Party Food

Figgy & Prosciutto Tarts

Main, Party Food, Side, Snack, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X

Previously on Survivor, the Millennials and Gen X tribes were no more as the tribes dropped their buffs – in addition, I assume, to Taylor and Figgy’s busy pants dropping schedule – and Jeff threw a third tribe into the mix, much to Michaela’s sassy chagrin. Thankfully the situation didn’t get any worse for our reigning Queen of Fiji with new Vanua heading to tribal council and CeCe continued in the season’s tradition in booting minority female.

We opened back up at new Vanua where the old, olds were proud of themselves for flipping to the youngins … on the one tribe they had numbers on, much to Zeke’s delight.

Meanwhile over at the new Ikabula tribe, Jay started on his winner’s edit in earnest while breaking my heart, searching for the hidden immunity idol to protect his fellow millennials like he would his mum and sister. Oh and when he wins he is buying his mum a house.

Swoon town – I think someone wants to take Kengel’s place in my heart.

Thankfully Michaela arrived on scene impersonating Jack Nicholson in The Shining to catch Jay and Will and add some humour to the scene and save me from feeling genuine emotion.

I assume feeling threatened by Michaela’s killer screen presence, Jiffy Pop arrived for a reward challenge where Figgy commenced digging a hole when seeing CeCe had been booted and her ally saved. Jeff kindly distracted the tribes from her stupidity to show them the array of sweets up for grabs during the blindfolded challenge.

It is hard for a blindfolded challenge to go wrong … for the audience, with toes broken and heads slashed open in the past, but sweet Kengel caressing his junk will go down with my favourite blindfolded challenge moment of all time.

That actually gives me an idea …

Anyway after a massive come from behind victory, Zeke and Michelle secured reward for their tribe and – of course – Queen Michaela took out second place for her Ikabula, before Hannah collapsed … on the sidelines, while not competing in the challenge. But hey, I get panic attacks so I’m not one to judge. Well, shouldn’t be at least.

After watching Figgy cry over missing out on reward, we returned to Vanua to watch them feast on their reward and listen to Zeke commence severing ties with the fellow kids. Over on Ikabula, Hannah walked Sunday through the fun of panic attacks while on Takali, Figgy and Taylor commenced making out – I assume for Figgy to reenact the Halle Berry role in the Monster’s Ball sex scene – and considered bringing their relationship out into the open.

Obviously Jessica and Ken were not shocked. At all. In the slightest.

Thankfully it gave Kengel the opportunity to display some killer sarcasm. Say what you will about it being the lowest form of comedy (fuck you, it is my life blood), this proves Kengel is hot and funny …  so I’m looking into venues for our December wedding.

Almost as if Jeff knew someone else was making a claim for my heart, he returned for an immunity involving my favourite item – BALLS! Despite a decided lack of ball puns, Michaela saved the challenge by once again unleashing the – to quote Alyssa Edwards – BEAST and singlehandedly won immunity for Ikabula by barking orders at Hannah and ensuring she wasn’t a hindrance.

Not one to rest on her laurels, she then commenced barking orders to Michelle and Zeke, coaching Vanua to victory and sending Takali to tribal council to boot another Gen Xer.

Sadly for her, Adam decided to flip from the bottom joining Ken and Jessica to break-up the lovebirds and vote out Figgy. Thankfully despite the fact it was pretty obvious she was going home, Jeff added some fun to tribal by offering to marry them, then and there. Again sadly, that didn’t happen.

While Figgy was obviously disappointed to find herself booted pre-merge – I mean, will TayTay dump her for it?! – I was quickly able to turn my friends’ frown upside-down (we met while working in radio in Nashville) and dry those tears with a batch of delicious mini Figgy & Prosciutto Tarts.

 

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Like the Figster, these babies are a little bit sweet, puff and wild, and quite tarty – but isn’t that why we love her, and them?

Enjoy!

 

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Figgy & Prosciutto Tarts
Serves: 6.

Ingredients
3 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
¼ – ½ cup fig jam
250g prosciutto, roughly sliced
400g goat’s cheese, crumbled

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.

Place each sheet of puff pastry on a lined baking sheet – they can share, if they fit. Slather each generously with fig jam, top with prosciutto and crumble over the goat’s cheese.

Chuck them in the oven and bake for fifteen minutes, or until puffed and golden.

Devour as you cry over the horrific separation of figtayls. Oh-oh.

 

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Cheece Taylor Burger

Main, Party Food, Snack, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, TV Recap

Previously on Survivor, Taylor continued to get jiggy wit Figgy while the Gen Xers continued to lose immunity challenges. While the majority tried to get rid of Jessica – I assume to help with her eye probs – Ken wanted to save her, so pulled her aside to warn her. She obviously then ran to the majority, pissing dear Kengel off. Despite her misstep, David saved her and idoled out Lucy.

Who? Exactly. Shhh.

