The Dress

Obviously I have to start this off by confirming that I have no plans to get married in the immediate future, nor have I been asked to get married, or for that matter, asked someone else to marry me!

But there are so many lovely blogs online that I cannot tear my eyes away from.. And as I have done since I was little girl, I cannot help but be inspired for what could be one day.. Too many pretty pictures!

I am mostly resigned to the possibility of never getting married, but I can't say I don't ever want it to happen. I also often say I just want to elope to Vegas with that wonderful guy, and avoid all the unnecessary stress and expense. My Mum would kill me.

Marriage, to me, really is simply a public celebration and confirmation of the love between two people. I do hope that a commitment like that is in my future, and I hope that it does last a lifetime.

So if it does eventually happen one day, I think I really would like to have a special day with just a close circle of loved ones, with a really lovely, fun, party to celebrate. So please forgive me for gathering inspiration from the multitude of wedding blogs.. And where else can I display this inspiration, but right here for my lovely girls! Perhaps I'll get to make use of it all one day.... ;)

Well today ladies, I think I found The Dress.

From this gorgeous blog, 100 Layer Cake, they feature photo galleries from real weddings. It's quite addictive scrolling through them all!

Today's featured wedding was Salma + Ziyaad. And her dress actually made me gasp. It is just what I would choose. Is she not beautiful?! The dress was made by George Wu - a young Brisbane designer - the discovery of which made me twitch with joy that it was not someone so divinely out of the realm of possibility like Vera Wang or Monique Lhuillier..

Anyway - enough talk of weddings that are not my own! Just couldn't resist not sharing this..

Love Fridays

Happy four months to me and my Boy!

I used to love hearing stories from others of how they found their partners. How they met, how long it took before they got together, the timeline of the romance. Hearing true stories is infinitely more reassuring than reading 'self-help' books, as much I've adored all the books that have passed through my hands over the years.

I love the timeline my Boy followed.....

I love that we met on Christmas Night. Least expected time to meet someone special EVER!

I love that our first date was a month after meeting. Oh, and I asked him.

I love that he didn't contact me for EIGHT whole days after that first date. When he finally asked me out to a movie, I couldn't go on the date he suggested. He didn't take the hint from me that I still wanted to go out again. Why do I love this? Because..

He didn't give up. It took him a while, but he eventually gave it another stab, and asked me out again. Yay - finally a second date, two and a half months after the first!

I love that it was three weeks from that second date before he kissed me.

I love that it was another three weeks again before he asked me to be his girlfriend.

And I love that it has been four months since then, and I'm still his girlfriend.

None of it particularly conventional, but then, what is conventional anyway? Everyone has a different story, and that's what's so great! Romance is a wonderful thing!

If only he was here with me now and not in NYC..!!

Pic: weheartit

I love PIE

So I've totally been getting into Australian Masterchef on these quiet evenings when I have no Boy to amuse me. In the absence of a TV over here, I catch up with it each night on On Demand - can you believe I lived in NZ for 18 months before I discovered online television?! I'm now hooked!!! Haven't seen the internet bill lately though.. hmm..

So tonight was an awesome episode - Marion thrashed the Head Chef of Melbourne's MoVida (where I didn't quite go last time I was in Melbourne because of course they were booked out) in the Celebrity Chef Challenge with these incredible Bomba - potato bombs filled with chorizo, and chicken liver pate Cornettos. Uh-huh. My mouth is watering just remembering how delicious they looked. There is something very watchable about Marion, so I did some googling and discovered she has her very own food blog - The Hedonistic Hostess. I love my food blogs! Some of my other faves are The Highs and Lows of a Conflicted Cook, Stone Soup and Hungry and Frozen. I get so much inspiration from them, and the more pics and tips, the better!

