EkaRia indo of my dreams

EkaRia Indonesian Restaurant
393 Illawarra Rd, Marrickville
Ph: 9554 - 6119
owner@EkaRiaRestaurant.com
website: ekariarestaurant.com



Everyone has one of these restaurants... they feel comfortable, the food is awesome and it is really well priced. Well if you don't, you should. The decor doesn't have to be fantastic, but it does have to be clean with nice atmosphere.

Whilst living in the eastern suburbs we developed an addiction for Indonesian food (yes, it becomes a serious addictionthat requires at least fortnightly medicating). We would go to Kingsford and take our pick of the many Indonesian restaurants, although they were all good they where not all equal in our tastes. So when we moved we needed somewhere new to fulfill our cravings. Well we did, and boy are we satisfied I mean look at that food... and yes it really is that good.

The food here is fantastic... this is what we ordered: Empek Empek is an egg stuffed fishcake in a spicy sauce and noodles. Gado Gado mixed steamed vegetables with a spicy peanut sauce. Beef Rendang, slowly cooked beef in a chilli and coconut. Ayam bakar marinated and bbqed chicken. Petai Goreng fried stink beans. Sambal terasi chilli and shrimp paste sauce. Nasi Goreng, Indonesian fried rice. All of this for less than $40! (enough for 4) There Empal goreng is good too.

The Stinkbeans sound kind of scary, well they did to me at first, but they have a really good flavour, the smell is different but not bad. I want to try the Nasi Petai Goreng next time.

The Ayam bakar here is awesome, we have even managed to get my Auntie seriously addicted.... muah ha haha haha :) I love it with the Sambal terasi, I always ask for some more.. mmm definately the best way to have chicken. Their Ayam goreng (fried chicken is really good too, but then you dont get the bbq flavour). If it just casey and I, I get a bowl of sour vegtable soup and a ayam bakar dada... heaven!

So if you are in Sydney and want to try some awesome Indonesian or have a hankering for the best chicken in town then get yourself to my favourite little Indonesian restaurant in Marrickville.

*NOTE* IT IS NOT OPEN ON THURSDAYS! (But I really wish it was)

WCB3

Cat food bloggers unite every weekend and share photos of your gorgeous kitties with us!
If you would like to be included, just leave me a comment with your permalink!


See the opera singer in training kittaya
See J2 In The Cat Cabin

Posted in Weekend Cat Blogging, Blogging, Kiri, Burmese, eatstuff

IMBB 16 EGGS!

OOh I love eggs.... Seattle Bon Viant decided that eggs would be perfect for this months IMBB. So when I started to think about what to make I considered when is the best time to have them? The answer is so simple, for breakfast of course! If you have good free range eggs, then something simple that shows off the flavour is the best way to eat them.

My eggs in ham nests were really good, the saltyness of the ham and pecorino and edam cheese set of the eggs perfectly when baked in a nonstick muffin tin. I baked some good tomates which I diced and mixed with alittle balsamic, olive oil and pepper in the tins as well. Beautiful crusty rolls with alittle european style cultured butter and a home roasted brazilian blue latte, it is definately the perfect way to start the day!

What to do with leftovers?

Do you ever have those days when you just want a big plate of veggies? Well I definitely do, and sometimes salad just wont cut it (especially when it is cold and you have no rocket left). So what do you do? You roast the mother load of vegetables: Kumera, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Parsnips, Garlic, Celariac(OMG I love this ugly devil), Carrots, Leek... I tossed them in Olive oil and a pounded spice mix (dried chili, bay leaves, pepper, rosemary, salt, lemon rind).

So we ate our fill.. and gee they were good. But what do you do with the rest? I told you this was the mother load, lol. Well you put them in a pot with some water and milk and puree it. You get the best vegetable soup ever, so much more caramely and tasty than if you just boil the vegetables. If you go to the effort of roasting vegetables, even if it is to have with a roast chicken, or leg of lamb.... Please roast extra and make this, you will be so glad you did. (roast tomatoes make the best tomato soup too)

Boiled eggs on fresh bread

On the weekend I made some pizza with my very basic dough recipe. After having read a little I decided to try Autolysis of the dough, it worked really well, I saved a third of the dough to experiment with, so I placed it in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. So I woke up the next day and decided to make Case a surprise eggs on toast with bread rolls from my dough made fresh and hot in the morning. OMG was it good! Did you know that before I met Casey he had never had Salt and Pepper on boiled eggs before? Wow I was stunned, let me assure you. And it is what he said when he tried it for the first time ;) . Ever since I was a little grl having breakfast and my Oma and Opa's I have loved boiled eggs on toast, and I have been eating them spread out over toast since then. But you need to have the best eggs you can buy, as long as they are free range. Come one have you seen Baraka people or what?

