anzac biscuits and old cookbooks

I've tried many recipes when it comes to Anzac biscuits and this recipe is a blend of all of them. It's not a tricky recipe by any stretch of the imagination but it's the little things. Salted butter is a must! Stirring the dry ingredients really well to distribute everything evenly is crucial and baking for exactly 12 minutes will give you approx 15 small pieces of heaven!

I love coming across old cookbooks on my travels as more often then not there are little snippets of recipes scrawled down on a torn piece of paper, cut out from an old newspaper or handwritten or even typed in a letter. I recently came across The Radiation Cookery Book from the 30s with such treasures hidden inside. I was going to pop this gorgeous old book in my shop but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm funny like that with cookbooks though; they mean more to me than money.

Within this little book was a typed letter. It's not dated unfortunately but it looks to be from the 50s or so. I love it! At the top is a recipe for garlic steak. Under this is a letter from Babs to Aunty Viv,

"I was speaking to Win last night and she said that you asked for the recipe (though recipe was typed as receipt!) Here it is Auntie, hope you like it as much as we do. You see I must show of to some one that I can Type, and as I'm in the typing mood to night, you will have to suffer the impersonal touch of the typewriter, sorry dear.

How are you anyway? I suppose like the rest of us, rather busy preparing for Christmas, oh, by the way June Tipper and Jimmy Vile have announced their engagement, I only hope that June Proves worthy of Jim, and I guess we will have to try and like her a little better. the ring is beautiful, I'm green with envy.

We are still struggling with our Flat trying to make it look like home, but I hope by Christmas it will be nice. I ran of the rails there, didn't I?.

Well my dear I will leave you now, hope you find the steak good.

With love from both of us",

Babs.

priceless : )

anzac biscuits

ingredients

62g Western Star original butter
30g (1 tablespoon) golden syrup (I use the CSR 500g squeeze bottle for convenience)
2 teaspoons cool tap water
1/2 teaspoon of bi-carb soda
1/2 cup oats ( I use Quaker Oats original pack)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

method

Pop your oven on to 160C. Lay some baking paper on a large biscuit tray.

Melt the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan over low heat until all the butter is melted. Add the water, combine and set aside.

In a large bowl add the remaining ingredients and mix really well. The brown sugar can create small lumps and you don't want to bite into a small chunk of bi carb! Add the melted mix to the dry mix and combine really well. I usually make each biscuit around 22g or so which should give you between 15 and 16 biscuits. Spread them out as they will flatten while cooking. Bake for 12 minutes.

Take out of the oven and leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes. Remove from the tray and lay on a cooling rack until completely cool. Keep in an airtight container in a cool spot or in the fridge for a couple of days.

enjoy!

sunny spot

Our friends over at fox drink water let us borrow their gorgeous old day bed when they moved house a while ago. It has had a beautiful old curtain panel draped over it for nearly 2 years now, well until I  washed it and it decided to fall apart....literally, in my hands! So I had a look in our cupboards to see what I could use to pretty up the space again. I'd forgotton about this old single sheet that was originally mine from when I was a little one. I held onto it all these years thinking I would make some pillow cases from it one day! So I wrapped it around the mattress. Then I found the gorgeous old throw that I'd bought a few years ago at an Op shop. I know Winter is well and truly gone but I just love it. It's not perfect, it's a little rough around the edges but it's hand made and the colours go with anything. The pillow is also hand made. I bought it at Marrickville Markets about 5 years ago. I wish now that I had bought more! A lady had made all these gorgeous pillow cases from vintage fabrics and was selling them for $6 to $8 each! I fell in love with the turquoise vase and just had to have it.

After I tucked the sheet in and draped the crochet throw over the day bed and popped the pillow in its spot my son walked over and said, "That's pretty Mum. You should put it on your blog". {melt}       so here it is : )

My SOS Salad

You know what it's like when you're travelling; especially with kids. It always takes longer then you expect to get to your destination. You never pack enough snacks for the trip. They scream every time you pass a McDonalds and everyone has to have their own individual toilet stop!

