Pearl couscous, cucumber and rocket salad with pesto

It is still spring and already heating up.  We have had a few years of mild summers but this one feels like it will be sizzling hot.  Stone fruit is plentiful in the shops, bush fire season has started and we are spending more time watering the garden.  Today is a scorcher of 36 C and tomorrow will be 37 C.  It is time for cooling green salads such as this Pearl Couscous, Cucumber and Rocket Salad with Pesto.

I first made the "Simple lemon arugula couscous feta salad" from Hungry Happens at the start of September (above photo).  We have made it quite a few times since then.  When I asked Sylvia how many she said "a bunch".  The version that I am sharing today was made by her.  She is a great cook but very intuitive.  Blogging has got me into the habit of checking by weight or cups or spoons how much I add for each ingredient.  Sylvia is more like the Muppets Swedish chef just throwing in what she fancies.  

Hungry Happens does not add pesto to the recipe.  It is a perfectly excellent recipe without pesto.  But while I claim to measure, the salad dressing in that recipe has more oil that I would usually use so we have tinkered with it and not found what works best for us.  The Sylvia tried it with pesto and it was excellent.  So I got pretty good quantities from my previous experience of the salad and from Sylvia's memory.  After all, salad is often a matter of preference rather than precision.

Much depends on the pesto in this salad!  Sylvia does not like nuts in her pesto.  Sadly, she has not inherited my love of nuts.  (I blame her peanut allergy!)  But she adds lots of flavour.  She has been watching the basil in the supermarket over spring, waiting until the bunches have healthy large leaves and generous amounts.  We have basil in the garden but it is a little shy right now.  As soon as she found basil up to her standards, she was making pesto.  Hers is not at all traditional with additional leafy greens and some cream cheese.  

Despite there being many variations on pesto, most would work well in this salad.  You just need that wonderful bright aroma of basil, the creamy texture and a well seasoned lemon and garlic flavour.  However it means you might need to adjust your salad dressing.  If it is very oily and runny, you might need less oil.  The amount of citrus juice and seasoning would depend on how your pesto is seasoned.

Aside from this version of the salad being a fine meal, one reason that I am sharing it is that I took quite a few photos of it.  I have made the couscous salad too many times after the sun has set.  Now that we have longer nights, it is getting easier to take photos.  And this is one beautiful green salad.

This salad is substantial enough to have a standalone meal.  The pearl couscous gives it some heft.  I haven't used it much in the past but there is much to love about the satisfying soft chewy balls of pasta.  We like to add edamame for some added green and protein.  The cucumber and rocket lighten the salad, making it perfect for a hot summer and the feta and olives add great flavour.  I am sure we will be eating this salad often over summer and highly recommend it to you.  We already have planned to have it tomorrow to combat the heat!

More salads with lots of greens on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Asparagus, strawberry and greens salad with poppyseed dressing (gf, v) 
Green bean and broccoli tabbouleh (v)
Leon superfood salad (gf)
Only-kale-can-save-us-now salad (gf, v)
Spinach salad with spiced nuts and cranberries (gf, v) 

Pearl couscous, cucumber and rocket salad with pesto
Adapted from Hungry Happens
Serves 4 as a meal, and more as a side salad

Salad:

3 cups cooked pearl couscous
150g rocket leaves
4 Lebanese cucumbers, sliced
1/2 cup cooked and cooled edamame beans
1/3 cup pimento stuffed green olives, halved
150g feta, crumbled 

Dressing:

1/3 cup pesto
Good glug of olive oil
1/2 lime, juiced (or lemon)
Seasoning

Pile the salad ingredients into a large salad bowl.  (The feta melts into the salad so you could save some to sprinkle on top at the end if you wish.)  Whisk the dressing ingredients together.  Pour over salad ingredients and toss to mix well.  Leftover will keep well in the fridge overnight but it is best when fresh.

Sylvia's creamy nut-free pesto

1 bunch basil
1-2 handfuls (approx) 40g rocket or spinach.
1 handful parsley
1/2 cup parmesan, finely grated
1 heaped dessertspoon cream cheese
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp garlic granules
1/4 cup olive oil, or more
1 shake each of smoked paprika and mustard powder
Salt and pepper

Blitz in the food processor until blended.  Check and adjust oil for consistency and tweak the flavours such as seasoning and lemon juice.  Keeps well in the fridge for a few days.

