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Today is Pi-day! 3.14, that is. So, since it's Pi-day, Magpie decided that we should have quiche for dinner. This quiche turned out to be a bona fide protein bomb and so, so tasty! You need: 300g chicken 300g smoked bacon about 4 medium sized mushrooms 1/4 of a large leek 4 eggs 1/4 litre of milk a handful of fresh thyme a handful of fresh chives salt and pepper pie crust (we cheated, because we're lazy people, and made it with pre-made buff pastry dough that we bought in the shop, but any pie crust will do) grated cheese 1. Switch the oven to 180*C. Depending on what type of pie crust you're using, you may want to dress your pie form in it and pre-bake it in the oven for about 10 minutes. 2. Chop up your chicken, bacon, mushrooms and leek. 3. Mix the eggs and milk in a bowl, adding salt, pepper, chopped thyme and chives. 4. Set a large frying pan to medium-high. Start with the mushrooms. If you're using a non-stick pan, you don't need any extra grease at all, and the mushrooms get really tasty. If you haven't got a non-stick pan, start with the bacon and you still won't need any extra grease, at least not if you haven't cut the fat away (and why would you?). When the bacon and mushrooms start to look half done, add the chicken. Add the leek last, after the chicken has started to cook, and let it all cook together until the chicken is done. 5. Put your filling in the pie crust, pour the egg and milk mix over and top with grated cheese. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Serve with a side salad. We used rocket leaf, cherry tomatoes and cucumber, and made a mustard vinaigrette from olive oil, balsamic vinegar and strong mustard, salt, pepper and some fresh thyme. Happy Pi-day!

Magpie's got a case of the Man Flu, which means that he's mostly lying on the couch whimpering and watching QI. When I asked him what he wanted for dinner today, he said, 'Lots and lots of food,' with roughly the coherence of your average hungry baby bird. I figured I'd better fix him a calorie bomb to give him some energy. So I went to the shop, had a look around and came up with a cunning plan. I'm very fond of Shepherd's Pie and its cousin, Cottage Pie (which is made with beef instead of lamb or mutton). I took my inspiration in part from these, and in part from a Scandinavian dish that my mum used to make when I was a kid. It turned out very tasty, so I thought I'd share with you this recipe for an as of yet unnamed pie. Ingredients: 400g minced pork 300g smoked bacon 1 yellow onion 2 cloves of garlic 1/2 cauliflower 300ml cream black pepper rosemary thyme 500g mashed potato 1. Turn your oven to 200C (390F). 2. Chop your onion and garlic as finely as you can be bothered. Divide the cauliflower into smaller trees. Chop your bacon into bits. 3. Heat a frying pan to high medium. If your bacon is nice and streaky and you have a non-stick pan you don't need any extra fat to fry in. Start with the bacon. When the fat is starting to melt and sizzle, add the onion and garlic. Add the minced pork when the onion starts to look shiny. When all the meat is brown, add the cauliflower and let it all cook together for a couple of minutes. 4. Add the cream. I used double cream because it thickens more easily, but if you want slightly less fat (not that it matters at this point) single cream will do just as well. Let it cook until the gravy is nice and thick. Season with black pepper, rosemary and thyme to taste. 5. Pour everything into a deep oven pan and cover in mash potato (just like you'd do with shepherd's pie or cottage pie). I was lazy and used instant mash today, but I'll post a recipe for mashed potato later. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the mash is starting to look nice and golden. Serve with pickled beets, gherkins, or do what we did and add lingonberry jam (available for purchase at an IKEA near you if you happen to live in a country that's never seen a lingonberry). This is about as healthy as your average carbonara, but it's very tasty! Serves 3 or 4 if you're normal people, or just two if you're me and Magpie.

Food We all need it. We all buy it or grow it. This blog is a few of my pet peeves. Michael my poor dessert-deprived husband needed some pie. So, rather than ask me to bake him one, he bought one. It cost him $2.50. It came in a box. The list of ingredients did include pumpkin, but it also included 20 other ingredients, several i can't spell or pronounce. This pie tasted disgusting and very chemically. One bite was enough for me. Mike on the other hand ate his piece and eventually the remaining pie. He paid for that, details not required, but it sure wasn’t worth the money he would have wasted if he didn’t eat it. I have trouble understanding the resources we waste on ‘food’ like this horrible processed pie and other things that are full of chemicals and additives. Do we do it because they are cheap to purchase? As a poor person I didn’t waste the little money I had on crap like that pie. Not that I ate well, because I really couldn’t afford to. The best meals I got then were from the missions. But had I had some place to cook, I’m sure I could have eaten better than I did. Another big problem with our food is looks. How food looks has cost us flavour and nutrition. Think: Big tasteless strawberries. Sure they are pretty, but have no flavour. So why bother eating them??? I asked the produce manager why we only get these and not local strawberries (in season, of course). He said we have to buy the USA’s strawberries in order to get their lettuce in the winter. Huh! Imperfect fruit and veg, is a thing now. You can buy it in many stores for a cheaper price than the perfect option. It’s silly not to sell it or buy it. That curved potato tastes no different than does the smooth round option. Often those go to animal food, or to rot. What a waste. Last fall Mike and I were in a No-Frills grocery. They had farm fresh cauliflower. They were beautiful, huge examples but they would have been rejected by most stores because of their size and colour. They were on the yellowish side, not pure white. But it was delicious, tasted no different that the white version. They also came with a lot of green. There was a staff member there to cut away the leaves, but I said no thank you. The green helps to keep the head fresh. Just like tomatoes on the vine. I shake my head when people pluck them off their vines because they don’t want to pay for whatever that vine may cost when weighed. Leave them on, pay the extra 1cent. The fruit will continue to ripen. Mine last for a week or two on their vines while sitting on the counter. I don’t have the answers for everything. But we can teach about food. How to buy it, store it and cook it. Sadly few schools do that anymore. Maybe it’s time to bring that back. But you don’t have to be a kid to learn. And there is nothing as satisfying as baking your own bread, or serving your family a healthy and tasty meal. It’s not hard, you just have to make an investment of time and some effort. Now… I have a dark sweet cherry coffee cake baking… smells done to me. Eat well!