Fruit Crumbly Umbly

As promised, there was dessert at Jarratt & Evies. What's more, I made it.

Yes, you heard right. I made dessert. If you'll remember from my last post, Dessert Chef was feeling under the weather, but since we had already said we would bring dessert, my hand was all but forced.

I know I've already posted a crumble recipe this year, but most of that was shot by torchlight, and it was all about living off the land and wotnot. This is exciting because, as I might have already mentioned, I made dessert.

Did I mention that I made this dessert myself? Well, I did.
So I mixed up some stewed rhubarb, blackberries and apple,
made up a crumble from butter, flour and sugar, and took it all with me to assemble and cook after dinner. If you're not going to cook them straight away and you don't keep the two separate, you see, the flour goes soggy and then you have more of a stewed fruit mush than a crumble.
So the crumble goes over the fruit, like so, and it goes in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180c, maybe with a little bit of a grill/broil at the end.
So there you have it. If even a pudding-lummox like me can do it, it must be pretty easy.

(For the record, before you start pointing out continuity errors, the picture above is the little one I cooked at home for Dessert Chef and the little guy. I might have gone out and left them at home to be sick together, but at least I was good enough to make dessert before I went).
Jarratt's oven was a teensy bit more powerful than ours. But I have a good nose, so disaster was averted. Certainly nothing that ice cream couldn't save.
I had a little bit of leftover crumble, so the next day I stewed up some overripe pears we had sitting in the fruit bowl and made a pear crumble.

Two desserts in one weekend! That's like two eclipses in one year!

The Other Side of the Table

It wouldn't exactly be untrue to say that we don't get out much. (Did I obfuscate sufficiently there?)

So when, after six months of personal disasters and last-minute rescheduling, we finally managed to align all the stars together and take up the opportunity to drop the little guy off with the baby-sitters and go to a good friends' place for dinner, I would not be daunted.

Then aforementioned little guy got sick, and Dessert Chef wasn't feeling too well either. However, at risk of being branded a cad, I took up the torch and went out anyway.

I'm not used to being the guest, but it sure is nice once in a while. It was great to share dinner and a bottle of wine with Jarratt and Evie, and the Chicken Breast with olives and all those little baby veges (cherry tomatoes, baby beetroot, gourmet potatoes) all dressed up in mustard and maple (I think) were delicious.

Jarratt had had plenty of practice at this dish, of course. For every planned dinner that got scuppered, he still had all the ingredients on hand to make the meal. By the time I got to enjoy it, I'm pretty sure that they were well sick of it! How you could get sick of such a delicious dish, I don't know.

Thanks, guys. Sorry it took me so long to get to posting. Photos of the crumbly dessert action will follow shortly. Let me know if you post the recipe, so I can link to it.

I'm still trying to figure out how we didn't get onto Singstar that night. Ah, yes, the driving-therefore-not-drinking thing. It takes a certain minimum amount of wine before Singstar is really an option.

Maybe next time!

A Day to Remember

What a weekend it was. It was such a weekend, it's taken me until now to catch up. The Big Deal was the civil union/wedding of my good friends, Morgue and StrongerLight. Congratulations to you both!
Yes, that's the handsome groom in the kilt and the lovely bride in white, and the official photographer lurking under their feet.Once it got dark, you could even see some of my handiwork in the background against the walls! Thanks to Jenni for letting me use her photo, since I was silly enough to put our camera away rather early in the piece.

I was also lucky enough to meet Giffy for the first time, and hopefully we'll be able to have them down for dinner sometime soon.

Wellington turned on the most beautiful day for the wedding couple and the almost 300 guests who turned up to attend. I betcha they felt popular.

To put that number in perspective, the Civil Union was an open invitation to everyone the bride and groom knew, and the catering was a bring-a-plate/pot-luck affair. And you know what? It really, really worked.

So what did the crew at Freshly Ground contribute to help feed such a mass? Well, full credit goes to Dessert Chef who whipped up a batch of mini-quiches, and they were so nice we made them again for dinner. But the salsa was just something I whipped up at home. Apologies to any of the guests reading this, who may have had one of Dessert Chef's delicious creations but now feels they were shortchanged by not getting a drizzle of this lovely fresh dressing. Now, you can try it yourself!

Bacon Quiche with Fresh Spicy Salsa

(Makes 1 Large or 2 Medium Quiches)

Quiche Ingredients (I'm doing this because my big sister told me to...)
400g bacon, chopped and fried
1 onion, also chopped and fried
3 large Free Range Eggs
1 Cup Grated Cheese
1 Cup Self-Raising Flour
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Peas (Frozen ones are fine)
In a bowl, mix up the fried bacon, onions, cheese, peas, and flour.
Add the eggs and milk and mix well.

Pour into a greased and floured pie dish, and place into the oven at 200C for 25-30mins.
Check the quiche is cooked by putting a knife through the centre. If it comes out clean, it's all done. If not, pop it back in for a few more minutes and check again.

Meanwhile, whip up your salsa (Warning: Uncharacteristic cheat methods ahead).
In a small bowl, chop up 1 inch of cucumber, 1 tomato, 1/8 of a red capsicum, and about 1/4 Cup of Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce. Mix well and leave to sit for a while, preferably in the fridge.
Spoon the salsa over the hot quiche, for a cool, spicy, crunchy contrast to the hot savoury eggy thing on the plate. It's like a salad in disguise.