Our week and a bit at Oravae

It's been a while since my last post, the main reason being that I have been pretty busy but I also spent a significant amount of time here

This is Oravae Cottage which is located on an island called Sepo in the Solomon Islands. Here we were able to live on our own private island secluded from the rest of the world. Myself and three friends (Heather, Kylie and Laura) spent about 9 days here, relaxing, snorkelling and eating amazing local food. Oh and don't forget taking in the breathtaking views...

 View from the Oravae sundeck at sunset.

The trip was truly an amazing experience and our hosts Naomi and Pattson and their family, in particular their daughter Nangarita helped us to have a great time as well as teaching us a lot about the people and history of the Solomon Islands. The lifestyle there is so completely different to what I know having been brought up in Australia. Schooling isn't compulsory in the Solomons, in fact, Naomi and Pattson took their children out of school after they lost their house and the first Oravae in order to rebuild as they needed all hands on deck. In the end, having practical skills in the Solomons is much more important than spending years at school or University as, often, it is difficult to get a job once you have finished your studies. The high price of education and the low salaries also deter people from undertaking further education. I found this particularly interesting as I was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum and spent  20.5 years of my 26 years of life studying. 

Everything is very relaxed in the Solomons and people are never running around trying to follow tight schedules, very different indeed. It did not take us long to adopt this and almost immediately we were relaxing and not worrying about time anymore. The only things that still remained on a time schedule were our stomachs. The food was great and we had different food almost every day. There was a lot of fish, banana, pineapple and mango-delish! The fruit tasted so amazing compared to what we get at home it was much, much more flavourful.

One of our first meals- curried vegetable wraps with a side of seaweed and tomato salad

Curry, I think it was curry, pretty sure it was curry. Curry? Yeah, curry. This is the conversation we had every time we ate something curried. When we got these wraps, we were wondering what it was and Laura said "I think it's curry" then she tasted it and said "yeah it's curry" and that's where it all started. The seaweed was amazing and burst in your mouth. It was very crunchy but once it burst it was really gooey, some of us couldn't handle it and ended up feeding it to the fish but it was pretty cool. Every meal we had at Oravae had a side of their delicious fruit which was awesome. 

Curried chicken wings with roasted pumpkin and rice. 

Another staple in our meals was rice, most meals were served with rice with the exception of breakfast of course! Curry was also a common food.

 Mud crab cooked in coconut milk with sides of local cabbage, potatoes, rice and fried aubergine.

Lime juice was also a common accompaniment with dinner and lunch, it was very refreshing to go with the meal. The awesome thing about staying at Oravae was that our meals would just arrive (although we could smell them cooking before they came) and then the dishes were taken away, there was no worrying about meals.

One of our breakfasts (pancakes with fresh fruit and cooked bananas with toffee)

There was a lot of creatures living with us some welcome and some not so much. There were heaps of gekos around and they would always be laughing at us, they were very cute; one of the welcomed creatures. The other welcomed creatures were the hermit crabs- they are really cute and just like shells walking around all the time, the only problem is that there is so many that you might end up stepping on them! The last creatures were the spiders. The Solomons definitely knows how to breed spiders- they were huge. They lived in the bathroom and some came into the living area, some had egg sacks and some didn't. Because creepy crawlies are less scary when they have names, we named the non-egg sack ones Ronald and the egg sack ones Rogitta (photo of Rogitta below).

 

 Pictures of the creatures that lived with us.

Oh! I nearly forgot the coconuts!! We kept hearing  sporadic thuds like something falling from a great height and eventually we twigged that it was actually coconuts falling from the gigantic coconut trees behind our bungalow. I found a few and spent ages husking them and then finally cracking them open (the key is to hit them over the eyes). As we'd been having limes and then found coconuts our plan (and theme song) was to "put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up" so we did just that one night. As coconut water from dried coconuts isn't great tasting, we filled them with lime vodka and Sprite, yay!

We put the lime in the coconut....

...and we drank it all up

We were in formed that the coconuts are nicer to drink if they are green. Our hosts were nice enough to get us some green drinking coconuts to try on our last day. It was a very refreshing and filling drink but it was awesome to try. Apparently, the flesh from green coconuts is usually the first solid food that babies in the Solomons eat. Just a random fact for you to contemplate.

Cheers!

We took a couple of trips during our stay, one to Kennedy Island, Fat Boys resort and Sanbis Resort. We had lunch at Fat Boys which was pretty tasty all round. We got to go and visit The Lodge at Sanbis resort which you can stay at for around $1000 per night. It has a spa and your own private jetty over the crystal clear water. Kennedy Island was great for snorkeling and there was a lot of amazing looking fish. The water was crystal clear, it was beautiful.

