sneak peek + news

Hey guys! It’s been a while, I know, and I have a LOT of stuff to tell you about. I’m working on revamping the site, there have been a bunch of recipes I’ve been trying out and I can’t wait to tell you all about them.

For now, though, the big news is that I have a new domain name! This site, I don’t know if you’d noticed, is now happily at home at cutthecookie.com. We have a .com domain! This is very exciting news. I feel like it’s a proper website now, and I hope to be able to treat it like one. I’ll be updating more regularly and expanding a little on the content side of things.

Happy Sunday! Have a cup of coffee for me.

Much love, friends.

-e xx

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sometimes the shit things happen

I don’t really want to talk about what actually happened.

That would mean admitting that it’s real.

Sometimes the shit things happen in life.

I wish I could have done more, been more, seen more. I wish I could have helped. I wish things were different.

They are not. This is real. This is life.

(or not.)

My corner of the internet is small and lightly populated but it’s here and I do appreciate it. I am planning to fill it more soon but we’ll see how we go with dealing with the shit things happening.

Hold on to your families and your friends. Hold them tight and hold them close. Take care of each other. It’s important.

Much love, friends.

–e, xx

pfeffernusse

The rush of people suddenly in every retail outlet is something that you have to contend with around Christmas time. Even in the cafes and restaurants, because of course all those shoppers have to eat. And if you are a combination of the two – a cafe which also sells Christmas cakes and mince tarts etc. – you’re probably going to be busy around this festive season.

Oh well. It’ll all be over soon. Just a few more days and then it’s Christmas! A busy time, but also a reminder of what hope we have. A time for reflection and gratitude for what life has brought us this year. Just don’t get crushed in the rush of people buying last-minute Christmas gifts, hey.

the thing about butter

So when I lived at home, I was the official “treat maker”. I liked to cook, and so my mum told me that if I made “recess food” (for those who don’t know, recess is the mini break Australian children have in between the start of school and lunchtime. In primary school it’s often known as playtime. I don’t even.) for my family, she would do the dishes. This, all you bakers out there know, is a BIG DEAL.

Unfortunately, I think Dad got stuck with doing most of the dishes and I got stuck with the reputation of avoiding dishes (although I’ve lived out of home for almost three years now and so do all my own dishes. Also, I do dishes for a living. Come on, guys!)

(A lot of parentheses in this post. Just a little notice that I noticed.)

All that to say, when I lived at home, I baked at home. A lot. I like to try things out, I like to bake delicious sweet things. (No, really. I really do. You can’t tell, can you?)

gallons of tea and chocolate butter biscuits

I am surrounded by boxes.

I have to go over an obstacle course to get to my door.

I’m typing this on my bed because my desk is covered with stuff.

But five months after everything went pear-shaped, I finally have  a place to call home.

Home’s  a funny thing. Home is, famously, where the heart is, but it’s also where the people welcome you, where you can hang your hat up, where you can put your feet on the furniture and your alcohol on the windowsill. Home is where you keep your crap, literal and figurative in more than one sense.  Home is where no questions are asked and also where all the deep questions are asked. Home is when you can say that you’re stuffed and ready for bed and you can just go there. Home is re-discovering old clothes and old books. Home is baking at ten o’clock at night and rearranging the furniture to suit yourself.

lemon buttermilk cupcakes

How does the time go so fast?

i had a party

According to my last post, I had a birthday recently. A pretty significant one, apparently. And so, to celebrate, I threw a party!

At someone else’s house.

With lots of food.

Ok, context time. I have been living in a bit of a limbo situation since the end of February. I was in a house, and then I got kicked out of that house (for reasons not to do with me or my housemate) so since then I’ve been moving around a lot, and I’m still not in a permanent home type situation.

I knew exactly the type of party I wanted to have for my birthday but I was stressing out about having to find a venue, since I didn’t know where I was going to be living or whether I’d be able to host something at that house, when my amazing friends stepped in and offered their house, which they’d newly moved into. I was flabbergasted and overflowing with gratitude. And then it happened.

