oh….and we have a garden…

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

Well, I have the beginnings of a garden.

After two trips to Bunnings, I have two dead herb plants, and a raised garden bed full of potential.  Eggplant, cherry tomato, cucumber, pepper, mint, chili, rosemary, and flowers may grow in our garden.  I also sowed seeds- sunflowers, wild flowers, rosemary, coriander, and parsley which *may* also turn into something.

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I’m not optimistic.  But you never know, now that I’m a wife and a semi-grown up, I may actually learn to garden.  It probably would have been helpful if I had read up on how to plant plants beforehand- I’m not sure that my dig a hole and hope for the best method is the right way to go.   Apparently there are different soils, fertilizers, water and shade conditions to worry about so we’ll see what happens…. stay tuned.  I’m waiting with baited breath to see what happens…

In the meantime, we’ll be sitting in our new hammock, waiting for something to happen!September and October 2014 025

Salt Meats Cheese Meets Me!

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

So, if you’re not from Sydney, you probably haven’t been to Salt Meats Cheese or The Grounds in Alexandria.  So you’re missing out.

First of all, The Grounds.  The Grounds is smack bang in the middle of Sydney (not the CBD) but pretty close to inner Sydney in what used to be a fairly industrial area.  And if I’m honest, a few years ago when I had a chance to live in Alexandria, I turned up my nose and flatly refused to move there.  Well, gentrification is a powerful thing and now Alexandria is a pretty hip place for well, hipsters and yuppies.  The Runner and I are DEFINITELY NOT hipsters, however we *may* be yuppies…. Or at least the product of one time yuppie parents.  Anyway, The Grounds is a fairly new and fairly popular place in Sydney for those of us in our mid-30s who live near the city and drive mini-SUVs or Volkswagens.   They have great coffee, yummy food, a pig and some chickens.  Yup, you read that right, it’s a regular Old MacDonald’s Farm for city kids.  The pig is named Kevin Bacon-  get it, Kevin….BACON!  He’s a minor celebrity in Sydney having been the victim of a kidnapping earlier this year.   Yes, you read that correctly.   It was a massive news story.   The chickens are just chickens but there’s a lamb, or a goat…I’m not really sure which.  I grew up in a city, it has four legs and doesn’t bark or meow, it could be anything.    The Grounds is as close as I’ve gotten to a pig or chickens or lamb/goats/sheep unless you count the meat aisle of the grocery store.  Anyway, The Grounds has a garden, café,  and a bar, you can buy flowers, fresh fruit, blueberry lemonade,  donuts and all sorts of other treats.  You can have a coffee, have some lunch, get married (as some friends did) and have afternoon drinks.  It’s all very pretty and very urban- hence why the urban yuppies love it.  If you’re in Sydney, I highly recommend checking it out.

As if The Grounds wasn’t enough, Foodie-Hipster-Yuppie heaven aka Salt Meats Cheese is next door.   They have artisanal meats, cheeses, oils, salts and pastas.    They also have a wide range of imported and specialty foods.  They sell the type of food that seems like a great idea at the time but that you never actually eat and then you feel guilty about having in your house (I’m looking at you $8 spaghetti sauce).  You can buy chocolate pasta, a range of gluten free flours, flavoured olives and smoked and flavoured salts.  I still have not graduated to the level of Foodie-ism where I know what to do with a flavoured salt, but I do know where to buy them.   And yes, I have purchased, cooked, and eaten their chocolate pasta—and it’s delicious!  One of the best things about Salt Meats Cheese is that they also offer cooking classes.   For my pre-wedding, “hens” day, we did their pasta making class- super fun, and this past Sunday, I went to their Burger Making Workshop.

Wow!

First of all, I learned a lot.  The class was taught by a butcher who explained how to choose and prepare our own meat for our burgers.  Hint—buying the pre-minced mince at the butchers is for amateurs.  And don’t even think about buying the pre-made burger patties because according to the butcher, it may not even be beef.

