A little bit caramel slice for Valentines Day

For the boy who surprised me at my bus stop after work with a bunch of flowers

Read about the first time I made it here

The recipe is the same Donna Hay, just less caramel filling to make it less sweet :)

Caramel Slice

base:
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup brown sugar
125 gr butter, melted

filling:
1/4 cup golden syrup
94 gr butter, chopped
1.5 cans of sweetened condensed milk

chocolate topping:
200 gr Old Gold 70% Dark Chocolate
1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I use rice bran oil)

1. Place the flour, coconut, brown sugar and melted butter in a bowl and mix well to combine
2. Press into a lined slice tin with the back of a spoon
3. Bake at 180C for 15-20 mins or until golden
4. To make the caramel filling, place golden syrup, butter and condensed milk in a medium saucepan over low heat.
5. Stir until butter has melted and the caramel has thickened slightly
6. Pour over cooked, slightly cooled base and bake for a further 20 mins or until golden
7. Refrigerate until cold
8. Place chopped chocolate and oil in a bowl over boiling water and stir until melted
9. Pour over caramel top and spread with the back of a spoon. Add sprinkles if you wish
10. Refrigerate until set then cut into slices

For all the tips on how to melt chocolate successfully and how to cut the slices, read about it in my previous post here

And to conclude,

This cyclone makes me want to stay at home and bake brownies

Signed,

Elisa

Twenty One

I turned 21 on 9th October. And I felt very very loved and special all day Wednesday!

I woke up to birthday Snapchats, including this gorgeous one...

thanks kiki <3


Lauren took me out to dinner!

We went to Atico Cocina
A very nice, chilled, comfortable and open South American restaurant at Victoria Park.

Their website is here including their menu and info on function room

The restaurant was one big open room. Brightly decorated, with couches and even a swing seat in the corner and a large bar in the centre.

 

Our drinks yea! Can't remember what they were called but it was real delicious cocktails.
Sweet and a bit on the strong side
My first cocktail!

Jamaican chicken jerk.
Jerk chicken breast, creole okra, plantain chips with fennel and pineapple slaw.

This is what I had and I tell you, the chips were AMAZING.
Where can I get some more??

I just looked up what plantain was: it is actually a fruit! That looks almost exactly like a banana but does not taste like it at all. So good...
The chicken was spicy however, but it was very tender and oh so juicy.

Lauren's roast pork fillet; Filete de cerdo dulce, the signature dish.
With chorizo stuffing, chilli apple glaze, cassava puree, pico de gallo and watercress.
Again, delicious.

We then went to dessert night with the 2013/ 2014 committed student leaders of Auckland Studentlife.

White choc mudcake, caramel latte and Henry Yeah's strawberry sponge cake.

We each got given a book wrapped in ribbon... and ended up being wrapped in the ribbon ourselves

And I came home to this!! 21 things from my long-time friend, Hayley
It came in a massive box of parcel, gift wrapped and in a NAUTICAL box!!
Lotions, NAUTICAL napkins, chocolate, cupcake lip gloss, notepad, tissue pack, teddy bear and the first key on a bracelet!

Thank you so much

Our little neighbours popped by today and gave me a little gift too!
Purple party eyeshadow and body butter.

A delicate handkerchief all the way from Whangarei

However the first gift of the day was this.
Hand delivered by a man in a formal wear who waited for me at my bus stop
I've wanted this perfume for a while! I LOVE THE SMELL
Thank you... <3

What a beautiful card! Witha  rhyming poem inside too!
I was just looking at those notebooks yesterday!! And I was searching for a day planner yesterday too! Perfect.

Cake tester, sprinkles and cookie cutters <3
Thank you

So sweet and so thoughtful! Thank you

I made Abby write in it too and she was self conscious that her handwriting would spoil the book...
I think her handwriting looks like the printed font.

Along with the Moschino perfume, it came with samples. I thought it was funny; Taylor gave me 'Taylor' by Taylor Swift.

Most surprising: Secret Blessings.
I got told by Abby to go to the locker, and I found these!!
I was so excited when I saw the Lush packet and SO SURPRISED when she got me what I had been wanting since the start of the year! Lip scrub!
Cause after radiation, my mouth and lips go dry really quickly, but I tell you I've used the scrub twice already (tastes so good) and it makes your lips supple and soft.

Can't wait to scoff those macarons as well. I've only ever had the cappuccino ones and they are gooood.

