June

Must rush, I've gotta check and double check and then re-check that I've got everythingI need for my Europe trip. Very excited! I'll be back in a month with gazillions food photos.

Again, quick comments...

After Chan's enthusiatic recommendation about the flowerpot scones, Alicia and I headed to Wayzgoose Cafe in Leura before seeing the Les Miserables musical at Springwood. Both were fantastic.

Grr, sunno why Blogger does that. Anyway, Farewell cupcakes for Therese who's leaving to work in Wagga Wagga. Again another well catered for work luncheon was had.

Maisie kindly let me borrow her Entertaiment book, and after some research John and I went to Pane e Vino at Concord. On Friday nights there is a guy that plays guitar - Flaminco style and it really adds to the atmosphere. I ordered the Fillet Mignon just os it said it was wrapped in proscuitto...it was a lotta meat. I think I ate 1 1/4 of the pieces plus a side of seasonal vegies. John helped me out with the rest after having his rather lamby tasting Lamb backstrap. Overall nice, but I wouldnt necessarily go back.

The next day it was onto the cake frenzy...I madea mud cake for the women's event that our church was running. Alison Vassallo who I had never heard of before sang beautifully and shared how God had been working in her life. The night had a chocolate theme to it too and my was there a chocolate overload. Choc foundatian, Oreo balls, Mars Bar slice, rocky road, choc cheese cake, hot chocolate, Choc fudge, Choc caramel tartlets, Choc cupcakes, Choc chip cookies and the list goes on. Soo yum.

Although Alicia knew it was the day after the choc night, Alicia was still keen to have a chocolate cake for her combined birthday with my sister. Ok so maybe I overloaded it, but it had to be done! She choose a butterfly cake from my Women's Weekly Kid's cake book, and I embelished it to a little more adult version I think. Very pleased with it, though it did takeup a lot more effort than I had expected.Irene wanted something a littel different from the standard cake and chose the Ice-cream echinda cake. This was easy as to make too thankfully. Though my Ice-magic application could have been improved. It's a wart-nosed echidna....

I found a unique natural beauty during my eatings - a heart shaped almond. That's amazing.

And so naturally I gave it to one whom is the same...

Little heart...lots of love...

April-May

Lots of photos, lots of eating. Here we go...

Sister's graduation. No one had a preference for where to eat after the long formal ceremony of much clapping and hand shaking and since I felt like Japanese, again, a workmate recommended the cosy Gin-za in Parramatta. Cosy indeed. I remembered the last time I got a bento box from Tomadachi and how tasty it was so I was really looking forward to another one. Alas it appears this can be set in slightly different ways at different places. Irene got the Chicken teriyaki and I the beef, so when we both got the same fish section we were very confused. It turned out that the hot food comes in a different 'dish' section afterwards. And that it came with tempura veges so we hadn’t need to order the extra side. I had also forgotten that I wasnt THAT keen on raw fish of this sort. Silly me. It still was all tasty despite the confusion and slight disappointment from my previous Jap experience.Part 1 of Bento Box
Part 2

Mum's udon noodles with a piece of my fish

Loz’s bday at Tharen’s in Kings Cross included much fun and laughter. I looooved the quirky, bouncing about excitedly like a little kid music and mad hat swapping that went on throughout the whole night. Tasty food here as well, perhaps a little to fancy for my untrained palate. Joke and Nat even got a bottle of champagne as compensation for sitting in a squishy spot. It was an exceedingly busy night which probably was the cause of the slower rate that the food came out at than my tummy was happy with. We all left rather cheery in the end.

My 3/4 eaten bread and saladEntrees...My pork rillettes with garlic and apple (a new dish to me, not what I had expected)Fishy dishyMains...My fish and mashLauren's cake was set alight!Mmm ice-cream goodness

At work, we love our food, and I’m always impressed by the range of goods that people bring along. To celebrate the upcoming arrival of Alison’s baby, lunch was prepared in the usual all-out fashion. For the centrepiece, we had Margaret’s very cute cupcakes and my baby basket figurine.

Ronald and Brett’s birthday was celebrated at PJ Gallagher’s in Parramatta. My, it’s not that I was expecting the food to be bad, I just didn’t have very high expectations. Average. So when we got courteously served by the very helpful host, and when the food came out quick and when I caught sight of my mammoth pie, I was in awe and knew it was somewhere I think I wouldn’t mind coming back to.
The meat was actually served in a ramekin which was tops for me as I was a little hesitant about the additional kilojoules from the pastry shell that would typically be there. MMmm.

