Tomatoes on Toast

I'll let you in on my newest breakfast addiction... Sauteed tomatoes on toast. Now this probably sounds pretty boring, simple, and standard, but every time I make this I like to play around and try different twists on the flavour combination.

My first introduction to this was through a friend who made this for brunch one day in the summer, when tomatoes were at their best! His style was classic truss tomato, garlic, fresh basil, salt, pepper, olive oil, and sourdough toast, and I was amazed at how something so simple could be so flavourful! I was hooked. Since that time I've made this about 10 times, sometimes the classic way, sometimes a bit different.
The basic recipe is as follows.

~2 Medium-sized Tomatoes per person, chopped to your preferred size
1-2 Garlic cloves, smashed and finely chopped up. Use more or less depending on how garlicky you like it!
1-2 Tablespoons of good quality Olive Oil
Handful of Fresh Basil, torn up into shreds (you can do this by hand or quickly with a knife)
Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper to taste.

1. Heat oil in a frying pan or sauce pan
2. Add garlic and saute until fragrant
3. Add tomatoes and stir so they don't stick to the bottom
4. Fry gently for a few minutes until they are heated through and some of the liquid has evaporated
5. Add basil, stir through, and take off the heat while you salt & pepper to taste!
6. Serve over toast

Here are some ideas for those of you interested in trying this awesomely easy and tasty brekky:

Switch up your tomatoes - This is fun especially in summer, when you can find heirloom tomatoes of all colours, shapes, and sizes at the fresh grocers (or your backyard!). For a burst of colour, try this breakfast with Black Russian tomatoes, or maybe Green Zebras... It also works with Cherry Tomatoes and if they're small enough you don't even need to chop them up!

Switch up your bread - Try Wholemeal, Sourdough, Multigrain, Rye, Olive, Gluten Free, or any other interesting bread you can find! Even Naan works great when you spice the tomatoes in an Indian style. Which leads me to...

Switch up your spices - Generous lashings of salt and pepper are a must in my opinion, but after that it's up to you to play around. Here are some I like:

-Indian style- Try Curry Powder on the tomatoes and stir in some fresh Coriander just before serving over Naan bread (garlic, herb, or regular).
-Or for a Mexican morning, maybe some taco seasoning/chili powder/chipotle powder in your tomatoes, also with fresh coriander. Serve on toast smeared with avocado!
-Feeling the need for protein? Stir through some cannellini/white beans or butter beans, with lots of fresh basil. Or top your toast with baked beans before adding the tomatoes over them.
-No fresh basil around? Stir some pesto through your tomatoes (I use homemade, or just frozen chopped basil that I discovered at Aldi), and top your tomatoes with toasted pinenuts.
-Sprinkle Nutritional Yeast over any of these combinations for a slightly cheesy taste!

Enjoy! 

Ethiopian Food Experimentation!

For the past few weeks I have been suffering a killer craving for Ethiopian/African food. While I would normally just head down to one of the many restaurants in the neighbouring suburb of Footscray, T & I are living on student budgets at the moment and I thought it would be a good challenge to whip up some food at home. I will admit that I did cheat a bit and get my Injera (sour pancake-like bread that you use to scoop the food up with) from Footscray as I didn't want to spend the time figuring out how to make it, but we made everything else ourselves!!

To get started we prepared the ubiquitous Ethiopian spice mix Berbere. I called out ingredients and amounts as T assembled the mix in a frying pan and lightly toasted it upon completion. This amazingly delicious spice mix is still haunting our kitchen and is still making the house smell tantalizingly good 24 hours later. 

Here is the recipe I used for the Berbere:

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons paprika

1 tablespoon red chili flakes

1/2 teaspoon hot cayenne powder

1 tablespoon salt

Combine together, and toast in fry pan until fragrant!

Using that spice mix you can now make the following recipes- Yellow Split Pea Stew and Misir Wot. For the greens, T just picked some Silverbeet from our back garden and sauteed it with garlic, turmeric, and berbere spice mix (to taste). I know it's not much to look at, but boy was it tasty!!

When I say these were delicious, it is an understatement. I'm still flabbergasted that we made something that was restaurant quality in taste AND significantly less oily than our previous restaurant meals. These recipes come highly recommended!! If you try them please let me know how they come out. Happy cooking!!

