JoFo Eats

Daring Bakers Challenge - July 2010 - Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

2010-07-27T21:57:00.221+10:00

*** 01/08/2010 - added some more informative text! ***

BRAAAAAAAAINS!!!!

I didn't really factor in what the final product would look like with the colour combinations, I was thinking purely about the flavours, so it was a delightfully gruesome and amusing surprise when I released the cake from its frosty prison to discover ... Brains!

Recipe source: Inspired by the Swiss swirl ice cream cake from the Taste of Home website.
The recipes for the cake, filling, eggless ice creams and the fudge topping have been developed by myself.

Blog checking lines: The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

The Master challenge recipe can be found here.

The original challenge called for a triple chocolate hit but after last month's extremely rich monstrosity and because I had made double chocolate cookies twice in the last 2 weeks, I wanted to go for something a little less rich and a little more delicate.

I split this challenge up over two weekends as there seemed to be a lot of waiting around to be done amongst all the components! I made the ice-cream one Saturday and the cakeage and assemblage was completed the next Saturday. The ice-cream flavours I made were green tea and black sesame. The cake was green tea with red bean cream filling and I substituted the fudge sauce with an ad hoc red bean "sauce".

Ice-cream Ingredients

$12.50 buys you a whole buttload of matcha powder. I'm envisaging a lot of green tea flavoured treats in the next couple of months. Also, because I don't have a mortar and pestle (one day *sigh*) I went with some dodgy leftover packets of "Instant Sesame Paste" instead of roasting and grinding some black sesame seeds as I wasn't sure if my stick blender could process seeds into powder.

Making the custard for the ice-creams

Having never made ice-cream before, I did what any ignoramus does and Googled around to find the simplest possible recipe and decided to improvise with this one. I made the custard component as instructed then ...

... halved the custard into two Ikea containers and added my flavourings: a respectable amount of matcha powder (about 1 tablespoon dissolved in a small amount of hot water) and a substantial amount of "instant black sesame" powder (2 packets! I tried one but after tasting the mixture it was rather underwhelming so I added the another packet).

I then started the wonderful process of freezing and stick blending the crap out of them every hour until I got bored (about 2 hours in ...) and left them to freeze overnight before blending them a final time. (I ♥ my stick blender! 800W of power baby!)

In the end, the flavours were totally there but the texture was not perfect, no big ice chunks but definitely a little on the crunchy rather than creamy side. After a couple of minutes in the open air, the ice-cream did soften up a little but I would definitely try to improve the texture in the future.

In retrospect, some things I should have found out/not ignored before making the ice-creams:

David Lebowitz is the go-to guy in such matters and has many good tips for noobs. He suggests blending the mixtures every 30 minutes for 2-3 hours.
I should have let the mixures cool before sticking them in the freezer.
I should have cooled the containers before putting the mixtures in them. (Haven't found any resources to suggest that plastic containers are the wrong thing to use but in case they are, someone please let me know!)
I should learn the Art of Zen and not open the freezer every 15 minutes and be disappointed when the mixture is still 'soupy'
I used skim milk which probably upped the water content which I totally did not consider at the time. Boo to me.

Swiss roll making

I used the recipe as laid out in the Master recipe but had to do some elementary maths to figure out the dry ingredients as I have heard that matcha powder is extremely intense in flavour and I didn't want the sponge to overpower everything else (ice-cream is king in my house!). In the end, I halved the whole cake recipe and instead of 5.5 tbsp of flour + cocoa, I used 4.5 tbsp flour and 1 tbsp matcha.

Red bean sauce and cream filling

More shortcuts! (c'mon! there were like 5 components to this beast!). I'm guessing there's a more traditional way to make red bean paste than buying a packet of red bean paste but ... meh! And because I thought there just wasn't enough Asian-ness going on in the dish, I forked out $1.95 for a block of palm sugar while I was at it.

I think at this stage there was just too much oven watching (baking a thin-ass cake is stressful people!) and blending and gas stove flame-age going on so I didn't take any photos but I heated up a little bit of cream and mixed in about half the packet of red bean to it to make the filling for the cake (yes, I am entirely precise in my measurements :P). The store bought paste already contained sugar so I skipped adding anymore sugar to the cream filling. I then rinsed out the saucepan and melted together some red bean paste and a healthy dose of palm sugar to make the red bean sauce. I was really starting to wing it here ... I had no idea what would happen by chucking the paste and sugar in the saucepan but luckily I was spared any smoke alarms going off (flashback to my first attempt at making caramel ...). However, it looked a bit gluggy so I splashed a bit of water in there for good measure. Mmmm ... saucy ...

GAAAAAH!

Not happy! I wasn't too concerned about the burny bits (all the better to tide me over until the dessert is ready!) but as I was releasing it from the baking paper bits kept sticking and one bit just REALLY didn't want to come off. Guess which bit. Greaseproof my ass.

Rolling, rolling, rolling ....

I knew there was too much cream filling but I just really REALLY hate wasting food so I chucked it all in there anyway.

Cake kebab!

Into the fridge for an hour and then slicing. Success! Huzzah! A little on the 'flattened' side but nothing a firm, loving hand won't fix.

Assemblage

With all components complete it was time to unite! I made one cereal bowl sized version for my main cake and two single serves in a couple of ramekins as I reasoned that they would be ready for consumption that night rather than having to wait til the next day for the big one to be frozen through. Patient one aren't I?

Layers

Black sesame ice-cream. Then an hour in the fridge. Then red bean sauce. Then an hour in the fridge. Oh no, wait. I was too impatient! I put the green tea on straight after the sauce! And then I didn't take a photo because I didn't want you to know! Oh well, my cover's blown and now you know why in the innards shot at the end of this post the sauce is all raggedy (because it was still liquid when I smooshed the green tea ice-cream over it!)

Tada!

To me the single serves looked nicer but obviously the brain sized one looks more impressive just for sheer size and brain-likeness.

What's my favourite kind of challenge? Why a tasty, tasty challenge of course!

Daring Bakers Challenge - June 2010 - Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

2010-06-27T21:15:00.000+10:00

RARRRRRGH!!!!

Recipe Source: Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Blog-checking lines: The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

My first Daring Bakers challenge and also the birth of the FRANKENMONSTER!

Some amendments I made to the recipe:

I added up all the ingredients for the Creme Anglaise/Mascarpone Creme and it came up to over one litre of the stuff for "drizzling" ... hmmm, overkill anyone? So I halved the recipe (which also meant I had no extra egg whites as I used the yolks leftover from the meringue) and "drizzled" with a controlled and dainty pouring action (results as above) but still ended up with a good bowlful of creme which lasted for a week and was used on the remaining meringues, ice cream sundaes and Saturday morning pancakes.
I used orange rind as I forgot to buy a lemon ...
I added berries because I found the mousse and meringue just *that* much too sweet (yes, I have a low sweetness threshold).
I used cinnamon instead of nutmeg (only because I had cinnamon and didn't want to buy nutmeg).

Organisation plus! Why is the rest of my life not like this?

That distressed looking orange had the other part of its rind used to replace lime zest in a fish cake recipe earlier in the week ... which was ... interesting ...

