Dirt and Worms

My 2 beautiful girls have daycare on Monday, which also happens to be Halloween. The daycare asked for kids in costumes and "Halloween snacks to share". Ummm ok daycare people. My brain was going a little crazy but then it went straight to Ree. If you don't know who I'm talking about, I'm talkin' Ree Drummond AKA the Pioneer Woman. I remember seeing her cute little flowerpot desserts and thought I'd appropriate the idea, put my freaky spin on it and call it "halloween snack".
First, I used a packet cup cake mix.

This one, to be exact. It came with cake cases, it came with frosting. I didn't have to weigh or sift any ingredients. Today, that sounded like my kind of cooking. So I baked those suckers...

Ok. So, I left them in the oven for a bit longer than I should have. Don't judge.
Then, I got some choc ripple biscuits -

And whizzed some up in Mr Buzzy, until it looks like dirt.

Mmmmmm yummy chocolatey dirt.
Put the frosting on the cakes, add a gummi worm.

and some "dirt" and here is how they turned out.

Mmmmm Dirt and Worms, anyone?

Meatloaf (Well, kind of)

This is sort of a recipe for a sort of meatloaf.
It is hard to actually put a name on this because, well, there is meat in it and it is a loaf shape, but it is definitely not traditional.

That is what I normally put in there. They can be divided into 5 categories.
Meat - minced beef, occasionally I'll put in about 20% pork mince.
Veges - Always onion, almost always capsicum, often cabbage, usually carrot, sometimes mushrooms. All diced or shredded or minced or grated really REALLY fine (especially if you have vege haters in your clan)
Herbies and spices - Always garlic and some other mix of dried herbs, garlic and herb salt
Sauces and other flavourings - Kajup manis, tomato sauce/pizza sauce, BBQ sauce, Kraft parmesan cheese-like product, wostershire sauce
Binders - 1 egg and some bread crumbs (or cornflake crumbs)

You take you selection of ingredients and slop it into a large (I mean, the biggest one you have) mixing bowl, don some food handling gloves and get in there. Give it a really good mix. Squeeze it through your fingers  and make sure all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. If it looks a little sloppy, add some more bread crumbs, if it looks a little dry, a little more tomato sauce is the ticket. When it is ready, it should look like lumpy off-pinky red playdough.

Smoosh that into a loaf pan,, whack it in the oven on 180 for 60-80 mins.At about  50mins in, brush the top with a mix of half kajup manis and half woster. Yum. Take it out of the oven, drain, slice and serve with a big pile of mash potato and some gravy

YUMMMMMM!

Spiced Banana.... Muffins.

Finally got around to defrosting and reorganising my freezer this weekend. While scraping and chipping and wiping away the ice, and making a list of the contents of the freezer, I came across not one, not 2 but 3 bags of overripe frozen bananas! Jackpot! After cyclones and floods, the Australian (in particular, Queensland) banana crop was all but wiped out, sending the price of bananas through the roof. I think they peaked around here at aroun $15/kg. Before the price hike, we purchased some bananas and the ones that we didn't quite get to, I put in bags of 2 (and a half) and popped them in the freezer to bake with later. Fast forward to today, with bananas still at over $11/kg, finding some frozen ones in the freezer was like finding a gold nugget in your yard. It screamed to me, Spiced Banana Bar. But I wasn't in the mood for a bar cake, and had desire for more of the pleasently crisp edgebits. Solution? Muffins! I topped them with a dot of simple icing and a banana chip.
Here's how they turned out.

Fresh out of the oven

Decorated and ready to eat.

Sauted Cabbage

Quick, easy, tasty and healthy side dish that goes with just about everything.

Ingredients:
1 cupe Cabbage, shredded
1 teaspoon butter
1/4 teaspoon Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, minced to a paste
Salt and Pepper

Method:
1. In a non-stick place butter and oil onto medium heat
2. When butter starts to bubble a little, add the cabbage
3. Move gently around the pan until the cabbage starts to soften slightly and develop small golden brown bits
4. Add garlic, plenty of fresh ground black pepper and a pinch of salt
5. Saute for another 2 minutes.

That's it. Really yummy with a steak and some mash. I had it today as a side to roast chicken. Try it.