Roast Chicken (by Biggs)

It's been a couple of weeks since I cooked and I decided I wanted to try my hand at something I'd never done before. Yes, that's right, I've never made a roast chicken before. It's true - check the blog.

I just get nervous that any roast is going to turn out super average, or undercooked, or overcooked. This one turned out to be none of those things. Oh, well, it was fairly average but definitely edible.

I used a Jamie Oliver recipe and placed the chicken on a bed of onion, garlic, celery, carrots, thyme, bay leaves and rosemary, shoved a hot lemon up it's jacksie, then dumped it in the oven for an hour and a half.

I have no idea if the herbs and vegetables did anything but, it sure did look good.

I served the chicken with peas, whole carrots, packet potatoes and packet gravy. I think I'll skip the packet potatoes and packet gravy next time.

Beef Short-Ribs and Slaw (by G)

I've heard a lot of talk over the past couple of years about how awesome beef short ribs are, but I've never really thought about cooking them for some reason. Then, the other day, I saw them for sale at the butcher and realised that large chunks of beef is probably what is lacking in my diet.

The ribs, for the most part, were pretty easy to cook. A bit of salt and pepper the into the oven for 7 1/2 hours at 100 deg C.  That gets them to the stage where they are no longer tough and indigestible, but does nothing for their flavour - for that aspect I made up a bbq sauce from tomato paste, brown sugar, garlic, apple cider vinegar, mirin (because there was not much vinegar left), Worcestershire sauce and some tomato sauce. The tender ribs got a coating of this sauce then went back into the oven for finishing.

As a side I decided for something a bit clean and tart to cut through the fattiness of the beef ribs - finely shaved fennel, cucumber, red chilli, mint and kiwi fruit tossed together with half a teaspoon of mayonnaise (because that too had run out) and the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of cider vinegar.

The problem with the ribs, in my opinion, was a lack of sauce - I should have been a bit more generous with it, otherwise I was pretty happy with them and the salad was a very good accompaniment.

Sausage Fricassee (by G)

It seems like an age since I've had sausages (though I guess it has been less than 48 hours) and I like the word fricassee so I thought I'd have a look around for one.  There were a surprising number of them about but I liked the look of this creole one. What this guy doesn't know about creole sausage fricassee isn't worth knowing (well, he does have a recipe for it - which is more than most people).

I didn't have all the ingredients (such as Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning) but I made do.

The below version is made from pork sausages, onion, garlic, red capsicum, celery, potato, old bay seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, beef stock and some home-made roux.

The roux was the only thing that took any real effort, I didn't have butter to make my roux so I used ghee and cooked it over low heat for about and hour and the quarter stirring frequently until it was rich and dark.

The resulting fricassee was excellent - good spice. I had meant to serve it with some country style bread but bought an olive loaf by accident, that was no bad thing.

Mac and Cheese (by Biggs)

This afternoon I headed out with some work folk for drinks. We specifically went to a place with food - burgers, po' boys, shrimp and the like. There were pork hock nuggets which were very tempting but they were a bit of a theme down in Melbourne and I have to acknowledge that my holiday is over. So, I went with the mac and cheese. I think anything else on the menu would have been a better choice. It was super bland. It allegedly had truffle of some description in it but I sure couldn't find any evidence of it.

I'm not sure why the mojito look so lurid green in the photo. It sure was refreshing on this Summery day we're having in Brisbane.

Oh, there also may have been a midnight pizza order but if there's no photographic evidence then it didn't happen!

Warm Beef Salad (by G)

Why does every beef salad have to be a Thai beef salad? I did an internet search for 'warm beef salad' and got a few hits.

I glanced over a recipe and saw it involved marinating and frying some beef then adding red onion, tomato, red capsicum and some salad greens - too easy.

When it came to making the marinade I remembered some of the ingredients - minced garlic and ginger, soy sauce... my soy sauce ran out so I went back into the cupboard to get the replacement bottle Biggs had bought and splashed it in... at that point I realised I had added fish sauce. In hindsight I remembered Biggs had pointed out that the soy sauce she had bought mentioned that it should be stored in the fridge. I got the soy sauce out of the fridge and added a splash more to the marinade, but by that point I'd already gone off piste so I decided to just add whatever. I added funky fermented chilli and black bean sauce, mirin, brown sugar, sesame oil, tamarind paste, lime (that one was actually in the recipe) and - I think that's it. 

