Apple and Date Bran muffins

When I was a teenager (which lets face it was a while ago now!) I put together an exercise book filled with all my favourite family recipes. 20 years later I still have the book and I use it often. Unfortunately the book is getting to the stage where it is so stained I can hardly read the recipes, so I am going to use this blog as a place to record all these recipes before they have vanished for good.

A few years ago muffins were "the thing to cook". Although I don't cook them as often as I used to, they are so quick to make and bake, and eaten fresh there is nothing better. This muffin recipe is one which my Mum used to cook when we were kids, the bran is a nod to the "wholefood 70s/80s" of my childhood. Every time I walk into Common sense organics as an adult I am immediately transported back to the wholefood cooperative shop in the small town I spent my childhood in, where Mum used to buy such treasures as bran, dried pineapple and carob powder.

These muffins don't contain any egg, and the butter and milk can be easily adapted to suit those who can't eat dairy so they cover a few allergy bases. I made these recently to take to a shared morning tea at playcentre, another nod to my 70s/80s childhood, which Ellie and I have recently started going to.

Date and Apple Bran Muffins

1 c flour
1 c wholemeal flour
1 t baking powder
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c grated apple
3/4 c bran
100g butter
1/4 c golden syrup
1/2 c chopped dates
1/4 c milk
1 t baking soda
1/4 c milk

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and grease a 12 pan muffin tray, or put muffin papers in it.
2. Mix the flours, baking powder, sugar, apple and bran together.
3. Melt the butter, golden syrup and dates together. Add the first measure of milk and bring it almost to the boil.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the other measure of milk.
5. Mix everything together until just wet. You may need a bit extra milk if it looks too dry.
6. Bake for 15 - 20 mins.

Eat fresh on the day they are baked or freeze for lunches.

Pesto

 The basil has been going great guns in the garden, so it must be time to make pesto! Good quality pesto in the shops is so expensive to but, it is far cheaper and really easy to make your own.

 The one ingredient in pesto that is ridiculously expensive is pinenuts. I tend to use cashews in mine instead, much cheaper and just as yummy.

  Pesto is a great thing to have floating round in the freezer. I freeze mine in icecube trays - each cube is about a tablespoon of pesto. I also freeze tomato paste that is left over in the same way.

  The best way to make pesto is in the food processor.

  Pesto

2 c packed basil leaves
1 t crushed garlic
1/2 c olive oil
1/4 c grated parmesan
1/4 c toasted salted cashews (or pinenuts or walnuts)

Blend everything together until they form a smooth paste. Pesto oxidises and goes brown very quickly, so freeze or cover with a layer of olive oil in a jar in the fridge. So many uses!

I am off to Mia's daycare this week to make pesto and pasta with the kids for the second year in a row. They loved it last year!

Vegetarian: Tomato and lentil soup

Usually the word lentil is enough to send people running. You won't even notice the lentils in this soup. It is my husband and 4 year olds' favourite as the lentils used are the small red variety, which pretty much just dissolve into the soup and thicken it. It is full of protein, taste like a delicious tomato soup, and is great served on a cool day for lunch or dinner with bread or scones.

Tomato and Lentil Soup

2 T olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 t cumin
1 t coriander
1 t smoked paprika (I love smoked paprika!)
2 tins crushed tomatoes
6 c beef or vegetable stock
1/3 c tomato paste
1 1/2 c red lentils
2 T brown sugar
1/2 c chopped parsely or coriander leaves
sour cream to garnish (optional)

1. Heat oil on low in a large pot and fry onions and garlic until soft.
2. Add the spices and fry for 1 min.
3. Add tomatoes, stock, paste, lentils and brown sugar and bring to boil.
4. Simmer for 45 mins until lentils are soft, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking to the bottom.
5. Stir through herbs and serve with a blob of sourcream in the middle if you wish.
6. Crusty bread or scones on the side are delicious!

Thai inspired salad and kebabs

I love Thai flavours. Usually given the above ingredients I would probably make a stir-fry, but I wanted to make something a bit different. We also very rarely eat pork, partly because I don't usually think to buy it, and partly I don't really like eating non-free range pork given the apalling conditions of pen reared pigs.

Thai pork kebabs

500g pork steaks or schnitzel, sliced into thin strips
12 kebab sticks, soaked to avoid them catching on fire (you may use less)
1 t crushed garlic
2 T grated fresh ginger
1 t finely grated lemon rind
1/4 c chopped fresh coriander
2 T fish sauce
2 T sweet thai chilli sauce
Juice of 2 lemons

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together.
2. Marinate the pork in the mixture for at least 2 hours.
3. Thread onto kebab sticks.
4. Cook under the grill or on the BBQ.

