What's for dinner?

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2012-01-17T23:46:00.001+02:00

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Onion Goggles

2011-12-13T09:34:00.000+02:00

These are brilliant and actually work! Go see me wearing them on my other blog!

Custard slices

2011-10-31T14:35:00.000+02:00

A recipe I got from Andre's mom. One of the few sweet things I make that he will eat.

Ingredients:

1 tin condensed milk

lemon juice

2 heaped tablespoons custard powder

about 500 ml milk

2 heaped teaspoons sugar

Nice biscuits (or Tennis biscuits if you're in SA)

Here's how to make it:

1. Pour condensed milk into a bowl and fold in lemon juice until the condensed milk becomes quite thick. Next time I will measure how much lemon juice I used. You will need a few tablespoons full. It doesn't need to be solid. Just a bit thicker than when you poured it from the tin.

2. Place a layer of biscuits in the bottom of the dish and around the sides. I used a smallish dish. Let me go measure it... it's 22cm x 17cm. One packet of biscuits was just enough for this size of dish. You will need a bit more if your dish is any bigger.)

3. Mix custard powder and sugar with a little bit of milk.

4. Heat 500ml milk. Stir in custard mixture and keep stirring until boiling.

5. Pour warm custard over biscuits in dish.

6. Pack another layer of biscuits over the custard, keeping aside one biscuit.

7. Pour condensed milk mixture over the second layer of biscuits and crumble the one biscuit you kept aside over the top.

8. Refrigerate until set.

Apple Crisp - This is a good one!

2011-10-05T19:47:00.001+02:00

No pictures of this one as it isn't a pretty looking dessert in the dish. You could dress it up in a bowl with some ice cream. I've already had a taste of it now before dinner and it's so good. It can do with some cream or vanilla ice cream.

I got the recipe here, but will type it out simpler the way I like it.

Peel and core 5 - 8 apples and slice into 1/2 to 1/4 inch thick slices. Place in oven dish.
Add:
3/4 cups sugar (I only used half that and will leave the sugar in the apple mixture out completely next time.)
1 tablespoon flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Mix well.

In a separate bowl mix the topping:
3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup sugar (again I used less or it will be way too sweet)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
optional: shopped nuts (I didn't add this as I don't like nuts much.)

Spread topping over apple mixture and bake at 190C for 45 minutes.

Have a taste test straight away then serve to your guests with ice cream or cream!

Apple and Sparkling Cider Sorbet

2011-10-05T19:37:00.001+02:00

I've been trying out new recipes and here's one of them: it's a grown-up sorbet and deliciously refreshing. You really get that fresh apple taste and just a bit of the apple cider taste in there too. Here's the recipe:

1 kg apples
2 cups sparkling dry apple cider
1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cups water
1/2 whole lemon, juiced (or to taste)

Quarter the apples and remove cores. Don't peel them. Cut into chunks.
Combine cider, sugar and water and bring to boil.
Add apples, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 5 min.
Turn off the heat and leave to cool to room temperature for about 3 hours.

Strain the apples, pressing firmly to extract the pulp and all the liquid. I placed a colander over a large bowl and mushed it around with a spoon.
Discard the peels.
Add lemon juice to taste.

Refrigerate overnight, then freeze. You can use an ice cream maker, but I don't have one so I just put it into a tub in the freezer, stirring after an hour or two.

Homemade apple juice

2011-10-05T19:08:00.002+02:00

I just cooked some apples to make apple juice. We picked so many over the weekend and I don't want them to go to waste.

The first time I made apple juice I followed this recipe: Apple Juice Recipe

Here's what I did tonight though, a bit simpler than on the site above. I basically just quartered all the apples. Place the chopped apples (with peels and cores) in a large pot. Add about a 1/4 cup water or more and simmer until soft. Pour into strainer over bowl and leave to strain for about 2 hours. Then help it along by pushing the soft apples around with a spoon to get as much juice/ pulp out as possible. Discard peels.

The first time I added a lot more water and it was still very thick. When I drink it I still add some water. Sparkling water is nice to thin it with. I happened to have a slightly flavoured sparkling water here which was really good with the apple juice.

This time I decided to not add much water and instead it will be like a concentrate. Takes up less space in the fridge and I'll just add water to some of the apple juice in a glass as needed.

This is a cloudy apple juice and has some bits in too. If you want it clear without any bits you'll have to strain like mad. And you'll need something finer than just a colander which I used. I don't like to go to too much trouble when I cook. The simpler and quicker the better.

Apple Pie

2011-08-30T13:55:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I started looking for recipes containing apples. We have a lovely big apple tree in our garden now. They must be cooking apples as they're not that great tasting as is, but they're great in the apple pie I made yesterday.

I've only ever made apple pie using canned apples, never fresh. This time I used our own fresh apples straight off the tree. I think I used two for the apple pie. Peel, core and slice the apples. Place them in a pot with 1 part sugar to 3 parts water. Simmer for a few minutes until they just become soft, then remove from syrup.

Here's the apple pie recipe if you like baking:

2 eggs
3/4 C sugar
60g margarine
1/4 C milk
1 C self-raising flour
1 tin apples or 2 whole apples (see above)

Whisk eggs and sugar.
Melt margarin and add.
Add milk, then flour.
Mix well and pour into pie dish.
Place apples on top.

Bake 30 min at 180C

Syrup
Melt:
3/4 C cream
1 t caramel essence
3/4 C sugar

Use fork to pierce pie once it's baked. Pour syrup over and place back into warm oven for a few minutes.

Serve with cream or ice cream.

Victoria Sponge Cake

2011-06-15T12:02:00.000+02:00

This has been one of Andre's favourites since we've moved to England. It's a basic sponge cake with layers of strawberry jam and cream in between.

