lest we forget

Some things stay imprinted on my memory forever - particularly when a visual sensation is accompanied by a tickling of my tastebuds. My first-ever ladurée macaron is the perfect example. Gazing in wonder at the divine array of pretty little morsels in the cabinet of the pretty store, it was tough to choose my premiere bite. Until I saw the word 'violette' - that sold it. 

One weekend, when I have plenty of time, I'm determined to master macarons. Surely it's a sin not to...

I think my memory needs a double whammy for it to work. I'm trying to improve it, but sometimes, no matter how much I say "Oh, I'll remember this" I just don't. Blogs are the perfect example. I'll stumble upon one, or a friend will send me a link {thanks Nikki} and I'll love on it, visit it for a while, then completely forget its name. I think it's made worse because my Mac will remember things for me. I only need type in a letter or two, and my most-visited sites will pop up. But sometimes, I think my Mac takes it upon itself to edit my sites - and forgets. 

That's why I've finally popped a few more links on the side. Not many, I was exhausted just typing in those few - and I'm determined to actually start work by 10am. But it's a start. Maybe I need to accompany my blog viewing with a few mouthfuls of delicious - or a spritz of my favourite scent {obviously I'm hankering for Chanel number 5 at the moment, and luckily, I have a bottle on my dresser...}

numero cinque

Oh my. I've just viewed the new 'film' for Chanel number 5, starring Audrey Tatou and, whew, one steamy French boy. Please check it out. http://www.chaneln5.com/en-gb/?x=0&y=119&width=1345&height=592#/the-film

bare necessities

There are some foodstuffs I can't imagine being without. I can't conceive of a dish without some type of allium - whether it's onions, shallots, leeks or garlic. As soon as I slice, dice or grate these little beauties and set them to sauté in a pan of butter or oil I know that dinner's begun. And the scent... mmmmm... that's what cooking's all about.

I'm also partial to a wee sprinkle of salt - the pink flakes from Murray River are currently sitting in an antique glass pickle jar next to my stove, and I can't imagine enlivening a dish without crushing the flakes between my fingertips and allowing their bittersweet tang to coerce any recalcitrant flavours from a meal. Similarly with peppercorns - a find grind is the punctuation point that concludes my preparations.

Lately I've been using nuts, just a few, in salads and on veg - I love their yielding crunch. Whether raw, dry roasted or baked with herbs and spices, nuts add vitamins, minerals and that certain something to a dish.

When it comes to citrus I just can't get enough. Grating zest or finely slicing slivers, squeezing the juice - that bittersweet tang works well with any meat - or veg for that matter. 

I get itchy and twitchy if I don't have the essentials on hand - lots of 'em. Flours, vinegars, oils, mustards, sugars, syrups, spices, herbs... No wonder I have more shelving space in my pantry than in my entire kitchen... Ah variety, you spice up my life.

whistling while you work

We had a superb weekend, with lots of cooking and family entertaining. It was my mother-in-law's 70th birthday on Saturday, so we had them over for a big bowl of split pea and bacon hock soup followed by a birthday rhubarb and yoghurt cake. Just right.

Then, on Sunday, it was a family bbq at my sister-in-law's home, so I made a roasted vegie and couscous salad and gratin dauphinoise {much posher-sounding than potato bake}. With garlic-infused cream layering thinly sliced potatoes this was a decadent side-dish just perfect for a family gathering. To top the roasted pumpkin, sweet potato, zucchini and spanish onions on the couscous I poured a little more oil into the harrisa-infused pan I'd roasted the vegies in and quickly crisped up some pistachios and cashews. Then I dressed the couscous with lemon zest, lemon juice, coriander, mint, chilli and some top shelf olive oil. It was devoured.

