Tag Archives: Sticky date pudding

A wonderful weekend of gardens and food

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This past week has been a bit emotional for me. On Friday we remembered the events of ten years ago in Bali. I needed a break and Bron had very kindly organised a weekend away with her sons and me. The destination was to be Cowra with nothing specific planned except dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel. We knew that Cowra was known for the Japanese Garden and the prisoner of war camp. The POW camp is the site of the Cowra Break out.

We stayed at the Vineyard Motel on Chardonnay Street in Cowra. This is a small but well presented motel. The best thing is the heated floor of the bathroom and main living area. This is so good on cold nights and mornings. I would recommend this motel as accommodation a little out of the town centre and in amongst grape vines.

For higher resolution views, click on the images and they’ll open up into bigger clearer images.

Vineyard Motel

In amongst the grapevines

Grapevines

Bird bath

In the Afternoon we went and headed into town to find a pie for lunch and then ate it in a local park.

Tomato and onion pie with coke

After lunch we ventured to the Japanese Garden. This is truly a delightful place to visit. It is so serene and tranquil. I would highly recommend visiting.

Bonsai

Water feature

After the garden we went to the Cowra POW Camp site.

The replica guard tower

The grounds where the site was

On Saturday evening we went and had dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel.

Both Bron and I enjoyed the crispy crackling pork belly and scallops for an entrée and then a rare Scotch fillet steak on Paris mach for our main meal. For dessert I had a sticky date pudding with Queensland nuts and ice cream. The service was fast and friendly. The decor very warm and inviting. I would highly recommend Tommy’s Bistro for a dinner.

Garlic bread

Crispy crackling pork belly with scallops

Scotch fillet and prawns with Paris mashed potato

Sticky date and Queensland nut pudding

After a good sleep we enjoyed a motel breakfast. I had peanut paste and orange marmalade on whole grain toast.

Our intention for the morning was to go for a walk in a national park and then visit a winery for lunch.

The Wallaby Walking Trail in the Conimbla National Park is an easy walk of a couple of kilometres. The brochure from the Cowra Visitors’ Centre suggested the walk would take 30 minutes. The sign at the trail suggests 1 hour. In the end it took us about 40 minutes after a couple of water stops. You can see our route on my RunKeeper site.

In the end we didn’t get to a winery but we did find Taste Canowindra. A delightful venue for wine, art and music plus great food.

I had a chicken terrine made with crushed strawberries. It was really very good. I would recommend this place to anyone who wanted a good lunch on the way home to Canberra.

When I got to my place I made myself a chicken red curry with lychees and pineapple.

Cowra


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Tommy’s Bistro

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Japanese Garden

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Vineyard Motel

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Edgell Park

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taste Canowindra


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My weekend in food was good

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This weekend I completed my income taxation return and caught up on some work. I also spent some time with Bron and managed to enjoy some delicious meals. If you follow me on instagram you can see how I ate this weekend as well as some of my other activities.

Thai salmon cakes

Bron’s fish cakes were really nice.

Sticky date pudding with homemade custard and butterscotch sauce

Bron makes the best sticky date pudding. Her homemade custard and butterscotch sauce are to die for.

Spring in Canberra

The deciduous trees are blooming and my allergic rhinitis is getting worse. I must be snoring like a train because every morning I wake up with a sore throat like razor blades are cutting it.

Lake Ginninderra

Before breakfast I went for a walk and captured some images. We had breakfast at Black Pepper which is on the corner on the left of the image.


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Dead carp

Fishing is popular in Canberra waterways. The lakes are full of carp. They are a pest and regarded as feral. If a carp is caught it is not allowed to be thrown back into the water. From what I’ve seen people go fishing, catch carp and then leave them anywhere they choose.

Green eggs and ham

Bron chose green eggs and ham. The scrambled eggs have avocado in them.

Poached eggs, Kransky and hollandaise sauce

I ate poached eggs, Kransky sausage, mushrooms and hollandaise sauce.

Pan seared salmon served with a tower of potato mash, wilted spinach, pine nuts, peas and corn along with asparagus and broccolini. The mash potato was made with blue cheese.

Tonight I cooked a light meal of salmon. Click on it if you want a larger resolution view.

Oh and if you’re interested, next weekend I want to see the Melbourne Storm defeat the Canterbury Bulldogs. I also want to see the Sydney Swans defeat the Hawthorn Hawks.

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Ribs and Rumps Sydney Olympic Park

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Tonight Bron and I had dinner at Ribs and Rumps at Sydney Olympic Park. Bron had read the foursquare tips earlier and noticed many negative comments about the quality of the food and the service.

Shortly after that I received a call from the restaurant to explain that on street parking would be difficult tonight because of the Royal Easter Show. That was nice of them to do that.

On our arrival, our reservation was confirmed and we were led to a great table near a window which gave us a good view into the restaurant and outside.

Throughout the evening the wait staff were friendly and attentive. Our requests were taken and we were pretty happy.

The restaurant has a challenge consisting of 1 kg of rump plus a full rack of ribs. I elected to go for something similar but lighter. I had a 500 g prime rib steak and a half rack of lamb ribs. This came with chips and a creamy pepper sauce.

Seriously good steak knives and big condiment dispensers are a signature.

Bron asked for a calamari entrée and I helped.

And here's my 500 g prime rib on the bone with a half rack of lamb ribs. Bron had a rib eye fillet steak.

I was given a bib to wear.

