Manda's Menus

A seafood salad is always lovely, and especially at Christmas as it takes 10 minutes to prepare and everybody loves it. Why William's Seafood salad?  Well: William is the 'Santa like' man next to me in the photo.  William loved the whole sentiment behind cooking for those he loved. In fact my best memories are of him and I as teenagers getting told off by my Grandmother in a very joking way for having too much fun doing the dishes after big family events. Or she'd pop in and say "Room for one more" and pop herself onto a stool and join in the frivolity over the dishes. William was quite simply my dearest friend. And, sadly last week William lost his will to fight against his health issues. A part of me is gone.   But he would give me a big kick if he thought I was being morbid, so instead I shall simply dedicate this beautiful salad, one he enjoyed immensely to him.  My friend. INGREDIENTS 1kg large king prawns, peeled, veined and wa...

A terribly sexist joke from the 80's I know.  Real men don't eat quiche?  For some reason the rather difficult to achieve perfect consistency quiche has a bad name.  Probably because it is such a classic, possibly boring, and definitely difficult dish to get right. But this one real men will not just eat, they will make.  And its not a quiche.  It's Bacon & Egg Pie. INGREDIENTS: 2 sheets of packaged puff pastry 300gm bacon sliced & diced 5 eggs 1/2 cup grated cheese Herbs that you like Usually this lovely pastry comes frozen, so while your oven is heating up to a ripping 200 degrees Celcius, place the pastry on the bench to soften. It only takes a few minutes, and don't let it get warm or it will be very difficult to handle, and also won't cook as well. You need a pie dish, but if you're not quite up to that gourmet status as yet, a shallow casserole dish will do, just leave the lid in the cupboard.  Give it a really good spray with...

Well it's summer now and we need something that will blend beautifully with a salad and some nice cold drinks and to even eat outside. This can be done on the BBQ if you want too.  It's a great blend of flavour, and a bit of spice that will be a real favourite. INGREDIENTS: Chicken breasts sliced thinly Pineapple slices (tinned is lovely) 1/2 cup Orange juice 2 dsp Paprika 1 dsp Powdered ginger 1/2 cup Honey 2 dsp Soy Sauce Sliced Jahlsberg or mild cheese So when you rush in the door, slice the chicken breasts thinly into flat steaks. You want them thin so they soak up the flavour, and also so they cook quickly.  They can also be flung into a bun for a great option. You need something to marinate in.  Not you personally, the chicken! You can use a lasagna tray, a special plastic container, but if you want to be really clever and save on the washing up, use big sandwich bags.  Then they can be thrown out! Not necessarily environmentally friendly ...

Yes to the modern cook it is actually possible to make a delicious Spaghetti Bolognaise, or Spag Bog as it is called in our house without the use of a single jar of off the shelf, and its just as quick and easy with a couple of great little flavour enhancers. INGREDIENTS: 500gm mince 1 onion 2 tomatoes 3 mushrooms 1 beef stock cube or beef gravy mix 1 cup red wine 1 spoon of crushed garlic 1 spoon of basil pesto 150ml cream Flat pasta - special cheat below Grated parmesan METHOD: Big pot of water goes on to start boiling first so its ready for the pasta. In that great heavy based pan with a nice dash of olive oil - throw in the finely diced onions, especially if you have children then they can't find them and pick them out.  Then the finely sliced mushrooms, and finally the tomatoes.  The only reason to this order is that tomatoes are more liquid and the chopping board gets slippery and therefore a little dangerous when you have a sharp knife. No culin...

This time of year is the perfect time to enjoy comfort food. Not the nasty unhealthy, psychological type of food that is not good for you, but the real true physical warmth of a great home cooked meal. Call it slow cooking, call it cheating, call it what you want, there is nothing better than a good old fashioned meal that Grandma made on the wood stove to warm every part of you. Most of us haven't got a wood stove I know, but we do have the modern equivalent the crock pot or slow cooker.  These are fantastic for putting together a quick meal in the morning and letting it just roll through the day while you're at work.  Then you walk in, throw the oven on, whack in a loaf of garlic bread, or a soda loaf (see last week's blog) and in the time it takes to remove your shoes pop on your slippers and flick the switch on the heater - dinner is cooked. This week's is one of my Grandma's recipes using some really basic ingredients but turning out an absolute...

I feel very privileged to have inherited a copy of this amazing tome of Australian publishing and indeed feminism. My Grandmother was married at 8am on Monday 6th June 1921 in the little South West town of Greenbushes.  It was a double wedding with her older sister not only being married the same day but also engaged on the same day earlier in the year. Some of the measurements are quite difficult to follow with terms such as a gill, quart, pint and a wineglass (I like that one) used.  Rather than temperatures in Farenheit or Celcius, cooking directions are for a hot or quick oven, a slow oven, and sometimes to leave on the hob.  Gas and electric stoves were not common, and everyone had a wood stove.   Adverts are for some familiar stores and products including Milk Arrowroot biscuits and Nestle milk. As difficult as some recipes are, and as heartfelt the post World War I sentiments in certain adverts I love the recipes and still use many of them now as a stand...