Today, I bought a notepad. I can’t tell you how many times I read a fellow bloggers review on a Sydney (or elsewhere for that matter) restaurant and “mental noted it” on my to-go-to list. You know the one. The list that piles up in your head of must-visit restaurants. Mine was so big I had to buy a notepad to remember them. Just saying. Now that I have my notepad, I can physically jot them down and then tick off once visited. Look at me being all organised One of the restaurants extremely high on my list is Flying Fish. One look at Peter Kuruvita’s menu tells you that he is a man who has perfectly honed his craft. What interests me is the almost fusion style of his dishes. I can’t wait to go….hint, hint Stud As soon as I had heard that he was doing a TV program...
Blog Archives
Coconut Bubble Tea Ice-Cream
I have drunk more than my weight in tea lately. Now that’s a lot of tea (post wedding weight gain included)! I normally drink a bit of tea, I’d say around three cups a day on average, but as you may or may not know, I recently went through hip surgery. An arthroscopy and bumpectomy (yup, that’s its real name) to be exact, and spent the last two weeks couped up at home, shuffling around firstly on crutches, and then rocking a pimp cane (refusing to call it a walking stick. At least a cane makes me a bit gangsta), making myself umpteen cups of tea. So it’s pretty appropriate that it’s this month’s Sweet Adventures Blog Hop theme. Ooh AND it’s also Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea on May 24th (More on why that’s fab later). So head on over to our lovely host JJ’s blog, 84th & 3rd...
Thai Veg and Noodle Stir-fry with Steamed Chicken
On a weeknight, I’m all about ease. Who can be bothered cooking up a storm when you have slaved at the office for 9 hours, possibly longer if there are campaigns being launched!! Not me. No Sir-ee! I like to come home, chuck a few things together, and eat as soon as possible. If I can cut corners here and there, I’ll do it. For example, I’m quite partial to crushed garlic or ginger straight from the jar. The fab people at Gourmet Garden sent me a little esky of tube herbs and said to create a simple, every day recipe. OK, I will! Thai Veg and Noodle Stir-fry with Steamed Chicken Ingredients 1 Large chicken breast (250g) 2 tsp Gourmet Garden THAI Seasoning 1 tsp Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic paste 250g fresh thick rice noodles 1 red capsicum, sliced 1 green capsicum, sliced 1 king brown mushroom, sliced...
Soy and Quinoa, Banana and Custard Apple Bread
When a box of Custard Apples turned up at my doorstep, I had no idea what to do with them. I have never even eaten a custard apple. How are you meant to eat these mammoth things?? They’re huge! I pondered over this for a good couple of days. By this time, the custard apples had ripened to a slightly softer consistency. Kind of like a ripe avocado when pressed. Ok, I’m going to have to cut one of these babies open and see what I’m working with here. Can I just say…..O.M.G! They’re delicious! Don’t let their ugly duckling exterior fool you. Their flesh is gorgeously fresh, yet with a beautiful custard flavour. It’s really hard to describe how they taste actually. In my head, that explanation cuts it, but you really need to try them out for yourself. As I was scooping out the flesh with a...
Chestnut, Pumpkin and Prosciutto Risotto
Yesterday I looked at my “Sleeps til Xmas” app and it told me I had to go to sleep 224 more times until it was Christmas. That made me sad. What do I do when I’m missing Christmas and the joy it brings? I bring Christmas to meeeeee! Thankfully, a gorgeous little box of Chestnuts arrived at my door thanks to Chestnuts Australia. Well I was thankful, but honestly I was a little scared. Last time I had tried to cook chestnuts I ended up with scarred thumbs and pretty awful tasting nuggets. This time, cooking instructions followed the box and after chatting with a chestnut expert over at Impact, I was a lot more confident and ready to go. I still ended up with pretty sore thumbs and some broken nails (sob ) but I had conquered the conkers (conkers is what Stud calls them – must be...
Berry & Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Lemon Drizzle
It’s funny how our relationships with our parents go. You begin this life with such a need and dependency on your parents – yearning to be with them all of the time and share everything you encounter. Then you hit puberty, and begin to already know everything about this big world. You start to feel like your parents are holding you back. Not letting you go here or there, and definitely not understanding that they are doing it for you own good. Then you get older. I’m not quite sure at what point in my life it happened. I have always been really close with my parents (even through the odd tantrum for not letting me do something I probably shouldn’t be doing in the first place), but now, they are my best friends. I speak to my mum every day, yet we never run out of things to...
What’s your cup of tea?
I’m a little bit of a tea fanatic. More so at work than at home. At home, Stud and I stick to the basic black tea but at work, I have a ridiculous amount of tea at my desk. You just never know what type of tea you are going to feel like. Fruity? Milky? Herbal? Yeah, I’ve got them all covered. Why am I ranting about tea? Well, the May Sweet Adventures blog hop theme has been announced. Yup, it’s tea! Duh! Our lovely host for May is JJ from 84th &3rd so head on over to her blog for more details. What fun and civilised theme. I’m so excited! I feel like Alice with my very own Cheshire Cat
A Middle Eastern inspired picnic
This weekend was spent cooking. Cooking, and watching all of my trashy shows that Stud won’t sit through when he’s home. So as they say, while the cat Stud is away…… It was a reasonably chilled weekend for me actually. I had my recipes planned and damn it, I was going to take my time doing them. I fear that I would be an awful contender on shows such as MKR or Masterchef as I’m a pretty chilled cook. The idea of a clock really quite frightens me. I’d be that idiot that cries every week, so it’s best I save Australia of the headache lol. So in between episodes of Ice Loves Coco, Khloe and Lamar, and Pretty Little Liars (I know, I don’t even really like it, but they have me hooked with their storyline and I’m too far in now), I cooked a Middle Eastern two...
Bay Tinh – Crows Nest
Stud and I are pretty big fans of Vietnamese food but I have to say, apart from being frequent Pho eaters (especially in Winter) and the few of the starters (namely the rice paper rolls – NOM), we aren’t as knowledgeable on the cuisine as I would like. So when we were invited to try out Bay Tinh’s new Crows Nest restaurant, I was really excited to expand my Vietnamese horizons! Our reservation was at 7:30pm and a word to the wise who are travelling from a far (especially on a Friday night), go earlier to ensure you get parking. Even if you stop in somewhere for a drink beforehand, as it took us a little while to find a park and we very much relied on Stud’s previous “over the bridge” knowledge. To his credit, it was pretty close. The restaurant was pretty packed already, always a good...
Passionfruit pastilles
Whenever I think of pastilles (or Jubes as we called them), I remember my grandfather. He loved his lollies, and when I was growing up, would always have some floating around “for the grandkids”, and by that I mean, he could blame the kids when Grandma asked why they had so many lollies around the house. I would sit there and pick out all of the red ones, and when those were finished, slowly go through in order of colour palette, devouring the rest of them with Pa. Back then, there was no flavour, I just knew I liked certain colours, and that the black one was disgusting lol. Pastilles are something that I had never even thought to attempt but I have to say, after looking in Heston’s Heston at Home book, they seemed a breeze! So, as the lovely people at the Passionfruit Industry of Australia had...
Dining With a Stud
About Me
I'm Nic. I adore cooking. My husband is Kev (Stud). I love to cook - he loves to eat. It works out nicely. Kev calls me Studd as its part of my maiden name. Kev is my stud. And so, Dining with a Stud was born.
