The good, the bad and the bitching!

I am currently stressing out about the cake to make for bens birthday. I originally thought it would be a chocolate mint cake, but I am struggling to find a recipe that I really like. And considering I will need to at least double it, it should be a simple cake, easy to ice and look good but not flashy.

And then I saw these.
Creme Brule cupcakes

The look of them simply makes me drool! But I don’t think Ben particularly likes that caramel taste. And he is addicted to choc mint.

And then I saw this.

chocolate cake with caramel frosting
That cake looks delicious.

So I am tempted to make that one as well.

My current thoughts revolve around making that cake, those cupcakes and finishing it off with his favourite choc mint slice, which wouldn’t be too hard to do, but maybe a lot of stress!

I don’t want to spend the day running around like crazy, especially if I pick a recipe that is out of my league. I don’t want to have no cake at all! My skills lie more in cheesecake making rather than cakes, and I know the bigger the cake gets, the harder it is to cook.

So I think the simplest solution is this: go buy myself a cake board and a big cake tin, pick a basic recipe, and then top the cake with a basic ganache style icing made of peppermint chocolate and ill practice a little with the piping bag to see if I can pull any kind of decorating for the top of the cake together! At the very least I can probably melt some chocolate and stick candles to the board.

I’m a totally skilled decorator you see hehe

As part of his present I had intended to make his choc mint slice anyway, so I think ill just triple the recipe to use the bigger pan and put that out too.

So last night when Ben got home, he said, do you want the good news or the bad news? I was like “OH NO!! Just tell me!” So, apparently our coffee table and dining table are waiting to be picked up, but our 6 dining chairs are 2 weeks away, and our couch is another 6 – 8 weeks away at least! DAMN!!!

The amount of back problems I’m having from sitting on that damned couch is not even funny. Last night we had to go and watch tv in bed at 8pm because the back problems had resulted in me getting a headache that was getting worse with every minute I sat on that damn couch!

Ok I am being totally melodramatic here, but seriously, it was ordered a month ago now, with a 6 – 8 weeks time frame, but told it would probably be 4 weeks. So all this time I have been telling myself that my back problems will be solved soon, soon I will have the pretty, soft, comfortable, sleep inducing couch. Now, I have to start the count all over again. Lets just put it out there – its going to be AUGUST before we get a couch!

Ben was really disappointed too, I could tell! He has been looking forward to the comfy couch as well. He is a very tall boy you see, so the two seater couch is no good for him. He stretches out all over me every night, and both of us squirm, never able to get comfortable.

Ive been searching for a picture to show you just how uncomfortable the couch is, but nothing comes close! With its high ends, covered in material, but so thoughtfully unpadded. This stops you from leaning against the ends. And its lovely pink floral colour… argh!

We decided the second the chairs come in we will get the rest of the stuff delivered, and we don’t have much choice but to wait it out for the new couch. At the end of the day, we have been given an awesome deal on all our furniture, so we can’t complain too much about the wait.

That said, I have convinced Ben that we are buying our sofa bed this weekend. If that can come sooner we could at least sit on something that might not give us back problems!

So Ben went away for the weekend with the boys, he was gone for four whole days! It was very tough!

Honestly, as much as it sucks not having him there, it makes me appreciate him even more.

And it wasn’t even like I was sitting at home doing nothing, I had a very busy weekend! Friday night I hung out at a friends place for a few hours (even though I felt like doing absolutely nothing!) then Saturday I had a 30th to go to at the races. It started at 12, but my sister and I decided to get ready together, so she came to mine at 8:30 and we got ready… I didn’t get home that night until 12:30. Very long day!

Sunday I did shopping for ben’s 30th birthday present and I am almost there, Sunday arvo I had a thing to go to for my sisters birthday.

But in between all this, there was something missing! I am used now to coming home to him, walking up the stairs at the end of the day knowing his smiley face is going to be there.

I got some great messages from him though, which are the equivalent of a modern day love letter! He had told me that him and his friend had an hour long discussion about me and his friend loves me, and me in my drunken state wrote back, “he loves you, you love me and you are so going to marry me.” And he wrote back “you are drunk, but you are right, I love you more than anything in the world” which brought a very big smile to my face.

It just feels right I guess. This whole moving in together feels like the best decision I have made yet. Even last week when I was very pissy with work and severely grumpy and cracked it over something so silly, he knew exactly what to do. Give me cuddles and let me complain. He was cuddly all night and in the morning he told me he hoped my day was better today. He even called to make sure it was going better. It wasn’t, but I could deal with it all a little better that day.

He truly is a great guy, gorgeous, and when he walked in the door last night I was so happy! We cuddled and kissed and at one stage he told me I couldn’t stop smiling, but I guess its true. He makes me too happy!

