My Favourite Things – A Weekend Away

I’ve been a bit slack on the blog recently, the Tour de France puts a bit of a dent in my ability to think straight and I’m not sure that writing blog posts in a state of sleep deprivation is a good idea. I had meant to post during the tour, tantalising you all with gorgeous photos of our annual TDF French Feast, however we were all starving and ate it before I could take photos!

However, this post does have its origins in this sleep deprived period as we were lucky enough to attend a big screen presentation of the stage where they went up Alpe d’huez twice! In honour of this big event (and because it doesn’t take much to talk me into trying a new restaurant) a group of us decided to make a night of it and have dinner at Marrakesh before. This was perhaps a mistake, not because the food was terrible – far from it, but because we were a bit too pressed for time. Marrakesh is a Moroccan restaurant that is not just about food, but atmosphere and culture and we did it a great disservice in having a time limit on our visit. Our host, Mohammed, was generous and entertaining and we have all promised that we will go back there for a far more leisurely meal soon.

So by now you are probably wondering when I will get to the point! Mohammed gifted us with a magazine that contained some of the recipes we sampled at his establishment. This past weekend I finally made a visit to my sister, to whom at some time previously I had given a tagine as a gift. She didn’t know how to use it, so armed with Mohammed’s recipe, I decided to teach her!

Sheer awesomeness and a couscous salad

For those of you wondering what a tagine is, it’s a clay cooking pot. It’s also awesome in that it has this magical ability to turn anything you put into it into the best tasting food ever. Or at least mine has, and all evidence points to my sisters having the same ability!

So I picked my favourite dish from Marrakesh, the Lamb Afrah Tagine, and convinced her that we were going to make it. I’m not going to share the recipe, since it’s not really mine to share, but feel free to go to Marrakesh and try it for yourselves. 

The banner says it all!

The gourmet weekend actually started before I left Adelaide, with a visit to Vege Velo and an investigation of the new "Cake Bike". Vege Velo is a wonderful bike propelled vegetarian food proprietor that has become an Adelaide favourite over the past year and the cake bike is a new addition featuring vegan desserts. Given that both CLP and I have difficulty making decisions, we decided to get two brownies and a slice of coconut cake to share between us. It's a good thing we ride a lot! CLP and I both agreed that the cake bike was a resounding success and vegan desserts were apparently awesome! 

Who knew vegan could be this good?

It tasted better than it looked

And it looked better on the inside

So after managing to leave Adelaide with a tummy full of cake (which was a good thing since the plane was delayed) I made it to Melbourne. After a good nights rest, my sister and I went out to collect the ingredients for the tagine. Because you can never have too much of a good thing, we acquired two cooking books while shopping for ingredients, which inspired us to cook an apple strudel for dessert.


We also threw together my staple couscous salad, which is loosely based on a recipe from "Made in Morocco” by Julie Le Clerc and John Bougen, however I thought I’d include it here (see bottom of blog post). The house filled with wonderful spicy cooking smells every time we opened the tagine and soon we were on our way to eating way too much! My sister was convinced that the tagine was capable of producing awesome food and was easy to use – success all round!

Adequately fortified from our evening meal and with the weather proving much more favourable (it had been blowing a gale and pouring in Melbourne), we set out the next day to pursue another of my favourite things – gardening! I know, not gourmet or gear related – though I’d argue that gardening is an extension of cooking.

Roadside adornment

Cati for CLP

Anyway, we had decided to wander across the other side of Melbourne to investigate the Diggers garden at Heronswood. This turned out to be an awesome drive, with the city soon giving way to rolling countryside and odd roadside sculpture, which I attempted to snap from a moving car! When we arrived we were treated to stunning views out to the sea as well as a beautiful, heritage style house surrounded by amazing gardens.
I think what I liked most was the amount of practical gardens, with food and medicinal plants seeming to dominate. These were often arranged in formal style gardens, which showed off the range of colours and diversity of plants that can be grown and eaten! 

The vege patch!

We treated ourselves to lunch at the café, with as much food as possible being sourced from the kitchen garden next door. I had an amazing salmon and kipfler potato salad that was full of herbs, followed by scones with jam made from local grown fruit. Truly enjoyable. 

