A Day in the Life VI

1. Suprise 50th birthday party for my Aunty - she knew there would be a get together before dinner, but not that I would be there too!
2. Popping jelly babies into a tub of ice cream and scoffing down half with my friend in the car after dinner :)
3. Bowling with some little ones - the youngest (who'd never bowled before) won!
4. Enjoyed three beach walks this week, despite the cold.

Appreciate

My Uni holidays are well and truly kicked off (actually past halfway now eeeep!) and I've been surprised at how much I've done and how many friends and family I've seen over the days - I've literally not had one day off!!

But when you're always setting off to places away from 'home', it's surprisingly easy to forget how lucky we are to live where we do. I'm not going to wholeheartedly admit that I'm completely content in Sydney, as not a day goes by when I don't think of jetting to Europe and England (particularly today on such a lovely grey winter day) BUT I've found over the last few weeks that where I live is beautiful, inspirational, incredible and absolutely gorgeous. 

Here are some snaps to prove to you just how inspiring the beach near my house is: (btw, these photos - excuse the iPhone camera - were taken on three separate days at the same beach in the same week) 

Helter Skelter

I love easy-peasy desserts and snacks that are sure to WOW, but are so simple and quick to throw together that an impromptu get-together with friends is catered for.

Today I share with you a recipe I've been making (throwing together? haha it's hardly a recipes!) since I was around 14, but since my original peanut butter swirls I've established some firm favourites just for this post.

First things first - you only need 8 ingredients (I didn't photograph the puff pastry) to make 5 different kinds of swirls!

Let me present to you the scrummiest pre-dinner canapés that will have your guests begging for more (I know mine were)

First, defrost one sheet of puff pastry until it is workable but not so soft that it begins to get difficult to move. Cut the sheet into rectangles then into half again so you get little triangles of pastry, then line them on your baking tray. Pre-heat the oven to around 200 degrees Celsius.

Once you have a mosaic of puff pastry, break off small (literally tiny) chunks of feta, cut olives in half (I used green stuffed with tomatoes, so that's the red stuff you see) and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for around 15 minutes until crisp - the ones pictured are not yet baked.

Now that canapés are out of the way, it's time to think about dessert.

Firstly, and my favourite, are nutella or peanut butter swirls (maybe next time I'll make nutella AND peanut butter swirls)

Spread some (or a lot) of nutella on a sheet of puff pastry, then roll as the photo above shows. Roll it as tightly as you can, because cutting into them will make them fall apart slightly. Then cut them into little chocolate-filled discs, and bake for slightly less time than the canapés - keep an eye on them, you'll know they're done when they're brown and crispy but not burnt.

Do the same process for the peanut butter.

Now onto the last variation I'm going to share with you is a rather delicious combination of cinnamon, butter and raisins. 

Like the nutella and peanut butter versions, spread the pastry sheet with butter then sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. Slightly press in some raisins before rolling and cutting into disks; you know the drill.

^ these were delicious but because of the raisins I might suggest cutting the pastry into triangles like we did for the canapés - plus more raisins get in every bite then!!!

Let me know what variations you like best, or give me some of your recipes!!!

Colour of Your Dreams

The past two weeks I've been so lucky to experience two great shows Sydney has to offer - the first being the Vivid Light Show, and the second the Lion King.

The Lion King was incredible - an explosion of colour, music, lights and staging were so poignant that it brought back memories of when I watched the performance more than 10 years ago!

Today, though, I'm going to focus on Vivid - although it's been running in Australia for 6 years now, I've never seen it. 

Dress from: SheInside

We had bought tickets for a cruise around Sydney Harbour, and so after a rush of not knowing where to board (wharf 9 hehe) we perused the harbour, with unobstructed views of the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and the buildings around Circular Quay which had laser lights creating spectacular exhibitions. 

My personal favourite? The Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a plethora of patterns and colours bouncing off the building. Absolutely stunning!

The only downfall of the cruise was that we didn't get to see any of the installations on the walkway around the Harbour - no screaming at realistic looking (and sounding) butterflies....

