The crew are working pretty close to the station for the moment but still a bit far away to come in for smoko and lunch. So yesterday I thought we would take lunch to them. A little outing if you will.
I made some pizza and a fresh ginger cake with coffee icing and off we went. Pip, the kids and I. We even packed them a little treat – an esky full of soft drink. It was a little warm yesterday so they really appreciated it.
It was nice to get out and do something different and I think they were happy to have something other than a corned beef sandwich. We will do the same today.
Last week I ran out of icing sugar – how the hell did that happen? Now, of course I can’t really just pop next door and ask for a cup so I put an SOS out to my mate Flick.
You see, even though she is abut a 7 hour drive away from me, she is the stop before us on the mail plane run. So handy. She is always sending me little treats, as you know. So it was no surprise when this little care package arrived…
Not only did she send icing sugar to get me out of trouble but also a bag full of hand me downs for Tom, perfect. Don’t you just love hand me downs. I will have to send them down to him. Thanks so much Flick, you are a lifesaver!
I am flat out keeping the sweet treats up to this crew of ours, they do love their sweets so it was quite the disaster when I discovered my lack of icing sugar. But all is well and the sweets keep coming.
I have been trying to stock the freezer full of meals, cakes and biscuits. Next week Miss Pip, the kids and I all head into Mt Isa for the week for Home Tutor Seminar, Activity Days (for the kids) and Sports Day. We can’t wait, it is one of our favourite weeks where we get to catch up with all of our friends. The crew will all be pretty busy and Mr Chardy may not have much time to be cooking dinner so I am trying to leave as much as I can for them. Last Friday I made enough bolognese to feed a small village. Just 5.5 kg’s of mince!
We had Lasagne for dinner that night and then there was enough left over to make 3 massive Spag Bol dishes.
I call this the “DD method” of making Spag Bol. My Mum used to always make Spag Bol like this – put the spaghetti in the bottom of a casserole dish, put the bolognese on top, sprinkle with cheese, dust with paprika (that was her secret ingredient) and then pop under the grill. It was my favourite meal as a kid and a great way to freeze Spag Bol. I have also made a massive sausage curry and will try to get a beef stroganoff in the freezer before I go. Do you have any great freezable meal ideas?
What’s been happening in your neck of the woods? Flat out like a lizard drinking? Do you need some ideas for dinner? Perhaps you are a station cook and looking for ideas. Join in with us on Instagram and Facebook and share your ideas …
#cookingwithchards #menuplan and share your photo, we would love to see.
Have a great day my friends.
After all the rain back around Xmas, the country now looks very dry.
That’s how we want it at this time of the year. The pasture turns into hay essentially… so we don’t want rain on it or it will spoil.
Okay silly question time!
Do you cook the spaghetti before you put it in the bottom of the casserole dish?
Because it doesn’t look cooked – or maybe that’s just my eye sight … 🙂
I batch cook all the time, it’s not so easy in the warmer months because we really don’t feel like beef stroganoff or curry but Mexican, spaghetti bolognese or baked pasta always goes down a treat in my house!
My stock standard recipes are; beef stroganoff, spaghetti, curry of some sort and always made with a pre-made curry sauce and Mexican mix. My Mexican mix is the refried beans and the meat cooked and mixed together and then frozen in batches, so it’s easy to defrost and pop on top of corn chips with cheese to zappity zap zap in the microwave … then all you need is sour cream and some guacamole!
I also batch cook guacamole, hummus, pesto and pate for Christmas – but this list can vary depending upon what other recipes I find when I go looking for cooking inspiration!
Thanks for that Mish. Oh and yes, the spaghetti is definitely cooked on the bottom of the casserole dish.
My Nana always used to make “Carpet Bag Steak” when she was a shearers cook. (It sounds bizarre, I’m now wondering if that was my kid name for something else!) Mum makes it too when she has to cook when it’s shearing time on the farm, although they don’t have too many sheep right now, My uncle and cousin can take care of the shearing in two or three days. I will have to get the recipe. I love it, and it’s always the mens favourite. Surely it will have to be a winner when I have four teen boys! I’d better start practicing!
Ha ha ha, you sure had better start practicing. I would love the recipe, I have heard of Carpet Bag Steak.