Hello everyone! I have moved my blog over to Wordpress…I will still post on here, I think I will post simultaneously, but from now on, check out www.bakereadblog.wordpress.com for all my baking and book reviews!

I asked for, and received, both Julie Goodwin’s cookbooks for Christmas. Masterchef just wasn’t the same after season one and Julie’s win. The contestants got abit….annoying. Less homey, more “cheffy” (I know, bad English) and ultra competitive! 

I was flicking through the most recent of her cookbooks, “The Heart of the Home” (pictured below) and came across a recipe for caramel slice. I’m not a complicated baker so I almost skipped the caramel slice recipe all together because caramel slice is bound to be hard, right?

UM, WRONG. I turned and said to Mr W’s Mum (we were at his parents place) and said “have you got golden syrup and condensed milk still from Christmas?”. She said they did and I was off to bake this delicious childhood treat. 

Except….I stuffed it up. The recipe calls for four tins of condensed milk, and I didn’t read it properly and turns out, Mr W’s Mum only had one tin. By the time I realised this, I was already baking the base in the oven and couldn’t turn back.

Mr W’s Mum (a seasoned baker!) said it should be fine, and four tins would probably make it incredibly rich. So I continued on…and it DID turn out fine. Probably would have been abit better with two tins of condensed milk, but I think the four would have been too much for me. 

Julie’s caramel slice from the book looks like this:

Mine, definitely DID NOT look that good. I was so flustered by my mistake that I didn’t take any photos of the end result. Tasted good though!

Here’s Julie’s recipe:

Here it is in a clearer form:

Ingredients

Biscuit base

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

80g butter, melted

Caramel filling

4 x 395g tins condensed milk (I actually think 2 might work better and don’t use the low fat stuff)

1/2 cup golden syrup

100g butter

Topping

150g dark chocolate

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees or 160 degrees fan forced oven.
2. Grease a 26x17cm slice tin and line the base with baking paper. Leave some baking paper hanging over the long sides of the tin. This will help lift the slice out.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, coconut and brown sugar. Add the melted butter and mix well. Press mixture into base of prepared tin, evenly and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. (also, this will depend on whether you have an electric or gas oven)
4. Put the condensed milk, golden syrup and butter in a saucepan and stir until the mixture is a light golden brown. This should take about 20 minutes over medium heat. 
5. Pour the mixture over the base and return it to the oven for another 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
6. Melt the chocolate and oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until smooth and well combined. Pour it over the caramel filling (note: Julie says to do this once the caramel has cooled, but I don’t think I bothered and it was fine) and spread to cover evenly. 
7. Put the slice in the fridge for at least three hours and then cut up into pieces. 

Hope you like it! I loved it. Almost ate the whole lot. No wonder my pants are tight. You can, and should, buy “The Heart of the Home” from here. 

I have no idea how I saw this novel or why I put it on hold at the library. I think I must have seen it in Good Reading or Cosmopolitan, maybe. It’s been out for awhile, and the one I read had this cover here:

I think, when it first came out, it had this cover here, which is abit chick lit generic looking (good English on my part):

Personally, I prefer the cover of the one I read, but obvioussslllyyy, I wouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover!

Rachel is a twenty something make up artist, living with her boyfriend Simon in a flat they have purchased together. Rachel is a chronic list maker (she must be a Capricorn, because my best friend is a Capricorn and is a fanatic list maker), and feels that the next two things to tick off her list are, you guessed it, wedding and babies.

Except, predictably, Rachel’s world comes crashing down when Simon ends their relationship. Her best friends Emilie and Matthew intervene, and come up with (drunkenly, in the pub one night), a “do to” list for Rachel to complete before her father’s wedding.

I must admit, I couldn’t help but like this book. Predictable, but still FUN nonetheless. The boyfriend, Simon is a complete ninny. I actually felt sick for poor Rachel and was nodding along with her devastation after the break up.  

