‘Tis the season for mushrooms, walnuts, spinach, onion and lemons. Here is the delicious food we cooked for lunch on Thursday at Garden to Plate.

Lemony chicken (using a lemon from Jill and a lemon from Sheryl) … and green onions and spinach from our garden, stuffed mushrooms (cheese and walnuts - amazing) and a roast pumpkin and potato mash. So very yum!

Stuffed Mushrooms (blue cheese and walnuts)

Ingredients

• 4 large mushrooms

• 100g blue cheese, crumbled

• 40g walnuts, coarsely chopped

• 6 fresh thyme sprigs (or dried thyme is ok too)

• 2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs

• 1 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil or butter

Directions

• Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and finely dice. Arrange mushrooms on the tray.

• Mix mushroom stalks, cheese, walnuts and thyme.  Fill mushrooms. Top with panko breadcrumbs. Drizzle with oil or a small knob of butter and season with pepper.

• Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese melts and mushrooms are tender.

• Serve sprinkled with baby herbs if desired.

Mashed Potato and Pumpkin

Ingredients

• ¼ pumpkin, cut 3 cm chunks

• 4 potatoes, peeled and cut in 3cm chunks

• Salt and pepper

•  Butter

• Cream

• Nutmeg

Instructions

• Roast the pumpkin in the air fryer for 20 minutes, then microwave with a little water for 5-10 minutes to ensure they are well cooked.  Drain and whizz with butter, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

• Boil the potato in salty water until soft, drain and mash, then add in the pumpkin mash. Add additional cream and butter to get to the right consistency. Taste and season as needed.

Creamy Lemon Chicken with Sage

Ingredients

• 2-4 chicken breasts, sliced in half and pounded thin

• 2 cloves garlic, crushed

• Handful of sage leaves

• Salt and pepper

• Olive oil

• 1 onion, thinly sliced

• 1/4 cup chicken stock

• Zest of 1 lemon, minced

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 2-3 cups packed spinach (or use 1 bag)

• 3 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions

• Mix oil, garlic, sage and salt and pepper and cover chicken breasts. Marinate until cooking.

• Heat a large, flat-bottomed sauté pan to medium high heat, set aside the sage leaves and fry the chicken breasts for 3-4 minutes on each side, until done through. Remove the chicken from the pan and set on a plate while completing the rest of the dish.

• To the hot pan, add the red onion slices, letting them soften for 2-3 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth. The pan will sizzle. Stir the onions and let cook another 2-3 minutes until they soften more.

• Then add in the sage leaves, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix well.

• Fold in the spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes.

• Turn off the heat, stir in the heavy cream and season once more with salt and pepper.

• Add the chicken back into the pan and reheat in the sauce.

• Serve immediately.

Budgets, grants applications and acquittals, Council submissions … last week was flat out behind the scenes … and busy in person as well.

Lots of people attended the Embracing Life and Death discussions on Thursday afternoon. Crunch was a small group this time (but lovely - we did still life painting with gouache paint), we got a delivery of a couple of cubic metres of compost to keep us busy in the garden on Friday (thanks Nat at Darebin Council for organising this again!) … and two birthday parties were held at ACC 🥳 on Sunday.

This week CWA is meeting at the Gleeson Centre on Monday night, Garden to Plate is on Thursday at 11.30am … and it’s the long weekend … so we’ll see you back on deck next Tuesday.

Hope you make the most of it. I am planning to go to Rutherglen (to check out the wineries) with some of my oldest friends from university. Should be fun!

Cheers Leanne

We’re in round 12 … and a big congratulations to Adopted Crupi (Corrado) … with ‘Soarin’ (Thomas) coming second so far … only one point behind. Then we have a tie for 3rd - Dansuri and Richicog … with Alex and Rose coming a bit* further down the ladder.

However, they (Alex and Rose) are diligently coming in to ACC every week on Friday to update the IRL ladder for all to admire. See below for the latest photo of the results.

I (Leanne) started taking an extra interest in the footy a week or so ago when Jack Ison got his first game with Carlton - he and his family were at Fairfield PS with my kids and he played at Parkside Footy Club etc. So lots of local families were pretty chuffed to see him play in the AFL (I saw posts all over Instagram).

Anyway … I digress. We’re all looking forward to the rest of the season. I am sure we will rustle up a fabulous prize or two for the winners.

And a big thanks to those who are participating. It has been a super talking point through the week for everyone at ACC - particularly on Fridays.

* oops … second last (but they’re taking it in their stride)

Were you separated from your baby through forced adoption?

The Victorian Government has established a redress scheme to acknowledge the impact of historical forced adoption practices on mothers who continue to live with the serious, complex and ongoing effects of forced separation from their babies.

The scheme has been open since 2024 and is taking applications until 31 January 2028.

The Historical Forced Adoptions Redress Scheme provides a one-off payment of $30,000, access to counselling and support as well as an apology process.

The Scheme is open to mothers who gave birth in Victoria, or were Victorian residents who gave birth interstate, and who were forcibly separated from their newborn babies soon after birth, prior to 1990.

Forced adoption refers to institutional past practices that separated mothers and their babies, where women were forced, pressured or coerced to give up their babies.

A support team is available to guide you through the application process, answer questions, and assist you with any supporting information that may be required. To find out if you are eligible or to talk about your options:

• call 1300 217 425 (9:00 am-4:30 pm, Monday to Friday)

• visit https://www.vic.gov.au/redress-forced-adoptions

• or email forcedadoptions.redress@justice.vic.gov.au

Other Support Services

VANISH - Telephone: 1300 826 474 Email: info@vanish.org.au

Link-up - Telephone: 03 9287 8800 Email: linkup@vacca.org

Relationships Australia Victoria - Telephone: 1800 210 313 Email: fass@rav.org.au

Lifeline -Telephone: 13 11 14

Beyond Blue - Telephone: 1300 224 636

Suicide Call Back Service - Telephone: 1300 659 467

Here is the recipe for the cauliflower steaks we made at Garden to Plate last Thursday. They were so simple for something so delicious and a great option for a vegetarian meal … or just to add some extra veggies into your everyday!

When we made ours we used a mix of cheeses (because that’s what we had), but parmesan would probably make for a neater look at the end.

Baked Cauliflower Steaks 

Ingredients 

• 1 cauliflower head cut down the middle top to bottom then sliced across-ways. Try and keep the ‘steaks’ together in clumps if the come apart at the edges ( don’t despair - the cheese will help stick them together if needed when cooked).

• ¼ cup olive oil

• ½ cup grated parmesan 

• 2 cloves garlic, grated 

• 1 tsp smoked paprika 

• 1 tsp onion powder 

• 1 tsp salt 

• ½ tsp  chili pepper flakes

Instructions 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.

Mix olive oil, garlic, salt, spices and 2 teaspoons of parmesan.

Sprinkle the rest parmesan cheese on a lined oven tray in clumps that will roughly match the cauliflower steaks.

Place the cauliflower steaks on top of the parmesan cheese.

Baste the top side with the oil and herbs.

Cook on high for 10 minutes then lower heat and cook on 180 degrees for 20 minutes until cooked through.

Serve crispy side up.  YUM! We ours with mushrooms, hummus, bread, green beans and tzatziki.