Best-laid plans

Drat. Sometimes they just don't work out the way we'd hoped.

This morning looked sunny and bright, so I thought, Yippee, burgers on the barbie! I even bought two ears of corn for the occasion.

But then. just a little while ago, it started raining -- and not just a fuzzy drizzle, this looks like the real thing.

That was enough to make me turn on the oven and slice up some potatoes for baked fries. Only right after I popped them in there, I remembered the corn!

The Dear Man is such a trouper, he made the burgers outside anyway, claiming they don't taste the same otherwise. He also cooked up one of the eggplants from the garden, so instead of sliced cheese topping our burgers, we've got sliced eggplant. Not as weird as some toppings -- in Australia, the traditional add-on's a fried egg.

Oh well, tomorrow night it'll be corn and somethin'...

Something light for a busy day

It's been a busy day here -- things to do in the city, a pickup at the airport, and then finishing off a project I've been working on here at home.

When it got dark enough to turn on some lights (earlier and earlier these days), I decided it would probably perk me up to eat something.

Break time meant something quick (just me tonight, and that project I'm working on is sooo near completion...), so one of those hurry-up stand-by meals just sort of happened.

A tin of tomato soup, mixed up with milk -- then, for comfort's sake, a bunch of broken up crackers.

Early birthday celebrations

Tomorrow is the day that's actually the Dear Man's birthday, only he's not going to be home for supper tomorrow night. Instead, he's spending the day doing what's dearest to his heart -- playing golf. He's participating in a tournament and a fancy dinner is part of the event.

I've got heaps to do tomorrow too, so it's just as well to have our celebratory meal tonight. Dear-hearted man that he is, his request was a simple one: he wanted an assortment of takeaway from the local Greek place. Really, how hard was that? It's no wonder he's known as the D.M.

Dessert (not a birthday cake) was also super easy. A couple of pieces of baklava, accompanied by a first-time (for both of us) taste treat, fresh dates. The dates didn't taste anything like what I'd imagined. More like tiny, rather juiceless apples. Still, they went perfectly with the honeyed baklava.

Wild Friday Night

I'm sorry to disappoint, but the wildest thing about tonight is probably the addition of the wild mushrooms to tonight's pasta sauce. We found a small but interesting assortment of mushrooms in the forest last weekend.

The ones we're using tonight are cracked boletes. They have a rich flavour and nice texture, and provide a good contrast to the spicy sausages that also helped flavour the sauce.

And hey, who knows. It is Friday. It may still turn a bit wild after all.

Short order supper

If my mother were alive, she'd attest that when I was little I liked doing things for myself. An example of this was placing my own order when we went out to eat. Apparently my standard choice was a grilled cheese 'sammich' and a glass of chocolate milk.

Tonight sees me hosting an event where four writers will be doing short readings of their work. To ensure I get out of here early enough, supper's a short order affair.

It's the same order as long ago, grilled cheese, though I'll admit the 'sammich' is a slightly more grown-up version -- on multigrain bread. There's even a sliced up tomato tucked inside.

But yep, I still like a glass of chocolate milk to go with it!

First barbecue of the season

Autumn, that is.

The Dear Man cooked up some chicken thighs on the barbie. Have to admit, I love the smells of that.

Besides the usual green salad, I made a tabbouleh too -- using lots of parsley and mint from the garden. Some fresh homous and pita breads and we're even eating outside. Why? Because we can -- not a situation we can count on much longer.

Not quite Julia

After seeing an old rerun of Julia Child's cooking show, I got inspired to try making some real omelettes -- not my usual poor excuse of scrambled eggs with peppers or mushrooms cooked in. The fact that we had a few fresh chanterelles to put into them seemed like a clear go-ahead.

Once I'd started cooking the mushrooms, I discovered we only had two eggs, not the four I'd had in mind as waiting in the carton. Still, I was committed, so pulled out some additions to make the meal work.

Because this has been an outdoors kind of day (sunny and beautiful!), I knew that appetites would be big, so I also cooked a few slices of bacon and some pre-made broccoli bites. Sliced tomato and avocado worked just fine as a salad. And in the end, though I don't quite have the knack of Julia's wrist action with the skillet, I think this supper worked out just fine.