* Coconut Lime Prawns with Noodles

It's been a tad quiet around here of late, for a number of reasons. The biggest being that I just haven't had time to cook anything blogworthy, and when I've attempted to (via my new slow cooker because suddenly I've forgotten that I have other cooking appliances... like.... gosh, I dunno AN OVEN!!!) - it's all gone drastically wrong and ended up in the dog. I'm not joking.

Also, I haven't much felt like this is MY blog, since I first signed up with google adsense just over a month ago. Not their fault, but all of a sudden Abbe's Cooking Antics stopped being about the cooking and the recipes and the odd bit of "Hello my name is Abbe I'm NOT as good at the game of life as I want to be"... and started being purely about traffic - how to increase it etc. Apparently, using the word f*ck (which I nearly haven't), is NOT a great way to maintain a relationship with your advert providers either... so I stopped using it. For a while.

Anyway, long story short - the adverts are gone and this feels more like it's my own private space again, where I can write what I want and cook (or try to) what I want too - rather than what I think I should (not that I have, but it's the thought that counts). Believe it or not, what pleases me, usually pleases you lot too. My traffic has been decreasing very slightly, since I took too much of an interest in it! Turns out, some of you actually prefer the real me, to the dumbed down version... ARE YOU MAD?!?

I've also remembered how to use the oven/stove for food other than chips (fries). If I'm eating chips I know I'm not in my happy place. I don't like chips. So... this next recipe was a rather quick and tasty pasta (sort of) dish with big, beautiful prawns... oodles of creamy coconut milk... and a wodge of spinach...

... because I couldn't help myself.

I never can.

* Reason's to be cheerful...

Thankyou, most lovable (not) Kelly at Dysfunctionally Functional for nominating me for this kick arse award! I had a speech all written out, was half way to the shops to purchase a new dress and get my hair done... when Kelly disclosed that none of that was actually necessary. I'm calling her bad names in my head.

The deal for getting this award is as follows:

1)  Display the trophy on your post.
2)  Write a short piece that starts with:  I Didn't Kill ____ Today.  It doesn't have to be a person; it can be an appliance, a business, or anything else you choose.
3)  Nominate a few people and let them know it's their turn to vent!

Kinda like a glorified chain letter ;o)

Now I'm kinda stumped, because there's so much to choose from...

Okay, here goes...

I Didn't Kill Joshua, Today. Actually, it was last Sunday, but let's use some poetic license here and I'll explain... I know it says *click for recipe* below... there's no recipe but click it anyway...

* Slow Cooker Moroccan Lamb Tagine

I JUST BOUGHT A SLOW COOKER!!! Oh yes I did. I've been rebelling against this one purchase for yeeeeaars. Rebelling. Truly.

I love cooking gadgets and cooking gimmicks but until recently, a slow cooker/crock pot was at the bottom of my list. Purely because I honestly believed the only thing you could cook in it, was Chicken Chasseur.... This is because as kids, whenever we saw that mum had got the crock pot out, we knew it was chicken chasseur for dinner, and don't ask me why, but we'd spend the whole day dreading it. Possibly because mum got the crock pot out A LOT. I think we ate almost as much chasseur as we did bolognese!

I no longer have an aversion to chicken chasseur, and have in fact, included a recipe for it within the walls of this blog - however, up until recently I've had no designs on owning a slow cooker. None whatsoever. That's until I started up this blog in an endeavour to make our food a tad more interesting for us to eat - we'd fallen into a food rut. Since starting Abbe's Cooking Antics, I've spent a lot more time surfing the net, looking at what people are cooking and eating, and I had no clue that there were quite so many things that you could cook in a slow cooker... cheesecake for example (really?!?).

So, I gots me a slow cooker to slowly cook stuff in and what do I do? I don't cook a slow cooker recipe... meh... too easy... I adapt a stove top recipe that I've never actually cooked before. There's a time adapter/conversion thingy at netmums.com that converts times of oven/stove top based recipes to slow cooker temperatures and times. Brilliant.

Coincidentally, Genie at Bunny Eats Design, has invited me to join in a monthly link up party - Our Growing Edge - designed to connect food bloggers and challenge/inspire them to try new things and share the end results. I think this is an amazing idea, especially for someone like me that occasionally needs a push to experiment. I really can be quite lazy when it comes to trying new stuff. I do tend to stick with what I know works! This month's link up is hosted by Sonya at and more food and the recipe I'm submitting for it - is this one because...

It was lush.