Friday Night Markets (by Biggs)

I got through a massively full on work week so wanted to celebrate with beers and food at the Friday night markets. G humoured me but I think only because he's been eyeing off the sign for Tom and John's Hot Wings for a while now.

We eased into dinner with some (fuckingly deliciously tender) meat on sticks then went for wings. The wing flavours were on a sliding scale from sweet to savoury to hot. I went with the hottest and the dry rubbed hot. Clearly I forgot I can't eat hot food. The dry rubbed ones were great. The hot ones were inedible but G heroically stepped up to the plate.

We also both got a snack for the way home. I chose a gourmet cheese sandwich which was pretty much just a cheese sandwich but G won the night with a Romanian sausage bun. A spicy skinless sausage on a bun with roasted capsicum salsa. I can't wait to try one of these babies.

Berkshire Pork and Vegetables (by G)

After discovering the new deli/market down the road I decided to try and shop there as much as possible rather than shop at the supermarkets (though the prices at the supermarket sure are competitive by comparison). The best thing is that they have pork labelled by breed (though I've only seen one breed - Berkshire).

So, I bought some Berkshire pork chops and mushrooms, carrots and potatoes and made a meal of them.

The potatoes were lightly baked, the carrots simply boiled and the mushrooms roasted with a butter that I had flavoured with thyme and garlic (which I also served on the side).

The pork chops turned out to be unusual shapes - I believe they are referred to as the scrag cut in the butcher trade, none-the-less they were pretty tasty once fried. There is an old saying in Berkshire, "Better the scrag cut from the finest beast than the prime cut from a diseased donkey". So true.

Vegetarian Cowboy Breakfast (by Biggs)

A lazy vegetarian Wednesday today. As a family we love a good Cowboy Breakfast....a throwback to our youth. I decided to try a vegetarian version. The good news is I accidentally bought smoke vegetarian hot dogs instead of the usual sawdusty sausages. They tasted almost exactly like meat hot dogs.....which I guess do have very little meat in them. Other than that there were tiny taters, baked beans and parsley.

Smokey Beef Tortillas (by G)

I bought a bottle of liquid smoke the other day and, keen to try it out, decided tortillas would be the perfect time to try it out.

I marinated strips of beef in paprika, onion powder, coriander powder, cumin, oregano and liquid smoke then fried it off. To pad out the beef a little I also made a salsa of cucumber, capsicum, red onion, red chilli and tomato. Regretfully I chopped then tip off one of my fingers while dicing the tomato and ceased all salsa production from that point so the balance between tomato and all the other ingredients was a little bit off.

I thought the meat was pretty flavourful - Biggs couldn't really taste the smokiness so I guess I'll have to ramp it up in future.

"Lasagna" (by Biggs)

Today represents the start of a massive week of work. As a result I actually forgot I was in charge of dinner so had to last minute panic shop. I really wasn't in any state to cook so bought a pre-made lasagna. It was awful.

Smoked Pork Chop with Rice and Beans (by G)

One of the ingredients I got from the new deli the other day was some giant smoked pork chops. I figured they may be similar to the gamon steaks I used to eat with gay abandon in my younger days. They were not quite the same, but they were smoked pork chops so they were not terrible.

To accompany the chops I made a wet rice - basically rice, garlic, tomato, stock, capsicum and broad beans simmered together and left a little sloppy.

The most memorable thing about this diner is that Biggs had to have a little vomit before eating dinner - rather than afterwards. Something about the look of dinner obviously did not appeal. I'll leave you to judge for yourself.

Pasta (by Biggs)

I had to go into work today and ended up having to stay there for much much longer than intended. So long infact, that the magical deli wonderland we discovered yesterday was closed before I had time to buy dinner treats.

Instead, I just bought a bunch of random shit from the supermarket and threw it into a pasta. Random shit was....chicken, bacon, timbered tomatoes, olives and grilled capsicum. Some of Fi's fresh dried oregano helped things along. As did a sprinkling of feta.