Category: Food

Mum’s birthday brekky

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On our trip home in October, Khicken and Kturtle put on an amazing spread for breakfast for Mum’s birthday. Here is the menu, accompanied by photos.

~ STARTERS ~
Breads, cheese, olives, sun dried tomato.

Smoked trout sandwiches, Dad’s salmon & avocado specialty:

~ FIRST COURSE ~
Herbed pikelets with pear and cream cheese, brandy, brie topping:

Asparagus and prosciutto bundles served with hollandaise sauce:

Field mushrooms topped with fun stuff:

Jumbo savoury omlette with caramelised onion (available dairy free as well):

~ SECOND COURSE ~
Grilled figs wrapped in prosciutto:

Seasonal tossed fruit, choice of yoghurts and Birthday Cake! Here’s a great photo of Mum and Dad with the birthday cake made by Mum’s friend:


And, as always with it was the little touches that made the day super-special. We also had sparkling white wine and coffees with liqueur of choice!

So thanks Kturtle and Khicken for an AMAZING feast and an all-round brilliant breakfast!

Little Cupcakes

/ Renae / 2 Comments

Whilst my good friend A-dele was visiting a couple of weeks ago, we stumbled upon the most delightful little cupcake shop called, well, Little Cupcakes! And I gotta say they were little beauties!!

I would be most happy to take anyone along for a treat when they come to visit! (jazzy cat – you are going to LOVE this place if you haven’t tried it out already!!)

We teamed up with our friend Tegan from high school and had the belgium button chocolate cupcakes.

All you can eat… and then some

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I thought I would share with you all the experience of visiting my Nanny and Grandpa. Since we moved to Melbourne, Nanny and Grandpa have been missing us terribly, and they’re looking forward to our visit in a couple of weeks. I’m sure Nanny has already started planning the menu, which could include any, (or all!) of the following:

Entre
Sledgie (pickled herring) usually served with steamed potato
Borscht (beetroot soup)
Other soup – chicken noodle, barley etc
Pickled cucumbers (what’s with all the pickling??!! Maybe that’s why they’re enjoying such a long life! – Grandpa is turning 90 this year and Nanny is 85.)

Here’s a photo of them:

Now back to the food…
Main course
Pierogi
Roast turkey
Chicken – either smoked or roasted (1 WHOLE chicken, that is!)
Sausages
Crumbed steak or pork
Crumbed Barramundi
Shepherd’s Pie
Polish Sausage
Potato – either fried (yummy!) or mashed and sometimes steamed AS WELL
Carrots, beans, peas, potato salad, seafood salad, cauliflower, pumpkin
Broccolyyyyyyy (thanks for agreeing with me Jenny!!)
Cucumber and sour cream, Coleslaw, Cabbage, Beetroot salad
A mixed platter of ham, boiled eggs, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese

At Christmas she’ll add Fresh prawns!

And then there’s…
Dessert!
Round 1:
Jelly
Ice Cream
Fruit Salad (I get a special one without mango 🙂
German Custard
Trifle

Round 2:
Napolean Cake (it looks a bit different when Nanny makes it) or
Walnut cake or
Cheesecake or
Apple Pie or
Fruit cake or
Plum pudding
and that’s not to say she won’t sometimes make 2 of these cakes for us!!

Round 3:
Tea & Coffee & Aldi biscuits

By this stage, most normal people will be groaning and loosening the belt. Or for those who know what Nanny’s is like, they’ve had the foresight to wear their stretchy pants! What you also may not know, is that Nanny cooks the same for 4 people as she does for 6 or 8, though when she knows another person is expected, she’ll cook more.

Here’s a photo from Christmas:

All jokes aside, I love my Nanny and Grandpa dearly and they are two of the most generous people I know. I just wish I could cook as good as Nanny!!

Mmmm…. parma….

/ Renae / 2 Comments

What? You mean to tell me you don’t know what a parma is? Well, OBVIOUSLY you’re not from Victoria then! When I first heard the phrase “parma night” I thought to myself “wow! Victorians sure like their cheese!” But after the initial mix up, I learnt what a Parma REALLY is!

It’s a CHICKEN PARMIGIANA! Basically, a slab of chicken, topped with bacon or ham or salami (i.e. pig) and cheese and herbs. Sounds healthy, I know!

My work colleague invited me to a parma night with a friend of hers and we went to a place called The Aviary which is around the Richmond area, not too far from where we live. They have been scoping out parmas for some time now and have decided this one was the best by far. If you go on their actual “parma night” you get your parma, chips and salad on a bread board, AND a glass of wine all for just $16. I thought it was just a pub we were going to, and getting pub grub. But no. It was all just lovely.

So if anyone comes to visit us on a Thursday night, rest assured we’ll be having a parma night!

The Everlasting Gobstopper

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My awesome brother and his gorgeous girlfriend went to Hahndorf, just outside of Adelaide (thanks for the correction bro!) for a wee trip a while ago and brought us back presents!! Everlasting Gobstoppers!! Hubsband’s was about the size of a golf ball, but since (apparently) I have a big mouth, mine was more like a tennis ball. Hubsband finished his off in a week or 2, and the proceeded to work on mine.

Here’s what it would have looked like before (if we’d taken a photo!):


And here’s what happens after a month of sitting in front of a computer, licking a gobstopper:


I must admit, I was very impressed with his persistence! I’m just worried about his next dentist bill… and he’s only half way through!!

Check out the lay-yers!

Restaureview

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I’ve decided that since we’re in one of the most well-known restaurant/cafe cities in Australia, I’m going to start reviewing the places we have been to for dinner and drinks. Tonight we’re going to look at a FANTASTIC Italian restaurant on Lygon street that we went to with some friends who are visiting from Brisbane. The restaurant is called Papa Gino’s and it is in the heart of the Italian Restaurant precinct of Melbourne.

We were treated to excellent service, nice ambiance, and FABULOUS Italian food. I couldn’t decide between the pasta and the pizza, so the waiter kindly suggested that I order an entree size of both! So I did! And what a great decision that was. The food was excellent value for money both in quality and quantity. We were not left wanting (and I’m still totally full an hour and a half later!)

Hubsband and our friend shared a calzone and a bolognaise pizza (I sampled both of those dishes too – yummmmmm!) and our other friend and I had the ravioli/tortellini with chicken and spinach in a tomato cream sauce. Oh…. my…. gawsh…. it was all just so good. We brought along some wine we had bought from the Yarra Valley (I still haven’t posted about that yet!!) and to top it off, we weren’t charged corkage. Now THAT’S my kind of place!

All in all a fantastic night out. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Spoilt rotten

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Since arriving in Melbourne, Hubs and I have been staying with a family friend and have been treated to home cooking every night. Here’s what we’ve had so far:

Saturday: home made curry (delicious!)
Sunday: roast lamb (gotta love the Sunday roast)
Monday: lamb shanks done in the slow cooker (oh my gosh it was SO GOOD!!)
Tuesday: beef stroganoff (the beef melted in our mouths)
Wednesday: chicken with taties and veges (with gravy left from the lamb shanks)

And don’t even get me started on the desserts! I think I’ve found a replacement for Nanny’s.

I’ve only been a Wifey for 7 months, but I have to agree with other longer term wifeys and mothers when they say that the best meals they have are the ones cooked for them. We really have been spoilt and it’s been nice having time with each other while we settle in to this wild city.