Buttermilk Pancakes

Excuse that stray bit of pancake in the syrup

Nothing says long weekend - or weekend full stop - like Pancakes.

I usually use Nigella's recipe from Nigella's Express. But I had buttermilk in the fridge from an Aldi shopping trip. And you know what! I forgot that I had this until I read a tweet about Buttermilk pancakes!

I used good old Martha Stewart for this. Recipe link here. But I adapted it slightly well, no choice as I only had a 600ml carton of buttermilk.

Ingredients
2 cups plan flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups buttermilk (I only had a 600ml carton which is less than 3 cups and I used that entirely)
4 tbsp melted butter

Zomg big bowl of batter

Method: Shift flour and mix in sugar and salt. Add in your wet ingredients. Whisk if you can find a hand whisk. I honestly don't know where mine is... last time it was sighted on Pickles who ran off with it. We have looked everywhere and I think he might have thrown it out in the bin or something. I had to improvise with a powered beater whisk! Mental note yet again to buy new whisk.

First of all, let me say that this makes A LOT of pancakes. Look at all that batter! I think that I will be eating pancakes later today and tomorrow as well.

When I cook the pancakes I do not usually add oil to the pan as I use a non-stick frying pan. I leave it at sort of medium heat. With buttermilk pancakes they do not usually bubble as it is quite a thick batter. So check that it is cooked and then flip it. These are so yummy and Martha has got it goin' on! Also please be using maple syrup. I get mine from Costco in a one litre bottle - do not judge - and I have 2 in storage ready to go. LOL!

Stalk my Weekend: Bundoora Market Smoked Salmon Cakes

What an action packed weekend. Mick has fully recovered and has mended very well with no thanks to me because I was my usual unsympathetic horrible wife. This is where people think I am exaggerating but I am not. If Mick would would guest blog, you will find out just how mean I am LOL. It was Saturday and strangely we had no visitors and nothing planned (WHAT!). Mick said to find a market to go to as we seemed to have dropped off the market circuit. There were not one but TWO on Saturday. Westerfolds and Bundoora was running last Saturday. So we headed to the Bundoora market as memory serves me well, they have a killer pie shop there. You would think I would remember the name of it. I can only remember Gum something so I will have to get back to you on this.

How exciting!

Home Made Peanut Butter WIN

We walked in and saw some chickens in a cage. The lady was trying to get them out of hiding as D and L were trying to take a peek at them. One escaped and I pretty much freaked out. Do not ask why I have an irrational fear of things in feathers. I think it started with the movie Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. I just cannot deal with them. I freak and I run. Watch me scream like a crazy woman - well more crazy than I normally am. Had to usher the boys along quickly so I spotted Home Made Peanut Butter. Oh yes!! Hellooooo, they basically ran to get some to taste. This is the first market that I have seen peanut butter in. Yes.. Winning.

Mexican inspired Icy Poles

Bundoora Market always has good food stalls. This time we found an indian Dosa store that sold Masala Dosa. You can also have it plain, with mashed egg or with Chicken. The pictures did not do it justice so I will spare you. Seriously ... try it! Another new store I found was the Mexican inspired Icy Poles. We bought strawberry and orange flavour. I wished I could tell you more about it but the boys ate it and I had about 2 licks. They cater to parties as well and is called Paletas Hand Crafted Ice Pops. Mental note for next birthday party!! 

Giant Punnet of Strawberries

I think strawberries are going out of season. This batch was a little sour but they are perfect for what we wanted to make with them.. yummy strawberry ice cream. Salivates. This giant punnet of strawberries and a bag of apples were $10. I love concepts where you can mix strawberries, pears and apples and pay a reduced price if you buy 2.

Cinch's Chicken Run

This is Cinch Personal Training's chicken run which is outside their Personal Training circuit and gym. I had to get the boys to leave the market by promising that we would go see the chickens near us. This is Pickles waving Hi to one of them. We had to explain that they did not like the heat and is probably hiding, but they kept complaining that there were no chooks. This is probably as close as I will get to any live feathered animal. The fence is keeping me safe from beak attacks. LOL!

