In other news..there is no news. I've not been very adventurous with my cooking of late as the complexities of life and the commitment to losing weight and the gym have taken precedence. I did however make up some rather nice chicken burgers this evening...served with some devine aged cheddar cheese, relish, bacon, caramelised onion on turkish bread. Yep...buggered up the diet a bit tonight. The chicken pattie was nice and healthy though ;-)

Going to cook up a new dessert this weekend..practicing for when I go and stay with a friend down in Hobart soon. We both share a passion for food and especially chocolate so want to get it perfect. Not sure what I'm going to do yet though. I bought a chocolate recipe book from Anvers Chocolates when we were there last which has some very tempting choices.

I've been tagged

Well it would appear I've been tagged so considering I've been neglecting my blog this past few weeks, I shall oblige :-)

4 jobs I've had
Upmarket ladies shoe seller - sadly given the sack because I was too short but could never prove that this was the case...just heard it secondhand.
Graphic designer - off and on over the years
Editorial assistant at Juke magazine...anyone remember that weekly music mag??? It was tres cool.
Admin person for a very dodgy finance broker who dabbled (well heavily delved really) in illegal activities!!!
4 places I've lived
Melbourne
Geelong
Weipa
Launceston
4 places I've holidayed
Far north Queensland
Extensively throughout South Australia
Thailand
Bali
4 favourite foods
I agree...Only four?
Seafood...mussells, prawns, fish, squid..all of it really.
Chocolate...all of it really!
Potato..for it's versatility and ability to be a brilliant comfort food
Icecream - really good well made icecream...ohh...it's glorious.

4 places I'd rather be
Somewhere warm and sunny.
In a really good strong jet spa nuturing my sore body after going to a full on Pump class last night.
On a plane ... destination unknown. I'd love to go on a mystery holiday!
In a glorious restaurant with my man and no children in a 20 kilometre radius!

4 bloggers to tag
Penni
Michelle
Dani
ummmm....any other takers???

Portugese Roasted Chicken

Just had a potato, sweet potato and caramalised pizza with lots of garlic. Can't lay claim to it's success but the deli down the road from where I live can. Yum. Shall be attempting replication next week as my (generally disapproving of pizza) husband approved greatly.

Tonight..

Portugese Roasted Chicken.

1.6kg chicken
1 red thai chilli
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tbsp fresh oregano...

Cut backbone out of chicken and squash it flat..blend all ingredients together and pour over chicken.slow roast at 150 degrees for 1.5-2 hours...(i keep basting with sauce whilst cooking it)..it is very, very yummy and so easy...

Cloud Fluff

Life has been fairly bland and boring food wise this week. Just too busy to deal with the complexities that can come with making anything glorious. I did make some lovely bangers and mash with gravy though the other night. Peppered beef sausages and perfect mash.

What is the perfect mash for me? I'm glad you asked. It needs to be smooth and completely free from lumps but still hold a solid consistency and not be too thinned down with milk. I've never been able to achieve this with just the standard masher. I went and visited my mum in Adelaide at the start of the year (who by the way has always made perfect mash potato with a normal masher) and we took a trip to Ikea (something that Tassie sadly lacks). There it was. Glimmering. Shiny. New. Beckoning me. This will make you the perfect mash Tracey. Gleefully I bought it and packed it in my suitcase to take home. It's one of those ones where you put the cooked potato into a cylinder and push the handle down forcing the potato through the holes. It's brilliant. Just perfect. Some heated milk, good dollop of butter (none of that margarine stuff thankyou very much, ewww) and cracked pepper and salt to season. Sometimes cream is nice too. And chives if I have it.



If you asked my husband what the perfect mash was he would say lumpy with lots of butter and pepper. My youngest daughter would tell you she doesn't like cloud fluff from Mt. Fuji and prefers her potato raw. My eldest will complain regardless and usually ends up loving it. My step son will only eat boiled potato.

