Have you ever experienced how good it feels to turn a song up in the car and sing it as loud ( and in my case out of tune) as possible?
On my way back from the airport, I found myself alone, no precious ears of Princess A to worry about, and the radio just wasn't quite fulfilling the souls need for a boost.
Shift to IPhone - song pick - "Hold On" by Michael Buble. I played it loud and proud and let it lift my soul. It reminded me that it has been a long time since I let loud music and singing soothe my soul.
There is an immense release- I found myself grinning ear to ear as I walked in at home to see Princess A and A.
If you haven't sung your heart out recently, I suggest that this week is the week. Whether at home, in the shower, in the car or where ever you can belt out a tune - enjoy the life it breathes into the areas we haven't let the sunlight reach for some time
x
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Time for Tea
I have just finished posting as many of the recipes from the last few dinners and started to notice that my blog seems to be becoming a list of recipes. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I somehow promised more.
The Macaroon post from last week was inspired by The colour of tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe was a beautifully written book that really spoke to me, I am still trying to work out why it spoke such volumes, I will keep you posted.
On another note, trying to sift through the maze in which I find myself, being a working mum, means that at the moment I am suffering from "mummy guilt", which H often reminds me is totally optional, however I feel sometimes that I just don't get enough hours in the day to work, live, love and play.
Work is totally all consuming at the moment, but I find this blog and creating food for my loved ones as a great release from those pressures.
I have been asked to make 2 orders for friends - so you could say my first cake orders. A Webber BBQ cake (I promise to post its progress) and 40 cupcakes for a 5 year old birthday.
Its Saturday afternoon, a beautiful sunny day, definately time to close the laptop and make some "time for tea".
Nx
PS. I am looking for some beautiful bone china tea cups (preferably pink with a delicate gold rim) if anyone knows where to find some of these, please leave a message or send an email.
The Macaroon post from last week was inspired by The colour of tea by Hannah Tunnicliffe was a beautifully written book that really spoke to me, I am still trying to work out why it spoke such volumes, I will keep you posted.
On another note, trying to sift through the maze in which I find myself, being a working mum, means that at the moment I am suffering from "mummy guilt", which H often reminds me is totally optional, however I feel sometimes that I just don't get enough hours in the day to work, live, love and play.
Work is totally all consuming at the moment, but I find this blog and creating food for my loved ones as a great release from those pressures.
I have been asked to make 2 orders for friends - so you could say my first cake orders. A Webber BBQ cake (I promise to post its progress) and 40 cupcakes for a 5 year old birthday.
Its Saturday afternoon, a beautiful sunny day, definately time to close the laptop and make some "time for tea".
Nx
PS. I am looking for some beautiful bone china tea cups (preferably pink with a delicate gold rim) if anyone knows where to find some of these, please leave a message or send an email.
Strawberry Ice-Cream
I have used the Thermomix for a delicious sorbet before, but as I finally got my Ice cream machine, it was time to take a culinary ice-cream test drive. It tasted just like the strawberry ice-cream I remember as a child, somehow more real than the ice-cream we buy in the stores.
Ingredients
Punnet of strawberries, washed and cleaned
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk (full cream)
2 cups of cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( I use a good quality one which is made of real vanilla)
Directions
Put the strawberries and lemon juice, 1/3 sugar in the thermomix, and blitz so that it is pureed. leave for the juices to kind of come out and flavours enhance.
Mix together milk, and the remainder of the sugar whisk till the granules dissolve, then add the cream, whisk. Add the strawberry mixture, whisk till combined, add to ice-cream machine turn on and in 60 minutes the most delicious strawberry ice-cream is born.
Notes
I am not 100% sure how this recipe would work without an ice-cream machine but without the thermy, you could also just chop the strawberries very finely, or puree them with a hand mixer, bullet or other type of food processor. It would also be possible to mush them in a mortar and pestle to get the flavours out.
Ingredients
Punnet of strawberries, washed and cleaned
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of milk (full cream)
2 cups of cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( I use a good quality one which is made of real vanilla)
Directions
Put the strawberries and lemon juice, 1/3 sugar in the thermomix, and blitz so that it is pureed. leave for the juices to kind of come out and flavours enhance.
Mix together milk, and the remainder of the sugar whisk till the granules dissolve, then add the cream, whisk. Add the strawberry mixture, whisk till combined, add to ice-cream machine turn on and in 60 minutes the most delicious strawberry ice-cream is born.
