September Review - Ange Downing

Finger Food Feast!

Given the fact that I was one of Oomps’ most excited reviewers of all time, this is embarrassingly overdue. (Yes, I call her Oomps. Not because she’s orange, but because she looks like a  bit like an Oompa Loompa when she’s next to me, what with my being a giant and all.) In my defence, I can honestly say that I was slightly comatose after the amazing feast Oomps prepared and have only just recovered enough to write my review!

What can I say? I was the luckiest of all guest reviewers. When I got off the bus I could smell something amazing wafting down the street. Everyone that I passed on the street was well jealous when they saw me go into the doorway from which the mouth-watering smell was coming.

I was not disappointed. The kitchen was very busy, Jo had a finger in every pie (and eventually the oil too, as it turned out). I didn’t know where to look! There were things in the oven, on the stove, on the bench…practically every inch of the kitchen was covered in some type of amazeballs food.

My absolute favourite was Ann’s Sticky Chicken. Eff, it was good. I intend on making this recipe for every possible occasion. The sauce was absolutely amazing and the chicken was cooked to perfection. I think the next thing I tried were the ribs. I usually find them a little bit daunting and caveman-esque, but they were really good! The meat came clean off the bone and I loved them so much I ended up licking my fingers (and having seconds). The spring rolls were absolute whoppers, and delicious too. I liked that there were bean sprouts in them, it made them feel healthier somehow! I think by this time I had started to grow a food baby so I had a bit of a breather before inhaling a curry puff. They were perfectly seasoned for me, I sometimes find things a little on the spicy side but didn’t even need a sip of beer after I finished. It was at this point that I saw the bruschetta. It looked so bright and fresh that I piled it on a piece of bread and polished it off very quickly. I’m glad I found room for it because it was actually a very nice palate cleanser and left me feeling nice and refreshed after our epic feast.

It was all so good that I wanted to make sure I was actually full before I helped pack up…so I went outside for a post-meal cigarette to assess the situation and decided that if I ate another mouthful I would likely explode and my seat would become Ann’s sticky chicken couch.

Dinner was a total triumph, I totes recommend everyone making at least one of these dishes for Christmas lunch because everybody will love you. Thanks Oomps!

March (otherwise known as December) Review - David and Pam Gammie

Donna's Vegetarian Lasagna

(Dad)
OK Jo’s cooking, look out!

Stay out of the kitchen, or stay in the kitchen? This is the question. Fathers can tend to take over so maybe stay out until asked is the best policy.

Now for the real review. Jo began by chopping things up all over the place and, as there was no blood, things were obviously going well.

The capsicum got the blow torch treatment and the béchamel looked like a bit of a sloppy roux.

A review of the cook’s technique is probably not what is required here.

The lasagne was even better than I expected even though I love egg plant and pumpkin - and who doesn’t like capsicum?

The surprise was the combined taste of the ingredients. The capsicum, with skin removed, was really sweet and a bit of a surprise. The cheese was by no means overpowering and the lasagne sheets were tender and seemed to just blend in with the whole.

So, the whole dish was delicious. There was not one moment where I thought, “Where is the meat?”

Do I want the recipe? Will I cook it? Absolutely, I do, I will.

Did I eat any salad with it? No way, why would a discerning diner bother with salad when there is more of Donna’s Vegetarian Lasagne to eat.

Sorry Donna I couldn’t write Lasagna.

(Mum)
I never choose to eat Vegetarian, in fact I avoid it and never even read the vegetarian part of a menu. But this was delicious. The capsicum and pumpkin were really nice. We now have it frozen in meal-size portions and I know I will love having it for lunch when I’m back at work next year.

Thank you lovely Jo – and the salad was delicious too.

For the Vegetarian Garfield

23rd December 2011 - Donna's Vegetarian Lasagna

As the year comes to an end, so too does my cooking challenge, so I decided to keep up the momentum and cook dinner for Mum and Dad. That’s a massive exaggeration. Dad sent me a message saying “you cooking for us tomorrow night? Send me a list and I’ll go to the shops” so I looked through my book and found something to cook.

