On July 14, I saw a post on Facebook which talked about the fact that if you are in France on July 14 you would not be sharing greetings like Happy Bastille Day. Rather the French refer to the day as Quartorze Juilliet, July 14!
Even with this in mind, I was really excited to attend a Bastille Day Dinner with around 100 other people, and what an amazing dinner we had. I went in expecting good food and wine and maybe something a little cultural and I was not disappointed. We had already been to a Japanese event at the club a few weeks ago where the executive chef had told us about his background in classical French cooking, before he ventured into the world of Japanese food, so it was not a surprise to see him in the room! Throughout the night he had conversations with all of the tables which was a fun touch!
The evening was billed as a five course dinner, but in actual fact it was 5 courses plus a couple of other bits and pieces. This started even before we entered the room where we were treated to a savoury puff alongside an amazing champagne/sparkling wine that I completely forgot to get the name of! It was such a nice wine. Once we entered the room the mood was set with a three piece band playing all sorts of French style café music, plus with lots of French flags around the room and red white and blue lighting.
Before we even started the five courses there was an Amuse Bouche which was a Vol au Vent filled with chicken, mushroom, bacon and liberally dusted with truffles! It is, after all, truffle season!
No self respecting French dinner will start without bread, and this was no exception. The bread was okay but the Normandy butter! Oh my goodness, so good! The chef did warn us not to fill up too much on the bread because the rest of the dinner was still to come, but it was hard to resist that butter!
For the first course, we had a Salade Lyonnaise. The most interesting part of this was the oeuf poche. When the dish came to the table it looked a little like it had a little meat patty on the top but actually that was a egg that had been poached in red wine which is why it had the colouring. I have never had a poached egg like it
The second and third courses were the fish and mains, with the Daube de Boeuf being so tender, the Paris mash beautiful and the carrots lovely and sweet.
Then onto the cheese course, with house made lavash that was beautiful and crispy, quince paste (so good) which was the perfect accompaniment to the blue cheese and camembert which is hidden in the photo!
By this point we were getting pretty full, so when the dessert came out looking pretty as a picture, we were determined to give it every effort to finish it because it was so good! What we didn't know, was that there was one final flourish to the meal - a beautiful lemon tart! We probably didn't need it, but it was there and it looked so good that I had to eat it, and it was lovely!
When the chef came around to visit later in the evening we joked that there was going to be a bit of disappointment the next night when I had to prepare dinner because there was no way it was going to live up to the standard that he had set.
In addition to the music provided by the trio, there were some performances from some can can dancers, who of course did the traditional dance, but also did some modern twists on can can. Here's a video to give you a taste.
I can definitely see us attending this night again, although we might wait until July 14 is on a Saturday as going out on a school night is a challenge.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bake Sunday -Leftovers Monday - Air Fryer Roast Pork (new) Tuesday - Out for dinner Wednesday -Mushroom, Zucchini and Bacon pasta Thursday - Japanese Pork Curry Friday - Leftovers
It's a bit strange but we have had a spate of eating in trains recently. And no, I am not counting those sneaky bits of chocolate that might get eaten on the commute home!
Our first train meal is the one that we had when we were in Sri Lanka where we had a 7 course dinner in a train carriage at the hotel we stayed at in the tea plantation area. The old train carriage has been repurposed as an intimate restaurant. There are four booths available in the train so usually they are catering for no more than 8 people and they have thought of everything. You have to present your ticket to enter the carriage, and at the end of the meal your ticket is clipped just like they used to be on trains.
Each course in the menu is named for a train station on the journey between Kandy and Ragala. The carriage is rigged up so that at the beginning of the night it moves around as if the train is going down the tracks. Thankfully they switch it off as you get enough movement as the waiters go in and out of the carriage bring the meals and the drinks. The main waiter is dressed as a conductor and blows whistles and waves flags around at different points in the meal. When the main course comes out it is covered in cloches and the conductor and his assistant come and theatrically removed the cloches crashing them together like cymbals. And the food was really great too! It definitely counts as a memorable meal. I shared more about the food in this meal here.
