parisian perfection

I spotted this the other day and my heart immediately skipped a beat. I've had a real longing lately to leave my LA digs behind and spend some time traveling through Europe.  Totally "eat pray love" style, except the prayers being to Bacchus {God of wine} and the love being about the enormous amounts of European food I'd be happily surrendering to.

I want to marvel at something, have my breath be taken away by something that is bigger than me and my current heartache.

This Parisian loft would encompasses all charm and bewilderment that I'm seeking.

...winding stairwells.

...view of the city, books and art.

...warm places to curl up after long days of being inspired and culturally fed.

I can smell the sweet pastries rising in the oven and the seductive music calling my name.

Folks, I think it's a serious case of Francophilia!

Who's in?

xo tash


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Soft Spots

The holidays for me are about landing on soft places and all the lovely things that make you feel ooey gooey on the inside {and unfortunately can make you look a little ooey gooey on the outside if you have over indulgent tendencies like me hehe}.

One thing that's always a lovely reminder of my childhood is my mum's Banana bread. I 'turned up the volume' as Ina Garten would say, by adding some milk chocolate chips... hold for applause.

Mama Bird and The Chirpy Birds

Chocolate Banana Bread

Ingredients

3/4 cup of room temperature unsalted butter

1 cup of vanilla sugar {or normal granulated sugar}

3 eggs

3 super ripe bananas

1/2 cup of buttermilk*

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups of all purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 heaped teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda

1 cup of good quality Milk Chocolate chips or more if you're crazy about choccy!

*if you can't find buttermilk, mix half yogurt and half milk together until smooth.

Preheat Oven to 350F or 180C

Cream butter and sugar together until light this will take a couple of minutes.  Then add one egg at a time waiting until mixture is properly incorporated before adding the next.  Once all eggs are in mixture, add banana, buttermilk and vanilla.  Turn off mixer and add sifted flour, salt and bicarb mixture by hand. When it's just brought together {you never want to overwork the flour} add the chocolate chips and mix until even.  Place in your preferred baking dish, either traditional loaf pan or muffin/souffle cups. A cake will take around 45 minutes and the muffins {depending on the size} will take from around 15-25 minutes. 

The bread will get denser and moister as it sits. But good luck finding that out, ours always disappears before the days end!

xox tash

gone but not forgotten

my great auntie Ivy on her wedding day in the early 20's

When my mum arrived last week she bought with her an oooolllld family album... Well if you're anything like me then you'd understand why I became completely obsessed with spending hours scouring over these photos that date as far back as the 20's.  Family trees and family history is something that I'm just utterly enthralled by. I know that everyone has a story but for some reason I'm so intrigued by my families story and that might have something to do with the fact that there's little information on either side.

This photo is of my dad and his parents as they arrived off the boat to Australia and became citizens. I love the excitement on his face

My mum's side of the family came over from England and my dad came over from Greece when he was a small boy. There's not a lot of information on my dad's side of the family as the hospital where my Yia Yia was born burnt down years ago. In fact, my Yia Yia never even knew her own birthday {or age for that matter} and just always celebrated the day of her birth on her first born's birthday! haha!  My Nana was an orphan and fell in love at an early age with my Grandfather.

My papa Harry 

Unfortunately I have no living Grandparents and so to see my very own predeceasing generation of people in their hay day is just something that brings me so much joy.  My mum's parents were always so in love and have one of 'those' love stories that I hope my kids and grandkids will one day want to emulate.  They even died close together and my mum always says that my nana died of a broken heart never wanting to live without my 'papa'.

My Nana Rae

I never met my Papa, but I did met my Nana Rae and the strange part is that I remember her. I have so much love for her and the graceful woman that she was. This photo of her on her 21st birthday encapsulates all the things that I remember about her, her beauty, her poise and her gracefulness. I wish I could've known her. Where ever you are family, I love you! Thank you for being you and thank you having my parents! I will always be grateful that you're all a part of me. I will continue to love you and ask for your advice. You will never be forgotten.

love always,
your grand daughter xxx

my manifesto

I believe...

...that the kitchen is the heart of the home

...in butter

....that it's the smallest and simplest things that take up the most room in your heart

...in baking

...in burning and learning

...in family

...in dessert. always.

...in art

...in second bites and second tries

...in lists

...in a good playlist

...in my instincts

...that love is always the question and always the answer 

...in slow food and home cooked meals 

...in good wine

...in girlfriends

...in Nutella 

...in picnics and road trips

...that food tastes better if you have good thoughts while you're making it

...in good posture and clean hair

...in singing at the top of your lungs

...in handwritten letters

...in magic

...in gratitude 

...in tickle trains {girls you know what I'm talking about}

...in pooches

...that everything feels better after an english breakfast tea with milk

...in pancake Saturdays

...in game nights

...in tradition 

... that one day I'll have a family of my own

...in George Clooney. duh.

1/2/3/4/5/6

What are some of the things that you believe in?

xox tash

p.s. the premiere was fab but no pics... it was the usual no camera policy.. boo... either way, go see Frankie and Alice.  Aside from Halle's amazing performance {what's new though} the story alone will knock your socks off!

scroll out the red carpet...

