OUT

Once in a blue moon I venture out of the comforts of my room, out the front door even. Today was one of those days. In preparation for my upcoming trip to Melbourne I had to buy a weekend bag and I did. The point of this post is coming up, I swear. After buying the bag Jane and I went to the Apple store to check ONTD. As Jane said 'the one day we're not sitting in front of our computers at home we're out... and on the internet'. Ah, my life... is tasty. I had a blueberry bagel with cream cheese and tiramisu gelato. miam miam.

As much as I am embarrassed to say, I am a kind of camera snob but recently I've been in the 'whatevs' mindset and have begun actually taking photos with my phone camera. Pics from my adventures after the jump.

ONION SOUP

Waking up late from my nine hour beauty sleep (I'm scoffing too) as per usual, my mind immediately went to food and what I'd eat for lunch. At my disposal were onions, bread and lots of time. The last time I ate onion soup was in year 8 when all the French classes (languages was compulsory in year 8) went to The Little Snail in Pyrmont. This is a lazy recipe for lazy people. All that you really need to do is know how to chop and stir. Really. Again, I have no recipes of my own - source here.

Ingredients:

• 30g butter
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 3 onions, sliced thinly (around 3mm)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbs plain flour
• 2 cups stock

Method

1- Heat butter and oil in a saucepan over low-medium heat until sizzling.
2 - Add onions and the salt, cooking until the onions are very soft, about 45 minutes. Stir regularly.
3 - Dust over the sugar and stir, caramelising the onions for 10 minutes.



It should resemble something like this by this stage
4 - Sprinkle in the flour, stirring for 2 minutes.
5 - Add stock and 1 cup of water. Reduce heat and let simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
6 - Allow to cool slightly and ladle soup into bowls (or bowl if you're really hungry).

In other news:

BABY

Say hi to my new baby. It's my present for getting into uni.


Hi.




Regardless that it's at least 27 years old, its inside is still remarkably clean.



Look what finally arrived several millennia after ordering.

SATURDAY

Most of the time I'm reluctant to clean my room because I convince myself that there's no point and that I'll eventually mess it up again. I think I'll have great fun doing so after I spent the entire day tidying my room. Really. It took an entire day. Pix later.

To celebrate our uni offers, J, J, J and I ate at Little Italy, a small Italian restaurant in the middle of no where Allawah on Thursday. The last time I went was in year 6 with Signora Fennel and the two OC classes. Obviously when you're 11 and can't cook you're bound to have fond memories of wood fired pizzas so needless to say I was really flippin' excited to go back. We decided to order one 15" margherita pizza, a pesto fettuccine and uh, I'm not actually sure what J and J ordered - some beef tortellini dish I think. For dessert we had a Mars bar mouse and a gelato trio - vanilla, strawberry and chocolate. After stuffing ourselves we hung around Kemp Field like hobos until we could actually move where I discovered that a former school mate (I use the term 'mate' loosely) actually has a new born. What the flipping hell? Ah, white trash.







WHY WON'T MY BASIL BUSH GROW?!


Desert island food - forealz.




Best Mars bar mousse ever.

Before the epic battle between me and my room began, I started my morning off with tea, my brunch (because I kind of wake up too late for breakfast everyday)





It is seriously the coolest bag ever. Not because of its tetrahedron shape but because there are no seams. It's like the bag is a bubble. Even the string is attached magically.


My favourite spoon to use with tea.


Some frozen grapefruit.


Miam miam.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a hoarder. I don't even know where this gene came from because both my parents love throwing things away. So this is what my room looks like now. I think this is the neatest it's ever been.



Plus one additional image to prove that my desk is actually neat.


Obviously the coolest tissue holder you've ever seen.

click below to see something you're probably not interested in.

PINK LEMONADE

The first time I made this with Jane was after we went to the Rocks Markets and were ripped off when we bought $3.50 cups of pink lemonade with plain water (as opposed to sparkling). It was after swimming and naturally we were rather exhausted and lethargic. Although I can't speak for Jane, I originally made it to spite those people who sold it to us and the results were surprisingly good, actually what we concocted is better than what we bought.

