Breakfast for the hungover, and 'meatballs'!

It was the Pride fair day on Saturday which was amazingly fun (except the beer cost $5 a can! and I forgot to take a picture of our picnic). And we went to the pub with a friend afterwards and stayed a lot longer than we expected (and therefore drank a bit more) so there was a hangover on Sunday.

We usually prepare ourselves for such occasions (because they are genenerally few) and buy hashbrowns and fizzy drinks the day before. We didn't this time, but I had a little bit of pumpkin in the fridge and decided to make my own! I didn't go find a recipe because that was too hard. I ended up grating the pumpkin, and making a mixture of about 3 tablespoons of cornflour and 4 tablespoons of water and adding it to the pumpkin. I dropped a large tablespoon worth of the mixture into heated oil (just shallow fry, not deep fry) and squished them down. They are very fragile so I had to be careful flipping them. But they did end up staying in one piece which was good. They did the job :)

They were very crispy (I almost burnt them) on the outside but soft and pumpkiny on the inside. Very unlike potato hash browns. :) And nice and oily which was the point. You could use a lot less oil than I did with no dramatic difference I think.

We had them with baked beans, garlic, spinach and chilli.

The other night I wanted two things: baked corn pudding, and spaghetti and meatballs. I couldn't decide so we had spaghetti and meatballs, with a side of corn pudding. :) The meatballs are SO GOOD. I will make them again, and again, and again. Cheap and easy, though time consuming, they are DELICIOUS. Next time I make them I will cut the mustard powder in half and replace with sage or some other powdered herbs.

The sauce I made started out as a basic Napoli tomato sauce (tomatoes, garlic, herbs - I also usually put kalamata olives in but SOMEONE ate them all and put the empty jar back in the fridge), but I added grated carrot and zucchini, and a handful of red split lentils to make it thicker and heartier. Didn't really need to with the meatballs, but it was delicious together anyway. It's always good to add extra vegetables.

The corn pudding was good too, probably a bit strange to eat it with pasta but who cares, really. :)