Obsessing… make me up macaron

I can’t get this Vogue Japan editorial out of my head.

When I go to sleep at night, it plays on my mind.

I love the use of macaron colours – banana, liquorice, musk – delicious!

I often get people’s names, foreign words and great editorials stuck on loop in my brain for weeks… then they get pushed out and overridden by a new idea, word or image.

Japanese Vogue : February 2012 : Photographer Liz Collins

View full Candy Kisses editorial on Models.com

Last year I had the name ‘Zooey Deschanel’ running circles in my mind for at least half the year and when I’m learning a language it will be whole lists of vocab… not sure what this says about me!

I’ll drink to that…

My sister made this drink on Christmas day and it was such a hit, it will be our signature drink to ring in 2012. Recipe after the jump.

A Pink Resolution. Photography by Eclectic Kate

Ingredients:

Ice cubes made from cranberry juice (2 standard trays of ice = 4 standard drinks)

Vanilla Vodka (the best you can afford)

Vietnamese Mint

Extra mint or sambal for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Into a measuring cup, pour out amount of vodka shots required. 1 drink requires 1 shot, therefore if making 4 drinks, pour out 4 shots.

2. Infuse vanilla vodka with vietnamese mint by filling a tea infuser with fresh mint leaves and leave it standing in the measuring cup of vodka for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, crush your cranberry ice cubes using a blender to make a fine ice blend (like a slurpy). We used an ice shaver for this, bought at Target for $29… it’s great for the kids and does double duty for cocktail making!

4. Divide ice into four serving glasses. Pull the tea infuser out of the vodka and pour a shot into each glass over the ice.

5. Garnish with extra finely chopped mint or very fine sprinkling of sambal from the sambalicious post earlier (optional)

5. Make your resolutions and cheers to the new year!

Let it rain, Let it rain, Let it rain

So it’s torrential outside but dams and water tanks are filling up so it’s a good thing.

Post Christmas will be full of grass that needs mowing and potholes – yay!

A friend and I made these easy cupcakes the other day with our kids and I had as much fun making them as the kids did. Instructions after the jump!

Christmas wreath cupcake. Photograph by Amor Sexton

Holly Cupcake. Photograph by Amor Sexton

Reindeer Games cupcake. Photograph by Amor Sexton

I thought they could be great rainy-day-play activity to keep your kids/husband/boyfriend/international guests occupied while you cook, clean, wrap or sleep.

I just buy Greens Vanilla Cake Mix which is only a few dollars and comes with icing mix… as lets face it, it’s not really about the cake, is it?

Cake mix tends to be a dollar or so cheaper and I find you can make more cupcakes with it. Just remember to pick up some cupcake patty cases as I ran out and we had to use happy birthday ones.

Method:

Bake cakes as per packet directions, add some orange zest and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon for a more festive tasting cupcake.

The Christmas Wreath and Holly designs come from a great cupcake book by the Australian Women’s Weekly called Easy Cupcakes by Colour. Once the cakes have been iced with vanilla icing, cut mint leaf lollies in half sideways through the lolly so you end up with two leaves and decorate in a circle around the circumference of the cake. Start at the top and work in one direction to get the layered effect of the wreath.

The berries are jaffas for the holly leaf or a red jube cut in half for the holly berry. Jubes and Jaffas are interchangeable depending on your taste.

The cute Reindeer Games design is one that my friend Amor and I came up with. The antlers are a strap of licorice cut down to size and then spliced 3/4 of the way through the middle so that it curls outwards.

The ears are a block of mint Aero bar cut through the middle and down to size.

Jaffa for the nose and star shaped sprinkles for the eyes. The star shaped sprinkles were picked up at Aldi, but you could use silver cachous or mini M&M’s.

Enjoy!

Sambalicious

Parsley & Coconut Sambal

Inspired by my brother-in-law’s Sri Lankan heritage, I made this delicious Parsley & Coconut Sambal to go with last night’s vegetable curry.

While I have no idea if this is how the Sri Lankan’s make it, it’s a totally scrummy side dish, and I found myself scraping the bottom of the bowl for more.

It’s salty, sweet and a little bitter all at once and you can add it as a garnish or eat on its own.

Parsley is high in vitamins K, A, C and folic acid so replace chips or pretzels over Christmas with the sambal for a much healthier starter.

This would be a great over chicken or fish or around the rim of a margarita.

I’ll be teaming mine with my ginger beer granita on Christmas day finished off with a splash of vodka!

Parsley & Coconut Sambal

Ingredients:

Bunch of parsley leaves, finely chopped

Handful of shredded coconut

Pinch of rock salt flakes

Method:

Mix parsley and coconut together in a bowl and taste. If the parsley is too overpowering, add more coconut.

Coconut:parsley ratio should be about 1.5:1

Finish with a pinch of salt to taste – it should give a nice measured kick of salt at the end of your palate.

The “don’t panic, it’s Christmas” guide to last minute gifts

My gorgeous niece Ruby, panicking. Photo by Kylie Jacobsen

The week before Christmas is usually the week where I run out of Christmas steam, I’m running out of good present ideas and the budget is getting tighter.