For the carnivores

Dad's early birthday lunch was Asian of course, at a little quiet place above the Good Luck Supermarket in Blacktown. So much yum (but not cha) I couldnt decide which was my favourite.

The Saturday before Mother's Day is not a recommended night to eat out. I was out with 6 friends in Penrith playing Aqua Golf which rolled on into Lonestar. It was soooo busy. I cant remember exact times but it went something like this...7pm: enter and await a table. 7:50pm: seated at a table. 8:20pm: receive salad section of meal. Some time after 9pm: receive main meal. Apparently the docket machine couldnt keep up with the amount of work and broke down. We werent sticking around for dessert, especially when Krispy Kreme's was across the road. Interestingly no one was that interested in them.

"Lonely days. Lonely nights. Where would I be without my ..."Salad! Yay for sweet potato and greenery, even if it is just iceberg lettuce. I didnt eat the cheese, it just didnt match for me.

Another work celebration, another lunch...this time the feature was Margaret fancily decorated choc cake and my wedding couple bears.

I had made a cake for the bears to go on but since Marg's cake was more suitable I cheated and kept the cake for actual dad's b'day.

March+April halfy (John's bday)

*whoosh*

What was that? Oh just March flying by, taking with it a bit of April.

Highlights of 3 words or less worth mentioning:

- Enjoy London Warren (farewell)

- Val's twenty-first (yummmm salads yet again)

- Church weekend away (surprisingly some decent camp food.... some, not so sure about the poached eggs though)

- Leisurely beach walk (I recommend the Barrenjoey Lighthouse walk/climbage)

- Kim & Cam's engagement

- Reluctant Pannaroti's eating (enough said)

And a highlight of many more words...John's birthday!

Oh it's fun being growned up some times :P

I had fun organising with him his family-orientated gathering and doing the catering.

On the menu tonight:

Starters

- Tartlets with corn salsa topping and either guacamole or cannellini dip

- Warm cheesy bread cob dip (John's mum made this sooo tasty)

Main

- Warm potato salad

- Green salad

- Caesar salad

- Mixed vege quiche

- Kebabs, steak, lamb chops

- BBQ mushrooms, onions

These last two were cooked on his fangdangled new BBQ that we all pitched in to get him. He's gone from his humble single man Weber (although it is good)...

to a Mega (in comparison - for him) Feaster.

Many-a-meats to be cooked on here. Cant wait to try it out some more!

Dessert

- Chocolate pavlova

- Birthday cake (carrot cake with cream cheese icing)

And here it is:

His Fender Stratocaster :)

Another very full bellied night!

Cake Comp, Saby 24th

With all the floods and fires going on, we have to also remember there is still a bit of a drought going on, and so the farmers need our support.

Our office had their 3rd annual Cake Baking Competition to raise money for the farmers. This time I've had more of a chance to think about what I was going to make and thought...a roast chicken! But the more I thought about it, it'd take too long and be too difficult.

So instead I made a Steak Cake!

It's a regular chocolate cake with icing carrots and smartie peas

Other people's submissions were really good too, and my favourite one got first place in the Decorated category.

The ones in these category were auctioned off and I can't remember exactly but I think this one got sold for about $155. After some persuasion from the MC, mine got sold for $55, so I was cheering.

The other decorated ones:

This one got 2nd place I think (above)Third I think (above)

My sister had a craving for Korean so we went to Eastwood with the family. It was fun picking out the 1/3 of the piece of pork belly that was actual meat - the rest was faaat.

It's still intrigues me how many bowls are used. mm chicken teriyaki and beef. Tasty marinades.

And yumo bimbob/bimbab rice dish thing.

And happy birthday to Saby, Chinta Ria was a fantastic choice. What a tops night.

Cupcakes on Pitt.

Brett you're so funny. He asked "What's that?" and they made up his own name for them like:

Noodle mania (Hokkien Char)

Beef-a-rama (Beef Ria) - this name changed over the course of the night Meat something or other..

