So the other night I was wondering what to make for dinner. I was pretty uninspired. I went to the supermarket after work and looked for some meat. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money and I wanted something simple. I noticed some mince on special. It was beef mince, regular grind, not labelled lean It was going for $3.
I mixed the mince with a beaten egg, some cubed Harvati cheese, a little olive oil, some coarsely ground pepper and dried herbs. I flattened the mince out onto some baking paper onto a fry pan. I covered with some finely cut parsley and then covered with aluminium foil before placing into an oven set at 150 °C for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes I removed the foil added some tomato, curry powder and vegetables to the top and then put it back into the oven for 15 minutes and turned the heat up to 200 °C.
This is how it looked
I pulled it out of the oven and rested it for 5 minutes before transferring it to a plate and then eating.
So basically it’s a big ground beef burger without bread.
What would you call it? Does this already have a name that I don’t know about?
I turned 48 this week (Wednesday 01 May) and enjoyed some fun food.
Before the food though a little reflection. I’ve never really been one to ponder too much about birthdays and getting older. We’re born, we live and if we’re fortunate we age, grow old and then we die. When I turned 30 and 40 I didn’t have a party because in my mind it wasn’t a big deal. Over the last year or so I’ve experienced some evidence of ageing in terms of my health. I’ve had to think more about my weight, my blood pressure and my diet. While I still eat more, I’m more and more conscious of the need to keep my weight at a certain level. On Tuesday night I went to bed and for the first time reflected on the following day I would be 48. Forty-eight sounds old. Forty-seven seemed to be a little way before I hit 50, but 48 is two years away from 50. In my mind 50 is old. That means in 2015 I reckon I’m taking a couple of days off around my birthday and spend some time in quiet reflection. The last place I want to be is at work.
So on Wednesday I woke up feeling quite flat. I needed something sweet and refreshing. The best thing in the morning though was a text message from Miss15 who sent me a pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. Normally I get in first.
I made the smoothie with Chinese gooseberry and pineapple pieces. The coffee was also strong.
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On checking my post office box I had a couple of cards. One from my parents and one from Bron.
Coffee and cards
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I work with great friends. A couple of them decorated the glass outside my work area.
The good news is I move work areas again next week.
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I decided against lunch because Bron was taking me to dinner. When we got there I got a gift from Bron.
Popping candy and chocolate.
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We went to our local Canberra Southern Cross Club at Jamison. The club does a pretty good steak which is what I wanted to eat.
This is a Scotch fillet steak with hollandaise sauce and mash potato.
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Bron bought me a nice cake and we had some at the club. It was great going out with Bron and having a good meal and enjoying each other’s company.
One candle was enough
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The next morning I walked
Hello Mr Owl
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I had some cake for breakfast
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I only had a little
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Office coffee with popping candy
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I got a nerf gun for a birthday present from a work friend
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It’s a nice little pistol
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Chicken and vegetable bake was necessary before I could finish off the cake
This is the ham hock thawing because I forgot to take it out of my freezer last night.
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I looked over a few recipes and while enamoured by many of them I decided to just make it up as I went along based on suggestions from a number of websites.
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This is a heavy duty meal so it needs heavy duty cookware.
My casserole
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I thought I should add some nectar of the gods. It is such a shame I have a liver that cannot metabolise ethanol, otherwise I’d drink this every day for my health. Not to worry I did see a recipe that used beer rather than wine.
XXXX Gold. XXXX sponsor the XXXX Queensland Maroons. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the XXXX Queensland Maroons and state of origin rugby league. By far and away the greatest game of all. The first state of origin game will be soon. Can Queensland make it eight years in a row?
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Of course man cannot live on meat and beer alone so there are vegetables included.
