  I'm thinking about food bcos i've been informed that i'm cooking lunch at the farm on friday. I'm a little miserable about it bcos John, the father of the family doesn't eat garlic.
He doesn't even have garlic in the same room as him. Onion, anything spicey or unusual, anything different and you can be pretty sure that you can't use it... it's heartbreaking. And it's not like i can't cook something up without those ingredients but cmon... cooking with restrictions and especially those kind of restrictions just sucks. I thought about doing a bacon and mango salad but i'm thinking it'll be too exotic. I'm thinking about pear, walnut and feta but yeah, same goes. So.... it looks like a very ordinary quiche, with a very ordinary salad, with some very ordinary cold cuts of meat (no salami!! ) and some ordinary fresh bread. Sigh. I really wish people wouldn't volunteer me. Ok who am i kidding, i don't mind, lol. I'm sure there'll be some intersting local produce i can use that'll keep everyone happy. Just no garlic, or onion, or... BACON AND MANGO SALAD Mesclun Bacon, preferably streaky, as many rashes as you like, cooked til crisp.
Break into small pieces when cool. Use your fingers, trust me, its' better that way. Nuts. Anything soft like pecan, cashew, even almond flakes are good. If you're happy to not be an ass about it then cook them in the bacon fat, otherwise use pre roasted. Capsicums (or peppers, whatever you wanna call them), cut into thin strips. Cucumber, cut however you like. Tomatoes, chopped. Grind salt and pepper on them before adding to the rest of the salad. Avocado, halved and sliced, salt and pepper. A ripe Mango, peeled, flesh cut off it, and cut into strips (and then it's very important that you eat the remaining flesh from the pip). Combine and eat. DON'T use a dressing. You won't need one. PEAR AND WALNUT SALAD Rocket, roasted walnuts, paper thin ribbons of pear and a good feta like Kapiti danish, crumbled.
Still undecided on a suitable dressing, but i did see one with french walnut oil (i've never seen that around anywhere) which looked kinda good. I just made mine with a little sea salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Hmm, maybe a little bit of pear juice? Maybe not. I was thinking about a rocket and mushroom salad. With different kinds of mushrooms, drizzled with truffle oil. Not sure what else. Still thinking on that one. I feel like parsnip mash. Parsnip mash is the shit.
If you haven't had parsnip mash you should bcos it's incredibly good. Boiled parsnips, mashed, with butter, cream, salt, a little garlic and some wholegrain mustard added to it. The Shit. Enough of food for now. Bedtime. -sitting on a bench in the sunshine filling up my belly with the fine wine- apollo 440 
