Happy new year everybody! Time for my round up of 2012! It was a really prolific year for me, with a hundred and thirty one blog posts! Woah! I wasn't working for the first half of the year (or "blogging full time" as I jokingly called it!), which meant I was publishing between eleven and fourteen posts a month. I reckon I didn't slack off too much once I started full time work again in August, with an average of nine posts a month. Wooh! Let's share a glass of champagne to celebrate!
 |
| Champagne, oysters, Tomato mozzarella salad |
It seems fitting that I start 2013 with a roundup post, seeing as I became obsessed with them in 2012! I started doing a monthly
"Unblogged Files" post, rounding up all the fun foodie things that I was excited to share but that didn't warrant an entire blogpost. Keeping the motivation up for new segments can be hard but I got into the routine of doing this one really easily, and I'm pleased to say I kept it up for the whole year! This segment combines my love of food with my obsessive need to record and catalog things. Win!
Still enjoyable, but not quite as prolific, was my new
"Featured Dish" series - short, sharp posts where I highlight a truly excellent dish that I've enjoyed recently. I've only done these sporadically, but plan to continue as and when I find great dishes! In the meantime, do check out my featured dishes so far:
Panko-crumbed Eggs at Goldilocks, the
Bo Peep at St. Ali,
Snag Stand's Currywurst, and the
Beef on Fried Noodles at Hills BBQ.
 |
| Featured Dishes |
I joined
Instagram in April. I'm addicted. Follow me, I'm
sarahcooksblog!
 |
| Instagram shots from 2012 |
This year I made a quiet resolution to myself to
publish more recipes on the blog. Those of you who've been with me for longer will know that I used to use my primarily blog to review and compare recipes, and I'm certainly not in the habit of reprinting recipes verbatim from recipe books. However, this year I've been pushing myself to create more recipes from scratch or adapt existing recipes and actually note down what I've done. I wasn't really monitoring this consciously, but when I sat down to write this post, I realised I actually did 29 recipes this year. Yay!
Savoury dishes tended to be either comfort food or quick-and-healthy. In the comforting category we have:
Herbaceous Burnt Butter Ricotta Gnocchi,
Baked Pasta with Eggplant, Beef and Cheese,
The Best Roast Pork Shoulder (better than pork belly!) and
Oma Frieda's Griesskloeschen mit Kirschen.
 |
| CRACKLING! The best roast pork shoulder |
On the healthy and quick(ish) side there were:
Greens and Grains,
Mussels,
Silken Tofu with Century Egg,
Power Salad,
Sarah's Sabih and
Simple Salmon with Soba and Chargrilled Broccolini.
Sweet recipes were, unsurprisingly, very well represented - there were a couple of German recipes (
Juicy Nut Cake,
Amerikaner); some biscuits (
Mexican Wedding Cakes,
Pistachio Shortbreads with White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Icing,
Matcha Sablés); cakes (
Gold Bar Banana Bread,
Black Forest Cupcakes,
Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake,
Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze)...
...desserts (
Pandan and Toasted Coconut Sherbert,
Rapadura Sugar Sticky Date Pudding,
Perfect Chocolate Mousse,
Burnt Butter Honey Madeleines,
Mince Pies) and a few breakfasty treats
(
Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake,
Apple Donut French Toast,
Apple Cinnamon Nut Muffins,
Scones,
Banana Choc Chip Pancakes). Phew!
Not working for the first half of the year meant I had heaps of time to do
fun little daytrips and weekends away. I was lucky enough to have a few of these trips sponsored by the respective tourism boards - discovering the
Cider & Ale Trail in the
Yarra Valley, visiting different towns that make up the
Goulburn River Valley region, enjoying excellent restaurants in the
Mornington Peninsula, soaking up history in
Ballarat, and even going up to Canberra as a winner of the
Human Brochure competition.
