eatin: giorno cinquantasette e cinquantotto

The problem with Friday evening dinners on babies weekends is that the options for very quick and very easy seem to be rather limited.

We went through a phase where we cooked pizza all the time and became heartily sick of it, fortunately it has been an age since we had it and it was really marvellous indeed!


26.02

Pepperoni and salami pizza

Cooked by: Bessie

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This time I actually took the camera along to the restaurant with me, but failed to remember to get it out until the meal was well completed.

So instead, enjoy our dessert. This was another lesson from the universe to not be so cocky about cooking - we've cooked this wonderful cake dozens of times and this was the first disappointment - bits of chocolate were not chopped finely enough, sank to the bottom and became a little crusty and spooty. Ah well! Quite nice indeed if you ate around the base!


27.02

Chocolate mud cake with double cream and ice-cream. Joe/Frank's second birthday cake.

Cooked by: Carol and Bessie (with Joan assisting)

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eatin: giorno cinquantacinque e cinquantasei

As Don says, if you're cooking new things all the time, you're bound to come up with merely adequate results occasionally. And thus it was so for dinners 45 and 46.

The good thing about the occasional, shall we say, passable meal is that it reminds us what very good cooks we usually are and how very well we do eat.

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Cooked slightly too long - eggs a smidge rubbery, asparagus a wee bit soggy. Tomatoes on the other hand were absolutely, wonderfully delicious.

Note for next time: keep a closer eye on eggs, throw asparagus in with tomatoes about 10 minutes later. Try to remember precisely what I did with the tomatoes.


24.02
Baked eggs from Marie Claire: kitchen with roast tomato and asparagus

Cooked by: Don (eggs) and Carol (tomato and asparagus)

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Beef somewhat overcooked, beans slightly undercooked. On the up side, the flavour was rather nice and we all did go back for seconds.

Note for next time: go with instincts on cooking time, not what recipe says. Ponder that perhaps hideously heavy-expensive wok is only ideal for slow-cooking and consider a cheap and cheerful model for stir-frying.


25.02

Honey mustard beef stir fry from Donna Hay: beef, lamb + pork

Cooked by: Don

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lucky-dips for grown-ups

Goodness! Finally - not a food post! I'm sure you're all very relieved.

Don was on a course down my end of town today and called me at 4ish saying he was finished for the day, so I gave myself an early mark and we spent a lovely 30-40 minutes cruising Red Eye and Lawsons and JBHiFi before heading home.

At Red Eye, when we went to pay for our purchases, we absolutely could not resist the following:





Don and I had been talking for a while about adding more random music to our lives, in a similar manner to my <6 book project and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Who knows what fabulous mysterious mysteries are contained within?

We're waiting until the weekend to crack open the packages, just to prolong the suspense, but I will, most assuredly, be back with the results.

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eatin: giorno cinquantaquattro (birthday edition)

The first family birthday of the year! Joe/Frank turned 16 and the three of us decided to venture out for an impromptu quick bite. We're having family festivities on Saturday, but really, you can never have too many birthday celebrations.

Unfortunately in the flurry of impromptu-ness and leaving the haus, I completely forgot to shove my camera in my bag. Luckily, I did have my iphone with me, but was so caught up in the conversation, that I twice forgot to take a photo until dishes were half eaten, so please do bear with the improvisation (and the quite dreadful light)!


23.02

Vietnamese pancake, Sizzling Beef and Duck curry from Saigon Saigon, Glebe.


Afterward we had a very small cake to mark the occasion. Bigger cake will, of course, follow on Saturday.


23.02

Interim birthday cake from David Jones. The candles represent the number of blue candles I could find the candle stash.

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eatin: giorno cinquantatre

The hottest night in Sydney for 13 years.

Fortunately we have a large deck and BBQ because the haus was unbearable even without the added heat from cooking.


22.02

New York steak & BBQ asparagus.

Cooked by: Don

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eatin: giorno cinquantadue

After a long-ish hike today (where we saw a snake!), we decided on an easy-ish dinner. The diificult part was boning the chicken legs, which I left to someone with way more kniferly dexterity than I - yay for spouses with mad cutting¹ skills.

Boned chicken legs are amazingly tender and fabulously-yummy.


21.02

Chicken with harissa + rice + greens. Heavily inspired by: Nigel Slater: Kitchen Diaries

Cooked by: Carol


¹ I had originally typed "mad boning skills", but feared that may have been misinterpreted / caused my children to poke their eyes out.
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eatin: giorno cinquantuno

Moar kettle BBQ!

