Category Archives: Food
Jack’s Thai Green Chicken Curry
One of our favourite meals is Jacks Thai Green Chicken Curry. Al and I make this dish about once a month and we always enjoy it. So Marie and I decided to make this for our dinner last night and as usual it was delicious. The rccipe is very simple to make, no packet mixes required, its all made from scratch.
1 cup basmati rice, washed and drained
400ml can coconut cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
Curry Paste
4 green chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
3cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
2 sticks lemongrass, bruised and finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 eschallots, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped thai basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Curry
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 chicken thigh fillets, chopped
300ml coconut cream
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
50g green beans
Coriander sprigs- to garnish
1. Cook rice with coconut milk and salt
2. For curry paste, place all ingredients and 2 tablespoons water in the chopper attachment using a stick blender. Blend until finely chopped. Transfer into a mortar and pestle and pound until mixture forms a fine paste.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan and add ¼ cup curry paste. Cook for 2 – 3 minutes or until fragrant and soft. Add chicken and cook for 4-5 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
4. Pour coconut cream over chicken and stir to combine. Add fish sauce, sugar and green beans and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Season with salt.
5. Serve
Brunch
This morning we had Pam and Jerry over for brunch. We chose brunch as Al had to work as usual this afternoon and its the only time he had free. We made Bill Granger’s Corn Fritters which were delicious, bacon,eggs, toast and blueberry muffins along with coffee and tea. Al was head chef and a fine job he did of the cooking. I did make a ricotta cheesecake which tastes great but does not look that fab so decided not to bring out. I think I baked it in a too large sized cake tin. However am sure we will enjoy later.
Pam and Jerry bought us a beautiful bouganvillea which I will pot so we can take with us when we leave this house. Don’t you love the teatowel around Al’s shoulders??
The birds were in full force visiting and sitting on the spa pool as usual waiting for food. I found out our family of birds are magpies and the smaller birds are butcher birds. We also have a family of Kookaburras who sit on our fence. It was amusing to watch them grabbing some bread and bashing up against the fence to try to kill the bread, obviously thinking its a small lizard or some other form of animal.
It’s so good to see Pam and Jerry again and for Lisa and Dave to meet them. They have been up at the Sunshine Coast for a week and now at Kirra for a week. Hopefully we can catch up again soon.
Nobby’s Beach
Yes I have already been skyping with members of my family who have laughed at the name.. …..ha ha. As Borough Barista is really only a coffee shop we went to Nobbys Beach for breakfast, well not quite the beach just off the main drag and had brunch at Barchino which was very good. It was packed so that was a good sign for us, though the waitress said its much busier on Sundays. As neither of us had eaten dinner the night before, me because I still had my lunch to eat and Al as he was working, we both decided to have a cooked breakfast.
I had the breakfast bruschetta which was chopped tomatoes, basil, avocado on pumpkin sourdough plus two perfectly cooked poached eggs and bacon. Whew that was a lot and I struggled to finish it, luckily I had Al with me who never refuses extra bacon or bread. The poached eggs were good enough for masterchef. Al had the Breakfast rosti, self explanatory actually with bacon, avocado & two poached eggs, again perfectly cooked. His only complaint was that the rosti was not crispy enough for him, though his plate was licked clean. We had enough time to read the Saturday morning papers and then wend our way to our favourite bakery, Flour where we bought a great sourdough and then off to the butcher to buy Al some Bangalow ham for his lunch/dinner tonight at work. All in all a lovely morning.
Strawberries
Strawberries are in abundance over here and they are delicious. I have been buying a couple of punnets each week and putting them in our lunch boxes as a sweet snack. We could eat them every day all year round if they were available.
Apart from being delicious they also have some great health benefits being low in calories and high in fibre, have lots of potassium and plenty of antioxidants. We have put them in our morning breakfast shakes as well as eating them straight out of the plastic container.
We thought that next year we would look at growing some for fun, it seems like they can be planted pretty much all year round here but need to take care in the hotter months to ensure the leaves don’t get burnt.
The Battle of the Brownies
Yes its a battle of the brownies, both Donna Hay and both simple and easy to make. I put up a post last week with Donna’s standby brownies, simple and delicious, then Sheeneagh sent me her brownie recipe also a Donna Hay recipe and I will have to make this one as well. I already know Sheeneagh’s brownies will be nicer as its a much richer recipe using melted chocolate. The one thing I do know is Al is a willing sampler of anything sweet so there are no complaints from his department. Recipe and pictures to come
Winter has well and truly arrived
Today is one of those amazingly beautiful winter days, actually its been like this all week. Freezing at night once the sun goes down and early in the morning, however during the day in the sun, simply stunning and warm. One of the great things about winter is, its our dry season, unlike Auckland where it can be howling a gale and wet, wet, wet, though have to acknowledge that apparently winter is very mild so far in NZ.
The days are getting shorter with the sun rising around 6am but going back down again by 5.30pm so quite short days. The daytime temps are around 22- 23 degrees but oh boy have we had some unseasonally cold nights and early mornings. This morning it was 6 degrees and there is a real chill in the wind.
Al started work at 10am this morning so I decided to send him off with a good bowl of Scottish Oats n Barley. Made this on the stove with milk and brown sugar, yum yum. We then ate outside in the sun and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on our backs. I never thought it could get so cold up here in “Sunny” Queensland and now regret giving away my fur scarves and winter jackets etc. Oh how I love my heated snuggle rug!! I must get Al to take a photo of me snuggled into it.