Pizza Perfection!!

Being from the home of some of the world's best pizza, it has been a long-term goal of mine & T's to get close to replicating the pizza of my pre-Australian life. Throughout the years we've played around with all the variables- types of flour, sweeteners, mixing methods, cooking times, etc., and I thought I'd share our current leader in pizza dough recipes.

This dough is great- it's chewy, resilient under heavy toppings, doesn't rise too much, and gets crispy on the bottom with proper use of a hot oven and preheated pizza stone. And it's tasty too! Here's how we do it.

This recipe ends up making 4 pizza-stone size pizzas (5 if you stretch it). We usually make 4-5 and freeze/refrigerate some for work lunches!

1kg Plain Flour (Type 00 is preferred)
14g Dried Instant Yeast
15g Salt
2Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + extra for drizzling over dough
2 1/2 - 3C Warm (not hot) Water
Optional: A few teaspoons of dried herbs

Firstly, put your pizza stones in the oven and crank the heat to maximum! Then pour yourself a glass of nice wine. This is essential to pizza making success!

Now for the actual dough making... We use a Breville Scraper Mixer Pro (the apple green coloured love of my life) so I dump all the dry ingredients, including herbs if they're being used, in with the dough hook attachment. Turn it on low and then slowly add the Olive Oil & Water. How much water you need will depend on your flour quality and the weather, so it's best to add a bit at a time and check the dough consistency to know when you've added enough. Once all the water has been added, it's okay to turn it up slightly higher to increase the "kneading" power. I let it knead for about 2-3 minutes, or until the dough is smooth, shiny, and elastic. If you are doing this all by hand, add the ingredients together in a bowl and then hand-knead until you arrive at the smooth, shiny, elastic result. I expect it would take about 4-5 minutes longer.

I then form the dough into a ball, put it back in the mixing bowl, drizzle some olive oil to keep it from drying out, and cover the bowl with a damp tea towel. It's a good idea to put this bowl of dough near the oven so it stays warm (but not ON the oven as it may start to cook). How's your wine level? Do you need a top up? I usually do!

After about an hour, when the dough has doubled in size, it's ready to be separated into 4-5 smaller balls from which you will make your beautiful pizzas. I find that rotating and stretching the dough is the best way to make it pizza-sized, but you may prefer rolling it out if you don't like the rustic, hand-made look!

My tip for making uniform pizzas that will transfer easily to the stone is to use a metal round pizza tray to put the dough onto. That way you can have a relatively round pizza base and quickly flip the tray upside down onto the pizza stone. This requires a bit of practice, so if it seems like too much of a challenge, you can try forming the base on the bottom side of the pizza tray and sliding it onto the stone. Then you do a super-fast pizza toppings spread and pop that baby back into the oven to incubate!

As for cooking times, I generally leave the oven light on and check on the pizzas in about 7minutes. There seems to be a great variation in cooking times between ovens, and even where in the oven the pizza is. Cooking is an art and is all about feel, so as you make this recipe and become familiar with it and your ingredients you will start knowing what feels, looks, and tastes right and what doesn't.

Good luck and happy pizza making!!

Our Trip to PAWS (People & Animal Welfare Society) in Perth

It was a beautiful sunny day on our trip to Perth, and I was keen to have lunch with T at a place I had heard great things about - the People & Animal Welfare Society in Perth.

Part cruelty free shop, part cafe, part activist space, and entirely non-profit, this place is known to do some great lunches of both the raw and cooked vegan variety. Although T is a native of Perth, this was his first time here. I highly recommend checking out their website (at the bottom of this post) as they have heaps of information, an online store, and they do so many great things for the community! 



Our Table

The inside of PAWS is decorated nicely, although the business-like large tables provide an unusual seating arrangement for dining. As it was a seat-yourself and order at the bar arrangement, we chose to sit at a table near the exhibition wall which was featuring a dementia/aged care themed group of photos. This review is on the food though, so let's get started! 

It was quickly decided that we would order one medium raw plate and one medium cooked plate and share. These plates included a little sample of each of the dishes on offer, and they were a great way to be introduced to the food of PAWS.


