Panyiri- Brisbane Greek Festival

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'M SORRY!

I've been ignoring you all again! But I have caught up on your posts now :)

Last week I was suffering from a terrible head cold. I was planning on staying in bed all weekend to recover but I was convinced to go to Panyiri with my twin Diana. It was great even though it was overly priced, but I still enjoyed it. I do regret going out into the cold wind as I'm REALLY ill and run down and had to take time off work to lay in bed with some cocoa and Black Forest Tim Tams.. not to forget with Margaret Fultons' book.

Any-who here are a few snaps I took at the festival. Enjoy.

Creepy Carny

Crazy Ride

LOL at the Mr. Burns

Yeah.. Eff that

Why would you still hang that sign??

Is this sideshow allowed to use the Simpsons? If so why is Krusty spelled with a 'C'?

Carny Alley

ONE! Not TWO!

I couldn't finish the second baklava, therefore it RUINED my hand bag!!

No! She's coming around with the camera!

Scoff then RUN!

Inner child comes out

Mmmmm Haloumi

Arg regret eating these everytime!

LOL Pluto pup tumor

Honey Puffs..

First thought after tasting... Where's the chicken!?

Various baloons

Dessert Pizza

Today I was a bit uninspired for dinner, as I have been for the past 3 weeks. I think I have cook's block because of the new, draining job I've just started. Instead of dreaming of baking goodies, I've been dreaming of working! Not very fun at all.

Anywho, tonight Mr. BB and I were to eat some lame-assed steakettes. I wasn't impressed at all, he jumps at the chance to eat mince but I really despise it. Solution? I made pizza's. They used up the steakettes and made me interested in eating them. This also inspired me to make a dessert pizza. I've been wanting to make one of these for about a year now. I first saw it on thisiswhyyourefat.com and then Giada from Everyday Italian made it- I thought it was funny how she made it as she is wafer thin.

This is my take on it as I didn't have any nutella in the fridge what wasn't a million years old and rock hard. I had used a regular 1/2 cooked pizza base, some left over dulce de leche as the 'sauce', chocolate chips as the 'topping' and finally marshmallows to represent the 'cheese'. Great combo.

I do recommend making this, but only a small one. After devouring the other pizzas for dinner I could barely stomach such a rich heavy dessert. We both barely got through 1 slice each.

Basic Pizza Dough

• 375ml warm water
• 1 sachet of dried yeast
• Pinch of castor sugar
• 600g (4 cups) of bread flour - plain flour is fine to use but I find that I get better results with the bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup olive oil, extra for brushing

Method

Preheat oven to 190c.

Combine yeast, luke warm water and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside for 5 mins or until foaming.

Add flour and salt in a large bowl. Add foaming yeast and oil.

Kneed for 10 mins on a lightly floured surface and place into an oiled clean bowl. Set aside for 30 mins or until doubled in size. Cut into 3 pieces and roll out into circles. Pleat edges and brush with oil. Pre-bake for 10 minutes before adding toppings.

Our dinner pizzas..

Breakfast Pizza- Bacon, eggs, sliced steakette cheese, tomato, onion, avocado, spinach.

Antipasto - Steakette, bacon, onion, garlic, sundried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, basil, cheese

Prepping the base

After spreading the dulce de leche on the 1/2 cooked base.

Marshmallows and choc chips

After 15 mins in the oven

Delicious success

Make one, do it, you're scared.

Quick Entree or Dinner..? Tasty Bruschetta

This week has been absolutely hectic at my new workplace. Although this was only my second week there, I have been flat out! I even stayed back until 7 pm on one day.. I've only ever worked back 2 times in my LIFE! I've been pretty much dumped into the deep end and had to figure out stuff for myself.

Anyways after that venting.. I've been trying to come up with some quick and yet tasty meals this week, I haven't really made anything blog worthy as it has mostly been savoury mince and McNuggets topped off with some sugar free ice cream.

