Fussy eaters

It is most parent's nightmare........serving food to our children every night.

It is something I have given a lot of thought.

Why is it that after all the things we do quietly all day long for our children that we tend to judge ourselves solely on our children's reactions to what they are served and what they will eat at the end of the day?  I do suspect it has something to do with tiredness but........

Parents are the worst judges of their own behaviour and definitely give the Catholic church a run for their money when it comes to guilt.  Our minds flurry with self directed insults.......see list below and see if any have crept into your head sometime. 

• "I am such a bad parent- my children won't eat (insert any number of food types here)".

•  "If only I had made my child sit at the table until they finished their dinner when they were a baby they would be eating whatever I served now."

•  "I wish my child ate like (insert someone else's child's name here who you once saw eat something your child won't"

• "I dont know why I bother to cook dinner only to chuck it in the bin"

We all know the list could go on........

As you know I have five young boys- aged 12, 10, 7, 4 and nearly 2.

 I have asked all of the things on the list and many many more over my time as a parent.

I used to give myself SUCH a hard time over what my children would eat.  I am the most guilty parent going around who judged myself entirely on dinnertime success.

I look back now and ask "What the???"

I can laugh now especially as my fussiest eater whose diet was solely peanut butter sandwiches (at least they were on wholemeal bread!) and green apples is now my most adventurous eater.  He is 10.  He is the one who so excitedly dealt with the gutting of the sardines in a previous post.   He is the one who when we go to the market seeks out the items that are challenging for most adults and asks if we can buy it and cook something.  Last market trip it was tripe.  He loved the way it looked.  Food aversions aside it is a beautiful thing!

Anyway little Mr.10 cooked it up according to a traditional Italian recipe and we shared it with our extended family. Delicious.  All but 2 of the 9 children at the table devoured it.

His favourite foods now are the most adventurous of all of my five.  Hot curries, cheese (especially from Bruny Island Cheese- and the stinky, gooey and blue are his special faves), offal, weird and wonderful fruits (custard apple his current fave) don't put him off anymore.  Don't get me wrong- he doesn't eat ALL things by any means but he will try whatever is out in front of him- even things he has tried time and time again and doesn't like.  He still won't eat most tomato based cooked sauces- and when you think about it this rules out a lot of food.  No spaghetti bolognaise for him- CAN YOU BELIEVE IT????!!!! Have you ever heard of a child who doesn't LOVE it?? He just has cooked pasta with parmesan cheese instead.  Despite what you think- very healthy in itself and  no effort for me.

Why did I expend so much energy giving myself a hard time on something that in the scheme of things in fairly insignificant.

I have mentioned on a previous post about my children being very different.  Well of course they are!  Think about it like putting five of your friends together in a room .  You would never expect them to be the same would you?  Well either are my children....thank goodness.

Maybe this is where we find it so had to serve a family dinner that everyone eats.  We have an expectation that everyone eats the same things and enjoys it. For me there are five little people's food tastes to cater for- no mean feat to find meals that they all eat.  Why, when we happily accept that personality is unique, do we expect that our palate is not?  When you go out to dinner- do all your friends order the same thing? I doubt it.

OK- it is all sounding as scarily like I am leading to cooking five different meals. NO WAY!

I'm going to let you in on a mind blowing secret of mine! You know what liberated me from the stress? Brace yourself...........

I GAVE UP!

I didn't give up serving dinner but I gave up expecting them all to like the same things.  And I gave up expecting all five of them to eat the meal put in front of them.  Don't get me wrong- you can hear the screams of delight in the next neighbourhood on the rare occasions that they all do eat the same dinner! 

As a child growing up in a family of five kids also it was the same for us.  We liked different things.  It became especially apparent when we all started having to cook for the family (I was 10) once a week.  Mum knew that the only way to get us cooking was to let us choose what we wanted.....mmmm ham steak and pineapple anyone?? Ooops! But her theory worked. All five of us are now keen cooks.

I already loved curries and I still cook the same curry now that  I cooked as my first meal for the family.
It came from the Asian cooking bible- Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian cookbook.  I am happy to say this is one of the few dishes that my children all eat (and one of the few with cooked tomatoes that Mr.10 eats).

It is a Malaysian chicken curry.  As a beginner I forgot to add one of the ingredients (there were quite a few!) that first time (coconut milk) but  I have to say I still prefer it without.
Click here for an adaptation of Charmaine Solomon's recipe.