Meringues s l o w l y drying out in the oven.

As you can see, I got tired of filling my old-school piping syringe and went freeform. It was at about this point that the 'burger-style' presentation popped into my head ...
I read in the forums that some people found their meringues were done after 30 minutes or even less. However, mine took 2.5 hours or thereabouts and the 2 largest ones were still soft on the insides when I couldn't wait any longer to taste them.

Straining the creme anglaise

I had never made creme anglaise before and was quite anxious about the "do not overcook" part of the recipe. I had to get extra hands to help me pour the hot creme into the eggs as I shouted with more than a hint of paranoia "Slowly! No SLOWLY! SLOWER!!! What part of SLOW do you not understand???"

Happily, there was very little scrambled egg when I strained it. *PHEW*

BOLLOCKS!!!

My chocolate! My poor chocolate! Hands up who thinks some water may have gotten into the saucepan? (Possibly my hash job of ~~rinsing~~ washing the pot after making the creme anglaise would be to blame ...)

... but no harm done to the chocolate mousse

Another crisis averted, another sigh of relief ... perhaps this recipe could have been halved as well as we had enough mousse for some rather debaucherous eating habits for the next few days. Although completely smooth on the first day of consumption, the consistency of the mousse after being in the fridge became more like gelato (which is really neither here nor there when you're talking about chocolate I suppose).

Frankenmonster's Innards

Hopefully as the challenges progress I'll get better at presentation. (These were frozen berries that had been microwaved for maybe 20 seconds.)

Finito!

Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)

Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon. (Class made rounds, hearts, diamonds and an attempt at a clover was made!)

Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.

Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)

Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Recipe 3: Mascarpone Cream (for drizzling):

1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup (120 mls) mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup (120 mls) heavy cream

Directions:

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Recipe 4: Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream above):

1 cup (235 mls) whole milk
1 cup (235 mls) heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75 grams) sugar

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.

Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Lemon and Ginger Cookies

2009-01-12T12:42:00.004+11:00

Recipe from Coconut and Lime.
I used minced ginger (wet) instead of ground (dry) and also honey instead of golden syrup.

Since we aren't buying snackeries, I cracked and made some cookies. I'm not sure if this is any healthier than eating store bought cookies but damned if I'm cutting cookies from my life!!!
When in Sydney, Juan mentioned he liked this Lemon Ginger tea we had at home one night (after another giant blowout holiday dinner!!!) and then I saw this recipe for Lemon Ginger cookies on foodblog Coconut and Lime and what with the cookie cravings I was having, well, their existence in my flat was assured.

I loved the colour of the mixture. So innocent and baby chick yellow! As you can see from the baked photo on the right, I would totally fail the uniformity exam if I went to culinary school but then this gives us the option of selecting small, medium or large cookies depending on the size of our munchie attack.

Snuggling pork cookies on the right ;)

After 10 minutes, the cookies came out quite soft and more browned than the photos on Coconut and Lime but after a short period of cooling, the outside was slight crispy and the inside chewy as described. For some reason I couldn't really taste the ginger until the next day. I don't know if smelling three batches of cookies baking dulled my senses slightly or what but the next day they were much tastier! Also, after one night in the cookie container they were rather soggy and no longer crisp on the outside :(
Tastewise, I really like them! Not too sweet and incorporating two of my favourite flavours of the moment. And without a choc chip in sight, an achievement indeeed!

Back to the Smoothies

2009-01-12T12:23:00.003+11:00

I've totally regressed and started making smoothies for tastiness which for me means fruit, dairy and no greenery!
I justify this to myself as we are having a month of not buying chips, biscuits and other processed snackery leading us to attack grapes, apples and other fruit when the munchies inevitably occur. We've also been making good use of our NEW BICYCLES (hurrah!) on weekends so in my head, this balances out the lessening of sludgy drinks in my life.

I've also discovered the joy of making ice cubes from the lemon juice. This means less mess (I don't have lemon juice all over my hands everytime I make a smoothie), slightly colder drinks and I've read that ice helps the blending process and makes a smoothie errr .... smoother. The ice cubes are also great to dump into glasses of water (or cranberry juice!) for an extra freshener and makes adding lemon juice to dinner recipes extremely easy and mess free.

SMOOTHIE FROM THE OTHER DAY:
1 x Banana
1 x Pear
1 x Granny Smith Apple
Couple of dollops of Ski D'Lite Berry Basket Yoghurt per cup
3 small Lemon ice cubes per cup
Some water
VERDICT: This recipe was split in two as roping the Boy into the New Year's health kick hasn't been difficult in the slightest since smoothies magically appear before him! Splitting the recipe in two also meant the smoothie was much more drinkable (thinner) than when I try to cram in 3 whole pieces of fruit into one cup ... Tasty and fresh! But the pears still seem to add more 'grit' than I would prefer ...

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-30T12:09:00.003+11:00

It's not that I meant to disappear from the virtual world, but 2 weeks in Sydney with parental care, endless gorging with friends and fam and shiny new toys does distract one somewhat. However, I am back in Melbourne now and will post some photos of my little Xmas sojourn soon.

Mornington Penninsula Getaway

2008-12-11T15:57:00.005+11:00

(For the rest of the photos click here!)

Juan and I drove down to the Mornington Penninsula for a little Anniversary Getaway. It's a lot closer than I thought it was, only about 1.5 hours of pleasant driving. On the way down we stopped by Tully's Market to get supplies for our in-room dinner spread and they had some really good produce! The prosciutto was to die for and we returned the next day on our way back to Melbourne for some more (and another pepperoni stick as well which we had mistaken thought was a cabana previously).

Day 1 was very rainy unfortunately (hello summer? when did you say you were gonna come around?) but I was determined to go strawberry picking at Sunny Ridge and so after a quick afternoon nap in our room at Seahaze B&B (we had the Lotus Room and it was a really nice stay! Big bed, DVD library and jacuzzi *double thumbs up*) we drove the whole 10 minutes to the farm. You pay $8 for the U-Pick option and get empty punnets which hold around 500g of strawberries. They also gave us plastic bags for our feet due to the mud - totally stylish! Just as we got into the field of strawberries designated for picking ("please follow the orange cones") the rain decided to get heavier and heavier so we raced through the rows looking for lush red strawberries most of which were the size of my palm! We also bought some boysenberry jam and strawberry Pinot (OMG so strawberrilicious and not toooo sweet at all).

Due to the weather (and our almost frostbitten hands), we decided to retire for the day and make the best of our warm, dry room! Our dinner spread was made up of mozzarella, double brie and sweet chilli cream cheese, 100g of San Merino prosciutto (super delish), a pepperoni stick, pumpkin dip, antipasto mix (olives, artichoke, sundried tomatoes, pickled onions, and ... carrots? what the? unexpected and not very popular with us!), turkish bread, white nectarines and super fresh, just picked strawberries that were the most SWEETEST, TASTIEST, STRAWBERRIEST strawberries I've ever eaten. I totally recommend the U-Pick'ing option (if it's not raining ... or even if it is!).
A steaming hot, bubbly jacuzzi later and we were totally done for the day, soft, warm and full of good, fresh produce!

