Teacup Apple Crumble

So... is it me, or does anyone else suffer from the illusion that things that come in tiny servings must be healthy? Mini muffins. Fun-sized Mars Bars. Fun-sized anything. Mini Magnums. Doughnut centres. Aeroplane-sized cans of Coke. And that somehow, because it's in a tiny portion (and therefore uses more packaging - three cheers for environmental destruction!), you can eat more of them. Like two. For the purposes of this, let's say two. We don't need to dig deeper into my abysmal snacking habits here right now.

 

Now, I love apple crumble. I love apple crumble almost as much as I love deluding myself. So making apple crumbles in tiny portions seemed like the perfect idea. Sure, I could have made them in shot glasses like you see at cocktail parties, but come on, you need enough apple crumble for it to work its wonderful, warming magic on you.

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

3 apples

1tsp sugar

1tsp cinnamon

3 cloves

A little water

1tbsp butter

1tsp cinnamon

2tbsp brown sugar

3tbsp plain flour

 

(Note that I "wrote" the quantities into the My Fitness Pal app in grams (which was a rough conversion to begin with), and now I'm converting it back, so they may be a little out. Play with it until it feels (and tastes!) right!)

 

Peel and roughly dice apples. Cook them, covered, with a little water and the sugar and spices until softened - around 5 minutes. Make sure they don't stick. Once softened, tip off any extra water and leave cover off.

 

Meanwhile, rub butter, cinnamon, sugar and flour together until evenly distributed. Try not to "test" too much of it - rest assured that it really does taste quite nice!

 

Grease 3 (or 4, depending on their size) oven-proof teacups. Divide apple mixture among the teacups. Remove and discard cloves. Top with the crumble mixture.

 

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200oC for around 5-10 minutes, until lightly browned. Obviously I can't remember whether it was 5 or 10 minutes, and as you can see from the scorched bits hidden under the ice cream, I overshot the mark, so keep an eye on it! All you're doing is browning the topping as the filling should still be hot. At some stage in the near future I will make this again and test the times but for now, hey guys, it's apple crumble. It's not rocket science. It needs to be hot, and apple-y, and cinnamon-y, and wonderful. No biggie.

 

 

Enjoy one with a scoop of ice cream. Or two.

 

And for those health-conscious peops out there, there are 301 calories per serving without adding ice cream. So it's probably just as well you made these in a tea cup, otherwise you'd go back to the pan a sneak another spoonful. And then another... and another... and another... yeah, I'm onto you!

Breakfast at Tom's Farm. Alternate Title: Lost In Translation. Second Alternate Title: Why It's A Miracle I Didn't Lose Weight In America.

So I've been hanging out in the US of A for the past week with my friend Carole from Toot Sweet 4 Two. We met at Bloggy Boot Camp Vegas last year and totally hit it off, although, to be fair, **not** hitting it off with Carole poses a far greater challenge!

Carole had kindly agreed to drive me from her home near Escondido (kind of outer San Diego) up to my aunt's house in Pasadena at the end of my stay, and we stopped by the side of the highway at Tom's Farm for breakfast. It started out as a produce stand on the side of the I15 near Lake Elsinore and has now morphed into almost a destination unto itself. It has a diner, a Mexican restaurant, a wine/cheese place, a produce store, a traditional candy store, a furniture shop and a model train and pony rides for the kids. And on weekends it hosts a craft market as well as the occasional blues show.

Anyway, I tried my darndest to order breakfast there, and all I can say is "lost in translation". My own thoughts were encapsulated by a set of pointy brackets, but it did something funky to the formatting and they all disappeared :(

ME: "I'll have the hotcakes combo with bacon and fried eggs over easy"
SERVER LADY: *blank look* "I'm sorry, how do you want your eggs?"
ME: "Uh, you know, like, sunny side down...?"
SERVER LADY: "Uhh..." *looks as Carole for help and then back to me* *crickets chirp*
ME: "Um, you know, fry the eggs, flip 'em but try not to bust the yolks...?" *awkward laughter*
CAROLE: "So I think she wants the eggs over, a little cooked on top"
SERVER LADY: "Oh, okay, so how do you want them?"
ME: "Medium please. Like, not too hard but not too runny."
SERVER LADY: "Right, gotcha. And what do you want to drink?"
ME: "Can I have a cup of tea, please?"
SERVER LADY: "Sure, uh, so you want, like, hot tea?"
ME: "Yes, please."
SERVER LADY: "And would you like blueberries or chocolate chips in your hotcakes?"
ME: *stunned look* "Blueberries, please."

(And for the record, blueberry pancakes go really well with fried eggs! Crazy, I know.)

(Also, Carole assures me that I used the correct terminology straight up. I can only assume she was concentrating on my accent and not my words, because that's what I do when Irishmen speak and... *vagues out to a happy place full of cute Irishmen with charming accents*)

Birthday.