I also made quite a few trips on my own coin - visiting
Canberra,
Sydney, the
Yarra Valley and
Mount Martha at separate times in the year.
 |
| Spanner crab roll, celery salt chip - $22 at the Bar at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney |
I only (only!) went overseas once this year, on a
fantastic trip to Malaysia in February, where we visited
Kuala Lumpur and
Penang. I loved showing off my homeland to Sandra - "Wow, so all you guys do here is eat and shop?" Yup! Highlights were the fantastic
Indian food in Kuala Lumpur, Penang's awesome
kopitiams and hawker food, and of course, my favourite hotel ever: the
Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang!
 |
| Satay, Goodall Cafe, Penang |
 |
| Roti, Devi's Corner, Bangsar (Kuala Lumpur) |
My
favourite cookbook this year was definitely Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice - previously I'd never been much into Chinese cooking at all, but thanks to her book I'm absolutely loving it! Check out "
My Love Affair with Sichuan Cooking" and my
Chinese Lunch Feast for more.
 |
| Pork dumplings |
A close second was Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's
Jerusalem - such a gorgeous book! Recipes from both books were often my inspiration for weeknight dinners. (For more, see
Sarah's Sabih, or "The Best Pita Ever!", my "
Unblogged Files" and my
Instagram feed.)
We still
entertained a lot this year, albeit in more intimate groups, with less of the massive parties and BBQs of years gone by. There were mini burgers, pork crackling and pavlova at our
Australia Day Party, a decadent
Lobster Dinner, the epic
Ice-Cream Party, handmade tortillas at
Mexican Feast II, even tastier handmade sopes at
Mexican Feast III, crackling galore at
PORKDATE and
PORKTOBERFEST III, a
Yogurt Party where I used up all that
Chobani Yogurt that I'd been given, the
Lamb Dinner and that
Chinese Lunch Feast.
I blogged quite a few
events this year:
Phillippa's Evening of Easter Treats, pig on a spit with Napoleone & Co cider at "
The Garden of Eden", a
cooking class with Chef Matthew MacCartney, the launches of
Belvedere Bloody Mary and
Unfiltered vodkas, a
Vintage High Tea at the Werribee Mansion, a
Jazz Apple Masterclass with Fast Ed, romping through the incredibly buttery
Charlie's Cookies Factory, a fun lunch at
The Merrywell, a
Spring dinner at Spoonbill, and even had George Calombaris' mum cook Cypriot specialties for me (and 80 other guests!) at the
Hellenic Republic.
 |
| High tea at The Werribee Mansion |
My
favourite cafe of 2012 is definitely the adorable Beatrix Bakes in North Melbourne. We've been a whole bunch of times and can't get enough of their fab ciabattas and sweet treats!
 |
| Handmade sweet treats at Beatrix Bakes |
Other cafes I visited were
The Pour Kids,
Elceed,
Coffeehead,
Lil Boy Blue, and
Essenza. In Sydney, I totally loved
Flour and Stone.
Restaurants - Top meal of the year was the stunning degustation at
Tetsuya's in Sydney! Everything was perfect, and I cannot recommend this place highly enough!
 |
| Confit Ocean Trout at Tetsuya's |
I also enjoyed perfect steaks for my birthday dinner at
Bistro Thierry, a great-value lunch special at
St. Katherine's, fab handmade pasta at
St. Peters, a great Sunday lunch at the now-defunct
Embrasse, excellent seafood dishes at
Fitzrovia (N.B. this was complimentary),
Merchant,
The Bottom End,
Madam Kwong's Kitchen and
Wonderbao. A little further from home, I loved
Aubergine in Canberra,
Montalto and the
Flinders Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula (N.B. both of these were complimentary), and the bar at
Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney.
And then there was
Christmas...
 |
| Flaming pudding |
And that was 2012 in the world of Sarah Cooks! Big thanks to all of those who've been following my blog this year, leaving comments,
tweeting me and liking my
Facebook and
Instagram posts. Looking forward to another year of fun and deliciousness for 2013!
