Buttermilk Fried Chicken - For Kids or Kids At Heart

Confession time: I do not like cooking for other people's children. When you are cooking for adults you get to try out different flavours, a wide variety of ingredients, some heat, some spice - in other words it is interesting cooking. Cooking for other people's kids is (mostly) a disappointing experience. It doesn't matter how good your sauce is, or that your homemade pizza dough is amazing or that your teriyaki salmon has your kids licking their dishes. Other people's kids mostly want to eat food that tastes the same at your house as it does at their home, and I expect my kids are the same at other people's houses. If your food is different from their normal meals, they will usually cross their arms and say "I'm not hungry" even when you know they could eat the leg off the table. Which means that most of the time (there are some key exceptions) when we entertain other people's kids, they get sausages in bread for dinner. Sausages + bread = sausages + bread. Every kid will eat it happily because it tastes the same wherever you are. And this approach works extremely well until you get to summer. In summer, when you are entertaining a lot more frequently, and in family groups, suddenly you need to add a bit of choice into the menu. If for no other reason than to stop your own kids from being bored to tears with the same dinner over and over.

Enter: Fried Chicken. This has become my new menu item for kids. If my first attempt was anything to go by, the small fry loved it, and the adults mopped up the leftovers. The chicken is marinated in buttermilk to tenderize the flesh, then battered and shallow-fried briefly before cooking in the oven. This is good in two ways:

- a nice battered exterior, without the chicken spending an extended period cooking in oil

- you can get it half-cooked ahead of time, and just finish it off in the 15 mins before dinner. Perfect for when you are entertaining another tribe.

This recipe comes from Jill Dupleix in Delicious Dec 09 / Jan 10. I have been working my way through this issue of Delicious as part of the "We Made It" challenge with Melinda from Melbourne Larder. Jill Dupleix is a writer I follow - she has a lovely style, and her cooking is definitely at the less fiddly end of the spectrum. I have a couple of her cookbooks and I love her Delicious and SMH columns. In fact one of my favourite cooking quotes is from her: "I love cooking, but not while I could be eating and drinking." On that note here's to a great Australia Day weekend.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

adapted from Jill Dupleix in Delicious Dec 2009 / Jan 2010

8 chicken legs (look for kid sized ones; some are big enough to be used in combat)

1 cup buttermilk

1 3/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp paprika

Salt and pepper

Vegetable oil for frying

Cover the chicken with the buttermilk and refrigerate for at least 1 hr, or ideally overnight. Preheat oven to 200C.

Mix flour with paprika and some salt and a little pepper in a medium bowl. Dredge each leg through the flour until it is well-coated.

Heat 1cm oil over medium high heat . Cook the chicken in batches until it is well-browned on both sides. Do not attempt to cook it through. Put chicken on a baking tray lined with baking paper to sop the batter sticking to the tray. Bake for 15 mins, or until the chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool long enough so that little fingers don't get burnt, then serve. I is even delicious at room temperature.

Some Irresistible Fundraising Cupcakes

Because she has now reached Year 5, Miss 10 recently had to complete a service learning project at school. This was a very open-ended assignment: pick a charity or community service organisation or issue that you feel is worthy of support and do something for them, agreed to by both parents and teachers. It could be anything from cleaning up litter at a local beach, to spending time reading to the elderly at a nursing home. My daughter and her friend decided to sell cupcakes and lollies at school to raise money for a range of charities. The proverbial icing on the proverbial cake? They wanted to theme their cupcakes according to the charities they were supporting.

Happily I had seen some of Chris' beautiful cupcakes at Mele Cotte, which inspired me to make use of some leftover fondant for the decorations. (If you ever find yourself with leftover fondant, wrap it up so it is airtight, and keep it in a dark place at room temperature, and it will keep for a long time.) The designs were kept simple, so the kids could decorate the cupcakes themselves on top of the buttercream icing. Red fondant made crosses for the Red Cross. White fondant made paw prints for the RSPCA, and the leftover red and white fondant kneaded together made pink ribbons for Breast Cancer. The girls were so proud of their handiwork, and, even better, they sold well at school, raising almost $300 in total from their stall.

