cookie monster

Let's run through my little "to do" list for this evening:

Power walk home (in the rain), DONE!

30 Day Shred, with dumbbells, DONE!

Nutritious dinner, DONE!

Collapse on couch moaning about sore thighs and bottom, DONE!

Send proof of wedding invite to printers, DONE!

Make cookies for charity bake sale at work tomorrow, DONE!

I got my priorities right here friends!

Seriously, these are the best cookies ever. I first made them many years ago, and they used to be my contribution to staff morning teas when I lived in Melbourne. But then I moved into a sharehouse where the only real cooking I did was adding tuna to pasta, and heating up nachos a la Ironman. All my baking stuff was in boxes in the garage. Indeed, it still is - just a different garage, in a different state.

Over the last few years here in London I've gradually replaced some baking paraphernalia - a loaf tin here, a few muffin trays there - but I am still, three years on, without ramekins, a spatula and cooling trays! Domestic goddess? Hardly. When I do bake, I tend to make cakes. I hardly ever make cookies any more - and indeed had forgotten how!

But when we were in Paris a few weeks ago, I sought out a much-mentioned foodie paradise called G.Detou, which sold these enormous bags of chocolate chips, in milk, dark or white. I hardly ever see chocolate chips in the supermarkets here, so I grabbed a huge bag with the intention of making my much loved cookies when I returned. I made a batch, out of which Tom and I managed to take an enormous box full to work each, and have a little stash at home to nibble on.

It's funny - old Phil didn't take cake or cookies to work! They never lasted that long - maybe the afternoon, if I was lucky! :P ha ha. I only tend to bake these days if I know I'm going to be able to share it with people!

Tonight, as I was leaving, my workmates were talking about the charity bake sale our department is hosting tomorrow.

"What are you making Philippa?" one of them asked me as I happily hit "shut down".

Before I could answer, another asked "Will you make those cookies again?!"

So, cookies it is!

I often put off baking, but am always pleased when I make the effort to. It fills the flat with a delicious, homely fug. Blended with the smell of last night's butter "chicken", my home smells very fragrant indeed tonight!

I won't pretend that these are low fat, etc. because they aren't. They're a treat. And when I have a treat, I want every mouthful to count! I can kind of convince myself these are healthy because they have oatmeal in them but...meh...who am I kidding! Not an every day thing, by any means. But it is wonderful to be able to make things like this, knowing that I won't inhale the lot, like in days of old! I will eat my two or three, and enjoy them. All the better if it's for a good cause, like tomorrow! But a good thing the 30 Day Shred has a permanent place by the DVD player at the moment!

These are ideal to make for a party, for a morning tea treat with friends, or just to fill the biscuit tin when you know you have visitors coming. Everyone loves them. I'm sure you will too :)

Best Ever Choc Chip Cookies

2 and 1/4 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt (note: I love salt in sweet things. I up this to 2-3 teaspoons, but that's just me. And I use Maldon sea salt)

1 cup butter or dairy free spread

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup oatmeal or porridge oats

Preheat the oven to 190 C (350 F). Line several baking trays with baking paper.

Put the butter, vanilla and sugars in a bowl and beat until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until creamy and fluffy.

Add 1 cup of the flour and fold in. Then add the rest of the flour, the baking soda and salt. It will look very thick and you'll think you need to add water or something, but don't! It will all be fine! Keep stirring!

Once all the flour is mixed in, add the oats and choc chips, again a bit at a time. Stir through thoroughly.

Oh yeah!

Use two teaspoons to spoon the mixture into small dollops on to the baking trays. You'll probably be able to get 12 on a normal baking sheet. Make sure you leave lots of room in between them, as they spread out when baking.

When your trays are all loaded, put them in the oven and bake for 10-11 minutes or until they look golden on top. An oven timer is my lifesaver here. I can't tell you how many biscuits I burned over the years because I got distracted while they were in the oven!

Remove from the oven and cool slightly before removing from trays. Then spoon remaining mixture back on to the trays as before, put back in the oven, etc. Until all the mixture is gone!

It takes me about 7 trays to use all the mixture.

