Should You Eat That?

Royal Gala Dinner Party

2009-08-14T11:34:00.002+10:00

What?! You haven't been getting my posts since April? Maybe you should check up on your RSS feed reader ;) In all seriousness though, life has been hectic, what can I say? I just hope that you will all find it in your hearts to forgive me - It is my birthday after all!

Well, it was on Monday anyway. I turned the ripe old age of 25 and last weekend I held a purple themed dinner party to celebrate my quarter of a century of life. Why purple? Because it is my favourite colour of course! All my guests (14 of us in total) wore something purple and in true Tara fashion I had to take it that one step further and incorporate the colour purple into as much of the food as possible. I think I did pretty well considering purple isn't a predominant colour in food and I didn't want to resort to food colouring too much (it is only in the icing for the cupcakes and a tiny bit in the cocktails) and let's face it, it isn't the most appetising of colours. Eggplant and beetroot were my saviours, but I had some unlikely helpers - like lavender! Here is a copy of the menu, click on it to open it larger if you can't read it properly.

Appetisers & Drinks:

Eggplant & Goat's Cheese Stacks w/ Prosciutto Makes 50

I based these stacks on these ones that I found on Taste.com.au, but I used eggplant instead because I knew I was making beetroot dip and I didn't want the beetroot to dominate the appetisers! Just having one layer made them a little easier to handle as finger food and I topped them with prosciutto because it is delicious and pink, which is pretty close to purple. Lebanese eggplant is better to use for these as it is nice and slender and so makes smaller, bite-size rounds.

Cut 5 lebanese eggplants into 1cm slices and marinate in a mixture of 1/4C olive oil & 1/4C balsamic vinegar for 1 hour. In the meantime, mix together 3tsp chopped chives, 2Tbsp milk & 120g goat's cheese and set aside until needed.

Drain eggplant slices on paper towel and heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan. Fry eggplant slices for a few minutes each side, until golden. Drain on paper towel. Top with cheese mixture and 4 slices torn prosciutto.

Purple Potato Soup Shots Makes 20 shots (Double to serve 4 normally)

When I did my first search for purple food, this one came up and I knew I just had to make it. I didn't want a sit down entree though, so to make it more finger food friendly I served it in shot glasses. I made sure to top them with chopped chives and serve them with cheese twist biscuits though so that people didn't think they were alcoholic shots and get a strange surprise when they were savoury! Mine didn't turn out as purple as the photos in the article I got it from, but then I didn't have professional lighting (and I suspect theirs may have had some food dye in it to bring out the purple more). Despite my brother bagging me all night that my purple soup wasn't purple, it was a very pretty lavender colour and I was pretty happy with it.

Melt 1/2Tbsp butter with 1/2Tbsp olive oil in a stockpot over medium heat. Add 1/4C chopped red onion and saute for 10 minutes, until tender but not brown. Add 115g chopped purple cabbage & 1 diced medium purple potato and cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Add 1/2Tbsp flour and stir for 2 minutes. Mix in 355ml vegetable stock and bring to the boil, stirring frequently. Simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Cool slightly before pureeing. Pour into shot glasses (a funnel or squeeze bottle will make this a lot easier) and top with chopped chives to serve.

Beetroot Dip

I also got this recipe off Taste.com.au. The one change I would make would be to lower the dill a little next time, so this is reflected in the recipe below.

Drain a 425g can beetroot and process along with 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/2Tbsp dill & 1/3C natural yoghurt, until smooth. Store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.

Fruit Tingle Cocktails

Sorry, no up close photo of this one, they all got downed too quickly! They were absolutely delicious and a real crowd pleaser. I did have a little trouble with getting them suitably purple as the blue curacao overpowered the strawberry liqueur, so I had to add a tiny bit of pink food colouring to make them stay purple. I say stay purple because in the bottle (I premixed it all together to make it easier when people arrived) it looked purple, but when it was poured into the glass it turned blue instead. It might have been because the strawberry liqueur I used wasn't very red to start with. I used quite small glasses, so I just put 1 large jigger measure (60ml) of the mixture into the bottom of the glasses and topped it with lemonade. In a regular glass you would probably need more like the 90ml total alcohol that is suggested. You could still premix it and just use 3 normal jigger measures to get the right amount.

Mix together equal parts of blue curacao, vodka & strawberry liqueur (some recipes use grenadine or raspberry cordial). If the mixture still looks blue, add a couple of drops of pink/red food colouring until it is purple, if desired. Put a few ice cubes in the bottom of a highball glass and add 90ml of the mixture. Top with lemonade and serve.

Purple Berry Punch

This was a very simple punch, just to add some more colour to the table and give people something to drink after their fruit tingle cocktail. The cocktails used a lot of expensive liqueur, so I just gave everyone one on arrival.

Pour a large bottle of Ribena into a punch bowl and add a bottle of bubbly (I used Passion Pop - classy, I know!). Top with some frozen berries to keep it cool.

Mains:

Beetroot Couscous Salad Serves 6

You might recognise this one from a little while ago. I loved this salad just as much the second time around, and it was perfect for the theme.

Caramelised Onion Potato Salad Serves 10

This is another recipe you may have seen on my blog before. It is my absolute go to recipe for potato salad - the most delicious one ever! This time I used purple skinned potatoes and made sure the red onions weren't cooked too long so that they kept their purple colour.

Roast Vegetables

Not really much of a recipe to share here, I just roasted some red onion, purple sweet potato, eggplant, zucchini & carrot in a bit of olive oil until tender. Just something to go with the roast beef.

Risotto Stuffed Eggplants Makes 8

I cheated a little bit here and got mum to make her risotto. She makes it well and it was one less time consuming thing that I had to do! I used about half of the batch that she made and she uses 2 cups of rice. So you could make a batch for dinner and use the leftovers to stuff eggplants for dinner the next night. Or, if you don't want leftovers, just make a batch using 1 cup of rice and that should be enough to fill the eggplants.

Make a risotto using 1C of rice, or use leftovers. I used a tomato based risotto, but you could really use any flavour you like. Preheat oven to 200C. Halve 4 small eggplants and scoop out most of the flesh (reserve for use in other meals), leaving a 1cm border inside the skin. This is best done with a knife to score the outline and a spoon to scoop it out. Arrange eggplants in a baking dish. Chop some Edam or Mozzarella (or your favourite cheese) into cubes and place one in each eggplant half. Fill with risotto and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Cook in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.

Poached Chicken w/ Blackberry Cabernet Sauce Serves 6

Red wine in a chicken dish? And blackberries!? Yes, it is a strange combination, but it works. Blackberries in a savoury dish was another of my unlikely purple helpers. I got the recipe from What's Cooking America. One of my best friends, Aleisha, can't stand sweet things with savoury, but she still gave this a go. What can I say? My friends really have faith in my cooking... suckers!

In a large pot over medium heat, combine the 2C water, 1C dry white wine, 1 bay leaf, 1 sliced onion, 1 diced carrot, 1 chopped celery stalk, 1/2tsp salt & 1/4tsp pepper. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes. Add 1kg halved skinless chicken breasts; bring back to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let pot stand, covered, until cool. Lift chicken pieces from cooking stock with a slotted utensil. Slice thinly lengthwise, holding them in their original shape as you work. Arrange the sliced breast on a platter, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate. Strain the stock and reserve for use in other dishes.

For the sauce, puree and then strain enough blackberries to measure 1 cup pulp (about 2C). In a large frying pan, saute 1 small chopped onion in 3Tbsp extra virgin olive oil approximately 5 minutes or until onions are transparent. Add the blackberry pulp, 3Tbsp sugar & 1C Cabernet Sauvignon. Simmer sauce until reduced to approximately 1/2 the original quantity. Remove from heat and let cool. Refrigerate until ready to use. To serve, fan out chicken slices on individual plates (or a platter) and top with sauce.

Peppered Lavender Beef Serves 6-8

At this point you are probably thinking I have gone completely insane. This is, at most, only partly true. I can't comment on the taste of this dish personally, as I don't eat beef (except in mince form), but it was one of the first things to disappear, and it smelt DIVINE! I've heard of lavender being used in sweet dishes before - shortbread, honey, etc - but never in a savoury dish. I put the call out on the Taste.com.au forums for help in finding a suitably purple red meat main and this suggestion stuck out at me. The dish itself wasn't purple, but somehow the novelty of it having a purple ingredient was enough to satisfy me. Funnily enough, it was also from What's Cooking America, but somehow I didn't notice it on there when I found the chicken dish above. By the time I went to buy the beef I was already well and truly over my budget, so I just used a regular beef roast instead of the tenderloin, which was about 3 times the price. I had no complaints, so feel free to make this substitution yourselves.

For those of you in Melbourne who want to try this dish (or others using lavender), I got my culinary lavender from Warratina Lavender Farm in the Yarra Valley. I had to drive all the way out there to get it because I found this dish at the last minute, but if you are more organised than I am you can order it online and have it delivered. It was quite reasonably priced too, a 25g packet is plenty (you can barely tell I have opened mine) and is only $5.

Trim the fat and silverskin off a 1.5-2kg tenderloin beef roast. Pat the beef dry with paper towels. Lightly oil outside of roast with 1Tbsp olive oil. In a small spice or coffee grinder, coarsely grind the 1Tbsp black peppercorns, 1Tbsp white peppercorns, 2Tbsp fennel seeds, 1 1/2tsp thyme & 2Tbsp culinary lavender flowers; rub mixture all over the meat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight (preferably).

Preheat oven to 220C. Unwrap roast and place onto a rack in a shallow baking pan, tucking the thin end under to make it as thick as the rest of the roast. Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 160C and continue to roast until the internal temperature reaches desired temperature on a meat thermometer, Rare - 49C, Medium Rare - 52C, Medium - 54C. Remove from oven and transfer onto a cutting board; let stand 15 minutes before carving (meat temperature will rise 5 to 10 degrees after it is removed from the oven). Transfer onto a serving platter and serve immediately with any accumulated juices.

Desserts:

Blackberry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I really only made this one so that I had a chance to use my new Tupperware Jel Ring. I started selling Tupperware a few months ago, but that is the subject of a whole other post. This one was so easy it barely needs a recipe, but here it is anyway! Use whatever flavour ice cream you like and mix in your favourite flavourings for the swirls - the possibilities are endless.

Soften a 2L tub of vanilla chocolate chip ice cream (I used Cadbury) and spoon into a Tupperware Jel Ring mould.Spoon through a few spoonfuls of blackberry puree (I used leftovers from the chicken dish), swirling it through the ice cream to make nice patterns (you can also spread a little bit on the mould before you add in the ice cream so that it is visible when it is unmoulded). Check for airbubbles and tap the mould on the counter a few times to get rid of them. Freeze for a few hours, until firm. Dip mould in warm water briefly to loosen, remove base seal of mould, invert onto a serving plate and remove top seal. If the ice cream seems stuck, gently run a blunt knife under the rim of the mould, or leave for a few minutes to allow gravity to do the job. Top with more blackberry puree and drizzle with Ice Magic. Serve quickly, before it melts!

Berry Bread & Butter Pudding Serves 4

This was a big hit, despite the fact that I burnt the bottom of it - A few too many glasses of punch by that stage I think! Or maybe it was because I skipped the water bath. I used this recipe, but substituted half of the raspberries for blueberries. Red + Blue = Purple, simple primary school art! I also used real sugar instead of sweetener, because I am a rebellious diabetic and I'm not a fan of sweeteners - except for in my soft drink. I am an odd one, aren't I? I doubled the recipe for the party, but I'll post the original size below because I am more likely to make it smaller next time.