Mash it Good

Panko crumbed goodness

Deep Fried Goodness

In my attempt to use up a giant packet of smoked salmon from Costco. I asked Twitter what I should make. Home Empress said to make salmon cakes. OHHHH YESSSS... I used this recipe and skipped the herb creme fraiche. We are totally unsophisticated with fried foods. Just shove them in my mouth, no sauce required here. Far out, this is a keeper. I think I would probably add herbs into the pattie next time. But it was not hard to make these. The annoying thing about crumbing is I mess up the one hand wet, one hand dry system. I always end up with crumbed egg fingers on both hands. Panko is definitely a winner and lord knows why breadcrumbs still exist for fried foods. Gimme panko on everything. 

This way is home

This is D showing Pickles which way is home. I told them to hold hands and head home as I parked infront of the neighbour's house. I was doing the sneaky snake park my car under the shade of their tree thing. How adorable! Melts. 

Stalk my Weekend: Frittata, Laksa Win, Aldi

I just realised that I have not done a Stalk my Weekend in a while. So I am back with a vengence.

I had Vita and another lady that I met from the boys' shortlived swimming lessons in Eltham come over on Saturday morning. I think Vita was really disciplined and only had a sliver of lemon cheesecake. It was my no bake Lemon Cheesecake that I keep making. You can prepare it in advance overnight and there is no baking and no gelatine involved. Have you had a whiff of gelatine powder after you add it to water. You don't want to if you have no idea what it smells like. Vita is doing 12WBT and I think she really wanted to chow down on that cheesecake. Props to you Vita! They left at 12 noon which is great timing.. This leaves me time to get to Laksa King. I just want to say that I discovered Laksa King years and years ago. Like in 2001 when it was a hole in the wall, anyone else remember what a dive it was?

D getting a little impatient

Chow down

So I decided that I would try to make Mick's lunches from now on instead of just yelling at him that he doesn't eat. The man is wasting away. So what do you make for someone that has to eat their lunch cold and not to knock sammiches but sammiches are kinda boring. I made a frittata. That's a first for me. I have eaten heaps of it but not made one. So this is what I made.

Gathering ingredients

Ingredients: Green Capsicum, 1 Tomato, 3 potatos (cubed and boiled), 1 middle rasher of bacon, 5 eggs, cream, parmesan grated, salt and pepper, herbs from the garden, pine nuts

Fry it up baby

I should have added onion or garlic but honestly it was too hot and who can think in this weather? I fried the ingredients (not the egg and cream of course) in a pan to cook the capsicum and bacon. I added pine nuts in at this point. But as the potato was not in the pan yet. I did not add enough. Mick said the piece he had for dinner didn't have any pinenuts. Oopsss...I seasoned in the frying pan and added some salt to the spuds as well when it was waiting to go in. Pour this cooked mixture into oven proof pan.

Ready to bake 

Beat the 5 eggs with cream, again season. Grated the parmesan in after cream was mixed in. Pour on top of the cooked ingredients and bake at 180 degrees C. 

DONE and PS I need Food Styling Training

Ta Da.. done after the top was browned. I think it took about 25minutes? But check it if you are cooking this. What I would change is add more pine nuts and more cheese. Plus the potatos had to be smaller in bite sized cubes.

Ok to Wake!

I did an Aldi run for some of the ingredients on Sunday. And I saw this. It's an Ok to Wake clock. You set the time that you want the kids to wake up and it turns bright green when it hits that time. I had promised D one earlier but hello you cannot beat $25! I have seen them for $40 plus on eBay. I hope it lasts longer than my rice cooker from Aldi. URGH...  It died and I cannot find the receipt!

I also need suggestions on what lunch items you can prepare in advance and eat cold.
HALPPP!

Stalk my Weekend: Haircuts, Ice Cream and Scones

Phew.. what a jam packed weekend. I'm sorry that Stalk my Weekend is so late in the week. Wait till you hear what happened in Stalk my lousy Monday morning and you will forgive me. I had yum cha with the ladies on Saturday and honestly I didn't take pics. ROFL I had a FOTD picture but it was plastered on my Facebook wall. In the interest of not repeating things and boring you. I have left the picture out. You can stalk my Facebook page instead. Don't forget to likey as I'm feeling unloved. Y'all still love me right?

