C.A.C Bar and Eatery

I've never adventured into tapas before until Lydia and Ronald's engagment at C.A.C Bar and Eatery and again at Baz's birthday. It's like dim sum where you order dishes and share it with everyone else...and an over abundance of yummy warm bread like Cibatta bread I think.

Their coffees were not bad too and also have a number of cocktails too enjoy!

RISOTTO BALLS sundried tomato & mozzarella


(This dish seemed to be very popular amoung the table I think because it's FRIED!)

TWELVE HOUR LAMB pickled pepper, chickpea relish


(This dish was very nice too but a little spicy and curried for my liking)

PRAWN sauté w. tomato, basil & haloumi


(The gravey for the prawns was so nice that I could just clean the plate of sauce with my bread!)

MEATBALLS veal & pork w. laban, lemon & parmesan


(This was really nice and great with the bread!)

BOQUERONE fried stuffed anchovies, sweet onion & pepper relish


(This was a little different tasted like sardines..)

Blue Cheese w. preserved figs


(I never knew blue cheese tasted so nice!)

GATEAU OPERA coffee & chocolate:


(This cake was so rich and nice you really only need 2 mouthfuls and savour it slowly!)

This place is great especially at night to hang out and enjoy great atmosphere and fun and food if you don't mind indulging a little bit more that night. Great place to bring your date to =)

Location: 26 Normandy Road, Mt Eden
Price: 7/10 but worth it to go in a bigger group so you can try more dishes.
Food: Different to what I'd normally eat but it's GREAT and tasty!
Atmosphere: 9/10
Website: www.cacbar.co.nz
Overall: 9/10

I love oreos!

I love Oreos with Milk!
I love oreos dunk in warm milk!
I love anything Oreos!
Cookies and cream = Oreos!
Yummmmmmm

So

I

Decided

To make

Oreo cake!






Yummmmness!! Nice out of the oven warm and moist! It's 9:30pm I have to stop baking!

hmmmmmm Oreos.................=)

Verdict: My brother says it's yum =) and I enjoy eating the cake with a cookie now and then inbetween.

Frist attempt in making quiche

I know quiche seems like it's pretty easy to make but I never thought about it as stir fry and chinese always seem easier. I've always ordered quiche and fritata at cafes and wished that I could make them at home...so I made my first step towards that by buying myself a quiche pan at Briscoes and tonight was the night to try it. So, this is my first attempt in making it and I must say it was pretty easy but it does require alot of ingredients that I don't really use in my mains such as cheese and milk.

I tried this bacon mushroom brocoli quiche and it was yum. It smelt really nice too!




I adapted the ingredients from http://annies-eats.com/2009/04/22/bacon-mushroom-and-broccoli-quiche/ but didn't read the instruction properly so didn't pre bake the pastry crust but it turned out good but could be better =)The silicon quiche pan was great too, I did not have to use baking paper or butter to grease the pan and the quiche came out well without breaking.

Main thing is as long as hubby says its yum its all good haha.
I still think frying noodles and making chicken nibbles is easier =)

Corn bread

I've started to enjoy making cornbread ever since I got back from Korea. There was this really nice yellow bread but yet cakey texture that I got while in Korea and I had to find the receipe but at the same time I didn't know what it was??

So I dont know how corn bread came about but ever since I started making one I really enjoyed it and today I tried it with whole kernal corns inside and used less sugar compared to my previous cornbread.


Instead of putting whole kernel corns inside, you can also add cheese, bacon and capsicum depending on the type of taste you want. I prefer the sweet one so I made one with honey and it was produced a crunchy top yummy!

I also used sour cream instead of buttermilk because I had some leftovers in the fridge and it turned out nicely. The type of milk really does bring out a different taste and texture to the bread ay..


The bread turned out more crumbly maybe because I didnt have as much oil or should have used one more egg in the mixture: anyway this is what I used.

Ingredients:
1 cup cornmeal flour (I bought mine from foodtown)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
½ cup sourcream (can use milk/buttermilk instead)
1/4 cup oil (or butter)
1 cup whole kernal corn (optional) or you can add cheese capsicums etc

Directions:
1. Mix the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
2. Mix the sugar, eggs, buttermilk, cottage cheese and oil in another bowl.
3. Mix the dry ingredients in to the wet ingredients.
4. Stir in the corn.
5. Pour into a greased 8 inch square baking pan.
6. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes

Ginger gems

This morning I felt like my date and orange scone and so I headed to Market Road Rocket Kitchen and guess what??? I bought something else as well...yup no surprise.
I bought this ginger gem to try it out and because it was small but cost a whooping $1.80! This was my first time trying it and I had no idea what it was although it tasted like scone but not so rough.

I searched for Ginger gems and this is what it says: Gems are small, light and fluffy cakes cooked in a very hot oven for a short time. They’re a perfect alternative to scones. (Well like what I said it does taste like scone no wonder I like them!) - so it's like ginger scone??? ewww that on the other hand does not sound that great =)

Well, if you like ginger then this is for you...ginger gem...

Thinking about it now it's also quite true that each and everyone of us is like a gem - small but very valuable and precious!

Movenpick for Mothers Day

I celebrated mothers day early this year because of the busy weekend and totally enjoyed the night with both our mums.
After eating Italian (full full)we walked over to Movenpick. I've always gone to Movenpick for Ice cream but never tried their dessert menu at all. I shouldn't have indulged anymore because I've been overloaded with coffee and chocolates over the week as well as the weekend to come but I couldn't resist.

We had...

Affagato: (espresso coffee with 2 scoops of ice cream)- my mum pronounced as avocado!
This tasted like ice coffee with ice cream, not bad at all.


Apple crepe with vanilla brownie ice cream:
This was alright but I've tasted better crepes elsewhere.


Chocolate and raspberry pudding with vanilla ice cream:
I think mud cake or moist chocolate cake would have taste nicer =)


Overall I think I still prefer eating their ice cream and better desserts could be found elsewhere such as mecca or frasers or other cafes.

pandan flava

I wanted to use finish the coconut milk left from my failed attempt of pandan chiffon cake that turned out more like pandan kueh...it honestly tasted like one and even my family all thought it was kuehs....

So today I decided to make pandan cupcakes but because I didnt have the real pandan leaves I had to make use of what I had with the paste.

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon of pandan paste mix with 2 teaspoon of pandan juice
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil or cooled melted butter (I used oil)

Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Line cupcake tins with baking papers
Mix 1/2 cup of coconut milk pandan with the pandan paste mix.
Place the eggs and sugar in electric mixture and beat till cream in colour.
On low speed, beat in the oil or melted butter and pandan mix.
Beat till well combined.
Pour in coconut milk/pandan mix and mix till it is well combined with the mixture. Fold in flour.
Bake until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes. Frost with Coconut Milk Buttercream frosting.


- COOLED & FROSTED CUPCAKES

Coconut Milk Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter
2 to 4 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Place butter, 2 cups icing sugar, ½ cup of milk and the vanilla extract in a free-standing mixer (or you can beat it by hand) and beat on medium-low speed. Add the rest of the icing sugar until you reach a desired consistency. Spread on top of cupcakes!


I was too impatient to wait for the cupcakes to cool so the frosting I put on top melted really fast =)

I think my cupcakes turned out better than my chiffon cake, well at least it's safer to bake cupcakes haha. I shall try chiffon cake again and conquer it! (or just buy it from the chinese bakery easier la)

Mum in law says cupcakes were soft and the icing turned out nice and the smell was the best! haha....mmmmmmm yummmmyyyyy