Month: July 2006

Friday night.

Dinner: spaghetti al’oglio with broccoli through it. Delicious

500g pasta
oil
garlic
anchovies
head of broccoli
salt and pepper

– cook the pasta
– add the broccoli when there’s about 4-5 minutes cooking time left
– drain pasta and broccoli
– put the saucepan back on the heat and add a few lugs of olive oil
– add the garlic and anchovies and saute until golden
– toss through the spaghetti and broccoli
– season

Sensational.

huh. It’s Wednesday night already. incredible.

had a P&F meeting for Oscar’s support service tonight. Am staggered that we are now fighting internally even though we now have the money. I’d be hyperlinking back to the posts at Glam about this but it’s almost midnight, I was in a frustrating meeting for over three hours apart from work all day and apart from being up with Jasper at 4, Oscar at 4.30, and Jasper for the day at 5.15. It’s been a long day.

Dinner tonight: schnitzel. Wednesday is schnitzel night. With steamed veggies.

I also ate two packets of chips because I was stressed about the meeting. Stunning.

Apple Crumble

This is probably my dessert standby most called upon. I think the crumble recipe is a Bill Grainger version but it may be a mix of Bill and someone else. Whoever it came from it is fail proof and delicious.


Apple Crumble

  • 6-8 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
  • handful of sultanas (or berries of your choosing)
  • 100g butter
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3 tblsp rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  1. Preheat oven to 180C
  2. Place apples and sultanas in a baking dish
  3. Pour a smidge of water into the dish 
  4. Mix the butter through the dry ingredients with your fingers until all incorporated
  5. Using your hands strew the crumble mix over the apples, clumping some of the mix more that the rest
  6. Cook in a 180C oven for 30mins or until the filling is bubbling around the sides, the apples are soft and the crumble topping nice and golden.

This is seriously one of my most favourite desserts in the universe.

It’s rare for me to have an enjoyable weekend. I’ve belly-ached about this many times before.

But at the moment, I’m racking up about three weekends in a row that have been absolutely delightful. Go figure.

This weekend I baked a cake, one of my favourites.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake
220g butter – melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup natural yoghurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tblsp finely grated lemon rind
2 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

– Preheat oven to 160C
– Whisk butter and sugar together
– Add eggs, one at a time
– Fold through yoghurt, rind and juice
– Sift in flour and baking powder

– Spoon into a greased and lined 10x20cm loaf tin
– Bake for 1hr15mins
– When cooled, ice with the following glaze

Glaze
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 1/2 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp water

– Stir together until cooled
– Spoon over cake

As I come back to my original blog I figure the best place to start is with something that makes me happy.

Baking.

And I figure I should do something fun.

Jelly cakes

The boys love them and they are great to make with their help. But come to think of it, I love them. Make them in those shallow cupcake trays (a bit like Madeliene tins in depth, but just round in shape) and don’t overfill – you want little cakes you can just pop in your mouth.

Go crazy with different coloured jellies.

Cake
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups SR flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

– Preheat oven to 180C
– Cream butter with sugar
– Add egg
– Fold in flour, milk and vanilla
– Spoon into greased patty-pan tins
– Bake for 10 minutes

Jelly
1 cup boiling water
1 packet jelly crystals
3/4 cup cold water
2 1/2 cups dessicated coconut

– Make jelly and chill for 2-2 1/2 hours

When cakes are cooled and jelly is sort of half set, roll cakes in the jelly, then in the coconut.

Eat up.