Sydney Holiday in Pictures

Cherrie Moore — Wed, 23 May 2012 09:53:01 +0000

During Easter this year, we (Hubby, myself and the 2 munchkins) spent a few days in Sydney. Hubby and I have driven to Sydney many times before but this was the first time we took the 9hour drive with two small children.

We left home Thursday evening and arrived in Sydney on Good Friday. The kids were very good during the road trip and slept most of the way there.

The trip was mostly about eating and children-related activities.

As soon as we checked into our motel, we unpacked the car and headed out again. We had lunch at the famous Bourke street Bakery in Surrey Hills.

We had: chorizo pizza (top left), roast beef, chilli and coriander jam sandwich (top right), pork and leek sausage roll (middle left) and a honey roasted ham, cheddar, onion pickle, parsley mayo and rocket sandwich (bottom).

We also had the chocolate tart. Soooo good!

Next, it was onto to Gelato Messina for dessert. The highlight was the mini me ice cream dessert (bottom right)

As if that wasn’t enough, we headed off to Chinatown for the Friday night market. I couldn’t really eat much as we were so full already.

Next day (Saturday) we headed to Westfield Sydney as I have heard yummy things about the food court there. However, we were there too early for any of the cafes or stores to be opened so we wondered downstairs and I found this delicious grilled beef salad. It was a great find.

We then went to the aquarium where the children enjoyed and learnt about the different fish and sea creatures.

Before heading back to the motel for a much needed rest, we drove up to Manly for the essential visit to Zumbos. I bought his macarons. One of each, of course. In Zumbos these are called Zumbarons! Also got one of the infamous V8 cake and the citrus cake.

For dinner that night, we went to Chef’s Gallery. I found out about this place through instagram where I saw many wonderful photos of their food.

We had: Top: shredded peking duck roti.

Bottom left to right: wok fried rice and shredded pork and lettuce. Mini pork fillet burger. Boneless pork ribs topped with pork floss, corn cereal and roasted garlic. Handmade noodles with BBQ pork and soy sauce.

This was the reason why we went to Chef’s Gallery. This dessert is so popular that you have to pre-order when you make your booking. It is their signature “piggy face” sesame bun with marshmallow bunnies set in an edible garden served with berry and mango ice creams. Not only delcious but also very cute.

Every Saturday night, darling harbour holds spectacular fireworks. Darling harbour looks so pretty at night.

Sunday was another busy day for the family. We spent most of the day at Taronga zoo where we arrived by ferry.

My favourite animal at the zoo.

Lunch was Pad Thai at The Rocks.

Deanna and I shared a corn on the cob at The Rocks weekend market.

We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday in Sydney even though it was a short stay. Thank you Sydney for your hospitality. Hope to see you again very soon.

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Bakery, Burger, Cafe, Chinese, Deanna, Dessert, Dinner, Easter, Eating out, Family, Holiday, Ice cream, In Pictures, Lunch, Macarons, Noodles., Pork, Restaurant, Rice, SBS_Food, Sweets

Nutella and Banana Slice

Cherrie Moore — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:03:54 +0000

I (and my family) love sweets. Any kind of sweets that involve chocolate. The addition of Nutella and bananas triple the love.

This slice is great for dessert after lunch or dinner or just for afternoon tea with a cup of tea or coffee. The different layers have different textures. The bottom layer is rice crispies and melted marshmallows. It’s the right amount of chewiness and the crunch of the rice crispies makes it fun to eat. The middle layer of sliced bananas gives it a soft texture. The mix of Nutella and chocolate makes the top layer soft and a little gooey. Let me just say, I love the mix of the melted chocolate and Nutella.

The recipe belongs to Edd Kimba. He was a winner of the Great British Bake off a few years back. This is the second recipe I baked from his book “The boy who bakes”. The first was mini lemon cakes..

