summer food and a super long weekend

(at home we've been cooking pretty exclusively from two cookbooks - nigel slater's 'eat', which is where this excellent prawn and watermelon salad came from, and bill's everyday asian.)

(my friend in bega is about to have her first baby - a little boy! so it was off to the post office to send her a gift, as well as a little gift for my best friend, my grandparents and my sister)

(we've spent our long weekend reading, eating and resting. I'm onto my third tao lin book in nearly as many weeks, they're very addictive.)

(more evidence of eating - this time homemade banana granola and fresh berries. because I don't really drink, I think it's kind of okay to spend silly amounts of money on special fruit, namely raspberries, mangoes and figs. this book of letters is excellent, it was a christmas gift that was carefully hunted down for me. each letter is so surprising.)

(and skype time with my sister and niece. she's growing up quickly - this week I saw her play with toys, suck on various frozen items to soothe her teething pains, heard her play with her voice and then get ready for bed. she might come to visit in a few months!)

a weekend in the mountains

weeks ago, we spent the days before christmas in the mountains, visiting blackheath and tony's parents. it was our first christmas outside of sydney or wagga wagga, and it was exciting to drive through new towns enroute.

we stopped in young to pick up a big box of cherries and went onto orange to have lunch with my friend luke, who grew up in the town. we drove through bathurst (sadly the art gallery was closed but we're hoping to go back one day to try annie's ice cream and visit the gallery) and lithgow before arriving some six hours later in blackheath.

despite being summer, most of our days in blackheath were cool. I pretended that we were in the northern hemisphere and made spiced shortbread and a hot chicken caesar salad in the home's new kitchen. tony's mum wendy made everyone hot cups of ginger and honey tea to warm us up.

during the day we would read, wander up to the nearby village for cooking supplies, books and last minute gifts. we went to katoomba one afternoon to try on hats and found some cute bakeries and on our second last day, we went on a family excursion to the norman lindsay gallery.

on christmas eve, wendy taught me how to make a pavlova (the trick is super dry utensils and mixing bowls), which I took to my family's christmas dinner and we had a good giggle making these strawberry and cream santas.

it was raining on christmas morning, and we opened our presents from under the beautiful pine tree, ate a special ham and gravalax breakfast before driving down the mountain towards the city.

we're along way from the cool mountain weather now.  this week we're anticipating a heatwave, they're predicting a 44 degree days in a row so we're busy making ice and staying indoors.

back from the beach! and a mini guide to mosman

hello! and happy new year. we've just come back from a few weeks away, first stopping in the mountains to celebrate christmas with tony's parents and then onto sydney to see mine.

this year we were very lucky with our little trip, tony's parents very generously let us stay in the apartment they rent in mosman, which happened to have an excellent view of sydney harbour (hello nye fireworks), be in walking distance of my most favourite cupcake shop and a 25 minute walk to the beach (no parking metres yay!). it was really nice to spend most of our holiday in one place, where we could leave the car at home and meet friends at the beach or see family for a night time fish and chip picnic.

we had an excellent holiday and have come back feeling very relaxed. we spent our mornings down by the beach, swimming, reading and drinking coffee and our days visiting family and friends, in particular one very special baby. I really loved wandering down to the little shops to buy ingredients for dinner or go exploring.

here's a little list of what we discovered in our holiday neighbourhood:

the classic cupcake company - shop 1/167-169 avenue rd, mosman

tony's mum discovered this shop early last year and every time she visits us in wagga, she very generously comes with half a dozen cupcakes, or a dozen mini cupcakes. I used to eat a lot of cupcakes when I lived in sydney (sadly the cupcake cafe craze didn't quite take off in wagga wagga) and favoured sparkle cupcakery but this shop is easily better.

the cupcakes are buttery yet flavoursome and have an excellent crumb. the buttercream icing to cake ratio is very good and for takeaways, the cupcakes are thoughtfully packed - in the past they've survived plane trips, 5 hour car journeys and handbag transportation. I'm pretty unadventurous (choc-mint please!) when it comes to cupcake flavours but at this cafe, I can happily report that all the flavours are delicious!

cremorne to mosman bay walk

one morning tony led a walk from cremorne to mosman bay, which was bushy, by the water and very beautiful. from the ferry to the city, we could see other people doing the same, their bright exercise shirts sticking out amongst the bush.

