Tag Archives: Christmas

Boxing day and the next

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It’s coming close to the end of 2012. It’s been an interesting and tumultuous year in some respects. I’m still not sure if this will be my last post of the year. Somehow I think I have more to give especially if I continue to eat like I am while in Brisbane.

Christmas day was a very different one for me. This is the first time I’ve spent Christmas day with Mum and Dad and no one else. I’ll get to see my daughters on Friday. My brothers were doing things with their own immediate families and there were no visitors and no visits to aunts, uncles and cousins places. We’ve all grown up and this year I spent the day with Mum and Dad.

The Christmas day post outlined the majority of the food images from breakfast and lunch.

In the afternoon we went for a short stroll. Dad now walks with a stick so we’re limited to pavement and roads.

Out for a stroll with Mum and Dad

The afternoon was glorious. It was warm and it was humid enough to not be uncomfortably dry.

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We ventured around the retirement village and aged care facility on site. It’s ominous when an ambulance arrives with sirens and leaves slowly in silence.

Anyone for lawn bowls?

The village has its own swimming pool and lawn bowls area.

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Dinner was a simple affair. Mum decided we didn’t need pudding or cake or anything too sickly sweet after a big lunch. I agreed on a spread of cheese and fruit.

Dinner is served 😃🎅🎄🎁

This was a delicious way to end the day. We had fresh mangoes, cherries, seedless water melon and cheeses.

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Perfect weather for Boxing Day in Brisbane #Rain #igersbrisbane

Boxing Day morning I woke up feeling good in my skin. It was warm and it was raining. I had a bead of sweat on my forehead and my skin didn’t feel dry and cracked.

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Boxing Day in Australia (like many countries) means that large department stores and malls have significant sales on. Department stores like David Jones and Myer do a brisk trade as do most other stores. In Sydney the David Jones stores open at 0500 AEDT. In Melbourne it’s 0600 AEDT. Brisbane is more civilised and the stores tend to open at 0900 AEST. I’d bought the girls their present in Canberra and brought it up with me. I also intended to buy them some things that were going to be on sale. With steely determination I ventured to Westfield Chermside. I arrived at 0845 AEST and car park was full.

Great Boxing Day parking whoever you are. #smartdriver

This sort of parking is what elicits car park rage. I witnessed another person write something rude on a piece of paper and attach it to the driver’s side window.

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Rather than wake up Mum and Dad I elected to have breakfast at the mall.

The morning just got better.

Preshopping breakfast.

The eggs were pretty good. The Hollandaise wasn’t that good. There was hardly enough to pour on both eggs. I had breakfast at Cafe Siena in Westfield Chermside. I wrote a Google+ review.

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I ended up getting my girls some extra stuff for their new Wii U plus some games and external hard drives for their photographs and other data.

Mum's birthday flowers I got her from last week. Australian natives.

On getting back to Mum and Dad’s I noticed the flowers I got for Mum’s birthday which was last week. These are Australian natives. They’ll last for weeks if not months.

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One of the nice things about an abundance of Christmas food is left overs.

Lunch. Left over chicken and duck with mayonnaise and lettuce. Delicious.

Today’s lunch was fresh white bread filled with chicken, duck, mayonnaise and lettuce.

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Another feature of Boxing Day in Australia is a cricket test match played in Melbourne. When I was a boy I happily spent hours watching cricket relieved during breaks when we’d go outside and play cricket in the back yard. Today was the first time I’ve sat and watched cricket with Dad for decades. In the late afternoon though I discovered (to some horror) that Mum and Dad enjoy the television soap opera, viz., The Bold and the Beautiful. I elected to go for a walk rather than endure that.

You can see the simple route at http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/137877980

I walked past a Jenny Craig franchise and thought after all I’ve eaten I may need to visit.

Christmas inspiration :-)

That said there is a legal history between Jenny Craig and my father so I never will.

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I bought my first Falcon here in the 1990s

This is where I bought my first Ford Falcon. Not a V8, they were to come later when I lived in Darwin when I owned three V8 Falcons and Fairmonts.

