Time to run some errands....

When you are running errands, you want to be comfortable but at the same time, don't want to look completely housewife frumpy. It wasn't a very hot day, so a tank and a light jacket were appropriate, and the scarf added another layer of warmth when the sun hid behind some clouds and the temperature dropped! This was also a very comfortable outfit to wear while watching my team win themselves a place in the top eight! :) Go Dees! x

Melbourne Demons cake... I always wanted to make one!

My latest cake was this one which I made for my friend Jill's birthday. Jill is a massive Melbourne fan just like myself - and so is her whole family. So when I was invited to her family's dinner to celebrate her birthday at the local delicious Greek restaurant, Mezethes - I could not resist baking this cake!

The funny story behind it was that Luke, bless his heart dropped the figurine and broke its right arm, its right foot and its right HORN. I swear, everytime I use store bought figurines, someone will inevitably break it. First it was Jody breaking Nicole's Marily Monroe figurine for her Hen's night cake, then an unknown James Squire staff breaking a bit of James Bond's head and now this. Seriously.

Needless to say, I wasn't impressed. But I think I held it together alright - what do you think Luke?

I am particularly impressed with this cake because I started making it at 5pm and was done by 9.30pm. Yes, from making the cake from scratch, to the buttercream to the fondant to the decoration. So I was quite happy with that. It's not often that that happens. And furthermore, I also ate dinner and watched a spot of How I Met Your Mother in between.

And for the record, I made yet another chocolate cake because I noted that Jill liked chocolate cake - and EVEN THOUGH I didn't like making it (only because I didn't want everyone to think I'm a one trick pony) I did.

I should also say that Luke made amends by buying another figurine, so I put the second Demon where the three red candles are and moved the red candles to the bottom of the cake. I was quite happy with the end result. I can't believe I haven't got a photo of it though. I know that Jill's mom took a photo, so I might see whether I can get it off her and add it at a later stage.

Friday night footy...

End of another long week - TGIF! (I know I've already said that in my earlier post). I'm totally looking forward to Friday night footy. Tonight, it's a win win situation for me really - Melbourne needs the Bombers to lose to even have a shot at the top eight, but boy oh boy, wouldn't I love to see Hawthorn lose another one. I just CAN'T bring myself to go for them - the ONLY player I like on that team is Luke Hodge. He is a champion.

Anyway, for Friday night footy, I decided to make footy. Food that you need to eat with your fingers - wings, ribs, chips. My choice for this evening: RIBS and to be healthy - the reliable, and DELICIOUS sweet potato chips!

I used a combination of the slow cooker and the BBQ - (well, Luke worked the BBQ because I'm useless at it and he is awesome).

On hindsight, the only thing that I would have done differently would be to cook the ribs after they have been defrosted. I forgot to defrost the meat last night (and this morning) so when I came home at lunch, I just dumped all the FROZEN meat with the sauce and set it on auto. It cooked for seven hours, and it was quite tender, but not enough (well, the baby back ribs were - the spare ribs, not so much).

Yes, you picked it - I also used a combination of baby back and spare ribs. Only because it was the first time Luke and I were eating baby back ribs and I was unsure whether it would be enough for dinner (yes, we love our meat!)

SO - who wants the recipe? I didn't measure anything - so just use your instincts!!!

NESSIE'S MESSY RIBS

Ingredients

Ribs - as mentioned earlier, baby back ribs and spare ribs were used in this recipe
Tomato ketchup
Barbeque sauce
Worstershire sauce
Chili Sauce (I think I bought blended chilis or something - they are pretty spicy! If no blended chilis, I would just use some tobasco sauce or some chili flakes)
Tobasco sauce (I used it anyway, in addition to the chili)
3 tablespoons of brown sugar (this one I did measure - but not intentionally)
1 can of beer (I used Cascades Pale Ale cuz that's what we had in the fridge - leftover from the engagement party!!)

If it helps, the rule that I go by is one part ketchup to two parts BBQ sauce or vice versa. In this case, I didn't have much BBQ sauce, so I just used one part BBQ sauce to two parts ketchup.

I chucked eveything into the slow cooker and let it cook on Auto for about 7 hours.

Remove the cooked meat from the slow cooker and in a separate container, dissolve some cornflour with cold water and add to the sauce. Keep doing so until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

In the meantime, start the BBQ and sear the meat. Then baste the meat with the sauce and sear both sides.

Finally, put the meat into a large bowl and pour the remaining sauce over the meat.

Make sure there's lots of paper napkins and ENJOY!!!

Happy weekend!

xoxo

Special thanks to my lovely Luke for BBQ-ing! :) xoxo

I'm walkin' on sunshine...

A win is a win is a win. :) That is all I can say. Whatever was said during the week, the ugly comments and the cheap shots.. it all doesn't matter! A win against a side that might be sliding? ( I don't think Essendon are sliding, but that's what people are going to say during the week). So freaking what. As I said, a win is a win is win. So proud of my boys!!!

Go dees! :)

xoxo

Saturday, 16 April 2011

And another draw for the 2011 footy season!! I can't believe it - I don't like either Essendon or Carlton, so it works out well! The game was awesome. Within the first quarter, two Essendon players were taken off the field and it looked like they were in trouble. To be honest, I thought that Essendon would have this one in the bag so I was barracking for the "underdog" Carlton. And they would have won too if Simpson didn't stuff up and kicked the ball out on the full, giving Essendon one last shot at goal. They didn't get to kick the goal, but ended up with a behind, which levelled the scores. All that effort for 2 points.

This is DEFINITELY gearing up to be an awesome year of footy!

Looking forward to the Demons-Suns match tomorrow!

