Good morning

Delicious breakfast at the Laneway

Green eggs and ham

AKA: Pesto scrambled eggs

Pesto:

Pine nuts
Fetta
Olive oil
Garlic
Basil
No measurements, it's all to taste really :D
Mash it all up in a bowl with one end of a rolling pin. (Or mortar and pestle)


Equals D is a collective photo blog my friend invited me to :D

Chirp chirp

Splurged on some cake decorating ingredients today. Food colour gel is so expensive! To be fair, you only need a little bit but it's very limiting D:

Publish Post

Mum's birthday is on Thursday so I made some little chicken cupcake tops for her.


I initially bought fondant in a jar to decorate the cupcake. Knowing nothing about fondant, I was really worried when I opened the jar to find this sticky half liquid fondant D:
But managed to salvage it by kneading some icing sugar into it. Phew!

Also, Ed got his watch today, on his day off! G-shock Riseman (flying squirrel). It can do everything but decorate a cake!
Temperature, altitude, weather, world time, 4 different alarms whoa AND it's solar powered. Very green¬¬¬

Chiffon cake in a stone pot

4 eggs - separated
1 cup sugar - 2 half cups
3 drops of vinegar
2 tbs of cooking oil
1 tsp of baking soda
approx. 1 cup of flour


Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees
In one bowl, combine egg whites, 1/2 cup of sugar and vinegar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with 1/2 cup of sugar, baking soda and oil until smooth.
Gently fold in flour one tablespoon at a time until mixture sticks to the spoon firmly.
Combine 1/3 of the egg white mixture with the flour mixture and fold gently until smooth.
Fold in the rest of the egg white mixture.
Bake for 20-30 mins


On a different note. I saw this waist trench coat + cons look that I've been wanting to try but everytime I'm back at my parents it's so hot. Yesterday I was there again, pondering for a quick second if I should bring it just incase but it was like 40degrees, so I didn't.
Today, it's like 17 and storming. :/

Argilly ;o

Last week Grace tried to get us to go clubbing when I got to hers, but I was dressed like I was going to play soccer...
So we went to a Lebanese cafe down the street and tried an argilly! A watermelon flavoured one. We had no idea how it worked at first and had to get some help XD
At first it tasted like burnt paper but when the flavour came up through the pipe, it tasted quite nice :D Left a sweet watermelon taste on my lips too.
Apparently it can be quite strong... but I didn't even get through half of the burning log thing... so maybe next time!
Wish I had a better picture of the pipe, it's really quite pretty.

Can't find my camera charger :(

Balsamic cherry tomatos with Garlic chicken

Our delicious dinner

and beautiful Garman who made it

Super easy gourmet pizza

Ingredients (serves 1):
1 piece of Lebanese bread, or any type of round flat bread
2 slices of Coppa
2 slices of smoked ham
1 medium avocado
hand full of rocket
a few sprigs of parsley
pepper and Parmesan to taste

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Arrange ingredients onto the bread and bake for 15-20 mins

Salt crust chicken - a success!

Baked in a salty dough. No holes.
The result is a chicken so moist and tender.

Sparkling

Getting into my "French women don't get fat" book again. I had just been reading it like a novel haha
After all, it's not a diet, but a lifestyle change, which was not easy until I've moved out of home and have more control over meals :D

As a result, I've begun my recasting and this was today's lunch to compensate for the fatty Chinese restaurant food we had last night.

Le petit creme ou La petite crème?

Lemon sugar crêpes! I thought it was my own creation (and it was!) but it's actually quite common :(.



I think that lady behind us was actually posing!


Le petit creme in Darlinghurst
How French the café actually is... I can't say (they left out the accent on Crêpes, their chefs were actually Viet and I'm pretty sure "crème" is a feminine word which means "Petite" is wrong also and should have been "la". - guess that semester of French paid off XD)
But apparently they have they best eggs benedict. Unfortunately, I did not have the privilege to try it as it was only available on the weekends!
My crêpes were good though :D

more yoghurt

Vanilla bean and raspberry yoghurt
(with pomegranate seeds)

These fancy schmancy yoghurts from the fruit market are so yummy :D

Ham bone soup

An easy snack or add some pasta for a light lunch~

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 ham bone
4 gourmet tomatos, diced
4 large waxy potatos, diced
2 small onions
salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil


Sautée the onions, half the tomatoes and potatoes in a saucepan with olive oil.
Sear the ham bone along with the veggies.
Cover with water and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat low and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
Add the rest of the veggies and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Pull some ham off the bone and serve with the soup!

Ham bones are so cheap and delicious. This one (around 1kg) was only around $5!

mmm eclair

Last week a new Bakery opened down the street. All the pastries they offer look sooo good. Ed’s favourite are the eclairs and that’s saying something because he’s not a big dessert person. Problem is though, the ambiance and decor are so boutique-esque but some of the people who work there… loud and a little crude, really put me off D:
Today I headed there for a coffee but when I turned into the store, the big lady behind the counter was already yelling orders and waddling around looking sweaty, mean and unpleasant.
So I went across to Simmone Logue instead :D and the barista made me a 'special cappuccino, Italian style, like me' were his exact words o_o;
I don't ever remembering them being that nice hehehe must be the new competition.

Afternoon soba

Delicious soba for a healthy afternoon snack :D
The shallot curls are made by dunking them in ice water~

Cupcakesss

Cupcakes on Pitt opened up in Chatswood mmmm... Finally caved in and bought some cupcakes today!
White choc, tiramissu, peanut butter cup and cookies and cream!

Lavender shortbread

I've been craving these for awhile, ever since I saw them on a blog awhile back. We stole picked another bunch of lavender last night :D So I decided to give it a shot. Only made 4. They're so cute I don't really want to eat them. D: I tried the ugly one though and it was quite good. The lavender only provided a lovely fragrance to the cookie but not so much taste.
They're great with some earl grey.

mmm vacation~

After a week of searching, I finally found a dress for Grace's mum's 50th birthday dinner. All the little details made the dress so appealing to me, high collar, cinched in under the bust and frilly cap sleeves all in a pretty floaty fabric. The photos don't do it justice.

mmmmmm

Really glad he came to the dinner ♥ Made me all the more comfortable and hence have much more fun :D!

Finally on my one month break from Uni. And already, my coasters are almost finished! Maybe I shouldn't have started them during Stuvac.

Waffle iron omelette~

So quick and mess free.

Ham wrapped omelette with rocket.

Bibimbap trial run~

Finally gave in to cravings for bibimbap!
Only wish I had stone bowls for the raw egg and crackly rice. D: