jumble cake for christmas!

again, sort of cheating here, baking not really 'cooking' but it is christmas after all....

made some jumble cake for a christmas present for a friend who loves it ( you know who you are!), it's been fun making and packaging it so i am going to give it to some others as well, like my grandpa who is impossibly hard to buy for.....

JUMBLE CAKE

(this must be our family recipe, because i've never had anything like it outside of my family, and no, it isn't like hedgehog cake at all)

ingredients:

250g soft butter
2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
2 cups desiccated coconut
4 dessert spoons cocoa
2 cups SR flour

method:

cream butter/sugar
add eggs
then gradually add dry ingredients
spread across a lamington tray with the back of a spoon, don't go all the way to the edges. bake 170c until beginning to firm up (about 45 mins). cool in tray. ice with choc icing and cut before completely cold (otherwise it gets really hard to cut!)

slow roasted tomatoes

i actually had already eaten almost all of the large (and best) slow roasted tomatoes when i remembered that i hadn't yet taken a photo.... they were sooo good! the cherry tomatoes were also good, but perhaps would have been better if i had roasted them longer. the tomatoes were grown in our very own garden :)

method for both:

slice all tomatoes in half and place on oiled baking trays (cherry and regular tomatoes on separate trays for different cooking times)

drizzled with more extra virgin olive oil and balsamic, sprinkled with maldon salt and cracked pepper.

the cherry tomatoes went in to the oven at about 180 c for an hour or two- they came out yummy BUT the big tomatoes went in the oven for about 8 hours, at as low as the oven goes and they were AMAZING, so lesson learnt here!

MMMMMM MMMM

LABOUR STARTING COOKIES (well we'll see, but i'm ready and willing)

preheat oven to 180c

combine in a medium bowl: 2 & 1/2 cups flour, 1 & 1/2 tspn baking soda (bi-carb soda), 3/4 tspn cinnamon, 1 tspn ground ginger, 1/2 tspn ground cloves, 1/2 tspn cayenne pepper (but i didn't have any of this so i used a bit of paprika, piri piri and chilli).

cream together in a large bowl: 8 tspns (or '37 grams') butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar and 1/3 cup mollasses (treacle). add lastly 1/4 cup egg whites (from 1 large egg).

add the dry ingredients to the wet a little bit at a time. roll dough into 1 inch balls, place on baking paper on baking tray and cook for 10 mins.

"once cool, eat as many as you possibly can, lie down for a nap and wait for labour to begin!" (we'll see..... but i hope so!)



i read about this recipe from http://www.shoppingfortwo.com/Articles/Pregnancy/breakyourwatercookies.htm

mmmm risotto!

CREAMY PUMPKIN RISOTTO
recipe from: women's weekly.

my score: 10/10 (but i had been reaaaaally wanting risotto for a while now), i will definitely be making it again :D

dane's recommendation: "needs meat".

ingredients
1kg butternut pumpkin, peeled & cut into 2cm pieces
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 tspn dried chilli flakes
1 1/5 litres chicken stock
50g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 cups (400g) arborio rice
1/2 cup (125ml) dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh sage leaves (i couldn't get a hold of any fresh or dried sage, only powdered so i just sprinkled a little of that on at the end)
1/4 cup (60g) sour cream
1/2 cup (40g) grated fanciest parmesan
2 tblspn toasted pine nuts

method
preheat oven 200c

bake pumpkin on baking tray w baking paper & oil. season w salt

meanwhile, bring stock to a gentle simmer in a medium saucepan.

melt butter in large pan. add onion and cook till soft not browned. add garlic and rice, stirring well to coat. add wine and simmer until liquid has evaporated.

add 1/2 cup of hot stock to rice mixture stirring over medium heat until liquid is absorbed. continue adding and stirring, 1/2 cup at a time until half the stock is added, then remove the pumpkin from the oven, sprinkle with chilli flakes and add almost all of it to the risotto (saving some for the top). continue adding and stirring as before until it's all gone. (i added frozen peas too because i <3 peas).

**i didn't do this step because i couldn't get the fresh sage, but i hope to next time.....
"heat oil in small frying pan over high heat, add sage leaves and fry for about 20 seconds or until crisp. remove with slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper."

remove risotto from heat, stir in the sour cream and parmesan. season. serve topped with the extra pumpkin, roasted pine nuts and crisp sage.

SO GOOD

tomorrow's recipe......

