From my kitchen .. Fruit mince pie pt 11

Well, this is the continuation from my kitchen escapades and making fruit pies from scratch.

I did not take too many pics of making the dough as I don't have a food processor at home hence it was a lot of hard work to kneed it to the correct consistency.

In short though, it was quite fun (and I made a lot of mess!)..




Things required for pastry - 4 cups plain flour, white sugar to sprinkle, 2 egg yolks, 1/2 cup icing sugar mix, 300 g chilled butter (chopped)

Place flour, icing sugar and butter and and process until it starts looking like bread crumbs. You then add in the egg yolks, a few drops of water until the dough starts coming together.

Roll dough on non stick baking paper and flour. Cut pastry into round disc and place on pan, prick base with fork.

(My first attempt of pastry -made it wayyy too thick so all it tasted was pastry - attempt FAIL)

I didn't have a pastry cutter so used a 1 cup measuring cup instead ;)

Top with mince filling from Pt 1, I didn't top the pies with pastry disc, instead opting for lines (less work). Sprinkle with white sugar and place in a preheated 180' oven for 30-35 mins.

Ok - this is the finished product. I must say, I quite liked it even though I did leave it in the oven for a bit longer. I will take it out after 20 mins in my fan oven. Overall, am quite pleased with my 1st attempt. I do know that I will be adding more rum the next time.. :)

Everything looks better gift wrapped ..

Blessed Christmas to everyone.

Little pleasures

Brunch with a good mate on your day off...

APTE Cafe - Alphington

Pics taken using my camera phone

Camera stories - Melbourne Central

From my kitchen .. Fruit mince pie pt 1

Since it is close to Christmas and all, BF has been having this massive thing for fruit mince pies "Like mum used to make" .. maybe its an English thing, maybe as it is still rather chilly in Melbourne?

Since I do have this extra time on my hands, I decided to keep my man happy and instead of using the premix mince filling and store bought tart, do the whole hop and make one from scratch! I did cut corners somewhat with the fruit mix tho, instead of buying individual items, I used fruit mix which is essentially the same thing but with bits of lemon in it.

Recipe to follow with pt2, but in the meantime...


Step 1 - Dice fruit (currants, sultanas, glazed cherries, cored and peeled Granny Smith apple)

Step 2 - Mix following ingredients with diced fruit (brown sugar, breakfast marmalade, rum or brandy *I used dark rum*)

Step 3 - Let the well mixed fruit soak for 2 days....

to be continued...

Holiday update - Day 2.

2 days into the 3 week holiday.. and already I am thinking time is flying by too fast!
In the meantime - am off for a bout of last min Christmas shopping and lunch catchup at Melbourne Central :))

Shall I???

Question now is....

With my trip across the ditch next month - shall I do my fifth bungee or play it safe with the bridge climb esp as I don't want to hurt my back for snowboarding in Feb???

Tick........

Countdown to Friday begins!
*3 weeks compulsory office closure, ah well ..there goes my annual leave but what the hey!*

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Things to do for 2011

I want to pick up a language - Cantonese... maybe not. I wont have much chance to use it.

Language of choice - Spanish.

10 Things to do before I die ...

You know how some ppl have this list of things to achieve before they hit a certain age? In most cases, it generally reads like 1) Must get good job, 2) Must be married to someone who is tall dark and handsome bla bla...


Well, I never had this list. I did have a list though, just not THAT list. My list on the otherhand was all about *surprise surprise* travel and experiences. Don't ask me why, but children and marriage was never very high on my to-do agenda. I haven't had a look at this list, not since I became an inactive member of VirtualTourist anyways. But I logged on today and perhaps it is time to build up a new list.

I have been keeping a list of sorts but it is not one set on paper (or blog in this case). Some items I have already crossed off, but this can be added onto the new list. Well, for starters, here is the old list - and in no particular order....