I forgot to include the Brussels sprouts in the image :-/
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It’s a fairly simple dish to make. I chopped onions and added them to some olive oil in a saucepan on a low heat. I waited for the onion to soften nicely before adding some balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Once that was simmering and well incorporated I added the tomatoes. When the tomatoes were soft I added the chopped celery and mushroom. When everything was really soft I started to prepare the casserole. I lined the bottom with thinly sliced red cabbage and laid the ham hock on top. I then added the contents of the saucepan and poured the stubby of XXXX GOLD into the casserole. I then added the carrots and Brussels sprouts. I put the casserole into a low oven (150 °C) for four hours.
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This is how it looked at about 3 hours
You can see the meat falling off the bones.
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After four hours I pulled the casserole out. My apartment has a delicious sweet smoky aroma to it. I plated up the slow cooked smoked ham hock on a bed of noodles.
Okay, it’s doesn’t look that colourful and I captured the image before I added some continental parsley.
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I didn’t add any salt or seasoning like a stock cube because I knew there would be so much flavour in the ham plus the flavour of the balsamic vinegar, sugar and onion really came through. I expect I may blow the sheets off the bed tonight after eating so much cabbage, onion and Brussels sprouts. It’s a good thing it’s just me
Thursday night saw Bron invite a couple of dear friends over to her place for dinner. The theme was Mexican, that is, the food theme, we didn’t do any Mexican hat dancing or tequila drinking.
For an entrée Bron made corn chips with a David Lebovitz guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Bron made the corn chips from tortillas and they were amazing. They were tasty, crunchy and light. The guacamole and salsa were fantastic. I watched Bron make some of each and had the pleasure of tasting it along the way. I could’ve eaten corn chips all night.
It looks like I had a lot of sour cream. It just seemed to spread across the plate (honestly).
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For the main course Bron made a David Lebovitz chicken with chocolate mole sauce. The mole sauce amongst other ingredients contained ancho chili peppers, onions, various herbs, tomatoes, pepper, and unsweetened chocolate. The sauce had a nice kick to it but it wasn’t an unpleasant heat that some chillies have. While Bron and our friends enjoyed wine with their meal I found pineapple juice to be an excellent accompaniment to the spicy flavours.
Chicken chocolate mole
This is the chicken covered in the chocolate mole sauce. No I did not eat all of this.
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This is my plate with a tortilla in the making and the chicken ready to be shredded. I only ate one tortilla
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My tortilla. It was delicious. What you won’t see is how much chicken I ate after finishing this.
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I remember on a trip to Mexico City enjoying enchiladas and mole sauce. I blogged about it and one of my work friends was horrified that I’d eaten a mole (as in the blind mammal that lives underground). I laugh and laugh every time I think of that.
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For dessert Bron made a David Lebovitz ginger cake plus some home made non-churn cherry and white chocolate ice cream
Doesn’t it look amazing? The ice cream was creamy and delicious. You wouldn’t know it was not churned. The cake had a lovely kick of ginger and a hint of pepper. It was brilliant. Bron is such a magnificent cook.
Last night Bron and I went to Italian & Sons for the first sitting dinner (in at 6 pm and out at 8 pm). We’ve been here before and enjoyed a number of excellent meals. We’ve been keen though to attend on a Tuesday evening. The day of the week is important for Italian & Sons. The menu varies, that is, the major main meal changes each night. Tuesday is suckling pig night.
If you take a look at the sample menu you’ll see what I mean. You can see a sample menu here
The ambience is really nice. It’s quiet, it’s dark and it’s warm. Unlike Ned Stark’s northern kingdom whose words were “winter is coming”; winter has arrived in Canberra. It was a very cold last night even at 6 pm as we were walking to the restaurant. Being dark was a bit of a problem though. Darkness is the enemy of the amateur food blogger armed only with an iPhone. Despite the iPhone 5 having an enhanced low light camera, it can’t compensate for really dim light. I am very sorry to Italian & Sons that the images I captured do not do the food justice.
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For our entrée we asked to share one of the specials. It was a Gorgonzola and polenta croquette on a delicate cheesy white sauce. I’m sure there’s an Italian name for the French word that describes cheesy white sauce but I don’t know either of the words. Happy to be educated if you know
Entrée croquette
There were three on the plate. We had one and a half each. They were delicate yet they cracked open easily and the cheese and polenta were combined perfectly. The odour and taste of the Gorgonzola was present but not too strong. It was delightful. If offered, you should take it.