After marinating some beef bits for an hour and a half I drained it and grilled it, then quickly pan fried it with some sliced red onion, tomato and red capsicum.

After all that was warm I added it to a bowl of mixed salad greens, splashed over some more sesame oil, soy sauce and lime juice then topped it with feta cheese cubes and tossed it up for serving.

I've got to say, the flavours were flipping amazing. Alas, the preparation was so ad-hoc that the recipe will never be faithfully created.

Pad See-Ew...sort of (by Biggs)

I'm working up at Maroochydore for the next couple of days and staying in a fairly seedy hotel room. I thought that would motivate me to go out and about for dinner but by the time I got home very late after a very long day I only just had the energy to order some food on-line to be delivered.

I went with a local 'generic Asian' place and ordered a Pad See-Ew. The restaurant ended up calling me to say they'd run out of lime, thick noodles and a bunch of other things but she was happy to make me 'something'. The 'something' that she made me tasted a little odd but I couldn't quite work out why. I didn't eat much of it.

What I did eat were the Thai fish cakes. I love those things. I'd expected them to just be frozen ones from a box but these appeared to be home-made and were delicious - spicey with a distinct kaffir lime leaf flavour.

Hot Dogs (by Biggs)

G has been waiting to go for hot dogs for quite some time and we were surprised to discover in our calendars that, tonight was the night.

We of course had to go for several steins of beer first but that gave us time to peruse the menu and make our selections before arriving at 5 Dogs.

We would have purchased vegetarian hot dogs given it's Vegetarian Wednesday but a) they were all sold out and b) I ate far too many vegetarian meals in Melbourne.

Instead we got German, Chilli and Traditional hot dogs and also both ordered 'poutine'. I say 'poutine' in inverted commas because whilst there was definitely chips and gravy the cheese curds were non-existent.

G must have been fairly unimpressed given he asked me to help him finish his 'poutine'.

Still, better than most hot dogs I've ever eaten.

Pork and Chorizo Tortilla Cups (by G)

I noticed recently that Biggs likes chorizo so I decided to welcome her home with a chorizo based tortilla meal.

The original idea was to make up a kind of chorizo and pork mince concoction an then serve it kind of quesadilla style but while I was at the supermarket I had a sudden inspiration to buy cottage cheese instead of the melty kind. It was only when I had almost comleted dinner prep that I realised that without the melty cheese the tortillas were unlikely to hold together, so I went with tortilla cups.

The mince was pretty simple - fried onion, garlic, pork mince and chorrizo flavour boosted with some onion powder, cumin, paprika and oregano. I also added a little stock to help the flavours mingle.

I created the tortilla cups by pressing the tortilla into the underside of a muffin tray and oven baking them.

To serve I just filled the cups with the mince and topped with cottage cheese and some finely diced jalapeno. There was also the option of some storebought salsa - mild. So mild in fact that it lacked almost any flavour so I resorted to sriracha.

I was hoping things would be a bit more flavourful than they ultimately turned out. Oh well.

Bacon, shallot, garlic, red chilli, noodles, coriander (by G)

Bacon, shallot, garlic and red chilli - fried and mixed through some 2 minute noodles then topped with a couple of eggs and some coriander. Job done.

There is almost nothing easier or better.

Pasta with Parsley (by Biggs)

By the time I got home from Melbourne today it was late-ish. Despite all the eating and drinking I've done over the past week I was really quite hungry. We have virtually nothing edible in our house currently but I managed to throw together a very simple pasta with olive oil, cheese, pepper and fresh parsley from the garden.

I miss Melbourne.

Thai Red Curry (by G)

After a my very compromised green curry of two nights earlier I decided I should probably make more of an effort to make an authentic-ish Thai red curry.

To make this curry I blended red chillies, shallot, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coriander into a rough paste, fried it in coconut oil then added some shrimp paste, chicken thigh pieces and coconut powder and then cooked it on a very low heat to allow the chicken to release some of its moisture to create the sauce. For a touch of authenticity I served this curry on a bed of rice and topped it with chopped coriander.

