Sea Salt & Rosemary Focaccia

I like bread a lot. In fact, I'd go so far as saying I was all about it.
I think I've only made bread once before, but this was different.
Making bread is much easier that I imagine it to be. Even though it's all kneading and rising, bread isn't hard. Probably because it's all kneading and rising. I'd love to make bread all the time, but I don't have the time to wait around for it to rise. How did they do it in the old days, when they had fresh bread in the morning? You'd have to get up three hours before you wanted breakfast. Three Hours! I couldn't do that. I like to have tea and toast as soon as I'm dressed. It's just how I roll.



This bread was a lazy weekend activity. I made the bread in the morning and we ate it for lunch, stuffed with grilled haloumi and fresh salad. In that respect, it kind of requires planning, because the bread has to rise for 3 hours in total. But this does mean that you can do whatever you want while you're waiting, because the bread doesn't need babysitting. You could visit your parents, go for a run, make a dress, clean your house, play with your cat. The possibilities are endless!



The toppings for this focaccia are also endless. This one had roasted garlic, fresh rosemary, pink sea salt, and olive oil. I think the garlic was unnecessary, and if I made this again, I wouldn't use it. Garlic olive oil might be better. I think chopped olives or chilli might be nice. I also think that the focaccia should be baked thinner than I made it. You don't even really need a square tin to bake the bread in, you could just spread the dough out onto a flat metal tray and make a really thin, rustic bread. Drizzled with oil and sprinkled with sea salt, this would be the perfect accompaniment to summer salad and enjoyed with friends at a barbecue.

Sea salt & rosemary focaccia:
Adapted slightly from Food On Paper

If you want to use roasted garlic as well, simply wrap three unpeeled garlic cloves in al-foil, and bake at 200C for 30 minutes. Chop and sprinkle onto the dough before baking.
Use the best sea salt flakes you can. I used Murray River pink salt flakes.

¼ teaspoon caster sugar

1 sachet of instant dry yeast (7g)

400ml warm water

500g plain flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

Olive oil, Fresh or dried rosemary & Sea salt flakes to top. 

In a small bowl, mix the sugar, yeast and 60ml of warm water. Cover and leave in a warm spot for 5 minutes for the yeast to activate (it should become foamy and almost rise up. If it doesn't, start again).

In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, yeast mix, and half the warm water. Stir with a spoon to combine.

Add more water as necessary, until a solid dough starts to form. You may not need all the water, so add a bit at a time.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead the dough for 8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl (a glass or plastic bowl is good because you can see it rising). Cover with cling wrap and a damp tea towel. Leave in a warm, draught free place for 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in size.

When the dough has risen, take off the cling wrap and the towel and punch the dough down with your fist to remove any air bubbles. 

Line a baking tray with baking paper (the smaller the tray, the higher the bread after its baked) and put the dough into the tray. Spread the dough out with your fingers, reaching to the corners of the tray.

Cover the tray again with cling wrap and the tea towel and leave in a warm place for another 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Take the wrappings off the dough and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt flakes and rosemary.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden and crisp to the touch.

Drizzle with a little more olive oil before serving. 

Beef stroganoff

When it rains all day and the wind howling under the door sounds like this, all I want to do is eat creamy things for dinner. Am I the only one that feels like this?

I couldn't get a very good photo because I just wanted to eat my dinner already, but it's basically diced steak cooked with cream, tomato paste, mustard and mushrooms. I used a porterhouse steak chopped up, because that was what I had, but you could probably use already chopped beef, or some other kind of steak.

I don't know why I chose to make this dish, really. It's not something that I would normally make. I don't know why though, because it was really quick and tastes really good.
I think you should make it and then watch multiple episodes of Jeeves and Wooster.

Beef Stroganoff.
Serves 2-3
Recipe adapted from taste

1 tbsp plain flour
400g porterhouse steak, trimmed and diced (about 2 medium steaks)
20g butter
1 brown onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
200g button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup red wine
1/2 cup beef stock
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsps dijon mustard
1/4 cup sour cream

Dust steak with flour and season with salt and pepper.
Heat some olive oil in a large fry pan and brown the steak in 2 batches. Set aside.
In the same pan, fry the onions and mushrooms in butter. Cook until soft.
Add garlic and paprika, cook for a minute.
Add the wine, stock, tomato paste and mustard. Bring to the boil and the reduce heat.
Add the beef and any juices and heat through. I like my steak still pink in the middle, so I didn't cook for that long, but if you're more of a well done kind of person, cook for a bit longer.
Stir through the cream, bring to a simmer and serve immediately.
Serve with pasta or rice or mashed potatoes.

Olive savoury muffins.

I'm the kind of person who needs to bake things. I don't know what it is, but I get this urge to bake. I can't help it. And when I don't want to make something sweet, I have to make something else.