It was a risky move, deciding on Donna’s Vegetarian Lasagna. As soon as I told Mum what it was, it was clear she wasn’t thrilled, but I pushed on anyway. Dad had indeed done all the shopping for me so as soon as I got home I got straight into it. Everything needed roasting so I did the pine nuts first and just put them in the oven while it was heating up. After about ten minutes I took them out and they weren’t even warm. I called Dad over as I was a bit confused as to why his oven wasn’t heating up and he pointed out to me that I’d in fact only put the light on in the oven and not actually turned it on. Rookie mistake. I did eventually get them sorted out, I put the pumpkin in the Webber to roast and the eggplant in the oven. The best part, was the capsicum. The recipe said to grill it to burn the skin and then peel the skin off. Instead of doing this, Dad got the blow torch out and I got to blast the shit out of them. It was brilliant.

Once everything was roasted, I made my béchamel sauce (no mistakes even though this is meant to be the hardest part!), layered it up and chucked it in the oven. It looked really good and I was pretty excited about it.

It was in there for about 45 minutes all up. I made a little salad to go with it and put some bread on the table and we were good to go!

Since some of my friends are slackers and promised to do reviews that they never did, I’d lined Dad up to be my supplementary reviewer. I’m still going to get all 12 reviews, it’s just not technically one a month anymore – not my fault. Anyway, Dad was pretty keen to play his part and Mum said she’d write a bit too (as long as I didn’t take a picture of her). 

Luckily, they were loving my meal sick! Mum said she hated the idea of a vegetarian meal, but she was waxing lyrical about how good it was. From the first mouthful Dad was very impressed! He didn’t even bother with the salad or the bread. They just raved about it non-stop. Pretty sure I was the Golden Child  for at least a good half hour!

Dad was more than keen to not let me down with the review, so as Mum and I began packing up the table, he had his laptop out and was typing out the review. It was done before we’d even packaged up the lasagne (into individual portions) for freezing!

I was pretty impressed with myself – how could I not be - and headed out to look at the Christmas lights. Quite a night.

Tips: Some of the pieces of eggplant got a bit burnt – they weren’t good for the lasagne but tasted amazing as little chips!

Music: A playlist of Christmas Songs


I'll upload the recipe when I can figure out how!

My Goodness, My Guiness

Steak, Guiness and Cheese Pie by Pete and Jamie and Chocolate Pots

It was time for my December review and The Pig was kind enough to invite himself over and offer to eat my food and write a review. I knew I wouldn’t have much time on Wednesday, so I decided to do most of the cooking on Tuesday and decided on a Steak, Guiness and Cheese Pie by Pete (and Jamie) and Chocolate Pots (whatever they are).

I rushed home from work and was able to get the Chocolate Pots cooked before I headed out for dinner. I have these ramekins that have little plastic lids so I was pretty keen to use them. I read in the recipe that the mixture needed to be covered with foil before you put the pots in the oven so I thought I’d use the lids instead. Thank god I couldn’t find the lids so just foiled the pots and put them in the oven. The lids clearly would have melted and would not have been fun! The foil stuck to the top a bit, but peeled off pretty easily and it was all done.

After dinner I came home and started cooking the pie. I chopped up all the ingredients and started frying them. It wasn’t until halfway through doing this that I read the recipe and realised that the next steps were to put the pie in the oven for 90 minutes, mix it, put it back in the oven for 60 minutes, then assemble it with pastry and bake for 45 minutes. This was at about 10:30pm.

It would have been pretty easy to change the menu and do something else – but The Pig had requested (and already given) menu approval, I’d already brought all the ingredients, and I’d already cooked half of them. Coles does let me return a lot of stuff – but I fear they might not be so generous with half cooked ingredients.

So instead, I followed the recipe and put the mixture in the oven, set an alarm and went to bed. I even had to leave a note for Sian that said

“I’ve left the oven on, on purpose. I’ll turn it off some time after 1am”.

Ridiculous. I had some sleep, got up, mixed it, slept, got up, mixed it and chucked it in the fridge.

