Stormy Sunday

This weekend brought the end of daylight savings, the end of ANOTHER cold for me and the start of a cold for my husband. I am now lounging in my bed in the dark - at 6PM! listening to the soothing mixture of the rain outside and Alt-J, with an occasional clap of thunder and sniffles from my hubby next to me.

When Paul gets sick I cannot help but look after him! Is that a maternal instinct perhaps??

So this morning I baked him some scones with orange pekoe tea. Here is the scones recipe:

SCONES

Preheat oven to 200°C (390F). 

Grease and flour a round cake tin.

Sift together 2½ cups of self-raising flour 

with a teaspoon of salt and 

2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

Rub in 40g of butter with fingers until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre and add 1 cup (250ml) milk. 

Gently mix until combined.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. 

Flatten dough to 2cm thickness.

Cut rounds from the dough and arrange in prepared cake tin. 

Brush surface with milk.

Bake on top oven rack for 15 minutes.

I love my scones with whipped cream and jam :)

A double rainbow seen from my backyard this afternoon

Happy Easter

Easter was a lazy, content affair for me this year. I stayed home and was the domestic goddess I fancy myself to be and only left to go to church on Sunday. I heard a powerful message about how the apostle Paul compares ours and Christ's death and resurrection to the sowing of a seed (1 Corinthians 15:35-44). The seed already contains predetermined genetic information of what it will grow into. When the seed is sown it ceases to exist - it is no longer a seed. It "resurrects" into a new creation. Before our death (or our "sowing") we contain predetermined spiritual information of what we will resurrect into, in the kingdom of heaven. Isn't that just amazing? Just as birth and life is a miraculous event, so is death and resurrection.

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I got excited about decorating for this Easter! It was my first time so forgive my simplicity - I assure you it will improve in the coming years! Because of our dire financial situation I did Easter on a budget. So I present to you, Easter at the Fry's:

Making Sugar Cookies

I was going to buy Easter Bunny and egg cookie cutters
but it wouldn't have arrived in time from eBay

I learned a lesson - dye icing with a toothpick and not by
pouring from the bottle! These were supposed to be pastel
blue and pastel pink...

These were attractive to look at but believe it or not,
too sickeningly sweet for my liking! The cookies are
nicer plain with no icing

I crocheted some birdies to hang off my Easter tree
Balls of yarn from K-mart $3 :D

My DIY Easter Tree: The branches
were sourced from a parking lot then
spray painted with Dulux off-white
Simply de-leaf, de-bug and spray!

The silver birdies are actually Christmas
ornaments I found online.
I stuck the branches in some old florist's
foam block that came with roses Paul gave
me for our first wedding anniversary.
I knew I kept it for a reason!

Mini Easter Eggs - less than $2 a bag from Aldi

Birdie salt shakers - a gift

Lindt Bunny - a gift

My Macarons from a previous post

Would you call my décor shabby chic?

Royal Albert Napkin Rings
Yves Delorme Linen Napkins

My husband's Peter Rabbit he had as a
baby in fantastic condition - not bad
for 30 years of age eh?

And there you have it.
My simple Easter tablescape.

I'll Never Forget

I'll never forget how we used to play in a random house's sprinklers on the way home from school.

I'll never forget how you laughed at me when I was 5 and wrote xoxo in Christmas cards to boys and then you told me what xoxo meant.

I'll never forget going to UNSW anime club screenings of Initial D with you.

I'll never forget you constantly practising your kung fu moves on me, on our mother, on the dog... even on the fridge door.

I'll never forget you playing air drums on the ironing board to The Living End.

I'll never forget you using your extra Big Day Out ticket on me and spending an entire day with me - The Ting Tings, Little Red, The Arctic Monkeys, Simian Mobile Disco, The Prodigy... then spending the next day with me at the beach.

I'll never forget you travelling up to my wedding in spite of your severe food poisoning.

I'll never forget your unnatural, simple kiss on my forehead of congratulations on my wedding day.

I'll never forget our last meal together - Kentucky Fried Chicken.

And I'll especially never forget the last time I said goodbye and hugged you.

I love you so much and still miss you like crazy everyday my dear brother.

