Catch Up and Thanks

 

I am very grateful to the lovely people who have left such kind notes on my blog. I haven't posted for a couple of months because I have had to prioritise my health.... it hasn't been too bad, but there has been one thing after another! I can't tell you how nice it has been to check my blog and find good wishes there.

Things are still a bit tricky in my life, but I am hoping I will ease right back into my posts and my YamDaisy project ~ there is so much I want to do.

My way of easing back and catching up is via two blog awards I have been given (in spite of not posting! How cool!)

The first is from Jutta the Happy Valley Cook Thankyou Jutta! Goodness there are two!

Her awards ask me to:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded this to you.
2. Share 8 things about yourself.

3. Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered great blogs.

4. Contact those bloggers and let them know about their award.

 

The second is from Michael Toa at Me, My Food and I  Thankyou Michael!

His Award asks me:

1. When did you learn to cook?
2. Name three things that are always in your fridge.
3. Do you have any food guilty pleasures?
4. Tell us about your most memorable meal...
5. What is your drink of choice?

When you received this, you can set up your own questions and pass it on to other bloggers of your choice.  I look forward to reading your answers.

So here goes.

Thanks and links done!
8 Things about myself: (making them up as I go along)

I am Joy by name and Joy by nature!

The picture at the top of this post is precious to me. It was painted by two women artists living at Alekarenge in Central Australia, where I was a teacher. It is about women catching ants that are good to eat. The horseshoe shapes are the women sitting down. The doughnut shapes are the ant holes, and the bar shapes are the coolamons that had hot ash in them to cook the ants as they were dug out. The wiggly background is the little birds jumping around eating the flying ants which has let the women know they are ready to catch. 

I have a grown up daughter which is so exciting. That little baby that grew in my belly is out making her own life and it is full of wonders!

I learn from my mistakes (eventually, wink!), which is a big relief because I make them all the time!

Living with Chronic Illness, has intensified my life.  It has been one of the best possible reality checks, and reality is a great thing to have in my life!

I love to create! Textiles are my favourite and I knit and am learning sewing, very practical! I write when I can and SO want to get my stories done! I also love to draw.

I am a social justice fighter and in my working life I chose causes and situations where I thought I could do good. (I always seemed to get more out than I put in though! ~ thanks to wonderful people everywhere!). Now my passionate cause is my own YamDaisy Project.

I love our Mother Earth! 


1. When did you learn to cook?
I chose to be vegetarian as a teenager and I had to learn to cook vegetarian food! My passion grew as I discovered World cuisines. But my focus on excellence developed after my friend Carole made the most wonderful soup for me when I was ill. It was out of the world, and it raised the stakes for ever more!

2. Name three things that are always in your fridge.
Milk, home made chili/onion paste, bakers yeast.

3. Do you have any food guilty pleasures?
Tim tams, Lindt and cashews! I have pretty much given up chocolate... but Ooo those cashews! Yum!

4. Tell us about your most memorable meal...
Drinking red wine with friends at sunset on top of a huge rock outcrop in Kakadu National Park after climbing up through the wonderful rock art galleries. (Red wine is a meal, right?)

5. What is your drink of choice?
Coffee with milk. Thankyou little Napoletana pot that means I can have it every day!


Now my big apology, I am not able to pay these awards forward at the moment. But I am hoping to do so before too long! I haven't been discovering new blogs, but I have some very dear ones. Let me see how I go for a bit, and then I will act!

Next Post: Food!

Muhallabia

This is the lovely dessert from my Meatless Monday Menu.

It is a milk pudding made with rice flour and almonds and scented with rose water. I knew it first at the wonderful Turkish restaurant that flourished in Bendigo when I lived there in the 80's and 90's. We went there often and this was always my dessert.

I found a recipe some years ago, (Tess Mallos, Middle Eastern Home cooking, she found it in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan) but I have only now managed to make it.
I changed her recipe to strain out the almond meal, which gives the smooth beautiful texture of the dessert I remember.

Traditionally served with pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top, I found it goes beautifully with raspberries and would work with many other fruits.

MUHALLABIA
3 cups milk
3/4 cup ground almonds
Mix and bring gently to the boil. Leave to cool a little and squeeze out as much liquid as you can through muslin.
Bring the milk back to heat and add:
1/4 cup of rice flour blended with 1/4 cup of milk
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup castor sugar
Stir over a medium heat until bubbling gently. Let it cook for a few minutes. Keep stirring so it doesn't stick.
Remove from heat.
Stir in 1 tbsp of rosewater.

Pour into a bowl or bowls. I wet the little bowls so that it could tip out, (that is how it was served in my Turkish Restaurant) but it works fine to serve it set in bowls or spooned out from a large one. Let it get cold in the fridge before you serve it though! It is so delicate and delicious! Enjoy!

Egg Noodles with Cabbage, Mushroom, and fried Tempeh

Here is the next dish of my Meatless Monday Menu (finally!).
I love this quick dish and am pleased too because for many years most of my attempts at a quick wok meal tuned into sog ~ and I was doing SO many things wrong that it took a long time to sort it out and a miracle that I didn't give up in disgust part way through! Well, to tell the truth I did give up: but then I would gradually come around to another try.

I got this right thanks to a little Vegetarian Chinese Recipe Book I found in a supermarket many years ago, and I follow the same basic process of soaking then draining the egg noodles and giving them a fry, setting them aside and frying the vegetables and then adding the noodles and the dressing. Now I have got it, within that formula I vary just about everything!

This meal includes tempeh which I dice and then fry until crisp. So easy and such a lovely savoury taste and crisp texture to add to the mix.

Here is everything ready to go:

I kept most of the flavour in the sauce (soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, chili paste, cornflour, sugar, orange juice) so the rest was extremely simple. I fried garlic, ginger and spring onion, and then the cabbage, adding the mushrooms and noodles when it was cooked and then poured over the dressing and stirred so it was hot and a little thick and shiny, served with the tempeh on top.

This is a life saver of a recipe because it has comfort and zing all in one plate!