So very busy (and boring!)

Sorry to my loyal readers (all two of you, lol) for my lack of posts lately.  Things have been very busy in my world.  Work is getting crazy - only six weeks to go, YAY!!  It's been no secret that I have struggled with my class this year and I am looking forward to starting fresh next year with a whole new year level (year 1/2).

On the cooking front, nothing has been happening.  I'm not cooking any exciting meals (cheap and easy is my goal right now) and I did attempt the Adriano Zumbo macaron recipe mix and it was a DISASTER.  They LOOKED great, but when removing from the tray, they left their gooey insides behind...  Whoops.  Better luck next time.

In other news...  I managed to purchase 34 bottles of nail polish in the last 7 days.  I don't have any of them yet, they were all ordered online, so it will be like Christmas waiting for them to trickle in with the post.

I am going to P!nk next July when she comes to Oz.  Buying tickets was like an Olympic sport.  Near impossible!  We ended up paying for VIP - which did not come cheap ($420), but I am looking forward to seeing her in concert and spending some time with my awesome friends.

Well, that's it from me.  I will check in again soon, hopefully with some cooking news.

Before I go, here is something that makes me laugh EVERY TIME I look at it...

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Macarons for Dummies

Like most people, I have recently developed a small obsession for macarons (or macaroons).  I think it was when I saw them made on My Kitchen Rules and then watched Adriano Zumbo make them on Masterchef. They are so delicate and PRETTY.

They are also famously difficult to make.  I have read many a blog recounting macaron failures.  Due to this, I have been quite reluctant to attempt to make them.

Then along came this:

Donna Hay has kindly taken all the hard work out of making macarons and put the process into a few easy steps.

When I first saw this box in the supermarket, I was a bit dubious.  Macarons are supposed to be difficult.  How could it possibly work?

Well, the other day, Donna Hay's macaron packet mix was reduced by 50% due to its looming expiry date (obviously others were as dubious as myself, lol).

Read on to see if they were as easy to prepare as the box suggests and to see if they were actually a success...

First I made the chocolate ganache.  The chocolate pieces came in the box, all I had to add was the cream.

Smooth chocolately goodness.

The box came with a powdered egg white mix.  I just had to add warm water and combine with a fork.  Then I used my hand mixer to beat the egg whites to form shiny soft peaks.

The almond meal was next.  Sifted into the egg whites.

After gently combining the almond into the egg whites, the batter is ready to be 'piped'.

Instead of piping, the box reckons you could just place a tablespoon of batter on the tray in a circular form.  I tried piping, but I didn't have a piping nozzle big enough and smooth enough.  My biscuits were HUGE.  Next time, I'm gonna use a macaron template - you just print it out and place under the baking paper.

Once put on the tray, they needed to sit on the bench for 10 minutes to 'dry out'.  Then I put them in the oven.  At this time I was pretty sure they wouldn't turn out...

Then I looked in the oven and saw something that made me smile...

They have FEET!!!!  A very tell-tale sign of the macaron is its feet.

I couldn't believe it.  They were actually working!

While they were about 3x the size they were supposed to be, they actually worked!!  They were crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside and best of all, they were delicious!

So I will definitely be making these again and would recommend you give them a try too.

On the weekend I will be trying Adriano Zumbo's macaron packet mix.  I didn't even know it existed until last night and my sister found it in Woolies today...

Maybe one day I can make something like this...  :p

(source)

 Until next time  xx

Bali!!

A week ago, I returned from a lovely mini-break to Bali.  Four glorious days and four glorious nights.  This was my first trip to Bali and it did not disappoint.  It was everything I expected it to be.

The weather was perfect.  Our accommodation was AMAZING (upgraded from a one bedroom villa to a two bedroom villa - NOICE!).  The company was fantastic.  All in all, just the thing I needed after a very tiring three terms.

The private pool in our villa

 My first meal in Bali - Maccas...  Delivered!

Yep - we totally indulged in a three hour pampering session

Bali toes!!!

I won't be cooking as many awesome meals for a while.  I'm trying to save some money and work is crazy so I am planning on easy meals - meat and steamfresh.

I'll still be around though, so pop in every now and then.

xx

Roasted Butternut Squash and Rosemary Soup

I'm baaaaaa-aaack!

Last week I cooked something from a pretty awesome cookbook that my sister bought called 'Food' by Mary McCartney (yep, Paul McCartney's daughter).  It is full of tasty vegetarian meals and I have already bookmarked a few other recipes for the future (including a tomato soup for tomorrow night).

So on Wednesday I made a Roasted Butternut Squash and Rosemary Soup.

