borsch, vodka and tears

As mentioned last week – I had booked borsch, vodka and tears for my birthday dinner last night – and boy was it a-mah-zing!

I am just going to get right into the photos:

my outfit for the night (sass and bide belt courtesy of my lovely sister)

face and hair for the night

the menu

salt and pepper squid with a beautifully spiced aioli. Please note my sister’s awesome bone necklace which sneaks into the shot – she works for sass & bide and has the most amazing wardrobe (hence the sass & bide belt I borrowed)

bigos – traditional hunter’s sauerkraut and smoked meat stew. Ok I know this doesn’t look very good, but this was one of my favourite dishes. I am a sucker for sauerkraut so it was absolutely delicious!

saganaki – you can’t really go wrong with fried cheese!

pierogi – polish dumplings. I loved these! We went with the meat filling and they were beautifully spiced and tasty.

honey vodka prawns. I am not a big prawn eater, but the sauce on these prawns was fantastic, there was a hint of coriander I think which gave them a refreshing tang.

and finally - potato blintzes (thanks for the rec Gillian – they were amazing!)

I really couldn’t fault much from Borsch, Vodka and tears – the wait staff were quick and efficient, the drinks were well made, the food was delicious – and it was a beautiful Melbourne summers night. All in all a perfect night for a great birthday.

happy birthday bailey!

Two years ago today this:

used to be this:

It is Bailey’s second birthday! We shall be celebrating tonight with a can of tuna and many scrunched up pieces of paper to chase around!

eleven

Sorry for the hiatus – I wish I could say it was due to some exciting event that has whisked me away from my computer, but it is much more bland – I really haven’t been up to much, and haven’t had a whole lot to share (and I am trying not to buy too much online, so can’t even post about purchases).

Anyway, one thing I have been pondering of late is my birthday. Now it is still a while away, however I think  some planning will be required.  My birthday this year will fall on 11/11/11 – a once in a lifetime event which I feel needs to be celebrated in a big way. Currently I am just brainstorming ideas, the idea of a binary party has come up, as well as an 11 year old party…

Feel free to comment if you have any cool ideas on how to party up this date.

a birthday treat continued

So this morning was the great unveiling of the sweet treats I made for Phil’s birthday. I managed to use my cake stand again – this time for a more appropriate use.

Happy birthday Phil!

Hope you’re all having a great weekend!

a birthday treat

Does anyone else find boys really hard to buy for? It’s Phil’s birthday on Saturday and I have been stumped on what to get him. I let him know that I was lost for ideas, and he mentioned he wants an iPod portable speaker dock, which works well for the present. I don’t like however not having at least one element of surprise for a birthday, so I am going to cook some birthday sweets to package up for him to open on the day, a sort of hamper with an assortment of tasty goodies. Tonight Phil has football so it’s the perfect night to get baking in secret. I have chosen the following recipes to make:

• Gingerbread (recipe here)
• Mini  rainbow cupcakes (just packet mix with some colourings)
• Triple Choc Biscuits (recipe here)

I’ll let you know how the baking goes tonight – hopefully I can get them out before he gets home! And hopefully there are some leftovers…

birthday art

my birthday is coming up this week and my awesome parents have decided to get me a piece of art for my present. I’ve chosen to go with an aboriginal piece and currently am tossing up with the three below:

all images from ebay.com

I am leaning towards the green one at the moment as it is a colour in my general colour scheme, however I like the idea of something a bit different on my wall as well. Decisions, decisions…

meringues for a birthday

It was one of my coworker’s birthdays today – and I don’t like passing up the opportunity to bake. And so I chose my lemon meringue tarts to prepare, a recipe which always looks impressive, but is a cinch to make. I got the original recipe from taste.com.au but I’ve made a few adjustments to increase the meringue to lemon ratio, as well as increasing the volume in general.

Ingredients

2 sheets of frozen ready rolled shortcrust pastry, partially thawed

1 tin of sweetened condensed milk

2 lemons, rind finely grated, juiced

2 egg yolks

4 egg whites

1 cup of caster sugar

Method

Place a flat baking tray in oven. Preheat oven and tray to 200°C. Cut each sheet of pastry into three strips, and then three again, so you have 18 squares in total.

Lightly grease muffin holes. Line with pastry. Place pan on baking tray. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until pastry is light golden. Reduce oven to 180°C.

Combine condensed milk, lemon rind, 1/2 cup lemon juice and egg yolk in a bowl.

Place eggwhite in a separate bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat until soft peaks form. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition, until meringue is thick and glossy.

Spoon lemon mixture into pastry cases. Top with meringue. Place muffin pan on baking tray. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until meringue is light golden.

And then you are right to eat them!