To Market

Hello :) Yesterday morning despite the rain, my mother and sister decided to venture to Eveleigh farmers markets. I had planned to go but had to stay at home studying for exams...blah!

Luckily they came home with some wonderful produce! They said they had a delightful time, watching Kylie Kwong cooking at her stall "Billy Kwong", sampling chocolate and healthy muffins amongst other goodies. I can't wait to go when my exams are over!! Food markets are just so exciting :)

Here's what they came home with...

Corn, fresh figs, portobello mushrooms, spelt sourdough and apples

Doesn't this bread just look wonderful!?

Wonderful mushrooms!

Now obviously all this food dictated what I ate for the rest of the day...

Lunch: portobello mushrooms with garlic and parsley on spelt sourdough

Afternoon tea: vanilla greek yoghurt with fresh figs and honey. This was divine!! I can't think of a better combination.

YUM! 

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Do you love famers markets? What do you end up always buying? (for me its bread!) 

Also! I probably won't be posting again for about 2 weeks! I've got a few exams coming up and I'm going away for Easter. My friend and I are volunteering (in waste and recycling!) at The National Folk Festival in Canberra where I usually go every year. Of course I'll be taking lots of photos down there, so expect to see some in the not so distant future...

Hannah x

My eggplant family!

Hello :) Over the past few weeks we've neglected our little eggplants :( To be honest, I haven't really been keeping a check on them. So when I decided to take a peek at them this morning, whilst picking some basil I was delighted to find a whole bunch of them ready for picking! I'm not 100% when the right time to pick them is (anyone know?) but I also noticed a few of them had been eaten by bugs so I decided some needed to be rescued!

Would you like to be introduced to my little eggplant family? I think so!

Family portrait.

This is Grandma and Grandpa eggplant. Unfortunately Grandma eggplant developed bad posture when she was younger, and thus has a rather curved spine. 

Father and mother eggplant. They're very proud of their little babies! 

Baby girl and boy eggplant. 

Well there you have it ;) ...don't tell them but I plan on cooking them soon!

Hannah x 

* I realise this is a bit of a silly post 

The joys of Almond Butter

Hello :) Yep, thats right. I've just discovered the joys of almond butter. It's my new favourite spread!  I'd heard a lot about nut butters before and even attempted to make almond butter once. I put about a cup in the blender, but was scared Oscar (...we named our blender) would explode so I kept stopping it every few minutes. In the end it actually turned out pretty well but I don't think I wanted to use up all our almonds.

So I was delighted when I found this the other night in the supermarket! It's made up of 100% raw almonds- which makes me very happy indeed.

Almonds are very exciting ;)

So far I've been spreading it on apples and bananas most of the time, and occasionally vitaweats. It certainly makes snacking on fruit a lot more substantial. 

...don't you think these look like boomerangs?

These aren't the most attractive looking apples- but quite delicious. 

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Do you love almond butters or other nut butters? What do you like to eat it with? I'd love to hear some suggestions!

Hannah x

Dumplings!

Hello :) For lunch today my sister and I decided to go out for dumplings! After a morning spent studying it was nice to get out of the house and into the sunshine.We went to a small, but very popular dumpling restaurant and had to wait about 5 minutes before we were able to sit down to a lovely lunch :)

Waiting, waiting...

My sister ordered Chinese pork and spinach dumplings with noodle soup

She was very happy!

I decided to get bean curd and green vegetable dumplings with noodles. The dumpling wrappers were thin and the filling was just delicious! You could tell all the ingredients were very fresh- and I got a glimpse of all the kitchen staff busily filling the dumpling wrappers!

Just delightful! In the past I've attempted to make dumplings. I'd buy the wonton wrappers from a chinese supermarket and fill them with shiitake mushrooms, spring onions, silken tofu and ginger. I must try making them again soon!

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Do you love dumplings? Have you ever made them before? 

Hannah x

Tuesday night fun!

Hello :) Tonight I had lots of fun, catching up with friends. First of all we saw the movie Never Let Me Go. I was very excited to see this film, as I'd recently read the book a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. Well luckily I thought the film it was really, really good. And the music was stunning- I adore listening to the cello. 

