Some Jamaican Inspiration - for cooking..

Last week, I had a craving.

BBQ Jerk Chicken.

Sadly, I have never been to Jamaica. But it looks amazing. 

Jerk Chicken. Rice and Beans (without the bean as I didn't have any in the pantry). And Creamed Silverbeet.

Step 1 : Cheat. 

While I know there are heaps of recipes for Jerk Chicken, this just happened to be tucked away just waiting to be used. And it is gooooood! Sometimes, it's good to cheat. 

Step 2 : Rice and Beans. 

I used this lovely recipe found here. It's easy as! Since I didn't have any kidney beans, I just threw everything in our trusty rice cooker and let it go. What did I learn from this recipe? It will be amazing with beans, and it'll be getting made more often. 

Step 3 : Creamed Silverbeet.

You can use any creamed spinach recipe for this and substitute silverbeet.

Yep. Easy as. 

More Tin Ceilings!

It is finally - FINISHED!

It all looks seriously amazing! Such a difference compared to the 1980's wood panelled Swiss Chalet look! Here are some progress photos!

Quite a difference!

Dining Room Done!

Templates for crown moulding - the saviour pieces.

Done and done!

Repainted the dining room lighting - Really done!

Sunlight reflecting through the room! Love!

The living room was tackled a little bit differently than the dining room. We decided to primer all of the panels first, instead of after they were tacked to the ceiling. It was so much easier. So instead of 3 coats of primer/paint and throwing out our shoulders and necks, we only had to do one. 

We are so happy with the way everything turned out! The tin really fits into our 1900's home. It really looks amazing and opens the rooms up in a different way. The patterns have worked out nicely and I love the simplicity of it. 

I will say as well, Jean from Heritage Ceilings was so amazing and helpful! Check out her site! She has worked on some really great projects that will inspired you!

Thanks from Jacob and I to Jean, Hamish and Paul for all of your help - and loan of tools to finish the job!!

Much Love !

x

William James Wargo

Dad. We all miss you so very much.

Fifteen years is a long time to be reminded every year. Every day. Fifteen years is something that seems so vague. Even after that many years, sometimes, it just feels like yesterday. I’ll be honest here. It doesn’t get much easier. It becomes tolerable, but it never goes away.

My dad has been gone for what seems forever. He left us on the 16th of April, 1997 in a pretty horrific motorcycle accident. Today, I find myself in a very strange place. Not the sorrowful self I usually am around this time of year, but for the first time, I feel sort of lost and frustrated. The last fifteen years, I have traveled, moved across the country, met beautiful and amazing people, learned about myself and moved again, this time across oceans. 

I’ve spent the last fifteen years digging deep within myself, trying to discover what I can about me. The older I get, the more I can’t help but laugh - sometimes I channel my Mom. But then sometimes, I say something or do something I can’t explain. I think, maybe that would have been Dad. 

It’s a weird feeling. I have all of these memories and these great times we had in my mind, but he still seeps out of me sometimes. But is it him? I feel like I didn’t get to know him as a person other than Dad. 

I remember back in ‘97, at the weird little memorial service we had at the funeral home, a group of men showed up. His old co-workers from E.B. had come to pay their respects. That was when I realised, I would never get the chance to ask him about - well, him. It was a whole other piece of his life and personality I would never know about. A life that, when you are a teenager, doesn’t quite seem important to ask. There are the obvious things that one knows about their fathers, forms of discipline, favourite foods, favourite colours, favourite beer. 

But then, there are other things of vague memories that come back. Two copies of the Bhagavad-gītā As It Is on one bookcase. Stories about great grandparents. Long lost friends of his that you can sort of remember. The sound of his motorcycle starting up in the basement underneath my bedroom as he left for work. The smell of the cigars he would smoke whilst doing crosswords and drinking beer in the afternoon sun. Those quiet dinners when it was just the two of us. World class tuna-bake. Thrift stores he would take me to in New Jersey and the old 70’s shirts he loved. Driving to Salem, Massachusetts to visit a motorcycle shop just because we enjoyed the drive. Or going to Logan Airport in Boston to pick up plane tickets for Chicago, then going to the Science Museum, mostly because he liked the drive. 10 mile bike rides around Plainfield. Birthdays. Kazoos. His midwestern ways. His southern rock ways. Listening to John Lennon’s Mind Games over and over in the blue Datsun. The tinkering in the basement probably to avoid us and our dance-routine nights in front of the big windows in the living room. (Fair enough, how many times could one person listen to Kool and the Gang’s She’s Fresh? I don’t blame him for that one.) Receiving postcards from various motorcycle trips cross-country. His notes on them, always short and sweet..

• The Grand Canyon “AWESOME! Love, Dad”. 

• Gila Cliff Dwelling, New Mexico, “ Hi, I got pictures of my own of this place, Everything is fine. Love, Dad”

• Texas, “Hi Beth, It’s another card to save. People are really friendly here. See ya, Love you. (and at the very bottom) The scenery is starting to change.”