My curry sauce ended up way too thick to be authentic, but that is how I enjoy my curry sauces and I enjoyed this one immensely.

Nut Loaf and Vegetables (by Biggs)

Dinner tonight was a delightful and unexpected home-cooked meal.

I had vague plans with Nick but we were both playing Sunday a little low-key. My Sunday then got very low-key so I was taken to a pub and plied with beer.

When we left the pub Nick (perhaps a little reluctantly) mentioned that his girlfriend Steph had extended an invitation for me to join them for dinner. I (not reluctantly at all) accepted the invitation in a heartbeat. I love a home-cooked meal, I love a relaxed family dinner, I'm really quite fond of Nick and Steph so the choice was obvious.

Steph had made a nut loaf. It was delicious - savoury and satisfying with generous chunks of nuts. The veges were great too. It's no secret that peas and corn are my favourites....

Red wine is another one of my favourites and that too was on offer.

I feel much better about life having hung out with Nick for the afternoon. Unfortunately he reminded me that work is waiting in the wings for me and I'm jumping on a plane back to Queensland tomorrow. Sigh.

Back to the pub.

Pizzas! Again! (by G)

Early on Saturday evening I decided to play 'Duncan's Thai Kitchen Drinking Game' - it is one of a variety of cooking show drinking games that Biggs and I have devised. This one is simple, you watch 'Duncan's Thai Kitchen' and take a drink every time Duncan says 'OK' or 'and then'.

It doesn't sound too promising, but, after 33 drinks over the course of half an hour I was feeling a bit drowsy and drifted into a light slumber. By the time I had awoken several hours later I discovered that I was a bit to late to prepare dinner and contacted a specialist to provide the necessary sustenance.

Along with pizza I got chicken ribs, some chicken ball things and garlic bread. I can't be too critical - this is much better than anything I was willing to prepare for dinner.

Bar Fred and Late Night Treats (by Biggs)

Red and I went on a Melbourne Bonanza today and visited bars and music throughout Collingwood, Fitzroy, North Fitzroy, North Carlton, Northcote and Brunswick East.

When it came to dinner however somehow we found ourselves back in Red's second lounge room - Bar Fred. I know there are a million amazing places to eat in Melbourne and having dinner in the same place twice in three days is a little unimaginative but hey, I like it here.

We even ordered the same blue cheese pizza and the same $5 beers.

We did however get a midnight snack of chips (great!) and mac n cheese balls (average!).

Green Curry (by G)

My intention was to make a Thai red curry but the quality of the red chillies at the supermarket was not to my liking, so I went with a green curry instead. There was also the small matter of not being able to easily acquire lemon grass or galangal. As it turns out this curry came out very green indeed.

To make it I blitzed together shallot, garlic, ginger, coriander and, of course, some green chillies then cooked the rawness out of the paste and added some beef, coconut milk powder and a little water and fish sauce (in place of shrimp paste, which we appear to have run out of) then simmered it until the sauce was at my desired thickness. Right at the end I added some hokkien noodles and snow peas - I think, traditionally, they would be green beans but the quality of the green beans at the moment also leaves something to be desired. 

Despite the obvious departure from what it was originally supposed to be this curry style dish was very pleasing to the palate, if not the eye.

Tiba's (by Biggs)

I caught up with my friends Brendan and Mandi tonight at Tiba's, a family run Lebanese restaurant in Brunswick.

I can not talk this place up enough. We ordered a couple of vegetarian platters and ate like Kings. The food was sensational. There were bits and pieces to satisfy your every whim - falafel, cheese pie, spinach pie, vine leaves, chick peas, pickled vegetables, salads, breads and dips. The stand out for me was a charred, savoury cauliflower.

When we arrived Brendan did warn me in hushed tones that the restaurant doesn't serve or allow alcohol. I think he expected a bit of a scene (he's known me a long while) but vegetables and water is exactly what I needed after ruining myself through the power of beer and dance last night.

I tried to give Brendan money for dinner but he refused on the basis that it would only cost about $10. I checked later and he was right. Incredible.

A perfect dinner, perfect food but mainly....perfect company.

