I am back from the US for a holiday for a few months, however I wanted to share with you this fab apple sorbet I had at Capital Grille in Tampa, for a friends birthday lunch. It really was amazing and beautiful executed. In fact it has inspired me  to perhaps give it a go, with a similar biscotti.

 

Here is a link to their website

Obama Cookie

Sylvia (Carter's mother), brought me a Obama cookie as an election joke (she is very Red). Apparently she got it of one of the nurses at her work, who is a very proud Obama supporter.  

NYC Moments

A few weeks ago Carter and I spent a Sunday in NYC. We got the required 99c pizza.

And offcourse I made a trip downtown to Century 21 ( in addition to Carter going to his beloved coin store) but we also made a trip to one of Mum and I's favourite foodie places in NYC - Eataly. It is a fabulous Italian market, complete with six resturants/cafes including the essential NY roof top. You can buy fish, baking pans, coffee and the most devine desserts! It was busy busy as it was sunday brunch time therefore got a takeaway cake for a before lunch treat.


If you go to NYC its def worth a visit: 200 5th Ave, NYC
or the website: www.eatalyny.com

Having eaten at Eataly before and not wanting to brave the crowds due to our brief visit, we found just outside Madison Sq Eats (a temporary market set up on i guess you would call it a road island/footpath).

 

Carter had some stew and some home brew beer (from Brooklyn). "Guy food". I had my Eataly cake and a banana and peanut butter marshmallow (which I thought would be awful but was surprisingly good).

Note: photo is of half eaten marshmallow which has crunch bits around it mmm yumm

 

 

Neiman Marcus and Target Christmas Collection

I am in love with these cute cookie cutters! The rest of the Neiman Marcus and Target Christmas Collection is also work a look, with some AMAZING designer creations (not on sale till 1 Decemeber though!).

Link to collection

USA - The New Chapter

There has been a significant break in my posts over about the last year.  First it was the move from Christchurch to Wellington and more recently from Wellington to Tampa, Florida. In fact since moving here (3 months ago) I have not been very enthused about food because it is so difficult to get good basic ingredients (see my rant below). However I am slowly getting back into it after purchasing a Cusine Art food processor and Kitchen Aid free standing mixer (I couldn't get the good old english Kenwood here :( ). So watch out I will be back online!

Chloe


RANT
An example - I can not get good puff pastry. The only thing close that the supermarket sells is "pie crusts" - which taste DISGUSTING like they are full of chemicals. Similarly it seems near impossible to get custard power (which I use in my melting moments), nor good quality dutched cocoa. Oh and don't even get me started on the bread! And don't think I have tried just one supermarket but Publix, Fresh Market, Whole Foods and Trader Joes (I will admit at Trader Joes I bought good quality NZ cheese!). Perhaps Americans don't bake like we do in NZ because Costco (a huge bulk warehouse club) doesn't even carry cocoa powder!

Rosewater Meringues

I have latterly fallen in love with rosewater. These meringues have a nice closh of rosewater in them. I find it adds a kind of delicate element.

Mary's Lemon Pie

Mary's Lemon Pie

This is Mary Bollards easy lemon pie recipe. She is the queen of quick, easy and tasty, and this recipe is no exception.

Ingredients:
125g Butter
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Icing Sugar
4 Lemons, Juiced and zested
2 Cups Sugar
2 Tablespoons Flour
4 Large Eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Combine butter, flour and icing sugar in the flood processor until it clings together and press into a pie dish.

3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes then bake blind bake for 10 - 15 minutes.

4. Place lemon, sugar, flour and eggs in a bowl and beat until combined.

5. Pour into the hot pastry crust and bake for a further 25 - 30 minutes until set.

6. To serve remove from the tin and sprinkle with icing sugar.

The New Red Roof Verandah, Christchurch

I am about to go back to Christchurch to graudate from Uni, therefore I was looking over my photos from my last few days in Christchurch. I found these photos. Above is Laura my old flatmate, good friend and follow blogger.

After the earthquake this cafe moved to a new red roof verandah and is good as ever! The cute little plates, delish iced chocolates and yummy brunches makes this cafe a good go to haunt.

I hope to go back when I go back down. If your in Christchurch stop in and see what you think!