The recipes were the basic vanilla and the basic chocolate cupcakes from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connelly. If you haven't seen this book, it is charming, with cupcake recipes covering every flavour possibility. Because kids en masse can be a pretty fussy lot, we played it safe and went with the basic vanilla and the basic chocolate cupcake recipes. I never got to try a cupcake, but the kids tell me they were good.

Classic Chocolate Buttercream Cupcakes
from 500 Cupcakes by Fergal Connelly

225g unslated butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbls cocoa powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing
100g chopped plain chocolate
2 tbsp double cream
50g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sieved

Heat oven to 175C. Place 18 cupcake papers into a muffin tin. Combine all ingredients in an electric mixer and beat with the whisk attachment for 2-3 minutes. Spoon the batter into cases. Bake for 20 mins. Cool in the tins for 5 mins then remove to a rack to cool completely. For the icing, combine chocolate cream and butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir gently until combined. Remove from heat and add icing sugar, stirring until the icing is smooth. Spread onto cupcakes.

The Brownies They Serve In Heaven

I don't know what else to say about this month's Barefoot Blogger recipe except that these brownies are so very very good, that someone should write a poem about them. Someone should declare a national holiday. A marching band should announce their arrival. A crowd of groupies should form outside my kitchen, just hoping for a sniff. And said brownies should be packaged up and sent to anyone feeling a bit morose as evidence that life can be infinitely improved with a small slab of gooey brownies. Yes, they are that good.

Having just returned home mid-renovation, and still swamped by dust and chaos, I shopped for this recipe without really contemplating how much brownie I was about to make. Yes, I can be vague but 1 1/4 cups of flour sounds quite reasonable for a normal sized tin, but gosh, nearly a kilo of chocolate, 1/2 a kilo of sugar, and so on did seem a little extreme. It was only when I pulled out the tape measure to see which tin I should use, I realised that the only tin of the required dimension that I had was the bottom half of the griller rack for my oven. So I did the only thing possible - lined it completely with baking paper and created a brownie that had the same sized footprint as my oven. Oh my. Which then created a minor disaster when the tin was way too big to get in the fridge, and I was trying to shuffle the world's biggest brownie into pieces and onto smaller trays....Luckily, it was so good, that I have had no trouble palming brownies off onto everyone I have seen this week, plus I have two tupperwares of them in the freezer. Unless you want a similarly huge pan of brownies, feel free to chop this recipe in half. Only in Ina's world, does this recipe make 20 brownies. And don't skip the coffee - you don't taste it but somehow it makes the chocolate more intense.

Thanks to Eva of I'm Boring for her fantastic choice. And if you feel like making some really amazing food courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten a couple of times a month, join us at the Barefoot Bloggers.

Outrageous Brownies
from "The Barefoot Contessa" By Ina Garten

500g unsalted butter
500g plus 350g semisweet chocolate chips, divided
180g unsweetened chocolate
6 extra-large eggs
2 tablespoons instant coffee powder
1 1/2 tablespoons real vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (1 cup for batter and 1/4 cup in the chips and nuts)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups diced walnut pieces (I used a mixture of walnuts and pecans because that is what I had)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 13 by 18 by 5cm sheet pan.
Melt together the butter, 500g chocolate chips, and unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler. Cool slightly. Stir together the eggs, instant coffee, vanilla and sugar. Stir in the warm chocolate mixture and cool to room temperature.

Stir together 1 cup of the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips with 1/4 cup flour to coat. Then add to the chocolate batter. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until tester just comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, rap the pan against the oven shelf to allow air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. (I didn't do this as I had completely lined the baking tin with baking paper). Do not over-bake! Cool thoroughly, refrigerate well and cut into squares.

