Cook Book Review: The Perfect Blend By Tess Masters

This is a book review of The Perfect Blend: 100 Blender Recipes To Energize and Revitalize by Tess Masters that was published by Ten Speed Press on 27 December 2016.

Australian born Tess Masters otherwise known as the blogger behind The Blender Girl is a writer, actor, voiceover artist and self-professed blendaholic. This is Tess' third blender cook book and she has been featured on many publications and websites both internationally and locally. Tess lives in LA with her partner.

I love my blender - I've been using it every day since I bought it to make breakfast smoothies and juices. I haven't attempted anything other than liquid drinks so I was really excited to get hold of this recipe book and make something different in my blender.

This is a really great recipe book with 100 recipes you can make in a blender - from smoothies to snacks, salads, sides and soups there are lots of different recipes. I will definitely be trying the soup recipes once the colder weather is here and there are recipes for nachos, curries, burgers and pasta sauces which all look amazing.

The recipes are geared towards the health conscious and instead of sections for snacks and soups as most recipe books do this has sections for energy, detox, weight loss and so on and so you turn to that section of the book to see what recipes there are.

The recipes are based around American food sources and so it may be a challenge to find some of the ingredients here in Australia as there were some I didn't recognise.

I wish there were images for each recipe as that is what tempts me to get busy in the kitchen seeing what the finished dish should look like. Reading this as an e-book was also difficult and a hard copy version of this book is a must.

I recommend this book to anyone who has a blender it will give you some great ideas for different dishes you can make with it.

I give this book 4 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

The Perfect Blend can be purchased from the author here or Ten Speed Press - Penguin Random House

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Ten Speed Press to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[Image via Penguin Random House]

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DIY Pregnancy Announcement Gifts

I just couldn't help myself and wanted to do something creative for our pregnancy announcement to my family with Mr P and I's recent news that the Jarrah Jungle household will have a new addition arriving in May.

I wanted to give my family something special to remember the moment as it will be the first Grandchild for my Parents and my one and only big Brother will finally be an Uncle!

So I made these easy pregnancy announcement gifts using some leftover Avery Invitations from my engagement and wedding stationary and some nice bottles of booze that I think will take pride of place on the home bar for many years to come.

I used the plain Avery online template to suit the size of the card I was using and came up with my own designs (after trawling on Pinterest for hours looking for inspiration there are so many great ideas on there!)

I created the design online, saved it to the Avery template, printed them out on my black and white printer, and added some pretty washi tape and stickers for colour.

To attach the card I punched a hole and threaded with some pretty ribbon and tied them to a nice bottle of aged port.

For my Parents and soon to be Grandparents

For my Brother and soon to be Uncle

Of course I made one for Mr P's parents as well and I attached their card to a bottle of champagne which they have promised we will pop together on the arrival of their 14th Grandchild!

These pregnancy announcement gifts were so simple to make and cost next to nothing as I already had the stationary and ribbons etc, it was just the bottles of booze that I spent money on.

My family and Mr P's really loved receiving them and I'm glad they will have this keepsake to remember the moment of us announcing our pregnancy and it'll be nice to have a drink together once the baby arrives!

How did you announce to your parents you were pregnant?

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[All images my own]

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Backyard Subdivision Progress - Retaining Walls

As you may have seen me sharing on the Jarrah Jungle social media pages over the last few weeks work has started on our backyard deck and patio project.

The retaining wall had to be built first - this took about 4 days which was spaced out over 2 weeks due to the need to let the concrete and blocks set and dry and the stonemasons other work commitments.

Check out these before and afters of the amazing limestone work involved
in building retaining walls for our newly subdivided backyard block

First a trench was dug and a concrete footing was poured for the limestone brick wall to be built on top of. This had to be left to dry and set for a couple of days.

Next the metre long limestone blocks arrived on a great big truck and the driver used a bobcat to unload all the blocks and drop them off around the back of the house.

Then the guys got to work clearing the site which included the concrete steps from the laundry door out to the backyard being taken out - which gave me a fright when I opened the door to step outside and they were gone!

For a few weeks we had to do a commando leap sideways onto the new limestone wall to get outside and our furbaby Lexi has impressed us with her ability to jump up and over the wall with no trouble at all!

  

The limestone brick wall was built by P & P Stone who also built our front courtyard garden and the side limestone retaining wall for our new dividing fence.

Once we find good tradesmen we use them again and again for each renovation project that we do - we stick with the same plumber, electrician, cabinet maker, etc as you develop a good relationship with them, they look after you by doing a good job and you look after them by giving them continued work.

The backyard will be half deck and patio and the other half will be a courtyard with paving and grass - we included the grass so it's pet friendly for our rescue dog Lexi.

Mr P waterproofed the inside of the courtyard as it will be filled with sand and get watered once the grass is laid so we need to protect the limestone so it doesn't stain.

To waterproof - first Mr P mixed up some mud and plastered it onto the inside of the limestone blocks to fill the gaps and left it to dry. Next he painted on two coats of waterproofing all the way around the inside of the courtyard walls, he used the same waterproof product that we used in our courtyard garden beds - it's like a thick black tar, is heavy duty and perfect for wet areas like garden beds.