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For the main course Bron seemed tempted by a lamb special but in the end we both went for the suckling pig on lentils.
Suckling pig
This was sublime. I’ve not had better pork. The crackling came away easily. It was thin, crispy and easy to cut and eat bite sized pieces. The muscle was perfectly cooked. It could be cut with a spoon but it wasn’t falling apart. The taste was exceptional. The lentils with the meat were delightful. Combined with a forkful of salad it was perfectly balanced.
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Rocket, pear and shaved ricotta salata
This was a lovely salad
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The service was really very good. Our main server was a dead ringer for Freddy Mercury. He was attentive and helpful and knowledgeable about all the dishes and the wines. The other wait staff were also very helpful and attentive. I feel a bit bad we didn’t stay for dessert. We talked about it and we both wanted to go to Koko Black for dessert and have some chocolate.
As promised in a previous post I’m going to start adding a napkin and dunny rating. For Italian & Sons the first thing I noticed was the cloth napkins which means pass, that said after I went to the dunny I noticed on my return it had been refolded neatly which gives Italian & Sons an exceptional napkin rating. The toilet has earnt a 4/5 dunny rating. If it wasn’t for the bulk toilet paper dispenser it would have been a 4.5/5. I really don’t like the bulk dispensers. I understand why they’re installed but as a user rather than an owner/cleaner, I prefer a standard toilet roll. The hand basin, taps, soap dispenser and paper towel dispenser were all good. The toilet pedestal itself was clean and it looked well maintained. The room itself was a nice size.
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For dessert we walked around to Koko Black in the cold night air. I was shivering and my teeth chattered a little. Getting into Koko Black was cosy and warming. Bron chose a chocolate mousse and I asked for a chocolate affogato.
Chocolate affogato
Yay the lighting in Koko Black is more photo friendly
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The night was a wonderful combination of food. The entrée and main at Italian & Sons was something all Canberra residents should try. Look through the sample menu and choose a night. I can’t say anything else is better than the suckling pig if you’re a meaty like me. Koko Black appears regularly in this blog. You know that means it’s good.
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The finalists for the Best Blogs 2013 have been announced. Check out the finalists here Congratulations to all the finalists especially Christina the hungry Australian
Tuesday was a long day at work. On entering my apartment car park I noticed water on the concrete and water pouring from the ceiling onto cars below. The area roughly coincided with where my apartment is above. I immediately had very dark thoughts. Did I leave a tap running, was the toilet leaking, was the washing machine leaking… I parked my car and raced up the stairs, at least I tried to but the carpet covering the stairs was soaked and there was water flowing. I opened my apartment door and was confronted with water across the floor and over the tiles in the kitchen area. I quickly took my shoes and socks off to look in the laundry and bathroom. Everything was fine. I walked out my door and noticed a fire hydrant in the services well was on and flowing. I turned it off and noticed the outer door was open; on walking outside there was a man in a high visibility fluorescent shirt. He was a plumber. I asked him if he knew what was going on. He said someone on the second floor had turned on the fire hose and when they tried to turn it off the faucet broke and the flow could not be stopped. I asked why the hydrant was open on my floor and he explained it needed to be open to prevent back flow to the upper floors. The plumber was waiting out the front for a delivery of spare parts because local hardware stores didn’t have the right parts to fix the hydrant. He had been waiting for an emergency store to be opened. I expect he couldn’t turn the water off to the entire complex so let the water run. The down side was that water flowed through my apartment.
I went back to my apartment to try to clean up and prevent any further spread and water damage. I quickly moved as much stuff as possible from the floor. Fortunately most of my personal possessions were stored off the carpet. I’m a renter so I quickly called the real estate agent so she could inform the owner. She also gave me the name of a carpet cleaner who could come out and try to prevent any further damage.
My kitchen floor covered in water.
