Wandering through Southbank with my fiancée and his parents a couple weeks ago we were torn over where to go for lunch.  We decided to try Amicis as the menu looked good and the place was pretty busy compared to the places around it.

The decor at Amicis is conventional, the staff friendly and the food comforting. The was a great family atmosphere. Definitely a place you can got for a relaxed meal with friends and family.

We were seated at an outside table, and although there were a lot of people at the tables around us it was still easy for us to converse. After looking through the menu we decided on the Garlic Bread to start. The Garlic Bread was a good light choice and set the taste buds flowing for the rest of the meal. It wasn't too heavy on the garlic or butter.

For main I had the Soup of the Day. It turned out to be Mushroom Soup. The soup was amazing. It was a great balance of cream, mushrooms and herbs. It came with a few slice of turkish bread and butter. It was a nice light meal, but still filling.

My fiancée had the Chicken Parmigiana. It came with a choice of chips and salad or potato and veges (all the other mains at out table did). The serving was huge. I was a large oval plate with nearly all the surface covered. Definitely value for money. He thoroughly enjoyed the real chicken breast coated in lovely crumbs with a tasty tomato sauce and covered in bubbly cheese.

Future mum-in-law had the Chicken Avocado. It was a moist and delicious chicken breast served with avocado and a hollandaise sauce. She really like the sauce and chicken, although as it was also a large meal she ended up taking some of it home to enjoy later. The salad served with the meals was dressed with a nice whole grain mustard based sauce and was enjoyed by all the table.

Future dad-in-law had the Rump steak with Mushroom sauce. He ordered medium-rare but it came medium-well done. He still enjoyed the meal but was slightly disappointed not to get the steak how he ordered it.

We all really enjoyed our meals and I will definitely go back again. Maybe next time I'll try one of their freshly made pizzas or the Pasta Marinara. In fact now that I'm thinking about it I really want to go back and try their Antipasto plate for two. It comes with cheeses, vegetables, and cold meats with toasted focaccia. Amicis was a great experience and reasonably priced for a nice relaxing time with the family.

Last June, with only a days notice, we found out about the Brisbane Cheese Awards. Lining up on the Sunday morning to enter I was thrilled to see so many people out for a fun day of Cheese tasting, classes on cheese and wine, and plenty of cheese to buy. I was particularly thrilled to see Will Studd from the ABCs Cheese Slices program. As one of my favourite food shows I was so happy to see him and he was very approachable.

Now it is time for the Brisbane Cheese Awards again. This Sunday, 9 September 2012, is Peoples Day down at Portside Hamilton. Will Studd is going to be there again.  I can't wait to enjoy all the oozy, wonderful cheeses. So many local cheesemakers geared up with different cheeses to try. Everything from Haloumi to Feta, Brie to Blues and everything in between.

Standout favourites for me were the Udder Delights Heysen Blue, Locheilan cheese Triple Cream Brie and the 'Raclette' which grills cheese which can then be scraped off and onto bread.

It is $10 for entry and really is a lot of fun. Expect it to be crowded, but it is definitely worth it. Hope to see you all there.

Firstly, I must apologise for lack of blog posts this week. I am one of those people who firmly believes that family always comes first, and this week family has needed to take the front seat.  However, I wanted to bring you some of the inspiring ideas that I have found this week.

I love Heston Blumenthal. A fact that my boyfriend appreciates is only the love built from admiration of pure genius. Heston is one amazing, wonderful person. Everytime of watch one of his programs or read his recipes in  Heston's Feasts I feel immensely humbled. His ideas, the way his mind processes the concepts of flavour, appearance and presentation really inspire me to think about food in a different way. Lately I have watching "How to Cook like Heston". I really appreciate that he is taking the time to show people fantastic ways to prepare and cook everyday food. In fact, I have started to cook  my steak how he suggests. It is simply superb. This week I watched his episode on Chicken and I cannot wait to try some if it. The idea of setting the chicken in a brine in order to help it maintain the moisture content is something I would never have known to explore without him.





Over the last few years my mother and I have made my nieces birthday cakes. These cakes have been anything from a fairy garden to Space to nature inspired.  I am always on the lookout for a new idea for baking and cakes in particular. Just today I found a new blog, Eat Cake for Dinner, and only because of the following cupcakes. I love the idea of creating these wonderful bright and fun cupcakes.  Just take a look. I also really like the look of her Crockpot Hot Fudge Cake and English Toffee.





