Time to cook and time for other things

Have you heard of MamaBake?

Mamabake is brilliant food revolution that you just might get a bit excited about. Someone tweeted about it the other day and I can't get over how cool and idea it is. It reminds me a little of the sense of community behind Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.

MamaBake is where Mamas (and single ladies) get together with a group of girlies from their community and cook.

The website describes it beautifully as:

MamaBake is group, big batch cookery where local Mamas get together once a week and cook one big batch recipe each.  The batch then gets divvied up amongst all the Mamas at the end of the session and everyone goes home with a few nights worth of dinners for their families.  

You may be asking why.

Well, if you get together in a group and each lady cooks up one meal in a big batch and leaves with food for a few days or a week you're saving time. You get to have all your cooking done in one week and then can use other time usually spent wondering what to get for dinner on other stuff.

Check MamaBake out for yourself on their website which has all the advice you need to get started: http://www.mamabake.com/

Forge Pizzareia

A new wood fired pizza house has opened up not far from my house. I loved the atmosphere of the place, the menu was tasty and what we ended up ordering was quite possible one of the best pizzas I've ever eaten.

Fortunately for me (and you) I happened to have my camera on me. These are some snaps that I took whilst awaiting our pizza.

Facts you need to know about Forge:

Located 1771 Sturt St, Ballarat VIC (Australia). Call them for food on 5338 4309.

Find them on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Forge-Pizzeria/114175405308545

View the set on my Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lianasmooz/sets/72157625512871696/

Golden Syrup Dumplings

I love this desert. Great for having guests over. Get it ready to go, put it on and wander back to your visitors while it cooks away. Recipe here.

(Straw)Berries and (Ice)cream

This is from my favourite Jamie Oliver recipe book. I loved the pictures and thought it would be fun to make so had a go. I added Morello cherries (as I keep doing with other things) as well for another yummy flavour.

You can find the recipe on Jamie Oliver's website here.

Creamy potato bake

So it doesn't look too crash hot. But I can tell you now it tastes delicious. The trick is cooking the cream with chicken stock. You can find the whole recipe here.

Breakfast

I'm not much of a pancake person. I do love crepes though. I don't make a very proper crepe however, so these can be classed as thin pancakes.

These are being devoured on a Sunday morning with fresh strawberries, berry yogurt and maple syrup. Yummo.

You may also notice I burned these ones a little. Whoopsies :)

I learned stuff yesterday

Okay, so!

It has come to my attention that when cooking rhubarb, one needs to remove the skin. Now, last time I cooked it I didn't remove it and I was not happy with the result. It was all stodgy and stiff and I grumped. This time I removed the skin and it was mushy and sour and yum.

I did a cheats apple and rhubarb pie. I cheated as I used tinned apple which I normally wouldn't. I've decided I love combining these two flavours. The sour of the rhubarb and the bland sweetness of the apple make quite a tantalising team.

No pictures today :( Sorry. I didn't have my camera with me and by the time it was delivered it was too late for picture taking.

I also learned yesterday not to serve the food. Why?

- By the time you eat it will be cold
- Everyone else will have cleaned up the seconds before you get through your first serve
- If you are lucky enough to have someone dish up for you, they'll miss something, or give you something you don't want

And also, cooking all day will not excuse you from doing dishes well into the night.