Sweet Tooth

It's hard living with a sweet tooth, when I lived with friends I never made desserts as I am prone to eat every bit until it is no longer. But as of late, my ability to restrain myself is overridden by my unnecessary need for sweets.


Sweet Sweet French Toast with a twist.
This one is very simple and definately a sweet tooths heaven.

Slices of older crunchy bread
Honey
Cinnamon and sugar
Apple
Egg

Slice the bread quite thick and soaked it in honey, only enough to cover it (lightly warm the honey as it spreads easier). The bread needs to be relatively solid or it will fall apart. Then let it sit for a bit. While that is resting finely slice an apple and coat it with sugar and cinnamon, then lightly cook it in a frying pan with butter. Once this is remove them from the pan and put them into a bowl. Then quickly dipthe bread into a whisked egg. Then cook it in butter in the same frying pan. Once cooked (which doesnt take long, as the honey will burn if left for too long) lightly sprinkle on some raw sugar, then place the apple on top.

It can be left like this or served with some marscapone, natural yoghurt or cream.



Visiting my Nannas place recently I was lucky enough to eat my way through one of her famous 'Apricot Pies', that is made from her home made pastry and home grown and stewed apricots.

I had some left over shortcrust pastry and was have a sugar craving, so I cooked it flat, then cut it into squares, then sliced strawberries and placed them on top and drizzled over some melted dark chocolate. Yummy, easy and a good way to use left over pastry.

Summer BBQ

Warm summer days have been few and far between lately, with spring being far colder than it should be. But on those rare warm days its the perfect time to light the BBQ and have a nice cold beer.


We cooked some frenched lamb cutlets, haloumi cheese, asparagus and turkish bread on the BBQ and roasted some sweet potato and carrots in the oven. Once the lamb cultlets were cooked I put a homemade pesto and smeared it on top, this was made from marinated capsicums finely chopped, grated parmesan and a small pinch of bread crumbs. All the vegetables and turkish bread was combined as a salad and the cultlets were placed on the side. Needless to say it was fantastic and soo easy.

Seafood Special

For many years I have been fortunate enough to enjoy the gentle salty air and amazing coast of the Eyre Peninsula holidaying in the beautiful town Coffin Bay. But one of the most amazing things about Coffin Bay is the fishing and the oysters. Coffin Bay is renound for its amazing oysters and are sold Australia wide.

About a month ago I was lucky enough to visit Coffin bay with my parents and with some local contacts were able to source some of the best oysters around, they were in season and they were delicious. Below are some images of Coffin Bay and the amazing oysters we feasted on!

These prawns were not from coffin bay but have become a favourite dish of mine. They are simple and amazing and I got the recipe from Jamie Oliver.

All you need is:

3-4 tbspns of olive oil, heated in a wok

a good handful of green prawns

some chopped red chilli (as much or as little as you want)

grated ginger

a couple of garlic cloves chopped

cook this all together and then turn the heat off and add the juice of a whole lemon

This will make a nice sauce, throw in some roughly chopped flat leaf parsley and eat it with nice crunchy bread.

Delicious and incredibly easy.

Too sweet or not too sweet!

I am not usually a dessert person, but for some unknown reason (maybe it's the change of season) I have been craving sweets and lots of chocolate. So to mix things up I have been making lots of little things for dessert.

This first one is strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate then rolled in crushed pistachio nuts. Fresh, salty and sweet, what more could you want.

An experiment with mint slice biscuits, short crust pastry and crushed straberries mixed through ricotta. An interesting combination, but it was amazing.
I crushed mint slice biscuits in my pestal and mortar and put that on the pastry first, then I topped it with the ricotta mixture, then sprinkled some more of the mint mixture and a few pieces of fresh strawberries to finish it off.
Simple and yummy, the mini ones were great!

Who said being a vegetarian is boring...

Vegetable pie with pesto, parmesan and rocket.

