Tag Archives: Salmon

My week in Instagram

It’s been a busy week at work. I’ve changed offices again. I started my clinical attachment at The Canberra Hospital and I’ve eaten out a bit.

After the last post when I revealed I’d reached 80.2 kg I thought I should revisit the single fillet of salmon again as an evening staple

I did the salmon the way I normally do with a fry pan and lid and a 5 minute timer. I cooked the vegetables with a little soy and honey.

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and again the next night…

Another small piece of salmon

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I’ve been walking every day too

Mr Owl looks good at 0445 AEST with a black background of the night sky

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In preparation for my clinical day a week I started reading some relevant documents.

Tea rather than coffee too

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For reasons I won’t go in to, I was able to return to my old office area. The first thing I did was put up my flags. I felt immediately at home.

My two favourite places in the world. Queensland and the Northern Territory of Australia

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On Friday I started my first day at The Canberra Hospital as an Honorary Visiting Medical Officer in Pathology. I decided I could walk to work from my DoHA car spot

My walk http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/178410745

So this is where I’ll be. Building 10.

There is a lot of construction underway so it’s not possible to see the building from outside

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It was a pretty good day. I really enjoyed getting oriented back into a clinical pathology set up. It was nice to speak with clinicians about patients and visit the mortuary and see the museum named after my friend and colleague, viz., Professor Peter Herdson. It was fantastic to get back into the lingo and to start thinking about the wonderful interface being a clinical microbiologist is between the patient in the ward and the vast technological brain power that rests in medical laboratory scientists and other practitioners. I love the technology of pathology. As I grew up in medicine, Professor John Kerr’s most profound comment was that pathology is medicine. If you understand pathology you will understand medicine. Truer words there are not. He also held a firm view that rigorous examination was the best way to produce a well rounded undifferentiated medical graduate who would be ready to learn more about how to heal the sick and teach others to become good practitioners of the art and science of medicine. I love that in pathology we extend our practice into the tactile of holding plates and loops, we can sense the aroma of our friends on the plates, we can see the bright colours of the wonderful chemical reactions in solid and liquid phases. We can stand before instruments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that reduce the time from specimen reception to result delivery to hours instead of days. But best of all I love that we can take the complex and abstract and share a story with a referring and treating practitioner and help him or her heal their patient. Working in government bureaucracy for the last five years has taught me so many things, but I cannot love it like I love being in a laboratory surrounded by wonderful people and patient specimens, machines and most of all microscopes. Four days a week at DoHA and one day at TCH is a good balance.

As I walked back to my car I was reminded that The Canberra Hospital and the Royal Darwin Hospital were designed in Canada and it was Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who sought to build hospitals in the two territories. The design may well have been good for Canberra but it was a disaster for Darwin. This is a multi-storey, air conditioned building with a furnace up the middle. Indigenous Australians in the Top End communities do not like heights, they don’t like the cold and why require a furnace in a building in subequatorial Australia. What the hell was Prime Minister Whitlam thinking? The best hospital design in the Northern Territory of Australia is the Katherine Hospital. One level, multiple wings with open flow through ventilation and lots of courtyards for patients to gather in along with their intravenous infusion stand and drugs. In Darwin, as much as I love the RDH (not the building itself, I love the people, I love the community, I love the family that is a hospital), it is unseemly to have all the Indigenous Australian patients feel like they have to mill outside on hot concrete with their intravenous infusion stands all because of a mistake from the 1970s.

The walk back had a little detour to capture that image
My walk back http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/178532953

On the walk back I passed by an excellent venue for a steak

If you visit Canberra and want a nice bistro steak, the Hellenic Club is a good place for a meal.

This is the building I spend most of my week in

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On Friday night I visited Bron’s place and we enjoyed another great meal and an episode of Game of Thrones.

Wagyu steak and salad

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Fruit covered in white chocolate served with lemon curd ice cream

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My week in Instagram (yummylummy.com)
H7N9: Pathology Queensland-developed bird flu test an Australian first (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
Gribbles Pathology and Sengenics Enter Into Partnership to Deliver Cutting-Edge Genetic Tests (pr.com)
Dinner at Eat 86 | @eat86 @EatShootBlog @hercanberra (yummylummy.com)
NACCHO good news:Aboriginal health initiative proves to be one real success story (nacchocommunique.com)
Margaret Whitlam Pavilion opens at Arboretum (abc.net.au)

My week in Instagram | Different foods | #bestblogs13

13 Replies

So this week it’s back to a five day work week after two Easter associated short weeks. I’m currently nursing a sore ankle so I’m not walking around as much as I would like.

