Champagne and Cupcakes = Inspiration!

Hello Readers!

The Derrigs returned to Doha yesterday after a glorious two weeks in Sydney! The main event was a family wedding. My gorgeous brother in law Paddy married the equally gorgeous Ariel in a wonderful two day celebration! The newlyweds are now enjoying themselves on a romantic honeymoon in Tahiti! Jealous much?!?!

We got up to so much during our stay, the weather was sublime, the scenery to die for and a much needed catch up with family and friends.

I tried to see as much of my best friend Sarah as possible. While gossiping over champagne and cupcakes one afternoon, the talk of my blog came up. Sarah loves my blog, however, she is not a cook and has no interest in cooking and suggested that I add more to my blog than just recipes. She loved reading my blog for the stories and the photos but not so much the recipes! She was right! I have so many interests in life...fashion, photography, cooking, interior design, movies, books the list is endless. So while sipping on our Moet we decided that my blog was going to become an Emporium of all things that interest me in life!

So as you can see, the look of my blog has changed slightly, as has the name! I'm still playing around with the template design, so bare with me! Jetlag is a bitch and I'm suffering severely with it today!

Sparkles Cupcakes in Surry Hills, NSW

Mini Meatloaves

Hi Everyone

Do I have any readers left??? If so, big apologies for not blogging in a very long time. I've seen from my stats page that I'm still getting a lot of daily hits on the blog. It seems my chicken with mushroom sauce is the most popular!

As you would have read in my last post, I went back to work...that lasted two months!

Seems I really am passionate about being a stay at home Mum and while I thought the grass was going to be greener, I missed lazy mornings with Sadie, casual coffee's at the mall, running errands and just a general feeling of peace and happiness playing house.

I have however embarked on a University Degree (all online)! I'm absolutely loving the challenge and while at times I second guess myself, I'm so glad I've taken the big step as it's a dream I have long wished to fulfill!

So why am I back blogging? Well as I'm sure you are all aware my country has been hit with its worst natural disaster. Major flooding has occured in the north eastern state of Queensland. While I'm lucky not to have lost any family or friends in the tragedy I have been sitting at home today feeling a deep sense of loss for those families that are truly suffering right now.

This brings me to food. Food can be so comforting to people during times of hardship and while thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight, I remembered back to my Mum's meatloaf. It is by no means a posh dish, I've always actually been embarrassed to say that I love it as much as I do! However, every year on my birthday I would always ask for two things. 1. I always wanted to go to a fancy restaurant with my family and 2. the next night I wanted my Mum's meatloaf!

My Mum had sent me her recipe ages ago and in the move from Abu Dhabi to Doha I've lost that bit of paper. So for this recipe I've taken what I can remember from my Mum and also added my own touch. What is new about this meatloaf is its presentation. While thumbing through one of Nigella's cookbooks I came across her version of mini meatloaves! They looked irresistibly cute but I wasn't impressed with her recipe. There are no herbs, spices or vegetables in Nigella's recipe and I fear they would be too bland.

Mini meatloaves are great for many reasons but in particular they will make a great packed lunch for my Hubby and you can make a whole batch of them and freeze to use when needed.


Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please send your thoughts and if you pray your prayers to the victims of the QLD floods. If you would like to donate to the victims you can click on this link: http://telethon.smartservice.qld.gov.au/

Enjoy
x

Ingredients - Serves 4
750g mince
1 cup of grated zucchini
1 cup of grated carrot
1 egg
3/4 cup of breadcrumbs
generous squirt of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Spray mini loaf pan with cooking oil (if you don't have a mini loaf pan don't stress, you can mould the loaves with your hands and bake on a cooking tray. Once your tray has been prepped you can start grating the vegetables.

2. In a mixing bowl, add all the indredients together and mix with your hands or a fork until well combined.

3. Divide the mixture into 4 and either place in your mini loaves tray or shape into mini loaves.

4. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.