Farewell 2010.

The last week of every year is always an insanely busy time in my life. This might have something to do with the fact that there is Christmas, followed by my sister's birthday (which always leads to lots of celebrating) and then of course more celebrating to ring in the new year.

Christmas was a super quiet affair this year, in fact if it didn't really feel like Christmas time at all. My sister and I have a tradition of watching 'Meet Me in St Louis' and baking Christmas cookies together every year - sadly this year I baked by myself, and we simply never got around to watching the movie. I did however hang out with some of my favourite people on the day AND I went to the movies. I don't know why I've never thought to go to the movies on Christmas before, it's fantastic! You get to see new releases without the accompanying first-week crowds. Think I know what my new Christmas tradition is going to be :P

The rest of the week has pretty much been spent helping my sister celebrate reaching the quarter century milestone in her life - and it has been lots of fun! I don't like to get too sentimental when blogging but I have to say I am so lucky to have such a great sister and am so proud of all her achievements this past year.

I must admit the highlight of my sister's birthday (aside from spending it with her, of course) was the cake. I absolutely love chocolate, so by default I absolutely love Lindt's cake collection. The birthday cake selected was the Chocolate Hazelnut Gateau. It is three layers of vanilla bean cake soaked in frangelico, layered with roasted nuts and gianduja (a hazelnut and chocolate paste). I highly recommend it...so delicious!

The day after my sister's actual birthday, the celebrating continued with a day of shopping, and this is where we finally tried this American-style diner that I've wandered past countless times over the past year but have never had the time to stop in and eat. The decor screams American diner with booths lined all along the walls, and the menu has typical diner fare with extensive burger and fries options, as well as all-day breakfast (featuring a dozen or so pancake options). We opted for pancakes, which were absolutely delicious and completely transported me back to my time in the States where I consumed insane amounts of pancakes (though the portion size was considerably smaller than American standards).

While I would definitely return, I have to say Melbourne has much better options when it comes to American-style diners. Guess I'll just have to get my year's worth of diner food fix when I return to the States.

***

Well, I can't believe 2010 is about to come to an end. While it hasn't always been great, I have had some of the most wonderful times of my life this year. Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life that have made it a pretty awesome year, I'm so lucky and grateful to know you all. I hope 2011 brings good health and happiness to all!

Happy New Year!!

Christmas Cookies.

It has a been a hectic time in my life since my last post, but when is it ever calm this time of year. Today, after a tense kind of morning I decided to come home and bake Christmas cookies to cheer myself up.

I decided to make two different types of cookies. The first were gingerbread people. I make these every year and almost always end up with several dozen of them - and that's after packing them up to be gifted. My version of gingerbread doesn't have allspice, nutmeg or cinnamon in it. It is super simple with ground ginger, golden syrup, flour, brown sugar and bicarbonate soda (and of course, butter). I much prefer this toned down, less spicy version of gingerbread.

This is them fresh out of the oven...

Then I gave them faces...

And here they are ready to be sent off as Christmas gifts.

The second type of cookie is a classic shortbread. The recipe of course comes from none other than the great Ina Garten (aka Barefoot Contessa), who generally inspires most my baking endeavors. These a Christmas-y in the sense that they are made into Christmas-related shapes, i.e. bells, angels, stars and Christmas trees. Aside from that they are pretty ordinary cookies. I varied some of them by drizzling them with some dark chocolate (as per Ms. Garten's suggestion).

A Disastrous Thanksgiving Meal.

I realise that the US Thanksgiving holiday was almost 2 weeks ago, and this post is long overdue. It would be easy for me to say I've been busy finishing up uni for the year, returning to work and just generally getting back in control of my life. But in truth, I think I'm embarassed about what a disaster my 3rd attempt of cooking a thanksgiving meal turned out to be and was simply dragging my feet about posting up the disastrous result.

So, to begin my quest to find a turkey was a complete disaster. I was in the middle of exams, and did not take into account that fresh turkeys will not be available until closer to Christmas. There were literally no turkeys available at my local grocer's. There was a sign telling me I could place an order for Christmas but that didn't help me in the slightest. This should have dissuaded me from pursuing this dream to make a traditional thanksgiving meal...but alas it didn't.