Day 2 the weather was perfecto! After a breakfast of croissants and deliciouso boysenberry jam (jam bought from Sunny Ridge the day before) on the deck, we made our way up to the Arthur's Seat lookout (ho hum) and pretty soon were on our way to Ashcombe Maze and gardens. Boasting the biggest hedge maze in Australia we couldn't resist! The whole complex is quite pretty but smaller than I thought 25 Acres sounds like. The maze was totally fun even if we managed to solve them pretty fast, running like little children never hurt nobody! There were rose gardens, mini-woodlands, a lake and lavender gardens to boot (purple! so much purple!). Touristy yes, but totally worth it.
Before driving back to Melby city, we drove about 30 minutes further to Sorrento just for a looksee and some fish and chips. Not as touristy as I thought but I don't think we made it to the main beach, just the suburb! The waterfront was pretty peaceful but due to the extreme windchill factor, we polished off our lunch and drove straight home (via the aforementioned prosciutto stop) all relaxed and happy and ready for our Christmas holiday to Sydney lol

Mornington Pennisula: Highly recommended!!!

Illustration Friday - Balloon

2008-12-05T13:42:00.002+11:00

Today is Juan and I's 2 Year Anniversary. On a rooftop 2 years ago we had our first real conversation and as they say, the rest is history :)

This year (well mostly the last half of) has been exciting and scary and amazing. I feel we are on the verge of something special and its going to be spectacular.

Black Rollerball and Photoshop

Daily Smoothie - Day 11

2008-12-04T13:43:00.000+11:00

FRIDAY'S SMOOTHIE:
1 x Banana
1 handful of Strawberries
1 x Granny Smith Apple
1 x Pear
Small squeeze of lime juice on top.
VERDICT: Totally leaf-less! Sorry Dr Oz but I bought this giant punnet of strawberries today (for $3!!!) and could think of anything better to do with them. Oh it was so tasty, so sweet ... and I even added a bit of milk ... oh dear ...

We bought a lot of vegies this week and I really liked all the different colours on our breakfast bar hence the second photo. And I also had another big giant salad (see HERE) to accompany this so I still managed to have my fill of greens for the afternoon!

Daily Smoothie - Day 9

2008-12-02T20:54:00.006+11:00

Some deadlines took priority over the smoothie experiment so this was actually made on Friday and I haven't had a smoothie since :(

FRIDAY'S SMOOTHIE:
Small handfuls of:
*Cucumber
*Cos lettuce
*Celery
*Parsley
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1 x Royal Gala Apple
Itty bitty teeny weeny slivers of ginger
Some water
VERDICT: I quite like this one although it's still verging on the grassy side. I would say this would be celery flavoured with a twist of apple. Definitely much more drinkable than the last one!

We don't really have any glasses in our rental apartment hence the constant photos of the blue plastic tumblers. Doesn't really make for appetizing photos I must admit! Or is this just a case of the photographer blaming the props???

As you can see I basically halved the green to apple ratio from last time making a much more drinkable smoothie. I must admit I do miss my berries though, at this point I won't be converting to all green smoothies just yet! I'm still hooked on fruit smoothies for sure (banana, apple and berry = my idea of heaven).
From a comment on my previous post, I am also keen to try some beets (I'm Aussie and I LOVE beetroot) and more citrus in the near future.

To accompany my smoothie on that particular Friday, I was procrastinating about deadlines and decided to make a salad as I knew it would consume a respectable amount of time. All up, I think making the smoothie and the salad took about 20 minutes! I had cos lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, corn, parsley, celery and cucumber mixed with some lemon juice, orange vinegar, salt and pepper and topped with 2 x poached eggs. Thinking about how healthy it all was, I almost made myself sick. Might tasty and filling without that 'heavy' feeling (which will soon be experienced as I am heading up to Sydney in a couple of weeks for the holiday season :D - looking forward to gorging at all the new chocolate cafes and dumpling houses that have opened up in the last year!).

Daily Smoothie - Day 6

2008-11-25T16:03:00.006+11:00

TODAY'S SMOOTHIE:
Handful of cucumber
Handful of celery
Fistful of parsley
1 x Granny Smith Apple
Itty bitty bit of ginger
Juice of 1/2 Lemon
5 leaves Cos Lettuce
Some water
VERDICT: Chunk-a-rama! Tastes like ginger with ginger overtones, ginger and lemon undertones and a hint of ginger and celery.

Okay, so I jumped a little ahead of myself rather than ease myself into more and more greenery into my smoothies, today I went ahead and made Dr Oz's green drink from Oprah (substituting cos lettuce instead of spinach) with fairly random quantities of ingredients. I mean, how am I supposed to know how big a 'medium' cucumber is? Could be a cultural thing cos when I went to Colombia, the so-called large avocados in Australia were in fact extremely undersized midgets compared to their South American cousins.

Back to the smoothie: It is EXTREMELY chunky, not 'juicy' at all, more like - and although I don't like to use this word to describe something that is going into my mouth - SLUDGY. (Bet ya'll are dying to try this now!) Theoretically if I had a better blender it would be smooth and liquidy but as it is, I don't and it isn't and I think straining it would remove 99% of the healthiness of the 'drink' so I will be finishing this off with a spoon.
Also, see how that small amount of ginger on the plate under the lemon? Apparently that is too much ginger (for me anyways).
All in all, it doesn't taste all that bad (but I probably wouldn't drink it if I wasn't the one who made it ... who KNOWS what anyone could have put in there???) but I will be tweaking the recipe something severe when I make the next smoothie. Unfortunately, the quantity of ingredients yielded 2 cups of this and I can't convince Juan to finish the second cup ...

Also, in preparedness, I chopped up a large container of cucumber and celery. Bring on the smoothie experiments!!! Motivation PLUS +++ :D

Daily Smoothie - Day 3

2008-11-22T16:23:00.002+11:00

TODAY'S SMOOTHIE:
1/2 x Royal Gala Apple
1 x Medium Banana
2 x Handfuls of baby spinach
Dollop of Berry Yoghurt
Some water
VERDICT: More spinach! Tastes like apple with a hint of berry and a light spinach aftertaste. Not as sweet as the last two but definitely still sweet.

Plans to go to the Vic Markets derailed by HAIL. Yes HAIL one week before summer. Ah Melbourne, you always manage to deliver. However, having run out of any substantial food (ie breakfast goodies and meat), we had to brave the hail to grab some brunch (2 x poached eggs on toast w/tomato and bacon and a chai latte), some new soccer clothes for Juan (mmm red!) and finally, some emergency supplies for the next couple of days while we get around to being bothered to do our quasi-weekly shop.

Basically, we have also run out of fruit so the dollop of yoghurt was my insurance against the fear of the amount of yuckiness that double the amount of yesterday's spinach would bring. But really, I don't mind the taste of spinach anyway. And it doesn't look any greener than yesterday.