A little while ago I went to the bakery with my friend and bought a savoury muffin. It was full of pumpkin and roast capsicum and sun-dried tomatoes and olives. Yum.

These savoury muffins aren't quite that full of things, but they still taste great. They're a mix-and-bake sort of a muffin. The cheese on top makes them a little bit tastier. And they're super good straight out of the oven with some homemade relish on the top. These muffins are crumbly and moist.
Here comes lunch!

Olive savoury muffins.
Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's 'The cooks companion' 
Makes 12


220g self-raising flour
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup oil (I used olive)
70g pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
grated parmesan, to top the muffins

Preheat oven to 180C and grease a muffin tin.
Put flour, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper (to taste) into a large bowl.
Make a well in the centre and pour in milk, oil and the egg.
Mix everything together until just combined.
Fold in the olives.
Spoon into the muffin tins and top with grated parmesan.
Bake for 20-25 mins.

Beetroot soup with sour cream and chives.

I like the word borscht.

I'd like to say that this is a recipe for borscht, but if I said that, I would be lying. This is a recipe for beetroot soup.
Not that I'm complaining. Who wouldn't want to eat that bowl of purple soup?
The sour cream helps to cut through the sweet, earthy beetroot, and the chives add lovely texture and (more) colour. The soup really needs the sour cream and the chives to make it perfect. Otherwise it's just a big bowl of colour.

Although I'd like to call this borscht, it really isn't. And I definitely would not tell any Russian that I made borscht. But you can call it that if you want.

It sure does make it sound fancy.



Beetroot soup with sour cream and chives
serves four


7 small/medium organic beetroot
1 litre vegetable stock
1 medium potato
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
chives and extra sour cream to garnish

Peel and chop the beetroot and the potato. Be careful of your hands/clothes/bench, as they will definitely get stained by beetroot (Don't worry, it washes out. Eventually).
Chop the onion and fry it in a big saucepan until soft. Add the garlic and cook a little bit longer.
Add the potato and beetroot and cover with the stock.
Bring to the boil and cook until everything is soft, about 20-30 minutes.
Let the soup cool slightly.
Blend the soup in batches before returning to the saucepan on the stove. It's important to blend in batches, otherwise the soup can be a bit grainy. If this happens, add some water to help smooth it out.
Stir through the sour cream.
Reheat the soup gently, until hot.
Serve in (white) bowls, topped with extra sour cream and snipped chives.



p.s. I've just downloaded this new program to help edit my photos. I used to just take the photos and upload them, but now I can play around with them and brighten all the pretty colours. So if some of the photos look overly bright in the future, that's why...

Obsessed with soup.

Sometimes I get obsessed with things. Lets call them fads.

When I first got The Shins album Kissing The Lipless, I played it everyday until I couldn't listen to it any more. Even now, I still can't listen to it. I ruined it for myself. I do this with lots of things. Running, for example. A few months ago I became obsessed with running. I ran every second day for a month, until one day I woke up and decided that I just didn't want to get out of bed. And I haven't run since.

At the moment, I'm obsessed with soup. I usually have Wednesday off work, so I go to the grocery store and buy whatever vegetable is on special and in season. Cauliflower. Sweet potato. Spinach. I make a big batch of soup and freeze some of it so that I can eat it for lunch during the week. Eating soup makes me feel healthy and full and wholesome.


A while ago a saw a recipe for baked potato soup. It sounded delicious but much too much effort. Little did I know that it wasn't made of baked potatoes, but was supposed to imitate what a baked potato tastes like. So last night when I felt like soup, I searched for this recipe and found two completely different recipes that claimed to make the same thing. So I just winged it in the end and it was a Success! I have to admit, though, that the extra bits on the top were my favourite part.

Potato and Bacon Soup.
4 spring onions
1 medium onion, diced
4 (or more) bacon rashers, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
5 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
5 cups of stock or water
3-4 tbsps sour cream

Fry the onion in a little olive oil in a heavy bottom saucepan, on medium.
Meanwhile, dice the spring onions. Adding this in with the onion, keeping a little bit of green for garnish later.
Add half of the bacon and all of the garlic and cook until everything is soft.
Add the potatoes and stock. Turn the heat up and bring to the boil.
Then turn the heat back down and simmer until the potatoes are really soft, about 30 mins.
Stir in the sour cream and cook for another 2-3 mins.
At this point, I mashed my soup with a potato masher, because I wanted it to stay a bit chunky. But feel free to blend it in batches in a blender.
Taste for seasoning (mine needed quite a bit of seasoning, but it depends how salty your stock is).
Fry or grill the remaining bacon until really crispy.
Top the soup with crispy bacon, diced spring onion, grated cheese and sour cream.

Hollandaise sauce.

My Mum has taught me lots of things. The right way to hang your clothes on the line so that you don't have to iron anything, the proper way to do the washing up (glasses first, pots and pans last), how to wrap presents so they look pretty, how to look after my cat, how to get stains out of your clothes, how to sew the hem on your skirt. Useful things.

