95&96/1038 - Pizza rustica with potato and rosemary (& home-made pizza dough)

This amazing pizza was cooked in my husband's nifty pizza oven which resides on top of our chiminea. The hardest thing about making it was dragging myself up from a nanna nap to put the dough on in time for dinner.

I think this may officially be my last challenge recipe for 2011. I didn't quite reach triple digits as I had hoped to, but I am thinking that 96 recipes in 5 ½ months is not such a bad effort.

Happy New Year to all. x

94/1038 - Potato salad with bacon and sour cream

I like potato salad but I do not love it. This potato salad however, was such a lovely pile of decadence I found myself going back for a third helping! 

Not being a big fan of mayonnaise on potatoes, I think my favourite element was the sour cream. The bacon fat, two types of mustard and red wine vinegar helped to finish off a potato salad that not only looked inviting but was also very tasty. Sadly I don’t have chives in my garden at the moment so there was no sprinkled greenery to give the impression that this side dish might have been even a tiny bit healthy.  

I am not sure if I will be doing any more challenge recipes over this busy Christmas/New Year period but if not, this would be a great recipe on which to finish the year.

93/1038 - Buttery leeks

This recipe is for anybody who likes the idea of taking a healthy green vegetable and turning it into a fattening pile of buttery goodness.

This 'fondue of leeks' is cooked in rather a large amount of melted butter and then sprinkled with pepper, salt and freshly ground nutmeg. I use AA grade butter which was perfect for this recipe as it is beautiful and white and made only of pasteurised cream and salt. This was a very decadent side dish to the unbelievably good Portuguese-style chicken cooked by my husband on the barbecue tonight.

If we continue to eat like this I may be in danger of putting on those Christmas kilos slightly earlier than expected.

92/1038 - Home-made fettuccine with bug meat and roasted tomato sauce

It was Moreton Bay bugs for dinner again tonight. A very different experience from the citrus marinated bugs, this dish was one of those extra delicious experiences that actually evoked groans of pleasure from the family as it was consumed.

I was kicking myself when I realised the tomatoes had to be peeled because I bought mini romas to use for this recipe which almost quadrupled my peeling duties. To peel tomatoes I score a cross in the skin and dunk them in boiling water which certainly does make the job easier. Once skinless, the tomatoes were roasted for an hour with onion, garlic, thyme, chilli and an enormous glug of olive oil.

The incredibly rich roasted tomato sauce was added to the freshly sautéd bug, lemon juice and zest. Coupled with freshly made fettuccine, this meal was absolutely fantastic. Actually it was so good I am pleased to report that my youngest has now been converted to the wonderful world of bugs.

91/1038 - Yam goong (salad of bug meat with mint and lemongrass)

My youngest was completely grossed out when I announced that we would be eating bugs for dinner and to be honest, remains sceptical of the whole Moreton Bay bug caper. He came home after the bug had already been sliced and marinated and so was convinced that the little pieces on his plate were individual wiggly bugs.

I was personally thrilled with dinner tonight. The marinade for the bug meat was a combination of mint, fish sauce, lemongrass, chilli and lemon juice. What we ended up with was a lovely light summery meal that went down very well with a glass of sparkling Moscato.

Hooray for Summer!

90/1038 - Angie's lemon cake

We are off to our first official Christmas do tomorrow and I thought this lemon cake would be a lovely dessert to take along. I obviously haven't tasted it yet as it would be rude to present it to the hosts with a slice missing, but judging by the lovely lemony smell that was emanating from the oven, I am fairly sure I am going to like this one.

As soon as it was taken out of the oven, the cake was doused in lemon syrup which very quickly disappeared as the cake soaked it up like a sponge. I am rather hoping we will get to enjoy a first and second slice so fingers crossed the kids at the party don't like it!

89/1038 - Melita's skordalia

Before making this skordalia, I checked the calendar to make sure I was not seeing any close friends the next day. I am never sure if anybody can tell when I have eaten loads of garlic the previous day, but am fairly sure it is better to be safe than sorry!

This yummy dish is basically mashed potato with plenty of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, milk and some freshly ground salt and pepper. We may all be stinky tomorrow but it was yummy enough to be absolutely worth it.

88/1038 - Gougères

These little French cheese puffs were made to be eaten with dinner, but I also think they will be an interesting addition to the kids' lunchboxes. I was feeling a bit lazy and so didn't pipe the dough onto the baking trays as instructed, but instead fashioned neat little circles with a spoon. They turned out quite round as I had hoped so no harm done.

I particularly like the slightly burnt cheese on top and can see a couple of these disappearing before the boys arrive home today.

87/1038 - Papaya and banana smoothie

This smoothie was supposed to be made with papaya (hence the title) however as per Stephanie's suggestion I substituted the papaya for mangoes. We had friends drop over bearing mangoes yesterday and so it was smoothies all round for breakfast this morning!

After another weekend of party food I think this may have been just what the doctor ordered.