Honey and banana buns with cream cheese icing

A while ago Vanessa and I created a range of recipe cards that are selling throughout gift and food shops around New Zealand. This is one of the recipes that proved to be popular. It's a great recipe that's not too sickly sweet like some 'kid's birthday cupcakes, so it's loved by not only the kid's, but the adults will get stuck in as well. You can omit the icing and hundreds and thousands, if you just want these buns as a great snack or for a morning tea, just serve with lashings of butter. Ingrid

Honey and banana buns with cream cheese icing

Makes 12

What you need:
100g butter, softened
1 banana, ripe
1/2 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup fruit yoghurt
2 cups self-raising flour
2 tsp cinnamon

How to make:

Preheat oven to 200C. Cream butter and add honey. Beat in eggs, yoghurt and banana. Fold in sifted flour and cinnamon. Don't overmix. Spoon into muffin trays and bake for 15-20 mins until golden. Serve with icing for a treat, but they taste great as is.

Cream cheese icing
175g cream cheese, softened
50g butter, softened
2/3 cup icing sugar

How to make:

Beat all ingredients until smooth but thick consistency. spoon into piping bag and get creative.

Easy pizza dough

A play on words for our two boys who got stuck in rolling the dough,
however the name also means maori dumplings.

Making your own pizza dough REALLY is easy! Too often we perceive making things by scratch to be difficult and end up spending way too much money to buy a sub-standard product. Time is also an issue, even more so now, as Ingrid and I have just added a baby each to the mix. However pizza dough  really is easy and so much more delicious than anything you can buy. All it takes is a little organisation and a hot water cupboard!

Jake was methodical in placing the toppings, Rhys was more concerned with eating the toppings.

The first stage involves the yeast sitting in your hot water cupboard or a warm place for about 15 mins, the second stage is where for give yourself an arm workout for about 10 mins and the third stage is when it proves in your hot water cupboard again until it doubles in size.  The time for this varies but I have experienced success every time I have made it even though I have left it for different amounts of time!

Thin and crispy, perfect for little hands.

Easy Pizza Dough

You will need

2 tsp yeast (instant dried)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup warm water

How to make

• In a bowl add the warm water, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil. Leave for about 10 minutes until its activated and a bit bubbly. 
• Add the yeast mixture to the flour by making a well in the centre and mixing it with your hands to form a dough ball. 
• Knead it until its smooth - this takes about 10 mins - using the heel of your hand works well and you get in to a rhythm. Great exercise!
• Put into a bowl coated in a bit of olive oil and place some where warm to let it prove (rise) to double its original size. I leave it for an hour or so. (I used the hot water cupboard)
• When ready, punch the dough as its quite light and re-work it into a ball. 
• Its now ready to use. 
• Roll it out to the desired thinness/thickness - I always go thin.
• Place on to a floured pan or pizza stone and add toppings. TIP: Uncooked pizza dough can be frozen in balls or flat between baking paper.
• Bake at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

...the best bit is always the tasting at the end.
Ham, cheese and pineapple was the toppings of choice for these kids.

Interesting toppings and hints.
Use a base of tomato sauce or pesto, you can even use store bought pasta sauce.


TIP: Be careful with ingredients that have a high water content such as fresh tomato, mushrooms, pineapple or frozen spinach - this can make the pizza soggy if you add too much.

• Prawns, capers and anchovies
• Spinach, Parmesan and Cracked egg
• Jalapeño and spicy salami
• bacon, blue cheese and leek

Pirate Party Food

Four years ago, our extended family was childless - Four years on there are three kiddies, with two on the way. All of them so far boys. I am having another boy and Ingrid wants a surprise, if Ingrid has another boy too, that will be five boys four and under - fun and games!!!

The kids having a ball with swords!!!

