Sausages with Beans and Peppers

Last week, my dad was here for a couple of nights.  Flipping through Nigelissima, I realised it had been quite some time since I'd cooked something new (that wasn't a healthy treat).  I gave dad a choice of two dinner options - he chose this one as he's not allowed sausages at home.  Sorry for outing you, dad... [Insert eyelid flutter here].  I'll give here what I actually did, which differed a tiny bit from Nigella's ingredients but not by much.  (Italian sausages?  Tinned cherry tomatoes? Garlic oil?  Red vermouth? Nope).

Ingredients:
1 x 15mL tablespoon olive oil (okay, I just estimated this one)
450g sausages
1/4 cup red wine leftover from the night before
2 x 400g cans butterbeans, drained
1 x 290g jar roasted peppers, chopped into bite-size pieces
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
3 bay leaves
salt and pepper, to taste (I think I may have forgotten these...)

Method:
Heat the oil in a shallow, flameproof casserole or heavy-based saucepan that comes with a lid (I used my large frying pan which is heavy based but lidless), and brown the sausages.
Take the pan off the heat for a moment, and pour in the wine, then put it back on the heat and let the wine bubble up a bit.  Add the drained beans, the chopped peppers, and the tomatoes.
Half-fill the empty tomato tin with water, then throw this in, too, before adding the bay leaves (and salt and pepper, if you remember).
Bring to a bubble, then turn the heat down to low, clamp on a lid (if you have one) and let it simmer for 15 minutes until the sausages are cooked through. 
Remove the lid, turn up the heat a bit and simmer robustly for a further 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened slightly.
Take off the heat altogether, then - using tongs, for ease - remove the sausages to a chopping board and cut them into thick slices, on a gentle diagonal if possible (looks classier that way).  You can leave them whole, but they go further sliced.  Return the sausage slices to the pan and dish out from there, or ladle the beans into shallow bowls, adding the sliced sausages on top (first option for me).  Either way, serve with hunks of bread for people to fare la scarpetta - dunk - as they eat.  (All right, I didn't read the recipe in full before getting the groceries - or indeed, getting to the very last step.  At least it was just minus dunking bread and not something really important, like 'marinade overnight').

Just for aesthetics, next time I would garnish with some herbs - parsley or basil would go well, I think.  Especially for a week-night dinner, this was a fabulous option.  So easy, so quick, so substitutable (that's actually a word).  I need to buy more roasted peppers...

In Retrospect - Third Quarter

Another 3 months down - I felt I was stagnating somewhat (for various reasons) for most of these 3 months, but I've had some forced forays out of the comfort zone in the last month or so.

Food.  My new favourite green thing is kale.  I now order it for every delivery.  So far it's only been cooked in stir fries so if there are recipe suggestions out there, speak up!  I've been a bit more creative with biscuit flavours too (even more since the previous biscuit post), and have more ideas up my sleeve.  And having milk (and now, fish as well) delivered weekly is wonderful.  I hardly need to go to a supermarket now!  Plus all that feel-good feeling of helping local farmers - what's not to like?!

Domestics - Indoors.  Just little things.  My brother's stereo has been at my place for ages, but I gave it back to him yesterday.  This means I have cleaner lines in that area (good) but no radio (not so good).  I downloaded an app but it appears to have problems in iOS 6...  The radio in my bedroom still works so that might just have to do me for now.  I bought different cleaning products last week, too - I'd run out but forgotten to reorder.  I really like this new variety (brand name 'method').  The new arrangement of the living room has stuck.  It is more open, and all the students and parents seem to like it more.  I guess it's staying.  And I have new pictures by the stairs (although some of them have fallen down - need bigger hooks).

Domestics - Outdoors.  Whoa - garden!  Some of my older outfit posts have photos taken in the courtyard, and you can see the jungle qualities present.  And the shade/lack of light.  Now, it is much barer, neater, sunnier.  Plus, I have green things growing and not just a few square metres of paving.  I like.  This has also brought back my gardening mojo (at least so far).  Fingers crossed for more edibles other than herbs. 