As everyone who reads my blog can tell I have a massive sweet tooth. And while this can be what initially attracts me to a blog or cookbook.  Recently I have been craving caramel and toffee. I have been experiencing terrible difficulties with toffee. I cannot get it to colour, and it granulates upon setting. I can remember my mothers toffees as a child and this never happened. She would make these wonderful toffees and coconut ices for our school fetes. They were always a huge favourite (along with her piklets). I don't know what I am doing wrong yet but I am determined to find a recipe that I can do. So as I am contemplating the wonderful world of sweets, toffees and caramel I found Eat, Live, Run. I am quickly falling in love with this blog. From the the recipes to the design of her site and her cooking. This site is pure joy. At the moment I am particularly looking forward to try the Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse. It looks and sounds amazing.





As an Aussie, we do not always have access to all the different cooking programs on television all over the world. This being said I am particularly glad to have stumbled across The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond cooks hearty wonderful food with a lot of love. I am really enjoying the way she tells a story with food. I am really interested in trying her Stuffed Mushrooms recipe. This looks and sounds delicious.





So this is it for me this week. I hope you all enjoys these recipes and ideas as much as I do.

Hi everyone. So this week has been really tough personally. I have a very ill relative and I have been unable to complete any blog entries this week. I'll try to get my normal entry up later this afternoon, but my Geek Week will have til another time.

I've had a pretty good week blog wise. I'm trying to be more consistent with my entries and explore more aspects of my Blogs design. Over the next few weeks there will be quite a bit of change as I try to make my blog more attractive and something that really suits me.

So this week I've looked at a local coffee shop, talked about local events in Brisbane, and posted one of my own meals. I'm hoping to look at another couple of cafes and places around Brisbane this week. In fact this week is going to be Geek Week on my Blog, looking at some of the shops and sores around Brisbane that cater to the Geek.

Enough about that. Time to look at the recipes that have inspired me this week.

Firstly we have Arroz Con Pollo from Simply Recipes. This was a really easy dish that was very tasty. I substituted a few of the ingredients (as I always do) and we loved it. In fact my boyfriend said he would have eaten the rice as a meal on its own. This is a huge comment as I've only recently started to introduce vegetarian meals into our diet. I really enjoyed this one. All it involved was a quick sautee of the veges and rice, placing them in an oven proof dish, browning the chicken and placing it on top of the rice. cover the rice with a mixture of stock and tomato sauce or puree. Easy and delicious.

I stumbled across a tumblr site this week called Lovin' Life. With lots of photos of different products this site is full of inspiring ideas. The one I really like the most is the Spa Water. As a drinker of home made ice tea I am always on the look out for ideas on how to flavour water that will increase my likelihood of drinking it. Spa Water is a fantastic idea. Using fruit to infuse the water with flavour and the dispenser makes it a beautiful experience as well as a generally healthy one. I am definitely going to try something at home like this. Just wish I had such a beautiful dispenser to place it in.

 I've been looking for more salad recipes this week, as well as healthy delicious recipes. I came across SkinnyTaste.com. I really like this collection of recipes and photography on the site is an inspiration. I particularly like the look of the Grilled Chicken Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette. I am going to try something similar this week for dinner. I also like the look of the Black Bean, Avocado , Cucumber and Tomato Salad.  I can see serving along with a good Steak. I think I would probably substitute the black beans for kidney beans (just a personal preference). Overall I really like this site as it provides healthy recipe alternatives.

The last recipe I want to share with you this week is from Stone Soup. This blog has recipes with only 5 ingredients in them. As a fan of Indian Food I really want to give the Butter Chickpeas recipe a go. It is a really quick 10 minute recipe with only 5 ingredients. Stone Soup helps us to understand that tasty food does not need to be complicated and that using good and basic ingredients can be flavoursome and good for us.

As part of the whole being a bit healthier tonight I made Asian Lettuce Cups for dinner. Some call this San Choy Bow too. The basic idea is that it is a mixture of mince, vegetables and seasoning served in lettuce leaves. To eat you roll up the lettuce leaf and take a bite.

I've made San Choy Bow before using one of the packet saunces that you add to the mince. I found this be too sweet so thought I'd try to make it from scratch. I didn't have everything in the cupboard that the recipe called for, so I substituted ingredients. You can find the recipe here at Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks.

I used sesame seeds, Pork mince, fresh cabbage and carrot, and bean sprouts instead of sesame oil, chicken mince, coleslaw mix and water chestnuts. There are many different variations out there for this dish. I think the best thing to do is consider your own tastes and adjust the ingredients accordingly. It is a pretty healthy dish. I followed it up with fresh rock-melon and some raspberry yoghurt.

