Fiesta

Tonight, family came over to visit Little One. We decided to have a Mexican Feast. We got the idea of the mexican meal from a cooking show on Lifestyle Food on Foxtel. The show was called Chef at Home, where chef Michael Smith now prefers to cook at home for his family rather than in a restaurant.

Hubby made quesadillas with avocado and corn salsa for entrée. Below is the recipe for the avocado and corn salsa. It's very easy to make. I loved the fresh taste of this inside the tortilla. We didn't take a picture of hubby's quesadilla's as we forgot.

Avocado and Corn Salsa.

In a bowl, mix together,
frozen corn
1 avocado, cubed
lime juice
1/'2 red onion, peeled and chopped
coriander leaves (we used parsley as we're not fans of coriander)
cumin powder
splash of olive oil
salt
spicy hot sauce.

Rub the salsa into a tortilla. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Fold over in half and then cook in a pan on low to medium low heat, till brown.


For the main, Hubby made Tacos. The Taco sauce was very quick and easy to make. It's a matter of just throwing a few ingredients together in a pan and simmer.

Taco Sauce.

In a pan, sauté
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
chlli powder (as much or as little as you like)

When the onions are transparent add the minced beef (about 250gram) and cook till brown. Then add 1 400g can of tomatoes, 1 can of black beans (we used 4 bean mix) and a touch of vinegar. Simmer till the sauce thickens down. This didn't take long, maybe around 15 mins.

To serve, we lined the taco with a lettuce leaf, (this helps hold in the meat sauce) then spoon the sauce in, top with grated cheese and spring onions ( we also spooned in left over avocado and corn salsa from the quesadillas).

The Mexican table



Avocado and corn salsa



Taco sauce


My brother in law made a pitcher of marguiritas.



For dessert I made Apple Burritos. This was meant to be served with dolce de leche which is a can of condensed milk that has been simmered in a pot of boiling water for 2 hours then cooled down to room temperature. It turns into a sweet, brown sticky sauce that can be used for any dessert. Since our meal was a last minute decision, we didn't have the two hours to make it so we served the burritos with ice cream and golden syrup instead.

Apple Burrito

Peel and chop 5 granny smith apples then sauté in a pan with apple juice, a few heaping spoons of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Simmer till it turns into a thick filling. Add a spoonful of corn flour that has been dissolved in apple juice then add walnuts. Spoon the mixture into tortillas and wrap into burritos. Bake in a moderate oven till crispy (about 10-15mins)



Bon Appetite
Cherrie

Crisp Heaven

Hubby's crisp stash...



Bon appetite
Cherrie

Flapjacks

This English treat is a Flapjack.


Hubby loves these. I've made Flapjacks for him a number of times but I bet he thinks not enough times.

Flapjacks are sort of like muslie bars but the main ingredient is rolled oats. This recipe, that I got from the English Good Food Magazine, is very easy to follow. It's simply mixing together brown sugar, a little golden syrup (a good English brand) and melted butter over a low heat. Once it forms a think dark brown syrup, you then add the oats and mix. Bake in the oven for about 25 mins. It was so easy to make that I made it early on Sunday morning while keeping one eye on the little one as hubby slept in.

Personally, I find this a little too sweet for my taste but hubby really loves them so I keep making them for him.

Bon appetite
Cherrie

FGY Art Gallery Tea House

My friend MnM and I met for lunch today and now that I'm back in the city, I get to go here again. There was no second thought about it when MnM suggested it. It's a Buddhist Vegetarian Tea House inside the Fo Guang Yuan Art Gallery.

Walking into the dining hall makes me feel spiritual. The food is Vegan so it means no meat, seafood, dairy or anything remotely linked to animals. For a person that likes my meat products, I always enjoy my meals here.

Every day of the week they have different specials. Somehow MnM and I always end up going on a Thursday. This time round I had a hotpot served in an iron pot. It had vegetable balls, some green vegetables and tofu. Served with it was picked cabbage, some chilli and a few slices of apple for dessert. MnM had her Thursday usual, "beef" rendang. It's served in a bento box, along with rice some mixed vegies and a few slices of oranges. The mock beef was made of tofu and had the texture and taste of beef. MnM really enjoys this dish that's why she gets all the time when we go on Thursdays. Maybe I can convince her to try something else next time????

To drink I had the iced kumquat tea.... and it was delish. I usually have the hot version but MnM suggest I try this one. I'm glad I listened to her. She had a glass of grass Jelly which she liked a lot. Not only the meals are really tasty, it's cheap too. Both dishes were about $9 and our drinks about $3 each. So for $12 you get a decent size, tasty meal.

Leaving here after a meal always makes my soul feel cleansed and my stomach full.


Bon Appetite
Cherrie

Treats From Home

Hubby loves his English treats. Ever since I discovered this shop in the city, I've made quite a few trips there. I usually spend a small fortune in that store. If you spend $50 or more, you get a free calico bag. Needless to say, we have a cupboard full of these bags!.

Here's a sample of what we bought today.





Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Thai Food Festival

As mentioned on my daughter's website, we went to the Thai Food Festival today. It was held at the River Bank of Federation square. There were lots of activities happening but since hubby and I love Thai food we headed straight for the food stalls. This festival is very popular. I had to elbow my way through the crowd to get to the food. The stalls were not accepting money so in order to purchase food and drinks we had to buy coupons.