The plan was to have just two layers. I cheated and bought a packet of cake mix. Plain vanilla sponge. My round cake tin was slightly bigger than what the packet instructions wanted me to use so the two layers came out a little thin. I still haven't learnt my lesson with these cake mixes: buy double what you need. A mix that promises to make 12 cupcakes, usually only just makes 9.

So back to the shop I went for another packet of cake mix. This time I poured the whole mix in one cake tin. That's why you see three layers with the top one slightly higher.

I didn't have strawberry jam so used a mixed berry instead which is just as nice. Spread the jam on top of the first layer and top with whipped cream. Place next layer on top and repeat jam and cream before placing the final layer.

Now a traditional Victoria Sponge cake will have castor sugar sifted over the top. Andre requested butter cream icing, so I made half a batch of this and used:

70 g butter

140 g icing sugar

1/2 T milk

Beat together until smooth and creamy.

It was just enough for a good layer of icing on top. The cake tastes AMAZING. Andre even had some after dinner last night and he doesn't often eat dessert!

Best burger ever!

2011-03-22T13:36:00.000+02:00

Best burger I've ever had!

We decided to make home made burgers on Monday night. I found this recipe by The Pioneer Woman. It was really easy to make and delicious. Here are my summerised steps:

1. Mix: beef (about 300g enough for 3 burgers for us) + 1/2 t salt +1/4 t pepper + Tabasco

2. Onion:
Low heat - 2T butter + sliced onions + 2T brown sugar
20 min

3. Spicy mayo:
1/4 c mayo + Tabasco

4. Toast rolls (either on a grill on on top of the toaster)

5. Form patties and grill over med - low heat

6. Spread spicy mayo on rolls + patty + onions + greens

We had some left over pepper sauce from our steak night before. I don't usually like pepper sauce but I couldn't get enough of this one. It's good. Here's an approximate recipe for that. It's by Jamie Oliver. Andre found it so you can google if you like to measure things out. I don't.

In a small saucepan heat cream, white wine, beef stock, dijon mustard and ground black pepper.

That's it.

You wanted more? You can thicken it with cornflour if you want.

Pepper sauce on steak night

After all this meat we're going vegetarian for a few days to recover. We're not used to eating so much meat anymore. Andre actually felt a bit ill the day after the steak. I only managed about a third of the steak pictured above. So we had a vegetable only stir-fry last night. I'm having the left overs for lunch now. It's a bit garlicky so so you can be glad I'm typing and not telling you this!!

Rogan Josh Lamb Curry

2011-03-08T21:12:00.000+02:00

I've made this curry a few times now from my "Healthy Eating" recipe book and am busy making it again right now for dinner tonight. The lamb has already been simmering in the sauce for an hour and a half. When I finish this post I'm going to start the rice and then we'll eat!

Here are the ingredients:

1 T oil
2 onions
1/2 C low-fat plain yoghurt
1 t chilli powder
1 T ground coriander
2 t ground cumin
1 t ground cardamom
1/2 t ground cloves
1 t ground turmeric
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 T fresh ginger, grated
400g can chopped tomatoes
1 kg boned leg of lamb, trimmed, cubed. (I just use one packet of diced lamb. not sure how much it is, but not a whole kg.)
30 g slivered almonds (I never have this in the house so haven't included this.)
1 t garam masala
chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish

And here's what to do:

1. Heat oil, add onion - cook 5 min

2. Add yoghurt, chili powder, coriander, cumin, cardamom, cloves, turmeric, garlic and ginger.
Add tomato - simmer 5 min

3. Add lamb and stir until coated. Cover and cook over low heat for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. The longer the
softer and better!
Uncover and simmer until liquid thickens.

4. Dry-fry almonds over medium heat - 3-4 min - until nuts are golden brown. Remove from pan.

5. Add garam masala to curry and mix through. Sprinkle with almonds and coriander leaves.
Serve with rice.

Home made yoghurt

2010-12-23T01:31:00.000+02:00

Here's an easy recipe for making your own yoghurt.

Boil 1 1/2 litres of whole milk.
Cool the milk to 45 C
Add 250 ml plain yoghurt.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.
Mix, pour into a container and keep warm for 10 - 12 hours.

I place my container on top of a radiator and drape a towel over it to keep the heat in.

If you save the last 250 ml of your home made yoghurt each time to make your next batch you will never have to buy yoghurt again.

Chicken Pie

2010-07-13T10:33:00.000+02:00

Making chicken pie can be really quick and easy as long as you've cooked the chicken before and have bought ready made pastry.

So two nights before making this chicken pie I cooked some chicken pieces in the oven for dinner and made double as much as we'd need so I'd have enough left over.

The next morning I took all the bits off the bones, made Andre a chicken mayo sandwich for work and put the rest back in the fridge to wait to be made into pie.

I buy ready made puff pastry. I always buy this with my groceries and then just leave it in the freezer. Remember to take it out and put it in the fridge the morning or night before you plan on making pie.

So here's a list of ingredient I used:
Chicken, cooked
green pepper, chopped
mushrooms, chopped
25 g butter + little extra for mushrooms
25 g flour
150 ml chicken stock
2-3 T cream
lemon juice
herbs, salt and pepper
pastry
1 egg, beaten

1. Blanch the green pepper in boiling salted water for 2-3 min.
Drain and rinse with cold water.

2. Sauté the mushrooms in butter for 2-3 min.

3. Melt 25g butter, then add 25 g flour and cook slowly until it becomes straw coloured.
Add 150ml chicken stock to the butter-flour mixture. Turn up the heat and stir until simmering.
Add 2-3T cream. Reduce heat and simmer until the mixture becomes sirupy.
Add a few drops of lemon juice, herbs, salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off the heat and add the chicken, peppers and mushrooms.

