A Made-Up Recipe

You might have read Friday's post on our visit to the Prahran Market - well there was no cookathon Friday night as we were invited to join friends for dinner before seeing the Tintin 3D movie at the local cinema complex. So the cookathon was transferred to Saturday night but some of the enthusiasm was lost.

The pork fillet prepared with the ingredients explained below and ready for the oven.

Sue says,

"No cook-a-thon on Saturday either. I lost interest a bit. I slit  the pork fillet, added  sweet chilli and lime sauce, feta cheese slices, spinach and black pepper, and then refolded it over and pinned it together with a couple of toothpicks.

I made a tomato sauce by sauteing a shallot in some butter, then adding tinned tomatoes, salt, pepper, a little sugar and a healthy slurp of balsamic vinegar and cooked it down a little.

Popped the pork in a pan sloshed on the sauce and into a moderate oven for 20 minutes or so.

The pork was then sliced onto cheesy polenta with broad beans on top, it was yummy. Not much effort either which is very good. Win, win. Planning on cooking the squid tonight. Salt and pepper squid I think".



My photo doesn't do justice to Sue's cooking - We really did enjoy the flavours of this meal and the bed of polenta gave it that contrast of colour and texture.

What meal doesn't end well with coffee and port - but no cigar.

Thought I might delay the publishing of this post until Sunday night's dinner - that salt and pepper squid sounded interesting for a night in front of the telly.
And it was - Sue couldn't finish all of hers so I helped out - that's how good it was.


Since presenting Sue with an iPad 2 for Christmas, she's had a "Mac Attack" and went out and bought an Apple TV thingy that connects to your telly so you can rent or buy movies/books/music through your internet and then play them back wirelessly to the telly - well I'll be! There's even something that allows you to store all this stuff in cyberspace called "iCloud". We now have all our computers sharing music and movies.

What will they invent next - these clever folk from Apple?

It all started from a Filum night

Friday Night & the Filum Thing



I saw this when I was 14, didn't like the Beatles all that much (a bit of a Stones fan really) but the girlfriend at the time loved the Beatles - didn't they all???



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCVmUD3WfNM

Click on the link for a 10 minute clip.

Getting together with our cycling friends, we enjoyed an hilarious "Filum night". That's what our hosts, Perce (his nick name) and Miss Glenda (hers) call it, yes Filum. It comes from the Aussie accent for Film, but you guessed that already, didn't you?
They put on a regular Filum night every month or so and this one was the Beatles, Hard Day's Night. I was probably 14 when this came out and I still remember it well', having seen it several times now. A few of the people dressed up for it but had their decades mixed up. Dressed as hippies, they confused the 60s with the 70s. Poor young things.

Bob and Jenny had the era right, that's what we wore, thin ties and suits.

And the ladies really enjoyed themselves but openly admitted they had never seen the Filum before.

Saturday Night
Yes, you guessed it - cooking time.
Flicking through her Delicious magazines, Sue asked, "What will we have for dinner?" "Hmmmm", I said, "What about a pork thing".

It all starts with Sue flicking through cooking books and magazines.

My job is chopping stuff up - oh, yes and cleaning up the mess afterwards. Sue what are these herbs?
 Garlic, sage and rosemary.

Porcini mushrooms being reconstituted.
Lots of porcini mushrooms (about 15gms) and the water is used later in the dish.

The pork scotch fillet is browned all over in butter.

Whats this Sue?
 A cartouche of damp baking paper is placed over the pan to help keep it moist, but still allow the sauce to reduce. The sauce has about 600ml of red wine and 250ml of the mushroom water. The pork was seasoned well with salt and pepper before browning.

Yum.  Yep, yum and resting

The end result.
Took about 80 minutes all together. Very rich, and complemented well with creamy, soft polenta.

Mellow Yellow

This week has been a mellow yellow week with spring sprouting yellow every where I go.
It brought back memories of Donovan Lietch's Mellow Yellow. I was a bit of a Donovan fan back in the 60s. Think I might listen the Album again - now where is my turntable?

Donovan's 60s album cover - Mellow Yellow

As I came off the freeway I was hit with yellow flowers by the roadside.

And then as I drove to the office/warehouse the wattle trees were covered in yellow blossom.

Even the car park at work was yelling yellow at me.

And as I walked thru the front doors, I'm confronted by yellow again.

But it was Friday and we were about to embark on a weekend. What would our two days of rest offer. Sue is retired but she has recently employed as a relief teacher - it helps with our passion for travel.

Her form of relaxation is to invite friends for dinner and cook up a storm - mine is to ride my bike.