Thai noodle salad

1 1/2 t crushed garlic
1 T grated ginger
2 T soy sauce
1 - 2 T sweet thai chilli sauce
1 T fish sauce
2 T peanut butter
Juice of 2 lemons
1 T brown sugar
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped

500g noodles (I used udon) cooked to instructions on packet
1/2 c roasted peanuts OR 2 T toasted sesame seeds
2 spring onions, chopped (optional)
1/2 head of broccoli,cut in small florets, steamed for about 4 mins
1 carrot, cut into small batons, steamed for about 4 mins

1. Mix dressing ingredients together.
2. Mix prepared salad ingredients together and toss through dressing, serve with kebabs.

Note: Different veges could be used in the salad, this is just what I had. Capsicum, mung bean or snowpea sprouts, cucumber and snowpeas would all be yummy.

Vegetarian: Sundried tomato, onion and leek quiche

 One of my aims at the moment is to find more "go to" vegetarian recipes. I was fully or partially (ate a little white meat) vegetarian between the ages of 14 and 30. After getting pregnant and being anaemic I decided to eat red meat again, and I have continued to eat it since then. Often it is easier to develop a meal round meat, especially with a family that seem to appreciate it more than vegetarian dishes, but I am aiming to introduce more vegetarian fare to our diet. It is often cheaper than including meat, and there are obvious health benefits to not eating too much meat, especially processed meat.

Sundried tomato, onion and leek quiche

Pastry:
100g butter, melted
1/2 c cottage cheese
1 1/3 c flour

Filling:
1 T olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 leek, white bit only, chopped
1/4 c sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
Handful of basil leaves, chopped
3/4 c grated cheese
1/4 c grated parmesan
3/4 c cream (you can use milk although it won't be as rich and creamy)
3 large eggs

1. Turn the oven to 190 C.
2. In the food processor mix the butter and cottage cheese. Pulse through the flour to make a soft dough.
3. Knead the pastry to get a good consistency on a floured board. Roll out to line a 25cm diameter flan tin that is greased.
4. Bake the pastry in the oven covered in tin foil and weighed down with dried beans or rice (see note below) for 10 mins. Remove the tin foil and weights and bake a further 10 mins, or until golden.
5. While the pastry is cooking, heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the onions and leek and cook over a low heat, stirring often until soft.
6. Mix the onion mixture with cheeses, tomato and basil. Press into pastry case.
7. Beat eggs and cream together and pour over filling.
8. Bake at 180 C for 25 - 30 mins until set and golden.

Served with beans from our garden!

Cooking pastry blind:

Often when using pastry I really can't be bothered with the extra step of cooking it blind (without the filling and weighed down with rice or dried beans). I do recommend doing this though as it makes the pastry much crispier on the bottom and stops the filling soaking in and making it soggy!!!

KFC

This quick chicken recipe is Mia's favourite. I often use chicken nibbles with the girls and Mia usually eats 5 or 6 given the opportunity! It is something my Mum made when we were kids, and she calls it "KFC" (Kate's fried chicken), although it is baked and not fried.

Kate's fried chicken

6 drumsticks (or 12 nibbles)
1 T melted butter
1 T oil
2 T flour
1 t garlic salt
1 t paprika (I use smoked paprika because I love it!)
1/2 t curry powder
1 t sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 C fanbake. Line an oven dish with foil and grease.
2. Mix the oil and butter together.
3. Mix the dry ingredients together.
4. Baste the chicken with the oil/butter then roll in the coating that you have placed in a flat plate. Make sure you coat the whole piece.
5. Bake for 20 mins on each side (15 on each side for nibbles).

If you want to cook more pieces, just double the coating recipe.

(This photo doesn't really do it justice!)



Meatloaf

 We had some cooler weather last week which sent me scrambling to find some comfort food recipes. This meatloaf recipe is great with mashed potatoes and veges. It has a really yummy sauce that is poured on top before cooking that makes it more than just a plain old meatloaf. It isn't exactly healthy so I recommend watching your portion size and serving it with lots of delicious veges! This makes enough for our family to have for 2 dinners.

Meatloaf

500g good quality mince

500g sausage meat

1 onion, finely chopped

1 handful herbs e.g: oregano, parsley, thyme, finely chopped

1 apple, grated

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 c fresh breadcrumbs made from grainy bread

1 t curry powder

Sauce

1/2 c tomato sauce

1/2 c worcestershire sauce

1/2 c brown sugar

2 T malt vinegar

2 T lemon juice

1 T butter

1 t instant coffee

1. Heat oven to 180 C. Line a 40 x 25cm tin with tin foil and grease. 

2. Mix all the loaf ingredients together with wet hands. Press into tin.

3. Mix all sauce ingredients together in a pot and bring to the boil.

4. Pour sauce over the meatloaf.

5. Cook at 180 C 1 1/4 hours.

6. Serve with mash and veges. You can also pour the sauce that has run off the meatloaf and into the dish into a jug and serve with the meatloaf.

