Stuff With Thing

Reading over at Planning Queen I found out about some delicious and easy to make biscuits. So today I decided to make them. The original recipe can be found at Picklebums place.

I adapted it a little because it wouldn’t be me cooking if I didn’t tamper with the original.

We’ve been getting our groceries through Coles Online and this week they gave us a few freebies, one of which was a tin of Nestle Top N Fill Choc.

Now once upon a time I used to make caramel by boiling a can of condensed milk for several hours - which is really rather dangerous so don’t do it at home kiddies. Anyways I figured our can of Nestle Top N Fill Choc was basically condensed milk, turned to caramel with chocolate added. So I could use that instead of the plain condensed milk called for the in the recipe (because i didn’t have any of that) .

Being the healthy type I also substituted the 5 cups of self raising flour - 3 cups of self raising flour and 2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour.

So now we have

500g of Nuttlex (dairy free margarine)

1 cup of sugar

1 tin of Nestle Top N Fill Choc

3 cups of self raising flour

2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour.

I totally missed the bit about creaming the butter and sugar and just put all the ingredients in together and mixed them. Thankfully I did have the brains enough to move Fred before flour exploded all over her.

After I’d mixed it all together the uncooked dough taste so yummy I ate it all and never got to the baking stage…. ah no, not really, but it did taste mighty nice.

So I’ve put half the dough into the freezer rolled up into log shapes, ready to slice up and cook later, like I do with my choc chip cookies.

The other half the girls added their fav. cookie extra’s to (Heidi - sprinkles & choc chips, Annie - sprinkles). I preheated the oven to 180C and put baking paper on oven trays.

We ignored the bit about rolling into balls and flattening with a fork. Instead the girls and I adopted the quick and dirty method of dropping teaspoonfuls of the dough onto a oven trays. Going for the ‘rustic’ look :grin:.

Cook in the oven for 10 minutes.

The Verdict: These were super yummy hot from the oven.

Next time I’d probably make them using all wholemeal flour.

You do end up with a ton of cookies so be prepared for that.

So I was going to post a recipe today about ABC Muffins complete with stunning (ha!) pictures of the finished product.

My young Nephew N (2.5yo) helped me cook the muffins yesterday, he really was a most fantastic assistant cook and looked adorable in his apron.

He took 4 muffins home to share with his big brother and my girls had one each for afternoon tea.

While the muffins were out on the bench to cool I sat down at my computer to catch up on some emails.

When I returned camera in hand some 30 minutes later to photograph the muffins this is what I found:

So I followed the trail of crumbs into the lounge room to discover:

Thus despite my lack of forensic training I’m fairly certain that the evidence speaks to the muffins having been beamed up into outer space and stolen by hungry muffin eating aliens from Mars.

Without pictures of the finished product onwards we go.

ABC Muffins

3 bananas - mashed up into a puree in the food processor, or with a fork
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
pinch of salt (it really does seem to need just a little salt)
1 egg - lightly whisked.
1/2 cup soy milk (you can use regular milk if there are no dairy problems in your family)
2 Granny Smith Apples - mashed up into very small pieces in the food processor or grated (Granny Smith works best I’ve found but you can use other brands of apples)*
230g of chocolate chip pieces or 1 small bar of dairy free dark chocolate (my personal fav is Green and Blacks Organic Maya Gold) - put the bar into a sturdy plastic bag and smash it into little pieces, very theraputic.
2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour.

Preheat oven to 180C
Put the banana, brown sugar, oil, salt and egg and stir together.
Carefully stir in the apple and chocolate pieces.
Sift the flour into the bowl and stir in.
Remember muffins benefit from as little mixing as possible so only mix it together until all the ingredients are wet. Don’t use a electric mixer because that will overbeat the mixture.
Spoon into greased muffin pans (I use a mix of mini-muffins and larger pans so we get a good variety of sizes for big and little people in the house).
Cook at 180C for about 20 minutes - big muffins / 15 minutes - mini muffins.
Serve hot with the chocolate all melty.

These freeze really really well and reheat in the microwave very nicely. Like my chocolate chip cookies I prefer to eat these muffins when the chocolate is hot and runny.

