Chickpea, peach and pumpkin curry

Even when I try to meal-plan my plans go astray.  I chanced upon Jack Monroe's Peach and Chickpea Curry.  It used tinned stewed peaches.  But it is stone fruit season here so I thought I would use fresh peaches.  The I realised the flesh on my ripe peaches would dissolve in no time and the skins would float in the curry.  Luckily I remembered some stewed peaches rejected by Sylvia that I could use instead.  Then I tinkered with the recipe to use up vegies in the fridge and my curry was complete.  And delicious!

The curry is slightly sweet but in a savoury and spicy way.  I served it with brown rice.  (For those who read a previous curry post about my brown rice tin being emptied to save a shaver that had gone into the water, yes the shaver survived!  Phew!)  I also used up the last of some rocket just so we could have a bit of greenery.  You can probably see that this is not a traditional Indian curry but more the sort that the Anglo world used to make in the 1970s.  As I am quite fond of some retro food, I really loved this.

I still had the fresh peaches so I stewed these for breakfasts.  I have been doing well this summer in rescuing any stone fruit that is getting a bit soft and neglected by stewing it.  Home stewed fruit is far superior to the bought sort.  Except when it comes to this curry.  As stone fruit season never lasts long enough, I am sure we will soon have more tinned peaches in the house if only just to make this curry again. 

I am sending this curry to Healthy Vegan Fridays, Meat Free Mondays, My Legume Love Affair and No Waste Food Challenge.

More fruit in curried dishes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Banana curry (gf, v)
Chickpea and potato curry with mango chutney (gf, v)
Curried apple soup (gf)
Pumpkin samosas with nectarine marmalade and raita (v)
Sausage curry casserole with pineapple (v)
Watermelon curry (gf, v)

Chickpea peach and pumpkin curry
Adapted from Jack Monroe
Serves 4-6

splash of oil
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 heaped tsp dried cumin
1 tsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp seeded mustard
1 tsp chilli paste
400g tin diced tomatoes
350g pumpkin, peeled, seeded and chopped
400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
250g tinned stewed peaches
1 1/2 tsp vegetable stock powder
1/4 cup water

Fry onion, carrot and celery in oil over medium heat until softening.  Add garlic, cumin, ginger, seeded mustard, chilli paste and continue frying for about a minute.  Stir in tomatoes, pumpkin, chickpeas, peaches, stock powder and water.  Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

On the stereo:
Music of the Kabarett: Various Artists

Queen Victoria Summer Night Market 2017

We often celebrate Burns Night at our place because E is Scottish.  But when I found that Sylvia would be at a sleepover and E at ukulele practice I decided to go the Queen Victoria Night Market for tea.  I find crowds so much easier to negotiate alone.  The vegetarian options were a tyranny of choice.  I looked for some unusual dishes to try but did return to some favourites.

We love the Coburg Night Market 2016 that is held weekly in December.  It is the little sister of the night market at the sprawling Queen Victoria Market which is held from November to March on Wednesday evenings.  Actually only a few sheds are open during the night market.  Yet, there are still so many stalls that it is still overwhelming.  I focused mainly on the food stalls, with barely any energy left for the craft stalls.

It must be about 10 years since I last went to the Queen Vic Night Market with my parents and siblings.  We found a table where we ate our tea all those years ago.  On this visit I did not like my chances of finding a seat.  There are many seats and even more bottoms searching for a place of rest.  I went with the street food vibe and ate on the go.

Firstly I wandered around to see every stall, which is far easier to do when alone.  While some of the stalls were the sort of dishes I am familiar with - such as paella, falafel, noodles, dumplings, cheese toasties and vegan curry - I was curious about some others. 

It was fun just checking out each menu.  (Usually Sylvia or E are keen to move along.)  I really loved the look of the stalls with the Victorian brickwork behind them.  I would have loved to try the following:

• Raclette fondue's La Traditionelle (sauted potato with herbs, cornichons, salad, melted cheese for $11).
• Souvas' Vegetarian meal (zucchini rissoles with chips, lettuce, tomato, onion and spicy capsicum sauce for $10).
• Nunu's mushroom and leek dumplings (I think these were 3 for $12).
• Three Ethiopian curries with injera bread at the Injera Hut for $10.
• Boss Man Food's jerk roasted corn on the cob for $6.
• Most of the dishes at Rice and Dice.

