S S M T And Wednesday.

Slack much? In all fairness though I have been wildly productive. I've eaten real food, baked lots, travelled many a kilometer, packed multiple bags, wrapped birthday presents, made a birthday card and still managed to make sure I had all of my knickers washed.

Last weekend I flew to chch (surprise surprise), made some delicious curry, ate some terrible Chinese food (so so so bad), had beyond delicious brunch, visited memory lane with a Sally Lunn and went for a micro tramp and made some tea in the great outdoors.

Potato hash and pulled corn beef at Supreme Supreme ❤️ 

I threw a roast joint in a slow cooker with all the ingredients required for a massaman curry. Served with delicious flaky paratha it was a dream. Oh and the samosas we got from the Indian store... Sweet baby Jesus they were good. 

After stealing Mum's excellent butter chicken on Monday I set out to make myself a big steaming pot of laksa for the next few days. Boy was it delicious. Although briskly walking to the supermarket this evening when I burped and some spicy laksa and mushy brocolli came back up and I had no choice but to swallow it again because I was in public. Bleughh. I pretty much made up the recipe as I went (not wanting to brag or anything). I added brocolli and frozen spinach in at the end for some green in my diet. Also I was cutting up my wedge of pumpkin when I realized I had too much so I continued to cube it all up then put half in a freezer bag and froze it. I can use it for the next time I need a few cubes of pumpkin but can't be arsed negotiating one and risking appendages in the name of laksa.

The brown bits on top are fried delicious.. Not very attractive but so so delicious. 

And well tonight consisted of me making a caramel slice, coconut shortbread and two layers of a ginger and date cake. All to take with me this weekend :/ flip. Because guess who I am going to go visit.. Haha. Much excite.

Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

Thursday. I was in a food coma that I didn't wake up from until Friday.

The food highlight of Thursday was definitely a food coma date with my brother. Even though it wasn't hard to out rank the porridge or the defrosted, soggy Japanese curry, Malaysian with Jack was excellent. We used to always go out for food together then I guess we got out of the swing of things when he went on an exchange and we just never got back into the habit of it. Until now. 

We went to Selera in Newmarket and gorged ourselves in chicken curry, noodles and roti. Sah good.  

Anyway I guess the moral of this story is to hang out with your siblings more because they are secretly great. Although share plates get wolfed down rather quickly if you're in the least bit competitive.. 

Thats really all I have to say about Thursday. Oh I made some coconut shortbread so if the reviews come back good (aka if Dad, the shortbread connoisseur, gives it the thumbs up) I'll give it a blog. 

Sah much food

Wednesday. Mum made my lunch.

Mum made me salad for lunch when I went round for dinner last night. First greens I've eaten all week. The only reason I haven't developed scurvy is because of the free mandarins I've been munching on at my flat. She was also mega cute and packed me some fruit and a wee paper parcel of dates and two pieces of chocolate. Thanks Mum x

Eggs on toast was still the dish of choice this evening. I'm away in chch this weekend and dinner with my brother on Thursday so I was like meh can't be bothered buying produce only to have most of it go off while I'm gone. Next week is a new week. I hate food waste more than not eating Eees on tees.

I did attempt to try and trick myself into thinking I was eating something flasher than eggs on toast. Cherry tomatoes, spring onion, fried shallots and Malden sea salt flakes sure tasted delicious but did little to cover up the two fat spreads of fried egg.  Baby steps though, baby steps.

Man I could eat those shallots all day. Sah good. 

Monday. Eees on Tees and cups of teas.

Tomorrow night is pay day. I'm pretty excited. It's so desperately needed though.. I'm getting foot surgery and so I called up my insurance company for pre approval. I found out that for some reason the screws going into each of my feet aren't totally covered. So while in the grand scheme of $22 600 something dollars $1000 doesn't seem like a lot in real life it's a butt load of cash cash dollars. When I see I have $356 in the bank right now and $88 on my credit card the idea of yet another chunky cost slapping me in the face makes me want to cry. In fact I did cry, at my desk at work. I found myself trying to figure out how much money I would save not going to the gym or catching the bus for a month that I could put towards it. Hey I'll save money not flying to chch to see Dylan because I won't be able to fucking walk onto the fucking plane. Better living everyone. My WOF is due this pay month, as is my rego, something on my car will probably fail. Yay repairs. It's the boyfriend's birthday plus he wants to go and try to teach me how to ski. I'm going to Bali with my family where I'll have to scrounge the flesh from other people's drunk coconuts and watch them do fun activities from afar. It's never ending and I feel totally out of control and conpletely exposed if something was to go terribly wrong tomorrow. I wasn't able to go shopping this weekend nor do food prep so for lunch today I had a spoonful of peanut butter because I couldn't buy my lunch and for dinner some fried eggs on toast. The worst bit was that I sat on the couch by myself with my plate on my lap and ate my eggs in silence. Food, especially dinner, should be eaten with people. Never have I felt more alone. I did the flat's dishes to try and distract me from myself. 

