Easy Peasy: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have 30 minutes? Want a quick and easy recipe with mouthwatering results?  Look no further because....

You can make these!!

I have been making these Chocolate Chip Biscuits since I was about 15 and they never fail me. This weekend I made them for my book club to discuss Persuasion by Jane Austen...which I didn't actually get around to reading. Anyone got a plot synopsis for me?

Anyway, now you can make these deliciously simple biscuits too...all you have to do is read on!

What you need:

• 1 and 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips - I prefer dark but you can use any
• 1/2 cup nuts or fruit (this time I used flaked almonds but I've also used walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, macadamias and glace cherries - let your imagination run wild people!)
• 1 Bowl to put everything in and 30 minutes (max).

What to do:
1. Cream butter and combine with sugar and vanilla. Beat in egg.

2. Fold in flour, chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Place small balls of cookie dough on baking trays. Don't panic if your dough isn't as firm as you're used to.

4. Place in 180 Celcius oven for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven and BOOM! You've got yourself some tasty cookies and only one bowl to clean. Enjoy your delectable morsels of chocolatey goodness and show off your superior baking skills to all your friends!

Beach holidays...

I spent Easter Sunday at Noosa and Marcoola beaches on the Sunshine Coast. The weather and company were divine and I really didn't want to leave! Can you blame me? It was pretty much the perfect day...

Firstly there was Main Beach at Noosa (which actually came after coffee and visiting the shops on Hastings St but who really cares)

Beach time was followed/combined with Gelati from Massimo's. I had passionfruit and Irene had raspberry. Delicious!

 

After our first dessert came a lunch of seafood, salads, sparkling wine and this mouthwatering berry and cream spongy thing:

 

My mum made it. I might have felt sick all afternoon because it was so rich but it was worth it!

Of course I was a little tired from trying to digest all the food so after lunch I needed a lie down. 

It made sense to do it here.

 

I took some pics of my new rings (that I bought when I met up with my fabulous friend N who is visiting for the holiday break). 

I thought the beautiful blue beach/sky background might make things a little more interesting.

 

I also failed at taking pics of my new rings...but look at that sky!

 

This is me, post ring photo success! I am not smiling not only because I LOVE the beach and feel totally relaxed, but also because in 39 days the boy will be here and I intend to drag him back to Noosa...and maybe we'll never leave?

 

I feel that an important part of any beach trip is watching the sunset. This time I saw it set over the Maroochy River on my way home.

This is the river just pre-sunset

 

And of course: Sunset

Told you so - utter perfection.

Biting the Big Apple

What do Carrie Bradshaw, Roy Lichtenstein and Vampire Weekend all have in common?

New York City baby. 

I've been to New York twice and loved every bit of it. Indeed I played the role of a typical /NYC tourist with enthusiasm! I climbed the Empire State Building, stalked the corridors of the Met and was thoroughly underwhelmed by the Statue of Liberty. Of course, I enjoyed all of these and (aside from ol’ Liberty) would recommend doing them but the things I really loved in New York were more about experiencing the city like a local. As two of my girlfriends are about to jump on a plane to Manhattan and another one is going later in the year, I thought I'd do a post to help them (and you) navigate the big apple. Enjoy girls!

View from Top of the Rock

New York, New York.
Population: Over 8 million people live in New York City!!
Currency: US Dollar

Language: English but with more than 35% of New York's current population born outside the United States you'll hear many diverse accents and languages.

Trivia: More than 250 films are shot on location in New York each year.

How I got there: I flew British Airways from London to New York. I flew into JFK but have flown in and out of Newark too. I got a shuttle from the airport to my accommodation. Shuttles = convenient, well priced and easily organise when you've just come off a long haul flight.

Where I stayed: Most recently I stayed at Columbus Circle Hostel. It was in a great location - just a few blocks from the subway and it was clean and safe. It also had luggage storage facilities, free wi-fi and a full kitchen so I was able to save money cooking some of my own food.

