A few bits and pieces from the past couple of weeks!
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Pete and I were thrilled to attend the wedding of our friends Belinda Jane (BJ) and Matt in Victoria Park yesterday. Beej wept for joy as she was walked down the aisle by both her parents…
The bride wore a short vintage lace dress and blue Converse shoes which let her dance the night away. Instead of a bridesmaid and a best man, they had a bride-dog and a best-dog (both of whom served as ring bearers) and their wedding vows were taken from Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up…
A loud and glorious celebration followed at the Vanguard in Newtown. It was honestly the best night we’ve had in ages…
The two happiest people on the planet last night…
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We’ve also been busy cooking this month…
At least once a fortnight, we eat a Spanish-inspired Chica-inspired meal. The last one was Arroz Caldoso (soupy paella) with homemade confit pork and garden beans, accompanied by chorizo and onions. The boys are loving this style of food, and I’m loving being able to put all the dishes straight into the dishwasher after dinner…
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I uncovered a baby Christmas pudding in the fridge (as one does in March) and decided to turn it into truffles…
I blitzed together half the pudding, slices of candied orange and a good splosh of Cointreau, then mixed it all with melted dark chocolate. The filling was shaped into balls, then left to harden in the fridge before dipping in tempered chocolate. They turned out well!
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For our Chinese New Year dinner with my folks, I made Kylie Kwong’s soy sauce eggs. The recipe can be found here, and they’re very easy to make. I began by steaming the eggs in our Aldi machine…
Here’s a tip – if you steam eggs rather than boil them, they’re massively easier to peel neatly…
The eggs in their soy sauce bath…
I loved these – I think I ate half of them on my own at dinner…
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This container of fat from a roasted Burrawong Gaian duck had been sitting in my freezer for some time…
Taking inspiration from Nagi’s Crack Bread and a comment that Chica Tanya made a while back (about burly Spaniards eating lard and pimenton on toast for breakfast), I combined 50g of the duck fat, half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a couple of pinches of sea salt, then spread it through a criss-cross sliced ciabatta loaf. After baking in a 180C oven for about 15 minutes, it was ready for eating…
Pete attempted to eat most of the loaf on his own (Big Boy helped) – it was a very nice change from garlic bread…
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We’re having a fabulous month – hope you are too!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
It all looks delicious. Those truffles look amazeballs though! Trying not to drool on my phone just now… Happy days of March to you all.
Looking good Celia…that is what I would call a hipster wedding! It looks and sounds like fabulous fun. Those truffles look so delicious x
I love your thinking with the Christmas pudding. You’ve reminded me that I have a jar of mincemeat sitting in the cupboard I need to do something with.
In Germany onions are sautéed and added to the goose or duck fat. It’s delicious and I love it.
G’day and congrats to your friends BJ and Matt Celia! They look very happy indeed and could go for your dark chocolate, orange and Cointreau bites right now!
Cheers! Joanne
What a fabulous collection, and I love the sound of the wedding! The brides outfit looks brilliant! And the inclusion of the dogs of course makes me smile 😀😀😀
Wow that looked like a great wedding! We always have Christimas Puddings in the cupboard – this will be a great use for them!
Oh yum! I’ll have to try the eggs. The wedding looks fabulous. I love non traditional weddings. They’re so much more creative.
Great wedding and those truffles look delicious!
What an adorable wedding
I wish my bits and pieces were as interesting as yours! Out of interest, as I find hard boiled eggs difficult to peel sometimes (and always when you need them to look neat!), how long does it take to steam an egg to the hardboiled (solid yolk) stage?
Hi Suelle! I now just use the egg machine, but I somehow have a memory of 16 minutes. Very specific, I know. I don’t need them to peel well often (usually we just eat them with a spoon out of the shell), but I recall having to make a large batch once and popping them into a sieve over boiling water for 16 minutes. So in that ballpark. I hope that helps, sorry I can’t be more specific. And hope you’re well! x
Thanks Celia – I’ll give it a try next time we need neat eggs! I’m very well thanks – apart from the niggles of growing older, which we can’t avoid!
What a grand wedding celebration! I remember a wedding in the tiny Alaskan settlement Meyers Chuck where the bride wore a vintage dress and gumboots (wellingtons) at the ceremony on the dock – and the crazy 3-day celebration as well.