Beer-can chicken from my lovely husband.





Unfortunately, couldn't really taste the beer (golly, it is difficult to find a can of beer that is not guinness), but absolutely delish nonetheless!


20.02

Beer-can chicken with baked potatoes + mustard and dill dressing + greens.

Cooked by: Don

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eatin: giorno and quarantotto e quarantanove e cinquanta

Boy howdy! Does this going out on a school night take it out of you! And two school nights in a row is just simply madness - hence the absence, I've been recovering!

We're totally taking a couple of days off around the Prodigy/Pavement shows.

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Wednesday night saw us at The Basement to see Yo La Tengo. It was the first time either of us had done "dinner and a show" and we felt very grown up!

It could have all come to nought, as poor Don was almost not permitted entry because he was wearing shorts (would have been nice if the dress code had been mentioned somewhere at any point, but it hadn't), fortunately they did the "just this one time..." thing - phew!

Anyway the dinner part of the "d&s" was underwhelming - we've never had such well-done rare steak in our lives. The entree's were none-to-fabulous either. Think very, very average pub food.

The show component, however, more than made up for it - it was brilliant, golly I love YLT! And we chatted to James, Ira and Georgia afterward! And goodness, they were So Nice. I think I now love them even more.

Apologies for the VERY poor picture quality, there were signs posted saying "no, flash photography" and after the shorts incident, we weren't taking any chances! Thanks to Don for holding the votive.


17.02
Steak + mash with pepper sauce.

Cooked by: someone purporting to be a chef at The Basement.

I'd have to give mad-props to the staff though, the service was sensational. And we drank far, far too much!

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After last night's outing, I awoke with a crippling migraine and couldn't get to work. I blame the dreadfully cheap, dreadfully expensive wine.

Slept most of the day and felt a little more human toward the evening. But it definitely required comfort food before we headed out to see Yo La Tengo again at the Metro.

And they played the song I'd asked them really nicely for the night before! Woo!


18.02

Baked beans in ham sauce + Don bacon + cheese jaffles.

Cooked by: Carol

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Joe/Frank's first weekend visit to his Dad's since moving in with us. After a long, hard day at work and the long drive to the suburbs and back, there was nothing for it but to head out for dinner.


19.02

Clockwise from top: Salad and seaweed-y stuff, yakitori (not pictured), teriyaki prawns, sushi and sashimi main (don) and ton katsu (me).

At Teriyaki Japanese Fusion on Glebe Point Road.

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eatin: giorno quarantasette

Gah! My numbers are still all wrong! Well, that's not strictly true, my numbers are correct, I simply have the actual day of the year incorrect, will have to make myself a list or get myself a calendar. Investigations will be required to finally set this to rights.

Anyways, risotto!

I don't think there is any way to photograph it attractively, but by golly it is yummy! This was a digression from our usual porcini mushroom version and a most excellent digression it was. Really opens the door for other ugly but delicious variations.


16.02

Tomato and proscuitto risotto - heavily modified from Marie Claire: comfort

Cooked by: Don

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heavy metals

The fabulous curiously minty asked in the comments on the bacon post if I'd heard of the BLT from scratch contest.

I hadn't, but goodness! How marvellous! And how delicious! Surely it could only be improved by being a BLAT (and we do have that embryonic avocado tree outside).

And the winner? Totally could be the twin of my husband. Both in Enthusiasms and in looks (well, okay, currently my lovely husband has a beard and has lost the glasses - and he'd never have worn that hat - but onehungrychef is the doppelganger of Don when I first knew him).

And making his own salt?! Truly, I fear what has been unleashed. I envisage a period of visiting beaches and carting water home, because we would die slow and painful deaths if we harvested water from the bay in the front of our haus.

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eatin: giorno quarantasei

We'd under-planned for meals this week, so this was an impromptu, serendipitous meal based on what we had laying about.

Fortunately we had Don's marvellous bacon laying about! And chillis from rancho farmo (and some gifted from the babies' step-mother).

Perfecto!


15.02

Arrabiata a recipe of my own devising.

Cooked by: Carol

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isn't that a euphemism for something?

Yesterday saw the balcony alive with the smell of hickory (so much so that I could not hang out the washing).

Yes, after curing in the fridge for a week, it was Bacon Day!









