Capital City of the Week – London

 

I  expect everyone will know this one.  I have tried to show you some lesser known charms of this great city.  The pic above is of St Katherine Docks – just a stone's throw from the Tower. 

 

Kew Palace is a small but beautiful palace in London. 

 

The world sets its time with reference to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich in London. 

 

Karl Marx and George Eliot were buried in Highgate Cemetery 

So where in the world is London?  Not London, Ontario or London, Kentucky or even London, Ohio!

London is the capital of:

 

Hayley Westenra

I have an admission to make.  I don't really listen much to Hayley Westenra.  But one of my blog friends really likes her work and Hayley is from New Zealand so I thought I would post about her.

Hayley is what's known as a Classical Crossover artist – which means that she is classically trained but sings things people like!  She is a UNICEF ambassador – the second youngest ever - which is fantastic.

On 10 April she'll be 27 years old.  Her breakthrough album internationally was Pure.  A women's mag said she got married last December but her father has said that was not true… a mystery….

If you would like to hear her special rendition of Amazing Grace, go over to this YouTube clip.

I guess we should say this to ourselves every day!

 

Gemfish Avocado 'Ravioli'

 

We bought some smoked gemfish at a gala – it's a fish I've never eaten before.  It was smoked in the old fashioned way with no chemicals.  It was quite yummy.

I got the idea for this non-pasta 'ravioli' from Dorie Greenspan.  I used slices of avocado in place of pasta.  So I made a little smoked fish salad:


Flaked smoked fish

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Some Caesar salad dressing (Paul Newman's)

A small amount of chopped red chilli

¼ of a small onion – finely chopped

1 spring onion (scallion) with the green bits snipped with kitchen scissors a la Nigella.

You can prepare this salad to this stage ahead of time but then only add the lemon or lime juice just before assembly of the fish with the avocado.

Love her white gloves!

Vancouver

 

Ok, I hesitated before deciding to do a post about Vancouver.  Why?  Well, I have only been there once – many years ago – and was only there for 4 days – mostly in business meetings.  So I can't honestly say that I know much about the city.  What I did see though made me want to go back – which I still haven't managed.

It was warm when I visited which was a blessing because I certainly don't have the wardrobe for extreme cold.  But I did notice that the buildings in the city were connected at the basement level and I found out that in cold weather you can drive into a parking garage and go around and do your shopping without ever emerging above ground!  A bit mole-like for me.

 

There is a large and vibrant Chinese community in Vancouver (as there is in Auckland too).  This makes for great specialty shopping and food.

People from Vancouver seem to know a bit about New Zealand as well.  I was blown away in a shoe shop when the shop assistant demanded that I say 'Sydney' so she could tell whether I was Australian or Kiwi.  That is one pretty reliable way of sorting the sheep from the goats. Most Aussies will say Seeeeedneeey.

It turns out that quite a lot of NZ troops did R&R in Vancouver during WWII.  And of course both Canada and New Zealand are part of the Commonwealth and have Queen Elizabeth as their Head of State. 

 

What else?  Well there is a great park right in the middle of the city – Stanley Park.  The harbour is pretty and you can drive about ½ hour out of the city and go skiing – not many large cities can say that!

Good Old Betty Crocker!

 

Food on Friday: Middle Eastern Food

 

 

ON

 

This Food on Friday is designed to learn more about Middle Eastern Cuisine – about all I know about it is that preserved lemons are often involved – so it will be a steep learning curve for me.

To add to the collection just put the name of the dish and your name into the first Mr Linky box and paste the url of your post about it into the second box.

If you are a first timer, please let us know in your comment so that we can welcome you to the Food on Friday community.

I'll be pinning your dishes to this Pinboard just as fast as I can manage.

I sure hope so! Today's the day!

 

Need Some Inspiration? Try Quick & Easy

Simple Dark Chocolate Pie with Spiced Cookie Crust

We did put together quite a collection of Quick & Easy dishes for that Food on Friday.  I have selected a few that I found inspirational.  To see the others at a glance you could pop over to this Pinboard.

The first inspirational dish was Milk and Honey's Simple Dark Chocolate Pie with Spiced Cookie Crust.

 

Salt & Pepper Shrimp by In the Kitchen with Kath

 

The Power Lunch Salad by Happy Hearted Kitchen

 

3 Ingredient Sticky Chicken Fingers by Artsy Fartsy Mama

Well, that's one way of looking at it!

Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan

Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan is the first cookbook for absolutely ages that I have felt that I had to have as mine rather than just rely on the library.

Not only is it jam packed with super recipes that seem eminently achievable, it also is full of little titbits about French food and culture.