NOTES:

• I always made more pearl (or Israeli) couscous than the recipe calls for because we love the leftovers.  To cook from dried, use 1 and 1/2 cups water per 1 cup of couscous (1 and 1/2 cups of dried pesto is probably enough for this salad) and simmer for 12-14 minutes.  I like to cook for 10-12 minutes and then leave it to steam with the lid on for the last few minutes so it is fluffy but not stuck to the bottom of the pan.  
• It is fine to add warm couscous to the salad; we have done this often.
  
• To make the salad gluten free, use brown rice, buckwheat groats or quinoa instead of pearl couscous. 
• To make the salad low carb, use cauliflower rice.
• To make the salad vegan, I would suggest substituting something like this tofu feta or you could drizzle a cheesy cashew cream over the salad after tossing.
  
• For the salad you can use any pesto from the shops or your kitchen.  The one here is made a lot in our kitchen.  I prefer one with nuts but it is great without.
• An alternative to the pesto dressing is to use a home made or bought vinaigrette.  
• I recently read that if you buy frozen edamame (which we often do) that some are already cooked and others need boiling for a few minutes.
• Rocket is also known as arugula in the USA. 
• Lebanese cucumbers are also known as Persian cucumbers - they are the short ones with a thin crisp skin that you can eat.

On the stereo:
Here Now Nowhere Records presents: A Day in the Strife: a compilation of local artists covering the Beatles: various artists (from Perth in Western Australia, 2023).

My Monthly Chronicles: October 2024

We had many beautiful meals and fun outings in October.  More than I have energy to write up.  I still dream of writing more on many of these places but for now here is a whirlwind overview of the month (and you can catch up on October's home food at In My Kitchen post).   I was surprised to notice a few visits to wine bars.  Overall it was a busy month with local tours, a workshop at Monsalvat (above photo), a cinema outing, and a trip to Geelong.  In between we have been binge-watching ER for some excellent hospital drama.  The news has been off the scale, with the USA and Israel vying for the most crazy stories, but thank goodness for the cheering moments, many of which you can see below.

The Vegie Bar, Fitzroy

I am always happy to go to The Vegie Bar (380 Brunswick Street) for having so many great options on its vegetarian menu.  Sylvia is less keen but she does not have the nostalgia of visiting over decades.  I had a delicious and healthy Zen Bowl: Chilled ramen noodles, miso-sesame dressing, avocado, braised shiitake mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, wakame, edamame, cucumber, kimchi & togarashi.  I really enjoyed it except the big pieces of kimchi which I left.  Sylvia decided she was going to have Lord of the Fries across the street but she could not resist the beautiful strawberry and matcha chia pudding special. 

Collage workshops with Storyholding, Monsalvat

I have written before about how much I love Monsalvat (7 Hillcrest Avenue), an artists colony that looks like an olde worlde French village in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.  We went there a few weeks ago and were pleased to see the last of the purple wisteria flowering.  There wasn't much time for sightseeing before the rain because we were there for a Collage workshop held by the very friendly and very creative Rochelle van der Merwe of Storyholding. We had great fun making collages with all her wonderful ideas, tips, magazines and second hand books.  You can see what we produced and what we ate in the photo.  There has been more fun with collaging at home since the workshop.

Third Chapter, Eltham

After our collage workshop, we went to The Third Chapter cafe nearby (26 Commercial Place).  It was a had a welcoming vibe that just made the good food taste even better.  Sylvia had an iced strawberry matcha and I had a Veggie Patch juice (kale, carrot, celery, cucumber, orange, ginger).  To eat, she had the Kale, Zucchini & Halloumi Fritters with beetroot labneh, avo, halloumi and poached egg, and I had the vegan version of the Vegie Chapter (big brekkie of scrambled tofu, spinach, pesto tomatoes, mushrooms, hash brown and toast.)  It was great but so filling that we took leftovers home.

Jolly Miller, Bundoora

We were out in Bundoora for an appointment so we stopped for lunch at the Jolly Miller (T13 and 14 Uni Hill Town Centre, 5 Janefield Drive).  Like many bunch menus it was full of egg dishes but I was excited to see a vegan menu!  I had a fantastic Nourish Bowl of maple pumpkin, beetroot hummus, pan fried kipfler potatoes, and a salad of kale, quinoa, cranberries, seeds and pomegranate.  The potatoes were like chips and the salad was so satisfying.  Sylvia had the Zaatar Halloumi Breakfast of toast topped with halloumi, zaatar, tomatoes, avocado, radish, rocket, feta and poached eggs.  We also shared a small oreo cheesecake and iced tea.  The selection of food was very impressive.  I want to go back for more.