I truly hope Marion doesn't mind me sharing this incredibly delicious-looking Cherry Pie recipe with you - all props to her - I've never made a pie before, but I need to get myself to the kitchen shop and find me a pie pan asap! Pie is such an American pudding isn't it? One of my regular pudding stop-offs here in Welly is Sweet Mother's Kitchen - the pies are to die for. Peanut Butter Pie, Apple Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Pumpkin Pie. All best served with cream, or you can do what the weird-ass Kiwi's do, and have it with Yoghurt, or Croghurt*....

* cream + yoghurt = croghurt... weird-ASS....

Check it out...

Home Sweet Cherry Pie

 

Baking says home to me.  I've been living in airports and hotels all over the country in the last couple of weeks.  I've been living on airport ham and cheese toasted sandwiches and soup-of-the-day room service dinners.  And all the while I've been dreaming about getting home, back to my kitchen, my oven and a homemade cherry pie.

Here's a sneak peak at the finished product so you know what I'm taking about...

I am a dedicated pie girl.  It's the pastry that has me hooked - pure buttery, flaky goodness.  Bad pastry means terrible pie.  The secret is to be cool with your pastry.  Have your butter chilled, roll it out on a cool surface (i.e. not near a hot oven) and handle it as little as possible.

The filling recipe comes from Nigella Lawson but I've teamed it with Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry. Maggie is my go-to-girl for pastry (sorry Nigella).  Her sour cream pastry recipe can be used for sweet or savoury pies and tarts.  And the best thing about it is it's dead simple.

I know pastry can be can be a scary thing for many people.  So I've put together a little picture book guide to make it all the more easy...

Put chilled butter and flour in a food processor and blend.

Stop when it looks like this:

Add sour cream and blend.  Stop when it looks like this:

 Tip out onto your bench and push it together. Don't knead it or play with it, just smoosh it together. Divide into two balls (one slightly bigger than the other).  Wrap and refrigerate.

Now let's get on to the business of rolling.  Take out and unwrap the largest ball of dough.  Use plenty of flour.  Flour up your bench, flour your rolling pin and dust the top of the pastry dough with flour too.  Go for a bit of a roll.  Then swivel your pastry around on the bench (this stops it from sticking).  Then roll again.  Keep rolling and swivelling until you've got something that looks like this...

Slide your pastry into your tin and pop it into the fridge while you get your cherry filling done.

  

Fill your pie, roll out the second ball of dough (the smaller one) and place on top of the filling.  Trim the edges and fold them over so it looks like this...

 

Poke a few holes in the top and if you're a bit naff like me you can top it with a cherry pastry cut out.  Brush with egg, bake and you should get something like this...

  A dollop of mascarpone or thick cream is all it needs.

I love you Home Sweet Cherry Pie.

Home Sweet Cherry Pie

Sour Cream Pastry:

200g unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

250g plain flour

135g sour cream

Filling:

680g jar morello cherries

60g butter, melted

180g sugar

2 Tbsp plain flour

2 Tbsp juice from drained cherries

1 egg, lightly beaten

mascarpone or thick cream to serve

Preheat oven to 200°C.

For the pastry, place flour and butter into a food processor and blend until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add sour cream and blend until it starts to come together and looks chunky (see pic above).  If it doesn't quite come together add 1 tsp cold water and blend again.  

Tip out onto a clean surface and push together into a ball.  Divide into two balls (about 2/3 and 1/3). The larger one will be the pie base and the other will be the pie top.  Wrap each ball in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Roll out the larger of the two balls to about 5mm thick.  Line your pie tin with the pastry.  I actually used a 23cm sponge cake tin.  Put into the fridge while you make the filling.

For the filling, drain cherries, reserving 2 Tbsp of the juice.  Mix together the butter, sugar, flour, and   2 Tbsp cherry juice.  It will be a pasty sort of mixture and you'll probably think it won't be enough to fill the pie but just have a little faith at this point.

Spread paste over the base of the pastry.  Top with the cherries.  Roll out the second ball of pastry dough and place over the filling.  Trim the edges so you've got about 2 cm of overhang.  Then fold the edges over so you've got a nice bit of crust.