Banana pudding/cake

I don't cook a lot of desserts, due to not really enjoying many of them that much! Don't get me wrong, I love baking, chocolate, icecream and fruity desserts, like my all time favourite apple crumble. I just don't really enjoy elaborate cheesecakes (give me a gut ache), or tasteless meringue, or can be bothered spending hours assembling something that tastes no better than brownies that I can mix together in about 10 minutes!

I am making a concerted effort to make a dessert for the family once a week. Last night was quite cool, so to go with our comfort-food meatloaf, I thought a warm dessert was a good idea. I do love sticky-date pudding but Mr fussy-pants, along with several other dislikes (including fresh fish, who doesn't like fresh fish!) doesn't like dried fruit. So I decided to make banana cake with caramel sauce.

This banana cake recipe has been around since I was a child as well. I think it may have originally come from an old Edmonds cookbook. I served it with caramel sauce and icecream for dessert, and then iced it to have for morning tea the next day.

Banana cake

125g butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla essence
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 t baking soda
1/4 c hot milk
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 c flour

1. Grease a 20cm or square tin. Pre-heat oven to 180 C.
2. Cream butter and sugar.
3. Beat in eggs, vanilla and banana.
4. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot milk.
5. Fold in the milk mix and dry ingredients.
6. Cook in the tin for about 30 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Ice with chocolate or lemon icing. (Or serve with caramel sauce for pudding!)

Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne: Sorry no picture!

 I made this for dinner the other night and promptly forgot to take a picture of it looking all golden and delicious just out of the oven! By that stage it was too late as it was either all in our tummies or in a container in the fridge for Nathan's lunch. You will have to take my word for it that it is very yummy, and everyone in our family likes it despite it being without the meat sauce Serve it with salad and fresh bread or garlic bread.

Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne

1/2 small pumpkin or squash, de-seeded and chopped into large chunks
10 leaves of silverbeet, with the stems cut out (by this I mean you need to cut into the leaves and remove all of the tough stem)
2 T chopped fresh basil
1 egg, lightly beaten
250g tub cottage cheese
1 c grated cheese + extra for the top
Jar of tomato based pasta sauce
Lasagne that doesn't need pre-cooking

1. Cover the pumpkin (leave the skin on) in water and boil about 15 mins until soft. Leave to cool.
2. Scoop the flesh off the skin and mash.
3. Steam the silverbeet for 3 - 4 mins (I do this over the pumpkin at the end of its cooking)
4. Place the silverbeet in a sieve and press it down with a spoon to remove excess water. This is important to ensure that the mixture isn't too watery. You will be left with a very small lump of mashed dry silverbeet!
5. Add the silverbeet, basil, egg, cottage cheese and grated cheese to the pumpkin mix. Also season to taste. Mix together well.
6. Grease a flat oven dish. The one I use is about 40cms x 20cms.
7. Layer lasagne noodles, then half of the pumpkin mix, then half of the pasta sauce. Repeat and top with grated cheese. I use dried lasagne noodles that soften during cooking, san remo makes wholemeal ones that we usually buy.
8. Bake at fanbake 200 C for 20 - 25 mins until golden and cooked through.

Lunchbox week: Pizza

Pizza is another thing you can depend on most kids eating. It is really easy to chuck some basic toppings on a pizza base and cook it in the oven. The main issue with making pizza is finding a good base recipe. The bought bases are a waste of money and don't taste that great. I have experimented with making bases in the bread maker, they taste really authentic, but rolling them out thin can be really difficult as the gluten in the bread dough is really springey and just keeps jumping back into a ball!

This base recipe has been around in my family since my childhood. I have no idea where it came from but it is a happy medium as it is very quick to make and easy to roll, but contains yeast so tastes like a proper pizza.

Pizza base recipe (makes an oven tray size pizza):

1 1/4c warm water
3 T sugar
1 T dried yeast granules
1 T oil
3 c flour
1/2 t baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C fanbake (220 bake).
2. Grease an oven tray.
3. Dissolve the sugar in the water. Sprinkle over the yeast and mix in the oil and leave covered in a warm place for 10 mins for yeast to go bubbly.
4. Mix in flour and baking powder.
5. Turn onto a well floured surface and knead until dough is soft but no sticky.
6. Roll out to fit your oven tray on a floured surface and place on top of the oven tray.
7. Prepare your toppings and place on top of the pizza. (See below for ideas)
8. Bake for 10 - 12 mins until  golden but not burnt around edges.

Topping ideas:

• For this pizza we did a very basic one with tomato paste, chopped onion and capsicum, ham and grated cheese with herbs on top. You can add other veges or use bacon or chicken instead.
• Sliced cooked potato, chopped bacon and onion and cheese and rosemary
• Cranberry jelly, cooked chicken, red onion, pinenuts and cheese
• Pesto instead of tomato paste

Lunchbox week: Pasta salad

Pasta is a great lunch for kids. Lots of carbohydrates for energy, and if you can throw in some veges and protein even better. Obviously if you are sending your child off to school or daycare it can be difficult to give them pasta that needs heating. I have made many variations of this pasta salad, and Mia loves most forms of pasta, so it is a great lunch for her. It is also the perfect quick salad to throw together for a BBQ.

