This incredible video tracks the tweets of a young woman named Amanda who documented her life, her brain cancer and eventually, her death on twitter. The video was made by a blogger named Shannon. It is a poignant reminder of the digital trail we leave behind but also has some pretty important messages regarding forgiveness and being kind to one another.
I watched, transfixed and tried not to cry. I hope it’s real. What do you think?
It was in London in 2010 when I was first introduced to Ottolenghi by my Aunt. We had just had lunch elsewhere and popped into the Ottolenghi restaurant in Belgravia to grab some sweets. I remember being very impressed with the mouth-watering mountain of baked goods in front of me, in fact I’m pretty sure I took a photo….
Yep:
Wondrous. That was back before I had a decent camera, so grainy! Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli-born chef who owns restaurants in London and possibly elsewhere.
Anyway, a few months ago I was scouting around for a delicious cake recipe and my sister sent me the recipe for Ottolenghi’s Chocolate Fudge Cake. Remembering how good the lemon cake I sampled in London was I made it straight away, altering the recipe just slightly upon her recommendation.
I made the cake again on Friday and took it down to the beach for my friend Claire’s birthday weekend. The poor cake sustained a nasty dent thanks to someone who threw a canned drink onto the back seat of the car not realising the cake was there. But it was still delicious.
How something with an entire block of Lindt chocolate and an entire block of Club chocolate could not be delicious is beyond me.
Here’s how it’s done:
Ingredients:
240g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
265g dark chocolate (52% cocoa), chopped into small pieces
95g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped into small pieces
290g light muscovado sugar (brown sugar)
4 tablespoons water
5 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
cocoa powder for dusting
Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (350°F) and butter a 20cm (8″) spring form pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment/baking paper.
In a large heat proof bowl, combine the chopped chocolates and butter.
Combine the muscovado sugar and water in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. Pour the boiling syrup over the chocolate and butter and stir until they have melted.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture and then set the bowl aside until the mixture comes to room temperature.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites and salt to a firm but not dry meringue. Using a rubber spatula, fold a third of the meringue into the chocolate mixture. Once combined, add another third, fold and then fold in the remaining third until just combined.
Now here’s when Ottolenghi tells you to twice bake the cake. If you want to follow that that method click here otherwise just whack the cake in the oven for 50-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean with a few moist crumbs clinging to it.
Allow to cool completely before dusting with cocoa.
The end result is a moist, decadent cake with a thin crispy top layer. Hope you liked your cake Dearlo x
As you cake see we ate the cake in the delightfully retro beach house we rented. How I love a hanging basket, practical and aesthetically pleasing!
You should definitely try this recipe, I promise you won’t regret it! More on our awesome weekend to come.
Where have I been? For someone who secretly vowed to blog more frequently I certainly haven’t been keeping my (silent) word.
The last time I was here I was boasting about my escapades with my heart rate monitor and all the calories I was melting away… *Sigh* Well I did really well until Friday night when my housemate Bec and I decided to kick off the weekend with a round of vodka lime and sodas, sans dinner.
This led to Macdonalds at 1am on Saturday morning… And a chicken parmi for lunch on Saturday… And perhaps Hungry Jacks on Saturday evening, as my boyfriend and I drove down to Esperance… Whoops.
We got to the coast at about 10pm that night, set up a tent and then took a picnic rug down to the beach to go star gazing. After freezing and gazing we headed back to the tent to sleep on the inflatable mattress Ryan miraculously blew up with his lungs without passing out.
The next morning we hit Twilight beach bright and early to make the most of the amazing weather.
After a solid morning session at Twilight and endless nagging from someone to wear more sunscreen, we headed into town to visit the greatest bakery in WA.
I got my much beloved (a love well documented) broccoli, cauliflower and cheese pie, only there was no broccoli inside?! Kind of disappointing. Hopefully it was just a faulty pie. The gang and I are headed to Espie again this weekend so hopefully the no broccoli issue will be solved by then.
After lunch we headed to Cape Le Grand national park for some more beach time.
We went to Hellfire Bay which is far more tranquil and beautiful than the name suggests.
Unfortunately the wind picked up and began whipping our bodies and faces with sand like a rogue exfoliation treatment no one asked for.
