One of my recipes had been ”pinned” (I honestly cannot keep up with the amount of social networks these days!) over five thousand times!

And to top it all off, Souvlaki For The Soul was featured in the Australian Masterchef magazine. (we’ll get to that later on).

This little extra bump in traffic apparently caused havoc with their servers and they couldn’t cope.

Obviously my $4.95 per month didn’t go very far…

Next began a series of emails, where I virtually had to beg to be let in to my own blog! I was finally allowed in and then out of nowhere was banned again!

Changing WordPress Hosts-Be Prepared

So I bit the bullet and went with a dedicated WordPress host, who can handle the traffic and do all the managing for me.

Ugh! As much as I love blogging, these little incidents leave a bad taste in my mouth.

It took about eight days to move the files and images over and then reset the domain name servers. That brought its own series of headaches.  I’m still in the process of tidying things up as we speak.

I’m not going to bore you with all the technical details but I implore anyone who uses WordPress for their blogging to get a good host. Wpengine have been fantastic and they come highly recommended (no-one paid me to say that either!).

Freelance Work-Antoniou Fillo Pastry

In other food news, I recently collaborated with Antoniou Fillo to produce a series of recipes for their business. It was fun to develop, cook, style and shoot these series of images.

I love fillo pastry and kataifi and they allowed me the freedom to play around with their beautiful products.

I’ve always loved san choy bau in Chinese restaurants but on this occasion, I wanted to take the filling and wrap it up in fillo pastry and then wrap that around cos lettuce. It’s my double crunch recipe!  The recipe was renamed pork spring rolls served in cos lettuce.

I also did a variation on Beef Wellington by making a ”Lamb Wellington”. Antoniou Fillo have a fantastic thicker style fillo pastry which was perfect for this recipe.

And for all you ”sweet tooths”, I made  a kataifi banana tarte tartin and used kataifi as the base (instead of the traditional puff pastry).

Yes, this was a paid gig but I can honestly say the quality of this fillo pastry is top notch. I’ve bought many pre packaged fillo products over the years and have had an ”o.k.” experience with these. I hope you like the images.

Masterchef Magazine

And finally, Masterchef. The Australian version of Masterchef magazine featured my blog in an article this month. I was quite honoured to be showcased along with a few other food bloggers.

Let’s just say I found the experience ”bittersweet”. When I downloaded the iPad version of the magazine I was all very excited by it.

Then I had a look at the printed version and noticed they spelt the blog’s name wrong! LOL! It’s ”souvlaki” not ”slouvaki”. Oh well you gotta laugh! I also provided them with a recipe and I went with a favourite-my cinnamon braised lamb shanks.

I hate writing apology posts. It feels like I’m sucking up in a funny sort of way.

Now back to the business of food blogging…

Cheers!

It’s been a busy weeks folks.  I apologise for only getting out one recipe.  I promise there’ll be more next week.

The last few days I’ve been photographing a special project which I’ll let you know about soon.  It involves an ingredient very dear to my Greek heart!

As the last dishes were packed away this evening, all I could dream about was this gorgeous red wine!  I like to call it my “saviour”.

And in case you didn’t know, red wine is my preferred choice when it comes to wine.  A glass or two with a nice hearty meal and I’m in “the perfect place”.  Especially now that the cooler season is approaching.

Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend.

Cheers

Peter

Take these gorgeous figs I found the other day.

They were an absolute bargain (ten for $3!) and I couldn’t help myself when I began photographing them!

One shot become two and before I knew it I had placed them on different surfaces and shot them from different angles.

These are the results.

When it came to eating them, I contemplated so many recipes. I even thought about turning them into a “cheat’s” quick jam. In then end I enjoyed them “au naturel” with a medley of other fruits.

But I couldn’t help myself. Look out next week for a baked lime cheesecake (my first one!) and how I used the figs to complement this creamy dessert.

For now though take care and enjoy your weekend.

Cheers!

We started off with the Valentine’s Day heart shaped doughnuts.  These were topped with a raspberry coulis icing and shredded coconut (ok…perhaps they’re slightly pink!).

And then I continued the theme with this “very vegan” raspberry ice cream.

I thought it only fitting to end the week with a red photo.  It all started with that plate.  Before I knew it, I went the whole hog and sliced up some end of season tomatoes to enjoy with some olive oil.

