another moment

I found myself alone again this afternoon.

The house was still and warm and quiet. So I sat, still and warm and quiet for some time.

And I enjoyed it.

Yesterday Flossy and I went with children and puppies to the local farmer's market and filled our basket with delicious local produce. Cavallo Nero, seasons first cherries, Manzanilla olives, Philippa's breads and heavenly good goat cheeses - blue and scrumptious Gruyere. Yum!

So I made myself (another) little platter and ate peacefully.
Slowly.
Savouring the flavours unimpeded by my beautiful children's constant interruptions.

I shared my time with some friendly plastic snakes before the lights of my life blasted back into my space.

And I was happy!

I wish you a wonderful week.

E x

mustard chicken pie - the original and the cheats!

I received a lovely message from Kim of Squirrel in my pocket requesting the recipe for this scrumptious pie. 

I decided that it would only be fair to share both the Original recipe and the Cheats version - which is the one in the post I wrote.  If you click on the links you should be transferred to Google docs to access the 'pretty' recipe.  If you're unable to access them for some reason - like I was until I cleared the cookies from my cache  - sounds like I know something IT-ish but actually I just did as Google said. And it worked :) then I've added the recipes below so that you can copy and print them if you like.

Super simple and simply scrumptious - according to my family ;)

Cheats Mustard Chicken Pie – serves 6

From: Emma – www.tiggytwinkle.blogspot.com

Pastry

2-3 sheets frozen puff pastry

1 egg lightly beaten

1 -2 tspn butter to butter cake tin

Filling

30g (1oz) butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 leeks chopped

1 carrot peeled and diced1 plus 25 g (1 c) fresh or frozen peas

OR 2 cups mixed frozen veggies

2 tbs seeded mustard

2 tsp fresh thyme chopped (or 1 tsp dried)

750 g (1 3/4lbs) cubed pre-cooked rotisserie chicken

½ cup sour cream

1 tbsp corn flour/cornstarch

2 tbsp water

Salt and pepper to taste

1.     Melt butter over low/moderate heat, add garlic for 1 minute, stir in leeks, carrot, mustard, thyme and cook for a further 8 minutes

2.    Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes until the chicken is warmed through

3.    Stir in frozen peas, carrots and corn, sour cream, corn flour/cornstarch and water.    

4.    Stir until mixture boils and thickens then set aside to cool.

5.    Butter 20cm spring form cake tin well

6.    Lay one sheet of pastry into tin, there will be gaps that you fill with wide strips of pastry until the whole tin is lined.  I like it to look a bit random and layered J

7.    Spoon filling into lined cake tin. 

8.    Place 3^rd sheet of pasty over filling, tuck edges into tin. 

9.    Make cross-cut into centre of pastry lid and decorate with remaining scraps

10.    Brush with egg wash

11.     Bake in moderate oven (180C/350F) for 45 minutes or until golden brown according to oven.

12.    Allow to cool approx 15 minutes before releasing from tin.  Leave pie on base and serve.  REALLY ENJOY – because it’s every bit as yummy as the original version!

Mustard Chicken Pie - the original– serves 6

From: Emma – www.tiggytwinkle.blogspot.com

Pastry

1 ½ c plain flour (all purpose)

60 g (2 oz) butter

1/3 c sour cream

1 egg lightly beaten

 

1.    Sift flour into bowl, rub in butter, add cream and mix to a firm ball. 

2.   Knead lightly on a floured surface until smooth (or use a food processor to do the whole lot!)

3.    Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes

Filling

30g (1oz) butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 leeks chopped

1 carrot peeled and diced

2 tbs seeded mustard

2 tsp fresh thyme chopped

750 g (1 3/4lbs) cubed chicken

125 g (1 c) fresh or frozen peas

½ cup sour cream

1 tbsp corn flour/cornstarch

2 tbsp water

Salt and pepper to taste

 

1.       Melt butter over low heat, add garlic for 1 minute, stir in leeks, carrot, mustard, thyme and cook for a further 2 minutes

2.      Add chicken  and cook for  10 minutes until the chicken is tender

3.      Stir in peas, and sour cream, then corn flour/cornstarch and water and mix through. 

4.      Stir until mixture boils and thickens then set aside to cool.

5.      Spoon filling into 20cm (8”) pie dish with funnel. 

6.      Roll out pastry on lightly floured board until large enough to cover pie. 

7.      Place over filling, trim edges and crimp.

8.      Brush with egg wash, decorate with pastry scraps

9.      Bake in moderate oven (180C/350F) for 45 minutes or until golden brown according to the speed of your oven.

10.      ENJOY!

Thanks so much for visiting.