500g packet of pasta, cooked (I used orzo here, but any short pasta will work e.g: penne, spirals)

Dressing:
1/2 c canola or grapeseed oil
2 T white vinegar
1/4 c grated parmesan
2 T pesto
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 t dijon mustard

2 stalks celery, chopped
1 red capsicum, chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, chopped in half
12 sundried tomatoes, cut in half
(You can also add feta instead of the parmesan in the dressing, chicken, bacon, pretty much any veges, toasted pinenuts and olives to make your own version - although maybe all at once might be a bit too much!)

1. Cook the pasta to packet directions. Drain.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients together and toss through the hot pasta. Leave to cool.
3. Toss through the rest of the salad ingredients you have selected once the pasta is cool.
4. Serve in a bowl for dinner, or a small container for lunch.

Lunchbox week

On Monday we were really bored. It was a horrible day and Mia was getting OVER the holidays (luckily she went to a friends on Tuesday and has preschool the rest of the week!). So we experimented with lots of lunch and snack ideas that we wouldn't normally do.

Fruit kebabs: Mia loved these, Ellie just ate the marshmallow!!! A good way to make fruit a bit more exciting.

A pretty picture made from luncheon and sandwich flowers with blueberry middles, cheese stalks and cucumber leaves. There are millions of pictures much more elaborate and cool and made out for food for kids on pinterest. Again, Mia thought this was cool, Ellie who is a bird at the best of times, ate 1 sandwich and 1 piece of luncheon. Not really worth the effort!!

Parfait with layers of yoghurt, blueberries and muesli. Girls not so keen on muesli so if I did it again I would use a less rough cereal. I thought they were delicious!

Ants on a log. I remember eating these as a kid. I had my doubts Mia would like them but she thinks they are the coolest thing out! Even though she does disect them a bit to eat them.

Jelly in fruit. I tried to pack these full of fruit and put as little jelly as possible. Much cheaper than buying fruit cups from the supermarket and my girls would eat these all day given the opportunity! You can make fruit juice jelly with gelatine as well.

I hope some of these ideas appeal to your kids!

FILL YOUR LUNCHBOX WEEK: Bacon and Egg savouries

 I have had a few requests for lunchbox ideas. My eldest is back at preschool this week so it is timely for me as well, and a good challenge to try and serve up something other than sandwiches! So this week I am going to challenge myself (and you) to serve your kids up something a bit different for lunch.

Bacon and Egg Savouries

If I serve up my usual bacon and egg quiche for dinner or lunch my girls turn up their noses at it, or pick off the pastry and leave the filling. I decided I would see what they did if I served up little savoury sized pies, and it was a resounding success. I made them in mince pie trays which have holes that are a bit shallower than muffin trays, although muffin trays will work fine, you just may need to put a bit more filling in and cook them a big longer. The recipe made 18 savouries, heaps left for lunches, and also a small pie for Nathan and I to have for our dinner.

4 sheets ready rolled pastry (you could make your own or use unrolled)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 capsicum, finely chopped (optional)
6 thin rashers of bacon (use less if they are big)
3 eggs
3/4 c milk or cream
Handful chopped parsely
Grated cheese to top.

1. Preheat oven to 200 C fanbake
2. Line muffin or mince pie tins with circles of pastry. I also used one sheet of pastry to line a small square baking tin to make Nathan and I a pie.

3. Fry the onion, capsicum and bacon in a little bit of oil in a frying pan until onion and capsicum are soft.
4. Put teaspoonfulls of bacon mix in the bottom of the pastry cups. I put the leftovers in the pie for Nathan and I.
5. Whisk up the eggs with the milk/cream and parsley.
6. Use a ladle or a small jug to pour the egg mix over top of the bacon mix. Don't fill too full as it will puff up. Top with a little grated cheese. I did the same with the little pie for Nathan and I.
7. Bake for about 12 mins until puffed, cooked through and edges of pastry golden but not over-cooked. If you make a bigger pie it may take longer.
8. Serve warm or cold. They freeze well for lunches. Just put in lunchbox to defrost during the day.

Chicken and Potato Bake

After I had my second daughter my dear friend Amy turned up with this for our dinner (despite having a 2 year old and 3 month old twin girls herself!). It is delicious and real comfort food, I had to have the recipe. The cream makes the healthiness of it somewhat questionable. I have made it with evaporated milk before, it tasted fine, although the sauce was much runnier than with cream. You can also substitute some of the potato for kumara, which my girls love.