Preheat oven to 180C. Whisk 3 eggs, 2Tbsp castor sugar, 1 1/2tsp vanilla essence, 1tsp ground cinnamon & 2C milk together in a bowl. Spread both sides of 6 fruit bread slices with low-fat spread. Cut slices in half diagonally to make triangles. Layer bread, in rows, in a 6cm-deep, 22cm x 13cm (base), 4 cup-capacity ovenproof dish. Sprinkle with 1/2C frozen raspberries & 1/2C frozen blueberries. Pour over egg mixture. Place dish in a large baking dish. Pour boiling water into baking dish until halfway up the side of smaller dish. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and just set. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 2Tbsp raw sugar. Serve with cream.

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes w/ Purple Ganache Frosting Makes 12

I am sitting here eating the final leftover cupcake as I type this - and boy is it delicious! Even a week after they were made, all they need is a zap in the microwave and they are almost as good as before. Originally I was going to put berries inside them for the purple theme, but I decided there was a bit of berry overkill going on elsewhere, so I just tinted a white chocolate ganache to use for the icing to fit in with the purple theme. I wanted to top them with edible silver foil or glitter, but these proved hard to find at the last minute, so I used some sparkly purple thingys (very technical name there!) that I managed to find at the cupcake factory down the road, and of course some silver cachous. This recipe is great as it can be made in the one bowl and doesn't use a mixer at all.

Preheat oven to 160C and line muffin tin with cupcake pans. For the cupcakes, place 200g butter, 250g chopped dark chocolate & 1/4C hot water in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring each minute, until smooth. Add 1/4C cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Stir in 1tsp vanilla extract, 1C castor sugar & 3 eggs. Sift in 3/4C self-raising flour and stir gently to combine. Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 20-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle has moist crumbs clinging. Allow cupcakes to cool completely in tins (I let mine cool in the oven).

For the ganache, melt together 250g good quality white chocolate & 1/3C cream in the microwave in 1 minute bursts, until smooth. Add a few drops of blue and pink food colouring, until desired colour is reached (I tried using red colouring and it wouldn't go the colour I wanted). Set aside at room temperature until the ganache is thick and spreadable. When cupcakes are cool, ice with ganache and sprinkle with cachous and sparkly purple thingys!

Purple Jelly Shots Makes 60

I followed the same recipe I usually do for these (again, skipping the worms), using 3 different packets of purple coloured jelly - Grape, Port Wine & Cherry. Sooo delicious - I think I ended up having 13 of them!?

Check out my apron! Everything just came together so well for this party, I wanted a fancy looking black apron that would look good with my cocktail dress and this one was just waiting for me when I went shopping one day. Even the dress didn't take too much effort to find and it is absolutely perfect (and was a bargain at only $50 when I was looking up to $200). The menu just came together and there were no major disasters in the cooking process. Even the plates were easy, Thanks to my friend Jess. I mean, who has 14 matching white dinner plates?! I would have had to buy 4 dinner sets if it weren't for the generosity of Jess! She was a life saver.

I'll leave you with some photos from the night, if you would like to see more, just click on any of the photos in this post and it will take you to my flickr page. Thanks to everyone who came along, I had a wonderful night. Also, a big thanks to Leish, Leanne, Jon & Jess for all your help. Love you guys! :)

Me & Leanne

Jon & Me

Phil & Leish

Leanne & Me

Leish, Caitlin & Jess

Two ways with polenta

2009-04-25T15:10:00.004+10:00

I've been going well with my weight loss goals at the moment. I've lost 1.4kg so far since Good Friday and I am not only feeling and looking great, but I have dramatically decreased my insulin needs and also improved my blood sugar levels, which would make it all worthwhile even if the weight wasn't coming off just yet! But it is, so that is a bonus :)

It was only when I went to write my shopping list this week that I realised I had planned two meals that used polenta. Luckily I am a big fan of it and didn't really care! Besides, one was a soft, creamy baked polenta and the other one was used as a crunchy topping, so they weren't even all that similar.

I found the Mushroom rosemary polenta bake in the May issue of Super Food Ideas magazine and paired it up with a Honey balsamic chicken recipe that I found on sparkpeople.com (which is a wonderful FREE site that helps you to reach your fitness goals - If you are on there, add me as a friend, my username is TaraM84). The polenta was delicious and creamy without using any cream, milk or even oil, and the glaze on the chicken was a perfect match with the steamed vegetables as well.

The Chilli bean bake is out of a book I borrowed from the library called '200 Fat-free Recipes' and although my polenta topping didn't turn out quite as fluffy as their cornmeal one, it was still really tasty. I used about half as much chilli as the recipe called for and found it to be just enough to taste it without making me need to drink a litre of water along with my meal. I had to use canned beans because my supermarket didn't have dried ones, so I didn't need to cook mine as long. If you use canned beans use about 3 and 3/4C of beans (almost 3 cans) and halve all the simmering times. Dried beans are of course cheaper and better for the environment as there is less packaging.

Honey Balsamic Chicken w/ Mushroom Rosemary Polenta Bake Serves 4

Honey Balsamic Chicken

Cut 500g skinless chicken breast into 4 equal portions. Combine 1 1/2tsp dried thyme, 1/2tsp salt & 1/4tsp pepper and sprinkle over both sides of chicken. Heat 1tsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook 7 to 8 minutes on each side or until chicken is done. Transfer chicken to a platter and keep warm. Reduce heat to medium-low and add 2Tbsp balsamic vinegar and 2Tbsp honey to pan. Simmer 1 minute or until glaze thickens, stirring constantly. Pour glaze over chicken.

(Nutrition Info - taken from sparkpeople.com: Calories: 173.3, Total Fat: 2.6 g, Cholesterol: 65.7 mg, Sodium: 367.6 mg, Total Carbs: 10.1 g, Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g, Protein: 26.3 g)

Mushroom Rosemary Polenta Bake

Preheat oven to 200C. Place 1C beef stock, 2 crushed garlic cloves & 2C cold water in a saucepan. Cover and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and pour into a large ovenproof dish. Sprinkle over 1C polenta and top with 200g sliced mushrooms & 2tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake for 20 minutes, stirring after 10 minutes. Remove foil, sprinkle with 1/2C finely grated parmesan cheese and bake for another 5-7 minutes. Stand for 2 minutes and serve.

(Nutrition Info - taken from SFI: 760kj/180 calories, 4.4g fat inc. 2.4g sat. fat, 10g protein, 23.8g carbs, 2.6g fibre, 474mg sodium)

Chilli Bean Bake w/ Polenta Topping Serves 4

Soak 1 1/4C dried red kidney beans in cold water overnight. Drain and rinse well. Preheat the oven to 220C. Pour 4C water into a large saucepan, add the beans and 1 bay leaf and boil rapidly for 10 minutes. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 35-40 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add 1 large, finely chopped onion, 1 crushed garlic clove, 2 sliced celery sticks, 1tsp cumin, 1/2-1tsp chilli powder, 400g canned tomatoes, 1Tbsp tomato puree & 1tsp dried mixed herbs. Half cover the pan with a lid and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Stir in 1Tbsp lemon juice, 1 diced yellow capsicum, salt & pepper and simmer for another 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just tender.

Discard the bay leaf and spoon the mixture into a large baking or casserole dish. To make the topping, mix together 1 1/2C polenta, 1Tbsp wholemeal flour & 1tsp baking powder and whisk in 1 lightly beaten egg & 3/4C skim milk. Spread topping evenly over beans and bake for 20 minutes or until brown.

(Nutrition info - taken from 200 fat-free recipes: 399 calories/1675kj, 22.9g protein, 4.7g fat inc. 0.9g sat. fat, 11.6g fibre, 68g carbs)

Time to get healthy!

2009-04-17T19:06:00.006+10:00

I've decided to get serious about getting fit & healthy. I know I have half heartedly attempted to do this several times in the life of this blog, but this time I am determined. I do not want to finish my degree at the end of this year and move into my profession overweight. I do not want to have to be a hypocrite on a daily basis when I am telling people how to eat better and promoting healthy lifestyles! So, starting on Good Friday (I know, crazy time to start eating healthy right?!), I started the process of turning my lifestyle around for the better. Over the past week I have been counting the calories I consume, striving to eat more fruit and vegetables, drinking more water and trying to get more exercise in the hopes that it will become a part of my regular routine.

A lot of people who I have told about my recent endeavours have commented that I don't look like I need to lose weight, that I look fine as I am, but the reality is that I am overweight. I am not ridiculously overweight and I do carry the extra weight well, but nonetheless, being overweight is not healthy, and being inactive is not good for my diabetic control. Surprisingly, when I jumped on my Wii Fit to weigh myself last Friday I found out that I have lost 3.8kg since the last time I was on it back in February, so I'm not as overweight as I was!

My BMI back then was 28.4, which is actually on the higher end of overweight (anything over 30 is considered obese) and my BMI at the beginning of the week was 26.9, which is getting closer to the healthy weight range (which is between 18.5 & 24.9). I am aiming for a BMI of 22 as this has the lowest health risks associated with it, so my goal weight is 55kg, which means I have 11.2kg to lose (4.9kg to get to the healthy weight range & another 6.3kg to get to a BMI of 22). I hope to get into the healthy weight range by the end of May and to my goal weight by my birthday at the beginning of August.

Over the past week I have been sticking fairly strictly to 1400 calories a day (~5850kj) and I have actually found that I am eating MORE now than I was before. I have always been a breakfast skipper (bad, I know). This stopped for a little while when I was first diagnosed with diabetes, but since I have had my insulin pump I have slipped back into my old ways, but this week I have eaten breakfast every day, which I am very proud of.

I have also been working to introduce exercise, which I have a lot of apprehension with, not only because of my poor fitness level, but also because of how badly it messes with my blood sugar readings. So I am trying to sort out my insulin doses and keep myself from going low after exercise, because aside from not being fun, I then also have to consume more calories to keep my sugar levels from going too low and putting me into a coma. The life of a diabetic is never simple, appreciate all the work that your body does to keep your sugar levels balanced! Trust me, you don't want to have to do that manually.

This week I got in one 30 minute walk (which was a feat in itself with the hills around here!) and three 45 minute Wii Fit sessions (with 13 minutes boxing, 10 minutes step aerobics, 11 minutes hula hoops & 11 minutes of strength exercises). Going from exercising 0 times a week to 4 times a week is pretty good if you ask me! I know that Wii Fit isn't the best exercise out there, but it gives me a good workout while giving me a chance to work out my insulin doses a little bit.

This week I lost 0.5kg, which I am fairly happy with, although it is a little short of the 0.7kg per week that I need to reach the healthy weight range by the end of May. Still, better than nothing, and also quite good when you consider that I managed to lose weight over the easter period! That is a pretty good accomplishment in itself.

Over the next few weeks you will notice a lot more healthier recipes on my blog. I hope that you all see this as good news and don't stop reading because of it. They will all still be very tasty, no rubbery, tasteless, rabbit food on my blog! Unfortunately, this does mean that I will not be participating in the Daring Bakers challenges anymore, I haven't been participating much lately anyway due to a distinct lack of time in my life, but I will be officially withdrawing from the group and I am very sad to do so. I will be living vicariously through other Daring Baker blogs from now on, so make me proud :)

Here is a pasta bake I made on Monday when Leanne came around for our weekly dinner and girly catch up. It isn't the lowest in fat or calories, but I had soup for lunch so that I could fit this into my calorie limit. It is quite high in fibre and contains around 1.5 of your 5 vegetable serves for the day as well. I got this one from the May issue of Super Food Ideas, although it was originally in their July 2006 issue. I was going to put some wholegrain honey mustard in there as well for some extra flavour, but I forgot about it until it was in the oven! Even without the mustard it was still delicious though.