The Verdict - well I think you can guess from the chocolate smeared faces and the astonishing disappearance of 18 large muffins and 24 mini muffins that these are a hit at my place.

* one thing I really like about this recipe is you can use left over fruit that the children have taken to kinder / playgroup / school and not eaten. My girls wont eat fruit that is bruised / battered/ a little brown around the edges, so this recipe is great for using up apples and bananas that come home cut up but uneaten.

Another modified Super Food Ideas Recipe.

500g stewing Beef
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup pearl barley
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1/2 litre beef stock
1 turnip diced
1 parsnip diced
1 swede diced
1 small sweet potato diced
4 yellow button squash diced

Put all the ingredients, except the squash, in the slow cooker.
Cook on low for about 6-8 hours, add squash for last hour.
Serve with fresh home made bread.

Comments - this was too bland for my tastes but the girls really enjoyed picking out the bits of meat and chunks of veggies. I’d probably skip the squash next time - too slimey.

Modified from a Super Food Ideas recipe.

8 chicken drumsticks - skin removed
1 red / spanish onion - sliced into strips
1 red capsicum / bell pepper - sliced into strips
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons milk paprika
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
400g can diced tomato

Put all ingredients into your slow cooker / crock pot. Cook on low for about 6-8 hours.
Remove cinnamon sticks.
Serve with brown rice.

Comments: original recipe called for much more liquids and to cook arborio rice with the chicken but it I knew Heidi wouldn’t eat it that way, thus the alteration. This was a big hit with everyone, although the girls did find the chilli heat a bit much.

Annie - Happy Birthday Party

Officially I have THE BEST CHILDREN IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! Seriously they are better than any other child that has gone before, is now or ever will be

Alright, alright, I might be exaggerating a little but they were awesome on Monday, really, really wonderful.

Just before bedtime last night Heidi was getting tired and starting to cry, so I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom, she took one look at her bed and said “Bed! I like bed.” Put the emphasis in because she said it just like that. She likes bed :: happy dancing ::, sure she might wake up in the middle of the night and want to party for several hours but right there and then she likes bed.

I once read the difference between children and adults is that children don’t want to go to bed ever, whilst adults are always wanting to sleep. You are apparently meant to know you have crossed the line into adulthood when you actually enjoy going to bed. How teenagers fit into this theory I’m not sure.

I pulled out my mothers day present from the top of our bedroom cupboard (yeah I know where it was hidden). It got forgotten on Mothers Day. Gave it to Annie and told her what had happened, so she solemnly handed it back to me and said “happy mothers day”. Then we went and opened it up, a heart shaped fondue set. The girls and I spent a lovely half hour melting chocolate and dipping in marshmallows. Before we started I was careful to tell the girls the candle and melted chocolate would be hot. Each time we dipped a marshmallow Heidi would say “careful hot”, our little Occupational Health and Safety Officer. And when I blew out the candle Heidi started singing “Happy Birthday to you”

Annie then spent the rest of the afternoon making me gifts, she decorated a box that was in the recycling, scrunched up some paper to make me a pillow, drew me a really lovely handbag - if it was a real bag I’d use it for sure. Lots and lots of love and attention, which I think is just the best mothers day gift. While we were getting ready for bed Annie very solemnly told me to be careful of my scrunchy paper pillow because the crinkles were prickly and I might hurt myself. Awww.

The girls played really well together for most of the day. And I have video proof - see!

They are playing with their Elefun toy which we put new batteries in for the party, just incase we needed more party games. It is amazing how you can breath new life into a toy by hiding it away for a few months.

Now some pictures from the party, I’m going with thumbnail size because there are so many.

I made Naomi’s German Streusel Cake but instead of using pureed apples I used my apple butter, (Hmmm that apple butter link has pictures but not the recipe which is here) it is really yummy. Try it out for yourselfs or just drool over the picture:

So I rocked the Streusel. Then I made the pink birthday cake and instead of using homebrand raspberry jelly I went for Airplane Pink Lemonade Jelly - which didn’t really work, the cake just had a slight pink tinge. And I couldn’t find the icing sugar to make the icing / frosting. So instead I melted pink marshmallows and poured that over the top of the birthday cake. Worked really well.

And here is the empty box from my fondue set - Annie turned it into a throne for S-Duck.

