Doggy-Bag It does a wedding!!!! ☺

It is true, this is the most pitiful food blog ever! haha, I haven't blogged about eating out in ages! I guess my brain has been otherwise engaged of late, Here is what I have been up to:
I like taking photos....I like learning about photography techniques so that I can hone my skills. And I like the process of editing a photograph.
So when my friend asked me to photograph her wedding, I said 'yes' 'cause it was AGES away.
Funny how quickly the weeks melt away, huh... ☺
All too soon the wedding was a fortnight away and I was aware that I had ablsolutely NO knowledge of midday outdoor photography, which is what I would be doing. Another photographer friend gave me a crash course of all his wisdom, but on the day of the wedding- faced with the reality that the moment had ACTUALLY arrived- I realized I needed to stick to the stuff I knew how to do, and I chucked out of my mind the crash course info, in its entirity.
Because of this, some of the indoor service shots were poorly lit and of a greenish hue.
But just as we stepped out onto the beach for the bridal party shots, God in His mercy, rolled in the great soft box we tech-speak-gifted photogs call cloud cover. And I was thankful.
She was a stunning and effervescent bride, which made the groom's job really rather easy, (and mine also). The bridal party were a lot of fun.

Here are some pics from the day:

World's Best....

World’s Best.....

Many years ago I began the world’s largest collection of cookbooks. Thankfully *Goggle (*names has been changed to protect something from whoknowswhat) saved me from going down that path. Goggle is great. I use it to discover most of my dishes and then I print them off and file all the crowd-pleasers into my own folder for future use.

How do you get a great recipe? Well, you can do what I often do and type the following in front of the recipe you are seeking on Goggle: ‘World’s Best.......’

Don’t snicker. If you are going to go to the trouble of cooking; spending all that money on ingredients, using all those utensils, dirtying all those dishes....the result needs to be worth it. Do I hear an Amen? You don’t want to go and break your back and your piggybank for an only so-so dish. I want to be rewarded with a triumph, a crowd pleaser.

So Goggling ‘world’s best’ is often a good starting point. Now of course, there is the occasional issue of a recipe-giver being a little too self-complimentary, and just imagining they have a recipe worthy of the title. Thus it is helpful that most recipe-sharing sites implement a user-rating system and I research THAT as my guide to the authenticity of the World’s Best title.
And through this means I have found World’s Best Brownie
(which I have not cooked yet), World’s Second Best Brownie and World’s Best Choc Chip Cookies, both of which I make all the time and have shared with you. Today I bring you World’s Best Banana Cake!

World's Best Banana Cake

Ingredients:

125g salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 rounded cup very ripe, mashed banana
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs ( Yes, I added one extra egg to the world's best banana cake recipe; trust me on this Sometimes I even add 2! *gasp*)
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk ( I used plain milk)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan-forced. If you don't have a fan-forced oven, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease the side and base of a 22cm diameter round cake pan. Line base of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

Place butter, sugar, banana, vanilla and eggs in a food processor.
Process for about 2 minutes.
Scrape down sides of processor.
Add buttermilk and pulse to combine.
Sift flour, and bicarb of soda together into a large bowl.
Add flour mixture to food processor and process until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for about 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer or knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Leave cake to cool on a wire rack. Spread cooled cake with cream cheese icing. Store cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator.



Cream Cheese Icing

90g cream cheese, softened
45g butter, softened
1 2/3 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Beat cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sifted icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine. Spread icing over top and sides of cooled cake.

Kettle Grill

Solo Girl decided to have a cookout for her pre- birthday sleepover. We had dusted off the kettle grill last weekend and used it for grilling sausages and making S’mores.

This is something we used to do regularly when we were country folk, but somehow the kettle grill has just sat around gathering dust , leaves and rainwater since we became cityfolk.

Well, after the fun of sitting around the grill last weekend, Solo Girl then and there decided she wanted her friends to enjoy the same bonding experience.

