I'll 'ave you lamb shanks

A sign of a good gardener is often how big they can grow their produce. Is bigger always better?

This giant tomato (being held by a grub worm), tasted just as delicious as it's regular sized brothers. It formed the basis for these garlic and rosemary lamb shanks using rosemary, carrots, tomatoes and a few green beans from the garden.

It's getting too cold to grow tomatoes and I've pulled up all but the Tommy Toe and one cherry tomatoe. The last of the tomatoes are now ripening on the kitchen window sill. Guess we'll have to wait until Spring to try and grow another whopper tom.

MasterChef

I missed the first two seasons of MasterChef but I've got into it third time round. And like many others I've been inspired to try some new things in the kitchen. I mainly cook meals the whole family will enjoy but tonight I decided to try something cooked just to please me. I didn't follow a recipe, just followed my MasterChef instincts. The result was creamy smoked salmon pasta (using lemon, silverbeet, dill and spring onion from the garden) with a side of bruschetta (using homegrown tomatoes and basil).

The result was as good as anything I've ever had in a restaurant. In fact it was so good there's no photo because it was gobbled up so quickly.

The problem of course, with using fresh ingredients and making tasty dishes is that it's really hard to then go back to eating frozen meals or the sort of bland tasteless foods that busy families often fall back on. But freeing up time to spend more time in the kitchen and garden is not such a bad thing. We are what we eat.

Alien plant

I've brought most of the last green tomatoes inside to ripen on the kitchen windowsill which gets the afternoon sun. Tonight's dish was chicken kiev with simple tomato rice using cherry tomatoes from the garden. Simple but delish.

Something I'm far less inclined to taste is this strange looking growth I found the other day. The stalk was quite thick and mushroom like, the flower part about the size of my palm. It's dried out considerably since then so I'm thinking it was the result of frequent rain recently. Anyone know what it is?