Linguine carbonara

I spent last week reading the blog from start to finish, and looking back, I'm not quite sure how I managed to do all that planning and shopping and cooking and eating and blogging! This was in addition to uni, part-time work, gym, family time and having a social life. (In fact, I got tired just reading about it, haha). But I suppose was young and energetic, and I lived at home, so I was lucky to have my mum and dad to take care of me, do most of the dishes, and help with the shopping if I was too busy or tired to go to the shops. (Thank-you Mum and Dad!)

Actual quote from me, from my April Progress Report: "I’ve got 2 months to do about 80 recipes. Easy!"

I loved exposing myself and my family to new, exotic foods (chorizo! elderflower! quince!), and learning (and mastering!) new cooking techniques - using leaf gelatine, making custards, pastry, risotti, pork crackling, and more.

And in addition to the skills I learned, it was just lots of fun! There were so many dinner parties, family lunches, late night blogging sessions, chats with the lovely folks at the (now defunct) Nigella.com forum, and endless MSN convos with my buddy Clarice.

Who can forget the Seville Orange Orgy;  the "Holy shit! A fan is involved!" roast goose; or the long and hard search for a non-stick brioche pan. I have more than a few favourite recipes - the Pig's Bum and Rhubarb Meringue Pie are obvious contenders, but I think the most useful recipes (i.e. the ones I still cook, to this day) were the pasta recipes: tagliatelle with chicken from the Venetian ghetto, linguine alle vongole, spaghetti carbonara, butter with pasta and stock cube juices. So delicious.

Let's look at some numbers!

The Statistics

• Recipes cooked: 395 in 365 days
• Posts written: 317
• Comments received: 702
• Items Autographed by Nigella received: 2 (thank-you Clarice for organising!)
• Dinner / Lunch parties held: 19
• Most Recipes made for the one meal: 9 - Christmas lunch with all the trimmings
• Custards made: 12
• Types of Crostini made: 8
• Pies made: 23 (holy moly)
• Pie or Sausage-related innuendoes included: Too many to count. Also, "in-YOUR-end-o".

Mushroom Crostini

The first Crackling I ever made!

Roast Beef, Beans, Roast Potatoes

Roast Potatoes

Poached peaches with baked Sauternes Custard

Autographed egg cup and saucer set!

Autographed photo from Nigella!

Sweet, sweet pie

Thanks to everyone who supported me and followed my cooking and blogging journey! Here's to many more delicious meals and fun times with family and friends!

The Winey Cow

A couple of weeks ago, we had a lovely spa day in Frankston (redeeming a voucher that some of my favourite food blogger friends had given me for my birthday last year!), and I thought we should take advantage of being down that way and have lunch in nearby Mornington.

You know, despite my love for the Mornington Peninsula region, I'd never actually spent any time in the town of Mornington itself! Main street in Mornington has a lot of nice cafes and shops - it's definitely a nice spot to spend an afternoon. Our initial plan was to get green juices at Store Fifteen, but it turned out to be a super cold and windy day, and we thought something a little heartier was in order. And that's how we ended up at The Winey Cow...


The Winey Cow
39A Main St
Mornington, VIC 3931
Ph: (03) 5976-4018
Website

The Winey Cow

White Peony tea - $4

Sandra enjoyed her white peony tea (which I understand is a white tea from Fujian province in China), and I thought the little tea timer that came with it was a nice touch.

Rooibos latte - $5

I eschewed my usual coffee and tried a Rooibos latte. I often drink rooibos at home, but had never tried it in a latte. This was really nice - not overly sweetened and with a prominent tea flavour.

The Winey Cow - BBQ spiced pulled beef, sweet pepper and onion relish, Swiss cheese, brioche roll, chipotle mayo, rocket, pickled zucchini with wedges and jalapeño sour cream - $24

Looking at the other tables, "The Winey Cow" is one of the most popular dishes at The Winey Cow, and I can see why! This is a brioche bun burger filled with tender spiced pulled beef and lots of other deliciousness, like chipotle mayo, Swiss cheese, pickled zucchini and more! Side note: this was Sandra's lunch, but I stole a couple of those wedges, and they were gooood.