Instead I used the only whole chicken available to me, and it turned out to be the tiniest chicken I have ever cooked with. It was so incredibly small that I actually felt bad eating it... and considering turkeys are about 10 times the size of this chicken, it was really sad to even be calling it a turkey substitute.

At this point I was so upset about not having a turkey that I cheated and instead of making a potato side dish out of real potatoes I made mini-potatoes.

Because the chicken was so tiny, it was near impossible for it to produce sufficient amounts of fat/drippings to be turned into a gravy. So I supplied bottles of different ready-made sauces instead. I skipped making stuffing as well as cranberry sauce (though this is because it is so hard to source frozen cranberries!!).

The only thing that turned out was the pie. I took the recipe for Cranberry and Blueberry pie from the 2010 Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit and substituting raspberries for the filling (again, the reason being frozen cranberries are not easy to find).

The dough is a standard pie crust recipe (available here). To make the filling that I made (which varies slightly to the original Bon Appetit recipe - is as follows:

Ingredients

Approx. 3 1/2 cups of frozen (not thawed) Raspberries (or any other frozen berry combination you like)

1 1/4 cups of sugar (I actually put 3/4 cups of sugar because I didn't want it to be too sweet, so do whatever you like - it's a really flexible kind of recipe)

About 3 tablespoons of corn flour (though this may vary depending on how thick you want to make the filling)

About 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and some grated lemon zest

*The original Bon Appetit recipe includes adding cinnamon, but this doesn't go with ALL berries. I also left it out in my variation due to dietary requirements of my family members.

Method

Place everything into a pot and boil over medium heat (which the magazine said is approx. 15 mins - I found it did not in fact take that long).

Also remember to stir it constantly, as it's like making a jam and if it boils too quickly it will stick/burn to the sides of you pan, which is a complete pain to clean (trust me, I speak from past experience).

Once it's come to a boil, and thickened to a consistency you like, leave it to cool in a glass or ceramic bowl.

Then to assemble the pie - line a pie dish with crust (the standard size is a 12-inch dish, but you can use whatever you have it generally works), place cooled filling in centre and then you can either cover it completely with more crust or make a lattice top.

Brush dough with fresh cream, or milk, or butter - generally anything dairy to help it stick.

Bake for approx. 1 hour or until golden. Leave to cool a bit.

Bon appetit!

Cake Boss and Cannoli.

On another food related note, one of my favourite shows at the moment is Cake Boss. The show follows the crew at Carlo's Bakery located in the heart of Hoboken, New Jersey. Let me just say, these guys are amazing. They make some pretty phenomenal looking cakes, to suit any requested theme. On the whole, the show not only showcases their amazing talents in the cake/baking department, but is generally entertaining following their (often hilarious) family dramas.

The bakery is apparently renowned for their cannoli, and so without fail every time I watch this show I think of cannoli and then crave cannoli. To satisfy my latest cannoli craving, my sister and dad kindly offered to drive out to one of my favourite little Italian patisseries to get me some of the best tasting cannoli in Sydney. The place is Pasticerria Papa and all their desserts are divine! In fact, they are famous throughout Sydney for their Ricotta Cake, which is indescribably delicious.

After 2 hours stuck in ridiculous amounts of traffic, they finally got there. My sister was worried that they might have run out of cannoli, as the place gets extremely busy on weekends (where the line is out the door) and by lunchtime most desserts are no longer available. Thankfully, they were able to get cannoli - both vanilla and chocolate - and some of slices of our favourite Pecan Pie.

Yum!

Mini Potatoes.

So a couple of weeks ago I started watching Nigella Lawson's new show Kitchen. It's no secret that I'm not a big fan and don't quite buy into this "Nigella - the Domestic Goddess" business. My sister on the other hand doesn't mind her and actually ordered her latest cookbook - aptly named Kitchen after the new series.

The main reason I'm not drawn to Nigella's brand of 'cooking' is that she has a tendency to use a lot of pre-prepared/out-of-the-packet food. I prefer to cook from scratch whenever I can (and therefore admire people like Ina Garten who encourage this way of cooking and show how easy it can be). Nigella also has a tendency to over narrate when showcasing her recipes, which I find irritating and mildly pretentious.