Asian Lettuce Wraps  (adapted from Hezzi-D's)
NB - As an entrée this would serve 4-6, as a main it serves 3-4

2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil

4 cloves of minced garlic

1 Tablespoon minced fresh ginger 
2 mushrooms

500g of Pork or Chicken mince

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

2 cups of mixed sliced cabbage and carrot (you can use Coleslaw mix)

1/2 cup of bean sprouts

3 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon of Sweet Soy Sauce

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

1 Tablespoon of chilli (I used minced chilli paste)

1 head lettuce (I used Cos but Iceberg works great too)

I wish to travel. There is this growing need in me to see more of the World than my own backyard. I love Brisbane, but my friends and family are always telling me about the other wonderful cities of the world. A colleague is currently in New York, a friend has recently moved to Melbourne, and a cousin lives in Florida. With this in mind (but knowing I can't currently afford to go anywhere) I think this weekend in Brisbane is made for me. In fact it is made for anyone who is even remotely thinking of doing any travel sometime in the future. Why?



Yes, it's the FREE Travel Expo time. Held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre everyone should go along to check out all the deals and travel companies on offer. There are even prizes to be won.

So what am I up to this weekend. Well, after my gym session I am thinking of visiting the Travel Expo of Course!!! And maybe catching a movie at Cineplex Southbank. And maybe having a coffee somewhere in South Brisbane.

What's on in the rest of Brisbane? Well everything from Tai Chi and Zumba at New Farm Park, to Beach Photography at the Wynnum Wading Pool. To find out everything that is on this weekend have a look at the Brisbane City Council Website. If you try out any of the events please let me know how it was.

On Saturday morning, after sweating my butt off at the gym, my boyfriend suggested we go for a coffee. Now I'm never one to say no to coffee so off we went to La Dolce Vita. I am always interested in trying out a new (for me) cafe and I am glad we decided upon La Dolce Vita.

Let me start with the service. The staff we polite and the service professional. I guess what I am trying to say is that while you get great service there is nothing that stands out about it. While there was nothing stand out about the service I would definitely return.

Now for the coffee. Simply, it was delicious, as were the sweets we tried. I had the mini chocolate filled cannelloni and my boyfriend the vanilla custard filled donut. We both thoroughly enjoyed the food and coffee.

Overall, while I was pleased with the food and service, and I  will return for their delicious coffee another time, there was just something missing from the experience. Unlike other Cafes I been to lately there was nothing to distinguish the experience from any other Cafe. Overall it was a positive experience and if you are looking for a good cup of coffee near the Wintergarden in Brisbane, definitely check them out.

I'm find that many of the foods I make tend to be inspired by other peoples recipes. Whether it is from Jaime Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, or other Bloggers, I tend to adapt their recipes to make them my own. I want to share with you some of these recipes. I hope to do this weekly.

This week I was looking for easy snack foods (healthy too if I could find it). Cravings of a Lunatic had a great recipe for taco dip. I found this to be inspiring because it showed me you can be a bit experimental with even the most basic idea. I particularly liked how she served it layered in a jar. I know it's not exactly healthy (my popcorn recipe was closer to healthy) but it sure looks yummy. I will definitely be trying this soon.



I love pickles and chutneys. I think I picked this up from my mother. I can even remember her making batches of Mango Chutney when I was young. I've often thought about making my own pickles and preserving fruit and vegetable. Foy Update really showed me what is possible when you take the time to plan and work out your individual requirements. She has done a series of 3 articles on preserving that are quite beneficial.



I always love visiting Leave Room for Dessert, and not just for the dessert recipes. Anita is a fellow Australian and I love the fact that she is continually challenging herself. Her recipes, her site, and her adventurous spirit are a complete inspiration to me. I love browsing through her Recipe collection. This week I found her Swedish Meatball recipe. I plan on trying it out soon.



Well, that is my list for this week. I hope you enjoy these blogs and recipes as much as I do. They are truly inspirational.

Today has been so much fun. As I stated in previous blog entries I have been trying to eat healthier and lead a healthier lifestyle. In fact I am exceedingly proud of myself, this week I went to the gym 4 days. Yay!

This weekend we decided to do a movie marathon of the Aliens' and Predator movies. Now if you are going to be watching a bunch of movies snacks, and more specifically, popcorn, are definitely in order. I decided to make us real popcorn (not the microwave stuff we normally get) with the idea that it would be healthier. Here is the recipe I used.

Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients

1/3 cup of popping corn

3 tablespoons of canola or vegetable oil

large saucepan and lid

2 tablespoons of butter

salt to taste

Pour the oil into the pan and add 3-4 grains of corn to the oil. Place the lid on the pan and place it over the heat on high. Tip the lid slightly to the side to allow steam to escape. (NB I accidentally missed this step and ended up with steam dripping back down into the oil causing a great deal of spitting oil)

Once you hear the corns pop remove the pan from the heat. Remove the lid from the pan after a few seconds (just enough to ensure the corn does not pop out of the pan on you) and add the rest of the popping corn. It will sizzle at this stage. At the lid back to pan and place it over the heat, tilting the lid slightly again.

