30th Birthday part four

This is the final instalment in my 30th birthday posts. My parents were not at my birthday party, so to celebrate with them I wanted to go out for a fancy pants dinner on my actual birthday. I put out the call, and Arly highly recommended Matt Moran's Aria on Eagle Street Pier. Cale from The Green Edge also said he had had a fabulous dinner there. So there is where we went. My parents agreed they too would eat vegan for the evening, as obviously I wanted all of my birthday celebrations to be cruelty free.


We had an early reservation as I had to work the next day, and we arrived a little early. That didn't matter though, as it is a beautiful spot to sit for a little and watch the river. Here is the Story Bridge.


You can also see the cliffs at Kangaroo Point. Sitting here looking at the peaceful river, it was hard to imagine that at the beginning of the year this river was flooding the city.


You know it is November (and exam time) in Brisbane when the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom. Purple bursts of colour everywhere! There are several restaurants down at Eagle Street, so I also did some browsing and made a note of those who mentioned vegan somewhere on their menu.


And then it was time for dinner. We had a lovely table that overlooked the river. For the first two courses, we were given two options. As there were three of us, that meant that we at least had one of everything so I could sample to one I didn't get.


First the brought out some litter appetisers - spoons full of heirloom tomatoes, shallots and capers. It was bright and delicious. After this photo, I turned off the flash as it was a bit too intrusive in the dim lights of the restaurant. I also had my mum's point and shoot, as my camera is a bit big and again would have seemed a bit intrusive. I also apologise that I don't remember everything that was in each dish, but I will do my best to describe!

After the appetisers, they brought around some fresh white bread rolls and some lovely olive oil for dipping. Nom.


For the entrée (US readers note: in Australia, the entrée is the first course, not the main) both my dad and I had the Tomato Consommé. It was amazing, and I have been craving it ever since. The beautiful clear, red broth was poured over sliced heirloom tomatoes, radishes and fennel.


Sorry for this shocker of a photo. This is mum's entrée, which was an asparagus and pea salad. In addition to grilled asparagus, it had an amazing pea purée as well as pickled shallots, some lovely purple flowers and pea shoots.

Between entrée and main, the brought around more bread. This time I had a large chunk of delicious sourdough.


For mains, mum and I both had the warm corn salad, which had grilled baby corn and baby leeks on top of corn salsa with mushrooms.


My dad had a dish with cauliflower and broccolini with chili and raisins, and I think it had some cous cous as well. I tried a bit of the cauliflower and it was yum.


We also ordered two vegan sides that were available. First was sautéed broccolini with chilli and crispy shallots, which was lovely. But it paled in comparison to the caramelised Brussels sprouts and shallots side dish, which was out of this world amazing. Mum has since Googled the recipe, so we can try and recreate it ourselves.


There was only one dessert option, but it was a doozie. A beautiful summer berry salad, that included strawberries and raspberries as well as freeze-dried raspberries, with two small scoops of berry sorbet and one larger scoop of pina colada sorbet. The latter of the sorbets was the best sorbet I have ever had in my life! Plus they gave me a candle, which was super cute. The only downside was that the chocolate that they wrote on the plate with was not vegan, they told me straight away up front not to eat it, which was good. But they said they didn't know what else to write it in. Next time I would just request to have my plate writing free. Even if I'm not eating it, I still don't want it on my plate.


Blowing out my candle. The angle of the photo kind of makes my look like I have a hump back.


I finished off with some peppermint tea, and they brought out these amazing candied walnuts. I could eat these all day, and I am not even a big fan of walnuts.

Then it was back to the house to eat a piece of leftover birthday cake on my actual birthday, and into bed before work the next day. I loved Aria, and would definitely go back there again for a special occasion. It is a great example of what good chefs can do with beautiful, fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables. And before anyone cries out about the lack of a typical protein dish, I was incredibly full and satisfied after this dinner.

Now, does thirty years and one month old qualify to go back??

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post


Action shot of Sahara playing with the magnetic ladybug swinging toy I bought the girls for Christmas two years ago.

30th birthday part 3

I mentioned my birthday festivities spread out over a weekend. On Sunday, we arose and after breakfast (I just had toast with Vegemite and avocado, and then a second breakfast of leftover finger sandwiches) and saying farewell to Brendan and Diana, Leigh and I went off in search of vegan adventures.

Our first stop was The Green Edge. The Green Edge is a magical place! It started out as a vegan grocery store, but has morphed into an amazing meeting place. It also serves pies, smoothies, milkshakes, hot drinks and sundaes, with burgers coming soon. And the range of vegan supplies available is extensive. I was taking Leigh there today to show her the coolest vegan place in Brisbane, and to have some sundaes! Leigh was also excited to see that they stocked Teese, which apparently you can't get in Sydney (score one for Brisbane!), so she did some shopping as well.


