A little visitor

We had Fagin come to stay this weekend. He's 's a little Maltese terrier who's been coming to visit us for 5 years now. He belongs to Heidi, who I used to live with, and we get him on loan every now and then. We'd love to have a dog but unfortunately we live in an apartment. We do the next best thing and borrow Fagin on weekends.

This weekend I made the Raspberry Roulade and Maureen's Moroccan Lamb (Maureen is J's Mum). Now I only have 3 more dishes to prepare and photograph from my recipes. I'm a bit nervous about making the Braised Calamari as this was made for me by a friend who is a chef and it was easily one of the best dinners I have had. I have made it before but to be honest it never looks as good as the original one. So fingers crossed I can do it justice in the photo because it is incredibly tasty. Maybe I need to convince the original chef to come back from the UK and make it for me.
Last weekend I came across a recipe in the Sydney Morning Herald for Croque Monsieur that had me salivating. A fancy 'Ham & Cheese Sambo' it may be but the description got my curiosity going. I went to The Barn to purchase all the best ingredients and I have to say it made for a very tasty Sunday lunch.


Croque Monsieur

2 Slices Sour Dough Bread
1 Slice Gruyere Cheese
1 Slice Leg of Ham
Rocket lettuce
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp sour cream
pinch of paprika
Freshly ground pepper
Butter

On one slice of the bread place the cheese. Mix the mustard, sour cream, paprika & pepper and spread over the cheese. Add some rocket and top with the leg of ham. Butter the second slice of bread and place on top of sandwich, butter side out. Put in a moderately hot pan and fry until cheese starts to melt. Butter second side and flip sandwich over. Serve with a nice cup of Tea.


We are lucky to live in an area with an abundance of excellent delis. On my way back from the Barn I dropped in to The Fine Food Store to pick up an Ice cream sandwich which I had heard about. They are being made by two local guys Pat & Stick and have been getting excellent write ups recently. They were only selling them in a tin of 4 so I splashed out the $20 for them. They were delicious. I think trying to photograph them in the sun was a bit silly of me as they started to melt so I popped them back in the freezer and we devoured them later.