Best photo of the day

With my time at my sisters drawing to a close, I (eventually) jumped on a plane and headed back to Adelaide. Not wanting to waste a glorious day, I had talked some friends into going for a “training” ride in the hills. The problem was they had an afternoon deadline so it was a bit of a scramble for me to get to the location in time. But I made it and soon completed my weekend with my other favourite thing – riding! 

I have to say, it wasn’t necessarily my favourite thing at the time, trying to keep up with three gentlemen that usually ride for a team called “Men of Steel” is hard work and they certainly gave me a good training ride. Still, managing to squeeze a hills ride in on beautiful sunny day in winter is always a bonus. Strava file below if you don’t believe how hard I worked!

http://www.strava.com/activities/73760905

More artwork - your guess is as good as mine!

Couscous salad

Equal quantities of chicken stock and couscous

• About 1 cup of both will feed about 6 people, but add an extra ½ cup if you’re feeding more
• Half a butternut pumpkin, cubed and roasted
• About a cup of roasted almonds, chopped
• About ½ a medium onion finely diced
• About a cup of chopped dates/raisins/sultanas (pick one, or substitute something you like)
• A good quantity of either chopped coriander or parsley

In a medium saucepan with a lid, sauté the chopped onion in some oil. When the onion is translucent, and the chopped dates (or whatever you chose to use) and the stock and bring to boil. When boiling, add couscous, stir once, then switch off heat and put lid on saucepan. Leave for at least 10 minutes until the couscous has absorbed all the stock, then using a fork, scrape the mixture into a bowl, fluffing it up as you go. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

Sugar and Spice

The Crazy Cook!

Every now and then I get the urge to cook and the time to indulge in it. Even better, I had an excuse to try a new recipe and friends to try it out on, with a bonfire to attend in the evening. So I decided to go over board and cook a selection of sugary goodness, including craisin cookies, brownies, stuffed figs and homemade snickers. 

Mmmmm Cookies

The craisin cookies were a signature recipe from a friend who wouldn't be able to make the bonfire and I had made them previously. They're a delicious mixture of rich chocolate and tart cranberries, heavily spiced with cinnamon. Usually they turn out somewhat chunky, however for some reason these ended up flatter. Thankfully they still tasted awesome! For those of you interested in the recipe, you can find it here:

Artistic Cookies

http://www.leiagraf.com/ 

(go to other and recipes: Choc Fudge Craisin Cookies)

 

Before . . .

 

The stuffed figs were a recipe I had concocted during a chocolate making episode with a friend over Easter and I had wanted a chance to refine it. It starts by soaking dried figs in massala over night then simmering the figs and massala until the figs are covered in caramelised liquid. This also makes the figs soft which is convenient as the next step involves stuffing them with a hazelnut ganache. 

 

. . . after - sweet, plump figs!

Originally this was made by mixing ganache with hazelnut meal, but this time I also added frangelico to intensify the hazelnut flavour. To get the ganache mixture into the figs, I used a chopstick to poke a small hole in the base of the fig and a pipping bag to insert the mix. I then dipped the figs in dark chocolate to seal the hole. My favourite part of this whole process is filling the figs, creating the illusion of fresh, plump figs.

Brownies!

 The brownies were loosely based on a recipe from my sister, choc walnut brownies. Unfortunately I was running out of chocolate by this time so I had to forgo the choc pieces that I usually throw in. However I had some left over ganache and a couple of figs that had exploded so the brownies became walnut and fig choc brownies. I think the ganache added a bit more liquid than I had counted on so they didn't quite cook as quickly as I expected. Still there's nothing wrong with undercooked brownie!

Oozing Brownie - can it get any better?

A little gooey . . .

The snickers bar recipe was something that had popped up in face book and had caught my eye, so this was as good a time as any to try it. It seemed to be fairly simple though some of the ingredients were a bit odd (marshmallow fluff) so there was a bit of improvisation. I'm also more of a dark chocolate girl, so when the chocolate layers looked a little on the pale side, I may have slipped the odd half a block of dark chocolate into the mix. 

Progressing to Very Gooey!

It was a staged process, but each stage was fairly quick, except the caramel, but that was because I totally ignored the recipe for this and made my own caramel from scratch. I may need more practice at this (it was my first time) as I managed to make it a little on the dark side and a lot on the gooey side. Still, this made it all the more interesting to watch friends try and extract a piece and eat it! Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that! 

