Winter Eats

What I ate this Winter. Butternut squash lasagne, recipe from design*sponge.

I've made this several times and it's a winner. I do get quite stressed out over the course of making it, as you have a zillion different elements on the go at once. It's worth it in the end though, just look at how delicious!

Another Winter fave is this lentil stew. Sounds boring, you say? Not after simmering away with smoky paprika and chunky bacon it's not.

Who's the fool that bought a pineapple in the middle of Winter? This guy. Well, not Mr Meet-Cute, he's just holding it. I was the fool that bought it and it was all woody tasting. Disappointing.

Haloumi and green olives on lettuce, thrown together when I only had ten minutes to eat before going out.

I got really into pho this Winter.

I got really into these chocolate brownies too.

A fancy breakfast at a place near our house.

 Xiao long bao 'soup dumplings'. GOD I LOVE YOU.

Amazing Cibi breakfast plate.

Mr Meet-Cute had some fun with pomegranate. I had fun eating it.

Eggs with runny cheese. YES.

Deluxe poached pear. YES.

Gozleme eaten on a sunny bench at the South Melbourne Markets.

Is fruit crumble the perfect Winter food? I say yes.

Anzac Day

Today's Anzac Day holiday has coincided with Winter hitting Melbourne. It's all blustery and stormy outside so I've been staying indoors making these Anzac biscuits. Traditionally made by soldiers wives to send to the men overseas, Anzac biscuits use fairly simple ingredients that do not spoil (no eggs!) so they are easy to make, yet still delicious.

And on a more serious Anzac-y note - check out some great photos of the Dawn Service in Auckland on Lilys Make Believe.

Small Things #3

There's a feijoa tree outside our house and my stash is getting out of control! Must make feijoa chutney soon.

Now that Autumn's here it's time to start thinking about knitting projects.

I am prepared for the coming darker weather now that I've got new lights for my bike. Daylight savings was on April 1st this year, so Mr Meet-Cute took the opportunity to turn all our clocks forward 6 hours. I woke up on Sunday thinking I'd slept in until 4pm. What a prankster!

He made up for the hilarious gag by making hot cross buns. nom!

 

Hamuary

I love the idea of starting your own traditions. For Mr Meet-Cute and I, our Christmas tradition is to get a massive ham which we eat for weeks afterwards. The first two weeks of January we were eating variations of ham for pretty much every single meal. Hence, the season of 'Hamuary'. After way too many meals of ham and quinoa salad I tried to get a bit more inventive.

We finished up the last of the ham with Nigella's homemade oaty rolls and a platter of cream cheese, cornichons, and these marinated mushrooms from foodie blog Hungry & Frozen. So. Good.

See you next year, Hamuary!

{recipe video here}

{recipe here}

Three Milk Cake

Though I love cooking, I'm generally a pretty lazy cook. I like quick, uncomplicated recipes - anything that takes longer than an hour tops and I'll start to get angsty. However, now and then I feel the need to challenge myself by trying something new. I usually make some kind of huge deluxe cake for Mr Meet-Cute's birthday, but seeing as we spent his birthday in New York this year I really missed not being able to make a cake for him. When I came across this recipe for Nook Eatery's Pastel Tres Leches cake, I decided that a belated birthday cake was exactly what was needed.

Things you need to know about this cake:

• It contains a whole tin of condensed milk. I have been obsessed with condensed milk since childhood when my best friend and I would buy tins and consume the whole thing a spoonful at a time. We also may have done this a few times as grown ups… you could call it a tradition.
• The cake itself wasn't really that complicated to make. I found the meringue topping to be more of a challenge.
• You use 3 egg whites to make the meringue topping, and then you can use the leftover egg yolks in this recipe for Nook's Perfect Hollandaise. 
• The recipe is described as being "So rich that small portions are key", which sounded like a challenge if ever I heard one.
• They were right about it being rich. The cake needs to set for four hours, or overnight, so after all that waiting when I finally had a slice I cut myself the hugest piece ever, and ate it with cream… and it was amazing. But I did need to lie down and not move afterwards.

Valentine Baby

Blah blah Valentines Day. Do you know what else today is? It's my birthday!!! Every year I share the day of my birth surrounded by Valentines Day couples. Well, not really, but I do usually go out for dinner on my birthday and I am always surprised by the amount of couples who are out on Valentines day dates.

Anyway, I have had a lovely birthday so far already, and am feeling quite the spoiled banana! Check out the awesome owley cake below made my very clever friend Pikkujen!

Happy V-Day everybuddy! xxx