The olds arrived back at camp where David was super paranoid for the big move, he theatrically made. While Jessica got her head back in the game and worked to win Ken back over, telling him about the mysterious/ominous legacy advantage, promising it to him in the process.

After last night’s excitement, the olds awoke the next day and immediately commenced a good old fashioned idol search party where once again, David was lucky enough to find the idol. Though to be honest, now that they are hidden in plain site with a tribe symbol on them, once you’ve found one, others should be easy.

Anyway, the tribes then reconvened for a reward challenge – the millennials of course asked who, when Jeff said Lucy was voted out at tribal – where they … wait a minute, this is a damn switch up!

Waiting to recreate the success of Second Chances, Jiffy Pop opted to switch them into three tribes, royally pissing off Michaela who was swap-fucked – let’s be honest, the only person I want to be swap fucked by, is Ken – and ended up with Hannah, Will, Jay, Bret and Sunday as the new Ikabula tribe starting from scratch. Sadly she didn’t flip him off, though positively we can do away with most of the shitty generational references.

We arrived at Ikabula where Bret immediately shot my hope in the foot – does that even make sense, throwing those phrases together … am I Andrew? – talking about gen x, followed by Jay throwing in the requisite millennial reference.

Over on Kengel’s island, Figgy and Taylor were thrilled to still be together, while poor Adam tried to pretend to enjoy the role of third wheel before Kengel took him under his wing, immediately gave Adam a bit of cred and hopefully gave Ken some power.

Well, outside of his powerful beauty.

Meanwhile at Vanua, the tribe were connecting over sunrise except for Michelle who was feeling down about being the only tribe with a millennial disadvantage. Her other youngen Zeke, however, was in his element, connecting with Chris over being Oklahoma boys.

For keeping score, this is the second gay male that Chris has aligned with making him the greatest ally to the LGBT community in the game.

Outside of Kengel’s tight underwear, obvs.

Back with Ikabula, Queen Michaela continued to dominate the confessional game and life in general, building fire for the tribe and sharing her story of determination. Can you feel that? Yep, it is the #WinnersEdit.

And if I’m wrong, I obviously mean winner of my heart edit.

Finally Jiffy returned for the first threeway of the season, where the tribes all had to go down for some buoys, then try and score by tossing their balls into some holes. Despite Sunday getting them off to a horrible start, Ikabula took out the victory thanks to – almost single handedly – Michaela Jordan, with sweet Kengel also getting new Takali over the line.

But given CeCe’s dismal performance – again – and David’s laughable display, which lead to Zeke wondering if he was trying to throw the challenge, was there ever going to be a different outcome?

Back at camp, new Vanua got to scrambling after their manure performance. The Gen Xers hoped to take advantage of their numbers advantage, while Chris was hoping to turn it on CeCe and hopefully make the tribe stronger, pulling in David, Zeke and Michelle. Michelle was still scared though, so tried to work on CeCe … who gave absolutely zero fucks. CeCe then told David that Michelle was trying to get him out, who then considering playing his idol on CeCe to save her.

So yep, the editors succeeded in confusing me by the time they arrived at tribal. Thankfully he was a lot more straightforward than that, with yet another minority female getting the boot as CeCe went to loser lodge for some culinary comfort. I mean sure, she had almost single handedly lost two immunity challenges and deserved the boot … but the fear that Michaela will be the next one voted out due to unintentional racism, simply for being a woman of colour is too much.

Thankfully she is a boss.

So obviously I have been friends with CeCe for years, meeting at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy where I taught her daughter. While we initially clashed, due to her role as stage mom and mine as the vicious teacher with a cold heart, she grew to respect my style and a bond formed. After being booted from the one swap tribe with a Gen X majority, CeCe was pretty upset. However she saw me and a plate of my famed Cheece Taylor Burgers – which we’d eat after dance class in front of her famished daughter as part of my out-of-academy discipline lesson – her mood quickly turned around.

 

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So yes, this is a blatant copy of a McDonald’s cheeseburger but they are insanely delicious – I’m going for a sponsorship gig with Mindy Kaling – so why not?

(If In’n’Out wanted me as a spokesperson though, Maccas would be as dead to me as someone that crossed Abi-Maria).

But honestly, between the cheese, onion, fresh patties, soft bun, ketchup, mustard and most importantly, pickles – how could you really go wrong? Enjoy.

 

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Cheece Taylor Burger
Serves: 6.

Ingredients
500g beef mince
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
¼ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp garlic powder
6 hamburger buns
6 slices American cheese
dill pickles, sliced
1 finely diced onion, soaked in ice cold water and drained just before serving
mustard
ketchup

Method
Place the meat in a large bowl and combine with the salt, pepper and onion and garlic powders. Divide the mixture into six, form into thin patties, wrap in cling and place in the freezer for two hours.

Heat a large frying pan over high heat, remove the patties from the freezer and allow to come to temperature for a couple of minutes. While that is happening, split the rolls and fry the open sides for about twenty seconds, or until browned.

