Brandy Creek Winery

Happy Thursday!

I say this with a big sigh of guilt as I have been so slack lately with this blog! Sorry to all that are interested enough to read my blog. But anyway, Ill push on with a blog that I haven’t stopped thinking about writing since I was in the restaurant!!

Ok, so a few weeks ago, a girlfriend and I found ourselves without our partners at the end of a lazy and casual Saturday. We soon snapped out of our afternoon daze when we realised that we had an opportunity to satisfy our joint love of a food adventure that unfortunately neither of us can fulfil with our respective partners. So our brains started flying with great ideas. We contemplated going to Inverloch to the Japanese restaurant that we had heard so much about, then we jumped to the idea of going to Phillip Island to the Japanese tapas restaurant we had planned to go to the next time we had a chance, then we thought of a few restaurants in Drouin that we liked a fair bit but had been to before.

Then we summoned upon another friend who shares our love for an adventure and a girly night and we all decided fairly quickly to go to the old favourite that all three of us love so much and that none of us had visited for a while, much to all of our disgust, dismay and surprise!

Brandy Creek Winery near Drouin Victoria is the most ……beautiful, sensational, brilliant restaurant In the area. Well this is definitely my opinion, and I think the girls would agree closely behind me but possibly not to the acclaim I have given. I can’t rave enough about the atmosphere, the cuisine and the delicious an tasty food each and every time I go there. I have been for work breakups, small to medium birthdays and quiet family dinners there and each time, we have had a ball.

Ok, so down to the nitty gritty, what we had! We had….Garlic and Chilli Prawns, Potato Bravas, Twice cooked Duck, Anchovies and bread, Slow cooked mini lamb cutlets, Eggplant bake, and some lovely Turkish bread. Ok that sounds like a lot of food, but it is all in Tapas style dining. So small dishes and many of them is the idea here! Each dish has such a unique and delicious flavour that you won’t replicate in another dish. Each dish has a fantastic individuality that makes it feel so exclusive and delicate. You go from one dish to another, to another and back again and swap and change so much that you can’t work out which is the best and one you want to savour the most! The one thing that I learnt very quickly the first time I went is to order lots of bread because the great dishes have lots of sauce that you would not dare to waste, and quite frankly, it feels like a great loss to send a dish away with so much flavour still awaiting inside!

So when we arrived and looked at the menu we were very presently surprised to see there were a few new inclusions to choose from. A menu refresh is as good as a holiday when it comes to restaurants, but we were very glad also to see a few old favourites still there gleaming with pride. We decided that we were all very intrigued by a few items that we wanted to try and we most definitely had the old favourite that we needed on the list of things we would order. We tossed and turned all the items and came up with a semi-solid list of dishes we would order and decided on the seven mentioned.  The anchovies was something that the three of us were very happy with and impressed that we actually enjoyed it. The Eggplant bake had us talking amongst ourselves all night about how it was made and how we could replicate it at home, and the little lamb cutlet things were something of a pleasant surprise. They were topped with a fantastically Mediterranean/Indian type pesto that we couldn’t get enough of. The meat fell off the little bones they were presented on and were tastier than they looked! The Chilli and Garlic Prawns…..enough said. All in all, we couldn’t complain about a thing.

So what is it that makes me so excited about this place? Well it is a glamorous but casual combination of a winery, gleaming atmosphere, envious food and a local location. The style of Tapas is a style of eatery that creates such a casual atmosphere, it creates a mood of conversation and appreciation of such great flavours that is only enhanced by the idyllic setting. Their wine is to die for and they have recently finished extending the inside dining area. During the day, the views are fantastic through the vineyards and across the Gippsland hills. When night falls, the colours come out in beautiful lighting on each table and throughout the rooms.

Well do yourselves a favour and take your friend/partner/family to Brandy Creek Winery for a look or have a look at their website and enjoy all it has to offer.

XO

NJC

www.brandycreekwines.com.au

Steamboat experience

Hi Hi,

Ok, sincerest apologies for not posting for a while. Life and its hassles have gotten the better of me and have taken up all my precious time lately. But anyway, back to the old blog and back in a big way! Goodness me, it all started a couple of months ago when I started my new subscription to all the emails from Ourdeal.com.au, Cudo.com.au and Spreets.com.au. I was getting them on a daily basis by the hundreds and I came across a deal for a Steamboat dinner/lunch in Chinatown. This caught my eye instantly and a couple of dear friends that share my love for Asian cuisine came to mind too ;-)

So we purchased the deal for 4 people for a lovely $69 or something (the details escape me) with the full intention of only the three of us going along and not knowing what we would expect. The offer was a physical piece of paper that I gave to the girls to have a copy. They looked it over and the next conversation we had was their excitement that we were going on a boat a lovely Asian feast! Fantastically and hysterically misunderstood by us, Steamboat is actually a type of cuisine and had nothing to do with being on a boat, having our meal served in a boat shaped bowl or any boat theme whatsoever. This was a very funny realisation for us, because we then decided that we actually had no idea what to expect. This didn’t really bother us because we were keen to try it and knew that if it was terrible and weird, Chinatown in Melbourne has a lot of other options for us to redeem ourselves.

