What are you been cooking today

[Thermomixer]

Goose - is that for a special dinner ?   Seems a strange time of year to kill the fatted goose?

How did you cook it - in the Aga?

[judydawn]

When I see geese running around somewhere, I can't help but ask DH 'who eats geese'.  We all have turkey for Christmas but I have never in my life seen a goose in a shop - mind you, I haven't gone looking for one in places like the market where they are more likely to sell them.  I don't want one but just wonder what these people do with their flocks of geese. Maybe a little project for Mr Google when I have time

[gertbysea]

Phone call at 9.30am -'be there in an hour or so for coffee, don't go to any trouble, not staying for lunch'. Haven't caught up with SIL&BIL for a while and had plenty to talk about so thought, what can I feed them.  Had a rack of pork in the fridge, frozen gravy, lots of vegies and some brownies in the freezer. Made cheese sauce in TMX whilst I cooked the broccoli and cauliflower, did the breadcrumb/cheese topping in the TMX, microwaved some whole potatoes ready to throw in the weber with the roast (1 hour cooking time for the rack which would have served 6 people), cooked and mashed trombone, did carrots and peeled the parsnips. Everything ready to go by the time they arrived, popped weber on at 11am and we were sitting down to a lovely meal by 12.15. They were very impressed and SIL is now thinking the rack of pork would be better for Christmas than a leg - so much moister and quicker to carve into nice thick, juicy chops.  Off they went a few hours later, stomachs full and still wondering how I did it  

I am exhausted just reading this and I thought I had been busy!

Goose goose where is the goose? Gimme, gimme, for the love of goose where are you? I have two geese living down the road. I wonder

You can get one at the markets in Adelaide Judy. Oh lordy  you are lucky.

Gretchen

[Thermomixer]

CarolineW had goose and was making stock - but she's in England !!

[gertbysea]

 
Gretchen

[judydawn]

Planning a day of cleaning right through but another phone call - this time cousins in Adelaide from Port Lincoln wanting to come and visit this afternoon. Straight into the kitchen to whip up a batch of Trudy's orange muffins for afternoon tea then into the cleaning - boy did I move.  All done now though, even time to catch up on the forum with my lunch in my hand.  Thank goodness for quick TMX recipes and to all you wonderful people who post them. Could have ducked to the local bakery but this lady used to cook for groups of shearers and is an excellent cook. Have to do my best to impress and I'll be asking her if she has heard of the TMX - how handy that would have been for her a few years ago.

[cookie1]

Well done Judy and her trusty TMX. I loved reading your description, it even sounded hurried. Hopefully you will be able to sit down and have a breather one day soon.

I was going out with friends this week and then decided that I would invite them here instead as there are different reasons why some eat totally different things. We're having soup,salads and sorbet. All quick easy things and with a little  fermented grape juice thrown in.
I thought we would have a chickpea soup with a simple garlic and parsley pull apart, beetroot salad, coleslaw and broccoli salad and then strawberry foam afterwards. One friend can only have liquids and others like to watch their weight. So this will be very simple with basically no main meal or pre lunch nibbles.  Later we could have a mango sorbet as I'm sure that's the main reason for them coming here!!!!

Today I've made strawberry jam, cape seed bread and for dinner we're having pizza pockets from the BB cookbook.

[I Love Bimby!]

Well you ladies have certainly been busy I for one feel very inadequate in today's cooking    This morning I made JD's Chicken & Veggie Soup and then Mash Potato/Pumpkin and steamed veggies for DD's dinner with some of Thermomixers Chicken Nuggets as I had a demo this afternoon and wouldn't be back early enough to get her dinner ready. So all Grannie had to do was heat it for her.
DD desperatly wants some "tanana bread" (read Sultana Varoma Bread) so will have to make that first thing tomorrow. Funny - last batch she didn't touch as the first morning we're out of it... guess who wants some???  Oh well. At least she eats it. 

[judydawn]

Enjoy your meal with your friends Cookie1.  I must get into some salads when the warmer weather arrives - I did very few of them in my first summer last year with my TMX. Do we have many reviews of the salad recipes from the EDC?

 ILB, I took a roll of that frozen cooked chicken nugget mixture down to DD a while back for her to slice, crumb & cook for her DD as she loves chicken nuggets.  DD held onto it until her DH was interstate then cooked it for her and DD.  I received a phone call from her afterwards and she told me that DD loved it and so did I!!  She seemed surprised that even she liked it.  Such a handy thing to have in the freezer.

[I Love Bimby!]

They are great aren't they. Thanks Thermomixer    JD Mum tasted them tonight and even she was suprised. So will send a roll out to her next time I make some to have there for DD.

[CarolineW]

Goose - is that for a special dinner ?   Seems a strange time of year to kill the fatted goose?

How did you cook it - in the Aga?