I used this recipe as a guide.

It's quite simple to make - Squeeze a cup of lemon juice and dissolve a cup of sugar (uh, I never actually put in a cup) in a saucepan and allow to cool. Mash some raspberries in some pink guava juice and strain, then pour into the cooled lemon/sugar mixture. When ready to drink just pour a little lemonade concentrate into the bottom of a glass and top with sparkling water. I find that the mixture is just enough for a 1.25L bottle of sparkling water.



The concentrate

MIXTAPE

This isn't a mix I created for this blog, rather it's a compilation of all my current favourites I put together for Al in return for her book recommendation list so there are heaps of songs I've already posted in my older mixes. There are 55 songs because I had a hard time cutting it down. It's so large I had to split it into two files so if you're downloading you'll need hj-split to put it back together. There's a lot of TNPS in comparison to the other artists because I'm trying to find someone to go with me to their concert when they come which is hopefully in the very near future.

part 1 part 2

Easy chocolate mudcake

I adapted my recipe from this for my Dad's birthday cake.

My dad's birthday this year is in binary (11/01/11). I think I need Bender or Fry.

Only when I was reviewing my photos I learnt that my brother doesn't know how to compose a shot or keep still. I apologise in advance for the crummy (GET IT?) photos.

Ingredients:

• 200g butter
• 100g good quality dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 tbs instant coffee powder
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp coffee essence
• 1 cup caster sugar (although really, I never go to the extra effort to buy caster sugar. I used raw.)
• 3 eggs
• ½ cup self raising flower
• ¼ cup almond meal
• ¼ cup currants

Method:

1. Preheat your oven at 160ºC and grease a cake tin.
2. Mix butter, chocolate, water, cocoa, coffee and vanilla in a medium saucepan on low heat until combined. Allow to cool for ten minutes or until lukewarm.
3. Whisk sugar and eggs until the mixture is pale and creamy. Pour in chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Stir in flour and almond meal until smooth. Add in currants and combine.
   

1. Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 55 minutes.
2. Allow to cool completely before icing.

I didn't have a recipe for the icing but I threw some ingredients together and it turned out alright.

Ingredients:

• 20g butter, preferably unsalted but it doesn't matter, room temperature
• ¼ – ½ cup of icing sugar
• ¼ cocoa powder
• 10g cream cheese
• ½ tsp vanilla essence
• ½ tsp coffee essence

Method:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until pale.
2. Add vanilla and coffee. Stir.
3. Gradually sprinkle in the cocoa powder and sugar while beating.

I just tried the cake and holy shit, it is amazing. It's really moist and rich without being heavy, if that makes any sense. Walking through chocolate heaven rn

By the by... Dark chocolate and peppermint mmm...

post xmas

These packages took their sweet time getting here. Only the makeup and mini Moleskine diary were sent incase you were thinking something else.


The earrings I bought from Coco Liberace, the stall/store (because it technically wasn't a store you could walk into) Sophia blogged about. I've curbed my jewellery buying the past couple of years and select items which I feel are actually to my taste but I'm pretty sure my friends would say otherwise.


All wrapped up!


Unwrapped.


Apparently you can't get this in store, only on Chanel.com. It's LE. Obviously my memory is beginning to fail me because I could've absolutely used Tehran in the capital cities game on NYE BUT DIDN'T.






~~sekrit log0~~


The formula is really dry but isn't drying. It feels great on.



I love that Benefit always provide instructions on how to use their products.


TRUFAX








The navy one was shipped here. I bought the larger one from AGNSW because they had 50% diaries and calendars. Originally I was worried that I'd have no use for the navy one after I found out how small it was after ordering but now I'm pretty sure it's going to be hella u s e f u l. I'm amused by how Jane is regretting purchasing her red daily Moleskine diary now. She may have her fancy schmancy stickers but I have functionality.


I've started adding things and customising. These two pac-man stickers are to note Jasmine and Mel's birthdays (because they're so dark HAHA).


I bought seeds from Sportsgirl.