Farewell for Sam

My friend is moving to Japan in a few weeks. We've been friends for about 10 years so it's pretty crazy to think of how long it will be until we next see each other. So it felt only fitting to dedicate this week's theme to her, especially since she was actually going to be in town for it (we don't live in the same town). We ended up having a fun impromptu Japanese feast with my best friends.

The Theme

Japan

The Menu

The Meal

Miso Soup with Tofu, Vegetarian Hot Pot and Chicken Donburi

Miso Soup with Tofu and Spring Onions. Love me some Tofu, it's so soft and squishy!

Vegetarian Hot Pot

Chicken Donburi - my favourite of the evening. Makes for amazing leftovers. 

Dessert

Whatever Vaguely Japanese treats we could find in Woolworths

Drinks

Japanese Plum Liqueur 

So apparently you can add this to dry white wine. It says it on the label, in English and everything.

Chef's Rating: 9 out 10 Cherry Blossoms

It was so good because it was made with love. Nawwwwww. And we had our resident Japanese expert in the house to help us along. "Needs Mirin and Brown Sugar". Always needs mirin and brown sugar.

We will miss you Sam

But are very happy and proud of you :)

Thanks for reading the sappiest Drunken Kitchen post yet! Sweet soothing dreams.

South America!

I am currently planning a trip to....everywhere. And you know what's covered under the broad umbrella of everything? That's right, the slightly less, but still broad, parasol of South America! So I thought it only fitting to pay tribute to this interesting continent that I am hoping to visit in the not too distant future. This week was quite a busy one so there wasn't much time to research. This menu was the result of a 3 minute google search and hoping no one will notice that Mexico isn't part of South America.

The Theme

South America

The Menu

Entree

Mushrooms Stuffed with Goats Cheese, Salsa and Natural Yoghurt

This was just something that I quickly came up with in the grocery store. Possibly not very south Americany - but very tasty none the less.

Main

Some kind of Spicy Suckling Pork Thing that I can't remember the name of and Corn

I don't even know what kind of vegetables they have in South America but I chose corn because it's also called maze and that's cool and indian's grew maze (I think) and they live in on of the Americas.

Apparently Woolworths Crackling is hard to get just right. This was also covered in lemon juice so maybe that had an affect.

Making a mess much to the housemates dismay

Drinks

Pisco Sour

This is a nifty little drink that has eggs in it. Doesn't actually taste that bad, you almost couldn't tell. Almost.

Chef's Rating: 6.5 out of 10 Armadillos

I still know diddly squat about what South American's eat (and I know it will vary among countries) and the pork was a bit tough and you saw the crackling. Crackling is still something to be mastered.

It was a very eventful night. A snake had to be lured out of Chemo Boy's room and released back into the wild, I accidentally set fire to some baking paper and the fire alarms kept going off every 10 minutes. My heart had a work out.

This is what I do when I can't be bothered to ask for facial permissions. 

I hope you are all somewhere safe, warm and comfortable. Somewhere with delicious tea and biscuits. Have sweet sugary dreams my food minions.

Suicidal Vampires

Hello all you good people out there. How are you? I really mean it - How. Are. You?

I'm not exactly sure how we progressed to this theme, something about needing more iron for energy and liking garlic. And of course we had to challenge ourselves with bread again. I will defeat you one day bread. One daaaaaay.

The Theme

Suicidal Vampires 

(Because of all the garlic....get it?)

The Menu

Main

Garlic Butter Steak with Carrot and Parsnip Stakes, Garlic bread and a side of Stuffed Capsicums.

Best part of making bread is getting to punch it. You can see my ring!!

Even I am impressed with how cool this looks. Dayum that's a fine stake.

As you can see it really could have been used to kill a vampire..... with deliciousness, but also it was really pointy.

Chef's Rating: 7.5 out of 10 Talking Bats

The steak was surprisingly nice, despite who out of the packet having turned green by the time we got around to cooking. I'm looking at you woolies. Goats cheese, you just can't go past goats cheese, always a winner in my books. The garlic bread was a little disappointing, we had finally made bread that seemed to be of a normal consistency and it just wasn't tasty enough. Overall, enjoyable and would have given a vampire heard burn at least.

Drink

Bloody Mary

Chef's Rating: 5 out of 8 Blood Transfusions

I find tomato juice wrong. It's unnatural. Even if you do add lots of salt and sugar to it. On the plus side, you can't taste any of the vodka. On the negative side, you don't really want to drink more than one. One is fine, more than that and you're pushing it.

That is all my sweet minions. Join us next week for another episode of:

Druuuuunken Thuuuuuursdays: Where we don't even get drunk anymore

Thailand

As you know over the holiday season I ventured across the seas to the land of Wats to see what that was all about. One of the best food we had on our trip was a cooking class in Bangkok. We made simple delicious food and were given recipes to take home. I lost those recipes but I still wanted to try and recreate some of the magic.

The Theme

Thailand

The Menu

Main

Massaman Curry

I know it's not really photogenic, but it did taste nice.

Chef's Rating: 8 out of 10 Wandering Dogs
The paste was a little lumpy and we couldn't get fresh galangal but still tasty! 

Dessert

Pumpkin and Coconut Cream

Again, not very photogenic

Chef's Rating: 5 out of 6 Pumpkins

Simple and Sweet. Just pumpkin, coconut milk, coconut cream and sugar...lots of sugar

Drinks

Fruit Shakes

Mango Smoothie

It's cyclone season here

Watermelon and Strawberry Smoothie

Chef's Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Watermelon Seeds

Fresh fruit shakes are everywhere in Thailand, it's so good and so were these!

Good night my sweet sweet food lovers. Rest easy and eat well. 

Old People

Hello hello. It's time again to play my favourite game, yes the ye olde game of Catch Up!

I can't remember the inspiration behind this week's theme. I believe it came from the vault (the back of a notebook). The best thing about being old is not giving any flying fucks about what people think of you, so I'm not going to try so hard to impress you with my wit .

The Theme

Old People

The Menu

Main

Pork with apple sauce, weird asian mushrooms, broccoli and mashed "Squash"

I tried to add a little zest to the broccoli, but it did just end up looking literally like shit

There was a slight mishap where Chemo Boy thought a butternut pumpkin was a squash because that's what the internet told him. Let this be a lesson to all. 

Chef's Rating: 7 out 10 Dentures. 

It was just a nice normal meal and that's not what drunken Thursdays are about! And it's hard to get homemade apple sauce to taste right

Desserts

White Christmas

I dunno about you but this makes me think of my grandma. 

Chef's Rating: 8 out of 9 broken teeth (real tooth theme going on today)

It was surprisingly simple and very tasty. 

Drinks

West Coast 

I don't think I've ever seen young people drink these.... except for my teenage self...

Irish Tea

Chef's Rating: 9 out of 10 Drunk Grannies

This was really delicious. Great to sit back and relax with on a cold winters day... too bad it's summer

That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading the most curse filled Drunken Thursday post yet!