figgjo – Page 2 – helenthura.com

February 16, 2011October 29, 2011

Macarons at last, a promise delivered.

A very dear friend and co-worker has her last day at work on Friday before jetting off to the other side of the world to join her fiancÃ©. For months and months she has been pestering me to make macarons and for months and months I’ve been delaying. Well I made them on the weekend and took them to work on Monday. I met my deadline and I made macarons for the first time. I made two types. Pistachio with a chocolate butter cream filling and chocolate with a double chocolate filling (chocolate ganache and chocolate butter cream).

Can you spot the Figgjo Annemarie plate? I also put a little surprise in these with a spoonful of crushed pistachios in the centre. Also I only used pistachio meal in the shells instead of blend of almond and pistachio meal that I saw in some recipes.

The pistachio ones looked the most like commercial macarons, they had a better foot and the top was glossier but some of the tops were domed and cracked. My reading would indicate that this is because I may have over mixed the pistachio meal and sugar into the egg white mixture. The chocolate ones I believe I the eggwhite mixture was too stiff and thus they mixture wasn’t as quite as runny as it should be. This is all a big learning curve and most importantly I can say that they all tasted delicious.

Chocolate, Chocolate and Chocolate

These of course are on a Figgjo Lotte plate 🙂 Some of these had a squirt of ganache in the centre and then butter cream round that or vice versa with butter cream in the centre. My favourite ones to look at though are the ones where I piped ganache on one side and butter cream on the other side.

I ended up with 60 odd macarons and they certainly didn’t last long at work.

December 23, 2010October 29, 2011

Christmas is near

Well, I’m sitting at my Mum’s house as I type this as in a few hours we’ll be heading to the airport to go to NZ for 10 days to hang out with my Aunt and her family. It’s funny, at work people have been asking why I’m going to NZ for Christmas to which I reply I have family there and the response is always the same or similar “Helen, you have family everywhere” (in matter of fact not really, just Iceland, London, NZ and Tassie but it does seem like everywhere).

All my baking and creating has now come to an end for a year as I handed out presents and parcels to friends and co-workers over the last few days.

All the staff in my section received a little goodie bag, which consisted of 2 Christmas Tree sugar cookies, 1 Lebkuchen Man and 2 little chocolates.

The front.

The back.

My girls all received a double stack of decadent goodies. Which was filled with a jar of my Strawberry Jam (which reminds me I must take a photo of one of my jars – they looked so pretty), sugar cookies, vanilla rings, rum balls, sunshine/apricot balls, 3 types of nut brittle (hazelnut, peanut and almond), loftkÃ¶kur and lebkuchen. That also reminds me, I’ll have to take a picture of of what the little bags inside the boxes look like -that will have to happen next year.

The boxes.

oh so pretty. They are all tied up with bakers twine from Bespoke Letterpress. To continue in my theme of using my Figgjo Flint Lotte collection to hold assorted bits and pieces, here is what I am using as a dispenser for my twine – a milk jug. 🙂 At work I have a butter dish holding my staple remover, paper clips, white-out etc, at home I have a soufflÃ© dish that holds my jewellery tree, a jam container that holds teabags, a little serving skillet that holds a candle and coins etc etc.

I leave you with two pictures from the “Hard Crack Factory”

mmm brittle.

November 30, 2010October 30, 2011

December Eve

Tomorrow is a lovely day. December 1, the countdown more officially begins for Christmas. On Sunday, I lit the first candle in my Advent wreath. Tonight, I’ve spent the evening making a big paper chain garland, not exactly sure where I will hang it but probably crisscrossing the ceiling of my room. The most important decision that I need to make between now and tomorrow is where I’m going to put my little tree this year. The first thing I did when I came home from work this afternoon was to polish the silver tray I put it on.

ahhh exciting times. This weekend I’ll be doing my first “official” batch of baking and making.

I’m a bit disappointed that I won’t get to put up my vintage tinsel tree this year but there’s not much point since I’ll be in NZ for Christmas.

Saturday night was the Christmas Party and oh it was a great night. Check out my hair!

