White chocolate blondies

Decadent is a good descriptor. It is also the most perfect word to describe these blondies.

I had to double check the recipe when I was baking these. Melt the white chocolate into the flour mixture? Whaaa? But I did. And it was amazing.

I was always a white chocolate girl. Now I can only eat one brand of white chocolate as the others taste too artificial. However, my favourite brand is delicious. I am terrible with milk chocolate. I don’t know what I’d do without it. Probably be a lot healthier and have a heavier wallet.

Anyway, if you do decide to make these, please make sure people are coming over. Otherwise I guarantee that you’ll eat them all.

Adapted from AllRecipes

Makes 1 pan

Ingredients

• canola oil, to grease
• 220g (80z) your favourite white chocolate, chopped
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 110g (4oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 ¼ cups plain flour
• 2 eggs
• ¾ tsp salt
• ⅓ cup caster sugar
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F (fan-forced: 155°C/310°F). Grease a 23cm x 23cm (9in x 9in) pan.
2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl. Add the salt.
3. Place white chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1 minute. Let sit for 30 seconds and stir. Microwave for another 30 seconds, or until melted butter melts the white chocolate and mix together until smooth and well-combined. Let cool for 5 minutes.
4. In another bowl, use electric beaters to beat eggs until bubbly. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla with the beaters still running.
5. Add chocolate mixture to egg mixture and stir to combine. Add the flour mixture and fold in with a wooden spoon. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool brownies before slicing.

Île des Pins, Nouvelle-Calédonie

So you may have noticed the title of this post is in French. That’s because it’s the true name of the island, and the first place we visited that people spoke to us in another language. We had so much fun saying bonjour to the locals, although I need to remember to not get my ouis and my sis mixed up.

Again, we arrived on this beautiful pine tree lined island by tender boat. It was absolutely gorgeous, and by far the most beautiful place we visited. The weather was mild, the ocean the most deepest blue we’d seen so far, and the attractions were immense. The only issue was that we’d been warned that the surrounding ocean was home to sea snakes (and sharp, pointy sea urchins), some of which may be poisonous. Alex absolutely despises snakes (in particular, ones that kill), and was not really in the mood for splashing about in the sea of death.

Nevertheless, we did not approach the Isle of Pines with hesitation. It was tremendously alluring. Entering the island from the jetty, you see on your left a gorgeous beach covered in sand as fine as flour, shaded by magnificently tall coconut palms. To your right is the best area for snorkeling, featuring a mammoth rock centered in a cove by another smoothly sanded beach. The rock, called La Rocha, is very sacred to the locals. Between the two bays is a cool rainforest. As I said, this island is incredible.

We wandered by foot through the rainforest and asked at a hotel if they were leasing any bicycles. Alex asked in French so they gave directions in French, and he guessed they maybe said “To your left”. There was nothing to our left so we wandered around some more until we found another hotel which had bikes parked outside the reception. We hoped they weren’t too costly, although we were yet to spend any francs so it would be nice to give back to the community regardless. We requested the bikes and they were cheaper than in Lifou, so off we rode, away from the shore to who knew where. The roads were decent so we followed signs to the closest town. On the way we found lots of papaya, mango and banana trees, as well as cassava plants. We came up to the top of a hill and had an amazing view of the pine trees along the shore of several small islands in the distance. I must reiterate the amazing deep blue color of the sea.

We continued riding until we found the main church of the town called Kuto which was a popular tourist spot. We passed a high school where the children were on their lunch recess. Their school was incredible. The students were sitting under massive palm trees, enjoying their beautiful island. I couldn’t think of anything more amazing than spending my lunch times at high school sitting under a palm tree on a tropical island.

We found a sign pointing to a grotto although unfortunately it was too far to go on our bikes. We found another sign pointing to a nearby beach so we headed that way instead. We had found a virgin statue surrounded by island sculptures, facing the beach. It was a nice discovery. Lower down on the beach was a dead black and yellow snake, famed on this island. We left.

We passed the church again but this time there were beautiful little preschoolers from the nearby primary school singing and playing. Too cute.

We rode back towards the beach, and decided to sit in the sun for a while. By this stage it was rather cloudy and windy, not at all hot but quite pleasant. We went for a quick snorkel (not really sure how I persuaded Alex to do it, what with all the poisonous snakes lurking about) but again, as it was sandy we didn’t see anything.