This new retaining wall defines our newly subdivided block so this is going to be the size of our new backyard.

It's a lot smaller than it was as we have essentially cut our block in half because we plan to sell the back block of land in the future and keep and live in our renovated home at the front. Being able to 'retain and build' is a great way to climb up the property ladder and is quite a popular thing to do in Perth for those of us on big suburban blocks of land.

I'm so happy our limestone retaining wall is built .... next up is the deck and patio build!

Sharing with link parties:
Curly Crafty Mom - The Creative Corner
The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Monday
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

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[All images my own]

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Book Review: The Bold Dry Garden By Johanna Silver

This is a book review of The Bold Dry Garden by Johanna Silver that was published by Timber Press on 5 October 2016.

Johanna Silver is a San Francisco based writer, editor and garden designer.

Ruth Bancroft (who is now 107 years old!) is a dry gardening pioneer and her love of plants led to the creation of one of the most acclaimed public gardens in America the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California which spans over 3 acres and is filled with drought tolerant and waterwise plants.

This book offers lessons from that garden and also gives a history on the garden and the woman who maintains it.

The book includes lots of advice and lessons learnt for growing and maintaining a dry garden with plants such as succulents, cacti and other drought tolerant and waterwise species.

This book will be most useful for gardeners in the Southwest of America although some Australian gardeners may be able to find similar species and be inspired by the stunning garden images.

I recommend this book to plant lovers interested in the history of a waterwise garden.

I give this book 3 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

The Bold Dry Garden can be purchased from the author here 

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Timber Press to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[Images via Amazon] 

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First Comes Love. Then Comes Marriage. Then Comes .....

I mentioned some exciting news in my 2017 one word blog post but just in case you missed it

First comes love, 

Then comes marriage, 

Then comes a baby in a baby carriage .... 

That's right - Mr P and I are going to be parents with our little one due in May!

As a first time Mum I'm excited, happy, nervous and a little bit shit scared all at once!

Mr P and I have thought long and hard over the years about this next venture in our lives into parenthood and feel the time is right and are really looking forward to what the future brings in starting our own little family.

We have told all our family and friends the news face to face before we shared it with the world and it has been so wonderful seeing the happiness it has brought to everyone - especially my parents as it will be their very first grandchild (just wait until you see my DIY announcement and how we told them the news) !

As you can see our rescue dog Lexi is also beyond thrilled to be promoted to big sister!

I've been a career woman for 20 years working in the city 5 days a week and what a change it's going to be in my new role as a stay at home Mum. I'm taking a whole year off work to go on maternity leave and stay at home and look after my little one. What a great country we live in to be given the option of maternity leave and job security knowing that my job will be held for me to return to.

I am actually quite looking forward to the change and being able to spend more time at home being a domestic goddess. I'm hoping I'll have time to bake treats for Mr P's lunchbox and cook yummy dinners for us, keep on top of the housework and be a real domestic goddess ..... But I know the reality is I'll probably spend most of my day covered in baby vomit, serving up burnt toast for dinner and with all those baby clothes to wash I'll probably never see the bottom of my laundry basket again!

BUT what an adventure this next life chapter will be!

Practically speaking the first thing Mr P and I started to consider is where we will live and raise our little one - we are torn between the big decision of moving to a bigger family home now or staying in our beloved Jarrah Jungle where we have lived for over 7 years and re-organise a few rooms so we can fit in a nursery.

We have been researching suburbs which are good for young families and have been stalking houses for sale online every day and have been to a few home opens on the weekends too. If we don't find our dream home soon then we will stop house hunting and stay put in our Jarrah Jungle home and have a big spring clean out and get it family friendly ready!

We have been powering through an epic to do list to finish the last of our renovating projects to get the house all finished so that we can put the tools down and focus on spending time as a family for a while.

Where ever we end up I'm so excited about designing and decorating the nursery. I've helped a couple of friends set up their nursery and shared ideas on furniture, layout and decor and now I'll be putting those practical and pretty ideas together for an awesome nursery for our own little one.

If you follow me on Pinterest I apologise in advance for the nursery inspiration I have been pinning lately there are so many beautiful nursery designs I'll be sharing my nursery inspiration on the blog soon.

Holy duly I can't believe I'm going to be a mumma! 

First time Mum to be advice is welcome and encouraged!!

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[All images my own]

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1000th Blog Post Milestone

This marks the 1000th yes that's one thousand blog posts that I have written, edited and published on my beloved Jarrah Jungle blog over the last 6 years.

I've got to say I'm proud of my achievement of being consistent and writing for so long.

I spend a lot of time on my blog keeping it up to date and it's been a big dedication and commitment over the years - even more so now with social media channels attached to my blog it could almost be a full time (unpaid!) job to keep my blog and social media following up to date.

Learning how to build a website and maintain it is also a continuing learning curve and I intend to keep building on and improving the look of my blog this year.

My blog is my creative outlet and place to share stories and write whatever I feel like.

