Food Growers Market

Saturday morning was a blisteringly hot morning. One of those mornings that doesn’t even have the manners to heat up. It just starts hot and only gets hotter as the sun rises. It was, of course, the first Saturday of the month and so the food growers market was on. My neighbours were coming over for a BBQ on the weekend so I wanted to go to the market to pick up all sorts of goodies to cook up for them.

I met my friend H and her very beautiful daughter and we pottered around the market. I arrived a little early with my dog Teddy and we mingled amongst the crowd getting some idea as to what to cook at the weekend. I have a habit of getting a bit excited about all the lovely food on offer and just buying everything in sight. This time I took my time and planned out my menu for the weekend. Of course this didn’t stop me from indulging in a few extra little treats too like those beautiful plump giant figs that I just had to have.

When H arrived we followed tradition and headed straight for the bacon and egg roll stand. It was way too hot to have coffee so we opted for some freshly squeezed orange juice. This is one of those breakfasts that is so simple and yet so perfect. There is no point in trying to fancy this up. It’s just delicious exactly the way it is. When we finished eating and could take the heat of the sun blazing down no more we started pottering around the stalls tasting all the goodies on offer. I picked up some exceptional lamb back strap and gourmet lamb patties for the BBQ. I also treated us to some organic strawberries for dessert. I have to admit I’m not a big purchaser of organic food but there are three foods that taste considerably better when grown organically. They are Tomatoes, Strawberries and Chickens. Once you taste the organic version you will never be happy with anything less.

I have a great little recipe for the strawberries. This one cam from my Mum when I told here I was going to serve strawberries. I was going to serve a very simple strawberries and cream dessert but Mum told me about this little recipe she had made herself. You heat up some butter. Add some caster sugar and allow it to dissolve. Add in a vanilla pod and then cut up your strawberries and cook them in the butter mixture for 4 to 5 minutes. Serve with some crème fraiche, cream, mascarpone or yogurt. I drizzled the juice from the cooked strawberries over the lot and it was luscious.



God it was so hot. We could only take it for a short while at the market. When H’s little daughter stripped down to her nappy to try and cool off we were both a little jealous. Although when we saw her trying to take her nappy off we both agreed it might be time to head home and cool off in the air conditioning. I know my family back in Ireland will have no sympathy for us sweltering over here as they rug up against the snow. The heaviest snow they have had in a long time. It’s so hard to imagine what snow would be like when you are walking around in 40 degree heat.

When we got home we heard on the news about the bush fires in Victoria. This is such a dreadful time for those poor souls. Out hearts, prayers and donations go out to all of them. I cannot even imagine what it must be like live through the hell they are experiencing. It is tough times and hopefully all of us can make things a little bit easier for some of them.

Something on the side

I have a little something for you. Did you ever have one of those days where you're just not in the mood for potatoes, rice or pasta but you want to serve something with your meat. Well this is a great little side dish and so easy to throw together.

You just have to roll out some store bought puff pastry until it will fit in your tart tin. Cover it with baking paper and put some baking beans or rice on top. Bake for 10 mins in an oven at 180C. Then remove the paper and beans and cook for another 10 mins to brown. The center will puff up so you need to smush (official term) it back down. Lay some large slices of big beef tomatoes down the center and some little cherry tomatoes along the edges. Sprinkle with lots of salt and bake for a final 15 minutes. Once it's cooked drizzle with some good olive oil and lots of cracked black pepper.

This tart even tastes great cold. I know because I devoured it for lunch the following day. I just love a multi-purpose dish.

A leave of absense

On the 31st May 2008 J took me away for my birthday. While we enjoyed a little picnic lunch on a rock at Mosman Gorge J got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Within a heartbeat (a very strong heartbeat) I had said “YES!”. From that day to this poor Berrysimple was put on the back burner.

We live in Sydney but our families live in Ireland and England. Because of the logistics of getting all those people over to Sydney we decided to have the wedding in Dublin, Ireland. To ensure no-one missed out we also had a wedding party in London and one in Sydney. Never let it be said that we don’t love a party.