BUT last night my boyfriend and I went again to Vivid and this time we walked around from Circular Quay to Darling Harbour - it was the last weekend of Vivid and it was so super packed with people!

I would definitely recommend Vivid to anyone in Sydney at the moment - last night tonight so check it out!! xx

Lemon Tree

I'd like to say the classic lemon bar recipe I'm going to share was made using lemons from my lemon tree. 

But that would be lying. 

In fact, a few weeks ago I went outside to the garden and found an absolute lemon-scented mess littering the ground - apparently, the birds in my area had thought it quite fun to take a single bit out of every. single. lemon on the tree!

So this recipe was made using shop-bought lemons, but don't let that deter you - you'd be hard pressed to find a better lemon bar recipe than this one (I'll back up my claim with a lemon bar - care to try some?)

I adapted my recipe from Joy the Baker and here's how you can make your very own:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350F) and line an 8x8" tin with baking paper.

2. Cream 113g of butter with 1/2 cup sugar using a stand-mixer (I use the KitchenAid) for about 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup of plain flour and a pinch of salt and don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl! 

3. Pour the crust mixture into the tin and press it down evenly over the base of the tin with your fingertips. To smooth it out, I used the back of a spoon and rubbed the crust.

4. Bake the crust for 15-18 minutes until browned. Make sure you bake it in the top third of the oven, else it will take a lot longer for your base to bake (and that would mean longer until you get to eat lemon bars, so we can't have that, can we?)

5. While the crust is baking, whisk 2 large eggs with 3/4 cup white sugar until the mixture gets slightly thicker. Add 1 tsp fresh lemon zest (from your lemon tree or otherwise - pesky birds!) and 3 tablespoons of plain flour and 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice.

6. Take your crust out of the oven once its 15-18 minutes are up, and pour your lemony liquid on top!

7. Bake for a further 18-20 minutes until the top layer doesn't jiggle in the middle. Again, make sure your tray is in the top 1/3 of the oven!

8. Leave to cool completely while still in the tin, then take the slab out of the tin and cut into squares, dusting with a heavy dousing of icing sugar - the sweet really does help the sour.

A Day in the Life V

1. One month with this boy <3 
2. Lucky enough to see Vivid Sydney on a Harbour Cruise with family
3. Goats at work to mow the lawn (hehe they love all scraps!)
4. Played barefoot lawn bowls at Paddo Bowls for a friend's birthday 

See How They Fly

A few weeks ago, on a chilly and grey day, I skipped Uni and spent the day instead with my dad - we'd won a competition for an airside tour of Sydney airport, and boy was it great!!

We hopped on a bus and began our way out onto the live runway...

 Standing behind some barricades, we all snapped away, wearing fluro yellow vests and barcoded-name tags (admittedly we look a bit dorky hehe).

From this vantage point we got some fantastic photos, with the planes landing right over Airport Drive and in our direct line of sight.

The only thing threatening our day was the rain - and when we had had our fill of this area and jumped back on the bus for a spin around all three of Sydney's runways - our bus stopped. A blue light was flashing on a pole above us: lightning within a 10km radius. 

Luckily for us, the danger passed and we moved onto a part of the tour I wasn't particularly looking forward to, but I was dead wrong. The bus pulled up into the parking bay of Sydney Airport's Fire Service, and the fluro yellow beasts within were exposed.

One lucky member got his name called out, and was firing that strong stream of water from the firetruck. Despite the light but persistent rain chilling me to my bones, it was still fun to be hit by the truck's water 'spout' as it was moved from side to side to create a sort of hazy-water-spiral.

As the rain began to get heavier, though, we moved onto our final plane-watching spot, which was the closest to a live runway we had gotten all day!

I had a brilliant day - could not stop talking about it for the rest of the afternoon, and hardly wanted to give back my safety vest hehe!

If you fancy a day well-spent at the airport, the day is run by the YSSY forum, and was not limited only to this day. The Sydney Airport open day was run for the Friday and Saturday, with a trivia night and dinner also available to win! If you don't live in Sydney, never fear, for the open days run Australia-wide :) I'll definitely be putting my name in the draw again next year!