The second train meal was a place that we had been meaning to go for years but had never visited before. In the inner city Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, there are three train carriages that have been put onto the top of a building. I was surprised to learn that only one of the carriages was full length and that the restaurant is only in that carriage. The other two half carriages house things like an art studio. Easey's is a burger restaurant and it was a bit of fun to sit in the same seats that years before would have been used by commuters. There is a big table in the drivers end where the instruments are still present. I don't know that we will visit regularly but it was fun to go just once. My favourite thing was the Brazilian Cheese Balls (Pao De Queijo) which is at the top of the food picture above. The person in the picture is my friend who we went with. It's the best picture to show the seating!
Last weekend we went on our third train meal, and this one does count as a memorable meal. The Q Train is a moving, fine dining restaurant that runs between two small towns on the Bellarine Peninsula. The starting town, Drysdale, is about an hour and a half away from us. We gave this as a present to my brother in law for his 50th birthday back in April but it took us this long to find a date that worked for them (allowing for things like kids sports commitment) and then to find a date when there was availability
Inside the carriages, there are a number of tables, all packed with people looking forward to having an enjoyable meal while the train travels from Drysdale to Queenscliff and back again, with a couple of stops along the way. I am sure that the last stop is probably so that they can pick up the desserts! Most of the food is prepared on the train in the Kitchen car. Interestingly, the same trains are also used for something called Blues Train which features different musicians in each carriage. I wouldn't mind doing that one day.
The food was actually very impressive. The menu was
Spring Basket - with bread, venison kabana and a delicious smoked trout pate
Bannockburn Chicken - Chicken Lyonnaise with chateau potatoes
Fish Cake
Lamb - slow roasted lamb shoulder
Burnt white chocolate and macadamia brownie with smoked olive oil ice cream
This is a family run business based in the area and it is a very popular outing, with weekends in particular often selling out weeks in advance. The ingredients and wines were all locally sourced and each course included native ingredients ranging from finger lime to saltbush ash and pepperberry. The good thing is that the menu changes seasonally so you could go again and have a completely different meal.
My favourite course was the chicken. It was so delicious and moist. That surprises me a little because normally dessert is my favourite. I did enjoy the dessert, but not as much as the other courses. The course that surprised me the most was the Spring Basket which had honey and walnut loaf along with the venison kabana and the smoked trout pate. The venison kabana was very tasty but the smoked trout pate was amazing. We are going to have to try and find the Bellarine Smokehouse when we go down there another time and see what other goodies they have.
I don't believe we have any plans to eat on a train again any time soon, but never say never!
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
This week I finished reading Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce, and I am happy to report that I loved it. I have already bought the next book in the series and hope to get to it soon!
I then read The Healing Hippo of Hinode Park by Michiko Aoyama. I read her book What You Are Looking for in the Library last year, and liked it, but there was one particular element of the story which bothered me a bit. No such issue with this one. I am already looking forward to her next book and thankfully there isn't too long to wait as it is out early next year.
Next I started reading Maame by Jessica George. This is the current Cook the Books selection and I think I already know what I am going to cook. That could change but we will see.
Finally I started reading The Midwives Christmas Miracle by Fiona McArthur. This is the first in a new trilogy that is set in the same world as a number of other books I have read. Only thing is the main female character is friends with a person who was clearly in another book. I thought I had read all the books set in Wirralong but apparently I only read the first two books in the last series set there! Time to rectify that I think.
I did go to not one but two Rachael Johns events. I had already bought tickets to the Books in Bar event which is held in a city about an hour away from me and then they announced an event at my local library. I am trying to support anything held at the library so they keep having them so snuck away for a long lunch and went to both events!
I'm watching
We started watching Joanna Lumley's Spice Trails and we are finding it very interesting. In the first three episodes she has visiting Indonesia, India, and Madagascar.
Life
The day after we got back from holidays was our wedding anniversary but I didn't want to schedule something so close to being away, so last night we went to our anniversary dinner. We did a thing called Le Petit Chef and Friends. Basically it is an animation than uses your table cloth and plate as a screen and tells a story about each course that you are going to eat. It was a lot of fun and the food was surprisingly good as well.
I mentioned last week that my phone died while we were on holidays. I got it back from the repair shop this week which is good news. The bad news is that they had to replace the motherboard and I lost everything I had on my phones, which is basically thousands of photos.
We just got back from two weeks in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and it was an amazing holiday. We stayed in some fabulous hotels, we saw some interesting sites and we ate some delicious food, which is the main part of what I am going to focus on today.