Ham & Broccoli Pasta Bake Serves 4

Preheat oven to 180C. Cook 300g fusilli pasta according to packet directions, adding 380g trimmed broccoli florets to the pan for the last minute of cooking time.

Meanwhile, melt 1Tbsp reduced-fat dairy spread in a saucepan over medium heat and add 4 thinly sliced spring onions & 2 crushed garlic cloves. Cook for 1 minute, add 1Tbsp plain flour and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Remove from heat, add 1C skim milk, gradually, whisking until smooth. Return to hear and add 1tsp finely grated lemon rind. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until sauce just comes to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, Remove from heat and add 1/2C reduced fat cream cheese & 1/2C grated reduced fat tasty cheese. Stir until melted and smooth. Season with salt & pepper.

Drain pasta and broccoli. Place in an 8C capacity baking dish. Top with 200g chopped 98% fat free ham. Pour cheese sauce over ham and stir to combine. Sprinkle with 1/2C fresh multigrain breadcrumbs and spray lightly with olive oil spray. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.

Nutrition Information (from magazine) - 541 cal, 2266kj, 15.2g fat, 8.2g saturated fat, 33.6g protein, 63.1g carbohydrate, 7.3g fibre, 1307mg sodium

Late Valentines Dessert

2009-03-01T21:04:00.002+11:00

I was meant to post this yesterday, but I have been sick (again) and it slipped my mind! I made this months Daring Bakers dessert for Valentines Day earlier in the month. I decided to go with mini versions as I found a heart shaped muffin form in my cupboard and thought it would be perfect... and then I found a heart shaped ice cube tray for the ice cream as well! It was delicious and pretty simple to make, with only 3 ingredients in the cake... and that is about all I can think of to write at the moment as my brain is a bit foggy from cold & flu tablets!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Chocolate Valentino

I made two versions of this cake, a dark chocolate version and a white chocolate & macadamia nut version. I scaled down the recipe for both so that I didn't end up with too much cake. Since there are only 3 ingredients it is easy to scale down, just use the measurements below.

182g chocolate, 58g butter, 2 eggs

272g chocolate, 88g butter, 3 eggs

364g chocolate, 116g butter, 4 eggs

454g chocolate, 156g butter, 5 eggs

Put chocolate & butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 190C. Bake for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 60C. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream

This was a bit of a problem for me as I don't have an ice cream maker and I also didn't leave myself much freezing time as I started cooking late! Freezing some of it in the ice cube mould did help it freeze quicker though. I added raspberries to my ice cream because I had some in my freezer and thought the pink would go nicely with the theme.

I made a raspberry syrup by heating 300g raspberries & 125g caster sugar in a saucepan until the sugar was dissolved, mashing the berries a bit as it heated. I then added half of this to the ice cream mixture and used the other half as a sauce over the whole dessert.

For the ice cream, slit 1 vanilla pod lengthways. Pour 300ml milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. Set the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.

Whisk 4 large egg yolks, 75g caster sugar & 1tsp corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring all the time. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl and add half of the raspberry mixture. Cool it then chill.

Whip 300ml heavy cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)

I'm Back with a Stew

2009-02-19T14:28:00.004+11:00

Finally feeling better both physically and emotionally, so I am back! Having the internet also helps, I have been stuck without it for almost 2 weeks... very sad... Anyway, I made this stew the other night after I saw it in a new book I bought and I couldn't go past it because it uses one of my favourite drinks, apple cider... Also, apples in mashed potato? You know I had to give something slightly off track like that a go! I used more shallots than it called for and next time I would make more sauce as I didn't find it saucy enough, so this is reflected below...

I know I have enough cookbooks and shouldn't be buying any more of them, but it was only 10 bucks and it is from a series that I already have 2 books out of which I love (BBQ Food & Cool Food), so I couldn't resist the temptation! Well, I bought 2 more of them, so now I have 4 out of the series and these 2 look like they may be just as good... This recipe is out of 'Fast Food' and the other book I bought was 'Small Food'...

Chicken & Cider Stew w/ Apple & Potato Mash Serves 4

Cut 1kg skinless chicken breast fillets (original called for thigh fillets) into 2cm cubes and season with salt, pepper & 2tsp fresh chopped thyme. Heat 1Tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and brown chicken in 2 batches. Remove from pan. Saute 5 thinly sliced french shallots & 1Tbsp fresh chopped thyme for 2 minutes. Pour in 600ml apple cider and bring to the boil. Scrape any sediment off the bottom and then return the chicken to the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 35-40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the sauce has reduced.

Meanwhile, cube 1kg peeled potatoes and slice 2 large peeled green apples into eighths. Cook both in a pan of boiling water for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain and return to the heat until liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat and mash until smooth. Add 2Tbsp light cream & 50g butter and season well with salt and pepper.

Stir 1C light cream into the stew and cook for 2-4 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Serve immediately with potato and apple mash and a crisp green salad.

One Year On

2009-02-04T15:46:00.005+11:00

It's been one year since you passed away. That year has numbed the pain slightly, but it is still there for all of us. It is still hard to believe that you are gone. I will love you & miss you always.

Sick...

2009-01-15T13:35:00.002+11:00

For those of you who are wondering where I have disappeared to, I have been feeling sick. Sick in the way that cooking food, reading or writing about food and sometimes even thinking about food makes my stomach feel not so nice! The doctors don't really know what is going on, they thought I was pregnant (but I'm not!), and now I am having the joyous fun of seeing some specialists.

As soon as I feel well enough to cook, eat and blog like my regular self I will be back. Until then, keep blogging your hearts out (although I won't be reading until I feel better) and lets keep our fingers crossed that they figure out what is going on!

New Inedible Adventures!

2009-01-07T12:48:00.004+11:00

I have finally started a sewing and crafts blog... I want to get more crafty in the new year and I figure that having somewhere to document it all will help me to get motivated! My new blog is Sew, You Made That?, if you're into that sort of thing check it out :) Please, Thank-you!

Daring Bakers Challenge - Cherry Ripe French Yule Log

2008-12-30T16:46:00.000+11:00

Another month is almost over and another Daring Bakers challenge has been made and eaten a thousand times all over the world! This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. This log is a little different to the Yule Log we made last christmas though as it is a frozen dessert rather than a sponge cake base. In this yule log we had to include 6 different layers: creme brulee, mousse, praline crisp, dacquoise biscuit, ganache & icing. Our wonderful host gave us plenty of different flavour variations for each of the inserts, so our first challenge was to decide on the flavourings we wanted to use.

I decided to go with a bit of an Australian theme with mine and flavour it like a Cherry Ripe. For those of you who don't know what a Cherry Ripe is, it is a chocolate bar consisting of a cherry and coconut centre covered in dark chocolate. According to Wikipedia it is Australia's oldest chocolate bar brand. I didn't realise this back when I made the Cherry Ripe Slice a while ago! So my version of the log had a coconut flavoured dacquoise and praline crisp and a cherry flavoured brulee and ganache, with dark chocolate for the rest of the flavours. It worked out pretty well, but the creme brulee didn't really take on the cherry flavour as much as I would have liked. I was hoping it would turn out red and give the log a bit of festive colour. I don't think I would strain the cherries out of it and next time I would probably use cherry syrup from canned cherries or something similar to make it turn red and flavour it more. The overall flavour was wonderful though, the Cherry Ripe was definitely a hit.

The lack of cherry flavouring in the brulee was not the only problem I came across when making this dessert though. I don't think the cooking fairies were on my side that day! First of all I tried to make my own gavottes for the crisp layer, but managed to put too much flour into the first batch (missed the fact that it was 1/3C minus 2tsp!), then I burnt the second batch onto my baking sheet so well that I couldn't get it off! It wasn't browning like it should have been and by the time the edges were browned the underside was well and truly glued on... so I used cereal instead as this was a suggested alternative - but the only cereal we had was a mixed cereal, so I had to sit there picking out all the suitable flakes and discarding the dried fruit and oats and bran...

Half an hour later and feeling like I should be in bed, I moved onto the dark chocolate mousse... first my egg yolks wouldn't beat until frothy (could have something to do with the fact that everyone else was in bed and I didn't want to crank my Kitchen Aid up too high and wake everyone up), then I cooked the caramel a bit too long and it solidified as I was adding it into the egg yolks, encasing itself all over my whisk attachment... and somehow while trying to pick the sugar strands off the whisk (I know I could have just put it in hot water to melt it off, but eating it is so much tastier! plus I wasn't thinking so clearly at that time of the morning!) I managed to get a shard of sugar stuck in my thumb like a wood splinter... the more I tried to pull it out, the further it went in... I tried to suck it out to no avail... in the end I had to put my finger in hot water until it melted, until this challenge I didn't even know this was possible... a sugar splinter? seriously!

Picking up a tea towel to dry my hands on I managed to send my candy thermometer flying across the room to land on the tile floor in a spectacular crash with the thin glass flying everywhere... I was wearing no shoes... no socks either! As a diabetic I should know better, but no, there I was standing in the middle of a room full of shiny, pointy broken glass that seemed to be looking at my lovely slow healing feet and smiling with glee at the damage it could do... or maybe it was just lying broken on the ground and I was hallucinating... who knows! I did some crazy kung fu style jump to get over all the glass and to the safety of some shoes and cleaned it all up... then had to remake the caramel for my mousse without a thermometer and guestimate when it was ready...

The rest of the recipe went off without too many dramas... although my creme brulee insert decided to break into 3 pieces when it was about a millimetre away from its resting place! At about 2 in the morning, with my first 3 layers completed I decided to call it a night... being the thoughtful person that I am (OK, so normally I would have just left the mess for someone else to deal with in the morning...) I filled the sink and left all the dishes to soak until the morning... including an enamel bowl that mum and Geoff got in Vietnam and ate breakfast out of every morning while they were there... apparently enamel doesn't like to soak because the beautiful green bowl is now frosty and white except for a little patch that was sticking out of the water.. oops! Anyone know how to fix it??

Besides all these dramas this is actually one of the simpler Daring Bakers recipes we have had in a while... all of the issues I had were simply because I was having a bad day... my one caution to anyone who wants to make this is that it is not really a good night time baking activity... I do not suggest starting this at 9pm the night before you want to serve it (like I did)... especially not on boxing day when you are exhausted from the christmas festivities and all cooked out from baking christmas goodies and gifts... and for gods sake, if you burn your gavottes, please, please take that as a sign you need to go to bed and get some rest... otherwise you may end up with a smashed candy thermometer!!

Cherry Ripe French Yule Log Serves 10-12

I strongly suggest making the parts in this order to allow for setting times.

Cherry Creme Brulee

Heat 1/2C whole milk, 1/2C heavy cream, 1 scraped vanilla bean & 100g chopped cherries (next time I would try adding some cherry syrup for flavour and colour) to just boiling. Remove from the stove and let the vanilla infuse for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, whisk together 25g sugar & 4 medium (72g) egg yolks (but do not beat until white). Pour the vanilla-infused milk over the sugar/yolk mixture. Mix well. Wipe your baking mold (whatever shape is going to fit on the inside of your Yule log/cake) with a very wet cloth and then cover with parchment paper. Pour the cream into the mold and bake in a water bath at 100C for about 1 hour or until firm on the edges and slightly wobbly in the center. (mine took a little longer than an hour) Let cool and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour to firm up and facilitate the final assembly.