Pork Rashers and Noodles (by G)

Pork and noodles is a classic combination and, let's be honest, is a pretty easy thing to make. This one was a bit of a slow cooking process. First I simmered some bacon bones in plain water for about an hour to infuse some of the flavour then popped in some pork rashers that I had already grilled to get some colour on them.

Once the pork rashers had been simmering for about half an hour and seemed pretty tender I added some soup vegetables carrot, onion, potato and swede and continued cooking. When the vegetables were tender I added back the scraps of bacon that I had stripped from the bones along with some hokkien noodles. By the time the noodles had cooked there was not much liquid left in the pot - just a rich sauce.

I can tell you, though it takes a little time, this is well worth doing. The rich bacon sauce had a flavour and texture something like chicken fat and had imparted all that bacony goodness to the vegetables and noodles.

Nieuw Amsterdam (by Biggs)

Before coming down to Melbourne I was looking for a meat-centric restaurant to dine at. Eventually I outsourced the research to G and he found this BBQ Pit place.

It was a touch more swanky and the food did not disappoint. Pork hock nuggets, rum-cured salmon and pork belly. All sensational. I also had a taste of Red's shrimp and grits. Pretty impressive.

I don't usually like to name and shame on the blog but the only frustrating thing is that the wait staff generally ignored our existence to the point that we started wondering if we were invisible. Then they dared take the beer menu away from us after only one beer which almost pushed me over the edge.

Fortunately one of the staff members who was actually hosting his family at the time ended up coming over and looking after all our beer requirements - talking us through the bonus Good Beer Week menu (did I mention it's Good beer Week while I'm here? Awfully fortuitous), providing us tasting notes, not to mention providing us beer and, most critically, not taking away our menu. He really redeemed the situation.

I tried a smoked porter from the bonus beer menu. It was delicious but was chosen mainly for it's excellent name - Beavertown Smog Rocket!

Lazy Burgers (by G)

I was late leaving work and was not in a mood to make much of an effort so I went to the supermarket and bought packets of cured meats and non-cured meats and dumped them on a hamburger roll.

The burger fillings were bacon, ham, sizzle steaks, fried onions, plastic cheese and avocado.  I was planning to get ham steaks but I think they keep them in the deli section of the supermarket and I had absolutely no desire to talk to someone just to acquire a meat substitute.

The burgers were served with oven chips because I had some leftover from the other night. New rule - no oven chips, curly fries or potato gems for a while - I'm a bit concerned about my recent reliance on precooked potato products.

Bar Fred (by Biggs)

Holidays are very excellent! So what if you end up having beer and pizza for both lunch and dinner?

Red found this place, round the corner from hers, when she first moved to North Carlton. I joined her here for a beer tonight and we inevitably ordered pizzas. One had blue cheese, one had cured pork - both excellent, great beer selection.

The pizzas cost $10 and less, the beers cost $5 and more - fuck yeah!

If I owned a bar I'd call it Fred too.

Biggs' Birthday Bonanza - Pepe's (by G)

This year Biggs' birthday coincided with Tortilla Tuesday. I knew exactly what this meant... Fiesta Time!

Via the internet I discovered a very promising Mexican restaurant called Pepe's in Newmarket and made a reservation.  Did I say 'promising'? It was kind of hard to tell what to expect. On the one hand the menu said serious Mexican restaurant, on every other hand it came across as a hokey faux Mexican theme park where you would expect mariachi in false moustaches 'playing' plastic instruments.

In the end it was a not very terrible, not very authentic Mexican place with ample supplies of beer - which was just fine by us.

Biggs and I ordered a selection of things. Jalapeno poppers, tamales, empanadas and chimi-changas.

The jalapeno poppers were excellent, though they seemed to be tomatoes stuffed with a jalapeno flavoured cheez whiz filling. They were by far the least greasy and best crumbed poppers I've had.

I did not care for the tamales, they were oddly sweet and coconut heavy.  Everything else was fine, Biggs particularly liked the chorizo in the empanada - and the bucket of beers was a hit with both of us.

I kind of objected to the 'just-add-beans-and-rice-and-some-weird-apple-salad-to-everything' just to make it a main course strategy. But, as I say, it was not terrible.

PS: You can't blame me for the quality of the photograph - these images are courtesy of the birthday girl.

