10.10.08: Risotto redux and traditional Austrian fare

While She is out of town for a few days, He warmed up the rest of the pea, mushroom and pesto risotto and added a new rocket, tomato, radish salad along with yesterday's dressing.

HE SAYS: A quick, easy and thoroughly nourishing evening meal. Who would think that risotto is fast food? The salad was given a boost by the dressing, having intensified in the fridge for a day, yum. Meanwhile...

She simply could not get away with covert dinnertime photography while surrounded by curious colleagues, but She can detail the 4-course menu served in the ASI Lodge dining room pictured above. Vegetable strudel on tomato sauce; 'Oberlander' creamy cheese soup; charfilet fish (billed as 'like salmon' and bred near the lodge) with a zucchini-tomato ragout on 'coloured noodles'; and pancake filled with apricot jam topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

SHE SAYS: Given how many of my entries begin with 'after a tough day at work', a weekend getaway to Austria courtesy of the co. was v. welcome in some ways (multiple-course meals being but one of the luxuries on offer), and less welcome in others (more time with the people you see most anyway). Food was not a hugely strong suit, but it was perfectly nice.

The strudel encased a mildly savoury puree of some sort of veg, and the tomato sauce was mildly sweet. The soup was the star, a shallow bowl of thin cream artfully streaked with some sort of brown salty sauce. Most people thought the fish was amazing, but I thought it was merely ok; it was nothing like salmon, more like grilled catfish but not quite as strongly flavoured. Noodles and ragout were enh. (Sorry, 'enh' is all I can think to call it!) Dessert was just as you'd expect, and not remarkable, just indulgent, and a bit heavy after strudel pastry and pasta.

05.08.08: Milanese risotto redux and scrambled eggs with salad

On their tod tonight, He finished off the risotto from last night...

...while She later pulled together one of the fastest cooked dinners in anyone's repertoire: tossed salad and scrambled eggs, plus the famed lime-wasabi dressing.

SHE SAYS: More filling than it might seem, and much more appetising to look at the the photo indicates! (Could not figure out why camera was darkening every pic on any setting with greenish hue.) My simple crunchy salad of radishes, tomatoes and a bit of avo was lifted to the level of yum with the nose-tingling wasabi dressing, which actually has some of the sulfuric bouquet of egg - again, a more pleasant happening than you might think! I like my scrambles pretty dry, and this batch was perfectly to taste, and I ate it it happily with pinches of kosher salt.

HE SAYS: Just as good if not better then last night, the flavours had a chance to intensify in the fridge. A very nish dish to come home to and scoff before rushing off to take care of bizness. Forgot to pull together a salad plate, but the beetroot is set to make an appearance on my plate soon enough. Stay tuned, 'till next time, tarrah for now.

04.08.08: Milanese risotto with physalis salad

Slow cooking fast with the world's easiest risotto, with peas, mushrooms, and ho-made pesto. The physalis and roasted pumpkin seed salad eagerly pushed into the frame for a close-up.

HE SAYS: The added white wine makes this dish so satisfyingly tasty, even without the exotic mushroom mix She usually uses, this was a top draw dinner, no word of a lie. Who knew frozen peas could be elevated to such a posh nosh status. The salad was piquant, shweet salty and toasty at the same time, it's magic I tell you.

SHE SAYS: This is one of the Most Consistent meals we've had, and it's closing in on lemon chicken and magic lentils for the title. Always easy when you have pesto in your (freezer) pocket, eminently savoury and deeply comforting. And how I do love the inimitable physalis, it's subtle tang playing ever so nicely with the roasty-toasty pumpkin seeds.