Medium Raw Plate



The raw plate had a mix of salads, topped with a slice of their delectable raw pizza and a few raw seed crackers. I have been eating raw pizza wherever I can get it for years, and this is up there with the best! It was so flavourful and fresh... a totally guiltless indulgence. The best part about eating raw food is that you never feel too full or heavy after eating it, and I love the feeling that I get that I have done something really great for myself!



Medium Cooked Plate 

The cooked plate came with fluffy jasmine rice and a few curry-like dishes- some with faux meat chunks and some vegetable based. From memory there was a coconut chicken curry, a yellow curry, and I cannot for the life of me remember the third! The important part is that they were all tasty and filling, and great value for the $8-9 that I think we paid.

After the cooked food it was onto dessert!! I am a massive cheesecake fan, which sometimes makes vegan life difficult... but it's experiences like the one I had at PAWS that made me feel like I'm not missing out. We ordered a slice of beetroot-chocolate raw cheesecake ($6), which was a bit out of character for me as I am not a fan of beetroot. T loves it, so I thought I'd humour him and give it a try. Let's just say the cheesecake was so amazing that we started eating before I even got to photograph it! I am so crazy about this slice of cake that I think that access to it is pretty much worth the plane ticket to Perth. I can't wait to get back here and have more!!



The Best Raw Cheesecake in the WORLD



People & Animal Welfare Society(click for website, info & online store)

Address: 120 Beaufort Street Perth WA 6000

Ph: 08 9228 2435

PROS: Fresh delicious food, very affordable prices, being able to shop and eat at the same place, proximity to Perth CBD, great lolly/sweets fridge, that cheesecake, friendly staff.

CONS: The odd table settings made intimate lunches difficult, they probably don't ship that cheesecake to Melbourne.


Pupcakes for Hairy Hounds Playground!

A few weeks ago I agreed to bake 200 (180 vegan + 20 gluten free vegan) cupcakes for the 5th Birthday Extravaganza of Hairy Hounds Playground, a dog daycare that my friend owns in Williamstown. They came out great despite making me slightly crazy (a big shout out to my BEM800 mixer that made life a lot easier), and were a hit at the party (so I'm told). Here's a few snaps of them both in progress and completed! If you're wondering, the fur is toasted coconut, the ears are licorice ropes cut in half, the eyes are vanilla frosting with non-dairy chocolate chips for pupils, and the noses are chocolate chips as well! Apologies for the photos not being top notch, I was pretty frazzled and amazed that I even remembered to photograph them!

Pupcakes without mouths!

Finished Pups

Mmmm Pancakes

I was really craving some pancakes and since T and I had the luxury of this Thursday off, I decided to whip up some of my favourites. Pancakes are traditionally breakfast food in the US and for me, serving them with ice cream (Australian style) is very weird. I personally prefer them slathered in crunchy peanut butter so that it melts a little and then drizzled with maple syrup! You can't beat the combination of sweet and salty!!

Anyway, after a quick google search I used this recipe and added in some chopped banana, chocolate chips, and a pinch of cinnamon. They were a perfect way to start the day alongside a hot cup of coffee!

THE "Recipe for Love": Maple-Flaxseed Cornbread

Following the success of my cornbread at the American-themed vegan dinner party I held last night, I thought a share of this recipe was in order. This recipe has been slightly adapted from the original (as no recipe is my life is beyond reinterpretation and experimentation), but this adaptation seems to be a hit! I made a version of this cornbread for my now-husband when I first met him, and it sparked the first of our many food-related conversations and recipe exchanges. 
I was too busy eating and talking to take a photo!! Apologies.

MAPLE-FLAXSEED CORNBREAD

Preheat yo' oven to 190-200.  

1 C Flour
1 C Polenta
1tsp Salt
3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2/3 C Sugary Stuff (Made up of whatever combo of dry sugar & Maple Syrup that you wish- I usually do 1/4 C maple and the rest dry raw sugar)
1 "egg" (made up of 1tbsp ground linseed and 3tbsp of hot water, stirred and cooled until it becomes egg texture)
3/4 C Soy/Oat Milk
1/3 C Veg/Canola/Other mild-flavoured Oil 

Mix all the dry ingredients together in one bowl. Then mix the Sugars + wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet ones to the dry ones until just combined.

Pour into a spray-oiled or baking paper-lined 8x8 or 9x9 (I don't know what this is in metric) dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick in the centre comes out clean and the edges are goldeny brown.