Chips and Savoury Mince (by G)

Once again (apparently) I was hankering for a savoury mince roll like what we used to get back in the 90's - it's nothing really special, just a savoury mince slapped on a roll. I checked back in the blog and discovered this is something I have mentioned before - though that time I filled a roll with bolognaise sauce, which is not the correct type of mince.

The correct mince should be made by browning some beef mince and adding lightly fried onion (and perhaps some garlic) along with some tomato paste, stock and Worcestershire sauce then it should be cooked until ready. That is what I attempted to do but we currently have a non-authentic Worcestershire sauce which is about 100 times too sweet - when I tasted the meat I was alarmed to discover how sweet it had become. I remedied this as best I could with some vinegar and soy sauce - the resulting mince was almost authentic.

In the time I had taken to make the mince I had also decided that I didn't want to stuff it into bread rolls anymore (because of the quantity of mince) so I oven baked some chips and topped them with the mince instead. An excellent combination.

Sticks (by Biggs)

Tonight I was a bit spoilt by Fi and Dan and was taken out to yakitori for my birthday. I took Fi to Bird's Nest for her birthday so she reciprocated for mine....a habit I hope sticks for years to come. Speaking of sticks, that's now how Fi affectionately refers to this place "going for sticks".

Sticks were ordered but, not before an awesome entree of pate and roasted garlic. The garlic was served with miso paste, salt and lemon. Sensational!

I didn't photograph all the sticks. Initially, just one of my favourites - chicken tails but then, my definite favourite - chicken hearts. We were also super keen on the chicken with shallots. Oh, and the chicken wings. Let's face it, the sticks were in fact all-round great!

Dan was still hungry after sticks so we finished off with a curry and a round of rice balls. For something so simple the rice ball sure is a wonderful thing.

Pizza (by Biggs)

I'm on holidays so, this happened and I'm not going to make any apologies....even though it was terribly average!

Lamb, Spinach and Pickles (by G)

Oh, boy! I had a brilliant plan that went relatively spectacularly awry.  The plan was to make some roti from scratch and serve it up with some slow cooked lamb and Indian fixings.

The lamb thing started out pretty as expected - I coated a little lamb roast with the rest of a jar biryani paste and slow roasted it to perfection - 7 hours, oh yeah.

Next I made some roti dough, flattened it out with the tortilla press then attempted to fry it up. Alas, the dough was too dry and they all crumbled when I transferred them to the pan. I quickly gave up on the roti idea.

I made some creamed spinach by wilting spinach leaves into some fried onion and garlic, then adding some turmeric, cumin, turmeric and yoghurt - that turned out pretty well.

Just as the lamb was coming to the end of its cooking I decided to get some colour on it so I jacked the oven up as high it would go. In no time I had burned the outside of the lamb. Luckily it was so tender after 7 hours of slow cooking that there was still some reasonably decent meat near the bone.

The meal, in the end, consisted of underwhelming quantities of lamb, the spinach, some pickled garlic and some mixed Indian pickles. In my head it was going to be a cornucopia of deliciousness, I was surprised to find how few elements there were on the plate. It was only later that I realised I had also made some raita and stored it in the fridge for serving time, and then forgotten about it...

Aw shit! Even the photo is disappointing.

Lamb and Pasta (by Biggs)

All that whiskey and meat last night left me feeling fairly ordinary today...in the sort of way where I may have turned up an hour late for work. But, it's my last day before holidays so no one seemed to mind.....or even notice. I decided at about this stage that there was no fucking way I was going to cook dinner tonight and Indian take-away would be the solution.

But, throughout the day I was feeling a little more positive about life. By the time the work day was over and I was officially on holidays I was so happy I decided I could even tackle cooking....provided there was more whiskey. More whiskey was sought and the show was on the road.

I got some lamb steaks and some pasta then just mixed through a bunch of things I like - broccoli, salami, onion, garlic, chilli, parmesan cheese.

Neck Ribs (by G)

I like to try new things (in theory) and I have never seen pork neck ribs for sale before, so when I caught sight of these babies at the butcher I bought their entire supply.  I think these ribs must be the extreme ends of the rib cage - there were some odd shapes in there. Quite a high bone to meat ratio, but the meat was good and they were prices at about $2.50 a kilo.

