moo gourmet burgers, newtown.

As I go to Sydney University, it's pretty surprising I don't spend more time in Newtown! I was first brought to Moo Gourmet Burgers as a catch up with my girls and loved it so much I had to drag my boyfriend to go try it too!

Their burgers really are gourmet, and very filling! We had a burger each and shared a basket of homemade chips with aioli, and least to say we could barely roll back to uni after that lunch break! The burgers are great, but the chips are the highlight! So if you can't or don't feel like a burger, drop by and try their chips!!

What yummy noms did we have?
I had - classic beef burger $10.95
He had - beef avocado and bacon burger $15.50
Shared - basket of chunky home-style chips with aioli $7.00

Find them:
I went to the one in Newtown, but they also have stores in...
Newtown - 232 King St, Newtown
Bondi - 70A Campbell Pde, Bondi Beach
Coogee - 242 Coogee Bay Rd, Coogee Beach
Manly - Level 2 & 3, 33 South Steyne, Manly
Crows Nest - 69 Willoughby Rd, Crows Nest

Classic Beef Burger

 Beef, Avocado & Bacon Burger

 Basket of Chunky Home-Style Chips with Aioli

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margarita.

My boyfriend's newfound love for margaritas has led us to making our own. It's the perfect summer cocktail as the citrus in the lime makes you think of kicking back in a sun chair, bathing in the warm sun.

This recipe makes one drink.

INGREDIENTS:

• 50ml Tequila
• 15ml Triple Sec
• 30ml Lime juice - preferably fresh
• Cubed ice

METHOD:

1. Pour all three ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker
2. Shake ingredients and pour, straining the ice out, into chilled (martini) glass

Images from @lpmmags Instagram

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kuleto's cocktail bar, newtown.

Monday this week was my 21st birthday and to celebrate my boyfriend and I headed out to my favourite cocktail bar in Sydney, Kuleto's in Newtown, and celebrated with a cocktail (or 10...).

What I love about this cocktail bar is:

• a) they make the best cocktails in town - I've tried MANY places and this place makes the best
• b) they have happy hour EVERY DAY where there are two of the same cocktails for the price of one (most of them are only $15)

My boyfriend and I tried at least a third of the cocktails on the list on Monday (maybe we'll try the rest for his birthday in a few weeks time...). Below are snaps of every cocktail we tried and little blurb on them.

Find them:

They're open Monday-Saturday with happy hours being 6-7:30pm Monday-Friday and 6-7pm on Saturdays. Find Kuleto's at: 157 King St, Newtown.

Round 1: Margarita

This was the best margarita I've ever had. I've had some before where the tequila over powers or the lime does, this one had the perfect balance of both!

Round 2: Lotus Chill

I fell in love with this lychee cranberry based cocktail when I first went to Kuleto's. It has my two favourite ingredients in it, how can I NOT like it?!

Round 3: Mango Daiquiri

I love strawberry daiquiri's but unfortunately Kuleto's no longer provide those due the sheer amount of fresh strawberries required to make them, so I settled with a mango. It was more a smoothie than anything else and the mango wasn't very strong - this was one of my least favourite of the night.

Round 4: Hawaiian Splice

My boyfriend and I tried this the last time we were at Kuleto's (I'm frequently there...). It was a random choice, which always seems to turn out right - and this was not an exception. I'm not a huge fan of milky based cocktails, they just never sit right in my stomach but this milky midori mix was divine!

Round 5: Devil In Disguise

This one was an okay cocktail. It was more like a strawberry dipped in chocolate smoothie more than a cocktail, but if you like that then this is perfect.

Round 6: Martini

My boyfriend and I have never had a martini. I knew a martini is just vodka (or gin - this one is a vodka one, I don't like gin) mixed with vermouth and ice. My boyfriend on the other hand had no idea and was shocked at the strength of the vodka. Let's just say I don't like tasting my vodka and if you're like me then this is NOT the cocktail for you.

Round 7: Legless

This is a peach based cocktail and to be honest I don't remember this one much at all. I remember it was quite sweet but I mainly used it as a washer after the martini...and yes, the martini did make me a little (read: very) tipsy. 

Round 8: Toffee Apple

I did NOT like this cocktail at all. I didn't even finish it. Now it's not because it taste bad, it's just that the butterscotch did not go down well and after all those previous drinks it just sat badly in my stomach. I will definitely go back and try this on an empty stomach!

Round 9: Toblerone

This was my favourite cocktail of the evening. My friend recommended it to me the first time I went but I never tried it because I don't like milk based cocktails. This was like a Toblerone chocolate smoothie but BETTER. I loved it so much I had another one.... (pictured below)

Round 10: Margarita & Lotus Chill

After trying 9 different cocktails we resorted back to our favourites of the evening as a recap. My boyfriend got himself a margarita while I got myself a lotus chill and...

Round 11: Toberlone

And my final drink of the evening was my new found favourite :)

 
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the beresford, surry hills.

Last week, just as the weather started warming up in Sydney, I headed out to The Beresford in Surry Hills for lunch with the gorgeous Morgan Joanel from Mojomade, Natalie from Lucy & The Runaways and Morgan's boy Blair.

I have never been to the Beresford but there had been several times where I've intended on going when Morgan has her gigs down there (she not only dabbles in fashion but is a talented musician). Let's just say after that lovely lunch I'm definitely going to head down there more often! The food was absolutely delicious and not your typical "pub food" which is a plus in my books :)

So what delicious things did we have?
Tuscan style cured meats served with home made pickled vegetables and bread $18
Pizza Prawns, tomato, mozzarella, prawns, rocket and aioli $19
Wagyu beef with fetta, sweet potato, pearl barley and veggies

I have to admit I liked the salad the best - it was so good! I'm salivating just thinking about it now!!!

