Penne with zucchini, chilli flakes and feta cheese

March 7 2012

6 Comments

tags: health conscious, pasta, summer, vegetarian

by emma

I’m always on the lookout for tasty zucchini recipes, as I love it’s crisp freshness. When I saw a recipe for zucchini pasta in a magazine years ago, I thought it looked perfect for a healthy, weekday meal so I adapted it by adding some new flavours. I have lots of those actually. Does anyone else have a heap of magazine recipe cutouts? I’ll often be sitting in the hairdresser, get all excited over a recipe thinking oh my god I have to make this and rip it out. So next time you’re at the hairdresser or dentist and your magazine is falling to bits, it’s probably because of me, or someone like me at least. Sorry about that. I’m a bit of a nanna when it comes to recipes.

I love the flavours in this summer dish; a bit of heat from the chilli flakes, some freshness from the zucchini, a lemony bite, the saltiness of the feta, all tossed through hearty penne with a sprinkling of toasted nuts – it’s a tasty combination.

zucchini chilli pasta

Chocolate chip cookie chocolate brownies

March 4 2012

7 Comments

tags: autumn, baking, bars, chocolate, cookies, desserts, spring, summer, winter

by emma

No you aren’t dreaming or hallucinating. This really is a thing – a wonderfully inspired recipe I discovered recently by lovely Sydney blogger Katrina Meynink, (also freelance food writer and recipe developer and lots of other things). You could say I did a double-take. Cookie dough chocolate brownies – no way! As a long time brownie lover, I’m always on the lookout for brownies with a difference, and these are definitely that.

I did tweak the recipe a bit; only because I used what I had around, for instance I only had Belgian dark chocolate which looked to be around 50% cocoa solids so I threw in a bit more. Sadly I didn’t have the original recipe’s m&m cookies, so I used chocolate chip cookie dough which I had in the freezer (I would recommend trying the m&m cookies though as they look so pretty and I think the candy would be a nice contrast with the brownie).

These brownies really are as good as they sound. The warm, fudgy, chocolate texture and flavour competes very well with the sweet, crunchy cookies and even though I’m sad about not having m&m cookies, the chocolate chip cookies were a really good substitute. To be honest, these are two of my favourite treats combined into one and that’s no small thing.

Cheese and chilli cornbread

February 29 2012

6 Comments

tags: baking, bread, loaves, sides, summer

by emma

Cornbread is a lovely, rustic addition to soups or casseroles. I make mine with fresh corn when I can, which means I usually make it in summer. So although cornbread might go with more cooler weather dishes traditionally, I find it’s a delicious accompaniment with a chicken salad or summer tomato soup or even as a snack for morning tea with some butter. And I’m always partial to a bowl of chilli in summer, I’m weird like that and besides, everyone knows cornbread goes brilliantly with chilli.

I prefer my cornbread only slightly sweet, with a hint of chilli and cheese – it also depends on the quality of the corn; the sweeter and more tender the corn, the better this will be. If you’re making the loaf out of season, then use defrosted frozen corn kernels.

This loaf is soft, moist and crumbly and is at it’s most delicious served warm from the oven or on the day you make it, however does freeze quite well.

Peach and cherry galette

February 26 2012

17 Comments

tags: baking, desserts, pie, summer

by emma

This lovely seasonal galette was made with December peaches and cherries baked on a rainy afternoon just before Christmas Day (I’m uncomfortably aware it’s way way too late in the year to still be talking about Christmas but completely forgot I hadn’t posted this yet and am madly going through summer recipes before we aren’t in it anymore). I mean people are talking about Easter.

But oh cherries I do love you. Those sweet fruity treats we all go mad for in Australia and are so much a part of our Christmas I don’t know what I’d do if I ever had a Northern hemisphere Christmas. Although I’m sure I’d cope. All that snowy, cosy holiday ambience would be experience enough.

This rustic tart was a luscious combination of sweet jammy cherries and peaches on crunchy sugar topped pastry served with a dollop of luscious cream. Trust me, this is worth making.

cherry peach galette

Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) – peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes

February 21 2012

10 Comments

tags: autumn, breakfast, chocolate, pancakes

by emma

Happy Pancake Day to all my beautiful readers.

This was really just a reason to make pancakes for breakfast today as I love them and to be honest, I never need much of an excuse. In my opinion every day should be pancake day!

They were lovely; fluffy pancakes with the classic flavour combination of creamy peanut butter and chocolate chips – I’m pretty sure these would be kid-friendly as well (and I’m just a big kid so I’d know).

I loved them warm from the sizzly pan with just a light drizzle of golden syrup. They don’t need much embellishment as the flavour stands out on it’s own.

