simple syrup

There are one or two amazing little liquor shops in my town that sell wondrous bottles of hand-crafted liqueurs and boutique wines. All of them also stock Gomme. Also known as sugar-syrup, or simple syrup, it’s a water and sugar mixture used to sweeten up cocktails. Whenever I pop in to one of these fanciful stores for something tasty, I always seem to briefly consider paying $8 for what is essentailly a bottle of sugar and water. Albeit, all natural organic hand-crafted traditional sugar-syrup. All the same, I am struck by the notion that for less that $2 I could make it at home.

But the thought of labouring over a stove melting sugar and water together and waiting for it to cool just seemed fraught with alchemical difficulties. Not to mention effort and time. Besides, you can get almost the same result with cordial – lemon, raspberry and elderflower have become some of my staples. If you don’t fancy making your own, Monin produce some positively delicious syrups; Kiwi, Cucumber, Green Apple and Lavender for instance!

Then in 2008 I went to a tequila tasting hosted by Brown-Forman where our guide showed us how to make sugar-syrup. It was so fricking simple! People, this is how the professionals do it. You don’t need a stove, or even hot water. For those of you, who like me, had no idea – here’s how:

Now go forth and enjoy all those sweet cocktails your soul has been yearning for!

Its the end of another week. A whole seven days of mixin’ it up and havin’ a blast.

I went to my first Christmas party of the year and walked away with some goodie bags.

Tasted some amazing honey mead from  Seven Sheds, Tasmania. Don’t you love the handwritten tasting notes on the label?

I received a package from Alima Pure this week. I’m excited about trying out the colours and they always throw in some extra samples for good luck. How lovely!

K and I spent one evening in the spare room together. He tinkered with his electronics and I finished some alterations on a dress. I’m really grateful that we don’t have a television sometimes! It was nice to listen to music and be productive for a while.

I won so much money at the races on Saturday I couldn’t close my wallet. (it was all five dollar notes and one dollar coins… not the millions you are imagining) I bought a bottle of Prosecco with the proceeds and made Bellinis! Absolutely delish.

Speaking of delish, I made pancakes this morning. With bananas. That’s right! Bananas are affordable again! Six months ago a kilo would cost $13 at my local supermarket. Now they’re about $4 a kilo. A cause for celebration if ever I saw one!

Made up a batch of Rosemary Salt this morning.  It smells divine. Later this week I’ll post some more photos and instructions. It’s so easy to throw together and makes a great gift.

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Seasonings that made this week tasty: evening walks in the soft rain, evening walks in the wind, sewing buttons, catching sight of well dressed ladies, new library books, ice packs, ordering new shoes online, The Princess Bride, afternoons off, silly text messages from friends, eating cold curry the next day, planning holidays and long warm baths.

Happy Friday!

Lady Starshine

Over at Coilhouse, Angeliska shares her teenage goth memories and more than a few photos. So good. Were you a teenage goth?

‘Tis the season for office parties. Here’s a guide as to how much to drink at yours from Sex Cigars Booze.

Life’s turns in sentence. Recent winner of the Epica adversing awards.

Did you know that there is a tumblr devoted to Neil Gaiman’s hair?

Identifying your patron saints is such an amazing idea! I love the responses. Who are yours?

Not Always Right is truly hilarious sometimes. I laughed so hard when I read “Excuse me, is your butt fake?”

Avoid the dreaded hat hair! Modcloth share three hat friendly hairdos. What an awesome idea!

Have a Very Bokeh Christmas

The Tweed Run looks like heaps of fun. Only I’m a little worried that no one bothered to wear a helmet.

No one innovates  like a vegan with a sweet tooth. And then Kim went and invented glamingtons.

Gareth Pugh talks to the Guardian about wearing makeup.

I love 365 Days of Breakfast. It’s no secret that breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. Camilla makes it ever better with music suggestions.

I love Daria! I recently started watching it again. How awesome is this Daria inspired photoshoot?!

Kaylah is like the most adorable colour-coordinated person alive.

Happy execution day! With Dora the explorer! Uh, it’s not what you think, I promise.

The Mandala

Over at Jezebel Katie asks what’s the protocol when telling your partner you have HPV?

 Instead of struggling to determine a strict litmus test for discussing one’s history with HPV, we should destigmatize the virus so that it’s not longer that big a deal to say you’ve had it.

Kale is a miracle food. It goes with everything and its good for you too.

