Ask Steph

I've been reading back some of my posts , and whilst none of them are untrue , I have realised that I only really blog about South Africa , when I am feeling a bit homesick. See, the thing is , when things are good, and when I am too busy to feel depressed, then nobody really get's to hear about it. I thought that it was probably a little unfair to Australia, so in this post, I will list all the reasons why I think Australia is a good place to live.

I've been cooking a lot lately with a product called Toffutti . It's a cream cheese substitute made from soya - I haven't tried it as a full on cheesecake substitute , but I can attest to it's absolute delicious and creamy outcome when used to make a 'cream' sauce . This is how I make a creamy mushroom sauce ( which we eat on GF pasta , or as a topping on grilled chicken or steak ) Here's how my recipe goes

Lets start with some disclosing shall we: I was a paying guest at the Marriott Hotel - my husband and I decided to go away for a weekend, we walked in to Flight Centre, asked them what was going , and booked. At no point was I planning to write a review of the Hotel or it's facilities - but by Tuesday morning when we were checked out already , and sitting enjoying coffee and working on our iPad's in the reception, waiting for the Airport Shuttle , it dawned on me , that I needed to tell someone - anyone -  about how fantastic I thought this hotel was. The hotel is rated as 4 star. Which we knew coming in , but with Australia , you can never be sure what you're getting , this is due to a number of factors , which I won't go into in this post , suffice it to say, going to a Hotel or B&B in Australia is always a bit of an adventure and mystery , shrouded in secrecy. So - what did I like about this place ?

So - here's another recipe that I've adapted to fit into my various dietary requirements. It's something I make in bulk , and it's my husband favourite dish. I just made a huge batch of it for his birthday last week. I usually make it with about 2 kg of de-boned chicken in a huge 9 litre pot , with most of the ingredients eye-balled , tasted and then adjusted for , rather than measured explicitly. So forgive me if the recipe reads a bit haphazard .... I may have forgotten something while typing it up from memory... Here goes ....

27 June 2012 UPDATE  - I have subsequently updated with some pictures of the latest batch that I have made - I did this because I love to know what I should be seeing, when I try out a recipe for the first time, so I thought I'd add the pictures for anyone wanting to try this out We had a house warming dinner over the weekend. Oh - yes, we have moved house , what with the construction finally over on the house and land package that we purchased just over 2 years ago with Porter Davis Homes  . It has been an exciting ride. And mostly good, albeit a completely hair-raising and totally foreign experience. But that will be the subject of another post , for now I want to share the recipe of my gluten free, dairy free and tomato free Chicken Curry. The recipe is an adapted version of   Durban Chicken Curry , which I found at food.com while looking for a nice simple tasty curry recipe a while back. This is one that I get compliments about every single time I make it. ...

So - the infamous friends that went cherry picking in the rain , while I was studying for my exam, have done it again. The buggers went cherry picking yesterday and invited me to come with. All good and well, except yesterday was a work day for me - I, being a self employed working from home type, don't get 'leave' as such. Yes , I get the convenience of going out on a work day should I choose to , but the reality is - that choice boils down to if I can do it without compromising any work. And I am far too diligent to let that happen. So , Mrs Scrooge McDuck here, stayed at home and worked , while cherries got picked in some of the nicest weather I have seen since arriving in Melbourne 9 months ago. It's a crying shame. And I was very miffed about it all actually. Not to fear though - I got my pound of flesh . We bought 2 kilos of fresh picked cherries off them when they came home with their spoils . And I now have purple stained sticky fingers from painstakin...