Dessert: Baked apple with Bacon & Saltana crumble

(again apologise for the quality of the photo... I let my mum borrow my camera for her holiday... phone camera is all I got unfortunately *sad face*)

This dessert doesn't really have a name... it was just something my boyfriend invented. he cooked it as part of our 6 month anniversary candlelit dinner and it was my favourite part of the dinner. Wanted him to make it again lol.

Now I know you think bacon and apples taste weird together but it's when I bite into the warm and juicy apple that reminds me more of myself eating an apple pie or an apple crumble.

He showed me how to make the dish and it was quite simple. Just need to make the crumble, put them on the apples and put them in the oven for 15 mins.

Used:
Crumble
bread crumbs
bacon diced (depending on how many apples there are)
a bit of saltanas
butter

granny smith apples decored and cut in half

more butter to coat the "stuffed" apples so apple doesn't dry out in the oven.

Sushi: Inari - plain

Omg the asian grocery I always go to finally stocked up new items and one of them was Inari Beancurd pockets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy!!!!

So I saved the inari making for my 6 month anniversary at a picnic. What perfect food to take to a picnic but sushi?? I'm not a big fan of sandwiches cos I'm not good at making them lol but I'm hoping to have more picnic outings like this.

the instructions to using the Inari was all written in jap but with the help of a friend, Its just basically soaking them in hot (not boiling) water for a minute or 2 until you can open them.kinda hard when dipping fingers in hot water so had to work fast. I had a bowl of cold water to dip in afterwards and stuff rice in it too.

I just used plain rice, I kinda like just the plain rice because it's simple.

Used:
sushi rice (made 9 inari but 8 for due to the size of my bento box)
rice vinegar
Inari Fried beancurd pockets

I left them in the fridge overnight so they can stay cool for our picnic~

Breakfast: Eggs Benedict

Made Eggs Benedict as a surprise for my boyfriend~ practised making poached eggs before attempting this. I wanted to buy english muffins but all of them were going to expire in a few days =( as inspired by our bed n breakfast in Weeroona.

used:
eggs
toasted bread
spinach
shaved ham
Gravox Hollandaise sauce

Lunch/Dinner: Banh Xeo

My boyfriend finally made Banh Xeo~~ either translated as "Vietnamese pancake" or "Vietnamese Sizzling Crepes".

Apparently the 'Banh' part means 'cake' and the 'xeo' is just the sound it makes when you cook it.

The batter is pretty much rice flour and turmuric powder mixed in with water and coconut milk and spring onion. and the filling is usually pork, shrimps, bean sprouts and mung bean. But for dinner we had leftover minced beef that we didn't want to waste so we experimented what it was like with beef.

And we used the leftover batter for lunch the next day and used minced pork (1. it was cheap and 2. Apparently I'm not allowed a cleaver to chop up pork belly because I cut myself recently)Used:
The Banh xeo batter packet. (picture above)
water (instructions on the packet)
400mL coconut milk
spring onions

mix them all up and set aside to prepare the filling

Filling:
Pork Belly (minced pork also works. if you don't have pork, use beef)
shrimps
bean sprouts
mung bean (soak overnight and boil for a few minutes until they split)

cook the pork and the shrimps and set them aside.

Pour 1/3 cup of the batter onto a frypan on Medium heat (so it doesn't spitter and spatter on you so much) and quicky turn the frypan around so the batter can spread into a thin crepe.

Add the mince, shrimps, bean spouts and mung bean on one side of the pancake. then cover the frypan with a lid.

Let the pancake cook for a few minutes until the edges turn golden brown. Fold the pancake in half and serve
The pancake is even tasty to eat by itself!

Dinner: Spaghetti Bolognase

Used:
Dolmio bolognase sauce
minced beef
tomatoes
mushrooms
garlic
Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

Dinner: Bun Rieu

Remember that pork broth I made? Well this is one of the noodle dishes I used it for. I never made Bun Rieu or any vietnamese dish so I did a bit of research. Having being raised in a family where they like to experiment with their ingredients and replace some, I wanted to make sure that I want to make it authentic as possible.

I used the recipe from The Ravenous Couple but I halved the quantity as it was only for 2 people. The butcher gave me an odd look when I requested 60g of pork mince. He gave me 90g. oh well more meat. Unfortunately Coles didn't have the tofu I wanted and the asian grocery stores were closed, But it would've been tastier with tofu in the dish.

Used:
Meatball
90g pork mince
1/2c crab meat
1 teaspoon Shrimp Paste in soya bean oil
2 eggs
10g sugar
2.5g pepper
1 teaspoon shallot
2 teaspoon fish sauce

Soup
pork broth
2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
fish sauce to season
Fried Tofu

Vermicelli noodles- cooked and set aside

Garnish
Fried shallots
bean sprouts
spring onion

Bring the soup to the boil and turn the heat down to simmer. scoop out the meatball mixture and slowly allow it to cook in the spoon. Turning up the heat will make the meatball to break into tiny pieces..

when the crab mixture is cooked, you can then add the tomatoes and tomato paste to give the broth a pretty orange/red colour. You would add tofu in this step too.

Once the soup is done, you can scoop it out and serve it with the vermicelli noodles and top it up with garnishes.

For the first attempt, it was nice. Tho I had better.... Too much of the meatball mixture tho.... But I love the shrimp paste meatball soup aroma hovering around in the kitchen still.

DInner: "taco/leftover" pizza

had so much leftovers from making tacos that I had this crazy idea to use the leftover as pizza toppings. Imagine the meat with the taco seasoning with tomatoes and cheese like every other taco drizzled in salsa sauce. We also added mushrooms in there just for fun.