Coconut Crisp

Spread 25g shredded coconut on a baking tray and bake for 5-10 minutes at 190C to toast. Melt 100g white chocolate & 25g unsalted butter in microwave and stir until smooth. Add the toasted coconut and mix well. Add 60g coarsely crushed gavottes (lace crepes) OR 30g crushed flake cereal. Mix quickly to thoroughly coat with the chocolate. Spread between two sheets of wax paper to a size slightly larger than your desired shape. Refrigerate until hard.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

Soften 2.5 sheets gelatin OR 5g powdered gelatin in cold water. (If using powdered gelatin, follow the directions on the package.) Beat 3 medium (53g) egg yolks until very light in colour (approximately 5 minutes until almost white). Cook 40g sugar, 10g glucose syrup & 15g water on medium heat for approximately 3 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, the mixture should reach 118°C). If you do not have a candy thermometer (or if you happen to smash yours all over the floor), test the sugar temperature by dipping the tip of a knife into the syrup then into a bowl of ice water, if it forms a soft ball in the water then you have reached the correct temperature. Add the sugar syrup to the beaten yolks carefully by pouring it into the mixture in a thin stream while continuing to beat the yolks. Continue beating until cool (approximately 5 minutes). The batter should become thick and foamy. Heat 30g heavy cream to boiling. Add 175g chopped dark chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.

Whip another 320g heavy cream until stiff in a clean mixing bowl. Pour the melted chocolate over the softened gelatin, mixing well. Let the gelatin and chocolate cool slightly and then stir in 1/2C of whipped cream to temper. Add the egg yolk mixture and then the rest of the whipped cream, mix gently with a spatula. Refrigerate until needed.

Coconut Dacquoise

Gently mix together 1/2C almond meal, 2/3C dessicated coconut & 50g icing sugar. Sift in 15g plain flour. Beat 3 medium (100g) egg whites, gradually adding 50g sugar until stiff. Pour the almond meal mixture into the egg whites and blend delicately with a spatula. Grease a piece of baking paper and line your baking pan with it. Spread the batter on a piece of parchment paper to an area slightly larger than your desired shape (circle, long strip etc...) and to a height of 1/3 inches (8mm). Bake at 180C for approximately 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool and cut to the desired shape. (This is best made the same day as assembly)

Dark Chocolate & Cherry Ganache

Using the dry method, melt 50g sugar by spreading it in an even layer in a small saucepan with high sides. Heat over medium-high heat, watching it carefully as the sugar begins to melt. Never stir the mixture. As the sugar starts to melt, swirl the pan occasionally to allow the sugar to melt evenly. Cook to dark amber color.

While the sugar is melting, heat 2/3C - 1Tbsp heavy cream until boiling. Pour cream into the caramel and stir thoroughly. Be very careful as it may splatter and boil. Pour the hot caramel-milk mixture over 135g finely chopped dark chocolate. Wait 30 seconds and stir until smooth. Add 45g softened unsalted butter and whip hard and fast (I used my stick blender for this). The chocolate should be smooth and shiny. Stir through 100-150g chopped fresh cherries. (This is best made right before you need to assemble the log)

Dark Chocolate Icing

Soften 2 sheets/4g gelatin in cold water for 15 minutes according to packet directions. Boil 60g heavy cream, 60g sugar, 1/4C water & 1/3C unsweetened cocoa powder and cook an additional 3 minutes after boiling. Add gelatin to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Let cool while checking the texture regularly. As soon as the mixture is smooth and coats a spoon well (it is starting to gelify), use immediately.

Assembly

Line your mold or pan, whatever its shape, with clear hard plastic such as transparencies OR plastic film. I lined mine first with cling wrap and then with plastic pockets (of the office variety) cut to fit the sides and base of the pan.

Pipe one third of the Mousse component into the mold. Take the Creme Brulee Insert out of the freezer at the last minute and set on top of the mousse. Press down gently to slightly ensconce it in the mousse. Pipe second third of the Mousse component around and on top of the Creme Brulee Insert. Cut the Praline/Crisp Insert to a size slightly smaller than your mold so that it can be surrounded by mousse. Lay it on top of the mousse you just piped into the mold. Pipe the last third of the Mousse component on top of the Praline Insert. Freeze for a few hours to set.

Take log out of the freezer. Pipe the Ganache Insert onto the frozen mousse leaving a slight edge so that ganache doesn’t seep out when you set the Dacquoise on top. Close with the Dacquoise and freeze until the next day.

Unmold the log and set on a wire rack over a shallow pan. Cover the cake with the icing, making sure to cover any holes. Smooth it a little as you go and allow to set. Return to the freezer until needed. Transfer to the refrigerator no longer than ½ hour before serving as it may start to melt quickly depending on the elements you chose. I decorated my log with Cherry 'berries' and spearmint leaves cut with a little holly leaf cutter to make the 'leaves'.

Festive Season Update!

2008-12-29T12:43:00.005+11:00

With my best intentions I had posts planned for almost every day last week, but as you can see they never got written. Although, with the craziness of the festive season taking over - last minute shopping, baking, present wrapping and catch ups - mixed with Jeff finally coming back from his month long trip to visit family in Canada and South Korea, I think I was a little optimistic in thinking I would have the time to do so many posts! Instead, I have decided to condense most of the posts I had planned into one update, then I can be done with Christmas for another year!

First, the rest of the edible gifts I made to go into our Christmas hampers. Over the last few weeks I have talked about Cherry Jam, Homemade Vanilla Essence, Christmas M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, Sugar & Spice Nuts & Peanut Butter Truffles... I also made some other flavours of truffles and some Homemade Barbecue Sauce to go with all of that. Mum then bought something small that was specific to each family and put these in the hampers with all my homemade gifts. Unfortunately, I got caught up in the festivities a little too much and forgot to take photos of them!

Maple Pecan Truffles Makes 20

The filling for these was based on a recipe I found in this months Super Food Ideas magazine. I had to add a fair bit more maple syrup to be able to taste it in the mix and I was even using proper Canadian maple syrup for it. I also prefer chocolate dipped truffles as they aren't as messy in hampers, so I coated mine using the technique in my Basic Chocolate Coated Truffle recipe.

Combine 200g dark chocolate & 2Tbsp cream in a bowl and melt in the microwave until smooth. Stir in 1tsp vanilla essence, 5Tbsp maple syrup & 1/2C finely chopped dry roasted pecan nuts. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until firm. Roll into small balls and refrigerate for another 1-2 hours.

When ready, melt another 200g dark chocolate with 25g copha. Using a skewer, pick up one ball at a time and dip in the melted chocolate, drain for a few seconds to remove extra chocolate - you just need a thin layer. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and remove skewer. Sprinkle with extra chopped pecans to cover up the skewer hole.

I also made some Hazelnut Truffles using my regular recipe, but this time we had frangelico in the house so I used that instead of vanilla essence. Again, I probably used at least 3 times the amount, but they were delicious! I chose chocolate truffles as one of my challenge recipes for my round of the Cooks Club Challenge on the Taste forums and a lot of people seemed to have trouble with them. I don't understand what is going on as I have used my 2 truffle recipes for years and can't remember having any difficulty with them. Yes, it can get a bit messy when you make them on a warm day... your hands will get covered in chocolate inevitably, even if you make them on a cooler day (although I noticed the Peanut Butter Truffles didn't do this, they just left oil on my hands!)... Some people had trouble coating the chocolate coated ones, and this is no attack on them or anything, but I just don't understand how they don't end up smooth and covered like mine! I just wish I could be there to help them all out and show them how simple it really is... maybe I do something subconsciously that isn't in my recipe and that makes all the difference? Isn't it interesting how the same recipe can produce such varying results for different people?

Homemade Barbecue Sauce Makes approx. 4C

Sorry, but I forgot to take a photo of this one as well... I got the recipe from the Festive Season Handbook, which has VERY ambiguous recipes and vague instructions. After boiling it for a while I realised it was looking a lot like tomato sauce or chutney, so I decided to add some parisian browning essence to make it look more the part. The recipe also didn't mention how long it will keep, but after a google search for similar recipes I decided it will keep for at least 2-3 weeks. I think details like this, as well as the yield (which was missing from the fruit mince pie recipe), are very important points that should make the final edit for a cookbook... seriously! Anyway, we kept a bottle for ourselves and it was delicious on sausages the other day.

Saute 4 sliced onions & 4 crushed garlic cloves in 4 Tbsp olive oil until tender. Stir in 1/2C red wine vinegar, 1/2C brown sugar, 4Tbsp wholegrain mustard, 2Tbsp worcestershire sauce, 1kg chopped ripe tomatoes, 2tsp salt & 4Tbsp tomato paste. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. If you want your sauce to be brown, add Parisian browning essence a little at a time until it reaches the desired colour. Puree sauce in a blender, bottle and keep refrigerated.

After all that christmas gift making it was time to catch up with family and friends and relax a little. Jeff, My brother Luke and his girlfriend Bianca joined Mum, Geoff and I for breakfast on Christmas morning. We had pancakes with fresh fruit, maple syrup and cream and my delicious smoothies in banana and mango flavours (with some Malibu in the mango ones for a little bit of a kick start to the morning!)... after opening presents Luke & Bianca left to go to her dads for lunch and the rest of us headed to Warburton to spend the afternoon by the river with my uncle and his family... Jeff & I left there in the evening to have dinner with his housemates family who have taken him in as one of their own since he arrived in Australia... we spent a lot of time in the car and it was slightly stressful trying to get everywhere on time, but that is Christmas day for you! And just look at all the beautiful presents I got for all of my hard work...

A big box of Lindt balls (from Mum) with new raspberry, coffee and orange flavours... A Smiggle diary (from Luke & Bianca) - I love Smiggle, and of course I love purple!... and see that big sugar & spice box?? that has 16 little cookbooks inside it!! I saw it in the shops and fell in love with it, I am glad I dragged myself away from it because my best friend Leish and her boyfriend Andy bought it for me! :)

Check out the cute matching socks in the middle there (from Jeff), apparently they are all the rage in Korea... the big leaf is a jewellery holding tray (from Mum & Geoff) and the photo just doesn't do it justice, there is a gorgeous dragonfly sitting on it too... I also got an IUO for a chocolate making course that Jeff is going to take me on! Delicious!!

That tshirt (from Mum & Geoff) is soooo soft and comfortable... I also got some Canadian goodies from Jeff - a cooking magazine, a hand painted moose & some Ice wine... and some gardening gloves (off my aunty) because I want to start a vegie patch...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time spent with loved ones and filled with lots of good food & laughter... I still have 2 more Christmas themed posts planned for the last 2 days of the year, but with more festivities around the corner we can only cross our fingers that I will get them done... One of them is this months Daring Bakers Challenge (sneak peek below!), which I should really get done tomorrow... but if I don't find time to do the other one I may be sharing some interesting things to do with fruit mince in the new year!

More Christmas Gifts - Sugar & Spice Nuts

2008-12-19T23:43:00.000+11:00

We put our Christmas tree up pretty late this year, making the trek underneath the house last weekend to get out the fake tree that I bought while I was living away from home. I can't stand plastic trees, but while I was living in a share house it just seemed easier. I miss having a real tree - it just doesn't smell like Christmas without one! I know they annoyingly drop pine needles everywhere, have unsightly gaps and inevitably start dying before the big day, but I would still pick a real tree over a fake one anyday. Unfortunately I was over-ruled this year and we are stuck with my fake tree. On the upside it does have pretty fibre optics in it, but it annoys me that they are brighter at the bottom than the top... yes I am a bit of a perfectionist! It is a little hard to tell in this photo, but I went with a purple, silver and green theme this year. I love it, especially the bows. I wrapped all of my presents this morning and put them under the tree... man I love Christmas!

This afternoon I carried on with my holiday gift baking, making some yummy nuts for our Christmas hampers. I had to put them in jars as soon as they had cooled because mum & I couldn't stop ourselves from trying "just one more!"... needless to say they are delicious and I am glad I doubled the batch (which is reflected below)... they are of course from 'The Festive Season Handbook' which I am making lots of things from this year... I like the pecans more than the almonds, so if I make them again I might try them with just pecans...

