Saturday omelette

There's nothing like a good work out followed by a satisfying breakfast on a Saturday morning. Before getting back to work of course. After getting home from a tiring Konga work out, I decided that an omelette would be the cherry on top of a good morning.

Ingredients
(Serves two)

4 Eggs
1 Tomato diced
A few slices of ham diced
1 teaspoon of my seasoning chilli mix (garlic, ginger, chilli, and onion diced very small, in some olive oil and salt)
The chilli mix can be replaced with dices onion if preferred.

• Separate the whites and yolk, setting the yolk aside and putting the whites in a mixing bowl. Beat the whites until fluffy and light.
• Add salt, pepper and the chilli mix to the egg yolk, mix in.
• Mix the egg yolk into the fluffy egg whites, add the ham and tomato.
• Pour into a warm pan over a bit of olive oil or butter, on a medium heat.
• After bottom layer has set and turned golden, flip on half over and let it cook a little longer.
• Half the omelette, flip each part over, let it cook a little more, and you have a delicious little breakfast. I enjoyed it with a slice of whole grain bread, a bit of butter, and a cool glass of orange juice.

Bon appétit!

Update from under the books - Parsley potatoes

I'm guessing that I'm the most absent blogger around, though with a somewhat good excuse... My last semester is hectic, and will be until the 12th of October: dissertation due date! At the moment its all about getting the dissertation and other assignments done, to an adequate standard given the time frame, and more so, the stress level. Besides from uni work, I've been quite distracted by something I've finally given a try after years of wanting to... Acting. I've been involved in three projects in the last two weeks (student short films and a 60s-70s music video), and can't wait to do more! Though I'll probably have to put it on hold until the end of this semester, I'm really looking forward to having the time to go to auditions, and learn more about performing.

I have quite a few recipes and travels to share, and look forward to sharing them, probably, unfortunaley only after this semester is done..... Good luck to everyone that's the same boat! Sorry for not giving you more excuses to procrastinate during this deadly period ;o) But it's neeaaarrrlllyyy over!!!

Here's a quick tip for a snack or a side: Olive oil, butter and parsley potatoes.

Ingredients

2 Potatoes cut into wedges
1/2 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive oil
Fresh parsley
Salt

 Melt the butter in a pan with the olive oil. Add the potato wedges, and about 3 minutes before you removing the wedges from the pan add salt and parsley. Serve as a snack or a side.

Light lemon butter Tilapia and rice

This is a dish that I cooked the last time I was in Mauritus. A simple meal for my mom, stepdad and myself, and an attempt becoming more acquainted with cooking seafood. If you're in the mood for something light in flavour, with a hint of lemon and garlic, this might just be the recipe for you. I was in the mood for just that, and it utterly satisfied my appetite. Unfortunately I don't have pictures to show for it.


Ingredients
(serves 3)

Fish
1 tsp Olive oil
60g Butter
1/2 Lemon
3 Tilapia fillets
Thyme
Parsley
Salt
Freshly ground mixed pepper

Rice
3/4 cup Rice

1 tsp Olive oil
60g Butter
1/2 Lemon
1 tsp Garlic and ginger (crushed)
1 Small onion (chopped)
1/2 Green bell pepper (chopped)
Salt
Freshly ground mixed pepper

Vegetables
5 Courgettes (chopped in half)
1/4 Broccoli (florets)

Preheat oven to 160 C.
Heat olive oil and melt butter in a pan, add lemon juice (from lemon half) to make the sauce.
Place the Tilapia fillets in an oven dish, and pour the sauce over them. Sprinkle the fillets with some thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.
Cook in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes.

Cook the rice and set aside.
Chop the onion in four and then slice it.
Chop the green bell pepper; sliced then chopped to pieces approx 1.5 cm in length.
On low heat, heat olive oil and melt butter in a pan. Squeeze the lemon into the pan. Add onion, garlic and ginger, salt and pepper.
When the onion begins to soften, add the green pepper, and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Toss the sauce into warm rice before serving.