The carpet in my doorway.
A floor fan that has been blowing since Tuesday evening.
I didn’t get much sleep because of the fan. I needed lots of this black coffee.
This is the noise…
I worked from home today and was able to make my lunch. Sardines with red onion, ground pepper and chilli flakes along with avocado. This was inspired by a twitter friend @SunburyFi who posted last week a picture of a sardine sandwich.
The carpet care company my real estate agent suggested was Steamatic. As soon as I called they said they could come out that night and start the process. It turns out my neighbour is also with the same agent and his apartment was worse off so I waited until his place had been attended to before mine got started. The process begins with lifting the carpet and removing the soaked underlay. A floor fan is then started and this will now blow for about four days, especially because I’m living on a concrete slab as it takes longer to dry. It was a rough sleep last night and will continue to be for the next few nights. I don’t expect the carpet to be relaid any time soon. This is such an inconvenience. I still don’t know why the dwellers above turned on the fire hose. I’d like an explanation, all I know is I’m assuming the owner has insurance and the insurance company will be paying for all the repairs. I guess though I won’t be compensated for my inconvenience.
I’m very grateful to friends on twitter, facebook and instagram who commented after I posted comments and images on what was happening. This is what I love about social media. I really appreciate everyone’s concern as well as the helpful suggestions on things to do. I’m especially grateful for the funny responses which did lighten my mood
Dinner tonight was good but noisy
Yummy salmon, avocado, grated fresh beetroot, celery, chilli, cucumber, Gorgonzola, ground pepper, lemon juice, lettuce, Maggie Beer quince paste, spring onion, Tabasco sauce and tomato.
Since my last post I had a relaxed Sunday and a busy first day back to work.
It’s silly I think that as soon as Christmas is over supermarkets are selling hot cross buns. I mean the buns are yummy especially when warmed in the oven and slathered with real butter. But Easter is months away.
In an attempt to avoid another broken tooth I chose a softer white bread and didn’t toast it. If you click on the image you’ll see a comment from Trish (@eatshootblog) about multigrain bread being “Dentists’ Delight”. It’s a pity because I love multigrain bread. The Maggie Beer pâté and quince paste was still good along with the Gorgonzola.
Sunday night dinner was Chicken Maryland with lettuce, Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated fresh raw beetroot, spring onion, avocado, tomato, lemon juice and herb bread served with pineapple and mint crushed ice drink.
Back to work Monday I didn’t make my own lunch. I bought a really nice brie and onion quiche from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
We also had a small afternoon tea for Ursula who is the branch’s executive assistant. It was Ursula’s birthday last week. The brownies in the foreground were very very nice.
Dinner was simple, some Salmon, Chinese sausage, lettuce, celery, cucumber, tomato, lemon juice and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with fresh grated beetroot.
This week the weather predictions for Australia are extreme and next week it gets worse. The Bureau of Meteorology has altered it’s temperature modelling charts because the old scale had a maximum of 50 °C, now it is 54 °C. Monday evening was warm and when I went for a walk at around 0500 AEDT it was what I would regard as pleasant but what everyone else in Canberra felt was too hot. Tuesday was a pretty bad day across the southern parts of Australia with temperatures averaging the mid to high 40s in some areas. There were numerous spot fires and large grass fires that burnt extensive areas of land destroying homes and livestock.
This week I’m attending a meeting in Leesburg, VA. I’m writing this post as I go, if I was in the mood I’d add a timestamp with each entry but given the different time zones I’m going to be in that is a little too anal retentive even for me and my obsessive compulsive personality.
Since my last post I’ve been spending time going over my meeting briefing notes and watching DVDs. I picked up the first series of The Walking Dead and I’m hooked.
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A local Gourmet Deli Belconnen does good coffee
This deli is full of good stuff from an amazing range of chocolate to other sweets to large containers of beans and cheeses and cold meats. There are all sorts of oils and spreads and spices to choose from. The staff are pretty friendly and always happy to assist.
