Christmas Baking

Inspired by many food magazines with Christmas just round the corner, I've decided to bake Christmas cookies and give them away as treats.... Bought star cutters from House and caucous to make these custard christmas cookies,
above: Cookies on the baking tray.
Nova the bova in charge of putting caucous on the stars.

After the cookies were out of the oven, at first I wanted to use the Kikki.K paper bags. (the cute red bags) to give them out in, but I realised that though it was gorgeous it covered up the cookie so Dave and I went hunting for other stuff to put them in.
Cellophane bags, with gift tags and candy canes.. now that looks good.
Jars for the families.

Following Saturday, after christmas shopping Mr Broc and I made white chocolate with cranberries and pistachios.
I was preparing to lead P&W the next day so I left Mr Broc to his own devices. Just told him to follow the instructions in the magazine.

It was pretty easy, first you had to melt white chocolate buttons.
Mr Broc: Hey dear, is this a heat proof bowl??
Me: Urm.. I think I'll come out and help you..
After showing him where things were I went back into my room.
20mins later.. I came out
Me: *sniff* smells nice ..

Mr Broc: Hey dear is this normal??
Me: why is the white chocolate brown?!?!??!!
Mr Broc: still smells ok..
Me: you burnt it lah!
Mr Broc: can I still use it??
Me: of course not..

Good thing we had a 2nd pack of white chocolate buttons around.. This time I melted it
Mr Broc: how come yours look like that?!?!
Me: cos I didn't burn it..
Mr Broc: * grumble *

Well he managed to pull the rest of it off without anymore dramas..
Here is our beautiful result
We also filled a large jar of it for a friend's engagement.
Our hard work at the end of the night. The next thing I'm trying is a Christmas dinner, girls night on the 24th !

18th Month

Time flies.. the last I can remember I was still blogging about my 17th month with Dave..

Finally our one and half year anniversary and the end of the count-down from the day we booked to go watch Billy Elliot the musical at Capitol theatre.

Wanted to take Dave to eat at Mushashi, one of Farmer Chua's favourite japanese restaurants but it was packed out and since the show started at 7:30pm, we didn't have much time.

645pm: we found a seat at Milliore and settled for dolsot bibimbap and a teriyaki chicken, recommended by the waitress to arrive quickly. True to her word, food arrived in 5mins so we didn't have to gorge everything down.

Mr Broc and teriyaki chicken... He arrived late so couldn't blame me that we didn't get Musashi tonight.. oh well not that he would cos I'm the glutton in the relationship as you can see me with the yummy bibimbap!


We LOVED the show! though it was a bit to hard to understand the rough english accent they had to put on =) got A row seats cos I booked in August! love the giant dancing dresses and the boy who plays Billy simply amazing! pity no pictures inside . Gift exchange at home! Rose gold earrings (that's why he was late, frantically looking around Broadway to find me a gift) good taste as usual Mr broc.. the 2nd part of the gift was even better! He wrote me a funny bedtime story about a bunny called rabbit... talk about originality!! He learnt how to bind it together from the internet.. I couldn't stop laughing..v touched.

My turn: Got him this vintage hand-finished volkswagon model that he was staring at the Kirribilli markets, I think he already knew on Saturday cos when I disappeared with Angela a bit too long in the toilet he eyed the big paper bag we were carrying suspiciously.

Happy monthiversary Mr Broc!

Just us

Kirribilli Markets

Last Saturday, we visited the Kirribilli Markets at Milson's point station as a belated birthday celebration for Angela. It was drizzly in the morning so quite a few stalls were closed, perhaps it was a good thing so we found some seats quite easily.

We split to "hunt" for food.. A nice jazz trio was there.


Go get food!! Angela, Amy and Rick charge ahead.
Lil' stick, Mr Broc and Bova with their lunch goodies Lil' stick, Nova and Me with her twin cherries


Amy and Rick, Rick braves it to try African food, pretty good mostly stewed meats withe lentils on top of couscous.

Angela, Amy and Rick with the fruit of their hunt.


Me and Mr Broc with yummy turkish Gozleme and coffeesAngela, Amy and Me before the start of the markets, Angela!! why are your eyes closed again!

