Doesn't Time Fly?

I can't believe that it's a year since I started blogging but when I look back I began with Teenboy's birthday cake and here is this year's offering. Actually, I'm a bit late as the cake has been and gone so I can confidently say that it was a success!

I did have a long hard think as to what cake would go down well with a 16 year old and he was too busy with living to give a great deal of thought to it so I went with a recipe that I've been wanting to try, Nigella's Chocolate Guinness cake!

I just love the thought of chocolate and guinness together and the frosting on top makes it sound wonderful. It is also so easy to make which gives it the big thumbs up around here. If you haven't tried it do give it a go and don't worry if you haven't got easy access to guinness as I just used a Tasmanian stout which tasted pretty good! If you have a copy of Nigella's Feast you'll find the recipe there!

250 ml Guinness
250 g unsalted butter
75 g cocoa
400 g caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 eggs

1t tbsp real vanilla extract
275 g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the icing:
300 g Philadelphia cream cheese

150 g icing sugar
125 ml double or whipping cream
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 180oc, butter and line a 23 cm springform tin
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter gradually, and heat until the butter has melted. At which time, whisk in the cocoa and sugar.
Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the bicarb and flour.
Pour the cake batter into the greased, lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack as it is quite a damp cake.
Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar, then beat together. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a pint.

Things have changed such a lot since I started this blog. I'm no longer a student but am working in community services as a family counsellor and loving it. However, it does mean that time is a little more hard to come by and Tuesday nights are a rush to finish work, get home, feed everybody, make next day's lunches and then get out to orchestra practice so imagine my delight when OH came home early and got this gastronomic feast ready for us all! He invented the curry recipe but I know that it contained Patak's Madras paste. The raita was his own and very delicious. I'm hoping that Tuesday nights will become a regular cooking feature for him!!

Peanut Butter Biscuits.

What a mad time we've had over on my favourite foodie forum 'Violet's Pantry'! I think I shoulder some of the responsibility as I posted a picture of the Snake Pit cake just after Kerryanne had posted a picture of her Peanut Butter Biscuits. They were truly beautiful and round but received no comments due to the aforementioned Snake Pit.

Anyway, one thing led to another and we ended up having a PBB challenge with photos being posted of our efforts. Kerryanne, with the help of her emu avatar, Ernie (Please don't ask!!) drew the winners name out of a hat and the winner as well as having the kudos of winning the challenge and eating some very scrummy biscuits also has a packet of Australian tea winging its way to them c/o yours truly.

The challenge has finished now but if you'd like to have a go at the recipe then please do as it really is a great and tasty treat!

Peanut Butter Cookies by Kerryanne

1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

125g unsalted butter, brought to room temp.

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

1/2 cup (100g) firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (280g) crunchy peanut butter

1 egg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup (50g) chopped raw unsalted peanuts, plus extra to decorate (I didn't decorate)

Sift flour,baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt into a bowl. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugars with an electric beater on medium until light and fluffy. Add the peanut butter and beat until just combined. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Add flour mixture and gently mix on low speed until combined. Stir in peanuts. Scrape dough onto a board and divide in half (If it is very soft,chill briefly so it's easier to roll into logs) Lay a large sheet of foil on bench, then top with baking paper. Gently work one piece of dough with your hands to bring together, then roll into a 5cm thick log. Sit the log on one end of paper, then roll up to enclose. Enclose in foil and twist ends tightly in opposite directions to form a bon bon..Repeat with remaining dough. Chill for 2-3 hours until firm (or freeze for up to 5 weeks and defrost in fridge before slicing). Preheat oven to 150oC. Unwrap logs, then carefully slice into 6-7mm thick rounds.Place biscuits about 3cm apart on baking paper lined trays, (you will need three trays) Press extra nuts into each biscuit, bake 20-25 mins until crisp and golden brown, rotating trays halfway if cooking unevenly. Cool on trays for 3 minutes, then cool completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container for up to five days, or freeze up to 3 weeks then defrost at room temperature.

Enjoy.

Now you may notice a bit of a difference between Kerryanne's perfect biscuits and my own. I made the classic mistake of not reading the recipe correctly and made my biscuits very thick indeed. I couldn't believe that they needed to be 6-7cms thick so cut them 2-3cms instead. It would have been so much easier to have re-read the recipe!!! I also added chocolate chips rather than peanuts.