But one of the most important thing she taught me, was how to cook. She started teaching me when I was little so that now I feel like these cooking tips are basic things that everyone learnt, even if they're not.
Things like, how to tell if a cake is ready without sticking a tester in it, how to make bolognaise sauce, how to chop onions, how to get the skin off a garlic clove. Again, useful things (She's a handy type).

Don't get me wrong, my Dad has taught me lots of things too (how to flip pancakes, how to make a good omelette, how to make mayonnaise). But this isn't a blog post about Dads. It's a post about Mums. Because it's Mothers Day today. My Mum lives in a different state, so I don't get to see her very often. And although I rang her this morning, I thought it would be nice to tell her how much I love her.

There is one thing that Mum taught me to make really well. And I make this at least once a month, if not more. Usually on a Sunday, when Brent requests Eggs Benedict for breakfast. Actually, the first time I made this by myself, was when Brent and I started going out and I was trying to impress him. It must have worked because it's one of the only things that he actually asks me to make.

[Notice the burnt toast in the picture above? I can make hollandaise but I can't make toast.]

Mastering hollandaise sauce is a pretty useful skill. It doesn't just have to go on eggs, either. Think steamed asparagus and pan-fried salmon fillets. And it is really easy to scale up or down, depending on how many people you're feeding.
In my recipe book, the recipe for hollandaise goes a bit like this:
1 egg yolk, butter, lemon juice. Don't scramble the eggs. Serves two.
But that isn't very helpful to you, really. So I thought I'd write it up a bit better, so that you can impress your beloved, or make your Mum a nice breakfast.

Hollandaise Sauce.
Serves two

1 egg yolk
50-70g butter, chopped
 1-2 tsp lemon juice, or to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

Set a small pan on the stove with 3/4 cup water. Bring to a simmer.
Put the egg yolk into a medium bowl and set the bowl over the pan. Make sure the bowl isn't touching the water. This is really important.
Whisk the egg yolk, and put one cube of butter in. Keep whisking until the butter is incorporated.
Add another cube of butter and keep whisking. When it is nearly all incorporated, add another butter.
When you've added a few cubes of butter, you can start putting in more than one cube at once.
Keep doing this until all the sauce starts to thicken and is a nice pale colour.
Make sure that the eggs don't start to scramble. If they look like they are beginning to scramble, quickly take the bowl off the water and whisk it like crazy. If they look really bad, or you're a bit nervous, you could plunge the bowl into some cold water to stop the cooking process.
When the sauce is thick and all the butter is mixed in, whisk in the lemon juice and some salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm.
If the sauce cools down too much, just set the bowl over the simmering pan of water again, and whisk until it heats through.
This amount of sauce is enough for two poached eggs.

Bacon Bruschetta.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it already, but I work in a cafe. It's in a bit of a touristy area, but everyone who works there is really nice and the customers who come in are really nice and generally we have a nice time. The only thing that worries me, is that I don't really know what most of the food tastes like. And because all of the food looks really nice (small vocabulary, much?), I think I need to do something about this. But there is one problem. No one really likes going to work on their day off, or hanging around after work when they finish.

But I've taken all these (minor) problems into my own hands and have decided that I will make all these dishes at home. I'm constantly asking the chefs what ingredients they are putting into the meals so that I can learn how to make marinated fetta, veggie burgers and aioli, and now is my chance to use these techniques I've learnt and to share them with you.

So the idea for this bacon bruschetta comes directly from the cafe. Theirs is a little different from this one: they add some roasted red capsicum and marinated fetta, but the idea is the same. Mine really is just a BLT with a fancy name, but that doesn't make it any less tasty. Even Rooney liked it.



Bacon Bruschetta.
Serves 2

4 rashers of smokey, organic bacon, rind removed
1 olive ciabatta roll, halved
1 tomato, sliced
1 tbsp pesto
big handful of lettuce
1 tbsp homemade aioli

Grill the bacon rashers until crispy. While you're waiting, toast the roll on each side. When these are both browned, spread half the pesto on each half of the roll. Top with tomato, lettuce and then the bacon. Drizzle with aioli. Season with fresh pepper. Try not to let your cat touch it.

Cauliflower and Bean Soup.

 It's starting to get cold.

The wind is whipping against my window panes and the heater gets turned on for the first time this year. The cold sneaks in under the door and through the window glass. You need to wear big socks to bed and snuggle right up close to the person you love. And even then, you might still be cold.

I had to dig through my summer shirts to find something warmer to wear. And when it’s still dark when you walk to work, you need lots of scarves and stockings and hats to wear (I don’t start early very often, but I’m setting the scene, go with it). I even had to buy some boots, because cute little flats just won’t cut it in the cold.

Sounds like it’s time to make soup.

