White Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread

My Banana Bread Bake-Off Entry for notquitenigella.com !!
Slideshow of photographs (about one and a half minutes).



I was quite pleased that I only had to make two loaves of banana bread to get this recipe exactly how I wanted it. The first loaf was baked on Anzac Day when my inlaws visited. It was an afternoon tea hit, but I knew the recipe could do with minor tweakings. I then had to go to 5 different places to buy Lindt white 'Lindor' chocolate. Initially I desperately wanted to use white Lindor balls.. but they were even harder to come by (and I didn't want to pay $11 for a casket of assorted balls). It wasn't so long ago (Easter in fact) when Lindor balls of all chocolate hues and quantities were readily available everywhere. But now, my town seems to have a skeleton supply. Myer department store came to the rescue in the end, not with the balls, but with white Lindor chocolate squares. My first loaf was made with a Milky Bar being my hubby's 2nd favourite white chocolate. But I knew I wouldn't be happy unless it was made with Lindt, our favourite.

As sweet and as rich as this recipe may sound, it isn't. All of my banana bread guinea pigs concurred that this was a well balanced loaf with just the right amount of moisture, banana's & sugar (for our tastes anyway). Of paramount importance to me was that it had to be lovely and moist, no ifs or buts.

No electric mixing equipment was used either. All you need, aside from the ingredients are bowls, spoons, a fork (to cream the butter and sugar) and a loaf tin. I've never entered a cooking or baking competition before and I've muchly enjoyed my first one. This was fun! And I love food photography.

White Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread

*1/2 cup butter (or reduced fat margarine), room temperature

*1 cup white sugar
*12 squares of White Lindor "Lindt" Chocolate (about 70 grams or roughly 2.5oz)
*3 large eggs, room temperature
*2 tsp syrupy vanilla extract (not essence)
*3 ripe, medium bananas, mashed (about 1.5 cups)
*2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
*1 tsp baking powder
*1 tsp baking soda (bicarb soda)
*1/2 tsp salt
*1 cup sour cream (low fat is fine)
*1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
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Preheat your oven to 180C (or 350F). Lightly grease and flour a loaf baking tin. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in the eggs one by one (using a wooden spoon), waiting until each has been incorporated to add the next. Beat in vanilla extract and mashed bananas. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mix and stir to combine. Add in the sour cream, followed by the remaining flour mixture. Remove 1 cup of batter into a small bowl and stir in well the cocoa powder. Pour 2/3 of the plain batter into the prepared loaf tin, top with cocoa batter and spoon the rest of the plain batter on top. Swirl a knife or chopstick through the batter gently (this will help create the marble effect in the centre of the banana bread). Add the white chocolate squares, 6 rows of 2, push the chocolate in just beneath the surface of the cake batter. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the the top springs back when pressed lightly. Leave the banana bread in a place to cool for half an hour before removing from the tin. Serve plain, or dusted with icing sugar (powdered sugar). Slices better when completely cool, though delicious eaten warm, especially with homemade custard.

Snacks, Procedures & Confessions

Have you (blog readers from Australia) noticed these new Vita-Weat snacks? This photo was taken with my camera before it broke (I have some archive photo's I haven't used.. so in the absence of my camera.. I'll be digging them out.... sniffle....).

I think these Vita-Weat triangles are tastier than actually munching on plain Vita-Weat crackers. Eg. the Cracked Pepper variety lists garlic as an ingredient. My favourite one of the range is "Sea Salt" but it's not necessarily saltier than the other varieties.. I just like the flavour the best. I've also tried Tomato Linseed.. Sesame and the pictured Cracked Pepper (which takes 2nd place for me). As far as Weight Watchers POINTS values go.. from memory they were 1.5 points for around 16 biscuits - oh and they cost around $2.50 a box.

Now.. onto a more personal update:

Yesterday as we were driving the 45min's to the endoscopy centre (out of town) I had a "lamb to the slaughter" feeling.. but it was underlying..and I was for the most part.. in good spirits and feeling good physically too. Any kind of medical test is scary... I think anyway. Especially when our local papers regularly feature young people (mothers in their 20's and 30's with kids.. or a newly married man.. or children) - all with cancer. They feature them, the community reads about them and then reach out by sending cheques to the newspaper or a local butcher will drop off $200 worth of meat for the afflicted families.. that sort of thing. People with terminal illnesses feature most predominantly on our local front pages.. and it traumatises me a bit.