Another year has passed. It went by so quickly, and I don't know how. So much, and yet so little, has happened. I'm not sure whether it's birthdays or the turn of the new year that makes me take stock more, but both seem to have a similar effect. Last year I was freaking out about turning 30 and it turns out there was nothing to be afraid of. It's actually a little bit liberating when you're smashing up all the expectations people have of you this age. That keeps me entertained enough to stave off my fears about it, anyhow!

 

So what happened last year?

 

On this weekend last year I was motivated enough to particpate in the Run Melbourne 5k event. I raised $1080 for the Victor Chang Cardiac Reasearch Institute, and if I'm honest, I ran very little of it. But I had trained, which was a big step for me. In hindsight, less than 16 weeks post-pacemaker implant it was a little ambitious.

 

In September I took some time out to find my mojo, and spent nine weeks travelling. Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, then Vegas, Pensylvania and New York, the UK, Kenya and Tanzania. Wow. I saw so many incredible things and met some pretty incredible people. I'll tell some stories here, once I get around to sorting those photos out.

 

I went back to work up on the Murray after I got home, only to discover that I had left my mojo stowed safely in the overhead compartment of the plane, some place in the world... but that's probably because I felt more or less redundant when I got back. Partly my own doing and partly not, but that's old news.

 

In March I moved down to Tasmania for work and, Tassie jokes aside, I actually quite like it here and there are no signs of a second head growing. I like the people I'm working with; the job is challenging without stuffing with my head too much; I've made some friends *neglects to mention they're mostly somehow attached to my favourite bar*; and the scenery is beautiful. Yes, even the sub-zero starts to the day and the snow are okay. Which I guess is easy for me to say when I spend a lot of my day in the car! I found my work mojo down here in the arse end of the country and it has given me the opportunity to develop some new skills.

In mid-May my personal mojo started to come back, too, and I started looking after myself a little better. Things seemed more managable. Life got a little bit more interesting.

 

In June I joined a gym, and have actually really been enjoying the challenge. It makes me think a little bit harder about making healthy choices, and about what I want for myself.

 

And those healthier choices are not to say there hasn't been an abundance of food, good food, yummy food! I'm just mostly making smarter choices outside of meal times, and smarter choices in what I choose to do with my time. The obvious exception is that tonight I'm going out for Mexican to celebrate, which probably isn't the smartest choice but it is certainly up there on the list of delicious choices! For now, I'll leave you with some pictures of things you will see in the coming months - both places I have been and recipes I have cooked whilst the cobwebs have been growing here on my blog.

 

In the meantime, I'm off at the end of next week to visit the very sweet Carole and her niece Tiffany from Toot Sweet 4 Two and spend some time warming up in San Diego as they celebrate their first Bloggoversary. I met them in Vegas last year on the last night of Bloggy Boot Camp, and last month Carole invited me over for their party on the offchance I could come. Seeing as how I need to thaw out a little, I said sure, why not! I'm super-excited :)

 

As to the next year, well who knows what new adventures await me. I figure, for all the negativity I've waded through in the last year I've also made some new friends, reinforced old friendships, been to all sorts of places, seen all sorts of things and learnt all sorts of things about myself and about people in general. So if the next year has even a fraction of that positive stuff from the last year, I'll still be doing okay. Here's to 31!

 

Harba Tasting Plate for 2, Harba Oyster Bar & Grill, Mornington

 

Loch Ness Monster topiary in one of the mazes, Tree Surfing, Mornington Peninsula

 

 

View across Arthurs Lake, Tasmania, from my work site

 

My first Pho, Springvale, Victoria. At least I think that's what it's called...

 

 

Beach near Binalong Bay (I think!), Bay of Fires, Tasmania

 

 

Sang choy bao (or however you want to spell it this week)

Coconut-crumbed fish soft-shell tacos with salsa and creamy honey-cider dressing

 

 

Tiramisu. Sort of. Let's just say there was a failed sponge cake involved and it seemed a waste not to use it!

 

 

Pea and ham soup

 

Earthworks cake!

 

Hand-painted frog biscuits!

 

 

Macaroons. That's macarOOns, not macarOns. Accidentally coffee-flavoured but they turned out really nicely!

 

 

Losing my venison virginity!

 

 Cataract Gorge, Launceston, Tasmania

 

Roasted pork shoulder, The George, Kyneton, Victoria

 

 

Belgian Chocolate Somethingtrulydelicious, The George, Kyneton, Victoria 

 

 

My birthday cupcakes!

 

 

Schnitzel - a birthday gift from my Austrian friend. And now I know the secret to a great schnitty!

 

 

Also, I'm a little freaked out right now. Google just said happy birthday to me... which would be because I'm also logged into Blogger right now so it has my details, but it still freaked me out!

 

 

 Happy birthday to me :)