Top Tips for Life

I found this little gem in Unity a few days ago. You can read a preview online here - full of excellent tips on style, money, fitness, beauty, health, relationships, etc etc. Women only.

Progress towards High Tea

I was given a beautiful old English tea set for Christmas yesterday, with the odd number of seven fine china cups, saucers and side plates. It was made in Longton, England by Colclough China, but is undated. They have the most beautiful intricate floral pattern in gold, with pale pink trim. They will be perfect for our upcoming high tea. Just need to acquire a cake stand now.

Photos of preserve making

Many kilos of peaches go on the boil.

Strawberries bubbling away. With the exception of half a cup of lemon juice, all that liquid came out of the berries themselves.


Clockwise from back - strawberry and black pepper jam, peach, capsicum and sage relish, caramelised onions.

Relish going into jars.

Lots of relish ready for lids.

Pretty jars all in a row.

Photos of Dinner Party Food

Artichoke and canellini bean puree with crispy prosciutto, courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis, Served on pretty sunflower shaped crackers.

Goats cheese souffle, just out of oven after first baking, deflating for the second.

Goats cheese souffle twice baked and turned out of dishes for serving, with un-photographed salad of roast beetroot, mint, parsley and walnuts, dressed with the oil the artichokes for the above nibbles were packed in.

(photo taken with much better camera) Main of Floridita's asparagus risotto, fish baked then crisped up in a hot pan, gremolata bread crumbs.

High Tea Preparation off to Bad Start

In preparation for holding a high tea in the new year, we have decided to sample some of those available in Wellington in order to gain inspiration and tips. Pursuant to this, with two lovely friends we recently availed ourselves of the Christmas High Tea offer at the James Cook Grand Chancellor.

Overall we were not that impressed. The problems began when two of us arrived before the others, and the staff appeared wholly unable to deal with such a situation by, say, bringing us our tea while we waited for them. Then when our friends did arrive it didn't seem to occur to the staff that they might also want some tea for a strangely long time. Once we finally all had our tea and cake trays, no one returned to check that things were satisfactory, or to top up our tea.

Unfortunately the food was not much better than the service either - tier by tier breakdown below:

Tea Selection

The tea selection was quite good, a special range by Dilmah, the highlight of which was the Vanilla and Rose Ceylon. The shiny and luridly coloured tea menu could have done with some some elegance and general toning down though.

Bottom Tier

Club sandwiches were quite good, especially the salmon ones. Nothing to write home about, but certainly tasty.

Little savouries, clearly just bought frozen from the supermarket. Pie is always delicious, but this was in no way impressive.

Middle Tier

Supermarket Christmas mince pies.

Brandy snaps; yum yum!

Christmas cake, which was very dense and oily, it was ok, but again clearly not made with love, and lacked the spicy bite that good Christmas cake has.

The least exciting chocolate brownie you will ever try.

Top Tier

Heavy, dry scones with ordinary cream and jam.

Cookies which by this point we were all too disillusioned to try. But they looked like they came from a packet.

Delicious chocolate dipped strawberries.

Overall, the Grand Chancellor's Christmas High Tea was deeply disappointing. It lacked both creativity and effort, and left us doubting whether a single item had been produced in the restaurant. The only things that were good were the things it is basically impossible to mess up - brandy snaps and chocolate dipped strawberries. At the end of the day, we could have assembled the whole thing ourselves at New World.

Gym-going experiences

We have been mostly managing to go four times a week. We go to Configure Express, which mostly does Radical Fitness classes (X55, Fight Do, Oxigeno, Mega Danz, etc) - also used by Habit, Sports-Wide and Vic Uni.

Classes we have attended include:

• Yoga - generally easygoing, no problems there
• BAT (butt, abs & thighs) - basically endless squats, lunges and sit-ups. Very boring. Highlights what gym classes are: united front of gym-goers in mindless mass production of nice bodies. However, highly effective
• X55 - general overall workout. First experience is always a bit unco due to loads of fast moves going on. Jenna's favourite class due to combination of power, cardio, arms, shoulders, chest, legs, abs all wrapped into 45 minutes of fun. Good times
• Circuits - not a class, but have ventured onto the circuit. Time goes very fast as only spend 1 minute on each machine. Not too boring. Doesn't feel effective at the time but I think that is only because it works all over in small bursts so nothing gets too sore. Also makes one very tired afterwards as you don't really realise how hard you are working at the time, due to the foregoing.

Configure also have a $16/wk for 16 weeks deal, which is a bargain. If you are a woman, you should take them up on the offer and join us for our 4xweekly sessions.

Cheese souffle & dinner party

The weekend's main event was a dinner party of which the most fabulous course was the entree: twice-baked goat's cheese souffle with beetroot, mint & walnut salad.

