colours of melbourne

I was very lucky to spend long weekend in Melbourne and catch up with my friends Megan Morgan and JT,

 my sister-in-law Kristan

and her fiance Nick

On Friday we had a few cheeky glasses of wine with Morgs at her work. She works at Penny Black in Brunswick

It is really an awesome place tucked inside an old post office.
We then went and got a few sausage rolls for Joel's birthday party the day after and a few beers to finish off the day. JT came along and requested more than a few beers, so Morgs ran to the shop and got a slab, Captain Morgan and Ribena- my old favourite:)

then there was a bit of this...

and a bit of this...

awesome night!
Megan, JT and I used to work together at the Kiwi Kitchen in London. The place doesn't exist anymore, and none of us live in London, but we still have a good friendship going and a lot of amazing memories that all value the most.

Unfortunately I had a toothache and even the Captain couldn't stop it. I woke up with a swollen lip and ridiculous pain from both the Captain and the tooth. I had a few Nurofen Plus and tried to go back to sleep with no luck:( We rushed to the dentist and managed to get it fixed temporary. Because I couldn't eat after the dentist we decided to do some shopping. After living in no-fashion-Sydney for almost 2 years I finally felt like an English human to shop at Top Shop. It brought me some warm memories of London and a pair of awesome jeans and cool boots.  Later we caught up with Kristan and Nick to watch the Grand Final at their friend's house Claire. Go the Hawks!!

The Hawks lost...
Later that evening we went to Joel's party at a big warehouse in Port Melbourne.
Amazing place. I would love to live in a warehouse if only any warehouse looked like this...

Great night meeting lots of cool people and sipping bubbly:)

Next morning we had a fancy breakfast at Auction Rooms in North Melbourne. If you are in Melbourne, don't be lazy to wake up early and drag your bum to this place. I promise it will be worth it and you will have a blast!

And I must say Melbourne has the best coffee on Earth!!! It's like all the best baristas of the world just gathered in the same place

It was almost time to leave my lovely Melbourne, so we did a cheeky stroll around the shops

 This city reminds me of Europe so much. In fact it's the closest I have to London. It is so beautiful and arty, friendly and funky, aromatic and laid back.

Great weekend! Good times! Lovely food! Yummy coffee! Beautiful people!

summer is creeping on me

I had a busy, but wonderful weekend. I picked my car from service in Liverpool (never going there again),
did a massive veggie shopping at Flemmigton Markets,

had fun on the beach with Roman,

watched Elijah go off to work on a dangerous motorbike (not driving it...thank god),

 
 did some baking,

and more baking,

 sticky date toffee pudding was very yummy and it brought some good memories of London.

We also had a BBQ at our friends house in Manly. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the garden.

And then I did some more baking:) Introducing my new favourite- Apple Tart Tartin.

 
 I can't wait for the next weekend. I am going to Melbourne to see my friend Megan Morgan, my sister-in-law Kristan and her fiance Nick and also watch AFL Grand Final. And it also a long weekend too!!! 

What are you up to next weekend?

festival weekend

I have spent my weekend eating bratwursts at Sauerkraut Sisters in European festival

Watching Latvian dancer and Slovakian singers

Chasing Roman around the festival who was trying to get on the dance floor all the time!!!

Baking Hazelnut Meringue Slice. Yum!!!

Watching Roman feeding rabbits and kissing goats

Every time I take Roman to a Kindi-farm poor animals are left hungry. Last time he was given a bottle of milk to feed the goat. And do you think poor goat got any milk?! Ha! I wish I had a camera with me then. He fought with the goat until the bottle was in his possession. They both were pulling a different directions and Roman was nowhere near to give up the fight. This time he stole all the carrots from poor piglets and rabbits. And then on top of it all he picked up the container with dried grass and poured it over goats heads. He did kiss a goat 'Good Bye' though:)
 
 
 

Hot toddy to get better

Warm and toasty and just in time for the after winter sicknesses, the Hot Toddy is a classic hot drink. Feel free to experiment with your favorite types of tea or skip it all together and use hot water alone. Most black and green teas mix well with the sweetness of the honey and lemon, but from there it's a personal preference and some interesting toddies are possible.

