Snappy Tom

Best time to start a 365 project is totally twelve days into the new year. First of January is for suckers. Organised suckers.

Day 1. Going with that healthy eating thing in the new year. I've totally got like four food groups covered there, so whatevs.

Now, to watch some new Girls.

I Love Breakfast!

Breakfast is absolutely the best meal of the day. There's coffee, bacon is usually involved, and if you have a sweet tooth, you're allowed to have something sugary and chocolatey without being judged. Try that at lunchtime. Not to mention breakfast is the only meal where its socially acceptable to sit in a fancy restaurant alone with a good book. 

There are a billion (well, a lot) of amazing breakfast places around town and since I tend to try a new one every week or so, I thought I'd share what I've found. And gloat about all the bacon I'm eating. I thought I'd start out with Egg, which is a favourite not only because of the amazing food, but because it is about a 20 second walk from my house. This is a big selling point when you just got out of bed and are desperate for caffeine (and bacon).

 My drink of choice.. mocha deliciousness.

 Eggs Florentine. With a side of bacon, of course. Gotta love runny eggs with loads of pepper.

I'm a responsible adult. I didn't get chocolate in my second coffee.

Too Real

Photo Friday: Eat!

Long Way From Home

I'm back from a (long) weekend in Sydney. The weather and the company was wonderful. Although I mainly took film cameras, you should still be prepared for photo overload. It's what I do.

 Camera bag packed and ready to go.

 My flight there was cancelled, and then the replacement one I got put on kept getting delayed. All of this I could handle. It was when I got to my seat that I nearly cried. I get claustrophobic really easily, but I still asked for a window seat because I feel a bit better when I can look out and see all of the sky outside. I managed to get seated in the only "window" seat without a window. That bit of the wall also comes in about an inch or two further than what the window would. Add to that the annoying child that was next to me, and it was not a pleasant flight.

 The Grace Hotel, where we stayed.

 It was a gorgeous art deco style hotel with beautiful features. Just don't order the room service. Even if The Witches of Eastwick comes on the TV at lunchtime and you just CAN'T leave because you need to know what happens. Also, don't put a toy dinosaur under your roommate's pillow. She will freak out. Especially if you leave the tail hanging out.

 Apparently in Sydney the all day breakfast is unknown. We tried a few places at 12 and were told by many that we were too late for breakfast. This one place was nice enough to accomodate two ladies on Brisbane and Perth time who couldn't stomach lunch yet.

 Off to check out some art at the Art Gallery of NSW. I actually preferred the works from the collection to the Picasso exhibition that we'd paid to see.

 This is my worst fear when I'm at work. 

 Might have bought some $5 gold shoes because I didn't pack my comfy walking boots.

 We had this table at work I think for the 21st Century exhibition (all the exhibitions kind of blend together in my mind). The carving is amazing, but when it was on display in Brisbane there was no photography. No such rules here, so I snapped away.

 My cubist sculpture. I'll always find the kids activities :)

 At one point we made a plan to see this, but unfortunately didn't get around to it because we'd just jammed too much into our weekend. Bummer! If anyone has seen it/has plans to see it.. please let me know about it!

 This was meant to be a little afternoon snack. I still can't get over the size of that lemon merengue pie.

 I think we did pretty well.

 This is why girls with fake red hair don't have white towels.

 Some birthday celebrations at the Belgian Beer Cafe.

Time for some vintage shopping in Newtown.

 

 Unfortunately most things were either too big too take home with us, or out of our pricerange.

 Time for a retro birthday party! Do you remember making those chains? In my memory they were fun and quick to make. In reality they take about the same time as a crappy Amanda Bynes movie to make just one chain.

 I had to steal thses couple of pictures from my friend Kim's facebook, because yeah, only had a film camera with me.

 Smoking lolly Fads with a fake Rock of Ages lighter. Classy. Note my cool tie. I won that because I was the winner of the music quiz (which only one other person bothered to play). I probably should have worn it as a belt since the muu muu wasn't very flattering (I LOVE the fabric though).

 The Instax were a big hit. Only probloem was that I left the photos on the wall with the donkey, so I can't scan them.

 The Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exhibition at the MCA was brilliant. My photos don't really do it any justice, but if you're in the area, go see it!

 On the way home I snagged a window seat AND an empty seat next to me. Score!

And it's back to work and reality tomorrow..

Saturday Night

 One of my new year's resolutions was to try a new recipe every month. I've never had much luck with brownies. Even Betty Crocker packet mixes tend to fail in my hands. My mum gave me this book for Christmas a couple of years ago and I found a yummy looking recipe for brownies in it and thought I'd give them one last go.

 Being a very visual person, I absolutely love that every step is photographed. I usually give recipes a miss that don't at least have an end result photo, because I like to make sure I'm generally on track. Having a picture of every step pretty much guaruntees no mistakes.

Well, it guaruntees no mistakes if you actually pay attention. I might have taken mine out of the oven a little too early and then forgotten about it, so it fell apart a bit when I was trying to put it on the cooling rack. BUT it was pretty freaking delicious. And since I've never been one for amazing presentation, I just decided that the best way to eat it was in random chunks with a heap of ice cream.

So, a recipe for amazingly tasty, but not too beautiful brownies..

Ingredients:

* 225g butter, softened

* 150g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (I used Green's 70% dark chocolate.. yummo!)

* 225g self-raising flour

* 125g caster sugar

* 4 eggs, beaten

* 75g pistachio nuts, chopped

* 100g white chocolate, roughly chopped (I accidentally bought Lindt Lindor white chocolate, which is gooey inside. Turned out to be a delicious mistake)

* icing sugar, for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 23cm baking tin.

2. Place the plain chocolate and the butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until melted, then leave to cool slightly.

3. Sift the flour into a seperate bowl and stir in the caster sugar.

4. Stir the eggs into the chocolate mixture, then pour into the flour and sugar and beat well.

5. Stir in the nuts and white chocolate.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, using a pallete knife to spread evenly.

7. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until firm to the touch around the edges. Cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

8. Dust with icing sugar. Cut into 12 squares (or let it break into as many pieces as it feels like) and serve.

I also tried the scones from this recipe book, just to see what they'd be like. I was pretty disappointed. I never use sugar in my scones, but these ones did, and it was all I could taste. I think I'll just stick to my tried and tested boring recipe.