Dinner at home - Lasagne x 2

A couple of lasagne's that I made - one meaty, and one vegie (of course!).  I felt like making some fresh pasta, so I rolled it out and cut it into sheets to fit these tins. The result was quite delicious!

The vegie version had a pumpkin layer (I just microwaved and mashed it), a grated zucchinni and cottage cheese layer, and some tomato sauce layers (onion garlic and tinned tomatoes cooked down into a delicious sauce)

The meaty version contained a 3 - meat sauce - it had mince, chopped veal and bacon, cooked up with tomatoes onions and garlic. This one also had layers of a cheesy white sauce.

 

Happy Birthday Mum - Zebra Cake!

For my Mum's birthday (which was way back in May) , I decided to make a zebra cake - recipe from here. The only change I made was the addition of icing, because, well, it was for a birthday, and a birthday cake needs icing!! Despite appearances, this was a very easy cake to make, with the only fiddly part being the alternate spooning of mixture into the cake tin.  The resulting pattern inside the cake was certainly worth it. THe cake tasted good too!!

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!

Lunch at Home - Wholemeal Bread!!

Janet felt like some fresh bread for lunch, so I had a go of making some without the aid of Bread Mix this time.  It was just wholemeal flour, yeast, salt and water mixed into a dough and left to prove, before placing into a tin and letting it rise again, and then into the oven.  I was happy with the way it turned out, considering I didn't use a recipe and didn't measure anything.

I had my warm slices of bread spread with cottage cheese and topped with slices of tomato and pieces of gherkin! YUM!!