However, I must concede that on occasion, Nigella offers up some interesting and surprisingly decent recipes. For instance, I do enjoy her recipe for Chocolate Pear Pudding (available here). It lives up to her claim that it is quick, easy and delicious.

More recently from this new series Kitchen, Nigella promised us a quick, easy side dish of "mini potatoes". What are mini-potatoes I wondered? I had never seen such a product in grocery stores. And then she revealed that these mythical mini-potatoes were in fact a packet of store bought "potato gnocchi" fried in pan. My sister, fascinated by the whole thing, ended up at the store buying a packet of gnocchi to see if was any good.

Turns out this is a superbly delicious way to serve up and eat potato gnocchi (and they're pretty addictive... once you eat one it's kind of hard to stop). So, I must concede - despite the initial bizarreness behind this Nigella "recipe" it isn't half bad and is certainly a different way to present potato gnocchi as a side dish.

Surprising deliciousness aside, what does strike me as odd is that this counts as a recipe and gets a whole page in the cookbook. It may be a twist or a useful tip, but does placing gnocchi into a frying pan with some oil and salt really require a recipe? So here I am, back to being thoroughly unimpressed by Nigella's unique style of "cooking".

NB: On a slightly unrelated note, the post on my attempts at making a traditional Thanksgiving meal is on its way...soon! :)

Bon Appetit.

Today I received the latest issue of my Bon Appetit magazine subscription in the mail. It's the Thanksgiving special and despite having exams I'm excited that it came just in time for me to attempt my 3rd Thanksgiving meal, this coming Thursday.

It may seem unconventional to celebrate Thanksgiving in a country where many people wouldn't even know what it's all about, but I've always loved the idea of this North American holiday - and so a few years ago I decided that I'd like to make a Thanksgiving feast for my family.

Now, it hasn't always turned out the way I planned. Last year for instance I did not leave myself enough time to make all the usual accompaniments, such as cranberry sauce and stuffing - giving up after making a side of potatoes and gravy. I also had to substitute chicken (well, two whole chickens) in place of a turkey - as my mother forgot to source one for me. The other problem I find is that it is really hard to be in the kitchen for a long period of time when the weather this time of year is so warm! It makes me see the appeal of a cold, wintery North American Thanksgiving.

This year I'm determined for it all to turn out differently. At this stage I still need to buy a turkey (which sadly, may or may not happen in time) and all the other bits and pieces necessary to make a pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce and traditional stuffing. I'll be chronicling the result here on Thursday. Fingers crossed it doesn't end in disaster!!

I wonder...

The past couple of weeks of my life can only be summed up as being absolutely chaotic. When my life gets as crazy and chaotic as it has been (this past week in particular) there are two ways I react. I either get mildly hysterical and anxious about everything or I adopt this weird, eerily calm demeanor. At the moment I'm in that place of calm, but what usually happens during this weird period of calmness, is that I get incredibly contemplative and ponder the really strange and insignificant things in life.

This past week as I travelled along the M2 (for those of you unfamiliar with this road, it's a major motorway that travels through the north/north-western suburbs of Sydney). I've travelled this motorway almost everyday for 4 years and there's one thing that I've often wondered about. In morning peak hour when you get onto the M2, heading towards the City, you are lucky to be able to travel 5km/hr. Most of the time the traffic is at a stand-still. And then you reach the Epping tunnel and BAM! Everyone is suddenly able to speed up and drive on the max. speed of 100km/hr.

I don't get it. How can everyone be inching along at 5km/hr for kilometres and kilometres, and then two-seconds later (as you exit the tunnel) everyone is able to drive at 100km/hr. Where does all the traffic go? Does some Fringe-like occurrence happen whereby half the cars are sucked into a parallel universe, therefore freeing up space on the motorway so that the traffic can resume normal speeds?

It's pretty random, but I've thought about this on occasion the past 4 years, but in my contemplative state this week it really got me thinking. I'm sure there's a logical explanation. I just wonder what it is.