Depending on the size of your dollops, you can get up to 80 cookies from this - I usually average around 65.

Allow the cookies to cool. Let your fiance eat the tiny ones that it wouldn't be fair to charge people for in the bake sale! :)

And there you have it! Cookie heaven!

All my G.Detou choc chips are gone now! Ah well - it was all for a good cause!

Do you like to bake? What's your favourite baking recipe?

30 day ouch!

I'm on Day 4 of the 30 Day Shred! Or 30 Day Ouch, I'm calling it!

I'd heard a lot about the 30 Day Shred. Lots of blogs I read have mentioned its impressive format and results, and even my own little sister picked up the DVD from Walmart while she was in the US, so I thought I might be missing out if I didn't give it a go!

I wish I'd discovered it earlier - it's fabulous, like having a personal trainer in the living room with you! And the fact it can all be done inside, well, I will no longer have any excuses for winter lard! And it's only 20 minutes, so it's perfect for those of us who struggle to fit in a workout into a busy day. But let me warn you - every second of it counts!

Tom has joined me with the workouts - I think he really enjoyed it! I've even had a text today asking "are we doing the 30 Day Shred tonight?" - what have I started?! It is very cute, cheering each other on when the going gets tough. Even funnier when Jillian says things like "if you've got it, flaunt it ladies!" and Tom says to the TV, "I'm not a lady!" LOL.

We're looking forward to being ready to move on to Level 2...or are we?! Really, it is tough! Not for the faint hearted - you will be swearing at the TV! But both Tom and I have already noticed a huge improvement - things seem tighter, stronger and more toned! Hurts to walk a bit, but we're feeling pretty great and very motivated to keep going. It has really reminded me how important it is to get out of the comfort zone with your exercise. I've been chugging away at my runs and my yoga, but I very rarely push myself to the point where I'm sore the next day. I love feeling sore! It means I've worked hard! And for someone who has never focused much on strength work, apart from pushups and tricep dips, this is a bit of a revelation for me!

Overall, from what I've seen of the DVD so far I'd really recommend it, for the following reasons:

• Very simple moves - lots of push ups, squats, lunges, bicep curls, that kind of thing
  
• Easy to follow
• Not much space required - two of us managed to do jumping jacks in our tiny living room, and we're both tall people with long limbs!
• 3 levels which you can move up to when your endurance, etc. improves so you're always being challenged
• Minimal equipment - a TV & DVD player (obviously!), a mat if you've got a hard floor, and a set of weights
• If you're in a bit of a rut with your workouts, it zaps you right out of it! It's really motivating!
  

At first I didn't think I'd bother with getting dumbbells especially for the workout - I've always managed without them, I usually dip into the pantry for some cans or something! But cans of baked beans aren't really all that heavy (!) so I moved on to 1kg bags of flour. Yeah, that was so not a good idea. Gripping the bag of flour was bound to cause a rip....I was doing my chest flys and suddenly felt a little drift of flour fall into my face. What an idiot!! :P So we headed out yesterday after the flour incident to get some dumbbells (I'm the dumbbell!):

The new dumbbell set! Thank you Argos!

Such pretty colours!

So tonight will be the first workout with the dumbbells. Who knows if I'll still be standing tomorrow?!

Despite very, very sore thighs and bottom today I managed to walk to work, I will manage the walk home, and then there will be more shredding!

Have you guys tried it? What are your favourite workout DVDs?

NB: Just so you know, I bought the DVD off Amazon and have mentioned it just because I'm enjoying it and think it's great :)

pizza perfecto

This one was Tom's - it has more cheese on it ;)

Pizza is one of my most favourite "yummy while still being very healthy" meals, not to mention quick! It is the Friday night staple at our place. Something about it just says "weekend" to me!!

A few posts back we talked about our favourite "fake-aways" and lots of people mentioned pizza as a meal that is often bought ready made but is very easy and healthy to make ourselves. I couldn't agree more! The only way it could improve is if I had my own woodfiring oven! Ha ha! The best pizza I've had here in London was at a woodfired place in the Kilburn High Road when I used to live in that area. Tom still has cravings for Pizza Hut every now and then - but the last time he indulged both he and my brother-in-law got the worst stomach aches, or "Pizza Hut Gut" as I dubbed it!

