Sconed

I have just made scones.

The best scones I've ever made.

No, really. The best EVA!

I think I've tried every recipes.

I've tried lemonade, cream. Rubbed in, cut in. Mixed. Prodded. Rested. Etc.

This is the reason.

Laucke's CWA scone mix. Who knew!

Available in Foodland in South Australia.

Yes, one scone is missing from the photo. Now three missing.

They taste great: light and moist inside, crisp outside, just a little sweetness, and none of the funny cloying doughyness I always get.

Hopefully some will be left when J gets home.
Luckily there were two packs in the box!

Barossa Cookery Book

This dear little book was found at the Port Adelaide market last weekend. I considered buying a $75 mixmaster but bought the Barossa Cookery Book instead.

When I got home J said 'Why didn't you buy the mixmaster?' Why indeed... space being the optimum question/answer.

I love German cakes like struedel cake and Bienstich. I've been pouring through this cookbook since Sunday trying to determine the best (read: foolproof) German cake I could make.

German Coffee Cake

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
3 cups SR Flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk

Streudal topping
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 lb (about 125gm) butter

Heat oven to 190C. Grease and line a springform tin.

Beat butter and sugar to cream, add eggs, then milk and lastly flour. Pour into tin.

In another basin, mix the topping ingredients: flour, sugar and cinnamon. Rub in butter to crumbs.

Crumble on top of cake mixture and bake for 60-75 mins. This makes a big cake.

Now, here's the hil-ar-ious bit. I misread the recipe. See that huge pile of butter in the red bowl. That's for the streudal topping. I thought the microscropic print said 1/2 lb butter.

It's actually 1/4 lb butter. The print was so tiny!

Small difference! So the topping is meant to be dryer and crumblier.

Ahem.

Don't worry about mistakes, I say.

'cept I can't show you the result because it's too embarrassing.

It did taste quite yummy though.

Does not posting a picture of the final cake defeat the purpose of a cooking post?

Fudge It

I'm doing that thing where I'm going to make some fudge from a recipe from a blog I read recently but do you think I can remember which blog?

It was basically chocolate, condensed milk and vanilla essence. But I don't want to wing it.

I'll keep you posted.

Image from my Holiday Picture Book again

Edited to add: Found it!

In a Pot

Styling by Comfy & Cosy. Apron by Two Pink Possums

Gee, that's such an unappetising photo! I hope you can see past it and imagine the yummy soup.

This is my all-in-one chicken and vegetable soup. I used to get hung up on cutting up everything the same size, sweating the onions/carrot/celery, etc, etc. (I'm completely over carrots in soup, too, by the way.) But now I'm into one in, all in.

As the weather is still quite mild in this neighbourhood, I think it's still OK for soup. So, just want you wanted, another soup recipe.

Not Another Chicken Soup Recipe

Makes about 10 serves

2 chicken breasts, cubed
1 onion
1/2 cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
3 potatoes
1/4 pumpkin
1 sweet potato*
2 corn cobs (cut off kernels)
1 litre chicken stock (I use the package stuff)
1 litre water

Cut up the vegetables. Peel nothing, 'cept the pumpkin! Don't make anything the right size. Just get it into the soup pot with the chopped chicken and pour in the stock and water.

Bring to a simmer and pop on the lid. My lid balances precariously on top of the mountain of vegetables. Don't worry, once everything cooks down a bit the lid will sit flush.

Cook until cooked. Then give everything a bit of a mush with the potato masher. Yum!

*I forgot sweet potato in this batch. I knew I forgot something!

You can taste the difference!

Some great finds 'put aside' by my favourite rummage sale lady. She knows my taste!

The step-by-step cookery book is also a winner for some very homely cooking (though with rather too much offal for me!) and great Cornish Ware on the cover.

And some fantastic advertising. Who is Ethel Brice?*

*Edited to add: just worked it out - she's the author of the book!

It's been Cauliflower Cheese and Tuna Mornay Week this week, while Mr J has been otherwise engaged.

Too dark now take a pic of the Tuna Mornay tonight. I might take one of the remains in the morning. I've made enough to sink a ship!

