PW Meal

101 in 1001 Goal No. 96

I'm pressing on with my sorely neglected list. I know it'll be impossible to achieve all 101 goals but I still have to try.

When I first got The Pioneer Woman's first cookbook, I went through it and marked off all the recipes I wanted to try. Then I got it in my head to cook an entire meal consisting only of recipes from her book.  I had envisioned preparing 3-5 different recipes for that meal.

Then reality hit.

I realized that most of the recipes serve 6-8 people and I believe they're generally geared towards ranch folk who likely burn ten times more calories than the average person. If I went with my original plan, I'd likely have enough food to feed my little family for a week, or we'd all be grossly overstuffed and we'd never want to eat again. Plus, can you even get Lawry's seasoned salt in Australia?

So after a little change of plans, and because the weather is getting cooler, I made Pioneer Woman's roast with her mashed potatoes as suggested in her recipe.

It was delicious, as expected.

Next time I'll add more veggies though. Maybe even double the amount because they're so tasty.

My mashed potatoes got a little (ahem) caramelized in the boiling process. We completely forgot about them and by the time we remembered the water was all gone and the potatoes were browning. They turned out super tasty anyway.

Vietnamese Grilled Pork, Rice Paper Rolls and Soup

A couple weeks ago, I returned from Toronto with a renewed appetite for good food.

Everytime someone asks me what I miss about home, food will invariably make the list.

The one type of food I have found here that is on par in quality, flavour and value with the stuff available at home is Vietnamese food.

But I can't very well go out and buy it whenever I have a craving. So I decided to try making some grilled pork using this recipe.

It was definitely labour intensive. And I have never combined so many ingredients with such strong, individual flavours before. I was a little worried towards the end that I somehow misread the recipe and ruined the 4 pounds of meat Andrew so laboriously sliced up for me.

But I stuck to the recipe, left it to marinate overnight and grilled it the next day. It took a long time. However, the end result was so tasty I might actually make it again. Or maybe use a less labour intensive recipe that a friend sent me recently.

Anyway, here's the final result.

With the leftovers, I simply combined the ingredients and rolled them up in rice paper. Less mess and less clean-up the next day is always good in my books.

I'm going to go ahead and count this as two Asian dishes, plus the soup I made that same day makes three. I have 2 dishes remaining to achieve my goal. What should I make?

Chicken Rice

I've been craving chicken rice for the past week or so, but since we no longer live in Toowong, we also no longer have quick and easy access to decent Chinese food.

We very loosely followed this chicken rice recipe.

Let's just say that while our second batch of rice was extremely tasty, we'll probably leave this one to the experts.

Looks alright though.

This is Asian dish number 19 of 24.

Ninja Ornaments

What does our home need?

More ninjas!

I found this super cute ninja ornament idea on Pinterest and I knew I had to make a set.

Can you see the little guys hiding in our tree?


Here's a better look of one of the little dudes:


I think they're especially adorable because I used the mini ornaments to make them.

A Night At The Drive-In

We were cooped up at home all last week and by Saturday, I was desperate to get out of the house. The only problem was that I was having a lot of trouble breathing and even walking was hard on my lungs. I needed fresh air, but I also needed to just sit.

So just for fun, I decided to look up drive-in theatres to see if there were any nearby. And there was! It turns out that Tivoli Drive-In is just a 25 minute drive from where we live, they had a good kid's movie playing this past weekend (A Bug's Life), and best of all, they have free admission until the end of December.


It was the perfect combination for us. And though we were still coughing, I was determined not to let this opportunity pass us by.

The night air was beautiful - just the right temperature for us to have the windows rolled down without having to worry about bugs bothering us.


This time around, I made some quesadillas and cut up some fresh strawberries and watermelon for us to eat in the car. If we go again on a warmer night, we might grab a nice ice cream treat from the cafe!


I wish I could have taken pictures to capture the boys' reactions.

Caleb was so fascinated by the pictures moving on the huge screen. He was cheering as he watched for the first little while. Caleb also loved standing half out the window, banging on the door and calling out to our neighbours.

Nathan sat in Andrew's lap and you could see how happy he was to be sitting in his daddy's lap watching a movie. His eyes were bright and his little laughs and giggles could melt your heart. I'm so glad he enjoyed the movie.


It was a magical night for me.

I wanted our first drive-in experience to be a good one, and I'd say it definitely was.

Asian Food (Round 6)

Chicken karaage

We still have no clue how "karaage" is actually pronounced because each time we order it, the server says it differently. But, this was one of those dishes we had at a restaurant and decided we must try to make it ourselves at home.

Here's the one we had at the restaurant:


Here's the one we made at home:


Okay, so our presentation isn't all there. It's something we've been trying to work on, but really, when your hungry child is calling to you, telling you how he's ravenous and wants to eat now, presentation falls to the bottom of your priority list.

Anyway, we learned how to make the brown sauce and found that the thing that "made" this dish was a combination of that and Japanese mayonnaise. Delicious.