502 Worcester Street, Linwood

The New Little and Friday, New Market, Auckland

The new Little and Friday in New Market is just as fab as the North Shore one. Lisa and I went on a busy Sunday morning for a bite to eat before buying (and assembling) her new rabbit cage. The rose water and orange cake I had after a lovely pie is above and below is the fruit tart with custard beneath that Lisa had. Both were accompanied by STRONG coffee from a hard night previous.

http://www.facebook.com/LittleAndFriday

Little Peakish Cafe, Wellington

One of the girls at work recommended this cafe, Little Peakish Cafe, across from work in Dukes Arcade. Their crispy chicken panini is delish but perhaps a little greasy for everyday! However I think their sweet treats and coffee are the real winners

La Bella Italia, Petone, Wellington

Lydia and I went for dinner at La Bella Italia in Petone after work last friday. We enjoy some delish food! The highlights being the clam lingunie made with fruity olive oil and the rabbit rissoto.

We also had some yummy nibbly bits to start as well as the desserts pictured, which were a chocolate torte (which was like a bleeding heart) and a hazel nut meringue with a light custard.

Lydia and I really enjoyed it. We were served my the very charismatic owner a flamboyant Italian gentleman.

And we did a spot of shopping, as the restaurant is situated in a Italian food warehouse. I brought home some fabulous dried pasta. The food warehouse is open during the week for lunch and I believe only open on thursdays, fridays and saturdays for dinner (it was packed so it pays to book). The website is listed below:

http://www.labellaitalia.co.nz/

I made this heart shaped Chocolate Eclair for Carter when he was here.

Honey, Almond, Pistachio and Polenta Citrus Cake

Honey, Almond, Pistachio and Polenta Citrus Cake

I love this cake warmed with a heaped tablespoon of yoghurt and a plate of berries (or plums, or peaches, or lemon curd)

Ingredients:

5 Large Eggs (I use 6 if using small eggs)

240g Caster Sugar

1 Lemon, Zested and Juiced

1 Orange, Zested and Juiced

200g Almond Meal

75g Polenta

230 mL Greek Yoghurt

150mL Olive Oil, plus a little extra for greasing the tin

50mL Rice Bran Oil

150g Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

2 handfulls of pistachio nuts, shelled

3 large Tablespoons Honey

1. Beat eggs and caster sugar together with an electric beater until light and fluffy.

2. Beat in the lemon and orange zest.

3. Add almond, polenta, yoghurt and oils.

4. Fold in flour and baking powder.

5. Pour into a spring form tin which is lined with baking paper.

6. Bake at 160 for about 1hour until a cake tester come out clean and top is firm.

7. Turn out onto a plate and allow to cool.

8. Toast pistachio nuts in a fry pan. Add honey and the juice of the orange and lemon to form a syrup.

9. Pour the hot syrup over the cake and allow the cake to absorb it.

10. Serve with youghurt.

Baking: Vanilla/ Date or Lemon Scones

I love scones!

Sometimes all the extras with scones are a bit too much. I often use the maple syrup recipe but subsitiute the maple syrup with sugar and add a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and a teaspoon if vanilla essence. These are fab with cream and raspberry jam!

Or I remove the maple syrup and replace with honey and add the rind of a lemon to make a plain scone a little magic.

Date scones are scones are made the same way replacing maple syrup with sugar and addding a handfull of chopped dates soaked in the milk which the scone recipe uses. Remember to warm it to achieve nice softened dates and allow to cool before adding to scone mix.

Below are some cinnamon, macadamia and raspberry scones!

Baking: Lemony Cupcakes

It is easy to make something simple different by adding and subtracting a few ingredients.

I made these cupcakes with my basic cupcake recipe (as used for rosewater teacupcakes minus the rosewater) and by adding a tablespoon of lemoncello and the zest of a lemon.

The icing is simply cream cheese, icing sugar, butter and a few tablespoons of lemoncello (you could use a little lemon juice instead).

Enjoyed best oI think they are a lovely summer treat outside.

I know I have been very vacant since I left Christchurch in late October. Since October, I have moved to Wellington,  been on a holiday to the USA and started a new job (my first real one). The holiday season is alway so busy I didn't seem to have time to post anything!


However the good news is that  Laura (my flatmate from last year...and can be seen in the cupcake party picture) is now my fellow blogger and food enthusiast.  Due to my move, and Laura becoming a fellow writer, the focus of the blog has moved more toward sharing recipes with one another (as now she is in Christchurch and I in Wellington) than documenting them for myself.


So as we start with a new year and focus I am sure Laura and I will start regularly posting again.


Happy belated New Year,
Chloe and Laura


PS. I also have tonnes of picture and recipes to share with you from the past few months!

Baking: Milo Fudge

This is the sweet staple in my family, it gets made every month and it's always gone by the end of the day that it was made on! You can put raisins or sultanas in the mix but dried apricots are the tastiest.