Can you see the Plunger of tea in the background? Well this tea is changing my life, It is fantastic!
It is a Sikhm Temi SFTGFOP-1 ... (have you heard the tea joke TGFOP means To good for ordinary people )it was a little expensive at $10 for 100gms but every cup is worth it, it smells like honey(but good???), caramel and is very floral. Hopefully I will have a good source for very good tea very soon... and when I do I will share people I promise... muah ha ha ha.. *cough*cough* sorry I don't know what I was thinking.

Weekend Cat Blogging 2

Cat food bloggers unite every weekend and share photos of your gorgeous kitties with us!

If you would like to be included, just leave me a comment with your permalink!

The Many faces of Kiri


Go check out the gorgeous Kittaya enjoying the deck
Go see how much the very cute Matty and Fitzy have grown

Posted in Weekend Cat Blogging, Blogging, Kiri, Burmese, eatstuff

The Cook Next Door

Wow I have been tagged again! from zero to two in a short fowl soup (:P)

This meme was invented by Nicky at Delicious Days, so that you the reading public would get a chance to find out some more weird things about me that I might not share otherwise.

What is your first memory of baking/cooking on your own?
The first thing I remember really making myself was lettuce soup. I must have been 4?I got the idea from Peter Russel Clarke, I can distinctly remember not letting my parents help at all. But when I tried it, I can remeber hating it, and my parents eating it..

Who had the most influence on your cooking?
My mother and my Oma. I remember learning to bake bread and eat healthily from my mother. We spent alot of time with my Oma and Opa as kids, I have so many good memories of her food. Porridge with sultanas, Butter cream cake, Sultana cake, potato pancakes, apple pancakes, lentil soup and the list oges on. The other day she was at my Aunties house and she made her bean soup for dinner, the smell took me right back to my child hood.

Do you have an old photo as “evidence” of an early exposure to the culinary world and would you like to share it?
I will have to get back to you as the photos are all at my parents place.

Mageiricophobia - do you suffer from any cooking phobia, a dish that makes your palms sweat?
Nope, I dont think so... I am willing to try anything once. (see post on fox dung coffee for proof!)

What would be your most valued or used kitchen gadgets and/or what was the biggest let down?
My Furi East West knife that Casey bought me last year. It is awesome, if you wonder why your dishes don't turn out well and you are using crappy knives... dont complain to me :P

The Zester he bought me at the same time, it would zest anything!

Name some funny or weird food combinations/dishes you really like - and probably no one else!
Hmm, I dont know. I asked Case and he said nothing. So either we are both freaks cause we both like the same weird stuff, or we are freaks cause we don't like any really weird combinations.

What are the three eatables or dishes you simply don’t want to live without?
Really good cheese (why I could NEVER be Vegan), Wine and sourdough bread. They are simple staples that could keep you satisisfied for life. (Plus plent of fresh veggies... sorry they are definately a necessity too)

Any question you missed in this meme, that you would have loved to answer? Well then, feel free to add one!
The quickies section:

Your favourite ice-cream…
Chocolate! (but only really good chocolate, especially if it has chocolate chunks in it)
You will probably never eat…
Brains... no explanation needed

Your own signature dish…
Roast Lamb and vegtables.... mmm
Added by Sam of Becks & Posh: A common ingredient you just can't bring yourself to stomach...
Leatherwood Honey :P (Or any Honey)

Who to pass the torch on too....
we'll this is hard cause it was so recently that I tagged people, so I dont want anyone to feel like I am picking on them, so it's not like I dont love you guys anymore promise xxx
Since I chose all grls last time, I'd like to pass this on toReid, Alberto and the Pieman so I dont get into trouble for being sexist.
*** UPDATE*** I am going to tag Michele of Oswego tea as well, cause we need to give her a reason to blog since her camera is still being so naughty! and cause she wont be mad at me :)

For your interest: Australian Quarantine Regulations

NOTE: All information provided on this post is given as a GUIDE ONLY, I take no responsibility for the information, and there are no guarantees that any food products sent following these guidelines wont be confiscated by customs.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service is known for being very strict (for good reason, and keep up the good work boys) and it is possibly getting stricter, you know why.

