New Years Resolution completed 4 years on....

Happy New Year!!

I seldom write about anything other than food, however, it is the beginning of 2013 and I have finally gotten around to completing a New Years resolution I made about 4 years ago.

I have been very fortunate to be given some beautiful pieces of art  over the years by a very good friend of mine, Lisa. I adore her work and have always been in awe of her talent. When I lived near Lisa in the US she was busy raising children and working out motherhood as was I. We use to hangout in parks, houses and play lots talking of our old lives we left behind while trying to figure out how this parenting game works. With our kids now past the ages of nappies/diapers and play lots we have both started getting back to the things we love- cooking and painting. Although Lisa's work was fabulous before I knew her, Lisa's recent robot series has placed her in a league of her own.

I have been fortunate enough to see some of the robots from early stages right up to the finished picture and I absolutely love them.  I was overwhelmed when she gave me two prints as a going away present when we were coming back to live in Australia. Since this day over four years ago I have promised myself to frame them and showcase them on my walls for all our friends see.

Like most things when moving countries, you tend to put the little jobs off until later......We had a Christmas Party not so long ago and the most startling thing to me when I saw photos of the night was our boring, vacant walls. I finally decided to pull finger, so then following day I marched up to a framing shop with half a dozen beautiful pictures I had tucked away for safe keeping and got them all framed.

Lisa, I am sorry it has taken me so long to get them done, but I am tickled pink to see them framed and hanging on our walls. I look at the fish everyday and smile, however, the boys put their foot down and declared the robots MUST go in their room! Fair enough, I guess I'll just jump on line and order a few more prints now that I am in the framing mode.

If you'd like to see more of Lisa's beautiful work jump on this link and take a look for yourself.
Any chance the heirloom tomato is still for sale?

Dinner Party Ideas

Who doesn't love a good dinner party?
I love them and I especially love them when I don't spend half the night in the kitchen cooking!
Champers or a good dry martini sets the mood for a soirée at the Bakers' house. Of course, there must be something super delicious to whet the palette before moving over to the table for dinner.

Home-made bread usually does the trick and if you serve it with a delicious dip, I find you usually have set the mood for a fabulous evening ahead.
I recently made a yummy eggplant dip that blew my mind along with those of our friends. It was simple, made the day before and looked impressive. Feast magazine provided me with this recipe and it is one I'll use again and again. The combination of smoky eggplant, grilled haloumi and pomegranate molasses is an absolute winner.

Once the martinis have dried up, the flat bread is all eaten and conversation flowing, we usually move over to the dining table, and this is when I like to make my first entry into the kitchen. I mean, if you can't sit down and enjoy the company of your guests with your first martini then when can you?

The entree will set the tone for the night's feast. If it is sparse then guest will wonder if they have to pick up KFC on the way home. If it's too heavy then they won't finish main course, and only pick at dessert, so in my opinion the entree has to taste fantastic making your guests wanting more!
On this occasion I decided to go with an old favourite of mine -- gnocchi. I hardly ever make it any more, hardly ever eat it out (I hate the disappointment of it being served all watery, or with a creamy sauce) and so I decided to make it to see if I still had the magic touch. I pan-seared the gnocchi in a little butter then portioned it up and melted Raclette cheese over the top and served it with a citrus, tomato and basil salsa.

Thankfully the potato gnocchi was fluffy, light and moreish! Having the citrus salsa with the buttery gnocchi really helps even out the richness of the dish. 

With wine flowing and conversation in full swing, this allows me time to pop into the kitchen and give the main course a bit of attention. I was serving pork fillet that I'd marinated in a chili, brown sugar and porcini mushroom rub. The pork fillets needed to be thrown on the grill while I reheated the baked Jerusalem artichokes and green beans. The pork is rich and sweet and the hit of chili really works well with the mushrooms. You know you have a winning dish on your hands when all you can hear is the background music!

At this stage of the evening everyone is feeling extremely good. The happy food fog is wrapped around everyone, a good debate is usually underway and that 3rd, 4th or 5th bottle of wine you saved just in case it was one of those 'fun' nights has just been opened. Really by this stage you could serve a bowl of seasonal fruit and everyone would be happy.....alas, you know everyone is really dying for a sweet little something and dessert is usually the course that everyone remembers when they wake up in the morning.

I love citrus so I like to keep dessert light, fun with a hint of tart. Small bites are also a great way to serve dessert after the previous three courses. To wrap this dinner party up I served a trio of citrus that started with a lemon mousse; pistachio shortcake with fresh strawberries and a lime curd and finished with a sherry glass of limoncello -- what isn't there to love about that?

Just before the boys went off to bed they whispered in my ear "can you please make sure there is some dessert left for us?" and I think I remember saying the same thing to my mum many moons ago!

Carrot Cupcakes

I'm taking that look on his face as pride!

It has been school holidays here in NSW for the past two weeks. Nic has been able to look after the boys while I keep on feeding the masses at work, however, yesterday I gave myself an early mark to come home and knock up a few ideas for my new website. I have decided to embrace kids classes and perhaps even do a kids 6 week cooking course for term four........work in progress!
Anyway Alex was at a mate's house for a good chunk of the day and when they came to drop him home I sat to have a cup of tea with his mate's mum while the kids went a bit manic. The two older siblings were bored, hungry and, well, looking for something to do without really talking to each other (10 year old boy and girl). What better way to keep the noise down and them occupied- bake a cake.

Straight out of the oven

I was going to make a carrot cake at some stage and then thought this would be a great way for them to test out a recipe for me. I wanted to see if it was going to be a good one for me to teach the kids in my up-and-coming classes. They were eager, excited and, before we knew it, talking to each other about how they were going to do this (I told them I wasn't going to help and that they needed to read the recipe and figure it out).

You can understand why the older kids wanted to get into the kitchen

I have to say the kitchen looked like a bomb (actually 3 bombs) had gone off in there, but the carrot cupcakes actually looked and smelt fabulous! They were proud as punch that they made them from scratch, by themselves and even more excited that they worked. Now I just have to get them to test about 10 more recipes and I'll be good to go!

Aaron's kitchen

One of my favourite places in Evanston would have to be right here......Aaron and Susan's kitchen.

Not only do I love standing is such a beautiful kitchen with my favourite colour splashed all over their back wall, but I haven't yet had a bad meal come out of this kitchen....and trust me, I've had a few meals here.

When I first walked into their kitchen years ago, I was gob smacked at the beauty and simplicity of the space not to mention the functionality of it. 

It is the central part of the house where friends and family gather in the comfort and warmth of the kitchen while sipping vino and picking at the offerings of cheese and salmon, chatting to whoever is cooking (and that would be Aaron!)

We sat down to a wonderful salad of grapefruit and a new Irish blue cheese the lovely Roisin snapped up from Kerrygold. I wasn't sure it would be a good match but I have to say it worked beautifully and the drizzle of balsamic tied it together beautifully. It was probably a good thing we started with a salad because in pure Aaron style we visited the classic cooking methods of New Orleans and had a fantastic shrimp pasta tossed in cream, spices and some Kerrygold herb and garlic butter (you just can't get in Australia).

I am looking forward to my next visit and will be popping on an apron and helping out instead of just eating and talking like I did this trip, hence the extra kilos hanging on around the waist!

For an extra peek at beautiful kitchens and Italian furnishings check out their website, you never know you might be drooling over your own dream kitchen!