Cocktail Fridays: the apple bourbon

October 24 2014
4 Comments

When I told Ant I was going to make a cocktail with bourbon and Appletiser he wasn’t that keen …. “does Appletiser go with bourbon?” he asked sort of sceptically.  I said, oh come on, you know you’re going to drink it (he loves my new cocktail Fridays thing because I experiment with the actual cocktails on Saturdays!  Win).

Anyway, hard-core bourbon drinkers might not think this is a legit combo but it is!  Bourbon being rich and dark with a dash of maple syrup works well with the fizzy, fresh apple flavour and a thin, crispy slice of apple.

apple bourbon recipe

 

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apple bourbon

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Bruschetta toasted cheese sarnie

October 19 2014
14 Comments

Well I love bruschetta and toasted cheese sandwiches are my favourite thing ever so why not combine them?

You could always slowly roast the cherry tomatoes beforehand, however I prefer them fresh and steeped in the olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing beforehand.  The combination of melted, decadent cheese with fresh tomatoes is really delicious.

bruschetta toasted sarnie

bruschetta toasted sarnie

bruschetta toasted sarnie

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Cocktail Fridays: watermelon, strawberry & vodka slushies

October 17 2014
5 Comments

Remember slushies on a hot day at the beach from the 7-Eleven?  Well these are so much better!

For one thing, they’re made with real, fresh, summer fruit and for another, well they have a shot of vodka in them.  They’re great for having people over and were fun and sparkly on a hot day a while back and you can easily make them without the voddie and have an awesome summer drink for kids.  Oh and obv. use seedless watermelon but then I don’t think the seeded kind is really around anymore.

It’s easiest to make the fruit mixture the day before, for freezing, then the next day you can just spoon it into glasses with strawberries and mint for your delighted guests!

watermelon strawberry vodka slushie

watermelon vodka slushies

watermelon slushie

watermelon slushies

watermelon slushies

watermelon slushie

watermelon slushies

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Flickr love – Jaimie Wylie Photography

October 15 2014
3 Comments

I spotted these sweet animal photos (the soft tones and colours!) on Jaimie’s photostream recently, which manage to show so much personality and gentleness; the kind eyes on the giraffe and the babies and mamas cuddling just made my day!

Check out the rest of Jaimie’s beautiful photostream here and click on the photos below to get to the original source/s.

 





Photos used with kind permission from Jaimie Wylie

Spicy maple pecan roast sweet potatoes

October 12 2014
6 Comments

I’m not quite ready to give up sweet potato even though it’s already hot here and turning the oven on is a bit of an effort.

This is a side dish but to be honest, I had a bowl of these for lunch on their own; sweet, caramelised, spicy and with a gorgeous, fragrant crunch from toasted pecans, it was a sort of decadent, dessert-like treat in a way, however is really quite healthy.  This is one of those dishes which is great for Christmas or holiday events; I made a similar dish a few years back as a side for Christmas Day roast chicken and it was really appreciated.

maple roast sweet potato

 

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Plants which help bees

October 1 2014
5 Comments

As most people know, honeybees are becoming very scarce to the point of extinction in certain parts of the world, due to climate change, pollution and loss of natural habitats (as with a lot of animal, vegetation and insect life – devastating and so scary).  As you can imagine, this means far less healthy fruit and vegies, flowers and no more honey (!) , as these beautiful, industrious and essential insects die out.

So, inspired by Biome’s latest newsletter, I thought I’d link this beautiful print below by Hannah Rosengren.  We can’t change things overnight however there is something we can do as individuals, whether you have a huge lush garden (so jealous if you do) or a small deck balcony with a few pots and things on it; grow things!

And more importantly, grow these plants which attract honey bees.

 

Print by: Hannah Rosengren

No bake lime strawberry cheesecake jars

September 28 2014
13 Comments

lime strawberry baby cheesecakes

I love eating little things; tiny packs of cheese, fun-size choccie bars, small packs of chips, that type of thing.  Naturally I end up eating way more than I should (instead of you know, eating one big packet) but there’s something about smaller portioned food.  So I had some cream cheese in the fridge to use the other day and thought how cute teensy tiny cheesecakes would be in some of my old jars.  Probably seems a bit hipster, what with the jars and all, but never fear, no hipsters in this house.

So if you feel like some easy cheesecake action with the charm of a childhood dessert, these creamy, sweet, lime flavoured puddings on a spicy biscuit base with luscious strawberry topping will do the trick.  They are kind of fabulous if I do say so myself.

strawberry cheesecake jars

strawberry cheesecake jars

strawberry lime cheesecake

strawberry cheesecake jars

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