The party was amazing. I had all the people I loved most in one place and although the nature of these things is that you don’t get to have meaningful chats with everyone, I did get a decent amount of catching up and talking done, amongst the eating of the sweets and much amusement and merrymaking.

I went a little crazy on the food, because I love to eat and I am terrible at figuring out how much I’ll need for any amount of people. (I’m always terrified there won’t be enough to go around). So I’ll be backposting the recipes for a little while. I need a bit of time out from baking anyway. A little fresh air and spinach.

Best wishes!

homemade barbecue sauce

I’m finding it difficult to figure out what to type here. Maybe it’s because it’s so hot here right now I could just melt into a puddle on my doona. Maybe because I’m stressed out with this moving situation.  Maybe because I’m getting over a cold and my brain is fried at the moment.

Maybe a lot of things.

Meanwhile, I can’t believe it’s the first day of February! Holy Moly, the year is going fast already. Let’s review New Years Resolutions quickly, shall we?

1. Be Healthier. Yep, I’m eating pretty well and loving the vegies and salads that are so fun to eat at this time of year (i.e SUMMER) and I even tried making a smoothie with spinach in it, which I’ll show you soon. It was amazing, let’s just say that.

2. Hang out on the blog more. Well, you may have noticed that I changed my header. Woohoo! But also, I have about five posts ready to be posted, so watch out for that! I’m excited for the new year and the motivation it gives me to post, so we’ll see how that pans out across the year.

3. Get creative. Apart from cooking heaps over the past few days, I have a bunch of sewing projects on the back burner and so many ideas for decorating/organising my new place, so I’ll update more as that goes on!

4. Get a church and mentor… not so much activity happening in this sector as of yet but I will be checking out churches in my vicinity once I’ve settled in a bit more.

How are your resolutions going? Do you have any? If not, what summer foods do you absolutely love? These plums came from my family’s tree back home and they are beautiful. I have at least two more plum recipes that I’m going to post, so keep your eye out! Our tree always produces so much fruit, it’s so awesome.

Peach Plum Bourbon Barbecue Sauce

Adapted from nomnivorous.com

This is one of those recipes you can tweak any which way you like. More peaches? More plums? I wanted more onions in mine, and maybe more tomato. But that’s by the by. This stuff is amazing, you’ll never want to buy barbecue sauce again.

Makes about 2 litres. I know, but it’s so good you can give it to your friends and they’ll beg you for more.

1.5 kilos peaches & plums, halved and pitted [can be any combination of the  two. I used about a kilo of plums and 500g of peaches, which was three big peaches and about 15 small plums]

2 medium onions [but like I said, I would have liked more

1 – 2 chillies, chopped finely [depends on heat tolerance]

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tbsp chopped ginger

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup bourbon

1/3 cup honey

50 g tomato paste, about 1 heaping dessert spoon

3 tablespoons molasses

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon dijon mustard, whole grain or smooth

1 teaspoon salt

Place the peaches, plums, onions and sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan and simmer for about half an hour, until the fruit and onions are soft and can be mashed with your wooden spoon. Stir occasionally.

Add all other ingredients and simmer a further 20 minutes. Bring to boil, stirring, and then simmer another 40 minutes. Having it all cook together like this really melds the flavours together. If it’s too thick, add more bourbon or water. If it’s too thin, simmer for longer although remember it will thicken as it cools. Stir occasionally as it simmers.

Take off the heat and let cool about 20 minutes. Bottle and let cool completely, then refrigerate and send to your friends, waiting for the praise to pour in :).

it’s my party

Wow! It was my birthday six whole days ago and I still haven’t told you about the amazing food experiences I experienced!

This is terrible. I am a bad food blogger. I haven’t even written since then. At all. It’s been pretty busy.