Thirteen Meal Ideas To Get Kids and Parents Eating Together

I get asked all the time what I cook the children for dinner. People with little children, who are stuck making kids food and adult food, also ask how I got the whole family eating the same dinner. Here are my picks for meals that both children and adults are happy to eat, at least in this house. Hope this list gives you some ideas for some new meals to drop into your rotation.
Parmesan Crusted Fish With Braised Vegetables - This is a good choice to help your kids start eating fish. Choose a white fish with a mild taste - they will love it. Serve with the braised vegetables as suggested, or a salad.






Oven Baked Risotto - if chicken and asparagus isn't a combination that works for your family, think about other possibilities like chicken and mushroom or pumpkin. This meal is lovely and soft for little teeth!





Chicken Bonne Maman - This dish is halfway between a bowl of chicken soup and a casserole. It helped my kids get into having soups. The long slow cook makes it perfect for an afternoon of running around - put it on at lunch time and you will return to dinner ready for you in the oven.




Old-Fashioned Roast Lamb With Vegetables and Gravy - This is more for a special occasion, or maybe a slap-up Sunday dinner. And the leftovers make wonderful sandwiches for school (with tomato and lettuce).





Meatball Spaghetti - certainly not glamourous, but this is a classic that makes everyone happy. Get the kids involved in making the meatballs for you as well.











Parmesan Chicken Schnitzel - since nuggets are such a popular kids meal, why not shift them onto a more grown-up version? My kids love doing the dredging for me as well.







Salmon burgers - these are fun to eat, and you will probably have all the ingredients in your cupboard already. Just don't over do the mayonnaise!






Fish pie - A tried and true classic, and mild enough to appeal to those who aren't that keen on fish (or think they aren't). Work some vegetables into the mix for a one dish meal.






Finger Licking chicken drumsticks - need I say more.










Beef sukiyaki - thin slices of beef stir fried, and served with noodles and vegetables. Adapt the vegetables to your family's tastes.







Roasted garlic chicken - garlic loses its pungency after the roasting so that this chicken is not too overwhelming for little ones.










Spaghetti carbonara - a meeting of bacon and eggs and pasta. Even Ruth Reichl says she never met a kid that didn't like this. Oh - and no cream involved.








Asian-style sticky chicken wings - these take no time at all to marinade and after an hour in the oven, they are fantastic. Serve over rice with salad or vegetables.

Old-Fashioned Shepherd's Pie: One for the Kids (and the Big Kids)

Shepherd's pie is one of those recipes that has stood the test of time. I make it for my children, just as my mother made it for me, and I'm pretty sure her mother made it for her as well. There is nothing fancy or trendy or impressive about it, but it is comfort food par excellence. In my opinion, the smell of it cooking works at the same level as a hug or a call from an old friend. A lovely reassurance that regardless of how lousy your week has been, or how bad the Easter weather is or how disappointing your holiday was, some things remain right in the world.

Shepherd's pie is equally popular with the children and the adults in our family. Only my husband, scarred from years of boarding house shepherd's pie with powdered mash on top, took a while to come around to eating it again, but even he enjoys it now too. I like to make shepherd's pie as a one dish meal, so our vegetables for the night are incorporated into the mix. This means that every time I make this recipe, it changes slightly depending on what I have on hand that I want to add. Corn, carrot and peas all work well - and only the carrot needs any pre-cooking (unless you like yours very underdone).

A Large Shepherd's Pie

2 tbls olive oil

1 kg mince (I generally use beef, but feel free to use whatever you prefer)

1 onion, diced

150g bacon, diced

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup BBQ sauce (you could substitute tomato sauce)

1 tbl tomato paste

1/2 cup corn

1/2 cup peas

1/2 cup diced carrots

5 potatoes

milk and butter for the mash

Preheat oven to 180C. Heat oil in a large pan, then add onion and cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add bacon and continue to cook until the bacon starts to render its fat (another couple of minutes). Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add mince and continue to cook until it is browned. Stir in BBQ sauce and tomato paste, and season with salt and pepper. Taste the mixture, and add more sauce or tomato paste if required. Stir in vegetables and warm them through, then tip meat mixture into a large baking dish.

