hello. i'm little jess.

alchemy

On Thursday night, boyfriend and I went to dinner to celebrate a belated Valentine’s day (he was too busy feeding the masses going out to dinner on Tuesday night).

We tried to get in to one of our favourite restaurants (but sadly never got a call back) and then tried that day to get into another, but they were full. So, since boyfriend had the day off and I was at work, I gave him the task of finding us somewhere to go for dinner.

After a while, he announced he’d booked us into Alchemy - a restaurant on the river I’d been recommended but had never had the chance to go. It was definately well worth the wait.

We were shown to our table - just inside, yet overlooking the Brisbane River and Story Bridge.

For entrees, I picked the prawn ravioli with ginger, chilli and aged black vinegar, and boyfriend had potted duck liver pate with spiced dark chocolate and cherries.

My ravioli was light and delicate, and the flavours of chilli and ginger provided the perfect flavour comination for the vinegar.

The duck liver pate wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was beautiful. It was super light, and the chocolate was an unexpected yet really lovely match.

Next, for mains, I had the flat head with swiss browns mushroom, merguez sausage and coco bean veloute, and boyfriend had grilled tuna with scallop stuffed zucchini flowers, green olive and spiced tomato sauce.

The flat head was insanely good. I’m pretty sure I said it with just about every mouthful. The veloute was divine, and the sausage and sausage held their own with the flat head, which is a quite “meaty” fish.

The tuna was lovely and spicy, and cooked to perfection - seared on the outside and deep pink in the middle.

Finally, for dessert, I picked the baked ricotta cheesecake with preserved cherries, coconut marshmallow and almond ice cream. Boyfriend had a special, which was fried apple pie with caramelised white chocolate and double vanilla icecream.

My cheese cake was lovely - the right combination of tart and sweet and the almond ice cream was smooth and creamy.

Whilst I may have “won” with my entree and main, boyfriend definately easily had dessert won. It was amazing. Crunchy and cinnamon-y on the outside, warm delicious apple on the inside.

It was really lovely going out just the two of us and celebrating Valentine’s Day, especially having such an incredible meal.

prawn tacos

This week, I discovered food blog Shutterbean, which is all about “food photography & prettie things”. It doesn’t disappoint. I spent hours reading through her posts, admiring her photography and drooling over her recipes - most of which are really healthy, which I love.

One recipe particularly caught my eye, for Shrimp Tacos (or “Prawn” tacos here in Australia), so I decided to make them on Tuesday night. Monday was the intended night, however boyfriend accidentally threw them out with our crab shells.

They were really delicious. I did make a few changes. Instead of pre-cooked prawns, I used green prawns and cooked them myself. The marinade made them beautifully spicy, yet they were plump and sweet inside. I also used flour tortillas instead of corn.

Will definately be having again.

I also paired my tacos with an icy-cold Corona with lime. Because tacos just taste better that way.

sunday

Yesterday, boyfriend and I spent the day one of our favourite ways – watching movies and eating delicious food. It was the last day we had together before his first full week of his new job and working nights again (which pretty much means I won’t see him properly until Thursday when he has a day off), so I just wanted to spend some quality time, just the two of us.

 

We decided to make a recipe we’d had our eye on with some produce we’d been dying to try – Alaskan King Crab legs. Alaskan King Crab legs are HUGE. Roughly 400g per 4 legs! But really tasty. The February 2012 issue of Delicious. magazine featured a recipe for wok-fried Alaskan king crab legs with black pepper and chilli, so that’s what we made.

 

It was amazing.

 

 

The outside was crunch and spicy, and because it was essentially “deep fried” before going in the wok, the meat inside was soft, juicy and sweet.

 

 

It killed me that I couldn’t finish it all (although we had the meat from 4 legs each). I ended up picking at it for ages. Having a rest and hoping my full tummy could fit more in. I totally overindulged. But it was just so beautiful.

 

We bought two whole ocean trout with the intention of smoking, but we had a storm that afternoon and couldn’t use the BBQ.

 

It was a really lovely day. We were so full from our crab we ended up having a late dinner of dips, cheese and salami.

burgers

Last night, boyfriend and I made burgers. Well, boyfriend mostly. If we are both home there is generally a rule that person who doesn’t cook, cleans. I elected to clean (in hindsight, that wasn’t the greatest idea because I was so sleepy!).

The recipe from the burgers was from the latest issue of Donna Hay Magazine - Pork & Fennel burgers with caremelised onion. They were really delicious. They also had an apple and celery remoulade, which was beautiful with the pork and fennel patties. We were also instructed to serve with Hot English Mustard, which I love.

The latter half of this issue features recipe ideas for entertaining, so there was a recipe in the same section for sweet potato chips with mustard salt. The recipe called for white sweet potoatoes, however since we had some sweet potato fries in the freezer, we just used those and made the salt.

To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed with the salt. I much prefer our chips with a sprinkling of All Purpose Seasoning, but it was still nice to try.

I’m enjoying my last few days having boyfriend home nights. He’s been offered a job at an amazing restaurant, and starts this weeekend. I’m so proud of him. He’s wanted to work there for a really long time. We’re going to celebrate this Friday night with drinks with my parents - they are almost as proud as me! Almost…

i’m back

I’m still here! I’ve been sick for weeks now, and I’m only just starting to feel like my old self again. Touch wood. I say that because it isn’t the first time I’ve said that. Every time I seem to have felt like that over the past few weeks, I’d crash badly that afternoon. But I’m back at work now, and today is the best I’ve felt in weeks.

It was a bit of a disappointing way to spend the holidays, but at least it forced me to rest. And I could rest as much as I could without feeling guilty about not being at work.

So because I have been confined to my couch, I really haven’t had much exciting to report. However, there were a few little things I thought I’d share with you.

I had fire cupping and acupuncture on Monday. I used to turn to natural medicine a lot, but for some reason I forgot about it over the past little while. I used to get it at the first sign of illness for a while. And while there are many instances I wouldn’t use alternative medicine as a complete alternative (there is no way I could have gone without antibiotics over the past few weeks) I really believe in it.

Anyway, the cupping has left me with a bit of bruising, which is expected, but I had one epic bruise on my shoulder:

Looking at it now, it’s gone down a bit. But it’s still really dark.

I’m working with my acupuncturist on improving my health. He makes me feel like he really cares about me staying healthy, which is reassuring. I have lots of natural supplements and vitamins, and a plan around my busy times.

I go back again tomorrow so hopefully I’ll keep feeling better.

After spending so much time confined to the couch, it’s the little things that cheer you up. Like the other day, when some butterflies came to play on my balcony out of the rain.

I don’t know what it is about them, but I’ve always had a bit of an obession when it came to butterflies. No matter what is going on, they always make me smile and whenever I see them I take it as a good omen.

Finally, I just thought I’d share how wonderful boyfriend has been while I’ve been sick. He’s done such a good job of looking after me. He’s cooked me dinner when I’ve not been able to handle standing up, and kept cold washers on the back of my neck when I’ve had fevers. I’m so lucky to have him.

Here are some of the delicious dinners he’s made me:

 

Left, a duck salad from Donna Hay’s fast. fresh. simple. and on the right this delicious salad.

Hopefully, my feeling better will stick around and soon I’ll be good as new!

hello there.

So I haven’t disappeared. I’ve been pretty sick lately which means I’ve been confined to the couch for over a week. Not exactly how I expected to be spending my holidays. I’m still not feeling wonderful, but I’m venturing out of the house today for a little shopping with my sisters. Will be interesting to see how I go.