If you asked me what we ate I would have to say buffets...lots and lots of buffets. They were available in every hotel for breakfast, lunch and dinner in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Some were better than others and they mostly had the same fare, especially at breakfast time. I am okay if I don't see another buffet for a while.
What they did have for the most part were really fantastic fruit options including juices, ranging from bananas to pineapple and mango juices and smoothies. I did wonder if I was going to come home with a tinge of pineapple yellow to my skin because I ate so much of it. It was just so delicious.
One down side is that my phone died on day 2 of the trip so I lost all my photos from several trips which is a bit devastating. I take a lot more photos than my husband so his phone became our phone for the rest of the trip. It did mean that I didn't check emails, didn't post anything to social media. It almost became a forced break.
Once we arrived in the town of Negombo we spent our first day doing a walking tour of the fishing area and the fish market. It was interesting because whatever doesn't get sold at the fresh fish market then gets laid out on the sand and dried. This is then sold as dried fish across the world. This varies from tiny fish to even larger fish like sharks and rays. One thing though.....it was very smelly.
You might have thought that might put me off seafood, but no way! Our first lunch was in a beachside restaurant and I was right in there with prawns. The thing that surprised us though was the beers. It was hot and humid so we thought we would try one of the local beers. The bottles of Lion beers came to the table and we were all a bit shocked as they come in 625ml bottle sizes which is much bigger then we were used to. This is my friend Di who I met at bookclub many years ago and we travelled together with her and her husband George.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel for cocktails in the pool, the first of many on this trip!
One interesting buffet that we did visit was on the fourth day when we visited the ruins of the city of Polonnaruwa in the morning and did an elephant safari in the afternoon. The lunch place we went to was a family run business where they made all different types of vegetarian curries. They helpfully place a visual clue as to what kind of curry it was. My favourite was the bread fruit curry. I do have a video of the curry selection but it doesn't seem to be working in Blogger at the moment.
The next day, after visiting the Dambulla Rock Cave Temple, we headed towards the city of Kandy. Along the way we stopped at a Spice Garden which was incredibly interesting where they grow everything from vanilla to cocoa, pepper, nutmeg and mace (which come from the same plant) and so much more. They also talked about the medicinal benefits of herbs, showed us how they crush herbs to make curry mixes (including how heating them changes the flavours) and then finished up with a neck and head massage. Well, most people got both massages. I just got the neck massage. Really, what they were trying to do was sell you some natural medicine packages and, yes, we succumbed. It felt like every single spice had medicinal properties that would have done me some good!
After Kandy, we headed up into the tea plantations which is one place I was really looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. I was glad that we were being driven in the bus and not having to drive ourselves because the roads were windy and narrow, there were stray dogs, people, tuk tuks, cars, motorbikes and buses on the roads. The views were spectacular with all the tea bushes looking almost like a textured carpet on the side of the mountains.
While there are still many working tea factories, quite a few have been converted into tourist related businesses. we had lunch at one which was very close to a big waterfall and the hotel we stayed at was a beautifully converted tea factory. We did, however, stop at a working tea factory called Labookellie which was really interesting. We got a tour of the various processes and then got a taste testing of white tea, green tea and then black tea, which all come from the some plant but either different leaves are picked or the leaves are treated differently to give different results
I mentioned the hotel where we stayed. Wow! What a place. We stayed in some fantastic hotels, but I think this was my favourite. It was so beautifully converted with lots of the history of the place kept for hotel guests to enjoy. Even the buffet counters were made using old tea chests. Even the little bottle of shampoo and body wash were in tiny little tea pots. In the garden there was a small cottage. What I didn't realise until we wandered up to it in the morning was that it was a small tea factory which produced tea for the hotel using the tea that had been picked on the property.
Every time we go on holiday, we try to do something foodie. Whether it be a walking tour in Paris or Soweto, or a wine tasting class on a cruise. Originally we were thinking we would try to do a cooking tour in Galle but in the end our foodie experience this time was a seven course meal in a train carriage! At the hotel, which is called Heritance Tea Factory, there is a train carriage which has been repurposed as an intimate restaurant. There are four booths available in the train, and they have thought of everything. Each course in the menu is named for a train station on the journey between Kandy and Ragala. The carriage is rigged up so that it moves around as if the train is going down the tracks, there is recorded history that is shared, the main waiter is dressed as a conductor and blows whistles and waves flags around at different points in the meal. When the main course comes out it is covered in cloches and the conductor and his assistant come and theatrically removed the cloches crashing them together like cymbals. And the food was really great too.