So Dr Oz will have to wait until Monday *sigh*

Daily Smoothie - Day 2

2008-11-21T14:27:00.005+11:00

TODAY'S SMOOTHIE:
1 x Pear (don't know what type)
1 x Largeish Banana
Some lemon juice
Handful of baby spinach
Some water
VERDICT: Ta-da! Green! Tastes like banana with a very pear-y aftertaste. Slightly gritty which I think is from the pears but could also be from the spinach.

I'm not sure how much fruit vs greenery these 'green smoothies' should have but I'm taking baby steps.
Also yesterday I thought today would be Saturday and that we would be going shopping but obviously its Friday so I make do with the spinach we have leftover from the week. Tomorrow I'll have my eye out for some celery, cucumbers, mint, parsley and possibly some ginger (and a bagful of lettuce) to stockpile for the week and to try Dr Oz's famous 'glass of fresh' recipe that was on Oprah ... oh how I love Oprah ...

So far so good!

Healthier Horizons - Day 1

2008-11-20T16:01:00.009+11:00

TODAY'S SMOOTHIE:
1 x Granny Smith Apple
1 x Largeish Banana
Juice of 1/2 a Lemon
Handful of frozen mixed berries
Some water
VERDICT: Tasty! But green less LOL Will be buying salad spinner and giant bag of leafy greens from the Queen Vic Markets tomorrow morning!

The last few months since quitting my (awful, mind numbing, soul crushing) desk monkey job have felt really great for me. I've moved forward a lot in terms of focussing on what I want and trying to work on my skills (like drawing a LOT which has been something I've always said I would do for almost 15 years now! Well now I'm finally stepping it up!). And now it's time to start focusing on my body!

For me personally, by the time I am 30 (which isn't that far off! eep!) I would like to be able to know not only that I have put the early 20's days of abusing my body thoroughly behind me (overconsumption of alcohol and abuse of all-you-can-eat buffets come to mind) but also that I have a good enough knowledge of what works for my body and what doesn't. I think it is safe to say that my metabolism has finally caught up with me and I can't eat like a crazy fat person stuck inside a seemingly petite Asian frame anymore. To express myself most articulately I must use Spanish: I am feeling rather 'fofo' of late ;-)
My natural aversion to exercise (I don't like sweating!) is something that definitely needs to be sorted out in the near future. Luckily Juan had the great idea of buying each other bicycles for Christmas (cycling and tennis are probably the only things I enjoy in the sports kingdom) so that we could start some leisure rides perhaps on a weekly basis over the summer. High five!
So physical activity aside, my first health goal is to make some small changes to my diet (because all the forces of the universe could never convince me to actually GO on a diet!). I don't think that we eat THAT badly. I don't drink coffee or fizzy drinks (how old do I sound if I mention that the fizz hurts my tongue?), I eat fast food very rarely and when cooking I try to use the minimal amount of oil and maximum amount of vegetables available. But there's always things that can improve!
Also, I need to figure out why I can't stop eating raw spanish onions in salads when I KNOW they make me feel bloated and indigested within an hour of consumption (oh why do they have to be sooo tasty???)

Now, if my blog hasn't made it clear I'll be explicit: I LOVE FOOD. I love experiencing taste and I love experiencing texture. (And I hate mangoes, papayas and apricots.)
I've always been interested in food. I love baking and cooking new things (day to day cooking kinda gets me down sometimes though ... I need new recipes!) and trying out new restaurants. If I see something I haven't tried before, it'll take something pretty disgusting looking to make me turn away from it (deep fried whole birds in Beijing have been know to shame me into submission). One of my top priorities of travelling is to experience new food both top and bottom end and luckily 'street meat' has only caught up with me once (in Laos I believe).
In recent years I've been rather more interested in the nutritional side of things. Although my love of food and cooking would never let me make such drastic changes as going completely raw food (or even slightly vegetarian) I love reading about such extremes as juice feasting and trying to see how the benefits of all these many health ideas could be incorporated into my life.

Which is all a rather long prelude to say that I began step one of 'Green Smoothies' today (smoothies made without milk and with lots of greens like spinach and lettuce) with the above 'greenless' smoothie only because I wanted to test my 10 year old blender's power. I used to love using vegetable juices (usually something like beetroot, celery, apple, tomato, ginger and carrot and prob about 5 other things from the juice bar in the food court under George Street Myers in Sydney) to pep me up on those weekly hungover Sundays at Dymocks so perhaps moving onto some greener juice tomorrow won't be all that hard!

Bottoms UP!

Kobe Jones 2 for 1 Tuesdays!

2008-10-29T18:32:00.003+11:00

(Click images to enlarge)

Almost a year ago I wrote about Kobe Jones' 2 for 1 deal down at the Docklands. Last night we finally made good on the offer and OH BOY it was good.

To celebrate everything and nothing in particular, we trundled off on a chilly October Tuesday to feast on the following:

Rainbow Roll and Beef in Amayaki sauce with capsicum and wasabi mash
Both were extremely tastilicious! The wasabi mash was extremely smooth and buttery with the added kick of wasabi with none of the nose assault. The beef was possibly our top pick: extremely soft, moist and saucy ... I can still taste it in my mouth ...

1. Reflection of the waterside in the candle holder. 2. Rainbow roll 3. Beef Amayaki

BBQ Pork Ribs and Green Tea Creme Brulee
Weird to order so much meat in a Japanese restaurant? Well, we ARE total carnivores! These BBQ ribs were soaked in sake then smothered in a chilli sauce. Attempting to eat these with flimsy disposably chopsticks was quite a task! Very tasty but once they got a bit cold, they tended to get a bit dry on the bits that had somehow escaped the sauce explosion. All this was topped off by a Green Tea Creme Brulee that surprisingly arrived totally flaming (sake?)! There was still a very strong alcohol taste on the sugar coating and a second surprise at the bottom: red bean (asuki?) paste. Oh Kobe Jones, how I love thee ...

1. Flaming green tea creme brulee. 2. BBQ Pork Ribs. 3. Deflamed brulee.

Food Adventures Roundup for the Month

2008-09-28T21:49:00.004+10:00

I think FOOD deserves an update of its own :)

#1 Bunuelos
When Kat and Matt came to town I detoured from our girlie shopping trip down Brunswick to Casa Iberica again look for almojabana mix but came out with Bunuelo mix instead. A substitute but a tasty substitute nonetheless!
Suprisingly, there was no disaster at all even though this experiment involved my #1 cooking phobia: deep frying. This is probably because I made Juan do all the scary stuff involving hot oil :) Although the insides of some were a little undercooked (we misinterpreted the directions and took out the first few too early: instead of waiting for them to "BECOME GOLDEN BROWN AND ROLL AROUND" which IN FACT meant that they should be rolling around by themselves, we waited for them to turn golden brown, rolled them around manually and took them out haha), aesthetically they were perfect and tasted pretty darn authentic for package mix.

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However, there were a few majorly pustulous individuals though such as Senor Bunuelo below :/

#2 Homemade Pizza
Learning our lesson from last time when our flatmate Sam made the dough, we decided not to overload our bases this time and everything turned out tasty AND practical to eat :D Toppings included Spanish Jamon (super expensive!!! I don't really know what it is or how it's different I like proscuitto better I think), super creamy stinky cheese, sundried tomatoes, ham, mushrooms, capsicum, spanish onion and regular tomato paste and cheese. Satisfying on both a taste and domestic goddess level.