this was my favourite doorway on the way to the mosman bay wharf. the house itself looked space aged and sadly I never spotted its occupants.

best fruit - 866 military rd, mosman

so my favourite shop in mosman is a fruit shop :| I think I went there every day of our sydney stay to find things for dinner and buy special summer fruits like mangoes, figs and raspberries. I have been coconut obsessed of late and this shop had a really yummy brand of coconut yoghurt that I'll be looking out for now that I'm home.

bloom. the healthy food co - 118 prince albert st, mosman 

this was a late discovery and we ended up going two days in a row it was so yummy. despite being skeptical of health food and overly organic places, I really loved this cafe. I had a 'crazy ape' smoothie, made with soy milk, bananas and a shot of coffee, which was delicious and we shared some boiled eggs and vegemite soldiers and a very yummy summer berry trifle with crunchy housemade granola and fresh fruit.

the four frogs creperie - shop 1, 175 avenue rd, mosman

on our last night in town we had a late night dinner at a frenchie cafe, in a little laneway just off avenue road. I was craving a chicken and cheese crepe that night, which was an unexpected throwback to a suburban shopping centre donut shop from my childhood that used to make crepes for lunch. the donut shop used to have this train that snaked around the top of the shop, which would go back and forth to entertain the kids who were uninterested in watching the donut machine in operation. tony says that his friend's sister once lost a teddy bear at that same shopping centre, only to discover it'd been placed aboard the donut train!

anyway, back to the crepes, which were rich and yummy. I mistakenly decided that we should walk to the nearby gelato shop for dessert but should've stayed for a maple and ice cream crepe, that I could smell as I ate my dinner.

bather's pavilion kiosk - 4 the esplanade, balmoral beach

nice coffee is surprisingly tricky to find by the beach. one morning, instagram sucked me into trying the revamped balmoral boat shed by the esplanade, having seen a friend's smoothie, which had been served in a cute gummy bear shaped jar. sadly the place was packed, and didn't have a drinks menu on display so I mis-ordered and received a smoothie in a regular glass, which was especially sad having waited a good 30 minutes for it. after a few hit and misses by the beach, we found the bather's pavilion kiosk that serves coffee from the grounds (not that we've ever been!), along with yummy looking falafel salads and sunscreen for the disorganised.


the burger shed - 914 military road, mosman

because what's more rewarding than a beef burger after a morning spent at the beach :)

and here are a few things we discovered a little too late and hope to visit next time:

pressed juices - 557 military road, mosman
mainly for its super cute plywood fit out and smoothie menu. I don't think they do food.

sushi yachiyo
for slightly out of left field japanese. next time!

hope you had a wonderful christmas and new year break.

this christmas

miraculously, after a few consecutive weekends of lazing about and procrastinating about what I wanted to make for christmas, I finally got my christmas cooking done with just one day to spare!

which also meant that I had the oven on for most of this heatwave.

I decided on chilli spiced nuts for family and wagga friends (so easy and ridiculously moorish), peanut butter and honey granola for tony's dad (who happens to be a fellow pb fan), banana granola with coconut shreds and almond (this recipe is the best!) and some mango and salted coconut popsicles. and then because I couldn't sleep this morning, I got up extra early and made some gingerbread and used all of my new cookie cutters. yum!

tony woke up while some of the cookies were still warm, so this was his pre-breakfast snack. I am so proud of how perfectly golden-brown it is. thankfully this christmas there have been few cooking disasters/meltdowns, although it was already so hot by 8am this morning that my dough was starting to sweat and the bear faces were stretching out into zombie expressions as I moved them onto the baking tray.

so far, I've been really lucky on the pre-christmas present front. we received a hamper from sophie and tim earlier this week and have been enjoying the cheeses, special crackers, and chocolates after work ever since. they also bought me a pair of PANDA SOCKS which bring me great joy.

my work friend from bega sent me this awesome book of letters and another from the southern highlands sent a selection of minimalist cds. I also got a silly rug with a cartoon of a pug on it and a mini chocolate and date loaf from my bread friend kristy.

the lead up to this christmas has been a little melancholic for a few members of my family.  this'll be our first christmas without helen. I had my last proper conversation with her on christmas day of last year. she was wearing this green and white kimono style cardigan that she'd bought the day she got the time wrong for her alternative vitamin c treatment. the next time I saw her she was in palliative care.