This weekend we both satisfied our passions. Sue invited friends Denise and Darren around for Pizza. They thought it would be "order in", but no, not with Sue. She loves to prepare her own from making the Pizza base to adding lots of great fillings.

Sue makes the pizza dough.

The ingredients - mushroom, pumpkin, peppers, zucchini and tomato with more to come.

Add some prosciutto, spinach, artichoke hearts covered with grated cheese.

And out of the oven ready to devour.

Sue's simple easy to prepare pizza with good company and good wine. Just a casual Saturday night.

My personal weekend was highlighted by being inducted into the Bayside Bandido, mid-life cycling gang's Lycra Legend select group. Now I need to say that this is a very select group of cyclist, we are all 60 plus.

My new Lycra Legends jersey.

http://baysidebandidos.blogspot.com/

This link to the Lycra Legend celebrations

And the close-up.

And that was our weekend - tell us about yours???

An interesting weekend started with taking my Boss, the MD of Australian Clothing Company to the indoor Velodrome for his first ever experience of riding 45 degree banked bends. Initially starting on the flat sections, by the end of the day he was riding at the very top of the banking with confidence.

I was most impressed.

Then it was home to do my house duties before guests arrived for dinner - you know, the usual vaccum, dunny diving , etc.

THE WINE

My brother in law always brings something special in wine when they come for dinner, maybe that's why I like inviting them. I found the following review on the Internet of his selection for tonights meal.

.

The world aclaimed wine expert Robert Parker has reviewed all four varietals from Lost Valley and each wine has received excellent reviews.

Not only is the average score across all 4 varietal 90, but the very complimentary language also stands the wines in good stead. Needless to say a 90 average score – for all varietals from the vineyard - from the Parker stable is no small feat!

Top wine distributors in the USA point out - “we can probably count, on one hand, the number of Aussie wineries with a 90 point Parker average score, this is incredible. Lost Valley Winery has truly come of age as one of Australia’s top boutique wineries”. Chris Daniele/Wine Trade Trust.

THE MEAL

While Leon was out doing his thing on Saturday morning, I met up with my brother and sister-in-law and we went out for breakfast. They were coming over for dinner that night (yes, we are a close family, cos they're a lot of fun) and we decided that I would cook a gutsy paella that night.

The pics show the progress. A chorizo powered sauce with saffron and tomatoes with smokey paprika and some other bits and pieces.

When the Casperella rice was nearly cooked, chucked in some mussels, prawns, squid and par-cooked chicken. The smell was wonderful. Ten more minutes then popped some unpeeled prawns on top, sprinkled with parsley, added lemon wedges and to the table. It was good.

Sis-in-law had made an absolutely luscious lemon ice cream to follow.

After that we had the chocolate pudding I had cooked. Made with 70 per cent cocoa butter choc and cooked to be crusty on the outside with a hot molten chocolate interior. Not being a chocolate liker I passed on that. The lemon ice cream was more my style. The others liked it though.Yummy!

 

SUNDAY

Rising at 6.30 am was not easy after last night's good night but I did and I cranked up the computer to see who one won the Tour de France prologue. It was the big Swiss guy Cancellara in his world championship colours. I think he may hold on to the Malliot Jaune until it gets a little hilly, especially with the cobbles beforehand.

I think there will be a little less sleep while the time zones are out of kilter with the TdF.

A summer weekend

Its been a glorious weekend culminating with Sue and I enjoying a chilled rose on the back deck in the shade of the big brollie. I see pictures of fellow bloggers in France and Belgium with beautiful scenes of snow on rooftops of villages and think how picturesque it is. During winter we have to travel to the mountains to experience snow.
Anyway, back to Melbourne - our home!!!
The weekend started from Funky Friday, a pic I stole from a recent birthday card, well not that recent!!!!!!
I just liked the mood of the person on the bike - fun loving and a feeling of freedom and that's how I feel on my weekend rides - sometimes after a good Saturday night I might find it difficult to rise from a deep sleep but on returning home I always feel pleased I made the effort.
Yes, this Sunday was one of those as we had our very good friends Barry and Gloria join us for dinner on Saturday night.
I've known them both since our teenage years and much water has passed under the bridge. It's always delightful and relaxed to sit around the dinner table together with good food and good wine.
For the wine I ambled down to "Uncle Dan's" my favorite wine cellar and purchased a bottle of Burgundy from the Vienne region. It brings back memories of our stay there last year and the intimate restaurant where we enjoyed a bottle of 2005 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone vin rouge, so I bought another. Our friends, Baz and Gloria have enjoyed travelling and we always have heaps to waffle on about.
OK, Sue is hanging over my shoulder and wants some keyboard time, bye.....for a moment.

Our entree was a simple salad of fresh mozzarella cheese, slices of nectarine, proscuitto on mixed leaves with lots of watercress and mint.

