Category Archives: Food

Breakfast

Posted in Food, Life, The List by

Well it’s been a while since I blogged, to be honest I haven’t been anymore busy than normal, I just haven’t really had anything that exciting to share… I think I was also a little blogged out after my month of love, I didn’t really think it through at the beginning and while it made me realize how blessed I am, it was hard work blogging everyday. Although I did like having a specific topic, because it meant that I knew what I needed to write in advance. Anyway, its March now and it’s time to get on with it… and break the fast with some breakfast.

I love going out for breakfast, in fact it’s one of my favourite things to do, despite the fact that I don’t really like eggs which seem to be in everything offered at places you can order breakfast. So on my list this year I decided that I would indulge myself and eat breakfast at 10 different breakfast places. Now to be honest I don’t know If I should be ashamed by this or proud, but I today I crossed it off the list. Yep in week 11, I have eaten at out at 10 different breakfast places… that’s almost once a week, no wonder number 1. Lose 10kgs isn’t happening as quickly as I would like. I can’t even use the excuse that I have been on holidays because I haven’t I have been working full time the whole time. But, do you know, I don’t really feel that bad because I really do love it. And I have been able to share delicious breakfasts with beautiful people… here are my breakfast adventures…

1.  5th January – Café Krifi, Richmond

2.  7th January – Beasley’s Nursery & Tea House, Doncaster East

3.  14th January – Limelight Restaurant & Bar, Doncaster East

4.  21st January – The Peddler, Nunawading

5.  4th February – Red Elk Café, Inverloch

6.  11th February – Coffee Club, Knox

7.  19th February – Senses Restaurant & Bar, Templestowe

8.  4th March – Pure Italian, Balwyn North

9.  10th March – Snow Pony, Balwyn

10.  12th March – The Pour Kids, Malvern

Oh and even though I have now done 10, I don’t think I will stop going out for breaky, although I might decrease the frequency.

Jake and Em… Get Things Done…

Posted in Family, Food, The List by

Usually when Jake and I hang out it is a lazy day that involves either a movie… or food… or a trip to a random location… or a mixture of all of the above… most of the time it is unplanned and a little disorganized, but today we got things done…

After a quick trip to Jake’s new uni, we decided that we would work on knocking a few things off the 2012 list, and even I say so myself, we did quite an impressive job…

Before the day started I had officially knocked 7 things off…

2. Make my own ice cream – completed 9.1.12
25. Fix up super stuff – completed (by Dave) 24.1.12

43. Make breakfast muffins – completed 16.1.12

63. Visit Castlemaine
81. Have a pot of tea – completed 1.1.12 and again on 25.1.12

86. Get an Exercise Piggy Bank – completed 23.1.12
99. Try and Espresso – completed 14.1.12

But now… wow have we been busy little bees… I can now say very happily I have also crossed off the following…
(please note are the listed in the order they happened, rather than their numerical order…)

57. Bust a move in a random location – Coles will never be the same… I have to admit that I was dreading this once the second I put it on the list… but it is now done and here is the proof…

55. Clean the gunk of  my baby havaiana – This little keychain, that usually hangs in my car had an unfortunate run in with some, I think, up and go on the floor of my old car, back when I was at uni… leaving an unsightly and questionable brown stain.  But that stain is no longer… it has been soaked and washed and it back to its original colour and will return to its place of pride in my car.

35. Make a Mocktail – being more creative with all things drinks, Jake was much more qualified to help me with this than any other family member.  He taught me how to make a Mocktail called Strawberries and cream (so he thinks), which was pretty and delicious, complete with cocktail glass and straw.

40. Have a rainbow paddle pop – it was delicious… need I say more?  Well I will I think next year I need to up the number of rainbow paddle pops in my life…

and last but not least…

71.  Play with playdough – Jake and I didn’t just play with playdough… we made playdough and then played with playdough.  I have to confess I had never made my own before, but it is a skill I am definitely glad I have learnt… we only played for a short while… but it was a very creative while…. Check out our awesome artwork…

So there you go, my total crossed off items now stand at 12… not bad for only 27 days…
only 88 to go.

Oh and the other thing that happened today…  although not on the list, Jake started a new blog… check it out here.