Rice/Fried Rice/Sanchoy Bau (Nasi goreng)

Squid

This place has great ambiance and I loved the decor. They had varying styles of chairs and they kept the local asian feel with plastic water jugs. The only challenge eating at night though is that it's dark...Trying to identify whether your eating a piece of beef or dried chilli by a dim candlelight is amusing.
Something else that amused me for quite a while was this:

Blue bowl…

Green bowl! And repeat. Flip bowl over; blue-green-blue-green. Hehe.
I recognised the Alex Liddy brand too. I have 2 plates at home. I like the design. Every table had an unplanned variety of colours. Niice!
And to top if off, a visit to the next essential part of a restaurant where bonus Amie-bouncing-up-and-down-excitedly-thumbs-up points can be gained…

How good looking is that basin? That is a mighty fine basin and the whole setup impressed me :)
I’d definitely go back, for the food too :P

Overdue post- A nicer pic of my cake from my bro’s camera:

My birthday week, Mitch & Val wedding

January is off to a great start, beginning with the joyous wedding of the happy Mitch & Val.

Woo...all the guys were drooling. Val got lucky and got to borrow the car for photo purposes.

The dinner buffet was yummy at Toonie Sports Club, as was the dessert. Although I'm not so sure about some of the fruit selection for the pavlova...

And along with dessert was served....

My cake :) Mitch and Val kindly asked me to make them a choc mud with choc icing in a heart shape.

I hadn't used the choc icing before so I was a tad worried but it seemed ok. It's a tad softer tan the white so it didnt seem to set as well. On the plus side this does make it easier to knead and it isn;t as over sweet as the white. I was also worried that it'd topple over but luckily Mitch remembered the cut the bottom one! I'm glad they seemed happy with it

It was soo dense though. Only the outer had crumbs, the rest was a dense fudge-like slab! But apparently people like that. Gosh the amount of choc...

Reception antics with table fiddle things...

Quite a good location. You get faced with the bright green of the lawn bowls which distances the hall from the road. The host person that we had was super friendly and helped me make sure I got all my cake belongings back.

Shortly after it was my birthday !

I had arranged to go to the beach but the weather was a little unpredictable so I opted for the safer option of indoors for sushi.

This was enjoyed...

by many...

I even got the idea to make the cake into a sushi, sort of (in case you cant tell the green is lettuce :P)

Suze led the way and showed me to the much documented store of the 32cm soft serve, where I make a complete mess of myself. As noted by the sign near the store, do not lean ice-cream to the side, it WILL fall!

All-asian-bakery-knowing Suze then led me to about all the asian bakeries in Chinatown (about 5) where I was spoilt with a few treats. Yum yum YUUM.

Thanks heaps Suze! Thanks everyone for coming! Hope you all had a good time!

Lunch did eventually digest, just in time for dinner, where John's family came over. And of course I had to have another cake!

Custard layered cake. I'm actually pretty happy with this cake considering I havent made anything of the sort before. It had many delights that make me happy: oh SPONGE FINGERS it's been years, custard, light cake, fruit and a little jelly. And it looked pretty :)

Gotta have fruit (and fun) after dinner too...

Oh happy day.

And why not continue on the relaxing and cheer? I had the following week off from work and did a bit of Sydney wandering. We caught the rivercat from Parra to the city, watched an animation Fly me to the Moon at the IMAX, and went to the aquarium.

Hello dugong. The shark tank was fantastic!

All these things we hadnt done before and was so much fun. And of course we had to end the day by watching Finding Nemo :)

It was tops going to the beach with you Suze. Maybe next time the water will be a little calmer.

Dinner was also had with Maisie and Billy at a Korean BBQ in Strathfield. Tasty. My goodness it's smoky, and again I couldnt get over the amount of plates that is used.

It was a lovely break time.

December 08

Oo-ah. Quick! December is nearly over!

It began off with the Boys and Girls Brigade Beach camp at Norah Head, where it was noted that my foot is about the length of a 300ml Coke bottle.

300mL! Steve, how small is it?!? :P

This was later followed by the lovely wedding of Lou and Daniel at Parra Park in the burning heat. Lovely day though.

Pretty.

Mm desserty arvo tea.

I had my second visit to the Bavarian Bier Cafe in Parra. Not a venue I would choose but the pumpkin soup was nice enough. I even left a pretty dollop of cream, with garnish for the waiter people. I like it when you can wipe a plate clean - with bread, not tongue.

