holidays: great people and great food!

My mid year holidays are quickly coming to an end, but it has definitely been an awesome few weeks. I havent stopped really! I attended an amazing birth, redecorated the house, caught up with lots of amazing friends that i havent seen in ages and talked until i lost my voice. But I made sure that we ate lots of yummy and interesting food. This post is therefore going to focus on some of the amazing food that ive made and consumed over the past couple of weeks.

At the begining of the holidays i enjoyed a great night out with ThePartner and friends where we dined at one of our fav vegetarian restaurants that specialise in the (slightly freaky) not-meat in which all the dishes that contain 'meat' actually contain a textured-vegetable-protein version of that meat that tastes and feels exactly like the real thing! We go there mainly because of the novelty that it provides, but the food and the prices is not bad at all. My fav is the 'prawn' dish, but that just freaks out ThePartner a bit too much, so we opted for more safe options like the not-chicken and sweet corn soup (which i love as i miss the real thing alot), honey not-chicken and a mongolian not-beef that comes out on a sizzling hot plate. It is such great fun! After our meals we decided to head out to an all night desert bar just next to China town that specialises in just serving desserts (mainly Asian style) all night- Clearly we wanted a whole night of novelty! ThePartner and I love Fried icecream, and while i prefer it the traditional way served as a ball, with a sugar cube that has been lit up with liqour, it seems to only be available as a square these days- not that im fussy haha. So here is the yummy caramel fried icecream we enjoyed:

About a week ago i had a lovely friend over for dinner and i decided that it would be great to make something fun together, so i picked up some organic pizza dough, nutella, rasberry jam, marshmallows, dark chocolate, curly-wurlys, icecream and strawberries, and we made the most delicous dessert pizza.

Additionally, anyone that knows me, knows that im obsessed with cheese and tomato, particularly when served with Jatz! I know its not the healthiest thing to eat in the world, but i just love it. My breakfast generally consists of cheese and tomato on Jatz or toast or a boiled egg with promite on Jatz or toast. So i thought id dedicate a small section for my love of cheese and tomato, the best combination ever created!

ThePartner also decided to get cooking this week. He comes from a Polish background and has really missed his nanna's Sauerkraut pierogi so he decided to make his own. The first time he tried he used pasty which wasnt too bad, but he forgot to rinse the sauerkraut so it was really salty. This time though he used the proper round pastry, rinsed the sauerkraut and combined some onion, garlic, mushrooms, and faken (mock/fake bacon) which he sauteed and folded into the pastry which was lightly fried and they tasted really great. Im not really a sauerkraut fan, but they really were yum!

And on a healthier note, I had some friends over again on fri night so i cooked up two really great soups that are quick and easy and i love to make. One was a Pumpkin, sweet potato and tumeric, and the other was a Potato, zucchini and parmesan. I just loved the second one because it was quite cheesey, and im a little sick of pupmkin soup. My mum, also made me the most amazing mushroom pie that ThePartner and I just devoured. Mushrooms are just one of the greatest foods ever, and no matter how old you are, mum will always be a better cook. Of course its always a positive to not have to cook myself so thanks mum!