So off we went on Saturday 31st August into Melbourne to have a look around the city and head to Chinatown for the lunch we had been anticipating for a couple of months. 1st Choice Restaurant looked like a reputable place at 11.50am when we arrived at the street-front and decided to go in early. Excited and nervous for our fate we stepped inside to a lovely little authentic Asian diner that was unfortunately but understandably empty at that early lunch time. Bright colours of red and gold were the main themes of décor with what seemed to be purpose built tables for the Steamboat cuisine that we fast realised that they specialised in. The lovely ladies that served us were friendly and very helpful with our Cudo voucher and what it offered and what sections off the menu to choose. We were entitled to 1 x large Steamboat, 2 x cold dishes, 2 x pan-fried dishes, 2 x serves of dumplings and a drink of our choice each. So firstly, we were all stunned at the amount of food we seems to be eligible for with our voucher, so we set to worth through the menu to decide on our meals. We sifted through the Intestines, pork neck, chicken gizzards, beef brisket and tripe on the menu and came to a conclusion that the authentic regulars would have probably called boring. We chose a mixed seafood steamboat with original heat and XO sauce, for the pan-fried dishes we picked one pork belly and one chicken, for the dumplings we chose pork ones and prawn ones, and for the coil dishes we selected an interesting black fungus dish and a broccoli and cauliflower salad. The cold dishes were the hardest to pick from because there was a very small selection of the boring nature. So we went with a daring one that we were intrigued by (black fungus) and one that we decided that sounded the best (broccoli and cauliflower). What we received was actually a pleasing result. The pan-fried and cold dishes were much smaller than expected and were well received because we were worrying about the amount of feed that was going to be landed upon us.

The steam boat arrived and was placed on our table on the hot plate and the concept was explained to us. We were to devour the rest of our dishes while the pot cooked for 15 minutes and they would come back at specific intervals to stir and add the sauce. Some aspects of the meal were weird and strange to us, but we accepted them for what they were and enjoyed it non-the-less. We sat and talked about many things; the meal included, and had a great lunch in the dark little authentic restaurant. It was fantastic and a great experience as none of us had had a steamboat before. We were beginning to worry when we were the only ones in the restaurant until about 1pm, but some locals came in and the place was obviously famous for its steamboat lunches and casual and authentic atmosphere. There was a friendly vibe, we felt comfortable enough to talk amongst ourselves, and confident cooking, which is all you want in an authentic Chinatown restaurant right? To be honest, we were all surprised at the value of the Cudo voucher and meal quality. The side dishes and dumplings weren’t the best we had ever had, but their speciality Steamboat was very good and the experience alone was enough to satisfy. I think it is worthy of a good wrap because of the overall vide, atmosphere, food and location as a whole. Another great day out under the belt 

xoxo

NJC

Hangover Food

Hello hello!

Hangovers are terrible. We all know they are but we all pretend to come off from them better than we actually have. I have written about Comfort Food before I know, but I thought that Hangover food deserves its own post. They sometimes come together in glorious harmony, but sometimes there are vast differences that set them distinctively apart. Certain variables come into Hangover food that are non-negotiable and standard across the board; ease of cooking, readily available and not loud or stressful to make. Other things are determinant on the type of hangover and the severity like whether it is a hot or cold dish, whether it is solid or liquid form, whether it is homemade or bought.

So let’s delve into the complicated but oh so serious topic of Hangover food! I want to explain to you that hangover food can be the same each and every time for one person but vary enormously from time to time for others. Some people have set beliefs on what works (eg. Fix the hangover) and others have bursts of hunger all day and they will eat anything in their path.

Hangovers are mysterious beasts when it comes to food because people can be so sporadic, unreasonable and non-negotiable with their choices and desires. I have been known to make Pork Roasts and extravagant things for Hangover cravings, I sometimes crave Hungry jacks, KFC or Pizza, and McDonalds of course is always a sure cure. But I have such a vast repertoire of Hangover cure remedies, that sometimes I find it hard to choose!

Partly my hangover stems from my comfort food, depending on how bad I feel and what is available to cook or buy. I tend to go for the noodles, or Asian if I can. I love getting tucked into some Goyza or dumplings if I can or if I can be bothered driving to get them. I have recently rediscovered the prepacked Roti in the supermarket and oh gosh its good and it takes me back to my childhood growing up in Singapore. When we were kids, Dad would take us down to the food courts at the bottom of the hill that we lived on in Singapore on a Sunday and we sat and ate beautiful, flaky oily Roti with a brilliantly vibrant Indian/Malaysian curry sauce. So this is where I took myself the Sunday just gone. I also have fond memories of the Satay man coming around to our block and serving up his cart stall food of satay sticks with a homemade peanut sauce.

So trying to combine these two memories of food together I whipped up a peanut curry sauce to have with my pre-packed Roti. I only had some Massaman Curry paste in the fridge so that had to do. It was a brilliant substitute for the memories I had and it definitely hit the Hangover food craving that I was having.

So here is the recipe to my Curry Peanut Dipping Sauce:
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon of curry paste of choice 1 splash of fish sauce
1 splash of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
(Little bit of water to thin it out)
Method: Mix all together in a small saucepan and mix until combined and slightly toasted.
-Add a little water as you go to thin it out to the desired consistency.
-Mix and Mix and Mix.
Note: Some lime juice would have been a great addition thinking back now. But I’m sure that I will make this again and I will add something to the sort to add a bit of acidity and extra flavour. It was a bit gluggy and the lime juice would have helped with this, but I probably could have added more water.

Anyway, the point is that I succeeded in getting my Hangover food and it was delightful! The end…until next weekend….. xoxo NJC

Lovely Local Yum Cha - The Golden Orient

Well Well,

What a great Saturday I had yesterday.The thought for our Saturday advtneure was a spare of the moment decision between a friend and I to have a day out. We had heard that there was Yum Cha in Narree Warren a few weeks ago from another friend, and admitiandly, i havent stopped thinking about it since. So i mentioned that we should go to Savers and Yum Cha in Naree Warren as they were next to ch other in Narree Warren. So from Tuesday when we made the plans, through to Saturday, i was thrilled with excitement that we were going to Yum Cha locally! (well more local than Springvale where we had gone previously).

