Food, glorious food!

I made myself Eggs Benedict for brekky this morning. I don't know why I've never made this at home before, because it's not hard to whack together, and it tastes so much better than what you get at a lot of cafes. I went to a cafe with a friend the other week, which I had read some good reviews about, and was shocked when my caesar salad arrived - the poached egg was unrecognisable. It was basically an egg yolk with a thin layer of rubbery-looking egg white twisted around it. The salad was like, almost $20 by the way, so you'd think they'd atleast get a poached egg right. Oh well, atleast I know it's not frozen from a packet (I was told that one of the popular local cafe chains use ready-made poached eggs - how lazy can people get?!). But anyway, back to my eggs benedict! - the recipe says to make the hollandaise sauce in the food processor, but because my kitchen is tiny and cluttered, my food processor and blender is stored in the garage, which I'm sure you'd agree is too much of an effort to lug to the kitchen when a single recipe calls for it (okay, PLUS I'm too lazy to manouver heavy things around). So anyway, I thought it would be the same if I used my electric hand-held beaters to do the job. My goodness! I beated the mixture for aaaaages! I thought the sauce would never thicken up! It did eventually, but it was rather thick, and was probably more like super soft lemon and herbed butter than hollandaise sauce! It still tasted alright though. I wonder what I did wrong? In the old days, people didn't have food processors and made all their sauces by hand, so surely it's do-able!


I love poached eggs, because it's easier to achieve an oozy egg yolk than with other cooking methods. This dish, by the way, is a recipe by Bill, from his latest cookbook! Same with the roasted tomatoes (which is featured in his previous books), which I always make, because they're sooooo juicy and yum!

This arvo, I tried making macarons. I've made macaroons before with success (in that I achieved the characteristic 'feet', or pied. This time, however, I followed a recipe from a macaron book to the T, and didn't manage to get any 'feet' on any of the macarons! :'( I don't know if it's because of the extra mixing, what the author calls 'macaronnage', which may have toughened/dried the mixture, or because I left the circles of batter for too long to dry before baking them. Or I guess it could also be because I didn't use 2 identical baking trays, one on top of the other, to bake them... They ended up hollow in the middle, but they still tasted good! I was out of butter, so I made a chocolate ganache to sandwich them together instead of buttercream.

I sprinkled cacao nibs on a few of them just to try it out. The cacao nibs taste quite unpleasant raw, but after toasting in the oven, they're actually quite palatable, and I love the extra crunch it imparts! And let's not forget how good these are for us! An excuse (though probably a bad one) to eat more sweet almond biscuits! haha!

They may not look like the proper things, but they're still quite tasty! So tasty that before I knew it, I had overindulged. I felt really guilty when I looked at the two cooling racks, and saw that it had like only a quarter of the batch left!

While I'm talking about baking, here's what I made yesterday:

Chocolate chip and pecan cookies (also from Bill's Basics by Bill), and...

Iced Cinnamon Snail Rolls (from Bill's Sydney Food). The cookies are delish! I've never made cookies so crisp before! Yum! But these are best eaten on the day of baking - I stored these in an airtight container, but when I tried one today, it was not quite as crispy as it was the day before. Definitely a recipe I will use again though! The buns tasted quite good yesterday - moist, soft, sweet and sticky. Not quite the same story today though. But I guess that's the same for most baked goods. My dad said that he microwaved a bun today for lunch and said it tasted really good. I wonder if this will still be the case tomorrow...

A few days ago, I tried the savoury version of Bill's scone recipe - cheese and chive scones. They didn't rise as high as the plain ones, maybe because of the cheese content..? They would have probably tasted nicer had I buttered them with salted butter, instead of unsalted, since the scone batter does not use any salt at all. Maybe next time I could try sprinkling some Maldon salt flakes to the tops before baking, to enhance the flavour.

Enough about cooking, here's an update on my knitting projs!

I went to a yarn sale the other day and bought the following:

Actually with the Patons Sorrento, I only bought the mauve coloured balls - the others I bought some time ago. I bought the mauve, because I thought it would also make a nice Spring/Summer scarf, which is what I intend to make the other colours into. I was never big on accessories, but there's always a time to start. The other yarn is to make 2 garments from the Patons Mist pattern book.

