Road Trips, Milkshakes and Amazing Proposals

So this year has started off pretty crazy for me. Could you tell? Did the six months without  peep on this blog give you a little clue? Actually… if you’ve been reading this for a while it probably didn’t seem like that big a deal to you seeing as frequent unexplained absences are becoming my calling card in the blogosphere. But really, can you blame me this time? Yes? Maybe you won’t be so harsh after I tell you a little story? It all started in January, when Mr Love and I went on a mega road trip up and down the NSW/QLD coastline. And a little bit inland.

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

We began by driving down the South Coast, with our first stop being Ulladulla. After a few days there drinking all the chocolate milkshakes and visiting all the beaches, we drove down through Batemans Bay, stopping in Canberra for the night. If you cast your mind back to January you will remember that it was ridiculously hot. So when we kept driving up inland through Parkes, Coonabarrabran, Tamworth etc, we found ourselves outrunning the awful fires that were happening. At times it was a little bit like this…

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

But don’t worry, they were mostly little fires that were springing up in our wake. That we had NOTHING to do with!

After about a week of driving and motel hopping, we ended up spending a few nights in an apartment in Coffs Harbour. We had driven through there the previous year and Mr Love remembered the beautiful secluded beaches that he had visited as a child, so we decided that  this year we would try to visit them all. We had been quite spontaneous throughout the trip, choosing our route on the fly and booking accommodation as we went so it wasn’t really a surprise to me when he said “hey, lets go to Red Rock tomorrow to watch the sun rise”. As the Mr is less of a morning person than even I am, this should have been my first clue that something was up.

I LOVE the beach so I was very excited and made a picnic so that we could spend the day there and just chill out in the sun. We looked up the time that the sun was supposed to rise and set our alarms accordingly. Now, I don’t know if you already knew this, but I was quite surprised to see that the sky is pretty much light BEFORE the sun actually rises. So, driving to the beach in the half light, we thought that we must have read the time wrong and were going to arrive after sunrise. “Don’t worry” I said “We can try again tomorrow.”

“NO!”

Was the resounding answer. “We will make it!” Ok. Clue #2. (That I only saw in hindsight by the way). His faith was rewarded and we arrived at sleepy Red Rock minutes before the sun peeked up over the horizon to bring us this special sunrise.

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

As the sun rose, we walked down to the waves, wondered at the lovely colours, took a few photos then went to sit back down in the sand. At which point the Mr held out this little baby…

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!and asked me to marry him!

Say whaaaat? To say that I was totally blindsided is an understatement. It was absolutely the LAST thing that I was expecting to happen. But the most special things seem to happen when they are least expected. Particularly impressive is the time and effort that he went to in designing a ring that I will wear and love forever. He spent a full year selecting the perfect pink sapphire and must have visited every jeweller in sydney until he found the lovely people at Drakakis Mosman who made Pinky.

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

He spent ages trying to find an un-heat-treated sapphire which are a naturally lighter pink than heat-treated ones. As you can see, Pinky has quite the personality and changes shades depending on the light. In this picture she is almost lilac in colour, while in other lights she becomes a delicious frosty pink.

Everything about this ring is special, from the part where he agonised over the width of the band and the size of the diamonds to make sure that it would be perfect on my stumpy little fingers, to the part where he had the two little love hearts incorporated into the ring below the sapphire 1. because its cute and special and 2. so that the wedding band will fit beneath it. Can you also believe that he told absolutely NO ONE during that year what he was doing? Not a soul, other than he and the jeweller had any inkling. And to think that only weeks earlier I had been berating my friends for asking me when I was going to be getting married. Oops!

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

It was the trip of chocolate milkshakes and amazing proposals. Now i’m engaged and trying to plan a wedding. Yikes!

As clearly i’m the least organised person ever, if you know anything about planning a wedding could you please send a little love my way? And if you see Mr Love, give him a handshake and a pat on the back for being spectacularly amazing. <3<3

A True Love of Mine: Engagement Road Trip!

p.s. this is us!

Coconut and Strawberry Cookies and an Exciting Announcement!

