Leisure ladies lunch

23/04/2010 - Lunch at Jenny's

Jenny called to see if Lara and I would like to go over there for lunch, as she felt like doing something especial on a Friday. We arrived to baked trout, baked potato and salad! I took some pasta for Lara but she had and liked the trout too. Oh I like Fridays.

Trying different bread

I usually bake two small loaves of bread a week for breakfast and weekend lunches. My normal recipe is the traditional white bread recipe from my breadmaker book. It uses 3 & 1/4 cups of flour with yeast, sugar, salt, water and a little margarine. Just put all ingredients in breadmaker, let it knead and rise once (around 2 hours). Divid dough in two and let them rise for another 1/2 hour (more if cold) in tins (they don't shape well otherwise). Bake in 200C oven for 1/2 hour and voila it's ready!

I tried some new recipes in the last few weeks. Firstly, the 'soft American-style white bread' (pg 204 from 'Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day'). In addition to the usual ingredients, it had 100g of unsalted butter. This bread requied no kneading and it was baked in 180C oven for 45 minutes. The resulting bread had softer crust. I also tried the Challah dough (pg 180 from the same book) with 4 eggs and 1/2 cup of honey(for 4 loaves) in addition to the usual ingredients.



With the leftover Challah dough, I made spinach and marinated fetta bread for lunch- details here. I didn't add pine nuts and used flake almond instead of black sesame (improvised based on what I had in the pantry). The braiding was easy, it came out of the oven looking nice and tasted delicious. Nice cold too. I'm keen to try again following the recipe properly and also try other fillings. Time to make another batch of dough!

I wish I could do that

There are two things that impress Lara: being able to surf and play drums.
Lara loves watching the surfers at the beach. She repeatedly told me "I wish I could do that Mummy" while she held out her hands and pretended she was balancing on a surf board. She wanted to take her floaty board every time we went to a beach. She stood on it and pretened to be surfing.

Looking for a better surf elsewhere.


She also seemed very interested with drums. We had lunch at 'Lagoons' a few weeks ago for Parents-in-law's 50th wedding anniversay. Lara spent a long time at the lounge area at the front watching the band performing. She was particularly impressed with the drummer. She told me again and again "Mummy I wish I could play drums like that". Now she frequently uses two pens and whatever is lying around as her drum kit and practises her 'drumming'.

Umm...surfing and drums... I wonder what Lara will be when she grows up!


'Surfing' at Collaroy

Dee Why beach

We drove to Narrabeen and Collaroy beach on Easter Friday. The weather forcast was rain and it felt cold when we left so we didnt' take any change of clothes with us. When we arrived however, it was warm and sunny, not a cloud in sight. All we could do was a walk on the beach due to lack of spare clothes. The only consolation was the nice fish, chips and burger we had at the beach. Last weekend, we thought we would check out Dee Why beach, a little futher along. Somehow, we made the same mistake and didn't have the full set of gear we needed or a towel. Simon and Lara managed a small play (about an hour) at the shallow end of the sea.



We haven't been to Dee Why for ages and didn't realise the beach was lined up with cafes along one side. A late breakfast would be nice, but it felt too nice to leave the beach so we had burgers, chips and sushi sitting on the sand. Simon also had a little nap after lunch. We promised each other to always have change of clothes and towels in the car so we don't make the same mistake of not being able to fully enjoy the beach again! And we should also come back and try breakfast here.

Lost rings found

I lost my engagement+wedding rings some time ago. The thought that I threw them away accidently while packing to move made me feel sick in my stomach. We half-expected them to turn up when we were unpacking and thought they were lost forever when they didn't show up.

I got a unexpected phone call from Carrie on Easter Friday saying that she found my rings in their holiday home in Lake Macquarie. I must have left them there last time we were there 2 years ago!!

Carrie & family came over on the weekend to return the rings and have a look at our house and we had a very lovely afternoon together. I was Carrie's bridesmaid but somehow we seemed to lose in touch with each other after the last Lake Macquarie weekend. Her son Michael and Lara spent a long time jumping on the trampoline while we chatted sitting on the grass. I feel like I have found more than the lost rings!!

Gold Coast holiday

We didn't get to go to the beach much this summer so we decided to make this holiday a pure "beach" holiday. Gold Coast was our destination and Splendido apartment our home for 5 days. Weather-wise it was just right with maximum temperature at around 27-30C. We spent every day at a different beach - Monday: Mermaid beach. Tuesday: Broadbeach. Wednesday:Burleigh Heads. Thursday: Surfer's Paradise. We didn't rent a car but it was very convenient travelling around by bus (two section off-peak unlimited travel ticket $5.90 per person).



Mermaid beach was two blocks away from where we stayed but we had the worst experience, probably because it was a very windy day. We felt very cold, rushed back after less an hour there and ended up at the swimming pool/spa. Both Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach have park facilities and very family friendly. We particularly like Broadbeach, it was not as commercialised as Surfer's Paradise but with many choices of cafes and eateries around.



This was Lara's first airplane trip, she was absolutely amazed when the plane took off! The taxi rides and bus rides were also exciting for her. The food on offer was quite disappointing(especially dinners at Nobby Beach) but we all enjoyed the beach very much. Every afternoon when we went back to the apartment, we were all exhausted, but when we were at the beach we felt like time had stopped and we could be there forever. Watching the waves crashing into the shore was very soothing and great at emptying our minds.



Thanks to Parents-in-law who stayed here while we were away and looked after Zeb for us. And it was very nice coming home to a lovely home-cooked meal! Lara really missed her toys and spent a long time playing with toys that were uninterested to her previously. It's good to be back!

Tokyo Ramen

Lunch today was at Tokyo Ramen in Hornsby shopping centre. We had take-away sushi from here often but this is the first time we eat in. The shop was tiny with limited sitting and it was very busy when we arrived just after mid-day on Monday.

We had Agedashi Tofu (deep fried tofu with a sweet gingery sauce),Gyo-za, Tempura Udon and Negi Shoyu Ramen. The tofu was hot and silken, with very tasty sauce - extremely good value at $4. The tempuras was piled up high on top of the noodles. Many Japanese places' tempura eggplants were bland and under-done but here it was soft on the inside and very tasty. I didn't try other tempuras but from the number of orders on other tables, it was definitly a very popular dish. The Nigi Shoyu Ramen (with a dark soup) was not what I expecxted, but nice nonetheless (quite hot).



The food though not gourmet, was good quality homestyle food. We are keen to try other dishes there.