Banana choc muffins

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Bec

banana choc muffins 2

It’s rare that I have the luxury of having old bananas to use in baking, but last week my housemate Elly asked me to buy 10 bananas. 10! So that we could stuff them with chocolate and marshmallows, wrap them in foil and bake them in our campfire when we went camping last weekend. We never got around to having a campfire. So now there is a lump of blackened bananas in our freezer. Appetising, no?

Instead of making banana bread (again) I made these tasty lil’ muffs. I used:

– 60g butter
– 2 cups of self-raising flour
– 1/2 cup of caster sugar
– 1/2 cup milk
– 2 eggs
– 2 ripe bananas, mashed
– 1 cup of choc chips

banana choc muffins

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a 12 muffin tray with paper cases or baking paper squares.
1. Sift flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar
2. Melt the butter in the microwave (or in a saucepan on the stove if you like washing pans) and pour into a jug with the milk and the eggs.
3. Using a whisk lightly beat the milk, eggs and butter.
4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture.
5. Add the mashed bananas (ewwww) and gently mix the ingredients together until just combined.
6. Stir in the choc bits

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Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes or until firm on top when lightly touched.

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Ohhhh baby.

What is the most disgusting thing you have in your freezer?

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Travel Tuesday: the real Jersey Shore

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Bec

If you’ve ever caught a glimpse of the tv show Jersey Shore chances are you have no desire to visit there. Why would you? Unless you like the idea of hanging with “eight of the hottest, tannest, craziest Guidos” (MTV’s words, not mine!) in sleazy nightclubs.

But if you head south of Atlantic City, you will come across some of the prettiest (and kitschiest) seaside towns imaginable. Think clean beaches surrounded by pastel late-Victorian beach houses.

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(above is Cape May) So many flags.

Jersey Shore

Driving south from Atlantic City you will first hit the Wildwoods (four communities with Wildwood in their name). Wildwood has over 200 motels built in 1950s-60s doo-wop style. Lots of Vegas style neon signs. Wildwood also has a pretty tacky boardwalk, it’s lots of fun.

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I wish I had tried Philly cheese steak.

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Further south is Cape May, which claims to be America’s first seaside resort. It was beautiful. The only place I’ve ever had to pay to go on the beach. It was worth it.

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Even the booze store looks classy.

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At Duffers Kate and I shared a chocolate fudge sundae. We also ate a lot of Saltwater Taffy, which I love.

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We also visited the Cape May lighthouse, which I didn’t find particularly impressive. But overall I did love our tour of Jersey Shore. It felt so American. And there weren’t many other foreign tourists around. We were driving a hire care with a Tennessee licence plate though, so we stuck out like a sore thumb.

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Technical difficulties

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Bec

Waaaahhhh all my widgets have fallen down! Widgets are those pretty things that usually sit over there (About Me, facebook, the search box etc) —-> but are now down the bottom of this page.

And I have no idea how to fix it. You probably didn’t notice but it’s giving me an irritating eyeball twitch…. So until a WordPress fairy helps me out please ignore it.

Ho hum.  

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Eating my way around Melbourne – part 4

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Bec

Friday

We needed nourishment and revitalisation by Friday. Hello Pho. (and greetings to the painkillers you can see in the photo below)

At one stage I used to eat at Pho Chu The on Victoria Street once or twice a week. It’s the best. They opened up I Love Pho just before I moved to Kal. Every time I go home I attempt to get my Pho fix and never quite make it. But I did this time! And to my delight the owner remembered me and gave me a big hug. Love.

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I like sliced beef Pho. No fancy brisket or beef balls for me thanks. With a side of spring rolls. I am salivating.

After Pho I hit the road to get down to Inverloch to see my beloved buddy Kate and attend a wedding in Cape Paterson the next day.

We took a walk along the beach and were treated to quite a sunset. Can you believe this is Victoria in April?!

