Top 10 Recipes of 2009… According To Me December 2, 2009

4. Ricotta and Berry Pancakes

While we’re on the theme of breakfast, how could I resist pancakes. A timeless classic and a favourite loved by all age groups, pancakes are a sure thing when it comes to dishing up a delish brekkie.

This recipe is quite simple and basic, but I believe that we all should perfect at least one pancake recipe and this simple dish would be a welcome treat at many breakfast tables.

Image source

Top 10 Recipes of 2009… According To Me December 2, 2009

3. Eggs Benedict

In my opinion, 2009 was the year that breakfast came back into vogue.

Prior to that, breakfast was a muesli bar hanging from your mouth while you applied your mascara in your rearview mirror in the car.

Breakfast was two mouthfuls of hideous tasting bran cereal that was guaranteed to be “good for your insides”  between wiping baby barf off your shoulder and tripping over Lego blocks.

Breakfast was a cup of dirty dishwasher passed off as coffee and a bacon and egg muffin at your local Macca’s drive through.

And then we had this revelation. That breakfast could be so much more, another meal to be enjoyed and savoured rather than just fuel for the day- something to keep us going until lunch time or disguise morning breath.

Then we rediscovered the old classics, Eggs Bendict, Eggs Florentine, a good old fashioned Big Breakfast and we reinvented them, modernised them and made them mouthwatering additions to every cafe menu in the city.

On Sunday mornings, people started putting effort into their breakfasts and breakfast became a more popular social gathering than ever before.

One of my favourite breakfast recipes is this one here, for Eggs Benedict. Hope you enjoy.

Image source

Top 10 Recipes of 2009… According To Me December 2, 2009

2. DIY Bagels

Since moving away from the city, I’ve found myself lost without a lot of the yummy treats I used to enjoy. If I were to go to my local bakery and ask for a Bagel, they would direct me to the nearest pet store. They honestly wouldn’t have a clue.

So in my desperation, I turned to the idea of making my own bagels. I hunted for months for a decent recipe that wasn’t too complex and time-consuming and in the end found this one.

My favourite topping for my bagels has got to be cream cheese and wonderful local preserves (one of the upsides of living in a rural area) or good old fashioned smoked salmon, dill, cream cheese and capers. Enjoy!  Image Source

Top 10 Recipes of 2009… According To Me December 2, 2009

1. Yoghurt Cake with Lemon Syrup

One of my absolute faves, I have lost count of how many times I have made this recipe.

The cake can also be made with orange instead of, or in addition to, lemon juice and zest.

This recipe is quick, easy and delicious. It is seriously so yummy that the cake rarely lasts longer than 2 days in this house and you can easily whip it up if you are having guests over. The aroma of this cake while it bakes is simply irresistible and I highly recommend you all try it, and tweak the recipe to really make it your own specialty.

Top 10 Recipes of 2009….According To Me December 2, 2009

I would like to share my Top 10 Recipes for 2009 with all of my readers – I love that food brings out so much enthusiasm in people, especially when it comes to sharing recipes on the internet and I’ve weeded out some of my faves to share with you. Hope you enjoy and feel free to contribute your own.

You’ll notice that a lot of my recipes are sourced from Taste.com.au and that is purely because that is one of my greatest resources and I am happy to share and promote this fantastic website and their great recipes with my online friends.

You’ll also note that a lot of the recipes have not necessarily been published in 2009, but they have been the recipes that have given the most inspiration, or been used the most or reflect the best of 2009 for me.

Recipes to come. Image source

Pastina November 23, 2009

Every Italian child knows what pastina is.

They would associate it with the wonder soup offered to them every time they were sick, be that an upset tummy, a terrible cold, or a broken heart.

The soup is essentially very basic in it’s ingredients, but I think it’s definitely one that needs to make an appearance every so often. If you have kids, they will love this soup, make it with small alphabet shaped pasta to really grab their attention.

