beef steak with garlic and grandfather port *drools*

I have been eating a bit more red meat lately as my iron levels are low...

Tonight i had two small beef steaks and didn't want to just fry them up and chew away at the meat like I have a few times since starting to eat meat again. I knew that red wine could be used in sauces, and I felt like spoiling myself. AND we had an open bottle of Penfolds Grandfather port sitting around begging to be used.

So i combined a few recipes for red wine sauces I found on the internet.

This is what I ended up doing.

I cracked pepper and sea salt over a plate, dolloped three teaspoons of minced garlic on to the plate, and then poured a few teaspoons of olive oil over it and mixed it all up with the back of a spoon. I popped the two steaks on to the plate and rubbed both sides in the garlic/salt/pepper/oil, and heated up a pan (with no oil). When it was hot I cooked the steak for about 3 or 4min on each side, then let it rest on a separate plate. I added a tablespoon of nuttelex to the pan, half a cup of stock, a few tablespoons of beef gravy powder, two tablespoons of grandfather port... it mixed in with the leftover garlic/oil/salt/pepper and turned into a rich, tasty sauce.

Loved this sauce so so much. I wouldn't normally use such expensive port in cooking, but for a treat it was lovely. I didn't cook the port for long enough for the alcohol to be burned off, so it tasted lovely and alcoholic. I was surprised at how good the port tasted in it - I ate a few spoons of the sauce by itself before pouring it over the meat and it was so good I went back for a few more spoons. It complimented the beef so so well.

I overcooked the beef slightly for my liking - it was medium well done instead of medium rare - but the port sauce, full of the juices from the pan, made the meat taste delicious.

Win! This recipe's a keeper :)

Holidays speeding by, reality setting in...

I've been up in Phillip Island for a little while, and boy was that good for the soul/body. Relaxation, walks/runs on the beach and along the coast road, delicious healthy food, and time spent with family... Sorry I've been out of touch on the blog!

However, the dream had to end - I had to go to tafe today to sit a prac I missed during last term (nice of the teacher to give us that opportunity), and today my off campus material arrived for the Shakespeare subject I'm studying at Deakin this semester.

I decided that tonight I'd try reading the first Shakespearean play that we're studying, Henry IV Part 1. It's meant to be a cold, stormy night so what better way to spend it than reading a play that is meant to have been extremely popular in it's time? I'm also planning to watch 'My Private Idaho' tomorrow, which is meant to be loosely based on the play.

My other exciting news is that I finally have access to a camera again (yay!) so I'll be able to resume my cooking challenge... apparently taking photos of the food as a document of my success/failure is a big part of the fun for me, as without my camera I never managed to complete a dish past asparagus rolls (maybe I lost a bit of motivation when they sucked too haha! I will be trying them again at some stage...).

My nieces are coming over on Saturday, so I'm hoping we can all make some banana date scones together from Julie Stafford's More Taste of Life. I'm tring to think of something yummy and healthy and (most importantly) quick and easy that we can also cook for dinner - something that little kids would like to cook, and then eat. I found a recipe in Stafford's book called 'Party Sausages', which are vegetarian and sound similar - but healthier - than something I already make. Hmmm that might be a winner...

Asparagus Rolls (first attempt)

VERDICT:
- Ok so the puree wasn't perfect, but I still would have expected the finished asparagus rolls to taste better than they did.
- The puree was bland, the wholemeal bread was bland, and the fat free cottage cheese was bland. No surprises then that the finished asparagus rolls tasted... BLAND!
- I tried to season the puree (which pre seasoning was just blended steamed asparagus with some lemon juice) with some salt and pepper, but it went from 'still too bland' after three shakes of the salt shaker, to 'SUPER salty tasting' after four shakes...

SUGGESTIONS/FUTURE CHANGES:
-I'm wondering if some other vegetable or ingredient should be included to add more flavour to the sandwiches, rather than using salt? The tarragon the recipe called for was optional, and as I'm not too keen on the flavour of tarragon I left it out. I doubt tarragon alone is enough to unbland the asparagus rolls entirely, but perhaps next time I could either use the tarragon and try to get used to the flavour, or substitute it for another herb. I wonder what other herbs go with asparagus?
- maybe a better quality wholemeal bread to add more flavour in that department?
- buy a proper rolling pin - a foil roll is not a good substitute lol.
-Maybe I just need to try making these a few more times to perfect the techniques involved - you wouldn't think puree would be hard, but I may have oversteamed the asparagus, overlemoned the asparagus, and in the end oversalted the asparagus *sigh*

Better luck next time!