Chicken and potato Bake

8 large potatoes, peeled and sliced thickly
2 chicken breasts, chopped into 1cm squares
1 onion, chopped
200ml cream
1 T dijon mustard
Cheese and chopped parsley to top

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. Cover the potatoes with water, bring to the boil and boil for 5 mins to parboil. Drain and put aside.
3. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan and fry the onion until softening over gentle heat.
4. Turn up the heat to medium and add the chicken to cook through.
5. Take off the heat and add the mustard and cream, mix to combine.
6. Take a flatish baking dish (I use a ceramic one that I make lasagne in). Layer 1/2 the potato, 1/2 the chicken mix and repeat, ending with chicken mix.
7. Top with grated cheese and chopped parsely and bake for 20 mins.
8. Serve with salad or veges, we had corn on the cob with ours - yum!!!

Keep the tins full: Very quick afghans

It always surprises me that people think baking is time consuming. Yes if you want to make a black forest gateau, but not if you want to wip up some quick biscuits. I pretty much never buy biscuits from the supermarket, it is cheaper to make good quality ones at home, and you know what is in them.

Afghans

125g butter
1 c sugar
3 T cocoa
1 t vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 c flour
2 t baking powder
1 3/4 c cornflakes

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 C. Grease 2 oven trays.
2. Melt the butter over a gentle heat or in the microwave.
3. Add the sugar, cocoa, vanilla and egg and mix well.
4. Stir in the flour, baking powder and slightly crushed cornflakes.
5. Put spoonfuls of mixture spread out on the oven trays. Flatten slightly with a fork.

6. Cook in the oven for 10 - 12 minutes. If you are cooking both trays at the same time, swap over their position in the oven after 5 mins.
7. Cool on cooling racks once baked and ice with chocolate icing.

Burgers

 Burgers are always popular with kids and they are easy to adapt to littlies. My 4 year old has half a burger with half a pattie, cheese and lettuce. My almost 2 year old has a deconstructed burger - all the bits just chopped up as finger food. I like to make mine in the food processor, and add just enough ingredients to the burger that they are tasty, but not so much they are a massive tower that you cannot pick up without dropping bits all over the place!

Hamburgers

Patties
500g mince
2 pieces bread
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 T chutney
A handful of chopped herbs e.g: thyme, rosemary, parsley, oregano, mint

Burger buns
Salad greens
Sliced cheese
Beetroot
Mayonnaise
Tomato sauce or chutney


1. Place the 2 pieces of bread in the food processor and pulse to make breadcrumbs.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse to combine.
3. Shape into burger patties and cook in a lightly oiled frying pan. Turn once one side is browned.

4. Lightly toast the outside of the sliced in half burger buns under the grill.
5. To assemble, place a pattie on the bottom of the burger bun. Add cheese, beetroot and lettuce. If you don't like any of these fillings, leave them out, or replace with others that you prefer e.g: tomato, gherkin, hash brown, bacon.
6. Spread the underside of the top section of the bun with mayonnaise and sauce or chutney/relish.

7. Serve with oven baked potato chips/wedges (I will have a recipe for these at some stage!) and coleslaw (packet all the way!!!!!)

Blog share: Baking Makes things better

If you haven't already, I thoroughly recommend following the blog http://www.bakingmakesthingsbetter.com/. It is written by a couple of NZ highschool teachers (they must be cool!), so is written in kiwi baking language and has awesome ideas! Check it out.

Pinwheel scones and dining alfresco

On Monday it was our 7th Wedding Anniversary. Two kids later there wasn't much chance of a romantic dinner, but I decided to surprise Nathan with an early dinner picnic in the park. I wish I had remembered to take some photos of the picnic as we all had a lot of fun, we have a park 5 minutes drive from our house that has an amazing playground and water park (for free) and the girls love going there. Nathan finishes work early a couple of times a week for me to work during term time, but no swimming lessons to teach at the moment so we headed straight for the park at 3pm!

Kids love having picnics. Mia is always asking to have a picnic, even in the dead of winter. The one downside is that the rules of sitting down until you've finished seem to vanish (in kids heads anyway) and bites of food are interspersed with running off to have a swing or just to hide behind a tree!

I tried to pack stuff that was easily transportable and could be eaten easily with our hands. Our menu included:

- Vegetable crudities, bagel chips and hummus
- Soda water and juice
- Pinwheel savoury scones (recipe below)
- Chocolate brownies (recipe from Annabel Langbein's best of cookbook)
- Strawberries

We really do need to dine alfresco a bit more and take advantage of the balmy summer evenings, it reminded me how easy it is to chuck some food and some kids in the car and take off somewhere different for a couple of hours.

Savoury pinwheel scones

I remember my Mum making these to take to the beach for childhood picnics. The filling with bacon and creamed corn is very kiwi, but I have made variations of this if you want to be a bit posher or want something sweet.

