Easter hedgehog slice and what I did on my holidays

Over Easter I read a journalist saying that it was time to throw out the Easter eggs from last year that their kids had not eaten over the past year.  It reminded me of my childhood neighbours who would horrify us by keeping their Easter eggs instead of eating them.  Easter eggs never lasted long in our house.  Even when my brothers decided they did not want their Easter eggs one year, they just broken them into pieces and threw them to my siblings and me for fun.  These days if we have leftover Easter eggs, they go into some baking for a bit of fun.  Such as this hedgehog slice.

 

Before I tell you about this slice, I will tell you a bit about my holidays.  This week is my first full week of work in 4 weeks.  Easter gave me a couple of shorter weeks and then I took a week off for the school holidays.  We were treated to a few warm autumnal days.  On Easter Saturday, Sylvia and I headed to Torquay for a swim.  It was so busy we went to the back beach with rough high waves.  There were too many people for my liking but it is hard to resent others who also wanted to enjoy some last rays of sunshine before winter.

 

 

 While in Torquay, we went to Il Gelatino (3/42 Bell Street, Torquay) for an ice cream.  I had Golden Gaytime and Chocolate.  It was a lovely balmy late afternoon to sit eating ice cream before heading back to my parents where we celebrated Easter with family the next day.  Only my dad went to church on the Saturday night because it was booked out.  No cramming churchgoers into the aisles this year with Covid still forcing social distancing.

 

 
After Easter Sunday, I had leave on Monday and Tuesday.  Sylvia and I went to Barkly Square where we ate lunch outside.  I had recently been told at another Zambrero cafe that it is $1 cheaper to order a Bowl with black rice than to order a PowerBowl which is the same for a vegetarian.  So I had the Bowl with black rice, beans, cheese, cos lettuce, corn, tomato, sour cream, chipotle sauce and guacamole.  It was lovely and very filling but next time I need to remember to ask for just a little sauce.

 

 

Before heading back to work I made this Easter Egg hedgehog.  It was made to use up bits and pieces around the house.  I had bought a 95% Lindt chocolate that was far too bitter for Sylvia and me.  As there was a half tin of condensed milk hanging around in the fridge, I thought if I mixed them I would have a fudgy sauce that wasn't too sweet.  It worked well but was very rich.  I mixed in some shortbread biscuits that were heading towards Stale City with worrying speed.  And there were some Easter eggs about so I decided to put some in.  I also added shredded coconut just because I love it.  The slice was brilliant.  It rescued some food in danger of becoming compost.  This was definitely a slice where the sum was far superior to the parts.

 

During my week of annual leave, we took it easy.  I relaxed and read my book (highly recommend Rodham by Curtis Sittenfield), I cleaned around the house, I organised my life just that little bit more, we had some trips around town, rode my bike and went swimming.  Life still seems to be not quite normal but having a week gave me a chance for some of the recouping I need.

One trip was to have a swim at Brunswick Pool and then head to Luthers Scoops (528A Sydney Road, by Blyth St, Brunswick).  It is an unassuming looking place with some amazing ice cream.  First I saw Cindy and Michael rave about it and then I had a colleague rave to me about it.  I had a scoop of strawberry cheesecake and a scoop of an intense dark chocolate.  The big chunks of strawberries and the cheesecake flavours were amazing.  They mixed well with the chocolate but on its own the chocolate was really intense.  Sylvia had a blueberry and sour cream scoop and a passionfruit and lemon curd scoop.  She raved about the blueberry but was less certain about the passionfruit (which interestingly Cindy loved).  I am sure we will be back!

I went to the city with my mum and Sylvia.  The place we had chosen was noisy and fully booked so we walked on to a food hall.  There are so many in the city and this one had a few closed cafes but quite a lot of people about for the ones that were open.  I tried a pumpkin tempura sushi handroll from Sushi Hub.  It was really good.  And I had a Morroccan Chickpea and Kale Spud from Spud Bar.  It turned out to give me menu envy as I wished I had ordered a more traditional baked potato.  I liked mine but with sweet potato, lots of quinoa, a chickpea and kale in sauce, beetroot chunks and generous dollop of kale it was too much a stew, too earnestly healthy and lacked that cheeky glint of fun.  And it was huge.  I didn't finish it.  It wasn't terrible but I just wanted a baked potato meal rather than stew.

We then walked to Brunettis in the CBD.  Sylvia had this Oreo cheesecake, I had a small square of mud cake and my mum had a rum baba.  There was a lot of syrup on that rum baba.  It is such a huge busy cafe that there is lots of great people watching.  I felt sorry for the couple who had us sitting at a bench directly overlooking them with just a glass wall to separate us and them.  They chatted and flirted and played Uno and I wanted to tell the woman that she had a smear of cream from her pastry in her dark hair.

I had a day when I had organised lunch with a friend but she was sick.  So I rode into the city and just had a bit of time to myself.  It was lovely.  I will share some street art photos soon.  I had decided I needed to start eating a bit more healthily.  So I had lunch at Seedling Cafe (275 Flinders Lane, CBD) where I ate a wonderful plate of quinoa salad and a broccoli and cauliflower salad.  It is calling for a longer post if only I can find time to return.

And though I was determined to eat a little better, when I saw on a dessert named "I'm a lady" on the menu at Noodle Lab (11 Rose Lane, off Little Bourke Street, CBD), I had to try it. The dessert comprised lady finger banana and dulce de leche wrapped in spring roll pastry with black sesame meringue and black sesame ice-cream, with honey shot ($9).  It was as amazing as it sounded.  I promised myself I must go back there soon.  Even though I know that the holidays are over and now my spare time is never enough and my to do list is always ridiculously long!  It was nice to have a breather before diving back into work and the usual craziness of my life.

More leftover Easter egg recipes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Easter caramel and malteser fridge cake
Easter egg nests
Easter egg slice
Easter Scotch eggs
Marzipan Easter egg cupcakes

See more at Easter recipes: savoury, sweet and salt dough

Easter hedgehog slice
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe

1/2 tin of condensed milk
100g 95% cocoa chocolate - lindt, chopped
125g speckled chocolate eggs eggs
100g shortbread biscuits, crumbled
1/3 cup shredded coconut
Extra shredded coconut for topping

Melt chocolate and condensed milk in a medium bowl in the microwave.  Mix with eggs, shortbread biscuits and coconut.   Press down into a 15cm square lined tin.  Sprinkle with shredded coconut.  Firm up in fridge.  Cut into small square and enjoy!

On the Stereo:
Bat out of Hell: Meatloaf