Ladies Lunch

A great friend of mine decided to hold a ladies lunch to get together four of her close friends. As we all came from different circles she found she never had the opportunity for her friends to meet each other so what better way than to have a long leisurely Sunday lunch for the ladies. The table was set with beautiful Royal Copenhagen dinnerware, gorgeous vintage napkins and fresh flowers.

We enjoyed an absolute feast which included a beautiful Charcuterie platter with two varieties of terrine, prosciutto and cheese, a very bright and fresh Orange and Blood Orange salad with pine nuts, pea shoots and a balsamic glaze, Hummus, Chicken and Thyme pate, Beetroot Carpaccio with tarragon dressing, mint and feta, and last but not least an amazing home cured Salmon Gravlax with dainty edible flowers.

 

Dessert was a Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with a Rhubarb, Ginger and Basil coulis on top which was delicious.

-->My friend did an amazing job especially considering she had gluten intolerant and pregnancy dietary restrictions to deal with. From the beautiful table setting, food and great company she created a truly relaxing and stunning Sunday afternoon lunch

Pea in a Pod Themed Baby Shower

One of my great friends is due to have her first baby in August and I was really excited to be asked to help throw her a baby shower along with her sister in law.  As the gender is a surprise we wanted a nuetral theme and after much deliberation the theme 'Pea in a Pod' was decided on. Once this was decided this set the tone for the colour and decorating.

Pastel green and white were the colours so we based the decorations around the central food table

The bunting flag and food cards were all made out of printable graphic paper which was purchased from DXPI Design on Etsy

We served a selection of savoury items such as finger sandwiches, spinach and ricotta triangles and a pea and mint dip on crostini. For the sweet table we had Lemon Slice, Pea in a Pod Cupcakes, Iced Cookies (The Baby Iced Cookie toppers were made by Charlie's Yarra Valley Cakes)Meringues, Milk Bottle Lollies and Pistachio Macaroon's.

The favours were made from recycled envelopes with the printed paper and labels wrapped around them, tied together with jute. Inside were sweet pea seeds for the guests to plant in their own garden and watch grow

Slider's and Cider's for 4th July

Any excuse for a themed dinner party we decided to throw a US styled affair to celebrate 4^th July . The idea more so came from a cool little restaurant in Adelaide that served four sliders and a jug of cider together. Sliders are basically miniture burgers which you can fill with traditional burger type fair or get creative with alternative options such as lamb and tzatiki and chicken with coriander mayonnaise.

For starters we had a bucket of deep fried chicken wings with garlic mayonaise. Love love love Panko breadcrumbs - they make everything lovely and crispy. For the Sliders we made our own Brioche slider buns. We decided to go with two fillings - one was a beef burger with cheese, caramalised onion, mustard and tomatoe sauce and the other one was a slow cooked pulled pork with winter slaw. Just in case the deep fried chicken wasn’t enough we went with chunky cut chips with paprika mayonaise on the side.

 

Christmas Ideas

I love Christmas, but Christmas in July just doesn't do it for me. It does however remind me to start thinking about what I am going to do at Christmas, for wrapping, food, parties and table settings. I know it's only July but these things take time!


Last year I ordered my wrapping paper from The Wrapping Paper Co. From here you can order bulk wrapping paper for Christmas as well as all other types, ribbon, jute, gift labels and bags. I went with black and white - one design was music sheets and the other a bird design. I just made the labels and gift tags using various Christmas pictures and the font 'Travelling Type writer'.

To tie the table setting in with the wrapping and Christmas tree, I used the same wrapping paper and jute to make my Bon Bons. They are really easy to make just using empty toilet roll holders and bon bon inserts that you can buy from Spotlight, Riot etc. This way you can fill them with more exciting items like mini perfumes and your own jokes. Although apparently my jokes were not that funny. I liked them.



For the table I found a great twig (trust me it's not that easy to find the one just the right shape on the side of the road). I hung this from the ceiling using removable hooks and fishing wire. I then used jute to hang the baubles at various lengths.



Happy Queen's Birthday Long Weekend

Yay - long weekend. Any excuse for a bit of festivity, fun and a big cook up. I have seen photos of many of my UK friends Jubilee celebrations from last weekend, I loved the way they all got involved with backyard celebrations and decorations, enjoying the Royal pageantry, concerts and other various events.



Here in Melbourne we have the long weekend this week for the 'Queen's Birthday' so I decided to have my own British style celebration.



Scones, Coronation Chicken Baguette's and Scotch Eggs were on the menu. First attempt at the scones and I decided to use my Gran's cookbook - it's a Western Australian home ec book that she gave to my Dad in 1969. I love this cookbook as it has my Gran's Pavlova recipe hand written in the back cover.

If I never try cooking scotch eggs again it will be too soon. So much for easy picnic food. They were tasty but a serious process.

For those Royalists who really want to get involved you can even send your own message to the Queen to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee. Or if you are really struggling for ways to fill your weekend - study up on 60 facts about the Queen.

The printables were a free download from Hostess with the Mostess - Download here

Melbourne Market's

There are so many fantastic markets around Melbourne, ranging from farmers markets to boutique craft markets.  We also of course have the large permanent markets such as the Queen Victoria, South Melbourne, Prahran, Footscray and Camberwell market. Many of these are open on different days so you always have somewhere to go to get good quality fresh produce, meat, dairy, seafood and the like.

My friend found these gorgeous knitted vegetables in a shop just outside the Queen Victoria market. They are fair trade and come in all manner of vegetables – what a great little present for a mini foodie!

A market we visited last weekend was the Slow Food market at Abbotsford convent. This market is part of a conglomerate of markets that rotate around venues on different weekends of the month including Veg Out St Kilda, Collingwood Children’s Farm market and Gasworks.

You can buy a tasty little breakfast for a cold morning such as the spicy pork and leek omelette with relish or a good old fashioned egg and bacon roll. Pick up cheeses, fruit and vegetables, seedlings to plant, nuts and coffee.

We picked up a great variety of root veg to go with our lamb leg. Off to our friend’s house to enjoy this by the fire – winter has well and truly arrived!

Winter Warmer - Burning Love

We have a few traditions with several of our friends – majority of them revolving around dinner parties and seasonal events. Always known to tread the path of completely over doing it on some nights (food and wine included) the last time we tried to stick to 3 courses only. We succeeded - although my friend’s Danish dish of Burning Love made up for a couple of courses I think! We started with delicious Tasmanian Spring Bay mussels, just with garlic, onion and creamy sauce and crunchy bread from Hardware Society in the city.

Then came the Burning Love. This is one of Denmark’s national dishes and consists of crispy fried pork belly, of which the fat that renders off the belly is then poured into the mash potato, along with milk to make it creamy. The crispy pork is served on top of the mash and we had ours served along with pickled heirloom beetroot, roasted shallots and balsamic roasted baby beets.

Dessert was little meringues, dipped in dark coverture chocolate with raspberries.

The night ended with dancing around the living room. So maybe we didn’t succeed in not going over the top with wine. I’ll spare you photos of that.