Ask Steph

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

So remember how I was whining in the previous post about the dearth of amazing hairdressers in Australia? Well , it seems the Universe read my blog, and decided to show me wrong ... and am I glad it did . Cue the Hallelujah Chorus .... (press play if you'd like ...) Let me start this tale , with a bit of background and context regarding where I came from in my journey to find a new hair artiste extraordinaire  ..

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 ....

WRAPPED = to wrap something up ("I wrapped the gift before I gave it to Jess for her birthday") RAPPED = to hit or smack - it mostly gets used to describe a figurative 'hitting' ( I got " rapped over the knuckles" by my Boss today )  RAPT = with wonderment and joy ("I am rapt with joy when I walk into the shops and see gluten free food")  The definitions have been added to this post on 10 October 2012 as a result of almost all people ending up on this post while searching for the correct spelling or usage of wrapped/rapped /rapt . "Wrapt" is a common misspelling of rapt , and is increasingly becoming used as an alternate spelling of wrapped. Neither are correct if you're an old fuddy duddy like me . It's wrapped , or rapt , depending on the context of your sentence.  Now - on with the original post -  I hope you will continue and read it , and enjoy it  - Steph  Australians talk a very unique brand of English -- locally...

There are the things that you don't really understand when you decide to migrate , and it's probably a good thing . If you did , you may never leave and go on your grand adventure. You know it will be hard . You tell yourself it's going to be tough, you prepare for the things you expect, like feeling homesick , and not knowing how anything works. There are a number of things I could write about , that most migration websites and migrant support groups don't really tell you. But for now , I'd like to share something that has been a tough spot for me , for the last week or so. You can't really prepare for what it feels like , when someone dies back home. There's grief.  And then there's migrant guilt-ridden grief.

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. ...