I actually made this bolero in black, to match a dress I wore to a friend's wedding in September this year. Because it's a midnight black though, you can't really see the lace pattern, which is a shame, since that's the part you have to really keep focus on when knitting! So I've decided I will knit it again in the colour used in the book - deep magenta. It's not a colour I am particularly fond of, but it works very well with this bolero. One of the haberdashery shops I went to a few months ago had this same bolero displayed on a manequin in the shop's front display window, in this same colour, and it looked fab. That was probably when I decided to get the pattern book and knit that bolero. Anyway, here's some pics of the bolero I made. The length seems a bit different from in the book - I wonder if it's because they knitted at a looser tension than me... or maybe it's to do with how they slip-stitched the collar on? I thought about maybe knitting at a looser tension for my next bolero, but since the sleeves fit perfectly, if I do that the sleeves might end up too baggy. Oh the dilemma.

The white yarn is to knit this other pattern at a later stage. Maybe closer to Autumn next year. I seem to wear a lot of black, so the white would be a nice contrast.

"Skin care routine? Um yeah, every few months" :P

So after going to the book-signing, I decided that since I was out, I should look for a facial exfoliator, coz my skin is looking really bleh. I remember having heard good things about Dermalogica before, so I thought I'd check out their products. Unfortunately, the assistant there was new to the products and wasn't very confident when I told her that my skin is rather sensitive. So instead of waiting for another person to arrive to do what she called 'facial mapping', I decided to stick with the brand of the 3-step I have at home, which haven't given me any allergic reactions - Shiseido.

I am a total sucker for add-on sales. I know that's what they're trying to do, since I've been in retail before, but I still allow myself to get talked into buying stuff anyway. I think part of me just feels bad if I don't buy a product after the sales person has given so much information about it. So somehow, I ended up leaving the counter $190 poorer.

Tonight I tried out my now-5-step skin routine. I was told the use of the Bio-Performance exfoliating pad would see instant improvement. Alas, I felt like I was just wiping my face with a wet cotton makeup pad: no difference. A little red, if anything. Hopefully by the end of the 8 week treatment course, I will actually see results. The Skincare Moisture Recharge eye cream hasn't caused any reaction thus far; time will tell if it's doing anything.

What skincare products do you use?

More cookbook signings

MasterChef Australia's judges, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, released a cookbook together this year, called Your Place or Mine?. I went to their book signing today and met the chefs themselves! Gary is definitely my favourite of the two :) The queue was crazy long. It wasn't that bad when I went to Bill's the other day; but then again, that day, it was raining really hard. And I guess media exposure, especially one involving a nationally popular TV show, with ratings going through the roof, does make you more well-known. For me though, Bill, Nigella, and Jamie O will always be at the top of my list of favourites.


I haven't attempted any of the recipes in this book yet, but I've flipped through it, and there are quite a few scrumptious looking dishes that I'd definitely like to try out!

I'll be going to Gary's restaurant, Fenix, to have lunch in several weeks' time, so I'm really looking forward to that! I still haven't decided whether or not I should book to eat at Jamie's Fifteen. While I love Jamie's work, I just can't get out of my head that episode of his TV show, where one of the training cooks at his London Fifteen restaurant dropped a meat pattie, or meat of some sort, on the floor, and picked it back up again to use. I've heard about things like that happening in fast food places, but for the price you pay at a restaurant like Fifteen, you don't really want to have that image at the back of your mind while eating. hmmm To go or not to go; that is the question.

Scones for tea!

Today I tried 2 recipes from Bill's Basics: scones for afternoon tea, and the butterscotch madeleines for tonight's dessert.

I found 2 brand new patty cake pans and madeleine moulds, still wrapped in plastic, which I bought ages ago, in a storage box in the kitchen. I'm so glad I was able to find madeleine pans with a non-stick coating, because the mini madeleine pan I used some time ago, which isn't non-stick, still has cake bits stuck fast to it, I'm sure.

I made the plain, sweet version of the scones, and had them with strawberry jam and double thick cream. And let's face it - anything with cream is good.

I think these are the puffiest scones I've ever made; this is definitely a much improved version of the scone recipe in one of his older books. They are delish served warm straight from the oven.

The butterscotch madeleines were soft and light in texture. I used glucose syrup instead of golden syrup, as I didn't have any of the latter in the pantry. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but the golden skin on the indentation side always sticks to the pan, so you can't really see the design on the biscuits. Maybe I should slather on heaps of butter to grease the pans next time, and see if that makes a difference...


Cake + icing sugar + cream = :)

Bill's Basics

I went to a Bill Granger instore book signing today, and got his latest cookbook, Bill's Basics, autographed. I love how he writes a message in the books he signs as well :) He is such a smiley, friendly and down-to-earth guy - on top of being tall and handsome, of course! I think I was in so much awe in his presence (always happens when I'm meeting a celeb) that I couldn't think of much to say. Only when I left the place did I come up with questions I would have liked to ask, for eg., "What's your favourite recipe out of all your books?" and "When are you going to open a Bills in this city?".

