Indoor Picnic

Well, tonight we were heading out to Moonlight Cinema to catch some Sherlock Holmes action and have some quality girls' night out with a nice picnic hamper planned... but whaddya know... Mother Nature threatened to spoil the night with some heavy rain and storms so at the last minute we bailed on the movie and decided to do the picnic at home instead, in the safe undercover and warmth of the house...

Turned out quite nice. I think this is how we should eat dinner EVERY NIGHT!
What do you think girls?

So what have we here?
A few sliced figs, sliced pears, gruyere, smoked trout pate (although delish, I wouldn't call this a "Pate" it was more like a smoked trout dip...)

Pont L'eveque washed rind, and a cheddar (name and source forgotten, sorry)

And here's the entire spread!
There's the 2 platters of cheeses and fruit, but also we had a lovely olive oil, very fruity!
There was a spinach dip, a smoked salmon dip and a beetroot dip (oh, this one didn't make it into this pic yet...)
Some beautiful artisan bread from Brasserie Bakery (soy and quinoa and a sourdough)
I reckon this was some of the best bread I've had in Melbourne! That sourdough was bloody awesome.

Oh hello there BEETROOT! (delicious beetroot dip, very garlicky and yum)

And music to accompany the lovely company

Spinach & Ricotta Filo Triangles with Cauli Salad

The pastries we prepared last night... the filo pastry was a bit fidly to play around with, and as much as I love eating this, it's probably not one I'd be eager to replicate very often... it just takes too much time for too little return.

Just to lighten up the meal a little bit, I decided to try a cauliflower salad, instead of the usual ways we tend to cook cauli.

So friggin tasty it was!

But talk about a photogenic dish... this probably topped last night's dish by a length :)

Cauli salad: contains sliced spring onions, chilli flakes, garlic chips, apple cider vinaigrette

Baked Honey Mustard Chicken with Pasta

When done right, a baked chicken breast is moist, tender and full of flavour and not dry at all. This is one of my favourite ways to cook a chicken breast!

We threw in a few colourful touches like roasted capsicum and corn kernels to make the dish one of the most photogenic ones. Just because it's simple doesn't mean it shouldn't look good too ;)

Stir Fried Beef, Roasted Parsnip & Mushrooms with Coconut Rice

A bit of a weird combo, but sometimes this is what we feel like... besides, we have a lot of coconut milk to use.

Sliced Beef, Roasted Vegies and Sesame Sauce

This is what we call an ad-hoc dinner...

Ask a question: "what do we have to eat?"
Answer: "hmm... *scratches head*... not much really"

Miso Salmon & Bacon-Pancetta Dates

How many times have we had salmon done this way over the past month? Lol, well if you're onto a good thing, you gotta keep it going.

Oh but before we had dinner, we had a little appetizer....

Bacon wrapped dates and pancetta wrapped dates.

Sweet, salty, fatty, smoky.. what's not to like?

Permission to make drooling noises now.

Miso marinated salmon and capsicum salsa

Yup, it's capsicum not tomato... just thought we'd mix it up a bit, ya know ;)

Quinoa with Squid Stock

We just had to use up all that good squidy stocky goodness, so here is something whipped up on a spur..

So what's in it?
I'm not really sure... but I'll hazard a good guess: quinoa, squid stock, squid pieces, zucchini and herbs...

Stuffed Squid, Grapefruit Salad, Ice Cream & Figs

I have no words for this. All the best adjectives in the world cannot describe how yummy this was.....

So, this is of course... squid... stuffed... and even though we've been having a lot of tomato salsa lately, this is not that. This is actually tomatoes roasted with the squid so it has absorbed ALL the squidy flavours and is just to die for.

Grapefruit and herbs with a sweet balsamic dressing

And TADAH!
The proof.
Full of herby stuffing goodness

And this was baked for lunch the next day.
Eggplant parma. Looks good eh?

Ice cream with fresh berries and figs
To be precise, its Cafe Grande with fresh berries and figs

Thit Kho, Mushroom XO Sauce Beans & Tofu

A wonderful Vietnamese dish that will be difficult to find in restaurants. I believe you will pretty much only find this in Vietnamese households (or at the House of Awesome Food ;)

Thit kho is a braised pork dish in a brown sugary sauce and eggs. DEEEEE-LISH!

Garlic chips. You gotta do it.
It's awesome.

Pork belly, eggs, sugar, coconut water. Simple as that.
That brown colouring is just perfection embodied in all the unhealthiness of cholesterol. AWESOME

We served it up with beans stir fried with mushroom XO sauce.

And the meal is not complete without rice and garlicy tofu.
Drizzling of the syrupy sauce over the rice and egg is mandatory.
OH GOODNESS, it is just PURE FATTY SUGARY GOODNESS

Hehehehe
Pumpkin Lovers