Now this is where is gets specific and it is important to follow this, ok? Place the patties in the pan, season generously and allow to fry for thirty seconds. Press down heavily on the patties for a couple of seconds, before immediately flipping and cooking for a further thirty seconds.

Remove to the bottom of the fried buns and top each with a slice of cheese, top with some ketchup, mustard, a few slices of pickle and some onion.

Close and devour.

 

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Ham Webb & Pineapple Pizza

Australian Survivor, Australian Survivor (2016), Main, Party Food, Side, Snack, TV Recap

Previously on Australian Survivor, the alliance annoyed the shit out of Australia for a couple of weeks before Flick dominated, won back my heart and joined with OG Aganoa to vote out Brooke and bring some drama back to the game. Then, of course, we had a non-elimination episode which brought back the boredom. Oh and apparently Sam enjoyed watching El and Lee fall in love on exile and Matt, Flick and Kristie enjoyed the luxury spa reward, though I legit don’t think that was shown.

Anyway, we opened back at the aforementioned spa where the trio plotted the exile crew’s downfall over bruschetta. Considering I made Brookechetta but a few days ago, I assume they are leftovers.

Matt thankfully made himself disappear, allowing Kristie and Flick to cement their twosome and plot the best way for them to play the middle and snag the win. Honestly, how awful would any of the others be as winners? Exactly.

Over on exile, Sam and Lee were very wet before Lee then grabbed Sam’s butt. I mean I hate them as players, but this is the love story I want to see slash would pay a lot of money to watch on the internet.

Sadly they took a break from forcing El to third wheel and went to the seventeenth straight reward challenge where the exile throuple were completely fine having slept on the sand in the rain, thanks for asking and Kristie felt strange about waking up in a bed.

Thankfully the challenge was a smutty dream, with the castaways split into teams and having to pour coconut water into each other’s mouth and spit it into a jar. As you’d expect, Sam was able to fill Lee’s hungry mouth, time and time again, with him never wasting a drop of Sam’s sweet nectar … securing them and El an advantage at the next immunity challenge.

The tribe returned to camp where Lee and El started talking about their relationship, breaking both my and Sam’s heart in the process. I’m obviously not bitter but El is dead to me. I just can’t. Not even. No.

While they were off canoodling, Matt decided to make himself useful and spoke to Sam about voting out one of the duo. Which if Sam is as jealous as I am, and we know he is, he will. After the Bachelor segment ended, we checked in with Kristie who was confused and anxious about who to go with, without realising she would beat anyone left at final tribal. She then broke down and got the pep talk Lee gives me in my dreams. Flick then channelled Kylie by spilling all the goss to El and Lee, however unlike Kylie, Flick was using this as leverage rather being a pawn.

Again, she or Kristie need to win.

We then dropped by the immunity challenge where the castaways had to balance on a triangle in the ocean, with Sam and the lovers getting to start the challenge ten minutes later after winning reward. After a lengthy battle – well, excluding Queen Flick – Lee was able to outlast his ex-boyfriend and current squeeze to win immunity.

They returned to camp where Matt continued to display a lack of awareness but at least knew to target El, Sam continued to quietly follow Matt’s lead – I assume trying to process what exactly the plan was. Meanwhile Lee and El plotted to split the vote with the girls to get out Sam, while the girls then tried to weigh up which was their best option. Kristie and Lee then went for one of their delightful odd couple discussions, where she threw Flick and Matt under the bus, spooking Lee and causing him to – can it truly be – play the game a little bit.

Lee then ran to El, who ran to Flick confusing me as they headed off to tribal where Brooke was looking well pissed from the jury. Matt then opened up tribal giving JoJo a rundown of the schedule for the rest of the game before El stepped up and announced that she would be voting for Sam, who then briefly touched on the fact he had finally started to do what he voted that villainous Nick out of the game for.

After a lengthy back and forth, Lee finally realised he still had his advantage and blocked Sam’s vote – once and for all ending their romance – before the girls ultimately stuck with Leel / Ellee and sent Sam out of the game.

While I question whether Sam had any idea about the game he was playing, we are actually close friends in the real world … where I obviously take advantage of his good nature and skim money from his charity.

The one upside of him not have a great understanding of Survivor, is that he arrived at the Jury Villa with a positive mood. So positive I wasn’t sure if he understood that he had been voted out. Thankfully I had a fresh Ham Webb & Pineapple Pizza on hand for us to devour while I explained to him that he was no longer in the competition.

 

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You may draw conclusions from the fact that I’ve made Sam a pizza that is usually the favourite of children and his intelligence in the game – but we are friends, so I won’t make that inference … just leave you to make it.

At the end of the day though, ham and pineapple pizza is pretty damn amazing, particularly with the addition of chilli. If this is what you get for being dim, sign me up for a lobotomy.

Enjoy!

