Pickles n' Tickles by JJ

I love a good frozen yoghurt especially one that's blended with fresh fruits like those served at Yogen Fruz . A scoop of your favourite fruit is crushed and blended with plain yoghurt. For me, it has to be the blueberry or cherry mix. Topped with just a bit of runny chocolate sauce, a small tub of the FroYo is bliss. Fruity, tangy and sweet all at the same time! Well, I can't be running to the store every time I crave for one of those. So I compared a few recipes, tweaked and made something I like even better using blueberries. Love this recipe for its creamy fruitiness. The lemon just adds more zing to it and the colour of the final product is simply gorgeous.  Blueberry Frozen Yoghurt  You will need ... 450g low fat vanilla yoghurt ( or you can use plain yoghurt with a teaspoon of vanilla extract) 170g fresh or frozen (thawed) blueberries  2 -3 tbsp honey or maple syrup ( I prefer honey) Zest of a lemon and juice of half (or more if you like) ...

I'M hooked. Like majorly hooked on whipping out buttercream and icing it. So I'm always baking these days. The joy of being able to play with colours and sugar to create pretty, yummy edibles that brighten up my day as much as they make many more happy is awesome. Right now, I'm just experimenting with various buttercream recipes, buttercream roses, perfecting the techniques and trying to establish some semblance of order in the kitchen while I work with butter and cream, sugar and spice. Working with this frosting during summer is quite a challenge as I really dislike having the air-conditioning on. I've no choice though if I want to have a nice, stable batch.  The early roses. You can tell they're messy.  Practice led to these .  ...And then, I ran out of icing.  So I felt like flattening those roses and I did ! Here's a basic buttercream recipe that I love. It's wicked, the kind of #badfood you'd want to keep in your li...

My late grandad was the strongest man I've known. I'm talking about six packs and sculpted calves and all.  Imagine a man who still climbed three-storey high, straight up coconut trees at almost 80.  He did a lot of manual work around the house and cycled to wherever he went, near and far. At the end of a day, he relaxed with his feet soaked in a basin of hot, salted water. My grandma also sometimes used salt-in-a-sock for pain relief.   Grandpa used a British-made bicycle that looked like this.  I was given a mini version of it, also British made.  Climbing a coconut tree. I don't know why I've never thought of using salt like that but recently I've been turning to saltwater more often and loving the incredible healing effects it has on me. I come back from beaches with an uplifted spirit, relieved of physical pain (my legs). It has to be the salty ocean and breeze.  A beautiful beach here in Qatar.  Qatar has some lovel...