While these three parties were the most enjoyable I have ever experienced they did involve a lot of organising (with the help of my sister, my Mother, my Mother-in-law and J). For the last 6 months I have had very little time to dedicate to cooking and even less time for photographing and writing about my cooking. But now the honeymoon is over and a girls mind wonders back to what nice things she can cook up for her new husband.

Before I launch into my latest soirée in the kitchen let me first tell you about my weddings cakes. Yes cakes, as in two - one cake for the wedding in Dublin and one cake for the party in London. The first cake was made by my mother’s friend and she did an amazing job. I had always loved a photo of a cake I had seen on Nordljus a few years back. Because this image stuck in my head we decided to go for something similar. There were only 30 people at the wedding so we could go for something small by wedding cake standards. I am not a big fan of fruitcakes so we went with a couple of light sponge cakes. Sandwiched with home made jam and cream. It was covered in a light icing, surrounded with white Belgian chocolate and topped with cream roses. It seemed like such a shame to cut. But it was delicious.

The Second cake was made by our good friend, S. who has been doing cake making courses and was keen to increase her repertoire. We were more than welcome to let her make the cake. This was a bigger party with 70 people so we decided to go with individual cupcakes. Wow, these were truly amazing. There was a little cake to cut on top and then lots of little cream cupcakes with gold skirts and hand made autumn leafs layered down to the base. Around the bottom there were real autumn leaves scattered around. This was an absolute masterpiece and didn’t come without its fair share of drama. When S arrived at the venue she realised she had forgotten the cake stand so they got back in the car and drove miles to get that pesky cake stand. When the cakes were being carried one box accidently fell … in a puddle!!! There was no recovering from that but there was still enough cakes to go around and I can tell you they were very well received by everyone. When I get the recipe for these cakes I will make them myself and post the results along with the recipe.

It's good to be back and I will keep you posted with what is happening in the kitchen these days.

Teddy the Red Nose Reindeer

Don't anyone tell the RSPCA what we've been inflicting on our very patient dog. My excuse was that if we dressed him up when we brought him with us on Christmas day then people would not notice there was a dog with us.

Neglected

I have neglected the blog for ages now and I have a multitude of excuses to explain why – weddings, visitors, forgetting to bring my camera, detoxing and busy at work. As J likes to say – “Excuses as like a$$holes, everybody’s got one”. If the truth be known I just have not been thinking about the blog recently and so I have not been good at photographing the lovely food I have been enjoying.

It’s Good Food Month here at the moment and so far I have enjoyed three great events that are on for the month. First off the rank was a great lunch with a big crowd from work at Industrie-South of France for the Let’s Do Lunch. Then we headed to the Night Noodle Markets at Hyde Park. I was kicking myself that I didn’t have my camera that night as the lights in the trees were really beautiful when it got dark. We got there early and were very happy to get a table. Between all of us not a noodle was had because most of the food there is actually Thai. I am never that impressed with the food there but I do love the atmosphere. That probably explains why we stayed there for a few hours enjoying the wine from the Cargo Bar Stand.

Our most recent Good Food Month was a birthday treat I organised for J. It was a tour of the James Squire Brewery followed by a beer and food tasting. This was J’s idea of heaven. The whole event was very well organised and we enjoyed it all the more because of the free flowing beer that was provided.

We had some sushi with the Pilsener, ‘gourmet’ meat pies with the Amber Ale, Chilli chicken with the Golden Ale and then we finished off with some Chocolate cake with the Porter. It was a bit of an eye opener for me. To be honest I would never think of having beer with food. The one exception to the rule is a cold beer with an Indian meal. They were meant for each other.

I have a free weekend this weekend so I plan to get busy in the kitchen and I promise I will take some decent photos and tell you all about the results.

There – it’s in writing. Now I have to do it.

The Wong Burger

Ok, I know the food I write about on this blog would not really be categorised as gourmet food but this post is really moving as far away from gourmet food as you could possibly get.

Let me start by saying that if you are into health foods and treating your body like a temple then you should really click to another page right now.

