Meow and welcome to Spring!
One of favourite times of the year as I know Summer is just around the corner.....Sunshine, warm weather, blossoms and general happiness that the dark days of winter are banished for at least half a year!
As outlined in my long winded Changing Seasons blog at the start of Autumn, I suffer from S.A.D. In case you're not down with hypochondriac language, it stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder which means I get sad (how ironic is that acronym!) when it turns dark and when it gets cold. The melancholy of it all and the desire to curl up at home on weekends with a glass of red wine in one hand, and the other with some sort of tasty carbohydrate based dish in front of the heater......I'm such a Winter hermit!
But I've sprung back in the first couple of days of Spring and feel inspired to report all the things I cooked over Winter and all the things I've done....
Well I had a look back at my list at the start of winter and I only managed to cook four things out of the seven that I had endeavoured to cook. Those were:
- a Chicken pie
- Lamb shank stew
- Dumplings (although I made dim sims which I think still count)
- Beef ragu
All pretty tasty and all edible without being paid out by those that were eating my food (I have stopped giving disclaimers upon serving of food).
However, I still did not manage to have my parents over for dinner. Partly because I couldn't face my mother telling me I have too many shoes and clothes (which is partially true) and also I think the pressure would have gotten to me and I would have disappointed them with a terrible dish! I did however, manage to make them try my Beef Bourgignon which was met with the following comment "I tried your beef, and it was actually very nice".... Asian mother complement at its best!
I did manage to make a few things I hadn't done before.
I did make Aussie-fied dim sims recently after seeing them on a menu. There doesn't appear to be many recipes on the internet but strangely a lot of forums talking about dim sims. People have way too much time of their hands. Anyway, when I was really young my grandparents owned a Chinese restaurant and I remember my parents helping them to stuff the pork/cabbage mixture into the dim sim skins. I have no idea what went into the dim sims but I took a stab at what went into it, and tried them out. The first batch suffered from the lack of fat in the pork and I mistakenly picked up wonton skins so they kind of all fell apart and stuck to the steamer! The second batch welcomed the use of pork mince bought from an Asian grocer. It's amazing what a bit of pork fat does! These worked much better than the last and were a hit with my sis and friends who tasted them! Not a bad effort considering I used the Asian force!
I also tried my hand at making Coq au Vin, Basil Pesto and also tried a few new asian dishes like lemon grass chicken, Hainanese Chicken Rice and Stir fried pork with green beans! Adding to my repertoire makes me think that one day I might actually be a good cook!
Aside from the random cooking I did over the Winter, I did dine out at a few establishments...ok a lot of establishments! Not all have made it to the site yet (including the restaurants I loved when I went to NYC), but as you can see I've had more posts in the last month than since the inception of the Greedy Kat blog!
My motivation became a lot greater after I was asked to attend an event at the invitation of my friends at Couturing.com. I was a bit hesitant to attend the Blogger review of Claremont Tonic as I wasn't allowed to bring anyone, and I have a small fear of meeting new people, but it ended up being a really good night. I rocked up sans giant professional SLR camera (I have to akin this experience to that of men's size envy - my compact camera was tiny compared to the others) and sans business card. A total rookie! But the photos came out ok I think and I think I did a pretty decent review of the restaurant! So it's not like my name was up in lights but it did give me a buzz that my review was on a website that people actually read....unlike this blog which gets the occasional read (thanks to those who spare the time to read my blog xx). So I guess my narcissism drove my motivation as I had not touched this blog for over two months, despite all the spare time I had when I was in Canberra for work.
Yes you read right, I spent most of the winter in the coldest capital city of the nation. Canberra. A city filled with too many roundabouts and probably too many public servants (sorry but seriously people, do some work!). It was an interesting experience and despite what everyone said to me, it is not a foodie town and everything is super dooper expensive. That's not to say that I didn't have nice meals. A memorable Asian influenced meal at Sojou girl in the city centre, a lovely Malaysian/Chinese meal at Timmy's Kitchen in Manuka and classy Pizza and Pasta (not be confused with chain Pizza and Pasta) at Public bar in Manuka. Sadly I'd also like to put in this list, a tasty slice of pizza I got from Costco during our weekly trips for something exciting to do (there is not much open after work for shopping!).
So I did eat extraordinarily well all Winter and gained a couple of Kgs which will take me forever to get off.....Perhaps I do need to make friends with Salad!
As we head into warmer weather, and my love of light and low calorie foods return, I hope to do different things on this blog.
I'm hoping to do a big Spring clean out of my house and as such in the next few weeks I'll be running a blog sale on here with a few of my items.
Secondly, if I attend any cool events as part of my role as Beauty Editor on Couturing.com, I'll post them too!
Finally, as I love to eat, I'm aiming to do food recommendations. For example, recently I've had a hankering for almond croissants. I'm not sure why but if you get a good one, they're bloody good. So far my favourite place for an almond croissant is a tie between Movida Bakery and French Fantasies.
I wonder what my next sinful hankering will be....ice creams perhaps....or it is the time of year for Champagne.....Perhaps I need to speak with Champagne PR people so I can do a product review and comparison!!!
I guess we'll wait and see....
Happy eating and drinking!