I like soup a lot. It’s easy and quick and filling and tasty. I couldn't even make it all the way through this little bowl of soup, it was just so hearty. I like cauliflower too. Brent doesn’t like it though, so I normally make pumpkin or chicken soup. But it’s nice to make different things sometimes.

This soup is soft with cauliflower and creamy with white beans. It’s super fast, too. Just cook the cauliflower in some stock until soft. Add the beans and lots of yummy spices. Blend it all up. You’ll be warm before you even have time to out on another jumper. You might even have to turn off the heater.

Cauliflower and Bean Soup.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

You could start this soup by heating 1 chopped onion in some oil and then add the garlic and then the cauliflower, but I didn't have any onions, so I skipped this whole step and just put the cauliflower into the stock and went from there.

1 head of cauliflower, chopped

1 can cannellini beans

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 litre chicken or veggie  stock
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Greek yoghurt or cream or creme fraiche to serve (optional).

Put the cauliflower, garlic and stock into a large pot.

Bring to the boil and then simmer until the cauliflower is really soft. About 15 mins.

Add the beans and give it a stir. Simmer for 5-10 mins longer, until the beans are warmed.

At this point, I added some paprika and lots of pepper and some chilli. Totally optional.

Let cool for a little bit, then blend it all up. (If you have an immersion blender, this would be heaps easier. Otherwise, a standing blender is fine. Just do it in batches.)

Stir in the parmesan.

Gently reheat.

Serve with yoghurt, and extra pepper.

It's pasta.

I don't have much to say about this. I mean, what else is there to say than this is pasta? It's an easy, tasty, weekday pasta dish that uses whatever you've got in the house. You could make it more saucy if you like, or leave it as it is.
I made this for a quick lunch for me and my lovely friend Alex, and then the next day, I ate it again. And I think it was even better cold, as a sort-of pasta salad.
But do whatever floats your boat, really.



Pasta with mushroom, tomato and olives. 

Serves 2-3

1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, chopped
a big handful of olives
4/5 button mushrooms, chopped
1 onion, diced
half a red capsicum, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
a big handful of fresh parsley, diced
200g dried spaghetti
parmesan cheese, for grating.

Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms in some olive oil until onion is soft and mushrooms are getting brown.
Add the tomatoes, olives and capsicum, and simmer for 5-7 mins.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta in lots of boiling, salted water until al dente.
When the pasta is done, stir a knob of butter through it.
Add the parsley to the tomatoes.
Mix the sauce through the pasta and top with parmesan and cracked pepper.

Breakfast pies.

If you knew me well, you'd know that I like breakfast. Or maybe you wouldn't, because I often eat breakfast alone, and I guess breakfast isn't something that comes up as an exciting topic of conversation. I do think breakfast is exciting though. I think it's because my Mum likes breakfast, too, and the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. Or whatever it is they say.

I usually eat breakfast by myself because Brent goes to work super early in the morning, far too early for a lazy girl like me. I'd like to think that I'd get up when he does, and make him coffee and toast before he goes to work, and then spend the day fixing the house and our pretend children, who would be adorable by the way. But I like to eat breakfast in a leisurely way, and, like regular people, I don't like getting up earlier than I need too. I don't particularly like breakfast in bed though. I'd much rather get up and eat on the balcony than lounge around in bed, wasting the day away. When I was younger, all I wanted to do was stay in bed watching movies in my pyjama's all day. I think I wanted to stay in bed because I thought it was what you were supposed to do. But now, I can't stay in bed more than 20 minutes after I wake up. It's just not possible. Even on weekends I like to get up, have a cup of tea and eat something for breakfast. Something proper. Like bacon and eggs, or toast, or pancakes (I don't even know if Brent likes pancakes, I haven't made them since we started living together). But I have to have something, otherwise I'm a grumpy girl.

This past Saturday, I made these breakfast pies for us. As usual, they weren't a spur of the moment thing. I'd decided on Thursday that we would eat these on the weekend. If you didn't know already, you do now - I plan my meals out, sometimes days in advance. When we had the Sunday dinner with Kirby and Arie, I think I planned that meal out about a week beforehand. Anyway, these pies are loosely based on the ones we get at my work. I looked at lots of recipes, but I couldn't find one that was exactly what I wanted: individual pies with a whole egg and lots of bacon. The way I did it in the end was pretty easy, even though I blind baked the individual pie cases first - I wanted the pastry to be really crispy without the egg yolk being too floury. If you don't mind a bit of soggy pastry, you could skip this step entirely. I served these with some sauteed spinach on the side, but I think sauteed mushrooms, or grilled tomatoes would be good, too. But do it your own way, it is your breakfast after all.

Breakfast pies:
Serves 2

I've only got little cupcake trays, so my pies weren't very big, and only fit one egg in. If you've got those big muffin trays, you could whisk 2 more eggs with a splash of milk, and add that as well, to fill the pies up a bit more. I had planned on doing this, but I ran out of room in my pie case.
4 free range eggs
1 sheet puff pastry
2-3 rashers bacon, diced
a few springs of parsley and chives.