The next day it all went pretty smoothly. I forgot to grease the pie dish so the pastry got stuck to the bottom and we basically ate a pot pie (but then when I was packing up we got to peel all the half soggy half crispy pastry off the bottom and eat it with tomato sauce. Amazing). I burnt myself twice which is nothing unusual and I also melted the pictures on my oven mits, onto the pan. Opps.

The pie looked amazing and was actually really nice. I was worried about the meat after it being in the oven that long but I was quite impressed. We had it with chips and peas and were well happy. The Pig went back for seconds and took the leftovers home so I’m pretty sure he enjoyed it.

I put the Chocolate Pots back in the oven for 10 minutes and served them with icecream. They were OK but a kinda weird texture – I think that’s what they’re meant to be like and I still had no trouble scoffing it all until I felt sick I was so full. I may have snapped a spoon in half while serving the ice-cream but my modesty prevents me from mentioning this display of extreme strength.

All in all, I’m deeming it a success. We watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Eurotrip and 30 Rock, talked a whole heap of shit and ate A LOT! Very nice night all up. Bring on the review!

Tips: Read the recipe before you start cooking – timing is everything. If you’re using this recipe – read it with a magnifying glass – Pete didn’t realise he could take up more than one page in my book!

Music: Powderfinger (Pots); The Ricky Gervais Show (Pie)

The Chocolate Pots recipe is here

A Fudge load of sugar.

26^th November Sand Cake with Strawberries and Cream and 2^nd December Fudge

This is so late now, it’s hardly worth it – but it’s almost the end of the year (and the challenge) so I can’t slacken off now.

After a bit of a break, I found myself at home for a whole 5 hours with nothing to do – this doesn’t ever happen! So after trying to watch some DVD’s and realising I was the most restless and bored person in the world – I decided to make a cake (or two). I found a recipe for a ‘Sand Cake’ which sounds really unappealing, but I had all the ingredients so I decided to give it a go.

It was ridiculously simple… and looked it. It was just a plain cake and I had no idea what the hell I was meant to do with it. I decided to top it with Strawberries and Cream to make it look a bit better. I had a bit of trouble converting ounces and pounds to grams which didn’t help my budget and meant I returned a shitload of stuff to Coles the next day (they refunded me more than they should of though so I can’t complain).

The cream for some reason wouldn’t whip and didn’t get as thick as it should have, but I got one batch thick enough that it would sit on top of the cake and I coated that with the strawberries. The other cake I stuck in the freezer along with the extra cream and thought I’d take that home for mum and dad.

The Pig is on a diet (fool) so I took the cake into work. These people clearly aren’t on diets as that same day they also had another cake, Rocky Road and Mars Bar Slice. My cake was really dense, but it got eaten. Unfortunately I didn’t remember to pack up my cake container before I went home that afternoon and by the next day it was missing and no one has seen it since. Jerk offs.

The other cake went to Mum and Dad and they seemed to enjoy it. Even though the cream still wouldn’t whip and they just had to pour it on the cake – they said it was nice and that they’ll “freeze it and eat it later” hmm….

The next weekend I was home again to see my new obsession (formally known as my friends’ baby Flynn) and decided to make some fudge. I’ve never made fudge before, but it looked easy enough and Dad was on standby to help me so I gave it a red hot go. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make Chocolate or Plain Fudge so I decided to make both. Unfortunately I didn’t think this trough and combined the milk and the sugar in one bowl and then had to split it back up again for my two batches.

It was really easy and I got to play with a candy thermometer which was good fun. I’d never heard of “small ball” (too many jokes to bother) but I figured out how to boil to small ball and it was fine. Was really simple and seemed to work surprisingly well.

The Plain (Peta’s favourite colour) fudge was a really weird texture but seemed to taste OK. The Chocolate one turned out really well and even looks like proper fudge. I think the difference in texture is due to me splitting the mixture in half and not getting the proportions right. Oh well.

I think they both just taste like sugar and nothing else – but other people seem to like it. I left some for Mum and Dad and took the rest for The Pig (diets going well!).

I amused myself while cooking by singing to myself. Fun for the whole family!

Tips: Cake – Even using an electric whisk wasn’t enough to get the cream to the right texture so maybe just buy whipped cream? It’s not as nice but will look better. Fudge – Boil to Small Ball. It’s fun to say and do.