Although it's mostly home related of course as that is why I started to blog in the first place to document our home renovations. I can't believe 6 years on we are still renovating - it has been so long we are starting to renovate the renovations and now we are turning it into a family friendly home there will be many more home loving blog posts to come.

I also love to write about my travel adventures, share my latest book reviews and tasty recipes.

With big changes afoot in my work life as I transition from full time career woman to stay at home Mum I'm hoping that being able to blog during the day instead of late at night after work will be a positive thing.

I really want to focus on the business side of my blog more and see what I can do better and improve on this year. I am planning to upgrade my old ancient laptop to a newer fancier model as well which will help too as this old laptop can't even keep up with my fast typing speed and drives me nuts!

Thanks for reading 999 blog posts and if you've made it all the way down here thanks for reading 1000! I really appreciate your comments, likes, shares and support of my blog all these years so thank you so much!!

Please let me know what you would like to see more of on the blog this year - What blog posts do you like to read? More recipes? More creative projects? Product reviews? Something else!

I'd love to hear from you let me know in a comment below or drop me an email at jarrahjungle@hotmail.com

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[Image via Pinterest 1, 2, 3]

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Book Review: Cooking For Picasso By Camille Aubray

This is a book review of Cooking For Picasso by Camille Aubray that was published by Harper Collins Australia on 1 September 2016.

Camille Aubray is an Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship winner and a writer in residence at Karolyi Foundation in the South of France and studied writing at the Humber College School of Creative Writing Workshop in Toronto. Camille divides her time between Connecticut and the South of France. This is her first novel.

This is a story told in parallel chapters in different time zones across a family generation - from the grandmother as a young woman and then the granddaughter learning about her family's history.

Set in 1936 a 17 year old Ondine who helps in the kitchen in her family cafe in France is to bring meals to the famous artist Picasso every day. I both loved and loathed Picasso but found his art very interesting and even learning of his womanizing ways was quite intriguing. Ondine was such a strong woman for her time and lived an interesting life and I loved her part of the story.

Set in the 21th century young Celine who is Ondine's granddaughter and lives in New York tells the other part of the story. When Celine's mother becomes ill she travels back to France to learn the history of their family particularly about her grandmother. Add to this an entertaining cooking school with a famous chef and Celine on a soul searching mission and you have yourself a very interesting modern day story.

The chapters flowed seamlessly together and were told by such strong and likable female characters, the writing was just brilliant and it kept me engaged and interested until the very end. I admit I was drawn to this book initially because of the element of food and it really delivered on that -  from traditional French cooking to a modern day cooking school - this really added a point of difference to the story and will appeal to food lovers.

Being that the story is set in France this is a perfect holiday read and on my recent Indonesian holiday it was my faithful poolside companion!

I recommend this book to anyone who likes art, food and the romance of France - you will love this book.

I give this book 5 stars out of  5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give up a bottle of the worlds best champagne for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Cooking For Picasso can be purchased from the author here or Harper Collins Australia

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here and Netgalley

Disclosure:  NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote authors and their books and I was given this ebook published by Harper Collins Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

For exclusive extras and daily updates ... follow Jarrah Jungle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

[1st image via Harper Collins Australia and 2nd image my own]

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Courtyard Garden Update: Outdoor Furniture

I had visions of how I wanted to design our courtyard garden with a beautiful lounge setting, outdoor rug, bar cart .... all I needed was a cabana boy and the fantasy would have been perfect!

But the reality is with our courtyard being open to all the elements, whilst it has a shade sail this is made from a fabric which lets the sunlight the rain through so it's not as protected as say a solid roofed patio area would be.

Plus it is at the front of the house and people walking past or cars driving by can see in so I didn't want to go too over the top with flashy furniture and decor out here - I'll save that for the backyard and deck area which will be completely private and with a patio roof so protected from the elements as well.

So I had to be sensible about the type of furniture and decor I picked for the courtyard.

I picked these acapulco chairs for a few reasons - they are modern and add a splash of colour and there is no fabric on the chairs so they won't get damaged in the rain and weather (a few outdoor cushions adds a bit of colour and I picked them up for $6 each so if they don't last I won't be too worried!).

The chairs were a bargain from Kmart - I got the blue chairs about 2 years ago for around $30 each and the black double chairs on sale for $29 each.

Once we had sealed the courtyard pavers to protect them and the shade sail was installed it was time for the fun part of setting up the outdoor furniture.

The chairs are really lightweight and so easy to move around so I set this up one weekend while Mr P was busy helping a friend. The ceramic stool is a perfect little side table and I found it at Bunnings on sale for $10 - I have 3 more ceramic stools in the house in different colours which I may bring outside as well.

We have been sitting out here in the late afternoon after work enjoying the last of the suns rays and watching the sunset.

I'm still on the look out for some nice feature pots and plants to add some greenery and the veggie and herb gardens need some more plants and TLC as well and then the courtyard garden is pretty much finished.

What style of outdoor furniture do you love .... lounges, chairs, a hammock, something else? 



Sharing with link parties:

Curly Crafty Mom - The Creative Corner
The Dedicated House

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

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[All images my own]

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