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As you can imagine we were famished at this point so we went for tapas at a place called Vela 9. I was impressed that somewhere regional can put on such delicious fare. But then I remembered Inverloch is less than two hours from Melbourne, not 7 hours inland from Perth on the edge of nowhere.

vela 9

Top left: artichoke fritters with pepper salsa and garlic aioli, kofta with beetroot aioli
Top right: white bean puree with goats cheese and kalamata olives (my favourite)
Bottom left & right: chocolate fondant with mint ice cream and pistachios.

Delicioso.

The next day was the wedding of two of my oldest and dearest we’re-from-Melbourne-but-live-in-Kalgoorlie friends. The day, the weather, the food, the people were all perfect. I felt very honoured to be a guest.

And that concludes my series on what I ate in Melbourne. Impressive yes? The posts over this weekend have been scheduled because I am currently eating my way around Perth! Yay!

Have you been to any great restaurants lately? Lemme know in the comments.

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What to buy with your pocket money this week: novelty stamps

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Bec

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For just $3 you can wow your colleagues and classmates with these Typo stamps.

I declared Monday LAME:

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Bec passed me this note through the hidey-hole between our desks at work:

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I decorated a post it:

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Hours of stationary stationery fun.

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Eating my way around Melbourne – Part 3

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Bec

Thursday

On Thursday I had a hankering for Mexican. We had planned to go to a place I’ve never been called Senorita, but for some reason it is only open for lunch on Fridays. So we returned to old faithful Mamasita, which is an exceedingly frustrating place to go for dinner (they are one of the many ‘no bookings’ restaurants in Melbourne, if you see a line of hungry looking people at the top of Collins street blame Mamasita) but a very easy choice for lunch.

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We started with tortilla chips with salsa a guacamole.

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Then I had two soft shell tacos, one with marinated prawns, red chilli and chipotle almond salsa and one with Al Pastor style pork, pineapple, white onion and coriander.

We shared a braised lamb, queso criollo, mint and jalapeno herb sauce quesadilla (AMAZING).

That night Tarn, Sian, Claire and I ate at home before heading out in Carlton and then in the city. I note that smoke machines seem to have made a comeback. I’m sure I haven’t seen one since Metro Underage circa 2004. Turns out The Toff is trashbag central on Thursday night, so we fitted in perfectly. I was home by a respectable 2am and awoke the next morning ready for more eating…

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Cauliflower, broccoli and cheese pie

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Bec

broccoli pie

I thought I would break up all these food posts with a recipe! Clever. I’ve been meaning to post this for a while so apologies to those who have been waiting with baited breath (I know you’re out there).

For those who missed the earlier post I wanted to try and recreate the Best Pie I’ve Ever Eaten from a bakery in Esperance, WA, the cauliflower, broccoli and cheese pie. Whilst my version is delicious, I think these pies work better in small form because the filling isn’t very structurally sound and it ends up a bit of a mess. What you will need:

– Broccoli
– Cauliflower
– Short crust pastry
– Butter (about 75g)
– Plain flower (about 4 tablespoons)
– Milk (about 3 cups)
– Grated cheese

Lightly grease a pie dish and line with the pastry. I pre-baked (or blind baked) my pie crust for about 10 minutes at 180 degrees celsius  This stops the pastry from becoming soggy. I used rice to weigh down the pastry (which stops it from puffing up) but of course I forgot to put some baking paper between the pastry and the rice to stop it from sticking. So I spent a while flicking rice grains off the pastry and onto the bench/floor/into the sink. Fail.

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Put the broccoli and cauliflower in a pot of boiling water for a about 5 minutes to soften, but not completely cook.

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Drain and put to one side. Now it’s time to make the piece de resistance: the cheese sauce.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the flour and stir, once combined add the milk and whisk. Keep whisking for about 8 minutes until the sauce becomes delightfully thick.

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Then throw in a handful of the cheese. I believe I may have also accidentally on purpose thrown in some cream we had in the fridge. Shhhh. Season with salt and pepper.

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Put the broccoli, cauliflower and cheese sauce into the pie crust and sprinkle with more cheese.

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Bake until the top is golden and crispy, I think it was about 20 minutes from memory.

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Soggy but scrumptious. Perfect with a dollop of tomato sauce/ketchup.