Thank you Secret Blessings. You know who you are (I don't!)

At our group meeting, I was greeted by my engineering boys with sour skittles and Bueno.
How did you guys know Bueno is my favorite chocolate?!
Aww <3 so touched

My long time friend delivered this to my mailbox with a hilarious card that had all the stuff we bonded over during Year 12/ 13 ... dear me

I love... Kikki K!

My family gave me a printed photo album! So nice. I'll show you some time

My brother made me breakfast/ brunch!

 They were nice waffles, even if it did take him an hour to make and he had to wake me up to ask why the mixture was lumpy and if the egg whites were stiff enough :p hahahaha learning curve

And then I heard a "YAAAY" and the first waffle was served!

A couple of you have been asking about the whipped peanut butter.
Thank you Nina for recommending it to me!! It is light, not sticky, slightly denser texture than whipped cream and most importantly doesn't get stuck on the top of your mouth.
I got it from Countdown!

And then Google gave me a birthday greeting ;)


And to conclude,

I am getting an external flash for my Canon 600D courtesy of the parentals
If you have tips on what to purchase/ where to purchase an entry-level flash, let me know please!!

Signed,
Elisa

Untitled #2

Tonight my friend told me about his parents' young love.

His parents started dating when they were 12 years old and got married at 17. Although initially their parents disapproved of their young marriage, they have proved that love is possible no matter what age you are.

They now have 3 kids, almost 30 years into their marriage and still wildly in love ;)

When my friend told us this, all the girls' hearts at the table melted and I was so inspired to write a story...

(suggestion for a title welcome!)

The day the new Year 7s came was exciting. I could see they were nervous. Their unfaded navy polos separated us from them. At recess, we told them middle school was so much harder than primary. The teachers don’t care about you as much. You only get forty five minutes of lunch and fifteen for recess. And there was absolutely no room for crying. At all.

By lunchtime, two girls had cried of homesickness. My group of boys rolled our eyes and barged past them, rugby ball in hand.

“Christopher!” I heard my name being called out crossly.

My teacher was standing in the doorway, frowning. “I saw that you ran into Anna. Apologise to her please.”

I looked at the tiny blonde girl next to her in a pink headband and red puffy eyes from crying. I could feel my friends behind me pause to watch what I would do.

I bit my lip. “Sorry,” I shrugged at her.

She sniffed and nodded ever so timidly.

I ran to my friends and played rugby all lunch time.

The next day, I walked out of my front door with my lunch bag in hand. I turned around to swivel my backpack around when I saw the crying girl from yesterday walking on the sidewalk.

She smiled slowly and said, “You’re in my class.”

I stashed my lunch in my bag, nodded and kept walking ahead of her.

That day I remembered her name.

Anna.

After school, Anna followed me all the way home. I ran up my driveway and into the house, shutting the door firmly behind me. I couldn’t see Anna through the window, she must’ve kept on walking.

The next week I learnt she lived around the corner from me.

The next month I took out my bike and went for a ride on the streets. Anna was on her yellow bike too.

“Chris!” She called out when she saw me.

“Annaaaa.”

Her grin glinted in the afternoon sun as she rode to meet me in the middle of the road.

“You got braces,” I said.

She nodded. “Yeah, do you like them?” She bared her teeth, showing a pink row of metal.

“Yeah.”

“They hurt. I just got them today.”

“No wonder you weren’t at school.”

“Aw did you miss me?”

I laughed out loud and we biked around the cul de sac street until her mother came out of the house and waved her in.

Just before term break I learnt her mother makes delicious homemade pizza and Anna has a room all to herself.

“I have to share a room with my older brother,” I said as I glanced around her floral room.

“What’s he like?”

“Anthony? He’s in high school and he has a girlfriend.” I stuck my tongue out in disgust.

Anna looked down at her feet.

During term break Anna turned 12 and I gave her a hairclip with a daisy on it.

“My sister helped me choose,” I explained as she turned the hairclip over and over in her hand. I was afraid she might think it was girly of me to buy it.

She flashed me her braces and stuck the clip in her hair.

She reached out squeeze my hand.

She wore it every day that I saw her.

I learnt that her hair turned green in the pool, that she’s a great swimmer and I will not be able to dive as well as her, no matter how many swimming lessons I’d taken.

“You have other things you’re good at,” she shrugged as she dried her blonde- green hair by the poolside.

The next term I learnt that I’m really good at keeping secrets, but Anna... not so much.

