I'm visiting my darling friends in Brisbane in a few days and wanted to make them a few home-made treats because i love them so.

Today was a day of Fudge. My previous attempt at Chocolate Peppermint Fudge was a delicious success so i decided to experiment with a few different flavours and methods of cooking.



The first one was Creamy Caramel Fudge. Literally the EASIEST fudge on the planet to make. You heat it in the microwave! It was just the usual butter, syrups, sugar, chocolate etc. After i poured it into the pan i sprinkled some white chocolate shavings over the top because it looked a bit boring.

Caramel fudge, sitting patiently before its trip to the fridge.

Number two was a Crunchy Chocolate Ginger Fudge, I completely changed this recipe because i had no candy ginger (nor could i be bothered wandering around the shops looking for it), and i wanted more fresh ginger in the fudge than recommended. I adore ginger, its so wonderful and i eat it all the time in all its glorious forms, i even put it in my tea after food. It smells so delicious and wonderful. Swoon. So, this recipe just called for your usual 'melt items in a saucepan over low heat and stiiiiiir' which was also very simple. It came out lovely and dark and with the glaceed ginger sprinkled over the top it looks very pretty.

My ginger love.

Ginger and Dark Chocolate Fudge.


Fudge number three was a request from the brilliant Amy.
She is a mad fan of the chili and asked for chili chocolate fudge to be created. I found a fudge called Dangerously Spicy Chocolate Chili Fudge which looked perfect for this next experiment. The recipe calls for only half a teaspoon of ground cayenne powder or more if you are bolder. Amy is a lover of all things spicy so i heaped in a nice, full teaspoon for her. This recipe was a 'melt in a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot water' deal, also incredibly simple. Some of that glorious bright red cayenne powder sprinkled on top and it was finished!

Amy's Chili Fudge.

Today i also knocked up a couple of jars of Chunky Apple Sauce from my preserve book, also adding a few blackberries and raspberries in it too. Tomorrow night I'm making a batch of chocolate chip cookies for Steve and then i think I'll be done! I'm just adding the finishing touches to the packaging and i can start to worry about packing and all the other things that i stress about when travelling.

My little kitchen helper, he knows he is not allowed any closer than those tiles.

Sunday night my beautiful Mum made the family an incredible roast dinner for Mothers Day. There was lamb, beef, crunchy potato's, carrot and swede, leek, broccoli (my fave), bread with chunks of butter, so much gravy and a heavenly crumble of apple and berries with custard and ice cream. She tried to pull out the cheese platter after but we were just too full. Once again proving that my mother is the greatest maker of the roast dinner in the universe.

This is my brother and his gorgeous girlfriend Edwina, i took this on the sneaky, man they are cute.

(forgive the dodgy photo, i was posing for my mother)

And lastly i bought this dress many months ago and shoved it in my closet out of sight because when i got it back on at home i immediately hated it. I pulled it out last week and popped it on and fell back in love. It's a vintage cotton summer dress from some tiny little dress shop on Brunswick street and it makes me feel like a 1950's housewife in it. It's nice and light and flowy, the little belt is slightly worn, but it's not that noticeable. I now wear it all the time, especially to the market, goes great with a big hat or a basket so i can prance around like an idiot and pretend i'm in a musical. Love.