My friend in work, Jimmy Wong, told us all a story about how, when he was a young whipper snipper at school, he ‘invented’ the Wong Burger. Now it would be fair to say that Jimmy Wong loves his food and because he works out he gets to eat an inordinate amount of food. These days he has a lovely wife who is a great cook and makes him the most delicious smelling lunches (I’m always hinting for a taste). Anyways, back to the school days. Back then Jimmy had very little money and a huge appetite. When it came time to buy lunch it was all about quantity (no mention of quality). So young Jimmy came up with the idea of asking the nice ladies who worked in the canteen for his sausage roll to be served in a hot dog bun as there always seemed to be an abundance of these so they would give them for free. He would then smother the whole lot in free tomato sauce (the free bit seems to have been very important back then).

It appears that after Jimmy left the school the ‘Wong Burger’ as he called it became very popular. More young men caught on to this trick of getting the free bun and sauce. The canteen staff spotted a way to make money out of this and added the ‘Wong Burger’ to its menu. Years later a young boy from the school walked up to Jimmy and pointed at him and getting all excited he proclaimed “You’re the guy who invented the Wong Burger”. Jimmy thought this was hilarious. He could now carry on with his life knowing that he had already left his mark for future generations of young men to enjoy.

Last week it was Jimmy’s birthday and so I took it upon myself to cater this great event with ‘Wong Burgers’. Good lord, who could handle a sausage roll in a bun. Well you would be surprised just how tasty this actually is. Although somehow I think I will leave this tasty little burger for the young guys with only a few coins in their pocket.

And now on the other side of the food spectrum - I am very excited about the upcoming Good Food Month. I have already picked out a few fancy restaurants that I want to try out the ‘Let’s do Lunch’ menu at. Funny enough not a singe one of these had the Wong Burger on the menu.

Marketastic

Our Flemington Markets who art near Homebush
Hallowed be thy stalls

Yes I have found my new favourite market. For years my friend H and I have been visiting the Food Growers Market and the Orange Grove Market and spending ALL our hard earned money on lovely gourmet foods. There is nothing nicer then coming home with armfuls of lovely breads, cheeses, oils and the like. Well at least I thought there was nothing nicer until I visited Flemington Markets last weekend. Flemington Market is nothing like those other gourmet markets. This is a real market, with rows of people selling fresh fruit and vegetables. I was in my element. Everywhere you looked there was quality produce at an incredibly cheap price. To be honest I’m not the best at remembering how much things cost but even I know that $1.50 for a kilo of avocados is very good value.










We got very carried away with our bargains and by the time we were ready to go home we could barely move the trolley there were so many boxes of lemons, apples, potatoes, avocadoes and tomatoes. We had a cunning plan to share all the purchases but even at that, we both came home with a car load of fruit and veg and all for next to nothing. I am determined that I am not going to end up throwing out any of the food just because I bought too much and it went bad. Already, I have made jam (a first for me) with half a box of strawberries because those little babies tend to go off very quickly. I am winning the ongoing battle to get through the bananas before they go brown and squishy. We were smart enough to make sure that half the bananas we bought were still green. These days I’ve been having bananas in my bran flakes and lots of lovely banana milkshakes. The purchase that I love the most is the kilo of avocadoes. They are small little tasty avocadoes that are delicious in a salad or a sandwich (and have been added to every salad and sandwich I have made since I got them). I love the fact that they are so small because often I won’t use an avocado because there is too much in one big one and I don’t want the other half to go brown. These little green beauties are just the perfect size.

There is also a flower market beside the fruit and vegetable market and the prices for all the beautiful flowers were incredibly cheap. Apparently, this market starts at dawn, so when we arrived at 9:00AM it was just closing up. Where the selection was probably not as good at the end of the market we did get some amazing bargains because the sellers were eager to get rid of the last of the merchandise. I got a bucket of wild poppies (one of my favourite flowers) for $10. I reckon that to buy them in the flower shop would, in fact, be 5 times that. God I love a bargain. H had here little one year old baby in the pram and by the time we left the flower market you could hardly see her buried underneath all our purchases we had placed on the pram.






This market is wonderful and I will definitely be going back again. I think it would be great fun to go with a bunch of friends and share all the massive bags/boxes of goodies.

Sydney Fresh Food Market
Sydney Markets Building D
Austin Avenue, Flemington, Sydney
Open 6:00 – 14:00

Berrynice once again

We headed off last weekend for another Girls weekend to Berry. This was with a different group of girls but the last one was such a success that I made sure we did lots of the same things. We enjoyed the same bircher muesli in a glass. We drank copious amounts of wine and ate our own home cooked Italian food. on the Sunday after me constantly talking about the Woodfired Sourdough Bakery the girls eventually gave in and went there for lunch. Thank god they loved it too because I had really talked it up.

