This is probably not news ...

... but I have discovered that the difference between using a WHOLE dishwasher tablet and HALF a dishwasher tablet (apart from cost) is that I no longer get a residue on the glasses and I don't need rinse aid.

There is NO difference to how clean things are.

Fruit and more fruit

I'm determined to minimise food wastage in this household. If that means I eat pasta carbonara for breakfast (like yesterday), so be it. Lucky I'm not fussy like that! It is going to be a little more difficult for me to not waste all the fruit from our trees at the moment though. I have a basket of apples waiting for attention (they really need to be cooked rather than just eaten raw, as they were picked early to avoid the birds and codling moth - we've lost a lot of apples to the grubs already).

I haven't even started picking the pears yet, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. I am seeing some friends on Friday, so if I get my act together before then I can give some away, but I'd also like to find some recipes to use some of them up - I'm not a big pear eater, so it's going to be a bit of a challenge for me. Any suggestions? Recipes that I can freeze would be especially welcome.

Today I baked a banana cake and banana bread - the house still smells lovely, and there are no longer any overripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl. Next time though, I'm prepared with this Monkey Cake recipe!

The archives [2]

The back of the pantry
Wednesday 30 January, 2008 - 20:31

My mission at the moment is to use up some of the "seemed like a good idea at the time" items from the pantry.

Having spent a good part of the day with friends and children at Questacon, and then most of the rest of the afternoon looking up 2012 references (exactly what effect will a DNA update from the centre of the universe, from 2-strand to 12-strand DNA, have on us? Indeed, will it hurt? And will it go with my current hair colour?) and avoiding the pressing work commitments I have (I should add Procrastination to my interests, when I get around to it!), I had no idea what we were having for dinner. So I opened the cupboard and found - TA DA! - a can of chickpeas. Now, while chickpeas aren't particularly exotic, they've never been a staple in this household. Sounded like a good excuse to go back to the computer - had to find a recipe. Hmmm ... no chicken, hoummus (with any variety of spelling) isn't quite dinner ... how about creamy chickpea curry? Chickpeas, coconut milk, tomato, garlic, curry powder (ok - I cheated a bit there - it should have been red curry paste), oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime juice and coriander, accompanied by rice. It was looking a bit too liquid partway through cooking, so a couple of handfuls of red lentils were a quick fix.

Surprisingly (for a family with children who can whine about any meal without a morsel of it having passed their lips) it was a big hit! Even the husband ("You know I'm not keen on chickpeas." "Well, think of them as garbanzo beans then.") liked it. So know I know how to use up the several other cans of chickpeas hiding in the back of the pantry. And I know there are some dried ones in there somewhere too ...