For most courses there was a choice of two options. I had
Tea gravlax
Tea smoked cauliflower cream (Soup)
Grilled prawns
Icy citrus Berry (as a palate cleanser)
Duo of Lobster (Thermidor and grilled)
Rhubarb Crumble Tart
Cheese platter
It was a really fun experience.
Our last night in Sri Lanka we were in Galle and we had a memorable meal too! There was a restaurant quite close to the hotel which was recommended to us and it had such a great vibe! It was right on the beachfront and it was a beautiful night. The cocktails were great, there was a really good musician singing and playing the guitar (believe me we heard some not so great ones on our travels), the company with old and new friends was great, and the food was fantastic. I chose to have jumbo prawns. I have never seen prawns as big as this. They were probably 25cm long. A comment was made that they didn't have much meat in them, but I was happy. There was pure joy in having that plate of food placed in front of us! If you are ever in Galle then check out Shelter.
I think my favourite food discovery in Sri Lanka was something called hoppers. I had heard of them before so knew that I wanted to try them but I ended up eating them wherever they were available. Hoppers are made from rice flour and coconut milk and they are cooked in special frying pans which are very hot. They were available in most of buffets at breakfast, and you could either have them plain or with egg. The edges are very crispy and then there is a fluffy middle. They are very versatile as you can also have them with jaggery for a sweet treat, but they can also be savoury. I tried a beetroot one at one of the dinners which was good too. I have a video of one being made. Hopefully I can add it in later.
From Sri Lanka we took a quick flight to the Maldives and then, unexpectedly a sea plane flight to our resort. Our original resort would have been a boat ride but their overwater bungalows were damaged in a storm so we were sent to a different resort which was further away. The resort was amazing. It was all inclusive so it was buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner (albeit with different themes for dinner). We snorkelled, swam and generally chilled in this amazing place. On our last night, the resort organised a sunset cruise for us which was a great way to finish our holiday before doing the three flights back to Melbourne.
There is so much more I could talk about. I haven't even mentioned the egg samosas we had on the bus as a snack one day. It was an amazing holiday and I am so glad we went. Both countries exceeded our expectations!
And the picture at the top of the post? Meet our new travel companion Ella the Elephant who we picked up in Sri Lanka. We used to have Dino the Rhino but unfortunately he escaped along with all the contents of a backpack we left on a train in Japan, so we had to get a new travel companion.
Weekly meals
Saturday - Chicken schnitzel rolls Sunday - BBQ Steak and salad Monday - Pork chops, mash and beans Tuesday - Baked Tuscan chicken Wednesday - Out for dinner Thursday - Mexican chicken and beans Friday - Spicy pork and beans stir fry
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month.
I had big baking plans for June. The Lambs Ears Cook Book Club chose Emelia Jackson's latest book Some of My Best Friends are Cookies as the June selection, and I had selected a number of recipes to make as I already owned the book. But there is that saying about best laid plans and all that, and mine came crashing down when I got some kind of winter lurgy and I have been sick for the last couple of weeks. I am getting better but I sound terrible and when I cough...well... it's not pleasant.
So what did I make.
The first thing that I decided to make from the book was traditional Scottish shortbread as it is Robert's favourite. I also saw that there was a variation which was Sour Cherry and Pistachio Shortbread. I have a bag of sour cherries in the pantry and so it was an opportunity for me to use some. I made both recipes from the same batch and both were delicious. I will make them again!
Speaking of pistachios, is it just in Melbourne, or is everyone going crazy for pistachios at the moment? Many years ago now, I had some friends come to visit us and we went to a night market and we had a conversation about why there was so much Nutella everywhere. Now, that conversation would be about pistachios. We recently had a new Costco open near us, and the thing that had everyone excited was a pistchio cheesecake. Now, I would love to try it but the reality is I can't justify buying one because we would never be able to eat it all, so it would be a waste.
That doesn't mean that I am averse to the pistachio craze. I mean, I used it in my own baking this month, and intend to make another recipe that has them as a garnish as well. And we did try these Pistachio Scrolls from our local cafe to see what all the fuss was about on their socials.