Find them:
They're open Monday-Sunday from 12pm-1am and you can find the Beresford at: 354 Bourke St, Surry Hills.

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peanut butter cup cookies.

I love peanut butter cups. When I went to Costco recently I bought a HUGE bag of them, and amazingly there are still plenty left. Until this recipe came around.

I stumbled across this recipe via Market HQ's blog. The original recipe is from Baking Boy and after I saw how I could merge my two favourite things, peanut butter cups and cookies, together, I knew it was meant to be!

Let's just say I'm very lucky I have a boyfriend and his family to share all these baked goodies with otherwise I would probably have to put my fashion blog on hiatus as I tried to fit back into my clothes.

Note: If you haven't noticed this yet, I'm not very good at following recipes to a tee... (you'll see what I mean...)

This recipe makes 24 cookies.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1¾ cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt - I did two twists of rock salt in a grinder
• ½ cup softened unsalted butter - I used about half a 250g block, aka 125g
• ½ cup white sugar
• ½ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup peanut butter - I used smooth peanut butter and scooped out about half a 500g jar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract - I used one cap of vanilla essence instead
• 2 tablespoons whole milk - I used two caps of skim milk
• enough miniature peanut butter cups, in my case 24

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 200˚C
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside
3. In a separate bowl mix the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and peanut butter until well mixed
4. Mix in the egg, vanilla and milk into this butter mixture
5. Add the flour mixture in intervals
6. Use a tablespoon to scoop enough dough to make into small balls - mine were about the size of a golf ball
7. Place them on greaseproof/baking paper about 4cm apart - careful they expand a fair bit once cooked
8. Bake for about 8-10mins, or until the edges begin to brown
9. While the cookies bake unwrap the peanut butter cups
10. Once the cookies are out of the oven quickly pop the peanut butter cups in the centre of each cookie
11. Let the cookies cool before touching as they're very soft
12. Voila! Have them while they're hot and the peanut butter cups are warm and gooey (pictured) but don't worry, they're just as gooey and delightful the next day too ;)

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the victoria room tea salon, sydney.

A while back my friend and I headed down to Mid City, off Sydney's Pitt St, and grabbed a bite at the Victoria Room Tea Salon. I love drinking tea and love going to tea parlours so it was exciting to try tea parlour that was a bit more casual. It was nice to be able to sit down at a tea salon without feeling underdressed but I have to admit the location of the tea salon is odd. The salon is placed in an open area surrounded by shops where passer-bys can just watch you, sort of like feeding time at the zoo. But the quality of the food made it all alright. It's a bit expensive but you don't really expect anything less.

I had my typical cup of English Breakfast Tea while my friend had a rose milkshake. And for noms I had beef & vegetable cottage pie with new green beans which set me back $21 while the tea set me back $5.50.

They serve high tea as well starting from $38 per person.

Find them:

You can find the Victoria Room Tea Salon at: Level 4 (Designer Gallery), Cnr Pitt St Mall & Market St.

 
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chocolate brownies.

What better to do on the first Sunday of spring than to bake some brownies? I have this thing where I hate eating brownies with nuts in them, so I tweaked a recipe I found many years ago and replaced it with a nice ganache centre :)

NOTE: This is a recipe to make 16 HUGE pieces of brownies in a 2.8L Pyrex dish

INGREDIENTS:

• 750g dark chocolate - I use Nestle Cooking Chocolate Melts (2 bags)
• 250g butter
• ½ cup sour cream - I like to use lite, just to keep it semi "healthy"
• 300ml thickened cream
• 4 eggs - lol, I forgot to photograph the eggs...
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (optional)

METHOD:

Part 1 - Ganache

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C
2. Melt 300g of dark chocolate in a metal bowl over boiling pot of water - keep stirring to prevent burning the chocolate
3. Once chocolate is completely melted take bowl off the stove and quickly pour in and stir the thickened cream before the chocolate begins to set
4. At this point if you want you can add the cocoa powder
5. Now you've made the ganache - pour it in a bowl and set it aside.

Part 2 - Brownie Mix

1. Melt remaining chocolate and butter in the same metal bowl (I only have metal bowl, but also saves on cleaning afterwards!) - once again, keep stirring to prevent the chocolate from burning
2. Once the chocolate and butter has completely melted and the mixture is silky smooth and shiny take the bowl off the stove and mix in brown sugar - best to do this while the chocolate and butter is still hot so the sugar dissolves nicely into the mixture
3. Now sift in the plain and self raising flour into the chocolate mixture - because there is so much flour, I sift it in in 2-3 lots, mixing it in completely between lots
4. By the last lot of flour the mixture will be quite dry, mix in all 4 eggs - you can lightly beat the eggs before pouring them in, but I find no real difference [little note on cracking eggs, do it on a flat surface to prevent shells getting in your mixture]
5. Now mix in sour cream - this seems like a weird ingredient, but trust me it works!
6. Pour enough mixture to just line the bottom of your baking tray
7. Pour the ganache on top of the base
8. Now pour the remaining brownie mixture on top of the ganache - the ganache may still be very wet and the brownie will begin to sink it, if that's the case try to mix the brownie and the ganache evenly, this way the ganache won't burn when you bake it
9. Stick tray into the oven for approximately 20-30 minutes - don't bother with the skewer test as the ganache will still be VERY wet
10. Stick the tray into the fridge to set the ganache
11. VOILA! I love to serve it with Connoisseur's Cookies & Cream Ice-Cream :)

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