Tips & Recipes from an UN-Domestic Goddess : White Chocolate Mojito Cheesecake!

Happy Monday, all!! I hope this week is shaping up to be a good one! I'm very happy at the moment - we are off to Paris this weekend, to soak in the romantic festive atmosphere, and my Christmas apron arrived last week! What do you think? 

Super excited!

As you all know by now, Sarah and I hosted our made-up holiday, Thanksmas, last Saturday (missed it? Catch up HERE!). It was our first dinner party together, and went down so incredibly well, we are going to start doing it annually! I got a lot of compliments on my cooking ventures, I am so grateful! Our guests especially loved a few of my dishes, so I thought I’d share the recipes with you throughout the month of December. Check back each Monday!

The first dish I am sharing was my dessert – White Chocolate Mojito Cheesecake. Doesn't that sound AMAZING? It’s to die for! I found it’s a great dessert with a unique flavour, and is not too sweet!

This recipe serves 6, and you can make it to put in individual glasses (like the above picture) or keep it in one big bowl, and serve it separately at the time, like we did. Let's get started! 

What you’ll need:

• 20g butter, melted
• 150g ginger biscuits (we used ginger nuts), crushed
• 1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar
• Juice of 3 limes
• 100ml white rum
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 120g white chocolate
• 400g soft cream cheese
• 1 cup (250g) mascarpone cheese
• Optional: whipped cream & mint as a garnish

Step 1 - Stir melted butter into the biscuit crumbs until well combined. Press mixture into the base of 6 cupcake cases (or glass bottoms, or anything round and small, really) (use a cocktail muddling stick or the end of a rolling pin to pack down well). Chill in the fridge.

Step 2 - Bring sugar and 1/4 cup (60ml) water to the boil in a pan, stirring to dissolve sugar, then simmer over medium-low heat for 5 minutes until syrupy. Add lime juice, rum and mint, remove from heat. Set aside for 20 minutes to infuse the flavas!

Step 3 - Meanwhile, melt the chocolate. We did things the quick way and microwaved it, but alternatively you could put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water - just don't let the bowl touch the water. Stir gently until melted, then leave to cool.

Step 4 - Put both cheeses into a large bowl and mix. Strain syrup through a sieve, pressing down to extract as much flavour as possible from the mint leaves. Add syrup to the cheese and mix to combine. Add chocolate and stir until combined. Refrigerate for a few hours.

Step 5 - We recommend serving this scrumptious dessert in Chocolate Bowls like we did! (Learn how HERE!) When ready to serve, (if you'd like), top each serving with some whipped cream and garnish with extra mint. We completely forgot when we served ours at Thanksgiving, but we definitely didn't need it!

Ta da! I hope you enjoy making this dessert, and please do let me know what you think!

Love always, and happy cooking, Laura xo

The Joy of Thanksmas!

At the end of November every year, people around the world look forward to the holiday season, but this year we added one more celebration to the mix - THANKSMAS!! Officially, Thanksmas is the celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas together. The date for Thanksmas is between the last Thursday of November, and the second weekend of December (mostly due to our diaries, and Christmas party obligations).

As an Anglo-American couple, the creation of this holiday came about in celebration of us finally getting to spend our first festive season in the same country. It means a lot to us to be able to enjoy the festive season together, and we both wanted to celebrate the things we are thankful for. It was also a great way of introducing our British friends to some classic American Thanksgiving fare. Bringing the traditions of British Christmas (crackers and all) to the food of American Thanksgiving!

Modelling the Christmas Apron

For us, the day started early, as we had to prepare no less than 10 dishes for the main course, 3 separate elements for dessert, and 2 Thanksmas - themed treats. On top of that, we also had to make the whole flat presentable - a job in itself! Laura donned her (amazing) Christmas apron, and Sarah got on her cleaning gloves, and we set about working our magic!

 Our guests all arrived, just a little bit late, and finally the fun started. Rather than making people wait, we went straight into the main course (once everyone was seated and had a drink!). The conveyor belt of delicious dishes was met to a serenading of oohs and aahs, and amazement at the amount of food Americans eat, as Sarah delivered it to the table. Laura's grand entrance was complete with turkey (lovingly named Spencer) in hand. No sooner had the food touched the table, it was on plates and in mouths! The menu was as follows:

Main Course-

• Spencer the turkey, in all his glory, donned in bacon
• Candied yams (sweet potato) - which Sarah thought was called 'candid yams' - like we caught them by surprise or something!!
• Roasted vegetables, including parsnips, carrots, and potatoes (made by Sarah, Queen of Potatoes (allegedly) see HERE!)
• Green bean casserole
• Cheesy Cauliflower
• Cornbread - nobody had ever heard of this, but a few took some home, so it got a better reception than when Sarah tried it the first time!!
• Stuffing
• Gravy

Dessert-

• White chocolate mojito cheesecake (YUM! Look out for the recipe in tomorrow's Tips & Recipes from an Un-Domestic Goddess)
• Served in awesome chocolate bowls

Thanksmas-Themed Treats-

• Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies
• Teatime treat turkeys - don't you want some?

As an anyone who has had a Thanksgiving dinner knows, there must be at least an hour's gap between dinner and dessert, so we took this opportunity to introduce our favourite game to our friends - Apples to Apples. If you haven't played it, it's a word association game, and a great way for everyone to get to know each other, share stories and have a good laugh! Especially if you have guests with warped senses of humour - like we did! 