Mr Broc got me something yummy, I was eyeing these beautiful baby cakes from the other table trying to instigate lil stick to steal them.. He bought me a tray of 12 later on when we split up for some bargain hunting among the stalls.

Mr Broc with my baby cakes and the harbour bridge in the background. Yummm

Mr Broc protecting my babycakes from the crazy Nova.

My haul back was a pretty pink and yellow polka dotted camisole, some farm fresh peaches $3/kg and a nice nice nice present for Mr Broc for our 18th month.

Ended the day visiting another cafe near north Sydney then hometime... we watched "the God's must be crazy" this old time flick of a bushman encountering "white men" culture.. it was hilarious.. Perfect relaxing Saturday.

Czech Food !

This is a draft post I dug up that did not appear yet.. the days when my little ibook had enough space for many many photos of food!

"Man I'm so bored... waiting for everyone to get ready to go for our trip to Koh Samui, Lister just arrived home 5mins ago. SO I shall blog about Korkor and Angie visiting Sydney last weekend. (that was in June by the way)

Dave and I decided to take them out for dinner Monday night to try something even us Sydney-siders haven't sampled before, Czech food at Prague restaurant in Potts Point.

Entrance at PRAGUE
Korkor and Angie; Me and Dave...

Our orders for the night.. Yummmmm
Entrees










Crunchy fried & Stuffed Mushrooms with Blue Cheese with Tartar Sauce
Smažené žampiony plněné sýrem servírované s tatarskou omáčkou $8.90










Beef Goulash $6.50

Our Mains:


Golden roasted Doung duck based on an old traditional Czech Recipe served with red Cabbage, Sauerkraut, Bread & Potato Dumplings
Pečená kachna po staročesku, houskový a bramborový knedlík, červené a bílé zelí
$21.90
TRADITIONAL BOHEMIAN PARTY DISH - smoked Pork, roast Pork, golden-brown Duck, Sausage, red Cabbage, Sauerkraut, Potato Pancakes, Bread & Potato Dumplings
STAROPRAŽSKÁ POSVÍCENSKÁ MÍSA - uzené maso, vepřová krkovička, pečená kachna, párek, bílé a červené zelí, bramboráčky, houskový a bramborový knedlík
$24.90

Stuffed Salmon Rolls with Spinach and Fetta Chees served with roasted Vegetables, Mushrooms Sauce and Potato Gems
Plněné lososové závitky se špenátem a sýrem, houbová omáčka, míchaná zelenina a bramborové krokety
$24.90

AND what Angie is trying to conquer here..
Juicy roast Pork Knuckle served with pickled Cucumbers, Horseradish, Mustard and Bread
Pečené vepřové koleno, kyselá okurka, křen, hořčice a chléb
$18.90

4 satisfied customers.. No space for dessert.. next time maybe

Bondi Sculptures by the Sea

You know your relationship has reached another level when you display the disgusting side of yourself..

Date: 17th November 2007
Activity: Bondi Beach sculptures by the sea that happen annually in Sydney

One of the exhibits:

Me: "Hahahaha..... Line*.."
Mr Broc: "Why are you so disgusting??"
Me: What!?!?!
Me: "Dear stand next to it.. I take a picture for you.."
Mr Broc: " NO!"
*Whine* Look who's disgusting now..
*Line: Term coined by me when I saw someone's undies worn too low..

Ok.. now the good stuff ...
It was the last weekend that the Bondi sculptures by the sea were on display and Mr Broc and I hurried there on Saturday. The beach was packed! Temp was ideal, sunny with a nice breeze. There was a swimming pool/club/restaurant on one side of the beach. It was funny to see people swimming in a pool with the sea right next to it.. maybe people don't like salty water/sharks/waves or crazy surfers.

Some of the exhibits we saw along the way:

This is one's got to be our favourite.. these flowers are made of ?!?!!

This one is apparently NOT an exhibit, a sign was put up to tell people that.. it looks as if someone is living there..
The wooden car that looks like it was modelled after a rhino.. Most people would join the guy pushing the pole..I think I added to the problem =)

The last one we looked at before we called it a day... someone needs to swing on it to make the wings flap.. very popular amongst the kiddies.