More food p*rn

Since Ed and I got back from India in early July I can't seem to stop baking. I've just been craving comfort food. Here are some photos of the latest things that I've baked. When we moved recently I discovered that I had a big stash of almond meal so I've been trying to think of recipes that would enable me to use some of it up. I came across a recipe for an almond and rhubarb jalousie (not really sure what a jalousie is but it seems to involve pastry). Here is a image of the jalouise being assembled. I decided to add some mixed berries to the filling as I didn't have enough stewed rhubarb.



Before baking.



And fresh out of the oven.



This weekend I also had my first attempt at baking sourdough bread from a starter that Princess Bek had given to Princess Rebecca who then passed it on to me (See the Princessi stitch n bitch blog for references to these lovely ladies). It's an easy recipe which requires no kneading however you must be organised as you need to start preparing for the bread two days before you bake it. Here is a photo of the sourdough straight out of the oven.



Here is a photo of it turned out, still piping hot. It looks a bit warty but otherwise appears to resemble a loaf of bread.



Slices of piping hot sourdough just before they were drowned in butter and devoured by Ed and myself.

Food P*rn, or, these things that I have baked/made

It's been a while since I blogged so I thought I'd share some images of some of the yummy foods that I have been making recently.
Here is a pic of the delicious apple and date cake I made yesterday.



Here is the last slice (sniff, sniff) of the amazing Hazelnut caramel slice that I made last week for Nhu-y's 25th birthday.



I also made some awesome blueberry pancakes for weekend brekky a little while ago.



Earlier this year I had a glut of ripe bananas which led to Bananafest '08. I started with a Banana cake topped with cream cheese icing. Delicious.



Having still more bananas to use up I tried my hand at Banana ice cream, which was the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted!



Recently I tried my hand at making my Grandma's lovely moist sponge cake, which was a bit of a disaster but still tasted ok despite it's appearance.

30th Birthday celebration fest!

So tomorrow is the eve of my 30th birthday. I'm gearing up for a couple of days of celebrations beginning tomorrow (actually it started last Saturday when my lovely boy Ed bought me my present of a new car stereo for the Kingswood. It's awesome. I can't wait until it's installed. It doesn't have a CD player. It's all MP3 with an ipod connection and a USB connection and even an SD card reader. But I digress...) with copious amounts of cakes and dips and yummy foods with the awesome crew at work before continuing the foodfest with lunch at the Metropolitan Hotel in North Melbourne (home of the fat arse chook parma - the biggest parma I have ever seen!). Then it's off to get the hair sorted out before dinner with Mum and Bruce and Karma and Drew at Sails on the Bay in Elwood. I've never been there before but I hoping we'll get lovely views of the bay whilst dining before heading back to our joint for birthday cake (again). You can never have too many birthday cakes!

Saturday evening is all planned now with dinner at Ginza Teppenyaki on LIttle Bourke street. I've never had teppenyaki before but I've been told that it's a fun way to eat (or stave if you're completely un-co). Then on to the Red Hummingbird for a couple of cocktails (and the rest). Ed and I did some re-con work there last Saturday and the drinks were delish and the roof top area was lovely on a hot night. Just don't wear stilettos as the decking is not thin heal friendly (as I discovered as we were walking away from the bar with our full martini glasses!).

So tonight I'm starving myself so that I shall be able to enjoy all the yummy foods over the next few days. I can't wait to celebrate!