Been Cooking Up a Storm

It's a pity I'm not one of those who take photos of everything I make or this whole post would be photos.

The  question probably is why do I suddenly have an urge to cook. It's not as if I don't usually make our meals from scratch - with my dietary problems that's a given - but I had accumulated a pile of different veggies when the surgeon finally allowed me to go out and do some work in the garden. As a result I had the last harvest of the eggplant and capsicums sitting in the fridge and I knew they wouldn't keep much longer. Added to that were a couple of nice parsnips I bought last time I was at the shops and some bags of onions I'd asked Pisces to get me a fortnight ago intending to cook them up but hadn't gotten around to it. (In something quite unconnected this reminded me of one of the birthday presents Pisces got many moons ago. He's pretty good at procrastination so a friend gave him A Round To It which was a nicely finished wooden plaque lettered in gold with - you've guessed it - 'A round to it'. It disappeared quite quickly so I suspect he didn't appreciate the joke as much as I did).

All of these goodies were going to go to waste if I didn't act soon so the cooking flurry began and we now have:

Slow cooked onions - they were sliced and then went into the well greased slow cooker with a slosh of olive oil and a couple of dabs of butter where they cooked away for 6-8 hours. I packaged what we didn't eat immediately into serving size amounts and popped them in the freezer to make a useful starter for all sorts of goodies. One of my current favourites is cheese and onion toasted sandwiches.

Baba ganoush - I roasted the eggplant until very soft with a bulb of garlic wrapped in cooking parchment alongside it, scooped out the flesh of both and mashed it with Moroccan style spices and lemon juice. I made some pita crisps (sprinkled with Moroccan spices) to go with it and both are seriously good.

Pear and parsnip soup - simple but very tasty. I just chop up the parsnips and microwave them in vegetable stock until tender, add a can of pears, drained, and it's back into the microwave until all are piping hot then blend the lot with a hand held blender. Top with some finely chopped parsley. Yum. (You can do the same using canned apple instead of pears - also yum).

Chickpea and pumpkin vegetable stew - this has a Middle Eastern twist, too, with added chopped dried apricots. Yesterday we had it with fresh pita bread and a dollop of Greek yoghurt.  This time I'm planning on fruity couscous - a handful each of toasted pine nuts and currants soaked boiling water for a few minutes added to the cooked couscous.

Does this all sound good? It is.