Lucky for me, I happen to have a meat grinder (as should everyone, of course!) He showed us how to prepare the meat (3 parts chuck steak to 1 part brisket) for the mincer- it has to be cold and cut up in chunks.   We were allowed to choose our own seasonings- but told to Keep It Simple!  The meat was the star of this burger.  And it was!  It was one of the better burgers I’ve ever made- and all I put in it was ground thyme, a bit of cooked onion, and tomato ketchup.  We cooked the burgers ourselves, with a bit of help and another hint- cook the burger in olive oil for 6 minutes on one side and only 3-4 minutes on the other.

The team at Salt Meats Cheese was awesome as well- they had a selection of condiments, a delicious brioche bun and piping hot, super delicious fries to go with it.  YUM!  It was a super fun Sunday and we even got to take some burger patties home… which The Runner was particularly pleased with!  It also inspired me to start doing more cooking classes!  There’s so much to learn in the kitchen and so much fun to be had, so in 2015, I’m going to make learning to cook better a priority!

See below for some photos from the day…. try not to drool too much!

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2 years !

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

Wow, it’s been two years since I started this blog. Where does the time go? Thank you for reading and following and staying in touch through all of the laughter, tears and kitchen hijinx.

I think I might just bake a cake to celebrate!

Goodbye Fattember, Hello Droptober…

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

igh…. I have to say that the past 30 days have been pretty good.  Not only are we back in Sydney and settling back into married life but it’s been the inaugural Fattember.

What is Fattember I hear you say?  Fattember is exactly what it sounds like.  Fat-September.  Think Mardi Gras or Christmas (we don’t have a parade or a mascot or presents—yet) but for a whole month.

Maybe it’s a reaction to 12 months of 30 day restrictive eating challenges, or just a nice change of pace after having worked out, weighed, and portion controlled my way into a wedding dress.  It could also be just plain lazy.  I prefer to think it’s the start of something bigger.  We already have Movember, FebFast, Dry July, Parched March, and many other months of restraint (or indulgence) so why not Fattember?

Fattember is exactly what it sounds like.  Eating everything I want and not forcing myself to go to the gym 5 times a week.  Ice cream every night for dessert, fries, the odd hamburger, Mexican, cakes, candy bars, the whole shebang.  I haven’t measured, weighed or written down anything I’ve eaten.  And I haven’t worried about it either!   It’s been liberating and delicious and well, a bit decadent but it’s exactly what I needed.  Ok, maybe I didn’t need it, but I’ve enjoyed it!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end.  Fat-tember can’t last forever- I mean it could but then I would have to buy all new post “Fattember” clothes and I would probably start to take up more than one seat on the bus.    So, as The Runner makes me my last ice cream of Fattember (and literally uses up ALL of the ice cream in the freezer), I wave goodbye to Fattember and say HELLO to Droptober.

Droptober IS a real thing.  It has a website and over 2200 followers on Facebook- so unlike Fattember, it’s not something I’ve made up!

I’ve signed up for Droptober to try to negate the effect of Fattember.  A friend in Sydney started it, and it encourages people to be healthy and lose 2kg in October.  It’s a fundraiser for  Variety Children’s Charity as well.   And I’ve signed up for it.  So from tomorrow, no more candy, no more ice cream, no more fries.  I’m back on the bandwagon and back to the gym.  No excuses, 2 kg (5lbs) in 30 days…  Let’s get ready for summer and let’s get back to eating healthy.

STOP….hang on a sec.

I have an ice cream headache from Fattember’s last ice cream.  Clearly a sign.   Right, let’s rock Droptober!

In praise of The French…

~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

SO, sometimes the French get a bad rap, but I have to say, I am 100% pro-French.

Ok, maybe Paris wasn’t my favourite city in the whole world when I visited in 1999.  It was nice, but my trip to Paris was also my first experience staying in a hostel and travelling with a backpack.  I stayed at a hostel which was unfortunately named, the “Young and Happy Hostel”– trust me it was neither young, nor happy…it was gross, with a clogged shower, and 6 people in a room, and anyway, you get the point.  We stayed there for one night then upgraded ourselves to a hotel-type accommodation, there were three of us in one room and we shared a bathroom with the other people on our floor.  I’ve blocked out the name of the place but needless to say I would not have given it a 5 star review on TripAdvisor.  If you’re interested, the Young and Happy is on Trip Advisor, apparently it’s not the WORST place in Paris.  (I find that hard to believe but read for yourself.)