Someone I spoke to on Monday told me that I have a stronger sense of my own mortality because I lost my mother when I was 15 and I had two younger sisters. And now.. my own girl is turning 13 - and I've been suffering with all sorts of illnesses popping up here and there. I'm more inclined to worry than maybe others? I have to be mindful to at least try and not have this mindset because even the Bible talks about how being in a state of fear can attract the very thing that we fear. Job 3:25

My appointment was at 9am. I was "called in" about an hour after my arrival, into a small room with a desk, old magazines (including a Kenwood appliance booklet), a phone and lots of boxes of latex gloves on the wall "tissue box-dispenser-style". I waited in this small, windowless room another 40 minutes. During that 40 minutes a gowned-up nurse came in, asked me some questions and asked if I'd considered having lap-band surgery (when I touched upon the subject of weight struggles). The surgeon I was seeing looks at tummy's, bottoms, removes gallbladders and performs lap band surgeries. My female anaesthetist was next to see me.. and she was lovely enough too. 40-ish.. curly, shoulder-length hair and probably my weight? Last and least of them all was the surgeon who I didn't like much. It was like (with his questioning) I had to convince him of my symptoms, like I had to prove it to him otherwise I might be deluded and he could be wasting his time. It was as if I had shown up without a GP referral or something. I'm beginning to suspect a common affliction among 50% or more of all specialists out there.. it's called "I'm-better-than-you-head-up-my-arse-syndrome". I also felt rushed.

Eventually I was led to what looked like a huge dental surgery or a white operating theatre of sorts. I was asked to lie on a padded table, then I was covered nice and cosily with a blanky from chest down. After about 5 minutes the anaesthetist inserted a cannula in the top of my right hand..(like a needle & tube that sits there in your skin as a temporary fixture ready to accept drugs) and into that eventually the clear fluid that "put me to sleep". I was told I had good veins and coming from her I felt like she'd told me I looked skinny. I've had several endoscopy's before (the last one being in 2003 where I asked for no sedation at all --that's another story).

This experience was by far the easiest/most peaceful I've had out of all my anaesthetised endoscopies. The drug they're supposed to give you apparantly doesn't make you sleep as such but instead makes you forget everything. With previous endoscopy's my throat has been sprayed with horrible tasting throat numbing stuff first. And then they've sedated me. I've also remembered gagging when having to swallow their tube (complete with camera). This time around I must have been treated with throat spray while I was 'out'. I remember lying there waiting for the medicine to make me drowsy. Then I woke up with a male voice saying "Maria, have you ever had problems with low blood pressure before?" I hadn't.. and he said that it was probably the effect of the anaesthesia. Upon taking my blood pressure again, he said it was going up.. so all was well. This was a man I'd not seen before.. fully gowned.. younger than my surgeon.. a nurse?

I sat up for a little bit.. and after a while was escorted off the bed over to a recliner chair with another blanky where I spent about 30 to 40min's. I felt really good relaxing in the chair.. not overly drowsy.. but I had a lovely sense of peace and strangely, happiness. My uptempo, placid mood extended to recovery room outreach. I asked another woman several feet away, in her own recliner.. "How are you feeling"? She seemed to be uncomfortable/in pain.. and puzzled by my question. Probably thinking "who are you?" She said "fine thanks" (no smile) and turned away. She'd been escorted to her chair in a hospital gown (whereas I was always in my own clothes) so I'm guessing she had a colonoscopy and was uncomfortably bloated (with air that they hope you will fart-out there in the recovery room.. My friends Mum has had a colonoscopy and she's told me about it). I said to hubby later I'd like sedation every day if I felt like that afterwards. They made me a cup of tea and I was given some cheese/crackers and a shortbread bikkie with some sort of lemon filling.

When initally making my endoscopy appointment a couple of weeks ago I was told I'd be ready around 1pm.. but it wasn't even 12noon yet and hubby was given a phone call to say I was ready for collection. Being 45min's from home (with traffic) he had things planned like doing a few jobs on the car (parked on the premises)..and he also visited a local Spotlight store to buy some craft wire he needed? He had the Nintendo DS with him and a puzzle book..and I think he didn't even get to complete his brain training. He'd only managed the Spotlight visit. I was out quicker than expected.

I have an appointment with my GP early next week re: the results but I already know roughly what the situation is through words from a nurse and the surgeon..and it will require some surgery. Nothing sinister.. but I will need it if I want my quality of life improved.

Anyway, I'll finish this post with a tag from Tiffany.. 5 confessions.. things about myself.

Time to fess up 5 things about yourself, what you've done this week, month, year or your whole life.. and then tag a few friends! I tag anyone who wants to do this.

1. I often get DVD rental fines for late returns. I use coupons to get discount rentals..but I lose out when I pay extra money for these fines.

