The best days

Today is turning into my favourite kind of day. A little rainy and cool with some dry periods to let me spend some time outdoors too. I have been running around a little too much for my liking and there is still another week of it but this weekend is free from to-ing and fro-ing.

 

 Last night we had a wonderful dinner with fresh picked vegetables. The girls wouldn't be happy if it was just vegies on the menu so I made a creamy chicken and tomato dish to go with some pasta along with a vegetable tian. The tian is a delicious way to serve different vegetables and easily adapted to include whatever is in season or in the crisper. I didn't take a picture of the finished product (too busy eating) so I won't put a recipe up until I make it again. I always like to see a picture of what I am cooking.

Grace, the musican, spent the morning in the kitchen making panna cotta for dessert tonight. Dessert isn't often on our menu but it will be nice for a change. Unfortunately her cooking involvement ends before clean up. SHe does assure me though that when she cooks at school she washes up.

The basket in the picture above, is loaded with tomatoes which this morning became sauce. This is an easy sauce which can be used straight away or frozen for later. It doesn't have any preservatives like sugar or vinegar so it isn't suited to beng bottled. But, it is delicious nonetheless.

I used about 1kg of tomatoes which I sliced up and placed in a baking tin along with four cloves of garlic, salt and pepper and some herbs (thyme and oregano today). Drizzled with olive oil and baked in a 180 degree C oven for 45 minutes. We enjoyed some straight away with bread and the rest was strained and frozen. This amount of tomatoes gave me two containers for the freezer which can be used in pasta sauces or soups/stews when there are no fresh tomatoes available.

The other reason I like days which are cool and moist is because I can get a bit of sewing done. I have a few things to make and send away so today is just right. Well it would be if it wasn't so windy.

Tracy