Popular posts from this blog

Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

Image
Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at  Black Star Pastry ).  Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond  dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,   almond  dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals. It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, f...
Read more

Post-thesis celebration

Image
So I handed in my thesis today!!! After three months of solid hard work, it's finally all done! I'm so excited because I've been waiting for this day for a very long time. I know I shouldn't get that excited because I technically haven't finished my degree yet (got a presentation next week) but it kind of feels like I'm done! The thesis does make the bulk of my marks so that's definitely an important milestone and worth celebrating :P So now let me give you a rundown of what I did today- I started off my day skimming my thesis one last time. Then I nearly killed off a forest printing about 140 pages (poor trees!) Next stop was binding. My stomach had started grumbling from all the waiting around so we hit Ralph's Cafe for a celebratory lunch. We had to wait a while because it was lunch hour. But that was okay because we know their food is worth the wait! The Ralph's burger with chips (~$14) After this came, we just went silent as we...
Read more

Nettlesome November

Image
This month has been a range of feelings. I've finished up with my linear regression model I was working on, which means I'm done with the statistics (for now). My aim was to have this paper completed before the end of the year but I've realised that's not going to happen.   I decided to focus on a simpler task that would be easier to finish before Christmas.  So I’ve gone back to  working on one of my old papers. It was really difficult to get myself into that mindset again, after not having worked on it for so long.   It was really daunting at the beginning, but safe to say, it did get easier after having a few go's. I really wanted to be done with this paper but I just couldn't do it due to time constraints. I managed to get close but it wasn’t enough. I really wish I had an extra week at least to finish up what I needed to do. At one point, a part of me wished I didn’t have the conference to attend in December, so I could just keep on working to fini...
Read more

Wholemeal date and walnut loaf

Image
Happy Monday everyone! It has been a while since I baked a loaf so thought I'd make one :) Recipe adapted from http://daa.asn.au/recipes/wholemeal-date-and-walnut-loaf/ Ingredients 2 eggs, lightly beaten 100 g pitted dates, chopped 45 g margarine 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup water 40 g walnuts, chopped 1 cup self-raising flour 1 cup wholemeal flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoon LSA oil to spray Method 1) Preheat oven to 180 °C. 2) Combine dates, margarine, sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir and boil gently. Set aside to cool. 3) Sift flour, baking powder, LSA. 4) Add in walnuts and eggs  5) Add in date mixture and mix well. 6) Lightly spray a loaf tin pan. Line with baking paper. 7) Pour mixture into pan 8) Bake for 45-50 mins. Skewer should come out clean.  9) Remove from oven and cool for 10 mins 10) Turn out on a cooling rack. Slice and serve with yoghurt, if desired.
Read more

Oatmeal omelette

Image
Easiest brekkie ever! I learnt this while I was on holidays :)  Ingredients * 2 eggs  * 2 tablespoon oatmeal * 3 tablespoon powder milk * 1.5 tablespoon water * Spices (black pepper, cumin)  * Any herbs you like (coriander/ parsley) * Tiny amount of butter (1/2 teaspoon) Method 1. First combine oatmeal and powder milk together 2.  Add water so the mixture binds  3.  Add in the eggs, plus all herbs and spices you wish to add 4. Combine well 5. Heat a frypan, spread the butter and cook in pan for 10-15mins
Read more

Adamant August

Image
This month was a one hell-of-a-month for me. I still had a lot of work left to do from the major revisions of one of my old papers which took me a really long time. I was trying really hard to finish this because we had a deadline. But then, I got caught in the last wave of flu. I don’t get sick very often, but when I do, it’s really bad. I would’ve liked to take some time off to recover, but I knew I needed to push myself to meet the deadline. Working during that time wasn’t easy, it was tough. There were times where I struggled a lot, but I refused to give up. I ended up working from home for two days which helped me work and recover at the same time.  The next task was revising my other paper which was nearly done. I hadn’t worked on this for a while, so I had sort of forgotten what I was up to. The good thing was I did a writing workshop this month where I used this paper as an example. I found this to be incredibly useful because it helped me get into the mindset again...
Read more

Picnick View Cafe

Image
We actually had plans to somewhere else but spontaneously decided to come here (as we were running late). I remember reading about this somewhere last year and wondering where the location was.  I used to do volunteering here with Cancer Council and did one of my placements here last year so I knew the area well but I had no idea this cafe was hiding here the whole time (it’s because you  can't see the name of the cafe from the street). It's completely hidden, all I could ever see was Campos coffee. We sat down after ordering food and looked around at all the hipster elements of this cafe. They have a lot here, it's pretty much packed with stuff. We waited for a while and started wondering why the food wasn't coming. We found it quite difficult to sit outside (it was a really hot day) and there was no arrangement inside (it's a really small cafe). Seating area Word! Soon after, one of the staff came and told me my dish would take a...
Read more

The beginning :)

Image
Hello there, As you can tell from the title, I like to partake in shenanigans so thought I'd make a blog and document it. I actually thought about doing this for ages. But I wasn't sure how and when do I begin? Or if I should write even? My 'big' plan was to launch this blog in January this year but it got delayed by quite a bit as you can see we are in June and I'm still writing my intro here! I did make an account earlier though, but I never got around to writing because I was busy with training placement and it took so much out of my time, it didn't really leave time for anything else. (For anyone that's not familiar with what being in placement involves- it's basically like full time work but you don't get paid anything. You may be armed with a whole lot of experience but it leaves you exhausted and broke) :( Now getting to the proper intro - I'm a 22 year old student dietitian living in Sydney. I've always wanted to blog but n...
Read more

Bittersweet winter

Image
Winter is officially over and spring is here! I know most of you are probably super excited but I'm a little sad winter is over.  Yes, I'm one of those weird people that enjoy a good cold weather, contrary to what most people think about winter.  You might be wondering why!  Well, let me give you a few reasons and see if I can win you over :P Firstly, you could pretty much wear anything and get away with it as long as you wear a nice looking coat. You could be wearing the tee you wore last night under your classy coat and still end up looking good. Winter is so forgiving, you don't have to worry about colour coordinating your outfits.  Same goes with shoes, you gotta decide between ballet flats or sandals or whatever else you wear. In winter, it's so much easier because it's too cold to wear anything else :P Just slip on some boots with any random socks you find and you're good to go!   As you can see from this picture- I'...
Read more