When you finally get home and you've thrown the bags into a pile on the loungeroom floor and the kids are still complaining that they want McDonalds  and you look like you've been awake for 3 days,  you go to the fridge, collect these ingredients and throw them together........just make sure you ask some nice person to put them there, preferably that morning! : )

My SOS Salad

Ingredients

1/2 cup cous cous
1 tablespooon butter
1/2 cup each of parsley and coriander, washed and chopped
6 to 10 mint leaves, washed and chopped
1 400g tin chick peas, drained and rinsed
1/2 red capsicum, diced
Salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice

1 packet of haloumi


Method

Pop your kettle on. When it boils add 1/2 cup boiling water to the cous cous, cover and set aside for 5 minutes.

Throw herbs, chick peas and capsicum into a serving bowl.

Slice haloumi into slices and add to a heated frypan that has had some oil added to it. Fry until lightly coloured on each side. (Be careful - 9 times out of 10 I manage to overcook the heck out of haloumi!) Set aside.

Take the lid off the cous cous, put over a low heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter. Stir through until melted.

Add cous cous to the salad and season well with salt, pepper and adding the extra virgin olive oil to give it some moisture.

Serve with the haloumi on the side and some lamb chops if you like and dress it with the lemon juice at the table. This salad is also nice on its own without the haloumi too but who doesn't love haloumi!

serves 4 as a side

diy gelato and hello xmas menu!

Whenever we get away for a break we don't always have internet access or even a t.v. It's kinda weird not knowing what's happening in this crazy world of ours; if only for a few days!

One of the first things I do on Holidays, after I have re-aquainted myself with my husband and let said husband know that if he doesn't spend some quality time with our children the holiday is over! I head to the nearest Vinnies in search of old foodie magazines. I've collected a few over the years. My favourite, Gourmet Traveller. I just love them! They always inspire me; sometimes leading me to other ideas or cuisines. By the time we get to take a holiday both my husband and I are usually exhausted and I've almost always lost my enthusiasm for cooking - especially those last few days when I was making 3 different dinners in one night!...it's a long story.

Holidays are my time to find a comfy spot under a tree, a sunny day and a few magazines to re-ignite me! One of the 3 issues I picked up during the break was the 2005 Christmas issue and you wouldn't believe it except that I am telling you right now - I have worked out the menu forthis years Christmas Lunch!! Yay!

So, this Christmas I am using KISS as my theme - Keep it simple stupid! For starters I am going to serve King Prawns with a fresh lemon pesto - easy; for main I am going to serve chicken.  My brother in law doesn't eat red meat and he's not a huge fan of seafood which leaves me with pork or chicken. So then I had an idea! Usually I'm slaving away in a hot kitchen creating a Roast with all the trimmings in 40C heat. Not this year people. This Christmas I've decided on Schnitzel. Now, just hear me out first before you start thinking it's going to be like the dodgy deep fried you may find at a leagues club. I'm thinking a parmesan crusted schnitzel each piece about the size of your palm, crumbed the night before, quickly pan fried and set aside as I'm getting the entree together. Then placed over a simple Ceasar Salad with some crusty garlic toasted bread. See, Simple : 0

Ok, so Dessert is the big finale! The thing we all hang around for at the end. Usually, at our place, it's a sad fruit platter that one family member (who shall remain nameless) has pre-cut that morning and then driven over an hour with fruit platter flying around the back seat to our house. Then we try for a while to fit the fruit platter in our tiny fridge but there's allready enough food in there to feed the whole extended family and anyone who happens to walk past our house......for  the next year; so then it just stays out on the kitchen bench which is slightly hotter then the sun until the end of the day when we finally eat what the ants have left us.

Back to the Dessert! Did you catch "The Living Room" on t.v the other week? We just happen to flick the channel when Miguel was blitzing some frozen strawberries, strawberry jam, a fully scraped vanilla bean and some cream - Wa-La.....Instant Gelato! This totally blew my mind!! Can you believe it? No stirring over a hot stove until the sugar melts; no need for an expensive icecream maker and there wasn't a sugar thermometer in sight! I knew I had to try this. Back to our holiday, a few pages later I had 2 ideas that I really wanted to try (2 ideas that will become the dessert component of my xmas menu) - Watermelon and Rosewater Gelato and Pineapple and Passionfruit Gelato  - here's the recipe for the latter.......it doesn't get easier then this!