No, to be honest it wasn't.  I just needed to make some room in the freezer, and had a few geese in there.  So we ate one.  I LOVE goose, can't think of any meat which I prefer.  Amazingly, I'd never tried it before living in German.  Don't really know why.  Nothing so exotic as an Aga, I'm afraid - just a normal, boring oven (really, really miss the Aga I grew up with and learned to cook on/in).  I think that a really great thing about goose is that not only is it delicious, but you get so much meat that you get lots of meals from 1 bird.  We had 4 meals for the 3 of us.  And it's so versatile, none of them need to be the same meal!

I've got another in the freezer which is earmarked for making ham and bacon with, but I'm sorely tempted to just roast it again, we enjoyed the other so much.

We got these from LIDL, and they're bound to have more soon, surely, as it's St Martin's day next month.  Surely being a German supermarket they'll get goose in for that?

DH and I have been planning to add duck rearing for meat to our various Home Farming activities.  I've been going on for ages about wanting geese, as they were my favourite of the livestock we had when I was a teenager, but we didn't think they were practical.  However, after the whole family loved it so much, and it did so many meals, we're now considering having geese rather than ducks.   I'm going to get a book out of the library to read up on goose keeping now, to see how practical it would be for us.  I must ask my Mum how they get on with hens the next time we're on the phone.  They were kept in the same field at home, but were a little way apart.  The ducks were between the geese and the hens.  I think they all just got on OK together, but perhaps the ducks were the peace keeping force?    Something to have researched in depth if we get serious about going ahead with them anyway, as they'd be in reasonably close quarters with the hens - as we have a fruit cage on an allotment for them to 'free range' in, not a field!

Right - must get off the internet now and cook some prawn pasta (from the UK book) for DH, and vegetarian pasta for myself now.  Why is it, by the way, that you only need to know that you're not allowed to eat something, to want to eat it? 

[Thermomixer]

Thanks CArolineW - your geese are obviously bigger than the ones I have had in Australia.  After cooking much of the fat drains off to leave barely enough for 1 meal - need to get somebody to produce proper geese.

But what you can do with that fat - pommes sarladaise (?sp) - yummmmmmo

[judydawn]

Judy, I'll tell you how I did the parsnips, they turned out really lovely.  Will be enough for 2 serves like you see in the photo, or you could stretch to 3.  Give it a try, if you don't like then at least you would have tried them. 

3 medium parsnips (about 400g)
about 35g butter
salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp orange zest (you'll be able to try out your new zester  )
2 tblsp cream

Peel the parsnips, and cut into chunks (like potato salad) and put into strainer basket.
 
Put 500g water into TM bowl, add pinch salt

Place basket into TM bowl.  Cook on Varoma temp, approx 15 mins/speed spoon.  Test to make sure parsnips are tender otherwise cook further couple of mins.(mine were done in the 15 mins)

Remove basket from bowl, discard cooking water. Empty the parsnips back into bowl, add butter, cream, seasonings & zest.
Slowly turn speed up to about 5 for a few seconds until parsnips are broken up.
Add butterfly and mix speed 4/until smooth.

Well Julie, finally tried parsnips done this way and DH didn't even know they were parsnips until I told him Only did 1/2 this quantity and that was plenty for the 2 of us plus some for Mum.  Couldn't eat as much of this as mashed potato but it was really lovely and it was nice to use my new zester too - how good is that Have you posted this in the vegie section? Thanks for the recipe and the incentive to try it.

[JulieO]

Hi Judy, so glad you liked it.  It's a nice alternative now and then. 

Phew, first time back on here for a few days, haven't been well, but am picking up now.  Have just been making bits and pieces and using the TM where needed.

I did make the shortbread yesterday and the Anzac's today.  First lot of biscuits I've made in it.  How easy are both of these recipes.  Shortbread took less than 1 minute and that included milling the rice  .  Nicest shortbread I've ever made, and so made another batch, but I just cut into rounds using the MC which made it even quicker and easier. 



The Anzacs were slightly drier than my usual recipe which has a tblsp of boiling water added to the bicarb before adding to the mixture, but in saying that, they were still really nice and great for dipping in my cappuccino  , plus I only had 2 tblsp of golden syrup left so used that and added 2 tblsp maple as well.  Will play around with this recipe, so easy. 

[mama_bel]

Wow, what a lot of variety coming out of your kitchens!

I'm still trying to use up milk so made a 2nd batch of the Dulce de Leche.  I just use 100% raw sugar, not a mixture of 2 types.  I also cook it for less time as it thickens in the fridge.  No idea what we'll use it for yet, but I'm sure it'll keep okay and it takes up less room than the bottles of milk, LOL.

Also made rice pudding for the kids for after lunch.  Hadn't made it before, but will certainly make it again!

Had a BBQ last night so whipped up some coleslaw, salad dressing, rice flour to coat the fish fillets, etc.  So handy having a TMX in the kitchen!