french toast with berry compote

Nothing could be sweeter than starting a day off with french toast and berry compote...

Recipe for french toast with berry compote

Adapted from here

Serves 4

What you'll need...

For the french toast

4 eggs 

1/3 cup light cream

1/3 cup reduced-fat milk

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

25g butter, chopped

8 slices bread  

(any variety eg. white/multigrain bread, fruit bread, brioche, panettone - I used rye - you may also choose to use less bread and to halve it)

For the berry compote

300g mixed frozen berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)

1/4 cup caster sugar (I used less caster sugar and mixed in raspberry and black cherry jams)

What to do...

1.Make berry compote: Place sugar and 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high. Bring mixture to the boil. Cook for 3 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Stir in berries. Set aside.

(My microwave version - defrost berries in microwave then add sugar (and/or jam) and heat on high for 2-3 minutes - It won't be as thick but it sure will taste just as delightful)

2.Place eggs, cream and milk in a bowl. Whisk until combined.

3.Combine sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish. Melt half the butter in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Dip 4 slices of bread, 1 at a time, in egg mixture until soaked. Cook bread for 2 minutes each side or until golden brown. Remove from pan. Toss in sugar mixture to coat. Cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining butter, bread, egg mixture and sugar mixture.

4. Serve toast with compote and yoghurt (I served it with maple syrup - just beacuse the sweet tooth I am needs more sugar in my diet as is).

5. Eat until satisfied!

The sweet tooth I am absolutely love this! I thought the cinnamon went beautifully with the berries. If you try this, let me know what you think!

fried eggs with cheesy microwave polenta

Again, I had uni today so not a lot of time to spend cooking... therefore I shortened cooking time by popping this in the microwave.

Fried eggs with cheesy microwave polenta

Adapted from here

Serves 1

 What you'll need...

3 tablespoons corn meal

1 cup water

 Pinch of salt

1/2- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

25g grated cheese of choice (I just used what we had at home - parmesan and tasty)

Freshly ground pepper

One fried egg

What to do...

Combine water, cornmeal and salt in a microwave safe bowl. Cook uncovered for 1 min 30 seconds and cook covered for 1 min 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and stir in butter and cheese. Serve hot (polenta will thicken as it cools) topped with a fried egg and freshly ground pepper.

day thirty three - weetbix in a cup

 

Uni started today... so unfortunately no time for a fancy breakfast... I'll still be updating this as I have some later starts other days of the week :)

Don't really think you'll need a recipe for this one... But if you aren't an Aussie or are not familiar with the well-loved family brand Weet-Bix (I'm sure you have your own equivalent) here it is...

1/2 cup warm milk

2 biscuits weet-bix (or any other variety of wheat biscuit cereal)

honey

Add weet-bix to milk in cup and stir until weet-bix has a porridge-like consistency. Add honey.

Yes, I do like my weet-bix soggy... it doesn't look the most appealing but I still enjoy it!

nanna jumpers and lakeside adventures

Rich chocolate tart with strawberries - recipe coming soon!

(Jumper - Mum's closet, scarf - miss shop, high waisted jeans - Valleygirl, bag - Sportsgirl, loafers - from Taiwan)

Just a quick fashion post and a few snapshots from my one night trip to Daylesford with my boyfriend. He was surprised to see me in something other than boots for once as I am not a fan of ballet flats and never wear them other than for work. Although, after going for a walk around the lake and trudging through the mud as we attempted to take a short cut back, I really would have appreciated my boots. Unintentionally getting mud in your shoes is not fun, I can tell you that. Nonetheless, we had a good laugh and I walked the rest of the way back with my shoe squelching.... 

Smoked Skipton eel in pancetta, shallot confit, beetroot remoulade, mustard crème fraiche

  Source here

12 hour suckling pig with celeriac, sauce chutney and 'smokehouse' Riesling braised cabbage 

 Source here

At night, we went to the Lake House restaurant for dinner. These are pictures of the meals I had... of course not my own pictures, I didn't quite feel comfortable lugging a big camera to a fancy restaurant as I'm still getting used to the idea of whipping it out in public. I've never been to a two hat restaurant before but it was definately an experience that I could get used to.

I LOVED the entree. The smoked eel was beautiful and the presentation of the dish was divine - I've never eaten anything like it. Mmm... I'm still thinking about how exquisite this dish was now...

For main I had the 12 hour suckling pig... which I enjoyed but not as much as the entree. I thought the Riesling braised cabbage had a funny smell but other than that the rest of the dish was enjoyable. The crackling on the pig was well done and the pork was tender. I loved the sauce it was in and the apple balls that came with it - they tasted like pure apple juice.

We didn't have dessert as we had the chocolate tart I made to eat later. 

 For those of you wondering, dinner is from $74pp for two courses... they also offer three and four course as well as an eight course degustation menu. 

day thirty one - kiwi fruit

volunteering in Kenya - please donate!

My lovely friend Jules is jetsetting off to Africa for six months and will spend some of this time volunteering in Kenya as a teacher. 

It is not uncommon to find classes of 80 who have to have to share 20 pencils between them. 

Jules could be teaching one of these classes... she will be there for a month beginning September 15 with a company called ivhq. If you could spare a dollar or two, I'm sure it will go a long way to helping these kids out! The money collected will go towards buying pencils, paper, pens and other stationery as well as sporting equipment such as soccer balls and pumps. 

The link below will allow you to donate:

http://www.gofundme.com/kenyavolunteering

 Thank you to all you wonderful people - this money will mean so much !

day twenty nine - egg salad sandwiches

Easily my favourite sandwiches of all time.

What you'll need...

