Until I married Kit, I’d never eaten an American brownie. A brownie in NZ was a Peanut Brownie, which is a type of cookie. I’ll tell you all about those another day though. Kit told me he missed eating them, so dutiful wife that I am (actually they sounded awesome and I wanted to try them), I decided I would make some for him.

My first batch was of course completely overcooked, since I just assumed that they should be cooked through the same as every other cake type thing I had ever made.

But in the last 12 years I think I’ve got pretty good at making them, if I do say so myself. I’ve tried quite a lot of brownie recipes and honestly it’s hard to pick a favourite, since they are delicious in all their wonderful variety.

I thought I would share this one with you today since it seems to be one hundred percent reliable and is fast and easy to make, as well as incredibly delicious and completely fattening of course. But I think that is something that contributes to their delicious nature, that little bit of guilt that goes along with them! I have Judy Rosenberg to thank for the basis of this recipe.

Chocolate Chunk Fudge Brownies

• 6 oz of chocolate
• 1 cup of butter
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 tspn of vanilla or vanilla paste
• 4 large free range eggs
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of chopped chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and grease and line a 9 inch square pan  with baking parchment.

Melt chocolate and butter together gently in a bowl over hot water

place the sugar in a medium bowl and mix in the chocolate and butter

Add in the vanilla and the eggs one at a time and mix until smooth and velvety

Add in the flour and mix through, stir in the chocolate chunks.

Bake roughly 35- 40 minutes.

This brownie is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out with moist crumbs attached. If the skewer is clean - you have overcooked the brownie.

Cool slightly before cutting and sprinkle liberally with icing sugar if you wish. I love the look of dark brownies with white snow like sugar on top. But you may prefer them without.

This is the view outside my window in the evening at the moment, the sun going down over the hills, the sea melon-coloured in the distance. One of the wonderful things about living here in New Zealand is that it really is the most beautiful country, and where ever you look, even outside your window, there is a marvellous landscape - I think we Kiwis take it for granted.

Every now and then when I get a moment to stop and reflect on my life, I just need to look around, to see what a truly beautiful place I live in. I love living here. It may not be the most exciting country in the world, and there are many things in other countries that I am envious of, but sitting here listening to the birds chirping in the almost silence, with a warm breeze coming in the door really is serene. Of course the serene thing only lasts as long as Isaac is in bed, when he’s up and about it’s a whole different story.

As I am about to have a small break from my work over Christmas, I want to show you some pictures of this little country at the bottom of the planet, since I will have a little more time to be out and about. I’m looking forward to showing you where I live.

This is one of my go to recipes when stone fruit is in season. I love the combination of stone fruit and berries, they are so pretty to look at and of course they taste just like summer.

I have Donna Hay to thank for this one. This is a slight adaptation from her “Off the Shelf” recipe for peach and raspberry tart. I love her food, it’s often very simple and quick to prepare, her food is not smothered in a million flavours that mask the taste of the base ingredients.

I find I am becoming less and less a fan of pretentious food, I like simple food that tastes wonderful and is easy to prepare, the two are not mutually exclusive. So if you are looking for a bacon chocolate cake with pomegranate jus with a side of something or other, this is not the blog for you. Here you will find food that is just good to eat, plain and simple. Anyway, enough of the rant and on to the tart. Perfect end to a summer meal and there is plenty to share, this is a good sized tart, and will serve 8 to 10 regular people - or maybe two teenagers.

Nectarine and Strawberry Tart

• 125 grams of butter softened
• 1 cup of caster sugar
• 1 tspn vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of self raising flour, sifted
• 2-3 nectarines cut into thin wedges
• 1 punnet of strawberries
• icing sugar (powdered sugar) to dust

Preheat the oven to 160C (325F) and line a 9 inch cake tin with baking paper. A removable base is best for this. If you use a larger tin - I often use a 10 inch the tart will take slightly less time to cook.

Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until light. Add the eggs and beat in well. Mix in the flour and spread carefully into the tin. Arrange the nectarines and strawberries on the top. Make sure that your fruit is not in really big thick chunks or it will sink to the bottom. Dust with icing sugar.

Bake for roughly 1 hour or until the tart is cooked. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.

You can use any combo of stone fruit and berries- it will be delicious!