Alternatives include: adding 3/4 C - 1 C corn kernels, or finely diced different coloured capsicum or jalapenos. You can also add paprika, smoked paprika, or some sort of chilli powder to give it a bit of a different taste.

Mmm Leafy Green Kale

Last winter was the first time that I tried to grow my own kale. I have long grown Silverbeet/Swiss Chard but hadn't thought much of kale since I am exposed to it so rarely- I can't recall one time that I've seen it in the supermarket or green grocer since moving to Australia four years ago! After hearing how amazingly healthy it is and having high hopes that it may be as easy to grow as silverbeet, I bought some seeds at our local gardening store.
The seedlings came up great and produced a fair few leaves before it got too warm outside and the plants went to seed. The way I dealt with this short but sweet harvesting period was to make a couple rounds of Kale Chips through a preparation method I had read about in a Vegetarian Times newsletter. Oh. my. lord. They were amazing and addictive, and I couldn't believe I was eating a food that has been touted as a "superfood" and "the most nutrient dense food that exists"! I CANNOT wait until its cool enough to grow some more- it will be a staple in my garden next winter.
In the mean time, I saw this article on "17 Ways to Use Kale" and thought I should share it because it helps make this somewhat unknown leafy green a bit more familiar. And if you do manage to find yourself some kale, A) Let me know where I can get it too!!! and B) Try some of these preparation methods!

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/17-ways-to-use-kale-slideshow.html

Another Awesome Dinner at the East Brunswick Club

One of my favourite places to have a meal out at is the East Brunswick Club. The EBC just looks like any Melbourne pub that serves great beer and pub meals-but there's a twist. The twist is that there is an all vegan/vegetarian menu that allows us cruelty-free eaters to take part in the full Aussie pub experience- parmas, burgers, even fish and chips (and their chips are really moreish)! Almost every time I go there I order some version of the parma, which is a slab of amazing wheat gluten fake chicken covered in crispy golden breadcrumbs, vegan cheese, and whatever toppings said variation includes! The Americana Parma that is pictured to the right is topped with vegan ham and American-style mustard. All parmas come with a side of chips and salad to round out your meal.

Vegan Americana Parma

Vegan Fish & Chips

T's Vegan BBQ Burger & Chips

Vegan Choc Peanut Butter Cheesecake

The quality at the EBC is always consistently high- the only thing I've noticed is that the wait can be a bit long when they are busy, so it's best to get there early. The EBC also features $12 Jugs, Parmas, Burgers & Pastas on Mondays (vegan & regular) and $12 Parmas on Tuesdays during trivia. And by the end of your meal, if you haven't filled up on a parma, burger, or other yummy vegan pub fare, there's even an exclusively vegan dessert menu! This time I shared a slice of decadent Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with T. It was to die for!!

THE EAST BRUNSWICK CLUB (Click for website & menu)
Address: 280 Lygon Street, Brunswick East VIC 3057
Phone: (03) 9388 9794 ‎

PROS: Great food selection, $12 Buck Mondays, Trivia Tuesdays, Good beer, High quality vegan food, Amazing cheesecake, etc.

CONS: Sometimes quite slow when busy, Hipsters frequent this place.

Lilypad Cafe - Veggie Breakfast in Cairns

On the last night of our holiday in Cairns, we stayed at Gilligan's Backpackers, which was incidentally across the street from the Lilypad Cafe. I had found a few good reviews for their coffee and food so we made it a point to stop there for our last holiday breakfast. I was starving and while the cafe is not exclusively veg, the plethora of vegetarian & vegan breakfasts was slightly overwhelming for me! I settled on a big veggie breakfast, while T ordered an open sandwich with mushrooms, avocado, tomato and capsicum in a takeaway

box in case he couldn't finish it.

Firstly, the coffee was very tasty and met our snobby Melbourne standards :). And the food, well, let's just say we were amazed by the generous servings but still managed to make all that food disappear quite quickly! If I'm ever back in Cairns this will be the first place I go to from the airport!

Lilypad Cafe

72 Grafton St (Opposite Gilligan's)

Cairns, QLD 4080

Pros: Great food, Huge serves, Affordable prices, Meat meals for those who desire them, Above-standard coffee, Convenient location for backpackers, Outside seating

Cons: Perhaps only the strangers who could walk by and harass you if you are sitting outside, but we didn't experience this and actually enjoyed people watching!