So Saturday came along and another Yum Cha loving friend joined is which was fantastic, and off we trotted to Narree Warren. We had arrived at about 10.45am and this was a little early for lunch so we went to Savers first (after dicovering there is a Bingo Centre next door and we made plans to make sure we come back to that one day!) We did drive past The Golden Orient just to make sure it was open and there were some people floating around. There were so we squealed with excitement about our pending lunch.
We shopped and shopepd in Savers and decided that it was too risky to play a game of Bingo at the Bingo Centre before lunch in case we missed out on Yum Cha. So off we went accross the way to The Golden Orient. The car park was full of cars and there were many tables filled inside. I had done a little bit of research before the Saturday online about The Golden Orient and there were some mixed reviews, Some said that the place was often empty but most of the people said that food was fantastic. And that it was! I was glad that it was busing with traditional Asian Yum Cha excitement and enthusiasum, so we joined the brilliant casual atmosphere with very high expectiations. When i say high expectations, they are Yum Cha expectiations. We didnt have any expectations of a 5 star resuarant, we wanted good authentic food and good authentic people. They are the main criteria. Oh and Steamed Prawn Dumplings!

All of us were brilliantly satisfied with our dishes and Green Tea. We chose Pork Dumplings that were like Pot Stickers, Steamed Seafod Dim Sum, Pork Spare Ribs, Steamed Prawn and Ginger dumplings, Prawn Dumplings Pot Stickers and Calamari att various stages of them bringing them out. Our favourites of the lunch were the Pork Pot Stickers and the Steamed Prawn Dumplings. We have of course vowed to go there more often now that we can be confiedent that it meets our Yum Cha expectiations! It is so great to know that something so great is so close! We all would highly recommend The Golden Orient! For those that have never expereienced Yum Cha, you sit and get a plate and spoon and a complementary bottle of Soy on the table. They then come and various intervals with a trolley around the room to every table and ask if you would like anything off the trolley. The little bamboo steamers that the trolley is carrying houses various things from Beef or Chicken Dim Sum to the more exotic Chickens feet at some more authentic places. All dishes are serviced as you request them and they fill out the sheet that is left at your table that you take to to pay when you are all done. You can send trolleys away politely if there is nothing that takes your fancy , or get as much as you like of the dishes that you like! The pricing is aranged in a way that depends on the sevirity of the dish. They are categorised from Standars through to Super special and the prices are determined accordingly. The brilliant thing about it is there is no menu, no price list and very little english to decifer the sheet that is on your table. But the dishes are generally very cheap. The whole lunch with 8 dishes and Green Tea was only $58 or so dollars for all three of us. This was more than enough to fill us for lunch!

So as we were sitting there at the end of our meal, Louise found out that Kate had never been to Robert Gordon Pottery in Pakenham. Oh gosh. So off we went. It was a brilliant idea, because they were having a sale (as they always do, but this time is was more extensive I think). So I managed to pick up a whole dinner set of 6 dinner plates, 6 mugs and 6 side plates for $18 because all the pieces were $1 each!!! That will hold the title of the best bargain find for a while in my mind! Along with some great Kris Kringle pressies for X'Mas, we had a great time there. We pushed out little trolleys out of there with great pride at the day that we had achieved! Finished off with a treat and a pot of tea at a cafe, it put the most perfect end to another great day out for us girls!

All in all, we had some great bargains at Savers and Robert Gordon, broken up by a fantastic relaxed Yum Cha lunch. Oh Gosh, thats the top of the chain for me, Yum Cha, Op-Shopping and Pottery. Im not sure that a day can have that much good in it?! .... Give some of these local places a go if you are into that sort of thing. You will be most plesantly surprised.

XOXO

NJC

The Noojee Hotel

Hello Friday!

Here is the weekend, and the time to go out and have our fun for the week is upon us. Trying to cram as much as we all can into two days that seem to be shorter than weekdays is a hard task! Everyone is trying to find the best place to have their fun, and I have actually come across a new gem recently.

Well technically speaking is not a new gem, rather an old gem reenergised with new management. The Noojee Hotel in Noojee is a pub that we are very familiar with as our four wheel driving adventures take us fairly regular in the area. But in the recent months it has been taken over by new owners and we discovered this only a couple of weeks ago, so what did we all do? We went to investigate of course!

Nothing is more exciting to me that an old country pub that is filled with so much potential being taken over by a new person. Especially if you hear that they are from the country, not the city. The pub itself has so much potential with a huge decking area that would be fantastic in the summer, that the last owners must have built and with a “bistro” that functions more like a bar area/bistro arrangement. The atmosphere has the potential to be so great in a place like that, so I was pretty darn excited to go for a look. The bf and some friends had stopped by there on their way home from a trip last weekend and said that the place was full of people, music was pumping, and the owner was friendly, approachable and down-to-earth and that they rated the place! So off we went last Sunday night with some friends to check it out.

The guy that now runs the pub has run the Dargo pub in the past which is at the base of the high country. It is a great place with a fantastic pub of its own. But it was comforting to know and see that the new owner of the pub has a great country attitude to things, talking to us about where we had been and where we were from. Doing his market research of course! The Parmas were raved about by the boys from their trip there earlier in the week, but unfortunately on that Sunday they had such a busy day due to the snow fields being so fruitful, they had run out of Chicken and Beef Schnitzels. Which was not a deal breaker for me and all the other boys were that keen on the place, they didn’t care either!

I had the Porterhouse Steak which was cooked perfectly Medium with mushroom sauce. Medium steak is a fine art that I have found hard to come across properly in a lot of pubs. I have discovered though, that ordering steak is so worrying for some people that they don’t order it when they go out in case it is ruined by over cooking! Well not to fear, this should not be a cause for concern when visiting the Noojee Pub! There was some orders of Spag bol, Mixed Grills (which has been deemed a fair challenge for the boys because it is so big) and Wedges amongst out table, and raving reviews came from it all which was fantastic. It was so inspiring to hear that a pub with a new owner is doing well in all departments, food, atmosphere, location, drinks, pool table and publican personality! Is this possible??!!