Afterwards we initially wanted to have dinner at this Mexican restaurant (where they were $3 tacos and tequila shots on Tuesday night!) but they wrote our booking for the wrong day so we didn't get a table :( So for dinner we ended up going to a vegetarian cafe where we'd been a few times previously called Badde Manners. Has anyone else been there? It's in Glebe.

We shared two dishes including this nachos. Very delicious but super filling! 

We also ordered this tofu burger with satay sauce. I loved the chunks of tofu, almost meaty ;) 

It's me! Looking very 'candid'...(that was the aim) 

And my gorgeous friend Renee. 

And that is how my Tuesday evening was spent! Lovely :) 

Hannah x

Surry Hills Festival

Hello :) On this beautiful sunny day, a friend and I headed to Surry Hills Festival! There were two main areas with live music, market stalls and great food! Here's what my day looked like...

I had a soy chai tea at this chai tent. I was very impressed there was a pot for cows milk and soy milk! It was sweet and full of flavour from all the cardamon pods and other spices. How come my chai tea never tastes as good?!! 

Some sneaky purchases...a floral dress and long skirt.

Listening to music. This band was Tin Sparrow, who we also saw at Oxford Art Factory a few months ago. They were really good!

There were bicycles everywhere!

Look at her go!

Action shot...

At a different stage we also listened to this band were called The Retreat, also quite good. 

Later on we wandered down the road to Bourke St bakery which was very popular. It has its own cooking book out as well! So as well as eating all their yummy breads and pastries, you can make them too! Whats not to love?

Oh my...everything just looked so divine!

In the end I got a rhubarb danish. Just delicious. 

And a loaf of fig and barberry bread to take home :)

We also walked around the streets admiring the terrace houses. 

I think I fit in quite nicely...

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Also! I spotted Kylie Kwong when we walked past her restaurant. I feel like, so famous ;)

Hannah x

This is how my Friday looked...

French toast for breakfast, a salad for lunch (like how I put the beans in the avocado half?), lying in a park, eating gelato with a friend (and stealing his!) and walking around the city. 

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Nice way to end the week! And guess what? I am officially on a mid session break from uni for a week!! I have a lot of study to do during the week for upcoming exams however it'll also be lovely to sleep in, do some cooking and catch up with friends.

Hannah x

Lazy Monday night cooking...

Hello :) When I got home tonight (around 6pm) the last thing I wanted to do was cook! However as I was quite hungry I decided to go have a look in our kitchen. I wanted to eat something quick! There were a few leftover vegetables, an opened packet of fetta and some eggs so I decided to make a super tasty: omelette! Perfect.

Into the pan went some extra virgin olive oil, chopped spinach and zucchini I let cook for a few minutes before adding 3 whisked eggs, cherry tomatoes and some feta. After a few minutes I transferred the pan under the griller to let the eggs set and voila! A filling, nutritious meal in less than no time at all :)

And an hour later I was delighted when my sister exclaimed she had made banana bread :) We'd had a few over ripe bananas, so it seemed the logical thing to do!!! 

The banana bread was warm and buttery. Very yummy and comforting indeed! She used the same recipe I used here but without the raspberries. 

It feels great using leftover ingredients to cook something simple and delicious doesn't it? 

What's your signature lazy weeknight meal?? 

Hannah x

In which I roast sweet potato & red onion

Hello :) For lunch today I roasted some vegetables. Here's my step-by-step process:

Step 1:  Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius

Step 2: Arrange vegetables on a chopping board in an arty manner

Step 3: Cut up vegetables. I cried a little whilst cutting the red onions...

Step 4: Transfer vegetables onto a baking tray with extra virgin olive oil, garlic cloves and sea salt

Step 5: After about 30 minutes, remove from oven. Served on a pretty plate with crumbled fetta and (extra) extra virgin olive oil...haha

As you can see this cooler Autumn weather has prompted me to roast vegetables! Other favourites include parsnip and carrots. I think roasted beetroot would taste delicious too. I remember during high school I used to come home from school and roast sweet potato in the afternoon when it was cold. Gee, I was a healthy kid ;)

What vegetables do you love roasting?

Hannah x