Highlights:

No trip to New York is complete without crossing off at least one or two of the touristy things. Whether you have a week, a month or a few days you should try to fit in at least one or two of the following.

1. Get up early to beat the crowds going up the Empire State Building.
2. Watch the sun set over the city from the Top of The Rock (Rockafellar Centre).
2. Wander through Central Park: go ice-skating during winter or you’re your way to Strawberry Fields and have a Beatles moment.

 

4. Enjoy the many galleries and Museums: especially The Met (a must see), the Guggenheim and MOMA.
5. Have a Breakfast at Tiffany’s moment.

 

6.Stalk out the Naked Cowboy in Times Square. Beware, he can grope a little!

7. Grab yourself a cheap ticket to a Broadway show.

8. If you’re a Sex and The City or Gossip Girl fan. Do the tour and make sure you book in advance. Yes it’s cheesy but it’s so much fun! You can even do your very own Flight of the Conchords walking tour...

9. SHOP! Whether you like high street or high end, you wil find it in New York. Channel Blair Warldorf with a visit to Bendels on 5th Avenue (the best shopping strip in New York - especially between 39th and 60th Streets). 

10. Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan...just like the Beastie Boys said there is more to New York than Manhattan so get off the island and go exploring! 

Food and Drink
1. Head to Little Italy for a delicious Italian lunch. I ate some of the best Italian food I’ve ever eaten (and I’ve been to Italy twice!) in New York at Benito One on Mulberry St. I’m not even kidding you. This place should be number one on your list of restaurants! Plus afterwards you can wander the designer boutiques in Nolita.

2. Anyone who’s ever watched Sex and The City will want to visit the Magnolia Bakery. The cupcakes are delicious but if you are seeking something tasty and a little healthier head to Babycakes on Broome St. Before you screw up your noise at the thought of a going to a Vegan bakery take a look at the Brownies, cupcakes, muffins and cookies on their website. Trust me they taste as good as they look and if you’re gluten intolerant or have any other dietary problems they will look after you.

Delicious Magnolia cuppies

3. Pizza and hot dogs are probably New York’s most famous dishes. If you want pizza I’d recommend Joe’s Pizza near NYU. There is zero ambience at this place but the pizza was delicious and it was just a short walk to some great bars where I spent the rest of the evening.
4. Whilst in New York I had dinner at Buddakan – where Carrie Bradshaw celebrates her engagement to Mr Big in the first Sex and The City film. It was great! Food was delicious, cocktails were potent and the service was…wanky. But you can’t really expect anything else now can you?
5. Tasty D-lite. The name says it all. Make it happen ok?
6. Tai-Pan Bakery in Chinatown is another great place to pick up some lunch or a snack. Beware though- it gets busy!
7. Get your arse to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Bedford Avenue to be specific. Crammed with restaurants, bars, vintage stores, boutiques and hipsters I spent a few days simply wandering up and down trying to figure out who had the best burrito and the greatest drinks. This place was heaven in a street.

Williamsburg mural

Getting Around: Catching the subway or walking are the best ways to get around. Taxis are ok but I’m pretty sure my credit card got skimmed paying for a cab after a late night so just be careful.

Don’t forget to take: A big leather bag that can fit water, sunglasses, gum, camera, and a subway map in it! Oh and if you're going out to Brooklyn make sure you take a map rather than assuming your regular 'Map of NYC' will cover this area. Most of them don't.
Where I shopped: I'd loved to say Chanel and Barney's but basically I hit the high street stores and Century 21 which has some AMAZING designers finds at discount prices - I bought an amazing bandage dress there for next to nothing! Just make sure you prepare yourself in advance for sorting through about 2.7 million clothing racks. 
What I wore: I mostly got around in Zara jeans, a black blazer and ballet flats or a cute dress, cardigan and knee high flat boots. Not the most interesting outfits I know but I'd been travelling for a few months and was extremely limited in wardrobe supplies!
What I listened to: Bands from New York.So Vampire Weekend, MGMT, The Ramones, Talking Heads...you get the picture.

And that my friends, is New York, in a nutshell.

Mmm muffins

This morning I decided to whip up some white chocolate and raspberry muffins for a birthday picnic so I pulled out my trusty recipe folder (which is actually just a stack of crinkly, flour-covered sheets of paper) and got cooking.

This is a ridiculously easy recipe so I thought I'd share it with you in case you ever have a craving for something sweet that you can bake in under 30 minutes.

You'll need:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup white chocolate chips (preferably ones that don't hold their shape when cooked - unlike the ones I had!)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence 
• 2 medium eggs
• 100g butter (melted)
• 1 cup frozen  raspberries - in fact or any berries you desire. Frozen works best though as they hold their shape.

It's easy as! 

1. Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius and line your muffin tins.
2. Sift flour and baking powder in a large bowl then add sugar and chocolate bits. Stir to combine.

3. Combine and mix milk, eggs, vanilla essence and butter in separate bowl. (NB: I actually forgot to add the butter into this which probably explains why my muffins seemed to adhere to their patty cases with fierce determination. Haha oopsy. They still tasted great though - to prove it my friend W ate about 6 of them in 20 minutes.)

4. Add your liquid mix to the dry ingredients and mix well.

5. Gently add raspberries to the mixture. Be careful here as you don't want to over-stir and have your muffins go bright pink.
6. Place into muffin pan and bake! My oven tends to run on the hot side so I baked them for 20 minutes and they came up a beautiful golden colour. 

7. Gorge yourself!! Or take to a picnic in the park for your lovely friends birthday...or both

A little wine on the weekend

Kafka, existentialism, the situation in Libya…not the exact topics I covered with my friends S and G at our Saturday afternoon drinks but still very important none the less. Our conversation revolved more around our failing shopping bans, nail polish, how delicious blue cheese is and why on earth none of us had bought any, and which Disney Prince is the hottest (Eric from the Little Mermaid wins hands down in case you’re wondering). What do you think?

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin accompanied us for our afternoon of white wine and camembert and I have to say that I think we all had a lovely, happy afternoon/evening.  

This was our amazing spread (not including chocolates and my failed macarons). Impressive no?

Today was also a food filled day starting with breakfast with 4 of my girlfriends at Mondo Organics. I had the Spelt, pumpkin and pepita pancakes with cinnamon ricotta and maple syrup and a Green Fix juice (apple, celery and ginger). It was all amazing but I couldn’t get through half of it!

I wore this Motel dress with a vintage Bally belt that used to be my mums.

And I have Ulta3 ‘Pacific Fever’ nail polish on which is an eye-popping turqouise green. What do you think? My friends H and S also had lovely painted nails so G took a photo for us. [NB: S was advocating the use of willyweather instead of the frequently incorrect iPhone weather app hence its appearance].

I am still obsessed with my heeled brogues and can't wait for winter to come to wear them more. Aren't they just beautiful? I don't think the picture really does them justice.

Other weekend things?

I had a sexy date with my friend Char on Friday night. We ate sushi and watched this gorgeous man in this super depressing but beautifully made film. I also visited my Grandad in hospital and am please to say that he is doing really well considering the circumstances and that he loves a structurally unsound macaron.

What did you get up to on your weekend? Did you enjoy some wine with friends?Watch a film or dine out? I'd love to hear from you xx

Macaron...Fail

Source of Oven Love

I’m not sure who is to blame. Was it Mr Humidity? Mrs New-brand-of-Almond-Meal? Or was it simply my heavy handed use of food colouring (I just wanted to make them pretty I swear!)?

Whatever the reason, my second attempt at making macarons was a bit of a fail. Not quite an epic fail but a fail nonetheless.  