One sibling had a special love for porridge.  Porridge it was for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Actually I am being unfair........sometimes he had weet-bix.  My mum decided it was a battle not worth waging.  He was growing and healthy.  The irony is that as a young adult he trained as a chef and is now a wonderful cook with an adventurous palate. 

I cook one dinner for my kids and those who don't like it can serve themselves Weet-Bix....but not until they have at least thanked me for my effort while I mutter "You little bastard do you know how much effort I have gone to?" under my breath! 

A while ago one of my most precious friends taught me a trick to deal with all tricky situations and here is where it comes in very handy.  "Put it in a bubble and blow it away".  Very freeing indeed.

I know now that my stress about mealtimes came from a place where I wanted my children to love the things I did (food especially)- but what I forgot was that for me it is the act of sharing that is important not the food itself.  More than anything I don't want them to grow up finding being at the table anything but an enjoyable experience. 

Can I say all this now because my older children have given up their food anxieties?.....that I don't think I can answer but giving up the stress was good for me and I know that that was DEFINITELY good for them. 

Sitting at the table at the end of the day is lovely.  We light candles and somebody chooses music.  It is generally not too stressful and pretty enjoyable.  Sometime it is a full blown disaster- but hey I have 5 kids!

So tonight when your kids kick up a fuss about dinner- break out the weet bix, open the wine kick back and stop beating yourself up.  After all when you think about it there aren't too many adults out there that are still eating weet-bix for dinner are there!

*Cheers*

We are often listening to this at dinner........

Long time no post

After a 3mth hiatus I am poking my head out of the cave.

I have learnt alot during my time away from Blogland; about myself, my friends, about the world.  I have had some of my beliefs affirmed and some shaken.

I have been lucky enough to make some lovely new friends during these months.  Together we are working towards learning to live with the sadness that the immense loss of a baby brings, whose time amongst us was just beginning.

During this time the single most important belief that I hold was most certainly affirmed.  People are all that matter.  And particularly the people that you love. 

For those of you that read my blog you will know that this is what drives my love of preparing food.  It is ultimately the sharing of the food with people that I care about that is what I love.

Over the last few months I have had some of my old (& new friends) in my home sharing coffee, tears, sadness, laughter, food and love.

It has been the amounts of coffee that have been being consumed that drove me to investigate roasting my own beans. 

It should be obvious by my title header that I am passionate about coffee,  so I am not really sure why it has taken so long for me to think about home roasting the humble bean.

To be honest I didn't realise it was so simple and so much cheaper- I go through about a kilo of coffee beans a week to give you some idea of how much coffee is made at my place!

Once again thanks to the wonderful world of the 'interwebgooglenet' there is a stack of information on home roasting. 

So off I went on my new adventure.......I am HOOKED! And the result is soooooo much better.  I am happy to say I have not bought a pre roasted bean from the shop since I started and the end result is of infinitely better quality so I can't imagine myself settling for store bought beans again.....

My friends who have joined me in drinking a bowl of my home roasted beans assure me they also think it is pretty darn good.

It has been good for me to have a new project and I am especially happy with how delicious it is.

I felt kind of embarrassed at first that I had no idea what a green coffee bean looked like......I have been drinking good coffee all my life.  I was lucky enough to grow up in  a house that had coffee brewed in the iconic stovetop 'Atomic' coffee machine.  I have taken a pic of mine for those of you who are not familiar.  A magnificent example of beautiful design if nothing else- the simple elegance of form & function at it's best.

Have a look.......

During the 70's there would have been few homes that were lucky enough to be drinking good coffee.  We had gorgeous Italian neighbours across the road whose home had the wonderful smell of a mixture of stovetop coffee and tinned tuna cooking in homemade tomato passata. Alot of 'Aussies' would have found the smell repugnant- I found it comforting.

I guess our house also smelt of brewed coffee although I didn't realise at the time as I was just living in it.  It's funny isn't it how every family's home has a unique smell.

I was so scared of moving out of home and having to drink instant coffee that I picked up my own Atomic (the one in the pic above) at a trash'n'treasure for $2 when I was 14- a few years before I moved out of home- now that's forward thinking!   It is still going strong- although nowadays I just use it when we go camping as I have an electric benchtop machine like most Australian homes.  Did you know that Australia has the highest per capita domestic espresso machine ownership in the world? (stupid fact for the day!)

I have to say though that owning a good coffee machine is not all it takes to make a good coffee.  I have had many bad coffee's made in good machines.

