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