Category Archives: Engagement
ENGAGEMENT CELEBRATIONS – comfort food nights
Had some friends over for dinner for a (mini) engagement celebration.. decided to make some Mushroom & Truffle Risotto with some asparagus and chicken thrown in for extra measure. It’s actually really easy to cook, just time consuming. The only downside was that I over-estimated the amount of ingredients and we ended up with more ingredients than actual risotto, haha! It was delish though, but next time I’ll hold off on going crazy with the truffles.. I think I added too much ;) Very nice and hearty meal though, and decadant especially with the awesome chocolate dessert from La Renaissance!
Mushroom & Truffle Risotto, with a glass of Pinot Noir
Us :)
Wonderful chocolate gateau from the French patisserie – but of course!
Random bits of dessert. We got the nougat from Hamilton Island – it is awesome!!
The Frenchies :)
We get in on the action
Even better action ;)
Over the weekend, Chris and I did the 10km Camp Quality charity run. Or at least we tried, but failed miserably :P First of all, it was after a week’s worth of partying and very very very late nights.. so getting up before 6am(!) was just brutal. On top of that, it was dreary, drizzling, really windy, and super super cold!! It was like winter came out in full-force :( Feeling none-too-inspired, we still dragged ourselves there and started running.
Unfortunately, my knee’s been acting up in the past few weeks and was really sore straightaway, and gave up and caved in (bloody painful!!!!!) around the 4km mark. Pathetic, huh? I tried to continue running but Chris insisted we stop so we ended up walking back to the main meeting area, tail between our legs. Was so very sad that we had to give up, and so frustrating that we made such an effort with the weather and didn’t even feel one bit exercised! :(
Goodies to start you off
All ready
It was coooold! Check out the guy behind me in gloves ;)
*pant pant*
So since we obviously fail at being fit & healthy, we reverted back to doing what we do best – cooking and eating ;) Made a simple Beef Stroganoff for dinner and Chris made garlic bread with his home-made garlic butter – it’s absolutely divine!! No recipe because I basically just threw everything together in the saucepan. It did turn out delish though :)
Softening the onions
Chris wearing my apron (*lol*), preparing the garlic bread
Bubbling away
Add in a dash (or in our case, almost the whole carton) of sour cream…
Beef Stroganoff with Garlic Bread
Closeup of Chris’ homemade garlic bread, mmmm
Our little romantic dinner, just the two of us :)
ENGAGEMENT CELEBRATIONS – burger and pizza nights!
The first day I got back to work, my very very lovely girl friends sent me a big bunch of super colourful flowers! So delightful, thanks so much girls :) They’re featuring front-and-center on my dining table and are lasting absolute ages – 2 weeks now and they still look just fine. Anyway, so we had 2 dinners – one outside at Bite Me Burger and the other at my place, making homemade pizzas… mmmmmm!!
Gorgeous bunch of flowers on my office desk
Pretty at home on the dining table
At Bite Me Burger @ Bondi, where they have a wider selection
LOVE how the sauce is on the ceiling ;)
The biiig menu
Crayons for the kids
Amusing ourselves
Onion rings, OMG these were divine!
A very decadent ‘topless’ burger
Deeeelicious flourless chocolate cake
Us!
It was blimmin’ freezing outside, plus rainy, plus windy. All our umbrellas broke :(
Pizza night at my place!
In they go…
Wine glasses boasting my cute donut wine charms from Etsy
Totally delicious pizza, if I do say so myself :P
Vegetarian option
Pizza + wine = mmmm
My lovely girl friends!
Pretty flower
YUMMY
HAMILTON ISLAND @ WHITSUNDAYS – goodbye, farewell…
A little-known fact… Chris bought the ring back in Feb when he was getting it made, but obviously I didn’t know. Anyway, about a month or two ago, I was chatting with a girl friend about engagement rings and we were looking through the designs that caught our fancy? Guess which design I picked out? The EXACT one that Chris bought me :P Great minds think alike, hehe! It does mean a lot to me ‘cos it’s really nice to know that the guy I’m marrying knows my taste to a tee :)
Anyway, after The Proposal, Chris was really keen to still head out to our “celebratory dinner”. I wasn’t particularly in the mood to eat.. considering we’d only just pigged out on cheese and wine, and my stomach was doing total flipflops in excitement over the proposal :P Chris was insistent, so I decided I’d just eat light and have an entree or something.
Set amongst tropical landscaped gardens and overlooking the Reef View pool, The Pool Terrace Restaurant is chic but casual. Lit by candlelight, it’s was a lovely restaurant for us to just enjoy and bask away in our ‘newly engaged’ status :) Again, I was surprised at how fantastic the food was.. I selected the Tasting Plate which was basically “surprise” dishes consisting of whatever the chef thought was best and freshest. The food was great, but the portions were too small for the price IMHO ;)
Which meant I of course had to steal some of Chris’ :P He’d selected the Eye Fillet steak served on a bed of croquette potatoes, asparagus and porcini mushroom suace. Topped with a delicate truffle butter. That steak was friggin’ AMAZING. It was fat and thick but was absolutely tender and cooked perfectly.. was actually better than the steak we had at The Steakhouse earlier in the trip :P
Dessert was Sticky date pudding with pistachio ice cream which didn’t look too exciting on the menu, but I’m damn glad we’d ordered it because it was AWESOME! Warm and fudgy and moist.. beautifully matched with the pistachio ice cream. Too bad the resturant’s not in Sydney too!
The Pool Terrace Restaurant
Our 1st photo post-engagement, ‘cept it’s so flashed-out and we look so tired!
My tasting plate
Some kinda tart, and some risotto/truffle ball
Super tender beef with a strawberry
Smoked salmon and seaweed, and scallop at the back
Eye Fillet steak served on a bed of croquette potatoes, asparagus and
porcini mushroom suace. Topped with a delicate truffle butter.
Sticky date pudding with pistachio ice cream
CHEERS TO OUR ENGAGEMENT! :)
Picture-perfect view from THE BALCONY, the next morning
I could stand out here for hours…….
Chris’ video of THE BALCONY :)
Byeeeeeeee
And that’s the end of it… A wonderful holiday that I’d anticipated would be something that would totally rejuvenate us and it was all that and so much more :) It’s been an absolute whirlwind of craziness since we’ve returned, with engagement celebration dinners, hanging out with friends.. and of course, an engagement party coming right up!
But THANK YOU so much for all your well wishes and thoughts. It means a lot to us and really put a smile on my face reading through your comments :) It’s nice to be able to share this with you, and also quite nice to be able to talk about something for a change, since my blog is pretty much about nothing interesting except for a few food pics here and there ;)
And do I have anything planned yet? The answer to that (very frequently asked) question is… NO! Nothing at all – not even a date, or a venue, or bridal party, or theme colour, or anything at all. I’ve never been the girl that dreams of her wedding and has got everything planned/imagined.. so it’s all quite overwhelming for me and to be honest, I just wish everything would be over and we were already married – that’s kind of the part I want the most, and not really months and months of planning/stress just for one day. Pressure, much? Eek!!!
