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