After several hours locked away in the kettle (with careful monitoring of the remote thermometer by Bessie and Don) it looked like bacon, smelled like bacon and ... tasted like bacon!

Actually, it tasted like amazingly good bacon.

The only difficulty was cutting to sufficient thinness - despite the ultra-sharp knives which can shave the hair from your arm. I see some sort of deli-cutting device in our futures.

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eatin:giorno quarantacinque

Well, it took 43 days for us to repeat a dinner, but we have finally done so. The last time we had this was 5 January. For people who'd repeat something at least once a week, this is an amazing effort! Yay! us!

This was Joe/Frank's first experience of Pho and he loved it. It is rather wonderful to have a child in the haus who adores trying new foods (well, unless they contain onion).


14.02

Pho from here

Cooked by: Don

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she'd kick me in the balls

We do not celebrate Valentines Day in this haus, but Don has been buying me some lovely treats of late. He was quite horrified when a colleague enquired if his DJ's bag contained Valentines gifts, because it had not registered at all that it was almost 14 February.



So mandarin-y! I love it. Totally reminds me of one of the best meals of my life at the Press Club in Melbourne, where the bathrooms are full of Aesop products, which is what prompted Don to buy it.



And, cheese! Truly, this man knows the way to my heart.

And even though we don't celebrate Valentine's Day, Bessie made heart-shaped french toast for brekkie this morning.



As always, it was marvellous! She's turning into an excellent cook, that one.

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double six

We've recently instituted family bonding night on the Saturday evenings when the babies are both present, primarily so we spend some time away from our respective computers. Whoever has their name drawn from the hat can chose anything at all (game, movie, cooking, stroll &etc), but the rule is that it must be an activity we can all do together. So far it has been games, games, games.

Last week it was Bessie's choice and we played the Game of Life. This week, my name was drawn out of the hat and I chose Dominoes (15 rounds of dominoes)!





At this stage Bessie and I have reigned supreme with our respective choices. Yay for the girlz in the boyzone haus!

We really need to expand our collection of board games, but they are hideously expensive and we all really abhor the modern versions of the games we want. We're currently scouring eBay for vintage versions, but even those seem disproportionately expensive. Perhaps we need to cunningly craft our own as a family bonding activity.

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eatin: giorno quarantaquattro

Don occasionally gets Enthusiasms. The current one is smoking (no, not that smoking). We have now acquired a kettle bbq and this was its first outing - and most delightful it was too.

Tomorrow's venture is bacon, which has been curing in the fridge for a week with special imported curingy stuff.




13.02

Hickory-smoked barbeque chicken (a recipe of Don's devising) with potato salad, corn and rocket.

Cooked by: Don

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eatin: giorno quarantatre

I realised today when I was talking about edible365 that there was a wee glitch (too many thirties) with my numbering of the eatin2010 posts - the perils of grouping posts (which plays havoc with my italian numerals learnin).

But today: More green! Yay!

The first time I've cooked this and we'll definitely be having variations of this again - so simple, so delicious. We went off recipe and added hot spanish salami, which was a brilliant move.


12.01

Potato and spinach [and salami] frittata with greens! from Marie Claire: Comfort

Cooked by: Carol

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eatin: giorno quarantadue

Another new recipe (how long can we go before a repeat?) and another one of those not-terribly-attractive meals, but one which was utterly delish!

Simple ingredients (tomato, salami, asparagus, risoni, olive oil, parmesan and basil), no fuss prep, gorgeous outcome.

We had no orzo or risoni, so subbed with wee pasta hearts and alphabets.


11.02

Roast tomato, salami and asparagus orzo from Marie Claire: Comfort - which is a really excellent book.

Cooked by: Carol

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eatin: giorno quarantuno

Yay! We finally broke the green drought!


10.02

Bangers and mash! Using our freebie sausages from the butcher at Broadway.

Cooked by: Don and Carol

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eatin: giorno quaranta

Really, it would be silly not to declare this "no green vegetable" week.

This was lovely, but would have been much more flavourful had we used the whole jar and not half as suggested. Next time, I probably would marinate the meat in the sauce for a while before browning.


09.02

Methi chicken curry with jeera pappadums, courtesy of a sauce from the Rangoon Racquet Club acquired from The Essential Ingredient

Cooked by: Carol

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eatin: giorno trentanove

Why yes, we're still eschewing greens!