No. 2 Make my own ice cream

Now despite the fact that I promised I wouldn’t let the list take over my blog I still feel like I want to record my list adventures up here too, so while I will blog about other things, unfortunately you will need to endure the bragging that comes from crossing something off the list…

Last week I celebrated the fact that I had been offered a spot in the teaching course I wanted by cooking a roast and making my own ice cream… this was quite significant because I normally only do a roast on really special occasions and I had never attempted to make my own ice cream before. For Christmas this year I was lucky enough to get a new mix master, which I was very excited about, although it did come with lots of apprehension from Dave as he had always been of the believe that you should never buy your wife an appliance for important events like Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries etc. Anyway, not only did I get the mix master its self, I also got an extra bowl as well as a ‘freeze and mix’ ideal for making ice cream. So as you can imagine I was pretty keen to test it out… but I had to wait…

Anyway, after putting the bowl in the freezer for 15hrs to prepare it I had finally found the perfect occasion to test it out… and it was just as good as I hoped it would be… I made the standard vanilla and some strawberry sorbet… delicious… don’t believe me… well check out the pictures…

So there you go, no. 2 crossed off the list!  Oh and because I was making my self handy in the kitchen I also made a start on no. 54 ‘Use every appliance in my kitchen at least once’ as I used the Mix Master, food processor, blender, electric knife and the coffee machine… only a million other appliances left…

2011 – Through the eyes of my iPhone

I feel l like all week I have been reminiscing and I guess it’s the right time of year to do for it, I mean with all the family times over Christmas and with the new looming around the corner, I think it’s a good idea to look back over all that has happened this year.

This year has been full on, part of me feels like it was only yesterday that I was reminiscing on all that had happened in 2010, yet another part of me feels like I have been married forever… It’s hard to even comprehend all that has happened this year, I was going to do a ‘Top 10 moments of 2011’ but I don’t even know where to I would start… I guess there are some obvious highlights, one being getting married and our awesome honeymoon to the states, but there are so many more little moments that I know I’d I miss something special if I started naming them… So instead I thought I would share my project 365 photos from the year and just one highlight… and one lowlight from each month… just to make sure it’s a little bit balanced… So here is 2011… wrapped up in a blog….

JANUARY…

20111231-144646.jpg

Highlight: Wedding Planning – Bridesmaid’s dresses, Making the wedding invitations and getting the perfect Cinderella wedding shoes.

Lowlight: Cutting my foot on the escalator at Doncaster… although swimming up the escalator trying to get back to the top was a very very very amusing.

FEBRUARY…

20111231-144654.jpg

Highlight: Hairspray… awesome

Lowlight: Working late…

 

MARCH…

20111231-144704.jpg

Highlight: Mixed Nuts victory

Lowlight: Cutting my foot… again… and begining to think that perhaps Dave was right and my choice of footwear was to blame.

 

APRIL…

20111231-144712.jpgHighlight: My hen’s celebration… awesome meringues, a weekend at the beach and the royal wedding

Lowlight: Jarring my finger, so much so my ring wouldn’t fit

 

MAY…

20111231-151807.jpgHighlight: Becoming Mrs George and going to New York and Disneyworld with my husband

Lowlight: Getting sick just before the wedding and the panic of being a Rudolph bride.

 

JUNE…

20111231-151816.jpgHighlight: Unpacking all our amazing gifts and setting up our home

Lowlight: Not being the Badminton Champion at SYG…. Again… my time will come.

 

JULY…

20111231-151830.jpgHighlight: Making the best birthday cake ever

Lowlight: Losing my text messages, but its ok coz I got them back

 

AUGUST…

20120101-112722.jpgHighlight: Listening to Davo preach up a storm

Lowlight: Back to full time work for more than a month… and becoming a teaching widow…

 

SEPTEMBER…

20120101-112728.jpgHighlight: Dusty and Jess got engaged… woo hoo, oh and a trip to Warrnambool

Lowlight: The phone and cd player that said no

 

OCTOBER…

20120101-112734.jpgHighlight: Dave’s School’s Star Trek play

Lowlight: Dave getting in the spa with a dead cooking birds.

