Celeb Best Blog

While the Summer weather is still so glorious, I'm trying to get out in the garden as much as possible. MOTH spent all day yesterday doing his monthly Business Activity Statement, so couldn't join me in the garden or work on the Bathroom (many thanks to our wonderful Federal Govt.!). As he's resisted all move to keep his business records electronically, the absence of our critically ill computer was of no consequence to him. He still uses ledger books, a feather pen, a bottle of ink & an abacus. The scene in our dining room while he does this has a distinct Dickensonian feel about it.


I really like Garden Architect David Pfeiffer's simple philosphy on gardens. He really believes in creating a strong connection between the house interior & exterior. And these images of his work certainly confirm that. His practical use of edibles like grapes over a dining arbour & co-opting blueberry bushes & strawberry plants in the borders to do double duty as ornamentals makes perfect sense to me.

Images: David Pfeiffer & Traditional Home

Here are some Hot New Long Celebrity Hairstyle pictures for you.
New Long Celebrity Haircuts

A celebrity hairstyle can be great for your image if you know how to choose the right style. Taking a celebrity hairstyle and making it your own can also give you a fresh exclusive look. We all know that looking good means feeling good, so a fresh new trendy hairstyle will do wonders for your confidence.

celebrity hairstyles. There are so many variations of hairstyles from short to long, in a range of colors that can be found on celebrities and they have access to the ebst professionals in the business of hair design to ensure that they are on top of the latest styles, which can cause celebrity hairstyles to be one of the largest sources of information for everyone seeking a new hairstyle. Through the use of hairstyles which are created, the individual often takes advice from celebrity Updos, throughout the various red carpet events which can be found throughout the year.

How often do we stare at the pictures of celebrities and wish their looks be ours? We wish to copy their hairstyles in a bid to look more glamorous. Copying celebrity hairstyles is not a tough task in today’s world.…

Heidi Klum is a German model, actress, TV presenter, fashion designer, television producer and occasional singer. She is also the hostess of Project Runway and Germany's Next Topmodel, and is known for her modeling work with Victoria's Secret.

Short celebrity hairstyles are in vogue, firstly because these hairstyles are easy to manage and hardly take any time to get set and be on the go. Another reason why short hairstyles are much in vogue are because sheer number of hairstyles that are available for short hair.

• Gutting & scaling 6 dozen fish straight from the esky after a big day out on the boat with Da Boys.


• Rinsing thousands of buckets of disgusting nappies.


• Washing all 95kgs. of Miss Pyrenean Mountain Dog.


• Soaking all the filthy BBQ plates & racks.


• Rinsing the dirt from the many baskets of MOTH's beautiful freshly dug spuds (Tassie Pink Eyes are his specialty).


• Cleaning the paint from the Super-Long roller brushes.


• Soaking a King Size blanket & doona.


• Hosing down a screaming, wriggling, slippery mud-covered toddler.


• Soaking the entire Little League team's footy guernseys.


• Holding 4 bags of ice, 6 dozen beer & a dozen champers on Christmas Day.


• Rinsing the hardened crud from hundreds of buckets of MOTH's Secret Recipe plasterboard & cornice cement.

Image: Pursley

As much as I would want it otherwise, I don't have a creative side to my personality. I am happiest analyzing, mentally deconstructing, then reconstructing & presenting solutions. I'm a 'Thinker'. And over the Christmas vacation I was doing a lot of thinking on the beach. Thinking about this blog.

What's it all about, where is it going, where do I really want it to go, the content, the format, the look, but more than anything I was thinking about you. The loyal band of blog brothers & sisters who are The Laurel Hedge. Those of you who have been here since my first post, who still come by each day. I adore you, each & every one of you. Then those who've followed a trail here through others & have stayed as well. Lovely, lovely people that you are. And then there are those who will come by in the future & join in, an exciting thought. I have a responsibility to you all & that's what I was thinking about the most. Not that it worries me, quite the opposite. I really enjoy the ritual of thinking about & writing a daily post. It's added a balance to my left brain world that was missing.

But what I truly enjoy the most is seeing what others have to say. And that got me thinking some more. What is it that attracts me to their blog, what makes me want to become a regular reader & most importantly, what, if anything can I contribute. I guess it's only human nature to wonder if a comment I left did make a difference. Well this week I had my question answered here at Renee's post. The criteria for The Real Award is as follows:

This is an award is for those who are brave enough
to expose just enough to
reach, touch, and possibly help someone else
to see something differently.

I am giving this award to only 3 blogs.

.....passionfruit that is! It's the height of the season & they are spectacular. Ripe, plump, juicy, sweet, highly perfumed & only $2.99 for a bag of 12. MOTH & I have had many a pleasure over the kitchen sink this past week, slurping away at as many passionfruit as our tummies will allow. So because I'm passionate about our amazing country, I thought I'd celebrate this special day with the joys of passionfruit & the Banana & Passionfruit Curd Pavlova is on the menu here at The Hedge today.