Music: 30 Rock/ my voice

The cream I attempted was 8 ounces cream cheese, ½ cup of sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/8 tsp salt, 2 cups heavy cream. 

\

1 lb. granulated sugar, 1/4 pt. milk, 2 oz. butter,1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Piece of Cake

Rosies Macadamia and Honey Cheese Cake - 18 November 2011

After another busy week it was time to get cooking and I decided to cook a Christmas Cake. I’m super organised and excited for Christmas as usual so thought it would delicious to give a cake a go. However, once I started writing my list of ingredients I realised it was getting kinda expensive and my Christmas organisation has left me broke a month before schedule… so I scrapped that and decided on Rosie’s Macadamia and Honey Cheese Cake.

That night I was going out to Karaoke for my friend’s birthday and was complaining about the fact that I had nothing to do between five (when I finished work) and nine (when I ‘had to’ arrive drunk at Karaoke). So, I wrote a list of things that needed doing; washing, change sheets, clean, drink/cook etc and was feeling ready for my night in.

I started off by opening a beer (beer training has paid dividends!) and starting on the cheese cake. Cooking the cake was relatively easy, I wasn’t sure how you know when macadamias are cooked, but just waited for them to go brown. Everything else was totally straight forward and easy. It got ridiculously hot in our tiny tiny kitchen and I was not loving that. I didn’t really have time to get changed as I was right in the middle of the process, but for some unknown reason I decided the best way to solve this problem, was to reinstate pants down Friday.

I must have looked like a fool! I was dancing around, listening to The Prodigy, cooking a cheese cake and eating nachos – not hot. It was good fun though. I again surprised myself with my own piggishness and stupidity as a not once, but twice caught myself licking the mixture of the mixer blades. Not a smart move.

Anyway, I chucked the cake in the oven and sat down for a rocking night of Guitar Hero. This was potentially the best decision I’ve ever made! I was loving life and after taking 40 minutes to drink my first beer while making the cheese cake, the other 5 went down in no time! It was great, I’d forgotten how much I love some of the Guitar Hero songs! I call them 'Guitar Hero songs' as I am naïve enough to have never heard some of them until I started playing (it’s like that awkward moment when people realise I haven’t seen Star Wars and say things like “Is she joking? How can she not know what a Storm Trooper is?!” which happened this week).

Eventually the cake was ready – much browner than I would have hoped for, but ready all the same. I chucked it in the oven and went out to Karaoke. Rocked it – how could I not!? When I got home at about 5:30 the next morning – I realised I hadn’t done anything on my list except ‘Drink/Cook’ which meant that I had to just curl up in a dirty sheet from the floor of my room as I hadn’t made my bed yet. Oh well.

I took the cake  home for Mum and Dad and Dad said it was nice. I tasted it and thought it was ok, but wasn’t the biggest fan ever (to be honest I wasn’t the biggest fan of much that day).

I didn’t get a great photo as Dad was being totally impatient (must have been really hungry) and kept snatching it away while I was trying to set up the picture, but it’ll do.

  
Tips: It was only in the oven for about 50 minutes but next time I’d maybe keep a closer eye on it and cover it so the brown doesn’t go too brown.

Music: The Prodigy.

Showgirls Delight

28 October 2011 - Keely's Showgirls Delight Lemonade Scones and Vegetarian Ravioli.

After a busy week back at work I was hanging out for my long weekend with Carly and the chance to do my October review. She had just finished her exams so was officially on holidays so I decided to pretend I was on holidays too - not always the smartest decision, but always a fun one. I decided to make her a feast, consisting of Showgirls Delight Lemonade Scones and Vegetarian Ravioli.

I prepared the pasta the night before as this recipe has the pasta resting in the fridge for a few hours. My first batch was quite disastrous. I could not get the texture right and had no idea why. I’ve made pasta before and it was fine, but this one just was ridiculously dry and not working. I remembered last time that when one effed up Sian added an extra yolk to the mixture and that worked, but this didn’t work for me. It made it a gross mess and it got chucked out. I started again and it was again really dry, but this time I added more oil and it seemed to be at least passable. I chucked it in the fridge ready to do the next day.

