Family Food Friday - Mac'n'Cheese

This is what Family Food Friday is about. Cooking quick, healthy meals that pack in more veges, taste delicious and reduce waste. When using a cauliflower do you throw out all these leaves that surround the white part? Not in this meal.

Did you know that the white part is just the flower so the stalks and greenery are leaves which can be used just like cabbage. So when making Mac'n'Cheese or in NZ it is called Macaroni Cheese, I put an entire cauliflower head in. And no one notices!!!

Here are the chopped up leaves put into the pot of part cooked pasta  - all good - no wastage here.

The gorgeous cheesy sauce ready to pour over the pasta and cauliflower.

Family Macaroni Cheese

20 minutes to make - 30 minutes to bake

This makes two dishes - one to eat tonight and one to put into the freezer for a busy day.

1 packet of dried pasta of your choice

1 Head of cauliflower - stalks and all - chopped into large pieces

2 onions

bacon if you feel like it

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp mustard powder (here in NZ it is known as English Mustard)

1 litre trim milk

2 cups grated cheese

Put a big pot 3/4 full of cold water and 2 teaspoons salt onto the stove, put a lid on and complete the rest while waiting for this to boil.

Chop the onions reasonably finely and the bacon and put into a frying pan. Cook on medium heat until bacon looks done and onions going golden. Do not cook so hot that it all browns. (If not using bacon you will need a tablespoon or two of oil). Add the mustard and flour so it coats the onion and bacon and let it cook for a couple of minutes so the flour will not taste raw. Pour the milk into the pan and stir well so there are no lumps. Let it come to the simmer and stir occasionally until thick.

Into the big pot of boiling water pour the whole packet of pasta. Once it has cooked for about 5 minutes add the chopped stalks and cauli and cook another four minutes. Drain in a colander and put back into the big pot. Add the sauce and 1 1/2 cups cheese, stir and put into an oven proof dish.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 180 deg cel.

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It's official - I can quilt but I can't spell

I am sewing together blocks I hand embroidered almost a year ago. They are some of the memory verses from the boys school year in 2013. I need to re stitch the fourth word here...

And the first one here. Too......

Maybe I should join the boys at school again to practise my reading and spelling. Sigh.

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Still a Work In Progress

I thought I had this quilt all ready to be batted and backed and quilted. Then send off to the Orphanage we support. The stars are  years old, leftover from another quilt I did but they did not blend in well. So I put the centre piece on point and then added a top and bottom to get it to child size.

I take it home and show Aaron and he thinks this is the nicest quilt I have ever done. What is with that? Our tastes are sooooo different. Because he supports my sewing and fabric collecting addiction, if he says he really likes something I can't exactly give it away can I?

As this was all old fabric and bits left over I have had to pop to the shop to get a couple of fabrics for the next rounds. So this is now an ongoing project to become a queen size quilt.

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Fresh turmeric and some venison

It was teachers only day on Friday so we took the boys out for a Food and Fun day Friday.  First stop was Ohoka Farmers Market. Amongst other things we bought fresh turmeric. I had never even seen it before. If you eat any at all your teeth turn yellow.

Then we headed up to Hanmer Springs and walked, played mini golf and swam. Great day out.

Today I made a stir fry for dinner using the turmeric. I was told to use it like fresh ginger so I julienned it and fried it off with the onions. Gave a nice golden glow and a warmth to the dish. Added lovely thin strips of venison. MMMMmmmm.

Scrap, applique cushion

Still using the scrap bag. I had grand illusions of making a complete quilt. Using all my pale scraps for the background and all the bright for the applique sections. Well after doing one section I needed to change the game plan!! Not my style and I knew it would just end up being another UFO.

Up close. I even hand quilted it
using perle 8 thread.

So at my recent retreat I turned it into a cushion. It is a large cushion 25inches square. And amazingly, satisfyingly, I managed to find a gorgeous condition feather inner exactly the right size at the Op Shop (thrift store). A bargain of $10 as the original cover was yuck (but I saw underneath that).

I came home from retreat and did my wee show and tell at home and Jakob immediately pinched the cushion for his bed.

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A bit of refashioning and upcycling

Yes I am into broaches at the moment. They are a lovely addition to the winter wardrobe without being all glitz and glamour. This broach is made from dying an old blanket, I adore this colour. I got this material thanks to Jane Van Kuelen in Hanmer Springs. Oh she dyes the most amazing threads and material.

I followed this pattern but instead of adding a button on the front I got the centre from an Op Shop (thrift shop) as one of a pair of earrings.

The filigree broach back was purchased from Jane. The colour is much more like the bottom photo

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Lemon and Passion-fruit icecream

MMMMMMM....... Making this today while it is sleeting outside.
First separate the eggs ready for the ice-cream. With some of the leftover yolks make lemon honey (lemon curd). I used Edmonds recipe, a good old trusty NZ recipe.

 Then make the ice-cream using this recipe - three ingredients, how easy can it be!

Swirl the lemon curd and some passionfruit pulp through the mixture, put it into the freezer and try to wait!

Then eaten in style in the hot tub.

Finished, another quilt for charity

First finished item at retreat. Completed the star last year as a paper piecing experiment and loved it. But was stuck with what to do. Now really pleased to have made it into a quilt for an orphan at Hope Homes International.

Was not that happy with the quilting of the coloured star but love the straight line quilting of the grey fabrics.

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Velvet antique broach lessons

Jane has once again given us some beautiful items. Then taught us how to assemble a velvet with antique looking broach pin to make a sumptuous broach.

A treat

Just before I left for my quilting retreat my lovely friends came around after school with an afternoon treat. I am so blessed to know this family. Thanks heaps girls I really appreciate your baking and surprise.

The boys tried to photo bomb this

Blowing out the candles. They suggested I have a candle in each, which was 19. Pretty happy with that birthday number!!!

Sunrise on the first day

On my quilting retreat and this was sunrise this morning.