Please remind me

Tuna Mornay by Mainyy_'s

Please remind me not to eat 2/3 of the dish of cauliflower cheese just because Mr J is working late. And he doesn't eat cauliflower cheese anyway. So I've eaten 1/3 too many and will have to stay up for another 4 hours for it to digest!

My ideal meal when Mr J is out? Tuna Mornay! Just thinking about all the things I don't make anymore because he doesn't eat it: mornay, tuna patties, grilled chops... everything my 70s childhood existed on!

However he does adore my roasts, shepherd's pie, schnitzel and pasta, so he can't be all bad!

(Yes, we aren't very posh nosh!)

Could someone please remind me not to take on any 'homework'? I've done some transcription, newsletters, generally ill-advised publication work. I've been sitting on some pretty straight-forward certificates for an educational association, for about - oh, I don't know - six weeks? And have neatly glided to the deadline and got it done. Oh please tell me next time to say no. The money doesn't warrant the angst.

Creamy Lemon Slice

This is a divine lemony slice that little miss flossy posted on her blog recently. It's a Martha recipe that works well. It's so easy and the results so excellent that I'm going to let everyone think I'm a cooking wunderkind!

For your entertainment, here's how to make it.

Creamy Lemon Slice

120gm butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup plain flour
4 egg yolks
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (I used the juice and rind of 2 juicy lemons)

Heat oven to 180C. Line a square tin with baking paper.

Mix butter, icing sugar and flour together to form a soft dough (I used my hands - it was very simple).

Press dough into the tin and prick all over with a fork,.(I got all patterny with the fork.) Bake for 20 minutes until pale golden.

To make the filling, whisk together yolks, condensed milk, and lemon juice until smooth.

Pour filling over hot crust and return to oven. Bake for 25 minutes until filling is set. Cool completely in pan and refrigerate until filling is firm.

Makes about 16 squares.

The result is a crisp, shortbread crust and a firm, lemony filling. It's so good that you could cut a wedge and serve as dessert with cream and raspberries. I'm getting all sentimental just thinking about it!

*The red bowl above is from the Salvos; it's painted glass. I also have a slightly larger blue one, also from an op-shop, so it makes me think they came as a set. I'd be very excited to hear if anyone has seen something similar in another colour.

Over Eager

This morning I made banana bread in my pyjamas.*

I like to make banana bread from time to time, of course, to use up the squishy bananas. However, I'm rarely happy with the result. I usually decide that I don’t actually like banana bread/cake/muffins and take it into work, leave it in the kitchen where it is inhaled by my workmates. So there isn’t actually anything wrong with what I make but I just don’t love it like I do other sorts of cake.

Anyhoo, today's attempt was from this recipe from Starashan via Owlet and is an absolute prodigious, marvellous success!

Banana Bread

125 gm butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs beaten
½ cup sour milk (= ½ cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar)
1 tsp bicarb
2 cups plain flour
pinch salt
2 bananas, ripe, mashed

Cream butter and sugar, stir in eggs. Mix milk and bicarb, add to mixture and fold through. Stir in flour, salt and bananas and mix thoroughly. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at 180C for 1 hour.

*I usually quite like step-by-step photos but, as I said, I was in my pyjamas and no one wants to see that! So a one-step photo today: the eating step! Delicious!

Lemon Icing

There is no doubt about the blogging community. There are commonalties and links everywhere between us. Thankfully we don't have to fall into a heap. I'm so grateful to all the wonderful comments and emails that have come my way after my last post. I'm not falling in a heap. I'm keeping going. It's been like thinking through custard but it gets better.

Blogging hasn't been on the top of the list of things that must get down but I'm slowly trying to reintroduce it. Work is taking up a lot of energy. On the weekend I cooked a meal for the first time in weeks (apart from cold meat and salad!). We've been eating out a lot! And I must say the old chicken schnitzel and roast potatoes tasted fantastic! I think my appetite is returning and too my desire to cook a little.*

I made some cupcakes in these cool brown cases that I saw on Hop Skip Jump and bought them from the General Trader. I made the All Together Cake from Frankie magaine (why haven't I known about Frankie before? It's such a good magagine! Cool and hipper than I am but just daggy enough that I can relate and aspire a little!)