Pineapple and Passionfruit Gelato

Ingredients

1 ripe pineapple
1 small tin of passionfruit or at least 5 - 10 fresh passionfruit, depending on their juice content
1 tin of light or full fat organic coconut cream (you will only need 3 heaped teaspoon fulls)

Method

Chop ripe pineapple  into small pieces (as you want them to blitz easily in your machine) the night before and place in a zip lock bag in the freeezer - you should have about 500g. Separate seeds from passionfruit pulp. Keep seeds in a zip lock bag in the fridge (you can use them as garnish if you like)  You should have at least 1/2 cup of pulp. Pop this is a zip lock bag in the freezer. Keep the tin of coconut cream in the fridge. When you are ready to serve, blitz everything together and dollop into your gelato cup of choice. Serve! Decorate with the passionfruit seeds or without or even add a few pieces of some reserved frozen or room temperature pineapple to garnish. The possibilities are really endless!

I'm ready Christmas!.....Bring it.

dreaming of paris

  

  

I can't quite remember where my desire to go to France came from. Whether it was my love of Art or pain au chocolat's! When I think about it I really can't recall where the idea started and why. The interior of my home is not overly french and I don't really eat french food; I think the most french thing I've eaten in a while is a croissant! I've travelled a little but I've not been to France as yet......but I dream of flying into Paris and going straight to a boulangerie and downing a croque monsieur!

 

 Many years ago, before I met my husband, an ex-boyfriend of mine was going to France with his brother and his brother's new wife. I asked him if he could buy me something from France. I remember at the time I had no idea what to ask for so I just said, " Anything French". He brought me back the Picasso mug you can see in the 3rd pic. I fell in love with it. I was so proud of this gorgeous mug.... It was  my small piece of Paris! and I have had it on show in every place that I have lived.

 

A few months back my Mother-in-law announced she was taking a trip to France. (It was to be just before the Tour de France, which was a double whammy for us as my husband is a bike guy!) I said the same thing to her as I'd said to my ex-boyfriend, "Bring me back anything French" and she did! She bought this beautifully simple silver bangle and had my name engraved on it and she found herself in an old antique place she saw the old soup ladel in the 2nd pic and thought of me! Gotta love French enamel!!

 

I also love looking through French stores on Etsy....places like French Find and Magalerie are always filled with beautiful, beautiful things!

Vintage photos Bordeaux, A booklet with small photos from Bordeaux, France by French Find

Titled: Eiffel Tower Paris by Magalerie

 

a girl can dream...............but if anyone has a spare ticket.....I'm there!

 

 

 

: )



Spring Boats

It's here! It's here! Spring! hooray for everybody! We've been out in the garden pulling out the weeds, mulching everything within an inch of it's life and finally bringing the pool back to life; pumping it with 1000ml of algae killer - CLEAR!. The place is finally starting to sparkle again after a very long and very dull Winter. I love this time of year. Sure, the magpies manage to swoop only me in a crowd of people and the August winds love to blow every little bit of debri from the air into our pool, including a lonely sock ( if you're missing one, we've got it!) otherwise, Spring is all good!

Spring Boats - serves 4 as a snack or serve as nibbles - makes 12

Ingredients

12 chat potatoes (try and buy thin longish ones)
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1 x 160g (4 x 40g) mini tubs philadelphia cream cheese (either plain or I love the sweet chilli one with this dish)

200g Asparagus
1/2 red capsicum
1/4 cup baby rocket leaves
1/4 cup coriander leaves
lemon juice from half a lemon
salt and pepper

How to make your Spring Boats

Pre heat oven to 240C. Pop the potatoes in a large pot, cover with water adding salt and bring to the boil. Boil for 15 mins. Drain well and place on a baking tray with baking paper and using a heavy spoon press down. Not too hard as you want them to hold together but squash them a bit so that you can pop the toppings on. Now drizzle with the extra virgin olive oil and bake for 25 mins.

Bring a small pot of water to the boil. When ready pop in the spears for a few minutes and then drain and refresh under cold water. Chop into 2cm lengths. ( You could also char grill the aspargus if you prefer) Dice capsicum. Chop up the baby rocket leaves and the coriander leaves roughly.

When the potatoes are ready take them out and leave to cool for a minute or 2. Meanwhile, dress the salad with the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Place potatoes on your serving dish, top with the cream cheese of your choice and then top with the salad and serve!

how i met your father - spring lamb and lemon broccoli pie with minted pea puree

It's Father's Day tomorrow and I am well prepared....for a change ;-) Pancakes for breakfast, Banitsa for lunch and this pie for dinner - plus a gift or 4 in between!

