Italian Dinner Feast

On Sunday night I had a group of friends over for the first of my winter dinner feasts.  The theme for night was Italian.  As always I had to cook a three course meal with each course being something I'd never done before (practice is ok).  So, the entree was pizza, the main fettuccine marinara with home made pasta and dessert was panna cotta with blueberries.

I had made pizza a few months ago and was rather happy with the way it all worked out.  I used Jamie Oliver's recipe and instructions for how to make the base.  That guy is genius.  His instructions are always simple to understand with just enough detail.  You can almost put anything on a pizza but I think the trick is to not over do it.  I went with a tomato, prosciutto and basil and a red onion, pumpkin, pine nuts and rocket.  Oh and I used Buffalo cheese which is so tasty. Usually I'm a little tight for time with preparations but this time I had all the ingredients chopped up and ready to go.  The pizza base was a little thicker than last time but the result was pretty good.  I used a bit of semolina flour and that gave the base a bit more flavour.

Making your own pasta is a lot more rewarding and more fun than I thought it would be.  Last weekend I bought a pasta machine and had a crack at making fettuccine.  Given the only ingredients are flour and eggs you'd think it would be straight forward.  There are a few little tricks which I was to learn the hard way.  Getting the texture of the dough right is pretty important.  It can be a bit difficult to roll out the pasta if it's too dry and if it's too wet the dough will stick together and you'll end up cursing away like I did.  The pasta machine works really well.  The pasta comes out really smooth and silky.  When you get the hang of it, it's quite quick to make a batch.  I've got two friends to vouch for that.  They came over a little early and ended up making a portion of pasta from scratch in 25 mins.  Jamie would be proud, he taught me and I passed it on to two others.  Fresh pasta cooks much faster than packet pasta and getting it to be al dente is also much easier.

This feast had two firsts.  It was the first dinner feast in my new place and it was the first time that the main meal's recipe was completely made up by yours truly. I did get some inspiration from a few recipes and Gill's Diner which by the way makes the best marinara.  I started off boiling white wine, a couple of thyme sprigs, a bay leaf and a bit of butter in a big pot.  I then cooked the mussels until they started to open.  Next was the prawns.  I then let the stock boil away until I had enough to use with the pasta.  In a frypan I cooked a couple of salmon fillets.  Next was to fry up some chilli, french onions and garlic in a good amount of olive oil.  With that all done I was ready to mix it all together, add some parsley and lime juice.  Using the stock gave the meal a lot more flavour and by the six clean plates I'd say it was a success.

And last but not least was the panna cotta, well sort of.  I went to a cooking class at the South Melbourne markets last year and they did a slightly different version of a panna cotta.  Instead of being a full cream recipe, I used half cream and half greek yoghurt.  It's really quite simple to make.  I would recommend getting the gelatine sheets instead of the powder.

Overall, I had a great night and really enjoyed learning how to make each course.  There were lots of laughs and a cheeky new challenge was started.  We had red Italian wine and even dessert wine.  Thanks to all for coming.  The next one is Indian.  Hmmmm.  Curry.

Luck

I found out last week that I hadn't won the 7 peaks challenge prize.  I knew the odds were pretty low but I still had high hopes of winning an awesome trip for 2 to the Tour De France.  I'm certainly a believer that you make your own luck and although I had to climb 4 peaks to get a ticket in the draw I'd still consider winning the draw pure luck. 

On my ride home from work I started cursing at the fact that for all the competitions I've entered I've won nothing.  Why did I not having any luck what so ever.  Then I started thinking about other events in my life where I've had pure luck.  The first one that came to mind was my parents' decision to move from South Africa to Australia.  I certainly had nothing to do with that decision but would consider that to be the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me.  If I was given a choice between winning lots for prizes or moving to a place with endless opportunities I'd take the latter every time.

If anyone hears me cursing about having no luck give me a good slap.

Summer Alpine Tour

It's a bit late but better late than never.  Here is my write up on the awesome cycling trip I had over the new year's break.

Some people like to ride along beach road, some people like to ride in the city, others like to ride in the hills but I like to ride in the mountains.  As do two of my other good friends Rachel and Brendan.  So over the new years weekend we travelled up to Porepunkah (just outside of Bright) where we embarked upon an epic alpine cycling adventure.  We have all entered into a competition called the Seven Peak Challenge where by if you climb 7 of the peaks in the Victorian Alps you get 4 chances to win a trip for 2 to the Tour de France.  How good is that!

