In which a little excursion out of the centre of the city leads to an unexpected discovery...There's always a bit of excitement when you find something unexpected - in this case, mini-Madeleines at this little bakery in Cammaray (on the North Short of Sydney). Don't ask, I'm usually not out that far - definitely away from my usual haunts (and much further than my very small slice of Sydney which extends from Bondi Junction to Central to...perhaps, Wynyard). Anyway - how can you not buy these for a little sample when they're so cute and the person in the bakery speaks with a French accent which reminds me of my London days and the chefs back at Le Cordon Bleu? Anyway, they tasted pretty good if you like sweets (personally I only bought them for the nostalgia factor because I'm not much of a cake person as a general rule) - a bit dry by themselves but perfect with a cup of tea on a Saturday afternoon. I suppose there's a reason why they're tea cakes.
Cooking for 1...(aka "because no one should watch Iron Chef on an empty stomach")Some friends were giving me a bit of grief because I don't tend to make an effort when I'm cooking just for myself. Also - rice and seaweed can get a little boring after a while so I made pasta one night - inspired by the fresh pasta at the deli but dictated by the fact that I didn't have a lot of time or patience to cook since I've been getting home later than I've wanted for the past few nights. Shrimp (or prawns, if you're going to speak like they do here) with chili, garlic and spinach is pretty standard here - and a bit predictable so I went the scallop route. Add a little bit of sweated shallots, lemon juice and parsley - it takes the same amount of time to prep and cook everything as it does to boil the water and cook the fresh pasta (they said 1 1/2 - 2 minutes but it was much more like 7 minutes). Absolutely no excuse not to cook dinner - and of course, it tasted pretty good, even if I do say so myself. Besides, there wasn't much time because I wanted to watch Iron Chef and no one should watch that on an empty stomach.
Litany of kitchen fails...
Trust me, there have been some pathetic failed experiments in the kitchen - as much as I hate to waste food, the Cake Mix fiasco of 2001 and the Frozen Pizza fails (yes, multiple - and frozen pizza!) of 2003-2006 and the Burnt-Outside-Still-Raw-Inside-after-45-minutes-in-the-oven Cupcakes-from-a-Mix drama of 2006 all resulted in those attempts ending up in the rubbish because they were completely inedible.
Slow cooker happiness!Thank goodness someone taught me how to cook! And if not, you can always make it up a little bit. Thanks to a good friend of mine, I just chucked in bits and pieces into a crock-pot and left it on overnight. In the morning, voila! Spaghetti sauce...and since my parents happen to be in town, I could call them up for a little bit of stomach assistance. How nice to be able to toddle up the hill with vegetables and sauce in a bag and produce dinner in a matter of minutes...of course, you have to be careful what you say to BS because he pays attention and a chance remark led to the very kind gift of the slow cooker which is one of my best friends during the cool/cold winter months. (Yes, I was a little lazy, I just stuck the veggies in with the pasta because I didn't want to clean another bowl, but really, what does it matter? It all tastes the same...)
Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day -Some of you may recognize the first line of a famous Rogers and Hammerstein song from Oklahoma! but what else can you say on a foggy morning that looks like this? Foghorns were going in the distance and normally this view would show you a water line stretching across somewhere around the middle of this photo. On this particular morning I woke to a glow in the sky (the horns came later). The fog burned off a couple of hours later but it was pretty while it lasted.
Sometimes you forget to appreciate what's exactly in front of you until something reminds you to stop, take a deep breath and have a look around. Suddenly there are leaves on the ground and some of the trees have turned red. The colors might not be as spectacular as they get somewhere colder, but we get the great mix of a fall while the plumeria trees (aka frangipanis here) start to blossom again.
So until next time - have a nice day and give someone a smile. As the saying goes, "Everyone can afford to give away a smile."
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