Me.  I feel I've had a bit of a makeover lately.  New hair, new glasses, new goals for life.  I've been contemplating that which was previously inconceivable.  And I've started doing things, like telling people if there's a problem, or asking people to sign a petition for something I believe is really important.

Other Little Things.  I actually downloaded iOS 6 for my phone - I feel like I have a new phone.  This was not a disaster.  I can now deal with chocolate that is not broken evenly (well, usually).  I am a bit more careful what I share on the internet.  You may have noticed the absence of Spending Reports - this is because I haven't bought any clothes or accessories for 3 whole months.  This began as a "let's see if I can do this" and now it's in that "how long can this go on" phase.  I even tried on a dress at my favourite Lifeline last week, but decided against it.  Having just seen my shoe collection en masse I suspect it's time for a wardrobe cull.  I've started ordering things online more.  It seems we've started a dinner party tradition with the group from church (we had one last night - they're fabulous!).  I started another blog.  I can run with far less brain preparation than before - and even do better than if I had more brain preparation.  Weird.  Oh, and I've been reading a book series out of order.  I've read them all before (I don't think I could have coped otherwise), but read #3, then #2, #4 and again #4 (couldn't sleep one night last week at the coast).  Blaming it on the library...

So, although parts of these 3 months have seen me huddled in a corner, I have changed a lot of my surroundings and person and way that I am. 

Monday's photo:

Dinner last night was indeed fabulous.  Dessert was all homemade of course - lemon tart with raspberry and lemon sorbets and (lactose-free) vanilla bean ice cream.

Today's photo:

I am very pleased with this pot of herbs.  The basil has had a resurgence recently, the parsley isn't dead, and the chives (newbies) are still alive.  The whole thing looks like an explosion of green.

Orange and Almond Cake

...or, the Free Cake.

Going to a dinner party last night, I volunteered to bring dessert.  This had to be free from seafood (well, that bit was easy); not spicy; and lactose-free.  I knew all this before I volunteered and thought it would be a good challenge.  We very nearly had poached fruit of some variety, but in one of my coma days last week (seriously, all I could do was look at a couple of pages at a time of this recipe book), I came across this recipe.  Score!  It's from Cooking from the Market: Fruit.

Ingredients (note the pretty picture this time!):

2 large oranges
5 eggs
250g (9 oz/2 1/2 cups) ground almonds
220g (7 3/4 oz/1 cup) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
icing sugar, to dust

Grease a 22 cm spring-form cake tin, line base with baking paper.

(If shop-bought), scrub the oranges under warm running water to remove any wax coating from the skins.  Put the whole oranges in a saucepan, cover with water and boil for 1 hour.  Remove from the water and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Using a plate to catch any juice, cut the cooled oranges into quarters and remove any seeds.  Blend the orange quarters, including the skin, in a food processor or blender until they turn to a pulp.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy.  Add the orange pulp and any reserved juice to the bowl along with the almonds, sugar and baking powder.  Mix thoroughly to combine.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin.  Bake for 1 hour or until the cake is firm to touch and lightly golden.  Cook the cake a little longer if it still wet.  Remove from the oven, leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.  Dust with sifted icing sugar before serving.  (This last photo is the last piece, so the icing sugar had all melted in - I wasn't about to re-sugar just for photos!).

I did have a few wet bits at the end of the hour, so turned off the oven and put the cake back in.  I ended up going for a run, and by the time I returned the cake was fully cooked and the oven cool.  I didn't take it off the base of the tin for cooling, and just put the cake and base in a large container for transporting to dinner.  This went down rather well - I served it with mascarpone but nearly made it ricotta, I think either would go equally well.  Lactose free, then, unless you indulge in fatty dairy products on the side.

Today's photo:

Another brilliant blue sky for the morning.  By the time I was home from church it was grey.

