a little boy and his red wheelbarrow

last weekend we met up with Jim's cousin who's visiting Sydney for lunch in the city. the in laws agreed to mind boo for the afternoon so we were able to have some time off our parenting duties and have some couples time. 

Rozelle markets is one of my favourite markets to visit and it is also on our way to the city. so we decided to do a quick stopover at the markets before lunch. 

as we wander around the markets, this red wheelbarrow caught my attention. we can probably pick a brand new one up from bunnings or a toy store but seeing it at the markets gave it a really vintage/preowned feel. boo loves pottering around the backyard like his grandpa so i thought it would be a perfect for him. Jim wasn't too sure about it but seeing it is only $10, he agreed that we could get it for boo. 

boo was so excited when we brought it home. it took him awhile to figure out how to push it around the backyard. i really enjoyed watching him explore the different ways to 'play' with the wheelbarrow. he would tip it over, sit on it, lift it up, climb on top of it and he even tried to put Joby on it. of course, his favourite was to push it around to chase me.  

Peppa pig live!

what a day we had yesterday. a xmas party in the morning and Peppa pig show in the afternoon. just boo and mummy while daddy enjoy a well deserved break. after working overtime the past few Saturdays, it was actually very nice to be able to spend the entire day with my boo.
tickets to the show were bought months ago. back then, boo wasn't that interested in Peppa but i thought it'd be a nice outing for us and it'd be a first for both boo and me to catch a live show at the Sydney Opera House. 

because of the rain, traffic into the city was pretty bad. we made it to the opera house with just five minutes to spare before the show started. boo was a little clueless for the first half of the show. he was probably trying to figure out what's going on because Peppa is normally animated and she doesn't need another person to hold her up. i think he finally got it and enjoyed the rest of the show. during the mid show interval, he actually asked me where Peppa went and was quite excited when the second half of the show started. 

after the show, we met up with Rosie, Tate, Lucy and Leah for some coffee and ice cream before going home with pirate George. 

ever since yesterday, he can't get enough of Peppa. as i'm writing this post, he's actually on youtube with daddy watching episodes after episodes of Peppa pig. i think they may be up to the tenth episodes.

weekend baking \\ black forest cake

black forest cake is one of Jim's favourite cake. i made one for him for his last birthday and i wish i could find the photo i took of it. i remember i sandwiched the cake with some morello cherries and whipped cream and i also iced the entire cake with cream and shaved dark chocolate. i was asked to make one for a family dinner last weekend. after days of flipping through my recipes collection and internet searches to various recipes sites i frequent, i realised i didn't follow a recipe to make the cake last year. i actually cheated and made the chocolate cake out of a Betty Crocker's devil's food cake mix and i just winged it with the morello cherries and the cream. to be fair, Jim only gave me two days notice and it wasn't an easy to bake a chocolate cake from scratch when you have an 11 month old toddler that requires your attention at all times. 

Jim found a recipe from sbs' food safari series. the cake looked pretty authentic and delicious on tv but the recipe looked quite complicated. there was only one review for the recipe and it wasn't a good one. after some research, i decided "design" my own recipe based on the black forest cake i know. i decided to use the chocolate mud cake recipe from the Planet Cake book. my plan was to sliced the cake into three layers, sandwich the cake with morello cherries and cream in between the layers and ice the cake with whipped cream and shaved dark chocolate. i had to change my plan because Jim prefers chocolate ganache to cream so i made some chocolate ganache to drizzle over the top of cake. to make the cake look more "black foresty" like, i also piped some fresh cream on top and placed a glace cherry on top of the cream. 

everyone enjoyed the cake very much, mainly because i doused the cake heavily with brandy (we didn't have any kirsch at home). after the cake was all iced and decorated, i realised i should have sliced the cake in three layers instead of two. oh well, maybe next time. 

for the chocolate mud cake, i used this recipe. 

for the cherry compote \\
680g jar of morello cherries
2 tablespoon of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of corn flour
1 tablespoon of water

drain the cherries and reserve the juice. pour the juice in a saucepan with the sugar and cook on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. add the cherries into the saucepan. to thicken the sauce, mix the corn flour with the water in a bowl and mix well before adding the mixture to the cherry compote. remove from heat once the mixture is thicken. 

for the cream \\
300ml fresh cream
2 tablespoon of icing sugar

whip the cream until it thickens and add the icing sugar. whip until soft peak form and set aside. 

for the chocolate ganache \\ 
300ml fresh cream
600g of dark chocolate, chopped

place the dark chocolate pieces in a large bowl. put the cream in a saucepan and bring to boiling point. pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth.

to assemble the cake \\
slice the cake into two even layers (or three)  

place one layer on the cake board, drizzle the cake liberally with some brandy. cover the cake with a layer of the cherry compote and the syrup and top this layer with a layer of the whipped cream. 

place the second layer of cake on top and drizzle the cake liberally with some brandy. pour enough chocolate ganache over the top of the cake to cover the top and a little bit more to trickle down the side of the cake. 

fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle with the cream. pipe 8 rosettes of cream and place a glace cherry on top of each of the rosettes. 

the last step is optional. 

shave some dark chocolate and spread it evenly onto the top of the cake. 

a big fry up with black pudding

we picked up some Scottish black pudding from the farmers' market two months ago. they've been sitting in the freezer since. none of us has had black pudding before but after seeing it on tv, we were intrigued and have always wanted to try it. when we saw it at the farmers' market, the storeowner suggested that we pan fry it on both sides and have it with our big breakfast. sounds easy enough, so we picked up a packet of four. 

the weather was very miserable today. rain, rain and more rain. we decided to stay in, chill out and have big breakfast for brunch. Jim pan fried the black pudding slices on both sides until crispy (i'd say golden brown but the pudding is black so you can't really tell if it's golden brown or burnt). we had a slice each but i couldn't finish the whole thing. it was very rich and intense. half a slice would have been more than enough for me. 

would we buy it again when we go to the farmers' market again? maybe not. but at least we've tried it and know what it tastes like.  

a birthday celebration

it was Jim’s birthday yesterday and to celebrate, we went to Sepia in the city. just the two of us for some fine dining. something we haven’t done for almost three years. our last fine dining experience was at Quay. a week after we found out we were expecting boo.