The souffle was surprisingly easy to make - you just need to make sure you have appropriate oven-proof ramekins with oven-proof saucers to tip the souffles onto for the second baking. We used a recipe from the xxxxx cookbook (Ella, help) which was excellent. We greased the ramekins with butter and dusted with semolina, which made it very easy to tip out the souffles - in fact, they started coming away from the edges a little all by themselves. The timing is a bit fiddly as you have to time the first baking exactly, rest for half an hour, then tip out onto saucers and bake again for ten minutes. The best thing about it is you don't need very much cheese at all, we used 110g of goat's cheese and 70g blue cheese and had heaps left over from 8 small souffles. Because it puffs up heaps the mixture doesn't require much. They were perfect. I think they might possibly be improved if they were sitting in a thin layer of cheesy sauce, or if honey and more herbs were added at some point. I think both of these things are done to the cheese souffles served at The Larder in Miramar (amazing restaurant which is getting very good reviews), the best I have ever had.

The main course was asparagus risotto (Floridita's cookbook) with pan fried groper (which I messed up a bit due to wine consumption prior to main course), sprinkled with gremolata crumbs (which hid the messiness of the fish and looked beautiful). Dessert was a rum & raisin cheesecake. We slightly miscalculated the amount of setting agent required (we used white chocolate and a tiny amount of gelatine) so it was very soft, but the creaminess was delicious with mixed berries. The base was gingernut - all cheesecakes should have gingernut base, they are better than any other biscuit for the purpose. We also made cannellini bean & artichoke puree on sunflower crackers topped with crispy prosciutto, as a nibble to start.

Generally delicious.

As below, Ella will update with photographs and further thoughts

Preserves

Last week with two excellent lady friends, we made some very delicious preserves. These included:

• Strawberry & black pepper jam
• Peach, capsicum, chilli & sage relish
• Vanilla sugar
• Caramelised onions

The process involved lots of chopping, very big pots, lots of waiting, freaky sterilisation procedure, a fair amount of wine, and of course some Sex & the City: Season 2.

Basically there is little more technique to preserve-making than chopping everything up, lumping it in a pot with some sugar (jam) or vinegar (relish), and waiting for it to boil down to a suitable consistency. We couldn't be bothered waiting more than an hour or two, so canned (jarred) the jam and relish while still fairly liquid. This is a preferable consistency anyway as it makes for good spreading, and means that you can use jam as a thick coulis or sauce if you prefer. Important factors include having a very large pot so the fruit doesn't burn, and making sure your sterilising and sealing technique is trustworthy. I like to pour boiling hot jam into a boiling hot jar and whack the boiling hot lid on while it is still fizzing and bubbling. Others believe this is an overly neurotic approach. If I could be bothered, I also would have sealed with wax once the jars cooled.

I think for gifts I will buy some deep square boxes, pack them out with that decorative straw-like stuff, put onions & relish on the bottom and jam and sugar on the top so the red & white jars peek out. Christmassy!

Also: strawberries with black pepper are very very very delicious. Next time you have fresh strawberries, grind a little fresh pepper on top - totally brings out the strawberry flavour and makes your tastebuds tingle all over! Delicious.

Ella will update later with photographs & further thoughts

Sex & the City: Season 1 wash-up

Highlights of Season One:

• Early introduction of Mr Big
• Early introduction of Skipper
• Miranda pretending to be a lesbian
• Laney and the baby shower, stealing of Charlotte's baby name

Silly things about Season One:

• Carrie's incessant talking to the camera
• Carrie's psycho obsessiveness over Mr Big (also typical of later seasons)
• Terrible late 90s clothes

Excellent Samantha quotes:

• "Back door, front door, who cares? A hole is a hole"
• "Money is power, sex is power. Therefore, getting money for sex is just a different kind of power."
• "Men give, women receive - it's biological destiny"
• "This is at once so sad, and the most fabulous validation I've ever gotten in my life"

MINGE

On Tuesday this week we went to see MINGE with various other fabulous ladies (and one man). This is a truly excellent production, and it is only on for one more night, so if you haven't been already you have missed out big time. It is directed by the wonderful Fi McNamara and showcases an excellent all-female cast.

The play alternates between being deliberately crude and provocative, and highlighting the vulnerability of its characters. The actresses display immense insight and sensitivity in a series of poignant and touching monologues. At times it is a bit feminist-preachy, but not so much that you won't like it if you're not into that.

The part that I most enjoyed, however, was the songs! Almost every character has a signature song, which they break into at some point during the play. My one problem with MINGE is that there is no accompanying soundtrack available for purchase.

Our favourite quote from the play went something like: "The perfect lady can multi-task, is accomplished in the activities of men, and has knowledge of all womanly matters." Though the moral of the story following this quote is that women do not in fact have to do all of these things, we think that it encapsulates an excellent aspirational goal which we shall continue to pursue.

