2013

I don't mind a bit of reflection. You learn twice as much from your mistakes as long as you acknowledge them. 2013 has been a bugger of a year for me. I have worked too much and too hard for too little reward. I have not spent enough time following my dreams (heck I haven't been sleeping enough to even get into the dreaming) or even just having fun. The problem is that I say the same thing about 2012, and 2011 for that matter. It seems that I am not learning from my mistakes. I recently had a minor health scare (fortunately it was just a scare) but whilst I was in the Waiting To Find Out phase I said to the Bookworm "I haven't done anything I want to do yet". In retrospect, that is the scariest part of all. We can be taken from this world at any time by any number of causes and were that to happen to me soon, mine would have been a life half-lived. Sickening to think about. So here's to 2014 and seeking victory.

Here is a little recap of my 2013:

These are a few of my fa-vour-ite things {in my pantry}

I had a very important wine exam, the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) level 3 (Advanced), last week, which I have been madly studying for in any spare time. It was tough and big. I used every second of the 1 hour 45 minute exam time. I was well prepared but the fail rates are high so keep those fingers crossed. My sadness was that there were not many questions on France and a lot on Spain. The universe telling me to put my French and Italian wine passion to the side and drink more Spanish wine perhaps?

Just in case, I made sure I ordered Spanish wine at the Wine Shop With No Wine Christmas Party. Here's a selfie.

 

I caught up a fair bit of ground (in Spanish wine) by the looks of it.

Super Semifreddo {Recipe}

Ice cream is one of my favourite foods, along with hot chips, crisps, burgers and pizza (my Disney princess name is Carberella). 

I love ice cream, from the cheapish 2 litre supermarket variety (topped with either milo, or honey and cinnamon- chai style:) to the $7 a cup artisan gelato. Homemade ice cream is a fantastic, very affordable treat but it can be quite time consuming (making the custard then chilling it, churning, freezing) and I have one of those old-school ice cream makers that you have to remember to freeze the day before. 

Enter semifreddo. 

Creamy and delicious and can be made in less than half an hour (plus about 6-8 hours freeze time).