Preheat oven 200C.
Cut the pastry sheet into quarters and press them into a greased muffin tin, folding over the  sides of the pastry to make a flat surface.
Line the pastry with baking paper and pastry weights/rice/dried beans.
Bake for 4-5 mins until pastry is puffed around the outside.
Take out paper and weights, and prick pastry with a fork. Put back in oven and bake until pastry is starting to get golden around the edges, about 5-7 mins.
Put a few bits of diced bacon in the bottom of each pastry shell.
The herbs can either go in here, or on the top, it's your choice.
Crack an egg on top of the bacon, and put some more bacon pieces on top of the egg.
Bake for 15-20 mins until pastry is brown and egg is set.

If you don't want to blind bake the pastry, just skip that step and bake the pies for 5-10 mins longer.

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme.

It was my birthday this week and I got some excellent presents. A Chasseur cast-iron pot, the Julia Child cookbooks and a set of knives were the main ones. I feel so spoilt! I've been trying to cook things in my new pot and chop lots of things with my new knives and I'm in heaven. But the knives are so sharp that I keep cutting myself. It's the kind of sharp that means you don't realise you've cut yourself until you see the blood dripping down your fingers onto whatever you're chopping. I must've cut my finger pretty deep the other day, because it won't stop bleeding. When it does, if I even touch my finger on anything, it bleeds again.

It did stop bleeding long enough, though, for me to cook dinner. Out of the hundreds of recipes in the Julia Child book, I chose this one because it had Bonne Femme in the title. Really, though, it's just chicken in a casserole with bacon, potatoes and onions - my favourite kind of dish. I know that not everyone likes their dinner to be covered in butter, but I do. Everything tastes better with butter. If you don't like your chicken and potatoes swimming in butter, you should just turn away now, this is definitely not a calorie-friendly meal. Then again, you have to splurge sometimes, so you may as well go all out.

To be honest, I did expect this dish to be a bit more... wow. It was basically just a roast chicken with butter and bacon to make it special. Don't get me wrong, it was super tasty, and cooking chicken in a cast-iron pot is my new favourite past time, but I think it could benefit from something else. I'm not sure what... Actually, I didn't have the right amount of bacon, so that might've made a difference. Doesn't matter though, I'll definitely make this dish again.

Julia Child says to use a 1/2 pound chunk of bacon, which you then have to cut up into lardons. This seemed like to much hassle for me, so I just used 4 strips of bacon, which probably wasn't enough, but, whatever, I do what I want. She also says to use 15-25 white onions. I imagine she's talking about those little onions that you use for pickling, but really, that's a bit outrageous. I used 2 big brown onions instead.

Poulet en Cocotte Bonne Femme:
Adapted from Julia Child's "Mastering The Art of French Cooking"

Oven- 180C

5 rashers of bacon, sliced
4 tbsp butter
1 chicken
2 big brown onions, cut in half with the skins off
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled, quartered
1/4 tsp salt
herb bouquet

Cover the potatoes in cold, salted water and bring to the boil. A couple of minutes before the water starts to boil, drop the onions in. As soon as it's boiled, drain everything.
Saute the bacon in 1 tbsp of butter in the cast-iron pot for 4-5 mins on the stove top. Take out and put aside.
Brown the chicken in the pot, until browned on all sides, be careful not to break the skin of the chicken.
Remove the chicken from the pot and keep aside. Pour out the butter from the casserole.
Put the last 3 tbsp butter in the pot and heat until foaming.
Add the potatoes to the pot, rolling them around to "evaporate their moisture."
While the pot is still on the stove, spread the potatoes around the edge of the dish and put the chicken back in, breast side up.
Salt the chicken.
Put the onions around the chicken and scatter the bacon on top.
Add the herb bouquet.
Baste everything with the butter at the bottom of the pan.
Cover the chicken with alfoil, and put the lid on.
Roast for 1 hour 10-20 mins until the chicken is done.
Serve the chicken with the butter sauce from the pot.

Lemon & horseradish potato salad.

When Brent and I were in England, I discovered lots of new things. These were mostly foods that I've heard about through my love for British television, but had never had the chance to try. Horseradish on roast beef sandwiches. Mushy peas with fish and chips. Yorkshire puddings with a Sunday Roast. Brown sauce with pretty much everything.
The only one that I brought back with me was horseradish. I'm still trying to find other ways to use it and salad dressings are my favourite at the moment. The idea for this potato salad came from a recipe that I stumbled across, but I decided that I'd just make up my own. I love potato salad, and as my Dad says, "you can never have too much potato salad."
In the past 5 days, I've made this twice, two different ways. One with a mayonnaise base and one with a yoghurt base. They were both good. It just depends on what you're looking for.
I didn't measure any of my ingredients out, because I was just making it up as I went. So if the levels aren't quite right, just taste it and add whatever else you think it might need.