You can make it with or without the chicken, I find adding the chicken helps bulk up the soup, so if we’re having it for dinner on an “I can’t be bothered” night, I would definitely add the chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, diced

1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 stick of celery, diced

1 cup of small pasta- pastina, alphabet pasta for the kids or something like risoni works too

1 chicken breast, cut into small, thin pieces/shredded(optional)

6 cups of water

1-2 cups of chicken stock/Vegeta powdered chicken stock

freshly grated Parmesan

Flat leaf Italian parsley

 

Method

1. Pour olive oil into large pot and cook onion, celery and carrot until soft and fragrant.
2. Add water and stock and stir over medium heat.
3. Bring the soup to the boil and check your seasoning. If required, you may need to add a little more stock. Add gradually.
4. If cooking with chicken, add to the soup now and cook for a further 5-7 minutes until chicken is cooked.
5. Add your pasta and cook for a further 8 minutes until pasta is soft. Stir well, scraping down the sides of the pot.
6. Turn off the heat and set aside for a moment before serving.
7. Grate some fresh Parmesan cheese over the soup and toss in a sprig of Italian parsley or chop it finely and sprinkle into the pot in the last 3 minutes of cooking time.

Orange Syrup Cake November 23, 2009

One of my favourite cake recipes of all time, this recipe can also be done with lemon juice instead of orange juice and is just as fabulous.

The beauty of this cake is obviously the fact that it stays moist, smells delicious while baking and is perfect warm of cold. It’s relatively quick and easy to whip up too. You can see from my pic, right, that I didnt really bother with garnishing or fancy styling, I simply couldn’t wait to devour that slice, so please forgive me!

Ingredients

 

Cake

1/2 cup milk

2 cups SR flour

100g butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 orange, juiced and rind peeled

2 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla essence

 

Orange Syrup

2 oranges, juiced or 1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 tbsp lemon rind

1 tbsp orange rind

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup water

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a springform cake pan and line with baking paper.
2. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat until well combined.
3. Add eggs, orange juice, milk  and vanilla essence and stir well.
4. Add flour and beat for approximately 1 minute, until mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.
5. Bake the cake at 180°C for approximately 30 minutes, or until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
6. Meanwhile, combine syrup ingredients in a pan over heat, stirring continuously until sugar dissolves. Do not boil.
7. Once the cake has cooled, pour the warm orange syrup over the cake and serve.

You can garnish with a sprig of mint, candied orange or lemon peel, an orange twist, dust with some icing sugar or tumble some berries on top.

 

Cumin & Fennel Roasted Potatoes November 21, 2009

I have yet to meet one person who doesn’t go goo-goo bananas over potatoes. Everybody loves potatoes.

But sometimes the good old potato needs a fresh take to compliment your meal and today I put together these delicious potatoes as a side of an orange and cumin marinated chicken breast. The picture I’ve taken, left, is of the potatoes just before the went into the oven to give you an idea of how they should look before you waste your time roasting them.

Ingredients

 

1/4 cup olive oil

4 large potatoes, peeled and chopped in even sized chunks

2 tbsp fennel seeds

2 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp dried basil

2tbsp Vegeta or similar powdered vegetable stock

pinch of dried chili flakes

cracked pepper, to taste

 

 

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Grease a baking dish with olive oil.

Using a mortar and pestle, grind and pound away at your fennel seeds, cumin seeds, cracked pepper, chilli flakes, basil and 2 tbsp of the olive oil until you have formed a fragrant mix.

Combine the remaining olive oil with the spice mix, add the Vegeta/stock and mix thoroughly.

Lay potatoes flat on tray and pour the flavoured oil over the potatoes, toss to combine.

Roast in the oven until crispy and golden, approximately 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

The Easiest Dessert Ever November 21, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So tonight I was faced with the prospect of whipping up dessert with close to no desirable ingredients on hand.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t have a fridge and pantry full of enticing, fresh and exotic ingredients, just waiting for us to whip up culinary masterpieces with.

So my options were to get out of my slippers and tracksuit pants and go out and buy something made by someone else….or I could try and get creative, sift through the crap in the fridge, pantry and freezer and put my concocting cap on.  I really don’t know what to call this recipe, other than ridiculously easy, so here’s what I did. Recipe serves 2.

Ingredients

1 jam rollete, sliced into 1cm pieces.

3/4 cup frozen mixed berries

2 tablespoons sugar

2 scoops of ice-cream of choice, I  chose my favourite caramel, honey & macadamia ice-cream.