I was too full to try some of the above dishes, forgot about some and couldn't be bothered queuing for others.  I also decided to give Sylvia a call at her sleepover to see how she was going.  It took ages to make my way out of the shed.  It was incredibly busy.  I think I arrived about 6ish and it was already really busy and just got busier. 

The first place I stopped to eat was the wonderfully named Devils and Hoppers.  I had never heard of hoppers before but Faye had been excited about them and she is always on the ball with interesting food.  According to Wikipedia they also go by the name Appam and are Sri Lankan rice pancakes cooked in a bowl shape.  I had a plain hopper with dal ($4).  I spooned it into my hopper and rolled it up.  This was delicious.  I wasn't at all interested in the egg filled hoppers but would have liked to try the string hoppers (which are made with egg but I was told they could be vegan) if the queue was not so long.

The next dish I tried was The Cypriot Kitchen's Haloumi Chips, served with sesame black seeds, fresh herbs and your coice of sweet yoghurt sauce or beetroot tzatziki ($10).  I queued for ages and enjoyed watching the nimble dance of the many busy staff around each other.  They made a great theatre of calling out numbers when dishes were ready. 

Yet I was disappointed with my dish.  I think my expectations were a bit awry.  I had expected beetroot tzatziki that was chunky with lots of grated beetroot piled on the chips.  Instead it was a drizzle of light pink sauce.  The haloumi chips were really good but so salty that I could not eat many.  This was more of a side dish than I expected.  Good but I just couldn't even get through half of it.

My mouth was so salty that I went gasping to the Lemonade stall for a cool refreshing glass.  It was so welcome that I almost went back for a second glass.  I asked where the lemons came from and they said local but when I asked where the staff didn't know.  I was curious as there seem to have been less local lemons and limes about lately.

I loved looking at all the tempting desserts.  The pavolva stall with mini pavlovas and choose your own toppings seemed a great idea, if only I loved pavlova.  The New York waffles looked amazing as did the churros and the above Tim Tam Shake (Creamy chocolate ice cream stuffed with Tim Tam biscuits, topped with fresh cream, more Tim Tams and a Nutella Doughnut.  But why must they always douse these fancy shakes in cream! I was less enthused by the Dutch pancakes, Holy Cannoly and Mercato Gelati.

Instead of trying something new I went with my favourite Queen Vic comfort food; the jam doughnut from the American Doughnut Kitchen van.  I still think they are the bestest doughnuts ever and have such happy childhood memories of these doughnuts.  (Thanks to my dad for passing on that love!) 

I remember in high school being taken by a friend's parents to the Queen Vic Market and having churros.  It was my first experience of churros.  I think until then I had not even realised they existed.  I liked them but they seemed so foreign and odd compared to the jam doughnuts that are one of my first culinary loves1

And then I was still peckish so I went to Rice and Dice.  It was hard to choose what to eat.  They have the amazing Indian nachos that I had at the Coburg Night Market late last year but I remember how filling they were.  Everything looked really good - the masala, the dumplings, the noodles.

I went for the stuffed roti with curry vegetables.  It came with a yoghurt sauce and was delicious.  I had been worried that the curry vegetables would be drippy but they weren't at all.  They were a wee bit spicy but nothing to bother me too much.

I also bought some Bretzel large soft pretzels to take home for the next day.  I think Sylvia and E might have liked a sweet one but I really love the plain salted ones. 

There is lots more to see, especially lots of craft and clothes shops that I didn't get a chance to visit because it was too late by the time I finished checking out all the food,  I did notice that, like the food, there were a few familiar stalls from the Coburg Night Market.

There were lots of rainbow flags for Gay pride, some colourful dragons for Chinese New Year but nothing about Burns Night at the market.  And for that little bit of quirkiness, I passed a guitar paying Dark Vader busker on the way to take the tram home.  I'd love to get back to the Night Market but there are not many weeks left before it closes as the cooler weather comes to Melbourne. 

