Pastitsio

Tonights dinner was yet another recipe from 100 Pasta Favourites - I really love this book. It's essentially a layered pasta bake. The bottom layer is macaroni, with a little egg and parmesan. The middle is a beef sauce, kind of like a bolognese but with a hint of cinnamon. And the top layer is a bechamel cheese sauce.

I didn't have any beef stock cubes, so I substituted chicken stock. And I only used one onion, instead of the two the recipe asked for. And I ended up adding a dash of flour to the meat sauce to thicken it, because it was just taking forever.

This recipe involved a lot of everything - a lot of ingredients, a lot of time, and a lot of dirty dishes. And the end result was a lot of food. Far more than hubby and I could finish. Now that Little Princess is three months and can sit in her bumbo and watch me cook for short stretches of time, it was a little bit easier to cook it because I wasn't as limited to her nap time. But it's certainly not a recipe for the average working mum.

Thoughts - it was ok, but not great. Very edible, it had good flavour and was filling. A bit too much bechamel, but otherwise alright. But I just felt it wasn't worth the two hours it took me to make it, nor was it worth the two hours it took me to clean up afterwards. I certainly won't be making it again.

Chocolate Sponge Cake

There are many things I despise about Christmas, and many things I love. And one of the parts I love is food! I actually really love the traditional desserts like fruit cake with fondant icing and pudding with custard, but I know this makes me rather strange. So I like to use Christmas as great opportunity for me to spread my wings a little and make a really yummy dessert that I'd normally never get away with making. There's always a large crowd at the three family Christmas parties we attend, which means my cooking is always going to get eaten, and hubby and I aren't left trying to finish two thirds of some obscenely fattening dish.

This year for our traditional boxing day lunch I decided to try something I'd never ever attempted before. Sponge cake. It's something I've often avoided, because you hear so many horror stories about sponge cakes. But the recipe in the Epicure Chocolate book said it never failed, and it looked simple enough, so armed with my new mix-master, I gave it a whirl.

To be honest I found the recipe extremely offputting. It's an old family recipe that was submitted to Epicure by a reader, so some of the directions are a tad vague. For example, it asked for a heaped dessert spoon full of cocoa. I'm used to much more precise measurements than that. Also, there was so little in the mixture. I'm used to putting masses of flour into my cupcakes, so the idea of making a double-layer cake with only half a cup of cornflour really threw me.

Thoughts - end result was FANTASTIC! I am so proud of my chocolate sponge. It tasted fantastic, it was cooked just right the whole way through, it didn't collapse or taste like rubber like the horror stories say can happen. The family lapped it up too. My dad did comment there was too much icing, but he always says that, and I thought I put the icing on very thinly. My biggest concern was that the whipped cream might make the cake soggy if I left it in the fridge overnight, but that didn't happen. I'll definitely be making this again and again!

Gnocchi with caramelised pumpkin and sage sauce

Another recipe from 100 Pasta Favorites. I love pasta, and I love gnocchi as well, but I sometimes get frustrated that for the most part pasta means either a creamy, cheesy sauce or a tomato-based one. So when I spotted this one, which is mainly made of pumpkin, I just had to give it a go.

The recipe asked for fresh sage, but sadly the supermarket had none, and I had the little princess with me so going into the big shopping centre just for herbs wasn't on the cards. So instead I used ground, dried sage. Also the recipe called for 1/4 cup of chicken stock, and opening a carton of real stock to only use a sixth of it seemed really wasteful, so instead I dissolved a stock cube in 1/4 cup of water. Aside from that I used all the right ingredients - butternut pumpkin, brown sugar, a leek, and evaporated milk. Though I did accidentally buy full cream instead of low fat, it was still good.

Thoughts - this was basically like eating pumpkin soup with gnocchi in it. The recipe made way more sauce than was needed to coat 500g of potato gnocchi, so by the end I was scooping it out of the bowl, and hubby was sopping it with bread. But none of that was a bad thing. It was really yummy, and it will definitely be cooked again. And with the texture, I can probably feed the sauce to the little princess when she turns one and can handle those sorts of solids.

Chocolate Royal Torte

I had some friends over for dinner on friday, so they could meet the little princess. And I knew they would be expecting something sweet, since sweets are kind of my thing. But I was determined to prove I can make something other than cupcakes, and I wanted something that I could serve cold because of the heat, so I went for the dessert section of a book rather than the baking section.

This recipe comes from the Epicure Chocolate book, which I bought ages ago from one of those book club things we have at work. It's the first recipe I've made from that book. It's basically a cinnamon meringue nest filled with a layer of whipped cinnamon cream and a layer of chocolate mousse. And the best part was I could make it a day ahead. So I was able to do each bit during Little Princess's naps.

