Unblogged

The Unblogged Files: April 2015

5/02/2015 07:52:00 PM

Hey hey! April's over now and it's time for my Unblogged Files! If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you'll know that April was all about my birthday! (Follow the #sarahsbirthmonth hashtag for evidence of the epicness of the celebrations!) I'll be blogging about my birthday shortly, but for today's post I wanted to share all the non-birthday foodie deliciousness I experienced in April. Let's take a look!

I did a little non-birthday baking in April:

Donna Hay's buckwheat banana bread. This was in Issue 1 of Donna Hay Magazine (the "Fresh and Light" edition), and I loved the nutty and wholesome flavour the buckwheat flour gave the banana bread. (It was very sweet though, definitely "cake", rather than bread, hehe). I can't find the recipe online at the moment, but will let y'all know if I do!

Donna Hay Buckwheat Banana Bread

I had quite a few plums leftover from when I made the Pflaumenkuchen, so I whipped up a crumble to take to my parents' house for dinner one night. I used Nigella's recipe for strawberry and almond crumble, replacing the strawberries with plums. Super delicious for a cold night!

Plum and almond crumble

I also made Sprinkle Bakes' genius waffled cheesecake. It's cheesecake batter, cooked in a waffle iron. Get on it, peoples!

Waffled cheesecake, with sauteed apples and salted caramel sauce

Speaking of cheesecake, don't tell anyone, but I've realised that I really like the Coles homebrand baked cheesecake. Sandra's bought it a couple of times, my parents have bought it, and we all agree - good cheesecake. It's creamy, it's rich, and it has a touch of cinnamon. It's also available in packets of just two slices, so we don't get my usual problem of: "Sarah bakes a cheesecake and demolishes it in five days". Always a plus.

Coles homebrand cheesecake

And on the other end of the cake spectrum, one night Sandra brought home some of these gorgeous goodies from T By Luxbite to share! So much cute deliciousness!

Back: 'Mif' - T by LuxBite's version of a Ferrero Rocher: Housemade Nutella, light hazelnut praliné cream, Piedmontese hazelnut, giant chocolate macaron
Front: 'Chick Me Out' - Butterscotch, mango jelly centered in honey mousse, on a bed of milk chocolate coated rice crisp, chicky chocolate glaze, chocolate 'egg shell'

Ok, breakfasts. My "standard" breakfast for April was Chobani Greek yogurt, berries and Green Press granola.

Chobani, raspberries, granola

Other times, I had leftover waffled cheesecake (zomg!), that buckwheat banana bread with cream cheese, and one morning, Sandra surprised me with a deluxe frittata, with chorizo, goats cheese and zucchini, plus freshly ground chemex coffee and a rocket salad. Yay!

Top left: Waffled cheesecake
Top right & bottom left: Buckwheat banana bread with cream cheese
Bottom right: Frittata!

Here are some work lunches!

Top left: Katsu curry & Miso pork, Hanaichi QV
Top right: Spicy kara-age chicken, Rice Workshop, Emporium
Bottom left: Sweet chilli fried chicken, By Korea (1/222 La Trobe St, Melbourne, VIC 3000)
Bottom right: Chicken Pho and Viet iced coffee, Pho Nom, Emporium

Looks like we did a lot of home-cooking in April. Yay!

Top left: Fish fingers, spinach, potatoes
Top right: Roast chicken, roast root veggies, gravy
Bottom left: Mushroom pizza with spelt dough
Bottom right: Chicken and chorizo paella

Top left: Spaghetti carbonara
Top right: Beef stew with noodles
Bottom left: Steak, stir-fried veggies and rocket
Bottom right: Salmon, mashed sweet potato, steamed veggies

Top left: Bratwurst, spinach and potatoes
Top right: Mushroom soup
Bottom left: Baked pasta with eggplant, meat and cheese
Bottom right: Chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, crispy broccoli with lemon and garlic

We did one big, blow-out meal this month: dinner at Brae (4285 Cape Otway Road, Birregurra, VIC 3242), as a gift to our friend An for his birthday. It was amazing! Eight courses of delicious, inventive, beautiful food. Blogpost to come!

Some of the amuse bouches at Brae

We made a couple of cafe visits this month! On Easter Monday, we took my folks to Aunt Billie's (184 Surrey Rd Blackburn, VIC 3130) - great service, easy parking, good coffee and nice food!

Aunt Billies, Blackburn

One Autumnal Saturday arvo, we shared the gooiest chocolate brownie ever at Olio and Pane (328 Auburn Road, Hawthorn VIC 3122).

Olio and Pane

And there were visits to Little Rogue (12 Drewery Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000), for great coffees, Pop-Up Scrolls and Butterbing Cookies.

Little Rogue

I went to one event this month, the launch of the Easey Street Smokeout (25 Easey Street, Collingwood VIC 3066) - an actual motorbike workshop that serves barbecue on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The highlights, for me, were the pulled pork sliders, the mushroom mac and cheese, and the Buffalo Trace bourbon sours.

Easey Street Smokeout

Finally, I just wanted to show you this picture of delicious roast duck on noodles that I enjoyed at Hills BBQ (586 Station Street, Box Hill VIC 3128).

Roast duck on noodles

And that was April! In my next post: all the birthday shenanigans. Hooray!

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5 comments

  1. Hehe I must admit that I do love it when you can get smaller portions because sometimes you just want to eat it all! :D

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  2. Mmmm you ate some pretty delicious looking food in April - much tastier than my lot for sure! That paella looks amazing, and thanks for the heads up on the Coles cheesecake I'm going to pick some up to try :)

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  3. WAFFLED CHEESECAKE WUT.

    *buys Coles cheesecake and stokes the iron*

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  4. Hi, I'm from England and I've been reading your blog since 2009! I really like the Unblogged Files. I hadn't been on for a few weeks and was so happy to see there were 4 new posts which I happily sat down and read over a cup of tea. Keep up the good work!

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  5. WAFFLE CHEESECAKE? You have officially blown my mind!

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