RECIPE REQUEST: Salmon + Spinach frittata.

I posted this pic on twitter a while ago and have had some requests for the recipe so here goes nothing.

To be honest, I don't follow an actual recipe for frittata - because I usually make it according to what ingredients I have in the fridge - but that's what makes it so great. You can put nearly anything in it and adjust to your tastes.

SO. Here are the ingredients for this particular job....

1 Salmon steak - de-skinned and boned.

1 Carrot, grated

1 cup of shredded fresh spinach

2-4 eggs (depending on size and how many people you're cooking for)

4-5 sprigs of asparagus

1/2 cup of cheese

1/2 cup cottage cheese

Salt, Pepper, All Purpose seasoning

Instructions:

Get rid of the bones and skin from your salmon steak and chop it up into large chunks (or, even better buy the salmon without the bones and skin, because getting the tiny little bones out is a pain in the butt). Set aside.

In a large bowl add grated carrot, asparagus (chopped up into pieces about 3/4 of an inch long), spinach and eggs.

NOW. The eggs, basically - add as many as you want. Seeing as the eggs are kind of the filler, you don't want too much but you also don't want too little. I'm usually making this for two and I use around 3 medium size eggs. Depending on the size of your dish and how many people you're making this for you should adjust accordingly.

Now it's time to add the cheese (yum, yum). I would usually say add about a cup of grated cheese (some in the mixture and some to sprinkle on top) but I try to be healthy so I substitute half a cup of normal cheese for cottage cheese instead. The cottage cheese adds creaminess to the mixture and it's high in protein, low cal etc (in other words very good for you!) - I add the cottage cheese and about 1/4 cup of grated tasty cheese to the bowl and save the rest of the grated cheese to sprinkle on top later.

At this point, add a few chunks of salmon to the mixture and mix gently. Poor the mixture into a greased pie pan and layer the rest of the salmon over top. Season as you want.

Chuck it in the oven and cook at 180º/375ºF for around 30 mins or until the egg is cooked.

yum yum!!

This recipe really is easy and delicious (despite my long-winded ramblings). Other good things to add would be onion (to give it a bit of stooge), finally sliced leek, crumbled feta instead of grated cheese on top, tomato, capsicum, mushroom... the list goes on!

enjoy!

baking noms

the fact that I don't have university anymore or a full time job means the baking has increased (and the waistline will begin to if I don't stop soon)

Lemon Meringue Pie

Chocolate Cake

The boyfriend with his birthday cake - Chocolate cake with chocolate chip buttercream frosting topped off with vanilla and dark chocolate cake balls :)

Vanilla Lemon cake

Pumple cake - 4 mini berry pies baked into a chocolate cake

Hungry yet? I am.

things i love

It's that time of the year again.

That time of the year I have waaaaay too much to do so I trawl the internet and find pretty things for this blog.

OPI nail lacquer - mod about you / OPI

mythical glitter loafers / topshop

Handpainted enamel Garnet earrings / karen walker

Beaded wall mirror / urban outfitters

Kiwi Biscuits

Today I thought i'd share you my favorite recipe. The worlds best Chocolate Chip cookies. I know, big call, but I love them. It was the first recipe I learnt and to this day I still get compliments on them. The best part? They're dead simple.

First, we start with softened butter, sugar and sweetened condensed milk.

Cream the three together with an electric beater until it's light and fluffy. People who cream butter and sugar properly mix it in enough so the sugar is completely dissolved, but i'm lazy and impatient so I just beat it until the mixture is noticeably lighter.

Then the flour and baking powder go into the mix. You'll see the recipe asks for a lot of flour, so don't mix it all in at once - you don't want the dough to be too dry, I usually find around an ounce less flour than the recipe asks for works well.

My favorite part!! Chocolate!! Any dark cooking chocolate will work but i'm very partial to Cadbury Energy chocolate, I couldn't find it when I was living in the states and used almond bark instead, in my opinion it just wasn't as good.

NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Mix it all together (try not to eat to much of it!!) Roll it up in to balls and flatten them with a fork on a baking tray before popping it in the oven at 375ºF/180ºC for 15 mins. Again, this depends on the oven you're working with, my one at home usually needs 12-13 mins.

The final product! Don't they look good?!

Get. In. My. Belly.

