Farmer's market fun

Farmers market was amazing, everyone was so friendly! I tried pear jam, fennel sausage, and my first savoury crepe full of roast pumpkin, feta, salad and love. Everything was perfect - there were so many pears that i think i have around 3kg now, shall wait for them to ripen a little more then roast them with cinnamon and nuts to top my Greek yogurt, or make a toasted sandwich with brie, Rose's raspberry jam and roasted pears. The only sweet toasted sandwich I've had before was the equivalent of a schmore so this could be really good. I also got an enormous leek - leek and potato soup anyone? The brightly coloured tents just made me so happy. I had a little hangover from the dress up party the night before and woke up strangely early for a Saturday at 8am, it had just been raining so the air was fresh and i loved the hour round trip as it cleared my head. Luckily i remembered to wash off the lightning bolt on my face from the night before as i had been running around dressed as a super hero, that would have looked most unusual.

Later that day we had Alex's birthday party, all of my vegan chocolate cupcakes had already vanished but at least i know he got one. They were really good! I had four hahahaha
Here's the recipe from Pastry affair's blog http://www.pastryaffair.com/blog/vegan-chocolate-cupcakes.html

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

Yields 12 cupcakes

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes 
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
3/4 cup granulated sugar 
3 tablespoons cocoa powder 
2 teaspoons espresso powder 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1 teaspoon vinegar 
1/4 cup vegetable oil 
1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line a cupcake pan with baking cups.In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, espresso powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the vanilla extract, vinegar, oil, and water. Using a spatula, mix the batter until smooth.Divide batter evenly between 12 baking cups (about 3/4 full). Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from baking pan and allow to cool to room temperature.

Whipped Chocolate Glaze 
170g semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (use dairy-free to keep vegan)
1/2 cup coconut milk (or heavy cream, for non-vegans)

Place chopped chocolate into a mixing bowl. Set aside.On medium-high heat, bring coconut milk to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent the milk from scorching. Pour milk over the chocolate, making sure that the milk covers the chocolate. Allow to sit for several minutes before stirring until smooth. Allow frosting to rest on the counter until it cools down and thickens to a pipe-able consistency (anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes).Beat the frosting for several minutes until it incorporates air and feels lighter. Place frosting in a pastry bag (or plastic bag with the corner cut out) and pipe frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

My cupcakes didn't survive long enough for a photo so this is from the recipe's website ;)

The party was fun, we stayed up talking all night and the boys danced - many of us had fluffy hats on and we finished all the jelly shots. 

Just made chocolate cake in a mug and ate it with boysenberry ripple ice cream, it disappeared a little too quick i feel. Kathryn said she was going to send the blood orange tea leaves for me this week, should be interesting to try out - maybe i shall take a little flask into uni every day.

At the moment i am about to paint my nails a deep deep purple, put on my Daisy perfume and fluffy hat to make me feel better and then make the 5 minute walk through the gardens to the study center to study the rest of my night away. At least i know that something good is on the way... mum surprised me by saying she is sending a care package today which is giving me waves of good feeling and then when i told Ryan how exciting care packages are he said he was going to send me one too as i am clearly stressed... so i think the post is full of sugar for me at the moment, more trouble.

Teetering

My first year in a flat
So much freedom, so much that goes wrong, so behind on lectures
Oh dear

Made the most amazing breakfast a few days ago, it lit up the rest of my day
How does this sound? Cinnamon roasted pears, almonds, and cashews with Greek yogurt
It makes me so very happy i might even forget how terrifying my morning was and how badly wrong the rest of my day has been.
Its simple and quick: 1 pear cut into 1 inch slices, handful of almonds and cashews in the oven and sprinkle with cinnamon - oven at about 150-200 degrees C, its all fine so long as you keep watch and don't burn anything :) I burnt my tongue today, still can't taste anything... yes my day really is going so well.
Once its ready and slightly browned put it in a bowl on top of a mound of greek yogurt. So many flavours, so little time. Pears are on special at the moment so i think i shall go get some more as this actually makes my morning worth it.

Something nice happened on Monday too - a boy in my class gave me his coffee card fully completed with a free coffee on it, i'd told him what my day was going to be like and he just gave it to me! So kind... i get very clingy to that sort of thing as i feel like I've really earned my free one by the end of a card but he said he had a friend at that coffee shop who gave him free size upgrades so... he wins really but it still made me really happy.

