Cookie Monster

My husband. Cookie monster. Bickie bandit. Lover of sweet treats.

My oven. Moody. Possessed. Purveyor of uneven heat.

I have been married for two years and have spent a large portion of that time creating delicacies to please my husband's sweet tooth.

This is difficult with an oven that doesn't co-operate. Or speak English. Or play fair.

My oven is eccentric. Temperamental. Demonic.

I have taken to pot roast and the slow cooker like nobody's business to avoid the oven. I am also a big fan of the "no bake cookie".

My ongoing struggle has been to create the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I tried about 15 different recipes. They would either be raw and goopy or burned black. My very polite husband has eaten many a singed cookie during our marriage!

Then it dawned on me. It was not the recipe. IT WAS THE OVEN!

Then the battle began. I was up for the challenge.

I went to law school. I learned a foreign language. I pulled of the perfect wedding in the Whitsundays during cyclone season.

Weeks of scientific testing ensued. Controlled experiments with timers and temperatures and different cookie trays.

Today........ EUREKA!! I did it! The cookie jackpot!




An entire batch of perfect cookies. Every single one is edible. None are charred or so goopy they break in half! Crispy and golden and perfect.

How did I do it?

Preheat the oven to 160 c. Line trays with baking paper and lightly spray with oil. Cook for 5 minutes then rotate the trays.

Cook another 5 minutes then remove. Lift baking paper off the trays and cool on the counter for 5 minutes. Cookies will harden. Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Hubs is due home any minute and I cannot wait to see his reaction.

See you in Geneva for the Nobel prize!


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Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day. We usually go out for dinner, but this year I decided to stay in a cook a romantic meal.

I raced home from work early and was greeted at the door by these:








What a good husband! It has been so Niven having the roses in the dining room all week. Beautiful flowers in a an elegant vase can change the tone of a room.

The cupcake was delicious! It is from our favorite local bakery. We shared it.

I made warm tortellini salad for supper. It was a new recipe and was delicious!

It was very difficult to shoo hubs out of the kitchen. I wanted to present a beautifully prepared meal on a set table. Having him home was a bit frustrating!

I also made Pioneer Woman's baked fudge.






Oh my stars! If we were not already married Hubs would have dived to his knees and proposed marriage upon tasting the scrumptious delicacy.

This fudge was amazing. Hot and gooey and perfect with crisp vanilla ice cream.

This desert was the perfect chocolatey end to our romantic meal. Hubs never requests dishes but asked for this desert again the following night! If you want to impress a special someone bake this desert.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's week.

xx elle


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A pretty package

Yesterday I received a beautiful white box tied up with purple ribbon. It was my Strawberrynet package!

I was late to the craze of purchasing skin care and make up online. Now that I have joined the party I cannot remember why it took me so long! 

Here is the package of goodies I received this week.

Hubs and I both use Clinique scrub. We have tried other brands, some more expensive and some less. We both prefer the Clinique 7 Day scrub. My face feels so fresh and truly clean after using this scrub. It has all the nice grainy pieces but does not strip my skin.

My current fave fragrance. Gucci by Gucci. Love. When I spray this I am transformed from my utilitarian bedroom in my rented suburban townhouse to a realm where I am a real glamorous lady lawyer whose hair is blown out instead of GHD'ed and whose suit is from Chanel not Jackie E. I feel like a grown up lawyer person who can face anything. 

I am addicted to this hand cream. I have always adored it but could never buy it here. There was a L'Occitane store at Natick near my sister's house in Boston and I stocked up when we were visiting. Now I can restock online!

Tried and true. My first love was Clinique. I remember the very first time I laid eyes on a Clinique counter. Those long white cabinets, shiny glass and chrome finishes and beautiful girls in lab coats. I was smitten from that day. I remember spending $250 on makeup in one purchase (about as much as I had spent in totality on makeup prior to that day). I also grew to love the skin care. I have tweaked the 3 step routine into my own kind of cha-cha. This moisturiser works for me. I use the Dry Skin version.

