Well hello there and a big happy New Year hug to everyone.

I have been MIA since my Christmas Eve post having a nice break from blogging and work.  Back to work and back to Belly Rumbles.

I was having a giggle to myself as I re-read as my “to do” list for 2011 on my New Year post back last January.  What did I achieve from that list?  Not much to be honest.  Big smack to my bot!

This was the 2011 list and commentary as to how I went.

• Make my own salami  “back on the list for 2012″
• Advance my skills regarding preserving, bottling, pickling and making jams “Made a start & already planning more seasonal fun”
• Create a gourmet meal for one of my hikes next year, instead of eating 2 minute noodles, porridge and muesli bars.   “Got fat, didn’t hike, on diet & exercise plan so I can get my ass moving for 2012“
• Make my own cheese “another failure, no cheese”
• Enjoy a Friday lunch at Assiette “Oh this one I did with Ms Lily”
• Take a chocolate making class “Sadly not, but again on the to do list”
• Play around a lot more with molecular gastronomy “I really am a slack ass, back on 2012 agenda”
• Spend more time making stock to keep on hand in my chest freezer (I am slack!!)  “6L of chicken stock in the freeze as I type, seems I’m not that slack after all”
• Prepare more vegetarian meals “this was achieved, go me!”
• Have dinner at Tetsuya’s “nope, didn’t happen, but did have lunch at Quay)”
• Shop more at the local growers/farmers’ markets “Didn’t frequent as much as I would of liked, this one is also on list for 2012″
• Shop less at Coles and Woolworths, and support the little guys, again pure laziness and I need smacked!! “this one I adhear to, I love my greengrocer and deli.  Sadly don’t use my local butcher as he lied to me about a turkey a few years ago, long story”
• Hone my French cooking techniques “yep, slowly but surely, my basics are being honed”
• Learn more about and use more Australian native ingredients ” yes, but more to be discovered in 2012″
• Lastly, be successful in keeping that damn possum out of my herb garden and veggie patch! “hmmmm f#^king possum, have given up, no edibles in my garden, thinking chooks for 2012 (joking!) – oh I can hear so many family members shuddering at that comment”

I had an interesting 2011……

Sadly it was a tough one.  My mother in law, Yvonne, lost her battle with cancer.  A long time friend lost her beautiful daughter, so young and taken from us.  An ex boss/long time friend/pain in the ass, also lost his battle with lymphoma this year.  Then there has been the ongoing battle with Sally and her cancer issues.  Also my parents moved to Qld, I miss my mum badly (and dad ;p).

With the bad there are the highlights of good.

Meeting Margaret Fulton.  Seriously, I never thought when I started Belly Rumbles that I would be making afternoon tea for Margaret.  Listening to her stories, her sharing of family pictures, her eating my food (and loving it).  Wow, amazing!!

My first ever interview for Belly Rumbles, which was with the spokes person of Twining Tea, Stephen Twining himself.   Such a dapper English chap.

I hosted the Darling Kitchen’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge.  Oh wow, that was very intense as I didn’t want to let anyone down.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the challenge and there was so much positive feedback, it was truly an awesome experience.

I got to meet the ever so cute Clovis Young , brain child behind the Mad Mex chain.  Now that was a major tequila and chilli lesson.

Paid another visit to Japan, more posts to come early this year, I promise.

What does 2012 hold for me?  I will be honest, it is a little unsure and scary.  As things develop, will happily share with you guys.

What I do know is that I want is to get fit enough to do a couple of hikes this year.  I want to have amazing dining out experiences, think cheap eat gems and hopefully a hatted splurge.  I want to push myself even further in the kitchen.  May even get that salami made.

What do you hope 2012 holds for you?

Oh and by the way, no list this year, just an open mind and willingness to explore.

Sara xxx

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Happy New Year guys and Happy new decade.  Wow this year has gone so quickly.  Actually the decade has whizzed by as well.  This time 10 years ago I was up at Daydream Island with stupid fluorescent “2000″ glasses on, seeing in a new century.

What an awesome foodie year it has been as well. I have had a wonderful time experimenting and pushing my cooking skills in the kitchen.  Travel was big on the agenda for me this year and there have been many memorable restaurant meals had as well.

One of the most emotional kitchen episodes I had this year was when I went and boughtlive yabbies from the Sydney Fish Markets.  Rule number one, don’t name live produce before you off it and make it a meal, also try avoiding giving them personalities and little voices.

A few of the many yabbies

I have expanded my culinary knowledge through the Daring Kitchen with their Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers’ challenges.  I would rather forget mysuet pudding disaster, but loved making my owngreen chilli sauce.

The horrible steak & oyster suet pudding

Stacked green chilli chicken enchilada

Josh turned 18 and I really put my skills in the kitchen on the line by making asteampunk cake for him.  Was the first time I had ever used fondant or constructed a cake in that particular manner, was fun getting creative using dry ice for the steam.

The steampunk cake

My most memorable meal this year was at WD-50 in New Yorkwhere I had the pleasure of meeting Wylie Dufresne.  I was like a star struck idiot that had trouble stringing sentences together.  He is one of the nicest chefs I have met, creative, talented and presented me the most memorable degustation meal of my life.