Okay, so the birth scene in the new Twilight film is the only reason I’m excited about the latest instalment in the world’s silliest franchise. But did you know that it’s giving people seizures?!

Food for thought. An infographic about the beauty industry and it’s affect on us.

Christmas decorations for the lazy. Or smart. I can’t tell.

Museum staff cleaning some elephant skin.

Below are three amazing videos to bring inspiration to your cocktail hour:

Phantom Cocktails from Ty Migota on Vimeo.

Midsummer Cocktail from LEAFtv on Vimeo.

Aviary: America’s most inventive cocktail lounge from WBEZ on Vimeo.

 Another week has flown past!

I curled up  to watch Northanger Abbey. Felicity Jones is just too adorable don’t you think? I was inspired to dig out my old penguin copy for re-reading.

I gave myself a head-start on this years handmade giftmas presents. I can still smell the vanilla all over my hands! Tutorial to come soon!

More painting and drawing! Hopefully I will have something pretty to share with you all later this week.

On Tuesday my Library launched some new search software. We had to wear these awful oversized grey T-shirts. I figured if I had to wear the shirt, I was going to wear it my way! I made this cute little detachable peter-pan collar to wear over the top. It’s a little bit ridiculous with the polka dots and the felt hearts, but it made wearing a silly T-shirt easier to bear.

Finally decided to defrost my attempt at clarified tomato water. Instead of using egg whites for clarification I tried the gelatine method but substituted vegetarian-friendly agar agar. The result was less-opaque but still cloudy.  To this I added some chilli and basil infused vodka I made, but the result wasn’t as good as I was expecting. K said it had a BBQ after-taste! Though after a little experimentation I discovered that it tasted amazing when mixed with Hendricks Gin!

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Extra flavour this week: swimming in the afternoon, tasty burgers, catching up with old acquaintances over dinner, getting all the laundry done (it was a mountain!), the sound of cicadas, giving strangers directions, fancy dinner Fridays, exciting trips to the post office, taxi rides home and Sufi poetry to keep me company.

 This week I indulged in one of my favourite cocktails. You can find the recipe here.

Inspired by Violet I decided to make Royal Fig Jam Drops with Cointreau drizzle. Spectacular.

A friend said I could borrow her gorgeous Elna sewing machine, and even tied it up with a pretty red bow! Here are some of the sewing projects I have been working on.

This week I read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. To say I was disappointed in the complete lack of vampire sex is an understatement. I have moved on to The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein.

We have a whiteboard in the kitchen and I love to write silly things on it. My brothers can attest that this has been a lifelong hobby of mine. Mr K said that attributing the quote to Gandalf was completely unbelievable, but I like to think he said this to Saruman right before breaking his staff in The Two Towers. Or you know, its equivalent.

So, I read Kailey’s post about The Aristocats. I confess, I’ve never seen it and made a mental note to grab a copy next time I went out. The very next day at work, a co-worker hands me a DVD of The Aristocats and says casually “I thought you might like this….”

OMG GUYS IT WAS FATE!

Extra things that made my heart flutter: winning small change on Melbourne Cup day, Mr K cooking dinner (horay risotto!), issue six of coilhouse being finally released, lazy afternoon tea, people watching, bandannas, realising that I have a total of four legitamate library cards, Summer is finally here, Upstairs Downstairs, deciding on Christmas presents and projects, fake bacon, and little doses of sunshine.

Do share, what rocked your world this week?

Apologies for not writing sooner! A combination of an enthusiastic reading schedule & a need for recovery meant that I haven’t really had time to write. Until now that is! I’m back baby! & things are going to be brighter & better than ever! I thought I would share some photos from my 21st birthday party.

The theme was “Casino Royal” which meant I could enjoy two of my favourite things; cocktails & card games! I managed to hire some professional croupiers & card tables from Love2Party, acquire a substantial amount of liqueurs & whip up some delicious vegetarian finger food. The scene was set & all that was needed now were the guests! Revelry ensued! Here are my favourite photos form the evening;

The two winners of the evening; together they won forty-seven thousand dollars! In play money of course….

Well dressed party goers!

My aunts & two of my cousins

Bow ties ahoy!

“wardrobe catastrophe” indeed!

At the poker table

& the roulette table

& the blackjack table!

Handing out cash….as you do!

Fun with chips

In lieu of a birthday cake I had cupcakes & a tea light – awesome!

My Mum & my Dad

Everybody pout!

& the evening ends!

More photos

• The Flickr photo set
• & more at kennethcraig.com

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