Spaghetti Bolognaise (by Biggs)

I was so horrendously unwell today I almost gave dinner a miss entirely however when I heard rumours there was spaghetti bolognaise bubbling away on the stove I decided to stick around. I love a home cooked meal and I was hopeful this one would have magical healing properties.....which I think it did.

Fruit (by G)

Salami Pizza (by Biggs)

Today I moved to Melbourne! I had such grand plans to embrace my new city to the fullest during my first weekend but I somehow picked up a dreaded lurgy on my last night in Brisbane. Like, seriously dreaded, black death type dreaded. Frankly, I'm surprised they let me on the plane. But, they did, so here I am.

Red invited me to a family dinner of pulled pork rolls and whisky which I was super keen for but completely incapable of attending.....due to the black death. With that being said I refused not to have a welcome beer so we went to the closest pub before Red headed off and I curled up on her couch to die.

I choked down a beer and a pizza out of sheer determined will-power alone. I have very little will-power for anything else while I'm dreadfully unwell but a Welcome Beer and Pizza? I do what I can.

  

Ribs (by G)

The Last Supper (by Biggs)

Tomorrow I'm moving to Melbourne! Up until now I was very excited about the move but today, my final day in my beloved Brisbane, I was very, very sad. I love this town, it's a special one, a lovely little city made all the more lovely by my wonderful friends.

When I knew I was moving I immediately made plans for my last night to be spent at Fi and Dan's for a homecooked meal with a small group of my people. It's my favourite thing to do in Brisbane.

It was a very special night and a perfect way to farewell my town. Fi said they were just going to do something simple. If this is their version of something simple perhaps I won't leave after all.

Slow-cooked lamb shoulder, enough to feed the whole city, was served. It had been in the oven with all sorts of deliciousness for a day or so. Same deal with the potatoes. A salad was served with figs and pears and walnuts. It was all pretty perfect.

Fi made a simple little dessert of meringue, strawberries and cream which was also pretty perfect.

It was all pretty perfect. I'm going to miss my people. They're pretty perfect.

Chicken Salad Roll (by G)

Party Pies (by Biggs)

I decided the last meal I cooked for G, before I move to Melbourne, was going to be spectacular....a feast for the ages. I was going to blow his mind with food.

As it turns out, things are getting pretty hectic with the move so I cooked......party pies from a box.....and chips from a bag.

To be honest, G seemed pretty happy.

Chicken, Chorizo and Risoni Burrito (by G)

Chorizo and Beer (by G)

Beer (by Biggs)

G came back from Japan today and promised to make me dinner. I came downstairs at the appointed hour of 7:30 and G was nowhere to be found. I waited and I waited, I drank beer and I drank beer and he never appeared. Once I was full to the brim with beer, and couldn't contemplate eating anyway, I went to bed.

Pretzels (by Biggs)

I was poorly today so survived off water and pretzels.

Tempura Seaweed (by G)

Crackers and Dip (by Biggs)

I had a BBQ/Picnic in the park today with a bunch of friends so unsurprisingly I had leftover picnic food for dinner. The dip was gross and watery and had a weird texture, I'm not even sure what flavour it was meant to be....how hard is it to make dip?! I guess I should have made it myself.

Shinjuku Sushi (by G)

Gyoza and Chicken Bites and Family Mart Snacks (by G)

BBQ (by Biggs)

I was at Lukey's tonight for 90s horror movie night.....there was a BBQ. It was excellent. There were burgers and good sausages. The salads were great - a potato salad, a garden salad and am excellent coleslaw.

The movie was also great.....SCREAM - classic. It was particularly great because we were out on the deck and it was a dark and stormy night.

Classic movie, classic BBQ. Classic.

Pizza and Salad (by Biggs)

Home alone on a Friday night so this was bound to happen. At least I paired it with salad.

Tempura Deluxe (by G)

Bacon and Eggs (by Biggs)

For reasons that shall be revealed next week this is one of the last dinners I’ll be cooking for G in a little while so instead of choosing one of his favourites I instead chose one of mine – bacon and eggs. In saying that, G doesn’t mind a healthy dose of bacon and eggs either. And when I say healthy I obviously mean, not healthy.

I almost didn’t serve any vegetable matter but my arteries have felt a bit cloggy of late so I fried some mushrooms and asparagus off in bacon fat. That counts right?

Other than that I cooked some bacon. You may think it looks burnt but I claim it’s just crispy. I didn’t do the eggs very well and the bonus chipolatas were a bit disappointing. My whole insides felt like they were coated in bacon fat after consuming this.

Ribs (by G)

Chicken Tortillas (by Biggs)

Not a lot of effort tonight. I know I guaranteed I would hand-make the tortillas this week, I'm just glad I didn't offer a money back guarantee. "Crispy" chicken tortillas were on the menu....the "crispy" came from a box, the tortillas came from a box. Lettuce and coriander was added.

