Thank goodness for today’s sun and perfect weather because it was one of those mornings.  The kind that took the whole day to recover from.  I woke myself up at two in the morning (or was that one?!?)  in a dither about daylight saving and whether I’d set the clocks correctly.  I had.  Then I had a long internal dialogue with myself about whether we’d gained or lost an hour and if we had gained an hour why was the man on the radio talking smoothly about getting an extra hour’s sleep in?  One thought led to another and before I knew it, I was wide awake and so far from getting back to sleep, I was better off getting out of bed and pottering until sunrise.

At least I had new jam for my toast this morning.  And there is a bit of a story behind how I came to own it.

Remember the new oven from a few weeks back?  The one I got as a result of a very smooth online transaction with Appliances Online?  It turns out that Winning Appliances, the parent company, was launching a new online community called Best Home Chef and they kindly sent me an invitation to the official launch.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend but Mr SSG gallantly went in my place and obliged me with a few photographs from the day.

Best Home Chef is an online cooking community which allows members to upload their own original recipes (costing less than $80 to make) and be in the running for a monthly prize.  Recipes are rated by other members.  There will be a grand cook off in May 2013, with the finalists being mentored by 6 noted chefs in the lead up to the competition.  The final will be judged by a panel of food critics.  Further details about how to enter can be found here.

Lunch was prepared by Massimo Mele, from Ready, Steady Cook and the Hugos Group.

And the setting was idyllic and Mr SSG was very impressed by the food.

And the beverages.

There were photo opportunities aplenty and Mr SSG couldn’t resist a cheeky snap of of a dessert being snapped.

I’m still a long way off competing for the Best Home Chef but I got into the spirit of home cooking with a morning of baking.

My challenge was to cater for this week’s work morning tea using a few things from the fridge that had the makings of relatively healthy baked goods.  I couldn’t find a recipe that utilised zucchinis, sour cream and over ripe bananas so I ended up baking two things.

Don’t worry, the bananas were much less manky on the inside than how they may have appeared in their skins.

I knocked off the sour cream and bananas in this batch of muffins using Donna Hay’s recipe from Modern Classics Book 2.

www.thelonebaker.com

Which looks like this.

The zucchinis were peeled, grated and Kitchen Aid-ed to make a chocolate zucchini bread, using this recipe as a base.

I did say that I started my baking projects with the healthiest of intentions which is why I decided to add dark chocolate to the zucchini bread.  For its anti-oxidant properties, of course.

The resulting loaf was moist and less dense than banana bread.  It’s with a bit of butter.

My only excuse for having a home made ice cream sundae today was that today was in fact Sunday.  I know I’m meant to be doing my yoga to get a boost of energy in the afternoons but this was such a fun way to achieve the same effect.

I hope you’ve had a lovely weekend and here’s to a good week for us all.

Mr SSG was a guest of Winning Appliances and we thank them again for their hospitality.