It was raining so bad last night, I was very worried about my garden, not my flower garden, but my baby veggie garden. I planted the seeds with my gardener and his wife four days ago and kind of worried that I don’t have a green thumb…I visited the garden everyday to see if anything has grown. Nope.

So this morning I opened my window, just for checking because I was very worried that the rain would destroy the seeds but instead I was greeted by these. THESE BABIES!!! Whoa!

The awesomest of the awesomeness in the world! Super! I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo happy!

It really reminds me of my favourite film from Hayao Miyazaki: My Neighbor Totoro that I really really like. Specifically of this scene:

this is when they kind of magically  grew the seeds over night but of course mine is not done by magic but a bit of hard work :) we planted snake beans, morning glory, chards, tomatoes, lettuces, peas, broad beans…emmmm what else…many more, I really hope all of them will grow, otherwise I need Totoro to come here and help me haha :D

Yes, it is cake again :) I guess I am in the mood of cake these days. Last week it was this chocolate cake, before that I kept going to Bali Buddha almost everyday to get their carrot cake (super good!) and this week, I made Kim Boyce’s rosemary and chocolate olive oil cake. I have been intrigued by this recipe since I saw it on Luisa’s blog, then Heidi’s. I was not so sure in the beginning about the chocolate and rosemary combination, but I tried and fell in love with pan de ramerino when I was in Tuscany, which was rosemary and raisins = savoury and sweet, so I gave this cake a try and I must say I really really like it, and Marco said it’s delicious too.





Kim Boyce Rosemary and Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Olive oil for the pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (the original recipe called for 3/4 cup spelt flour and 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour, but I don’t know how to find spelt flour here so I only used all purpose flour)
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
3 medium eggs
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
150 grams chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175C and grease a 22 cm tart pan with olive oil
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, then mix it with the rest of dry ingredients
In another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs thoroughly, add the olive oil, milk and rosemary and whisk again then fold the wet ingredients into the dry, gently mixing just until combined, add the chocolate. Pour the batter into the pan and spread it evenly
Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is domed, golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean
The cake can be eaten warm or cool from the pan, or cooled, wrapped tightly in plastic, and kept for 2 days.

Two days ago, I read a post on Susi Johnston’s blog about Karen Waddell’s blog being the first food blog in Bali (Susi then kindly edited the title of her post). And of course my first reaction was commenting that I thought that’s not possible, that many people had blogged before Karen started. Then she replied that she didn’t seem to be able to find any. So I tried. And, funnily, it is true, I can’t really find any Bali based food blogger.
Strange. Is it really only me, Carla and Karen who blog about food here in Bali?
I really hope not.

Anyway, since I am here, I want to share one place I love to go to get my fruits and vegs in Ubud: Ubud organic market every Wednesday (less packed with people) and Saturday (packed). There are usually too many people that it is hard to take photographs there, so I shot some of the things I got there at home.

Organic soy milk from Dle. They sell plain, palm sugar soy milk and chai soy milk. To be honest I prefer mine, but you know, on one of those lazy days… :)

Definitely the best passion fruits I ever ate in my life. They are from Bali Rungu by Gede Green :) I bought a bag then brought them home, tried it, and immediately returned to buy the whole batch! :) Then tried to make jam, but not so successful as I like it to be, so more excuses to buy more this wonderful organic purple passion fruits!

Our typical breakfast: coffee made with moka and toast with butter and jam.

Well, that’s all for now. Wish you all a verrrrryyyyyy relaxing Sunday!

Remember when I told you: want to do everything and nothing at all, well, that was two days ago. Yesterday, I kind of did almost everything. Almost. Starting with doing all bureaucratic things in the morning, followed by visiting some manufacturer for my design project, grocery shopping in three different shops, cooking for dinner, cleaning the dishes and when I thought I could relaxed, the craving began. The craving. Oh gosh. I had to choose from these three: banana cake/banana+chocolate brownies/chocolate cake…I actually want all of them, but in the end chocolate cake won :) simple everyday chocolate cake, well, just with tiny bit of drama: the oven ran out of gas while I was baking it I didn’t realise it until the time I thought the cake was done, checking the oven and found it was actually not baking…fortunately we had a spare one, but meaning I had to wait twice longer! When the cake was done, around 1 AM! I was too tired and decided to sleep, but I couldn’t, the whole house smelled chocolate-y…you know what I mean? I really HAD to eat it and it was one moist+warm+crumbly on top chocolate cake…super! I returned to bed and dreaming that a big monster caught me, cooked a big pot of the yummiest chocolate on earth, dipped me into the chocolate and ate me…ouch! I guess they are right when they tell you: no meal right before bed :D

Here is the recipe which I adapted from Deb’s everyday chocolate cake which she adapted from Magnolia Bakery At Home book.

everyday.chocolate.cake

big mixing bowl.
180C oven.
buttered and floured 28×16 cm baking pan.
put andrew bird’s oh! the grandeur album.
press play.
not too loud if you bake in the middle of the night…
ready?
of course you are.
so.
add these to the mixing bowl:

120 gram butter, softened
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup unbleached cane sugar

mix.
add:

2 medium eggs

mix.
add:

1 cup buttermilk
1 vanilla pod, scrap the beans, add to the mixture

mix well.
sift and add:

1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup chocolate powder ( I used van houten)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

add:

1/4 cup ground chocolate (I used monggo chocolate from yogyakarta)
a pinch of sea salt (I use Balinese Kusamba Fleur de Sel)

mixed everything well, but do not over mixed.
pour onto the pan.
bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted come out clean.
wait 30 mins before you cut the cake.

enjoy.
ow, and please…don’t eat them too much before bed time :)
sharing.is.better
:)

hugs!

Don’t we all feel like this sometimes?