Sunday Hotpants

Jacked-up Banana Bread

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:56:00 +1200

Now before you get all excited and think I’m being a bit risque with the title of the post -this banana bread has Jack Daniels Bourbon in it. See? It was perfectly innocent. Shame on you for thinking otherwise!

Sorry about the photos today - we ate half the bread before I remembered you. Please don’t be offended.

I’d like to tell you a great story about the time I visited a little town in Kentucky and saw a very old Bourbon distillery. Except that is the entire story, so it’s not that great. I did go there though, where ever there was….. I can’t remember the town’s name. Ahh the joys of Peri-menopause, my once razor sharp memory is now as sharp as a spoon.

At home I’ve had to start using a diary.

“So what?”,
I hear half of you saying. I’ve never had to use a diary at home - at work yes, but home no. I could always remember what was going on, for not just myself but for everyone in the house.

Piano lessons, hiphop, dentist’s appointments, vet visits, school concerts, haircuts and birthdays. Now unless it’s written in my diary (personally illustrated by Isaac with a green slime monster with candy canes! The Christmas monster maybe?) it’s forgotten about.

I’ve decided that Jacked-up banana bread is a mighty fine way to console myself in my fuddled middle aged state. It’s a recipe that seems to originate with “Mrs Hockmeyer” and then has morphed into something else entirely. It’s almost become an internet heirloom (if there could be such a thing?) with so many bloggers posting this in various forms. Deb from Smitten Kitchen is the one that thought Jack Daniels would be a good idea. She was right!

I cut large thick slices of this as soon as it came out of the oven, popped a scoop of vanilla speckled icecream on top and then completely unnecessarily poured a little hot fudge sauce over it. I can’t even begin to tell you how good that was. Yes, I’m speechless. I think you just need to make it. Write the recipe down and put it somewhere you won’t forget it. Mine is going into my green monster diary with the candy canes.

This is a great way to use up those bananas that are past their best or languishing in the freezer.

Jacked-up Banana Bread

adapted and enjoyed via Joy the Baker, via Smitten Kitchen via Simply Recipes etc.

3 to 4 ripe bananas mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon bourbon (if you have an unsteady hand and accidentally add a little more it seems to be fine!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
1 1/2 cup of flour
3/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Mix the melted butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

Mix in the sugar, egg, vanilla and bourbon, then spices.

Add baking soda and salt and mix.
Add the flour, mix. Add the chopped almonds and stir gently until just mixed through.

Pour mixture into a greased and floured or lined loaf pan.

Bake for roughly 1 hour. I started checking mine after 45 minutes.

Cool on a rack or slice while warm and serve with icecream and chocolate sauce.

Don’t forget to write it down!

P.S My little Bird’s Nest Cookies were in the Dominion Post this week, how exciting is that!

P.P.S My lovely husband bought me an apron from Flirty Aprons. These are seriously cute aprons! I believe Mothers Day is coming up, so if anyone wants a new one, check those out and drop your guy/girl some strong hints about Marilyn aprons and high heels. That ought to do the trick.

Hiking around Otago Peninsula - Sandymount

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 19:19:00 +1300

I’m fairly sure that most people think that behind every food blog is a slightly rounded woman. I’m pretty sure often you’d be right. It’s hard not to cook so many delicious things and start to look something like a cinnamon bun shape yourself!

I’ve been trying to be more conscious of getting a decent amount of exercise to offset the tasty things that come out of the kitchen. Today we spent an hour or so walking about the Otago Peninsula, walking the Sandymount track. We saw two amazing landmarks called Lovers Leap and the Chasm, unfortunately our photos really don’t do them justice. This is about 20 minutes away from my house.

This is a photo heavy post, but I really wanted to share this amazing afternoon with you out in the fresh air in New Zealand. It’s days like today I really appreciate living in this little country at the bottom of the planet with the Hobbits. All these beautiful images are on a 50 minute walk.

Driving up towards Sandymount and looking towards Dunedin city - where we call home. This and the next two photos comprise the Otago harbour the city is situated on.

Looking down towards Port Chalmers.

At the end of Sandymount Road this is the view from the carpark over Hoopers Inlet, there were actually a couple of hang gliders out there but they are too small for you to see.

We walked through this dark tunnel of old macrocarpa, all the tree limbs left leaning towards the sun, there is so much leaf litter underfoot you barely make a sound as you walk.

At the end - you come across this, a very typical NZ vista.

You round the corner and you see this beach, it’s truly breath taking. It’s called Allans Beach.

Follow a sheep track around the tussock covered hills

To the cliffs and the coast.

As I mentioned above, I have no photos of the chasm and Lovers Leap, the photos we had just did not do them justice at all. Have a look at a blog called 12 foot 3 for a selection of great photos of Lovers Leap and The Chasm.

I do indeed feel lucky to live here and have such amazing scenery practically on my doorstep.

Days like today need to be savored.

A little reminder too, one more day to comment on the previous blog post to be in the draw to win a $50 voucher.

Giveaway and Lunchbox Jumble.

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:49:00 +1300

Wheee it’s a giveaway! This giveaway is only available to Aussies and Kiwis, sorry everyone else! I had a very friendly chap called Victor contact me about doing a promotional post for a website called Groupon (yes it sounds like coupon!) I don’t normally do this type of thing, but he offered me two $50 vouchers for my readers - so on your behalf I accepted graciously. I know you all like free stuff! There is one website with deals for Kiwis at Grouponnz and another for Aussies here at Groupon Austrailia.

They have some amazing deals on there that you can spend your $50 voucher on. To give you some ideas they have baby slumber pods, Sworovski crystal jewellery and personalised iphone cases. As well as things you can hold in your hand and get in your actual post box, they have some really fantastic deals on travel and holiday packages (Thailand anyone?). These are really heavily discounted and just amazing value. I’ve got to say, I’ve got my eye on a trip to Wellington. I’d like to see my darling daughter when she gets back from gallivanting all around the world!

Just to make it clear, I am not gaining anything from promoting this other than the opportunity to give you a $50 voucher. Neat huh ?

Ok, so what do you need to do to be in the draw for one of two $50 vouchers?

All you need to do is visit either Groupon Austrailia or Grouponnz and leave a comment telling me what you would like to put your $50 voucher towards. I’ll do a random draw to see who the lucky ones are.

Edit: I’ll leave this giveaway open until April lst (NZ time) for the one voucher and 24 hours for the other, I noticed some of these deals have quite tight time limits on them!

