Cooking Eating Storytelling
Amazing Coconut Roughs… These are truly amazing little treats to have on hand for when you need a little energy boost… and fantastic for primary schools as they are free from most things that some kids are intolerant to – There is always one kid that can’t have gluten or eggs or sugar etc, in a class and it’s a shame that they always miss out on treats.
I will definitely be making them into little egg moulds for Easter this year!
Guilt free eating – Blondie 🙂
You would have had to been living under a log the last few weeks to not know that it is Christmas in 11 sleeps!
I am a Christmas junkie! I love the food, the wine, the decorations and of course the planning which starts for me as soon as humanly possible! Our Christmas tree goes up religiously on the 1st of December however if the 1st should happen to fall on a week day then you can legally without offending the Christmas spirits put your tree and decorations up the weekend before! Decorating is a huge event, the boxes come out, the Buble Christmas tunes are pumped and I plot around the house with with a glass of champagne whilst Imogen decorates the tree. The hubby on the other hand prefers to have a beer or two at the local, however he is getting better with the decorations going up!
It turned out that this year hubby had two work functions each night so paper art decorations in hand Imogen and I decorated our lounge and dinning room. Very proud of our colour coordinated efforts!
Back to the food aspect of Christmas! These little ice cream cone Christmas trees are too easy to make and the kids will love helping decorate them!
You need to ensure that the ice cream freezes well otherwise it will melt too quickly when you take the cones out. Although we didn’t have this problem, they were all gobbled up within seconds of coming out of the freezer!
If you have a Christmas inspired desert then please feel free to share!
Merry Christmas and Wesołych Świąt!
Bella 🙂
Danish Sweet Cheese Pastries From Scratch comes direct from Nigella Lawson’s, How To Be A Domestic Goddess cookbook. I chose this one for the mere fact that it’s a food processor made dough, which in my mind will make the dough making process easy and clean… hahaha!!
To start with and probably the one thing EVERYONE mentions about this dough is just how moist, messy and sticky it is… and they weren’t wrong. It’s like glue!
In the original recipe it asks to mix the dry ingredients then add the cold butter in the food processor then add this to the combined wet ingredients. That was far too messy for me, considering everyone’s comments on this particular pastry recipe, so I did it slightly different – I did it all in the food processor. The result was still a success, but you are still going to get dirty trying to remove the dough from the processor into a bowl for it to prove.
**Brainwave** Leave the dough to prove in the processor bowl! Will let you know how it goes the next time around.
Get your hands dirty and have fun!.. Blondie 🙂
Pork Sticks w/ Spicy Cumin Salt aka Pork Scratchings are an incredibly moreish drinking snack that will have everyone wanting more. It really is impossible to walk pass a bowl of these crunchy, crispy pork sticks, especially when lightly dusted with the Spicy Cumin Salt.
These are a great starter to have with drinks, even a great snack to make for the movies as it stores well in sealed containers. If you just can’t wait till christmas for a pork crackling hit then here is your salvation.
Just remember that the pork skin does shrink alot from it’s original size, so when you are buying it buy what you think will be enough, then double it; trust me.
Happy crunching! Blondie
Spinach & Bacon Tart, is there anything more delicious than a savoury tart? They are effortless to make and yet look like time and thought have been put into it. Like framed pictures of edible art.
Any ingredients can go into your tart but this one I have left simple, just two tasty ingredients… bacon (since it’s bacon week here in Australia), and silverbeet (any greens will do – kale, spinach etc) but let your imagination rule, you really can’t go wrong.
Enjoy! Blondie xx
I am the type of person that loves to snack during the day be it on cheese sticks, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, mums pickles and the list goes on so in my quest to find a new super snack food I came across activated nuts. Uber cool and healthy.
Activated what? Yep, that’s what my hubby said and the work colleagues cracked a few jokes as well.
So what are they and why?
Whilst raw nuts are full of antioxidants, loaded with protein, healthy fats, fiber and minerals, they also contain natural inhibitors that can interfere with the absorption of the good nutrients and put a massive strain on our digestive system if they are not properly prepared.
The nuts are soaked in some filtered and slightly salted water for a lengthy period of time and slowly dehydrated, by doing so you imitate the sprouting process and decrease the levels of anti-nutrients.
Why salted water? The salt helps to activate the enzymes that deactivate the natural inhibitors that will interfere with absorption of the yummy goodness. Only a small amount of salted water is needed,
The activation process is a small labour of love so I would highly recommend that you make these over the weekend. Preparation takes a few minutes but it is the soaking and dehydrating that takes time. If you will be making these on a regular basis I would also recommend investing in a small dehydrator. You can also dry them at very low heat, approx 50-60 °C, but go on, treat yourself and get a dehydrator! The possibilities are endless!
Once activated I had mine with my yoghurt for brekkie, and always kept a small tub of them in my handbag for work.
Go on…get your nuts activating!
Bella 🙂
Olive Oil and Zucchini Chocolate Mini Cakes are a stunningly moist and slightly spiced chocolate cake that will certainly be enjoyed by all.
The original recipe is from Julie Le Clerc’s gorgeous cookbook, Little Café Cakes.
Needing a treat for the school lunch box lead me to this one but with what I had in the cupboard it turned out a little different. To start with I used Dutch processed cocoa powder, which you aren’t suppose to use with baking soda but since the recipe also asks for baking powder I took my chance. I used 2 large zucchini’s so there was A LOT of zucchini. I threw in dried cranberries and chocolate bits for extra sweetness as it wasn’t very sweet but the end result was surprisingly good. I have written the recipe to what Julie Le Clerc documented – adding the cranberries and chocolate bits… oh and using olive oil rather than canola, just to show you that you can mix up recipes a little and still end up with a great end result.
As I used so much zucchini I ended up with some extra mixture so poured it into a pie tin and made an extra large soft cookie that master M absolutely loved! More so than the actual cakes so I will remember to make more of the giant ‘cookie’ next time.
These are dark, moist and tasty – enjoy! Blondie