Author: Bunny Eats Design

Tofu Tuesday: Delicious white rabbit

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Sorry, no photo of Tofu today, but I thought I’d share something I found entertaining this week. We have a collection of found rabbit images (from magazines, newspapers etc) on display in our house. This particular picture from a Silo Theatre show has been up for 2 years and Tofu the bunny has never paid it any attention. Until the other night when he started eating it. Not just a taste, but a feast. The Koala (my husband) removed this before more damage could be done. I think I’ll have to find a new spot for it. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.

Street Eats giveaway winner

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With special thanks to Auckland Restaurant Month I am pleased to announce the winner for the Street Eats prize pack. Drawn by Random.org the winner is… **drum roll please!** Element DP / Jason Faircloth Congratulations Jason! I hope you and your friend enjoy Street Eats the entry for two, two food items and two drinks to be redeemed on Saturday 6 August 2016 at Shed 10 on Queens Wharf. I loved reading all your answers to my skill question on your favourite places to eat in Auckland. Lots of great suggestions! To keep up with giveaways and announcements, make sure you follow my Facebook page here.

Chipotle and passionfruit with Long White Vodka

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Some people are iffy about fruit with meat. I am not some people. Sweet and savoury have always been in my culinary vocab. I practically grew up in a Chinese takeaway in Rotorua during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Back then, Dad and Uncle worked as chef owners and cooked a thousand sweet and sour pork dishes for their customers. Battered deep-fried pork smothered in a homemade sweet and sour sauce; this came with onions, capsicum and of course, pineapple. An instant classic. I grew up loving sweet and sour pork and I think many of you did too. I enjoy cooking with natural sweet flavours and pork lends itself traditionally to fruit pairings, most commonly apple and pineapple but I found passionfruit also works beautifully. This sweet and smoky pulled pork taco is inspired by Long White Vodka Passionfruit. With a light, tropical taste that’s not too sweet, Long White Vodka Passionfruit is my favourite of their three flavours. Containing no added table sugar, apple juice is used to give it just a …

Freestyler in the Kitchen: Throw-together recipe #2

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I recently took Fisher & Paykel’s online quiz WHAT’S YOUR COOKING STYLE? and was branded the Freestyler. Freestylers have mastered the basics and enjoy pushing the boundaries and going “off-piste”. The quiz was designed to help you get the most out of your time in the kitchen and results in eight distinct personalities, from the Curious Novice to the Professional and everything in between. Understanding your style can help you to choose ingredients, recipes and appliances to make your kitchen time more enjoyable and efficient. You can find out what type of cooking style you have by taking the quick quiz here. Go on, I’ll wait. Thanks to Fisher & Paykel, I’ve created a series of throw-together recipes that celebrate the Freestyler approach to cooking. These recipes are more templates than traditional recipes. I’ve suggested ingredients, but in all honesty, whatever you have in the fridge can be substituted and you’ll only know if you try. If you enjoy this recipe and this style of cooking, please check out the other recipes in this series. …

The Food Show Auckland – Double pass winner

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With special thanks to The Food Show I am pleased to announce the winner for the double pass to The Food Show Auckland. Drawn by Random.org the winner is… **drum roll please!** Alex Johnson Congratulations! I hope you and your friend enjoy the event and eat and drink your weight in goodies 🙂 Tips for The Food Show: Avoid the queues and buy your ticket online Bring cash, including coins (parking is $10 and cash only) Bring an appetite Keep hydrated with a bottle of water Bring a sturdy bag and sensible shoes Leave your jacket in the car (it gets very warm inside) Bring a friend or go alone. This is not a place for large groups. Check out the timetable for Whirlpool Cooking Theatre and plan your day accordingly. To find out more info including exhibitors and demonstrations and to buy tickets visit www.foodshow.co.nz Don’t forget to enter my other giveaways. Including a Street Eats Prize Pack and a gorgeous dinnerware and cutlery set. To keep up with giveaways and announcements, make sure you follow my Facebook page here.  

Auckland Restaurant Month and a Street Eats giveaway

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August is Auckland Restaurant Month and this year, Street Eats on the first Saturday of the month (Saturday 6 Aug 2016). Huzzah! I love Street Eats which I view as a walking, build-your-own degustation. Browse, graze, have a drink, and enjoy the atmosphere. There will be over 80 dishes, usually priced between $5 to $12, covering many different cuisines from restaurants, cafes and food trucks around Auckland. With games for kids, a bar for grown ups and live music for everyone, there will be plenty to keep you amused. Entry is $5 for adults and free for supervised kids. Gates open 10.30am and close 8pm, though I highly recommend an early visit as many of the best dishes sell out. Check out the menus here if you’re like me and like to have a browse before the event. Here’s a few pics I’ve snapped of past Street Eats to get your appetite going…   There are lots of other foodie events on this month, with serious and novel themes. Events include Dinner in the Dark (sold out), Dessert Degustation Walking Tour …

