Learning to face my cooking with bones 'fear'!

It has only been just over a week since my last post and I have been out for dinner twice, had a trip to Melbourne and had a late night at work for Uni Ball.  Reflecting, it is no surprise that I am now telling you I have a cold.  Perhaps too much in one week but lucky you still gets to hear all about.

First I will back track to my dinner at Zaragosa, you might remember I was very excited about.  I am sad to say it did not live up to my memory. For those of you that are not familiar with this restaurant they serve both Spanish and Mexican cuisine and I couldn't go past a tapas tasting plate.  I was so excited about going back to Spain so when it came out and not a single thing tasted fresh I was more than disappointed. I honestly think I could have purchased all of the items from the supermarket, popped them in the oven myself and gotten the same, if not a better, meal.  Oh well, I wasn't going to let this ruin my very rare night out with Dylan so we headed off to the movies where I made sure I ate enough chocolate to forget the taste!

 
The weekend was here before I knew it (not to mention over just as quickly) and I headed off to Melbourne to see the last home game of the season for the Melbourne Vixens Netball team.  I always find a walk beside water so relaxing and it was such a beautiful day to spend out in the sunshine so I was very happy to take a relaxing stroll along the river towards Hiesnse Arena.  It's not a trip to Melbourne without a quick stop for shopping before we were on our way home to make sure I could get new recipe Sunday underway.  On the menu this week was red wine and herb lamb shanks.  I may have mentioned this in the past but I am not a big fan of bones so it was a big step to make a recipe that had bones in it!  I don't know what it is, maybe I choked on one as a kid or something, but bones in my food always freaks me out!  I know the flavour of the bone is worth it so I gave it a crack and I was really happy with how it turned out.  I would totally make this again.  The sauce was amazing, I even saved the left over to have on chicken during the week.

Next stop for dinner this week was with my girls as we worked our way down our list.  We are up to the letter 'T' so it was off to Table 48.  I have never eaten here before and didn't know what to expect.  It is an Italian restaurant and for the price of the menu I was expecting really delicious home made pasta and pizza.  Turns out it just an extremely overpriced place to eat where they tip the store bought pasta into a pot of boiling water and put the pizza from Safeway into the oven.  Don't get me wrong, the meals were ok, certainly not any better than average, but the price was really the thing that twisted the knife.  I am not usually so harsh, but you can get a better meal at a pub for half the price so I wouldn't waste your time or your penny's!

As this exhausting week draws to a close, I will be spending the entire weekend at home doing nothing which makes me very happy.  I am hoping to wake up as fresh as a daisy tomorrow and be over this cold to enjoy the weekend as I am really looking forward to trying out a dumpling recipe this Sunday.  I hope you all enjoy your weekends xx

My first duck expereince..oh and I am going on a holiday!

I have some exciting news that I just couldn't wait to tell you about. I booked my next holiday today!!  My friend and I have been talking about a holiday for a while and I just decided lets stop talking about and lets do it....so today I booked us a cruise! We are having 7 days on a P&O cruise to New Caledonia departing from Brisbane.  I am so excited to have some travel plans again and for it to be something new; the countdown to August 2nd is on!

Don't worry I am not going to blab about my super exciting news and make you feel all jealous for the entire post (although no promises you wont hear a lot about it between now and then).  I do have some delicious food updates to share with you.

My friends and I headed out to celebrate a birthday last weekend at L'espresso.  I have never been here to eat at all let alone for dinner and oh wow it was awesome.  I had no expectations, hadn't heard many reviews and for a cafe I wasn't expecting too much to be honest.  I ordered duck confit served on braised cabbage and it exceeded all of my expectations. It is the first time I had had duck at a restaurant and I would definitely order it again. I must admit one thing I wasn't a fan of was the lighting.  I know, I know it's a stupid thing to comment on, but be prepared not to see the entire time as the cafe is lit by candles only. They even give you a torch to read the menu with! They only do dinner once a week (I think) so make sure you book!

After having such a delicious meal on Friday night, I wasn't sure what to do for new recipe Sunday.  I was on my own this week and Dylan doesn't eat seafood so I took the opportunity to do a fish dish.  I tried out crispy skin fish with cauliflower puree and burnt butter sauce. It certainly wasn't the prettiest dish on the plate so I won't embarrass myself but posting a photo but I was pleasantly surprised with the cauliflower puree.  It was another one out of my Donna Hay recipe book and I think I would need to try again before it is worthy of posting, but if you are interested in the recipe, leave me a comment and I will put it up for you.

That is it for this week, I am out to dinner tomorrow night to an old favourite, Zaragosa.  It is the first time I have been here since coming home so I am really looking forward to the delicious food and spending the night with Dylan followed by a movie. Finally, a big happy Mother's Day to those of you that celebrated on Sunday, I look forward to seeing my Mum in a few weeks to celebrate. Maybe I'll try a new recipe Sunday for her! Keep smiling, I know I will be! In case you forgot, I'm going on a cruise!!!

It's soup weather

Why oh why do we live in the coldest place in Victoria, and quite probably the country?  I ask myself this question over and over again, especially when I am scrapping ice off my windscreen in the mornings!  So when the temperatures failed to climb any higher than 10 degrees, I decided to stop being such a negative nancy about the weather and get excited about the fact that it is cold enough for warm delicious soup and crusty bread.  I love cauliflower soup and decided to make a giant batch for the work week.  I saw a recipe somewhere that suggested you roast the cauliflower first and I was surprised at the difference in flavour it made.  After only one day of having this at work, I couldn't get the idea of crusty bread out of my head.  One of our family favourites was picnic loaf (french onion soup and cheese bread) so I went straight to the supermarket on the way home and whipped up this easy cheesy bread in the oven. 

There was no new recipe Sunday this week so I am going to take the opportunity to talk about some of my favourite eating experiences in Ballarat. Over the Easter break I managed to score myself an entire day with my boyfriend (who I shall stop calling 'my boyfriend' and start calling Dylan...well because this is his name and it is less words to type!). These by the way are very few and far between so I did what every good girlfriend should do and took him shopping!! I can see some of you cringing at the thought of a bored guy waiting for me to try on the next piece of clothing but I am not that mean.  We went shopping for some plants and herbs so really you should feel sorry for me because I took a boy to Bunning's and was then forced to shop through the entire store instead of just the plant section!

After too much time in Bunning's I needed to eat so we headed to Open Pantry. I have only been here for breakfast in the past and was really keen to try their lunch menu.  Dylan's brother-in-law is actually the chef here so perhaps I am a little bias but I really love that the menu is not the same as every other cafe you walk into. Don't worry there are things here for you boring people too like the good old focaccia.  It was such a beautiful sunny day we sat outside on the deck.  I decided to have the caramilsed onion tart with jamon and brie and Dylan had the duck crepe with asian slaw. If you haven't tried this place out yet, you should take the first chance you get, I promise you won't regret it!

 My friends and I are heading off to L'espresso Cafe tomorrow night so I look forward to giving you an update next week as I have never eaten here before.  I haven't decided on new recipe Sunday for this week so look forward to that surprise.  Don't forget, no matter how crappy the weather is there is always something to smile about :)