I ♥ Nigella Lawson..

.. there, I said it!

What is it about this Domestic Goddess that enthralls me? Is it the seductive way she prepares the food? The sultry, suggestive words that smoothly flow from her mouth? The delicious, tantalising dishes she effortlessly produces? Her curvey figure cutting sexily around the kitchen? Who knows, but the last one is definitely confusing for me.

What ever the reason, I adore Nigella and could sit and watch her shows for hours and hours (in fact, I did on the weekend).

Because of this, I've decided to donate August to Food by Nigella - I'm going to make at least 3 dishes each week from her recipes, and post the results here starting with Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks in Red Wine and Garlic.

Baking 2: Me 0 - You win this round!! *fist shake*

I said I'm not a baker.. I don't know what made me think I should do this, but I did anyway. And I proved my point. Twice.

The latest issue of Gourmet Traveller is French inspired, and a quick flick through it at Coles made me buy it. I love the flavours and richness of French cuisine and pretty much every page held something I wanted to eat. Immediately.

So last night, in the spirit of Bastille Day, I decided to give Pain Au Chocolat a go.. how could this not be a good idea! I'd make up a batch, cook two to try out, and have fresh Pain Au Chocolat, with crispy, flaky pastry and still hot and melty chocolate goodness inside Saturday morning. Boy was I wrong.

Before I continue, there's something you should know. I don't get along well with sticky. Sticky tape will always fold over for me. Glad wrap ends up being a ball. Sticky items and me are not friends.

The other thing that you should know is - I don't have a rolling pin. In an ode to a well stocked liquor supply, I've always used a bottle of Smirnoff wrapped in, funnily enough, Glad Wrap, when I needed to roll something. Which isn't often, because remember, I don't bake.

Fail #1.

This is basically down to the reason I don't bake. Because I don't like to follow recipes. Had I actually read the recipe, instead of skimming it for the keys points - bash butter with a bottle of Smirnoff until it's dough like, roll it out, and then something about grease proof paper. And in this, I failed twice.

1. I got a little bit smart, and figured that if I rolled the butter onto a chopping board, it'd be easier to manage than if I rolled it onto the bench. Only a little bit smart, because rolling it onto the chopping board presented the same problem as rolling it onto the bench - the butter was then stuck to it. It was just portable. Not to worry, I'll just use a spatula to scrap it off onto grease proof paper (not sticky), which going back and reading, the recipe actually tells you to roll it like this to start with. Genius.

By this stage, my housemate is greatly amused with what's going on.

2. The spatula process was going well, I was making progress, getting the butter off the board, in large chucks that would be easy to roll back out again - scrap, tap, scrap, tap, scrap, tap, crap - grease proof paper is slippery, especially on a counter that has considerable amounts of butter on it, and is now on the floor, in true buttered item style - butter side down.

Butter side down

Not to worry, I've learnt my lesson, this'll be easy to do again with fresh butter. It was.

Fail #2.

Bread dough is sticky (sticky). Very sticky (sticky). Even sticks to grease proof paper. Which I cleverly rolled it out onto, to stop it from sticking to the bench, because it's sticky, and I know I'm no good with sticky.

End result - dough went in bin. Butter went in fridge to await store bought pastry.

I lay in bed afterwards, still smelling slightly buttery and yeasty, reflecting on the cooking success that was my night and I realised something - although my mother, my aunt and my nan are all amazing cooks, I can remember all 3 of them using store bought pastry for the various, amazing pastry related goods they produced over the years - not to say they didn't make pastry at some stage.. I'm sure they just picked their fights better.

Lesson learnt - I won't be attempting to make pastry again. Soon.

I'm not a baker..

I really don't bake often. I don't like to follow recipes, more just use them for inspiration and cook by feel. And for this reason, I don't bake. Because it doesn't work.

But my housemate does...

Peanut butter cupcakes with peanut and chocolate hazelnut icing

Peanut butter cupcakes! With chocolate hazelnut icing! Just because you've been sick all week and lost a stack of weight, doesn't mean you have to make the rest of us put it on!

That does it.. this week, I'm baking.. Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Honey cake. Cop that!

But seriously - these cakes look amazing! Only look amazing as I have been very strong and not eaten one. Yet. Katrina is a bit of a cupcake queen - always making different types, and they're all as good as the last batch. Add to that the newly acquired cookie press which has piping attachments. Be prepared for many more cupcake updates... that I'll probably eat.

Sneaky Vegetarians!

I never thought I'd say this, but - Hello, my name's Ben, and I eat at vegetarian restaurants.. well, 1 in particular. And in my defense, I had been to it 3 or 4 times before I realised there was no meat on the menu. And by realise, what I actually mean is I asked if they could add chicken to a salad and they were appalled.     I haven't been in over 12 months, and heading back yesterday with some mates for a lunch catch up showed that Sanitarium Kitchen on Eagle St in the city. It was great to see the same fast, friendly service and excellent food that cemented the Kitchen as lunch time favourite when I worked near by.

Not wanting to break my tradition, I had the homemade gnocchi, which as usual, was amazing!  Served with haloumi, cherry tomatoes, herb butter and a very tasty parmesan - and according to the menu, my meal contained protective lycopene antioxidants and plant protein for growth and repair of body cells (and apparently nut free). Good to know.  I also noticed yesterday that they actually do a breakfast menu. Since it's my favourite meal to go out for, I think I'll need to head back there soon.

It was bound to happen..

.. My whole life, I've grown up with good food around me. I have so many memories from my childhood that involve food - specifically food with my family. My mother always made sure that we had good hearty meals, with lots of flavour, and I have very vivid memories of her being in the kitchen, singing along to Fleetwood Mac, Carly Simon and so many other classics that now form part of my eclectic musical tastes - cooking an asian banquet, boiled chocolate cake, or an AMAZING lemon coconut slice (I always forget to ask for the recipe). Food in my grandparents house was always a big to-do - and they lived by the motto of The More The Merrier.

With an intro to food like this, how could I not have developed a love of eating, and more importantly sharing food with others - I love to cook and share what I've made, and I love to eat out, taking someone to a favourite restaurant to try an old favourite dish, or somewhere new with friends for a new food memory.

So this blog will be my digital serving, bringing to the table what's happening with food for me - what I've cooked, what I've eaten, and what I've heard about and would LOVE to try..

Does my butt look big in this blog??