Our mum is a great organiser and loves to have fun. Christmas has featured a Santa Claus and helper for the last 3 years, clearly it's now extended to other family get togethers. The recent one was a pirate and fairy party - everyone was told what to bring and to dress up!
I was down for sandwiches and a salad. To be honest I was a bit over making sandwiches, having made them the last 2 weekends for kids get together so decided to do a kid friendly nibbles.
Wanting to keep things easy and healthy I opted for the following...
Meatballs
Potato and smoked fishballs
Maggi dip with cheesy sticks (not so healthy!)
Cheese and pineapple sticks

Perfect kid friendly food

Meatballs 
Add to a bowl, 500g mince (I used beef), a few squirts of tomato sauce, a chopped onion and any leftover  chutney/relish you have lurking in your fridge.
Add salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of flour to help bind it.
Roll into balls and place on grease proof paper. I put mine in the fridge overnight as I wanted to cook them on the day so they were still warm but you can cook them straight away.
Instead of frying them, I just baked them at about 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes - EASY!

Smoked Fish Balls
Boil about 6 large Agria potatoes and mash with a generous dollop of butter. In a food processor blitz a couple of handfuls of smoked fish. You could use tinned tuna/salmon. Combine and add salt and pepper.
Roll into balls and then roll the balls in semolina. (or breadcrumbs)
Once again place on baking paper and bake in the oven. I baked them both at the same time and the fish balls really did crisp up without adding any oil!  

Seriously easy party food

Maggi onion dip and cheesy sticks  
If you are a kiwi or maybe an Aussie you will know this one. Its so easy and really delicious.
Mix in a bowl one tin of reduced cream, one packet of instant powdered onion soup and a tablespoon or two of either vinegar or lemon juice. Mix and chill. I served it with some crunchy cheesy sticks I found in an Asian supermarket. Make a double batch - this wont last long.

Cheese and pineapple sticks 
A homage to the 80s, easy as, delicious in a naff kinda way but hey, its for the kids!!!
Place on a toothpick a cube of cheese (I used tasty) and a chunk of pineapple - that's it!
ridiculously delicious and moreish!

Kiwi onion dip - loved by everyone! 

So give it ago, host a pirate and fairy party, dressing up compulsory and have fun with the kids. Great photos and fantastic memories...

Thanks Val Opera,  Glenys Cannin and Charlotte Graydon for all the hard work with the decorating and organising - one to remember
 XXX

Banana and Weetbix muffins

I love it when you feel like doing a spot of cooking or baking and you have next to nothing in the cupboards, but you pile all the odd bits of this and strange end bits of that and somehow you have a recipe! This is what happened one weekend en route to a mum and bubs coffee group. I didn't have much time, so I always fall back on muffins as they are so easy to make and take only 12 mins to bake. 

Best eaten when still warm, with melting butter.

The only trick to making muffins work (and I'm always learning the hard way) is NOT to over mix them - in fact you bearly mix the ingredients if you want them light enough not to break your molars.

So ripe(ish) bananas it is, and a few weetbix made a very nice combo for our morning tea. The only problem was, clawing my 2 year son away from them (He had four before I realised the crumbs around his mouth and the look of gluttony peering up at me). The pictures show the muffins before I took them to our morning tea, and before a little boy mouse had nibbled little scallop shapes around the top. Enjoy. Ingrid

Banana and Weetbix muffins

Makes 12

What you need

1 cup self raising flour 

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup of sugar (brown, white or raw - whatever you got)

4 weetbix (crushed) or 1 cup bran

1 Tbsp golden syrup

1 Tbsp butter (or margarine)

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup milk

1 egg (beaten)

2 bananas (ripe, mash one)  Slice up one banana for garnishing

Golden syrup for drizzling

How to make

Set oven temp to 220C.

Sift flour and salt into bowl, add sugar and weetbix.

Melt golden syrup and butter together. Dissolve baking soda into the milk, add beaten egg.

