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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

tablenosh goes global

That's right friends...tablenosh is headed to California for a one off dinner!!!!  We will be in California for 2 weeks at the end of August and I thought what a great opportunity to give my dear friends in LA a taste of tablenosh.  Feel free to make some menu requests.  Have a look at what I have done in Sydney and let me know what you think.  This is gonna be funtimes!!!
Tablenosh will be on Saturday, September 4th at 7pm.  Location TBC (I think Manhattan Beach).  Let me know if you want to come and I look forward to noshing together soon!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

stuffed like turkey's

What a feast...I am not really sure how I managed to pull it off but the Christmas in July dinner definitely happened and I don't think anyone went home hungry! I managed to figure out a way to extend the table and was able to seat ten guests. It was an eclectic group of people coming together for a Christmas dinner feast, my home was filled with the good smell of turkey roasting and the sound of plates, glasses, chatter and laughter.
The evening started with a choice of cocktail: cranberry gin & tonic or my 'holiday nog' (with my homemade egg nog). For a started I did a baked brie with fig wrapped in puff pastry. As for the dinner menu it was a BIG turkey with all the fixings: cornbread stuffing, mac n' cheese, greens beans, sweet potato souffle, cranberry-apple sauce, gravy and multi-grain rolls. There was plenty of food to go around! It was a family style dinner, as I put it all on the table for people to help themselves. Once everyone was totally stuffed, I cleared the plates and put out dessert...a Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with bourbon caramel sauce and a Cherry Apple Clafoutis.

After this one of the guests surpised us all by bringing out a bag of presents! Everyone got to choose one...it really did feel like Christmas (thanks Annemarie).

Next came tea and coffee with a selection of truffles, the truffle were a bit of an experiment, they may have been better if everyone wasn't already stuffed like a turkey!

Liz and I with our presents...pink headbands!
It was a great night, another big thanks to my kitchen side-kick who made cleaning up so much easier!! Thank you Liz! The next tablenosh will be August 14th...people are already booking in so if you want to come let me know ASAP.

Friday, July 23, 2010

back in the kitchen

I am home and I am cooking!  I picked up my turkey today from the butcher and it is HUGE...oops there will only be ten for tablenosh, but I guess we will enjoy any leftovers.  We had an awesome time in Fiji and I did indeed find a cookbook and managed to bring home some curry powder too. That country could pretty much just live off coconuts if they wanted, there is so much you can do with a coconut tree...who knew!?  The cookbook I got uses coconut in every recipe, I am looking forward to trying them out soon.  Maybe once I make it through tomorrow!

I think I may be a little over-tired and exhauasted from the trip as I am feeling a bit unsure about tomorrow night.  Just hoping I can whip up some of the classics from my family as well as add some extras.  The spiced pumpkin cheescake is in the oven now and I just finished making my Aunt Isa's cranberry-apple sauce.  I am waking up at the crack of dawn to go to the veggie market and pick up the rest of what I need.  I have managed to figure out how to extend my table to seat ten, so it is going to be a full house.  I just hope I get it all ready by 7:00!!!

Okay I better get myself to bed so I can wake up tommorow!  Here's to 'tablenosh' dinner #5...it is gonna be family style fun.  Just like Christmas :)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

a few days off

so, i am taking a two week break from cooking...i will be in Fiji instead! i am looking forward to eating some good curries and maybe tracking down a Fijian cookbook.  hoping i will get inspired for tablenosh and maybe do a curry night in the coming months.
i am back on the 22nd and will start preparing for 'Christmas in July' as soon as i walk in the door pretty much!  good thing i have a lot of those recipes up my sleeve already...should be a feast and i have a figured out a way to expand my table, so i can seat ten!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

right on track

Woohoo I am at least up to 50 new recipes and it is half way through the year...thus I am on track and going strong!  So, what is the verdict in terms of the best?  I think these would be my top 10:

1.  Roasted Garlic and Parsnip Soup - this was seriously divine, I can't wait to make it again, very rich but so yummy. 
2.  Chocolate Mousse - I know nothing too hard, but so glad I have learned how to make it. 
3. Coriander Pesto and Green Curry Chicken, I grabbed this recipe out of a magazine and am a huge fan, I made it again the other day with just vegetables and used yellow curry paste instead of green with homemade pesto, it was still good.
4. Dukkah Crusted Salmon over cous cous with yogurt sauce, yes I would do this again and want to try maybe using a different fish or even trying it with chicken.
5.  Red Velvet Cake...next time I make this I am going to try slicing the cakes in have and stuffing with cream, so it is more like a 6 layer cake, how good does that sound!
6. Risotto Croquettes...these tasty little appetizer were great.
7. Berry Semi - Freddo, not so great for winter but am totally looking forward to making this again in the summer and maybe trying some other flavors.
8. Hushpuppies, these aussie's just don't know what they are missing.  How good is cornbread?! And even better when it is fried (okay maybe not healthy, but tasty)!!
9. Spanish Meatballs, now the fact that I do not even normally eat pork and thought these were good must mean something.  Definitely one to store in the recipe book.
10. Chicken Sate Skewers, this is ALL about the sauce, probably one of the best marinades ever.  I will definitely be using this again.

So, fifty more recipes to go...there is SO much food in my fridge at the moment I should be cooking away this week, but we'll see how I go.  Pete is out of the country and I only have me to feed until Friday.  Lately it seems all I want to make is soup, so I am sure I will make some soup this week, in fact maybe I will make lots of soup and give it to everyone I know...or 'tablenosh soup night' hmmm maybe...