NO FUSS!

Cooking with confidence, simply use the ingredients you have readily on hand.  Create good food and No-Fuss.

Mixed Barley Soup
The soup mixed is at hand, the meat stock from the freezer and the vegetables are what we got of the fridge.  Use these ingredients to make delicious home cooking style soup for winter.

A substantial soup, lots of vegetables and mixed barley, flavoured with fresh herbs and saffron.  To serve the soup, garnished with chorizo.

Mix Barley and Vegetable Soup

Red meat is essential for our diet, we must have it at least once a week.  Our red meat intake is not often, once every two weeks is sufficient.  A lazy day for red meat cooking is steaks served with greens and mustard butter dressing.

TBone-Steak with Mustard and Butter Sauce

Cook the steak for two minutes each side (depend to the thickness
of the steak.  At the last cooking time, add cubes of butter, fresh
herb, baste the steak well.  Transfer the steak on a plate, put it
in a hot oven for 4-5 minutes. In the meantime, add mustard on
to the frying pan, season with the salt.  Pour the mustard dressing
on to the steak, garnished with sauteed mushroom, asparagus
and leafy greens.  Sweet and Scrumptious.

The steak cooked to perfection.

Other red meat we love is lamb meat, and we can choose the cut that is cooked quickly.  Kangaroo meat is an excellent red meat, get the steak for easy and quick cooking.  This meat can be done with quick-cooking technique, and as the flavours, use more spices, hot chilli and fresh herbs.

Chocolate
Chocolate, 85% cocoa butter, dark chocolate.  It is so good if you love pure fine chocolate, but the taste is bitter.
Got one of those, but It was not popular in my family, but I could make the best of it.  I baked a chocolate fudge based on the recipe by Mary Berry.  No need flour, almond-meal instead.  I did half of the recipe, it's just enough for our small family.

 Chocolate Fudge with Pistachio Topping.

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Pastry

Keeping pastry sheets in the freezer is very handy.  Whether it is homemade or bought one such as puff pastry.  The last one I baked egg and cheese pie was last month for our dear friend who has been unwell.  The cheeses: Fetta and Parmesan are always here in the refrigerator as well as the eggs.  To do the pie was easy peasy.  The preparation up to the finished product was only about 25 minutes.



Gardening in Winter.  No-Fuss?!

It is wintertime, cold and wet as expected, but lots job have to be done in the garden.  Pruning the roses is the hard one mainly if you are not fit.  No, not too worry.

Anyway, with difficulty, the roses are pruned with no fuss. It's not correctly done at all, happy with second best.

Rose Bushes and Standard are Pruned.  But a lot more to go, it may be finished by the end of the month.

It is good to be able to maintain the garden well throughout the year, being active is vital for our being, that what we must do.  Thinking of family and friends, I hope everyone is well and good in all season.

More Rose Plants need to be cared for.  No-Fuss, only Pruning.

The weeds are growing unapologetically, the rains helped them.  And look this good ground cover, no-fuss and growing very well.  Picked the flowers for the cake decoration, the only flowers are in the garden this month.  Thinking of Joan, my dear friend, it's her gift for our garden, it's a magic mark of friendship.

No-Fuss Sponge and Scone

Layer Chocolate, Cinamon Sponge Cake
Filled with Whipped Cream, dressed in
Chocolate Flakes, Sugared Ginger and
Glace Cherries

There are times that we all craving eating sweets.  A bottle of cream in the refrigerator needs to be used, ah ah, sponge cake or scones would do well with it.  Light chocolate and cinnamon sponge cake were baked without any fuss, all ingredients were there.  Four egg sponge is always right, that's what the sponge made off, as the spirit was no fuss, I was too relaxed, the sponge cake was baked two minutes over, instead of soft and fluffy, it's tight but not airy.  Overall, it's was pleasant to eat and glad it's shared with friends.

As for the scones, baked small scones, a tiny scone with jam and cream to be eaten in one go, without any fuss.

No-Fuss, taking sweets in moderation is the best way for everyone.  More so for us who must not take sugary food.

Sharing my cooking with is always in me, especially when the family-children come home, it can be blamed though, I got carry away must admit, as my children always say 'easy mum'!  A caring message!





No-Fuss, Cooking Protein for Winter

Chicken, cooking the whole bird is always the winner for my family.  This time, turmeric and fresh curry leaf, kaffir lime leaf to flavour the chicken.  A young or small size chicken is preferable.  First, loosen up the skin to place the herbs under the surface will be easier.  Rub the chicken with lime juice and salt thoroughly.  Place it on a cooking dish, add tablespoon turmeric powder all over and put some inside the cavity of the chicken as well.  Lastly, drizzle with some oil, and more lime juice over let it rest to marinate for two hours up to overnight.

Time to cook, using the stovetop, set up the burner at a low setting, cook the chicken over it, for 35 minutes, keep the lid on during that cooking time.  Use any cooking pot that you like, but I use my Tajine.  In my kitchen, lots of cooking could be done with it, it's not restricted to Morrocan food. Check the cooking from time to time, lift the lid briefly, to let the steam out and put it back. After 35 minutes finished, turn the chicken over, now the breast down.  Cover-lid on and continue cooking for 35 minutes over a lower heat.

 Serve the chicken with steamed rice, garnished with a salad, it's delicious.  This turmeric chicken is based on my daughter's cooking, now I remember, Melanie added some mustard to it, the spices were flavoured the chicken perfectly, it's so tasty.

Simple cooking, not fussy but very satisfying.  The best dish I ever did.  No-Fuss!


