friends. fabric. food.

friends.
My friend the wonderful, clever, crafter JenPen has moved to Sydney from NZ and we have been doing lots of craft together. I feel like I have my very own sewing/knitting/crochet teacher available day and night.

fabric.
She was heading out to the recent Mathilda's Market where I knew Retromummy was going to be selling some of her fabric cheap. I asked Jen to get me some that was suitable for Ben, cute, but boyish. I love what she bought me!

food.
I buy a lot of mags, but have never actually subscribed to any. That is until I bought the first edition of the new SBS food magazine, FEAST. It has wonderful recipes as well as the sories behind them, it's really special.

We love to eat!!! Some recent food experiences...

 Toad in the Hole

Pho Pasteur

A cafe in Melbourne (not sure of the name)

Bar Italia



Jonty completed the Mad Mex 1kg burrrito challenge...easily.



Dave cooking Kylie Kwong corn fritters on Mothers Day. (not many guys can rock the pink apron)

Vegetarian Love

 Clockwise from top left: veggie kebab, spinach lasagne, morrocan chickpea and carrot salad, bean nachos and greek salad.

I cooked this feast for my Bible Study group.

What's been happening?

There has been a lot happening around here lately.
Thanks to the fabulous knitting teacher Jen (who has recently moved to Sydney from NZ - check out her blog, she is very clever!) , I am now rocking the knit 2 purl 2. My rib scarf may actually be finished by winter...




I am a newly converted Veggo, and loving it. I feel great!



Our MAKEDO arrived and we have made so many great things with it. Put this stuff on your Christmas list!

Red Lantern

Dave and I recently snuck away for a couple of nights in the city (thanks Mum!!), and we were able to go to Red Lantern, a restaurant that I have been wanting to try for ages.

 We couldn't get a dinner reservation at such short notice (you have to book a couple of months ahead), but we were able to go for lunch.

The food and the atmosphere were great, and it made our little getaway just that bit more special.

Viking Dinner party

We belong to a Foodie Group, (which evolved out of our Bible Study group) that meets every couple of months to cook and eat together. We have a theme, and in the past have done French, Indian, Australian, Spanish, Italian etc..
This month was Scandinavian Viking! I decided to have a go at making gravlax, a cured salmon dish.

Apparently the Vikings would just bury theirs in the sand for a few months and eat it when it was nice and fermented. I decided to go with the hygenic glad-wrap/fridge metheod. It was delicious!!! I used this recipe.

Someone brought a bottle of Mead. I thought it tasted awful, like bay leaves, but some people really liked it.

Here is my plate before I pillaged it. From left, walnut flat bread, roast boar, roast meat, vegetable stew, red cabbage, and the gravlax on bread. I am not sure whether the Vikings would have served it with creme fresh, caviar and capers though...

Life goes on...

I have been absent for a while, yet again. My blogging seems to come in fits and starts.

Life has been rolling along here. Children growing up, study and exams to finish, and birthdays to be had, mine in particular.

We have also been doing a bit of exploring around our area and are becoming familiar with the local Chinese Supermarket. We have been there quite a bit lately as it is so cheap, and has the most delicious things.

Duck pancakes, yum...

The unthinkable.

As someone who loves food, and regularly blogs about food, last night I did the unthinkable.

I had a dinner party and FORGOT TO TAKE ANY PHOTOS OF THE FOOD!!!!!!!!!
(Photos of the leftovers will have to suffice, sorry...)

And it wasn't just any old dinner party, it was an Indian Feast.

There were 19 adults, and 20 kids, and everybody brought a couple of dishes. The kitchen bench was literally covered in food (would have made a great photo!!)

I made Dahl with my mum's recipe, and spiced fish.

The kids also took shifts at the microwave and popped 200 pappadums!!!!

We ended up with some leftovers which are all but gone now. Mmmmm


(leftover dahl, biryani, mango chutney, and pappadums we had for lunch)

(Matt loading up a pappadum)

(apricot anf pistachio kulfi)

I usually don't like Asian desserts but these were so yummy. My friend Jen made them and I am hoping to get the recipe off her to share.

Earlier in the week I made some pesto using my friend Kim's recipe, and I also discoverd a great new food blog.

At the moment...

...this is what is happening here. Dave and Sarah are painting her bedroom.

This is what she asked for for her 9th Birthday which was a few weeks ago.

I would show you a colour picture but it is rather bright. I am hoping when the furniture goes back in it will calm down a bit.

And as Dave is on holidays, he has the job of making me lots of these, because I sneakily have not learnt how to use the new coffee machine yet. Pretty clever hey!

This is how Benjamin spends alot of his day.

When it comes time for me to have lunch, something very simple is required, and this is my favourite. I can just manage to put this together with a baby perched on my shoulder.



Of course I don't mind, especially when he wakes up and flashes me one of these. xxx

Farmers Market

We finally made it to our local Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.

The kids and I wandered around tasting, buying, and chatting to various stallholders.

I love that Matt, Sarah and Jonty love food as much as I do. They tried duck, goats cheese, chocolate and zucchini brownies, balsamic vinegars, homemade marshmallows, and we had delicious organic bacon and egg rolls for brekky.

(Choc caramel, coconut, choc mint and plain chocolate cupcakes)

We also couldn't go past these cupcakes, but had to save them to eat at home later because we were so full (and on our way to basketball). YUM!!

And we still have our own little farm happening here. That pumpkin vine has been trimmed finally so our chookies can see the sun again.