The pork was a smidge overcooked, but all was otherwise delightful. Potatoes and tomatoes make an excellent combination!


08.02

Lemon pork and roasted vegies from Donna Hay: beef, lamb + pork

Cooked by: Don

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stuff on my balcony

The leaves may have all been eaten, but the fruit is still standing!



All that rain has made for some unexpected visitors:





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≤$6 ≤6 words: fay

Completed this one at 3am today, after being kept awake for hours by Don's I've-had-a-little-too-much-beer snoring. Sadly, shoving and shaking him had no effect at all, I had to resort to a pillow over my head after I'd finished.

You'll notice that I've added cost to the review to keep me honest. Will try to retrofit the previous reviews.


Book 6: Fay Weldon: She may not leave
Cost: free (!)¹
Made an ass of me + 'mptions

As always, if you want it, it is yours - shipping on me.

¹with magazine I bought when Joan was raced back to hospital after complications from her tonsillectomy.

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eatin: giorno trentasette e trentotto

We do love us some mexican food and yesterday's weather was perfect for some long, slow cooking.


06.02

Carnitas! From various locations on teh internets.

Cooked by: Don

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Another rains-ish day, another comfort food day. Another reminder after viewing photographs that we really do need some green stuff in our diets.

This is always spectacularly good and you should go and make yourself some as soon as you can.





Brigitte Hafner's Paella with chicken

Cooked by: Don

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glad we didn't get tix for shakespeare in the park

Has been quite, quite inclement for days and looks quite pretty on the windows.





Is not doing the washing much good and I'm very glad I'm not having to entertain toddlers, a teenager is much easier to manage - they rarely move no matter what the weather.

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a friend in need's a friend indeed

Very long time readers will (possibly) know about Joe/Frank's "condition" and if you're also following me on twitter, you might know we've been participating in a clinical trial for some time now.

I don't want to say too much about it, or what it is, because the trial is still ongoing. It was supposed to be the end of it all for J/F late last year, but the poor wee thing had a horrid tummy bug (which he subsequently passed on to everyone in his families) and the visit had to be cut short (because he threw up everywhere). After Xmas hols for everyone, we finally went for his last tests for the trial on Friday.

Joe/Frank was taking medication as part of the trial for a 12 week period last year and after the last visit we were to find out whether he had the medication or the placebo. We all guessed placebo because there was absolutely no difference in anything while he was taking it. And we all really hoped it was the placebo, because we really want this medication to make a difference to people who have this "condition".

I was handed an envelope after the testing, which Joe/Frank decided to open outside, and to our amazement, this was contained inside:



So, yay!

If the trial is successful, all of the participants will be offered an 8 week course of the medication, so fingies and all other bits crossed for a successful outcome! After everything is complete, hopefully I can talk more about it.

After we were done, J/F and I went shopping for some supplies for school. He needed a new school bag, new pencil case, handkerchiefs & other essentials for living with us (yay!). When I was interrogating, "do you need [this]?", "do you need [that]?", he mentioned that he might possibly need a new ruler, which was duly purchased.

Afterward when I went through his old pencil-case, I found his old ruler:



He's such a boy.

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eatin: giorno trentacinque

This is a retro-fitted post. Finally worked out why my numbering was awry! A missing day! Although I do have some recollection of typing this, so maybe the original vanished into the ether as these things are wont to do.

Another in our ongoing "greens be damned" theme


05.02

Roast chicken with potatoes roasted in duck fat and gravy.

Cooked by: Carol

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incorrect socks have been purchased

It's all about the big issues at Bessie's school.

From the school newsletter:



The humanity! Those girls having the heel of the sock showing above the top of the shoe should totally be expelled.

Note: I have no idea as to the state of Bessie's socks, whether authorised or not.

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eatin: giorno trentaquattro e trentacinque

Much to my chagrin, this is turning into one of our favourite cookbooks and you really can't argue with the price! Each time we cook something from it I give thanks to the kindly neighbour who cast it aside.

This was a smidge salty, but I blame the quality of the red curry paste and not the recipe, it was marvellously easy and very fast.


03.02

Coconut red beef curry from Donna Hay: beef, lamb + pork

Cooked by: Don and Carol

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Take-away to celebrate the baby boy's arrival! Haus is officially now a boyzone.


04.02

Chipotle pork burritos from Guzman y Gomez with chips and guacamole.

From the fine people at the Newtown GYG store.

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