Comfort food

With Winter coming to what seems to be an abrupt end, I have been stocking up on my favourite comfort foods while I still can. The other night I bought my favourite pre-made roast from Woolies; turkey with apple and cranberry stuffing.

To go with it I made a sweet potato bake, and bean and prosciutto salad. (I don’t care what it’s been, what is it now?) *cough*

*crickets*

I completely forgot to get process shots, but when served it looked so good I just had to share it with you all! This was the perfect Winter Warmer, even if the weather really isn’t that cold any more.

First the sweet potato bake. I buy the biggest sweet potato I can find, cut into reasonably small, thin pieces, and then bake until cooked with honey and sea salt. Once cooked I transfer to a ceramic baking dish, mix well with baby spinach and fetta (or ricotta if you so desire), then cover the whole lot in grated tasty cheese and bake until golden brown.

For the bean and prosciutto salad you will require beans, olive oil, prosciutto, an onion, garlic, and optional parsley and basil. This time I couldn’t find any fresh parsley or basil so I skipped it, but it is good if you can find it.

You cook the beans until they are just tender, but still crisp. Drain them and put to one side to keep warm. In a small fry pan heat the oil and then fry the prosciutto briefly until crisp then put to one side. In that oil then cook the onion and garlic until translucent. Cut up the prosciutto into small pieces and add back to the pan along with the basil and parsley. Then pour your dressing over your beans, toss thoroughly and serve hot in a bowl. Or in our case, on the side of the plate.

TA-DA!

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How far away is Summer again …? *pulls out the running shoes*

Newtown on a rainy afternoon

Weekend brunches in Newtown’s Buzzz Bar are one of the finer things in life.

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The staff are friendly, friends gather, and knitting can be achieved.

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I only just managed to snap this shot before all the food on the plate disappeared. I’m sure it was osmosis!

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Ah King St. Is there anything else quite like it?

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Dinner at The Ranch

Sometimes you just want comfort food. Even better is comfort food when you can convince yourself it’s vaguely healthy! In the effort to appear that we were looking after ourselves, we made pizza for dinner, rather than buying take out.

It’ has all the important food groups, vegetables, carbs, dairy and meat.

Well, the way we make it tends to look a little like this …

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Yes, that is pepperoni, salami, and cabanossi. Also two kinds of cheese. Why do you ask?

Coming out of the oven …

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and heartattack on a plate!

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Can’t ask for more than that really!

Norton St

As is our habit, we enjoy trying lots of local businesses in an effort to both support them, and find a venue where we are comfortable spending hours (and sometime significant cash) at a stretch. There have only been a couple of places in the last seven-ish years that we’ve been on the search where things coalesced perfectly.. The first was Barzu on Norton St, which closed down. Then there was 2 Front Doors up the hill, which … closed down. We appear to have a new contender called Grind.

So far, on the plus sides they have amazing, friendly, prompt service. Good coffee (harder to find than you’d think in Leichhardt), and easily identifiable delicious food.

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I just don’t feel comfortable pulling out the knitting and relaxing into sitting there for a few hours. Though it’s obvious a few of the other patrons can, and do!

They also have awesome brownies! This is a major positive!

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I didn’t get a photo of the actual brownie, it disappeared too fast!

Next time we’ll sit upstairs and see what that’s like. Let’s hope it doesn’t close down!

Sydney Wildlife World

We ended up on a bit of an expedition after leaving the Blackbird Café, headed across Cockle Bay to Sydney Wildlife World. Neither Himself or I had been before, and there was so much to see an marvel at that I’m sure we’ll be heading back before long (next time with tripods!).

Please click the links in this post at your own risk, they will mostly be to wikipedia pages, but as usual; all care, no responsibility.

For those of you not from ‘round these parts, Australia is known to be a bit deadly at times. I can’t think why … I’m sure you’re all happy to know that I couldn’t get a good shot of the deadliest spider in the world the Sydney Funnel Web, but here’s a nice one of a Red Bellied Black Snake. I’ve met one of these in the wild.

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This happy critter is a Tiger Snake. For those of you in the know, it was one of these we had in our ceiling a year and a half ago, though her markings weren’t nearly as pretty as this fellow’s!

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By comparison, the Frill-necked Lizard

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and Goanna, were remarkably tame.

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As I heard a voice off in the distance I realised it wasn’t one of the recorded messages, but a live talk! I dashed off and came face to … well … tail I guess, with this

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I’d like you all to meet Rex!

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He’s a 5 meter (16 feet) saltwater croc who weighs over 500kg (1100lbs).They decided the needed to re-home him when his territory was expanding a little to close to humans.

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I must admit, after taking this shot, for the rest of the day I was singing “Never smile at a crocodile!”

So on that happy note! I shall leave you with a picture of this cute little critter who I wasn’t thoughtful enough to remember to what he is other than “lizard”.

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Next post will be much cuter and fluffier, I promise! See you then!