Summer Night Market
Queen Victoria Market 
Corner Queen Street and Therry Street
Wednesday nights 5-10pm
16 November 2016 to 8 March 2017
http://www.thenightmarket.com.au/

In my kitchen - February 2017

While January is a start up month, February always signifies that the year really and truly has begun.  Everyone has forgotten new year's resolutions, the kids are back to school and we are all waiting for summer to be over!  While I didn't post a lot of recipes in January, I have made lots of meals and tried to take quick snaps of a lot of these.  As well as a few other bits and bobs.

The top photo is Broccoli and spinach soup from Tinned Tomatoes.  I tweaked it slightly to adjust to what was in the fridge.  It was gloriously green and tasty but a lot thinner than I expected.  So I put in some sushi seasoned rice on the first night.  After that it thickened slightly and I enjoyed drinking it out of a mug.

I bought this Praise 99% fat free coleslaw dressing because it is egg free.  It made me think I really should go to some health food shops and buy a decent vegan mayonnaise.  Meanwhile, it has been great for salads in summer, such as this pasta, bean and tofu bacon salad I made a few weeks back.

We gave Sylvia this pack of Harry Potter playing cards for Christmas.  She just loves it.  I looked up a game that I played as a kid called Follow the Ace.  It is like Uno but with playing cards.  I thanked my uncle for teaching it to me.  He could not remember it.  Now I am not sure who taught me.  It has been a good game for the holidays.

While most of my camembert went onto tarts, I had a little leftover.  It went into this most excellent salad roll with purple coleslaw, spinach, grated carrot.

I served the last of my orange baked tofu with beetroot and lentil salad, coleslaw, cherry tomatoes, and olives.  A most pleasing meal.

It has been a while since I have photographed Sylvia's meals.  I need to make more meals that she can share with us but some days she still has her dinner plain.  She continues to love tofu and is quite taken with the Japanese seasoned tofu we buy at the supermarket.  On this day she also had cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber (her favourite vegetables of the moment) and the original barbecue shapes.  I can't think why Arnotts changed the barbecue shapes seasoning but it was so unpopular that now they have the silly situation of selling the new version and the original version.

And I want to point out the flowery headband in the photo.  It was bought at Pumpkin Patch.  I am quite sad about their stores closing.  We had one day in the holidays where we managed to go to their closing down sales in both DFO and Highpoint and made quite a few bargain purchases, including the headband.

On the same day we bought the headband, we had quite a shopping spree buying clothes and sandals for Sylvia as well as this pair of Anolon frypans.  I really love my Scanpan frypan but it has got old and tatty on the surface.  Reading about the dangers of non-stick cookware recently has made me less comfortable with the wear and tear on the surface.  This one claims to be PFOA free but it seems there are other chemicals to be aware of too.

Here is another colourful bowl of food.  I have been making a few meals from But I Could Never Go Vegan.  This bowl includes the sunflower sausage from the cookbook.  This sausage is really tasty and the texture is surprisingly meaty and a goo substitute for mince meat.  I have used some in pasta with a tomato sauce and it worked really well.   My bowl dinner  also includes leftover potato salad, leftover pasta, grated carrot, cherry tomatoes and baby spinach. 

I recently posted about my curry made with this chickpea tofu.  It was quite fortuitous finding this packet of tofu in the supermarket.  Having read some of the comments, I am now keen to try making the tofu myself.  But I have been saying that about soy tofu for years.  One day ....

I think it must have been Australia Day bringing out the patriot in me that prompted an orgy of Aussie classic products.  I don't know that I have ever bought a packet of Arnotts Assorted Creams before.  I can sing the song and have eaten plenty of them.  I can confirm that the orange creams are always the last to go.  Though I don't know where the melting moments went!  Also in the purchases are Cheezels, Barbecue Shapes (the Originals), Vegemite Cheeseybite snacks, and a pumpkin, caramelised onion and cashew dip that was nice.

The roses in the front garden are blooming.  Here is one that came indoors.

Finally I tried a vegan chicken nugget recipe last week.  The artichoke and chickpea filling intrigued me.  It was a lot of work for the crumbly nuggets that did not please Sylvia and did not taste much like chicken.  Too much polenta in them I think which made them sandy textured.  The only thing that pleased me was that I decided to use some sourdough starter in the recipe. 

However the leftover nuggets were great when chopped up on a pizza with mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, cheese and rocket.  One of the best pizzas I have made in quite some time.