Freestyler in the Kitchen: Throw-together recipe #1

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Hey guys, I have a confession… Even though this blog is FULL of recipes, I am NOT a good recipe follower. I use recipes as inspiration – a starting point to leap from and aside from recipe testing, I seldom stick to the script. I like to make things up as I go along, eyeballing quantities, changing it up with whatever ingredients I happen to have. I season to taste or mood. I am not the kind of girl to cook an exact dish twice. What’s your cooking style? So, when I took Fisher & Paykel’s online quiz WHAT’S YOUR COOKING STYLE? I wasn’t surprised that I was branded the Freestyler. Freestylers have mastered the basics and enjoy pushing the boundaries, putting together flavours and textures that complement each other. They also enjoy going “off-piste”. I shall wear the Freestyler badge with honour. The quiz was designed to help you get the most out of your time in the kitchen and results in eight distinct personalities. Understanding your style can help you to choose ingredients, …

The Food Show Auckland is coming – double pass giveaway

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The Food Show is coming back to Auckland from Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 July, from 10am to 6pm at ASB Showgrounds. A great place to sample new products, buy show specials and explore new food trends. The ever popular Whirlpool Cooking Theatre will be showing 5 demonstrations each day with headlong NZ food personalities including Chelsea Winter, Josh Emett, Ray McVinnie, Sachie Nomura (Sachie’s Kitchen), Simon Gault, Megan May (Little Bird) and Kyle Street (Depot). Also for the first time, there will be demonstrations by food blogger Emma Galloway from My Darling Lemon Thyme. It’s so cool to see food bloggers at events like this. My Darling Lemon Thyme blog has been around for years, even longer than this blog. Emma and her family have been in living in Perth for 5 years but recently moved back to NZ meaning she can do cool stuff here like The Food Show. I count Emma as a blog role model so I look forward to seeing her demonstration. The full schedule for Whirlpool Cooking Theatre can be viewed online here. This year, …

Hiakai means “hungry”

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Māori cuisine is curiously uncommon in our culinary landscape. Growing up in the Māori wonderland of Rotorua, I enjoyed many hangi as a kid. I just didn’t appreciate or understand how special it was until we moved to Auckland and there were no more hangi. For those not from around here, hangi is a traditional Māori technique of cooking food underground, using heated rocks and covered baskets. It involves a lot of digging and a lot of time and is thus reserved for special occasions on marae (Māori meeting houses) such as weddings and funerals. For most New Zealanders, Māori cuisine is not an everyday occurrence and even tourists visiting our country will struggle to find Māori cuisine. Searching “hangi” on Zomato comes up with one result and both “boil up” and “Māori” yield no results. None. I know of one cafe in Auckland serving Rewena bread as part of their menu, but it’s not like I can just go out and enjoy Māori food whenever I want. The industry just doesn’t look like that. Yet. In contrast, searching “sushi”, “butter …

Tofu Tuesday: When it’s a nice day

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Just a couple of pics of Tofu enjoy our lush, slightly overgrown lawn. Yesterday morning, I found him waiting for me in our hallway. When he realised I was up, he made a run for the back door so I let him out. He is definitely the early riser in our house these days. If the weather is nice, he spends the whole day outside in our big backyard, roaming free and nibbling on whatever he fancies. I bring him inside around sunset. Oh and our neighbours have a friendly pup staying at the moment. He seems to be curious about Tofu too. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.  

Game of Rhones AK16

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I made the most of a precious work-free weekend and had a BLAST at Game of Rhones. Being it’s second year here in Auckland, Game of Rhones is gathering momentum. Game of Rhones is different to other wine festivals and your $60 ticket gets you a quality PLUMM REDa wine glass (value $30) and all your tastings. That’s right, no tokens are required for wine tastings. It’s all included in your ticket price. Taste to your hearts content. Visitors are encouraged to dress up GoT style and I this year my fur and leather combo channeled GoT Nights Watch, Wildlings and the Iron Islands. Sitting on the bus in costume, no one even looked twice, which made me feel at ease. While I was quite warm, I felt more comfortable in this costume than the gown and cape I wore last year (not really my style). There were more attendees in costume this year and I feel that it will only get better with each year. Kiwis are naturally a little shy when it comes …

Our Growing Edge – July 2016 Intro

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July edition of Our Growing Edge is hosted by Sophie at Cooking Trips. The theme this month is “Travel”.   I am lucky to have travelled to some delicious destinations and have collected precious food memories. For me, food is an important part of travel and I love exploring other cuisines while expanding my growing edge. Some memorable meals include: Late night takoyaki made fresh to order out of a van in a deserted parking lot in Osaka, Japan Our first larb in Laos from this random restaurant in the middle of nowhere just on the border of Vietnam and Laos Killing and eating a snake at a snake restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam I have so many more food memories I want to collect but it’s nice to be able to travel to faraway places by recreating dishes at home. I hope this month’s travel theme inspires you to cook something from your travels or something from a place you would like to travel to. Because there’s nothing quite like falling in love with places you’ve yet to visit. …

Game of Rhones – double pass winner

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With special thanks to Game of Rhones I am pleased to announce the winner for the double pass to this Saturday’s Auckland event (worth $120). Drawn by Random.org the winner is… **drum roll please!** Emma Tan Congratulations Emma, I hope you and your friend enjoy the event! All wine tastings are included, just bring money for food and take home bottles if that’s your thing. To keep up with giveaways and announcements, make sure you follow my Facebook page here.

