Rendang

My favourite curry has to be a beef rendang. It's just the best. All the goodness condenses and thickens and the meat gets to the stage where it falls apart... aaarrrghhgfaodsfiowdf. I'll just wipe the drool off my keyboard.

I made a rendang on the weekend - what could ever be bad about something that has all this goodness JUST IN THE PASTE?!?!? Cooking away...

Then a quick detour to the pub to have a punt on the Cox Plate. As usual, my husband was randomly successful in his gambling endeavours and won $100 on his first bet, and then wisely pocketed his winnings and withdrew from the betting game. I however, was only mildly successful in my usual backing of the favourites - I lasted a while, but in the end lost money (it was only about $10, but still).

And the most nommy-licious result (with some beans for health factor).

Ugg boots

My deep affection for my Ugg boots knows few bounds. Year round, one of the first things I do when I come home is to put them on. A short history - Drew bought my my first (pink) pair off Uggs from NZ - we bonded quickly and became inseparable. They lasted a bit more than three years before requiring replacement. Another pink pair were procured - not as good quality as the NZ pair, and they recently got a hole. So when we went to NZ, I bought these babies. I loooove them. For obvious reasons - hello cowhide. The only problem is they have a proper sole on them (pro: better to wear outdoors, and to formal engagements, con: they are quite heavy and not as comfy as a purely indoor Ugg). So, not detracting from my love for the cowhide, formal Ugg, I just bought a pair of indoor, less formal Uggs. Some may say this is unnecessary. To them I say... whatever. They are lovely.

They are from NZ - a brand called Mi Woolies - the same as the original pink pair Drew bought me which lasted really well. Em has recently hopped on board the Ugg boot bandwagon - I thoroughly encourage you all to do the same.

Something I took care of made flowers!

I'm pretty proud of this - I think it's a first. We bought a jasmine plant a few months ago and not only has it stayed alive, its flowered! So now our back deck smells like jasmine, which I love. When we first moved to Sydney and were staying in Double Bay, there was jasmine everywhere and in summer the whole suburb smelt like it, it's just a lovely, gentle, summery, warm smell. Sometimes I walk outside just to smell it.
The gardenias we bought at the same time look like they want to flower soon too, but I think they want a bigger pot before they are going to give in and produce the goods. If that happens I will be totally excited - I think jasmine is really quite easy to keep alive and flowering, which gardenias are more fussy (in that they are slightly fussy and possibly not considered a pest that grows like mad).

Is there a finer sight?

I had a lieu day off yesterday after working last Sunday, and really wanted to make a nice dinner. So I piled up the cookbooks on the couch, put on some Mad Men, and made tea. I just couldn't decide though - I was being totally indecisive and nothing was really grabbing me. I ended up finding something I liked, but then after ringing the reasonable butcher (not it's real name - but the explanation for the nickname is obvious when you compare it to Hudsons) and Hudsons, with neither having skirt steak in stock, it was back to the books. I seriously looked for a couple of hours, but nothing excited me... that is, until I came to the "Meat" cookbook (which is excellent BTW - thanks Em) and saw a picture of a burger, and I was totally sold. This magnificent specimen has minced bacon, onion, Dijon, Worcestershire sauce and egg in the patty. I think some good smoked bacon really made a difference. I made my favourite oven chips with it - from scratch, naturally. The secret is to par-boil the chips before you put them in the oven (lots of EVOO, rosemary, chili flakes and Parmesan - trust me, it's so good). And of course, you can't have chips without mayo. Well I can't anyway. I know it's like pure fat, but OMG, it's just so good. I couldn't help myself before I took the pic, I had to quickly shove some mayo laden chips in my mouth... which you can probably tell, because the mayo is a bit of a mess, but whatever.
In other news, my cold turned out to be far from mild, and I still have this dry hacking cough that won't go away. What it will do however is send Jamie to the spare room at three in the morning... Making it only the second time we've been together he's slept in the spare room (the first time he had gastro and was intermitently throwing up in a bucket next to the bed, so thought he'd do it in the spare room).

Spring days.

Yesterday we went on a picnic to celebrate the birthday of the lovely Ros. Right down by the water, looking right on to the opera house and bridge, beautiful day, good times. I was totally paralysed with indecision earlier on in the week as to what I should take/ make for the picnic, but things were sorted out pretty quickly when we ended up spending most of the morning in Mosman to have me fitted for new running shoes and not having much time to spare (home made pastry, tart, and carrot cake ideas quickly flying out the window). A quick stop off at the local grocer to stock up on far too much cheese (let's be honest - no one is surprised by that one), smoked chicken, baguette, tomato, rocket and pate and we were off. We sat by the water for a leisurely few hours and then walked home with the afternoon sun on our faces.
Today I have a bit of a cold and I have to work, so everyone is hearing about it. I'm also feeling a bit blimpy from not running all week (sore foot). But the foot is on the mend, the cold is at worst only mild, I got made soft boiled eggs with buttery toast soldiers for brekky this morning, and I'll get Friday off for working today.
In other exciting news I don't believe I've blogged about, Jamie and I have booked tickets to go to the US/ Canada for Christmas! We fly to San Fran on December 9, and then we'll drive up to Vancouver, taking our time and stopping off at places we like on the way, arriving well in time for Christmas with my fam. Seven weeks to go...

