Saturday, October 27, 2012

A Favorite Thing - Aussies can cook..................


.......and I thought we'd only see 'throwing on the barbecue' type food once heading away from town and out into 
the Kakadu wilderness....the real Australian bush country!


This was a favorite of mine (I don't eat meat)...and in a 
hotel dining room no less. I snapped the menu description 
with my iPhone to remind me of the ingredients, 
then worked to replicate in my kitchen recently. 
Their version was a bit better because they added some 
type of tasty sauce I believe, however mine was 
healthier for lack of it! 
Bob doesn't like dry dishes so if I make this again 
I will add a little veggie broth to the skillet perhaps.

I Bob cut up and peeled a small pie pumpkin. Tossed in a couple of tablespoons of good olive oil, fresh black pepper - roasted at 350 degrees for about 25 mins. until softish - don't overcook. 
This cook book, The Roasted Vegetable is great, the roasting timing chart handy, recipes yummy.
Cooked and drained mini penne, which was all I had in the cupboard, but it worked well. In a large skillet I heated a little olive oil, added a bag of washed and dried baby spinach and allowed it to wilt, threw in the warm penne. Tossed in a small log, cut into chunks, of Trader Joe's fresh goat cheese with black olives, stirred gently until heated through, then added the pumpkin cubes (which I first reheated in the micro because they had cooled off). Plated scattered with a wee bit of fresh grated Parmesan cheese, and more fresh ground pepper - we're off the salt these days. It was very good.......next day leftovers even better perhaps because I did add a dash of heavy cream........and I gobbled it all for lunch.......
     
..... while Bob indulged himself with a KFC sandwich, enough said!!!


Linking to Claudia at Mockingbird Hill Cottage for A Favorite Thing Saturday - do visit today!

17 comments:

  1. I have a lovely squash on the counter and log of goat's cheese in the fridge......mmmm....this could be tomorrow's supper. Thanks!

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  2. Ooh, liking the sound of that combination Mary. Hope you are having oodles of fun.

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  3. Sounds perfectly delicious to me. I just discovered a fabulous Australian cook, photographer. Her blog is "What Katie Ate". Love it.

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  4. Interesting! Love your blog banner too!

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  5. It sounds delicious, Mary! As a fellow vegetarian, this is right up my alley. Thanks so much for joining in this week.

    xo
    Claudia

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  6. This sounds really great Mary. I am making a pumpkin pasta dish tonight. I will probably be posting it on my From Harvest To Table blog in the next day or two.
    Hugs,
    Penny

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  7. Yum!
    A friend made me Pumpkin pasta last week.
    Unbelievably delicious.
    xoxo,
    p

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  8. Hi Mary,

    I hope you're having a lovely time in Europe! So close to us!

    This looks yummy and shows what you can do with a pumpkin (in the uk most people just prep it for Halloween and then throw it out-not thinking of cooking it-not us frugal types of course.

    Sft x

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  9. Well that sounds intriguing. I like to try different combinations... I might just give this a whirl!

    Thanks for sharing.
    ~Liz

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  10. Mmmm, the combination of pumpkin and goat cheese sounds delicious.

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  11. Didn't know Trader Joe's had made it all the way to Australia! (Or did they start there???) Your dish sounds very yummy to me. Healthy too. I agree, though, a dash of heavy cream would make all the difference.

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  12. Oops, silly me....you are not cooking in Australia are you (tee hee!) Of course you have Trader Joe's on the East Coast!

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  13. Sounds like a delicious dish Mary.
    Hope you're keeping well and the medicines are doing the trick.
    Rose H
    xx

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  14. I love that you tweak your recipes, too, Mary. We all have our likes and dislikes and things we avoid. Rather then skip over the entire recipe, it's nice to make subtle changes. It looks very delicious and perfect for a fall day!

    XO,
    Jane

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  15. This sounds delicious.
    Stereotypes aren't always true, are they? However, what I heard from a guy who went into the out-back: He had barbecue all the time, even for breakfast. And when my sister wanted to buy 100 gramms of meat one, she got 1 kilo.

    Have a nice week. Regula

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  16. The pasta does sound quite delicious. My husband would probably prefer KFC too. I have never gotten him to be much of a pasta guy.

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  17. Oh my gosh my mouth is watering! That looks so delicious and your description of the recipe was incredible... I could almost taste it! hahah It's fun to enjoy something when you're eating out and then find a way to replicate it at home.

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