Have you guys ever had a "pizza party"? Some friends back home used to do that sometimes - it's a great way to cater for varying tastes! You set out all the toppings and just let people build their own. Great idea I think (provided you have a big enough oven!)

Laura makes her pizzas with vegan cheeze - which sounds great, but I haven't been brave enough to try it yet! It does look good though, and great news for the non dairy eaters among us :)

My original recipe for pizza can be found in the recipe index - but what follows is how I make it these days:

Serves 1

Preparation: 8-10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

You will need:

1 medium wholemeal pitta bread

½ cup tomato pasta sauce or tomato paste (I like Sainsbury's organic passata)

50g crumbled goats cheese
Tiny (as in tiny!) handful low fat mozzarella

Mushrooms or courgette (zucchini), sliced (as much as you want)
Handful of Waitrose frozen grilled vegetables which includes onion, peppers and aubergine (eggplant)

Green and/or red bell peppers/capsicums, sliced (as much as you want)

6 kalamata or green olives, sliced or left whole
Baby spinach (as much as you want)
Fresh thyme and basil

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Place the pitta bread on a baking tray. Spread the base evenly with the pasta sauce or paste.

Place your toppings on the base. Don’t overload too much, because the base is very thin.

Finish with the goat's cheese, mozzarella and sprinkle the cheeses with sprigs of the fresh thyme and leaves of fresh basil.

This is what it looks like before it goes in the oven!

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the pizza is browned and bubbling. Serve right away!

Mine on the left, Tom's on the right!

It's an ideal meal to have after exercise too (I had just been running in the photo above!) because while it's very satisfying, it's not too heavy when you use the pitta bread bases.

If I'm really hungry I have a salad with mine, and Tom will have chips (oh, having a partner who needs to put on weight! Aargh!) but most of the time the only thing that accompanies it is a glass of chilled white wine. It's Friday night after all!

How about you? Do you love pizza too? What's your favourite Friday night (or any night you like to chill out) dinner?

the creative identity

Image from the awesome creative power house Keri Smith.

Good morning friends!

Recently I've been thinking about my creative life - how I can focus more, get myself out there more, keep the energy of Arvon going, and really make my writing the centre of my life. This year is all about action, after all!

A few months ago I was introduced to The Creative Identity and the force behind it, Stephanella, who is one inspiring lady. Like yours truly, she went straight from university into a hideous corporate job which flattened her creativity and left her feeling pretty uninspired and helpless. So many of us would just ride it out and be too afraid to chuck in the comfort and security of a regular paycheck to risk going for our dreams. Not Steph though. She quit the corporate world two years ago and started taking steps towards a life that is centred around her creative passions.

Today, Steph runs her web site The Creative Identity, and she's passionate about developing and encouraging writing talent, inspiring others and helping people discover and nurture their own creative self. She edits, proofs, is the ultimate agony aunt of writing advice (!), runs short story competitions, and even has a book coming out later this year called Slaughter is the Best Medicine. She's one creative machine!

It just goes to show what you can achieve when you're living your bliss. I think when you're a creative person, your creative identity is your identity. To deny yourself that only leads to great unhappiness, as I found out too. To have your art and your passions at the centre of your life, and to be living the life you always dreamed of is to truly know happiness!

I am so incredibly honoured and thrilled to be featured on The Creative Identity today. When Steph approached me, at first I thought she might have made a mistake, and when I realised she hadn't, all the usual insecurities kicked in - I don't have a book out, or a publishing deal, or an agent, or even a finished novel! My novel is still a Word document man! I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to offer any wisdom, as I still have so much to learn. But Steph's kindness has shown me that for all of us who love to write, and are trying to do something with it, a little encouragement can go a long way. It can be a long and lonely road otherwise. We all have the right to write, as Julia Cameron put it.