 

I also was pre-preparing my scones. Carly is like a nanna in the way she loves scones, so I decided to give them a red hot go. I’d left my book in Kiama, so had to find another recipe that unfortunately didn’t have Keely’s helpful tips – but it seems the same otherwise.

I followed the recipe exactly (well as exactly as I do) and it was OK. I think in my ‘exact measurements’ I put in too much lemonade so the mixture was really runny so I was chucking in extra flour like there was no tomorrow. It stayed a really sticky mess, so in the end I just rolled them up and chucked them in the oven. I didn’t have the skills, tools or inclination to try and make them in the right shape, so they just went in and a glumpy mess and that was it. Now I read Keely’s recipe I think I could do it better if I had her directions with me.

I baked them for about 20 minutes all up but I checked them constantly as I had no idea what they were meant to be like. They also were all different sizes so I wanted to make sure the bigger ones had enough time to cook. Eventually they looked fine and I just took them out and hoped that they were cooked.

Carly arrived the next afternoon and, after whipping the cream into a frenzy, we sat down for some delicious scones. They were cooked on the inside and were pretty yum! We faffed around for a bit before it was time to get moving on dinner.

The filling of the Ravioli was really simple, smelt delicious and was no trouble at all. The pasta however, was not so easy. We rolled it out which was fine and fun as always while we talked endlessly about nonsense and somehow managed to cover the apartment in flour. It was when we got to assembling the ravioli that we ran into some problems. We had no idea what they were meant to look like! What shape they were, how big they were – nothing. It was a really long tedious process, but we kind of assembled them in to some weird shapes in a range of sizes and got on with the cooking.

Some of them were disastrous, particularly the bigger ones that didn’t cook because the pasta was too thick around the sides. We had enough that looked OK though so we sat down to feast on them. It was really nice! We both loved the taste sick, but when it came to the presentation and the assembling of the ravioli, this message Sian had left us earlier definitely rang true.

Overall, it was really yum. Next time I’ll make the same filling but not blend it up, then I’ll just make the pasta into fettuccini or something and eat it like that. Ravioli is way too much effort. I think Carly was sufficiently impressed (apart from thinking I’m slightly retarded) – but I guess we’ll see when the review is in!

Tips: Find out how to make ravioli – at least what shape it is.

Music: Shuffle of all music on my iPod.

Vegetarian Ravioli Recipe

Cookies with a chance of Meatballs

26 October 2011 - Baked Greek Lamb meatballs and Cookies and Cream Slice

After a massive break for the best wedding ever and all the subsequent events that that entails, I was back in the kitchen this week. I (in the ambitious way I do) decided to cook two things at once - Baked Greek Lamb Meatballs and Cookies and Cream Slice.

I found the meatball recipe in a Coles Good Food Magazine and it looked seriously delicious! To be honest I start salivating over any picture of baked vegetables, and this was no exception.

It really was as simple as chopping it up, forming the meatballs, and chucking it in the oven. I changed some of the vegetables as I don't like zucchini so used carrot and there was only one of me so I only used one onion (in total) and one potato. I checked it and turned it after 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. The meat seemed to be cooked (well the outside was brown, I dunno how to tell apart from that!) as did most of the vegetables, but the potato was being a douche and refusing to cook. I ended up chucking the potato in the microwave for about 5 minutes and was good to go.

 

It was delicious. The fetta and the tomatoes were particularly yum and I was quite impressed!

The cookies and cream slice was also pretty simple. The base was ridiculously simple (after I threw a slight tantrum about Sian losing part of my mixer - when it was actually just in the cupboard) and I mixed the filling up and chucked it in the fridge. I used low fat cream and low fat Philly - not that it will make any difference to me as I generally don’t eat it and force feed it to The Pig and my colleagues... I’m just that good a friend! I had read on taste.com that if you don’t use full fat stuff, you need to add extra gelatin. I added about 1/2 teaspoon extra, but I think it needed even more still. I didn't have the right size tin so I used one that was too small. This resulted in the filling being thinker than is necessary, but it was OK. I left it in the fridge for a day and topped it with some chocolate.