We had gone to our classmate’s birthday party and played truth or dare. Afterwards, Anna and I biked home together. Her mother had said to us to come home together safely, so I had to wait for a long time for Anna to finish talking with her friends about lip gloss before we could head home.

It wasn’t dark yet, so Anna was still allowed to play outside and we sat on her front lawn picking grass.

“If I had to do a dare I would have nothing to do with climbing trees or heights.” Anna said decidedly.

“I can climb a tree!” I said. I stood up and approached the tree next to her house.

“Be careful,” she called out after me.

I was careful. But I slipped on the way down, fell off and skinned my knee. Anna shrieked as she ran over to me.

I learnt that her gentle touch on my bloodied knee made me feel warm. Like I would fall off any tree again and again.

Her mother put a gauze over my wound and put the two of us in the backyard where she could supervise us (me) from the kitchen.

“Maybe we shouldn’t do dares,” Anna sighed.

“Okay truths then. But truths are boring!”

“No they’re not…” she paused as she focused on stringing two daisies together. “Who do you like?”

I learnt that the world did not collapse when I told her the truth. And the sweetest sound I have ever heard was Anna repeating my sentence back to me.

“But don’t tell anyone okay?” She whispered before heading inside.

But the next day her friends knew and then the day after, everyone in the class knew. I was proud to call her mine and I dated her for five years.

Year one- I learnt that the first kiss is never perfect. But the feel of her hand in mine is.

Year two- I learnt that when we fight, the guy should always be the first to apologise and the first to wipe away her last tears.

Year three- I learnt that girls always smell nice and they’re too nice to comment on how you smell.

Year four- I learnt that Anna looks absolutely beautiful in a formal dress and I felt awkward and itchy in my first suit.

Year five- I learnt that when you love someone, why wait to marry them?

At seventeen years of age, we found ourselves hand in hand at the altar, Anna’s white gown and my tux were almost covered in rose petals. 
Our parents’ stern, disapproving faces disappeared that day and joyful tears flowed from my mother’s face like I had never seen before.

My first word to Anna was sorry.

I have said it a million times to her in our thirty years of marriage now but the only time I didn’t mean it was when I first bumped into her. I’m glad I did.

A little bit about a bridal shower

Michelle is the first of my friends to get married, and we threw her a bridal shower!

I follow her blog... I love all things pretty and that includes weddings; she writes extensively on her job as a bridal consultant and to-be-bride journey, this is her latest blog post:

http://vintage-affections.tumblr.com/post/51957655887/i-dont-know-about-you-but-im-feeling-22-everything

Eleven girls of us in the kitchen produced a lot of food together!

We made brownies...

with an alarming amount of sugar and butter in it :p

they were so fudgy; I loved them!

Ham and egg sandwiches and scones...

Cupcakes...

and cake pops!

Cake pops are so fancy looking...

This is the woman's blog who first made them, I've been following her inspiring blog for ages. I always check them for new ideas, although I've never really made much from her site; they look too over the top, with ingredients that aren't usually found in nz

http://www.bakerella.com/pops-bites/cake-pops/

Also perplexes me; how does she have that much patience to decorate baking so neatly??

Making cake pops: 

I started with making a vanilla cake, they were from a betty crocker's packet mix, which came with a packet of frosting! So handy cause we needed the frosting to make the cake pops.

Then we crumbled the cake when it was fairly cool, putting it in the fridge to chill and dry up faster, cause it was still moist.

Ydnim then mixed the packet of frosting with the cake crumbs and rolled them into firmly packed balls to be placed in the freezer for roughly half an hour. This is so they firm up.

When they were firm, we melted dark chocolate and placed it in a deep V shaped bowl for easy dipping.

We had two different pop sticks, regular ones and lollipop ones for making mini cake pops.

Now the trickier part...

Dip the end of the stick into the chocolate, covering about a centimetre and insert halfway into a cake ball.

Dip the cake pop vertically and gently tilt to cover the base of the cake balls.

Careful not to move it while dipping, otherwise the stick will detach and you'll be left with a cake ball inside a bowl of chocolate :p

Holding the cake pop with your left hand, gently tap your left wrist so excess chocolate will drip off and you'll be left with a clean even surface.

Add your sprinkles before the chocolate dries and stick on a styrofoam block to set.