One of my flatmates keeps using the dryer so unnecessarily - why not just hang it up outside to dry?? Its getting really cold now and we haven't even used our heat pump yet so i wish he wouldn't then maybe that extra chunk of the power bill could go towards other things! Being the only girl in my flat though... i don't want to be the flat mum/complain about everything all the time.
I got a mink blanket though, and polar fleece sheets, and wear my onesie and ugg boots around at night in the flat (shameless), and wear my puffer jacket and polyprops (thermals) to bed... how am i still cold.
Two of my flatmates went and got onesies today from bed bath and beyond so this could get quite amusing as Harry is the biggest in a purple one, then Mia is next tallest in a green one (not a flat mate but she is always here), then Caitlin has a yellow one (another friend) and she is next tallest after that, and i have red homemade one and am by far the smallest. How are we so like telly tubbies and it wasn't planned.

I was hoping to catch a plane home for a weekend trip to see my family, Harriet and Ryan but it seems Air New Zealand hates me - there was a mothers day special on with affordable flights for every combination except Wellington-Dunedin. I miss Harriet - i want to see her as much as possible so this is killing me as i didn't get to see her in the holidays as she didn't realise i only had a weeks holiday home. Have been talking to Ryan most days which is nice. Family misses me <3
But Hat i want to see the most, so much it's almost painful... here's her blog: http://myexperienceofwalkingthedog.blogspot.co.nz/ Lets just say her most recent update says "I never thought i'd be happy being told i only have six months left to live..." I need to see her.
I always talk to her when i am unhappy or worried so maybe i will later tonight but i never want to be the boring friend who is always having a wah about something not very important.

My friend Kate just found out today she has been chosen to go to Canada for a year next year; fuck i'm going to miss her.
I've somehow broken myself (when do i not?) but its been getting worse - feels like a foot strain but i couldn't walk home today i was in too much pain. It hurts now and i'm not even putting weight on it. Worst physio ever? My future - can't even fix myself
I burnt my tongue on the most underwhelming curry I've ever had that i bought just to make me feel better and was instead thoroughly disappointed with.
Hit my shin on my wooden bedframe getting out of bed early this morning - yes i still have lectures 8am and 9am every day and i think i will go to the farmers market tomorrow so.... early early
Went to hand in my clinical sheet and got told i'd done it wrong and forgotten to do some others so try again.
I have a crazy headache that i have had since i opened my eyes today.
I almost cried in my lab today because i didn't understand anything that the demonstrator said, the headache did not help x

There's what i'm not going to complain to Hat about, i would rather tell her about the nicer things

Cooking fun

It's been so long since I've been able to cook, it's been great to get back to it!
Hopefully shall be seeing more of my friends next week, along with sun bathing and strawberry champagne slushies/popsicles :) yum

Spicy tomato soup recipe (serves 4)
From whole-living
2 cans of diced tomato in juice
1 T of Olive oil/safflower oil
2 carrots
3 cloves of garlic
one lemon's juice
1/4 milk (or what seems right to make it creamier)
1 cups of water or more
turmeric, basil, oregano, rosemary, a pinch of cayenne pepper or chili (all optional but add to it)
Instructions:
Take tomatoes and grill them with olive oil in the oven until lightly browned (intensifies flavour), meanwhile slice carrots thinly (if using a blender) then add carrot, garlic, lemon juice, tomato juice, milk and browned tomatoes and blend until smooth. Then place in a pot over the stove to heat, adding seasoning and stirring so it will not stick. Eat with buttered hot toast!
Nutritional information - About 80 calories per serving, very filling!
It is low in carbohydrates (3%), fats (6%), high in vitamin A (122%) and vitamin C (39%), dietary fiber  potassium and vitamin B6.

One of the most amazing cakes has struck me down, i haven't even tasted it yet - but just the sound of its name makes me feel warm inside: Cashew dream cake
It's like a cheesecake but healthier and can be flavoured in many different ways; raspberries, vanilla bean, cocoa, blueberry, strawberry, apricot, Turkish delight... I just wish i had a food processor as without it, i don't know if i can do it.

Canada

Once upon a time my family took me travelling, we went all sorts of places and gave me the slight itchy wanderlust in the soles of my feet. We visited family; nana was in Canada where there were mosquitoes in summer, wolves in winter and she looked after her horse Flicka all year round. The insects loved my blood, especially the night that my mosquito net was broken - i hated it, lying in the dark and listening for them - i wondered if there was one inside my ear. Her garden was full of flowers and i remember the sun, particularly the day we went to the safari and she didn't have air conditioning in her car and there were monkeys on the roof snapping pieces of car off so the windows were tightly shut. I was clicking pictures of the deer even though she told me they were pests and lived in New Zealand too, just as the monkey broke off the car in front's antennae.