This recipe would go perfectly in a small pie maker. My friend Andrew had one and used to make cheeseburger pies on special occasions.

What’s the best pie you’ve ever had?

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Eating my way around Melbourne – Part 2

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bec

Wednesday

On Wednesday Tarn and I hit up Proud Mary in Collingwood for some delicious breakfast at about 1pm. Such a relief not to have to race to get breakfast before it stops at the premature time of 11am or noon (lame Kalgoorlie establishments I’m looking at you).

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This scrumptious mess is avocado on toast with tabouleh, corn, chilli oil and goats cheese.

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This is a flat white. Which appears to be out of focus. Derp.

Thankfully we were able to work up hunger again by trawling op shops (unsuccessfully) because dinner had already been planned.

We went to Baby in Richmond for pizza and a lot of wine.

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We had calamari and cured meats to start, followed by three (gluten free!) pizzas. One had prawns, another had eggplant, basil and cheese and the other one had salami (can you tell I’m just guessing from the photos? I did mention there was a lot of wine).

Baby Pizza

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We did the awkward “Can you take our photo?” thing with the waiter which wasn’t awkward at all seeing as he was a really sweet friend of Tarn’s. Phew.

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Cute, right?! We had planned to hit the town hard but with full bellies and hazy heads we went back to Claire’s house and this happened:

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That is a 1.2kg tub of gummi bears in Tarn’s lap. Shortly after this photo we curled up in Claire’s bed and watched Magic Mike. A perfect evening.

You’d better believe there is more eating to come…

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Eating my way around Melbourne – Part 1

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bec

This is a series with many parts. How many exactly? I do not know.

I was in Melbourne all last week and whilst there I did what I always do: cram as much good food into my time there and mouth as physically possible.

Tuesday

Choosing to skip breakfast entirely (a waste of good stomach space) I jumped on a tram and met my Dad in the city for lunch. We went to Hare and Grace, on the corner of Collins and King. Dad somehow knows the chef (from many long liquid lunches I suspect…) who sent over some Champagne to start with. Athankyou.

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We also got gifted a delicious heirloom tomato salad.

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And then this bad boy arrived at the table.

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A two-tiered, 100% wagyu beef burger with fries AND onion rings.

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Dad had a steak. His face is not usually that red, I blame the reflection from the shirt/tie combo and my crappy iPhone photography.

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With peas and fries.

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I was completely stuffed (didn’t even finish my fries or the burger bun, disgraceful) and spent the rest of the day shopping with Tarn before meeting my sister to see her friend’s Comedy Festival show. On the way there we saw this:

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OMG! A text-speak explanation of Easter. I love it when churches try to be relevant haha.

Sarah and I had planned to go to dinner after the (very hilarious) show, but unfortunately I was still completely stuffed from the burger. Clearly my stomach was still warming up at this stage. So we parted ways. But not to worry, plenty more eating to come…

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Moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Bec

Well, we didn’t actually eat any peaches but we did eat a lot. On Good Friday I flew to Melbourne, was picked up by my sister and after accidentally heading towards Bendigo for a while we made it back on track to Euroa.

I had the best, most relaxing time hanging out with Mum and Sarah. We were then joined by Tarn and Claire who lovingly schlepped all the way on a Vline bus (with a million Easter eggs) to be there. Claire got to feed the hens and collect the eggs, a big moment in any city gal’s life no doubt.

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Charlie wondered why he wasn’t invited.

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CARBS. That night we headed to the local pub and terrorised the locals. Upon returning home at 2am Claire and I devoured a baguette stuffed with mashed sweet potato, eye fillet and brie. Best drunk food ever. Only at my Mum’s house.

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On Sunday we sang Mariah Carey all the way to the Chocolate Apple Factory where my sister proceeded to pose like a pro with some tractors.

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Tarn jumped in.

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We then returned home and spent the rest of the day eating watching season one of Call The Midwife. So. Good. Mum loved it as she did her nurse training in London (not quite as far back as the 1950s, obv). Monday was equally relaxed until we sadly headed back on the road to Melbourne, the right way this time.

Little did I know the eating had only just begun…

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