Weekend Cooking: What I Ate in One Week (Stanley Tucci style)

At the end of last year I reviewed Stanley Tucci's latest book What I Ate in One Year (review here) where he shared his thoughts on what he ate, the people he shared meals with the events etc. At the time I said I thought it would be interesting to try it out here. Of course, I haven't had dinner in a 5 star restaurant with celebrities but maybe there might be something interesting to come out of this. I guess we will all find out together! 

Saturday 

We spent some time planning out our excursions on our upcoming cruise from Tokyo to Seoul. They were pretty pricey but hopefully they will be enjoyable. I was hoping to do a tea ceremony but my friend who has lived there has said that with my dodgy knees and hips I will struggle with a traditional tea ceremony. We do have a few days in Tokyo before hand so I am hopeful that we will get to do a foodie walking tour in Tokyo. We'll see. You can be sure that I will be sharing our adventures in a future post.

We did also go to a pub that has been set up in one of the buildings in the old Pentridge prison. Our brunch buddies G and E are moving up to mid coast of New South Wales. We are going to miss them a lot but we do hope to go up and visit them later in the year.

Sunday

After picking up our new car (whose name is Dot) earlier in the week, on Sunday we had opportunity to go for a drive.

Ever since we first got together, my husband has always insisted that we do something for Valentine's Day, which still kind of surprises me because he isn't usually one for doing the normal romantic gestures. I am good with that because he shows me he loves me in so many ways every day, but it is nice still.

Because he has sailing on Friday nights, we ended up booking lunch at a fancy winery restaurant called Scotchman's Hill which is just over an hour away from us. We first found it last winter when we went for a drive to the nearby town of Portarlington. As we were driving home, we saw a sign and just turned left to see what was up the road and we saw this restaurant at the top of the hill and it looked really nice so we said that we should go there for lunch one day. Sunday was that day!

It was a lovely meal, and we would totally go there to eat again. The setting was really lovely, and even though it was an unseasonably cold day they were still able to open up all the external doors. I imagine it is the kind of place which hosts weddings quite regularly. You could even see the skyline of Melbourne in the distance. 

I had a beautifully cooked thick, juicy, grilled pork chop with slaw and peas with a side of grilled broccolini. I am not entirely sure what the slaw part was made of as it didn't really look like cabbage but it tasted good. This was followed by an orange blossom panna cotta with spiced rhubarb and white chocolate crumb. Now I know the menu said that it was going to spiced, but it was still a surprise when I tasted it. I am pretty sure there was ginger and star anise at the very least. 

Robert had a steak with chips and chocolate fondant with cream. It's supposed to come with ice cream but he doesn't eat ice cream so he got a smear of cream instead. 

A friend of mine has recommended a different location which turns out to be within a kilometre or so from here, so we have booked to go there in June.

After a lunch like that we weren't really that hungry so we just had grilled cheese on toast. We quite often have cheese on toast or eggs on toast on a Sunday night, even on days when we haven't splurged on a nice lunch!

Monday

I had been hankering for roast chicken so I cooked the roast chicken recipe from Recipetin Eats Dinner which promises you the easiest, juiciest roast chicken. In effect it is almost like a pot roast as you cook the potatoes and carrots underneath the chicken. Everything was delicious, and yes it was juicy! I think my go to roast chicken recipe from Bill Granger is still my favourite though

Tuesday

Tuesday night I went to see a preview screening of The Last Journey, a Swedish documentary in which a man and a friend decides to take his elderly father on a road trip to the south of France, to try and spark him back into life. It was a lovely movie, and we went to see it in a fab art deco theatre I had never been to before. The son and his friends who are famous in Sweden, and who produced the movie were at the screening and there was a Q and A session after. It was so touching, because when it started it was about the son not understanding how aging had affected his father, and by the end it was about him accepting that his dad was getting old. Along the way they reminisced about their summers in France. If you get the chance to see it, do so, but maybe take some tissues. It's now the highest grossing Swedish documentary of all time.

The reason why I mention this is because one of his dad's favourite recipes is ratatouille, and one of the key scenes in the movie where the son realises that his father just can't do certain things anymore revolves around cooking this meal.  For a long time my favourite meal was ratatouille and couscous. We don't have it very often anymore because I am keener on it than everyone else in my house. It did make me want to have it though! I might see if I can sneak it on the menu list this week

Here's the trailer for the movie

When I got home from the movie my son had cooked Mexican Chicken and Rice which is a recipe that I got from my cousin years ago. It was originally written on the back of a blue envelope. I would make it a couple of times, and then I would misplace the envelope for a few years, then we would find it again and the cycle would repeat until a couple of years ago when I decided it was time to put on the blog and throw away the envelope once and for all! It's a dish my son likes to cook so for a while there if it was his turn to cook we knew that we would get either this or pork nachos! We ask him to cook at least once a week. We did end up adding in the leftovers of the chicken from Monday night shredded into it as we are really trying to minimise food waste as much as we can!

Wednesday 

Pork chops, mash and beans with gravy. Yes, more pork chops. I do cook a nice pork chop, carefully timed to be nicely coloured but still tender. Not as thick as the one I had at lunch, or as juicy, but not bad even if I do say so myself. I learnt how to cook pork like this on a TV ad years ago. 6 minutes on one side, 5 on the other, then let it stand. Always turns out well.

Thursday 

Well, Thursday turned out to be a bit of an emotional day as we had to take our dog to the emergency vet as he basically stopped eating and drinking. He's a beautifully natured dog and a very handsome good boi but he isn't genetically blessed and has all sorts of things wrong with him. We will be bringing him home tomorrow but we know his health issues will be life long and that he won't have a long life.

We did do chicken parma for dinner, but it is the last time we will be having it this way, not because it wasn't delicious but because one of the key ingredients is no longer available. Chicken parma is a cooked schnitzel (or it could be a flattened chicken breast) that has a tomato sauce slathered on top, then slices of ham and cheese and then it is put in the oven until the cheese melts. For years, I have made this using a can of something called Tomato Supreme. This was tomatoes with capsicum and onion cooked into a concentrate sauce and it was the perfect parma sauce. They stopped making it 18 months ago or so and I was so disappointed. When we rearranged the pantry a little while ago I found one last can. I hate it when they stop making your favourites. Of course, we can use just tomato sauce or paste but is't not quite the same. I've just noticed that the can says it is a salsa mix so that is an alternative too! We have done that before too,  but for now....farewell Tomato Supreme

We also cooked the accompanying chips in the air fryer. Robert was just about to put them in the oven when I reminded him that we really need to use our new air fryer more, and they were so good! Maybe we will remember to use it more often!

Friday

I had to fast as I was having blood tests in the morning. By the time I had sat in the waiting room for more than an hour, I was starving by the time I got home!

Friday night is generally takeaway night in our house. We had burgers from our local shopping centre. We haven't actually had them for months, so I was really looking forward to them. We do tend to share waffle fries they are delicious and if you have chips and waffle fries for both of you it is way too much!

Weekly meals

Saturday - Out for dinnner
Sunday - Grilled cheese on toast
Monday - Roast chicken, potatoes and carrots
Tuesday - Mexican Chicken and Rice
Wednesday - Pork chops, mash, beans and gravy
Thursday - Chicken parma with chips and brocolli
Friday - Take away

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