Happy Birthday to...Me!!

I love happy birthdays. I was lucky enough to spread it over into my own long weekend.

Starting with Friday night dinner at home with family and friends. Thanks mum for cooking up a feast.
Again I was excited when my brain worked and the idea of an ice-cream cake popped into my head.

Easiest cake ever, although it looked prettier in my imagination. I got a few packs of the Bulla Creamy Classics range so that it was lucky dip for which flavour you got, with there being: Vanilla, Vanilla & Choc, Choc, Cookies and Cream, Neopolitan. I got carried away being so conscious of it melting that forgot to try to take a better picture.

John's mum brought round a tasty cheesecake too for dessert.

Then rolling onto Saturday I had a great time with school buddies sleeping over at the zoo. In case you're wondering it wasnt stinky where we were, the tents were quite luxurious - to me anyway. And we were well fed with a buffet dinner of salads, chicken, roast pork, noodle stirfry and roast vegies.

Imagine waking up to this. Well I didnt have to :)

My favourite animals to visit, the meerkats

We got to feed giraffes!!!

And see the new baby elephant, Luk Chai. Whenever someone mentioned its name I thought of tea.

I certainly was a happy chappy the whole time I was at the zoo.

And then there was more! Between heading over to Crows Nest for lunch, we stopped by a cafe in Neutral Bay for mini brunch.

Ronz tasty cake

I dont think I've tried poached eggs before but the look of Karina's dish made me want to try them some time. They looks so well-formed, soft and delicate.

We eventually made it to The Counter, meeting up with uni buddies for lunch. What a funky and makes-sense idea - you have a checklist and tick off what you would like on your burger / salad. Brilliant!

My beef, egg, corn & black bean salsa, beetroot burger. Gosh it was big. I could only finish half!

Ronald bought me a birthday cake too, from Michel's Patisserie since I changed my mind about my bringing my cupcakes I had made earlier.
The apple crumble shake was an interesting concept as well. Mm apple chunks. I'm glad my sis helped me out in finishing it.

And to top my long weekend off I spent it at the beach, doing the walk from Bondi to Bronte. I even enjoyed it in the water after my initial hesitations. Learn from my lesson kiddies, remember to put suncream on! Oh the reddness.
Although I hadnt intended too, I ended up picking up another roll / burger for lunch.

Mmm, you cant go by smoked salmon

I love happy days.

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...

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.