My love for my slow cooker

So it's like freezing cold and whatnot at the moment. Totally a precursor to winter. Brrr! So the last couple of nights have been really good opportunities to use the slow cooker.

I love my slow cooker - if you don't already know this - I think it's because it makes such hearty, comfort food. Or at least I think so! On tonight's menu is beef strogonoff, which I love but don't make very often due to the fact that I don't like doing it on the stove and it takes a wee while to do in the oven. And when you do it in the oven nothing comes out quite as tender as doing it in the slow cooker.

Last night was lamb ragout with white wine. Basically a really hearty lamb stew. Nommy! Perfect on a really cold night.

What I love about the slow cooker as well is on days when you know you're going to be rushed for time at the other end (think: work followed by church meeting) you can chuck everything in in the morning before you head off, stick it on low and voila it is done when you get home! Loving the ease of it all! ANNNND apparently they are cheaper to run than your cooktop. (Unless perhaps you are on gas)

As far as I'm concerned it's at least a little bit of a money saver, you can buy cheaper cuts of meat, top it up with veges and it still comes out tender! In fact, with a slow cooker fat is good because it softens all the meat!

Am I gushing? I don't mean to gush! I am just excited by the possibilities! Also this post was NOT sponsored by any type of slow cooker manufacterer. Just in case you were wondering.

If you do happen to have a slow cooker and are a little unsure of where to start here's a couple of websites with great recipies/people who are willing to help!

Crock Pot Cooking
A Year of Crock Potting

Looking forward to dinner tonight all ready!!!

Gastroporn

Peanut butter munchies - stolen from here

Nummy!!!

Date night

We went out - by ourselves - for the first time in AGES last night. Wow - prior to this I can't actually remember the last time we went to a nice restaurant.

Anyway, Isaac made a booking at Henry Africas - neither of us had been there before, but it was in the gold section of the entertainment book so we figured that it must be good.

To cut a long story short - the gold section of the book does not lie. They have GOOD food there. Normally - especially in the gold section - the fancier the food/place is the smaller the size of the meals. Not so at Henry Africas. We got HUGE meals. Kind of like what you'd normally get in a pub. They were a very decent size for what we were getting. And they do a GOOD Montana wine too! So, with the card, two mains, plus wine, plus dessert (Gorilla Balls...must be tried to be believed!) it ended up at $54 - which for the amount of food we got was pretty decent! And the service was great too!

After which we went to see Hairspray which I've wanted to see for ages (and which Isaac hasn't been too keen on seeing...). And it was great!!

I think even Isaac liked it. I'll admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Zac Efron...and Amanda Brynes. Yes, I am a teenybopper. And damnit if John Travolta wasn't bloody brilliant in the movie. I never thought I'd see the day in which he plays a woman AND sings AND dances IN high heels. Currently, in my mind, he is THE man.

One thing I have to say though - his singing voice hasn't changed in all these years. Whenever he sung I was sure I could hear Danny Zuko from Grease!

There's quite a visual difference there! Haha.

Anyway, Nikki Blonsky is awesome. I see why she's the next big thing in Hollywood. She's just the anti-thesis of all the HOT people who are big in Hollywood at the moment. She's so little and cute! AND she gets the guy :)

Food glorious food

Us having tea at Willowbank

The rellies have gone. Well, actually, one relative and one friend of relative. But that's okay...in the long run we are all one big happy family.

Anyway, in the two weeks (or so) they have been here I have taken a crapload of photos.

Mussels = entree = YUMMY!!!

We went to Willowbank as a sort of "farewell tea" last night. I'd never been there before. As part of the meal you get to go on a night tour of parts of the park and take a look at some of the native (and not so native) wildlife.

Mmm...dessert :)

The lovely ladies paid for us all - which (as I've had a look at prices for the meal/tour on the website) was VERY nice considering the price!!!

The food was REALLY good. Plus, there were deer right outside the window where we were sitting.

