My 24th Birthday Breakfast

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I turned the ripe old age of 24. I kept the celebrations relatively simple. My only stipulation was that I get a good latte and breakfast at one of my favourite cafes. Park House Cafe has a lovely atmosphere and we were also surprised to see an updated Autumn menu which I am super excited to try over the next few months

I am also lucky enough to have my folks visiting so it has been good to catch up with them. The rest of the day was pretty quiet. My mum helped me pick photos for our wedding album while Josh and my dad did boy stuff outside. Then mum and I made lasagne and lemon meringue pie for dinner which happen to be two of my favourite dishes - the lighting was a tad dark for pictures though!

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Lunch at Gips with the Sister

On the last day of the sisters visit - we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Gips Restaurant. You might remember my last visit here for the our Anniversary Dinner.

 Georgia was eager to get a look at where I am getting married next year. I can't believe it is only 5 months to go until the wedding!

I ordered the caramelized pumpkin linguini w’ peas, basil, chilli, roasted pine nuts, shaved parmesan & extra virgin olive oil. It was so good! Perfect flavours but maybe a but too much olive oil for me.

Georgia ordered Bourbon & BBQ sauce rib fillet steak sandwich w’ coleslaw, aged cheddar, beetroot & kipfler chips. Looked good and apparently tasted the same (I had to sneak a few of those kipfler chips hehe)

Sadly, the sister headed off back home not too long after leaving me on my lonesome until the boy arrives home from his fishing trip - 2 days til I see him... not that I am counting down or anything :)

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Trip to the Gold Coast and Max Brenner Overdose

As I have mentioned in my last few posts, my sister came to visit! We had plenty of activities planned and just one of those activities was to jump in the car and head of to the GC for a day of shopping!

I don't have any pictures of the actual shopping in action but I did manage to snap a few of our foodie finds during the day.

We started off at Harbour Town which is a factory outlet for many, many shops that I love, everything was kinda meh though. I don't think Georgia or I bought anything...

We decided to go to Shokuraku for lunch. Shokuraku was a Japanese fusion style restaurant with an abundance of sushi, noodle and rice dishes. I ordered Karaage Chicken Fried Rice which was ok but maybe a bit bland for me and George ordered Teriyaki Chicken with noodles and fried vegetables - it looked much more appealing and I kinda regret not ordering the same... oh well.

We then headed onto Robina shopping center which is probably the biggest shopping center I have ever visited. We roamed the levels but were pretty over shopping and really just hanging out to get to the bottom level to visit MAX BRENNER!

This place is seriously chocolate heaven. We spent about 10 minutes gaping at the menu before we ordered.

Georgia ordered The Spectacular Choc-Fudge Brownie Sundae - as you can see it was massive and tasted ridiculously good. Double choc icecream with Fudge Walnut Brownie on top with caramelised pecans. If that isn't enough you also get a bowl of melted chocolate and chocolate waffle balls as well! George got about half way through before she admitted defeat.

I ordered The Chocolate Soufflé and because my eyes are too big for my stomach I thought I could handle the Peanut Butter Iced Chockie too. I tell you what it tasted soo good just pure chocolate indulgence. As hard as I tried I didn't get through it all... It was way too rich and sadly I only made it a quarter way through my 'choctail'.

Seriously an amazing chocolate experience for anyone out there and I will be back again but I think I will need to build up quite an appetite so I can completely enjoy it next time (or just don't order so freakin' much)

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Random Sunday Breakfast

This is kinda a random post about a random Sunday.

We (the boy and I) usually go out for Sunday breakfast and we usually go to our fave cafe.

This most recent Sunday was no exception.

Me waiting for breakfast :)

Coffee Frappe

The boy and his lime thickshake

The boy and his 'breakfast' - Steak and Mash Potatoes

Moi and my eggs Benedict with Spinach 

Generally, I would be happy to sprout the details of our favourite little hide away but a lady I work with owns this lovely cafe and for some reason I don't want my work peeps to be privvy to all the ins and outs of my life via my lovely little blog.