I am sending this post to Lizzy of Bizzy Lizzy's Good Things for the In My Kitchen event, that was started by Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial,  If you would like to join in, send your post to Lizzy by 10 February .  Or just head over to her blog to peek into more kitchens.

Chickpea tofu and pea curry

During the holidays, I found chickpea tofu in the supermarket and was curious.  Once I purchased it, I was unsure how to feature it.  A few weeks later I opened it to make this tofu and pea curry.  It stank.  At first I thought it might be off.  But I forged ahead and loved the curry.

We are very used to soy-based tofu in our house.  Sylvia often tries to swipe some of it while I cut it up to eat straight from the packet.  When she smelled the chickpea tofu, she turned up her nose and didn't want anything to do with it.  Given that the finished product was delicious, I wonder if the smell was just different to what we know.  The texture was also different.  Chickpea tofu was less rubbery and a bit more crumbly.  As it is the only packet I have tried, I really should buy it again to check it is the chickpea tofu characteristic and not just that batch.  Stay tuned!

I really loved this curry.  It reminded me of this spicy pea curry but I enjoyed the addition of tofu.  I am sure it would work with regular soy tofu as well as chickpea tofu.  The curry was very creamy and tasty.  I used less ginger, no pepper (I don't like too much spice), no bay leaf (I felt lazy), fried onion instead of raw (it was there), powdered garlic rather than fresh (as I had none).  The recipe below reflects what I would be most likely to do.

I served the curry with a lentil and sweet potato curry that was like a dal and some basmati rice.  I might have served brown rice but I had been cleaning the shower and knocked E's electric shaver into a bucket of water.  So the shaver went into a tub of brown rice rather than the brown rice going into dinner.

I ate my curry in front of the tennis.  The Australian Open is one of the few times in the year that I have any urge to watch sport on tv.   And by the time I had the curries and rice ready, Sylvia had gone to bed and E was at ukulele practice.  So I just sat back and enjoyed my curry to the sounds of summer: the thwack of the ball on raquet, the drone of the umpire's voice and sneakers squeaking on the court.  The tennis is now over and I am looking forward to some decent tv starting up again.

I am sending this curry to Meat Free Mondays, Healthy Vegan Fridays, Gluten Free Fridays and Eat Your Greens.

More easy curries on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Banana curry (gf, v)
Chickpea and potato curry with mango chutney (gf, v)
Easy dahl (gf, v)
Spicy pea curry (gf, v)
Spinach and chickpea curry (gf, v)
Watermelon curry (gf, v)

Tofu and pea curry
Adapted from Everyday Healthy Recipes
Serves 4

2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
250-300g tofu
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely grated ginger
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp each cumin powder and turmeric
400g can of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon flaked sea salt
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup coconut milk

Cut tofu into cubes.  Season and fry in 1 tbsp oil until golden brown.

Fry onion, garlic, ginger, garam masala, cumin and turmeric for a few minutes.  Add tomato and salt.  Simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir in peas and coconut milk.  Once peas defrost remove from heat.

NOTES: I found the mixture quite salty when I added the tsp of flaked salt.  Once it had cooked and had peas and coconut added it tasted wonderful.  I didn't include onions when frying up spices because I had fried onions leftover from another meal and used them.  I don't like a really spicy curry but if your tastes differ, you may want to add chillis, pepper and/or coriander.  I used chickpea tofu and sprinkled it with curry powder, salt and pepper, and tossed it about before frying.

On the Stereo:
The Days of Our Nights: Lunar 

Ginger beer and school holidays

Today marked the end of the summer school holidays.  We spent the day traipsing around the shops for new school dresses and a new ipad.  (Can you believe that Grade 3s require ipads at Sylvia's school).  But before Term 1 starts and we get back into routine, I wanted to write a little about the holidays, complete with lashings of ginger beer!

At the start of the holidays, with no plans to go away, it seemed that there was oodles of time.  It is hard to believe that the holidays have passed in the blink of an eye.  Sylvia had a few play dates, a dentist visit and sleepovers at my parents, I did quite a bit of paid work and caught up with a few friends.

I enjoyed a few visits to family in Geelong.  This was my opportunity to get to the beach.  One evening at Western Beach it was fish and chips from King George Fish and Grill which did excellent chips and potato cakes.  We left the first place because at 6pm they had run out of potato cakes.