2. If ever I'm out in public.. out in town.. at a shopping mall.. and there are people standing around with clipboards and/or badges (sometimes with tables set up.. sometimes not)..and they are trying to catch someone's gaze and stop them to ask questions.. I avoid them like the plague. Our city is full of clipboard people who want to talk to me and/or ask me questions and/or give them money and I just hate it. Even if it's a noble cause.. like Greenpeace or World Vision.. charities.. my feelings are the same. Sometimes it's Foxtel.. or other businesses wanting your business. I just hate being pulled over "cold call" style. I don't want to stop and talk to these strangers. I even struggle to get food samples in a supermarket because the person promoting the yoghurt or whatever it is will go on and on. Today I asked a taste-test-lady 3 times if I could try the "women only" yoghurt she was promoting..(not for kids she told me.. and so I wondered if there was vodka in it or something). I asked to try the fig and honey..and she didn't give me any. She was still trying to convince another lady to buy the product. I stood there shuffling my feet for several minutes no exaggeration (wondering if I should spoon the yoghurt out myself into a plastic taste-test mini-dish). I didnt get my fig and honey sample.. so I walked away.. cross at myself for stopping in the first place...but also with the fleeting thought that I should report the lady to the yoghurt company who hired her.

3. I don't believe in revenge. I think it doesn't pay to resort to revenge and payback.. which is a biblical principle. God says he is our avenger. However.. there is one 'senior' lady, one of my neighbours who has been blatantly rude/annoying/vindictive towards me..and I fantasize about going out in the morning, grabbing her newspaper that wakes me up when it gets thrown outside of my window..and throwing it out onto the road. Also I want to block her car with mine because she makes it near impossible for me to park in my own carport because of where she leaves her Hyundai (not in her carport)..and her visitors illegally park and block me too. I have to keep reminding myself I've had much worse neighbours and have lived in fear before.. so this one I should leave in God's hands.

4. If anyone comes to visit me, I like notice. I don't like "drop-ins" or those kind of surprises. It took about a year for my husband to get used to this trait in me which he found affronting. He was used to friends dropping in whenever. Minimum notice (assuming I'm home, doing nothing) is 2 hours. It's like an unspoken rule I have. I also don't like anyone showing up early either because I'm never usually early myself. I don't shove this info down other people's throats. They're my personal preferences. If anyone has ever showed up early.. they may see how flustered and stressed I am... and might notice what it does to me.

5. So many people I know wash their dishes in soapy water and then put them like that on a dish rack to dry.. or they're dried with a tea towel immediately (which I never do). I always rinse my dishes, so they go from soapy water to clean water so no bubbles or soapy water are left on the dishes. I rinse dry dishes my husband has washed before I use them because I don't want dishwashing liquid and dirty water residue in my food.. as he is a 1 stage soapy water person too. I know this might sound very un-green of me..not conserving water.. but that's just how I do it.

I hope I haven't shocked or disgusted anyone with my list of things! Thanks for reading this far! :-)

Oy, vintage cutlery again..and the cause-du-jour

This is the April/May 2008 issue of "donna hay" magazine. My first ever! An indulgence for me personally at $7.95 but the clincher was the free notebook it came with called "note to self". It has lovely stripes of (whose?) signature duck egg blue and white (like in the magazine border above) with some elastic around the middle to keep it shut. I like elastic around notebooks. This one keeps the matching pencil in place. The inscription inside reads "A little book for life, love, adventure and the everyday". On the magazine website, a basic magnetic shopping list goes for around $13, so I think the magazine has paid for itself.

I'm yet to make a Donna Hay recipe! They seem to have a "comfort food" feel about them no matter what the season. (Read: butter, oil, cream, sugar, pastry). But I have to say I've been kind-of put off by the realisation that the magazine seems to blatantly borrow from Vogue Entertaining + Travel, Gourmet Traveller, "O" the Oprah magazine and Nigella Lawson's signature duck egg blue. There is also (yawn) more than the lion's share of worn-in food styling trends, like the blackened kitchenalia.. vintage (and blackened) graters, ladels, pots, cutlery and cake cooling racks. And it just seems that whenever I see a Donna Hay recipe.. usually syndicated somewhere in a newspaper or magazine, parsnips, carrots, pumpkins and "mash" are not too far away. This was confirmed to me in the current issue. Here's an inventory:

Maple syrup roasted carrots
Pumpkin and maple soup
Chicken with parsnips and carrots
Crispy skin chicken with roasted garlic, parsnip and potato mash
Food Suggestion: Swirl roasted garlic through mashed pumpkin
Maple and Thyme roasted pumpkin
Roasted vegetable and beetroot salad (has 500g of baby carrots)
Pumpkin pies
Parmesan lentil mash with lamb
Potato pot pies (involves making a potato mash)
Spinach soup with creamy mustard mash

The last page photo/feature is "Oprah magazine x 2" (being that Donna leaves us with parting words like Oprah does at the end of her magazine and this one is actually called "Things I Love" another "O" -ism). The photo beside "Things I Love" is a box of vegies including parsnips. But wait, there's more!

Other typical "Donna Hay" food-styling hallmarks are: (with current issue 'tally')

Cake cooling racks 5 photo's

Baking/Kitchen paper (under and around food) 17 photo's

Cooked food presented in the dish it was cooked/baked in - 19 photo's (helps 'the look' if there's spillage of juices/sauces.. in fact I have such a photo [slaps self on the wrist]- see the Chicken and Vegie pies photo's a few posts down.. doh!)

