Strathfield Food Festival 2016

Sunday 30 October

Walked down to Strathfield with Janet to check out the food festival. [Lily and Kaylene were in Japan]

Got there to see Geoff Janz do a cooking demo with his son, Harry.  Bought a sugar cane lime juice and front seat viewing. Janet went shopping at Woollies while I sat and watched.

Mare turned up towards the end of the demo with Juliette in tow.

Sat and talked a bit, before we went to check out the food stalls and then they headed off to catch a bus back home.  Janet also left to go home with her shopping.

I checked out the food stalls again, before buying takoyaki octopus balls and another sugar cane lime juice before heading home.

Burwood Festival 2016

Sunday 16 October

Mare dropped by in the morning to pick up 2 wedding cards and gave both Lily and I a lift to the festival. She drove closer to Burwood Park and parked like one street away.  We would have walked, but since she was going we went with her.

Same stuff, vintage cars, carnival rides for the kids, lots of food trucks, face painting.  Mare's cousin was also at the festival so she was trying to meet up with her. Found out from her that Chemist Warehouse were giving away stuff for a gold coin, so we head to their stall.  On the way, collected free pens and bags from Burwood RSL and colouring pencils from Burwood Plaza. A lot more free give-a-ways than at the Eastwood festival and no long queues either. I also bought a red necklace for $25.

Lily and Mare each bought a sausage sizzle from the Lions club and I got Takoyaki octopus balls as well as sugar cane juice.

Then Mare had to rush off to a wedding, so Lily and I continued looping around the stands giving away free bags. Then went to Westfields as I had a voucher I had to use up.

Ended up buying a handheld clothes steamer at K-mart and a  denim top using the $50 voucher card that Fiona gave me for my birthday.

Taronga Zoo Centenary Parade

Sat 15 October

Our 100 Year Birthday Parade is set to light up Macquarie Street tonight! Come along for a night of song, dance and celebration or tune in on Facebook where we'll be broadcasting the parade LIVE just after 8pm. 

So Evan and I had an early dinner at Hiroba in Strathfield, before we caught the train out to Wynyard and walked to the hill overlooking the Opera House to stake out a spot.  Walking up Macquarie Street, they were just about to block off traffic, and there were a lot of spots to choose from, but we kept walking.

The spot we chose was overlooking the Opera House and you could just see the stage.  Rove and performers from the Sydney Schools Spectacular took to the stage as the animals paraded in to the Opera House forecourt.  This area was all fenced off and only VIPs and public who had won tickets to enter were allowed in.

Ten floats in total were in the parade and they had been used in the Vivid festival in June. Time to get a new camera. Think Evan's photos are better.

Granny Smith Festival 2016

Sat 15 October

Lily, Janet and I trained it to Eastwood to check out the Granny Smith Festival.  I had volunteered to help Casey and Shirley with their Aussie Bricks (Lego) stall and was given the time of 11am to 1pm.

So  we arrived and managed to bump into Jenly pretty quickly. Gave her back her usb with photos and then left them to go help out. I had a quick look of some stalls as I went in search of Casey's stall.

Found their stall and was given my Lego t-shirt uniform. Pretty busy with kids always stopping to look and play.

Left them just after 1pm to go have lunch with Lily and Janet at a Chinese restaurant, Ginger and Shallot. Ordered the set for 3, Congee, fried bread stick and noodles with shredded pork for $29.80.

After checking out some of the stalls while Lily and Janet went grocery shopping, we headed home.

Bindy's 42nd Birthday

Sunday 9th October

Birthday lunch at beaconsfield, chatswood this Sunday. Menu - slow cooked roast lamb leg and porchetta, potato bake and veggies. Pls rsvp.

I made the potato bake as well as the birthday cake.  Janet was suppose to make the potato bake, but she had par cooked the potatoes on Saturday night, Sunday morning, I had a hard time trying to slice them up, so I turned that dish into a potato salad. Instead I peeled and sliced 8 kestrel potatoes which just fit the small baking dish. Combined 600ml cream with the french onion soup mix and 1/3 cup of milk. Sliced 1 onion and lined the baking dish with the potatoes and onion slices vertically, then poured the mix over and through the entire dish. Covered dish with foil. Baked at 180C for 50min. Then uncovered the potatoes and baked for another 30mins. In the last 15 mins, I sprinkled grated tasty cheese over the top. Turned out pretty good.

