Christmas mistletoe manicure and Muffins!

First off I have repainted my nails :) A simple french manicure embellished but glitter and nail art on the thumb and ring fingers ( a simple lil mistletoe).

Secondly the topic of muffins! Simple delectable moist morsels that can either be sweet or savoury. Who doesn't like muffins? When I briefly worked in a bakery/cafe it was our fastest to sell out, big muffins just look so appetizing with their chunky fruits and delicious aroma! But I only have a standard sized muffin pan and I suppose that will have to do! Most people love the quick and easy box method of muffin mix but why not make your own? It's too easy and anyone can do it once you have a good no fail basic muffin mix.
I am a serial googler and this is the recipe I found, I decreased the amount of sugar from 3/4 to 1/2 cup but obviously it depends on your preference and filling. My hubby loves blueberry and banana but today I decided to make bacon & cheese which are 2 of his favourite things!

*I didn't have bacon so I used imitation bacon bits that we had stashed but rarely use.


This makes appox. a dozen but if you are like me and fill it to the top then well I only managed 10.
2 cups all purpose flour
1tbs baking powder
1/2 white sugar (less/none for savoury)
1 cup milk (I ran out of milk at 3/4 so I added 1/4 water makes no diff to me)
1/4 cup veg oil (I used canola)
1 egg


whatever you want to put ( I added 1/4 bacon bits and the stub of cheese I had leftover in my fridge and some italian herbs, pepper and garlic salt.)
Preheat oven 400F
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, beat the egg separately add the milk and oil and mix.
Add the wet mix to the dry and combine with a spoon it'll be lumpy and thick but don't fret and over mix it!
spoon into muffin pans and bake for appox. 25mins mine we perfect at this time I checked at 20mins and rotated the pan. 

Winter Holiday nails

Getting into the spirit early as we still don't have a tree yet but atleast I have these to express my winter cheer for the coming Christmas Holidays! 

The right hand features a little snowman on a glittery silver and light blue french tip. The rest of the nails are just glittery gold french tips. The left hand features a stripy candy cane on the same glittery tip as the snowman.

You will need french tip white polish for the ring fingers and a metallic gold polish for the other fingers. Silver, light blue and gold glitters. A base and top coat and gold glitter top coat.
Paint your french tips first and let them dry thoroughly, use a dotting tool or the back of a small paint brush to make the snowman and a couple dots for snowflakes, paint the candy cane in white on the other hand. Go back to the gold tips and do a coat of gold glitter top coat on your tip then dip a make up sponge into the gold glitter and sponge on to your tip. do this several times then let it dry thoroughly before brushing excess off the nails and applying top coat. The blue and silver glitter tips are done in the same way but using only the clear top coat instead of glitter top coat. paint the details on to the snowman and the candy cane, let it dry then apply your top coat.


To complete my christmassy nails I painted candy cane stripes on my tootsies!

The help and That Chocolate Pie...Minnie's Chocolate Pie.

This year I celebrated my first thanksgiving...I had no idea what the heck to make besides a Shepherd's Pie and a chocolate pie but not just any chocolate pie! - Minnie's chocolate pie. So I googled and I found this Minny's Chocolate Pie...is this really THE recipe? who the hell knows! but I googled the recipe after I bought what I thought the recipe would use - which sadly was nothing I bought except the frozen dough pie crust. So naturally I was like this BIG FROWNY FACE...then I rant about why we have to live out in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully the great thing about baking is you can always substitute ingredients and still get a pretty amazing result!

So here is my easy as pie not fancy but what you would find in your fridge/pantry recipe for Chocolate pie.

1 frozen short crust pie crust (FYI I don't know what it is about the stater bros pie crust but I dislike it greatly! its kinda too salty...)

about 3oz mini semi sweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons of salted butter 

2 cups of french vanilla half and half

2 large eggs beaten

preheat your oven to 350F centre rack. * as you make the filling its a good idea to pre bake or "dry out" your pie crust. Do whatever you want to prevent a soggy bottom!

