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