paronella park

just thought that i would put some of my photos from paronella park up, it was a beautiful place to visit, and the fresh scones with homemade tropical jam were mouth watering!


umbrellas


stairs


flowers


picnic tables


waterfall


giant tree


picnic area


castle


castle again

much love,
frankie.pleure

love come and save me

check out this cute film that i found on the frankie magazine blog
i love it.

Love Come And Save Me from Bree 666 on Vimeo.

much love,
frankie.pleure

Sweet Oh Luscious Life

So somehow I managed to get three days off work in a row - am still not entirely sure how that happened but it has been so good to have a mini holiday! I have done so much cooking (but forgotten to take photos of most of it) and spent a lot of time with my favourite little miss and her lovely mama. Have also caught up on some reading and went for a swim in the pool - it is so hot here at the moment. Feels like I am melting, and I don't think that cooking is helping! Tomorrow is one of my friends and also my brother's girlfriend's birthday! I thought that would be an excellent opportunity to make cake, so when I asked JezBomb what kind of cupcakes he would like for his birthday he said chocolate. Now don't get me wrong, I love chocolate cupcakes, but they aren't that exciting so I decided to go for something new and make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting. JezBomb didn't object so hopefully he enjoys them! I love pumpkin!!!

Other things that I have made over the last couple of days: Kofta Balls and Turkish Pilaf with Pine Nuts (from my Hare Krishna cookbook - something I picked up at the Palm Creek Folk Festival after eating at their stall for three days straight), White Chocolate and Roast Cherry Tart , and delicious, simple pizzas. So I have managed to catch up on the cooking front - I will have to do some sewing now, orders for replicas of the apron that I made for my best friend's daughter have been coming in, although I am slightly apprehensive about making adult sized ones - definitely not as cute as ones for a three year old, and possibly a lot more work! I still have to come up with christmas presents for a whole bunch of people - only 18 days to go!


Before I get recipe-ing, I thought I would leave you with a photo by the lovely and very talented Miss Alice - it is a frankie.pleure tea party. Just chilling with the bearcats - getting into the christmas spirit. I would encourage you all to tea party with your bearcats too!


much love,
frankie.pleure

White Chocolate and Roast Cherry Tart
Click here for the recipe!


Simple Pizza (makes 6 slices - serves 2 as a meal, or 3 as a snack)

1 pre-made pizza base
2 tablespoons tomato paste
5 mini bocconcini cheese, sliced
about 16 1cm cubes of feta
about 6 olives, sliced
handful of basil, washed and shredded

pre-heat oven to 180C
spread tomato paste on pizza base, sprinkle on cheese, olives and basil
place on a tray and cook for 8-10 minutes or until bocconcini is melted and base is slightly brown around the edges


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting (makes 24 cupcakes)

Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup softened butter
1 3/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk (if needed)
about 2 cups pumpkin
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon


Frosting
1 tub philly cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Cupcakes
Preheat Oven to 180C and line cupcake trays with patty pans
Cut pumpkin into cubes and cook in microwave with a litte water in the bottom of the container (or steam over a double boiler) until cooked through, then mash up and leave to cool

Whisk butter, then add sugar and mix until fluffy

Whisk in the eggs

Mix in baking powder and 1 cup of flour and stir through

Add ginger, vanilla, and cinnamon to mashed pumpkin

Mix half of pumpkin mixture through cake batter,
Then mix another cup of flour,
Then add the rest of the pumpkin mixure,
Then the last 1/2 cup of flour,
Then the milk (depending on how wet your pumpkin is will depend on how moist your cake mix is - if it is very thick add milk)

Spoon into cupcake papers so that they are 3/4 full

Another photo just for good measure :-)

Cook in 180C oven for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into them


Frosting
Whisk all ingredients together

When frosting is fluffy, put in the refrigerator until cupcakes are cool

Spread frosting over cooled cupcakes

and ENJOY!!

