shopshoot - the sydney finders keepers

shopshoot - the sydney finders keepers

15 May 2017

This weekend I made a pilgrimage to The Cutting at Barangaroo, the newest location of  The Finders Keepers. I've been attending the markets for 7 years now and go to visit my old market friends; see if there's anything new and different and on this occasion take the opportunity to visit the new venue.



The markets were housed in The Cutting, a dramatic new exhibition space.



I arrived just as the markets opened so it was quiet and easy to roam around.



I mainly took photos of the venue and not the stalls. 







The light in the new venue was great at the perimeter then petered out on the other side making photo taking a bit tricky especially when one too tired photographer failed to change her ISO setting from 200 when she needed to be using 1600. 



My hand holding in low light is good but not that good so I took lots of shots that had too much camera shake to be used.



One favourite stall I did manage to photograph was Bridget Bodenham's.



One of her beautiful vases.



I always make time to visit Kylie from Paperboat Press.



and Alischa from Bespoke Letterpress who was working the door.



There were lots of places for resting. I loved those stools and wouldn't mind having one in my little flat.



And of course you can always enjoy live music at the Finders Keepers.



Here are a few new to me stalls.



Someone (that would be me) forget to collect business cards so I don't have any contact details to share with you.



It was at this stage I decided I should probably leave and started to make my way home.



I'd not been to the Barangaroo Reserve since it's opening and as it was a gorgeous autumn day I wandered along the sandstone wall down by the water before jumping on a bus back to the eastern suburbs.

I hope that gave you some idea of what you'll find at the Finders Keepers.

See you all again next week with some more baking my kitchen.

Bye or now,

Jillian

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shopshoot - the sydney finders keepers

shopshoot - the sydney finders keepers

15 Dec 2016

I've been photographing the Sydney Finders Keepers for a few years now. It's where I first met Kylie of Paperboat Press and Alischa of Bespoke Letterpress. When I heard the markets would be held December 9-11, I rearranged my schedule so I could drop by to say 'hello'.




The Finders Keepers are held at the Australian Technology Park in some great old railway buildings, which I just love. I spent a short while roaming around the Park finding some interesting nooks and crannies.



Technically I may have entered a building site to photograph this wall but none of the workmen seemed to mind.

I did a very quick sprint around the markets because I had important Christmas baking at home requiring my attention. All will be revealed next week on the blog.

My first destination was the Paperboat Press/Bridget Bodenham stall.



I stopped to admire the flowers before spying the Black Pantry stall.



Believe it or not, despite having an array of tempting samples I was in such a rush I didn't try a morsel, not even one!



Just across from their stall I spied the Urban Cartel stall. I've bought a few of their pieces in the past.



Like a moth to a flame I was entranced by the light coming from the windows, so snapped this scene.



As I walked around the corner I was taken by the beautiful rugs at Dromme.



Did you know that blue is my favourite colour? I find it calming so I always paint my bedroom walls blue.



After a quick loop around the stalls I found myself here at Fictional Objects.



I do like nice bed linen.



As I was heading out the door I quickly snapped some more ceramics, this time at Salad Days.



Time for a few more photos before heading back to the railway station and home again.



I hope you enjoyed my flying visit to the Finders Keepers. I'll be back next week with 5 tempting Christmas treats that I can't wait to share with you, so I'll see you all again next Monday.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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shopshoot - the lost and found department

shopshoot - the lost and found department

5 Oct 2016

Here's something you've not seen on the blog for a while, a Sydney shopshoot. There have been some health issues with my family the past year, so every 6 weeks I fly to Brisbane for a few days. It means I have less free time on my hands to do anything let alone shoot shops.




Roaming through instagram a few months back I noticed quite a few references to Silvia from The Lost and Found Department. The Lost and Found Department looked like a shop filled with the kind of goodies I'd like to buy so I checked where it was; decided to clear one Saturday morning, took along my as yet unspent birthday money and headed over to Artarmon. 



I have a bit of a thing for succulents and green demijohn bottles so look at what greeted me on my arrival. Come inside with me.




The shop is a bit of a treasure trove, filled with everything.



I found antique wares, linen, garden supplies, gifts, copper goods, ceramics and even a chandelier.



I'm not sure why that beautiful antique platter didn't come home with me. I liked it so much I photographed it twice!



As you can see, you can buy just about everything at The Lost and Found Department. I think I've spied a potential Christmas gift or two.

I came home with a little tarnished jelly mould and a beautiful sharp Pallarès kitchen knife, which has already become my go-to knife.



Many thanks to Silvia for letting me roam around her lovely shop. If you'd like to visit, you can find The Lost + Found Dept at 81 Dickson Avenue in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon.

See you all again next week,

Bye for now,

Jillian

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christmas week 2015 - yoghurt pannacotta with raspberry compote

christmas week 2015 - yoghurt pannacotta with raspberry compote

16 Dec 2015

Welcome to day 3 of Christmas week on the blog. As Christmas falls in summer in Australia I thought I'd bring you the perfect summer dessert, a yoghurt pannacotta. I've made this pannacotta recipe 5 times now, altering the ratio of milk, yoghurt and sugar until I think I've found the perfect balance. 





The pannacotta is silky smooth and balanced by a tart raspberry compote, made from frozen berries. I didn’t come up with the raspberry compote idea on my own; I stole the idea from here and tweaked the recipe little. The raspberry compote would go really well with some of the other desserts I'll be posting later in the week.

You can make both the pannacotta and the compote the day before, reducing Christmas Day stress.




Here’s the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.





