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

No Gary No!

September 6 – Emily’s Chocolate Cake.

When this challenge started at the beginning of the year Emily gave me this recipe which I was really excited about. She’s made a copy of a recipe that she had from when she was a little girl which I thought was really cool. It's super cute, you can even see that she’s practiced her handwriting on it. It was finally time to cook Emily’s Chocolate Cake.

Two weeks ago, the majority of the smokers at work (and one ‘non-smoker’) decided to quit smoking together so they could help each other through the process. Some of them are doing amazingly well so, in honour of their efforts, I decided to cook a Quit Cake.

I rushed home from work and got all the cake stuff ready. Lining the tin with paper proved much more complicated that I would have ever thought, but I got it all assembled and the mixture (one of the best cake mixes I’ve ever tasted) was ready to chuck in the oven as I rushed out the door to get my waxing done. By the time I returned it smelt good but still had another 30-40 minutes left in the oven. While icing my face and cooking Bolognese for dinner I also started making the white chocolate ganache to ice the cake with. I had been told you simply heat ½ cup of cream on the stove, then add it to the 180 grams of melted chocolate and then whisk it on and off, for as long as possible.

Cam came over for dinner so while I was doing the finishing touches to the Bolognese, she was whisking my ganache.

“Um, Jo... what’s this meant to look like”

“I dunno”

“Well, it’s just turned from a nice sauce, into a curdled mess, should I stop now?”

My brilliant strategy was to just leave it and sit down for dinner. 

The cake got a bit stuck to the tin (which I broke) so some it wasn’t quite as smooth as I’d hoped, but once I put the curdled icing on top no one would be able to tell which lumps were from what! I was concerned that it might be a bit dry and overcooked, but there was no way to tell until I cut it the next day.

After Cam went home I got stuck into making the coloured icing and creating my pattern. The icing turned out really well, but I made a SERIOUS mess with the red food dye. In my wisdom, I thought I’d better take off my black work top so I wouldn’t get that dirty and just leave on my white singlet – not a good call. It’s now a white singlet with red spots.

The piping was relatively easy, lots of fun and I was pretty impressed with my skills. We don’t have a cake container, so I had to buy one this morning before work. Coles also didn’t have one so I just bought a big container (that I washed carefully so I wouldn’t ruin the stickers and will return tomorrow and continue looking for a proper cake container).

The cake was a hit at work. They were totally impressed with my skills and took photos of it and everything! I was worried it would be dry and the icing would taste gross, but I thought it was quite nice and everyone else seemed impressed... except for one colleague who loves a smoke and missed out on cake who when I showed her the picture said “oh, you’re a cunt aren’t ya?”. Charming

Tips: Be careful with the ganache, something weird happened. I also only had the cake in for about 40 minutes and it was perfect!

Music: Wolfmother