We did have a couple of very nice meals this month, before we got sick. It was my birthday in early June so we took a drive down the coast and had lunch at a beautiful winery which had great views and more importantly, great food! It was a pretty cold day, but it was still very enjoyable. I imagine this place is even more popular in summer.
We also had to take a quick trip up to Brisbane for our eldest daughter's 30th birthday celebration. We had dinner at a restaurant on the Skydeck at Star Casino, and the whole experience was exceptional. We were sitting outside on the deck, and it was a bit chilly but there were heaters which helped. The views over the city lights were fabulous, and the food....the food was spectacular. This is just some of the food which included a smoked carrot tartare, spanner crab served with tiny crumpets, a beautiful dry aged bistecca and a whole baked fish.
Finally, I had to say farewell to my favourite pyjama pants this week. It's very sad. I had no option but to buy some super cute breakfast themed replacements, especially seeing as they were on sale!
52 Recipes Challenge
Here are the new recipes we tried this month.
Scottish shortbread
Sour Cherry and Pistachio Shortbread
Air-fried sweet potato cubes
Beef Casserole with Herb Dumplings
Given that we are halfway through the year, I thought I would see where we are up to with the 52 recipes challenge. If my count is correct, I think we have tried 23 new recipes this year so far. It does feel like it should be more, but it shouldn't be too hard to catch up. Famous last words
Saturday - Takeaway Sunday - Tuscan chicken pasta bake Monday - Beef casserole with herb dumplings (new) Tuesday - Tomato, Zucchini and Parmesan risotto Wednesday - Pork Nachos Thursday - Meatballs Friday - Butter Chicken and Rice
I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
We went on a road trip to South Australia over the Christmas/New Year period. The main reason was because my brother wanted to host Christmas, which I posted about here. We thought that we would also take advantage of the compulsory shutdown at my husband's work to see a bit of Australia that we haven't seen a lot of.
Our plan was to head to the Eyre Peninsula, staying in Kadina, then catching the ferry over to the Eyre Peninsula, then driving to Port Lincoln, up to Venus Bay, across to Port Augusta, back to Adelaide and then home via Mount Gambier.
We saw a lot as we drove. I have previously posted about the amazing silo art that we saw, and I will post a few other things as well, but today I wanted to focus on the food side of the trip!
On Christmas Eve Eve, we went for a drive through the Barossa Valley. My brother in law spent a lot of time up in the Barossa growing up, so we visited some of the places he knew in search of really great cured meats. The plan was that we were going to have them with some crackers and pate for dinner on Christmas night. That didn't end up happening as it was so hot (39 degrees), they ended up deciding to drive back to Melbourne that night. Nobody was going to be getting any sleep in the caravan or tents in that kind of heat. We were staying in a cabin with a tiny air conditioner in and that took forever to cool down as it was.
Anyway, I digress. We also visited Maggie Beer's Farm Shop which is in the Barossa Valley. Maggie Beer is a legend in the Australian food and TV industry, and she has a lovely shop where she sells all sorts of produce and housewares.
There is a whole food and wine trail that starts in the Clare Valley, goes through the Barossa Valley and then down to the McLaren Valley. If you like food and wine, then Adelaide is a pretty good place to visit!
Robert and I then when to visit a Dutch shop that I had heard a lot about. For him, it was a real walk down memory lane as he looked at all the different products in the store. he talked about the things his grandmothers and mother would make. We ended up buying some chocolate letters for each of the kids, yes, even my son the grown up kid and some nasi goreng spice mix. The store itself is super cute and I can definitely see us going back there when we visit Adelaide again.
There is a cafe attached to the store where you can get all sorts of Dutch food, like traditional croquettes, and we couldn't resist trying the Dutch version of vanilla slice which is called Tompouce. There was a huge mural, so it could almost have felt like you were sitting next to a canal in Amsterdam. Almost, but not quite.
On Christmas Eve itself, we took my 5 years old nephew last minute Christmas shopping for presents for his mum and dad, and then he came and played in the pool at the caravan park. A bit later we headed to the beach for fish and chips. Have I mentioned it was hot!