But all that cooking and family-bonding meant that today, my house looked neglected and untidy. There were a few soaking pots and dishes that needed to be handwashed, a grotty kitchen and living room floor and a living room that needed a good tidy. So I leapt in at 11am and washed up, quickly tidied, vacuumed all the floors and then filled a bucket with hot water and lavender oil and mopped all the floors. Because I concentrated my tidying on the living room and kitchen, all this was achieved in an hour. Bliss. Now I have a tidy house, love in my heart from such a lovely weekend - and am ready to settle down to earn some money!

soooooo sleepy

Another grey old monday made sleeping in seem ever-so-attractive. But instead, I climbed on out, had breakfast, dropped the gal at school - and came home to make her lunch to drop off before 11am {whoopsies = no food in house!}

So now, chorizo and potato frittatas are bubbling away in the oven and I'm preparing to write up my menu plan and shop for the week. Any ideas...

musical magnifico

I'm a sucker for a good musical, so I have just avidly viewed the trailer for Nine and am in raptures. I can even forgive the presence of Nicole Kidman's frozen face as the worst of it seems to be covered by a long, thick fringe... But as for the rest of the stars - bella, bella, bella... Dame Judi, Sophia, Daniel Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz looking divine and, of course Marion Cotillard - my all-time favourite. It looks sexy, hot and utterly delicious - the perfect way to round off a good film year. With Coco avant Chanel, Harry Potter and now Nine, I could break my usual non-filmgoing record and attend more than one film this year. In two weeks there's a French Film Festival weekend - so I could possibly even reach double figures. Oh my!

neat, sweet, petite

Excuse me, but how precious are these French Endearment pendants? Le swoon...  You can find them on-line at supermarkethq.com/product/french-endearment-necklace

frugal friday is having a fashion moment

Why yes, it is somewhat odd to have images of Chanel's Autumn collection to illustrate my frugal friday post, but hear me out. I honestly think it's possible to look fashion forward merely by accessorising and choosing your colours wisely. For example, I've got plenty of black classics in my winter wardrobe, so unlike last winter when I jazzed the outfits up with accents of red, I'll use pale pink, pond green and cream. Layering will also serve double the purpose by keeping me warm, and looking like Karl's muse.

Keeping an eye on the beauty trends also helps keep your look fresh. Now, it's important not to take them too literally {such as  the Amanda de Lepore lips seen on modules at Alexander McQueen...} it's more a matter of assuming the essence. For my Chanel face I'd go for a pale face, pale eyeshadow {rose or cream} and lashings of black mascara and black eyeliner. As for the messy hair that's highly favoured on so many catwalks - easy peasy - I've already got that!

All I have to do now is weed through my wardrobe and work out how a visit to a haberdashery store might help me update some knitwear - and get ready to pile on my beads. Oh, and what I'd give for a funky bit of knitwear to perch upon my barnet - how cute are those hats!

penny pinching for paris

I must return to Paris - within the next three years. It's essential - so here's what I'm going to do:

Bust a move on my budget: I'm going to keep track of all my spending for the next two weeks, and ask hubby to do the same. Then we'll sit down together go through all the essentials {mortgage, utility bills, up-coming birthdays/holidays, events} and then work out where we can painlessly shave a little off each. I'd like to keep the phone bill down by using email as much as humanly possible. If I can interview subjects for my features by email or skype - rather than conducting costly mobile phone interviews, I'll save a bundle. 

Home-made with love: Every Sunday night I whip up a batch of chorizo and potato frittata's for my gal's school lunch. Single-serve frittatas made in a muffin tin are just the right size for a nine-year-old's appetite - I usually give her three per day, for the first few days of the week. From now on I'm also going to whip up a batch of muffins - oat and honey would be her faves - to round out the lunchbox - rather than filling her up with bought crackers. Of course, the rest of the space is already filled with carrot sticks and fruit - so I can't make that any cheaper or more nutritious. Luckily my hubby's also into eating fresh, so we're snacking on seasonal fruit - rather than his old fave of expensive muesli bars.

Frugal food: We rarely eat out, but sometimes I really can't even bear to think about what to cook - let alone do the actual cooking. Luckily the weekly menu planning is helping enormously with that. My next plan is to clean out some space in the freezer so I can freeze a couple of meals, ready to defrost in the afternoon and serve up for dinner that night. If we do eat out, we'll make it a good one - using Entertainment Book 'buy one main meal, get one free' vouchers and choosing a meal that'd be costly, or time-consuming to make at home.

