A Few of My Favourite Things !

We prayed for a beautiful day for EJ’s birthday party, and lo and behold, it went from a week of high 20C’s to a sunshiny 24C with a cool breeze. Absolutely perfect for a little teddy bear picnic!

On his last overseas trip, A. had brought a bear cake tin home from William Sonoma so there was no question of what kind of cake I should bake, just how I would dress him. After receiving an inspiring idea from my websearch on how to decorate my cupcakes, I decided that the big bear would be dressed simply in a pair of blue speedos.

Balloons, sausages, tables, falafels, cupcakes, cake all made it to Speaker’s Corner at Birrarung Marr before 50 friends and 20 or so children gathered for the celebration. We ate, talked, laughed while the kiddies ran around and got grubby in the dirt. What a day! (and what a year it has been!)

You can’t see the wording, but ‘Speedo’ is written across the back of his swimmers.

The little girls at the party couldn’t decide which cupcake to pick! My niece ended up with one of the two green mermaids. I also laughed when a friend’s little boy told his daddy that there was a boy bear on his cupcake and one with boobs!

Look at what a gorgeous day we were blessed with. I love this shot of all the little girls running after and hassling the one boy.

When an opportunity like this comes along, you HAVE to grab it with both hands!

I love living in the city, especially in summer, because you can stumble across so many festivals and events that you may otherwise be unaware of. Throughout the week, I had stopped a number of times to watch the Aerial Antics performed by The Flying Trapeze and their participants. All the sessions were completely booked out but as I walked by on Wednesday, something drew me closer and prompted me to ask about it anyway. It turned out that there was a cancellation for 11am the next morning! My wonderful parents came to the party by caring for E and my wonderful husband agreed to not seeing E for two whole days while he stayed with mum & dad.

So now that I was willing and able, I was nervous about whether I could actually perform the moves required. I didn’t know whether I should have breakfast or not, figuring that I would need the energy but not wanting to bring it up again following the upside-down time! Along with 11 other participants, I was taken through the practice bar once before we climbed the ladder and had two tries without the catcher and two with. I had joked with one of the trainers, Dylan, that the most important part was listening but once I was on that bar, hearing any of the instructions that Scott was calling out was near impossible with all the blood rushing to my head and my mind trying to make sense of the world swooshing by.

This was the BEST adrenaline high ever! I could not wipe the grin off my face for the rest of the day nor stop regaling my husband about the morning (thanks for listening, babe). I also wolfish devoured half of A’s Lords of the Fries dinner.

A huge thanks to Dylan & Scott for being so much fun, and an even bigger thanks to the other Scott for shooting the video so that I could share it with my family & friends, none of whom were there (or aware that I was attempting this).

We were all sitting around at J’s house one night flicking through cookbooks when we came up with the brilliant idea of a Neil Perry potluck. Taking turns to flip open at a random page, we managed to select an entree, three mains and one dessert for each person would have to cook for the next get-together. It’s such a good thing that this group all (most?) love to cook.

This was meant to be a Salmon, Green beans and Egg Caviar salad but N decided to substitute snowpeas as they looked fresher on the day he went to the market. Even A, who doesn’t like smoked salmon all that much, enjoyed this dish. I managed to sneak a little bowl of leftovers away to have for lunch the next day.

J&L, big Neil Perry fans, brought this Salmon with Tomato-Braised Chickpeas and Herbed Yogurt. According to them, Neil Perry’s recipes are deceptively simple, more straightforward than Jamie Oliver’s.

J’s dish, a Dry Prawn Curry, was pronounced the most delicious looking when she saw the photos later on. Tasty as this was, J didn’t agree with J&L that Neil Perry’s dishes are easier to cook!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of my Honey-Braised Duck with Orange and Olives but we did finish the night off with E’s Lemon Yogurt Cake, baked on behalf of S&B.

All-in-all, a good night with good friends with Neil Perry’s Good Food.

Driving to Kanzaman for dinner on Tuesday evening, got stuck in traffic on that bridge turning from Alexandra Ave into Swan St.

See a man in the opposite lane, also stuck in traffic, checking out our car.

Study the man for a few long moments before turning to A and commenting ‘That guy looks a lot like Federer, doesn’t he?’

Turning to look at him, A replies ‘That IS Federer’.

OH.

This post is a wee bit belated, but…

With our son now crawling around and very ably pulling himself up on all the furniture around the house we decided not to put up a Christmas tree, mainly for the tree’s sake. I found a solution around the problem of wanting but not being able to have a tree though, and I have to admit that I LOVE our ‘tree’ of wild hypercium berries and pine tree cuttings. After collecting our decorations from storage one morning, I happily spent some time trimming the tree before continuing with my Christmas baking.

On a (now) rare Friday night off, A & I decided to go bar hopping, kind of. We started off at La Vita Buona Cellar, part of the City Sqaure troika along with Three Below and Caboose Restaurant. We sat down with the noisy, after-work crowd to enjoy a glass of champagne and shiraz accompanied simply by french fries with aioli (just to stave off those hunger pangs). After catching each other up on our day, we took a walk down Flinders Lane towards Spring Street when I had the brilliant idea of checking out the Press Club Bar. And what a good thing too! We ordered some drinks (Shiraz & Sauvignon Blanc) and sharing plates from the bar menu and we were delighted with each offering.

It was a struggle to get photos with my camera given the lighting in the bar but these will have to do. The white taramasalata made with creme fraiche came with fried pita bread – so moreish! The dish behind the dip also appears to be served at George’s new Hellenic Republic restaurant – peppered fig on fried haloumi. I loved the peppered fig but, overall, preferred the other two.

I can’t remember how they termed this dish in the menu but it was basically an octopus & boccarone skewer coated with pistachio praline.

We then adjourned to Longrain for some after dinner cocktails (Soho La & Lychee Martini) and yet more little dishes – the son-in-law eggs and betel leaf topped with smoked trout, garlic, chilli, galangal & trout roe. If I thought the lighting at the Press Club gave me difficulties with photos, they were impossible at Longrain…so no images of the food, just memories of deliciousness.

La Vita Bouna
City Square, Melbourne
96547855

Longrain
44 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne
9671 3151

I was fortunate to have two full-time babysitters in mum & dad while staying in Bangkok so I took the opportunity to get away for some much-needed shopping therapy. I also watched a movie (and suffered motion sickness as a result) and took a half-day cooking class. The dishes were pretty straightforward but, of course, the best part was not having to do any of the washing up. We were a group of 8, ranging from first timers at a cooking school to two men who were taking a week’s worth of lessons.

Panadanus Leaf-wrapped Chicken

Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad) served with carved vegetables

Prawns in Tamarind Sauce

Roast Duck in Red Curry Sauce

I had some amusing dining companions, three from the airline industry. They have awarded the Japanese as the best passengers ever – ever polite, never requiring any special attention – and the gong for the worst go to Indians – 2 hours to board with a few still missing by the end, “are you trying to starve us?” if the flight staff don’t get the food out quickly enough.

There are a number of cooking schools to choose from but I went with Baipai because I had heard good reviews and their menu sounded more interesting and authentic than some others.

What is not obvious from these photos is that the rider’s helmet is covered in matching pink fur. His girlfriend didn’t appear to have a helmet so I’m assuming that he is the one with the Hello Kitty obsession. Interestingly, we also spotted quite a bit of Hello Kitty paraphernalia being sold in Spain & Portugal. Is she making a bid to take over the world?