Tofu Tuesday: Mornings

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“Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow internet to see who they really are.” – Will Ferrell I’ve been switching between calm and fury over the last few days as our internet connection has been mostly broken. Working from home, all my work comes and goes via email. I’m dead in the water without a reliable internet connection. Luckily, my husband, The Koala is equally unimpressed. It’s a match! Tofu the bunny on the other hand, doesn’t care. We’ve had some wet weather lately so I’ve been keeping him inside and in the mornings, I put Tofu on the couch in my “office” while I work. He seems perfectly happy. Oblivious to my internet woes. Click here to see more editions of Tofu Tuesday.

Chorizo meatballs and kale in red wine sauce (as seen on Instagram)

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Am I in denial or has this winter been pretty mild? If you don’t pay any attention to the wind that howls threatening to take the roof, and if you ignore the rain that batters viciously and sideways, it’s really not too bad. Our heater is set to number 1 and I haven’t even contemplated buying an electric blanket (like I have other years). But if winter plagues you, you could try some warming kitchen activities to keep your mind off what’s going on outside. I just posted a photo of this hug in a bowl on Instagram and Facebook tonight and the response was so positive I thought I better share the recipe on my blog. There’s lots of things I eat and cook that never make it to this blog. This was going to be one of them. But I changed my mind. While hibernating indoors, I’m eating free range This comforting recipe is gluten free, dairy free and uses free range meat. There’s enough for dinner for two with leftovers for lunch the next day. I …

#WineIsComing – A double pass giveaway

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(scroll down for giveaway)     There are people who like drinking wine and having fun. Are you one of those people? If so, keep reading. I was a late convert to Game of Thrones but I now watch it religiously. The season finale of Season 6 is in 3 days and it will be long, loooong wait until the next season in 2017. But wait! There’s more! Next Saturday, while the season finale of GoT is still warm, Auckland is getting a very special event called Game of Rhones. Not affiliated in any way with GoT, Game of Rhones is a big deal in Australia, where it began…Where Dan Sims, the founder started it as a bit of a joke, but then more seriously and rather quickly expanded into Game of Rhones events in 7 cities in Australia and New Zealand. Where people drink wine and are encouraged to channel their favourite GoT character. I’ve included some photos I took of Auckland’s 2015 event but check out their Facebook album to get the full effect of …

Tofu Tuesday: On the couch

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Today is the winter solstice which means it is the shortest day (or longest night) of the year. The night tonight will be over 14 hours. In New Zealand, Matariki the Māori New Year is also celebrated during this season. Tofu snuggles on the couch with me on most nights. I often fall asleep on the couch and he falls asleep on top of me. I like to think it’s because he wants to be me close to me, but the reality could be that it’s cold on the carpet and the couch is warm….and I am nothing more than a giant hot water bottle. Rabbits are fluffy and can tuck his limbs underneath to keep warm. A cold rabbit sits upright and resembles a round dinner roll. But if a rabbit is warm and comfortable, he will lie down very flat with his long fluffy legs streeeetched to resemble a baguette. That is now Tofu sleeps on me on the couch. Stretched out. Leisurely. When I hear about people keeping their rabbits outside in a hutch, I know that rabbits can survive out in the cold. I once had …

Easy Entertaining with Long White Vodka (and a giveaway)

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(scroll down for giveaway)  I once paid $2.55 for a single lime. I was furious. *shakes fist* That was summer. When limes are like gold. I would buy one lime at up to $35 per kilo and make every wedge count. Now that it’s winter, New Zealand limes are in season and around $5 per kilo – completely affordable. You can enjoy them as nature intended. And you should. Another way I’m enjoying New Zealand limes this winter is with Long White Vodka Lemon & Lime. Light and refreshing, Long White Vodka is made using local ingredients, and it’s sweetened with apple juice so there’s no added table sugar. Ingredients are NZ sparkling water, triple distilled vodka, fruit juice and natural flavours. That’s it. SWEET. Plus these drinks have a beachy label design and sport a twist top (YAY!). I was inspired by the Lemon & Lime flavour to create an easy recipe for sharing with friends this winter. Chicken wings are a favourite at our place and make an appearance regularly. They are cheap, simple …