Dinner at home - Nigella's Kitchen!!

I got the new Nigella Lawson book "Kitchen" so I have been trying some of the recipes!! When my Mum & Dad came for dinner to see our now unpacked new house, I made "Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and potaotes" for the meat eaters.... This was a super easy recipe, which involves throwing everything into a roasting tin and baking in the oven!!
I halved the recipe, since I was only feeding 3 rather than 6. 

( I also cooked some pumpkin and peas to go with)





This recipe got the thumbs up from everyone - Janet had the left overs for dinner the next night.





for myself, I made roast vegies with haloumi - I threw potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, onion and halved tomatoes into a roasting tin, sprinkled with oregano and a little olive oil, and put some slices of haloumi on the top, and baked along with the chicken dish.  MMMMM delicious!!!

For desert? Nigellas Chocolate Key Lime Pie! This was a chance to use my new flan tin! Another easy recipe with great results!!! No baking involved here - just whizzing up digestive biscuits, cocoa, choc chips and butter for the base, and beating together condensed milk, cream, and lime juice for the filling. If I made this again, I think I would use chocolate wheatens for the base, to eliminate the need to use choc bits!

Melbourne!!! Day 4 - home time

Our last day in Melbourne was a bit of a rush, since we were being picked up to go to the airport at 11am!

So we started the day with a delicious breakfast at Edelweiss Cafe



Janet had bacon and eggs, with lovely thick toast


and I had the Vegetarian Breakfast - which had mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans, tomato and toast!

Then we went for a walk around town - We stopped to take some photos of all of the grafitti in Union Lane -






And then we headed back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle bus.  and headed for the airport.  We had to wait in a long line to check in, and then we had to wait for a long time at the gate - we used up some time by removing some of the 27 layers of clothes we had been wearing so that our carry on luggage was correct weight :-) Since we knew there would be no food to buy on the plane (except pringles) we grabbed some lunch from the airport.

this vegie pizza was the only vegetarian thing I could find. Even the sandwiches all contained meat.


and Janet had a chicken sandwich.


and then it was up up and away, back home!!

Out for Dinner - Focus by James, Springwood

For our fifth "not-wedding" anniversary, we went out for dinner to Focus by James at Springwood.  This restaurant is located upstairs in a centre on the Pacific Highway service road, so whilst we were sat by the window, the views were of the highway and car yards. It was a Saturday night and the restaurant was seemed to be nice and full.

For entree, Janet had the Sweet Pork Belly....this was a special, so not on the online menu, the specials were read to us by our waitress from a srumpled piece of paper, and I am not sure of what else was in this dish - we think it was served with sweet potato mash.  Whatever the ingredients etc, Janet loved this dish. It was tender and melt in the mouth.

I went for the Bruschetta Trio caprese, mushroom ragout, peperonata. The toppings were very flavoursome, but the bread was a little soggy for my liking.

We then had a rather long wait for our main course. We think something might have gone astray in the kitchen - as there was some concerned chatting amongst wait staff whilst looking in our direction.

For my main, I ordered a second entree - this dish jumped out at me  - Smoked Beetroot, Cashew & Goats Cheese Ravioli w/ red wine & tarragon butter The filling in the ravioli was absolutely delicious - smooth, sweet and smokey with a hint of crunch from the cashews.  I think that the actual "pasta" was wonton wrappers, rather than fresh pasta, as it was very shiny and a bit sticky. I did love the filling!!

Janet chose the Free Range Chicken Breast w/ prosciutto, provolone cheese & warm lemon potato salad. I tried a little of the potato and it was nice and creamy.  Janet thought the chicken was great - nice and tender.

Then it was onto dessert -

Janet had Frozen Profiteroles filled with peanut butter ice cream in a sugar cage . I of course tasted this one too. The profiteroles were the best I have ecver tasted - I don't know if this is because I always have had duds, or if these were extra good :-).  They were filled with peanut butter icecream, which was like eating extra creamy peanut butter - divine!

I chose the Sour Apple Creme Brulee with Green Apple Sorbet My favourite part of this was the fantastic green apple sorbet YUM!! THe creme brulee was good also - a hard shell of caramalised sugar covered a soft creamy custard, with just a hint of sourness. Quite a different taste!

So overall a great dinner - I'm sure we'll be back again!

Dinner at Home - roast chicken for one!

note the lack of greenery on the plate? Must be dinner for Janet :-)

I bought some chicken marylands so I could make a roast chicken dinner for Janet, without having to cook an entire chicken,  I marinaded the chicken "Nigella-style" in a plastic bag with lemon, soy and garlic for a few hours before roasting in a ht oven with some potato, pumpkin and carrots.  I could have cooked some peas to go with, but I was being lazy and dint want to dirty anything else :-)

friday night dinner - satay box, Browns Plains

We had dinner at Satay Box, Browns Plains before doing our grocery shopping.  This is really a takeaway shop, with a few tables and chairs if you want to dine in, the cooking is done just behind the counter, so you can see your food getting tossed around in the hot woks.

We had to try the vegie spring rolls, because we hadn't tried them before! They were quite good, but the close proximity to the kitchen meant they were very very very hot when they arrived at our table!

I had the satay vegetarian noodles. Which came with a nice mix of vegies, and even a few pieces of tofu, and a fairly standard satay sauce. Again, very hot! The steam just kept on pouring out of the noodles!

Janet had the crispy chicken in sweet chilli sauce - this was a whole little chicken, deep fried until crispy and covered in a delicious sweet chilli sauce.

when we finished, they brought us a plate of orange wedges, which was an unexpected, but pleasant surprise!

Out for Dinner - The Music Kafe, West End

We went to "The Music Kafe" at West End to see Janet's cousin play.  They had a $5 pizza special the night we were there, but we decided we were a bit "pizza'd out" and went for other meals.

I had the Rissotto (with Mushrooms, spinach & parmesan $12.50). Now anyone that knows me will think that this is a very odd choice, as I do not eat mushrooms. Well, my quest for 2010 is to embrace the mushroom, so this was my first attempt.  Perhaps a bit of an ambitious attempt, as they were very generous with the mushrooms in this rissotto.  The rice was nicely cooked with still a little bite to it, and it was not gluggy.  I ate some of the mushrooms, but they got the better of me in the end, and I ended up eating around them.  A more seasoned mushroom eater would have really enjoyed this dish, as apart from the mushroom factor, I really loved it!

Janet had the Chicken Carbonara ($14.50), which had some nicely cooked chunks of chicken throughout a traditional creamy & bacony carbonara sauce.  She loved it.

These were big meals, and neither of us managed to finish them.  There were a few items on the breakfast menu that took my fancy, so perhaps we will be back another time.

Dinner at home - chicken pies

I made these little chicken pies for Janet - I made them in Muffin tins, so that gives you an idea of their size.

I lind baked some frozen shortcrust pastry in muffin tins whilst I cooked up the filling.

The filling was simply chopped up chicken thigh, and a variety of chopped vegies - zuccinni, carrot, corn, and peas, sauted in a little oil, and then simmered with some chicken stock until the vegies were tender and the chicken was cooked.  I then filled up the pastry cases, and topped with a little grated cheese before popping them into the oven for the cheese to melt.