Most people, when asked how they met their partner, will usually say,"Actually, it's a funny story...." Well, ours is a little funny-ha ha but more lucky, I think. A few years passed before we actually met face to face but it's always the getting there that's the interesting part.

After HighSchool I decided to do a Bachelor of Arts in Communication ( I think I wanted to be a writer of some kind....?) and was thrown into a group of great individuals from all walks of life. One person in my year who I was a little in awe of (she was an incredible photographer) was in love with all things American. One day her and I were working on a project in an editing suite. Anyway, next door she overheard this American accent and nearly jumped out of her chair to go speak to them. His name was Jasper and he was actually Swedish but had lived in America for a short time. My friend quickly lost interest but I ended becomming good friends with Jasper and we would often catch up for lunch or we'd go grab a coffee or a beer! He lived in an apartment with  a young guy who was doing his HSC. Attached to the Apartment was a house  where the Mother of the young guy lived. Whenever she was out of town, it was party time! It was at those party's that I would often hear about the young guy's older brother who was living and working in Ireland. So after 4 years, 3 boyfriends, a tattoo and a trip overseas later I turned up to another party. This time I was on my own. I walked into the apartment and realised that I didn't know anyone in the room. I could feel a set of eyes burning into my back and I turned around - it was my future husband  - not that I thought that in that moment!  He was sitting between two girls but I gave him a smile anyway, turned back around and then went on to find my friends. I ended up sleeping over the night, next door in the main house. Jasper told me that Rob (the older brother) was in the bedroom opposite me and that a few other people were crashing on the couch. The next morning I was up early, I found some breakfast and then being the neat freak that I am..... I cleaned the kitchen. yep.... and.....  mopped the floor.....I know! who does that, right?  After I finished I went into the bathroom to find some toothpaste. Rob appeared at  the door and asked in a gruff voice, "Did you clean the Kitchen?" Thinking I was in trouble I answered with equal gruffness, "So?". He smiled and said, "Wow, you can come back whenever you like"......the rest as they say is history.

Ingredients

oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely diced

1 stick celery, finely sliced

1 carrot, finely sliced

salt and pepper

500g lamb shoulder cubed

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets (approx. 200G)

1 teaspoon lemon zest and splash of lemon juice

roux

40g butter

18g plain flour
1 cup milk

Topping

600g orange sweet potato,(chop into 2cm cubes, boiled until tender, approx. 20 mins from cold water till done).

Dash of milk Mash 

30g  butter

30g parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

3 sheets of shortcrust pastry

To serve on the side

1 and a half cups of  frozen peas

A few mint leaves

How to make your spring lamb and lemon broccoli pie with minted pea puree

For this dish you need to have everything ready to go. Pre-heat oven to 200C and have your baking dish(es) ready to go. Spray with olive oil spray. set aside. Get your sweet potatoes on. When they are ready, drain well and add the butter, parmesan cheese and the dash of milk and mash. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a large frypan add some oil over a medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, carrot and celery until soft. Place in a bowl. Add the lamb in 2 stages, turning and cooking through. Start the roux.  Take out the pastry from the freezer! Place the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. When melted add the flour and stir to a paste. Slowly add the milk and the keep strring. Don't stop! It should take approx. 5 minutes to thicken. When your meat is done add it to the cooked vegetables and set aside to cool slightly. When the roux is done, set it aside to cool slightly. You should have your sweet potato ready too. Now pop your broccoli in a microwave safe dish with the lemon juice and lemon zest and microwave for 4 minutes (850 watt microwave) Now add everything to the roux and add salt and pepper to taste.

Place your pastry in your desired dish(es) Add filling and top with sweet potato mash. Bake for approx. 30 minutes depending on your choice of dish. Just keep an eye on it.

Just before serving pop the frozen peas in a plastic container with a splash of water and cook with an 850 watt microwave for 4 minutes 40secs. drain, add the mint leaves and puree with a stick blender just before serving. season with salt and pepper.

To serve you can have the minted pea puree on the side or pop a bit on the top of the pie. Delicious!

Happy Father's Day Rob and yes, I am still cleaning your kitchen!