Year end

I'm sitting in a hotel room somewhere in eastern Victoria, on the south coast of Australia. In the dark, so I don't wake Miss B up. With the world's slowest internet connection, so I can't even look up the name of the town we're in. Which I can't remember after the bottle of pinot noir my sister and I polished off at dinner. Also I seriously doubt I'll be able to upload a photo (see: slow internet connection).

BUT. I couldn't let 2008 end without one last post to say Happy New Year to all! I don't think I'll make it even close to midnight, but I wish you the New Year's Eve of your dreams (whether that's whooping it up on the town until the wee hours, or tucked up in bed at 10pm), and all sorts of good things in 2009.

Happy Holidays

Wherever you are in the world, and whatever you're celebrating--Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, Boxing Day, Festivus--I wish you and yours the very happiest of holidays!

Avocado challenge

Since I announced the Cookbook Challenge three weeks ago, I thought it was about time that I posted about what kind of progress I've been making.

The cookbook Real Fast Food (350 Recipes Ready-To-Eat in 30 Minutes) by Nigel Slater

I had an unexpectedly difficult time finding five recipes from this book that I wanted to make and that I thought at least DP, if not DP and Miss B, would want to eat.

The first recipe Avocado with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

The ingredients
2 pieces of streaky/American bacon
2 tomatoes (skinned if you have time) and diced*
3 T red wine vinegar**
50 ml/2 oz olive oil**
2 T Dijon mustard
2 ripe avocadoes***

Cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces and fry. When it has crisped up, throw in the tomatoes, the vinegar and the olive oil. Stir in the mustard and stir to heat and combine.

Halve, stone and peel the avocadoes, place two halves on each plate and slice into thick wedges.**** Pour over the dressing and serve hot.

*I only had cherry tomatoes, so I substituted about 5 for each tomato. I did not skin them.

**I had homemade vinaigrette in the fridge, so I substituted that.

***I only used one avocado. But I made the same amount of dressing as suggested for two.

****I didn't peel or slice the avocado, just halved it and poured the dressing over. Very retro.

The presentation I served this as a side to steak sandwiches with blue cheese sauce on homemade rolls. We also had oven chips.

The verdict Miss B was vehemently uninterested in this entire meal (which I had expected), and had leftover pasta and broccoli instead. I figured I could sell DP on this, since it contains one of the ‘magic’ ingredients (the other one is cream) guaranteed to pique his interest in a new dish, and I was right. He liked it, but didn’t rave about it. I liked it in and of itself, but with the other dishes it made for a lot of different--and not necessarily harmonious--flavors. I’d probably make it again, but next time I think I'll have it for lunch and enjoy it on its own, with maybe just some good bread. It's very filling. Also, next time, I’ll stick to the recommended proportions of dressing and avocado. There was a lot of dressing.