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Favourite takeaway in the 1980s

This is a place we used to frequent in the 1980s and get takeaway Chinese food from. As an IG friend quipped, not exactly new anymore.

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Dinner of leftovers. Delicious.

Boxing day dinner was a simple affair of left over chicken and duck plus some potato bake and a salad. It was delicious with lots of avocado.

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This morning I woke to the tragic news that Gerry Anderson had died after a battle with dementia. Gerry was the creator of SUPERMARIONATION and the developer and producer of television programs like Thunderbirds are GO, Fireball XL5 and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. As a kid and even now I love the Thunderbirds. The whole concept of International Rescue and the story behind Jeff Tracy and his sons each named after a Mercury astronaut was so compelling. Now that I work in emergency management there are days I wish we had The Thunderbirds on-call. Virgil was my favourite character. Virgil piloted TB2. I was also very fond of Gordon who piloted TB4.

YouTube is replete with clips. I’ve added a few that I like, but there are so many more.
Thunderbirds are GO! http://youtu.be/BfIAKj3Gl1E

This is the closing theme music from AudioBoo (I hope this works)

http://audioboo.fm/boos/1027643-thunderbirds-are-go

Take off of TB1 and TB2 on YouTube. The beginning is a little tedious but once you see the swimming pool move you’ll be sucked in.

Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_Are_Go

Vegemite and jam on toast with coffee.

Breakfast was sombre and simple. Vegemite and jam on toast with a strong coffee.

Brisbane has put on a magnificent day for us today. #BluSky

The day itself looked good.

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Today Mum and Dad asked me to take them on a long drive. They don’t get out much from the retirement village except in bus trips with other residents. So we spent the day driving with no plan.

This holiday's hire chariot. A Toyota Camry.

This is the car I hired. It’s a Toyota Camry. It is quite good. The remote key entry and ignition is cool. I like how it connects easily with my iPhone through Bluetooth.

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I suggested Caloundra and Mum said why not Noosa, in the end I decided not to turn off and we ended up in Gympie in time for morning tea. Gympie has a long history in Queensland, some of it not so positive. I think you have to be a local to share those tales so I won’t go on. I had many friends from Gympie in my university and early years as a medical practitioner. I remember one gorgeous nurse from my intern year…

I want to travel around Australia on a vanilla slice crawl

Morning tea was at the Little Brown Jug cafe in Gympie. I had a pot of tea and a vanilla slice. Regular readers know my fondness for vanilla slice and my dream of one day doing a vanilla slice crawl around Australia. Vanilla slice search of Yummy Lummy.

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After Gympie we hit the road and headed to Noosa. In the 1970s and 1980s we would spend Easter holidays at Noosa and occasionally some Summer holidays too. As we got older, we ended buying a place at Caloundra and I remember weekends and holidays in my later years of high school on the beach every chance I could get.

In Noosa we used to stay at a place called Paramount Towers on Hastings Street. Mum said it was reasonable in the day at $50 a night. I can’t imagine how much it would cost now that Noosa is one of the most expensive tourist places in South East Queensland.

It used to be Paramount Towers in the 1970s when I was in primary school. We'd come here every Easter.

It’s now called the Settler’s Cove.

So many good boyhood memories here.

This is the famous Noosa beach. I used to love this beach. So many good boyhood memories. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the beach was crowded with locals and tourists. It was kind of exotic and there would be lots of foreign tourists. For a young fella, what I remember most was that most young women on the beach had no desire to wear much and many would lay in the sun and enter the water topless. There was a clothes-free beach a short walk away but no one seemed to care. Anyway, enough of those thoughts…naughty Gaz.

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Rather than eat lunch at an over priced place in Noosa, Mum suggested Buderim. Buderim is a sleepy town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It has a significant number of senior Australians (aka self funded retirees) and is a favourite place of art and craft lovers. Dad was feeling a little tired so rather than look too far we stopped at a cafe and enjoyed a toasted sandwich.

Lunch. Chicken mayonnaise and avocado.