3 Little Pigs - Black pudding & bacon risotto croquette, Serrano jamon, grilled smoked pork neck bacon, local asparagus, two poached eggs, lemon mayonnaise and toast - $22

I couldn't resist the 3 Little Pigs - four types of pork in the one dish! There was a crisp and creamy black pudding and bacon risotto croquette, a thick slice of grilled smoked pork neck bacon, and some jamon serrano, served with two poached eggs, lemon mayo and some healthy (hah) salad and asparagus. It was a real indulgence, and so delicious!

The Winey Cow was a great find - friendly service, a good range of drinks and great brunch dishes. Definitely recommend this one if you are down in Mornington!

First day of May was the day after my birthday, and breakfast was more cakes from Beatrix. (There may have been KFC for lunch, and then more cakes for dinner, but let's not tell anyone).

Beatrix Cakes!

And on the normal breakfast rotation were toast, yogurt with muesli, and açaí bowls.

Clockwise from top left: Toast with butter and marmalade; Yogurt with matcha granola and fruit; Toast with cottage cheese and chives; açaí bowl

Weekday lunches took on a distinctly Asian theme. (I was trying to eat as much Asian food as possible before the Germany trip!) All of these dishes were excellent and I highly recommend!

Clockwise from top left: Nasi lemak fried chicken at Killiney Kopitiam (108 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000) Beef bimbimbap and seafood pancake at By Korea (1/222 La Trobe St, Melbourne VIC 3000) Thit Kho at Phở Nom (287 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000) Unagi Donburi at Gekkazan (350 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000)

We have dinner at my parents' place once a week, and I wanted to show you this fab dinner they made - fried pomfret (my favourite!), with stir-fried Chinese broccoli and my Mum's egg curry.

Fried pomfret, stir-fried gai-lan, egg curry

May was a very busy time for us, so we ate out a lot more often than usual. When we did cook at home, food tended to be easy and / or comforting.

Clockwise from top left: Pork steak with avocado, zucchini chips & chips; Creamy tortellini with ham; Taiwanese meat sauce on rice; Three-cheese omelette

Royal Stacks burger, tater tots, fries

Pidapipo gelato!

I don't normally do Friday night drinks, but sometimes, I can be persuaded. Here are some cocktails at Goldilocks (264 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000).

Drinks at Goldilocks Bar (264 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000)

And in May, we have Mother's Day! For this, we took my parents to Le Paul Patisserie (409 Whitehorse Rd, Balwyn VIC 3103) for brunch, then we cooked her famous lamb casserole together for lunch. I also made an apple crumble with custard for dessert. Yay! Family day!

Pastries at Le Paul Patisserie - Apple Crumble Danish; Donut; Croissant

Lamb casserole

Apple crumble with custard

I managed to sneak in one event this month - the launch of A25 Espresso (399 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000), a new pizza joint in the CBD from the same people who brought you Non Solo Pasta. There were delicious pizzas and lots of Aperol spritzes. It was a fun night!

A25 Espresso

And on a slightly less glamorous note, most weekends this month were spent in shopping centres, buying gifts and other things we needed for the trip. Many a food court meal was eaten! I just wanted to say - the prawn mee at Pappa Rich was truly excellent and it tasted like the one my dad cooks! (That's Penang Hokkien Mee - a spicy prawn broth with noodles, egg, water spinach, prawns and chicken. Normally it's made with pork, but PappaRich do it with chicken).

Prawn Mee at Papparich

We have a tradition with our friend Jess, where we cook dinner for each other as a birthday gift. This year for our joint birthday dinner she made us a vegetable moussaka-slash-lasagne, with layers of grilled eggplant, a rich red wine and lentil sauce, and cheesy cheesey bechamel. So delicious!