Follow me on Instagram

Sunday’s breakfast was a salad wrap as opposed to a banana smoothie.

Breakfast wrap

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For dinner I kept to the wrap theme and made a salmon and salad wrap

Salmon and salad wrap

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On Monday for morning tea I had coffee with Bron at a local coffee shop at work. Bron brought in one of her peanut paste salted caramel biscuits. It was delicious.

Peanut paste salted caramel biscuit

This was made from a David Lebovitz (Follow @davidlebovitz on Twitter and Instagram) recipe

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I’ve started to capture images of coffee I’m making in the office with various reading material that is occupying my mind at the time

The Australian Immunisation Handbook 2013 coffee

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For Monday evening dinner I used the two remaining Elite Meats chicken rissoles and continued the wrap theme

Chicken rissole wrap

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Lyme disease coffee

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On Tuesday morning Bron brought me another biscuit

Tuesday biscuit

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For lunch on Tuesday rather than a meaty treat I went with a mango yoghurt

Mango yoghurt

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On Tuesday night I prepared the Elite Meats scotch fillet steak

Scotch fillet steak

Raw goodness

Cooked happiness with a salad

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Extreme weather coffee

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After collecting my mail I thought I’d capture an image of the building I work in

Scarborough House

Scarborough House

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For lunch I had a mixed berry yoghurt. If you click on the image you’ll see the Instagram comments. They’re hilarious.

Mixed berry yoghurt

“Blood” in a Petri dish disease themed lunch

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I went to Bron’s for dinner on Wednesday night and she made a delicious Toad in the Hole

Toad in the Hole

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Bron also made a dessert with fresh free range eggs that we got from Elite Meats

Portuguese custard tarts

These were amazing. So good.

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Thursday Style Manual coffee

So many good Instagram comments with this image

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Thursday was pay day so it was #paydaypieday. This is a curry lamb and potato pie from Urban Bean Espresso Bar.

Curry Lamb Hot Pie

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In the afternoon Bron visited my office and brought over a sweet treat

Portuguese custard tart

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For Thursday dinner I cooked some of the Elite Meats sausages I got. I bought six Black Angus and Burgundy snags and put away three lots of two sausages.

Black Angus and Burgundy and salad wrap

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Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/garydlum

Follow me on Facebook http://facebook.com/garydavidlum

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David Lebovitz http://www.davidlebovitz.com/
Portuguese custard tarts http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2012/04/comme-a-lisbonne-paris-pasteis-de-nata-tartlets/

The Australian Immunisation Handbook http://www.health.gov.au/internet/immunise/publishing.nsf/Content/Handbook10-home

Urban Bean Espresso Bar http://www.urbanbean.com.au/
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Wq2Lu

View Larger Map

Elite Meats is at Shop 12 Kippax Fair http://www.kippaxfair.com.au/Page1_storemap.html
http://www.kippaxfair.com.au/Page2_storeinfo.html#MeatCentre
http://www.kippaxfair.com.au/index.html
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/rChyl

View Larger Map

Rockpool on George | #ManFlu | #bestblogs13 (garydavidlum.com)
My Easter | #ManFlu | #bestblogs13 (garydavidlum.com)
Instagram: How to Become Instafamous (bizsugar.com)
Chicken rissoles | Elite Meats @2CC | #bestblogs13 | The Castle (garydavidlum.com)
This Weekend, Host a Photo Walk For more information on how to… (instagram.com)

My weekend in Brisbane

17 Replies

I love my visits to see my kids and also my parents. The weather has recently turned sour in Canberra and Brisbane is maintaining its warm and wet weather. It rained most of the time I was in Brisbane. It was lovely. Driving in the rain is not something that worries me. It seems to cause Canberra drivers to panic a little. On Thursday afternoon Radio Station | @2CC reported nearly ten road incidents that afternoon. I suppose it’s what you get used to. I loved driving in Darwin and Katherine in the wet season. That said Canberra drivers are expert at driving in fog. Fog freaks out a lot of drivers from other places. Canberra is so fog laden in winter you get used to it.

Miss11 turns 12 this week so this visit was well timed. I had already bought her a new Wii U game and she wanted some books. Miss11 is an avid reader so part of the weekend was going to be devoted to buying books. Becoming 12 also means she becomes eligible (at least in our family) to have a mobile telephone. It had been worked out by Miss17, Miss15 and Miss11 that Miss11 would get Miss15′s old fashioned Nokia and Miss15 would get a new smartphone for her 16th birthday. So this weekend was also about telephone buying for Miss15.

