Friday 19th June '09

PURPLE BRA DAY 2009
Today is the official 'Purple Bra Day' fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation of WA for 2009. I'd registered online and had some bras sent to me. Unfortunately, when they arrived in the mail I discovered they were huge! Ah well...it'll make for an amusing day.

me, Andrea & Natalie

"Well, hello there!"

I'm still waiting for a few more last minute donations to be finalised, but so far I have raised $388.85. This wouldn't have been possible without the help of some friends at work and all those generous people who donated. I shall post the final tally when it's all finalised.

After work I went to the city to meet up with some friends for a drink and dinner.


43 BELOW
This is my first time here and it was a rather nice venue. Warm and cosy. While waiting for the others to join us, we ordered some tapas.

meatballs

honey King prawns

crumbed jalopenos stuffed with cheese

oooh these were yummy!

I loved the tapas! The standout winners would have to be the King prawns though. Deliciously light batter oozing with the flavour of honey. These morsels made me hungry for the main courses on offer! However, we decided to go elsewhere for dinner because the Friday night crowd was starting to pack out the place and it was getting too noisy for us to hear each other.


JAWS
We waited for about five minutes before they were able to find four seats next to each other for us. We quickly got stuck into selecting plates off the conveyor belt.

zuke maguro nigiri
tuna marinated with special soy sauce - lightly seared

jellyfish ghunkan
jellyfish, sesame & chilli

takoyaki
fried octopus dumplings

unagi nigiri
BBQ eel

vegetarian spring roll
various vegetables & sushi rice wrapped in rice paper

ika & sansai ghunkan
sliced squid & mountain vegetables

saba nigiri
pickled mackerel

beef tataki
marinated thinly sliced beef on sliced onion

jellyfish ghunkan
I had this serve made to order - look at all the filling!!

miso soup


GELARES
I struggled to keep myself awake after dinner. We went for ice cream and it was one of the rare times that I actually wanted something sweet! What's even stranger is that I was freezing cold yet craved the taste of the Mocha Chip ice cream.

me & Ivy

I'd gotten a triple strength macchiato with soy milk from one of the arcades and after drinking it, I felt more sleepy than before I had it. I went with Benoit and Ivy to his parent's place and I watched the Bee Gees live in concert on a DVD with his parents. While I sipped a cup of tea. What a great way to spend a Friday night. No, seriously. I had an awesome time humming along to the Bee Gees with his parents.

Benoit's new saltwater tank

Thursday 18th June '09

Lunch at Work
Chicken Mignon with Mashed Potato

I love the way the butter melts and drizzles into the chicken. The bacon also infuses flavour into the chicken. It's just such a delicious little meal.

I needn't have worried that I didn't have anything to eat for lunch at work today. Andrea had made me something!

Andrea's Seafood Paella

It was absolutely delicious! I ate half of it after my mignon but had to put the rest into the fridge for later. Elmo made yet another appearance on the container she had my paella in.



Dinner
Squid Ink pasta with Barramundi & Baby Squid

Since I've been on the day shifts, it's given me time to get groceries on the way home from work, take Simba for a walk, then come home and make dinner and sit down infront of the TV in time to watch Masterchef with Mum. I usually start making dinner at about 6pm so I find it amusing to think that I'm under pressure just like the contestants to get dinner ready in an hour before the show starts. Under pressure!

I need to do a stocktake of my food in the pantry. I have so many different types of pastas and there are a million cans of food. I may have to set aside some time soon to go through and tidy up. Maybe get some sort of order going.

Wednesday 17th June '09

I wasn't feeling today but remembered that I had the chicken thighs in the fridge and had to use them.

Chicken Mignons with Thyme & Butter

I baked them and made some potato mash and packed them on a plate to take to work for lunch tomorrow.

Tuesday 16th June '09

It turns out that Andrea was planning to go to IKEA yesterday after work so she was able to help me get more of the wine rack shelves to complete my new wine cupboard. I got home from work and put the shelves in. I stood back and grinned as I inspected this amazing piece of furniture.

it will hold seventy-two bottles!

