FFF is addicted to Sriracha sauce.

Unfortunately, like many yummy things, it’s got a few nasty ingredients of the chemical variety in its DNA. So like many a conscious foodie, we’re getting on the DIY bandwagon and concocting our own home brew. If you’re an addict, you may want to get off the junk and make a batch too!

Gwyneth Paltow’s Sriracha Sauce
recipe via My Father’s Daughter

• 1 1/2 cups clove garlic, peeled
• 1 Lb(s). red jalapeno peppers, stemmed,sliced and cut into thin rings
• 2 1/4 cups rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup agave nectar (we might try maple syrup next time)
• 2 tbsp coarse table salt
• 1 tbsp arrowroot
• 2 tbsp fish sauce

Place the garlic in a small saucepan and add cold water just to cover. Bring to a boil,immediately drain and run the garlic under cool water.

Return the garlic to the saucepan, cover with cold water and bring back to a boil.Rinse the garlic and slice the blanched garlic into thin slices.

Combine the cut red jalapeños,blanched garlic and rice vinegar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add the agave and salt and stir to combine.Let the mixture stand, covered for 1 hour for the flavors to steep and cool. ( I let the mixture rest overnight to cool completely.)

Puree the mixture in a blender until smooth- some seeds will remain in tact but that’s fine.

Return the mixture to a saucepan and bring back to a boil. Simmer 10-15 minutes, skimming off any foam as it rises to the top. The mixture will thicken slightly as it cooks down.

In a small bowl, dissolve the arrowroot with 1 Tbsp of lukewarm water. Whisk the arrowroot into the sauce and cook for 2 more minutes or until nicely thickened. Remove from heat let cool slightly and stir in fish sauce.

Good God we love a celeb who loves to cook!

Enter Blake Lively (aka Mrs Ryan Reynolds). This girl adores food and cooking: exhibit A: her custom La Cornue range. We sense another Gwyneth-slash-Martha in the making here.

Check out this gorgeous video (below) of Blake with super-dooper Hollywood Royalty Elettra Wiedemann (Ingrid Bergman is her grandma and the exquisite Isabella Rossellini is her mum) cooking in the kitchen of Richare Gere’s Bedford Inn.

Um … does it get any sweeter or star studded?! Nope. Bake on girls.

Ooh it’s getting chilly!

Can’t get to Banneton Bakery? Try our FFF version with maple butter.

Spiced Pumpkin Scones with Maple Butter
adapted from a recipe via taste.com.au

• 600g Kent pumpkin, seeded, peeled, chopped into small chunks
• Butter, at room temperature, to grease
• 450g (3 cups) self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• Pinch of salt
• 60g chilled butter, cut into 1cm pieces
• 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

Cook pumpkin in a saucepan of boiling water for 10 minutes or until very tender. Drain well. Use a potato masher to mash until a coarse puree forms. Set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 240°C. Rub a baking tray with butter to grease. Combine the flour, salt and spices in a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour mixture until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add pumpkin,  buttermilk and maple syrup. Use a flat-bladed knife in a cutting motion to mix until evenly incorporated and the mixture just starts to hold together.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and gently knead until smooth. Use your hands to press out the dough until about 2cm thick. Use a round 5.5cm pastry cutter to cut 15 discs from the dough. Place, about 1cm apart, on the prepared tray. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden and scones sound hollow when tapped on the base. Serve warm with maple butter.

To make maple butter: with electric beaters, mix 1/2 cup softened butter with 1/4 cup pure maple syrup until combined and fluffy.

Image via taste.com.au

Chinti & Parker organic top, YSL reversible suede & leather tote, Isabel Marant Bekket sneakers, Victoria Beckham reflector aviators, Rag & Bone jean jacket, See by Chloe wide-leg jean, Richard Nicoll wool sweater, Lulu Frost bamboo and resin bangles.

For those of us with substantial eyebrows, Cara Delevingne’s (and that of her thick, luscious eyebrows) rise to fame has been a facial hair triumph.

God knows we have hung onto our eyebrows by the roots through every phase known to womankind - from bleached and non-existent to skinny and sparse to arched and straight. Now thick again! Cara, we and our thick, unruly brows salute you! 

We could write a post on how to hedge your own eyebrows to perfection, but that would be plain irresponsible and a potentialy hairy situation. Any woman worth great eyebrows knows that the only one wielding a pot of wax near your face should be a Brow Expert!

Here are some of the best people to take yours to for their monthly pluck, tint, wax and brush. 

SYDNEY

Sharon-Lee - sharon-lee.com.au

MELBOURNE

The Brow Bar - browbar.com

PERTH 

Matt Yuko - mattyuko.com.au

BRISBANE

Blow Salon - blowsalon.com.au

LONDON

Blink Brow Bar - blinkbrowbar.com

NEW YORK CITY

Dr. Ronald Sherman/Trish McEvoy Skin Care Centre - trishmcevoyskincare.com

Want to give it a go? Here it is…

The 7 Minute High Intensity Workout
Exercises are performed for 30 seconds, with 10 seconds of transition time between bouts. Total time for the entire circuit workout is approximately 7 minutes. The circuit can be repeated 2 to 3 times.

Taken from the study HIGH-INTENSITY CIRCUIT TRAINING USING BODY WEIGHT: Maximum Results With Minimal Investment. Read more here.

Image via dailymail

So you’ve worked out

And you don’t need a large budget either – save all those glass jars you’ve been throwing out, wrap them with our doilies and twine (below), and fill with flowers from the garden, or even bunches of woody herbs like Rosemary. This will instantly transform your table, and the low height lends an added bonus of still being able to see your guests across the table. Unless you really don’t like them of course, in which case a large arrangement of hydrangea should do the trick. Candles are also a sure-fire winner for ambient lighting (simply pop a few tea-lights in those glass jars you’ve been hoarding), but perhaps save the Diptyque scented candles for the entry way or bathroom. Considering we ‘eat’ with all our other senses first, the heady aroma of jasmine mixing with the slow-roast pork might not be the best start to your fine dining experience.

We are FFFing loving the return of the darkly diminutive Winona Ryder. Once Gwyneth Paltrow’s BFF (read about their Frenemy Feud here), she is the polar opposite of the tall, blonde and waspish Paltrow. Ryder is a pocket sized Elizabeth Taylor—all raven tresses, magnetic eyes and ample bossom, with a complicated past to boot.

But she’s back, and all her troubles are forgotten. Her new movie, The Iceman, is a period piece set mostly in the 1960s and ’70s that stars Michael Shannon as Richard Kuklinski, a real-life contract killer for the mob in New York and New Jersey who is said to have murdered more than 100 people. Early talk is that Ryder, portraying Kuklinski’s wife, is not just good—she’s brilliant. Check out the trailer here.

Maybe she and her true love Johnny Depp will come full circle, he’ll re-ink his ‘Winona Forever’ tat and they’ll waltz off into that Hollywood sunset together. We can hope… in the meantime, check out these stunning shots from Interview magazine. You can read the full story here.

We are nibbling our nails-down

Stepping into Mia Farrow’s shoes as the new Daisy Buchanan is the chic and gamine, Carey Mulligan. Her personal style is flawless and quietly elegant, favouring frocks with simple lines and minimal embellishment. Her go-to designers are Lanvin, Bottega Veneta, Prada and more recently, Victoria Beckham. We think these looks personify her star style to a T!  

pics via imnotobsessed.com, graziadaily.com, redcarpet-fashionawards.com, marieclaire.com, instyle.com, zimbio.com