Fishbowl, CBD

I happened across Fishbowl (242 Flinders Lane) while in the city.  It is a healthy fast food franchise I can get on board with.  I am a big fan of bowls of grains, vegetables and proteins.  So beautiful and satisfying.  I had Tofu Boys bowl which has tofu, kale, cucumber, radish, shallots, edamame, sesamiso dressing, tamari almonds and crispy shallots with base of brown rice.  It was only $12.90 for a small bowl.  There aren't many seats in the place but if you manage one looking out onto Flinders Lane there is much street life to see.

Heavy rains and blocked drains!

I have had a few bike rides in October when I have been faced with water on the road.  Now that's what you call spring rain.  It has made me very glad to have mudguards on my bike.  They save me from a wet back but can't stop my feet getting wet when I ride through a puddle like this one on Swanston Street (by RMIT)

Archive Wine Bar, Geelong

We visited my parents in Geelong for my dad's birthday.  We walked down to Archive Wine Bar (140 High Street, Belmont) for a drink and nibbles from the grazing menu.  It was not cheap but a great way to celebrate.  The Archive Grazing Platter for 2 ($49) was impressive, unless you are allergic to peanuts.  My parents and I loved the spread of three cheeses (brie, vintage cheddar and pecorino), mushroom pate, beetroot relish, pickles, olives, roasted corn kernels and mixed nuts.  We all agree that the flavours of the mushroom pate was a highlight.  The nuts made it harder for Sylvia to enjoy the platter due to her peanut allergy.  Fortunately she loved the Deep Fried Stuffed Olives with Aioli ($12 for 5) and the Popcorn Cauliflower with gochujang sauce ($10).  They were amazing but I would have loved more than a small plate of nibbles.

It was surprising that the nuts in the platter were not mentioned on the menu or when we ordered because otherwise the menu accommodated for vegetarian, vegan and gluten free as well as a decent selection of non-alcoholic drinks. Sylvia and I both loved the refreshing White Peach Spritz ($13) and my mum enjoyed the Non 1 Salted Raspberry & Chamomile, Moorabbin, Victoria ($13).  I have forgotten what my dad had to drink and did not take much notice of the lemon tarts because they just aren't my thing. 

Tacos y Liquor, Geelong

After Archive, Sylvia and I went to a cute little Mexican bar called Tacos y Liquor (87A Little Malop St) for a bit more food.  Again it was a place where drinks were prioritised over food.  There wasn't much that interested me in the drinks but the food was fascinating.  We enjoyed sitting at the bar and watching cocktails being made with style.  We shared a taco with mushrooms and cuitlacoche.  The idea of cuilacoche, a corn fungus, always seemed slightly off-putting but when we were told it was similar to mushrooms it made sense and in fact I could not even identify it in the delicious taco.  Likewise the cooked cactus on the tostados was far more delicious than it sounded.  We also had some nachos with mushrooms and some guacamole on the side.  The nachos were nice but I prefer proper melted cheese rather than a premade cheese sauce but I understand the practicalities.  There was so much guac we ordered more corn chips to finish it off.  It was a great way to end our day in Geelong.

National Carers Week 2024

In National Carers Week, I went to a work morning tea at Brunettis.  The photo is of the pretty bouquets of flowers put together by a colleague with what she could find in her garden.  It was such a generous gesture.

Pickles Milkbar, North Carlton

We went back to the all-vegan Pickles Milkbar (1008 Lygon Street) for lunch.  It was good to eat in this time.  Sylvia had the Damn Caesar ($17) with fried enoki mushrooms, vegan bacon, caesar dressing, pickled onions, capers, parmesan, dill chimichurri, lettuce, and garlic butter on a focaccia.  I wanted the Chicken Shawarma ($17) without the marinated plant based chicken.  So I asked for the fried enoki mushrooms which did not work as well for me compared to Sylvia who enjoyed hers.  Mine was very stringy in every bite and I would not do that substitution again.  

