Blessed Easter everyone!

So instead of putting Rosie's adorable face on my blog, I thought that I should include a photo of my latest cake creation. I won't take any credit for this as the design was given to me by a woman at work. She however tied a ribbon around the cake while I decided to sit a pretty chocolate bunny on top (which makes little tinkle sounds) to make it an Easter cake!

It is definitely death by chocolate: chocolate mudcake, chocolate ganache, kit kats around and smarties on the top with the chocolate bunny! It just screams Easter, doesn't it? :)

Blessed Easter everyone! Enjoy the chocolate but let's not forget what Easter is truly about- remembering our Lord who died for our sins so that we can live forever in His love. I am eternally grateful.

Homemadee tortillas!!!

Let's set the scene... no wait, I'm too excited. I'll just skip to the end - THEY WERE DELICIOUS.

So I did heaps of cooking on the weekend. Now that winter is here and we are eating less grilled meats but more stews and hearty food, I thought that I could cook for the week. This meant that all Luke and I would have to do when we got home from a tiring day at work would be to reheat our food and mooch on the couch.

SO, Sunday was chosen to be the epic cooking day. I made curried sausages, chicken stew, a huge batch of chili con carne (con beans and musshrooms too might I add!), glutinous chicken rice AND some begedils! (They deserve their own post, which I will write in time...). When it came to today (Tuesday), Luke and I were spoilt for choice... WHAT WERE WE GOING TO EAT....

We decided on the chili, but as it was already cooked, I thought that I should try my hand at making some fresh tortillas. I had just found a recipe online and it looked easy enough... so why not?

The outcome?

They were PERFECT and absolutely delicious! It is true what they say, once you have had home made tortillas, you will NEVER go back to store bought! After devouring this for dinner with my chili, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream - I agree!

Nom nom nom...

x

Vale Jimmy...

This is a bit late, but it was hard for me to write anything about Jimmy and not burst into tears.
The world lost this amazing man on 20 March 2012. My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife and two children.




Thank you Jim, for saving our beloved footy club, for working tirelessly with the underprivileged youth, for helping so many achieve their potential. Thank you for fighting your illness so courageously, giving hope to all who were the in the same boat. Thank you for showing us all that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Thank you, for your incredible legacy.

Rest in peace, Jimmy. You were larger than life and well loved by many. Gone, but not forgotten. The world is definitely a lesser place without you.

x

Summer on a plate...

One of Luke and I's weekly rituals was to attend church bright and early on Sunday morning and stop by our favourite brunch place to have breakfast and some delicious coffee! However, in our attempt to be frugal, we have been making brekkie at home, and I was particularly proud of the one we made last weekend.

BRUSCHETTA.

My favourite thing about summer (and yes, I'm a freak, I hate the heat bla bla bla...). For all intents and purposes I was going to try making eggs florentine due to my love affair with spinach. BUT, when I came across marked down turkish pide ($2 for 4 huge bits), marked down basil ($1.49 per bunch) and cheap tomatoes ($2 a bit 2 kilo bag). I felt like my hands were tied. :)

All in all, breakfast was quick, delicious and cheap cheap!

Nom nom nom...

Bruschetta - not the traditional style, but Nessie style!

Ingredients

• 3 tomatoes, chopped finely
• 1 bunch of basil
• a quarter of red onion
• Turkish pide (one big bit each - what's in the photo is ONE serve... I believe in quantity)
• Balsamic vinegerette or blasamic salad dressing (this is where lots of people will say to me, "you have to use balsamic vinegar, bla bla - whatevs. I like it this way) and
• Good extra virgin olive oil

Method

• Half the turkish pide and spread some olive oil on each side
• Pop into a 150C oven until crispy at the edges, but soft and chewy in the middle
• in the meantime, prepare your fresh ingredients
• Pop all the ingredients in a big bowl except for the dressing and the oil
• Just when the bread is ready, add the oil and the dressing to the fresh ingredients and spoon mixture on the hot pide
• Serve and enjoy!

We served ours with freshly squeezed orange juice. Food like this makes me feel like a lucky lucky girl. :)

Lots of sunshine to wherever you are! xoxo

Wedding cake!

Who loves wedding cakes? I know I do, and more than anything, I love CAKE. CAKE and ICE-CREAM are my two sweet vices. Don't really care for chockies and sweets or biscuits, but CAKE and ICE-CREAM!

No, that was not a segway into telling you that I'm going to make an ice-cream cake for the wedding. Hardly. It was just me wanting to emphasise how much I love cake and ice-cream!

Back onto wedding stuff... I did my wedding cake trial this weekend. But like with most wedding things, the photo will not be available for viewing until after the event. Sooooo.... the sneak peek below. :) That's all I'm giving you!

Do you think you can make out what the cake looks like?

But what I can show you is what I made with the leftover cake! It is a bit messy at the bottom, I may have gotten too excited with the pizza cutter and cut too close to the edge! I know to do better next time (if there is a next time!)

Someone I know said on facebook that it looked like a marshmallow. Whatevs Gerald. :)

Needless to say, this exercise has renewed my love for cake decorating, which is fortuitous as I have cupcakes and a wedding cake to make for my friend Jules' wedding next week!

Did I include photos? No, I don't think I did! And I realised why... I didn't take any! I will next week though.


xoxo

Three months!!!!

And so the countdown begins!!!! X

Snap snap snap...

A break from writing my Hong Kong adventures (not that I have been diligently writing), to upload a couple of photographs I took last weekend.

Check it...