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#3 Orange Chocolate Brownie Cake with Orange Chocolate Ganache

We went to IKEA this morning to find solutions to organise our space better (read: shoe rack!!!) as we have a newly appointed 'home office' (more on this exciting development later ;)
HOW MUCH DO I LOVE IKEA? I finally bought a cake stand that I've been hankering for for AAAAGES. Therefore I felt that I just HAD TO make the most fattifying cake in the world. I've also wanted to try the couveture chocolate down at the markets for a long time and I can really taste the difference (at $24 kg I BETTER be able to ... unlike the Spanish jamon ... grrr). It melts really easily ... as in it was melting inside the paper bag in Juan's hands as we were walking home from the markets.
All I can say is that this is the DENSEST RICHEST baked good I have ever made, I think it's going to take a while for us to chow through this!

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And in keeping with the theme (here and here), another mutant!!! Two punnets for $3 at the markets hehe

Happy gorging everyone!!! xx

Spring Update Central

2008-09-08T20:27:00.006+10:00

Spring! After my second Melbourne Winter (it totally deserves a capital "W" down here) Spring has sprung again. Juan and I celebrated with an impromptu lunch of Okonomiyaki and Bibimbop in Flagstaff Gardens.
Also cause for celebration is my liberation (yay!) from my boring boring desk monkey job! It has been a week and it has been luv-er-ly. Totally. I have also started running around the park. Four times in the last week which is a lot better than once every six months. For now, 2 laps takes me around 15 minutes ... not sure if that's good or very very bad ...

This last week (my first week since leaving my cubicle) Juan and I have been working on a portfolio website which should hopefully be up within a two weeks. Watch out people! JooJu is starting their slow process of dominating the WORLD!
I've also applied for a couple of things and will be seeing some guys about some pitch tomorrow evening which will hopefully turn into a paid project rather than a freebie ... depends on my negotiation skills I guess.

The Out of Controller exhibition is also on this Wednesday night! Will any Wii (or DS) goodness come out of it? All shall be revealed ... fingers crossed ...

In the world outside my apartment, Kat and Matt came to visit last week! In a whole day of shopping I managed to buy just 2 jumpers (one zipup and one pullover). Thrifty indeed. We had a dark and tasty dinner at Basque on Chapel street (although the portions were rather diminuitive).

They gave me a star molded pan for eggs (maybe pikelets as well). My first attempt was not so good but the second one was majorly fluffy. Novelty makes everything taste so much better.

And lastly, while uploading photos I came across some forgotten night shots from random times in the last month. So ... Tada!

Light installation on Bourke Street. Ferris wheel on the Yarra. Inside Fed Sq Atrium. Light installation again.

Random Stuffage

2008-08-10T15:11:00.005+10:00

(Click images to enlarge.)

Sorry to anyone who comes here (all two of you!) and hasn't seen anything interesting lately, once again I've been a slack updater. Deja vu yes?

Feeling good about things lately. I've decided to quit my desk monkey job at the end of August to pursue something far more meaningful to me. If I'm gonna waste away at a job for the better part of my days, fingers crossed I can find something reasonably creative and possibly animate-y.

I have some crafty ideas with old smelly books I bought at a booksale hosted by the Victorian Historical Society (near our flat incidentally). Before the year is out I want to open an Etsy shop to see if I can sell some art for kicks.

Currently I am working on my first proper illustration EVER for the Out of Controller exhibition. Past high school I don't think I've ever worked on a single image for more than a day (I'm discounting all the graphic-y type move-y stuff for my bachelor's degree!). I'm more of a doodler. But this time I planned, traced, collected visual references, organised digital files. Mmmm ... satisfying. Even more so as I get to play Super Smash Bros Brawl in the name of 'research'.

The video for "Cuando Ries" is within a tiptoe of the finish line. Updates and images over at Juan's blog here and here :D

I don't like posting without photos so here's some niceness:

My new coat! It arrived about a month ago so it's not that new but it is getting a LOT of wear I can assure you. The cat belongs to one of our neighbours. It is pooping in our back patio. >:(

I have won all the cups in Mario Kart Wii :D But I haven't got the big group photo on my laptop so this one will do ...

Not so recently but at least within the last month, I made possibly the BEST cake in my reportoire thus far: chocolate brownie cake topped with mixed berries. It was from the Donna Hay "Chocolate" book and since I didn't have a slice tin or plain flour, I used a round cake tin and self-raising flour thus transforming a recipe for 'brownies' into a recipe for 'cake' (moist, rich, dense cake!).
On the right is our small effort on Colombia's Independence day (July 20): hardcore hot chocolate (dark chocolate vs milk ratio was somewhere around 2:3), pandebonos (a VAST improvement from our previous effort as we used the right cheese this time) and extra mozzarella to stuff into the chocolate. Tastilicious!!!

In nerd news, I FINALLY figured out how to use RSS feeds in Thunderbird so now I can stop checking on my favourite blogs and other fun filled sites everyday since they will come to me!

My First Congee

2008-06-20T16:54:00.002+10:00

Comfort food! Dodgy weather and a cooking bug resulted in my first time making congee and luckily it was a success!

I read some internet recipes calling for 1 part rice to 10 parts water (!!!) but I used about a 1:7 ratio I think (pretty much all that could fit into our pot, and it totally looks like a HECK of a lot of congee!).

Included pretty much everything I could think of (hehehe):
*Chicken (marinated in soy, ginger and sesame oil)
*Fish (perch)
*Ginger
*Green Onion
*Chilli
*Chilli preserved tofu
*Chilli Bamboo
*Pork floss
*Peanuts
*Salty Duck Egg

(Click on image to enlarge)

Checkout the macro action on the pork floss in the final photo! Lovin' it! Mmmmm ...

Birthday Barrage!!!

2008-05-20T16:42:00.008+10:00

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Twas my 27th birthday (O M G ! ! !) on Thursday and although I had taken the day off so we could go to the zoo, we had to finish our submission for the TV Ident comp. Boo to priorities. Yay for the end result! We're both pretty chuffed with our week and a half of work.

On the flipside, after we strolled into town to hand it in, we had the whole afternoon on our hands! Armed with Mummy's credit card, I dragged poor Juan all through the city looking for some leggings (seriously, I just wanted PLAIN BLACK LEGGINGS!!! what's the problem retail stockist people???) that I needed to match my NEW BOOTS!!! (scroll down to see!) Thanks Mum & Dad!!!

Since no male should really have to spend so much time traipsing futiley through Melbourne Myer's basement Miss Shop (while his girlfriend is utterly disoriented and convinced that getting people to feel as if they are in the Bermuda Triangle is a massive marketing ploy), Juan was rewarded with churros and hot choccie at SAN CHURRO!!! YES!!! A SAN CHURRO OPENED IN THE CITY!!! I never have to leave the CBD again ... the interior is nowhere near as nice as the one on Brunswick Street though ...