We both chose the banana split - with some strawberries on top. It was so good. Banana, Cocoluscious ice-cream, Soyatoo topping, homemade butterscotch sauce, strawberry sauce, chopped nuts, strawberries and a cherry! Heavenly.


This is one of their strawberry sundaes, which I had at a previous visit. It has strawberries, Cocolucious ice-cream, strawberry sauce, Dandies marshmallows, Soyatoo whipped cream, sprinkles and more strawberries. They also have a chocolate sundae of doom, that I am yet to tackle. I will post when I do!

Our plan was to then head on to lunch at Brisbane's first World Vegan Day Fair. We were looking forward to some Hellhound Hotdogs. However, thanks to texting, I found out that the hotdogs weren't there, and there was not much food to be had as several people had fallen through. We ended up heading out to Kuan Yin, with Matt and James who were also on the lookout for lunch. Sadly I don't have photos of all the noms we had! Leigh and I shared the fried dumplings (which are AMAZING), the Taiwanese spicy 'chicken' (so crunchy and salty and good), fried 'calamari' (I was suspicious, but they are actually delicious) and the sweet and sour 'pork' bento box, along with a Taro soy milk tea with pearls (also known as Cookie Drink, as it tastes like cookies). It was so yummy and filling!

Leigh and I didn't end up making it to the fair, and that night I dropped Leigh off at the airport and said farewell!

The next morning was my actual birthday - 30! I had arranged to go down the coast for lunch with Brendan and Diana, who were staying down there for a few days. We went to The Magic Apple.



It was hot and I was feeling like something a bit lighter (I had a big dinner coming up that night), so I got the tofu steak (normally served on a burger) with three different types of salad, all covered in vegan mayo and Gado Gado sauce. It was quite nice, but some of the 'roasted' vegetables in one of the salads were pretty raw.


I wanted a little something sweet to end up with. Unfortunately, half their dessert case was marked Vegan (tho honey). I am not looking to stir up any big debates here, but by simple definition honey isn't vegan. It was pretty disappointing. So there were only a couple of truly vegan options. I ended up getting this piece of mango and apricot pie, which was quite nice.

Then it was time to head back to Brisbane to get ready for my big dinner, which will be the subject of the next post!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Day (with bonus Unicorn)


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
One of the presents I got at my party was this beautiful blue cat vase. I am totally besotted with it, because it kind of reminds me of a teal cat. Only blue, and obviously the proceeds didn't go towards a kitty shelter. But it is just as cute! I had really wanted a teal cat but they don't ship internationally, so I was very happy to get this light blue cat!


This photo is a bit blurry - I was arguing with my camera and couldn't get a better one. Another friend gave me this gorgeous unicorn necklace (I had been talking about unicorns a fair bit of late). His name is Paul!

30th Birthday part two

So all that food I showed you before? That was just the first course of the party! After stuffing ourselves with finger food, it was time to burn off some of it to make room for dinner. It was a garden party after all, so how about some garden games?


There was bocce.


And ring toss.

People claimed they were too full to eat another bite, however when dinner hit the table (buffet style), there was a queue of people lining up to fill their plates.


There were Leigh's soon to be world famous sausage rolls, which will be featured in her upcoming cookbook. These are the best sausage rolls in the world, even omnis love them. They are magic!


Baked BBQ tempeh and tofu triangles.


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
Mac and Cheese muffins. These were so cute when they came out!


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
I also had sunflowers. Two were in coloured glass bottles with their long stems, and another two cut short and peeking out of tea pots. So bright and happy.


There was also a loaded quinoa and black bean salad.


Also a lovely green salad, with cos, baby spinach, rocket and roasted asparagus. This was served with Caesar Chavez dressing, from Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, on the side.


My plate - nom! Unfortunately my dress, which was lovely, had a really tight waist band that cut right across my stomach. It was fine generally, though did kind of limit the amount I may otherwise have eating. ;) Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of me in my dress. Maybe I shall have to recreate the look for my scrapbooking.


I also had some of these lovely pink Astors in a vase, decorating the table with my matching pink iPod.

Dinner was delicious! But what is a birthday party without cake?


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
For those who have read this blog for a little while, my love of the chocolate cherry combination is well known. So of course I had a chocolate cherry cake. It is decorated with strawberries as fresh cherries weren't yet in season. I had local vegan cake maker Kamina make the cake. She makes fabulous cakes, cheesecakes and slices where are available at The Green Edge as well.


Inside shot. That's a layer of chocolate mousse in the middle, as well. This cake was so good!

