We Went To Lakes

It was foggy in Trafalgar when we drove through just before 7 am.

Mark & I dropped Angus off at work in Morwell yesterday morning and we continued on to Lakes Entrance. Lakes is where Mark's brother and sister-in-law live. What an amazing place to live. It is so pretty there.

It was such a beautiful day to be out and about. I almost forgot that it's meant to be winter with the lovely sunny sky and the mild temperatures. In fact it got pretty hot in the car on the ride home.

The in-laws took us to a cafe along the esplanade for lunch. I had some pretty amazing calamari with a salad. Mark had fish and chips with salad. The SIL had lamb souvlaki and Mark's brother had something from the breakfast menu. We waited such a long time for our food to be cooked but my goodness the food was amazing. The wait was worth it.

Silly me though I forgot to take lots of photos while we were out, oh well. Maybe next time.

Catching Up With Family

Yesterday Mark, the boys and I were able to catch up with some of Mark's family for Christmas. Mark's Dad and stepmum are over from Perth visiting lots of family and his brother and SIL came up for the day from East Gippsland. We went to one of the Chinese restaurants here in town for lunch. 

It felt really good to be able to catch up with everyone. We don't really see a lot of family. In fact we rarely speak with my family in Adelaide, other than my Dad. I guess we are all busy doing our own thing to contact one another. Anyway it was really nice to spend time with family. Lots of stories and laughter was shared.

Before lunch Sheryl (the SIL) had asked to see my crocheted blankets that I had made. She had seen all the photos on Facebook but she wanted to see them in person so I dragged them out. She loved them. Sheryl even suggested I make a few and sell them at the local market. I thought about that once but I worry that no one would buy them. I would never know how much to dell them for any way.

Once we had finished lunch we all came back to our place to swap presents. I decided to drag the blankets out again to show them off to Mark's parents. I wanted to brag (~_~) after all I really enjoyed making them. The MIL loved the zoo blanket so much she offered to buy it from me for her daughter who had a baby a couple of months ago. Of course I said no to her buying the blanket. I make them to give away. So I gave it to her. After all her daughter is Mark's (step) sister so of course she can have it. Even if she wasn't family she would still be welcome to receiving it as a gift. I am really happy that one of my blankets now has a new home.

Out For Lunch

Mark & I went out for lunch. 

It was lovely just being the two of us without the boys in tow. We ate at one of the hotels in town at the bistro. Originally we wanted to go for Chinese but the didn't do a lunch service on the weekend.

Mark had the Mixed Grill - there was enough food on the plate for two people!

I had the Seafood Basket - prawn cutlets, calamari rings, scallops and fish.

There was so much food on our plates that neither of us were able to finish it. I left nearly all of the chips (sorry Angus I know how much you love them) and the raw oyster. There was no way I could eat it. Yuck! 

I certainly wont be wanting anything substantial for dinner tonight. The boys can fend for themselves. Having older teens means they are quite capable of cooking their own meals from time to time. I just hate all the dishes that they use when they make themselves their own dinner. Now I just have to work out how to get them to clean up after themselves.

7 Year Itch? Not Likely...

On Wednesday it was the 7th anniversary of when Mark and I first started dating. I suggested that we should go out and celebrate. Any excuse to go out for a feed right?? Also any excuse to get out of cooking! Plus I thought it was a good idea to have two anniversaries (~_o) 

We didn't end up going out on Wednesday like we initially planned. Mark wasn't feeling up to it so we went out for lunch yesterday at one of the local Chinese restaurants here in town. 

We chose the two person banquet. 

Prawn toast and spring rolls with a sweet chilli dipping sauce

Mongolian beef - the sauce was divine!

Fried rice

Prawns with vegetables

It was very filling. I didn't even want to eat dinner last night. Although I think it may have had something to do with the temperature still being around the 38C (100F) at 8 pm. Yuck! Far too hot to eat. 

That old saying about the 7 year itch thing I guess you can say that it doesn't really apply to us considering we only just got married last month.

Here's to many more happy years together!

Out For Dinner & A Limo Ride

My wonderful sister-in-law, Sally, along with my MIL organised and paid for a dinner and limo ride for Mark and I as a wedding gift. Last night we were picked up at 7 pm and taken to a fancy restaurant called In 2 Food. It's not the usual type of restaurant we would go to so that made our night extra special.

  

I had never been in a limo before so I didn't know what to expect. It was exciting not to have to drive ourselves. What was even better was the fact that some of our neighbours were outside having a sticky beak to see what on earth was going on! It was fun seeing their reactions. Especially the kids that were out playing in the street when the limo turned up.

The restaurant was fantastic. I'd never been there before either. The service as well as the food was impeccable. In fact Mark was so impressed that he wanted to book a table for next year on our anniversary. They weren't able to do that as yet. Something to do with the diary and being very busy for the rest of the month but they recommended we phone in January next year.

the upstairs dining area

Mark ordered Spring rolls with chilli sauce and a cucumber salad for his entree. There were three spring rolls and they were massive, as big as chicko rolls, about an inch round and three to four inches long.

I chose calamari which was lightly fried and came with a lovely salad. 

the stairs to go downstairs are through the doors

Mark's main dish was an eye fillet cooked medium rare with a red wine & mushroom sauce on a potato rosti topped with onion rings. It looked amazing and the steak melted in your mouth. YUM!

My main was a pan fried salmon on a bed of locally grown asparagus with a butter sauce. Talk about delicious. I think my taste-buds have been spoiled because I don't think I ever want to eat tinned salmon again.

I had a cup of tea at the end of the evening and the milk was brought out in a cow! Too cute!

We didn't have a desert although they did have a Mars Bar chocolate cake that looked amazing. I did the right thing, being the (mostly) well behaved diabetic that I am, and didn't order any sweets. We did however share a cheese and fruit platter. The cheese, which for the life of me I can't remember all of their names, was from local producers. Mark and I were unable to eat the whole platter so they let us take the leftovers home.

Mark & I are definitely going to spoil ourselves more often. Maybe not with a limousine ride but at least with dinner out in a more upmarket restaurant than we usually go to. If last night was anything to go by I can't wait to try this again!