Failed breakfast bars

My failed breakfast bar tray makes a great bowl of baked muesli.

Failed fudge

I wanted to make fudge with the girls. They said it was boring to stand there the whole time stirring. They went out to play and I was trapped in the hot kitchen. Sigh!
When the fudge had cooled only the centre was fudge and the rest was sugary somethingorother. How does that happen? I ate the fudge bit and cut the rest up into block, took it to work and they loved it. All gone in 20 minutes although there was a health warning attached: 99% sugar. No one seemed to care.

A hop, skip and a jump

A hop, skip and a jump from September to November, it's almost as though October never was. So here is just a short recap for October. If there are any typos in the text please forgive me. No need to highlight them and send me a message, like all good mistakes, I cannot go back and undo them.

Delicious carrot cake

I found a recipe in the WW Taste magazine (page 70, October 2016) but it's pointless reproducing their recipe on my blog so I adapt it a little to make it my own. In the Taste recipe they take care care in mixing things up separately and then combining but I just put everything in one whole and whip it together. Ha, ha, you may prefer to rather the original method.

I wanted to add cranberries but dried cranberries are always too hard when everything else is soft so I heat them up in a little red wine. I decided to leave the sugar out of the batter and add a cream cream and honey topping.

Honestly, I  thought two carrots wouldn't be enough but it's plenty. Also I don't peel the carrots.

In the original recipe it instructs to preheat oven to 175° but I always use 180°. My mother baked everything at 180° and I am sticking to that too. Everything she baked was fantastic.

I think if she had written a cookbook its title would have been 180degrees.

Ginger biscuits below, strawberry jam on top

Naked Lamingtons

Crunch, munch, munch, munch

Some like it hot

Home-made roasted tomato soup

From a recipe found in the Ideas magazine I made the most delicious tomato soup. I deviated from the recipe by adding peppers. Baked a pull-apart bread - cheese, onion, bacon. Dunk your bread in the soup, take a bite and go to a happy place.

Sunny Sunday lunch

The most delicious lemon curd

We get so many lemons on our tree every year and I try to find a way to use them all. I found this fantastic recipe for lemon curd on the internet. So easy, so refreshing, so delicious. We just eat it with plain yoghurt.

Another great Sunday lunch with the family

For Sunday lunch we made almost everything from the new Taste magazine. Taste March 2015. We made sweet potato 'slap' chips for a snack before lunch, instead of buying crisps. Served it with tomato sauce and/or balsamic vinegar. Idea found on page 44, Taste March 2015. For our main course we made the Roast Vegetable Tart with Parmesan Cream, and the Chicken with Red Pepper Pesto, page 77-78, Taste March 2015. The tart, OMW, it was so delicious. Everyone had seconds and then thirds. We didn't serve the chicken with the penne as per the recipe because we had the tart and the rocket was in the salad we served on the side. The chicken, too, was yummy. Licked our fingers. Dessert was Craig's Granadilla Fridge Tart, he makes it for his kids. For tea we had baked a chocolate cake, Another week in the kitchen, Karen Dudley - page 86, Chocolate Buttermilk Cake.
© Another week in the kitchen, Karen Dudley
© Taste March 2015
No permission has been requested or granted for the representation of the pages from the Taste magazine or Karen Dudley's book. Sorry, but it's too good not to share.

Brown Windsor soup

It's winter. It's cold. Time for a hearty soup. Brown Windsor soup, with home-baked bread.
Stewing steak, red onion, Marmite, Worcestershire sauce, carrots, celery, beef stock, bay leaf, pearl barley. Yum!

Burger without the buns, yum!

Food and thoughts

Sunday lunch at home

Sunday lunch at home with my brother's family. Delicious! And they used the Calvin and Hobbes placemats I made them about 15 years ago ;-)

Sunday lunch had an Indian theme

Since it was Diwali this weekend I decided my Sunday lunch would be Indian cuisine, or an adaption thereof ;-) Starter: Onion Bhajis with dipping sauce and baby potatoes with a chilli bite batter. Main: Butter chicken, brown basmati rice, roti, poppadoms and sambals. Dessert: Peanut butter ice cream, rose syrup and nigella seed ice cream, pistachio and litchi. Tea: Khajur aur anjeer ladoo (date and fig balls). I enjoyed trying something different and luckily it was a big hit.
Thanks to the girls at the office for recipe ideas and suggestions. Happy Diwali to you!

Dinner by candlelight

Beef stir fry phyllo parcels

So, just make the stir fry as you normally would, allow it to cool slightly. Cut the phyllo pastry into square, using 4 sheets at a time push into large muffin tin cavities. Scoop a generous amount of the stir fry into each parcel, add a piece a camembert on top for some extra richness and flavour. Close the parcel by gathering the corners of the phyllo squares in the middle and forcing them together without tearing the phyllo. I don't brush the sheets of phyllo with butter and everything still turns out alright. Bake until the phyllo pastry is golden brown, consult the instructions on pack. Serve with a salad or not. Enjoy.

Inspired to cook

Karen Dudley's lovely food inspired me to make her meals as soon as I got home. I sent her a message via iPhoto using one of their layout.