Notes
I am not 100% sure how this recipe would work without an ice-cream machine but without the thermy, you could also just chop the strawberries very finely, or puree them with a hand mixer, bullet or other type of food processor. It would also be possible to mush them in a mortar and pestle to get the flavours out.
Macaron Madness
There is something strangely magical about Macarons. I was totally inspired by a beautiful book The colour of tea . The Author of this book also has a blog, and last weeks blog post was about beautiful Macrons. I still haven’t worked out if they are meant to be called Macarons or Macaroons – it’s one of those things where both can be right. Looking at the picture in Hannah’s post, mine were definitely not nearly as beautiful or perfect - but a good start.
Recipe
Ingredients Macarons
300 grams ground almonds or almond meal
300 grams of icing sugar
5 egg whites
cream of tartar
red, yellow brown food colouring
Ingredients Filling
250 grams unsalted softened butter
150grams of icing sugar
Orange macarons - orange zest, Small amount of juice
Pink strawberry macrons - fresh strawberries pureed
Coffee macarons - shot of espresso / or if you don't have access to a coffee machine, instant coffee and water to dissolve.
Piping in Filling
Directions for macarons
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they are foamy. Add a pinch (or tip of knife) of cream of tartar and whisk till soft peaks form. Add the icing sugar in batches, continue to whisk. stir the meringue into the Almonds. split into 3 sections and tint one with brown food colouring, one with orange and one with red. Depending on the fillings you can also make them green, or yellow or whatever.
Spoon each of the mixtures into piping bags with about a 5mm nozzle. pipe into 1.5cm rounds (I think mine were a little smaller), onto baking paper lined trays. Repeat with all the colours.
Preheat the oven at about 150 degrees and bake them till they are firm to touch (mine took about 15-20 minutes).
Remove from oven and cool.
Directions for fillings
Using the thermomix beat the butter until its pale and fluffy. If you don't have a thermomix just beat them with an electric mixer. once pale and fluffy beat in the icing sugar until combined.
Transfer the mixture into 3 bowls and add the flavourings.
Strawberry - thermomix 5 strawberries till pureed and beat into the mixture
Orange - add the zest and juice (i found that beating this in with the electric mixer meant that it did not separate, it can also be done in the thermomix, but as i had the strawberry going in the thermy, i used the electric mixer)
coffee - add some of the espresso or dissolved instant coffee, whisk in to combine.
Place the mixtures into piping bags and pipe onto the appropriate coloured macaron and sandwich together.
Recipe
Ingredients Macarons
300 grams ground almonds or almond meal
300 grams of icing sugar
5 egg whites
cream of tartar
red, yellow brown food colouring
Ingredients Filling
250 grams unsalted softened butter
150grams of icing sugar
Orange macarons - orange zest, Small amount of juice
Pink strawberry macrons - fresh strawberries pureed
Coffee macarons - shot of espresso / or if you don't have access to a coffee machine, instant coffee and water to dissolve.
Piping in Filling
Directions for macarons
Using an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until they are foamy. Add a pinch (or tip of knife) of cream of tartar and whisk till soft peaks form. Add the icing sugar in batches, continue to whisk. stir the meringue into the Almonds. split into 3 sections and tint one with brown food colouring, one with orange and one with red. Depending on the fillings you can also make them green, or yellow or whatever.
Spoon each of the mixtures into piping bags with about a 5mm nozzle. pipe into 1.5cm rounds (I think mine were a little smaller), onto baking paper lined trays. Repeat with all the colours.
Preheat the oven at about 150 degrees and bake them till they are firm to touch (mine took about 15-20 minutes).
Remove from oven and cool.
Directions for fillings
Using the thermomix beat the butter until its pale and fluffy. If you don't have a thermomix just beat them with an electric mixer. once pale and fluffy beat in the icing sugar until combined.
Transfer the mixture into 3 bowls and add the flavourings.
Strawberry - thermomix 5 strawberries till pureed and beat into the mixture
Orange - add the zest and juice (i found that beating this in with the electric mixer meant that it did not separate, it can also be done in the thermomix, but as i had the strawberry going in the thermy, i used the electric mixer)
coffee - add some of the espresso or dissolved instant coffee, whisk in to combine.
Place the mixtures into piping bags and pipe onto the appropriate coloured macaron and sandwich together.
Date and Pine Nut Cous Cous
Wow this was a work in progress... even though I have made Cous Cous before, for some reason the first attempt ended up looking more like sandy cement which A would use to brick up a house, than something which would complement our Moroccan chicken.