Kiwi Biscuits

6oz butter

3oz sugar

3 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk

9oz flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

250g dark cooking chocolate, chopped up into big chunks

christchurch + the earthquake

Finally. I've taken time out of my schedule to post a few select pics from my recent trip to Christchurch. Officially, I was there as part of a family reunion of sorts but I also used my time there to survey the damage from the Feb earthquake and to also work on a story for my internship at TV3.

The city itself is in a state of limbo at the moment, we couldn't get right into the city centre because the cordons are all still up and will be for some time. For the most part though and despite the fact that there is so much structural damage people are positive and have said the outpouring of support from the general public has been phenomenal. I guess it's times like these which really show a persons true character.

Apart from surveying the damage I also travelled a little out of Christchurch to a couple of other towns: Akaroa and Little River. Akaroa is a gorgeous little French settlement right on the bay. The weather was lovely and it was great to see a little bit more of the South Island. I definitely haven't explored enough of it yet, maybe i'll do that after graduation.

Anyway, onto the photos...

Akaroa

The Giants garden - a garden in Akaroa full of mosaics

Little River

Some of the destruction

Notes of support

Flowers

More destruction

Third year

It's official: I have no life.

It's the reason I don't write anything on here, all my creative juices are going towards my many and varied projects at school.

Journalism is tough, but pretty interesting. Not gonna lie though, I can't think of anything worse than being a reporter haha. Anyone have any jobs going in the photography industry? lol.

Life is hectic, reporting classes are sucking any spare time that I do have and to be honest i'm just trying to do the absolute minimum to scrape by, because with my job and all on top of everything else I don't have a lot of time to be a normal person.

Basically, the goal isn't As this year. The goal is to do enough to graduate.

My trip to Christchurch is coming up over Easter weekend, i've got a couple of free days so hopefully i'll be able to travel around a little bit. It'll be interesting to see what the city is looking like a couple of months on from the earthquake, i'll definitely post some pictures on here.

(Anyone that does have any recommendations of interesting places near chch I could go to, holler at me!)

For now though, I have 2 essays, 2 tests and a news story to finish.

Hopefully i'll write again soon, but don't hold your breath.

Love Field

Saying goodbye was much harder than I thought.

I know I haven't blogged for a while, but readjusting was a little harder than I had planned it to be. 17 months ago I decided I wanted to go to the States for a semester and 17 months later, the journey now over, all I do is wish I was back there.

The last couple of months have been a bit of a blur, my final weeks in the States went by far too quickly in a haze of travel, goodbyes and holidays I suddenly found myself in Dallas Love Field at the security gate, bawling my eyes out at the realization that 1) That this glorious little bubble that had been my life was about to pop and 2) That I had another 4-8 months of long distance ahead of me with my boyfriend. I had gone from being calm and collected to a complete wreck in the time it took me to check my bags in and walk to the security gate.

Ok yeah, I cried, lots of people cry at airports that's not completely out of the ordinary. What is a little out of the ordinary is when the guy working security leaves his station to give you some tissues and share his wisdom on love and relationships. He was a nice guy.

I had been so consumed by the act of leaving I didn't even think what it would be like to return home, I guess I thought it would be fine which is why I didn't think about it. People always talk about reverse culture shock, which i've never really been able to grasp - despite the fact I have done a fair amount of travel in my life. I can now say with absolute certainty, that I know what it is and that it sucks. The last 7 or 8 months feel like a dream, everything is the same at home, but different. My friends are still my friends, but they've moved on somewhat, shared experiences that I cannot possibly understand and moved on. Maybe they see this in me as well, i'm not sure, I try not to talk too much about Mizzou because I feel like that could get irritating, though I do get asked - things like "what was it like?", a fair question but how do you succinctly put that into words? It was many things - good and bad, there aren't enough adjectives to sufficiently describe my experience or how i'm feeling about it right now.

A little over a month later, i'm feeling a bit better about things. I began work in Auckland almost immediately after I came home and am so thankful for it, it gets me out of the house and acting like a normal person (I think if I didn't go to work I would probably be locking myself away in my room 24/7). I still have my days, but i'm sure they will lessen, especially with my next semester around the corner (3 more days boo) and the arrival of Drew in the country (3 more months yay).

As for my little corner in cyberspace, i'm definitely gonna try keep this chugging along quietly, but who knows - maybe uni will take over my life. I hope not.

America: The people