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

I’ll see you all next week.

Cheers

This summer has definitely been a “mixed bag” of surprises.  A few weeks ago I actually threw a light cotton blanket on the bed…that’s a first for a Sydney summer!

What I have been enjoying are the cloud formations that form in  the evenings.  They have provided a spectacular backdrop for our famous harbour and Opera House.  Great for a spot of photography!

Enjoy the weekend everyone.  Take care and have fun!  I’ll see you next week with a few more recipes.

Cheers

P.S If any camera buffs are curious these were taken witha Fuji X100.

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Thank you for commenting.

Thank you for everything.

Enjoy the holiday season.  Be safe, drink wisely and DO EAT!

All the best for 2012.

Just the other day I was invited to enjoy a pre holiday, summer barbecue with old and new friends. My good friends Mark and Gary have this wonderful house located in the inner city area of Sydney.

Their place was recently renovated and I just couldn’t resist sharing some snaps with you. Their abode is an oasis of cool greens, calming whites and stylish simplicity. I love their open design kitchen with its huge windows and stepping into their “back yard” is like entering a five star tropical retreat.

Being “foodies” they planned a gastronomical journey for our taste buds. We started off with smoked trout blinis, washed down with Bombay Sapphire gin and tonics.

Once the “barbie” was fired up we sampled a selection of chipolata sausages and perfectly cooked sirloin steaks with chermoula. This was washed down with a cool, Argentinian Malbec.

All this was accompanied by buttered spuds and a selection of salads which included grilled vegetable, orzo and feta and heirloom tomatoes with green beans.

Finally we finished off with Mark’s steamed Xmas pudding and a strawberry cloud cake that I brought along. (recipe will be in the next post).

Simple and unpretentious. Good food and good company. What else can one ask for?

Actually I do have one other question. If you live in Sydney can you please tell me where summer is?

I don’t think I’ve ever told you that my favourite colour is blue.  It’s practically three-quarters of my wardrobe! I was obsessed with it as a child.  Baby blue, sky blue, dark blue…everything was blue!

So when I saw this deep blue, ornate, plate recently, I couldn’t resist.  Remember my post on food and prop styling for food bloggers?  I explained in that post that it was important to determine a particular mood for a scene.  The plate did it for me.  The next thing you know, I’m bringing all my blue props out and cooking with blueberries!

 I made a blueberry cake that I took to a friend’s dinner party recently.  The recipe is exactly the same as this dried fig torte.  Instead of topping the cake with dried figs, top it with blueberries.  Or any other fruit for that matter…it’s a great recipe.

When I photographed the blueberry cake I wanted to break up the whole blue mood by adding a few new coloured bowls and plates.  Look at the fire engine red plate (another great $3 find at Target!). It adds a whole new dimension to the picture.

Incidentally, all the cake shots (and only the cake shots) were photographed on my iPhone 4s.  That little pocket wonder never ceases to impress. The other shot of the blueberries in the bowl was another experimental, lonely type of shot.  Again, I went for a blue theme and cooled the white balance slightly to give it a colder feel.

The final shot is a new ingredient to my pantry.  Quinoa flakes.  I love regular quinoa and was curious to see what quinoa flakes would taste like for breakfast.  I cooked them similar to a porridge and topped them with honey, freshly sliced bananas and cinnamon.  Mmmmm…I have a new breakfast companion.

When I photographed this set up, my white balance was on a different setting and gave the picture a completely different feel.  I love the golden warmth and hues in this shot.  To me it brings a “homey” kind of feeling.  Sometimes your mistakes turn out to be blessings (I’m sure we’ve all heard that before).

I hope you enjoyed my little “blue inspired” blog post.  I’m sure everyone is gearing up for the holiday season ahead.  Take it easy and don’t rush in those department stores!  Take care and enjoy your weekend.  See you all next week.

It’s great to be posting pics again for this “Photo Friday” feature.  These shots were taken on a recent trip to Singapore.  When you have views like these you kind of get obsessed about taking photos all the time.  If you are curious these were taken with the new iPhone 4s.  Not bad for a little camera on a phone.  I have applied a few effects to the top two but it wasn’t major.  All in all I’m impressed!

Take care and enjoy the weekend.  I’ll be back next week with a few recipes. Cheers!