The shop is opposite Coles so if your heading to Westfield Shoppingtown in Belconnen for your grocery shopping, the Gourmet Deli Belconnen is a good place to relax and have a coffee.
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After some early morning shopping I made myself some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I like to make thick and rich scrambled eggs. I usually use a couple of free range eggs that I’ve warmed up to room temperature plus an almost equal volume of pouring cream. I whisk vigorously (now using my Magic Bullet®) along with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. I melt real butter in a small heavy fry pan until the butter foams and starts to brown, then I add the egg and cream mixture. I wait a minute before touching the mixture. I slowly pull away from one side the mixture and watch the liquid replace the solid fluffy curds. I repeat this slowly until most of the mixture has has formed soft shiny curds. I removed the pan from the heat and scoop the scrambled eggs onto freshly toasted bread. If you like you can garnish with parsley and if it feels right a little freshly grated cheese (Mersey Valley or Coon) can be added.
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Avocado and tomato on toasted light rye sourdough bread
Avocados have been expensive lately. It’s been a while but I wanted some so I bought a Hass avocado for $2. This makes a great lunch.
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Fruit and the Magic Bullet®
I have been enjoying the warm days and there’s nothing more refreshing than crushing some ice with mint, adding a little fruit and some cordial. These are the fruits I used today.
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Mango coleslaw with a little salmon and a crushed ice minted lemon lime and bitters
This is the last coleslaw I make for a week. I think all my Instagram followers are happy not to see any more red cabbage spam
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The start of my journey in the Qantas Business Lounge at CBR
Even though I made myself a caramel coffee banana smoothie for breakfast, it’s hard to pass up some yoghurt while in the lounge along with a nicely made flat white.
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The snack served on QF704
This biscuit was a little too sweet. I should have chosen water instead of juice. Too much sugar at the start of a long day.
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An awful cup of coffee at The Terrace near the check-in aisles at SYD (T1)
This was disgusting. Too milky and the coffee wasn’t strong enough. It was also tepid rather than the right temperature for frothing milk.
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After checking in I made it to the code share lounge for United Airlines, viz., the Koruclub which belongs to Air New Zealand
The Koruclub is well appointed and always has fresh supplies. It’s not in the same class as the Qantas lounges, but with the best fare of the day policy, I cannot complain. I am grateful that I get to travel for work and work with international colleagues.
They also have a hot dog stand.
This is a chilli dog with onions and cheese. I really should stop this senseless eating.
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So the flight to San Francisco was delayed by about an hour which in my mind at the time made my connection with Dulles just that little more tight than what it already was.
This is the view from my seat. I was facing backwards.
It’s nice to see the engines intact
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This is the menu for the main meal. The question was steak or salmon. Given the amount of salmon I’ve eaten lately I chose steak.
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To start we always get some nuts, usually almonds and peanuts that have been warmed up. That’s always a nice touch. The entrée was a nice salad plus some smoked salmon so I wasn’t missing out on salmon altogether.
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The fillet mignon was okay. The flavour was pleasant but the meat had been cooked too long for my liking and it was a little dry. The mashed potato was okay with it plus the little fried onions as part of the gravy.
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What I like about United Airlines is the dessert is always a sundae of some sort. For some reason the flight from Sydney didn’t have much choice. There was either strawberry or chocolate sauce. I chose strawberry.
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I spent most of the flight reading for this meeting but I did watch one movie, viz., The Expendables 2. A great action flick with the classic modern day action actors.
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For breakfast rather than the poached eggs I went for the deli plate. The plate consisted of ham, cheese and some smoked salmon. The passenger next to me chose the eggs and the yolks looked like yellow squash balls. I’ve had poached eggs on many airlines and it’s uncommon for them to serve the yolk soft let alone runny.
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Scenes coming into San Francisco.