I did love having a kebab-style wrap with salads and a tangy "Ultra Culture x Pickles 'Good Sauce' hot sauce", and the optional fries it to remind me of falafels I had in Jerusalem many years ago!  We were also delighted with Sylvia's soy flat white with a coffee froth flower and my home made raspberry lemonade.

Pentridge Prison Tour, Coburg

I finally got to do a Pentridge Prison tour run by the National Trust.  I went on the evening tour of H Division was with my friend Kerin for her birthday.   Pentridge Prison ran from 1851-1997 and has magnificent but stern old bluestone buildings still standing.  We walked around outside and then spent time inside the cell block H (which I realised makes it sound like classic Australian soap opera Prisoner but this was for men.).  

The tour was based around the narrative of runaways and included time with ipods which were set up to tell different stories depending on which cell we walked into.  The stories were interesting and sad.  It must have been such a different place to the complex today that is buzzing with cafes and shops.

Olivine Wine Bar at Pentridge, Coburg

After the tour we went to modern day Pentridge.  We had a drink at Olivine (The Interlude Hotel, 1 Pentridge Boulevard), a bar in an old cell block.  They have seats in old cells where you can have a drink.  Unless like us, you don't book and find that there is just one free table in the central area.  We enjoyed some fancy drinks.  I was pleased to see some non-alcoholic options and really enjoyed my Lost in the Forest: Tanqueray 0% Spirit, Orgeat Syrup, Lemon, Pear Soda. 

Brunetti Oro, CBD

My dad invited a group of family and friends to the 100th Herald Sun Aria competition.  Beforehand we  Brunettis at 250 Flinders Lane for lunch.  It is a favourite place that is reliable for good Italian food, good coffee and an amazing array of desserts.  That's why Sylvia came for the lunch even though she didn't go to the Sun Aria (as my dad used to call it when I was a kid).  She had spinach arancini and oreo cheesecake with coffee crema to drink.  I had eggplant and salad in a toasted bun.

Historic tour of Sydney Road, Coburg

I went on a historical society tour of Sydney Road that was held with the RSL.  It was so interesting to hear about what it used to look like when the block between Bell Street and Munro Street had a bluestone pub with a cast iron verandah at one end and a church and a cinema at the other.

Sobo Japanese Cafe, Parkville

I had lunch at Sobo Japanese Cafe (323 Grattan St) a couple of time lately.  My don tofu bowl on my first visit was ok but lacking in colour.  I much preferred my vegetarian bento box on my second visit.  It had tofu katsu with rice and sauce, sushi, okonomiyaki, soba noodles with edamame, pickled ginger, pickled daikon and seaweed salad.

Lucky Little Dumplings at Pentridge, Coburg

We were at Lucky Little Dumplings at Pentridge again when we were at the cinema.  We ordered our favourites: sweet chilli eggplant, steamed vegetable buns, fried rice and edamame.  Then Sylvia really wanted to try the dessert of Crispy rice cakes topped with black sugar syrup. It came with a generous amount of powder on top.  She wanted to make sure it was not peanuts.  We were told it was nutmeg but think what they meant was kinako, a roasted soybean powder.

Memoir of a Snail - highly recommended movie

At the cinema we saw Memoir of a Snail, an animated film for adults by the talented Adam Elliot.  He is a local artist who reflects Melbourne and Australia in his handcrafted stop motion.  It was the story of twins who faced one misfortune after another but found sparkle in a grim life.  It was poignant, heartbreaking, intelligent, sad, quirky and dark.  Highly recommended!

Flovie Florist Cafe, Carlton

We visisted Flovie Florist Cafe (261-263 Queensberry St, Carlton) for lunch mid last year and returned in October.  It was not as busy this time, but every bit as pretty with flowers everywhere and good food.  We started with fancy drinks.  Sylvia loved her butterfly pea latte and I enjoyed the chilled Snow White drink of butterfly pea, strawberries and lychee.  I also had a vegetarian version of the big breakfast with great crispy tofu instead of eggs.  Sylvia had the Mexican Loaded Chips without the pulled pork.  She liked the cheese on the waffle fries but is less keen on the onion and capsicum.  We went around the corner to Humble Rays for ghost toast for dessert afterwards.

