Griffiths Coffee - And The Winner Is .....

Thank you to everyone who entered my Griffith's Coffee giveaway to win 5 tins of deliciously roasted, blended and packaged Just Fair Coffee from Griffiths Coffee in Melbourne.

 

I loved reading your comments on how you had your coffee some were very clever and it just goes to show you don't stand between a coffee lover and how we like our coffee!

 

 

Thanks to Rafflecopter this giveaway was easy to pick a winner ..... And the winner is Vanessa of An Instant On The Lips congratulations!

 

I will be in touch with you Vanessa to arrange for your coffee lovers pack from Griffiths Coffee to be sent to you.
 

 

I also want to say a big welcome to my new readers - I'm so happy you're here!

 

If you want to get to know a bit more about me and what I blog about head on over here.

 

Have a peek through my house and all the renovations we've done to date on our 1960s West Australian retro beauty over here.

 

Like most Taurean's I have a creative streak and you can find my craft, creative and decorative projects here.  

It's not just coffee I love, it's also cocktails, wine and great food and you can view my recipes, entertaining ideas and party plans here.

 

I'm also a bit of a book nerd and do reviews of books I've read at my monthly book club meet up and for Random House Australia and NetGalley that you can read more about here.

 

Thanks again for entering everyone!

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


[All images my own]

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Book Review and Preview: Vibrant Food By Kimberley Hasselbrink

This is a book review and preview of the cook book Vibrant Food by Kimberley Hasselbrink that is due to be published on 17 June 2014.

This book is written by photographer and food blogger Kimberley Hasselbrink who has a blog called The Year In Food which as the name implies is a blog about a year of inspired, creative cooking and eating with an emphasis on seasonal fruit and vegetables.

This is a cook book all about the ingredients, recipes and colors of each season.

Kimberley used colourful ingredients, texture and taste to build the recipes in the book.

The photographs are also taken by Kimberley and as the name would suggest are absolutely bursting with colour and vibrancy, the photos are really beautiful.

The book is set out in 4 chapters, according to the seasons and the produce that is available then - Spring; Summer; Fall and Winter.

The dishes are simple, healthy and packed with flavour and I can see myself making quite a few. There's also drink recipes like Rose Sangria and Pimms Cup that look rather amazing.

The book really tries to encourage cooking meals with produce that's in season - this is because you get th best, freshest, vegetables and fruit when they're in season.

With the author being American, some of the ingredients aren't that common for us Australian cooks but I think you could improvise with something similar or just omit it from the recipe.

I recommend this book to those cook book lovers who go for the pictures in a book, you will be hooked by the vibrancy of this book's images and the simplicity of the recipes you can easily make at home.

I give this book 4 stars

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 re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

Vibrant Food can be purchased from Random House here

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: NetGalley and Random House partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their product. As part of this promotion I was given this eBook to review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. I have not been told what to say about this product, I am free to form my own opinion and share them in my own words. All opinions are my own.

 

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


[Image 1 via Random House and Image 2 via The Kitchn]

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Laundry Renovation - The Final Design

We've been planning our laundry renovation here and there, amongst a zillion other home improvement projects we are working on this year, and have now decided on the room layout, cabinetry, bench top and tiling and drawn up our final design plan for the room.

 

Armed with our inspirational folder of ideas and an icy cold beer Mr P was in charge of putting pencil to paper and drawing the plan to scale because apparently my drawings always look like a school kid did them! Pfffft how rude!!

 

 

We even worked out the finer details of the design, like where the splash back tiling will go and the layout of the feature mosaics.

 

I liked this part because it was an excuse to draw on the wall to visualise the layout of the bench top, splash back and overhead cupboards.

 

 

The beauty of renovating means I can have the overhead cupboards a bit lower because I'm a little vertically challenged and need to reach inside them, instead of the standard height which is a bit too high for me!

 

We debated whether to go with a Cabinet Maker Vs Flat Pack Cabinets and have decided to go with the flat packs, they are cheaper and we are up for the challenge of putting them together and installing them.

 

We went through all the flat pack options from the different stores and this is our final laundry cupboard and storage design: 

2 x 600 overhead cupboards

1 x 600 base cupboard
1 x 150 base cupboard with pull out caddy

 

It's a simple neat design with plenty of storage ... exactly what I want and we desperately need!

 

 

For the sink we are going with a standard steel trough with a tap mixer that comes off the side of the sink. I did write a big long blog post about our choices but then shit happened and I lost all my work! But I will show you what we picked when I unpack it in the next few weeks. 

 

For the laundry bench top - we have picked out a rustic butcher block type bench top. I was a little concerned about using wood in a wet area but we have done our research and so long as they are sealed and re-sealed each year they will be protected. This gorgeous wood against the white cabinetry and splash back tile is going to look so striking I can't wait to see it come together!

 

 

We've purchased all the flat pack cabinets and handles and will start to put them together soon so we are ready to install them when the time comes.

