Wednesday 12th December 2012

Lunch
Chicken Enchilada with Chips
This afternoon the neighbour's kids came over and, just as we made gingerbread cookies last year and decorated them, I made gingerbread houses this year and I let them decorate them. They decorated one for themselves to take home and one for me to keep for my Boxing Day BBQ. I actually wanted to make lots of little houses but the cutter kit I bought from Kmart made large houses and I really could not be bothered to cut my own templates out of baking paper.

I had baked all the pieces last night and they had all night and day to cool completely. I made a batch of royal icing and after failed attempts to try to squeeze it through piping bags, I used a spatula and spread it over the edges of the gingerbread pieces to build the houses. I was worried that the icing wouldn't hold since the pieces were pretty large, but the icing set pretty fast. I used some mugs to keep the walls upright until the icing set.

The kids were also very careful not to push too hard onto the houses when decorating them. No breakages!

I gave the kids free reign over how they wanted to decorate the houses. I suggested prior to today that they google some examples so that they would have some ideas and they quickly set to work.

The house they are taking home.

It comes complete with a little car!
It's nice to start little traditions in my own home. Wonder what we can do next year!

Tuesday 11th December 2012

Tonight I had a few friends over for dinner. The main course was Chicken Enchiladas and I then continued the Mexican theme for the sides. I made a simple garden salad and a corn salsa. I love making a corn salsa with a can of sweet corn kernels, some finely diced capsicum, red onion and maybe throw in some cannelini beans. I season it with some ground cumin and coriander and sweet paprika. No need for dressing! Perhaps a dash of olive oil or white balsamic vinegar.

Mini Pavlovas for dessert!

After dinner, Yeno stayed behind to help me make some gingerbread dough. After much deliberation, we finally decided to roll out, cut and bake at least the pieces for one gingerbread house to make sure the dough was ok. She went home at about midnight and I stayed up another few hours to bake the rest of the dough. Might as well...it'll be too warm to bake during the day.

Friday 19th October 2012

Neelam made this awesome snack for us today with polenta. Sort of a savoury slice.

A few days ago I started making mini florentines for Ivy's baby shower on the weekend.

It's a really easy recipe I found in one of the Women's Weekly cook books I have.

I generally am not a fan of sultanas, but I'll make an exception here!

Monday 15th October 2012

Tonight I decided to have a practice run at making red velvet cupcakes in preparation for Ivy's baby shower on the weekend. I followed a basic recipe on taste.com.au but hit a snag when my buttermilk mixture started looking weird.

Like cottage cheese weird.
No matter how much I beat it, whether with my whisk or with my Kenwood beater, it just started to get more and more separated. I started to panic a bit...then decided to try a second time from scratch.

Same result!!
I ended up pouring off the liquid, beating the lumpy mess until it started to look a bit more smooth, then I added the liquid back in slowly while beating it.

I still looked a bit lumpy...like ricotta.
I resigned myself to the fact that the cupcakes were probably to going to turn out a disaster but it was good to know now rather than wait until the night before the baby shower to realise this!

I combined the lumpy buttermilk mixture with the dry ingredients and stirred in the red food colouring. Amazingly, as I lightly folded the ingredients together, the mixture became smoother and smoother! Woo!

Nice save.

Saturday 13th October 2012

CHAPEL'S ON WHATLEY
196 Whatley Crescent, Maylands
I caught up with friends for lunch today after work. I like the ambience of the place but some of the artwork is a bit disturbing for my tastes. Especially the painting of a stereotypical Asian guy in the nude. While I'm eating? Conjures up images I'd rather not think about while I'm trying to eat!

Marissa and I shared the Curry Puffs
I think this was about $18 - what a rip off!
My mum makes these and could make two dozen for less than that!

We also shared the Beef Rendang, which was money better spent.
Delicious, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of beef.

I cooked a Roast Beef dinner tonight and had a few friends over. I love roasting a big chunk of meat but rarely do it since it's not really a meal for one.

Roast Beef with homemade Gravy (that Ling made)
with steamed Beans and Cambot's Potato Bake
After such a great meal, we had to follow it with a dessert. So, Ling set to work.