Luther's Scoops, Brunswick

When Sylvia heard that there was a new fruit pie at Luthers Scoops on Blyth Street by the corner of Sydney Rd in Brunswick, she had to go there.  We shared the rhubarb and custard pie with a serve of vanilla custard ice cream.  It was so good.  And because we happened to be out in the evening buying pie on 31 October we had a drive around streets with good Halloween decorations to see all the cute little kids trick or treating in their cute little costumes.

Halloween Coburg I

I could not believe how busy the local streets were on 31 October with so many kids in cute costumes, so much sweet food and some imaginative decorations.  The above house had lots of decorations but it was the headless horseman that really amazed me.

Halloween Coburg II

This picket fence had one of the most original and creative Halloween decorations in our area.  The silhouettes were very creepy with some bones hanging from the verandah, a couple of tombstones under the spider and a dark pumpkin headed skeleton leaning over the fence like a not-so-friendly neighbour.

In the News:

Pagers, beds and phones: Latest Lebanon attack in Israel's history of bold covert ops, ABC News (the US ABC), 2 October 2024.

Albanese acknowledges ‘terrible pain’ of Hamas attacks in video message marking 7 October anniversary, Guardian, 7 October 2024.  (Also I was fascinated by Roni Eschel's story.) 

Universities under pressure (in UK and Australia) - ABC The Science Show, 12 October 2024.

A life raft for the lonely and a crowded town square: The bond forged over 100 years of ABC Radio Melbourne (anniversary), ABC (Jon Faine) 13 October 2024.

No, we shouldn’t care about the PM’s new $4.3m house — it is a hall of mirrors for media stupidity, Crickey, (Bernard Keane) 18 October 2024.

Indigenous Australian senator defends heckling King (on his visit to Australia), BBC, 22 October 2024. 

Risks of Violence around the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election: A Primer, International Crisis Group, 29 October 2024.

NACC to reconsider whether to investigate robodebt after ‘apprehended bias’ finding against commissioner, The Guardian, 30 October 2024.

Fun links:

MMBW Planning for Melbourne's Future - a1954 video promoting the Board of Works but fascinating for old footage of familiar Melbourne streets.  

Catcerto - a concerto around Nora the cat's piano playing - so cute to watch.

Frog bakes toad's favourite cake - beautiful knitted puppet stop motion by India Rose Crawford.

Bohemian Trumpsody - the Marsh Family's beautiful singing of hilarious satirical lyrics.

Awkward Portraits - I am assuming this company is a reaction to glamour portraits!

In My Kitchen: October 2024

October was busy but the supermarkets are already putting the pressure on about Christmas with festive foods carrying a shouty sign saying "while stocks last".  Really!  It just isn't getting any quieter for the rest of the year.  Meanwhile I am still trying to catch up on inductions at work, I don't have the energy to read books and even finding time for bike rides is difficult.  The weather is warming up and we are eating more salads.  I am glad of longer evenings because our kitchen light is dimming and when I got the spare light bulb out it had smashed to pieces.  I have had some really tiring weeks but am pleased I had a chance to clean the house the last couple of weekends. More about my month can be found on My Monthly Chronicles!

It has been ages since I have baked bread.  My sourdough starter is mainly used on pizza and flatbreads and scallion pancakes lately.  So I was pleased to have a quiet weekend where I baked a fried leek and red leceister cheese version of my favourite overnight sourdough bread.  It was quite soft but so good fresh out of the oven.  The flavour was so good that no butter or spreads  were needed.  

You can see the bread above with Lemony Chickpea Soup with Spinach and Potatoes.  It was really good although I was too lazy to blend half of it separately and instead just whizzed the blender in the soup for a short enough time that it was only partly blended.  Sylvia loved it too.  She has made the happy discovery that she loves soup if she can mix some cooked pasta in it.  The recipe comes from a blog called The First Mess which I discovered this month and have already made three recipes from it.

As I have said, Sylvia has learned the joy of pasta in soup.  The Creamy Tuscan Tortellini Soup is based on one in Brita Cooks but we used cannelini beans instead of chicken among a few little tweaks.  We had it early in the month when it was more chilly and enjoyed its comforting creamy vibe.

We love RecipeTin Eats's broccoli fritters.  So when Sylvia fancied some broccoli soup I made Nagi's Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup. It was nice but not as amazing or as green as the fritters.  It surprised me how thin it was on the first night, compared to Nagi's photos but thickened up nicely overnight.  Although it was quite thin, this did not bother me because I have been enjoying making my soups thinner rather than thicker lately.  If I need bulk I can add it like I did with this one.  The photo above is from the first night with added brown rice, frozen peas, frozen corn and red tomatoes. 

