Happy New Year!

In order to challenge my culinary skills and introduce my family to a diverse range of foods, I'm going to attempt to record each meal I make for dinner. I'm feeling daunted already, especially considering it's the 4th of January and this is my first post!

A little bit about me...

I live in Melbourne, Australia and I am married with two girls aged 18 months and 3.5 years. My husband is from a Southern European background and very much into meat! I am from a Northern European background and was a vegetarian for 20 years. Our girls are pretty good eaters but can be picky at times.

Each week we get a box of seasonal organic fruit and vegies delivered which costs $56 and forms the foundation of our weekly menu. Usually, I shop once a week for nearly everything and just pick up a few things fresh as needed. I like to buy my meat from a local butcher shop that specialise in local, organic, free range meat so I would estimate that 90% of the meat we eat is organic and free range. I try!

I love to cook but have very limited resources. My kitchen is tiny and my electric stove/oven is really inconsistent. I have learned to deal with them though and I do sometimes use a little gas camping stove outside for steaks and so forth.

So... I'm still not entirely sure how to do this and if it will be remotely interesting but I'm giving it a go anyway.

Meal of January 4th 2012 - Italian Potato Pie with Zucchini and Onion.

This is a recipe from my mum and I have been slowly adapting it over the years. By the way... it's not really a pie... more of a casserole I guess. Tonight I'm going to add some zucchini and onion to the tomato sauce because I have HEAPS of them.

1. Boil or steam 5 large potatoes until they are tender but not too soft. You need to slice them and have them stay together.

2. Boil 4 eggs for at least 8 minutes. Then leave to cool.

3. Slice one large or two small onions and grate a medium zucchini. Heat some olive oil in a fry pan and gently saute the onions. When they are starting to soften, add the zucchini and cook until they are both soft. Add two cans of chopped tomatoes and cook for a few minutes.

4. Slice the potatoes and layer the bottom of a

dish with half. Then layer half of the tomato sauce and then sprinkle with some freshly ripped basil. Repeat this and then after the basil, sprinkle some grated mozzerella cheese to cover.

5. Shell the boiled eggs and then grate them into a bowl (or the saucepan you cooked them in minus the water obviously!). Add some chopped parsley, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese. Mix it all up and sprinkle on top of the mozzerella. This is what it will look like at this point:

6. Now pop it in an oven preheated to around 200 degrees celcius.

7. Cook until brown (about 30 minutes) then cool for a few minutes and EAT!

So the verdict was positive. My 3.5 year old "M" ate her whole serve with gusto and my 18 month old "A", who is a little pickier, ate a good portion too. My husband still hasn't tried it. He's "right in the middle of something" at the moment in the shed but I suspect if I told him there was Italian sausage in the pie he'd be here in a flash!

I thought it was really tasty with the added zucchini and onion and I also added a fair crack of black pepper.

Right... only 4 zucchinis, 4 corn cobs, about 100 carrots and a pumpkin to deal with now.

Happy Eating!