In a bowl over a pot of boiling water, place the choc chips and the butter, using a hand whisk mix it as it melts. Then add a dash of the half and half, mix well and continue to slowly add the half and half mixture into the chocolate while whisking ( don't just dump it in all at once or too fast as the chocolate will start to solidify!) til it is combined and silky. Beat your eggs in a separate bowl then slowly whisk in your chocolate mixture. Place crust onto a baking tray that can hold a bit of water. then fill your crust, place in oven then pour hot water into the baking tray. bake til firm but wobbly in the centre at about 25mins you will want to check. the last thing you want is a souffled custard pie! Be careful removing the tray from the oven, the gently remove the pie from the tray and cool thoroughly before chilling.

 Ant and I don't really have anyone out here so we invited a couple of his marine buddies who like us were stranded and our closest neighbours. We got the biggest turkey we could find 24lbs of birdy goodness to be exact. Seriously I didn't think we would have enough food besides the turkey but damn we were so stuffed, we didn't even get to dessert. But damn that pie was delicious when we finally got to taste it!

Best ever no fail chocolate chip cookies!

My personal recipe which I adapted from Martha Steward's Chocolate Chunk Cookies
makes appox. 3 dozen cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
16 tablespoons (1 cup) of salted butter/unsalted plus 1 tablespoon of salt
Half a bag each of mini semi sweet choc chips and heath toffee bits
Preheat your oven to 350F,
Whisk or sift your flours together in a bowl. In a seperate bowl cream butter and the sugars til pale and fluffy, whisk in egg and vanilla extract til combined on low then mix in the flour in two parts til just combined (do not over mix!) Lastly mix in the choc chips and toffee.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter on to a non stick or greased tray. 1.5inches apart so bout 6 cookies on your standard size baking tray. Flatten them a bit in rounds then pop into your oven for about 10-13 mins til the edges turn golden brown. Left sit about a min or two on tray before removing on to cooling rack. Its ok if the cookies seem to stick a bit as the toffee bits make the bottom a little sticker when hot.
I use salted butter spread cos thats what my hubby prefers to buy, which is ok cos you wont need to add extra salt to your mix. Also using both plain and self raising flours minuses the need for baking soda or baking powder which is handy if you have neither!
Another handy trick for perfectl evenly sized cookies is to use a measuring spoon and leveling it off. Its quick and easy!

Party in the USA!!

numero uno!

       Yeah not only another annoying Miley Cyrus song but my sparkly awesome nails themed red, white and blue just seemed fitting on this occasion. Only 10 days to go!


       I came out with 2 different designs a tricoloured half moon mani and a simple french tip mani.


     You can use nail guides but I did mine free handedly, not bad if you ask me I'm getting better at it!

DIY Highlighting

Ok so I tried to highlight my hair with this Nordic Blonde highlighting kit which I found under my mums bathroom sink. It's apparently only for blonde hair so it didn't give me any drastic results but it made my hair look naturally multi-toned.  

Window light.

No pic yet but I touched up the roots that were still kinda darker because I kinda missed them or whatever lol but I chose to do it with the N10 Golden Brown because I didn't want to become full on blonde...but erm now I am what you would call dark blonde/lightest golden brown...Its light even in the bathroom light so I can only imagine when I go in the sun what it'll look like, but it looks really nice and it suits my skin tone so I don't look awkward with this shade. 

Cherry Blossom Nails!

This weeks design is LOVE4NAILS cherry blossom design.

My nails aren't as long as hers, nor am I as steady lol but I'm loving this design! I used a pearly pink instead of the pearl white and blue bird instead of the bikini green, also used a gold glitter over my base coat as I didn't have a shimmery polish like hers.

Oops...last weeks nail art.

This is the finished result it looked amazing in the daylight.

In all the excitement I didn't post last weeks nails...I only did a mani lol because I got lazy to do the tootsies! Anyways I did artsy paint splatter nails, bright blues, greens, red, pink, orange and yellow against the dark grey metallic polish. I started off with the red first and turns out, it could be a great design for Halloween - bloody talons! 

kinda dark but you get the idea! It also helped that
the polish was a bit thick too.

Random side note: Just a little something I whipped up at work a couple of weeks ago. Pure Perfection.