So we hit the road to drive the four hours back to Kalgoorlie, this time with slightly more healthy car snacks.
Upon arriving back into town we went straight to Lauren and Dave for a couple of sticks of aloe vera from their thriving aloe plants. Because maybe one or maybe both of us were just slightly tan pink. Whoops.
Last night I saw Anchorman 2 and ate far too much popcorn. To try and address my recent questionable food choices I went for a run this morning. When I got to the park I was faced with this:
Charming. Nothing like a bit of fear mongering. Apparently someone has been arrested in relation to the incident this sign is referring to. So really no need to but up a damn sign. This town has a large number of weirdos and vigilantes, the worst of which express their venom on a ‘name, shame and crimes’ facebook page. If you ever feel like witnessing the lowest of human life talking absolute smack look it up.
After my run (which was uneventful, unless you count the two times I got lost) I watched the new episode of Girls. So. Good. Feel like I’ve been waiting forever for the new season. What did you think?
On my lunch break today I bought this top from Target to add to my ever growing collection of black and white geometric print clothing.
I chuckled at the fact that it comes from the ‘City Dressing’ collection and I have never lived further from a city in my life. Does that mean I can’t wear it? Probably.
What’s news?
(And by that title I mean physically the largest and most bloated hypocrite*)
Remember before Christmas, how I was all like ‘eat! drink! and be merry!’ and poked fun at articles with obscene tips for not putting on weight over the festive season? Well, the joke is on me. I may have taken too large a swig of my own advice and gained somewhere in the vicinity of 5kg. I KNOW.
I feel so gross and sluggish and like I’m suffocating in my own clothes (probably because I am). But mostly I feel mad at myself for indulging in the biggest rein-loosening of my life. Well, that could be untrue, I’ve never actually weighed myself before and after Christmas so I have no idea how much flab I usually end up with come January. Also the rein-loosening began long before Christmas on my Bali holiday.
But not to worry, I am well and truly back on the diet and exercise wagon and although I am finding it frustrating, this little gadget is making quite a difference:
A heart rate monitor watch! A most useful present gifted to me from my father. Never before have I been able to so accurately track my burnt calories. It’s rather addictive. I’ve been using it during Spin classes and find myself looking down at my watch so frequently it’s any wonder I haven’t ended up with whiplash. (the above photo was taken after a warm up, weights session and Spin class)
So I’m hoping this advanced piece of exercise machinery will keep me on-track until the final remnants of cheese, pudding and champagne have disappeared from my person. I’m already down a kilo, let’s hope I continue in the right direction.
Got any tips for me? How do you deal with the post Christmas carnage?
I’ve seen many ‘2013: year in review’ and New Year’s resolution blog posts floating around over the last week and this is not one of them. Remembering that last year I was the girl who pledged to buy no new clothes for the whole of 2013 and folded like a cheap suit mid-March, I clearly am no authority on how to make (and stick with) major life changes. So to the handful of people who arrived at my blog over the last few days after Googling ‘no new clothes for a year’, I’m sorry. how awkward. (To the thousand or so people who arrived here via Mamamia just before Christmas, welcome!)
So I suppose I should say something really meaningful here like ‘2013 was a year of ups and downs’, which I guess is true. There were break-ups, new beginnings, kilos lost, kilos gained, big nights, small nights, dress ups, dressing downs and trips to two new countries (the definite highlight).
I haven’t really made any resolutions for the New Year, except to lose weight, which is more of a year-long project I fail and succeed at constantly. Maybe I’ll take up running? But probably not. I really don’t know what the next 6 months looks like, so I feel there’s not really much point in setting goals, I’m just going to keep chugging along trying my best at everything and having as much fun as possible.
Have you made any New Years resolutions? If you’ve blogged about it put a link in the comments, I love reading new blogs. In fact I might resolve to read more blogs this year, that’s one thing I’m certain I can achieve.
There is something pretty great about making the trek home for Christmas. I’ve written about my Mum’s place in the country before and how I love going there to relax and eat ridiculous amounts of food. This Christmas was no exception. For our Christmas eve meal I picked a stack of beans from the garden:
Some earthy beets:
And zucchinis:
The garden is looking pretty green at the moment.
I found Benny snoozing on a chair, doing what he does best (nothing).