Lord Of The Fries does Breakfast!

Ohhhh Yes! Can't wait to try these!! Why oh why doesn't my morning commute take me past Flinders St Station??

Winter Veggies!

Coming from the Northeast US, the idea that anything can survive (and on top of that, grow!) during winter is totally amazing to me. Before moving to Australia I never knew that winter gardening existed, or that some of my favourite veggies were specifically winter ones. Arriving in Melbourne and starting my own veggie patch was a real eye-opener for me, and nearly 4 years later I am getting pretty good at the whole winter-gardening thing!

One of my favourite veggies to grow is Silverbeet/Swiss Chard (click for nutritional info), for a few reasons. A) It's so easy. Like, "put it in the ground and forget you planted it" easy. My favourite kind of gardening. Now onto reason B) It's gorgeous. I like to buy Rainbow Silverbeet seeds because they end up looking like ornamental plants but are really edible! Which brings me to C) Silverbeet is delicious! I can't seem to find "Collard Greens" in Australia so for whatever recipe I used to use Collards in, I now use Silverbeet. Chiffonade-cut and sauteed with garlic? Yep. Chopped and sauteed with sultanas and orange juice a la Bryant Terry? Oh yes!! The list goes on and on but it's great for baking, steaming, sauteeing, etc. and very healthy for you too!

Above is our veggie patch in June, with Rainbow Silverbeet, Cauliflower, and Broccoli seedlings. On the right you will see the first of many Silverbeet harvests that will occur this winter. These were picked in mid-August. How gorgeous are they??

See below for my favourite way to use these greens, by one of my favourite chefs! If you don't know about Bryant Terry and his book Vegan Soul Kitchen, you need to get educated!!

Mmm... Vegan Gelatinous Meat Substitutes!

There seem to be two camps of vegetarians and vegans: those who are into eating vegetarian "meat" substitutes and those who think such things are totally blasphemous. I fall into the former category- I stopped eating meat because I loved animals and wasn't morally okay with eating beings that weren't really any different than my cat or dog, not because I particularly didn't like the taste of meat. The fact that there are foods that I can eat (in moderation, just like everything else) that replicate what I would be missing out on is, for me, awesome.

That being said, I still am totally amused and amazed by what meat substitutes people come up with. Recently while shopping at a vegetarian food store, I found this:

Now I can see how someone would really miss, say, chicken wings, schnitzels, ribs, and burgers. What I can't comprehend is someone thinking "man, I like being vegan but I sure do miss my gelatinous chicken feet and snails!" I've also seen (and once tried) vegetarian "intestine", from which animal it was supposed to be I'm not particularly sure. This kind of stuff just comes down to cultural differences in diet, but it still makes me giggle. To each their own, right? Hope you newbies to the world of vegetarianism/veganism find some amusement in this as well :)

Bagels!!

So now that we have our new kitchen stand mixer, I've been really keen to make more dough-related goods. It was a cold morning and I couldn't think of anything more perfect than to have fresh, hot bagels for brunch.

After some quick research I settled on this recipe:

New York-Style Bagels | New York-Style Bagels Recipe | the sophisticated gourmet

It was easy to follow and the only thing I can really say about it is that I'm sure it would become easier to handle the dough with more experience. My bagels didn't come out as puffy and gorgeous as the ones in those photos, but they still tasted amazing!! The ones with roasted garlic flakes were my favourite, but I think T liked the jalapeno ones the best.

P.S. It was a fiddle-with-phone-camera-settings type of day!

Rose Petal Jam (or Sauce, as it turns out)

Being that I have a stunning and fragrant rose bush in my back yard, I thought it would be clever to put it to good use and try to make some Rose Petal Jam. I found a recipe that detailed step-by-step instructions, and away I went. First I picked the petals, then boiled them down into a syrup, added the magical colour-reviving lemon juice and sugar, and boiled again. Unfortunately I must not have boiled enough (or over-boiled, I can't tell!) because it never set into a jam but is instead a delicous rose syrup now. Next time I will use a sugar thermometer and find a recipe that includes a gelling agent, and see if those factors help me out a bit. Overall it was a very interesting experience, being my first foray into jam making, and gave me a taste of delicious floral summer in the middle of winter!