Happy Birthday JezBomb!!

ps - getting so excited for christmas! don't know what to make there are so many yummy options!!!

looking for the great escape

it feels wonderful to finally have some time to write, it feels like everything has been so busy lately - the world is moving very quickly but at the same time i have had quite a few wonderfully refreshing time out moments of late. it is wonderful now that the uni semester is over for a few months that i am able to catch up with friends and do some of the things that i have been meaning to get around to over the last few months. strangely enough this means that i haven't done a lot of cooking lately, but instead have been sewing and reading, and spending time with the special people in my life. it was one of my best friends' daughters third birthday the other day, and I got her a cookie making kit, with cute cutters and measuring spoons. for christmas i am making her a gorgeous pink apron to wear on our cookie making play dates in the future, photos will definitely follow when it is finished. i have also nearly finished making a pair of work slacks that i have had in my cutout pile for over a year, and have plans for a few dresses and tops, though am not entirely sure whether or not i will get around to them. also have been listening obsessively to patrick watson - lovely sweet but slightly quirky tunes covering a whole range of genres. it is love! the song/film clip for the great escape is definitely worth checking out (below)!



also have had some delicious restaurant meals as of late. the two that are most worth mentioning are wink in cairns, and gyo in townsville. wink is on the corner of spence and grafton streets, and the food is modern european - also known as simply devine! for entree i had tomato and strawberry gazpacho with basil jelly and bocconcini. it was sweet and smooth, and perfectly refreshing on a hot north queensland evening! one of my dining companions had a goats cheese souffle which was to die for, so i was a little jealous but rather impressed with the starters. dinner was three types of gnocci - with a lightly creamy sauce, the serving was perfectly proportioned, although i could have eaten it five times over, it was that good! and then for dessert i had a watermelon and rosewater jelly (please forgive me for not remembering the correct name), that was beautiful on the palate as well as on the plate, delicate and just sweet enough to satisfy. i even had a wink cocktail that was incredibly delicious. all in all, the meal was worth every penny and a return visit will definitely ensue (actually that is the second time i have been there, but the first was equally as impressive).

the second delicious dinner experience i had was at gyo, a new japanese restaurant on gregory street in townsville, where the sorely missed c'est si bon used to be. the food was reasonably priced, and looking around it was all presented beautifully, while not being too frighteningly japanese to frighten off the pie-loving aussies. it had a substantial vegetarian selection too, which is a rarity among townsville's dining hot spots (i have actually been to one of the more exclusive restaurants where they have balked at the idea of vegetarianism and then served me a meal with the chicken picked out of it). i had a special vegetable japanese pancake, that i couldn't pronounce or remember the name of but it was really delicious. though i thought it was more like an omelette than a pancake, stuffed mostly with cabbage and covered in what was possibly barbeque sauce and mayonnaise. it was incredible, though, a perfect mix of flavours and textures, and a fairly generous serving which was good because i was starving! it reminded me of hare krishna food that is one of the major reasons i go to festivals. we then had tempura icecream for dessert. it was possibly one of my top ten desserts. and that is a HUGE call, because i have eaten a lot of desserts in my life! it was like having a donut filled with green tea icecream, homemade strawberry jam, and whipped cream. words cannot possibly describe how incredible an experience it was! i will definitely be going back for seconds, thirds, fourths... etc! i strongly recommend that everyone try it, along with the berry berry drink, which is ginger ale and berry juice - and is definitely a good non-alcoholic companion to such a delicious meal (gyo is byo which we didn't realise until after we had got there).

i am definitely going to have sweet dreams of delicious goodies tonight, and am very much looking forward to it! like visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. goodnight!

much love,
frankie.pleure

The Butterfly Circus

Check out this beautiful short film from the Doorpost Film Project called The Butterfly Circus which was the 2009 Winner of the Doorpost Film Project.



much love,
frankie.pleure

EDIT: I can't work out how to make the page wider so the whole screen fits on, so until I can work out how to do that, you can check it out at this link: The Butterfly Circus

i'm not in love with the modern world..

i am listening to wolf parade and thought that i should share the love with whoever reads this. i definitely recommend that you check them out on myspace and then buy their album!! so good.