4. Add mixture to dish.

5. Roll out your pastry to about 1 cm thick. Cover dish with the pastry. Cut off any excess hanging over
the sides and use this to decorate your pie. I was in a romantic mood. See the picture below.
Cut air holes in the pastry to allow the steam to escape. Again see picture below. Brush some of the egg over the pastry to give it that golden colour.

6. Bake 25 - 35 minutes at 220C/ 425F/ Gas mark 7

Mexican Layer Dip & Kiwi Daiquiris

2010-06-03T11:02:00.000+02:00

I found this recipe for a mexican layer dip over here on The Pioneer Woman's blog.

Start by making Pico de Gallo (above). Here's the recipe also from Pioneer Woman. But I'll tell you what we did too.

Finely chop 5 tomatoes and one small (or half a large) onion.
Add 3 finely chopped jalapeno peppers. We bought the red ones already chopped in a jar so we didn't know exactly how much three would be so added just about the whole jar.
Next chop up a good amount of cilantro. I think we call it coriander leaves.
Put all these ingredients in a bowl.
Squeeze the juice of half a lime over, add some salt to taste and give it a stir.
Taste and set aside.

Now we'll start on the dip. Empty a can of refried beans into a pan on low heat. We only found small tins so used two. Add some tobasco sauce and finely chopped green chillies. As much as you think you can handle. We added lots! With all the other ingredients like sour cream and avo, you'll be fine!

Next sprinkle some ground cumin. We didn't have ground cumin so instead we ground our own.

Spread the beans at the bottom of a shallow dish. We used a pie dish. This is your first layer.

Next layer: grated cheddar. You can use more mature cheddar for a sharper taste but we only had mild.

Layer 3: Sour cream. Plop on and spread gently.

Layer 4: Guacamole. You can make your own, there's an easy recipe on the same link as the Pico de Gallo recipe, but we were lazy and bought it ready made.

Layer 5: More grated cheese and then sprinkle some black olives over.

Lastly, top with the spicy pico de gallo you made earlier. You can add some more jalopenos on top if you think you need to. We did.

Pioneer Woman says to eat it at this stage, but we felt all that cheese needed some melting so we put it under the grill for a little while. That made the tomatoes go a bit juicy, but after letting it stand for a while it settled and it was delicious! Just place a big bowl of nachos chips next to it and don't stop until it's all finished!

This was our lunch for our Mexican Monday. For dinner we had chicken and pineapple quesadillas and kiwi daiquiris.

To make the daiquiris, peel and freeze some kiwi fruit. Then put them in a blender with some white rum, lime juice and a little sugar. Share between the glasses and top with apple juice.

Cantonese Style Duck

2010-04-03T18:05:00.000+02:00

I saw this dish being made on a TV program the other day. I love duck. I don't know why. Maybe because of the extra fat it has. Extra fat makes everything nicer. Taste nicer I mean. And I think because it usually has a sweet kind of sauce with it and I like sweet a lot.

So this was my very first time cooking duck. With the help of my husband of course. I love that he enjoys cooking with me.

So here's what we did. And here is where I got the recipe from.

We used 4 duck breasts for 4 people. They were quite big and we had them in the oven for an extra 5 minutes.

You need to marinate the duck breasts for 20 minutes and this is what you need for the marinade (I doubled the recipe since I used double the amount of meat, below is the already doubled recipe.)

4 T Oyster sauce

2 T Chinese five-spice powder

2 T Groundnut oil

4 T Light soy sauce

4 T Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

We decided to get the sherry instead of the rice wine thinking we can drink the rest, but it was either a very bad sherry or I don't like dry sherry. It will all be used in cooking eventually!

Mix all the ingredients well and place the duck in the marinade for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 C and place the duck on a roasting tray. Reserve the marinade.

Roast the duck in the oven for 20 min. Then leave to rest for 12 min.

Bring the reserved marinade to a boil and drizzle over the sliced duck breast.

Our duck came out perfect. Still a little pink and very soft. We served it with Jasmine rice and vegetables.

Making sushi

2010-02-20T19:02:00.001+02:00

On new years eve we made sushi at my mom and Jürgen's house in Germany. It's not difficult to make and can be fun to do with friends. To make sushi at home you need:

sushi rice
nori sheets
fillings - we had cucumber, avo and fish
and wasabi, ginger and soya sauce to serve it with.
Bamboo mat and plastic wrap for rolling.

Cook the sushi rice according to the instructions on the packet. Start early because you need the rice to cool down before you can start.

Cover your bamboo rolling mat with some plastic wrap to prevent the (very sticky) rice from sticking to the mat. Place a nori sheet on the mat. I've since read that you can cut (or fold and break) the sheet in half.

Cover the nori sheet with rice, leaving about a cm at the furthest end free.

We kept it basic and added fish,

cucumber

and avo.

Then start rolling. It takes some getting used to. You have to kind of pull the mat ahead a bit so it doesn't get rolled up as well.

When you get to the end, wet your fingers and rub some water across the free edge of the nori. This will make it stick.

Finish rolling. And give it a good squeeze to get it shaped nicely and keep everything from falling apart.

Remove the bamboo mat and plastic.

For slicing you need the sharpest knife you can find. And wet the blade slightly after each slice. It will help you to slice neatly and prevent the rice from sticking to you knife.

Don't forget to serve it with wasabi, pickled ginger and soya sauce.

And eat as much as you can!

Beef & Beer Stew

2010-01-24T14:32:00.001+02:00

Friday night we gave up pizza night for this. It was so worth it though. Don't worry we only postponed pizza night by one night!

I bought beef stew blocks. I don't know what it's called really. Those ready cut up blocks of meat. It means I don't have to worry about buying the wrong piece of meat like for steak because I still don't know which is the right part of the cow to buy.