Ingredients
2 cups of Cous cous
2 cups of stock
1 cup dates
1/2 cup pine nuts (roasted in a pan)
Coriander to serve
Oil
Butter
Method
Place 2 cups of stock and a good dollop of olive oil into a saucepan, bring to boil. Once boiled get the 2 cups of cous cous, add whilst stirring. Put the lid on and let it sit for about 5 -10 minutes
Take a fork and separate the grains, add butter and stir
then chop the dates, combine with the roasted pine-nuts add to the cooked cous cous, stir through roughly chopped coriander and serve warm.
Note - if you are not sure about the cous cous, as there are different types, brands etc., read the packet instructions and just adapt with stock rather than salted water.
Ingredients
2 cups of Cous cous
2 cups of stock
1 cup dates
1/2 cup pine nuts (roasted in a pan)
Coriander to serve
Oil
Butter
Method
Place 2 cups of stock and a good dollop of olive oil into a saucepan, bring to boil. Once boiled get the 2 cups of cous cous, add whilst stirring. Put the lid on and let it sit for about 5 -10 minutes
Take a fork and separate the grains, add butter and stir
then chop the dates, combine with the roasted pine-nuts add to the cooked cous cous, stir through roughly chopped coriander and serve warm.
Note - if you are not sure about the cous cous, as there are different types, brands etc., read the packet instructions and just adapt with stock rather than salted water.
Thermomix Guacamole
The Thermomix books and posts on the forum contain plenty of recipes for all sorts of dips, but when it came to the crunch, 1/2 hour before the imminent arrival of the family for the Sunday Smorgasbord, I just whipped something up and it was actually delicious.
Ingredients
6 small ripe avocados
1 250ml tub of Sour cream
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice (about a small lemon)
Method
Place all ingredients in the terrific Thermy, blitz at 7 or 8 for about 30 seconds (if that) scoop out and serve.
I served it with bread sticks
Enjoy!!
Ingredients
6 small ripe avocados
1 250ml tub of Sour cream
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice (about a small lemon)
Method
Place all ingredients in the terrific Thermy, blitz at 7 or 8 for about 30 seconds (if that) scoop out and serve.
I served it with bread sticks
Enjoy!!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday smorgasbord aftermath
this is quite an old post I realise I never published
Sitting with A, watching another episode of masterchef, we debriefed on today's Sunday lunch
Guests - 8 adults, 3 children
Menu
Nibbles / starters
Thermomix guacamole
Cheese platter with quince paste flowers, dried nuts and seeds
Main
Rotisserie morrocan chicken
Date and pine nut cous cous
Garden salad
Green beans
Roast parsnip, beetroot, onion, turnip and carrot
Dessert
Fondant covered carrot cake With cinnamon butter cream
Homemade strawberry ice cream
Homemade vanilla ice cream
Fresh cherries
Fresh strawberries
Looking at the menu and menu from earlier this week I gave a lot of recipes to post xx
Guests - 8 adults, 3 children
Menu
Nibbles / starters
Thermomix guacamole
 |
| Cheese platter & Thermomix Guacamole |
Cheese platter with quince paste flowers, dried nuts and seeds
Main
 |
| Moroccan Chicken |
Rotisserie morrocan chicken
Date and pine nut cous cous
Garden salad
Green beans
Roast parsnip, beetroot, onion, turnip and carrot
Dessert
 |
| Ski Birthday Cake |
Fondant covered carrot cake With cinnamon butter cream
Homemade strawberry ice cream
Homemade vanilla ice cream
Fresh cherries
Fresh strawberries
Looking at the menu and menu from earlier this week I gave a lot of recipes to post xx
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Carrot cake
I promised a friend to make her husband a cake for his birthday, I asked her what type of cake and she smsed back "carrot" cake.
I dont think I have ever made a carrot cake , so I decided to make a carrot cake as a trial for the family feast tomorrow.
Recipe Moist Carrot Cake
Ingredients
150grams plain flour
190 grams self raising flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
200mls vegetable oil
225grams brown sugar (the soft type is best)
4 eggs
115mls golden syrup
10mls honey
500grams grated carrot
60grams of chopped walnuts
Directions
preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Grease a square 18cm cake tin and place paper across in all directions to ensure that it comes out easily.
combine the flours, spices in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together oil, sugar, egg, golden syrup and honey once combined, make a well in the large bowl containing the dry ingredients, add to the well and constantly stir till combined. Once combined add the grated carrots and the chopped walnuts.