Use of a tea towel in a photo (usually under a plate or bowl) a whopping, try-something-new 28 photo's!

Otherwise the magazine is pleasant enough to look at. I just feel like I'm looking at a mish-mash of other 'Foodie Greats' with not much originality.. if you know what I mean? I'll let you know what the food is like when I try one of the recipes. If any of you have tried a 'Donna Hay'.. let me know!

I've been meaning to share! Last Friday, April 11, I had a lovely, busy day and evening (it was the day of the stationery party too). Hubby and I went to Melbourne to see U2-3D. It was fantastic!! In fact, if it was showing locally, I'd go again. I did wish it was louder (and verbalised this to hubby) because I was certain it would be much louder in real life. However, at the end.. when the credits and music stopped, in the ensuing silence I realised I had diminished hearing! Hubby said "that's because it was loud"! My hearing returned to normal within the hour ;-) The concert was filmed in Buonos Aires, Argentina.. and was just *spectacular*. It makes me more determined to catch U2 whenever they are in Australia again. I regret missing the "Vertigo" tour nearly a year and a half ago. The photo (above, left) was from Google but I wanted you to see the "Blues Brothers" style glasses we received (ours to keep). They were large and prone to making me giggle every time I looked at my husband. I had my short-sighted glasses on underneath.. so I was a vision of spectacled loveliness too ;-)
How do we go from U2 to muffins? Here's how....

The cinema complex we visited happened to be in a big shopping centre, so we had a browse afterwards and purchased a couple of sweet, Weight Watchers muffins from "Muffin Break". (We'd taken Subway into the theatre for lunch). I was sceptical about my 'healthier muffin' purchase because I'd munched on a "taste test" once (bits of muffin on a plate at our local Muffin Break)..and I didn't like the sample very much. I think that muffin was a dense, bran concoction. All the muffins at MB looked fantastic (the Weight Watchers muffins perhaps the least appealing).. however we wanted to keep check of our energy intake. Not to the point of sharing a muffin though :-P Hubby chose an Apple Raspberry Muffin, 3 WW points, 220 calories, 1.8grams of fibre. I chose a Peach Cinnamon Muffin, 3.5 WW points, 228 calories, 1.7grams of fibre. We tasted each others but liked our own. Yes, I gave the muffin a thumbs-up only to be disappointed later when I learned there was artificial sweetener (Sorbitol) in it because I avoid it as a rule. And just incase you were wondering how the other MB muffins fared against the WW muffins... Muffin Break slots their muffins into "healthy sounding" categories. Tsk! Tsk! I'm here to give you some "Muffin Awareness".

In fact, I've decided to create my own Muffin Awareness Ribbon (there's a ribbon for everything else I figure)... and feel free to put one on the sidebar of your blog. I designed this ribbon with an image of a frosted, caramel muffin (with sprinkles) and an orange, silicon texas-style muffin tin. All on a black ribbon (which goes with everything and is slimming) ;-)

Maria's Muffin Awareness Ribbon:

To earn this ribbon all you have to do is read-on!

There is the "Low Fat" range (like Blueberry, Banana Carrot etc) between 290 and 320 calories per muffin (!!#!pffft!!) and all are 4.5 points and higher in fibre than the WW Muffins.

There is the "Bran" range, like Apple Raisin 605 calories (did I hear screaming?), 9 WW points & 13.1grams of fibre. For the same points in the Bran range you could have Apricot Almond or for half a point less a Banana muffin? So energy dense that it's best to share one with three friends. O_O

Then you have "High Fibre" muffins like Banana & Cream Cheese, 573 calories and 9 points.. or Pineapple/Apricot, 509 calories and 7.5 points. How about a "High Fibre" Brownie Delight Muffin for almost 700 calories - 5.7grams of fibre, but 12 big fat points!

Moving along to more healthy-sounding muffins.. we have the "Soy Linseed" range, like your 8 point Orange Muffin (549 calories & an equally generous 13.4gm of fibre) or your Soy Linseed "Macadamia and Banana", 10 points (646 calories).

Why wasn't there any Muffin category titled "Deluxe Muffins" or "Decadent Muffins".. (which they do look like when you eye-off the range.. with the exception of the bran muffins). Everything was either Weight Watchers, Low Fat, High Fibre, Soy Linseed, Bran or Savoury. Doesn't sound too bad does it?

"Savoury" muffins like Spinach & Feta or Satay Vegetable were close to 400 calories on average and between 5.5 and 6.5 points a muffin. Perhaps a nice lunch idea if you pop one in the microwave and serve it warmed with a salad? In conclusion.. Muffin Break muffins are quite costly (in calories yes, but we also paid nearly $4 for each muffin). I liked my Peach Cinnamon ($3.90) and I guess it would be better than downing a piece of mudcake in a "must have sweets" moment. Anyone trying to lose their last 5 or 10kg's (ie. on a low point allowance) would be better to share a Weight Watchers muffin.

