Friday: I attended a cocktail function at the Governor General's house in Mt Eden. IT is a lovely place, full of amazing Pacific artists and built on lush gardens (the very ones were Princess Diana was picture will babes Will and Harry and the infamous buzzy bee picture was taken). I met His Excellency the Governor General (that's what we actually have to say which is quite funny considering the idea of a monarchy is so far from most kiwis minds) and the British High Commissioner - he was a funny chap - father was Governor General, grandfather was Governor General, great grandfather was Governor of Leicester - he hardly could become a plumber or a car mechanic! I also had a fabulous conversation about Free Masons formality & the ZONTA group and their respective NZ chapters. Fascinating evening!
Sat: I went with some friends to see Priscilla the Musical which was FAB-U-LOUS. Pink daiquiris in neon flashing martini glasses set the stage at the Civic Theatre. Costumes galore - just amazing stuff - made me want to join the wardrobe department! The wigs were phenomenal too - really high and constructed out of the weirdest stuff like ostrich heads. But the best , the most impressive were the gorgeous young blokes who danced and sang all night in giant wigs, bright plumage and 3 inch heels! Filecia alone (played by Guy Pierce in the movie) wore 4 inch steel stilettos in his entrance. Even Bernadette (nee Raaalph!) wore heels - for a grey-head man than is cool. We headed to Bonito in Ponsonby for one of the girls birthday - the bar is lovely with great (albeit garlicky) tapas and chilled sherry in short glasses YUM!
Sun: I actually stayed in bed for the whole morning writing up my wish list for house projects; it's since be typed into a CHOICE-AS spreadsheet which is my speciality when I'm procrastinating from a report at work. Sunday arvo was with Knit Rangers where I finally came up with a pattern for the silk yarn. I'm about 3/4 through the scarf and notice it really "creases"; I'm not sure if you can / should block silk but I might have to. I'm loving my train commute each day - I really get so much knitting done.
Fresh Tea, I said I would put the Florentines recipe so here it is as I wouldn't want your critters to go hungry this weekend:
- Mix up 2 cups of cornflakes, 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 cup of sultanas, 1/2 cup of glacie cherries, 1/2 cup of roasted almond pieces.
- Put spoonfuls onto baking paper on a cookie tray. Flatten to preferred size or leave tall and fat. You can make bite size or jumbo size Florentines.
- Bake in moderate oven 180 for about 6-8 minutes - or until they go golden brown. Mine took quite a while - they definitely have to be brown otherwise you get sticky condensed milk in the middle as opposed to caramelized stuff.
- Let Florentines cool on tray then peel them off the baking paper
- Melt dark and/or white chocolate and smother the flat side of each Florentine. You can drag a fork across them to make wavy lines or do 1/2 dark and 1/2 white chocolate pattern.
- I got about 20 jumbo Florentines and they last for about 2 weeks in a plastic container.
I think there are heaps of alternative options for these beauties - I'd like to try cranberry and pine nut or crystallised ginger and raisin. In further baking exploits I've made chocolate, walnut, raisin and malt fudge last night for the trip to Waiheke on Sat - it's Worldwide Knit in Public Day - so a group of us are heading to the Ostend markets.
Hope you have a good weekend - I'm off to do digging and finish the drain-plumbing-sump-trench thingy.
1 comment:
Thanks heaps for the recipe, yumm! We will have to have a baking section. although I might have to buy 2 tins of condensed milk, the hubby likes to eat it off a spoon!
Love to see a picture of the Silk Scarf, what pattern are you using?
Have a great weekend, how is the trench digging going!
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