I'm yummy...

Again with a bit of fun and a huge amount of laziness on my part. Enjoy...

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

TV Dinners...

I know I said I would put up a real post but once again I'm just not feeling it so I'm going for another meme. In some ways it's not cheating because you do get to find out quirky stuff about me and my life. It's really like being interviewed and even though I'm not a celebrity I can feel like one. I have been so into cooking lately with my new cook top and oven. That I figured it would be appropriate to do a meme on cooking. This particular meme is about cooking and television. I love watching LifeStyle FOOD channel here in Australia. I think it's fascinating watching people create things. I'm always afraid to mix certain ingredients for fear they taste like crap and I'll have to throw it all away and that would be such a waste of food. So anyway on to today's meme and it goes like this:

1. Favorite TV Chef: Jamie Oliver, I know it seems to be an obvious pick but I find him easy to watch, what can I say

2. Favorite TV Cooking Personality: John Torode and Gregg Wallace from Masterchef Goes Large. I would love to test all the food that they get served up to them by the contestants.

3. Favorite TV Dinner: I don't do a lot of TV dinners but if I had to pick one it would be Heinz Steam Fresh Honey Mustard Chicken

4. Favorite Watching TV Movie Snack: Popcorn, it's not original but it's what I like

So there you go, wasn't that intriguing. I bet you were on the edge of your seat and I'm sure you found some of my answers shocking to say the least. It just goes to show you how little you know a person.

What's up???

Well I suppose that's the question you should be asking me. There are bloggers out there who seem to be able to write paragraph after paragraph about all sorts of things. I'm not one of those. I have a hard time thinking about what to write. I understand that this is my space and I can write whatever. I also know that I'm not going to get a million ongoing visitors who find my life and writings so fascinating that they can't go one day without seeing what I have to write.

A friend of mine recently sent me an email saying "I love your capacity to tell good stories about cheesecakes and HIV in the same blog." Now, I know she was being honest and truly meant what she had said but it made me think. I'm not sure what I write is that fascinating. Her comment did make me realise that this blog is exactly what I said it would be when I first started it over two years ago. This is just about me and the things I might find interesting. I never said you would be interested but am more than happy if you are so inclined.

This blog is a space in which I am able to talk about my life and what is currently going on. I do this so that my family and those few friends that are interested are able to keep up with what is happening in my part of the world. Occasionally I can also comment on certain things if I so choose. Seeing that we live in a relatively remote part of the world I don't get to see my family as much as I would like. To see my family requires me to get on a plane and fly usually around 25 plus hours. It's not like I can just pop in to see them. So I try to at least try to keep them posted about what is happening around here using this space.

I appreciate my friends words about my capacity to write about such a wide range of thins but the truth of it all is I write what I want to and what I write is not necessarily that ground breaking. I write for my self and if anyone is interested then I can only hope I at least make sure I spell check everything for them; other than that I can not promise what they will read will be even remotely interesting, kind of like this post.

Anyway, as to what's up, let me think. The oven is brilliant. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I'm as giddy as a school girl at the mall with my mothers credit card. I don't even know where to start. I love to cook and more specifically I love to bake. So lets just say for the next several months I will be reclaiming my life as a cook and I will be making up for a lot of lost time. Also, the new cook top, that we bought when we bought the oven, works correctly now that the proper gas-fittings have been installed so I'm now able to make a proper dinner.

In the short time that we've had the new oven. I've made:

Milk chocolate cheesecake
Pecan pie x2
Chocolate decadence cake
Oatmeal cookies w/white chocolate chunks and cranberries

Next up Pumpkin bread w/cranberry cream filling

What else is going on? Well James is still working most weekends on night duty, which is okay as it gives us most of the week Mon-Thursday to be together and do whatever chores need to be attended to. He also likes the nights because it keeps him away from the politics at work. I am still struggling with my neuropathy but that will never go away. I'm pretty well resigned to no more driving because of the amount of pain medicine I have to take now on a daily basis. I will just have to learn to continually adjust and I will. I have lost a few pounds/kilos, which is surprising considering all the baking I've been doing. Other than that we are just settling in getting ready for winter to truly arrive. We've had a few cold spells so far but nothing horrendous. James has done a lot of gardening and getting all the flower beds mulched and ready for their winter sleep. The Japanese Maple in the back yard is turning a lovely shade of red as usual. I love the fall colours but I am sad when that tree looses all its leaves, but i know it will be back next spring so there is something to look forward to as little as that is.

Well I suppose I've rambled on enough so I will stop for now. There is only so much boredom I can dish out in a day. Keep your eyes peeled for posts about our upcoming trip to Strahan with the bears in June and also pictures and stories will be forthcoming about our visit to the Hawkes Bay region on the North Island of New Zealand, which we are planing for August to visit our friend Moys. So you see there is something to look forward to if your really bored.

I'm pathetic...

Why you ask? Well I'm going to tell you even if you didn't ask. I'm sure you remember my recent post about the upcoming arrival of our new oven and cook top Well it arrived last Tuesday and this past Monday it was installed. I was, and still am, as giddy as a school girl going on her first date ya'll! Now getting this excited over a new oven and cook top is pretty pathetic in my view, but then again what the hell do I care if someone thinks I'm pathetic. I got a new oven!

