Chilli Con Carne

It's been a little cold round these parts of late, so what better way to warm up than with a nice hearty and spicy chilli con carne! (Would you believe that we have been fogged in at Pateena Rd for three days straight now! It's a bit depressing not seeing the sky for that long)

So to reward those people that drove through the pea soup last night to come to our place for tea, we rewarded them with two gigantic pots of chilli!

Chilli Con Carne
1 finely chopped onion
6 grated carrots
300 grams finely chopped mushrooms
200 grams cauli/brocolli mash (Left over from sundays cauli/brocolli cannelonni)
4 grated zuchinis
4 tins red kidney beans
500g fresh green beans
4 tins diced tomatoes
1 bottle passsata
1.5kg beef mince
500g turkey mince
Cayene Pepper
Salt
Paprika
Oregano

Saute the onions for about 10 minutes, until translucent. Crank up the heat and add the grated carrot, cook for about 3 minutes and add the mushrooms, cook for about 2 minutes and add the zuchinni, cook for about 2 minutes and add the cauli mash mixtures. Remove the veg mixture from the pan, put the pan back on the stove and get it hot. Add some oil, oregano, paprika, and pepper and fry for about a minute to release all the flavour, then add the mince and brown. Add the tomatoes, kidney beans, veg mixture, passatta and the green beans and adjust the seasoning to suit.

Serve hot with crusty bread, tacos, a fresh green salad, polenta and loads of good friends!

Friday Frothy # Restart Numbering

I've been neglecting my commitment to provide a beer review every friday afternoon, sorry bout that....

Anyhoo, todays offering is Fat Yak Pale Ale. I like my beers hoppy and malty, so this one rate right up there. It's from Matilday Bay Brewing (Why is it that so many of the great beers come from Fremantle? Might need to move over there! Although this one is brewed at The Garage, their Dandenong brewery. And did you know that their famous Redback is actually brewed at Cascade?)

Appearance:  pale golden, almost bronze color with a 1 finger head that leaves some lacing on the glass. but soon recedes.

Aroma; floral/grassy hoppiness with touches of citrus and traces of malt.

Taste: Pretty much as per the aroma. There also seems to be a touch of tropical fruitiness. Clean flavor with a balance favoring the malt. There is some hop character here but the focus is more on the malt.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied and has some reasonable carbonation throughout most of the beer. The hop bitterness shows more as the sweetness fades and turn it turns dry.

Drinkability: No difficulty moving on to a second one.

Rating: 9/10

Firewood

So we regularly get asked how we keep warm on those -4 mornings.... Well, I cut wood to keep warm, and lots of it, and my lovely wife and kids burn it to keep warm, and lots of it..

20 Tonnes delivered over the past few weekends to top up the 5 or so tonne i had already had stacked in the shed.

A quick google search has inspired me to do something creative, maybe a firewood planter bed, privacy screen or firewood fence?

Great ideas, and it would interesting to see the garden landscape evolve over time as the wood diminished...