There is nothing nicer than having quality time with the girls. We arrived late on the Friday night and whipped up our own pizzas and garlic because what could be nicer while you tuck in to a very large supply of bottles of red wine. We had a massive fire to sit around and talk into the wee hours and that’s all we needed to keep us happy.

After a lazy bircher muesli breakfast on the Saturday we spent hours pampering ourselves and each other with facials, foot scrubs and all sorts of lotions. Our friend, A, is a bit of an expert when it comes to skin care so she was giving us all sorts of advice. When we ran out of lotions and potions someone produced a cheese plater and since it was 5 minutes past midday we decided it would be respectable to open our first (of many) bottle of red wine. And so another day of eating and drinking was under way.

We had planned on going out in berry. When we booked the house we were staying at online the website said it was 0km from Berry. There must have been a mistake. I think it was missing a little 2 before that because we were probably about 20km from Berry and the last part of the trip was over dirt road. Since we didn’t fancy our chances of a taxi actually finding us we decided to cook for ourselves.

It’s amazing how fast you can whip up an great meal when you have four hungry women working in the kitchen. We started off with Bruschetta (pictured above) E made this and it was so good we all ate way too much. It is such a simple starter but it tastes so damn good when it’s made with fresh ingredients. We had wonderful fresh bread, juicy tomatoes, and loads of fresh basil.

For dinner we had steak, veg and a salad that made a number of appearances over the weekend.
Our new favourite salad –
Rocket
Lots of Fresh cracked Pepper & Salt
Extra Virgin olive Oil
Splash of lemon juice
And lots of lovely shaved parmesan cheese

It’s a fresh tasty salad that goes well with any dish and did, in fact, many times over the weekend.

Dessert was simply more lovely red wine and some Lindt chocolate as we snuggled up on the comfy chairs once again around the roaring fire. I love winter nights when you have an open fire.
On the Sunday we were way more organised and since we had finished off the supply of wine the night before we headed into Berry town to exercise our credit cards in the fabulous homewares shops. There was also a market that occurs on the first Sunday of every month. It’s more of an art and craft market than a food market.


Over the weekend there had been lots of mentions of the donut van that is well known to all who visit or pass through berry on the way to the South coast. Every time we thought about visiting the donut van we were already too full to enjoy them. We made the effort not to eat for long enough to be able to enjoy the donuts on the drive back to Sydney. They make them fresh when you order them and they are divine. They’re proud boast is that they have never sold a cold donut nor attempted to rewarm one. I have never been a big fan of donuts and one of my most disappointing donut experiences was when the Krispy Kreme shop opened in Sydney and EVERYONE was raving about them. When I took my first bite it tasted awful because it was like a mouthful of sugar. These donuts are nothing like that. They are doughy, warm and melty sweet. Even though I was full after the one I still couldn’t help myself from having more and that’s got to be the sign of a good donut. I think I have just found a new place for my pit stop when I’m heading down the South cost.

Good Food Show

Wow, what a weekend. I headed to the Good Food & Wine Show with my friend S. If anything was going to cheer me up after being burgled this was the thing. This show is excellent. I had no idea just how large it was going to be. It was held at the Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour and they made use of every inch of this enormous space.


This was my idea of Heaven. We started the day with the Donna Hay show. As we walked in we checked our tickets and noticed our seats were in the front row. So close we could have reached out and helped her with the stirring. I thought she was excellent. She was very funny and easy going. I have only seen pictures of Donna so I had no idea what her personality was like. Either she is a very good actress or else she is great fun to work with. Being an optimist I will go with the latter. She cooked a thirty minute dinner and made it all look so easy. I think having her helper Stephen made things a lot easier. If only we could all have a Stephen in the kitchen.

