Happy Birthday!

I didn't bake these tarts!

It's my wonderful husband's birthday today! To celebrate, there was Birthday-eve French Toast, and Birthday Lasagna (as there is every year) and lots and lots of love.

Happy birthday to the best hand model, taste tester, and carrier of heavy shopping a girl could ever have. <3 <3 <3

Sydney: assorted eating

We headed up to Sydney the other weekend to watch Alastair’s cousin race in a regatta. It was the beginning of a whole week of eating!



I knew zilch about yachts, sailing, and 18 foot skiffs, before the weekend. But after two afternoons spent on a spectator ferry watching the racing, I can now tell you all about..... nothing. Yes, I still know zilch. It's a whole different world, my friends. But we had a great time, and got to spend time with Alastair's family, many of whom were in town to watch the race. (Hello to Alastair's aunts and uncles - Ian, Dale, Ken, Rayleen and to my mother-in-law Annette and step-father-in-law Terry.)



We stayed in gooorgeous swanky Double Bay, as that's where the regatta was held. Double Bay must be under the dictionary definition of seriously swankypants. It is NICE.



We flew up on Friday night, and the next morning we headed out to brunch at a cafe around the corner. Being a terrible blogger, I neglected to note down where we were but I managed to take photos! For brunch, Alastair and I both had the corn fritters with crispy bacon, greens, avocado salsa and tomato relish. I had been expecting a pancakey type of corn fritter and was surprised when the dish came out. Despite this, the corn fritters were SO GOOD. They were little balls of corny, deep fried goodness served with a generous amount of bacon, and hidden underneath the salad was a rich and tangy tomato relish.



Afterwards we had a wander around Double Bay to kill time before the race started for the day. We came across a shop that sold freshly made fruit juice.



It was hot and we were thirsty, so we ordered a juice. I was just going to ask for an orange juice, but Alastair said that was boring and asked the guy behind the counter to make one based on what he recommended. He ended up giving us a juice with fresh watermelon, pineapple and mint and wow! It was fantastic - very refreshing and sweet with the mint really setting it off. I'm so glad we didn't get boring old orange juice! It was such a good juice that we had another one the day after.



After our juice, we found a place selling fresh gelati.



We shared a blood orange gelato. It was just okay - I found it quite sweet but really tangy at the same time. Alastair said that it tasted like Raro!. I had post-gelato-flavour-choosing-regret and wish that we had picked mint instead.



For dinner that evening, we ate at Limoncello in Double Bay. It was really busy, so we decided that was a good thing and waited 15 minutes for a table. I had the papperdelle with osso buco ragu. My pasta was excellent - toothsome and covered with a thick, rich meaty sauce. The restaurant was really freakishly dark though, hence the crap photos!



Alastair had the tagliolini with Balmain bugs meat, semi sun-dried tomatoes in a cream sauce. Oh, he picked well! I had a taste and it was delicious - the sauce was very moreish and not too heavy.



Rilsta from My Food Trail was also in Sydney that weekend, and she had organised a lunch with a few Sydney bloggers. She let me gatecrash their lunch - thanks! :D So on Sunday, Alastair and I headed into the city for lunch at Ripples on Sydney Wharf, where we met Anita from Leave Room for Dessert, Belle from Ooh Look, Mademoiselle Delicieuse from Spoon, fork and chopsticks and their partners.

I ordered the spiced mussels with saffron, mascarpone and chilli with garlic baguette. Fancy name, but the mussels were really just in a curryish broth. They were nice though.



Alastair had the roasted pork belly with apple and fennel puree, chargrilled scallop, witlof and celeraic salad. Verdict? He commented that it wasn't the best pork belly he'd ever had. While it looked mightily impressive, the crackling wasn't very crispy and the meat needed a bit more flavour.



Unfortunately we couldn't stay long, as we had to be back in Double Bay to watch the last race in the regatta. Ultimately, the cousin and his team placed 8th, which is pretty respectable considering the plague of injuries, and continual crew changes during the week.

Coming up (if I can manage to find time AND motivate myself to blog) - more on our week of eating: seafood by the sea, eating with our hands, wine tasting, and POP ROCKS (seriously!).

RSPCA Cupcake Day recap

The Cupcake Bakeoff for the RSPCA Cupcake Day went well at work today. We had a good assortment of cupcakes - along with mine there was also carrot, lemon, banana, and vanilla with different toppings. There was some tough competition from bumblebee cupcakes (see below) but the fondant toppers and the booze in mine got me over the line and I won the bakeoff. Sweet!



Jennie organised a great event. There was a good variety of cupcakes, and a really good turnout with many people coming from other floors/branches. Most of the cupcakes sold at morning tea time, with the leftovers gradually disappearing by the end of the day.



And money wise, we raised over $240 for the RSPCA - a good result!

Birthday French Toast

March in Melbourne is always a busy month. Lots of festivals and major events seem to be scheduled for March - Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Moomba, the Avalon Airshow, the Greek Antipodes Festival, the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, and the Grand Prix to mention a few.

We didn't do most things, but we did go to the Avalon Airshow. What's that? You didn't realise I was into planes? You thought it was just about the food?



Well! The truth is that I'm not really into planes. But those of you who know Alastair personally won't be surprised to hear that he likes them! We picked the worst day to go to the Airshow. It rained - A LOT - in fact the equivalent amount of rain fell that day as during the first two months of this year. And were we prepared? Hell no! We had one umbrella and one plastic backed picnic blanket between four of us. Fortunately the weather cleared for a couple of hours, so it wasn't a complete washout. For anyone interested in planes and jets, the rest of the photos can be seen at flickr.

Apart from festivals and events, during March there is also Alastair's birthday and our wedding anniversary.