NB: For those of you unfamiliar with Fringe, I'm referring to this.

Too busy or just plain lazy?

I'm sitting here thinking about the failure of the exercise regime that I started last month (here). I went cycling about 2 or 3 times and then it just fell apart. I've been blaming it on my busy schedule - between exams and work I just do not have the time. But today as I got thinking about it I realised I am like the thousands of other people out there who constantly vow to get fit and then always make excuses to avoid actually doing it (in other words, it would seem I am just plain lazy).

I'm still determined to get fit and healthy, and I keep telling myself that come the 29th of November I'll be free to pursue this goal of getting healthier. However, I'm slowly starting to feel as sense of despair and lack of faith in myself as I sit here analysing all my previous failed attempts.

A couple of years ago I joined a gym. It cost me around $250 and I told myself that the fact that I had forked out money in pursuit of fitness would encourage and motivate me to drag myself to the gym every day. For a while I went kind-of regularly (by regularly I mean once a week, or sometimes once a fortnight). I took a couple of personal training sessions, and I even went to a yoga class (once)...and then began the reasons why I couldn't go. There was studying and work to be done. I'll go tomorrow I would tell myself, but then I would tell myself the same thing the next day and the next - until it had been several months since I had gone to the gym. Part of me felt bad. As a uni student money is a scarce and valuable commodity, and $250 was a lot of money to pay for something that I was no longer using. Eventually I gave my gym membership to my sister, who must have inherited the patience, motivation and determination that I seem to lack when it comes to exercising and leading a healthier lifestyle.

Reflecting upon my past attempts to institute an exercise regime into my life, it's clear that my excuses of simply being too busy are just that, excuses. I am simply lazy. The challenge for me now is to figure out a way to overcome this laziness - because one day I WILL succeed in sticking it through an exercise regime...if of course my schedule allows it :P

Elixir.

So in attempts to further procrastinate and avoid studying for exams I began (and finished) reading Hilary Duff's book Elixir earlier this week.

The story is about a girl named Clea who is a photo journalist and has spent a great deal of her life in the spotlight, what with her mother being a famous politician and all. Her father (a well-known surgeon) disappears whilst on a humanitarian trip, and Clea begins to notice shadowy images of a mysterious man in all of her photos. Whilst on an assignment, Clea is brought together with this mystery man by some underlying powerful connection. Together they work together to unravel the mystery of their past, and attempt to find her father.

The story for the most part was well written, and is typical of the style adopted by most books in the current, and popular genre of young adult paranormal/romance fiction. I must admit I was skeptical to read it - as much as I adore Hilary Duff I didn't know what to expect of her foray into the world of authorship. The book, while containing paranormal elements that reminded me other books, such as Lauren Kate's Fallen, it was surprisingly interesting and refreshing - in the sense that it did not contain vampires, werewolves or fallen angels. Instead there are magical forces at work, but it centres around the age-old tale of an "elixir of life" and the idea of past lives/reincarnation.

As I was reading the book I noticed I was fast approaching the end and there was so much yet to be resolved - something that really annoys me when I watch a movie or read a book. It makes me wonder if they are going to rush some sort of resolve and bring the story to a crashing end. Well, it turns out Ms. Hilary Duff is working on a sequel, which explains the cliff-hanger-like ending where some answers are given to readers but not all.

All in all, not a bad read.

LA

Since I'm super stressed out at the moment with exams, all I can think about is how much I want to be overseas asap! So I thought I'd procrastinate and take a trip down memory lane in the process...the destination - LA!

First stop of our trip to the USA earlier this year was the lovely city of Los Angeles.

However, unlike NYC I feel it necessary to add, that I do not love LA...I kind of like it. As my sister would agree, our time in LA did not start out on the right note. It consisted of a pretty nerve-wrecking journey on the LA suburban metro system. Now I'm not saying that the trains are all bad, but travelling from the airport on them may not have been the best of ideas, as it takes you on a journey which consists of 3 train changes and many stops through slightly unsavoury parts of town.