Fish-No Fuss
Nori Rolls
Last but not least, how about preparing delicious and healthy food without any Fuss!  This is what we had, steamed rice, smoked salmon steak, avocado, lettuce wrapped in Nori.  To Serve: place everything on a platter, let the family makes their own. Food, it is so fresh and yummy.  Almost eating Sushi Rolls in a relaxed way, ensemble-easy shaping.

No leftover, for this meal,  keep the refrigerator clean.

Pictured Left
The Ingredients: Rice, Nori, Avocado and the Smoked Salmon

The Preparation and Serving

Serve with dipping sauce or any flavour at your fancy.  No-Fuss dinner for us, we had it plain- no dressing at all.

Try the dish if you would. Quickly and easy to eat by hands; however, the nori is too hard to bite, so the dinner knife has to have it.


No-Fuss, food preparation and cooking is the best way for busy people, indeed for me too, as other things have to be attended as well.  Having food ingredients at hands or not but with an excellent organisation, we can cook with Confident.


No-fuss to carry out the tasks have had helped us throughout the winter season.



July,  the midwinter is almost over.
Susy

The Leftovers.

WISE  COOKING.
Using the best of the Leftovers.

Dried Fruits and Nuts

Muffin
Nuts, dried fruits and others to make the delicious muffins, makes 12 standard sizes and keep well in the freezer.  End of the year cooking.
No recipe.  What I did was using the leftover of Christmas food-dried fruits and nuts were not eaten, simply mix self-rising flour, melted butter, sugar, eggs and the mix fruits and top with the nuts prior the baking.  Baked in a hot oven for 16 minutes.

After Christmas is the time, we all be creative to make the best of the leftover.  Be ready now for the leftover Christmas in July.  From hot pies to delicious soup, you could do.

Steamed White Rice

Nasi Goreng

The leftover of white rice can be delicious to cook for nasi goreng, it is served for breakfast, typical food for Javanese family.  Cooking is no fuss for the people, in the morning they cook the rice from the previous night dinner.  It is a practical and economic reason I suppose, and also this is an easy way to reheat the rice.  By saying that, it does not mean that they have nasi goreng daily for their breakfast.

Bread 

Bread and Butter Pudding

Stale bread, a leftover from the fresh bread, I use them for making dry bread crumb, or it can be made a delicious sweet dish the bread and butter pudding.  Serve hot, warm or room temperature.

Tofu

Pancake Roll
Leftovers meat, tofu, slice them add with any vegetables and use for the filling of the pancakes.  Of course, you could prepare the filling from scratch all our fresh ingredients.
A blog of tofu is too big to be served at once for the family of two.  But you could be creative to make the best of the rest, and this is one of them to make the filling of pancakes.

Lamb Roast

Croquettes
Roast Dinners, often you have leftover meat, I use them for filling sandwiches or ground them, mixed with vegetables and cook croquettes, especially roasted potato that doesn't taste good to eat cold.

Susy Qrouquet

I think it is a good idea to make the best of the leftover for further cooking to have a new and delicious dish, indeed suited for thrifty cooks just like myself.  I am very proud to create new dishes of the leftover, this is my way to say thanks to all people who are involved in creating the food in the first place.
First, cut to small cubes, place in the food processor to grind to make fine mince, add in mashed potato, cooked carrot, mix together, add in one egg, season.  Shape into longish, deep in beaten egg, roll in panko bread crumb, fry in medium-hot oil until golden brown.  These croquettes are delicious and crispy outside.

Braised Meat in Red wine

Meat Pie

Delicious meat pie, made from the leftover of casseroles or braised meat in red wine.  You could make the pastry on your own, or buy the puff pastry.  We want to make the best of the leftover, I am happy enough using the best-bought pastry.  This is a great idea, my daughter made the pie with the leftover from the meat and red wine, I did not have a chance to taste it though.

Beef Casserole

A pot Pie

Any braised meat is good to make these pies.  I put the meat on a small pot - dariole and cover with shortcrust or puff crust pastry.  It is very ideal for people who are not able to eat lots of pastry.

Cold Roast Chicken

Sandwiches
Cold chicken, I use breast meat for sandwich filling.  Chop the meat finely, add some whole mustard and mayonnaise and mix together.  I do a roast chicken and serve these part, hot on the day, the leg, thigh and the wing. Use the breast part for the filling of sandwiches.  For yummy sandwiches, add egg and avocado.  Finger sandwiches with this filling are elegant to be served on any occasion.

 

Cold Turkey Breast

Pancake Pie

Pancake with Herbs

Leftover the Christmas Dinner is very precious, we always serve the best food for the celebration.  Christmas 2018 was lovely, spent the boxing day with Susan and her husband, Tris.  Beautiful Turkey buffet was one of the menus, and the leftover was indeed plenty.  We enjoyed it for cold meat served with salads and the rest I made this large parcel with turkey and almond filling, and the flavour based on Morrocon cooking 'Beestiya' or Pie.

Preparation of the Pie

Diced Turkey Breast

Ground Almond

Saffron is one of the
spices.

Wrapping the Filling.

The large parcel was full of the yummy filling, baked in a medium-hot oven until golden brown.
The pie had a crispy light pastry of the pancake, it was a delight to eat.

Serving

Sliced and served with a green salad

The Pancake Pie garnished with Fresh Oregano.

The pie served with a green salad.

These are what I do to the leftovers, I am a thrifty cook, do not like wasting.  Sharing my experience in the cooking of the leftovers, you may be interested.  Have fun and happy cooking!

Susy