Boogers-in-Bread (Asparagus Rolls)

I was planning to blog about my cooking adventures as written about in the last post, but couldn't find my camera battery charger. I was so irritated at not being able to photograph my delightful asparagus rolls, I decided to restart the process again when I could find or buy a new charger... However that never happened because I can't find the bloody charger and can't find where to buy a new one! Anyway, I started the asparagus rolls WITHOUT the camera, which might end up working well if they look crappy.

Tonight I made the asparagus puree and put it in the fridge to chill overnight (asparagus rolls for lunch tomorrow, weeeee!!!!). It didn't taste too bad. A few things though, for next time: the juice of one small lemon is too much, use half instead; try steaming the asparagus spears for a little less time so they retain more flavour; recipe doesn't call for salt and pepper but the puree needed it, in my opinion.

Hopefully by the time I get a working camera happening again, I'll have perfected the asparagus rolls and can put lovely green sandwich images all over the place! I'm planning to have a picnic birthday later in the year, and make all of the food myself... and these yummy little bites will definitely be on the menu!

Hats off to Julie Stafford for using an asparagus puree instead of gross canned spears. Genius.

Julie Stafford's 'More Taste of Life'

A random pick off the shelf - mum had a Julie Stafford cookbook or two when I was growing up, so when I saw More Taste of Life at an op shop in Moe, I grabbed it. And, of course, never opened it... until now!

I've challenged myself to pick one of the cookbooks off of my shelf, and make ten recipes from it, documenting my successes and failures here on my blog. I figured starting with a cookbook published in 1985 would be kinda cool.

The first recipe from this book that I've chosen is an exciting one - asparagus rolls! I never ate these in the past because they always looked gross (but then i usually see them with canned asparagus inside them so I'll give this fresher version a try)... I'm going to make them tomorrow to eat while i study chemistry. Good brain food, I hope!


Here are the others nine I'm planning to try soon:
- cabbage and potatoes
- ratatouille
- spinach lasagne slice
- whole fish with shallots
- vegetable shepherd's pie
- corn and vegetable chowder
- garlica whole schnapper
- mushroom and tomato rolls
- tomato and rice slice with rosemary

YUM!!!

Masterchef? Pffft, more like a masterwannabe...

The science course I'm doing has certainly been keeping me SUPER busy! I've hardly left the house in months... I'm doing chemistry, biology, maths, computers... I was also doing physics, and finished the waves and optics module, but decided to drop the kinematics and dynamics modules so I can focus more on chemistry and biology. I'll pick physics up again when they get to the electricity module because I think that sounds really fun!


There had been two directions I felt I might go in once I had finished this course - nutrition/dietetics, or renewable energy technology. I'm now leaning more strongly toward the nutrition path - I think it's a job that will not only be interesting and challenging, it will also be helpful to the health of myself and my partner (and any kids we have in future).


My interest in food and health has definitely been growing in the last year or so, and my addiction to a new TV reality cooking show called Masterchef is now steering that interest toward the cooking side of things as well as nutritional issues. I don't think it's a good idea to start planning any more education - I've got enough on my plate with an almost-finished arts degree, a begun-but-then-deferred small business certificate, my current science certificate, and a planned nutrition degree with a possible masters in dietetics afterward. Phew! So... I'm going to have to try and teach myself what I can about cooking.

One thing I have lots of is cookbooks - I have bought SO many of them over the last five years or so, and have hardly even looked at them, let alone used them. So here's my plan. I'm going to start making ten recipes from each of them - I'll adapt each to make them suit my palate as well as my energy/vitamin/mineral requirements for that day. As I cook I'll write about the food and post photos of the process and the final product. It'll encourage me to cook, it'll encourage me to post, and it'll encourage me to finally use some of those recipe books, and enjoy the consequences!

My first ever batch of jam!