Meanwhile, boil potatoes until they are tender, then mash with milk and butter according to your taste. (I usually use 1/4 - 1/2 cup milk and 1-2 tbls of butter). Spread the mashed potato over the mince mixture. Swirl the tines of a fork through the mash to create a pretty textured top, then put into the oven for 1/2 hour. If top is not golden, put the pie under the grill for a minute to brown - do NOT walk away while you are doing this or you risk burnt pie - the potato toasts very quickly.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes.....

There are a lot of things that are great about being a kid. Someone tucking you into bed each night, for example. Someone else doing all the cooking and shopping. Hanging out with your friends all day at school. And having absolutely no qualms about healthy eating. Hell, if left to their own devices, most kids would subsist exclusively on ice cream, chocolate and whizzfizz. So, with four kids in tow last weekend, I let my daughter pick which cupcakes we would make. (What do you expect me to do? It was four against one). She of course picked the wickedest looking cupcakes in the book to make while the cousins were here.

I am not going to pretend that they had any redeeming qualities beyond being delicious, and looking very pretty in my cupcake wrappers. However, if you look at it from a kids point of view, these cupcakes contain two of the major food groups: biscuits and cake. So why not?

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

adapted from "500 Cupcakes" by Fergal Connolly

250 g unsalted butter, softened

250g caster sugar

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

10 crushed oreos or similar biscuits

for the icing:

375g icing sugar, sieved

225 g unsalted butter, softened

salt

10 crushed oreos or similar biscuits

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line cupcake tins with 18 paper cases. Combine all ingredients except the crushed biscuits in a mixer bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale (2-3 mins). Stir in biscuits. Spoon the batter into cases. Bake for 20 mins. When cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 mins, then remove to a baking sheet and cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the icing sugar, butter, and salt with an electric whisk. Spread icing onto the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle biscuits on top.

Oreos DIY

I was killing a little time the other day before an appointment, browsing through a local bookshop's selection of food magazines (as you do...), looking for something to thumb for half an hour before an appointment. Local Australian magazines often dominate this area: Gourmet Traveller, Vogue Entertaining, Delicious, Donna Hay, alongside Kiwi imports Cuisine and Dish. American magazines appear and disappear a little more sporadically. Martha is usually available, but Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Saveur are much more hit and miss. Some editions seem to make it through to Australia; some don't. Last week I came across a new arrival: the Food Network Magazine, and while skimming through it, found a recipe that made me buy the magazine: do-it-yourself oreos.

For a long time in Australia, oreos were an exotic and unknown biscuit (cookie), mentioned enticingly on TV shows like the Brady Bunch, but completely unavailable. About five years ago, they turned up in supermarkets here, and were taken straight to the same place in my children's hearts where TimTams, Montes and Choc Wheatens also live. The chocolate wafers and creamy centre are a winning flavour combination, which has been widely adopted as cookies and cream for everything from ice cream to kitkats. This do-it-yourself recipe comes from chef Emily Isaac at Trois Pommes Patisserie. It is absolutely fantastic and makes an enormous number of biscuits. We had so many that I was sending friends away with boxes of them just to get them eaten before they had a chance to go stale. And how good were they? Fantastic - the biscuit more chocolatey than the original and the cream more vanilla-y. No surprises then that the grown ups liked them just as much as children did.

Do It Yourself Oreos from Emily Isaac in The Food Network Magazine

For the Dough:
1 1/3 cups Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (copha), melted and then allowed to cool
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper and roll into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the parchment sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 2-inch round cutter, cut the dough into circles. (You can reroll the scraps.) Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets and chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla. Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.

Real Spaghetti and Meatballs

When I saw that this month's Barefoot Challenges included meatballs, I was very pleased. I knew that the family would love it, and it gave me the chance for a bit of experimentation with a new recipe. I have been making spaghetti meatballs for years with the same recipe from Diane Seed's Top 100 Pasta Sauces. So how would Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa stack up against Diane Seed when the battle ground was meatballs?