I've watched far too many people put flat packs together on TV shows and it always takes so much longer than you think so I don't want us to be caught out like that too! I'll do a blog post about exactly what we chose and how it worked out for us soon for anyone else wanting to go on the DIY flat pack journey.

Now that we have our design worked out we can get the sledgehammer out and get into some demolition baby! We are ripping out the entire laundry and toilet/powder room next weekend!

I will  keep you updated with daily snippets of our progress on my Facebook and Instagram so be sure to follow me over there so you don't miss out on any of the dusty, dirty, but oh so satisfying work!

What do you think of our laundry room design?

You can see my Laundry/Powder Room renovation progress posts here:

Laundry Renovation - Wood Look Bench Top

Laundry Renovation - Flat Packs Vs Cabinet Maker

Powder Room Renovation - It's All In The Flush

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity: Take Two

Laundry Renovation - Picking The Tiles

Laundry Before - Our 1960s Laundry/Toilet

edesign Mood Board for the Laundry

Renovating - 5 tips for planning and designing

 

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Home Coming - The DIYers
The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday




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


[All images my own]


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Powder Room Renovation - It's All In The Flush

Oh yes I have one heck of a sexy topic to write about today .... the toilet .... or powder room if you want to sound fancy! That white throne upon which we all spend some time of our day needs it's own blog post and here it is!
 

As you can see our current toilet sits quite a way off the wall, the plumbing is ugly, it's only a single flush and even that doesn't work all that well because of the old pipes.
 

This toilet is being replaced with a sleek ceramic back to wall designed toilet - the back to wall style will give us about 5cm more space in the powder room which is a huge amount in such a tiny room.
 

But it's not just how a toilet looks that is important it's also how it flushes!
 

Our new toilet will have a dual flush system - as most new toilets do nowadays. This means you can chose a half or full flush. The half uses half the amount of water and is the better one to use if you are water saving savvy like us Australians should be. The full flush should only be used when you need a full flush of water ... I'm not going to go into specifics I'm sure you get the picture!

 

There's a third flush option that I read Cameron Diaz said once and it's stuck with me all these years ... if it's yellow let it mellow. You can work that one out for yourselves as well! But if it's good enough for the gorgeous Cameron it should be good enough for us!


 

When we were looking at toilets we checked the WELS rating and features to find out how many litres of water per flush the toilet will use. The higher the WELS rating, the more water efficient the toilet. Pretty much all the toilets we looked at had exactly the same WELS rating.

 

When you think of those poor kids in third world countries walking for miles to fetch fresh water and here us Westerners are literally flushing fresh water down the toilet it makes sense to think about saving water.

 

Toilets really vary in price too, and like anything you get what you pay for. A cheap $150 plastic fantastic isn't going to be the nicest thing to sit on and the plumbing inside is going to wear out quicker.

Our Toilet RRPs at $469 and was on special for $439 and we had a discount voucher so paid just $351.20 in total not a bad saving there! We bought it from Masters.

 

All of these images are of our new toilet - Milano back to wall toilet suite, it's ceramic, has a soft close lid, contoured seat, sits quite high and is modern and square shaped. The sides are smooth with not too many ridges which will make cleaning a lot easier too.
  

So my water savvy readers remember there are 3 flushes ... Half, Full and if it's Yellow let it Mellow!

That's yet another item ticked of the Laundry/Powder Room renovation to do list ... we are getting there!

You can see my Laundry/Powder Room renovation progress posts here:

Laundry Renovation - Wood Look Bench Top

Laundry Renovation - Flat Packs Vs Cabinet Maker

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity

Powder Room Renovation - Basin and Vanity: Take Two

Laundry Renovation - Picking The Tiles

Laundry Before - Our 1960s Laundry/Toilet

edesign Mood Board for the Laundry

Renovating - 5 tips for planning and designing

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays

Home Coming - The DIYers
The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday

 

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


[All images my own]

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Griffiths Coffee - Product Review and Giveaway

Since having my own coffee machine at home I have really come to appreciate the taste of good coffee. I grind my own beans so they are fresh and fragrant, fill the coffee maker up by hand, press the button and patiently wait for the coffee to come trickling out of the machine and into my cup.

So when Griffiths Coffee sent me some coffee to try as well as offering a Giveaway pack for my coffee loving readers I was counting down the days for my taste testing to begin!

 

 

Griffiths Coffee was established in 1879 in Melbourne and impressively still remains an 100% Australian owned coffee roaster business. The coffee is sourced and imported from South America, Asia and Africa and the coffee beans are shipped back to Melbourne where they are roasted, blended and packaged for sale to coffee lovers all over Australia. 

 

Griffiths Coffee produce Just Fair Coffee and is the only Fair Trade organic coffee on the market that comes in a reusable and fully recyclable tin. The tins are really cool and would make great holders for everything from pens to flowers. The coffee keeps so much fresher in a tin too and I don't have coffee grains scattered all over my kitchen like I seem to with packet coffee! 

