Easy Peasy Fudge Slice

I am the sort of person that, when seen entering a kitchen, will often send an oven running in the opposite     direction. I can't cook to save myself, so this recipe is SO up my alley. No cooking required!

 First, crush up 1-2 packets of vanilla/wine/milk arrowroot biscuits, and put into a large bowl.

Then, gently melt on the stove; 1/2 cup sugar, 125g of butter and 1 tbsp cocoa. Remove from the heat, and mix in 1 egg, and 1 tsp of vanilla essence.

Poor that liquid goodness over the crushed biscuits and mix really really well, ensuring you taste test globs of it as you go... you know, to make sure it's completely mixed in and all...

Press the mixture into a flat(ish) baking tin, making sure it reaches all the corners.

In another small bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups icing sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa, 25g butter and a splash of boiling water. Mix to make icing, and slather it all over the top of the biscuits. IMPORTANT: Lick spoon/knife/spatula/spreading utensil and also the bowl afterwards.

Put the slice into the fridge for a couple of hours to set, then wollah! Remove, cut and EAT.

Ultimate Breakfast Sandwich

I was never really aware of how essential sloppy weekend breakfast food was, until we lived in Canada. Things like 'Breakfast Sandwiches' and 'Breakfast Burritos' were completely foreign to me until I was working in a cafe on Salt Spring Island and having to make and serve them to customers! I slowly became accustomed to this greasy goodness, (my heart probably not so much), and now we have started a small tradition at home on Sundays - the ultimate breakfast sandwich. That's bacon, hashbrown, cheese, egg and tomato sauce, oozing out between two pieces of white toast. Oh yea!

Belgian Biscuits

Belgian Biscuits
Mix together 1 1/2 cups brown sugar with 250g softened butter and 1 egg.

Add 2 1/2 tsp mixed spice, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 3/4 cups flour and 1 tbsp baking powder. Mix all together, then add 1 more cup of flour.

Mix again to form a dough, tip out onto the bench.

Roll out to 5mm thick, cut out circles.

Bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Spread half with jam, then sandwich them together.

Mix together 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tbsp milk and 1 tsp butter and a dash of pink food colouring to make icing. Dollop on the tops.

Yum!

This recipe is basic - I don't muck around with colouring sugar granules etc for sprinkling on top, too much feffing around and not enough eating!

For the Love (or Hate) of Water

I'm on a two week mooch holiday at the moment - mooch in that I've taken time off work, not to go anywhere in particular, just to spend some time doing some 'me' things that I haven't felt the time or energy to do lately. I'm one week in, and one of my goals for my little break was to sort my body out a little bit. Not loose weight specifically, just give it a bit of a cleanse, and a rest from the crap I put into it.

So I'm eating a lot of fruit and veges, very little meat, and drinking tons of water.
That probably doesn't seem that full on to many of you but I am a terrible emotional eater, and I can't remember when I last made it through a day without eating 6 or 7 biscuits, a couple of muesli bars and a few bags of chips, alongside all the other stuff I was eating. That's every single day. Oh, and I NEVER drink water. I hate it. Don't care what you say, it does nothing for me, and apart from the occasional glass now and then, I pretty much steer clear of it. Until this week.

I have been drinking around 8-10 glasses of it every day, and I feel really really good. Like so good, I weighed myself this morning, and 5 days in I've lost 3 kilos. That wasn't my specific intention, but it's definitely a bonus! So this thing called water that I hate so much, that I'm constantly reading is the number one thing to consume, especially if you're trying to lose weight, well, it may have just found an unlikely friend in me.

Snow Food: Pumpkin Soup

A day off work due to snow calls for some tummy warming food. Quickly fry up, boil and simmer some pumpkin, potato, carrot and onion with some chicken stock. Blend together once soft and then eat. Too easy!

Summer Lovin'

This is my all time favourite time of year. And I've missed it while I've been overseas. Because no where can I find those glorious late summer sun baked afternoons like I do in NZ. It's always those small things that I hold close to my heart, just the tid bits that I find floating in a lazy Saturday afternoon. And because I'm back living with the 'rents for the time being, it's even better. It's like I've time travelled back to the days of being a little girl - when weekends seemed to arch on forever, filled with wonderful sights, smells and projects.

I love that I can always find Mum at some point during the day, saucing or stewing or baking in the kitchen, filling the house with glorious tastes and smells.

I love that the cats seem to feel the 'weekend' spirit too, and they repeatedly alternate between lazing in a sunny spot to cooling in the shade.

I love that the washing stays on the line until the last slithers of sunshine have slipped away, leaving the towels crisp and crunchy.

I love that my Dad is always outside; always watering, or always mowing... the smells of the cool water on the hot concrete driveway and the freshly mown lawn are to die for.

And the part I love the best that I return to religiously every sunny weekend day, is my afternoon nap. Back in the bedroom I spent my first 20 years in, I lie in my crumpled duvet as the sun pours in and the breeze whispers through the open windows. I soak in it. I drift away. It's truely the thing I love the most.

*Apologies for the poor photo quality, all snapped on my phone!

Pickles and Peanut Butter

'What the *** is that!?' I hear you cry. THAT, my fellow blogettes, is pickles and peanut butter on toast. The finest breakfast there is. How do I know? Because my Grandad got me hooked on it when I was a wee dot, and wise old Grandads know everything. End of story.

Pizza, Pizza!

On every single occassion that we've been over to Victoria for the day, we've ended up eating at our favourite Irish pub there. I ALWAYS get their vegetarian pizza, and it's ALWAYS delicious.

So I thought I would try to make my own version of it at home, and it was goooooooood!

Take a wholemeal pizza base, (or even better, make one!) and spread it with pesto.

Lay baby spinach leaves over it, top with artichoke hearts, sliced red capsicum, crumbled feta and mozzarella.