in the last year I've lost an aunt and become one myself. sometimes I think about the circularity of this but most of all, I am so thankful for the wonder my new little niece has brought me and my family. without her, I think we may have grieved or questioned for longer. my uncle remarked just yesterday that it was amazing that my niece was alive and here on earth.

this year, tony and I have set a spending limit on christmas presents, which is funny because when we were finishing uni and celebrating our first christmas together, we couldn't afford anything more than presents we could make. I ended up writing tony a non-fiction story and he made me a layered acetate painting. having received an engagement ring that still distracts me when I'm driving means that I'd be happy if I got no christmas present at all from him :)

and on a side note, here's a little end of year bloopers reel that I'm in.

happy christmas!

summer fruits & ice cream cake

today - a new and exciting blog discovery,  a hot breakfast made by tony's mum, the finale of breaking bad (which I watched with the aid of a pillow to shield my face), leftover mini cupcakes from my favourite city shop and some holiday planning. we're going on a spike lee movie double date with my brother at this super cool sydney cinema.

we ended the week with slices of tony's birthday cake from friday night. I made my very first ice cream cake - and it worked!

this sunday

I bought my sister and I matching cookie cutters today, I can't wait for her daughter to be old enough to come over and bake cookies with me. she turned 2 months today, so her holding her own neck up is a bit more of a priority and likely achievement at the moment :)

last night my family got together in sydney to celebrate my brother's birthday. I watched the night unfold on instagram, and saw most of my family members holding my new niece and a short video of everyone singing happy birthday to one of my brothers (quietly though, so they didn't wake the baby). I felt like I was at the table with them, which was bittersweet. I can't wait to see them at christmastime.

I also ordered myself a little christmas present today, tao lin's novel taipei, which I've been intrigued about ever since I heard this interview with the author. the book has been a little tricky to locate but I ended up finding it at readings (hooray for free shipping, an aussie owned company and their excellent gift guide).

this afternoon I've planned a home-cooked feast for tony's birthday (his parents arrive on friday), tried out some coconut scented white nail polish, written christmas cards in my pajamas (and contemplated walking to the post box across the road in my pjs to send them..) squinted during the scary parts of breaking bad (we're halfway through season 5) and we have lots of leftover summer bolognese for dinner. hooray!

hope you had a good weekend.

cold snap, cheesecake and new work

we drove to the town of coolamon this afternoon to eat cake for lunch. it's becoming a bit of an a annual pilgrimage, there's an excellent cafe and gift shop that's only open friday through sunday, which only serves cakes, biscuits and scones, along with tea and coffee.  all of the sweets are homemade and it's my favourite kind of cafe.

we snacked on ginger creme biscuits and shared a slice of lime pie and reminisced a little about our time in wagga. next week will mark three years since we moved to wagga, we arrived in 2010 in the middle of a flash flood and I started my new job on tony's birthday, leaving him home alone in a new town.

back then, we knew one person who lived here, who happened to be an old high school friend of tony's mum.  a lot has changed in three years, and now wagga wagga feels like our home. I'll always be glad that came here and made the move together.

last week was a busy one at work and I was stoked to have two stories go to air. last month, I had the
surreal task of illustrating a couple's fight with sound effects. you can listen to the story here, it's a true story that was based on the theme of 'failure.'  it's about a misunderstanding that escalates overnight and it's read by the writer.

the second story was a little longer in the making.  earlier this year, I invited a mum and her adult son into the studio to interview each other about the son's life altering motorbike accident after hearing about the incredible blog they kept together to document his recovery. in many ways, it's a recorded conversation where they venture into previously unchartered territory and ask each other about some confronting experiences that came with the accident and the months of rehabilitation that followed. I found this story endlessly fascinating to work on and it made it onto the radio last week.

and now, I'm preparing for a big week of birthdays. there are no less than 3 this week, including tony's on friday. I'm planning to make him a lemon ice cream cake with a gingernut crust and try out this recipe for milo cupcakes for my milo obsessed work friend who turns 31 on tuesday. fingers crossed both cakes work out.

hopefully it'll be warm enough for the ice cream cake, in the last few days I've gone back to porridge eating and ugg boots! so far, this is a very strange summer.