One has impressed oneself this evening.

Leaving work at 5.45, One headed home and went for a run around Mount Lawley before coming home to make some dinner.

At the same time, One had a few beetroot in the fridge and so One pickled them. Super easy - boil the Beets until tender, peel, slice and at the same time take some of the water from the boiling along with red wine vinegar, sugar, spices and its all done.

Voila

20 Hours of Beef: 12 Hours in

Not much more to say really is there...

20 Hours of Beef

A few weeks ago a recipe landed in One's inbox that involved 20 hours of cooking, a blow torch and the need to purchase a meat thermometer. One was sold at 20 hours!

Tonight was kick off and it went a little something like this...

Smother rump olive oil, pepper and salt.

Then the real fun began, the blowtorch came out to play...

Brown the beef all over with the blow torch before popping the rump into the oven at 50 degrees to 20 hours...

Freestyling in South Melbourne

The SO and One had a sneeky getaway to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago. After a luxiously long sleep in and reading the papers on the Couch we headed out to South Melbourne for brekkie and between the car park that was found and the cafe we thought we were headed to stumbled upon this little place:

So Melbourne- small side street, surrounded by warehouses and studios was this little gem. Just terrific all round, plus some interesting non-egg breakfast options. But One needed to look no further than the Welsh Rarebit! Delicious!!

Sunday Night Nigella

The SO suggested we play recipe roulette this afternoon as One wondered what was for dinner. So out came the new Nigella and down came the eyelids.

The moment of truth revealed a Thai style noodle soup and delicious does not even go close. Its full of ginger and chili, tamarind, turmeric and coriander and totally delicious!!

La Lola

The SO took One to La Lola on Saturday night for a bite to eat. One has been wanting to go to La Lola since One first heard of it opening a little while back. La Lola is the new venture of the former head chef at Bar One which as many know is one of One's favourite haunts.

Bar One is one of those places where the staff are great, the food is great and the fit out is great. Its great all round. One gets what One wants and One is happy.

La Lola is the new kid on the block and a bit like a new parent, all about the ground rules. La Lola's menu kicks off with a set of rules:
1. No bookings or B.Y.O.
2. No separate billing
3. Ask your waiter for the bill which will be brought to your table
4. $25 minimum for eftpos or credit card payments
5. We do not accept American Express or Diners Club cards
6. All food items served on the premises can not be taken away due to health code

Ground rules have their purpose - everyone then knows what they're buying into. The rules are probably also to deal with the Western Suburb WAGs that are likely to be queuing up to get into the hot new thing on Hampden Road. Plus there is barely an inch to move in the restaurant and the rules are probably to keep bums on seats as much as anything else.

The rules are in order of need. Don't try to make a booking and don't bring your own booze. Fine and on this especially cold and wintry evening there is no shortage of heaters out front while One waits to be let in. Unfortunately as this is suburban Perth and not Sydney and so there is no deal with the nearby bar that lets One wander over for a lazy tipple while waiting for One's table to be ready. Luckily the wait was not long and within about 10 minutes One was requested to head through the main dining room and into the Lounge. Which is really just a private dining room down the back of the restaurant. Again, its a tight squeeze and so along with cleaver design tricks (recessed salt/pepper/EVOO/cutlery receptacle) there are the less desirable elements - no backs on half the chairs and being so close to your neighbours you can't help but hear their intimate conversations.

The food is nice, without blowing One away. Good quality Italian trattoria bits. One had a pork belly, sweet and sour onion, mozzarella and radicchio pizza. Nice, but nothing amazing. The SO had a Rabbit Ragu with fettuccine, it was heavy on the pasta and light on the ragu and very very oily.

La Lola - its not for an intimate date night, but it will certainly give the WAGs a great venue for a girls night out (provided they play by the rules).

Preparation

One has had a wonderful weekend, good food, good wine (although a little too much), good shopping and good cooking.

One even prepared some caramelised onions to have on hand in the fridge. Originally, one was going to make an onion tart but a nap got in the way of that and so it was a couple of jars of caramelised onion.

Nigella has jars of caramelised onion on her larder list for Nigella Express and says that they're one of her favourite ways to get cooking quicker. One loves a caramelised onion and will be enjoying them tomorrow in a roast beef sandwich. YUM

The sandwich is going to be on organic five seed loaf that One bought at the Farmers Markets this morning in Freo. There was everything from seafood to Thai food and jams and honey to crepes and cappuccinos with some buskers and lots of cute kids and puppies running around. It was FREEZING but One was rugged up and ready for deliciously fresh produce to come home. Now the fridge is heaving and ready for a week of eating.

A difference of opinion

While One and the SO were in Singapore, a full buffet breakfast was put on by the Hotel each day. Now this is a truly international buffet breakfast that included:

• juice bar;
• fruit bar;
• smoothie bar;
• pastry bar;
• waffle/pancake bar;
• two toast bars;
• egg stand;
• asian soup stand;
• cured fish stand;
• yoghurt bar;
• cereal stand;
• cheese stand;
• indian curry stand;
• dim sum stand;
• bacon/sausage/hashbrown row;
• random asian of some form stand.

So there was quite a lot of choice. On morning three there was a difference of opinion as to what a delicious breakfast incuded. Now this is not to be a judgment of what a 'healthy' breakfast should include. This is a holiday breakfast.

Breakfast One: Waffle and pancake with bacon, hash browns, maple syrup and cinnamon butter

Breakfast Number Two: Rye Toast with two poached eggs with hollandaise, grilled tomatoes and smoked haddock (or some other cured fish)

Now, One doesn't like eggs, but wishes that One could like eggs because they do make a great breakfast food. But seriously, who can pass up a waffle, a pancake with bacon and maple syrup. And let One tell you about the deliciousness of One's new discovery - cinnamon butter. It is seriously delicious and will be served next time One makes crumpets, which may in fact be this Sunday.