After yum cha, I ran to meet Mick and the boys in Fitzroy as Mick was having his haircut. The girls proceeded to spend heaps of money at Daiso. Thankfully I already did my Daiso raid of random things on Wednesday. Yay to that! Boys playing with random animals that Jamie somehow has at his studio. After Mick was finished, D said he likes his hair. Nawwww sweet boy.

Bolton Street Chicken

Sunday was jam packed for us as the boys started swimming. WOOHOO!! Thank goodness! We has swimming again! Bought D and Pickles their swimming caps. Gosh, why didn't anyone tell my Mum that fabric swimming caps existed? As a treat, I went to get chicken, chips and salad for lunch at my favourite chicken place. Bolton Street Chicken! It's not exactly close to me, there's probably 15 chicken shops that are closer but gosh.. this is the best! I cannot stand looking at the sad, creamy weird salads sitting in the fridges of other chicken shops.

Fairy Hills Ice Cream

I have been driving past this pretty ice cream shop for months since I started going a roundabout way with the boys after their daycare pickup. D calls this roundabout way the "lost way" because I kept getting lost at the start. LOL.. it is now called sneaky way. So after their rest from swimming, I packed them in the car by myself - I hardly ever do this - as Mick was going to the tip. Such a cute shop! Prices are $4 for one scoop, $5 for two scoops and $6 for three scoops. I bought strawberry and chocolate for the boys.

Baby Chairs or Mummy Chairs?

They also serve coffees, soft serve frozen yoghurt, milkshakes and juices as well. If anyone is interested, they also have baby chairs. D asked if the baby chairs were for Pickles. I said no as Pickles can sit on the chair by himself. He then asked the lady behind the counter if the chair was for Mummy. Erm.. no, Mummy cannot fit in them.

D helping with scones

Oh hurro yummies

Action packed Sunday continues! D and Pickles helped Mick make lemonade scones. If anyone is interested in the recipe. We usually use Taste's recipe for lemonade scones. They are the easiest thing. Just ignore the sugar and cream/fat content. Just eat them ok!

McCormick Recipe Creations

Hurro Meat

If you are still awake... Hurro meat to you as well. I received this recipe creations pack from McCormick at a recent event. I thought this was a fantastic idea as I am sick of bottles of dried herbs and spices that are opened and used once for a one off recipe and never used again. I think I have cinnamon dated 2007 when we first moved into the house. Like s'rsly... Mick keeps telling me, it's fine, just use it.. But like eewwww, the cinnamon is older than D! The pack for Beef Brew and Herb Dumplings comes with the recipe at the back of the card. Each spice/herb that you require is already measured out in the pack. So we had this for dinner on Sunday night.. in between all that baking and ice cream. Mick managed to cook dinner as well. It was a brown and stir, then leave in the oven affair. How good is that?

If you haven't fallen asleep yet. I leave you with two roses from my garden. D and Pickles gave me those from our garden. The one at the bottom is the Jane McGrath rose and the beautifully fragrant one at the top is either The Mother's Love or The Children's Rose. I cannot remember!! I need to look at the label again!

Macro Organic Meat Competition

This is a Sponsored Post

The only Macro Food item that I had been purchasing were the chicken drumsticks from Woolworth's supermarkets for chicken and vegetable soup. I thought that they only stocked free range chicken products! Well.. I was wrong! At the Social Mums blogger event on Saturday, we had a chance to sample some of the sausages that they have in stock for Australia Day. So get your grills fired up for the sausage fest of a post here.

The sausages available to sample on the day was Lamb, Lamb and Mint and Mini Micro Beef. They asked D what he wanted, he just kept yelling I WANT SAUSAGEEE. So I picked a lamb sausage for both him and Pickles. Before this I honestly did not know that they had a sausage range! I stopped at 2 sausages but check out the BBQ picture above. Hello Sausage Fest. ;) I can say that D chomped down the entire thing including the bread so it is a tick in his books. 

I had been buying Macro free range chickens all this while as I do believe that free range and organic meat taste better. All of Macro branded products are made from certified organic meat from an organic farm with no preservatives. The feed of the animals is also organic and most importantly is from a free range farm. 

Just for Australia Day, from 23rd January to 5th of February Macro is offering the multi-pack discounts in Woolworth's supermarkets.