4 tablespoons of toasted muesli

 

Method

1. Arrange slices of jam rollettes around the base of a dessert glass or bowl.
2. Mix frozen berries and sugar in microwave safe bowl and microwave for 3 minutes, until sugar has dissolved and berries have defrosted. They will come out with a lovely red syrup.
3. Allow the berry mixture to cool, then spoon over the jam rollete sponges.
4. Place one scoop of ice-cream atop each serve and sprinkle with muesli.

If you wanted to make this look a little more impressive, you could layer the sponge and berries in the glass for an interesting visual effect and garnish it with a sprig of mint or some candied orange rind.
As you can see from my pics, we were more interested in getting stuck into it before the ice-cream melted.
This recipe is very basic and open to a lot of tweaking, but if you’re looking for some quick and easy weekend inspiration, give this a go.

 

 

 

Send in your recipes November 18, 2009

If anyone out there has any recipes or tips to share with the rest of us, please feel free to send them in.

delishdinners@gmail.com

 

Image source

Macadamia, Caramel & Honey Ice-Cream November 18, 2009

Ingredients

250ml (1 cup) milk
600ml thin cream
6 egg yolks
140g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
240g (2/3 cup) Nestle Caramel Top’n'Fill
3 tbsp honey
80g (1/2 cup) unsalted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

 

Method

Combine milk and cream in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat and stir until heated through but do not allow to boil. This is very important!

 

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until thick and pale.

 

Stir the milk mixture into the egg mixture slowly.  Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 10 minutes or until mixture coats the back of the spoon. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

 

Pour the mixture into a shallow metal container. Cover with foil and place in freezer for 2-3 hours or until almost firm.

 

Using a metal spoon, roughly break up the ice-cream. Use an electric beater to beat until smooth. Return to freezer for 3-4 hours or until almost firm.

 

Add your macadamia nuts, honey and caramel through the ice-cream.

 

Freeze for 2-3 hours or until firm.

 

Potato and Onion Loaf November 17, 2009

Those of you who have a breadmaker will appreciate the fine art of making a delicious loaf of bread. All too often, we completely take advantage of the boring, sliced, plain white bread we pick up at the supermarket. It’s only once you’ve actually kneaded your own dough and torn off that first chunk of your own freshly baked bread that you realise you’ve been eating the supermarket crap way too long.

Once in a while, when you want to jazz up your basic loaf, you can get creative with some ideas. One of my favourites is this potato and onion loaf of bread which is great for a light lunch, smeared with a char-grilled vegie relish or any kind of relish in fact. You could also enjoy it on a cold winter night, alongside a hearty winter stew, minestrone soup or something rich and indulgent like a creamy leek soup.

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 cup S/R flour
• 1 tsp bicarb soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• splash of olive oil
• 20g butter, grated.
• 2 medium sized potatoes, boiled and mashed.
• 1 and 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 egg, beaten.
• 1 small brown onion, finely chopped

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Cook finely chopped onion with a splash of olive oil until soft and translucent. Leave to cool while you get your Nigella on and start making your bread.
3. Sift flours into a bowl, add bicarb, salt and sugar.
4. Rub butter into the mixture until it resembles a crumbly texture.
5. Add mashed potato the flour mixture, then mix it all thoroughly. Making a well in the centre, add your milk and beaten egg. Add your cooled onions. Mix well.
6. Shape into a loaf or pour into a loaf tray – don’t worry about making it all perfect, you want it to look all deliciously rustic.
7. Brush some melted butter on top of the loaf and sprinkle with some flour before popping it into the oven and baking for about 40 minutes, or until golden.

Homemade Gnocchi & Quick Tomato Sauce November 17, 2009

You have to make gnocchi by hand at least once in your life.

Making gnocchi is great if you have kids, they love helping roll the dough out, cut out the gnocchi and creating the little indents with a fork. And of course, there is the fun of watching them float to the top of the bubbling boiling water when they’re cooked (fully supervised of course!).

So here is a fool-proof method I use and hope you find it equally as easy and enjoyable. It may be a little more fiddly than buying a pack of premade Latina pasta, but you’ll be sure when you eat them that you’ve never had gnocchi as good as the ones you have crafted with your own hands.