The weekend started well. I left work and Bron also came to the airport to spend some time with me before I left Canberra.

Canberra Qantas Business Lounge

Liquorice all sorts and jaffas shared with some soda water with Bron.

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The flight into Brisbane was uneventful and as usual the landing was delayed because BNE is in such poor shape with its runways that only one was working. This is a constant problem to the extent I never believe the arrival time and always assume I’ll be between 30 and 60 minutes late. I picked up a hire car, a Toyota Yaris, and drove to my parents. I love that modern cars can all connect seamlessly through Bluetooth to my iPhone. It was good to drive to my parent’s place with my tunes.

As well as a birthday gift for Miss11 I also had a bag full of chocolate for all the girls (including Mum). I had recently spent some time in Adelaide and bought up big at Haigh’s and menz. I also bought Mum some Almond Roca from Costco. She loves Almond Roca.

We watched a movie and slept well.

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We woke up to another day of clouds and rain. I heard from Bron that Canberra was cold with 40 km/h winds. I felt for her but I was feeling pretty good. My skin was moist and I could walk around in shorts and a T-shirt.

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My type of weather

I love overcast rainy warm days

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Breakfast at my parents’ place on a Saturday

Peanut paste and strawberry jam

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Shopping for Miss11′s 12th birthday this week

I loved these books when I was in primary school. I know the words have been modified to make them politically correct. I understand why but I am disappointed. I would hope kids are smart enough to distinguish between modern language and old language and want to learn what it means. I only ever read one novel at primary school and one novel at high school. I loved short stories like these though.

Miss11 also got two other books.

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Plastic shopping bags

Queensland is yet to introduce legislation banning plastic shopping bags. In Darwin and Canberra before legislation was introduced to ban their use, I would use them to line bins at work and in my bathroom. I found them very useful for multiple uses rather than single use. I still use plastic bags to lin bins, I just buy them now.

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Lunch with Mum and Dad

Mum had some lamb meatballs which she cut up and with some Havarti cheese she made toasties. These were magnificent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havarti

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After lunch fruit

This is my first sugar plum. It was nice.

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After picking up Miss11 and Miss15 from gymnastics training they needed something to eat. On Saturdays they train from 1100 to 1500 so lunch is difficult. An afternoon snack is always necessary. Usually they have fruit or a sandwich. With me today though they asked for a treat.

They had this white chocolate mocha frappuccino with cream and some coconut loaf.

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Someone couldn’t get my name correct

I don’t mumble. I speak clearly. I also speak with an Australian accent. The person behind the counter didn’t have English as his first language. For a second I wondered if there was a “Gally” waiting but then realised it was for me.

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Dinner preparation

Tonight I promised my daughters I’d cook dinner. They like it when I cook for them. I made salmon and salad. They love salmon. Yes that is a tomato vine in one of the salmon containers. I used it to impart a little flavour when cooking the salmon. As you can see there was a lot of beetroot. We all like beetroot.

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This was my plate

We all like lots of feta. Everyone liked the lemon zest too.

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Miss11 becomes Miss12 this week.

Yes, she is gorgeous.

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Dessert

Mum made the cake and we bought some Weis’ sorbet to go with it.

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The rain continues

The constant rain has been a feature of the weekend. It’s been warm and it’s been moist. It’s been good.

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Breakfast preparation

My job was setting the table while Mum, Dad and Miss17 cooked.

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My Mum’s Sunday breakfast

A big pikelet with bacon, maple syrup and whipped cream

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A snack before leaving Brisbane

I know I didn’t need it but I do like cheese.

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The snack on QF957 from Brisbane to Canberra

I love salted caramel

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Dinner tonight

This is a beef hamburger with spinach leaves, coriander (cilantro), grated carrot, sliced beetroot, tomatoes, sesame seeds and Havarti cheese.

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It’s been a good weekend. I enjoy them with my daughters. When I leave Brisbane there is always a touch of sadness. I hope I get to see them again soon.

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Weis’ is a well known name in Queensland. As a kid we would crave Weis’ bars.

I don’t think any person from South East Queensland of my age could not have heard of a Weis’ bar. They were and are amazing.

The sorbet tubs are a relatively new addition http://www.weis.com.au/#/products/sorbet-tubs and extraordinarily good.