Zucchini has been very popular in our house recently.  These chickpea stuffed zucchini were lovely.  I used pesto instead of the spices.  I cooked mine until the cheese was golden brown, which I think took longer than the recipe said but was worth it.

We had leftover stuffed zucchini the following night with chickpea salad and rice.  Sylvia has been making chickpea salad a lot.  She mixes chickpeas with lots of vegetables like tomato, cucumber, avocado parsley rocket and spinach.  On this occasion she also mix in feta.  Delicious!

When my mum gave us some rhubarb from her garden and we had neglected apples in the fridge, we loved the resulting Rhubarb and apple crumble.  It was so good.  I used my favourite crumble recipe to top the fruit.  After a recent ho hum crumble topping at the Royal Melbourne Show, it was good to have a home made crispy golden crumble.

Halloween is one of Sylvia's favourite times of the year.  We watched the Corpse Bride.  Her dad got her a box of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts.  The theme this year was Ghostbusters but I don't think the kids have a great knowledge of the movie, based on the young people I spoke to.  We had cute ghost toast at Humble Rays cafe and I have also posted about our Halloween lunch lunch for her brothers' birthday.

A recent favourite meal is Miso butter noodles from Okonomikitchen.  It is pretty simple but involves frozen udon noodles.  They are so much better than dried or vaccum packed.  We can only get them as our local Asian supermarket but it is worth the extra trip. 

The Asian supermarket holds a few temptations, especially of the dumpling kind.  Now I have a steamer for the microwave, they are even more tempting.  I bought some vegetable buns and glutinous rice dumplings.  I haven't had any yet but I hope they might be like some really nice noodles my Chinese colleagues brought to morning tea in another job.

I went out early evening to a Pentridge Prison tour so I got pizza from Heaven with Sylvia for dinner.  It was a wet rainy day and bucketing down as we ran into the pizza shop.  I had ordered over the phone before we left to make sure we got it quickly (UberEats can be so slow and unreliable).  We took our piping hot pizza to the car and Sylvia checked it.  The potato pizza had something odd on it.  Meat!  So I took it back and they baked another quickly - I was running back and forward to the car to check with Sylvia . It is ages since we had takeaway pizza and it was really good, especially the nutella doughnuts. They kept me warm and satiated on my tour and when we had a drink at the bar afterwards.

This Vegan green soup with kale and celery was served with chickpeas and black rice.  I used blended raw cashews instead of the coconut milk, I used some pickled rather than fresh ginger and also added some finely chopped sandwich pickles.  It was lovely though not as bright green or beautiful as the photo on The First Mess.

The golden gaytime ice cream was my favourite when I was a kid so I am a big of a sucker for them and have passed this weakness on to Sylvia!  She was very keen to try the caramel slice version of Golden Gaytime.  They were really good.  Not surprising, given that I loved caramel slice as a child too.

We were also tempted by these Halloween Freddo Frogs that had glow in the dark wrappers.  Yes, we fell for the gimmick but I could not even be bothered going into the dark to check if the wrapper glowed.  Sylvia checked and said it glowed a bit.

Not long ago, my dad was around and helped fix a break in a kitchen chair.  It was a relief but soon after the chair broke in a different place.  It was its time!  So we are missing one of our kitchen chairs.  We have decided it would be nice to get an op shop chair to replace it.  I am now keen an eye on the other 3 chairs in the set in case 11 years is also too much for them.

And, in case you were wondering, the chair is on a bed because it kept falling over so Sylvia thought it would like to lie down in bed.

 

So many great new recipes.  One of my favourites is this Charred corn and quinoa salad with tahini ranch dressing.   I made some changes and forgot he avocado but really want to try this again.  I also made Cheesy creamy  tomato cannelini beans and Creamy cannelini beans with kale.  It has been a week of many beans and pulses, also including an ugly lentil stew that I did not photograph, but it tasted great.

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her gorgeous hand drawn header.

