My friend Nicola is the one person in the whole world that I know loves food as much as I do! She is a super woman in the kitchen and we love sharing tidbits and just generally talking, eating and making food. There's just one major thing that I can't get my head around......

About a year and a half ago we were travelling back from the corromandel, it must have been after Christmas and I thought I'l' show off my new cookbook to Nic she will love it! It was ofcourse Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. Well I passed it back waiting to have a great conversation about all the things we wanted to make but alas a small hmmmmmfffff came from the back seat and something along the lines of "I just don't like Jamie Oliver' ...........radio silence

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm whhhhhhaaaattttt? Awkward.

My friend Nicola, she is all about Donna Hay! I know nothing about Donna Hay but I am learning, long story short, last night I made Donna's/Nicola's Tortillas.

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Tortilla - Makes 15

2 Cups Flour

25-40g Cold Butter

2 Tsp Course Salt

2 Tsp Chilli Flakes

1 Cup Water

I didn't need all this water, I googled this after I made them and some people think that the recipe was printed wrong in the magazine and should have been 3 Cups flour. Mine were quite salty so maybe 3 Cups would have made more sense......must ask Nicola......

1. Mix flour and butter into fine breadcrumb texture

2. Add salt and chilli and then add water till you get a dough consistency.

3. Knead for 2 mins till dough is soft.

Split into 15 round balls then roll out into about 20cm rounds using heaps of flour and getting these puppies paper thin.

THE HARDEST THING ABOUT THIS IS GETTING THE DARN THINGS ROUND! I managed to get this by about tortilla number 10.

Cook in a dry pan for about 30 - 60 seconds each side, if you leave in the pan to long you can make tortillas chips :p

As Nicola wrote in my recipe book....

THEN WHOOLLLAHH!!!! Mamma Mia!!!!! Homemade soft tortilla!!!!

Happy Mexicalli fresh night!

Katie-maree xx

P.S You can freeze these with baking paper in after every couple of tortilla for future meals

P.P.S I would love a better camera to take beautiful food shots but thanks for putting up with my iphone photos.... we only have one light bulb in our kitchen that hasn't blown, not ideal photo conditions

A couple of weeks ago I did a Kikki k course called 'Get Organised' and it was amazing, seriously amazing, I was bouncing off the walls.

I am a pretty sporadic, random person, I like to be doing a million things at once and I thrive on being busy, the busier I am the more I get done, the less work I have the more I procrastinate! Anyway my life is messy, my house is messy, my studio is messy, my car is messy but I hate mess! This leads to my stomach churning and me being overwhelmed which is not great when you work from home in a studio that is about half the size you need it to be!

So long story short I signed up for this course and it was so encouraging. They talked about how being organised is actually a learned skill and not just what I like to tell myself a missing personality trait. They gave us heaps of useful techniques that you could not only apply to your office but also to your pantry, your laundry and better still your LIFE! 

I am not a completely changed human being but I feel encouraged that I can slowly build systems into my routine in the hope of a more organised life someime in the future. Now I just need my office to look like this:

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Image Credit

Instead of this:

Image Credit

I encourage you guys to do this course, it was only $40 which was money well invested for me. 

Wish me luck for my new organised life!

Katie x

I'm thinking about starting a Pinterest.........hmmmm to do or not to do that is the question?

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So this recpie is so easy it's criminal seriously. My Dad used to make it for us when we were little and we would go away on summer holidays, so I was stoked when I stumbled across this recipe in the Jo Seagar book i'd been given!

Beer Bread

3 cups plain flour

3 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 can of beer made up to 4ooml with water (don't use light beer or anything to heavy like Guiness)

1 handful of grated cheese

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees 

2. Quickly mix all ingredients together and spread into a greased loaf pan, sprinkle cheese on top!

Large Loaf 20cm x 10cm = 1 Hour

Smaller Tin 8cm x 15cm = 35-40mins

THE END

I know right! No kneading, no rising!!

You can play around with the recipe with wholemeal or wholegrain flours and top with anything you like. I also made it as a foccacia style bread which worked well. Top with sesame seeds, rock salt, roesmary - really whatever the heart desires! You can also spoon half the mixture in then layer up roasted peppers, spinach, olives etc and then tip the rest of the mixture on top - great for afternoon tea!

Good luck people!

Katie xx

P.S My friend went to a book launch last night and Jamie Oliver was there, I am not sure how I feel about this. It's almost like part of me was there so close which is exciting but then I am in NZ and he is far far away ..........

P.P.S Jamie Oliver is in the top 5 people I want to be my friend, more to come on this soon.....