Now for all you folk that can’t participate in the giveaway, I’m sorry! I do have an interesting recipe for you all. These are bar cookies, a New Zealand slice. This recipe came from a fundraiser cookbook back in the 60’s. If you’re a sixties Kiwi kid like me no doubt you’ll recognise this slice; you might have had some in your lunchbox as a child.

The interesting thing about this is that my recipe for jumble is completely wrong. Somewhere along the way it morphed into something that only barely resembles the original. It’s now more like a chocolate, coconut version of ginger crunch. The original jumble is soft and cakey, but you can almost break your teeth on this version if if you’re not careful! It is not a soft slice. So just to be clear, if you wear dentures - this one is not for you! Alternatively if you would like to make a soft cakey version, simply add an egg to the mix.

This is so sturdy it makes it the perfect candidate to be rattled around in a lunch box and still be presentable at lunch time when your hungry little person is looking for their treat.

It will keep well for a couple of weeks in a sealed container.

Lunchbox Jumble

100g butter (softened)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 cup of dessicated coconut
1 tspn of baking powder
1 large Tblspn Cocoa
splash of milk - just enough to mix to hold the mixture together
whole egg (optional) if you would like a soft version.

Cream together the butter and sugar

Add the remaining ingredients and press into a Lammington pan (30 x 19 cm)

Bake for roughly 15 minutes at 180C 350F until the cake begins to move away from the sides of the pan and springs back when gently pressed with your finger.

Ice/Frost with a simple confectioners sugar icing.

2 cups icing/powdered sugar
1 large T butter
1/2 tspn vanilla
1 large T sifted cocoa
boiling water to mix

Ice this while it is still slightly warm. Sift dry ingredients into a small bowl, add the butter and vanilla. Add boiling water slowly in very small amounts and stir until a spreadable consistency.

Sprinkle with a little dessicated coconut. Cut while still slightly warm.

Good luck to those of you keen to win a voucher! Remember to leave a comment to be in with a chance to win.

Salad of Shaved Fennel, Baby Peas, Feta and Lemon

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:28:00 +1300

This is the fennel that I planted in my garden this year. I was not all that hopeful that it would do well, but unlike my zucchini it actually thrived! I have so much fennel I was struggling to find ways to eat it. I make a mean fennel and cauliflower gratin and a fresh, crisp fennel and apple salad. The leaves are frequently tucked in little parchment packages with salmon or tossed with vegetables. But I felt like I needed something else to try, something that would really wake up my taste buds.

I hunted about online for some inspiration and stumbled across a recipe feature from one of my favourite places to eat, Riverstone Kitchen in Oamaru.

I was a little hesitant when I initially saw the quite large quantity of herbs in this recipe. Look at all that wonderful fresh mint and parsley, I love being able to pick things out of my garden and eat them within the hour. I piled in the herbs in the amounts suggested and thought it might have been a little much.

I should have trusted the wonderful chefs at Riverstone, the balance of flavours is just right. Mint and Lemon should get married, those two flavours just seem to work so well together.

Salad of Fennel, Baby Peas, Feta and Lemon.

Serves four

2 medium-sized fennel bulbs
Small red onion
150g sheep’s milk feta ( I used cow’s milk feta)
200g baby peas ( I used frozen and thawed but not cooked)
Cup flat leaf parsley, picked
Cup mint leaves, picked
150g baby spinach leaves
Juice of 1 lemon
40ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Finely shave or slice the fennel into a large bowl with a mandolin or very sharp knife. Try to keep it nice and fine.

Crumble the feta over the top and add the remaining ingredients. Toss together gently and serve.

Drizzle with a little extra olive oil to serve if you wish.

As soon as I took a mouthful of this my mind was racing .. did I have enough ingredients to make this again?

The recipe states that it serves 4 - but honestly I could easily have sat and eaten at least half of this on my own without any trouble at all. But of course that would be greedy, wouldn’t it. Wouldn’t it?

Teamed up with a nice piece of grilled salmon and some new potatoes this would make a very elegant and memorable meal.

Outside of the kitchen this week it’s the Fringe Festival in Dunedin. We didn’t have a huge amount of time to visit performances between dance lessons, piano lessons, husband crashing into a mirror and destroying half a jewellery shop (another story for another time), hair cuts and purchasing of shorts for Isaac’s triathalon.

We had just enough time to visit the Mad Hatter’s tea Party art installation under the overbridge (Isaac found that itself amusing - how could you possibly go under the overbridge?)

He could not resist poking the licorice alllsorts to see if they were real. It was also quite interesting to see people’s reactions as they came across this massive table filled with oversized food and teapots.

Hopefully I’ll get to see a little more of the Fringe festival and be able to share with you.

Till next time!

French Lemon Yoghurt Cake and a Stationary Pet

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:05:22 +1300

I’ve been meaning to give you this wonderful recipe for a tangy French lemon and yoghurt cake for quite some time and finally I have managed to get my act together to post it for you. You’ve all been in my thoughts, promise!
I’ll tell you all about the new pet after you’ve salivated over the cake for a bit.

I’ve had this recipe for a long time. It’s completely delicious. It’s a large cake. People will ask you for the recipe. You can pretend it’s all yours and I won’t mind one bit. Tell them it’s been in your family for centuries and it’s been handed down from mother to daughter or father to son - whatever suits you! I won’t tell anyone.

It’s a grown up cake. You can produce this for special occasions and people will declare you an amazing baker. The compliments will flow with this cake and there won’t be a crumb left.

It’s damp, lemony and fragrant. What more could you want?

Warm out of the oven you slowly drizzle a lemon and yoghurt glaze on the top. It seeps into the cake to give it the characteristic shine and tart lemon bite.

Please don’t substitute margarine in this recipe. It really does need the flavour and the fat from butter to taste right. There are some things you just should not muck about with - this is one of them.

French Lemon Yoghurt Cake

(adapted from Essential Baking)

225g/8oz unsalted butter - softened
300g/10 1/2 oz caster/superfine sugar
4 large eggs separated
2 t grated lemon zest
85ml/3fl lemon juice
250ml/8floz plain unsweetened yoghurt
285g/10oz flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt

For the Glaze

115g/4oz icing sugar/powdered sugar
2 T lemon juice
3-4 T plain unsweetened yoghurt

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and grease and flour or line a large cake pan with parchment - it must hold at least 3 litres/4 2/3 pts. You can cook this in a bundt tin if you wish - but make sure it is well greased and floured.

You will need three bowls to make this cake. It’s worth the dishes!

Make sure you have your lemon juice and zest all ready to be added in at the appropriate stage.

Cream your butter and sugar together in a large bowl and add in your egg yolks one at a time. I was lucky enough to have some beautiful free range eggs on hand from my wonderful friend to make this with.