Now before I launch into a big spiel of how I repeated the same process as last time and how I was really careful not to over or under mix my eggs and how when I lay out my macarons they looked perfect and I dutifully let them sit for an hour before putting them in the oven but then when they came out they just didn’t look right and I don’t know where it went so wrong and my baking fail made me sad for about a half an hour before I watched Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight and danced around my living room with my puppy dog to Architecture in Helsinki…oh wait. Oops.

Source: Gourmet Baking

Luckily, all hope was not lost on my slightly weird looking delights. I filled them with homemade lemon curd and cream cheese icing. How can that not be a winning combination? I mean it’s lemon curd and cream cheese. Alone they are already incredible but the two of them together make a super-delicious, tooth-enamel fighting team with the magical ability to put you into a sugar-induced coma of happiness…mmmmm 

Anyway, everyone who ate them told me they were delicious despite their lack of 'structural integrity'. I don't care if they were lying or not (I don't think they were as they did taste pretty delicious).

Source: Not So Humble Pie

I didn't take any pictures of them because they pretty much just dissolved in your fingers before even reaching your mouth and I don't really want photographic evidence of such a disappointment. However, I know you're hungry for macarons now so let's all pretend that in real life I made ones that closely resembled the perfect specimens in these pictures...pretty please? Do you have any tips for making Macarons? What is your favourite flavour?

A batch of Velvets

Today when I got home from work I did a few things (not necessarily in this order):

1. Blogged
2. Packed for my Girl's weekend away
3. Spoke to The 'wonderful' Boy
4. Watched Heston's Fishy Feast (can I marry him please?)
5. Baked a batch of red velvets for my grandparents who are in Hospital and the wonderful staff looking after them. It was a quick and imperfect batch but I think they'll do the job.

I took photographs on number 4 only so here they are. Beware though, you may experience a sudden sugar craving.

It's all Greek to me

With a few of my friends leaving and settling overseas recently, it has made me long to travel again. Consequently, I’ve decided to do another post about  my previous travels. This time it’s Athens, Greece.

Destination: Athens

Some facts about Greece:

Capital: Athens

Population: 11,300,000

Currency: Euro

Language: Greek

Trivia: Athens is the oldest city in Europe and the birthplace of Democracy. Another interesting fact is that in a world wide study by Durex, Greeks came out on top. They have better sex, more often…have you booked your ticket yet?

How I got there: I flew EasyJet from London to Athens. It was inexpensive and the flight was fairly comfortable.

Where I stayed: My travel buddy and I stayed at Zorba’s hostel in Plaka, Athens that we booked through hostelworld. I probably wouldn’t recommend it.  Yes it was cheap and quite fun but it was also dirty with little to no ventilation. Although, with a free drink on arrival and cheap Mythos beer, we made the most of the bar downstairs mingling with other travelers.

Highlights: The most popular tourist sight in Athens is no doubt the Acropolis. Presiding over the city, it wasn’t long before the Acropolis beckoned to us so we grabbed some bottled water and started on our way. Of course, being Athens there were no signs directing us as to where to go- or if there were we didn’t see them. So after an hour and half of solid walking including (wrong turns, blocked paths and plenty of sweating in the midday sun) we forked over our precious euros and entered the ancient world.

The Acropolis

It was almost a bit surreal to see this ancient structure up close; a symbol of power and prosperous times from centuries ago. The Acropolis offers a breathtaking view of the two Olympic Stadiums (original and modern), the port or Pireaus, the Temple of Zeus, Ancient Agora and the mass of solid white houses that make up the city; there is no better way to see the vast expanse of the Greek capital. 

Close up

The view over Athens - you can see the Port of Pireaus on the far right

Ancient Agora is also not to be missed. A political, social, religious and commercial site, the Agora was the centre of city life in the Greek capital and the remaining ruins are still quite well preserved. We really enjoyed wandering around the site; stumbling over the remains of pillars and broken statues and visiting the Museum’s beautiful statue gallery.