Bob Marley

New hair, new nails

Somang Clinic Color Y10 Lemon Yellow

              I've always been the girl who if I DIY my own hair colour regardless of what I chose ended up with hair that was either pretty much black brown or reddish dark brown...it always takes a couple of weeks for it to become the colour it was meant to be in the first place...By that time my darker regrowth has started to appear! I am an Asian Aussie, my hair is impossible to lighten without harmful bleachers or expensive pro jobs at the salon, not to mention the wide range of useless dyes (unless you are a Caucasian Aussie that is!) that are unsuitable for dying Asian hair.
              After extensive googling I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to get my moneys worth in results I would have to use only Asian hair dyes. The most common is Liese or Palty which are both Japanese made hair dyes - pretty much unavailable here in Perth, however one of my local Korean marts does sell a Korean made dye called Somang or "Man with Flower" clinic color. It is henna based and does not reek of ammonia like most lightening hair dyes, it definately left my hair super soft! At $17 it is pretty pricey but Seoul Mart is selling it at the moment for $13.60 (20% off), I bought one box and was able to dye my whole head (my hair is long, like its half way down my back near my bra line to be exact!). After much deliberation between N7 Golden Brown and Y10 Lemon Yellow, I decided on the much lighter Lemon Yellow - The name makes it sound like some type of fake anime Yellow but It is nothing like that It has a Gold tinge but no brassy hues like a Golden Brown dye normally has on my hair, its kinda ashy in that aspect yet still quite a warm colour...I wish I had taken a pic of the before and after colour scale but I forgot! 
           The dye is a reddish colour because of the henna and it doesn't change colour when mixed with the developer, most dyes have a white dye that changes over time when mixed with developer. It's very thick and does not drip which is fantastic, plus the kit includes a plastic cover to go over your back and shoulders - very handy! The Korean shampoo and conditioner that comes with the dye is awesome it smells nice, yet not overpowering (ahem Garnier I'm talking about you!!) and a little goes a long way so I still have enough for 1-2 washes plus I still have to scalp mask to try. I'm loving the results it's so even and it looks like I have highlights too as my hair was a light ash brown(slightly darker than the new colour) with 2inches at least of my natural dark brown, I also put a little on my eyebrows for 10mins to lighten them a bit. Also I have to mention that this hair dye didn't stain my scalp or my skin even though I didn't put lotion around my hair line like I normally do. I left the dye in for 30mins - I time from after the dye is applied not whilst applying like my sister does, it's how I always done it.

My colour before but with the dark regrowth
 cos this pic was when I got it dyed
the last time, it has red undertones.

You get the point lol..I did lighten my brows
to match too.

So on to my nails - just a simple one this time. Kissy lipstick marks in red acrylic and hot pink nail polish on a dark grey metallic background, for matching toes I opted for hot pink base and the dark grey metallic polish for the lips. Of cos I always use a base and top coat on my nails!

Kiss & tell mani

Matching toes.

Meoooow!

How cute is this? Hello kitty french tips, you can do as many kittys as you want but I only did my index and ring fingers, I did glittery red and gold tips on my other fingers. ^_^

Me love COOKIE!

super easy and quick Cookie monster design!

Who loves cookies? The lovable big blue guy from Seasame St. - Cookie Monster!! And is there anything cuter than a cookie monster mani/pedi? Hell naaah! well right now for me anyways...the proof is all in the nail! I used a dark blue (Jay Jays in Sultry- Navy) for Cookie Monsters head followed by 2 coats of bright blue glitter (Ultra 3 in Blue Glitter), his eyes and mouth are painted on with Chromocrylic Acrylic paint (white and black). For the choc chip cookies I used 3 coats of a shimmer light brown (NYC Colour in Apricot), 1 coat of Ultra 3 in Gold Glitter and dotted NYC Colour in Plum Professor for the chocolater chips. I finished my nails of with a generous coat of NYC Colour Non Chip top coat. You could use non shimmery/sparkly colours too but I just love that added sparkle!

Adorable tootsies!

Nail art and anime.

2nd Attempt...much better!

