March 1992
For an introduction to what these Menu Diary posts are about, please click here.
The first thing I notice about this menu sheet is that there are a number of crossings out. I think at first Trenna was drawing up the sheets with what she expected we would be eating. Then when circumstances changed she had to cross out what was planned and write what we actually had.
I believe after just a few sheets she cottoned on that that wasn’t the best way, and she would fill in the sheets after we had had the meals.
Now, to the individual entries.
Friday 6 March. Puttanesca. This isn’t a food blog so I won’t go into it’s interesting origins. One account is here.
From my point of view there are few salient points. Firstly, Trenna got the recipe from the The Australian Women’s Weekly Italian Cooking Class Cookbook. There are a lot of good recipes in it.
Secondly, and stemming from using that cookbook we used GREEN, stuffed olives. Lots of recipes (most?) use black ones.
Trenna would have all the ingredients ready for me and chopped up in a shallow enamel bowl. I just had to cook the pasta, heat the ingredients, and serve.
I notice that we also had garlic bread and salad. In those days sometimes we bought ready made garlic bread, sometimes we made it. I would have done the salad and used a dressing that Trenna had prepared earlier.
Later, when I was doing most of the cooking I stuffed up this meal a couple of times because it is really important to get the proportions right. I wasn’t so good at being restrained by the recipe!
Saturday 7 March. I do remember the Pecan Pie was a disaster – but can’t quite remember why/how. I don’t think Trenna ever tried it again. She would have made it for me because Trenna wasn’t a fan of pecans and walnuts.
Thursday 12 March. I see we had a “Fab” meal. “Oriental Spice Rissoles, creamed potatoes with cheese and chive, herb zuccini, carrots” Yum! I don’t remember it but I have located the recipe. It have come from a recipe card we picked up somewhere – probably at the meat section of the supermarket – that was quite a common thing. I’d come home with loads of them.
Sunday 15 March. “Sessions” are yet another topic on my long list of posts still to write. But, it would have meant that we went to our friends Mick and Cindy’s house in the late afternoon to drink with our mates. There would have been some sort of nibbles there, but no meal. It looks like we came home and got a couple of meat pies out of the freezer, heated them up and had them for dinner. Probably (in those days) just with some tomato sauce.
Friday 20 March. You can’t read it easilly but we had “Frankfurts and Noodles”. This is one of those guilty pleasure/comfort-food meals. We originally got the recipe when the two of us went to a free cooking demonstration by local celebrity chef Liz Whichello. The event was run by the State Electricity Commission (SEC).
Over the years we came back to that meal many, many times, but Trenna was for ever evolving it. Partly, I’m sure because she felt it was so unhealthy!
Saturday 21 March. It looks like it was Garden Week. We used to go to that annual event a fair bit in those days when we were both keen gardeners and both had the energy to garden all day. It doesn’t look like Trenna enjoyed the take away dinner once we got home.
Saturday 28 March. Chilli Spag is another recipe from the Italian Cookbook.
Sunday 29 March. Sessions were generally fortnightly so this time when we came home we had soup. I suspect it was from a can. Heinz Big Red or something.
Thursday 2 April. The final one for this sheet. The Rumah Batik was a regular haunt for us. Typically we would shop together for groceries on the one late night shopping day – Thursdays.
We would use Trenna’s very well prepared shopping list, which took into account the menu for the following week.
When we finished the shopping at the Park Centre shopping centre in East Victoria Park we would go to the Rumah Batik, which you could access from the outside of the shopping centre. We must have left the shopping in the car whilst we dined in.
Well, that completes the first of MANY Menu Diaries. I’ll do my best not to repeat too much. But, please remember that I am more than happy to hear your comments, memories, thoughts or questions.
ENJOY!