An Easy Pleaser...

I know I mentioned I'd start taking pictures of the various dinners Mr. D whips up each night, so I thought I'd better start sharing.

This one is a favourite of mine at the moment. If you like KFC style chicken and two minute noodles, you'll love this glammed up, slightly healthier combo. It's a bit of a treat around here... Thanks Donna Hay!

I realised after I decided to start photographing meals, that it's always dark when we have dinner, so the photo lighting suffers.

I guess the point here though is not to try to recreate the beautiful food photography you'd find in a Donna Hay book, but rather, what you'd have in front of you at 7pm if you made this meal yourself.

Here goes;

First, (because we eat with our eyes), the photographic evidence... It looks edible right?

Now how to make this meal...

Stir-fried Noodles with Crispy Chicken. (taken from Donna Hay - Off the Shelf)

Ingredients:
Dried Chinese wheat noodles (we use egg noodles)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 large red chillies, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons shredded ginger
600grams Asian greens (we use green beans)
3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar

Crispy Chicken - this stuff is delicious!!!!! 
Enough chicken for however many you're cooking for  - we use tenderloins.
2 egg whites, lightly whisked (Mr D uses the whole egg and does an egg wash)
1 cup rice flour (we use normal flour)
2 teaspoons Chinese 5 spice powder - (buy that at the supermarket)
1 teaspoon salt
Peanut oil to shallow fry

Method
Boil the noodles until soft, approx 3 minutes. Drain and set aside in a bowl. Heat oil in the wok or frying pan over a high heat. Add the chillies and ginger and cook for 2 minutes. Add the vegetables, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sugar and cook for 4 minutes or until veges are tender.
Toss through the noodles.
To make the crispy chicken, dip the chicken pieces into the egg white, then toss in the combined flour, 5 spice and salt. Heat enough oil in a saucepan to shallow fry the chicken and cook a few pieces at a time until golden.
To serve, place noodle mix on plates and top with the crispy chicken.

This serves 4 people, we just halve the recipe for the 2 of us.


Taken from the Donna Hay "Off the Shelf" book, definitely one of our most used books for quick easy meals! You definitely want this one in your collection. It really helped us to build our condiment collection and a well stocked pantry, so we could cook several scrummy meals without a big trip to the supermarket.

On a side note - I just finished tonight's dinner - YUM! Can't wait to share this prawn laksa, easy peasy dinner with you guys.

A Love Story

You know that feeling when your chest tightens, and a sharp little lump forms in your throat? That feeling where your eyes suddenly fill, and things become a little bit blurry... when your nose starts stinging and you have to give it a little wiggle and a sniff it to prevent the tears...

That's how I felt when I watched this video. Sent to me by my husband today with a simple message  "I love you so much"...

I usually don't watch videos at work, but I felt compelled to watch this one, and I'm so glad I did. Apart from having to pause it halfway through and recompose, wiggle my nose and take a deep breath, it was worth it.

This video is the perfect example of love. It's not that obvious, garish, in your face love. It's that unspoken, understanding and never ending type. The BEST type.

I'm going to watch it again now. (nose wiggle)



A little bit of background. This video was created by Storycorps...

(from the website)

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our weekly broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Editionand on our Listen pages.

We do this to remind one another of our shared humanity, strengthen and build the connections between people, teach the value of listening, and weave into the fabric of our culture the understanding that every life matters. At the same time, we will create an invaluable archive of American voices and wisdom for future generations.

Mantells Wedding Mt Eden

It's only taken me a few months to share this wedding with you. You may recognise this gorgeous couple from a family photo shoot I did with them last year, with their little boy Milan. 

I was nervous when they asked if I'd take photos of their wedding as it was going to be in the evening (low light) and I had only ever taken photos at one other friend's wedding. 

There is a real mixture to share here, so I'm sorry if it feels disjointed. 

Thank you guys for letting me capture your day for you. The wedding was incredibly intimate, honest and beautiful... I'm sure you'll agree they are a stunning couple! There are so many images to share, but it would just be picture overload, so I've chosen a few from the different stages of the wedding.

I can't wait to meet your newest member to their family. 

xx

The Ceremony

The Reception - Beautiful Mantells in Mt Eden

A final few after dark...

Picture Overload!

OK, one more of this little guy who behaved perfectly all day!

DIY Birthdays

My sister is so hard to buy for, so this year when she said, "can you please make me pillows for my birthday?" I was so relieved. Yes I can!... But that is another post. 

After making her present, I was well onboard the homemade bus, so decided to keep going and make her a card. Have you seen the price of birthday cards these days??? Ok, not as important as the price of milk, but still, $6.00 for a card with a generic quote or a cute puppy on it? I thought I could improve on that somewhat.

I was inspired by a card I saw online (that is awesome!) - so I can't take total creative credit for this one! I was in a rush as I wanted to watch something on TV, so forgive the imperfections please. 10 minutes later I came up with this...

