Pumpkin soup and Egg Timer

This is what happens when my parents take my DSRL without telling me, not that i mind.. just they have no idea how to use it that everything is blurry.. Lol its such a shame cause my mums all dolled up :(
but i think its cute..

i tried to teach my dad how to use it, but i dont think he got it.. so i let him use the olympus camera.. but its still not as easy enough so i gave him my black cyber-shot :)

 A free sample of Sally Hanson nails =)

And a free egg timer! =D

 im boiling my veges n eggs together cause im only quickly cooking myself a midnight snack..

 but how mad is that!!

the only sad thing is that after i took the timer out, it kept getting more cooked.... so it ended up being medium/hard boiled eggs :(

 but they are perfect still.

The pumpkin soup i made the other night,
i made the mistake by over peppering it before i even blended the mixture.. so it was so spicy!
but with some cream it actually tasted better :)

Recipe:
Butternut pumpkin (i used half first, but because it was so peppery.. lol i ended up using the whole one) but it depends how much u want to make.
1 onion
2 carrots
3 potato
water
salt and pepper to taste

1) Chop everything up so they are all around the same size, no need to be perfect, everythings going to be blended.
2) Add veges and water (till its just covered or a little less)
3) Boil for an hour or till everything is very soft.
4) Blend everything up in a food processor or blender
5) Taste, Add Salt an pepper to taste.

Alternatives.
- I caramelised the onions first just by frying them up in a lil bit of oil before added the water and other veges in. it brings out the onions sweetness.
- Roasting the pumpkin for an hour instead of boiling it would give a nice sweet roasted flavour.
- Instead of using water you can switch to a vegetable stock or a beef stock instead, has a stronger flavour.

i donno, its just so simple..
But if its still confusing, i used this guys recipe..
sorta.. lol

Photos from my new camera

I am currently very obsessed with my new camera, its just a pity that i haven't been out lately due to the fact that i am ridiculously broke from my spendings on the camera that i don't have anything interesting to take photos of..

Nature.. and the fact that even after we did pest control on our house, there are still 5 giant wasp nest in our yard. 

My cute little dog

and how she stares blankly at a lot of things.. 

her at the park because we took her for a walk.. she got too excited and ran first, then stopped for us =D

a very happy dog

her blankly staring at more random stuff..

and us walking home..

the only interesting thing we were able to do was go through daves old room at his parents house because they moved everything around. 

and dave found all his old highschool and primary school things again

 lololol.. tiny people.

 tiny dave.. ew.. 

Taken by one of the 'Art modes' called 'Soft Focus'

And the horrible mess of a cake i made for deb :( LOL

i got some free samples of chocolate frosting that expires in a month so i wanted to use it before it went to waste, so i horribly frosted a pre-made cake in under 10 mins..

and thats how it turned out...

the teeth looked better than that, it just got ruined by the clingwrap.

Little date at Little Snail

So before i start blogging about my food adventures, i should mention that i got myself a little something...
i only work part time, so i cant afford to splurge so much on something i didnt need too much... and it felt a little awful!! because i havent had such an impulse buy in ages..

But! i needed to mention that because all the photos are taken with this camera, except the picture of the camera box, that was taken with my phone :)
And because i dont know how to use the camera just yet, so all the pictures are edited.


So on Saturday night, After running heaps of errands, we decided to have a double date with our lovely friends Anya and Loc.
We wanted to all try a different place and decided on Little Snail, a fairly new french restaurant that opened up during the star city renovations.
The menu was really simple (its on the website if you are interested) for $58 per person, you get a 3 course meal of your choice from the menu.
We wanted to try everything so we all ordered different things on the menu and sampled each others food.

Paté Maison - Armagnac flavoured duck liver pate with marinated champignons, date chutney and port vinaigrette

This was quite a big serving of pate, but there wasn't enough bread to finish it off. the pate itself was a little ordinary but when u add the date chutney onto it was amazing! just a great combination. 

Ravioli of Blue Swimmer Crab - Prawns and Salmon with a lemongrass and chervil veloute

This didnt look like ravioli, but it was nice :)

Bouillabaisse de Marseille - Traditional French seafood soup with mussels, fish fillets and prawns, served with garlic baguette

The seafood in this dish was cooked to perfection, the fish was so soft!! yumm.. but the sauce sorta tasted Italian more than french.

