three things

well, that sauce sat in my fridge for about a grand total of 4 hours before i was forced to do somethign with it. gnocchi. oooooooo.... can anything be more comforting that a big plate of freshly made potato gnocchi.

there are three things that people think are difficult to make and pay a fortune for: pizza, gnocchi and risotto (oh, and jiaozi, but this is a european food post). these are three things that i really resent paying restaurant prices for, because i know how cheap and easy they are to make at home. i always make extra gnocchi, for work lunches and the like, and it's always a great temptation just to eat the whole lot in one go. i've found the trick is to make the first serve really small, so you can still have a second helping, but not eat the lot. todays batch were particularly silky and delicious. i normally cook them in a tomato, bacon and chilli sauce, so the batch of sugo i did this morning was perfect for this.

as i mentioned yesterday, since i started this blog, only a month or so ago, a lot of it has been about food. and while writing it i've realised just how many other food bloggers there are out there. and there are lots of women out there who can eat what they want and not put on a gram. i am about as far away from being one of those people as it is possible to be. i look at butter and i gain a kilo. the only reason i am not totally enormous (and trust me, there's plenty of me to go around), is a reasonable attempt at self control and the love of the pool and my bike.

however, not only are there hundreds of food bloggers, they all seem to be talking about dessert. now i'm more of a gnocchi person than i am a dessert person, but all of a sudden i have a million desserts i want to try, like dulce de leche cheescake squares. not something i should be putting in my mouth. errrr... and tomorrow i'm making cupcakes. these should be interesting, I have lots of different flavours to try (i bought tequilla today, say no more). so tomorrow's post should be a good 'un.

oh, and if there is anyone out there who acutally reads this (and i'm pretty sure there isn't), the spell check on blogger has given up the ghost, so please excuse my horrible spelling. it gets worse when i type.

roasted

just an hour later and this is what my tomatoes look like now. leaning over them to take this photo the smell was so divine i could have just eaten them whole straight from the roasting pan.

sugo

my lazy weekend started with a ride (not lazy i know) to the bottle shop for minatures for my cupcake hero cakery tomorrow, and to get bottles of wiltons colouring for the same purpose.

then it was home to roast some tomatoes. this is them before they went in the oven (with a head of garlic of course)

i'm not italian - curses - so there are no fields of lovely vine ripe tomoatoes in my back garden, or zias and zios gallore to help fire up the copper and cap the bottles of sauce... so i got mine at the markets and am roasting them in the oven. and only enough to last a week or so, because i can't bottle them so they're just going in the fridge. but i think it with be gnocchi tonight, which will also give the less than new potatoes in my cupboard a home, and tomorrow it will be pizza.

lazy weekend

when i first started boringhistory girl, it was supposed to be about history. i envisioned myself regaling the world with tales of second century african bath houses (a favourite topic of mine. no - really) and the delicacies of athenian red figure pottery (another great read). However all it seems to be about is food. maybe i should rename it to boringgreedygirl. of course i am that too, but at the heart of it i am boringhistorygirl, as any of my friends will tell you.

but this weekend i am boringstayathomeonmyownandeatandcookgirl. mmmm.... it’s been one hell of a week, so after work i went to the central markets and shopped up big. adelaide is often thought of as being a little slow, the leader of a rival state recently referred to it as a backwater. And quite frankly, it is. it does, however, have a few redeeming qualities, and the central markets is top of the list. i like to think i’ve seen a little bit of the world, but nowhere have a encountered a food market like adelaide’s. barcelona was the closest i’ve come, and it was still a long way off.

of course it’s chinese new year too. xin nian hao to all you sinophiles out there. so i should be cooking chinese food. But i’ve a hankering for italian. lots of pasta and lots and lots of pizza. so i got a tonne of tomatoes and i’m making sauce tomorrow morning and then turning it into all sorts of lovely things. got two very large bags of flour. one for pizza dough, and one for cupcakes. but more about that later.

at any rate expect lots of food related posts this weekend.

on an entirely different note – dinosaurs. lovely greggie gave me a dinosaur egg during the week. he could tell i was stressed i think. photos of the birth available thanks to the nice folk at flickr.

synopsis

the last week or so has been totally mad!

firstly work has been really demanding. after the departure of the best boss in the world, i have been working my arse off whilst trying to get the most important event of the organisation's year off the ground. this has involved me sucking up to both the governor and the minster (through their respective people), which is something i really hate doing! ooopps... just remembered no one is meeting the minister while she arrives. must email self to get this fixed!

but now to the fun stuff. BDO on Friday was just wonderful. Arcade Fire were completely amazing, it's been a long time since i've seen anyone as good live. pleeeeeease let them tour here again soon! also caught some of billy bragg, the hilltop hoods and bjork, who were also all good. too many bogans there though - tony was right. but managed to get home at a reasonable hour and stone cold sober.

this meant that i was able to get up nice and early to start the cooking for young luke's christening on the sunday. he's such a cutie. i've never been to a christening before (and all my friends thing i'm catholic), and it was quite interesting. lainiebird’s family are somewhat mad and heavy drinkers, but there is no surprise there and i had a lovely time. But again was totally exhausted and had to crawl home to bed early.

this weekend i have promised myself a quiet one, with lots of baking. I will go to the markets on the way home from work and do my food shopping and then stop in and prepare my entry(s) for my first ever cupcake hero event. It’s liquor this month, which has given me so much food for thought i can’t tell you. also had a package waiting for me when i got home, and had the terrible melvin twins for dinner, so all is good with the world.

child of god

today was luke's christening, and having done the catering i am again too tired to think. i would like to be able to say that this cake was done by me. however it was done by his father, who can be a prat sometimes but is also a pastry chef, so i'll let him get away with making a better cake than me. the rest of the photos are here

tired and emotional

although i could of, i didn't. never do at the big day out, but always seem to get the age verification band any way
just got in and am too tired to write much, other than arcade fire were brilliant! long day tomorrow, so i am off to sleepy poos.