Spaghetti with slow-cooked cauliflower & broccoli

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We are eating broccoli, snow peas, asparagus and avocados at the moment and lots of them.  The other day, Maus even said that she was sick of avocados.  Now that is a problem.  We have two trees laden with the buggers.  It is near the end of the season, though.  Soon she will be spared.  It will be tomatoes with this and cucumbers with that.

The broccoli situation, as I predicted, is serious.  As with everything you grow, it came all at once.  In one week, I picked seven broccoli heads.  Luckily, I saw enough people to find homes for them all.

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Broccoli Salad

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Maus and I have decided we don’t like frozen broccoli which is a bit of a problem because there are several bags of it in the freezer – Oh well, more dog food. 🙂

As a consequence, when I picked two huge broccoli heads last week, I was determined to find a use for it.  We made penne with broccoli and chorizo which lasted us two nights and then I found this salad.  It is from a great little ABC publication I use more than I thought I would, Homecooked Favourite Recipes from Australian Kitchens.   It was out and about because I was making one of my favourite biscuit recipes, gingernuts, from it.  I started flicking through its pages (as you do) and came across this recipe. Continue reading

The day I made Jane Grigson’s Broccoli and Chicken Gratin

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This month, the Cookbook Guru’s feature cookbook is Vegetable Book, by Jane Grigson.  As I didn’t have it, I ordered it from Book Depository.  That was after two weeks or so of wresting with myself.  I know very well I don’t need another cookbook but I decided, ‘Ahh! What the hell?  It’s only $20’.

jane-GrigsonThe Vegetable Book arrived a couple of weeks ago.  It is a classic, if ever there was one.  I was quite looking forward to its arrival.  I have Jane Grigson’s Fruit Book and love it.

The first thing I did was open up the cucumber chapter. Nothing really appealed so I went to the bean chapter.  Again, nothing appealed so I moved on to the avocado chapter and then, in desperation, the broccoli chapter.  I stopped there.  I was happy to buy the book but I wasn’t going to go out and buy vegetables when our house is overflowing with them. Continue reading

Rigatoni with Broccoli, Almonds and Currants

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As I have mentioned previously, the Cookbook Guru has allocated this month for members to pitch for a book or books to be featured.  I have already pitched for The Food of Morocco, by Paula Wolfert, and now a pitch for someone closer to home.

If you were to ask me who my favourite cookbook writer is, I would probably say Maggie Beer.  Maggie Beer has been a significant contributor to the creation of an uniquely Australian style of cuisine. Continue reading

Penne with Blue Cheese, Walnuts and Bacon

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With all the preserving going on in our house, there hasn’t been much time for cooking anything else.  It has been a matter of “what shall we have with our cucumbers and tomatoes tonight?”  But there are other things in our fridge.  In particular, we had some Blue Castello that I bought to have with cumquats in syrup. Continue reading