I had a chicken, mayonnaise and avocado toasted sandwich.

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For dinner tonight we enjoyed a crumbed steak and salad.

Dinner. Crumbed steak and salad :-)

I will confess I ended up eating two large pieces of scotch rib fillet steak that was covered in fresh bread crumbs. They are irresistible.

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Things and places mentioned in this post

Myer
http://www.myer.com.au/

David Jones
http://davidjones.com.au

Westfield Chermside
http://www.westfield.com.au/chermside
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/dKrdP


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Cafe Siena
Google+ https://plus.google.com/117272677739548942732/about?gl=au&hl=en

Boxing day test match
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day_Test

The Bold and The Beautiful
http://www.boldandbeautiful.com/

Gympie
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gympie
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/TxtYd


View Larger Map

Little Brown Jug https://foursquare.com/v/little-brown-jug/4c9fe1f654c8a1cd2f2c9b4b

Noosa
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosa
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Nc7Y9


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Buderim
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buderim
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/CXXfT


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I also came across this clip on YouTube. Okay, so you get the idea, I’m a scifi geek.

Evolution of the USS Enterprise
http://youtu.be/oAakbHMvgzI

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Week 52 2012 Christmas

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I hope I have one more post for 2012 to close out the year. This post however, will focus on the lead up and execution of Christmas 2012.

The last weekend was another quiet one. I didn’t have much to do besides wash clothes and clean the apartment. I’d completed all my Christmas shopping and so I enjoyed a weekend of lounging and watching DVDs. I ended up seeing the end of series three of Breaking Bad and watching what in the US is the first series of Strike Back. Apparently in the UK, there were six episodes shown before the US saw the seventh episode which it calls the first episode. I don’t understand the reasoning. The story can be found at IMDB and Wikipedia.

Because I was travelling for Christmas and New Year I needed to go through the contents of my refrigerator. Toasted sandwiches are always a good weekend lunch option.

Toasted red salmon and tomato sandwich. Delicious.

Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.

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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.

Scotch fillet steak (rare) with mango and feta salad.

I served it with a mango salad that also had salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and lots of Australian feta cheese. I made a light gravy from the marinade which was sherry, oil and soy plus some honey and mixed herbs and some minced garlic. I thickened it with some corn flour and used a little red wine to deglase my fry pan. I like my steak rare so this got about 90 seconds on each side and was rested for 10 minutes.

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On Saturday night a storm brewed but we didn’t see any rain. The clouds though were very pretty. I captured this image from my balcony but there were some much better ones from other IGers.

Amazing clouds over Lake Ginninderra.

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I forgot to mention in my last post, that on Thursday evening when dining with my friends they gave me a book for Christmas. http://garydavidlum.com/2012/12/22/week-51-2012-christmas-party-season/

Great Christmas gift from friends

I like watching Jamie Oliver on television and if you search this blog for Jamie Oliver you’ll see a number of references. http://garydavidlum.com/?s=Jamie+Oliver&submit=Search I’ve heard though with Jamie Oliver’s recipes that sometimes they’re wrong, that is, quantities can be significantly off. This doesn’t always get corrected. If you know enough to know that’s fine but if you’re pretty ignorant like me, that can spell disaster.

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WARNING Sad Image

One of the saddest images I’ve captured is this one. Last week I posted this image of a friendly blue tongued skink. Sadly it was run over in my apartment car park.

This guy greeting me when I got home.

From last week

So very sad. The blue tongued skink I met last week came to a sad end in the car park.

What I came across on Sunday morning.

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I love pistachios

Snack time

Snack time.

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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.

Lunch. Blue cheese, Aldi tinned red salmon and tomato.

This time with blue cheese because like bacon and butter, everything tastes better with blue cheese.

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On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.

Salmon and mango salad with blue cheese

Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.

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Normally when I’m walking back from the post office you can see heaps of people at work.

Barren on Christmas eve.

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There are no calories for the next two weeks.

There are no calories for the next two weeks.

Caramel doughnut.

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I was tempted, but this was for a work friend.