I often sprinkle just a little more icing sugar on the tart just before serving - I like to serve it warm, although cold is fine too.

I know this post is a little late, but I did make a pecan pie on Thanksgiving, even though here in NZ we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Of course that’s not to say we’re not thankful for things in general, we just don’t do the holiday. Pecan pie is not terribly common here, and pumpkin pie - almost unheard of.

So why did I make a pecan pie? Well, I made two of them in fact. My husband is American by birth and he loves pecan pie, (I love it too, but we’ll pretend I made it just for him) and my darling daughter phoned me the night before Thanksgiving and told me that she had been invited to a dinner with some American friends and needed one to take for dessert.

There is just one problem with making a pecan pie in NZ. Corn syrup is like hens teeth, it’s here, but when you need it you can never find the one store that stocks it. So I needed to make one with no corn syrup.

However, I managed to find a lovely recipe online thank you Chef Eddy! that was corn syrup free.

So I made two of these babies - one for Leah to take to her dinner and one for us to eat - just because we love pecan pie. One of them literally was whipped out of the oven by Leah’s friend and whisked out the door. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it was actually done!

I used a basic pate brise recipe for the crust, which was very light and rolled out well. I tend to avoid using shortening unless it’s really needed. I like the flavour that butter gives to a pie crust.

When ever I make this pie, I always think that walnuts would make a very nice substitute, I must try that one day.

It’s Isaac’s 5th birthday tomorrow, and for New Zealand children that means they are old enough to start primary school. So I’m busy in the kitchen tonight making cupcakes! Wish me luck for tomorrow for a party with twelve 4 year olds!

Look at this! It’s dried apricots poached in honey, vanilla and white wine for the ..

hang on.. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning.

I found a little book in my stack of cookbooks in the pantry. Good and Tried recipes from 1927. It’s missing its cover unfortunately. I’ve amassed quite a collection of old cookbooks over the years, some I have cooked and baked from, some I’ve just browsed through. They are not only a collection of recipes, but a historical record of a time long gone and foods and techniques no longer used.

As times get a little tougher and people realise that there are skills being lost, vegetable gardens and chickens are being seen in backyards again and old recipe books being saved and leafed through for recipes from more frugal times. I thought I would give you a small sampling from its very worn pages.

I happened to open the book to the recipe below first. I am not entirely sure that I would want to cook this particular recipe. I think they mean Pukeko (which is a bird) not Pukaki which is a lake named after a Maori Chief. However a Pukeko is way too cute and they’re a protected native species.

Still, I suspect it must have been tasty, since it made it’s way into a recipe book.

The book also contains all manner of remedies for invalids and first aid, as well as the expected formulas for things like floor polish and how to remove mildew from curtains and suitable meals for the nursery. There is an index in the front, not for the recipes, but for the advertisements! Now here - is something that you all need to know and remember.

There will be no need now for any complaining about sprains as long as you remember this, and next time you cannot sleep, try the remedy above. Who needs new fangled medicines!

Oh, and before you cook the recipe I am about to give you, perhaps nip on down to the local store and pick yourself up a new corset. I’m sure you would like to be presentable for your husband or possible gentleman callers.

This is what I decided to make from the book, an Apricot Queen pudding. I decided to stick with Mrs Winters recipe for Apricot Queen Pudding more or less and see what it turned out like. I have a more modern version of this dessert, but honestly, this one sounds better!

There is of course no oven temperature given, since most women were still using coal ranges. There are many references to a “brisk fire” or “slow fire” throughout the book.

Apricot Queen Pudding - Mrs Winter- 1927

So - as per instructions I stewed (poached) the dried apricots first, almost covering them with water, Taking the liberty of tossing in

• one split vanilla bean
• 1/4 cup of white wine
• and 2 Tbspns of honey

I noticed nearly all the recipes called for a vanilla bean rather than extract, which I thought was interesting, extract must not have quite been in fashion yet?

They plumped up nicely. Then I ate one, and then I ate another one…

Then I made the base, rather than beating the bread down with a fork- which all sounded a little violent to me. I beat it with a whisk, since this seemed to make a little more sense, then I added the yolks and whisked lightly.

Put it into the oven at roughly 180C (350F) for about 30 minutes.

Then I poured the warm fruit on to the cooked custard base.

