Like every other mother of a toddler, my 'daily achievement' list usually looks something like this;
* Had shower...win!
* Child ate and drank regularly...win!
* House semi-reasonable...I am legend!
* Put load of washing in machine...didn't hang it out....win!
* Dinner cooked...I am such an overachiever!
On very special days I might wear makeup (gasp!), find some energy to teach singing or drama, OR cook something NEW.
The cooking of 'new' things
can (and often does) result in a few mini-meltdowns as I underestimate the time required, toddler starts whinging for an outdoor adventure while I'm up to my ears in batter/dough, or I'm simply in haven't-slept-in-a-year-and-a-half zombie-mummy mode and completely forget to buy essential ingredients.
Anyway anyway,
occasionally something turns out OK. These moments tend to get memorexed to social media because for me, they're a bloody huge achievement (...and I have a few 'acquaintances' who
hate pictures of babies and food...it makes me happy to have the power to piss them off, even if only briefly:-) and due to my woeful organisation skills, if I
don't post the recipes online, I will lose them forthwith. Guaranteed.
The gratifying bit is that other Mums out there in cyber-land, taking their precious 10 minute facebook/coffee break sometimes ask me to share recipes. So, here I am on MY precious facebook/coffee break sharing :-)
First up we have yesterday's muesli bars.
These were a 'sudden urge' recipe.
I was in Coles, obsessively reading ingredients lists on commercial muesli bars (1st or second ingredient ALWAYS sugar) when it occurred to me that I should (duh) make my own.
A little bit of net-trawling and I figured out the ratio of wet to dry, and here they are:
MUESLI BARS
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa flakes
1/4 cup bran
1/3 cup diced dried fruit (I used apricots, cherries, cranberries, mango and pineapple)
1 cup mixed raw almonds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds (soaked in boiling water for 30 mins then chopped)
1/2 cup wholemeal SR flour
1/3 cup glucose
250g unsalted butter
1/4 cup manuka honey
1 1/2 tsp strawberry essence
1 egg.
1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Preheat oven to 180
3. Melt butter/honey/glucose in a small saucepan (add strawberry essence right at the end)
4. Beat egg seperately
5. Pour melted stuff on dry stuff and mix thoroughly (egg last of all)
6. Press into greased/lined baking dish
7. Bake for 30-40 mins until golden brown
8. Let cool completely and then slice into required size.
Pretty simple:-). My Dad got all misty about them. Apparently the flavour was
exactly like a slice his mother used to make for him. Ahhh, flavour-memories:-)
The next one was 'adapted' from Recipes +. Only made because Brett saw the picture and immediately started drooling....
COBBLER
2 tbsps olive oil
500g seitan ( or pork/chicken)
3 brown onions
2 tbsps plain flour
3/4 cup white wine
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsps fennel seeds
2 large chicken stock cubes
825g can apricot halves, drained
2 parsnips, peeled, cut into 3cm pieces
2 carrots, peeles, cut into 3 cm pieces
2 cups SR flour
60g chilled butter, chopped
1 tbsp thyme leaves
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated parmesan/romano
1. Brown seitan/pork/chicken
2. Add onions til also browned and sprinkle in flour and stir til combined
3. Add wine, garlic, fennel seeds and stock cubes
4. Whiz half the apricots in a food processor and add to pan with 2 cups water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hr. Add in parsnips and carrot and simmer for another 20 mins until veges are tender.
5. While everything's a'simmerin' whack SR flour and butter in the food processor until you have fine crumb texture. Whisk milk and 1 of the eggs in a jug. Add thyme and parmesan to flour mixture. Make a well in the centre and pour in egg/milk. Mix until just combined, turn out and knead until smooth. Press out into a 2cm thick disc and cut out rounds
6. Add remaining apricots to cooked mixture and pour into a casserole dish. Arrange dumplings on top and brush with remaining whisked egg. Bake for 30 mins or until dumplings are golden and cooked. Stand for 5 mins before serving.
If you like you can replace eggs with No-Egg, parmesan with Savoury Yeast Flakes and make it all Vegan and stuff:-)
I must say, it was very very tasty, but probably best saved for a weekend, about 2 1/2 hrs prep time all-in-all.
Next up we have the cake-of-insanity...
Insane cakeMakes 1 8" six layer cake
For cake, via Whisk Kid: 225g butter, softened5 egg whites (save 4 yolks for filling)2 1/3 cups sugar2 tsp vanilla3 cups flour4 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp salt1 1/2 cups milkPreheat oven to 180 degrees C. I have 3 round cake tins but my oven can only fit 2, so I greased and lined two cake tins and set them aside. Weigh your big bowl and write down the number. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar in your big bowl with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in the egg whites until combined, follow by vanilla. Fold in 1/3 flour followed by 1/3 milk. Repeat until it's all combined. Weigh the bowl and subtract the weight. Divide this number by 6. Divide the batter between six small bowls by weight. Colour each a different colour using gel food colouring. Start with just a little, then work up until you reach your desired colour. Tip two lots of batter into your prepared pans and bake for 15 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out. Bake off the remaining layers. When the layers are totally cool, wrap in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge. For filling:4 egg yolks1/3 cup flour1/3 cup sugar1 1/2 cups milk1/3 cup dried lavender flowers (optional)A split vanilla podCombine vanilla, lavender and milk in a small saucepan. Put over medium-high heat and heat until bubbles just break the surface. Remove from heat. Whisk together egg yolks, flour and sugar in a small bowl. Strain the milk into the egg yolks and whisk together, then return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook, over medium low heat, until mixture thickens and bubbles. Be sure to stir constantly, paying particular attention to the corners. Strain into a small bowl and press plastic wrap onto the surface of the filling. Put into the fridge. For icing:750g butter, soft but not too soft2 1/4 cups milk2 1/4 cups sugar9 tbsp flour9 tbsp cream1 punnet of strawberries, hulled and pureedCombine milk and cream in a large saucepan. Whisk together flour and sugar in a medium bowl. Add 1 cup of milk mixture and whisk to form a paste. Scrape into the saucepan and cook, stirring continuously over medium heat, until mixture boils and thickens. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and whisk by hand for 15 minutes until the mixture cools. Cut the butter into small pieces and beat in, using an electric mixture, piece by piece. Don't worry if it looks weird and curdled; there'll come a moment where this will whip up lusciously and you'll feel very impressed with yourself. Beat in the strawberry puree. Put the cake together as I've described above. Feel terrifically accomplished.
I will not lie. This cake was almost the death of me! Particularly because I decided to flavour the layers in addition to colouring...
So there we have it lads and lasses. ll recipe requests fulfilled...which is lucky because I hear the rumblings of a just-awake toddler....
xoxo