 

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Ham Webb & Pineapple Pizza
Serves: 1, maybe 2 in a pinch.

Ingredients
1 pizza base, use Zsa Zsa’s recipe darling
4 pineapple rings
1 tbsp chilli flakes
250g leg ham, roughly sliced
½ cup grated mozzarella

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C.

Heat a skillet over high heat and fry the pineapple rings on both sides until caramelised, a couple of minutes maximum. Remove from heat and roughly chop up into caramelised chunks of wonder.

Prepare the base as per the Zsa Zsa recipe, sprinkle over the chilli flakes and top generously with the ham and pineapple. Sprinkle over the cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until it is golden and molten. Devour quickly to eat your feelings.

 

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Lucy Huangs

Main, Party Food, Poultry, Side, Snack, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X, TV Recap

Previously on Survivor, Ken. Ken was a babe.

Oh and Hannah lacked basic social awareness, David found an idol and the newest cast member Lucy, joined the underdogs – aka Kengel and friends – with Sunday and Jessica and blindsided Paul.

Obviously we arrived back at camp with the olds where Chris developed some sass as Jess tried to explain the situation. For those keeping tracking, Jess was like Hannah … but fractionally more aware. Then the biggest twist ever on Survivor happened, with Lucy getting a confessional before cornering Chris and Bret (and his cahrds) about joining forces to take out Jess.

Meanwhile the kids – millennials and literal baby goat – were playing around camp before Adam found a clue to the hidden immunity idol and I think cried. I didn’t have much time to figure it out as before I knew it, we ended up in the middle of the ocean for my favourite – and most sexually aggressive – reward challenge with Jiffy Pop.

To make it more exciting than the usual ball play, the tribes had to go for the ring and pull each other offover to their pole. As is usually the case, the challenge was completely insane, with Chris trying to dislocate Jay’s shoulder, Taylor awkwardly screamed at people, Ken was dreaming and dominant … but let’s be honest despite the millennials loss, the winner of this challenge was Michaela who took her top off to win the point.

Oh and wave that wiped out Jeff Probst. You know what that was? Mother nature giving you life.

We followed the kids back to camp where everyone, rightly, was congratulating Michaela for getting out the girls before Adam actually found the idol and proceeded to break our hearts as he broke down about his mother’s terminal lung cancer. I may be the worst but Adam still completely broke my heart.

Back at the olds, Lucy continued to leap into the spotlight wandering around camp telling everyone what to do. It pissed off Kengel and that is more than enough for me. To quote everyone’s favourite drug cheat Crystal Cox – forget you, go home, goodbye.

Before I got the chance to tell her to eat her rice, we arrived at the immunity challenge which involved some obstacles, a window washing cage and a word puzzle where after reminding me Michelle existed, the millennials managed a come from behind win.

The olds arrived back at camp to commence scrambling, where Chris and Lucy  opted to target Jess – maybe to help her get her eyes sorted – while The Hottie and the Nottie wanted to take out the newest dictator Lucy. But don’t worry about me calling her that, she likes to be hated. Jess then ran to Lucy to spill the beans to the person targeting her, much to Kengel’s chagrin. David then started talking about the idol and I was crazy confused by the time we arrived at tribal.

Bret and Chris were still salty from the last tribal before Lucy then started to chastise Kengel again – of course Jeff was going to defend our man, #ThroupleGoals – before Kengel gave Jess the ultimate smackdown for not trusting him … via stare.

David then decided to take centre stage and make a questionable move by playing his idol on Jessica, negated the five votes against her and sending my dear, cantankerous Lucy to my loving arms at loser lodge.

You know how I am insanely talented, successful and famous? Yeah – I owe all of that to my dear friend and militant life coach, Lucy. When I couldn’t be bothered doing an assignment, Lucy was there to berate me into completing it. When I was missed deadlines, she was there smacking me across the back of the head until my writer’s block passed.

I fucking love her. As much as we both love my Lucy Huangs.

 

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With more bite than everyone’s – outside of her family – tiger mum, this wings are everything you want when you’re feeling down. Mainly because the kick of heat and the delicate chicken are the perfect accompaniment for booze.

Plus, they are crazy messy which you just know would piss off Lucy /  send you into an existential crisis about how much of a disaster you are after that second bottle of wine is opened.

Just me? Cool. Enjoy!

 

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Lucy Huangs
Serves: 4-6.

Ingredients
1kg chicken wings, tips removed with drumettes and flats separated
salt and pepper, freshly ground
¾ cup cornflour
2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
½ cup Frank’s hot sauce
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method
Preheat oven to 200°C.

Grab the wings out of the fridge for about 30 minutes to take the chill out. While that is happening, combine the cornflour with a good whack of salt and pepper in a large bowl. Once the wings are less chill, toss them in cornflour mix and place on a wire rack set over a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and chuck them in the oven to bake for about 45 minutes, or until golden and crispy.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat and whisk in the hot sauce, cayenne and a good whack of salt and pepper until combined. Remove to a large enough bowl for coating purposes.