 

NOVEMBER…

20120101-112740.jpgHighlight: Awesome concerts… Farnsy and Dolly

Lowlight: Bad haircut

 

DECEMBER…

20120101-112745.jpgHighlight: Christmas… what could be better

Lowlight: The Birds that got stuck in the chimney on Christmas eve… way too much drama

So there you go… lets hope 2012 is just as fun

Cooking Tips

A regular part of my old blogs was ‘Cooking Tips with Emma’ a segment in which I learnt from my mistakes as I attempted to make myself proficient in the kitchen. Now don’t be confused… When I say proficient… I really mean just scraping through, enough to live and provide a meal ever now and then, but that’s pretty much as high as the bar was set.

However, I would like to inform you that I believe since then I have come a long way… in fact since stepping in to my new role as wife, I have even conquered a few things. Don’t believe me… well here is some pictorial evidence, I know you can’t taste these because they are just pictures, but I reckon that they look pretty flipping good…

Anyway the reason I share this is because I have a new tip… but before I get to that perhaps you need a refresher of the tips to date…

TIP 1: A Blender is not an appropriate substitute for a food processer

TIP 2: When you have visitors…Stick with what you know!

TIP 3: Read the signs…if the oven is in Fahrenheit and the mixers blow up…give up, it’s not worth the stress.

TIP 4: Make sure you always have a mixing bowl. Saucepans are not as good a swap as they appear

Tip 5: Silicon baking trays are risky!

Now granted most of these are based out of disaster… but today’s tip is on a more successful note… A couple of weeks ago Jake and his girlfriend came over for tea and I decided that I would cook for them something that they would not have had before, knowing very well, that they were both fairly ‘safe’ eaters and at times selective. During the afternoon I asked them how adventurous they were feeling and after ensuring me that they were up for something different, I began preparing a dish that I had been taught be some very good mates of mine, Kirsten and Pheebs. A dish which has become a favourite of mine and in fact I would even go as far as to say it is a George Family Favourite… Roast Vegetable and Cous Cous salad, although this one had chicken added as Jake’s girlfriend requires meat with all of her dishes. Despite my apprehension while preparing and even serving up, mainly due to the excessive amount of vegetables and this new ingredient for them of cous cous, it appeared to be a hit, as they both finished their bowls and Jake not only went back for seconds, but mentioned it on his blog… So there you go, I think a pretty successful story… vegetables and a delicious meal were consumed… which leads me to tip 6… which not only comes out of this story, but also out of all those dishes that have gone before…

Tip 6: Even bad cooks can make yummy things with practice

So… if you are feeling a little incompetent in the kitchen, take heart… coz with practice… you might even make something edible… coz I think I have come a long way from my basic cooking course with Claire, all they back in 2006, to mastering A George Family recipe… ‘Red Meat Casserole’ this year… even if I say so myself.

Being Mrs George

Posted in Christmas, Family, Food, Life, Love, Top 10 by

So I have now been Mrs George, or ‘Mrs G’ as Dave’s students tend to call me for a whole 6 months and its gone really really quickly, in fact I can’t believe we are 6 months down the track, it just doesn’t feel that long.  I have been trying to think of things I have learnt in the last 6 months or ways that I have changed, but to be honest, I still feel like the same old me, except that now when I go home Dave is there too, although it seems that if I actually want to spend time with him, I still need to pre-organise just like before.  I am sure that I have changed because that is what tends to happen as you get older, or change your environment.  I am sure I do somethings differently, I am sure I think about things in a slightly different way, but I think at the moment its safe to say there haven’t been any major changes… and if there have been I am yet to notice.

Anyway, seeing as I am really no different than I was before I thought instead of profound life changes I would share my top 10 moments of married life so far, some highlights if you will, of my first 6 months of being Mrs George, oh and they are in no particular order because they are all wonderful:

1.  Our amazing suite at the langham for our Honeymoon… It was amazing, amazing views, amazing service, amazing company and just ask Dave… it was huge:

2.  Our overseas honeymoon to Disneyworld and New York… what’s not to love about Disneyworld or New York for that matter… they are pretty much the coolest places on the planet.  It was so nice after all the frantic planning and preparation for the wedding to just be able to hang out and do some pretty cool stuff while we were at it.  I love all things disney and all things theme park so being able to spend 8 days in the most magical place on earth was beyond comprehension.  New York was also incredible, because both Dave and I had already done the tourist visit of NY, we got to the live the high life, sleep in, shop, have dinner, see a show… awesome.  Some particular highlights of the trip include:
– The first moment when you see the castle in disney world
– Being able to wear Miney Mouse ears for 8 days straight and being completely normal
– Standing in the warm summer night air watching the fireworks over the castle
– Rounding out our wedding experince by seeing Jesey Boys on last time
– Casually strolling through central park
– Church at Brooklyn Tabernacle – it was like sitting in a CD recording… amazing.