On another occasion we went to Torquay Front Beach with my nephew, niece and sister-in-law.  We watched the helicopters circling overhead and the water emptying of swimmers with caution.  The lifesavers weren't emptying the beach at nearby Cosy Corner.  But we were not surprised when my brother phoned to let us know there was a shark at the Back Beach.  That day I also got sunburnt and slow traffic past a grass fire.  Sharks, sunburn and fires seemed to tick all the hazards of an Aussie summer!

I missed the quiet of a holiday house to relax with a good book.  Yet we managed some reading at home.  I read Hannah Kent's The Good People which was a grim but fascinating story of poverty and pagan traditions in pre-famine Ireland.  It was cheering to follow it with Judith Will's wonderfully titled Keith Moon Stole My Lipstick.  It was a fun memoir about her working and meeting celebrities at a pop magazine in the 1960s and 1970s.  I also enjoyed reading Sylvia A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee.

In the news we had the local horror of a man driving down with nurderous intent through the Bourke Street pedestrian mall in Melbourne; the national scandal of politicians travel rorts; the sorry state of USA politics as Trump took up his post as president and continued to show a stunning lack of empathy; and the ups and downs in the Australian Open tennis championships.

Spending more time at home than over the last few summers, meant we got to do more about the house.  We painted the backyard mural and spent some time on small improvements to Sylvia's room.  It also meant more time for card games, board games, and for Sylvia to potter about.  I really loved this little picnic scene she created for a green giraffe.

We didn't get out and about as much as I had intended.  We were just too busy most of the time.  I will share more about Moonlight Cinema and The Queen Vic Night Market soon.  I was very excited to be able to visit the Golden Gaytime Crumb Shed in the city.  I still haven't got over my childhood love of Golden Gaytimes.  At the crumb shed they were doing fancy versions and I had a Crumb Choc Millionaire coated with chocolate crumb, smashed potato crisps, desiccated coconut, blue sprinkles, and edible glitter.  It was really good.

Last night I went to see Edge of Seventeen at the cinema with a friend.  It was a good angsty teen drama (complete with boy next to me in cinema with body odour to really give that teen experience).  We had actually intended to see Lion but it was sold out.  So I ate laksa at Shakahari while we waited to see a later movie.  Other films we saw over the holidays at the cinema were La La Land, Sing and Ballerina.  All lots of fun.

We did get along to quite a few cafes.  Today Sylvia and I saw out the holidays with a visit to the Glass Den.  I just loved the pretty Peach and Avo Bruschetta (lime and lemongrass avocado, with peach, mint heirloom capsicum, cherry tomatoes, baby mizuna, beetroot hummus and almond feta served on crisp charcoal loaf).  It is the most memorable meal of the holidays.

I also enjoyed a vegan meatball sub at Mr Nice Guy, the Golden Gaytime Deth Shake at Curators Collective, tacos at The Snug, and waffles at the Boot Factory.  And a few stops for inari at sushi shops with Sylvia.

January was not a good month for posting recipes.  I didn't cook anything for Burns Night or Australia Day this year.  I made some really nice food (and will share some when I write up my next In My Kitchen post), tried some recipes from But I Will Never Go Vegan, but it was not a month that was memorable for making amazing recipes to share.

Given we were very busy, it is no surprise that one recipe I really loved was a simple one.  This ginger beer recipe was in a supermarket magazine. It appealed because it didn't need to sit around for ages or to be strained.  It was just a matter of mixing everything together and pouring it into a bottle the next day, minus the sludge at the bottom.

The result was really good.  I was surprised how these simple ingredients list resulted in a taste like Bundaberg ginger beer.  (Not like ginger ale which I prefer and is a little less sweet.)  We had it with lunch and felt quite fancy.

The main change I would like would be to add less water so I could make up half ginger beer and half soda water for fizziness.  My mum tells me you just need to ferment it for fizziness.  I don't have the room for storing bottles that may explode.  Not even under the bed, which my mum tells me is traditional.  I also wondered about some extra spices, given how much I love the Christmas spiced Bundaberg ginger beer.

