Embracing Autumn

So, despite my declaration the other week, I ended up coming home the other day and taking photos of my meal prep ... never say never hey?

Not that this is exactly a complicated meal, in fact I generally put it together without a recipe.

First you grab a pot, pop some oil in it (preferably chilli garlic oil) ...

... heat the oil while you chop a leek or an onion ...

 

... give it a good stir and let soften while you chop a pumpkin ...

... and other root veggies (personally I go for roughly half pumpkin, half 'other') ...

... stir some more ...

... cover with stock ...

... pop on the lid and leave until veggies are soft, then blend ...

... and blend ...

... and blend ...

... until you reach a consistency you like.

Pop your soup .. oh wait, I should have told you earlier, we're making pumpkin soup ... into some lovely soup tureens. Top with a sprinkling of tasty cheese, a dash of sour cream, a pinch of pepper (although we decided this wasn't necessary with the chilli) and a fresh bread roll.

Just perfect for these cooler autumnal evenings.      
 

An afternoon in the valley

Long weekends come thick and fast in Victoria at the start of the year and a few weeks ago we had not three but four days off over Easter.

The Sparky and I left our decision to go away a bit too late, particularly given that we needed to find somewhere that would allow the dogs. A nice, quiet time at home though was in the end just what was needed.

As I sat on my laptop on Friday catching up on bloggy stuff and drafting a few new posts I came across this fabulous post over at Not Quite Nigella about a nice sounding place just around the corner.

Easter, chocolate ... seemed like pretty good timing to me.

So Saturday I packed The Sparky into the car and off we went for a drive to Yarra Glen.

 

The view when we got there was pretty good too.

The menu was almost overwhelming but we ended up deciding to share a pumpkin pizza and a ... lemon meringue tart ... phew, I almost forgot what we'd had! It was all delicious though and we cleared both plates quickly. I could have gone for another coffee but the place was pumping ... Easter Saturday, chocolate, free Easter egg hunt? Yeah, timing was great ... so I decided not to join the crowd again.

It was a lot of fun and we will definitely be back, just maybe on a quieter day!

Oh, and just in case you were thinking that we walked away empty handed ...

A selection of thank you gifts ...

  

... and an indulgent treat for me.

Thank you Lorraine, we had a wonderful day out and will definitely be back again!

This is not the greatest song in the world ...

I'm not a food blogger. I just want to make sure that that's out there right up front. Although I have been known to photograph food while we're on holiday, pulling my camera out at a cafe or restaurant is not something I'm likely to do regularly. Neither is taking progress photos of a meal that I'm cooking ... I tend to be concentrating on what I'm doing for starters.

I realise that that may sound a little hypocritical given the number of food blogs that I read, but it's just not me. I like reading it but I don't like doing it.

That said, this is a blog about my life and food is definitely a big part of my life. I like cooking it, I like eating it and I like reading about it. I get a lot of inspiration from the foodie blogs that I read and have been known to comment that I'll be trying out their recipes one day.

One such comment elicited a challenge from the talented Ms I-Hua (yes, she of the fabulous orange cups) to not only try her recipe but to blog about it ... um, yeah.

This however is not Ms I-Hua's Ayam Goreng Hebat ... this is just a tribute*.

I started with one large chicken breast, chopped and marindated for the day in coconut milk, chopped chilli (fresh from the garden!), tumeric powder and salt.

The Sparky decided that rinsing the marinade off the chicken was a waste of marinade and instead tried to flick it off ... resulting in chicken goopy marinade landing on his face, so not a method either of us would recommend!

I mixed the flour coating to recipe, quartered because of the smaller amount of chicken, coated the chicken as directed (flour mix, buttermilk, flour mix) and then ... placed it in a baking dish. I sorry, but you won't find me deep frying at home, I love the results but not the method.

  

Baking turned out to be a pretty good way of cooking this though ... oh.my.goodness.

Now, I had every intention of making the coconut rice as well (and still plan to at some stage). The Sparky however had a craving for hot chips so while the chicken was baking he popped out and picked up chips and salad, giving us a delicious, simple, delicious Sunday night dinner.

Did I mention it was delicious? We will definitely be having this one again ... with coconut rice and peanuts and all the trimmings next time! 

*points if you get the reference