Monday night pressure test...

Tonight the Undomestic Goddess will be going up against um.. herself to creat 5 different sweet treats before bedtime.

I decided that I would do a little baking to send to some wonderful people in my life to let them know I am thinking of them. As I don't do anything by halves I decided to make 5 different things in one night. After work. And buy the ingredients, And cook and eat dinner. And watch 3 Sex and the City episodes. And blog about all the above.

Here is the box of goodies, ready to be sent.
Here is what I made tonight

Ginger Biscuits

Pecan Hegdehog Slice

Cheesecake brownie

Marshmallows

Rocky road.

I also cooked chilli con carne but I just ate it in a couple of corn tortillas with some refried beans, tomato and mashed avocado so It looked a bit messy. I am having the rest tomorrow so will make an effort to pretty it up and take some pictures then.

I am really tired now; definitely bedtime!

Here is a breakfast omelette I made a little while ago. I prefer them light and thin almost asian style. This has two eggs, salt, pepper and spinach.

Dinner last night was roast beef with smashed potatos, honey carrots and broccoli.

It was just a topside roast and I smeared grainy Maille mustard, garlic and red wine all over it and it seemed to keep it really moist and tender. I forgot to take a photo of the whole roast!

We then had the last of my gluten free date loaf from a few days ago as a "sticky date" pudding and I made some toffee sauce with chopped pecans.

Thats all, got to get ready for work!

Thai fish cakes

I made some thai fish cakes with ling, snake beans, coriander, shallots, red curry paste, fish sauce and an egg white to bind.

As I cooked them in a frypan with cooking spray instead of shallow frying them they were falling apart a little. I served them with some sweet chilli sauce and sirfried pak choy.

They were quite good, I would cook them again.

As I had an egg yolk leftover I made a zabaglione style custard and some baked apples.

Well that was monday, tuesday was dinner at D'Browse and then last night we went to see Balibo, so I had to whip up soomething quick to have before we left.

Gnocchi with mushrooms, italian sausage, bacon, and spinach. Not healthy by any stretch but quick and yummy.

Thats all, will post tonight hopefully.

Sunday...

We started off the day with a fruit platter and rasberry yoghurt.

Things went a bit awry when we had Yum Cha at XY Dumpling House for lunch.. Sorry no photos, Mr Undomestic Goddess won't let me. As usual it was yummy but we ate too much!

So dinner was some cream of broccoli soup (broccoli, skim milk, chicken stock and a dollop of sour cream) which tasted better than it looked!

I also made some gluten free date loaf (I think I may be mildly gluten intolerant but that's a story for another day!)

And a batch of triple choc muffins for Mr Undomestic Goddess to take into work.

These were from a packet mix I had in the cupboard and they weren't as nice as the last batch I made from scratch!

Bedtime now!

Hamburgers

Tonight I made hamburgers with beef, onion, cheese, beetroot, tomato and baby spinach.
I had kwepie mayo and tomato sauce on mine. We also had some corn on the cob but it wasn't exiting enough to warrant a photo!

I also made a bacon, mushroom, spring onion and spinach frittata to have for lunches with some salad for the next few days.

Here is a closeup.

Thats all for now!

Veggie experiment part 2: celeriac

I forgot to take a photo of my lovely knobbly celeriac before I started to slice into it. I boiled it and some potatoes and made potato and celeriac mash to go with steak (Note the awesome grill marks!) The mash was sweet and nutty and had a lovely mild celery like flavour

Apparently it's important to put the celeriac into boiling water rather than cold; it will end up less bitter that way. Mine wasn't bitter at all and I put it into a saucepan with water at a rolling boil so I guess it worked!

Some steamed fresh green beans and mushroom sauce and dinner is done.

Last night I also made some cheesecake brownies (recipe from taste.com.au) which tasted delicious but looked a bit messy. It was very rich but yummmmmmm...

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2233/cheesecake+brownie for recipe

This is a closeup of the swirly top. I will make it again and try a bit harder to make it look nicer!

Bye for now!

Veggie experiment Part 1: Jerusalem artichokes

I bought some Jerusalem artichokes on the weekend and even though I had never cooked with them or even eaten them I thought I would give them a go. I roasted some chicken marylands over the jerusalem artichokes and some leeks. The white part of the leek was cut into longish chunks. I just washed the jerusalem artichokes and sliced them in half and put them in acidulated water until I was ready to cook them to prevent discolouration (I did my homework!)