My next post: I've been "tagged"! I have to think of 5 things to tell you about myself!

A Maria Vlog - Part 2

Titled: Trying to be brave Length: 2 Minutes

This includes the last bit of footage I had before I broke my camera... the one that takes all the food photographs.. I'm devestated! It simply fell into the shopping trolley.. but directly on its zoom-lens which was out..and now it won't take photo's or video footage. I do have a basic model video camera though.. (must find it... not sure where I put it). But as for food photographs.. gosh.. (sniffle.. I hate the idea of being without a camera). P.S. Part 1 Vlog underneath this post.

A Maria Vlog

It's been a little while since I've done a vlog. The little You Tube community I belong to has not heard from me as often as my Foodie Wanderings pals have. I haven't made as many video's as I did last year.. and I've really missed it. This video (made today as I was out and about) gives a little smidgeon-of-a-glimpse of where I live too.. so please, if you're a friend (near or far) reading this, accept this as my audio-visual "hello/hug" to you too :-) Length: 3mins 16seconds.

What's cooking now?

Due to our local Westfield's renovations, the food court chairs and tables extend waaay around corners and in front of shops, like Priceline. Which is where we had our Subway anniversary lunch on Monday. Hubby finished first and went over to check out a bin full of boxed gift-set Easter eggs.. all going out for $1 a box. Note, he takes a basket and is leaning over a white 'bin' which in the photo could be mistaken for the floor.Well.. I thought it was the floor and that the bin had disappeared.. It was like a freaky illusion.
He digs deeper. Check-out those electric foot warmer/massagers for around $20. The only white goods item I want to buy for my feet is a wax bath. I want to be able to dip my feet into melted, liquified wax. I've had it done once when I had a pedicure. It leaves them "coated" even after you flake-off the dried-on wax. I wish I knew where I could buy these little baths and the wax that needs to go into them... surely it's not 100% candle wax? My heels are crying out for TLC.. they are unsightly at the moment. I'm guessing big electronic stores like "The Good Guys" would stock them?

I had a craving for mock-crab, ie "seafood highlighter".. but instead of having it in a sub, I had it as a Subway salad for an extra $1.50. I think this whole plate of salad was around $5.50? Its a chunky serving that takes me more than 15min's to eat. If you think your particular Sandwich Artist is a bit lighthanded on any of the ingredients as they assemble your salad, just ask for more! I asked for more lettuce on this one.
You can see my marinara sauce on this one.. and some sweet onion sauce too. That's carrot in the foreground, not cheese.

Hubby has a new love of healthy cooking/eating after trying out some Weight Watchers recipes (courtesy of "moi"). Though cooking isn't his favourite thing, he sings the praises of the Weight Watchers books. Here are his "cook-in-bulk" Chicken and Vegetable pies from the "Extremely Contented Tummy" cookbook. The pies have fennel and leek in them among other things.. and only need a seasoning adjustment I think. They are low in salt.. so I reach for the Maldon when I try recipes like this.

I added a baked potato in its jacket to the meal and a side salad. The leaves are shiny with a lemon juice dressing.. no oil.
It's not often that I'll post a recipe.. often taking it for granted that blog readers would prefer just to look at the pictures. In recent times I've been asked for recipes.. so I may aswell give you the pie recipe incase this one looks like a healthy pie you could see yourself eating one day?

Chicken & Vegetable Pies

From Weight Watchers "the extremely contented tummy cookbook" 2007

5.5 points per serve. Suitable for the Core Plan.

Serves 4. Cooking Time 30min's.

Freezable.

Canola Oil 1tbspn

Leek 1 sliced

Fennel 1 medium bulb thinly sliced

Mushrooms 250grams thinly sliced

Plain Flour 1.5tbspns

Chicken Stock 1 cup (250ml) made using stock cubes (I use Massells powdered stock)

Skim Milk 1 cup (count this towards your weekly points allowance if you're on the Core plan)

Skinless Cooked Chicken 300gm shredded

Baby English Spinach 200gm torn

Pitted green olives in brine 40gm chopped

Frozen reduced-fat puff pastry 1 sheet, thawed

1. Place the oil in a frying pan and heat over medium heat. Add the Leek and Fennel and cook stirring for 3 minutes.. or until softened. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring for two minutes or until softened.

2. Add the flour to the pan, cook stirring for 1 minute. Add the stock and milk. Cook stirring continuously for 2minutes until boiling. Add the chicken. Cook for 2 minutes or until the mixture has reduced and thickened. Stir in the spinach and olives. Spoon into 4 x 1.5cup capacity ovenproof dishes. The recipe states they used large, ovenproof teacups.

