Tuesday, April 27

Recipe: Carrot and Zucchini Fritters

I adapted a recipe from the very wonderful Hungry Girls Cook Book 2, last night.

Here's my version (it was TOPS):

Carrot and Zucchini Fritters

1 x medium - large carrot
1 x medium zucchini
1 x egg
25g (about 2 generous table spoons) plain flour
1 tsp (nice) curry powder or just cummin powder
1 x tsp of ground coriander OR some lovely fresh coriander
1/2 tsp salt
Olive oil
lemon wedge to serve

Grate the carrot and zucchini.
Combine well with the other ingredients.
Put a nice heavy bottom frying pan on the stove at a medium heat and dollop in some olive oil. Swirl it around to coat the pan.

Drop in a tablespoon-ish of mixure in the corner of your pan and spread it out thinly. Repeat. I got 4 fritters in my pan at once.

Cook one side until you see it browning around the edges and flip to cook the other side. Once cooked set aside and keep warm while you do the next batch.

Serve with lemon wedges.

We had ours with smoked salmon, pea sprouts (with lime and ginger balsamic vinegar) and some (stale. oops.) sourdough slices (toasted). YUM.

Nostalgia



Oh my goodness...vintage bikes!

From Dave's Vintage Bikes via Rifle

Monday, April 26

We love silhouettes











Vintage or new, on jewellery, books, paper goods and soft furnishings...silhouettes are a striking and simple design feature.

Plus, the word "silhouette" is pretty lovely, don't you think?

Images from
1. Ad Jewellery
2. Lucky Me Beads
3. Your Secret Admiral
4. Edie Beady
5. Trillium Artisans

Sunday, April 25

We love Chai Tea


High Tea
Originally uploaded by Margot-
I really love Chai Tea, its not an all the time drop but just a lovely treat for a sleepy tv type day. (I'm watching 'Murder She Wrote' on dvd, in new pj's with the heater on low - I highly recommend this amalgamation)

ingredients -
tea and spices

the basic recipe is something like

- Bring water to boil. add tea leaves (any black tea) and reduce heat.

- Add the spices: some cloves, cardamom (squeeze and crack the pods add them whole), a cinnamon stick (I like to break them into two).

- Simmer (until you get a nice rolling boil happening).
- Add some milk and cook a little more.

-Strain to serve.

-Sweeten to your own taste.

This on is a little fancier I found it here

1 Tbsp fennel or anise seed
6 green cardamom pods
12 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/4" ginger root, sliced thin
1/4 tsp black pepper corns
2 bay leaves
7 Cups water
Add, bring to a boil, and simmer 5 minutes:

2 Tbsp Darjeeling tea
Add:

6 Tbsp honey or brown sugar
1 Cup milk


Saturday, April 24

Oh my gosh darn


my sweet heart picked me a flower cos I'm a little under the weather, it really is the little things isn't it. (pic from here)

Thursday, April 22

We love Saddle Shoes



















Seriously Cute (have a look at these)

So I found a great DIY to make myself a pair of
off the charts cute Fifties Saddle Shoes at Bleubird Vintage.

As it is end season sale bargain time
I thought ha this will be great I'll wear
these till it gets too cold and then I'll wear them next season cos they will never go out of fashion in my book.

So I trotted off to town all excited
only to be disappointed at every shop stop
for no one had my size.

Grr so now I have to wait and sweet talk someone into driving me across town.
In the mean time I will be looking at the lovely photos bleubird took


and just ask can someone please make a pair of these.

Monday, April 19

WE Love Lotte



















Yep. We love Figgjo Lotte china, but in truth Pip loves it even more than me so I made her a little gallery to share mind fantasy drooling: Way pretty

WE Love Shelves













Have you ever wondered what we look like?

While eating cake and drinking creaming soda?

Something a little like this:



Yes, that shop is called The Cake Lady. Too cute, right?
( you can visit the Cake Lady at 12 Charles Street, New Norfolk, Tasmania)

Image by Pony Parade.

Sunday, April 18

Quince Paste

Quinces - They make the house smell like a home.

Yes autumn is here, always my favourite time of year, as birthday season is just around the corner and quinces are at the farmers market (or ripening up on a tree near you).

I cannot remember who gave me this recipe it may have been my aunt it may have been my mums friend Gail - either or thank-you it’s lovely and so easy which makes it all the better.

Ingredients:

4 or more Big Quinces

Lots of sugar

Wash the fur off the quinces, but do not peel them.

Put them whole into a pot; add enough water to cover them by about 3cm.

Bring to the boil. Reduce heat medium, cook for about 30 minutes, just until they begin crack open and the peel starts to come away. Remove from the pot and set them aside to cool.