Cook, and eat.

Ohhhhh yeah.

Hand Made Love

    

I have recently found the blog of Melbourne based artist, Handmadelove.

She posts about all sorts of lovely art and life related things, but one of my favourite parts is that she draws and paints what she eats every day. From what I can gather she started this for a school assignment but it looks kinda fun, and I love the little illustrations she produces!

Gluten, Lactose, Red Meat & Friends

                                           Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/libellule/3335270068/


The past few weeks have been eye-opening for us on the food front. Our lovely hosts eat very little red meat, very few products containing gluten and only drink goat or soy milk.
So of course as we are living 'under their roof' as mum would say, we eat exactly what they eat. And our bodies are starting to thank us for it.

I won't go into too many details because... well you don't want to hear about the 'ins and outs' of things, but I have noticed all sorts of positive changes in my body. My skin is clearer then it's ever been, I no longer get that crampy, bloated feeling in my stomach that I would get now and then after eating carbs, I wake up with so much energy and positivity, and I'm even noticing stranger things like I don't have a constantly sore back any more.

OK OK so we haven't eliminated gluten and red meat and cows milk completely, it still sneaks in to our diets here and there during the week, but I am starting to realise that I can't put these great changes down to anything else except diet.

It will be interesting to see how it goes for the next month and a half while we are still on Salt Spring, and I would love to hear if any of you have found similar things have happened by removing or reducing these items from your diets too.

Back to Basics

I've spent the afternoon peeling, chopping and stewing... mmm some yummy stewed apple and rhubarb coming my way...!

Strawberry Goodness

A sprinkle of castor sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar = sweet strawberry goodness... mmmmm

Lovin' This Week

Some really awesome things have been happening in the little world of 'me' this week, here are a few I will share... Meeting, re-meeting and making some great new friends. Friends of friends are so cool when they become your friends too! Even better when they've come from various places around the world. I think it's so crazy when the wee threads which are our paths in life, cross with the threads of others, even if it's just for a short while. It's magical :) Booking tickets to Canada and Europe for March next year. The next phase in our exciting trip is now just around the corner and I'm jiggling around in my chair at the moment I'm so beside myself with glee! Yummy part vegetarian BBQ with garden salad, potato salad, roast vege salad, vege kebabs... three days later I'm still drooling... thanks Mouse and Christie! Spring is well and truely here in Perth. OK so spring in Perth is like the peak of a Wellington summer, which means I am DREADING the real summer here again, I don't function too well when I have sweat patches down my back and butt and my glasses are sliding off my nose and it's dripping into my mouth... but for now the weather it purrrfect and there's nothing like waking up each morning to a crisp blue sky and that smell of the heat on the pavers outside as the temperature dial gets cranked up a notch. SO goooood. Starting to paint again for the first time since college (high school). I forgot how blimmin' time consuming it is having to layer the paint, wait for it to dry and so on. I am so used to my pencils where I can spit something out in an hour! I am re-learning the value of patience, and I think it is paying off. I will post my efforts here soon as an incentive to me to keep going with it! The last week in my current job! Even when it's super difficult to peel yourself out of the comfortable, butt moulded impression in your favourite chair, change is a really good thing. This is my last week in my current design position and next week sees me starting a new design job. I'm excited to see what I'll be up to over the next few months with the new company. I am hoping that I will be going from this design assistant position to something with a bit more responsibility, so we shall see! Becoming a brunette! The last time I attempted this I was 16 and in the midst of a hairdressing apprenticeship. I ended up looking like a very ill, pasty goth chic. I then remember a flurry of tears and desperate calls to my hairdressing friend and slowly but surely converting myself back to a blonde. However 8 years on, health issues and budget constraints have called for me to try my hand at sticking to my natural colour *gasp* and I am actually LOVING it. Woo hoo! Well that's just a few highlights from my week so far, I hope your week has provided highlights of its own!

Heaven in a Crispy Shell

I'm sorry, I just had to pinch and share this image of crispy, gooey delightfulness from Modlife... yes, it is a deep fried Cadbury Cream Egg... (Insert Homer Simpson drooling noise here!).

Num Num Num

My boy was lovely over the weekend and cooked me the yummiest brunch - this wee delight was a cross between an omlette and a fritatta sort of thing, but jeepers was it good.

I'm always so envious of the way he can whip up the scrummiest foods and never use a recipe, unlike moi, the more 'culinarily' challenged!

Cup Cup Cuppa Cakes

Oh my goodness I am completely beside myself with excitement, I have found the Woman's Day periodic table for cupcakes! You just click on each cell in the table to unveil a recipe for the most scrumptious looking cupcakes I've ever seen - rocky road, peach melba, apple, blushing grapefruit, brownie, icecream, chocolate surprise... yum yum yum yum... get baking!

Yummy Golden Goodness

I will be honest here, I'm not a very good cook, and if there's any possible way of burning something, I'll find it. But today is a fabulous day, because I made Anzac buscuits and they're super yummy! Yay! I know the photo is terrible, (can't find my camera so used the webcam) but you have to admit they look goooood!

Here is the recipe so you too can make some golden goodness...

(Recipe from Tana Ramsay's 'Real Family Food' )

1 Preheat oven to 180 degrees, & grease a baking tray (or whip out some baking paper like I do)

2 Mix in a bowl 100g flour, 100g brown sugar, 100g des. coconut, 150g rolled oats

3 Melt 100g butter with 2 tbspn golden syrup in a saucepan on low heat

4 Dissolve 1/2 tspn bicarb. soda in 2 tbspn boiling water and mix into butter and syrup

5 Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in liquid and mix

6 Pop teaspoon sized mounds onto the tray, pat down a little and bake for around 15 minutes

Wollah! Then eat :)