• Las Vegas, “Hi, In the true spirit of Vegas, I got this at 3:00AM. They have drive-in wedding chapels here. Really!” 

• Lake Tahoe, “Hello from Nevada. Quite Nice. Love, Dad”

That always seemed to be about the extent of his conversations, enough to make the point and barely long enough to fill a postcard. He was a quiet person and when he spoke, you knew you needed to listen. As Aunt Mary said recently, about both Dad and his grandfather William : 

Exactly alike. Tall, thin, quiet, no tolerance for idle chitchat or material things.

As I remember all of these things about him, I am sad. Yes, I miss the old times, but mostly, I wish we had had more time together. More time now that I am grown and older myself. But for now, I’ll just channel those weird quirks of his and call them my own. 

Tin Ceiling Time!

That's right!

 

 

The progress has begun! 

Catching up on Meatless Mondays!

Sheesh! While we have been pretty good about our Meatless Mondays, I've had a hell of a time catching up on the recipes here. Let's just say, last night we had a lovely Veggie Curry with pumpkin, potatoes, zucchini, silverbeet, and red kidney beans. It was seriously easy! And so tasty... And because it all went so quickly, cooking and eating wise, I didn't even take photos. But you can easy imagine a Veggie Curry! See it in your mind..... Mmmmmm.

So anyway, here are a couple other ideas we've made over the past couple weeks!

Crustless Quiche!

Crustless Quiche

Whisk together:
4 eggs
1 cup milk (or cream)
1/2 cup self raising flour (or the equivalent of flour, salt and baking powder)
salt and pepper
1/2 cup grated cheese (I used a variety of cheeses, vintage cheddar, tasty, a little feta)
1 chopped red onion
Any veggies that you want, silverbeet, spinach, etc (make sure you blanch them first though.)

Coat your pie dish with a little oil and put into a hot oven until it begins to smoke a little, carefully take out of the over and pour egg mixture into the hot dish and bake at 180 deg for approx 45 mins or until golden on top and puffed up.

Pretty good!

Another recipe that was REALLY lovely, and again REALLY easy - was inspired by the progress in the front entry way...

The slow progression from green to white reminded me of a wedding cake! No, the recipe is not a wedding cake, but it is a yummy cheesy green and white pasta bake.

This is one of those dishes that is way to easy. We had silverbeet, zucchini, green beans, and basil (as always) in the fridge and in a the garden. And with an array of cheese - yummy as!

Pasta Bake

• 500g Pasta, cooked until al dente
• a few cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp of oil
• a good mix of green veggies, quickly blanched to give them a head start in the cooking process, this was silverbeet, zucchini, green beans and a little basil
• enough milk and flour to make a nice white sauce (I always wing this, so I can't quite share the qty's. Sorry)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp of seeded mustard
• Lots of cheese! Try different kinds of cheese too! Blue cheese can be REALLY good with mushrooms and onions. Feta can be good with kalamatta olives and basil, you get the idea. 
• Breadcrumbs

So once the pasta is going, fry up the garlic in oil until slightly soft then add the flour. Take it off the heat and a add milk and stir until the flour is nicely blended, ie no lumpy bits. Put it back on the heat and let it thicken a bit. 

Meanwhile, blanch the veggies just a bit and throw them in with the cooked and drained pasta. 

Back to the sauce, once the sauce has thickened, add the mustard, salt and pepper, cheeses and what ever other spices you want to add. Stir and let the cheese melt slightly. 

Stir the cheesy mixture through the pasta and veggies and then put into a baking dish. Top with a little more cheese, parmesan is always nice, and sprinkle on some breadcrumbs.

Give it one more good salt and pepper and pop it into a preheated oven about 180C.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the top is nice and brown. 

Dig in! 

p.s. I'm sure I'm missing a few things in this, but hey, it's just the idea - work around what ever you have or don't have in the pantry. This is why I love making things like this, it's an extremely forgiving and comforting way of cooking. And carb-tastic!

I never said anything I make was healthy ;)

xx

Around the house...

As of late...

Cold Infusing Oil with Pineapple Sage

Pizza with my homemade Mozzarella. 

Sorry for the lateness on the posts! Trying to play catch up now! Watch out!

xo

One Year Ago...

via leelcampbell.wordpress.com

Our thoughts and prayers are still with everyone in Christchurch.

My Gramma's Portuguese Soup

Growing up, I loooooooved Gram's Portuguese Soup. When I finally got around to asking her for the recipe, I got the quick answer of - Uhhh, I don't have a recipe - as most good Grandmothers do. It was a little of this, a little of that..

Then randomly one day - you know how Gramma is - she gave me a cookbook of the classic Martha's Vineyard recipes, and the first recipe, on the first page, you guessed it!

I'm not sharing this one (family secret you know), but you can probably find it online somewhere now.

Anywho, moral of the story - I've been thinking a lot of about my Grandparents lately. While they are having there physical struggles at the moment, but I always try to put out heaps of good vibes their way. I love them and miss them heaps!

Plus, as always - I love embarrassing my family with photos from ages ago. Miss you and love you all!