Blogging Quickie

I've been so lazy about blogging, but as I have another imminent MA deadline I'm sure there'll be a flurry of activity in the next three weeks.

In the meantime, here's a dreadful photo of a freak mushroom I had in England - it has two stems! It is the Chernobyl Mushroom!
As for cooking, I have had some successes and disasters.

Disaster: no-knead bread. Flat and disappointing crumb, owing to not using a sufficiently gluten-rich flour mixture and too-large a Le Creuset. I think my yeast is moribund, too.

Success: Chocolate, coffee and walnut tart that was in the most recent issue of The Age's Melbourne magazine, a la L'Oustal. I'm not that fussed about chocolate but the walnut and coffee filling is delicious.

Success: Apple custard tart. I'll dig out the recipe, shortly, because it's worth sharing. This tart was superb!

Success: Boiled potatoes dressed with walnut oil and wholegrain mustard. Yes, just mix and serve. Fabulous.

Success (I think): Mega-pear-poaching session, owing to Coles having beurre bosc pears for 50¢ a kilo. Poached as per Shannon Bennett's My Vue method.

Review: I tried Spiga at Melbourne Central on Friday. Shared a prawn pizza (not enough prawns and a bit greasy for my ascetic tastes, but otherwise a great crust) and pear & raspberry crumble. The crumble was too sweet for me (no surprise there), but otherwise pretty good. My short macchiato was excellent. Seems like a pretty reasonable place to go to, IMO.