Steam the broccoli and courgettes.

Serve with dry, light white wine, and enjoy!

Avocado dip

So I've been sick with flu for nearly 2 weeks now and am finally feeling better!! And am quite behind on my uni work. Nevertheless, this afternoon I treated myself to a little dip experiment with what I had in the fridge and it turned out quite nice.


Avocado dip:

1/2 Avocado
2 to 3 Chopped spring onions
6tbsp Plain yogurt (preferably Greek)
4tbsp Cream cheese
1tbsp Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Bread to dip:

Bread roll or loaf
Olive oil
Herb of preference (I used thyme this time)

Put the first four ingredients in a bowl, mash and mix them. Mix in the lemon juice and add salt and pepper to taste. If you would like to present it nicely, keep some spring onion aside, and sprinkle it on the prepared dip.

Slice the bread thinly (if the bread is very soft it may fall apart, but if it has been frozen, it will be easier to cut when still just frozen). Place on baking paper on an oven rack. Mix olive oil and herbs. Brush the mixture on the top side of the bread slices, place in the oven at 200 C until they brown.

Serve with vegetables aswell such as carrots and cucumber.

Twist to a cup of soup

There's nothing like a good cup of soup on a cold winter night under a blanket on the couch infront of a good movie or series. Can't wait to start working and have a clearer cut between work and time off... hopefully hehe

Here's a little tip to get a few more nutrients in that cup without putting much more of an effort into the preparation. Just add some mixed frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn) to a cup of chicken soup and top with croutons (maybe left over from the earlier salad recipe), and you're good to go!

Back to work - Jamie inspired salad

After a beautiful holiday in Norway, I'm back in Perth, and have already had my first class of the semester. I am so grateful for the relaxing break, what a blessing, and now I'm ready to buckle down and put in the hard work needed for my last semester.

This weekend was a lot of fun, I did a film and TV workshop, which took up the whole weekend, and introduced myself to a delicious salad inspired by a Jamie Oliver DVD that I watched during the week. The DVD was a disc from the series 'Jamie does', in which he goes to different cities to experience the culture through the food. It's the second disc I've watched, and I love it!! Highly recommended! The flavours that he introduces and the beautiful places that he visits are so inspiring. The dishes he makes are mouth watering, and it's great to see food made so differently in some places. There are such unique ways of preparing food, and so much more to explore than frying in a pan or roasting in the oven. In the first DVD that I watched, he took a sort of clay pot with a lid, the size of a meal for one person, and went around the market throwing in some lamb (I think), olives, lemon, and so on, and brought it to a place where those pots would be buried and cooked for the day while the people went to work, and later on, everyone would come and fetch their little pot with a delicious meal ready. The same would happen with bread. Each household would prepare their dough, and send their kids to drop it off at the community oven before school. Watching these DVDs has made me re-realise how much flavour can be infused when cooking slowly, over a longer period of time, and the beauty of tender, flavourful meat.

The one I recently watched gave a taste of Venice, Athens, and town in France. Inspired by the DVD as a whole, I made a salad with...

Shaved parmesan
Homemade croutons (2 slices of bread cut into squares and fried in olive oil)
Ham
2 Tomatoes
2 Spring onions
Pickled jalapeños (chopped small)
A bag of mixed salad leaves
Creamy roasted garlic dressing
Lemon juice

Mmm this was really good, and got two thumbs up from Eirik. I have quite a few recipes saved to post, sorry I've been so slack lately! Quite a few from Norway, and a few from here aswell :o) Looking forward to sharing them with you, and hearing what you think if you try them out!

Sweden

The trip to Sweden for the weekend was quite eventful. Eirik and I met two of our friends in the city, where they picked us up, we from there we began our road trip to Sweden. We got lost on the way there, so it took us 8 hours instead of 4 to get to the campsite. But what a blessing!