Good beans are ESSENTIAL.

Here is what they look like when they are green.....who knew!

What I learnt is that the green beans really have a surprisingly unpleasant smell- kind of like raw wheat. Who could imagine that roasted they are soooo different!  Who was the genius that discovered that roasting these beans and making them into a drink could give so many so much joy! I will need to do some reading on who this genius was.......

Here is what they look like roasted:

Once roasted they take on that heavenly smell we coffee lovers crave and the sound as they fall around your hands all glossy and gorgeous!

And here is the brew........oh so delicious.  And I have to say fresh roasted beans that are ground just before the coffee is made is beyond compare.

I have found a new love of an old friend.........
I like to drink my coffee from a bowl. I find the way it warms my hands comforting.  I like to share my way of drinking it with my friends.

I am happy to say that after a few months of being in hiding.....my door is open again for friends to drop over and join me again. The coffee is on!

Here are some links if you want to investigate further....

http://www.sweetmarias.com/instructions.php
http://www.coffeeco.com.au/altcof/altcoffeepage11.html
http://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/3557/A_Trend_Is_Brewing


Today I am listening to new music from Howe Gelb......another old favourite of mine.....really good to drink coffee to!!

Join me on my journey.

Sicilian Stuffed sardines

As I mentioned in my last post- the kids were on a seafood cooking bonanza.

It started as a result of Mr.11 making a request to go shopping at Vic Market with his dad.

Hubby G came home with a few extras.......as always when he shops at the market, but I am soooo not complaining!

This time it was a kilo of sardines- with the explanation that "They were only 5 bucks a kilo!" Let it be noted that I love a bargain- and I love Hubby's surprise market purchases so I was not unhappy!

What it did make me think about as a result of Mr.9's  somewhat surprising reaction was "At what stage do we starting getting the "ooks" about food and the preparation of it for eating?"  And by preparation I mean the whole process- from the slaughter,  to the butchering,  to the table.

I was mulling over this because I was a little taken aback by Mr.9's enthusiastic request to gut and fillet the sardines.

A couple of days before we had watched the Italian Food Safari.   Mr.9 had watched it too and had obviously taken in every last bit of information about how they hand filleted the sardines to make Sicilian stuffed sardines.

I was lucky enough growing up in a family that took a great interest in eating lovely food- and for reasons much like mine now- as a celebration of life.  Although I grew up in the suburbs of Adelaide we had our own chickens, ducks, guinea fowl and quails in the back yard.  We used the eggs and we also slaughtered the chooks for eating.

I remember this (the slaughter that is!) as being such fun- sounds gruesome perhaps!  It didn't seem like it to me as a child.  It was just what happened when you wanted to eat a chook.  Dad would do the honours wielding an axe and then us kids would watch in hysterics at the way the chook would run around after with no head!  Perhaps not an act for the squeemish - but we loved it!

The carcass would then get dipped in the boiling copper to loosen the feathers and we would pluck away contentedly........the family together doing these jobs laughing together.  I remember it very fondly indeed.

I suppose growing up doing this helped me have an appreciation and an awareness of the reality of what it means to eat meat, poultry etc.  I guess I took it for granted then,  but now as I watch children who are asked simple questions such as "Where milk comes from?"  and they answer "the supermarket", I realise that I grew up within an extraordinary situation in this sense.  I have never been "ooked" by food.  We used as much as possible which meant eating offal too.  But it wasn't disgusting as it is often thought of but just another part of the animal to eat.

So here we are living in a society where our kids think money comes out of walls and milk comes from the supermarket......hmmmm concerning? Yep, I think so.  And perhaps as we have become more dissasociated with most things we have also become more dissasociated with the preparation of food we have also become more "ooked"- for want of a better term!

I am all for rewinding the clock on a few things such as these old traditions- all the while I am all for modern conveniences such as the dishwasher! Oh hail the dishwasher! I simply would DIE without it.....!!!!!

I have mentioned before that I am all for SLOW childhood a bit like SLOW cooking.  Simplifying life a little and getting back to some of the basic joys we have lost touch with.

It is the simple things like food preparation that I believe bring a family together.

And so it was that I took great joy in Mr.9's enthusiasm to recreate the Sicilian stuffed sardines he had watched on Italian Food Safari.

Hubby G took the whole fish out of the bag and Mr.9 got to work.  He was the one who explained to his dad and hten to his little brother how to do it.

