A few people have asked me lately if I’ve quit blogging. Which is a fair question. No I haven’t. I just lost my blogging mojo, got out of the routine and have struggled to slot it back into my daily tasks. In fact daily is really just asking too much these days but I would like to get back into the swing of blogging at least weekly. Yes, yes, we all know what good intentions pave but notice I’m promising nothing, just saying what I would ideally like to do. Anyway, enough of that.

The Bread Winner and I celebrate two anniversaries. Our original anniversary and our wedding anniversary. We didn’t feel like forsaking the first when we married as we didn’t like to discount the five years we’d been shacked up before we legally wed. Today is our 13th anniversary (non-wedding). The Bread Winner forgot which was a relief as I forgot our wedding anniversary this year. Phew! Even. He did make up for it with a lovely bunch of flowers this afternoon. Random romance, gorgeous stuff. My contribution to such romance was making dessert. He loves dessert and I rarely make it so it practically classifies as a gift.

Dinner was simple. Char grilled slices of eggplant with a herb and lime risotto. I’m not sure which was the side dish there. For a simple and fairly colourless meal, it was greatly enjoyed. Double the risotto quantities for decent sized servings, I only made enough for a side dish type amount per person.

Herb and Lime Risotto
45g parmesan, cubed
60g butter, cubed
1 red onion, quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups vegetable stock
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup lime juice
220g arborio rice
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh continental parsley
8 leaves sage, lightly fried and crumbled
seasoning

  1. Place parmesan in thermomix and grate for about 7 seconds on speed 7. Remove and set aside.
  2. Place butter ( minus one cube), onion and garlic in thermomix. Chop for 5 seconds on speed 7. Cook for 2 minutes at 100 degrees on reverse speed
  3. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes at 100 degrees on reverse speed 1.
  4. Add wine, lime juice and stock and cook for 15 minutes at 100 degrees on reverse speed 1.
  5. Stir in half the parmesan, herbs and remaining butter. Season to taste.
  6. Serve and sprinkle with remaining parmesan

Dessert was a lime pudding. Just a standard variation on lemon delicious using lime juice and coconut sugar. I should mention that lime featured so heavily overall due to an abundance of limes in the garden. Three lime trees will do that.

Lime Pudding
have all ingredients at room temperature
1/2 cup coconut sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons butter
1 tsp grated lime zest
1 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
3 tablespoons lime juice

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
  2. Firstly, beat egg whites until stiff in thermomix and remove. Doing this first means you don’t have to wash the bowl before the next step. I’m lazy like that.
  3. Combine sugar, flour and butter in thermomix for about 10 seconds on speed 6.
  4. Add the unbeaten egg yolks, lime juice, grated lime rind and milk. Give it about another 10 seconds on speed 8.
  5. Fold egg whites into mixture.
  6. Pour into buttered dish (1 litre capacity) or 6 individual dishes (1 cup capacity). Place in pan of hot water and bake for about 35 minutes.
  7. Serve with cream or icecream

Until next time…whenever that ends up being.