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On getting into San Francisco International Airport (SFO), I had a mad dash to get my connection, UA525 to Washington DC Dulles (IAD). The lines at Customs and Border Protection were really long, fortunately as a government employee I carry an Official Passport and along with a Visa and the correct forms I don’t need to spend time with finger prints and photographs. The usual questions are usually asking about the meeting I’m attending and that’s it. I picked up my checked-in bag and moved quickly to the domestic terminal area to drop off my bag and dash to the departure gates. About half the time I travel to North America the airline or connecting airport (usually LAX) doesn’t get my bag on my flight so I have to wait another day for it. That means I attend a meeting in crushed clothes I’ve carried as carry-on luggage.
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On UA525 to Dulles we had a choice of cannelloni or chicken caciatori. I chose the chicken because I didn’t want the pasta and the cheese. I should have had the pasta and cheese. It looked very appetising while the chicken didn’t and it tasted blergh. It was a breast and it was dry.
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That said United Airlines made up for the main course failure with a nice ice cream sundae. I had vanilla bean ice cream with caramel sauce, nuts, glacé cherries and whipped cream.
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I got to Dulles at about 2200 and waited for the shuttle to the National Conference Center in Leesburg. The bus arrived and started to back up and despite the bus behind it honking its horn and flashing its headlights the bus driver didn’t stop and connected with the bus behind causing some minor damage. This little bingle caused a 45 minute delay so I didn’t check into the National Conference Center until after 2300.
It didn’t take long to get to sleep. I ended up sleeping 5 hours without my CPAP machine which is pretty good. I still felt a little tired.
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The Center has a good dining room. I had eggs prepared by an egg chef. I like fried eggs sunny side up.
The Center is pretty cool. The closest thing we have in Australia is the Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI). The NCC used to be owned by Xerox. It has accommodation for nearly 1000 guests and 250 meeting rooms. The better thing about the rooms compared to AEMI is that the en suite is private and not shared. The rooms are very small but there is enough room for a double bed and television. There is no refrigerator in the room but there is a drip filter coffee maker. The best thing is free high speed broadband in each room and free high speed wifi across the entire site.
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The same dining room is used for lunch. I had snapper, beef and pumpkin.
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The snack machine options were mostly these very sweet granola bars.
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For dinner we went to the Black Olive Sports Bar. We ordered a few pizzas. I tried pepperoni and a super deeper deluxe.
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Okay that’s enough for this post. I’ll continue blogging about my travels in another post when I get back to Australia. Catch you later.
Gaz
It’s been an interesting week. Nothing much has happened with that piece of public art that I’ve posting about on Instagram. The weather has improved out of sight. It’s finally warming up in Canberra and while there have been some hot and dry days, the humidity hasn’t been as low as in past years. I know it’s only early but I really hope we have a warm and moist Summer in Canberra. Unlikely I know in Canberra but I live in hope.
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This image was captured on Monday morning. Since then nothing much has happened. I noticed some cabling so I assume there will be lighting at night for the piece.
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On Friday it was announced that I would change roles. From Monday I will be the Specialist Medical Adviser in Health Emergency Management in the Office of Health Protection. I will then no longer be the Assistant Secretary of the Health Emergency Management Branch.
My areas of interest and activities will continue to align with my specialist medical and healthcare management experience in pathogen security, CBRN medical countermeasures, the health aspects of national security, and health emergency management. This should be a good move for me. I get to focus on the areas I am best suited for. I will miss managing people but the best thing is I still work my same work mates.
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My weight has been much the same for the last week. I haven’t been losing any weight although I’ve maintained the walking and trying to avoid snacking. Snacking though is a perennial problem when surrounded by amazing work friends who bring in treats and have special morning and afternoon tea sessions.
I’ve also been receiving encouragement from some Twitter friends who have been reminding me that my diet lacks vegetables and has too much processed food in it.
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Toasted tomato sandwich on quinoa and flaxseed bread. No cheese and no processed meat
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A work friend has a house mate who works in a bakery and we were blessed with free pastries. This is a chocolate filled butter-rich pastry.
To celebrate the rain I had salmon and potato gems.
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More celebration food. Neenish tarts and cream. This is it. No more Neenish tarts.
