Mermaid

♫ ♫ Mermaid - Train

Photos taken by Belinda Lansley

Dress:        Asos
Bracelets:  pearls a gift (from Qatar) and starfish bracelet from Santorini, Greece
Necklace:  My favourite black pearls from South America
Nailpolish: OPI Mermaid's Tears" and "Gone Gonzoi"

Taste of Summer

I haven't blogged in ages eeek! Here are some photos I took over the summer of what I've been eating or making.  I have had two high teas - one at a friend's house which was lovely and one at the Ellerslie Flower Show in Christchurch. 

Autumn - Blackberry season - love berries, love any sort of berry, not so fond of colder weather.  Unfortunately we have had a drought this summer. Has been a lovely warm summer, but not good for farmers and apparently it's not a good season for blackberries either.  Raspberries are still around now but as soon as we get our first frost I suppose that will be the end of them.  I'm wanting to make an apple and blackberry crumble this year instead of a pie.

 

I have heaps more photos to put up. Some from my box brownie which took about 6 weeks to get developed.  I also have a fashion post coming up!
 

Holidays

Like everyone, I love holidays, but I only have 4 more days left and then I'm back to work for another year.  Holidays always go by so quickly don't they. I never went away - just stayed around home for 3 weeks.  I had two day trips to Gore Bay and Akaroa yesterday and that is about it.  Here are some photos of Gore Bay and Akaroa with my favourite tree, the Pohutukawa, flowering in both places, my gorgeous wee nieces in Akaroa, my sister's homemade vanilla icecream, the amazing lemon mascarpone gelato I had in Akaroa yesterday which totally blew my mind (probably the best gelato I've had apart from the first ever gelato I tried in Venice which was also lemon! Yes Amy I'm sure you remember it too), the pissaladiere which I made for lunch to take to Akaroa (out of Annabel Langbein's Simple Pleasures cookbook). 

 

And yes no fashion posts!  I'm not doing so well for my New Year's blog resolution which was to feature more fashion.  Must try harder.

 

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer holidays down under.  Must say it's pretty darn windy today and the sound of the wind kept me up all night last night. Looked at the clock and it was 4am.  Good day to get washing dry though haha - must look on the positive side I guess! I went to the local laundromat to wash my bed linen. My comforter and blankets etc are way too big to put in the washing machine so it was quite handy. It's so strange to think we have a laundromat here, as it's not something New Zealanders use much. It used to be in a line of shops but they have since been demolished and so it lives in a metal shed like a lot of shops these days.  So I spent part of my afternoon sitting in a shed washing my bed linen. My blanket is dry already - only took about 10 minutes to dry. Crazy - though it is 31 degrees outside and very very windy.

The one thing about a wind like this - always makes me think of Mary Poppins or the movie Chocolat.  Like a wind like this brings some sort of magic...

 

Don't get blown away!
 

Raspberry Sorbet

The kind you find in an icecream store, raspberry sorbet I think I loooooove you!






Raspberry Sorbet Recipe

Ingredients

6 cups raspberries - fresh or frozen (I used fresh ones)
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Method

1. Heat water and sugar in a small saucepan at a medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.  Remove from the heat, set aside and let it cool.
2. Place the raspberries and lemon juice in a food processor and process until smooth - about 1 minute.
3. Strain the raspberry mixture through a fine sieve, pressing down on the solids and scraping the inside of the sieve with either a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until mostly seeds remain.
4. Whisk the sugar syrup into the raspberry puree.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Place into a deep container - or use a loaf tin - and put into the freezer.
6. Whisk every 30 minutes for a couple of hours to stop the mixture from crystalising.
7. Place in food processor 2 hours before serving - process and place back into container and freeze once more. This will make the sorbet nice and smooth. The first time I tried it, it was too crunchy for my liking and whizzing it up 2 hours before makes it creamy and smooth.

Sweet Home

Happy New Year!

 

This last week I've spent my time at home cooking/baking some tasty bites, enjoying the lovely sunshine, cleaning up a bit, eating yummy things and relaxing. New Year's Day is almost like another Christmas dinner day for my family.  It only started a couple of years ago but especially last year when my family didn't really have a great Christmas due to earthquakes and sickness and so we made up for it on New Year's day.  For Christmas day this year we had roast lamb which is very Kiwi and baked salmon. For New Year, however, it's all about the turkey.  I love turkey. Have it once a year and that's it and so it's kind of special. Brined and basted in maple syrup and butter - so so good haha. I also made a sponge cake with berries and cream. Annabel Langbein's recipe out of her new book Simple Pleasures.  It's quite different to my normal sponge recipe, but I watched her latest series on TV and her sponge looked so amazing I had to try it.  All I can say is, awesome! I filled it with whipped cream, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries, with some vanilla extract and a little bit of icing sugar.

 

Hope everyone has had a fantastic first day of 2013. May you have good health and happiness throughout the year, and of course lots of good food and fabulous fashion!