breakfast

The Guildford Village Tea Room

Posted on October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 by bekswhoknits

On our weekends adventures we may have just stumbled across our new favourite breakfast spot in Guildford.

Guildford is one of those old suburbs in Perth. It’s main strip has all kinds of vintage and antique stores, which we explore from time to time. It’s a place that’s full of character and is frequently a stopping point when we have errands to run in the Eastern suburbs.

We have tried The Lounge Room before. And although it had the pancakes I was looking for, the Bloke’s meal was cold and uninspiring, which he hasn’t forgotten about quite yet.
So we’ve been eating at the Guildford Milk Bar which I think is very uninspiring.
My favourite breakfast is eggs Benedict so if a breakfast spot doesn’t make them, it’s an automatic fail in my book.

In the spirit of compromise we tried, The Guildford Tea Room.
I had my eggs Benedict (although with smoked salmon instead of ham, and bread instead of a muffin, and with cream cheese instead of hollandaise; so not really a Benedict if you look closely) and my Bloke had his ‘big brekky’.
And we were both happy.

My eggs were gooey and the smoked salmon almost melted on my tongue. The bread was what I think was a rye sourdough. It was my sort of dish. My only complaint was the spinach was a little stringy almost like it was been overwilted.

The bloke had fried eggs, on plain white toast, with crispy bacon and a hash brown. And he was quite chuffed. While I’m always looking to try something new, he likes his breakfast on the traditional side with none of this “gluten free, organic, low fat, wanky tosh that’s infecting breakfasts everywhere”. (It’s a direct quote)
So without even knowing, they managed to please two very different breakfast eaters.

My tea was hot, his coffee was lukewarm. We were both happy.

It’s not going to set the world alight, but for a Sunday brunch it ticked both our boxes.
We also had to wait before being seated (not too long though), so other people must like it too.

We look forward to seeing you again.

While you’re up, can you make me pancakes??

Posted on June 9, 2012June 9, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Sometimes you just want to spend all weekend on the couch with a heat pack. Only taking the occasional break to eat pancakes standing up in the kitchen.

And then play around with phonto whilst trying to ignore the fact that you’re a woman and your ovaries hate you.
I’m being very over dramatic, but I have my period and it hurts. Pancakes help.

And I made some mix for later. It’s not as good as using fresh ingredients, but it’s worth the convenience of being able to not worry about having milk and eggs in the cupboard.

Here’s to a lazy Saturday.

Cooking with lavender – pancakes

Posted on May 22, 2012June 4, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I have a lovely lavender plant in my garden. It’s one of the few plants that survived me.
We don’t get many hours of sunlight, but it thrives in the shade.

But after visiting Bridgetown and all the lavender inspired soaps, and oils I’ve been thinking about how I can get more use out of it.

Currently we use it as a mosquito repellant, there’s always some hanging on our outside light.
I’m a mosquito magnet and I notice the difference.
I’ve tried those yellow mosquito lights but they don’t do anything.

Unfortunately I really don’t like the smell of lavender. My hay fever reacts badly to it, and it reminds me of old lady potpourri. So I’m not likely to have it inside the house.
I enjoy citrus fragrances a lot more and the only time my house smells of flowers it’s not by my choice.
But I did a bit of research which is opening my eyes to cooking with lavender.

There’s a chocolate lavender cake which I really want to try, but unfortunately couldn’t get the oven to light.
So instead I made the lavender sugar syrup by itself. Then Instead of putting it on an invisible chocolate cake, I put it on pancakes.

Inspired by that I made a lavender compound butter to go with it as well.
Absolutely delicious.

bek’s pantry pancakes

This is the ‘day before the food shopping’ pancakes, when you have run out of milk, eggs, and can’t be bothered popping to the shops just for that.
So I always have powdered eggs and powdered milk in the pantry. They don’t get used that often, but they’re good to take camping, and for when laziness strikes. Of course you can use 1 egg and 1 cup of milk but it really tastes pretty good for powder. I find it also makes it easier to get all the lumps out.

the ingredients
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tablespoon egg powder
1/2 cup milk powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup water

the method
Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Add the water and mix until there are no lumps.
Add more water if necessary.

I always make it in a Pyrex jug, just because that way I can save on washing up.

lavender sugar syrup
the ingredients
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
1 sprig of lavender

the method
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.
Bring to the boil.
Keep boiling until the sauce thickens.
Take off the heat and once it has cooled slightly (because it will be very hot), pour it through a sieve, and serve.

lavender compound butter
This was a whim. But melted on the pancakes it was a whim that payed off.

the ingredients
butter
Lavender (cut into small pieces)
Lemon zest
Lemon juice

the method
Mix it all together.

It really comes down to eyeballing it, particularly when you only want a little bit.

I’m really not an authority on cooking pancakes. In fact I’m shocking at it. So bad that I’ve bought a crepe maker into my arsenal. It always heats to the right temperature and because it’s non-stick I don’t get those first pancake blues, where the first pancake is soaked in butter.
I do love my crepe maker.

I’m now going to be looking for more ways to use lavender in my cooking.

The weekend in review

Posted on October 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

The Lounge Room – Guildford

Posted on October 23, 2011October 22, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I wish urbanspoon had an undecided rating. This would definitely be the verdict on The Lounge Room.
The inside was so pretty but the food was decidedly average.

I woke up this morning and wanted pancakes.

When the Mister said ‘Do you want to go to Guildford and go antiquing’ I jumped at the chance.
And we headed along to get a late breakfast. The first place to have pancakes on the menu was ‘The Lounge Room’.
The wind machine was on full blast, but we sat down in the comfy surrounds. The details were gorgeous. Butterfly shaped mirrors adorned picture frames and hand written messages of love were scribbled on the walls.
The background music was triple j circa 2005 which suited me just fine.

I ordered my pancakes and Mr P-D&S ordered a big brekkie with mushrooms as an extra.

Unfortunately both meals came out cold.
The pancakes were light and fluffy, with the berry sauce delicious and sweet. But the fruit on the side seemed like a bit of an afterthought.

The Mister rated the big brekkie a 7. And he is an expert on big brekkies. There was no hashbrown which was disappointing. The scrambled eggs looked light and fluffy, but the bacon was rubbery and the bread was toasted past the point of no return. Even the mushrooms were too cold.

I think we’ll have to try again some other time and order something else. It deserves a second chance.