P.P.P.S It's my birthday on Saturday

1. I love picking up my drycleaning, it makes me happy swinging my bag all the way back to the car

2. I like kittens but not cats

3. When my hubby goes away I like to get in bed early and read recipe books and dream about the new things I am going to make

4. I'm am quite messy but I hate mess

5. I won't talk to you till I have had a coffee regardless of the time of day

6. I love the feeling when you are by yourself and no-one in the whole world knows where you are

7.  I read the last chapter of my books because I can't stand not knowing what happens

8. I love flowers - best pick me up is to spend a couple of dollars on a single beautiful flower

9. I can often be found at home by myself with the music turned up really loud, dancing around while cleaning my house

10. I am obsessed with soft toys, I want them to be my friends

Man have I been busy lately! I haven't really been on my computer much at all which is saying something because I am always on this darn thing! I have so many posts, food and fashion to catch up on......

So pretty much the reason I made this lemon honey is because I have this recipe for lemon and rasberry brioches that I really really want to make, but after tasting this I think it is too good to "waste" a whole cup on baking so I will probably end up just buying some.

This recipe is the good ol Edmonds one - I always use theirrecipies for making preserves, it's just the go to book for anything basic really - no frills good ol fashioned recipes.

This is amazing seriously delcious, you won't buy nicer, I just made it at the same time as dinner - multitasking for the win! For a yum healthy desert stir through some greek yoghurt, honestly taste bud tantalizing.

Lemon Honey

Makes 4 x 250ml Jars

4 Lemons

125g Butter

2 Cups Sugar

4 Eggs, beaten - make sure you beat really well as you don't want bits of boiled egg floating in your mixture!

1. Grate the lemon rind avoiding the white part as this will make it bitter, squeeze and strain the lemon juice.

2. Melt the butter into a double boiler, stir in sugar and lemon juice until sugar is disolved.

3. Add eggs and lemon rind, place over boiling water and cook stirring constantly till it thickins.

4. Pour into sterilized jars and store in the refrigerator.

Easy peasy huh?

In other news, I went to the Little and Friday book signing last week and it was amzing and super inspiring!!! I could relate to Kim's passion for food, buying fresh and local, baking with your kids ahhhhhhhhh basically it was mind blowingly awesome. The not so awesome part was that I was too poor to buy a book so I didn't get to talk to her :( Hopefully I will get it for my birthday, which is in two weeks, thanks for asking!

Happy Baking my lovelies

Katie xx

I have realised lately how much I wear T-shirts, you can't underestimate investing in a good qaulity Tee! I find myself rotating between basic AS Colour Tees, KW ones I've had for years, NOM*D favourites and ofcourse my KMC tees. There's some great new KMC tees on the way for next summer - I have started wearing the samples already which is probably a bit naughty......

Here is my list of winter wishlist staples:

Chaos and Harmony- Adelphi $369NZ

How about all these three together? That will do me nicely thank you very much!

I'm heading off to Dunedin this week, can't wait to have a cinnamon scroll and great coffee at Modaks, check out all my favourite stores and wander around the art gallery "these are a few of my favourite things la la la la"

Have a good week peops,

Katie-maree Cole x

I was talking with a friend recently about who we would like to hang out with if we could pick anyone in the world. My no.1 is Jamie Oliver, I love his style of cooking and the flavours he combines are 10 out of 10 in my books!

Last week I made the 'Cheats pappardelle with slow-braised leeks and crispy porcini pangrattato'. I adapted it slightly to use some of the ingredients I had on hand and what I could steal from dad's house.

After tasting this dish I thought the flavours were perfect especially the leeks, which really are the star of the dish. I think the first time you make a recipe you always learn so much, I am looking forward to making this again taking into consideration all my new penciled in comments in the margins. I have put the alternative ingredients beside the original ones in the list below.

Serves 4 - 6

5 big leeks, washed and chopped 

3 good knobs of Butter

3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

a few sprigs of fresh thyme

a small glass of wine

sea salt and freshly ground pepper

500ml of good quality stock

12 slices of parma ham (Regular shaved Ham)

2 x 250g fresh lasagne sheets (I just used the 400g pack)

grated parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving

a small handful of dried porcini mushrooms (Fresh Portobello Mushrooms)

1/2 a stale ciabatta bread loaf (Plain bread rolls)

olive oil

2 gloves of garlic crushed

a sprig of fresh rosemary

The only thing that didn't really work with my substitutions is the mushrooms, they didn't go as flakey as the one's in Jamie's picture because of the moisture of the fresh mushrooms but they were still delicious and added a great texture to the pasta.

1. Halve the leeks lengthways and cut at an angle into 1cm slices. Heat a wide saucepan adding a splash of olive oil and a knob of butter. Add the sliced garlic, leaves and thyme leaves.

2. Pour in the wine, season with pepper and add the stock. Cover the leeks with sliced ham and cook gently with the lid on and cook for 25-30mins till the leeks are tender.

3. To make the pangrattato, whiz the mushrooms and breadcrumbs with a pinch of S + P in the food processor until the mixture is crumbed. Heat a good glug of olive oil in a frying pan and add the whole crushed garlic cloves in their skin and rosemary and cook for a minute. Fry breadcrumbs tossing gently so it doesn't burn. Blot on a paper towel and throw out garlic and rosemary (I left the rosemary leaves in with the breadcrumbs because I thought it was too delicious to throw out).

4. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Lay the lasagne sheets on top of each other (I suggest taking them out of the fridge an hour before to stop it from breaking when you slice it) you can use some flour between layers to stop it sticking. Slice into 1cm slices to create your own pappardelle.

5. Remove the ham from the leeks and slice and stir back through. Season to taste with S + P and stir in parmesan cheese and a knob of butter. (Do this just before stirring it into the pasta; don't let it sit around as the cheese will start to harden up). Add the drained pasta, reserving some of the pasta water in case you need to add a little to stir through to make the sauce silky.

6. Serve quickly, sprinkled with pangratto, extra parmesam and any leftover thyme tips. Serve the rest of the pangratto in a side bowl for people to add some extra crunch.

Once you have made this once you could easily whip this up in just over 30 minutes if you had people coming over for dinner or after work. The flavour in these leeks is out of this world.

Thanks Jamie!

Katie-maree x

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After the first leg of the trip assitant Sarah and I reflect on what we learnt on the road......

• Petrol is really expensive and it doesn't last very long
• Having relatives with spare accommodation is right up there with the awesome things in life
• Unpacking a whole range on coat hangers at a backpackers makes you seem a bit pretentious.
• Never put the milk in the fridge door of the backpackers without reading all signs including the one that says put your unwanted food here
• Yogurt, crackers and cheese is a good dinner at 9pm on the floor of the backpackers room if you can hold out on the road that long
• Sometimes it's not good to trust google maps when the end result takes you an extra two-hours for no particular reason
• Storms cause road closures, which interfere with your plans
• Try not to steal remote controls from hotels it's just annoying when you have to post them back
• Good intentions to go for morning walks are better than no intentions at all?
• Running through central Wellington with your Angelina Jolie leg flying out of the really high split in your skirt all for the sake of pre appointment coffee is totally legit. (That's just what good assistants do right?)
• A million books falling from the top shelf of a wardrobe, smacking into a hollow wooden door and flinging said door open causing one fashion designer to yell explicitly jumping a metre to the other side of the room into assistants arm while shaking and yelling repeatedly OH MY GOSH is not ideal conditions to pre appointment beauty sleep.
• Jellybeans are good on the road
• Lenting fizzy drink and chocolate is not
• New Zealand is pretty dang beautiful

Hope your all having a good week and are enjoying getting to see the new collections instore.

Katie-maree x

Took this photo at the beach last week at about 7.30am - no filters, this is just how sweet the North Shore is!

So we are supposed to be doing the Summer 2013 shoot tomorrow outdoors so my eyes have been on metservice for the last week. I am not sure that it has helped much! The last two days forecast was supposed to be rain and there has been nothing but sunshine - tomorrows forecast is for lightening so we will see what happens!

We have a new photographer this time around! Heather is living in Istanbul for a wee while so Jessica Sim will be shooting our summer lookbook, you can see her work here.

We have chosen Emily Smith from Clyne, isn't she pretty?

I am a bit behind organising the shoot but we are doing it in the afternoon and I feel that all of a sudden I have heaps of time. The shoes haven't arrived, the props haven't arrived, some samples are not finished and also I haven't got other samples back from the printer either! Why do I feel so calm? 

I love shoot days it's probably one of my favorite times in the season, it's so great seeing the outfits with hair and makeup etc and I don't really have to do much!

On an entirely different note, Karen Walkers showing in New York today, can't wait to see the new range!

Happy Valentines Day

Katie-maree xx

So I have had massive cookie cravings and I really wanted to make this Nigella recipe since I got the Christmas book for Christmas - how convenient :p

I had one of those days where I started to make them but then realised that I didn't have all the ingredients - I know, I know baking 101!

I ended up swapping out most of the ingredients but the final product worked still - I used Olivani instead of Butter to try and make this healthier which I don't ususally do but I have been eating so much junk lately so I was trying to make myself feel better about the cookies haha. The cookies were tasty but they didn't look as good as I would have liked, I definitely eat with my eyes. The texture was great with the oats, they were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside mmmmmmmmmmmm

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

Makes 30 

150g Plain Flour

1/2 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Salt

75g Rolled Oats

125g Soft Butter (Olivani)

75g Brown Sugar

100g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

1 t Vanilla Extract (Rum Essence - I couldn't taste this at all)

75g Dried Cranberries

50g Pecans (Almonds)

150g White Chocolate (Half white and half milk chocolate)

1. Preheat oven 180C - Measure  the flour, baking powder, salt and oats into a bowl.

2. Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat till creamy - beat in egg and vanilla.

3. Mix in dried ingredients, nuts, fruit and chocolate.

4. Roll into a ball and cook for 15 minutes.

HAPPY MILK AND COOKIE TIME!!!!

Katie xx