April 2009 Archives

 
Well, while the vanilla extract in the making has been sitting about becoming one with itself, it's been a little bit busy around here, but not much in the way of picture taking.  There was banana cake (again!) before Easter, pieces of which are currently biding their time in the freezer; I made Cauliflower soup last Wednesday, we made pasta bake later that night.  I threw together a date loaf (recipe in Donna Hay Modern Classics Vol 2) on Thursday which ended up a little dry but was delicious with a dab of butter and warmed up (go microwave!), I've thrown together variations on tomatoey tuna pasta, with and without olives, with and without chilli, with an anchovy or two dissolved into the sauce for extra flavoury punch,  and both X and I have been happy enough to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.  Currently looking for things to do with zucchini (besides soup!), because only two out of three (maybe - X hasn't tried yet because I haven't got round to giving him any!) of us eat zucchini, and only one out of three will cook it up. Previous attempts at zucchini cake were ... interesting, but I'm not sure I feel like I need to revisit right now. 

Decay's mum (Gran, from X's perspective) wanted to go out to dinner for Decay's birthday. So, last Saturday, we went to David's Restaurant in Prahran for some Northern Chinese foodage.  We also had DKtE, Stirfry Ninja, and my parents along for the fooding.

This was one of the first two recipes (the other one being ANZAC biscuits) that I remember Decay asking his mum for so we could make them when she didn't.  Although, as is the way with these things, they never turn out the same way as when Gran makes them - still tasty though!   The batch I made this morning used normal sugar instead of caster sugar, which probably contributed to the different texture, along with my usual preference for using butter over margarine. 

I've thrown a few beans into some vodka, and now it's just waiting for a bit while the vokda and the vanilla beans get to know each other.  I decided to make two batches of vanilla extract - one using madagascar bourbon vanilla, and the other using tahitian vanilla.  I thought it might be interesting to see if we can tell the difference when we make use of the vanilla once it's all good and ready to be used. Below are pics of the baby extract.  Even just a few days after these pictures were taken, the vodka has taken on more colour.

Po-Po came over this morning, although she was wondering where we were - out for a run, and so no-one answered the door or the landline.  I did answer the mobile though, and we were only a couple of minutes away.  What does this have to do with custard apples?  Well, Po-Po and Goong-Goong and Uncle Stirfry are heading off to Vancouver on Friday, in order to attend Grandpa's funeral (Goong-Goong's Dad).  So, Po-Po was giving us the soon-to-be ripe fruit that wouldn't get a chance to be eaten before they would be gone for a few days.

X got to try some custard apple for second breakfast, but wasn't too sure about actually trying any before I had a bit and then offered him a 'flake' to hold.  Once he tried though he had a bit more, but he wasn't as crazy about it as he was with mango!