Once again another year is over.  I am not sure exactly how time got eaten up so quickly.  Yet here I am at the face of a new year, not knowing what are my plans and goals.  Evaluating life seems quite hard, I guess looking over last year it may be hard to beat!

So what did happen last year(2011)?  Well in the lives of Roy and I, first we rocked out the new year in mud at Woodford folk festival.  It is like a tradition, yes we did end it there too.  After a week being back home in Brisbane the rain did not let up and yes the qld floods were on our doorstep.  Surviving a week with no power, limited supplies and listening to a quite city while trying to get sleep. A very surreal experience.  Everyday we were helping someone, move in or out of homes, scrubbing, pushing and hosing mud.  We were lucky it did not hit our home.

It was wedding time in April, Roy and I had decided we would get married before we travelled the world.  Why not?  But first, our flatmate Paul was getting married to Suesue.  We flew down to Melbourne to eat dumplings and of course attended a beautiful wedding.  Paul and Suesue’s big day was so fantastic, the memories of the tram ride, ohhh.  The night before our friend Gemma had her book launch for her project Red Light Dark Room.  I love Melbourne, I love that the crew flew down to have a jolly weekend in another city.

Then it was Easter time which meant that the Blues Fest was coming up.  Another festival on the cards each year.  For some reason we did not take any photos.  Or write about it last year.  ODD?  Well it was our wedding in 5 days, so I think our focus might have been on something else.

Our wedding, well I guess we did it in style.  All of our dearest friends and family all camping under the stars for a long weekend out in the bush.  Nothing like rolling around in a paddock!  A pig on the spit to feed the ravenous up.  A sunset like no others and a hoedown that I will never forget.  My day was special, and the weekend was just the best time ever.  If I could do it all again I would.  We were so lucky that we had everyone come to our special day, people traveled long and far.  Take a look at these brilliant photos done by Gemma of our weekend.  It still brings a tear to my eye, I love that man! Roy that is.

Well we were packed up and ready to go before the wedding.  We had given and sold most of our belongings.  With only a few things to keep, obviously the car.  I really need to find a photo of it.  It was now time to pack our tiny backpacks to take on the world.  Our packing list was somewhat an ordeal of what to take and what not to take.  I think we could even make it smaller again next time.

So it was time for us to take on the world.  Japan, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.  We traveled for just over 3months.  Our highlights of Asia are found on flickr or take a look at our travel page.  Eating our way through Asia was a fun task, I would love to go back to China, maybe this year?

Roy was back to work in PNG and me well I decided on living some where new.  Maleny was my pick, we have a great view from our verandah of the glass house mountains.  After searching for work I am now a Chef(please do take note of the capital it makes me feel important) at a health retreat in Reeseville.  I also write recipes for the local paper each week, check out the Range News.

Christmas was at our house this year, us the newlyweds. Our families arrived on Christmas eve for our big dinner.  I cooked a turkey.  I had never cooked one before.  Below are a few photos of our Christmas feast with our family.

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So what is 2012 going to be?  Maybe it will be a nice and relaxing year.  After the last one being so eventful.

Australia day is all about gathering together in someone’s backyard and having a beer and a barbecue. While the men tell tall tales over the flames the ladies are fussing over salads.  This recipe for chimichuri is an all-rounder, place it over your steak and drizzle it over your salad.

Chimichuri is something that Roy and I love, tasting it first in Argentina.  We have since recreated the  recipe to how we think we remember it.  It is now apart of our barbecue tradition.  I can’t live with out it, especially as a salad dressing then sopping the left over juice with a bit of a baguette.  YUM.

Working at crossing off all the culinary treasures Georgetown possesses, it was time to move onto the serious food.

Everybody knows laksa in Australia as a spicy coconut noodle soup. Somewhere in south east asia I am sure they do something like this. But not in Penang.

Venturing out to find a street stall that was recommended to us, we came to the corner to find a man working away getting ready for the afternoon rush.

Look at the price, a whole dollar.

What came to our table did not look entirely enticing at first glance, thick and dark.

But the flavour was superb, actually very subtle and light.

Liz was not game enough to get a bowl, so settled for a strange green drink, which she liked and I was not to sure about.

As you can see, there is nothing coconuty about what was served.  Which is more than fine with me, as I find most coconut dishes to be overly rich and lacking the subtlety I love in most Asian food.