I kept the menu simple. Its winter here and gets dark and horribly cold so early. We did sausages and I made a pile of traffic-light kebabs.

Most kids love kebabs and these were the best I have ever made.

Traffic Light Kebabs
*Chicken thigh fillet (I prefer thigh over breast as it is rich and moist), chopped into cubes
*Red, Green, and Yellow capsicum (sweet pepper) chopped into squares that are the same size as the chicken cubes.

I marinated the chicken in a thrown-together ‘Asian flavours Marinade ( this is a very mild version due to me not knowing how well the young visitors would receive stronger flavours. Feel free substitute fresh herbs in place of the dried for more authentic flavour! Also I would normally add a dash of red wine, but didn’t have any on hand.)
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger ( I had none and just used powdered ginger)
• Generous dash of garlic salt ( I am classy like that)
• 2 teaspoons five-spice powder

You know, I always overlooked and passed over the five-spice powder in my pantry….until I saw a part of Poh’s Kitchen at the gym last week. She explained it; made me understand it. Do you know that 5-spice uses the following 5 tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, pungent, and salty to bring balance to a dish? The 5 spice ingredients can vary but are typically made from fennel, cloves, Szechuan peppercorns, star anise, and cinnamon. You only need a little bit, but yes! New favourite ingredient!
I marinated the chicken for about an hour (probably a ½ hour longer than the experts recommend)……ahhhh well.
So thread several cubes of chicken onto the skewers before adding a piece of capsicum…..continue pattern, making up the traffic light formation.
Grill till just tender.

S’mores ( Named thus because you always need ‘some more’) I nearly didn't put up these pics , 'cause they are so grainy due to ISO 1600, DUE to taken at 7:00pm outside (that is poor quality camera-speak; never mind me.) But they show so well, the facial expressions of bliss that a S'more eater wears, so they simply MUST be included.)

There is just something special about making S’mores together. A great memory-making experience! Toasting the marshmallows; (ie: charring the first couple to a crisp, dropping the next two into the fire, then finally getting the hang of it!) squishing them between two choc-covered wheat biscuits ; and then being unable to speak due to gooey, melted deliciousness clogging up every space in your mouth. Looking around at each other and doing the S’more moan ‘mmmmm, dursss irrrsss sshhhhooooo yrrrummmmyyyyy !’
Ahhhhhhhhh…….
S’mores ......

you will need:
Large marshmallows
Choc- wheaten biscuits

Method:

BBQ marshmallows on a skewer till nicely toasted yet not charred, then sandwich between two choc wheaten biscuits till the chocolate melts. Mmm mmmm!

And finally: Tip from the top: Choc Chip Cookie Twist

I have always yearned to have access to the variety of choc chip flavours that you can buy in the States. Caramel chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips…... Oh man!

So I felt a little bit of a dimwit when it only just clicked that I can sort of do peanut butter chips. The solution: * drumroll*..............Reece’s Pieces!

We get them in a couple of stores locally. I tried it out yesterday, chucked a cupful into a double batch of my favorite choc chip cookie recipe, along with a cup of milk choc chips. Try it. No need to thank me!

Terry's Pizza- a gift from me to you

I want to do justice to this next eating experience (which occurred a couple weeks ago). But illness and otherlies have got in the way. I don’t know if even now I can come close to properly hyping the taste experience that is….. *drum rolls of some significance*….. Terry’s Pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terry’s is an institution in my li’l hometown of Gunnedah, a pretty town 45 minutes west of the country music capital Tamworth.
When we lived in Gunnedah for two years, we got Terry’s every Sunday night after church, when the kids were asleep, (so all the more for us). It was my comfort food of choice!
Terry’s story, as I remember him telling me, goes something like this. Terry if I got any of it wrong; sorry!
Terry and his family left Blacktown in Sydney to travel around part of Australia. When they arrived in Gunnedah, they realized it was the epicentre of the universe; just sort of halted their trip and never left! I kid you not.