The highlight of my day? Going through my wardrobe and finding my Nana's wee Woman's Institute membership knife. Then that made me cry because the box of cutlery smelt like her old kitchen (roast beef fat and gravy if you must know). 

I found some lemon honey tea that I think might make everything better. I hope so anyway because at this rate I'm going to suffocate in my sleep from all the tear-induced snot blocking up my face. 

Thursday. You just can't beat a sausage roll.

I'm currently trying to finish drying my fitted sheet on the oil heater. I don't want to take it back outside to the garage to put it back in drier. The ground outside is literally freezing. Our flat is freezing. Zero insulation in any direction. I wonder if Mum has a spare woolen underlay because my room gets so cold I can see my breathe in the morning (hint hint). My flat in Dunedin was so much warmer. 

I'm running around trying to wash, dry, bake, pack and prep for tomorrow. I'm flying down for the long weekend to see Dylan which I am very excited about. There is lost so much life admin involved. Guys don't understand how much coordination there is in even just packing underwear. Do these knickers go well under these trousers? Will the matching bra go underneath the tops you plan to wear with said pants? Are any of the above items even clean to pack?! I also get to see my best friend and my charming wee god daughter. In the process of getting my life sorted my room has been in various states of disarray. 

The "my room is the only place in the house I can't see my beath in so I'm going to find somewhere to sit and eat my dinner" phase  

The "pull everything out of the cupboards to try and find my missing wheat bags to give to Dylan"  phase.

The "fuck! My sheets are still wet!" Panic phase

Amongst all this I am trying to bake spice crisps for D to take away with us to Hamner Springs. They are gingery and delicious and I think will go nicely with a cup of tea, a cosy fire and a good book. Every fifth biscuit though is coming out such a runt. There is only so much evidence of poor performance you can hide before you start to feel sick.. 

I managed to redeem myself with episode II of the average beef stir fry. It really wasn't too bad second time around. The real test will be with the frozen breast of chicken I have waiting to be used tomorrow.

Why the sausage rolls in the title? For the first time since I've been working at my current job our department splashed out and got super great catering. Included in this was some excellent handmade sausage rolls. It was as if the stars had aligned because I had some made sausage roll cravings earlier today. You just can't beat a cheeky sausage roll with a good dunking of T sauce. 

 Oh and also. I bought some cheap pb for my snickers brownie the other day  but I didn't use it all. I took it into work to put in my porridge in the morning and can I just say it is still legit. 97% peanuts. The remaining 3% peanut oil and salt. So it's 99.99% peanuts really. Just like Pics. This jar also set me back only $2.50 in New World vs the $7 they wanted to charge me for the Pics equivalent. Sure it's not as tasty to eat off the spoon but it does the trick sure enough. Get back amongst I say.

Wednesday. Mum fed me and I got a fan email :D

Somehow I wangled only having to cook three nights this week. Score. I went home and Mum had made Jess Daniell's lamb meatball salad. Ok so salad probably wasn't the best choice for the first day of winter but it was still delicious regardless. 

I am stoked winter decided to show itself finally. It took until June to start getting properly chilly! I can finally crank out all the coats I over eagerly bought in February.. I also bought woolen pants which caused me to suffer heat stroke in the office so woo!! Finally get to wear those in comfort now!

I was going to skip today's post because nothing really that exciting happened. That was until I got an email from a girl called Siobhan saying thank you for posting recipes. The fuzzies are warmer than my oil heater. In all honesty I thought the only people who read Sophie Likes Cake were my parents and Dylan, so this was an excellent surprise. So thank you Siobhan for being the highlight of my day. You way surpassed my epic victory of finally finding gym leggings that make my bum look great and don't make my legs look like strangled hams! Many baking well wishes to you.

Socks would have been a good idea for the single digit temps... 

Monday. All the foods.

Today felt like I had been slapped in the face by the all mighty bosom of Monday. She's a dirty mistress I tell you.

I came home starving after yet another lunch of just pumpkin soup. I had left over truffle mac and cheese that I made for Dylan last Friday. White sauce made with truffle butter anyone? Oh and mushrooms slow sautéed in more butter? Sah much butter. Such cheese. Many carbs. Wow. 