Mint Sauce and Dinner Guests

Tonight I had several people from church over for dinner.  Three had been for dinner here before, but three had not - in fact it was the first social thing with those three, I think.  After finding out the dietary requirements for one guest (lactose intolerant, not a fan of seafood, allergic to prawns, Nando's mild sauce is too spicy) I decided to do a roast.  Thank goodness there were no vegetarians!

I worked out this afternoon that the last (and first) time I used my roasting tray was 4 years ago.  Needless to say, I'm not a big roaster.  I think I could get into the habit a bit more though.  It's so simple, so comforting, relatively healthy, so aromatic.  Being not in the habit, though, meant I was a tad nervous looking for a bit of meat to stick in the oven for a few hours and still be big enough to feed 7 people.  Lamb was the best option available.  It looks like I'll be having lamb for a little while - I remember seeing a recipe for rogan josh using leftover roast lamb so that might be Sunday...

Jamie Oliver promised to hold my hand through the whole process, which was lovely - except he didn't warn me about bursts of steam (which looks like smoke) escaping from the oven every now and then.  Maybe I need to have the seals checked, but this caused a few panicked temperature changes.  Eventually, the lamb was cooked and the roast vegetables roasted.  The gravy stayed quite runny - we were at the stage where everything else was good to go so I didn't hang about with too much cornflour.  Being a lamb roast, though, mint sauce was suggested.  I have a healthy mint plant at the courtyard door - how easy can it get?  Now that I think of it though, I don't recall actually eating any... I hope it tasted ok.  I'll have some leftovers, no doubt.  (Speaking of leftovers, a couple provided dessert... drool... just polished off the leftovers while writing this.  So I can wash up sooner, of course.  Raspberry and white chocolate croissant pudding.  Just in case you're wondering.  Recipe is on its way...).  Meanwhile, mint sauce is really unattractive and un-photogenic.  My apologies.

Dinner was wonderful.  For starters, it prompted me to do something with my holiday.  Well, for a day at least.  I'm still in the post-goal-achievement lull and feeling a bit down, so having people over was a great incentive to clean.  And these are great people, just having them around is good for the soul - great company, interesting conversation (I wish I could have videoed the evening - it felt rude to put quotes into my phone all night), and the sort of people around whom I can be Me.  I discovered we are all coffee drinkers - not that this is a surprise, but this was the first confirmation of fact.  My coffee machine has not had so much work before!  Yes, that is a Pride and Prejudice mug.  Given to me by a niece and nephew for Christmas, last week I posted a photo to Facebook of it, with coffee of course, in front of the tv with the menu screen for the BBC 6-episode series.  So many people liked it, and one of them got to use it tonight.  We're thinking of having a Pride and Prejudice evening...

Today's photo:

Separating the bulbs of garlic for roasting, I noticed the pinkness in the skin looks like veins.  After a bit of peeling, they look so delicate and fragile.

Not Cooking

It's probably no secret that I like cooking.  A lot.  I don't, however, eat all I cook.  Some of it I take to school, some is eaten by family and friends... and some is stockpiled in the freezer.  On Monday mornings I go to the supermarket after Trainer Dan (this morning I very nearly cried) and stock up on things for lunches, milk, any other things I might need.  This weekend, I was thinking ahead for what I should buy - should I do a casserole, any soup.... and then I figured, whatever I do will need to have its leftovers frozen.  And I have very few available containers because they're all in the freezer, holding leftovers.  I did a tally - 1 x mince, 1 x risotto, 2 x spicy fish soup and 2 x amazing chicken casseroles.  Plus the soup I made with the last sweet potatoes, pumpkin and celery left in the vegetable drawer.  So this week, I'm eating my way through my freezer. 

So far, so good.  In fact, really good.  I feel I have so much more time available tonight because dinner involved reheating, not choosing and chopping and cooking.  I even did my ironing and will make some cards shortly.  And, with the way this week is looking (a trivia night, rehearsals and a concert plus all the practice that I need to do), this extra time will be much appreciated.