Chocolate Berry Pavlova

Chocolate Berry Pavlova

27 Dec 2010

I've just returned home from my Christmas break with the family. It's a long drive from Brisbane to Sydney so I'm going to have an early night. Before I get into my pj's I thought I'd leave you with some of the Christmas baking I did. December has been such a busy month I haven't had a chance to share some of the things I've made.

For our work Christmas lunch I said I'd bring a dessert. I decided to make a chocolate berry pavlova using this recipe. Whilst I've made many pavlovas before, I'd not made a chocolate one before. I don't have a stand mixer, so beating a 6 egg white pavlova with electric hand beaters was a bit of an effort. I had delayed onset muscle soreness in my arms for 2 days.

I was going out for dinner and I was in a bit of a rush so I couldn't bake the pavlova for as long as I'd like. I left the pavlova in the turned off oven to dry out and when I came home a few hours later, I knocked the top of the pavlova as I was taking it out of the oven. I made quite a deep crack in the pavlova, then when I tried to remove it from the non-stick base, the pavlova cracked into quite a few pieces. I looked at the very wonky looking pavlova and tried to decide what to do.

Should I make another pavlova or just cover the wonky pavlova in a mountain of whipped cream? The thought of racing out at lunchtime in the pouring rain to get more pavlova ingredients soon determined my course of action. I decided to go with the camouflage option and bought 2 cartons of cream to effect the disguise. I managed to locate some raspberries that cost a little less than a king's ransom and some red currants as well.

I catch the train to work, so I had to transport the pavlova, whipped cream and berries over 2 days and assemble the pavlova at work in the lunch room. I get to work very early so at 7.00 a.m. on the day of the lunch I set to work decorating the pavlova with the whipped cream, topping it with the berries and lightly dusting the creation with icing sugar. I placed the pavlova in the fridge where it stayed until lunchtime. Each time I checked the pavlova, it seemed to have collapsed under the weight of the cream and berries just a little bit more!

No-one seemed to notice. The whole thing was devoured in less than 10 minutes, so quickly I didn't get a chance to snaffle a piece. I have no idea what it tastes like so I guess that means I'll have to make another one in the New Year. Great - just what my waistline needs after a month of Christmas festivities.

I hope you all enjoyed a nice break over Christmas. I have a few more days off work which I plan to spend editing a portrait shoot; visiting the Christmas sales; visiting the gym; working on my travel album and catching a movie. Who has time to go to work???

I'm not planning to return to the blog 'til the New Year so I hope you all have a fabulous time, however you plan to spend the evening. See you all in 2011.

Jillian

Read more

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010

24 Dec 2010

Read more

Christmas Craftiness

Christmas Craftiness

22 Dec 2010

I don't 'do' crafts, so I don't know what came over me this year. When it came time to wrap the Christmas presents, I wanted to steer away from the usual red, green or silver Christmas colours. I decided I'd go with the brown paper packages tied up with string a la Le Petit Atelier. I was quite taken with the pom-poms I saw all over blogland last year and wondered if it were possible to construct pom-poms from newspaper.

I found a pom-pom tutorial here on Once Wed and gave it a go using newspaper. Newspaper is pretty tough and tore a little bit but I persevered. I soon found the larger the pom pom, the easier they were to make. My hands were covered in newspaper print but my first efforts looked pretty good, so I made a few more.

I then went a little bit crazy and went for a 2 tone effect. I tried 2 combinations - brown paper interleaved with greaseproof paper and brown paper interleaved with newspaper. Pretty effective wrapping, don't you think, for absolutely no money? I used newspaper and brown paper I already had in the house, tied it together with kitchen string and used little tags I already had in my kitchen drawers. Old sheet music or maps would work just as well.

My friends live all over the country, so most of my presents have been sent by mail. I did hand one over to my friend, Little One last week and she was stunned by the wrapping, but thankfully in a good not a bad way.

What do you think?  Can you see garlands of newspaper and brown paper pom poms as the next big wedding decor trend?  And how am I going to top this Christmas wrapping effort next year???