The verdict is out for me on primer. I love a fully made-up look for my face. None of this dewy spring business. I usually use the Napolean primer and am not entirely sure it makes any difference to the wearability of the foundation. I am trying the Nars version as I have heard good things about it. Will keep you posted.

What lovely things are displayed on your dressing table / vanity ?

A new 'do

I have recently noticed that my hair was long. I didn't mean for that to happen. It just snuck up on me. When it was straightening it stretched to just below my shoulder blades.

Long hair.

I went to my regular salon for my regular colour touch up (maybe when I am old I will grow old gracefully but for now I have a search and destroy mission on grey hair...).

I shocked the hairdresser with a request for "about 10 centimetres" off the bottom. Slightly more than a trim. I was feeling crazy and wacky and dangerous.

She proceed to colour my hair...

Side note:  Is there anymore wonderful feeling than stretching out in a reclining massage chair and having your hair shampooed and massaged? Is that heaven on earth??

I was escorted back to my chair upon which I recommenced reading blogs on my ipad and the stylist set to snipping. Some time later I glanced down at the floor.

AT ALL THE HAIR ON THE FLOOR!

"Gee that is a lot of hair on the floor" I commented calmly, while my inside voice was screaming "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???"

When she had finished the stylist asked how I wanted it blow dryed? Straight, bouncy, full?

I wanted to say LONGER!

She grabbed the round brush and blow dryed my hair in that way that only hairdressers can. She is a very simple gal. Probably doesn't know the state of the NASDAQ, or the capital of Russia and I am pretty sure she said her tattoo was her name written in "Buddhist", but she can handle a blow dryer.

I sprang out of that salon with fresh healthy bobbing on my shoulders. Each wave was artfully smoothed and curled and it lept and bounced with vim and vigour.

Hubs was mightily impressed. I was thrilled. Although shorter than anticipated, I loved my new do!

Here is a photo from Monday morning. This was my first attempt at doing it myself. (Note the red Valentine's ensemble? One of only two in my office that fancies holiday related fashion.)

Despite my very grim and serious face I was happy with the result. The picture says more about my continued inability to take photos of myself in the mirror than about the hair style!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines Day

May those of you with sweeties be showered in love today.

May those of you still searching be struck with Cupid's little arrow!

So much to talk about

Hello ! I have missed you all so. I have so much to talk about.

~ Our wonderful holiday away in Queensland

~ The sweetest wedding anniversary

~ Meeting the beautiful baby of our dearest friend and best man

~ Our ongoing trials and tribulations trying for a baby of our own

~ The horrific floods and cyclones across Australia

~ The Superbowl party my husband is throwing (solo - I will be at work!)

Despite having so much to tell you, I just cannot. I am spent. I am exhausted and cannot muster any coherent thoughts beyond telling you about this weather.

Sydney is in the grip of the longest heat wave in recorded history.

We watched the reports of the heatwave smugly from poolside in Broadbeach last week, sipping cocktails as the sea breeze wafted over us, confident it would pass before we got home.

We flew into Sydney on Tuesday smack into the heat. The car that collected us had a temperature gauge in the dash. Went we left the airport is read 27 degrees celsius and as we drove west it crept up. As we turned into our street the gauge his 30 c (86 f). Ladies, it was 10pm.

For the last ten days the daytime temps have hovered around 40 c (104 f) and the night time temps have sat around 26 (78 f).

Yesterday it hit 43 c (109 f).

The constant heat is so sapping and draining. The day is broken up into snatches of air conditioning wedged between horrific time outdoors.

It is amazing that my sister in New England is stuck in record busting snow and we in Sydney have record breaking heat. Climate change? Nooooo. Nothing is wrong with this picture!

I am thankful that we have been spared the horrors of the cyclones and floods. I a thankful for the air conditioning ( that we had installed in November), I am thankful for my indoor job and my air conditioned car.

I am thankful for the southerly buster predicted to hit this evening and lower the temperature 15 degrees for tomorrow.




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