Geng Gari Curry from Thai Food Made Easy

I'm coming to you with a problem dear readers. My husband and I are funding our local thai restaurants rent with the amount of takeaway we order. We actually (embarrassingly so) order so much Thai take-away week to week that the driver now knows us and our broken apartment buzzer. And whats more embarrassing... they have an app that records your orders so that every 10th order is free... we've had a few free orders.

I can't help it, I freakin' love Thai food. It's one of my all time favourites. The freshness and variety of dishes mmmm just yum. As of last year, it also reminds me of our holiday in Patong where we ate fried rice topped with the perfect fried egg... runny yolk... crispy bottom, every single day. I wish I cooked more thai food at home than I do because as much as I love our takeaway place it's just not as good coming in those plastic boxes as it is piping hot, straight from the wok. But there is a reason for our takeaway problem. I find thai cooking somewhat intimidating. Yes, I'm a food blogger and I just admitted that. Bite me. But honestly, I do and I don't think I'm the only one. I mean, I'm pretty good with the pre-made curry pastes from the supermarket but other than that my thai cooking skills usually involve me botching up a salty stir fry by adding every asian sauce and condiment from the fridge. Sometimes it's great and others... well let just say I don't go back for seconds.

Salad Pizza

Salad Pizza. Yep. Salad on pizza. And spoiler... it was freakin' delish.

Firstly, I love a crisp zingy salad to go with my pizza. It cuts through all that decadent melty cheese but most of the time I never end up making a salad and just devour the pizza as is. But this whole Salad Pizza, salad on the pizza. It's a revelation. Fresh, satisfying, zingy, cheesey, even healthy and it's pizza. Who doesn't love pizza?

You start off by brushing the base with a sort of egg-wash to make the sesame and poppy seeds stick, then smother the base with garlic, onion and mozzarella. Bake until golden then allow to cool, I couldn't wait as usual so mine was still warm. Smoosh over creme fraiche (I used greek yoghurt as thats all we had and it was still delicious) and top with your salad mix thats full of tomatoes, mixed lettuce leaves, feta, onion and dressed in a lemon vinaigrette. Top with avo and there you have it. Salad Pizza.

Lemon and Poppyseed All-Day Cake... for baby George.

When a friend delivers a scrumptious baby boy you make cake. Just a simple cake. The kind of cake you can eat no matter what time of day it is because I'm told, the days and hours all meld into one.

AND cake is for celebrating and what better reason to celebrate than welcoming a new baby??!

When I went over to visit the brand spanking new parents and bubba I brought lemon and poppyseed afternoon cake, still warm from the oven. I knew that morning while I lazily lazed in bed dreaming of food that I wanted to take something, some sort of food as a gift. You see, it's important to always have snacks, and tasty ones at that. I was also sure that the new little one had been keeping them pretty busy so it was something I could do while their arms were newborn full. Never having made this recipe before I was in somewhat risk of turning up empty handed but I was quietly confident (the only one home was Arty so yes... quietly confident) as it's a Julia Turshen recipe and, touch wood, hers always turn out delicious and without drama.

Risi e Suca (Pumpkin & Rice Soup) from Veneto.

A good few weeks ago while everything seemed a little mad I was sent this beautiful book Veneto by Valeria Necchio of the blog Life Love Food. It a beautiful Italian cookbook filled with stories and traditions from the Veneto region in north-eastern Italy. After just flicking through the book I was already making mental notes of everything I wanted to cook and after what feels like a lifetime, I finally got around to sitting down, having a read and making a couple of recipes.

The book is split up into two sections. Part I: 'then' and Part II: 'now'. The 'then' explores family recipes cooked in Valeria's childhood home, the Venetian Countryside by Valeria's grandmothers and mother, some recipes are three generations passed down. The 'now' is all about the foods she makes in her modern Italian kitchen. You'll find recipes where she has drawn from tradition but also modern influences from her travels and current home, London. You don't see the obvious dishes of Italy in this cookbook, instead it explores a region I think that is less well known.

Our Honeymoon.

We didn't jet off straight away after our wedding or should I say drive off. We spent the next day, the Saturday recovering and then Sunday seeing family and friends who had come interstate for our special day. I don't know how they did it but some of them hit the red wine again - crazy!

On the Monday we packed the car and started our drive to Victoria for a night then jumped on the Spirit of Tasmania to explore the island state of Australia.

Tasmania is beautiful.

