Last night I went to Baguette in Ascot, for dinner with Michelle.  Baguette is an award winning restaurant / lounge bar with stellar service and pretty awesome food.  We went for a three course meal, as they have a $39 special running over January / February on mediterranean platters.

We had a French platter which consisted of

• Duck and Pork Terrine, Cornichons and Toast
• Crusted Loin of Veal with French Peas
• Pear and Almond Tart with Sauce Anglaise

The service was outstanding and the meals were excellent.  Definitely worthy of a few return visits.

My housemate Michael is Scottish, so he cooked a Haggis for Burns Supper day (January 25th).  We had a few guests over, he recited the (very funny) poem by Robert Burns, and we partook of Haggis and Tatties!

This is based on a recipe I snatched for Spinach and Mushroom Frittata, but modified a little to add extra vegetables.

Ingredients

• 4 Eggs
• 250g Ricotta Cheese
• 100g Frozen Spinach, thawed and broken up
• 125g grated Parmesan Cheese
• 70g chopped Portabella Mushrooms
• 50g finely chopped Shallots
• 1 sliced Zucchini
• 1 sliced Carrot
• 50g Pecans
• 1tsp Italian Herbs
• 1tsp Salt
• Spray Oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190° celsius
2. Microwave roast the pecans for about a minute
3. In a mixing bowl combine beaten eggs, ricotta, 1/2 of the parmesan cheese, herbs and salt
4. Combine spinach with the mix
5. Combine the rest of the vegetables and the pecans, folding in so that the egg / ricotta mix is mixed thoroughly
6. Spray oil a casserole dish or baking dish and carefully pour the mixture in
7. Scatter the remaining parmesan over the mix
8. Place in oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the frittata is set and the parmesan topping has browned
9. Cool for approximately 15 minutes

Spent the early hours of last night in a haze of rumination, not really achieving much.

Discovered (or more rightly, was pointed toward by jeze) an awesome mexican industrial group Hocico (Ugliness), and was enjoying a bit of them yesterday while running query after query after query. Been rediscovering some older loved music of late too, it’s funny the things you forget, and then look upon with renewed fondness, almost as if they are new, once you remember them and look them up again.

Checked out Jetts on Lang Parade (Milton), did a nice rounded half hour treadmill session and weights before taking the bus home in a sweaty mess. I forgot a towel – was all good though. Stopped at subway and chowed down.

Trivia tonight. Should be ok!

Day thus far: Waking up at an ungodly hour then rolling over and denying consciousness for an hour or so, then getting up, internetting on my eeepc til the bus was due, then bussing into the city and enjoying french toast with strawberries and a macchiato, then bussing again to Dave’s at Red Hill, before going to Virginia BCF to pick up a nice light tent, a sleeping bag rated to -5 degrees, and a camping chair.  Incidentally I’m now a member of the BCF club so I guess I’m really Australian now or something.  Then we stopped off at Treacle for lunch, where I had a rather nice chicken & vegetable pie with salad, and a decaf iced mocha.  Bloody lovely.  Finally home, attempting to bask in a breeze after a tepid shower.

Last weekend smigit, jeze and myself decided to try our hand at making some sushi rolls.  It went very well, all things considered!