"You rip the head back and then slide your thumb in to the hole.  Then push you thumb along the bone and open it out.  Then take out the guts.  Then you put your thumb under the back bone and slide it along to remove the spine.  Flatten it out and put it on a dish". Well couldn't have said it better myself!

His enthusiasm was infectious as Mr.7 was very keen to get stuck in also.

Hubby and I helped make up the stuffing but the hardest job was done!

Hubby then stuffed one butterfly fillet with the mix of fresh breadcrumbs, lots of parmesan cheese, parsley and garlic and then placed another butterfly fillet on top (a la a sandwich) and dusted them in flour before shallow frying them.

Sooooo more-ish!  And it totally cured me of my winter ills I had been suffering from.  Mr.7 who is usually the least adventurous of all our tribe tucked in and devoured them- much to Hubby G's dissapointment!  He was hoping for more.  Well take a look- how good does that look!!!!!!

Best of all was the fun everyone had working together to prepare soemtihng that we all sat and enjoyed together.  And not one mention of "ookyness" - not once!  Not bad....

For the recipe click here to be taken to the Food safari website.  It's worth the effort guys!

And today's song is one the kids will love!  (Thanks Kiki)

Kids weekend seafood fiesta

After 3 solid weeks of winter illness that knocked a couple of us flat (Mr.9 and me) I am back!!

I realised how attached I have become to my blog in such a short time!  I have really missed writing it......happy to be back in action!



Towards the end of last week Mr.11 asked Hubby G to go to the market.  We live in Melbourne and are so lucky to be blessed with several fantastic fresh food markets.  But Queen Vic Market was on Mr.11's mind.


Hubby G used to treat us all with his weekly dawn trip to "the Vic".  It was like winning the lottery for me every Saturday morning.  He hasn't been doing it for a while but Mr.11's request has him back in the swing!


He would dissappear in the dark with his double trolley to fill it with wonderful loveliness of all sorts. When he came home, the kids and I would eagerly await what treasures he had found for us all hidden in lovely crunchy brown paper bags!  Then I would busy myself with ideas about what to do with all of our bounty.  My idea of heaven!

I just loved the surprise of finding out what I would have to play with that week! A bit like a mystery box challenge really- only without the judges breathing down your neck and with time on my side to do a bit of research!


 So it was here that Mr.11 wanted to accompany his dad.  


Shopping without a list is not for everyone- as a tragic bargain queen from way back I love it!!  I am happy to make something up from what I have available and take great joy in 'buying a bargain'.  Equally there is nothing at all wrong in shopping with a list.

Mr.11 loves to have a list.  He was ready armed with his list to cook - OCTOPUS! That was what he really wanted to cook.  And I certainly wasn't about to argue! Funnily enough in the midst of Mr.9's terrible illness two weeks ago he asked me if "we had any octopus?"- as you do! I don't know what it is with my kids and octopus.....


Mr. 11 had done some research and found a recipe for Octopus cooked in red wine- which my lads renamed 'SQUIDWARD STEW' - being big fans of Spongebob Squarepants obviously.  The recipe looked great- simple ingredients, simple method and we chatted about how we could make it even simpler.  It was a one pot wonder- MY FAVOURITE!

So off trotted my little piggies to market to market to buy a baby octopus........


They came home with beautiful bounty! A kilo of beautiful opalescent baby octopus, some beautiful fresh whole sardines (more on that later......), one bulging ruby pomegranate- just because we love them, some beautiful puy lentils , fetta cheese, some glorious blue cheese (surprising tasted and chosen by Mr.11) and some amazing fresh organic Royal Gala apples and some fresh bread from Franks bakery. So so good. Simple, delicious, quality fresh produce.  That's what it's all about.    And although these are beautiful exotic seeming ingredients- the seafood was well below $10 per kilo each- you can't buy any meat for less than that, so we weren't talking about bank breaking eating here- just delicious and unusual.


So Mr.11 was keen to get started.  He read the recipe through and get out what he needed.  For my kids cooking I usually always replace the bit where it says - finely chopped/diced onion- with an instruction to 'blitz baby blitz'!  It takes away the problem of finely diced fingers being added to your beautiful food and it is just as effective- if not more!  SO when you read that in any of my recipes for kids you can assume we are doing a 'blitz baby blitz'!

So here is the recipe.  I can say it was an ABSOLUTE pleasure to watch him cook so confidently and competently! And the result was DIVINE!