         I seems strange to say but my new hobby has me inspired to be artsy, so I pulled out my craft box...What started as a hunt on autobot/decepticon faces for nail decals has ended with me reinventing the autobots by sketching G1 animated transformers faces on to the new version of the cartoon characters bodies. Sounds kinda weird but it is easy to do and looks ton better than the new cartoon - which is a sad reinvention of the classic characters.

Onigiri & sushi mani

Anyways...back to the nails. The pikachu heads were easy enough to paint but the lil details like placement of eyes and mouths were harder not to mention my black & white nail polishes with sticky and dried way too fast so today I redid them with my new yellow polish (suprisngly good cheap nail polish!) Ultra 3 in Honolulu, and my old acrylic paint (black & white), I used revlon in cherries in the snow for the cheeks. Top coat is NYC colour in non chip (NYC colour is the same as Ultra 3).

First attempt...only the ring one is cute!

I drew this for Ant...Ratchet the autobot medic.

1 step closer and a whole lot of relief!

Ahhh thats not much to say but I have finally booked all my flights and everything trip wise is in order! I cannot wait to be home with the hubby and puppy!!

Purrrty nails DIY

This was my matching hand. Love themed.

This one is dedicated to my hubby! A.F

        

         

           Everytime I go get a mani, I see these cute lil designs on fake nails - teeny lil cherries, tropical sunsets, animal prints and the likes. So pretty and delicate, surely you can't do it yourself right? WRONG!! Jackie always has pretty nails but hers are acrylic and I hate acrylic nails - they're nice til they grow off then a pain to get off. Leaving the only other option - painting, which is simple til you have to do your other hand! Now I'm fine with the painting part but when it comes to the the detail my hand gets the wobbles - resting my left hand on my knee really helps stablise and so do easy designs. There are a zillion tutorials online on youtube but Cutepolish is by far my favourite her designs are so quick and easy to do, I even managed to paint my right hand with to trouble! I love how you can use everyday items like art acrylic paint, toothpicks, newspaper etc. to create simple but totally adorable looks! I am totally addicted! Today I painted both my mum and lil sisters nails and redid mine even though I only just water marbled them last night!

Marbled (Hot Pink, Orange & shimmery
orange that looks gold)
This look is easy but really messy!!

Cherries on my sisters nails on shimmery white (my
 mum had the same design but on an matte white background)

Mine - Lots of shimmery pink roses on a pale blue background. This design like the cherries is by Cutepolish, but I added my own touch with a couple of rose buds (dots) It reminds me of a cute lil rosey china tea cup!

I'm not sure what's next...maybe a hello kitty french manicure or this...


Pikachu nails!! they are totally KAWAII!

Brainstorming macaron flavours...

Jackie and I at work!

          This Friday is my sweetie pie Jackie's birthday and I decided I would make her a mini macaron tower for her birthday. I also wanted to experiment with inventing and mixing up my own macaron flavours...I really want to try making Red berry macarons (strawberry shell with mixed berry jam), Chai latte (marsala shell with vanilla bean buttercream), I really want to make pistachio but for the sake of the lemons falling off our tree - Lemon tart (lemon shell with lemon curd). Might also experiment with different nut meals, I just read that Australian almond meal has the tendency to be a lil on the wet side and you should dry it out first but to be honest I have never done this and it has caused zero problems for me. Just as it's not necessary to age your whites (dehydrates them), never had a problem either way! Ahhh this week is going to be an exciting week in the kitchen. It is hard to explain the joy I get as I eagerly watch my lil babies growing in the oven! ^_^

Mutant lemons from our tree! They are completely organic and we get
more and more fruit every year, occassionally I bottle my own lemonade
concentrate - perfect summer thirst quencher! Simply boil appox.
1:1 ratio of sugar and lemon juice (depends on your taste and the fruit)

         *Update*
The lemon macarons were lovely but next time I would fill before serving cos the curd made it a bit too moist and delicate. The berry ones are yummy but I ran out of jam and filled some with curd for strawberry lemonade flavoured ones!! The chais did not turn out :( too much air - it grew a foot then kept growing dome shaped and cracked so sad!! T_T they collapsed so I toasted them and made chai snaps - the flavour is to die for but next time I will just grind the spices instead of using the instant chai mix (might work better!) but for now I'm sick of the kitchen lol I have a new hobby instead!