Other particular highlights:

• Heleyni Pratley declaring that her goal in life is to "destroy capitalism"
• Heleyni Pratley declaring that the worst thing that has ever happened to her was "being separated from my boyfriend by the state for protesting"
• Eleanor Bishop answering rapid-fire questions about women while changing a bicycle tyre
• The Mother's song about afghans and eight-cheese macaroni cheese
• Erin Banks's coming out song, "I'm a Woman-Loving Woman"
• The self-defence song and accompanying actions - Grab, Squeeze, Twist, Pull
• The fairy godmother-styled MC and her massive pink puffy dress

The one male who attended with us also enjoyed it, but said that there was too much "female masturbation simulation", which was gross. This, I think, is exactly the point - MINGE does what feminists have been doing for decades, confronting the audience with things that some of them might find disturbing or uncomfortable and forcing them to ask why that is. Why is it that movies which involve adolescent boys masturbating are funny, but girls doing it is taboo?

Overall a very enjoyable hour and high on the recommended list.

First macaron attempt

On Sunday, we attempted our first few batches of macarons.

We had bought a book in Sydney called I [heart] Macarons, it is by Hisako Ogita. It lays out the c. 30 step process very simply, each step with a photograph, and also has a handy trouble shooting section outlining various imperfections to look out for and what you will have done to cause them.

We made three batches, but kept them all very simple - the first two were just her most basic recipe, flavoured with a little almond essence, the last with raspberry and a little pink colouring. They came out ok - we were certainly delighted to achieve the pied 'feet' from our first batch.

Unfortunately, none of the things that did go wrong were in the trouble-shooting section of the book - no oily spots, no cracked tops, no un-glossy tops and no pied-less biscuits (huzzah!). This meant that we were left with a bit of guess work as to how to fix the problems we had though. Main things we learned:

-Shape: The perfect macaron is a nigh perfect circle with a pleated pied, and then a smooth dome. Our piping produced significantly less than perfect circles, and ended up as more of a pointed swirl than a flat smooth dome. After some practice with the second batch, we were getting more regular circle shapes, but they were still swirly. Cutting a larger hole from the zip lock bag helped a bit with this latter problem, but we think we really need a proper piping bag that will hopefully allow us to pipe in single dollops without swirling action at all. Possibly an ever so slightly less stiff mixture might also help.

-Cooking: The first batch were over cooked; a little too crispy right through, and more browned than you want. We decided to take them out a little sooner next batch, but these were a little too gooey inside and some wouldn't come off the tray properly as the crispy top just broke away from the softer centre, even after being left to cool completely. Our conclusion was that the recipe may not be intended for a fan forced oven, or Jenna's oven might just be too efficient. For the last batch we decreased the temperature and cooked for the regular amount of time (190C seems too hot for what is essentially a meringue anyway). Again they were a little too soft in the centre, though. Possibly we need to continue at the decreased temperature, but leave them in for longer, if anyone has any thoughts they would be much appreciated.

The other complicating factor is that they get softer a few hours after being filled - the too-crispy ones ended up pretty much perfect the next day, though still too brown and overcooked-looking on top.

- Filling: The first filling we made was a raspberry butter cream to go in the almond ones. We followed Ogita's recipe, which was a very complicated process involving whisking eggs and heating syrup and various other things not usually involved in the production of butter cream. Also, it ended up not really coming together properly, and seemed to have no advantages over regular butter cream. It may have been that somewhere along her process we started doing it wrong, but we're pretty sure it;s just a not very good recipe, so next time we are going to stick with the classic butter / icing sugar / essence model.

We also made chocolate gnash, which is simply chocolate melted into hot cream. We used a Whitakers dark Ghana with coffee in it, so it had a mocha flavour.

Over all, the first macaron experiment was much more successful than we expected, but left clear areas for improvement. The process seems to be a complex science of trade-offs - if they are cooked for too long, they become too brown and crispy. If not cooked long enough, they are too soft and break apart. If the mixture is beaten to stiff peaks, it is impossible to form a flat dome. If it is not beaten properly, no pieds will form. etc etc etc. The goldilocks zone must be attainable, but will require more work. If anyone has any experience in the above areas and would like to share their suggestions we would be most grateful.

First batch just out of the oven. Browned and poor shape.

Looking a little more like macarons with raspberry and chocolate filling.

Second batch - better colour and improved shape, but still some swirl / point issues.

General Wednesday update

Lunch

Fans of the Concord pate roll may be especially interested in the following. This does not relate to anything on the list, but we wanted to share a fantastic lunch secret we have discovered. It is in fact just on the menu of the relevant establishment, so is not actually any kind of secret at all, except that we did not know about it until recently, but if others don't yet, they should.