Of course I'm the one that cooks in our house so I hold the mashing power!!!! mwaaahaaaahhhhhaaaa

Well the dining suite arrived today and the delivery guys proceeded to WRECK it!!! Completely stuffed a $2000 table. Luckily the chairs were ok. Luckily we're getting another table tomorrow morning. Hopefully they won't wreck this one. Hopefully I won't have to ask for a refund if they do wreck it. They pulled it apart you see because they thought it wouldn't fit in otherwise (load of crap though as they didn't even bother to try other entry points)..and then couldn't put it back together again so did what every dickhead male does and try to force it back together!!! Split the wood and had three screws stuck and the heads of them wrecked so they wouldn't come out! Argghhhh.

Wish me luck tomorrow!!!

Ohh and is it here that I admit that in replace of one of the menu planned items we all ate popcorn for dinner instead? oops :-)

Tonight I was making homemade hashbrowns to go with dinner and Molly asked me in passing
"Mum why do you go to so much bother?"
Fastforward to 20 minutes later.
"Mmmmmm these hashbrowns are delicious! Thanks mum"

Thats why Molly. Thats why.

I think for me cooking is not just about satisfying my own palette or desires but also those of the people that I love. In fact I would say that is the major reason why I love to cook successfully. I enjoy the experience so much more when I get the praise at the end. And not praise for praise sake itself, but praise for the fact that they are genuinely enjoyed what they have eaten and appreciate it. I wish I could become more consistent though.

The meal plan last week failed. Not because of the chosen recipes but more to do with the lifestyle we lead. The impromptu nature of our lives. The business and the tiredness that pervades me at 6.00pm. I think I will aim to at least have three meals planned each week and the other four will be "on the day" decisions. I did do three out of the six and the others have now been held over for this week. I'm also planning on doing one of our current faves of Portugese chicken for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate the arrival of our new dining table.

Going here for afternoon tea today. Yummy chocolates and even yummier hot chocolates. Nice drive about 50 minutes from here. Of course this poses the dilema that I was going to go to the gym in the afternoon. Now do I get up and go now or miss it yet again? I will be good I think and go now. After a piece of toast.

haahaaa

Picture me a little fatter and it's me!

I really really wasn't going to spend any more money. Even though I have been coveting for some new saucepans. For some odd reason I've been obsessed with wanting to upgrade. I withheld my desire and bought a new dining suite instead. Oops. It's big, chunky, solid and lovely. They gave us a good price which still meant an expensive price but good nonetheless. I have been eyeing this off for a good month now and Tyrone came with me this morning and we went for it.

The table we have now is something I bought for $30 odd dollars in a garage sale in Geelong back in 1998. It was old and crappy then and is now even crappier. Has served us well with grubby messy kids and there are well worn memories of their antics etched permanently into the table which is nice for memory sake but not for appearance. The chairs have all broken in some way or another and we are down to three that are actually okish. We have a great big covered deck here so the table will go out there and the chairs to the tip!

Now I must get onto that budget soon. It's on my list of things to do and stick by once we get back from Thailand.

I've decided to cross post some of my entries from here with my lj so if you read both you'll be thoroughly in the know of our dining suite purchasing endeavours. Sorry.

oops.. I need to do a spell check before i post!!!

You know what I hate?

When you go into a sandwhich shop and ask for a chicken and salad sandwhich on wholemeal or multigrain bread (and as a side note, why the hell don't more shops offer multigrain as a choice???) and they put mayonaise on it!!!!!!!! Argghhh. Did I ask for mayonaise? Did you ask me if I wanted mayonaise? Did you ask me if i wanted to have it drenched in mayonaise????? No the word mayonaise never passed my lips. I was contemplating mustard but thought I would be good and go for plain certainly NOT mayonaise. It's a pity, as it is quite a cute little muffin shop in town that has an old 70's or 80's cafe appeal to it. Perhaps there is my answer. The shop up the road from work does the same. So now with every new shop I go into I will have to appear arrogant and express that my order does not include condiments of any kind unless expressed prior. Especially crappy sloppy fat ridden Kraft condiments.