By the time we had reached Hollywood and Vine I was close to tears (I may or may not have broken out into sobs...maybe) and my sister looked like she wanted to murder me for ever having suggested catching the train into Hollywood - especially when the concierge had even warned us against it. The journey had seen us come across a slightly, crazy ranting guy who looked like he could (and would) kill you if you so much as made eye contact with him. Then there was "bug man" who was a homeless guy that was asking for money to get medicine for the bugs that he had (I think he meant knits) and all the locals on that particular train starting freaking out...so I did too! It didn't help that, from the the perplexed looks on our faces to the Qantas Frequent Flyer member tag hanging off our bags, we screamed TOURIST!

So we arrived at Hollywood and were stumped as to what our next move should be...we were at the beginning of the Hollywood Walk of Fame but by beginning I mean nowhere near the tourist-y parts of town like the Kodak Theatre or Grauman's Chinese Theatre...we were literally at the brink between Hollywood and the notorious Downtown LA area (where I'm told even locals don't go unless they have to). We stumbled into one of those tourist tour bus type places (and normally I avoid these tour groups as they tend to rip you off). However, the owner was so sympathetic towards us - what with me having been in tears and my sister in a thunderous mood - so he let us on the tour for a really low price. I think we may have paid just $20! And it sure was the best $20 we spent. The tour guide took us to all the famous places (and even historical, yet not typical tourist places) including -

Kodak Theatre

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Paramount Pictures Studios

We saw and did a fair bit during our time in LA but my favourite place, by far, was The Grove "Shopping and Entertainment Resort" which is located at the famous Farmer's Market.

This place is THE ULTIMATE for shopping and has fantastic places to eat (not to mention a great-looking cinema if you have time to check out a movie). You can easily spend a day at this place and not even notice!

Overall, LA is a pretty cool place to visit (even if I do not love it as much as NYC), and it's not a bad place if you like to celeb-spot :P I would definitely go back but maybe just for a stopover kind-of holiday.

Books.

Today I received another parcel containing more books...yay!

There was The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan. I also ordered the new book from the Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic Series - Mini Shopaholic.

Finally, there was Elixir by Hilary Duff...

Now, ever since it was released I've been hearing good reviews about the lovely Miss Duff's foray into the world of authorship. The book debuted at #10 on the New York Times Bestseller List (Children's Books). While all these would lead one to ordinarily be inclined to give the book a read, I bought it for the simple reason that I am a Hilary Duff fan. Many of those who know me, know that I have been a fan of Hilary for years...and by years I mean from way back to 2001 (the Lizzie McGuire days). I even met her in 2008 and she is a genuinely lovely person, and absolutely adorable. I'm looking forward to reading the book, it definitely sounds interesting!

Sugar Free Challenge Update.

Thought I would update on my progress with the Sugar Free Challenge and inform you all of the sad fact that I only lasted one day. What can I say, I love sweets (in moderation, of course) but after a torturous day without sugar, I caved and grabbed the first bit of chocolate-y goodness I could get my hands on.

Everyone told me it was insane (and impossible for me) to give up sugar (cold turkey) for 30 days. I laughed at their lack of faith in me, and smugly told them otherwise. So, yes you were all right and now I must eat humble pie...in fact I'm going to eat a real pie, that has lots and lots of sugar in it!

While I may have failed the 30-Day Sugar Free Challenge I am still determined to adopt a healthier lifestyle (in accordance with to-do list item #2 - become more healthier). So today began my new daily exercise regime, and I'm proud to say so far so good! I started out small and cycled 3km. Needless, to say my out-of-shape legs feel like they're about to fall off. Not sure what I want to be able to achieve with the cycling, but I guess being able to cycle long distances (in a reasonable amount of time) and not have my legs feel like death afterwards might be a good goal to aim for...maybe?

SIFF 2010

I love Octobers simply because it signifies the celebration of good food around Sydney. Unfortunately due to work and uni commitments I haven't had many chances to check out many of the offerings at this year's Sydney International Food Festival. One thing, however, that my sister and I knew we couldn't miss out on was trying one of the special brunch offers.

So today, battling the insane windy weather conditions we ventured out with the family to have brunch at Hyde Park Barracks Cafe. We did the SIFF Brunch here last year and based on that and the set menu that they were advertising it sounded promising.

