Best roast in town

But before i get to my latest cooking antics, please see below for the cutest new kid on the block, Luca. Daniel and Romina are settling into parenthood VERY well indeed i think, despite suffering from "He's so smart. No really, he's seriously smart, and I'm not just saying that." syndrome. (It's OK. I forgive you, and I'll never get sick of hearing it. Truly. O_O)








Secondly, a new ritual - Saturday morning pancakes on the balcony. I like it.

But, onto the roast. I am not a roast-cooker, mainly because its a lot of food for two people to eat, and also a lot of carbs, and also i can't be bothered. But my good friend Turnsie recently got it in his head that he wanted to cook one, because he never had before. And when he gets an idea, let me tell you, he will not let it go until its carried out.

The conversation went something like this:

Turns: "You ever cooked a roast?"
Me: "Nah man."

Turns: "Let's do it man!"
Me: "Bah, OK. When?"

And lo, a Sunday afternoon roast was born. We trundled over to Turnsies place and immediately went shopping. After spending at least 15 minutes arguing about what KIND of roast we wanted to make (pork? beef? lamb?), we finally settled on the pig and moved on. The vegetables caused more problems. For a start, I picked up a sweet potato and was concerned when Turnsie didn't know what it was. Then i had to battle Jo for the beans. "Well what greens do you want?" i asked. "Broccoli." he replied promptly. "Broccoli!" cried Turnsie in outrage, "You can't have broccoli and roast!" Etc etc. (The beans won in the end, to my relief. You really can't have broccoli and roast.)

We made it out of there without killing each other, and then it was on to phase 2 - preparation. This was my favourite part of the day, because it meant i could be bossy, and i do love being bossy. As i detest peeling vegetables, i happily delegated this job to Turnsie. I'm sure, despite his weary sighs, that he really and truly enjoyed this very important job. No really. He enjoyed it. I helped too. Like, I unwrapped stuff. And oversaw DTs work. Oh and I put everything in the baking dish! All equally tedious and tiresome tasks. (What? They are.) Also, i will just say this about Turnsie's pantry - it is a scary, scary place. Salt that expired in 2004? Half used bottles of unidentifiable stuff that's leaked and soaked through the label to the point that you can't read what it once was? I was frightened to put my hands too far in. Anyway - i present to you....

Our roast, pre-cooked.

Have a go at that! Our ready-to-eat-roast, and it was SO good!

Jo eating his yummy meal, which he did not lift a finger to help make.

Turnsie and I enjoying the fruits of our labour

And that wasn't the end of our feasting. For dessert, apple crumble using the Turner family recipe. We did have a small problem with the oven which may or may not have been my fault (I admit, i shouldn't have experimented with all the knobs, OK? I'm sorry. Sheesh.), so that the first attempt at baking the crumble resulted in a blackened outer crust that i refused to eat. Not deterred, we scraped that off and tried again, and round two turned out just fine.

Our crumble with ice cream

Me enjoying the crumble

Turnsie doing the cleaning up - onya turns, love the pink gloves. Very razzle dazzle.

So thumbs up for roasting, but thumbs down for being sick - Jo and I have spend most of the week coughing and sneezing, and last weekend was spent almost entirely on the couch doing nothing, but I'm happy to report we're on the mend now. We've had a very busy weekend which I'll tell you all about during the week because Relocation Relocation is on and i really must watch. Before i go, join me in a cheer - Boo for Mondays! BOOOOOOOOO!