This is the Pate Platter at Smith the Grocer in Old Bank Arcade (where Tempt, the cup cake shop is). It comes with a stack of toast (more than is in the picture, which was taken after I had started), a huge ramekin of incredibly creamy chicken liver pate, some leaves and three condiments - a beetroot one, a tomato one, and caramelised onions. At $12 it is quite a bit pricier than the Concord roll based equivalent, but with higher quality pate and a range of delicious condiments, this seems justified. With the Grocer's more ambient setting, it is also more appealing for a sit down lunch, compared to the roll's comparative advantage in grab-and-eat-at-desk meals.

If you are reading this, Smith, the toast could be a bit less crispy, but other than that, spot on.

Fashion Challenge

Yesterday I wore a magenta Robyn Mathieson top which I borrowed from my mum. Today I wore an extremely colourful dress I got from Principles c. 2005, over a white shirt. Monday and Tuesday I was quite enjoying the challenge, though I have been feeling quite negative about it today, mostly because I hate this dress. Hopefully further rummaging through clothes I haven't worn for ages will bring me something nicer for the last two working days of the challenge.

Yesterday Jenna wore two braids down one side of her head looped in a bun at the nape of the neck. Today she wore a very elegant loose twist type thing low and off to one side. I think she has been looking much more sophisticated with her hair back all week.

I note that she has declined my suggestion to try out the jelly-fish style (6 pony tails in a circle around the head, resembling tentacles) which my baby sister demanded I do for her the other day.

Gym

Yesterday we went to BAT class at the gym. We did not go today, but will again tomorrow.

Weekly fashion challenge

Today was day one of our first week long fashion challenge.

Ella's wardrobe is vast, and is full of many colours such as grey, black, charcoal, beige, cream, white, taupe, fawn, tan and the occasional splash of navy. Which is just the way she like it, but it seems somewhat limiting, so Ella's challenge for the week is to face her colour qualms and wear at least one brightly coloured garment every day.

Jenna has been working on getting her locks to their lovely flowing length for a while now. The look excellent, but the best thing about long hair is its potential to be styled in a vast array of ways. Jenna has thus far left this potential untapped, so her challenge is to wear her hair in a different style every day.

Today, I wore a Marilyn Seyb cardigan I got back in high school. It is bright red, and has pretty purple embroidery and a purple ribbon which ties in a bow around the neck. I also wore red heels.

Jenna wore her hair all off her face in a bun. It looked very nice.

We also went to the gym for a yoga class at lunch time. It was enjoyable, but as the first organised exercise I have done in years I anticipate feeling it tomorrow.

Summer Project

Hello friends

Why have we started this project? Mostly it is because all of our friends are going overseas this summer, and we are stuck in Wellington (which is admittedly lovely, but not as exciting as South America). Moreover, we are generally interested in being absolutely fabulous, and acknowledge that at the moment we are only very fabulous. We are also unsure of exactly where our lives are going to take us (diplomacy? socialite housewifery? corporate lawyering? mid-level policy analysis?) but we feel that, wherever it is, we should have a range of skills - both those of the classical lady and the glass ceiling-shattering modern independent woman.

Consequently, we have embarked on a project of self improvement for the summer. As a starting point, we have constructed the following list, after which we will be much closer to being accomplished modern women:

Cooking
- Perfect the process of making macaroons
- Flowing from the above, hold a traditional high tea
- Gut and fillet a fish
- Gut and pluck a pheasant/duck/chicken/goose/similar
- Make a successful goat's cheese souffle
- Do a cheese making class
- Make our own pasta
- Hold a traditional Christmas dinner
- Make preserves for friends & family for Christmas
Life skills
- Learn to drive
- Learn to play tennis
- Go to the gym at least 4 times a week
- Attend all classes on offer at the gym at least once
- Become at least not laughably bad at video games (i.e. Wii tennis, Mario Kart, bowling)
- Play bowls
- Attend a first aid course
- Make our own soap
- Sew our own costumes to wear to Katy Perry
- Devise week-long fashion challenges
Cultural accomplishments
- Watch every season of Sex & The City
- Go to European Masters exhibition
- Attempt to read a Penguin Classic every week
- Attend Summer Shakespeare productions
- Watch classic films with excellent female protagonists e.g. Breakfast at Tiffany's, Thelma & Louise, All About Eve

We are interested in your thoughts on potential additions to the list, though we may ignore your opinion if your suggestions do not fit with our vision of fabulousness (but you should certainly pursue your own conception of the good life for yourself).

A number of you have already volunteered or been volunteered to help us with these tasks. If you have any special skills in any of the above areas, we would be more than grateful for your assistance. Particular areas of concern include tennis, driving, and acquiring a bird.

Much love,

Ella & Jenna