Its been a while

But here we are in January 2013!! Happy New Year!! I hope you had a festive season, I know we did!! I think I have been on the go for some time now with multiple celebrations; our son turned 3, husband turned something starting with 3, farewelled close friends from Dubai, joined in the silly season and have enjoyed various family members dropping by.

2013 is going to be a big one, and my main resolution is to continue with this blog and not slacken off as I did towards the end of 2012…

But I’m back and I’m sorry this post doesn’t contain any recipes I just thought I’d post to say hi and post some pictures of food relating to the last few weeks.

I did make chocolate truffles as you can see and they were delicious but until I make them outrageously good then I will hold off on a recipe!

For 2 of the birthday cakes I made a most delicious roasted apple cake; a labour of love I assure you!  I even homemade the applesauce that is needed for the recipe!! The recipe is from one of my favourite blogs Smitten Kitchen and is a great birthday cake option as I made it a week ahead and kept it in the freezer!  I must say though after one take of cream cheese sloppy frosting I did have to spend time googling the best way to achieve very fluffy frosting – please post a comment if you know how – I managed to beat the cheese and butter for 5-10 minutes and this did help.  But it was very good!!

The blue racing car cake (this was requested 6 months ago and I was reminded of it on a weekly basis) was a simple Australian Womens Weekly chocolate cake from the trusty old school Birthday Cake book.  It was yummy but it was not easy to create AT ALL!! I also made ahead of time and froze it to make it easier to cut and shape and ice.

Christmas Day was wonderful with friends and everyone brought a huge selection of food that could have fed 20 rather than 10!!  We benefitted for some time with leftovers as did my hips (everything tastes better fried up with bacon and melted cheese!).

New Years eve was a fabulous day starting at the Dubai Fish Markets and then the Fruit and Vegetable market to come home and cook a feast of lobster, prawns and bugs (same as Balmain or Moreton Bay Bugs just from Oman) that my parents and us dined on with crusty bread and melted butter with a bottle of Verve – not a bad way to farewell a pretty big year!  May 2013 be a bigger and better one for you all !