I watched two episodes of Stargate Atlantis today and one was Rodney In Spaaaaaace… well technically he’d come back to earth but still I love my Rodney-centric eps because it means lots and lots of the lovely FILFy David Hewlett :grin:. Took me 5 hours to watch those two episodes because I kept stopping to do stuff with / for the girls but in the time I was able to sit still for 10 minutes in a row I got a teeny tiny little bit of stitching done - no pictures though because I hope to get a little more stitching in during the evening.

I didn’t have to cook ALL DAY because we were able to feast on leftovers from the party. Feast is the right word too, I’m still so full I don’t think I’ll need to eat for the rest of the week, well unless chocolate appears in my vicinity, then all bets are off

One final photo - Heidi in “Cake, I like cake!”

So I made the “Pear and Ginger Upside-Down Cake” from SFI May issue (pg 86) and it was terrible, really really terrible. Heidi took one look at it and named it “Yukky Giant Donut Cake”, she wouldn’t eat it at all, at all, at all.

Sometime days later I woke up in the middle of the night and realised I’d forgotten to add the 200ml of sour cream required in the final step before cooking.

Right, that must be why it was so terrible thought I. As I had many many pears left (seems my girls don’t like to eat pears) I thought I’d have another go at the Yukky Giant Donut Cake. This time I carefully followed all the steps. Double checked and rechecked and did everything required of me.

Heidi did agree to try a bit of the yukky cake (thankfully not looking like a giant donut this time) but spat it out and decreed this cake was also yukky.

So I tried some. Yep, still yukky, sour cream and all.

Thus I do not present you with the recipe, just this lesson, sour cream, pears and upside-down cake do not a good mix make.

This started out as the Smoky Beef Stew from pg 54 of this months “Super Food Ideas” magazine but I didn’t have all the ingredients and as usual I modified the recipe a little.

2 tablespoons plain flour
700g Gravy Beef, trimmed, cut into cubes
Olive Oil
1 Red Onion, cut into 8 pieces
2 teaspoons Ground Garlic
3 large Carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large red Capsicum (Bell Peppers), chopped
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 teaspoon Hot Chilli Powder
400g can Diced Tomatoes
2 Beef Stock Cubes
2 cups Water
425g can Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed

Toss the beef in flour to coat.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large frypan and brown the flour covered pieces of meat.

Transfer to slow cooker / crock pot dish.

Put all the rest of the ingredients into the slow cooker / crock pot dish and cook on low for 4+ hours.

Serve with rice or mashed potato.

The Verdict - too much water, I should have only added 1 cup. Otherwise this is a great dish for those who love it hot.

Made enough for 8 lunches for hubby to take to work this fortnight and he loves it.  I’d say maybe add some sour cream if you prefer a milder flavour.

Smiley Saturday time again. If you want to join in then click on the Smiley Saturday link above and head over to Lightenings to enter your Smiley Saturday link.

I’ve been feeling a little stressed recently and when stressed I bake, it helps relieve the tension from my shoulders and the ache in my head.

So onto the baking

Yummy Zucchini Chocolate Cake

125g Butter
1 cup (packed) Brown Sugar
1/2 cup White Sugar
3 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla (I use pure vanilla extract because I’m fussy like that)
1/2 cup Yogurt (any type)
2 1/2 cups Plain Flour
3 cups (350g) grated Zucchini
1/4 cup Cocoa
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Cinnamon or Mixed Spice
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

Heat oven to 170oC. Line bottom and sides of a 25cm square pan with two crosswise strips of baking paper (or butter and flour the old fashioned way).

Beat softened butter with sugars in a mixer or food processor until light and creamy. Mix in eggs, vanilla, yoghurt and 1/2 cup of the measured flour, then mix in grated zucchini. Sift in remaining flour and the next 4 ingredients. Stir gently, then pour into the pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until centre feels firm and a skewer comes out clean. Cool on rack. Refrigerate, or freeze wrap pieces.

Source: “School Lunches and After School Snacks” by Alison and Simon Holst

The verdict - hubby and I hated this, my girls on the other hand loved it and wanted, more, more, more.

I’m in two minds about making it again because I really didn’t like it,

but the good thing about not liking it is the children get it all to themselves.