The recipe called for beating the mixture for 6 minutes. I thought that sounded a bit over enthusiastic and 3 1/2 minutes seemed to suffice. They came out just fine and topped with lemon icing (really simple icing sugar and lemon juice - yum!). The texture is like an old fashion plain cake: moist but coarse and crumbly. Delicious!

*I made delicious crumbed garfish for tea tonight. With roast potatoes. Double yum!

Raspberries & Chocolate

Thanks for lots of comments on my last post. It’s lovely that lots of people liked what I had to post.

It's been three weeks since I last posted. I think I lost some momentum in there somewhere but need to get back on the blog-bike and get moving. I've been pretty shocking leaving comments anywhere too. You know how you try to keep posts up-beat and a bit chirpy but then relapse and let the icky bits of life slip in? That's how I feel at the moment. Blogging about fabric and cakes is my favourite thing. So I think I'll keep doing that.

(Also is it just me but is it always this hard to catch up sleep after daylight saving starts? I think sleep deprivation is half my problem too.)

Here's a super easy recipe that I got from a friend recently. I think it's Donna Hay but it was a photocopy of a photocopy so I'm not sure. I've added a few notes of my changes at the end.

Raspberry, Coconut & White Chocolate Muffins
Makes about 10 large muffins
2 eggs
1 cup yoghurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Optional: extra white chocolate chips, melted

Heat oven to 180C
Line muffin tray with squares of baking paper or lightly grease tray. Mix together the eggs, yoghurt and oil. In another bowl mix the flour, sugar, coconut and choc chips. Mix in the egg mixture until just combined. Fold through the raspberries. Spoon into prepared muffing tin and cook for 25-30 minutes; test with a skewer. When cool, drizzle with a little extra melted white chocolate.

• I added the white chocolate (what a surprise!) to the original.
• The recipe called for little loaf tins but you're more likely to have muffin tin than little loaf tins, I’d say!
• Note to self: a little tub of yoghurt doesn't equal a cup. Just use the yoghurt you have, don't go out and buy vanilla yoghurt just because the recipe says so then discover you're short anyway. I topped it up with low-fat strawberry which would have been fine in the first place!
• Second note to self: read the recipe thoroughly! 1/3 cup of oil doesn't mean 1 cup of oil especially when the eggs have already been added. Then I had to rescue the eggs from the oil and estimate the oil plus egg still hanging around. Then wasted 2/3 cup of oil!
• I mixed the raspberries in with the wet ingredients. Next time I would fold the raspberries through at the very end. They broke up a lot and turned the mixture a bit grey. I think it would look better if the raspberries were whole but it didn't alter the flavour at all.
• I reckon you could leave out the coconut if that's not your thing. I liked both the taste and texture. Ditto the white chocolate!
• Next time I think I'll ramp up the baking paper size. They look better than paper cases and rise a little more with the paper. I cut a square of paper (about 20cm square but not with much precision) folded into quarters, then eights, then sixteenths, etc. Though there is probably a better way to fold it so that sits in the tins.

Did I say I ate all the muffins except two I gave to my mum? Don't calculate the calories for me. Thanks.

Home Again Home Again

I'm home from work today, having a mental-health day. And doing this: tea and toast.

Here's a picture of the recipe posted previously. Trust me, it is yummy despite the photo. The big chunks are potato and pumpkin. Maybe I shouldn't use the word chunks in a food post...

Thanks to Joanne for commenting on my ability to eat 2/3 of the recipe (with a 600ml Coke). Noice. I want to clarify that I ate 2/3 of the small casserole dish = 1/4 of the total recipe = 1 egg, 1/8 cup cream... yeah, yeah, yeah. Sounds like a total justification, doesn't it?

I've been trawling through Leah's renamed blog today. Read the old one from start to finish, now that's the way to spend a day off work! She a clever, creative and fabric-addicted girl. You've got to love it!

Talking of work, I wish I could blog about it. It would never end, trust me! But I kinda don't want to be sacked citing blog-abuse. (Just deleted an anti-work statement... it's a slippery slope!) Like, what are the chances of anyone I know let alone work with reading this? Yeah, I know...

Do you ever look at your Bloglines and think, 'Where did I find all this stuff? And why do I have 222 Bloglines?' I love-love-love new posts but sometimes find the number of blogs I've subbed to is just crazy. Unfortunately, I do the same with web pages that I ‘Favourite’ for later reference.