Mix wet ingredients together and add to dry ingredients. Mix only to combine. Don't over mix. Add mashed banana. Grease muffin tins and spoon mixture evenly. Add sliced banana to the tops and drizzle golden syrup. Bake in oven for 12 mins or until golden.

Quick and easy lasagna

What a great feeling to have healthy and delicious meals waiting in your freezer

After 7 wet days camping with a super organised friend, my mission for 2012 is to attempt to have nutritious and delicious meals in my freezer for my son. We are both working mums and find the 5pm kids dinner hour a bit of a challenge. Over the holiday break there has been a lot of snacking going on, chips and dips, fish and chips, easy camp meals and of course ice creams and ice blocks. The kids have loved it, such a change from their regular healthy daycare lunches and snacks.

Both Ingrid and I are due to have second babies and be on maternity leave in about 10 weeks so the thought of life with two kids is quite daunting. An even better reason to get organised!

I have been reading a book called “Economy Gastonomy” by Allegra McEvedy and Paul Merret. I bought it cheap somewhere and about a year later saw their show on TV. It’s a great read and a fabulous introduction in to being organised and stretching your dollar. It motivated me to start with basics like mince and tinned fish. My first creation was Lasagna, kids love pasta and adults can spice it up with a bit of Tabasco and crisp salad. A few things I discovered along the way…

• Add a tin of beans (baked beans, chili beans, butter beans) , it makes the mince go further.
• Ensure the lasagna has a far bit of liquid/wetness in the sauces, the pasta really does soak it up.
• Add vegetables such as carrots, aubergines, courgettes, mushrooms, peas even a puree of vegetables – the kids will never know.  

Make it fun for the kids! 

The recipe I am giving you is not exact, its very forgiving and with a bit of planning is pretty easy to create an impressive dish.

What you need

Meat sauce

Mince 500g-1kg

Tinned chopped tomatoes x2

1 tub/tube tomato puree/concentrate/paste

Olive oil

Salt/pepper

1 onion

6 cloves of garlic (its really mild cooked)

1 tin beans

Vegetables – anything goes really

Cheese sauce

Butter

Milk

Flour

Tasty cheese or what ever leftovers you have in the fridge

Lasagna sheets OR any other pasta you have in your cupboard

Add cherry tomatoes for a splash of colour and vitamin hit

Firstly make the meat sauce.

Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil until soft, add the mince and brown it. Then add the chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and about a tin of water. Simmer uncovered for a while and you should notice the water evaporating and the sauce thickening. Add the vegetables and paste and simmer until they are soft. Finally add the beans. You will have to monitor the sauce by adding more water if needed or simmering for longer if not thick enough. Also watch the meat doesn’t catch the bottom of the pot. (keep tasting it and adding more salt if needed, you can even add a teaspoon of sugar to sweeten the tomatoes)

Whilst the sauce is simmering get stuck in and make the cheese sauce.

Now you need to make a roux, this is a mixture of flour and butter that acts a thickening agent. Melt about 2 large tablespoons of butter in a pot, add a similar amount of flour and mix to a paste. You may have to take off the heat if its cooking a bit fast. Add milk ½ cup at a time, only adding more when its thick. When you have the sauce to the consistency you need add the cheese – grated, cubes, chunks or leftover pieces. Set aside.  

In an oven proof deep dish add a layer of lasagna sheets or dried pasta shapes. Add a thick layer of meat sauce, cheese sauce and more pasta. Keep repeating the process until you have nothing left. Basically you need to make sure the pasta has moisture to cook in from either sauces. It doesn’t really matter what you finish with as long as the pasta is covered with meat or cheese sauce. I also added some tomato slices on top at the end for a bit of colour.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes at about 200 degrees, you can usually tell if its cooked by putting a knife into it and it should pierce the pasta easily.  

Let it cool down before you slice it and portion it up and put in to freezer suitable containers or tin foil. I used tin foil and the only disadvantage is you can’t defrost in the microwave if the tin foil sticks to the frozen lasagna.