Her questions were so interesting and really made me think - about my direction, my influences, what I want to achieve and what sort of creative person I want to be. It was an absolute thrill to be interviewed by her. Thank you so much Steph! Do go and check it out and let us know what you think :)

Doing the Creative Identity interview has given me a real boost - and a boot in the backside too! I'm making lots of progress as I make creativity more central in my life. I signed up for 21 5 800 as you know, and last night I managed my 800 (maybe just under) words on the bus home. It's a little vignette that might feature in my novel later on. The novel itself is coming along well - I'm up to Chapter 6 now! I'm enjoying getting to know my character - I've been researching her star sign and done her astrological chart (thanks to Tor for all her Leo insights!) which has been great fun! The challenge is to not let this novel slide into autobiography - the foundations are in it, certainly, but that's not the project. It's all about getting creative!

I also got brave and submitted an article to a magazine in Australia about a month ago and I heard this morning they've accepted it!! **giant happy dance**

Just gotta keep the wheels turning now, friends.

Have a happy, inspiring and creative day!

lunch for one

Lunch outside on my patio this afternoon, in the gorgeous heat.

Olive bread from Paul. A fresh young goat cheese from Neal's Yard Dairy in Covent Garden, slighty sour, but gentle and white like a water lily. Herbal, soft artichokes, salty olives and a soft grilled red pepper, that lolled about on the bread like a tongue. To drink, iced Tazo Passion tea - one sip and I was in Vancouver again.

Oh, summer. May you last a thousand years.

skinny latte's sojourn

Hello friends! I am back from my anniversaire trip to Paris, which was really fun and a lovely break for both of us - just what we've been needing as we've both been working hard and playing hard lately ;)

We took the Eurostar - the only way to travel, in my opinion! - from London to Paris, and then walked in the blissful, muggy heat to our B&B only a few blocks from Gare du Nord. Our room was in an Art Deco style, with a balcony! Very glad to have a fan as it was very hot. Our host was quite a character - he informed us that he was appearing on the French version of Come Dine With Me that week....but wouldn't tell us whether he'd won or not (turned out he had!).

We spent the first day wandering all over the glorious city, enjoying the heat and the sunshine, seeing all the sights we wanted to see, shopping on the Champs Elysees, poring over books at Shakespeare and Company, stopping at cafes to down beers (which barely touched the sides), going to our favourite lunch haunt Cojean for their famous vegetarian grilled sandwich and eating it in the gardens near the Louvre, and finally ending the day in a neighbourhood bistro with a delicious pichet of house white, a cheese plate and a summer storm thundering outside.

Me in the writing cavern at Shakespeare and Company!

Oh, that sandwich! It was heaven!

Tom with soup and wine at the neighbourhood bistro.
You'll never believe it, but a family from Hobart were on the next table!

The next day was my birthday! 29! What an appropriate way to be celebrating my last birthday in my twenties - a decade of so much change, so much adventure and so many blessings.

We started with a small breakfast and then headed out for the day. This is what we got up to:

Ice cream from Pozetto in the Marais. Their pistachio, yoghurt and chocolate fondant ice creams are to die for.

We went shopping for a while, saw the Notre Dame again, and then went and saw the Tea Museum at Mariage Freres, and decided to have a pit stop in the salon upstairs:

If you love tea, you'll be in heaven in this wonderful shop! I sniffed and inhaled all these beautiful teas, it was like being at a perfume counter or a florists. Eventually I settled on a tin of French Breakfast and a tin of Marco Polo, but I could have easily taken home one of every tea in the place. Except Lapsang Souchong - that's the one tea I can't stand!

More shopping in St Germain de Pres, lusting after handbags in Longchamp, a croissant aux amandes for me and a pain au chocolat for Tom at a bakery we passed, and then as it was nearing beer o'clock we decided to head to the metro to get a train out to the part of the city we stayed in last time to see if we could find the bar we went to every night on our last visit.

We found it!! Name had changed, but the inside hadn't changed at all. I remembered where it was because of a funny supermarket opposite that only sells frozen food!

The beer was absolutely wonderful on such a muggy day, and no sooner had we collapsed on to the comfy sofa and taken the first sip, but the storm started again! So we sat for hours, drinking beer, talking, listening to the music playing, laughing, watching the rain, listening to the conversations around us.....

