Any brilliant, inspired suggestions on what to cook this weekend? I'm stumped ...

Mothers day tomorrow MsOlga.
Mums coming round for dinner. Planned menue includes Miso soup and pasta marinara. seafood mix from the deli and a creamy sauce.

That sounds good, dadpad!

Hmmmm, fish.

Maybe, maybe .. but not my usual tired old marinara recipe, I think!

Miso soup? There's a thought!

However, I have no Miso on hand. (Making note self for my next visit to the Asian supplies store.)

Thank you, dp!

Oh and happy mothers day to your mum, dp!
Hope the meal goes well!

How about eating out for lunch? Last time in Melb we found an asian place in Port Phillip arcade which runs between Flinders st and Flinders lane west of Swanston St. Everything was $6.00 and ready in a flash. Kind of cafe style. The menu was in a window across the arcade.

Good idea, dadpad. But not today, I think.
Cooking is what I'll be up to!
I will see if I can track that place down next time I'm in the CBD & hungry, though!

1 sweet potato peeled and sliced into the thinnest possible pieces

1 mango skinned

Put both ( Mango seed too ) into a pot , with just enough water to cover the potato and mango.
Simmer until soft.
Sprinkle a little garlic or onion powder in it.

Mmmm.. soup.

Is that easy or what, shewolf?

I might be in a bit of strife locating a mango today, though!

I think what I might do, (if folk are good enough to contribute ideas) is make this an "ideas & inspirations for future meals" thread.

Just cooking too much of the same old, same old ... Boring, msolga!

A miso soup with shrimp (sans tofu chunks).
THEN for the main meal, PENNE CARBONARA. Its a wonderfully satisfying meal of a kind of pasta and gravy that is waay good.

Its got

Bacon chunks and small chunks of prosciutto

Onion chopped up

An al fredo sauce with lotsa garlic

small pieces of some kind of firm winter squash

did I mention garlic?


This is the sauce in its Platonic sense. The details are up to you.

THe pasta is large Penne cooked almost al dente and allowed to be mixed with the sauce and served.The flavor of the bacon and prosciutt' mixes so well with the Penne and squash . (Actually the squash is optional if you want smaller pieces of stuff and the only larger hunks are the Penne).


For dessert we gotta da niza CANNOLI and a ESSPRES' weed leedla pieca limona peel a tweest


So beauteefula. You gonna like a dat.

please , never forget the garlic

A nice heavy french braised casserole dish seems appealing.. sort of crock pot-ish with fervor.

HEY osso, you got a good Carbonara sauce recipe. Im making myself hungry.

for week ends we usually make koppa at home mensed meat and grinded oats. Leave grinded oat in hot water for for couple hours clear it from water and add same weights of red meat and grinded oat . spin them togother add some cinimmon, pepper .and salt. spread it in your casarole and put in oven as two layors . between these two layors add some fried small cubed meat with union . to be served with cool yougourt. n.b. can be eaten emmediatly even without putting it in oven .Or can be fried .fast food , enjoy it .

Our team psychiatrist did most of the cooking this week, and his first dish was a knockout, and really simple!!

Take one free-range chicken.

Using kitchen scissors (or a knife if you don't have them, and are really careful!) cut through the entire back side of the chook, so you can open it up, pull it apart, and flatten it out, so it looks like this:





Get a REALLY air tight large vessel (like le crueset or other tight casserole pot)

Put in some oil and butter, and a whole clove of garlic, broken up into the little individual garlic pod thingies. Get rid of excess papery stuff from the garlic, but leave the last layer of papery covering on, squish 'em a bit with the flat of a knife, and throw 'em into the oil and butter.

Take the flat chook, and brown it in a medium sort of way.

Take the juice of four or five lemons, and throw it into the pot with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Cover the pot TIGHTLY (John ended up having to cover our inadequate pot with alfoil and then put the lid on to make it work) and simmer very gently until chook is very tender.

It makes its own beautiful stock to simmer in, and the garlic ends up very tender and almost sweet, and you kind of mash it into the sauce on the plate.

We had it with rice and a green salad.

Good morning, farmer. (No, hang on, it's midday! Got up later than I realized. )

I like the idea of the Miso soup with prawns. (2nd time Miso has come up!) WITH tofu chunks!

I'll give that a go, definitely, once I've bought the Miso. (Question to any Miso experts out there: which general purpose Miso do you suggest, if a person doesn't want to buy 3 or 4 different kinds/strengths? I'm not sure.)

The Penne Carbonara sounds terrific, too. (Never made that. It's now on my "too make" list. This week! Excellent idea.)

By "winter squash" you mean what we call pumpkin, yes? Like Butternut pumpkin.



Oh that sounds so good! Oh yum.

Thanks, farmer. A couple of really good suggestions. The pasta definitely this week. A good changed from my usuals.

As if!

Forget the garlic?

NEVER!

No, I've never made carbonara, you have to talk to my friend Bonnie (who married the italian with the mother who was very sure of her recipes).

Yes, it does, osso.
Trouble is, I've overdosed on a couple of those (which were really good!) recently. And I need to take a bit of a breather away from them. The problem of cooking for one: too many meals of the same thing in a row & a very stuffed freezer! Gotta get in the habit of halving some of those recipes!

But I love crock pot/slow cooker fervour in darkest winter!

yeh we use pumpkins too, but mostly acorn or blue hubbards , only trouble with most winter squashes is that theyere so damn BIG!
Reminds me of a Ma Romatswe story and cooking a pumpkin for supper and its feeds a huge family.

Welcome to a2k, maged. I've never cooked with meat and oats? What kind of meat do you use?