So how does this affect us? There has been an interest of late in blogger exchanges, and I myself have very luckily received preserved plums from Reid in Hawaii, and Alberto is going to send me chillis! YAY

Nic from Bakingsheet is thinking about having a food exchange, can you think of anything better? There is a growing number of food bloggers in Australia and we would like to participate too, legally of course. The problem is, if you are going to send something across the world, you dont want it to be confiscated by customs.

So, I did a little digging and found some very interesting resources

1) The AQIS database: this resource lets you enter in a product and a country and see if it can be sent. How cool is that!
2) The customs guide on what can be sent to Australia.

This is the food section from the Customs website
If you see a cross, you can not send it, if you see an eye then it is a maybe, they will open your package and inspect your goods.

BEANS, PEAS, CEREAL SEEDS includes handicrafts and souvenirs that contain or are made from these seeds
BISCUITS, CAKES, CONFECTIONERY includes chocolate, sweets, crisps, roasted nuts, pretzels
EGGS includes whole, dried, powdered and uncooked egg products
FRUIT and VEGETABLES - FRESH (cooked, dried, frozen, canned or bottled are allowed)
FRUIT and VEGETABLES - DRIED includes mushrooms, citrus peel or dried banana
HONEY includes royal jelly and propolis
BEE PRODUCTS includes honey comb and beeswax
MEAT- UNCANNED and ALL PORK PRODUCTS includes fresh, dried, frozen, smoked or salted
MILK and MILK PRODUCTS includes all products that contain milk ingredients (NZ dairy products and up to 1kg of baby formula per infant are allowed)
OTHER FOODS includes herbs and spices, breakfast cereals, Vegemite, flour, roasted coffee beans, jam, nutritional/dietary supplements
POPPING CORN, RAW UNROASTED NUTS includes raw peanuts, chestnuts (NZ chestnuts are allowed)
SALMON AND TROUT PRODUCTS ask about special import conditions
TEAS, COFFEE, KAVA, JUICE and OTHER DRINKS containing milk and/or eggs are prohibited

I hope this information helps anyone who plans on participating in future food exchanges.

Caphe cut chon or fox dung coffee

WTF??? I am sure you are probably all saying, well Caphe cut chon is a vietnamese coffee that is collected from the ground of Vietnamese coffee plantations (a similar coffee is avaliable in Indonesia and is called Kopi Luwak). The very best (supposingly) coffee cherries are picked out by the Palm Civet, the berries are then excreted semi digested. BUT there is another layer around the coffee beans that is removed before the coffee is roasted, phew (I did find this out before I tried it). Yep, I tried it...

Hmm well I have no idea where to start. A friend gave me enough of this coffee already roasted and ground to try . There is no way that I would ever have gone out of my way to try Caphe cut chon (fox dung coffee) or Kopi Luwak but it was handed to me in a little plastic baggy so to speak. So what was I supposed to do ? Speaking as an adventourous CS of course.

The first thing I noticed was the smell, it smells really, really weird, very sweet, winey and weird. I just dont know what to describe the other scent as, sorry.

The coffee was not ground finely enough, so I reground the coffee, and I hoped it might help "refresh" some very stale coffee. So I packed up my little grans portafilter and crossed my fingers, the pour was a little quicker than I would have liked, but not to bad otherwise. I actually got crema, which I was happy about, but it was lighter and about a 1/3 or a 1/4 as thick as normal. (home reasted fresh coffee from cs)

So on to the most important part and what you are all reading this for (apart from the giggle factor of course)

The taste was not as bad as I was expecting, the espresso still had the same smell the grounds. There was actually alittle acidity which was pleasant and necessary, if it wasn't there the taste would have been much worse. There was no bitterness and there were notes of wine, blueberries, caramel and chocolate (??? I think) but still that really weird indescribable note. The aftertaste lingers (still just there, like a really nice coffee) and is quite nice, except I can stll "smell" that weird smell and that is not at all pleasant. As the espresso cooled, the acidity dissapeared and the taste became cloying and undrinkable.

So was it as scary as I thought it would be? Well no. But that "smell" really gets to you after while and becomes nauseating. Would I try it again? Well maybe if it was freshly roasted, but I still wouldnt go out of my way, and if that smell was there I definately wouldn't have it again. But at least I can say I wasn't too chicken to try it.