Tonight I'm giving my Mum the full Hollywood experience. I'm taking her as my date to the premiere of Halle Berry's new movie "Frankie and Alice".  She'll experience the exciting pandemonium of screaming fans, red carpets, flashing lights and crowds and be the first to watch this movie with Miss HB herself.  With a full day of red carpet shopping and DIY facials ahead of us, I thought what better way to start the day than with some warm, straight out of the oven, Cinnamon Scrolls.

I adapted this recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and let me tell you one thing, it was deeeeelicious. My neighbours even came over for a little taste test and after baking 30 scrolls, I was definitely eager to share!

Everytime I make bread I feel like some kind of magic takes place. In fear of sounding like Dr Frankenstein "it's alive"! It seriously grows right before your very eyes and that baffles me everytime! 

It really is quite easy, I promise. Make the bread. Roll it out, wash with melted butter and sprinkle with generous amounts of sugar and cinnamon.

Roll it up and slice in 1 inch pieces. Place slices in a generously buttered baking dish and then bake!

Drizzle with a maple vanilla glaze and enjoy with a piping hot cuppa jo!

xox tash

cozy cribs

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How was your week lovely readers? Feeling all warm on the inside after having my mum here for a week has been absolutely wonderful.

Amongst the 800 cups of tea we consume daily, sadly not this kind, there's been lots of therapy shared: the emotional, the culinary and the retail kind :)

Call me crazy but most of our shopping {so far} actually took place before Thanksgiving... As far as I'm concerned Black Friday is reserved for one reason only, the slimming color and variety of stretch clothing you have to wear the day after consuming your weight in food! All jokes aside, the idea of waking up before dawn and screaming through shops to fight for bargains is enough to make me want to crawl deep under the covers and never get out!

{via}

Speaking of staying in bed, here's 10 fun things to do while curled up in my fav spot!

1. Invite your girlfriends over {make sure they arrive in their pjs} 
2. Give yourself a facial, complete with cucumber eye slices
3. Write down the things you're grateful for on a stack of loose leaf paper and read one first thing every morning.
4. Find that stack of magazines you hid behind/under your sofa and create an inspirational scrapbook {your dream home or dream wardrobe/style}
5. Prank call boys
6. TV watching marathon, load in your favorite tv show or movie and laugh and cry in all your favorite spots 
7. Read, read, read
8. Write, write, write
9. Discover new music and rediscover old music and sing it out at the top of your lungs.
10. Nap it out whenever you want, even if it's in the middle of any one of the above mentioned activities :)

Hope your week was wonderful! This week I'll be back in full force sharing lots of delish holiday recipes and a bunch of other fab finds!

xox tash

Holiday Time

This morning I woke up when it was still dark outside with child like excitement! I felt like a kid on Christmas morning and that's all because my beautiful Mum arrived from Australia just in time for the Holidays!

My mum always talks about her love affair with streusel and her memories as a child of sneaking into the kitchen late at night and taking large chunks of this densely moist and buttery cake! So in honor of her arrival I decided to pair this traditional cake with the fall favorite flavor of pumpkin.  The results were nothing short of magic! Not only was the cake super moist but the pairings of all the pumpkin spices mixed with the crumbly streusel topping seriously made me question why this combination wasn't found everywhere! It's just insanely good!

I know that the ingredients list looks a little overwhelming but I promise you, it's not as bad as it looks! 

The Chirpy Birds Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Cake

1/2 cup of room temperature butter

1 cup of granulated sugar

3 jumbo eggs room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 cup of sour cream

1 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin

2 1/2 cups of self raising flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Streusel

1/2 cup of packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of rolled oats

4 tablespoons of cold butter

1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Pumpkin Filling

1 1/2 cups of pumpkin puree

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 350F

Let's start with the cake mixture first so the following steps are referencing the cake ingredients only! Sift together dry ingredients and set aside. 

Cream butter and sugar in electric mixer for around 4 minutes until it's light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time until completely incorporated.  Then add vanilla, sour cream and pumpkin. Mixture should be smooth and creamy.  Slowly add dry ingredients until just incorporated! Don't beat though! It's better if you finish bringing it together by hand than over beat it. Great now that that's taken care of head to the streusel part.

Place all ingredients apart from the maple syrup into a separate bowl. Bring them together with your finger tips until it looks like crumbs. Set aside!

Mix together pumpkin puree and sugar and set aside. Okay time to assemble!

Place half of the cake mixture into your coffee cake dish, then 3/4 of the streusel mixture onto the top of the cake. Drizzle streusel mixture with the maple syrup then top of your pumpkin puree mixture.  Finish by topping with the rest of the cake batter and top with your remaining streusel. Place into a preheated oven for around 60 minutes until the centre comes out clean!

Not only will your friends and family be thanking you, but the smell that will fill your house will kick the butt of any fall scented candle you could ever buy! Nothing can mimic the aroma of holiday home cooking!

Hope you're having a wonderful day today and showing someone you love just how much you love them! Even if that's just over a cup of tea or coffee and a smile :)

xo tash