3. Cut the pastry into quarters. Lay a piece of pastry over each dish. Trim excess pastry and discard. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve.

Funny how the recipe doesn't ask you to preheat the oven and it doesn't recommend a temperature setting on your oven either. Odd?! Other recipes in the book include the oven temp's!

April 7 - Our Wedding Anniversary

Hubby and I had a posh-ish anniversary dinner three days early seeing as he had a commitment tonight (Monday night). And I was fine with that. I prefer going out on a Friday night as opposed to a Monday night anyway. Re: the restaurant, I pretty much *loved* the service and quiet, dimly-lit atmosphere, but for me, the food wasn't sensational.. though hubby's main was very good. But clumsily served on the wrong kind of china. More on that later! (Hubby and I usually eat half of what we order and swap, but with my temporary limited low-fat palate.. we just 'taste' each others meals these days). So indeed on Friday, I had to eat low fat where I could. "What about those desserts?!" I hear you think!? All in miniature & I merely tasted all of them.. (a daring move admittedly and only undertaken hesitantly for the occasion). And yes, I suffered afterwards with pain/discomfort and a bit of nausea.

There were some things I tasted that night which I spat-out (as gross as that sounds)..but I just wanted a taste without the consequences!! And I was very discreet with the "spitting out".. it was more of a "wipe my face with a napkin".. "oops.. what food?" -kind-of-thing. Seeing as the dessert tasting plate was the most eye-catching I thought I'd start with it here on the blog. As far as a four course meal goes.. I left feeling hungry. I did eat "light" .. that's true.. and hubby did start with the bulk of the carrot and fennel bread with the house Dukkah and dipping oil (whereas I just had a tiny taste of the bread, dry-dipped in the Dukkah once.. or should I say "Duck-er" as the host wrongly pronounced it. "Doo-kah" guys, "Doo-kah".. "oo" as in "push"). Regardless of the fact that I merely inhaled the bread/dukkah.. I still felt they were stingy on the portions. And so the theme continued. I also felt the side salad was barely enough for one, let alone two people. Since hubby had most of the bread appetiser, most of the tasting plate entree.. then his main meal and most of our joint dessert platter.. I understand why he wasn't hungry. Yet he wasn't stuffed either.

Our dessert was the "Chef's plate", being "six delights to share".

These were:

Chocolate, Soft Centre Soufflé with a soft truffle centre and white chocolate semi freddo

We didn't receive the white chocolate semi freddo on the tasting plate. This was quite rich and bitter chocolatey.

Valerie’s Charlotte Russe,with poached apricots and fresh raspberries

There were no poached apricots and there were three, tart raspberries. Like eating sponge cake with cream. Nice enough. Looks grander than it tastes.

Pineapple & Blue Curacao Sorbet

One scoop. The grown-up version of this dessert was a trio of housemade sorbets. This sorbet looked green in the photo's and dim restaurant lighting.. but it was very pineapple-y. It reminded me of a Splice icecream.. There was nothing blue caracao-ish about it.

Lady Runcorn’s Folly: (Signature Dish) A tower of meringue filled with double cream and brandied cherries, surrounded by cherry syrup and praline

Our least favourite on the plate. The mini meringues were boring.. they sat on ordinary cream and the brandied cherries tasted of cloves. No praline in sight. It was a mega-sugar hit though.

Plum Tart

This tartlet, as you might see in the photo's seemed to be left in the oven a little too long. It wasn't remarkable to either of us.. very plain. It probably could have been saved with some almond meal or coconut somewhere.. and less oven time.

Creme Brulee

This tiny brulee was my favourite and I actually ate half of this.. which was the equivalent to about one tablespoon of vanilla bean, eggy custard. It was lovely.

Regional Showcase Menu
Four courses

Amusé bouche (Pre-entree)
Istra proscuitto, grana padano and fresh fig

Even though I'd asked for no olive oil to be drizzled as garnish on anything.. this bit of prosciutto with fig and parmesan.. came to me with oil drizzled over it. I mopped it up with some bread and hubby ate it. I tasted the Istra prosciutto, by chewing it up well before getting rid of it. It wasn't a good prosciutto at all. It reminded of the lardy, homemade European bacon of my youth. Not good bacon.. but devoid of seasoning and tasting "old" somehow. I said to hubby I wish they had of given us half a fig each. We received what looked like a fifth of a fig.. not even one quarter. The grana padano was a "mirage" of grana padano.. ie. not really there at all. I'm sure one wedge probably does them a month of dinners.

Three tastes to share (Our official entree)

Soft shell crab, baby cos and creamy anchovy dressing

These were served on ceramic, Asian soup spoons -how original [rolls eyes]. It was oily and my crab tasted almost raw. Hubby said his was fully cooked through and he finished mine. Otherwise.. the flavours were ok.