Macro Beef Sausages - 2 Packs for $11
Macro Beef & Tomato Basil Sausages - 2 Packs for $11
Mini Macro Burgers - 2 Packs for $13
Mini Macro Meatballs - 2 Packs for $13

D and his lamb sausage

When you purchase your Macro Organic meat this week, do not forget about the competition that they are holding at the moment. Remember that you gotta be innit to winnit! Send in your proof of purchase to Level 24, 1 York Street, Sydney 2000.

Stalk my Weekend: Balls, Yum Cha and Pears

I met up with the ladies on Friday.. or was it Thursday.. oh wait it was Friday. I no longer remember as everyday is a weekend! And I had 2 hours to do my Boxing Day shopping. I went to David Jones and the Mon Shu eye palettes were now $61.60. It's this post where I posted pictures of the palettes when I first drooled over them. I bought the one which had green in it.. ooohhh glitterati. By the way, the bottom right colour is actually a blusher not an eyeshadow. Iris the sales assistant pretty much laughed her head off at me when I said oops I thought that was eyeshadow. And I also bought the light coral cream blusher. Amazeballs.. that's all I can say!

Shu Uemura Face of the Day

I had a play with all the Shu Uemura goodies that I bought before we went to yum cha. Seriously though I need a camera to take selfies. The inbuild FaceTime camera in the iPhone is just blah. The blusher was a layer of coral cream blush and the Shu Uemura palette blusher. Lipstick from Missha which is a very light pink. There you go.. i look sunburnt or something there don't I! 

I has prawn on sugar cane

The entire Melbourne must have gone away to Mornington or something. There was nobody at Goldleaf!? What's going on? See all those empty tables? The boys like the fried prawns on sugar cane sticks and I eyed one off very hard as it was the only one left on the trolley and repeating in my head, they better not take my boys' prawns. Strangely there was one deep fried trolley running around when usually they shove the stuff in your face saying, "you wan deep flied spling lolls?"

Soya Beancurd Dessert

I managed to sneak in my favourite dessert - soya beancurd. Most of you would be like wtf is this. This my friend is the stuff of urban legends. If you want to have a fair skinned baby, eat more of this! My grandma would tell me when I was young... followed by ... "Your Mum ate lots of tau fu fah, that's why you're so fair as a baby. White white.. such a pretty baby." FYI us Chinese want fair skin and all of y'all trying to get tanned have got it wrong. The boys asked for fruit at yum cha. I nearly fell off my chair. So I ordered them melon balls and D would pick if he wanted orange or green melon balls. Green is the winner so far.

I has pears

I has new shoes

We had a BBQ meal of burgers and salad on Sunday as we had FRIENDS come over. Yes I actually do have friends! :P this is Pickles who decided that he wanted to wear my new shoes. He actually waddled a little bit while wearing them and then fell over, the poor boy. He has always been fascinated with my shoes for some reason, shoes and makeup... Mick is shaking his head somewhere. I think he thinks it's cute and we fuss about it. D told me on Sunday that he wanted a pear. I asked like 3 times, you mean fruit? A pear? He has never asked for pears and told me he didn't like them. So I even google imaged a pear for him to confirm he wanted one. Mick was going out to buy burger buns, cheeses (cheesus) and dip so he bought him a pear. We thought he would not eat it. Well.. I was wrong! He said he wanted the entire pear. Ok then! We can now add pear to the ok fruit and vegetable list.

Keep on stirring

I made these chocolate balls as our friends were coming on Saturday night. The ice cream was chocolate as well as the strawberries were all kinds of fail when we opened the punnet. D kept saying we should make chocolate ice cream so we did. The rum balls my colleague's wife would make were yummy yum yum. I am not sure if she made it using the cake or biscuit method. So anyway this is the easier method. I took the ingredients out of the cupboard after yum cha at 2.30pm but fell asleep shortly for a siesta. 3 hours later we were eating dinner and the ingredients were still staring at me and mocking me for my fails. After the boys went to sleep, I sat watching trashy TV and made those Faux Rum balls!