No I did not eat this jam doughnut. I did covert it though. Ping @jacquimkane @jesskirkham08

Jam filled doughnut.

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Because a work mate was ill last week when we went to the snag stand, we went back with her on Monday.

Spicy cheese kransky on brioche is the bomb. Ping @kecozanat @jacquimkane @jesskirkham08

Spicy cheese kransky on brioche. This was delicious. Our plan is to eat through the entire menu.

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I finished work early on Christmas eve and I went to the airport as soon as I could.

White Christmas

A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.

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I also had a couple of chilli beef pastizzi in the lounge

Chilli beef pastizzi

They were a little hot.

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I managed to secure an upgrade on flight QF960. The flight was meant to leave a little after 1745 however a couple of storm cells hit Canberra and to keep the ground crew safe they were evacuated from the tarmac and we stayed in the aeroplane for more than an hour connected to the aerobridge. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll see were we able to use our telephones.

QF960 crumbed steak

For dinner I had the crumbed beef. The crumb also contained feta cheese. While the beef was well done and tough, everything else was very nice.

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When I got to my parent’s place I put out presents for them and my girls (who I’ll see later this week).

Mum and Dad's Christmas tree

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It’s Christmas Day. I had a poor night’s sleep, not through Christmas excitement, but because I’m sleeping on my childhood bed. Dad woke up early and we sat together for a couple of hours while he told me stories.

Christmas breakfast of champions. Vegemite on toast. I'm pacing myself today. #Christmas

I had a light breakfast in anticipation of a big lunch. The breakfast of champions, vegemite on toast with a couple of coffees.

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And so lunch preparation begins…

One chook with skin tightened with boiling water. #Christmas

This is chicken after we’d tightened the skin with boiling water.

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Mum's seafood sauce for the prawns.

Mum made a 1000 islands dressing for our lunch time prawns. If you click on the image you can work out the ingredients in a chat with Hilah from hilahcooking.com

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Our duck is patiently waiting. #Christmas

The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.

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Prawns to start #Christmas

The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.

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#Christmas prawns

I love prawns.

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The prawns were good 😃😃😃 #Christmas

I could not help capture an after image.

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My task is to remove the neck. I love a Chinese cleaver.

The duck had a reasonable neck attached. You can tell my intent by the strategically placed Chinese meat cleaver.

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My next job is an actor on Game of Thrones #Christmas

I want a role on The Game of Thrones as an executioner.

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Because everything is better with bacon. #Christmas duck.

Because everything is better with bacon.

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When chook meets duck #Christmas

Side by side, don’t they look a treat (and very cute too).

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Chicken cut up #Christmas

Mum makes a mean stuffing. Check out https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/b0224e03-ecac-4ec6-93cd-7f8246b75d18/45f16c08058a64d34147000cbd21095d for the details. I had my eye on the Maryland at the top of the image. It has the cloaca attached. I love a chook’s cloaca when it’s been roasted.

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Poultry mix duck and chook #Christmas

With the duck added. I like to cut the breast off and slice it. It makes it easier to eat because you bite end on into the grain of the meat. Do you see the size of the duck’s neck and cloaca? I’d already bagsed (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bagsed) them.

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All the stuff separately for lunch #Christmas

Because of the small size of Mum’s kitchen and oven, rather than roasted vegetables, Mum made a potato bake yesterday and we heated it up in a small toaster oven at lunch time. We also had broccoli, asparagus and peas.

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My plate was full of goodness. Duck and chook arse plus duck neck and breast and chook thigh. Oh and some vegetables. #Christmas

This is my plate. Mum made a nice orange flavoured sauce too. It was sublime.

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Mmm... I dissected out the trachea from the neck bones of the duck. The duck coccyx is also there too #Christmas

The neck has such nicely flavoured meat. I also managed to dissect out the trachea too. This started a nice little chat on twitter and instagram.

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So that’s it for now. Mum decided against making a pudding or a pavlova. This evening we’ll have fruit and some cheese. I’m pretty grateful. I don’t really want to blow out. I can fit into a pair of shorts I like to wear at Christmas time so I’m happy holding back a little.

