bits of spring/early summer

i baked.

i like to bake. i don’t really cook, i just bake. luckily i have a husband that cooks.

[side note: i want to see Julie and Julia]

anyway, so my most recent baking produced the little muff that you can see on the side here:

i used the recipe on Taste.com.au here which i really liked as it uses honey and yoghurt for sweetness, not sugar. one thing i learnt though: do not use creamed honey! it just stays solid and does not mix in. whoops. they were still yummy though. perfect with a cup of tea. and they freeze well too.
oh, also i used butter not margarine, and i used half GF flour and half normal flour. and it worked just fine.

also pictured is one of my recent tea towel acquisitions. the cheesier, the better, in my opinion!

mmm eggs

Tracey’s post here reminded me that I would like to try more premade GF snack foods. I’ve never really bought anything like that except for Carman’s Muesli bars (which I think are great). I’m not Coeliac so I don’t need to eat GF but I am sensitive to wheat so I try to avoid it.

So then I was thinking about how my life changed when a GP suggested I give up wheat. Like a lot of Coeliacs, I found it really difficult at first but then my horizons broadened vastly and I realised how I could turn this to my advantage – after all, all fresh fruit and veg is wheatfree! As is fresh meat, seafood, most dairy, rice, quinoa, etc. lots of different, delicious foods.

Which brings me to my quarter-life discovery of eggs. I was never an egg eater growing up. The texture still occasionally bothers me (I do not like any slimy foods and poached eggs unfortunately fall into that category). But in Japan last year, I had omelets for breakfast every day at my hostel in Tokyo. They were perfectly fluffy and came with slices of cucumber on the side. So when I got home, I started eating omelets. Then frittatas. Then fried eggs. FRIED EGGS! There is really nothing easier to cook and eat. Most times I eat them plain on a piece of rye toast with tomato sauce (sometimes with cucumber slices on the side). One time I fancied them up with chilli, ginger and garlic and served them on rice with broccoli for dinner. And of course, there is the protein-tastic classic bacon and eggs combo.

So this is my favourite gluten free meal (using GF bread of course). Easy peasy… japanesey.

Mother’s Day 2009

i made some (super quick and easy) little brownie puddings for mother’s day. we had an indian feast for lunch, then these puddings (with vanilla icecream).

happy Mother’s Day, mum.

chillies

chillies have got to be one of the easiest things to grow on a balcony. i took some photos of some of the hot mamas that we’ve got growing at the moment. i have no idea what kind of chillies these are! but i can ask the resident garden nerd when he gets home later (from his other garden. of course!). pretty, aren’t they?

i wish i was a food photographer…

i am convinced that in anther life i was a food photographer. ha, okay, not quite true but… i wish it were so.

some foods i have been eating lately:

1. banana pancakes with pain yoghurt [standard saturday breakky around here]
2. Tim’s prosciutto gnocchi, anchovy cauliflower, and home grown tomatoes. also, fancy cheeses.

orange and brown

i made a tablecloth. and tim bought chocolates.

have a great weekend.

Japanese candy – and a giveaway!

we all know that Japan is the land of kitchsy cute and kawaii, right? it is also the place for efficiency and hygiene. my kinda country! anyway, one thing that struck me when i was visiting last May was the level of design in their food packaging. they loooove to package things individually, with cute illustrations and colourful design. i even saw bananas individually wrapped in plastic with “Super Banana!” or something printed on it. haha.

below is some of the chocolate and lollies that we brought home with us (and there was so much more! but this merely a selection).

1. Sakura (cherry blossom) Kitkat

2. another Kitkat (not sure what type, maybe regular)

3. Matcha (green tea) Kitkat

4. Caramels from Disneyland

5. Milky caramels (love this!)

1. Bambi Milk Caramel // 2. Chyoko Boru (dark choc version) // 3. Chyoko Boru (white choc version)

now i’ve never done a giveaway before (that i can remember!) but i thought it was about time. so, to celebrate my move here to WordPress, i’ve got a few little bits and pieces from Japan up for grabs. i brought back soooo much stuff and i quite honestly haven’t touched half of it.

so if you’d like some kawaii in your letterbox, just leave me a comment. that’s all you have to do. i’m not sure how many comments i’ll get but if there’s enough, i’ll draw a number randomly. and there you have it.

a sneak peek of what you could win:

one more thing! i bought a few pairs of adorable undies from Loft (do you know Loft? it is the best!). unfortunately the measurements given on the package is well, unrealistic. my hips are around 87cm (34″) and these are too small for me. so if you have little hips and would like some brand new undies, let me know and you can have them. i never thought i’d be giving away underwear on my blog, but there you go!

more from the garden

“Peanut Brownies” which aren’t really brownies at all

yesterday afternoon, an incident happened in our household which required the making of cookies to soothe someone back to sanity. Tim offered up these – the New Zealand classic "Peanut Brownies" which despite the name are nothing to do with the fudgey, cakey kind of brownies that i am used to. which is disappointing, yes, but they were pretty delicious anyway! and you've got to give credit once again to the Kiwi style of calling a spade a spade – brown cookies with peanuts in them? we'll call them Peanut Brownies. of course.

he followed this recipe but apparently it is an Edmond's Cookbook staple and all the mums used to make Peanut Brownies back in the day. and i don't blame them.