And thus ended my party. My guests waddled off with full bellies, except those who were staying at my place, who instead entered a reclining phase. And I entered the epic clean up phase. My tootsies were sore, but future me was very thankful to come down to a clean kitchen in the morning.

I was really happy with how my party went, it was small and sweet and had loads of amazing food and my favourite people - just the way I like it! A huge thank you must, of course, go to Leigh. It was she who made all this eating possible! Also a thanks to my adorable friend Lisa from the clinic, who helped me plan the theme of the party. And thanks to everyone who came, and everyone who sent birthday wishes!

There are still more birthday shenanigans and food to come!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post


My Gizmo strikes a pose.

30th Birthday part one

I turned thirty last week, thus entering what I hope to be the best decade of my life thus far. To celebrate I had a weekend of festivities, which I will be sharing over the next few posts. There was a lot of food involved.

The weekend really kicked off on Thursday night, when I went and picked up Leigh from the airport. Leigh is a fantastic vegan chef and creator of vegan recipes, as well as being a published cookbook author. She is also a cat lady and sci-fi geek. She is also my friend. In fact, Leigh was the first other vegan I met! Leigh had come up to cater for my birthday party. Friday involved many hours in the kitchen preparing, before heading out to Loving Hut for a huge dinner, and then heading home again for more food prep (while watching Josie and the Pussycats and Bring It On).

The party started on Saturday afternoon. It was a garden party theme, so everyone was required to wear their garden party pretty clothing. It was lots of fun seeing everyone in their pretty dresses (and snazzy ties for the boys). It was a small party, only 13 guests. I much prefer small gatherings with my closests to huge parties. Several people had come up from Sydney as well, and I was so thankful they made the trip to celebrate with me.

Now, onto the food! I'll break this up into two posts. First up, the finger food portion for the afternoon! Some of these photos were provided by my friend Brendan Waite, who is a snazzy photographer with a snazzy camera, and thus had better photos than I did!


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
Mini caramelised onion tarts. These are from Leigh's upcoming pastry cookbook. A savoury shell filled with the most delicious white bean mixture you've ever tasted and topped off with caramelised onions.


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
Mini sundried tomato quiches. Leigh makes a magical quiche filling. These had a layer of sundried tomato on the bottom of the pastry as well as the little slivers on top.


You can't have a garden party without finger sandwiches. I had three kinds - Cucumber and Cream Cheese, Tomato Basil and Cream Cheese, and BLTs. The bacon was made from both tempeh and smoked tofu. Leigh also makes an addictive herby cream cheese spread. I loved them all, but the cucumber was my favourite. Must respect the classics.


I consulted with Twitter friend Arly for some decorating tips, she has a wonderful sense of whimsy and style for these things. She suggested flowers in teapots. These freesias were a super cute centerpiece in a purple teapot. The tablecloth was lace, of course.


Chipotle-Lentil Balls with Guasacaca. The balls are made from the burger recipe in Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and the guacamole is from a recipe in Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero.


Smoked Tofu Balls with Spicy Mango BBQ Sauce. The smoked tofu balls are a Leigh original, and the BBQ sauce was based on the recipe for Mango BBQ Baked Beans in Appetite for Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
Lemon Risotto Balls with Tomato Basil Sauce. The risotto is made super lemony and also has peas in it. Yum!


Most of the party was on my back deck, which I decorated with garlands of flowers (fake, I'm afraid), and some adorable pink paper lanterns. They were lit up later on as it was getting dark and were super pretty.


(Photo courtesy Brendan Waite).
How about some sweets? Mini-versions of Peanut Butter Caramel Blueberry Tart, also from Leigh's upcoming cookbook, and Mini Fruit and Custard Flans. These little flans were the first thing I ever ate made by Leigh, on the day that I met her all those years ago, and I still love them. The pastry shells are coated in chocolate on the inside.


One must have appropriate garden party drinks. I don't drink alcohol, so it was virgin affair. This is some raspberry lemonade. I would love to say that I made it, but I just bought some big bottles of Charlie's Honest Old-Fashioned Raspberry Lemonade, which just happens to be delicious.


We also made some iced tea. This is a T2 blend called Red Green Dreamy, which is Rooibos flavoured with peaches, plums and berries and makes a great iced tea. I normally drink my tea straight up, so Leigh took charge and sweetened it with a bit of agave nectar.


More floral decorations - crysthanamums in a jug. There was a second white jug as well, slightly different, which I filled with these down the other end of the deck. Flowers are pretty!

That is part one of the birthday party post! If you can believe it, there is even more food to come! I will cover that, as well as some other fun garden party stuff, in the next post.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post


Yesterday I caught Sahara sleeping on the pink snuggie, which belongs to Dim Sim but is often stolen by Gizmo. I've never seen Sahara sleeping on it before, though!