The answer was an easy win to the Barefoot Contessa. The differences between the two recipes are significant. Ina uses three types of mince in hers (beef, pork and veal) where Diane uses one (beef). Ina does not add garlic to her mince mixture, it is only in the sauce, where Diane has garlic in the meatballs but not in the sauce. Ina uses one egg, plus water which makes hers moister than Diane's using two eggs and no water. Plus you mix Ina's with a fork (instead of in a food processor), and there is no rolling the balls in flour before browning. All in all, I was sold on this recipe and so were the family. The meatballs were definitely moister and tastier. Even better, the single recipe made enough for us for two dinners (one is sitting in the freezer). We got almost twice as many meatballs as Ina did out of her ingredients, and they were still the size of golf balls. I didn't want to increase them to the size of tennis balls just to get Ina's suggested 14-16.

And if you have never made meatballs, do! As Peter Clemenza said in "The Godfather", "You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys some day..."

Thanks so much to Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake for the fantastic choice. If you feel the urge to expand your cooking repertoire, consider joining us at Barefoot Bloggers, as we work our way through fortnightly challenges from the repertoire of the Barefoot Contessa.


Real Meatballs and Spaghetti from Barefoot Contessa Family Style by Ina Garten

Ingredients
For the meatballs:
250g ground veal
250g ground pork (NB I used the pork veal mixture from the supermarket)
500g ground beef
1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed)
1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine
2 x 400g cans crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving
1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions
Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Blondies (for Brunettes as well...)

The Christmas Concert season is beginning. Mothers everywhere (as well as a father here and then) are whipping up something sweet or savoury, and delivering it with their offspring to church halls and school auditoriums. I'm not being unkind when I say that these concerts always seem to go forever, the halls are always hot, and someone tall inevitably takes the seat in front of me so I spend the night ducking and weaving to try and see the kids performing. Once the formalities are over, everyone gets to have a drink and a nibble (even a light meal of you are lucky). The arrangements are generally no more formal than "bring a plate", and there are always stories of newly arrived expats, who arrive with an empty plate, rather than a full one.

If you have been told to "bring a plate" to your kids concert, this slice from Dorie Greenspan is perfect. It is not going to collapse in warm weather, or melt or go funny. It tastes delicious, so the kids will wolf it down. You can also tailor it depending on personal preferences - any of the usual stir-in ingredients would work (nuts, dried fruit, etc). It is also scrumptious with a cup of coffee. You might even decide it is too nice for the concert, and keep it at home, while you stop for something else on the way..... (and by the way, if you are thinking about asking Santa for a recipe book, Dorie's book, "Baking: From My Home to Yours" is worth putting on your list).


Chewy, Chunky Blondies
from "Baking: From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greenspan

2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
250g butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (light) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips or toffee bits (because we don't get these here, I smashed up Werthers toffees)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, waiting until each is fully incorporated to add the next, then beat in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture, stirring only until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chips, nuts and coconut by hand. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out with only a few crumbs. Cool blondies in the pan, but turn them out (and then reinvert them so the top is facing up) before slicing into 32 bars.

Spaghetti Meatballs For A Cosy Night In

Perhaps more than any other meal, I associate spaghetti meatballs with the movies, specifically The Godfather Part 1. The youngest son of Don Corleone, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) is slowly become more and more enmeshed in the mob, and caporegime Peter Clemenza, in a scene dripping with symbolism, invites Michael to learn how to make meatball sauce. In a nifty shorthand recipe, Clemenza says to him "Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; ya make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs; heh…? And a little bit o' wine. An' a little bit o' sugar, and that's my trick." And it is that easy.

Meatball spaghetti is great comfort food. Tasty, soft, and popular even with the children, I have been making this recipe for close to 20 years. From time to time, I have experimented with other recipes, including one that tricked up the meatballs with pine nuts. But in the end, I think that for this dish at least, simple is way better than fussy. My meatballs aren't any more complicated than Clemenza's, in fact the basic recipe is the same, although I skip the sugar and the tomato paste. And the guns.