Dinner
Scotch Steak with Mushroom & Peppercorn Gravy
Rocket with Balsamic Dressing

Dinner was really quick to put together. I cooked the steak and while it rested, I used the remainder of the peppercorn gravy from last night to make tonight's gravy. I added some mushrooms and a bit more water as it had gotten really thick.

Tonight was the first dance class that Ivy and I were to be going to. I was feeling the onset of a cold and debated whether to stay home or go. My throat was starting to burn and I was feeling sniffly. In the end, I decided I'd rug up with a scarf and go or else it would be something else I'd be procrastinating. I've always wanted to take a dance class. I really enjoyed it when I did it in year 7 as part of compulsory 'physed' class.

The class was actually a lot of fun! It was great to see Keith and Angela from the cruise (to Hawaii) and they make the class really easy to follow. We learnt some steps to four dances...the slow rhythm, rhumba, waltz, and rock and roll. I should practice a bit or else I'm going to forget them! Especially because the next class is in two weeks time.

Back at home, I felt hungry after the exercise. I could feel my calf muscles had been stretched and hoped they wouldn't be too sore tomorrow.

Supper
Bee Hoon soup with Yong Tau Foo

When I made the stuffed chillies and tofu the other night for the steamboat at Ling and Shallen's place, I made sure to make alot spare so that I could keep it in the freezer. I chopped some fresh spring onions and had these tonight instead of the deep fried shallots since my throat was sore.

Monday 15th June '09

Tonight, I'm making a soup I haven't made before. Earlier this year, I had decided that when the winter weather arrived, I would make it a project to try new soups. There's no doubt that I will be making the same soup more than once since I love revisiting favourites. However, I will make an extra effort to look through new recipes for some inspiration to use new ingredients and try different flavours. I may even get Mum's slow cooker out to give that a go.

With this project in mind, I bought some jerusalem artichokes. I came across a recipe in one of the Women's Weekly recipe books for soups.

I peeled the artichokes and let them soak in some water with a squeeze of lemon juice to stop them from discolouring. I peeled and chopped potato and onion. I fried all the ingredients together in a pot and then added some chicken stock. I brought this to the boil and simmered it for a while.

I made the artichoke crisps and caramelised onion as the recipe described. I had kept an artichoke and sliced it really thin and placed the slices on a wire rack and sprayed it with olive oil. I seasoned it with some crushed sea salt and popped it into the oven to bake until it was crispy and brown. In a pan, I sauteed some finely sliced onion in some butter and added brown sugar and a dash of balsamic vinegar. I fried it until the onion was caramelised and a dark brown colour.

Returning to the soup, I took it off the stove and then went at it with my Stick Mixer. The resulting puree was so thick and creamy - I couldn't want to try it. I seasoned it with some salt and pepper and returned it to the stove to reheat gently before serving.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
with Caramelised Onion & Artichoke Crisps

The soup was absolutely delicious! It was creamy and had such a gentle flavour. The caramelised onion definitely helped to add a sweetness to it.

Dinner
Scotch Steak with Green Peppercorn Gravy
Cheese Cauliflower
Panfried Scallops

Another first for me in the kitchen tonight - green peppercorns. I came across them at the supermarket and have always wanted to try a peppercorn gravy. They come in a small tin but there would be more than enough for my steak tonight and for my steak tomorrow night.

In a pan, I melted some butter and then added the peppercorns. I sauteed them for a few minutes and then added some red wine. I used some of the Wonky bottle wine. I let this simmer until most of the liquid had reduced and then added a bit of plain flour and stirred this in well. I then crumbled a bit of a beef stock cube and added some water. The result was a delicious smelling gravy.

Sunday 14th June '09

Today I had a few of the guys come over to help me put together some IKEA furniture I recently bought. In return, I was going to prepare a seafood lunch. Ivy and Benoit couldn't make it, but Meng and Dau showed up at noon.

The first thing I did was to make my Provolone Potato Gratin. It went into the oven to bake while I prepared the seafood.