Poke a couple of holes in the top of the pie for the steam to escape.  Brush top of the pie with egg.

Put pie into the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 180°C.  Bake for 50 minutes.  Check after 30 minutes and if the top is getting too brown, cover with foil and continue baking.

Remove and cool for at least 30 minutes.  Slice and serve with a giant dollop of thick cream or mascarpone.

Bucket List

Wasn't there some movie called The Bucket List? It has connotations for me of something old people compile as a list of things they wish they'd done when they still had the chance. Rather cheesy perhaps - I'm certainly not going to carry a list of experiences around in my purse to check off when I complete them.

Sarah Wilson has posted this morning on her blog about the Top Five Regrets of the Dying. This is something that has been on my mind the past couple of years following the sudden passing of my beloved Grandma. It's all about making sure you live a true and happy life because you never know when it will all be over. It's not morbid, or really about regrets at this stage (I'm only 31 for goodness sake) but it's about changing lifestyle and attitude so that when it comes to the bucket, you don't have any regrets.

And I'm all for living a happy life. I try to have a positive attitude as much as possible. I have a new relationship that I'm throwing myself into with all my heart. I'm pushing myself with my career so that I can say at least I tried. I think the saddest thing for many people is the 'not trying'. The fear that comes with putting yourself outside of your comfort zone. I'll have none of that thankyou very much - I thrive on the fear of the unknown!

Perhaps I should start a Bucket List, just to keep as a daily reminder that life is short, and I need to grab opportunities when they appear - or to take it one step further, make opportunities happen!

I think many of the items on my yet-to-be-written Bucket List would be visiting certain places in this massive world. Well New York is obviously on my list, or I wouldn't have this blog would I? So let's call New York Bucket List Entry #1.

So for something in the same vein, that I always mention with the tag - "I have to do this before I die"..

Bucket List Entry #2 - Visit Antarctica

My Dad has already been there. Jealous much??? He has some great old photographs of his time there - I can't remember if it was days or weeks that he spent there - he was in the RAAF for many years and took this massive Hercules down there on a transport visit. He still has all these old goggles and gloves and beanies and suits and rucksacks that he took on the trip. I even used some of them on school camps years ago.

So as soon as I have $10,000 to spare, I'll be booking a berth on a cruise ship down to the bottom of the earth! Highly likely I will be retired when this ever becomes a possibility... But at least it's on the list!

Do you have a Bucket List?

It's called a break up because it's broken..

If any of you have any advice for me on this one, I would hugely appreciate it.

My beautiful little sister has just been broken up with by her boyfriend of almost 7 years. They met when she was 18 and spent a year in the UK after high school. He moved to Australia to be with her when she went home. They bought an apartment together last October. She has been a student all this time, and just this year has finally found herself out in the real world as a lawyer. She is so smart, beautiful, friendly, and by all accounts an excellent girlfriend.

But not excellent enough. He has just decided he doesn't want to be with her anymore.

There's nothing I can do about that.. What I need to do is help her survive. They have been together her entire adult life, and what I see as totally awesome for her is that she is only 25 and has so much ahead of her. She will have guys queueing up as soon as they find out she is single. But I don't think she knows how to be single.

She had built up a life with this guy, who was well and truly part of our family. She now sees her entire life slipping away. She can't bear the thought of having to find a flat to share with other people. She believes if this guy didn't want her, nobody else will want her.

It's so difficult to know what to say, when I'm coming from the completely opposite perspective. I have been single pretty much my entire adult life, and only this year have found myself in a relationship. I have shared flats for the past 12 years, and am still doing it now! Yes, it totally sucks, but I do it because it's the best option for me right now. I want to impress upon her that this is not the end, but rather a new beginning for her. That she will find someone who wants her even more than this guy did. That she will find another home.