Your butter and sugar should be pale and thick.

Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and yoghurt and stir to blend. It will look like it has curdled at this point, but don’t worry - it always looks like this.

In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.

In the third bowl - beat the egg whites and salt to stiff peaks.

Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture and add in a spoonful of the egg whites to loosen the mixture.

Add in the remaining egg whites and fold until just mixed.

Pour into your prepared cake pan and bake until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. In a bundt pan this will be roughly 50 minutes. If you have used another type of pan start to check your cake every 10 minutes after 40 minutes in the oven and keep checking until your skewer comes out clean.

Let stand for a few minutes then turn out and cool on a rack.

This cake can be a little fragile when warm so go carefully.

For the Glaze

I like to glaze mine when slightly warm so that the glaze soaks into the cake.

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl - stir in the lemon juice and yoghurt to make a smooth glaze.

Put the cooled cake on a cake rack over a large flat dish or piece of parchment. Pour the glaze over and let it drip down the sides.

Serve with yoghurt or cream on the side.

Now - to tell you about the pet. His name is Steve - he doesn’t really move a lot, only when he needs to. Isaac decided he was a stationary pet. He lives in a willow pattern ramekin on the window sill.

When he needs to move .. he moves with the speed of a predator. He waits… for his prey to come to him.

Not everyone’s cup of tea perhaps?

Isaac is a little afraid of insects. I thought this might be a way to help him overcome his fear. He has a total fascination with Steve and checks his water daily. No pet could be more loved.

We read all about this great little stationary pet on flytrapcare.com. Everything you ever wanted to know about your Venus Fly Trap. I had no idea they were native to the US. I imagined them growing in some misty tropical jungle somewhere.

He had a friend over to play today and both the boys were completely engrossed with catching bugs for the fly trap. They decided that slaters ( woodlice) were no good since the last one made the trap go black. The harvestmen that they caught was too light to trigger the trap. Isaac explained to his little friend that the bug had to touch two hairs on the trap to trigger the closure.

They poked around in the vegetable garden a little more and found a centipede to feed to Steve.

They counted the legs.. they remarked on it’s colour, they talked about the differences between centipedes and millipedes and where they thought they lived.

Steve - is a wonderful pet - if not completely traditional. He’s led to many learning discoveries for Isaac. If you have a child with an inquiring mind - this might be a fun thing to introduce to them. I’m just hoping Steve survives the winter - since it gets fairly cold here. It is officially the last day of summer here tomorrow (I think) the leaves will start to change and the mushrooms will start to appear under the trees and in the grass. Isaac tells me that Steve will hibernate - so perhaps he’ll be alright.

Beautiful Berry Muffins in Parchment

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:20:11 +1300

There are some recipes which just sneak your way into your regular repertoire quietly. They don’t get placed in your recipe book with a flourish and huge anticipation of the next time you’ll make it. You just find yourself seeking it out .. over and over and over again - because it’s good. A hint of stoneground wholemeal flour and packed with fresh berries - seriously what more could you want?

This muffin recipe is one of those sneaky ones. I’ve found myself making it again and again and again. It’s earned a place in my regular list. It’s a muffin that has enough heft to stand up to being soaked with berry juice. Have you ever bitten into a muffin loaded with berries only to find that it’s half cooked? That there are also lumps of raw batter and berry just sitting in sodden clumps at the bottom? I know I have on more than one occasion.. and it’s horrible! You’ll not get that happening with these. They will be cooked through perfectly in all their berry glory. They do have quite a bit of butter in them, I would imagine margarine would be fine to substitute - I haven’t tried this though so I am only guessing.

You’ll notice in the title that I’ve mentioned what they were cooked in. I didn’t do that to be super fancy. I often find myself without any muffin cases because I am somewhat vague and forget to buy them. I usually only discover it once I’ve started to make a batch of muffins normally. Most muffins are fine without any cases and can just be baked directly in the muffin pans. Some muffins do need cases though, anything with a lot of fruit or bits of chocolate that are going to firmly adhere to the pan are better with muffin cases.

Using parchment is a good option when you find yourself lacking a muffin case. Often people seem to think your muffins are much more elegant when they reside in these. When in fact it’s normally a bit of a ghetto solution to no cases on hand. Another bonus of using parchment is that the muffin won’t stick to it - no peeling bits of muffin off the case.

They make a wonderfully large batch - some to eat, some to put in the freezer or give to a friend.

Beautiful Berry Muffins

makes roughly 16-24 regular sized muffins.

170 grams butter ( or margarine)
1 1/2 cups raw sugar (or white)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tspns vanilla
1 cup of sour cream (or buttermilk or plain yogurt - you may use low fat options)
1/4 cup of low fat milk
1 3/4 cups of white flour
3/4 of a cup of wholemeal flour ( stoneground if possible)
2 t baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 tspn salt
2 cups of berries of your choice - cut very large berries like strawberries into pieces. Frozen berries are easier to cut than fresh.

To make your parchment cases, simply cut squares of baking paper roughly 14cm/ 5 inches square. Spray a little non stick spray into the bottom of each muffin pan and then press your parchment square in there, creasing the folds firmly. You may find they pop back up, don’t worry they will be fine once the batter is sitting in them.

Cream the butter and sugar together until thick and pale. Add in your eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Add in your vanilla, sour cream and milk.

Sift in your dry ingredients and stir quickly and gently - by hand being very careful not to overmix. Don’t make your muffins tough!

Lastly add in your berries reserving half a cup or so for the top.

Bake in the oven at 180C/350F for roughly 25-30 minutes. About half way through cooking quickly and carefully and place a few berries on the tops of the muffins, since much of the fruit will sink during cooking.

The muffins are cooked when they spring back lightly to the touch in the center. Do not undercook these muffins.

If you feel so inclined sprinkle with a little icing sugar to take the level of fancy up a notch. I also added some chopped white chocolate into half the batch - if you’re a white chocolate lover, white chocolate and raspberry is hard to beat.

Cool on a cake rack and eat slightly warm or room temperature.

Outside of the kitchen, I picked my onions this week, unfortunately many of them have gone to seed, but it means that I now have the most amazing looking vase of offensive smelling flowers on my table. Fortunately I have an almost permanently blocked nose in summer with hayfever, so I just get to enjoy how they look! The cat had to come check them out too - that’s Nicki on the table there.. naughty girl!

I baked pikelets which we ate slathered in morello cherry jam, you can see those on the table too - and cooked the most delicious Italian onion soup - you can see the cookbooks sprawled over the table. I ended up choosing a recipe which was low fat and utterly delicious. I’ll share that with you soon. Going to the library and coming home with a massive stack of cookbooks is one of my absolute favourite things to do.