I do find it much easier to get up here though than I ever did in NZ, think it must be the carpet on the bedroom floor which keeps the room warm. Al moans and groans as I keep the windows open, says he has a howling gale blowing on top of him. I refute this by saying he has an electric blanket, winter doonas and me to keep him warm ha ha, not to mention two rather large cats who all take up space on the bed.
The dry winter weather is drying out all my potted plants which are growing like crazy, but need watering every second day. The pots dry out quite quickly especially being in the sun and with the blustery drying wind, its not been a gale rather a mild wind. Al is going to build a vege patch for us so we can grow potatoes for xmas, tomatoes, capsicums, spinach etc.
Looking forward to homemade pesto
Herbs are a growing
Brownies and fruit cake
I always make sure the biscuit/cake tins are full for Al’s lunch box – as we all know he has a sweet tooth. I have found a very easy recipe for Brownies in my Donna Hay cookbook which Marie gave me for my birthday. Its so simple I don’t think I would bother with any other brownie recipe except maybe Jamies one. Here it is
Cheat Brownies
150gms butter
200gms caster sugar (I’ved reduced this from the original recipe)
75gms (3/4c) cocoa
1tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
75gms (1/2c) plain flour
- Preheat oven to 160(325f)
- Place the butter sugar & cocoa in a pot over low heat & stir until the butter has melted.
- Add the vanilla & eggs , whisking well
- Sift the flour over the mixture and whisk to combine. ( I don’t bother sifting!)
- Spoon into a 20cm cake tin or a lamington tin which is what I use
- Bake for 35 mins or until the centre is just set.
- Cool in tin and cut into squares to serve. Makes 16 or so depending on how big you cut the pieces 🙂
- Grease and line a 20cm cake tin.
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
- Place the butter, tea, sugar and mixed fruit in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 5 minutes.
- Cool for a few minutes.
- Stir in flour and egg.
- Pour into tin and bake for about 80 minutes.
- Cool in the tin.
Good Friday dinner
Yes I know its late getting this post up, however here are the photos from our Easter Friday dinner, all cooked on the BBQ, then finished off with delicious birthday chocolates. We all contributed to the cooking, Al on the barbie and Carol and I in the the steamed brocolli. Cooking on the BBQ is great and we use it a lot. After dinner & a few wines Carol and Al were engrossed in their Ipads, Al looking at motorbike sites and Carol foodie blo
gs.
Easter Madness
Its almost Easter again as we all know and the madness has started. How do we know? Al drives for Tip Top and hot x buns are being baked like there is no tomorrow. As well we know with 13 yrs of Easter in the bakeries, this time of the year is the busiest in the baking industry. Thank goodness we no longer have to do this. The work that goes into Easter is amazing. Al did three trips today to Brendale and he is working tomorrow too. Everyone is on board to make sure the buns are made and are distributed so that we can all enjoy hot x buns over Easter. I know the general public have no idea of what goes into the making of these buns and how busy it is at Easter for bakeries. I am ordering 2 packets from our favourite bakery, Flour, semi sourdough buns full of fruit and spice. Yum yum, Al, Carol and I will enjoy these on Good Friday morning. We are not sure yet if Al is working but at least we can enjoy these first thing and relax. Then its a chill out day, at least for Carol and I. We will be baking a roast lamb and cheesecake for dessert, chocolate of course as its Easter. Happy Easter to all our family and friends. xxx
Work is very busy
I am starting to get more into the swing of what I am doing in my job. I have now been introduced to most of my clients with a few more happening this week. About 50% want a visit fortnightly and 50% wanting a visit monthly, thats only to see the supervisors/managers etc. At most sites I will be visiting the candidates weekly.
I am busy at the moment meeting them all and as you can imagine I have a few to get through. I think there are about 200 at the varying sites for me to manage. As most sites have shifts I can be at each site 3 times a week so that any issues the staff have, pay queries (usually), timesheets, shifts, safety concerns etc all come through me. It is very interesting. 
On Friday I did an risk assessment onsite for one of our employees working in the Trades Sector. Safety is an incredible issue and we focus very heavily on this as part of our point of difference to other labour hire companies. We have pages of things to go through to ensure all our people go home at the end of the day, ensuring all of them wear appropriate PPE (personal protective equipment), steel capped boots, safety glasses, hearing muffs, head gear etc. If people arent then I have to talk to them. I conduct safety observations as part of my weekly site visits. I am the person they come to for any issues they may have. Annually I conduct a full site risk assessment which is very detailed and involved. As you can imagine the learning for this is huge.
Friday afternoon I visited my poultry company a nd met with the supervisor. This company produces 60% of chickens eaten in Australia so its a huge plant. I am yet to go through the processing plant to see what our people do. I can’t imagine working in a chicken factory and think it must be awful. I will do this once and will then base myself outside at shift changes to meet and chat with the staff. We have about 120 people here. On Monday its a full day out West to visit the chicken farms. 6 in total, one an egg collecting farm.
Apparently the chooks run after you as the eggs are being collected so long pants and gumboots are the order of the day, then its to visit a farm with day old chooks, then another farm with 7day old chooks, another farm with 2 week old chooks right up to 4 weeks old. I think this will be the nice part of the job to see the baby chooks. I don’t really want to think about their future though!!
It should be a very interesting day and we expect to take all day doing the rounds. The farms are having trouble getting workers and we have advertised for weeks trying to find the right people. Anyone who has chickens, birds etc cannot work here and as its a long way out of Brisbane we are particularly looking for workers close by, trouble is most people who live in the country have chickens themselves. Not an easy task to find people to work here.
Brisbane Time
Life in Queensland 