crab dumplings

A package of wonton skins had been sitting in our fridge for months now and I thought i really should do something with them - so i stuffed them with some canned crabmeat mixed with shredded carrot and seasonings and steamed some, and stuffed some with the same filling and shredded cheese, sprayed them with olive oil and baked them. The steamed ones turned out alright but the baked ones were too dry. Canned crabmeat does not taste like crab at all! It was just..like flavourless flakes of crab meat. I suppose you get what you pay for! Still, I thought they were yummy enough.

Christmas food

hope you've all had a good christmas! We didn't really plan anything but I was pleased to have been invited to lunch and we didn't even have to prepare anything! We just showed up and enjoyed ourselves.

 the usual Christmas feasting began ystd with prawn cocktail and crackers with bad jokes in them.....

 the obligatory ham...and various sides.

 here's my plate on the first round - turkey, stuffing, ham and lamb...and veggies. i went back for 2 more helpings...

our hosts also showed off his coffee making skills with his new coffee machine....

Jo had heaps of fun with the turkey bone - he held it, waved it around, banged it on the floor and chewed on it with his gums. who'd have thought he'd have so much fun with something we'd throw away?

how was your Christmas?

The Fish Bar, Bellerive, Tasmania

 Situated at Bellerive Beach, this place has a great view, ample parking and great service! This was my first time here, but I've eaten at the other branches in Sandy Bay and North Hobart. I must say this one has the best location though. All the servers were really friendly and accommodating. First of we had the natural oysters $9.50, above, that were really fresh and tasty. I just love how it bursts with fresh salty oyster juice when you put it in your mouth.

 This was the grilled stripey trumpeter with salad, $16.50. Flaky flesh and tasty tartare sauce...but it wasn't as good as the battered flathead, below. [well only because the more fattening things are, the tastier... ]

 We also had the crumbed scallops - very nice.

This was some other battered fish but I dont remember what. Yummy as well. 

 we had ice cream and coffees as well but didnt bother photographing them...This is a great place for seafood with a view when you don't want to pay Mures prices, wait in line or pay for metered parking at the docks.

strawberry season and Southern Lights Aura cafe

 We had lunch at Aura cafe at the Southern Lights Hotel in Kingston. There's a nice view of Kingston and the river Derwent and a bit of the eastern shore on the other side as well. and a very good two man band were playing this afternoon. "Where's Mary" is their band's name. But, i'm most concerned about food, so above is the Chicken parmigiana which was excellent. What's not to like about deep fried chicken smothered in cheese, ham, tomato sauce and eggplant?

 The moussaka was nice too, with lotsa cheese, white sauce, eggplant and tomato sauce.

 This was the fish of the day, for $29.95 - very healthy! grilled travelley with sweet potato mash, steamed asparagus, red cabbage and truffle oil. How many superfoods can you pack into just one meal?
All in all I'm quite impressed with the chef here, the food exceeded our expectations. Wonder why there were hardly anyone here today, a Sunday?

 My first strawberry ice cream  made with my Breville freeze n' mix. Just strawberries, cream, milk and sugar went into this. It was really easy to do - just puree some hulled strawberries, whisk that with cream, milk and sugar, chill in the fridge, then churn in the [pre-frozen] ice cream bowl.

Everyone thought it was okay. Who knows? might be better than Haagen Dazs'... hehe

more spring blooms

 anyone know what these are? they're everywhere! the previous owner of this house must've liked them.

 more weedy flowers... that look quite nice on their own!

 a dark red version of the earlier nameless flower

 and a pale pink one.

 a deep purple one!

these are from a huge bush that had buzzy bees all around it.

How nice that I'm enjoying all these flowers that I didn't plant... ! now if only the previous owner of this house had planted cherry, apple and orange trees...

spring flowers in the garden

 the birds are out singing and so are the blooms. these are only some of our flowers!

 dont know what these are but they just popped out of nowhere!

 lovely huge roses

 some weedy ones...

 tiny daises

 geraniums

 a succulent

 some sort of iris....

 fuchsias which arent even fuchsia in colour!

 tinier daises

some other prolific purple and white daises

raspberry pancakes

I had some raspberries that needed using up so i added them to a regular pancake mix. Raspberries are something i just can't eat on their own - too sour! I tried giving them Jo [my 6 month old] and his scrunched up his face from the sour-ness! and this was even with it mixed with mashed banana. well I made him eat it anyway - i wanted him to have the vitamin C. 

Mixed in with pancake batter, they looked a nice pink hue.

after flipping over

.

wonder why the first few ones never look as good as the subsequent pancakes. 

anyway, they were lovely with maple syrup and cream! 

recipe:

whisk together 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk, a pinch of salt, a tsp sugar, 1 tsp vanilla essence, 1 egg and 2 tsp baking powder, then add some [maybe a cup? i didn't measure, just eyeball it] raspberries [or any berries really] and keep whisking until smooth. spray a nonstick pan with oil, heat to medium hot and ladle the batter  in whatever size you like. flip over when bubbles appear on the surface, cook a further 2-3 minutes depending on the size of your pancakes. 

serve with maple syrup or ice cream or cream or honey or icing sugar.