We were becoming rather ravenous (and chilly), so we felt the most beautiful sand between our toes one last time, and jumped back on the bikes. The island is famous for its escargot (I’ll pass thanks, I have a terrible snail phobia) and of course, seafood. A vegetarian’s paradise really. We settled on a can of Sprite for lunch (the most expensive can of Sprite ever at AUD $5), took some final photos and headed back to the hotel to drop off our lovely bikes. We returned back to the jetty via the rainforest and took one last look at the most beautiful island we’ve ever visited.

Lifou, New Caledonia

We arrived on this small New Caledonian island by tender boat as the island does not have a port. This was a fun little journey which provided us with an excellent view of the secluded island as we slowly approached it. Walking along the jetty, we immediately noticed people stopping and pointing just over the barrier. Sea turtles! I have never seen a wild sea turtle so this was a very exciting (and cute) moment for me. Seeing little turtle heads bobbing up and down in a cerulean sea was a good start to the day.

We really wanted to spend our island days active and were thrilled to discover bicycles for rent. However, the prices were atrocious so we decided to skip the ride for the day. We noticed that the prices were absolutely ridiculous on the islands, but that was the only real disappointment of our destinations.

We wandered through a few souvenir market stalls to find a map of the island. We wanted to visit a grotto but were unsure how long it would take us by foot. We settled on relaxing on the beach all morning which was lovely and sleep-inducing. We ended our time on the beach snorkeling, although the snorkeling in Port Vila was much more brilliant in comparison. As the water was sandy it was difficult to see much, I believe we only encountered two or so white fish, in comparison to the hundreds of coloured fish in Vanuatu. The sea floor was also rather rocky and my borrowed flippers are now looking a little worse for wear.

We dried off and decided to go for a wander. The island really has a low amount of inhabitants. We spotted some lovely plants on the way, Alex getting excited again about the fauna similarities to Costa Rica. We climbed up a small hill and ended up on the top of a cliff, overhanging the ocean with a beautiful view on our left. The edge of the cliff also featured a quaint little church, which is interesting as a lot of people really struggled to climb that hill to the top. Lifou was hot, but nowhere near as humid and sweaty as Port Vila.

We declined the hill and headed towards the opposite side of the island, hoping to find the grotto. On our way we found an even nicer church, as well as some darling huts, typical of what you’d imagine of the area. A tourist on a bike was approaching, so we enquired how far it was to the grotto. He said he’d ridden for ages and found nothing. As we didn’t have much time left on the island, we decided we’d have to give it a miss for now and we headed back to the jetty.

Waiting for the tender boat, we were enthralled once again with the sea turtles frolicking about nearby, and also by a crab who looked like he was struggling at the top of the water. Suddenly a man from the jetty started running towards the beach. Our eyes followed and stopped at a mob of people surrounding something on the water’s edge. It was a man and he needed to be resuscitated. We are unsure what happened, but he was given CPR for over twenty minutes. The doctors from the ship arrived and ran to the man. They continued trying to resuscitate him but we never saw them stop pumping. We had to leave on the tender boat at this stage. We have no idea what happened, but we’re hoping the man is okay.

Port Vila, Vanuatu

I rushed home from work on Thursday afternoon, stuffed all my last minute items into my bags and power walked to the tram stop. Shortly after I met Alex at Southern Cross station to catch the bus to the airport. We were headed to Sydney to meet our cruise ship the following day, which was also Alex’s 30th birthday. It was a gift that I too could enjoy. The best kind.

I had never really considered going on a cruise before, but Alex had been thinking about it for a while since our trip to a resort in Costa Rica a few years back, where we enjoyed the luxuries of a relaxing vacation. After so many holidays roughing it out in hostels, Alex decided that he wanted an easy trip for his 30th. His brother also went on an amazing Caribbean cruise for his honeymoon and could not stop raving about it. A Caribbean cruise was out of the question unfortunately, so we decided on a nine night trip to Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

We spent the morning of Alex’s birthday in Sydney, visiting a revamped art gallery and enjoying our favorite city food market.

I will spare you the details of the cruise itself and head straight to the excitement of the island visits, as I’m sure you can imagine, for most of the cruise all we did was eat, sleep, read, relax and go to the gym. Tough living really.

As the cruise days went by and we sailed further and further north, the days became hotter and more humid. A nice change from Melbourne’s quasi-winter. By day four we had arrived at our first destination, Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu.