A few of my friends happen to be vegetarian and I have claimed (over the years) that I am (if that involves me still being able to eat yummy bacon, mince and my favourite... lamb!!) ok so that's not exactly being vegetarian, but i enjoy vegetarian food and last night decided to make something I have never really attempted. A Pie. A Vegetable Pie to be exact.

It was made with short crust pastry (I didn't make this myself)

Bake the pastry for roughly 15 mins with pie weights or rice (and don't do what I did and put the rice straight onto the pastry, needless to say there was a 'take 2' and I have learnt my lesson to use baking paper in between, rookie mistake!!) then remove rice or weights and bake for a further 10 or so mins until golden brown and the base is cooked.

The filling:

- The base was smeared with pesto (I had a gourmet capsicum and tomato one but any is fine!)

- Then roughly 500g mashed sweet potato, combined with 2 tbsp cream, 200g ricotta and 2 tbs grated/ shaved parmesan

- Top with cut pieces of zucchini, eggplant and red/ green capsicums, then place halved cherry tomatoes on top (I roasted all the vegetables slightly so they weren't too crunchy)

- Bake it in a moderate oven for roughly 10 mins until the vegetables are cooked

- Top with fresh rocket and shaved parmesan.

Then enjoy.

I know I did and I had left overs for lunch the next day. Yum.

And as I usually do, I made some miniture pies. They are great cold as well as hot.

Ladybird

I have an obsession with Lady-Birds and therefore requested a Lady-Bird cake for my 26th birthday. Needless to say it's eyes look a little creepy but the pink icing is cream cheese icing and its a wicked chocolate cake underneathe. Covered in my favourite chocolates- freckles, jaffas, clinkers and licorice it was a heavenly treat and it didn't last very long, if you know what i mean!

A Promised Feast

I promised my girlfriend I would cook her a yummy dinner early this week and it was put off for a few nights as I ended up having to work. So to make up for the delay, I decided to make a very special dinner on thursday night, a three course meal to be exact. To accomplish this I needed some help from my good friend (not in real life) Donnah Hay. I went slightly off recipe but still was heavily inspired by her and her recipes from her 'Entertaining' book.

To start, we enjoyed a few pieces of french stick, lightly toasted, topped with roasted holoumi cheese with olive oil, lemon zest and chopped fresh oregano and fresh cherry tomatoes to garnish.

Follwed by roast lamb with oregano and a potato, dill and red onion salad. The lamb had an simple yet amazing dressing of honey and dijon mustard (the honey we have is beautifully candied so gave it an amazing texture and flavour)

And last but definately not least, my all time favourite Sticky Date Pudding, and yes I used mini tea saucers to serve it, needless to say they absolutely melt in your mouth and you can't help but want more!

'Tea for Two'

Despite the disgusting weather we have encountered this past week, there are still hints of spring in the air. I was out driving the other day i came across these gorgeous blossoms (I'm assuming that what they are) and thought to myself, spring is definately near, and tea for two is a must.

A cup of tea in spring is a delight; the weather is perfect to drink a hot drink with the smell of flowers and sunshine floating gently through the air. I have taken poetic liscence on the idea of 'tea' and have created (with the help of my beautiful girlfriend) a fabulous dessert which is as delicate as tea but a little more delicious if I say so myself.

After making a batch of delicious Chocolate Ganache Tarts, my girlfriend mixed through chopped rasberries through the remaining ganache. To serve, we then put it into pastry moulds and mini tea cups. We made some extra pastry pieces and cut strawberries to dunk into the velvet chocolatey goodness to place on the saucer. This was incredibly easy and absolutely deslish!

For those of you who want to try it:

Chocolate Ganache.

200g good quality dark chocolate

125ml thickened cream

50g butter, cold, chopped roughly

Optional: 3 tbsp brandy/ vanilla/ 3tbsp orange juice (Not all of them together!)