Spaghetti Con Polpettine

adapted from "The Top 100 Pasta Sauces" by Diane Seed

For four

2 cloves garlic

400g minced beef

2 small slices white bread, crusts removed

1 tbl parsley

1/2 cup grated fresh parmesan plus more to serve

2 eggs

flour

2 tbl olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 wineglass white wine

400g tinned tomatoes, pureed

1/4 cup stock

Put the garlic and mince in a food processor and whiz until well-combined and the garlic is chopped, then add the bread, parsley and cheese. Whiz again until well-combined. Season to taste. Roll the mince into small balls about the size of a walnut, then roll the balls in a little flour, shaking off excess.

Heat the oil, add the onion until it is soft and translucent. Add the meatballs and cook over a low heat until they are browned on all sides. Shaking the pan regularly will help. Add the wine, bring it to the boil and reduce by half, then add the tomatoes and stock. Cover and cook over a medium low heat for an hour, stirring from time to time. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to your packet directions. Serve sauce over cooked spaghetti with extra parmesan to taste.

Finger Licking Chicken Drumsticks

While my kids are now bigger, I still clearly remember the days when anything they ate had to be manageable by hand. Brave girls that they are, there was nearly no food that could not be turned into finger food - I can still picture the result of their finger food approach to spaghetti bolognaise, ice cream and noodles; my kitchen, my children and myself covered in drippy mess. You'll be glad to know that I slowly got smarter and started feeding them food that was designed to be eaten by hand; with chicken legs remaining a favourite 5+ years later.

This recipe was renamed "ice cream chicken" by my youngest, because she used to lick at the drumstick like an icecream because she loved the sauce so much. It is still one of her favourites. The recipe comes from a cookbook for feeding small children called "Family Meal Planner" by Annabel Karmel. Annabel Karmel publishes cookbooks of food to feed infants from first solids onwards. They are always a favourite baby shower gift, and if the recipient is anything like me, they will still be used years later. Make sure you double the recipe for lots of yummy leftovers.

Finger Licking Chicken Drumsticks

4 large drumsticks

1 1/2 tbl white wine vinegar

60ml tomato sauce (ketchup if you are in Nth America)

30ml honey

1/2 tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Add the drumsticks, making sure they are well-covered in the sauce. Cover and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 220C. Arrange the drumsticks in a shallow baking dish, and pour over all the marinade. Cook for 35-40 minutes, turning the chicken over after about 20 mins. Serve with rice to help mop up any leftover sauce.

Risotto The Easy Way

Risotto is one of those dishes that is fantastic to make because it is so versatile, and so easy to play with flavours. The downside is too long standing in front of a pot of boiling stock stirring rice (does anyone else wind up feeling like they are getting a facial at the same time?) This risotto eliminates the half-hour of stirring, but still delivers a great risotto, that is neither too wet or too dry. And it reheats well for lunch the next day!

Oven-baked Chicken and Asparagus Risotto

adapted from "Everyday" by Bill Granger

2 tbl olive oil

500g boneless chicken breasts cut into thin strips (I used thighs)

1 onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

250g arborio rice

3 cups chicken stock

175g asparagus sliced on the diagonal

1/3 cup grated parmesan, plus extra to serve

sea salt

black pepper

Preheat oven to 180C. Heat 1 tbl olive oil in a large flameproof casserole over high heat. Add the chicken and cook, stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the casserole and set aside.

Add remaining olive oil and the onion to the casserole and cook, stirring occassionally for five minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the garlic and lemon zest and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the rice, and stir to coat in the oil. Add the stock and bring to the boil, stirring occassionally.

Cover the casserole and put into the oven for 15 minutes. Remove pot from oven, add the asparagus and chicken, and bake for a further 3-4 minutes until asparagus is bright green and tender. Remove from the oven, stir in the parmesan, and season with salt and pepper, continuing stirring until some starch has been released from the rice and it is at your desired level of creaminess. Serve with extra parmesan.