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