How do you survive a break-up like this? I've been through plenty of crushing crushes, and they are devastating for a period of time. You bawl your eyes out and think you're never going to find someone else, but then surely enough someone else catches your eye and you start all over again. I now think about me and my Boy and the thought of breaking up is quite terrifying. When I think about that magnified into a seven year relationship, I can't even come close to knowing how my sister must be feeling right now. I would think she just wants to crawl up into a little ball in the darkness and fade away.

I feel so sad for her. We were both crying on the phone last night. She had worked so hard to make this lovely life and it's now over. How do I help her see that she will be ok?

Bag Lady

I am such a bag lady. I used to work on the Mimco counter in David Jones. Imagine the staff discount, and then imagine how many Mimco bags I own. Yuh..

Ally and I must be on the same wavelength at the moment, having both just purchased fabulous little brown bags.

I brought one of them over to NZ with me, and decided very early on, when I started catching the bus to work, that this bag just wasn't going to work. It was a typical heavy leather day bag and it was killing my shoulder to carry it around everywhere. So on my limited budget, I tracked down a brown leather cross-body satchel, which has served me very well the past 18 months. I can't believe it lasted that long! That just goes to show how far I've come with my control over money. I used to buy a new bag every 6 months..

I've been bored with my brown satchel for a while now - it just hasn't been large enough to carry all my sh*t, especially through winter when I have lost two lovely woolen beanies because they haven't fitted in my bag, and as such have wandered off my lap when I wasn't looking. So I got some money for my birthday, and took myself along to the Mimco section of Kirks and bought myself this lovely little piece! The Road Warrior Sac. What an awesome name for a handbag!

Like Ally, I also have a few little niggling issues about the level of perfection with this bag - it doesn't have any little pockets for my keys, so I do have to rummage around looking for them. But on the plus side, there is a fabulous side zip that takes you straight into the bag without having to go in through the top zip. I like it. And there's a funky side panel of suede - which I really need to get waterproofed! Waterproofing spray is something I have owned many times in the past - every time you buy a new pair of shoes you are convinced by the shoe store that you also need leather spray to protect them. Where are all those cans of spray when you really need them, I ask you! And I totally love the studs on the bottom. This bag is light-weight, lovely soft leather, gorgeous caramel colour, totally adjustable handle so you can carry it as a handbag as in the pic above, or lengthen the strap to make it a satchel! Perfect!!

Ally - dispense with the guilt - us girls need a great bag to carry our life around in.. So happy you found yours - may have a long and happy life together!

x

Four Levels of Social Entrapment

Guest blogger today - I haven't felt the motivation to write for a while, most likely because I was struck down with my first bout of the flu in around 6 years on my birthday last week. I spent three whole days in bed, not reading, not watching DVD's, just sleeping. It was rather unpleasant! I'll get back into it shortly, I promise, but for now I just couldn't resist sharing this with you - absolutely hilarious, because it's true!!

The Four Levels of Social Entrapment from Hyperbole and a Half

Level 1: Brief encounters with kind-of friends

There is a special kind of awkwardness between two people who don't know each other well enough to interact effectively, but are familiar enough that ignoring each other's presence isn't really an option.  No matter how much you like the person, you dread encountering them because you only know two things about each other and once you've covered those two things, there is nothing else and that is terrifying because you aren't good at ending conversations and that makes the horrible, strained silence all but inevitable.

But eventually you do run into one of these acquaintances and even though you both sense the impending awkwardness and desperately wish to avoid it, you have a social obligation to say hello. So you do, and the conversation derails even more quickly than you expected.

And then there you are, standing clumsily in the parking lot of Best Buy, frantically trying to keep the conversation afloat until one of you can think of a decently acceptable way to end the encounter. You stop caring about whether you make sense or not.  You'll say anything to avoid silence.  

At some point, the rapidly deteriorating subject material forces you to give up on being polite and just settle for the first bumbling phrase that comes out of you.  

Luckily, your artless delivery doesn't matter. The other person is just thankful that they finally have an excuse to stop talking to you. 

For the rest of the entry, go here!