Growing up, Vanuatu was always thought to be a very exotic place, alongside Fiji and Tahiti. It was very exciting to finally arrive and inhale the damp air, our eyes noticing the lush greenness of the hilly island town. After departing the ship, a bombardment of men soon followed, whispering in our ears (as Alex said, “As if they were selling us something illegal”), asking us if we’d like a lift to the city, if they could be our tour guide for the day, and so on. It was a refreshing change of pace from the most recent overseas trip we’d taken to New Zealand, where we didn’t feel as far from home.

We jumped in a mini-van which cost AUD $3 each to the city (although the driver claimed to have no change so he had a good morning). Much to the driver’s surprise, Alex and I didn’t want to go on any tours; we just wanted to explore the town on foot. So off we headed, not really knowing where. We wanted to perhaps rent bikes, but it was that hot that we decided to head to the reef to do some snorkelling. We asked around, looking for the free ferry to a nearby island. A local tried to convince us that he’d take us to a better island but wanted to charge us too much. We had trouble finding authentic services and weren’t sure which deal was best. We wandered around and found a tourist office. The lady was exceedingly helpful and friendly and advised us of the best way to get to Iririki Island.

The island was literally two minutes away by water taxi. As the island is a resort, we had to pay to use its facilities, however this payment was credited towards lunch at the resort, which was fine with us.

Stepping off the water taxi, we already noticed clear blue reefs with colorful fish swimming near the surface. We signed into the resort and headed towards Snorkeller’s Cove, passing several friendly locals on the way. We arrived at the snorkelling area, got into our gear and stepped into the refreshing and clear water. The flippers and snorkel took some time getting used to as I’d never snorkelled before. In fact, I was behaving rather embarrassingly, flapping my arms and feet around quite ridiculously. Poor Alex.

I finally got the hang of the breathing and kicking at the same time (I wish people wouldn’t generalise women as being excellent multitaskers). Turns out I was also biting on the tube incorrectly, hence why I was copping a mouthful of water every time I surfaced. Whoops.

Snorkeling was amazing. I loved it and am looking forward to doing it again and again. Generally I am petrified of sea life – I think this fear began at a young age when I saw my pet fish struggle when I first cleaned his tank. In fact I don’t eat seafood at all and am particularly terrified of octopi (although I do think whales are phenomenal). I loved seeing coral of all shapes, breathing anemone, clams, but most importantly, the fish! Particularly the bright colored fish. It was incredible to be so close to them. We brought a cheap disposable waterproof camera, hence the following awful photos.

Meanwhile, I didn’t even think to put sunscreen on my back, and my back became brutally red. Very disappointing.

After one hour or so of chasing fishies, we relaxed in the sun for a while. The sun was worse than Australian sun. On a hot sunny day in Melbourne you can feel the sun burning your skin. In Vila, we could feel it cooking our skin. Time to go.

We had our lunch overlooking the bay and enjoyed a lovely mocktail, served with a Hibiscus flower. Very tropical.

We ventured into the resort and enjoyed looking at tropical plants, Alex remembering Costa Rica, and me going nuts with the camera.

We visited a quiet beach and soaked our feet in the cool water. It was then time to head back to the grind of the city.

Port Vila is a small and rather undeveloped city. Its denizens all wear sandals and do not sweat as much as we did. Chocolate is not a wise food choice.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the main street. I was very excited by the produce market, where I envied the racimos of plantains (and various other unique banana fruits), sacks of cassava, peanuts still attached to their roots (incredible), soursop, ornamental coconut plants grown from the visible coconuts, ginger plus their plant sprouts, coconut leaf baskets… I wanted to take some home.

We decided to walk back to the ship port as it was only 5 km away. We regularly got beeped at by cab drivers but no, we wanted to walk. It rained a little on the way but it was nothing too extreme. We arrived at customs and were farewelled by a gorgeous little Vanuatuan boy.

We arrived back to our room muddy, sticky and much more worldly.

Chocolate coconut date bars

We have too many dates. I work for a country who also has too many dates. So they gave their dates to me. Now I have 3kg of a food I have never used before. So what to do?

I discovered a type of health bar that can be made purely with dates, plus a few other flavours here and there. My first attempt at this was surprisingly delicious, where I blended dates with cashews and vanilla to create a healthy snack that tasted like a cookie. I was very surprised at how good something made with dried fruits could taste.

After this creation, the dates remained in the refrigerator for a long time. The painful part was deseeding them. It is a sticky and time-consuming operation. Last week I found some time in my busy schedule (i.e. all the time) and started deseeding. One hour later and 1kg of dates had been deseeded and stored. The other 2kg will have to wait.