Recipe:
Serves 4 as a side.

4 medium potatoes, peeled, cubed.
3 eggs
heaped tsp horseradish
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt, or mayonnaise
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp of white vinegar
salt and pepper
chives

Boil the potatoes. In a separate saucepan, boil the eggs. I like to do them for the same amount of time.
Mix all the dressing ingredients in a jar. If the dressing isn't runny enough, add a little bit of olive oil. If the dressing is too tart, add half a tsp of white sugar.
If you're not eating the salad right away, leave the dressing off until you're ready to eat it, otherwise it soaks into the potatoes.

Sweet and sour chicken

Because I cook every day: dinner, breakfast, lunch, snacks, I've got a back log of posts to put up. Seeing as it's raining on my first day of holidays, I thought I'd put them all up now. So if you're wondering why some of the posts are just photo's and don't have any writing, that's why. There's only so much a girl can say in one day that doesn't revolve around the weather. Although, I could talk about the weather, I just figured that you'd get bored, and rather look at photos instead. Correct me if I'm wrong, though, and we can have a lovely conversation about how it's meant to be spring but there's still snow on the mountain. And how I can't go outside and start my holiday list, because it's cold and raining.

Anyway, I really like sweet and sour chicken. And this one tastes just like the one we get at the little asian place down the road. It's super easy, too. It'll take you 20 mins starting from when you step in the door with the groceries to putting it in bowls to eat in front of the telly on a cold, rainy day.

Recipe:
Adapted from "Home Food"
Serves 2

1 chicken breast, cubed
1 egg
3 tbsp cornflour
1 red capsicum, cubed
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup  tomato sauce
1/2 cup white sugar

Mix the chicken with the egg and 2 tbsps of the cornflour.
Fry the onion in some olive oil in a big fry pan, or wok if you have one. Add the capsicum.
Add the vinegar, sugar and tomato sauce. Stir until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil.
Mix the remaining cornflour with 2 tbsp water. Add to the sauce mix. Stir until it thickens a bit.
Pour the sauce into a bowl.
Fry the chicken until brown, add the sauce.
Serve with rice.

Savoury scones to make the CWA proud.

I don't have very much to say today, but I wish I did. You know those days you have when you've just run out of things to say? Nothing interesting has happened, I've only been doing uni work, finishing up for the year. My last assignment must have drained all the words out of me, and left me devoid of interesting things to say. Luckily uni hasn't drained me of cooking. I can still bake. What a disaster it would be if I couldn't! Imagine spending a whole Saturday and not cooking one thing!

I love the idea of scones, as part of an afternoon tea with jam and cream and patterned china and floral dresses. To be honest, I've only made them a few times and I've never made them savoury before. Brent's sister Kirby makes a good savoury scone, and hell, now I do too.

I adapted this recipe from Stephanie Alexander by adding vintage cheese and chopped bacon.

They were best straight out of the oven with lots of butter and a good song. I've listened to this Adrian Lux song so many times in the last 2 days. I know I'll get sick of it soon, but at the moment, it's still pretty great.

Recipe:

Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's 'The cooks companion.'

Oven 220

Makes about 20 smallish scones.

500g plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

100g butter

100g vintage cheese, grated

3 rashers of bacon, diced

300mL water .

Put the flour, baking powder and butter into a food processor and blitz until it looks like sand.

Tip into a bowl and add the cheese and bacon.

Add the water and mix (mine was a bit sticky here, but I just put a bit more flour when I was cutting them out).

Tip out onto a floured surface and flatten out to about 3 cm.

Cut the scones out with a round cutter, twisting the cutter down, rather than pressing it. Cut all the scones and when you've got out as many as you can, press the remaining dough back together and start again.

Put the scones onto a lined baking tray. Make sure they're touching, as it makes them rise better (Thanks Masterchef, for teaching me this!).

Bake for 12-15 mins until golden.

If you can wait, put them onto a wire rack to cool. Otherwise just eat them hot straight off the tray.

Red pesto in the rain.

As I write this, the sun is shining right on me. Even though it's raining and the trees are dancing in the breeze, the sun is warming my body and making me squint my eyes to see the computer screen. If you stand outside, in a sheltered and sunny spot, you'd hardly know it was the coldest day all September. You might even remember that it's supposed to be spring.

I like days like these because I don't feel guilty if I don't go outside. I could stay inside, lounging around, baking things, for days before I felt like I needed some fresh air and to speak to someone that wasn't Brent or Rooney. I'm happy on my own, and I'm not afraid to admit it. I think it's important to be able to enjoy your own company.