There are so really funny moments in the book, during this quest to complete the “to do” list, and some really lovely moments in the friendship trio. It ends predictably, but it is still a nice read, nonetheless. Something I would recommend for an easy breezy summer beach read! I give it 2.5/5 biscuits!

I know I don’t usually write about anything other than baking and book review on here. But I recently acquired Julie Goodwin’s cookbooks for Christmas and have been giving them a whirl. I’ve been a fan of Julie’s since she won Masterchef series one. 

Ros Reines (the first I had ever heard of her), a Sunday Telegraph journalist, made waves yesterday when she published an article commenting on Julie’s recent New Idea cover (below).

Basically, Ros said that Julie is “irresponsible to pretend it’s fine to be overweight” and that:

“Unfortunately, any woman with a waist measurement of more than 80cm, like Goodwin, is putting themselves at risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

At 41, with three children, Goodwin owes it to herself and them to downsize and give Australian women another message - you can cook well and be trim.”

Let’s put aside the terrible writing, and look at the message she has sent to Goodwin and anyone who dare be overweight. The message she sends is that Ros (and everyone else) is permitted to make assumptions about your health, make derogatory comments about the state of your health and communicate those assumptions about your health, without actually having a single fucking clue about anything about you, other than your size. 

Ros apparently joined Jenny Craig (who coincidentally, offered Goodwin a sponsorship deal, which she rejected) and lost some 20 odd kilos. This is Ros now:

Clearly, Ros is a slim woman. I have no idea what she looked like before. Frankly, I don’t care. What I do care about is her absolutely appalling attack (and apparently it’s not the first time) on an overweight woman who dares get into her swimmers for a magazine cover.

Soon after, Twitter went mad with support for Goodwin as she tweeted her response to the article with this post in response on her blog.  She comments that:

“……………However, it fascinates me that my health can be commentated by someone who has absolutely no medical data on me (besides a picture of me in my swimmers – oh hang on, that’s not medical data).  Not my blood pressure, my fitness, physical strength, activity levels, stress levels, alcohol or drug consumption, genetic predispositions or socio-economic  circumstances – all of which contain health predictors*.  Even my weight is an unknown piece of medical data.  But then, there’s no point letting the facts stand in the way of a good sledging.

It is well and truly time that we stopped approaching health with a cookie-cutter mentality – as in, thinner = healthier, larger = unhealthier.  Of course obesity is unhealthy.   So is anorexia.  So is heroin addiction – but hey, you can really get thin that way.  Using size as the only indicator to someone’s health is facile.  It’s also dangerous as young girls opt for radical diet and drug options to be thin and fit the media’s portrayal of health and beauty”

And then this: 

“………We are simply not all made to be the same height, have the same eyes or teeth or hair, the same amount of muscle, the same intelligence, and on and on.  It is shallow to suggest that we are all the same in body type and only people who overeat and are lazy might be bigger than a magazine model.”

She certainly hits back at the suggestion by Reines that Goodwin owes it to herself and her children to “downsize”, saying that:

“……..As far as what I owe to myself and my children, I owe them food that is cooked from scratch, using as many fresh ingredients and as few additives as possible.  I owe them mealtimes around the family table.  I owe them the very best of myself, which includes (but is not limited to) keeping myself healthy via plenty of exercise, fresh air, fresh food and laughter.  I owe them a broad world view and an education that includes how to be a compassionate human being.  I owe them a safe home and a community surrounding them that loves them.  And I owe it to them to be self-confident and self-loving so that they can feel the same no matter whether or not they end up looking like Brad Pitt….”. 

It’s an articulate piece, written without vitriol or defensiveness. I highly recommend reading it in full. Showing a truly gracious attitude, after the waves of tweets in support of her post, she tweeted - “Folks - thanks so much for your support. Please no awful personal comments @tabloidterror - she’s doing her job, I’m responding -it’s all OK”.

When I read the tweets and Goodwin’s blog post, I couldn’t help but think “Seriously, not again, why are we still talking about this?” It is not ok for a journalist (or anyone for that matter) to use someone’s body as an example of what “not to” aspire to, and/or draw conclusions about the state of that person’s health without knowing a single thing about their state of health.  