You will need:

3 c flour
6 t baking powder
100g butter
1 c milk

3 rashers bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tin creamed corn
1 zucchini, grated
1 c grated cheese

Basic scone dough

1. Process flour and baking powder together in the food processor to mix.
2. Cut butter into squares and process into the flour until combined.
3. Slowly add milk and pulse to make a soft dough, you may need slightly more or less milk. Don't overmix it.

This is a basic scone dough. You can make heaps of variations on this to make basic scones:

- Add 2 T sugar, 1 c chopped dates, grated rind of 1 orange and replace half the milk with orange juice to make date and orange scones
- Add 1 c cheese and 2 T chopped parsley with butter, and sprinkle cheese on top for basic cheese scones
- Add 2 T sugar for basic scones to serve with cream and jam

If you want to make basic scones cook at 200 C on fan bake for about 10 mins.

Pinwheel scones

1.Gently fry the bacon and onion until the onion is soft. Add the grated zucchini and cook for a further couple of minutes, drain off any excess water.
2. Roll dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle approx. 30 x 20 cms and about a cm thick.
3. Spread creamed corn on top, leaving a space of a couple of cms around each edge, especially the end you are going to roll towards. Be careful not to put too much filling on (like I did here!) otherwise it will spill out the end. If this does happen just keep rolling and discard any filling that spills out, or use it to make a toasted sandwich!

4. Sprinkle over the bacon mix
5. Sprinkle over the cheese. You could also add a little bit of chopped parsley if you wanted.
6. Roll the dough up like a sponge roll. Use a little bit of milk or water to dampen the edges and secure them down.
7. Cut the roll into 2cm slices and lay on a greased tray. You will probably find that the middle slices look really good and the end ones look less than perfect, still cook them as they taste just as good!
8. Cook at 200 C fanbake for 10 mins.

Variations:
Posh: Spread with pesto and top with chopped sundried tomatoes and cheese
Sweet: Add 2 T sugar to scone dough and top with cooked apple, walnuts and cinnamon sugar
Vegetarian: Top with chutney, mashed pumpkin and feta or grated cheese

Vege gardening - amateur styles!

Pretty much since we moved into our house almost 8 years ago I have dabbled in vege gardening. My family always had a massive vege garden (I grew up on an orchard), and although I hate gardening anything that doesn't produce food (you should see some of the garden surrounding our house, or weed patches!), I feel very satisfied when I can produce something edible.

My gardening style is very much low maintenance. If it requires too much care it will just die or go to seed, and I won't grow it again. I do not use any form of pesticide on the garden, partially because I don't like the idea of putting it on my food, partially because it requires far too much effort. I do use fertiliser when I remember, sometimes organically certified, sometimes not. I always put a big layer of compost on the garden before planting it to ensure the plants get a good start to life. Things that are easy to grow from seed I grow from seed, things that require too much effort I buy seedlings.

Our garden is organised into 3 rectangular beds and an L-shape garden that is half taken up by perennial herbs. 1 rectangular bed is slowly being taken over by berries which I planted over winter, but at the moment there is room to still plant some veges. Every year I make a rotational plan for the garden, but I never follow it and just try not to plant the same thing in the same spot 2 years in a row. As you can see my gardening style is very low key!

As part of this blog I thought I would share what I am doing in the garden each month, and also some of my successes and failures in the vege growing department. Just to show you that my garden is a mix of beautifully growing vegetables and mess/ veges heading for failure here are some pics:

Herb garden with thyme, oregano, mint, parsley, basil, lemon balm, chamomile, rosemary and rhubarb all of which are very easy to grow:

Purple dwarf beans, carrots and silverbeet - again all really easy to grow:

Raspberries and blackberries working at overtaking the garden, assorted salad greens, leeks and onions (all very easy to grow). Some experimental capsicum and aubergine and chilli plants. Notice the big gap that Ellie has claimed as her digging spot. It has had cucumber and spinach planted in it but they are no match for her efforts with a spade!!!

Sweetcorn and courgettes, both very easy to grow from seed.

And the odd one out - the weed patch!!!!! I plan to plant this with stuff in early autumn or late summer when the others are still full of productive plants. Not ideal as the weeds are not going to be easy to rid of!!!!

Tomatoes in pots. Tomatoes and I have a checked past. Last year I coaxed all sorts of heirloom tomatoes from seed, lovingly planted them in the garden, pinched out all the latterals.... and then they all got blight and died before the tomatoes were ripe!!!!! If you look in the Yates garden guide there is at least a page about all the issues tomatoes can have and the concoctions of chemicals you can apply to them. Bugger that! This year I am attempting cherry tomatoes in pots in the hope they don't get diseased and because you don't have to pinch out latterals. They aren't looking their best though I have to say. Oh well!