We are planning to make it a regular thing to head to the Noojee Pub, it has all sorts of good things going for it and seems to have everyone covered. Band nights, hot jam doughnuts, pizza, local ciders, happy hours, pool comps, juke box, rustic décor, hot pies to go and more! Give it a go, it’s not that far from Warragul and Drouin, only a beautiful scenic 30min drive to the greatest new thing around at the moment 

XOXO

NJC

Girls day out

Hi ho!

What a weekend last weekend was! A best friend visited from interstate and a great day out was  planned to celebrate!
We had a huge day planned which included a trip to Spotlight and also Savers which we were all very excited about. So off we went. Out first foodie stop was quite impromptu but well guided. Wandering around Fountain Gate was suggested to be the perfect opportunity to have a morning tea break at San Churro, which is a chocolate lovers dream dedicated to the the grande Spanish Churros! To be honest with you, i didn't realise that they served anything other than Churro, but how was i to know otherwise? I haven't ever been there before, but i have a great love for Churros and i had been hearing about this mystifying  place for a while. So i was excited and very, very intrigued.

So need i say anymore.....REAL chocolate hot chocolates, with all sorts of fantastic flavourings like Mint, Hazelnut and Peanut Butter! We kept out hot chocolates company with some authentic and delicious Chorros with some caramel and chocolate dipping sauces, and a not so authenticity Spanish, New York cheesecake. All was great and tasty, although it was far too rich for us all to finish unfortunately.

But off we went to Spotlight and got some supplies to teach ourselves how to Crochet, which was both so exciting but so confusing at the same time. But we got through that with some therapeutic fabric shopping for projects that we hope we keep as motivated for as when we were filling through the fabrics!

That led us into lunch where the inner gourmet came out in us, without even trying! A little cafe in Beaconsfield called 'Ask' with a bright red sign, flags and overall decor absolutely hit the spot. We were in a accidental hurry that we didn't r realise we were in until we noticed the time after we ordered, found a table and were waiting for our meals. But the meals came out in a satisfying fast manner, which made us pretty happy. But the meals that we ordered were the more fantastic part! Two of us had the Salmon Benedict and my best friend had the Baked Potato, all of which was advertised on the chalk board out the front. But i was tossing up between a couple of options, but i was darn glad i went with the choice i made because it was fantastic! Smoked salmon on grilled Turkish bread with poached eggs, sauteed spinach, all topped with an absolutely beautifully fattening hollandaise sauce! Goodness me, can't say that I've been the top advocator of smoked salmon, but I'm sure that this lunch has turned me. So all that being said, i will be going back to the 'Ask' cafe the next time i am wanting a meal in or near Beaconsfield!

After that, the two others got daring sand brave matching tattoos, of which i was too shy, whimpy and afraid of what the other half would say to participate in unfortunately. We then went back for an early birthday  party for my bestie filled with great modern inspired party food, and then called it an end to a brilliant day together.

The day was great, crammed full of fun, sun, shopping and of course food. Food is such a huge part of the everyday life, that it needs to be included in a way that sees you enjoy it, not just as a part of the mundane day, but as a defining part of your day.

Xox

NJC

Italian inspration

Hello lovelies,

Thank gosh Monday is over, it’s Tuesday now at least, which doesn’t seem much better in the daily grind, but at least it is marginally better than Monday! So after a wonderful weekend, my spirits were very high and motivation to cook something fantastic for dinner was sky high too. So last night I made a pasta from a few ideas I had seen in passing on my RSS feeds and through magazines articles. I had a few ideas that I wanted to mash together. One of which was using sausage mince as the meat in a pasta dish. This is done by taking the meat out of some gourmet sausages and frying that up into reasonably small freeform meatball sizes. Little morsels of seasons meat intrigued me because I love gourmet sausages and the pictures that I had seen always looks so decadent and truly italian (sucker for pictures!). To be honestly I loved the idea of making something that was a little complicated and that seemed more authentically Italian (unsure why). The other idea was a simple tomato sauce that I had tried many times before, but in this case, I went for the jar bolognaise sauce.

So off I started defrosting some Pork and Fennel sausages that I had bought with the intention to make something along these lines. Once defrosted, I cut the ends and removed the mince from inside the casings. This would have been a bit gross to an innocent bystander, but there were none of them so I just keep plodding along at it. I sort of mashed up the mince a little so that it wasn’t in deformed sausage shapes. To go along with my sausage mince, I cut up some green beans and boiled them up to partly cook them and also cut up some mushrooms.

So I started cooking the sausage mince and roughly chopping it up with the wooden spoon, but not to the extent I would have been chopping it up if I was making spaghetti bolognaise with proper mince. Added the mushrooms once the meat was browned and cooked a little more to start the mushrooms off. Then I added the beans and a little of the water I cooked them in along with a jar of Basil and Red Wine bolognaise sauce along with done dried oregano, salt and pepper to compliment the flavoured sausages. While this was all happening I put the pasta on and cooked that while all this was happening in the frypan (I wanted a great big tubular type of pasta, but only had fettuccini so that had to do). So it simmered away for the time it took the pasta to cook and then I served it up! It was delicious, well I thought so anyway.

There was too much sauce I think for the execution. One of the smaller pasta Stir-through sauces would have been better, but the idea was there, and it satisfied my craving to cook and to eat this mystical dish I had been thinking about for so long. I will adapt and change it a little and it will be fixed and improved! I think in the recipe I read on my RSS feed used plain Passatta sauce, but that might have been a bit too rich as well, maybe a simple fresh tomato sauce would have been better. Anyway, I will implement these changes and see how I go, I think the concept was there and the potential is very high for great success. But it was great as it was, but in true Nancy style, I will never cook it the same way again, I will change it up and do it different every time I cook it from now on. Always room for improvement! Life is too short to have the same thing all the time ;-)

XO

NJC

Dieting and Clean Eating

Happy Friday!

