SO BUSY. NEED MORE TIME. WHERE TO FIND IT!? But I just got an email syndication from OBB and saw this freaken AWESOME wedding cake in an article about Amazeballs Steampunk wedding tease!
WHO COULD CUT INTO THAT?! SACRILEGE!
And now if you will excuse me, nose must go back onto the grindstone… xD
Hope its a sweet one, no matter what you’re up to, and who you’re spending it with. <333333
Woo! A new sushi place opened a block from our house today, and for the first two weeks (until Christmas) they’re doing half price ALL their rolls. ARMAGAD!
Mandy went earlier and tried them out, as we’d forgotten that they were opening, encouraged us to go and you don’t have to tell US twice to eat sushi. xD
So far all the rolls we bought are delicious, and they gave us this free solar powered sushi bobble head man (seriously he bobbles his head when exposed to the sun – TOO CUTE! And kind of possessed >_>;; xD) with our order. EEE! And as a bonus? FREE ENGRISH:
Honestly, our theory is they’re doing this on purpose now. Screw proper english, people demand the engrish-isms!
I’ve been making bread most every day now since Greg’s favourite commercial loaves are no longer available. Previously I’ve been making rolls, pullaparts and crusty loaves. SO, this was first attempt at making soft crust loaf, WORKED AWESOME, I RULE! *laughs*
I took all the tips I could find on how to attain a soft crust on a loaf of bread (since all the recipes seem to make crusty ones – not that I don’t like those! But not the greatest for sandwiches xD), narrowed out the ones that I thought would work the best in our rather archaic kitchen set up, and VICTORY WAS MINE!
Baking? Chemical voodoo, mang.
Although, the only problem with baking your own bread?
You eat it SO fast.
*flail at massive spike in bread intake*
Not that Greg’s at all complaining xD
Someone just put dinner on the stove...
Its gone on a little late (about an hour now and its 5pm!) but that’s okay as we’re up till after 6am every night because of the World Cup at the moment anyway. But honest to goodness! There’s just something SO exciting about a pot full of wine, stock & stock vegies (GO GO YOU NOMMY GARLIC SHOOTS! EE!), and a great piece of meat, all sitting cozily in a pot ready to be slow cooked… <333 Though, time to break out and dust off those bemused eyerolls: it DOES mean your partner attempts to ~BEDAZZZLE~ with terrifying entendre about meat and two veg…
1. Pot Roast Lamb, 2. pot roast ingredients, 3. pot roast 046, 4. Drunken Pot Roast
Kitchenaid Artisan Mixers: Blueberry or Apple, that is the question
OKAY SO THIS LIST HAS LESS SUPER GORGEOUS THINGS ON IT THAT I WAS EXPECTING! It also has less quirky stuff on it than I was expecting. Apparently most of what I want is achingly practical. WHAT’S THAT ABOUT!? xD But still, the IDEA of a lot of these things has me salivating – especially as whenever I try and make anything on the Damn Daring Bakers Challenges, they always require me to use something that I don’t own so I dodgy up other things in their stead. xD I’d like to be less dodgy – or as a friend put it, ~~INNOVATIVE~~ – especially when it comes to using a stand mixer with all the delicious attachments.
The faithful and long serving electric hand beaters we have are on their last legs… Recently using it its motor started to kinda.. Burn… ^_^;;
Because my Mum gave us a third of the HUUUAAAGENESSS pumpkin that she bought at the Crystal Brook Craft Market last weekend and I had to do SOMETHING with it.
Turns out my something was pretty FREAKEN delicious :D Recipe improvised by me from a few I’d checked out online and then largely ignored. You know, as I do. xD Shared SUPER FAST to reciprocate my friend Cat sharing her Ripoff Zuppa Toscana (from Olive Garden) recipe yesterday. :D
Roast Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients (serves 8 approx)
- 2kg your choice of pumpkin, deseeded, peeled, coarsely chopped into even(ish) sized pieces
- 2 tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 80ml (1/3 cup) extra virgin olive oil
- Salt & freshly ground black pepper
- 4 large brown onions, halved, coarsely chopped
- 8 garlic cloves (minimum), 4 whole, 4 crushed
- 7 cups of vegetable stock
- 1 cup white wine
- Extra virgin olive oil
- (Optional) Pinch of smoked sea salt
Method
1. Preheat oven to 220°C. Combine the pumpkin, rosemary and half the oil in a large roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper, & pop four of the garlic cloves and half your coarsely chopped onion in between the pumpkin pieces. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until tender. You can test this by popping a knife into a thicker piece of pumpkin and if it goes in and out easily without force from you, its time! :D
2. When the pumpkin is done, remove from the oven.
3. Heat the remaining oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the remaining onion, garlic, a little ground pepper (& the smoked sea salt) and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until onion softens. Add the roast pumpkin, stock & white wine and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin starts to easily fall apart (can take around half an hour). Remove from heat.
4. When cool, either blend the mixture in a blender in stages, then pour into a clean saucepan – OR – grab a stick mixer and ‘blend’ directly in the saucepan.
5. To serve, heat soup up in saucepan on a medium heat, then ladle into bowls. Season with salt & pepper, garnish with a dollop of creme fraiche (or thickened cream if you’re feeling a little more decadent) in the middle and sprinkle with finely chopped spring onion. Serve with crusty bread.
EDIT! Red aka Draganin totally sleuthed it out! I had no idea what kind of pumpkin it was – just that it was LOOOOOONG and had a mottled ‘Queensland Blue’ skin to it. Bec guessed it was possibly a Queensland Blue crossed with a trombone. BUT! It looks like it was a Gramma Pumpkin. MUST FIND MORE! (or try and grow them myself O_O;; – NOT LIKELY! xD).
While on the hunt for new replacement measuring spoons because I BROKEDEDNESS BEC’S TABLESPOON MEASURE, AUUGH! – I stumbled upon these DELECTABLE Jessie Steele Designer Aprons at the The Cupcake Courier. HOW SWEET ARE THEY?!
Only problem is, I’m MORE than sure I’d be terrified of getting them dirty when actually cooking/baking. Which isn’t exactly what one wants out of an apron. But still: DO WANT! ♥
Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.
Jenji comes through with the linkie goodness goods once again! Though this clip feels a little long, I COVET this as it would make baking so much easier! xD And could you imagine all the awesome decorating control you would have?! MAN! Screw hover cars and jetpacks, I wish the future had included this.
It was quite late, but I have been behind in posting my event photography, so I was looking at some of the shots I had done at Greg’s grandmother’s birthday, like the one above and the Mushroom, ricotta & olives… & the Cheese twists in order to get them the heck uploaded.
Drunk on lack of sleep I’m sure, I blurted out “Wow man, I AM good at taking photos of food.” Reference? Greg’s father had been complimenting me on my food photography when he went through my flicker account back around Christmas. I’d said thankyou and was a bit self depreciating as I always think I can do much MUCH better.
Greg replied, “You should be a food photographer” to which I kind of dismissively responded, “LOL, that’d be nice.” He stopped me, turned my head and said “No. I am serious. You SHOULD be a food photographer.”
I know that he’s my partner, and he’s biased, and Chas is my partner’s DAD so surely he’s also a little biased, but wow. I have to say? All kinds of flattered. ^_^;;