Sit back, relax and enjoy knowing you have family dinner or kids portions waiting to impress. 

Vanessa 

Extras

I also made a fish pie, check out previous post, add a mash and cheese top, cool and chuck it in the freezer. 

http://foodopera.blogspot.com/2011/02/smoked-fish-ans-greens-pie.html

Rice - yes you can freeze it, cook it and cool it fast by laying it our on to a baking tray. when cool bag it or put into containers and place in the coldest part of your freezer. Not the door or by the front. 

Heat in the microwave ensuring its HOT! 

Christmas baking with kids

Easy chocolate chip cookie mix!

Christmas is a busy and expensive time. Like I said in the last post, there is nothing better than a (good) homemade Christmas present. When you have kids, there are many presents to buy, not just for them but for their teachers, daycare staff and friends.
My son loves to get involved in anything I am doing and cooking is no exception. Its always messy, pretty hectic and fingers crossed what we cook works out!
These cookies are really easy, in-fact I would say "no-fail". They are also the sort of cookie you can adapt and add what ever you want.

Really easy to make - Chocolate chip cookies 

I bought chocolate buttons instead of chips because they were the cheapest at the time, in hindsight next time I would go for the chocolate chips as they look better. We did try crushing them up with a rolling pin but doing this with a nearly 4 year old boy - wasn't that successful!
Another tip is to make the cookies small, just a teaspoon full is all you really need. You will probably have to bake a few batches but they don't take long at all.

A great gift for daycare or kindy friends or even the teachers! 

Now for the credits, the recipe came from "Allyson Gofton, BAKE". The only change I made was adding real vanilla paste. You could add dried fruit, spices, nuts or white chocolate - really anything would work! It seems a really forgiving recipe meaning if you get the exact amounts a little wrong, it really shouldn't make a huge difference. If you have baked with kids you will know what I mean!    
I plan to wrap them in cellophane with a ribbon and a hand stamped swing tag with either a name or Merry Xmas. I saw on Facebook that "OFFICE MAX" has the entire alphabet for about $30. I am going to hunt them down.   

The book 

    

Allysons Goffton toll house cookies

What you need 

175 grams butter
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2¼ cups flour (I used self raising and NO BP - worked fine) 
1 tsp baking powder

2 cups chocolate chips

How to make 

Beat the butter and sugars together until light and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour and baking powder evenly over the creamed mixture. Sprinkle over the chocolate chips and fold together.
Place heaped tablespoonfuls of mixture onto a greased baking tray, leaving room for the biscuits to spread.
Bake at 180ºC for 20 minutes or until the biscuits are beginning to lightly brown and are firm to the touch. Transfer to a cake rack to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Happy Baking 

Vanessa 

Ever wondered how to eat Yams?

Our tenth food fight, Wow! We started with eggplants in February licked our lips over peach sweets in March, made good use of a bucket load of basil, decided chokos were actually quite special and mastered some homemade pasta in June and we are still enjoying the healthy competition every fortnight.

We have even upgraded our setup, with some fancy pancy lights (a new studio light kit, with standy uppy lights and a free sand bag! very important when your clumsy) and a really expensive lens to add to our shared photography kit, a Canon 100m 2.8m. Thank you to a very helpful Graeme Buckingham from http://www.photowarehouse.co.nz/.

We aren't really sure yet quite what it does,or whether it will make us look better than we actually are! but all the food bloggers who are anyone have one, so that seemed like a good enough reason. So we are amped to experiment and see what we discover. So look out for some experimental food photos coming your way soon. 

I've never ever cooked with Yams, but I fell in love with their colour on a recent trip to the Avondale Markets (Auckland). So that's a good enough reason to make them the subject of our next food fight.

Quick snack: poke a few holes in skin and microwave for five mins (turning halfway)

Yam facts

• Despite a physical similarity and a frequent confusion with their names, yams and sweet potatoes are not even distantly related. They are in two different botanical families. Yams are actually related to grasses and lillies.
• Estrogens (sex hormones) were first made from a similar compound in yams. Yams were used commercially to produce hormones for contraceptive pills, and steroids. (Don't let this put you off!)
• New Zealand yams are better known as ocas.

