In order of recording…
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I hope you enjoy The Menu Diaries as much as I enjoyed the meals.
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Introducing the Menu Diaries
A New Series of Posts Based on Trenna’s Records of Evening Meals A New Career and a New Kitchen In 1990-91 Trenna and I employed builders to do our first home renovation. Trenna had recently resigned from her job at the Hospital Benefit Fund (HBF) and therefore had the time to keep a record of…
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The Menu Diaries No.1
March 1992 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…
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The Menu Diaries No. 2
April 1992 Saturday 4 April. “Ragaletto”! A pasta sauce from a jar!? Could this be right? Then I remembered that when we were first together and both working it wasn’t uncommon for us to have Dolmio brand pasta sauces from a jar. On this occasion I suspect we had it because it was Saturday and…
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The Menu Diaries No. 3
May 1992 Monday 4 May. Steak with green pepper sauce, herbed spud, beans, carrots. Tren describes it as gluggy but yummy. She is referring to the green pepper sauce. I haven’t had it for years. It was made with peppercorns that came in a small green can, and evaporated milk was the other main ingredient.…
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The Menu Diaries No. 4
June 1992 Friday 29 May 1992. A date which will live in infamy. Our good friend Helen invited us to her pace for dinner with her and her then husband, David. I fell asleep at the table. Big Whoops! Helen and David were good about it…. Tuesday 2 June. I see we had flathead fillets…
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The Menu Diaries No. 5
July 1992 Tuesday 30 June 1992. Steak and Kidney Pie. “Really Yummy”. Trenna developed a recipe for this, and another, very similar, for Steak and Mushroom Pie. Both were favourites with us and I am sure they are going to appear all through the years of these menu diaries (I last made it about a…
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Menu Diary No. 6
August 1992 Tuesday 28 July. “Basically” with the “Basic” underlined. I’m sure it would still have been good. Wednesday 29 July. Trenna remarks that penne is a good choice of type of pasta. As long as I can remember, which is obviously not this far back, I thought we ALWAYS had that favourite meal with…
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Menu Diary No. 7
September 1992 Tuesday 25 August. Trenna made moussaka again, which I’m sure I enjoyed – it would have taken her ages. Thursday 27 August, chilli spaghetti is a really easy and fast meal. As it was a Thursday we probably did the grocery shopping first (the only night supermarkets were open late) and then I…
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Menu Diary No. 8
October 1992 AND a reconnection to the Andersons! Monday 28 September. Roast Pork. I would have made this one. Mainly because Trenna would have real trouble lifting a hot pork roast safely, and secondly because in those days I always got the crackling perfectly crispy. Wednesday 30 September – Sunday 4 October. I went away…
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Menu Diary No. 9
November 1992 and into December Monday 2 November. Cardboard sausages. These were left overs from Colin and Julie’s barbecue the day before. Tuesday 3 November. Once again Tren’s Original Curry, as discussed in previous Menu Diaries. Saturday 7 November. Muresk is an Agricultural College affiliated with the university at which I was working. It is…
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The Menu Diaries No. 10
January 1993 It looks like we ate a few home grown vegies in January 1993. That was probably the peek of our vegetable growing as a short time later we built a swimming pool that took up most of the sunny space in the back yard. Having said that, we always (and still do) grew…