What we ate this week…

September 17, 2023 ~ stephzuniga ~ Leave a comment

As promised in last week’s post, we did in fact eat Glazed Pork Cutlets with Japanese Slaw, the BLT Salad and Baked Chicken Taquitos from I Heart Naptime Cookbook…and Steak with leftover Bearnaise Sauce. The salad was definitely the week’s winner!

BUT the surprise was that I made Chrissy Teigan’s internet famous banana bread thanks to the child’s sudden dislike of bananas in his lunch.

Believe me, this banana bread is more cake than bread but it 100% lives up to its hype. I don’t know if I’ve written about it before but honestly, walk, do not run to the shops to buy bananas and then wait all week for them to ripen so that you can make this bread/cake. It is the reason I bring back Vanilla Jell-o Pudding Mix back from the US every time I go. So good. So so good. If you’re looking for a reason to eat cake for breakfast, this is 100% it.

Oh, and lest you think I was exaggerating about Burgerhead and Butter were last week, Concrete Playground published a list and they were both on it!

This week, we’re having Sweet Pork Hawaiian Haystacks (also from I Heart Naptime), Gazpacho with the leftover croutons from last week’s BLT Salad, standard Old El Paso taco kit tacos for Taco Tuesday, and All Day Noodles with Fried Egg and Furikake.

It will be a pretty easy cooking week since I’ll be in the office most days. The haystacks are made using slow cooked pulled pork and the other meals are pretty quick and easy too!

Oh- and the smallest member of our household won his very first Tennis Tournament! One more trophy for the trophy cabinet!

The Apple

April 20, 2015April 20, 2015 ~ stephzuniga ~ 1 Comment

So my wonderful husband, The Runner, gave me the best surprise for my birthday that I could ask for—The Mom came to visit with her best friend. I think it’s safe to say that all three of us had a blast and there were many tears at the airport this morning (I cried like a two year old and nearly wrapped myself around my mom’s leg so she couldn’t leave). I loved having her here and I think she enjoyed being here.

For me, the best part of having her here was seeing her interact with my friends and with The Runner- it’s really great to have all of my favorite people getting along and on the same continent.

For The Runner, I think he liked having her here because our house has NEVER been cleaner. It’s like she bought stock in Mr. Clean on the way over- she cleaned our fridge until it sparkled, cleaned up our garden (and discarded all the ghosts of garden projects past), and organised nearly every plastic bag, Ziploc bag and bit of saran wrap that she could find in the kitchen drawers. I’m sure she would have cleaned out our kitchen cabinets and alphabetise our spices as well but I did force her to go sightseeing.

For The Mom, it is clear what she loved the most about being here…. The Food. I think she had calamari for at least 11 of the 16 days she was here. She could probably give you a definitive ranking of calamari in Sydney if you asked her.

I made sure that she sampled as much of Sydney’s wonderful cuisine including Gelato Messina, Mr. Wong’s, Chin Chin and Huxtaburger in Melbourne, Temporada and Monster in Canberra, and Jazz City in Sydney—twice.

In the two weeks she was here, we ate at Jazz City BBQ twice—nearly the same number of times that I made dinner for her at home. She absolutely LOVED it- both times. She probably would have gone back a third time but we ran out of time. She ate ribs, she had burgers, she had pecan pie. She loved the BBQ sauce, and the potato salad, and especially the cornbread. Never mind the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. I think Jazz City BBQ was her favourite place in Australia. She’s already looking forward to her next visit back to Sydney- not to see me, but for more ribs.

I’m not surprised, since Jazz City is one of my favourite places to eat in Sydney and the older I get, the more I’m becoming my mother. This isn’t a bad thing, because she’s getting much cooler the older she gets. Well, she’s always been cool but I didn’t quite see it the same way when she was telling me to eat broccoli and clean my room growing up. The older I get, the more I realise how similar we have become—or maybe we always were similar but I notice it more now. It’s sort of like watching and listening to a smarter, more accomplished, and wiser version of myself… I loved having her here! I guess it only goes to show that the Apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree!

Salt Meats Cheese Meets Me!

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014 ~ 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!