The 3-course brunch began with a homemade granola, vanilla yoghurt and poached fruit. This was followed by Eggs 3-ways...

Being vegetarian I had the meat-free version. This included - eggs florentine, a mushroom and fetta omelette with ciabatta bread, and an egg and roast tomato tart.

The third and final dish was raspberry waffles with white chocolate sauce, vanilla gelato and berries.

Overall, the food pretty tasty but I can't say that I was overly impressed. It might have been the service that put me off a bit, as at times it was plain offensive (I won't elaborate too much, but I think 90% of the people dining there had been personally insulted by one particular waiter)...but with 3-courses for $25 I can't really complain.

The best part of online shopping...

...is receiving the order early on a miserable Monday morning. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to receive my most recent order of books, CDs and DVDs.

I FINALLY have a copy of Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare.

It is the follow-up series (or rather a prequel series) to the New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series. I love, love, love this series and am constantly recommending it to everyone as a good read (and once again I must thank my friend S for introducing me to the series, so thanks S!!). While it has the elements of vampires and werewolves that are quite typical of the fantasy genre in young adult fiction at the moment, it is a very well-written series that draws you in. In fact I was so captivated by the series that when S lent me the series I didn't leave my room for 2 whole days because I just had to finish the series. Needless to say, I absolutely cannot wait for the weekend so I can read Clockwork Angel.

Also in the parcel was the Season 4 boxset of Psych.

My sister and I love this show, I remember we began watching it way back when Channel 10 put on a couple of episodes one summer. Unfortunately it didn't get the ratings in Australia and was soon after taken off air. In the US however Psych is much loved and has recently been renewed for a 6th season. I can understand why the show may not be to everyone's tastes, especially with a multitude the crime shows on tv, but more particularly because of the fact that the show's fast-paced (sometimes crazy) humour has it's roots in pop culture references that some people may just not get.

On the CD front I FINALLY got around to ordering a copy of Glee Vol. 3 Showstoppers...

...And there was a copy of American Dreams: The Original Soundtrack.

It's no secret that I love all things 1960s, but it was particularly the tv series American Dreams that really got me interested in the popular culture of the '60s (and finally after many years I managed to track down a copy of the soundtrack!). Although at times historically inaccurate the series chronicled the major historical events of the decade while following the life of a typical middle-class American family. What I really loved about the show was how it re-created and depicted the popular '60s show American Bandstand and as such had an array of famous modern day musicians cover the chart-topping songs of much-loved '60s bands.

Well, I'm off to order me some more books (I really wasn't lying when I said I love books) especially with the Aussie dollar currently doing so well. Happy Monday all!

10.10.10

It's been a crazy busy couple of days for me but for the most part it has been crazy in a good way. I spent the most part of my weekend at work but this led to me being introduced to one of the best dumpling places I've ever been too. It also reminded me of the age-old adage to not judge books by their covers. In this case I'm referring to the little dumpling place. Upon first glance it doesn't seem all that welcoming or enticing but appearances aside the food was authentic and absolutely delicious.

After work today I headed down to the Rock's Markets to check out the Australian Cheese Showcase 2010 with a couple of my lovely coworkers, after sampling (and purchasing) some delicious organic goat's milk cheese we wandered around the rest of the markets. This was followed up with a stop in at what is by far my favourite French patisserie in Sydney, La Renaissance. They do THE most divine cakes and their hot chocolates are pretty delicious too! Today my sweet of choice was the Fleur de Lys...

(Source - http://larenaissance.com.au/images/savouries/Zulu.jpg)

It's simply divine. It's a rich chocolate mousse made from Valrhona 70% chocolate, with a crunchy praline and biscuit base. Yum!

Other lovely things that have made my weekend a good one included my newly acquired book bag.

I have been going on about these bags for a while (previously mentioned here), and my lovely sister surprised me by buying me one...and in my favourite pattern too! (Thanks F!!)