 Us at Kennedy Island before snorkeling.

Coral at Kennedy Island

The other trip we took as to see and old World War II wreck and to see the beach at the end of Gizo (one of the main islands of the Solomon islands) and to see the village. As we went on this trip after the earthquake at Santa Cruz, there was an unusually high tide so it was very difficult to see the wreck whilst snorkeling but as we swam back to the shore, there was a lot of really beautiful coral and fish. This trip was also good as we got to walk through the village and learn about life there. As they experienced a tsunami in 2007, it was interesting to learn how they rebuilt and regrew all of their crops. We also got to see the local canoe maker who was carving a new paddle. It was very cool. 

  

Coral on the way back to shore at the WWII wreck.

There was a lot of Nemo fish (anemone fish) everywhere we went snorkeling.

For several of the days, Kylie and I got up at 5:45 so that we could try and see the sunrise over Kolumbangara. It was absolutely beautiful when there wasn't cloud cover over the mountain (which is actually a volcano). There is a lookout on the island that we climbed in our PJ's so that we could see the sunrise but when we finally caught it, it was well worth the climb. 

There is so much more that we did and this is just a glimpse of what we got up to. It it a trip that I don't think I will ever forget. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend visiting the Solomon Islands and Oravae cottage, it is a great experience and the perfect place for a relaxing holiday. I sho uld mention that not all the photos in this post were taken by me and were actually taken by my friends Kylie, so thanks for letting me use your photos Kylie!

Sunrise over Kolumbangara.

Where is your next holiday going to be?

High tea at the Hyatt Canberra- happy birthday to me!

Hello all! Well, I'm back from holidays. The week around Christmas/New years was spent with my partner's family in Bega, it was full of great food, hanging by the pool (a $48 one we bought a Big W - what a bargain?!) and great company. The second week was spent with my family who had come to Canberra to visit me, this week entailed being a tourist in my own town, hanging with my family who I hadn't seen for about 5 months, our "second Christmas" and most importantly, my birthday (yay!).

During our week in Bega we made a cooking video called "Cooking with Hayfever" in which we make Donna Hay's chocolate fudge brownies (delish!) have a look if you want a bit of a laugh- it's definitely not a technical video! We made another video as well but it isn't complete yet so I'll have to post it once it's done.

Now, back to discussing my birthday which most people know is the most important day in January (in fact I tend to relate every event in January to how many days it is away from my birthday) :P. On the morning of my birthday I had delicious panacakes with macerated raspberries and whipped cream made for me by my Mum. We then went to Questacon which is like a "science playground" where you go to learn sciency stuff whilst having heaps of fun- it was great, we spent ages there! Next we went to high tea at the Hyatt Canberra. A lot of you might know that I LOVE high tea and I do it every chance I get. I have been to many places for high tea but the Hyatt Canberra was one of the most expensive at $52 per person. High tea is offered every day between 2:30 and 5 pm. This high tea was different to every other one I have been to in that it is a buffet where you serve yourself rather than receiving table service. 

We arrived and walked through the doors into a giant hall where the concierge pointed us in the direction of the tea lounge. As we came to the tea lounge we saw the buffet full of delicious bites available for our dining pleasure. We were then seated at our table and the waitress poured each person a glass of Fat Tree Brut nv sparkling. The sparkling wasn't a huge success amongst us with only myself actually consuming the whole glass full. It was a very dry sparkling  but was also refreshing, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate were served to the table.

Myself, Mr T and my family at our table.

We then helped ourselves to the buffet. I helped myself to some savories first and then went onto the sweets. There was an abundance of sandwiches and wraps (including the obligatory cucumber sandwich, which turned out to be a favourite with the men of the group). There were: cucumber sandwiches, tuna and cream cheese sandwiches; salmon, cream cheese and caviar crepes; roast beef, carrot, lettuce and mayo wraps; crab and pea crostini; cucumber, feta and sun-dried tomato crostini and the two hot foods were: mini vegitarian quiches and triangles which none of us could quite identify (possibly a curry? I really should have clarified with a waitress). This was my first time trying caviar and I really enjoyed it, the flavour is very fishy and salty but it had a crunch that is lovely. As I mentioned, the favourite savory for the men was the cucumber sandwich, my mum's favourite was definitely the crab and pea crostini of which she ate her weight and my favourite was the salmon, cream cheese and caviar crepe.

The savory selections.

My savory plate: (clockwise: tuna sanwich; roast beef wrap; salmon crepe; vegetarian quiche; cucumber, feta and sun-dried tomato crostini; crab and pea crostini and unidentified triangle).