I hope everyone reading this blog had a wonderful time if you celebrate Christmas. I hope your day was full of happiness and peace and good food.

Merry Christmas friends,

Your friend and fellow blogger

Gaz

Things and places mentioned in this post

Kransky sausage
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kranjska_klobasa

Strike Back
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back_%28TV_series%29
IMDB entry http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492179/

Pastizz
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastizz

Related articles

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

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Saturday night I went to a Christmas barbecue with some friends. It was a good night with lots of tasty food and good company. I’d like to say it was unseasonably cold, but this is Canberra. It’s snowed close by on a Christmas day before. What can I say, I’m looking forward to being in Queensland for Christmas where the weather is more to my liking.

Again like Friday night I was a bit slow with my iPhone and I didn’t capture images of the nibbles. There were lots of nibbles. Lots of nuts, dips, cheese, pâté, crackers, bread, chips, and stuff. For dinner we had a barbecue with steak, hamburger patties and sausages plus potato bake, coleslaw and other salads.

Like a lot of my previous posts I’m using images from my instagram profile. You can get more information on each image by clicking on it to see comments from other IGers.

Dinner is served. Ping @macjam1 @chat2tb @natmcb

The spread

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Okay so there's lots of meat. Ping @chat2tb @natmcb @macjam1

My plate

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Burger

Some of my friends queried my burger contents of steak, sausage, hamburger pat tie, coleslaw and potato bake. I thought it all went well together.

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Pavlova. Thank you @sonia_with_an_i Ping @natmcb @macjam1 @chat2tb

For dessert we had pavlova.

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I was cold

I was cold. I’m glad I brought a hoodie and was given a wrap.

View the twitter conversation here and here and here

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I spent most of Sunday relaxing. I did a little grocery shopping and then got into watching series two of Breaking Bad. This is a surprisingly good series. Like The Walking Dead I’m addicted.

I felt pretty full from the night before so my breakfast and lunch was an iced coffee banana smoothie.

I still feel full from last night at @macjam1 barbecue. Iced coffee banana smoothie for breakfast.

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One of the things I don't like about Christmas.

You can tell it’s Christmas with cars wearing reindeer antlers and candy canes. I’m not a fan :-)

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Pineapple smoothie

I love pineapple and a pineapple smoothie was in order for afternoon tea.

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Dinner. Salmon, salad and @macjam1 's potato salad from last night's barbecue. Lots of lettuce, tomato and feta.

I took home a left over potato bake from Saturday night so now I have potato bake for a few nights this week.

This meal was a piece of salmon, some potato bake and some salad.

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On Monday morning as I was checking out my post office box the new art was standing proud, all shiny and new.

It looks shiny and new #publicart #igerscanberra

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Workplace birthday celebration for a youngster.

One of my work friends turned 32 on Monday.

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Dinner. Pork with @macjam1 's potato bake and salad.

Monday evening’s dinner was a rasher of pork, some salad and some potato bake.

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Sneaking up on Mr Owl #publicart #igerscanberra

I read today the new terms and conditions of use for Instagram. If Instagram wants to use my images I really don’t mind, I can’t imagine any of them are worthy. My only concern is that some of my images contain people and I may not always have permission to include them. Many IGers moved to Flickr. I received more e-mails from Flickr in the last few days than in the few years I’ve had an account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/garydlum

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Dinner. Salmon, salad and the last of @macjam1 's potato bake from the weekend.

Tuesday night’s dinner was a piece of salmon, some salad and the last of the weekend’s potato bake. The drink is made from pineapple and mint leaves plus some lime cordial.

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On Wednesday I forgot to make my lunch.

Lunch. Salmon and caper quiche.

This was a smoked salmon and capers quiche from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It was very nice. The raspberry soft drink was also pretty good too.

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Food regret

Afternoon tea. Jam doughnut. #BreadTop

Jess went out for doughnuts and I said yes. I shouldn’t have. It came from Breadtop in Woden. The Breadtop franchise has grown well in Australia. See below for details.

