One of my favourite wedding photographers is an American photographer called Elizabeth Messina and she has a lovely instagram feed. She recently posted some images of her work station and wrote how she surrounds herself with images of her family.
My work station is nowhere near as uncluttered but I do have a few favourite things handy to provide me with inspiration.
- a beautiful camellia from the garden
- a pretty crystal vase which was a present from my brother
- a photo of my sister and me taken at Seaworld at the Gold Coast. I think I was about 3 years of age at the time and I have no doubt my Dad was the photographer. Photography is in my genes you see.
It's been a very long week so I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'll be back again on Sunday,
Jillian
When something is to all intents and purposes perfect, can it be improved upon? That's quite a philosophical question, isn't it especially when applied to chocolate caramel slice? I wondered what the slice would taste like if I doubled the quantity of filling. I just love caramel and when I was growing up my favourite chocolate bar was called 'Tosca'. It had layers of wafer interleaved with vanilla cream and caramel, coated in chocolate. By far my favourite layer was the caramel layer.
I made the slice on Saturday doubling the filling, though it cooked in the usual amount of time. I iced the slice on Sunday and then took it into work on Monday.We're really short staffed at work at the moment due to the flu season, so I thought there might be leftovers. No way - it looks as though my work colleagues agree that you can never have too much of a good thing.
I have a little sliver waiting for me in the kitchen and whilst I'm enjoying it, I've left you with some images of chocolate caramel slice versions 1 and 2.
Bye for now,
Jillian
It's Friday again and rather than posting a travel photo I'm posting another of the photos I took last week. This great looking church is just a few steps away from Paper Couture.
Although we had springlike weather mid-week, we're officially in the middle of winter in Sydney. I thought these images of the Greek Orthodox Church managed to look both wintery and European at the same time - no mean feat in the heart of Sydney.
Have a great weekend every-one. I'll be posting again on Sunday - a meringue and passionfruit curd cake.
See you all again,
Jillian
Last Friday was my day off and in between waiting for the builder and the carpenter and doing my grocery shopping, I found time to visit Paper Couture. Paper Couture is a lovely bespoke paper shop in Paddington, Sydney owned by Jo Neville.
I walked by the shop a few years ago and promised I would visit one day. I didn't think it would take me so long but seeing Jo's work featured in Inside Out magazine last month reminded me of that promise.
Jo was in the shop and very kindly let me take photographs of her work. I have always loved book stores, stationery shops, flower shops, industrial antique shop and shops displaying beautiful soft leather goods.
Paper Couture nearly ticked all those boxes. Apart from paper, cards and ribbons, there were lots of sweet tags and ties, some papercuts and Jo's amazing clothes constructed of paper. I can see I'll be back!
Apart from the work displayed, the nicest thing about Paper Couture is Jo. Unfortunately Paper Couture doesn't have a website but you can find the shop at 284 South Dowling Street, Paddington (the St. Vincents' Hospital end).
I hope you enjoyed your peek in to Paper Couture.
Bye for now,
Jillian
Edit 2016 - Paddington shop is now closed.
One of my work colleagues put in a special request for an orange poppy seed cake. Whilst I make the lime poppy seed cake all the time I've not made an orange poppy seed cake before. I didn't have a recipe either so I modified a pound cake recipe, adding mandarin and orange rind and juice, then finished the cake with a mandarin and orange syrup.
I was quite worried the cake would be a bit dry but I was assured by all that it was just fine. I kept a piece aside for me and decided to try it paired with the mandarin curd that's stored in the fridge. I cut the piece of cake into quarters and planned to have a small piece with a cup of tea but 10 minutes later I was licking the plate clean. I just love the mandarin curd! Next time I think I'll increase the amount of syrup poured over the cake as I would still like the cake to be a bit more moist but otherwise it tasted nice and fresh and zesty.
Coming this week I have a special post on Paper Couture, a boutique paper shop in Surry Hills. Unfortunately there is no website to direct you to, so you'll just have to check back later in the week to see the images.
It's time for the Master Chef final so I'm off to cheer Julie on. Bye for now,
Jillian
I visited Sri Lanka about a year before the tsunami hit the region. I took this photo on the last day of my trip at the seaside town of Negombo. I often wonder if the children in this photo survived.
These schoolchildren were waiting, somewhat impatiently, for their hot lunch to arrive. The boys were acting up in front of the camera as you can imagine, but I was far more interested in the young girl in the foreground of the photo. It's one of those rare occasions when the image turns out exactly the way you envisioned it.
This print formed part of my final year portfolio and although I've done a large print for myself I've never managed to get it framed and up on the wall. 'Waiting' is still my most favourite photo.
Happy Weekend every-one,
Jillian
Australia is in the grip of the final week of Masterchef. A few weeks ago during the masterclass, Gary demonstrated a way of making lemon curd in the microwave. I was dying to try it out so a few weeks ago I left the fruit market loaded with citrus fruit and passionfruit and I set about making curd, 4 ways.
I bought some sweet preserving jars and made small batches of lime curd, lemon curd, mandarin curd and passionfruit curd. I think I ate half the curd during the cooking process 'cos it was just so delicious. At this stage I really don't have a stand out favourite as each curd has it's own personality. Now that I have all this curd stored in the fridge, expect a few curd inspired cakes and desserts on the blog.
With all those leftover egg whites, what else could I do but make some meringues? I sandwiched the meringues with a layer of passionfruit curd and cream. The verdict - delicious!
Jillian
I know I missed last week's Friday Favourite but I'm always a bit tired by the time Friday comes around so I prepared this image last night as I didn't have Mad Men to distract me.
I thought it was time to post a local Friday Favourite and chose the area around Dungog, where Farmer Andrew resides. As you can see I was fascinated by this old gate out in the middle of nowhere. It didn't really go anywhere and led towards nothing in particular but it just seemed so quintessentially Australian.
Have a Happy Weekend,
Jillian
