Look in the sky. Is it a bird?

I was keen when we were in Melbourne to eat at some of the more interesting cafes on offer. I had initially suggested to C that we head to St Kilda on the Saturday for a look around but he was not that keen. I sent a message to NM back in Perth for the addresses of a couple of places I had been to with her, and we ended up at Birdman Eating on Gertrude Street. I loved it when NM took me there and was keen to have C see what it was all about.

C is not big on breakfast - he prefers to have cereal - but he made an effort for me.

We both ordered Chai Lattes. These came in enamel pouring cups and were beautifully frothed up. I love the aroma of chai latte! There was honey provided for added sweetness however mine was sweet enough for me.

C's breakfast was Braised Beans on toast, with an added poached egg. He was intrigued as he had only ever eaten baked beans from a tin before. They were extremely tasty and I was again in heaven, determined to try to find a good recipe for use at home.

I ordered the Black rice, coconut yoghurt & mango dish that I had when NM first brought me. It was as tasty as I had remembered; however coupled with the chai latte I felt a little overloaded by all things sweet. Thankfully I had C's beans to dip into and counteract the sweet sensation.

C commented on the convenience of the tram stop opposite and next time I visit I may even try a different dish!

Birthday cake pops!

Back in March my friend KC asked if I would like to give her a hand making cake pops for her daughter's 1st birthday party. As much as I would have loved to it was actually on the Easter weekend and I was going to be in Tasmania!

I expressed my regrets (it did sound like a lot of fun!) and asked her for some photos and words so that I could post about it.

She was inspired by this post to turn her hand at chicks, bunnies and easter eggs.

In KC's words:
I have pics from our cake pops work. Here are the low res ones so far plus one of general food. The chicks turned out by far the best but, alas, the focus was off on the photos. NM and I took plenty of shots of our prep work. Two problems with the recipe, I think:
1. We can’t get cream cheese frosting in a can here so the homemade version we used was too sweet, too liquid and too much – this meant the cake filling needed major chilling to encourage it to keep its shape.
2. A vessel small enough for a bit of chocolate but deep enough to dip was problematic. Tupperware jug worked best but was quite large. We tried a Pyrex small jug in the microwave but it retained the heat too well and the chocolate seized.

Anyway, worth a try another time now I have LOTS and LOTS of sprinkle thingies and a fair bit of chocolate colouring agent left.

Ciao!
Bunnies
Eggs!
The picnic spread, with hidden treats!
Images courtesty of KC

Apple & Cranberry Crumble

Last night C asked me when I was going to make apple pie. Considering that we only had two (small) apples I knew it was not going to be last night, so I offered to make apple crumble instead. He was keen and so I got to work.

1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
50g butter
2 apples
1/2 cup cranberries
4 teaspoons golden syrup

Preheat oven to 180C.

I put the flour, oats and sugar into a bowl, and mixed them with my hand. The sugar needed to be broken up a bit too. I then chopped the butter finely and rubbed it into the flour mixture.

I cut the apple into small pieces. Into each 250mL ramekin I put half an apple, some frozen cranberries and a teaspoon of golden syrup.

I put a quarter of the crumble mixture onto the top of each ramekin, topped with a small blob of butter.

I baked the ramekins for around half an hour. I checked it with a fork after 25 minutes to see if the apple was cooked.

Serve with ice cream!

Notes
- The crumble topping was enough for four serves, so I made two last night and froze the rest of it. I made crumble again tonight. Yum!
- I definitely recommend putting your ramekins onto a tray. It is much easier to move them in and out of the oven this way.
- I probably used around 30g butter for the crumble topping, and I think that it should have had a little more so I have increased the quantity.

Disappointed

As a part of my enthusiasm for running the City to Surf, I signed up for weekly training tips. Each week the tips arrive, and with the tips comes a recipe. The recipes have failed to excite my interest, but the recipe this week really irritated me. It would have been nice if they had properly translated it into Australian measurements!

After reading the recipe I have the following questions:
1. What is cherry pie filling? 448g is not a standard weight for an Aussie item. Maybe it is imported.
2. We sell Australian pineapple here. It does not come in a "15 ounce can". Generally it is a 440g tin or maybe 850g if memory serves me correctly.
3. "Silvered" almonds?? They sound deadly.
4. Farenheit is non-standard.
5. At a guess it is "dry" sherry that they are after.

At any rate it all sounds rather sweet and there is no guide for serving suggestion.

Baked Fruit
225 g pitted prunes
225 g dried apricots
55 g raisins
1 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks,undrained
448 g cherry pie filling
60 ml fry sherry
235 ml water
45 g blanched silvered almonds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a deep baking dish mix together prunes, dried apricots, raisins, and pineapple chunks. In a separate bowl, combine cherry pie filling, sherry and water. Pour over the fruit, and cover, and bake in preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours.

You can find this, and other recipes, here

Cupcakes!

We wandered past these yummy looking cupcakes on Elizabeth Street at The Cupcake Bakery. They had a variety of tasty looking treats! We had just eaten breakfast so cupcakes were not on our agenda but we had to stop and appreciate the cakes on offer.

How cute are the little carrots on (I presume) carrot cakes?

Check out the jumbo cupcakes! Kind of defeats the concept of cupcake but still they are very cute.

Garlic

Note to self: Must try to grow own garlic.
(Apparently I lost the last note.)

See here for ABC article on local vs imported garlic.