Happy new year everybody! Time for my round up of 2012! It was a really prolific year for me, with a hundred and thirty one blog posts! Woah! I wasn't working for the first half of the year (or "blogging full time" as I jokingly called it!), which meant I was publishing between eleven and fourteen posts a month. I reckon I didn't slack off too much once I started full time work again in August, with an average of nine posts a month. Wooh! Let's share a glass of champagne to celebrate!
|
| Champagne, oysters, Tomato mozzarella salad |
It seems fitting that I start 2013 with a roundup post, seeing as I became obsessed with them in 2012! I started doing a monthly
"Unblogged Files" post, rounding up all the fun foodie things that I was excited to share but that didn't warrant an entire blogpost. Keeping the motivation up for new segments can be hard but I got into the routine of doing this one really easily, and I'm pleased to say I kept it up for the whole year! This segment combines my love of food with my obsessive need to record and catalog things. Win!
Still enjoyable, but not quite as prolific, was my new
"Featured Dish" series - short, sharp posts where I highlight a truly excellent dish that I've enjoyed recently. I've only done these sporadically, but plan to continue as and when I find great dishes! In the meantime, do check out my featured dishes so far:
Panko-crumbed Eggs at Goldilocks, the
Bo Peep at St. Ali,
Snag Stand's Currywurst, and the
Beef on Fried Noodles at Hills BBQ.
|
| Featured Dishes |
I joined
Instagram in April. I'm addicted. Follow me, I'm
sarahcooksblog!
|
| Instagram shots from 2012 |
This year I made a quiet resolution to myself to
publish more recipes on the blog. Those of you who've been with me for longer will know that I used to use my primarily blog to review and compare recipes, and I'm certainly not in the habit of reprinting recipes verbatim from recipe books. However, this year I've been pushing myself to create more recipes from scratch or adapt existing recipes and actually note down what I've done. I wasn't really monitoring this consciously, but when I sat down to write this post, I realised I actually did 29 recipes this year. Yay!
Savoury dishes tended to be either comfort food or quick-and-healthy. In the comforting category we have:
Herbaceous Burnt Butter Ricotta Gnocchi,
Baked Pasta with Eggplant, Beef and Cheese,
The Best Roast Pork Shoulder (better than pork belly!) and
Oma Frieda's Griesskloeschen mit Kirschen.
|
| CRACKLING! The best roast pork shoulder |
On the healthy and quick(ish) side there were:
Greens and Grains,
Mussels,
Silken Tofu with Century Egg,
Power Salad,
Sarah's Sabih and
Simple Salmon with Soba and Chargrilled Broccolini.
Sweet recipes were, unsurprisingly, very well represented - there were a couple of German recipes (
Juicy Nut Cake,
Amerikaner); some biscuits (
Mexican Wedding Cakes,
Pistachio Shortbreads with White Chocolate Vanilla Bean Icing,
Matcha Sablés); cakes (
Gold Bar Banana Bread,
Black Forest Cupcakes,
Crowd-Pleasing Chocolate Cake,
Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Glaze)...
...desserts (
Pandan and Toasted Coconut Sherbert,
Rapadura Sugar Sticky Date Pudding,
Perfect Chocolate Mousse,
Burnt Butter Honey Madeleines,
Mince Pies) and a few breakfasty treats
(
Blueberry Crumb Coffee Cake,
Apple Donut French Toast,
Apple Cinnamon Nut Muffins,
Scones,
Banana Choc Chip Pancakes). Phew!
Not working for the first half of the year meant I had heaps of time to do
fun little daytrips and weekends away. I was lucky enough to have a few of these trips sponsored by the respective tourism boards - discovering the
Cider & Ale Trail in the
Yarra Valley, visiting different towns that make up the
Goulburn River Valley region, enjoying excellent restaurants in the
Mornington Peninsula, soaking up history in
Ballarat, and even going up to Canberra as a winner of the
Human Brochure competition.