Ancient Agora

This statue is carved in such detail...so beautiful

The Temple of Zeus - or rather what is left of the Temple, the Panathenian Stadium (the original Olympic stadium) and the National gardens are also worth a look but I will say they aren’t overly exciting. However, the gardens do provide a lovely green haven from the concrete jungle that is Athens so if you’re craving some peace and quiet, you know where to look.

Be sure to amuse yourself by watching the changing of the guards outside Parliament house…if only to see the uniforms.

Food: The food in Greece is phenomenal. Unfortunately for us, our first Greek meal was a dinner of hot chips, a BLT with tomato sauce and a side of ‘creepy man following us home’. Thankfully, once in the confines of our hostel we didn't' see him again.

You know, your typical Greek Fare...

Each day in Athens we would buy fresh fruit from the street merchants to munch on while we explored. We would splash out on bananas or spend €1 each on huge paper bags full of fresh strawberries and cherries and then proceeded to gorge ourselves silly as we walked through the flee market stores.

Athens is full of tavernas and we frequented a couple around Monastiraki metro station. The most memorable of these cured our raging hangovers with one of the best brunches I have ever eaten.

BEHOLD THE BEST BRUNCH EVER:

Nom nom nom we certainly tried out best to finish it

As you can see it’s a GIANT metze platter full of meat; pork sausages, lamb souvlaki, beef patties and grilled chicken, calamari plus fried haloumi, roasted veggies, toasted flat bread, olives, dips and Greek salad too! We endeavoured to finish it all but it proved an impossible feat for our overly full tummies.

But the food defeated us

Drink: Mythos is Greece’s Beer of choice as well as mine. A 1L bottle costs around €1 at the Supermarket and its light flavour is the perfect accompaniment for hot weather and tasty Greek fare.

Ouzo is really gross. All I can say is don’t go there!

Getting Around: The Athens Metro system easy to understand, relatively inexpensive, and fast. As two female travellers we both felt very safe using it.  

Greek taxi drivers are not to be trusted. We caught a bus from the airport into the city centre and then a cab and had to pay €20 for what should have been a €5 cab ride to our hostel in the Plaka. Save your money for a night on the Mythos; catch the metro and walk.

Mistakes and un-pleasantries: As much as I wish I could, I can’t overlook the terrible invasiveness I felt in Athens due to the behavior of local men. In all my travels I have never felt so uncomfortable. My advice is to trust your intuition and try to ignore the constant unwanted attention. If you’re blonde it may help to cover your hair up a little.

Fellow travellers: We made all our friends at our hostel bar. Everyone is in transit to the Islands and stays only as long as they need to in Athens: 2 full days is all you need to see everything.

Nightlife: I admit that we didn’t bother with much of the Athens nightlife outside our hostel bar. Locals told us that the clubs are very expensive and during the summer time they are located at or close to the beach. Then there is the added bonus of catching a cab home at dawn…why bother when you can drink with great people till 3am then go upstairs to bed?

Biggest surprise: The short distance between each of the main tourist sights…it looks so much further on the map! I was also pretty gobsmacked by the number of shoe shops. There were literally 20 different shoe stores on some streets selling stilettos and pumps galore. I wish I’d been towards the end of my trip so I could stock up!

Don’t forget to take: Sunscreen, a water bottle and deodorant (it gets hot and there is no shade).

What to wear: If visiting in June I would recommend clothing that’s light, breathable and quick drying. I paired singlets and t-shirts with shorts or a cute summer skirt. Summer dresses by Ecote and Ladakh were also favourites. Havianas and my tan Grecian sandals kept my feet happy but they were no match for the dust and dirt of Athens.

If you’re thinking about going to Greece all I can say is stop in Athens and say hello to some history then head straight to the Islands. Aaaaaaah the Islands...so beautiful and so much fun!

The next travel post will be about my adventures on the Cyclade Islands of Santorini, Ios and Mkyonos so keep your eyes peeled!