Now to the most important part of high tea, the scones. There were two variations, plain scones and fruit and nut scones both of which were delicious. They were served with strawberry or apricot jam and cream although, you had to put the jam and cream on at the buffet bar which was quite inconvenient as the scones were not pre-cut. The picture below is not great, it was very difficult to assemble my scones with one hand whilst holding the plate with the other. There was also a warm dessert, this being bread and butter puddings served with raspberry compote (looks like tomato sauce in the photo but I promise it was not). I was expecting a more sweet flavour as I was told it was apple pie so I was disappointed when it was not very sweet, this dessert was quite bland but the raspberry compote saved it. 

Scones and bread and butter pudding with raspberry compote.

Onto the desserts... This high tea was heavily weighted towards sweets- there was so many to choose from and it was impossible to try them all. There were several types of biscuit (including three colours of macaron- not sure of if they were different flavours as the one I had just tasted like a generic flavour), there was panacotta, small cakes, friands, tortes and even a pavlova- amazing!

 Sweets buffet from one end.

 Sweets buffet from the other end.

The strawberry tart was Mr T's favourite- it was light and delicious and the strawberry on top was just so cute. The hazelnut gateaux was Mr Ray Ray's (my brother) favourite- it actually tasted like ferrero rochers- so amazing. The cheesecake was the perfect mixture of berries and white chocolate each complimenting the other.The eclair was also very delicious and with the chocolate surprise inside it was even better! The chocolate friand for me was a bit over the top, it was very dense and had a large chunk of chocolate in the middle which was quite off-putting for all of us, there was also a quinnel of the most smooth and velvety ganache I've ever had on top- it was amazing but was also pushed it over the edge into chocolate overload! A big chocolate fan would probably have appreciated it a bit more then myself I think. The macaron was a bit of a let down- it looked great with amazing feet but was not glossy on top. The texture of the shell was great but I was disappointed with the filling of which there was only a tiny amount, it also had no particular flavour that I could decipher. Compared to the macarons made by their inventors (Laduree in Paris) they are not great but they weren't completely terrible. The panacotta was probably my favourite- it was light and full of strawberry flavour, it was very well done, my only gripe was with the amount of cream on top which was a bit excessive for me.

 My sweets plate (clockwise: strawberry tart; chocolate friand; green macaron, chocolate hazelnut gateaux; chocolate and custard eclair, white chocolate and berry cheesecake). 

Strawberry panacotta.

Last of all were the drinks, it was difficult to track down one of the waitresses to order a drink which was annoying as when you are paying so much per head you expect some sort of service (they did not check on us at all during the tea and I was only able to get one of the waitress' attention when she came to clear plates near the end). I don't have much to say about they drinks, they were quite unremarkable but they were nice and were displayed very well. 

Hot chocolate (left) and mocha (right).

Overall, the food was delicious and of great quality. The service was not up to what I would expect having paid so much per person for afternoon tea. The setting was lovely and you could see outside although, it would have been nice to be closer to the window. At the end of the day we all went home with very full bellies and did not need dinner, a good day was had by all.

We were all full as googs afterwards.

Do you enjoy high tea/afternoon tea? Do you have any recommendations of places to go? 

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... ten vanilla bean panacotta with raspberries.

Ten vanilla bean panacotta... with raspberries on top!

Sooo, I have no ninth day of Christmas as I thought yesterday was day ten and I took this photo so I don't really have anything to put in day nine! Sorry guys!

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me.... eight mango parfait!

Check out other bloggers' eighth day of Christmas:
Little Adelaide Kate
Neenish Arts

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... seven gingerbread Christmas trees

See my post entitled The Gingerbread House for the recipe. Yum!

Have a look at other's seventh day of Christmas... 
Little Adelaide Kate

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... six jars of home made hot cocoa mix

See the other bloggers' sixth day of Christmas photos...
Little Adelaide Kate

The Gingerbread House

So, Mr T's work was having a morning tea today and he was asked to bring something to contribute and, of course, he said "I'll get my girlfriend to make something". I decided to do a gingerbread house as I have never made one before and it's been on my list of things to do for a while. It took me ages to decide but I chose Martha Stewart's Swedish gingerbread house template (there is no roof cut out so you will need to cut out a rectangular piece of paper that is 19 x 16.5 cm)  for the house and I decided to use the Women's Weekly gingerbread recipe as I had made if before and it turned out really well. I also cheated and used packet royal icing as it is tedious to make but I will add a recipe for it anyway. This is what I came up with...

 Front view

Side View

The gingerbread recipe is the easiest recipe to make and it makes so much! I had enough for the gingerbread house plus 24 Christmas tree biscuits and some left over in the fridge still to bake...