In return for my sister's generous and most thoughtful gift of the coveted book bag, I stopped by kikki.K and bought her the 2011 Inspiration Diary that she has been eyeing for a while. In fact the diary is so neat and has some great inspirational quotes throughout, that I ended up going back and buying one for myself.

Bullying.

This past week I've been reading a lot about the teen suicides in the US that were a result of bullying and I can't help but feel incredibly sad while thinking about what an incredibly cruel place the world can be.

Bullying is a huge issue not only in the US but in Australia too. The saddest thing about it is that not a lot is often done (or even said) about it. In many cases those being bullied feel completely helpless and even worse many find the only way out is suicide. The case that has made the biggest headline recently is that of Tyler Clementi, an 18 year old student at Rutgers University who was driven to suicide after he was outed as being homosexual by his roommate who secretly taped and streamed his sexual encounter with another male online. After reading about this I felt sickened and appalled. What sick and heartless human being does this to someone? What makes a bully feel justified in carrying out such a vicious attack on another individual? It is simply heartbreaking that an innocent was driven to take his own life because of the cruel and careless actions of another.

I've never shared this openly before, but when I was younger I was bullied. Growing up I have always been incredibly reserved and somewhat shy. This can make me seem socially awkward when I'm around people that I don't know all that well, when in truth once I get to know someone I can be incredibly outspoken - in fact my nickname from my family since I was 3 years old is 'chatterbox'. Sadly though coming across as quiet and socially awkward led to some people finding it justifiable to taunt and make fun of me - and just be plain horrible. The worst part was realising that my supposed best friend never stood up for me and actually found it "kind of funny". This same 'friend' actually ended up being a huge cause of misery for me as they were reflecting their own insecurities on me and constantly putting me down, making me feel like a complete 'loser' who had to prove myself. Needless to say my self-esteem took a massive hit, and even today I'm incredibly cautious about the people I surround myself with. While I never came out and spoke about my experience to anyone, including my family, I somehow made it through - perhaps it was the sheer determination of proving all those people wrong and the fact that I wanted (and still want) so much more in life. Unfortunately, many people aren't so lucky to come out the other side of being a victim of bullying, and I understand only too well how hard it is to talk about it and ask for help.

Whether the bullying be a result of sexual orientation, race, religion or some other factor, it is completely unacceptable and something needs to be done. For the moment it seems that raising awareness about the issues surrounding bullying in society, and offering support to those that may otherwise feel completely helpless and alone while experiencing bullying is a step in the right direction. The campaign supported by US talk show host Ellen Degeneres in conjunction with The Trevor Project is an example of a positive and much needed action against bullying (especially for LGBTQ youth).

I can only hope that the teen suicides that have plagued the media this past week shows other youths that they are not alone and that there is support out there even if all they feel is a complete sense of helplessness and despair.

Pretzels.

A little while back I ordered this pretzel cookbook, titled The Pretzel Cookbook by Priscilla Warren.

Since my mid-semester break is drawing to an end I thought I would try out one of the recipes. Of course, while at first this seemed like it would be easy, it turns out that you need to plan ahead and give yourself a 24 hour period in which to make them. And so the process began...

Deciding to make a basic pretzel, I made the dough and then left in the refrigerator overnight to rest and let the yeast do it's thing.

Today I pulled the dough out and formed my pretzels. I decided on medium-sized pretzels thinking they would be nice - but let me tell you going the large-pretzel route would have been far more practical and easier when dealing with the dough.

After leaving the formed pretzels to rest some more, I finally got them in the oven. After all that effort they only take 8-10 minutes to bake. It really is true that making bread of any kind requires a great deal of patience, as the preparation itself takes forever!

Unable to decide what toppings to put on them, I decided on salt and poppyseeds. Despite the length of prep time required these pretzels are delicious, and are similar to the traditional New York style pretzel, making all that time and effort worth it :)

Waiter Rant.

I just finished reading this really great book titled Waiter Rant. The book is the brain-child of 'The Waiter' an anonymous guy who started up a blog in 2004 chronicling life as a waiter. The blog became (and still is) wildly popular and even won the Bloggie Award for "Best Writing in a Weblog" in 2006.

