Vanilla Mousse Slice

This is one of those "quick to throw together, everyone thinks you're a kitchen genius" kind of recipes. You whip it up the night before, ice it in the morning and you are set for any event. Morning tea at work? No problem. Visitors coming over for morning tea? You are set.

Ingredients:
1 packet milk coffee biscuits
300mL Thickened cream
150mL Milk (low fat is fine)
1 packet of  Vanilla magic instant mousse
Approx 1 cup pure icing sugar (sifted)
1-2 passionfruit

Method:
1. Place instant mousse powder, cream and milk into a large bowl.
2. Beat with electric beaters until well combined and form soft peaks
3. Line a slice tin with baking paper and a layer of biscuits.

4. Cover with the mousse mixture and another layer of bisuits, trying to keep them in the same orientation (to aide in slicing later)

5. Cover with a layer of cling wrap or foil and leave to set in the fridge for at least 12hours.
6. Mix passionfruit pulp and icing sugar to a nice pourable consistancy and pour over the top of the slice to cover evenly.
7. Allow to set in the fridge for at least 30mins before serving.

A note about setting times: If you have the time to leave it set for 24 hours total, the biscuits will become much softer and more cake-like in consistancy. It will work with a shorter setting time, but it won't be nearly as good. Trust me on this. A slightly longer time in the fridge (if you can resist the creamy goodness) is well worth the wait.

Choc Chip Cookies

Preparation Time
10 minutes

Cooking Time
20 minutes

Ingredients:

    150g softened butter
    1/2 cup caster sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    1 egg
    1 3/4 cups plain flour, Sifted
    1/2 cup dark chocolate bits

    1/2 cup milk chocolate bits

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick paper.
2. Beat softened butter, caster sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract for 1-2 minutes or until smooth and well combined.

3. Beat in 1 egg.

4. Stir in plain flour in two batches.
5. Stir in choc bits until evenly distributed.
6. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on the lined trays. Press down slightly.

7. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until light golden and cooked.

8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week. (Yeh, right! Like they would ever last that long!)

Usually, if I am accurate about the sizing and use a soup spoon full of dough per cookie, you get about 28-30 cookies out of this mix. I got 30 out of the batch I photographed for this and I was quite pedantic about the sizing as I wanted them to look good for the photos. If you prefer bigger or smaller cookies, go for it. I don't do any much bigger than this as they don't fit through the neck of my cookie jar. My husband and daughter pinched one each off the baking tray while I was fiddling with the settings on my camera. (Correction, my husband actually stole 2!)

Variation:
1) Remove 2 heaped tablespoons of flour and replace with cocoa powder. Replace choc chips with white choc bits.
2) Replace choc chips with mini MnMs

Unexpected Things

Since starting my new job, I have learned a myriad of things, some expected and some not.

Things I now know which I didn’t before include such things as how to log cored section of rock, what a “water dipper” is and how to use it, what a “diff breather” is and why it is a bad thing if water gets in there, and that the mobile coffee shop comes early on Tuesdays and late on Wednesdays. These are all important things and very relevant to my current role. I have also learned things that I could never have imagines. I will share two of those things with you. Perhaps they may be useful to you, though I can’t really imagine how. Firstly, cows love, and I mean REALLY LOVE drillers grease. They adore the stuff. They will push through sturdy fences just to get a taste. They will lick the threads of your drilling rods completely clean, if given the chance. They will also happily consume an entire 3kg bucket full of the stuff. Secondly, don’t leave aluminium foil in the rain. Don’t get a roll of it wet, don’t drop it in your washing up water, in a puddle or in the pool. If you do, don’t even try and rectify the soggy situation. Just throw the roll in the garbage bin and cut your losses.

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.

Mmmmm Cake

Yesterday, it was someone from work’s birthday. Another person from work, Natasha, made 2 cakes for the occasion. I had some of the flourless, gluten free chocolate cake and it was YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! I have requested the recipe and I shall share it with you when it is in my possession. Did I mention YUM!? My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Cream Scones

Ingredients

3 cups self-raising flour, sifted

Pinch of salt

2 tbs Caster sugar

300mL thickened cream

150mL milk + 1tbs


(Yes really! That's it. Just 5 ingredients and NO butter!)

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease and line sheet pan with non-stick baking paper
2. Place the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir to combine
3. Make a well in the centre
4. Add cream, then ½ fill cream container with milk
5. Shake well then add milk to the bowl
6. Mix until combined and a ball of dough forms
7. Turn dough out on to a floured surface
8. Roll out to approx. 2.5cm thick
9. Use a floured round scone cutter to make disks
10. Place rounds on prepared tray
11. Brush tops lightly with a little extra milk
12. Bake for 10-15mins or until golden and puffed

Most recipes I’ve seen and tasted require butter to be rubbed into flour or other fiddly, time consuming steps. Not this one! This recipe is so very simple but, hands down, the best plain scone recipe I’ve ever tasted. Light, a little flaky with the perfect crumb, and it usually takes me longer to find my scone cutter than it does to actually make them! Served with whipped cream and jam, these are morning tea perfection.

Porky Pies for dinner

Tonight for dinner, we are having meatloaf. Or are we? Can you still call it meat loaf when there is only just enough meat to hold the vegetables together? There is also no cabbage and most definitely no carrot in my meatloaf (but only if my husband or my children ask). And we will be having ice cream for dessert too (because frozen yogurt and fresh strawberries are too healthful).

Ah, the beautiful lies we tell our children.... and husbands.

Have great food and great fun
Kate