Shake the pan to ensure that all the grains are being heated. Continue to shake the pan as you hear the corn pop. This will ensure that you will not have any burnt popcorn.

Pour the popcorn into a bowl.

In the hot pan quickly melt the butter. Pour the melted butter through the popcorn in small batches, stirring the popcorn continuously to coat it with the butter. Do the same with the salt and enjoy some nummy yummy homemade popcorn.

This quantity was enough between my boyfriend and I to stave off hunger pains. If you are after a more substantial serve double or even triple the measurements.

Now, my friends and family may call me a bit of a chocoholic.... and I am!!!  Today I stumbled across this really great quick chocolate brownie recipe and it is so good, num num num. It is really easy to make and really only takes a couple minutes to whip up. Add a scoop of ice-cream (or some whipped cream ala me and my man) and enjoy.

Two Minute Brownie from the Family Kitchen on babble. - try it, you will not be disappointed - DO IT NOW!!!

While I'm referring people through to Family Kitchen, have a look at their other recipes. I love some of the ideas on here.

So, first off the rank in healthier recipes this month is a quick and easy pesto pasta. Numminess

Ingredients

(Serves two)

Spiral pasta for 2

8 Kalamata olives

3 Mushrooms

6 Semi-dried (or Sun-dried) tomatoes

Half a bunch of broccolini

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tbsp Sun-dried Tomato pesto (or basil pesto)

1/2 tspn mixed Italian herbs

1 tspn of Crushed garlic

Small handful of grated parmesan
1 Chicken Breast

It is delicious and fresh. Perfect for a summer meal.

Put the pasta on to boil.

Roughly chop the Kalamata olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Slice the mushrooms. Chop the broccolini into inch size pieces. Chop the Chicken into bite size pieces. 

Heat the olive oil on medium-high. Add the garlic, herbs and Chicken. Cook for a few minutes then add the vegetables (except broccolini). Stir for 3-5 minutes until the mushrooms have a slight golden colour. Add the broccolini and stir for another 2 minutes to heat through, but still maintain the crunch. 

Remove the pan from the heat.

Once the Pasta is al-dente, drain most of the water, leaving about 2-3 tbsp in the pan with the pasta. 

Tip the cooked  vegetables into the pasta, add the pesto and mix on a medium heat until everything is combined nicely. Remove from the heat.

Dish this up and sprinkle with parmesan.

My boyfriend and I really enjoy this one. The Kalamata olives give the dish a saltiness, and the tomato and broccolini a hint of sweetness.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. (Simply omit the chicken to make this Vegetarian)

Yes, today I was booked, in a good way. It is that time of year again. Lifeline Bookfest. The time for all bibliophiliacs to rejoice and join as one to converge on the Brisbane Convention Centre. With everything from kids books to science fiction, and cooking to humour, the Bookfest has something for all book lovers.

 Separated into the 3 sections the Bookfest has something for every budget, even some PS2, Xbox and PC games, DVDs and CDs. The three areas are the unpriced section, where you normally pay by the book size, the Priced Section, where books are all $2.50 this year, and the Quality Section. Today was a bit more of a browsing expedition for me, and I intend to return again later in the week, and as Bookfest is open from this last weekend to Sunday 22 January, there is plenty of time for everyone to stop in. Today I managed to pick up the first Manga in the "Return to the Labyrinth" story. This is something I have been wanting to read for ages.

Browsing through the titles there were yet again plenty of copies of Dan Brown's Davinci Code, and this year there was nearly half a table covered in the Twilight series. I love looking through all the cookbooks to try and find something a little different. Last year I picked up a great Moroccan cookbook. I look forward to returning later in the week to search through the rows and rows of books to find further treasures.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of 2012. Mine has held some ups and downs, but I am trying to remain positive.  Now to talk about those wonderful New Years resolutions that people always make, but rarely stick to. As you may have noticed from some of my food posts I love sweets, and making sweets. No I am not talking about giving up these wonderful treats (that could quite likely send me over the edge frankly). I am proposing an effort to make some healthier treats.

To my friends out there who occasionally enjoy my biscuits, chocolates, or baking, I will continue to produce these yummy treats, but for home and for my health I am going to try to make my cooking for home happy and healthy. Good yummy treats, but good for me too :)  There will be photos, there will be blog posts, and there will be disaster. This is not a New Years resolution... this is just a new lifestyle choice.  Now to check what ingredients I need to make my Choc Chunk Cookies for visiting friends this weekend. See, not a resolution, so not breaking anything.