Sunday 4th October '09

Today I drove over to Benoit's place to rendevous for our trip out to the Swan Valley today. The weather was beautiful and Richard's roses had noticed too.


Last night I discovered some settings on my camera that I didn't know I had. I can alter the settings to accommodate for different lighting conditions - ie tungsten, cloudy, sunny, fluorescent. So, in the kitchen I used the 'fluorescent' setting and must have forgotten to change it back to the default setting, because all my macro photos turned out rather... blue.

Here's a camera trick that I learnt from the drummer on the cruise to Hawaii. Taking photos and picking out a certain colour while the rest is in black and white. Love it!


DUCKSTEIN BREWERY
Lot 9720 West Swan Road, Henley Brook
Our first time here, I rather liked the relaxed atmosphere and the large benches and tables outside.

Myself - Grill Plate
a German bratwurst sausage & smoked cutlet
served with pan-fried potatoes & sauerkraut

Ivy - Lamb Shank
served on a bed of mashed potato, garnished with vegetables

Benoit - Grilled Bratwurst Sausage
served with pan-fried potatoes & sauerkraut

Cameron - Rib-eye
served with fries & red wine jus

I think what I've listed as the meals is correct. As expected, they were decent proportions and really filling - meat and potatoes. We accompanied our meals with beers. Perfect!

We stopped by for some free chocolate at the Chocolate Factory

We also had ice cream - mine is chocolate brownie.

We bought strawberries.

Notice the photos look blue?

	Aah - I finally noticed and corrected it. Long managed to get a wine bottle sticker on my back without me realising until I was home.

We drove around to various wineries for some wine tasting. Some were free, some charged $3 for the tasting. I don't mind paying for a tasting, but the Little River Winery were really stingy with the pourings. Everywhere else we were poured a good 30mL at least, but we were lucky to get half of this at the Little River Winery. It's probably the third or fourth time I've visited them and the behaviour of the owner behind the tasting counter varies each time I'm there. She's overall rather friendly and chatty, but always she seems to spread her attention too thin and I get rather impatient waiting for her to tend to other things inbetween the wines she pours.

The last winery we visited was Lancaster.
I absolutely love the way they've done up the place. They have a little shed where they do the tastings and there's plenty of space to lounge around barrels and take in the beautiful view of the vineyard.

We tasted the 'creamy cheddar' and it was yummy!
Soooo yummy, that Benoit and Long had to buy one each.

We made a final stop at the Coffee Hut for coffee tasting.

What a wonderful day! I was good and didn't go crazy with purchasing wine, but I did buy about one and a half cases worth - need to stock up on the white wines for summer. Not that these wines are going to last till summer hee hee.

Dinner
Mushroom & Speck Risotto

Simba snoozing while watching me in the kitchen.

Saturday 3rd October '09

I cherished the sleep in today. I got out of bed at about 3pm in the afternoon and wandered into the kitchen to make myself a coffee. Mum had been baking and I could barely contain my excitement when I saw what she'd made.

Could it be!?
I have been asking her to make curry buns for me for well over ten years now. The last time she made them that I can remember was while we lived up north in Goldsworthy, when she used to make them just as often as she should make curry puffs.

Mum's Curry Buns

The curry buns have the same filling as the curry puffs that Mum makes, but she makes a dough that bakes in the often. Instead of being light and crunchy like the curry puffs she deep fries, or flaky like the curry puffs she makes with puff pastry, these curry puffs have a heavier dough. Sort of like the texture of bread.

She used to make them in a round shape but she said she felt like making them in these oblong forms today.

After three curry buns and a cup of coffee, I headed out to the shops to grab a few things for our very last steamboat tonight. Yes, I thought the one I had on Monday night would be the last, but thankfully some of us weren't quite ready to let it go.


I bought a bag of baby eggplants - the lady was marking the price down just as I got there.
99 cents for a whole bag of them - bargain!

I made a plate of yong tau foo to bring to steamboat.

	Can you spot the new ingredients we came up with?

Mmmm

When the eggplants cooked, they turned a brown colour.
Looks like floating sausasages or poo!

FOOD ART

tee hee


I picked up a few more bargains while I was at the shops earlier today. Brie for only $2!! Usually when they mark the cheese down, it's about to expire the next day, but I was surprised to see that the expiry date for these cheeses is on the 7th. Needless to say, I couldn't help buying a few. I bought a piece of regular brie and a piece of blue cheese brie.