Hubby had Thai green Curry on Rice. He liked it very much, the sauce tasted very coconuty and had the right amount of heat to it.

I was in the mood for barbeque (probably because of the barbeque aroma wafting through the air) so I had barbeque chicken. I love the flavour of the marinade. I think I will look around the net for a good Thai recipe for this one and cook it for the next family gathering.



I was looking forward to something sweet, however there was only one stall that was selling dessert. I love pandan so I chose this pandan sweet. It had the distinct taste of the pandan and coconut. It was topped with shredded coconut that has been salted somehow and a small sachet of what looked like black sesame seeds.


There was also one stall selling drinks, so you can imagine how much elbowing I had to do to get served. There were a variety of different drinks for sale but all (including the posters) were in Thai!

We chose the honey-lemon green iced tea. The view was free.

Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Puffy

Today my work friends introduced me to this...








It's a Puffy Cookie.

There's a store in QV called Puffy that sell these little gems. It's a cookie that has been injected with custard.... **drool**

The "cookie" is crunchy, crumbly and sweet while the custard is creamy and smooth. I find the custard not to be too sweet so it goes really well with the cookie. The only thing is that it's hard to eat without making a mess and dropping the custard as you take a huge bite into it.

Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Chefs

The only regret I have about this blog of mine is that I didn't start it earlier. Looking back on all my past food experiences, I would have liked to have shared them with you. I have enjoyed harvest festivals, cooking demonstrations by world renowned chefs, progressive lunches and dinners, food and wine festivals, dining in great restaurants, dinners with Donna Hay, Kylie Kwong and Maggi Beer (not at the same time) and of course my own dinners and parties.

Below is a collage of the great chefs I have been lucky to watch do their thing.



Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Beechworth Bakery Ballarat

Today we were in Ballarat for the Antique Fair and decided to pop into the Beechworth Bakery for lunch. Hubby and I both had a pie. He had steak and potato and I had the steak and mushroom. They were good. I love a good home made pie. It beats the commercially made ones hands down.

We then wanted something sweet. They had such a wide range of cakes and slices that we couldn't decide what to get, so we got a selection. We chose a chocolate éclair, caramel slice, vanilla slice, hedgehog, lemon slice and a huge lamington.



I think I would like to return to Beechworth Bakery just for the cakes and slices if we are anywhere near one of their stores.

Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Godson's Baptism

I was honoured to be asked by my brother and sister in law to make my new nephew a Baptism cake.

I baked a triple layer, jam filled, chocolate cake with marzipan icing for my Godson Carlo.




Bon Appetit
Cherrie

The Red Box

I have now returned to work from maternity leave. I work in the city so I am spoilt for choice when deciding where and what to eat for lunch. A few weeks ago, I read about the Little Red Box from Mellie from Tummy Rumbles. Since I work only half a block away, I had to try it.

Cafe Vue have a lunch special called "The lunch Box".



For $15 you get 4 courses : a savoury, a salad, a sandwich and a sweet. The menu changes on a monthly basis.


Fist of all, I love the Box it comes in. I've kept my empty one sitting on my office desk.

This week's menu was a Bisque with garlic croutons for the savoury course. The Salad was a Potato and Truffle Salad. The Sandwich was a delicious Chilled Duck Burger. I was looking forward to tasting this and it didn't disappoint. I could taste the herbs in the duck patty which gave it the "gourmet" taste and not that ordinary burger taste. The sweet was a Strawberry Cheesecake. This was not too sweet, that's probably why I liked it so much.




I am definitely returning for another Lunch Box.

Bon Appetit
Cherrie

Pavlova

I don't bake as often as I would like to. Since I had lots of egg whites left over from the leche flan I made the week before, I decided to make use of them instead of throwing them out. I hate to throw anything out, just ask Hubby :)


I thought I'd make a Pavlova using Donna Hay's Recipe This was my first attempt and it turned out alright. It was crispy on the outside and edges and fluffy and marshmallow-like in the middle. We ate it with whipped cream and sliced bananas on top. It tasted nice actually. Do I sound surprised? That's because I am.

Jambalaya

Ever since our little one was born, Hubby has learnt to cook. He has mastered a couple of dishes that he likes to cook often. One being jambalaya. The recipe was taken from Ainsley Harriot's Friends and Family Cookbook.


Tonight, hubby felt like Jambalaya and since it was a last minute decision to cook this, we had to deviate from the original recipe slightly as we had to make do with what was in the pantry and fridge. Even though we had a few ingredients missing like the chorizo, it still tasted delicious. The rice was cooked perfectly and it had the right texture to it.

I love how we can take a recipe and change it according to what ingredients is available to us or simply because we prefer one ingredient to another.

Well done Hubby!

p.s. Hearing the word Jambalaya always reminds of the Seinfeld "soup" episode... hehehe

Suman

My mum loves to cook, I guess that's where I get my love of food from. Recently she made Suman.



It is a Filipino sweet dish. It's sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves and left to steam for an hour or so. To be honest, I don't know how to make these. If I want some, I just ask my mum to make them for me : ) As it's steamed in the banana leaf, the sticky rice is taken on the aroma of the leaf. It can be served with a various sauces or sides. Here it is served with grated fresh coconut.