delicious brownies

I made brownies for some friends today, and I gotta say they turned out pretty darn well....to die for even. The brownies are nice and moist. The frosting deliciously creamy....MmmMmM

My husband started off licking the bowl and utensils...then he was eye-ing the brownies when it was completed. He thoroughly enjoyed them...all 4 squares...

For Brownies:

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 9" square baking pan.

2. In a bowl, stir together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, beat well with a spoon.

3. In another bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually, add to egg mixture, beating until well blended. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.

For Brownie Frosting:

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter, softened

3 tablespoons cocoa

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Method

1. In a small bowl, beat butter, cocoa, honey and vanilla until blended.

2. Add icing sugar and milk, beat to spreading consistency.

Spread frosting all over the brownies. Cut into squares. Indulge.

Makes a batch of 16 brownies.

pink envy and a marbled mirror

2 year old's princess necklace

I handmade this necklace for my most favorite 2 1/2 yr old in the whole wide world. She is not my own but I think everyone who knows her wishes she was theirs...she's just that adorable. My husband and I both love her very much...since she lives very close to us..within 1 minute, there is not a day where we don't want to go and visit, just to give her big hugs and receive a million kisses from her.

So I made this for her since she loves necklaces (as well as Dora, Hi 5, drawing on walls, dancing and just telling us her adventures.. which we dont understand). I think the life span of the necklace was 10hrs. She had tied it around her ankle (need to find out the whole story from her mum..my friend) and it broke...

Guess i will have to make a stack of these to give her over a period of time...

The tutorial where i got this DIY, a blog called to be charmed. I substituted the pearls for faux crystal beads

i want mora!

I'm sooooo in love with these antique Swedish Mora clocks (18th century). They are feminine, lean, tall... and beautiful! I need it one my house now!

I've been seeing these clocks in many french country interior design photos. A lot are in the U.S of A and U.K/Europe. The Mora is making more of a comeback than before!

I'm searching to see where i can find a nice pretty one that can sit in my beach house in Sri Lanka. I just hope the sea-mist doesnt rust the inside mechanism of the clocks.

snap: one

it's wednesday already...hope ure having a good week!

[photo: rae.c]

tickled pink

...hope my husband is reading...

PRADA

LOUIS VUITTON

diy: instyle cupboard

The past week or so, I have been quietly revamping our old, ugly and cheap looking cupboard. It's gone a little lop-sided/bent from the heavy-usage its been through over the years and because it's cheap... I couldnt do any sanding, re-painting cos it's originally laminated.

Since I didnt take an initial picture of the cupboard before starting the work, I had to cheat and do some photoshopping magic. The doors and drawers are pasted with articles from Instyle magazine and then protected with transparent contact. I finished the rest of the cupboard with black contact paper which had a wood grain effect.

It was an easy job, just required a bit of patience. Now it looks as good as new.

east meets middle-east

Recently, I came across these divine Iznik ceramics from Yurdan. In Turkey, Iznik pottery began in the 14th century and the trend reached a high in the late 16th century. The beautiful colours and delicately handpainted floral, abstract details with Chinese influences.

back from the pottery barn

So straight after I posted my slight obsession with pottery barn, my husband and I went to the Avenues for some shopping. I must say we kinda went crazy in PB...ok ok...it was me that went kinda crazy. There was upto 75% sale on selected items and boy (!!!) was it cheap!! I initially wanted to go back to get a serving tray, but luckily, we have great friends who surprise gifted us that tray. Today, I wanted only to go to check out a candle lantern.

Who would have known, I would go and almost bought everything I saw! Unfortunately, I don't have money growing trees on my balcony which I can leisurely pluck when needed. I did get some excellent buys. The Kuwait PB prices are slightly more than the US PB, probably KD1 increase give or take....could be more on bigger items like sofas.

Damage done:

2 floral yellow pillows: orig KD9.500, sale KD2.600

1 bristol lantern (large): orig KD25, sale KD12.500

1 metal cuff vase: orig KD9.500, sale KD 2.350

3 natural shells vase filler: orig KD 5.250ea , sale KD1.300ea

1 scored citrus vase filler: orig KD 5.250, sale KD1.300

1 eclectic yellow bowl: orig KD9.500, KD2.350

Original total: KD 84

Sale total: KD27.600

Savings total: KD56.400 (almost USD$200)

Now, I can decorate my house near the beach in Sri Lanka. This stuff was sooooo worth it!

