.. and that brings us to the end of 2011

We have been off work on our Christmas break for a week now, and it has been a great festive season which we have shared with family and friends, enjoying lots of yummy food in the most desirable manner, with the best company you could ask for.

Apart from cooking turkey for Christmas lunch, the kitchen has been very quiet, what with a couple of days away in the South-West, then returning home to a couple of the hottest days this Summer, we have tended to do it easy.

Having nothing planned yesterday and the fact that it had cooled off a little changed that and Jack was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner, and I would not have had it any other way.

We started the day off with a light, but scrumptious breakfast of ham, cheese and tomato omelette, some toast and coffee. 

After breakfast we took a drive up to Drovers in Joondalup as I wanted to stock the freezer, before we return to work in a few days time.  Drovers marketplace has  just about everything you could want including a huge butchers shop, fruit and veg store, a fish monger, bakery and a fantastic gourmet deli which stocks some of the harder to find delicacies, I love going to Drovers despite the long drive to get there.

Having our supplies of meat, vegetables and a few YUM YUM items from the deli, I suggested we have a look through the fish mongers wares, Jo was keen for me to cook her something with prawns, we found some awesome King Prawn flesh and while doing so Jo spotted a tray of freshly shucked oysters, the look on her face told me she was keen to have some, so a tray went in the basket, these items were to become our lunch on returning home. 

I prepared a small salad to go with the prawns, which I pan fried in some garlic butter, they were delicious, as was the chilli infused olive oil I used for the salad dressing,

For the oyster's I combined 2 teaspoons each of tomato and chilli sauce with a tablespoon of Worcester, I spooned just enough of this over each oyster so as to completely cover, then sprinkled chopped bacon I had prepared earlier over the top with a few grinds of pepper, these went on a wire rack and into a hot oven for 6 minutes, whilst I cooked the prawns.  Finished off with a squeeze of lemon, and washed down with a glass of Watershed SSB, they were divine.

Whilst we were shopping for meat, Jo suggested we purchase a tray of chicken legs for dinner and that we could end our day with a picnic down at the beach. 

I marinated the chicken legs in a paste I made with a small tub of yoghurt mixed with 2 tablespoons of Sherwood's Tandoori Paste, these went onto the tray I had cooked the oysters on and into the oven to cook while we enjoyed lunch.  

I have hung my apron up for 2011, as today is New Year's Eve and we are planning on a day at the races for the Perth Cup, which is being run on NYE for the first time that I recall, it is usually run on New Years Day, so we will not be cooking today, apart from a couple of slices of toast to get us under-way, if the day is half as good as the one we enjoyed yesterday, we are in for a great day!

Happy New Year to you all from Jack and Jo, we hope 2012 is a great year for you and your families and we hope we can share some good food and times with you all sometime during the year.