Food glorious food;

It is still raining and very windy. I am going shopping today to buy the ingredients for dinner with the family on Saturday. It will be simple, but delicious. As I usually cook everything from scratch it is still a lot to prepare and cook, lots of fun too.

As entree I prepare Tapas;

White pizza to eat with different cured meat and salami.

I have to make the Pizza dough, but I buy the cured meat.

Gildas; small skewers with anchovies, green Olives and chillies. (Gilda means Lollipop!)

I buy the best anchovies cured in olive oil and green olives but I have chillies in the garden.

Slices of lightly toasted french bread topped with sauted mushrooms and aioli.

I buy a stick french bread, saute the bought mushrooms and make aioli, a mayonnaise with garlic.

Tiny blinis with salmon and creme fraiche.

I make the blinis, small omelets, buy salmon and creme fraiche,

Small grilled eggplant rolls filled with chillie jam and Feta.

I grill eggplants from the garden, use homemade chillie jam and the best available bought Feta cheese

For the main meal I cook delicious shepherd's pies served individually in small earthenware pots. This time of year I have to buy potatoes as there are non available yet from the garden.

I buy only organic potatoes, if possible. I buy 1.5 kg shin beef and mince the meat with my mincer attachment on my Kitchen Aid.

For dessert I make a creme caramel. I use organic sugar to make the caramel, organic milk, and eggs from my chooks. I am "decadent" and add whipped cream to make it very smooth.

To drink, who likes what, Beer, Campari, red and white wine, natural soft drink, wellwater, Brandy Alexander;

This is the menu, we, that is, Eight of us, will eat for dinner on Saturday evening.

It is still raining and the wind comes in gusts, never mind I am shopping and then I am cooking!

What are you cooking on Saturday evening for dinner with family, friends or just for yourself?

Weekend Reflections; ready for school;

click the pic please;

Reflections are fun, go and see more here

Words of Wisdom;

Wisdom is knowing things that help a person to live sensibly and make good decisions. Wisdom is defined differently by many cultures. Some say that wisdom is something a person learns as they grow older.

If someone has wisdom we say he is wise.

The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.

Common sense; good judgment:

The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge:

A wise outlook, plan, or course of action.

"What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.": Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - (1770-1831) German philosopher

Cooking; Lentils; healthy and delicious;

Ingredients to cook a healthy and delicious lentil stew.

2 cups lentils, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 3 bay leaves, curry powder, ground cumin, pepper, herb salt (made from my herbs), tomato paste and water. (I use when ever possible my own grown or organic.)

The ancient Greek dramatist Aristophanes mentions lentil soup in his plays and describes it as the "sweetest of delicacies."

Put half a table spoon ghee into a pan and make a sofritto with the finely chopped onion, carrot and bay leaves. The onions and carrots must not get brown. This will be the base for the lentil stew.

Lentils contain high levels of proteins, including the essential amino acids isoleucine and lysine, and are an essential source of inexpensive protein in many parts of the world for those who adhere to a vegetarian diet or cannot afford meat acids, methionine and cystine.

Apart from a high level of proteins, lentils also contain dietary fiber, folate, vitamin B1, and minerals.

Add the soaked and rinsed lentils (soak the lentils 2-3 h before use) and 2 table spoons tomato paste. 1 teaspoon curry powder, 1 teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper to your liking.

mix well and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, add 2 cups of water.

Let this lentil stew simmer for 1 1/2 h or until the lentils are nice and soft. Check from time to time if it needs more water. It can be reheated in the microwave the next day.

Lentils are annual plants producing lens-shaped seeds. A cousin of the bean, the lentil belongs to the legume family, or those with seeds that grow within pods. Lentils are quite rich in iron and have the highest levels of protein of any vegetable next to soybeans.

Lentils, botanically-known as Lens culinaris esculenta, have been a source of sustenance for our ancestors since prehistoric times. The word lentils comes from the Latin lens, and indeed, this bean cousin is shaped like the double convex optic lens which took its name from the lentil.

Lentil is the oldest food legume that has been known to the mankind. The nutritious value of the seeds of the plant is quite high as it is rich in carbohydrates, fibers and proteins and that is why lentil is so popular among the vegetarian population of the world.

It also acts as an important secondary crop in the crop rotation schedule as it has been proven that masur crop is extremely good in fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere and forming nitrogen nodules in the soil that rejuvenates the nutrients and keeps the soil productive for a long time.

Lentil or masur is one of the earliest and first crops that have ever been cultivated. Lentil originated in the central Asian region in the prehistoric times.

The earliest archeological finding in context of lentil is from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic layers of Franchthi caves in the Peloponnese, Greece that dates back to almost 13000 to 9500 years ago. Other ancient findings are from Syria and Jericho area of Palestine that is almost 8000 years old and from Turkey dating back to around 6700 BC.

Bon appetit

Lunch with the family;

The table is ready for a companionable lunch with the family;

A good Red, Shiraz "Cow Bombie" Margaret River, Western Australia;

Heirloom Napkins;

The Poeta bought me this contraption to cut onions etc. He saw it and bought it, thought it would be a big help to cut the onions. It is alright when one has to cut lots of onions like for Goulash or onion Pie or Pissaladiere etc. I usually cut the onions by hand. It is definitely not a MUST HAVE!

I cooked Capsicums filled with Rice and Mushrooms; Lamb and a mixed salad.

I did not make an Entree because Lilli had prepared an elaborate, filling dessert.

(When I removed it from the oven looking delicious; I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish...LOL)

Lilli made this Bread and Butter Pudding, it was yummy; would anybody like the recipe?

Reflections; Going home...

Sunset at the beach...please click the picture.

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Reflections; Imagine...

Shadow like the goldfish swim between the branches of the Jacaranda tree and the Strelitzia leaves.

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