To cook these I made up an 'everything but the kitchen sink' marinade - Korean BBQ sauce, savoury chilli sauce, MSG, garlic powder, tomato sauces (both regular and Mexican), some funky fermented bean and chilli stuff, brown sugar, mirin, apple cider vinegar and sesame oil... I can't remember if anything else went into it. I didn't give the ribs much time to marinate before chucking them in the oven for a couple of hours. I was quite surprised to find the ribs became quite tender in such a short time.

I had more ambitious sides planned than what eventuated... all I did was super-deluxe mashed potatoes, which is basically regular mashed potatoes with the addition of fried hickory smoked bacon, fried garlic, toasted pine nuts and cheese. Unfortunately, despite roasting the potatoes in the oven for 1 1/2 hours they were not cooked entirely through so the mashed potato was a bit gluey.

The ribs, however, were excellent - though I do say so myself.

Curried Vegetables (by G)

Vegetarian Wednesday - carrot, potato and beans simmered in a store bought jar of curry paste then topped with coriander and pine nuts (why the hell not) and served on some rice...

The only thing great about this dinner was the quantity of rice I cooked (1 serving rather than the usual 12) and the pine nuts (because pine nuts are awesome).

I don't know how one potato, one carrot and a handful of beans ended up making so much food - that was a most unwelcome surprise because the meal was pretty shit.

Pork Yiro (by Biggs)

I forgot a great number of things today. Related to dinner, I forgot two things:

1) I forgot it was Vegetarian Wednesday, and

2) I forgot to take a photo of dinner

How did that happen? I've taken a photo of dinner at least every second night for TWO years and tonight I forget? Fortunately I've had this exact dinner before on the blog so was able to replicate a photo. Please note: the pork yiros in this photo is a paid actor, dramatisation may not have happened.

I was doing some training in Ipswich this evening so had the opportunity to try some Ipswichian cuisine. Unsurprisingly, instead, I chose to skedaddle back to Brisbane as quickly as possible. I had $9.90 in my wallet and a pork yiros from Leekfas is $9.90. A coincidence? I think not. I always had this in mind for dinner. They're fucking delicious, the pork is incredible and the litres of yoghurt garlic sauce they put on that thing cleanses your soul of all evils from the work day.

Sizzle Steak Tortillas (by G)

Need tortillas in a hurry? Try sizzle steaks - I think that's the hip new word for low grade, thin sliced minute steaks. I just seasoned the slices of meat with paprika, cumin powder, coriander powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper then fried them muy rapido.

To add some other flavour and texture I also made a salsa salad of red onion, red chilli, cucumber, coriander and lemon juice; a mix of avocado, smoked salt and lemon juice; and black beans (frijoles negros) - tinned black beans, fried red onion and garlic, chicken stock simmered until the beans were tender.

I thought the beans were great - partly because I had anticipated they would be awful. The combo of flavours and textures was also very much to my liking.

Fried Rice (by Biggs)

I had MASSIVE amounts of roast pork left over from Sunday so was keen to utilise it in dinner tonight. Fried rice was the obvious choice but I was a bit nervous because a) G is a fried rice connoisseur and b) I'm fairly shit at cooking rice.

I was almost saved from cooking by an evening work meeting. I would have still provided the household with dinner but it would have been fried rice bought from a local takeaway with the left over pork mixed through. Alas, the work meeting was cancelled so my hand was forced.

I forgot to buy important things like onion, garlic and ginger so just went with bacon, egg, carrot, peas and corn....as well as the pork. Flavours were just oyster and soy sauce, white pepper and salt. Not to mention the parsley, oregano and rosemary from the pork. Italian and Asian flavours all in one dinner. Odd, yes? But strangely satisfying.

There was also meant to be spring onion but I stupidly sliced it up and put it aside in preparation but forgot to add it at the last minute.

Kurnik (by G)

I was idly flipping through the internet the other day looking for a suitable Russian dish to cook when I came across Kurnik - a pie of chicken and rice with boiled eggs in the pie. Adding eggs to things is one of my favourite pastimes so I decided to make this Russian pie with eggs in it.

I can tell you, this dish was quite the dick-around - from making the cream cheese pastry (basically masses of cream cheese and butter with a little flour added) to cooking the chicken and mushroom filling, along with boiling rice and eggs and making a white sauce.