My sister is the one that first came across this book, and tracked it down online. It sounded intriguing and so while we waited for the book to slowly make it's way across the globe to our front doorstep I looked up the blog and I can see why it is so popular. The book like the blog is insightful and witty, once I started reading I couldn't put it down. It tells of the highs and lows of working as a waiter.

The thing that struck me most after reading this book is how cruel, rude and inconsiderate diners can be - well, 20% of diners anyway, according to The Waiter who terms this 20% as "socially maladjusted psychopaths". What's more is that this book has changed my outlook on dining out - every time I dine out now I can't help but think of the waiters and what might be going through their minds. I then try everything in my power not to annoy them. If the book has taught me anything, waiters are powerful individuals. While some diners may treat them like scum, what they fail to realise is that they can and will enact revenge in creative ways that you would never think to imagine. I'm not talking about the cliche "spitting in the food" scenarios, although The Waiter informs us that this does in fact on occasion happen - I'm referring more to an intellectual warfare of sorts.

Now, whenever I go out (regardless of whether the place is fine dining or not) I have always tried my best to be polite to waiters and not make their lives difficult. However, I once had the misfortune of being in the company of an individual who acted entitled and treated the waiters like they weren't human beings. It is by far one of the most embarassing situations I have ever had to endure. I feel like sending this rude person a copy of the book. But then the other part of me is comforted by The Waiter's musings and the fact that somewhere, someday a waiter will teach this person a lesson and bring them crashing back down to earth.

All in all, great read. I highly recommend it. If you can't get your hands on a copy of the book, then check out the blog here.

Tulips, Parades and the Elephant Boy.

Just got home from a wonderful day out with the family. We decided to go for a bit of a drive down to Bowral for lunch, and it just so happens that the locals were in the midst of celebrating their annual Tulip Time Festival.

For lunch we stopped in at the Elephant Boy Cafe. The cafe has a quirky decor, filled with all sorts of odds and ends, and shelves lined with old books.

The food is (for the most part) really good. I opted for the Vegetable Lasagna was supremely tasty with it's fusion of Indian and Italian flavours - while it had a traditional bechemel sauce it was spiced with a lovely pancha masala.

My dad and sister tried the Fish Cakes (made from Salmon and Potato), which is a dish Elephant Boy is quite popular for. I, of course, could not resist and stole a bite from their plates and decided that they were indeed absolutely delicious.

Because I had trouble deciding what to order my mum decided to get the Sweet Potato Tart so that we could share and I could have both the lasagna and tart. It too was spiced with some uniquely Indian flavour and with the accompanying Mango Chutney was incredibly tasty.

After lunch we decided to go for a bit of a wander around the main street and check out all the stores we like to visit whenever we head to Bowral. Despite the fact that I'm in the middle of a mission to save money for a holiday I couldn't help myself and had to buy something. I opted for a little bar of Herbal Clothing Protector. I figured it was practical, protecting my clothes from potential moth infestations, and so it justified the spend.

Then my sister and I went into one of the many antique stores. There is simply so much character and history behind each piece, I love it!

While we were out on our little wander we noticed the street was beginning to fill up with locals, and it was then that we discovered that today was in fact the main day of the Tulip Festival, and because they were celebrating it's 50th year there was going to be a parade through town. The parade itself was pretty standard, showcasing the organisations and things that make the Southern Highlands unique.

Following the parade there was going to be wheelbarrow races and lantern parades but we decided it was time for a break from festival-watching and decided to grab some coffee and cake instead. We usually head to the Bowral Cafe and Patisserie, but having enjoyed our earlier meal at Elephant Boy we decided to head back there. Sadly, this second visit was a bit of a let down. We ordered our coffees, as well as a slice of Carrot Cake and a slice of Pear and Almond cake to share. When they arrived we were shocked to discover that there was in fact mould on the Pear and Almond cake. This put a major dampener on our afternoon.

Despite the mould debacle the coffees were in fact really good, living up to the claim on the door that they have "the best coffee in town". Predictably I ordered a Chai Latte, and not only was it perfectly made it came in a little bowl, which I thought was pretty neat - even if it did present a slight challenge when it came to drinking it.

All in all it was pretty great day :)