E x 

masterchef?

Apparently this was delicious! I wouldn't know as I don't eat meat.

Inspired by Masterchef I thought I'd alter my usual recipe and made the chicken pie in a spring-form cake pan.
I have to say it really looked pretty and the family all loved it.




If you're interested I'll happily share the recipe. It's easy and not quite your standard chicken pie.

I hope your bellies are full and that the week ahead is a good one for you.

E x

crackling

Oops! I had a boo-boo in the kitchen.
Having prepared a scrumptious roast dinner for my family I accidentally forgot the crackling 'crisping' under the grill.

Smoke billowed from the oven. Front and back doors were thrown wide!

Tigs, somewhat embarrassingly, seemed to know what to do.
He ran and found his safety ear-muffs he uses at the Grand Prix and then grabbed a towel and began flapping wildly at the alarm lest it sense the smoke and screech in all our ears.
To assure his auditory security he continued to wear his throughout the meal.
Miss Mimic as usual, excitedly followed suit.

Oh the humiliation!

festive fancies

Oh, these are so yummy and super simple. Years ago I was given (by my Mummy) a beautiful Tasmanian Huon Pine pasty presser thingie (don't google it you'll come up against a brick wall). I don't know if it has a proper name (I do now it's called a tart tamper - which sounds and looks borderline rude).  I have a mini-muffin-tray-tart-tamper, say that three times!

The recipe is super easy, deliciously tasty and incredibly moreish.

Making the pastry:
125g butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup flour

Place ingredients in a food processor and run until the pastry clumps together in a ball.
Divide into balls (small hi-bounce ball size) for each mini muffin tin.
Press with tamper - flour between pressing.
Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (I didn't and they worked fine - they just cooked faster).
Place your choice of filling (I made traditional mince pies and  have half a jar left. I could very easily be tempted to make another batch!) in chilled pastry cases and bake 12-20 minutes (according to oven) at 180C (170C fan forced).
Allow to cool in pan then ease out - either by inverting muffin tin and pressing bottom of each tart or by easing edge with a knife.  Oh they're so good. 

Fillings
The choices are endless really but these sound great too:
Mixed nut pies
Chop 3/4 cup mixed nuts and divide equally between cases
Melt 60g butter and add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla essence.
Mix until smooth and gluey.
Spoon over the nuts and bake as above.

pudding

i suddenly had to have a sweet treat, and this one's a great pantry pudding.

bread and butter pudding - with scrumptious, sneaky chocolate bits tucked between the layers - ooh yum!
i merge a couple of recipes making it tickle my taste buds perfectly. i'd be happy to share if you'd like it - the recipe of course, the pudding is heading for my hips as i write :)

baking

it's always so well received. this time i managed to wait until it cooled to add the luscious lemon icing. - oh the self-control!

Dead Easy Lemon Cake

I highly recommend you whip one of these up for after school on a cold and wintery Melbourne day.

I've been meaning to post the link to the recipe for ages and am not quite sure why today was the day when the house is falling down around me and my yukky cold.

Hope you enjoy it and at the risk of being a complete blog bore, here's the original photo to the cake.

Now I'd better get my bottom into gear and clean the house, do the laundry, put the baby to bed, prepare lunch for my mummy and, oh, yes, bake a cake.

E x

camelia + cupcakes

baking

Raspberry + Apple Crumble
YUM!

sweets for my sweets

Super simple Lemon Cake - sweety, tarty, syrupy, citrusy yumminess!

No beating, no creaming, one bowl, works every time, all store cupboard items - except for the thrifty lemons from the oppe shoppe on Friday morning.

Greg says it tastes just like his 'Babcia's' lemon cake - I'm quite sure it doesn't taste as nice as hers, but it was kind of him to say so.

P.s. There is only one piece left.

lemon

who knew there was such fun to be had with a thrifty lemon

brrr...

It's cold this morning. 7C as I type. I think we can officially say there has been a shift in seasons. I love it, and am happy.

Even the dear little dove has fluffed up his duvet to winter-weight.

I had sent my beautiful boy off to school on Friday, dosed up on Panadol, and feeling probably as lousy as me. It was chilly when I picked Tigs up (having dragged my own achy-miserable-cold-filled-body off the sofa). To assuage my mother-guilt and to warm my baby's bones there was only one good thing to do.

Take one left-over (I know it's from Easter!) Lindt Bunny and a pan of fully creamy, no-fat-removed, delicious milk.
Warm gently in a pan.
Stir, stir, stir until the bunny passes to another world.
A hedonistic, delectable, luscious, memory-creating beverage. One to warm the cockles of my children's hearts.

