Friday, November 21, 2008

It's the answer to everything


Well, just to prove my point about our love of all things salty, Kym had a cooking demonstration in the Queen Street mall on Wednesday for the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide. When the story was written up on their website and he was asked the 'secret of his spectacular flavours', Kym simply replied "salt." He he. You can also check out the article here if you feel so inclined.

It's funny as it's also the answer when he's asked the same question 'why doesn't my food taste as good as this when I cook it at home?' Reply: 'you need to add more salt...'

I guess people will now understand why I cook all Jett's pureed foods rather than let Kym do it. Somehow I think he really doesn't need the salt in his diet just yet :P

But I am proud to say that Kym's public speaking is definitely improving over the years. He's becoming more confident and less mumbly (is that even a word???)- something my sister pointed out just yesterday when I was telling her the demo went well. He was even like that when speaking in front of all my family at our regular gatherings let alone the general public! For a person who only knows one language (English), sometimes you'd swear it wasn't his first!

Oh hang on! Sorry my mistake, he does know how to swear in many languages. A lovely skill he has picked up from his time in kitchens. Perhaps there are a few similarities between Kym and Gordon Ramsey besides the fact they are both chefs - they share the same language skills :P

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

And the winner is (drum roll please)...



Photo extracted from the Brisbane Times website

URBANE!

Last night was the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide restaurant awards and Urbane (where Kym is the head chef) finally got Restaurant of the Year. Hip hip hooray! After other recent awards this month where Kym was named Chef of the Year (Courier Mail's Good Food Guide), and Urbane were the only Brisbane restaurant to receive the coveted 3 stars (Absynthe on the Gold Coast also received 3 stars), they were still pipped for Restaurant of the Year to Isis Brasserie. So yay, they got it this time!

My parents watched Jett which was great (and apparently he was very good - he even went to sleep!), and Kym and I got a lovely 4 hours away together to go to the awards. Considering how warm our weather had been (OK... so we have had a cyclone, but it's still been very humid!), I wasn't expecting to need a jacket at the State Library where the awards were held, but as it was held 'semi-outside', a jacket would have been nice! So naturally the only way I could see to stay warm was to have a couple of glasses of the Verve Cliquot on offer. Another hooray! The fact that Jett slept pretty good last night hopefully doesn't have anything to do with that :P

Ah, Derek Zoolander... one of my favourite movie characters of all time. Why am I mentioning this here you may ask? Well last night there was a very hilarious situation which was very reminiscent of the scene from Zoolander when they are announcing the 'Male Model of the Year' award to 'Hansel'. Just as Derek gets up and accepts the award as he assumes he won and didn't listen properly, so too did another restaurant owner, who got up and accepted the award for Urbane when its 'Two hats' status was awarded before the owner of Urbane could get there. What was even funnier was that no-one stopped him making his thank you speech and it wasn't until he was having his photo taken with the award and he looked down at it that he noticed it wasn't his restaurant which had received the award. Unfortunately this restaurant didn't receive any accolades last night - even more awkward for him... But oh well, it was still pretty damn funny :P

Thursday, November 13, 2008

My first sale!



I've sold my first bag to Kym's sous chef Matt (it's for his mother in Canada) today which is very exciting. Typically, I'd been procrastinating it for a few weeks until I bit the bullet, ordered the fabric, reminded myself how to put them together, and got on with it. I'm actually very pleased with the bag and Kym tells me Matt was very happy with it. Yay! The elephant fabric is by Sprout Design which I brought from Duckcloth and I've used denim on the cuff and strap, with the internal lining coming from a pillowcase I had. I think I could get into this...

Now, if you're looking at this bag and thinking 'hmmm... that design looks familiar', that's because it probably is. My sister is Beckybean and she sells her bags on etsy. She's been kind enough to lend me her pattern and show me how to make them. Perhaps I can become her 'Aussie sweatshop' and work from home while Jett is little...? This just may be my new plan!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

What a great meal - and it was healthy!

Did I say I would start write my blog next day?? Tsk tsk. Four days later but I'm here and I'm determined to start this!

Well last night's dinner was one of the best meals we've cooked at home in a wee while. King snapper - steamed with parsley, lemon, garlic, white wine and thyme, and sauteed organic mushrooms, zucchini, corn, toasted almonds, and onion cous cous, with vine-ripened slow-roasted baby tomatoes. The fish was superb and very delicate, matched perfectly with the acidity in the tomatoes. The glass of Hawkes Bay Pinot Gris went down a treat, but I think the best part was that Jett, our 7 month old son, was asleep and stayed so for rest of the evening until we went to bed - YAY!

I am desperately trying to make some healthier meal choices in my attempt to lose some of my baby weight - hence the aforementioned meal choice... Being married to a chef certainly has its perks when it comes to food options, but it also means Kym seasons (salt and pepper) our food quite well (as my family love to point out!), which is not so healthy. Kym on the other hand is not so keen to change our diet, but he did only use a small amount of salt in this meal to please me - isn't he supportive??

This is also my third week at the gym and I must say I'm getting rather addicted. Apart from the fact I'm going into classes like Body Step (which seem to be filled with 'super-fit women...aagh depressing) and I seem to be the only person emerging the same colour as my slow-roasted tomatoes, it feels good to have some 'me' time where I can switch off. I also find it amusing that when I come home and Jett's desperate for me to pick him up, he likes to have a suck on my arm (which he never does so I assume it's because my skin is salty from sweat) - a salt lover already! Dad is so proud :P

Friday, November 7, 2008

First post!

Well, here it is... the first post. I shall try and start properly tomorrow. Nothing like a bit of procrastination to get you off to a flying start! For those who know me, you know it would be strange for me to start anything off any other way. Baby steps...