Pour the mixture into the tin, smooth and place in middle of oven for about 1.5 hours or till the skewer test tests clean.
leave the cake to cool, then turn onto rack.
Cake Assembly and decoration
once cake has cooled, cut the cake at and angle to create the mountain. Then cut the larger cake in half and fill with cinnamon butter cream. Ganache the cake with white chocolate ganache. Cover in white fondant. Smooth the fondant, add the cake toppers and present.
Cake toppers
Using fondant coloured with good colouring shape the snowman, skier and ski. the ski was a covered paddle pop stick, stocks coloured skewers. Frosty arms were also made of coloured skewers.
Oh and I got my ice-cream machine today .. It's not a sunbeam but a cheapie from "homeart" - I tested it tonight with some strawberry ice-cream in just over an hour we had delicious fresh ice-cream - recipe to come
I dont think I have ever made a carrot cake , so I decided to make a carrot cake as a trial for the family feast tomorrow.
 |
| Carrot Cake |
Ingredients
150grams plain flour
190 grams self raising flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
200mls vegetable oil
225grams brown sugar (the soft type is best)
4 eggs
115mls golden syrup
10mls honey
500grams grated carrot
60grams of chopped walnuts
Directions
preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Grease a square 18cm cake tin and place paper across in all directions to ensure that it comes out easily.
combine the flours, spices in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix together oil, sugar, egg, golden syrup and honey once combined, make a well in the large bowl containing the dry ingredients, add to the well and constantly stir till combined. Once combined add the grated carrots and the chopped walnuts.
Pour the mixture into the tin, smooth and place in middle of oven for about 1.5 hours or till the skewer test tests clean.
leave the cake to cool, then turn onto rack.
 |
| Making the carrot cake into a mountain |
once cake has cooled, cut the cake at and angle to create the mountain. Then cut the larger cake in half and fill with cinnamon butter cream. Ganache the cake with white chocolate ganache. Cover in white fondant. Smooth the fondant, add the cake toppers and present.
 |
| Skier and Frosty |
Using fondant coloured with good colouring shape the snowman, skier and ski. the ski was a covered paddle pop stick, stocks coloured skewers. Frosty arms were also made of coloured skewers.
 |
| The "ski" cake |
|
| Ski Cake |
Oh and I got my ice-cream machine today .. It's not a sunbeam but a cheapie from "homeart" - I tested it tonight with some strawberry ice-cream in just over an hour we had delicious fresh ice-cream - recipe to come
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday - Good Food, Wine & Macarons
Wow - what a whirlwind -
Menu for the Thursday Mega Feast
My dad had bought a massive 3.5kg Ocean Trout, it was the biggest undertaking which my husband and I have ever undertaken.
We wrapped "him" (the fish) in foil and filled him with ginger, garlic and lemon. We cooked it on the BBQ for about 1.5hours.
It was delicious !!
What else did we serve?
Celeriac Salad
Peel Celeriac, Grate, add lemon juice, salt, pepper and some avocado oil.
Wild Rice
Put the wild rice in a pan, cover with boiling water, let sit with lid on for 1 hour. Then turn on, bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes till the seeds open. then add a good nob of butter, salt and pepper to taste and serve warm (mmm yum!!!)
Crunchy potatoes
I actually completely stuffed up the potatoes (I seem to do this every time my in-laws come to dinner) only it was a blessing in disguise as they turned out really well. I peeled and cut them into quarters, boiled them (was meant to be par boiled but they were left on way too long as Princess A was a little hungry and by the time I got back to them I think they were almost ready to mash), drained them and thumped them around the colander a little to make the edges a bit scuffed/roughed up, drizzle with olive oil and put in a pretty hot oven (about 180-200) for about 40 minutes. They were crunchy and delicious. I did not add salt, however for some people you may also want to sprinkle them with salt.
Other Veg
We just served some steamed broccoli and steamed carrots to add some colour and texture to the meal.
Dessert - the Birthday special
after having read "the colour of tea" which i think is just the most beautiful book I have read in forever - it inspired me to take the culinary journey to France and make some Macarons.
I will post the recipe in a separate post with piccies - but as a hint and teaser, I made coffee, strawberry and orange macarons and every last one of them got gobbled up. MMMM!!!
Menu for the Thursday Mega Feast
My dad had bought a massive 3.5kg Ocean Trout, it was the biggest undertaking which my husband and I have ever undertaken.
We wrapped "him" (the fish) in foil and filled him with ginger, garlic and lemon. We cooked it on the BBQ for about 1.5hours.