My week in Instagram and I won $50 of meat. Shout out @2CC and Elite Meats Canberra (garydavidlum.com)
Pho Viet Review 2 | The Aldi Expressi Coffee Machine | Back with Bron | My week in Instagram (garydavidlum.com)

Honey soy salmon and a chocolate honeycomb dessert

10 Replies

I just posted some images on Instagram and my friend Laura asked on Twitter if I’d blog the recipe. If asked, I’ll blog anything

So I had a fillet of Atlantic salmon which I bought from Coles. It was about $30 per kilogram.
I made the salad out of salad leaves from a packet from Coles. This is a really convenient way to get various types of lettuce leaf plus Rocket. The leaves keep for about four days in an airtight container.
In the salad I had grated fresh beetroot as an alternative to sliced pickle beetroot, freshly grated parmesan cheese, crumbled Australian feta cheese, chunky diced cucumber, sliced celery, sliced spring onions, quartered cherry tomatoes, ground pepper, and chilli flakes.

My method of cooking the salmon is dead simple and always works. I heat up a fry pan with some vegetable oil until it gets to smoking hot. I then add the salmon and add a lid. I time this for five minutes. I leave the fry pan for five minutes and don’t touch it. When the time is up I turn off the heat and move the pan and leave the lid on for another one minute. After the minute the lid goes into the sink of hot soapy water and the salmon is put on a plate to rest. The fry pan then hits the hot soapy water.

The salad is basically leaves in a bowl with everything except the beetroot added. The colour of the beetroot will bleed into everything so I add it at the very end.

Tonight I flaked the salmon and added it to the salad.

Normally I might use a salad type dressing for the salad but tonight instead of putting the fry pan into the soapy water I heated it up again and added a little white wine then soy sauce and then honey. I stirred that quickly and let it reduce a little. I drizzled the honey soy over the salmon and the salad. It was sweet but not too sweet.

For dessert I took inspiration from Rachael and Laura again with their advice on menz chocolates from Adelaide.

I had some menz Chocolate Honeycomb which I crushed a little with a meat tenderiser and added with Connoisseur Classic Vanilla ice cream. It was so yummy.

A happy ending and the end of a good little break | Ping @ColouredPurple

13 Replies

On Wednesday evening I vented my frustration about a bad taxicab driver and a lost bag. I don’t really like to vent. I prefer to be more positive and upbeat. I was coming down from the high of being with my daughters and having such a good time. I was surprised how annoyed and upset it made me feel, after all I’ve had my bags mishandled five times in the last twelve months by Qantas and United Airlines. The good news is my bag caught up with me sixteen hours after I returned to Canberra. The relief was palpable. I’m just grateful it didn’t happen on the way to Brisbane given that bag contained presents for my kids and parents.

So coming back to Canberra means coming back to the same old routine.

Ice coffee banana smoothie for breakfast

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I received a call from Qantas at about 0900 AEDT saying my bag had been found. This is despite the website stating the bag couldn’t be located and they were still tracing. Given it had arrived in Canberra at 0900 AEDT, it’s hard to believe it just appeared on that flight. I shouldn’t complain further, I have my bag. What it meant though was I had to hang around and delay my day’s plans for it to arrive.

My bag with the offending Qantas QTAG.

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Routine means tinned red salmon and tomato on toasted multigrain Vienna loaf

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Thursday evening saw dire warnings across southern Australia of an impending heatwave. There were predictions of temperatures in some areas in the mid to high 40s (degrees Celsius).

I wasn’t feeling that warm but wanted a light dinner suitable for warm weather. Mangoes and cucumbers are cooling.

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Dessert. Dark chocolate covering ginger from my girls.

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You need refreshing drinks on warm evenings.

Crushed ice and pineapple pieces with lemon lime and bitters cordial blended with Coles sparkling mineral water. So refreshing and I forgot the mint.

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Even though we’re past 2012/12/21 (day with longest daylight time) it was still light until late.

Last light over Lake Ginninderra

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As predicted on Friday we started seeing extreme temperatures across southern Australia (with attendant bush fires destroying homes and causing injuries). I did what most people do if they don’t have air conditioning and aren’t at work, I went to the local shopping mall and watched a movie. It’s been a few months since I’ve been to a movie. I chose Skyfall, as in James Bond 007. I enjoyed it. It was longer than I was expecting. The ending was cool. I’d rate it 7.5 or maybe 8 out of 10. If you’re a James Bond fan it’s worthwhile although a little tedious in parts.

