Mixed Emotions

Mixed Emotions

December has been a busy and semi-stressful month as we have new owners for the company i work for but my job is safe so that's all i care about. My hours at work have changed so i now work 7:30am until 3:30pm which is amazing as less traffic to deal with and so it takes less time to get to work and home again. December is that time of over indulging, we had Kim's work party at the Melbourne aquarium and i had way too much to drink and we had our friends birthday the 24th so again i over did it, then Christmas as you do you go crazy again. Christmas is not always my favourite day but this year we had my family and Kim's family at our place so it was good. I have a feeling it might become the new tradition.
Our 2016 resolutions we will try to eat at home a lot more so i will be doing a lot less food blogs and maybe focus more on my photography and my coffee. We bought an exercise bike on the weekend so I am trying to get back to 70Kgs and i have been doing roughly 15kms a night which is huge as i would sit there and just watch t.v so now i feel like i am achieving something.  Since Sunday i have ridden 78kms which i am ecstatic about. I have a lot of photos that i need to edit but my spare room is a mess at the moment.

Do you have any resolutions ?
Thank you for reading.
Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart

The Butler's Pantry

The Butler's Pantry

There is not a great deal of good Cafe's in the Mulgrave / Rowville area but we had been told that this place is as good as it gets. Its a large cafe' that has not been open for very long but they have plenty of parking which is great.

 We arrived at about 10:30am and it was already busy, we waited about 5 minutes and got a table. They serve Toby Estate Coffee which is not normally good. I don't know what they do but it was not bitter so that was a bonus. The service was spectacular which we did not expect.

They had waffles on the menu and it sounded scrumptious and i also saw they had a crispy egg so i ordered that as well. The waiter said no one had done it before but i love my eggs and bacon.

The waffles where crispy but a little bit dry but the maple syrup fixed that and the bacon was not too crispy so i enjoyed it. The egg exploded as you cut into it and was beautiful, i will go back for it. The meal was great overall.

Kim had the Salmon breaky Salad, which had the crispy egg, Salmon, Pea, Avo. She really enjoyed her meal.

The Sad part is i am getting more allergic to Avo's which sucks as i love them so i had a little bit. We will go back again in the future.


Kind E-gards
Dale

Latte Art

Latte Art

I know i have not done any blogs in ages and i have been preoccupied with other things, over the last few years i have been practicing Latte Art, for people that think its super easy trust me its not. You need to have a steady hand and consistency in the milk and the correct temperature.  But i enjoy waking up in the morning turning on my machine and then having a go.

 

 

 This is what latte art is and can look like if you have the skills.
For amazing Latte art follow Caleb Tiger 
These Pics are Caleb's work

Does your favourite Cafe' do Latte Art?
What do you think?
Kind E-gards
Dale

A Failed Adventure

A Failed Adventure

We have been harassing our friend for ages to take us crabbing but he normally goes during the week. We convinced him to take us on Monday night as Tuesday was a public holiday for us. Tuesday was the Melbourne Cup which is public holiday for a horse race. We met up for dinner around the corner then headed off afterwards. We did not know where we were going.  After nearly two hours of driving we got to our destination and it was stunning.

 

 

Our friends said plenty of crabs but tonight we had not been lucky. We got to the pier and no crabs to be found at all. We waited an hour and by this stage in was nearly 9 pm and was still about a two hour drive back and still no sign so we gave up and headed home. We took a relaxing drive home  past the Desalination plant. We got home at 12 am and even though we did not catch anything we still spent some quality time together. We will go again another day.

Have you had an experience like this ?

Kind E-gards

Dale

You Am I

You Am I

The other night we got the opportunity to see a band that I have loved since early 2000' and Kim loved since early 90's . They had booked a venue about 5 minutes from our house so we did not have to go to the city which is always great. About 100 people turned up so it was  an intimate show. It was good to see a band as we have not done it in ages. I knew my camera was not good in the dark and this made it really challenging to take good pics. I took over 400 and only a handful turned out great.  We got to be right in front of the stage which is good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know when you see someone sing but you can see a sadness in their face.  But that sadness is what has helped create that music that you love. He is an amazing artist and a great band. 

Its a great Australian band so check them out. The are launching another Album next week so here are the rest of the tour dates. 

Kind E-gards

Dale Stewart

Commonfolk and Mornington Market

Commonfolk and Mornington Market

We have been to Commonfolk Coffee once before and the service was slow but i wanted to give it another go. Like the other Cafe's we like it is in an industrial area so it is a large place and they do all the roasting on site. It is light and airy and the staff are friendly.

It was a beautiful day so we all sat outside and watched the children run around and play. Its good to see a place that has space for children to run around.

They only use skim milk for all their coffees which i did not know. The coffee's are smooth and sweet but i still prefer full cream milk.

 I had the pikelets which had five of them with bacon and blueberry . The pikelets are light and fluffy, the bacon was not crispy so i was happy and they went well with the fresh blueberries.

Kim had the breakfast which had bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and a mushroom with some veggies. She really enjoyed it.

After Brunch we headed to the market and when we arrived it was still very quiet.

It had plenty of food stalls and bands playing in different corners. They do this market once a year so it was good to experience it.
Kind E-gards
Dale Stewart