I’m probably grossing out the entire internet now. But after years of crap, being made to feel bad about myself, Ive found the one who doesn’t make me feel bad at all. So hopefully my super happy suck it everyone else phase doesn’t last long… ok I hope it does, but I hope the part where I rub it in everyones faces stops soon!

Its been an odd day at work, and I can’t say I’ve been working myself to the bone… I’m a little worried, sad, and concerned…

Earlier in the day we had been talking about Jane McGraw, wife of an Australian cricket player who died yesterday after an 11 year battle with breast cancer, and we had talked about how getting cancer at a young age is so devastating, but how your chances of survival are a little worse particularly with breast cancer. I’m no doctor, I don’t know why, but that seems to be the case. My aunty who is a nurse has often talked about how sad it is when a young woman comes in with breast cancer because she knows you have to be really really lucky.

Anyway, we were talking about how great a woman Jane McGraw seemed when my office mate H turned the talk to one of her friends who has cancer. Weve talked about her a few times in the past, but I don’t bring her up because I never want to upset H. She was talking about how the cancer has spread and she has been in and out of hospital, which I knew, but she was saying that it wasn’t looking good.

Then anyway, work got on, H was in a meeting, and came back to a message from her brother from the work phone and two on her mobile. I knew straight away that phone call wasn’t going to be a good one. Turns out, her friend had died today. Young girl, 20, taken by cancer.

I watched H as she heard the news and she started to cry straight away, but it was more like a howl. We ran off to the bathroom, and then she decided to go home. She called her mum to tell her she was coming home, at my insitance because I didn’t want her driving but she insisted on it, so I wanted her mum to know to expect her. Except her brother hadn’t called her mum yet, so she had to tell her mum, and at first her mum was going to come get her, but she too was bawling. In the end H went home, but I haven’t been able to shake this sadness all day.

I didn’t know her, and I know its just a work friends friend, but for just under a year she had been updating me on this girls fight. First she had cancer, but it went into remission. She wasn’t in remission for long before it came back. This time into the lymph nodes. From there she had been in and out of hospital and in a lot of pain for months.

I get the impression that the treatment she received wasn’t the best. I know she had to fight to get a diagnosis, because she knew something was wrong. When she finally got it, she had to wait for the treatment. They scheduled an operation to remove her ovaries last September, she didn’t make it until August before she was moved up the list.

Even if you are a public patient, it shouldn’t be like this. You get told you have cancer, they should damn well treat it the next day. How is it that your $700 a year means that all of a sudden, a doctor in a better hospital can operate on you the next day. If you don’t have the funds to pay that damn private health cost, well itll be months.

But its cancer. Shouldn’t a 20 year old girl with ovarian cancer be rated as one of the biggest priorities in the medical system? it seems they are not.

The other thing I am sure of is that young people will have their cancer treated a little more … cautiously. Simply remove the ovary with cancer, you want her still to have kids. Then when that doesn’t work, remove the other one too. keep the womb though, she can still use a donor egg… then when that doesn’t work…

Speak to the patient, and work out what is going to have the most chance of this person surviving. They can’t have children if they’re dead.

I know this is nowhere near the same thing, but when I was going through my whole CIN-1 cervical cancer thingy, I was told by my private doctor (because the wait on public was 2-3 years!) that if the cancer came back she wouldn’t operate again for quite a while because it would decrease my chances of having children. I was like “I don’t care about children, if it comes back again, I want it gone straight away” but she told me that she wouldn’t do it! I know it was all hypothetical because she got it all, and it hasn’t come back, but still. The surgery just makes it harder to carry a baby to term, I have other options.

You don’t want to live your life worrying about stuff like that! Fix it!

Anyway, back on track. I hope H will be OK, shes a beautiful girl who cares so much for the people in her life and she was just devastated. Its one of those situations where you can’t say anything to really comfort them, but just give a hug, offer an ear and maybe some chocolate.

My sister and I found ourselves waiting for a train this weekend at Flinders street with a whole 15 minutes to spare. I did what any self respecting cupcake fan would do – I headed to Little Cupcakes! Since they opened last year I have been trying to find an excuse to get down there, but I don’t go into the city during the day that often.

I took some pics but I can’t seem to get them off my phone, and flickr won’t let me post other peoples for some reason, so if you are keen on seeing what the store and cupcakes looked like, search little cupcakes Melbourne on flickr.com

The outside of the store is absolutely gorgeous – just like a cupcake store should be! And once inside, it’s a little cramped if theres a cue, but we made our way to the counter pretty easily, where we then had to try and decide which ones we wanted! We settled on getting 4 mini cupcakes – a strawberry one, Belgium button chocolate, white chocolate teddy bear and a plain chocolate.

