Excuse me while I toot my own horn.

So the other day I was meant to go out for a glorious night picnic with some friends of mine - and then watch a movie at the moonlight cinema. For those of you who live in Melbourne, you will know why this wouldn't have happened. For those of you who don't live in Melbourne - there was a one in one hundred year storm that flooded everything. I found the whole thing rather entertaining because I wasn't that inconvenienced by it - aside from the fact I was stumbling around dodging river streets for half and hour trying to find my friend from Ballarat.

Oh good times!

But earlier in the week I had set in my mind that I would be baking at some stage of the weekend. Well apparently I wasn't because of this storm. But I had ambition and apricots on my mind!

I had settled earlier in the week to make a Apricot Upside Down Cake from Donna Hay's Classics recipe book, volume 2. I don't know if I have mentioned it before, but this recipe book has never ever failed me for sweets. The recipes are just glorious! Not a thing wrong with them. This bitch might be a raging alcoholic at her book signings but she sure knows how to cook.

The apricot upside down cake is deceptive in two ways:

a) It leads you to believe that it is rather complicated and difficult to make *looking at the photo* This is not the case. This cake is very simple to make and you most likely won't get it wrong. BUT,

b)There is a bit of preparation involved so it isn't really a cake that is quick to make. It takes time.

How did the old cake turn out being created by my hands?

When it popped out of the tin and had syrup drizzling down the sides - I was elated at how the cake looked. BUT so worried that it wouldn't be cooked properly OR soggy. It was hard to tell doing the skewer test because the cake is cooking with the syrup. It cooks for an hour and five minutes which is quite a while - any longer and it may become tough and dry but soggy?

It turned out that it was perfectly cooked and tasted a treat! What would have really topped this off would be some whipped cream or as Donna suggests, WARM cream. Oh god I love food.

Remember everyone, in busy times if we can't go out - just whip something up. You can put together some nice little dishes in little time without having to go out. And if it goes wrong you have yourself or the recipe to blame. PERFECT.

ALSO in a slightly more recent saga. I went down to Ballarat to visit a good friend of mine. He is Japanese and made us like a Teriyaki Chicken Donburi. He was pretty worried it wouldn't taste great. But you know what? For a simple dish that was cooked relatively quickly, it was very delicious and satisfying. It had elements of home style cooking, also some personal touches. He used chicken thigh fillet which is always a great cut to use because it is so moist and awesome. Be warned it is a BITCH to clean. I hate preparing chicken thigh fillet so I often make someone else do it.

Look at that, how warm does it look? And when I say warm, I don't mean temperature. I mean the feeling a home made meal gives you when its put in front of you. And this went down SO well with a few beers in Special Edition Simpsons glasses!

Recently I haven't been eating out as much because I started back at uni and have had to cut back my work hours. With that said, it doesn't mean this blog is on hiatus, it doesn't mean I won't be eating out (stay tuned for a weekend update on +39 fashion week edition) but it means that I will be focusing a bit more on my cooking and some of my friend's cooking because I can cook a few decent dishes and my friends sure as hell can.