Tag Archives: Mango

Week 52 2012 Christmas

16 Replies

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

I love pistachios

Snack time

Snack time.

———-

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.

———-

On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.

Salmon and mango salad with blue cheese

Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.

———-

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

Barren on Christmas eve.

———-

There are no calories for the next two weeks.

There are no calories for the next two weeks.

Caramel doughnut.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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

Chilli beef pastizzi

They were a little hot.

———-

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.

———-

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

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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

———-

Our duck is patiently waiting. #Christmas

The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.

———-

Prawns to start #Christmas

The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.

———-

#Christmas prawns

I love prawns.

———-

The prawns were good 😃😃😃 #Christmas

I could not help capture an after image.

———-

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.

———-

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

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

———-

Because everything is better with bacon. #Christmas duck.

Because everything is better with bacon.

———-

When chook meets duck #Christmas

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

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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.

———-

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

CPAP | Shogun Japanese Restaurant | a burger with a difference

14 Replies

I’ve been at a low ebb this week for a wide range of reasons. After a week that ended in the wanton wonton weekend I had a lot of catching up to do at work as well as the extra work associated with a week of meetings. In addition I started using a CPAP machine at night. For my adult life and according to Mum my childhood too, I’ve been a loud snorer. Given I’m now getting older and getting to that age when I should start putting in place all those things I learnt in medical school, I’m taking my health more seriously. I now have a general practitioner (GP) and I now think more seriously about exercise. With a history of snoring, my GP referred me to a respiratory physician with an interest in sleep medicine. I spent a night in a sleep laboratory and came out discovering I do not have sleep apnœa (which is good), but that I have frequent hypopnœas. Roughly thirty or more times a night I stop breathing for up to 10 seconds.

On Tuesday I was fitted for a continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) machine and I’ve been using it each night since. The brochures and other literature I’ve read says it can take up to a month or more to get used to CPAP therapy. I hope it takes less than that because I’m finding I’m more tired and irritable than ever before. In many of the on-line forums it looks like some people need repeated fittings and flow titration. Every morning this week I’ve got up feeling worse than when I wasn’t using CPAP.

My bedside CPAP set up

It may be that I’d be better learning to play the didgeridoo which has been shown to assist patients with sleep apnœa.

I will persist because I want to learn to sleep better. I average about five hours a night which isn’t enough. I’m usually in bed early and I wake multiple times a night and then rise at about 0400 to go for a walk. I hope one day to sleep through the night each night and wake at 0600 and exercise then. That will mean a later start at work which has it’s own problems for me but I’ll deal with that soon.

—-

Last night I went out with friends to the Shogun Japanese Restaurant and had my first Teppanyaki experience. The restaurant itself felt a little old and dated. That said the wait staff were friendly and helpful. I had been told that many Japanese restaurants are not inexpensive especially if the quality of the food and experience is high. We chose from a set Teppanyaki menu for around $39 per person. There was a mixed reaction amongst my friends. For me the cost was reasonable for the quality of the beef, chicken and fish as well as the entertainment provided by the chef. The set menu consists of an entrée, soup, three meats and a dessert. I thought it was worthwhile and if the opportunity arose again I’d return.

Entrée

Raw fish and chicken

Cooked fish

Omelet being prepared for fried rice.

Beef and sprouts waiting to be cooked.

Beef and chicken cooking.

Flaming beef

Ice cream, cream and fruit for dessert.

The Teppanyaki chef wrote this in salt upside down and back to front.

Map for Shogun Japanese Restaurant in Canberra http://goo.gl/maps/FYrU0


View Larger Map

After Shogun we went to Koko Black which is an institution in Canberra. I had a hot chocolate affogato because it was a cool night last night.

Hot chocolate and vanilla bean ice cream

Hot chocolate affogato

Map for Koko Black in Canberra http://goo.gl/maps/dHDil


View Larger Map

—-

During the week I came across a Jamie Oliver recipe which I stored in Evernote. I bought some beef mince and made burgers with some mustard and beer (XXXX Gold). I arranged the burger as an open sandwich on a slice of toasted multigrain Vienna loaf with some thickly sliced tomato and thinly sliced pickle. I used Jamie’s yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce idea as a sauce. In addition I made a slaw with cabbage, carrot and red onion.

On balance, I should have used a knife rather than a food processor for the slaw. The burger tasted okay but I think I should have purchased a coarser grade of beef mince. The yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce idea was pretty good on the burger. The seed mustard was a good addition. It’s a pity I can’t drink much alcohol otherwise the stubbie would have made a good accompaniment to the burger.

Yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce

Kensington Pride Mango

Addendum….the next night

Open burger sandwich

 

Rain. I love it (and food)

3 Replies

This is the sort of rain I like. Warm and heavy. It’s not as heavy as I’ve seen it, but it is really good.

I also like eating and while here in Darwin I’m staying at the Vibe Hotel on the Darwin Waterfront.

Tonight I had salt and pepper squid with palm sugar, mango and mint followed by a lemon curd meringue. The squid was really nice. Not at all chewing and the salt and pepper coating was just right. The meringue was remarkably good given it’s room service food. I feel good now. :-)

Salt and pepper squid with palm sugar, mango and mint

Lemon curd meringue with passion fruit and mango

Related articles

Busy busy busy

2 Replies

Work has been busy. It’s lead to boring meals the last couple of nights. Both times Chicken Maryland. Tonight was worse; it was chicken and chips. At least I had a mango for dessert.

Monday night’s effort had some vegetable matter

Chicken and vegetables

Tonight it was chicken and chips and then a mango.

Chicken and chips

Mango

Tomorrow night I have to attend senate estimates. It will be late. I’m not sure what I’ll have for dinner. I just hope this hearing is as fun as the last.

Check out page 152 to 153 of the Hansard.

Dessert—The nexus between Winter and Summer

1 Reply

The other day I saw mangoes at Coles. They were Northern Australian and they looked fresh. I also had some strawberries and passion fruit pulp. What could be better for dessert.

Dessert Mango, Strawberry and Passion fruit

Dessert Mango, Strawberry and Passion fruit