Chocolate Fondant Cakes

We all held our breath as I broke into mine to see if the centre was gooey - SUCCESS!

Tuesday 14th August 2012

Lunch
Homemade Char Siew with fresh Cucumber slices

Dinner
Spring Vegetable Soup with Chicken and Pasta
I've been invited to my neighbours' place for dinner tomorrow night and I've insisted that I bring dessert. I've been racking my brains for the last few days thinking what I can make that will look like I slaved away in the kitchen to prepare, yet also taste fantastic with no chance of failure? With my busy work schedule, I don't have time for a second attempt...and I would rather not have to resort to buying a tub of ice cream!

Inspired by Ling's efforts at poaching a pear at my place last week in the spur of the moment, I was struck with an idea when I saw an entire bag of the new season's Buerre Bosc pears for only $2.99 at my Cannington Fresh. I am going to poach pears!

I set to work peeling the pears and then realised I don't have a corer utensil. I ended up trying the handle of a teaspoon and amazingly, it worked! I was able to scrape the cores of the pears out without too much trouble.

Brown sugar, cinnamon quill, cardamom pods, star anise ans saffron threads.

I brought the poaching syrup up to the boil and then placed my pears in.

I placed a piece of baking paper over the surface of the liquid to keep the pears immersed in the syrup. This will stop them from drying out and to also make sure that they cook evenly and absorb all those gorgeous flavours!
The verdict? We'll find out at dinner tomorrow night!

Saturday 11th August 2012

STEAMBOAT!We huddled around the table tonight and, as usual, waiting impatiently for the soup to boil and cook our first round. Cook faster!

I attempted stuffing eggplants with fish paste again tonight. Instead of using the larger eggplants, I bought baby eggplants. Ling brought his sandwich toaster and browned them a bit before we put them in the soup.

Success!
For dessert, we had our trio of ice creams that we made the other night.

Green Tea

Lemon Sorbet

Mixed Berry

The green tea and mixed berry were awesome! However, the lemon sorbet was a failure. I don't know whether it was because the proportion of ingredients wasn't right, or perhaps the orange juice (yes, the recipe called for orange juice as well as lemon juice!) we used was too bitter. The sorbet tasted like grapefruit!!

It tasted okay though - reminding us of the palate cleanser sorbets you usually get in fine dining restaurants between courses.

We had left over quail eggs so Ling got out the master stock and we boiled them - it was similar to a bah ku teh stock. Delicious! The aroma that filled the kitchen was divine!!

Friday 3rd August 2012

Tonight Ling and Shallen came over and we had seafood laksa for dinner. I've left my camera at work yet again so that explains why some of my photos over the last few posts (and including this one) are so bad. I've had to take them using my phone and it doesn't have a flash so I can't get the shots right, especially in low light.

After dinner we got busy...

I had one pear in the fridge and Ling took on the task of poaching it. We googled a recipe and found what spices I had and it turned out really awesome! I think he used brown sugar, vanilla essence, star anise and cinnamon.

I poached some eggs with asparagus and...black truffle shavings.
We also spent a few hours making some homemade ice cream for our upcoming dinner next weekend.

Saturday 21st July 2012

We had a lovely night wine tasting at my neighbour's place. We were treated to these gorgeous custard and fruit tarts made by my neighbour's daughter-in-law.

Tuesday 17th July 2012

I had a few neighbours over for dinner tonight and they brought dessert.

Homemade apple crumble!

Sunday 17th June 2012

After a disappointing lunch at Hogs Breath Cafe in Northbridge, we went for coffee and cake at Fiorentina Patisserie on Angove Street in North Perth.

Carrot Cake

Steamboat tonight at my place.

Kong's Mango Cheesecake.

Thursday 14th June 2012

THURSDAY LUNCH
Fresh Bread.

Lots of fillings!

We were all very happy with this healthy lunch.

I recently purchased an ice cream maker online! I've been wanting to get one for yonks and now I need to find the time to use it! I'm thinking I should make up a list of all the different flavours I want to make and cross them off as I go.

My first batch of homemade cooked custard Vanilla Ice Cream!