Only Wood Textures

A few of my today’s pics from the wood near our bees house. This wood, sometimes painted and sometimes not, had been exposed by all kind of weather so that the original texture changed a lot.

“Post prepared for Cee’s photo Challenge”

Click to enlarge

Blue: The Color of My Choice

My favorite does’t exist! Depending on the season, the place where I’m at the moment, our activity (cooking, travel, resting…) and simply at the moment, I can be impressed by all the colors. In general I love bright colors, I love the light and I avoid the dark.

Especially on Crete, my favorite place in the world, I love to sit and look at the blue sky and the blue sea; I can understand why so many song  tel about this nature.

For this reason I decided to choose “Blue” for this challenge! I hope you will like my quick selection of photos of my travels (not only Crete! 🙂

“Post prepared for Cee’s photo Challenge”

Click to enlarge

Orange and Pink Sunsets Around the World

Orange and Pink Sunsets Around the World . “Post prepared for Cee’s photo Challenge”

Click to enlarge

Pavlova with White Chocolate Cream

Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert with a crisp crust and soft, light inside, filled with fruits, cream or whipped cream. The dessert is believed to have been created in honor of the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova who visited Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

Years ago a friend told me about this wonderful dessert, I never had seen it before and the first time I prepared this dessert I had to fight with my fear of making meringues.  I had to learn how to make them and I began to read recipes in books and in the internet. As soon as I understood that this is really not difficult I decided to try it and I wrote the draft of my recipe prior preparing this dessert. Finally the meringue came out light and dry; exactly as I wished I arranged it with the cream and strawberries, took some pictures and we enjoyed. I don’t know what happened but I was really not satisfied with the photos and I never posted this recipe.

This week I came across beautiful strawberries and I made it again …with some little changes.

To give the cream a lighter and fresher taste I added a few tablespoons Greek yogurt, this made the cream smoother and even more palatable.

Pavolova with White Chocolate Cream

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 2hr 30mins
• Difficulty: mediun
• Print

Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/

You need:

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (some people use cream of tartar or vinegar)
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch, sifted

White chocolate cream (or your favorite vanilla cream)

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cornflour, or corstarch
• 100 g white chocolate, crushed or chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoon Greek yogurt or other plain yogurt

Fruits

• 500 g strawberries or other berries/fruits

Topping (optional)

• whipped cream

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 120°C/250 °F (convection oven 115°C/ 240°F).
2. Beat the egg whites into a large clean fat free bowl (not plastic) to stiff peaks.
3. While mixing on high speed add sugar, a dessertspoonful at a time. When ready, the mixture should be thick and glossy.
4. Fold in the powdered sugar a third at a time while beating.
5. Add lemon juice and cornflour over the mixture. Fold them gently in for example with a rubber spatula.
6. Don’t over-mix. The mixture should now look smooth, glossy and thick, almost like a snow drift.
7. Cover a baking tray with baking paper.
8. Spread or spritz meringue shaping a 25 cm (10 inches) circle. Make sure that borders are slightly higher than center.
9. Bake for about 1 1⁄2 hours or until the meringues sound crisp when tapped.
10. Turn oven off and leave to cool on the tray in the oven, door half open.
11. For the cream mix together egg, sugar and corn flour.
12. Bring 1cup of milk almost to boil and add crushed white chocolate and vanilla, stir well until chocolate is melted.
13. Add milk mixture to egg mixture and transfer to a saucepot. Wisk continuously and cook at medium temperature until the sauce thickened. Note: I prefer to perform this step in the microwave.
14. Remove from heat; add remaining 1/4 cup of warm milk. Stir and add yogurt. Stir until well incorporated
15. Let cool down completely
16. Assemble the cake just before serving: Place meringue on the serving dish, spread cream in the center, top with fruits and if you like add some whipped cream.

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Adeleide (the Market)

We left the Semaphore area and went to the city again. This time we decided to visit the marked and to enjoy some food.

We liked the market and we enjoyed our lunch with Asian specialties from the food stalls there, that was a great opportunity for some take away food for the next travelling day.

 

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”

 

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Adelaide (Semaphore)

Adelaide is really a big town, but the traffic is so well organized that we had the impression there is a lot of space in this town.

That morning we decided to visit the area of the caravan park near the sea and we went to Semaphore area.

The wind that surprised us during the night was still there, so no bathing day again!

 

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”

 

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Adeleide (the City)

We arrived in the afternoon in Adelaide, found our place in the caravan park and went to the city. This was the really first hot day we had in Australia, and we enjoyed the heat. By public transport we arrived into the center and we enjoyed walking around and taking pictures. We crossed many road full of bicycles until we found out that a special event had just found.

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”

 

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Miningie at Lake Albert (from Kingston to Adelaide)

We left the Coorong National Park, we left the coast, but we had not long to wait until we arrived at Lake Albert.

We stopped at the park for our  pic-nick lunch at the shadow under the tree. The place was a good choice as a full infrastructure for picnic is available here.

For those who have more time I would recommend this place and sorrounding and perhaps to stay here overnight.

MENINGIE

Meningie – gateway to Coorong Country

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Coorong National Park (from Kingston to Adelaide)

We left Kinston early in the morning as we knew we would have a long day and we will reach Adelaide only in the evening.

The first stop was the Coorong National Park where we spent some hours wondering the flora and the animal life.

Stretching more than 130 kilometers, the Coorong National Park includes sand dunes, backwater, salty lakes and is a refuge for pelicans, ducks, swans, cormorants, terns, grebes and numerous species of migratory birds.

We were glad we hat the possibility to see a shingleback lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) and take some picture of it.

Coorong National Park  (The Coorong National Park and Camping Guide)

Coorong National Park (National Parks South Australia)

Coorong National Park (Wikipedia)

Shingleback Lizard

Coorong (NATURALLY SOUTH AUSTRALIA Blog)

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”

4 Weeks Australia in Pictures: Kingston

After 3 days in Warrnambool we left Victory and we reached in South Australia. After about 340 km drive along an empty highway, plenty of optical illusions (fata morgana) we reached Kingston.

This place is the ‘Gateway to the South East’, Kingston S.E. is at the southern end of Coorong National Park on Lacepede Bay. This area was once home to the Ngarrindjeri, Aboriginal river people of the lower Murray River, western Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of southern, central Australia.

This famous lobster town was established in 1858 and its shallow lakes and lagoons are a haven for birdlife. The big lobster and the lighthouse are the most photographed emblem of Kingston.

More about the Ngarrindjeri peoples:

NGARRINDJERI NATION YARLUWAR-RUWE PLAN

Ngarrindjeri (Wikipedia)

Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority

Economic and Cultural Values of Water to the Ngarrindjeri People of the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth

Klick here for related posts about “4 Weeks Australia in Pictures”