It was delicious !!
What else did we serve?
Celeriac Salad
Peel Celeriac, Grate, add lemon juice, salt, pepper and some avocado oil.
Wild Rice
Put the wild rice in a pan, cover with boiling water, let sit with lid on for 1 hour. Then turn on, bring to boil and simmer for about 20 minutes till the seeds open. then add a good nob of butter, salt and pepper to taste and serve warm (mmm yum!!!)
Crunchy potatoes
I actually completely stuffed up the potatoes (I seem to do this every time my in-laws come to dinner) only it was a blessing in disguise as they turned out really well. I peeled and cut them into quarters, boiled them (was meant to be par boiled but they were left on way too long as Princess A was a little hungry and by the time I got back to them I think they were almost ready to mash), drained them and thumped them around the colander a little to make the edges a bit scuffed/roughed up, drizzle with olive oil and put in a pretty hot oven (about 180-200) for about 40 minutes. They were crunchy and delicious. I did not add salt, however for some people you may also want to sprinkle them with salt.
Other Veg
We just served some steamed broccoli and steamed carrots to add some colour and texture to the meal.
Dessert - the Birthday special
after having read "the colour of tea" which i think is just the most beautiful book I have read in forever - it inspired me to take the culinary journey to France and make some Macarons.
I will post the recipe in a separate post with piccies - but as a hint and teaser, I made coffee, strawberry and orange macarons and every last one of them got gobbled up. MMMM!!!
|
| The Macarons |
 |
| Work in Progress... and the BIG fish!! |
|
| Orange, Strawberry and Coffee Macarons |
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Entertaining ...
This week we are having lots of family fun-time!!
Father-in-law's birthday we are having a mega fish feast tomorrow (recipe to come) and on Sunday we are having a lucious lunch
Menu for Sunday ??
More to come shortly
Father-in-law's birthday we are having a mega fish feast tomorrow (recipe to come) and on Sunday we are having a lucious lunch
Menu for Sunday ??
More to come shortly
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Finger Food, Additives and other bits and pieces
Finger Food Frenzy
Its finger food frenzy at our place. Princess A has discovered the fun of feeding herself.
A and I are asking ourselves whether this is a blessing or a curse, but a "splat mat" seems to help with the fact that Princess A thinks the floor and Jet (her kelpie) need to try the food too.
So what sort of things has Princess A been trying out
Today I am going to try her on some Vita Brits. I was going to try the "kids weetbix" but after reading the content (and the large amount of raw sugar), i have opted for Vita Brits, they only have a little salt added and no sugar.
I also heard from friends that Cruskits were also a great thing to give the kids, they kind of dissolve when wet, again having looked at the ingredients, i decided against them, loads of sugar and other nasties.
I am not sure yet whether I will try Princess A on feeding this to herself (perhaps not) - i will keep you posted.
I have regularly been giving her cottage cheese and am planning on some cheese sticks as finger food this week.
The things I plan on trying are -
Happy preparing wholesome food for your special little person.
Its finger food frenzy at our place. Princess A has discovered the fun of feeding herself.
A and I are asking ourselves whether this is a blessing or a curse, but a "splat mat" seems to help with the fact that Princess A thinks the floor and Jet (her kelpie) need to try the food too.
So what sort of things has Princess A been trying out
- Bread - wholemeal and multi grain
- Carrot Sticks
- Cooked apple pieces
- ripe pear
- Broccoli Florets
- Broccolini
- Mandarin segments
Today I am going to try her on some Vita Brits. I was going to try the "kids weetbix" but after reading the content (and the large amount of raw sugar), i have opted for Vita Brits, they only have a little salt added and no sugar.
I also heard from friends that Cruskits were also a great thing to give the kids, they kind of dissolve when wet, again having looked at the ingredients, i decided against them, loads of sugar and other nasties.
I am not sure yet whether I will try Princess A on feeding this to herself (perhaps not) - i will keep you posted.
I have regularly been giving her cottage cheese and am planning on some cheese sticks as finger food this week.
The things I plan on trying are -
- Cheese sticks
- Pieces of Banana (assuming they come down in price)
- Plain rice cakes
- Pieces of fish (yesterday I tried her on some pureed flake, i think she thought it was pretty boring, i am thinking if it was in a piece which she could eat herself it might be a little more fun)
- melon ( i am thinking rock / honey dew as these seem to be quite good)
Happy preparing wholesome food for your special little person.