Back in autumn Ray and I visited Poachers Pantry. If it checked out, it would be our wedding venue.

It was really pretty. We wanted our wedding to be comfortable and intimate. The rustic setting will give us the country wedding we wanted

And the food’s great too! Ray had grilled chicken with baked mushrooms on puy lentils and I had this beaaaaaautifully cooked risotto – smoked salmon with prawns and baked asparagus with a balsamic vinegar reduction. It was perfectly al dente. The smokiness of salmon also set off the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar reduction perfectly. We were wandering around before we sat down and overheard the chef talking about the daily specials (of which this risotto was one of) with the waitstaff. They were super enthusiastic about it; they were really passionate about their food! I had to order the risotto after all that. Did not regret it one bit!

P.S. And of course we are getting married there, at PP, but in spring!
P.P.S. Did you see the little guy coming in for a landing on the right? So cute!

I love the outfit this guy is sporting. It’s gone straight into my lookbook inspirations folder.

I have always been fascinated by men’s styles on women.

I’ve done the tie thing, the cufflink thing and the bow tie thing. I love wearing ties!

The main problem is though, with my pants/skirt on my true waist, my trunk is too short and no matter how I tie that tie, it’s always too long! I’ve tried dealing with it by tucking it into my pants and then disguising that by wearing a knit jumper or a vest over the top. Clearly, I’m going to have to try the military tie tuck next!

When doing research for this post I discovered these awesome sites:

• Short Shrifted, a clothing and style resource for short men
• 2 tie a tie, a really comprehensive site by three brothers, kids. If they can do it so can we, definitely.
• How a tie is made, not awesome awesome, but just interesting to see how it is done.

- Photo from The Satorialist

I thought this shoulder chain was pretty intriguing. The chains are a bit too yellow gold for my liking but I’ve never even thought of having adornments for the shoulder – it’s so unusual. Totally bling too.

Alix, the Cherry Blossom Girl, models the ‘Military‘ from Chains of Love on her blog entry here.

Chains of love have some other simpler shoulder jewelry and body chains here.

I’m quite taken by the idea of having a chain headpiece. A bit Romanesque, should look nice with my wedding dress I think.

Cheesecake is my mum’s favourite cake so we researched a few recipes and combined the ones we liked best (the one on the Philly cream cheese box and the one from King Arthur Flour).
We wanted something that was easy and fool-proof. Here’s the result.

CRUST

200g (half a box, or about 13 biscuits) McVitie’s digestive biscuits, crushed.
65g butter, melted.

FILLING

375g (one and a half 250g blocks) cream cheese, softened.
3 large eggs
9/10 cup castor sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (very optional)

TOPPING
Anything you want! For example:

• 1 can of blueberries, drained.
• 300g frozen berries, defrosted. If using raspberries, sweeten with 2-3 tbs of sugar. If using fresh raspberries, top with a shower of icing sugar.
• Can also be topped with drizzles of melted dark chocolate or sprigs of mint

1. Combine biscuit crumbs with butter then press into a 9″ flan pan (I used a Pyrex flan pan, great for serving in) or tin. Chill.

2. Beat the cream cheese with the sugar till smooth, then add eggs. Pour into prepared base and bake at 170 degrees for 40 minutes.

3. Top with fruit, pushing it slightly into the still hot cheesecake. Cool and serve. Alternatively, you could top the filling with the fruit before baking to cook the fruit through.

- 2009 Walkley Award Print finalist, Cartoon category. Cathy Wilcox, The Sydney Morning Herald, “Two Clouds”.

Also, WP 2.9.1′s edit images within write post screen thingo is pretty awesome.