Mr. BB texted me at work telling me he had a craving for Bruschetta.. (jokingly I asked if he was pregnant :p) So I swung by Coles at the Barracks to pick up some lovely fresh ingredients to make some for my poor starved Emo :D

Bruschetta

Sourced from various memories

1 Long Sour Dough Bread Stick

2 Vine Ripened Tomatoes

1/2 Red onion

2 Cloves of garlic

1 Large handful of fresh Basil

Bocconcini Cheese

4 thin slices of prosciutto

Fruity extra virgin olive oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Finely slice your onion and tomatoes to approximately the same size. Very finely chop the garlic and add to a bowl. Mix in some olive oil, optional balsamic and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Slice bread stick on an angle and sprinkle some olive oil onto both sides. Toast under the grill.

Finely slice or tear your basil and add to the tomato mixture. Arrange tomato mixture onto toasted bread. Place strips of prosciutto and sliced bocconcini on top.

Garnish with more olive oil, balsamic and basil sprigs. Serve Immediately.

Enjoy!

Ravenous hunger after the flu? Here is how I solved it :P

After my first week at my new job I became ill with the flu.. As if starting a new job isn't stressful enough, I had to get sick on my weekend. Anyways on the sunday when I was feeling marginally better and after using 200 post it flags on Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery, I was ravenously hungry.. it was that type of hunger after the 48 hr famine.

I had already gorged on some Doritos, a hot chocolate and bits of this and that, then I remembered this recipe for Sticky Asian Pork Ribs. I had sourced this from a SFI magazine about a year back and is my favourite way to prepare pork ribs, so simple and with tasty results!

This picture was taken a while back when I first prepared them, they came out sooo sticky, decadent and more-ish. I didn't grab a photo this time around as I had some really badly cut meat and it looked terrible, but still hit the spot!

Sticky Asian Pork Ribs

Ingredients

800g Pork Ribs

1 tbs Peanut Oil

1 tbs Chinese 5 Spice

1/2 cup firmy packed brown sugar.

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Combine peanut oil, 5 spice and brown sugar in a bowl, pat ribs dry with paper towel.

Rub ribs with sugar mixture. Place into baking pan and bake for approx 20 mins or until well cooked.

Cut between the bone and serve with rice or buttered green beans.

Enjoy!

50th Post! Uncollected Mocha Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Firstly, I apologise to my readers for barely commenting on your blogs this week, I've just started a new job and have been EXHAUSTED and not to forget I can't slack off like I used to! But I think I've caught up on all of your posts now :)

The other day I'd offered to make a cake for a friend for an anniversary, just so that I can practice making something without eating it in the end...

I went to the trouble of spending 3 hrs on making this cake AND ruined my fresh manicure to later reveal that they weren't going to collect it, or even let me know that they weren't coming.. Don't know what the story was there but I was stuck with this cake.. So long story short.. I decided to eat it lol. I was proud of my creation. Pity that the other 3/4's are in my freezer waiting for me to binge on it. *Epic sigh*

SO if you want to make this cake for yourself or for someone else, here is there recipe. I sourced this from here via foodgawker. Enjoy!

Mocha Cake- I doubled this recipe to make 2x 17cm round tins.

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

Preheat to 350°F. Line cake pan.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a measuring cup, combine the milk and brewed coffee.

In a stand mixer, using a flat beater on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat until combined. Slowly add the flour mixture, alternating with the coffee mixture, ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cake tin about 2/3 full. Bake for about 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out clean. Let cool before frosting.

White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1 c. butter, softened

2 c. confectioner’s sugar

6 oz. white chocolate, melted and cooled

3-5 Tbsp. of whipping cream or half and half

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add white chocolate. Add whipping cream 1 tbsp. at a time until it is the desired consistancy.

Makes 3 1/2 cups

This cake also gave me a chance to practice some buttercream roses.

And mucked around with some piping tips

Cake cracked because I am always too impatient and didn't let it cool yet and flipped it onto the cake stand without trimming the top. Buttercream patched it up nicely though.

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

Princess Cake- 5th Birthday Cake

One of my friend's little daughter's had just turned 5 and I was asked to help with making a cake for her party this afternoon.. She is really into princesses so Tish and I created this baby. Took a little while and I sacrificed my perfectly healthy back as we spaced the making process throughout the day, but it turned out beautifully.

We had used a regular yellow vanilla butter cake recipe and iced it with yummy strawberry buttercream icing. The little details on the flowers were made with gel icing.. nom nom.

I know there are a few imperfections from icing this in a poorly lit room, but are you all proud? :p