We set up a picnic rug outside and had a nice photoshoot with professional photographers

The photographers are from Cue Photography.
They were so great, they captured great moments and are really friendly.
Especially patient when taking a jump photo of 12 girls :p I totally recommend them!

You can view the album of the bridal shower photoshoot by Cue Photography here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.502670243132865.1073741832.435734303159793&type=1

But this is my favorite photo I took :D

A massive congratulations to Michelle and Richard who got married last Saturday.
The ceremony was beautiful...
Ydnim and leeynaffit performed the most romantic song, A Thousand Years [they have informed me they take bookings. Even advanced ones.] and the bride and groom walked down the aisle at the end to Taylor Swift's Love Story <3

One of many weddings to come!
God bless you two always.




And to conclude,

I got to be part of the engineering revue again this year as a dancer!
To those of you who missed it... You missed out on a great show. We sold out 3 out of 4 shows!!
I had such a great time, became friends with some... interesting people ;) and got to ride a segway for the first time...

Karl Stol (engineers would know him from first year, 121 mechanics paper) was in the revue and he brought along his segway.
Oh my so scary, I screamed so loud when I first got on hahaha... was not prepared for that.

Signed,
Elisa

A little bit about love

"Let us love not with words or speech, but with actions and in truth." 
1 John 3:18

I met a special person last year.
A very special person.
We met at Student Life international conference. Back then, I didn't know the consequence of introducing myself. I had no idea that we would become what we have become now. At the conference, we were just acquaintances, then we became friends, and now... my desktop background is a photo of the two of us.
We established what we were in April. When this person said the words, I smiled, because I already knew.

"Guess what? You're my best friend." Those were her exact words.
(HAHAHA who were you guys thinking of?? :P Sorry to disappoint)

I'm not going to tell you everything about Lauren, it's not yet her 21st. But a story that I do love :
You know how at uni sometimes there would be presentations from other companies, and it would be a catered event?
Lauren and I were walking along a corridor, it was evening and there weren't many people around, except for some waiters and a long bench of food. It was obvious the people they were catering for were still inside the lecture room because there was still food on the platters.
I whispered to Lauren as we approached, "Quick, grab some food. Grab some food." CLEARLY joking, because you do NOT walk past and casually grab someone else's food especially when the waiters are looking at you.
But Lauren did. She reached out and grabbed a handful of crackers as we walked past.
I was mortified.

And she told me this story of how she used to sit at the front of the bus and talk to the bus driver and tell him when he's left his indicator on.
She is one of a kind.

But most of all, she is full of love.
During my time of sickness, her acts of service really touched me.
When I got sick and needed many many treatments, Lauren offered to take me to radiotheraphy once a week. It didn't matter how early we had to get there, she would give up her schedule for that morning to drive me.
I love her to bits. I especially love going to church with her!

I've noticed that everytime she sees me she starts giggling. I have no idea why, but it's really contagious :P
She thinks my future husband would be the luckiest man because I can cook (ha). I think her husband would be a lucky man because there is never a dull moment with her around :)

So when CanTeen held an event to Paint the Earth, I made something special for my best friend. Paint the Earth is a place in Albany where you can choose a ceramic item; ornaments in the shape of castles, ballet shoes, animals, piggy banks, clocks, vases, and kitchenware such as plates, coasters, mugs, jugs. And paint it using special ceramic paint! They also have stencils and pens to make painting easier. It was so much fun. I want to have a birthday party here.

I painted her a plate. Originally I had another bible verse in mind, but as I was browsing the plates, this verse popped into my mind.

"Above all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:14

And I thought that summed her up completely. My best friend is compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. And over all these, she is filled with love that reflects who God is.

Along with the plate, I gave her some of my baking I made that morning.

Apricot and White Chocolate Bars

3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/2 cup water
150 g butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup white chocolate
1 cup rolled oats

Place apricots and water in a small saucepan on medium/high heat. Stir until boiling. Turn down the heat and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.
Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted. Stir in brown sugar and mix. This is essentially apricots in caramel.
In a bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Pour in apricot mixture and stir quickly.
Add chocolate and oats, mix well.
Pour into lined slice tin.
Bake at 180C for 25 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes in the tin before transferring onto wire rack to cool completely.

And to conclude, one more funny thing : Lauren and I were walking towards the oggb and she goes, "Why are we going to the Glenn building? I mean business building!"
Oh, Freudian slips.
I can't wait for our double date tomorrow <3

To my best friend for all of eternity.

Signed,
Elisa