it’s gone all wintery all of a sudden

wow … i dont know what’s happened to the weather but it doesn’t look pretty outside.
well it does look pretty but it’s not the 40+ degree weather that you expect in perth in summer.
it’s raining
which is great for the dams
and great for reading a good book (persuasion), watching some trashy telly (project runway), and pretending it’s cold enough to wear uggies.

so i put a chicken roast in the oven (chicken thigh with sundried tomatoes and cream cheese wrapped up, with roast tomatoes, pommes, and spinach and mushrooms sauteed in garlic butter = mmmmm!)
settled in with my new hoody, jeans, and my old favourite knee high uggies…
and listened to the rain and fireworks.
it was a good monday evening.

the christmas tree is up…

and all in all yesterday was a lazy sunday..
i made some cubee craft
i put up my christmas tree
wrapped up some presents
watched some new-who (s6 ep 1 – 3)
caught up with top chef
cleaned the house a bit
made some delicious tuna parcels for lunch
had some gnocchi with butter and parsley for dinner
slept
zzzzz

good sunday…

christmas tree
gnocchi with butter and parsley
tuna parcels

inspiration

so into tonights dinner went
– butter beans
– tinned tuna
– wooshter sauce
– lots of parsley
– lots of coriander
– chopped celery
– milk & cornflour for the sauce

added that to mini penne – and a slice of garlic bread

really really good (and interesting) take on tuna bake.

delish
and best enjoyed on a stable table
now i’m off to watch sherlock

tuesday night peace and quiet

chicken and sundried tomato roast
chicken and sundried tomato roast
So last night was not spent decorating, instead it was spent with a chicken roast and my ‘stories’ (which is boyfriend code for the trash that I like to watch and he doesn’t primarily gossip girl and project runway).
And it was good. All of it.
Gossip girl season opener, it answered a few questions from last season’s finale, posed a few new ones, and dropped a couple of very blatant clues as to where this season is going. It’s nice to have that hour where you can completely zone out and watch other people’s lives. And it doesn’t annoy me as much as glee or secret life of the American teenage or any other similar American trash. (by the way I am using trash in an affectionate way).
I have always been a blair and chuck shipper. I always liked them more than dan and serena, or serena and nate, or jenny and nate. I always loved jenny as my favourite character though. I really do see her as a girl who makes a lot of ordinary mistakes and is trying to figure out who she is, which I relate to. Plus I really love her style.
I also finished watching the portrait of dorian grey, which I started watching on Saturday before I had to go out. Its definitely an interesting concept for a movie, but I think I’ll have to watch it again before I can make any sort of critique on it. And I think it’s the type of movie that deserves a proper critique. I’ll have to channel my uni days of textual analysis.
Maybe tonight there’ll be nothing on tele so I’ll have to clean up and put up my Christmas tree. Just maybe.

quick and easy

Prawn and cashew stir fry…

oh so delicious… and soo simple.
My boy doesn’t really like rice or stir fry that much – so whenever I have a night to myself its usually what I cook.

And this one was so easy and delicious. I read the comments from the recipe and found that someone had substituted the chicken for prawns. I thought I’d try that. I just used frozen prawns which were already cooked.
I’m a little scared about cooking raw prawns and plus they’re so handy to keep in the freezer it means it’s really convenient.

The stir fry accompanied me on the couch lazing around in my pjs watching season 1 of arrested development. I hadn’t watched it in ages so it was quite nice just to have a good laugh.

baked up a storm

Well I spent a lot of time in the kitchen last night…

But it was so worth it… I think it will make the weekend a bit easier.

So the hash browns look good – I looked like a bit of a twat grating onion wearing goggles but in all fairness I was grating onion.
There was 2 onions grated and about a kilo of potatoes grated and then squeeze out the liquid. Added in 4 eggs and just enough (about ¾ cup) of flour just to combine it.
Then I shallow fried them in a pan – most of them was just enough to cook the potato as they’ll be fried again to reheat them, but one batch got a little brown (read black) as I was disinfecting the bathroom floor. I didn’t have time to investigate but I think there may be a leak some where. Again.

The zucchini slice is just for snacks etc. its just so easy that I make it for picnics, watching cricket, and lunches because it’s good hot or cold.

Grate a zucchini, chop an onion, chop 3 or 4 (or 5 if you like) rashers of bacon into small pieces. Put them into a bowl with a cup of cheese, a cup of self raising flour, half a cup of oil, 5 eggs, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
Mix all together really well.
Pour into a greased up lasagne dish. I have one of those pyrex ones which works a treat.
Whack it in the oven at about 200 degrees – it should take about 30 to 40 minutes to brown up but I had it in last night at 180 degrees for just over an hour as I had other things cooking.

Scones
Chopped up dates and added them to country women’s association scone mix. Huzzah!

Dinner was eggy bread cups again.
Just had some leftover cooked chook which I added to a capsicum and tomato and added enough eggs to make an omelette consistency. Had some with multigrain bread which were awesome. And I have some leftover for lunch today.

Really looking forward to camping… should be a blast.. .

more about potato salad

Apologies for not taking photos of last nights dinner but it looked so frickin awesome i just had to get stuck in – it was a variation on last weeks kebabs and potato salad but this time with seafood. J made the skewers with mushroom, onion, scallops, and prawns that he had marinated in an olive oil and garlic mix. He also cooked up some whiting fillets – all done on the bbq.
He cooked them brilliantly too – he’s been overcooking them recently so he tried to not overcook them and he suceeded.
I remembered the bacon in the potato salad this time! I also cooked the onion as i only had a brown onion, not a red one. I also hard boiled the eggs properly which always helps. And because i always over cater there’s enough for lunch today and maybe some tomorrow – huzzah!
Potato salad is awesome…

And my vikes won last night too, in overtime… It was an awesome game. I thought it was all over when we needed two touchdowns in 3 minutes and had been killed on turnovers all game (all season) but we did it and me and my peterson guernsey (dress) were jumping on the couch, not using my inside woo. Awesomeness!
All round it was a very good evening – making tea together whilst watching f1, me reading a babysitters club book while he watched bear grylls, watching some Walter Payton highlights on youtube. It kinda makes me think that if j does get kicked out of where he’s living, we could live together relatively sucessfully in such a small place…

All by myself

And im lovin it…
I love living by myself
I love cooking without worrying about other peoples tastes
I love being able to lounge in my pj’s straight after work
I love being able to watch my reality trash (projectrunway, top chef, come dine with me) without being judged
I love not having to talk to anyone…
I love my lifestyle… Just as it is…

boys and their bbqs

well the last two nights have been a bbq affair.
monday night was hotdogs as we were watching several NFL games and was getting into the spirit of things. It was more of an aussie snausage snizzle really but the thought was there… Even if a vikings win wasn’t – and the bears had a bye week so it really was nothing to write home about…
But i got to wear my new Petersen Guernsey that i bought on the weekend… He had a good game – pity our quarterback didn’t.

but last night my boy had a hankering for some kebabs – i had some chicken already in the fridge so we marinated that with some oil and barbeque seasoning (thanks 5 ingrediant fix’s Claire Robinson for the idea!) and then he strung them onto skewers with mushrooms, capsicum, and cherry tomatos and barbequed them to perfection… i made the potato salad – potatos, egg, peas, red onion, mushrooms, and potato salad dressing. not my most inspired effort – usually there’s some bacon, spring onions, fresh parsley, sometimes i’ll put corn in there… but i remembered the bacon after i had finished and didn’t have any of the other ingrediants at hand…
but it was delicious anyway… and i have some leftovers for work lunch today…
show me potato salad!!! (onya family guy)