This week was eventful! We had my brother’s birthday and Mother’s Day with international food to celebrate. The week started as always with a visit to Rosella’s, this time for lasagna to tick of my trip to Italy for the week. Then dad got smoking for birthday celebrations and took us south, deep south. Then Mother’s Day wouldn’t be complete without a little breakie and what better then some homemade waffles. A busy week and the only week so far I haven’t bought takeaway.

Italy

Italy plus Rosella’s, two of my favourite things collide. This week’s freebie was a sweet potato and zucchini lasagna, Vegemite cob and a lemon tart (not pictured). It was filling and amazing! I actually kept the cob for another day, because there was no way I was fitting that in. Looking forward to the day that I can have a drink in the bar itself as a thank you for their amazing work.

Cuisine: Italian/ Freebie

Dish/es: Vegetarian Lasanga

Company: The sister and brother-in-law

 

Sweden

I’m lucky enough to have been to Sweden, no, not just Ikea, the real deal. There I spent a week in an old fishing town in a house by the sea with legendary people. It was a week of bizzare adventures, new experiences (including tubed reindeer… yep that’s a thing) and of course some great food. Though we may have cooked fish tacos and burgers, meatballs was a necessity. So cooking up some meatballs for myself this week for house mate night brought back some very fond memories. A simpler time when success was having a morning coffee and spending time together.

Cuisine: Swedish

Dish/es: Meatballs with mashed potato,  white sauce and cranberry (no lingonberries here)

Company: Housemate

 

Estonia

This pink salad from Estonia certainly brightened up lunches this week. I was scrolling through Culture Trip, as I find myself doing quite regularly this days and stumbled across the inspiration for this salad. It seemed to be a good choice to whip up ahead of time as I am actually a serial meal prep-er. This had an interesting gathering of flavours, unique to Eastern Europe. We have beetroot (he’s responsible for the pink), potato, pickles, apple, red onion, boiled egg mayonnaise and I bit of homemade mustard from my trip to Germany.

Cuisine: Estonian

Dish/es: Rosolje

Company: Lunch break friends

 

Deep South

Brush off your southern hospitality we are travelling to the deep south of the United States. Dad fired up the smoker for the brothers birthday and we were treated to ribs, sausages and tomahawk steaks. I don’t know how, but somehow that smoky way of cooking meat makes it that much more amazing. Whether it be low and slow or a quick scorch… it’s magical. Though meat may be the star of the show, a true southern cook up wouldn’t be complete without some sides. We had potato bake, green beans and I decided to bake some corn bread last minute. The best thing about a BBQ feed? Leftovers of course. I was particularly excited to use the sausage with some left over beans I had to make a bowl of chili and cornbread. I remember seeing this on the Parent Trap, it was her favorite meal and Jesse cooks it up for her. It seemed so delicious and foreign.

Cuisine: Southern

Dish/es: Bowl of chili with cornbread and green beans

Company: Family

 

Peru

I was listening to podcasts about Peru last week (while scraping paint at work) which inspired me to travel there on the weekend. I learnt that it is popular to eat guinea pig over there… that wasn’t going to happen, so I went searching for a different kind of recipe. What I found was Aji de Gallina. Can I just say that if you go searching pictures of Aji de Gallina you will find that mine doesn’t really look anything like it. The colour is way off. You see you need a certain type of chili to make this dish, it’s actually paramount to the dish. Well we don’t have said chilies in Australia so I settled for another mild spice substitute. It was yellow and in a jar, so the sauce came out a very whitish colour. I also had to substitute halloumi for the queso fresco cheese that I could find. So I don’t know if in the end you can call this dish Peruvian… it rather tasted like chicken pie.. but it was tasty all the same.

The redemption lies in the quinoa, that I know is from Peru as I bought it from the bulk food store. That is something at least.

Cuisine: Peruvian

Dish/es: Aji de Gallina with potatoes, olives, brown rice and quinoa

Company: Friend

 

Belgium

Mother’s Day on Sunday was an excellent excuse to cook up some Belgium breakfast waffles. I borrowed the waffle maker from my housemate in anticipation and made the batter from scratch. I have to say, they were great. The morning was sunny and worthy of dining out on the balcony enjoying the glorious-ness that is Sunday. Then, as if the weather knew, the clouds rolled over to make perfect movie weather to watch Little Women. We topped our waffles with cream, maple syrup and berries.

Cuisine: Belgium

Dish/es: Waffles

Company: Mum!

 

Spain

The weekend was completed with a trip to Spain. I’ve been to Spain before and was surprised to find that there are different regions with very different beliefs, languages and of course, food. The Spanish affair was inspired by the pinxos of the Basque region and the tapas of Catalonia. Firstly I made a Spanish Tortilla, to be fair I think they eat these all throughout Spain. Best as a small snack/appetizer with wine. It consists of a mere three ingredients (potato, onion and egg) and was so straight forward it had me wondering why I haven’t been making it for a easy dinner my whole life.

Next we have the Pa amb Tomaquet that’s the fancy Catalan way of saying tomato on bread. No hidden meaning there, it is what it says. First you toast some bread then you rub a tomato on the rough surface. Then it is as simple as adding a dash of olive oil and a pinch of salt. There you have it. Finally, the pinxos. These were so much fun to try while bar hopping in San Sebastian. You buy a drink then point to the prettiest piece of bread topped with yummy things (usually some Spanish jamon.. ham) held together by a tooth pick. These were pretty fun to make and end up being pretty filling too. The whole family drank and ate around our fire pit and soaked up the last moments of a great weekend.

Cuisine: Spanish

Dish/es: Tortilla, Pa amb Tomaquet and Pixos (Jamon and Manchero Cheese, Egg and Chorizo, Pate and olive)

Company: Famiglia