As you can see from the photos below, the Snook and I have been makin’ pickles. Specifically, we’re making sun dills. My mom used to make them when I was a kid and I loved them, so a few months ago we planted cucumber seeds in the garden. As with everything else we planted, they went berserk. Last weekend the Snook noticed that I had three big fat ripe ones. Here you can see the before and after shots. Now we just need to leave the jar in the sun for a couple days and I’ll be eating ice cold fresh pickles by Monday!

Also, we tried out a great new sausage and bean stew for dinner tonight. It’s sorta like a cross between chili and gourmet beanie weenies. It’s not exactly the most Atkins-friendly dish but it’s an awesome winter warmer. (Why we made it in the height of Indian summer is a mystery even to me.) It even involved fennel, which I didn’t think I liked.

This recipe is courtesy of my friend Kiri, with a few small adjustments by the Snook and myself…

Sausage and Bean Stew
4 thick Italian style sausages
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large bulb of fennel, trimmed and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
400g tin chopped tomatoes
440g can canellini beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 small sprig rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
Shaved parmesan

Place sausages in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for two minutes, then drain well. When cool, cut on the diagonal into 2cm pieces.

Heat olive oil in a heavy-based flameproof casserole, add sausage pieces and cook over medium-high heat until browned, then drain on absorbent paper. Reduce heat to low-medium, then add onion, garlic, fennel and chilli to pan and cook stirring occasionally for 15 minutes or until soft and then stir in tomato paste and cook for another five minutes. Add tomato, beans, stock and rosemary, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Stir in sausage pieces and parsley and season to taste. (Pull out the rosemary.) Serve topped with parmesan with a crusty bread on the side.

Note: The Snook felt that this was a little too much chili, so next time we’ll probably use about half that much. If you’re scared of fennel (like I was), don’t sweat it. The strong licorice-ness really mellows out in the cooking and it ends up complimenting the spiciness nicely. (Incidentally, the fennel was labelled “aniseed” in my greengrocer in case you have trouble finding it.)

I decided to make some treats for the office tomorrow to celebrate Valentine’s Day. I did the usual Rice Krispie recipe but substituted pink marshmallows (strawberry flavor) instead of plain. That wasn’t quite pink enough, so I also stirred in a fair bit of red food coloring. They’re quite gruesome now, don’t you think? I also stirred in a bag of white chocolate chips which I hoped would remain whole but instead they just melted into the rest of the cereal. It’s fine; they still taste good. The hardest part was punching the damn things out with the heart-shaped cookie cutter. I tried to do it while they were still warm (so I could mush the leftover bits back together to make more treats) but they cooled rapidly and I had a hell of a time cutting them out. Still, they’re kinda cute and it’s always fun to put the whole office into sugar shock first thing Friday morning…

I was feeling rather domestic-goddess-like tonight, so I had a quick squiz through the Atkins website to find a new low-carb recipe to try. I settled on Shortcut Moussaka, mostly because we had some baby eggplant in the fridge we needed to use up. It was great. I got to the butcher’s too late to get mince lamb so I had to substitute regular beef, but that didn’t seem to hurt. I was surprised at how well the whole thing sorta stuck together. I was expecting it to just be a big sloppy mess. Instead it came out in fairly well-defined chunks, like lasagna. Must’ve been the layers of cream cheese. Anyway, this one is highly recommended. (Especially for you newbies buckling under the Induction restrictions…)

For the most part, the Snook and I are so similar that I just kinda forget that we grew up in different countries. Every now and then, though, I make a startling discovery, like the fact that he’s never eaten Kraft Macaroni and Cheese before. How weird is that? Luckily the box my Aunt Deb sent me for Christmas made it through quarantine, so I was able to initiate him into the realm of crap budget pasta dishes tonight. It was just inconceivable to me that he’d never experienced the joys of elbow macaroni and day-glo orange cheese powder before. I’m happy to report that – though he initially thought it had a “strange aftertaste” – he quickly wolfed down his portion. Another bridge crossed…

Ooh! I almost forgot it’s Shrove Tuesday. We’re not religious, but hey, any excuse for pancakes, right? I’m torn between making my good ol’ American thick-and-big-as-a-dinner-plate recipe and this crepe-style one from Delia Smith. Hmmm, maybe we’ll have both. It’s supposed to be a bit of a feast, right? Then it’s straight back to the low-carb, I promise.