GOURMET GIRLFRIEND'S OCTOPUS IN RED WINE

What you will need:

• 1kg baby octopus (make sure they are debeaked before cooking)
• couple of tablespoons on olive oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic 
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cups of red wine
• 1/4cup red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 cup tomato passata or equivalent canned chopped toms
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley
  
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 whole cloves
• 1 tsp sugar

Method:

Firstly 'bltiz baby blitz' the onions, garlic and fresh herbs.  So easy!!!! You may never fine dice again!

Mr. 11 harvested the herbs fresh from the garden- these are added into the blitz mix.

Add olive oil to heavy based pan.
Add blitzed mix.

Stir till caramelized slightly.

Then add baby octopus and stir.

Cook for a couple of minutes and then add all other ingredients.

 And then stir with love- it makes it taste better I promise!

 Simmer gently for 2 hours- or until octopus is tender.  Mr. 11 left it for 3 hours- just to be sure!

And the final dish was mindblowingly DELISH!!!!
Check it out!!!!

 My sole contribution was a salad.  I used the puy lentils, pomegranate and fetta cheese together with coarsely chopped cucumbers, tomatoes and loads of basil.  Then tossed it all with a dijon mustard vinaigrette.  It went very well with the unctuous rich octopus as it was crunchy and fresh.

We also served it with HAIRY MASH- our family term for mashed potatoes cooked and smashed with the skins on.

What a meal! SO I dare you to get your kids in the kitchen. Mr.11 has only been cooking for a couple of years and that is what he can do- if he can you can too!

I'm happy that my kids are growing up understanding about where food comes from and how to treat it with love.  Cooking for them is exciting and fun and through it their palates have become quite adventurous.  And their very busy mumma gets to have a bit of a break and enjoy the fruits of their labour- I ain't gonna argue with that!

Next time I will tell you what Mr.9 and Mr.7 did with the whole fresh Sardines......AMAZING!

And to cook with love you need to be listening to music you love- Mr. 11 chose....

Being picked last......

On Masterchef a few times this season we have witnessed the picking of teams by a team captain.

And as is often the case in our house it started a family discussion.

This time it was a discussion of what it feels like to be picked last for sport teams.  

If you have watched Masterchef you would have witnessed how it doesn't hurt any less as an adult as it did as a child to be standing there last when you are automatically delegated to the remaining side.  It's a kick in the guts- no two ways about it!

Do you remember your school days and how it was always the same kids who endured this awful humiliation time and time again?   Cringe inducing......

Why do teachers still put children through this ordeal?  I would have hoped that we have progressed enough in our emotional awareness to realise that NO good comes out of this exercise.   We sat at the table and invented all sorts of other ways to delegate teams without the humiliation.  The kids had lots of great ideas.

In our house of 5 young boys we have a mixture of talents.  We have children with differing passions and very different talents.  Thank goodness for variety.  I love it!!

It is a valuable reminder that gender does not determine much. And that as parents I reckon it is our job to make our precious lovelies feel proud of what they love and what they are good at regardless of whether it fits the stereotype.

But the pressures are very strong.  And the schoolyard does not help children who are a little outside the fit.

I get comments all the time about how much sport must be played in our house.  There are also the inevitable comments about the untamed physical energy.  And the noise............people assume that our house is sooooo noisy.

I guess it is sometimes but only so much as the mama is blasting out loud music- again! Yep I put my hand up for that- I am most likely the noisiest of the lot of us....ah well!  I love my music. GUILTY your honour!

The kids are noisy I suppose,  but it is lovely noise- the noise of kids.  I will miss it when I don't hear it anymore.  That is the kind of noise that fills the soul and we oh so often forget to remember that. 

 Mostly I answer "no" to the comments about sport and how all the boys must be "so" into it..........because on the whole my lads aren't like that.

They are not the same- they are all very different both in character and looks.

Mr.1 & 3 are too young to know yet whether they are interested in sport.

Mr.11  plays footy for our local club but he doesn't really have a passion for it.  He has a passion for music and plays the drums and particularly Jazz drumming.  And I don't really find the drums loud- it's music!  (can you tell yet that I have a passion for music????)
 
Mr. 9 is probably the only one who loves sport and loves all things footy including playing for his local club and would be very happy kicking the ball non stop outside or inside for that matter! But he is not a 'boofy' boy.  He is extremely kind, generous and sensitive.  Yep he enjoys his sport but it is not what defines his success.