I went to feed the more productive animals and collect their Christmas presents to us.
Afterwards I ran into Charlie, who loathes having his photo taken with me:
His face just screams “I hate this human”:
Oh well! Onto entree:
Mmmm oysters. For main course we had roast pork, potatoes, beans, beets with a creamy sauce, other miscellaneous vegetables and most importantly, crackling. I went easy on the crackling this year as last year I overdosed and had to lie down.
Mmmm chewy.
Afterwards I had Christmas pudding, homemade brandy butter, chocolate and raspberries whilst watching Carols by Candlelight and switching to the Royal Variety Show when it got too lame (that bit with the Looney Toons?!).
Christmas has been a day long eat-fest. I hope you had a wonderful day.
For the last few years, my Dad’s side of the family has spent the weekend before Christmas together down at the beach. It’s a nice way to catch up without having the stress of being in three places at once on The Big Day and it also means people can enjoy a drink (important for a Brewin family event) and stay for the night.
I caught the red eye flight from Perth on Saturday night which put me down on the Great Ocean Road by late Sunday morning, meaning I missed sangria, raucous carol singing and a trip to the pub with the young ones that involved sneaking my 17 year old cousin shots the night before. Spewing.
So by Sunday lunch time, despite the fact that I was hideously tired, I was keen to catch up. Sunday started as most good things do, with cheese:
Last year my sister bought $150 worth of cheese that my female cousins and I annihilated within 15 minutes. With my sister in Samoa this year, my aunt Jane was given the task of bringing the cheese and we weren’t disappointed. There was so much we couldn’t even finish all the cheese, but boy we sure did try. It was delicious.
After the cheese we began opening presents. We did a family Kris Kringle this year plus my Grandma gets everyone a gift every year and every one gets my Grandma a gift, so there was plenty of loot to get through. A few of us tried to take a sip of our drinks every time my Grandma’s name was mentioned, but lost count and gave up early in the piece.
Afterwards we moved on to my uncle Simon’s pork, turkey, ham, lamb and salads followed by Greta and Lily’s much loved mince pies, plus many other desserts.
Aunty Jo’s cheesecake:
After a very serious amount of eating many of us fell deep into food comas, thankfully I wasn’t the first to fall asleep and was able to capture this photo on my phone:
If that isn’t a quintessential Christmas image I don’t know what is. That photo is getting quite a bit of love on Facebook for obvious reasons.
After a kip and a movie (Blades of Glory… random but hilarious) a bunch of us headed to the beach for some fresh air. I’m sure many of us felt our tummies were brushing against the ground, but Maisy’s definitely came the closest:
Some of the cousins and Hugo the hound:
We made up a game I coined ‘Pleasant Ball’ which basically involved someone throwing the ball into someone else’s cupped hands, without the catcher moving. It was about as boring as it sounds and we only lasted one round.
My Dad, looking very Elton John here in his new glasses, and uncle John were the only two to brave the water.
Dachshunds are my all time favourite dogs. Can’t wait to get one when I grow up. That night we (and most of Melbourne/Victoria) were treated to a spectacular sunset.
The next morning we had breakfast in freezing Anglesea before heading back to Melbourne. Then I borrowed a car and headed up north into country Vic to my Mum’s for the next leg, which has so far involved a lot more eating. More to come.
I whipped this up on Thursday night for a dinner on Friday and it was completely divine. A total crowd pleaser. I plan on making it again before cherries depart.
– 250g chocolate biscuits (I used Arnott’s Chocolate Ripple biscuits)
– 100g butter, melted
– 500g cream cheese, softened
– 3/4 cup caster sugar
– 2 eggs
– 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
– 300g sour cream
– 300g cherries, pitted and halved
– cherries and icing sugar to serve
Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan-forced. Grease a 5.5cm-deep, 24cm (base) springform pan. Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add butter. Process to combine. Press mixture over base of prepared pan. Cover. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating to combine. Beat in cocoa and sour cream until just combined. Fold in cherries. Spread over biscuit mixture.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until centre is just firm. Turn off oven. Cool in oven for 3 hours with door slightly ajar. Refrigerate overnight. Top with cherries. Dust with icing sugar. Serve.
