what to eat - winter

I love food and I love cooking... sometimes.

I have bursts when I am inspired when I search for new recipes and new flavours, and I love the whole process of chopping, stirring, cooking.

But I also have times when cooking everyday for five people is a chore. And that's when Mr Flowerpress and I just cook old favourites, quick tried and true meals.

I find that half the battle in those times is deciding what to make.

This little post is a catchup for me as much as you, keeping track of all the good stuff we've been eating this winter. A reminder of all the new and interesting food we've cooked, those recipes I need to remember and cook again!

Like most people I search for warm, filling comfort food in cold weather. This winter has been no different, soups, casseroles and pies have featured.

I have had a craving for fennel, such a winter vegetable and it seems to feature at the greengrocers much more these days, especially in my Italian neighbourhood. One night I was inspired to make a chicken and fennel pie, inspired by a favourite Karen Martini recipe for Chicken and Mushroom pie. Not everyone around here likes mushrooms but they all like fennel. It was a winner and I made it for guests who came a week or so later. I might write up my recipe here one day as I actually took some photos of the method the second time round. And its simple. That plaited top is actually quick to make but looks so pretty.

Another new recipe Pea and Feta fritters is a simple, quick family filler. I made this again last night with Colcannon, a cabbage and mash recipe. They made a really quick and filling vegetarian meal.

A great vegie dish I make often is my old favourite Minestrone. Miss A asked for this in the week she was doing her trial exams which made me happy. The recipe is really simple. I will blog it sometime. I made it with this amazing cheese bread from a video I found online. Mmm, that went quickly!

Speaking of vegie recipes, have you cooked any Ottolenghi recipes. I tried his Cauliflower Cake. That's it at the top of the page. Isn't it beautiful. It was delicious, vegetarian, quite unique, and very popular with the troops.

My sister gave me a Luke Nguyen book for my birthday last year. I love Luke's food and the recipes are delicious so I've made a couple more than once - the Chicken and Lemongrass (SO delicious and easy) and these Chargrilled Pork Skewers (yum!).

My brother is a great cook. He made some delicious gyoza type dumplings for me a few months ago. I tried to replicate them one night and had them with delicious Kewpie Japanese dressing (from Coles in the Asian section). Deeelicious. I've got it written down somewhere. Really simple but effective. Must share that.

The other thing I've been cooking are homemade dips. We love dips around here but with three teenagers they go pretty fast. Homemade is quick, cheap and so easy. I'm slowly building my repertoire. Homemade hummous and baba ganouj are delicious and easy. Another blog post due on those.

Apologies for my underwhelming food photography. I mostly cook at night and am way too hungry to style anything and I know it looks pretty unappetising in the low light. But you get the idea.

Out of the house I've had a few memorable meals. We've really enjoyed eating at Jasmin1 in Leichhardt, fantastic Lebanese food, the best I've had, the famous dumplings at New Shanghai and a new place Luyu and YumYum in Newtown (where I tried the caviar dumplings) and recently we discovered Afghan takeaway from Bamiyan in Five Dock. What a fabulous cuisine (and the Afghans make dumplings too!) I'd never tried it before. Must go back and taste test again!

I'd love to hear what you've been cooking. I hope I've inspired you to try one of these recipes. And don't forget to look in my Recipes section for my own recipes and others I like to cook.