The beautiful Miss Kelly !

I think I've mentioned here in the past my absolute love of old movies.  Give me anything with Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart or Lauren Bacall and I'm in heaven.  Give me a corny musical with Bing and Frank in it and I'm yours for life!  My all time favourite movie.  The one I can watch over and over and over again and never get bored is Rear Window.  A Hitchcock classic staring Jimmy and one of the most beautiful women in the world - Grace Kelly.

So along with some girlfriends (and our coffees) we hit the road and headed to Bendigo to see the Grace Kelly:  Style Icon Exhibition being held at the Bendigo Art Gallery, featuring spectacular film costumes such as those worn in Rear Window as well as haute couture gowns from Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel and Givenchy.  An exhibition showing her influence and transformation from Hollywood actress to princess.

After immersing ourselves in the world of fashion for a few hours, we hit the streets of Bendigo to stretch our legs and smell the beautiful fresh Autumn air.  Bendigo was spectacular with the colour of the day being yellow.

CAKE !

What sort of cake to bake?  That was my predicament last weekend.

Celebrating mine and my niece's birthday with some of the family this past Sunday, I wanted to make a special birthday cake.  Not being a great baker I don't have cake recipes up my sleeve that I can just whip out and rely on.  I tend to rely on the words of fellow bloggers or the experience I've had with various cookbooks in the past.  One of the blogs I follow which I've cooked a number of her dishes and had great success with is Hannah from Honey & Jam.  What a baker!  What a cook!  So going by my past experience with her recipes, I decided on -

Browned Butter Cake with Chocolate & Cinnamon Icing

Check out my little baby.  I was so proud of her and look how tall she stands. 

Quite a firm textured cake which was quite filling so only a small slice is recommended and definitely a cake that needs a frosting of some sort.  I did think the burnt butter would come through in the flavour a lot more than what it did so was slightly disappointed with that aspect, but the frosting was delicious.  Finger licking delicious actually. 

My Sunday Morning .

I'm enjoying the last few days we have left of Autumn here in Australia, and Melbourne hasn't let me down.  Beautiful blue skies, crisp cool air and almost cold nights where I get to rug up under my blanket in my pj's (with or without a glass of red).  Last Sunday was no exception, waking up to the birds tweeting and the sun shining brightly - I knew I wanted something yummy and special for brekkie.

I'm loving anything made with wholemeal flour at the moment.  I love the texture it brings - a firmer almost nutty taste.  I can feel it doing me good as I eat it (although smothered in syrup I wonder how much good it's really doing me?)

Wholemeal Banana Pancakes

It doesn't get much more special than that!

Welcome to my Sunday.

Dinner Hero - Dinner #3

WOW!  Just take a look at that steak. 

Thanks to DinnerHero, this would probably be one of the nicest pieces of steak I've had in a very, very long time.  It was so tender and the flavour was superb.  The marinade complimented this piece of rump so very, very well - lots of ginger and garlic with honey and soy.  I'm still licking my lips.  

Served with brown rice and crisp Asian greens tossed with sesame oil and soy, the perfect accompaniment. 

What is it about sesame oil?  I just love it.  The aroma and taste seem to make everything it's added to amazing - a whole other level of flavour just by adding such a small amount of something special. 

PS...again, the amount of rump steak provided for in the box of goodies from DinnerHero made three serves (not the recommended two).  I used the third serve to toss in a salad for lunch the next day. 

Typical Taureans !

My niece Miss R turned 18 earlier this month, exactly 4 days before my birthday. 

18.  Jeez! 

My sister thought that giving birth to her on my actual birthday would be a wonderful birthday present for me.  Like hell!  All you Taureans out there would understand me here - we like our own special day.  Just one day each year for ourselves.  Every year my family goes through the same thing - the fight for which weekend we will each celebrate our birthdays on because we won't share.  Typical Taureans and typically girls. 

Now I don't know if it's just because its her 18th or maybe I'm just getting old but this year I wasn't so fussed.  Next year is a big "0" birthday for me so I'll be back to not sharing again very soon, but just for this year and only this year, I was ok.  So we headed to one of my fav spots.  Ladro in Fitzroy.

Delicious pizza, yummy wine, great service and a very special birthday cake - Burnt Butter Cake with a Chocolate and Cinnamon Frosting (recipe to follow soon).

 

After rolling out onto the street, I needed to walk off all that food, so I walked home via the beautiful Carlton Gardens - one of my favourite gardens in Melbourne.   I'm in love the streets of the inner Northern suburbs.

Happy Birthday to us Miss R

xx

A not so good scroll . . .