So, my lovelies, I believe this year has been the year of the cookie for me. Most of my baking recently has been cookies. And really, can you blame me? These tiny, tasty treats are perfect for snacking, afternoon tea, a sneaky midnight munch or, lets face it, a meal themselves. Don’t judge. Im sure you’re guilty of having cookies for lunch. Or breakfast. Or dinner. Or all three…

 

munch munch munch!

But before I get into the fragrant delight that these Coconut and Strawberry Cookies are, I want to share with you an exciting development in the world of my blog. I was recently featured on the SBS Food website! Yay! I was contacted a little while ago by a lovely lady from SBS who sent me some questions tailored to my blog for me to answer. A took a lovely snap of me at a recent wedding to pop on the page and hey presto! You have what you see below

you can read all about it by clicking on this link.

So i’ve been full of excitement! And cookies. I thought that this Christmas I would make my co workers cookies as presents. Lucky them! Actually, lucky me. These cookies are delicious and make the house smell ah-mazing. I’m thinking that this blog is going to see a whole lot of coconut during the new year. Im also thinking that a whole lot of cookie dough is going to be consumed right through 2013.

yum yum yum!

Its a soft and fragrant dough that needs to be refrigerated before its rolled out. If you can keep it out of your belly long enough to get it into the fridge that is…

then you cut out your little round with a sweet petite heart in the centre.

Or close enough to the centre.

Yes, maths and symmetry is not my strong point.

Dust the baked babies with icing sugar

and fill with sweet, sweet strawberry jam

ohhhhhhhhh yeah.

then pop these into a jar and gift to someone you really love!

And I mean REALLY

because you are not going to want to part with these for anyone less.

So, my lovelies, what do you think of my little interview?

Coconut and Strawberry Cookies – From Donna Hay Magazine Dec/Jan 2012

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup (40g) desiccated coconut

icing sugar for dusting

1/2 cup strawberry jam

Method

1. Beat the butter and caster sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy

2. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until combined

3. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut and mix until combined

4. Turn the dough out onto a strip of cling film, wrap up and pop into the fridge for 30 mins or until firm

5. Cut the dough in half and roll both parts between two strips of baking paper until 5 mm thick

6. Using a 5cm round cookie cutter cut 12 rounds from each sheet of dough

7. using a small heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out the centre of 12 of the rounds and remove

8. Bake for 8-10 mins until golden

9. Allow to cool

10. spread a little strawberry jam on the whole rounds

11. Dust the cut rounds with icing sugar, then place on top of the whole rounds that have been spread with jam

12. Give them away… if you can…

Brown Sugar Spiced Cookies: Sweet Adventures Blog Hop – Sweets For Santa

Yes I love Christmas, yes Santa is awesome, but I wonder if there isn’t someone else who we should be talking about who doesn’t often get a lot of thanks. After all, you must know the adage that behind every great man is a greater woman. Yes, Mrs Claus, i’m looking at you.

This months theme was sweets for santa, and, while I do remember putting out cookies for santa and carrots for the reindeer, I thought that this year I might shift the focus and have a think about what Mrs Claus would enjoy at this time of year. So I made some Brown Sugar Spiced Cookies for an afternoon tea with Mrs Claus.

I think that after she has spent all year co ordinating elves and making sure that santa doesn’t gain so much weight that the reindeers won’t be able to carry him, Mrs C would like to put her feet up, enjoy a sweet brew of T2 Creme Brûlée tea and a little cinnamon sugar dusted cookie. Or two. Or three. She is a Claus after all! I also thought that she would enjoy some more feminine colours like pink and cream, and that we should put in a little ballet dancing reindeer this year. Just because.

I think Mrs C would also like my other christmas decorations

particularly this garland made by the ever-resourceful Mrs S

from plants in hew own garden!

and what do you think of my little tree?

I thought that these little cookies would be the perfect treat to eat with the tree sparkling, lights twinkling around and some good company at the table. Easy to make and deliciously scented, they will not take long and don’t require a great big list of ingredients (spices aside of course). All you have to do is mix everything together like so…

then bake and dip in cinnamon icing sugar

don’t think you can resist these babies.

So what is your favourite christmas spice my dears? I bet its represented in this recipe!