This is what happiness looks like :-)

I'm a good boy and have finished my plate.

Cleaned ribs

Chocolate mousse with cream and ice cream

Bron had a sticky date pudding

Despite the tips posted through foursquare we were very happy with our meal. I rate this meal highly and would recommend the restaurant to anyone.

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My weekend in food and ‘health’

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This week at work has been fairly full on. I’ve come back from a week away in Washington and there is a lot on in the branch. We also had senate estimates this week which just adds to the longer hours. We were there to give evidence at 2250 AEDT on Wednesday night. We finished after 2300 AEDT.

The weekend has been a much sought after break. I’ve been looking forward to dinner with friends this weekend. We had dinner parties planned on both Friday and Saturday evenings. Catching up with friends is always so good. Coincidentally we were repeating a weekend from earlier in the year http://wp.me/p16Zhd-jV

On Friday evening the menu was prawns, roast beef and pavlova.

The prawns were as fresh as they could be. Only frozen once and cooked as soon as they were thawed. The main course had a number of highlights. Freshly baked bread being one thing but the star was a slow cooked standing rib roast. The prime rib was cooked for about twelve hours at 50 °C and then pan seared to give it a lovely crust. Dessert was an amazing pavlova. The picture of the pavlova speaks for itself. It was served with home made vanilla bean ice cream. It was so rich and creamy.

Fresh prawns with a seafood sauce.

Yep, it's a salad. The olives are local.

Creamy potato bake.

Fresh bread made on the day. With real butter, what can be better?

Standing rib roast. Doesn't it look amazing.

Plated up. This dinner was so well balanced.

A heart shaped pavlova. Lovely fresh fruits including blackberries picked locally.

Pavlova served with home made vanilla ice cream.

It was a great night finished with dark chocolate and more good conversation.

On Saturday night we caught up with friends for a shared dinner party. Regular readers will know that Bron has become a star with Yorkshire puddings and a request came for roast lamb and yorkies plus Bron’s sticky date pudding. The main course was all about the lamb shoulder. The lamb shoulders (about 10 kilograms of lamb) had been prepared by a butcher and split to ensure an even cooking. The lamb pieces were placed over cloves of garlic and rosemary stems. Over the lamb more garlic and rosemary were added. Aluminium foil covered the meat and then the roasting tray was placed in the oven at 230 °C for 30 minutes after which is was turned down low to between 150 and 170 ⁠°C for seven hours. The low slow cooking ensures a succulent product with meat that pulls away easily from the bones.The secret to this meal was putting the lamb in the barbecue for about half an hour. The result was a beautiful caramelisation of the meat leaving us with some crackling too. It was accompanied by smash potatoes and roasted carrot, sweet potato and parsnips.

After the main we had Bron’s sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce, custard and vanilla ice cream.

10 kilograms of lamb shoulder in three oven trays.

This is me sampling some of the lamb. Look at that growing mountain of meat.

Smash potatoes and roasted sweet potato and parsnip.

Can you believe how much meat we went through?

Bron made enough yorkies for everyone to have two or three.

Ready to serve.

My first helping of lamb and vegetables.

My second helping of lamb.

My first helping of Bron's sticky date oudding with butterscotch sauce, custard and vanilla ice cream.

My second helping of pudding.

After dinner we had to have fruit.

Terry's chocolate orange ball.

This morning I woke up feeling awful. I had a headache, muscle pain and some joint pain. Even though room temperature was about 22 °C, I was shivering. A hot shower and a cup of tea didn’t help so I spent most of today in bed drinking water every hour and passing really concentrated urine. From time to time I could feel myself being viræmic. I still have a pounding headache but felt like I need to blog so I can say I did something today.

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A weekend in food

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I know a lot of fellow bloggers have started 2012 with posts about resolutions and reviews of 2011. I thought my first post for 2012 should be about a weekend of food enjoyment.

On Friday night we caught up with friends and enjoyed steam boat and pavlova at their place. We’ve enjoyed steam boat with them before and it has always been a fantastic meal. Steam boat is also known as hot pot. I remember steam boat as a kid, Mum had an electric boat and we had many happy meals putting meat, vegetables and noodles into the simmering water. On Friday night we enjoyed marinaded pork, beef, chicken and prawns. We had three types of noodles and heaps of Chinese vegetables. At the end, three egg yolks were beaten in and we had the best soup to finish.

Steam boat preparation. Everything ready.

Steam boat preparation. Everything ready.

A bowl of awesome goodness.

For dessert we had a pavlova lovingly made by our friends. This pav was amazing. The cream was whipped coconut cream and pouring cream. It had a lovely coconut flavour and a smooth texture. The fruit included banana, passion fruit, mango, pineapple, Chinese gooseberry (kiwifruit), blueberries and strawberries.

The platter was about 60 cm in diameter. Four adults polished it off in one hit. It was awesome.

A huge pavlova

We accompanied the pavlova with one of the all time best ice creams. Weis‘ mango cream with Queensland nut (Macadamia) chunks.

My favourite ice cream Weis' mango cream and macadamia chunks

My first (of three) helping.

My first of three helpings of awesome pavlova

The empty platter, all gone in one go

We finished the evening with chocolate and port. Well I didn’t have port, but it was a great evening. Lots of laughs. We really treausre these times with our friends. Especially the work and social related conversations. I’m glad I don’t drink otherwise I’d forget how much I laugh when we’re all together.

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