For now I have ticked another recipe off my to do list.  I still feel terribly behind but there is so much to do and so little time.  Just in case you have some time, I leave you with some of the holiday reading I had found enjoyable and/or interesting:

• Alternative Scottish Fusion Burns Supper - Allotment to Kitchen: Shaheen has links to lots of fun variations on vegetarian haggis dishes as well as some interesting background information on Rabbie Burns.
• Tim Wu interview - The Internet is a classic party that went sour - The Guardian: "The great mistake of the web’s idealists was a near-total failure to create institutions designed to preserve that which was good about the web (its openness, its room for a diversity of voices and its earnest amateurism), and to ward off that which was bad (the trolling, the clickbait, the demands of excessive and intrusive advertising, the security breaches)."
• Kittens on Pinterest: we have a kitten at our neighbour's so when I saw a kittens board on Pinterest, E and Sylvia enjoyed going all gooey over the cute pictures!
• Kids and Television - How to Influence What They Learn - Hey Sigmund: Research has been done on how to get the most out of kids watching television and the results are simple and common sense: "When parents watch television with their children, the capacity of those children to learn from what they see increases."
• English bubble physicist Helen Czerski says Donald Trump is a Magic Pill - The Age: An article which says Trump seems like a magic pill but there is no such thing: "Life – stuff like climate change and pandemics and antibiotic resistance – is complicated, and even the most agile science communicators can't make it simple."
• Wesley Enoch wont censor Sydney Festival's Australia Day activities - The Australian: high profile Indigenous director, Wesley Enoch reflects on if we should change the date of Australia Day: “What’s more important? That we have a meaningful discussion and debate about what it means to be Australian, and remember the First Peoples on that day, and acknow­ledge past wrongs.”

More summer drinks on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Apricot and passionfruit smoothie (gf)
Chilled apple green tea (gf, v)
Lemonade (gf, v)
Limeade (gf, v)
Lime Spiders (gf)
Tropical orange and carrot smoothie (gf, v) 

Ginger Beer
From Woolworth Fresh magazine December 2016

3/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice (bit less than one medium lemon)
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried yeast
1.25l boiling water*
fresh mint leaves and ice blocks, to serve

Place all ingredients in large saucepan, cover loosely and leave over night at room temperature.  The next morning, skim off any, skim off any scum and pour into a bottle in fridge with at least 4cm space at the top (we used a 2 litre bottle and had plenty of room).  Discard the sediment at the bottom of the saucepan.  Store in the fridge.  Serve with ice blocks and mint leaves if desired.

*NOTES: next time I make this I might experiment with adding a bit more than half the water and then serving it with half ginger beer and half soda water to make it fizzy.

On the Stereo:
Remember Us to Life: Regina Spector

Cranberry and camembert tarts - using leftover cranberry sauce

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date", as the Bard once wrote.  And so the School Holidays are almost over and Term 1 of another year is almost upon us.  Alas I still have fruit mince and cranberry sauce in my fridge.  So in the interest of sharing some leftover ideas, here are the very simple cranberry and camembert tarts I made soon after Christmas.

I have been meaning to make them again with another cheese but am yet to do it.  They are delicious but not quite the healthy eating we all promise ourselves after Christmas.  But a lovely wintery snack.  And who knows, my cranberry sauce might last that long.  So before summer and this recipe fades into the mists of time, here is it.

Actually it is too simple to really need a recipe.  I just cut a square of ready-rolled puff pastry into six rectangles, spread with cranberry sauce and topped with slices of camembert.  I think I baked them for about 20 minutes at 200 C or until the pastry was golden and the cheese was melting and bubbly.

Thanks to The Baking Explorer for inspiration from her Brie Cranberry Tartlets.  Here is some more inspiration:

More recipes to use up cranberry sauce on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Baked brie with cranberry sauce and walnuts (gf)
Cheese, cranberry and thyme muffins
Cranberry and orange glazed tofu (gf, v)
Parsnip, cranberry and chestnut roast

More recipes to use up leftover cranberry sauce elsewhere online:
Brie, pear and cranberry pizza bread - Cook the story
Cranberry black pepper sweet rolls - Daily waffle
Cranberry sauce apple crisp - Just Taste
Sweet potato pancakes with maple cranberry sauce - $5 dinners

On the Stereo:
Set List: The Frames

Curators Collective, Queens Park, Moonee Ponds

"The pigeons stole our gaytime deth shake!" I texted E as we were having lunch at Curators Collective in Moonee Ponds.  Honestly, you couldn't make it up!  And when you saw how cute the cottage is, you would not expect such things of lunch.  I am happy to report that, pigeons aside, it was a really nice place to stop for lunch.