As I've mentioned previously, I love a good pumpkin soup and am pretty proud of my staple recipe which I blogged about here.  While I have my fave recipe, I am always looking for variations.  This recipe caught my eye because of the roasting of the pumpkin and the addition of rosemary.  I have heard that roasting the pumpkin before putting it in a soup is a great way to intensify the flavour.  Well, the flavour was definitely intensified.

The soup also had onions, carrots, chilli flakes, veggie stock and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream. (It was also supposed to have celery, but the celery I had bought a couple of days before was quite soft and floppy so I omitted it...)

While this soup was fairly easy to make, it was a bit more time consuming than my old faithful.  The roasting of the pumpkin took 45 minutes and then peeling the roasted pumpkin proved to be more difficult than anticipated.  Oh well.  It still turned out to be super delicious and I reckon it would be even lower in calories than my fave recipe due to the fact that it had no potato and no cream.  I think the carrots added a sweetness to the soup that I am not used to, yet I really enjoyed. So I will definitely be making this again in the very near future.

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In other tidbits from my world, there is only one more week of this term.  This term has gone so much better than the first half of the year, but it is still challenging and I am looking forward to starting anew next year with a new class and new perspective and attitude.

The proverbial carrot that has been dangling in front of my nose to get me through the term has been my Bali trip.  Four days and four nights on a tropical and exotic location with two awesome ladies.  I can't wait.  I am a Bali virgin and after hearing about how awesome it is from every single person I know, I am looking forward to experiencing it for myself.

This is a picture of our accommodation which is pinned up on my board in the classroom.  Each suite has its own private pool.  Fingers crossed it is a true representation!

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I love to cook, but sometimes it is nice to have someone else cook for me.  My sister planned a Mystery Meal a couple of weeks ago and it did not disappoint.

She cooked me a delicious Quorn Korma.  The gorgeous curry aroma that filled the house left our mouths watering and the curry was pretty yummy too (I have now learnt to eat AROUND the cardamom seeds, lol).

To top it off, we finished it off with an equally yummy dessert.

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SHOE FLASH!

These lovelies were purchased to wear to the ball (which was last night).  They are GORGEOUS, but oh my goodness, they KILLED my feet!  I honestly think I need to accept that high heels should be in my past and instead embrace awesome sparkly flats.

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And finally, it has been getting quite warm up here lately.  We would normally be in The Build-Up which is characterised by hot and sticky days.  However, we are having a lot of the hot and not much of the sticky, instead being hit by warm, dry winds.  This ultimately means that the Wet Season will most probably be arriving much later than usual - with our first Wet Season storms not predicted to begin until mid December!

So we have been spending quite a lot of time in the pool lately.

Bring on the Wet Season!!

Boring (and lazy and broke, lol)...

Sorry for my lack of blog posts lately.  I haven't cooked anything interesting lately and have been restricted by laziness and money.  Don't worry though.  I have a few exciting recipes I'm looking forward to cooking in the next couple of weeks!

In the meantime, here is something I printed out the other day and stuck up on my wall near my desk in the classroom to help me get through the tough moments at school:

[source:http://weknowmemes.com]

Happy Dad's Day

My dad is one pretty awesome bloke.  There is nothing he wouldn't do for his family.

So today I took great pleasure in presenting him with a superb bottle of Penfold's Grandfather Port (also known as a Rare Tawny) and I cooked him a delicious breakfast.

This was my first attempt at French Toast and I was impressed.  Sweet without being sickly and the addition of fresh berries was the icing on the proverbial cake.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Lentil & Vegetable Cottage Pie

Last weekend, I made another smashing (if I do say so myself) vegetarian dish.

Lentil & Vegetable Cottage Pie

It was super scrumptious and full of vegetably goodness.  I didn't do a calorie count on it, as I'm sure the mashed potato on top would have been a bit calorie rich (especially with all that butter!), but I still think it would have been a reasonably healthy meal.  For the 'meat' part it had lentils, celery, onion, carrots, peas, corn (I added the peas and corn, they were not in the recipe), sun-dried tomato pesto, passata and thyme.  A fantastic blend of flavours.  I also ended up improvising the passata for sieved tinned tomatoes.  I was very impressed with this dish.  It was super easy to make - the most difficult bit being the mashed potato (oh, and I must add that I did not use all 100g of butter in the mash.  I would have used at least half of that and it was plenty buttery!).  My sister said it tastes a lot like my lentil soup, which I think it is a great way to describe it.  I must say though that the addition of the thyme was crucial to the flavour.  Maybe I might add some thyme to my soup...

Served with a good helping of steamed veggies.

YUM!

There's not going to be too many new dishes tried and tested this fortnight as my sister and I kind of over-spent during the last couple of days.  So it is plenty of veggies and pasta for a while...  Though I am looking forward to trying a few dishes from the new vegetarian cookbook called 'Food' by Mary McCartney very soon.