CFD/AFD

No, it's not some trendy new diagnosis of children who obsessively wash their hands while screaming that they have nut allergies, it's my new mantra.

And, as every good Buddhist knows, mantras MUST be abbreviated to TLA's (which in itself is a joke, three letter acronyms? geddit!!)

So, this weekend, past, My delicious friend, Peakie and I embarked on my very first Blonde Ambition Tour.

Peakie is (sometimes, even erstwhile) blonde, as are some of her besties, and they all get together on various girls weekends, in the country and overseas, and each one of these girls weekends/weeks are referred to as a Blonde Ambition Tour.

Very similar to my Namaste Bitches sisters and our Florida Tour last year

(pee ess, The Namaster Bitches 2011 Tour is to the UK to see THE OPENING NIGHT OF THE FOO FIGHTER'S WORLD TOUR.. more on that later!)

And what happens on a Blonde Ambition Tour STAYS on.... well, you know the rest.

Except this time, we decided to be a gang, The Blonde Ambition Gang, which of course, leads me back to the topic of this post.

BAG.

Thus we all had to have gang names.

Mine, I am proud to announce, was Lemon Iced-T (BAG). And rocked the SHIZZ out of the Torquay Caravan Park. We TOTALLY  played Lilly Allen's "Fuck You" really loud. Like on 4. At about 6.30pm.

We were ROCK STARS, man, we kinda slumped around that Caravan site causing fear and havoc in the hearts of all who saw us. Although we replaced the hoodies and bandanas and low slung jeans for one piece bathers with built in spandex support and sarongs, we were FEARSOME, dude. Our slumping gang skillz even had a zed.

We even had someone knock on the caravan door at 10.30 and tell us to "Keep it down" . It was one of the proudest moments of my life.

Now, Girls weekends, I've had a few. But I can honestly say that I have never come home from a weekend having only existed on chicken twistees, blue cheese, havarti and cowboy shots.

Seriously. That is all I consumed for an entire weekend. Maybe a few random CC's in there, and there is a vague memory of a handful of BBQ Shapes. And possibly a mouthful of  2 minute noodles.

Did you know that you can re-use the pre-fab Cowboy shot glasses, and make BETTER ones? Like with Baileys and Scotch?

Believe me, after your 17th, they taste AMAZING!

Tip for young players?

Make sure you get the angle of the weird little curvy plastic divider in said pre-fab shot glasses right, or it just dribbles out of the side of your mouth, and you look drunker than you actually are.

And you waste alcohol, which is a violation of both BAT and NBT rules.

So, this past few days have been deemed CFD/ AFD's

Cheese Free Day and Alcohol Free Day.

Quite seriously, if you put a wodge of  Pule in front of me, I'd just about vom.

So, Sunday night, after the above weekend, I had this:



Tofu and chive Asian dumplings, with wilted choy sum, tomato and cucumber.

I could actually feel the nutrients returning to by blood stream and forcing the chicken twistie badness from my liver.

I'm too old for this. 

Good friends, good food.

Ok, Y'all know how I tell you guys I love you.. and show you how I care for you, don't you.. that's right.. I cook for you.


So on a recent Girls Goddess Weekend, the weather was going to be nasty and miserable. I was thinking roast pork belly with sauerkraut, caraway and apple on mashed potato for dinner on Fri night.(I got a rolled pork belly and did it on the rotisserie).

I also made the most of in-season Winter veggies and did a roasted beetroot dip with caraway.

The past 18 months have been a roller coaster of uncertainty, insecurity, anxiety and a lack of clear direction, but hopefully all of that is about to change. And there is nothing better to make a girl feel like the Dark Tea Time of the Soul is ALMOST over, than a weekend away with the girls.

I've blogged about girls weekends several times. I'm blessed to be surrounded by women who understand me. Who can complete my sentences. Who know what "that look" means. Around whom I can relax and let my hair (and my freakish Type-A, control-freak personality) down, and just "be".

And to thank them for being them, I decided to put up a retro dessert with a twist.

PG's chocolate ravioli, filled with vanilla bean cream, served with blood orange syrup and fresh basil. (It's a variation on Paul Young's recipe from Good Food Live, btw. )

Ingredients
1 cup '00' flour,
50 g cocoa powder,
2 eggs, plus beaten egg for brushing
2 tbsp water,
I goodly splash of Champagne

Filling:

1/2 vanilla pod, split and scraped
125g cream cheese or ricotta

For the blood orange sauce:
4 blood oranges,
100 ml sugar syrup,
6 basil stems, leaves stripped and roughly torn and top florets put aside to garnish.