Things to look forward to this year...

My kitchen is a no-bake zone this weekend, I'm working at the resturant tonight then I have 30mins to race to the otherside of Perth to work at the bar, then working again on sunday at the bar ( thank goodness I avoided the sunday lunch shift at the resturant!). Hence I do not have nadda to blog about...But the things I'm looking forward to this year (or what is left of it!).

1. In 6wks or less I will be flying home to the hubby & furry child

2. Halloween - for all you Americans, I'm sure it's nothing new cos it's a big deal there, but over here it's not widely celebrated. Hence when I walk to work every Halloween in costume I get the ooh look at the weirdo goth vampire Asian or the likes!

3. November...erm why November you might ask - well the Marine Corps Ball duh!! I've only been to one ball ever and that was 5yrs ago - senior year...sigh...gosh I'm OLD!!! lol I'm going all out unconventional and wearing a Saree (traditional Indian dress), It really does show in all the right places without being too much!

4. A white Christmas. As everyone knows Christmas is in December regardless of the season, being in the southern hemisphere it's summer - the season to be jolly around a BBQ pit whilst drinking beer and prancing around in a bikini. "throw another shrimp on the barbie" - Not this year thank you! It's about the snowmen, beanies and nog (minus the egg) this year!

5. Snowboarding - which has been in hiatus in the storage compartment under the bed for the past year!

6. Not sure where this fits in but ordering Alpaca yarn online from Catnips Yarns, natural undyed yarns at bulk prices!

Jobs..

Americano..

I hate job hunting! The countless waiting rooms, interviews and then the dreaded suspence as you cross your fingers for a call back. I loath it with a passion, although I've never had a problem getting or keeping one, the process never gets easier. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to doing all that again in Twentynine Palms...Now I'm not going to say I love my current jobs all the time but there are some things about it I'm going to miss...like my work mates esp my little Jackie!! and my cool boss Mike @ the euro.

But most of all this...

Making countless layer cocktail shooters. (cowboys, squash frogs, B52s...)

Or fruity Bob Marley's for my regulars.

What can I say lol I am addicted to

 making layered shooters! 



inventing my own shooters - this one
is for the Greek resturant I work at.



Kasutera - honey sponge cake.

My terrible cutting -_-'

          Mmm mmm...Kasutera, it should be called honey cloud cake! it's so moist, light and really brings out the flavour of the Marri honey I used. The recipe uses a lot sugar, which I might cut down on next time I make it. It makes enough for a 25cm square cake which I cut into 3, I found it really easy to cut using a long serrated bread knife.
       

              I read that kasutera is not a good sponge for shortcake/sandwich cake but it must be some sort of myth cos I found it so easy to work with and cut. Simply turn the cut on its side and cut it in half, I spread lil cream on each half then piped 3 rows of koshian paste in the middle of the bottom half with a row of cream on either side place the top half on and coat cake with remaining cream. Pipe some decorations, put on a nice plate and voila!
It really is the perfect tea time cake, with a nice hot cup of bitter black or green tea.

*Tips for next time I will beat the egg mixture a lil longer and tap the pan a bit harder next to pop the bigger air bubbles - there aren't many but there definately were a few in my cake!

Matcha Kasutera

            The perfect sponge has always eluded me, often over cooked or undercooked or with huge air cavities...with the little matcha I had left, I really wanted something nice that would go with my leftover koshian cream - A bit of a fancy slice with cream in the middle! I heard a genoise sponge would better suit my purpose, however the japanese dessert book I have uses a Kasutera like sponge for layered desserts. Half the recipes I found seperated eggs, the other half did not. Not sure what the difference would be if you chose to do it that way...but I went for not seperating the eggs. You simply beat them up with grandulated sugar over a pot of hot water (to thoroughly combine sugar and eggs) til it's all pale, fluffy and mousse like (30-40mins)! Then add a mixture of honey and milk while whisking (NOT beating, use a hand whisk) before whisking in one tablespoon at a time of flour. It's tedious and gets harder and harder but you won't have any flour pockets which is extremely important to create the dense light nature of the kasutera. A baked Kasutera should be spongey and spring back when pushed down on. The recipe says to seal in plastic and cool in the fridge - I hope it won't be soggy!! I feeling quite fatigued tonight so it's bed time for me with my fingerscrossed that my Kasutera will be well like a Kasutera - moist and light like a cloud!