I won't go into any great detail about the labour intensive job of constructing the pie - it's basically just a crust with layers of rice and chicken mixture topped with eggs and then baked.

Here are my pros and cons about the resulting pie:

Pro: The pastry did not dissolve into a buttery puddle (I couldn't envisage it doing anything else but. I still don't know how a pastry holds together with that much cream cheese and butter in it).

Pro: It did have boiled eggs in it.

Con: It was a terrible pie.

I was very deflated when tasting the end result of all my labours - especially as I know how delicious the chicken and mushroom filling was. I have no idea why you would add rice to this pie (unless it has something to do with making a little filling go a long way in times of financial hardship - in which case 'fine' but don't tell me it's delicious).

Anyway, I made a pie, it was average. I didn't know what to have with it so I just boiled some potatoes, carrots and snow peas.

Pork with Roasted Garlic and Fresh Herbs (by Biggs)

Urghh....well, this was a hell of a lot of effort for not much reward! I wanted to do a really lovely slow cooked pork full of deliciousness. It didn't exactly work out that way.

First I brined a shoulder of pork in a mix of water, salt, sugar, bay leaves, garlic and parsley for about 15 hours. I then roasted 3 heads of garlic and mixed them with parsley, oregano and rosemary and coated the pork with it.

It was in the oven for about 5.5 hours and rested for quite some time but instead of being nice and soft and melt in the mouth it came out just a bit well, overdone.

The vegetables were nice....some beans, red onion, tomatoes and corn very quickly fried off in some of the pork drippings.

G enquired about gravy (I think he was quietly mocking me about my last gravy failure) but I thought the pork would be so incredibly delicious and moist that it wouldn't be required. I was wrong but, it was still pork so I was still pretty happy.

Pies, Wedges and Pea Puree (by G)

Welcome to 'Fucked if I could be bothered Friday'. I was too tired to make an effort over dinner so I decided to do a variation on a celebration meal that Biggs and I used to have in our less affluent past - 'Peas, Pies and piles of Fries'.

Two varieties of pies (6 pies total) and some oven wedges came straight from their packets and into the oven. I did go to a little effort for the pea puree - browned some onions and garlic, added some vegetable stock, frozen peas, pepper and a little cream then blitzed the whole lot in the food processor. It was a bit thick post-blitz so I added more cream until it was the correct consistency. Oh yeah, Heston was on the TV in the background and mentioned that fish sauce is an excellent accompaniment to meat, so I splashed a little fish sauce in there as well (I figure commercial pies still have to have at least some meat in them).

The sauce was a hit, death defyingly rich - but pretty tasty.

DIY Halloumi Burgers (by Biggs)

Tonight is our 1000th post on Tortilla Tuesday so I thought I'd do a bit of a Throwback Thursday to where it all began. And, I was determined not to let G get away without a vegetarian meal this week.

The burgers were fairly simple. I made up a bit of a salsa salad type thing with tomatoes, red onions, chives and basil and also provided multigrain bread rolls, lettuce and fried cheese. G had to work the rest out for himself.

I didn't construct the burgers and instead just brought out the fixings so we could build our own. We don't usually like family style dinners - it means we have to do stuff ourselves and also means we have to share. Two things we do not enjoy. But, G has very specific thoughts on how burgers should be constructed so instead of putting myself at the risk of fucking it up and being at the wrath of G, I just let him do it himself.

A tasty enough, but fairly boring dinner. I'm glad I bought a second packet of halloumi so we could have seconds and thirds.

Vegetarian Pasta (by Biggs)

Well, I remembered Vegetarian Wednesday even if G didn't. Admittedly my Vegetarian Wednesday was incidental but it happened none-the-less.....and was delicious!

I went to my friend Nancy's house for wine.....I mean dinner. But, mainly we had wine. I'm usually not too helpful and just get in the way when I'm at Nancy's house for dinner. I generally just perch myself on a kitchen stool while Nancy slaves away over the stove and tops up my wine.

