In the kitchen - Round-up 14-20 September

It's been another sicky week here. On Friday 14th, I was hosting parent's group and made some apricot pies from the 'Epicure' in 'The Age' a few weeks ago. These are shortcrust pastry stuffed with stewed dried apricots and topped with almonds. Tasty!

Apricot pies.

That evening, our neighbours had us over for dinner. In the night, Miss 1 became ill (nothing to do with our neighbours!), but this didn't diminish her appetite (disappointingly) and she was still up for yum cha the next day. We just had some nibbles on things lying around the house, since we never need dinner after yum cha.

Sunday 16th, I coated chicken thigh strips in Cajun spice mix (garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, white pepper, cayenne pepper, dried oregano) for those who were into heat, or Cashew Za'atar & Bush Tomato from Gourmet Morsels for those who were not. I grilled the chicken and we had it in wraps with lettuce, grated cheese, tomato, grated carrot and cucumber. Very fresh.

Monday night was the point where Darren became ill. On Tuesday 18th, the rest of us had reheated frozen chicken domburi, which worked well on defrosting.

Wednesday 19th morning, I put together the ingredients for a salad niçoise for dinner that night, which I made with potato, eggs, cucumber, tomato, butter beans and, of course, canned tuna, dressed in lemon olive oil. That night, driving home, I heard a piece on 'Hack' talking about Greenpeace having a guide to what brands of canned tuna are most sustainable. I usually purchase #10, which is "must improve". Next time, I shall try to purchase something in the "good" category.

Salad Niçoise.

Yesterday, Thursday 20th, I made use of the left-over apricot pie filling and put it into the loaf of bread that I was making. The "twins" thought that this was fantastic. Darren was feeling well enough to attempt food again, so I made a Chinese soup for dinner. This one had a base of the liquid from rehydrating dried Chinese mushrooms, with a bit of chicken stock throw in to make up the volume. Then I just added sliced chicken breast in egg white and cornflour paste, sliced asparagus, carrots and rehydrated mushrooms, and some dumplings. Yum!

Chinese chicken, asparagus and dumpling soup.