Gingerbread House (From Women's Weekly Cook)

4.5 cups self raising flour

3 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp ground clove

1 tsp ground nutmeg

185 g butter, chopped

220 g dark brown sugar (or 1 cup firmly packed)

180 g (1/2 cup) treacle

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Boiled lollies, crushed (optional)

Assorted lollies for decoration (I used curly wurlys, jubes, raspberry Twisters, sour straps, sour ropes, mini candy canes, spree lollies, Smarties and a giant lollipop)

Royal icing

2 egg whites

~500 g pure icing sugar (it is important that you use pure icing sugar and that it is sifted)

Mix 1 tablespoon of icing sugar into the egg whites at a time ensuring they are combined before adding more. Keep mixing in icing sugar until you get it to the consistency you require- it should not run freely off the end of a spoon but should leave a big drip on the end. Cover with glad wrap and ensure that when not in use it is covered at all times as it can dry out easily. Some people like to cover it with a damp towel to ensure it does not lose moisture.

1. Process flour, spices, and butter until crumbly. As you can see, there's a lot to fit in your food processor so do it in two batches if you need.

 Pretty full food processor

Crumbly texture after processing

2. Mix in sugar, treacle and enough egg to combine.

 Mix it all up!

3. Knead until smooth then cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Dough will be quite crumbly while mixing but persist and it will get smooth and lovely.

Smooth dough

4. Preheat oven to 180^oC (160^oC for fan forced). Roll out gingerbread to about 5 mm on a piece of baking paper, place the templates on the dough and cut out the shapes. I used a big knife so that I could just do one cut instead of slicing and potentially causing tears and cracks in the dough. Cut out the windows and, if desired fill with crushed boiled lollies for the stained glass effect. I also used a ruler to press indentations into the dough to make it look like bricks (I saw this on Brave Tart's blog for her Haunted Mansion, have a look it's amazing!). I left the pieces on the baking paper I rolled them out on to minimise handling and prevent breakages. Bake for 12 mins. 

 

Front and back and door ready to be cooked

 Baking the sides

5. Once out of the oven, place the template over the gingerbread and trim to ensure it is still the right shape. Please be careful as you will have to do it while it's hot as the gingerbread hardens as it cools. Don't burn yourself!

Trim the pieces- it's amazing how they can change shape

6. (Optional) I wanted the house to have red bricks and to look magical so I dusted the gingerbread with food colour and lustre dust to give it the shiny magical look I wanted- another trick from Brave Tart.

"Magical" bricks! :P

7. Put the house together. I took minimal photos of this as it is quite hands on. First stick the front and back pieces to one of the sides with the royal icing (pipe a line of royal icing on the edge of the piece that you are sticking on and sandwich the two pieces together). Then stick the other side on ensuring both the front and back pieces are aligned properly with the sides. Position the house onto your board and use the royal icing to fix it in place. Also use royal icing to reinforce the inner joins to ensure the house doesn't fall apart. Allow the icing to set for around 30 mins. 

8. Pipe icing along the edges of the gingerbread on the front of the house and carefully place on one side of the roof. Reinforce the inner joints with royal icing once again. Allow to set for 45 mins- 1 hour. You will need something under the roof piece to hold it in place so it doesn't slide off, as you can see I used a Keen's curry powder jar with a piece of gingerbread to make it a bit taller (it's all about improv).

9. Pipe royal icing along the edges of the other side of the house and also along the top edge of the other piece of roof. Put plenty of icing on this time as you won't be able to reinforce it on the inside any longer. Place something under the roof piece to hold it in place and allow to set for 1 hour. Put together the chimney and then glue into place with royal icing, reinforcing with only small amounts around the edges. I was impatient and made my Christmas tree while I was waiting but I do recommend waiting to do decorations until after you have covered the board with your "snow" (or royal icing). The Christmas tree is just a mini waffle cone with green royal icing "stars" piped around it and a yellow sugar paste star on top.

Allowing it to set

10. Using a palette knife or small spatula, cover the board with royal icing (this will give it the snowy look and allow you to stick on fences etc). I did mine bit at a time spreading on one side and then placing the fence and then going onto the next side, this was to make sure the icing didn't set before I came to placing the fence. Once the board is covered, you can place all your items to be stuck in the yard (ie. a path to the door etc), use extra royal icing to keep everything in place. Also, don't forget to stick on the door. I found that I had to stick it on closed as the shape of the house does not allow an open door. If you cut the door it may be possible to have it ajar or open but I didn't try this.

It's all coming together...

11. Now comes the fun part- decorating! Get creative decorate it with whatever lollies or chocolates you like. I used sour straps as roof tiles (an idea from a friend which I thought was pretty cool!). Have fun and get creative! 

12. Enjoy! Watch as people slowly demolish it.... 

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? What lollies did you use?