 

 

Another clever idea is for anyone who wants to know where in the world your coffee comes from you can find out on the Just Fair Coffee website by tracing the source of the beans.

All you do is type in the used by code on the tin and it will show you where the beans came from and what initiatives are supported with the purchase of that coffee. It's good to know you are supporting the countries the coffee is grown in and the farmers received a fair price and treatment for their product.

  

While I usually grind my own beans, my coffee grinder is currently broken so I opted to try the ground coffee. Now, let's get this taste test happening shall we!

I'm mostly an espresso girl or as us Aussie's refer to it a short black. That little shot of coffee goodness gets me up and going first thing in the morning and I don't even have sugar in mine as I find it takes away from the flavour and intensity of the coffee taste. I tried the Just Fair Organic Espresso which smelt amazing and had a strong roasted flavour and a lovely layer of crema on top which is the sign of a damn good coffee!

 

On the weekends when I'm home renovating and DIY-ing I usually need a coffee pick me up late afternoon to get me through to the evening. For this I had a double shot of the Just Fair Organic Decaffeinated which again came out with a lovely crema on top and when stirred went nice and dark. This blend had a more subtle roasted flavour, a smooth taste and was easy to drink.

 

 

 

Now for the fun part, thanks to Griffiths Coffee I have 5 x 250g tins of Just Fair Coffee valued at $65 to giveaway to one lucky reader.

 

 

To enter the giveaway just complete the options on the Rafflecopter form

and leave a comment answering the giveaway question:

Coffee lovers please tell me, how do you like your coffee?

 

Giveaway open to Australian Residents only. Giveaway ends on 17 June 2014, 5am WST. Winner will be drawn at random on Rafflecopter and must have answered the question and completed all mandatory fields on Rafflecopter. The winner will be contacted and announced shortly thereafter.

 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/6c7f582/

 

Good luck everyone!

Disclosure: Griffiths Coffee partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their product. As part of this promotion I received this product to review and products to giveaway. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. I have not been told what to say about this product, I am free to form my own opinion and share them in my own words. All opinions are my own. Prize will be posted to winner within Australia direct from company. This prize cannot be exchanged for money.

 

 

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


[All images my own]

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Book Review and Preview: The Unknown Women by Jacqueline Lunn

This is a book review and preview of the book The Unknown Women by Jacqueline Lunn that was recently published on 1 May 2014.

Jacqueline was born in Brisbane and after living in London and New York, now calls Sydney home. She writes a weekly column for The Sydney Morning Herald and this is her second novel.

This is the story of Lilith a 40 something wife and mother who lives in suburban Sydney and is trying to work out who she is and what she wants from life.

Her kids are at school, her husbands a workaholic, her father's in a nursing home, she spies on her new neighbors, and she doesn't seem to even like spending time with her friends.

On the outside she looks like the perfect housewife, running errands, going shopping, picking up the kids from school, looking after her family. But on the inside Lilith is a completely different character, who is uncertain about who she is and what she wants from life. She seemed very lost and isolated, even though she has a comforting family home.

To be honest I found this book a little depressing. I felt sorry for Lilith most of the way through, especially when her kids didn't appreciate all that she did for them. I just wanted to give her a shake and tell to get out there and start living her life!

I recommend this book to those that like contemporary fiction and who have an interest in a modern day Australian family.

I give this book 2 stars

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 re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

The Unknown Woman can be purchased from Random House here

Sharing my book review on Good Reads here

Disclosure: NetGalley partner with bloggers such as me to help promote their product. As part of this promotion I was given this eBook published by Random House Australia to review. I have not received any payment or compensation for this review. I have not been told what to say about this product, I am free to form my own opinion and share them in my own words. All opinions are my own.

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


[Image via Random House]

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Slow Cooker Recipes - For All Seasons

I usually only use my Slow Cooker in the cooler months but as some of my overseas readers have pointed out on my latest recipe Slow Cooker Sausage Stroganoff, it's a good idea to put the Slow Cooker on in the warmer months too because then you don't need to put the oven on which heats up the house and the air conditioner has to work even harder to cool the house down!

 

There's no love going into a meal when you're all hot and sweaty and cooking in a humid kitchen!

 

So these recipes are for us Aussies now in Winter and seeking comfort food and for my awesome overseas readers in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom where it is heating up for Summer and you want to stay cool while cooking dinner.

 

Slow Cooked Apple and Cider Pork

 

 

Pork, Prune and Port Casserole

 

 

Slow Cooker Beef in Soy and Orange Sauce

 

 

Chilli Beef

 

 

Thai Red Chicken Curry

 

 

Moroccan Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemon

 

 

I have a bowl full of fresh lemons at home so I'm going to try the Moroccan Chicken this weekend

 

Do you use your Slow Cooker in all Seasons?

 

You can find all these recipes on Taste or on my Pinterest - Recipe Board

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


[All images via Taste]

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