A recent topic of conversation at my workplace recently has been diets and clean eating. So naturally, all topics about food, drink and everything food related is centralised around how we could improve on out choices and decisions when it comes to food. Ideas on food, experiences with recipes and goals with diets and clean eating are shared and it seems to be a constant topic within the team I work in. This is probably a good thing, but I wonder whether it creates pressure for some people, generates guilt or creates a sense of determination? All of the above are probably achieved, depending on the person. I fade in and out of all of those feeling, depending on the mod I’m in. If I’m unhappy, there is no sense of guilt if I cave to a Kit Kat Chunky (my favourite!), but if I am in an in-between mood, the guilt almost kills me if I cave, but then if I am in a great mood, I am in no need to be comforted by chocolate or carbs and seem to stay satisfied by my fruit and tea snacks I try to limit myself to.

A feeling of complete annoyance that I need to monitor myself so closely also fills my body, because satisfaction with good food does not always come naturally. Will power I guess is the key phrase in this argument, which is as per tradition, the hardest thing to keep to when there are temptation all over the place.  I am a lover of vegetables, fruit, lean meat, grains and grains, and am more often than not, craving a big bowl of veges for dinner over McDonalds. But there are times where I WANT a potato cake or a burger from Hungry Jacks, and I come to the conclusion that it isn’t that bad, as long as I continue to respect food and enjoy good food over bad more times than not, I will be fine. But that being said, my mind wanders to the if’s, but’s and maybe’s when I choose bad over good food and I convince myself that I will do some exercise to counteract it, but I never end up getting around to it. So my visible weight and less visible health suffers, but I am in a constant internal battle with my morals vs my love of life and always come to the conclusion that everything in moderation is ok, which sometimes gets a bit out-balanced, but as long as I bring it back to equilibrium, things will be ok…I hope….as long as I do keep a sort-of close eye on my lack of will power and absolute weakness for chocolate and deep belief that nothing can solve trouble better than a Kit Kat Chunky.

Inspiration for all of this has come from a work colleague that has initiated a Clean Eating lifestyle change. She has been buying and cooking with basic ingredients and eating less if not any packaged foods. Which I love and think it is the secret to long life and true wellbeing. But it is a bit unrealistic and un-achievable in my non-routine, sporadic, social filled life at current. So I do try buy best to live by this idea. It is cheaper at the checkout, better for you, more wholesome and feed my love of cooking! All the pros of a good life really! I try and avoid filling more than a quarter of my trolley with packaged things or things from the middle isles of the supermarket – with the only main things making it into that are canned tuna, pasta, Asian ingredients, peanut butter, lentils, yogurt, sour cream and milk. Everything else in my trolley should be ideally meat, veges, fruit and some bread/wraps. This has worked for me over the last few weeks and if I do stray from this game plan, it is only minimal straying with the best options of a “bad” bunch of alternatives if possible.

So my goal now is to stick to this for good this time, as I have on and off over the past few years had thins great idea and have never stuck to it! Let’s see how I go with my cooking and ideas for food, hopefully they centralise around a main concept of healthy eating or at least smaller meal sizes…

XO

NJC

Korumburra Chinese

Hello Saturday!

We have all been talking about a having a dinner together with all of our friends, and the location has been talked about as Korumburra Chinese. So it was finally last week that we actually planned it for good. The background behind all of this hype is that a few of our friends live in Korumburra and go to Korumburra Chinese all the time (which I am super jealous of by the way!). I have been there once and loved it and have been holding it in high acclaim ever since. So the thought started that we needed to get the rest of the clan from our area over to Korumburra Chinese for a group dinner. Friends have come and gone since I had first started talking about it and the thought and come and gone from my mind as well. Well a slight nudge from a friend that the idea should be planned put it in full steam ahead! No one even knew what it was called, other than Korumburra Chinese (turned out to be Rainbow Palace). So I rang and booked for Friday night.

There was actually a false alarm last week when we tried to make it Saturday night, but lack of planning on my part and the lack of enthusiasm on other’s parts eventuated into us not going. But I learnt from that and forward planned! We then decided that the following Friday night was going to be it so we started planning!  

So all week we were gaining interest and confirming numbers. The numbers were at 20 people at one stage if everyone responded. But some people had other things on so we ended up having a table full at 14 people. I love spending time with friends and it was great to get everyone keen to come. It is also BYO so everyone was keen to take a few drinks. I stopped on the way home from work to grab some Moscato (Wolf Blass: one normal and one pink sparkling) which ended up very well received.

 It turned to be a good night, which I wasn’t surprised about really J We had our own area at the back of the restaurant and everyone enjoyed themselves and got involved in conversations, storytelling and generally catching up with each other. We all had something different and tried all different things. Sang Choi Bow was the flavour for the Entree with three of us ordering it. Some soups were on the cards as well as stay sticks and pork tenderloin (all of which looked great, which makes it hard for me to choose for next time!). All were very quickly devoured and were well received for the first time tryers! Chicken with Three-Course Mushrooms was my choice for main and I shared that with a few friends and the BF along with Chicken Curry, Beef Plum, Sweet and Sour Chicken and some rice. All of it was so delicious and was a great variety that allowed us to have some new things in the mix! Everyone left realising why we have been raving about it so much, and I am hoping that we all go together again (fingers are pretty tightly crossed)!