Terry hadn’t made pizza before, but on a whim he decided he wanted to open a pizzeria….So, as you do, he went to his local bookstore (Angus and Robertson, I think) and purchased a pizza cookbook. And the rest as they say…….; well, let's just say, all we Gunnedah-ians are eternally grateful for Terry’s whim.

I asked Terry what his secret to the world’s best pizza was, many years ago,. It is true, no other pizza tastes anything like it.
His answer was simple: quality ingredients and simplicity.
I think there is more to it than that. Terry’s pizzas don’t have a tonne of cheese, and there is none on the top. The cheese is underneath, so it doesn’t overwhelm and dull all the other toppings. This also prevents the crust from going soggy. Each ingredient stands out equally as the ‘hero of the dish’ (chortle), and the pizza crust is thick and crunchy without grease. Oh man, I am workin’ up an appetite just writing this!!!!
The service is fantastic. Most of the times I have gone in, Terry himself has served me, with a quick grin and genuine modesty at my raving. He is always up for a yarn (Aussie-speak for conversation), even though the orders are coming at him thick and fast and the phone is ringing away like a boiling kettle.
So………If a large body of water of oceanic proportions happens to be in the way of you and a Terry’s pizza, you are excused for not making the effort.
As for the Aussies among us, no excuses. Hitch up the nearest roo, give it a swift (yet-RSPCA-approved) kick up the flank, and hop along to Terry’s.
One of our friends was such a Terry’s fan, he invited all his university friends from Newcastle to his parents property and had a massive Terry’s pizza for his 21 birthday CAKE!!!! Now that is a fan! That is dedication. That, is what a Terry’s pizza will do to you.

The dish that gained me 4kg in as many weeks.

I kid you not. This is a seriously fattening dish, though at the time.....during the month I was gorging on it, I never really thought about that.

And for me to gain 4 kg in 4 weeks is quite a feat I have to say. I run 8 km a day! That is a lot of burnt calories right there.
So how did I undertake this dubious achievement?
Well, my diet is a little limited, well, as far as I am concerned it is. I have to avoid sugar pretty much entirely, and have no carbs at dinner for the same reason. But I am a girl who likes to eat. I like a big plate of food. And seeing as I also cook a separate meal for my own family, I pretty much find a simple dish that I love, and then make it every day till I lose interest.

I made stir fry for half a year, then moved on to veggies in a satay sauce. Soooooo over both those dishes now!
And then I fell in love with cheese sauce. Veggies in cheese sauce.

I ended up doing fozen green beens as the veggies most of the time. Why?

1. I am lazy.
2. They are cheap.
3. They are filling.

Anyways the veggies are not what this post is about. What gained me the weight was the sauce.
Here is that recipe, which I made off the top of my head using the foundation of a basic white sauce.

CHEESE SAUCE
5 tbsp butter
5 tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 milk
1/2 cream (heck, get creative, sometimes I made this baby on straight cream!)
3 cups grated cheese of choice ( I use 2 3/4 cups tasty cheese and make up the rest in parmesan.)

*Heat oven to 200 (celcius)
*Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and stir over lowish heat for at least four minutes to lose the floury taste. The flour should resemble breadcrumbs.
*Pour in the milk and cream, the salt and pepper. Stir regularly over heat till the sauce thickens. *Add more milk or cream to preference of thickness. I like thick.
*Throw all but 1/2 cup of cheese into the sauce and remove from heat. Stir through until melted and combined.
*Add cooked drained vegies to the pan and stir through. Pour out into greased pie dish. (do not soak saucepan.

While you are waiting for your dinner to cook, take your pointer finger and scrape that saucepan clean.
*Sprinkle over the remainder of the cheese and put in the oven. Keep in about 15 or till brown on top.
*Eat while squeeing with delight and thanking me from the bottom of your hearts.

Serves 1. Yup, I ate the entire thing all by myself. (To gain the desired weight, eat daily. :) I have to say, I now only eat this dish but once a month. :)