WINTER WONDERPANTS

Even though I have 28 seasons of winter under my belt, two of which were served in the Northern Hemisphere, I still find my body feeling shocked every year as we fall further into the chilly season and the mercury dips.

I emerged from my building's revolving doors at lunchtime today, having once again been lulled into a false sense of comfort by the air-conditioned cocoon trap that is The Office. Pulling my mustard coat tighter around me and burrowing into my scarf, an increasingly familiar lunchtime battle of internal dialogue began, with Winter Alex rallying for Potato Pie and Summer Alex suggesting that a Sushi Roll would be a more sensible choice. In the end, Summer Alex pulled through by a slender margin, but Winter Alex was left feeling melancholy.

It was post California Roll that I chanced to wander by the Peter Alexander store, its rainbow windows a'calling.

Peter Alexander is like a pastel paradise of pajamas. It's impossible not to feel happy in there. It's sort of like – I have a drawer at home, the sole purpose of which is to house my pajamas – I'm not sure why this is the case but for some reason that PJ drawer smells different to all the other drawers. It's just all like, flannel and cotton and comfort and amazingness. Anyway. When you wander into Peter Alexander you kinda feel like you're Alice and you've fallen into a giant-pajama-drawer wonderland.

So I ended up buying some new PJ pants and I've come to gloat. These PJ pants have built-in leg warmers at the ankles [hells to the yes they do] AND furthermore, if you look on the website, it says: "COLOUR: Snowman". Oh yeah. These pants I'm now wearing would not be out of place on the Man Repeller blog but for this fact I have little regard! I have snowman pants. <3

Summer Alex is still delusional and purchased afternoon tea of yoghurt with FROZEN summer berries. Chilly but delish!

I-WANT-YOUR-SHIRT-A-SAURUS

Stalked on Kirsten Butler's FB page, one amazing DINO TEE by TEE AND CAKE.

Topshop is telling me this item is out of stock; excuse me? RAAAAAR!

BISCUIT | CHOCOLATE | BISCUIT

I came across this recipe for crunchy chocolate-filled biscuits in a magazine a whole month ago. Several mornings in a row I sat at the kitchen bench, flicking the pages over til I stopped at this recipe, mulling it over as I ate my cereal; contemplating how long I'd have to wait til I had a good excuse to make them. An excuse popped up last weekend in the form of an afternoon tea party.

Anything that's glued together with chocolate is bound to be a winner in my books, but I really did find the combo of cinnamon + salt + chocolate to be pretty great.

The best part about making this recipe was the pool of melted chocolate leftover at the end. The pool was more like a lake. I'm not going to pretend that I didn't go to town on that melted chocolate lake, because I damn well did.

I will be making these again, for absolutely sure. I found that they tasted better on the second day [yes there were multiple days of biscuit eating, yes it was amazing] so if you're baking to impress, that's my handiest hint.

One irritating thing is that all the measurements are given in grams [I guess they couldn't find a cup] so you will need to bring your A-game along with the kitchen scales and your steady measuring eye.

With what shall I make it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

160g unsalted butter at room temperature

160g raw caster sugar

55g golden syrup

150g plain flour

60g desiccated coconut

1 tsp cinnamon

2 pinches salt

85g oatmeal

400g milk chocolate, chopped

100g walnuts, finely chopped

And how shall I bake it, dear Liza, dear Liza?

Preheat oven to 160 C and line 3 oven trays with baking paper.

Mix butter and sugar together in bowl with electric mixer until pale and creamy. Stir through golden syrup. Add flour, coconut, cinnamon, salt and oatmeal, and stir to combine.

Roll teaspoonfuls of mixture into 40 balls spaced 4-5 cm apart. Press lightly with the back of a spoon to flatten slightly. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool completely on wire racks. 

Melt chocolate in a double boiler then set aside to cool for half an hour.

Sandwich two biscuits together with melted chocolate and roll each biscuit into chopped walnuts (I whizzed those in the food processor).

Find a good spatula and a nice comfortable chair along with your saucepan of leftover melted chocolate. Save the biscuit tasting til the following day because they're yummier and because if you followed these directions accurately you should be full of chocolate :)

[ MAY ]

MARKET STALL SLUSHIES, BERRY BAKERY WAGON WHEEL, SUNDAY DRIVE SOUTH, MORNING DO, LUNCH WITH MISS NIECE, SOUTH COAST WALK, BREADBOARD BROWNIES, WELCOME HOME - HARRY 'TINKERBELL'

S T O N E | C O L D

O b s e s s e d with the RED ONYX gown from Stone Cold Fox. Even emailed to obtain the price. 320$. Two weddings to attend in September. That's 160$ per appearance. [nevermind that they're both on the same day.] Trouble with internet gowns is... you never know. That's 320 $'s worth of not knowing. And that split looks like it goes from here to Timbuktu. Will stare a little bit longer. [Mmm, juice.]