So that is my vege garden and I will keep you updated on information and ideas as I practice them. In terms of what to do in your garden at this time of year I really don't recommend planting anything as it is too hot and you are probably going to go away on holiday and leave everything to die anyway! It you do have veges planted water them regularly and deeply. I like to do mine every 3 evenings. If you water them little and often the roots grow more shallowly and they will not be as hardy, so every 2 - 4 days and deeply is a better practice to follow. Mulching is also a brilliant idea, but as you can see I haven't got round to it this year. Weed them and fertilise regularly for best growth.

As my veges produce (I was late planting all my summer vege crops) I will also be working out some recipes to share. Be prepared for 100 ways to use zucchinis in a month or so!

Beetroot, rocket and walnut salad

At the moment in case you can't tell I am feeling like salads - big time! 3 things  I really like in salads (although not necessarily all at once!) are feta, beetroot and thai style dressings. Beetroot is yummy grated raw into salads, but even yummier roasted. Here is a salad I mixed up last night:

Beetroot, rocket and walnut salad

3 beetroot, peeled and cut into thick batons (wear gloves if you don't want purple hands)
3 big carrots, peeled and cut into thick batons
1 big red onions, cut into 8 wedges
A few sprigs of thyme
Olive oil

Half a bag of rocket
1/2 c coarsely chopped walnuts

Dressing:
3 T balsalmic vinegar
3 T olive oil
1 T brown sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180 C and roast the beetroot, carrot and onions in olive oil sprinkled with thyme leaves. Thyme leaves are really easy to get off the stem if you run your fingers against the direction the leaves are growing in, they will just fall off. Bake for 40 mins, until beetroot is tender but still firm. Stir half way through roasting.

2. Cool roast veges.
3. Mix dressing ingredients together in a jar.
4. Toss all the salad ingredients together.
5. We had ours with coleslaw and good old sausies in bread!!!!

Pre-packaged coleslaw

I don't know about you but there is only one way I like cabbage... in a coleslaw. I am very open to alternative edible serving suggestions! If I buy a cabbage I use about a quarter of it in a coleslaw and it makes enough for about twenty people, and the rest of the cabbage rots in the fridge. I also hate grating the ingredients for the coleslaw, and can't bring myself to use the food processor as it wastes half of the vegetables because it can't chop or grate the dregs of each vegetable.

I am not usually one for pre-packaged stuff. I laugh at those little carrots and chopped up apples - waste of packaging and money. BUT I have over the last couple of months become partial to pre-packaged coleslaw. It only costs the same as a pack of mesculun leaves, I don't have to chop the veges up, I don't waste three quarters of a cabbage (which takes up half my vege bin) and I can control how much and what dressing goes into it so it isn't like delicatessan coleslaw where you might as well take a tub of lard and eat that.

So if you feel similarly to me in that you enjoy coleslaw but hate the preparation and wastage, then give it a try. Any old brand will do it doesn't have to be the one pictured.

Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes

Once a week I try to make us all a yummy breakfast that doesn't involve toast or cereal. I don't always manage to fulfill this mission, but my kids really appreciate it (as does the husband), and it is another reason for us to sit down as a family and enjoy a meal together. More often than not this ends up being some variation on pancakes because:

a. I am not really an egg person, runny yolks make me dry retch!!!
b. They are my favourite.


Even better if you can coax some fruit or fibre into them. Today I decided to make blueberry pancakes as we had some in the freezer, but you can replace them with any fruit and you can also replace some of the normal flour with wholemeal if you want a fibre boost.

Blueberry pancakes

1 1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
2 t baking powder
1 c milk (add a squeeze of lemon juice if you have it)
1 egg
2 T butter, melted
1 c blueberries, or other fruit

1. Mix the dry ingredients together (this is a great job to involve your kids in, my almost 2 year old even loves to do this, even if it is a bit messy!)
2. Beat the egg into the milk.
3. Fold the dry ingredients, milk mixture, butter and blueberries together until all combined. Add more milk if it looks a bit thick.
4. Heat butter to coat a frying pan. Put large spoonfuls of the mixture into the frying pan.
5. Once the centre of the pancake is bubbling, turn it to cook on the other side.
6. Serve with fruit, maple syrup, yoghurt or cream or all of these!!!

This is how I had to make pancakes this morning, with Miss Ellie hanging off me as she wanted cuddles from Mummy and Mummy alone! 1 handed pancakes are hard to cook!

Take a tray of roast veges and you have ... 2 quick dinners!

 I love it when you can cook something one day that can then be used for future dinners. I have gone through many stages where I have tried to cook double quantities of dinners, and then frozen them for future nights. I also like it when you can prepare something basic and then alter it to make 2 entirely different dishes.

Yesterday I chopped up some chunky seasonal veges and roasted them in the oven at about 180 C for 35 mins. I stirred them at halfway.

This mix contained mushrooms, zucchini, kumara, red capsicum and red onion (from my garden - very easy to grow!). You could use whatever you had lying around.