I found a new recipe for this special fruity bar, this time with chocolate. We had some mini chocolate eggs around the house which were perfect for my latest treats.

I must say, again, these bars are surprisingly delicious, and taste just like chocolate truffles. I have already made them twice. Next time I would love to experiment with perhaps lemon, peanut butter or jam (not all at once however).

I still have too many dates. Perhaps I could make a few sticky date puddings. Or similar.

Adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie

Makes 2 bars

Ingredients

• 90g (3.2oz) pitted dates
• 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp chocolate, roughly chopped
• drop of vanilla essence
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Blend all ingredients into a food processor until well-combined.
2. Using hands, create a ball of dough.
3. For bars: Roll out dough onto some cling wrap. Use your hands, rolling pin and/or a flat guide (such as a ruler or hard surface) to create your desired bar shape. Cut into required pieces with a knife.
4. For truffles: If you’re in a hurry, roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into individual balls/truffles.
5. Store in freezer or refrigerator.

Cinnamon bread

Today we rode 40km return on our bikes for peanut butter. Absurd, I know, but I adore peanut butter. And this was a special type of peanut butter. Cinnamon raisin swirl peanut butter. I am pretty jealous of estadosunidenses and the amazing, ridiculously unique foods they have (for example, cinnamon toast cereal). I had discovered this peanut butter flavour online a year or so ago, and then recently came to realise that at the local (by local I mean in the same city) US grocery store, they were selling a few different types of incredible peanut butters by Peanut Butter & Co. So off we went to splurge on yum yums. Much to my sadness, the cinnamon raisin peanut butter was not available. However, I left with a lovely jar of white chocolate peanut butter. Very delightful. I actually made a concoction of almond butter and white chocolate once and it was also terribly good.

But getting back to cinnamon. This bread reminds me how amazing cinnamon is when combined with sugar. Again, not sure why it’s called bread, but it pleases me that I can eat cake for breakfast and get away with it. I especially like the added cinnamon swirl. This is a rather delightful treat.

Adapted from All Recipes

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tsp vinegar + 1 cup any milk)
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Cinnamon swirl:

• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp margarine

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (fan-forced: 160°C/320°F). Grease a 20 x 12cm/9 x 5in loaf pan.
2. Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Add all other cake ingredients and beat for about 3 minutes, or until well-combined.
3. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth top.
4. Cinnamon swirl: Combine caster sugar, cinnamon and margarine and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle onto the batter, and use a knife to cut the swirl into the cake.
5. Bake for 50 minutes or until cooked through. Let cool, then cut and serve.

Regret

I’ve never really had any regrets in my life. I always think, “If I didn’t date that person or if I didn’t get bullied, I would not be where I am today.” I would not have travelled if I wasn’t bullied. I would not be interested in Latin America if I didn’t go on a date to see Once Upon A Time In Mexico (my secret shame!), and so on. I wouldn’t be married to Alex if my life went a little differently.

But in the last two years, for the first time in my life, I have felt regret. It was a wrong decision. A missed opportunity. A different path. In this case, the road less traveled by.

We had waited so, so long in Costa Rica for Alex’s Australian visa to come through. We were terribly desperate to leave. I recall the morning that we heard the news that he finally received the visa. We were ecstatic and began making flight plans immediately.

On that very same afternoon, Alex received a call from a prospective employer in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Here is a photo of the city, if you were interested:

Alex had applied for a job there a few weeks before, and had undertaken an interview on Skype. They seemed interested, but he didn’t hear from them for a few weeks.

Until the day we received the Australian visa. They had called to inform Alex that he had got the job.

We were torn. On one hand, I was desperately homesick for Australia, we had waited so long for the visa, and we were already envisioning our Australian life together. On the other hand, when would we have another amazing opportunity to live in a beautiful European country and travel around Europe in the meantime? Alex already had a job lined up there and we were even offered assistance with the relocation.

We wrote up a pros and cons list, and although the two sides were extremely even, we ended up choosing Australia, because the visa was ready, we wanted to eventually buy a house in Australia, and I had some roots here. We were tired of moving, and moving to another country would be hard all over again. We would have to rent and our dream of owning a home would be even further away.

Now we are here. I was lucky enough to realise that teaching wasn’t for me and found an amazing new industry to work in. Alex is working hard and not far from gaining Australian citizenship. Our life here is good, but I just know we missed something amazing. Australia was always going to be here. A perfect job in Slovenia may not always be.

Perhaps we will live and work in Europe some day, but I will always be thinking what could have been.