allie h.

Follow me and my husband, Robbie, as we fly from Auckland, New Zealand to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, San Diego and a few oddities in between!

Photo editing

(download)

I have been upto my eyeballs in lightroom and photoshop putting together some photos for an upcoming exhibition in a weeknight. Eeekkkk! Anyway, my dear friend, Ant, who is the most talented photog I know put me onto some good software plugins and so tonight, when I was meant to be working on exhibition entries, I grunged up this pipe shot from a year or so ago. Enjoy.

It's had a wee HDR treatment and then textured up in photoshop. I quite like the looks of this. Way longer than I would spend on one photo, but it made an average shot pretty cool. There's an after and before as well.

Apple and Boysenberry Crumble

770gm Tin Watties Sliced Apple
3 Tablespoons of Boysenberry Jam
1 Cup White Flour
1/4 Cup White Sugar
50 Grams Butter
2 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar

In an ovenproof dish, combine apple and boysenberry jam. Break up the jam so that its evenly spread amongst the apple slices.

Cut Butter and Flour. Add sugar, cinnamon and brown sugar and spoon over apple and boysenberry mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

Serve hot with French Vanilla or Boysenberry Ice Cream.

Kumara Salad

2-3 large kumara, peeled and diced into small cubes (about 800gm)
50ml olive
oil (or similar)
125 gm Crème Fraiche
12 cherry tomatoes (halves)
1 red onion finely sliced
1 Spring Onion finely diced
100gm dry cured bacon, diced and fried.

microwave the kumara for a few minutes to part cook.
add the kumara over a medium heat to the saucepan and oil.
Cook until coloured and cooked through.
Season with Salt & pepper.
In a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix gently.

Rice and Vegetable Slice

You can vary the amount of cheese in this recipe, the more you use, the richer and creamier the slice.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 Onions Finely Chopped
1 Red Capsicum Finely Chopped
5 Zucchini Grated
1/2 Cup Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of White Pepper
2 Cups cooked short grain rice
2-3 cups Edam grated cheese
1/2 cup lightly grated parmesan cheese
5 Eggs, beaten
1 Cup of Milk

Heat oil and saute onion in a fry pan for 2-3 minutes. Add capsicum and cook for 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the grated zucchini, flour, salt, pepper, rice and both cheeses.

Whisk the eggs and milk together and then add to zucchini mixture. Stir together well. Pour into lined and lightly oiled oblong oven proof dish.

Bake in preheated moderate oven (180 Deg C) for 50 minutes until firm and cooked. Serve hot, warm or cold. Serves 8-10.

NB. I add bacon for extra yum!