Passionfruit Yo-Yos with White Chocolate and Passionfruit Ganache

Makes 24
Yo-yos
180 gm. butter, softened
90 gm. pure icing (powdered) sugar
80 mls. (1/3 cup) passionfruit juice (see note)
225 gm. (1½ cups) plain flour

100 gm. (2/3 cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
White chocolate and passionfruit ganache
90 mls. pouring cream
45 mls. passionfruit juice (see note)
2 pieces lemon rind removed with a peeler
180 gms. white chocolate finely chopped

1. For the ganache, combine cream, juice and rind in a saucepan and bring just to the boil over medium-high heat. Place chocolate in a bowl, strain over hot cream mixture, whisk until smooth and refrigerate for 4 hours or until thick.

2.Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, add juice and combine. Add flours and mix until just combined, then turn onto a floured surface, form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3.Preheat oven to 180C. Roll out pastry to 8mm thick and, using a 3cm-diameter cutter, cut rounds from pastry and place on baking paper-lined oven trays. Press scraps into a ball, re-roll and repeat. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just golden, cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

4.Spread half the biscuits with a teaspoon each of ganache, sandwich with remaining biscuits and stand until set. Uniced yo-yos will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container.

Note: To make passionfruit juice, blend passionfruit pulp in a food processor to crack seeds, then strain through a fine sieve. Twelve passionfruit yield about 1 cup of juice.

Lemonade and Passionfruit Icy Poles (Popsicles)

Makes 12
500 mls. (2 cups) Traditional Lemonade (Schweppes) or Bitter Lemon soft drink (Soda)
12 iceblock (popsicle) sticks
12 passionfruit, pulp only
1 vanilla bean, coarsely chopped
200 mls. sugar syrup (see note)
2 limes, juice only

1.Divide lemonade among twelve ½-cup capacity dariole moulds or disposable cups and stand for 10 minutes to allow bubbles to subside. Place on a tray and freeze for 2-3 hours, then insert an iceblock stick into each one and freeze overnight.

2.In a food processor process the passionfruit pulp and vanilla bean to crack passionfruit seeds, then pass through a fine sieve into a bowl, discarding solids. Measure 210mls. of passionfruit juice and combine with sugar syrup, lime juice and 2/3 cup water. Refrigerate until cold, then divide among moulds or cups with lemonade and freeze overnight. Unmould and serve.

Note: To make sugar syrup, combine an equal quantity of sugar and water in a saucepan and boil for 1 minute. One cup each of sugar and water will make 1½ cups sugar syrup which will keep indefinitely refrigerated in a sterile container.

Banana and Passionfruit Curd Pavlova

Serves 8

2 teaspoons cornflour (cornstarch), plus extra for dusting
6 eggs, separated (& yolks reserved for passionfruit curd)
2 egg whites
330 gms. (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 bananas, thinly sliced

Melted butter for brushing
To serve:
pulp of 2-3 passionfruits
Passionfruit curd
250 mls. passionfruit pulp (about 12 passionfruit)
55 gms. (1/4 cup) caster sugar
150 gms. salted butter softened & coarsely chopped
300 mls. thickened cream

1.Preheat oven to 120C. Line two oven trays with foil. Brush with melted butter, dust with cornflour, shake off excess and set aside.

2. Whisk eggwhites in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually adding sugar until thick and glossy and sugar dissolves (4-5 minutes). Add cornflour and vinegar, whisking until just combined. Spread half the meringue into a 19cm x 28cm rectangle on one lined oven tray and smooth top with a palette knife. Repeat with remaining meringue on other tray and loosely peak top. Bake for 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 100C and bake until meringue is dry and cracks when lightly pressed (30 minutes). Turn off oven and cool in oven with door ajar.

3. Meanwhile, for the passionfruit curd, process pulp in a food processor to release pulp from seeds, then strain through a fine strainer to yield 250ml juice. Transfer to a heatproof bowl, add reserved egg yolks, sugar and butter, whisk to combine. Stir continuously over a saucepan of simmering water until thickened (3-5 minutes). Cover with plastic wrap, set aside to cool, then refrigerate until firm (2-3 hrs).

4. Lay banana slices on top of flat meringue. Whisk cream until soft peaks form, then fold in curd and spoon mixture over meringue base. Top with remaining meringue and serve drizzled with extra passionfruit pulp.

Passionfruit Semifreddo

Serves 10

8 egg yolks
250 gms. caster sugar
250 mls. (1 cup) passionfruit juice (see note)
scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean
juice of 1 lime
300gms. double cream
150mls. pouring cream, lightly whipped
pulp of 2 passionfruit, plus extra to serve

1. Whisk egg yolks in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (5-7 minutes). Meanwhile, stir sugar, passionfruit juice and vanilla seeds in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves, then simmer until syrupy (4-5 minutes) and add to egg yolks with lime juice, whisking continuously until mixture is cold (5-6 minutes).

2. Combine creams in a bowl, whisk until soft peaks form. Fold into passionfruit mixture, fold in pulp, spoon into an 8cm x 22cm plastic-lined rectangular cake tin, smoothing top (there may be mixture left over), freeze overnight until firm. Slice thickly and serve with extra pulp spooned over.