We had our work Christmas party at Mykanos (again, at Parra - I'm liking it local) The battery died before I could get more shots of the food. It had quite a nice atmosphere and community/communalness as everyone was served the same food at one time. It was very loud in there though, and some fellow diners 'danced' in a rather disturbing way (to my eyes). Hmm. Belly dancing is best left to females.

Heh. Maisie: " This fish is quite firm". Me: "It's haloumi". Oooh. It did look a little odd served on it's lonesome on the plate.

Annie's birthday:

Note, hazelnut spread is a little difficult to pipe with but it does the job if you've going nothing else. I wasnt in the mood for anything extravagent and so kept it simple with a standard choc cake.

Another example of our unextravagentness...

Matches for candles. Hey they still work.

On her actual birthday we took her out to Spice Iam, a Thai restaurant in ...you guessed it, Parra. Food was tasty, even Mum and Dad enjoyed it. I didn't get round to photos of the curry, but you know what they look like. My favourite was the Beef Masman, not just because of the potatoes in it but also the tender meat.

I ate Maccas again! *gasp* Although soft serves sort of don't count, I think. It didnt feel complete finishing the night without dessert, and since we had to go to Maccas anyway to drop Ryan off, he shouted us. Mm it's been years since I've had a soft serve, and to top it off with a Twirl too! How indulgent. I could have stopped at halfway, but I didnt.

Later that week John and I had a most lovely dinner at the little Fare Nosh in Summer Hill. The service was as fantastic as the food. The waiter was so friendly and helpful, advising on serving sizes and assisting with wine selection. I also like how the menu was short so that quality goods are made with the rotation, and it makes it soo much easier for me to decide on a dish. It really isnt the place where they are pumping people through the doors. You can sit, relax and enjoy the evening. It's definitely got the thumbs up from me. We found were appealed by them through the 2007 Good Food Guide, and it turns out they are in the 2009 editiion as well, so that's gotta be saying something.

Entree: Lamb kofta with baba ganoush and tzatziki

His main: Crumbed veal with red wine sauce (or something along that line)

Soo much fish. Dory(?) coated with pesto, wrapped with filo pastry and hollandaise sauce. Yummm

Once I saw the name of this I knew we were going to get it... Piglets Plate! Oink oink, you betcha!

Citrus pudding, flourless chocolate cake with berries, something ice-cream, vanilla bean panna cotta. Yum yum yummmmm.

And cos I don't have to do (not!) I decided to make gingerbread houses for my team at work.

I ran out of dough so some of them became more lolly houses than biscuit.

And then there's Christmas!

But I'll spare you. I'm pleased to say I didnt go overboard (I think, although I was quite full) We didnt do anything too fancy, had a BBQ and just enjoyed.

Cheers. Merry Christmas and Hapy New Year to you all.

Here we go, 2009...

Port Stevens, Bridge Climb

I ate McDonalds

*GASP*

Yes it's true.

With a grand total of 2 bites of a McFeast, approx. 6 fries and approx 40ml sip of lemonade being consumed. I was a little hungry, but it was late so that was enough for me.

John, his brothers and I had gone on the Bridge Climb, which was fantastic, and hadn't had time for dinner. We went on the Discovery Climb in the evening and the view was fantastic. There were even fireworks going off in the harbour that we got to enjoy at the top of the bridge. It was top stuff (excuse the pun), The daytime climb would be just as good I'd imagine seeing far into the horizon.

I also went to Port Stevens with my GB girls, the activities were well chosen sot hey had lots of fun. We walked/climbed (part of it was rather steep) Mt Tomaree with great views of the bays around. Oh the trauma for some "I'm gonna die", "I'm so thirsty" haha, fresh air, get it into ya.

Then we went off to Oakvale Farm. I was a little sckeptical at first thinking 'gee a farm" but it was really good. There were so many animals every. I even went on a camel ride.

After lunch, a dolphin cruise followed. It took a little while but we did evenetually spot 4 dolphins much to all the girls excitement. Even though I couldnt see the dolphins the whole time you could tell where about it was depending on which side of the boat the screams of delight were coming from. It had been a big day, that had begun around 6:15am so the girls were wore out at nicely. Sleep at 10pm with any complaint? Super.