I also pulled out these this week.

I had a little fun creating mixed media gardens,
stitching and drawing and painting on heavy watercolour paper.

This one underneath went on the front of a package to Leah in Wellington as the address label- but it doesn’t seem to have arrived yet, I really hope it’s not gone missing.

I also had the urge to paint foxes, some of them were quite .. err mishapen and rather frightening looking !

After much trial and error I came up with this little lady - who I think I’d like to play with some more. She’s a little smudgy - she is only a test fox afterall. She is about 3 cm high.

Remember to spend time doing the things you love with the people you love, create some memories together. Take a little time for you, or maybe just bake the muffins - they’re good. Until next time - Ciao Bella!

Painting Terracotta Pots - but wait there's more!

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:00:29 +1300

It’s school holidays here at the moment. So we’ve been doing all manner of fun things to fill the time. Terracotta pots were the flavour of the week at our house. I originally intended it as an activity for Isaac, but it seems that I liked as much if not more than he did.

My lovely husband asked me how much I spent on materials for the pots and I mumbled something incomprehensible. It’s not exactly the cheapest activity unless you have some acrylic paint already sitting around, but it was a huge amount of fun.

What you need for these.

Acrylic paint of different shades - we used Resene test pots and some art supplies that we had handy.
Clear paint/sealer in a spray can ( Dulux make one here in NZ)
Terracotta pots
Newspaper
Variety of brushes both large and small.

Start by sealing your terracotta pots with the clear enamel - both inside and out. You want to make sure that your pot is sealed. Water retention is better for the plant, but also when you are painting on the outside you will not get the paint soaking into the terracotta clay and you will get a better finish. It takes about 30 minutes to dry.

Now paint your pots. I started with two coats of my base colour to ensure good coverage of the pot. Make sure your coat of paint is dry before you paint details or paint on the next coat. There are some really good instructions and tips for painting pots here at The Artistic Garden.

We really enjoyed sitting outside in the sun painting pots - perhaps if it’s winter in your part of the world you might like to paint some pots for spring for some colourful spring bulbs, or for some sprouts for eating that can be grown inside.

Isaac had a wonderful time painting his impression of Godzilla on a pot. I feel like I should plant a venus flytrap it in or something!

As well as painting pots we did a day trip to the little blue penguin colony in Oamaru to see the little guys coming in from the sea at night. You can’t help but look at them and smile, they are seriously cute! We were lucky enough to see several rafts of penguins come in from the sea once they had finished fishing for the day.

Smaller than a chicken but still pretty tough for something so adorable, they can beat up a rabbit if they need to! They live all through the coastal area of Oamaru and surrounds, not content to stick to their colony they also build their nests in various places in the Victorian area and in people’s gardens.

There are only 8000 of them left in the world. I’d like to show you some photos of them but we have none since there is a no camera policy so as not to scare the little guys. The only ones I could take a picture of were these weird looking ones.

I did pick up some wonderful smooth rocks from the seaside where they live and brought them home as a memento.
Not as quite cute as the penguins but fun to make. Wash your rocks/pebbles - dry and paint with the same type of paint as you used for the pots. An acrylic paint that washes up in water is fine. Seal with the clear spray paint. I wrote the date and the place that I collected these rocks on the back of them.

We had fun exploring the Retro Funk second hand shop in Oamaru too, Isaac was examining all the bits and pieces with great interest. I could hardly believe my eyes - there were so many things from my childhood in that store it was both terrifying and entrancing.

Multiple albums of Val Doonican graced the entrance, L’eggs pantihose, black and white TV’s and an Atari 2600 were to be found tucked in the corners. Candlewick bedspreads, enamel cooking pots patterned with flowers, fondue sets and tiny forks to stick into corn cobs were just a small selection of the treasures to be discovered. There was also the obligatory orange and paisley bathing suit and Maxi dresses - the REAL DEAL. If you are in the Oamaru area and into all things retro; this shop is a must see.

If you and your family have a break at this time of year, make sure you take some time to do something with the people you love and make some memories together.

Wishing you all a happy start to 2012.

So I made a Terrarium and ....

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:18:51 +1300

I was standing at my kitchen window just looking at it .. thinking .. hmm I like that.. I should put something else in there….then I looked a little closer…..

And yes.. under the small succulent at the bottom ..

I spotted something.

Or perhaps I should say someone. I now have a spider living in there.. he/she has carefully built a web across the width of the bowl and now resides in my terrarium. Most people have to content themselves with plastic dinosaurs and the like, but not me, I have a living resident, even though they were not invited!

Marmalade and Bourbon Glazed Ham with Star Anise

Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:08:34 +1300

Things have been happening since I last saw you. I’ve sent two of my children out into the world and finished up at work for Christmas. I’ve had many trips to the airport in the last month, spent way too much money on way too many things, joined a gym, read a fantasy Trilogy in a week and cooked a Christmas Ham and a fennel and cauliflower gratin to die for. I used one dozen eggs to make creme brulee and I’ve baked roughly 60 meringues, I watched a 6 year old in a hiphop concert and put on a birthday party for him when he turned 7. I tried wholegrain porridge for the first time, I’ve become obsessed with lino cuts and ordered myself a Christmas gift! So as you can see, I’ve been doing stuff.

I thought you might like to put this ham recipe away for next year. We swooned over this ham today - it smelled amazing while it cooked and as soon as it was out of the oven I had to try a little piece. It fell into the things that make you go “mmmm” category so I wanted to share it with you. I had to carry a very hot, heavy ham around the house looking for enough light to photograph it for you, I nearly dropped it. It wobbled quite precariously at some points. I often make a glazed ham for Christmas - but this is the most heavenly one yet.

I’ve made this a step by step so that you can feel confident that you know what you’re doing when you stand with your very expensive ham in front of you. Please try to use free range ham if you can manage it. This recipe is enough to glaze a large precooked ham.

Marmalade and Bourbon glazed Ham with Star Anise

1 and a half cups of breakfast marmalade
1/4 of a cup of Dijon mustard
1/2 cup of Bourbon whiskey
cloves
2/4 whole star anise (2 for a half ham 4 for a whole ham)

Mix all your glaze ingredients together in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer and simmer for a 4-5 minutes until thickened slightly. Strain and set aside to cool while you prepare your ham for glazing. I just cooked a half (cob) ham this year with my big kids gone .. sniffle…

With a small sharp knife (small is better for getting around the curve of the ham without accidentally cutting massive chunks out of it) carefully insert it inbetween the rind and the fat while gently pulling up and back on the rind.

