Recent Celebrations/Parties/etc

Our friend, Tashy, turned 30 recently. In order to celebrate this event, we had a weekend (and then some) of celebrations. My sister came over from Adelaide to celebrate and she stayed until Australia day on Tuesday.

On the Friday night we had a dinner at Hellenic Republic on Lygon St. Paul, Megs and I turned up to the correct address and were very confused to find an dentist there. Turns out we were in Carlton, and the restaurant was in East Brunswick. So we hopped back in the car and travelled up a bit further until we hit the correct suburb. Thank goodness we had the car! It would have been rather awkward by tram!

Megs and I looked like we'd chosen a theme for the evening. Even the gift wrapping for Tashy's present matched the theme!

Paulie and I are still very much in love after all this time. Hehe! I wanted a photo and he was getting grumpy and just wanted to leave.

The food at Hellenic Republic was really good. We had a banquet and there was sooooo much food. There were lots and lots of mezze dishes and we really needed a couple of big eaters on the table to help us out. Fortunately I managed to get the Loukoumades and the almond biscuits into a doggy bag, but I regretted not getting some of the savouries doggy bagged.

The following night we went out to Der Raum for cocktails. I love watching cocktails being made. It's a serious artform. These ones were certainly pretty speccy with liquid nitrogen being used to great effect! There was some kind of weird sugar bong thing being used for one or two of the cocktails, but I didn't see which one(s). I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any photos of the night, but one day I will and the photos will be spectacular :)

The next birthday event was a family dinner at Punch Lane on the Monday night. How did Paulie and I get a guernsey to Tash's family birthday dinner, you may ask. Well... Megs and Tash have been friends for practically ever and when I was overseas, Tash lived in my room, so we're kind of sisters in the way that people who have known each other for a long time are family. Anyhoo, the dinner again was really nice. I had scallops with crispy pancetta and green pea puree and that was divine!

The final celebration of my sister's stay wasn't officially for Tashy, but I'm sure she'll happily claim it On Tuesday, it was the hottest 100 countdown bbq. Apparently it coincides with some big day in Australia's history, but I'm not sure what all that's about ;)

Megan made a cake. A white chocolate and raspberry cheese cake to be precise. It was very yummy and even looked amazing.

Ali and Carter made it out to our place for the first time since Jenson was born and Erin and Scott were first time visitors at our place.

Jenson looks so cosy, all squooshed up in his sling.

Everyone mingled well, which is always a relief when you have guests who don't know each other well or haven't met before.

Megs wore the new dress that she bought on Monday and looked very summery. Peek-a-boo, Tashy!

Paul cooked the home made sausages, but when it came time to cook the vego stuff - polenta crusted eggplant, I had to don my apron and step in.

Jenson was the centre of attention for much of the day and everyone wanted a cuddle, but Jenson wasn't sure he wanted cuddles from everyone.

By the time the top ten started, it was just Tash, Darren, Paul and me. We figured we had a pretty good idea of the number one by the time number five was played, so I asked everyone to give me their number 1 is revealed face. This is what I got. I think you'll agree that we have some budding actors among us.

I think Paul is pleasantly surprised, Darren could see it coming and Tashy just can't believe it. Haha!

Australia Day

I think I'm beginning to dislike Australia day. Don't get me wrong, I love the public holiday, the hottest 100 countdown and the bbq that goes with it. But what does it represent? It's a day that marks the anniversary of the invasion of this country and raping and pillaging of the indigenous people.

Is this really an appropriate date to celebrate our fine nation? Is it really inclusive of all Australians? Okay, so it was the date when it was first settled by white folk, which is a significant milestone in our history. But the country wasn't named Australia at the time. Hell, it wasn't even a country - just an outpost that was founded to house the naughty people. To celebrate this day as Australia Day, really only acknowledges one of this country's groups of migrants.

I do like the term Invasion Day, although it does seem a little too antagonistic. Perhaps 26th January should be known as White Settlement Day and then we could have a completely separate day to celebrate our country. A day that doesn't belong to one individual group of migrants, but to the whole of the population. A day where we can band together and celebrate ALL of the people, places, cultures and other things that make our country wonderful. A day where patriotism and racism are not intertwined. Where it's not okay to shout White Australia catch phrases whilst waving the flag.

Yes, there are racist groups in Australia. We need to make a stand to say that it's not okay. To say that we're trying to do something to include all Australians. That every individual in this country is valued. What better way to do that than to give the nation a whole new National Day to celebrate the rich melting pot that is Australian Culture.

A Weekend Of Firsts

This weekend I made two things for the first time.

The first one of those things is sausages. I made Pork, Apple and Sage sausages. I minced the pork myself, so I know that they're nice and lean. I added finely chopped apple, sage and onion to the mix as well as bread crumbs, egg and salt. I then fed them into casings using the sausage making attachment for the mincer. I used the ratios from the book that came with the mincer/sausage maker. Turns out there's slightly too much salt, but that can be fixed next time.

