Brisbane Foodie Bus Tour

I was fortunate enough that the planets aligned and I was on holidays this week, so was able to join fellow Brisbane Food Bloggers, Twitterers, and general Food lovers on this fantastic christmas bus tour!




First stop was "The Fishery" at Milton where we were treated to a selection of Prawns, Salmon & Oysters. (yes, I passed sampling anything, but everyone else looked like they were in seafood heaven!)





Next stop : Wine Experience , Rosalie, where we sampled a number of different wines, including one from Luxembourg. Now while wine isn't exactly my cup of tea so to speak, if I need to buy some wine, this looks like the place to go, as the guys were so knowledgeable and helpful!!



Slightly silly from our wine tastings, the bus rolled on to Dello Mano Brownies, at Newstead, to taste a selection of magnificent Brownies.  It was difficult to decide on a favourite, so several tastings were necessary :-) . I think that the esspresso walnut, and the peanut butter were up there at the top of my list, but they were all so very good!





Full of Brownies, it was time to pay a visit to Black Pearl Epicure for a quick run down on Camembert & Brie, complete with tastings, and then a little time to purchase some delicasies in the shop


Next stop was Cakes by Judy C at Ashgrove, where we samples some Christmas Treats...




Sugar Plums!!







After all that eating, what could possibly be next??? yes, of course - LUNCH!!

Lunch was at Sprout at Auchenflower, where we had a special garden menu (with produce from the magical garden out the back!!!) (This is the vegetarian version - everyone else had a slightly meatier lunch)

Beetroot and witches chase cherve "lasagne" with basil foam



grilled organic tofu with mango sabayon and asian herb salad (everyone else had fish in place of the tofu)
..

 grilled olympus haloumi with warrigal greens, green olive and preserved lemons (the other main was a turkey and wild boar roulade with fig)




Chocolate macadamia and pineapple torte with basil icecream
(basil icecream was a bit difficult to get the head around to start with, but was actually great!!)



We were shown around the garden out the back - WOW!! I was very jealous, and inspired to expand my small vegie patch at home. I even went home with a cutting of the warrigal greens which is hopefully sprouting!!)



then to finish, -fruit mince pie and chantilly cream. This would have to be the best fruit mince pie I have ever tasted!

SO, what a fantastic day!! Thanks to Natascha for organising, to all of the places we visited for their generosity, and to everyone on the bus for a magnigficent experience!

Dinner at home - from the garden!

My veggie garden provided some of the ingredients for our dinner!!! Very very exciting to get to eat something I grew myself!





I recieved this Thai Marinade paste when I went to Black Pearl Epicure for a fantastic Bloggers dinner and pantry tour, so I decided to put it to use right away.



I marinaded some tofu in one bowl, and some chicken thigh in another bowl.

I left it for only about half an hour, since this was not a well thought out dinner, and we were hungry!

I then simply stir fried the chicken or tofu with some vegies, and a splash of soy sauce to  create a very tasty meal! Both dishes were served with some brown rice!




here is my dinner - the tofu version!



and Janets meal - the chicken version!

The marinade had a really fresh zingy flavour! And my lovely fresh vegies were absolutely delicious!!!!

Lamington National Park Hike!

I went on a roughly 15k hike at Lamington National Park with a group of people from "In Shape Outdoors" We battled many many leeches, and some ticks as well, but we all survived - and didnt get lost this time!!















finished off with a salad sandwich from the cafe - delicious!!! I was starving! (had to remove the cucumber though - not THAT hungry! haha!!)

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!