Thursday, February 9, 2012

Feast

Once a month for the past 6 years, a group of five other gals and I have enjoyed getting together over sumptuous meals. Its all about the food, and gossip. We eat, writhe in ecstasy and talk like its the last time we will ever meet. These gals are such an intrinsic part of my life now, we've all had babies together (one is expecting number 3!), shared all the joys and pain of life together. Its a comfortable fit, which is more than I can say for my pants after last night's banquet!


Chinese New Year was the theme, and I was responsible for mains this time. My Mum makes  an amazing dish or pork belly and taro in a five spice/soy braise. My attempt to recreate this wasn't too bad at all, but instead of taro, I used shiitake mushrooms. ooh, just talking about it makes me want to bury my face in a bowl of that sticky, dangerously dark stew of pork belly!!



I also tried out  an eggplant salad, steamed till slippery soft and ready to soak up the perky dressing of black vinegar, sesame oil, Xiao Hsing wine and soy sauce. A nice summery salad.




Honey Prawns, my style!


For the full story on our banquet check out our cooking club blog foodiescookingclub.blogspot.com!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Tea Party fantasy..


One day (soon) I'll have one of those tea parties with delicate morsels, delectable teas and these...


Cupcakey Love..


You like?

Cupcake decorating 101 by the knowledgeable Winnie at Cake Love Couture . 
A newfound appreciation for the skill and time that goes into decorating one of these. 
Product of the day? Lustre Dust. 

Hello!

Well here I am. Its the start of a new year, and the start of the next phase in my life as Mum-of-two, food fanatic, lover of all things vintage and taker of photographs. 

I held off starting a blog for ages, thinking it was a bit pretentious of me to presume I had anything interesting to say, but then I had a revelation. I'm really doing this for me, and frankly, I think I'm interesting ;-) . Its a place where I can distil my thoughts and musings on everyday life, friendships, my cooking/baking/making/eating. 

I've got plans, projects and ideas, but being a serial procrastinator and notoriously poor time manager I reckon this blog might just be the remedy. A bit of a kick-up-the-backside, if you will because I suspect you might want to know how that DIY project is going, or whether I've finally gotten my veggie patch going after almost four years of promising. 

So, here goes. Thanks for your time, and feel free to comment, give me tips, take my advice! All images are mine, you are welcome to use them would you be so kind as to link them back here.