For the remainder of the day I chilled and watched a DVD or two. One of them was The Dictator. I love the quote about Crocs (footwear). “The universal symbol of a man who has given up hope.”

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Dinner had been in my head since Thursday evening. I watched an episode of How to Cook like Heston. It was the first episode in the series and it was dedicated to beef. In this episode Heston describes the myths around steak and his technique. I didn’t follow his method exactly because I didn’t have two days to age my piece of Scotch rib fillet. That night I unwrapped the steak and put it in the refrigerator uncovered and let it dry out. On Friday night I got a pan smoking hot and seasoned the steak with some salt. I then applied the steak to the pan and turned it every 20 seconds for a total of three minutes. I then let the meat rest for a full five minutes. I had prepared a salad with some lettuce, avocado, beetroot, Parmesan, spring onion, tomato, and Chinese sausage with some lemon juice. I sliced the steak thinly and added it to the salad.

Scotch fillet cooked Heston style with lettuce, avocado, beetroot, Parmesan, spring onion, tomato, and Chinese sausage salad with some lemon juice. I was pretty happy with the comments I received on Instagram

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On Thursday evening a Twitter friend @ColouredPurple mentioned after I posted my tropical drink that she had come across a nice Italian sparkling mineral water from Aldi. On Friday night I made my drink with it.

It was pretty good. Better than the $0.80 bottles from Coles.

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This morning I woke up a little later than normal and went for a walk.

The sun rising over Lake Ginninderra.

As the sun rose the Owl Statue looked all shiny and golden.

My view as I walked down Benjamin Way.

Another view of the lake.

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After watching part of the test match from Sydney I had this delicious lunch.

I’d bought the Gorgonzola cheese, and Maggie Beer pâté and Maggie Beer quince paste earlier today.

Unfortunately while biting through the toast I lost part of an upper right side molar.

That’s the bit next to an Australian five cent piece.

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Okay so it’s a little warm today.

Why can we just have low 30s and 95% humidity? That would be perfect.

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Despite a broken tooth I’m determined to keep cooking and eating. Tonight I had a raw beetroot and grated it into the salad. There’s also grated Parmigiano-Reggiano plus cucumber, celery, nectarine, spring onion, lettuce and tomato.

Nothing like a light salad as the rain falls to cool down the day and increase the humidity.

Catch you later.

Things mentioned in this post

Skyfall
Website http://www.skyfall-movie.com/site/
IMBD http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1074638/

The Dictator
Website http://www.thedictatormovie.com.au/
IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645170/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

How to cook like Heston
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-cook-like-heston
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/tv-show-recipes/how-to-cook-like-heston-recipes
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/hestons-perfect-steak

Aldi
Website http://aldi.com.au/

Coles
Website http://www.coles.com.au/

Change in jobs (garydavidlum.com)
She Makes Hats On Instagram! (shemakeshats.com)
Why Heston Blumenthal deserves the Turner prize (guardian.co.uk)
Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck – part 3 (carolynchan.wordpress.com)
How Blind People Use Instagram (gizmodo.com.au)
How to use Instagram (slideshare.net)
How Blind People Use Instagram (gizmodo.co.uk)
Instagram says users’ photos won’t appear in ads (newsobserver.com)

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.

Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.

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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.

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.

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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/

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.

From last week

What I came across on Sunday morning.

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I love pistachios

Snack time.

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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.

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 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.

Caramel doughnut.

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

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. 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.

A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.

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

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.

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).

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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.

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…

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

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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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The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.

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The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.

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I love prawns.

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I could not help capture an after image.

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

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

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Because everything is better with bacon.

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

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

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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

Another week in Instagram and schoolies week (garydavidlum.com)

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

15 Replies

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.

The spread

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My plate

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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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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.

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

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

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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.

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One of my work friends turned 32 on Monday.

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

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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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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.

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

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 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.

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On Thursday we had our branch 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. 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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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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.

I played vroom vroom throughout the day.

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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.

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.

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

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

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Last night I needed something light.

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.

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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

View Larger Map

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

View Larger Map

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

View Larger Map

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

#BoycottInstagram? Instagram Lives On (tcjock.wordpress.com)
Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos (gloryartgallery.wordpress.com)
Instagram or not to Instagram ? (since198x.com)
Instagram: “All Your Photos Are Belong to Us!” (beanstalk-inc.com)
Photo Friday – Insanity Instagram (insanityofmotherhood.com)
Moving From Instagram to Flickr (kinlane.wordpress.com)

It’s starting to feel like Summer

6 Replies

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.

