Vegetarian Pho at Chez Tessa

Oh yum! Finally got around to getting back to Chez Tessa, the vietnamese place a block from my house. A friend and I went there for a quick dinner after our trip to the Australia Zoo. We both got the same thing, the Vegetarian Pho. Pho is vietnamese noodle soup, and its amazing. This one was a gigantic bowl, with rice noodles, bok chou, onions, broccoli and cauliflower (I didn't eat these because I don't like bushy veggies) and the best cooked tofu ever! The tofu was crunchy without being dry and flavorful too!! I thought the soup itself needed a little something extra so I added some hosin sauce and that made it absolutely perfect. I was super hungry and leaving Brisbane the next day so instead of leaving some for leftovers, I ate most of the bowl. It was the perfect comfort food. I love vietnamese (I say it every time I post about it lol) so this was such a treat as my last meal before I left Brisbane to head back to Cairns for more diving on the GBR!!

21st Birthday Cupcakes!!!

My twenty first birthday day was yesterday, June 4th. Usually, my birthday falls at the time where I'm back in Chicago after the end of the semester and celebrate with my high school friends, and of course, my family. This is actually the first time I haven't been in Chicago with my family on my birthday. However, my parents managed to make it special even half a world away. They had cupcakes sent over to our house from the Cupcake Parlour in West End, which I blogged about months ago! In fact, my sister referred to that when picking flavors, which is why there were 5 Turkish Delight cupcakes, because I had expressed my love for that cupcake in my previous post. They were even better than I remembered, I really really like them :) And the Tim Tam cupcakes were really cool as well, perfect for a birthday in Australia. My family coordinated with my housemates to get them delivered to the house. The Cupcake Parlour kinda messed up and had them delivered 3 hours early, so I was the one who came to the door to get them. I was still really surprised and it was wonderful, but we couldn't help but laugh because there was a note on the box that said to deliver them between 1-2 and they came at 10 :P The surprises didn't end there! Apparently my parents also had balloons sent to the house (this time when I was at class) and my housemates surprised me with the balloons and a cupcake with a candle in it later that day! It so nice of everyone. 

That night I then went out to dinner with friends at the club and restaurant Cloudland in Fortitude Valley. We had some wonderful Italian food, and an AMAZING apple-pear sangria. I wasn't really taking food pics because I was just trying to enjoy the night instead, but take my word for it the food was splendid. The highlight was the pumpkin ricotta tortellinis in brown butter sauce. Also the decor at Cloudland is the coolest thing ever. It's full of feathers, leaves, and crystal chandeliers! After dinner we ended up going to the RE, one of the UQ student bars, because it's the place to be on a Wednesday. It was really great because a bunch of other people I knew were there as well so it was a great place to drink and dance, and ultimately end the evening. It was such a wonderful way to spend a birthday, and it was so cool to be able to celebrate in Australia!

Apple Quiche

So I've been wanting to make this for awhile,  but have been trying to wait until I finish the chili first (spoiler: the chili is still not finished I made enough for me to eat it every night for 1.5 weeks). Eventually, I just decided to make this anyway. This apple quiche is based on this recipe. I basically followed this exactly but added a lot more cheese. Specifically, smoked gouda on top of the cheddar the recipe calls for. I cooked 2 large and 1 small pink lady apples on the stove in a cup of hard cider, with sprigs of rosemary. This was done for about 10 minutes or so. I mixed skim milk with 4 eggs, and whipped them together, layered phyllo dough on this pie pan, and shredded the gouda cheese. When the apples were done I poured most of them and the cider into the phyllo. Then added all the gouda and some of the cheddar, as well as some rosemary. Then I added the rest of the apples, more rosemary, and poured the egg mixture on top. The eggs sunk through, layered into the dish. Lastly I topped the entire thing with more cheddar and put it in the oven at 375 F for 35 minutes. It turned out fabulously. The cheese and apples went great together, and the cheese had kinda melted into the eggs. The cheese on top was nice and crispy. All together this was a really great dish and the best part is that you can have it for any meal of the day. I had a slice for dinner last night with a salad (below), but also had one for breakfast this morning and it was wonderful in the morning too! A really great, unique, and versatile meal. 

Aussie Chocolate Bars Take 4: Boost and Picnic

Okay, let me start off this post by saying that these are my FAVORITE two chocolate bars that i've had here. So good were they, that I think I'm adding them to the list with Tim Tams and Just Right Cereal, as things I'm going to be taking back to the states with me. Let me explain why I liked these so much. The Boost bar is one that I had been avoiding because on the wrapper it looks like it had solid crunchy in the middle. Well serves me right for judging a cary bar by it's wrapper. The inside it a heavenly mix of creamy chocolate, caramel, and some rice krispies (below). The whole thing is then covered in chocolate. The texture as well as the way the chocolate and caramel messed puts this guy at the top of the list. Absolutely amazing bar, the only thing that would make it better is some dark chocolate.

