Tuesday, January 22, 2013

[naked tacos]

A late start on dinner, and what to cook? Looking in the fridge I surveyed what leftovers we had ... taco mince and some roast chicken... My youngest son wanted pizza, but it was too late to start on making a base, but I remembered a recipe of Nigella’s for Meat-za, which is basically a meat base with pizza topping. Inspired by that, I decided I might make tacos on a plate without the taco shell (as we only had three taco shells left!)

Yum, Yum!!

Taco mince, mozarella cheese and tomato slices topped with salsa and then put under the grill until the cheese is golden and melted.

Left: after grilling, top the dish with grated carrot, shredded lettuce and a dollop of sour cream. Serve with a broken toasted taco shell so you can dip into the yummy mince like nachos.
Right: a chicken version (without tomato) for my hubby’s ‘anti-gout’ diet.




Friday, January 18, 2013

[babysitting the bonsais]

My Mum and her new husband of 9 months (can't quite get used to saying step-Dad yet) are travelling around Australia at the moment in the motor home, and I'm charged with looking after his bonsais while they're away. Now as you know, I don't mind gardening, but certainly don't profess to having totally green thumbs, so it's a bit of a hit or miss affair...

I've been pretty much just watering them since Mum left mid-October, but just before Christmas I gave the bonsais a good prune and a few days ago (under the guidance of some YouTube videos) cut the roots back and repotted them. So far, so good, they seem to be happy, let's just hope they continue this trend, especially as I think a couple of the trees are over 15 years old!

(The only issues so far is that some wildlife was digging up the dirt, and yesterday we found a dirty old toad snuggled into the potting mix, so I suspect this is my digging culprit - hopefully a few more carefully placed pebbles will discourage this behaviour Mr Toad!)

My favourite tree is the one with the really wide base trunk. This is also my youngest son's favourite, as he says it reminds him of the trees in Pamela Allen's books. The one with the little bridge is my teenage son's favourite ... typical, the one with 'accessories'...lol