Thursday, August 25, 2011

Matt Preston ...

great article in the latest Delicious magazine (September 2011, p. 154)!!



The article that Matt wrote was about what foods are a bit too daggy "now days"!!

Great reading!

I might have to

-  stop using rocket (well I don't use overdoses so maybe I'm safe)
- avoid the raspberry coulis, can't actually recall when I made it last but it is nice with a chocolate dessert cake
- stop with the semi-dried tomatoes but I still love them ;-)

Interesting to note that apparently

- iceberg lettuce is now quite chic!
- wedges of lemon are acceptable, even dare he say trendy!! LOL

He finished by quoting Yves Saint Laurent ... "Fashions fade, style is eternal".

Great article! Matt!

Dinner tonight ...

So I received the latest Delicious magazine yesterday (September 2011) and have had an initial look through and started to tag recipes that I'd like to try!

Tonight it was ... Vietnamese Chicken with Pickled Cabbage Salad, p.102


(hard to take quick photos of food ;-) ... not that attractive)

I halved the chicken sauce part of the recipe but used 6 chicken thigh fillets.

I halved the salad part of the recipe.

Lots of my friends don't like chicken thigh fillets ... something about the brown meat I think. I find it really tender and moist in comparison to breast fillets that can dry out easily.

The recipe had the sweet, sour and hot that the chefs on Masterchef referred to in Asian foods. 

This recipe ... 

The salad: good sour, maybe a little too sweet and maybe not quite hot enough. But those things can be adjusted for the next time I make it!

The chicken: not hot at all but that is okay if the salad had a bit more heat, lovely soft sweet flavours and no there were no sour flavours.

The salad really complimented the chicken and the meal was fresh and felt healthy while we ate it. So by reducing the sugar in the sauce and the salad it would be more healthy!

The chicken had a caramel sauce ... my first attempt to make the caramel was a failure ... I burnt it ... but the second attempt ... I don't think I cooked it long enough so it wasn't brown enough for the effect it was meant to have ... better luck next time! So if you try this recipe watch the caramel carefully!

So end result: I would try it again!






Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Books ...

AllBooks4Less.com.au

While we were in Melbourne I walked into a bookshop where all the books were $5!! 

Then I discovered they have a web site and all the books appear to be $5!!

I love buying books and at $5 ... wow!!

I bought ...
Little Hut of Leaping Fishes


Cover


Chef: A Novel


The money I saved was balanced out by the cost of the books I bought at the Adelaide and Melbourne Airports!! LOL!!

1. River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh, that I mentioned in an earlier post

2. Inspector Singh Investigates: A Deadly Cambodian Crime by Shamini Flint, that I also mentioned earlier



3. The Colour of Tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe

The Colour of Tea

So I have a good stash! Along with the 3 books I borrowed from the library at our first Cummins Book Lovers meeting!!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Great reading magazine ...

Last night at our pre-book club get together Jeannie had a copy of Good Reading so I headed to our local newsagency this morning to look for the most recent copy and found it ... very happy!

Inside the Current Issue


Lots of book reviews and it is also divided in to genres which is very helpful ;-)

Two books that I have initially found in this magazine that I would like to find and read ...

Inspector Singh Investigate: A Deadly Cambodian Crime Spree by Shamini Flint 

... this is a crime fiction novel and is preceded by other novels by the same author in this series so I might need to find the first one to start with! 
Which is this one I think ...
 

and then ...

River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke

I have read 
The Glass Palace
I bought this book first, 11 years ago at the Singapore Airport after we had visited my girlfriend, Sarah, and her husband, John, in Burma and I loved it.

and then I read ...
The Hungry Tide

and really enjoyed it too so I need to really read 


which is the first in the Opium Wars Trilogy and I do have it in the pile next to my side of the bed!!

So maybe I need to buy the next one so I am ready!!


Reading ...

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home. Rhoda Janzen


Started this book today ... a memoir and funny to read ... really enjoying it so far!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Baby idea = fantastic

Well there are no more babies for us ... 4 in 5 years is enough but wonderful ;-)

But I just found this link ...


Candy Damask Swaddle Wrap


What a great design! I was hopeless at swaddling so this would have been ideal!!

Looking forward to ...


to the first meeting of Cummins Book Lovers
 on Monday night (8th August 2011)
 at our wonderful new library!

I have loved reading for so very long!

I had a governess when I was younger (primary school years) who read novels to us.I recall  The Hobit and The Secret Garden .

I can remember reading under the covers of my bed with a torch when I was young!

I remember borrowing books from the Woomera Library

 ... something Mum encourage (she loves books too :-)

Over more recent years I have had a year on and a year off of reading lots ... probably something to do with having our children fairly close together!

But in the last couple of years I have made an effort to read. 

I absolutely love going into book shops. If I go to Adelaide I always go into several bookshops even if clothes shopping is a priority!!

I love to pick up a book and read the first page and the back blurb to see if it is something I would like to read. 

I love the feel of a new book. 

Now that I don't buy as many books I always choose the "New Books" at our local library because the still have the new book feel!

So when Amanda, Jeannie, Mel & I met tonight to plan the first meeting of "Cummins Book Lovers" it was a flurry of conversation about books ... it was invigorating and exciting and I can't wait for Monday night ... bring it on I say!!