Not terrible but certainly not memorable in any way whatsoever.

Little Lamb Chops (by G)

Vegetarian Snacks (by Biggs)

Man, dinner was pretty average tonight. I don't want to name and shame the venue but do want to say that after wanting to go here for quite some time I was pretty disappointed. Based on their website I expected a happening little place with live music and delightful tapas. If that's something they do dabble in it's sure not something that happens on a Sunday night.

Nancy and I were the only ones in the place and quickly realised, once we'd ordered food, that the staff were just waiting for the second we walked out the door to shut up shop....which made things mildly sobering.

We asked for every vegetarian snack on the menu which for some reason didn't include the hand-cut chips with curry sauce but did almost include the tortilla chips with maple bacon and pork bits. Very strange. In the end we were given some spiced almonds (okay), cauliflower pakora (fairly terrible) and curry puffs (average but by far the best thing on the table).

We quickly escaped for cocktails at The End which much improved the evening.....though, any evening with Nancy is pretty perfect regardless of the food and venue.

 

Pickled Pork with Cabbage (by G)

 

Pickled Pork (by G)

Burgers and Chips (by Biggs)

Out to Bonnie's tonight for a beer with her and her folks. When I was asked what I was in the mood for I suggested something served with hot chips! Bonnie pieced the rest of the puzzle together with the recommendation of burgers from the corner store.

They were great - classic milk bar/corner shop burgers, no fuss all flavour. I was thinking it's been about a decade since I've had a good old fashioned burger. I only seem to have soulless burgers from chain stores or hipster haunts these days. 

And the chips! Fat, cooked well, salty, delicious!

Pies and Pork Crackle (by G)

Packet Meats and Salad (by G)

Cheese Kranskies and Stuff (by Biggs)

I was super indecisive about dinner tonight - I knew I wanted it to be tasty and knew I wanted it to be easy. I couldn't get cheese kranskies out of my mind so got some, then thought a German-themed dinner would be pretty good. I couldn't find spätzle so just got some pasta and mixed it with butter and parsley. A new jar of pickled cabbage never goes astray in our household and for whatever reason I decided 3 bean mix would be a suitable addition. To my horror it turns out 3 bean mix is no longer a thing. Another part of my youth dead to us in this day and age. This was only made marginally better when I discovered a tin of 4 bean mix but 4 beans? Really? That seems excessive, further supporting my theory that the youth of today have a greed the world resources won't be able to sustain.

Speaking of greed....G and I ate about one million cheese kranskies. Can't see the world resources sustaining that either.

Rich Man, Poor Man (by Biggs)

Dinner tonight was with a bunch of work colleagues halfway through a two day conference. We headed to the hotel restaurant to share a meal ,all a bit too tired for a glass of wine but ravenously hungry.

There was standard hotel fare on offer - a fish, a chicken, a pasta, a steak. Though something called Rich Man, Poor Man caught the eye of my friend Lee-Anne and I. A beautiful steak strangely served with some mince wrapped in bacon topped with pate? What the hell? I guess the pile of mince was the poor man? However unappealing the pile of mince was it's hard for me to pass up pate. Sadly the pate was oddly grainy but at least that probably means it was housemade which I respect.

The steak was good and it's always a bonus to get some green on a plate. I was intrigued that Lee-Anne's steak (she passed on the Rich Man Poor Man version of a steak dinner) was requested at the same done-ness as mine but came out well-over done and mine rare.

Ah well, no matter.....still pretty good for a hotel meal.

Pork Hock Pasta (by G)

Platter (by Biggs)

Nick was in town for work today and I decided I wanted to take him on a tour of West End in the evening. It turns out the extent of the tour was "here is a bar that will serve us beer" but all participants seemed reasonably happy with that.

When it came to dinner time I asked Nick what he was in the mood for and he went with the theme of "eating with our hands". Eating with our hands is exactly what we did with this poorly photographed platter.

I can't exactly remember what was on said platter but, you know, the usual fare....various meats, cheeses, pickles and the like. Because we couldn't risk that a giant platter of food may not be enough, we also went with a side each.....halloumi and jalapeño something somethings.

Miscellaneous (by G)

Time to use up some of the miscellaneous items in the fridge and freezer. Party pies, sausage rolls, garlic bread and pizza.

A winning combination of nausea inducing slop that left my stomach churning for some hours afterward - actually the sausage rolls were pretty good.

Chicken and Garbage Fries (by G)

When I made chicken wings the other day I was pretty impressed with the flavour of the wings after only a quick marinade with a salty rub so I decided to replicate it for this dinner. I marinated some chicken thighs in a salt, pepper and sesame oil mix for an hour then oven grilled it.

To go with I mixed cheese, fried onion, fried bacon and coriander through some packet fries and topped with gravy. Garbage fries are the best, especially when paired with salty chicken. The only disappointment for me was that I had bough some maple bacon which imparted the fries with a very odd clovey taste. Very odd.