After coming out from the Donna Hay show we had big grins on our faces and headed straight to the Frangelico stand where they were giving out tasty little cups of Frangelico and lime on ice. These were so good that we made a few repeat visits to this stand. Now I won’t go into a blow by blow description of all the wonderful food and wines we sampled because we were there for almost 5 hours and we never stopped for the whole time. We bought some terrific oils, dressings, desserts, spices and wines. Our arms were almost coming out of their sockets with all we had to carry home but we loved every minute of it.

Most of the wine exhibitors rely on the venue to supply wine glasses for tasting the wines. Unfortunately for us they ran out of glasses just as we were ready to start tasting. We looked on with envy as everyone around us grasped their sacred glass. Our solution was to queue up and attend one of the wine tasting sessions. Our session was “Whites with a zing”. We were so desperate to get our hands on a glass we even considered ‘borrowing’ a glass from the wine tasting. We were saved from criminal activities because as we were queuing up to go into the wine tasting a guy walked passed with a trolley of wine glasses. S went running after him and battled all the other desperate punters who wanted to get a glass too. Once we had our tasting glasses there was no stopping us. I was very impressed with all the different wines we tasted. In fact we tasted so many wines that we had a rosy glow as we were leaving and hardly noticed the circulation in our hands being cut off by the heavy goodie bags we were carrying.

This is a great day out and was perfect for a stormy Saturday like we had. I will definitely be making an annual pilgrimage to this show. The only difference is that next year I will be encouraging every Tom, Dick or Harry who has the remotest interest in Food and Wine to join me.

We was robbed

No sooner had I written the last post than some fecker broke into our house and stole my new camera. This was the neatest thief I have ever seen. It took us ages to realise we had even been burgled. I am a bit of a neat freak and so I did notice a few things were slightly different. I asked J if he had moved stuff but he said I probably just had a lot on my mind when I left for work and forgot that I moved them.

The first thing I noticed was that my brand spanking new video iPod, which I had bought so that I wouldn't drive J mad with my constant chatter on our impending holiday, was not where I had left it. I was going mad looking. I even thought the dog might have gotten his grubby mitts on it as he has taken to bringing our stuff down from the study and the bedroom when we're not there. Then I realised my BRAND NEW CAMERA was not on the desk where I had left it after taking the photo in the last post.

Then we started to get really worried. J realised they had taken his professional video camera. That seems to be all they took but they must have been very pleased with the loot. All bagged up and ready for them to run off with. Our very ferocious guard dog probably tried to lick them to death. He would have been thrilled with the bit of company while we were at work.

Thank God for home contents insurance. Although, that said, they will probably try to get out of paying up. Hopfully we will be able to replace the cameras and the iPod before we go on holiday in two weeks.

IT people loose in the kitchen

I work for a company called SnowyHydro which supplies Hydro Electricity from its power stations in the Snowy Mountains. I work in the Sydney office which is involved in Trading Electricity on the National Energy Market. I write applications for the traders to help them trade efficiently in the market. Our head office is in Cooma and so most of the IT team I work with are based there. Every year we have a get-together for a little bit of team building. We usually have someone come in and talk to us on one topic or another and then there are some team building games followed by dinner.

Last year the games were bongo drumming and acting out little plays which was good, if you’re into that kind of thing. This year was right up my alley. We never know what's going to happen until the day. There’s nothing like that element of surprise to give you that nervous feeling all day. But there was nothing to be nervous about this year because after a few hours of discussions on Customer Service we were all presented with aprons and told to head into the kitchen of the Lodge we were at.

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

We would be having dinner at the Lodge that night and our task was to split into three groups of fifteen and make the desserts for the night. Each group had an allocated dessert to make. Ours was Pavlova and there was also lemon tart and a buttermilk pudding.

All of these people crammed into the kitchen were a sight to behold, let alone when they all started chopping, whisking and baking. It was great fun and very interesting to see all these IT geeks hard at work making dessert. Some of these grown men couldn’t refrain from boyhood times in the kitchen of flicking food and adding unnecessary ingredients and general mayhem but I think, it would be safe to say, everyone enjoyed themselves. Even the people who weren’t really into the cooking had fun supervising and watching everyone else at work. And the best bit was we got to enjoy the fruits of out labour at the end of the day. There was great competition between the three groups but, of course, the Pavlova was the outright winner with the crowd.

With group bonding like this you can definitely count me in.