As I was saying, I am now official 100% Pro-France.  Amongst all of their amazing inventions- the stethoscope, tennis, the polo shirt (Rene Lacoste was WAY ahead of Ralph Lauren), antibiotics, the modern bikini, the French fry (well, maybe not but definitely the crepe which is tasty!), early cinema, ALL the cheese, Champagne and wine, the list goes on and on… but I am particularly pleased that the French invented Le Creuset Cookware.  It’s only a small thing but in the last 4 days since ours arrived, I’ve possibly made 5 dishes with it already.  Talk about a life changing kitchen item.  Wow.

For those of you who don’t know, Le Creuset is a line of cookware… although saying that is like saying that Coco Chanel made dresses.  It’s true, but entirely accurate as they are slightly better than your average pot.  Basically, they are famous for their colourful, enamel, cast iron French or Dutch Ovens—covered casseroles.  You can use them on the stove and in the oven and they make cooking a snap.  They can be used for browning meats, making stews, boiling, roasting, braising, risottos, everything.  And they have a bit of a cult following.  Celebrity chefs LOVE them, those in the Blogosphere discuss what colours are best and whether other brands are as good.  Not having grown up in an Le Creuset household (probably the only kitchen item The Mom didn’t have), I didn’t know how amazing they were firsthand.   I’d read all the reviews and seen them in action on TV, but didn’t know that it would be life changing.

The standard argument (summarised on the Culinary One website) in favour of Le Creuset is:

  • It is durable. It isn’t unusual for someone to be using 40 to 60 year old cookware
  • It heats perfectly and evenly. Food doesn’t burn easily
  • It cleans easily. The enameled coating keeps food from sticking to it
  • It is pretty! There are numerous colors available
  • It is consistently high quality
  • Can be used with gas, electric, induction, or ceramic ranges
  • Flat bottoms sit firmly on the surface of your cook top
  • Porcelain enamel coating won’t absorb odors or flavors
  • Lids seal in moisture and flavour
  • Knobs are heatproof up to 450 degrees F

And all of those are true.  Basically, it’s set and forget cookware.   It’s brilliant- you brown stuff on the stove, whack it in the oven, come back in an hour or two or three and it’s done, and juicy, and stays warm.  And it’s super easy to clean up.  (Part of my new found adulthood is handwashing things that I don’t want to be ruined.)  I haven’t cooked a bad dish in it yet!   Now I’m just looking for more things to cook in it!

Well played France, apparently being the home of pastry, art and fashion wasn’t enough, you had to go and invent the best kitchen item since the sink!

*In the spirit of full disclosure, I am not sponsored by Le Creuset but am TOTALLY open to the idea!

Decision Time or Decision-Time?

~ stephzuniga ~ 2 Comments

Nothing says decision time like being at the counter at the RMS (like the DMV- but Australian) with your marriage license in one hand and your change of details form in the other and a busy waiting room full of people behind you.

Such a small chore- update your driving license with your new married name.  Seems easy enough.  And then the question- such an innocuous question, but so much angst and indecision about the answer.

It probably should have been a 3 minute transaction but…you know nothing is ever simple around here.

This is how it went:

Khan the Service Guy:  “So ma’am, would you like a dash in between your maiden name and married name?” (I had written a hyphen on the form, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that a hyphen and a dash are not the same but I suppose  in the world of drivers licenses they probably are.)

Me:  “Yes.” (With confidence)

Me: “No.” (With some confident indecision)

Khan starts typing

Me:  “Yes.”  (I stand by my original choice….. unless I can change it ….)

Me:  “Maybe.” (Clearly not an acceptable answer to this question as Khan looks up at me)

Me:  “Yes.  I think. ”  (Khan takes his hands off the keys and stares)

Me:  “No.”

Me:  “I’m not really sure.” (Clearly, I’m stating the obvious and hoping that someone will swoop in and make a decision for me)

Can I buy a vowel? (Clearly not helpful and still won’t get me out of this) Can I phone a friend or ask the audience?

Me: “Yes.”

Me:  “No.Yes”

Me:  “I’ve been thinking about it for ages and I don’t know.” (Honest answer!)

