Girly Days.

Two weekends ago (yes I know I'm late with updating!), my Grandma flew up to Brisbane to stay with me! While the weather was pretty rotten (and still is - have you heard about the floods we are having? Eek!), we had such a really lovely time.

We spent Saturday morning visiting the Valentino exhibition - swooning over pretty dresses, frowning over tacky dresses, but overall we were in pure awe of these amazing creations designed for some of history's most beautiful women. There were dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn, Claudia Schiffer, the Princess of Monaco, Kate Blanchett and oh so many fabulous women! It really was spectacular to see these outfits.


After a lovely lunch by the river, we then saw the Cuban National Ballet perform Don Quitoxe. While I haven't been to the ballet for at least 10 or 12 years, it really was fantastic. Even if the style of dance is not your favourite, you cannot help but be impressed by their athletic abilities. Truly these are incredibly dedicated and fit people.
The performance wasn't quite as dramatic as I had been expecting, and my Nan who is a very regular ballet patron says she didn't think it was any better then the Australian Ballet's version, but it was still really really lovely to see and I would recommend it.

Our Sunday together was spent relaxing. We took a trip to Mt Glorious for lunch, and spent the afternoon cooking together. Nanny taught me to make her famous Creme Caramel, though I don't have a very good photo to show you - only this one I took on my iPhone. I thought that perhaps you might like to learn to make it too though? It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! I think you should all try it too! Here's what you need:



CARAMEL:
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 cup water

PUDDING:
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar

DIRECTIONS:
Put the caramel ingredients into a saucepan over medium hat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and is completely clear. Then stop stirring, and wait until the mixture begins to boil and turn a caramel colour. Pour the caramel mix into a suitable baking dish (like a pyrex bowl) and set aside. The caramel is actualy a toffee, so don't worry that it will set a bit in the bowl. That's normal.

Meanwhile, pour the milk and cream mix into the same saucepan (no need to rinse the pan - the left over caramel will add flavour to the milk mix) and heat until warm. Beat 4 eggs in a bowl with sugar while the milk and cream warm up. Pour the milk mixture into the egg mix and stir.

Pour this milk/egg mix into the baking dish on top of the caramel. Now put the baking dish into a larger baking dish or lasagne style pan. Fill the larger pan with water so that the pudding dish is like an island surrounded by water.

Bake for about 45 minutes in a moderate oven of around 140 degrees celcius or until set (just give it a little shake in the pan and see if it wobbles).

NOTES: If you have small little baking dishes you can bake individual puddings, which is lovely for dinner parties. And if you're worried about your figure or would like a lighter alternative to this dessert, try using skim milk and skim evaporated milk instead of full cream milk and cream. Also, the darker you let the caramel go, the more bitter it will be - like a burnt toffee. Personally I'm not a fan of this burnt taste, so I let mine darken until the colour shown. This gives a sweet caramel taste to my palette - but it's best to experiment and learn what you prefer.

xoxo