Ryan (28/04/1981 - 28/03/2011)

Easter Preparations

This is probably the first Easter I've ever gotten excited about celebrating. Normally my family does not "celebrate" Easter - for whatever reason; I couldn't tell you why. My father has always spent Easter playing tennis interstate for the Filipino-Australian annual tennis tournament so it was just a long weekend we got to stay home from school.

Having my own home and kitchen now though, I have developed a passion for decorating and entertaining. I also recently discovered Pinterest! This has given me something else (counter-productive) to fill my time with - looking at pages and pages of beautiful, BEAUTIFUL home décor and table arrangements. It ignited a strong desire for me to spend money on Easter decorations!

I have conjured an image in my mind of a whimsical tea party - a pastel kaleidoscope of cucumber sandwiches, tea cozies, buntings and macarons. So to start off my preparations - I present to you, my macarons:

Freshly piped
I tried to achieve that really pretty,
vibrant mint-green hue. I think I got
pretty close!

Freshly baked

I made a coconut flavoured buttercream filling

This Weekend

Is it normal to have a bout of hayfever in Autumn? Because mine hasn't stopped all weekend! It may be due to unsettling a mixture of dust/fur/dander when I changed the sheets yesterday.

Poor Teddy cracked his right fore dewclaw last Monday :( We kept an eye on it and kept him indoors all week, but it was starting to look swollen. So we took him to the vet who grabbed the claw and snipped it. Teddy yelped so much :( He now has a bandaged foot and we've got him on antibiotics.

To make him feel better I shared my Sunday morning pancakes with him :)

Fresh & hot from the stove!

I had a sweet comfort food craving but had no cream or ice cream in my fridge! After deliberating over my pantry supply, I settled with creating some delicious, warm, gooey oatmeal cookies. That diet is now so far away I can hardly see it!

What Diet?

OK so you may remember my new year's resolution post about losing weight. Ha! I'm sure nobody will be surprised that I've gotten no where with that! I guess I am just a weak-willed creature of habit. Just as a leopard cannot change its spots - this girl cannot change her cellulite.

This weekend was a testament to my twisted relationship with food.... *sigh*

I know, I know... I disgust you. Believe me though, there's nothing like a dirty weekend of home-made pizzas (cooked on our Pete Evans Breville stone pizza oven!), especially when we try our version of Pizza Hut's hotdog stuffed crust!

When it comes to sinful, dirty fast food Paul is the master of the kitchen. However, I made the pizza dough in a flash thanks to my beloved Kitchenaid mixer and its dough hook attachment! Paul took over after that. He didn't even want me to roll out the dough!

The finished product

My contribution: another delectable sticky date pudding
with hot butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream

Our good friends Andrew & Judy were over for pizza night and contributed some pizza toppings. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside when Judy said that my butterscotch sauce was probably the best she's ever tried!

Even Teddy had a nice night!

Hello Autumn

I know I tell everybody that I'm a Summer baby (born in January) and love Summer most (probably because of holidays from work, Christmas, New Year's and my birthday!) - but there's something so comforting about the coming of a new season.

Autumn brings with her fresh, delicate breezes and pillowy, overcast skies that remind me of sweet Chantilly cream. Unfortunately though, this year Autumn has brought a predicted 40 days of rain and yesterday - the beginnings of a cold :(

Yes, Autumn is the season for bringing everything close - pulling the blankets up to your chin on those cool mornings, shutting the windows, cuddling your loved ones (including puppy dogs) and pulling the lapels of your cardigan tight.

This is when I crave comfort food most. This weekend I made a cake for my ex-boss's wife who turned 60. I decided to drop into their dental practice and surprise her with a pastel arrangement of roses, chrysanthemums and carnations. I also baked a "healthy" cake (which is normally unlike me) for her because she is on lent prior to Easter. It contains no butter, no eggs, no dairy and no sugar! It's still deliciously sweet and moist (provided by oily tahini and sweet date syrup).

Pear & Almond Cake

Whenever I'm sick with a cold, I can eat like a Viking warrior. I crave strong flavours - spicy, sweet, salty. The healthy lent cake wasn't doing anything for me. So the remaining dates went to a higher and greater purpose:

Sticky Date Pudding with Warm
Butterscotch Sauce

So, pyjama-clad and reclined on the sofa, dog at my ankles, nasally congested and bloated with Earl Grey, I bid you all a happy Autumn 2013.