I'm sending this over to Happy Cook at My Kitchen Adventures for her Home Made Christmas Gifts event. With the deadline being tomorrow, this is probably the last gift I will be sending over to her, but I still have a few more recipes up my sleeve, so keep an eye out for them!

Sugar & Spice Nuts Makes approx. 5C

Place 250g whole blanched almonds & 250g pecans on a large oven tray in a single layer and bake at 180C for 10-15 minutes or until lightly roasted. Beat 2 egg whites until soft peaks form and gradually beat in 1C caster sugar & 1tsp ground cinnamon. Stir in 120g melted and cooled unsalted butter. Pour over toasted nuts and mix well. Bake at 160C for 30-40 minutes, mixing every 10 minutes, until mixture is no longer wet and sugar has crystalised on nuts. Cool on tray and store in airtight containers.

Mediterranean Carrot Rolls & Salad (Cookbook Challenge #17)

2008-12-17T20:05:00.008+11:00

I'm starting to think I should stop buying 'healthy' cookbooks, because all I do is criticise them! (although, in my defense I didn't actually buy this one...) A couple of weeks ago I bagged out another so-called health conscious cookbook and I have even been known to throw a cookbook in the bin after it came up for my cookbook challenge. My current cookbook challenge book, 'Real Family Food' by Antony Worrall Thompson, managed to enrage me as well. Don't get me wrong, the recipes look tasty (which is by far the most important thing about a cookbook), but when a cookbook tries to portray an image of health and fails it can take away from the enjoyment for me.

Although I really like the premise of this cookbook, I don't think it is executed properly. Each recipe is rated on a traffic light kind of system with 'green' meaning eat as much of this as you want and at least one a day, 'amber' meaning don't eat more than 3 times a day and 'red' meaning treats that should be eaten once a day at most. I have a couple of problems with the use of this system in this book. Firstly of all three classifications, 'green' or healthy recipes feature least often in the book, you think there would be more of them since you are meant to eat them the most.

Secondly, I don't know what crazy criteria they used to classify the recipes but there are more than a few that I raised an eyebrow at. For example, there is a sandwhich that is classified as amber, yet it contains THREE different meats, two of which are overly processed rubbish which hold little to no nutritional value. Yet according to the amber classification, you could eat this sandwhich 3 times a day!?! Or, how about a Welsh Rarebit (a toasted sandwhich filled with a very cheesy, buttery, eggy, beer mixture) that you can eat unlimited amounts of, with it being classified green and all! And my favourite of them all is that on two of the recipes that are classified as red (ie. do not eat more than once per day) he mentions the fact that it is so good everyone will go back for seconds!? There are probably even more recipes that are misclassified, but it is difficult to ascertain the real nutritional value of them at a glance because there is no nutritional information listed. I know this was probably done on purpose as they wanted to simplify it with the traffic light system, but it makes my blood curdle that other people reading this book would just take the traffic light system at face value and not question it at all.

To make it even worse, the author shares their views on different types of food and their nutritional value to your family. As he is writing a cookbook most people would probably just take his word as authority. But with statements such as "Bacon is brainfood" (which I would LOVE to be able to agree with, but as much as I love it I can't even begin to fool myself into thinking it is actually good for me... by ANY stretch) and the fact that he talks down two of the biggest dietary issues of the current time - overconsumption of saturated fat & overconsumption of salt, I can't help but get a little agitated that he is influencing those who think he knows what he is talking about.

With all that said, I did find a fair few recipes in his cookbook that I would like to make, and I thoroughly enjoyed the Mediterranean Carrot Rolls (rated green) that we had for dinner last week. They used a long list of ingredients which don't look like they are going to mesh too well at first, but once you taste them you will agree that they are delicious. I just wish that people that don't know a thing about nutrition would stay out of it and not confuse the general public or pollute their minds with rubbish like "bacon is brainfood"!!

I found the salad we served with these carrot rolls on the cover of the November issue of Healthy Food Guide. Now here is a publication that knows it stuff when it comes to healthy recipes (& tips, news and products), it is written by people in the industry and is always full of tasty recipes. I made the salad exactly as written except my can of chickpeas was a bit larger than the recipe. It was super ultra simple to make and full of flavour and vitamins and minerals. I cooked all the vegies while I made the carrot rolls and fried them and tossed it all together at the last minute.

Mediterranean Carrot Rolls Makes 12

Peel 10 medium carrots and cook in boiling water until soft. Drain & mash carrots in a large bowl and add 3 slices multigrain bread, rubbed into crumbs, 6 finely diced dried apricots, 2Tbsp chopped sultanas, 4 finely chopped spring onions, 3Tbsp chopped pine nuts, 4 crushed garlic cloves, 1tsp chilli flakes, 2tsp finely grated orange zest, 1 lightly beaten egg, 2Tbsp chopped parsley, 2Tbsp chopped mint & 2Tbsp chopped dill. Knead together with hands and season with salt & pepper. If the mixture is too wet, add more breadcrumbs, the mixture should be soft and slightly damp.

Coat your hands with a little flour and mould the mixture into 12 cylinders about 5cm long (you could also make them into patties). Roll each cylinder in plain flour to coat and then shallow-fry in batches in vegetable oil until brown on all sides. Drain well on kitchen paper and serve with salad.

Mediterranean Roast Vegetable & Chickpea Salad Serves 6

Preheat the oven to 200C and line a couple of baking dishes with baking paper. Peel 800g pumpkin and cut into 2cm cubes. Deseed 1 large red capsicum and cut into 2cm wide strips. Cut 2 red onions into wedges and place in baking dishes in a single layer along with pumpkin and capsicum. Spray with olive oil spray and season with salt & pepper. Roast in oven, turning once, for 30 minutes or until tender.

Meanwhile mix together 1/2C low fat natural greek yoghurt & 1tsp sumac and set aside. In a large bowl combine 100g baby spinach leaves, 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained & roasted vegetables. Toss to combine and drizzle with yoghurt dressing.

My next Cookbook Challenge book (#18) is 'Oriental Banquets' by Charmaine Solomon. We have a few of these books which are from the Asian Cooking Library collection and I am pretty sure I got them off a lady on freecycle. I've never cooked from this one before (I don't even think I have looked through it), so it will be good to crack open its pages! And best of all, it isn't wearing a thin veil of healthiness, so you won't be getting another ranting post from me next time, which I'm sure you will all be very grateful for!!

New Truffles for the Taste Cooks Club

2008-12-16T23:54:00.001+11:00

My time hosting the Cooks Club Challenge over on the Taste forums has come to an end. The other recipe that I chose for my round was Chocolate Truffles (with the first two recipes being M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies & Mediterranean Lamb Pizza), I have already blogged about the two recipes I use regularly for chocolate truffles, so this time around I decided to make a new flavour rather than stick to the ones I am known for. We had a bag of peanuts lying around so I was inspired to make some peanut butter truffles. I decided to go with the Cream Cheese Truffle recipe I know and love, but I used half peanut butter and half cream cheese. I just finished making them now, but I snuck one (ok, maybe two or three) while I was rolling them in the crushed peanuts and I really had to remind myself that it is midnight and I won't be able to sleep if I am on a chocolate high. So I left some for tomorrow - heres hoping mum & Geoff don't eat them all for breakfast!

I'm sending this over to Happy Cook at My Kitchen Adventures for her Home Made Christmas Gifts event. Hopefully some of these will end up in the Christmas hampers we are making for the extended family!

Peanut Butter Truffles Makes 50

Beat together 100g crunchy peanut butter & 125g softened light cream cheese until smooth and gradually add 2C sifted icing sugar until blended. Melt 500g milk chocolate with 2-3tsp vanilla essence and stir into cheese mixture until no streaks remain. Refrigerate for approximately 1 hour or until firm and then roll into balls and cover in crushed peanuts. These are best kept in the refrigerator as much as possible, but will keep at room temperature for a few days.

Menu Plan Monday (& Turkey, Leek & Cranberry Pie)

2008-12-15T20:28:00.005+11:00

Although this pie is meant to be made out of leftover turkey meat, I loved the look of it so much that I made last night using fresh turkey steaks. It is from Issue 12 of Donna Hay Magazine and there was a rather large omission in the recipe. That is, they forgot to put cranberry in it, despite this word being in the title of the recipe. Turkey & Leek pie just didn't have the same kind of ring to it, so I had to wing it with the cranberry part of the recipe. I thought adding some cranberry sauce would suffice, but alas my supermarket decided to be sold out of it (which is a shame because it was on special), so I had to make my own from scratch. The recipe for this is also below and was adapted from a recipe on Simply Recipes.

I went a bit overboard with it though and regretted topping my pie with more cranberry sauce as it was sickly sweet and I couldn't get through my whole piece. I had another today without extra sauce on top and it was just perfect, so I am reducing the amount that I show in the recipe below so that it can be served with some extra sauce, because really what is a pie without some sauce on top of it?

I'm sending this recipe over to Ruth for this weeks Bookmarked Recipes roundup. Unfortunately Ruth is finishing up this event at the end of this year, so you only have a couple more chances to be a part of it.

Turkey, Leek & Cranberry Pie Serves 4-6

Preheat the oven to 180C & spray a pie dish with olive oil spray. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and cook 350g turkey breast steaks in 1Tbsp olive oil for a few minutes each side until browned and cooked through, remove from pan, allow to cool and shred finely. (Alternatively you can use 2C shredded leftover roast turkey meat). Add 20g butter, 2 chopped bacon rashers, 1 sliced leek & 2 crushed garlic cloves to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes or until the leek begins to caramelise. Reduce the heat to low and stir in combined 1/4C cranberry sauce, 1tsp dijon mustard, 1/2C cream, 1/4C sour cream (I used natural yoghurt because we were out of sour cream) & 1/4C chicken stock. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until the mixture begins to thicken. Add turkey and stir until combined. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

In the meantime, thaw 2 sheets shortcrust pastry and use one sheet to line the pie dish, prick with a fork. Fill with cooled turkey mixture and top with another sheet of pastry. Prick in a few places with a fork, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with allspice. Cook in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes or until golden. Serve with extra cranberry sauce.

Cranberry & Orange Sauce Makes 1C

In a small saucepan bring to the boil 1/2C brown sugar & 1/2C water. Allow sugar to dissolve & then add 2C fresh or frozen cranberries (I used 1C craisins). Bring to the boil, reduce heat and then allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Add the juice of 1 orange, 1/4tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp nutmeg & 1/4tsp allspice, stir to combine and cook until heated through.

Menu Plan (Week beginning 15th December)

Not much cooking going on in our house this week, but here is the plan anyway!

Monday 15/12

Geoff cooking - Pea & Ham Soup

Tuesday 16/12

Satay Chicken Tortilla Stack

Wednesday 17/12

Beef & Pasta Bake

Thursday 18/12

Leftovers

Friday 19/12

Chicken Curry w/ Rice & Pappadums (Carried over from last week - AGAIN!)

Saturday 20/12 (I'm out for a friends birthday)

They are on their own!

Sunday 21/12 (All out for an early Christmas at my aunty's house)

You can find lots of other peoples menus at the Organising Junkie.

Recovering from a Recipe Flop

2008-12-13T22:22:00.004+11:00

Last weekend I made the WORST.stew.ever! I have mentioned in a previous post how time consuming, near vomit inducing and disappointing my attempt was to make the Lamb Stew with Spring Vegetables out of the launch issue of Australian Good Food, so I won't go through the details again. I will say that I think the downfall of the recipe is that everything is cooked seperately to each other (therefore can it really be called a stew? Nothing stews together!), however this factor also made it easy to recover from the botchy recipe and avert a total disaster by saving some components of the meal for another dish. I made these mini quiches to use up the piles of painstakingly prepared vegetables and even served them with a sauce utilising the red wine reduction made in the recipe. The lamb, well that is not my problem, Mum & Geoff can figure out something to do with that because quite frankly I would prefer my food to remain in my stomach once I have eaten it! Quiche is versatile as most of you would know, so if you don't have your own 'Gordon Ramsay fail stew' vegetables to use up, just use whatever you have on hand or your favourite vegetables.

