Dinner at home - Fettucine x 2

I decided to make some fresh pasta for dinner - I really should do this more often, because, its fun, easy, and tastes fantastic!





I made the pasta dough using 100g flour, 1 egg and a pinch of salt. I whizzed this in the little food processor, and then kneaded it, before resting it for about half an hour. I then rolled it out with my pasta machine, cut it into fettucine, and hung it up on this make-shift pasta rack (a wooden spoon balanced on two coffee mugs, balanced on tinned tomatoes for extra height!)





We ate the last of the Brewbakers bread topped with garlic and olive oil and grilled until toasty - delicious!!

After cooking in boiling water for only a minute or two, I tossed the fettucine into two different sauces...

for me, A simple sauce of sauted onion, garlic zuccinni and grape tomatoes

For Janet, a carbonara sauce - with bacon and zuccinni.



Brewbakers, Albion!

A few weeks ago, I attended a bread and Pizza making calss at Brewbakers, Albion.  Owner, RIchard talked us through the many processes and calculations involved in creating the best bread ever!







These little balls of dough were so soft! We shaped them into pizza bases



topped them with a delicious selection of ingredients, and watched them go into the oven!





The pizzas came out crisp on the outside, yet soft and fluffy in the middle! Best pizza ever!!





We also had a go at shaping some bagels!!

I ate my bagel for lunch the next day - yum!




We also had a go at weighing out the correct amount of dough , and shaping into ciabatta loaf. Not as easy as it sounds!





We each took a just out of the oven loaf home! Miraculously, the loaf survived the drive home intact, and was enjoyed another day!

Now on my list of things to do is a visit to Brewbakers when the actual shop is open so I can try some more baked delights!!

Out for Lunch - The Apple Tree, Kenmore

For my Dad's birthday, we went to lunch at "The Apple Tree" at Kenmore. (it is where "Simple Pleasures" used to be). 





We started with some Garlic Bread 7.90 which was nice and crunchy, with melted garlicy butter.

Being Sunday lunch time, we could choose from the "bar menu" or the "appetiser menu"  I think we all found something on the bar menu that took our fancy.....



The only exception was Gina who chose the Sunday Roast 24.00 Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, Roast Potatoes, Honey Roasted Carrots, Cauliflower Bake, Roast Pumpkin and served with Pan Gravy. This was a very generous serving, with a pile of sliced roast beef, which had to be shared in order to finish it all!





Scott had the Classic Caeser Salad Cos lettuce, Bacon, Crispy Croutons, Boiled Egg & shaved Parmesan.with Chicken - Add $4 (Anchovies optional) 13.90



Guess who had this one? British Style Shepherd's Pie Slow cooked Lamb Mince topped w Creamy Mashed Potato &and Cheddar Cheese, Served with Green Peas and Warm Toast 19.90 Yes, it was Janet! She thought this was delicious, but might have liked it to be a tad bigger.



Mum had The Apple Tree Steak Sandwich With Beer Battered Chips. Sliced Tomato, BBQ Aioli, Caramelized onion, Fried Egg and Lettuce served on Turkish Bread. 17.90 This was certainly a sandwich and a half! I tried a chip, andit was magnificently fluffu on the inside and crunchy on the outside,



I was considering the Roast Vegie sandwich, but in the end decided on the Haloumi Salad Grilled Haloumi with asparagus, on a summer salad with citrus dressing (V) 14.90 The dressingon the salad was fantastic (the salad did have cucumber in it which I skipped!).  Loved the haloumi and the asparagus, a couple more asparagus spears would have been welcome!




Dad had the Salt and Pepper Calamari SaladTender fried calamari,roasted red peppers, spanish onion, cucumber,baby capers and citrus aioli. 14.90  Look at that pile of calamari! The salad underneath was the same as the one I had with the haloumi.

We ummed and ahhed a little about dessert - some where rather full, others still had room. In the end only Scott showed restraint and declined the temptation!



Mum had Cranachan A Traditional Scottish Dessert consisting of layers of rolled Oat Praline, Honey, Cream and Raspberries with a hint of Whisky. 12.00 I had a taste - can't go wrong with raspberries!





GIna had Chocolate Mousse -it was quite a dark chocolate mousse - not very sweet, very very good!!



Lemon Meringue Pie w summery berry coulis.. 10.00 This one was my choice - YUM!!! Loved the super lemony filling, and the berry coulis was a nice addition!


Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee with Scottish style shortbread biscuit. (GF Available) 12.00 Janet & Dad both had this - the brulee was velvety and vanila-y - and now Janet wants me to make her some shortbread!

We all enjoyed our lunch - the serving sizes were a little inconsistent, but not a big problem! The service was friendly and efficient, and we would definitely go back again!

Dinner at home - halloween!

We had friends over for dinner the night before Halloween, so I decided to make the food a little halloween themed. but only a little!




I wasn't paying $20 for a "carving pumpkin" at Woolworths, so I carved an apple instead! A tea light fitted nicely inside.




For dinner, I made this beef and bacon pie.  I uses Maggie Beers Sour Cream Pastry.  It was easy to make - it just goes together in the food processor. The filling for the pie, I made up.  I sauted a leek, then added garlic, and chopped up meat.  I think I used blade steak. Not really a meat expert here - it had a bone in it, which  I cut out and used to make some meaty stock, which I added to the browned meat with some tomato paste.  I simmered the meat on a low heat for a few hours, until it was really tender and falling apart, and the gravy was thick.  Then I left it overnight to cool in the fridge. The next day I shredded the meat up a bit with a fork.

I rolled out the pastry and lined my pie dish with it, then put it back in the fridge to harden up, I then filled it with the cold meat filling and put a pastry top on.  I then put it back in the fridge to cool again. I btushed the top with egg wash and baked in the oven for 20 ish minutes, until nicely golden brown.

I served the pie with some assorted roasted vegies, which is what I ate for my dinner.





dessert was a slight drama.  I made a kind of chocolate mousse-y thing using condensed milk, cream and cocoa powder which I beat together, and put into cups with a suprise of caramel in the middle. Then we went and bought a new fridge, and in the excitement of getting the new fridge delivered, I left the dessert in our old fridge, which was taken away by the delivery man. Oops. So a quick new dessert was needed.  I had already made these chocolate spiders to put on top of the mousse, so I zipped down to the IGA and bought some ready made tart cases which I filled with the left over tin of caramel. And there we have a super easy, and rather tasty dessert.

I am still cranky at myself for leaving my Ikea cups filled with dessert in that fridge. Have to go to Ikea to get some more cups!!!