Cherry tomato and caramelised onion tarts.

Everyone loves a tart. I'm not one, but I do love to eat one.

Cherry Tomato and caramelised onion tart

You will need:

• 5 onion
• olive oil
• 12 cherry tomatoes (yes cherry tomatoes....funny, it has my name in it. Have a good laugh, I've heard it all before.)
• thyme
• One egg
• two sheets of puff pastry.

What to do:

1. First you want to set about caramelising your onions. This takes a while but is incredibly easy. Just slice them all up nice and thin. Chuck them in a fry pan with a good lug of olive oil (sorry about all the 'chuck' and 'lug', I've been watching too much Jamie Oliver) and just cook on a low heat. Onions have a lot of natural sugar in them so they will get sweet when they are cooked down. Just keep the heat low, and stir them a bit, for about an hour. You don't want to brown them, you just want to cook them down nicely. Some people add sugar, so add a pinch if you want but make sure you season them.
2. Cut rectangles out of your puff pastry, and prick all over with a folk. Then take some extra pastry to make a border and sit it around the edges of your rectangle. Use a little bit of beaten up egg to stick it together if you like.
3. So thats your tart. Now you just need to fill it. Carefully spoon some of that oniony goodness into the tart. Top with cherry tomatoes. Season. Sprinkle with thyme, and place on an oiled baking tray (or lined with grease proof paper.)
4. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and bake at 180 for around half an hour or until golden and puffy.
5. Its that easy. It looks impressive. Everyones happy

Looking at 21 and exploring 22

My sister once told me that in order to meet the right man, you first have to become the right woman. This secret she shared, about a month before she met her long term boyfriend and partner. We are all a little bit in love with him too, as he compliments her perfectly and has now become part of the family. Iv'e been thinking about this theory lately, as I've been doing a little revaluation of my life before my birthday. Everyday we make decisions, good and bad, but inevitably they lead to us having the sort of life we truly want, to being the person we really want to be.

It makes you wonder what you want.....and how to start making decisions to get there. In my year of being twenty one, I feel like I started to fit into my own skin a lot more. What I wanted got clearer and I came closer to being what my mother calls 'your authentic self.'

I am ambitions. There are a lot of things I want in life. I know exactly what kind of things I want out of life, and I have a huge long list of all the things I want to do. This is not because I am an overachiever, or I'm not content with my life at the moment. Its just.....I love life, and I love living it well.

A while ago, a boy told me he loved me. This I thought was beautiful. This I thought, is what I wanted. Then I took a good look at my life and thought "no, no thats hardly enough at all." I don't want to be loved, I want to be adored. Am I asking too much? Yes, I am. But don't we all deserve too much. If we never ask anything of life, it gives us just that......nothing. I have high expectations, huge plans.

I've been putting of all this change for a while now. All asking too much, because realistically it very scary at times. I have been hiding in my little world, in my little room drinking coffee and reading magazines, afraid to venture out into the big wide world. "I'm giving myself until my birthday to pull myself together," I confided in a friend. He looked at me and said "Dates make no difference, you either do it, or you don't." This is true. Very very true. All the same, I'm giving myself to my birthday. End 21 with a rest. Do whatever I want for another week and a bit. If I want to hide in my room for days, and pretend the world doesn't exist I will totally give myself permission to do that.

But watch out 22. Your going to be magic.

Single in the city.........a valentines day feast

Yesterday I woke up bright and early to a sunny Melbourne morning. Sunday is my favourite day of the week, and for some reason I think that it always feels magic. I'm not sure why. Maybe its the fact that as kids this was the day we always went to church, and then picnics after. It was likely to be a day of treats. Your more likely to score an ice cream on Sunday than on a monday. Unfortunately I didn't feel any magic as I woke up alone. I just felt sad, and longed for other sundays not so long ago when I was waking up next to someone delicious, and then going out for breakfast. The rest of the day would usually be spent looking at art, going to markets, or maybe a quiet pint of cider in the afternoon. These are the sort of sundays I love most.

This is not the sort of sundays I have been getting though. So I pulled my sorry arse out of bed and went for a run. As I ran around an oval I had this awful revelation..... its nearly valentines day. The day every single girl dreads! For some reason, I seem to always be single on this day. Its very strange, because I very rarely are single, but I seem to do a certain 'spring cleaning' before this date and kick everyone I'm dating out of my life. Last year I spent the day working at a new job. I sold thousands of cupcakes to men taking home gifts to their girlfriends. I had three messaged from ex boyfriends, who know how hopelessly romantic I am, and checking that I was ok. "I still love you, and hope your doing well" messages from three failed relationships, is NOT the thing you want on the once day you cant stand being single.

Oh I whinge so much about 'poor little alone me' but in reality, Im ridiculously happy in my self contained life. Its so nice to have all this time with friends, and not have to check in with someone all the time. I just grieve the fact that not dating someone means one less mouth for me to fead with all my experiments I've been cooking up.