Chocolate-soup.

Heaven.  Even for a not particularly chocolate crazy girl. (Ok, I occasionally have to have some Cadbury's Fruit & Nut Butt  or Chocolate-coated pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe's courtesy of Sally Shim.)

YUM! YUM! Warmed to the core again.

jam drops

sweet treats for a friend

happy australia day

My Goofy Australian Kids - please excuse the terrible photo I'm afraid my little camera is ill.

I celebrated our beautiful country and our great state Victoria, the Garden State, with a long walk with friends and Tiggy.  Near Av's house there are a number of linked parks, walkways and thoroughfares that  weave through the gracious houses of Glen Iris. The three boys had fun on their scooters and each other and Av and I were able to chat, almost uninterupted for an hour and a half. What joy!

Lunch with Flossy a very casual affair, fun!

Family dinner with the most delicious fish tacos. They were scrumptious and I highly recommend them. All four of us enjoyed them, well at least some portion anyway. Woo ate a tortilla, Tiggy a tortilla with fish and sour cream and Greg and I stacked it all on and gobbled it all up! YUM.

this little star made me smile

Now, where did I hide that apple and blueberry crumble?

Mmmm!  That was good.

E x

number two ...

Oh these were yummy. Little choc chip cookies. I didn't quite have enough chocolate so I added a good couple of handfuls of super special Mildura grown sultanas. A great way to reduce the calories and to increase the flavour. Small confession here - on Thursday night I ate 6 for supper and a cup of tea. Don't tell the children.

Number 2 stole the cookies from the cookie jar!

She stalked me as I took these pics and every second one has Woo desperately trying to gain access to the tasty nibbles. Cheeky Woo Woo - we do love you.

heavenly eggy-nests

Ten steps to Heaven!

Sunday morning breakfast (post St Kilda Grand Final defeat pick-me-up). Poor Greg and Tiggy were pretty sad.

1. Turn oven on to 180C.
2. Butter any number of 1 cup ramekins. I say make at least one per person and two for miserable husbands.
3. Fill each ramekin 1/3 full with grated cheese (I used Monteray Jack or ordinary Cheddar). Jiggle the cheese around to form a small nest - hence my name for it!

4. Crack 1 Organic Free Range egg into each ramekin, carefully so the yolk doesn't pop.
5. Sprinkle with Jane's Krazy Mixed-up Salt and a little pepper.

6. Spoon a healthy (?) slug of cream over each egg.

7. Grate a little Parmesan on top and pop into a baking dish half filled with water.

8. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, depending on how fast your oven is, until the egg is set but the yolk still oozingly runny .

9. Serve immediately but be careful though it's extremely hot!

10. Spoon delicious morsels of Heaven on to crunchy buttery toast fingers and devour.

Mmm it's SO good.

Have a great week.

x

birthday preparations :: mars bar crackles

First things first. The most delicious chocolate crackles.
I used the Kellogg's Mars Bar Slice recipe but I put it into cupcake holders as I thought they would look prettier on the table – and they did.

flossy is always my sous-chef, and a very good one, I might add

the cake stand with honey joys mixed in. mmm, which one should I have first?

the cake table

The candle is lit in memory of Tiggy's birthmother. It's something Tigs and I did very gently and peacefully before everyone arrived. A reminder of the extraordinary woman who gave birth to our beautiful son. I am sure it's a date she'll never forget.

Thank you Seong Jin Orma. We'll always remember you and pray that your life is good.

I had a look for the recipe link but couldn’t seem to find it again. Anyway here’s the recipe (below). In future I’d leave out the golden syrup (not sure what it’s there for and Lord knows it doesn’t need to be any sweeter) and the dark chocolate as we inadvertently added it to the melting pot (oops). It’s meant to go on the top. They are super yummy and terribly good for you … Well maybe only for your soul!

MARS BAR SLICE

3 cups rice bubbles3 x 60g Mars bars, chopped

75g Butter1 tbs Golden Syrup

150g Dark Cooking Chocolate, chopped

1. Place chopped Mars bars in a heatproof bowl with butter and golden syrup.

2. Microwave on high for about 1 1/2 minutes or until Mars bars are melted.

3. Mix until smooth.

4. Stir in rice bubbles & press mixture firmly into a greased foil-lined 20cm square cake tin.

5. Place in refrigerator until firm.

6. Place chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl. Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes, or until melted. Stir until smooth.

7. Spread over slice and refrigerate until firm.

8. Remove slice from refrigerator about 1 hour before cutting into squares with a warm knife.

Makes 16 Source : Kellogg's Rice Bubbles