The secret behind successful gnocchi is using the right potatoes. Older potatoes are best and they should be the floury type of spuds, like Desiree potatoes due to the lower water content.

GNOCCHI

• 4 (750g) desiree potatoes, unpeeled
• 1 1/3 cups (200g) plain flour, plus a little extra

METHOD

1. Fill saucepan with cold water, place potatoes in pan and cook for approx 20 minutes until cooked through.
2. Drain well.
3. While still hot, peel by hand and then using a potato ricer or a little tool called a mouli (a French gadget otherwise known as a rotary grinder), puree the potatoes. The trick here is to stop the gnocchi from becoming starchy and heavy, so they need to be mashed quite finely.
4. Season with salt to taste and then let your mashed potato sit to cool while the Bold and the Beautiful is on.
5. Mix the flour into the mashed potato and start to knead the mixture with your hands- the amount of flour you add will make or break your gnocchi. Too much and you’re going to be boiling little bullets. If you don’t put enough, you’re going to be having slush soup for dinner not perfectly fluffy and gorgeous gnocchi. You don’t want the mixture to still be sticky, so add the flour in gradual steps until you have a nice dough.
6. Once you’ve got a nice dough formed, cut it into about 4 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece out to form a log about 2cm wide. Flour a sharp knife and then cut each log into 1.5cm sized pieces.
7. This is the bit where the kids can help. Once you’ve cut out the gnocchi, gently press the tines of a fork into each one so you leave an imprint of the fork tines.
8. Now you need a big saucepan, filled with water brought tot he boil. Cook the gnocchi in batches. You will know when they are cooked because they’ll float to the top of the pot. Cook the gnocchi for 10- 20 seconds then pull them out with a large slotted spoon and drain them well. Cook the whole batch, then it’s time to add a yummy sauce to compliment all your hard work.

QUICK TOMATO SAUCE

I am personally greatly offended by the jars of pasta sauce that these supermarkets are selling these days. I honestly have never tasted anything more ridiculous in my whole life. Putting some raw garlic in a jar with half a cup of sugar and some horribly tart tomato paste is not tomato sauce. Until these jars lift their game, I’m all for making your own tasty sauce.

Here’s how I make it.

• 8 (about 1kg) ripe Roma/egg tomatoes, halved lengthways, cored
• 60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tbs tomato paste
• 2 tsp sugar (optional)
• fresh basil, finely chopped (to taste)
• fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped (to taste)

METHOD

1. Preheat your oven to about 160°C. Put your tomatoes, cut side up in a large pan with about 2 tbs of olive oil and season. Roast for about 25-30 mins until tender and collapsing.
2. Heat your remaining oil in a saucepan, cook your onion and garlic until the onion is soft and mouthwatering and your belly is starting to rumble because the stuff in your kitchen is starting to smell kinda good.
3. Add your tomatoes and tomato paste to the onion mixture and cook for approx 5 minutes.
4. Once the sauce is bubbling away, reduce the heat to a simmer and add your sugar and herbs, stirring to ensure everything is mixed well and not sticking to your pot.
5. Season with salt and pepper and once you’ve gotten the sauce just how you want it, pour your pasta in and stir through for approx a minute or so, to ensure the pasta soaks up the delicious flavour of your sauce.
6. Serve with some shaved fresh parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Alternative ideas for your pasta sauce:

Tomato, olive and capers: Add 80g (1/2 cup) sliced pitted kalamata olives and 50g (1/4 cup) drained capers in step 5.

Chili, olive and prosciutto sauce: Add chili flakes to taste, 1/2 cup sliced kalamata olives to sauce in step 5. Then top with crispy grilled prosciutto slices and some fresh basil leaves.

Bacon, capsicum and chili sauce: Cook finely chopped rindless bacon with diced red capsicum with the onion and garlic in step 2. Add chili during step 5.

Red wine and mushroom sauce: Saute your mushrooms with your garlic and onion during step 2. Add 1/2 cup sweet red wine to the sauce, during step 4.

