Maggie Beer's Country Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Today is the first birthday of Penguin says Feed Me and we're celebrating with a new banner and PIE! It really does not feel like it's been a year since I started this humble blog of my eating adventures, and I still remember starting up this blog and writing up the very first post thinking that no one was going to read it anyway. I never in my dreams thought that anyone would even read my blog, let alone meeting new people through it, but probably one of the best parts about blogging is meeting and forging friendships with the other awesome Sydney food bloggers (I love you guys!).

I'd like to think that I've come a long way since that first post. Reading other blogs and marvelling at their photographs or cooking prowess has inspired me to improve my own photography and challenged me to further my cooking and baking skills. I've gone from simple apple crumbles to rainbow layered buttercakes, and although there's been a few disasters along the way, I think this blog is what gets me to push the limit of my abilities. Hopefully one day I will master the art of baking as I keep trying new things (why oh why did I choose to take on macarons?!)

One new thing that I've learnt to do is make pastry from scratch. When I first started this blog, making pastry from scratch seemed like the most daunting task - I mean, isn't pastry something you buy from the freezer aisle in the supermarket? But once you get the hang of it, it's not difficult at all, and it is truly satisfying when you can proudly present a pie or a tart and say that you made it all by yourself (or in this case, with the help of Sir D).

Since seeing Maggie Beer's pheasant pie on Masterchef, I've been wanting to make her sour cream pastry and it is so easy to work with and very forgiving. I didn't know where to get a pheasant from so I used another of Maggie Beer's recipes and made her Country Chicken and Mushroom pies with the same flaky and buttery pastry. It was so nice to be able to take a beautiful golden pie out of the oven and very satisfying to eat it, knowing that I had made it from scratch. This is what keeps me cooking and blogging :)

EDIT: Just realised this is also my 100th post!

The Tea Room Gunners Barracks, Georges Heights

I love high tea! I'm not sure what it is about it - maybe it's the delicate little cakes and finger sandwiches, or maybe it's the cute little sugar cubes. But whatever it is, it is nearly always much better enjoyed in the cosy warmth of the indoors in this cooler weather we've been having.

However, on this windy, rainy day which was booked months in advance (thanks Leona!), seven food-blogging, high tea lovers and myself headed out to the Tea Room, Gunners Barracks, only to be seated outside on the balcony in the cold and the wind. Luckily we were provided with blankets which helped to fight the chilly temperature but the wind still whipped through our hair and made our tea cold.

View from the balcony

Not to worry though, because there was food to be eaten and tea to be drank. We all ordered the Traditional Afternoon Tea which was $40 and includes cakes and pastries, finger sandwiches, scones and a wide selection of teas. There were so many teas to choose from it was difficult to decide, and in the end I went with the Rose Tea with Petals which was a nice mild tea with flowery notes.

Plate of scones and savoury pastries

Milo Cupcakes with Condensed Milk Icing

I remember the first time I baked a cake from scratch. It was a chocolate cake from a kids cookbook and I was so excited because I was baking it for my grandpa's birthday. But I was also lazy and so I skipped an instruction that my 12-year-old brain deemed unimportant - I didn't sift the flour. As a result, my cake batter was lumpy with little clumps of flour that no amount of beating could seem to get rid of, and instead of being gorgeously chocolatey, the cake had a bit of a flour taste to it.

Since then I've learnt to follow baking recipes pretty much word for word: if it says to sift the flour I will sift the flour, if it says to use 125g I will use not 124g or 126g, but 125g. And if it says to use icing sugar I will use icing sugar instead of something else.

I've also learnt that you can have a bit of leeway with recipes if you have good reason for it. If the dough seems far too wet to be able to be rolled out nicely, add some flour. If a batter doesn't taste like what it should, add some more flavouring to it. For me, when it comes to baking, following instructions, tasting your dough/batter and a bit of common sense usually leads to a good result :)

When I read a recipe for Milo cupcakes with condensed milk icing on raspberri cupcakes, I instantly wanted to make them and taste the awesome combination of Milo and condensed milk in cake form. Even though it was so easy (just dump the ingredients in a food processor and away you go!), I made sure I followed the recipe carefully so I didn't end up with a floury, lumpy cake. And it paid off, because I was rewarded with the smell of Milo wafting through the kitchen and soft fluffy cupcakes that had an awesome crunchy top. The cupcake is also the perfect vehicle for the sweet condensed milk icing and these were so addictive that they were polished off in a couple of days! (I swear I didn't eat them all....)

Cavallino Ristorante Pizzeria, Terrey Hills

It's not everyday that you see "Margherita with hot chips" under the pizza section in the menu of an Italian restaurant. However, with Giovanni Pilu as the executive chef here at Cavallino we're hoping that it can't go too wrong.

Once we enter the restaurant, we're greeted by a reception desk which makes it seem like a fancy hotel. The restaurant itself is a spacious stone building with lots of mahogany tones and windows, but luckily we're seated near an open fireplace which keeps us toasty and warm on this chilly night. We select a few entrees, pizzas and pastas to share, including the hot chips pizza (for research purposes of course!)

Naia: margherita with hot chips - $19

Takeru, Chatswood

Competition is pretty fierce in Chatswood for Japanese restaurants with new ones opening left, right and centre all the time. But Takeru is a little different. Tucked away in a little corner in Victoria Plaza, it offers modern Japanese food with strong Western influences - think Japanese-style pasta and pizza, as well as more traditional favourites like ramen and agedashi tofu.

It's open all day which is great for a late lunch, early dinner or afternoon snack, and prices are very reasonable with most of the dishes under the $15 mark. Today I'm here with a bunch of hungry boys for a late lunch, so as soon as we are seated in the booth we start poking away at the touch screen ordering system (which is the same as the one at Wagaya and Poporo).

Mentaiko potato salad - $7.20

The food arrives in no time, and soon the table is filled with dishes that we ordered only minutes earlier. A big dollop of creamy potato sits on a bed of lettuce leaves, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and corn kernels. The potato is mashed roughly so that there are still small chunks of potato, and the mixture is ever so slightly pink from the addition of mentaiko (cod roe).

Agedashi tofu with soft shell crab - $7.50