You will find that you can mostly just pull the rind off the ham with your hands but there will be the occasional bit that does not want to budge and you will need to cut with the knife. Make sure when you are pulling that you are still leaving a good layer of fat behind on the ham. This is what you are going to cut to make that beautiful diamond pattern.

Next score the diamond pattern into the fat of the ham. The aim is to cut through the fat but not into the meat. If you cut too deeply the fat will open right up and separate. This sometimes happens no matter how careful you are with your scoring - if it does don’t panic just glaze the whole surface and baste the whole surface so the meat doesn’t dry out.

If you look at the piece of ham I have there you will see the fat layer is much thinner on the left. It was hard for me to score without touching the meat - so consequently it opened a little as it cooked - but it won’t detract at all as long as you keep it carefully basted.

Preheat your oven to 180C/300F

Once you’ve scored your diamonds into the fat place a clove in the centre of each diamond and strategically place your whole star anise somewhere roughly in the centre of the ham.

I made sure I picked out whole star anise that still had the stalks on so that I could push the stalks into the ham and hold them there.

Put a piece of baking paper in a roasting dish and carefully put your ham in. Brush with the glaze - make sure you get into all the little corners and place in the preheated oven for roughly 50 minutes to an hour 10 minutes.

You must baste your ham with the glaze at least every 10 minutes while it’s cooking. if you have some bits that are getting a little dark, make sure that you keep them well basted so they do not dry out. If you run out of glaze - baste with the pan juices.

Your ham should be well heated through and glistening with a warm and spicy glaze at the end of the cook time.

You can see on the ham the gap where the fat was too thin and melted away - but I assure you it made no difference to the flavour.

If you’ve never tried cooking a Christmas Ham .. don’t be afraid.

It’s really very easy and the result is just absolutely worth basting for an hour.

I’m heading off to the kitchen to grab some leftovers.

Oh .. a tip for storage. Rinse a clean dish towel or piece of cotton in a solution of vinegar and water ( roughly 1 Tbspn of vinegar to 2 litres of water) and squeeze out. Place the damp cloth around your ham to keep it fresh for up to a month. Every couple of days or so change the cloth and replace with a clean cloth rinsed in the vinegar and cold water.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all.

Pane Veloce - Quick Crusty Bread

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:00:00 +1300

These little loaves take less than an hour and forty minutes start to finish. That’s right, warm, soft, homemade bread in less than two hours and you don’t have to knead it either!

Homemade bread is just one of those things that speaks love. It makes the whole house smell delicious and there is just something so satisfying about cutting into a crust that crackles a little to reveal beautiful soft bread.

This is fast enough that you can get home from work, throw the ingredients in a bowl and you have wonderful homemade bread ready for dinner.

This makes three small loaves - I find that my family of five eats two of these with dinner easily. Warm and dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, spread thickly with hummus, or dipped into soups or gravy it’s a wonderful addition to a meal. You could always freeze the third loaf or reheat the next day sliced and wrapped in a little foil with garlic butter smeared through it.

You are going to love this bread. Promise. This recipe was a special request from my Leah - and frequently graces our table.

Source Dulcis in Ferno and Share my Kitchen

Pane Veloce

500 grams of flour (plus a little more for your work surface)
370 mls of lukewarm water
1 tspn to 1 Tblspn of honey ( more or less depending on how sweet you would like your bread - I like the larger measurement)
1 1/4 tpsns active dry yeast - OR 1 tspn instant yeast OR 12g fresh yeast dissolved in the warm water.
1 tspn of salt

Dissolve the honey in the water. Sift the flour into a large bowl - make a well in the centre and add the yeast followed by the warm water and honey and then the salt. Mix briefly with a knife until just combined.

The dough will be very soft and sticky - but that’s fine - that’s exactly how you want it to be. If you think it is a little dry then add a little more water- your dough should not be dry.

Sprinkle the dough with a little flour and cover and place in a warm place for roughly an hour.

While the dough is rising do the following:

Cover a baking tray with parchment and then sprinkle generously with flour.

Place an oven proof dish in the bottom of the oven filled with warm water. Preheat your oven for at least 30 minutes at 220C/450F. Place a Pizza stone in the oven to put your bread tray on if you have one also. This is not essential.

When your dough has roughly doubled in volume carefully turn the dough out on to your floured parchment. I scrape mine out of the bowl with a wide spoon - a knife would work as well. Divide into three equal pieces and shape into small long loaves. The flour on the loaves and the loose dough makes your loaves look amazing when baked.

Bake for 15- 20 minutes then turn the oven temperature down to 160C/320F and bake for a further 10-15 minutes.

Cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

If you’re after a super fast bread - this is the one.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:00:00 +1300

Did you ever have one of those days where you just end up wishing you had never entered the kitchen and knew that the baking Gods were out to get you? I may or may not have had one of those days making this cake. Ok, I definitely had one. I needed to make a cake for my father’s birthday. I only had a couple of hours to make it and I knew he liked chocolate, so chocolate it was going to be. A SIMPLE chocolate cake.

Here’s my Dad with my little sister and me ice skating outside on a lake mid winter in central Otago. Handsome young Dad wasn’t he?

I started in on making the cake with not a lot of time to spare.

I read the instruction in the recipe which stated - ” line your pan with parchment - because the batter is very liquid and you don’t want it to leak” and then promptly ignored it. My problems began at this point.

“My pan won’t leak!” I confidently exclaimed to myself..
“I know this pan and I know this mixture it will be FINE”.
Guess what….? It wasn’t fine, my pan had been taking part in a little rough housing in the cupboard with the other pans and become slightly less round and now it leaks. I ended up with batter all through the bottom of the oven .. pouring on to the lower element and giving off a lovely burnt chocolate cake smoke.

“I can fix this!”.. I thought. (still looking for the easy way out)

So I opened the oven - put some foil tightly around the base of the pan and shoved it back in the oven. I ripped the foil and batter poured out in a massive gush from the bottom of the pan.

I went into sensible crisis mode

“Right I need to change pans and line it!”
I grabbed the parchment out of the draw pulled some out and ripped it with great vigor across the sharp little cutty thing .. and sliced my finger with it. Blood began to seep out of my finger.

“It’s ok, it’s ok.., you’re ok, just fix the cake!” I rummaged about and found another pan (way too big) and hit my head on the top of the cupboard as I took it out.

I picked up the foil wrapped, batter weeping cake pan, forgot it was hot and burned my fingers - of course - I was beginning to expect it now.