I went to my grandparents' house for Australia Day this year. I took some of my zucchini slice, cut up into small "zucchini bites", and my grandparents and my uncle apparently enjoyed it. Yay :) After lunch Grandma took me up to her backyard and we picked some of the plums off her tree - there were so many! I've never seen so many plums on a plum tree. Grandma sent me home with a stash of them (plus jars and instructions on sterilising them). Here they are below, with a copy of A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise. I used her recipe for plum jam (but reduced the amount of sugar from 1.5kg to 1kg).

Here are my plums starting to break down:

Ooooh it's nearly jam:

The final product (I'll never eat all of it by myself!), along with all of the leftover plums. I think I'll stew those up to have on weetbix in the morning, or with icecream for dessert. Does stewed fruit freeze ok?:

Dwayne is clearly exhausted from watching me make jam:

It's funny how after only one zucchini slice and one batch of plum jam, I'm starting to feel capable in the kitchen! I mean I'm no master chef, but I can follow a recipe without stuffing it up. Who would've thought? I guess a bit of confidence goes a long way :)

What a great night!

I hung out with my Mum after work today. First we went swimming. It is the best form of exercise for someone with a prosthesis - so nice to get it off and jump in the water where you can float as well as the next person. Tonnes of laps later, I started getting a bit "grumpy old women" on some kids who were continually jumping/pushing eachother into the lap lanes right in front of all the swimmers. Who would have thought I was in my twenties? Ha.

When I went back to Mum's it was one bit of awesomeness after another...

The dinner was 'cous cous patties', which Mum served with steamed vegetables and the most delicious zucchini I've ever had - mini zucchinis from the farmer's market baked in a bit of olive oil. YUM! The cous cous patties were served with a choice of sweet chilli sauce or tomato and capsicum relish. I tried the patties with one and then the other, and it was a tasty party in my mouth :D

I wanted to try cooking these patties myself, especially after my attempt at my Mum's awesome broccoli pasta worked so well earlier in the week. Not only did I get to borrow the book that has the recipe for cous cous patties in it off of Mum, I also found out she has (and was willing to lend me) a copy of A Year of Slow Food by David and Gerda Foster!

My awesome new top of the reading list!

After hearing me whinge about needing a soap shaker, Mum remembered that she had, hiding away in the back of the cupboard from years ago... that's right, a SOAP SHAKER! These are apparently very hard to find, but I now have one! I was so excited we had to stop at the supermarket on the way home to get me some velvet soap so I could test drive it tomorrow.

Also scored a toothbrush from the shops so I could use my old one to clean the grout between the tiles in my shower. I'm starting the oddly satisfying process of cleaning my house using only water, vinegar, bi carb soda and lemon, using A Chemical Free Home by Robin Stewart as my bible. I got home at midnight, tired and ready for bed, and... cleaned the shower. Eep what is happening to me? Anyway the bicarb and vinegar worked pretty well in the shower. I wouldn't say it worked any better than shower power, but it didn't make me dizzy or lightheaded, and didn't leave my skin red and irritated. Tick!

Earlier in the week I also cleaned the floors with hot water and vinegar (tick!), and the stove with bicarb and vinegar (BIG tick!)... So far so good for this book. I don't think I'll do ALL of it, and I'm not sure Bertie will do any of it when she cleans (fair enough too, I can't make that choice for her), but if we reduce the amount of chemicals we use for cleaning in our house - and there are heaps - then I'll be a happy little vegemite. For now. Lol.

But wait! There is MORE awesomeness from tonight for you to be told about. Actually, I'll tell you about it with this photo, which pretty much speaks for itself:

This beautiful, beautiful machine has been sitting in a cupboard for a long time (I was given it as a child) because I couldn't sew... I am going to change that. I've bartered a weekend of my cooking for a weekend of my friend's sewing lessons. Good (I hope) food + sewing lessons + good company = a hell of an exciting weekend!

The food I make can't have meat, dairy, eggs, honey, gluten, yeast, funghi (mushrooms etc), eggplant, tree nuts (all nuts but peanuts), kiwi fruit, mango or honeydew melon. And none of the recipes should have too much sugar in them. I'm looking forward to the challenge :D