Recipes of mine
Easy Pizza Snack
It’s my daughter’s last day of school and she needed a shared lunch. You know what it’s like, they fill up on sweets and unhealthy snacks. Some kind Mum makes her daughter take grapes and you are grateful (no pun intended) while the rest of the kids take cake and chips. Now that’s not really lunch is it!? Today I made these little Pizza snacks for her to take, whipped them up in the morning. They took 20 minutes because (more…)
I’m a little behind on my bakes this month, so I’m trying to whizz through them. Hence these puddings. I whipped these up while dinner was cooking, potato bake (made with sliced potatoes, cream, garlic, grated tasty cheese and salt, mmmmmmm) and baked salmon (salmon covered in honey and capers,mmmmmmm). Well anyway, while all this was going on in the oven, I ventured to whip up the puddings, multitasking not always necessarily fun but necessary all the same. Speaking of being organised, I recently bought a book called the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo (it’s sold 6 million copies!!) Her method, the konmari method, is based on only keeping items in your life that “spark joy” and focusing on discarding first before you tidy or store. I have found this book revolutionary!!! It works. Here’s a link to the basics.
A sunny afternoon, I had just done some exercise, so thought I would start this recipe, then go for a shower and finish the cake in a leisurely fashion during the afternoon. Didn’t happen. Once I had started the sponge I kind of had to finish it, so it was a quick bake, needless to say I didn’t wait for the sponge to finish cooling down before I rolled it and wammo, not a good idea. It flopped and folded instead of rolled. 
Oh well, still tasted good and went down a treat. In fact, it was a public holiday so we had lunch in the sun with pancakes and fruit made by my daughter and that was delicious. The sun was bright, and it got me thinking about light, how important it is to us. It’s got so many functions, heat, illumination, guidance, protection, symbolism, spirituality, you name it. 
The moon was bright last night and as I looked at the stars I thought how everyone has their thing, their little bit of light that they want to shine into the world. Stars remind us of what we are reaching for: something bright to put into the world, but they also remind us of how far away our dreams are, how big they are, and that they are worth striving for. Now that’s deep! Onto the bake. 
Being a sunny long weekend was a good time to make bread. I weighed out the flour, ground sea salt and yeast and put them in the mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook. I then added the luke warm milk, melted butter and golden syrup and mixed them together slowly. I love that machine, so wonderful seeing the ingredients of bread combining so effortlessly. A friend of mine this weekend undertook to be the first woman to sail the Coastal Classic solo. She was more than 29 hours at the helm, sailing from Waitemata Harbour in Auckland to Russel. Now that’s something. 
Not effortless but a dream come true, and a challenge accomplished, her Dad being one of the founders of the race in 1982. Fantastic to take your skills and use them to the best of your ability to achieve goals that you set for yourself. Now that’s living! 🙂 
This little number looks easy. All I need is cherries and almonds. Seems to be a lot of cherry and almond recipes in this cookbook. I have taken up watching not only master chef, but the Great Australian Bake-off and the Great Kiwi Bake-off. Lots of cooking shows. Not complaining, for me its my sport, fun competition that’s interesting and informative. (because I don’t DO sport, unless its the Olympics of course) The Great Aussi Bake off were making quiches and I didn’t know that you were supposed to blind bake first or that a quiche is cooked to the point of having a wobble! Who knew? I was baking a quiche at the time, so I will give you my recipe for that sometime soon. It’s a good one, you don’t have to blind bake it first and the pastry is quick and easy. I whipped up this cake with 
It’s time to make crackers!!! I haven’t made crackers before, except the pumpkin seed ones from 
Having been to Ypres and seen the cemeteries and the trenches, it was a very moving experience, especially as my husband’s Grandfather fought there. “From the utmost ends of the Earth, New Zealanders came the furthest and lost the most” was quoted on the day. Auckland War Memorial Museum sees the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day at 11am on 11 November 2018. Currently crosses cover the grass field in front of the museum in remembrance of those who died. We will remember them.
Time for cake in the house! I had all the ingredients except for full-fat crème fraîche. So I decided to whip this up before heading to a book reading in the afternoon. This cake was so full of the scent and subtle flavour of cardamom, delicious and unexpected. It actually tasted like a lemon cake.
Fabulous place, you could get lost there for hours with its room after room of categorized books, historical fiction, cooking, gardening, nonfiction and the list goes on. There is a sale at the end of the month. GO 🙂
I am an avid watcher of master chef and had to buy Julie’s recipe book, the first winner of Master chef Australia as soon as it came out. It’s great. Simple honest food. And it’s true, it never fails to amaze me how lush and moist this cake turns out every time. I added grated orange zest and sliced almonds to the mixture. It’s the sort of cake you can add flavours to if you want.
I love sweet peas and cornflowers especially, so old fashioned and beautiful. Recently I bought a coriander seed pot which I have planted and have on the window sill. I am waiting for the seeds to sprout, fingers crossed.
I did an amazing cooking class in Ubud, Bali. First we went to the local market to see the fresh produce,fruits specific to the region including dragon fruit, snake fruit, hairy fruit, Jade fruit, Durian and Mangosteen. 
They were all very tasty and seemed a combination of fruits we already know, e.g.lychee with a coconut texture. I have included here two recipes from the class in Ubud at