(Mmmm ... chocolate ... deep fried dough, sugar and chocolaaaaaaate ...)

Although we were sceptical about our capacity for dinner after the saturated fats and sugar, that didn't stop us from heading down to the Docklands to Saganaki Greek restaurant. Fairly casual and VERY quiet but I guess it was a school night ...

On the menu for us was ...
1) Baby octopus and haloumi wrapped in MEAT and crumbs and then fried. Quadruple thumbs up!!!
2) Juan ordered the largest thing he could find (again) which was a beef rissole type thing with mash. Muy deliciouso!
3) I got the lamb chops which were WAY tasty and juicy (all FIVE of them ... I had to relinquish one to Juan-chan as there was NO way they were all gonna fit in MY BELLY!!!) but got a bit cold towards the end ... and no ... I DON'T eat too slowly!!!

'No dessert?!' I hear you all cry? Well that's because there was berry cheesecake waiting at home :D

Presents from my Baby!!! ALL THREE SEASONS of Ruruoni Kenshin (or Samurai X for Gaijin) and Kingdom Hearts II (although he gave me this a couple of weeks ago and I'd played some of it already hehe The storyline is hella confusing though cos I've never played the first one ...)

In Exhibit B here, we see my NEW BOOTS (which I wore to dinner that night) and some assorted cuteness from Sam, Moonsun, Kat, Matt and She!!! Pencil case, cookie cutters, coin purse and peanut butter and jelly earrings! :D

And HERE is something that has nothing to do with anything: It was SIX DEGREES and raining last Saturday.

And yet, my experiment in planting the ends of store bought shallots (spring or green onions to Non-Aussies) seems to be a success!!! (The mint never was ... and never will be ...)

Flickr Mosaic - Cupcakes

2008-05-08T23:11:00.003+10:00

Is there creativity in hoarding?

I really like cupcakes (both the making and the consumption of). Unfortunately, I hate fondant and therefore will never create any cakes as pretty as many of these. Obviously for me, good taste wins out over aesthetics (did you hear that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within?).
Anyway, hopping on the Flickr mosaic wagon, and because I have nothing better to do at work, here is my first Flickr mosaic.

(Click link to view full image)
1. by Lovetobake 2. by Lovetobake 3. by Bahja 4. by creampuffsinvenice 5. by mushroom garden 6. by Tofu666 7. by Ouissi 8. by Lovetobake 9. by littlepretty 10. by ox3x3xo 11. by L C 12. by shutterbean 13. by A.S.I.N. 14. by sugar-skull.com 15. by ShamsD 16. by maitaimai99 17. by maitaimai99 18. by Jenniffer B 19. by momskitchen 20. by evan 이밴저린 21. by hazymat 22. by dots treats 23. by dots treats 24. by rob1out 25. by thesitedoc 26. by stefhope 27. by velouria! 28. by velouria! 29. by be cheery 30. by dots treats 31. by Lovetobake 32. by kylie lambert 33. by Carrie Taylor 34. by hello naomi 35. by hello naomi 36. by Trish CupcakeMomma

Juan's Birthday (and Iron Man!)

2008-05-07T21:23:00.008+10:00

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Twas the beautiful Juan's Birthday on Saturday! Happy Birthday Baby! So I made a hazelnut gateaux and topped it off with strawberries and cream (any excuse for a cake really ...) using a VERY retro piping syringe thing handed down from my mum to decorate. It takes a sensitive hand to control that thing ... a sensitivity I have yet to acquire ...

Mmmm ... strawberries and cream ...

Dinner was at The Deck on Southbank, a pleasant location with a nice view ... had it been warmer and the plastic shades hadn't been down!!!

On the tram ride and then trying to decide what to gorge ourselves on!

And the winners were:
1) Entree: Smoked eel (Juan's first time ... awww) was tasty indeed. The unidentified tapenade notsomuch and the terrine tasted distinctly of sardines which I didn't mind but Juan was not a fan.
2) Juan order 400g of slow cooked beef. It was super tender and juicy. Oh yum.
3) Duck! With a weird 'foam' smeared along one side of the plate that I think was horseradish and cauliflower but I couldn't be sure. Mighty tasty and succelent. I just can't go past a good piece of duck! Thumbs up.
4) Vanilla creme brulee with stewed figs and macadamia sorbet. Brulee was delish and creamy yet light. But seriously, aside from a minor lapse at the Blue Mountains, I really don't like figs.
Overall a nice dinner and not too extreme on the gluttonous side (with a stellar and meaty effort from Juan!).

Tight-ass Tuesday! Sam, Moonsun and JuanJo went to see Iron Man and it was AWESOME! (Seeing that my most recent cinema experience was Superhero Movie, it wasn't hard to top ...) Enough action for the boys and enough humour for people who aren't all that familiar with Iron Man. But most importantly: a distinct lack of annoying whiney-ness from Gwyneth Paltrow! All that PLUS the brilliance of Robert Downey Jnr who I have sorely missed on the movie scene. I think it's one of those Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow things; noone else could have done the job nearly half as good.
Fav scene: "This is not the worst thing you have caught me doing." Heh :D

(Everyone who hasn't seen it yet ... wait til the end of the credits ... trust me ...)

Playing with my camera on Level 3 of Melbourne Central whilst waiting for Moonsun. Why does everything look better at night? And why does Juan insist that he has a steadier hand than me!?!? I think these ones aren't too bad for lack of tripod! I especially like the line play in the middle one :)

Botched Baked Banana Beasties

2008-04-24T08:32:00.005+10:00

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Haven't had a baking disaster quite like this one for a while!

CAUSES
1) I assumed the flour in the plastic Ikea container was self-raising. It wasn't.
2) I didn't have brown sugar ... so I used honey ...
3a) I was trying to make a double batch ... but didn't have enough flour so made a "one and a half" batch of the recipe ... but didn't have enough bananas ...
3b) From (3a), the dough was a too dry ... so I added another egg ...
4) I took out the dough too early from the oven.

FIXES
1) Cream - To combat the doughiness and dryness
2) Buttercream Icing - To combat the lack of sweetness and moistness and ugliness of the tops of the 'muffins'

RESULT
Juan thinks they are okay and still taste banana-y ... HOORAH!!!

To combat this visual monstrosity, here is my thriving coriander which we have begun to use regularly!!! (Still nothing on the mint :( I have now used all the seeds and still nothing ... what did I do wrong!?!?)

Food filled Saturday

2008-04-20T10:56:00.008+10:00

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After life drawing class yesterday (MUCH later ... grrrRRRR ... that was my stomach's growling ... not me ...), Juan and I toddled off down to the Docklands for some Fish and Chips and Calamari. YUM!

Whilst there, I saw some Asians taking photos of the water. WTF? I had a peek and there were DOZENS of jellyfish bubbling around. I reckon they are the strangest animals on the planet. Following on from a "Do seagulls feel happy?" from Juan, I pondered whether jellyfish have emotions and if so, how are they expressed since they obviously have no face. Are they aware of their facelessness and if so, does it make them sad? Lonely? Disconnected?

Mmmm ... bubblicious ...