I could not believe what had been written about Goodwin and the conclusions that had been drawn about her health, without (from what I can glean from Reines’ article and Goodwin’s response), any real knowledge on Reines’ part of Goodwin’s health, other than the fact she dare grace a magazine cover, as an overweight woman, in swimwear.  I mean, how does Reines’ even have a clue that Julie Goodwin’s waist measures more than 80cm? Maybe it doesn’t! She’s a pretty short lady, so it may NOT measure more than 80cm.

Fat, thin, short or tall, if it is not your body, and you know nothing about that person’s health, it is not your right to make assumptions about the state of their physical or mental wellbeing. 

As Goodwin states in her blog post above, she owes her children fresh food, cooked from scratch with few additives. I’ve got both of her cookbooks.  She has many pictures of her children and her husband throughout both. Her husband, and their children, are tall and skinny. 

Now, I may be making drawing a conclusion here, but I’m sure that Goodwin eats the same food as her husband and children. Considering she says that she owes her children “fresh food, cooked from scratch”, I very much doubt that her family is chowing down on salads, while she eats McDonalds. Her focus on Masterchef seemed to be home cooked, fresh, quality food she cooks for her family. So please tell me, if Goodwin is overweight because she stuffs her face with calorific food and doesn’t exercise, then why is her family, who probably eat the same food that she cooks, slim? Could it possibly be that it is because every body is different? 

Slim people can eat like shit and not exercise too you know. Eating badly and not exercising is of course, bad for everyone, we all know that. But it is always FAT PEOPLE who get demonised and the assumption made that they sit on their fat arse all day in front of the TV scoffing chips and pies. 

I’m just a single lawyer with an opinion about something. This “obesity” campaign really needs to rear it’s ugly head and have it a “health campaign”- focused on fresh, healthy nutritious food and exercise for everyone. Don’t just use a fat person as an example of poor nutrition and lack of exercise, use examples of EVERYONE who doesn’t treat their body properly. 

Oh BTW - I made Julie’s caramel slice recipe from her new book “The Heart of the Home” over the Christmas break. It was delicious. I stuffed it up abit, though. Blog post on that to come soon. You should buy her cookbooks too. They’re great. Shameless plug. 

Ok, ok, I KNOW I am one of the last ones to come to the table on this book. All of you have PROBABLY ALREADY READ THIS BOOK.

I ashamed, as a book enthusiast to admit that I had honestly NEVER heard of it until my best friend in England emailed me and told me I simply must read it and that it was being made into a movie with Anne Hathaway. 

(to save time for all of us, here are the two covers together:)

Apparently, One Day started out as a sleeper novel, that ended up taking off and having massive success due to “word of mouth”. I can’t for the life of me work out why, because it is brilliant. I suppose, many novels are brilliant and clever and don’t sell well, yet Danielle Steele and Stephanie whatzhername (who writes those vampire books) make squillions. 

Most of you probably know that this books follows twenty years of the relationship between Emma, and Dex, who share a bed on the night of their graduation from university in Scotland on 15 July 1988. Emma is a supremely intelligent, well, dag, and Dex is the cool kid in town, but he’s honestly, not very smart, and abit of a spoilt brat whose mummy and daddy him give him whatever he wants. 

The next twenty years of their lives and relationships follows. Most importantly is the relationship they have with each other, which, like most relationships, has ups and has it’s terrible downs. Dex is a serious dickhead for a long period in their twenties, and Emma, the “brilliant one”, can’t get her shit together and works in a Mexican fast food chain for over two years. 

The reviews have obviously said the same thing for years (the book was published in 2006), but the story is just so damn honest, and reaches you in such a way that you want to step into the pages and literally THROTTLE each of them at different times! It’s pretty simple really -friendships don’t always survive university, you have bad relationships, you drink too much, take too many drugs, career choices made at age 22 are not what you want at 30, loved ones die, and sometimes, you just fuck up. 

