What to eat when sick?

Well, firstly it's got to be something that someone else has cooked, of course. But if it's fresh chicken soup made with love by Mr P, well that's almost worth being sick for. I'm not a great fan of soups, overall but this one is pretty good. Succulent freerange chicken (drumsticks), vegetables and rice with a squeeze of lemon. Too sick to have noticed the technical details but it was yummy and made me feel better, and what's better than that (the brownies he made on the same night weren't bad either!).

The magnificence of old fashioned cake

Mum asked me what kind of dessert we wanted for Sunday night dinner last week. This wasn't an easy question as, really, I love all desserts! But the old fashioned home made chocolate cake that I used to get in my lunchbox as a child just might be my favourite. Mum whipped one up especially for me, and here it is, accompanied by some lovely fresh raspberries, fresh cream and some home made mousse. Does it get better? I think not.

Champange and chocolate

On Saturday mum took me into Paspaley to pick out my birthday present. Now this is shopping at it's finest. Not only do they sit you down and show you the prettiest things ever, they let you try them all on and get you drunk on french champagne!! (several glasses). Then everything looks even prettier! Isn't that a good sales tactic? Afterwards we needed to drop into the Lindt cafe accross the road to gain some composure. The delightful chocolate brownie and hot chocolate did the trick. Why can't we have a Lindt cafe at work??...hmm it might be a little dangerous for the waistline, but very soothing!

Singstar and sweets

Last Friday night there was a singstar competition rung in conjuction with the fortnightly happy hour. I participated and made it through to the second round. It was a bit embarassing but quite fun. I think I'd do it again...especially if more cupcakes like these, made by LE were on offer. Yum! Prettier but not as yummy as my choc-orange ones though. Plain ones are never as good as chocolate ones....it's just not possible really.

Danks St Depot

Went to Danks St Depot at the terminal for lunch again today, with Ms A. Again I had the Suffolk lamb burger and Ms A had the lamb ragou spaghetti. I managed to get a picture - here it is. It's $10 with the staff discount which isn't bad really. I think the full price of $19.50 is a bit steep though. It's been a welcome change to our previous diet of McDonald's and Oporto!

Mother's day delight

As my lovely mum cooks delightful things for us every week, it was the least we could do to cook for her on mother's day. We started with frozen daiquiris from urban thirst. For entree we enjoyed fried haloumi with an olive and caper dressing that Mr P whipped up, followed by an adventurous beef and vegetable pie (leek, mushroom and carrot). We hadn't cooked a pie like this before so there was a bit of trial and error involved but the result was well worth it, and the clean plates spoke for themselves. For dessert we feasted on choc orange cupcakes that I had made the night before, topped with melted Lindt chocolate (70% cocoa). Mmmm cupcakes... I can see more on the horizon...

Where there's smoke...there's bacon!

Those who know me will know that the truth is that I love food, but rarely cook. I like thinking about cooking, buying cookware, Tupperware, cookbooks, watching cooking shows, encouraging others to cook, but when it comes to actually cooking…..well you get the picture. And with mum and Mr P both being fabulous cooks, I have been able to get away with being lazy in the kitchen but have still enjoyed the very best of home cooked meals.

But this weekend was going to be different. It started on Saturday morning when I actually cooked an omelette. Actually a 2 egg omelette with bacon, fresh garden chives and cheese. I don’t know if was beginners luck but it was a pretty good one too! A little brown on the outside but not a burnt brown, but a lovely almost caramelized brown. Thanks new little scanpan! Mr P was suitably impressed and cooked us up some choice bacon to go with it. Unfortunately the serenity of brekky on the deck was ruined by the smoke alarm wailing inside (Mr P was frantically trying to turn it off while I sat there, oblivious, wondering who the annoying truck driver was who had left his reverse alarm on in the street…lol…I hope I would recognize the smoke alarm a little sooner if it woke me up in the middle of the night).

The good, the bad and the ugly (but delicious!)

After the birthday extravaganza and pizza night it was a pretty quiet food week. We took a packed lunch from home most days and only ate out on Thursday and Friday. Thursday we had the chicken burger at the Roxia hotel. A good solid burger, but nothing much to write about. Then on Friday I had the most horrid BBQ chicken roll for lunch...the chicken was ok, if a bit dry but the roll was cardboard and the chicken was encased in a terribly greasy sarcophagus of turgid stuffing. Ick….