I thawed out the 2kg of scallops (still in their shells) last night. We bought them on the way back from Mandurah on our last trip down there. I haven't prepared scallops from the shell before, so I quickly googled it to see if there were any specific instructions. Nope, looked like a straight forward split the shells, remove the yucky bits and rinse the scallop meat procedure. I was a bit disappointed to see that there weren't any plump, juicy roe on the scallops. Some of them had alot of sand encased in the membranes surrounding the scallop, but this was easily rinsed away with water.

I just realised the job ahead of me

the scallop enclosed in the shell

the shell has been pried open

scallop exposed!

cleaned scallops

I did the scallops two ways.

I put a tiny smidgen of crushed garlic beneath each scallop, drizzled a bit of olive oil over the scallop and sprinkled some dried thyme over each one.

For these scallops, I tried to replicate the ones that we had during our recent trip to Melbourne. In a pan, I sauteed some finely diced onion, chicken thigh and crushed garlic in olive oil. I spooned some of this mixture onto each shell and put a scallop amidst it. I then sprinkled some grated mozarella cheese (I would have preferred Tasty cheese but we ran out) and then poured a spoonful of cream onto each.

The scallops went into the oven until the cheese had melted and turned a golden brown.

Dau the builder...can he fix it!?

Err...something doesn't look quite right guys...

Saz: "You'd better do a good job!"

I also defrosted some oysters overnight and decided they weren't fresh enough to enjoy as they were. So, I made a little dressing for them using some whole egg mayonnaise and wasabi paste. I also added a bit of fresh lemon juice, whisked it all together and poured some on each oyster to serve.

Prawns - there was nothing to think about - I was going to do them with garlic! I sauteed a generous amount of crushed garlic in olive oil in a pan and then added some white wine. I threw the prawns in and cooked them, turning them over to cook them all the way through. The aromas of garlic were filling the house and the boys were getting hungry.

I managed to get through to Kong on his phone and asked him to come over to eat. A good thing he was able to come because he was able to get my IKEA cupboard finished quickly. Meng regards him highly as a handyman he he.

With one cupboard out of the way, we all sat down to eat.

Lunch
Garlic & Thyme Scallops
Creamy Chicken & Onion Scallops
Garlic Prawns
Oysters with Wasabi Mayo Dressing

I also panfried some scotch steaks for Dau and Kong. We had the potato gratin and some fresh baby rocket to go with all the protein.

After lunch, it took Kong and Meng about ten minutes to put together my other IKEA cupboard. Yay! I plan to make this my wine cupboard.

Dinner
Mushroom Soup

Mum's Lasagne
Provolone Potato Gratin
Rocket with Balsamic Dressing

It was so cold, I spent all night eating. I went back about three times and ended up polishing off the whole baking dish of potato gratin. So much for taking some to work tomorrow.

Saturday 13th June '09

STEAMBOAT at LING & SHALLEN'S

Although this winter weather means freezing cold nights and great difficulty getting out of a cosy bed in the mornings, it does make for perfect weather to have one of my favourite things - STEAMBOAT!

I bought some mackerel paste and blended some chicken mince.


I prepared some chillies by making a slit down one side and removing the seeds. I then used a butter knife to 'stuff' them with the mackerel/chicken paste. I also stuffed some tofu and capsicum.


I defrosted some prawns and then headed over to Ling and Shallen's place in comfy clothes. In other words, I had my pants with the drawstring waist on.

We each brought some dishes and as usual, ended up with a huge fantastic spread on the table.

prawns
wantan dumplings
seafood dumplings
sliced beef
quail eggs
wombok
enoki
egg tofu
baby corn spears
yong tau foo

Ling & Shallen's red hot chillies from the garden

here we go!

Round One

A few of the chillies I had stuffed were apparently deadly hot. Ling and Meng got one and it was hysterical watching the delayed reaction to the heat.

feelin' hot hot hot

Once the hotness from the chillies wore off, I started to feel the cold so I started drinking Jagermeister straight to try to warm myself up while we played Balderdash.