Mini Spring Vegetable Quiches Makes 16

Peel & trim 10 baby carrots, 10 baby leeks (I couldn't find these, so I used spring onions instead), 80g peas, 120g shelled, skinned broad beans & 8 eschalots. Cook each vegetable seperately in boiling water and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process. (Cook Onions for 8-10 minutes, carrots & leeks for 4 minutes, peas & broad beans for 1 minute). Heat 1Tbsp olive oil and cook onions until starting to brown. Sprinkle with 3tsp caster sugar & a pinch of salt and cook until caramelised. Add carrots, leeks & 2Tbsp balsamic vinegar, bubble briefly, then add 100ml chicken stock. Bring to the boil and add the peas & beans. Boil for a few minutes, until the liquid evaporates.

Preheat oven to 200C, spray a rectangle loaf muffin pan with olive oil spray & thaw 4 sheets puff or shortcrust pastry (I used half puff and half shortcrust). In a bowl mix together 4 eggs, 1/2C milk, 1/2C natural yoghurt & 1/2C cream. Chop up the cooked vegetables and add them to the mixture. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Line the 8 muffin holes with pastry and fill with egg mixture. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes, or until set. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and return to oven until melted. Repeat with remaining pastry and egg mixture. Mini quiches can be served hot or cold and are great for lunches on the go. They can be frozen for use later, but they didn't last long around here - the 3 of us got through all 16 of them in just 3 days!

To make the red wine sauce to go with it, heat 150ml light red wine in a saucepan and boil vigorously until reduced to a sticky syrup. Pour in 100ml chicken stock and boil down until reduced by half, then whisk in 25g chopped cold butter. Season with salt & pepper to taste then stir in 1/2 bunch of tarragon leaves, chopped. Mix with a little tomato sauce to serve, if desired.

Festive Season Handbook - Fruit Mince

2008-12-12T14:48:00.003+11:00

In an attempt to make it feel more like Christmas, I have added a festive background to my blog. How cute is it!? I chose it on The Cutest Blog on the Block because it was pink & Christmassy. It just doesn't feel like Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, which could explain why I have left making this fruit mince a little late. It is meant to sit in a cool, dark place for at least a month, but I only made it at the start of this week, so it will only be sitting for half that time... ooops! We are yet to put up any Christmas decorations around our house, apparently we are getting a tree this weekend, but I'm not holding my breath... hopefully we get one though because I need one to be able to get into the spirit properly...

This is another recipe from the Festive Season Handbook, which was my cookbook challenge book last week. I decided to make a few more recipes from it while it was still the suitable time of year to use the book. I'm going to be making a few different things out of this mixture closer to Christmas when it has had a chance to sit for a little while, as well as the obvious fruit mince pies. So keep your eyes peeled for those posts in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, here is the recipe in case you want to make some late fruit mince of your own... I halved the original recipe because it looked like it would make enough pies to feed an army... Although I have no idea how many fruit mince pies or other things it actually makes because the recipe is very vague!

Fruit Mince Makes approx. 1.5kg

Chop 250g raisins & 250g sultanas finely. Mix with 250g currants, 125g grated beef suet (I used copha instead of the animal fat) & 60g mixed peel (I used chopped dried apricots because no one in my family likes mixed peel). Peel, core & finely chop 250g cooking apples and add to mixture along with the grated rind of 1 lemon or orange, 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp nutmeg & 1/4tsp allspice. Dissolve 250g brown sugar in 1/2C brandy or rum and pour over mixture. Cover and let stand overnight. Stir well and place in clean, dry jars. Store in a cool dry place for at least a month (or in my case, at least 2 weeks!).

Challenging Myself in the Taste Cooks Club

2008-12-09T22:02:00.004+11:00

As I have mentioned before, I am hosting the Cooks Club Challenge on the Taste Forums at the moment. One of the 3 recipes I chose to challenge everyone with was my M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I made some Christmas versions of last week in an attempt not only to get into the spirit of Christmas, but the spirit of my own challenge as well. Another of my chosen recipes is the Mediterranean Lamb Pizza that I made last year (& have made several times since), because it is tasty and also within the Christmas theme that I chose for my challenge as it has red, green & white. But in doing my own challenge I decided to do something a little different, choosing to make one of the alternate options listed with this recipe in the November 2007 issue of Australian Good Taste magazine instead of the original.

The version with a Mexican twist was every bit as tasty as the Mediterranean one, having that typical Mexican combination of a little heat and some soothing avocado to go with it. I made this 2 nights in a row because there are only 3 of us and there was enough mince mixture to get 6 pizzas out of it (even though the recipe states it makes 4). The first night I used the sundried tomato pesto it suggested, but I found that it was very salty, especially when combined with the taco seasoning mix in the mince, so on the second night I used basil pesto and found it to be much nicer... and it didn't detract from the Mexican flavourings... As well as topping it with avocado as suggested, I also put a dollop of sour cream (to further aide in the soothing factor) and a scattering of chopped spring onions (mostly because we had some leftover and they make a nice garnish)... This is such a wonderful recipe, I really want to try the other 2 alternate flavours as well... and really, it is a very versatile recipe (being pizza after all), so really the sky is the limit! I usually don't like crispy or thin pizza bases, but somehow the convenience and individual portions of the pita bread bases win me over every time...

Mexican Beef & Bean Pizza Serves 6

Preheat oven to 200C & spray a couple of baking trays with olive oil spray. Heat 2tsp olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat and cook 300g lean beef mince, stirring to break up any lumps, for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Add 1 large red capsicum, cut into small dice & cook for 2 minutes. Add a 35g sachet taco seasoning and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add 1 x 125g can kidney beans, rinsed and drained and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through.

Place 6 small pita bread rounds on baking trays, spread with 6Tbsp basil pesto (or sundried tomato pesto) and top with mince mixture. Sprinkle with tasty cheese (around 100g in total) and cook in oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and bases get crisp. Top each pizza with a dollop of sour cream and some avocado & chopped spring onions.

Menu Plan Monday (Week Beginning 8th December)

2008-12-08T23:42:00.003+11:00

I've got no recipes to show you from last weeks menu plan as we used a lot of jars and packaged stuff last week. The one meal I made from scratch was the Lamb Stew w/ Spring Vegetables from Australian Good Food magazine, but I wasn't happy with it at all. Firstly it was a pain trying to find all the spring vegetables the recipe called for, then it took way too long to blanch each vegetable separately, cook the lamb, fry the vegies, make the sauce... it took forever... And instead of being rewarded with a tasty meal all that I got was a bland, unpalatable plate of vegetables (the smell of the lamb cooking made me want to chuck, so I didn't risk actually eating it)... very disappointing to say the least... hopefully this weeks meals will turn out better!

Menu Plan (Week beginning 8th December)

Monday 8/12 (Everyone out)

N/A

Tuesday 9/12

Spring Vegetable Quiche (made from leftover vegies from the Lamb Stew w/ Spring Vegetables)

Wednesday 10/12

Mediterranean Carrot Rolls & Roast Vegetable Salad w/ Chickpeas

Thursday 11/12

Chicken Curry w/ Pappadums & Rice (carried over from last week)... Baked Banana Souffles for dessert :)

Friday 12/12 (I'm out)

Leftovers!

Saturday 13/12

Eggplant Patties on Mountain Bread w/ salad (carried over from last week)

Sunday 14/12

Turkey, Leek & Cranberry Pie

You can find lots of other peoples menus at the Organising Junkie.

Tandoori Chicken Burgers w/ Beetroot Couscous

2008-12-07T22:44:00.008+11:00

I made these burgers when my brother and his *new* girlfriend came around for dinner last week. There were 5 of us, so I increased some of the ingredients in the original recipe (which was from the November issue of Super Food Ideas magazine) so I could make enough patties for all of us. I made 5 large ones and another 2 mini ones to go on some of those bake-at-home rolls that we still have a billion of in the freezer after the party, but Luke asked for more when he was finished his and ended up eating the little ones as well. Oh well, at least they were a hit! They were also pretty quick to make and full of flavour, as well as being a good way to use up that last bit of tandoori paste in the jar in the fridge, which is why I decided to make them in the first place.

The couscous salad is taken from the June issue of Delicious magazine and it looks so pretty. The beetroot colours the couscous a beautiful shade of pink, which worked much better than when we tried to turn a quiche pink using beetroot juice for our colourful housewarming party... I still can't believe it all cooked away, that is some crazy kitchen magic! Anyway, this salad was in a picnic article in the magazine to be eaten cold, but it worked really well hot alongside (& even inside) these burgers. I used canned beetroot and it worked fine.

I'm sending this duo over to Ruth for this weeks Bookmarked Recipes roundup.

Tandoori Chicken Burgers Serves 6

Combine 600g chicken mince, 3/4C fresh multigrain breadcrumbs & 3Tbsp tandoori paste in a bowl. Shape mixture into 6 equal sized patties, about 2cm thick and refrigerate for at least 15-20 minutes. In the meantime, mix together 1/2C low fat natural yoghurt, 1Tbsp chopped fresh mint & 1 small chopped Lebanese cucumber & refrigerate until needed.

Heat 2tsp olive oil in an electric frypan and cook patties on medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes each side, or until golden and cooked through. Serve on 6 wholegrain bread rolls with shredded baby cos lettuce & cucumber yoghurt mixture.

Beetroot Couscous Serves 6

Bring 1C vegetable stock to the boil and pour slowly over 1C couscous. Mix gently, cover with a teatowel and stand for 5 minutes. Fluff grains with a fork to separate. Meanwhile, heat 2Tbsp olive oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Cook 1 thinly sliced red onion for 10 minutes, stirring, until softened and just starting to caramelise. Stir in 3Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2Tbsp lemon juice, 2 peeled, cooked beetroot (or 450g can baby beets, drained), cut into 2cm cubes & 1/2C chopped flat leaf parsley. Season, then stir through couscous. Can be served hot or cold.

Printable Recipes:

Tandoori Chicken Burgers

Beetroot Couscous

Cookbook Challenge - The Christmas Edition!

2008-12-06T22:46:00.006+11:00

As if my library thing widget knew what time of year it was, last week it chose 'The Festive Season Handbook' for my cookbook challenge book #16. This little book was published locally in Victoria in 1990 and has some wonderful background stories to accompany the chapters and recipes. It is great to read the history behind the traditions of Christmas, for example how it came to be that we bring trees into our house and decorate them or the evolution of the christmas cracker from a pretty way to wrap sweets to the more elaborate versions of today.

I decided to make this jam because my mum loves cherries, luckily they were also on special this week because it is the start of their season... otherwise this could have been a very expensive exercise! The recipe didn't state how much jam it would make and I was more than a little disappointed when it only yielded 3 small jars... seeing as I wanted to add it to the Christmas hampers we make for the extended family (along with the vanilla essence), I had to go out and buy another kilo of cherries to make a second batch... by that time they weren't as cheap any more, but luckily they forgot to change the pricing in their computer system so I still got them for the cheaper price... score! I still need to make some pretty labels to go on them too... Besides the recipe not making much jam, it also took MUCH longer than the recipe stated for it to get to setting point (which could be why it didn't produce much jam)... the original recipe said to cook it for 15 minutes, but both times I made it it took at least 45 minutes to reach a set, so be prepared for it to take a while... It is delicious though, I would know, I licked clean about a million set testing saucers ;)

I'm sending this over to Happy Cook at My Kitchen Adventures for her Home Made Christmas Gifts event. I was thinking of doing a similar event but she beat me to it by a day! Oh well, less work for me & more time to make some gifts for everyone :)

Cherry Jam Makes 2-3C

Juice 2 medium lemons and put juice, along with 1C water, into a large bowl. Measure out 2 1/2C sugar and sprinkle a little over the lemon juice and water. Remove stones from 1kg cherries and tie them in a piece of muslin. Place cherries in lemon juice bowl, layering with the rest of the sugar. Leave overnight.