So after nuking that for three minutes then shoveling the oily goodness into my face I went back to the fridge to find more. I found some peanut bliss balls. I found four limp carrots. The cupboard had a 1/4 jar of crispy shallots left in it. All of the above got consumed. Then I found a jar of caramel popcorn in my room. That too got hammered. Seriously, why was I so hungry? Am I preggers? Are my flatmates hormonal feasting cravings rubbing off on me too? What the actual..

I distracted myself by going to the supermarket - not before toying with the idea of doing my shopping online rather than walking the two minutes to the supermarket... 

On the menu this week is beef and brocolli stir fry. Want to know a fun fact? I'm terrible at stir fries... 

To make things worse, bae called to tell me what delicious rustic Italian dish he had whipped up for dinner. I think it involved pasta. And here I am with my trashy (but also not - uh hello truffle???!) Mac and cheese. I wish Mac would stop autocorrecting to a capital M. Gosh Apple is self centered..  

Also it just started pouring with rain and the sound on my roof is delicious. The drips coming from my windows are not though..

This truffle mac and cheese though... 

Wednesday. I just want a chocolate fudge cake.

It's been ages since I've had feeling related cravings. Work was terrible for the third day running and the resultant existential crisis is making me want a gooey, fudgey, ganache covered chocolate cake so bad. A hug from bae and a good solid cry would also be ideal.  

I live a 14 minute drive from work and the bus took 1 hour 15. Tomorrow I'm walking to the train station because this makes me want to break something especially after such a shitty day.

Do do I have to eat pho again? It's tasty but it's just not truffle Mac and cheese nor is it cake.  

I can confidently say that eating the same thing everyday gets you down. If you too are a food enthusiast then mealtimes are probably the highlights of your day. Today my highlight was the prospect of a stale tortilla with my soup. If your food doesn't bring you joy then you're just going to set yourself up for failure. Not even two delicious persimmons could save the day. 

Friday 8.25pm could not come fast enough (aka the time Dylan's flight comes in). I will also prob make truffle Mac and cheese for dinner that night. From Wednesday's point of view the food week can only get better, especially since tomorrow is Wok n Noodle night with other Sophie! 

In summary: I finished my 1kg jar of peanut butter and replenished the salt I lost through my tears. Tomorrow will be better.

Monday. So much soup.

It has come to my attention that in my eagerness to do all the food prep for the week yesterday that I have made about twenty servings of soup. It would appear mastication will not be a thing I engage in this week.

Our flat finally took the plunge and purchased a stick blender from Kmart for a whole $39 dollars. My justification for the purchase was that the money save whilst consuming pureed 99 cent pumpkins will pay off the outlaid capital in no time.

So on the menu this week:

Caramelised leek and pumpkin soup (thanks Nadia Lim)

Red lentil and pumpkin soup (thanks Nadia Lim)

Chicken pho (thanks Jess Daniell)

My freezer has 10 snap lock sandwich bags full of the frozen pumpkins all stacked up in a tower ready to be deployed. I actually don't even like pumpkin soup very much. Pumpkins were so cheap though...

The pho I shall concoct tonight – I have to say I am rather excited for pho. While Jess’ recipe uses premade stock it still tastes pretty legit. I once made stock from a whole table hen overnight in my slow cooker and to be honest it didn’t taste that much different. A Continental stock melt will do roughly the same thing.

Flip. It has just occurred to me that I also have all the ingredients required for a pad Thai and now I am suffering a great internal conflict. Crikey. A delicious carby pad Thai would go down a treat…AAAAH I CAN’T DECIDE (*texts Dylan for moral guidance* – he is pretty much the Atticus Finch of both life and food).

*waits for response*

Ok come on Dylan. Reply already. I’m getting hangry.

Spoiler alert: he doesn't reply. 

It was up to me.. 

Pho: healthy, warming, vegetable rich, soup

vs. 

Pad Thai: warming, carby AF, not soup, contains delicious fried egg.

I was not feeling agile enough to make pad Thai. Knowing me it would turn into a stodgy lump. Pho in the end was delicious. I made enough for tomorrow as well. We don't have a dining table in our flat (nor do we have insulation or a central heating device) so I was restricted to awkwardly eating my pho at knee height at our coffee table. As much as I love my flatmates (like I seriously love them) I kind of can't wait until I live in a proper house that is warm, insulated and has a dining room table. 

Anyway, make pho. It is good. And mega filling.  

The dining situation is not ideal.. 

I had to battle two pumpkins. One tried to escape. I managed to catch it with my legs. I thought this was clever so I held it there a little longer while I took a photo..

Also buy these for your pho.. They are the tits. Slash just eat them by themselves. 

Saturday. Champagne and cake for lunch.