I try to buy locally grown garlic. It is amazing to compare the size and flavour with the imported stuff... the small cheap white garlic is so lacking in flavour and seems like a substandard younger relation.

Image here

Girls Night In - Party Passions

Last night I was privileged to attend a Party Passions cooking class, organised by the Cancer Council. See here for more information on the evening!

The class itself was called Party Passions and was run by Nico Moretti of Cooking Passions Cooking School.

We sampled mango mocktails, parmesan crisps, carbonara fritata, arancini balls, proscuitto wrapped prawns, lamb rolls and almond crusted buffalo wings with a blue castello dipping sauce. All recipes were explained to us as an easy to construct item and able to be prepared in advance.

I felt inspired to go home and cook a risotto, just so that I could make arancini balls. Yum!

Nico also recommended suppliers of some of the foodstuffs, and I was very envious to hear that his local fish shop is Kailis (in Leederville) and his local deli the Re Store! Our local deli Scutti's is very good, as is our butcher Angelo Street Meats however we miss out on having a good local seafood supplier. Come to think of it, that is not such an issue since C catches most of our fish and seafood anyway! It is only prawns, oysters and scallops that escape him.

If anyone is interested I do have the recipes and I might be willing to share a drop or two of inspiration!

It was definitely a good night, very relaxed and it was great to meet some inspiring ladies! Thank you to the Cancer Council for the opportunity.

Thank you also to my wonderful friends who indulge me every year and attend my Girls Night In afternoon tea, and donate so generously!

Chocolate chunk muffins

Public holidays are always a good excuse to catch up with friends! I did not wish to turn up empty handed and I was too lazy to walk to the shops to buy strawberries so I thought that muffins would be appreciated. I was initially going to make triple chocolate fudge cookies however I realised that I needed to refrigerate the cookie dough for an hour, and I only had about that long to make and bake. I turned to Donna Hay's Simple Essentials: Chocolate for inspiration and this recipe.

2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup light olive oil
1/2 cup milk
200g chocolate bits (I used 100g each of white and dark)

Preheat oven to 180C.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and caster sugar into a bowl. Sift and mix to combine.

In a separate bowl (or large jug!) combine the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk and whisk together.

Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture.

Fold in the chocolate bits and spoon into 12 x 1/2 cup muffin cases.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Notes
- The recipe called for vegetable oil, and 1 cup of chopped milk chocolate in lieu of the bits. I had already measured out the chocolate for the cookies so just used what I had.
- My muffins ended up dry. At the end of 25 minutes they were still slightly moist inside and I think at that point I should have pulled them out.
- I sifted my dry ingredients and then sifted them some more for good measure to mix them up rather than stirring with my spatula.
- Very chocolate-y and yum!

Rhubarb inspiration

Last summer C's mum gave us fresh rhubarb to eat and I was stuck with how we could cook it. I tried a few recipes, including these rhubarb muffins, but did not come up with anything too exciting.

These two recipes are ones that I could see myself trying next summer. Rustic Rhubarb Tarts by Smitten Kitchen and Rhbuarb Tart by Tartlette.

Tartlette's recipes are gluten free however she does give directions for using normal plain flour. The comments on her recipe indicate that the Xantham Gum is only required if you go gluten free.

I especially love the fact that she gives measurements in metric! I usually shy away from recipes from the US. There are enough rcipes out there with metric measurements and I am too lazy to translate imperial and farenheit.

Images belong to Smitten Kitchen and Tartlette

I'm going to eat you little fishie!

C loves to fish, and I love to eat fish. A perfect match! I am spoiled too, as the fish comes to me already skinned and filleted. It took a little bit of persuasion to convince C that I also like fish with the head on, and he now keeps suitable fish for me.

C went out this week and caught this little fish for me. He's beautiful and I will get two meals out of him.

My favourite way to eat fish is whole steamed, and you can see the results above. Steamed Skippy with ginger and lime, coral red jasmine rice, beans, and a sesame oil & soy sauce for dipping the fish into. A perfect meal!

Pizza Party

I went over to KC's house for dinner last night. Both of our menfolk are away and she has BabyA so it's much easier for me to travel around than for her to.

I suggested that we make pizza, knowing that KC has a bread maker (for easy dough making) and as pizzas are very simple to throw together and cook.

We managed to coordinate our toppings and ended up with one savoury and one sweet treat!

Savoury: rocket, spinach, herb & garllic feta, salami, olive oil, red onion and pear.
Sweet: nutella, ricotta, dates and pecans.

Winter warming drinks

This week I have twice (!!) bought myself a chai latte. I think that it might be a winter thing. I often have a cup of tea in the office but this week I was wanting something sweet.

While I was waiting for my drink I started to wonder whether they would accept a Keep Cup or something similar. I would be tempted to buy one if that is the case!

I shall have to ask next time I feel the urge for a chai latte.

Vegetable and everything else soup

One of the things that I love about the cooler weather is that soup shows up more frequently in C's repertoire. The latest flavour was a mix of vegetables and legumes. Pumpkin, onion, turnip, celery, potato, chick peas, lentils, borlotti beans, kidney beans and bacon with chicken stock.

It is a riot of flavours and textures, and this time around C cut the vegetables small rather than doing his usual trick of blending the soup. I prefer my soups with texture and chunkiness so I was very happy! To top it all off he bought some crusty wholemeal vienna loaf. Yum!