So the moral of the story I guess is to have a nice drive over to Korumburra if you are at all keen on Chinese food. It sits nicely between traditional western-inspired Chinese food and the traditional Chinese food that still appeals to western tastes. I am already planning to take my Dad over there one night for dinner because he is a seasoned Asian food lover like me.

XO

NJC

Akkonah Park Market and the Pancake Parlour

Hi Hi!

Its been a while since my last post, and I am eternally sorry for leaving you in hanging. But life has gotten away with me recently, which is I guess the prefect start to this blog.

Markets are brilliant and such a great way for women, couples and families to spend a day or a morning. Last weekend, me and the ladies decided that we were way overdue for a catch up, so off made plans to get out and about and head to the Akkonah Park market in Berwick. Such a great market because it is open every single Sunday, rain, hail or shine. None of the travelling hours to an exotic market you have been told about and have been thinking about for ages, only to arrive on the 4^th Sunday of the month, instead of the 3^rd! As much as I love exotic and under-estimated markets, sometimes a bunch of girls is so desperate for a catch-up, there needs to be some sense of certainty in a market. The Akkonah Park market is definitely that, as well as being extensive, creative, carried in the stalls, but oh so certain. The fruit and vege stalls are such regulars that people rely on them as source of shopping, and the creative stalls that showcase people’s talents always makes us all feel very inspired to do something similar “one day”.

The main topic of conversation for us all is of course food and what the market has to offer. As soon as we got there, I bee-lined for the hot drink cart  to get a Chai Latte and the ladies got some Churros. Unfortunately, neither of our yields was anything to rave about, but we didn’t let it ruin our day! So we wandered through the stalls and I got some essentials like socks and gloves. But then came the serious part, we stopped at the cheese stall and got 3 cheese for $10. I got myself some Goats Cheese, some yummy Gouda that we tasted and also some very intriguing Cumin spiced cheese. We all had the intention of having some sort of Cheese Appreciation days because we knew t was farfetched we would eat all the cheese ourselves. But the deal and the huge variety of chesses that were on display were too great to miss out on.

Heading to the vege and fruit stall was next, and we all stocked up on some well needed supplies. Unfortunately I had done a shop during the week and was internally devastated that I couldn’t take full advantage of this stop. I had my sensible hat on that reminded me that I would never use all of whatever I was wanting to buy. So I went for some bananas and an eggplant, of which I had the great pan of making a dip with (and still haven’t done so yet).

So after that was all done and dusted, we still hadn’t had enough of the day so we went to the Pancake Parlour for Lunch. This was a de-brief session of the morning we had. The hardest part about the lunch for everyone was the decision to go Sweet or Savoury! My mind was well made up as soon as I heard the specials: Spicy Prawn Crepe with salad. So that is what I ordered, unfortunately I only ordered an entree size which was nowhere near large enough but I was glad I ordered some “Cottage Fries” aka potatoes with it.

The girls had some tea and I had a cold drink and we talked about what we had been up to recently and got all of our words out for the day J A great end to the day that went for longer than we expected, but none of us minded or complained, I think we all really needed some girl talk over some pancakes and apple carts. It was well deserved and we spoiled ourselves, which I think is the sweetest part of it all.

XO

NJC

Homemade Pizzas

Hello there!

Weeknight dinners are something that most people dread. But I’m not sure why. The thing that I dread is finding myself in front of the telly from the time I get home to the time I go to bed. I love getting up and doing something, I think that it helps extend the day and helps lessen the slave feeling you get when all you do during the week is sleep and work.

So on Thursday night this week, I came home with a really defeated feeling. But half way home I starting thinking about what my plan was for dinner. I had bought a Good Food Ideas magazine recently and in true lazy fashion, only skimmed across the more interesting recipes and pictures. One of which was a caramelised onion tart with filo pastry and brilliantly glossy and caramelised onion. I skimmed across this recipe enough to work this much out, so naturally this great picture and idea has stayed in my head since.

So my ideas started humming and before I knew it, I had forgotten my terribly hectic day. The caramelised onion tart quickly graduated into a homemade pizza with some of the cheese I had bought at the market on Sunday and some chorizo and pancetta that I had in my fridge. Between leaving work and as I was finding myself in the supermarket,  I was having a internal battle for my dinner; whether to cook a great Indian curry (from a jar) or make homemade pizzas (by this stage I was realising that I had too many great ingredients to just make one flavour pizza).

So the idea was now to make a easy pizza base that I had heard about for ages and recently a friend had made it and gave the tick of approval; a base made from just yogurt and self-raising flour. So I grabbed some Greek yogurt and got slightly side tracked by the cast-iron frypans and griddle pans of which I bought one of each (and since buying have really praised myself for the clever purchases).

Pizza Base:

1 cup Greek Yogurt

1 cup Self-raising flour

1. Mix together into a ball

2. Knead for 4-5 min

3. Cut into 2 halves if you want 2 thin bases, or leave as one if you want a think base.

4. Roll out to desired thickness

Pizza 1:

Greek yogurt

Half an onion, sliced

Quarter of a cup of sliced leek

Quarter of a cup of capsicum, sliced or diced

Quarter of a cup of Goats cheese, torn up

Quarter of a cup of pancetta, diced

Half a very large mushroom, sliced thinly

                1. Warm a pan (I used my new cast iron one J)

2. Put some olive oil and throw in the sliced onion and leek and cook on low until soft and brown.

3. Put a layer of Greek yogurt on the rolled out pizza base

4. Put all the ingredients except the Goats Cheese on the pizza in any sort of way you like

5. Slide the pizza onto the pizza stone or tray that you had in the oven as it was warming up.

6. When the pizza is cooked and the toppings look crispy and yummy, bring it out and put the goats cheese on top. Slice it up and eat it!!