It actually gets a winter unlike here in Sydney. It was freezing! We packed prepared but I don't think I was ready for how cold it actually would be, I don't remember having a proper winter in a few years. Our first stop after we docked was Cradle Mountain, I loved the wildlife and the snow. It could have snowed a little more and rained a little less but it was still so lovely to get away to somewhere so different than what home is. We then worked our way west to Strahan and camped at Macquarie Heads. We bought a slab of raw Huon Pine that I want to turn into a chopping board as a keep sake - the smell is so powerful in the woodwork shops. Next was Lake St Claire where we were also meant to camp but ended up chickening out (there was torrential rain & we weren't allowed a fire in the camp site) so we bailed and called the local pub who thankfully had a room for us. We woke up to a snow topped car and white flecked gumtrees. It was magical.

A reflection on our special day.

Ok so I've started this post about four times now and scraped it each time.

I feel like a lot has happened since my last post but then also, not so much. Firstly, I got married. Secondly, we went on a super lovely cold honeymoon to Tasmania. Yes, cold but cold is good snuggle weather remember.

It's an odd feeling once it's all over. A whole years worth of planning and savings all done, dusted, drunk and eaten in a matter of hours. Once the day was done I had a sort of internal lull... I couldn't help thinking of all the small things that didn't go to plan or what I forgot on the day... did I thank everyone, oh dear who did I miss, did I talk to everyone, I should have planned that better... blah blah blah and also worrying if everyone else had a good time rather than if we enjoyed ourselves.

The food on the day was seriously good and I think everyone also enjoyed the booze. The venue told us we were up there in some of there top weddings for the most drinks consumed... oh dear. I think Tris's red wine stained shirt and my splashed dress are evidence of that. Oh and the cake! It was the best wedding cake I've ever eaten and this is not even being bias considering the cake-baker is a good friend of mine (putacakeinit - check her insta!). We had a two tier, white chocolate mud cake, filled with layers of chocolate ganache, iced in vanilla buttercream topped with fresh flowers. It was both beautiful and delicious.

LOVE.

This space is mostly about food and I guess, a little about me. Today, it's all about me. Because... I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW! And I'm filled with butterflies of excitement mixed with a couple of nerves but mostly just crazy excitement! I'm going to have a husband (still sounds weird) and I'm going to be a wife (even weirder). I can't wait to marry him. It was 10 years ago, this February that he asked me to be his girlfriend back when he was 17. Mad how time fly's when your with the one you love!!

I remember when my sister, who is nine and a half years older than me got married (11 years ago) I felt like she was so grown up and adult-y. I do not feel grown up or adult-y. But then I never asked if she actually felt grown up or adult-y when she got married or if it was just me being a little sister looking up (as always) to my big sister. Do you ever actually feel adult-y? 

Balsamic Onion Soda Bread aka your next cheese platter staple.

I've been really enjoying making bread lately and I've been trying my hand at sourdough which you might have seen over on instagram. My sourdough baking is VERY hit and miss but I might be my harshest critic as Tris is very complimentary of my bread and often tells me to shut-up when I start criticising my latest loaf. Which I'm sorry to say, this post is not about sourdough as I am in no way ready to share a sourdough recipe (yet) as I don't think I've found one that gives me consistent results or (which is most likely the answer) I'm not ready to even start to tell you what to do. I am newbie at it so feels a little cocky to start preaching to you what to do. But what I have made lately is a different kind of bread which I am comfortable to tell you about. Soda Bread. Balsamic Onion Soda Bread to be precise.

Chocolate Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

An unnamed somebody told me the other day I don't use my kitchen-aid much... well humpf... I made these cookies and you (the accuser) ate them. Ha. Chew on them Chocolate Coconut Oatmeal Cookies why don't you!? - I say this in jest and lots of love :)

To be honest with you readers, I've missed baking. To say it hasn't been on the top of my list this year is an understatement and among other things I've been 'attempting' to plan a wedding (Oh gawd! less than 2 months!!). Planning is very hard when you're a non-planner. I am a non-planner.

But cookies.. I can make cookies.

Fress - to eat copious and without restraint.

Fress - to eat copious and without restraint.

What a great word! and a pretty cool name for a cookbook if you ask me.

Fress by Emma Spitzer, the cookbook with the very cool name arrived in my letter box a good few weeks ago and I've been meaning to write this up for a little while now. It's is a cookbook that's full of traditions and family recipes. I have always felt a pull to find out my family tree and where everyone came from but to be honest, I just want to know what they ate. I want to know what traditions were kept, if something was made on a weekly basis? or for Easter or every birthday? I want to know what they kept on cooking and eating even when life got...well life. I'm nosey. And well because, everyone has to eat no matter whats going on in their life or how shitty their day was. We still have to eat.