I also made quite a few trips on my own coin - visiting
Canberra,
Sydney, the
Yarra Valley and
Mount Martha at separate times in the year.
|
| Spanner crab roll, celery salt chip - $22 at the Bar at Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney |
I only (only!) went overseas once this year, on a
fantastic trip to Malaysia in February, where we visited
Kuala Lumpur and
Penang. I loved showing off my homeland to Sandra - "Wow, so all you guys do here is eat and shop?" Yup! Highlights were the fantastic
Indian food in Kuala Lumpur, Penang's awesome
kopitiams and hawker food, and of course, my favourite hotel ever: the
Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang!
|
| Satay, Goodall Cafe, Penang |
|
| Roti, Devi's Corner, Bangsar (Kuala Lumpur) |
My
favourite cookbook this year was definitely Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice - previously I'd never been much into Chinese cooking at all, but thanks to her book I'm absolutely loving it! Check out "
My Love Affair with Sichuan Cooking" and my
Chinese Lunch Feast for more.
|
| Pork dumplings |
A close second was Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's
Jerusalem - such a gorgeous book! Recipes from both books were often my inspiration for weeknight dinners. (For more, see
Sarah's Sabih, or "The Best Pita Ever!", my "
Unblogged Files" and my
Instagram feed.)
We still
entertained a lot this year, albeit in more intimate groups, with less of the massive parties and BBQs of years gone by. There were mini burgers, pork crackling and pavlova at our
Australia Day Party, a decadent
Lobster Dinner, the epic
Ice-Cream Party, handmade tortillas at
Mexican Feast II, even tastier handmade sopes at
Mexican Feast III, crackling galore at
PORKDATE and
PORKTOBERFEST III, a
Yogurt Party where I used up all that
Chobani Yogurt that I'd been given, the
Lamb Dinner and that
Chinese Lunch Feast.
I blogged quite a few
events this year:
Phillippa's Evening of Easter Treats, pig on a spit with Napoleone & Co cider at "
The Garden of Eden", a
cooking class with Chef Matthew MacCartney, the launches of
Belvedere Bloody Mary and
Unfiltered vodkas, a
Vintage High Tea at the Werribee Mansion, a
Jazz Apple Masterclass with Fast Ed, romping through the incredibly buttery
Charlie's Cookies Factory, a fun lunch at
The Merrywell, a
Spring dinner at Spoonbill, and even had George Calombaris' mum cook Cypriot specialties for me (and 80 other guests!) at the
Hellenic Republic.
|
| High tea at The Werribee Mansion |
My
favourite cafe of 2012 is definitely the adorable Beatrix Bakes in North Melbourne. We've been a whole bunch of times and can't get enough of their fab ciabattas and sweet treats!
|
| Handmade sweet treats at Beatrix Bakes |
Other cafes I visited were
The Pour Kids,
Elceed,
Coffeehead,
Lil Boy Blue, and
Essenza. In Sydney, I totally loved
Flour and Stone.
Restaurants - Top meal of the year was the stunning degustation at
Tetsuya's in Sydney! Everything was perfect, and I cannot recommend this place highly enough!
|
| Confit Ocean Trout at Tetsuya's |
I also enjoyed perfect steaks for my birthday dinner at
Bistro Thierry, a great-value lunch special at
St. Katherine's, fab handmade pasta at
St. Peters, a great Sunday lunch at the now-defunct
Embrasse, excellent seafood dishes at
Fitzrovia (N.B. this was complimentary),
Merchant,
The Bottom End,
Madam Kwong's Kitchen and
Wonderbao. A little further from home, I loved
Aubergine in Canberra,
Montalto and the
Flinders Hotel on the Mornington Peninsula (N.B. both of these were complimentary), and the bar at
Momofuku Seiobo in Sydney.
And then there was
Christmas...
|
| Flaming pudding |
And that was 2012 in the world of Sarah Cooks! Big thanks to all of those who've been following my blog this year, leaving comments,
tweeting me and liking my
Facebook and
Instagram posts. Looking forward to another year of fun and deliciousness for 2013!
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