Sunday 27th Apr '08

After a busy day at work since one of the girls did not show up for her shift (albeit we were not expecting her to), I came home and my Mum was preparing the mince mixture to make wantans. I had to head back out to buy the wantan skins but I was so craving them that I did so without reluctance.

Delicious!! Hot, hearty and satisfying.

Saturday 26th Apr '08

Dunsborough Day 3
Today we woke and I made breakfast while everyone was in the midst of cleaning up to prepare for checking out of the house. We had a fry up again: bacon, scrambled eggs, tomato and toast.


After cleaning up, packing up, and dropping the keys off at the property manager's store, we went to the Saturday markets but we were too late. Most stalls had packed up and gone home so we just wandered around amongst the stragglers.

On the drive back to Perth, we wanted to play minigolf but the course was closed when we got there. Bugga. Instead, we tried to keep ourselves busy talking. Long suggested we spend the next ten minutes talking in an Indian accent. Two minutes later, Ivy had not spoken a word, I began to sound Chinese, Long began to sound Russian, and Benoit was trying to sell us a new mobile phone service.

We hit Mandurah and stopped for a break and some of us got some food at Hungry Jacks. We then decided to go and grab some mussels. A few years back we had gotten heaps off the pylons beneath one of the bridges. Long braved the cold water and dove under the bridge and brought us back some massive mussels. Benoit and I got busy on the jetty cleaned as much crap off of them as we could. There were barnacles, slimy orange stuff, tiny shrimp, baby crabs, sand worms, and other creepy looking aquatic life covering our dinner. We cleaned most of the larger ones and threw the rest back.


On the road once more, we finally arrived back at my place and we set about with the arduous task of cleaning the mussels to get them ready for cooking. I made the sauce with chopped garlic, onion, chilli, some baby spinach leaves, white wine and a few cans of Italian tomatoes.



After dinner, the guys tried to win back their money in a game of poker before we all decided to call it a night and everyone headed home.

A great trip guys. Good times.

Friday 25th Apr '08

Dunsborough Day 2
Even though most of us partied through the night, we were still up at a reasonable time and set about preparing breakfast. I love to cook for everyone when we go away. We had set out with a rough meal plan the week before our trip so that I could get all the groceries together. It really helps save time (and money) if you put in the effort to get organised before you leave.

We had a big brekkie cookup: bacon, eggs sunny-side-up, mushrooms, tomato and toast.


After breakfast, we headed into the town of Dunsborough to pick up a few things in the supermarket and walked around. We then decided to head back home for a BBQ lunch and go fishing afterwards. On the spur of the moment, Long decided to scout for an outdoor area we could have our lunch at instead of in the little yard of the house. Really fantastic decision because he found Meelup beach. Although it was a little chilly, I really wished I had brought my swimming gear along to take a dip in the beautiful clear water.


After lunch, we drove further down the coast and set up on some rocks to try to catch our dinner. After about half an hour of nibbles and getting our lines snagged on rocks, Benoit finally caught the first one, and it started us off. I caught the second one a few minutes later. Ivy and I caught most of the fish with everyone else catching one each. I wish we could have stayed but the sun set and we were being attacked by mosquitoes.


Back at home, Long, Maggie and Kong did the dirty work of scaling and gutting the fish. Benoit seasoned and prepared the fish for cooking. I chucked them in the oven, panfried the rest of the 'doughy-eyed' fish, and baked some potatoes-in-the-jacket. I had made a salad for lunch but we were unable to eat it at the beach since we had not brought along any cutlery, which was just as well because it went perfectly with dinner.


Teresa had told me recently that she had seen lamb or chicken seasoned with coffee - yes coffee - on TV so I suggested that Benoit season one of the fish with it. It came out a success!! Really subtle coffee flavour.


After dinner, we all settled infront of the TV again for another night of karaoke, poker and drinking.

Thursday 24th Apr '08

Dunsborough Day 1
After work, we all managed to get ourselves organised and head off to rendevous in Mandurah for a late dinner on the way to Dunsborough for the Anzac Day weekend. In our car, it was Long driving, me, Kong, Ben and Ivy. In the other car was Kenny driving, Maggie and Fee.

In Dunsborough we all happily agreed on KFC and got stuck into it. We had a box of Hot'n'Spicy, a box of Original, coleslaw, gravy, chips and Fanta. Nothing like the abrasive sugary taste of a softdrink to wash down the grease. Mmm yummy KFC grease.

Back on the road.

Making good time, we arrived at our rented house at about 10:30pm and excited checked out the house before dragging in our luggage. The house was as nice as it appeared in the photos on the website. This is the place we stayed and definitely recommend it to anyone.
http://www.dhh.com.au/index.asp?prodid=5154&catid=908
We quickly settled in to the beer, wine and boiled eggs. Yes that's right...we got the munchies and had plenty of eggs. We were up till the wee hours of the morning keeping ourselves entertained with karaoke, poker and drinking.

Wednesday 23rd Apr '08

Tonight I finished off the rest of Teresa's "garlic tapenade" with the remainder of the frese bianche. It's almost like a crumpet. A piece of bread that resembles a crumpet but the texture is still that of bread. If I put less water, I reckon it would be fantastic to dip in soups.

Tuesday 22nd Apr '08

Tonight I decided to do a variation of the chicken pasta soup I always make. It's such a great "comfort food" dish.

I started off by sauteeing garlic, onion, fennel and celery in the pot with a dash of olive oil. Once the vegies were softened, I added some chicken drumsticks (they were on special). Once these had a chance to seal, I added hot water and a bit of Vegeta stock. After the soup came to a boil, I added some large shell pasta and let it all simmer until the pasta had cooked. By this time, the chicken will have cooked thoroughly too. Time to serve with some pecorino cheese and chilli!

Monday 21st Apr '08

Today I had Vernon, Victoria, Vincent and Aunty Jane over for lunch. The kids are on school holidays and I had the day off work. We had Mexican for lunch.


Having worked the weekend, I didn't have time to do any grocery shopping. I had some homemade bolognaise sauce in the freezer so that gave me inspiration for the Mexican theme for lunch. I thought I had a can of mixed beans in the pantry, but I didn't. So...I used a can of butter beans intead. I mixed the beans through the bolognaise sauce and we used this mixture to fill the burittos with.

Vincent helped maked the nachos, which we heated in the microwave. Just orginal flavoured Doritos layered with some grated Mainland "Tasty" cheese and served with some CC's salsa and sour cream.

Later that evening, I went to Marissa's to have dinner. I helped to peel some garlic for a special dish Teresa had come up with the night before. Marissa 'washed' some bread to go with it. The bread is Italian and called 'Frese Bianche'. It is sold in a dry form so you could easily mistake it for a frisbee made of bread. What you do is wet it and it absorbs the water and becomes soft. I took some home and Jocelyn thought it was really stale bread and almost threw it out!


Teresa made her special dish - I won't give away the recipe but it was utterly to die for. I guess one way to describe it is a garlic tapenade. It went beautifully with the moistened 'frese bianche'.



For mains was a hearty vegetable soup with tortellini and silverside that had been cooked in the soup but taken out to be served as a side. Marissa and I enjoyed the silverside together with the soup. It was so tender that if there had been a bone, it would have slid right off it.


All enjoyed with a bottle of Leeuwin Estate 2004 Classic Dry White.