5 Favourite Books Meme

I was tagged for this meme by Reid, yay how much fun is this? Since this is the first time I have ever been tagged! I decided to keep the same spirit as Reid and write about my cookbooks which seems to me to be the most appropriate for this blog. I dont hink I could ever decide on my 5 favourite novels, Yikes. Or openly admit just how many novels I own.....

1. Total number of (cook) books I’ve owned:
Um, Heaps? about a hundred?
2. Last (cook) book(s) I bought:
The Well Filled Tortilla cookbook by Victoria Wise and Susanna Hoffman
3. Last (food) book I read:
Untangeling my chopsticks : A culinary sojourn in Kyoto by Victoria Abbot Riccardi
4. Five (cook) books that mean a lot to me:

1)The whole series of Time Life food cookbooks
This book series is not technically mine but my mums, the "Cakes" book is my favourite it has the best chocolate cake recipe ever. If we fix our stove it will be the first thing I make.

2)South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden
Plus the other penguin food cookbooks like Middle Eastern, Vegertarin, Italian, French, etc love them all.

3)The New York Times Natural Health Foods Cookbook by Jean Hewitt
This book reminds me of my childhood, and my mother is really jealous because I bought a copy second hand that is in better condition than hers You always feel that you must be cooking healthily when you make a recipe from it too ;).

4)The Art of Cooking with love and Wheatgerm (And other natural foods) By Jane Kinderleher
I found this book on the side of the road and its great.. some recipes dont translate to well but I really like the sentiments it expresses.

Well that is technically more that 5 books, so I will finish there. But there are a whole heap more that would compete for the next position.

5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog?

As long as they haven't already been tagged, I would like to tag:

The ever cute Pink Cocoa

The camera less Michele from Oswego tea, cause you don't need a camera to post about your books

The lovely Lyn from Lex Culinaria

The Tasty Gwenda form TAOTT

The Beautiful Amy from Beauty Joy of Food

EOMEOTE #7 Limerick Edition Round up!

Clare (we hear!) loves to eat

And decided she needed a treat:

French was the toast,

She loves it the most.

Stuffed with blackberry jam it tastes neat.

Jeanne from Cook Sister has posted the round up to the EOMEOTE. Can you beleive the lovely Limerick that she wrote especially for little old me? I can't beleive it, I absolutely love it! It beat my terrible Limerick hands down. She has written a limerick for every person that entered the meme (but I like mine the best :) ) I am very excited for this months EOMEOTE!. SO stay tuned! There should be a post for SHF and IMBB on the weekend too.

Weekend Cat Blogging

Indira and I decided to both bog about our gorgeous kitties this weekend. So go see the very cute Kittaya over an Mahandi, which has a new home

Posted in Weekend Cat Blogging, Blogging, Kiri, Burmese, eatstuff

Lovely dinner and yummy ingredients

My Poor Boy had a hard week at work. So I figured that he needed a special meal to cheer him up, the only problem is, I was really tired, and not in the mood to cook (Me? wow that is weird). So whilst I was going on the usual shopping trip I realised a meal of some of his favourite nibble would do the trick very nicely.

Square 1: Sour Cherry Sourdough from the Brasserie bakery which is sold from Allpress Espresso Epsom rd Roseberry. This is gorgeous bread that my mum bought for me. They also serve really good coffee that they roast them selves, sandwiches, and these little brioche tarts with plum (just have to pick my tongue of the floor)

Square 2: King Island Double Brie, love that stuff. White Greek Figs, OMG they are beautiful soft, and tender with a beautiful perfume taste. These were bought from the Natural Grocer Outlet shop. If you live in Sydney and want nuts, or dried fruit GO HERE, they are cheaper and fresher than anywhere else. I will try and get the exact address if asked in the comments, or I could describe it there.

Square 3: Fresh Hass avocado with Salt and Pepper mmmm and Walnuts from the Natural Grocer outlet.

Square 4: Sir James Cuvee Brut Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, from Liquor land Broadway on sale for $12 from $20. I had never tried this Sparkling wine before, and when I went to purchase a lovely wine for my surprise nibble party I could not pass this by. The funny thing is I had a joke with the serving girl and said perhaps this wine might ruin me for my usual drinks, and she said "you will be back to buy the lot". I cold have never guessed just how right she was. This wine was lovely, it has been matured on Yeast lees for 12 months, it is smooth fragrant with a dry crisp finish. In other words absolutely perfect.