I have a big exception and that's Aus-NZ blogs and favourite crafty ones. Sometimes, on the others I'll click 'all read' and ignore them for another day. I must have seen something in them to subscribe in the first place but now I wonder what? I'm going to seriously cull these non-core blogs.

Cooking Mojo

I want to clarify that I do like to cook. However, I think I'm suffering from cooking anxiety at the moment. I just don't know what to cook: I think I'm losing my cooking mojo.

Today, however, I have hit on a winner. I only wish I could take a photo but the sun went down way before I even contemplated it.

Based on this recipe All-in-one quiche, which is like an Impossible Pie, I'm going to call it Frittata because I don't have a quiche dish. I used ingredients that I had (just happened to have a little bit of cream but it's not necessary) so the quantities are a little random.

Frittata
2 teaspoons butter
1 leak, finely chopped
broccoli, cut into small florets
200g bacon, finely diced
425g canned corn
2 potatoes (cooked and diced)
chunk of pumpkin (cooked and diced)
1 tomato, peeled, deseeded, chopped
3/4 cup of pastry mix
1 cup grated cheese
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup milk

Melt 1 teaspoon of butter and add leek and broccoli and lightly saute. Remove from pan, add bacon and lightly saute. Combine leek and broccoli with corn, potato, pumpkin, tomato and bacon.

Mix together pastry mix, cheese, 1 teaspoon butter, eggs, milk and cream. Add to vegetables and bacon and mix well.

Pour into buttered oven dish. (I used two casserole dishes: one smallish and the other largish.) Place in pre-heated 180C oven and cook until firm and golden (approximately 50 minutes).

I demolished 2/3 on my own. Delicious!

Carnival

It was my small nephew's birthday so I made some cupcakes for his family birthday party. Although the party leant towards a pirate theme, I decided to make tea cup cupcakes, though I rather think they are cappuccino cups. But I couldn't work out how to create the 'saucer' so added a star to the sprinkles decoration. I think they turned out a little Carnival. If anyone has a good idea for the 'saucer' I'd be glad to hear it.

My Favourite Recipe

Today I made one of my favourite cakes for a friend’s birthday. It’s a Tunisian Orange Cake recipe from Family Circle*. Funnily enough, the recipe was from the magazine’s My Favourite Recipe from a woman in Adelaide. I feel like I know her! The recipe is so easy to make and when people taste it they think it was made by some sort of cooking queen!

The hardest part (that is, you’ve got to do a little work) is grating the bread and citrus peel. The two interesting things I like about this recipe is that it contains fresh bread crumbs and the cake is cooked from a cold start!

*I’m so sad that Family Circle has gone out of publication. It was such a nice, low key, homey, crafty, cooking magazine.

The bread is from Perry’s, an Adelaide bakery, and is my favourite French stick. This bread lasts for a long time and isn’t expensive. The bread I used in this recipe is a week old and would still be OK toasted. I did go and buy some more bread today to top up the recipe. And to eat! It has the crunchiest crust and soft, dense inside.

Tunisian Orange Cake
50g (3/4 cup) slightly stale white breadcrumbs
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
100g (1 cup) almond meal
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
200ml sunflower oil
4 eggs
Zest of 1 large orange, finely grated
Zest of ½ lemon, finely grated

Citrus Syrup
Juice of 1 orange
Juice of ½ lemon
80g (1/3 cup) caster sugar
2 cloves (I’m not a clove person so left this out)
1 cinnamon stick

Grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Line the base with baking paper and lightly dust the sides with flour. (I lined the sides as well.)

In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, sugar, almond meal and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, combine sunflower oil and eggs.

Pour the egg and oil mixture into the dry ingredients and combine well. Stir through the orange and lemon zest.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and place in a cold oven. Turn the heat to 180ºC and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow to cool then transfer to a serving plate.

Meanwhile make the citrus syrup. Heat the orange and lemon juice, sugar, cloves and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until the sugar dissolves. Simmer on low heat for 3 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick.

Pierce the cake all over a skewer. Spoon over some hot syrup and leave to absorb. Spoon over the rest of the syrup. Serve with cream!