You an find the recipe here @ Just Hungry
* I mixed and sifted my matcha with my flour, otherwise if you want to flavour you could try different types of honey.

On a side note seeing as I have appox. 6wks left in Perth, I'm teaching my mum how to make macarons. It's tough finding powdered flavourings and colourings here so I'm going to dry some sugar free kool aid - they're so vabriant colourwise and I'm hoping the flavour will come through in the shell. I googled to see if others have attempted this with no luck...so we shall see - I'm hoping for success as there are even less ingredients you can find out in our area Yucca Valley...Stay tuned folks!

Matcha Macarons Take 2! + Peanut Macarons.

Macarons Take 2

     Today I commenced take 2 of making the perfect matcha macaron and macaron in general...and I learnt 2 extremely important things - 1. temperature and age does not matter! And to think yesterday most my macarons were cracked and under cooked, it was a hugeeee improvement. I made perfect macaronage separating eggs and letting them sit whilst preparing the other ingredients and 2. letting the "crust" form/ making sure the shell felt dry to touch before baking was essential for nice smooth macarons. I used fan forced and preheated at 175C then lowered to 150C when I put the first try in, turned the heat up for a couple of minutes in between each tray to ensure proper temp (made it easier to know when it was cooked). I also had a trial tray that I put in first to calculate baking time and to ensure optimum baking conditions - the result? every tray I baked pied, rose evenly and cooked. They all came off the tray without any hassle AND I baked on a single tray with a single sheet of baking paper!

*I should mention on a side note that I used one less eggwhite - so 90g eggwhites...30g castor sugar. My batter was not as runny as yesterdays!

Like I said I only have a star nozzle haha but
 I love the unique ridges on the macaron.

The bottom looks like this when cooked
and peals right off the baking sheet

I also tried making peanut ones using only ground roasted peanuts, it formed a very smooth runny batter after only a few turns...I think next time I will put more peanut meal to make it denser or a little bit of almond meal...which I didn't add as I didn't want it to take away the peanut flavour. The resulting macarons were very airy and a few had ruffled pied. But the crunch, chewiness and flavour are to die for esp. combined with the bitter dark chocolate ganache! 

As far as the matcha macarons were concerned...they were perfect! I made a 2nd batch of Koshian with only 1/2cup of caster sugar, spread a some leftover ganache on the shells then piped on stars of koshian. The flavour was much richer and taster without the added cream and the texture was just lovely! This will be my filling of choice everytime I make matcha macarons, its very traditional Japanese in terms of ingredients and just sensational!

Macarons...

So today I made the macaron shells...I suppose my heat wasn't 100% even in my oven, T_T resulting in some cracked shells bordering some decent looking macarons. I am going to try again tomorrow for 2 reasons - 1. I have a lot of koshian cream leftover and 2. my strive for perfection. But with one less egg white and they will petite sized macarons instead!

Here are some pics of today...

Add your sugar slowly at slow speed. when
 I get a few ripples I stop and swap to my whisk.

Til I get this...stiff shiny glossy peaks. STOP!
Don't over beat. I whisk and check a lot when I'm close.

Add to your powder mix and fold 50 strokes max.

Fill your piping ball, I used a big star nozzle cos
I don't have a plain one but it's ok cos it smooths up.



Like so :) rap & tap your pan to release the big
bubbles then let it sit for an hour whilst preheating your oven.

 They took about 14-16mins to cook cos they were bigger. Cool them and pipe your cream on! They taste better overnight in the fridge but if you don't have paitence like me, have a nice mug of bitter black tea or matcha and a macaron(or 2 or 3 or 4...they are too good!).
In hindsight I would've used less cream but I was using a whatever was leftover in the carton and didn't want to leave the most useless lil bit in the fridge, but it makes for a very light sweet chewy treat all round so I didn't mind.