Dining with a Stud

Suitably tipsy from my Margarita sorbet, I thought it best to do a more family friendly version for my next Queen flavour. Plus let’s face it, who doesn’t like salted caramel? You need to make sure you really salt the caramel in this recipe. I have put a guide but it’s really to taste, just make sure you oversalt it as it will balance a lot when you stir it in to the sweet gelato base. If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can do this on the stove but be sure to keep the temperature low. You may also want to pierce the can to avoid it exploding. Salted Caramel Ice-cream Ingredients 1 x Queen Vanilla Gelato 650ml full cream milk 1 x can Condensed milk 2 tbs sea salt Method Place can of condensed milk (unopened) in a slow cooked and fill until can is submerged....

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Living in Sydney, we can often take our surroundings for granted. Always on our way somewhere – usually in a hurry – we are so concerned with where we are going, that we don’t bother to look around us while we’re getting there. Sydney really is a gorgeous place. I have noticed this more so lately and its really never more apparent than when you’re by the water. Sun bursting through the roof to floor windows, Sydney’s harbour and Opera House on one side and the finest fish money can buy on the other. I’m at Ocean Room at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Circular Quay, and am surrounded by other Sydney food bloggers and we are in for a treat. Chef Raita Noda – Ocean Room’s executive chef – has graciously offered to give us a sushi and sashimi masterclass (*squeeee*). Chef Raita came to Australia in 1990 from...

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Sometimes we need a little balanced in our lives. Usually, once a month I like to indulge in a dessert that makes my thighs/hips/belly scream in terror and use said dessert for my Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. This month, I’m taking a step back, putting my hearing aid on, and listening to my body. This month, I’m doing a sugar free, dairy free, bad fat free dessert *queue dramatic music* Well not a complete dessert. You see this month’s theme is sauces. I’m getting a little saucy, in a very angelic way I know……..it’s not like me. But hey, balance is good right? This dessert is my healthy version of a banana split topping i.e. chocolate, nuts, honey – but you could really use it on anything, or in anything. So for more hop goodness, and to find out how you can join, head on over The Kitchen Crusader...

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This is my husband after he realised there were 75 margaritas on the menu. Yup. If there’s a drink of choice for Stud, its definitely Margaritas. All flavours, all types, he doesnt discriminate. Although he does always go back to the original. To him, its still the best. Needless to say, that evening was a bit messy for both of us lol. A little while ago, Claire from Claire K Creations contacted me to see if I would be interested in trying some of Queen’s new gelato range. Yes, yes I would Every baker knows Queen. Be it for their food colourings or flavourings, they’re a trusted, Australian owned company thats well worth supporting on a shelf filled with overseas brands. Now they’ve brought out a gelato range, with a quality to match any good gelataria in Rome, and it’s found exclusively in Woolworth’s The challenge was simple –...

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In New Yoooooork! Concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there’s nothing you can’t do. This cheesecake’s from New York, New York, New Yoooooork. With a US trip imminent, I’m more than a little excited to be heading to the land of the free, the home of the brave. The city of MOMOFUKU !!!!! New York was a must see on our list, so of course when I was deciding on my “Berry Nice to Meet You” for this months Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, it had to be a New York cheesecake. Because I’m in a New Yooork state of miiiiind. Ok. Fine. I’m done with the singing. Pre-blog I had baked a couple of cheesecakes but all pretty traditional. This time, I wanted chocolate, I wanted raspberry, I wanted chocolate base. Now any child of the 80’s will know what I mean when I say that last sentence...

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A few months back I went on a girl’s weekend to Melbourne. If I was to live anywhere else in Australia, it would be Melbourne. I absolutely adore it. It has never let me down. Be it shopping, food or festivals, Melbourne does it all, and does it damn well! This weekend was no different. We spent obscene reasonably large amounts of money shopping (most of mine were sales so I didn’t feel so bad ), ate like we had starved ourselves for the trip, and caught up with some awesome Melbourne peeps. The stand out for me, for the entire long weekend of eating, was breakfast. I know right? Who even counts brekkie really? It’s just sustenance to fuel us for more shopping! But on our very first day in Melbourne, we headed to Cumulus Inc. on Flinders Lane, and I have been talking about it ever since....

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I adore mushrooms. If you hadn’t noticed by the endless mushroom recipe supply on the blog lol! They’re great in almost everything and are also perfect on their own, on a bit of toast, seasoned with salt and pepper. Actually, they’re perfect on bread in general, but the naughtiest of all the breads has to be brioche. All that butter! It makes me happy just thinking of it and its surprisingly easy to make. With my obsession for mushroom and a brioche recipe I was dying to try, I decided to combine the two and come up with a mushroom brioche pull-apart. Something to have with a saucy pasta dish. Or any saucy dish for that matter. It mops up perfectly and the mushrooms add a great earthiness to the buttery richness. Brioche Mushroom pull-apart Ingredients 8g sachet dried yeast 1 tbsp lukewarm water 55g caster sugar 3/4 tsp...

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This post is short and sweet pun intended. The Hungry Australian is our lovely host for this berrylicious event – Augusts Sweet Adventured Blog Hop will be “Berry nice to meet you” Need some inspiration? How about a Berry and Cream Cheese Pound cake? Or some White Chocolate and Cranberry Ganache Filled Chocolates? Maybe a Strawberry and Vanilla Panna Cotta is more your style? But you cant help but fall in love when wine is mentioned in the Strawberry tart with Dolcetto and honeycomb. Whatever you decide, as long as its filled with delicious berry goodness, then its ok by us The blog hop kicks off on Monday 20 August – head over to The Hungry Australian for more details.

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Drumroll peeps!!!! Thanks to my great friends over at Kitchenware Direct, Dining with a Stud has its very first competition more on that later. Growing up in a multi-cultural area as an anglo kid, you’re exposed to a mecca of different cultures, people, and of course food. “The hood” as my friends and I affectionately call it, isn’t like your predominantly Italian Leichhardt, or Asian influenced Cabramatta, it’s like a melting pot, and it was great to be a part of. I think the area I grew up in definitely influences my vast love for all different types of food. Although I would say Japanese is my favourite (developed later in life), I could literally eat any type of food and be pretty chuffed with it. With quite a few friends from European backgrounds, Italian is probably my go-to food when we’re at home. I’m familiar with the flavours...

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July has been a busy month. With my birthday on the 6th, my family get together (for my birthday) on the 14th, a dinner with my friends (for my birthday) on the 20th and the finale birthday present dinner at Flying Fish (post to come) thanks to my amazeballs cousins. So yeah, I’ve managed to drag this baby out – for an entire month! And I’ve loved every minute of it Now however, it’s time for some home cooked meals. Some down time in our home, with our fur baby. Me in the kitchen and Stud playing Fifa, while Bonnie naps away on pretty much every surface in the house. Life is back to normal. Thankfully, I had been given some Corningware to try. Thanks ladies, my bakeware was looking a little sad. So as soon as I received the baking dish with lid (way back when), I knew...

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