Quick and Tasty Mac 'n' Cheese (by G)

So lazy... this is just cooked macaroni with some fried onion and garlic mixed with packet cheese and coriander. The results were pretty good, served with a side of packet garlic bread there is probably nothing easier to make than this.

Roast Beef and Veges (by Biggs)

Dinner at Cam and Liz's tonight. A big effort on their part with a really nice beef roast. The roast veges were perfectly cooked, salty and delicious. While cooking Cam asked me if I was pro-corn, to which I said yes. Turns out that gets you two pieces of corn. Liz had no corn because she is most definitely anti-corn.

Liz made Tim Tam Cheese Cake Balls for dessert....yep, Tim Tam Cheese Cake Balls....you read it right. They were....quite rich.

Then we drank ALL OF THE WINE....and SOME MORE WINE.

 

 



Odd Wings (by G)

In Mexico city last year I went to a burger and wing place. They had tamarind wings on the menu which were, alas, unavailable. I remembered that it was something I wanted to try and decided to have at it.

The unfortunate aspect of this meal is that I had forgotten that I had thrown out a couple of jars of tamarind in the pre-Christmas fridge clean out and had not replaced them. Instead of tamarind wings I had some wings coated in an odd combination of flavours that I threw together at the last minute. The technique for coating the wings was pretty interesting. Marinade them for an hour in a mix of salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce and sesame oil before dusting them in tapioca flour (I used potato starch) before frying them and coating them in a sauce. My tamarindless sauce consisted of sugar, soy sauce, Frank's hot sauce (the remainder of the bottle), sriracha, some stinky soybean/chilli paste and rice wine vinegar (for sourness). The result was not unpalatable and I managed to eat an enormous quantity of these wings with a side salad of cabbage, carrot and coriander.

Thai Gold Singha (by Biggs)

A few of us gathered at Fi and Dan's this evening for Friday night Thai. We got ALL OF THE THINGS! For some random suburban Thai, this was pretty great!

Pasta (by Biggs)

I asked G for a dinner suggestion and he went with pasta. Then last night got OUT IF CONTROL. So, a man had to bring us dinner this evening. I was in no fit state to tackle the hot and sharp things I would have been exposed to making dinner in the kitchen tonight.

The man brought us a excellent pesto chicken pasta, a fairly crappy cabonara, a garden salad with a lovely dressing and a blue cheese bread. Blue cheese is always a winner.

Mainly I was impressed that I didn't just order pizza.

Beef and Pork Larb (by G)

Chicken Fajitas (by Biggs)

We eat a lot of tortillas - you may have noticed. Tonight, I was 100% not in the mood for tortillas. Just when I was about to refuse to cook them a work colleague sent me this - boy, did that get me back on track! Though, after collecting some groceries post-work I was pretty uninspired by my selections.

By the time I got home I'd slipped back into being completely sullen about Tortilla Tuesday, which is when G got involved and fed me beer. The beer was actually to celebrate a serious achievement in our household but after a rollercoaster of motivation, and lack there of, it also got me back on track....again!

I fried up some chicken, onion and capsicum, added some flavour and slapped the mix on a tortilla - very satisfying in the end. Particularly after the addition of lime, sour cream and coriander that actually tasted like coriander! Unheard of in this neck of the woods.

Good to know that all it takes to get me to put dinner on the table* is beer, amusing animations and real coriander. I still wasn't motivated enough to make the tortillas from scratch....but, next time....guaranteed.

*laps whilst sitting on recliners in front of a broken TV

Roast Pork Belly and Vegetables (by G)

I tried to make an effort without making an effort - it turned out to be more effort than I had intended to make.

I watched a lot of food shows on the weekend and in one of them a highly renowned chef made the job of cooking pork belly very easy. Just oil and salt the skin, pop it in the oven for a bit and you have perfectly cooked pork with perfectly crunchy crackling. "Of course!" I exclaimed to myself, as if that is not how I've unsuccessfully being doing it all these years. The results were predictable, no crackle. I ended up doing what I always do and bunging it under the grill to salvage at least some dodgy crackle.

My plan for the vegetables was to stick a few different types in a roasting pan and just burn the shit out of them. I chickened out pretty early and ended up taking the mushrooms, carrots and shallots out part way, getting the potatoes brown then adding them back in again. The result was a tasty but plain and unmemorable meal.

Sausages and Potato Hash (by Biggs)

It's Sunday, I wasn't really in the mood to cook but fortunately had sausages in the freezer.

Oddly, when I wandered down the street to get some vegetables to complement said sausages I bought more sausages.

And, when I say sides, I mainly mean Christmas ham. There were also some peas and some excellently cooked potato.

I was tempted to add some Frank's Hot Sauce to the hash because it's our new favourite thing but decided in the end to leave it up to the diners to add some if they so chose....which we both did.