When the wings are done, remove them from the oven, toss through the sauce and devour, slathered in blue cheese dressing.

 

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Brookechetta Jowett

Australian Survivor, Australian Survivor (2016), Party Food, Side, Snack, TV Recap

Previously on Australian Survivor, we continued to be told there were divisions in the tribe only for the alliance to stick together and boot our latest queen JL, leaving Kristie as our last remaining hope.

Thankfully the tribe arrived back at camp where my JL’s comments finally seemed to be making headway, with Flick starting to seriously talk about turning on her allies. Could today be our lucky day? Could it?! An episode with actual gameplay, where people don’t just ride out their time accepting the status quo?!

They awoke the next morning with Flick still seething, immediately making her my second favourite person as she talks about turning on Brooke. TBH, how Flick hasn’t been my favourite thus far given her killer deathies is beyond me.

Queen Kristie then dropped by to remind me why, giving a kookie confessional and clearly articulating her game while channelling Crazy Eyes.

Wanting to give me some excitement for when the alliance doesn’t splinter, JLP arrived for the reward challenge which required the boneheaded men to stand shirtless and flex their pecs. I zoned out on some nip and before I knew it, Dim Sam won reward and opted to share his reward – a bed – with Lee.

Boys, you sure know how to win me back! Brooke, however, wasn’t as titillated.

Matt and Brooke then watched as the boys tried out their bed, played around with their skimpy new undies and spooned. I used to hate them for being stupid and so-dominant-that-the-game-was-boring respectively, now I hate them as I wish I was them watching that.

While the boys relaxed post coitus – let me dream – Brooke then got in on the flipping act and pulled Flick aside to discuss voting out Lee and El. Anywho, Brooke then made her riskiest move of the game and spoke to Sam about voting off his lover or El. Sam, surprisingly, made the smart point that booting El was the best option, as Lee would still be around to take the target off them.

That or he’d turn on them. I’m just proud that Sam seems to be thinking. Or just trying to keep his snuggle buddy – which if that is the case, I’m ok.

Not wanting to be outdone, Flick went back into attack mode and approached El about blindsiding Brooke which would actually be a major blindside and the thought makes me so happy. Like Craig and Phoebe still being here, happy.

Lee then gave us an amazing filler clip, modelling his new jocks while Sam spoke wistfully about not wanting to break up their relationship before they stripped off and got into bed together. They then gave each other permission to pursue other options. Seriously, this isn’t even my erotic novelisation of the episode – THIS IS HAPPENING.

Imaging if Kengel was here?!

Jealous El then whisked Lee away to break the news that the man he just woke up next to and Brooke were planning on taking him out, making him invoke his favourite word mateship like he is Mel Gibson in Gallipoli. Thankfully he reminded himself that this is a game that only one person can win, jumped on board and went to Queen Kristie to secure the numbers. Obvs, she was keen.

The editors can’t be leading me that far astray right? Something is actually happening tonight?!

We finally arrived at the immunity challenge where Sam gloated about bedding my man and Brooke was cocky about winning again. Thankfully JLP then introduced what is quite possibly the hardest house of cards challenge, with the stacks having to be built on a rotating platform they had to told steady with a rope. Continuing in the episode’s tradition of the men finally competing, Lee won the challenge, foiling Brooke’s plan in the process.

The tribe returned to camp where they actually commenced scrambling again, with Flick relishing her role as the swing vote, Brooke confident the jury would love watching El get voted out before Matt got scared Flick was playing them and then arrogant that El would be going. The OG Aganoans then went for a walk to discuss the chances of Flick actually voting with them before rehearsing for tribal council and how to hide their blindside from LaPaglia.

We finally arrived at tribal where JoJo worked hard to test Lee’s rehearsal before Brooke threw herself under the bus with her brutal talk. Flick continued to well and truly win me back over, while Matt continued to be a snivelling fail, El was sick of beating around the bush and Kristie was just glad that she didn’t have friends so they couldn’t turn on her.

Everyone was confident heading into the vote where the impossible happened, the alliance cracked and my dear friend Brooke – we’re both v. important in the social media world, remember when I went viral? – was blindsided.

While I’ve had a lot to say – quite aggressively – about how boring the last few episodes have been, it truly came down to how dominantly Brooke was playing the game – she kept her numbers tight and sadly, the boots obvious.

So yes, I’ve been angry with her for my boredom’s sake, but I still welcomed her to the Jury Villa with open arms – hiding my joy that someone else started to play the game – and a plate full of my famous Brookechetta Jowett.

 

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Like the feeling you get when you watch an episode with actual strategy after suffering through a series of obvious boots, bruschetta is a beautiful palate cleanser. Fresh, a little tart, sweet and crunchy, it is the perfect argument for why toast – which let’s be honest, this is – should never be discounted.