Stir all ingredients together in small saucepan over a low heat until smooth.

Allow to cool and thicken before using.

*If allowed to thicken significantly you can pour it into cases to make ganache tarts

*Mix in a punnet of rasberries (crushed/ roughly chopped)

And then simply enjoy, they are amazing and very addictive.

Vegetable-Mania

I decided that we were eating too much meat and that a vegetarian meal would be good for us. So I went a little crazy at the Central market and bought a multitude of vegetables for a red curry.




This is the end result. Colourful, vegie goodness with rice. Unfortunately my girlfriend isn't quite the 'spice lover' like me and found it a little bit too much (although she did eat it!) It was full of flavour and the cunch of the vegetables was fabulous.

This is a vegetable roast with danish feta. It is simple, quick and soo good for you. You simply pick your favourite vegetables, cut them to similar sizes, drizzle some olive oil and season then roast them in the oven until tender. Add broken up feta and grill for a couple of minutes. Then its ready to enjoy.

This is it with a side of homemade garlic bread. You can pretty much taste the crunch.

Nostalgia

I am very lucky to have the pleasure of my girlfriend cooking for me and i was especially lucky this sunday when i was introduced to a Mellett Family Favourite 'Pine-Camp Casserole' which is undoubtedly the most amazing casserole to walk the planet. It takes a while to make, but the pleasure you will get from it erases that thought immediately. The dish is a trip down memory lane, taking you back to cosy family dinners sitting by the fire.

The following photos are a stroll through the pleasure of cooking it and the delightful end result.

The Wine, a very important part of a delicious meal.

Watching my favourite show has taught me some amazingly clever 'tips' and this one works brilliantly. Slow boil the potatoes, then to mash (only do a couple at a time) and use a utensil to push them through a sieve. Then pour in slightly warmed milk and a dollop of cold butter at the end. Season to taste. It will be creamy and lump free- guaranteed.

The end result, with green beans, honey and sesame seeds.

The best winter dish yet!

Goulash or maybe a pasta bake, either way it's amazing and you won't stop eating it until there is none left. I make this for the kids i nanny for and they love it and so does everyone else. Below is the secret recipe to this belly warming sunday classic.

Ingredients:

600-800 gms Mince

Large Tin of Tomato Soup

2-4 Cloves of Garlic

1 Brown Onion

3-5 Rashers of Bacon

Small tin of Corn

1 packet of cooked pasta (best choice- Barossa Valley Egg Noodles)

1 Cup grated cheese

Salt and Pepper

Paprika and Cayanne Pepper (to taste- the warmer the better i say though!)

Method:
Chop onions, garlic and bacon. Place into large casserole dish. Brown onion and and add to bacon mixture, add all other ingredients (the spice to taste), stir well and place covered in a moderate oven for an hour.
Then enjoy how easy it was to create a new lifelong family favourite.

Sunday Morning Delight.

To sleep in on the weekend is definately a treat but to top it off why not extend that to a delicious brunch as well. My girlfriend was utterly amazing this weekend and i was spoilt rotten for both Saturday and Sunday with a bacon and egg sandwich. This sandwich is slightly pimped out but never forget that it's the simple things that are the best.

You will need:

2 Slices of toast, one with basil pesto dip
1 Poached egg
Bacon
Tomato sauce

It is super easy and from the pictures i'm sure you can guess that is tastes amazing.

Sunday Night Splendour to Weeknight Treasure.

Sunday night Shanks provided mass leftovers and you can only have shanks a couple of times in a row before needing a change on the palette. So with that I purchased some puff pastry and vegetable stock and decided to make pies. With the leftovers, i cut the meat to decent portion sizes (and enjoyed feasting on the bones before throwing them in the bin), I added some stock to form a gravy, then I added a couple of tbls of flour. I put pastry into a muffin tray and made mini pies. They were amazing, I even attempted a potato pie- which was slightly messy but tasted great.