It is also easy to make and there is no baking involved. I had both Deanna (5yo) and Thomas (2yo) help out with the mixing and layering of the ingredients. They love eating something that they helped making.

recipe:

Vegetable oil for greasing
3 tbs butter
140g mini marshmallows
75g rice crispies (eg rice bubbles)
100g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
275g Nutella
2 large bananas, sliced

Press a piece of foil into the base of a 20cm square baking tray then lightly grease with oil.
In a saucepan, melt the butter then add the marshmallows and stir over a medium heat until melted and smooth.
Add the rice crispies and mix until well combined. Press the mixture into the baking tray using a large spoon that’s been lightly oiled to prevent the mixture from sticking.
For the topping, melt the chocolate and Nutella in a bowl sitting on top of a pot of simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Once melted, set aside to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, layer the sliced bananas over the rice crispies mix then pour the chocolate mixture over.
Place in fridge to set. It could take at least an hour. In our case, 30mins, as we couldn’t wait to dig in!

Bon appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Chocolate, Dessert, Easy, Homemade, Quick, Sweets

Gaggenau Launch With Chef Adam D’Sylva

Cherrie Moore — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:20:17 +0000

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Gaggenau launch this week. To make it more exciting the event had a special guest who would be cooking for us; Adam D’Sylva, executive chef at Coda.

Gaggenau are a German company specialising in luxury kitchen appliances and this event was a chance for them to showcase their new products. Their induction cooktop with in-bench teppanyaki plate & steamer was very impressive.

Before we got a chance to see this modern kitchen in action we got to sample a few nibbles and even meet Adam.

Then it was on to the main event, Adam D’Sylva, I mean the Gaggenau appliances

Lastly they had door price draw; $150 voucher for Coda.

Although I didn’t win, the next best thing happened; my friend Shellie did

Adam’s fun laid back approach to cooking matched with the funky Gaggenau appliances made for a very entertaining launch event.

I attended the Gaggenau launch event courtesy of Max and You PR

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Asian, Blog Event, Bloggers, Celebrity Chef, Chef, Launch

Review of MSG and artificial colour free Coles Products PLUS giveaways

Cherrie Moore — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:13:33 +0000

Coles has just announced that 100% of Coles brand food and drink products are now free from MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and artificial colours. Products include confectionery, bakery, dairy, savoury snacks, marinades as well as many other food groups.

Having a young family, I am careful with what my children and husband eat. Like most Australian families, I try to give my family food that is not only free of additives and MSG but food that is cheap and most importantly tasty. Having young children, colour additives is one I really look out for. There has been studies that there are links between children and artifical colours in drinks and food. Colour additives can lead to hyperactivity. Having a 2 and a 5 year old, I don’t need help in that respect.

I was given the chance to taste test a few of their MSG and artificial colour free products. I was given to try out the Coles brand Mexican range.

Chicken burrito with corn. I used the Burrito kit with this meal. The seasoning I used on the chicken was full of flavour and the tortilla was flaky.

Pork, mushroom and spinach quesadilla. I used a packet of the tortillas. I found the size of the tortillas a perfect size to make these quesadillas. I served this with Mexican Grilled Corn inpsired by @IronChefShellie

Fish tacos with mango salsa. I used the taco kit which came with tacos, seasoning and salsa sauce. I don’t usually have fish tacos but I wanted to try it with the seasoning. I was expecting the seasoning to be too strong for the delicate fish but I found that it was a right balance.

Nachos. I used the corn chips and the Mild Mexican sauce. Hubby cooked his famous ChilliCon Carne with the can of tomatoes and Coles Mexican beans. The corn chips were full of flavour and crunch. The Mexican sauce was tangy and freshened up the chilli con carne.

All up, the family enjoyed our Mexican week of dinners. I would definitely use the Coles brand Mexican range again. I won’t be reaching out for that “yellow box” again.

For more information, you can go to the Coles website

As a reader of Sweet Cherrie Pie, you are able to win 1 of 3 packages of the MSG and artificial colour free Coles brand Mexican range.

The package is worth $25 and includes:

Coles Beans Mexican chilli
Coles Burrito Dinner Kit
Coles Burrito Tortilla 10 pack
Coles Mexican sauce
Coles Mexcian seasoning
Coles Taco Dinner Kit
Coles Corn chips
Coles Salsa

To enter:
1. Leave a comment below and answer this simple question. What is your ultimate Mexican meal?
2. Either “like” this page or tweet this post.
3. Competition ends AEDT midnight Saturday 31st March.
I will pick the 3 winners and will be notified by email and the package will be sent out by post.