Luckily on Friday night Mr P cooked us up some comfort food and one of my favourite dishes – his luscious chicken pasta. He revels in telling the story of the first time I tried it, (over and over again). Where I grew up we weren’t so much into pasta dishes, mum would occasionally cook us a very yummy homemade lasagna or spag bol but that was about it. So one night back when we were just starting out, Mr P declared that he would cook for me. He said ‘how about a chicken pasta’. I was nonplussed and had images of a thick & gluggy white sauced thing containing a few sad pieces of graying chicken. How wrong could I have been – the pasta that emerged was delightful, with succulent pieces of breast meat in a tangy red sauce containing fresh home grown basil, pine nuts and full bodied chilli and tomato flavours. It was then topped with fresh grated premium parmesan. It’s been a favourite ever since. YUM!

Spicy Monday

The lovely and vibrant Ms F invited me to a tupperware party last Monday night and lured me and Ms A there with the promise of pizza. Actually I didn’t need much convincing as I am a self confessed Tupperware tragic but the pizza actually turned out to be a major drawcard. We had the schezuan prawn and sweet potato pizzas from Crust at Maroubra Junction. http://www.crust.com.au/. Man that schezuan prawn pizza was the bomb, and I scoffed a fair chunk of it. Friends, Pizza, Tupperware, trivia, free gifts and peppermint tea. It doesn’t get better than that on a Monday night. Thanks Ms F!!!

Sweet Potato

Schezuan Prawn

Chocolicious....

My lovely mum made me the most beautiful and delicious birthday cake! Not only was it spot on with the masquerade theme but it was chocolicious! The core was a delicious rich chocolate and hazelnut mud cake layered with chocolate raspberry mousse. It was then topped with lindt chocolate, nut shop macadamias, Belle Fleur truffles and edible Serbian glitter! Not only was it special because it was made with love by mum for my 30^th birthday, it was extra special as it was the same recipe as our wedding cake, which brought back some great memories.

Organic extravaganza

On Saturday night I was showered in love (and gifts) by some wonderful friends. To top off my 30th birthday celebrations a small group of us tucked into some pink frozen strawberry daiquiris and then headed down to Agape in Botany for another love feast. The all organic feast consisted of the following:

  Spelt breads and EVOO

Marinated olives, fennel, rosemary and garlic

Organic spelt pizza - spicy italian sausage

Spelt spaghetti, brocolli, mint, thyme, garlic, pecorino and cream

Slow cooked lamb, rosemary, garlic and bay leaves with roast potatoes

Petuna ocean trout, fennel, green beans, dill and mustard

 Krinklewood organic semillon blend

Handmade organic and natural ice cream and sorbet

Orange panna cotta

A great night was had by all. The food at this restaurant is really fresh, light, tasty and consistent. One criticism I will make though, is that they always start the ordering process by asking - 'still or sparkling water?'. There is only one way to respond to this - 'tap water please', with a smile.

After the feast we headed home for my mum's masterpiece, the masquerade birthday cake. And that deserves a post all of its own....

Sushi Train

Since the Asakaze sushi train opened at the international terminal, A and I have been going there at least once a week (sometimes more). We usually have a bit of everything - and almost always have the salmon rolls, tuna rolls and chicken rolls. Sometimes we are more adventurous - once we even tried eel! Last Friday we had tuna rolls, chicken rolls and spicy fried chicken pieces and some other fried morsels while sipping green tea and watching the chefs sear large pieces of salmon with a large blow torch. It was strangely theraputic after a tough morning at work....

http://www.asakaze.com.au/

EPIC FOOD DAY!!!

Yesterday was my 30th birthday, or 'EPIC FOOD DAY' as it is otherwise known. It started with morning tea, when my thoughtful workmates produced a cake that they had purchased from Christopher's cake shop in Mascot. This thing was delicious!!! It was seriously the best bought cake that I had tried for years. It was a chocolate cake layered with chilled nutella creme and containing chunks of a thick rich chocolate throughout. YUM!!!! (see Noutella cake - http://www.christopherscakeshop.com.au/autumn.html)

Then for lunch Mr P and workmates took me to the Roxia hotel, on the princes highway in Rockdale. This is a great pub to go to for lunch. The meals are very consistent, huge and fresh. You can get a steak sandwich for $12 that is big enough to feed two people, and that's just what we did!
http://www.ferosgroup.com.au/rh_default.aspx

To top it off we headed to Balzac Restaurant in Randwick - http://www.restaurantbalzac.com.au/. Now I had received an invitation for a free degustation on my birthday a while back. It also promised a free bottle of wine if our party consisted of more than 3 people. Mr P also asked if they would personalise the menu and we were lucky enough for them to agree to give us a course of sea scallops and chocolate dessert. The free wine was very nice - a pino grigio. Very light and fruity. The highlight of the entire night were the sea scallops - they were so succulent and just heavenly! I think I would be happy to eat them every day. And it was also quite satisfying to know that they weren't on the regular menu and they had prepared them just for me!!! Everything else was wonderful too, particularly the tuna dish and the fennel soup...but oh those scallops - it was worth turning 30 just for them!