Ingrid's dish: Chilli and lime yam wedges

I love potato and kumara wedges, you can take your french fries or chips back, give them to someone else, I don't want your skinny strips. Yams are the right size and super easy to make into a wedge, and they lend themselves well to a bit of spice. I thought these would look great as an appetiser for a party, you could add a creamy aioli or a dip.

Chilli and lime yam wedges

What you need

Makes enough for 2

500g of yams (sliced lengthways)

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 Lime (for serving)

Seasoning

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 lime zest grated

1/4 tsp garlic powder or throw a couple of peeled garlic cloves on baking tray
1/2 tsp cumin
pinch of brown sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt (to taste)

How to make
Line a baking tray with baking paper, brush with olive oil, lay yams skins down. Brush with olive oil. Combine all seasoning ingredients or grind in a mortar and pestle until you have a fine powder. Scatter over yams. Bake at 180C for 35 mins (turn half way) or until golden. Serve with lime.

Raw Yams - Try roasting them with a honey spice...

Vanessa Dish: Honey baked yams
Most of us stick to the usual veges in our winter roasts. We often comment "I wonder how you would cook those? or they look interesting". Yams look pretty weird, they are small and knobbly but like Ingrid said have an appealing yellow/pink colour.

They are super simple to cook and cook quite fast because they are so small. I decided to throw them in with a roast dinner, but jazz them up a bit with a honey and spice coating.

Don't be scared and give them ago. If your kids like potato, they are sure to like the sweet sticky cute yams!

Yams - A cross between a potato and a kumara taste wise (Sweet potato)

Honey baked yams

What you need
500grams Yams
2 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Olive oil (or vegetable)
Salt/pepper
2 tsp spice mix - try chili, ginger, lemon pepper, harrissa mix, chili and lime seasoning. (I used ginger)

How to cook
Melt the honey and add about 2 tsp of spice mix to the honey. Drizzle over the yams and season with salt/pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven along side your roast meat for about 20 - 30 minutes. They are ready when soft. (just like potatoes, stick your fork in to test)

Enjoy, Vanessa

PS - I love Ingrid's idea of serving them with aioli - go the whole hog and serve this with your roast too. Make sure it's extra garlicky!

Honey spiced yams - surprise the family!

For pizza and pie lovers

Even though we are sisters, we have a very different approach to food and photography. Each fortnight we are going to choose the same ingredient or theme and post the result. These are the results...of our 'cheese food fight'


Vanessa's handmade mozzarella turned into Sardine, mozzarella and tomato pizzettes

Handmade mozzarella - not bad for a first attempt but still needs refining

When we decided our next food fight was going to be cheese it was the perfect motivation to get stuck into using my cheese making kit. My friends bought it for my recent birthday on the proviso I make cheese and have a tasting party! It was a beginner Italian kit featuring Ricotta, Mozzarella and Marscapone. I decided to give the Mozzarella a try and follow up with handmade pizzas.

The first challenge was the cheese, I raced down to my local dairy to get full cream milk (who has that today?) and got chatting with the owner who hails from India. I told him what I was up to and he looked at my 2 litre and told me to buy at least double - how right was he. He makes Panneer, an Indian cheese often fried and added to curry.

Thanks to Mad Millie beginners' Italian cheese kit www.madmillie.com and the girl in the youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTJTxF1-ASs these are the steps I followed to make my Mozzarella. 

Mine tasted fine, but was rough on the surface and quite dense.  I think the combination of homogenized milk and working it like play doh rather than stretching it made it that way. If you know the reason why - please post us a message.   

Boutique cheese - worth every penny! (Homemade mozzarella)

Mozzarella cheese (recipe from the Mad Millie cheese kit)

What you need

4 litres of un-homogenized milk (I used homogenized so that may be where I went wrong?)