This is the beautiful 'aged country' serving tray which our friends gifted us, also from pb.

p.s. we are thinking of going back there to get more lanterns *sigh*...sale is ending in another coupla days

getting a bit obsessed

I have a confession..I need help!! I can't stop going through the Pottery Barn website, my daily ritual of one visit has become 2-3. I think I've saved most of the products onto my computer, I think of going to the Avenues everyday just to go to PB. I even started dreaming about decorating my house with all their stuff...

Oh I love the rustic-ness of the cake mold pendant, copper pots and lanterns. How cute are the glass pedestal stands with dome tops?

I need these accents, they are just absolutely adorable!!! ........

in love with indian linen

Les Indiennes and Bungalow have the most beautiful indian textiles and crafts with traditional yet modern designs. Clean, fresh and contemporary. So pretty.... *sigh*

bracelet by chanel

80s in the 10

A sight for sore eyes. This is nothing compared to the previous shop, which had a whole wall dedicated to neon shoes...whatever shoe you were looking for...they had it!

american country

I've been wanting to visit Pottery Barn since February - when I first saw the construction boards covering the old Top Shop/Top Man in the Avenues. Finally, I got to do so... twice.

Adore the country feel of the 2 stores (pottery barn and pottery barn kids)...PBKids has the cutest stuff ever!!

The staff are super duper uber friendly: smiling, patient and playful....don't get that in many stores here in kuwait. Unfortunately, the prices are a bit ridiculously expensive.

Here's a short story. It was 11.20pm, PB closed at 11pm but the staff were just doing their thing and said to take our time cos they don't leave until 12 midnight anyways...Is PB the best or what?!?

There's a sale on at the moment (yay!! 50% off selected items), I'm dying to go back and get something I saw which was just toooooo cheap to pass.

something wrong...

I couldn't help but notice how oddly strange this girl is in the ad, kinda like a woman stuck with a young girls body or some kind of grotesque horror accident has happened to her neckd down... Maybe her butt has been twisted to the front of her body, her waist is something like an 18"? Her facial expression doesnt seem like she's too happy either.

Oh, nice shalwar kameez though.

indian fantasy

I'm in L.O.V.E.

This beautiful pair of Indian 19th century 22K gold, diamonds and rubies bangles are worth USD$30,000 available from Sue Olleman's Oriental Art.

*sigh* ( T _ T ")

spot on!

hotels 'most wanted' list: sri lanka

I'm not much a fan of Colombo 'city' life, I prefer to visit hotels outside of town...to get away from the hustle and bustle of trishaws/buses/cars literally jumping from one lane to another. People say, '..if you learn to drive in Sri Lanka, you can drive anywhere in the world'....but they say that about India and Pakistan also...

The hotels out of the city are lovely, peaceful and romantic..unless you are going with a huge gang of people...thats a different story. Below are the hotels which are on my 'want to stay' list for my next few visits back to Sri Lanka, not in any particular order.

Kahanda Kanda - Galle

Amanwella - Tangalle

Aditya - Hikkaduwa

Elephant Corridor - Sigiriya

Anilana Tamarind Hill - Galle

Vil Uyana - Sigiriya

Ceylon Tea Trails - Bogawantalawa

simple & pure

i love these guys!

haute caftans

I ♥heart ♥heart ♥heart moroccan caftans especially the couture ones with lots of delicate fabrics, intricate embroideries and gorgeous embellishments.

This one is my favorite....love the pink, lace, belt...love it all!!

(images: caftan.me, marocfashion.canalblog.com)

{ 1974 } A chaotic year

I've got in possession, a 'photocopied photocopy' copy of a Pakistan cookbook, Joy of Cooking in Pakistan by Zainab Currimbhoy (6th edn, 1974) - given to me by my MIL, she got her copy from a cooking seminar. Varieties include Pakistani, European, Chinese, Burmese, Irani and Parsi recipes.

I lurrrrrve cookbooks, I really do. Just skimming through the pages, looking at mouthwatering pictures and cooking up a storm in my head.