Vegetarian Phở Hunters, Rejoice!

With the cold weather in Melbourne making me reminiscent about my time in Southeast Asia last year, I was really craving some Vietnamese food. The problem was that vegetarian/vegan phở is not easily found amongst the countless Vietnamese shops around Footscray (my local mini-Asia) and Richmond (the closest/most accessible east-side version of Footscray). Experiencing a motivating craving and being the relentless researcher that I am, I was determined to finally get the job done. I read review after review of noodle restaurants until I found one that seemed suitable and had a good amount of vegetarian options- Thanh Nga Nine, 160 Victoria St, Richmond.

After a short tram ride from the city, T & I arrived there a bit earlier than expected and while the staff was still eating their own dinner (oops!). We ordered a couple drinks and had a look through the menu, slightly overwhelmed by how many items were on it! While there is a dedicated vegetarian section, there are also other vegetarian dishes scattered throughout the regular, gigantic menu. Luckily the staff member serving us was helpful and explained what the specialties were and what we could eat. We ordered the vegetarian version of the "Vietnamese Pancakes" (see below) as a starter, a bowl of vegetarian phở for me as a main, and Salt & Pepper Eggplant for T as a main.

The "Vietnamese Pancakes" came out first, and I'm using quotes because I've never seen anything like these before and they didn't resemble what my American mind conjures up when I think "pancake". They were crispy rice flour based half-shells filled with a custardy mung bean paste, smooth coconut cream, crispy fried onions (I think) and a few other ingredients I can't remember, and were served with amazing dipping sauces (one was coconut based and the other chili based) that allowed you to tailor each pancake to your particular preference. These ended up to be a perfect mix of crispy, soft, sweet, salty, and hot for me. I imagine they would be a love-it-or-hate-it dish for most people as the texture combination and taste are quite foreign to Westerners! Luckily I loved them, even though they were a wee bit more oily than I usually like my food to be.

When I was presented with the platter of bean sprouts and lime that signified the impending arrival of my Phở, it was a similar anticipatory feeling to when the house lights go down in a venue just before the band you've been waiting to see is about to play. Nerdy and excited? Yes. Warranted? Also yes. I had been wanting to eat vegetarian phở for years, and my time had finally arrived. Although I don't have many previous experiences with vegetarian phở in Melbourne, I thought my soup was great! It really hit the spot on a cold and grey wintery evening. There were a few different types of mock meats in there, more noodles than I could probably eat in 24 hours, and a deliciously spiced broth.

T's salt and pepper eggplant was also amazing- a great juxtaposition of crispy batter with silky eggplant, garnished with spicy and fresh chillies and herbs. No complaints there!

Overall, we both enjoyed ourselves and will have a hard time deciding whether to order the same things because they were great, or new things just to try them!

Pros: huge portions, good variety for vegetarians, helpful staff, interesting and delicious dishes, affordably priced.

Cons: the hunt for vegetarian dishes littered throughout the menu in non-vegetarian designated areas is a bit exhausting, and some dishes are slightly too oily for my liking, but that is extremely subjective.

Thanh Nga Nine

160 Victoria St, Richmond

03 9427 7068

You can find their menu online here-

http://www.agfg.com.au/guide/vic/melbourne/melbourne-eastern-suburbs/richmond/restaurants-dining/thanh-nga-nine-vietnamese-restaurant-bar

Aduki Vegan Bake-Off

Recently my husband T & I participated in the Aduki Vegan Bake-Off in Melbourne. It was held at the Kindness House on Brunswick Street, and I have to say I was really impressed with not only how many people showed up and competed, but also by how good all the food was!! After the judges tried each item, it was opened up to all the Vegan Vultures to sample for ourselves. People were hovering around tables, just waiting for the dishes to be brought back for tasting. We got to try samples of several dishes, and I must say there were some tasty sweets there!! I especially liked the Lamingtons!

So back to the competition... T baked a Sweet Onion & Eggplant Pizza, and I made Peach Crumble Cupcakes.

We both won our respective categories (Savoury & Cupcakes) and I was lucky enough to win the Grand Prize as well!! My prize was a gift basket of lovely vegan goodies, a very cute apron & potholder, some recipe books, and a cool comic book wallet! I obviously am thrilled and definitely have had my baking confidence boosted a bit :)