Next was paella. Still in the experimental stage as I got my paella pan at Christmas time. Pretty nice, but will get better as I experiment more. I find it hard to get the rice to cook as evenly as I would like. Any tips?

Dessert was strawberries that I had macerated in a home made cumquat liqueur that is several years old now and very tasty, with vanilla icecream. It was partnered with a very nice flourless orange and almond cake that Gloria made.

Coffee and chocs on the deck. A still night and it had cooled down, thank goodness. I think I need to take up bike riding too.....ha ha not.

Sunday morning started off with a high teens temp rising into the thirties by midday - I decided that a short early morning ride was in order before we we popped off to Bay Street Port Melbourne for brunch.

I'm glad I did have a morning ride coz my brunch was high in calories - field mushrooms cooked in white wine, rosemary and garlic, with poached eggs, spinach and bacon on sour dough toasted bread.

I needed the energy though. I had a "Sue list" of jobs to complete around the garden before my first cold beer for the afternoon.

You have to feel sorry for the lad...please put the Christmas tree and the tree prunings on the nature strip for the council to pick up. Close to slave labour really. No wonder he's exhausted now.

And that was our weekend - how was yours?

The long lost Rellies

The long lost relatives arrived last Saturday after visiting the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock (Uluru) and spending some time in Adelaide. My brother-law, John and I drove to Melbourne airport to greet Lynette, her sister Kathy, and respective husbands, Steve and DT.


Part of the Kelly Gang - John, Kathy, Judy and Lynette after arriving in from Adelaide.



Lynette and Kathy's father was Australian and brother to Sue, John and Judy's Mum, and that's basically the tie-in.

And this time with Sue, less Kathy.

Lynette's husband Steve said she had been planning this for some time. Both John and Judy had visited the Virginia Beach relatives many years ago on their trips to the US but Sue had never met them previously.

Its amazing to see certain similarities in personalities and mannerisms with the women when deep in conversation. Expressions and laughter seem to mirror each other.

On their arrival Saturday, a welcome evening BBQ was arranged and everyone began to destroy many bottles of Australian wine as the night rolled on.

Some of the leftover debri - gosh they enjoy their red wine.

On the Sunday a "Kelly Gang' reunion was organised where more food and wine was consumed.

As Steve said, "I'm looking forward to returning to work for a holiday."

Tuesday after a lunch at Southbank on the Yarra river, they joined us for dinner where again many empty bottles of wine were thrown in the recycling bin. Sue made a beautiful meal with one of the best entrees I've had in awhile.

Sue explains dinner................

I split a ripe fig and a drizzle a little olive oil and balsamic, then popped in a wedge of blue cheese. A couple of minutes in the oven to melt the cheese and warm the fig, then I put on a little bit of rocket with a slice of proscuitto and another drizzle of balsamic vinegar reduced to a sticky syrup. It was yummo.

The Entree - extremely yummy.

Chermoula chicken with orange cous cous, a sweet chilli and yoghurt sauce and minted, honeyed carrots.

Then I made a "mangomisu". Think tiramisu without the coffee and coffee liqueur, and substitute mango and Cointreau. Fresh and nice.

From Left to right: Steve, Lynette, DT, Kathy and Sue.

It has been fabulous to meet and spend some time with our American cousins. The only sad thing is that we have just met them and they're flying home again. I guess it must be my turn to go there next. They're from Virginia Beach which sounds like a nice part of the world...and Kathy has offered to meet me in New York...mmm...sounds good.

Lynette presented us with one of her personal artworks which will remind us of their visit to Australia and "Melbourne our home". Her mother Peggy (also an Aussie by birth) is also an artist and kindly sent us two small prints of paintings she had done. So there is a bit of framing to be done in this household.

OK, we've been a little self indulgent this blog, but it was a special occasion - we'll be back to telling you more about Melbourne and its features soon.

There's been a murder

My mate Nico had a birthday and we were all sworn to secrecy by his wife Bet, there was to be a murder and we were invited.

Da boys


Da broads

It would be a surprise to him.


Have you heard of murder mystery parties. Sue and I have been to a few and even held one ourselves. They are a lot of fun and Sue always slips into her Sarah Bernhart personality. It doesn't matter what her character might be, her accent always takes on a southern belle.

Da card game

On arriving at Nico and Bet's home, the rooms were decorated out as 1920s Chicago nightclub.

The men were dressed in 20's gangster suits with the women in flapper garb.

We were given the descriptions of our characters and certain dark deeds that we needed to perform during the night's entertainment.
Sue won a prize for best performer - why am I surprised?

Needless to say we were all totally in confusion but a great night was enjoyed.