When the quinces are cool enough to handle, peel them, and remove the seeds and cores, I found it easiest to carve the soft flesh away as opposed to cutting them up like apples.

Now weigh the quince flesh, and then mash them up (with a potato masher) or whiz them in a whizzer (thank-you really wonderful boyfriends mum) until smooth.

Transfer flesh to a saucepan, and add the same weight of sugar as fruit, Mix. Cook at a very low heat for about 1 hour, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until the mixture blushes red and gets very sticky, and there is no visible liquid left.

Transfer it to a shallow dish (or if you are super cool some really cute jelly mould), and let it cool.

Once cool it should solidify and you can cut it up and portion it up for your true friends.

Its meant to last for up to 2 months in the fridge but I've never had it last that long. I brought stacks of Quinces in my excitement - so if anyone knows any more recipes please don't hesitate to share.

Monday, April 12

Five things...

Playing along with the other Pip!



1. The colour palette in the above image makes me so happy. Via Hannah and Landon.

2. Clients from Hell, schadenfreude and self-righteousness all wrapped up in one very amusing tumblr.

3. Hair simultaneously attracts me and freaks me out a little. I find myself drawing it a lot.

4. Roller derby has taken over my life. I play with the Convict City Rollers and I'm feeling fit as hell and ready for anything!

5. I'm currently reading the Sookie Stackhouse series. It's almost a guilty pleasure and I'm loving letting myself fall completely into a fantasy world before I drift off to sleep.

Wednesday, April 7

Cute





I have no idea how to credit this image, but I had to share it.
(If you do know its origin, let me know and I'll acknowledge it appropriately)

Monday, April 5

WE Love Five Faves - The Moon

Five faves playing along with Pip
1.

I don't really care how boring our moon really is, from where I stare its always rather beautiful.


2. Paper Moon Photo's are just so darling, so I made a collection here and if you need more check out our Favorites


4. I've seen the 1973 film Paper Moon starring Ryan O'Neal and his daughter Tatum nearly one billion times (If you haven't you're in for a super treat, its just really great).


5. And of course Sarah Moon, "I'm the Moon", Moonface was rather lovely, the 'Radiator Girl' in Lynch's Eraserhead was kind of moony, And anyway The Moon...

Sunday, April 4

Recipe: Sam's chicken balls of goodness



This recipe was a wedding offering from our friend Sam (partner-in-crime of Pony Parade). He's a real-live chef, so we try to invite him over for dinner as often as possible!

I made these for some other friends last night and they disappeared in seconds (they were also a hit with the teenagers).

Ingredients:
500g chicken thigh (I used chicken mince because I don't have a food processor)
1 x bunch coriander (use leaves)
2 x birds eye chilli
4 x lime leaves (I used lime juice as a subsitute)
3 x garlic cloves
1 thumb ginger
10 shakes of fish sauce

Blitz the lot until fine and with wet hands roll into teaspoon sized balls. Steam or bake 15 minutes. (I didn't blitz mine, just moshed it together well and rolled into balls)

Dipping sauce:
50ml fish sauce
50ml lime juice
1/3 cup grated palm sugar
1 chilli shredded
coriander roots
1 tsp shredded ginger
1 tsp shredded garlic

Allow to dissolve for one hour.

(image: low revolution)



Friday, April 2

WE Love Free Stuff


Well who the heck doesn't?
The Lovely Hannah of Hannah & Landon Metz (and if you haven't visited before boy are you in for a sumptuous treat) is hosting our very first Give Away and all you have to do is dish your most deliciously 'comedic tales of romance'


mine would be... mmm well, most of mine are more embarrassingly silly, sad and fickle than funny -

In my second year of art school in Melbourne, I had such a intense crush on one of my teachers I had to stop going to class, because every time he looked in my direction (let alone spoke directly to me) I would blush so uncontrollably crimson I thought I would actually die.

In early High School I remember detailed notes passed in class being confiscated and/or read aloud by teachers, grim days indeed, oh or love hearts and initials being seen by their appropriate affectioned partners, oh what a pain love could be.

Oh! I have another one, at the age of about 15, a young and rather brave boy who had a crush on me and came to my house very early one morning to leave me a flower and a note and when my step father heard someone creeping around outside he literally jumped out of bed and chased him away.

Oh! I have another one, mega boy crush, he is sleeping on our couch. I decide to be super brave and go kiss him, while he sleeps. I kiss him he awakens I run to my room thinking he will follow me - but no one arrives so I go look to see if he fell back asleep? no, he was confused by which room mate had kissed him and decided it must of been the more out going one so he entered her room and was not rejected. Ouch.