pantone801

Cherries Wrapped in Bacon

// August 16th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Food

This simple recipe from mum is a family favourite, and are often made them as a quick snack and to pass the time on lazy afternoons on her boat Zinkwazi. I suggest making a large batch, they don’t last long, especially when Rob grabs handfulls of them and gobbles them down.
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Raglan

// August 16th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Travel

On our recent trip to New Zealand we visited Raglan one the west coast for the first time. NZ is so small, and on one day we brunch in Raglan on the west coast and the next we lunched at Mt Maunganui on the East coast. The trip to Raglan was fun, we brunched at Black Sands Cafe, and did a spot of shopping. Mum bought a cute oak coffee table and bought me a gorgeous 1960′s Crown Lynn Dorothy Thorpe Pine dinner set (look out for it in future food pix), and on the way home visited the stunning Bridal Veil Falls. West coast beaches in NZ have black sand, and are very rocky and rugged. Raglan has the best goofy-foot (left foot) break for surfers in NZ, and Manu Bay near Raglan was featured in the 1966 movie The Endless Summer.
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Pastitsio

// August 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // Food

Last week I was in NZ hanging with my family, and showing them pix from our US trip on my iPad. Which resulted in a lot of iPad envy [pic], and the next day my mum [blog] and my aunt Margie [blog] went out and bought iPads. I introduced mum to Zinio, and she immediately headed for the food category and found one of her favourite magazines Saveur. I also bought a subscription and the recipe below is a highlight from their latest Greek issue. The recipe below is Australianised/Australianized from the US version and will serve a large Greek family, or make plenty of leftovers.
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Spanish Eggs on Toast

// July 25th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Food

Mark and I have slipped into a routine of sleeping on on Sundays, when we eventually rise Mark watches the [boring] political analysis on The Insiders, I duck down to our local deli with Mischa and grab some ingredients for brunch. The deli and fruitshop called Feast on Fruit up the road is fantastic, they stock freshly baked artisan sourdough, free range eggs, parma ham, Spanish and Portugese choritzo sausages, a large range of cheeses and good priced fresh fruit, vegetables and large bunches of herbs. This recipe is customised from one I found on cuisine.co.nz.
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Sheepish Cracker Soup

// July 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Food, Fun Stuff

I saw this recipe on Design Sponge a while ago and bookmarked it for a day when I have the time to try it out. Last weekend, with miserable weather was perfect to be eating soup and spending time in the kitchen carefully cutting out the shapes for the sheep cracker. I guess he should be standing in a green soup, but the capsicum and tomato soup is one of my favourites, and so easy to make. I make a large batch and freeze the extra portions for later in the week or to have for lunch. Link to the template on Design Sponge is broken, so I redrew the sheep myself (PDF Here). I’d like to get the shapes made as cookie cutters, maybe I will svae the for a future project and get them made by Ponoko.
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St Louis and the Gateway Arch

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Travel

Bunyon’s Statue

// June 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Travel

No. 8 Hot Springs Club

// April 7th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Travel

Fish Spa
Not an actual image. Image courtesey of weegolo.

Over the weekend I had a day off in Beijing and spent the day exploring Sanlitun, and area of the city I have not spent much time in. After a full day of walking and a spot of shopping I was exhausted, and headed off to No. 8 Hot Springs Club (No. 8 Chaoyang Park Road, near the west gate of Chaoyan Park [map].
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Spanish Prawns with Spicy Lentils

// March 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Food

This is also a new one. We are really into prawns at the moment, and are going through several kilos a week. I do feel sorry for the garbos having to cart away the shells each Tuesday. Lentils are another favourite of mine, they are very healthy and I love their nutty taste. Harissa is a North African hot chilli sauce commonly eaten in Morocco whose main ingredients are Peri Peri chili peppers, tomatoes and Paprika. It’s available from good deli’s and gourmet food shops.

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Blue Eye with Sundried Tomato Crust

// March 30th, 2010 // No Comments » // Food

My first after-school job was in the seafood department at an Auckland supermarket. I remember taking large blocks of fish out of the freezer and thawing them, then placing them on ice with sprigs of plastic parsley in the display cabinet with little price tags that also stated thawed for your convinience. Then this would get packed away in fridges for the next day, and so on. One thing I really miss about Perth was having Kailis Bros fishmonger just down the road, I could be sure the fish was always fresh and there was always a large selection.

We tried this for the first time over the weekend, and it was a hit. This recipe will work with any firm white-fleshed fish. Now I need to find a good local fishmonger. The cooking method is to grill for 2 minutes under a hot grill, then bake for six minutes in a medium oven, our grill and oven are combined, so the instructions below are based on this.