Thoughts - this was lush. The mousse was so good I had to restrain myself from licking the plate. I was a bit concerned about how the cinnamon would taste in the meringue but it was really quite tasty. Hubby liked it too. I came back from work the next day to find he'd polished off the leftovers. I'll be making this again for the family this Christmas.

Salad!

I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment.... kind of have a whole lot of weight I need to lose. So I'm trying to make some healthier dinners. I usually avoid salad like the plague, I really don't care for it at all. But I knew if I went looking for healthy options I'd just get inundated with suggestions of "eat a salad". So tonight I bit the bullet, and tried to fashion a salad I might actually find edible.

Generally speaking the only salad I can stomach is ceasar; not exactly the healthiest of options, so I tried to up the health factor by changing the ingredients a bit. I used a grilled chicken breast which I chopped into pieces, some rindless bacon which I chopped and cooked until it was crispy, some croutons from a packet, half an iceberg lettuce which I shredded, a grated carrot, a lebanese cucumber cut into little cubes, and a fat free ceasar dressing.

Thoughts - not bad. The mixture of ingredients tasted alright, and because of the chicken and bacon it was nice and filling. My only complaint is that, like all salads, it takes ages to eat. There's just so much chewing involved, so you can't eat in a hurry. That became a problem tonight when the little princess got hungry and tired and began to whinge. But then, it's not like dinner was going to go cold while I fed and settled her, because it was cold to begin with. It's definitely something I'll eat again. I may sometimes substitute the chicken for hard boiled eggs for something different.

Macaroni and cheese

I was watching an episode of Bones recently, and all through it one of the characters says multiple times how much he loves mac and cheese. I'd made it from packets before, but that show inspired me to try making it from a recipe.

Like all new mums I'm a teensy bit time poor so I opted for Nigella Lawson's recipe for mac and cheese from her book Nigella Express. It's a very simplified version of mac and cheese, you don't have to make a roux and wait for a sauce to thicken, you just combine the ingredients and bake it.

The recipe asked for either mature cheddar or red leicester cheese, so I opted for a block of Mainland Vintage Cheddar, because it was the cheapest of the vintage cheddars at the supermarket (and conveniently comes in a 250g block, which is exactly what the recipe asked for). It turns out I don't have any nutmeg so I used mixed spice instead, and as always I left out the salt and pepper. I feel that if you want those in your food, you can add them yourslf when you eat it.

Thoughts - nothing special. I really don't get why Seeley Booth was so nuts about this dish. I'm glad I used the vintage cheese because without it the dish would have been so BORING, but even with the vintage it was a bit bland. I think it works as a side dish, but not as a meal in itself. So it's one I'll keep in mind for barbecues this summer.

Fettucine Carbonara

This recipe is from a Women's Weekly cookbook called 100 Pasta Favourites. I picked it up at a newsagent on friday with my Melbourne Cup winnings. This is the first recipe I've tried from it.

I used pre-sliced mushrooms, rindless bacon and pre-grated parmesan to speed up the cooking process a bit. This was really quick to cook - total 0f 15 minutes. Only catch is you have to eat it immediately after cooking it, so I can only cook it when the little princess is asleep. Luckily today she picked an early bed time, but it could lead to some late dinner times.

Thoughts - this was really yummy, but as with all creamy pasta dishes it was very rich, which meant I couldn't stomach a lot of it, but I did like it. Just meant there was a heap left over. Hopefully it reheats well for hubby's lunch tomorrow.

In future I'll chop the mushys myself - the mushroom chunks were too big for my taste. And I might add some garlic. Just because I love garlic.

Mince Chow Mein

This is another Maggi packet mix that hubby brought home. I'd never tried it before purely because I used to work as a waitress at a very swish Chinese restaurant, and it's turned me into a bit of a snob when it comes to Chinese food. Making a chow mein from mince just seemed really wrong. But hubby wanted me to try it, so I gave it a go.

As always I left out the onion. I used 500g of beef mince, a packet of 2-minute noodles, 1 cup of sliced cabbage and a heap of vegies (1 head of brocoli, a carrot, and 100g of snow peas, all chopped into small pieces). The pack actually asks for three cups of cabbage, but I've never been a huge cabbage fan so I traded it for extra stir fry vegies.

Thoughts - Have to be honest, I didn't care for it at all. The sauce was a bit too spicy for me, but at the same time I thought it was flavourless. I couldn't even finish a bowl full. But it was quick to cook. And hubby loved it. I'm sure I'll make it again because he liked it, but I'll avoid it if I can.

Lamb Casserole

The other day hubby brought home a fistful of different Maggi recipe bases to try and I've been slowly working my way through them. Last night we tried the "Cook In The Pot" Lamb Casserole.

He bought that one because it says on the front of the pack you can cook it in the slow cooker, but upon further reading I found you're supposed to use lamb shanks for that, and have you priced those lately? I chose the much more cost effective option of making it in the oven with lamb steaks I cubed myself.