We went to the local play area which was a swing on the dusty dirt ground, we were more interested in the rocks on the ground, we would hit them on one another and occasionally they would crack and the inside was full of black crystal. One night we went to a medieval knights show in Toronto, it was really nice - the audience was sectioned off into knights to support and were given crowns to wear in their colours. It so happened that the knight were the supporting, the black and white, won the tournament and so was handed flowers to girls in the crowd (i was so close to having a flower i thought) however... he then had chose a little princess: It was me. I walked through the crowd to sit up beside the 'king and queen' and watch the final battle while wearing a little sash, didn't really take it in as i'm not used to being chosen. What i find amusing now was that i began acting along (eight years old of course) and played along with expressions of fear and horror on my face whenever my knight was under attack - the queen then asked me if i was okay as i must have looked as if i were in pain. Oh dear, such an awkward child

Niagara falls is enormous, we were told tales of people surviving going over it in barrels and such - there weren't that many stories.

Unusual idea for a Autumn/Winter gathering of friends, make hot spiced pumpkin soup from a pumpkin and then place it back inside the for fun pumpkin to keep it warm. 

Mondays + happiness = hardly a Monday at all

Happiness on Mondays

My favourite tea, but i have no way to find more. Mum even looked at trying to ship a box here from England which is where i picked it up in the first place. It's called bright mood, and it does just that with cinnamon, hops and orange peel. It's tag even comes with a little saying for your day, often confusing

Other ways to cheer myself up on a Monday are to spin around on a chair, actually do a little bit of study which makes any movie watching feel more deserved and myself less stressed for future exams. Have a long hot shower, wear thick woolen socks, drink gingerbread hot chocolate, go outside and just walk (between trees is best).

Sweet treats

There are so many places i would like to go, things to see and idea to try

Gelato Messina in Kings cross, Sydney. It has been voted the best Gelato in Australia. the little shop looks so cute and the piles of Italian goodness are so thick and creamy. Unlucky i live in New Zealand then...

From  http://fellt.com/garypepper/2012/07/sweet-treats,
 in one of the most delicious posts ever made by Nicole Warne,
It's full of beautiful food, my favourite to look at xx

This year i have made a friend who has never in her life tasted Gelato, something i intend to change over summer in December. My place of choice to do this will of course be Cafe Eis, the Gelato and coffee place by the sea to go in Wellington. By the end of my life i hope to have slowly but surely tried all the different flavours you can make in Gelato, luckily i have a long way to go <3 It's so much more refreshing than ice cream...

Of course there's so much more food to look forwards to in Summer, like the berries, melons, Christmas tiramisu and being at home and baking.. Only 6 months to wait, student life-style till then

another photo from Gary pepper vintage of beautiful food

Till then i can wrap up warm, study and drink hot drinks after chilly outdoor walks

Mum came and visited me during the week, it was wonderful to see her... we did everything

She flew down while i was in a laboratory for biochemistry and waited for me in my room, then we went out for lunch at the Captain Cook with my friends. It's Dunedin's classic cheap student bar with good food. We had wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce while we all talked about finding flats.. one of my favourite unhealthy lunch foods down here. 

After lectures for the day she took a few of us out to dinner and we went to Etrusco which is an Italian restaurant that makes amazing pasta and pizza. You can always tell an Italian place is good if the have correct Italian spelling on the menu and use buffalo mozzarella on the margarita, but I had -

PENNE AL NONNO 

Diced Pancetta (cured ham) flamed in vodka with cream, chilli, tomato, parmesan and

fresh parsley

It was amazing, i loved the Italian place.. It had a warm, comfortable candlelit environment with the fire burning and fantastic food. Mums looked really nice too -

PENNE AL VERDE 
Penne pasta tossed in spinach and toasted pinenuts with a dash of cream and fresh Parmesan

I feel i'll be trying to home-make both at home over the end of year holidays, both have become favourites 

On Friday after we walked around and I showed her the view from up the steep streets, then we went to Everyday Gourmet, where we had gingerbread hot chocolate and i tried my very first macaroon; it was earl grey. It was slightly citrus because of the bergamot oil in earl grey which i didn't expect but was quite nice. 

Tale of fireworks underwater

It was Guy Fawkes and we had these tiny traffic-light coloured fire works that spun in multicoloured circles, we sat on the beach and were deafened with the crackle of the main show and after it was over we lit them and threw them on the sand and bounced them off the waves... then they kept going. A flare of red and orange and yellow from under the waves as the firework exploded under the sea. The boys smoked their cigars and drank beer as we lit sparklers and i ran around with it outside, staring into it and laughing.

We tried it again later in a bucket to prove to parents it was true