The exact plans were still in the making on the long drive up from Melbourne.  We were feeling pretty energetic and confident so made an ambitious plan to tackle Mt Buffalo, Mt Hotham and Falls Creek.  That would tick off 3 out of the 7 in 1 trip which is not bad at all.  The adventure started on a hot Friday afternoon.  At 5pm we set out to ascend Mt Buffalo.  I was feeling pretty solid and kept up a good rhythm for the first 1 hour of the climb.  Fatigue then started to set in and the pace dropped off a bit as I tried to recover my form.  We got some relief towards the top before the last tough 3km on gravel road.  After 31km and 1:45 of climbing I reached the horn feeling pretty tired.  After waiting for the others to arrive we all descended back into town.  The only thing on our minds was food and where to get it.  Eventually, lights went out around 11:30pm and we needed all the sleep we could get for the next morning as Mt Hotham awaited us.

We awoke to another beautiful morning in the Victorian Alps.  The legs felt a little heavy but generally speaking were not too bad.  With breakfast in the belly we set out for another challenging day.  Given the previous days effort we decided to start out from Smoko which I think in hindsight was a very good idea.  The climb up Mt Hotham is arguably the toughest in the Alps.  The first 10km's has a pretty steep gradient.  I found a good rhythm and seemed to make good progress early on.  The next section is rather flat but for some reason that's how I started feeling.  I had an energy gell just over half way and that seemed to help because when I reached 10km to go I started feeling more energised.  The last third of the climb is just magnificent.  You come out of the tree line where a 360 degree view of the alps comes into view.  With lots of cyclists in front of me on the road I had flash backs to this years Tour de France and the battle between Cadel and Andy Schlek.  I was almost in the red zone by the time I reached the 1km to go mark.  Granny gear was now unavoidable and as I made my way around the last corner the summit ski lift came into view and relief started to flow through the veins.  After 30km and 1:44 of climbing I finally reached the finishing line.  Brendan had again gone back to ride with Rach and they rocked up not far behind me.  It was a pretty good feeling getting to the top especially considering this was one of the hardest climbs you can do in Australia.  The descent down was rather fun except for the 2 short but rather steep climbs at the start.  Lunch awaited us in Bright but not before a quick dip in the Ovens river.  The rest of our new year's eve was spent chilling back at the motel followed by a BBQ on the back deck looking out over the Oven's river with the sun setting behind Mt Buffalo in the background.  Awesome!

The new year had arrived and what a way to start with a morning ride in the Alps.  My plan was to head out to Tawonga Gap and back.  The other two were planning on continuing on for another 60km.  Crazy!  By the time we got to Tawonga, about a 9km climb, Rach had decided to head back with me.  Brendan on the other hand powered on for what ended up to be a 110km ride.  Super effort from him.  With Brendan still on the road Rach and I headed into town to get us all lunch.  We had chicken and salad sandwiches in mind.  We didn't have any sharp knifes with us so needed someone to cut up a chicken for us.  Thankfully the lovely staff at the Bright Woolworths cut up a fresh and hot BBQ chicken for us.  We were very impressed with their service and so decided to make the effort and tell the store manger what a great job his staff were doing.  We figured people are very good at complaining but not so good at rewarding.  Once again we sat out on the back deck having a well earned meal.

The final day in our epic adventure started at Mt Beauty.  We met up with some other cycling friends and so the 5 of us set out to tackle Falls Creek.  This would arguably be the easiest of all the climbs which is just as well given it was the last one.  We stayed together for the first 13km and the pace was nice and easy.  Once we arrived at the steeper part of the climb it was on for young and old.  Brendan as usual took the lead and I just tried to keep up.  After 3 days of some intense cycling I was feeling pretty good and quickly found a decent rythm.  I could see Brendan in the distance and slowly started catching him before he then pulled away in the last 5kms. After 30kms and 1:31 of climbing I reached the top.

And so after 4 days and 4 climbs our adventure had come to an end.  Rach and I ended up doing 280kms over the 4 days and Brendan did 325kms.  I've always enjoyed climbing hills on the bike but this trip just took that enjoyment to a new level.  Thanks to Rach and Brendan for a great trip.  You guys rock.