We drove out of Norway, into Sweden, back to Norway, and then over to Sweden again. So first we took the freeway south for about two hours (the wrong way), and then we followed the route my phone suggested, through a forest for quite some time before getting back onto the correct freeway. The forest roads were amazing! So beautiful! Amazing lakes and streams, with beautiful little houses on the water's edge and little wooden jetties stretching out over the water, beautiful farmhouses and farmlands, with cows, horses, sheep and even a few lamas! In a later post I will show you pictures of the traditional pantries that Norwegian farm houses have. A separate building on legs to keep the animals out.

On top of the breathtaking scenery, we were happy to see a surprising amount of animals. For the first time for most of us, we saw a moose in the wild!! I had been looking forward to this since I first set foot in Norway two years ago. It was a small female. Her size, not as impressive as a large male's would be, but her awkward walk so beautiful and interesting to see. Lamas were a surprising sight, as well as a badger crossing the road! We also saw deer in the fields next to us, a cat, rabbits, and of course a variety of birds! Quite a surprising amount of animals, which were great in keeping the 8 hour drive interesting and eventful.

We got the the campsite at 2am, everyone already asleep, expect for the organizer who stayed up to show us to our rooms. The camp was great! I had such an amazing time. It was a great opportunity to meet new people and get to know them better. The campsite was near a town called Nora, on the edge of lake Uskavi. On the first day we were organized into teams and competed in several types of games. A great ice breaker. For the rest of the weekend there were many activities available to us: football, minigolf, kanoes, volleyball (Sunday's 4 hour tournament left me sore ALL OVER), golf, paintball, and so on. Great food was provided at every meal, and a late night snack of hotdogs (with an option of potato salad to pop on top) to keep us going. At night there was good music and entertainment. Throughout the weekend we had church services, mainly consisting of testimonies, which are always interesting and blessing to hear.

One element of several of the dishes served during the weekend is a gravy Norwegians call 'brun saus' (brown sauce). It's creamy, delicious, and can be used to top anything from steak or meat balls to reindeer or moose. It's amazing over potatoes. Over the weekend we had it with meatballs and meat cakes, as well as with iced with mushrooms over steak. Eirik's dad has served it with reindeer (I will ask him for the recipe), and one and a half years ago I had something similar in a reindeer and moose stew on the top of a mountain in the winter. Eiriks parents had taken us on a weekend trip to mountains to cross country ski. On of the days they served this stew in a tipi with a large fire. It was absolutely delicious, and such a magical weekend.

On the way home from the camp we stopped in Nora, to try what we had heard to be, the world's best ice cream. This ice cream was... Definitely the best I have ever tasted! The one that I tried included two flavors on a perfect cone, topped with chocolate lips with a coffee flavored filling. The top flavor seemed to be hazelnut, but I am not sure what the bottom flavor was, it could have been vanilla, but it did not have a strong vanilla taste. They were both delicious, and rotherham cone, was perfect.

The trip home was not as eventful as the way there.
We stopped at the border at one of those big shopping centres I spoke about in my earlier post. Our friends did some cheap shopping in bulk, and Eirik and I browsed a few clothing stores before heading to the candy store. This candy store was massive, and apparently, not the only one in the centre! Which was quite a shock to me. We bought nearly a kilo of mixed candy (haha!) a bag of some other candy, and rosemary and olive oil Pringles (that I'd never seen before). Personally, I'd never be able to get through all the candy on my own, luckily Eirik has trouble stopping if you put him in front of a movie with an open bag of candy, so we might have a chance of finishing the kilo before we leave on Sunday ;o)

It'll be sad to leave Norway. It's so peaceful here, and it's so nice to be on holiday. A lot of Uni work will be waiting for me when I get back.... He I wish I could stay here and avoid the reality of my dissertation.... And the rest of the year's Uni work. If only... Well, six months to go and I will have a Bachelor with Honours in Psychology :o) Finally! And will most probably be taking a year to get some work experience. It'll be a great break, and an advantage for getting into Masters. ... And a little more free time to cook!