Inside the fridge

click to open a larger version of image

I noticed on a few of the blogs I read Matt, Melissa, Sam and Ximena have given us a little peak inside their fridges. I am always fascinated with what others have in their fridge in a similar way to the way I love to see what people have in their shopping trolley. The bottom line is that I’m nosey when it comes to other peoples food habits – hence I love reading food blogs.

So here’s what is inside my fridge - starting from the water and working clockwise.

Water - I don’t actually keep spring water I just keep refilling a bottle as I like to have chilled water during the day.

Homemade salad dressing – this was a leftover of lemon, hazelnut oil and Szechwan pepper that I will use on a salad during the week.

Baby boccacino - I am totally addicted to these and constantly steal when I am supposed to be getting something else out of the fridge

Olives & Spicy Peppers – spice up your salad

Crushed tomatoes – a staple of so many sauces I make

Onion Marmalade – a very generous gift that I used on my hotdogs

Sambal – spice up your sauces

Baby vine tomatoes – another staple addition to a side salad

Leftover Veal – Wasn’t that great and might actually become a Teddy treat

Jen’s Empanadas – absolutely delicious. The only reason there were leftovers was because the recipe makes so many.

Seedless grapes – a tasty healthy treat when I need a snack

Garlic – I only started keeping this in the fridge when a pot I was making at pottery went wonky but I decided to fire and glaze it anyway. I needed something to use it for so it became my useless garlic pot

Leeks – hello detox

Dried apricots – another healthy treat and a left over from a bulk purchase I made ages ago

Rocket – a very delicious accompaniment to any dish and the only salad I actually like

Yoghurt – I’m addicted to Vaalia Yoghut. There is nothing more satisfying then slowing eating a small tub of this while having a cup if tea.

Truffle Butter – made from a free jar of Truffle Salsa I got from Tetsuya’s when we were last there

Goats Cheese – purchased on my last visit to the Good Living Growers Market and desperately in need of being used. In fact I am going to use it in our dinner tonight. I’m going to layer it in a casserole dish with chicken and vegetables and those crushed tomatoes.

Pesto – some of my homemade pesto. In fact I might add this to the chicken dish I’m making tonight

Stewed Rhubarb – I love this on my muesli in the morning. J doesn’t like it at all so it’s mine, all mine!

There were some half empty bottles of juice, milk, sauces and wine in the door of the fridge. The freezer is tiny and is crammed to the rafters with meat and fish and all sorts of leftovers. No doubt the left overs will be greatly depleted by the end of the week as I am off to Cooma with work and J is allergic to cooking for himself.

Soup in your Wine

The French Onion Soup was a great success. It had one of my favourite ingredients in it – wine. I love when I read the recipe and it asks for some wine because that means I can justify opening a bottle during the working week - not that I actually need an excuse to be honest. Last night I needed that wine to get me through the onion cutting stage. I had to chop up two of the biggest onions I have ever seen and they made the tears flow like no onions have ever done before. All I kept thinking as I was chopping (and slurping wine) was that the soup better be worth the tears. And I can categorically say that the soup was definitely worth it.

I was feeling very virtuous yesterday and I was going to just have soup for dinner. I was going to be the picture of health. I decided that J and I needed to test the wine before I used it in the cooking. Two glasses down and the cooking gets underway. To get over all the trauma of all the tears during chopping I treated myself to another glass. Then it was time to add the wine to the soup and that just left a little wine in the bottom of the bottle. I thought it would be rude to leave that so I finished it off too. Then J came into the kitchen and was very confused as to where all the wine had gone. I told him it was in the soup, hic. As he was mentally prepared for another glass he decided to open a second bottle. Now I love the idea of having a few glasses of wine and then leaving the rest for the next day but that NEVER happens in our house. It’s like some sort or unwritten rule that we religiously adhere to. This rule meant that we would definitely be finishing off another bottle of wine.

The recipe for the soup said “if it's extra-cold outside, add a couple of tablespoons of Cognac!” and I like to think I am good at following recipes so I added that cognac and then some more just in case. All that lovely alcohol made the soup divine but it was by no means healthy. Now can someone please hand me the Panadol.