Blue Brie

Blue cheese is still a taste I'm trying to acquire, so I managed a few pieces of the blue cheese brie before I switched back to the regular brie. However, the blue cheese brie was more gooey and that's how I like my brie.

Kong made us grass jelly!

Friday 2nd October '09

Lunch at Work
Sardine & Rocket Salad

I packed my lunch last night - homegrown rocket, sliced red onion, quartered cherry tomatoes, torn up bread roll, a can of sardines in tomato sauce, and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. A light, healthy lunch with protein.

After work, I stopped by at Coles to take advantage of a special promotion they're running on the Philadelphia Cream Cheese range of products. If you purchase any three of their product range, you receive a recipe book for FREE! One of the ladies at work picked up a copy on one of her courier runs and I flicked through it and it had gorgeous pictures! I love Philadelphia cream cheese so this was one promotion I didn't want to miss!

I had cruskits with Philadelphia's cream cheese when I got home.


TODAY IS SIMBA'S 3RD BIRTHDAY!
As I usually do when I'm on the day shift, I took him for a walk around the neighbourhood. It was such beautiful weather, the fresh air (as well as the panadeine I took) really helped me overcome the headache I'd had all day. When we got home, I prepared Simba's dinner.

I scooped out his canned food and molded it on a plate into the shape of - A BONE!



Halfway through my creation, I shrieked in amusement at what I had on the plate...



Simba gobbled it up!


Spaghetti Carbonara

Ingredients: 2 Tbpn butter 1/2 brown onion, chopped several cloves garlic, crushed 1 tspn chilli flakes 1 large sprig rosemary (1 tspn dried rosemary) 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced 1 cup speck/bacon, sliced 1/3 cup cooking cream 1/4 cup water

Method:

1. Melt butter in a pan.
   
2. Sautee the onion until translucent.
   
3. Add the garlic, chilli flakes, rosemary and a splash of water and cook for a few minutes.
   
4. Add the mushrooms and speck and fry for a few minutes.
   
5. Add the cream and the remainder of the water and simmer. When the cream sauce begins to bubble, turn the heat to low and simmer for several minutes.
   
6. Stir in al dente pasta and toss around in the sauce until coated.
   
7. Serve with fresh basil.

This isn't a traditional carbonara sauce because I didn't use eggs, but it's close!

Aww, my baby is growing up so fast!

Thursday 1st October '09

Morning Tea at Work
Kym's Sultana & Cherry Cake

Most of you, my beloved friends, know that I'm not a fan of glazed cherries or sultanas. I love fresh cherries, but not the glazed ones. I love Sultana Bran, but I don't like to eat sultanas on their own. Despite these facts, I really felt like something sweet this morning so I was game to try this cake that Kym at work baked and brought in for us.

Lunch at Work
Mum's Lamb Stew
The lamb was soooo tender!

Dinner
Bee Hoon Soup with Yong Tau Foo

I had tofu, beancurd and chillies stuffed with chicken and fish mince, enoki and lots of spring onion. The soup I made with soy sauce, fish sauce, Vegeta stock and chilli flakes.



While I sat in bed blogging on my laptop with a cup of decaffeinated coffee, Simba jumped up beside me and watched with imploring eyes. After a while, he lay down and rested his head - on my mouse! for some reason he was feeling needy tonight.



I managed to reclaim the mouse, but then he just snuggled up closer.

awwww

Wednesday 30th September '09

Morning Tea at Work
Sausage Roll and a Soy Mocha

See what happens when all I eat for lunch yesterday is salad? I crave the opposite.

A sausage roll.

Lunch at Work

Banana & Strawberries

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

We had prawns leftover from steamboat the other night so I felt like these. Mum makes them at work every morning so she made them for me. She also cooked the hoisin dipping sauce to go with them.

I was looking around my kitchen tonight and it struck me how cluttered it is. No matter how much we try to hide out of sight, within days it just reappears in greater numbers. It's mostly things that we use everyday so it's just convenient to keep it close to hand to avoid having to waste time rummaging around in the pantry and condiments cupboard.

Our kitchen bench.

Our fridge with our large collection of magnets.

I like to buy magnets when I go travelling. Not those tacky souvenir magnets, but instead ones with funny cartoons.

Dinner
Bee Hoon Soup with Fish, Stuffed Beancurd Rolls & Tofu

I made the soup by boiling water with soy sauce, fish sauce, chilli flakes, and a tea filter bag with dried shrimp and star anise that I removed before serving.