Kind of like Kristie – enjoy!

 

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Brookechetta Jowett
Serves: 4-6.

Ingredients
6 very ripe roma tomatoes
¼ cup basil leaves
2 tsp champagne vinegar
¼ teaspoon caster sugar
olive oil
loaf of sourdough, sliced into thick slices
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper

Method
Cut the ends off the tomatoes, squeeze out the pips and roughly chop into a small dice – trust your judgement / personal preferences on the size.

Mix the tomato, basil, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl with a tablespoon of oil. Season generously and leave to stew.

Meanwhile toast all of the bread – either under the grill or obviously in the toaster. As soon as it toasted to your preferences, slice the cloves of garlic in half and rub the open side onto the toast and drizzle lightly with oil.

Spoon the tomato mixture on top. Devour.

 

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Chorizio Frittansky

Main, Party Food, Side, Snack

So yes, I find Mau to be one of my more attractive exes – and obviously, the most attractive Housewives’ husband – however the past is in the past and knowing that he and Kyle are so happy together, fills me with unending joy.

After Mau and I broke up in the 80s, we stayed in contact and when my dear friend Kyls – we met on the set of Halloween where I was Jamie Lee Curtis’ body double – was selling her home following her divorce, I recommended Mauricio sell the house and the rest, as they say, is history.

To put your mind even further at ease, I was Maid of Honour and Best Man at their wedding and their youngest Portia was named after me.

Portia is my middle name.

I haven’t caught up with Maurice in a while, given how busy he is with The Agency and on account of being unable to film RHOBH / in the general 90210 area due to the AVO Rinna and I have out on each other. Fun fact, the Amsterdam glass throwing incident was actually our fight and resulted in such violence they couldn’t air it, refilming it with dear Kim as Rin’s opponent.

Thankfully a connection like ours doesn’t need us to be in constant contact, to remain close and after catching up on how Kyle and the girls are – sadly they couldn’t make it … and even more sadlier (that is a word now, ok) he didn’t want to turn our bro-date into a pool party that would make Erika blush – we got down to talking shop and planning the expansion of The Agency to my prestigious hometown – and the inspiration of Porpoise Spit – Tweed Heads when devouring my Chorizio Frittansky.

 

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There is nothing I enjoy more than a hot, thick, spicy sausage – so obviously chorizos are my absolute favourite. Well, second favourite. Obviously.

Gently fried with a mix of onion, garlic and capsicum, and baked with some creamy potatoes and fresh basil in a light custard, you can’t go wrong. Enjoy!

 

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Chorizio Frittansky
Serves: 4.

Ingredients
500g cream delight potato, cut into 2cm pieces
2 chorizos, skin removed and broken up
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ red capsicum, finely diced
handful fresh basil, finely chopped
1 roma tomato, sliced thinly
6 eggs
½ cup cream
100g feta, crumbled
salt and pepper, to taste

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cook the potato in a large pot of salted water for 5-10 minutes or until tender. Drain.

While the potatoes are getting hot, heat a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the chorizo, onion, garlic and capsicum until crisp and fragrant. Add the potatoes and basil, season generously, stir, remove from the heat and top with the sliced tomatoes.

Whisk the eggs and cream together, pour over the mixture, top with cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until set.

Devour with crusty bread and your sexiest friend – a-MAY-zing!

 

As you can probably tell, we are very social but the fun isn’t only limited to celebrities! You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+.

Karmaagi Takasushi

Main, Party Food, Poultry, Side, Snack, Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X

Previously on Survivor, Figgy was gettin’ jiggy and David was scared of literally everything, not least of all Figgy – I assume – before the Gen Xers took too many shortcuts in life and were sent to tribal council where poor Rachel Ako became the winner of the prestigious Francesca Hogi first boot award.

We arrived back at the hard-working shortcut taking Gen Xers where Chris delighted in tell us he was keeping David busy to avoid him becoming paranoid. Sadly for Chris, while keeping bust David started fire and found the first hidden immunity idol of the season – now trapped inside a coconut!

At the risk of sounding like Fabio 2.0 aka Taylor, how on earth did it even get in there? Nah gammin, relax guys, I saw the seam.

Speaking of Taylor, we checked in with the Millennials where the superior Tay-Tay and Figgy popped on their love goggles and made out, re-introducing us to the star of the season Michaela. After a killer confessional dropping truth bombs, Michaela then threw them straight under the bus much to the chagrin of Figgy. Do you think they know what chagrin means? Probs not.

Anyway, the freaks and geeks alliance were pretty pissed about the situation while #JayForPay wiped Romber from our collective memory by decreeing no couple has ever survived to the end. Aside from the lack of knowledge regarding Survivor history, Jay seems to know what he is doing and called out Taylor’s behaviour.