Dinner at Jess'

On my last day at work before the holiday, I just had to treat myself to some Short Stop Donuts (12 Sutherland St, Melbourne VIC 3000) with my buddy Jimbo!

2 x white coffees, 1 cookies & cream donut, 1 maple walnut brown butter donut

And that was the first half of May! We'll be in Germany (follow me on Instagram for updates) until the middle of June, woop woop! Bring on the Schnitzel!

Simply Spanish, South Melbourne

At the start of the year, I was invited to check out Simply Spanish. Sandra and I made a night of it, visiting the Bourke street branch and indulging in delicious tapas, sangria and paella. We hadn't visited a Simply Spanish before, and were really impressed. So last week, when my dad said he wanted paella for his birthday, we knew just where to take him. This post will cover both visits.

The Bourke Street Simply Spanish is located in the courtyard of the 555 Bourke Street building, and seems to attract a corporate crowd, especially for Friday night drinks.

Simply Spanish, CBD

We just had to start the night with some sangria! Delicious.

Sangria - $7.50 a glass

Between the two of us, we ordered three tapas items and two individual paellas. Let's take a look!

Jamon Serrano - Spanish dried-cured ham thinly sliced w/ bread, grated tomato + olive oil - $12.0

The jamon serrano was excellent - it had a lovely soft texture and that perfect salty-sweet flavour. I also appreciated that it came with good bread and grated tomato with olive oil. One of my favourite Catalan / Spanish dishes is pa amb tomàquet / pan con tomate. It's a classic and I love it, but I don't seem to see it too often on menus in Melbourne, so it was a real treat to have it here.

Chorizo in white wine - Pan seared Spanish chorizo sausage with kipfler potato, smoked paprika & white wine reduction - $14.50

The chorizo in white wine was also very good. The smoky, spicy fat from the chorizo had melded in with the potatoes and was incredibly flavourful. I was definitely mopping up the juices with the bread! (As I understand it, chorizo in white wine is another classic tapas dish - if anyone has a recipe they're happy to share, please let me know!)

Croquettes (2 per serve) - Croquettes w/ smoked chicken, squid ink + soft béchamel $8.00

The croquettes were recommended by our waiter, and I'm really glad we ordered them. They were filled with a malevolently black mixture of squid ink, smoked chicken and soft bechamel, and were a great mix of smoky, creamy and crisp. Winner!

Simply Spanish serve a variety of paellas - seafood, meat, vegetarian. The only seafood paellas on the menu serve at least two people, so to keep seafood-avoider Sandra happy, we each ordered a single-serve non-seafood paella. Just to let you know, the portions of the paellas are very generous. So if you wanted to share a few tapas items beforehand, you could easily share a single-serve paella between two.

Roasted Mushroom Paella - Mushroom + spinach paella w/ parmesan + truffle oil - $22.00

The roasted mushroom paella was impressive, with a generous amount of mushrooms throughout the rice. I'm not a huge fan of fennel, and was worried that the blanket of finely-shaved fennel might be a bit overpowering, but mild anisey flavour actually complimented the earthy mushrooms really well.

Braised Chicken Paella - $22

Closer to a classic flavour profile was the braised chicken paella with a smoky tomato base.

For both paellas, the rice grains were cooked perfectly, with just enough bite in them. I would have preferred it if there had been more of a pronounced socarrat (the crispy rice on the base of the pan), but overall they were very good and had a great depth of flavour. We were sadly, too full for dessert, but really enjoyed all the savoury dishes that we had eaten. We were definitely more than happy to visit again, on our own coin, for my Dad's birthday.


Simply Spanish South Melbourne
South Melbourne Market
116 Cecil Street
South Melbourne, VIC 3205
Ph: (03) 9682-6100
Website


For this dinner, we decided to visit the South Melbourne branch as we knew it would be easier for parking than the CBD. The South Melbourne store was a little smaller than the CBD one, and was reasonably quiet on the Friday night we went - I imagine its peak times are when the market is open!