i made some sweet potato gnocci the other day which was delicious. i found the recipe on the very lovely sugarcrafter blog , where there are about twenty other recipes that i can't wait to try out. it was the first time that i have ever made gnocci by myself (when i was little we used to help nonno make huge batches at christmas time). it turned out surprisingly well, although my gnocci got a bit stuck together because i put them too close on the tray, so they weren't all shaped nicely but they tasted delicious! i just made a quick burnt butter and chili sauce which went perfectly. then yesterday we had a birthday party for zollie with all sorts of goodies like toffee capsicum dip, lots of interesting cheese and fruit, a barbeque dinner and then rosewater cupcakes for dessert. zollie had a ball, and she got lots of pressies including a really cute cupcake toy from great-nana. she is such a spoilt dog! then today my doggy cookbooks arrived so i made her some biscuits (the recipe made an awful lot) that actually tasted quite good (they were really crispy with polenta and herbs and suitable for humans too) but they would have been better with some parmesan mixed through but zollie seems to enjoy them.


much love,
frankie.pleure

STAND UP IF YOU LOVE THE FURY...

Today was a fairly average day except that I got to go and watch the football! And I mean real football, that you play with a round ball and your feet (soccer) not Rugby or AFL or some other ridiculous code that doesn't make any sense and involves a lot of big ugly men wrestling each other to the ground... Unfortunately my team, the Fury, are not doing very well this season and it was a bit of a nasty game to watch. The ball was down our half for the majority of the game but then Central's would just all of a sudden take off and score because our goalie isn't all that great with his hands. The 5-1 loss was very disappointing but the atmosphere of the place was still fantastic. We seem to have resigned ourselves to the fact that the Fury are going to lose but still head down to stand up if we love the fury and listen to the F-Troop's antics (although they won their last home game which was incredibly exciting).

On another note, I have been really getting into fruit salad lately. I can't seem to get enough of it! I have been going down to our equivalent of a farmers market and also to the deli down the road to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I really can taste the difference, it is incredible! I went to my friends house for a barbeque the other night and made vege kebabs with zucchini, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, baby corn, and haloumi cheese, and also pineapple, peach, strawberry, banana and haloumi kebabs for dessert. They were really good except that the fruit kebabs got cooked on part of the barbeque that seemed to have burnt food on it, so that spoiled the flavour a little bit. Since then I have been making fresh fruit salad every couple of days, with a balsamic and mint dressing. Definitely restaurant quality!

Balsamic and Mint Dressing: is just 3 tablespoons of balsamic glaze and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh mint, and a touch of freshly cracked pepper all whisked together and drizzled over fruit salad. So delicious and easy!!

Anyway I must be off to bed, work in the morning, ugh...
much love,
frankie.pleure

A Lazy Week

So it has been a very lazy and relaxing week post exams! My new camera arrived - a Cannon EOS 450D Digital SLR, and it is LOVELY! It was Zollie's birthday yesterday, so we went to the park and I took some lovely photos which was lots of fun.

She had a ball and got thoroughly spoilt by her loving Mama. I really need to find her a new collar and lead though, but there wasn't anything really gorgeous in the pet shops here. I am tempted to make something myself but am not sure if it would be tough enough to last very long.


To use up my leftover pasta cutoffs after making the Mushroom Ravioli, I decided to make some Broccolini Pappardelle, which is delicious and so simple to do! So here is the recipe for that; I have been so lazy this week with my cooking, but I did finish sewing a pair of work pants. Tomorrow I am going to do some more cooking, and on Sunday we are having a birthday party for Zollie so I am sure that there will be much more cooking in the next few days.

Broccolini Pappardelle (serves 4 hungry hippos)

pasta
*see ravioli post below for pasta recipe*

sauce

2 bay leaves
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 birds eye chili's (or to taste), finely diced
1 bunch of broccolini
200mL cream
100g goats cheese
75mL mushroom gravy *see ravioli post, but this can be substituted for 150g of sliced mushrooms*
olive oil
salt and pepper
100g baby spinach


blanch broccolini in large pot of salted boiling water

heat some olive oil in a pan and fry off bay leaves, onion, and garlic until translucent
chop broccolini into 2cm lengths and add to frying pan with chili and spinach (and mushrooms if not using mushroom gravy)
cook for 10 minutes over low-medium heat until broccoli is still firm in the middle but soft on the outside
stir through mushroom gravy, goats cheese and cream and heat until cheese is melted and sauce is thickened slightly
season with salt and pepper


cook pasta in boiling water until it floats to the surface 1-3 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pasta
serve with grated romano cheese and a flourish of olive oil

yumm!!