As I said it was installed on Monday and the first thing I said I was going to cook was a cheesecake. Well, I lied. I thought better of it and decided we should eat dinner first so I made a meatloaf. The whole experience was surreal. It's not like I've never used an oven before but I've not been able to use an oven properly for the past eight years and I was not sure what to expect. The most recent, and now late, oven burned everything to a crisp within the first 30 minutes no matter how much time I took off the overall cooking time or even how many degrees I cut back off the required temperature. I love too bake and cook and it was so frustrating to spend so much time trying to make something and to have that oven turn it into something so disgusting the the cat would hiss at.

So anyway, I popped the meatloaf into the new oven and watched it bake. Seriously, I sat there for the whole hour and watched it bake and to be honest if the pan it was in had not come out of the oven blistering hot I would have sworn the meat was still cold in the middle. But alas, the new oven did not let me down and the meatloaf was not only hot in the middle but it was PERFECT!

I thought well lets give my most prized recipe a go and I decided to make a cheesecake. Now my cheesecakes are almost legend among my family and friends and as I said I had not been able to make one in over eight years so all of my new friends and family here in Australia have never had the luxury of eating any of these gastronomic delights. I chose to make the milk chocolate version and like all of my cheesecakes they take three and a half hours to bake because you can't hurry perfection. I went to bed Monday night at 12:30 after placing what looked to be a perfectly cooked cheesecake in the fridge to cool. I did not dream of cheesecake as that would have not been so pathetic as it would have been just weird.

The next day we had invited two of our favourite people over for after dinner dessert. So at 7:30 that night the truth was known and all I can say is "IT'S A MIRACLE" I can bake again. I have been healed. The cheesecake was as smooth, creamy and evenly baked as any I have made in the past if not better. I feel redeemed after all the past two years of burnt and mutilated baked goods seem like a bad dream.

Now if that story isn't pathetic I don't know what is. Aren't you glad you stop by everyday to see what I may have written and the best I can do is talk about an oven and a cheesecake. Well what can I say I never promised you stories filled with debauchery, drugs, alcohol and naked escapades. You get what you get. HMMM... debauchery, drugs, alcohol and naked escapades there could be a story or two in that....NAH!!!

Just desserts

I like to bake especially desserts and I like to cook in general with Xmas on it's way there are lots of things I want to make or attempt to make. One of the best things about this house had/has going for it when we were looking to buy was the fact that is has a big kitchen. The apartment we own in Sydney and that we lived in for six years before we moved here had what is called a galley kitchen. Let me tell you it was just that; a galley. It was like trying to cook on a small sail boat, which is why we almost always had some type of takeaway (Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, you get the idea...).

I could never make a big meal in the apartment kitchen because it was so small. The stove/oven combo which was also tiny to be accommodated in the kitchen was also very old. So old that it did not regulate temperatures right if at all and only three of the burners worked. Needless to say about the only time I turned that thing on was in the winter so I could pretend to cook something but I was really only hoping to warm up the apartment. Mind you we really only got really cold days about two times during the winter. We were living in Sydney after all.... Funnily enough we replaced that stove with a brand new one just before we left to move to Tasmania, because we were going to rent that apartment out for some extra income and we had to provide them with a working stove. I don't know if the tenants use it or not as they would still have to deal with the size restraints of the kitchen in general but that's not my problem.

Anyhoo, when we found our new home we/I loved the new kitchen. It was huge (it runs the width of our house in the back) and best of all it has a separate gas cook top and a separate oven which is an electric fan forced type. I had not used a fan forced oven before but it had to be a hell of a lot better that what we had. We also gained a dining room for which we ended up buying a real life dining table. The need for one in the previous apartment was non-point as there was no dining room. We used to eat or takeaway on our laps. If we had guest or a party I made sure the food was either something cold and finger food size or once again shipped in. I was looking forward to all sorts of dinner parties.

I have been cooking dinner now on a regular basis since we moved in two years ago, no more takeaways. (OK, we have takeaway once a week. I need a break too). I mean I've been making real meals with things like, roasts, spaghetti bolognase, stroganoff, fresh steamed fish and real vegetables sliced, diced, boiled and mashed. You name it I'm making it. Best of all I love to bake and was thrilled at the thought of being able to make things like chocolate decadence cake or my grandmother's buttermilk pie. I have this big beautiful oven that actually works. WRONG!

As I mentioned earlier the new oven is and electric fan forced type, top of the line even. The previous owners had expensive taste. A fan forced oven is very different from a regular electric oven and you have to bake things at temperatures at least ten degrees less then normal. Well let me tell you this thing burns things like there's no tomorrow. I mean I have to actually turn down the heat by twenty degrees and also back down the cooking time by 10-15 minutes. I do keep trying but it's really bad.

I tried once again to bake something yesterday, a key lime pie and as usual it burnt that baby as if had been bad all it's life and it had been sent to hell. Xmas is a week away and we have friends coming over next weekend for a small get together and I am really concerned about what to make for food. I have purposely picked a menu that does not use the oven except for one item and I will just have to keep my fingers crossed. So, why am I telling you all of this? Well, I think it just seems like just desserts that I was so happy to get away from that kitchen in Sydney and to move to this big wonderful kitchen only to be reminded that the grass is not always greener on the other side (or at least when it comes to kitchens). Who knows maybe Santa will bring me a new oven???