VIC Bushfire Fundraising Morning tea

With the tragedy happening in VIC over the last week, we decided to host a morning tea at work to raise money for those less fortunate than us (Plus, we always love a cook off with heaps of food!). Our lovely Group Assistant did a wonderful job of harrassing everyone to make sure they brought food AND money to the morning tea. We weren't asking for a gold coin donation, we were asking for note donations only. And everyone was more than happy to oblige!

So what did I make?

Big white blob

What the HECK is that I can hear you saying. That, my dear friends, is my first attempt at making marshmallows!

The ugly ducklings

They look quite terrible to be honest, but that's cos I used some weird icing sugar my sister had bought to dust them with (it was all clumped up before I even opened it). The marshmallows was incredibly easy to make! I'm going to experiment with them a bit more to see if I can achieve those heavenly green tea ones that Tetsuya made. These were really really good for my first attempt. Incredibly light and fluffy, almost like eating the inside of a meringue.

Cookies and cream truffles

Salami and cheese palmiers

Sweet palmiers

The last morning tea we held, only 3 of us had brought anything in. And it was the one time I decided to make one dish only (My chocolate ripple cake). It was actually a pretty pathetic turn out. But this time, everyone pooled in to make this morning tea success! Those who couldn't cook, went to the shops and bought something instead.

Scones and apple puffs

Pikelets, cheese and bacon puffs, chocolate cupcakes, lamingtons and chocolate crackle slice

Lattice cheese cake, anzac cookies

More lamingtons (home made and store bought) and cupcakes

Vegetable quiche

Date scones

Chocolate caramel slice

The BEST oreo cupcakes and pikelets

Carrot cake

Butterfly cupcakes and chocolate spiders

Half of the spread

Even as I was taking photos, more and more food arrived to our kitchen. So much, in fact, that the table was groaning under the amount of food! We had run out of the room on the table and started placing the rest of the goodies on the benches surrounding the kitchen. There were also about 6 dozen Krispy Kremes lying around!

Everyone was more than generous with their donations, with plenty of orange and yellow notes going into the donation box. A few people even slipped some green $100 notes in! Some others decided to donate online for their tax receipts. At the end of the day, we had raised over $2000 in cash alone! Not including what was donated online. Every dollar we donate, our company will match the donation. As as we deposited the money into Westpac, who was also going to match our donation, we basically raised over $6000!! All for cooking some food and feasting on it!

I've also gone through my wardrobe and did a drastic clean out. I alone, managed to cram 3 hugeeeeee garbage bags full of clothes to donate (My sister and her family of 5 only managed 9 bags...). And I only went through 1 wardrobe! That shows how much of a horder I am!

Jazz in the Domain

One of our favourite events during the Sydney Festival is Jazz in the Domain. Since I won't be able to make it to the Symphony in the Domain this year, we went all out preparing for Jazz.

We got there nice and early and picked our usual spot away from the crowds so we can make an easy exit.

The spread!

Would you believe that this was intended to feed 2 people only???? We ended up feeding about 5-8 people with this!!

Our antipasto plate

Dried apricots, grapes, pesto, anchovie stuffed olives, semi sundried tomatoes, duck pate and Gus's first Hungarian contribution in 8 years, salami! hehe

Cheese and bacon puffs

I know they don't look puffy, but they did in the oven! This is basically a super concentrated cheese and bacon roll, without the bread! An absolute favourite of the kids!

Mediterranean puff

This tastes like all the best toppings on a pizza without the base! Heaven! The adults generally like my vegetarian version than the bacon version. Me? I love both, which is why I always make both!

Havarti, double cream brie and quince paste

Honey almonds and salted cashews

S's lovely choc orange cupcakes!

Choc dipped apples and strawberries

I have not made these in years! They certainly don't look anywhere as good as my previous batch since I made these under the influence of alcohol..... *cough* I love choc dipped strawberries, but I think I like the choc dipped green apples more. I love the contrast of the crunchy sour apples with the soft sweet chocolate. I just can't believe how much I made!