2ml calcium chloride 

2 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup of cool water

1/2 tablet of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup of un-chlorinated water (once again I used regular tap water and I think its chlorinated so maybe that's also where I went wrong?)

Salt to taste

Equipment  

Large pot

Slotted draining spoon

Thermometer

Large knife

Rubber gloves (I didn't  as the girl in the you tube clip didn't wear them!)

2 large bowls

Butter muslin

How to make

• Put milk into large pot and add calcium chloride.
• Heat milk to 13 degrees C (55.5 F) before mixing in the diluted citric acid.
• Heat the milk to 32 degrees C (89.5 F) whilst constantly stirring to prevent scolding the bottom.
• Once the temperature is at 32 degrees C (89.5 F) remove the pot from the heat and stir in the diluted rennet.
• Cover the pot and leave to sit for 25-30 minutes.
• Check the curd. It should be firm with a clean break. If ready cut the curd with a knife into 3cm (1 inch) cubes. 
• Place the pot back on the stove and heat the curds and whey to 42 degrees C ( 107.6 F) Stir the curds carefully while heating. 
• Scoop out the curds and place into a butter muslin lined colander. Let it drip for 5 minutes. 
• Prepare 2 bowls, one hot 70 degrees C (158 F) and one cool salty ice water.
• Put rubber gloves on. 
• Take a handful of Mozzarella curd and place it under the hot water for 20 seconds. I used the slotted spoon for this stage - like the girl in the you tube clip. 
• Carefully stretch the curd until it is smooth and flexible. (I found this stage difficult)
• Work the curd into a ball and plunge into the salty ice water. 
• Continue with the rest of the curd. 
• Eat fresh or put in the fridge in a sealed container.

pizzette with red wine and spicy sauce

Now what do I do with the stuff?

Mozzarella isn't really my cup of tea, I like strong flavours like anchovies, the stinkiest blue around, spices and aged Cheddars. Mozzarella is rather bland. Its more of a cooking cheese and synonymous with pizza so problem solved. 

Made from things in my cupboard and the dough made with help from my three year old! A perfect way to include your kids and they love the finished product.  

Sardine, mozzarella and tomato pizzette 

Pizza dough

You will need
2 tsp yeast (instant dried)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/2 cup warm water


How to make

• In a bowl add the warm water, yeast, salt, sugar and olive oil. Leave for about 10 minutes until its activated and a bit bubbly. 
• Add the yeast mixture to the flour by making a well in the centre and mixing it with your hands to form a dough ball. 
• Knead it until its smooth - this takes about 10 mins - using the heel of your hand works well and you get in to a rhythm. Great exercise!
• Put into a bowl coated in a bit of Olive oil and place some where warm to let it prove (rise) to double its original size. I leave it for an hour or so. 
• When ready punch the dough as its quite light and re-work it into a ball. 
• Its now ready to use. 
• Roll it out to the desired thinness/thickness - I always go thin.
• Place on to a floured dish or pizza stone and add toppings. 
• All I added was tomato sauce, tinned sardines broken up, cheese and a sprinkle of coriander once cooked. 
• Bake at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. 

Once you have the dough made - its really quick and easy!
Vanessa x

Delicious -  sardines, mozzarella and tomato pizzette

Ingrid's dish: How to turn leftovers into a simple puff pastry pie

I really struggled with this post, as I felt a bit of competitiveness when Vanessa revealed she was going to make cheese. How could I top that! Its a bloody cheese post and she's going to make the stuff from scratch.

So I began some research into what I could make that could topple her mozzarella off its cute pizzette. I had some asparagus and some Gruyere,and puff pastry in the freezer and I thought, I like the combo, could I make a really posh asparagus roll, with some homemade mustard, and flaky pastry. Could I wrap it in a fancy pancy way? Could I balance out the nuttiness of the Gruyere with a dash of homemade relish?