The recipe for the French Onion Soup came from Delia

The list

I had all the best intentions of making some French onion soup at the weekend but with comings and goings it just never happened. Here is my shopping list for today. Watch this spot later today or tomorrow for the results.

It's a bit chilly so I'm looking forward to some piping hot soup tonight.

Hey Pesto!

Pesto is so simple to make and yet so tasty if you have good quality ingredients. I was at a friends place recently and she made a delicious pasta dish with the best tasting pesto I have ever had. When I asked her where I could get my hands on some of this pesto she told me that she had bought it at an organic market when she was on holidays in Berry.

That was enough to get me thinking about making my own pesto. I tried a few different versions over the weekend. There was the one with no cheese in it that tasted a little too salty, the one with olive oil that had been infused with onion and chilli and the one with extra pine nuts. Then I ran out of basil. They all tasted good (and thank god they can be frozen). I think the difference between my attempts and the one from the organic market was that they used the good old traditional pestle & mortar method so that there was still a bit of a bite to the basil leafs. My food processor is a little too powerful and basically zaps the basil to a pulp. Once I get my hands on some more organic basil I’ll be trying the old fashioned method. I am keen to try making pesto with toasted pine nuts for some added depth to the flavour. I think some olive oil infused with garlic will add more taste without the need for crunchy garlic bits.

For now I can give you the basic recipe that you can tweak to your own personal taste.
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup Olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, finely minced

Last night we had this pesto with some garlic prawns and spiral pasta. The whole meal took me 12 minutes to make. This was the perfect meal to have in a bowl curled up on the coach watching the latest episode of Agatha Christie after a very busy weekend.

The latest from the temple

Well the detox went very well last week. There was plenty of fruit, vegetables, chicken and fish. There was no alcohol, no caffeine and no chocolate. The one thing that seemed to affect me more than anything was the caffeine. On the first day I had a whopper of a headache which I think was from a lack of caffeine. The Lipton decaffeinated tea was great. To be honest I would find it very hard to tell the difference between the fully leaded tea and this. I went to bed earlier every night, I walked a little faster every morning with the dog and I went for a few runs and swims during the week. I was the picture of health. I did feel good during the week but I found I was very tired during the weekend. Maybe all the exercise was catching up with me.

We had some guests come to stay over the weekend so the detox had to be put on hold. I did try to still watch what I ate and drank but it is always hard when you are having fun with friends. My solution to eating well while they were here was to cook for them. That way I had a little more control over what we would be served. It was St Patrick ’s Day on Saturday and where I should have been out downing copious amounts of Guinness I was at home cooking up a feast. I didn’t cook up this feast alone. While the boys were out getting lots of free Guinness t-shirts for all the pints they bought at the local pub the girls were busy in the kitchen. It was very much a joint effort by three of us. I love cooking with friends where there is lots of chatter, laughter and maybe just a little red wine.

There must have been a party fairy in our neighbourhood because I ran into our neighbour at the shops. She and her friend were cooking up a nine course meal for ten people. This made my three course meal for five people seem much easier. There was also a massive party a few doors down that went on until the wee hours of the morning. One of the things I love about living in a city is the sound of people having a good time as you drift off to sleep.

Now the weekend is over and it’s back to the healthy life again. My body is a temple ets etc etc. One thing this detox has introduced me to is spirulina. The world’s healthiest food, according to the bumf written about it – “Through history, this remarkable aquatic plant has nourished people in Africa and America. Today, spirulina is consumed by health conscious people all over the world. If you are moving away from empty processed food and chemical vitamins to natural foods, start using spirulina, nature's longest living food”. My Mum’s going to love this one. She is a great follower of the latest health supplement. Ok Mum it’s time to move from Active Manuka Honey to Spirulina. I picked these tablets up at the organic supermarket so I think they should be easy enough to find. I’ll let you know if this super-food makes me a super-person or not.

More about what we cooked for the dinner later in the week.

A little piece of Heaven

We have just returned from the most amazing holiday sailing a yacht around the Whitsunday Islands. This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. We were blessed with clear blue skies and sunshine for the week we were there so we spent most of the daylight hours under water getting familiar with the fishes.

