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.

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. 

The Queen should have more birthdays

Recipe for the best ever weekend: one reasonably attractive young man, the cooking of laborious soul food with multiple bottles of wine, all mixed together in one of the most beautiful locations this country has to offer. Ok make that one very attractive young man. 

Dylan had the excellent idea to rent a 'rumpty' (his words) wee place on Air BnB in Hamner Springs for Queens Birthday Weekend. Three days holed up with no screens, no work, zero life admin, a roaring fireplace and only a single pot stove element and endless pretty scenery to keep us entertained. Oh and each other. For the first time ever I found myself attempting to do the Sunday Star Times Crossword albeit with limited success. 

Mr Dylan loves cooking as much as I do. I actually think he is better than me. What we love more than cooking for each other is cooking with each other. We made a fragrant yellow fish curry, had bratwurst with red sauerkraut in butter toasted sour dough, whipped up a delicious chicken laksa, but what really stole the show was the slow braised beef shin and mushroom tortellini made with handmade fresh pasta then tossed in browned butter then finished with Parmesan and pecorino. Holy mother of all things great. It took roughly eight hours from start to finish and it was demolished in mere minutes.

What I love most about this dish is that there was no recipe. We didn't measure anything except maybe flour for the pasta. We bought our beef shins from a proper old butchery back in Christchurch (think meat bundled up for you in newsprint). Dylan cranked up the barbecue outside and braved the cold to sear the shins. The flavour released from the surface of the meat was unbelievable. We found a slow cooker hidden in one of the cupboards and braised the meat with shallots, a carrot, thyme, red wine and stock for a few hours until it melted in the mouth. We finely chopped a big bag of mushrooms and sautéed them slowly with plenty of butter and a sprinkling of more thyme. The meat was drained and combined with the mushrooms and left in the laundry to chill - it was colder than inside the fridge out there. Dylan started mixing up the dough for the pasta and we drank wine in the lounge in front of the fire while it rested. Butter was cautiously browned and many fingers were dipped into it. Together we rolled out the pasta dough using the hand-cranked machine we packed with us and large circles were cut our using the lid of a large jar we found. We sat there at the kitchen table assembling our tortellini, Dylan making two perfect morsels for every runt one I produced. The tortellini were tossed into a pot of boiling water where they stayed until they floated to the surface. Drained and tossed in the browned butter, they were then dished out onto our two plates with shavings of parmesan and pecorino dusting the tops. 

We have made many a dinner together but I think this by far has been my favourite. Not only for it's taste and texture but for the long and relaxing process we went through to get there. The wonderful thing about Italian food is that contrary to popular belief, there are no rules. Soul food has no rules or guidelines. If you take the time and the care it will always be wonderful. 

Friday. No more pumpkin soup.

I looked in the mirror and around my mouth was a ring of yellow. Dark orangey yellow. The beta carotene from my daily dose of pumpkin soup and carrots had stained the edges of my mouth with awful tinge. I look like a kid who decided to make out with a yellow felt. No more pumpkin soup. Our relationship is no more. 

I'm currently sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to chch. I was craving a dunkin donut as I was walking through the terminal and right there at the entrance was a guy I went on two tinder dates with once, covering himself with the icing sugar from his Bavarian cream.  But yeah that slightly awkward moment when he asked what brought me to chch... Umm the boyfriend. Yup that's right. Someone eventually decided they liked me enough to actually date me. Unbelievable I know...😑 The awkward chat enabled the time to pass quickly. Then we parted ways and sat in different departure lounges. I seem to bump into him a lot. Mainly at places providing mass transport aka airports and trains. Ok not a lot. It's happened twice. Twice more than all the 27 other tinder dates I've been on.

I've got to pee but I can't be bothered taking all my stuff to the loo.

Psyching myself up for the  meager snack on this flight. After my weird AF brocolli and egg stir fry I am so keen for sometime that didn't taste so peculiar. Although you can ever guarantee that with airplane food can you?

No. Just no. 

I am very excited for our long weekend in Hamner springs. I've got my beanie all ready to go.. 

Have an excellent weekend friends. Sah much eating will be happening. Much wine. Such scenes. Many wows. 

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... 

Tuesday. So begins the week of brocolli.

Ah junk free June starts tomorrow.  Not for me though. I did it last year and when I ate a couple of fun size chocolate bars towards the end the guilt was overwhelming. Funnily I eat "better" when I'm not trying to. As soon as something becomes taboo it consumes me. I don't even think about twix bars when I'm "allowed" to have them. When all the hip nz celebs get involved too, "junk free" suddenly becomes "clean" and the whole thing becomes carb, fat, dairy and gluten free. Sure chips, fast food and lollies aren't good for you on a regular basis but there are plenty of other food groups that should be consumed regularly albeit in moderation. Basically, I don't need another media source telling me that I am a bad person for what I eat.

I try really hard to be in a harmonious relationship with food. It's really hard. I went from being a 14 year old who would feel guilty for eating a kiwi fruit after school and would weigh herself twice a day to someone at Uni who would smother her feelings in brownie batter. My boyfriend's sister snapped me a pic of her "diet" breakfast this morning and all of a sudden I panicked. I'm huge compared to her, should I be on a diet too? Should I be counting my carbs and macros like my flatmate? For the first time in a while I feel quite distressed about the whole thing.

Irrelevant of the whole junk free hullabaloo I funnily enough ate a brocolli and beef stir fry. A whole head of brocolli was consumed, why? Because it was three for $5 at countdown and I knew I only had to cook for myself three more times this week. I found a recipe whilst flicking through an Annabel Langbein winter cookbook thing. I was quite excited but the final product was not so flash. I had to add extra ginger and kecap manis to the sauce to make it slightly palatable. Once cooked though it was actually quite tasty. Overall it wasn't bad for a first attempt or a miserable weeknight dinner for one.  

I also made a snickers, peanut butter, pretzel birthday brownie so looking forward to having a cheeky piece of that when she gets home. 

I can't cut it yet.. It's too oozy! 

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... 

Sunday. It was nice while it lasted.

Back to feeding myself tomorrow. I have had a weekend of food joy. Dylan came up for the weekend and came with my family to the Coromandel where all we did was sleep and eat. It was glorious.  It was so bizarrely warm - two days before the first day of June and I am wearing a singlet and getting tan lines whilst on walks?!

Did I say we did a lot of eating? We ate a lot of pimped porridge, cheese scones dipped in soup, date loaf and my new favourite dinner - tuna curry with mango salsa. My oh my. I may have to make it this week except with chicken and not tuna at $40/kg.. 

Mum's tuna curry ❤️ 

Also I decided to make my mini date loaves back into a large loaf but still cover it in all the bells and whistles. It was much applauded and I still can't get over the candied walnuts...sah good!

Ok so it's a little ott..

I'm tucked up in bed writing this waiting for Dylan to text me saying he's landed back in Christchurch. It's our ritual. As is reading the hilarious Mainfreight quotes lit up on the wall of their warehouse that we have to drive past on our way to the airport "Readers are achievers"

"Happy is the man with a hobby" 

"Read to your child everyday" 

Truly inspirational.  My life is definitely the richer thanks to these quotes.

Babe. 

I miss him already.  

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.