LABOUR INDUCING SPICY COOKIES (yes really)

trusty pizza success, cheating roast success!!

i haven't been cooking much lately, ingredients for recipes are $$$$$, the things i have been cooking have hardly been worth mentioning let alone photographing. tonight's delicious roast chicken with peas, roast potato, pumpkin and carrot was PERFECT although i did buy one of those ready to roast chickens that already have the stuffing and are already marinating in herbs etc. CHEATING i know. but everything came out, all at the same time, all perfect yumyumyum.

another night i made a rocket and lettuce (from our very own garden!!) salad with oven roasted cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegarette and oil, pumpkin, fetta and lamb cutlets.

and i also whipped up dane's recipe of DELICIOUS pepperoni margherita with basil (deliciously fresh home grown!) tomato, mozarella, parmesan and cheddar. mmmmm mmmmmmmm.

tomorrow is pay day so i will buy ingredients tomoro to cook from a recipe. mmm perhaps risotto?

EPIC FAIL

tonight's attempt came from the women's weekly short & fast recipe book. "pumpkin and corn patties" which shall be from here on known as SLOP. the recipe called for deb instant mashed potatoes but i just couldn't bring myself to that so i used normal mash (error #1 i soon discovered)...

boiled 1 cup of coarsely chopped pumpkin and 2 cups of potato (i don't really like the boiling, i think if i ever attempt to make this slop again i might try roasting them instead.)

mashed together with 1/2 cup of buttermilk (125ml), 125g can of drained and rinsed (why?) corn kernels and 1/2 coarse chopped fresh parsley.

now here i was supposed to 'shape mixture' into patties- but what i had was sloppy slop so there was no definitely no shaping happening ("choo chooo"- that's the sound of the fail train coming!) but i tried my best using a spoon. i was supposed to 'coat the patties' in toasted sesame seeds (1/2 cup/ 75g) and then cook them in heated oil in large pan. this of course turned to browned oily mash slop fairly quickly. also the mixture was tangy and pretty gross. so i added an egg (to try and hold it all together) and some curry powder and piri piri and tried again. still a fail, but a slightly less fail. so then i tried in the oven. this was the most succesful.

it tasted okay but gosh it was ugly. i must say i am left feeling quite disappointed. friggen cooking. FAIL

potato roesti

only slightly different from the recipe in the darling donna hay book <3

6 chat potatoes peeled and shredded
1 1/2 tblspn's olive oil
1/3 grated fancy pants parmesan
1 1/2 tspn's thyme leaves
salt & pepper

place the mixture in 6 heaps on baking papered tray and cook at 200c for oooh around 20 mins. we had ours with steak*, red wine honey jus (dane made that) and peeeeeas. success!

*cooking steak 101

heat oil in pan on high until it just begins to smoke. place the meat *gently* in the pan then JUMP the heck back coz that stuff is spitting (i used the lid as a shield-this was successful- i can recommend it). when the blood pools (ew ew ew) on top then turn it over and it will take about half as long to cook that side as it did the first side. i like mine a little hotter and little more cooked than dane so i did mine first and then put it in the oven to keep warm with the roesti's. good good. *thumbs up*

oooooooh i make up a recipe!

i couldn't find a recipe for mini quiches with pumpkin so i just made one up! taking advice from another quiche recipe of course.... i needed a starting point:

MADE UP MINI-QUICHE

1/2 cup cream
4 eggs
rocket
1/2 onion, browned
grated expensive parmesan
1 chopped and cooked bacon rasher
short crust pastry
finely diced roasted pumpkin

after prepping the ingredients, and while the pumpkin was roasting and the bacon and onion frying, i lined the muffin tray with baking paper and shortcrust pastry and pre-cooked that for 5-10 mins (so the bottoms weren't soggy). whizzed the cream, salt & pepper. fancy parmesan and eggs in the beloved kitchen whizz (thanks casey!) scrunched a few leaves of rocket into each mini quiche pastry cup, sprinkled the bacon, pumpkin and onion in and then poured the whizzed egg/cream/paremesan mixture over the top and baked in the oven at 180c until puffy and slightly browned. let them set/cool in the muffin tin before removing.

iron chef judge tonight gave an whopping 8/10 and went back for SECONDS which is enough of a good sign for me :D he suggests leaving the rocket out and trimming the excess pastry off next time (but i don't agree :P)

2 things i have learned from dane: guess the amounts, forget measurements and 'if in doubt 180c'.

p.s look out nigella

G/B

i know i know it's pushing the whole 'cooking' concept but we had all the ingredients here already and a baguette that was going stale so i made.....

GARLIC BREAD

1 giant tablespoon scoop of butter
3 crushed garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup chopped continental parsley
le baguette
salt & pepper

combine and stir/mash in a bowl, slice the bread and slop the butter in there, wrap in foil, cook in 200 c oven for 30 mins.