Then we waddled off back home and Sam (our flatmate) has decided to try his hand at homemade pizzas. Everything turned our reasonable well except ... well, Juan and I were too greedy with the toppings and although cooked, our pizzas turned out rather soggy ... and thus mishapen as it was very difficult to transfer them from plate to tray to plate again.

Look at all the colours of toppings!!! Moonsun, Juan and Sam going to town on their creations. The final shot is Sam and Moonsun's efforts ... prettier than ours but no doubt less tasty since they are devoid of MEAT hehe ...

Before and after's of Juan and I's pizzas. Juan had the meatlovers (well ham and salami) and I had a 3-cheese hehehe ... blue, tasty and smoked mozzarella ... mmmmmmmm ...

Earth Hour with Ajiaco

2008-03-31T18:52:00.004+11:00

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Happy Earth Hour everyone! What a great excuse for extra Conversation and Cuddles :D

Colombian culinary arts #4: Ajiaco!!! Tasted even better the day after since we made a vast pot of it. A sort of chicken and potato soup (and lots of basil in lieu of the elusive 'guascas') eaten with rice and avocado. Delish! But not a good idea when all the lights were out and you have to grope for the sides! And eating corn with a spoon is not recommended ... muy rico!

Germination = Self Obsessed Elation

2008-03-28T10:33:00.013+11:00

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My coriander germinated in 7 days!!! Look at the beasties go! I know my excitement outweighs the effort involved (shove in pot mix + seeds + water) but basking now in the (over)confidence of my own green thumbery, I have aspirations for basil, cherry tomatoes and a chilli tree! (*Note: I realise that the mint has no sign of life but am in denial ... plus they aren't due to germinate for another week ...)

Slightly less successful was Colombian cooking experiment #3: Packaged Pandebonos. They turned out rather pustulicious and floury and unsalty.
Several factors:
1)I used the wrong cheese which was compounded by:
a)I grated it instead of grinding it into a fine powder
b)I didn't add salt even though I knew the cheese to be unsalty
2)The package instructions are confusing (see pic)
3)We were using the oven to cook dinner simultaneously (as part of my conversion into an urban hippie) so I wasn't keeping track of the time ...

On the other hand, VERY successful was Colombian project #2 accomplished on the long weekend: Changua! But we wolfed it down as a late late breakfast so no photos :( will make more this weekend!)

Shehana came down for Easter weekend! Huzzah! We went shopping for a WHOLE DAY and nary a clothes purchase in sight. And not from want of trying either. Pretty lame Milhouse, pretty lame.
It wasn't a total bust as we did discover some pretty lanes stemming off Lt Flinders and I'm still thinking about a cute red woollen jumper with faux fur-lined hood I saw that day since the weather has dropped 20 degrees in one week. Go Melbourne!

(Since I didn't take my camera around during easter, this is the only easter related imagery I have: Raulniño (imported from Bogota) getting to know Bunny de Lindt)

Sam (flatmate) came home from a week-long trip to Korea and all we got were these headbands.

(Juan got wings. I got cartoon poop. So who got shafted?)

He also brought back some cool Korean metal rice bowls and chopsticks (the hollow lightweight kind cos Juan's precious artist fingers can't handle the weight of regular Korean chopsticks!)

After almost a year of potentially dangerous kitchen situations with blunt chopping knives, we finally played house and bought a new knife. Taking advantage of the 2-for-1 that day we grabbed a freebie sharpening stone which Juan enthusiastically employed on our old knives.

Dutifully, I cut myself this morning making a sandwich.

I start Life Drawing on 12th April! Joy! (Giving birth to the all-new-and-improved "What is 'Newsprint'?" dilemma.)

Also planning a Colombian candlelit feast (ajiaco, possibly frijoles and natilla) for Earth Hour this Saturday. Lights off everyone!

And finally, this sat immediately outside our front door for a good portion of the afternoon. Melbournites sure are trusting.

Mostly Culinary Photo Essay: The last week or so ...

2008-03-19T16:56:00.008+11:00

(Click images to enlarge!)

Valentine's dinner on our balcony :D Roasted lamb with parsnip chips, wholegrain mayonnaise and steamed greens.
Oreo cupcakes with creamcheese icing! (A girl's gotta have her cake!)

We found a Spanish grocery store up in Fitroy (Casa Iberica at 25 Johnston St) and despite not having guascas (which, according to the English-language Google is used PURELY to make ajiaco) we bought some items to kickstart my education in the art of Latin cooking.

Project #1: Arepas! Below we can see the maize flour used to make these savoury pancake-y style accompaniments. In a fit of inspiration, Juan threw in a few handfuls of mozzarella to make these into Arepas con Queso!!! Mmmm ... then we added ham, onions and eggs on top for a Sunday morning feast :D

More goodies from Casa Iberica: Not sure how the Natilla (a Christmas pudding) and the Pandebono (cheesy minibuns) will turn out ... but I have my hopes set high on the tiny yellow potatoes we like to call Criollas! This week's project is the aforementioned ajiaco ...
Project #2: Herb garden.
Upon visiting the closest nursery to the city (on the far FAR end of Brunswick street) and talking to the green thumb there, herbs are harder to grow than I thought :( Still, I just whacked them in there, crossed my fingers and am hoping for some sort of result in the next two weeks!

The Great R E O R G A N I S A T I O N

2008-03-19T07:55:00.007+11:00

Time to resurrect this greatly neglected blog ...

Colombia was an amazing place, an incredible variety of architecture, landscapes, activities and of course ... FOOD!!! Most importantly, I got to spend a lot of time with Juan's family and experience a refreshingly different kind of Christmas/NYE than any I've had before! But most unfortunately, my Spanish did not improve all that much after 2 whole months (although I did manage to add a lot more nouns into my vocabulary) so I've decided to enrol into a Spanish course here in Melbourne sometime in the coming months ...

Facebook photo albums of Colombia (and some of San Fran which was a really beautiful place ... never thought I would like a place in America so much!)

Week 1 - In Transit, Bogota and Villeta
Week 2 & 3 - Bogota and Zipaquira
Week 4 & 5 - Bogota, Chia, Villeta, San Gil and Bucaramanga
Week 4 & 5 - Chicamocha, San Gil and Barichara
Week 6 & 7 - Bogota, Giradot and San Francisco

Upon returning to Melbourne there was a month or so of visa issues to the point of which Juan and I didn't know if we were coming or going (or staying) and some rather emotional times all round. After a whirlwind trip up to Sydney at the end of February for a Fong-y Reunion for my Mum's Birthday (click here for Blue Mountains photos), we return to Melbourne and sort out a new visa plan with 4 working days to spare!!! This boy likes to keep me on my toes I tells ya!

And so now I feel more settled than I have for years.

And ironically, all the more motivated to end the inertia that has kept me putting things off and off and off ... time to chase that dream ... time to stop being comfortable ... time to BECOME ... AN ANIMATOR!!!! Look out world!!! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!!!