Half way through making the stew I tasted a piece of meat and it was so tough and chewy. I thought it's going to be a disaster but at least I would have tried. I let it simmer for a full 3 hours and then another half an hour just for luck. And the meat was falling apart it was so soft! It was amazing!! You have to try this recipe. For a change I followed the recipe exactly and I wouldn't change a thing. Well maybe add some mushrooms next time, but really it didn't need anything more.

So if you want to impress somebody with a good hearty meal on a cold evening when you haven't actually done any cooking all week and feeling just a little guilty about that fact, try this one.

I had half the amount of meat the recipe used so I roughly halved about everything. It was more than enough for the two of us with some left overs. So here's the halved recipe I used:

Ingredients:

800 g beef blocks (The recipe calls it chuck roast if that means anything to you? It didn't to me.)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 T butter

2 onions, sliced

1 1/2 T flour

3/4 C chicken or beef broth (I used beef)

3/4 C Belgian beer ( I used Swiss Appenzeller)

2 sprigs fresh Thyme (I didn't have so just added some mixed dried herbs)

2 bay leaves

1/2 T whole grain mustard

1/2 T brown sugar

And here's what you do, it's really easy, like all the things I make!

1. Pat the beef dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Then melt 1 T butter and wait for it to get really really hot. You want to have it on med-high heat. Brown the meat in batches and remove from pot when you've done it all. Oh, the recipe said not to stir. Just let one side brown well, about 3 min, then turn over to brown the other side for another 3 min. I actually timed each side!

2. Add another tablespoon of butter to the pot to melt. I know, lots of butter. Normally I wouldn't use butter, but I just wanted it to be good this time and maybe it was the butter, well margarine, that made all the difference. You want medium heat now for the onions. Add the chopped onions with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Brown the onions, about 15 min. Again I timed it! Not my way of doing it normally!

Add the flour and stir about 2 min until it starts to brown slightly and the onions are well covered by the flour.

3. Stir in the broth and scrape the bottom to get all that burnt onion bits in the sauce.

Add the beer and give your husband or whoever you're going to impress with this meal the rest of the beer. Then add the thyme, bay leaves and the browned meat and if there's any juice that has accumulated in your bowl with the meat add that too. You can add more salt and pepper, but I didn't. I didn't want to over do it and in the end it didn't need any more anyway.

Increase the heat to get everything to a good simmer. Then reduce the heat to low, partially cover and let it all simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally to scrape the bits sticking to the bottom of the pot.

4. About half an hour before serving, add the mustard and brown sugar.

I served it with mashed potatoes and veggies. You can also serve it on rice, noodles, french fries. Whatever you like! But I like it with mash. The mash is just good for the meat and sauce.

Gulaschsuppe (Goulash Soup)

2010-01-17T10:04:00.001+02:00

One of my husband's favourites and something we had quite a bit of while in Germany over Christmas!

It's really easy to make, the only bit of work is chopping up the meat. I buy the ready chopped blocks of beef, but it's not quite chopped small enough for the way we like it and the way they serve it in Germany. Below are the potatoes chopped up and I chop the meat about the same size or even smaller. I forgot to take a picture of the meat so thought I'd show you the potatoes for size.

1. Fry onion and garlic in a large pot.

2. Chop beef in small bits of about 1cm.

3. Brown the meat.

4. Add one red pepper, chopped.

5. Add about 2 potatoes, also chopped in 1 cm cubes.

6. I added about 1,5 liters water. You can add more. Mine could have done with another half a liter but I had no more space in the pot. I had a lot of meat. You decide how you like it.

7. And beef stock, 1 tin of tomatoes, herbs, salt and pepper.
8. Also add some cayenne pepper to spice it up a bit. Or as much as you like.
9. Oh I just remembered, I think I also added chili.

Simmer for as long as you have time!! I started mine at noon and cooked it for 6 hours. It's even better the next day so we had something else that night for dinner and left the soup for the next night. Before dinner I let it simmer for another hour to heat up.

Quick quiche

2009-12-13T12:12:00.000+02:00

My mother-in-law sent me this recipe and I recently made it after I finally found a silicone muffin tray.

For the easiest quiche crust ever, flatten a slice of brown or white bread (crust on or off) by rolling it between two pieces of plastic wrap with a rolling pin (or empty wine bottle like I do if you don't have a rolling pin!). Butter both sides lightly and press into a muffin tin. I found that one slice was enough for two small quiche crusts.

Fry some onions and whatever else you would like to have as a filling, scoop into bread shell and break an egg over it.

I would beat the egg a little, mix it up, before pouring it over so it doesn't look like a fried egg on top if you're making a quiche. I made this for breakfast so then the fried-egg-look works.

Bake at 180 C for 15 min or until the egg is cooked. Carefully remove from the muffin tin

and serve on a plate decorated with balsamic reduction to make a smiley face. (Optional!)

As I said, I made this for a weekend breakfast so I fried some onion, bacon and mushroom to go on the crust and then topped each with an egg. Andre said they were good! I don't like egg too much, so maybe I'll try it next as a vegetable quiche.

Vegetable tart & stuffed peppers

2009-10-28T18:37:00.006+02:00

After too many chocolates and dinners out these past few weeks we're now eating healthier (more veg) and no more chocs. The plan is to stick to this until Christmas. That's two months. Let's hope we make it!

So last night I made a vegetable tart. It was a combination between a quiche and an onion tart recipe which I got from my mom.

I cooked the spinach and fried some onion, garlic and bacon in a pan. Lined the dish with phyllo pastry, added the topping plus some feta and grated cheese and folded the pastry over.

I thought it might not be filling enough for Andre so I made stuffed peppers too. This recipe I got from a Spanish cookbook which we got as a gift from my dad and stepmom. It's got some great recipes in and I'm trying another one tonight.

Chop the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds.