Well, there’s time enough to rectify. For me, birthdays are a lot about the food, pretty much equally about the people, and not much about the presents (although the presents are very nice. Thanks for the presents.)

So I decided to have my favourite meal for my birthday – brunch. I love brunch. It combines sleeping in/lazing in bed in the morning, and breakfast food. Best. Ever.

Unfortunately, I don’t know a whole lot of brunch places near my house so we decided to go to one I’d been to before, even though it’s in Abbotsford – three bags full.

I have to pause here for the amazingness of the place to sink in.

Wow. So, we drove to Abbotsford to eat brunch – well, I had brunch, in the form of twice-baked french toast with chestnut cream and quinces. So good. My tummy’s rumbling remembering the deliciousness. It wasn’t too soggy or crisp,  it was beautifully creamy and eggy and the chestnut cream was amazing. The quinces weren’t too sweet and there was exactly enough for me to finish it and be full, but not too full.

And I drink coffee in the form of cappucinos. three bags full has some good coffee. They get it from Five Senses and offer a range of blends and signature origins and different kinds of brews… I just drink cappucino. And it’s really really good.

For dinner, then, we changed scene and went to Grill’d. Grill’d, for those of you who don’t recognise the name, is a chain of burger places. Now before you click away, hear me out – they’re not burgers like McDonald’s make burgers. These burgers are amazing.

Being vegetarian must be a bit of a hindrance, you might be wondering, but you’d be wrong! There are three different vegetarian burger options, each with their own toppings and custom name, even. They have lamb, beef, chicken, steak sandwiches, salads and amazing chips. People, we have a winner. Let’s just say that I don’t often enjoy vegie burgers. I love Grill’d.

All right, all right, you must be wondering about the cake. It’s a birthday, right? There must be cake.

Well, there was a slice of New York Cheesecake from Secret Recipe which was lovely and creamy and pretty good as store-bought cheesecakes go, although I have to say that the real cake is on it’s way! Stay tuned for some fun times!

a day in the life

I had a pretty good day on Friday. Sleep in, picnic, walk in the park, cupcakes and pizza. I thought I might share some pictures because I like taking pictures and I took a lot. I’m getting in the groove because I figured before I ask for a super fancy camera for my birthday, I’d better know whether I was going to use it. Right?

Right.

And, yes, that means that right now I use a point and click. Hey, a girl’s gotta have some sort of pictures on her food blog, right?

Right again. So.

This is my bed. I like to make my bed in the mornings… yeah, the picture’s a little wonky. Sorry. I had to get up early to drive my brother to work experience. I then slept another three hours. I love sleeping in.

I saw a beautiful sunrise this morning. I didn’t take photos because I was driving.

After I got up, at approximately noon, I messed around on the internet and wrote you some words. Then I took in the washing and took some photos of some flowers.

Pretty!

I went to the library to borrow some books… and to scan in a design for a camp I lead on in September. It’s called… September Camp. Surprise!

I can’t show you the design because it’s a secret still. I think.

Then I went on a picnic in the park.

I got coffee and a toastie from this place called Yarra Coffee. Good coffee – you can buy beans there too! – and great food. I got the #5 toastie, with avocado, tomato, fetta, pesto, baby spinach and possibly one more ingredient I can’t remember. I had a choice between olive and rosemary sourdough or plain. I chose olive and rosemary. Yum!

Toastie

Coffee

Converse

I went on a walk around the lake and listened to the Joy the Baker podcast with Joy and Tracy from Shutterbean (available from Homefries). I love going for walks! Me and my roommate went on walks around the lake pretty much every day for a while there last year.

Beautiful day for a walk. I really loved the look of these rushes. Oh! Unfortunately, I wanted to feed some scraps and duds to the ducks but I wasn’t allowed. Sad face.

I was going to make muffins but decided to make cupcakes instead when I saw local strawberries for sale.

And then I went to hang out with friends and eat pizza. And talk about camp. Excited!

How was your Friday?