And the winner..........? I finish with a picture of Kelly-Jane's challenge winning peanut butter biscuits! Well done Kelly-Jane!

My First Award!

And here it is! It's been awarded by George from Culinary Travels From a Kitchen Goddess. Her blog is absolutely wonderful and is an inspiration with her lovely photos. I've been lucky enough to trial a couple of her recipes which are going into her book and not only am I looking forward to seeing them in print but also trying out many more new recipes!

Thank you George for all the hard work that you put into your blog and for the help and inspiration it gives me!

Sydney Good Food and Drink Show

And here's the star! I was at Friday's show with a friend from school (How crazy can life be when you move to the other side of the world and still go out with girls from school?) We managed to get tickets to see Gordon Ramsay in action and even though we were pretty well at the back, thanks to the big screens, we still had a good view. The theatre seated 2500 and there wasn't a seat to spare! He, and his assistant made a 3 course dinner comprising of a chorizo and butter bean soup, pan fried lamb with a green bean salad and pain perdue. Nothing too complicated so he had plenty of time to chat!

As to the rest of the show, there were loads of stands with lots of goodies to sample and as we had our glass (free on entry) to hand there was plenty to drink too! I did manage to pace myself as I went to both the day session and the After Dark one so didn't leave until 9pm!

What I really enjoyed was talking to the local producers who were there and can thoroughly recommend this raspberry wine vinegar. I happily drank the sample that I was

given as it just tasted so wonderfully raspberryish! I can't wait to try it made into a vinaigrette with some rocket. I was also given an ideas sheet which included using it with olive oil to pan fry salmon steaks and to pour it over vanilla ice cream as a pudding! Yum! And the lovely thing is that it is produced locally (well certainly by Australian distances!) and that it is available at a deli in a nearby suburb.

No show is complete without a gadget and here's mine! It claims to peel and devein prawns in one go and certainly it seemed to work in the hands of the guy demonstrating it. You take off the head with the safe blade at the base and then push the pointy end down the back of the prawn. This separates the prawn from its shell and loosens the vein so all you need to do is pull your pan ready prawn away! With a bit more practise you can shell your prawn and still leave the head and tail on....and there is a bottle opener too!! I just had to add the quince paste bargain that I picked up too....$1 each!

Other treats included a bagful of these wonderful chilli products. The mild chilli dressing is my wonderful way of getting the Little One to eat salad and I was so happy to see that there was a stand full of the stuff. I've only ever seen it available at the market at The Rocks before. The sate sauce is great for adding to noodles for lunch boxes, the green chilli sauce is a great Thai curry standby and the chilli jam is good anytime!

And finally I just have to track these guys down again as their chocolates are absolutely wonderful. We got a show bag which had a box of their wonderful chocolates, a couple of bars of dark chocolate but the absolute best find was their orange sticks. I'd sort of expected a Matchmaker moment but these are lovely candied sticks of peel with the most lovely dark chocolate over them. What a way to eat fruit!!

And a quick thanks to the guys on Hilliers stand who put loads of chocolate mints into my bag too!!

All I can say is roll on next years show!!

I've been tagged!!!

I've had my first tag and that's a bit exciting! George from http://culinarytravelsofakitchengoddess.wordpress.com/ has done the tagging and here's what it involves!
1Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2Share six random and/or weird things about yourself.
3Tag six random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Having worked out who to tag I then had the knotty problem of deciding which random things about me I wanted the world to know but here goes!

1 I love playing the drums. I came upon this skill when I was at school and decided that music would be a good thing to do especially as I wanted to make a career of teaching primary school children. To do music, I had to play an instrument so picked on the drums. My first performance as a percussionist was 8 weeks later in the local boy's school production of My Fair Lady.

2 I met my husband through the local youth orchestra, he played clarinet and I was on the timpani.

3 Whilst playing in a concert, the conductor realised that I would make a good stunt double for the principal player in a film that his friend was making. So somewhere there is a film that has me fighting an opera singer!

4 I love to scuba dive but I hate getting my face wet. My dive buddies need to know that I don't open my eyes until I am well below the water level.

5 I love messing about in the kitchen and find any sort of cooking a great way to de-stress. (I'm not sure if this is random enough for foodie blogs!)

6 I love watching rugby and still think that Rob Andrews' drop kick in the final seconds of the game against the Wallabies at Twickers was one of the greatest moments.(Sorry,Johnny!)