I spooned some previously prepared mince in each. Topped with feta and grated cheese and replaced the pepper tops again.

Bake the tart and peppers for half an hour at 180 C.

Enjoy dinner and then ask your husband to do the dishes!

Zucchini Bread

2009-09-27T16:47:00.006+02:00

I've read about Zucchini bread a while back, but the thought of zucchini in a bread just didn't sound right to me. But then I started thinking if we can put carrots in carrot cake then perhaps zucchini could work too.

When I looked at the sugar that goes into this bread it's obviously not a savoury one and I expected it might be something like a banana bread. It is, only better!

André thought it was some fancy Swiss recipe I was trying out. He did not see the ingredients. So I let him believe that because I knew he would also be quite a bit unsure about eating zucchini in a sweet bread, more like a cake. And I was right.

I managed to get a picture seconds before the last slice got eaten.

After he finished about four slices:

Me: Do you like this bread?

Andre: Yeah it's awesome!

Me: Is it better than banana bread? (He LOVES banana bread, it was his favourite, until now.)

Andre: Oh yes, this is way better!

Me: Do you know what it is?

Andre: No, what?

Me: Zucchini bread.

Andre: WHAT??? NO!!! Don't lie!!

Me: It is, see those green bits there? That's zucchini.

Andre: I used to hate zucchini when I was a kid.

So here's what you need to go do RIGHT now. Sift:

3 c flour

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

3 t cinnamon

Then in another bowl you need to beat:

3 eggs

1 c oil

2 c sugar (I used 1 c white and 1 c brown)

3 t vanilla

Then add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix well.

Add 3-4 c grated zucchini and stir it in. You might need to actually just use your hands and squish it in there to get it really mixed in with the dough. Go on, it feels good.

PS Don't squeeze out any water from the grated zucchini, you need the moisture in the bread.

Then put half the dough in a bread pan and bake 40-60 minutes at 165 C. Mine baked 55 minutes. You need to test to see if it's ready. Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Then remove from the pan and cool completely.

Oh, then go ahead and bake the rest of the dough. It makes 2 loaves. You can also make individual zucchini muffins instead. I'm going to freeze one loaf.

Enjoy with a cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon!

PS The bread looks a bit pale on these pictures. I don't know what happened to the colour when I imported it here. But believe me, it looks better in real life!

Vanilla sugar

2009-09-16T10:24:00.003+02:00

Vanilla essence comes in such small bottles here in Switzerland. In South Africa we got something a little different, a bigger bottle, dark colour and really good vanilla smell. All I've found here are these tiny tiny bottles of clear liquid.

So my mom advised me to use vanilla sugar instead. Here's how to make your own:

2-3 cups sugar with one vanilla pod. Slice the vanilla pod open lengthwise using the back of a knife. Not all the way through and leave the ends in tact. Scrape out the seeds and mix with the sugar. It will smell divine instantly! Leave the whole vanilla pod in the sugar. Keep your vanilla sugar in an air tight container and leave for 2 weeks. Then it will be ready to use in anything that needs some vanilla flavouring. It's apparently also good in tea and coffee. I'll have to wait 2 weeks, then I'll try that.

Mrs Mostert's chutney

2009-09-15T12:55:00.005+02:00

If you're not from South Africa I might have to explain to you what Mrs Ball's is. It's a fruit chutney and the best chutney you will ever find in the whole wide world. Mrs Ball's chutney is part of being South African. It goes with any food. No South African home is complete without Mrs Ball's. If you're ever in South Africa, make sure you try it. Here's a picture so you know what you're looking for:

If you live in South Africa, you can skip ahead to another recipe, go bake some cookies or something because you don't need to make chutney. You can just go to Pick 'n Pay and buy bottles and bottles of the good stuff.

I don't live in South Africa anymore, you see. Now I know I can order it online, but I like a challenge in the kitchen and my empty Mrs Balls chutney bottle which my mom brought from SA was a good enough challenge to try and make my own.

Mrs Ball's recipe is known to be a secret recipe. Top Secret. So I didn't expect to find it on the internet when I googled it. What I did find was a Mrs Ball's facebook group. And I found my dad as a fan on this group! He loves chutney as much as I do. I think it's in the genes. I inherited it from him.

So having given up on finding the secret recipe I look around this group for fun, since I'm still a housewife with nothing to do some days. There I found a note. And in the note... was the recipe!! I couldn't believe it. I checked and checked again. I thought this must be a joke, somebody making up a recipe and posting it here. But then as someone wrote in the comments, they would still go out and buy their bottles of Mrs Ball's chutney. And I thought, yes, if I could I would also still buy the chutney instead of making it. I didn't expect my chutney to taste the same even with the same recipe.

And so this morning I made my first bottle of chutney.

The recipe says it makes 18 bottles. A little bit too much for me. So I divided it by 18 to make just one bottle. When I weighed out the fruit it was so little so I decided to double everything and make two bottles instead. Good thing I did, because in the end it did only make one bottle.

You can click here for the original 18 bottle recipe.

Or you can follow the reduced recipe with my own modifications and tips in brackets:

68 g dried peaches (I couldn't find peaches so I used dried mango instead. When I find dried peaches I will make it again.)

26 g dried apricots

- Soak overnight in 100 ml Brown Wine Vinegar. (I couldn't find brown wine vinegar so bought red wine vinegar. Is it the same?)

Next morning, cook the dried fruit in the vinegar in which it soaked until soft.

Drain and mince the fruit.

Add 270 g sugar and 56g onions, minced.

Add 12 g salt and 8 g cayenne pepper.

Add 200 ml brown wine vinegar and simmer 1 - 2 hours. (I did one hour)

At start of 1 hour:

At end of 1 hour:

Sterilize bottle and bottle and seal while still hot.

The chutney will thicken as it cools down. Mine is now a little bit too thick and sticky. Next time I will add more vinegar.