For those of you who want to play along at home, the recipe that I started with is here:

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/01/homemade-snickers-bars/

 

Guess what this is . . .

I promise it's food!

All in all it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon, and made even more enjoyable in the evening in the company of good friends and an oversized bonfire. Many thanks to CLP for the majority of the photos and the willingness to perform kitchen hand duties for wages made from sugar!

Defending Number 19 – CX Nationals Day 2, June 9th 2013

CLP taking the racing line

Day 2 brought stiffness and soreness in the form of a sore back. I suspect I wasn’t the only one and at least one lady retired after a crash on day one, though she still bought her kids out to have a go. Did I mention that CX is for everyone? In addition to the national races in the afternoon, both days had support races which included little crossers, open (any bikes, but recently taken over by really good mountain bikers), C grade men and women and B grade men. CLP was racing the B grade (which seemed to include a lot of riders I had seen in A grade previously) so I had time to take some happy snaps of CLP looking pro!

Lee-Anne - coming or going?

  
This set up also meant that if you were really keen you could race a support race then an elite race, which one (very busy) lady did on both days. Lee-Anne also guided the little crossers around (both days) and ran a free bike skills clinic for kids on the Sunday. So it’s probably fair to say that when she lined up for her last race, the elite women, she was just a little worn out.

They did what?

   

I have to say this was to my advantage as the course for day 2, while having some really nice straights, was incredibly technical. This is not something I’m good at and so I soon found myself at the back of the pack. The one pleasant surprise for the day was that we were going round anti-clockwise, which meant that a particularly nasty corner, which we usually ride the wrong way round, off camber and half way down a hill, was now awesome! We rode it on top of the hill and went the correct way (in my mind), which I had gleefully reported to a mate (who usually sets it up incorrectly) earlier in the day.

Technical difficulties

Anyway, I figured with my back being sore I had little to no hope of being any good, but I soon warmed to the race and when I saw a very tired Lee-Anne not that far in front, I decided to have a crack! Knowing that she is pretty good on the technical side of things, I just tried to keep her in my sights as we twisted back and forward, jumping (or at least attempting to) logs and barriers. I passed her on the back straight going about 30 km/hr on our first lap, but when we came to the twists and turns on the hill, she squeezed back in front of me. I thought she had it in the bag as I lost time over barriers and round corners but in the final twisty section of our second lap I could see she was tiring. I caught her again on the straight, a bit earlier this time and endeavoured to keep in front of her. Lee-Anne almost had me at the hill as I got out of the way of the leader as she lapped me. 

The back straight

We were in close contention until the final twisty section where Lee-Anne graciously conceded second to last place to me after putting in a Herculean effort all weekend. I belted down the back straight and into the finishing corners, noticing as I did, that one of the actual elite women was about to lap me. I thought to myself, what the hell and gave it one last sprint to the line, preventing her from lapping me as I collapsed on the sidelines. I was a bit confused, as I wasn’t sure if the chequered flag was for her, me or both, but there was no way I was doing one more lap! Turns out it was for both of us and so thankfully my courageous defence of number 19 had finally finished. 

Burgers!

I subsequently collapsed in a chair and didn’t move for a while, not even to bemoan my burgerless fate when I overheard Manu mentioning that he had already sold out of burgers! I settled for a sausage and chips before rallying enough to whack an icepack on my back and catch a few happy snaps of the elite men. Have to say I have never seen bikes bounce over a log quite like that before!

Men with flying bikes

Unfortunately my back was too sore to handle packing up (walking to the car was hard enough) so we offered our appologies and headed home. And did I defend number 19? As it turns out, Lee-Anne and I are currently tied for 17^th place and I couldn’t be happier!

For those of you interested in the numbers, here’s the strava file of my race: http://app.strava.com/activities/59164938

And a big thank you CLP for lending me his photos 

Bouncing Bike!

Uncomfortable Bike

Defending Number 19 – CX Nationals Day 1, June 8th 2013

For a lot of people the June long weekend is a time to kick back, relax and enjoy the last long weekend until October. For us it was a time of heart pounding excitement as we both took part in a racing filled weekend. What type of racing would tempt us out in the cold winter air? Cyclocross racing, the most fun you can have on two wheels!

