Serves: 1

Ingredients:
2 parts tequilla
2 parts lime juice
1 part triple sec
Fresh lime or lemon to decorate

1. Shake tequila, lime and triple sec over ice
2. Rub the rim of the glass with the lemon/ lime slice to moisten so that the salt will stick to it.
3. Turn the glass upside down on a plate of salt.
4. Pour the grog into your glass making sure you don’t mess up the salt.
5. Garnish with a slither of lemon / lime

Simply times the amount by the amount of people.

Serves: 1
Prep: 2 min
Cook: 15 min

Ingredients:
Knob of butter
Splash of olive oil
10 button mushrooms sliced
1 small shallot finely sliced
1/5 cup of white wine
1/4 cup of vegetable stock
2 teaspoons of flour
Pepper to taste

1. In a small saucepan melt the butter and heat the olive oil.
2. Add mushrooms and shallots and cook until soft
3. Add the white wine and cook until almost totally absorbed (5 or so minutes)
4. Add the vegetable stock and reduce by half
5. Finally add the flour and pepper to taste.
6. Serve on top a lovely tasty stake

Mum gets really annoyed when she learns that there is yet another vegetable that I wouldn’t eat as a kid that I’ve started to love as an adult. It took me till 31 to get my head around the mushroom.
Tonight’s dinner guest is Annie who is finishing off her PHD and is suffering an affliction of mushie brain – its as though her brian is on hyperdrive and no longer capable of simplicity. It’s cute.

Serves: 2
Time: 20 min

Ingredients:
200g or ½ packet of Fettuccini egg noodles
200g of button mushrooms sliced
30g of butter
1 garlic clove chopped finely
1 lemon juiced
6 or so large sage leaves thinly sliced

1. Get a pot of boiling water on the stove first and cook the pasta to the packet instructions
2. Cook the mushrooms in a pan with the knob of butter on a med-low heat until they begin to soften, add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes until you can smell the fragrant garlic
3. Stir in the lemon juice and sage
4. Drain the pasta and combine with the mushrooms
5. Serve

Dinner with Kate… She was most impressed. And I was most impressed that the leftovers survived for lunch the next day. She simply replaced the dressing with a fresh lime from the handbag. Sweet.

Serves: 2-3
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 0 min

Ingredients:
Chicken breast
50g packet of glass rice noodles
Salad vegetables (grated carrot, shredded lettuce, thinly sliced red capsicum, spring onion, basil / mint)
Pau Pau
Fried onion
1 garlic clove finely chopped
1 small knob of ginger finely chopped
1 lime squeezed
A dash of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of sweet chili sauce

1. Cook chicken strips. In this instance I used the breast of a roast chicken and pulled it into strips.
2. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Drain and allow to cool.
3. To make the dressing mix together the garlic, ginger, lime, sesame oil and sweet chili sauce and allow to rest for the flavors to develop.
4. Shred, slice and dice the salad ingredients, and chop the pau pau up and mix in with the glass noodles with the dressing.
5. Serve in a bowl with the chicken on top and sprinkle the fried onion on top.

Serves: many
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 5 min

Ingredients:
500g of feta
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
A few good lugs of olive oil
1 small handful of oregano leaves
4-5 peels of lemon (using a potato peeler)

1. Heat the turmeric and paprika in a warm pan until you can begin to smell the fragrant spices.
2. Add olive oil, oregano and lemon peel and cook until the oregano just starts to become crisp.
3. Allow to cool. Place the feta onto a serving plate and pour the fragrant oil on top. Serve with crackers and bread.