I watched the movie with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess about a week after finishing the book. I must admit, the movie is very true to the book, but I watched it with my other half, who had not read the book, and he needed some parts explained to him. I actually found the movie reasonably good, especially compared to most film adaptions of books (The Da Vinci Code, anyone?). Anne Hathaway’s British accept was terrible, but it was a good adaption. 

I loved this book. I will recommend it to everyone I know. 

Read more about the brilliant David Nicholls here. You can, and should, buy the book (even if as a present for someone) here. I give it 4/5 biscuits! 

Rosamund Lupton’s debut novel, Sister, was one of the best books I read in 2011. It drew me in, like a moth to a flame, I was hooked. I read it in about two days. So well written, such an excellent story and….well, if I add that bit, it will be a giveaway! 

I have had her latest novel, Afterwards, on hold at the library for awhile. It finally arrived just before I went on Christmas holidays. 

I was expecting big things from it, given how much I loved Sister. The synopsis for Afterwards is abit vague, and it is abit difficult to give you a summary of what it is about without giving too much of it away.

Here is a link to an extract from Afterwards. You’ll probably be hooked. I know, just call me the book seer. I accept payment in the form of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk!

In short, Afterwards is set in the aftermath of a fire in a school. Grace runs into the school when she realises her teenage daughter, Jenny, is trapped inside. 

I’ll give a little bit of the story away - Jenny and Grace are both seriously injured and taken to hospital. Both of them are close to death. Their “spirits”, I suppose you can call them, meet at the hospital and set out to find out who or what caused the fire, whether it was deliberate, or even worse, if Jenny was the one targeted. But it is NOT a ghost story. I did find this element of it quite odd, but at the end, it is necessary for the development of the storyline and, really, the ending to the novel. 

The book is really superb. It is well written, a suspenseful, emotional thriller that really explores the love and relationships between the characters and the strong ties of family.

However, I didn’t find it as completely compelling as Sister, and I was slightly disappointed. If you have read Sister, once you read Afterwards, you will understand what I’m talking about. 

All in all, I rate it 4/5 biscuits! 

I have been meaning to read this book forever. I had it out from the library, kept renewing it, and eventually had to return it, unread, because I had a pile about 20 deep to read! I put it on hold again, and was determined to read it over the Christmas break.

Dorothy Koomson is an English writer. She lived in Australia for awhile, but has returned to her native England. She has been writing all her life. Funny, I always find authors who have had alternative careers first before turning to writing to be most interesting. Maybe that is because I have a secret desire to become a published author and to work in my pyjamas from home! 

Anyway, the Woman He Loved Before was not what I expected. I expected one of those borderline chick lit/general fiction books (my favourite genre, sometimes the standard chick lit is simply…shit), but it really steered more towards the general fiction category. 

You could forgive me, for thinking it would be chick lit with a cover like this:

The book begins with Libby whom has been seriously injured in a car accident with her husband, Jack.

Their story begins to unfold and flashes back to the beginning of their relationship where Libby, a scientist-turned-beauty-therapist is attempting to buy a car. She meets Jack, whom she can’t stand, and he actively pursues her until she agrees to go out with him. I KNOW this sounds chick-litish, but bear with me!

The story flashes back and forth between Libby after the accident and their relationship beginnings.

It unfolds that Jack was married previously, and his wife, Eve, died in mysterious circumstances. The reader is automatically suspicious of Jack, and I personally thought that he had killed his former wife. 

Libby then discovers Eve’s story, and Eve’s story begins to unfold. This is when the book really kicks it up a notch and the reader finds it difficult to put down - you just want to find out more about Eve’s story. Eve’s story leads to Libby discovering a family secret, and putting herself in some serious danger.