Wylie & I

There were some very memorable gatherings with fellow food bloggers, which I haven’t actually blogged about.  There was“A feast for the senses” dinner at Bistro CBD, where the tables were turned on four very talented food bloggers and it put them in the kitchen preparing a fantastic dinner.

Fouad, Josh (not one of the talented cooks), Karen &Billy(missingLinda from the picture)

Celebrating foodie friends birthdays,Suze from Chocolate Suze at the  City Hotel, it was school fancy dress, earlier this year.  Then in November it was Helen from Grab your Fork’s birthday at Signorelli Gastronomiawhere we polished off  Trevor a truly delicious crispy suckling piggie.

Trevor – totally delicious

The year ended on a big gathering of bloggers for the annual Bloggers Christmas party held at Centennial Park.  Food, food and more food and for the first time ever we had blogger Olympics.  I was on Team Diva with Billy from A Table for Two, Shez from One More Bite and  Deborah from Vintage Macaroon, we won, Yay Team Diva!!

Billy, Shez & I (photo credit Simon from The Heart of Food)

The amazing amount of food!

Josh eating the cutest strawberry Santa

So what is install for me next year?  I have some personal goals that I want to fulfil, but on the food side I would love to share with you some of my want to dos;

• Make my own salami
• Advance my skills regarding preserving, bottling, pickling and making jams
• Create a gourmet meal for one of my hikes next year, instead of eating 2 minute noodles, porridge and muesli bars.
• Make my own cheese
• Enjoy a Friday lunch at Assiette
• Take a chocolate making class
• Play around a lot more with molecular gastronomy
• Spend more time making stock to keep on hand in my chest freezer (I am slack!!)
• Prepare more vegetarian meals
• Have dinner at Tetsuya’s
• Shop more at the local growers/farmers’ markets
• Shop less at Coles and Woolworths, and support the little guys, again pure laziness and I need smacked!!
• Hone my French cooking techniques
• Learn more about and use more Australian native ingredients
• Lastly, be successful in keeping that damn possum out of my herb garden and vegie patch!

Whatever 2011 holds in store for you I hope it is delicious

Sara xxx

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You found me!! Yay!! You can never be sure when you send out those change of address notices, Christmas cards sometimes take ages to find you ;p

Firstly, a big warm welcome to Belly Rumbles new home and happy blogiversary to me.  I really do hope you enjoy the new look and feel, and there is also an exciting change to Belly Rumbles which I will get to shortly.

I was chatting to Dad yesterday and I excitedly mentioned to him that Belly Rumbles turns one today.  He looked at me and stated “only one? it seems longer than that”  It is a rare occasion that I agree with my father (also probably my number one fan), but he was so right.  I can’t believe it is only a year, this blogging biz has been one hell of a ride.

A year ago today when I wrote my first post, not in my wildest thoughts or expectations, did I ever think it would open up a whole new world to me.  I have met some amazing people and have been invited to some pretty cool events.  Over the past year I have also personally pushed myself in my own cooking and learnt so much from others.  I really never expected this at all.

There is still some tweaking to be had with my new home, so please be patient with me.

I am introducing an easy to navigate recipe section (fingers crossed), which as new posts are written will take shape.  I will also slowly include my already posted recipes there as well.  You will also notice that generally navigation will be easier if you want to find something.

Another exciting development for Belly Rumbles is that Josh has come on board as a contributor.  The Josh Vs Food plans are coming to life now that HSC will be over by the end of this week.  He will also be contributing travel posts.  First ones will be from Fiji where he will be going for Schoolies at the end of November.  No it won’t be all drinking and debauchery, he has actually volunteered to build housing through a Christian program for a Fijian community for a week and then he gets to participate in the drinking and debauchery.   So stay tuned for his first post in due course.

For those of you who don’t know, <drum roll>,  Josh is my son.  Does this make Belly Rumbles the first mother and son food blog??  Hmmm, great, now I have visions of Maggie Beare (Ruth Cracknell) and Arthur Beare (Garry McDonald) from the long running Aussie sitcom Mother and Sondancing in my head.  Hopefully we will get along a lot better than they did and I don’t lose my marbles.

I have been quite of late and my apologies for that as I have been busy setting up the new home.  There is quite a large back log of posts I am desperately wanting to share with you.  Still posts to come from Iowa, Orlando, New York and Tokyo, my introduction to molecular gastronomy, projects in the kitchen, events I have been to, restaurants visited, even Josh’s 18th birthday hasn’t made it up yet, and then before you know it Christmas will be here.

I want to thank my fellow bloggers for their support over the past 12 months, you are an amazing bunch of dudes.  Also a big thank you to my friends and family for their patience while I stress at them not to touch their food while I try to take pictures as quickly as possible in order for the food to not go cold.

Last but not least, thank you to you, my dear readers.  You guys give me encouragement to continue writing and sharing my world.  I love reading your comments, comments make me smile and take me to a happy place.

Buckle up, get your seats in the ready position and please continue to join me on this food joy ride.

Sara xxx

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