I forgot to take proper photos of the slice. Letting the team down!

The filling was quite runny, so it didn't slice up very well and sit in the right shape, but it tasted OK. It was SUPER sweet! The Pig scoffed it and said it was yum (he in fact said it was "brilliant" and "beautiful") and I took the rest to work where it didn't last long and I got some more compliments! I'm pretty sure they'll just eat anything I give them though. I'll make it again but add extra gelatin so it sticks together properly.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my efforts after my time off.

Tips: Cut the potato wedges small so they cook in time; purchase the right sized slice tin.

Music: the sweet (aka nonsensical) sounds of mine and Sian's conversation (with Friends in the background)

Cookies and Cream Slice recipe

Baked Greek Lamb Meatballs recipe

Bye Bye Miss Apple Pie

Julies Brownies with White Chocolate and Apple and Rhubarb Pie - 4^th & 6^th  October 2011

Since I’ve been totally killing it with desserts lately, I thought I’d continue the trend and give two more a crack. I started with Julies Brownies with White Chocolate for The Pig and then made Apple and Rhubarb Pie for the Williams’.

The Brownies looked pretty easy and I had a lot of the ingredients already so was pretty confident I’d nail it. I decided to listen to The Killers and got to work.

There was nothing too complicated in this recipe... except for somehow managing to not eat all the chocolate and mixture as I was cooking. I was failing miserably at this so went to my full proof method of eating gum so I stop eating everything else. It didn’t work – I found myself holding the gum in my hand while I tried the mixture and then my gum started to taste like chocolate. Oh well.

I got the brownies in the oven with no problems and not too much confusion. I wasn’t confident about what a Brownie is meant to look like, so when I poked it to see if it was ready the entire thing deflated to about half the size which was kind of worrying! I left them in a bit longer but after they’d been in there ten minutes longer than the recipe said, I just decided to take them out. In total I probably had them in the oven for 40 minutes, then I took them out, then I put them back in for another 10 minutes with the oven off (but still hot).

By this time, The Killers were on their third repeat and for some reason my iPod played Somebody Told Me about four times in a row! If I wasn’t such an Olympics junky and it didn’t remind me of the Athens Olympics I would’ve thrown it!

Anyway, I thought they were probably undercooked but by the time they’d cooled down I realised they were cooked and weren’t so runny anymore. 

I gave some to The Pig (who ate them all in one day – Pig is right!) and I took the rest to work. Work loved them sick! People told me the consistency was perfect and Julie said they were better than when she makes them! Brilliant success!

Two days later I was back in the kitchen again to cook an Apple and Rhubarb Pie to take to the Williams’ (it was the least I could do after ringing up and saying “can I come to your house on Friday and can you please cook me pizza?”).

It looked pretty easy but I was a bit sceptical about making my own pastry. I didn’t have the right size pie dish so just used a smaller one and figured it couldn’t make too much difference! Preparing everything was really easy, I cooked the fruits a bit longer than recommended as the rhubarb still seemed really tough and then I chucked it all in the dish.

The pastry was a bit more complicated. I got it all combined and it was in the fridge resting. It wasn’t until I took it out and went to roll it that I remembered we don’t have a rolling pin. Instead I wrapped the spray and cook in gladwrap and decided to use that. It seemed to work OK. The pastry was quite crumbly and would get holes in it as a rolled it. It was hard to shape it in a circle, but eventually I just decided to use what I had! I chucked it on the dish and tried to seal it up but accidentally poked a few holes in it and made a mess. I felt like I was overworking the pastry so I just stopped and put it in the oven.

Because the dish was too small and the pastry wasn’t sealed, the pie of course over flowed through the whole oven and made quite the mess. I decided to pretty much ignore this and just leave it to finish cooking. It looked pretty good when I took it out (I really went for the rustic look) and I was relatively happy with myself!