You want to use good whiskey for this, not the finest malt, but a good Scotch blend like Famous Grouse or Bells, or an Irish whiskey such as Jameson if you prefer the smoother taste. Or even some people prefer Rum. I love either in a Hot Toddy.

 In a sturdy tall glass dissolve the sugar in a few drops of boiling water, splash in a good shot of aged rum such as Appleton Estate, English Harbour or Cockspur 12-Year-Old, add the butter and spice, and fill up with freshly boiled water. I’d stir this with a cinnamon stick, for extra spice, and because it seems like fun. I might use sugar syrup instead of fiddling about dissolving the sugar; then again honey would be a wholesome substitute. The butter may sound a little odd, but it turns out hot buttered rum is indeed an olde worlde tradition, and, anyway, it tastes better than it sounds and adds richness. 

You can even make it with apple cider or wine or pretty much any alcohol you fancy:)

What's your favourite hot toddy?

beautiful friday

I finally had a good friday.
I thought of all things beautiful today.

This white dress is amazing. That would be my 1st choice for my wedding. Actually, I am married already, but we haven't had a wedding yet. So I am allowed to dream about it, right?:)

masterchef thoughts

I was so disappointed to see Julia in the finale. I have nothing against the girl, she will make a great pastry chef and has wonderful dreams and is very determined and serious, but, honestly, she did not deserve to be there. Just knowing the fact she has been in 10 out of 12 eliminations throughout the competition and was on the edge of being kicked out pretty much every time, is telling me that she is not as good as some other contestants. Mindy and Kylie are far much better cooks and have won so many challenges and even immunity pins. The only thing is that they were giving amazing dishes right from the beginning and had no room for improvement, so they didn't need to win, coz they already have it. When on the other hand, Andy has grown so much and used every skill he learned from masterclasses in his cooking. He is very young and laid back, but he is clever and that put him through to the top. It's funny that every contestant kept talking about his dream of opening  restaurant, wine bar, patisserie etc, but Andy just wanted the 100 grand:) He is such a nice bloke though, and I am happy for him. He is the only one who needed it the most.

 

I know. It's been almost a month! But it's so hard to make time for a working mum. I barely find time to put half a make up in the morning. My baby turned 1, and with that comes not only the preparations and cake making (including cake making practice) for the big day, but also all his friends are turning one, so we attended half a dozen of first birthday parties. My husband keeps asking when it is going to be over. I always want to say couple more weeks and we are free, but it's never the case, it just keeps going:) And to say the truth it will be over. We have a child and it is forever...He made us happy and it is forever...

Roman also started walking last week too. It's amazing to see how happy it makes him, just cruising around, smiling, chatting away:) This morning I was drying my hair with the hair dryer, Roman walked in, grabbed a comb, stood next to me looking in the mirror and started brushing his hair:) so cute:)
Back to the birthday party. I decided to make an elephant shaped cake (his favorite toy) on the day of the party which was very silly of me. Most of mums made the cake a few days or weeks beforehand and put it in the freezer (very smart!!). The night before the party was the worst night of my life...literally. Roman got double ear infection and was waking up screaming every hour. And at 4am his temperature went up to 38.6, and I had to strip him down and walk around the house with just his nappy on. It helped reduce the temperature, but he kept waking up in pain. The only reason I didn't take him to the emergency is that I just didn't want him to spend the night before  his first birthday in the hospital. So imagine my state when I had to make his cake next morning. The elephant cake came out a disaster!! I was so gutted:( I bake every week. I love it! But it is ironic on his 1st birthday ever my son had the worst cake I've ever made. But the party went well even though Roman was screaming from pain most of the time. Eventually I took him to the doctors who told us it was a double ear infection.