Yoghurt Pannacotta with Raspberry Compote - makes 6

Yoghurt Pannacotta
2 tablespoons cold water
2½ teaspoons gelatine
1 cup full cream milk
½ cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
2 cups Greek yoghurt

Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatine over the water. Set aside until the gelatine has softened, 5 minutes. Place the milk, the sugar and vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and stir in the gelatine.

Cool to room temperature, and then remove the vanilla bean from the milk mixture. Gradually whisk the milk into the yoghurt and stir together gently. Pour the mixture through a sieve into six ½-cup ramekins and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.

Raspberry Compote
250 g frozen raspberries
75 g (⅓ cup) caster sugar 
1 tbs water
7 g cornflour mixed with 1 tbs water

Method: In a small saucepan, bring half the frozen raspberries, the sugar and water to just below simmering. To thicken the raspberries, add the cornflour mixture to the raspberries and allow to just simmer but don’t boil as the raspberries will fall apart. Pour the mixture over the remaining berries and set to one side to cool.

To Assemble
Raspberry compote
2-3 shop bought meringues
small mint leaves
fresh raspberries (if in season)

Just before serving, spoon the raspberry compote on top of the set pannacotta. Crumble a meringue into shards and sprinkle over the compote. Using scissors snip some of the micro mint and sprinkle over the top of the berries, before topping with a few fresh berries (if available).



See you all tomorrow with another Christmas week 2015 dessert.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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chocolate compost brittle

chocolate compost brittle

7 Dec 2015

I like to make something from my kitchen to give to my neighbours and friends at Christmas time. I'm planning to make sour cherry amaretti this year but after reading this post from Smitten Kitchen I thought it would be nice to make some brittle as well. 





Inspired by this recipe for compost cookies, I thought I'd make some chocolate coated compost brittle using pretzels, popcorn and peanuts for the 'compost'.



I love peanut brittle and even though it's easy to make, I chose not to make it very often as it's way too addictive. 



I'm warning you because I don't think this version is any less addictive.






Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. My oven is not fan forced so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Chocolate Compost Brittle

1 cup caster sugar

30 mls light corn syrup or golden syrup (I used 15 mls of each)

¼ cup water

30g butter

½ teaspoon bicarb soda (baking soda)

½ cup broken-up chunks of thin salted pretzels

½ cup roasted salted peanuts

½ cup coarsely crumbled salted popcorn pieces

125g coarsely chopped dark chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F. Line a lamington tin (12 x 8 inch tin) with baking paper and place the pretzels, peanuts and popcorn on the tray. Put the tray in the oven to keep the pretzel mixture warm while you're making the toffee.

Combine the sugar, corn or golden syrup and water in a medium saucepan, stirring to combine. Cook without stirring until the temperature of the mixture reaches 150°C. Take the pretzel mixture out of the oven. Remove the saucepan from the heat and quickly stir in the butter, the warmed pretzel mixture and the baking soda (which will make the mixture froth up). Mix until the pretzel mixture is coated in toffee then immediately pour the brittle back into the paper lined pan. Using a knife or an off set spatula flatten out the brittle as much as possible. Leave the brittle to set. 

While the brittle is cooling, melt the chopped chocolate in a small bowl over simmering hot water or in the microwave. I reserve about 15-20% of the chocolate and put the rest of the chocolate into a small bowl. Zap the chocolate on high in 30 second bursts until most of the chocolate has melted. Give the chocolate a good stir until it has completely melted before adding the reserved chocolate. Keep stirring until the chocolate has completely melted.

Once the brittle is cool and has set, gently remove the brittle (still on the baking paper) and then turn it upside down onto a cooling rack. Remove the baking paper, then pour the chocolate over the flat base of the brittle smoothing it out using a spatula. Leave until the chocolate has completely cooled. If you can't wait, you can refrigerate the tray for about 20 minutes to speed up the setting process.

Once the chocolate has set break the brittle into shards. Store the shards of brittle in an airtight tin between waxed or baking paper. As its pretty warm in Sydney at the moment, my tin is stored in the bottom of the fridge to stop the chocolate from melting.

All packed and ready to share.

See you all again next week for a full week of posts for Christmas week 2015.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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shopshoot - weylandts

shopshoot - weylandts

26 Oct 2015

Hi Every-one,

last week I flew down to Melbourne to attend a food photography seminar at the Digital Imaging Show. While I was down there I also visited the David Bowie exhibition at the ACMI. It was amazing but there was so much content that the exhibition really deserved a much larger venue. The music accompanying the exhibition was great and I still have the song 'Life on Mars' on repeat in my head.



Have you ever been to Melbourne? I have family down there, so I've been a regular visitor since I was a little girl. When I was 14, I was considered old enough to fly down solo so I spent a few weeks of the school holidays with my friend Jenny and her family. Even at 14 I could appreciate that Melbourne was a shopping mecca and it still is today.





So shopping was definitely on my to-do list while I was in town. Apart from prop shopping I was on the hunt for furniture for my living room and found my way to Weylandts in Abbotsford. I was looking for an armchair that I'd seen on-line.





Weylandts is housed in a massive old warehouse a short walk from Collingwood Station. Apart from furniture and accessories, it houses a busy cafe, called The Kitchen by Weylandts.





The building is huge with soaring ceilings so it's the perfect canvas for large scale furniture and installations.





A closer look at that amazing chandelier.



Another corner of the building.



I found some bold patterns.



Interesting textures.



This beautiful mirror which reminded me of the peacock cane bed head and chair that's in my old bedroom in Brisbane.





Wall art featuring earthy tones and textures.



A few little piggies





and walls of accessories to provide those final finishing touches.



I did eventually  track down the armchair but as I couldn't fit it into my carry on, I came home with a little something for the kitchen that will make it's début on the blog very soon.



I hope you enjoyed my little visit to Weylandts. See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen,

Bye for now,

Jillian

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