After a rainy week in NYC the sun was finally shining and spring had arrived! When the weather gets warmer, the craving for fresh, light and clean tatsing food gets stronger.

This snazzy new 'Pom-Poms' background you can see is the handiwork of the very crafty, gorgeous and repeat-pattern obsessed Brooklyn-based print/ pattern designer, Jess Murphy. 

"Inspired by a mash-up of Rorschach Ink Blots and the stories of the ancient Greeks, 'Pom-Poms'  seeks to lend a bit of haphazardry to pattern design.

"By layering two incongruous objects, both harboring a sort of innocent, yet tempting aura, the work plays on the immaculate and the beguiling. Those that bring cheer and good fortune, and those that have a history rich in temptation and deceit.

"Pom-Poms aims to evoke balance through the transparent and the ambiguous, but above all, it explores the playful side of repetition."

Thanks Jess! XX

Having some haloumi calling my name from the cheese drawer of the fridge, I decided to whip up something new with it, and to give it a run in a meal aside from at the beginning of the day or the end of a night. The result was a delicious, colourful salad with golden, salty, squeeky slabs of haloumi, and a side of sweet, peppery, juciy lamb.

If ‘chocolate factory’ conjures up images of Wonka’s waterfall then you aren’t far off the truth – the pouring and whirling of chocolate is a key part of the process. I discovered this recently, when I was lucky to visit the Mast Brothers testing room and factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Anzac biscuits received their name during the First World War. Up until that time people had been baking 'Soldier’s biscuits' for the troops, based on a recipe derived from the Scottish oat cake. The main feature is the absence of eggs to prevent biscuits spoiling on the long journey to the front. These were renamed as Anzac biscuits after the campaign at Gallipoli. 

As all 3 Bookery Cook sisters were in different locations around the world this Anzac Day, we decided to celebrate with an intercontinental sisterly quest to bake the perfect Anzac biscuits.

Sunday's are the best day of the week to spend all morning flicking through cookbooks and food magazines and all afternoon pottering about it in the kitchen preparing the feast for that night. 

Waking up on a particularly rainy Sunday the decision was made that today was not a day for leaving the house, the only exception being to visit the supermarket and the wine store.

If you like food and you like pop culture and have a few spare hours up your sleeve to get lost in a blog bubble, DEFINITELY check out Pop Culture Cooking.

The Piet Mondrian

The Bookery Cook loves a good food and art mash up. This little gem, with the works of artistic greats represented by food stuffs on a bread slice canvas, is another delicious example.

Last week we packed our bags full of miso, mirin, dashi, daikon and other tricks and headed on a Kitchen Invasion at our Godparents' Eden-like farm, just around the corner from Bald Knob (Knob - more than a hill, not quite a mountain) in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. 

This delicious and flavourful feast is from a couple of months back, when I have just returned from 3 glorious weeks visiting Maxie in NYC. What better welcoming could I have than a home-cooked mum meal of kashmiri roast lamb, dutch spiced carrots with almond sauce and spiced fried vegetables ^_^

Nuthin but a ‘G’ thang by Dr Dre feat. Snoop: Pancakes, chocolate mousse & cream

In another inter-disciplinary inter-sensorial combination, Swedish photographer Philip Karlberg and set designer/ chef Mattias Nyhlin have paired songs and desserts in their project 33RPM.

Graphic Designer Dan Beckemeyer has taken some of the most ultimate food combos currently known to humankind and craftily woven them into one of the lovliest logograms known to man.

After what feels like years of sopping wet national holidays (including several significant floods) we celebrated the 4 days of fine Easter weather this year with bonfires, mountain climbs, outdoor bbqing,
and garden dining.

On the food front, the feature meal involved a 3-day marinated 12-hour roasted lamb leg, pistachio & green olive tabbouli, fig & labneh salad, and some homemade naan to mop it all up.

Sydney-based artist Vexta will have her third solo exhibition at the gallery in April 2012. 

No silly we don't mean bread and gin TOGETHER. Bread & Gin is a schmick blog that features finely crafted little videos on how to make your favourite cocktails. 

Last month saw the launch of a limited run of the Classic Vans shoe, emblazoned with all the hallmarks of your favourite hamburger. The joint effort between a French fashion house Colette and American nightlife photographer The Cobra Snake, these jems are inspired by classic Californica burger joints, and led us down a food-themed footwear Google spiral...

On a camping trip to bask on the utopian beaches of Byron Bay, we cooked up an equally utopian camping dinner: Seafood Paella. While it may sound a little extravagant for camping, we did it at a pretty minimal cost and cooking it provided hours of evening entertainment (and a delicious breakfast and lunch the next day).

Cerealize is a online custom-built cereal facility where you can tweak your breakfast cereal and have it delivered to you in a personalised box.

Cooked up this number recently for some Sunday-style dining. Nicely spiced lamb in crispy light filo fashioned into a novelty coil, served with refreshing mint sauce, colourful salad and sweet caramely hummousy pumpkin.

Just what 2 of the world's most obese nations need most: 24hr cupcake vending machines.

If you are ever in doubt about a baby's cuteness, dress them up as salmon nigiri or some maki zushi and reassess. 

When not crafting lovely illustrations, M u m p craft equally lovely tunes.
Check it! 
 

Some pics from recent re-testing sessions of recipes in our Book! 

Thanks to Neil Perry for this recipe, from his latest book 'Rockpool Bar & Grill', which features recipes from restaurant. The dish is really flavourful, light and moreish... light noodles with sweet bursts of fresh cherry tomatoes, soft & succulent snapper crab and a little kick of chilli. 

Brisbane's Dub Temple Records bring us some more smooth grooves with their latest Podcast.

A friend recently sent this recipe to me to try because it is SO GOOD. It's a moist, fudgy cake that you can justify is good for you because of the substantial zucchini and olive oil contributions. For those of you who are sceptical about zucchini in a cake, fear not, the addition of zucchini just makes for a really texture and sweet taste. 

UK charities The Elephant Family and Action for Children have introduced a whole new level to one of the most treasured pastimes of all...egg hunting. This massive hunt around London combines art, design and ... gigantic eggs ...scrambled together for a good cause!

Forget Space Food Sticks, soon you could be nibbling on a Take-Off Tortilla and sipping on a Cosmic Cocktail as you coast through constellations. Last week during the National Science and Engineering Week 2012 a new variety of possible space foods was unveiled.

This is a compilation of honourable food & beverage mentions from a recent trip to NYC to visit Maxie and see the sights of this wonderous place.

Venues, meals, beverages & experiences are listed in no particular order, it's just a general archive of awesomeness.