Next day, strain syrup into a large saucepan and stir over a medium heat until all the sugar is dissolved. Bring to boiling point, add cherries and the bag of stones and boil for 30 minutes, stirring ocassionally and squishing cherries to break them down more. Remove from heat, put a teaspoon of jam on a cold saucer and if it sets in 3 minutes, jam is done. Continue cooking if jam is not ready, removing pan each time you test. Skim off any scum from the top and remove muslin bag. Turn into warm, sterilised jars and seal.

As it is the festive season I have decided to cook something new from this book every week this month - Christmas only comes around once a year after all, so I don't really get a chance to use this book all that much the rest of the year! But in the interests of keeping my quick cookbook challenge streak going, I am also going to be moving on to book #17, which is 'Real Family Food' by Antony Worrall Thompson.

Printable Recipe

Getting into the Christmas Spirits

2008-12-04T23:01:00.006+11:00

I've been getting into the Christmas spirit over the weekend by making some Christmas versions of my M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies... Aren't they pretty? I love how you can see some of the Christmas designs (like the candy cane below)...

Edit 11/12 - I'm sending these cookies over to the Eat Christmas Cookies event, hosted by Susan at FoodBlogga... I only just noticed this event today, but better late than never!

Christmas M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies Makes 30

Quite simple really, just follow the original M&M Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, but use Christmas M&Ms instead of regular ones (or pick all the red and green coloured ones out of a large packet and you should have around the right amount).

Minty Double Chocolate M&M Cookies Makes 30

I stole this idea from a fellow Taste.com.au forum member, FoodiePep. Basically you just use the Mint Chocolate M&Ms (I think they are limited edition so you might need to make these sooner rather than later!) and add 2Tbsp cocoa. I didn't think they were quite minty enough, so I would probably replace the vanilla essence with pepperment essence next time (if I make these again before they stop selling them... I suppose they could just be made with normal M&Ms and pepperment essence... or just the green ones picked out!).

I cooked some of the cookies and froze the rest in uncooked balls to make later to make the Christmas cheer last longer :)

But the Christmas Spirit isn't the only spirit I have been getting into lately... I have been brewing my own homemade vanilla essence!

Here it is after only a couple of days...

...and a week later...

...and this is what it looks like today, after 3 weeks of brewing

I had never thought of making my own vanilla essence until I stumbled across a thread about it on the Taste forums... it is REALLY simple too, you just split some vanilla beans and throw them in a bottle of vodka... leave it to brew for a few months in a coold, dark place and you have vanilla essence - a massive bottle of it! I used 12 beans in each of my 700ml vodka bottles (others in the forum have used as little as 6-8 beans, but my research said to use 7 per cup of alcohol... so I compromised)... I made 2 bottles, one to split up for Christmas presents to go in our family hampers and the other for me to keep...

If you want to make some for yourself (or for gifts), you can get good quality vanila beans on ebay for a reasonable price rather than paying $5 per bean for inferior quality ones at the supermarket... I got around 50 beans for $20 including postage from this seller... make sure you buy madagascar beans because they are better from what I have read...

I jumped the gun and decided to use my essence in the Christmas cookies on the weekend... it already smells REALLY nice, but it obviously isn't ready to be used yet, there was a slightly odd taste to my cookies... I think I will leave it for another couple of months before I use it again, like I am meant to!

M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies are one of the 3 recipes I have chosen to challenge the other Taste.com.au forum members for the Cooks Club Challenge that I am hosting at the moment... feel free to join us!

Taste Cooks Club Challenge - New & Old

2008-12-02T22:04:00.003+11:00

Another week and I have tried another couple of recipes from the Taste Cooks Club Challenge. These were both really delicious recipes that I will no doubt be making again!

I made the enchiladas from Round 23 last week (while it was still happening - this is a first for me!) and they were the best enchiladas I have ever tasted. The mixture of spices really makes the dish, especially the cinnamon which is a little unexpected. I only used 1/4tsp of chilli powder and skipped the green chilli altogether as our supermarket had none and it was still spicy enough for my tastes, but if you like it hot use a bit more chilli powder and find yourself a chilli as well. I got enough mince mixture to fill 9 tortillas (so I had one left in the packet) and had to squish the last one in the baking dish, but it fit - just!

The chicken dish is from all the way back in Round 2 and was a great dish to put on and forget about for a little bit while I got on with other things. It is originally from Nigella Lawsons' 'Forever Summer'. We had no dry white wine, so I used a dessert wine and it still tasted really good, there is enough dryness in the vinegar anyway. Next time I will use the dry wine if there is some around just to see if it makes much of a difference, but since dessert wine is pretty much the only wine I drink I didn't mind being forced to open a bottle for this meal! I cooked it in my rectangular electrical frypan and the jointed chicken fit perfectly in there.

Beef Enchiladas Makes 9

Preheat oven to 180°C and spray a large baking dish with olive oil spray. To make enchilada sauce, heat 2Tbsp olive oil in a medium saucepan. Add 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 finely diced brown onion, 1 thinly sliced long green chilli & 1 finely diced green capsicum. Cook for 3-5 minutes on gentle heat, stirring occasionally. Add 1Tbsp ground cumin, 1/4tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp sweet paprika & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon and cook until just fragrant. Add 1tsp salt, 1tsp sugar & 700ml passata and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer gently, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

Meanwhile, heat another 1Tbsp olive oil in a medium frying pan over a high heat. Add 500g lean beef mince and season. Cook, stirring to break up any lumps, for 3-4 minutes. Add half of the enchilada sauce to the meat, stir to combine and coat the beef with sauce. Remove from heat.

Divide mince mixture among 1 pkt flour tortillas, placing it neatly in the centre. Roll tortillas up from one side to enclose the filling. Place in baking dish with seam side down. Spoon remaining sauce over enchiladas and top with 1 1/2C grated tasty cheese. Bake in pre-heated oven for 15 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted and browned. Serve with sour cream.

Sicilian Vinegar Chicken Serves 4

Finely chop 1 brown onion and fry it gently, with some salt sprinkled over to stop it catching, in 60ml olive oil in a wide, heavy-bottomed pan (or electric frypan) for about 5 minutes, until it's softened but not browned. Arrange the 8 pieces from 1 2-2.25kg, skinned and jointed chicken over the onion and season well with salt and pepper. Pour over the 250ml chicken stock, 125ml dry white wine, 125ml red wine vinegar & juice of half a lemon then sprinkle with a handful of fresh parsley & a small handful of fresh basil leaves. Bring the pan to the boil and then cover and simmer gently for about 45 minutes. Remove the lid and simmer away for about another 15 minutes, by which time the liquid should have reduced a little and the chicken itself be well cooked.

Blanch 2 large tomatoes by putting them in a bowl and pouring over some boiling water from a kettle. Leave them there for 3 minutes or so then tumble them out, skin them, quarter them, remove the viscous glob of seeds and roughly chop the pink-red flesh. Mix them in a small bowl along with another 40ml olive oil and some salt and pepper.

When the chicken is ready, remove the pieces to a large shallow bowl and, if you want the sauce any thicker, let it bubble away over a high heat to reduce further. Stir the tomato mixture into the sauce and pour it over the chicken waiting in the dish and sprinkle over a little more parsley & basil. Serve with rice & crusty bread.

Guess who is hosting the current Taste Cooks Club Challenge!? Me!! To see the 3 recipes I chose for my Christmas themed challenge go to the Taste forums. Anyone is free to participate too, you don't even need a blog! Just make one or more of my challenge recipes and post about your creations on the thread, you can add photos too or see what others have created as well. Can you guess what my challenge recipes are? They are all on this blog already!

Menu Plan Mondays (& Eggplant Pasta Bake w/ Spinach & Ricotta)

2008-12-01T23:54:00.007+11:00

Just a quick post because I have left this until really late in the night! I made this pasta bake last week after having bookmarked it a couple of months ago on The Journal of a Girl Who Loves to Cook. I first stumbled upon Su Yins blog because of her gorgeous cake decorations, I mean we are talking super cute, crazily detailed cakes here - she is really talented!... I found this savoury dish amongst all the sweetness, and seeing as there is no chance of me being able to replicate her Christmas Penguins or any of her other cakes for that matter, I decided to give the pasta a go... We really enjoyed it, but we are used to a bit more pasta in our meals, so next time I would double the pasta (I have altered this below)... the recipe also says nothing about frying the eggplant first, but I found mine didn't cook within the 20 minutes, so next time I would fry them a bit beforehand... everything else in the dish is cooked first, so it would make sense!

Eggplant Pasta Bake w/ Spinach & Ricotta Serves 4-6

Slice 1 eggplant into 1/2cm thick pieces and sprinkle with salt in a colander. Cook 300-500g pasta according to packet directions. Saute 1 thinly sliced onion & 3 crushed garlic cloves with 2Tbsp olive oil for 2 minutes. Pour in 1 bottle tomato based pasta sauce and add 2tsp oregano. Bring to a boil, mix in 100g roughly chopped baby spinach and cook for another 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Rinse salt off eggplant slices and fry until tender. Layer a baking dish with cooked pasta, pasta sauce, eggplant slices and 1C light ricotta cheese. Top with 2C shredded mozzarella. Bake for 20 minutes; until cheese is melted and deliciously bubbly!

I'm also sending this over to Ruth's Kitchen Experiments for her Bookmarked recipes roundup.

Menu Plan (Week beginning 1st Dec)

This week is a bit of a boring Menu Plan because we are trying to use up what is in the cupboards after spending a lot on party food recently!

Monday 1/12

Leftovers!

Tuesday 2/12

Chicken satay (using satay sauce jar leftover from party), with broccoli, carrot, pumpkin, etc & rice.

Wednesday 3/12

Lamb stew w/ spring vegetables (that I didn't get around to making last week!)

Thursday 4/12(I am out)

Leftovers.

Friday 5/12

Eggplant patties (from freezer) in mountain bread (from freezer) w/ salad.

Saturday 6/12

Chicken curry (from paste) w/ pappadums & rice.

Sunday 7/12

Leftover Night!

You can find lots of other peoples menus at the Organising Junkie.

Welcome Back Cooking Mojo, Welcome Back Daringness!

2008-11-29T23:57:00.007+11:00

I had complete faith that my cooking mojo and my daring streak were never really gone for good, and this month they have finally returned. After a fairly terrible year (Bring on 2009 I say!) I am starting to get back on my feet again... I've posted more this month than I have any other month since I started this blog and I have been loving every minute of it... I haven't participated in a Daring Bakers Challenge in a very long time, and I want to thank Lis & Ivonne for being so patient with me. Now I am back and as daring as ever! Thank-yous must also go to this months host Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity and her wonderful co-hosts Alex from Blondie and Brownie & Jenny from Foray into Food for picking a delicious and sugary challenge for my return.

I decided to make my Caramel cake into cupcakes because they are easier to share (I wanted to take some to my boyfriends place and keep some here), easier to transport (well, especially after I bought my fancy doubled tiered cupcake carrier that doubles as a biscuits or slice carrier... ah, retail therapy, isn't it great!?) and they are just so damn cute! We were also given an optional challenge of making caramels, so I took that one on as well and used them to decorate the tops of my cupcakes... I originally wanted to put stars or hearts flat on top of them, but I didn't have any cutters small enough... I tried a half star but it just kept flopping over because my caramel was too soft... I think the ones I ended up with looked better anyway...