Let me just say though....
I love this place. I love the atmosphere, I love doing this every Sunday, I love spending quality time with my boy and I love the food!

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Anniversary Dinner at Gips Restaurant

 

 A few nights ago, Josh and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary with a very indulgent dinner at Gip's Restaurant. A while ago I posted a sneak peak at our Wedding Venue but we had still never dined at this highly regarded restaurant. This was for a few reasons, we wanted to make it a special event if we did go there AND Gip's is a little out of our wining and dining budget. 

Just before we were about to head off, Josh surprised me with Peanut Butter M&Ms. These actually are pretty hard to come by in Australia, only a few stores in Toowoomba sell them so I was so excited that he got some for me. We had previously decided no presents since we knew our dinner would be expense enough but I guess he just loves me (and knows how much I love PB M&Ms)

While we were trying to decide what to order, I asked for a Champagne cocktail which contained Raspberry Sorbet, mixed berries and champers of course!  The boy is very happy with a beer so Corona it was for him :)

At the start of the night, I was determined I would make this a three course event so for my entree I picked the 'Seared Scallops, cauliflower puree, pinenut texture, watercress, currants, persian feta & lemon air' The dish was divine - perfectly cooked scallops and all the other elements were perfect. Josh was super impressed by the foam (or lemon air) because we are avid viewers of the Masterchef series so we were able to try something similar to what they do on the show.

The boy ordered 'Seared tiger prawns, prociutto wrapped monkfish, green pea risotto, creme fraiche & micro herbs'  He was pretty happy with his dish, of course it was delicious but Josh is always disappointed by the difference in quality of seafood from where we used to live (a coastal town with an abundance of fresh seafood) to where we live now.

Onto mains, I ordered the 'Orange & thyme duck breast, braised French lentils, wilted spinach,celeriac puree, cherry & walnut pie, cherry jus'  I always pick duck if I can and this was a lovely dish but probably my favourite part of the whole dish was the cherry & walnut pie. It was so sweet and delicious.

I knew the boy would pick 'Rib eye on the bone 400g, potato & thyme rosti, roast swiss brown mushrooms, paris butter, dutch carrots, béarnaise sauce' for his main. He was not disappointed. The steak was cooled perfectly and he really liked the accompaniments :)

I was absolutely stuffed by the end of dinner and desperately wanted to try a dessert but I knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in. Josh was eager to continue though and ordered Brioche bread & butter pudding fine chocolate sauce with maple & walnut icecream. All I could manage was to eat the strawberry on his plate and a tiny spoonful of icecream haha.

I forgot to take a picture of the boys dessert before he dug in!

 Overall, it was a perfect night (♥ with an absolutely perfect man ♥) and so fun because it was something completely out of the ordinary for us. We are so happy we picked Gip's for our wedding and now know our guests are going to have an awesome time :)

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Preston Peak Winery - Parental Outing

My parentals came to visit on a recent weekend so we thought we would take them for a drive and explore our lovely town.

Generally, the boy and I keep to our regular favourite places to have coffee and brunch but we decided to go crazy and try somewhere else :) So happy we did because Preston Peak Winery & Cafe was delicious and the location was completely gorgeous!

Be warned I am about to photo bomb you into another dimension :)

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Bridesmaid Trip to Brisbane ~ Day 3 ~ Sunday

Our final day in Brisbane was quite relaxed. Both George and I were a bit tired from our escapades from the night before so we checked out of our hotel and took a morning stroll over to South Bank.

 

We checked out the sights, strolled though the Sunday markets and saw this awesome beagle convention (seriously there were like 50 beagles and their owners gathered!). Our tummies were rumbling so we found a cute street-side cafe and stuck into some breakfast.

I got poached eggs, haloumi and mushroom along with a huge iced coffee and my lovely sister ordered a big breakie along with her English breakfast tea.

After another wander through Queen Street Mall we made our way to the Transit Centre where we said our goodbyes. The weekend was so much fun and it is always so great to catch up with my sister and also to see friends that I haven't seen in a long time!

