I have some stuff from About.com which was useful). Ultimately I'm my own worst enemy, come the evening and the kids are in bed that last thing I want to do is "homework". I know I need to change that attitude but its difficult when there are a ton of other things I'd prefer to do (say computer program, building lego, reading my backlog of comics, watch something, listen to a film score, read, play a game - yes even at 34 I want to do some of those things :) )
-
Hi Quirkycooking, hello to you too. Its quite funny I was looking at that recipe the other day, I was slightly freaked out by the look of the egg :) but thanks for pointing it out.
Ha ha! That's funny :D Well, the egg tastes fine 'steamed' - not quite the same as fried in bacon fat though, I will agree!!! ;)
You'd have to cut down the rice amount, but don't reduce the water - you need that much to steam the rice no matter the amount. :)
If they like pasta, you could make pasta dough with spinach in it and tell them it's special 'Incredible Hulk' pasta or something!! ;D
-
Belated welcome - sounds like it is fun for all. Hope the experimenting continues
-
Thanks Thermomixer, apologies for an even more belated reply. The experimenting had kind of stopped (though I continued to use the Thermomix pretty much for making Steamed Garlic Rice, occasionally meatballs too, Chicken in Yoghurt and some other bits including failed Ginger Nuts (where my wife had much better success)) mostly because I would have only really been cooking with it for me for a while as both kids where having their cooked meal at Kindergarten.
I'm getting back into it, doing some rolls yesterday, Chicken in Yoghurt & Naan bread the night before, the missus making some ginger nuts today for some cheesecakes (including a White Chocolate Cheesecake with Raspberries we found on one of the Thermomix blogs) and tomorrow some soup and Spicy Shredded/Asian Chicken with Garlic Dressing :)
Still haven't tried making ice cream in it for some reason.
-
good to see your back with us Tarasis!! Hope you had a better summer than we did here :)
-
Thanks Frozzie, nice to be back. I added a checkmark of "must do better" on my report card ;) So for now its back to messing up more recipe's :)
Summer has been mostly missing here, very little sun compared to previous years but still hot/warm making it hard to know what to wear.
Of things I've cooked with the TMX, the Chicken in Yoghurt remains my fav. Made it again at last Friday and it was superb (its rare for me to really like what I cook, I'm hyper critical regardless of what others say, so to say it was superb is big) and I also tried the Spice Asian/Shredded (Asian in these forums, Shredded in the Asian cookbook) Chicken with Garlic Dressing.
That was very nice despite being made with Turkey rather than Chicken (darn supermarket had run out of chicken!), will most assuredly make it again soon and the leftovers made for great sandwich filling the next day (and for freezing for another day) :)
-
ah we have all been there... better do better has been a bit my year haha... dont know if you already do it but if its a recipe from the forum go back and check on all hte comments as it may save you a stuff up by someone else having already done it and corrected the recipe or saying what works better...
i find it comes down to your mindset and how much time you have....sometimes we arent great in either department which makes cooking a challenge and I have found thats when i stuff up recipes that i never stuff up....such is life....check out some of the favs of members of the forum and that could get you inspired...
anyway make sure you stick around this time :)
-
ah we have all been there... better do better has been a bit my year haha... dont know if you already do it but if its a recipe from the forum go back and check on all hte comments as it may save you a stuff up by someone else having already done it and corrected the recipe or saying what works better...
I do try to, even when its 10 pages :) Though sometimes a suggestion doesn't work out. Threads are useful because if something doesn't work out and others love it then it helps to workout whether I simply screwed up or not.
i find it comes down to your mindset and how much time you have....sometimes we arent great in either department which makes cooking a challenge and I have found thats when i stuff up recipes that i never stuff up....such is life....check out some of the favs of members of the forum and that could get you inspired...
Thanks for the advice. I need to work it through, particularly when dishes fail (like today when I made the Vegetable Soup with Bacon and Pasta which was entirely not what I expected and while I didn't like it my mum, who is visiting, did.)
anyway make sure you stick around this time :)
Heh :) I'll try, someone has to ask silly questions like what the heck FF means ;)
-
We ALL ask silly questions from time to time, Rob. I headed the list yesterday with two! It's one of those things, if you don't ask you don't know and there are probably loads of other forum members out there scratching their heads as well and saying "I wonder what ....." but never ask.
Anyway, ff is fan forced (ovens).
-
tarasis do you have an application like evernote or even word would do if you dont..what i do is copy the recipe then read through and add ie copy and paste any useful comments and who made them also variations from other members..makes it much quicker than reading through every- time all of the pages as there is alot of chatter lol of which I am largely to blame on some posts!!
also i find you need to sometime check as you go as products differ and some create more liquid or another consistency and others dont so sometimes I also need to change the speed or cook it for less or longer..for example I have found that chicken in the bowl only works for me in saucy dishes ie alot of liquid otherwise it becomes mush like finely shredded chicken bits and ony needs to be cooked for ma 8 mins so i add it at the end....you just need to use recipes as a base then work out what works best for you and your ingredeints..another example is I find that the flour i use from the local mill and probably the humidity in the air gives me a wet dough so i now just add less liquid than the recipe asks for ..etc etc
hang in there and yes we all ask stupid questions at one time or another and honestly they arent stupid and everyone has the right to undertstand what being said...one thing i love abut this forum is there is no judgement and there are all types from cant cooks to great cooks so dont worry about that...ask away!
what was the problem you had with teh soup?? why didnt you like it?? you should ask on the forum and you might get the answer your after??