I've been craving scrolls lately.  Big, fluffy, buttery scrolls filled with cinnamon and covered in lashings of yummy sweet icing.  I'm dying to tear one open and have the smell of cinnamon envelop my home, especially with the weather getting cooling and the rain pouring down outside.

Alas, it was not to be.

After taking these photos, I curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and tore one open. 

The aroma - not too bad although not quite what I hoped for.

The taste - argh!

The end result - no scrolls for me. 

("Thank God", yell my thighs)

Fresh Air .

My apologies for my lack of posts recently.  Work has increased tenfold and my internet connection at home has decided to go and die on me (to be honest, after sitting in front of a computer all day at work, the last think I'm wanting to do when I get home is switch on another computer, so I'm kind of a little bit please - only a little bit though!)  Hopefully, I'll have it back up and running soon.

What I have been doing when I do get some extra time during the day, is go for walks.  Rugged up in my scarf and jacket, I love getting out, breathing in the crisp Autumn air.  It makes me smile.

This also made me smile - a little Gorilla Garden which has popped up on a walking trail near my home.

I LOVE Melbourne!

The golden glow of the sun setting just before the rain comes. Heading home to a hot bath and a cup of tea (or perhaps a red wine).

Dinner No. 2 !

Time to look in the big box of goodies from DinnerHero once again and decide which of the recipes was going to be my next dinner ....Hmmmm.....what to choose.............

Asian-Style Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

A big (actually I mean HUGE) bowl of comfort right here.  This dish actually made three generous serves instead of the recommended 2, and oh so filling with both chicken and noodles swimming around in there.  I think I even woke up still feeling full the following morning.

A wonderfully quick mid-week meal.  Nothing about it had a 'wow' factor but eaten on a particularly cold night here in Melbourne, it was exactly what I wanted.  The mellow flavours were what made this dish such a comfort, and the chicken was so juicy and flavoursome, it was a real delight.

All up, it took probably half an hour to make.  Not bad at all for a Tuesday night!

The only thing I supplied towards this dish was the olive oil that was used at the beginning.  Everything else was supplied in the big goody box from all those beautiful fresh vegetables, to the free range chicken, the noodles and the stock.  It doesn't get much easier than that!

A Big Box of Goodies !

Dinner Hero.  Have you ever heard of this?  Up until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't.

I was recently asked to give it a try and see what I thought, so I quickly jumped on-line to take a look and what I discovered was something very special.  Dinner Hero's (in my own words) is the next step on from simply having your vegies delivered.  This is having your dinners delivered, but not pre-cooked, packaged dinners.  Dinner Hero's provides 5 dinner recipes along with all the produce required to make those dishes from the meat, eggs and dairy to the grains, herbs and fresh vegetables.  You still need to cook, which I have to say is one of the reasons I've really taken to it.

I've mentioned time and time again how much I use cooking to wind down after work.  It's my 'switch off' time.  The part I often don't have time for though is deciding what I'm going to cook and then getting the time to go to the various markets to grab all of the ingredients.  Voila!  With Dinner Hero's, it's done.  A big box of goodies delivered to your door each fortnight. 

So what's in the box, I hear you say?

Dinner 1

Mediterranean Lamb with Garlic and Yoghurt Sauce and a Vegetable Medley Topped with Crumbled Feta

Superb! The garlic yoghurt was sensational (wanted to lick the bowl), and the fresh produce to make the dish was really lovely (they even had my favourite brands of feta and olives).

If I was being picky (which is the whole point of doing this sort of thing, isn't it?) I found the lamb a little sinewy. Just a couple of pieces I found I needed to pull out of my mouth which was a little disappointing. I'm hoping it was just that particular batch of lamb strips (and it was only a small amount within my batch) but it did make me question it.  Please note, I only say this as I'm very, very picky when it comes to choosing meat - especially pieces that are going to be cooked in a flash. The flavour, however was beautiful!

Hmmmmm......what's for dinner tonight?

http://www.dinnerhero.com.au/

Birthday Treats .

Little treats that I brought into work today to share with my colleagues for my birthday.

Little lemon and poppy seed cupcakes with a lemon curd centre and topped with a crushed blueberry/cream cheese frosting - phew - what a mouthful!

I found the recipe at Adventures in Cooking (recipe found here).  Eva's cupcakes make me drool and you'll notice her frosting is a lot more vibrant than mine as she used freeze-dried blueberries.  As I couldn't find these anywhere, I decided to crush and sieve frozen blueberries instead.  The flavour of the blueberry is beautiful, however just not as purple.

Not so much fun making with a hangover - but definitely fun to eat with one!

Happy Birthday to me!

x

Happy Birthday to Me !

Celebrating with friends at the Albert Street Food and Wine Store

 

A yummy present all for me - no sharing!