Anyway, after having revealed all that here are the people that I wish to tag!

Gayle at http://theovenison.blogspot.com/

Laura at http://hungryandfrozen.blogspot.com/

MrsW at http://vipantrywedonthaveablogblog.blogspot.com/

Amelita at http://squishyness14.blogspot.com/

Tina at http://tina-cookerybookchallenge.blogspot.com

Vonsashen at http://vonsachsen.blogspot.com/

Two Drumsticks

Tonight I'm giving my drumsticks an airing. I'm playing the timpani part in Elgar's 'Cello Concerto with my local orchestra. I've been playing since I was 14 (which is a very long time!) and since I started I've always played with a local orchestra or two. I've been a bit surprised at my reaction to tonight's programme as I've not usually enjoyed playing Elgar. Perhaps it's being away from the 'Homeland' that's done it but I've found that I've been really moved by the music. It could be that the soloist is an absolutely wonderful player but I feel it's a bit more than that. I keep seeing the Malvern Hills and Worcester Cathedral as I'm playing.

The orchestra is my local community orchestra which plays to a very high standard. The ticket sales are indicating a good sized audience so the call went out for cakes and biscuits for the interval. What a time to bake George's Wattleseed Cookies! I sent a packet of ground and roasted wattleseed to George in a swap organised through the now defunct Nigella.com forum. George is very creative with ingredients from all over the world and after a bit of thought came up with this recipe. I'm not only feeding some of tonight's audience with this recipe but also trialling it for George.

Wattleseed Cookies

6oz 00 flour

4oz soft butter

2oz castor sugar

1 teaspoon ground wattleseed

1 tablespoon Nutella

Beat the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy then beat in the wattleseed and Nutella. Then beat in the flour to make a stiff dough. Roll the dough into a sausage shape and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Slice the dough into 2cm rounds and place on a baking tray. Cook for 7-10 minutes at 180 degreesC until golden and firm. transfer onto a cooling tray.

The concert went well and the soloist played beautifully. I was particularly proud that the plate of cookies was demolished with relish. In fact they disappeared so fast that no one in my family managed to get one. Luckily I've made some for home and they've been demolished with great gusto. A great triumph George!

My Favourite Room!

Here it is! My most favourite room in the house. Reds to the left and whites to the right.

I don't profess to know much about wines but do know that I enjoy a good one! We're lucky with having the Hunter Valley only 90 minutes drive away and looking at the gaps I feel a trip there may be needed soon.

The Hunter Valley is best known for it's Semillon and Shiraz wines. The Semillon is a lovely dry crisp white wine with a citrussy hint! If you can get a bottle of Mount Pleasant's Elizabeth you'll see what I mean, you can taste the lemons! And the Shiraz goes well with beef or cheese. Well, that's what I think.

I was drinking a Hunter Valley shiraz only last night. It was from a winery that I love going to called Lucy's Run.

Lucy is the owners dog and features on the wine labels, Sophie is Lucy's daughter and has the dessert wine named after her. John and Judy own the winery and run it with the help of the dogs. John used to be an airline pilot and he and Judy bought the place before he stopped flying. Judy and the dogs manned the place until John gave up the day job and now they produce some great drinking wines and olive oil. They don't have a cellar door which means that you can't just drop in unannounced but if you give them a call (02 4938 3594) they'd love to see you!

Jolly Juice!

The drive through bottle shop has to be one of the best Aussie inventions. I was bowled over the first time my husband took me to one and now feel the need to take all my visitors through one just for the experience. It's wonderful to drive up, pop the boot open, ask the guy to put a couple of slabs of cold VB in and pay, all without stirring from the driver's seat. As a UK friend would say "Quality!"

Anyway, on Saturday my husband went to the bottle shop and came back with some beers and wine. Now, I'm a fizzy girl myself and so he came in with a couple of bottles to try. Nothing too posh but what we call 'jolly juice'. This is one I haven't tried before. I'm not sure of the price but am sure it comes in at under $10. It's a bit sweeter than my normal pink fizzy but was well chilled and went down very well. I did think of my friend Sally who's favourite colour is pink and reconed that she would have approved. I also made 2 toasts as we drank it, one to the afore mentioned friend Sally and one to Brenda both of whom are my blog gurus. Thanks for your help in getting me started, it's greatly appreciated! When I'm a little more adept you'll be able to click on a link and go straight to their blogs!

Cheers!