10 Things I want to Do before I Die...(Old List)

Skydive ~ mission accomplished in KL *

Fly a kite in Tiannamen Square Beijing, China ~mission accomplished *

Get drunk on wine*oh the hangover!* at Barossa Valley, Australia ~mission accomplished *

Take a gondola ride along the canals in Venice, Italy ~mission accomplished *

Walk across the river Tiber on Sant Angelo' bridge in Italy ~mission accomplished *

Enjoy a typical Midsommer Day and have reindeer meat in Stockholm, Sweden ~mission accomplished *

Birdseye view of HK from Victoria Peak ~mission accomplished *

Bungee jump in Queenstown,NZ
~ mission accomplished, and jumped not once.. not twice .. but 4 times!!*

Walk up the Eiffel Tower(not take the elevator), Paris France ~mission accomplished *

Make a wish at the Trevi Fountain - Rome, Italy ~mission accomplished *

.......... (?).....

Me thinks it is about time I start thinking of some resolutions for next yr ...no?

Home project - Office/Bedroom 2

We have been doing a home reno project for nearly 1/2 yr now - slow and painstaking but then again, it is not that we are in a rush.

The lounge, dining, kitchen, powder room has been repainted. Am doing up the pergola from the yucky beige to white to freshen things up and my small space under the stairs has been repainted and redone to a nice coat/shoe cupboard. *Am quite pleased with the coat cupboard project too as I did that!*

In the meantime - the office/bedroom 2. Ah.. where do we start? The rooms were all a yellow-white which BF's commented looked like "A smoker lived here". It has been replaced with Dulux "Natural White" for the whole house except for the kitchen and dining areas.

I've been working from home for the past week or so and seeing that the office looks like a tornado has gone through it, where is a girl to work - the dining room!

Project HOME - Status - In Progress

Unfinished Office/Bedroom 2
Skirting boards - Sanded down and repainted
Wardrobe doors - Sanded and repainted
Walls - Sanded and repainted
Tidying up - Undone!

"Current" office.

Who...me???

Yes - I've been slacking off BIG TIME this yr, the lack of exercise is telling - been feeling sluggish and luggish and as for my gym membership? Lordy-lord - after months of paying for something I didn't use, I gave it up... only to sign up to another gym closer to home! Talk about being a sucker for punishment ey?

The thing is, the new gym has not opened yet - and this has left me feeling happy (I can veg out in front of the telly ..yay!) but sad (blubber-me). Haven't been jumping on the Wii-Fit either *yes, I have been THAT slack!*

Summer's a-coming .. need to lose the winter-belly! Eeeks!

RIP

To the 29 miners lost in the coal mine in Greymouth, NZ. God bless.

Relaxing is....

A nice cuppa skinny latte and Glamour UK (or Real Living if I am feeling a tad domesticated)

Flowers from my garden

The beautiful thing about having your own garden is that you have your own lil haven of flowers.
When we bought this place we now called home, it already came with several rose bushes and the past 2 springs, they have been abundant with buds and flowers. I've always liked having flowers in the house as well and rather than spending $12 - $25 for 1/2 dozen roses, I've been cutting off some droopy stems from the bushes and putting them around the house.

Result - A happy lil me

Snap of the rose trellis at the back of the house 645am.

And happy snaps of them in the house.

Social calendar updates - BF's bday celeb November 2010

As always, things have gone a bit slack with the updates as weekends are filled with social activities as we hit the silly season - it is less work, more play now baby!!

It was BF's bday on Sat - milestone of a day, hitting the mid-XX's and all, so it was decided that we take him out for a nice meal and some. Now do tell me, which man can resist getting his teeth into a big chunk of meat?

The place - Squire's Loft, Docklands
The ppl - Usual suspects

The usual suspects

My main meal - Lamb Scotch Fillet (300g) grilled served with hot chips and black pepper sauce

The starter - Ribs, Beef Sausage, prawns and Garlic feta Mushrooms


The polished off dish of garlic feta mushrooms

Bday cake - Chocolate mudcake!

We ended the night off at Crown Casino, and the birthday boy didn't loose so it was wins all around!

Playing tourist VIC - Tesselaar Tulip Festival

Well I haven't been blogging as I have been too busy - BUSY PLAYING TOURIST!!
Lol, the problem with living someplace is that we tend to get lazy and go with the usual phrase " I'll do it next time, it is not going to run away". Unfortunately, that is not true. Seasons change, ppl change, heck, there might be a mishap * touch wood* and where does that leave us? Regrets.