This was just a fantastic thick fish stock, with a few noodles, greens, chilli and garnish thrown in. An absolute masterpiece.

The masters workshop was a work of art in itself.

Ahh, Georgetown, we love you.

Our time in Georgetown was coming to an end. But we still had a list of food we wanted to try that just kept getting longer no matter how much hard work we put into eating five or six meals a day.

Oh well! May as well keep trying.

Tandoori and Nann bread was something we had been saving. In retrospect that was a good and bad thing, because if we had gone earlier in our stay we would have been back every day, to the detriment of our food wishlist.

This was fantastic.

Spicy, smoky, sweet and tangy.

The nann was also extremely tasty and the watery dahl was a perfect match. 

The other sauces and extras just topped it all off.

And I even got myself a mango lassi.

With our time running out we had just one major, and most important dish to try in Georgetown. Can you guess what it might be?

This recipe is one for all the young bakers out there.  My grandma gave this recipe to me when I was about ten and I still make it now. Quick and easy, throw the ingredients in a bowl and mix and into the oven. It is moist and light and goes great with a cup of milk for morning tea.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 2 eggs

1.  Preheat your oven to 180.  Place the butter into a saucepan on a low heat until it melts. Grease a 20 x 20cm cake tin with butter and then dust with flour.  You could also just use baking paper.

2.  Sift flour and cocoa powder in to a mixing bowl.  Add the sugar, milk, eggs and butter and give it a good stir.  Making sure there are no lumps in the mixture.

3.  Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 30-40min.  The cake will be ready if it bounces back by touch.

4.  Ice the cake with a mixture of 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tbsp of cocoa powder, 1 tsp of butter and a splash of hot water to combine.  Mix it to the desired consistency and spread over the top of the cake.  You can then sprinkle hundreds and thousands on top, or simply coconut for decoration.

As the new year is upon us, with many bbq’s to attend.  A punch can be made up to suit everyone’s tastes.  A festive drink should be colourful and pack a little punch.  Make your own fruity experiment.  Have a happy new year.

Sangria

• 2 bottles red wine
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup soda water
• splash of brandy
• 3 tbsp sugar
• Fruit diced – orange,apple peach,apricot, lemon and cherries

Combine the fruit in a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the sugar over.  Get a potato masher and give it a little mush. Cover with wine, juice and soda.  When adding the brandy a small splash is fine 1 – 2 shots. Feel free to add more. You can also substitute the fruit to make your own flavours – by adding lots of stone fruit which is in season.

This jelly goes great with your Christmas turkey.  I like to pair it with brie, turkey and rocket on a sandwich an easy way to use up any left overs. Or simply add it to your Christmas hampers. Hope you all have a happy and safe festive season

Cranberry, Rosemary and Wine Jelly

• 170 gm Dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup of white wine
• 2/3 cup sugar
• small cinnamon quill
• 1/4 tsp grated ginger

1. Bring all the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Turn down and allow to simmer for 7 – 10 min.
2. Remove the cinnamon quill and blend half the mixture, combine together with the rest.
3. Store them in sterilised jars.
4. This will keep for up to 3 months in the fridge once open.

Sashimi, again. I know.  It seems since coming back from Japan, everything is turning into a Japanese restaurant.  I am not complaining.  Roy is still amazed that I eat raw fish.

With another adventure to Brisbane, I saw this place, I think it is called Kimono and thought we should try it before going out on a big night drinking.  It is in near the bus and train stations and West End, on Melbourne street.

Greeted at the door in Japanese, we plonked ourselves in front of the sushi train.  We were not here for sushi, instead ordering a plate of sashimi.  However a seared salmon sushi past me and i could not let it go.  My favourite.

All the fish was pretty fresh, only the tuna was a bit of a let down, still thawing out.  No one likes ice particles dissolving on your tongue when you are not expecting it.

Would we eat here again?  Well yes, Japanese in West End.  Just got to try the new Korean place round the corner.

What to do when the fishball soup shop is shut?

Well, if your a Liz, you find a pork replacement.

Georgetown has an immense choice of dining options, but we were a little mystified at the hours that these options were open. We generally got hungry around about 11am, after the roti had worn off. But 11am is not an eating time apparently, the morning places are closed and the lunch and evening places aren’t open yet. Even the Prawn Mee and Pork & Rice we got was from shops that were just setting up and preping their stalls.

So even with the abundance of food, we could always do with an extra meal being added to the Malaysian day, early lunch.