Rum Balls

I don't usually eat rum balls, but these were really nice and mild. Good work Cherry!

Day 4 - Jenolan Caves and Blackheath

It is FREEZING in Oberon. I kept waking up during the night as my nose was so blocked up I couldn't sleep. I already had 2 blankets and desperately need a 3rd and 4th one, except I was too cold to get up to get it. There was also a heater, but it was on the other side of the cabin. Again, I was too cold to get up and turn it on. In the end, I woke up an hour earlier than planned to try and defrost.

This morning's checkout was the easiest. The boot was right next to the front door. We were practically just throwing things into the car. We popped the key into the checkout box and off we went for breakfast. We chose a local cafe that looked warm and cosy for breakkie.

Cafe Savanna

We order our coffees, me screaming I needed it in a mug before we ordered breakfast. Will orders toast, and when asked if he wants thin or thick toast, he answers thin toast. If this is thin toast, I don't want to see their thick toast:

3cm thick toast

Being in Oberon, where you can go foraging for mushrooms, I decided that mushrooms on toast would be the perfect choice. And since I had a hangover, bacon and hashbrowns obviously make an appearance. But I didn't expect THIS:



This was HUGE. It was easily 1/2kg of mushrooms cooked in butter, served with thick slabs of toast slathered in butter with a serve of bacon cooked in butter and a butter fried hash brown. I could feel my ateries clogging up with every bite. I tried my best but only managed to get through 1/2 of it.

Will leaves me to deal with the bill, which isn't a problem since it was paid for last night. He goes and does his stuff and I hit the shops. Right before he leaves,

I said "I'm going to go shopping"
he said "What could you possibly buy in a town like this??"
I said "Is that a challenge?"
he took one look at me and went "Oh, that's right. Happy shopping."

Within about 15mins, I had purchased 2 jars of home made jam from a volunteer shop, a kangaroo keyring for Will and I bought myself the CUTEST set of cow tumblers that come in a milk carton!!


Again, Will's jaw drops when he sees me with bags of stuff again. We dump everything into the car and went to the local bakery to grab some picnicky stuff for lunch. We grab a salad roll each, plus I bought olives earlier when stocking up on water to tide us over.

We get back into the car and head off towards the Jenolan caves. I have lost count of how many times I've been to the blue mountains, and everytime I try to go to the caves, I don't make it. Its either raining, or we've missed the last bus etc etc. This time, I wasn't sure we'd make it either looking at the road we had to drive on!!!

We're trying to do a SHARP left turn

I could not believe how tight some of these curves were! I'm so glad we didn't hire a caravan or campervan like we talked about. We finally make it to the bottom in one piece where we quickly park before heading towards the ticket office (Right past a warning sign that says there are snakes in the area). We bought tickets to the next cave tour, Lucas caves.

We go to the meeting point to wait for the tour to start. It was then I noticed that most people are in shorts and tshirts with a tiny bag and a bottle of drink. Me on the other hand, jeans, jump, side bag, camera bag and camera around my neck. It was only when we started our tour into the cave that I realised what a big mistake it was. Some parts of the cave are tiny and narrow. There were a few times my bags will get snagged onto something. And I didn't realise how many stairs there were! It was like a stair master workout with rocks!

The more spacious areas

The broken column

The Cathedral

Wombat remains

However, with that said, we did enjoy ourselves. The only problem was a 10yo kid who would not shut up the entire 1.5hrs and decided to give us a running commentry on EVERYTHING.

The tour ends and we immediately plant ourselves down on some chairs and pull out our lunch.