Olivey Green

A lovely parcel has arrived from Jessicah. I am the lucky recipient of her handmade scarf, embroidered with a tree and trimmed with lovely fabric. Plus she added in a button hair tie in my favourite colour of olivey green (I think I'll change my name to Olivey Green) and some thifted fabric. It is wintery and cold here already and it's arrival is perfectly timed. It is my cosy scarf and I love it!

Have a look at Kirsty's fantastic exploits making icecream. I am revealing all my scientific ignorance in that I didn't know you could do this or that with dry ice. What a crazy concept! I love it. As I said to Kirsty, science-boy (J) would love the idea of playing with dry ice and we'd have a blast making it. Unfortunately, he's not a sweets eater so I'll have to stash it in the freezer and consume it all myself. Pity really...

I'm currently scoffing indulging in this...

Anzac Day

The National Archives of Australia have preserved all the service records of Australian servicemen and women who served in World War I and now the records are all available online. I recently looked up my grandfather’s WWI records; he served at Gallipoli and Egypt. It’s amazing to see something of my grandfather so far away in time. All my grandparents were older parents so our family was stretched over the century. Even though you may not have any family records to look up, pick a random name and read the enlistment papers through their service and, hopefully, discharge. It’s very moving.

And make some Anzac biscuits.

Kitchenalia

eBay has had its wicked way with me again. One super-terrific old sifter with rocking daisy design. It’s a one-hander and clatters away beautifully. I’ll give it a whirl with some cupcake cooking this afternoon.

Also in the post, a set of Country Road mugs and jumbo cups and saucers. Initially I thought the cups and saucers were mini-sized but when I received them (and read the listing properly, which I don’t usually do – don’t mention postage!) I realised what a bargain I’d scored. Just right for super-rich hot chocolate when winter comes. (Please. Winter. Come!) And then there’s the coffee machine I’ve just bought…

Let’s Bake

After all those banana cakes, I needed to bake something new so I searched for a good chocolate cake recipe. This recipe has a high number of reviews, mostly positive, so I gave it a whirl.

The first step is to dissolve cocoa in boiling water to produce this delicious mixture.

Once the sugar, butter and eggs are mixed together, the chocolate mixture is folded in, alternating with the flour.

The batter fitted perfectly into my springform pan (well greased and lined).

And came out looking like this! (I don't have any testers or skewers so used a cocktail umbrella!)

And a huge slice or two to make sure it was OK. Mmm... super yummy, chocolatey, moist with a wonderful texture. I don't think it needs any icing but maybe some tart raspberries and whipped cream.

Cookie

I’m on a roll with cooking at the moment. After the great Banana Famine of 2006, I got a little over enthusiastic when bananas dropped to $2.50/kg and now we have too many. So what to do? Banana cake of course!

My first batch was too sponge-like without enough texture. So I searched for a new recipe and found this. The first lot was just fine but a little soda-y so instead of plain flour, baking powder and bicarb soda, I used self-raising flour and a little baking powder: perfect! The method is like a muffin recipe: mix wet with dry until just combined. Super easy! And it has a lovely moist, open texture.


(I’m no photographer so this photo doesn’t show how yummy the banana cake is. Sorry about that!)

The great thing about AllRecipes.com is that you can adjust the quantities by changing the servings. My first batch was exactly as given then I decided to increase the recipe size to 50 (I know! Huge!) so that it made a large loaf and a large square. Needless to say, everyone at work and in the family is over banana cake now!

How good are these flour canisters? OK they are a flour company promotional thing but I love them because they are covered with retro images of cooking competitions of the 50s and 60s.

Magazine Clipper

I am a magazine hoarder from way back but over the Christmas/summer holidays I decided to ruthlessly cull my collection. Instead of keeping a magazine because it contained just one thing I liked (my usual criteria) I ripped out the page and stuck it into a scrap book. One book is for recipes and the second for home and craft.

There is a bit of similarity in the recipes I’ve collected (tarte tartin and apple tart!). I like making desserts and cakes though most of my cooking is regular dinner recipes. Some of my favourite recipes made from this collection are polenta and vegetables with tomato sauce, and meatballs with the same tomato sauce (these are great cold; I make them with lamb mince – yummy). Most of these clippings are from the Australian Family Circle; unfortunately the magazine went out of production last December.