As for today, Luke and I went grocery shopping, which I actually enjoyed! We went to Woolies, Creative Chicken and of course Island Markets. I had a hankering for mussels and where else to get mussels but Island Markets! For $6.99 a kilo - it was definitely a bargain! I think I'm going to cook them with garlic butter, white wine and a bit of cream and freshly baked bread and butter.

I really do think too much about food.

The other bit of news is that Lucky joined the gym today, so we will start going to the gym together tomorrow. No more excuses! I might even be able to post more exercise related posts!

On another note, I'm getting back into Pushing Daisies. I've started series linking it - I forgot how much I liked it! I wonder whether it has been axed yet. The shows I like always seem to have a nasty habit of doing that.

Luke and I also bought some squid and some calamari. Sorry, let me rephrase that. We bought WHOLE squid and WHOLE calamari. Yes, it meant that we actually had to gut and clean it. And while that might sound absolutely disgusting, it was a lot of fun! Of course Luke had to do the preliminary cutting because their eyes gross me out, but after the initial legwork was done, I was quite happy to do the rest. I wonder how I'm going to cook these?

Dammit - I think Hawthorn just beat West Coast. I hate Hawthorn.

Cameron...

I'm back!!!

Yes, I have been away, but only because I have been crazy busy at work  and by the time I get home, I collapse on the couch and am dead to the world by 9pm. But yes, I'm back with a new partner in crime:

That's right. Luke and I have invested in a digital SLR. And word on the street is that this is the best entry level camera there is on the market. So we researched on ebay. The price was right, and the purchase was made!! Welcome little camera. I think I will name you Cameron. Cameron the Camera. (yes, I am very creative).

Cameron's stats are as follows:

Type	Digital single-lens reflex camera
Sensor	CMOS APS-C 22.2 x 14.8 mm (1.6x conversion factor)
Maximum resolution	10.1 effective megapixels, 3,888 x 2,592
Lens	Canon EF lens mount, Canon EF-S lens mount
Flash	E-TTL II automatic built-in pop-up, 13m ISO 100 guide number, 27mm (equivalent in 135 format) lens focal length coverage; compatible with Canon EX Series Speedlite external hotshoe-mount flashes
Shutter	focal-plane
Shutter speed range	1/4000 to 30 s and Bulb, 1/200 s X-sync
Exposure metering	Full aperture TTL, 35-zone SPC
Exposure modes	Full Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, No Flash, Program AE , Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Manual, Auto Depth-of-field
Metering modes	Evaluative, Partial (approx. 10% at center of viewfinder), Center-weighted average
Focus areas	7 AF points
Focus modes	AI Focus, One-Shot, Predictive AI Servo, Live Mode in Live View; Quick Mode in Live View
Continuous shooting	3 fps for 514 JPEG frames or 1.5 fps for 5 RAW frames
Viewfinder	Eye-level pentamirror SLR, 95% coverage, 0.81x magnification
ASA/ISO range	ISO 100 to 1600
Flash bracketing	Yes
Custom WB	Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, Manual, user-set
WB bracketing	± 3 stops in 1-stop increments;
Rear LCD monitor	2.5 in color TFT LCD, 230,000 pixels
Storage	Secure Digital Card Secure Digital High Capacity
Battery	LP-E5 Battery Pack
Dimensions	126.1 x 97.5 x 61.9 mm
Weight	450 g (body only)
Optional battery packs	BG-E5

Type	Digital single-lens reflex camera
Sensor	CMOS APS-C 22.2 x 14.8 mm (1.6x conversion factor)
Maximum resolution	10.1 effective megapixels, 3,888 x 2,592
Lens	Canon EF lens mount, Canon EF-S lens mount
Flash	E-TTL II automatic built-in pop-up, 13m ISO 100 guide number, 27mm (equivalent in 135 format) lens focal length coverage; compatible with Canon EX Series Speedlite external hotshoe-mount flashes
Shutter	focal-plane
Shutter speed range	1/4000 to 30 s and Bulb, 1/200 s X-sync
Exposure metering	Full aperture TTL, 35-zone SPC
Exposure modes	Full Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, No Flash, Program AE , Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority, Manual, Auto Depth-of-field
Metering modes	Evaluative, Partial (approx. 10% at center of viewfinder), Center-weighted average
Focus areas	7 AF points
Focus modes	AI Focus, One-Shot, Predictive AI Servo, Live Mode in Live View; Quick Mode in Live View
Continuous shooting	3 fps for 514 JPEG frames or 1.5 fps for 5 RAW frames
Viewfinder	Eye-level pentamirror SLR, 95% coverage, 0.81x magnification
ASA/ISO range	ISO 100 to 1600
Flash bracketing	Yes
Custom WB	Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, Manual, user-set
WB bracketing	± 3 stops in 1-stop increments;
Rear LCD monitor	2.5 in color TFT LCD, 230,000 pixels
Storage	Secure Digital Card Secure Digital High Capacity
Battery	LP-E5 Battery Pack
Dimensions	126.1 x 97.5 x 61.9 mm
Weight	450 g (body only)
Optional battery packs	BG-E5

So is this the new thing that I've decided to dabble in? Yes, photography. And in particular, food photography. What can I say - I am greedy by nature. :)

So Cameron arrived on Friday and I have been busy snap snap snapping photos. I have added some to my Flickr photostream (and I have opened a Flickr account).

By the way, as I am writing this, I have got one eye on the television, and it is the opening round of the AFL Season. Adelaide plays Hawthorn. I should say now that I hate Hawthorn with a passion, and Adelaide is currently losing - so this is bringing terrible memories to Round 1 last year when Jill, Luz and I were in Melbourne watching my team get absolutely throttled.

So where was I? Well, long story short, I am back and will be updating more often and hopefully with better photos.

xx