Summer holiday 2011

We just came back from a short break at the Central Coast. We spent 3 days at the Entrace and an afternoon at Terrigal Beach on our way home. The apartment we stayed in (Sandy Cove) was only a short walk to the beach, and the memorial park. We watched the pelicans feed, relaxed at the beach and Lara played at 'Vera's garden', a very popular kids water playground. Sam does not appreciate the beach, so Simon and I took turns taking Lara to the beach. There is no timetables to keep and places we have to be. We let our moods and the weather decide what we do each day.

I wouldn't say this is a relaxing holiday (travelling with 2 kids under 5 was NOT relaxing). Sam didn't like his travel cot and cried for a long time before falling asleep on the fist night (he had no problem sleeping on the seond night). We got up early (before 6am) every morning, because the bedrooms are not dark enough and the kids just got woken up by the daynight. And the food could be better. However, we enjoyed being so close to the beach and walking around aimlessly while licking ice-cream. This holiday gave Simon a much needed break from work. It taught Sam to sleep in a strange place. It gave the four of us a chance to really spend time together. Being away refreshed and recharged us, it also made us appreicate our home more.

I am still going through the hundreds of photos we took and will post more photos later.

Birthday cards

I spent a few hours over two days and made these cards during Sam's day sleeps. I enjoyed thinking about the design and rearranging the pieces to make the final product.

Siblings love 04-02-2011

Torta caprese

The description of this Italian cake is "rich with a fudgy brownie texture". The recipe was similar to the Julia Child's chocolate almond cake I usually made in that you separate the eggs, beat them, then combined them together. This recipe uses no flour, it's nutty and quite sticky. It's Valentine's Day tomorrow hence the heart on the top of the cake.

Recipe (by Belinda Jeffery in Delicious magazine May 2010 pg 46 with modifications by me)

Ingredients:
1 & 1/4 cups of walnuts (BJ's recipe use 1.5 cups of pecans)
180g cooking chocolate (BJ uses dark chocolate)
4 eggs separated (my eggs are very small thus I reduced the amount of nuts)
1 cup of caster sugar
220g melted butter
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. Grease and line springform cake pan, dust side with flour
3. Grind chocolate and nut in food processor until fine (not pasty)
4. Cream egg yolks and sugar, then mixed in butter, vanilla extract and nuts/chocolate mixture
5. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until quite stiff then mix into the egg yolk mixture (The recipe whisk in 1/4 of the egg white mixture first then fold in the rest, as long as you mix properly but gently that's fine I think)
6. Bake in oven for 45 minutes (recipe says 50 munites) until cake begins to pull away from the side and feels firm and wobble gently.
7 Cool and dust with icing sugar (BJ dust with cocoa and served with whipped cream)

ps I didn't follow the recipe of inverting the cake after cooling on rack for 10 minutes so the bottom of the cake is a little too sticky. I took it to Parents-in-law's tonight (Mothe-in-law did roast chicken), MIL and Lara liked it.

Friday swim

We arrived at Jenny's just after mid-day. We chatted while Jenny prepared Vietnamese summer rolls. Lara finished hers first and went upstairs to play and watch TV. It took some time for Sam to fall asleep and by the time we went into the pool, it was after two o'clock. Jenny had to leave to pick up the boys before 3pm and Sam got up and needed a feed so Lara had the pool to herself for half an hour. Sam went in after his feed and this time he stayed for quite a long time (maybe 20-30 minutes). The water was very nice, it cooled us down quickly. The swim ended with a glass of champaign(me) and nibbles (Lara). We got home at 5pm, I just had enough time to get dinner ready!

Chinese NYE feast

We never had a big Chinese New Year's dinner with Grandparents when I was growing up. Mum, being a 'girl' could not spend Chinese New Year with her parents and Dad's parents were not around. However, Mum always made a lot of food for the four of us. Now in my family of four, to keep up the Chinese tradition, I decided to make more food than we could finish so we 'have more than enough' for the New Year. I normally make two dishes (one meat one vegetable dish) when I cook Chinese so making six dishes is a little of a stretch for me. This is my version of a 'feast' this Chinese New Rabbit Year.



Whole steamed fish (snapper) with ginger and shallot. BBQ pork (I tried to cut the tender meat still hot after it came out of the oven and it turned into pieces!). Coconut prawns*. Boiled pork dumplings. Marbled tea eggs. 100 Blossoming flowers*.
*Recipes from Steaming kitchen.