Aussie Home #2

Here are a few pictures of our new "home" in Australia. Martin and Romona have been so incredibly gracious to us, offering their home to us during their travels. We feel so spoiled! I can't even begin to tell you how nice it is to have a full kitchen again.

Here is the view of the dining area and living room... The kitchen: glorious isn't it!?

The living room (yes, they have a Play Station = trouble)

I whipped up a little first night at the new place "celebration meal". I have been on this huge domestic kick here. I am developing this new love of different kinds of food, and I spend way too much time looking at recipes in cookbooks and online. This meal wasn't particularly new, although I did try the bruschetta for the first time and the dessert. Just for fun, here's the meal with the recipes. The shrimp orzo salad especially is my favorite!!! The table...
Here is the salad recipe. It's from Gold N' Delicious, the Spokane Junior League Cookbook that happens to be my favorite (thanks to my wonderful mother):)

Salad:
1 lb. shrimp, cooked & peeled
3/4 c. cooked orzo, chilled
3 1/2 oz. feta cheese
12 kalamata olives (optional)
2 green onions, sliced
1 c. cherry tomatoes, halved

Dressing:
3 T. fresh dill (or 1 T. dried)
1 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T. olive oil
3 T. lemon juice
1 1/2 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper


Wisk the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Chill & serve for a perfect summertime meal (or anytime, really). It's great for a picnic or a Rocky's game! A close up of the finished product:

Here's is the bruschetta recipe. Of course I can't find it online anymore, so I'll copy it from my notecard:


4 roma tomatoes, seeded & chopped
1/4 c. red onion, chopped
1 c. fresh basil, shredded
1/4 c. olive oil (or a bit less)
1 T. red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
1 baguette loaf
2 garlic cloves, peeled and cut in half for rubbing on baguette


Combine tomatoes through salt & pepper and let stand at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. Turn on oven broiler and slice baguette diagonally into 1/2" pieces. Broil until tops are toasty and remove from oven. Brush the top of each slice with olive oil and run with garlic clove. Top with tomato mixture and serve. Delicious! Here's the finished product:





Here is the easy lemon cheesecake recipe:


250 g. sweet biscuit crumbs (hmmm...in the US I'd use graham cracker crumbs, 1.5 cups maybe)
125 g or 1/2 cup butter, melted
250 g. cream cheese (8oz)
can sweetened condensed milk
2 t. grated lemon rind
80 ml lemon juice
1 t. gelatine powder
1 T. water


Combine crumbs & butter and press into the bottom of a pie plate. Beat cream cheese, condensed milk and lemon until smooth. Dissolve gelatine powder in water and add to mixture. Pour over pie crust and refridgerate. Pretty much the easiest recipe ever, huh!?


Raspberry Sauce:
50 g (or about 1/4 c) butter
1/3 c. sugar
3/4 t. cinnamon
300 g. raspberries (I used a frozen bag)


Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Add raspberries and stir gently for 1-2 minutes.


Okay, after spending far too long doing this, I realized that this is an "adventures of the hooks" blog about our time in Australia, not a "recipes with Amy" blog. Sorry about that:). Like I said, I'm just on this cooking/baking kick over here...