Archive for December, 2009
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15
Dec
2009
Over & out for the Holidays
Adue Adue
Just a short note to say Merry Christmas & wonderful new year to everyone. I don’t know if I will be posting while I am overseas so stay safe over the holiday season & we will speak again soon my dear dear friends.
This is our little holiday playmate…His name is Herbert. I found him in a car park about 8 years ago & I have always hung on to him. Tune in next year for the Canadian & American adventures of Herbert.
I will miss my sunny beach side town, my little flat. I will miss my friends & family..I will miss the sun rising over the ocean & setting over the backdrop Chevron Island.
Goodbye blog, goodbye life. See you soon
Shannon Smyth 
11
Dec
2009
Christmas Cookies! White Chocolate & Cranberry Shortbread
What gets you in the mood?
For Christmas that is…
Yesterday I would have paid someone for an injection of Christmas spirit. It is mid December & I was scrunching up my nose in disgust at Christmas cards, sighing with contempt at Christmas crowds, turning a deaf ear to Christmas carols. But today I have my Christmas shortbread, and a spring in my step.
It never feels like Christmas until I have made these & this year I also made some dark chocolate ones to keep things interesting.
White Chocolate & Cranberry Shortbread
Ingredients:
- 250g unsalted butter, softened & chopped
- 1 vanilla bean seeds scraped or 2 tsp vanilla essence
- 75g caster sugar
- 2 1/4 cups plain flour
- 1/4 cup rice flour
- 1/3 cup chopped dried sweetened cranberries (approx, I have never actually bothered to measure)
- 1/3 cup chopped white chocolate (approx)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to slow (150°C). Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out seeds. Beat the butter, vanilla seeds and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Add cranberries & chocolate.
- Stir in the sifted flours and press mixture together to form a firm dough.
- Lay out 2 long sheets of cling wrap & place the dough on top in a long thin log, roll into a sausage & tie off the ends & refrigerate for 20 mins (I did it overnight…obviously not with the oven preheating though)
- Slice & place on a baking tray, leaving a little room for them to spread. Bake for 25minutes until very lightly golden.
* For dark choc variation add 1/3 cup dark chopped chocolate
10
Dec
2009
I made you a pie, but I eated it…
I have been a bad bad blogger.For a start, I was playing with the html (WHY, WHY WHY!) and I broke something with my fonts & colours. I am having a new blog layout designed anyway so I just uploaded this cute one I found for the time being. The old one was really getting me down.
Also……..I made you guys a pie, but I wasn’t real happy with it. It was macadamia & white chocolate, so I ate it. I made some cupcakes, they were delicious but I thought they were a little ugly, they shrunk after I took them out of the oven, it was crazy. Bummer. Hence the lack of food related blogging lately.
School is finished for the year now too, what’s a girl to do? (certainly not bother cleaning her increasingly rat nest like apartment)
So I thought I would take a chance to post all the pictures that haven’t made it this year either out of dissatisfaction or laziness. Let the madness begin!
White Choc & Macadamia Pie. Not the prettiest presentation, and I wasn't happy with the crust.
This pie didn't like having it's picture taken. It looks angry, angry angry pie.
Did you know you need to "bleed" frangipanis? You basically cut them & float them in water before you use them. The sap kind of clots & stops going all over the place, it is rather clever.
After you've bled your frangipanis you can make a circlet out of them & skip around the workshop with a bunch of wedding flowers. Not that I would do that, I am far too cool & important...just saying.
Modern box arrangements must be photographed all diagonally..because they're all funky
It was kind of weird that this arrangement perfectly framed the side of our TV, it's like it was designed specifically for that space, and yes of course I totally meant it.
This beautiful creation was my Masterchef Audition piece. It was a hazelnut & organic dark choc mud cake with hazelnut praline & orange frangelico mascarpone...you know, just something I threw together.
Obviously I didn't make it onto the show, but it was an excellent experience & I met a few cool people.
This was my absolute first thing I ever made at GC Floristry Management. A modern foliage arrangement with mostly bits from my garden..sexy huh?
I bought this Barambah Organic yogurt & I was so impressed with it I had to take a picture. That's just how I roll
The fluorescent lighting at school really doesn't do anything for my photography..but you get the idea..It's round & wreathy
My fat hot cakewreck. Some people tried to console me about this one childing me "I am sure it tasted delicious"...no such luck. It is even more hilarious when you see what I was trying to make
Way to end it on a high note! I hope you all got a laugh out of my cakewreck, it makes me smile every time I see it. I am going to reattempt my gingerbread cupcakes on the weekend so we see what happens with that. Does anyone know what may cause a cupcake to shrink once out of the oven, I thought it may have something to do with being pulled out of a hot oven & put into an air conditioned room to cool..just a thought.
I must make at least one Christmasy post before I leave or I am fired, I mean what kind of food blogger would I be?
2
Dec
2009
Peony Bouquet
I told you it would be special.
I created this bouquet with the guidance of Sue using light pink peony, dark pink freesia & pink spray roses that we purchased at the flower auctions early (and I mean early) on Monday morning & some monsteria leaves I “borrowed” from a block of units down the road. I think the result is just so romantic & feminine.
I also made a bunch of stroussed iris last night but I gave them to Mr Bake & Bloom to put in his office. I took photos last night but the lighting in the factory where we take classes just really doesn’t do the flowers any justice. They were all closed last night & when I woke this morning they had all sprung their sunny little faces forward, it was just glorious.
It’s hard to believe we only have a week left at school. Tina is a little concerned we may forget everything in the Month & a half we have off for Christmas break. Somehow after the blood we both shed last night while stripping roses I don’t think we will.
1
Dec
2009
Flower Auction Action
This weekends homework:
Draw 3 bouquets & list the items needed to create them
- 1 Stroussed bouquet
- 1 Modern bouquet
- 1 Bouquet of students choice
I was like a kid in a candy store, I went for whites & greens in the modern arrangement, a luxurious stroussed iris bouquet & a romantic mixed bunch in pinks with peony & freesia (Basically my dream wedding bouquet)
Sue & Krishna are clever ladies, they bribe me into doing my homework. They took Tina & I to the flower auctions & let us buy our flowers for our 3 bouquets. I felt like a stockbroker…BUY..BUY..BUY! It was a rush man. We got these cool secret bidding buttons under your table & we walked around a giant cool-room to see the stock before the auction, excellent.
It was totally worth getting up at 3am for (it started at 5am but it was ages away & I am the kind of girl that needs an hour before being seen by human eyes)
Stay tuned to see my creations later this week, I suspect they may be pretty special.
Picture time! I look like a tourist wherever I go these days, it’s a little scary actually. People stare & everything.
Other peoples purchases, I didn't buy half as many as that
Some of the flowers I bought....*swoon*
My spider mums
the most wonderful sunflowers I have ever seen...ever
Hello my pretties
I'm not even going to lie, these lotus thingies are sexy, they do things for me
Say it...freeeeesia, it's fun to say huh?
If I keep letting Tina do all the labour people are going to start thinking I am lazy...she has the muscles though. I call this picture "determination"
Our booty (& some random kid who walked past)
Goodbye flower markets. *note to self, start helping Tina & Sue with lifting & pushing things & other labour*