Use The Force

For some bizarre reason Offspring #1's favourite character from Star Wars is Darth Vadar. It took some convincing to get him to understand that Vadar was actually a 'baddie' and he still can't see why people don't like him. That said, his buddy across the road had a Star Wars birthday party on the weekend and, as he was planning to be Annakin, kindly offered some pieces towards a Darth Vadar costume to #1. The creative part of my genetic make-up is somewhat lacking but the Daddy in our family took over and put together a terrific costume. #1 was thrilled and, just quietly, I think his Dad was pretty chuffed too!

Guest Blogger

We've had a busy week visiting and being visited. I've already posted a few of the bits and pieces I baked during the week so I managed to convince one of the friends we called in on to share a recipe here on the blog.

We spent Monday morning with Donna and her boys - the kids had a lovely time playing and Donna and I enjoyed a cup of coffee and tea respectively and a good gossip. We also enjoyed some yummy cookies that Donna had baked just for our visit and I twisted her arm until she sent me a pic and the recipe.

Oat and Raisin Choc-Chip Cookies
(probably from an issue of Super Food Ideas magazine ?)

Makes 28

170g butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup rolled oats
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup raisins (used sultanas instead and they were fab)
½ cup chocolate bits
½ cup desiccated coconut

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 large baking trays with baking paper. Place butter and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until butter is melted. Remove from heat. Allow to cool.

2. Sift flour and bicarb into large bowl. Add husks from sieve. Stir in oats, sugar, raisins, choc bits and coconut. Add cooled butter mixture. Stir until well combined.

3. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls. Place on prepared trays, allowing 3 cm for spreading. Flatten slightly with fingertips. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, swapping trays after 10 minutes, or until biscuits are golden. Allow to cool on trays. Serve.

Making Use Of That Fruit

You probably know my theory that if a food has fruit in it, it has to be good for you. At the very least it has to be slightly healthy. I made some lovely little cakes this afternoon that are laden with sugar and butter but they do have one tiny little slice of nectarine on the top so following my theory... they're actually good for you!

I was looking at different recipes that would help me to use up some of the fruit bounty but ran into a couple of problems. Offspring #1 had a small friend to play today who is unable to eat nuts. Not the end of the world but it did rule out a number of recipes, particularly some scrummy friands I'd had my eye on. The other problem was all my own fault - the first however-many recipes I looked at I just didn't feel like making! Then I found a lovely Donna Hay recipe for Summer Nectarine Cakes - it was sooooo lovely and I desperately wanted to make them but they called for almond meal. Oh well, I'll save that one for another day. Then I turned to Bill for inspiration. Bill Granger who I can rely on any day, any meal, any occasion. And I found exactly what I wanted. Well, exactly what I wanted after I changed a couple of things! And as you can see they met with Offspring #2's approval too. I had to include the middle pic because it makes me laugh every time I look at it. She looks so sweet until the 'crazy' comes through.

Little Nectarine Cakes

Using Bill Granger's Vanilla Cup Cake recipe (from Bill's Open Kitchen)

125g unsalted butter, softened

250g caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

3 eggs

185g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1 nectarine, halved, stone removed. Cut each half into six slices

icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12 hole 125ml (1/2 cup) muffin tray with paper cases. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour, baking poser and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and fold into the mixture, alternating with the milk until it has a soft dropping consistency, Spoon into the cases and top each cake with a slice of nectarine. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the tin. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. When cool dust with icing sugar.

A Slice Of Life?

The Slice is Right? Slice and Dice?

Hmmm... yeah they're all pretty rotten as far as titles go LOL.

The apricot slice was a bit hit. It was very simple to prepare with the hardest bit being halving the apricots and removing the stone. A word of warning, the slice dries out fairly quickly so it's probably best to make it on the day you're planning to eat it (or, as I did, the night before if it's for morning tea) as I don't think it will keep very well. Not to worry in our house, it's nearly gone already!

Apricot Slice

from Bill's Open Kitchen by Bill Granger

1 1/2 cups plain flour

3/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract

180g butter, softened

14 apricots, pitted and halved (this may vary depending on the size of the apricots - mine were quite large, I'll use small ones next time round)

2 tablespoons caster sugar, extra

Preheat oven to 160C. Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Place the eggs, milk and vanilla in another bowl and mix to combine. Pour the egg mixture and butter into the well in the dry ingredients and beat for 2 minutes until smooth. Spread the mixture evenly into a greased or non-stick 20 x 30cm lamington tin

Push the apricot halves, cut side up, evenly into the cake mixture in four rows of seven. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, sprinkle over extra sugar and cook for another 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cut into fingers with two apricot halves per slice. Makes 14 slices. (Like I said, the apricots I used were quite large so I cut the slice into squares with one apricot half per slice.)

It's Raining Fruit!

A neighbour has dropped in a bucket load of fruit in the past couple of weeks, mostly apricots and peaches. There have been three or so deliveries so far and there is far too much fruit for our family to eat, even after I pass it on to my parents and whoever else we happen to see. Most of the fruit is very ripe so needs to be used fairly quickly so I've been scouring the cookbooks for interesting recipes.

I made some yummy apricot jam with the last lot. I've made jam before, both nectarine and strawberry, but never apricot and I was pleased with how it turned out. It was sweet but not cloyingly so, although it did set a little more solidly than was entirely necessary. I used some of it for the Thumbprint Cookies/Jam Drops. How impressive is that? Homemade right down to the jam filling!

We had another lot of fruit dropped in this afternoon and, as we have friends coming to play in the morning, I decided to try an Apricot Slice. It's still cooling on the bench so I'll have to let you know how it turned out in the morning but it sure does smell good. I was moaning to Hubby that it didn't look as good as the picture in the recipe book and he came back with,"Yeah, but I bet 9 out of 10 people would rather eat your slice than the picture in the book!" I must have looked at him blankly because then he added, "Because the picture's made of paper so only one person out of 10 would like that!" Then he fell about laughing. Because he's crazy.