The day started off well; a 7.30am spin class to get things moving followed by a few hours of flat cleaning. So much adult productivity!! I even washed my sheets and this time didn't burn them in my drier! Whoop!! Never have I felt so in control and on top of my life.

Unfortunately you could say things went a little downhill as soon as I started icing my  little ginger loaves with cream cheese icing and candied walnuts. While I hate to boast I have to say these were delicious. So moist and rich. I shall blog about them in the morning. My flatmates were very excited as can be seen by Andy's face below..

I delivered a few to my good friend Victoria for her birthday. After only two minutes after walking in the door at 1pm did she ask if I wanted a glass of bubbles. She then proceeded to put a full cheese platter and a gazzillion cupcakes in front of me. Apparently this had been her since 10am so I thought I better play catch up. So double parked with cake and champagne whilst watching Pretty Woman was a pretty excellent way to spend a Saturday arvo if you ask me. Wine = fruit, cake contains eggs = solid source of protein. A balanced diet I do believe.  

Breakfast: oats

Lunch: champagne and cake and cheese. Aka fruit, protein and calcium.

Dinner: all the dumplings! My parents took my cousins to my favourite dumpling house and I may or may not have joined in for the ride..  

This is Andy. Andy is my flatmate. Andy was excited about date loaves. 

Friday. I'm not too sure what I ate.

I had an interview for a new role today so the mix of nerves and not wanting to be in a curry coma by 2pm meant that lunch consisted of a 3pm apple and superwine biscuit. Come 4pm I had a killer headache. Not sure if this was brought on by hunger, dehydration, lack of caffeine or a wine craving..

I was trying to get all my pals at work to go to social clubs drinks with me as I would have killed for a wine. Alas Original Sophie was going to be working late and Kelly wanted to go home and do laundry. Sigh. Of the available flatmates one is at a radio show awards, one is working and one is on a strict bootcamp diet – no winesies for her. Sigh. I would be tempted to go open a bottle for myself but A) a bottle of wine costs the same as Wok n Noodle and Wok n Noodle > wine. B) I can’t leave a bottle unfinished – it’ll go off and spoil – what a waste of what could have been Wok n Noodle. C) Calories – I’d rather eat Wok n Noodle. D) Drinking alone sounds like it could be the beginnings of alcohol dependence.

You know what? I am going to try and make my favourite Wok n Noodle noodles this weekend. Pad see yu here I come! This could mean I could have my Wok n Noodle AND wine.

Good news though, my cake order went down a treat. The birthday girl was super stoked and excited. It’s this kind of excitement that makes me love making cakes so much for people. I have to say it was quite pretty considering I had to rummage and be a little creative with the decorating.

Breakfast: oats

Lunch: non existent 

Dinner: ugh more curry. Oh shit! I forgot the cabbage. Dammit. Now I have to eat cabbage by itself or else it'll go off and I'll waste it. 

Ok time to go to the supo and buy some golden syrup for the ginger loaves I plan on baking. This is the first Friday in yonks that I haven't been to the airport to pick Dylan up or fly to visit him. While I'm stoked I get to bake for the sake of baking I miss him :( I wish he was here, he'd drink wine with me. Oh and he's alright company too.. 

Cake!!! 

Auckland Eats: Onehunga Night Markets

"Its like Disney Land . . but for your stomach!"

I have been venturing off on weeknight food excursions quite a bit recently. 

Not having to study or do assignments in the evenings now that I am no longer a student has left me free to explore on school nights. 

No matter the culture, humans have a tendency to base social interactions around food and eating patterns. In the last week I have caught up with a couple of friends and at each time food was involved whether it be dessert, going to the markets or having them round for dinner. 

Alix, who I flatted with in third year is living up in Auckland as well (!!!) and who is also the best person in the world was keen to come and hit up the Onehunga night markets this Thursday for dinner with me. Having both not eaten on purpose since lunch time and with purses full of cash we threw ourselves into the market. 

I love the bustle, the smoke and the smell of hot sizzling meat wafting through the air. I am writing this with my eyes still bloodshot from the glaring lights and my face greasy from all the oil and heat. Not to mention sitting in super baggy clothing as I have a food baby like no other. 

Going with a friend is the best. I love trying new things and quite often you get too full after just a few things by yourself to do the rounds properly. But when with a friend (who can also eat you under the table - I take my hat off to you Alix) you can try everything the stalls have to offer. 

I have to say the fried pork buns at Onehunga were some of the best I have ever had. I managed to get as many vermicelli noodles on my front and the ground as I did my mouth. We said YOLO to the extra spicy beef bulgogi and an honourable mention of course goes to the chocolate dipped churros which is where we finished up.

For details about all the Auckland night markets click here and get amongst!