Then I did my usual google search (my starting point for everything), and every chef around that used that combo seemed to have created a tart, they looked really good but I didn't want to copy. I even asked a colleague who was interviewing Julie Le Clerc for a story, if he could ask her what I could do with asparagus and Gruyere that wasn't a tart! (I forgot to tell him ...and puff pastry), and he came back to me, saying Julie would make a salad and toss some macadamia nuts in with it too. Nice one Julie, sounds delicious, however I don't have that on hand, and I wanted this to be simple, and straight from my cupboard.

So I ended up going around in circles, stressing out about cheese all week long, (who does that?) only to end up whipping up a puff pastry Mexican pie using leftovers from the night before. Not quite the competitive edge I was hoping for, but never the less, I thought it was such a great idea for transforming last nights dinner into a completely different dish altogether.

Avocados are in season, so make the most of them.

So basically all it is, is take your leftover casserole, bolognese sauce, roasted vegetables, or even a stir fry, sprinkle some cheese and wrap it in puff pastry and bake it for 25-30 mins on 180C. Job done!

I used leftover mince bolognese, added some kidney beans and made a mexican style pie. I picked rocket from my garden, grabbed a few avo's from my neighbour Johanna's tree (fellow food blogger for Continental Fresh Ideas) http://nz.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/freshideas/blogs/ to make a guacamole and had a little winter picnic with my son Rhys in the backyard. Enjoy. Ingrid

Winter in Auckland sometimes feels just like summer.  

Mexican puff pastry pie with guacamole 

What you need
Makes 6
Leftover bolognese sauce 

Store-bought puff pastry (defrosted)

1 egg + tsp of water (lightly beaten with a fork)  

1/2 can kidney beans

1 cup of Gruyere cheese

How to assemble:

Defrost puff pastry. Set oven temp to 180C. Cut the pastry sheet into six even rectangle strips. Mix bolognese sauce with kidney beans. Spoon bolognese mixture into the middle of one side of the pastry strip, sprinkle grated cheese and fold over to meet the other side. Using a fork press down the edges on all three sides. Brush each side with egg wash (it helps it to go golden brown) and sprinkle some more cheese on top. Bake in oven for 25 - 30 mins. Serve with rocket and guacamole.

Guacamole
1 red onion (chopped)
2 soft avocados (mashed)
1/2 tsp chilli (to taste)
1 tablespoon lime or lemon (squeezed)
Salt to taste 
1 ripe tomato (diced finely)

How to make
Simply mix everything together to make a smooth dip. Fold diced tomato through just before serving.

Even a toddler can cook these! Happy Mothers day!

Lemon Polenta Cookies - fantastic to bake with toddlers 

Happy Mothers Day to all those busy mums out there. I never knew how demanding being a mum could be until I had my own son. I often feel like a bungy cord, being stretched and pulled BUT thankfully always bouncing back!

My son loves to bake - hes only 3 but clearly sees me in the kitchen and wants a piece of the action. Usually its a messy affair and the results are not the usual adult standard, however these crunchy cookies worked out perfectly. The great thing about them is, its a dough and you can give the littlie some to play with and hopefully it will keep him busy whilst you make the "real" nicely shaped cookies that are thin and crunchy unlike your child's chunky creation. 

Adding polenta and zesty lemon make them adult friendly too, as does the lemon drizzle icing. No food colouring, not too much of a sugar rush and thin enough to eat a few and not feel like you have pigged out.

Dads, give it ago and treat her this Sunday!

Top tip - make sure the clean up is spot on!

Lemon polenta cookies - the pics in the background are of our own mum having fun with the girls - your the best mum!  

lemon Polenta Cookies

What you need

125g butter softened

1/2 cup of Sugar

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla essence 

Lemon zest from one large lemon 

3/4 cup Polenta

1 1/4 cup Flour

How to make

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until pale.