The first dish that was inspired by this was CheeseStuffed Tomato Bites – I showed you them a few days ago.  Dorie's recipe called for using larger tomatoes but I had cherry tomatoes on hand and decided to give it a go.

I highly recommend this cookbook – a real gem.

March 25 marks the Annunciation

 

The Annunciation by Rosetti

Dijon Chicken breasts

 

These Dijon Chicken Breasts are a French-style take on chicken.  You prepare the chicken by cutting it up into serving size portions.  Paint each one with a good coating of Dijon mustard (I used a pastry brush to do this).  Coat each piece with seasoned breadcrumbs.  And then put them into a roasting dish and drizzle melted butter over them.

Roast them till tender in a medium oven.

Serve with a Dijon sauce – made like this in the roasting pan on the cooktop (once your chicken is set aside to have a little rest):

Sautee diced shallots and garlic in the pan juices and a little more butter.  Season with salt and pepper.

Add 1/3 cup white wine.  Stir and just let it boil for a bit.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice and ½ a cup of cream.  When it boils again stir in 2 spoons of Dijon mustard and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce.  Taste to see if you are happy with the balance of the flavours and the seasoning.

Capital City of the Week – Caracas

This is the most venerated building in Caracas – the National Pantheon.  It is the final resting place of many famous Caracan's.

 

The Federal Capitol in Caracas covers a very large area and is impressive.

 

The East Park provides a green oasis in the city.

So where is Caracas?

  

Caracas is the capital of:

Grahame Sydney - New Zealand artist

This work is called Slow Sign – which is a work by Grahame Sydney – a New Zealand artist who did many works based on the landscape of Central Otago – a fabulous part of the country – and not just because I was born there!

It is of a railway sign that used to say 'Slow' but is now covered over  with the track looking to be disused.
 

And I like this painting of a country letterbox too.  It is called Private Bag.

All his landscapes are devoid of people but do contain man made objects.

The Bishop is a very wise man!

Honey Lemon Beetroot Salad

 

The only problem with this Honey Lemon Beetroot Salad is not to be clumsy and spill it onto your tablecloth like somebody did!  I used canned beetroot but of course you could cook and pickle your own.

The beetroot just has a little finely diced red onion with it – just a couple of slices.

The dressing is made by whisking together:

Zest of half a lemon

Juice of half a lemon

A splash of honey cider vinegar

A spoonful of honey

A splash of Limoncello (optional)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper (I like using white pepper)

Pour the dressing over the beetroot and let it sit for a minimum of 2 hours.  If I had had fresh herbs on had I would have sprinkled some on the top for colour.

Tee hee! Don't you think calculators have robbed us of the ability to do sums?

 

Sailor's Grave

Sailor's Grave Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula is a favourite with surfers. Its surf is apparently pretty reliable.

 

It is a beautiful beach accessed off State Highway 25.  There is indeed a sailor's grave on the beach reserve.  22 year old William Sampson, a sailor on the British Navy ship HMS Tortoise drowned in the surf in 1842.  His grave is surrounded by a little white picket fence.  It was rare in those days for a sailor to be buried on land.

 A lovely place to visit.

Love this old ad... makes me crave lemon jelly!

 

Food on Friday: Coconut

ON

 

Food on Friday: Coconut is looking for dishes which use any part of the coconut – coconut water (which seems to be 'in' right now), milk, cream, fresh coconut, desiccated coconut, coconut essence – whatever.

I'll be pinning the dishes to this Pinboard – if you pop over to it you will be able to see the dishes at a glance and choose which ones to check out in detail.

To add a dish to the collection just pop your name and the name of the dish into the first Mr Linky box and paste the url of your post about it into the second one.

You don't need to leave a comment if you're a regular, but if you're a first timer please do leave a comment so we can welcome you to the Food on Friday community!

Have coconutty fun!

 PS  For some other inspiration head over to this Need Some Inspiration post

Lovely, all right!

 

Need Some Inspiration? Try Candies & Sweets

Isabelle at Home's Salted Caramel Nut Brittle

Oh boy, Food on Friday: Candies & Sweets was a cause of great sugar craving – but what fun to see the over 80 dishes linked in.  Here are a handful of them that particularly caught my eye.

To see them all at a glance just pop over to this Pinboard.

The first pic is of Isabelle at Home's Salted Caramel Nut Brittle.

 

Flavz Corner brought these Marshmallow Pops to the table

 

Dark Chocolate Covered Spiced Orange Slices by Craving Something Healthy

 

And for something a bit different Bacon Brittle by Jo and Sue

Blackcurrant Cake Pops by Rachel Cotterill

Old Fashioned Fudge by turnips 2 tangerines