Drysdale haloumi, pesto stuffed dates and almonds

This was nice.. especially the pesto stuffed dates.

Hopkins river beef carpaccio, eggplant chips and caper mayo

Oil-fest. I tasted the raw beef.. taking a portion equivalent to the size of a 5 cent piece and let hubby eat the rest as it was literally sitting in oil. The eggplant chips were almost transparent that's how surprisingly thin they were. I think they should have been renamed "Eggplant gossamer wafers" or something. Nice enough..but oily.. just like the fresh garlic mayo. Calling it caper mayo was misleading. We love garlic.. but I couldn't indulge in it. Hubby did the honours.

We had a choice of mains:

Duck confit with slow cooked fennel, spiced beetroot,
puy lentils and meredith chevre

Twice cooked pork belly with cavelonero and
a cumquat marmalade glaze

Slow cooked lara rabbit with a chorizo and bean cassoulet*

Pan fried fish fillet with a tuscan bread salad
and shaw river buffalo mozzarella*

For some reason, the blog editor won't separate the last two dishes.. as in.. put a space between them, despite me repeatedly trying?! If I didn't have any diet restrictions.. I'd have given the pork belly a try. Instead I chose the fish of course and was even going to accept the "pan fried" bit.. seeing as fish is usually only seared unless it's battered. No swimming-in-oil scenario's. I sear mine at home in my favourite non-stick pan. I was disappointed when they brought me the fish steamed (when I hadn't asked for it steamed). All I'd asked for was no olive oil to be drizzled on as garnish on anything, as I said before (which is so commonplace these days). I know bread salads usually have lashings of oil in them.. so I asked them to tone that down... but I didn't make any fish requests. So anyway.. I had boring steamed fish. Hubby had the rabbit. Initially, I personally wouldn't have chosen the rabbit because I ordered it in a posh French restaurant and was quite unimpressed with it especially as they charge you so much for it. However... Hubby's "Lara rabbit" was delicious. And the accompanying chorizo and bean cassoulet was perfect! His plate however let him down. If you turned it upside down.. the base was as small as a saucer. Yet the plate was big and "boat like".. so hubby had to make sure his knife and fork went down straight each time.. neither left or right.. or else his "boat" clunked on the table and tipped over. The bowl/plate just wasn't suited to main-course dining. I'd suggest putting those useless wicker balls in them as a table centrepiece.. or throw in pile of fresh lemons. Or use it as one of those bowls you throw your keys into, dockets, receipts.. and local pizza vouchers. The true banana shape of the plate can't really be seen in this photo.

Slow cooked Lara rabbit with chorizo and bean cassoulet (Part of the set-price showcase menu but normally $34.00) If I can be anal about the presentation..there was a lack of colour. A duo of red/orange isn't appealing enough for this kind of restaurant.

My steamed :( "King Fish" main course -with Tuscan bread salad (Yawn) -normally $34.00

To accompany mains. A spinach, walnut and pomegranate salad. See the size of the standard fork and spoon? This salad wasn't enough for the two of us to share I thought. All mains were served with this salad (ie. it wasn't ordered separately, but I assumed we'd get one each). I didn't feel the three ingredients were enough in this instance. It was missing something.

Soft shell crab, baby cos and creamy anchovy dressing ~ Drysdale haloumi, pesto stuffed dates and almonds ~ Hopkins river carpaccio, eggplant chips and caper mayo - This plate together with the prosciutto/fig dish we started with equates to the Tasting plate of 4 entree's for two people on the a la carte menu.. which is $42.00

Hubby had almost finished his starters when I remembered I hadn't taken a photo. The place was so dark.. taking good photographs was hard. Flash photography isn't very flattering either. Anyway.. what you see above is three of the starters. I didn't take a photograph of the oily prosciutto and fig.

The 'Pine-Splice' tasting sorbet that was predominantly pineapple-y.

We have this exact same Persian fairy floss at home 'Rose' flavour (it was part of hubby's birthday present last month). Here, it was a garnish. Hubby adores the stuff. It costs $14.00 a bag at our local upmarket-grocer's.

The delicious Mini-Creme Brulee

Lady Runcorn can keep her signature folly.. the brandied cherries and meringue in this were sweet enough to give you a toothache.

I asked for a Latte.. I received a Cappucino

I may have dropped a few complaints in this review.. but I sincerely enjoyed the evening out. I love having new food experiences.. I love dinners for two.. and I really liked the attentive waiting staff. We were served by three different people throughout the night.. which had me puzzled. I'm used to one staff member per table. They were very courteous.. and they made me feel "special"-ish. However.. when my food blog came up, our waitress said I should ask the owners for permission to publish the photo's as there could be copyright issues. This baffled me. Really? So I've chosen not to name the restaurant here.. though if anyone wants to know I'll tell them! It's not 1 or 3 faces ok?