Super Coach chasing down his foes

I’m probably a bit biased, but if it wasn’t for cyclocross I doubt I’d have ever tried other forms of racing. For those of you unacquainted with this sport, I’d suggest having a look on youtube for some videos, but if I had to describe it, it’s like letting a bunch of hyped up 10 year olds race bikes on a course of their dreams. No offense intended to Super Coach (Neil Ross) who designed the courses, but racing cyclocross is just so much fun that it makes me feel like a kid! Then of course they make me race for 45 minutes and I feel every bit my age and then some!

Gemma - it's all her fault!

So, why defending number 19? Well last year was the first time Australia had a national cyclocross competition and some well meaning soul (I’m looking at you Gemma) talked me into having a crack. Making up the numbers so to speak and trying out my new (to me) CX bike. So I had a crack, got lapped after three laps and got pulled and had a nice chat with a few other ladies while we waited for the race to finish. Did it again the next day and what do you know, I have a national ranking! I was number 19 women in CX in Australia in 2012.

 

My number seemed appropriate

With that in mind, it didn’t take much persuading to get me to participate this year and so I lined up this past weekend for two days of racing. However, a couple of things had changed from the previous year. Firstly, the word had gotten out – CX was awesome! Which meant there was a bit more competition (translation – I get less points for coming last). Also, someone had changed the rules on me and instead of getting pulled when I got lapped, I was going to have to race the full 45 minutes! To put this in perspective, I usually race C grade and we go for about 20 minutes before we all agree to fall down in a heap. 45 minutes was going to be tough!

Speeding down the straights

Day 1 was at Mulch Hill, and as much as that terrified me when I first rode it, it’s now a course I love. It had some lovely straights, a little sand, some evil loose dirt and the big pile of mulch (Mulch Hill). I was trying to be sensible so I actually did about a 10km warm up on the course, which almost resulted in me missing the start. A very flustered marshal herded me over with the rest of the ladies and we were ready to start.

Lee-Anne's technical savvy

Thankfully I was starting at the back which meant I didn’t have everyone flying past me and crowding me. I’m not a good bike handler at the best of times and I get a little nervous when I’ve got experts rushing past me. Surprisingly I found myself flying along and it wasn’t long before I was hot on the tail of another PACC chick! Lee-Anne and I had raced together a bit before and I knew we were about the same in overall ability so I tried hard to hang onto her. However her technical savvy and a dirt dive around a tree soon left me in her wake. A fall is always hard to come back from, even if it is only minor and I soon found myself off the back.

See - recovery!

I dialled it back a bit to try and recover as the leaders flew past me, lapping me on my third lap of the course I think. I obviously hadn’t recovered what little technical skills I possessed, as when I went through the evil loose dirt tree section (basically trying to go round a tree when someone has dug up all the dirt) I managed to collect some of the course tape with my bike. Apparently that stuff only has so much stretch and by the time I noticed that it was attached, it snapped. Being a responsible individual I did try yelling at people that there was now a hazard on the course, however given the heavy breathing at the time, I can’t blame them if they were a little confused! 

Eventually I came up on what I hoped was my last lap, having ridden a good 45 minutes, however unbeknownst to me the leaders were on my tail, about to lap me for a second time. Unfortunately for me, they didn’t and I had to ride a lonely last lap (and tell off some elite men who thought it was practice time already) to finish with a time of 56 minutes and 53 seconds (according to my garmin). And I was complaining about 45 minutes!

The stairs were hard work

The rest of the day was spent consuming everything I could lay my hands on, including the last vegie velo burger of the day (thanks Manu!) and watching the elite men race. I had intended to get some pictures but I was buggered, and could only watch in amazement as they bunny hopped the barriers time and time again. I was also entertained by the costumed antics of the spectators on Mulch Hill and was doubly impressed when I realised quite a number of them were women I had just raced against.

I survived!

We hung around to help with the pack up and I have to take my hat off to the people who set up and pack up these events. There was a lot of tape and stakes, all designed to keep us (and the stray pedestrian) relatively safe and possibly even not lost! It makes for a long day and we were well and truly worn out when we finally reached home. Many thanks to CLP who kindly volunteered to give my bike the once over and a bit of a wash.

