It certainly feels like I have been away.  I have definitely been away from both this blog and Bridgetown.  I hadn’t been here for ages.

As you know, I had been in Perth cleaning and gardening and packing.  The house now looks so good it was very hard to sign the management authority – there were even a few tears.  But I did it and now we are looking for tenants.  Normally, that would be the easy part but Perth is a boom-bust town and, at the moment, it is going through a ‘bust’ so it is harder than usual to find tenants.

Whilst I was cleaning and gardening and packing, dinner consisted of meat/chicken with three veg or a salad.  I really understand now people’s need for simple meals.  When you are tired and dirty, you just want food.  You are not too fussy about the quality of it.

But now I am in Bridgetown, I have a bit of time to consider what we are eating.  There is work galore to be done here but we are taking it easy for a while. Our number one priority is to unpack all those boxes we brought with us, which invariably means throwing out more stuff.  The house was, virtually, full before the arrival of the boxes so some things have to go.

We have come across boxes of ornaments that we had previously stored which are now going to the Op Shop.  And now we have another box ready to store.  I guess this lot will go to the Op Shop with the next down size.

Maus’ shed is a laugh.  I keep telling her it looks like a hoarder’s house. You know the ones where the owner has so much stuff there is barely enough room for them in the house.  Once we are settled, Maus is going to go through all the stuff and throw some of it out but, in the meantime, …

Anyway, I am in Bridgetown and things are back to normal.  The rider/mower is sick and is at the repair shop waiting for parts to be delivered.  The vegie patch has gone crazy with summer produce.  There are snake beans and cucumbers galore and soon we will be inundated with tomatoes.

And, at last, I have been doing a wee bit of cooking.  Number one priority was to find recipes to use up the snake beans.  On our first night, I made the subject of the photo to use onions and snake beans from the garden.  The next night, I made a lamb and green bean casserole.  It required onion, garlic, tomatoes, potatoes and beans – all of which came from the garden.  All we had to buy was the lamb.  That is what it is all about.   That is why we want to spend more time here.

Anyway, today’s recipe – Teriyaki Beef and Beans – is an adaptation of a recipe from 5 Nights a Week by Valli Little. It is both very simple and very tasty.

It will serve three or four.

Ingredients:

• 400g beef – rump would be perfect, thinly sliced
• 400g snake beans or stringless beans
• 1 large onion, very coarsely chopped
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• a few coriander leaves, for garnish
• steamed rice, to serve

Marinade:

• 1 red chilli, finely sliced
• ½ cup soy sauce  (This is quite a lot – you could reduce it a bit)
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• ⅓ cup sake or dry sherry
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger

Method:

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl, add the sliced beef. Leave for at least 10 minutes.
2. Blanch the beans in boiling water for 2 minutes, rinse in cold water and set aside.
3. When ready to eat, drain the meat from the marinade.  Reserve the marinade.
4. Heat the oil in a wok, add the meat and stir fry over a high heat.  When cooked, remove the meat from the wok.
5. Add the onions and beans and stir fry until just cooked.  Return the meat.
6. Add a little of the reserved marinade.  When marinade is boiling, turn off the heat.
7. Serve with steamed rice and garnish with a sprig of coriander, if you like.

It was so good to have something other than meat and three veg for dinner.  This one is definitely a keeper.

Posts may be a bit infrequent for a while longer because we still have to move into the unit and we are going to Melbourne for the Flower and Comedy Festivals.  Maybe by May, things will have settled down a bit.