When we started getting hungry, we headed down to the metro again and went to the other side of town to Les Gobelins for dinner, where there is a wonderful bistro called Le Petit Pascal. We remembered it fondly from our last visit - Tom's birthday dinner had been there - and we weren't disappointed!

2007 - that was a very good year!

I had a warm goats cheese salad for my main course (it's baked in the filo pastry fan you can see in the photo!), and Tom had the tomato tart piled with rocket and pesto. As I was the birthday girl, he let me have a bite - and oh my, I had food envy!

But then came the fromage......

All these cheeses were delicious. We had a basket of bread to eat them with, all the time sipping our delicate Sancerre! Was I in heaven? Quite possibly.

And then we had dessert - I was tempted by the tarte aux citron but ended up caving and getting the chocolate mousse, which had flakes of fresh coconut in it. Tom deigned to give me one of his profiteroles, which we decided was technically my birthday cake!

Mmm. Sugar coma.

Happy and content with the superb food, incredible wine, scintillating company and very pleasant and friendly service, we toddled up back to the metro to call it a night!

I felt the need to point that out! Tipsy Phil alert.

This was the view from the right at night from our balcony.

Love the hustle and bustle!

We then went back to the B&B to soak our feet (youch, blisters! The one downside of wanting to walk everywhere) and then fall into that softer than soft bed for the sleep of the well and truly satisfied.

What a wonderful, wonderful birthday.

Next morning we checked out and prepared to spend the remainder of the day traipsing around the city until our train home at dinner time. We had not counted upon torrential rain hitting the city!

Luckily we got in a visit to the Bastille markets first!

I must have gazed very longingly at these strawberries, as the stall holder handed me a giant, juicy one to try! It was so delicious. I had avoided strawberries all year in the UK because they taste awful out of season - like water, really. This was a revelation!

Everything in this market was singing with freshness. If I lived in Paris, I'd do all my food shopping here.

On the walk to Place des Vosges, it started absolutely tipping down and did not let up for the rest of the day. The thought of queueing in the rain for the museums was enough to make us (well, me!) cry, so we did some more shopping, eventually ducked for cover out of the miserable rain to have an omelet and some chocolat chaud at Les Deux Magots in St Germain de Pres:

Yes, we were dry and fed but it came at a cost - 30 euros for two omelettes and this jug of hot chocolate! Man! Was Simone de Beauvoir made of money? (Magots was her haunt in her day, apparently).

We were both a bit grumpy and fed up at this point! Wandering around a foreign city in the rain isn't a lot of fun! Especially when you can't speak the language very well. We tried our best, but on this rainy day the average Parisian's patience with these touristes wasn't high, which got us down a bit.

The cheaper alternative to sitting in expensive cafes all afternoon (in fairness, we were in the pricey end of town!) was to go to the cinema, so we ended up being warm and dry and very comfortable for two hours seeing Julie Delpy in The Countess. Excellent, though somewhat disturbing, film.

Finally, we had our favourite croissants of choice in the Luxembourg Gardens, took a detour to the Madeleine to get our snacks for the train later, and then had a very happy hour or so in the Galleries La Fayette - an amazing department store with this unbelievable dome shaped stained glass ceiling:

Tom finally found a DVD of an old French movie he wanted, so he was stoked! I briefly wandered up to the bridal section of the department store, but when I saw the dresses were around the two thousand euro mark, I wandered slowly back down to the DVD section, deviating to try blackcurrant and violet jam in the foodie section.

Finally, after a long rainy day, we went to Gare du Nord, spent our last eight euro on two beers and toasted to our happy holiday, and the happy stuff we're going to get up to for the rest of the year, boarded the train and settled in with our earlier purchased Cojean vegetarian grilled sandwich - we had to have one more! - and watched our favourite movie, Two Days in Paris.

We were very happy to get back to St Pancras, and then a short tube ride to our front door where we collapsed, slept the sleep of the dead, and then spent a happy long weekend listening to French music, drinking French tea, eating French cheese....but in the comfort of our own home!

À la vôtre!

(cheers!)