post exam celebrations!!!

as of yesterday i was officially finished exams for the semester - hooray for a few months of holidays!! to celebrate i made some fig and walnut cookies that i took into work to share with the girls (and guys, but there aren't many of them in my department). then today my dear friend, miss alice, and i had a tea party in her new unit. it was a lovely spread - a huge shame that i didn't take any photos but it was delicious fun! i took some of the cookies i had left and made some toffee capsicum dip and homemade fairy bread. to top off a lovely relaxing day i did some sewing and then made some mushroom ravioli with a wine-infused-mushroom, basil and goats cheese sauce. it was delicious, but a huge pain to make the ravioli so i think that next time i will just mix the filing into the sauce and cut the pasta into pappardelle.

here is the ravioli recipe if there is anybody out there who is interested. it would make a lovely special dinner party meal, the recipe makes enough for four as a main.

happy cooking
much love, frankie.pleure

pasta

300g plain flour
eggs, lightly beaten
30mL olive oil
pinch of salt
extra flour

filling

200g mushrooms, sliced into small pieces
2 cloves garlic
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup red wine (i used yalumba y merlot - great for a drink while you're cooking too!)
pinch of salt
olive oil

sauce
100g goats cheese
1 clove garlic
large bunch of basil leaves, roughly chopped
50g butter
100mL cream
pinenuts (as desired - the more the better!)
olive oil
salt and pepper

pasta

mix flour and salt together, make a well in the middle and pour in olive oil and eggs
mix together from the middle out, incorporating a little flour at a time
knead to form a smooth ball of dough
wrap in cling wrap and put in the fridge for half an hour


filling

heat oil in saucepan
fry onions until transparent then add garlic and cook until lightly brown
add mushrooms, wine and salt and let simmer until mushrooms cook down and there is lots of liquid (about 5 minutes)
strain mushrooms from juice and allow to cool, set juice aside for the sauce


pasta
take pasta from fridge and divide into three pieces
run pasta through pasta machine until thin sheets, flouring in between rolling
cut pasta into 8cm squares
(you can save the off cuts, dry them on a drying rack and use at a later date)
place a spoonful of cooled mushroom filling in the middle of half of the pasta squares

dab a little water around the edges of the pasta square and lay another square over the top, starting from one corner and pressing down around the edges being careful to get as much air out as you can
with a rolling pin roll the edges of the ravioli where there are now two layers to make it thin
brush with flour so that it will not stick

sauce
toast pinenuts in a 180C oven for about 5 minutes until they are lightly browned
brown butter in a saucepan with garlic, stir in mushroom juice and bring to the boil
take off heat and put aside

pasta

in a large pot of salted boiling water, cook 3-4 ravioli at a time for about 30-40 seconds or until they float in the pot
(cooking time will depend on the thickness of your pasta)
drain and spray with olive oil so they don't stick together

sauce
stir cream, pine nuts and basil into sauce (leave some basil for garnish)

to serve
drizzle sauce over ravioli, top with goats cheese, a couple of basil leaves, a swirl of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

hope i didn't forget anything, (except to take a photo of the finished product - obviously I was much too eager to dig in!!) enjoy!

welcome!

welcome to the world of frankie.pleure home of all things that i deem lovely and worthy of sharing with the world. mostly this will consist of food, cooking, craft, art, photography, and my lovely little dog. i hope that you will enjoy what you find here.

firstly, perhaps, a little about me:

i have a toy poodle

i am a vegetarian

i drive a red car

i am studying psychology

i have a sweet tooth

i work in a hospital

i make toys, clothes, cupcakes, icecream, and all sorts of other things

well i suppose that is a start. have a lovely day! i had better get back to studying for exams.

much love,

frankie.pleure