As for the birthday cake. I started making this on Thursday night. I baked 4 mini and 1 medium Japanese cotton cheesecake pans. The 4 minis were ok. The medium was a bit flat, but I think that's because I used most of the mix in the 4 minis. I just used the ingredients for a large cake.

Then on Friday night I made the no bake cheesecake mixture, but combined it with melted 100ml chocolate, so that it was a chocolate cheesecake. Use the 2 cheesecake tins, and made the larger one first with the biscuit base, then spread some cheesecake mixture on the bottom, then put the baked Japanese cheesecake into the centre and piped the rest of the cheesecake mix around and on top. The top layer was just covering the baked cheesecake. With the rest of the mix I filled the smaller cheesecake tin, and cut up the smaller baked cheesecakes, but didn't have enough cheesecake mix, so I made a batch of chocolate mousse to fill up the spaces. Then I had left over choc mousse, so I filled up small cups.

Then on Saturday night I made the tiramisu/marscapone cream (using cream, icing sugar, marscapone, and egg recipe) and piped the words "Happy Birthday Bindy" on the cake and also piped the top. I left the cream in the fridge overnight thinking it would harden, but it didn't so when I piped the bottom of the cake, the cream was a bit more runnier (next time I should just use the cream with marscapone - leave out the egg). Then because I had left over cream, I made a tiramisu. Too many desserts now.

Anyway, the cake just survived the trip to Beaconsfield. It had slid on the cardboard, even though I had put some cream on the base. So that one side was smooshed, but not too badly.

Bindy had roasted a leg of lamb and a side of pork. She had also made a sweet potato, kale, quinoa salad, tzatziki.  A. Cath had made taro cake. Then they stir fried some beans and asparagus.

Kenny contributed to dessert with mini choc cupcakes with cookies and cream icing.

 The cake and mini cupcakes were supplemented with watermelon and pineapple.

 And the cake turned out better than I had expected. just the right amount of layers. Could have been store bought.

After the cake cutting, we didn't stay for dinner, so we left and went home to have another roast dinner with the potato salad.

Lily's 58th Birthday

Sun 2 October

A reason to celebrate this long weekend.

NRL grand final plus It's MY birthday so pop over on Sunday for lunch and dinner.

Weather predicted a warm 27deg day so....
Lunch - summer rolls
Dinner - BBQ

Let's hope everyone is well and can celebrate 🎉🎉 on Sunday and don't forget to put your 🕑 forward before you go to sleep Saturday night.

(Must get here early for carpark spots before footy starts at Homebush).

I made a Japanese cotton cheesecake for her birthday.  The weekend before I trialled one and it turned out to perfection, so on Saturday I made another one, but somehow the water had seeped into the foil and the bottom of the cake got water logged, but it still looked ok. So on Sunday morning, I baked another cake. Third times the charm??? Unfortunately not. Looks like the more I baked them, the more they failed.  Oh well. So we had one for afternoon tea and we had the other for dessert/birthday cake after dinner.

Janet had decided to heat the coals and use the trolley bbq.  Unfortunately not the right choice for the lamb chops, bulgogi, sausages and salmon that Lily had bought.  We did use it however to cook the skewered chicken livers Bindy supplied.  Bindy also supplied 2 dozen oysters which she shucked.

Anyway, so we had the summer rolls for lunch which was nice and light.

Put up the shelter and set out the chairs for some light snacking and drinks outside as it was nice and warm - too warm, but so good.

Then afternoon tea with pre birthday cake. Fiona had decorated her card to Lily with lots of smiley face stickers.

Then dinner - so much food. 

Fiona got tired and left to go to bed after dinner. Couldn't even stick around for cake. She must have been up all night. 

So our first bbq of the summer for this year.  Mark cooked the lamb chops, sausages and bulgogi - overcooked. Lucky I decided to cook the salmon in a fry pan otherwise they would also have been overcooked. Janet made a paw paw salad. I made a potato salad and garden salad. 

And while all this was going on, the Sharks (Cronulla) won the grand final - the first time in 50 years. The day before the Swans were in the AFL finals - but they lost. I had decorated the house in red and white, but changed it on Sunday to Blue, white and black. Woo hoo.