I used 2 chopped carrots (packet asks for just one but they were quite small), 2 cubed potatoes, 500g of lamb steaks which I trimmed the fat off then cubed, a can of diced Italian tomatoes, and the packet. It probably asked for an onion as well, but onion made me very sick while I was pregnant and I'm yet to jump back on that horse. All I did was pop the meat and vegies in a casserole dish, stir together the tomatoes, the packet mix, and a 1/4 cup of water, then add that to the dish and mix it all together. Then I baked it in a 200c oven for 1 1/4 hours. I served it with some fresh bread rolls so we could sop up the sauce.

Thoughts - loved it!!!!! This was so good, I even went back for seconds, which is rare for me. My only complaint is that some of the larger potato chunks were a bit crunchy, so next time I'll chop the cubes smaller. But there will definitely be a next time because this was seriously easy and seriously yummy.

Three cheese pasta bake

Last night for dinner we had the Dolmio three cheese pasta bake. I've made this a few times before but always found it rather bland and therefore not worth the calories. But this week I actually bothered to read the instructions on the side of the jar and discovered you're meant to put bacon in it. Must read instructions more often....

I used 2 1/2 cups of penne pasta, the jar of sauce, 150g of rindless bacon which I chopped, and about a cup of grated cheese on top. It's easy enough to make - you boil the pasta, stir in the sauce and bacon, sprinkle with cheese and bung it in the oven. Cheap too - I think all up I spent less than $10 on the ingredients. And the great part is that I was able to make it hours ahead then just do the oven part at dinner time. But I did find that the 15 minutes the jar specified was nowhere near long enough to properly melt the cheese, let alone make it all crispy. I ended up baking it for more like 25-30 minutes.

Thoughts - even with the bacon, I still found it bland. Hubby liked it, but he covered his with barbecue sauce so it's kind of hard to guage. I'll keep it in mind for a quick, cheap meal, but it won't be finding it's way into my regular cooking. Generally if I'm going to eat that many calories they need to be worth my while, and a dish this bland just isn't worth it.

Baby Shower Cupcakes

I actually made these a few months ago, for my baby shower in August.... but I felt they deserved a mention.

I found the inspiration for these cupcakes from a photo on Flickr. I used a basic vanilla buttercake recipe (from The Crabapple Cupcake Bakery Cookbook - an old favourite) to make the cakes, and a plain vanilla buttercream for the frosting. I portioned up the frosting, coloured some a peachy colour for the faces, some a rosy colour for the cheeks, and some black for the detail. The dummies were very hard to find. I must have gone to every party store, craft store, and $2 shop within an hours drive to find them, but eventually located them in Blacktown.


I'm still not sure how I'm supposed to work with black food colouring. The nasty lady at the cake decorating store told me not to add too much because it would affect the flavour. She said to use just a little and "leave it for a bit"... I still have no idea what she meant, because I did leave it for a bit, but still had to add another big glob of it, and a heap of cocoa, and I still couldn't get it to turn completely black, just a very dark brown. But it looked ok I guess.

Thoughts - I am generally not very good at cake decorating, mostly because after all the time spent baking I want to get on with eating them, so I tend to rush the frosting. But since Mr T was in town for the baby shower, and was looking over my shoulder, I couldn't really back out this time. On the whole I was really happy with them. A few looked a bit rough, so as a joke Mr T decorated one to look like the Elephant Man. But most of them looked really sweet, and I got a lot of compliments.

Mum's Sweet Curry

My very first entry is an old recipe of my mums. And I mean old. I think it's from some ancient cookbook from the 1970's, back when curries always contained Keens Curry Powder, and before anyone realised curries came from India and Thailand. She used to make it all the time when I was a kid, and back then I never liked it. But now in my 20's I've grown fonder of it - it's become a comfort food for me. Last night was the first time I've ever made it myself, and in an attempt to work around the baby's sleeping patterns (or lack thereof) I made it in the slow cooker. Here's the recipe, as I cooked it:

1kg chuck steak, diced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
4 sticks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 granny smith apple, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbs golden syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbs flour
1 can condensed tomato soup (I used Heinz Big Red)

Place meat, carrots, celery, onion and apple in slow cooker. Mix together flour, salt, curry powder, golden syrup, lemon juice and soup, add to the slow cooker and mix well. Cook on high for 4 hours.

Thoughts - like most things, it's better when mum makes it. That said, she usually cooks it on the stove, not the slow cooker. I found the meat went very dry and the sauce was very wet, but I find that's the case with most things I make in the slow cooker. I'll give it another whirl on the stove top. And I'll serve it with some better bread next time - the cheese and bacon rolls we ate on the side were a bit greasy.