The Picnic bar was also amazing. I delicious combination of nugget, wafer, caramel, and rice krispies. This had a much chunkier texture than the Boost, but less chocolate. The peanuts and the caramel made this combo so great, that I didn't mind that it had less chocolate. It's also a super filling bar, and great it you're hungry and craving sweet and salty.

These bars were both amazing, and now I'm going to have trouble trying more because I'll just want to keep buying these two!

GIANT Dark Chocolate Truffle

After seeing the new X-men movie, a friend and I decided to grab some dessert at Max Brenner's. This time I got this gigantic dark chocolate truffle that was in the case. I was basically chocolate mousse, rolled in coco powder with chunks of dark chocolate mixed in throughout. It was super rich, but amazingly good. I ate every bite and was full for hours after, but it was totally worth it. Love me some chocolate :)

Egg and Cream Cheese Sandwich

This was my lunch yesterday. Super simply but yummy and nutritious! I made a fried egg sandwich with rice cakes. In addition to the egg I put light cream cheese, cucumbers, and smashed avo on the sandwich. This added a lot of flavor and helped keep the sandwich together, it was absolutely awesome. I haven't had something with cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese since last summer, and it's one of my favorite things, so this made me really happy. A nice light breakfast or lunch, that's quick to prepare and delicious to eat!

Cinnamon Glazed Apple Banana Muffins

Every once in awhile I actually have some time on my hands. And last week I felt like using some of this time to make dessert! I went to our local grocery store and told myself i'd spend $10 on baking supplies. I ended up decided to make these muffins from a honey banana muffin mix. But I wanted to spice them up so I bought some apples and frosting ingredients as well. My general thought was to cook apples into the muffins and then frost them with a cinnamon cream cream frosting. The apples worked outstandingly. I cut a large pink lady apple into small pieces and then simmered it in a pan of apple cider, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I cooked them at a high simmer for around 15 minutes or so. Basically until they got soft and brown (below right).

As the apples were cooking, I prepared the cake mix. I added water and eggs as it said on the box, but I noticed that it would only make 8 muffins. I decided to add flour, sugar, and eggs to the mix to make the recipe bigger. This worked out well because I had enough batter for 15 muffins instead of 8 them. another thing to note was when I was mixing the apples in, I wanted to pout the excess cider/sugar mix in too, but the batter started to get watery so I stopped. However, the muffins got a bit spongier than expected when I baked them, so I would add the cider mix next time. I baked them for 20 minutes and that was the perfect amount of time. The rose quite a lot and resulted in this wonderful muffin top shape (below).

As I let them cool, I started to make the frosting. I added 1/4 a cup of skim milk to 1 block of light cream cheese. I then added 3/4 a cup of brown sugar and lot and lots of cinnamon. I beat this mix together. Then I added powdered sugar, until I had the consistency I wanted. What ended up happening is that I added the entire bag of powdered sugar, a little bit a a time, and didn't actually get frosting. The mixture I ended up with was more of a icing or glaze than a frosting (below left). While unexpected, it was actually delicious so I had no problems. I was pretty liquidy when I spread it onto the muffins, I tried a frosting bag, but it broke, so I ended up spooning it on and that worked really well. Though, it was a really really messy process.

These muffins were stellar! The apples added so much to the cupcakes, they were sweet and whenever you got one in a bite they made it amazing! The banana, cinnamon, and apple flavors went really well together, and the glaze helped keep the muffins from drying our and really took them to the next level! The icing actually solidified a bit the next day which was perfect and made less of a mess. I had these for breakfast the next two mornings with coffee with cinnamon in it. They were the perfect morning treat! My housemates also really liked them and they disappeared quickly.

Also I had a TON of  icing left over. My housemates and I had some spoonfuls of it and discussed good ways to eat it. Our brainstorm came up with these ideas. Eating it by the spoonful (classic), spreading it on toast, raisin cinnamon toast is the best, drizzling it on a piece of toast with Nutella, and dipping fruit in it. I sliced up when of my left over apples a couple of days later and dipped the pieces in the icing, which was much more solid after sitting in the fridge (below). It was amazing!!!! Also a "healthy" way to eat the left over icing. This was a really successful on the whim dessert. It might be good with actual banana chunks, as well as apples to make the muffins even fruitier!