Square 5: Smoked Oysters on my mothers rocket. We love these, Yum.

Square 6: Tom thumb Tomatoes , sprinkled with pepitas and marinated with balsamic vinegar and S&P.

So what was the best bit? The Sour Cherry Sour dough spread with Brie, figs and walnuts. It was perfect.

Indonesian, Yeah!

I have to say that I llluuurrvveee Indonesian food, it is so very very very addictive.

I don't know what everyone in the rest of the world hears, but there has been alittle hassel between Australia and Indonesia at the moment. I think it is all phooey. I was actually inspired to make Indonesian tonight when I saw the lovely photos that Reid took in SF. It is the end of the shopping cycle, so I didnt have all of the ingrediants I wanted, but I did have some lovely Pork Chops. So I thought I would give them an Indonesian inspired marinade, with some modified gado gado(steamed vegtable salad with peanut sauce) and Nasi Kunning (yellow rice). I was missing a few things like Sambal Terasi (dont get me started I might cry), fried shallots, eggs, potates etc... but what can you do? I wouldnt trade this for anything. Because I didnt have everything I needed I did cheat alittle bit. I used a gado gado sauce mix and a packet for the Nasi Kunning. But unlike other packet mixes, most good indonesian mixes have no artificial flavourings or preservatives. But I didnt cheat on the marinade for the pork, and I am rather pleased with myself how it worked out. The same marinade would also work well on chicken, or beef. So you have this lovely mean and you want to know what is the perfect drink to accompany it ? Well, it's Jasmine tea of course :). If you are unable to get packets or would like to make the Nasi Kunning or Gado Gado from scratch let me know ;)

Indonesian style Pork Chop (enough for 4 large Pork Chops)
1 inch of ginger and galangal
1 1/2 cm chunck of Belacan (shrimp paste) wrapped in foil and cooked on a gas element for a 5 minutes (yeah it stinks , get over it, it does taste good!)
5 cloves of arlic
2 chillis (more or less depending on how hot you like it)
1 Bay leaf crumbled (hopefully not too old)
Kecap Manis - I didnt measure, it is too sticky but a far bit. (it should be quite thick though)

Put all the ingrediants in a food processor and blend to a paste.

Coat both sides of the chops with the marinade and leave to marinade for at least an hour. Scrape excess marinade off. Cook either on the bbq or in a really hot oven on a wire rack above a tray with alittle water on it until the chops are cooked.

Serve with rice, gado gado, some sambal terasi. Yum!

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

Casey comes home hungry from work demanding pasta. But we have no tomatoes (???) to make his favourite. So in a moment of brilliance I attempt to make a future contender for his affections. I have been thinking of rocket and pasta since Michele has been talking about it.

This pasta is easy, tasty with alittle heat and tang. I am so happy, but was Casey ? Well I think he still holds a great tomato and tuna pasta very close to his heart... but this might be a very close second!


1 Big handful of Rocket
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 dried chillis or fresh, whole (cut a slit in the side, or as many as you like)
1 big spoon of capers
1 big slice of lemon rind, thinly julienned
3 anchovies
1 lemon, Juiced
1 zucchini, julinned
Ham or proscuttio or pancetta cubed
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Freshly Cracked Pepper
Grated Italian hard Cheese (I used pecorino)
Bavette Pasta (or what ever you like)


Put a big pot of salted water to boil. When Boiling add pasta and cook til al dente.

In a small nonstick fry pan put a generous 1 cm of olive oil, turn on the heat to low. Add the chillis, garlic and let the oil infuse with the garlic and chilli. After a few minutes add the lemon rind, capers and anchovies, let this infuse as the oil starts to increase in heat. When the pasta needs about another 2 minutes, turn the heat up and add the ham, when this starts to crispen andd the zucchini and toss well. Add the lemon juice (be careful it might splatter) and pepper. Drain the cooked pasta, put back into the pot, add the sauce and rocket and some grated italian hard chesse. Toss well and plate up.

I heart Chorizo

Oh Chorizo, what did I do before I met you? You spicy sausage who gets all crispy and caramelly when fried.

We have discovered a source for beautiful fresh chorizo sausauges. From the butchers in Marrickville or Dulwich Hill. They are so much better than the ones you buy at the Supermarket. The rest of their meat is much better value as well, andmuch better quality.

