Francis Ha

The girl over at Chinatown Teahouse recommended Francis Ha. It is a beautiful movie. Kind of quiet and nice and it reminded me that some of the greatest love stories are that of friendships. 

Luke Chiswell - 86

Smith's Alternative Bookshop - Thursday night jazz

Sunday night sounds

David Bowie - Modern Love. Great soundtrack for an evening of friendship.

Canberra wine tour

Spotted and hearted in downtown Belcompton

Old fashioned fun

G is for

Gelati

So gelati is a kind of like another name for ice-cream. There was a time when I visited your Mum and Dad in Jordan before you were born - actually right just before you were born! I declared we should eat ice-cream every day….then I got sick and everyone had gelati and your Mum bought me a banana. I nearly cried.

Monday evening sounds

Rainy day Sunday sounds find their way into Monday evening. Hoodoo Gurus - Wipeout. 

F is for

Football

It is up to you to pick a football team to follow, but to narrow it down you can pick from any team from the front row.

Cherry Chocolate Roll

While I have hundreds dozens of cookbooks, I rarely cook from any of them - but you can easily tell the ones I do use. Bits of food will be on the pages…like for example, smudges of chocolate. This cherry chocolate roll is an easy if you modify the long instructions in the book, so I make it a lot. It's also good with berries and the recipe can be easily halved.

200 grams cherries
Same amount of dark chocolate
80 ml coffee
7 eggs
150 grams caster sugar
300 ml thickened cream
1 1/2 tablespoons icing sugar
20 ml kirsch
cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Make the coffee, and melt with the chocolate over in a saucepan placed in simmering water.

In a bowl beat egg yolk with sugar. In a mixer beat the egg white until stiff.

Mix in melted chocolate to egg yolk and sugar and then mix in the egg white.

Line a tray (29cm by 24cm) with baking paper and put the mixture into the pan. Bake for 15 minutes or so, and then turn the oven off, open the door slightly and leave for another 10 minutes.

While you're waiting for the cake to cool, pit the cherries. By now only 4 of your 10 minutes is up, so check out something on the internets before grabbing the cake bit from the oven and cover it with a damp tea towel. I don't know why you cover it with a damp tea towel - but just do it. 

To kill a bit more time, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Do not over whip. I repeat - do not over whip. Mix in the icing sugar and kirsch to the cream and then throw in the cherries and fold it all together.

Get rid of the tea towel and dust the sponge with cocoa if you can be bothered. Turn tray onto a piece of baking paper and peel off the paper it cooked in (if you get what I mean). Spread the cherries and cream mix onto the cake and using the new paper - roll. It'll crack a bit, but that's okay because it's supposed to.

Now you are done! And the best part is this cherry chocolate roll is better if you make it the day before, so if you are organised, chuck it in the fridge 24 hours before serving. I was not organised and I also forgot to take a photo of it at the end, and lets be honest, while there is still some left in the fridge it seems like such effort to take a photo now. So you know, it looked just like it does in the book. Promise.

E is for

Elvis

Elvis is amazing and handsome and an important person for you to get to know. One day when you are older we will watch some of his movies. You might not like them very much, but you'll like the popcorn and ice-cream that i'll bribe you with to watch it.

Rainy day Saturday morning sounds

Don't Swallow The Cap - the National

To the little things

Sometimes I wish I wrote everything here, so I could look back on all the little things and smile. And by little I don't mean unimportant, but more the things that are just personal to me. You know what I'm talking about. The snippets of everyday life that just make you happy. I'm worried I'll forget all of this and then one day it'll just disappear, like it never happened at all. And if it did - then where would I be? 

Gowings Bar and Grill

If you are in Sydney - this place is alright. Next time I'm going to skip the bistro and hang out at the bar and eat from that menu. And while I'm at it, I'm going to drink more cocktails: www.qtsydney.com.au/food-drink/gowings-bar-grill/