Fish with corn and rice

Not sure how else to call it, but that's what it's known as in our home. This one was a favourite of Nathan's back in Toronto. Every single time we ate at a Chinese restaurant, he would request to have this dish. Since coming to Brisbane, he's moved on to lemon chicken but I decided to make it again tonight.


Yes, that is fish. For whatever reason, I suggested Andrew bread the fish with panko crumbs instead of corn starch. And I added an egg to the corn sauce which may be why it's so incredibly bright yellow and stiff. Doesn't look amazing but Nathan loved it and requested it for lunch.

And with that, I'm now at 16/24 dishes. My motivation to cook has been severely low lately but I'm hoping it'll pick up again soon.

Byron Bay - Things To Eat

We arrived at Byron Bay around dinner time, and after checking in at our accommodations, we set out to look for something to eat. As we wandered the streets, we made note of several viable options including Subway, but we wanted to try a new restaurant. We kept walking, heading towards the beach until we spotted a seedy bunch huddled in front of a store on the sidewalk. That's when we decided it might be safest to just head back to the restaurant closest to where we were staying and save the sightseeing for when the sun was out. So we ended up at Earth N Sea.

Earth N Sea is a family friendly restaurant featuring pizza and pasta with a very homey feel. Everything on the menu sounded delicious and after all that walking around in the breezy night air, I was ready to eat something warm and hearty.


I ordered a lasagna, Andrew had their carbonara pasta and Nathan had the kid's tortellini (on Andrew's "recommendation") and we all went to bed (early) that night stuffed and satisfied.

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After watching the sunrise at the lighthouse, we were starving and unfortunately, there weren't a lot of places open for breakfast at 7:30am. The cafe up at the lighthouse didn't open until 9am (depending on the weather) and that didn't work for us at all so we headed back into town in search for some food. After consulting Around Me (thank goodness for iPhones!), we discovered a cafe with good ratings just up the street from where we stayed.

Bayleaf Cafe had a very relaxed vibe and was full of regulars. The server seemed to know everyone who walked in, hugged every other person and sat down with us at our table as she took our orders. A really friendly place.

At first glance, I was a little worried about their tiny menu. But seeing as how I made my first glance as I was marching my entire family into the cafe, I didn't have much time or opportunity to change my mind. So we sat at the window seat at a large communal table and looked over the menu, which happened to printed out on a regular piece of A4 paper. Nothing fancy at all but I kind of liked that.


I shared a stack of pancakes with Nathan and Andrew had eggs benny. I also had a beautiful cappuccino that the server recommended. Sorry, no pictures of Nathan. He was sitting on my lap complaining that it was cold because we sat beside the open window even though he was the one who chose our seats.

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Fishheads came highly recommended by one of my new mommy friends. Her exact words were: "Get take-away from Fish Heads. Don't eat in their restaurant. Just get take-away and eat on the beach". So that's exactly what we did. We ordered a Meal for Two, set up our mat on the beach and ate.


The only problem with showing up on the beach with a box full of food was the seagulls that surrounded us, like that scene in Lion King when the hyenas surrounded Simba. Luckily, we had Nathan, our trusty seagull chaser. He ran circles around our mat, chasing the seagulls far away before coming back to eat the rest of his meal.

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We stumbled upon O Sushi one night as we searched for dinner. It was rainy, we were hungry and Caleb was crying so we needed to make a quick decision. I was a little skeptical because places with signs boasting itself as the "National Winner of the 2010 I ♥ Food Awards" can go either way. It's either really good and costs a lot, or mediocre and costs a lot. I should've went with my gut because this place was mediocre and cost way more than it was worth.


It's basically a sushi train place with some more unique items on the menu, which I suppose is how they won the award? I'm no expert, but I didn't think it was anything special. Who eats haloumi at a Japanese restaurant anyway?

We ended up grabbing a dish or two and once Nathan was full, we left. Andrew ate a lot of fruit when we got home and I lost my appetite at some point between reading their ridiculously priced menu and dealing with crappy service.

Asian Food (Round 5)

This time around, I went with some old favourites straight from my mom and dad's kitchen. These dishes don't have any fancy names like on the cooking shows or in cook books. My parents made them, we ate them. That was that.

First up: ribs.


Then, because we were sick, congee. Loaded with chicken, wombok and ginger.


And lastly, because you need something to go along with the congee, scallion pancakes.


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I'm very pleased to say that Nathan did not cry this time we had congee.

The first time I made congee back in Toronto, we served it for dinner and for no apparent reason, Nathan burst into tears and refused to eat it. Needless to say, I was slightly taken aback. I mean, I know my food won't be served in any five-star restaurant any time soon but I didn't think it was that bad.

This time around, there were no tears. In fact, Nathan really enjoyed it an asked for it the next night. Hurrah!

Asian Food (Round 4)

It's been a while since I've cooked a new Asian dish so the other night, we made a quick one.

Pork Cutlet.


On sushi rice with brown sauce.

I admit, this is a little weak. To be honest, it's been a little difficult thinking of other Asian dishes we enjoy that I'm motivated enough to cook. I have a few more dishes on my list to cross off, but right our count is up to 11 so we have a little way to go.

So I need some suggestions here, people.