On Boxing Day we started the next stage of our trip driving to Kadina, via lots of silos. The next day we caught the ferry to the Eyre Peninsula. The less said about that the better, as it was a bit rough and I did get a bit seasick. We then drove the east coast of the peninsula to Port Lincoln, which is a huge fishing town, and is rightfully famous for it's seafood. There was also a pretty amazing French bakery in town, which was very popular. We ended up eating our sitting on a bench by the beach because it was booked out. All their pastries looked amazing.
One of the places I really wanted to visit was Coffin Bay which is about 30 minutes from Port Lincoln. I had been there once many years ago, but it was completely different to what I remembered! The food highlight of the whole trip was the Seafood Experience we had at 1802 Oyster Bar in Coffin Bay. Fortunately, you don't have to have oysters, because we don't like them very much, but the lunch we did have was spectacular and it was a lovely day to sit out on the deck and indulge. This is the description of the seafood experience from the menu
I really loved the mussels which were in a sweet sauce and the curried kingfish collar, which we were encouraged to eat with our hands! I am not sure I would normally have chosen that off a menu, but it was so good! Everything was great really.
The final touch was grilled peaches and ice cream. I am going through a real peach phase at the moment. Can't get enough of them!
After just chilling for a couple of hours under the shade of a big tree, we finished our delightful day in Coffin Bay with a sunset cruise on a catamaran. There was a charcuterie board as well which was a lovely touch to a fab way to spend a couple of hours. There were also a lot of oysters on offer which we didn't have, but there were a couple of oyster lovers on the boat who ended up having a massive feast!
It was a fabulous day!
We then started to make our way back to Adelaide where we spent New Years Eve. We had walked all around the Botanic Gardens in the heat looking at art by acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly, so I was exhausted, and I hadn't thought to book anything ahead of time. We knew that we did not want chips as we were all pub mealed out) so we ended up finding a nearby Thai restaurant that had a vacancy, and we had a really lovely meal there. I was dead to the world by 10pm and didn't even wake up for the fireworks which were just down the road!
We had Moneybags and satay chicken for starters, and then I had ordered pineapple chicken fried rice and Roberts ordered Thai Green Curry. I didn't expect my rice to be delivered in half a pineapple, but it was. Finally, we shared a dessert of Cheesecake Spring Rolls - delicious!
Along the whole way we stopped at various bakeries. We love a small town bakery and there were a couple that were absolutely fab, particularly in the small town of Tumby Bay. If we lived in Adelaide I could definitely see us visiting this little town more as we loved the feel of the place.
One of the things that I am always reminded when we cross the state borders, is that you can get all sorts of different things in each state. You would think there wouldn't be that many differences! So to give you some examples, in South Australia you can get Apple and Custard tarts whereas I don't recall seeing them here in Victoria. They also have different cream filled buns called Kitchener buns, you can easily get a chocolate donut filled with cream. The thing that I had the most this trip though was a pub classic - Beef Schnitzel. Now in Victoria you can get any number of variations of chicken schnitzel at any pub, but beef is nowhere to be seen, but in South Australia, you can get both. I had it a couple of times. This one was from a pub in Port Augusta!
All in all, it was a very successful road trip, seeing a different part of the country. Now, we are looking forward to our next trip in about 9 weeks!
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
Welcome to the first Saturday of the month where I usually share everything I have made over the previous month. Given that I was away for a couple of weeks of the month,I actually managed to make a few things, which I guess isn't surprising given the time of the year!
Before I start though....
Happy New Year to you all!!
My first attempted bake for the month was Brooki's Chocolate Chip Cookies. Note the word attempted! I followed the recipe that was provided on a Facebook reel, but it turns out the recipe is different than that provided in the Brooki Bakes book. I followed the instruction, which includes putting the cookie dough balls into the fridge for at least two hours, which helps to prevent the cookies spreading too much when you bake them. That's a pretty normal technique. That definitely worked because my cookies didn't spread at all, and so at the end of the cooking time I still had very, very solid cookie balls. They tasted good still, but I will be remaking these to see how they work out next time!
I then decided to make two recipes from Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk. I made both Schokokusschen (Chocolate kisses) and Kokosmakronen - Coconut macaroons. I have to say that I loved making the macaroons. Both recipes were pretty simple, but the macaroons were surprisingly simple and tasty! Especially seeing as I don't normally love coconut as a flavour. I reviewed the book here, and shared the recipe for the Chocolate Kisses.