This is the finished product.

My next first was icecream. Well, I don't have an icecream machine, so it was semifreddo. I used a gourmet traveller recipe for vanilla icecream and then swirled some stewed rhubarb through it before I froze it, so it could be part of my ingredient of the month creations. I put some in icypole moulds and some in ramekins. Here are a couple fresh out of the moulds.

The were extremely tasty!

New Blog

This is just a quick note to let you all know that I've started a new blog with my hubby.
We're writing about beer. No, we're not experts. We just like beer and we're on a mission to try as many microbrewery and limited release beers as possible.
So if you're interested in hearing about our beer odyssey, check us out at Beerography.

Toast and Lasagne

On Tuesday night we took the newly acquired car out for a spin to Ali and Carter's house for dinner. We brought with us a fresh supply of lasagne - one for dinner that night and 4 others for the freezer.

Jenson went to bed just before dinner, but Ali and Carter had to take turns settling him over dinner, while Paul and I ate and conversed with whoever was not on Jenson duty at the time. After Jenson had settled, it was very much like old times. Drinking, eating, laughing and just generally having fun. Well, designated driver Paul skipped out on the drinking part because he was driving, but I'm pretty sure he still had fun. We've got the next dinner lined up and we're looking forward to it!

Paul made rhubarb bread last night. We used this recipe for rhubarb bread in the bread machine. I made the rhubarb puree and Paul did the rest.

We had it for breakfast this morning. It's not particularly sweet and you can taste the tartness of the rhubarb. It goes really well with honey. We made the smaller loaf and discovered that it's too small for the bread machine, so next time we'll probably make the larger loaf, and take the dough out to bake in the oven. I might add a touch more sugar next time too.

Playing with Templates

I've been playing around with templates and html codes. I didn't like how the previous template didn't give me the flexibility to format my posts very much.

I also wanted to change the photo up the top so it was more Melbourne. I quite like this current one, but I'm not 100% sold on it yet. I might have to play some more when I'm at home and have photoshop at my disposal.

I want to keep it fairly simple, because I have a lot of photos in my posts and if I have pretty wallpapers and whatnot, I think there will be too much going on.

Rhubarb Cinnamon Cake

This is my first recipe for my ingredient of the month in January. It's the rhubarb and cinnamon cake from Stephanie Alexander's Kitchen Companion.

This is a really great, moist and fruity cake and I highly recommend it. It's been too hot to have it with a morning tea or coffee, but it's been great with a bit of ice cream for dessert.

Too Hot

I'm sure this is very unoriginal, as we're in the middle of an Australian summer and everyone seems to be complaining about the weather. But I guess we can't all be original and creative all the time.

According to the bureau of meteorology website it's 43 degrees outside at the moment. HOT! And unfortunately extreme weather means that things don't work properly... so the airconditioner at work isn't working very efficiently. It was 26 in the office and climbing. So I grabbed my laptop and my lab notes and I'm writing up my experiments in the library. Unfortunately the library seems to be suffering from similar issues, but at least there's hardly anyone here, so it's not crowded and stuffy as well as warm.

I'm really not looking forward to the journey home. Standing on a bitumen train platform in 40 degree heat is not exactly pleasant. Another unfortunate side effect of the extreme heat is that it puts a strain on the rail network. I think there are rail buckling issues or something like that. So trains are often delayed. Last year I had to wait on the platform for almost an hour on one of these extreme weather days. I just hope I don't have to do that again today!

I'm hanging out for a cold shower when I get home.

Ingredient of the Month #3: Rhubarb

I love rhubarb. Paul loves rhubarb. So I thought I'd start the year off with an ingredient that we'd love to experiment with. I've even found a recipe for rhubarb bread that Paul might be able to try.

Watch this space for some interesting rhubarb creations.

I know I was slack in December and didn't have an ingredient. It's not that I fell off the wagon as such, but because of all the Christmas baking and preparations I was doing, I decided not to give myself any more kitchen challenges.

NYE and looking forward

It was a very quiet new year for us this year. We needed one after the year that we've had. It's been a busy and stressful year, but also a fun one. We've made and cemented friendships here in Melbourne and truly settled into the city.

For NYE we had Stef, Matt and Giorgia over for dinner as well as Stefania's Italian parents. They don't speak much English and we don't speak Italian, but we managed to communicate a lot better than I had expected. It's amazing how well you can do with gestures and an Italian-English phrasebook. Giorgia had to get home to bed early, so Paul and I saw in the new year together. Shortly afterwards we went to bed, because Paul had to catch an early flight to Adelaide to meet up with his family and drive his brother and his brother's car over to Melbourne.