My first bottle of home made chutney! I tried it with some quiche for lunch. Tastes almost as good as the real thing!

Plum jam

2009-09-14T12:15:00.004+02:00

I've made tomato jam a few years ago and now for my second try at making jam I used the plums (prunes?) I had bought which weren't being eaten fast enough.

The recipe I found said to use equal amounts of plums and sugar, but next time I'll use less sugar. I don't need it as sweet and would actually like to taste a bit of the sourness of the plums. If you click on the link to the recipe there are some other links on that site with more info about making jam that can be useful.

So here's what I did:

590 g plums

590 g sugar

110 ml water

Slice the plums in half and remove the pips.

Simmer in the water until nice and soft. Make sure you simmer long enough.

Do you like my red pot? I have two of them. I got them from my gran in Germany. They go with my other red kitchen things.

Have a plum while you wait.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved. I know... so much SUGAR!

Bring to a boil and boil rapidly until the jam sets when tested.*

Remove the scum.

Pot and seal while still hot.

*Unfortunately I didn't time how long this took, but I had to boil it for quite a while. To test if it is ready, have a plate in the freezer so it gets nice and cold. Remove from freezer and place a drop of jam on the plate and leave for one minute. It should feel sticky when you touch it with your finger. If not, keep on boiling and test again and again!

Zwetschgenkuchen

2009-09-13T09:15:00.005+02:00

I had some plums or prunes, I'm never sure which is which, the small ones, Zwetschgen in German. So I decided to use the Hungarian Tart recipe which I made before, but instead of the apricot jam I used Zwetschgen. Click here for the recipe for the dough. I didn't have vanilla so I added 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon. The cinnamon went really well with the prunes.

I pressed half the dough in a dish. This time I used a bigger dish and made the dough layer thinner which tasted much better.

Finely slice the prunes. Then I borrowed from another recipe my mom sent me for a similar fruit tart and sprinkled about a 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit and some more cinnamon. Her recipe also asks for 1 tablespoon lemon juice but I forgot about this.

Then grate the remaining dough over the top and bake at 170C for about 30 min.

Flapjacks for lunch

2009-09-07T21:02:00.005+02:00

Flapjack is a name for two different sweet foods. In the UK and Australia, it refers to a tray-baked biscuit, and in Canada, the United States, and South Africa, it refers to a form of pancake. (Wikipedia)

I'm from South Africa so I made the pancake type version here for Sunday lunch.

Mix: 1 C flour

1 T sugar

2 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

In a measuring jug mix: 1 C milk

1 egg

1 T oil

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture.

Mix until just combined. It will still be lumpy.

Spoon some mixture into a non-stick pan. (Makes 8 if you make about the size I did.)

Fry until bubbles form on the top.

Flip over and fry the other side until golden brown.

I kept them warm here by placing some water in a pot on low heat. Place a plate on top with a lid over the plate.

Enjoy with syrup or honey. Or Nutella like André did.

Rösti - part two

2009-09-07T20:53:00.003+02:00

After the previous unsuccessful attempt at flipping the rösti over André decided that it needs something to bind it better so it doesn't fall apart when you try to flip it. So the next morning we made rösti again for breakfast this time!

I beat two eggs and mixed in a little milk, salt and pepper and poured this over the fried rösti.

It was actually really good. While eating our brunch we came up with lots of other ideas of things to add to this breakfast rösti, like mushrooms and other diced vegetables.

Not sure what the Swiss will think of us re-inventing the rösti like this!

Rösti - part of a Swiss meal

2009-09-07T20:39:00.002+02:00

I read in a survey here that the Swiss consider fondue to be the most typically swiss food and rösti got the second most votes.

So I made rösti!

Ok, not quite made it myself, but I cut the packet open and put it in the pan.

Then you leave it to fry in the pan until it starts going golden brown and crispy underneath.

THEN comes the tricky part. You need to flip it. Turn it over. Not really possible. This was about the 3rd time I made rösti and all the methods I've tried lands me with a little heap of grated potato (what rösti is in case you didn't know). I've tried placing a plate over the pan and turning it over. Tried using the lid. Tried doing it with a spatula. I have now decided to just scramble it around a bit and hope I get some of the 'unfried' bits at the bottom.

With our rösti the other night I made my own chicken mixture. Onion, garlic, red pepper, chili, tomato, mushroom and zuchinni cooked in a sauce made of mushroom soup powder mixed with milk and white wine. Turned out good!

Hungarian Tart

2009-08-14T13:37:00.004+02:00

This is something I first had at my mother-in-law's house after she baked it. I asked her to email me the recipe earlier this weekend because it's something my husband really likes too. It's so easy to make and has no special ingredients so I didn't even need to go shopping when I decided to bake this morning.

Ingredients:

Apricot jam

125 g margarine

2 T sugar

2 T oil

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla essence

2 C flour

2 t baking powder

salt

Mix margarine and sugar until creamy.

Add oil and vanilla essence - mix well.

Beat egg and add to mixture.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt - add to mixture and mix well.

Knead slightly to form soft biscuit dough.

Press a little more than half of the dough into a baking tray or pie dish. Also press it up the sides a bit. (Next time I will use a bigger dish, my dough at the bottom is a bit thick. It shouldn't be too thick.)

Generously spread apricot jam over dough.

Grate remaining dough over jam.

*I found it doesn't grate like you would grate cheese. I kind of just pushed the dough through the grater to get little dough "worms" all over.

Bake at 170 C for about 30 minutes until light brown.

You could slice it while still hot, but we like to eat it like a biscuit when it's cooled down completely and the jam has set. In the picture below you can see the jam is still hot and runny. I couldn't wait of course! But it's now in the fridge to set. Doesn't have to go in the fridge. I'm not even sure if it should go in the fridge? But as I said, I can't wait and am trying to speed up the cooling process!