The first one we ate – Belgium button chocolate – was delicious! Nice and chocolatey and the icing was nice and smooth. Next up was the strawberry, but neither of us were that impressed. The cake was basic butter cake but quite dried out and a crumbly. Next up was the plain chocolate, which was good – just not as good as the first one. The first one was richer and creamier on the icing.

Finally, was the white chocolate teddy bear. And boy was he good! A favourite of both of ours, it was sweet, but not overpowering, and you could taste the difference between the two chocolate flavours instead of just being conscious of eating chocolate.

In my opinion, they’re better than Crabapple cupcakes, the other big cupcakery in Melbourne, and I liked their more modern presentation. Well worth a trip into! They’re on degraves st, just off flinders lane.

Next up I would like to try their red velvet cupcake, and only didn’t this time because they didn’t have a mini version out, and their creamy coconut. I wonder how long before I can drag ben in there? That boy needs to learn to appreciate my cupcake obsession! I’m just glad my sister is as addicted to sweets as I am!

I was watching the news while eating my breakfast this morning when an interesting piece came up on the screen. Australia is now the fattest nation in the world. ABOVE AMERICA!

Apparently 26 per cent of adult Australians are classified as obese. I’m a little suss about that really. The study group was only 14,000 people and was done in 2005. The thing is, you go out on the streets, walk around the city, sure you see some fat people, but you don’t see that many!

And those that you do see, aren’t that big. You get the occasional person you come across that is larger than most, but while some people might be classified as obese, they aren’t necessarily huge.

In America – vegas in particular – I saw some of the fattest people I have ever seen in my life. It wasn’t just, wow theres a really fat person, it was – wow, theres a bunch of really fat people here. So I would wager that while the statistics might say that Australia is the fattest nation, I would think that our fat people aren’t as fat as other nations.

Now I know all this sounds a little insensitive but honestly it doesn’t bother me how people look, as long as they are happy. I’m no stick figure myself! But what bothers me is Australia being unfairly represented as the fat nation. We aren’t. We might have a lot of people classified as obese, but I don’t think they’re as big as a group as say the obese people in America.

Australia for the most part is an active country… as a kid we played out in the streets a lot, cricket, tennis, hitting the ball around, chasey, even hide and seek can be considered exercise when you play it the way we used to – across the length of the street. I just think perhaps the sample size of people classified as obese is a little skewed.

I now feel like I need a montage of obese people throughout this like they have on the news.

I saw this on Beantown Bakers blog and couldnt resist doing it.

Here’s how it works:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge lab’s mosaic maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The questions:
1. what is your first name?
2. what is your favorite food? right now?
3. what high school did you go to?
4. what is your favorite color?
5. who is your celebrity crush?
6. what is your favorite drink?
7. what is your dream vacation?
8. what is your favorite dessert?
9. what do you want to be when you grow up?
10. what do you love most in life?
11. what is one word that describes you?
12. what is your flickr name?

Credits to:

DottieboBottie’
Snowy**
LensENVY
sicoactiva
daveandfaye
The Adventures of Suet, Suet, & Finn
Isco72
Bjam
yoshiko314
Lateefa

Saw Sex and the City yesterday. That is a seriously long movie. But I didn’t realise until AFTER it was over, so I guess that’s something! I really liked it and I can’t wait until it is out on DVD so I can add it to my collection!

We had a low key weekend – footy (we were right on the boundary though – row A, and I liked it MUCH more like that) then Saturday was a big fat day of nothing! We did some shopping, ordered some pizza for dinner and vegged! Sunday was the movies followed by lunch with my sister, then I came home and made my very first lasagne.

I used this recipe Lasagne

Lasagne

Serving size: Serves 6
Cuisine type: Italian
Cooking time: More than 1 hour
Special options: Kid friendly
Course: Main

Lasagne is a full-flavoured specially from Italy that makes a good, hearty main meal for the family, an unusual party dish or a distinctive entree. Serve with a colourful salad. Except for the final baking, lasagne can be prepared entirely in advance.