Next time I might try Kate’s Zucchini Chocolate Bread instead.

Simon’s Spiced Fruity Muffins

1 cup of Wholemeal Flour
1 cup of Plain Flour
4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon2 large Eggs
1/2 cup Canola Oil
2 x 140g pots fruit in juice
1/2 cup raisins or sultanas
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 200oC.

In a large bowl, mix the first six ingredients. In another bowl, beat eggs with a fork. Add oil and fruit (with juice). Fold into dry ingredients with the dried fruit and walnuts, until just dampened.

Spoon into 24 mini-muffin pans or 12 medium muffin pans. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Source: “School Lunches and After School Snacks” by Alison and Simon Holst

The Verdict - Everyone loved these and they freeze and reheat really well. I froze them two muffins to a ziploc bag and was able to pull them out and reheat as special treats for the girls. We made them without the walnuts due to nut allergies. I also measured out the fruit in juice from a large 1kg pot I had (cheaper that way). Have made these again a couple of times.

And Note Simon’s Spiced Fruit Muffins - DIARY FREE - Woo!

Pineapple Carrot Cake

1 cup Wholemeal Flour
1 cup Plain Flour
1 cup Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
2 cups (250g) grated Carrot
3 large Eggs
1 cup Canola Oil
1 tsp Vanilla (extract please)
225g can Crushed Pineapple

Heat oven to 160oC.

In a large bowl, mix the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, beat the eggs, oil, vanilla and pineapple (including liquid) with a fork. Stir both mixtures together, mixing until just combined.

Pour into a 23cm square baking pan lined with 2 strips of baking paper (or buttered and floured the old fashioned way). Bake for about 45 minutes until the centre feels firm and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave for 5-10 minutes before turning out.

Source: “School Lunches and After School Snacks” by Alison and Simon Holst

The Verdict - Hubby loves this! Woo and it is almost healthy :grin:. Once again I made this one without the walnuts and it works perfectly well. There is an optional cream cheese icing but as I cut up the pieces and freeze them I skipped the icing and really it doesn’t need it. Lovely and moist and too yummy for words. The hard part is not eating it all in one go and resisting temptation whilst slicing and wrapping and freezing.

And Note Pineapple Carrot Cake - DAIRY FREE - Double Woo!

There you go. My Smiley Saturday is food filled. I did heaps more baking - dairy free vanilla cake for Annies birthday cake, the pink cake as seen at Lightenings Blog, some easy cheesy muffins, Anzac biscuits and lots lots more but I think 3 recipes is enough for one blog post. Now to go find where my recipe master list disappeared to in the great blogger to wordpress move.

Hope your Saturday is Smiley too.

Lightening asked in the comments on my last post about the recipe for my Anzac slice.

It has been a while since I last posted this, so drum roll please…..

Here in all its glory is my Anzac slice recipe.

1 Cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup Plain Flour
1 Cup Brown Sugar, firmly packed
½ Cup Dessicated Coconut
125g Butter
2 Tablespoons Golden Syrup
1 Tablespoon Water
½ Teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda

1. Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut in large bowl. Combine butter, golden syrup and water in small saucepan, stir constantly over medium heat until butter is melted; stir in soda (or combine butter, golden syrup and water in microwave-proof jug, cook on HIGH for about 1 minute or until butter is melted). Stir in soda. Stir mixture into dry ingredients.

2. Place rounded teaspoons of mixture 5cm apart onto lightly greased oven trays; bake in moderately slow oven for about 20 minutes or until biscuits feel slightly firm. Use spatula to loosen biscuits on trays, cool on trays.

Makes about 25. Biscuits will keep in airtight containers for at least a week or freeze for 2 months.

I usually make a double mix of the ingredients, then instead of making individual biscuits I put the mixture into a slice tray and cook in the oven for 30 minutes on 180 degrees Celsius. Once the slice has cooled slightly I cut into squares. It comes out a bit softer and chewier this way.

Notes - I think mum got the original recipe from a Womens Weekly cookbook. Being a busy full time working mum she adapted the recipe from biscuits to a slice which saves time in the kitchen.

I’d love to hear of any other variations on the traditional Anzac biscuit.