They had a lovely flavour and texture. I made a lemon and herb spice rub for the chicken. I'm not entirely sure the leeks worked flavour or texture wise with this meal, but I do really like leeks... I will probably just do the jerusalem artichokes next time perhaps with some whole garlic cloves.

I served it with some steamed broccoli and made some "stuffing" which was really just my usual stuffing mix cooked in a parcel of baking paper (I use cubed bread, shallots, bacon, tomato, capsicum, herbs, eggs and a little worcestershire sauce; pretty much my Dad's recipe)

I also made a coconut tapioca pudding with mango. This was a total experiment as I had never used tapioca before and I didn't really use a recipe. I soaked the tapioca for about 5 hours in water (was only going to do 2 but I was out of the house) then microwaved it on realy low with coconut milk, caster sugar and vanilla extract until the pearls became transparent and took up the coconut milk. I served it cold the next evening with mango and a sprinkle of soft brown sugar. I would have used palm sugar but I had run out.

I also made marshmallows with toasted coconut and will split the batch with Mr Undomestic Goddess and we will each take some into work tomorrow.

Nighty-Night!

Mexican madnes

So, the use of pantry items and meal planning kind of flopped when we went out for vietnamese then drinks on thursday night and I made savoury mince and mashed potato (bogan and old fashioned yet delicious) on friday before we went out for drinks. It was not pretty so no photos...

Tonight I made chicken enchiladas with proper corn tortillas, they have a much nicer taste and texture than the doughy white wheat ones. It doesn't look very photogenic more like something from the website http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ which is disgusting yet hilarious and strangely compelling...

I also made a little salad with corn, tomato, avocado, red onion and coriander. I chargrilled the corn on the cob in my ridged cast iron pan which is also amazing for getting grill marks on chicken and steak. It is hideously heavy though!

Yum, will definitely make this salad again!

Pantry challenge 2

Made some moroccan chicken skewers: marinated chicken thighs overnight in a mix of greek yoghurt, garlic sauce and moroccan spice mix, then grilled.

Served it with chickpea puree (pantry) and a salad with tomato, cucumber, olives and red onion and a red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing. The chickpea puree was amazing; My stick blender made short work of it: I used tinned chickpeas and microwaved them in a little milk, chicken stock and this great garlic sauce from a local middle eastern grocer. The garlic sauce only contains raw garlic, olive oil and salt all kind of emulsified together, very yummy but potent!

(Close up of the yummy salad)

I decided I would make meringues as they are fairly healthy and I had all the ingredients in the house. So I printed off a recipe and got to work. The first time I didnt read the recipe and put the sugar in with the egg at the start. Needless to say the egg whites did not go fluffy. With two eggwhites remaining I did a half batch and piped some and put sprinkles on top and made to mini pavs out of the rest of the mix. The mini pavs are topped with rasberries and greek yoghurt with a little vanilla and icing sugar mixed in.

I need a bit of practice piping, these look like fairy dog poos. Cute, but still faintly turd-like.

I bought 2 piping bag sets a couple of weeks back and last week tried to make cupcakes with piped icing. It didn't work, it was a complete disaster! The thick buttercream icing wouldn;t squeeze through the nozzle. I had to smear it on instead...

Anyway, what do do with 4 eggwhites with 1 cup castor sugar mixed into it?

Find a cake mix that had similar ingredients and see what happens.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/10760/chocolate+cake for recipe, photo is my own!

I used a recipe from taste.com.au but it had 4 egg whites and 6 yolks instead of 3 whole eggs and I added choc chips and made it into muffins instead of a cake. Recipe must be pretty foolproof as it still worked! The muffins were light and had a very crisp top, quite good!

That's all, tomorrow is shepherds pie, if all goes to plan!

Brief hiatus, no hernia

I have been a little lazy with both photographing and posting...


Here is a fruit tart we got from S&M bakery
And an eclair on the same day. Mr Undomestic Goddess and I had half each.

Tonight I made Chinese chicken and almonds and jasmine rice.

It was quite yummy, very old school cantonese-ish with sherry, soy sauce, ginger, chicken stock, chinese five spice, garlic , sesame oil and a smidge of chilli as the seasonings. I thickened the sauce with some cornflour.

This week I am trying to do a bit of a pantry challenge- each meal must use somethin in the pantry; I am very guilty of buying things and then forgetting about them or getting bored. Hopefully I will stay motivated!