Friday Fancies #2

I was sick last weekend so I spent the majority of my time in between naps watching TV, reading blog posts and feeling sorry for myself. Here's a few things that took my fancy and kept me going. 

Before the flu struck me down, we went to The Standard for dinner. You should definitely try the pork croquettes, chicken grill and lamb belly for some seriously scrumptious food. The sweet and sour eggplant was probably the favourite though. 

The Hummus Club, Perth: Interview

So you were asking about the most delicious falafels going around? Oh, yes I do know where you can find them - The Hummus Club!

The Pear'fect Pantry, Wembley

Living in this new area, I’ve been keen to find the local haunts and after a little digging, I discovered that The Pear'fect Pantry was in fact a cafe, and according to Urbanspoon, a popular one at that. So, I decided to go for a stroll and meet Caitlin, Ebony, Amy and her gorgeous kidlets for a midweek brunch.

Sweet Dreams are Made of Cheese

I adore cheese. It is a wondrous thing filled with dreams and deliciousness. So when my housemate discovered a boutique cheese shop had opened up locally, a cheese and wine night was imminent. She asked me if I could pretty please go check out Little Cheese Shop in Bayswater to pick up the fromage and while it was a hard decision, I finally agreed!

Dinner for Mumma Bear

Yep, the belated Mother's Day post.

My mum is definitely one in a million. She's completely bonkers, ridiculously caring and a bit of a psycho. We argue occasionally and she annoys me sometimes, especially when I have to show her how to change the TV settings for the MILLIONTH TIME. Mostly though, we are the best of friends and you will generally find us laughing manically about something nobody else gets. I love her to bits. 

Crazy mumma! 

To show my love, I decided to cook a Mother's Day dinner.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a champion in the kitchen, but in all honesty, I would be eliminated well before the croquembouche stage on Masterchef. So I pulled out Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals cookbook to trawl through the colourful pages in search of a tasty meal. I was cooking for seven: myself, mum, dad, brother, sister, brother in law and my three year old nephew. My 12 week old nephew slept right through dinner, how rude! 

In the end, I decided on Jamie's ultimate pork tacos. I made them with kidney beans instead of black beans (black beans are hell to find!) and an avocado green salad.

I was so concerned in actually locating the pork belly (first time cooking pork belly and all) that I missed one small but important requirement. The recipe quite clearly says 'skinless' pork belly is required, for obvious reasons. I honestly thought I could outplay Jamie Oliver - rookie mistake. 

Utilising my sister's knife skills, and ignoring her vegetarian gag reflexes, we then removed the skin from poor Babe whilst trying to keep the fatty parts that make pork belly so scrumptious. This definitely reaffirmed Harmony's belief in vegetarianism, I mean, the skin still had little piggy hairs on it! Please forgive me for reminding you of this again Harms. 

Prepping my ingredients, like Jamie says.

Jamie is obviously a god with this 15 minute cooking nonsense, but the whole meal took me about 40 minutes, including cooking chicken for my skeptical brother in law. The only thing affected was the cooking time of the pork, which might need to be pulled off early if you're a slow poke like me to prevent overcooking.

The flavours were incredible though, and I developed a love affair with coriander - seriously, who knew coriander in a salad could be that amazing?!

For dessert, I made Salted Caramel Pots de Creme out of Curtis Stone's cookbook What's for Dinner?. Pots de Creme are basically baked custards and melt in the mouth divine. Salted caramel is my absolutely favourite so this was the number one pick!

What was lacking in presentation made up in flavour, promise! 

In typical Lucy style, I ran into a bit of a hurdle with this one too when I realised we didn't have enough ramekins in the house. After having a mini meltdown, I proceeded to make one giant Pot de Creme instead and increased the cooking time to ensure it wasn't a runny mess.

They were the perfect balance of salt and caramel, with a hint of vanilla and I added chocolate wafer sticks for some crunch. I scored 9 out of 10 according to my darling brother, so I'm guessing the meal was a hit!  

Happy Mother's Day Mum!

xx Luce 

Romance = food

Health food shopping is definitely my weakness. While other girls splurge on heels, I buy bulk coconut oil and raw chocolate. Honestly, all I wanted for my birthday was cook books and quinoa. My boyfriend thinks I love food more than him - he's wrong of course, I love them both equally!

I've found it hard to narrow down my go to health store because I always need to visit three or four different shops to buy all my favourites, usually driving from one corner of Perth to the other.

So today, because it's pay day (from my casual PR job, not Centrelink for once!) I stopped at Organic Selection, a local shop that I hadn't been to yet, to have a look at what they had to offer. I was also searching for the amazing Pana chocolate my sweetie of a friend, Anh, gave me for my birthday. Big mistake. Although it was a teeny tiny shop, it was packed full of delicious and healthy goodies. Kale chips to coconut water, I was in organic heaven*.

I restricted myself to a couple of Pana raw organic chocolate bars (and some tried and tested Loving Earth chocolate) a delectable chocolate flavoured almond milk and some goats cheese, which I'm excited to try.

I've been told that all the Pana chocolate flavours are amazing and judging from the Coconut and Goji one I've already sampled (oops!) I believe it! It's super creamy and the packaging is freaking cute too.

My chocolate themed mini haul

xx Luce

* NB. Organic heaven doesn't actually exist and I don't eat completely organic, or even close to it, but go check this little shop out, it's grand!