Back to the fooooood.... Here we go......
Sweetie's bacon, baby marrow, spinach and tomonionleek Spaghetti Cake:
Ingredients:
- 400g spaghetti
- 250g Cheddar cheese
- 150g Feta (optional - we love feta in this home! :)
- 150g spinach
- 1 pack baby marrows (courgettes/zucchinis)
- 2 packs bacon (streaky bacon or shoulder bacon -- you're going to cut it into strips)
- 600g tomatoes
- 3 leeks
- 2 onions
- 2 green chillies, deseeded (optional, we love the extra kick)
- 4 sprigs fresh parsley (I lurrve parsley)
- A few very decent and hearty cracks of black pepper (+/- 3 tsp, add or remove more or less - it's up to you)
- 4 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) or Olive Oil (OO)
- 1 large pot
- 1 large pan
- 1 large casserole dish (34x24cm or 13x9 inches)
- 1 large knife
- 2 tablespoons
- 1 ladle
- 1 1/2 cups full cream milk (I used 2% or "half and half" --must watch expanding waistline!)
- 1tbsp melted butter
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Method:
Wash all your veggies and fresh parsley well. You don't want gritty spinach!
Preheat your oven to 180°C or 350°F
In your large pot, add 2l water. Pop your tomatoes into the water and leave until boiling.
Chop up your baby marrows (courgettes/zucchini) and fry them in olive oil till done.
By now your water should be boiling. You will see the tomatoes' skins start to peel. Remove from pot and place in cold water for a few minutes.
In the mean time, chop up your onions, leeks, deseeded chillies and parsley and throw these in your blender. Blend until, well, well blended ;p
Remove tomatoes from the cold water and peel them. (Wash pot as you'll use it again in a few moments). Cut them into pieces of 3 or 4, depending on their size. We don't want the tomato bits to be too small, but not too big either - peppadew size would be great. Take your blended "tomonionleek" mixture and your matoes, and pop them into the same frying pan previously used (saves on the dish washing load later, unless you're lucky enough to have a dishwasher! Gavin I WANT ONE NOW DAMMIT!).
Add 2 tbsp OO or EVOO into your pan, on medium heat. Mix your "tomonionleek" and tomatoes together in your pan and fry for about 8 - 10 minutes.
In your pot, add 2l (depending on size of pot) of water and 1 tbsp EVOO or OO plus a pinch of salt. Add spaghetti and cook for 8 - 10 minutes until done.
While the above are frying and boiling respectively, grate your Cheddar cheese and cut your feta into blocks, about 1cm x 1cm in size. In a bowl (I used a random Tupperware), mix all the cheeses together.
Pop the bacon into the microwave for about 5 minutes on full power.
Cut bacon into lengthways slices about 1/2cm thick.
Drain spaghetti when cooked.
Cooking Time :)
In your biggest bowl, mix: The spaghetti, raw chopped spinach, "tomonionleek" and chilli & parsley mix, baby marrows/courgettes/zucchinis and bacon. Also add just less than half your cheddar and feta. Mix it all together. Add 3tsp of freshly ground black pepper, you can add more or less depending on your personal preferance. In this home, we love us some (lots of) black pepper!
• Take out your casserole dish and drizzle the butter across the bottom of the dish.
• Beat the 4 eggs and milk together and pour into the bottom of the dish.
• Add all the ingridients from the bowl (spag, spinach, tominionleek mix, cheddar and feta,
baby marrows etc) and mix them well
• Add the bacon and mix well with other foods
• Sprinkle the remaining cheddar and feta on top and give a few more grinds of fresh
black pepper if you fancy.
• Pop your uncovered casserole dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Check after 20
minutes. If it looks done (cheese has melted nicely) then remove from oven. Else bake for a
further 10 minutes.
• Take your dish out of the oven and allow to stand for a few minutes.
Voilà! Serve and enjoy with a Greek Salad and a nice bottle of white wine. I recommend Hill &
Dale Cabernet Sauvignon. Delicious on all three accounts :D
Will try to upload a pic of the dish, but Gav loved it so much he pretty much ate it all
(admittedly I also had two helpings...). Just need to finish charging ze chambre photographique(camera)...Yeah... I like to pretend-think I can speak French. I did, however,
study it for two years in high school.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Right, so it's now 5:05am on Wednesday morning. Let me work something out:
Awake at 11am on Monday.
Went to bed at 1:40am on Tuesday morning.
Fell asleep at 10:30am on Tuesday morning.
Woke up at 1:15pm on Tuesday afternioon.
= 2 hours 45 minutes sleep in total
Out of 41 hours 30 minutes.
(I'm using blue font as blue is meant to be tranquil and I'm a raging insomniac). Went to the GP
and he told me I have Acute Sleep Deprivation. To which I replied ""Why yes, I AM a cute
insomniac!). He prescribed Zolnoxs/Ambien/Zolpiden depending on where one is in the world.
My oh my did it knock me right out!!! Unfortunately that was two months ago and I have none
of the 30 he prescribed left :( "o.O
Time to pay the good doc a visit again I reckon...
Oh happy day! Not... Actually today is going to be an extremely happy day, my and Gav's nephew is
being born in a few short hours and we get to meet the young un in less than 12 hours! Fantastic!
Gav and I aren't planning our own kids as I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and
Spondyloarthropathy. Buuuttt... should an accident of life creation take place, should his
swimmers like my pretty egg and manage to get in, well, we would be thrilled. Shocked as all
hell, dumbstruck, gobsmacked, flabbergasted, etc., but we would love it. I have always
wanted to be preggy.To feel that new life, created by me and the love of my life, move
around and grow inside of me would be magical, a gift really, from The Big Man Himself
(I refer to God, not Gav, even though he's a big man too!). Just to feel the miracle of life
growing inside of me. That's not to say I actually want children. Just always thought that
pregnancy is amazing, all the physiology, biology and such involved... Awesome!
Well, that's it from me for now! Might be back soon, might not. Not very tired at all so we shall
have to see.
Good night and be well x
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