Food, food, glorious food!

I consider myself to be an average cook - nothing the likes of those on Master Chef, and I was wondering how we would go preparing food and eating in the Solomon's for three months.

After three weeks, I'm happy to say it hasn't all been bad! We have had quite a few successful meals and despite the disasters (like the gluggiest rice I have EVER eaten - oh I miss my rice cooker) things are not looking too bad.

When we first arrived there was no food in the house, apart from a jug of freshly made bush lime juice (of which we all loved!) We had bought some bread at a shop on the way from the airport, so we had sandwiches for dinner, using peanut butter, nutella and vegemite (brought from home). No one complained, but I knew we had to improve on that one as the days progressed!

The next day Geoff boldly took us to the markets, where we bought a selection of fresh fruit and vegies. We came home with a bundle of long (50cm) thin beans, some small green capsicums (they are all tiny, and we couldn't see any red ones), some beautiful purple eggplant, shallots and a bunch of green stuff a bit like spinach. There were many other lettuce type things at the markets, and heaps of sweet potato and casava.

So these vegies became the staples for our dinners. Since then I have found carrots (at the expensive shop, but I don't mind) and also snake beans.

The light green vegie at the front is snake bean. It is long (70cm) and fairly thin. I peel it, slice the whole thing in half long ways, scrape out the seeds and stuff on the inside, then slice and chop what is left. It fries up nicely with the other vegies and takes on the flavour of whatever dish it goes in.

Star fruit - so beautiful to look at! It tastes a bit like a nashi.

This fruit is called a pomelo. It is a bit like an orange, but not as sweet or juicy. It's the size of a rockmelon, with VERY thick skin and pith. Brianna loves pomelo.

My first attempt at a banana cake - doesn't look great, but tasted delicious! Note the bush limes in the background. There are a few lime trees here, and the girls come in with fresh limes nearly every day - perfect for bush lime juice - a refreshing drink at dinner time.

Since the first few days we have found lots of different things to use in cooking. I've been making lots of biscuits and muffins for the girls to take to school, etc, although there is no choc chips here - a real staple of mine at home! We even made pizza bases from scratch using yeast and flour - delicious. Elora made the comment that they tasted just like normal!

Cooking takes a little longer here though, and we have to remember to boil the kettle before we wash up so we have some hot water!