This year though, I think I'll through a feast. A valentines feast, and not one of those "oh poor us we are so sad and desperate that we want to get drunk feasts", but more of a celebration of life and love. I truly believe that I have dated some of the nicest people on this planet, and I'm pretty proud of that. My whole life I have loved pretty hard (I don't think thats a term, but you get what I'm saying) and I am proud of that to.

So heres to being single, and I'll let you all know about the dinner party coming up, because your all invited, even if your not single. Lets celebrate love...................and get a little drunk while we are at it.

Cauliflower, fennel and almond salad.

Sometimes I make very silly choices in life.......I like to put this down to being wildly romantic, and sometimes not looking at the ramification. I came up with this theory once that there is no right or wrong choices in life.......just choices. This completely frees yourself from self judgment, and you find yourself doing whatever the hell you feel like. Let me just say now, this is an awful theory. Not only did I make awful choices repetitively for a good three months, I also had to live with them. Some where minor and didn't have a huge effect on my life, like skipping school to go to art galleries instead, while others were major, and effected my love life drastically. I continued making these seemingly inconsequential choices, until one night, I tried to profess my deep love for someone, I really wasn't in love with at all (via text) because I had one too many glasses of wine.....and at the time it totally felt right.

The moral of all this is, I'm young, I'm foolish, and sometimes downright stupid.......but this is one smart thing I did this week, and the ramifications are wonderful.

Wondering what it is?

Its this salad

Roast Cauliflower, fennel and almond salad.

What you will need:

• Half a cauliflower
• One bulb of fennel
• One cup of baby spinach leaves
• 1/8 of a cup of sliced almonds
• Half a red onion
• Italian herbs
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Balsamic vinegar
• 1/8 cut of dill

What to do:

1. Cut your cauliflower into resets, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with italian herbs. Crack a decent amount of pepper and salt over the top and bake at 180 until its crispy on the outside and cooked in the centre.......I'm going to guess about half an hour.
2. Finely (very finely) slice the red onion and fennel bulb.
3. In a frypan on medium heat toast the almonds. Shake the pan from time to time so they don't burn and cook evenly.
4. Wash dill and spinach leaves.
5. Then just toss everything together, drizzle with balsamic and through the nuts on top.
6. Eat it!

Cherry Pie

I promised I'd post up my cherry pie recipe!!

Today I made a Cherry Pie. Its so lovely. I love making pie's and tarts. They are like jams, were you need no recipe....just soul. You can put whatever you can find, or have in them, and they always look so homey and beautiful.

Making it today I started to think about one of my friends mums back home. Every time we went to her house as kids, there would always be treats around. The kitchen would be filled with beautiful smells, and it was so exciting. Parties there were so much fun, because you could always count on there being loads of treats. The table would be decked out with cup cakes and lollies, and everything would look amazing. I loved it.

Its funny, some of us grow up wanting to be movie stars, looking up to famous people. Some of us want to be singers or writers, but I always secretly looked up to my friends mum, wearing pretty linen dresses, and driving her kids to sport and ballet, in her country style house.

I hope my life looks like that one day. I'm so excited for the idea of cooking someone dinner every night. Making my children's first birthday cake. Planning dinner parties. It seems like a very beautiful way to live.

When people come to my house for visits I would like to think they don't hope for treats, instead I would like them to expect them.

When the electrician came over today to fix our lights, I made him a cup of tea and set him out a cake. If life could be like this more often, I feel I would be very happy.

Cherry Pie Recipe:

For this recipe you the pie crust I posted up a few days ago. I'll just give you a rough idea of how I made this, because to be honest I didn't use any measuring cups and did it all by feel.

You will need:

• 2 cups of cherries pitted. I used preserved ones my housemates mum had bottles over christmas, but you can use fresh or canned ones.
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons of plain flour
• 1/8 cup of cherry juice
• pie pasty
• One egg for brushing the top
• A little extra brown sugar

What to do:

1. Firstly Make sure all your cherries have no pips in them. There is nothing worse than biting into a pie and finding a pip!
2. Add your juice, vanilla, and cinnamon.
3. Mix together the flour and sugar and add to the cherries (the point of this is that your less likely to get lumps of flour.)
4. Give everything a good mix and pour into a pie tin lined with pastry.
5. Use some extra pasty to make a criss cross pattern on top.
6. Brush the whole thing with some beaten egg, and then sprinkle with the remaining brown sugar.
7. Bake at 180 for about half an hour.....Im not 100 percent sure on the time, because I've never actually timed it to be honest. You can tell when its ready though because the pastry will be a nice golden brown colour and it will smell amazing.

Cherry bakes a cherry pie.

A conversation between myself and a friend early this morning :

Friend: Oh I'm running late for the train

Me: Well don't leave the house until you finnish the breakfast I made you.

Friend: Yep I will. What are you doing while I'm at work today.

Me: Oh I just want to clean the bathroom and the kitchen, do some food shopping. House things.