I have decided that I will not take life for granted, I WILL go and try new things, I WILL go and DO new stuff ~ however mundane, trivial or silly ~ it is all for fun. After all, I am not getting younger by the day.

As such, after years of putting it off - this year Mel and I played tourist and headed to the annual tulip festival in Silvan, VIC. It runs for around 4 weeks and this yr it was on September 16th to October 17th 2010. There is a cover of $18 (Concession $15, Under 16 free). There is usually a theme run to go with the week and when we went it was the Irish Week!

The trip itself was gorgeous as Silvan is on the foot of the Dandenong ranges so it is green, leafy and calming. Silvan itself is well known for its nurseries and fruit farms so I did enjoy my mini road trip.

Will leave with pics till the next playing tourist series :)

Lunch?

I must say, my blog really hasn't any specific direction when it comes to contents. It is neither a food blog, fashion or travel specific is it?

Random musings and updates sounds more like it..

Today's update is that - I had Char Kuey Teow for lunch ..leftovers from last night. :)

Falls Creek, VIC *Fun Trip* - Sept 2010

After all of the stress at work, we (BF & I and 2 mates) decided to do a weekend away and catch the last bits of snow for this season.

With the recent spate of rain (and the recent road closure due to floods), things could have been quite dicey if it wasn't for the very gorgeous *unexpected* weather over the weekend.

Not to say that there wasn't much drama involved. The drive Friday evening was marred somewhat at Mt Beauty. We were on a 4WD and seeing that we were staying overnight, needed alpine fuel in order to not get diesel freeze up. Getting there at 8pm - all of the service stations *yes, all 2 of em* were SHUT! OMG! On a Friday night! During school holiday times! We weren't the only ones stranded there however, there were 3 other groups also contemplating where to go. After some investigations, we had to traipse back to Bright that added another 1 1/2 hrs our trip, so by 1030pm, you had 4 very tired and very grumpy travellers.

It was all well worth it though, the next day turned out simply lovely. And we decided not to rush, took it easy and - well, will let the pictures speak for itself.

All pics taken from my Nokia phone hence the low quality.

Laptop woes

Fine, the blasted laptop (work one even!) had to get all virused on me, giving me a near heart attack just thinking of all those lost data and what not. To make matters worse, I was in Cairns that week ( I plugged into the hotel net and hence my problem started) and had no time to go back into the office to get it fixed by IT!

So with a rush of drama, arrived in the wee hrs of the morning, dropped the laptop off with the Facilities Manager (who is fortunately a friend and I asked a favour of from) who kindly dropped it off with IT while I worked without a laptop for the morning appointment. Fortunately, it was salvageable but it apparently needs a serious case of rebuilding.

Oh well, I haven't lost my data at least - and we ARE up for new laptops soon :).

Will update on Cairns once and Falls Creek once I get my head sorted.

Upcoming work trips this month-

1. Brisbane, QLD
2. Wagga Wagga, NSW

Upcoming fun trips

1. Falls Creek, VIC - to catch the last bits of snow before the season ends.

Spring is a mere day away.. I love my winters, but I do like spring. It is summer I dislike :)

Townsville, QLD (work trip)

Townsville (am)

Townsville (pm)

Well, off I go again on another work trip, to Townsville, North Queensland this time around. I must admit, this quaint lil town is actually bigger than I expected it to be ~ most likely due to the Australian army base located nearby.

As always, have not had much time to look around but my hotel room does have this gorgeous balcony from which the above snaps have been taken (off my camera phone no doubt).

The journey from Melbourne takes approx 3 hrs and flying Jetstar (co-share with Qantas) was an absolute nightmare. Flying cattle-class is fine, but even for me, I found the lack of leg and moving room a tad uncomfortable. Virgin flights are definitely more comfortable, that's for sure. Thank God I will be flying Qantas via Brissy on the way back to Mel.

Just a quick one, I think I should start documenting my trips (work or otherwise) just as a jot. Hey, I might even want to use this to remind me of what a workaholic I am at some point!