Winter’s really set in here in Sydney now. I mean it’s no European winter – I remember reading about a place in far-eastern Russia called Chukotka where it goes to -49dC – but still, a low of 7dC is cold enough to chill your nose.
It’s the one time of year that us Sydneysiders can legitimately get our coats on and do some proper winter fashion… as long as we don’t have to walk too far. It gets a bit embarrassing when you start to sweat in the middle of winter!
Some people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Perhaps it is, but I reckon the most important meal of the week is the week’s first lunch. I strongly believe if you have a bad lunch on a Monday, your week’s destined for misery. Or maybe I just dwell on things too much.
Anyway, I’ve hit gold again this afternoon with another spectacular effort by the good people of Little Vienna. This Vienna Club sandwich has put me in a good mood for the rest of the day, if not the week!
Tonight, Mrs Romance is doing her thing at Stevie English Hair. This is her first Braid Bar of the year so far and is a sell-out event! I love the look on the little girl’s face on the left. How hard is she concentrating?!
If you want to know when the next Braid Bar will be, where you’ll be able to learn how to braid from the best in the business, keep your eyes pealed on Hair Romance‘s site for details. Don’t worry, you won’t have to remove your head to attend these classes. Mrs Romance is simply demonstrating on a block! 🙂
Pretty exciting today – I get to share another one of Mrs Romance’s desserts with you all. This one is the mocha choc mousse she makes to look like a cappuccino and it’s spot on!
The recipe for her delicious coffee chocolate mousse is right here.
Today we gave a shout-out to the most audaciously spectacular Carly from Smaggle.com. She’s incredibly funny and talented, and if you haven’t already, you should definitely go and see what she’s up to. Her blog’s amazing.
And this is what I’m talking about! Carly and Mr Smaggle stayed round ours last week and look at the lovely note they left us in our shower. I bought the Aqua Notes waterproof notepad for Mrs Romance a couple of Christmases ago because she was complaining about forgetting ideas she’d had in the shower.
Now the notepad is only used for evil! By the way, Carly was very concerned with her ‘street’ choice of how to spell ‘testicles’. I just thought it was the adjective form – like ‘tactical’. Anyway, her excellent drawing more than makes up for it I think!
Today on Mr & Mrs Romance, I explain how I managed to shoot lightning from my camera phone. Now, I’m aware that sounds like I have some kind of electrical fault with my handset, but you know what I mean. Anyway It’s surprisingly easy to do and I think the results are pretty effective.
Obviously if you want to get those amazingly HD results you see in galleries, you’ll need a DSLR camera, open aperture photography skills, a tripod and heaps of patience… and I don’t have any of those things so I’m happy with what I can do on my iPhone!
Here’s the how-to on shooting lightning on your phone.
Mrs Romance is going all Augustus Gloop tonight. She’s at Max Brenner’s chocolate bar on Broadway. How good does this chocolate martini look?
Don’t get stuck in the pipes, Mrs R!
My mind’s a bit drifty today. It must be because of today’s post on this place: Ikatan Balinese Day Spa in the Sunshine Coast, Qld. This place is just so amazingly peaceful, working here must be awesome.
My hour-long body massage was bloody awesome, and I’d recommend it to anyone… even though you are expected to wear what amounts to a hairnet on your happy parts. Anyway, here’s my full account of Ikatan Balinese Day Spa – paradise in paradise.
So this is about as exciting as it gets: Mrs Romance’s book, which is doing well in the States and the UK, is being released in Australia and New Zealand! It’s not out till September, but as the author, she gets a pre-release copy.
So very proud of her!
This morning, we’re in Balmain to ‘do brunch’ with a couple of great friends of ours up from Melbourne for the weekend. We chose Kazbah on Darling Street because it’s so different to most cafes in Sydney. Its Middle-Eastern/North African food and atmosphere is so contagious and the food is always so good too.
Watch this space for our review of this little Sydney gem. Oh and this plate of excellence is my potato and fetta cake (about 6cm thick!) topped with creme fraiche and smoked salmon, garnished with pickles and onion marmalade. Yum!
Tonight we’re out at our friends’ engagement party at the Dolphin in Surry Hills. It’s so good to see them so happy – what a lovely night!
We’ve still got quinoa left over from a slow-cooked lamb dinner I made the other day. It’s one of my favourite recipes to cook (and one of Mrs R’s favourites to eat!) but we always seem to have left over quinoa.
And what’s the best thing to do with 2 cups of leftover cooked quinoa? Easy: make gluten-free granola! So this is the result of a Sunday morning’s work. There’s about another 20 bowls’ worth in a container of course!
I’ll be putting this recipe up on site at some point in the week, so keep reading to find out how to make your own low-sugar, gluten-free delicious granola.
And that’s our week. It’s been a pretty good one really. I mean, lots of food, fun and good news – you can’t really get much better than that, can you?!
What have you been up to? What’s your opinion on those weird pants they make you wear when you’re getting a massage? Do you like granola? Tell us everything in the comments!
Sonia from Sonia Styling
Oh Jim, you give me a laugh on a Monday – and that’s always a great way to start the week! Love the look of that brunch from Kazbah and I’m looking forward to the gluten free granola recipe – it looks delish. Congrats, Mrs R! I’ll be placing my book order for sure.
Despite the icy temperatures here in Adelaide, it sure was nice to see the sun over the weekend. Amalfi turned 1 on Saturday and celebrated by doing all of his favourite things – chicken for breakfast, chasing the vacuum, a visit to the dog park, a nap in his new bed and a pupcake or 2. Sunday afternoon was wonderful – Mr Styling and I headed to a local Lebanese restaurant and had Mezze and a bottle of Oliver’s Taranga Fiano in the sun.