Harvest Moon Festival (Chinese and Korean)

The food cooked on the streets of - wait for it - Northcote - Northshore, Auckland! Everything is streetfood, even the pic of the Korean dish with the orange background. What a fantastic placing of orange signage! The BBQ in the top pic came all the way from China, others made theirs here in NZ. The beef sticks were cooked over charcoal.

"When people wore hats and gloves, nobody would dream of eating on the street. Then white golves went out of style and, suddenly, eating just about anything in the street became OK."
Jane Addison,quoted in the 'Great Food Almanac' by Irena Chalmers

Inspired by pizza, I make pasta

I just came back from Tauranga where I visited my best mate Ria, and her 8mth old daughter Maisie. It was Ria's birthday so we thought lets do something 'the same as we always do' and go out for lunch, timing the kids sleeps (in their buggys) and have some champayne and a few giggles. Well we managed most of it - not the kids sleeps but they were quite happy in their high chairs watching us eat our feast, whilst they had day old roast veges.

We were both talking about how yummy our lunch was all day and all night. Warm chicken salad (more like bbq chicken strips on a bed of salad) and Chilli prawns and Chorizo pizza (more like smoked paprika prawns and chorizo) , so it got me thinking that the prawns and chorizo combo would go well with pasta. And it would be an easy throw together meal. Check out my take on it below:

Smoked paprika prawns and chorizo pasta
enough for 2: 1 chorizo sausage, chopped into bite sized slices
150g shelled prawns

Prawn marinade
1 tsp smoked paprika (or just paprika will do)
1 tsp of crushed garlic
1 tsp olive oil

Pasta:
150g pasta (I used wide lasagne)
1 tbsp olive oil
grated lemon zest and squeeze of juice
handful of cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
bunch of parsley, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a bowl add smoked paprika and garlic and oil, toss with prawns. Place in fridge.
Cook lasagne sheets in boiling salted water until al dente. Strain and set aside.
In a non stick pan add chorizo, (I don't use any oil as it has enough fat in the chorizo). Cook until crispy on the outside. Add prawns, and cook until just crisp. Cover and set aside for just a couple of minutes. In the same pan, add tomatoes, fry for 1 min, then add pasta, lemon zest, and squeeze of juice. Add parsley and toss. Drizzle with olive oil and add a grind of pepper. Add chorizo and prawns and lightly mix. Serve.

When raspberry met mint

Raspberry muffins (without mint)

I felt like clearing out the fridge and cupboards and using up half eaten stuff, I was stuck in the house with Rhys, the bloke was mending his car, the rain was pouring. So I found raspberries, left over from our photo shoot where I made these cute raspberry cheesecake pots. I wanted to do something simple, I wanted to share it with my neighbour, Johanna, I wanted to also try something a little different.

So, I decided to go for a straight Raspberry muffin, and for the something different, I added some mint to the last few muffins. Now, I should have worked out from the blokes expression and Vanessa's silence, then " righto, it's not something I would go for" that maybe mint wasn't a clear winner with raspberry muffins, but I had mint and I had it in abundance, and a few people had posted recipes on the internet (so it must go together, right?)

Yeah right! I have created my first ever cannabis-free GREEN muffin - bloke looked a little excited, Johanna said she would reserve judgement until the taste test (I'll leave her to comment!) and I felt like a bit of a dick!

So guys, don't try that one at home - unless kermit is coming for morning tea but do try Raspberry muffins, I added ricotta to this recipe as I think it would make them a bit special.


Raspberry and ricotta muffins
Makes 12


1 cup plain yoghurt
75g butter, softened
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup of brown sugar
150g raspberries
175g ricotta, softened


Set oven temperature to 180c. In a bowl beat butter, ricotta, vanilla and sugar. Add beaten eggs. In another bowl sift flour and baking powder. Fold into creamed ingredients. Add yoghurt. Fold in berries. Gently mix but don't over mix. Spoon into greased muffin trays. Add a few berries to the top of muffins and bake for 20 mins or until golden.

Thank you for your inspiration...

A huge thank you to Suzi and Dan for their inspirational words of wisdom RE the publishing and greeting card industry. We were truly inspired and raring to go after our chat.
We can just see ourselves in a work space and location like what you have - perfect and something for us to aspire to.
Its also amazing and positive that people who have been in business for 22 years are still motivated and even more so, willing to spend their valuable time to help newbies like us.
I don't know if your cards have rubbed off on you or you have rubbed off on your cards - either way its a recipe for success!
Stay in touch - Vanessa and Ingrid X

Check out their range of cards and gifts below...
http://affirmations.com.au/about.html

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others. Audrey Hepburn