fresh out of the oven

there's nothing like a good hand-me-down recipe. my mom used to bake a lot when she was in university, and she used to write down all her recipes in this black book. now that she's so busy with work, she hardly has time to spend in the kitchen... so i was lucky enough to inherit the holy grail - mother's recipe book.

mom's hand-written recipe book

mom's banana bread is amazing. i've tried the recipe several times before, and i've always found myself picking the crumbs off the counter. yum yum. haha. it's dense and aromatic... and tastes heavenly with a cup of hot tea and a dollop of  fresh clotted cream. this time i added in about half a block worth of dark chocolate chunks just to make things a little more exciting :)

fresh out of the oven...

mom's banana bread with an extra chocolate punch :)

doh!

i did it again. 

i keep on cooking/baking things that i forget to take photos of. i just baked a batch of raspberry & lemon muffins.. which have since been eaten up. i only remembered mid-bite, even after i had placed my camera on the counter as a reminder *headwall*. hopefully i'll remember tomorrow when i bake some banana choc muffins :) 

pensive

the ifs that could have been... and the maybes that may never come to pass.

okonomiyaki

okonomiyaki (japanese pancake)

this is a really easy and tasty recipe. i used some prawns, fishcake, fresh shitakes in addition to the basic cabbage and onions, but you can choose what you'd like to add according to your taste. i got the recipe from this youtube video  that's actually part of a series of videos on japanese food. the instructions are pretty clear and all the ingredients are listed in the info section. don't be put off by the dog though (you'll understand if you check out the video!).

mornings at 906

  

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views like this make waking up at 6am worth it.

too many mushrooms

fresh mushroom soup with turkish bread

what do you do when you have too many mushrooms? make mushroom soup of course! the more varieties of mushrooms the better. i used some white portabello mushrooms, swiss brown mushrooms, and a handful of fresh shitakes this time round. i wish i had some dried porcini or truffle oil to add in as well, but i couldn't find either in safeway. i probably wasn't looking hard enough...

here's a tip for bread and carbo junkies in melbourne... threshermans bakehouse (just off lygon street, near melbourne uni) has some fantastic fresh breads that go for half price after 3pm every day. i bought a massive thing of turkish bread for two bucks! i love bargains. they make me happy :) 

i don't usually like cream in my mushroom soup. i find it too rich, and you can't really appreciate the full flavour of the mushrooms. i took a hint from jamie oliver and serve each bowl with a dollop of marscapone cheese instead. the results are heavenly! absolutely recommended if you love mushrooms.