Catch up on Day 1 of our trip by clicking here

or

Day 2 of our trip by clicking her

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Bridesmaid Trip to Brisbane ~ Day 2 ~ Saturday

My goodness, it has taken me so long to continue this little post about a fun weekend I had a little while ago. I still want to share so here is the second day, Saturday. Click here to catch up on day 1!

We met up with my other bridesmaid, Caiti in the morning and started off with a thoroughly delicious breakfast before tacking some dress shopping. We had breakfast at this really cute cafe called Room with Roses which is located in the Brisbane Arcade. The cafe had the nicest breakfast menu and such awesome table service. Caiti and I both ordered the googy eggs and Georgia ordered the big breakfast.

We then made our way main event of the day to firstly try on my gown and then find bridesmaid dresses.

~~I have paid the deposit and ordered "the dress" since this weekend! Eeekkk!. The girls (and my mum) really liked it so I am super happy with my dress. I can't wait until is made and in my local store! !!

We found a style of bridesmaid dress that suited both the girls but I am trying to see if we can get something similar in the town they live in so the dress fitting etc is easier for them. Fingers crossed we do!

That evening we organised to have some quality catch up with our friends that live in the lovely city of Brisbane. My buddy Heath suggested we go to Vapiano which is this amazing Pizza and Pasta bar. I am so glad we did. The food was amazing and the mojitos!!! Oh la la!!! Did I love the mojitos?!! (yes, yes I did... maybe a little too much....)

For dinner I ordered the small antipasto platter which was delish but I needed a bit more bread-age to be honest. Everyone else ordered Pizza and they looked so yum!

We then somehow made our way into Queen Street and decided to finish our evening (or morning) with some gelato (to keep with the Italiano theme). I picked chocolate pistachio and it was delicious. We said our goodbyes before Georgia and I stumbled our way back to the hotel. It was a great night and it was so great catch up with our old school/work/uni friends!

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Bridesmaid Trip to Brisbane ~ Day 1 ~ Friday

So I have been a bit AWOL lately... sorry! Hopefully I can get into the swing of blogging again very shortly.

I thought I would share a little bit of the fun weekend I had last weekend. I am having two bridesmaids - my little sister and one of my most gorgeous high school friend's, Caiti. I love them to bits!

Unfortunately, they still live in my home town, so it is hard to organise bridesmaid-y things with them when it is a 10 hour round trip!

Over the last weekend we all headed to Brisbane and got to spend some quality time together and we may have found their bridesmaid dresses :)

So Friday was travel day - Since we weren't due to meet up with Caiti until Saturday we spent Friday having some quality sisterly time. We shopped, checked out our hotel, ate way to much food and took too many silly photos.

After a exhausting day of pounding the pavement, shopping bags in tow, we were looking forward to a cocktail or two. We made our way over to the Jade Buddha bar and restaurant for dinner and drinks.

The gorgeous night view from Jade Buddha

Our ridiculously expensive cocktails - $20 a pop!

If you ever visit Brisbane then I thoroughly recommend visiting Jade Buddha. The waiters were so friendly and the food was delicious. I chose the seafood laksa and it was amazing, I can't believe how fresh, abundant and delicious the seafood was. My sister ordered the Pad Thai and she was equally impressed.

Look out for Day 2 in the next few days!

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What I ate Wednesday - Loving my veggies!

 I decided to jump on the bandwagon that is 'What I Ate Wednesday' and so be it below is my Wednesday eats!  

Breakfast - Necessary cappuccino and scrambled egg with tomato, mushroom and baby spinach on grainy toast.

Lunch/Snacks - I usually don't have a lot of time to sit and eat when I am working so I take snacky items. Popcorn, can of onion & tomato tuna and a handful of pistachios.

Dinner - I had to meet the boy in town after work so we ended up at Nandos for dinner. I got the Portuguese Chicken Paella. I only got the mild but it was pretty darn spicy all the same.

On the plus side you guys get to see me without my makeup on! Pretty awesome hey! I found a new app called Trollolol and it is so hilarious. I have been putting troll or derp faces (don't know the jargon) on everybody. My cat, the boy, the prime minister and it cracks me up every time.

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