Your Arroz Caldoso sounds fabulous, a perfect solution to using up the chunk of chorizo, leftover pork roast and assorted veggies lurking in my fridge. Soupy paella will garner a cheer or two from the crew.
LOL, what a throwback – Rick Astley! :) Lotsa fun seen on the photos! Great tips on the eggs :)
Julie & Alesah
Gourmet Getaways xx
That soupy paella looks delicious. Just to let you know I have posted my IMK for March. Take care. Emma x
Wow! Your life looks like delicious, delicious fun! Thanks for sharing :)
Perfect transitioning from summer to Autumn Ms Celia and eating just about anything that Ms Chica recommends is a good idea :). I LOVE the look of those little chocolate pudding truffles :)
Love the wedding pics and their happy vibe… And all the other pics just look delicious, oh soy sauce eggs – yum.
I love feeling that a little bit of our beloved Andalucia makes an appearance in your kitchen! Those eggs look fab, we went to a newly opened Chinese restaurant with my parents and pals for New Year’s Eve the other week and had a wonderful meal. They served us something which was called Bird’s Nest (something) – giant prawns in a crispy noodley nest! But that wedding – wow!!! That’s most definitely the way to do it and I love how happy and beautiful they look :)
You always have such delicious food! I’d love to be in your kitchen! And that wedding looked like a blast!
BJ and Matt look like they are loads of fun :) I’m definitely going to try steaming my eggs next time! i hate peeling eggs as I have no patience to make them pretty.
Love the truffle idea! I have a pudding sitting in the pantry that needs dealing with …
I couldn’t believe how easily the cazuela cleaned up. Amazing. I love that dish and thank you from the bottom of my hearty heart!
That wedding is absolutely my favourite. She’s our kind of person and the wedding attendants would make my day.
I’m off to steam eggs.
I cannot find any decent chorizo down here.. I am going to have to resort to the internet – god help us! c
I’m so happy for you Celia that you had a great day with your newly married friends! You’ve just reminded me that I have a Heston Blumenthal Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding stashed in my pantry.Just waiting for the right time to make it..(Wasn’t that at Christmas??) LOL..I love your Truffle idea though!
(Btw, Abby is thriving!!)
My favorite item from your March list is how you repurposed that plum pudding. Sounds much more interesting than the original! And who were those first settlers? Keep up the fun forum. Here’s my March post to add. Thanks!
http://heritagerecipebox.com/2015/03/08/in-my-march-kitchen/
Steamed eggs, that’s new to me, great advice, and than in soaked in soy sauce, sounds absolutely delish, thank you.
What a fun looking wedding, very cute dress indeed! Lots of cool bits and pieces for sure, my dad grew up eating ‘drippings’ on bread so I think he’d adore your duck fast bread- yummo! Xo
Your month does sound fabulous so far – I love your imaginative way with leftovers from the cupboard and freezer, the steamed soya eggs look great.. And how brilliant is that vision of the happy dancing bride in her converse trainers!
Now that sounds like a FUN wedding, Celia :-) ! And I SO love the look of the truffles and the duck fat bread – YUM xx
Same celebrant as Luce’s wedding, Vicki! :)
Shut up about that duck fat on the crack bread! It sounds so good…
Never steamed whole eggs, shall give it a try, Don’t have an Aldi machine so will have to experiment.
What a fun wedding celebration — the dress, the sneakers — too fun. Weddings and babies keep us young. :) Oh, and I could eat half that loaf of bread all on my own!
Loved the wedding shots – they look so, so happy. I adored her dress too – how nice that it is vintage – very, very cool. Great idea with the truffles and love the look of those eggs – yum. That loaf of bread – dear lord – magnificent! x
Love those wedding pictures! Those eggs look great too.
What a fun looking wedding! It is important to have fun and enjoy yourselves, looks like the happy couple accomplished that. The truffles are making me drool and that bread looks amazing!
What a joyous wedding – and such lovely ‘bits and pieces’.
Oh Celia sweetie, please don’t post any more about weddings…I get all teary eyed …my daughter’s is less than a month away! That is one of the cutest and happiest looking couples I’ve seen in a long time. I wish them the best.
It feels like half the people I know were at Belinda’s wedding! I work with her so my facebook feed has been full of her wedding photos and there was much chatter in the office last Monday from those who had attended. Isn’t it a small world? It did look like such fun :)