Simply Spanish South Melbourne

The menu at the South Melbourne branch is quite different to the Bourke street one, so we got to try a few new dishes. (Sadly no jamon serrano at South Melbourne!)

Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms - Mushrooms sautéed with new season leeks & Australian garlic, finished with a drizzle of Tasmanian truffle oil - $12.50

The sautéed garlic mushrooms were very tasty, with just the right amount of garlic and truffle oil. I liked the mixture of different mushroom varieties. (Especially the long enoki mushrooms!)

Mini Empanadas - Beef and cheese filled parcels served with a chimichurri salsa - $12.50

The mini empanadas were crispy fried little pastry pockets filled with a smoky beef mixture, and I really liked the punchy chimichurri salsa that accompanied it.

Pan-fried calamari - pan fried whole baby calamari, with fresh lemon & herb infused olive oil dressing - $13.50

We really loved the calamari - it was very fresh, and cooked perfectly, so that it was still tender. Highly recommend ordering this dish!

Remembering the generous portions, we ordered a single-serve non-seafood paella for Sandra, and my parents and I shared the gourmet provincial Spanish paella, which "serves 2".

Chicken & Chorizo Paella - Tender chicken cooked with chorizo in saffron infused short grain rice - $21.00

Gourmet Provincial Spanish (Minimum 2 serves) - Classic Spanish style paella. Australian prawns, shellfish, & boneless chicken pieces cooked with smoked chorizo in traditional Spanish paella pan - $42.50

My parents and I absolutely loved the classic paella - all smoky tomato and chorizo, with so much seafood! Huge prawns, juicy mussels and tender squid. It was very rich, and, as suspected, the "2 serves" easily served three of us.

This paella was exactly what my dad had been craving - hooray! Definitely recommend Simply Spanish for a nice meal or when you want to get your fix of Spanish flavours!

Sarah and Sandra dined at Simply Spanish Bourke Street as guests, and visited Simply Spanish South Melbourne as paying customers

First up was my annual birthday slumber party - a group of girlfriends having a relaxed night in, with lots of drinks and food! It was a bit luxe compared to previous years - with real Champagne, and so many fabulous deli goodies like cheeses, pickled octopus, Spanish jamon, fresh oysters and more!

Champagne!

Foooooood

Birthday snacks!

In terms of sweets, I made a batch each of Joy the Baker's browned butter white chocolate macadamia cookies and her milk chocolate cookies and cream cookies...

Cookies!

... and my birthday cake was Nigella's magnificent chocolate and raspberry pavlova. So delicious.

Chocolate raspberry pavlova

Some of my friends brought sweets as well, and the next morning my choices for breakfast looked like this!

Breakfast: Cannoli, Chocolate raspberry pavlova, Cake pops, cookies

PS my friend Alaina brought cannoli from T Cavallaro and Sons (the ricotta cannoli, especially, were amazing!), and my friend Jenni made ridic delicious cake pops in the shape of little sausage dogs. Cute!

The day after the slumber party, we caught up with some friends for a dumpling feast at Din Tai Fung (Level 4 Emporium, 287 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000). I've been a couple of times since my first visit, and have always enjoyed it. In addition to the famous xiao long bao, I really like the chilli fried chicken and the fried rice!

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung

Milk Cow

Left: Milk-a-ron - French macaron with toasted organic coconut chips Right: Black Pearl - cocoa-dusted scorched almonds w salted caramel syrup, a sprinkle of Fleur de Sel artisan sea salt

Ok, so my actual birthday was on a Saturday, but I managed to sneak in a few pre-birthday treats the day before at work! First up, breakfast at Short Stop (12 Sutherland St, Melbourne VIC 3000) with my buddy Jimbo. We tried the burnt caramel, fennel and sea salt, and the pistachio and spiced orange - both great.

Front: Burnt caramel, fennel & sea salt raised donut Back: Pistachio & spiced orange

For lunch, as usual, I redeemed my free Nando's birthday meal.

