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 The first “home improvement” item that I wanted to build was a proper spice rack. It was an idea from – who else – Alton Brown, who had attached rows of velcro to the inside of his kitchen cabinet doors. So when the Doctor and I first moved into Redfort three years ago, I basically had ours built within a couple of weeks.
It wasn’t exactly pretty.
 On the inside of our pantry door was the spice rack, on the outside are two whiteboards for our daily notes and menu planning. As you can see, they get a lot of use (!) and I couldn’t live without them. Occasionally a jar would fall off the door, especially since the wood’s swollen a little with age. It was also kind of a pain to be stuck with a particular brand of spices just because their jars had a flat side. At least since they were made of plastic, they would bounce when they fell, and didn’t shatter and spill all over the floor.
But good Lord, they were ugly. And since I used hot glue to attach everything, whenever they fell off, I had to either try to chip off the solid glue and ruin my fingernails, or – more usually – just pour more glue over everything and make it more likely that it’d fall apart again.
So, inspired by some other efforts to clean up and reduce our clutter, and also the Home Sweet Home project by the lovely Violet Le Beaux, I decided to do something about that darn spice rack!
Continue reading IKEA Magnetic Spice Rack
Today is ANZAC Day in Australia, a day where we remember soldiers who have died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. The name ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) specifically refers to the landing of Australian and New Zealander forces on the beaches of Gallipoli in 1915. My family has been extremely fortunate in that none of us have ever been called to serve in this way, so commemorating those who have means something a little different to me. It’s not only the thankfulness for those who have given their lives, but also a wish that for one day, we won’t ever have to ask people to fight against each other.
For this recipe, I decided to go a little historical. According to the Australian War Memorial webpage, the original ANZAC biscuit was “a long shelf-life, hard tack biscuit, eaten as a substitute for bread”. I’d probably be brave enough to bake hard tack, but neither the Doctor or I really relished the idea of eating it afterwards… So I made the more “traditional” recipe given on the same page.
Continue reading ANZAC Biscuits
 You remember the Aussie Barbecue that I went to on Cup Eve? Well, since we’re “the ones that do all the cooking”, we wound up taking home most of the leftovers. One of which was an entire gallon (nearly 4 litres!) of apple juice. I don’t drink fruit juice normally, since I prefer to spend my calorie intake on food, and I normally drink water, tea or coffee. Or martinis (not really).
On the other hand, Tobias, the Doctor, and our friend B absolutely love anything to do with apples, so they suggested that I make some apple cider for Christmas. I decided to go one step further.
Continue reading Appelstroop (Dutch Apple Syrup)
Before Christmas (shush, I know I’ve been on a break), I was fortunate enough to be contacted by Udi Tirosh, creator of these adorable camera cookie cutters. He generously offered to send me a set for review, and since I had planned a weekend away with a bunch of photography friends, I knew exactly who would appreciate them the most.
Little did I know that my friends (Neil and Naomi Creek) actually knew Udi through his blog, DIYPhotography.net, so that made this weekend even more special that I could share his cookies with them.
The cookie cutters come packaged in a cardboard insert in a plastic cover. They’re made of two parts, an outline for the shape of the camera, and a detailed insert. You get a dSLR (red), rangefinder (yellow) and twin lens reflex camera (green). On the back of the insert is a basic sugar cookie recipe, so you don’t have to be a baker to start using them immediately. I tried the cutters out using both Udi’s recipe, and my own favourite cookie recipe – gingerbread.
Continue reading Camera Cookie Cutters – Eat Your Equipment!
Friday 4 is a self-imposed challenge where I post four food-related photos, and only get 4 sentences to describe each one. It gets these beautiful pictures out of my backlog, and also makes me take better ones in future!
Extra challenge: none of these foods were actually from Japan…!
Continue reading Friday 4 – Japanese Food
Friday 4 is a self-imposed challenge where I post four food-related photos, and only get 4 sentences to describe each one. It gets these beautiful pictures out of my backlog, and also makes me take better ones in future!
Continue reading Friday 4 – Dessert
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The first “home improvement” item that I wanted to build was a proper spice rack. It was an idea from – who else – Alton Brown, who had attached rows of velcro to the inside of his kitchen cabinet doors. So when the Doctor and I first moved into Redfort three years ago, I basically had ours built within a couple of weeks.
On the inside of our pantry door was the spice rack, on the outside are two whiteboards for our daily notes and menu planning. As you can see, they get a lot of use (!) and I couldn’t live without them. Occasionally a jar would fall off the door, especially since the wood’s swollen a little with age. It was also kind of a pain to be stuck with a particular brand of spices just because their jars had a flat side. At least since they were made of plastic, they would bounce when they fell, and didn’t shatter and spill all over the floor.