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A friendly visitor

This guy greeting me when I got home.

This cute blue tongue lizard greeted me when I alighted from my car in the apartment garage.
Wikipedia entry

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Wednesday dinner was a pork rasher and mango salad. It was delicious.

Dinner. Pork rasher with mango salad.

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On Thursday we had our branch Christmas morning tea.

Work Christmas morning tea

Many sections, branches and divisions have out of office get together. When we’ve tried that in the past something has gone wrong like a health emergency necessitating staff to return to the office. It’s just part of working in an emergency management team.

These were amazing. Thank you @xamyclarex Ping @kecozanat @jacquimkane

These were amazing. Cylinders of crunchy nutty brownie goodness topped with a chocolate ganache with a white chocolate tipped strawberry which is sitting in a white chocolate disc for stability. The person who made these has made some great strawberry based treats in the past, especially her chocolate drizzled strawberry and marshmallow kebabs. I think nearly everyone in the branch has a cooking or food bent. It’s amazing.

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Everyone in the branch received an end of the year award.

Workplace awards at Christmas morning tea for the branch.

I think everyone knows I love capturing images of food and then posting them to Instagram.

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At lunch the other SES (Senior Executive Service) staff from the division went to lunch. We went to The Palette which is in the Beaver Galleries.

Crumbed lamb brains and capers Ping @DrOffal

I’m sorry this is so blurry. I was so excited to be having crumbed lamb brains with a capers and vinegar side. The piquancy of the capers and vinegar offset the fattiness of the brains perfectly. The brains were lightly crumbed and not overcooked. Kept into small portions like these, the taste is delicious and not overpowering. Lambs brains brings back great childhood memories of Mum cooking crumbed lambs brains with a white sauce with onion and parsley.

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The Beaver Galleries are a landmark of Canberra art and culture. I’ve been there a couple of times now. The gallery is full of exquisite pieces. That said, the prices are very high.

One of my favourite food bloggers is Hannah of Wayfaring Chocolate fame. Earlier this year she did a review of sweet selection at The Palette

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The trifecta for Thursday was Christmas dinner with dear friends.

Fresh prawns

We started with freshly cooked prawns. These were cooked in sea water, yes sea water that had been specially collected.

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Amazing crackling

The main was a roast pork and vegetables. The crackling was sublime.

Roast pork and vegetables

The peas were home grown in the garden along with the snow peas.

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Violet crumble semi fredo

For dessert we devoured a violet crumble semifreddo.

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While Friday was not the last day of work for 2012, it had a very holiday feel. Ursula, our branch executive assistant gave me a toy car filled with lollies for Christmas.

Today's Christmas present. It is full of lollies. Thanks Ursula.

I played vroom vroom throughout the day.

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Office moving day. I won't be able to fly these where I'm going. Yes I know the NT flag is upside down. It's a distress signal.

I moved offices as part of my new role. In my old office I had a big pin board on which I could hang my favourite flags. The top one is Queensland’s flag. A quick search of this blog will reveal how I feel about being a Queenslander  and Queensland.

The bottom flag belongs to the Northern Territory of Australia. Brisbane may be my home town and I am a passionate Queenslander, however, Darwin is my spiritual home, it’s where my soul lives. For that reason the flag has always been hung upside down in my office. An upside down flag is a maritime distress signal. I want to return home. I expect Australian readers to recognise it’s upside down, for my non-Australian readers, the stars represent the Southern Cross and it is upside down.

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We’d heard some weeks ago about the Snag Stand. A new franchise from Sydney and Melbourne had opened two outlets in Canberra, one very close to where we work.

I'm at snag stand Woden

They cook and assemble onsite. It’s a pretty busy place.

The menu for the Sydney outlets is here and for the Melbourne outlets here. They don’t have the Canberra ones posted. I assume they are similar.

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We brought our food back to work.

Swiss bratwurst. It was good. Ping @alivicwil @abefrellman

I chose a Swiss Bratwurst. It was topped with a really yummy Sauerkraut

Close up of my Swiss bratwurst sausage.