Mixed Olives

Salad Roll

Even though the food was simple, it was really satisfying after my fryup this morning. We duck into info to grab some brochures and decided that we should head to Adam's shed which has wine, jam and honey tasting. We decided to try a different road out of Jenolan caves to avoid having to go around the bends/cliffsides we just went through. And let me just say, the 2 times we stopped to take photos of dead roos, a car drives past BOTH TIMES. @#%#@#$

The upside was, the view was gorgeous:


We eventually get onto the freeway towards Adam's shed, only to find out they were closed! To make up for it, we pulled into a little cafe/garden/nursery for some gorgeous scones:



They also saw the bazooka of a camera I had and recommended that we go to a secret lookout to watch the sunset. We were both knackered, so we decided to save that lookout for our next trip instead. We follow the Navman and eventually arrive at the guesthouse we booked:




As they were showing us our room, we realised they had mixed up our booking. To make up for it, they bought us a bottle of wine, woohoo!! AND, they had chocolates on arrival!! How sweet! Plus slippers and bathrobes for extra luxury. They even upgraded us by giving us a spa bath!

Modelling with our bathrobes

Chocolate on arrival

Showing off our spa bath

Will cracking open our wine

Being hot and sweaty, we take a shower and jump into bed to relax with our chocolate, wine and my surprise just for Will. Little Britain USA! We crack open the wine whilst we're watching this, and whilst I get completely plastered on wine, Will slowly sips his one glass until I ended up on the floor as I couldn't walk straight. Not a good sign. We decided to start watching our Mykonos holiday video, until a certain "scene" came on TV when I decided I should get ready for dinner and hide in the bathroom. Next thing you know, I hear this soft thump thump sound. I open the bathroom door and see this:

Current State: Insane

Current State: Winding down

Current State: Exhausted

Me? Just drunk

We hop into the car and manage to find our way to the main strip. We drove past Tails, which was recommended by the scones people as a great place for a nice dinner. The restaurant is actually part of a Motel, which wasn't a huge issue. The problem was that our table was in the corner of the room. LITERALLY in the corner of the room. We both sat staring at the walls of the restaurant???

With that said, the food was really nice:

Chicken breast wrapped with pancetta and baked, with rocket, tomato and parmesan salad

Herb crusted rack of lamb with almond and lemon risotto and lemon sabayon

Choc walnut cake with a choc mint ice cream - HEAVEN on a plate

We head back to the house, where we find that someone had lit the fireplace for us! I LOVE fireplaces! I absolutely LOVE LOVE fireplaces! We got changed into our jammies and bathrobes before plantings ourselves down on the plush armchairs by the fire. Without even asking, Will brings me a glass of port to enjoy by the fire. Now THIS is a holiday. We sit infront of the fire, chatting, drinking when we suddenly decide to call Gus up and abuse him a bit! Its not right if we don't abuse someone.

The port pouring

Me, my jammies and port!

The look of content

A combination of the bottle of wine I had earlier, the satisfying dinner, the fireplace and now the port with some heart to heart chatting meant we were both ready for bed. Besides, we had emptied half of the port bottle already....

We get ready for bed when I walk into the bathroom and see a spider on the ceiling. We both start screaming that the other person has to kill it. We run out into the livingroom and kitchen to look for bug spray or something to kill it with. We grabbed a mini broom thing from the fireplace ready to do some eradication.

Armed to kill

We're standing in the bathroom,arguing over whats the best way to kill the spider. I scream at Will to just stab it with the broom. So he does, but then it falls from the ceiling and tried to scuttle away. So here we were, 2 full grown adults, screaming our head off whilst bashing the tiled floor with a brass broom. We eventually get the spider into the toilet to try and flush it:

It looked much bigger IRL

After all that excitement, we were both wide awake with our hearts racing. We eventually get to bed when the alcohol kicks in again. As usual, Will dumps the tea and coffee into my suitcase.


Just as I am almost asleep, out of nowhere, came the LOUDEST jackhammer like sound from our window/wall. I had a mini heart attack whilst Will fell out of bed thinking someone was trying to break into our room with a chainsaw!!! It was basically someone having a shower and the waterpipes going nuts. I thought someone was doing construction outside our room at 1am in the morning. I'm not even sure how we managed to get back to sleep after that.