We also made Peppermint Crisp Tart, which is a South African dessert, which was one of the two desserts at our first Christmas celebration. I have shared this recipe before. The other dessert was a Christmas Tree Cake. The picture for both of these is at the top of this post.
I posted a couple of weeks ago about my experience of doing a cake decorating class where we produced the Christmas Tree cake. The class was run at a decorating supplier over the other side. Whilst I was intending to not buy much, I did end up buying a new rolling pin, a large offset spatula and some spray glitter!
We also got a new air fryer. To be honest, this came a bit out of the blue as we already had an air fryer which we never really used. The new one has two drawers which I think will make it a bit more usable, and we have now got it out on the bench rather than hidden away on a shelf in the pantry. We also got an over microwave shelf which has helped us with reorganising things to make it possible to put it in a more visible place.
One of the things I realised before Christmas is that I really struggle with nice pictures, so I headed off to the shops and ended up buying a few decorative plates. Whilst that still might not help with the photos, at least I can occasionally have a more interesting background than just a plain white plate. Then I went in the garage and realised that my husband has quite a few decorative blue and white plates that he has owned for years. Not sure if I will use them as he used to have them on the wall, but never say never.
I was very spoilt at Christmas and got some great presents. At our first Christmas, I was given a new tool for the Kitchenaid that I have been eyeing off for a while, I got some magnetic measuring spoons, and a personally signed copy of Bakes with Brooki by Brooke Bellamy, yes, the same one I mentioned for my cookie fail above.I am looking forward to trying some of her recipes. Brooke owns a bakery in Brisbane called Brooki Bakehouse that has really taken off and now has branches in various locations including places like Abu Dhabi. and also a cookbook all about New York and food called New York Cult Recipes by Marc Grossman!
I am a bit excited about the measuring spoons. They are dual ended. One end has a round measuring spoon, and the other end has an oval spoon, so in theory it should fit inside spice jars. There is also a leveller. I also hope that the fact that they are magnetic should bake it easier to be able to find the right spoon easily.
At our second Christmas, I also received a personally signed copy of Emelia Jackson's new cookbook, Some of my Best Friends are Cookies.
Speaking of Emelia Jackson we actually went to an event just prior to Christmas where Emelia was appearing along with three other chefs, Alice Zaslavsky, Tony Tan and Ben Shewry, who each have new books out at the moment! It was a really fun night, where they talked about their books, about obsession and so much more.
This is prime seafood territory, and is part of the Seafood Frontier trail which starts in the far west of South Australia on the Great Australian Bight and ends in Whyalla. I will be back next week with my post about our trip, I couldn't help but mention the Seafood Experience that we had at 1802 Oyster Bay in Coffin Bay. We aren't really oyster people, but the experience was all about fresh tuna, prawns, mussels, squid and kingfish. It was a delicious, and memorable, meal! The picture above is the curried Kingfish Collar. I don't think that I have ever had the collar of a fish before, but it was delicious! More about the trip next week!
The other surprising meal I had was our New Year's Eve dinner at a Thai restaurant. I ordered a chicken pineapple Thai fried rice! I didn't expect it to come out in a pineapple!
We also picked up a salt pot in Port Lincoln for sea salt. It can now sit proudly beside the giant mug that we got in San Francisco last year which we use as the receptacle for cooking salt!
In not very exciting news, we spent Friday cleaning out and then reorganising the pantry. A big reason for doing this is so that we actually know what we have in there, which should then men a reduction in food waste as we will only buy something as it is running out rather than having multiples of everything!
Finally, I am going to be setting myself (or should I say us given that my husband does most of the cooking!) a challenge for this year, taking inspiration from Joanne from Brookford Kitchen Diaries. She has challenged herself to cook a recipe from 52 cookbooks during 2025. I do have more than 50 cookbooks, but I have decided to adapt the challenge a little bit. My challenge then is for us to try 52 new recipes in 2025. I will try to do this from as many cookbooks as possible, but maybe not 52! That equates to one new recipe a week on average! I will keep you updated as we go along each month.
New Recipes
Baked Tuscan Chicken - This recipe from Adam Liaw is definitely going to be part of our regular rotation or recipes now!
I am sharing this post with In My Kitchen hosted at Sherry's Pickings.
Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page
.png)
.png)
.png)
.jpg)