Roasted vegetable sauce: Thinly slice red capsicum, slice eggplant and zucchini, thinly slice kumara/pumpkin and cut brown onion into wedges. Add a few unpeeled garlic gloves to the mix. Add mushrooms. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven until vegies are soft and fragrant, then add to your sauce during step 4. Serve with freshly shaved parmesan cheese and basil leaves and some crusty break to soak up all those delicious flavours.

Note: All the photos in this post are mine- if you would like to use them, please just link back here.

Tucker for the Time Poor November 2, 2009

I can guarantee that at least 90% of the people reading this right now have eaten cereal for dinner, at least once in their adult lives. The reasons may vary- too lazy to prepare a nutritious meal…. lacking those vital ingredients in the fridge to pull a meal together….or had a nightmare of a day with the boss from hell and feeling like the life has literately been sucked out of you.

We’ve all been there at one stage or another.  We live in an age where mothers are trying hard to juggle a family, careers, keeping the home in some state of order and relishing in some me-time all the while trying to get some decent stuff out on the table for dinner each night. We’re too tired or we’ve run out of ideas.

It’s becoming easier to drive through at a fast-food place and have a complete meal in under 3 minutes than it is to stand in front of stove juggling 2 saucepans, a screaming baby and Today Tonight. Not to mention the clean-up. So here are some tips I’ve compiled from experience, from friends, from research and from my psychologist (!) and you’d very unsurprised to learn that a lot of it stems from good time management.

 

MENU PLANNING IS CRUCIAL

I am going to take a guess that you have heard of menu-planning at some point.

Basically, it involves sitting down on a Sunday (or suitable alternative) and plotting which meals you are going to make on which day for the remainder of the week, then shopping according to make sure you have all the vital ingredients.

Menu planning has become the saviour of many mothers and many working people alike, giving them a structure and run-sheet to follow.

Sit down and draft up a table with 7 columns and three rows across to address breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you don’t do breakfast, or grab lunch on the run, then just focus on dinner. Plan a meal for each day of the week. Swap and change until you’ve found the right flow. Try to be conscious of a getting a good balance of nutrition across the week- ensure there is a good variety of proteins, lean meats, fish and lots of vegies.

For example,  I tend to plan the easiest and quickest meals for the peak days during the week which I know I’m going to be home later. I plan my more elaborate meals for Friday nights and Saturday nights and keep the quick easy meals for the weeknights. I bet you didn’t have to be a genius to know that. My husband plays tennis on Wednesday nights, so we usually have something light that evening. We usually do our shopping on a Tuesday night, so I plan most of my meals that require fresh produce on the Wednesday and Thursday and cook meals that rely on frozen vegies or canned vegies during the later portion of the week.

Plan your menu so that you can use leftover produce from the night before to ensure there is minimal waste. For years, I have been turfing out rotting vegetables from my fridge because they just sat there and rotted before I had a chance to use them. Now, if I make a side of cauliflower cheese, I steam up some extra cauliflower and put the extra in the fridge where it will become tomorrow’s  cauliflower soup.

 

PREPARE AHEAD

I know this is not anybody’s idea of a fun Sunday afternoon, but I have heard of people doing a big shop-up on the Saturday and then spending all day Sunday cooking and freezing their meals for the week. I can’t imagine anything sweeter than coming home and just having to defrost my dinner without having to dirty a pot or lift a finger.

There’s a few benefits to this idea, the most obvious being that by cooking all your ingredients when they are fresh, you’re getting the best out of the produce (i.e, it hasn’t been sitting in your fridge getting slimy for a week) and you can also multi-task with ingredients. For example, if I’m making a batch of pasta, I can make some extra to put aside for a pasta bake or if I’m making a bolognese sauce, I can also use this sauce as part of a lasagna or to fill canneloni.

It might seem like a hectic idea, but with some careful planning and the right ingredients, you can be preparing a whole week’s worth of meals around a few main ingredients.

For example, one week my main ingredients were rib eye steak, leeks, potatoes, pumpkin and broccoli. On the same cooktop, I had four different recipes cooking away- a hearty beef, vegie and wine casserole;  potato and leek croquettes which were served with steamed vegies, pumpkin and lentil curry and potato and leek soup. It certainly didn’t feel like we were eating the same thing every night, but essentially, we used a few ingredients to get four nights meals together.