Escargot de Bourgogne - Dozen snails marinated in herb-infused court-bouillon, oven baked in garlic butter

This was amazing, if anyone ever goes to little snail and don't their their Escargot than they are crazy. 

 yummyum

Loc and Anya

Magret de Canard - Duck breast fillet with wok tossed spinach and a cassis and raspberry sauce 

This was my dish, and it was a little disappointing. it wasn't bad, and i was able to eat it. it was just a little dry for duck meat, but the sauce was great. not overpowering. 

Kangaroo Fillet - on garlic pommes purée with Dijon mustard and honey bordelaise sauce

i never ever thought i would eat kangaroo, looking at the raw meat makes me iffy, but i tried it, and it just tasted like beef.. nothing special.. but i didnt freak out! =D

Veal Tenderloin - With piquant cream sauce of smoked bacon, shallot, and sun ripened tomatoes, served with potato croquette and brocolinii

This was amazing!!!! the best veal i've ever had. 

Fillet of Beef Tenderloin - With buttered broccolini, pommes croquettes and red wine jus

This was also fantastic. This was locs dish but i feel so bad that we ate most of it :( 

Warm Sitcky Date Pudding - With butterscotch and vanilla ice cream

Very rich and very sweet..

 Classic Crème Caramel

 Handmade Profiteroles, With crème patisserie and mint chocolate sauce

This one was mine, it was so little.. but it was just right, not so rich that you couldnt eat it or chock on the sweetness..  

 Bumming out on 'H'

 After dinner we went to 'The Star' and had some ice cream and bought some take away macarons.

Guess what tho, because it was so busy at 'Messina' They gave us a free ice cream scoop!! lucky us :)
he didnt want to break our $50 just to give us $48 change to make a 2 scoop to a 3 scoop.

Then drove all the way to strathfield to fulfill my froyo cravings.
i also found out whose been eating my frozen yogurt at home!!!
IT WAS ME O_O!
i kept telling my mum off and asking her who's been eating my froyo.. when it was me all along..
what a twist of a twistful story..

Anyways, i finally got to try Noggi, and i guess besides the yogurt, because it was really tasty, the service was horrible :( they got our orders wrong, but that only meant that we got more free food.
The thing i was sorta pissed off about was that the menu only had 4 flavours on it, Original, Pom and a biscuit one?
so i ordered a take home one with all 3 flavours, but i then saw a green flavour going into my bucket!
i thought.. wait.. so they also have green tea flavour..
i really dont like green tea anymore.. (SORRY MATCHA LOVERS!! I've overdosed on it and now im over it.. But that means, more for you guys right?!)
when i got home i also noticed a different colour as well, an orange one that tasted like.. mango? or something.. which again.. i dont like a lot of mango flavoured stuff.. :(
so i now have 2 flavours in my big tub that i cant eat.

i did however try Anyas one, which was just original and pom, and they were amazing.. i wish i didnt get the mix :(

Anyways. photos taken with the Olympus pen on one of the art filter modes..

But I'll blog about my new buy on my next post :)

Wedding Gift

 This week i spent my spare time making a scrapbook for our friends that got married recently :)

They had just come back from their honeymoon in Thailand and i thought this would be something nice to come back to :)

The only problem i had was that most of my pictures weren't focused cause i brought the wrong camera :(

but i guess you learn from your mistakes right!

They are such a cute couple :)

Anyways, im thinking of selling my 2 Sony cybershots. the pink one is the TX10 (16.2mp), waterproof camera. i bought it for $410 in October last year, still has warranty.
And the Black one is the DSC-T110 (16.1mp) i bought in November for $260. no warranty.

They are both touch screen, And does have a couple of scratches on it.. (the pink one cause of the beach and the black one cause dave fkn dropped it -_-)

Reason for selling: Im hoping to upgrade to the new cybershot camera..
I've saved up for it already, but its just stupid having 3 working point and shoots at home..... So i thought i'd sell them

Yumm!!

Im also hoping to get a new Polaroid camera as well to replace the one i gave to my cousin.
Polaroids are just an awesome thing to bring traveling!! i just love having cute little pictures from my trips :)