See? Cute little deer!

Crapness of the pictures is due to the fact that they wouldn't stay still and that there was reflection off the glass. Silly deer!!! They are also really greedy! When the got fed they kept shoving each other out of the way in order to get closer to the food!!!

Kai moana... :) Yummy!

We had a seafood platter as a starter and being the seafood loving yet deprived person that I am...I really enjoyed it. There were also oysters there...I don't like oysters. But I managed to convince Isaac to eat at least half of one. (Hence picture in previous post)

Dessert! Pav and chocolate cake. Yummy!

There was also a REALLY nice fruit salad there. Normally I don't even like fruit salads, but this was GOOD.

Yes, I know I only have pictures of the entrees and dessert. This is not at ALL intentional. The mains were REALLY good as well. It was roast beef and lamb and hangi-cooked pork. YUMMY!!!!

Candles!

Romantic! Even with parents and extended family! Haha. Actually, I really liked the candle holders. They were carved into stone and had a koru on the outside in green. Very cool!

Taking you videoing me.

The tour was also very cool. All native wildlife. Unfortunately, because it was dark most of the photos didn't turn out very well. But I have the memories. (cue sympathetic sigh!)

Kea...the parrots that try to destroy your cars :)

Kunekune!

That's a baby one, the grown up one was hiding from the cold. It did get up and walk around a little before that though and it was HUGE. But the little baby was so cute!!!

Two swans and their baby :)
Pukeko!!!

I tried taking photos/video of the kiwi - I mean, what kind of person wouldn't??? But because you can't use flash photography AT ALL with them all the photos turned out somewhat dark and fuzzy. Lol. I don't think you can actually see the kiwi in there.

Still it was pretty cool to walk amongst them - so to speak!

Fun times!

I hear they made it home safely. 40kg of luggage (each!) included - which is a relief!! (Haha!)

mmm...food.

Day off today and have been playing with Photoshop. Something I haven't done in a LONG time. But I'm finding it quite relaxing, especially with the way work has been at the moment. Doesn't Jem have nice blue eyes???? (Or slightly freaky blue eyes...whatever...)

Work has been heinous. I'm so glad I'm only there part time, this week has been horribly stressful!!! The new induction starts next week and it's basically been a mad rush to try to get everything organised. Plus it's been insanely busy and everything feels like it's in limbo because too many changes are half taking place.

I had a big complain session with Janina about it last night. I'm positive the entire operation is going to fall over. I have no idea what's happening and they shouldn't have proposed this idea to consolidate both the contact centres when we're extremely short staffed and it meant that just about all the auckland staff have walked out.

ARGH.

I don't care. I'm barely there anyway. I no longer have any sense of company loyalty. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

I am completely over it. The only thing that keeps me sane is the fact that I don't have to be there all the time. Hopefully other work will pick up and by the end of the year I can quit doing this already!

I call this one: "A Boy and his Girl"

Jen just rung. Yay!!! That was exciting :) I am hungry and I think I shall make tuna pasta for lunch. Mmmm...pasta.

I am also strangely addicted to these potato wedges I have been making that are seasoned with Tuscan seasoning, piri piri and chicken salt. SO GOOD....

We also had a dessert night the other night and I made apple and peach crumble. The dessert night (incidentally) are where the pictures of Jemjem and his lady love are from.

In other news:

We are all geeks. This is us customising our Google homepages on Tuesday night and then playing PacMan/Monkey Cliff Diving together. Isaac is using my computer. What nerds!!! We have, however - just had ice cream and chocolate sauce. Mmmm...

This post appears to be all about food.

Mmm...I'm so hungry. I couldn't be bothered making breakfast so I had a girl guide biscuit and rice crackers for breakfast. Not together though - that would be gross...

Anyway, I have done two loads of washing and I feel that it is time to reward myself for a day of doing nothing. Tuna pasta here I come!!!