I poured the cake batter into the pan with parchment on the base and tossed it back into the oven feeling victorious, even though the oven was now WAY below temperature. Then I realised that the base of the pan was lined, but the sides were not…

I cooked the cake and of course when I removed it - it was stuck on the sides. I managed to extract it without mangling it too much, it was thin because half the batter had poured on to the bottom of the oven and been charred to within an inch of it’s life. In fact I believe it actually caught fire briefly.

I decided to cut the maltesers for the top while I waited for it to cool. Half of them shattered into little bits of powder - I picked up a broken one to eat it (well come on, I was having a very bad afternoon!) and it exploded further into bits of filling and chocolate shards which all went down INSIDE my T shirt. So yes.. I had maltesers melting inside my shirt along with little scratchy bits. Sigh ……

Isaac helped me decorate it. Honestly I wasn’t going to be suprised if Isaac fell into the cake and smooshed his face in it by accident.

But all’s well that ends well - the cake was iced and given to my lovely father. He thought it was a “flash looking cake” Yay!

Happy 82nd Birthday Dad - I’m really glad you got your flash looking cake, it almost didn’t happen.

All disasters aside - if you follow the recipe you will find this is a lovely fast chocolate cake that always turns out well (yes it STILL managed to turn out well despite all the in and out of the oven and transferring pans etc). It’s from Sophie Gray and is readily available on her blog and in her wonderful books if you have them.

Here is my lovely Dad with some of his grandchildren - from front left clockwise, Isaac, Jacinta, Dad, Fynn and Oliver.

It’s been a birthday cake staple in our house for a long time and holds a rather special place in my heart. This cake was also the last cake I baked for my 9 year old son Fynn who passed away. It was his birthday two weeks before he died. This is the first time I’ve felt I could make it since then. It will always be Fynn’s cake to me.

Give this cake a whirl - I’m sure it will become a family favourite in your house too. The original recipe for the icing is on Sophies blog- but I’ve chosen to gussy this up a little today with a smooth and shiny sour cream frosting.

Chocolate Birthday Cake

Source Destitute Gourmet

1 2/3 cups flour
1½ cups sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1½ cups of low fat milk
100 g melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Sour Cream Frosting

1 cup chopped dark chocolate
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups icing sugar

I halved this frosting recipe because I ended up with a single layer cake. But this amount will comfortably cover a two layer cake.

This cake can be made by hand or in the food processor, the results will be the same made either way.

Line a 20 cm (8 inch) loose bottom high sided cake pan with baking parchment. Spray the sides with non stick spray or grease with butter. If you don’t it WILL leak - see above story if you don’t believe me. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F

If you wish to make it by hand in a large bowl simply add in the dry ingredients first then add wet ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon

To make in the food processor - add in dry ingredients - pulse to combine and then add in wet, whizz until well mixed.

Pour into your lined cake pan and bake for roughly 50 minutes. It is done when a skewer inserted comes out clean. If you wish to bake it in a larger pan and have a single layer - then you will need to adjust cook times and cook for less time.

If you have made the 20cm/8 inch version - cool on a rack and then split in half when cool, spread jam across the center and then some of the frosting. Place top layer on and then cover the entire cake with frosting.

To make the Frosting
Place the chocolate and butter in a bowl in the microwave and heat until the butter melts. Stir the chocolate into the warm butter to melt completely. Add in your sour cream, vanilla and salt - stir well.

Add in your icing sugar a little at a time and beat well between additions until you have a spreadable consistency.

A beautiful moist cake - keep it covered in the fridge to keep it at it’s best for longer.

I’m off to make a sacrifice to the baking gods now - I’m going to go burn some cookies or something.

This post was entered in the Sweet New Zealand Monthly blogging event. It’s being hosted this month by Couscous & Consciousness. If you would like to enter something yourself you can check out the rules here for the Sweet New Zealand Blogging Event.

Deviled eggs with Hummus

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 12:12:00 +1300

What? Deviled eggs with hummus - what blasphemy is this?!

I assure you it’s all for a very good cause - tastiness and waistlines.

I’m not trying to reinvent the deviled egg which is just perfect in all it’s retro goodness. This was just a spur of the moment change based on me desperately wanting to pig out on something savory without adding several inches to my waistline. Yes, there are much lower fat snacks that I could have chosen but I wanted deviled eggs.

So I went to the kitchen tossed the eggs in some water.. then reflected on my impulsive egg craving, knowing that deviled eggs were fairly high in fat and that’s fine .. if you just eat one or two .. but I had plans to eat more than that. So I decided I’d better change it up.

Deviled Eggs with Hummus

4 eggs
1 tspn of mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tblspns of hummus
salt and pepper
1/4 tspn of curry powder ( or to taste)
Cayenne pepper or hot Paprika/ chives to sprinkle on top.

I’m pretty sure most of you will know how to hard boil an egg. If not try this.

Place 4 eggs in a pot of boiling water and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let eggs sit in the warm water for another 10 minutes. Drain.

Peel eggs under cold running water. Avoid very fresh eggs, they are hard to peel.

Cut your eggs in half, gently remove the yolks leaving the whites in tact and place in a small bowl.

Add in the remainder of the ingredients and mix together well with a fork. You will not get this perfectly smooth because you will have little lumps of hummus through the mix.

Place the yolk mix back into the cavity the yolk came from originally. You can pipe the mix in or just spoon it. I think because the mix is textured with little bits of chickpea from the hummus the spooned in casual look is spot on. Besides, I could not find my piping bag and I just wanted to eat them.

Sprinkle with a little of the Paprika or Cayenne and some chives.

Eat - and feel less guilty because these do have fewer calories than your traditional deviled egg; but they are every bit as delicious

Outstanding in their Fields - Fruit Sponge Pudding

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:49:00 +1200

I trundled off to the farmers market full of anticipation for the cook off between our farmer’s market chefs Alison and Simon Lambert and the Outstanding in their Fields representatives Steve Ellwood and Tony Heptinstall.

I was not disappointed! The chefs had 35 minutes to create a three course meal with some of the beautiful local seasonal produce from the Otago Farmers market. The Race was ON!

My assignment - to re-create one of the dishes that the chefs made.

If any of the chefs are reading this - please forgive me if I have any of these dishes incorrectly described- I might have been overcome by the amazing aroma’s coming from both kitchens!

Alison and Simon started by serving olive oil infused with rosemary and roasted garlic with some of the incredibly tasty Pain au Levain from Levito Bakery lightly toasted to whet the judges appetite.

This tempter was followed by a Capaccio of Limousin Beef with a light salad of cheese, fresh lettuce and toasted hazelnuts.

Next up was a carefully pan fried sole served on roasted potatoes with a chorizo and bacon sauce.