Note: To extract passionfruit juice, process pulp in a food processor, then strain through a sieve (discard solids). Eighteen passionfruit yield about 250ml juice.

Matt Moran's Baked Passionfruit Tartlets

Serves 6

Filling:
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
150 gms. caster sugar
150mls. pouring cream
200mls. strained passionfruit pulp, from about 20-30 passionfruit
icing (powdered) sugar to serve

Sweet Pastry:
225gms. unsalted butter
100gms. icing (powdered) sugar
375 gms. (2½ cups) plain (all purpose) flour
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1. For the pastry, mix the butter, sugar and flour in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add the egg and combine until a dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to rest for 2 hours in the refrigerator.

2. Preheat the oven to 160C. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry to 3mm thick and use to line six 8cm-diameter tart tins, then place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Line pastry-lined tins with baking paper, then fill with pastry weights, dried chickpeas or rice, and blind-bake for 15 minutes. Remove weights and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden. While still warm, fill any cracks with leftover pastry, then brush the insides of the tartlet shells with the beaten egg yolk and return to the oven for 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

3. Reduce the oven temperature to 120C. To make the filling, lightly mix together the eggs, egg yolk and caster sugar in a bowl until sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cream and passionfruit juice and then strain through a fine sieve into a jug. Pour the filling into the tartlet shells and bake for 10-15 minutes or until just set – the filling should still wobble slightly in the centre. Leave to cool to room temperature.

4. Just before serving, dust the tarts with icing sugar and caramelise with a blowtorch or under a very hot grill.

Images & recipes: Gourmet Traveller

On Saturday, while fossicking around in a wardrobe for something else, I stumbled across a storage box that had escaped the Great Magazine Purge of 2006. Grabbing a coffee & a comfy seat, I just couldn't resist a quick flick through before tossing them in the recycle bin. The year was 1998, an eventful year for many things - President Bill Clinton said 'I want to say one thing to the American people, I did not have sexual relations with that woman Miss Lewinsky', Apple introduced the iMac, 76 million viewers watched the last episode of Seinfeld, Google was launched, Ginger Spice announced that she was leaving the Spice Girls, Viagra received FDA approval, France won the World Cup & President Bill Clinton said 'I did have sexual relations with that woman Miss Lewinsky'.

And it seems we had a love affair with colour in our homes. Not just one colour, but as many as we could possibly use in one room with 4 walls. They say everything that goes around comes around, but I'm fervently praying to the God Of Interior Design please, please, make sure this look doesn't undergo any form of 'resurrection' - the shock would be all too much for me!!

Pink walls, yellow walls, red curtains, green tablecloth, blue glasses & brown & black floral pillows.

To quote the Home Owner - 'It has been fascinating explaining to people what we have done. Their lips curl up.....but then they see it!

I'd love to know how long it was before this kitchen received a 're-do'. If you are the present Owner, we'd sure love to hear from you.

Red rules here.

'In the dining room I decided to go completely over the top.' she said. No further comment is needed!

'Adorable' use of of purple to accent the skirting (base) boards against the blue walls.

Busy is as busy does.

I'm too dumb-founded to make any comment.

Interesting (read as overwhelming!) use of a purple/blue mix in the kitchen. Accented by the yellow curtains, one green & one yellow chair & an orange pillow thrown in for good measure.

'Hmmm, blue walls, yellow chair upholstery, dark wood armoire, lamps, granite sculptural piece, side tables, mauve sofa, old trunk, leopard print pillow, harlequin pillow, pink pillow, blue pillow, red gerberas, black & white check throw & zebra print rug - did I forget anything?'

All the furniture was HUGE! Oh & what a unique look we have here, each of the sofa chairs is a different colour.

BIG yellow chairs against the murky red walls.

More BIG chairs & BIG coffee tables & the compulsory dried flower arrangements.

More BIG chairs & a mind-blowing purple wall.

This sofa is SOOOO BIG, I would have had to take a running leap/jump just to land my backside squarely on those fat pillows & then would probably roll straight off again!

Any fess-ups as to what you were doing with your rooms in '98?

Images & with a big apology to New Zealand House & Garden.

MOTH & I saw George's new movie Up in the Air yesterday & absolutely loved it!! In fact MOTH was so caught up in it, he didn't wriggle in his seat once. So in recognition of this once-in-a-lifetime event, I need to give George the No Wriggling Award for services to theatregoers everywhere. Let me know a time that's convenient & I'll organize a presentation luncheon - anyone interested? And kudos also to Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for adapting Walter Kirn's original novel so eloquently. The script was tight, punchy, ever so thought-provoking & with just the right amount of quirkiness. A must see.

Thank you to the lovely Rita over at A Refocused Life for my Happy 101 Award. Rita's blog is so stylish & elegant & her posts are always such a treat. If you haven't been over to visit Rita, stop reading this & head over right now!


Thank you to Jeanne from Collage of Life for my Kreativ Blogger Award. Jeanne came onto the Blog scene last year & posts on her adventures relocating her family from one side of the world to the other. They make for fascinating reading.