I don't really want to do any new years resolutions, but I'll record what I'm looking forward to this year.

Firstly, because I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the MTC productions I've been to this year, I've decided to subscribe again, but this time to all of the plays. We'll be heading off to Mary Poppins and West Side Story in the middle of the year and in April I'm going to see Fame. I'm also hoping that we can get along to more ballets and operas again this year.

We'll also be renewing our AFL Memberships and I'm hoping we'll get to a few more games this year than we did last year. I'd also like to get along to some other sporting events. We're heading along to the Australian Open in a few weeks, so hopefully we'll see some great tennis. I'd like to get to at least one Melbourne Victory Soccer match. Paul wants to try to get to an NRL match, but I'm not really keen. We'll be trying our best to get tickets to the Ashes Boxing Day test match and it looks like we'll be trying to get tickets for all of our families and freinds at the same time. Hehe!

One major event that I'm really looking forward to is the addition of a new family member. It looks like we'll be getting a sister for Myf in the early part of the year. I'm really looking forward to the arrival of a little puppy in the house again. I'm not looking forward to the toilet training or the teething, but it's gonna be so CUTE! :D

One event I'm not looking forward to is job hunting. I've kind of already started, but I need to really get stuck into it ASAP. The funding for my project is seriously running out and I'd love to have a job lined up before it's completely drained.

We're going to have a car this year on loan from Paul's bro who's travelling overseas for the year. For anyone who's interested in seeing what my BIL is up to while he's away on his travels. Check out his blog Little Man, Big Travels. As you can see by his most recent post, he always manages to have the most bizarre adventures, so it might add some excitement to your day.

We've explored much of the city centre, so it'll be great to have the ability to do some day trips and weekends away. We've already planned a trip back to SA in March. We'll make a brief stop over in Adelaide before heading on to Coffin Bay with my parents for a fortnight of fishing, reading and relaxing in general.


Wishing all of you a very happy new year. I hope that all of your wishes come true in 2010.

A Family Picnic

Sometime between Christmas and New Year (I've lost track of days) we had a family picnic. Not with one individual family, but with three small families; Matt and Stefania with daughter, Giorgia, Ali and Carter with baby, Jenson and Paul and me with puppy Myf.

It was a lovely day for a picnic in the Botanic Gardens. The weather was perfect and the gardens weren't too crowded. It was such a great way to relax in what can be a very hectic time of year.

Each family had a little one to take care of, so at any one time Matt or Stefania would be running after Giorgia, Ali or Carter would be trying to settle Jenson and either myself or Paul would be trying to prevent Myf from eating the entire picnic. Sounds like lots of work, but it really was fun.

So here are some of the snaps from the day.

These babies were built for off roading!

A comfy armchair

I know I've said this before, but it has to be said again, Giorgia has the cutest expressions.

I think this looks like the 'paparazzi, get out of my face' expression, but it is followed by a big smile.

Ali looking so comfortable in her role as Mom/Mum and Jenson looking cute as ever and very peaceful.







I'm bored! When do I get to run around off the lead, Mum?


I wasn't about to tuck into your lunch, I promise!

Christmas Day

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog, so I need to play catch up.

Firstly, Myf and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!


Christmas Day was pretty tiring for Myf. I think she slept through most of it, but she did enjoy the presents in the morning.


In my family, Christmas Day is all about the food and spending time together, but mostly about the food. Paul and I decided that since it was just going to be the two of us (plus Myf) for Christmas, we were going to be as decadent as possibly without having to slave over a hot stove for hours. This is what we came up with.

Breakfast was crepes with lemon and sugar, served at around 10:30.


Entree, served at around 2:30 pm was ocean trout cured in Raki.


Main Course was a seafood feast of Crayfish with herb and garlic butter, bbq king prawns and rocket, walnut and pear salad, served with a tasty Sticks sav blanc.


The cray and the prawns were both massive. The cray shell was pretty hard to cut through and I had to get the cleaver out. Fortunately no limbs were lost in the process of cracking the shell open.


Paul refused to cook the seafood on the bbq. His talents lie with steaks and chops so I donned the barbie apron much to Paul's amusement and he had to take a photo of it. For those of you who aren't aware of our allegiances, I'm a West Coast fan - that's blue and yellow and Paul is the Essendon Member. Not cool! At least the colours are Christmas-y.




It turned out to be rather a lot of seafood for just two people and if I don't see another prawn for another month or two, that will be fine by me!


We ate our main course at about 5 pm and really didn't need dessert, but since I'd gone to the effort of making the pastry tart cases the day before, we managed to force it down at around 8:30 pm. It was actually a nice way to finish the day. Fresh berries in tart cases with marscapone cream.


It was a strange Christmas with just the two of us, but it was lovely, peaceful and relaxing and it will be hard to top the food next year :)