The Chronicles of Holly: February 2015

Chatty Fridays / Rain, university, post travel depression and concerts

‘Ello there! Today it’s pouring down with rain. I can’t even contemplate going anywhere as there’s a cyclone that’s going to hit soon. I don’t mind at all because the prospect of rainy weather always makes me so happy. And before you say “try living in England then you’ll hate the rain” I should add that I lived in England for a little bit and loved every second of it. There’s something so therapeutic about rainy weather. Also snow is, which is why I added in a little gif of Stockholm I videoed. Kinda want to go back there asap.

Anyway I have taken to blogging as I’m avoiding something: university. Sure, uni hasn’t started yet but it goes back in two weeks which is too soon for my liking. I keep hearing that this semester is apparently the worst of my entire course *gulp*. Every time I go to organise myself by reading course outlines, skimming over my textbooks, finding out what assessments I have..I start to get this physical pain in my stomach. Anxiety maybe? I’m not sure what it is but whenever I read over what I have to achieve this semester I start to panic and go into shut down mode. Right now I’m listening to One Direction to calm me down (..i’m a sucker for boy bands). Does anyone else ever feel like this before they return to university/work/school?

On another note I am still the victim of post travel depression. It’s been just over three weeks I’ve been back for and all I want is to go traveling again. I miss the cold. I miss Pret A Manger. I miss the high streets. I miss Boots. I just miss the general independence I had when I was traveling. Sadly it is going to be a long time before I can go off traveling again as it will take so long to save up again.

I’ve been super negative in this post so I need to end it on a high note. Already this year there are lots of things to look forward too. It’s nearing the end of summer (yay!) so that means winter is coming (hope some of you got my GOT reference). I have a couple concerts coming up – Asgeir, Alt+J and Sticky Fingers. We get to find out A’s identity in Pretty Little Liars on March 24^th (my bet is on Toby or Ezra). More episodes of ‘Scandal’ to watch. Continuing to listen to Taylor Swifts new album over and over. Going to Tasmania in a couple of weeks. See, is that enough positivity for everyone?

Hope everyone is having a lovely week. Would love to know - what are you looking forward to this year? And who is your best guess of who ‘A’ is on Pretty little liars?!

Holly x

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, by Hollzys

beauty

The best three plumping mascaras

11 comments

, by Hollzys

apple pie

An apple pie baked with a whole lot of love recipe

I really would love to set the scene for you: It’s Christmas Eve and my best friend and I are hosting a little get-together for our other Australian friends who also found themselves in London for Christmas. It’s a chilling three degrees outside with the grass completely covered in frost. Our mugs are never without a serving of steaming hot chocolate. The dogs and cats wander around our feet in hope we drop some food off the kitchen bench. Christmas carols are playing on repeat. We’re wearing our cozy Christmas sweaters we would never dream of wearing back home in Australia for Christmas.

Now I know, Christmas has already been, but the thought of this apple pie made me so nostalgic that I wanted to re-live the memories by writing this recipe. Plus if you’re from a colder climate this could be your saviour on those frosty winter evenings. Despite it being around the 30 degree mark here I will definitely be re-creating this (..with the help of my blasting air conditioner).

Ingredients:

For the pastry –

250g plain flour
50g icing sugar
Sea salt
1 lemon
125g cold butter
2 large eggs (I always do free-range just because I like the idea of my chicken laying an egg peacefully roaming the fields)
A dash of milk

For the pastry I actually used this Jamie Oliver recipe: http://www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/recipe.php?title=apple-pie. If you’re not a massive baker I would totally recommend looking at that recipe for how to do the pastry because he does it step-by-step. I would have been creative and tried to come up with my own pastry but this recipe is just so amazing that anything I would have attempted to create would have been crummy in comparison.

For the filling –

8 apples (personally I prefer Pink Lady apples because I think they’re slightly sweeter)
¼ cup of brown sugar
Cinnamon
Cloves
Nutmeg

Method:

Pastry -

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4

2. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl

3. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt, and then the zest of the lemon. (I like to add in a lot of lemon zest because it tastes even better)

4. Cut the butter up into little cubes then add into the bowl as well

5. Using your fingertips gently work the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. (This can sometimes take a little bit).

6. Crack the egg and add into the mixture along with a dash of milk. Mix the mixture with your hands until it becomes dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm (or we call it gladwrap) and pop it in the fridge.

Filling –

Instead of using Jamies recipe my friend and I went a little rouge and came up with our own filling which (not to sound up myself) tasted amazing.

1. Peel at the apples and then cut the apples into eights. If you prefer you can cube them but I like doing the eights.

2. In a small-medium saucepan on medium heat add the apples and the brown sugar

3. After the brown sugar has melted a little bit, mix the apples around so they get coated in the brown sugar

4. Add some ground cinnamon, ground cloves and nutmeg. It’s totally up to you how much you would like the add.

5. Once apples have cooked feel free to smell the mixture to determine if there are enough spices. The beauty of these spices is that they just smell like Christmas..which for that reason I add A LOT.

6. Take the saucepan off the heat

Putting it all together –

1. Dust a work surface with flour

2. Divide the pastry into two separate pieces

3. With a rolling pin roll out one of the pastry halves until it is slightly larger than the pie dish you will be using

4. Ease the pastry into the pie dish. Make sure all the sides are pushed into the corner. Like Jamie says “Don’t worry if it tears of breaks – just patch it up – it will look nice and rustic”. Thank-you Jamie, I do very much agree with you on that one.

5. Spoon out the apple mixture from the saucepan into the pie dish. It doesn’t matter if it fills out over the top because it will just be a fuller pie (which I loveeeee).

6. Roll out the other piece of dough until it is large enough to fit over the top of your pie.

7. Carefully place the dough on top of your pie and then pinch the edges together.

8. With the remaining egg separate it. With the yolk add a splash of milk and whisk together. Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash.

9. If you have any pastry left over feel free to make any shapes to add on top of the pie for that added effect. We chose holly to go along with the festive spirit.

10. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until it becomes a beautiful golden brown colour

11. Once cooked feel free to serve it with ice-cream, cream or even custard. Enjoy!