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Wednesday was really busy and a long day at work. I didn’t feel like cooking so I got takeaway from the local shops in the Jamison Plaza.
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I love battered fish and potato scallops that have been hand made like these were.
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We had a full moon this week. I need to cut back on the light and use a faster shutter speed.
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On Thursday a work friend brought in morning tea. I had a chocolate caramel fudge brownie and a Queensland nut shortbread biscuit.
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At lunch time I went to the local shops with a friend and bought some Pâté, bread and butter. Then three of us shared this for lunch. The Pâté was by Maggie Beer, I bought two types, viz., duck, sherry, and green peppercorn and duck, vino cotto, and star anise. The butter was from Tasmania. The bread was fresh and it all tasted delicious.
We’re thinking of doing it again and getting quince paste too.
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That night I only wanted a light dinner. Floured chicken thigh and potato gems.
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The moon over Lake Ginninderra. I need to cut back on the light and use a faster shutter speed.
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Friday lunch started out as toasted pumpkin seed bread and tomato.
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But then I got told about my job change and thought I needed more food This is a cheesy bacon pie and lime quench. The pie was really nice. The beef is chunky and very tender. These are made in the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
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For dinner to make up for the lack of vegetables this week I made some coleslaw and cooked a piece of salmon with it.
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This morning I went for a walk in shorts and T-shirt. It was lovely and warm. The sky was full of dark clouds. The leaves on the trees are so green.
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The Owl statue, known to me as Mr Owl, looked spooky with the swirling clouds behind him.
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Today for lunch I had some toasted light rye sourdough bread topped with a mixture of avocado, tomato, Tabasco sauce, chilli flakes and pepper corns.
It looks disgusting but it tasted good.
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I opened my Instacanvas recently. I don’t know why. I just did it for the sake of it I think.
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In terms of the CPAP business I visited the CPAP technician and had my last three weeks analysed through the software associated with the machine. While I still feel worse than before and always tired it appears I get a good seal, the pressures are good and I don’t need to change from nasal pillows or add a chin strap.
So I hope you had a good week. Let me know about it, write a comment below. Eat well, sleep well and be nice to everyone.
It’s finally starting to feel like Summer. Yesterday and today we had maximum temperatures >30 °C. It’s just a pity it was so dry. The weather would be perfect if we had more humidity and some rain.
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs I spent today Spring cleaning for a rental inspection this week. I used my new Magic Bullet to prepare the eggs with a little cream. I served it on quinoa and flaxseed toast. I really needed a good mug of coffee after another poor sleep.
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This evening I enjoyed an almost tropical meal of salmon with mango coleslaw. The coleslaw has red cabbage, red onions, carrot, coriander, mint and parsley.
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This afternoon I received a visit from a friendly magpie.
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This morning while walking I captured an image of the trees down Benjamin Way. Using Diptic I posted to Instagram a comparison of the Winter and Spring images. Canberra truly has the best expression of seasons in Australia with true demarcation between each of the four seasons. While it is beautiful I miss the simplicity of the wet season, dry season and build up in Subequatorial Australia.
Bron has a plan! We have some dear friends who were regularly eat dinner with; most often we go to their place and we have a fantastic time. Bron is keen to have our friends over to her place for dinner.
As a follower and reader of David Lebovitz’s blog and cook books, Bron is going to cook Chicken mole.
I’ve eaten chicken mole in Mexico City while there for a meeting. My recollection is that it was enjoyable but nothing I’d want to make myself.
On Friday night I was Bron’s guinea pig for her second go at cooking Chicken mole. She’d previously cooked it for her sons.
Okay, this was magnificent. The chicken drumsticks had been skinned and then pan fried and then immersed in a casserole. The result was incredible taste and tenderness. The mole sauce was amazing with the ancho dried chilies adding so much flavour yet no heat. I’m embarrassed to say that I grabbed more corn chips, corn and sauce and when the chicken was finished I used the sauce and corn like a dip and consumed a heap of corn chips. It. Was. Amazing!!!
It was going for $3.