I have an ow

So today I found out I have plantar fasciitis. Which sounds drastic, but is, according to Wikipedia a "painful inflammatory condition of the foot". My foot isn't swollen or anything, but apparently the tendon which runs between the heel and ball of my foot (along the arch) is. And it feels like a big bruise which is taking all my body weight with every step I take.
It seems I've done it running, and now I have a taped up foot after seeing a nice podiatrist. It has to stay taped up for two days - I wanted to take a picture of it for the blog, but because I went to the podiatrist about it, I took off my red toenail polish, and I just think my feet look strange without nail polish, so couldn't quite bear to have a "naked" pic. Then I thought about painting my toe nails for the picture, but then weighed that up against not being able to wash my foot for two days (while the strapping stays on), so then I had this whole internal monologue about my foot, nail polish and washing. Which clearly resulted in me doing nothing. I'm sure no-one is really that interested in my foot anyway.
But the taping looks impressive, and also, importantly, is highly visible, so I can look sad, point at my foot, accidentally show people, and hobble around sighing.
Good news too - high heels aren't a problem with this condition.

Movie inspiration

We saw Julie & Julia last weekend. It goes without saying that I loved it and immediately started thinking how deserving my blog was of a book and movie deal (very). Jamie really liked it too. There's lots of food, it's funny and feelgood, and it's a true story. I liked that both Julie and Julia's hubby's were really nice too and supportive of their quirky wives.
I took some inspiration from the movie, perhaps unsurprisingly. But it wasn't for a whole boned duck wrapped in pastry, it was for bruschetta, which the blogger, Julia and her hubby are eating when she gets the inspiration for the blog. So I bought three different kinds of yummy tomatoes from Fratelli, and we had a delish easy and quick Sunday night dinner!

Self portrait of me in the new specs.

New glasses

I am due for a new pair of glasses, and thought I'd be really clever and order them online for a third of the price. Drew recently did the same thing and had his glasses within a week. Things didn't turn out so well for me. Two months later I am still without my new Chanel frames, but according to UPS, they will be with me early this week!
This is them, and I'm quite excited. I was originally going to go for another black and nude pair, but it was a bit too much nude on face, which could have been a it scary given how pale I am. But I liked the concept of black and nude, so this was a good compromise.

Stuff white people like

One of our favourite gags to pay out on ourselves is to say what we like or what we are doing belongs on the list of "Stuff white people like", which is totally accurate and totally funny.
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

And on Saturday we had a total "white people" day. After yoga (tick), we went out for breakfast (tick), then to the farmers market (tick) to buy some organic produce (tick), with me wearing a scarf (tick) and gumboots (tick), then we came home to watch mad men (tick).
But hilarity aside, the farmers markets are totally cool. It's right near my work, and sets up the first Saturday of every month. It was windy, rainy and cold on Saturday, but it was still chockers! Perhaps this explains why...

Fergus Henderson of St John Restaurant fame was in town for the food festival, and the pig on the spit was in his honour. I'm pretty confident that's him in the middle ground gesticulating. There were a bunch of rock star chefs all cooking "nose to tail" pork. Needless to say, we undertook in the adventure. One pigs head terrine later, we were still cold, but happy.

I'm not one for fancy advertising logo's, but confronted with one so convincing as "eat more venison," I am helpless. And the guy selling the venison was really "farmer wants a wife" country cute, and I was all "oh, really, tell me more about the venison - I'm going to make a pie, what would you reccommend?" So we have a venison leg with which we are going to make the pie we made in NZ, and last night we had venison sausages with fennel and chili, and they were great!

Husband, doing it "under a vacuum"

No, this isn't a kinky post about combining sex and the vacuum cleaner. Nor is it a post about me bludgeoning Jamie with a vacuum cleaner. Although I did vacuum today, and it's rare to get a feeling of satisfaction better than knowing your floors have been vacuumed and mopped and that the whole house smells like bleach. PLUS - it's six o'clock, and I'm still in my PJ's, drinking beer. PLUS - it's a long weekend. Seriously... life is pretty good. And I haven't even factored into the excitement the fact I'm roasting a whole duck for dinner tonight.
But I digress. Last weekend, the hubby cooked me a lovely Sunday lunch, the pinnacle of which was some lamb sous vide "under a vacuum". Now, this is a fancy technique that is all the rage in expensive restaurants, with chefs vacuum sealing meat and slowly poaching it in temperature controlled water. However, in the latest issue of Cuisine, they explain how you can do it at home. And it's reasonably uncomplicated. You put your meat (lamb back strap in this case) in a ziplock bag, with some tasty things like EVOO, garlic, mint etc, and then put the bag in 60 degree water (the meat thermometer came in handy here) for 8-10 mins for medium rare. Then you seal the lamb in a skillet, rest it for 10 mins in the oven, and et voila!!

I was so impressed with the hubby for this one. Admittedly, the first batch he tried didn't go so well when the water boiled and the bags melted, but take two was just spot on, and oh so tasty.