Next, top the pudding with the meringue. The meringue was very stiff and I had to beat it for some time to ensure the sugar was all incorporated. I’m not sure that it was still really well mixed in even after all the beating: if I was making this again (which I most likely will), I would reduce the sugar in the meringue considerably.

Spread the meringue on it carefully in spoonfuls then put it back into the oven again, this time at a slightly lower temperature - at roughly 160C for about 15 minutes.

This was the result.

A soft bread custard, with chunks of hot vanilla and honey tasting apricots covered in a soft meringue.

Thank you Mrs Winter from 1927, a lovely recipe, very simple, adaptable to many different kinds of fruit, and a delightful end to a meal

I once won a cooking competition with this recipe. I’m only going to repeat that because it’s the only time I have ever won anything! So I will. I once won a cooking competition with this recipe. It has stayed in my slightly grubby home-made recipe book for many years now and when ever I make it, the house is just filled with a fantastic aroma. Really, it’s the kind of pie that makes people love you.

This recipe started as a key lime pie recipe that has lost its origins somewhere in the vast internet. Over time it’s become a slightly different creature than its key lime pie ancestor. Those of you that are key lime pie purists, pretend this is something else entirely, so you are not offended.

The recipe is pretty adaptable really and almost any kind of juice can be substituted, but it does need a good kick to it to balance the sweetness of the condensed milk. The acid + milk combo also helps the pie set. Lemon, lime and grapefruit would be the juices I would take as first pick. Maybe unsweetened cranberry would work well? Although I am just musing here, so I take no responsibility for any failed or yucky cranberry pies that come about as a result of this thought.

Leah (my daughter) and I made two of these pies. We decided to share the pie cooking and enjoy a pie each. She needed to make one for a 21st birthday - which was bring a plate.  If you are not an NZer bring a plate means: bring a plate with food on it, not just an empty plate. This small error has been known to happen before.

She had a great time in the kitchen playing around with names for the pie, since she knew she would be asked what it was and she wanted to tell them something more exciting than “Lime Pie”, and saying that your lime pie is a “Lime Pie with a Ginger crust” is a little pretentious when you are only 21. So she settled on calling it after an invented dinosaur name - she is slightly wacky, my daughter - no idea where she gets that from! Limeopleurodon was born. So, if you feel like a little fun, call your pie a “Limeopleurodon pie”, if you want to be boring - go for “lime pie”, and if you want to be pretentious “lime pie with a ginger crust”

Lime Pie with a Ginger crust

• 1 packet Gingernut biscuits ( these are very hard ginger flavoured cookies - if anyone can offer a US substitute let me know)
  50g butter
  1 1/4 tins sweetened condensed milk ( 420 gms)
  3/4 cup lime juice (about 5 small limes)
  zest of 2 limes
  2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350F/180C

Make the crust in an 9 or 10 inch pie dish. If you choose the smaller size, your filling will go right to the top, if you choose the larger it will leave a little crust poking out at the top. I normally use the larger dish.

Place your Gingernuts in a plastic bag, and take out all your frustrations on them. Break them into pieces with a heavy rolling pin before you place them in your food processor. If you don’t you are likely to break your food processor, because they are very hard. If you do not have access to gingernuts, Graham crackers with a tspn of ground ginger may do the trick.

Place in the food processor and turn into fine crumbs. Add the zest from one lime and the melted butter, process again until well mixed. Your crust crumbs should have fine flecks of green lime zest through it.

Press the crumbs into the pie dish taking them up the sides and cook in the oven for roughly 10 minutes.

While your crust is cooking - make the filling

Whisk the condensed milk, lime juice, zest of one lime and lastly the eggs in a medium bowl till well blended.

Pour the filling into the warm crust - taste (yes really) to make sure the acid/sweet balance is right. Add a little more lime juice if you feel it’s needed.

Bake for roughly 20 minutes or until the filling is set. I like to give the pie a gentle jiggle to see if it’s set in the middle. It’s better to undercook than over cook this. Since the pie will continue to set and cook a little after it’s removed from the oven

Cool to room temperature, then chill for a little in the fridge. Serve with whipped cream or mascapone and watch the smiles.

In theory, this pie will keep for a day or so in the fridge, but in our house, it never lasts that long.