and we arrive at 56

Days 43-56

I can't believe it, another fortnight has come and gone. So here is another lot of photo's from my life.

Day 43:

Shrove Tuesday means pancakes for dinner.

Day 44:

Shopping for supplies for our Valentines dessert.

Day 45:

Our amazing chocolate fondue for dessert.

Day 46:

It was a gorgeous Friday evening so I took Dallas for a walk.

Day 47:

My gorgeous nephew, Arden. I traveled home to help my

sisters hold a garage sale.

Day 48:

My other gorgeous nephew, Arden's big brother, Coen.

Coen decided to entertain himself at the garage sale.

Day 49:

Another mild summers day, so I went for a walk in my lunch break.

Day 50:

I decided to pull out most of my dresses to help me decide what to wear on

Friday night for a girls night out.

Day 51:

I finally hung the display board I brought of Modcloth about a month before.

Day 52:

A storm was coming in. I snapped this picture of whats over our back fence.

You could hardly tell that the weather was turning bad.

Day 53:

Ladies night! Some friends and I headed to some cocktail bars in the city. 

We then finished at San Churro for some sweets.

Day 54:

We spent the evening at a friends house making and eating homemade pizzas.

This one was caramel and banana.

Day 55:

We headed to the local nursery and brought some more native plants for our front yard.

Day 56:

I was so happy to try out my new kickboxing gear.

I am almost 2 months in to this challenge and I am feeling pretty confidant that I am going to complete this challenge. I love going back through my photo's already and remembering how I have spent the first short part of the year. It is almost Autumn here so the days will be cooling down. Hopefully I will be getting out and about a bit more from now until winter.

Until next time.

Love, love Elle.

and Orange and Date Muffins

New Cookbook

The other weekend I headed home to help my sisters hold and run a garage sale. I took a few things down myself but ended up heading home with more things. One of the things I brought was a new cookbook. Well it is a lot more than a cookbook. It is a general guide to all things handmade. 

Reader's Digest

The basis of my cooking choice was simple. I had to be able to find all of the ingredients in my kitchen and since I  had a lot of oranges already, I wanted to use some of those.

Orange and Date Muffins

Preparation: 15 mins

Baking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 cup pitted and chopped dates
• 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 whole orange, chopped, seeded and puréed

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease (or line) 15 muffins tins, each 7cm in diameter. 
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl. Add the dates and toss to coat.
3. In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl), beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in the egg, orange juice and puréed orange.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients - do not over mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20mins, or until goldern on top and risen.
6. Turn the muffins out on a wire rack to cool.
7. Serve warm or cool.

Ingredients

Cut up oranges

Purée in a food processor

Chop up dates

Mix dates into dry ingredients. Remember to always sift your flour.

Add butter and sugar to mixer bowl.

Beat until pale and creamy.

Juice orange/s. I had one huge orange which made 1/2 a cup of juice.

Add egg, orange juice and puréed orange to butter mix.

Then mix.

At this point the orange mixture may not look the best. 

But don't fear. It will all turn out.

Stir in flour mixture in 2 lots. This helps to reduce the lumps.

Now it's looking better.

Add mixture to the cups.

Flatten the mixture out a little with the back of

a small spoon. This helps to judge levels.

Straight out of the oven!

I love the cafe style cases.

But I only had 12 so the last 3 went into normal ones.

We ate those ones.

Bitten in to. YUM!

Verdict:

These light little muffins were very delicious. The puréed orange and orange juice gave it a lovely colour and there was no need for milk or any other liquid. The dates (I used medjool) added a great extra dimension to the muffin. It was a little bit of sweetness in the citrus mix. I think it's a great alternative recipe to the much loved orange and poppyseed one. 

Will bake again!

Unitl next time.

Love, love Elle.

and chocolate fondue

and it's all better covered in chocolate...

Valentines dinner

Mandeira Cake

After not that much thought at all really, I decided that a chocolate fondue for dessert would make the perfect end to our Valentines dinner. It's fun, messy and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 300ml of double cream
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other liqueur)
• 200g milk chocolate
• 100g dark chocolate
• Fruit
• Marshmallows
• Madeira cake
• Lollies

Method:

1. Heat cream in a saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling. Stir in Grand Marnier.
2. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate. Stir with a metal spoon until melted and smooth. Pour into a warm bowl or small ceramic fondue.
3. Serve with fruit, marshmallow, cake and lollies.

Other options of things to dip:

Caramels

Turkish delight

Other cakes, doughnuts, churros

Biscuits

Pretzels

Apricot coconut slice

Crystalised ginger

Fruit you many not think of:

Dates (medjool)

Dried fruit (apricot, figs, apple)

We sat down and enjoyed our dessert while we watched 'The Princess Bride' (my favourite) and Amelie (his favourite).

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day no matter who you were with or what you did.

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and all the way to 42

Days 29-42

I am still going strong with my photo a day challenge. I have loaded a few onto my Facebook page the following day, but I still haven't missed a day. Some days I struggle to think what I  should take a photo of . I fear a few too many food photo's are slipping through.

Day 29:

My jewellery tree arrived from Modcloth. I set it up and did a mini jewellery purge.

Day 30:

Enjoying a nice cup of tea and some biscuits after 2 kickboxing classes, 

in my favourite mug.

Day 31:

Took my car through the car wash on the way to a boxing class. I love car washes.

Day 32:

Making Dulce de Leche for a cheesecake to take to a friends barbecue.

Day 33:

Playing with Stirling at the barbecue just after I woke him up.

Day 34:

I went shopping for some cute stationary for my French lessons. I love kikki. K.

Day 35:

My breakfast. Homemade Sourdough bread from my own starter with homemade

mandarin marmalade. I was feeling very domestic. 

Day 36:

A beautiful bouquet of flowers I brought for my Nanna who

had to spend a bit of time in hospital.

Day 37:

Relaxing after kickboxing with a book and a snuggle buddy.

Day 38:

I met up with some old friends and hit the street for a dinner ride.

Day 39:

Another Friday night push bike ride from Fremantle to the city. This photo is of

the arches inside the Fremantle train station.

Day 40:

Drinks with friends at the Queens. I love how deconstructed the old building is.

Day 41:

Sunday afternoon cliff jumping with work mates.

Day 42:

I love how Dallas is sticking her nose out from under the coffee table in this photo.

I was studying for French and enjoying a homemade pretzel baked

by my plus one.

Well it has been another busy fortnight and I am really enjoying capturing my days.

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.