Serves: turns a bottle of wine into about a bottle and a half.
Prep: 10 min
Rest time: 2 hours

Ingredients:
1 orange sliced and cut into small pieces
1 lime sliced and cut into small pieces
1 punnet of strawberries toped and quarted
1 cup of sugar
1 ½ cup of water
1 cup of orange juice
2/3 cup of brandy
1 bottle of red wine

1. Dissolve sugar into the water and allow to cool. It is important that this cools so that it doesn’t wilt the fruit.
2. Slice up the fruit and place into a bowl.
3. Add the sugar water, orange juice and brandy to the bowl allowing to marinate for 2 hours.
4. Add the red wine just before your guests arrive and serve.
5. Keep a second bottle of wine handy so you can adjust to the sweetness… I enjoyed half of my sangria and then decided I’d prefer it less sweet and added another 1/3 bottle of wine. In the future I might go with 1.5 bottles. It seemed to be quite strong in alcohol effects as it was.

Serves: Many
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 1hr

Ingredients:
500g chicken liver
100ml of brandy
2 tablespoons of butter
1 finely chooped white onion
1 garlic clove chopped
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon rosemary
1/3 cup of cream

1. Trim chicken livers chopping away any fat, vein or discolouration.
2. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the onion and garlic cooking on a low temperature until soft and transparent. Don’t over cook or brown.
3. Add the livers and cook for a few minutes on either side.
4. Add the brandy and chopped herbs, cook off for a few more minutes so that the flavors evaporate and soften.
5. Remove from heat and cool. The liver should be slightly pink on the inside once done.
6. Process in a blender until smooth. Add the cream and wiz for another second.
7. Season the pâté with salt and pepper and place into a serving dish.
8. Cool in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for 20 minutes.
9. Heat enough clarified butter to cover the surface of the pate to seal. This will ensure that it is able to be kept longer before eating.

Serves: Many
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 1hr

Ingredients:
3 medium beets
½ - 1 head of garlic
1 small tub of yogurt
2 tablespoons of dill

1. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Lob the top off the beet, and the head of garlic. (leaving the peel on)
3. Place beets and garlic on to a trey and cook for 45 or so minutes or until soft.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Wearing gloves (so the beets don’t stain) rub of the beetroot skin
6. Squeeze out the garlic from the skins into a bowl.
7. Roughly chop the beetroot and add to the bowl along with the yogurt
8. Blend until roughly smooth.
9. Add dill and stir

This is really easy and tasty to do. Most of the time is rubbing the skin off them once cooked. This recipe makes them soft and delicate. Using baby octopus takes even longer – as this recipe caters for.

Serves: Many
Prep: 10 min
Cook time: 1hr

Ingredients:
1kg of baby octopus
1 cup of vinegar
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
A lug of olive oil
3 cloves of garlic halved
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

1. Place the octopus into a pot and bring to the boil. Simmer for one hour or so – or until the octopus is cooked through and easily pronged with a fork or skewer. The octopus will let off a lot of purple colour from the skin which you will rub off later. It will also be a little tough during the cooking process – but will soften up towards the end.
2. Drain and allow to cool for a moment
3. Place in a large bowl of water or the sink and rub away the skin
4. Cut into small pieces.
5. Put the octopus into a jar or container putting in some thyme and the garlic along the way.
6. Pour over the white vinegar, balsamic vinegar and a lug of olive oil.
7. Allow to marinade for three days before serving. (although you could start eating the day after)

These would work well as a few nibbles as an appetizer.

Serves: 4
Prep: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min

Ingredients:
500g veal mince
1 slice of white bread, crust removed and soaked in milk
2 small garlic cloves chopped
1 egg lightly beaten
2 tablespoons of oregano
1 tablespoon of mint

Tzatziki for dipping
1 small tub of yogurt
1 small cucumber finely cubed
1 small sprig of mint
½ lemon juice
A little lemon zest
1 garlic clove finely chopped.

1. Combine veal, bread soaked in milk, garlic, egg, herbs and salt and pepper. Mix together well.
2. Shape into small balls. I went for slightly elongated ones for dipping
3. Place onto a plate and heat a pan. Fry on a medium heat until browned on the outside. I made these the day ahead, and then heated in the oven covered in foil.
4. An hour or so before your guests arrive, make the Tzatziki by combining the ingredients above together.