Rhubarb fail.

I only managed to get six decent pieces of rhubarb which vaguely maintained their shape. Had to go out and buy another bunch. Has the fail occurred because i skimped on rhubarb and bought it from the cheap Asian place rather than the fresh food people? Perhaps. Either way, round #1 is not presentable. Kind of equates to serving a Snapper to guests with the head and tail cut off. 

Be my valentine oh Swedish burger.

Had a very chilled out Valentines Day this year. Started off pumping iron at the gym - Domus worked me hard and now boob muscles ache. Then went for a little walk with the parentals and the bad-breath schnauzer (he loves possum poo and fish leftovers). Hit the Asian grocery shop in Bentleigh to stock up on asparagus and lamb back-straps and the work experience chick had the nerve to throw in a 500gm bag of rotten strawberries to reward me for my loyalty. Headed over to The Retreat in Brunswick for the afternoon. Big deal for me, I know. Had to pull over and let Don drive as I was already falling asleep on Kings Way and didn't want us to be a Feb road stat. Made it back safely and had a quick nana nap at 6:15pm so i'd be fresh and fancy for our dinner experiment, the Swedish open burger with beetroot salad from the Vodka and Schnapps cookbook. This is what Valentines Day is all about. x

The sacrificial tail.

Sydney from Brisbane, who was holidays in Melbourne, popped in for a bite to eat on Wednesday night. Given she's currently not so into meat, i decided to have a crack at a fish.

The plan was to do 'Tom's lemon snapper swimming in a chilli and ginger sea', from the Master Chef cookbook. The recipe called for four 375g baby snappers, however South Melbourne market only had 2kg Snappers, the toothpicks i had on hand weren't robust enough to hold open this monster's gut flaps (to make him look like he was swimming) and the thing wouldn't fit into all the fry pans I owned, even if i cut him up, so I had to improvise.

Instead, we stuffed his insides with wedges of lemon, chopped spring onions, julienned ginger, chilli, sliced garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and light soy and popped the bad boy into the oven for 45 mins. We had to bend his tail back and slide it up the side of the oven as he was too big to fit flat! Abracadabra. We had dinner.   

The shank and the noodle clump

Although my noodle clump looked fabulous (Thanks to my $12 setting rings) they tasted like balls. Thankfully the shanks we superb and my 'good wife-ee' status remains.