The French theme continues...

Given that Tour de France is on at the moment, I decided to continue the French theme this week, seeing as I stayed up late to watch it....


Main course: Moules Marinieres, which is basically steamed mussels in a creamy, buttery sauce of white wine, parsley and garlic, traditionally served with whole egg mayonnaise, crusty bread, hot chips and an iced cold beer. I served it with all of these accompaniments except for the beer, I decided that a nice glass of white wine was much better, seeing as I was already cooking with it. I was a little worried because by the time I got to the seafood shop they didn't have any small black mussels left, so as you can see from the picture I had to use the larger green mussels, which I actually preferred because they were a lot more meaty. Scrubbing and de-breading the mussels was well worth it. 


Dessert: Chocolate Creme Brulée. One word: heavenly.


As you can see from the picture, it was enjoyed with a game of scrabble. I lost by one point :( Perhaps I was distracted by the heavenly dessert? Or maybe, as usual, it was the wine's fault ;)

Happy Bastille Day!

My status update on facebook telling my friends what I planned to cook for dinner tonight in aid of Bastille Day has received much approval.


Further, I have determined that it is my friends distracting me from taking photos of my food, because I am home alone on this cold Canberra night drinking wine (and eating brie with fresh sourdough bread - just thought I'd thrown that in for effect) and as you can see, I have managed to take the all important photos.


So what did I cook? Provençal chicken with salad and sourdough with vanilla poached pears for dessert. The chicken is a winner, it melts in the mouth and who doesn't like poached pears with fresh cream!

Last weekend...

So it's a bit late to be reporting on last weeks cooking adventure, I know. Unfortunately work was really busy this week, and I'm preparing for an interview to make my promotion permanent, so I've been a tad bit preoccupied.


Plus, to make things worse, I forgot to take the all important pictures!!! I really, really, really need to stop drinking wine while I cook dinner, because as soon as my awesome friends arrive I forget to capture the image of my awesome food.


Nonetheless, last weekend I took on a bit of an Italian theme so I cooked:

• Starters: Tomato and basil bruschetta
• Main: Slow braised chicken in white wine with creamy polenta
• Sides: Mozzarella and tomato pasta bake and a green salad, and
• Dessert: Italian potato donuts with chocolate sauce

(Plus a few too many bottles of vino :p)

Yes, that's right - I made donuts from scratch. Very impressed with myself and my friends ate every last bit of it. They were even scraping the last of the hot chocolate sauce out of the bowl. Very fun dinner, evident by the fact that we were too busy eating to take pictures...

Macaron Mayhem

So, you've probably been wondering what I've been up to as I haven't posted anything for over a week. Well, besides last weeks failure to get a photo of my top deck milk chocolate and white chocolate mousse, I've been consumed with making macarons.


It all started with a recipe book that I just had to buy in Wheel & Barrow, entitled 'Secrets of Macarons'. When I embarked on this project I was well aware of the temperamental recipe that is the macaron, but I can now say I have lived it. Over mixed batters, too much liquid, sticking to the baking paper, not rising properly, bubbles in the middle, and over cooking. Nonetheless I've been determined to get the perfect crispy light macaron, with the correct 'rise' to the get the crumply little feet on the base of the macaron with a flat top.


And..... after about $50 worth of eggs and almond meal, I have finally got some picture worthy macarons. Admittedly, they are not perfect and I still need to tailor the cooking time to my oven, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I've stuck to plain vanilla macarons with a white chocolate ganache filling for now, and in the coming weeks and months I will venture into a rainbow assortment, I'm sure ;)