It went down OK at the Williams’. We had pizza for dinner (I ate an entire one) and then we had two desserts as Jess had made one as well. They seemed to like it, but haven’t seen me in ages so maybe wouldn’t have told me if they didn’t! I was so full I thought I might vomit, but managed to fit the two desserts in an act of sheer determination (probably not the best move as I had a 9am Bridesmaid dress fitting – but you win some you lose some).

I took the rest home for Mum and Dad and they enjoyed it. When I tried it the next day (without a belly full of pizza) it was actually quite nice.

Tips: Watch the Brownies as the consistency is tricky and it changes quite a lot as they cool down; Use the right size pastry dish and try not to work the pastry too much

Music: The Killers; Washington.
Apple and Rhubarb Pie

With a Big Mac Pattie Whack

29th September 2011 - Sarah's Vege Burgers

After more than a week off to recover from the Finger Food Feast  it was time to get back in the kitchen! I had cooked some Mars Bars Slice (also Sarah's recipe) for my little Midge and The Pig, but it was so insanely easy I didn't think it should count. So, I finally decided to try Sarah's Vege Burgers.

I was thinking about these burgers and psyching myself up all day, but by the time the day actually ended... I didn't really feel like them. I was determined, so still cooked them, they just weren’t actually burgers as I didn't feel like bread.

There was nothing too complex in this recipe, it was simply a matter of getting everything ready and combining the ingredients. I was slightly skeptical about the whole thing, but once I'd mashed the chickpeas and combined the ingredients it was starting to look good! The recipe accidentally omitted to tell me when to add the egg and the ingredients list didn't mention bread crumbs, but I'm now THAT good at cooking that I sorted it out! Perhaps not quite as well as I could have, as absolutely fell apart in the pan, but presentation isn't everything... I love food that looks like vomit!

 I think that I had the pan too hot as some of them burnt a little, but that could have been because I was somewhat distracted. When I say burnt a little, I mean they burnt enough that the smoke detector went off. And when I say distracted, I mean I was watching Toy Story 3.

Anyway, I had sweet potato and salad with the patties which was delicious and I had mayonnaise instead of sweet chilli sauce. I was very happy with both of these decisions.

It was a great night and I was well spent so headed for bed. It was until I got there, that I discovered it was only 7.30 and realised what a loser I was. So, being hardcore I stayed up and watched The Bachelorette until I could feel confident going to bed at 9pm. Still a loser.

Tips: Don't have the pan too hot and add more breadcrumbs or egg or whatever it is that makes them stick together.

Music: I watched Toy Story 3

Finger Lickin' Good

19^th September 2011 – Ann’s Sticky Chicken, Arvid’s Ribs, Ann’s Curry Puffs, Bruschetta, Vegetarian Spring Rolls.

It was time for another showcase and this time I was cooking for Ange who was potentially my most excited reviewer of all time! I decided to make her a meal out of appetisers... a Finger Food Feast! Ange was really excited as she’s been asking to be my reviewer for months and the time was finally here. The menu was planned and I was going to tackle five new recipes at once (Sticky Chicken, Curry Puffs, Ribs, Vegetarian Spring Rolls and Bruschetta). Ambitious to say the least!

I started by preparing Ann’s Sticky Chicken on Saturday afternoon before I headed out to a hens night. It was really simple and I pretty much followed the recipe (except instead of buying sherry I just used some apple juice we already had in the fridge). I had Yves Klein Blue pumping and was loving life (particularly snapping the chicken in half and getting to cut the wings into two pieces – it was lucky Sian wasn’t there as I was displaying some very questionable/dangerous knife skills). It was totally easy, marinated over night, chucked them in the oven for 45 minutes and it was all done. So easy and so delicious – and the whole thing only cost $4!

The next day I had allowed a whole day for cooking and getting everything ready. It was the nicest weather ever so I really wanted to be outside, but I sacrificed that wish and stayed in the kitchen. Another Holen recipe, Arvid’s Ribs, was next and was also really easy. I put oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on the ribs and cooked them for 45 minutes at 190 then 45 minutes at 160. I then added the sauce (I used seeded mustard instead of buying American) and cooked them for another 20 minutes on 205. It was totally easy. 