A brie and blackberry Scream platter and a Halloween lunch

Yesterday we had a wonderful Halloween lunch with most of the food preparation being done by my daughter and my mum.  Sylvia's Scream platter and my mum's black forest cake were the highlights.  I struggled to find inspiration, especially when I found my collection of Halloween ideas had disappeared from my Pinterest account.  But Sylvia was full of great ideas.  She managed to keep it simple with no baking this year, unless you include mummy sausages.

Soon after Alex and Ian were stillborn, we started our tradition of a lunch on the day (or nearby) each year in their memory.  At first it was just a birthday lunch of sorts but over the years it has morphed into a Halloween themed lunch because the kids love it.   Their birthday, 1 November, is the Day of the Dead in Mexico is a day to honour dead children and infants so I assume it is not so unusual to have a Halloween lunch on this date each year to remember dead babies there but I am not sure many others do this in Melbourne.

The accidental inclusion in the Halloween lunch was the mushroom skull pizza that Sylvia made the previous night.  She had seen it on social media and wanted to try it.  We used quite small button mushrooms which were quite shrunken on the first night and even harder to find in the crispy pizza pieces that I reheated the next day.

Sylvia found that a metal straw was the best for the eyes, a skewer to make nostril holes and a knife to make the teeth marks on the stems.  This meant quite a bit of cleaning out a metal straw with a skewer and a thin bottle cleaner for straws.  It was a year of straw cleaning as you will see below.

Here is Sylvia's piece de resistance.  She found the Ghost Face shaped brie on social media and decided she must make it.  It looks impressive is quite simple.  A round of brie is carved into the famous face from the Scream movie franchise.  Holes are made for the face that are then filled with jam.  Blackberries around it add to the effect.  It is the perfect centrepiece for a cheese and fruit board.

Fortunately I had made some blackberry chia jam (based on this recipe) earlier in the week.  It was just the thing for the eyes, nostrils and mouth.  Chia jam is easy and far more fruity than sugary compared to regular jam and I much preferred it here.  Honestly I find that Ghost Face really creepy, though I am not sure I have ever seen Scream.  But there was something quite fun about doing it this way.

While Sylvia was the creative genius behind all the platters I helped with some chopping and arrangements.  Even then I did not feel there was much for me to chop once Sylvia had made all her Halloween pieces.  Which was probably just as well because I spent a lot of the morning giving the lounge room a much-needed clean.

This platter was to be our vegies and fruit platter but once I had added some cherry tomatoes and chopped some nectarines (praise be the arrival of stone fruit in our supermarkets!) I realised there was not much room once we had added all Sylvia's preparations.  I have already mentioned the mushroom ghost pizza above.  It also had cucumber ghosts, carrot ghosts, banana ghosts, hotdog mummies (made previously) and vampire doughnuts.

The vampire doughuts were a social media idea that involved squeezing plastic vampire teeth into a ring doughnut.  The doughnuts were brought along by E close to when we were to start lunch and Sylvia found it quite challening to fit the teeth into the hole (we had chosen the Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts for a bigger hole than other doughnuts we saw).  We also had to hunt down our candy eyes which were in the first place Sylvia looked but sometimes we need to look a few times!  I thought they were cute but looked more like grandpa doughnut than vampire doughnut.

Sylvia also wanted to make ghosts of cucumbers and carrots with two different sized metal straws.  She discovered that tiny pieces of carrot are very difficult to get out a a metal straw but she managed to clean them out.  She also made ghosts out of bananas and choc chips.

As so often happens, we ran out of energy and didn't make as much as planned.  There just wasn't time to make the apple slices with rice bubble teeth and fruit roll up tongues not to do the smores with chocolate covered digestives, marshmallows and candy eyeballs on top of the melted marshmallow.

Another easy Halloween snack was the baguettes with black olive spiders on a pesto and cream cheese mixture.  They were really tasty
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Here is our cat Shadow eyeing off the olive spiders.  He loves to bat at a spider or insect if it comes his way so I have an idea what he might have been thinking.  

I didn't take photos of Sylvia's punch but it was lovely with all the food.  (It usually has a good handful of mint but not this year when the mint in our garden was parched.)  She used apricot nectar, pineapple juice, ginger ale and sparkling water.

Finally we sliced up the delicious black forest cake that my mum had made the previous day to give it time to absorb the cherry juice and soften.  It was really good but very filling after all our snacking the platters.  A fine lunch was had by all.

On the Stereo:
When the Pawn... - Fiona Apple