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
150g butter
3 cups vanilla wine or Girl Guide biscuits crumbed (usually a 250g packet)
1 cup Milo
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup of raisins, sultanas or dried apricots -chopped



Chocolate Icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 Tbs baking cocoa
1 Tb butter
1/4 vanilla essence
2 Tb boiling water (approx -add more for easier spread)



Method:

1. Place the condensed milk and butter in a small saucepan. Cook over a low heat, stirring, until butter melts, then set aside to cool.
2. Place the biscuit crumbs, Milo, coconut and dried fruit in a bowl. 
3. Add the butter mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.
4. Press the mixture into a greased 27cm x 18cm x 3cm tin and let it chill for 30min. Ice with the chocolate icing and refrigerate until firm. Cut into small squares.

Chocoloate Icing: mix all ingredients in small bowl and add the boiling water -mix.

Biscuits, Cookies and Slices: Brown Sugar Sanwiches with Raspberry Icing

Brown Sugar Sanwiches with Raspberry Icing

These are so yummy. They are melting moments (one of my favorite cookies) but instead of being made with icing sugar they are with brown sugar. Try making them but make sure you dissolve the sugar! Mmm fill with raspberry frosting (made using real raspberries!).

Kangaroos in Warrnambool

Dear Foodies,

Believe it or not there are in fact other parts of Australia that are delicious. I found a few on Victoria's Great Ocean Road during my travels in Oz. For example, Warrnambool (population 33,000), a 3.5 hour drive from Melbourne, can boast not one but two McDonald’s, a KFC, a Hungry Jacks and a couple of chippies. Ah, fine dining at its best!

But in all foodie seriousness, Warrnambool and its surrounding towns do feature some divine cuisinal venues. For example, Ramella’s Café in Port Fairy, very formerly an Irish Whaling station. Well worth the drive to Port Fairy, definitely some of the best Mediterranean food I’ve digested recently. My Travelling Companion (my mother, yet again) and I each had a penne dish with mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, black olives, fresh basil and parmesan. And it wasn’t an ordinary medium sized dish; Ramella’s presented us with huge bowls of pasta that we struggled to get through. 

Ramella’s also has a Very Large Dessert Cabinet which we stood in front of for a few minutes before deciding on: the classic chocolate mud cake and a raspberry cheesecake; both were extremely delicious. The restaurant is a former 1900s shop complete with original leadlights and fittings that are accompanied by some very interesting decorations of a Mediterranean origin. It contributed to a relaxing vibe despite the increasing busyness. The staff were lovely, quite chatty but also very patient (especially when we were negotiating the Very Large Dessert Cabinet!). Having since done some research, Ramella’s even makes Lonely Planet’s Top 12 things to do in Port Fairy (… at #12… but still!) and #8345 of things to do in the Pacific…. Hm.  

Back in Warrnambool some pretty decent pizza was to be found at Fiesta, Italian owners and over twenty different pizza toppings and calzone dishes all so mouth-watering!

Some of the Remaining Twelve Apostles along Victoria's Great Ocean Road

Continuing along the Great Ocean Road, you’ll want to check out the Twelve Apostles (ha ha, no -not Lonely Planet’s Top 12), large remnants of land that once formed part of the shoreline. But on the way you’re probably thinking that you should try some Australian fish ‘n chips. So you stop in Port Campbell at the famous Frying Nemo –yes, you read that correctly and yes, they do have a Facebook page –and order calamari squid rings, flounder and a good scoop of chips to dine upon at the beach. Unfortunately for us (and for poor Nemo), the chips had been overcooked and there was a long wait for it –two staff members at 6pm is just silly. I must add that this fish ‘n chip shop was recommended to us repeatedly so perhaps it was just a bad night for them.

And there you have it, food on the Great Ocean Road (ha ha, no I’m not counting the kangaroo roadkill -it wasn’t fresh).

Bon appetit!

-Laura

Baking: Coconut Chocolate Cupcakes/Cake

Coconut Chocolate Cupcakes/Cake
This post was from the friday cupcake party...

One of my dear friends and past flatmates was not only dairy-free but soy also. Therefore this made it very difficult when going out to cafes and restaurants, as soy is often used as a replacement for diary (i.e. soy milk instead of normal milk). 

When my current flatmates and I decided to put on a little party at the end of the year I we thought a little about what we could bake that would include everyone.

One of the items we choose were various types of cupcakes, and to make the cheating chocolate cake recipe I often make.

Kath (my dear friend) is dairy-free so we decided to replace the buttermilk with coconut milk. I tried it out as a cake and Heather LOVE LOVE LOVED it. However you will see here it was made in cupcake form (note the icing has salad oil instead of butter substituted in it).

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup Coconut Milk
1/2 Cup Oil
1/2 Cup Water

was substituted for the Quickest Easiest One Bowl and Spoon Chocolate Cake's buttermilk/oil and water