Weekend Cooking and Saying Goodbye Again

Yesterday I got the weekend cooking bug again.  I made a pot of Potato and Leek Soup, fairly low in fat but turned out very well, we all had some before our dinner and I froze the rest in containers for both me, and for Phill to take away with him.  I got a piece of rib eye fillet on the bone cheap, and I roasted it a little differently than I normally do.  I bought a ready made rub for it, garlic, rosemary and thyme and rubbed it onto the meat, then browned it all over in a frypan. 

Then, in a baking dish I laid out two onions, unpeeled and halved, some carrots, sprigs of fresh thyme, six cloves of garlic, unpeeled, celery and a bay leaf.  I put the beef on top of this and poured over the bit of oil left in the pan and roasted it for the required time, well it would have been in a decent oven, my oven is the worst I've ever come across and the meat was still raw after a couple of hours and it was only a 1kg roast so we had to put it back in the oven for a while.  Then I took it out to rest while I cranked up the temperature and made Yorkshire puddings.  I poured half a bottle of Merlot into the baking dish and let it simmer for a bit, smooshing down the vegies with a spoon, making sure the soft garlic oozed out of its skin and into the wine.  When it was reduced by about half I strained all the vegies out of it and let the sauce simmer for a bit longer and seasoned with pepper and salt.  The result was amazing and I'll always do my roast beef like that, even if I do it in the slow cooker.  The meat was meltingly tender as well.  Everyone loved the Yorkie puds and dinner was a hit.

I also made a low fat carrot cake.  I'll add the recipe to the blog soon.  It had grated lemon rind in it and I was a bit doubtful but it really added a lovely flavour to the cake.  I iced it with a new product from Philadelphia, it's cream cheese icing in a tub ready to go.  I know it's cheating and I'm normally a "from scratch" girl but this stuff is awesome, makes cake baking so much easier and no mess.  It tasted as good as if I'd made it myself and really all carrot cake icing is, is cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon which is what's in the tub.  There's a chocolate one too.  They've won me, making icing is a pain in the bum.

 

 

Today I made a pot of pea and ham soup to freeze for lunches etc, and a pork and veal bolognaise sauce in the slow cooker for my dinner tonight, and will freeze the rest. 
Phill is going back down to Victoria today, in fact I am driving him to Junee in a few minutes, and he'll be gone for a week, so has plenty of frozen meals to choose from to take with him.  It saves us a lot of money if he doesn't have to eat out or buy food when he's down there.

More later.....................

Later..............
Well we drove to Junee and back again, the kids came too for a drive.  The drive home (50km) went by in a flash with them in the car with me.  They're good company, my babies.
On the drive I mentioned to the kids it was Jake's 7th birthday (my oldest grandchild) and we lamented that we couldn't see him.  I really believe though, that when he's old enough to make his own choices he will seek us out to make his own mind up about us.  I said that Phill and I were looking forward to the day when we can be real grandparents, when Kate, Em and Josh have their own children.  Emily said "Mum you'll be a whacky, fun granny, the kids will love you".  She's right.  I will never be the stereotypical grandmother. 
We went and got some supplies and came home and Emily made a batch of cookies.  She's becoming quite the cook, and really enjoys it and I let her have the run of the kitchen when she wants it.  She will cook their dinner tonight, Crispy Chicken Soft Tacos, and I'll have my excellent bolognaise, it turned out really well as did she soup.
FUCKING FLIES!!!  Don't they know Summer is over and they shouldn't still be hanging around? 
I'm excited for tonight, "The Voice" starts again after the 6pm news, I loved it last year, and then it's the Logie Awards show, that's our tv awards and always fun to watch (even more fun to hear the goss the next day about who got drunk and who punched who).  And that's just in our house!
I am beyond pissed off that the mainstream media, both in the UK and here in Australia, still haven't named Rolf Harris as the (now) 83 year old who was arrested in relation to child sex abuse allegations in London.  It's so hypocritical, when Robert Hughes was named pretty soon after the former child actress Sarah Monahan went on a current affairs show to talk about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of a man who worked on the old crappy sitcom "Hey Dad!" back in the 80s.  He too is an ex pat living in the UK and they hounded that man (and rightly so, the creep) and his photo and name was all over every type of media.  Is it because of Harris' ties to the royal family?  He painted a portrait of the Queen.  None of it makes sense and smacks of hypocrisy by all of the main stream media outlets.  What of the victims of these horrible crimes?  Even if he just knew, or saw what was going on he is as guilty as the people who carried out the abuse, for not trying to stop it, or reporting it, or even just helping the victims.  I never liked him anyway, he always seemed a bit phoney to me, spouting his Australianism while living for the last forty years in another country.
So Phill is gone again for a week.  The kids will have their last week of first term and we will fall into our comfortable and quiet routine of just the three of us.  Then it will be time to get ready for our holiday, which we are all so excited about.
Daylight saving ended today, Winter approaches and all is well at Chez Foxy.