Category Archives: Home & Diy

Dinosaur craft. That was the biggest revelation of last week for me. After stumbling across this dino clutch bag DIY and this dino serving dish DIY, just about all I could focus on this weekend was accumulating all the pieces to get happy with dino-DIY! My friend Lee and I are tackling the dish on Sunday – excitement!!

There were non-dino related activities too – a girl & her man have gotta eat, right?! Friday night incorporated this awesome skinny apple crumble. Without fresh cranberries available, I used some sliced up Medjool dates (& cut the honey back a bit). And to pump up the crumble topping, I stirred in a scoop of pumpkin seeds. Served up with a scoop of ice cream, M was in heaven.

After a heavy GRIT session on Saturday morning, I headed out to do the aforementioned dino shopping, but not before a coffee pitstop at local favourite Rolador. It’s nearly always a decent wait for whatever you order, whether you’re dining in or ordering from the side roller door, but given it’s always good it’s worth settling in for (good time for a scour through Pinterest, I say!)

The other great purchases of the weekend were these two Women’s Weekly cookbooks: Pressure Cooking & The Big Book Of Beautiful Biscuits. OMG. When I saw Beautiful Biscuits there was no way I was leaving without it. It’s the ‘vintage edition’ and my mum has the original.

Growing up, this was the book Mum would pull out when she had to ‘bring a plate’ or whip out a slice for a function. The slice I always, always wanted her to make was the below. A peanut butter, chocolate major deliciousness! While we got it once or twice, it was serious ‘treat food’ & looking at the ingredients as an adult, I can see why!

Funnily enough, when asked which recipe from the book he’d like me to make first, M suggested the below coconut chocolate slice… which was Mum’s go-to slice! I can definitely see why – delicious, easy & an ingredients list full of kitchen basics. And while I don’t wish to upset the ladies of the Women’s Weekly test kitchen, I did hack the icing slightly with great return. Instead of the suggested icing sugar/milk/cocoa topping, I mixed half a tin of light coconut cream (leftover from Friday night’s pressure cooked Massaman) and half a block of dark chocolate over a low heat for an icing of coconutty, ganachey goodness!

Sunday morning was all about brunch and coffees on the sunny deck at The Locale. I thought I hated their coffee but M suggested I try my latte with full cream milk, rather than my usual skim order… Lo & behold, it was great! There’s a few places around town that I don’t love for coffee so I can’t wait to taste test them with the milk switch – I think there must just be a skinny milk doing the rounds that’s a bit funk!

After breakfast we hit the farmer’s markets & then finished off the rest of the groceries before hitting the carwash. It was a DIY car wash but it felt machine-y when you can sit inside to watch the suds run down the windows!

We decided to old-school it up for Sunday lunch & cooked up a chook & roasted vegies for a proper feast. After some initial browning, the chicken was done in the pressure cooker (with a recipe from my new book) in just 25 minutes! It was beautifully juicy and for less than halfa, I’ll definitely be doing it again! I made a chilli lime sauce to drizzle the chicken, which was stuffed with lemon, oregano & garlic. The vegies consisted of squash, garlic & brussels sprouts with a hearty drizzle of caramelised balsamic vinegar to finish.

The final image of the weekend though goes to these beautiful dusky lilac roses which smell so delightful. Fresh from the farmer’s markets, I can’t think of a better way to spend $10!