Tomato relish, the return of doorstop sandwiches and school days

February 20 2012

5 Comments

tags: nostalgia, sauces, sides, summer

by emma

My bread carbohydrate addiction started early in life.

After school, I’d run home from the bus stop, throw my bag in my room, my dog Goldie panting at my heels, run into the kitchen and cut massive doorstops of mum’s homemade wholemeal bread and add peanut butter or Nimbin cheese (the best cheddar cheese), think wistfully of the soft, white supermarket bread my friends were given to eat, take my horrible school shoes off, pull on my wellies and sit on the doorstep scarfing down my sandwich before going for a bike ride or visiting my friends across the road and their horse. Consequently I’d pick unenthusiastically at dinner but it was worth it, even with mum giving me heaps about it.

So I had a longing for those school day doorstop sandwiches which then led to me thinking about making my own relish which I’ve never done before, probably because I have a morbid fear of canning related botulism (or something like that). Luckily I found this recipe which requires nothing more stressful than a covered container in the fridge.

For most of the cooking time the mixture looked pretty much like cooked down tomatoes so I wondered if I’d missed something or put too much of something in. At one point after the 3/4 way mark though, I checked the pan to give the mixture a stir and was pleasantly surprised; I saw it was amazingly sticky and jam-like and I felt quite clever even though this is possibly the easiest recipe in the world.

This relish is absolutely delicious – spicy, sweet and substantial and trust me, you won’t want to buy store bought again after trying this. It’s that good.

Valentines Day dessert – vanilla ice cream chocolate chip cookie tarts with chocolate sauce

February 13 2012

6 Comments

tags: chocolate, cookies, desserts, ice cream, sauces, summer, valentines day

by emma

Apologies for the wordy title but … I had no idea what to call these saucy little tarts (ooh missus!).

I’m a sucker for this type of hedonistic dessert – there’s something fundamentally appealing about the combination of fudgy cookies, cold, creamy ice cream with chocolate sauce and not minding getting chocolate all over your face while you’re eating it. It’s perfect for a romantic dessert (blokes love cookies, ice cream and chocolate sauce. They do, go on ask them. Actually girls do too, for that matter).

I was going to make a traditional chocolate sauce using cream and chocolate but then came across this wonderful recipe by David Lebovitz which is easy, low fat and lasts a good while in the fridge. However don’t let those mere practical considerations sway you; this gorgeous, deeply dark chocolate sauce becomes thicker and even more decadent after standing for a couple of hours and trust me, doesn’t taste low fat in the slightest (always a good thing!); in fact I kept walking by the pan in the kitchen and couldn’t resist a spoonful. Once you make this, it will be the only chocolate sauce recipe you’ll ever need, and lifted my dessert idea from something nice but fairly ordinary to special.

You could make your own chocolate chip cookie dough. I didn’t. To be perfectly honest, if I’m making cookie dough from scratch, I’m making cookies to eat on their own, not to squish in a tin to bake, then plonk ice cream and chocolate sauce on top of, but that’s just me. I mean the cookies are important, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t need to be homemade.

I hope you all have a lovely Valentines Day ♥

Crispy quinoa puff, peanut and chocolate candy bars

February 6 2012

14 Comments

tags: autumn, chocolate, desserts, health conscious, spring, summer, winter

by emma

I found this wonderful recipe for healthy candy bars recently (check out the rest of the site, it has tasty recipes for healthy minded people). I have a big bag of quinoa puffs which, while I love to eat them for breakfast, I wanted to do something a bit more fun with, so I thought I’d make these chocolatey treats on a sunny morning to have with a cuppa.

These bars are very hard to turn down. They have a lovely toffee/chocolate flavour, like a proper candy bar, but also differing textures of crunchy, creamy, nutty and fudgy which is very appealing. They’re also a much healthier option than the ones you buy from the shop but having said that, there’s still some sugar going on. So when you reach for your 2nd or 3rd bar with your cup of morning coffee (oops), you’ve been forewarned and forearmed.

I halved the original recipe as there’s only two of us at home, and tweaked a couple of things.

Creamy (mayonnaise free) potato salad

February 1 2012

6 Comments

tags: health conscious, salads, sides, spring, summer, vegetarian

by emma

I do love a classic potato salad. I’ve always enjoyed zesty, creamy ones so didn’t add anything to sweeten it up – if you prefer a sweeter salad, just replace some of the sour cream with mayonnaise.

I make this recipe every summer and it’s a great combination of creamy and fresh with extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, freshly picked herbs and some crunchy red onion and celery. It goes really well with grilled steaks or chicken.

This Life -v- 1996 was a good year

January 31 2012