AFL Grandfinal

In celebration of the AFL grandfinal, I've made some Collingwood Cupcakes.

Vanilla Bean (not in the pics) & Chocolate with Vanilla Buttercream. 

Toppers thanks to Picnik and Officeworks...lol

Go Pies!!

Have a great weekend.

{recipe} Greek Salad On A Stick

This is a quick and easy recipe, that makes a great appetiser to have with pre dinner drinkies!

Just skewer slices of cucumber, tomato, red onion, fetta cheese (try to get one that doesn't crumble too easily) and a big fat juicy (pitted) Kalamata olive. I used extra long toothpicks or maybe they're short souvalaki sticks...not sure. I got them from Woolworths......
You can even make a little salad dressing to dip into. Mix up some good olive oil and freshly squeezed lemon juice and you're good to go!

See you soon.

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I'm afraid not.....

or is it I'm a frayed knot....?

Just a quick pic today. Playing with Picnik.

have a great day!

Emmy Brag & Aliens in a jar

WARNING: SOME OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS CONTAINED IN THIS POST ARE QUITE GRAPHIC AND GORY. 

OK, now I know this is not something you'd expect from this blog, but I am just soooo excited and proud of a very good friend and former make-up student of mine who received an honour Emmy from The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his involvement in the TV movie The Pacific HBO for Outstanding Prosthetic Make-Up for a series, mini series, movie or a special.

After finishing his Diploma of Make-Up Artistry at the make-up school that I operated on the Gold Coast many moons ago, Mark spent several years working on Student films, Low Budget movies and No Budget movies for free in order to gain experience in the film industry.

I LOVE these "Aliens in a jar", well, that's what I call them.  They'd make a great gift for sci-fi buffs or the person who "has everything". They are available to purchase from here. Tell Mark I said hi.

In 2004, Mark  landed his first paying job working for JMB FX Studio on the film "The House Of Wax".

From then on he found himself working for JMB FX Studio on a regular basis on different films, TV shows and commercials.

Some of these jobs included The TV series Hercules (making prosthetic make up FX and Creatures). The films, See No Evil (Prosthetic make up FX). The Ruins (Prosthetic make up FX and Puppets), Aquamarine (Manufacturing Mermaid tails), Fish Tales (Manufacturing Mermaid tails), and the TV show H20 Just add water.(Manufacturing Mermaid tails).  

Photo courtesy of JMB FX Studios  from the film The Pacific

Photo courtesy of JMB FX Studios

 Most recently working again with JMB FX Studioson the Emmy award winner The Pacific Produced by Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks. For this production Mark worked with a team to manufacture hundreds of bodies and body parts and prosthetic make up FX for many many scenes of the production.

Photo courtesy of JMB FX Studios. The Pacific OK this is gross, but very realistic...hope you're not having your dinner atm!

Photo courtesy of JMB FX Studios. The Pacific. It's easier to have a laugh when you know it's not real.

Photo courtesy of JMB FX Studios. The Pacific.

Over the years Mark has also enjoyed working with Academy Award winner John Cox at his Creature workshop. Some of Mark's work at John Cox's include Rogue, (making a giant Animatronic crocodile), Love Story 2050 (making a robot costume) and the very popular Allen's Lollies commercial where he manufactured the giant 30 foot doll which walks down the streets throwing lollies (candy) in the air. 

Mark working hard or looking like he's working hard...not sure.

 Mark has made hundreds of props for the Feature film The Chronicles of Narnia "the voyage of the dawn treader".

He manufactured the K9 Robot dog with a couple of friends "Grant Lehmann" and "James Paul" for the TV show K9 and helped Grant and James manufacture several Animatronic sharks for the upcoming  film BAIT 3D. He even manufactured a set of edible tea pots and a set of edible bike pedals for a short lived TV commercial for Cenovis Easyglide vitamins.

Mark creates the coolest creatures which you can get from his website FX Industries. They make great gifts (hint hint Markey!!) My fave being the Aliens in a jar.

You can get these from HERE too!

 So proud of you Mark. Congratulations!! Looking forward to seeing heaps more soon.

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{recipe} Avgolemono - Greek egg & lemon soup with chicken

This is another family favourite. Adapted from my husbands family recipe. Traditionally, you would use a whole fresh chicken, but I have used skinless chicken breast fillets to try to cut some of the fat content down. This recipe will serve about 6 adults as a main meal (it's very filling). Thanks to Sarah, from A Beach Cottage for the inspiration for today's lunch and therefore, today's blog post.

Ingredients

2 skinless chicken breast fillets
1 carrot, peeled
1 onion, peeled & halved
2 celery stalks
lemon rind
good pinch of salt
1/2 cup long grain white rice
3 eggs
3 juicy lemons (juiced)
2 tablespoons cornflour
salt & pepper to taste
parsley chopped (to serve)

Method

Place chicken breasts, carrot, celery, onion, lemon rind and salt in a large pot. Cover with water and bring to the boil. reduce the heat, cover and simmer for half an hour. turn off heat and let cool for a bit.

Discard carrot, celery, onion and lemon rind.

Remove chicken breast (reserve the liquid). Shred the chicken breast and set aside.

Add rice to pot with stock, bring to the boil, cover and reduce to simmer for about 20 mins or until the rice is tender.

Add shredded chicken.

In a separate mixing jug, whisk eggs, then add lemon juice. Mix a little water with the cornflour (in a cup) so that there are no lumps, then add this to the egg and lemon mix.

Spoon some hot liquid from the pot (about 3 ladles) into the jug of egg and lemon and whisk together. Be careful not to curdle the mixture. then add to the hot soup, stir through so the soup thickens.

Add some salt, pepper and parsley to taste.

Serve with crusty bread.

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I Heart Nap Time

{recipe} Double Chocolate Muffins

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup melted butter

2 cups plain flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt 

1 cup choc chips

1 egg

1 1/4 cups skim milk

METHOD

Mix dry ingredients together in bowl

Add choc chips.

Mix melted butter, egg and milk together in a small bowl or jug.

Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix well without over beating (or you'll get tough muffins)

Bake at about 200 C for around 20 min.