As I have mentioned before, I no longer make wee treats to sell, I only make them as gifts. Although I did make Christmas cakes last year (not sure whether I will this year). However, I have decided this year to do something I did a couple of years ago to support breast cancer awareness month and that is breast cancer ribbon shaped shortbread. I have taken orders and all proceeds are going to the breast cancer research foundation.
These ones are dipped in pink chocolate. I think they look cute.
Thursday night dinner is often a quick meal – for some reason, when it gets to Thursday I want to make something that is relatively effortless. Last nights dinner involved two eggplant that were languishing in the bottom of the fridge. I love eggplant. In fact I love all vegetables other than swede and yams.
With the eggplant I made pasta alla norma loosely following the recipe in Jamie Oliver’s Italy book. Instead of frying the eggplant, I baked it in the oven. I usually do this when I cook eggplant as it doesn’t need as much oil. In fact sometimes, I spray it with olive oil spray rather than brushing it with oil. The rest of the sauce was two cans of whole tomatoes (delmaine are my favourite brand), some Sicilian oregano (This is quite different to the dusty oregano that you buy from the supermarket – it smells a lot fresher and pungent – a bit like the wild thyme smell round the hills of central Otago. I got mine from Nosh), lots of basil and garlic and I think the key ingredient was about a tbsp of white wine vinegar. I also added a pinch of sugar as I do with most tomato dishes I make – it seems to take that rough edge off the tomatoes. I stirred the sauce through the pasta and served with feta sprinkled on top – nice and easy and quite tasty for a Thursday night!
Looking forward to lots of cooking over the long weekend!!
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