Pumpkin & Chickpea Curry

Just a quick little snap of what I made for dinner tonight - delicious, and easy too!!

Recipe from http://www.taste.com.au/

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs oil
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 tbs curry paste
• 1 kg pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
• 1 cup water
• 420g can chickpeas, drained
• 140ml can coconut milk
• 2 tbs chopped fresh coriander (there's no coriander in my pic - forgot to get it at the shop!!)

Heat oil in large saucepan, cook onion, stirring about 3 minutes until soft. Add curry paste cook, stirring about 1 minute or until fragrant.

Add pumpkin, stir to coat in curry mixture. Stir in water, bring to a boil, simmer, covered about 10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Gently stir in chickpeas and coconut milk, cook, 2 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with coriander. Serve with steamed rice.

SO easy to make - perfect for those nights when you just can't be bothered. PLUS there's heaps leftover for lunch tomorrow!!

Pink Velvet Roulade

I saw this post on foodgawker. A Pink Velvet Roulade made by Sprinkle Bakes.

SO.CUTE. Seriously - pale pink cake with swiss meringue buttercream?? YUM.

Mine doesn't look quite as good as Sprinkle Bakes.......but I'm pretty pleased with the effort. I always thought that roulade's would be really hard to make - trying to roll it up without it cracking etc........but it was actually pretty easy!!

 

 I've also never made swiss meringue buttercream before either - it's SO yum. I wish I'd made it sooner. I was a bit nervy about making it because I'd always heard it was really hard but you literally just keep beating it until it gets thick like cream. It goes a bit curdly and separates, but then all of a sudden it comes together and it's silky smooth and deeeeeeelicious!! 

You should definitely give it a go - well worth it!!

A couple of things......

I'm well aware this is a cooking blog, but it's MY cooking blog, and today on MY cooking blog, I don't FEEL like writing about cooking.

Instead, I'm going to write about some exciting stuff that's been happening at the moment, cause I think this is the kind of stuff that I need to jot down for future reflection.

So much stuff has changed - I've officially moved back home as of last night. Not entirely sure how long it will last - I'm giving it 2 months, 3 tops. Not that I can't handle living with my parents, but to be very honest after living out of home for well over 3 years, going back at 24 years of age was always going to be hard.

Yesterday I handed in my resignation. I've been working for the National Institute of Youth Performing Arts (which is the Australian Youth Choir and Australian Youth Dance Theatre) for the best part of 2 years, and it's time to move on. It's a very demanding job, LOTS of unpaid overtime/weekend work, and while I have mostly loved my time here, I've been given the opportunity to work for a company who is offering way more money, and it's closer to home too AND it's working with my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Win win!!

3rd item on the agenda........the boy. Cue heart beating faster, butterflies and a big old smile on my face. I'm the happiest I've been in a long time!! I'd like to say more, but I think I'll leave it at that for the time being.

And lastly - I bought a block of the new Cadbury Mousse chocolate today (thought I should include something food related!!) and it was DEEEEEEELICIOUS. I suggest you get yourself out to Woolworths and buy not one, but 2 blocks of it, because it's on special (2 for $5) and I guarantee you'll want more once you've tried it. It's available in chocolate and caramel.......I tried the chocolate one. I should have got a caramel one too.

Peace out xox