It was excellent. Not too big and not too salty.

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Last night I needed something light.

Free range organic chicken drumstick with salad.

Organic free range chicken drumstick and salad.

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This morning on my walk I tried the new Instagram Mayfair filter when saying hello to the Owl Statue.

Good morning Mr Owl #ProCamera #Mayfair #publicart #igerscanberra

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I hope at the end of next week to write a short piece about 2012. It won’t be much. Hopefully I’ll be enjoying myself in Brisbane where it will be warm and moist.

Places and things mentioned in this post in more detail.

Breaking Bad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/
http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad

Breadtop
http://www.breadtop.com.au/
http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/breadtop/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv


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Beaver Galleries
http://www.beavergalleries.com.au/
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Di7Yr


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The Snag Stand
http://snagstand.com.au/


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http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/snag-stand/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv

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Shout out for Mum and her almond roca

2 Replies

When we were kids Mum would buy us a small tin of almond roca for Christmas. She really liked the stuff and she recently said she’s had trouble finding it.

I went to CostCo today and look what I found :-) 822 g of sweet goodness. When I visit her later next month this tin is hers. Image

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Is there a word better than awesome for tonight’s dinner?

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Tonight Bron and I had a plan. There was still food in the refrigerator and ideas born during Christmas feasting.

For the main course we had ham and cheese tarts with a pear and walnut salad. On Christmas day we had fig and goat cheese tarts. Bron’s sister Lou gave me some cheese for Christmas including some lovely Spanish goat cheese. There was also another firm cheese which we couldn’t identify which was friable like the goat cheese and just as flavoursome. Instead of figs we used apple to sweeten the saltiness created by the ham and cheese.

On Christmas eve and Christmas day we had a pear and walnut salad with Gorgonzola cheese. The cheese added so my to the flavour.

Goat cheese from Spain

Uncooked tarts

Out of the oven these little beauties were puffed right up, they looked like soufflés.

Cooked tarts right out of the oven

Pear and walnut salad with Gorgonzola cheese

The salad is so good. It’s almost on a par with Caesar salad as my favourite.

Tart and salad plated up

Bron had some egg whites in the refrigerator after needing egg yolks for custard on Christmas day. She made her first ever pavlova. No matter what anyone from across the Tasman sea says, this is an Aussie invention. I love pavlova. I recall many happy times as a kid when Mum would make a pav for a special dinner and then my brothers and I would eat what was left for breakfast the next day.

Pavlova base

Whipped cream

I got to whip the cream. I love whipped cream.

Passionfruit and raspberries on a bed of whipped cream on pavlova

The passionfruit pulp was a little tart which was a nice contrast to the sweetness of the pav.

Plated up pavlova

We added more whipped cream and some strawberry coulis to the plate.

This was a great meal. Thanks @bron

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Leftover duck and leek pie

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On Christmas eve eve (last Friday) we watched a Jamie Oliver Christmas special. He described his leftover turkey and leek pie which looked amazing. For our Christmas we had a roast duck and we thought it would go well as a leftover duck and leek pie. The other twist to the recipe is that instead of rolling chestnuts into the pastry, walnuts were rolled in. It gave the pastry a great flavour and a fantastic texture.

Duck and leek pie

On the plate I found turning the pie upside down better as a vessel to absorb the amazing gravy that coms from preparing the filling.

Duck and leek pie

What I haven’t added are the images of me eating the leftover pie from the pie dish and all the gravy poured into it. Well not all the gravy, but most of it.

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Christmas lunch, awesome food

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After The most awesome Christmas eve dinner Christmas day 2011 will be a day to remember for so many good reasons. The food was outstanding. Breakfast was skipped even though we all know it’s the most important meal of the day. Snacking was avoided despite nice snack food being in abundance. The planning had been long in the making, the day was about lunch and the goodness a Christmas lunch can bring.

The entrée was centred around black figs and goat cheese. These were made from scratch and were perfectly cooked. The sweetness of the fig was nicely balanced with the cheese’s saltiness. It was a perfect start for a large meal.