Unfortunately, only Australian readers can enter.

Good luck!

Coles MSG and artificial colour free Mexcian range packages courtesy of Coles and Thrive PR.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Filed under: beans, Beef, Chicken, Dinner, Fish, Giveaway, Meat, Mexican, Pork, Review

Minced Beef Pancit

Cherrie Moore — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 09:35:59 +0000

Pancit means noodles in Filipino. Variations of pancit is eaten by all Filipinos on a regular basis. I love the way my mum cooks her Pancit bihon and I’ll always go to her place whenever I’m craving it.

However, once in a while I like to create my own with whatever I have in my pantry and fridge. Just like this version. I created this Pancit dish on the fly one night when I got home from work.

In my fridge I had cauliflower, bean sprouts and carrots. I also had minced beef. I added onions and garlic, which I always have in stock. Another staple in my pantry are dried egg noodles. I keep it for day’s like this.

My family liked it so much, I thought I better blog about it do I have a record of the recipe.

I hope you give this a g or create your own Pancit.

250g beef mince

1 carrot, sliced

100g bean sprouts

100g cauliflower

Egg noodles

2 tbs Black bean sauce

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs oyster sauce.

1 onion, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Beef, Filipino, Noodles.

Creamy Fish Pie

Cherrie Moore — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:52:43 +0000

I love this dish. Lately I have been trying to add fish to our family meals more often. I’m a meat lover and I would eat meat everyday if I could. However, I am trying to make our family dinners more diverse. This dish is perfect for Lent if you are going meatless on Fridays in the leadup to Easter. However, this can be eaten anytime of the year.

Recipe: (Adapted from a Rick Stein recipe)

1 small onion, thickly sliced
1 bay leaf
600ml milk
300ml thickened cream
100g peas
60g baby spinach
180g smoked cod
4 eggs, boiled and quartered
70g butter
45g plain flour
1kg potatoes
1 egg yolk
salt and white pepper to season

Pre-heat the oven to 180degC
In a large pan, add the onions, bay leaf, 450ml of the milk, cream and smoked cod. Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 8 minutes.
Lift the fish out onto a plate and strain the cooking liquor into a jug.
When the fish has cooled, break into large flakes and spread out evenly over the base of a shallow ovenproof dish.
Over the fish, evenly arrange the boiled egg, peas and baby spinach. (It will look like there’s too much baby spinach but it will wilt down)
Melt 35g of the butter into a pan, add the flour and cook for 1 miniute. Take off the heat and gradually add the cooking liquor. Return to the heat and slowly bring to the boil. Keep stirring. Simmer for 10 minutes and season.
Pour the sauce over the fish.
Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes. Drain and mash and add some butter and the egg yolk. Season with salt and white pepper and add enough milk to form a spreadable mash.
Spoon the mash over the filling and mark the surface with a fork.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Dinner, English, Fish, Pie

My week in Pictures: 2 weeks of food and The Socceroos

Cherrie Moore — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:55:31 +0000

I’ve missed last week’s roundup. To be honest, work has started to be busy and I find myself tired and not keen to do anything as soon as I hit the couch in the evening. So here I am with 2 weeks worth for you.

So this past two weeks, I cooked and baked a lot. A bit more than usual, for some reason. One night, I had the sudden urge to bake cupcakes even though I spent most of the day in a kitchen. What can I say, I love to bake!

Picture above from top left: Quesidilla with left over roast chicken, Saturday morning Family breakfast of waffles and bacon (yum!)

Bottom left: Jamie Oliver’s Green curry and crispy chicken from his 30min meals cookbook, pork fried rice with fried egg and fish pie (post to come)

clockwise from top left: my sticky date scone scroll with butterscotch sauce and cream, whoopie pies, crepes with crunchie and maple syrup for Pancake Tuesday and late night baking of double chocolate mud cupcakes.

A family cheese platter. It featured Cremeux D’Argental triple cream brie I bought from South Melbourne Market and Deanna added the string cheese for her and her brother.

A Coles Package I recieved for review. Post to come, along with some give aways. Stay tuned.