The third and final Holen dish was Ann’s Curry Puffs. I’ve eaten these on a number of occasions so I was pretty keen to give them a go and see if I could do them justice. The mixture asks for the potatoes and carrots to be finely chopped, combined with the mince (I used chicken) and ‘cook’. This sounds simple, but this caused me probably 20 or more minutes of confusion! I wasn’t sure how much to cook it. I didn’t want to have crunchy potato in the Curry Puffs, but I also was trying to be careful about overcooking the mince. In the end I faffed around with it for ages and then just decided I’d leave it and hope the potato would cook in the oven. The assembling of the actual puffs was also quite confusing to me and I cut the pastry the wrong shape so couldn’t wrap them properly (even though my recipe includes pictures of how to do it)! Not the sharpest tool in the shed. By the second sheet I had it all sorted out and they were all wrapped and ready to chuck in the oven for 20 minutes. They came out golden and brown and I was quite impressed with myself!

The Spring Rolls weren’t so easy. Firstly, I couldn’t find any Chinese Cabbage so I substituted that with Bean Sprouts in a bold and quite stupid move. Secondly, I couldn’t find any Frozen Spring Roll wrappers like the recipe requested so I used rice paper rolls instead. The recipe seemed relatively easy, chop everything up and then wrap it, but I tend to make things complicated. I had intended to oven bake them but I ended up having to deep fry them because they were rice paper rolls. The smell and sight of the oil made me feel truly ill but I’m that good a host I just pushed through! It was all going fine, Sian was helping me (and I was making sure I blotted them with paper towel like mad) while Bald and Ange were talking shit and waiting for everything to get ready. In a way that only I can muster, I then put a spring roll in the oil, stopped paying attention to what I was doing, and put two of my fingers in the ridiculously hot oil. I cannot believe that this shit happens to me (or that I do that to myself). Idiot. Bald – being the sensitive person that he is – said “oh no, you didn’t spoil the oil did you?” Oh, the wit. At the time it felt like the nail might burst off my finger, but it doesn’t seem to have even left a mark or anything. Weird.

The final dish was Bruschetta. I wanted to try Gianna’s Broad Bean Bruschetta, but I couldn’t find Broad Beans (and don’t know what they are) so decided I’d just make a tomato one instead. I used garlic, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and dressed it with red wine vinegar and a bit of honey. I toasted some French Stick and that was it. It was totally easy, but my favourite dish (potentially because I knew it didn’t have 75 million litres of oil in it like everything else).

 After preparing, cooking and cleaning for probably 6 hours of the day, I was pretty happy that it was all ready on time and we sat down to eat. Everyone oohed and aahed and said all the right things (except me, I was negative, but I was allowed to be because I cooked it).

I thought the Sticky Chicken was amazing and I don’t know why we don’t make it all the time. I’ll be making that from now on for every BBQ I attend. I don’t think I really like Ribs as I didn’t enjoy them last time either, but everyone else seemed to scoff them so they can’t be too bad. The curry puffs were yum but I would maybe make them smaller next time. I didn’t really think the spring rolls had any flavour but I guess they were ok if you covered them in sauce. I was super impressed with my Bruschetta. Mainly I just sat back and watched the food disappear as everyone else enjoyed the feast – that was by far the best bit.

Bald was lucky enough to get the biggest lunch in the history of the world (sticky chicken about 12 ribs and 4 curry puffs) and the rest of the curry puffs were gobbled up by my colleagues so at least all that food isn’t hanging around at our house.

What is hanging around is the most revolting oily smell I’ve ever wiffed. It’s disgusting and our house now smells like the cooking rooms at high school. (Also my hand smells like oil which isn’t nice, but can probably be attributed to the fact that I tried to deep fry my fingers!)

Ange seemed thoroughly impressed and told me I should start a catering business. I would consider it but the world’s best phone number has already been taken. 

I wish this was a joke but it’s not. I drive past it at least once a week and can’t help but laugh out loud every single time!

Anyway, longest blog ever, most food cooked in one evening and hopefully a raving review to come!

Tips: Don’t put fingers in hot oil.

Music: Playlist of music Ange made (about 7 hours of various music on my computer).

 Vegetarian Spring Rolls