Pizza 2:

Greek Yogurt

Quarter of a cup of Chorizo, finely sliced

Quarter of a cup of capsicum, sliced or diced

Half a very large mushroom, finely sliced

Quarter of a tomato, diced

Quarter of a cup of cumin spiced cheese (or whatever else you want)

                Put together in the same way you did the first one! Eg, yogurt base, ingredients other than the cheese into the oven and put the cheese on as you pull it out of the oven.

The result of my scatter-brain, love of finding any reason to go the supermarket, and ideas stemming from a food magazine, was something I was pretty darn proud of!

XO

NJC

Chicken skewer inspration

Good Afternoon,

Last night was one of those nights where I was really motivated to get home and have a nice night at home cooking dinner and watching TV. I think they call it relaxing….haven’t had many nights at home lately so it was an opportunity to spend some quality time on the couch.

So the plan was to make up a dinner menu when I got home depending on what I felt like, what the bf felt like, what was in the pantry, fridge and/or freezer. The bf ended up having to work so I had a door open up of so many more opportunities of what to cook myself, which is great and all, but oh so confusing and muddling to my brain (which is trying to relax). My mind went straight to the chicken skewers that I have been thinking about recreating from the takeaway shop around the corner from work. The inspiration served enough for me to get some chicken out and get it defrosting. A perfect accompaniment was some fried rice, so I got the random selection of veges from the fridge and my Microwavable Smart Rice out.

Chicken skewers:

Hoi Sin sauce

Soy sauce

Peanut butter

Oyster sauce

Peanut oil

Fish sauce

Chilli sauce

I threw in a bit of each of these and mixed it all together. Mixed through my roughly medium cubed chicken breast and set that aside.

I skewered the chicken onto some bamboo skewers which I had soaking in water.

I then put a bit of canola oil into a pan and fried the skewers until they were cooked.

Fried Rice:

Microwavable Smart Rice packet

Peanut oil

Handful of Cabbage, sliced

Quarter of a Carrot, diced

2 eggs, mixed with a fork

Half a tomato, cut into wedges

Chilli sauce

Soy sauce

Oyster sauce

Fish sauce

I cooked my Microwavable Smart Rice pouch as per the directions and set aside.

I put a little peanut oil into the hot wok and added the eggs. Cooked the thin omelette and chopped it roughly with the spatula I was using to flip it and set it aside in a bowl.

I put a bit more peanut oil into the wok and added the chopped veges and stir-fried for a few minutes until tender. I added the cooked egg and the rice and added a fair glug of soy, chilli, oyster and fish sauces and mixed and fried and mixed.

Timing was a bit hap-hazzard last night, so I had the egg cooked before I skewered the chicken, then I set that aside and put a halt to the rest of the rice cooking until I had the skewers in the pan cooking. It was thrown together and things were everywhere in the kitchen, but I stayed calm and relaxed, which was my overall goal, so mission accomplished! Unfortunately I didnt end up cahieving what i wanted out of the chicken skewers, but they were delicious non-the-less, and of course wont ever be cooked the same again anway :)

I used up the fridge remains ready for a shopping expedition on Wednesday to that was another underlying accomplishment (one of my pet hates is having to a half shop when I would normally do a full shop because I get enticed by all of the deals and end up doing a double shop to somehow compensate!) Pet hates aside, I managed to make something out of my relaxed state and I did end up on the couch watching re-runs of Offspring which ended a great cooking experiment.

XO

NJC

Experimenting with recipes

Hi again,

Came across a recipe for Gourmet Rocky Road. A great one that looks and sounds delicious. But it reminded me of the rocky road a made a few Christmas’s in a row that was very similar if not the same, but without the Gourmet label. To make mine I wander through the supermarket and choose ingredients as I go that I can envisage in a new-aged rocky road. I then made a big batch, half of which was dark chocolate and the other half with white chocolate. My method is exactly the same as the recipe but mine are free form clumps into a try, rather that the squares that the recipe produces. The result is a miss-match of what I think of as interesting, non-traditional rocky-road additions in a rustic presentation. But all this time, they were Gourmet! Jokes aside, it asks the question where the Gourmet label site with people, how does an ingredient qualify and turn something traditional or even modern into “Gourmet”. I guess in this case it is the addition of Pistachios and Cranberries, which are delicious and becoming more popular (again or for the first time depending who you ask) as methods of jazzing up the traditional recipe.

I started getting even more experimental with my Rocky-Road clumps and added mini meringues and other dried fruit on occasions, which is daring and I think it even might take it into the child treats category rather than a Gourmet or Traditional category. But it shows how one addition, subtraction, or tweaking can change the impression food gives and who it might appeal to. A traditionalist might steer clear of the Meringues or cranberries in favour of glace cherries and marshmallows and the more hip and modern might jump for the pistachios and cranberries over the glace cherries!

The point is that you can mix up recipes, they don’t need to be followed word-for-word. You might even make something up that you end being famous for! People loved my deliciously unhealthy Rocky-Road and was asked to make it on numerous occasions, which was a real compliment. If you have ever thought “I wonder if it would be nice with cream in it?” or “I wonder if there is a recipe that uses chicken instead of beef”, be that person that tries it out! It’s not the worst thing if it doesn’t work, out (It may seem like it at the time) but, trust me, it will be ok and there will be something else that works out and makes up for the shortfall. I think I am better at making up and changing savoury recipes as I find them more forgiving, so when I get creative with something sweet like the rocky-road, it is a huge achievement for me! But I’m still forever retrying my luck in the sweet territory and coming up with new ideas that more than often fail, but oh well, I will just try and try again! The payoff eventually will be marvellous and I will have learnt so much along the way!

Xo

NJC

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/18595/gourmet+rocky+road

Commercial Hotel Warragul Steak and Veges

HI HI!

