Cacciatore Sausage with Pearl Barley (by G)

Every time I go to the Queen Victoria market I eye off the giant sausage in one of the shop windows and wonder how much better my life could be if I owned one. This weekend just gone I decided to take the plunge. The butcher was very helpful (which is my first experience of that kind of attitude from a butcher). His recommendation was to prick the sausage a few times, boil it for 2 hours then slice and fry it. I did just that, though the filling was so gelatinous that the crispy surfaces got stuck to the pan.

As a side I boiled up some pearl barley in chicken stock (which I am oddly fond of despite the suspicion it may be a wanky foodie food) - then I added some slowly caramelised onions, diced carrots, parsnips and some cavolo nero (which I know is a wanky foody food).
The cacciatore was extraordinarily rich and sticky, and a bit of a pain in the ass to cook - it will not be something I will be cooking again myself anytime soon (except for the leftover bits I guess) but I would definitely hook in if someone else is willing to prepare it.

Brisket and Veg (by G)

I wanted to do something nice and clean and healthy and flavourful for dinner. I've not cooked brisket before - it's not the most challenging thing to do. Dump it in a pot of water with some veg and herbs (carrot, onion, celery, thyme and bay leaf) then let it simmer for a couple of hours. I was going to slice the brisket and serve it up in pretty slices, but we do not possess a knife keen enough to slice through soft cooked brisket so I just tore it into hunks.

With some plain boiled vegetables on the side and a gravy of reduced brisket broth on the side this was a stark and simple meal - and, unfortunately, lacking in much flavour...

Pie (by Biggs)

Today we celebrated buying a vacuum cleaner.....we celebrated large. As a result I picked up a pie from the convenience store on the stumble home. I assume it was excellent....or terrible.....who knows, much of today and this evening shall forever remain a mystery.

Dinner (by G)

Got very drunk. To drunk to easily get in the front door of our house (apparently), but not so drunk that I didn't consider that I've been eating a few too many convenience store pies while drunk recently - so I went with sandwiches (possibly also a pie... maybe also a sausage roll). I think the sandwich was ham and chicken. I don't recall how the sandwiches were - but any feelings of being unwell the next day could not reasonably be blamed on them.

Pizza (by Biggs)

A few of us decided to try out a local nano-brewery after work this afternoon. We enjoyed it, we enjoyed it so much we were still there at dinner time. Being a nano-brewery they didn't have any good on offer beyond nuts and pretzels but they did have the option of ordering pizzas to the bar - that we did. Beer and pizza - satisfying!

"Chip Butty" (by Biggs)

Beers at the pub tonight and I was very excited to see a chip butty on the menu. What was ultimately presented to me WAS NOT a chip butty. The chip butties I know and love are fat, potato chips on white bread with gravy. Not whatever the hell this is. Brioche bun? NO! Crispy chips? NO! Tomato sauce? NO! I barely ate a chip I was so disgusted. SIGH! Disappointing.

In a different circumstance I probably would have enjoyed the fries at least.

Dumplings (by Biggs)

A late night down in Geelong for work tonight which meant dinner was gathered from the supermarket at the train station back in the city. It may seem like a dubious decision to buy cold prawn dumplings from a supermarket but I've got to be honest - these were pretty terrific, perhaps just because I was so hungry.