It this sounds like too much, too soon and you need baby steps to get there, how about starting by doing some minor prep before the week begins- chopping onions, mincing garlic, dicing or filleting meat, washing, peeling and prepping veg and then storing in the fridge or freezer so that when you do get home from work, all the prep work has been taken out of the meal and it’s just a matter of tossing it all together. There will be less clean up as well.

SLOW COOK YOUR HEART OUT

My slow cooker is the best thing that ever happened to me. If you don’t have one, you need to stop what you are doing, get off the internet and go to your local retailer and get one. Or go and bid on one on eBay.

Slow cookers are a heavensend for busy mums or people who just don’t have time to muck about in the kitchen all day. The idea is that you combine budget cuts of meat with vegetables and liquid, set and forget. By the time you come home (yes, you can leave it on while you’re gone, genius!), the house will be filled with a delectable aroma and you’ll have a tender, succulent meal begging to be had.

Because the slow cooker cooks…slowly, the meat becomes so tender and delicious that you can get away with using those budget cuts you normally wouldn’t touch. The meals are more flavourful because they cook in their own juices. You can cook everything from a beef roast to apricot chicken in a slow cooker. The idea is that it always has some liquid in it. Most slow cookers have settings anywhere from 4-8 hours, so you can time it so that you have a deliciously cooked, tender roast waiting for you when you get home on a Tuesday night! Who would have thought!

I tend to use my slow cooker in those winter months, where you crave the delicious hearty stews, soups, braises and casseroles- and believe me (and anyone who has a slow cooker can agree), there is no more delicious smell on this earth than coming home to a slow cooked meal. And the best part- only one pot to wash. Heaven!

 

HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS

I’m talking about steamers, pie-makers, stick blenders, food processors, breadmakers, knife sharpeners, rice cookers, grills, fancy cheese graters, mortar and pestle. I know many of you buy these things and then stuff into the back of a cupboard never to be seen again, but they really are the tricks of the trade- the little tools invented to make our lives easier. I have cooked whole meals in the steamer baskets. I’ve made bread for the weekend breakfast in my breadmaker. I’ve pretended to be Jamie Oliver while pounding the crap out of my mortar and pestle. I’ve been covered in pumpkin soup muck while trying to blend it to perfection. These tools might take up space and you might decide they’re sometimes too much effort to pull out of the cupboard, but I plead with you to make the effor.

I am especially loving my pie-maker at the moment, it’s genius!

 

ONE-POT WONDERS

I’ve touched briefly on the benefits of slow-cooking, in that you can keep the whole meal centralised in one pot, but when you are menu planning definitely give preparation time and effort a consideration. The last thing you want to be doing after coming home from a long day is slaving away in the kitchen doing the cleanup. That is why I happily volunteer to do all the cooking in my home, so I can guilt my husband into doing all the cleanup. I would rather work in a morgue than have to clean up after one of my cooking expeditions….it would probably be cleaner too.

So wherever you can, plan meals that you produce in one pot, tray or appliance- ie, steamer, pie-maker, slow-cooker, oven tray, frying pan, wok or saucepan/pot.

 

TRY TO GET YOUR PARTNER, HOUSEMATE OR KIDS INVOLVED

Involving the other people in your home in menu-planning and cooking can be a rewarding experience. And by rewarding, I mean sharing half the workload rewarding. Asking them to help choose the meals for the week can also help if you’ve run into a brick wall when it comes to inspiration. Also, once they’ve made a suggestion, like let’s use my husband for example, who suggested we have shepherd’s pie, you can ask them to help you with the preparation and if they say no…you can use it to guilt them into helping you. Example.

“Hold on! You mean, I’m standing here in this kitchen, making the shepherd’s pie you wanted, and you’re not willing to help me? That’s pretty low, buddy, even for you. Hmmph!” Storm off, no sex for a week.

Taste of Twilight November 2, 2009

I can only admit this online because I am perfectly anonymous, but yes, I am what you would call a Twihard.

The worst part is that I am 26 years old.

I am a closet Twihard (team Jacob all the way) and cringe at the all hysteria going on at the moment, but I do get swept up in the hype.