Freshly bakes bread rolls

2009-08-05T11:06:00.004+02:00

I decided to make chicken burgers for dinner and found this recipe for baking hamburger rolls. It promised to be light and fluffy. I don't know what I did wrong, because light and fluffy it definitely was not. But delicious it was. It's better suited for breakfast with jam on though.

The beautiful bread rolls!

I made a sauce to go with the chicken. A self made up and thrown together what's in the fridge recipe. I chopped and caramelized an onion, added chopped chili, tomato, green pepper and mushrooms. I added some red wine and a squeeze or two of barbeque sauce. Salt, pepper and herbs and let it bubble away on the stove. Keep the lid on for most of the time. If there's too much liquid, take the lid off to reduce it.

In the photo you can see the sauce in the bowl on the left and on the right is a zucchini salad.

Chocolate Cake

2009-07-31T15:38:00.004+02:00

After the milk tart André seemed to be in a sweet mood - he wanted chocolate cake. It's his birthday next week so I decided to bake a pre-birthday cake. I have this great chocolate cake recipe, it's the best, well I think so, but André doesn't. He wanted a traditional chocolate cake with two layers and it had to have a caramel and apricot jam filling. Mmm. Ok, so we had to go buy a cake tin, that ring thingy for baking a round cake in.

The recipe didn't tell me how long to bake the cake for, it only said bake until a knife comes out clear when you test it. So I opened the oven about four times to check. When it came out clean, I left it an extra 5 min - just to be sure. Well. Don't do that. Our chocolate cake turned out nice and crispy around the edges and on top! Not too bad though, we're still enjoying it!!

Ingredients:

Mix 90 g cocoa with 130 g brown sugar.

Heat 285 ml milk on medium heat until it starts to bubble.

Gradually add the cocoa-sugar mixture. Beat until smooth and leave to cool.

Cream 125 g butter.

Gradually add 250 g caster sugar.

Add 3 eggs, one at a time.

Add 1 t vanilla essence.

Beat until light.

Sift together 250 g flour + 1 t baking powder + 1 t baking soda.

Add alternately with cocoa mixture to butter mixture.

Beat until smooth.

Bake at 180 C for approximately 60 min. But do check before- you don't want it over done like mine!

Then we cut the cake in half with a piece of thread, or André cut it. Spread apricot jam on the bottom half with caramel over the jam. Place the top half onto this spread and spread icing and decorate! We made icing using butter, powder sugar and cocoa.

Doesn't this look delicious? Mmmm...

You want a bite?

Oh, you want to taste the apricot - caramel inside? Surprisingly good isn't it?

Ok, that's enough now. The rest is mine. Go bake your own!

Salmon with mango salsa

2009-07-30T09:23:00.003+02:00

My mom sent me this recipe which she got from the weight watchers website, so enjoy (in moderation) as it probably means it is less fattening! (The potato wedges aren't from weight watchers, but at least they were oven baked!)

For the marinade:

- 2 T red curry paste

- 4 T plain yoghurt

- Pepper

Mix together and place fish in marinade for at least half an hour.

For the salsa:

- 1 Small mango

- 1 Red onion

- 1/4 Gherkin

- Chili to taste

- 4 T Fresh mint

- 1 t Lemon juice

Finely chop all the ingredients for the salsa and mix.

Grill salmon 6-8 min, turning once. Serve with salsa and a wedge of fresh lemon. Don't be like me and only remember about the already cut lemon wedges still lying on the counter when we've just about finished the fish!! I always forget something!

Chicken Pot Pie

2009-07-29T10:33:00.004+02:00

I've been wanting to make a chicken pie for a while now. Then I came across this recipe for a chicken pot pie on this website and thought I'll give it a try as I like trying out new recipes.

Prep time 25 min

Cook time 30 min

Difficulty easy

Ingredients

6 T butter

1/8 t thyme

1/4 t pepper

6 T flour

1 1/2 C chicken broth

1 1/2 C half-and-half (half cream)

2 C chicken breast, cubed

1 whole carrot, diced

1/2 C peas

6 whole new potatoes (I used one big potato), cubed

1 box Double crust pastry shell (Not sure exactly what this is, but I used puff pastry)

Cook chicken in some butter until brown. Remove from pan.

Boil vegetables until soft.

Cook butter, thyme, flour and pepper (add salt to taste) on low until bubbly.

Remove from heat and add chicken broth and cream. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly till think.

Fold together sauce with chicken and vegetables.

Pour into uncooked pastry shell. Cover with pastry.

Bake in preheated oven at 220 C for 30 min.

Wash the dishes while the pie is in the oven.

While your husband has a beer after he helped with the cooking.

Keep an eye on the pie! Make sure it doesn't burn in the oven. I turned the oven down to 150 C when it started getting a bit too brown on top.

Then enjoy your pie with a glass of wine!

PS Next time I will fry some onion and garlic too and add some mushrooms.

Milk tart - first attempt

2009-07-25T23:34:00.005+02:00

Before I tell you about the milk tart I just have to show you what I bought today. I'm so excited about it. My baking has been limited here in Switzerland until now without this. Look.

Don't you love the color? I do! And it happens to go with my kitchen which has some touches of red. And look what it can do, frothed milk! Pretty, hey?

Ok, so I wanted to bake something this morning after buying this and I asked André what he'd like me to bake. It needs to be something he likes, otherwise I end up eating it all. He doesn't eat much sweet stuff, so I might just end up having to eat it all myself anyway... But I really wanted to bake something and from the list I gave André to choose from, he chose milk tart.