We did a massive food shop in Airlie beach before heading off and so we didn’t have to stop off for supplies along the way. The food was simple fare as we weren’t sure what cooking and weather conditions were going to be like. The highlight of our holiday dining was a couple of freshly caught fish (a Mangrove Jack and a Red throated Emperor we think) that we immediately filleted and placed on the BBQ. Yip the boat even had its own BBQ which hung over the back – or should I say stern. I would like to be able to say I played a part in catching these fish but to be honest my only contribution was buying the hand lines and the bait. In typical fishing karma those who boast about past catches are destined to be the ones with the neglected line. Our ship mates M&K very kindly caught the fish. We only spent about 30 minutes fishing during our whole week on the water and M&K made a catch within the first few minutes. There was a bit of guilt invloved in the fishing as we had spent so many enjoyable hours admiring the fish and now we were going to EAT THEM !!! but we soon forgot the guilt when we were all hoping around the boat because there was a bite on the line.

I am now feeling very relaxed and raring to go in the kitchen. I received a few fabulous cook books for Christmas so once I finish drooling over the pictures I will start making some of the delicious dishes.

Hello 2007

2006 been a very busy year for us with lots of changes, most notable when we bought our first home. I hope 2007 brings as much fun and excitement for us and for all of you.

It was around this time last year that I first came across food blogs and I haven’t looked back since. I have enjoyed blogging for all the wonderful food and dining experiences it has led me to and for all the wonderful people it has introduced me to. It has been a great way for me to keep in touch with friends and family all over the world. I hope you have enjoyed reading my 2006 food experiences and I am already looking forward to what 2007 has in store for us.

Saucy

Ok my friends, today I would like to share with you my favourite sauce. It is so simple and has become my staple sauce to serve when J has worked his magic on the BBQ. It’s summer here at the moment and J loves nothing more than taking over the cooking reins when it comes to burning coals. All I have to do is mention a BBQ and his face lights up. I buy some of the best fillet steaks I can get my hands on and as soon as I get them home J starts on the marinade for them. There are a few main ingredients like seeded mustard, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar but everything else just depends on the mood he's in.

A little trick we learned from the lovely Nigella Lawson is to combine the marinade steak in a glad bag before you freeze them. That way they are still marinading when they are freezing and thawing.

But I digress from the sauce. It's a passed on sauce - my sisters’ neighbours' husband first made this delicious sauce to accompany a BBQ. My sister made the sauce for my Mum who in turn made it for me. I have done my best to pass this on to others and now, with the help of this blog, I can share it with everyone.

Pictured above are all the ingredients you need. The beauty of the sauce is that you can chop and change it to suit your individual tastes and needs. But basically, you fry up some chopped mushrooms and chopped red pepper (capsicum). While the veggies are still crunchy you add some cream a dash of Tabasco and heaps of cracked pepper. Stir until it reaches your desired consistency and serve. It’s a knock out every time.

Photo Food Diary

I know it seems like I have been neglecting my blog recently and I suppose in a way I have. But my Mum arrived last Monday for a 2 week holiday and we have been very busy shopping for beautiful things for the house. Of course, a woman cannot survive on shopping alone so there were many lovely breakfasts, lunches and dinners throughout the week.

Last week I read a post on becks & posh that suggested doing a photo diary of everything you ate during the week. Bingo! this was the perfect opportunity for one woman and her mother to have an excuse to eat out constantly. My poor mother has the patience of a saint. She never said a word about the fact that the camera was produced every time food appeared on the table.

Above is the resulting collage of all I ate last week. We had so much fun I don’t even know where to begin. I will post in more detail about the meal my Mum cooked to prove to me that Bacon & Cabbage is not the worst meal ever – it was just the way she used to cook it when we were young. I will also post about my very favourite little restaurant in Sydney that we were very lucky to get a last minute table at. But in the mean time I will just enjoy looking at all we ate last week and thank my lucky stars that I enjoyed so much fantastic food and even better that I could enjoy it with my lovely Mum.

Melted

It was so hot at Tamarama Beach recently that the ice-cream truck even melted. I wish. It has been very chilly in Sydney recently with the coldest minimum temperature for November in the last century being recorded yesterday.

This excellent melted ice cream truck was actually my favourite sculpture at the Sculpture by the Sea Exhibition. Here is a little selection of some of the other sculptures that took my fancy.