I got my hair done on Saturday morning and that really made me decide what I was wearing – I had about 3 options lined up and in the end settled on the frock in the above photo (obviously), it’s from Veronika Maine and I love it. It was my birthday frock this year. I found the glasses on ebay – got 3 pair of empty frames for about $15 (score). If I ever need glasses, I hope I can get lenses put in those frames … I wore a netted petticoat to pouf the dress out, pearls (of course) and on my lips was MAC Ruby Woo (that classic matte red lipstick). I’ll have to wait till I get some photos off the others to show you the shirt I got for N. It’s a classic.

We had everything from 20’s flappers to us Mid Century Girls to 80’s glam rock. Just about everyone put a lot of effort into their outfits which made judging for the various prizes very hard!

November 1, 2010October 29, 2011

a few recent photos

November 1, where on earth has the year gone?

The other week at the farm I took the 135mm, sigh that is one lens I sure do love.

My exam is on Friday, this is what my desk looks like at the moment.

Do you spy that plaque near my tea cup? This is a scan of it. It’s a Figgjo (my favourite Norwegian company) Utfart wall plaque. The discolouration in the glazing is most likely from where it has been hung with a wire which has leached into the glaze. If I ever hang this baby it will be with good strong string or similar.

And that is the end of this short post of pictures

September 15, 2010October 29, 2011

25 things to do before 26

Well I’m most certainly 25 now; I had a lovely weekend, went to Gerties on Saturday night with some friends, had breakfast at Sassafras on Sunday with N and then a browse at the Paddington Antique Centre, where I picked up the most amazing find; a Figgjo Lotte Salt Box/Cellar. I remember when I first saw one of these listed on ebay, I just was awe; the amazing shape, the placement of the designs, the everything. I also remember the price the auction finished, whoa that was some money. The next few times I saw one come up on ebay, the auction finished at similar prices. I can happily say that I picked up mine for a whole lot less.

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m not sure what I will put in it yet but I can assure it won’t be salt.

Yesterday I had a great day. It was a training day at work so no candidates and a chance to have lunch together as a department. I went to the orthodontist and got the news that I’ve been wanting to hear for the last nine months or so, it’s time to go see the prosthodontist, yay! I have an appointment on Oct 5, which will hopefully be an x-ray to confirm root placement and the like and that we can move forward with the implant procedure. Cross your fingers. It’s now week 9 at Uni which is hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday I was looking at my lecture notes for week 1 and thinking it sort of makes sense. I’m really looking forward to next year. When I got home from uni I was presented with the most amazing bunch of red, magenta and orange gerberas from one of my flatmates as belated birthday present. It’s gorgeous, I’ll have to take a photo later.

Now to to the meat of this post. 25 things that I wish to do/complete before I turn 26 next year.

Be finished with orthodontic work.
Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
Ride my bike more.
Get a will.
Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
Spend more time creating.
Print and frame more photos.
Bake a rainbow cake.
Do more study.
Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.
Go media-free for at least 48hrs.
Make marshmallows and honeycomb.
Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).
Grow my investments.
Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.
Make my own tea blend.
Make strawberry jam.
Get fresh flowers more often.
Write and comment more.
Grow professionally.
Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.
Read some more classics.
Finish my granny square blanket.
Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.
Turn 26

There it is, some things are small, some things not so, some things are little, something things require effort.

And we’ll end off with two books that I’ve been enjoying immensely at the moment. 50/60/70 : Iconic Australian Houses by Karen McCartney and The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury.

January 11, 2010October 29, 2011

Limes and Fluffy Clouds do not make for Lime Meringue pie

Because the limes just weren’t feeling the love from the eggs…

After many months of eating boiled eggs by wrapping a towel round them, I now have an egg cup. Not just any egg cup, a Figgjo Lotte one. Mum has a Lotte “casserole” dish that I have always adored. As my own collection grows from one piece (a little milk jug) to two pieces Mum has been telling me about all the other pieces she used to have. Sigh if only she still had them… Karl – if you happen to see any Lotte pieces round Iceland/Europe where ever you venture, you will collect for me, won’t you?

177/365

One thing that I adore about Toowong Village is watching the cloud reflections on the glass. If I happen to be at the right spot at the right time for the right sunset, the colours on the glass are amazing. I was walking back from the post office today and just paused for a moment to watch the clouds.