settling into Ballan .....

We can now say we have fully moved into Ballan - well just about!

Still have the lounge furniture to arrive and a few other bits we need to purchase, but the renovations are coming along nicely and our shipment has arrived from Singapore ..... so yes, we are starting to feel quite settled into this friendly little rural village 74klms west of Melbourne.

The kitchen renovations hopefully will be finished at the end of next week.

The stove top is in, but I was so happy when the oven was installed earlier this week and by yesterday the drawer and cupboard handles were fitted.  Can now continue stocking up on basic food items, still do not have 'everything', but slowly getting the basics like flour, spices, dried fruits, herbs etc.

Also I can get back to baking and cooking ..... something I have sorely missed in the 5 + years we spent in Singapore.

On Thursday we had visitors, they did not leave till just after 6.00pm and I had yet to start dinner.  As soon as they left I had to think of something that was going to be quick and easy and also to use what foods I had in the cupboards.

On checking the cardboard boxes I was using for storage up until yesterday, I had a can of red salmon, a jar of Cabonara pasta sauce, a packet of pasta, a packet of frozen mixed vegetables and parmasan cheese.  Yes, I could do something with that!

Added a pack of pasta to a pot of boiling water on the stove, then threw a packet of frozen mixed vegetables into the container in the microwave to cook with just a smidgen of water, turned the oven on to 180 deg. While the oven was heating, the vegetables and pasta were cooking, I greased a glass ovenproof dish with butter, added the can of red salmon, squashed most of it with the fork,  added the pack of now partially cooked vegetables, poured the cabonara sauce over the top of it all and added grated cheese and a sprinkle of dried parsley.  Placed it in the oven for 20 mins.

The following was on the table 30 mins after our visitors had left:

then last night for dinner we had the leftovers as an entree. I took three sheets of frozen puff pastry out of the freezer and cut each sheet in to four.  Folded the edges slightly, brushed with olive oil, added a tablespoon of the leftover salmon, vegetable, cheese mix, a sprinkle of McCormicks "Lime and Chili" mix......

topped it with extra Parmesan cheese and popped it into the 180 deg oven......

left it in the oven till it looked a crispy golden colour .....

Next time I would add more of the salmon / vegetable mix. But these really were a very quick and easy entree and tasty too!

Not bad when you consider they were made from 'leftovers' that was a quick and easy meal in the first place!

Might even do more baking over the next few days as it looks like we are going to have a cold spell as seen here:

Have a great weekend folks!!