Rum Balls from Best Recipes

Ingredients

250g arrowroot biscuits crushed

1 cup coconut and extra for coating

1 can of condensed milk

1/4 cup of cocoa powder - sifted

1 1/2 tsp Rum (I omitted because of the boys)

Mix together and it would combine and stick together. Form into balls and roll in extra coconut to coat. 

Things that I did wrong - I didn't use a food processor to crush the biscuits as the boys were asleep. I chucked the biscuits into a bowl and tried to use a glass to crush it. A bit of eye-rolling and come let me solve this issue with a bag and rolling pin by Mick later, we had crushed biscuits! The finer that you get the crumbs the easier that the mix will stick together when forming balls. I refrigerated the mixture for a short time as well, as I thought it would be easier to form the balls. It did help a little I think.

Then don't forget to put on some trashy TV and you sit and roll those balls. My choice TV of that night was on 7Mate... now how good is this channel? I had Full Throttle Saloon on the entire time! 

Roll those suckers and refrigerate. Then eat them!  

Rum-less Chocolate Rum Balls

Leftovers Vogue KK and Ice Cream

Continuously hijacked to drop $2 on these rides 

YAY YAY YAY the shops are open again! One day of sitting around like a sloth eating so much food ... and not to mention napping like a boss as well. We went to the local shops to get strawberries for the ice cream maker. The Aldi special buy $25 ice cream maker caught my eye. I actually hauled this darn thing all the way from the CBD store back home. The point of buying this was because I already given Mick his totally romantic Christmas present - a hot shot BBQ set in an aluminium case. By the time I dragged the darn machine back on a train and everything I just threw all my bags at him (lovingly) at the house. Of course he noticed the brand - Lumina and I was flipping the Aldi catalogue with said machine in it with him later that night. He guessed what it was ... DUH. Well least I saved on wrapping paper. Do you remember those rides that D and L are on? My brother and I used to stare at those rides and sat in it .. stationary. And we used to be sad that we never got any coins for it. Yes yes.. I'm kind of compensating that by 'wasting' my $2 coins everytime we come here.

Leftovers in action

Another problem with post Christmas come down is the leftovers. Oh man was there leftovers. I have ham phobia now. I cooked Hokkien eggie noodles like my previous post ... except I used ham instead of pork. What I did was go to Aldi to do a Hokkien noodle run. It was DISGUSTING. This thing was the worse packet of noodles I have ever encountered. The texture of the noodles was wrongtown. It crumbled and was not in strands if you know what I mean. Currently Aldi I am not in love with you. You better redeem yourself with really good ice cream man! I had to substitute for dry thin egg noodles which was really blah. Boys were not interested and D said later he did not want the noodles. FAIL.

Aldi Ice Cream maker a-churning

This is the ice cream maker churning.. keep on churning Mr Lumina Ice Cream maker. It is a small bowl that you have to freeze for 8 hours or more. That is fine with us... the bowl size is also ok as we usually just have small quantities of ice cream. Yeah I am one of those freaks that eats one square from a family size chocolate bar and would leave it alone afterwards. The boys helped with the ice cream making. Pickles added sugar in and D poured in the ingredients. Churn ... churn churn... then freeze. So really it's just 20-30mins of churning. This thing served the purpose and honestly I think the price tag just enabled me to buy it. If it was a Cuisinart which I think looks amazing btw, I would not have bought it. I would have thought yeah that's nice and I probably wouldn't use it.

Amazeballs Strawberry Ice Cream

After one taste, I was converted. It was amazing.... The missing bits were from D and Pickles who ate a scoop each before we did. This was using one punnet of strawberries. As you can see it made a small amount. But it tasted so good! I am going to make some more tomorrow.. Woohoo.

HURRO KITTY & Lancome Eyeliner

I finally opened my Vogue KK gift that I received from the lovely L. :) Yay yay yay... Hurro Kitty Sigg bottle!!!!!!! My very own SIGG!! And a green Lancome eyeliner as she stalked me online where I was told I had to wear more colour. This is totally exciting. How cute is that bottle? And the eyeliner ... ooohhhh Lancome! I really enjoyed being in the Vogue KK and had a ball buying for mine. From L's note I think she enjoyed it too. I am very stalkable HAHHA..