We also had our first Thanksmas photo shoot towards the end of the night (after a few glasses of wine) to record the occasion for our blog, commemorate our first annual Thanksmas dinner! (Everyone knows Americans love photo shoots, after all!)

Who knew that British people would love candied yams SO much?! Laura thought it would be judged because it was made with marshmallows (how American!) but it was the first dish to be emptied and requests were made for the recipe! The second favourite dish was the green bean casserole, a traditional Thanksgiving staple, but with a twist! The recipes for both are upcoming in Tips & Recipes this month.

The gang!

We loved having everyone over to see our flat, and to introduce them to new foods and customs. It was the first party we have thrown together, and by all accounts was a massive success. It was well worth all the work that went into it, and made us truly thankful for the great friends we have in this country. Laura even got told she should go on Come Dine With Me and gained the title of Pete's Favourite American (beating Kelly Rowland into second place)!

PS. Proof we aren't making all this up! ;)

Thank you to all our lovely friends for coming, and making the night unforgettable! We will certainly make this an annual celebration!

The couple that cooks together, stays together!! Bring on the Christmas dinner (we fear ye not!)

Love always, Laura & Sarah xo

Sarah's Fun Fact Friday! - Fancy Some Friday Night Frisky-ness?

After an afternoon stroll to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park for a turkey, stuffing & cranberry roll I looked around and realised that I was in fact in Bavaria, or at least a Barvarian/ German themed winter wonderland complete with bratwurst & bier. I then made a rather interesting (or so I thought) discovery that in fact I standing by a stall from ‘Kissing’ – which is a small Barvarian town! And as it is the season to get close to those that you love there may well be some kissing involved – and I come with good news – KISSING IS GOOD FOR YOU! See what I mean.....

1.) Kissing boosts immunity and strengthen the body's defenses.
2.) Kissing helps you pick the best mate. It’s a ‘mate’ (in the primal sense) assessment tool and when you're kissing somebody, you can really hear them and see them and feel them. So kissing is not just kissing. It is a profound advertisement of who you are, what you want and what you can give. Kissing is biology's way of determining who in nature you are most genetically compatible with. (It’s a good reason to practice!)
3.) Kissing burns calories! Anywhere from 2 to 6 calories a minute. Not quite a jog on the treadmill, but hours worth of smooching may burn off half a handful of M&Ms or half a glass of wine! – or an advent chocolate or two!
4.) Kissing keeps facial muscles strong. Don't underestimate the workout your mouth gets during a makeout session. You use 30 muscles while kissing and the smooching helps keep your cheeks tight. Good work.
5.) Kissing naturally relaxes you It increases the levels of oxytocin, the body's natural calming chemical and also increased endorphins, the body's feel-good chemicals.
6) Kissing prevents tooth decay by increasing saliva produced!
 - the fact that saliva can stay in your mouth for up to 24 hours is kinda yuk though so make sure you pick your kissing partner well!!!

Well if you have recovered from all that kissing here is festive fact for you! Since ancient times, the mistletoe has been one of the most magical, mysterious of European folklore. The ancient Druids considered the mistletoe to be a sacred plant and believed it had miraculous powers which could cure illnesses, serve as an antidote against poisons, ensure fertility and protect against the ill effects of witchcraft. It was also believed that the mistletoe was an aphrodisiac or a sexual symbol.  From these strange beliefs has come the modern-day custom of hanging a ball of mistletoe from the ceiling and exchanging kisses under it as a sign of friendship and goodwill.

The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe descends from the customs of several different cultures. For instance, exchanging kisses under the mistletoe was a tradition of Greek festivals and marital ceremonies. If a couple in love exchanges a kiss under the mistletoe, it is interpreted as a promise to marry, as well as a prediction of happiness and long life.

The Anglo-Saxons associated the powers of the mistletoe to the legend of Freya, the goddess of love, beauty and fertility. According to the legend, a man had to kiss any young girl who, without realising it, found herself accidentally under a sprig of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. Guys would pluck a berry when they smooched the girls and when the last berry was gone, there would be no more kissing!

In France, the custom linked to the mistletoe was reserved for New Year's Day: "Au gui l'An neuf"--Mistletoe for the New Year.

Today, kisses can be exchanged under the mistletoe any time during the holiday season.

Did you know? Although the mistletoe is considered to be the seed of love, the common name of the plant is derived from the ancient belief that mistletoe grew from bird droppings. – Definitely a reason to look up!

Keep those lips protected and watch out for the mistletoe! J

Till next time

Sarah

Things We've Known All Along......

We are currently on our lunch break and there is so much we want to share with everyone so thought putting it on here would make the most sense!

First of all we watching this video that can only be described as AMAZING! I'm not sure where we saw it first but we have had it posted and tweeted at us and after hearing it you can't help but feel impressed. His parents must be so proud and I hope this video is shown to everyone - it needs to be shared.

So after that explanation see what we are talking about HERE!

And now time for a love story (who doesn't love one of those), this was shown to us by a friend and is a great romantic, touching, modern day take on what real love is all about! Plus it features a few of our favourite haunts from living in Sydney. Watch it HERE and let us know what you think. It is for GetUp Australia - an independent movement to build a progressive Australia and bring participation back into their democracy....this video highlights the great need for marriage equality (in Australia, and all over the world!!)

Hope you're all having a great day
Sarah & Laura
xo