Nando's

And for dinner that night! Drinks and dinner with some of my besties at House of Crabs (Basement, 34 Inkerman St, St Kilda VIC 3182). Cocktails! Sizzler cheese bread! Lobster fries! And a 500 gram serving of snow crab all to myself. Muahaha! I liked it just as much on this regular visit as I did on my previous (freebie) visit. Yay!

House of Crabs

Our group of six really demolished all that food...

Aftermath

After dinner, we retired upstairs to the Newmarket Hotel (34 Inkerman St, St Kilda VIC 3000) for more drinks - wine and sangria for my fabulous friends; a nice cup of tea for Sandra and I. We also shared one of the best desserts I've had in ages - the Weis gianduja chocolate cazuela. This was a huge dessert baked in an earthenware dish (or cazuela), which was kind of a cross between cake, pudding and cookie (!), with big chunks of melty chocolate, some pear, salted caramel sauce and ice-cream. So good!

Weis Gianduja Chocolate Cazuela - Salted caramel, hazelnut praline & vanilla ice cream - $29

The next day, my real birthday, was reasonably quiet. Sandra and I started with brunch at the always-reliable Elceed (610 Queensberry St, North Melbourne VIC 3051), where I really enjoyed the crispy crispy bacon in their BLAT.

BLAT

Then we walked down the street to my favourite cafe, Beatrix (688 Queensberry St, North Melbourne VIC 3051), for a frankly ludicrous amount of cake.

Front: Milk chocolate mousse tart with passionfruit poached pears in a macadamia crumb crust Back: Brûléed lime tart

The brûléed lime tart was just as good as you'd expect, but the milk chocolate mousse tart was really incredible! The milk chocolate mousse filling was softly set, with the richness of the chocolate balanced out by the poached pears. And the macadamia crumb crust was very crumbly and crisp - perfection. Nat said she just came up with this combo because she had extra passionfruit and extra macadamias. Amazing!

In the box: Glim Glam (cocoa biscuit, chocolate cream filling, dipped in dark chocolate and topped with gold leaf), Lemon ricotta sponge roll with raspberries, Cocoa sour cream layer cake with fresh raspberries and chocolate cheesecake buttercream

You'll see we bought some extra cakes to bring home - these were all ones I've been obsessing over after seeing them on Nat's Instagram feed! The glim-glam, the lemon ricotta sponge roll with raspberries, the cocoa sour cream layer cake with fresh raspberries and chocolate cheesecake butter cream. (Man, the name of that last one just keeps getting better!) I wasn't hungry enough to eat the takeaway cakes on the same day, but they made an excellent breakfast the next day. (And dinner too, whoops).

I was also really lucky to get some super-cool gifts from Sandra - gorgeous flowers, a cute helium-filled balloon (which, two weeks later is somehow still floating like it's brand new), a Kindle, the Too Faced limited edition "Peanut Butter and Jelly" eyeshadow palette (squee!) and some vintage Women's Weekly cookbooks! I am so excited to bake from those.

Gifts!

And dinner on my real birthday was with my parents at Vaporetto (Rear 681 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn 3122). You may remember I went to the Vaporetto bar back in March, and had really been looking forward to the opening of their eatery! I must admit that we found the service a little patchy, but it was only their first weekend, and the place was packed. I'm pleased to say that the food and drinks were uniformly excellent. Looking forward to going back again!

Cocktails at Vaporetto

Vaporetto

Dem chips. Those tiger prawns. Wow.

There were a couple of post-birthday birthday treats too. My boss and a colleague of mine each surprised me with a cupcake from Cupcake Central! One was the classic red velvet, and the other was the very delicious dulce de leche. Such treats!

Dulce de Leche cupcake

And finally (yes, we're getting there), my buddy Adam shouted me dumplings at China Red (Shop 6, 206 Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000). We were hoping to do Tim Ho Wan, but the lines were still really long. Soon, soon! China Red made a more than satisfying treat of a lunch!

Dumplings at China Red

And that was my birthday! So much fun! Yay! I feel very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family in my life!