Friend: Well I'll be home in time for dinner, when your friend come over.

Me: Ok give me a call when you know what time. Don't forget the lunch I packed you.

Friend: Cherry.......has anyone told you that you are SUCH a house wife.

Me: Yes, all the time.

And it is true. Its so very very true, because I am more than content on the days I get to stay at home, potter around, do some cooking and have friends over for dinner. None of this nightclub business for me. I'm all about the baking of pies, the making of jams, and the preserving of lemons these days. This is what is keeping me happy over the holidays, and I think its wonderful.

Today I am baking a cherry pie, for some friends who are coming for dinner. Feel free to make jokes about it. Cherry making a cherry pie........hilarious. Yes I have heard them all. Every fruit related joke you can think of....I have heard it. What I'm wondering is, why has it taken me 22 years to embrace this, and bake a cherry pie? I have no idea. So that is what I will be doing today. Pottering around my little flat, in a frilly apron, baking.

If the recipe works out well I'll post it up for you, and you can all make jokes about 'Cherry's cherry pie' and feel witty and amused. I however will remain demure, ignore your jokes, and get back to rolling out pastry.

Making pastry

So life has settled into a nice little patten here for me. Im in my new home and still loving holidays. I have started a new lifestyle while I don't have much on, and it mainly revolves around reading books, staying in bed late and going for little runs. Everyday I wake up feeling blissful in the knowledge that there is nothing I have to do. I only share my time with a few people and mostly sit with myself and just enjoy being here.

I have been doing some wonderful experiments, and have just started my first sourdough culture. Its amazing, and all bubbly and wonderful. It takes five days to make, and I have to feed it daily. Its a bit like having a pet. In a weeks time I will be making fresh sourdough bread. I will invite you all over to try it!

I have been exploring my new town. Its really very lovely. So nice just to walk the streets and poke around in shops. I've had a lot of thinking to do lately, so this slow pace is working perfectly for me. I feel all fresh and new, despite also feeling a little bit small. Somehow I think shop keepers and cafe owners sense it too. Everyone smiles politely at me as I walk around vaguely trying to work out my head and heart. Old men smile at me and ladies on the train give my kind looks. There can be something amazingly beautiful about feeling a wee bit fragile at times. Its very refreshing to be able to look at life and say "ok right now, I've got some things to deal with, so I'm just going to take it really slow on myself, and be super kind, until I'm ready to take on the world again." And I will be ready soon, I'm sure of it. Nothing stops me for very long. I will dust off my knees and say "Things are better now, whats next?"

So while I'm taking this little rest, I have been so happy to have good friends. People who say "go back to bed and cancel all your plans if it makes you happy", people who drop in for pie, and friends that cook me dinner and sit with me for hours as I outline every emotion thats passing through my head, friends that take me out for drinks, look me in the eye and tell me "this year is going to be really good for you", friends who let me call them at 1 in the morning when I cant sleep and say "ok I'm going to tuck you in now, pull the blankets around you tight and close your eyes." And a family that makes me laugh so very hard. A mother that I can call up and say "mum what do I do when I like a boy," and she will give me advice, and we will giggle about silly things I say. A dad who will listen to everything I have been cooking, and tell me I am just like my great grandmother, who was also a pasty chef in Melbourne (this warms my heart a lot.) Also a crazy sister, who gives me the most honest advice I have ever heard, and will stand very loyally next to me no matter what I say or do.

I am very very blessed.

So now I'm going to bless you with a recipe for pie pasty. I didn't invent this recipe but stole it off joy the baker. Don't tell her! I've just discovered her recently, and she is an amazingly talented, funny, and good looking food blogger and pasty cook (I like to think we have a lot in common! he he) Anyway, this is her pie crust recipe. I made it recently and It worked out really nicely. I hope you enjoy it!

Pie crust:

This will give you a lovely flakey pie crust. Its not too sweet, and just damn lovely!

You will need:

• 225g cold butter diced into cubes
• 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tbs of sugar (I used brown sugar to give it some extra yummy goodness)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of butter milk

What to do:

1. This is easy, so don't be scared. Pastry is your friend!
2. Place all the dry ingredients together in a bowl (see thats not hard at all.)
3. Add the cold diced butter, and with your finger tips rub it into the dry ingredients, until it looks like bread crumbs. If your not a fan of all this rubbing, this can also be done in a food processor. I like to do it by hand though. It make me feel all earthy and wonderful (like a real lady.)
4. Make a well in the middle, and add the butter milk. Mix it all together, and work into a ball. You don't want to knead it much at all, as this makes the pastry sad (there are totally technical reasons, which I can't be bothered to go into today, but trust me .....kneading pastry = sad pastry.)
5. Wrap in cling wrap and place it in the fridge for an hour for a rest.
6. After its had a nap. Pull it out, give it a 5 second knead, and roll it out. Its all good and ready to use for whatever pie you want to make!