Method

1. First make the chocolate dough. In a food processor place the pasta flour, cocoa, eggs, water and Champagne

2. Blend together until a soft but firm dough is formed. Wrap in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

3. Using a pasta machine, roll the pasta dough out into thin sheets. Use a circular cutter to cut out 10cm discs from the pasta sheets. Lay the circles on a plate, cover and chill in the refrigerator until required.

4. To make the filling, split the vanilla pod and scrape out seeds,

5. Mix in vanilla seed, and cream cheese. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until required.

6. To make the chocolate ravioli, take a disc of chocolate dough, brush the edges with beaten egg and place a teaspoon of the vanilla cream filling in the centre.

7. Fold the disc over the edges, forming a half moon shape, and pinch the edges together, sealing well.

8. To make the blood orange sauce, zest the blood oranges on a fine grater.

9. Peel the oranges and segment them over a bowl so that none of the juice escapes.

10. In a saucepan, place the zest, juice and sugar syrup and simmer for 2 minutes.

11. Remove from direct heat and add the orange segments and torn-up basil leaves

12. Bring a large pan of water to a simmering boil. Drop in the ravioli and simmer for 3 minutes or so until they float to the surface. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.

13. Divide the ravioli among 2 serving bowls, spoon over the blood orange sauce and segments, garnish with basil sprig and serve at once.

Id put up a photo of the finished dish, but like many things I cook, they taste AMAZING, but look like a cat mistook my serving plate for its litter tray.

As well as the above, no Girls weekend away would be complete without something sweet for dipping fruit, fingers and Teddy Bear biscuits in. We've done the Tim Tam Slam, so this time I decided to make a fleur de sel salted butter caramel.

Salted Butter Caramel Sauce Recipe

From Almost Bourdain's blog.


(Adapted from David Lebovitz's The Sweet life of Paris)

Makes about 2 cups (500 ml)

Ingredients

2 cups (400 g) sugar
1 2/3 cups (400 g) heavy cream
2 tbsp (30 g) salted butter
1/4 tsp fleur de sel or coarse sea salt (or to taste)

Method


Spread the sugar in an even layer in a large metal Dutch oven or casserole, at least 6 quarts (6 L). Set over moderate heat and cook without stirring, until the sugar near the edge just starts to liquefy.

Using a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula, begin gently stirring, encouraging the melted sugar around the edges toward the center and delicately stirring up any sugar melting on the bottom as well. The sugar will start to look pebbly as it cooks, but keep going; it will melt completely as it turns amber.

Continue to cook until the sugar turns deep brown and starts to smoke. (Don't worry about any large chunks of caramel.) The darker you can cook the sugar without burning it, the better the final sauce will taste. It's ready when it's the colour of a well-worn centime, or penny, and will smell a bit smoky.

Remove from heat and quickly stir in about a quarter of the cream. The mixture will bubble up furiously, so you may wish to wear an oven mitt over your stirring hand. Continued to whisk in the cream, stirring as you go to make sure it's smooth. Stir in the butter and salt. Serve warm.

Use as dip for strawberries, sponge fingers, your finger. Laugh uproariously as two of your closest girlfriends fight over licking the spoon and attempt to lick the pan clean at the same time.

Noojee

This weekend past the girls and I headed off to Noojee, where one of their brothers has a B&B. Noojee is a tiny wee little place about 1/2 way between Warrigal and Yarra Junction, on the Latrobe river. Is is set in some of the most spectacularly beautiful country in Vic, and is close to the Gippsland Gourmet trail and only 1.15 hours from Melbourne.

The Noojee General Store is about the place in town that sells the papers, bait, groceries, car batteries etc. It is truly a general store of ole.

The also do a freakishly good Florentine and an AWESOME ginger snap, all home made there on the premises.



I can highly recommend the ginger biscuits as a "I sang Tainted Love too loudly into an empty shampoo bottle under the influence of far too much champagne" cure.

Girls weekends baffle most men. And indeed they should. They're about re-affirming the bonds of sisterhood and kinship. They're all about sleeping in and getting pissed. And gossiping 'till the wee smalls, and talking about husbands and clots and career choices and lice treatments.

Men, I think, think that we sit around and talk about technique. Or comparative "size". But you know what guys? YOU'RE NOT AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK YOU ARE. We're more likely comparing boob sag that wedding tackle. We're more likely to pick up a trashy novel, than the local white trash, and I can guarantee.. just like your version of male bonding, the footy trip.. WHAT HAPPENS ON A GIRLS WEEKEND STAYS ON A GIRLS WEEKEND.

So I'll say no more.