Month: July 2009

Carrot, Coconut and Pineapple cake

So in our house this is called Bec’s Rotary Cake because once you’re listing three ingredients in the name of a dish, why not personalise it.

I adore this cake. It takes carrot cake to a place where I actually like it. I added in half a cup of raisins because mmmm raisins.
Bec’s rotary cake
  • 2 cups self raising flour
  • 1/2 tsp bicarb
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups grated carrot
  • 3/4 cup dessicated coconut
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, well drained
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease a 24cm round tin
  2. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl
  3. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil and vanilla then mix well
  4. Fold through the carrots, walnuts, coconut, pineapple and raisins
  5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until pulling away from the edges of the tin and springs back at a gentle touch.

eins, zwei, drei!

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Granted it’s not quite the weather for such a summery dish, but sometimes you just can’t take any more soups, stews, pies (gasp) or roasts.

I can’t remember where this came from, I think it’s a Donna Hay number but it could just as easily be from Bill Granger.
Vietnamese Chicken Salad
  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 3-4 cups chicken stock
  • 8-10 peppercorns
  • several sticks of fresh ginger
  • 1/4 cup lime juice
  • 1/4 cup rice vinegar
  • 2 tblsp caster sugar
  • 50ml fish sauce
  • 2-4 long chillies, seeded and shredded
  • 1/2 small cabbage, shredded (or Chinese cabbage)
  • good handful each of Vietnamese mint, Thai basil, coriander, spearmint
  • handful unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
  1. Place stock, peppercorns, and ginger in a saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer
  2. Season the chicken with a little salt and poach for 15 minutes
  3. Cool in the stock
  4. Make the dressing – the longer it gets to stand, the better it tastes
  5. Drain the chicken and shred with your fingers
  6. Combine chicken, cabbage, herbs and peanuts and drizzle over the dressing
  7. Serve immediately.
Obviously this has infinite variations – I like adding some bean shoots for extra crunch and sometimes julienned carrot and cucumber. You know, whatever’s in the veggie drawer really.

Awesome

So the flu that Oscar had last week and is still recovering from?
Has now befallen Felix.
Which means the plans for this week – a day at the Zig Zag railway and then on to my bf’s place in the country for a few days – are now no more.
I’m worried about Felix, he says everything is spinning and everytime he lies down he feels like he’s falling and he’s just got a temperature that just won’t go away.
I took him to the doctor this afternoon but it wasn’t our doctor. I’m going to take him back tomorrow – to our doctor – and hopefully won’t see the other doctor in the waiting room.
Our doctor gave us Tamiflu for Oscar – rather than a script for it, which costs $50. The doc today wouldn’t give it to Felix, just the script. This sounds pathetic, but we don’t have $50 for medications at the moment. I asked him if he could give it to us and he was all oh no no no, we’re only allowed to give it to high risk cases. Excuse me, I thought all children were classified as high risk.
He said it probably was pig flu but that it was actually milder than influenza A so you’re better off getting the former than the latter.
Get this – they suspect that everyone in Sydney will have had it by Christmas.

I believe this is commonly referred to as an "unfortunate coincidence"

When the 10 day plan of reducing meds results in the one day of ‘clear out’ – meaning no meds – arrives on Day 3 coupled with a gall bladder flare-up, the like of which I haven’t had for about 2-3 weeks and two little boys intent on playing with the same car come hell or whoever screams the loudest.

Oi.