Add egg yolks, zest and vanilla and mix in to the creamed mixture.

Add the polentas and flour and mix until you have a dough like consistency. 

Now, this is when you give your littlie some dough and let them play with it!

In the meantime you "quickly" start to roll out the dough about 1/2 cm thick and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter.

You will probably need to add more flour so the cookies don't stick to the bench. 

Place on the baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until pale.

You can either ice them with lemon icing or dust them with icing sugar.

 

Lemon Polenta Cookies  - for mum

Easter Eggs...

Happy Easter to you all and have a wonderful 4 day weekend...

What a busy last few weeks we have had. We have been shooting foodie images for a possibility of a magazine purchasing some of our shots.Raw has overtaken JPEG and I have been experimenting with my sisters F1.8 lens. Both of us have been hanging around Mitre 10 and Bunnings as well as scouring the inorganic collections on the side of the road for interesting stuff to use in our images. The men in our lives must be wondering...

Easter has come out of nowhere.

Being a teacher in my other life, the school holidays are a BIG bonus. Easter has fallen in the middle this year so as far as hols its same same.

For the Easter season, my family always get together on the Sunday to have a BBQ brunch. Mum gets delicious sausages from a secret butchers, Dad usually hits the seafood markets and its a casual family affair. Coffee is more important than chocolate!

Now we have a couple of kids in tow, this year we are planning an Easter Egg hunt in the garden. I remember doing this once, wandering around with a wicker basket collecting eggs. (Well maybe its a photo memory but never the less its etched in my mind). 

Easter food at the parents will probably be as described but when I though of this post I thought of nostalgia...

Soft boiled eggs with soldiers and Mums "Egg mashed up in a cup". Come to think of it she did "Banana mashed up in a cup" too. 

Unfortunately my soft boiled eggs were hard so plan B is documented! 

Enjoy and have a safe and relaxing Easter. 

These amazing wee sleeves were free in the egg packet - cute Easter shrinkies 

In an ideal world this image would be oozing with rich runny egg yolks

Mums "Egg mashed up in a cup" - with a twist.
All it is is boiled eggs, Greek yoghurt, salt, pepper and a touch of curry powder.   

Mum (now Nana) and her "Eggs mashed up in a cup" creation - perfect!

Homely and tasty, Perfect for an Autumn Easter at home - Eggs on toast 

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what do you do with a giant zucchini?

The adventures of Rhys and the giancchini

We left for our camping holiday, after giving the garden a full soak, thinking what a nice surprise it will be to come back eight days later to a plant full of zucchini's. But we never expected the prize winning door stop that confronted us.  So what do you do with a giant zucchini, courgette or is it now a marrow?

Well my son thought whoooheeee, tackle, drop and roll, and had so much fun weight lifting it around the garden. How do you explain to a 15 month old, that his new favourite toy is soon to be lunch.

The word marrow, conjures up images of, well, bone marrow, so I'm calling this bad boy, giancchini and I thought to make full use of the whole thing, I grated it and turned it into fritters for lunch with the neighbour and her three kids. Result!

Perfect for an unplanned lunch and got the thumbs up from the kids, but sadly, Rhys keeps looking for his friend.

Gianchini fritters
made around 16
1 extra large zucchini (4 medium or 6 small) grated
1 red onion
1tsp garlic (diced finely)
3 eggs
10 tbsp flour (plain) approx enough to make it into a batter
salt/pepper (to taste)
coriander or parsley (chopped)
lemons/ limes (for garnish/ squeezing on top)
Oil for frying

Method
Grate the zucchini, and leave to sit in a colander, squeezing out the extra liquid (there will be lots!) add salt. In a bowl, add onion, garlic, eggs, pepper. Mix. Add grated courguette and freshly chopped herbs. Add flour to make a batter. Spoon into medium hot pan, 3 - 4 mins each side or until golden. Add more herbs for garnish and serve with sliced lemons or limes.