I love recipe books

This book was given to me by one of my great friends! I absolutely love recipe books and this one is one like I could write! Some bits maybe not, as they aren't really things I would eat, but most of it is! It's all doing it from scratch cooking and using up leftovers and what you have on hand. I love it because she talks about bone broth and ferments - two of my favourite things to make lately! But mostly it's just cooking simple but interesting real food! I haven't bought any of the 'I quit sugar" books, mainly because I haven't really quit sugar, but I've certainly cut back a lot. What I have done though, is just quit buying packaged food. This way you limit sugar, salt and all the other nasties.

I love this quote and it is exactly what is behind my food lifestyle choice! I've only done a few things out of the book so far, but she's inspired me and I've got my cooking mojo back, so I'm happy. The photo below is my fermented roasted garlic. I've fermented garlic before, but raw garlic, so it'll be interesting to see how this one tastes. The raw one is pretty good.

One thing Sarah encourages is doing a flow of cooking - just get in and do lots at once. While I was cooking some oven chips for lunch yesterday, I decided to roast the garlic at the same time as this, I made some seasoned salt. This wasn't one of her recipes, but I think she would approve:

• Himalayan pink salt
• ground pepper
• chopped chili
• chopped garlic
• lemon rind
• oregano 
• rosemary
• dulse flakes

Other things you can add or put in salt are dried mushrooms, dried tomatoes, celery, onion.....it's only limited by your imagination. I chop it all up fine and then put in the oven for about half an hour, so that all the uncooked bits dry and and stop the salt from going moldy.

I'm currently making some tomato sauce with my tomatoes left over from easter weekend. I've just done a quick pasta sauce in the thermomix, which I'll put into the freezer. Pulled pork with homemade tortillas last night for tea. I've baked a couple of cakes and I tonight I think I'll just make soup! This book is currently my favourite recipe book.......what's yours?

Locavore Party

The party of the year was two weeks ago and it was fantastic! Just about all of the food was grown locally. One of my main reasons for having a locavore theme was because I am a passionate supporter of a local food industry and wanted to encourage other people to think about it too.  Benefits of eating locally produced food and supporting local manufacturers, is that you support local businesses, which are usually small business or family businesses. Food grown locally is eaten fresh and in season so has to be better for you, it certainly tastes better than well travelled food!

 One of my friends brought some cheeses and other nibbles from the Sunshine Coast, the meat was all ours and the veggies were either bought from the markets or home grown. Many guests brought either home made things or other fresh produce. Coffee from the Capricorn coast, beer from Baffle Creek and Bundaberg, wine that had been bought at a cellar door when travelling, as well as some home made wine and spirits.

We had a pig on a spit as the main meat, as well as a roast beef and a roast turkey. My sister picked up some local (Bribie Island) prawns. 

Capricorn coast grown vegetables.

We had cheeses made by myself and my two brothers, Chicken liver pate, homemade crackers, pesto dip, capsicum jam, quince paste (homemade by a Western Australian guest). Vegetable sides consisted of white sweet potato bake, stir fried greens, sweet potato spinach bacon and feta salad, ratatouille and a big tossed salad. 

Desserts were delicious! Cheesecake made with home made quark, macadamia flourless cake, pavlova, fruit salad and my home milked and separated cream.

We ate a lot of food over the weekend and mostly local or home made. We actually had about 30 people camping over for the weekend so the meals were a challenge, but no one went hungry. I think there were about 70 at the party itself. It was a weekend filled with family, fun, food and love! It was the party I wanted to have and I feel honoured to have such great people in my life. People travelled from Western Australia, NSW and southern and central Queensland.