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I bought two cards for hubby and made them into one (cutting out bunches of roses "hearts" freehand and some wedding rings from a wedding card and putting them onto "the city of love".. a place we hope to visit one day).

Hubby struck gold with his card for me. I love cards so much and am usually secretly glum after he buys for me.. like most recently, my birthday purchase. I've had to graciously just love him for the bless-his-cotton-socks-limited-card-sense he was born with. However! Then came this card! It was perfect.

U23D ..... Yessss!!

I am mega-excited about this movie being released at Village Cinemas next Thursday, April 10!! I'd LOVE to see U2 in concert & this claims to "put viewers in the pulsing energy of a U2 stadium concert"! This is one "theatrical experience" I'm not going to miss out on!

"The Wanderer" sung by U2 for a Johnny Cash tribute show. I really enjoy this song and the falsetto from "The Edge" is great.. especially at the end. I think this song's about someone's journey in life as they move towards finding God.

LYRICS: I went out walking*Through streets paved with gold*Lifted some stones*Saw the skin and bones*Of a city without a soul*I went out walking*Under an atomic sky*Where the ground won't turn*And the rain it burns*Like the tears when I said goodbye*Yeah I went with nothing*But the thought of you*I went wandering*I went drifting*Through the capitals of tin*Where men can't walk*Or freely talk*And sons turn their fathers in*I stepped outside a church house*Where the citizens they like to sit*They say they want the kingdom*But they don't want God in it*I went out riding*Down that old eight lane*I passed by a thousand signs*Looking for my own name*Yeah I went with nothing*But the thought you'd be there too*Went looking for you*I went out there*In search of experience*To taste and to touch*And to feel as much as a man can *Before he repents*I went out searching*Looking for one good man*A spirit who would not bend or break*Who would sit at his father's right hand*I went out walking*With a bible in the sun*The word of God lay heavy on my heart*I was sure I was the one*Jesus, won't you wait up?*Jesus, I'll be home soon*Yeah I went out to bury my heart*I promised I'll be back by noon*Yeah I left with nothing*But the thought you'd be there too*Went looking for you*Yeah I went with nothing*Nothing but the thought of you*I went wandering

Nice Day To Be Inside

Video above less than 30 seconds.
Following a statewide weather alert, we have crazy, windy weather here in Geelong (but evidently not as bad as some parts of Melbourne). I recorded some video footage (above) of the storm brewing, just in time, before the power went out. My girl said "Hey Mum, we did our Earth Hour"... (which we forgot on Saturday when we were all supposed to turn off lights then).

I have emailed everyone their stationery party invites - so that's something I'm looking forward to next Friday, April 11th! To receive your free gift when ordering, you need to be on my party guest list. It's not too late! Just let me know your email address if you'd like an invitation and I'll put you on the list of guests eligible for the bonus party gift!

To matters of food, I have a blurry, lazy-dinner photo here on the left which doesn't look particularly pretty? It was taken hurriedly in a poorly lit room too. However, it was my dinner and it was tasty! It was a salmon fillet quickly rubbed with lemon pepper & an Aegean spice mix. The fish was then plonked onto 'Rainbow Slaw' with roasted butternut pumpkin. The pumpkin looks a bit pineapple-ish with criss-cross, Geoff Jansz inspired 'grooves' (as seen on "What's Cooking?" several years ago). The Rainbow Slaw is simply finely julienned beetroot, broccoli stems & carrot (a $1.99 mix sold at Safeway/Woolworths supermarkets). I quickly tossed that around a hot pan with a dollop of this and that. All served with lemon/lime wedges.

Weigh-in again tomorrow. Even my girl commented that it only felt like yesterday that we were at Weight Watchers. Time has passed quickly. My scales here at home are again not showing a loss.. but I can hand-on-my-heart say I've been doing everything right. I've been managing pain/nausea with right food choices and proper portion control. I'm not eating processed food and I'm eating very low fat. I'm just a completely different creature to what I was over a month ago. That's not to say I don't crave burgers, pies, cheese, cheesy/creamy sauces, fried food and butter. I do! It's going to take more time for the junk-food-dreamin' to peter out. In the meantime I'm always looking for new ways to tantalise my tastebuds. Ways that make me feel like I'm not being deprived (much). But I am in the thick of digestive/tummy issues and during the last two weeks I've been feeling as if my system has slowed down.. and regretably, further to last week, I'm still not 'regular'. Admittedly if anything has lacked.. it has been my water intake. With eating less and my stomach feeling a bit shrunken inside I have just not wanted water like I used to. I feel as if my tummy can't even accommodate the volume of water I used to drink. My job then is to keep sipping water throughout the day! Takes a sip of water :-P

I'll leave you with a funny song that featured on the show "Spicks and Specks" tonight. If anyone has pre-teens or teenagers or experience relating to them -- then you may relate!
"Sort of Dunno Nothin" by Peter Denahy