INGREDIENTS

250g dried lasagne sheets
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
125ml (½ cup) cream
Meat sauce
1 tablespoon oil
500g minced beef
940g canned whole tomatoes
1 small onion
125g mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon oregano
¼ teaspoon basil
¼ teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
Cheese sauce
60g butter
4 tablespoons flour
500ml (2 cups) milk
salt
pepper
pinch nutmeg
125g grated processed cheese
1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese

METHOD

1. Drop pasta sheets gently into large saucepan of boiling salted water; two saucepans may be needed, as noodles tend to stick together during cooking. Cook approx. 30 minutes or until very tender. Drain noodles well. Return to saucepan. Fill saucepan with cold water, leave noodles in cold water until ready to use; drain well.
2. Heat oil in large shallow pan, add beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, until meat is well browned; pour off any excess fat. Add chopped tomatoes with liquid from cans, peeled and finely chopped onion, sliced mushrooms, crushed garlic, and remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, stirring. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 60 minutes, or until nearly all liquid has evaporated.
3. Place a layer of pasta in shallow ovenproof dish, a 28cm x 18cm (11in x 7in) lamington tin is ideal. Pasta may have to be cut so that it lies flat.
4. Spread half the meat sauce over the pasta then cover with half the cheese sauce. (Both the sauces will be easier to handle if made the day beforehand and refrigerated.) Top evenly with second layer of pasta.
5. Repeat the layers of meat and sauce, then finally the third layer of pasta to cover top completely.
6. Sprinkle top with grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven, gently pour or spoon cream over the top of cheese. Bake for further 10 to 15 minutes.

Cheese sauce: Melt butter in saucepan, stir in flour; cook gently, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually add the milk, stir until sauce boils and thickens. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg. Add cheeses, stir until cheeses melt.

And now that I have a handle on how it goes, I’ll be able to play around more next time. For instance, more cheese in the cheese sauce. We didn’t think it had much flavour. But we love cheese.

I also didn’t really follow it… it said to boil the pasta for half an hour… and simmer the sauce for half an hour (and to use 940g of whole tomatoes…) Well I pulled the pasta out the second it was soft (15 mins), and I used 800g of chopped tomatoes instead and simmered it for only 20 mins or so. The smaller amount of liquid means that you don’t make a big mess and take less time.

I had a slice for lunch today and it was even better the next day. the sauce hardened overnight and the cheese flavour came out a little better too, so if I had the time id make it the night before and serve it the next day.

Tonights dinner is lasagne again, but as we only have 2 slices left (and we would be way too hungry on just that) I’m serving it with 1 chicken breast (chopped in half) coated in parmesan crusted breadcrumbs, and some veggies.

Also coming this week: Nacho pizza! Yum!

I made these last night. sorry for the shocking photo but you get the point!

Choc Mint Cupcakes

150g Butter – softened
150g castor sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
2 tbls cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 block choc mint chocolate melted (I used lindt)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC
2. Line a 12 cup cake pan, with cup cake papers.
3. Crack the eggs into a cup and beat lightly with a fork.
4. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, until light and creamy.
5. Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and firm to touch.
8. Allow to cool for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
9. Allow to cool fully before icing.

Icing
225 g butter, softened
960 g icing suga
peppermint extract (I used about 3 drops) to suit your taste
green food colouring (I also used a touch of blue)

Mix the butter, peppermint and icing sugar together in a bowl. I also used a touch of water to get things moving along quicker.
Once you have the desired amount of icing mixed, put in a few drops of colouring, mix, and you can start icing your cupcakes!

Result: I was going to try piping the icing, but once i realised I didnt have any way of carrying them into work without ruining my efforts, so i simply piled it on with a spoon and decorated with a chunk of choc mint chocolate.

I thought they were a bit battery instead of moist, and hence why i used vanilla and peppermint extracts in the batter. I was trying to sweeten it up a little more.

The melted chocolate didnt fold into the mixture overly well, but it instead created a ribbon through the mixture which made the flavour a little more interesting.

the big disappointment with this recipe though was the fact that the stiffness of the batter meant that when they rose, they rose as they were put in the pans, so there were some interesting cracks and puffs.

But at the end of the day, theyve stopped my cupcake craving and I got to use my new over, which cooked them quickly and evenly I am happy to say!

The move is over! We are officially in the new place, with the keys handed back on my old place yesterday. Now I’m just hoping my bond comes back ok!

It was a really tiring couple of days doing the move – we started moving boxes in Friday night and didn’t stop until Monday! I have WAY too much crap.

Its really good to be in there though… I’m enjoying my new kitchen – its huge! And it has such a pretty oven. I’m a hanging out to make my first batch of cupcakes! Ive been trawling the cupcake blogs to try and find my first victim! Haven’t found one that takes my fancy as yet but its only a matter of time!

I think this whole move in thing is going to turn out well…. Monday night we made our first meal in the house – spaghetti! Then Tuesday was a yummy chorizo risotto, last night was sesame noodles and tonight is Mexican night! I’m really enjoying the time to cook things that are different, or require you know, an oven! I will hopefully make my first roast in over a year and a half on Sunday!