The Bended Elbow

Today we bid farewell to the artist formerly known as Boo Radley, who is moving to Melbourne for a new job and to be with his gal. Lunch was held at The Bended Elbow bistro pub in Albury downtown. This place is a pub with an amazing beer garden on the top floor. I was in love!! This is what I dream for my backyard to be. There were plants everywhere. 

As with any pub lunches, we ordered and paid at the counter and the wait staff brings out our food to the table when it's ready. The menu was varied, catering to appetites big or small. You can have a steak if you are famished or some appetisers like sliders which will tie you over till dinner time, if you are not hungry.

I had the Cajun Chicken Salad, it was a very simple and basic salad with the smallest amout of mango that I almost cried! It took me all week to decide what to have and I chose that because I wanted some mango salad with my chicken. You can't really call that a salad! It's more like a garnish!

Am I right?

My friends had the pork belly, chicken parmagiana, steaks , the usual standard of pub meals. Golly gosh, a lot of my meal choices lately had been a hit and miss. This upcoming Xmas luncheon had better be good. I am so sick of mediocre! (Our last outing at The Beer Deluxe was the same, dissapointing.) This place was definitely a step up from there. At least, The Bended Elbow had a gorgeous beer garden and the wait service was good. No meals were late or missed. 

I wonder if there are ninety nine beer bottles up there???

Lychee Fruit Popsicles

I was inspired by my foodie friend Lorraine's post Summer Popsicles. It has been stinking hot in Wagga Wagga with the temperature reaching 41 degrees, so this recipe from her was Godsend. Please click on the link to follow her recipe.  As I had no Pimms in the house, err.. guilty as charged..... hick! I had to improvised. I decided to use my Lychee syrup and some sparkling Soda water and Angustura bitters. I was a little dissapointed of the lack of alcohol in it but meh.... it will do, for Lychee fruit popsicles.

1. Cut up some summer fruits and put in popsicle container/s.
2. Make your own favourite drink mix. (mine was lychee, soda, angustura bitters)
3. Pour it into container.
4. Freeze overnight in your freezer.

It really is that simple. 

Blueberry Cheesecake

This is a very simple baked blueberry cheesecake recipe from Taste.com The original recipe is Baked Lemon and Blueberry cheesecake however, I had adapted the recipe to suit my taste and preference. You see, I prefer my cheescake baked so this recipe was quite handy.

Adapted ;)
Ingredients
375g cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
300ml cream  did not use, seriously, I forgot!
1 teaspoon lemon zest used in making coulis
2 tablespoons lemon juice used in making coulis
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups Coles Brand Australian Fresh Frozen Blueberries
Icing sugar, to dust (optional)
Fresh blueberries, to decorate (optional) I added strawberries 
200g Scotch Finger biscuits   Used biscuits crumbs from a packet
80g butter, melted

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170C (150C fan). Spray side and base of 22cm springform pan with oil. Line base with baking paper.
2. In a food processor, process biscuits until they resemble fine bread crumbs. Add butter and pulse until mixture comes together. Press crumb mixture into base of pan. Refrigerate.
3. Wipe processor clean and add cream cheese, sugar, half of the cream, zest, juice and vanilla. Process until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, and process in short bursts. Pour into pan, scatter over blueberries and stir gently to distribute evenly.
4. Bake for 1 hour; the cheesecake should still be slightly wobbly in the centre. Cool completely in oven. Refrigerate overnight.
5. Dust cheesecake with icing sugar and serve with remaining cream, whipped, and fresh blueberries.