Just don’t make the same mistake I did and start baking too late. I only let my cake cool for 2 hours in the oven because there was no way I could stay up until 1am to move it to the fridge.
Don’t the cherries look wonderfully festive?! Recipe from here. What’s your favourite dessert at Christmas?
I never go out for lunch during the week. Mostly due to stinginess, laziness and a general lack of decent lunch options near work. Lunch is usually a microwaved soup or toastie eaten at my desk or at the table at the back of the office, so it’s really nice to head out occasionally and forget about work for half an hour or so. Even if it’s just at the local pub.
Seeing as yesterday was the last working day for 2013, it seemed right to involve wine as well. Bec must have smiled nicely at the bartender because check out her her glass (on the left) compared to mine:
Cheeky! Yeah I’d be smiling too…
Already in holiday eating mode, I opted for the BLT burger with chicken and a side of delicious salty fries (some of which I traded for wine).
I deconstructed and destroyed it.
Ahhhh. We ate and chatted about big things and small things, about life and nothing. What a year, here’s hoping 2014 is better than anything we’ve already seen. And that it involves more Friday lunches.
At this time of year the internet is saturated with inane recycled stories on how not to gain weight over the festive season. They are generally chock full of helpful and fun advice like ‘eat before you go to the party’ and ‘don’t drink alcohol’. They tell you to TREAT YO SELF with indulgences like vegie sticks and hummus and sparkling water.
Anyway, I’ve chosen some of the most ridiculous advice and compiled a list for you to enjoy:
Number 1
Coming in at number 1 is this stellar advice from Body + Soul:
‘Next time you are at a party, pay attention to the thin partygoers compared to the overweight ones. Generally, slim individuals are pickier when it comes to food choices.’
I guarantee this is the fastest way to ensure you become the freak-that-won’t-stop-staring-at-people-eating partygoer. There are many things I enjoy doing at parties, like talking to people, laughing, perhaps dancing. Standing in the corner with a fixated stare on the food table, judging any pour soul who dares to pick up a party pie doesn’t quite make the list. Also some thin people I know are the fattiest eaters on the planet. You lose Body + Soul.
Number 2
Then there’s this gold nugget from The Guardian at number 2
‘You don’t have to eat mince pies to have a good time. Enjoy the company of friends and family you don’t see often enough, dance at the work ’do’, play games with the children…’
Way to tell me how to live my life. I actually do need to eat mince pies to have a good time, just like I need popcorn to enjoy the movies and big cake to top off a birthday party. Trying to disassociate food from an event intrinsically linked to eating is a pointless exercise. Also I don’t have children, I dance at the office almost every day and once a year is frequent enough for most extended family members…
Number 3
At number 3 Calorie King has the helpful advice ‘Don’t go hungry’ alongside this charming anecdote:
‘It’s lunchtime. Sandy has just finished a delicious grilled vegetable sandwich, a bottle of sparkling mineral water, an apricot yoghurt and a fresh fruit salad. She also had eggs on whole-grain toast for breakfast. Natalie had a cup of black coffee for breakfast, and an apple for lunch. Which one is more likely to snack on treats this afternoon?’
There’s nothing like food shaming poor Natalie to get your point across. Also, it’s Christmas, I doubt people who are worried about putting weight on at Christmas are going hungry. Also, Sandy sounds like an insufferable git.
Number 4
Coming in at number 4 is The Biggest Loser Club with the recommendation to approach festive social gatherings with the guile of a fascist dictator.
‘“My advice is to exercise control and delegate when you are arranging your own get-togethers and barbecues. Tell your guests which plates of healthy goodies you’d like them to bring to make for a healthier feast.”’
In my experience, people really love being told what to do. And being told to bring a round of protein shakes or a platter of egg white omelettes to a party will no doubt make the Yuletide gay.
Number 5
And finally, there’s this confusing advice from Zest:
‘If everyone brings in Christmas goodies to share, make your contribution festive satsumas, and EAT THEM rather than the high-calorie communal chocolate and mince pies.’
WTF is a satsuma?
My advice
This is going to sound deeply hypocritical given I recently linked my inability to absorb the Christmas spirit to the gain of a few extra kilos, but just eat, drink and be merry and worry about everything else later. The end.
My Bloggable Day 