Afternoon tea as a free form cake

TLK is a little over 40 (chronologically only), on Wednesday. She had a few belles over for afternoon tea today, however the cake exploded and became free-form.

It was DELICIOUS as almond chocolate cakes are, even gluten free ones! We ate the whole cake between 4 of us..... YUM

Happy Birthday to a darling friend, mother, and inspiration. XX

j

Pav-tastic

I often read a post where someone has been blessed by the op-shop fairies with similar luck to me in the same week... Does this happen to you?

This Lovely Lady posted recently about a pav plate that is used for baking and serving. While we were down the coast, my sister in law (SIL) and fellow lover of all things vintage, took me to a den of pleasure - an antique and bric-a-brac-arie on the Mornington Peninsula. Not the well-known one in Tyabb, no. This was one frequented by locals. The rafters house pigeons who poop onto items on the fringes. The old guys who run it walk around smoking foul-smelling cigarettes, and everything is coated in just the right amount of dust and cob-webs. It was brilliant.

When we arrived, SIL was telling me about a plate that a pav can be baked on, which has the recipe printed on it, and which is also a serving plate. Seconds later, we found a pav plate for $2 which had all the above! I carted it around, determined to make my first pav.

When we got back to the house, it was HOT and the beach beckoned. When we returned, Mother-In-Law (MIL) produced this.






(See the plate in the background with the pavvy goodness on it? Clever bakeware!)

"Unfortunately" Mr BB and the little buttons don't like pav, so MIL and I ate the lot. It only took 2 days! MIL serves up a splendid pav, with just whipped cream on top. Slice one had strawberries, two had passionfruit, three had banana, etc. Rather clever really! If only we had had Peppermint Crisp too!

(Photo by Curlypops from post Triumphant)

CurlyPops must have found her plate on about the same day too! We also both recently realised we had missed our blogaversaries, and are both hosting giveaways. Go to this post to enter my giveaway, and this post for Curlypops'.

Hooray!!

P.S. After finally unpacking yesterday, I realised that the pav plate was inadvertently left at MIL's! Bugger.

J

Rice paper rolls

I have blogged before about my dear friend TLK and her darling daughter. M is also 2, and a friend of Miss 2.

Photo by Bells

We met up today for coffee, during which the blog-less TLK told me something that made me nearly spit out my coffee.

Last night, TLK made rice-paper rolls. I thought M would love these, as she's not averse to eating, particularly carrots, cucumber, and anything else!


However they were not appealing to M, who unwrapped them, tipped out all the contents, and promptly used the rice paper wrapper to blow her nose.

Mmmm, rice paper rolls!

Bon Bonne Maman

Mmmm, mini jam jars for my handbag (just in case there's a stray scone...)

This you have to try...

Bought this at Supabarn to share with hubby last night...

Pity he was away...

Never eat ice cream from the tub whilst watching tv... NCIS was really improved by the offering though!

When the tub was empty, I crocheted myself a little brooch from a bamboo/cotton blend,

And took inspiration from the lovely resurrection fern and crocheted a little vase for the grape hyacinths near my front door! Love this - more to come I think!

Cooking for the crowd

Yesterday was the weekly market at The Old Bus Depot in Kingston, here in Canberra.

We went specifically to get some magnificent Fairtrade coffee from Wagonga Coffee, but to get to the coffee stall, we first had to walk past strawberries, jams, breads, and all manner of great produce...

This 'Cranky Pants' Quince jelly was $7 a jar but so, so good. In fact we are all besotted. 24 hours after its purchase, there's only half a jar left! No website, but highly recommended if you ever spy it.

So when we got home, I was motivated to cook for the hungry hoardes.

A vege soup with both lentils and chickpeas for substance, and a little moroccan spice for tang. Magnificent with wood-fired bread from the market.


Also a pasta sauce, with onion, garlic, bacon, tomato, spinach, and some herbs. Best. Ever. Pasta.


After a yummy dinner, I settled down to knit, and planned some aprons for a friend's daughters.

A great Sunday. What did you do?

j

Made me chuckle!!

I have a magazine fetish as many of you know... I 'treat' myself to magazines, and then give them away to friends to rid myself of clutter. I know I should stop buying them, but I think it fulfils a quick retail fix, a shiny, new thing I HAVE to have... Anyway, today I did it again!

I used to wonder why lollies etc were at the checkout. Luckily mine still do not know what all those shiny bars contain, so they don't notice, but I sure as hell notice the magazines!

Today was Gardening Australia. Now the funny thing is, that most of these mags have a web site, so a lot of the good stuff is actually FREE online. It's just the crap and the advertising that you buy when you get the hard copy.

Anyway, in an article about eggplant, there is a quote that made me chuckle:

DID YOU KNOW: Brides-to-be in ancient Turkey had to demonstrate that they knew how to cook eggplant at least 27 different ways.

What a skill! I can do about 6. What about you???

Eggplant dip
Stuffed eggplant
Moussaka
Roasted eggplant for antipasto
An eggplant/tomato pasta sauce
Ratatouille (my mum's is the best though).

It made me think - do I actually know how to do 27 different recipes with any vegetable other than the tomato? (OK, yes, it's a fruit).

I obviously have WAY too much time on my hands if these are the best thoughts for the day!!