Since 50 Shades Darker is releasing for Valentines Day, I thought why not use it as a theme for Valentines Day.
Today’s drink will be a Perfect martini, with equal amounts of sweet and dry vermouth and garnished with pearls instead of olives.
Easy and elegant.
For the past 2 weeks we’ve been back in South Africa. We’ve been soaking up the sun and visiting our families. It feels like the time have been flying at lightning speed.
At least we got to spend some quality time with our families. I feel sad because I miss them, but they all seem to be doing fine.
I also had the opportunity to spend some time with my stepmom. It took me some time to get use to her as my dad married her barely 6 months after my mother’s passing. After my mom died I didn’t really want to form any new connections in my life. It was so painful losing someone so close to me, and I had a lot of regrets. I remember telling my husband that I wanted to visit my mom on the weekend because I’m worried about her, by then she was already bedridden and didn’t really open her eyes or speak, but I use to talk to her in any case and sometimes, just sometimes she would open her eyes and faintly smile at me. But that Thursday, my dad phoned me and told me that she had passed away.
Since then I stayed away from new people and new relationships, but after this weekend I feel that I can start allowing people back into my life.
My outfit this week is my little Korean style dress. I like wearing it because it reminds me of Korea. It also has a loose fit and allows you to move around in it. I got it form Teeny Weeny in Seoul, Korea.
Since this week’s Valentines theme is Witches I’ve decided to make some foods that looks like it has a lot of herbs , vegetables and fruits.
For our bewitching food basket today we have potato cookies, mini spinach quiches and “Mama’s more lemon than meringue” tart/pie.
These are mostly side dishes but you can add any kind of meat or other veggies to your Valentines meal
Ingredients
Grate the potatoes and onions and mix them together. Then mix in the 2 eggs. Add the flour and chives and mix together.
In a frying pan heat some oil, just enough to lightly cover the pan. Scoop a generous tablespoon of the mixture into the pan. Fry until browned on both sides. Let them cool for about 2 minutes before serving.
Ingredients
Mix all the ingredients together. Scoop mixture into a pie dish or multiple small pie dishes and bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven. I made mine in tiny bread pans.
This Lemon Meringue is the one my mother in law always bakes for my husband on his birthday. She’s not a fan of too much meringue so she only makes a thin layer but her lemon filling is the best I’ve ever tasted. Its firm and has a subtle balance between sweet and sour. One pie only lasts 1 day in our house.
Ingredients
For the crust
For the filling
For the Meringue
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (356 fahrenheit)
For the crust.
Crush the cookies until only rough crumbs are left. Mix the melted butter with the cookie crumbs and push it down into a pie pan.
For the filling
Mix all the ingredients well and pour onto the cookie crust.
For the Meringue.
Mix the egg whites and sugar until it is light and fluffy and scoop it onto the Lemon filling. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Served chilled.
I hope you enjoyed these recipe’s. The meringue is to die for so I hope you try it 😀
While we had the vampire valentines day theme last week, we’ll opt for a witch theme this week with love potions and enchanting massage oils. Valentines day should be about love and spending the day with your partner.
Its always a good idea to relax, and what better way to do that than massages and massage oils. Some oils are said to be stimulate your libido, these include black pepper, orange blossom, ilang-ilang, sandalwood ( now we know why so many male fragrances contain sandalwood 😉 ) and ginger. Therefore any one of these oils could help set the mood, similarly scented candles can do just as well.
If you’re in a DIY mood you could always make your own mixture for a relaxing sensual massage.
Essence to burn in the bedroom ( in water or on the burner)
Source Everybody’s Aromatherapy: A Comprehensive Guide for All Ages by Helen Ranger
This year I decided to change it up a little for valentines day so each week I’ll be featuring a different theme. Last week we had a Vampire theme but this week we’ll have a witch theme. This idea has a lot of wonderful features, from love potions, herb infused meals and massage oils to enchant your lover this Valentines day.
Today I have made a ‘Love Potion’ and a ‘Lust’ potion. I was watching Shrek 3 the other day and noticed that the fairy god mother added some lust, passion and desire to her little love potion so I decided to do the same and what better way to throw all caution to the wind than to include some alcohol :p
To start off you need some cute bottles that looks like it can hold potions. Then you’ll need some old paper to label your potion. I got my little bottles from our local Daiso store ( its like a $5 store). To make your paper look old, you can soak it in some tea and bake it in the oven for 5-10 minutes. It works better if you tear the paper before baking it rather than after.
First pour some hot water in a container and leave a teabag in there for a few minutes
Then write your message on a piece of paper and place it in the container. Use the teabag to soak and colour the paper. Make sure you wet the whole piece of paper then remove and place in a baking pan or dish in the oven for 5 minutes. If you feel that you need a more burned look you can leave it in for another 5-8 minutes.
I glued the paper to the bottles with syrup. That way I could easily remove it after use and reuse the bottles for something else later on.
I made two different cocktails mainly because the first one had grapefruit in it and my husband doesn’t care much for grapefruit. The second one I made with berry juice instead that’s also evident in the colours of the two ‘potions’. I also used LOTS of Vodka…maybe too much, so if you don’t mind a very strong vodka flavour in your drinks you can rather use 1 shot vodka per cup of juice. To be honest the drink is very potent so if you’re not used to drinking rather go for the softer version, because I only had a small sip here and there to taste the drinks and at one stage I was swinging around the living room… not really ideal when you’re preparing stuff for the blog.
Ingredients
Combine in a blender and mix. Pour into cute little bottles for display
Lust PotionCombine in a blender and mix. Pour into cute little bottles for display
As mentioned above you can do a milder version of either one of the drinks by using 1 cup of juice for every shot of Vodka. You could also try my White wine sangria recipe.
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