A perfect Friday night

I'm in my element tonight - up to date with my work, take away for dinner followed by a chocolate Easter bunny, watching a bit of the royal wedding and tv and now finally I'm able to scroll through a few blogs (long overdue) before enjoying a 3 day weekend. A perfect Friday night.

I came across these images of an interior in Berlin and love the light filling the rooms and use of black and white photographs. I'm thinking our white walls could do with a little decorating of some kind.

{ images found on freunde von freunden via fine ting og sjokolade }

Puppy eyes

I've been busy working on the next lot of images for nude food magazine this past week as well as being surrounded in designer shoes for a job I'm working on. So I've had to keep this little one away for fear of him chewing expensive shoes while I'm not looking. But how can I resist those eyes. I rewarded him this morning with a new chew toy and already he is tearing it apart. Little monster.

Morning, noon & night

To add a bit of consistency to the food part of Little things I've decided (attempting!) to start a new section called 'Morning, noon & night'. I will post a selection of recipes which will hopefully give ideas for the 3 main meals of the day.

This week I'm starting off with a few of my favourites -

Morning - toasted muesli with raspberries and greek yoghurt

Noon - grilled ciabatta with pesto, mushroom & goat's cheese

Night - steak au poivre followed by molten chocolate pudding

If you click on the recipe/text images they will open up larger. I hope you enjoy the new section!

Blake & Taylor

This year I have started doing work for a little shop in Paddington called Blake & Taylor who sell recycled furniture and homewares. On my first visit I fell in love with the store and the way everything was perfectly styled. Inside the store they have a cute little cafe where tea and coffee are served in vintage pots and High Tea presented on vintage China. I took some photos for the store recently as an introduction to their cafe and High Tea. Worth a visit if you're in Brisbane.

Nüde Food Magazine

As I mentioned in previous posts I've had a busy month. One project I worked on in that time was for Nüde Food Magazine. Nüde Food is produced on the Gold Coast and it caught my eye a while back for its organic and fresh look. After meeting with the friendly team who created the magazine I put together some shots ( a sample shown above) for their Autumn issue which today I was very excited to see in the newsagent. The magazine looks great and the recipes really are delicious (a few spoonfuls may have been sampled here and there). I'm looking forward to doing some more work with them and seeing how the magazine grows.

For those who love Italian food and live around Brisbane, Nüde Food are holding a lunch at Tartufo called The Big Fat Italian Lunch on Sunday 12th June. The hubby and I dined there on Friday night and the food is amazing. Details are on the Nüde Food website.

Chouquette

It was the perfect day here in Brisbane. Bright blue sky and nice and warm without being too steamy. We started our day with a walk along the river with Dexter followed by a breakfast of croissants from a French bakery in New Farm called Chouquette. It has been on my list to visit for sometime and I'm not sure why we didn't visit sooner. The breads and pastries are beautifully done and they put my little strawberry tart earlier to shame! The pastry is so light and the pistachio brioche whilst unusually shaped was delicious.

Strawberry and passionfruit sable pastry tart

Finally a little food post! I was in charge of taking dessert along to a dinner with friends this week and I found this recipe in the latest edition of Country Style magazine. I'm yet to perfect pastry but with some practice I will get there.

Strawberry and passionfruit sable pastry tart

Passionfruit mixture

• 1 cup milk

• 1 vanilla bean, split

• 3 egg yolks

• 1/3 cup caster sugar

• 2 tbsp cornflour

• 1/2 cup passionfruit pulp

Strawberries

• 250g punnet strawberries, hulled and sliced

• 1/2 tsp icing sugar

• 1 tbsp vanilla Galliano liqueur

• Double cream or ice-cream to serve

Sable pastry

• 2 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 1/2 cups plain flour

• Pinch of baking powder

• Pinch of salt

• 175g unsalted butter, softened

Passionfruit mixture - Heat milk and vanilla bean over medium heat until it reaches a gentle simmer. Remove from heat and discard vanilla bean. Set aside. With an electric beater, beat egg yolk, caster sugar and cornflour for 3 minutes or until thick and creamy. Gradually add hot milk, whisking gently until combined. Strain passionfruit pulp through a sieve and discard seeds. Stir passionfruit juice into the milk mixture and combine. Pour mixture back into pot and heat over medium heat for 5 minutes or until mixture begins to boil and thicken. Refrigerate until required.

Sable pastry - Using an electric beater, beat the egg yolk, icing sugar and vanilla extract for 2 minutes or until thick and creamy. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt and beat until combined. Add butter and beat until combined. Divide dough into 4 equal portions, flatten into 3cm thick round discs, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 200˚C. Lightly grease four 2cm deep, 10cm tart pans with removable bases. Roll pastry discs between 2 sheets of baking paper and line pans with pastry. Place in freezer for 10 minutes. Transfer pans to a oven tray and line each pastry case with a circle of baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes or until pastry is golden. Remove weights and paper and allow to sit in pans for 5 minutes before removing from pans. Cool pastry on a wire wrack.

Strawberries - Combine strawberry, icing sugar and Galliano in a bowl and stand for 30 minutes. Drain strawberries and set aside.

To serve - Spoon passionfruit mixture into pastry shells. Divide strawberries among tarts. Serve with double cream or ice-cream.

~ Serves 4