Both were very quiet events this year. For Alastair's birthday, we celebrated with Birthday French Toast in the morning. Bro and I bought him a joint present this year - an introductory helicopter training flight - a pretty freaking awesome gift for him, if I may say so myself!



That evening, dinner was Birthday Lasagne. It's a tradition - every year Alastair wants lasagne on his birthday. Since it's easy to whip up, and only a little time consuming, I'm always happy to oblige.

You'll notice that there's no mention of birthday cake. I didn't get around to it this year! Hell, we're not that into cake anyway, so I figured the Birthday French Toast, awesome present and Birthday Lasagne was enough. (It was!)



Birthday French Toast

1 Birthday
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 pieces of thick white bread (preferably day old)
Unsalted butter for the frying pan
Maple syrup, icing sugar and bacon (optional) to serve

In a shallow dish, mix together the eggs, milk, caster sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract.
Melt a good sized pat of butter over medium-high heat in a frying pan.
Dip a slice of bread into the egg mixture, ensuring that the bread is well soaked through.
When the pan is hot, fry the bread on both sides for a couple of minutes or until crisp and golden.
Repeat the dipping and frying for all slices of bread (don't forget to melt more butter in the pan and be generous with it! It is a birthday after all).
Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve with maple syrup and bacon.
Have a happy birthday!

Wellington: Goody goody gum drops

As mentioned in previous posts, in February we spent a long weekend in Welly as our friends Ben and Lisa officially become Benisa.



Bro flew over earlier and alerted me via sms of the goody goody gum drops ice block. Squeal!!! Goody goody gum drops is a bubble gum flavoured ice cream with chewy gum drops. You used to only be able to get it as a scoop ice cream in dairies or in tubs at the supermarket, but recently some genius had the idea of covering the ice cream in chocolate and putting it on a stick. Seriously, genius.



Here I am at the train station with my good goody gum drops ice block. The ice block had a good ratio of gum drops versus ice cream – I had about 8 gum drops in that little block. There was always nothing worse than having a scoop of goody goody gum drops with only a couple of gum drops.

It’s small though and it started melting very quickly. I wish I had bought another one. Someone should start importing these into Australia - I would so be there.

Green Tea and Turkish Delight

Today is my last day of sick leave. It's back to work and the daily grind tomorrow! My mouth has healed quite well, and I'm pretty much eating normal food again - although I probably should have stuck to soft food for longer. I just couldn't bear it any longer!

Since it's my last day lazing about at home, rather than drink my tea out of a mug like I normally do, I decided to use a nice teapot and cup and saucer. I bought them second-hand for peanuts, and I think they're gorgeous!



Later, I'll probably eat a piece or two of Turkish Delight that I purchased yesterday from the South Melbourne Market. It's nice Turkish Delight, soft and jelly-like, with just a hint of rose. I tried making Turkish Delight once, and it was a hideous, hideous disaster. Lesson learned - not everything is better home made!



Now, despite the climbing temperature, I'm off to bake a banana cake. The amount of bananas in my freezer is starting to push out all other foods and I need to do something with them!

Penguins! Plum (6)!

Last weekend the Boys and I went to see the Penguins! at the Melbourne Aquarium. We got up early and had brunch in the city before heading there.

Brunch was extremely forgettable, so I think I'll tell you about a couple of past visits to our favourite cafe instead!

A wee while ago, Bro and I had a Saturday brunch with the other KKC members, while Alastair spent the day working.



Bro and I both had something that was on the specials board - baked eggs with pepperonata, feta and tomato sauce served with grilled pide ($15.50). It was great! The yolks were still gooey, perfect for dipping the pide in, and the pepperonata was sweetish and slightly tangy.



On a different occasion, we went back to Plum for brunch on my birthday. The Boys both had a special - Grecian omelette with roasted tomato, feta and sourdough toast ($14.50). Franco drizzled some chilli oil on top - yummo!



The French toast with bacon and maple syrup was amazing, as per usual. It was such a nice way to start my birthday.



Back to the penguins at the Melbourne Aquarium. The Melbourne Aquarium recently completed renovations and opened the Antarctica exhibit, showcasing Gentoo and King Penguins. The ones in my photos are the larger King penguins.



The new penguin enclosure is great. The best part was the wall where you could see the penguins in the water - they swam and darted around, showing off their agility and gracefulness. Penguins are cool!

Read about previous visits to Cafe Plum here.

Cafe Plum
193 Flemington Rd, North Melbourne 3051
Ph: (03) 9329 8867

2008 Orphan's Xmas with the KKC

This year, we had our usual Orphan's Xmas with the Kiwi Kensington Crew - me and the Boys, plus Dany, Scott, Ben, Lisa and honorary member Nate.

Previous years have taught us we never have an appetite for a full meal, so everyone bought a selection of nibbles. As you'll see, there was a fair amount of food, but considering the small amount of leftovers, we catered rather well.




There were ribs, smoked salmon on toasts, devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and ham.




There were also chicken wings, chicken nuggets, cheese, olives, peperonata, roasted cherry tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, and leek and sundried tomato empanadas. PLUS, there were spicy koftas, a couple of dips, sweet & salty nuts, candied pecans and more cheese (most of which hasn't been opened and will probably be eaten on NYE!).




Moving on to the sweet stuff - gingerbread cookies, cherry tarts, almond crescents, chocolate dipped strawberries, plus fruit (cherries, grapes) and pavlova (not pictured).



After a couple of rounds of eating, there was "cricket" in the park.



As well as some board games - Operation and Cranium.



The mess we created on the floor was VERY impressive. This wasn't even half of it.



Hopefully everyone else had a great Xmas too! Recipes for some of our Xmas food to come.