I was a bit worried at first because there were a lot of comments in the DB forums about this cake and its icing being too sweet... as most of you will know, i don't shy away from sugar... but I wasn't looking forward to trying to figure out how much sugar was in them to give myself the right amount of insulin that is for sure! As it turns out I estimated it fairly well and didn't end up with ridiculously high sugar levels, even though I ate several of these... they were so yummy! and the icing... I was eating it out of the bowl all day, the combination of burnt butter, salt and caramel just goes so well together, I couldn't keep my fingers out of there!!

For those of you who are thinking of making this (or any other caramel in the future), my favourite tip that I picked up off the DB forum was to add milk to the sticky caramel pan and bring it to a simmer to make a delicious Hot Caramel Milk... just the thing I needed after my hard day of baking ;)

Caramel Cupcakes Makes 18

(Recipe for Caramel Cake & Caramelized Butter Frosting from Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater as published on Bay Area Bites)

Caramel Syrup (halved from original)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix 1/4C water & 1C sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber. When color is achieved, cover pan with foil and cut a small hole. Very carefully pour in 1/2C water to stop the caramelisation process. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back. Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.} Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

Caramel Cake

Preheat oven to 180C and place paper muffin cases into 18 of the 24 holes in 2 x 12 hole muffin pans. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream 10Tbsp butter until smooth. Add 1 1/4C sugar & 1/2tsp sea salt flakes and cream the mixture until light and fluffy. Slowly pour 1/3C room temperature caramel syrup (see recipe above) into the bowl. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and increase speed. Mix together 2 room temperature eggs & a splash of vanilla extract and add a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift 2C plain flour & 1/2tsp baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add 1/2C room temperature milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then another 1/2C room temperature milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.} Remove from mixer and use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Divide batter among muffin cases.

Bake for 15 minutes, rotate pan and bake for another 5-10 minutes or until sides pull away from the papers and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it. Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

Caramelised Butter Frosting

Cook 12Tbsp butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool. Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl, attach paddle attachment and add 450g sifted icing sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add 3Tbsp heavy cream & 3Tbsp caramel syrup. Add 1tsp sea salt flakes (or to taste).

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month. To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light.

Once cupcakes are completely cooled, pipe icing on top, decorate with chopped caramels (recipe below) and sprinkle generously with sea salt flakes.

Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels Makes 40 (Halved from original recipe)

(from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press)

Line the bottom and sides of a 20cm x 10cm loaf pan with aluminum foil and grease the foil. Combine 1/2C golden syrup, 1C sugar & 1/8tsp sea salt flakes in a heavy based saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to simmer around the edges. Wash the sugar and syrup from the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cover and cook for about 3 minutes. (Meanwhile, rinse the spatula or spoon before using it again later.) Uncover the pan and wash down the sides once more. Attach a candy thermometer to the pan, without letting it touch the bottom of the pan, and cook, uncovered (without stirring) until the mixture reaches 150C. Meanwhile, heat 1C heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat until tiny bubbles form around the edges of the pan. Turn off the heat and cover the pan to keep the cream hot.

When the sugar mixture reaches 150C, turn off the heat and stir in 1 1/2Tbsp butter, cut into chunks. Gradually stir in the hot cream; it will bubble up and steam dramatically, so be careful. Turn the burner back on and adjust it so that the mixture boils energetically but not violently. Stir until any thickened syrup at the bottom of the pan is dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, to about 118C. Then cook, stirring constantly, to 125C for soft, chewy caramels. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in 1/2Tbsp vanilla extract. Pour the caramel into the lined pan. Let set for 4 to 5 hours, or overnight until firm.

Lift the pan liner from the pan and invert the sheet of caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper. Peel off the liner. Cut the caramels with an oiled knife. Wrap each caramel individually in wax paper or cellophane.

Thanks again to the hosts for such a delicious challenge... you can see more wonderful Daring Baker creations by going to our blogroll (and with over 1,000 of us now it would be hard for you not to stumble across a couple more of our posts even if you were trying to avoid them!)... I look forward to the next challenge :)

A Healthy(?) Dose of Organisation

2008-11-28T22:06:00.008+11:00

I have finally managed to get around to organising my cookbook and food magazine bookcase after the move. I painstakingly packed my cookbooks and magazines into boxes according to what shelves they belonged on, but mum and Geoff got a little over zealous when we moved in and unpacked the books for me... and managed to get them all in the completely wrong place despite the numbering. It wasn't so bad though, after a couple of hours of work my recipe shelves are now the most organised they have ever been... I mean look how pretty they look!

The top shelf has all the 'healthy' or nutrition related cookbooks and magazines (Diabetic Living & Healthy Food Guide) on the left side and all the cookbooks by celebrity chefs or other famous people on the right side...

The next shelf down has food magazines on the left (including Australian Good Food, Australian Good Taste, Australian Table, Recipes+, Super Food Ideas), I could only fit the magazines from the last 2 years here... the bright boxes in the middle hold these laminated recipe cards that I made when I was a teenager, there are a lot of recipes in there I never tried, but also some of my favourites like M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cinnamon & Jam Donut Muffins, Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding, Spring Rolls & Asian Meatballs that I have been making for as long as I remember... and there is a special section on the right to help with planning meals...

Each month I am going to put all the magazines from that month (off these shelves and also from the boxes where I keep my magazines that are older and won't fit on the shelves) into this section here so that I can cook more things from the magazines I have... because as it is now, once I read a magazine it pretty much sits on the shelf (or a box) and gathers dust... so this is my attempt to actually use what I have... how crazy does that sound!?! This section also has a couple of notebooks to help me plan it out, a folder full of recipes that I have printed off my blog, tried and tested ones that we liked and want to make again... On the right hand side of the blue folder is where I am keeping the magazines and books that I am cooking from that week... organisation to the max!!

The middle shelf holds the rest of my cookbooks... they are sorted into categories from catering & International on the left through to Ingredient specific & Vegetarian on the right... it is so much easier to find the book that I am looking for now!

The second bottom shelf has the more expensive magazines on it, with Donna Hay on the left and Delicious on the right... there are also a couple of cookbooks related to these magazines in the middle... I used to buy both of these magazines religiously (I have Donna Hay from the very first issue) until I realised that although I enjoy reading them, I hardly ever make anything out of these magazines, where as I make quite a bit out of the cheaper magazines... I still ocassionally buy Delicious, but I have stopped buying Donna Hay completely now... I might reconsider when I get my own place and start entertaining more though, I think these magazines would be good for that... I am a sucker for a Christmas issue though... haha...

The bottom shelf houses all of mums old cookbooks... along with my older cookbooks, most of which I got given to me via freecycle... I don't really use them that much (except when my cookbook challenge forces me to!)... the two magazine holders on the right are a series of microwave cooking magazines that my Nanna gave me, I should really go through them sometime and see if there are any decent recipes in them...

All this extra planning is making it much easier not only to figure out what we are going to eat each night, but also to fit in recipes from my cookbook challenge books, I am churning through them each week now! I've made two recipes from the current cookbook challenge book, 'Eat Well, Live Well' by Reader's Digest. The pasta dish was really simple, light and full of flavour, but it isn't really a dish to eat with company, if you get my drift... I saw the recipe for the Tofu Balls on Where's the Beef?, Cindy got the recipe originally from Post Punk Kitchen... I made a half batch of these and the pasta dish as I was eating alone (hence the vegetarian meal... I have been craving tofu for ages!), my balls turned out more like mini rissoles because they flattened out a bit, but they were still delicious... the banana bars are great for breakfast, I found them a bit dry when they are first baked, but once they were in the fridge overnight they were really nice and the flavour came through more... mum wasn't very fond of them, but apparently she doesn't like bananas... who would have known!?

Four Onion Spaghetti w/ Soy Bombs (aka Tofu Balls) Serves 4

In a food processor mix together 500g extra firm tofu, 1 small finely chopped onion, 3Tbsp peanut butter, 3Tbsp soy sauce (2Tbsp if you peanut butter contains salt), 1/2C breadcrumbs & 1/2-1 bunch of basil (or other herb of your choice). Place in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

In a large saucepan, heat 1Tbsp olive oil over a low heat. Add 2 large red onions, chopped, 1 large brown onion, chopped, 6 spring onions, including tops, thinly sliced & 4 shallots, chopped and cook for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Add 3 crushed garlic cloves and cook for another 2 minutes. Add 3Tbsp brandy (or apple juice) and cook for another minute. Stir in 1 1/2C vegetable stock, cover and cook for 25 minutes on a very low heat. Stir in 1tsp dried rosemary and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Add 2Tbsp plain flour and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add another 1C vegetable stock & a pinch of black pepper, bring to the boil over moderate heat and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until thickened.

Roll tofu mixture into 3cm balls and roll in plain flour (about 1/2C). Heat 1/3C vegetable oil in a frying pan until hot and fry tofu balls in batches until golden. Be careful, they are fragile!

While frying the batches of tofu balls, bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook 300g spaghetti (I used half white and half wholemeal) for 5 minutes or until al dente. Drain and transfer to serving bowls. Top with onion mixture, tofu balls & chopped spring onion tops (about 1/4C in total).

I am sending this one to Ruth from Once Upon a Feast for this weeks Presto Pasta Night roundup.

Banana Custard Oat Bars Makes 12

Preheat oven to 190C and lightly grease a 23cm square baking dish. Soak 1/2C coarsely chopped dried fruit (I used a mixture of apple and pear) in 1/2C boiling water for 15 minutes. In the meantime, blend together 3Tbsp brown sugar, 2Tbsp margarine & 3Tbsp vegetable oil in a food processor until smooth. Add 1/2C plain wholemeal flour, 1/2C plain white flour (the recipe originally calls for all wholemeal, but I think this makes them too dry) & 1/2tsp ground cinnamon and mix until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Remove from food processor and mix in 1C instant or rolled oats. Put aside 1/2C of this mixture for the toping and press the remainder into the prepared dish. Bake the crust for 20 minutes.

In a clean food processor bowl, blend together 2 large bananas, cut into 3cm pieces, 1 large egg, 2 large egg whites, 3Tbsp honey & 1/4tsp ground ginger until smooth. Add the soaked fruit (drained) and pulse until just combined. Pour the banana mixture over the hot crust, sprinkle with the reserved oat mixture and bake for 15 minutes or until set. Let stand in the dish on a wire rack until warm and then cut into 12 bars. Once cooled completely, wrap individual bars tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. The recipe says they will keep for up to 4 days, but since I am the only one eating them they are still going strong 5 days after I made them (and hopefully for a few more days to come!).

This cookbook is pretty good, it has over 500 recipes in it and I already have a long list of things I want to cook out of it after only going through the breakfast and vegetarian sections... it is also one of the few cookbooks I have seen that doesn't just claim to have healthy recipes without showing (full) nutritional data to back it up... each recipe has a nutritional breakdown (including carbohydrates - yay!) and there is even a section at the front of the book that includes recommended dietary intakes... which, although largely outdated now, would have been helpful back when the book was published... it also has a 12 page section on planning a healthy diet, which is actually full of sensible nutritional information without any of the hype I have seen in many other books claiming to be 'healthy'... for a free book off someone on freecycle, this is definitely a find!

Moving on to the next cookbook challenge book (#16) which just happens to be 'The Festive Season Handbook! My Library Thing Widget must know it is Christmas... hopefully I can get some ideas for my Christmas hampers from this book... I've already made a start on something which I will show you next week, but that wasn't from this book...