I blame this week for the plethora of gift-pack cosmetics, socks and singing Christmas kitchiness, because if you’re shopping this week, chances are you’re pretty over it, delusional and lost for ideas.

On top of that it is the week where you get gifts from people that you had no prior gift-giving relationship with… the random kid at preschool you’ve never heard of or the neighbour who moved in last week.

Cue another trip to the shops.

Therefore here is my guide to simple, inexpensive and thoughtful last minute gifts, that are available almost anywhere and that will hopefully save your sanity.

For the kids who have everything:

1. ART & CRAFT: My general rule for kids is they can never have too many books, art & craft or outdoor toys. Most $2 stores have a great selection of canvases, paints, glitter glue, crayons and pencils. Present them in a box or basket so that you’re also providing a storage solution. A trip to the thrift store may also uncover excess art supplies, still in packets and good quality used baskets.
2. BOOKS: Books are also an easily accessible gift, you can pick up good quality used books at thrift shops or new ones at the supermarket. The books to avoid are ones that come from movies or cartoon shows, from experience they’re either too wordy for the age group they’re marketed at or worse, they’re poorly written. The exception to this rule is for kids who never read… these books are good to at least get them interested in story time.
3. OUTDOOR TOYS: Outdoor toys and in particular water toys are great for holiday entertainment and get kids out of the house and burning off some energy. There’s nothing better than a water fight, so water pistols, water balloons, bath toys and anything that connects up to the hose are great for summer. Water & kids must always be accompanied by adult supervision. A simple gift could be a jar full of water balloons and ‘Just Add Water’ written on a sticky label across the jar.

For the adult you don’t know what to buy:

1. RECIPE CARDS: Think of 3-5 of your favourite dinners, type out the recipe for each and get them printed on A5 pieces of card. Present cards wrapped with a ribbon and a tag that reads, “Dinner ideas for 2012”. Go the extra mile by thinking of clever names for your dishes i.e. ‘One Dish Wonder‘, ‘Cupboard is bare spaghetti‘. You could do the same with cookie recipes and present with a few assorted cookie cutter shapes. If you really suck at cooking, that is what the internet is for, go to www.taste.com.au and cut & paste a few recipes.
2. INSTANT HERB GARDEN: Most supermarkets now sell small pots of parsley and basil. Purchase one or even three small pots of herbs and replant them in a more decorative planters available at hardwares, garden centres and department stores like Target, Kmart and Big W. Label pots with permanent marker or purchase garden labels which stick into the soil. Tie a simple bow around the pot rather than trying to wrap a living thing!
3. THE BEST WAY TO GIFT DECORATIVE SOAPS: Scented soaps on their own may seem a little lame (personally I love soap!) however by teaming it with a small decorative dish and a set of white hand towels, it becomes a more thoughtful gift. This is a great host gift if you are staying with someone over the holidays. Try and buy the nicest soap you can afford and/or something in either an interesting shape or with pretty packaging. The dish can be found at thrift stores or even a small blue and white china soup bowl. My tip is to not buy an actual soap dish, they’re always ugly and practical looking. Hand towels for the bathroom are always, excuse the pun, handy. Unless you can afford striped Missoni hand towels, stick to plain white as colours fade  & tend to look raggedy much quicker.

The “Santa-will-be-leaving-Chanel-after-tasting-these-cookies” Cookie Recipe

This year I wanted to combine two of my favourite things into a Christmas treat  – my favourite chocolate – Lindt Intense Orange with chocolate chip cookies.

Choc chip cookies pictured here with my coconut macaroons (all pictures by Eclectic Kate)

I made them to leave out for Santa, but as there are still three whole days until Christmas, I’m not sure if there will be any left!

Enough chatting, here’s the recipe…

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Makes about 20 large cookies

Ingredients:

250g butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 egg

2 1/4 cups plain flour

1 tsp bi-carb soda

100g of Lindt Intense Orange chocolate, roughly chopped (Don’t be tight… buy it!)

2 handfuls of white chocolate melts, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius/ 160 for fan forced. Line oven trays with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, both sugars & egg with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. In a larger bowl, sift flour and bi-carb together. Fold in butter & sugar mixture with a spatula. Mix in Lindt chocolate and white chocolate. The Lindt chocolate is the main event here, so add white chocolate in a ration of 2:1 Lindt to white choc. Mixture should have nice chunky bits of chocolate throughout. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

4. Use a ice cream scoop or large spoon to scoop out balls of mixture onto tray, spacing them about 4 cm apart as these babies spread.

5. Bake for 12 minutes. For chewy cookies, cool on tray. For crunchy cookies, cool on tray for 5 minutes and then move to wire rack.

6. Eat. They’re fairly sweet but utterly delish!

How to store:

Cookies can be stored in an air tight container for 1 week.

Wrap in a roughly torn piece of baking paper and tie with scrap ribbon (as below) for a simple Christmas gift. I’ve kept some of the cookies on hand and will be packaging them up with my handmade coconut macaroons for any guests that pop over during the Christmas break.

Cookies wrapped in baking paper