Sepia came under my radar 2 months ago on social media and i thought it would be a nice place to go for Jim’s birthday. i ran the idea past him and turns out, it won the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Restaurant of the year 2014 and it also won three chefs hats in 2013.

we ordered the degustation menu and Jim had matching wine for each course too. the menu is a fusion of japanese/modern french with some molecular gastronomy too. each course was very flavourful and well thought of. we started with four seafood courses, followed by two meat courses, a pre-dessert and finished with a chocolate dessert.

i've always had a sweet tooth so the highlight of the menu for me is definitely the spring chocolate forest. there are so many different texture and flavour in that dish. the chocolate twigs, sour cherry sorbet, rose and violet jellies and almond praline. the only flaw in that dish (and this is highly subjective of course) is the licorice flavour. it wasn't very prominent but i could taste it. lucky there are other wonderful flavour in the dish to offset the licorice flavour. i struggled to finish the whole dessert and wish i had less bread rolls throughout the meal. nevertheless, it was a nice finish to a wonderful meal.

//amuse bouche//

//sushi nigiri - sashimi tuna, seared smoked ocean trout, poached banana prawn//

//butter poached Port Lincoln squid, barley miso cured egg yolk, yuzu wild woodland sorrel,
watercress//

//bonito, flavours of roasted chicken, umeboshi, upland cress, green tea, nori//

//miso black cod smoked over Japanese charcoal, nori, wasabi rice vinegar tonburi,
artichoke, tree spinach//

//seared rolled David Blackmore wagyu beef, chestnut mushroom, roasted red onion juice,
wasabi, fried potato and kombu crumb, citrus soy//

//seared Mandagery venison, boudin noir, chocolate crumb, coconut yoghurt
blackcurrant, shichimi pepper//

//pre dessert//

//spring chocolate forest - soft chocolate, hazelnut and almond praline, lavender
and honey cream sour cherry sorbet, rose and violet jellies, green tea, licorice, chocolate twigs,
crystallised fennel fronds//

do nothing you say?

i've been so busy lately, this blog has been well and truly neglected. yes, the past few weekends have been jam packed with activities, birthday parties, overtime work, boo's birthday party preps, all day outing with an overseas guest. nothing blog worthy really, apart from whatever i've posted already. 

after working overtime for the past three weeks, we've been given two days off for tomorrow and Tuesday. when i found out i don't have to work for two days, i was so excited. boo will be attending daycare as usual so i'll have two days to do whatever i want, two days to catch up on some well overdued me time. i was beyond excited. there are so many things i want to do i don't know where to start. i want to go op-shopping to find some wooden frame to upcycle and turn into photo frames, i want to visit two friends and their newborn for some newborn cuddles, i want to bake something, try a new recipe, i want to buy some cake decorating supplies for boo's birthday cake. when i told Jim about my plans for tomorrow and tuesday, he thinks i'm crazy. he thinks i should take it easy and do nothing for two days. these two days off were meant for resting and recuperating before more craziness at work and long working weeks ahead but they are just too precious to be doing nothing. so, no, i won't be doing nothing. i will try to do as much as i could but relax at the same time (is that possible?) hopefully i'll get up to something blog worthy? 

oh, i better go to bed now. i have a long day ahead, first newborn cuddles at 9 :)

today you are 23 months

_ you are one month away from turning two. when we ask you how old you are, you'd say: "two old"!
_ you can't get enough of the Wiggles these days. one of the first things you say to us in the morning is: "mummy, toot toot chugga big red car"! sometimes you even take out grandpa's guitar and pretend you're strumming the chords like one of the Wiggles. 
_ morning drop off is now easier. you finally believe that mummy will come get you after work. on most mornings, you would say to me: "mummy pick up" as we walk down the stairs to daycare. most days i get a kiss goodbye and when i'm lucky i get a wave too. i look forward to the day you can tell me how much fun you have at daycare because i know you do from the daily reflection emails i received from daycare. 
_ apart from "what puppies do best" which is a must read every night before you go to bed, you now also like "room on the broom". you'd say to us "read broom" or "read puppies best".  
_ this month, you started wanting to play with Joby. you would say to Joby: "booby, come here." "booby, sit there". 
_ you were a bit sad when we first covered the pool. for the first few days, you kept saying "oh no, no water" when you go to the backyard.   
_ you are getting quite bossy these days. when you want us to do something for you, you would say to us: "mummy do it", " daddy do it". 
_ you are such a little parrot nowadays. repeating after everything we say. you are very cheeky too. when i asked you, who's naughty.  you would say to me: "mummy naughty". 
_ oh i love you so much my boo and i can't believe you're turning two already. i wonder what new skills you will pick up and what surprises are in store for us next month?!? 

Tate's 2nd birthday party

it was Tate's second birthday yesterday and we were lucky enough to be invited to celebrate this special day with the handsome little man. 

the theme of the party was Thomas the tank engine, Tate's favourite show at the moment. boo had such a great time at the party. my favourite moment has got to be the wiggles dance mix time. i wish boo was not shy and was able to bust some cool moves on the dance floor like Tate. 

happy birthday handsome little man. we look forward to celebrating boo's birthday with you in a couple of weeks :) 

// best friends forever //