Stalk my Noms: Marion's Kitchen Thai Green Curry Pack

Idiot proof instructions - likey

It has taken me more than a year to be game enough to actually cook Thai Green Curry again. I know the exact last time when I last cooked it because my China colleague and I were discussing about what I was cooking that day and I told her Thai Green Curry. She was also pregnant at that time and I was about to replace her when she left for her maternity leave. She said she loved this stuff – well so DID I! I had used a Mae Ploy brand paste and I had used it before so I am not sure what on earth happened but it burnt the living daylights out of my taste buds. I had hungry D bawling their eyes out yelling TOO SPICY TOO SPICY!!! And then there was Pickles who was just about 1 year old or something. And he had big tears streaming down his face.

I thought to myself, it cannot be that bad. Sweet baby cheesus.. I cried tears too. Mick and I were in absolutely tears. We abandoned ship and had to cook something else. It was Disaster Thai Green Curry 101. TOO SPICY!

So Marion says do not use all the paste and discard the dried chillis in the herb package if you want a milder curry. I definitely followed that instruction! Look at this, even the packets are numbered! This is idiot proof. If Marion can cook, so can you!

See my wok there? I am using my wok any chance that I can get now. Get wokking y’all.

Spice it how you likey.. me very likey

I browned the meat before frying the paste as I prefer it that way. I also always use chicken thighs. Nigella got it right … chicken breasts are dry central or rather I must be doing it all wrong.

I swear the chicken is cooked, it's just pink cos I likey thighs

The pack comes with everything that you need. You just need to add your meat and extra vegetables. It even comes with bamboo shoots and coconut milk. Winning! And really really quick for a weekday night meal. Now that I have conquered my fear of Thai green curry.. has anyone tried any of her other packs?

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored or paid post. I shelled out $7+ (from memory) for this :) 

Stalk my weekend: Claw, Popcorn, Wanton making

Ok who could resist this picture? Started my weekend off by putting a Claw on D. He kept asking me what I was doing. I said I was taking a picture and he looked annoyed.

It was one of those weekends of lots to do but nothing to do. I planned a meal of wantons this weekend - exactly when I would make it I had no idea. As usual it's all oh i don't feel like cooking now, let's go out. LOL.

Saturday breakfast Bacooonnnn

But first this was my breakfast.. picked up bacon from the Bolton street butcher. I think I will stick to this store from now on. Mushrooms and spinach from the fruit and veg store a few doors down. This is a very old school store, one where the staff take your shopping to your car for you. You also get greeted by name if you are a regular from what I saw, I am not a regular yet. I bought the best avocados from that store, given how much they cost these days, I have laid off buying anymore.

The Wang

D and I set off together and I brought this bag instead. I bought the Alexander Wang Emile bag in eggshell and my gosh.. look at the size of it! D asked why was my bag so big and started laughing and going through it asking what's all this. I said STOP IT! I wanted to say it is big because it is a wang, but didn't think he would get it. So off to Box Hill for noodles in soup and shopping for wanton ingredients. It was quite the scene at the asian grocery store. Someone felt bad for me for yelling nonstop at D who wanted to touch everything and let me go first in the queue to pay.

Scoffing popcorn

Pickles fell asleep on me while sitting up on the couch and to keep D quiet I made popcorn which I had never done before. There was utter silence for 10 minutes while we scoffed all the popcorn between us. Mick had come back hopeful that there was some left. Nope.

Soup making in progress

Has anyone noticed that I do not usually take a picture that shows my stovetop? Yeah this one I did because... the cleaner came on Friday. HAHAHAHAHHA! Those 3 saucepans were just for soup stock making. Do not ask me what I was doing!

Wantons ready to go

Wantons all wrapped and ready to go. What do you put in yours?

I usually do

Pork mince
Prawns
Dried shiitake mushrooms
Spring onions
Marination - soya sauce, chinese wine, pepper, cornflour, sugar
Ideally would include water chestnuts that are fresh but I cannot find them in Australia. Unless I am blind and they are next to the pandan leaves that I can never find in asian grocery store!

This time in my soup stock I used Pork Bones, Ikan Bilis (dried anchovies) and I had some frozen prawn heads and shells that I threw in. Probably should have skipped the prawns but I thought they were on the edge to be tossed out.