Masterclass with Kate Bracks

Kate Bracks (who won Masterchef a few years ago) ran a little Masterclass at my church this weekend! My family is right into all that Masterchef hype and the 'celebrity chef' stuff. A missed episode of My Kitchen Rules is like a tragedy to us. There are a quite few photos on my Mum and sister's facebook walls of them posing with ex-contestants or judges at cookbook promos and the like.

Signed recipe card from Manu Fiedel

A few weeks ago, Mum met Manu from My Kitchen Rules at Peters of Kensington (a homewares store). She took a photo and came away with autographed recipe cards for each of us. The recipe was for a slow-cooked lamb shoulder done with white wine. I had to swap shoulder for shanks, but the result was absolutely delicious! Definitely a winner.

Braised lamb shanks

I myself have been known to take paparazzi photos of celeb chef's when I've spotted them - - here is a photo of the side of Manu's head:

Spotted! Manu at Porteno, Surry Hills

Anyway, as you can guess, I was pretty excited about Kate Bracks and invited my mum and sister to come along.

She was really great. And so normal! Before the cooking demo started, she took time to chat to a few people sitting close to the stage (we of course took the front row seats), and asked us about what kind of foods we cooked. She was so lovely and easy to talk to.

Mum, Kate Bracks, and me!

Kate showed us how to make a Vincotto glazed chicken with rocket salad, and 'boozy' oranges with honeycomb and mascarpone cream. She was so natural throughout the whole demo and her tips were given in a really casual, chatty way. It was such a pleasure to watch Kate cook.

The best part was that she took some time out to talk about her experience on Masterchef, and then went on to tackle some of life's biggest questions - why am I here? how can I have a fulfilled life? It all came straight out of her personal experiences and I was so impressed and encouraged by the way she fearlessly shared her beliefs.

Kate explained how it was God who kept her so centred during the craziness of Masterchef, when she was only allowed to see her family for a few hours every week, and when things got stressful and emotional. She said that while we all know what it feels like to crave yummy foods (hot chips anyone?!) she's found satisfaction for her soul's cravings: true rest, security for the future, and unconditional love. All this comes, she said, through her relationship with God.

So! Some tips I jotted down:

• Dress the bottom of the salad bowl rather than pour dressing over the top. You then mix the dressing through with your fingers. This stops the leaves 'drowning' under the dressing.
• Flip your meat every minute or so for even cooking. You don't have to stick to the 'flip once only' myth!
• Learn to feel how 'done' your meat is by touching it. Squishier means rarer; firmer means more done.

And one more I picked up from watching Kate:

• Be brave about sharing how God is in your life!

It was such a fun and inspiring morning and I am def a Kate Bracks fan!

Lunches and locked out!

Last week, all the girls at work went out for lunch at Reuben Hills on Albion Street. It's walking distance from our Surry Hills office, and it's a pretty trendy, young fun cafe. It's the kind of place with wooden crates along the footpath for you to sit on and they have blankets on hand for when it's cold.

It was half meeting / half eating. I ordered the "not Reuben sandwich" - corned beef with coleslaw and pickles on sourdough - and a salted caramel milkshake. The others girls tried a chilli chocolate milkshake but I wasn't game. 

Walking back to the office, we managed to get to our gate before realising everyone had forgotten their key! So followed an hour of sitting on our doorstep while the locksmith went to work. We all figured he'd only take a minute or two and viola! We would be in! But no. He ended up having to pull the door apart and destroy the cylinder where the key goes. At lease we know our office is secure!

Sitting around waiting to get back into the office

Over the last few weeks, I have been lucky to have 'standing' lunch dates with a couple of beautiful girlfriends. I can't tell you how good it feels to have a regular catch up with your favourite people in the middle of your work day! It just takes you out of the grind for an hour. I always feel recharged afterwards

As its been terribly dreary and wet lately, noodle soup has been my lunch of choice:

Beef Pho from Naughty Chef, Surry Hills

Seafood Pho from Taste, Surry Hills

Speaking of soup, the wet weather has been making me crave Bak Kut Teh, a soupy, herby dish made with pork and eggs. No one makes it like my mother. So I sent a text (via group messaging) to my family saying "Hi Mum, yes we can come over for Bak Kut Teh!"

My sisters jumped on the bandwagon straight away - "Yes we can come too, this Saturday night" and so my poor mother has had her arm twisted into cooking dinner for us all this weekend :).

EQUIP'13

Yesterday I went to EQUIP'13, a Christian women's conference held annually at Darling Harbour. I haven't been to a women's conference before, and don't usually go to many women's events at my church. I feel they aren't really for me. However, this particular conference hooked me with their conference theme, 'Women who met Jesus'.

For some reason, this theme really piqued my interest. I found a friend who encouraged me to go and said she would come with me.

So, here we are with over 2,000 other ladies:

EQUIP'13. Women.

The first talk, looking at Jesus' mother Mary, was the best of the day. I have never heard a good sermon preached on Mary - actually I have never heard any sermon on Mary. And yet there is so much to be learned about God through her eyes!

The way that Mary understood how spiritual prophecies would be physically fulfilled in her, and how that all seemed so natural to her was something I really learned from. It was also eye opening to discover that Mary had to be saved through faith in Jesus just like everyone else.

We also heard about a woman who showed Jesus OTT love by pouring expensive perfume over his feet, and using her hair to clean them. Another woman reached out to touch Jesus' cloak and was healed from terrible illness. I got a lot out of these stories - about Jesus' kindness to outcasts, and about how it's okay to show extravagant gestures of love, even if it makes others around you feel uncomfortable. And how the gesture itself isn't the important part - touching the hem of Jesus' cloak - but their love inside and trust in Jesus.

EQUIP had an all-ladies band, even a chick drummer:

Women rocking.

and I must give an honourable mention to the ladies who did the Bible readings. They can read! These women really made the words jump off the page:

Women reading.

But the highlight of the day was definitely an item by this very talented woman:

Women singing

She sang a hymn in a classical style (opera?) and blew everyone away! I was absolutely riveted by her powerful voice, her performance, and her sparkly dress. I felt so blessed by her song and let me just say, she was seriously singing for Jesus. I'm very thankful I got to hear her.

We capped off a great morning with an equally great lunch. My friend and I headed to the other side of the harbour, cockle bay wharf, where one of my fav restaurants, Adria Rybar and Grill were doing $16 lunch specials. I reckon that's an excellent deal, especially considering the lovely service and harbour views. We both ordered this very hearty chicken caesar salad (complete with poached egg and anchovies!):