6 large hard-boiled eggs

1 tablespoon whole egg mayonnaise

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1/2 bunch of chives, chopped

1 cup spinach

Salt and pepper

8 slices white bread (or any other bread you desire), crusts removed (optional) 

What to do...

Spread bread with butter or margarine if you are not going to be eating these straight away. Mash hard-boiled eggs with mayonnaise, dijon mustard and chives. Season with salt and pepper. Top half the slices of bread with spinach and egg mixture. Place another slice of bread on top. Cut into any shape you wish and refrigerate if not serving straight away.

NOTE: You may add any other ingredient you feel fit... onion, celery, lemon juice, cheese, meat etc. Be creative!

 

I made these for a picnic with my boyfriend when we went away on Wednesday.

It was VERY cold outside - we ended up having an indoor picnic instead!

  

 Egg salad sandwiches...

 ...followed by a fruit salad for dessert!

day twenty eight - microwave 'baked' apple oatmeal with warm cinnamon apples

Warm cinnamon apples

 As much as I love porridge... this is a first time I've ever tried it baked. And let me tell you I wasn't disappointed! Being the sweet tooth I am to me this was like eating a healthy dessert for breakfast - you can never go wrong there!

 All the recipes I've discovered make this is large quantities but I only wanted enough for one serving... so instead of waiting for the oven to heat up, I decided to pop it in the microwave instead.

Recipe for microwave 'baked' apple oatmeal

Source here

I didn't follow that recipe to a tee, here is my take on it.

Serves ONE

For the baked oatmeal

2/3 cup quick oats

1 heaped teaspoon margarine (or butter, we usually don't have it at home), melted

1 teaspoon brown sugar 

1/4 teaspoon vanilla (I used vanilla bean paste)

Few splashes of milk

Half a chopped apple

Ground cinnamon (as much as you like - personally I love cinnamon)

(1 egg, 1/8 tps. baking powder - I was winging this and forgot these - still tasted delicious but add them if you wish)

Combine all ingredients in a ramekin or small dish and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes or until set.

For the warm cinnamon apples

Half an apple sliced

Ground cinnamon (as much as you like)

brown sugar

Teaspoon margarine or butter

Sprinkle apples with brown sugar and coat with butter and cinnamon. Place in microwave on high for 2 minutes or until apples are soft.

Top baked oatmeal with apples and EAT!

day twenty seven - a simple breakfast

 

Peanut butter and honey on toast with coffee and strawberries

Very simple breakfast today. For me this meal is primarily a comfort food breakfast and is one that I associate greatly with my parents. Mum loves her toast and coffee in the mornings and dad loves his peanut butter and honey (or used to until he stopped eating bread)

Got a bit carried away with the honey there whilst photographing and missed the toast - oops.

day twenty six - leftover flat bread pizza

Leftover pizza - how do you eat it? cold or reheated?

The other day my boyfriend and I made pizza using the basic pizza dough recipe found here.

Even though we intended it to have a thin base, it wasn't supposed to turn out to be flat bread. We still aren't quite sure, but the dough didn't rise... and I'm still puzzled as to what happened to my yeast. Nevertheless, the taste surprised us and it was still very yummy. 

The following recipe is for a normal pizza base not a flat bread one... if you wish to make a flat bread pizza leave out the yeast and sugar, use 2/3 cup of water and 1 tablespoon olive oil instead. No waiting time necessary.

Recipe for pizza topped with sopressa, haloumi and olives

For dough:

7g sachet dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups plain flour

2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Combine 3/4 cup warm water, yeast, sugar and salt in a jug. Whisk with a fork to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for 5 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface.
2. Sift flour into a bowl. Add yeast mixture and oil. Mix to form a soft dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes or until elastic. Place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Stand in a warm place for 25 to 30 minutes or until dough has doubled in size.
3. Use your fist to punch dough down. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

For topping:

1 sachet pizza sauce (or pasta sauce - whatever you'd like to use)

125g haloumi cheese cut into slices and fried

Half a large onion chopped and sauteed

5 large slices of salami (sopressa)

80g (1/2 cup) pitted olives (black and/or green)

1 large tomato, sliced

40g spinach 

 Preheat oven to 225°C. Roll out a dough portion on a lightly floured surface (as thinly as you like) and place on the prepared tray. Spread pizza sauce evenly over base and top with salami, onion, tomato, haloumi and olives. Bake for 12-15 minutes until pizza is golden brown. Top with fresh spinach.

le soleil d'hiver

(Jumper - Sportsgirl, Skirt - asian store, Scarf - Miss Shop, Hat - Dangerfield, Socks - Rubi shoes, Boots - Glue store)

It was hard to turn down the warm winter sun for a photo opportunity and I thought it was about time that I did a little more fashion blogging. The only problem was... I didn't have an outfit in mind. So whilst my boyfriend was waiting, I spent an hour trying to put something together. Initially, I spent half the time attempting to do some colour blocking and desperately tried to match a bright coral shirt with anything I could find. Which as you can see, obviously failed. So I opted for an outfit similar to one I wore to uni last semester.

 Enjoy!

day twenty five - cinnamon scrolls with maple-coffee icing.

Cinnamon scrolls - fresh out of the oven...

Drenched in a maple-coffee icing

The recipe for these amazing cinnamon scrolls comes from the pioneer woman.

If you have a huge sweet tooth like I do, you will fall in love with these. I saw these on a couple of blogs and knew I had to make them. The pioneer woman wasn't wrong when she said these are really that good.

The recipe with step-by-step photos may be found here

Try it. You won't regret it.

I fell in love with the coffee icing. Mmmm