I really liked this book. It took me by surprise, I wasn’t expecting the story to be so gripping. I figured out where it was going, about 3/4 of the way through the book, but there is one final twist at the end I didn’t expect. It is a great read. I will definitely be checking out more of Dorothy’s books from the library - she is on my new “to read” list. I would recommend reading this book over holidays or weekends when you have some spare time - when you read it before bed, you really don’t want to put it down and you end up very sleepy the next day! 

You can buy this book here and check out more of Dorothy’s books here. All in all I would give it 4/5 biscuits! 

So this is a recipe that I have inherited from my boyfriends mother. I’m not sure where it came from, but it is super delicious, and reasonably easy, once you get the hang of it - which can take awhile. It just takes a bit of time and practice. Getting it right will depend on whether you have an electric or gas stove top and adjusting your cooking times when you are cooking on a new stove top! 

Anyway, you only need three ingredients:

1. Can of condensed milk (the 400g or 395g one)

2. 125g unsalted butter

3. 1 cup sugar (I use caster, but you can use white if you haven’t got any caster, it will just take longer to dissolve).

Do you have a heavy based saucepan? They aren’t very common these days so be prepared for your caramel to have very dark caramel “bits” (basically burned sugar) in it. Don’t worry about it - it will still taste good!

Prepare a lightly greased (or use baking paper) pan - around 19x19cm. 

So, take all your ingredients and put them in a heavy based saucepan (or the best and biggest saucepan you have). Stir over a LOW heat (maybe 2-4 on a temperature setting, if you have a gas stove, slightly lower than 2-4) until the sugar has dissolved. This should take about 7-8 minutes on a gas stove and about 10-15 minutes on an electric stove. 

Make sure the sugar has dissolved and do not let it boil yet.

Turn your temperature up to about half way (slightly higher if an electric stove top), and continue stirring. I MEAN IT, KEEP STIRRING! Do this for about 15 minutes, continually stirring (slightly less if gas, slightly more if electric) until the mixture has turned a golden caramel colour. It will be ready when the mixture literally falls away from the side of the saucepan (you will know when you see it). 

Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and let it set/cool. Leave for about an hour, and come back and slice it up.

Sometimes, this recipe just doesn’t work. My future MIL has just made a batch, and they are gooey and haven’t set properly. There is not much you can do about it, the cooking time and the stove top will be your crucial problem - the batch we just did was the right colour, was falling away from the sides, but it just didn’t set! I really think it comes down to practice with this recipe, so don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t work the first time. Just try and try again!

DON’T JUDGE ME!! I love watching anything Kardashian related! I buy magazines I wouldn’t usually buy when they are on the cover (though I do have some restraint, they are on every weekly trashy magazine lately) and I follow them all on Twitter because I just love their trashtastic brand of mind numbing NOTHINGNESS. 

(Kim Kardashian in her recent campaign with Midori [even though she allegedly doesn’t drink] -look how awfully airbrushed she is in this, it is disgusting, she wears enough make up to sink a ship, I doubt all of this was necessary.)

So I own their first book, Kardashian Konfidential. It’s basically what you would expect, a lot of “tips” from the girls themselves, which conveniently fails to acknowledge the extra “leg up” these girls have had in life from their wealthy, privileged family in Hollywood. 

Dollhouse, also, was completely what I expected. Utter shit. If I had purchased it, instead of borrowing it from the library, I probably would have ripped it up and used the paper to clean my mirrors or something. 

If I could take back the 2 or so hours I spent reading this book - I WOULD!!

It is a “fictional” story about the three “Romero” sisters, Kassidy, Kyle and Kamille, whose father died in mysterious circumstances and their mother re-married, you guessed it, an elite athlete! One of them, I can’t remember which one is based on Kim, suddenly gets “discovered” in a coffee shop and becomes a famous “model”. One of them, whichever is based on Kourtney, gets……..PREGNANT! Sound familiar?

It’s hard to work out what parts of it are true, and what has been completely made up. I just feel for the ghost writer they employed, the poor writer must have been desperate for cash, and living off bread crumbs or something, to take on this masterpiece of shit. 

I give it zero out of five biscuits and no more of my blog time!