The only problem with being at home is that I feel guilty if I'm not studying. Studying is probably important if you're at uni. But there are ways to banish that guilt. To send it to some dark corner and forget about it. Like, for instance, by watching season upon season of some (possibly trashy) tv show that you love. Or by baking and cooking. Or you could do both at once, if you're that clever. Yesterday I felt guilty for not studying so I did three things: I made a batch of chocolate biscuits; I went to my friend's house for coffee and gossip; I made red pesto.

I always have red pesto when I go to my parents house. For some reason, they always have some in the fridge. I like to eat it on crackers, but I could totally just eat it straight out of the container. I've never made red pesto before, but it's super easy. This one has more basil in it than the one from the shop, but I like it that way. That's probably the best thing about making things at home, you can have them exactly how you want them. This red pesto is good anyway you like it. On pasta, on chicken, on crackers, on a finger straight from the bowl...

Recipe:
Adapted from Epicurean

1 Cup semi-dried tomatoes

1/2 Cup Pine nuts
2 Cups Fresh Basil
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
3 Garlic cloves

1/2 Cup Parmesan

salt & pepper to taste.

Put the tomatoes, basil and garlic in a food processor and blitz until roughly chopped.

Add the pine nuts, parmesan and some oil and mix.

Add the rest of the oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Sausage rolls & an Australian tradition.

Ah, the AFL Grand Final day. A great Australian tradition. Meat pies, sausage rolls, drinking beer before 12o'clock. And some footy, thrown in for good measure. I've never really gotten into the footy before, and honestly, I've only watched the grand final once before. I'm not very patriotic, and I don't really know anything about footy. I started watching it because Brent really likes AFL (he's much more patriotic than I am), and I like any good reason to eat pies and drink beer.



I didn't actually make any pies this year, I made mini quiches instead. I only have one problem with mini quiches: they're not really meant for tomato sauce. I'm not going to give you a recipe for the mini quiches, because I'm sure you can work it out. All I did was cut up some bacon, mix 2 eggs with a splash of milk and pour it into the pastry circles, topped with cheese and paprika.

So grab a beer, grab a sausage roll and answer the all important question: Who do you barrack for?

Recipe:
Oven- 180

250g beef mince
250g sausage mince
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, diced
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp herbs
1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 sheets puff pastry, (ready rolled is fine) cut in half.

Fry the onion and the carrot until soft and starting to be translucent.
Put everything, including carrot and onion, into a bowl, and mix together (I like to use my hands here, but you could use a spoon, if you prefer).
Place a suasage shape of mince mix onto the top of one sheet of pastry, roll up and place on tray, sealed side down. Cut up into desired size, I like mine little.
Brush with egg wash.
Bake for 15-20 mins until golden brown.

Pasta with bacon, lentils and silverbeet & a snow story.

At about 9:00 this morning, my Mum rang me to ask if I wanted to go to the snow. Of course I wanted too.
It snowed so much yesterday. It was the coldest September day ever. And here I was thinking it was spring. Silly me! And after a cold morning walking through the snow, all I wanted to do was eat pasta. (The above photo was taken on my phone, thats why its so baaad).

Pasta is my go-to meal when I want something quick and homey. This dish reminds me of something that Dad cooks - black-eyed peas with spinach and bacon. I love spinach and bacon together (I always forget that spinach and silverbeet are different things), they're a perfect couple. Like coffee and cake. This recipe had heaps of left-overs, which is perfect when you're studying, because you don't have to cook lunch. If you're like me, you'll just eat the cold leftover pasta straight out of the saucepan. What? You don't do that? My friend Leah and I used to do it all the time. We'd eat cold spaghetti straight out of the tin when she first moved out of home and none of us had jobs. I don't really eat tinned spaghetti any more, but I do still like to eat cold pasta.

Recipe:
serves 2 with leftovers
Adapted from delicious. Magazine

3 rashers of short cut bacon, diced
4 big leaves of silverbeet, chopped
1 250g tin brown lentils, rinsed and drained
2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup chicken stock
500g short pasta, i.e. penne
knob butter, optional
parmesan to serve

Cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling, salted water for 12-15 mins, until al dente.
In a fry pan, heat some olive oil and cook the onions, bacon and garlic until garlic is soft.
Add the silverbeet, lentils, tomato and stock and cook until spinach is wilted and soft.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Drain the cooked pasta and stir in the knob of butter.
Add pasta to the sauce, stir and serve with parmesan.

Cheeseburgers.

I write this while lying next to Brent, as he sleeps. Shhh, try not to make too much noise.

We had these burgers for dinner. Just as they were (I thought about making chips, too, but... shrug). I had decided in the morning, that burger's were what we would have for dinner. I thought about them all day. What would I put in them? How would I make the bun recipe? What kind of meat would I use for the patties? Do I obsess about food too much?

But you know what? I think it's fine to think about food. It doesn't mean that I'm eating food all the time (although, I probably could...). It just means that I like to think about what sort of food I'm putting into my body.

