Tuesday tidbits

I survived THE birthday.

I made a cake for THE birthday, which was absolutely scrumptious,  but I didn't exactly go all out on the presentation and I forgot to buy candles or decorations for it, so had to make do with what was on hand. I don't think I scored many points for chef of the year yesterday. She asked for "the" coconut cake, which is an Australian Women's Weekly recipe, at least it tasted really really good. I love how this photo turned out, even though the icing looks really awful. I think a couple of younger people may have sampled some of it as I'm sure it didn't look quite that bad earlier.

Here's a photo of me trying to look fabulous in the kitchen and trying to make the cake without clearing a nice big space on the bench/countertop beforehand, like most sensible sane people would do. 

Bitchypoo thought it would be good to have some overhead shots, a la TV cooking shows, lol.  They also show my new hair colour.  Much lighter!!!!!!

In other culinary news, Kirsten from  Kirsten's Cooking recently posted a recipe, Grilled Veggie Sandwiches.  I had lots of lovely veggies in the fridge so roasted them and made this for lunch the other day.  It was wonderful, and it's so versatile, I used purple carrots, zucchini, carrots, capsicum, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes basil pesto and mozzarella. Next time I'm going to try it with feta. If you click on the link above it will take you to the recipe.

That's purple carrot hanging out of the left side, on top of the normal colour carrot.

Unfortunately it's full of vegies, and they have to be cut up, so I know someone who won't be making it, he he he.

I have been occasionally attempting quilting the Strawberries and Champagne quilt.  I haven't made much head way with this, the pebble quilting takes me forever, but I'm very happy with how it's coming along.  Don't hold your breath for a quick finish on this one. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to quilt the rest of it, between the circles. Sorry about the crappy photo, but it's really not that exciting yet and not particularly worthy of a lovely photo at this stage.

I've also been making a few pinwheels using two charm packs, one of Martinique and one of Oasis.  They are quite pretty but most of the prints are of similar value so it may or may not look great once I've put it all together. Individually the pinwheel blocks are cute, so we will just have to wait and see.