So that’s why I simply couldn’t resist posting these amazing pics and links by some very talented bakers.

I stumbled across these on Cake Wrecks which is a fantastically hilarious blog.

Cake by Honey Sugar Tea

Cakes by Francesca

AMAZING!

 

Tucker for the Time-Poor November 1, 2009

Over the last few years, I, like many of you, have struggled with juggling work, running the household and a life while trying to make decent meals.

I am sure that many of you can relate to working an obscene amount of hours during the week and then coming home, staring listlessly into the pantry and then your brain clicks into “Screw it, I’m calling in for Chinese” mode because it all just seems too hard.

I am in the process of putting together an article about tackling this issue, with tips and hints on how to get your act together and get a meal on the table, even after a long, exhausting day at work. It seems like an insurmountable task sometimes, but it’s worth it when you know you have saved your arteries from another bout of KFC grease.

Will be posting soon!

I’m back! October 29, 2009

After a lengthy hiatus, I have decided to come back and attempt to revive my blog (and my enthusiasm with food).

 

I’m sure you all can appreciate that it’s hard to remain enthusiastic about food when your job sucks the absolute life out of you and you end up eating a bowl of cereal for dinner, on the couch while watching Family Guy.

 

So I’m back and I will be attempting some regular posts. I have some yummy and easy new recipes to try, so I am hoping to share them all with you.

 

Kisses xxx

Valentines Day Romantic Breakfast January 16, 2007

Yeah I know.

We’ve barely gotten through Christmas and the New Year and already I’m talking about Valentines Day? Hey, if you think I’m bad, go and have wander down to your local supermarket and have a chat to them about the EASTER EGGS they’r

e filling the shelves with.

So anyway, back to Valentines Day. It’s approaching rapidly and for those of you lucky (or unlucky) enough to be in a relationship, it’s a great opportunity to do something special for your other half. You know, to show them, you, like, care and stuff.

You know the saying. The way to the heart is through the stomach. This is especially true for men and poor people. Could there be a way to lavish some attention upon your special Mr. or Mrs. than to cook them up a delicious, seductive breakfast and eat it together? Hell NO! Hey, you never know, you might be able to negotiate some morning hanky panky. Now that’s a great start to the day. Like I always say, you can thank me later.

Now the whole idea behind this romantic breakfast is requires a little planning. You don’t just casually roll out of bed at 11:45am, scratch your genitals and look in the pantry and hope you have something. No. You actually need to leave the house and go to the supermarket. You need to have money. To buy stuff. Like milk.

Decide before you go what you’re actually going to make. Now you can go as fancy-pants as you like or you can just be laid-back about it. A huge factor influencing what you decide to whip up is the season. If it’s the middle of summer, you’re likely to want a refreshing, fruity brekkie. In winter, however, it would be fantastic to serve up your smoked salmon scrambled eggs, baked beans and sourdough toast.

Now I’m assuming you’re going to do the breakfast in bed thing. If not, set the table nicely with a pretty tablecloth, clean napkins and a romantic centrepiece. Flowers are always a winner, but if you’re a tightarse, a decorative glass bowl of loveheart candy or pink M&Ms would be equally nice. Don’t do candles if you don’t want to look like a dick.

If you’re planning to enjoy the fruits of your labour in bed, then find an appropriate breakfast tray, pop some cute fresh flowers in a little bud vase or sprinkle with pink and white rose petals.

As for the food, there is no limit to the kinds of stuff you could make. You can put as much or as little effort into it. Some popular suggestions:

* Strawberries and cream

* Chocolate dipped strawberries

* Scrambled eggs on sourdough toast, crispy bacon and grilled tomatoes.

* Blueberry pikelets

* Croissants filled with ricotta, honey and raspberries.

* Bagels smeared with cream cheese and morello cherry preserve.

* Omelettes with a variety of fillings like smoked salmon, tomato and basil or ham and cheese.

* French toast drizzled with honey

* Pancakes with any kind of topping, whether it be chocolate fudge sauce, honey or fresh fruit.

* Fresh fruit salad with honey yoghurt.

* Sauteed mushies on thick cut sourdough toast with wilted spinach, grilled tomato and poached egg.

* Crepes

I’m getting hungry just thinking about it all.