Tonight however I tried to be a little more helpful given Nancy has badly broken her elbow and sustained serious nerve damage (roller skating is dangerous!!!). I opened the wine, served up the entree cheese (a happy constant in this household), filled pots with water, pasta and sauce from the freezer, I grated the cheese, served dinner and sliced up the dessert nougat. It was so lovely to feel helpful around Nancy (though am not too happy this is a result of a serious injury)....usually I feel a like a bit of a child.

Speaking of children, it was lovely to share dinner with Nancy's children. Her daughter set the table complete with glittery butterflies. Her son served up seconds and packed the dishwasher afterwards. And, we got to 'have a conversation' over dinner. We discussed our favourite part of the day (visiting Nancy!) and something we worked hard on (conducting a large number of job interviews at work!).

It was a really lovely night. I feel really happy and grounded after spending dinner with Nancy and her family.

Beef Cheek Chili (by G)

A while ago I had ambitiously defrosted a packet of beef cheeks thinking I would cook them for a weeknight dinner, but realised there wouldn't be enough time to get them tender enough in time - so I cooked something else. So as not to waste the beef cheeks I decided to cook them up at the same time and freeze them for a time when I was feeling lazy.

The sauce was not too thrilling, tinned tomato, red chilli, garlic and some stock - I simmered the cheeks in that for a few hours and that was that. When I tried the sauce I realised it was waaaay too hot to serve to Biggs so I stored the cheeks away in the freezer until I was on my own for dinner.

That certainly made this dinner prep easy - I just defrosted the cheeks then microwaved them to the correct temperature. I was too lazy even to make rice so I just served them with a couple of thick slices of toast.

The sauce was too watery and lacking in depth but it was plenty hot. I felt the burn all the way from one sphincter to the other for the next couple of days...

Shrimp Po'boy Tortillas (by Biggs)

Tonight, I WON AT LIFE! It's not often that happens so when it does, you're going to hear about it.

I had this idea that a Shrimp Po'boy is probably a delicious thing and anything served on a bread roll can probably be served on a tortilla. Everyone should take note of this tasty, tasty shrimp recipe. The spice blend was incredibly delicious and made dinner pretty special.

The shrimp was coated in a dry rub of salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, paprika, dried oregano, dried thyme, black pepper and onion powder. I like that we have a spice draw with a cornucopia of options to satisfy such needs. We even had some fresh, dried oregano recently supplied by the delightful Fiona!

The batter was butter milk and a mix of plain flour and cornmeal. It took me ages to crumb the shrimp and ages to fry the shrimp which meant dinner was served quite late in the end. But, definitely worth the wait. It was served with lettuce, pickles, mayonnaise and chili sauce - a winning combination.

There were a handful of shrimp I had burnt in the frying process which I'd put aside on the cutting board to throw out later but, when G discovered them he decided we should eat them instead.....even burnt these shrimp were pretty great.

Lamb Skewers and Cous Cous (by G)

Having made skeweres the other day I decided there were not enough skewered foods in our life.

These skewers are a combination of lamb, red onion, green capsicum and mushrooms - marinated in traditional spices (cumin, coriander, turmeric, garlic, ginger, lemon juice and oil) then grilled.

For the cous cous I finely chopped the leftover skewer vegetables and fried them with some more red onion, garlic and pine nuts then simmered it in chicken style stock for 10 minutes and folded in all the butter I own. I also shelled about a million sugar snap peas and added them at the end but they were so small that they barely registered.

I was disappointed in the skewers, in hindsight skewers should probably be 60 - 100% meat, and they should be tasty.  Other than that small point dinner was fine.

BBQd Satay Chicken and Charred Vegetables (by Biggs)

I didn't expect to be home tonight so had to come up with a plan last minute. I knew I had BBQ coals leftover from a few weeks ago and was in the mood for a BBQ so conjured up an idea....satay chicken.

I lazied the satay sauce with peanut butter and added soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, honey, curry powder and coconut milk. I marinated the chicken in a similar mix and charred it on a very hot BBQ that, once again, took me a couple of goes to light.

I thought we could really, really do with some vegetables so thinly sliced some zucchini and carrot and dumped it on the BBQ, along with some pak choy.

Dinner was quite excellent. We didn't want to waste the coals so wrapped up some dessert potatoes in alfoil and buried them in the coals. Much butter and salt was added for maximum deliciousness.