I am encouraged by his message to work through every recipe in this book, as well as his other ones. I've already picked out his scones recipe from the latest book to make for breakfast tomorrow morning. Or would scones with strawberry preserve and double thick cream be too indulgent for breakfast? Perhaps I should save it for afternoon tea? hmm I guess I'll have to wake up early tomorrow morning to decide!

My WIP

I finished knitting the back of the cardy night before last, and am now working on one of the front pieces (pictured). I'm not sure I like the yellow in the colour mix, and would've liked more pink. I guess it doesn't look too bad. I'm actually a bit concerned about the size of the garment, because the bodice part of the back piece looks rather narrow... I chose to knit the smallest size, because I'm usually an XS, but looking at the actual measurements listed for the size now, I'm not sure it will be big enough for a comfortable fit, especially if I wear something underneath..... oh well, I've gone too far to go back now. Fingers crossed that it will stretch to fit.

hmm I wonder if I should start a Spring/Summer knit now, since I probably won't get any use out of this cardy until next Autumn :P It's going to get sooo much hotter by the time I finish knitting it. See, I told you I get easily distracted. What should I do???

I'm really excited that I'll be seeing Bill Granger for the first time in person tomorrow :D I have already accepted the fact that there is no way I can carry ALL my copies of his books to the book signing, but I still haven't quite figured out which ones I should take along. It seems like such a shame to not get them all autographed when I have this opportunity, which doesn't always come. Maybe I should take the newest book and one of my older favourites? Sigh. What a dilemma.

Maybe I should just get back to my knitting - busy hands keep the mind from idle thoughts; that's why girls back in the day were made to do needlework and knitting in their spare time, right? :P

What? Mid-Spring already?!

As meaningful as Spring is - beginning of new life, etc etc - I can never cease to find things to complain about it: the large amount of weed springing up everywhere (however pretty the blooms may be); all the insects coming out of hibernation *shudder*; the dry, hot weather (if you close the windows at night, it's stuffy and hot; if you open them, the insects come in and bite you - so you can't sleep well either way.. and it's way to early in the warmer part of the year to turn on the aircon 24/7)...

I am usually only an Autumn-Winter knitter, but after having copious amounts of free time this past year to discover and become addicted to knitting magazines that the Newsagencies import from the UK, I have become more serious about this hobby of mine, such that I have decided to try to become an all-seasons knitter :D How could I not, with so many Spring/Summer knitting patterns to inspire me?

When I saw a catalogue advertising a yarn sale at one of the only few yarn stockists in my area, I had to go. Although the shop doesn't stock most of the yarn brands used in the patterns (as ever is the case), I figured I could find some substitutes. So there I was walking through each and every aisle, with my list of yarn types and tension details in hand, and I could hardly find any close matches. Summer yarns? The only 2 types of cotton/bamboo yarns available (yes, only TWO brands!) weren't even on sale! Thank goodness the yarn substitute that is recommended for 2 of the knitting patterns - Patons Smoothie DK - was available. A closer look at the labels, however, indicated that for one of the only 2 colours available that weren't ugly, the dye lots were all different, save for 2 balls. Someone walking past the yarn section says to her friend, "This place has WAY too much yarn". Oh, really now?

Still, I managed to return home with a bagful of yarn, enough to knit 3 garments that will be perfect for the warm months ahead. I'm using all my willpower to control myself from exercising my common practice of abandoning old projects to start new ones. I am easily distracted like that, hence my many UFOs. Some say "better one completed project than several on the needles" and others say "it's good to have several projects on the go, so you won't get bored". Both sound reasonable, but, no, this time I have to finish the project at hand first. My current project is a cute, feminine cardy from Noro Flowers by Jenny Watson.



It's so hard to tell with Noro yarns what the colour mix will end up like, even with the sample strips. The yarn that I bought for this project is Noro Silk Garden Lite, shade 2026. The grey/black features more heavily that I had thought it would, so I'm not sure if it will overshadow the young, light, flirty, girlyness of the style. We shall see.

Meanwhile, my goal of the week is to make atleast one recipe from each of Bill Granger's cookbooks (I've got them all, bar one, which should be arriving at my doorstep any day now). Sadly, I haven't made much progress. I did, however, make his famous scrambled eggs for breakfast and his coconut bread for lunch today (both from Bill's Sydney Food)! While I can't say I've mastered his egg-cooking technique (it still doesn't taste like his eggs at Bills), the coconut bread turned out surprisingly moist and delish, especially with a generous dusting of vanilla icing sugar! If there's any left by tomorrow (there's less than half a loaf left now), I'll try it toasted and smeared with unsalted butter, on top of dusting with icing sugar, as recommended in the book.