WALAHH

harry & dane gave it thumbs up, i thought it was pretty good too.

cupcakes for penny

i baked cupcakes this morning. it's something i like to do on my little girl's birthday. if she hadn't died she would have been 6 today. i can't believe how the time has flown.

spaghetti bol 7/10

tonight's recipe is from the women's weekly back to basics cookbook:

INGREDIENTS

olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 slices of pancetta
1 large onion
1 med. carrot
500g mince beef
1 cup milk
60g butter
250g beef stock
1 cup shiraz
410g can chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tom. paste
fine chopped flat leaf/continental parsley
spaghetti
VERY expensive parmesan (OH MY)

i got everything ready before i started because it's all a bit hectic for me yet trying to concentrate on stirring things AND chopping/measuring whatever needs to go in next. i flipping SUCK at "chopping" and dane had to give me another (my 34th) lesson, but at least this time half of the ingredients didn't end up on the floor.

METHOD

i heated (medium heat) extra virgin olive oil (that's the only oil we ever use) in our big orange vintage corningware saucepan (jill!, is that what that pot is?) cooking the pancetta until crisp. next adding onion (low heat) and carrot and stirring them until the onion was soft.

next, browned the beef (high heated) until it was mostly brown and no longer clumping (yuuuuuuuuuck, this part stinks).

added the milk and butter and stirred occasionally until the liquid had reduced a fair bit and then the stock, wine, puree and paste and left to simmer (low heat) with the lid half on for 1 hour, then the lid of for another half hour. cooked the pasta (under dane's supervision), stirred through the chopped parsley (from our garden!!), sprinkled with ala expensive parmesano and WHALA!

tonight's iron chef expert connoisseur super judge generously gave the dish 7/10. pretty chuffed :)

WOO! my beautiful donna hay arrived today and it is, well, BEAUTIFUL! it is much bigger than i expected and all of the recipes look soooo good! i look forward to a time when we have enough $$$ to buy ingredients to cook the recipes :) YUM

pikelets OK!

i have been craving pikelets with gluttonous amounts of butter and jam for days and since i am having a sad day today, i decided to make myself a cheer up breakfast. i had a big cry last night and this morning my darling boyfriend had left his eftpos card for me with his very last $15 on it, even though that means he won't have any money at work today, just so i could go to the store and buy things to make the pikelets. naaaaw what a sweetheart. no wonder i <3 him. that darling!! *swoon*

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5757/pikelets

i did add the recommended bit of vanilla, but not the extra sugar and i thought they were just perfect. ummmm except for i couldn't wait to eat i was SO hungry so of course the last few batches got a bit burnt OOPS.and of course i ate myself stupid on them YUM. and yes i do feel a bit better now. thank you.

fail/win

cooking home fries/chips round #2 was another fail :( however this mornings hard boiled eggs were a win! :) however i did burn my toast :(

boiled chocolate cake

even though this is meant to be a cooking thing, not a baking thing- i am baking a cake tonight. the recipe was given to me the other day by a friend after i ate it at book club and LOVED it. i'm mostly baking it because it is something that we already have all the ingredients for in the house (and is therefore free to make) but also because i reeeeally feel like eating something sweet. mmmmmmmm. ONLY 1 MORE WEEK UNTIL PAYDAY!!! WEEEEE! looking forward to buying whatever i need for some recipes at the supermarket :)

Boiled Cake Recipe:
125grams butter
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
2 heaped teaspoons cocoa
1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda
1 cup water

BOIL above ingredients in large saucepan, stir, then simmer for 5 mins, then cool

add:

1 1/2 cups self raising flour and beat with wooden spoon.
then add 2 beaten eggs and mix well

cook in lined round tin at 170c for 50 mins

and it came out pretty good! my only complaint is that i think i left it in the oven for just a little teeny bit too long. it's just a little bit drier than it should be but DELICIOUS!

cooking challenge fail

so i may have set my sights a little high saying "i will cook one thing every day!". excuses: 1) thursday i was too tired after work to cook 2) friday i was too tired from a day of babysitting and visitors and being out all day to cook. 3) saturday realised we don't actually have any money with which to buy ingredients to cook the recipes i had in mind 4) we haven't had any internet so i couldn't find any alternate recipes.
BUT i have cooked a couple of things, though they were fails i did 'LEARN STUFF' AND i did coerce mum (she was my visitor) into buying me two of the women's weekly cook books i wanted: short & fast- 6 ingredients or less on the table fast (my kinda cooking!!) and back to basics so even though i can't cook anything from them at the moment i am looking forward to when we can get some groceries so i can YAY!