Excitingly, Juan and I (and his friend Christian) are starting work on a music video for the Colombian band that made the music for his major project of 2006. It's titled "Cuando Ries" ('When you smile') and it's gonna be real pretty :D
* I am also enrolling in a 6 week life drawing course in a bid to move away from the crapness that is my representational drawing skills.
* After this course I will begin my formal training in Spanish!
* I vow to Draw more, Create more and BAKE MORE (to the advantage of Juan and my new flatmate Sam)!!!
* I vow to take more photos since I now have a really good camera (which is gathering dust on the coffee table).
* I started a herb garden on the weekend. I have a pot of coriander and a pot of mint. If there is no germination in 10 days, I will be bitterly disappointed ... but I have more than half the seeds left so there's always a second/third/fourth try! I will try for basil in the Spring ...

I think that is all. I feel something in the air.

Wow, so text based ... I'm writing this at work ... will post photos when I get home ...

We Eats Good Yah?

2007-10-16T15:36:00.000+10:00

We've started a tradition of having 'challenging' dinners on Sunday nights (adding to the pleasure of mocking the farce that is Idol) and last Sunday Juan make this gorgeous fake monkfish wrapped in prosciutto with sundried tomato and basil pesto and mash.
I say fake because:
a) we didn't know what monkfish was or what it looked like,
and b) there wasn't anything labelled monkfish at the markets so we got some random white fish since neither of us can tell the difference between any of them!!!
It was muy deliciouso! Prosciutto just makes everything better.
As if you wouldn't pay $20+ for a plate like this!!! And I'll bet it'd be nowhere as filling :D

Suffering from baked good withdrawals, I make this cheesecake topped brownie sometime in the last week but forgot to document it thus it is mostly eaten in these photos. It turned out more like a cake ... mostly cos I don't have a slice tray and used a round cake tin to bake it in ... but once it coolled down, it had the taste and consistency of brownie so I choose to label it a success regardless of the aesthetics!!!

Remember the mutant strawberries? Well the markets struck again (or perhaps our own thriftiness?) when we purchased a punnet of undersized strawberries for $1.50.

PS Kobe Jones is having a 2-for-1 dinner special on Tuesdays and Wednesdays down at Waterfront City so the question has to be asked: Does my longing for overly styled Japanese outweigh my panic over my Major Project? Yet to be decided ...

Dinner with Juan at Bluefire (Docklands)

2007-09-17T19:19:00.000+10:00

As promised, photos from our yummo dinner at the Docklands! :D

On second thoughts, that IS half a baby pig!!! Well the ribs anyway. Soooo tender and tasty ...

And of course, there had to be a chocolate appearance, that night, in the form of a gooey, saucy pudding with REAL vanilla ice-cream (ie with little flecks of vanilla seeds).

Bring on the eating in Colombia!!!!! :D :D :D

This and That (BTW -> We are going to Colombia!!)

2007-09-13T11:23:00.001+10:00

STOP PRESS: After a few false starts, Juan and I tracked down a reasonable deal and have now paid off our airfares to Colombia!!! Excitement plus plus plus! We depart Melbourne on the 1st of December, probably spending the whole month with his family in Bogota. There is the possibilities of some side trips here and there before we go to San Francisco on the 13th January to visit his sister Carolina and then depart San Fran on the 20th to return to 'sunny' Melbourne!!! This major project could not go fast enough ...

... BUT YES YES YES!!! I HAVE FINISHED MY ANIMATIC (FINALLY!!!) but right now I am at uni and can't access my YahooMail account which, in a convoluted way, means that I can't upload videos onto my YouTube account which means as much as I want to update the 'Production' part of my blog I can't until I get home this afternoon.
I am quite excited to start producing the actual film, I don't think I'm cut out for all the conceptual work which is why I think there has been so much dilly-dallying up until this point. But I am at uni to learn (so they say) and I must say that I think I've learnt quite a lot on the pre-production side of things. Which isn't to say that I liked it ... bring on the production!!!

So instead of uploading my animatic right now, here's some photos of random things!!!

I was so optimistic that Spring had actually arrived in Melbourne (heck, I hadn't worn a scarf for weeks!) that I snapped these lovelies found in the common area of my apartment block:

However, it was not meant to be ... the last couple of weeks I have almost been windswept off the kerb and into oncoming traffic a handful of times. Superb! However, today things are finally looking on sunnier side!

Matt and Kat came to visit little ol' me a couple of weeks ago which was a friendly, sugar-filled and welcome distraction from the brainbusting toil of tweaking my script and story. In between a spot of shopping, we stopped off at Chocolateria San Churro (Brunswick Street, Fitzroy) for, well, a late afternoon injection of churros! And a sickeningly sweet white iced chocolate ... not exactly 'blergh' but ... I think I was one chug away from a sugar coma ...

Somehow we managed to fit in dinner at Cafe Cavellino (Lygon Street, Carlton) which was absolutely deliciouso but ashamedly, the antipasto pizza defeated Juan and I and we had two slices leftover (although I DID pick off most of the yummo toppings :D)

And now, some truly random things:
Now that I'm going to uni more often (mostly because it's sunny enough that I can no longer use the 'I want to stay at home and drink hot chocolate under a doona' excuse) here are some of the things that catch my eye during the pleasant stroll:

And this is what you get for buying a large punnet (twice the size of the supermarket ones) of strawberries at the markets for $3. MUTANT STRAWBERRIES!!!

There's also some photos of a nice dinner that Juan and I consumed at the Docklands (a treat from the good people at the ATO who gave me a wonderfully fat tax return) that I will post this afternoon as well :)

Meanwhile, I'm loving life, starting to enjoy my major (finally!), trying to learn a reasonable amount of Spanish in three months, looking forward to December and managing to squeeze Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and America's Next Top Model into my busy, busy schedule!!!

Adios!!! (until this afternoon :D)

Culinary Diversions

2007-08-21T13:33:00.001+10:00

In all news good, I finally got to the bottom of my stupid rechargeable battery debacles and figured out which ones worked and which ones have retired gracefully so my camera is up and running like a delicious mocha mud cake. So plenty of photos from now on!!!

Recently, work on my major has hit all sort of detours and roadblocks. I'm inspired. Then I'm confused. Then I'm confident. Then I'm scared. And so I bake ... (whoever said procrastinating was unproductive, I must beg to differ!)

These are peanut butter choc chip cupcakes with coffee icing :D

I also managed to make this monstrosity of a paella a week or two back and was rewarded with Juan's super delicious pepper steak (muy MUY peppery!!!) and potato and broccoli with blue cheese cream sauce. Don't say we don't eat well on our humble student incomes!

We also managed to see the overpriced Guggenheim exhibition at the NGV but aside from a few interesting pieces (as usual, I leaned towards the foodie paintings of American James Rosenquist) I found myself a little disappointed at the small collection. But I DID manage to take some random shots of the entrance! :P

And randomly, something nice we saw at Fed Sq when we went to the Pixar exhibition (which TOTALLY kicked ass over the Guggenheim exhibition and was HALF the price grrrr)

But never fear, work IS being done as evidenced by the mess and concentration in our dining room come 'Geek Central'!!!

Adios Amigoes!!! Until the next scheduled procrastination session!!!