Me:  “No”

And we went on like this for a while.

And every article I read about changing your name flashed through my head, the pros and cons and compromise.  I thought about having two difficult to pronounce names, I thought about future parent teacher conferences, I thought about future client meetings, I thought about restaurant bookings.  I thought about finding my name in alphabetical order, I thought about the mug I have with a Z on it.  And all the feminist thoughts I had ever had went through my head along with all of the fairy tale princess thoughts and all of the thoughts of being a domestic goddess and…..

Then I said yes.

And then I wanted to change it and then it was too late.

I really think Khan could sympathise with me, or maybe he also gets measured on how long he spends with each customer and wasn’t going to dive into my existential crisis- or maybe he deals with this all the time.   In any case, he continued to enter all the other details that aren’t changing  and let me check it all one more time.  Of course I asked him whether he was sure it was too late about the dash.  He said no, he could take it out but it would mean entering all the information again.  He seemed happy enough to do it, but the end, I said no, it’s just a dash, it’s no big deal.

And then he asked me to sign my name, my new name, not my old name.  Needless to say, that was a whole other kerfuffle- but I got it, after the 4th try!!!

All the Photos, All the Feels…

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You may want to grab a box of tissues and put on some sappy love songs…here are all of the professional photos from our wedding.

http://goslingphoto.zenfolio.com/steph-gary-married

A big thank you to Stephen Gosling, our photographer;  Joy Charles, our wedding planner; Fluffy Thoughts, who did an amazing job on our cake; Nikki Fraser, from Beauty and the The Bride for making us all look so pretty; Bryan Smith, for doing an outstanding job with our hair; Distinctive Floral Designs for the flowers; Old Ebbitt Grill for the amazing food and venue; Sposabella for providing the dress; Shoes of Prey for the shoes; and Belle Howie from Creative Resauce for all the stationery!

Our First Married Sunday Dinner

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This is our first Sunday dinner party in QUITE a while- and our first one as Mr. and Mrs.  And our first one with our new, fancy wedding gifts—which were mostly kitchen supplies for me.  And believe it or not, I’m going to use quite a few of them today.

On the menu today are two dishes from Manu Feidel’s book, French For Everyone.

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For those of you who don’t know Manu, he’s a French Celebrity Chef and one of the two hosts of one of my favourite food related shows, My Kitchen Rules.  My Kitchen Rules, if you haven’t seen it, is sort of a cross between Come Dine With Me Couples and Masterchef, and probably one of the few cooking shows I would potentially put myself on.  A lot of the people on there have all the gear but no idea, and some of the other ones are quite good (better than the people making beans on toast that you see on Come Dine With Me), but not good enough for to flambé duck eggs on Masterchef.

So today, I’m making a white bean, garlic and thyme puree for canapés (using our new food processor), for starter I’m making a lentil salad with speck, and for main we’re having Tomato and Fennel Braised Pork (made in our Le Creuset French Oven) with Goats Curd Mash.  We’re also having insalata caprese and a green salad on the side. September 2014-wedding presents 241

SO… let’s get started!

For starters, I was super organised in the kitchen today and weirdly enough got everything done ahead of time.  I think it was my new pots and pans and cooking utensils to be fair, but it could also have been Manu’s extremely well written and easy to follow recipes.  Both the white bean dip and the Lentil salad were super easy recipes to follow and super delicious.   Both recipes had less than 4 steps in them and both had very straight forward, easy actions.  The Tomato and Fennel Pork was slightly more labour intense, but not really.  I can’t blame Manu for that one, it was in this month’s Delicious Magazine.   And yes, I am on a first name basis with Manu.  For 3 months out of every year, he invades my living room 5 nights a week, I feel like we’re buddies.

Anyway, Manu’s bean dip was quite easy to make.  Manu clearly knows his audience and writes his cookbooks accordingly.  Manu writes for people like me.  People who would love to be the person who buys and soaks dried beans overnight but in reality will always be the person with a tin of cannellini beans in the cupboard.