 

Image Source

Image Source

Teriyaki Chicken Skewers with lime dipping sauce January 16, 2007

With the Japanese cuisine explosion a few years, things like teriyaki, sushi and yaki soba, which had never been heard before suddenly became all the rage.

Now I know teriyaki has been done to death. Now we’ve all tried it and decided if we like it or not, the quest is on to find a fabulous teriyaki recipe.

If you’re the type of cook to pour your marinades out of a bottle, welcome to my world. However, occasionally, I like to be bold and try and impress my husband so he will buy me things.

This recipe was a hit last night. I suggest you give it a try next time you have your eye on a new pair of shoes that you want for your birthday.

The magic ingredient in this recipe is Mirin, which is a sweet rice Japanese cooking wine. If you cannot get Mirin, go for some sake mixed with sugar.

Ingredients for teriyaki sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Mirin

2 tbsp sugar

For skewers

4 chicken breasts, sliced lengthways, fat and junk removed

For dipping sauce

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

2 tsp lime zest, grated

1/3 cup toasted sesame oil (if you only have vegetable or olive, that will do)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar, to taste

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated

2 tbsp water

Method
Pour all ingredients in a pan.

Stir the mixture well.

Put the pan on low heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Remove from the heat and cool the mixture.

Store the sauce in a clean bottle in the fridge.

When you’re ready to use the sauce, pour it into a bowl.

Add sliced chicken breast and mix to coat thoroughly.

For best results, marinate, covered in the fridge overnight. However, if you’re time-poor, marinate for 30 minutes in the fridge prior to cooking.

Thread chicken onto skewers. Some people like to do this before they marinate. The choice is yours.

Cook skewers on a hot grill, turning occasionally until cooked through. The sugar in the sauce will cause it to caramelise, then burn quickly. You will have crunchy sweet black bits on the chicken, this is my favourite part!

To make the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients together and that’s all there is to it! Enjoy!

Sultana Tea Cake January 16, 2007

This is one of my all-time favourite recipes. It reminds me of the first every packet of cake-mix that I made. Back in the old days. *Sigh*.

Tea cake is classic. It’s light enough to enjoy with a cup of tea of coffee during your afternoon break and special enough to cut a slice and pop it in your loved one’s lunchbox and send them off to work.

The trick is soaking the sultanas in boiling hot tea. They soak up all that beautiful flavour and become all plump and juicy and delightfully delish.

I’ve decided to bake mine in a loaf tin because occasionally when nobody is looking, I like to cut a thick slice and smear it will naughty butter and eat it in secret. However you, being the more normal of the two of us, will probably like to bake it in a round springform pan or something like that.

Here is the recipe. It’s all over the place and measurements are very approximate. I was never good with measurements.

Ingredients

1 cup sultanas

8 oz of unsalted butter, room temperature (this works out to about 3/4 of the block you buy the unsalted butter in)

1 cup caster sugar or other fine sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2-3 eggs. You decide.

2 1/2 cups S.R flour

2 black tea or Earl Grey teabags

Pinch of salt. Not sure why, just do it.

Method

1.   Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. In a heatproof bowl, pour in one cup of boiling water. Add two teabags, soak for three minutes and stir.

2.   Add sultanas to tea and allow to soak for about an hour if time permits. It not, ten minutes will do. Remove them from the tea, drain and allow them to dry on a flat surface.

3.    In a large bowl, use your special power blender thingy to cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla essence, then the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between each egg.

4.   Add the flour and salt to the sultanas. Toss them around so the sultanas are coated well. This will stop them from sinking straight to the bottom of the mixture.

5.   Mix flour mix with butter and egg mix. Stir until well combined.

6.   Pour your batter into a greased loaf pan lined with baking paper. Make sure the baking paper extends over the edges- this will help you lift out the cake later. (I separated my batter between two loaf pans because I felt they were overly full).

7.   Bake for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven. The cake is ready when it is a lovely golden colour and when you poke a skewer through the middle, it comes out clean.

8.   Leave it to cool in its tin before lifting it out. Don’t even attempt to move it or slice while still hot, it is extremely delicate.

This cake will store well in an airtight container for a few days after baking.

Enjoy!