Sky Whale Cake

A colleague at work was leaving Canberra for a new job so I thought I would bake her a farewell cake that was quintasentially Canberran: A Skywhale Cake!

It was a chocolate mud cake with raspberry buttercream filling and Italian buttercream icing.

A work in progress - without it's 'sky' on. It felt like I was painting the cake, which was pretty cool. 

Pink, Green and Purple Outdoor 18th

A friend of ours turned 18 and asked us to do the decorations and food. We mostly used things we already had from Mum's 50th last year (similar colour scheme). And we decided on a sandwich bar for food as it was easy to cater for everybody's tastes. 

Toppings included cucumber, sweet potato, beetroot, egg, carrot, mushroom, feta, tomato, pineapple, lettuce, baby spinach, various sliced cheeses, pesto and cream cheese.

Various breads and rolls for the sandwich bar. So many choices.

Pink lemonade and water for drinks. 

The birthday cake made by the older sisterous one. (Milk chocolate cinnamon mud with marmalade buttercream filling and dark chocolate ganache)

Mum sewed the fabric banners.

Dessert was pavlova, chocolate mousse, fruit kebabs, rocky road, truffle balls and lollies.

These pendents were made from the same fabric as the large ones hanging from the pergola.

Mothers Day Brunch

We put on a brunch for Mother's Day last year at Mum's house down the coast. It was pretty yummy and generally pretty.

Flowers from Mum's garden.

Mm, fresh orange juice. :)

We used a roll of pretty mothers day wrapping paper as the table cloth (sort of a runner, over the white table cloth). Effective for cheap impact, and you can just throw it out when it gets dirty. 

Mumsy and I.

Sisterous one also took lots of photos. 

Pancakes that started out as crepes until older sisters one accidentally used self raising flour instead of plain...

French toast with maple syrup.

Homemade bircher muesli. Really easy, and really yummy. Served with stewed blueberries. 

Extra blueberries and syrup for dressing the pancakes. 

Fresh lemon for the pancakes with sugar. 

Another shot of the bircher muesli. 

More French toast.

Close up of the pretty hydrangeas (my favourite).

The table. 

All in all, a lovely morning with family. :)

An Autumn Dinner - Vegetable Lasagne

Tonight's dinner was so yummy that I thought I would share it with you.

Vegetable lasagne. 

I wanted to make a large batch as I have company coming over for tea next week (or the week after) so I thought given I was making lasagne tonight anyway, I may as well cook enough for both meals! 

I love lasagne. It is slightly time consuming, but oh-so-tasty. And healthy, if you look past the cheese topping. 

I never actually use a recipe, I just throw in what ever I have lying around in the fridge. (In the vegetable category, that is. Strawberry yogurt may taste a little odd in lasagne!) This was perfect to use up my vegetables from the hot potato bar for the progressive dinner last week. (More on that when i get the photos off my phone.)

I used:

• 2 carrots, grated
• 4 zucchinis, chopped
• A lot of mushrooms. Okay, about 600g chopped (it was pre chopped from last week, I had over a kilo left over from the progressive tea.)
• A handful of cooked beans, finely chopped
• About 150g baby spinach leaves
• 800g crushed canned tomatoes
• 400ml tomato soup
• 1 tub tomato paste
• 1 can casserole mince
• I packet fresh lasagne sheets
• 1 large teaspoon pesto (homemade - first time I've tried that. Yum!)
• Pinch of salt

Plus for the white sauce

• About 200 g butter
• About the same in flour
• About 1L milk
• Pinch of salt
• Small handful of grated cheese

Method:

Cook the vegetables in a saucepan, then add tomato ingredients, casserole mince, pesto and salt for seasoning. 

(You can use meat mince if you prefer. My husband said that it was lacking one thing - meat. Sigh. He can't live without his meat. I, on the other hand, am not a big meat eater and only eat chicken and fish.)

Make the sauce by melting the butter in a saucepan, stirring through the flour until it sticks together in a ball, then slowly adding the milk over heat until it thickens. Then add the cheese and season with salt. 

Assemble the lasagne by alternating layers of tomato mixture and pasta sheets. End with a pasta sheet and top with white sauce and another handful of cheese.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 180 degrees. (200 if your oven is slow like mine.)

This made enough for 7 individual serves in ramekins, plus two medium trays. More than enough. :)

There you have it. Not a groundbreaking recipe, but its very tasty. My sister likes to season hers more with spices, etc, but I'm not a fan of spices and I like the simple classic taste. 

Now I can have leftovers for lunches and freeze the extra for dinner next week! 

You can never go wrong with lasagne. Especially if you serve it with a fresh salad and maybe a some baked potatoes if you want to go all out!

What's your favourite dinner recipie?