For starters, does anyone actually soak beans overnight?  Are people that organised?  And if they are that organised, how??  Not just how are they possibly that organised (I can barely organise myself to buy all the ingredients, let alone start preparing  them the night before)  but how do they actually soak beans?  Where? And in what?  I can’t even begin to delve into the existential aspects of soaking beans so I just open the tin of beans and follow the recipe.   It’s pretty easy and after simmering the beans in garlic, thyme, onion and carrot for an hour and a half, I got to use my new food processor to puree the beans with olive oil. And that was pretty much it.

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The lentil salad was equally easy and even more delicious.   Of course anything that involves bacon or speck is always good.   I mean really, name one time bacon has not made something tastier.  I won’t take it as far as King Curtis (and if you don’t know who he is, watch his video here)  but I am a big fan of bacon, and have been known to dance around the house singing about bacon- similar to this.

The star of the show however, was the Tomato and Fennel Braised Pork with Goat’s Curd Mash.  The mash was to die for,  the texture was really good, and the goats curd gave it a really nice texture/flavour.  Of course, I’m sure that no matter what I will NEVER be able to duplicate it.   But it was yum!  And the Pork was SUPER easy to make thanks to the French Oven.  After using it twice, I now get it.  The Le Creuset is AMAZING.  It makes cooking super simple and everything is cooked beautifully!  The pork was so tender and so evenly cooked and it was so easy.  Literally, I browned the pork then cooked off  garlic, onion, fennel, and fennel seeds.  After that had browned, I added red wine, canned tomatoes, and vincotto.  I put the pork back into the pot and put it all into the oven for 2 hours.  And that was it.  Dinner was done.  It wasn’t quite like the photo but it tasted great!

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And in case you’re wondering, yes, we used the fancy plates and yes, I even hand washed them to clean them.  It was well worth it!

The week I became an adult…

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How do you know when you’ve become an adult?  Is it when you turn 18 and can legally vote?  Is it when you move out of your parents’  house and start paying rent? Is it the day you earn your first pay check?  Is it when you get married?  Is it when you have children?

Having now accomplished most of the hallmarks of adulthood, I can say it’s none of those things—for me at least.  However, I can honestly say, that I became an adult this week.  For the first time since moving out of my mother’s house at 17, I actually own matching plates and matching pots and pans that did not come from Ikea.  It seems like such a small, unimportant baby step, but for me it was a giant leap into adulthood.    I now have “good plates” and “everyday plates” just like a real, live grown up adult.  Even to this day, in my mother’s house, you can tell what level of entertaining she’s doing based on what you eat off of.    If it’s the normal plates in the cupboard, you know you’re family and you may have to cook your own food, white plates are for casual entertaining and friends.  The white and silver set:  you’re special but possibly clumsy; the blue and white china set from my parent’s wedding:  you’re very special and the occasion is pretty fancy—but my great grandmother’s gold set with the flowers, that’s how you know you’ve arrived and that you’re a pretty big deal.  If she breaks out the gold cutlery to match, then you may be dining with the V.VIPs.   Many people never get to this level; it’s the highest level of entertaining in The Mom’s house.

So today, I’m having my first Adult Grown Up Dinner Party, and I have to say, it’s a big step and I’m not sure I’m actually ready for the responsibility of having nice things.  First of all, how do you decide in advance whether the friends you’re having over are “good plate” worthy.   How do you know who is up to the challenge of being a grown up?  Secondly, there is a lot more clean up required with the “good plates”, you’re not supposed to just throw them in the dishwasher… which again begs the question, how do you know if you’ll feel like washing plates after a full day of cooking and eating?  And… thirdly, will guests even know that they’re eating off of the good stuff- and if they don’t know, will they care if they get the every day plates?

Being a grown up is a minefield of decisions and first world problems.  I know I could ask The Runner’s advice, but he definitely won’t care or appreciate the gravity of the situation.  If there’s one thing I’ve already learned about marriage, it’s that my husband’s level of interest in plates and bowls is limited to how much he can actually fit on the plate.  He will have no opinion on this matter…I may have to call in the big guns for this one.  I may have to call The Mom for advice…and that’s my most important life lesson about being an adult.  No matter how grown up you think you are,  you’re never too old to run to your mother for help!

Stay tuned for more about this Sunday’s Dinner!