I used half of these to create last nights dinner, and half tonight. Both were very quick dinners that can be easily put together in about 20 minutes.

Pesto and Roast Vege Pasta

This is one of my go to dinners. Homemade or fresh pesto is best, but if you have to use a cheepo one I rate Countdown's select pesto WAY above Dolmio's!

3/4 packet pasta (e.g: penne, spirals, shells)
Half an oven tray of roast veges
3 big T pesto
Parmesan (and fresh basil and toasted pinenuts if you have them) to garnish

1. Cook the pasta to packets instructions.
2. Drain and toss through veges and pesto
3. Serve in bowls with grated parmesan and torn basil and/or toasted pinenuts if you have them.

I have several variations of this dish that I make when pressed for ingredients and time. Just take out the veges and add meat and veges that you have lying round at home. My versions include:

- Torn cooked chicken and asparagus (roasted in the oven for about 10 mins)
- 3 good quality sausages fried and grated and fried (until soft) grated pumpkin
- Grated zucchini (no need to cook first it will cook enough when tossed through pasta) and cooked frozen peas

Quesadillas

These are basically a flash toasted sandwich using tortillas. Again you can change the fillings to suit what you have in the fridge and what you like. Tonight I used:

Tortillas for my family (my girls eat a half each at a push, I eat one, Nathan eats 2)
Half a tray of roasted veges
Hummus
Tomato relish
Grated cheese
Torn basil leaves

1. Spread hummus and relish thinly over the whole tortilla, leaving a 1 - 2 cm gap around the edges.
2. Spread the veges over half of the tortilla and top with cheese and basil.
3. Fold in half and toast in sandwich press.
4. Serve with salad.


Some other filling ideas:
- Refried beans spread over bottom, shredded chicken, sour cream and cheese
- Cream cheese, cranberry jelly and shredded chicken (smoked chicken is yummy)
- Baby spinach leaves, feta, chopped olives and toasted pinenuts

Nathan's Grandma's Xmas Goodies

My husbands Grandmother died just before Christmas. I am imagining that it wasn't the best timing for his family, as future Christmas's are going to be tinged by her absence. She was a huge Christmas baker, with special items that she made and distributed to all her family for the festive period. I decided that I would try my hand at cooking some of her specialities for our family lunch this year, and managed to get hold of some of her special recipes (that she would have shared gladly).

Nathan's favourite is the snowballs she made. Yes you can buy these from the shop in packets, but her recipe is much better and they are actually very easy to make. Every Christmas these would be sitting in the freezers of Nathan's parents and aunt, along with apricot balls. For those of you in the northern hemisphere Christmas is in early summer for us and this year it was scorching (someone told me it was the hottest Christmas in Wellington since 1923), so popping these freezing cold treats in your mouth is bliss, and they melt very quickly in the heat.

Chocolate Snowballs
6 T rolled oats
6 T coconut
150g butter
4 T brown sugar
4 T drinking chocolate
6 T milk powder
4 T milk
Marshmallows
Extra coconut

1. Melt the butter and sugar.
2. Add the milk and dry ingredients and mix.
3. Allow to harden in the fridge until it is hard enough to form balls from, this stage is important.
4. Take a marshmallow (you may need to cut them in half if they are really big). Mold the chocolate around the marshmallow to make a ball with a marshmallow centre. Roll them in extra coconut.
5. Store on greaseproof paper in containers in the freezer.

Apricot Balls
 3 c minced dry apricots (cut them up and put in the food processor)
1 c brown sugar
1 c coconut
3/4 tin condensed milk
50g butter
1 t citric acid
Extra coconut

1. Heat sugar, condensed milk and butter to melt.
2. Add coconut, citric acid and apricots and mix
3. Form balls and roll in extra coconut.

4. Store on greaseproof paper in containers in the freezer.

Thai Chicken Salad

In the post Xmas/New Year days I always feel like light, tasty, healthy food that is going to hopefully cancel out some of the gluttony of the holiday period. We have just got back from a weeks holiday with my family in the Wairarapa in which I lounged around all day reading books and ate and drank far too much! I wanted something light and healthy that I could wip up in a few minutes, and this is what I came up with. It was really tasty and just what I needed:

Thai Chicken Salad

300g cold shredded chicken
125g packet or rice vermicelli noodles
2 spring onions, chopped finely
1/2 c roasted peanuts, chopped
2 carrots, grated

Dressing:
3 T coriander in a tube (see picture)
2 T fish sauce
2 T lemon or lime juice
1 t sugar
1/4 c sweet thai chilli sauce

1. Soak the noodles in warm water for about 20 mins until soft. Drain.

2. Mix all the dressing ingredients together.

3. Toss everything together and serve topped with extra chopped peanuts and some chopped mint or coriander.

Note: I served the same ingredients up to my pre-school daughters - I just served the chicken, noodles and veges separated on a plate with no dressing.