Tag Archives: Strawberries

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

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

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

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

Dinner is served. Ping @macjam1 @chat2tb @natmcb

The spread

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

My plate

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Burger

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

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

For dessert we had pavlova.

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I was cold

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

View the twitter conversation here and here and here

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

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

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

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

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

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Pineapple smoothie

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

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

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

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

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

It looks shiny and new #publicart #igerscanberra

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Workplace birthday celebration for a youngster.

One of my work friends turned 32 on Monday.

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

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

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Sneaking up on Mr Owl #publicart #igerscanberra

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

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

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

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On Wednesday I forgot to make my lunch.

Lunch. Salmon and caper quiche.

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

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Food regret

Afternoon tea. Jam doughnut. #BreadTop

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

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A friendly visitor

This guy greeting me when I got home.

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

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

Dinner. Pork rasher with mango salad.

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On Thursday we had our branch Christmas morning tea.

Work Christmas morning tea

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

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

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

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

Workplace awards at Christmas morning tea for the branch.

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

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

Crumbed lamb brains and capers Ping @DrOffal

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

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

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

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The trifecta for Thursday was Christmas dinner with dear friends.

Fresh prawns

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

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Amazing crackling

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

Roast pork and vegetables

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

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Violet crumble semi fredo

For dessert we devoured a violet crumble semifreddo.

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

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

I played vroom vroom throughout the day.

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

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

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

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

I'm at snag stand Woden

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

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

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We brought our food back to work.

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

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

Close up of my Swiss bratwurst sausage.

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

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Last night I needed something light.

Free range organic chicken drumstick with salad.

Organic free range chicken drumstick and salad.

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

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

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

Places and things mentioned in this post in more detail.

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

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


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

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I feel fat but I’m full of goodness from today

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I had two meals today. I know that’s not ideal but each was quite filling. Not as filling as yesterday’s but filling just the same. I woke up this morning without much of an appetite and then I remembered Bron was going to make Crème Brûlée French toast this morning and my appetite came back with a vengeance.

This recipe also calls for drunken strawberries which were really nice. we also elected to add some whipped cream from a can.

Crème Brûlée French toast naked

Adding whipped cream is fun

Crème Brûlée French toast with whipped cream from a can

Crème Brûlée French toast with cream and drunken strawberries

My second helping of Crème Brûlée French toast

I went for a decent walk this afternoon but I don’t know that I burned enough emergy :-)

Check out the walk at http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/74679324

This afternoon after a little ironing I started preparing dinner. I still had a piece of New York strip steak left and I thought it would make a nice Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington is one of my favourite meals. It is so rich and unctuous especially when made with Pâté and mushroom Duxelles.

New york strip steak, butter, onion, prunes, mushrooms, and parsley

Laid out I have almost everything ready. New york strip steak, butter, onion, prunes, mushrooms, and parsley.

Browned steak resting and cooling

Browned steak resting and cooling until room temperature.

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, and mushrooms (The secret ingredient is anchovies)

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, and mushrooms (The secret ingredient is anchovies) You can’t taste them in the finished product but they add a richness to the dish.

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, mushrooms and parsley

Lots of parsley is required :-)

Nearly ready to prepare. Puff pastry laid out.

A sheet of Pampas puff pastry.

Steak coated with Pâté

The steak needs to be coated with Pâté.

Duxelles on the puff pastry

Cooled Duxelles in the puff pastry.

Beef on the pastry

Everything ready to be wrapped.

Wrapped and egg washed

The beef is wrapped and the pastry egg washed.

Plated up sans sauce

Plated up with carrots, asparagus and beans. Sauce to come.

With a pepper sauce

I love making pepper sauce with green pepper corns in brine.

On my dining table with a bottle of ginger beer

Plated up on my dining table with a bottle of ginger beer and my MacBook Air ready to eat.

After yesterday’s meal and with the steak and Pâté today I hope I don’t have a gout attack this week.

I really enjoyed making this meal and eating it.

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Dinner at Lemon Grass Woden and Max Brenner Belconnen

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After an afternoon of shopping at Costco and DFO we’d worked up a hunger for Thai food and chocolate.

I’ve been to the Lemon Grass restaurant in Woden a few times. The food has always been nice. Last night was no exception. The service though was a little quirky. At one stage we had food and no plates and at other times plates and no food. All the servers looked unhappy and it appeared they didn’t have designated tables to wait on.

For starters we had Taud Man Pla (Thai fish cakes) and Goong Taud (deep fried King prawns coated in almond flakes).These were tasty morsels and certainly made me hungrier for more food.

Taud Man Pla Spicy Thai fish cakes

Delicious

Goong Taud Deep fried king prawns covered with almond flakes

A little over cooked.

For a main course I had the beef Gang Panang (creamy red curry with crushed peanuts and kaffir leaves topped with crispy egg noodles). Along with the rice to soak up the amazing creamy curry juices, this was a light spicy and tasty meal.

Gang Panang Creamy red curry (chicken or beef) with crushed peanuts and kaffir leaves topped with crispy egg noodles.

I’ve never really appreciated Thai desserts, so instead we went for a drive north to Belconnen to Max Brenner to enjoy some chocolate, viz., in the form of chocolate fondue (Pure melted milk and dark chocolate served with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows and banana bread).

Chocolate fondue with melted dark and milk chocolate.

In the end there was melted chocolate left over. I didn’t want to waste it.

I think this is an acceptable way to finish the melted chocolate.

The Lemon Grass menu can be found at www.lemongrassthai.com.au/Images/LemonGrassMenuWeb01.pdf

The Max Brenner menu can be found at http://www.maxbrenner.com.au/menu/menu.pdf

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar on Urbanspoon

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