Grilled chicken, haloumi and zucchini salad

I just uploaded this picture, and it makes me want to cook this dish right now and eat it. Maybe I'll make it for lunch.

I made this for the man-of-the-house and myself for our evening meal a few nights ago. Luckily I happened to have lots of yummy ingredients in the fridge and pantry that I was able to combine in this salad, such as haloumi cheese, olives and ripe avocado - three of my very favourite foods to eat. 

I think maybe I had a hankering to eat something green; sometimes that happens to me, I just need to sit and eat a large bowl of salad. Maybe it is my body's way of getting the vitamins and minerals I need. Either way, this salad hit to spot. I added in some fresh peppermint and basil and made a lemony dressing really add some 'zing' to the flavours. Very, very tasty indeed.

Lemon curd and raspberry brioche pudding

Ok, serious dessert business here people. An absolute delight to eat, and not too difficult to make. I whipped this up while I had guests sitting at the table. It took about 10 minutes to put together, then 30 minutes in the oven. I served the dish to the table and everyone helped themselves with a good splodge of mascarpone. There were seconds eaten....speaks for itself really!

Toasted waffles with custard berry cream pots

This is a complete cheat's dessert. Pick up a few ingredients from the shop and you can whip this up in about five minutes. The only 'cooking' required is the toasting of the waffles in the toaster. The rest is just 'placement' of the ingredients. But, it still looks very pretty and of course, tastes good.

You could easily make the custard berry cream pots a few hours before and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve. I think this would be a great dessert for a dinner party - it is visually stunning, but doesn't take too much effort. The perfect recipe for when you want to sit with your guests not be in the kitchen all evening.

Morrocan braised beef and pears

I picked up a jar of Moroccan spice mix at a shop recently. I had to go to another country to get it, but it was only an hour away - did I tell you how much I love living in Europe? 

Being in another country in an hour - how remarkable!

I was rather excited about this little jar of spices - paprika, rose petals, coriander seeds, garlic, chilli, pepper, mint, all beautiful spices. The smell alone takes me to a special place and evokes wonderful memories of a little Morrocan cafe we used to visit when we lived inner-city in Brisbane, Australia. A long time ago, before children even. Tagines, yoghurt, lamb dishes perfectly cooked with tasty fruit-based sauces. In my opinion, the Moroccans are responsible for some of the tastiest food on the planet. 

Back to the food. My first outing with the newly-acquired spice jar was the following recipe. A lovely braised beef dish with pears and Moroccan spices. Now, beef with pears might sound a bit strange, but I wanted the dish to be a little sweet and I had some rather sad looking pears in the fruit bowl that had been bashed about in my shopping trolley. They were ripe, sweet and perfectly edible, but had a few brown spots, so the children were a bit turned off. So into the cooking pot they went. Of course the pears disintegrated to make a lovely sauce, but the lovely sweet flavour permeated the beef and made from the usual tomato-based sauces that sometimes I get a bit bored with.

This is a dish for a cool Autumn weekend afternoon. You'll need at least three hours for the cooking time so that the beef is melt-in-the-mouth. And your neighbours will be jealous as you will  have some delicious aromas coming from your house.

I suggest you open a bottle of red wine  to help you pass the time - just for the pure please of it.

Pumpkin and feta strudel

Living in Austria, of course strudel is on many restaurant menus - the traditional apple, the less common berry and sometimes 'topfen' which is like a local cottage cheese. Even though the strudel originated next door in Hungary, the Austrians have adopted this as the national food. Certainly if you come to Vienna, you must try one, with lots of fresh cream and maybe even a rum hot chocolate in the winter.

I made this vegetable version of a strudel, using in-season pumpkin and feta cheese. This was a tasty side dish for our grilled steaks. The leftovers kept well for lunch the next day.

Zucchini, carrot and pine nut salad with a tangy dressing

I've met quite a few people who have a pathological aversion
to zucchini/courgette - the man of the house being one of these. Usually this is because their mothers or grandmothers served it up as a boiled, over-cooked mush when they were young.

Boiled zucchini is not an appetising dish, no matter how you might flavour it.

If you want your family to eat zucchini, try this recipe out. It is fresh, crunchy and tastes really good. Serve as an accompaniment to grilled meat, fish or as a side dish with pasta.