We had first gone there the previous week with a friend and her kids.  As we had arrived we had been shocked to see two little girls sitting at a table watching a pigeon pecking at the lunch their mother had walked away from.  But we had not had any birds too close to use.

Soon we were seated at a shady table.  The service was friendly with our waitress making sure there were enough chairs.  Sylvia was excited to see waffles on the menu, I wanted something savoury and Kathleen's son was off finding turtles in the nearby lake.  There was something for everyone and we all enjoyed their meals.

I ordered the Fat HashBrown, which was a potato and caramelised onion hashbrown served with chipotle mayo, pickled beetroot, poached eggs and pea tendril salad.  However I asked for the vegan version and instead of the egg I had a vegetarian sausage and half an avocado.  It was very satisfying.  I really loved the hashbrown with the beetroot pickle.  It had great flavour, even though the hashbrown softened under the pickle.  And there was plenty of healthy greenery.

Kathleen chose Dr Marty's Crumpets which came with strawberries, icecream and strawberry sauce.  They were pretty to look at and she was very happy with her choice.  She also ordered a tea.  When it came she was told to sit the infuser teapot over her cup and count to three - no more as the tea came out quickly.  She counted a little slowly and her cup was brimming over.  It was a slightly tricky sort of teapot - fun but not intuitive.  We decided the cups needed to be glass so you could see them filling up.

Sylvia zoomed in on the waffles topped with Nutella chocolate sauce, blueberries, vanilla ice cream and chocolate soil.  She was swooning over them and not inclined to share much.  We loved them so much that when passing by a week later we stopped there and she ordered the waffles again.  This time I got more of a look in and agreed that the chocolate sauce was very good.

On our second visit I indulged in a Golden Gaytime Deth Shake.  My favourite ice cream when I was little was a Golden Gaytime with butterscotch ice cream coated by chocolate and biscuit crumbs.  So I ordered this again my inclinations.  It is a salted caramel milkshake, whole golden gaytime, Persian fairy floss, cookie crumble, chocolate and caramel sauce.

My hesitations were that I know I am no fan of caramel milkshakes.  Even chocolate milkshakes are usually a bit milky but caramel are way too milky for me.  And really either an ice cream or a milkshake is more than enough.  But it was a Golden Gaytime.  So I ordered it.  And went to get a spoon for Sylvia.

As I was waiting for service, the waitress said she had to rescue a little girl from the pigeons.  I turned to see those blooming pigeons pecking away at the end of my golden gaytime that I had placed on the top of the jar.  The waitress sprayed water on the pigeons to shoo them away and left the water with us in case they came back.  (Surely this is not what they meant in the commercials that claimed "it's so hard to have a gaytime on your own".) 

Luckily I had eaten a little of my gaytime already.  When I decided just to cut off a big wedge of end that the pigeons had eaten, Sylvia told me they had pecked all around it!  Argh!  She had already eaten my fairy floss.  So we ate the biscuit crumbed chocolate around the top of the jar, which was nutella and very nice.  But I sort of lost interest in the shake.

The above photo of the pigeons in our plates was taken after we left the table when they were there before you could say Gaytime deth shake!

The pigeons are the downside of eating in the middle of the park.  The upside is that it is a really pretty location with lots of lovely plants and mosaics and the lake to walk around.  On the other side of the lake is a good wooden park.  It was really busy in the school holidays.  We have been on other occasions when it wasn't quite so busy.  (We visited the cafe back in 2011 when it was called Oliver's Garden Cafe.)

As well as the park over the other side of the lake, there is a toddler's playground by the side of the cafe.  No wonder there are so many families.  There is also a window for takeaway food.  I know they sell ice creams but can't remember what else.  And there is seating inside for the cooler months.  If you want a lunch, there is a vegan burger that looks good.  The place is not cheap but it does some interesting food and is in a great location for families.

Curators Collective
778 Mt Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds
(03) 9042 4560
http://curatorscollective.com/