Eco-economy: I'm already a fanatic about turning out lights when they're not in use, and all appliances not in use are turned off and un-plugged - but there's got to be more I can do. I'll get busy with the broom again, rather than using the vacuum and only use the drier in an absolute emergency - there are only three of us in the house - we really don't have that much laundry! And I'm going to pretend I don't have a car. Apart from the weekly grocery shop and the trips to netball, I'll be on foot - or on my bike - all I need is a fancy parisian basket to fill with baguettes.

kiss me kate

Oh Mrs Spade, you do fill me with joy. Look at these shoes - an interesting heel, a lowline, sexy curvaceous side, and bows - BOWS! I love the way the shoe curves around the heel too. A gal can never have too many pairs of black satin shoes...

persistence pays

Hey, guess what was delivered to my door this morning? A new crockpot inset for my slowcooker. A sad, yet firm email to customer service payed off and even though I was 12 months out of warranty, they agreed with me and sent me a free bowl free of charge. See, that's what customer service is all about. Yay Breville! Now, I'm onto Testra about the $200 they owe me!!

wacky wednesday

Okay, seriously, what is going on with time? It's zooming on by. I can't believe it's nearly lunchtime on a wednesday already! I guess that's because of my 4am start to drive to Sydney to pick up my in-laws from the airport yesterday. I now feel like I've got the jetlag - but without any of the joys of travel {apart from seeing their smiles and hearing their tales!} Oh, I have the travel bug something fierce at the moment. Driving down a street lined with plane trees made me crave Paris with an urgency usually reserved for champagne-o'clock on a Friday afternoon...

So here's what I'm going to do - secretly {well, not totally, as I've just put it on my blog...} I'm going to plan for our next OS trip. I'll be working my butt off {not totally, I'll still need some padding when I'm sitting in front of my computer} and saving with serious intent. Frugal Friday will now become Fiercely Frugal Friday - that's how hard I'll be saving! I'll set a date in my head to have paid off the backyard renovation and then I'll save enough to enjoy a good six to eight weeks OS. It won't be for a couple of years - but by then I'll be totally fluent in French, will have an itinerary planned and will be raring to go. 

Next step: find two more sources of income. I'm giving myself a week to work on this, so by next Wednesday I'll have pitches ready, contacts sourced and a kick-butt attitude. Woo hoo.

win win win

There's no point in cleaning out your clutter, if it's left in boxes and bags waiting for the right time to drop it off at a donation location. For the past few weeks I've had six boxes of magazines, a couple of bags of toys, and a bag of CDs that I meant to sell, all cluttering up my study. So today, when my hubby came home for lunch, we lugged all the boxes and bags down and filled the boot of my car. I then leapt straight in my car and drove to the salvos where a passing good samaritan helped me unload - making it only four trips each, rather than what would have been more like a dozen for me.

And wow, do I feel good. My study floor is now freshly vacuumed, and it feels like I have twice the space. I know that the Salvos will have no trouble selling the recent mags {plenty of House and Garden mags} and the CDs will make some indie retro teen very happy indeed {who needs CDs when you've got them on iTunes and your iPod. So it's a three-way win situation - and you've gotta be happy with that.

I'm still slowly working my way through the decluttering. I've now got to go through five years worth of my daughter's school books - the school sends them all home at the end of the year - and work out what to keep, and what to {sob} pitch. Next weekend's the Council Clean-up, so I'm determined to have all my clutter totally cleansed by then, surrounding myself only with beautiful or really useful stuff. Bliss.

frugal friday {on a monday...}

Whew, I'm over the bugs and banes of last week, and thanks to three double shots of caffeine before 10am am ready to blog for my life. I spent all of Friday in bed, hence my lack of post, however, I was still thinking frugal. Here's how.

I used the first of my frozen wine iceblocks in a minestrone soup - and it worked superbly. Homemade soup must be one of the most satisfying and frugal meals around. I threw in some basic veg {onion, garlic, celery, carrots}, diced up around 200g of speck {bacon on steroids, mmmmm}, threw in a handful of lentils du puy, a tin of tomatoes and some chicken stock and simmered for a couple of hours with nothing but a few bay leaves and sprigs of thyme adding flavour. Nearing the end of cooking I tossed in a cup of risoni and simmered for 10 minutes before serving. This fed four of us that night, and me for lunch on Saturday and Sunday - cost per serve - around $1. Nutritional value - enormous!