Now, in the 5th edn (1971) it had 132 pages of cookery, whereas, the photocopied 6th edn which I currently hold has 44 pages wth 145 recipes. In my one, there is no table of contents or index...so I can't really see what is meant to be there. But one thing for sure, 1) this cooking seminar sucks, if they are only giving 1/3 of a cookbook or 2) the person who photocopied the original book is just a pure lazya$$.

Getting to the point, this is the mostest unorganised and collated cookbook (or book for that matter) EVER!!!! I'm no professional editor or writer but this is one heck of a messy cookbook. I literally have to go through all the pages to find a recipe. For example, I was looking for an (Atta) Chapatti recipe to make for lunch...skimmed through 44 pages to find 3 recipes - puri, potato puri and parathas. Not to mention, the recipes are neither in alphabetical, categorical or topical order - it's desserts, curries, soup, pastries etc all jumbled up.

Here's an example of the exact recipe order from pages 1-10:

❀scotch eggs

❀lemon meringue pie

❀short pastry for the meringue pie

❀fish baskets

❀check cake

❀boti kabab

❀walnut chocolate cake

❀fish in banana leaves

❀chocolate eclairs

❀chocolate icing

❀chicken pie

❀white sauce

❀walnut fudge

❀cheese balls

❀peach trifle

❀sweet & sour prawns

❀fish pie

❀coconut macarooms (yes, macarooms)

❀fruit cake

❀ginger snaps

❀dahiwada

❀puri

❀sweet chutney

❀falooda

❀ice cream

❀syrup

❀fish mayonnaise

❀mayonnaise sauce

❀mixed grill

❀orange jelly

❀sandwich loaf

❀chutney

❀guava jelly

❀guava cheese

❀cheese souffle

❀gulab jamun

❀chicken corn soup

The writer claims, "If you are trying to interest the teenagers in cooking, the practical and easy to prepare dishes will help hold their interest" and "...with easy to prepare deserts to impress your friends and guests". Imagine preparing a desert..... (-_-)"

Here's an extract - recipe for kofta curry:

p.s. Does anyone know the amount of onions to use? cinimam(?!?)? pepper? garlic? green chillies? haldi? chilly powder? I certainly don't...

If I was a teenager going through that recipe, I would made a paruppu mess of that kofta curry.

I don't know much about Pakistan history, so according to my trusty wikipedia source....only two events occurred in 1974 - 1) a massive and violent Anti-Ahmadiyya movement was instigated by the Islamist group Jamaat-i-Islami resulting in many casualties of Ahmadiya Muslim Community members and destruction to Ahmadiyya property; and 2) Pakistan recognised Bangladesh, three years after the secession of East Pakistan. In 1973, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto gave up his post as Pakistan's president to become their prime minister instead.

So anyway, Pakistan was going through some hard times but that doesn't give anyone an excuse to gather recipes and randomly bind pages and turn it into a so called 'cook book' to impress guests and hold interests of teenagers....

Oh..Good luck and enjoy the recipe!

hydroponically cute

Baby grobals, the brain-child of Treg Bradley and designed by industrial designer, Karim Rashid. These adorable self-watering plant pots are for those who love green around the house but not the daily watering. With a unique watering system, grobal draws water and nutrients from the reservoir into the grobal soil. You can check the grobal water level through the water level indicator and refill through the nutriport (the circle on the pot) when needed. Depending on the plant, you only need to add water every 3-4 weeks!!

I want to get me some of those cute bubblegum pink baby grobals. Watering once a month is just too easy.

nostalgic honey joys

After many, many, many years (more than a decade), I indulged in some honey joys - an Australian all-time favorite. It brought back memories of my childhood, school fêtes and birthdays. I remember making this for the first time in primary school in home ec and waiting to divulge in this crunchy and sticky goodness! Makes me homesick.

Extremely simple and quick recipe.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons honey

4 cups cornflakes

Method

Preheat oven to 150C.

In a saucepan, melt sugar, butter and honey and bring to a boil.

Remove saucepan from heat.

Add cornflakes into saucepan and mix gently with sugar mixture, until everything is evenly coated. Spoon mixture into paper cake cases or patty pan.

Place in oven, bake for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool before eating.

Makes 20-25.

I used mini cake cases and also regular sized ones. Above are the mini ones.