Fig and goat cheese tart

The main course was centred around a roast duck. The duck was prepared with a nice cherry stuffing and the hope was for the abundant duck fat to provide flavour and crunch to crispy roast potatoes and parsnips.

A roast duck is a slippery “critter” on a non-stick surface and trying to turn it to rest in the oven in three positions was a loving challenge. I. Love. Duck!!!

Roasted duck and vegetables

Roasted duck and vegetables

As you can see the cherry stuffing wanted to emerge early. It tasted so good.

Plated up we had duck, ham, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, parsnips, snow peas, broccoli and asparagus spears.

Christmas lunch

Some twitter friends have commented that I don’t eat enough greens and that avocado is not a green. Well here’s some proof that there are green vegetables on my plate. You may also notice I was honoured with the choicest pieces of the duck. I was able to enjoy the neck, tail and thigh. I love the dark meat and the oily fatty goodness in the loose skin of the neck and tail. These pieces are so full of flavour.

Some readers may be grossed out but it’s worth presenting the finished plate for the reason of some anatomy. Notice I did not eat the trachea. It is a little too cartilaginous for my liking.

Duck bones and trachea

No Christmas meal is complete without dessert and to be fair we had to wait a while while our stomachs digested the main course. I’ve always maintained the œsophagus should be known as the dessert stomach because with some training you can hold down a full dessert despite a full stomach.

The dessert was a traditional Christmas pudding with homemade custard (made lovingly from scratch) and ice cream). It was delicious.

Christmas pudding

After some DVD watching it was time for dinner. After such a substantial lunch I only wanted something light. A salad. A pear and walnut salad with Gorgonzola cheese fitted the bill.

Pear and walnut salad

The only thing I could fit in afterwards was a mango.

Mango

The day was made more amazing because of the fabulous company and general happiness shared by one and all. We managed to fit in an afternoon walk and a final DVD viewing of the classic New Zealand scifi horror, viz., Black Sheep.

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Merry Christmas WordPress bloggers

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This year I discovered the joy of WordPress blogging. I feel like I’m in a community of like minded friends. I wish everyone who reads and writes a blog a very Merry Christmas and a happy blogging new year.

Happy holidays everyone :-) Happy cooking, photographing and best of all eating!

The most awesome Christmas eve dinner

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Tonight we had Russian King Crab, Queensland King Prawn twisters, and an awesome pear and walnut salad.
The crab and prawns were purchased at Costco today. I’d have to say the King Crab is very close to being as nice as Queensland mud crab. The flesh was so fresh and ozone.
The prawn twisters were made with spring roll wrappers. The salad was a perfect accompaniment.

King Crab

Prawn twisters

 

It tasted so good

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Christmas with my kids, parents and one of my brothers

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For the last few years I’ve visited my girls the week before Christmas to spend the weekend and have our own special Christmas. It also coincides with my Mum’s birthday so it’s a joint celebration.

This year my youngest brother, Mr40 decided to make wonton soup for an entrée. Mr40 prides himself on this wonton soup however, we discovered he doesn’t follow Mum’s recipe to the letter. He doesn’t slap the pork mince. For more information check out My Mum’s wonton recipe and read what I’m talking about.

Mr40's wonton soup for our Christmas lunch entrée

It was pretty good.

If you thought I limited myself to this one small bowl you'd be mistaken.

Lunch was pretty good. In the morning I went out and bought prawns (tigers and kings) and then peeled them. Mum roasted chickens, made a potato bake, coleslaw, devilled eggs and a fantastic stuffing.

Christmas lunch

For dessert Mum made a sunken orange cake with a lovely orange sauce and ice cream.

Orange cake

You would think we couldn’t eat dinner. Well you’d be wrong.

A light dinner of cheese and fruit

This was then followed with rocky road made by Mr40′s wife.

Rocky road

After digesting dinner we slept and then woke this morning to Mum breakfast of French toast, bacon and scrambled eggs.

Breakast after a big feast. French toast, bacon and scrambled eggs.

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