We finally checked in with my angel Ken, who will now be known as Kengel forevermore, who was rocking his tight, tight jocks in the ocean, making me as wet as he was. Then wait, seriously wait, THEN, Ken and David bonded and formed my favourite alliance of all time, named, coincidentally, after my favourite movie The Hottie and the Nottie.

Millennials Mari then explained the difference between TV and real life, which seems to be more of an issue for the professional gamer than other people. Thankfully Queen Michaela then returned to start fighting with Figgy – which sounds like an amazing TV show, Fighting with Figgy – while doing an amazing Matthew von Ertfelda impersonation with the axe.

Back on Gen X Ken and David recruited CeCe before Paul decided to continue in the tradition of Kaôh Rōng and have a medical emergency. Thankfully – well to all watching but David – Paul hadn’t had a heart attack and lives to see another day.

We then reconvened in the middle of a fucking reef for the next immunity challenge, can we just have the rest of the seasons set in Fiji for the killer cinematography and crystal clear water?

Can we also have Hannah sit out of every challenge to co-commentate with Probst?

Probst, “Chris ripping through the water.”

Hannah, “Michelle you’re ripping through the water too!”

Comedy gold! Anyway, the tribes continued looking for that ring – which I hope is a game Kengel is willing to play when he arrives at #Pounderosa – before Gen X, well technically just Kengel came from behind – you know where this aside would go – and won immunity, thrilling all but David who had his head in his hands.

Back at camp the millennials commenced scrambling, with Mari proving that she doesn’t have the greatest understanding of Survivor saying that Figgy would be blindside without even knowing.

Mari, the definition of a blindside is voting someone out without them knowing. This is a tautology.

Zeke then proclaimed his excitement to start booting people, meaning only one thing – we are in for a blindside despite the freaks and geeks locking the vote on Figgy with numbers to spare!

Adam and Zeke spilled the tea to Jay which was the catalyst for all hell breaking loose. Jay ran to Michelle and they showed impressive form clearing the air between Figgy and Michaela before pulling in the latter and Will to flip the vote on Mari.

Not one to rest on her laurels, Michelle continued her assault after arriving at tribal … where the millennials were completely in awe of the horror that is about to unfold in front of them. Mari was sad to be losing someone, Zeke was thrilled to be part of the game, Michaela spilled even more tea while Michelle continued to dominate, telling Hannah to change her vote to Mari without zero explanation. Hannah then teetered on the edge of a nervous breakdown, before having a conversation – not about puppies or butts as Mari said, but about booting Mari.

The tribe then voted where Hannah spent such a long time in the voting booth that Jeff had to peek around the corner to see if she had voted, as if he were watching Colby in the shower.

As the votes rolled in, my dear friend Mari indeed became the second boot and found herself in my arms at loser lodge to debrief over a plate of Karmaagi Takasushi. Obviously I know Mari through the pro-gaming scene, where I am really good at completing Mario themed games – and only Mario themed games – after reading the walkthroughs on nerd sites.

 

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Yes, Mari was salty – like nori fresh out of the ocean salty – after being voted out. As she explained at tribal, ended someone’s dream and being able to look into their eyes doing it is a lot tougher than through a screen like she is used to.

Now while it appears that my recipes may be as racially insensitive this season as the tribes that made a minority female their first boots, this and Korean BBQ worked with their names AND I find them delicious, so try and forgive the accidental, casual racism?

Plus, sushi is delicious, particularly karaage with some soothing cucumber or avocado and a hidden kick of wasabi. Enjoy!

 

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Karmaagi Takasushi
Serves: 8-10.

Ingredients
500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into a large dice
60ml soy sauce
2 tbsp sake
thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
pinch of sugar
½ cup potato or corn flour
pinch of salt
vegetable oil
2 cups sushi rice
¼ cup sushi vinegar
10 sheets nori
1 cucumber, halved lengthways, seeded and cut into matchsticks
1 avocado, halved and thinly sliced
Wasabi, to taste
kewpie mayo, to serve
pickled ginger, to serve

Method
Combine the chicken, soy, sake, ginger and sugar in a bowl. Stir well, cover with cling and place in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

While they are getting all snowboard and chill, combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Add the chicken, piece by piece using tongs and quickly toss them around to coat.

Heat a large skillet over high heat with a generous lug of vegetable oil. Once it is searingly hot, add a couple of pieces of chicken and seal the meat for a couple of minutes. Remove to a lined baking sheet and repeat the process until they are all done.

Pour over the remaining marinade and put in the oven to bake for 10-20 minutes until crisped and cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, rinse the rice under cold water until it runs clear. Place the rice in a large saucepan with 3 cups of cold water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stand, covered, for five minutes.

Move the bowl to a large bowl and stir through the sushi vinegar and allow to cool.

Now, round up all the elements and, most importantly, a bamboo mat. Place the nori shiny side down on the bamboo mat and spread a thin layer of rice over the nori leaving a couple of centimetres clear at the end.

Add your fixins’, pieces of chicken, cucumber, avo, wasabi in whatever combination you like – I just put all four in all of mine.

