Scenes from Mothers Day

Hello and happy Mothers Day for yesterday!

With the Mr back from his work trip I was treated to my traditional Mothers Day of lovely handmade cards and drawings, a voucher for a massage and facial (can't wait!) and lunch at my favourite vegetarian yum cha place Bodhi. The restaurant has all the seating outside in a lovely setting with a big park next door for the kids to play in...

They had leaf races...



While I lay in the beautiful warm sunshine looking up at the leafy city view...



and fabulous plants...



And then we went to eat...



Lovely dumplings...



And tofu 'money bags' to name just 2 dishes. I love the yum cha style of having lots of dishes presented for you to accept or decline, I guess it's the polar opposite to being the sole cook for the family day in and day out!



Then I got some precious time to myself. And of course I chose to work on some sewing. I cut out the pieces for a new dress with some of my favourite music playing. Ah, bliss!

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And I am very excited about starting my KCWC project tonight. The pattern is traced and the beautiful fabric is drying as I type. The challenge will be to drag myself away from it tonight and get some sleep as usual. Hopefully I'll have something to show you tomorrow!

My favourite tofu recipe

Well, if you're reading this then I didn't lose you on the title of this post :-)

A friend recently asked me where I buy my tofu (the ordinary supermarket, sometimes Asian supermarket) and said she wanted to increase the protein content of her meals without solely relying on meat. She won my admiration by saying that her family of meateaters tried to eat small amounts of good quality meat rather than masses of the cheap (ie intensively farmed) stuff. I find the whole arguement going around at the moment about sustainability, health and animal welfare interesting because I've felt strongly about this for years. American author Jonathon Safran Foer seems to have stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest with his non-fiction book "Eating animals" and discussions with friends over his TV interview here on the ABC's Lateline have been interesting.

Right, well, I'm not meant to be changing the world here with this post, just telling you about my favourite tofu recipe - Sesame tofu :-)

Sesame Tofu

Rinse 500g firm tofu and pat dry with paper towel.
Cut into about 2cm cubes.
Place in a shallow dish along with:
2 crushed cloves of garlic,
2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger,
1 tablespoon of brown sugar,
and
1/3 cup of soy sauce (I like Kikkoman brand)
Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours to marinate
(or marinate it in the morning and leave til dinner time to prepare).



Combine in a large mixing bowl:
1 cup of sesame seeds,
1 tablespoon cornflour,
and
2 tablespoons wholemeal plain flour
(or just plain if you don't have wholemeal)
Add the tofu cubes and toss to coat in the sesame mix.



Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or any flavourless oil) in a wok,
add the tofu in batches and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.





I have this with vegetable fried rice, or plain rice and side dishes of steamed broccolini with soy, stir fried snow peas with mushrooms, or even just as a snack on it's own. When I make a bowl it's hard to keep my kids and the Mr (and myself ;-) from eating them all before the rest of the meal is cooked.

* Please cut me some slack with the photography - shooting tofu at night and with hungry children nagging me is not a winning combination for brilliant photography - well, that's my excuse!