Finally a light and airy sponge pudding of apples and tayberries and cream.

Here it all is - judging is serious business! All washed down with a nice Rose from Judge Rock Wines. I have to say .. that the wine bottle at this stage is full.. by the time judging was finished - it was completely empty! Not sure if that influenced any decisions or not!

This is the Otago farmers market mobile kitchen - we’re treated to Alison’s fantastic cooking every week!

Tony and Steve served us pan fried groper with a crispy herb crust and a white wine and mustard sauce with a fresh fennel and apple salad.

I have to say I loved the look of this dish - so much that I really wanted to recreate it at home, and I did, although I’m afraid I don’t have any photos of the homemade version - we ate it all way too fast.

Limousin beef minute steaks served with hand rolled wonton wrappers, braised leeks and carrots followed by a creamy rice pudding with a tayberry compote.

Hand making the wonton wrappers for this dish. Apparently the secret is in resting the dough. Not sure exactly how much resting it got with such a tight time limit!

Here they are bustling about creating deliciousness in the Outstanding Kitchen

Unfortunately I did not get to taste all these creations since they were snapped up by the crowd at a speed faster than light! The things I did taste were delicious and really quite stunning considering they had only 35 minutes to put these together.

I decided to recreate two of the dishes that were served. I made Tony and Steves fish with a herb crust and mustard sauce - but .. we ate it all before I could get a nice photo for you as I mentioned. Sorry about that! I promise I will make it again though. It was very, very good.

Alison and Simon’s simple but delicious fruit sponge pudding fared a little better with the photography - since I made it when none of my family were home. Tayberries were sold out when I went to look for them but I managed to pick up some beautiful Waimate strawberries that were frozen in the peak of summer. So even if you are not sure that what you want is in season the farmers market is worth a check, they often have their off season produce in frozen form. So you are still buying a local product. Make sure you get along to a cooking demonstration near you - don’t forget to have a look at the Outstanding in their Fields website for details for your area.

This is a delicious homey dessert with sweet apples and berries with a hint of lemon to cut the sweetness.

Waimate Strawberry and Sonia Apple Fruit Sponge Pudding

Filling

3 large Sonia apples ( or other sweet apple suitable for baking)
2 cups of local berries - fresh or frozen
1 level Tblspn of cornflour (you don’t want it gluggy!)
2 Tblspns white sugar
juice and zest of one lemon.

Sponge topping:

100 grams of caster/superfine sugar
100 grams of soft butter
3 free range eggs
100 grams of sifted flour
1 1/2 tspns of baking powder
1 tspn vanilla.

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F

Prepare your fruit.

Peel apples chop roughly and place in the bowl with the other ingredients for your filling - mix well, place into a large dish and put in the hot oven while you make your topping.

Beat your butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well between each addition.

Add your vanilla and beat well.

Sift in flour and baking powder and mix lightly. You will have a thick but spreadable mixture.

Spread your topping over the hot fruit and bake for 45-55 minutes.

You can see once I’ve spread the topping over there are a few bits of fruit poking through - this really doesn’t matter at all.

You may need to place a piece of foil over your pudding for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking if your sponge is looking very brown. I find I do need to do this.

Putting a skewer in to test for doneness does not work with this! In the centre of the sponge push gently with your finger.. if it feels firm it is most likely done. Just to be sure - take a knife and make a small slit in the centre and push the sponge back just a fraction to see if you have batter - or lovely light sponge. If the worst happens and you remove it and find it out it’s not done - toss it back in the oven for a few more minutes. It will still be delicious.

Dust with icing sugar/powdered sugar and serve hot with thick cream.

This is a wonderful family dessert made in a large dish - or it can be divided between individual ramekins for a dinner party look. Cook time will be less if you are making this in single serve dishes.

I really hope no matter where you are in NZ you are supporting your local producers. For those of you overseas I hope you are buying local too - it’s a good thing to be thinking about where our food comes from and how it was produced.

Kiwis remember - the Outstanding Kitchen will be coming to a farmers market near you!

The generous producers that donated produce for the demonstrations can be found on the farmers market website

Out Standing in their Fields - not literally - but figuratively...

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:19:00 +1200

Out Standing in their Fields - not literally - but figuratively speaking of course. Farmers’ Markets New Zealand, in conjuction with the REAL New Zealand Festival, is giving a national series of FREE Farmers’ Market cooking and producer demonstrations. This is a fantastic opportunity to see your local produce cooked and prepared in front of you by some very talented people. Well known chefs will be making appearances, like Brett McGregor, Jonny Schwass, Julie Biuso and Chef of the Year, David Schofield.

Make sure you check out the link to Outstanding in their Fields to see when and were you need to be to catch this treat! There are even prizes to be had!

It’s happening in a local Farmers market near you! I plan on heading down to The Otago Farmers market tomorrow to see Alison (our regular farmers market chef) and husband Simon along with Steve Ellwood and Tony Heptinstall. I bet they’ll be cooking up a storm!

Check out the Out Standing in their Fields Blog for all the updates, videos and recipes from the road!

After the event I’ll be cooking something based on the chef’s demonstration for those of you that can’t be there for the day. Hope to see lots of you there!

Tan Square - Caramel Crumb Bars

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:34:00 +1200

Tan Square has got to be almost at the top of the list for my favourite slices. This is called Caramel Crumb Bars if you are in the US. What’s not to like?

A thick layer of a shortbread type base, smothered in dulce de leche type creamy caramel, sprinkled with more shortbread crumbs and dotted with dark chocolate.

It’s not good for you - I have to tell you that so my conscience is clear. Although I am sure after one quick look at the ingredients list you would have worked that out on your own.

This is something that makes a wonderful treat and it makes a regular appearance in cake tins, at morning teas and as cafe fare all over New Zealand.

Tan Square - Caramel Crumb Bars

Base

3 cups of plain flour
2 tspns Baking powder
1 cup of white sugar
250 grams of butter
1 tspn vanilla extract

Topping

60g butter
2 generous tbsp golden syrup
1 400g can condensed milk
50 grams of chopped Dark Chocolate
1/3 of a cup of base mixture reserved.

Make the base:

Cream together the butter and sugar until light. Add in the vanilla and mix. Add in dry ingredients and mix until you have a rough crumbly mixture.

Press firmly into a 32 cm x 21 cm (13 inch X 9 inch) pan lined with baking paper ( you’ll be glad of that later) and place in the fridge while you make the topping. Don’t forget to reserve 1/3 of a cup of this mix to sprinkle over the top.

Place your condensed milk, golden syrup and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until the butter is melted. DO stir this constantly- this will burn in a flash.