I know that burgers don't seem like the healthiest thing ever. But if you make them yourself, they're not completely unhealthy. As the cookie monster says, "they're a sometimes food." So just remember that, kids.

But really, I thought these little burgers were perfect. They weren't very big, and damn, they were tasty.

I'm allowed to say that, right?

Anywho, this was my first time making bread, and I think it turned out alright. And it was super fun and really easy too. If you haven't, you should try it. Go on, I dare you.

I'll leave you with the recipe now, so that we don't wake Brent up with our chatting.

Bun Recipe:

Adapted from allrecipes.com.au

I quartered this recipe, because I didn't want to make too many buns, and there's no room in the freezer for freezing bread. But I'll give you the whole recipe, and you can decide and divide for yourself.

Oven- 200C

325g strong '00' flour

300g wholemeal flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 1/2 tsps salt

1 tbsp dried yeast

50g butter, room temp.

1 1/2 cups cold water

oil

Mix flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl.

Rub the butter into the flour.

Make a well in the flour and add the water.

Flip the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead for 20 mins.

Pour a little bit of oil onto the dough, and put the dough back into the bowl.

Cover, and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled.

Form dough into rolls. Place onto greased baking tray and cover again. Leave for another 45mins.

Bake for 12 mins, until golden.

Burger Recipe:

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, grated

1 egg

500g mince

1 tbsp tomato sauce, or paste

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

1 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper

Lightly fry the onion and the carrot in some olive oil, until soft.

Mix everything together, including the carrot and onion.

Form into patties the size of the buns and dust in flour.

Fry in a non-stick pan until brown and cooked through.

p.s this is the song I woke up to this morning.

Fish with parsely butter sauce.

Spring finally arrived today. Everything was extra vivid, like someone turned up the brightness/contrast on the colours of the trees and the sky, until they were at their all time brightest. So I think it's time to celebrate this season, with some lovely fish that has some bright colours, too.

In our house, there are certain things that Brent makes me cook, and certain things that I make him cook. He prefers it when I cook hollandaise and poached eggs, and I think he's better at cooking steak and fish.

Last night, though, I cooked the fish. I took it out of the pan, put it on the plates, then decided that it wasn't cooked, and had to heat the pan back up and put the fish back in for another couple of minutes. This wasn't a huge disaster, it just meant that it took a little bit longer to do. But, I mean, it's good practice, right?

When I made this, in my haste to get dinner out, I forgot an ingredient. One whole ingredient! When we finally got to eat, I knew there was something missing, but I couldn't work out what. It wasn't until after, when I was cleaning up, that I noticed the bright little lemon, sitting all alone on the bench, that I remembered what it was that was missing from the sauce. So when you're making the parsley butter sauce, remember to put some lemon in.

Recipe:

Adapted from Tessa Kiros' Apples for Jam

2 fish fillets (We used Ling)

25g butter, divided, one pat much bigger than the other

big handful parsley, chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and squished

1 tbsp olive oil

wholemeal flour, for dusting the fish

salt and pepper
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Dust the fish in the wholemeal flour.

Heat a non-stick frypan and put the oil and smaller pat of butter in.
When this is hot, add the fish. Cook until crispy and brown and cooked through (this will depend on the thickness of your fish).
Meanwhile, In another saucepan, put the bigger pat of butter, the parsley, lemon zest and juice and the garlic. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
Allow to melt, but not to brown or (heaven forbid) to burn. Keep on a low heat while the fish is cooking.
When the fish is done, plate up and pour the sauce over.

Es! is for soup

I can't think of a better way to spend winter, than by making soup. It's just so warming and easy and healthy. And, goodness, it's cheap too! (Did you say $3 for that whole pumpkin?)
I'm no fan of tomato soup, and potato and leek just doesn't seem that great, but pumpkin soup has got it all going on. It's colourful and healthy and, well, thats all I need, really.

I made this soup with some frozen chicken stock that I made ages ago. Stock seems so easy to make, but it was the first time I made it, and I didn't really have the hang of it, so the stock didn't really taste like that much. I ended up having to put a stock cube in the soup as well, to make it extra tasty. If you've got a good stock recipe, please share!
I'm sure you don't need a recipe for pumpkin soup, it's just so simple! But here's one anyway... I haven't used much liquid because I like my soup thick, but add more if you like.

p.s. this has nothing to do with soup, but my sister is just so talented, I thought I'd share a photo with you of her amazing installation. [click here]

Butternut Pumpkin Soup:
1kg butternut pumpkin, seeded, peeled and chopped
2 cups of chicken stock + more water, if you prefer your soup thinner
1 onion, diced
olive oil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
cream, for swirling

Heat a big saucepan and fry the onion in some oil until translucent.
Add the pumpkin, stock and spices, bring to the boil.
Cook until pumpkin is soft.
Transfer to a blender and blend it, baby!
Pour a little swirl of cream on top.