and now onto the fail 'cooking' attempts:

we have excessive potatoes at the moment so i thought i would try and make some chips. i baked them at 180c in some oil and all was going well until i didn't get them out of the tray quick enough and they soaked up all the oil! YUCK. squeezing each one in kitchen paper helped a bit but it was still definitely another fail.

this morning i tried to make bacon & eggs on toast- i didn't turn the bacon enough so it was too crispy on one part, not cooked enough on the other part AND i forgot to cut the rinds off!!! the smell of the fat coming out of the bacon was so gross i ended up not even wanting any bacon and i gave it all to dane ewwww. of the poached eggs one was perfect, one was under cooked and one was WWAAAAYYYY over cooked (i had that one). so hopefully i get it right next time. lots to remember!

unfortunately i just don't really find cooking fun at all. hmmmm. perhaps that will change? hope so!

"it's like if you cooked playdough"

but tastes better, luckily. tonight i attempted to make "spicy pumpkin bread". it wasn't a total failure but it hasn't come out perfect either. i have learned that i really should have read all the comments posted under the recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2344/spicy+pumpkin+bread before cooking. that would have really helped. i think i put in a little too much pumpkin and therefore should have removed some liquid- so my pumpkin bread has come out very dense, very moist, very heavy. also i couldn't refer to it as "spicy" at any stretch.

6/10

master judge dane gave tonight's effort a generous 6/10. the frittata came out just fine, but i undercooked the lamb cutlets, some so severely they had to go back on OOPS. and the overall decision was that the peas could have done with a sauce. also this would have made sticking the peas to the cutlet and frittata on the fork a hell of a lot easier- a VERY important culinary factor. you need to have equal portions of each thing on your plate for each mouthful!!! i unfortunately forgot to take a photo until after we had dinner OOPS so i only have this pic of the leftovers. i really should have taken a photo of the dinner 'plated up' with the peas and the tidy square of frittata and the 'stacked' cutlets.

method:

firstly i marinated the cutlets in the fridge while i faffed about with the frittata and caught up on the dishes......
3 garlic cloves crushed
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tspn of a mixed italian seasoning herb mix..... ummm oregano n stuff (the recipe i was going off said oregano but i realised too late we had none)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
lamb cutlets (they were on sale for $12 less!!! WOOOT!!)

next i chopped 5 rashers of bacon, two potatoes and trimmed, halved and thinly sliced a medium leek. my knife skills leave a lot to be desired, i started to get it toward the end, but my bacon looked a bit torn and an awful lot ended up on the floor (tessy (our dog) helped me out with that though, she didn't mind too much).

in a large measuring jug i "whisked" (mixed with a fork and tried not to spill): 6 eggs, 1/2 cup pure cream, 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese and 2 crushed garlic cloves.

i "browned" (and cooked a serious brown crust onto the pan) the bacon and leek first, then added the potato till it was floppy. i plopped this stuff in a shallow casserole dish and poured the egg mix on top, giving it three good stirs for good luck and putting it in a high oven.

i attempted to "char grill" (like the recipe said) the cutlets in a pan on medium- but i smoked out the house and they were under done. master chef dane suggested that next time i cook them on lower heat and for longer. not turning until the blood that rises had been there for a couple of minutes, and then turning once more before finishing.

put some peas on while the cutlets were going. everything was ready at the same time :)
there is plenty of frittata left over to eat tomorrow- it seems like it would also be a good breaky kind of thing. not too shabby! what's cooking for tomorrow? i have book club so it won't be dinner. hmmmmmm

i'm looking forward to the arrival of my donna hay cookbook! i wonder what page 1 is! (i'm planning on cooking my way from front to back)

donna hay classics 1

as recommended by my good friend mr. daniel, and also some other people too, i have purchased donna hay modern classics 1. i got it half price at borders online and i can't wait for it to arrive!

Life in Recipes: Shepherd's Pie from Modern Classics by Donna Hay

i found this blog and i can't wait to try this! also, i have a 40% off borders voucher that expires tomoro so i am thinking i may use it to get that cook book

Life in Recipes: Shepherd's Pie from Modern Classics by Donna Hay

well pretend husband, dane, decided that he was making dinner tonight, since i have aqua aerobics and therefore would be starting to cook too late. so instead i made a late lunch of bruschetta. i managed to forget to buy onion from the shop, and also forget to put the oil and balsamic vinegarette on until we were already half way through eating but the result turned out okay. i think next time i would try different bread, and perhaps mozarella instead of parmesan.

