Categories
Food

Easy Carrot Cake Traybake

I had a really bad experience with a Costco Carrot Cake once that put me off enjoying a slice for close to a decade.  Yeah.  It really was that bad.  It was just too sweet.  Not so much the cake itself, but the thick layer of cream cheese frosting on top made my fillings scream and by the time I was three bites in I was gagging and had to walk away.  I had to walk away from cake.  From CAKE!  I mean, that should be a crime, right?  I’ve avoided Carrot Cake and all its incarnations ever since. So I decided to try making my own from scratch – complete with the dreaded Cream Cheese Frosting – to see if I could be convinced to fall back in love with Carrot Cake.

Categories
Beauty Favourite Posts

My Anti-Aging Starter Kit

The whole anti-aging game has always felt a little “Death Becomes Her” to me (Remember that movie?  One of my all time faves!).  Isn’t it all just really, really expensive snake oil, and in the end a bit… pointless?  I’m not afraid of wrinkles – aging is a privilege, after all – but I wouldn’t mind holding off the effects for just a little while longer.  So over the past six months or so I’ve been swotting up on the ingredients of various anti-aging products and learning a little bit about what they claim to do, and then picked some inexpensive but highly-rated products from the pool to slip into my daily skin routine.

Categories
Far Away

Snapshots from Florida

I get asked a lot, “Why Florida?”  Why do I go back year after year when I could be exploring somewhere new for my summer vaycay.  And I guess the answer is; I don’t want to go anywhere else – not for my relaxing summer holiday anyway.  Southwest Florida is home – in a way.

Categories
Food

Toffee Apple Cookies

It’s officially the first day of Autumn, and officially – in my book anyway – the start of the best season of the year.  One of the best bits about coming home from holiday (aside from being reunited with my favourite fur-ball, obviously) was the thought of coming home to chunky knits, boots (ones that are perfect for stomping on perfectly crunchy leaves), cold air and lots and lots of baking involving apples…

Categories
Food

Tagliatelle Arrabiata

I’m convinced that pasta is the culinary version of Natural Look Makeup; sure, it looks simple – but actually, it takes time and skill to pull it off and do it well. So I don’t bother trying… much.