Life is such a quandary,

Jillian

Read more

Fruit Mince Tarts - a little taste of Christmas

Fruit Mince Tarts - a little taste of Christmas

20 Dec 2010

My idea of Christmas has always been the traditional Charles Dickens kind without the Scrooge - turkey with all the trimmings, fruitcake, pudding and fruit mince tarts. I've always liked fruit mince tarts because they're like a little taste of Christmas. They have all the flavours of Christmas packaged into one sweet little morsel.

Many moons ago I had an English boyfriend and one Christmas he asked for mince tarts. I didn't have a pastry recipe so I quickly scrawled one down on the back of a shopping docket from a book I found at the local supermarket. I've long since lost that recipe but I adapted another recipe which tastes pretty much the same.

I bring mince tarts to work on my last working day of the year. Until recently I used bottled fruit mince from the store jazzed up with the addition of grated apple and lemon rind but this year I decided it was time to make my own fruit mince. I used this recipe for the fruit mince from Gourmet Traveller but used my own pastry recipe. My recipe also uses cornflour, so if you want to try this one, it isn't too far from my own pastry recipe.

I still had some bottled fruit mince mixture leftover from last year so used that up first then filled the rest with the home made version. I forgot to decorate the tops of those tarts differently so I have no idea which tart contains which filling. I was tired when I came home from work so that's my excuse.

I brought them into work packaged like this. I snaffled 2 of the tarts for myself and had one on the journey to Brisbane.

Now that I'm home in Brisbane after a very long and soggy drive, I felt a bit bad hoarding a solitary fruit mince tart, so off I went  to the shops this morning to buy the ingredients for another batch. They're now cooling on a wire rack just waiting for a dusting of icing sugar.

Many thanks to Holly of decor8 for featuring my photos of the Finders Keepers Market on her blog last week.

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian

Read more

Procrastinator with a Capital 'P'

Procrastinator with a Capital 'P'

17 Dec 2010

My mother used to refer to me as a procrastinator with a capital P. I've just looked up procrastination and the description is surprisingly accurate. I don't often procrastinate but when I find something too overwhelming to deal with, I put off making the decision, well for as long as I can.

So what am I procrastinating about? Packing for my trip home. Yes I am leaving tomorrow and no, nothing is packed and won't be until tomorrow. Instead of packing I've busied myself with a myriad of tasks. I've done 2 loads of washing/downloaded some memory cards and prepared the images/made an iPod playlist for the long journey home and arranged lots of things in piles all over the living room floor all whilst listening to the cricket.

As I can't decide which gift goes to whom, I'm going to drag the whole lot home with me plus all the wrapping paraphernalia. I'm doing a little job of work when I'm home so that means I need to bring along my cameras, the laptop, a flash, batteries, cards, card reader etc, etc.

Then there is the food to consider. As the list of what I can't eat and won't eat is quite long, plus I'm driving along some remote stretches of road, I have to bring the food with me for my 13 hour journey. I like to treat myself so I've bought some smoked salmon and ricotta cheese, cherries, apricots and peaches plus some home made trail mix to keep me going. And for my sweet treat? Some homemade fruit mince pies.

I should be back again Monday with some more of my Christmas baking.

Have a great weekend,

Jillian

Read more

Rifle Paper Co

Rifle Paper Co

15 Dec 2010

I love stationery and all things paper. I still write letters to friends and I send out postcards and Christmas cards as well. Thankfully I still have a few friends who share my interest as there's nothing like finding a letter in the mailbox. It sure beats an email.

I first learnt about Rifle Paper Co a few years ago when I saw some of Anna Bond's beautiful wedding invitations on a wedding blog. Rifle Paper Co opened an online shop selling cards and personalised stationery just over a year ago. Those of you who know me well, know I'm a dog nut, so I was already won over when I saw the dog logo.

Thanks to the strong Australian dollar the personalised stationery and postage is finally affordable, so about 2 months ago I decided to order this pretty design. This is what I found when I opened the box.

The notes are really sweet and I can't wait to write my first note!

It's been a busy week with lots of Christmas festivities and way too much eating, so I'm going to have an early night tonight.

Bye for now,

Jillian

Read more