But that’s not what this post is about!  But, really, for those of you not in Sydney- it is hot- about 37 degrees Celsius (over 90 Fahrenheit) at 10:30pm.  HOT HOT HOT!  Especially for a city where not everyone (and not us) has air conditioning!

But who cares about that when there’s dinner to be made- which is really what this is about!

Now that we’re back to the grindstone and The Runner swims on Tuesday nights and I have my (pole) dance lessons which means that we’re not home until about 9.  So, I thought it would be a great idea to test out my new Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals cookbook.   It seems like a great idea, healthy, quick meals that I can whip up when we get home and have on the table ASAP, thus avoiding the problem of getting home late and eating late (normally because I’ve decided to make something that takes an hour).  

To be honest, it wasn’t too bad.  On paper and in practice it worked, I’m a semi-fan.  

SEMI, I said.  Firstly, the pork tacos were good, not amazing, but good.  Secondly, the meal did not take 15 minutes.  In fact, I’m not sure how it could be done in 15 minutes without a sous chef or helper.  I managed to complete the meal in just under 18 minutes from the time that the pork hit the frying pan BUT it was probably about 28 minutes all up.  Jamie definitely didn’t include the time it takes to find all the ingredients in the house and he definitely didn’t include going to three different stores to find black beans (in the end kidney beans were fine, although I’m still puzzled by where all the black beans have gone!)  Also, he kind of left out a few things like that you need to do, like put the taco shells in the oven and he wasn’t overly specific about a few things like how small to cut the spring onions.  Also he suggests grating the apple, which turned out to be a great way to make apple juice, rather than apple for a salad.  Not a major thing but figuring out the little things he left out added some time to the whole process and was a bit annoying.  The recipe worked but I also realised that deep down, I’m only a semi fan of Jamie Oliver.  He’s a bit annoying and I actually don’t like the way his cookbooks are written.   They’re just a bit unstructured and hyperactive.  I don’t follow cookbooks to the letter normally anyway, but, I don’t know, this one just annoyed me a bit.

I’m not going to abandon them completely- I like the idea of a yummy, clever 15-20 minute meal for Tuesday nights  – especially since there’s enough for lunch tomorrow.  You can’t really go wrong there!  Like I said, it was tasty, I just need to get Jamie Oliver’s voice out of my head now…. and find a way to cool off!!!

Also, we’ve picked a book for Sunday!   If you want in on dinner, let me know!