Cornbread

I made some cornbread to accompany a recent texan themed family dinner, complete with steak, mash potatoes and home-made baked beans. Having never made cornbread before, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Unlike your average loaf of bread, this corn variety doesn't require yeast and can be made to be savoury or sweet by adding sugar or honey. The end result is quite a heavy bread that's delicious, addictive and extremely filling! If you want to have a go at making these southern delights; just follow these simple steps:

Christmas in July

I usually only make gingerbread once a year at Christmas time. Our friends recently invited us to a Christmas in July dinner, complete with ham, Christmas presents and carols! I decided to re-create my favourite recipe for gingerbread. It never disappoints, soft and chewy with a hint of spice and the lovely full flavour of molasses. Yummy! Mi xo

Teapot and Teacup Sugar Cookies

I love cookie cutters and hope to one day have quite a collection but until recently, all I had were circles, flowers and gingerbread man shapes. The other day I found myself in a situation where I was faced with a wall of cookie cutters! All shapes and sizes! There was so much to choose from but once I saw the teapot and teacup shaped cookie cutters, I knew they were coming home with me that day. 

Le Petit Creme, Darlinghurst

Eggs benedict with salmon and toasted brioche.

I'd been wanting to try Le Petit Creme for a while, so when I had to be at Darlinghurst at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning and it happened to be Mr Mi's birthday, I thought what a perfect excuse to head here for brekky (not that I need an excuse to go out for breakfast!). It was pretty busy, but we managed to squeeze into a table in the corner. The breakfast was so delicious and we were both totally satisfied, will definitely come here again. Mi xo

Scrambled eggs with ham and toasted brioche.

Na Zdrowie Polish Restaurant

Pierogi - Polish dumplings

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I decided to have a dinner date at Na Zdrowie Polish Restaurant. The name "Na Zdrowie" translates to a toast to good health. We had been there before and loved the food and felt it was time to return for seconds. It was a blistering cold night in Sydney but once we were inside Na Zdrowie with dumplings in our belly, it felt very warm and cosy. If you ever eat at this restaurant, please try the pierogi;  soft, pillowy, melt in your mouth, polish dumplings. There are 3 different fillings to choose from and you can have them boiled or fried. We got them boiled with a white cheese and potato filling. Delicious!

For the mains, I got the Kielbasa, which is a smoked polish sausage with potatoes and pickles and my boyfriend got Schabowy, more commonly known as schnitzel. We washed down this hearty meal with a clear juice called a Kompot, which tasted like stewed apples and cinnamon. It was like apple pie in liquid form! Na zdrowie!

Kompot

Na Zdrowie is located at 161 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, Sydney and is open every night from 6pm. Na xo

Earl Grey Tea Cookies

I was recently in a Steampunk inspired production of The Mikado and wanted to make something in theme to give to the cast and crew as thank you presents. I came across these amazing Steampunk Cookies, she used this recipe to make Earl Grey tea cookies. At first, the thought of using tea leaves in a biscuit did seem a bit strange to me but trust me you will not be disappointed by the result. The biscuits were buttery and crispy with a slight hint of Earl Grey...not too strong. I tried to re-create the cog shape using two circle cookies cutters and a small rectangular one, it was not very successful...the cookies spread quite a bit as they cooked and so turned out a little bit more like flowers! Oh well, I guess it's the taste and thought that matters the most. Mi xo

Chocolate Chai Cupcakes

A slight modification of the chai cupcake recipe that I posted earlier. I was asked to make a batch of my chai cupcakes for a special occasion but I wanted to change it up a bit since I was growing a little tired of basic vanilla. I'm a chocolate fiend, so the first thing that came to mind was adding chocolate to these spicy chai cakes. You can find my full recipe on the Chai Cupcakes post. Just add 2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder to the basic vanilla cupcake batter. Simple! Next time, I would like to make them a little bit more chocolatey by adding some choc chips or melted chocolate. Na xo

Eschalot Restaurant, Berrima

Trio of Cuttaway Creek raspberry - soufflé, sorbet & jube.

We recently met up with family for a joint birthday celebration and decided to head to the lovely town of Berrima for lunch. After a quick online search of restaurants in the area, I came across Eschalot Restaurant which looked absolutely perfect for the occasion. We were seated in a small dining room, which was lovely as it felt like our own private dining area. Everything on the menu looked so delicious I had trouble deciding, in the end I ordered the seared scallops as an entree and had the pork fillet as a main. The food was so yummy that I forgot to take photos! You can probably tell by now, that I still had room for dessert given the number of dessert photos in this post. No, I didn't eat everything you see here. I ordered the raspberry souffle and it was absolutely divine, so light and perfectly paired with the sorbet. Mr Mi had the jaffa mousse cake which was also delicious and my sister had the creme brulee. Needless to say, I was seriously stuffed after all that food and if that wasn't enough my tea was served with petit fours! If you are ever around the Southern Highlands, I highly recommend this place, the food is fabulous and so is the service. After lunch, we wandered down the main road and I bought myself a jar of homemade lemon butter from the Little Hand-stirred Jam Shop. YUM! Love Mi xo

Chocolate jaffa mousse cake with vanilla, honeycomb ice cream.

Vanilla crème brûlée with poached rhubarb.

Petit fours.

Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

It's no secret that I'm a tea lover. Having said this, I sure do love my coffee when it comes in dessert form! I came across this recipe for coffee and walnut layer cake while flipping through one of my favourite cookbooks; Kitchen by Nigella Lawson. In the book, Nigella reflects back to when she was a child. She made this coffee cake every year for her sister's birthday so I thought, if a child could make this, I can too! Basically, all the ingredients go into a food processor and are blitzed till a smooth batter forms. The batter is then divided into 2 sandwich tins so that you end up with 2 perfect layers for the layer cake! This was great for me because I'm hopeless at cutting a cake perfectly in half.  I then made the delicious coffee buttercream and decorated the cake with walnuts. If you would like this simple recipe, pick up a copy of Kitchen. I think it's Nigella's best book so far! Na xo