method:

half cook garlic bread loaf on high oven whilst chopping fresh basil, tomato and potato peeling parmesan. put toppings on the garlic bread, crack pepper and salt, drizzle with oil (oops i forgot this). cook until basil begins to look like it might be suffering, drizzle with balsamic vinegarette (oops again) and serve.

so tomorrow night will be lamb cutlets with frittata.

aha!

discovery!

you can search taste.com.au via ingredients. first i googled 'potato gratin', which led me to this recipe http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/11460/annekas+potato+gratin but then in a side bar there is a "more potato recipes" option which has now led me to:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/1758/creamy+potato+bake
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/10115/baby+potato+bacon+frittatas+with+red+onion+marmalade
and this one i think i like best:
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21026/bacon+leek+and+potato+frittata
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21023/basic+frittata+mix

i posted a link to this blog on facebook and a forum i use last night and this morning i woke up to lots of helpful answers:

places to start

nigella lawson "how to be a domestic goddess"
martha stewart
donna hay
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780060095246/Modern-Classics-Book-One-Us-Edition
rachel ray
taste.com.au
recipeczarr.com
The Australian Breastfeeding Association sells the nursing mothers cook book
Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food and the Commonsense Cookery Book
Tagliatelle Bolognese Recipe - Taste.com.au
The Woolworths Good Taste and Super Food Ideas magazines
'Cookery the Australian Way'

and this
"my fav easy dinner:
put pan of water on to boil and add pasta

finely copped onion and garlic clove...fry in medium heat pan with oil
add tin of tuna, cherry tomatoes and snow peas...cook for 2-5 mins
add two large spoonfuls of sour cream and a splash of lemon juice
season with salt and pepper and add cooked pasta

just remember every time you cook you learn something...don't get discouraged."

i will try!

perhaps cooking one thing every day, no matter how small is a good goal to set until i find the right cookbook. today..... we have A LOT of potatoes so i guess i will make something with those. the only thing is they are looking a bit green. i understand that it's just something that happens when you don't keep them in a dark place like you're supposed to, and that this is one of the benefits of unwashed potatoes. i always thought green potatoes were poisonous but *googling*

"the problem with green potatoes is that exposure to light also produces a substance called solanine, a glycoalkaloid, which has been shown to be toxic when consumed in great quantities. Scientists have sought to determine exactly what quantity of green potatoes it would take to cause human toxicity, and it turns out that an adult would have to eat about 4.5 pounds of light-exposed potatoes (approximately 2 kg) to reach toxic blood levels of solanine.

There are some theories about whether regular consumption of green potatoes might reduce levels needed to produce poisoning. It is thought that it takes the body over a full day to clear solanine from the body, and so eating potatoes that are green on a daily basis could have some cumulative affect or accumulate toxic levels more quickly. Still, in the US, it has been over 50 years since any one has succumbed to potato poisoning, and it’s generally thought that people are at low risk for solanine toxicity from potato consumption.

This may leave cooks wondering whether they ought to eat green potatoes or discard them. For greatest safety, it is probably best to discard potatoes that are green, to avoid consuming solanine. Though a bite of green potatoes is unlikely to be fatal, consuming poisons on purpose isn’t a great plan for healthy living. "

jill- pretend hubby's mother/mother-sin-law, master cook, WWJD (no, not what would jesus do, but what would JILL do), highly revered expert at everything, (though she'll claim otherwise) said something about peeling their skin off and sure enough......

"One study in 2006 published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry found that improperly stored potatoes accumulate most solanine in the peel. This might suggest that peeling the potatoes is the best way to get rid of this toxin, no matter the color of the potato underneath." http://www.wisegeek.com/are-green-potatoes-poisonous.htm

so dilemma #1 solved. now. ahem. what to make with the potatoes??? we have lots. before peeling there is 1 & 1/2 kilos of the suckers. we also have bacon. and parsley. so perhaps a potato bakey thingy or a potato gratin thingy??

HELP

cannot cook :(

i am 26, i pretend to be this happy little homemaker, tidying, decorating cleaning etc etc but i CANNOT and do not cook. ever. pretend hubby does ALL the cooking. i try to pull my weight; i always to the dishes and clean the kitchen BUT of course there is inevitably a bit of tension because if he doesn't cook- well then there is no dinner. don't get me wrong i can B A K E. but alas, pretend hubby doesn't like bakery treats :( he's a savoury man. so, here i am- i need to learn to cook. but where the eff do i start!? i need some sort of awesomely basic cook book that i can work my way through. sort of like the project portrayed in julie & julia (where a woman works her way through julia child's cook book) but for toast burning, mid 20 kitchen retards rather than culinary explorers. HELP ME