This post has been part of the

Brown Sugar Spiced Cookies: Adapted from a recipe in the Donna Hay Magazine Dec/Jan 2012

Ingredients

1 cup icing sugar

3 tsp ground cinnamon

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp bicarb soda

120g butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup golden syrup

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract (I use vanilla bean paste. Love the stuff!)

Method

1. place butter, brown sugar and golden syrup in a bowl and mix until light and fluffy

2. add the egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated

3. add the spices (only 1 tsp cinnamon) and flour and mix until it all comes together

4. roll tablespoons of the dough into balls and place on a baking tray. Don’t worry, they shouldn’t spread too much.

5. Place in an oven at 180 degrees celsius for 8-10 mins

6. Cool on a wire rack

7. While the cookies are cooling, mix together the remaining cinnamon and icing sugar

8. When the cookies are cool, dip each cookie in the cinnamon sugar mixture until completely coated

9. Try not to eat them all at once.

Caramel Croissant Pudding with Spiced Rum and a sneaky cocktail

So I feel like I begin every post here with an apology for not posting more frequently. This time i’ll keep it short and sweet.

 

SORRY!

And give you a big piece of this!

Its a Caramel Croissant Pudding from a recipe by Nigella Lawson. I thought that since it’s the festive season I would spice it up with a little splash of Captain Morgans Spiced Rum. Which I then used in a delicious apple cocktail that i’m going to show you later.

Its pretty much just a normal easy peasy bread and butter pudding but its lifted by the addition of buttery, flakey croissants. The caramel custard that gives it a deeper, richer flavour. If you’re scared of making caramel, I totally understand. I’ve thrown out enough caramel that turned mysteriously black and stinky in the blink of an eye and i’ve also been disappointed by many an anaemic looking caramel that had barely turned vaguely golden before I panicked and took it off the heat.

So, make sure that you have everything ready before you start to make your caramel custard. That means tearing up your croissants and squishing them into the baking dish.

Like this!

Once you’ve done that you need to bite the bullet and make your caramel. I’ll share with you my two tips for nervous caramel makers:

1. Go slow! It might take significantly longer but I would rather have the heat a little lower and have more control over it than blast the heat and watch in horror as my caramel turns into a black smoking mess

2. Keep a close eye on it! It might seem like it is taking forever to turn golden but you can guarantee that the moment you leave your pot to go answer the phone, brush your hair, do whatever else you want to be doing, that will be the moment that you will be in trouble!

The only problem you might have is that when you pour the cream in the caramel will solidify. If you just keep it on the heat and keep stirring it will melt down again and be absolutely fine. Trust me!

and it will look like this!

And then, after it has been baked it will look like this…

and smell delicious!

Isn’t that one of the greatest things about baking? When the whole house smells delicious? Sometimes I find myself wanting to bake something just for the scent I know will permeate the house. Who needs scented candles or disgusting fake air fresheners when you have an oven?

So, my lovelies, what do you like to smell as its cooking? Weird question, I know!

p.s. I know I said i’d give you a cocktail recipe but you might just have to check back tomorrow!

Caramel Croissant Pudding with Spice Rum (Adapted from Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients

5-6 croissants – stale is better
200 grams caster sugar
4 tablespoons water
250 ml thickened cream
250 ml full cream milk
4 tablespoons spiced rum
4 medium eggs (beaten)

 

Method

  1. Tear the croissants into pieces and arrange in a large baking dish. One that can fit 1-2 L will be ok.
  2. Place the caster sugar and water in a medium sizes saucepan on a medium heat
  3. Let the mixture bubble away but do not stir! You can swirl it around the pan to distribute any dark spots. Wait until it turns a deep gold (the recipe says 3-5 mins but it seems to take much longer for me! Just keep going until you reach the colour you like)
  4. Turn the heat down to low and pour in the cream. It will spit a bit so be careful. Whisk in the milk and rum as well. Remember that it will solidify but if you put it back on the low heat and keep whisking it will dissolve.
  5. Take the pan off the heat and pour in the eggs (while still whisking! You don’t want the eggs to cook!)
  6. Pour the caramel custard over the croissants and leave to steep for 5-10 mins
  7. Place in the oven for 20 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.
  8. Serve with cream or ice-cream.