Alphabet Train... Poland

Bubba Louie's Alphabet Train will be visiting many countries all over the world .... one of our stops will be Poland ....

Toot Toot.... All aboard ....

Did you know?

Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), a great master of Romantic music, is one of the greatest Polish artist and a cultural icon of Poland. He is also one of the most often played piano composers in the world.

2010 is Chopin's 200th Anniversary and to find out more about the celebrations surrounding his anniversary, visit:

http://http://www.poland.travel/en-gb/news/fryderyk-chopin-200-anniversary/

Photo courtesy of: www.poland.travel

New York New York

Via: Under a Paper Moon Bright Lights, Big City

Photo: Women looking out windows - urban city view skyscrapers evening night - blue, black, white

Photographer: Troy House Photography

Photo Via My Notting Hill

(Designer; Barry Dixon, Elway Hall, photographer unknown)

My vision board has a photo of a beautiful claw foot bath over looking a gorgeous garden - my dream bathroom.

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I love reading blogs on design and interiors and have come across a blog called "My Notting Hill" which is stunning and full of inspiration.

I fell in love love love with this bathroom with the fireplace.... how amazing and gorgeous would that be? Got me thinking that maybe this could be something to plan for our house in the US next year?

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Beautiful things make me smile and this blog post certainly did! xx

Cooking Beetroot from scratch

So we cooked up our first batch of fresh beetroot on Sunday morning and we decided to do have boiled with Castor sugar & white wine vinegar and then the remaining half baked....

I had always thought that cooking beetroot from scratch was a very labour intensive and time consuming process. However, I found out that it was really very simple and not at all scary - simple, easy and no trouble at all was the family consensus!

We then reduced the liquid for the boiled beets once cooked and used that to keep them in until it was time to attempt the Beetroot & caramelised onion tart with rocket & Buffalo cheese..... I will say that our kitchen smelt very good with the boiling underway and the baking in the oven.

Two different aromas that worked so well together!

The next step was cleaning off the outside skin, which you do need gloves for - can be a little messy and leaves a nice purple colouring on your skin ...... I used little freezer bags as I did not have any gloves. The skin came away so easily, again nice and simple.

Our end result for dinner on Sunday night! Was very pleased with how it all turned out and E loved seeing the process come together from fresh produce to eating ~ so so much better than the tin stuff! xx

Farmer's Markets

The research that needs to be undertaken for a project that I am working on includes going along and visiting a few of the different Farmer's Markets that we have in Canberra and the surrounding region.

So nice and early this morning I set off to visit the Capital Region Farmer's Market that is held every Saturday morning from 8am to 11am, located at Canberra's Exhibition Park.

It was so busy, lots of amazing looking produce, beautiful fresh cut flowers, fresh seafood, organic chocolate, juices, and some very scrummy looking cakes & cupcakes..... I was in food heaven!!

Walking around the various stalls, I was firstly struck by how friendly and helpful everyone was. The second thing that really jumped out at me was when asking about some one's produce - where it comes from etc? Was the passion each person had about their produce/products, it was amazing!

I purchased some very yummy things so that I could try out some new recipes.....

It was such a wonderful way to spend my Saturday morning and I can't wait to go back and visit that market again and I am really looking forward to visiting the next Market on my list xx

Cooking Adventures

We have always enjoyed cooking in our house and have spent many a weekend playing around with new and exciting recipes.

Having a little one to cook with brings a whole new type of adventure to the mix!

Our little guy has always played a role in our cooking adventures and from quite a young age he has always had some sort of little job, whether it be the cracking of the eggs, whisking, tasting ~ oh yes he LOVES to be the taste tester!! and his other favourite, putting the choc chips on the cookie batter ..... one for the cookie two for me sort of thing.

The part I love most is having everyone in the kitchen together talking, laughing, making a big mess and then being able to sit down to a meal that we have made as a family

For me its such a nice time to just 'be' nothing else matters but how much milk we need or how long do we need to simmer the sauce for .....

E had taken to MasterChef .... yes and so have we .... and we have started making the pressure test dishes. It has been so much fun! It's the first time I've ever made a Pavlova and let me just say - I was so proud that it worked, much happy dancing was had

Although our next pressure test challenge is a Black Forest Cake - which I might add E is very excited about making..... ahhh Mummy on the hand is a little concerned as I've not made a cake like that before.

So we will see how we go this weekend, and we'll share our trials and hopefully a photo of a very beautiful looking Black Forest Cake ... til then xx