 Menu - except we had scallops instead of the pig's trotter

 Lovely warm homestyle bread

 Zucchini flower, beetroot and goat's cheese

 Fennel veloute with chantilly

 Yellowfin tuna and white anchovy

 Blue-eye risotto, celery, fennel and poached quail egg

 My lovely scallops and scrumptious black pudding

 Angus beef, marrow and veges

Cardamom rice pudding with rhubarb and ginger

Warm chocolate fondant with porter (beer) icecream and macadamia praline

Petit fours

 Peppermint tea

Cassaroles and Chilli Jam

Yesterday Mr P whipped up another favourite - a splendid beef and green bean cassarole with potatoes in a thick red sauce. Again we enjoyed this with a sourdough loaf, last night and for lunch today. It was chunky, warm and flavoursome, yum!! I picked some of the beans off the beanstalk that we are growing out the back - which spontaneously sprouted out of the ground about a month ago in the spot where we had previously grown beans. The homegrown beans have a much better flavour than the store bought ones - and when you cook them they emit a very fresh green aroma. YUM!!!

Ok maybe it's not pretty but it tasted good!

Tonight I went out with my sister in law A to the movies. Afterwards we indulged at Thairiffic, King St Newtown. The chicken satay sticks were fresh and awesome with fresh onion and a peanut dressing on the side (no sign of thick glug here). The curry puffs were flavoursome but I burnt my tongue on one and did a very good impression of a dying seagull. LOL. The chicken cashew nut dish was also very nice and plentiful with generous amounts of chicken and veg. It came very close to matching my alltime favourite C&Cnut dishes from Tums (Randwick) and In Chan (Kingsford).

Tomorrow is my birthday so it's going to be a BIG food day! Stay tuned

Danks St Depot

I had lunch at the Danks St Depot cafe at the international terminal today with Ms AM. For the third time I had the Suffolk lamb burger, which consists of a really tender lamb chunk with caramelised onions and a thick pureed beetroot sauce on a sourdough bun. It also comes with a rocket salad and some think hand cut chips. Delightful! AM had the fish and chips which are also quite interesting (thin fillets of perch with a herbed crust) but as usual I prefer the red meat options. We've really gotten into this place in the last few weeks as they actually have a decent staff menu - eg. the suffolk lamb burger is usually $19.50 but we get it for $10. I must try to remember to take a picture on the next visit.

http://www.danksstreetdepot.com.au/

BBQ and Bruschetta

Another great social day. We made the most of the public holiday and beautiful weather by attending a BBQ at Anderson Park, Ryde, hosted by lovely school friend AT and her husband RT. I must admit that I am not really a big sausage fan but these sausages were really good, as were the scrumptious onions - well done RT!!! A special mention must go to T for his bocconcini and basil salad. After the feasting we basked in the sun - it's really noticable how it's intensity has waned since the beginning of this month - sunscreen still recommended though!

Later that evening we headed over to Dulwich Hill for dinner with the G family (my in-laws). This was a really good hearty dinner, and very indulgent. Actually there has been a lot of this thing called indulgence lately...we really need to slow down. We feasted on bruschetta followed by succulent steaks BBQed over charcoals, feta cheese, olives, sweet potato mash, salad, custard cigars and profiteroles!! The desserts came from the Athina cakeshop in Marrickville - recommended if you are in the area, and in the market for wicked dessert!

From the field to a chocolate fest....

Last night we had a lovely catch up dinner with our very close friends ED, LM and their partners at Kelly's Bar and Grill at Westfield Bondi Junction. Now this is a place where 'small' is not small. Infact, once we had a little bread and veges I could barely manage my main course of a 'small' steak!!! But I pushed through the pain barrier and conquered the beast, a Kelly's hot bite which was a chunky little piece of eye fillet steak with a triple peppercorn crust. A good steak and they know what 'medium means' which is always a bonus. The steaks come with either baked potato, mash or chips. I got the baked potato, which was ok but lacked a little something. I would actually recommend the chips which were succulent with a tasty seasoning. Mr P and Miss LM had lamb ribs which got the thumbs up. ED and her partner ME shared some snails for entree - which as far as snails go, looked promising!

Brioche

Kelly's hot bite

Lamb ribs

http://www.kellys.net.au/menus.php?id=2

Call me crazy but after being stuffed to the gills at Kelly's we sought to punish ourselves further at Max Brenner. Is chocolate ever torture...well...maybe sometimes. I forced myself to finish a succao and at least 1/2 a plate of chocolate strawberries. Mr P had the waffles and a coconut hot chocolate. Now that was divine - I can see that I'll be having that one next time!!!

Max's chocolate strawberries

Suckao and coconut hot chocolate

Waffles