3.  Being able to go away whenever we want, just because we can, no double checking with mum and dad, just packing the car and going, wether it be to Inverloch, Warnambool or just for a drive to who knows where.  It’s nice to just spend that time together too.   Oh and when we go away with the big band now we get to stay together… coz now we are married and all, no more 30cm rule for us.

4.  Being Wifey… I think making Dave’s birthday cake and favourite meal for his birthday was fun, but I think more than that I have liked being a wife… not that I really have to do that much because Dave is a pretty much a Domestic God in his own right, but I do like making house.

5.  Getting my very own Tupperware – what can I say no household is complete without it, and now I have some of my very own… filled with baking goodness

6.  Being the proud Mrs George watching Dave do his thing during at school.  I don’t think I could have been prouder than I was watching Davo conduct for The Sound of Music, or mastering the sound desk for Star Trek he is an amazing teacher and the school is very lucky to have him.  He was also pretty impressive on the various instruments he played with the big band in Halls Gap recently… well I was impressed anyway.

7.  Setting up our Christmas tree… I know its early and I have explained why, but this year it was even more special as Dave and I started our own tradition together. This will be the first Christmas I don’t wake up in the family home… but while I am sure it will feel strange, its exciting.

8.  Lazy weekend breakfasts at our new favourite cafe right around the corner… going out for breaky is always awesome, but now that we have this little cafe that feels like ours, it makes me feel like a real adult.

9.  Date Nights are even better now that I don’t have to drive home after or that Dave doesn’t have to leave… and with the new addition of the Star Trek Moives… they just got even better…

10.  I am pretty sure the moment when I became Mrs George has been the biggest highlight of my year, maybe even my life… my wedding day was everything I could have hoped for and more, but nothing beats that moment when you realise its actually happened… your married, that’s it… and it’s the best.  Just recently we got our photos back from our Amazing Photographer Kelly at Alexroad Photography… here are some of my favourites… oh and she has some favourites too check us out at her blog… Thanks Kelly for these amazing memories…

 

Family Recipe

Posted in Family, Food by

Well its official, I am now completely a George.  I know that technically this was all official on May 14 when Dave and I got married, but for me, it really became official last night when I conquered an old family favourite recipe of the George’s.  You see yesterday was Davo’s birthday, so in an attempt to prove my wifely skills I took an ADO so that I had the whole day to make the perfect dinner, which it turned out was ‘Red Meat Casserole” and I am pretty sure I have pulled it off.  Davo was impressed which is all that really matters.

Why am I sharing this?  Well I guess it really took my by surprise how much getting this recipe, this meal, just right meant to me.  I have had the recipe since my kitchen tea and knew that at some stage I would have to try it, but even though its just a casserole, this hand written recipe handed to me by Dave’s mum, with the family names of George and Crocker (Dave’s Nanny’s surname) it almost felt sacred, special, like I had been let in completely to the family secret. And now that I have completed my task, I feel like my initiation into the family is complete.

It also made me wonder what I had to pass on and I have discovered to my surprise that I actually have a few things from my own family cookbook to pass on one day too, probably most notably my mum’s chocolate slice, which just between you and me is delicious, and I am sure that I continue to grow as a cook I will bring my own recipe’s to the table.  This is something I never really thought about, or never realised would be this important to me, as being a wiz in the kitchen has never really been a goal of mine, but all of a sudden, it is.  Perhaps its the ‘traditional wife’ in me, I don’t know, in fact I am not even sure how long it will last, but I am glad I have experienced this.  It makes me feel like I belong to both families, and that I have family traditions of my very own, that I will one day be able to pass onto my kids (when they come) and their families.

Oh and I made a killer cake… check it out!  Pretty good even if I say so myself!