On Valentine’s Day, Hubby sent me edible roses… the best kind of roses to recieve

Onto to some non food related pics. We had a parent information night at Deanna’s school (first of many, I suppose). Here she is in front of a picture of herself

On the last hottest weekend of the Summer, Hubby brought the kids to the beach. As you can see, the teddy bear from Deanna’s school came along too. He liked the beach but he didn’t want to get wet.

We also attendend a Football (Soccer) World Cup Qualifying match here in Melbourne. The Australian Socceroos versus Saudi Arabia. Happy to see that the Socceroos won 4 – 2

How was your week?

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: In Pictures, Melbourne, My week, Valentine's Day, Weekly roundup

Betty Crocker Whoopie Pies. A Review.

Cherrie Moore — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:24:18 +0000

Whoopie Pies are relatively new to Australia. They are much loved in the United States and until recently they were unkown to Aussies. Whoopie Pies are two pieces of cake that is sanwiched together with a creamy filling or frosting. They can come in different flavours but the popular ones are chocolate, gingerbread or red velvet.

I’ve been curious as to what the fuss was all about and wanted to try to make them myself. When the opportunity came up to try out Betty Crocker’s Whoppie Pies, I lept at the chance.

I made these packet mixes with my children. The packet mix definitely makes it easy to make with little ones. The instructions on the boxes are easy and only need a further handfull of ingredients to be added. The whoopie pies turned out very light and fluffy and tasty. The filling was airy but a little too sweet for me. Deanna loved to decorate it with sprinkles, which came with the packet of the vanilla pies.

If you want to try out whoopie pies, try these. It’s quick and easy. It’s a great option if you want to try making whoopie pies for the first time and not quite sure how to make them. They are available at supermarkets.

Having tried these, I am ready to make the next batch from scratch. Looking forward to posting that

Betty Crocker Whoopie Pies were given compliments of ThrivepR

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Baking, Cake, Dessert, Easy, Review, Sweets

Baked Peach Pancake

Cherrie Moore — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:18:21 +0000

It’s peach season! I love peaches and using up the juicy fruit in a dessert can only be a good thing. This recipe is adapted from Taste.com.au

When it first comes out of the oven, it is so puffy but it does deflate after a few minutes out of the oven so don’t be alarmed. I also like to eat this cold the next day.

I will try using different fruit next time. I’ve seen recipes using apples and pears. Perfect for autumn.

Recipe:

1 tbs butter
1tsp Vanilla paste
6 eggs
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
pinch salt
3/4 cup plain flour
3 cups stone fruit, sliced ( I used peaches but apricots or plums can be used)

Preheat oven to 220degC (200degC fanforced)
Butter a pie tin evenly
Using a mixer, whisk together vanilla paste, eggs, sugar, milk and salt
Add the flour and blend until smooth
Pour batter into the pie tin and then distribute fruit evenly over the top
Bake for about 25mins or until a skewer inserted into the batter comes our clean and golden brown crust has formed on top.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream

Be sure to make this during its short season. It’s delicious!

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: Baking, Dessert, Fruit, Sweets

My week in pictures: whoopies and home cooking

Cherrie Moore — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:14:37 +0000

This week I picked the winners of the Cheesecake Shop vouchers competition. They are :

Wendy M

Winston

Leaf

Agnes

Daisy

The winners have been contacted and I have mailed out their vouchers. Enjoy your desserts from The Cheesecake Shop, guys.

Our goodies from Misty’s diner we bought last week. Pretzel and coconut M&Ms and Mandarin soft drink. Mandarin!!!

This week, kids and I tried out whoopie pies using Betty Crocker packet mix. Review post to come soon.

Bibimbap for dinner. A family favourite.

Friday night nachos made by hubby

Saturday morning family breakie before heading off to work. I had home made sausage patties in the freezer so I made a sausage and egg “McMuffins”

I ended the week with a dinner I wanted to cook for ages. I finally made chicken rice. It took me longer than I expected but it was worth the wait. It was delicious, though I want to try again and tweak a few things.

Bon appetite,

Cherrie

Filed under: In Pictures, My week, Weekly roundup