 Better than a bought one?

Tiny little babies

When I'm taking pictures of tiny newborn babies, I always strive to capture for the parents just how precious and tiny their babies are. These are the photos they will look back on with their children in future years, saying "look how tiny you were".

I get to see so many special moments through my lens.  Some of these photos show a selection of my favourite moments captured in a newborn photo session. In these gentle, silent images where the baby is held in their father's arms, you can so clearly see and feel their absolute love and protection for this tiny bundle. I know... sorry a tad gushy, but I think you'll agree.

 

In the first year, they grow and change and develop into these little people filled with personality. It fascinates me when I photograph a newborn, just how innocent and new they are and I snap away, desperate to preserve these memories for their tired new parents.

A tasty, easy snack

The poor raw peanut. Often overlooked in the supermarkets, failing to allure consumers, or compete with the shiny prepackaged, overpriced roasted, salted, honey glazed, dry roasted nuts hanging in premium locations around the snack aisles.

Think again fancy nuts... can you compete with piping hot, salted, freshly home-roasted peanuts? I think not.

I just poured the peanuts into an oven dish, lightly coated them in olive oil and salt, then baked them on about 180C for 15-20 minutes, checking on them often to toss them around.
The only real thing to check is that they don't burn because when they go, they go... so check them often.

Once they look golden and the skins are flaking off, take them out sprinkle generously with salt and serve them in a bowl. Delish!

This is not a spray paint tutorial.

In preparation of the bathroom renovation, I was cleaning out my accumulated junk. Among this junk was an old chrome style trolley. It was looking a little worse for wear and was about to meet it's fate in the bin.
I had a very random, sudden idea to paint it a bright colour.

Being a complete novice in the spray painting trade, I trotted off to Mitre 10 Mega in my stilettos after work one night and tried to explain my project to a very nice man in terribly unflattering overalls. I'm talking overalls supporting a protruding belly unflattering. But nevertheless he was very helpful.

I came away from the shop $30 poorer, but armed with a can of primer which he said would "bond to anything"and a bright yellow top coat.

I didn't read up online for any tips on spray painting or priming or surface preparation... so unlike me. But this project was spontaneous and not well thought through.

Let me walk you through as best I can so you don't make the same mistakes.

1. I lined the floor of the garage with newspaper as it was raining outside. (mistake one, now a yellow patch of paint on garage floor and newspaper permanently bonded onto my trolley...)
2. I sprayed the BLACK primer onto the trolley in what I thought were thin coats (mistake two, covering black with yellow?)
3. I sprayed a second coat of primer (actually ok this time)
4. I flipped the trolley pieces over to prime the other side (mistake three, the moment the paper began bonding with my trolley)
5. I waited for the primer to dry
6. Sprayed a thin coat of yellow onto the trolley trying to cover the black primer, meanwhile asking myself why the man in the unflattering overalls didn't sell me a WHITE primer. 
7. Sprayed a second coat... but not so pleased with the coverage, so I went a bit heavy handed with the paint (mistake four). 
8. Waited for it all to dry 
9. Turned it over and sprayed the other side yellow
10. Ran out of spray paint

This is NOT a tutorial on how to spray paint a trolley. As you can probably tell, I am not the person to give advice. I liked my brother's suggestion. "why did you not spray paint on cardboard, everyone knows not to use newspaper" Obviously I'm not one of those people...

Now the moment you've been waiting for... the big reveal... The yellow trolley with black primer peeping through and newspaper stuck to it in places (*ahem) and taking pride of place in the guest room.

I splashed some white paint on the old dark brown mirror above the trolley to lighten the area as well. Apart from my thumb prints from where I became impatient and wanted to hang it, the mirror was pretty successful for a quick fix.  I just threw some stuff on there for the photo to make my terrible spray painting less obvious. I'll let you decide if it has worked. 

It's all about the hands and feet...

I'm so lucky to have this precious little goddaughter to photograph whenever I feel the need to capture some sweet babyness.

At 5 months she's all about her hands and feet. Isn't she delicious...

Winter Wonderland

Last week it was my turn to host the dinner club. I say it was my turn, but really it's whoever can bring themselves to find enough chairs and set up a dinner for around 15 people on a weeknight.

The weather has been so stormy recently, we decided a winter theme would work best. Stews, casseroles, sticky date puddings and roast vegetables were among the mix of dishes people created. YUM!

As always, I don't tend to take too many pictures as I'm always busy eating and chatting away, but you get the idea of the setup. It was pretty close to Mr D's birthday, so the dinner become a little bit of a birthday celebration. I wish I had a photo of the scrummy birthday cake Laura made. We ate it all... before I thought to get the camera. Woops.

Hosting dinner club is always worth it, to have all of your local friends gather around and eat, laugh, eat, laugh and make a mess.

I'm still yet to post the dinner previous to this one... Man Vs. Wild. Stay tuned...