Pour over your base, sprinkle over your reserved crumb topping and sprinkle your chopped chocolate over as evenly as you can manage.

Cook in a 180C/350F oven for roughly 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it towards the end of cooking time it will burn quickly around the edges if you are not careful.

Let it cool completely before cutting into squares.

You can halve this recipe easily if you wish and cook it in a standard square cake pan.

A Kiwi classic.

Watch out for another post before the end of the week. There is something special happening at the Farmers Market in Otago and moving through the country starting this weekend!

I’ve been painting birds. I’ve been at home with...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:59:26 +1200

I’ve been painting birds. I’ve been at home with Isaac for the last few days so I’ve been fiddling about with my paints again. Delphine at the Non Dairy Diary had a nice tutorial for creating some little birds with digital art. She’s a wonderful artist and I would encourage you to go and have a look at her blog. I’m not proficient enough with drawing programmes but I thought I would grab my watercolours and play around with the basic idea a little. Thanks Delphine for giving me a wonderful starting point for these little birds.

Apologies for the image quality - I was in a bit of a hurry to take a picture before my camera battery died!

Kahlua Sugar Body Scrub

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:12:00 +1200

Made in the kitchen from your everyday staples - a luxurious treat for your body. Smoothing away all those rough bits and moisturising your skin. Leaving you smelling absolutely delicious! Sugar scrubs sell for lots of dollars! A quick search revealed some priced between $35.00 and $68.00. Most sell for around $15.00 This homemade version which smells delicious cost just a few cents to make and does a wonderful job.

It smells amazing with vanilla and coffee as the predominant scents. It smells good enough to eat - and no doubt you could.. but I would not recommend it.

More than likely you already have everything you need to make this scrub.

Kahlua Body Scrub

1 cup of soft brown sugar
1/2 cup of olive or almond oil
1/2 tspn vanilla
1 tspn of fresh ground coffee

Mix all your ingredients together and place in a jar with a lid.

To use grab a large tablespoonful of the scrub when you’ve almost finished your shower - rub on damp skin with circular motions and then rinse off.

In this photo you can see the oil has started to rise to the top, this is completely normal just give it a good stir before each use.
Your own special homemade beauty product for a fraction of the price.

Storage: It will be fine just in the bathroom for a couple of months - but if you don’t plan on using all you’ve made within that time; I suggest that you add 1/4 cup of salt into the scrub as a natural preservative.

Make sure you keep a lid on your scrub - if water gets into the scrub the sugar will melt and bacteria can grow.

If you are not sure if your scrub is still good - give it a sniff - if it smells bad - toss it.

I hope you enjoy this one , it takes literally a couple of minutes to make yourself this little treat.

Happy scrubbing!

Footnote: Apparently according to the 6 year old - it tastes amazing and he’s eaten several spoonfuls - makes his skin feel nice as well .. but that was definitely an aside to the taste. To answer Isaac’s question - neither the oil nor the sugar scrub is poisonous.

Rainbow Crayons. We’ve been snowed in for two days now and...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:20:00 +1200

Rainbow Crayons. We’ve been snowed in for two days now and the snow keeps coming. Isaac and I decided to have a bit of a clean out of his old crayons and make some rainbow crayons. Easy to do and gives those icky looking old bits of crayons a new life.

Break up your old crayons into pieces and place in a silicone mould, (we used a brownie pop mould). You can use metal muffin pans if you like but the crayons may have a tendency to stick. They pop right out of the silicone moulds nicely.

Place in a 150C ( 250F) oven for a few minutes - maybe 10-15. It will depend on the type of crayons you used. Keep an eye on them and when they are evenly melted let them cool before popping them out.

We set them outside in the cold to firm up and voila! New crayons.

Strawberry bonbons from France. They sat on my computer desk for...

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 12:28:16 +1200

Strawberry bonbons from France. They sat on my computer desk for about twenty minutes. I ate them all. I did not share them and I am not sorry. They were good!

Aside from being a glutton and eating those delicious little morsels I thought I would share my semi-freddo with you all. Look at it in all it’s creamy, tasty glory.

Isaac and I made some this week and tossed handfuls of crumbled Cadbury Crunchie bars into it. It’s easier than ice cream and perfect if you don’t have an ice cream maker. Isaac was very impressed with himself even though he vanished to do something far more important ( read - watch cartoons) half way though.

Semi-freddo is lighter than ice cream in texture, that does not mean however that it has less fat. Make no mistake it’s not on the list of healthy foods to eat. It is simple, delicious and extremely impressive though. If you want to treat some guests and not put in a huge effort this is the thing to do it with. This is an adaptation of Jamie Olivers Recipe from the Naked Chef.

Crunchie Bar Semi-Freddo.

Serves 12 - easily halved.

4 free range eggs - separated
500/17fl oz mls heavy cream
1 vanilla pod or 1 1/2 tpsns vanilla extract
55 grams/2oz sugar
pinch of salt
2 Cadbury Crunchie bars or other candy bar of your choice.

If you are using a vanilla pod - split the pod and scrape the seeds into the egg yolks and sugar, or just add the vanilla extract - whisk until pale and thick.

In a second bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form (don’t over whip it).

In a third bowl whisk the egg whites and salt to stiff peaks.
Add the candy bars either crumbled or chopped to the cream

Add the cream and egg whites to the yolks and sugar and fold together gently. Pour carefully into an 8 inch high sided cake pan and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer overnight. It will keep a few days in the freezer.

Serve and use as you would ice cream. This is able to be turned out of the container when frozen and sliced with a hot knife if you wish. Wonderful with berries or a berry puree.

This really is a very special dessert and so very easy.

Flavour possibilities are endless, think fig and honey, cherry and chocolate, apricot and caramel, peppermint patties chopped and scattered through. Treat yourself!

Addicted to Watercolour! I’ve been painting up a storm - I...

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 19:57:00 +1200

Addicted to Watercolour!

I’ve been painting up a storm - I can’t seem to help myself the paints just keep pulling me back. An idea pops into my head and I just want to get it on paper.

I seem to have a thing for circles.

I wonder if this reminds you of anything? There is no right answer - I’m just curious. Isaac thought it was a hill with a bendy top. Kit thought it was a Yurt and Leah saw a Santa Hat.

I also like drawing fat children with spikey fingers apparently. Isaac thought they were a hoot. My six year old resident art critic told me that the children should have necks.. I suppose he’s right….

Tiny buildings seem to take my fancy also.

I promise this is the last time I will inflict my “art work” on you. I am going to finish off that braided rag rug that I started a long time back and bake you a Sour Cream Pear Cake with an Almond Crumble Topping.

xx Lisa