Lift the edge of the bamboo mat closest to you and roll away, tightly. As you’re about to get to the end, brush the clear part of the nori with water before finishing rolling. Press the seam together and allow to rest while you repeat the process until it is all done.

Once they are done, slice into pieces – I went two-three per roll – with a wet knife.

Then, obviously, devour slathered in wasabi, kewpie mayo, pickled ginger and/or soy.

 

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Nick Iadanzipasto Platter

Australian Survivor, Australian Survivor (2016), Main, Party Food, Side, Snack, TV Recap

Previously on Australian Survivor, the minority alliance once again tried to overcome the supermajority, El won immunity and Kate put in a dominant tribal council performance before ultimately being eliminated as the final pre-jury player.

Can we agreed that losing the last four boots just plain sucked?

We opened back up with the three leaders – El, Brooke and Flick – irritated by Sam for stepping out of line at last night’s tribal before Nick tried to throw himself a pity party, annoying Sam and Lee further. The next day Nick continued to drown in his self-pity while Flick continued to stew in her rage. So yeah, they’re really fun this episode.

Thankfully Brooke was more rational and spoke to Sam – oh wait, she too is not over it – before the El comforted Nick who was now painting tribal council as a series of personal attacks.

After a brief and – at the risk of sounding out of character – sweet, genuine emotional display from Nick, we then arrived at a reward challenge involving a series of rings and pegging – no joke – for letters from home.

Despite squandering the lead for his team, Nick secured victory before Kristie and El gave up their reward for Matt and Flick respectively. Kristie made sense, given she is playing the middle to perfection … and considering the fact that she won her letter simply by backing the winning team but El’s selflessness seemed pointless as Flick would stick with her anyway.

The victors then arrive at their reward for a cup of tea and their love where Sam started out by sounding like he was reading for the first time ever, Matt was endearing, Flick sweet, Kylie heartwarming, Lee babin’ / heartbreakin’ and Nick – again, shudder – genuine.

Guess I’ll keep waiting for that damn blindside, right?

They then joined the losers where Matt pledged to stick by Kristie due to her kindness – well played Kristie. Nick then approached Lee to sort through their issues, finishing with Lee apologising, while Nick then confronted Sam who seemed less into buying what Nick was selling.

Finally we made our way to the much touted record breaking challenge, made famous by Ozzy Lusth, where they all had to hold onto a big pole. Seriously, are they just trying to win me over with challenges with smutty connotations?

Anyway after almost six hours on the pole, Brooke bartered with JoJo for her letter from home before stepping off and giving Kylie immunity … sending Nick into panic mode.

They returned to camp where Brooke took the opportunity to read her letter, giving off a hint of a winner edit … meaning I’ve now claimed a winner edit for most of the people left in the game meaning I should be correct, once. Maybe.

After the brief emotional interlude, the scrambling began with Nick telling Matt and Kylie to split the vote between Sue and Kristie, while Sam again lead the charge to get rid of Nick before confusing everyone with who would be throwing votes on Sue in case of an idol.

The tribe then arrived at tribal confused as to what their plans were before JoJo made Brooke feel awkward for proclaiming she was 90% safe, then Matt offered up that he was feeling 99% confident making Nick paranoid enough to call out his closest allies before Sam once again started laying into Nick … and then Nick commenced echoing Kate, calling out the alliance and outlining the hierarchy. Like Kate, it was all for nought as Nick was booted from the tribe to become the first member of the jury.

Now I know I have been hard on Nick these last couple of weeks but he is actually a dear, dear friend of mine after we met at university where – you guessed it – I was running a scam as a lecturer. Fun fact, my teaching methods actually inspired the character of Mr G.

Nick could see through my scam and worked with me to sort out my life. He is a really great guy and despite being labelled a snake on the show, he couldn’t be sweeter – he was playing hard and it was easier for people to label him as a villain to get ahead.

While he was disappointed to exit the game, making the jury was more than enough for him to get down celebrating over a big Nick Iadanzipasto Platter.

 

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Less a recipe and more of a guide, an antipasto should be packed full of delicious meats, cheeses and vegetables that you love, eaten greedily with a generous glass of wine.

Or bottle. Enjoy!

 

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Nick Iadanzipasto Platter
Serves: 4-6, greed dependent.

Ingredients
buffalo mozzarella balls, torn in chunks
sliced prosciutto
jarred – not judgement – roasted artichokes, drained
sundried tomatoes, drained
chargrilled peppers, drained
mixed olives
cherry tomatoes, quartered
fresh basil, leaves picked
clove garlic, cut in half
ciabatta, sliced
chilli flakes

Method
Place the ingredients around the board based on your preferred aesthetic, sprinkle with the basil leaves and chilli.

Toast the ciabatta, rub with the cut garlic and drizzle with oil.

Add the toast to the board and devour. Or you know, just devour.

 

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