Australia!

The lovely new hubby and I arrived in Australia in late July, and spent our first weeks in some temporary accommodation organised by the University. It wasn't the most pleasant place to stay: one room with a bed, a tv, a noisy fridge, an ancient gas stove with broken igniters, and some of the most dangerously broken cookware I've had the displeasure of using. We very quickly went out and bought a small chopping board, a sharp knife, a frying pan and a big saucepan. Suitably equipped, I cooked a series of homely, familiar meals, interspersed with the occasional new recipe or variation made possible by our antipodean location. Here's a summary of our first month, with lots of links to existing recipes.

24th July - Seared snapper with lemon and egg-fried rice
25th July - Supermarket-marinaded (not great) chicken kebabs with BBQ-style rice and feta&cucumber salad
26th July - Roast roots and feta with puy lentils, and boiled purple sweet potato (never had this kind before, and it's lovely!)
27th July - Veggie fajitas
28th July - Beef, cashew and chinese lettuce stir-fry with egg-fried rice
29th July - Pasta with chorizo, peppers and pine nuts
30th July - Kangaroo steak with mustard mash and wilted chard
31st July - Butcher's veal schnitzel with tagliatelle and steamed vegetables

Then I started work, so quite a few of the following were prepared by a very bored house husband!

1st August - Roast lamb chops and med veg with cous-cous and raisins
2nd August - Pan-fried emperor fillets with honey-basil drizzle and egg-fried rice
3rd August - Pasta carbonara, then delicious Australian oranges
4th August - Hamilton squash
5th August - Chicken, almond and orange salad
6th August - Pasta with tomato and butternut squash
7th August - Cold chicken with salted roast potatoes, mayonnaise and steamed sweetcorn

At which point, having had enough of mooching about and going to the library for internet access, the hubby started work and mostly, I went back to cooking.

8th August - Pan-fried tofu with wilted Chinese greens and egg noodles in spicy broth, topped with toasted cashews
9th August - Lamb stew with vegetables and cous-cous
10th August - Pasta with sundried tomatoes, roast peppers and pine nuts
12th August - Pasta with fried onions, mushrooms, parsley and anchovies

Then we moved into our new house, but still with the same equipment. For the most part I stuck to known recipes, as we had little in the way of a storecupboard:

14th August - Pumpkin laksah
17th August - Kangaroo au poivre with mini-baked potatoes and steamed vegetables
19th August - Cheese and capsicum quesadillas with steamed sweetcorn, salsa and roast spiced sweet potato wedges
20th August - Pasta with roast pumpkin, asparagus and feta
21st August - Superfast tuna nicoise (lunch)
21st August - Roast lamb with anchovy and mint marinade, and cauliflower with cashews and raisins
22nd August - Salt'n'pepper tofu with sweet vegetable sautee and egg-fried rice
23rd August - Butcher's beef schnitzel (ok, a bit much!) with potatoes colcanonne
24th August - Pork-stuffed courgettes with quinoa and raisins

And then we had a massive GumTree blitz, and acquired a natural-gas BBQ!

27th August - BBQ'd prawns, pineapple and sweet potato (only slightly charred!)
28th August - BBQ'd chilli & lime salmon (supermarket marinade, pretty good) with cauliflower biryani
29th August - (taking a break from the BBQ at last) Oyster mushrooms and vegetables in gentle Thai broth, topped with a fried egg

Now it's getting on to September and we've acquired a place to live, some furniture, and internet access. So I should be able to get back into updating this once-a-day, and catch up on some of the backlog. It was interesting going through all the meals we cooked in the last month and realising that I haven't actually blogged some of my really common fallbacks, so I shall endeavour to remedy that asap, while it's still relatively cool here and I feel like cooking 'wintry' food. The summer could well be full of 'BBQ'd X' recipes :) Looking forward to it!