Gemma at her best

Another PACC lady working hard

For those of you interested in the numbers, here’s the strava file of my race: http://app.strava.com/activities/58938814

Riding in Circles, 22nd May 2013

Riding in circles

A couple of days after we got back from the Outback Odyssey, our local cycling club had decided to hold a track meet. Now common sense would indicate that undertaking high intensity track cycling a couple of days after completing an almost 300km epic mountain bike journey may not have been the best idea. But I’ve been told many times that I lack common sense so I decided to give it a go. CLP however, was definitely out and it was only under sufferance that I agreed to him coming down to take pictures (all pictures included are courtesy of him).

The Competition

Also the competition

This track event was actually part of a series of omniums that were being held over winter. An omnium is a series of track events where you get points for each event that go towards your total. Events can include things like time trials, points races and eliminations. For this omnium we were going to race a heart starter (a scratch race that’s raced first, hence the name), a team time trial, a points race, an elimination and a scratch race. Yep, I’m a sucker for punishment. The points race would be the one that counted toward the omnium series.

The Debutante

Have to say I wasn’t expecting much but it was nice to be out racing with friends. It was a mates first time out racing at the Superdrome (congratulations Rob W) so it was a nice friendly atmosphere for us in   D grade. The heart starter was under way and as usual I struggled to get on the back when the bunch started, everybody seems to start so much faster than me. We rolled around for a few laps with me taking my turns on the front as an opportunity to slow things down. 

D grade looking Pro!

Two laps out from the finish I found myself on the front, which past experience told me is not a good time to be there. I figured I’d go for broke, and took off. I think I caught the rest of the group napping as they didn’t seem to really respond for about half a lap and by that time I was well and truly on my way. Unfortunately a couple of the riders decided they actually wanted to chase me and caught me coming around the final bend, which resulted in me coming third. Not too bad for someone who thought they would be dropped after the first lap!

Next up was the team time trial, which is always interesting when you’ve never ridden with the people in your team before. Same as with the first race I struggled to get on the back. We seemed to get the hang of it after a while, but I think we were a bit worn out from the first race and the other team beat us.

A Grade - more Pro

The main race for the night (at least the one that counted toward the series) was next and given that my chest still felt like it was on fire from the first race I didn’t have high hopes. Still, all that seemed to disappear once we started rolling. There was a little bit of confusion as to which laps were the points laps, so I was figuring I’d just listen for the bell. However I was on the front at 2 laps to go to the first sprint and thought what the hell, let’s try that surprise attack again. This time it worked well (either that or they were as confused as I was about which laps were sprints) and I collected 5 points in the first of three sprints. I went on to collect another 3 points, which resulted in me coming second. I believe that’s my best track result to date!

Rob W doing awesome!

If I wasn’t exhausted before, then I was now and I was looking forward to the elimination race so I could take it easy. I think I wasn’t the only one and there was a bit of a competition as to who could be eliminated first and have the longest break. I didn’t win this, and I think I was eliminated about 3rd to last. Congratulations to Rob W who hung on for 3rd in this race, not bad for his debut.

Still rolling!

Finally we rounded out the night with a scratch race, and though I gave it my best, there wasn’t a lot left in the tank by that point in time and I actually have no idea where I placed. All in all it was a good night with good company. It’s never boring riding in circles!

Outback Odyssey Day 5, May 20th 2013, Back to Adelaide

Well it rained over night so we dawdled over a hot breakfast in the hall in the hopes that we could pack up a dry tent not a wet one. Thankfully it was pretty dry once we got back and even better Wayne and Libby, the people who were giving us a lift back to Burra had come and parked right next to the tent. 

Hungry Sheep (photo from CLP)

After chasing down my raffle prize and the contact number of the person to access our car in Burra we were on our way and spent a delightful couple of hours chatting to Wayne and Libby, another couple from the ride who we hadn’t really had the chance to bump into before. I’d like to say our drive was uneventful, however we encountered some hungry sheep who decided that the side of the road had some very tasty looking grass. Not wanting to begrudge them a bit of tucker, we waited patiently to pass safely through. 

Really Good Flour

We got to Burra in on piece and retrieved our car, wishing the couple good luck in finding a missing pair of cycling glasses. After stacking everything in the car, including the raffle prize, we headed back towards Adelaide. I did however manage to sneak in a gourmet stop on the way home, collecting a bag of Egyptian Gold flour from the Tarlee Mill. The lady at the counter seemed a little baffled by my enthusiasm, but trust me, it’s really good flour.

Bread making urges were strong!

Anyway, we made it back and now I just have to resist my bread making urges long enough to do a pile of washing.