So tonigh we found ourselves with 3 of these beautiful babies and were undecided with what to do with them, they would have gone perfectly on top of the bean soup, perhaps next time. So I made a Chorizo Risotto ( I know you might consider this an abomination but it was really good!). Normally I add tomatos, and make it like a pilaf, but I decided to live on the wild side :) and I am glad I did.


Have you used these beans before? They just call them continental beans here and I am sure they must have a better name than that. They are really tender, there is no string and they aren't too 'beany' in flavour. These are the beans that I have used in the risotto. If you want to try them, steam or boil til bright green and toss with herbs and butter or olive oil and salt and pepper.

Chorizo Risotto
3 fresh chorizo's (poached then sliced)
1 chicken breast, cubed
beans sliced
2 onions, diced
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp of harrissa
3 anchovies (put them in whole, please try even if you dont like them)
2 baby zuchinni diced (you could replace or add carrot and zucchini or fennel)
2 cups of aborio rice
1/2 cup of wine
Stock ( I just have a big pot boiling and add extra water if required, use what the packet tells you
salt and pepper to taste
1 chargrilled capsicum diced
1 handful of stuffed olices sliced (use the best olives you can, preferably still abit crisp)
parmesan cheese

Fry chorizo slices and chicken breast til cooked. Remove and set aside. Cook Beans in Boiling water til just cooked, remove with a slotted spoon and refresh under cold water. Retain water and add 2 bay leaves and a handful of pepper corns (this is my stock, replace with what ever stock you want).

Saute onions, garlic and zucchini til soft, add rice anchovies and harissa, saute for 2 min. Add wine and deglaze the pan. Cook as per Risotto (cup of boiling stock and stir til absorbed repeat til rice is al dent or how you like it). Then add extra spoon of water, chorizos, beans, chicken chargrilled capsicum and parmesan. stir and put lid on for a few minutes. Remove lid stir and dish up. Top with olives and herbs and extra cracked black pepper. Yum! I think a squeeze of lemon juice would have been really good in this too.

Now a Bean Soup Groupie

My friend Michele over at Oswego Tea made the most enticing looking Tuscan Chicpea soup. I am not sure what made me drool so much, whether it was the photography or the idea of a soup made from chickpeas and tomatoes. I went to make the soup and realised that my packet of dried chickpeas had been taken over by weevils, yuck! So, the soup remained in my memory but I forgot to buy more chickpeas when I went shopping. On friday night when I was looking over my fav blogs and thinking about making dinner, I just happened to see the Tuscan Chickpea soup again. So I was not able to make her soup exactly, but I instead made a homage. It was awesome.

This is a really easy, hearty, creamy soup that is very filing.

Tuscan Bean soup

olive oil
2 red onions, finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
8 cloves of garlic, minced
4 tins of beans (what ever taked you fancy I used a mix of butter, cannelini and borlotti beans and lentils) drained and rinsed
1 tin of italian tomates
1 tbsp of harrisa (optional)
2 dried bayleaves
3 anchovies
4 cups of water

1 capsicum chargrilled and diced
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon juiced
fresh herbs (I used parsley and spring onions)
1 thinely sliced fresh chilli
freshly grated parmesan or pecorino

Saute onions, garlic harissa paste and carrot a. Add tinned beans, tomatoes, bayleaves, anchovies and water. Simmer for 20 mins. Remove bay leaves. Puree till creamy, adjust flavours with salt and pepper and lemon juice. Bring back to the simmer.

Serve in warmed bowls sprinkled with herbs, chargrilled capsicum, chilli , cheese, a grind of fresh pepper and a sea of good extra virgin olive oil.

This soup is a whole meal, enjoy with some fresh bread and a glass of good wine. It is really, really good.I was told that we would not be having the leftovers for lunch on Saturday as Casey NEEDED to take it to work for lunch during the week (Who's to say that wasn't my plan all along ;) )

Anniversary Dinner

Thanks so much guys for the lovely sentiments.

We went to an awesome Italian restaurant and had Lovely red wine and Fettucine Marinara (lots of seafood.. mussels, scalopps, prawns, octopus, calamari) italian bread, salad :) and coffee.

No photos cause it was way too special ;)

It was very romantic and sweet, thanks so much babe. xxx


oooh
I am about to go out for my suprise 5 year anniversary dinner :)
I dont know where we are going, but I will fill you in on the details when we get back.