Indoor BBQ

Discovered a quick and easy way to throw together a meal in a moment.  With all the rain this year we haven't had a single BBQ and I suppose I was having withdrawal symptoms. So the other day, whilst rummaging around in a kitchen drawer I came across some sad looking skewers just asking to be taken out and put to use. 


My mind started to cogitate on the idea of an indoor barbecue, so I looked in the fridge to see what was available.  The best candidates  were baby tomatoes on the vine and haloumi, so out came the skewers and on went the tomatoes and haloumi, with a splash of balsamic and olive oil, then sprinkled with sea salt, black pepper and oregano.  

As there were only two of us and also the cupboard was quite bare I decided to put whatever else I could find in the roasting pan - don't you just love make do suppers, the idea of making something from nothing? It appeals to the scrooge in me, although P would say this is the only way this side of my character manifests itself!  

I found several cloves of garlic that I threw in whole, a green pepper got cut into rings and the last couple of tofu burgers were sliced in half, then everything was tossed in the same marinade. If I'd had them, a few whole mushrooms and a couple of small red onions in their jackets would have gone in too. Forty minutes later they emerged from a hot oven ready to eat.  Don't they look scrummy? With a couple of slices of P's wholemeal bread, which can be dipped in the leftover marinade, this made a hearty, no fuss summer supper for two.

Whilst on the subject of food, we had the little girls for a sleepover yesterday and I'm always looking for ways to get them to eat up. Patterns fascinate them so I'd been making different types of repeating patterns with veggies to jazz up their pasta. It's funny how the mind works, it had never occurred to me to branch out and do something figurative, but the lightbulb moment eventually happened and Izzi got the pasta kitty for tea. It does leave a little to the imagination as we still haven't been shopping and I'm limited to what's in the fridge, but the idea's opened up a whole new world of culinary possibilities for me.

Thought I'd finish with this pic of Arlo, taken on his first birthday a couple of days ago. He can never resist an empty yarn box, especially when he's returned from a night on the tiles -much prefers it to his soft and fluffy basket.  Somehow he's picked up a pink ribbon on his travels to celebrate. Happy birthday little Arlo!