And Mr. 7 has no interest and no idea- I don't mean anything bad by this AT ALL!  Believe me I am very proud of him and his ability to stay true to himself.  He has a passion for art and has said since he was 3 that "When I grow up I am going to be an artist.  Actually.... I already am one!"  (He is my child responsible for all manner of magnificent philosophical statements as mentioned on an earlier post.)

Check out Mr.7 proudly dressed up in an outfit for his kinder concert that I had sewn for Mr.11 when he was 4 and was invited to a girl's dress up disco party.  His request was for "Elvis in the Vegas years".  I was so proud that my son knew who Elvis in the Vegas years was let alone wanting to dress up as him! I had a lot of fun sewing that outfit but not as much fun as seeing them both lovin' it!

How fantastic to have such inner self confidence and conviction.  I can only hope as his mama that he can maintain it till adulthood despite all the social pressures.

After all we all just want to be loved and feel like we are good at something.   All too often it is the desire to 'fit in' that is what makes children give up what they believe in.   Peer pressure is strong.  So sad isn't it.......

So the discussion re Masterchef teams began as Mr.7 said in response to one of the adult contestants talking of how horrible it was to be picked last.  "I always get picked last for teams at school" he said.  I felt AWFUL for him....those that know him well know that at this point his drooping shoulders were touching the floor.  It is just too horrible to think of the awful sadness he must feel every time.  I wanted to scoop him up in my arms and make it all go away and never happen again.

And if given the choice as team Captain would you choose someone who isn't really that good?  Tough choice huh!

Long may Mr.7's individuality last- you only need to take a look at the pic at the top of the post of his self selected outfit on Sunday to get an idea of his individuality in action- we weren't going anywhere, it was just his 'formal hangin' out at home' outfit- MAGNIFICENT!   So maybe he's not that great at sport but he's darn good at being a beautiful person and for that I would pick him on my team every time! 

 Reeking of favouritism I hear you say.....ppphhhhht to that I say!  Here's a big hooray to individuality!!

UPDATE: The lovely MATT PRESTON himself read my blog yesterday and sent a message to me saying "What a stylish lad!"- so Mr.7 is now walking shoulders held so high they touch the moon and couldn't wait to go to school to tell everyone!  And I'm just a little bit over the moon too!!!! (read JUMPING UP & DOWN IN HYSTERIA!!!!).

 ________________________________________
                                               
GOURMET GIRLFRIEND'S RICOTTA CHOOK.

And on the table this week is another of our family favourites -RICOTTA CHOOK -via my dearest friend who is a fantastic cook (you know the same one who is always rescuing me from disasters!)


WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 whole chook ( FREE RANGE or ORGANIC)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 fresh red chilli (go for long ones not short as you want it for flavour not heat)
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• l lemon (we'll be using rind and juice)
• 10 sage leaves
• thyme
• extra virgin olive oil 
• 500g ricotta cheese

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C.


Using a mortar & pestle grind the garlic with a little sea salt and then add chilli, sage leaves and thyme.  (Note that you can use as many or as few herbs as you like here- my herbs change depending on what I have.)  Grind to a paste.  Then add the rind of the lemon and juice and the fennel seeds.  Then add the ricotta and about a tablespoon of olive oil and stir through.  I like to add white pepper as well.  Adjust seasoning to taste.  And of course you can change any or ALL of these ingredients to whatever you like- no rules here!

Now you want to get your hands under the skin of the chook!  Don't be shy here.....just separate a little of the skin at the neck of the bird and manipulate your hand all the way around to separate the skin away from the flesh.  We don't want to take the skin off we are just making a cavity to put the ricotta mix into.  But don't be too concerned about holes etc.....I am so not about perfection!

Once you have the skin sorted.  Use a spoon to guide the ricotta mix all the way around the chook (under it's skin).  Be generous!  This takes a bit of practice but it doesn't matter how messy you are.

Whatever I have left over I out in the cavity of the chook.

My kids love the drumsticks so I often buy extra drumsticks and stuff them too.

Then drizzle a little more olive oil over chook and some salt.

Place on an oven proof dish and cook for about an hour an a half- it will be delish and golden.

I like to cook roast cauliflower (cut into generous florets)in the same dish to take advantage of the cooking juices.  The cauliflower caramelises and is so UNBELIEVABLY delicious.  Squeeze loads of lemon juice and roughly cut Italian parsley all over.  I dare you cauliflower sceptics not to LOVE it!!!

And listening pleasure this week is the magnificent Cat Power singing 'the Greatest'.....what a voice!

Join me on my journey........