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Sarah Cooks: The Unblogged Files: June 2013
Unblogged

The Unblogged Files: June 2013

7/01/2013 11:06:00 PM

Hello hello! So, it's July already - when did that happen? Here's June's Unblogged Files!

For the first week of the month, I was still in Germany - many blogposts to come (as well as the rest of my London and Paris posts!), but in the meantime please enjoy this picture of a Grillpfanne that we enjoyed at a mountainside restaurant in the Odenwald. Three types of meat, cream sauce and fried potatoes. Oh lecker!

Grilpfanne!
After we got home, first meal was some super-spicy Chinese, at Best Food Gallery in Box Hill. Dumplings and Dan Dan!
Best Food Gallery, Box Hill
I've been trying to cook healthier since we've gotten home - making, for example, Ottolenghi's fabulous date and spinach salad, with a rare steak for a midweek dinner.
Ottolenghi's steak and date salad
Another healthy option was this mirin-glazed salmon, with soba noodles and broccolini. I've made this one before (see recipe here!), but this time I dressed the soba with bottled Japanese sesame salad dressing.
Mirin-glazed salmon with soba and chargrilled broccolini

But of course the healthy meals haven't always gone to plan, and there were more than a few takeaway meals this month. Whoops! Here we have some Nando's and Salsa's. (The theme is: I like spicy food!)
Nando's wrap, Salsa's  burrito
After a great trip, a bit of post-holiday blues is inevitable - I've been trying to extend the holiday feeling with some German baking and cooking.
Pretzels!
Kassler (aka bacon steak), bread dumplings, apple sauce, red cabbage

Hochzeitsuppe (wedding soup) with apple pancakes

Bratwurst, spinach, potatoes
One night, we went for a celebratory dinner at Rosetta, Neil Perry's new Italian restaurant in Crown. Despite it getting quite mixed reviews, we had an enjoyable night, and most of the food was very good. I didn't have my camera with me, only my iPhone, but I think I might blog it anyway! We shall see. I really liked this starter of buffalo mozzarella with chargrilled vegetables - a lovely way to start the meal!
Buffalo Mozzarella with char-grilled zucchini, capsicum and eggplant

One weekend, I just had to bake because it was so bloody cold and I wanted to turn the oven on! I made Peanut Butter cookies with Reese's mini Peanut Butter Cups and Lindt milk chocolate (using this recipe). So good!
Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
And speaking of peanut butter, one of my favourite snacks recently has been apple slices with peanut butter. So tasty! Lately I've been sharing (ok, stealing) my coworker's de-licious imported cinnamon raisin swirl peanut butter. It's such a great 3pm pick-me-up! (Also, I like eating PB and apple before a cardio workout, so you get a bit of extra energy and protein without getting super full).
peanut butter and apple

We went to I Love Pho for lunch on a cold day. A winning idea!
I love Pho!

Two packages we sent from Germany arrived this month - wahoo! Sometimes they take months, and these ones only took weeks! We couldn't fit everything in our suitcases, and these goodies totalled 22 kilos! Woah! The packets included things I hand carried back to Germany from London and Paris (tea and a pudding from Fortnum and Mason, all those McVitie's goodies, Heston Blumenthal popping candy, salted caramel chips, Sadaharu Aoki green tea confiture de lait), as well as funky German cake tins, flavour packets, cereals and chocolate!
Foodie goodies from Europe

We had a great catch-up with Wince and Adrian at Pacific House in Richmond. Loads of yummy food and especially DUCK!
Pacific House

One morning, I caught up with friends for an excellent brunch at Grain Store - I purposely chose this place because I totally wanted to have the ricotta and peanut butter pancakes, with caramelized banana, housemade nutella and salted candy. ZOMG! Full blogpost to come!
Ricotta and peanut butter pancakes, with caramelised banana, housemade nutella and salted candy

And finally, we made a short trip to Sydney last week, to see the truly incredible Idina Menzel live at the Sydney Opera House! It was amazing, she was amazing. I'll write about it more when I blog the Sydney weekend (so many posts to write up... aiyo!), but also amazing was this fried chicken and waffle that I enjoyed at Jazz City Milk Bar! Wow....
Chicken & Waffle - a Belgian waffle, southern fried chicken pieces, spinach, brown butter and a drizzle of maple syrup - $24
June was pretty busy, what with being overseas for the first week, travelling back, combating jetlag and settling in at my (still) new job, not to mention going to Sydney! I've also been trying to catch up with friends and stepping up my gym routine (have you tried Sh'Bam? It's literally The Best Class Ever!) - all of which resulted in a very tired Sarah, and a paltry five blogposts published in June! I don't have a lot of concrete plans for July, except for continuing with the gym, and trying (trying!) to spend more time at home - cooking, blogging, and just generally relaxing. Wish me luck!

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4 comments

  1. Mmmmmm German food goodness. And peanut butter goodness, especially those pancakes - they look totally swoon-worthy. Enjoy July!

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  2. Wow so many things from all around the world this month! :D

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  3. You've definitely had a great month :) Being overseas and then going to Sydney I can't wait to go in August it's a place that always excites me hehe ~ I'm still so so so jealous of all the Mc Vities that you bought :)

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  4. Loving the collection of types of food here.. soooo multicultural!

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