Dinner out, as I have explained has very high expectations attached for me. I always except a tasty meal. I understand the concept of a pub meal and really do appreciate the home-cooked meal at a pub and a restaurant. In this case, the mighty steak brought this feeling on board. Last night I was late finishing an appointment and the intention was to go home afterward and cook dinner (had no idea what) and lounge around. What actually happened was that the boys were going out to the pub for tea as they generally do on a Wednesday night as they insist that it the new Thursday (Which is the original new Saturday) and I got invited! So off to the Commercial in Warragul we went.

The most challenging but most exciting part of going out to dinner for me is deciding what to have. It is a stressful, anxious, expectation filled, thrilling experience because it I know that the decision that I make will determine how I will feel about my meal. So much goes into choosing a meal, do you go for the traditional food that you know is good, do you choose the meal you would have cooked at home, or the meal that you would love to cook, but know you wouldn’t have. I went for the Porterhouse Steak with Veges and mushroom gravy, which is something that I most likely would have cooked at home so I was really hoping that it would be fantastic. AND IT WAS! So homely and hearty. The steak was perfectly medium and the veges were perfectly traditional and complementary J A happy girl! The boys went the famous Chicken Burger which has been labelled as the Wednesday burger and becoming the fast replacement of the Parma! This Chicken burger is really truly delicious, which I put down of course to the combination of the ingredients, but mostly I put it down to the choice of Mayo. It is all in the Mayo! Good mayo is really such a success and different to that of mediocre mayo.

So all in all, everyone had a brilliant dinner and I can’t stop thinking about it! A good steak is definitely the way to an aussie girls heart. Appreciation needs to be given to a well cooked and tasty steak. I can’t think of much more disappointing than an overcooked steak (if you haven’t ordered it that way) and poor excises for sides. That’s the feeling that generally steers me away from steaks on the menu unless I have had a good experience prior. Such a deal breaker!

The best part of it all way that our friends that is generally behind the bar serving us was actually joining us for a meal! The other best part was that we learnt that they have started to do TAKEAWAY MEALS at lunch and dinner times! (see link below to their Facebook page).

So as you can tell, there were many best parts to the night, and isn’t that what we all desire in a casual dinner out with friends?

XO

NJC

Commercial Hotel Warragul Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/?refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&_rdr

Camping with food

Hello and Good Afternoon,

Saying good bye to a long weekend is always hard, but in my case it has been such a long awaiting good time, I’m happy to go out on a high. A last minute decision to go away camping for the weekend at the start of winter is something that we haven’t done for a while, so it was fantastic to embrace the long weekend and take a bunch of fantastic friends along with us!

Camping is something that I enjoy a lot, I love the scenery, the four wheel driving, the social aspect, the relaxing time, the quietness, the lack of phone reception, and of course, I love the food! Gourmet, exciting, new, uncharted territory, delicious and best ever aren’t the sorts of words the ordinary person would say about traditional camping grub. But they are general words in the camping food dictionary for me and my friends! Campfires, camp ovens, gas cookers and billy’s have so many opportunities to charm and entice campers, you just need to break the rules and possibly put in a bit of effort.

When I think of going camping, I instantly take my mind to what is going to be cooked for breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. I investigate and think about what delicious, warming things I will take and make with minimal effort but maximum fun and taste. One of the things my friends and I find the most fun is starting to plan breakfast the night before and dinner sometime after breakfast! Happy hour is something that has been introduced as a concept of absolute delight to our camping afternoons! We all try and take some nibbles to contribute to the communal afternoon time happy hour feast. It has a tendency to provide a platform for people to try new things and it has created new ideas and love for different foods.  There has been blue cheese, pastry twists, smoked trout, dips, crackers and more over the years and this recent camping tradition has once again brought new light to traditionally “fancy” foods by placing them in such a different scene. My friend broke out the smoked trout again on this weekends’ adventure and combined with avocado and crackers. It was something super fancy and delicious, but oh so appropriate. It was great to see people that didn’t think it would be nice absolutely love it and go back for more and more of the great cracker creations!

Lunches were and always have been a bit of a time filler. Mainly because everyone is either saving their energy and room for the dinner that has been in the planning stages since breakfast, or we are all slipt up doing all sorts of “camping” things J Dinner is where all the excitement happens, I can’t deny. Everyone is back from fishing, four wheel driving, swimming, walking, or doing as little as possible and things just fall into place at that time of the day. A few drinks have been sunk and conversations are freely flowing. Ideas are always taken on board with more excitement and enthusiasm. I always have a personal mission to make the best with traditional camping foods. I think the trick is not to get sucked into presentation or what it looks like, potential in the food needs to be seen and opportunities to turn boring things into great things needs to be embraced. Variables like smell, ingredients and the amount of love put in are the things that matter in a camping food creation, and that’s what makes the meal we don’t stop raving about! Last night was the big night for dinner. The camp oven does brilliant things to food, so our friends’ camp oven is something that is always a staple in the communal dinner cook up! It was discussed that we would create something beautiful in the camp oven, where the only rule was that if you could contribute an ingredient, you were guaranteed a bowl! So a brilliant concept of spaghetti was born. It soon turned into an interesting but intriguing idea with carrots, potatoes, peas and corn, curry powder, sausages, and bacon added into the mix. But none the less, it turned into a fantastic stew/pasta/one pan dish that we pretty darn proud of J

I could go on for a lot longer than this about the bacon and egg breakfasts that we cooked, the vodka, lime and soda mixes and the other dinners we cooked on our adventures, but I better keep some material for the other future posts! Overall a great weekend with great people. It really had every element of a great weekend. The food was experimental, and turned out better than we could have imagined which is always a plus! The bar is always set higher every time we get away, so we have a high expectation of the next happy hour and the next camp oven cook up, no doubt. But, I’m sure that we will all take the challenge on with our heads held high!

Xo

NJC