Another week in Instagram and schoolies week (garydavidlum.com)
How to make perfect coleslaw (guardian.co.uk)
nutritious coleslaw (omamas.com)
Gingered Carrot Coleslaw Recipe (rawlivingfoods.typepad.com)
A favourite sandwich | Distant happy memories (garydavidlum.com)
Pork schnitzel with cauliflower rice (lchfenglish.wordpress.com)
Smile! Thanksgiving Is Instagram’s Biggest Day (abcnews.go.com)
Instagram users set Thanksgiving photo upload record (pcworld.com)

Poached salmon red curry

6 Replies

For the last I don’t know how many weeks I’ve been pan frying Atlantic salmon. Tonight I thought about doing something different. I had noodles, red curry paste, lychees and pineapple pieces.

I heated the pineapple pieces and lychees with their juices in a fry pan and added some red curry paste. I also added a liberal sprinkling of chilli flakes. Once it reached a good vigorous boil I added a piece of salmon and put a lid on the pan. I cooked this on high heat for 5 minutes before removing the lid. I removed the salmon and put it in a bowl. I added the noodles to the fry pan and small amount of coconut milk. I also squeezed in a lime. Once the noodles were cooked the sauce had thickened I spooned noodles, pineapple pieces and lychees into a large bowl. I then flaked the salmon and added that. I then poured over a small amount of the sauce.

Poached salmon red curry

It tasted okay

Thai red curry paste – new improved version (alifeintwo.wordpress.com)
Wicked Good Lobstah Suppah, paht 2 – flex those curry mussels (cleverchickadee.wordpress.com)
Angel Hair Pasta & Prawns in Thai Red Curry and white wine sauce (sliceoffme.wordpress.com)
Tuna steak with Zucchini Spaghetti in a Thai red curry and sweet carrots (alifeintwo.wordpress.com)
Chicken Red Curry Sauce (ninikbecker.wordpress.com)
~Five-Spice Duck Recipe~ (ilovethaicooking.wordpress.com)

When real life and blogs fuse | Ginger cake | Lemon Marmalade

7 Replies

This morning after my walk I read through the blogs I follow on WordPress. One of my favourites is Spoon Feast which is written by Pamela Roberts who is a Certified Executive Chef (CEC) and Certified Culinary Educator (CCE) through the American Culinary Federation (ACF). This morning Pam had written about lemon marmalade. I wrote a comment about how I like marmalade and that lemon marmalade would be great. Later in the morning I had morning tea with Bron and she brought along some of her ginger cake. The recipe is a David Lebovitz creation. Bron’s creation was amazing. It was moist yet light and not sticky like some cakes are. The cake has a good amount of molasses in it as well as fresh ginger. To accentuate the ginger and molasses flavours the cake has black pepper. It really does work together.

Click on an image to get a higher resolution version

Bron’s awesome ginger cake

On returning to my desk I noticed that Pam had responded to my comment. In my mind I had thoughts of salmon, ginger, and lemon marmalade. I knew that Buderim Ginger made a ginger, lemon and lime marmalade and thought I could combine that with the salmon I was cooking tonight.

Buderim Ginger, lemon and lime marmalade

So tonight I pan seared some salmon and made a sauce with the ginger, lemon and lime marmalade to signify the fusion between real life and blogs. I even added some black pepper to accentuate the flavours.

Salmon with ginger, lemon and lime marmalade

Lemon Marmalade (spoonfeast.com)
Lemon Ginger Honey (theflamingpotholder.com)
Meyer Lemon Marmalade Cake (threecleversisters.com)
Marmalade&Mash (babyccinokids.com)
Mascarpone and Marmalade Ice Cream (underthebluegumtree.com)
Fig Marmalade (americanainorvieto.wordpress.com)
Dark orange marmalade (carolynchan.wordpress.com)

Yummy Lummy

Gary's rants and raves about food (and a little about life)

Tag Archives: Salmon

My week in Instagram

My week in Instagram | Different foods | #bestblogs13

My weekend in Brisbane

Honey soy salmon and a chocolate honeycomb dessert

A happy ending and the end of a good little break | Ping @ColouredPurple

Week 52 2012 Christmas

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

It’s starting to feel like Summer

Poached salmon red curry

When real life and blogs fuse | Ginger cake | Lemon Marmalade

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