Making your own ingredients is the best way to jazz up a meal for little cost. I have a few different oil bottles so now have regular olive oil, garlic oil and lemon oil on the go. The garlic oil is simply a couple of cloves sliced up and infused in the olive oil, while the lemon is just a few slices of lemon rind {no erky white bits - just the vibrant yellow skin} in olive oil. It costs next to nothing, but adds a bit of an edge when drizzled over any food.

Letting nothing go to waste is the best mode of frugality. Leftover stale bread can be grated and frozen in small portions in a ziplock bag - or, if you're short of time,  just throw the pieces in the freezer and grate when you need them - frozen bread is a lot easier to grate by hand than fresh bread. If you have any leftover herbs, why not finely dice them up with some leftover breadcrumbs and a little garlic and lemon zest and freeze to have the tastiest crumbing mixture for pork cutlets or salmon cakes ever. 

This week my aim is zero food waste. If it's in my fridge it's going to be eaten - even if I have to think outside the square. So before making up my menu for this week, I'm going to see what's in the fridge, freezer and pantry - I reckon I'll have the basis for a couple of meals hanging around in there - saving me a motza at the supermarket.

happy mother's day

This was the delicious mother's day breakfast that was presented to me this morning {I had to crop myself out - seriously, first-thing-in-the-morning photos, not attractive - particularly after a few days of feeling distinctly poorly!}

My hubby was inspired by the thick batons of 'eggy bread' they made on MasterChef this week, and oh-my-lord, they were delish. One-inch-thick, a couple of inches long, perfectly soaked in an egg, sugar, milk and lemon zest batter and caramelised to crispy perfection on the outside, soft and melding on the inside. Yumarama.

I was also spoiled with many pressies - including a fabbo pizza cooking stone and mega spatula for pizzas on the bbq, a little blowtorch for the perfect creme brulee, Chanel nailpolish, two beautiful french cheese knives, and other foodie-related goodies. All wrapped up with home-made cards from my gal. Sweet.

We're headed out for afternoon tea now. A baguette with butter and smoked ham barely dented my appetite at the moment {three days of chicken soup will fuel a voracious hunger!} then I think it's quattro formaggio and pancetta and egg pizza for dinner. With a glass or two of wine...

it's shoe time

This week's shoe is brought to you by Maison Martin Margiela. They have a pale blue lining and stitching which is the perfect foil for that shocking shade of patent. I also like that bit of quirk, turn this way, they're a cute little bootie, about face, they're sweet sandals. Just what I needed today.

After sending my daughter off to school I crawled back into bed, wrapping the bedding up around my very sore throat. It worked. After waking at 11.30 my throat feels like it's in the recovery position. Handy. I feel like I've been consistently ill with silly little niggles for weeks now - probably because I have. 

Oh well, I'm making up a big pot of minestrone today - with bucketloads of garlic, made on chicken stock - surely that will totally revive me!

when i'm feeling bleu

I'd quite like to hide away from the world cocooned in these dreamy colours. I think I need my very own copy of Marie Antoinette - just to bring a little beauty into every corner of my life...

that's better

I've been feeling a bit blah today. No real reason. I've had a niggly sore throat for a few weeks, off and on, and other annoying, yet trifling, niggles that are just irksome. But these flamingos cheered me up! How can a person be glum when flamingos exist?

My autumn cleaning's also coming along nicely. I've blitzed all the annoying bits and pieces that have cluttered up my home for ages and now I'm ready to do the actual clean. Surely I'll feel healthier when that's complete.

fabulously frugal

For tonight's dinner I'm jazzing up the leftover risotto from last night's meal. I've oiled a mini muffin tin and scooped in a little of the saffron risotto - just enough to cover the bottom. Then, I've popped a teeny square of mozarella in the centre, covered it all up to fill the muffin tin and I'm baking them in a hot oven for around 15 minutes. I'm hoping they're brown and crispy on the top, but moist inside.

I'm serving them with chicken kebabs, sliced rounds of sweet potato 'chips' {baking on a tray, drizzled with garlic-infused olive oil}, broccolini {boiled for 10 mins in salted water, then tossed in salted, peppered olive oil to serve} and a green salad.  

I love leftovers...

tutu cute

Oh Karl... These limited edition shoes have a removable tutu - a novelty I'm finding darned endearing. And isn't crisp black on white such a classic? So Chanel...

I, of course, would have to have the black heels - but I'm finding the cuteness of the flats damned enchanting.