I have two recipes. One is my grandma's recipe which my mom made in Melkbos some time ago. It turned out really good. But the other recipe I have, one without a crust, sounded way easier so of course I chose the easy way out. Perhaps not the best choice! I will give you both recipes in a minute. If you look at the picture you can see the two layers and it feels as though something separated which shouldn't have. The bottom is too dense and the top too foamy. I looked up other recipes on the internet afterwards and the first one I found is exactly this recipe I used today and the reviews say that it is supposed to form a sort of crust with the bottom layer. So maybe it's supposed to be like this. Just not the way I know milk tart. And I like a pastry crust so next time I'll try the other one and let you know how that turns out.

But here's both recipes so you can choose and let me know what you think if you do try it.

Today's recipe: Crustless Milk Tart

4 C milk

1 C sugar

1 t baking powder

1 C flour

2 T butter

1 t vanilla

3 eggs, separated

pinch of salt

Beat the egg whites until stiff.

Melt butter and add sugar, salt and egg yolks. Mix.

Add baking powder and flour. Gradually add milk and vanilla.

Fold in the egg whites.

Pour into an oven dish. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min. (I baked mine for 50 min today. It musn't be too wobbly when you take it out. It will be a little wobbly, but if too much it won't set properly.)

Sprinkle with cinnamon while still hot. Leave to cool and set.

And here's my Ouma's recipe:

Melktert

500 ml milk

30 ml butter

1 cinnamon stick

pinch of salt

2 extra large eggs, separated

100 ml milk

15 ml flour

30 ml maizena (cornflour)

125 ml sugar

Puff pastry

cinnamon

Heat milk, cinnamon stick, salt and butter.

Heat until just before boiling point.

Beat egg yolks, sugar, 100 ml milk, flour and cornflour.

Add a little bit of the warm milk to the egg mixture and beat well. (This is important, don't ask me why but you have to do it this way!)

Now add the egg mixture to the rest of the warm milk. Keep stirring until it starts thickening.

It will start looking like custard.

Let the mixture cool completely.

Line dish with puff pastry.

When the mixture has cooled completely, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in.

Pour into dish and bake at 180C for about 35 min. (Would probably be longer.)

As with the first recipe, it mustn't be too wobbly when you take it out the oven.

Allow to cool and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Risotto

2009-07-17T21:20:00.002+02:00

I took these pictures such a long time ago and thought I'd posted this already, but it seems not. I made risotto again tonight. Here's how:

1. Fry onion and garlic in some olive oil.

2. Add chicken pieces. You don't have to, you can leave this out and do a vegetarian risotto.

3. When the chicken pieces are nice and brown, add 1 cup Arborio rice (special risotto rice available in most grocery stores) to serve 2 people. To serve 4, double the rice and the liquid. It makes more than enough. Fry the rice in the pan for about 1 minute or so.

4. Then add the liquid: 1/2 cup white wine (or red if you don't have white- it will change the color a bit but still tastes good) + 2 cups water. With the liquid add either vegetable stock or half a packet mushroom soup powder. The soup powder makes it nice and creamy.

5. Add your vegetables. You can really add ANYTHING you like!! We usually add mushrooms, one tomato, green/ red pepper. Other things to add are zucchini, butternut/ pumpkin, broccoli, really any veg.

6. Simmer until liquid is absorbed. Taste the rice. It might not be soft yet, then add a little more water to just cover everything and simmer some more until rice is soft and creamy.

7. Before serving you can stir through some grated cheese!

This dish will not score high on presentation, but it will on taste!

Zucchini salad

2009-07-15T18:20:00.003+02:00

I found this recipe on another blog quite a while ago and I would add a link to that blog but now I really can't remember where I found it... I know zucchini salad sounds a bit strange and that is the reason why I took so long to try it but don't be scared, this tastes amazing! I just made it and wanted to eat it straight away after having a small taste, but the rest of the dinner is still in the oven so I have to wait.

For the two of us I grated only one big zucchini, the zucchini here are seriously big so you'll have to grate and see how much your zucchini gives you. Then add some lemon juice, salt, pepper, olive oil and grated parmesan cheese and mix well. Sorry, no measurements, you'll have to taste! I liked the taste of the parmesan so added quite a bit.

My mother in law's Rusk recipe

2009-07-15T09:43:00.003+02:00

These rusks are so good! Obviously I wont post anything not good! We spoke to my mother in law on skype last night and she had these rusks drying in the oven. I could almost smell them! But I won't bake them. Simply because they're too good and I won't be able to leave them alone. I will be sitting here at my laptop trying to work but won't be able to think about anything else but the rusks in the kitchen. But if you have better willpower than me, here's the recipe.

Health rusks

500 g margarine

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 kg self-raising flour

3 t baking powder

2 ml salt

2 eggs

3 cups All Bran (crushed slightly)

2 cups digestive bran

200 ml sunflower seeds

1/2 cup raisins

500 ml buttermilk

Melt margarine and sugar.

Sift self-raising flour, baking powder and salt.

Add All Bran, digestive bran, sunflower seeds and raisins to flour mixture.

Beat eggs and buttermilk and add to flour mixture.

Add melted margarine and sugar mixture and mix well.

Bake at 180 C for 50-60 min.

Remove from bread pans and allow to cool.

Cut/ break into pieces and dry overnight in oven at 80 C.

Lasagne, my absolute favourite!

2009-07-12T20:21:00.003+02:00

Hold on. I'm going to tell you about lasagne in a minute. Thinking about lasagne just reminded me there's still some in the fridge from last night and even though we had such a good lunch and LOTS of dessert this afternoon, I just have to have a small bite. Drool over the picture while you wait... Watch out, don't get any on your keyboard!

Mmm... that was good. Do you see the croutons in the salad? I've always wanted to make my own croutons. Last night there wasn't anything else to add to the salad so I made croutons for the first time! Turned out good.

Ok, back to the lasagne. I hope you can make lasagne. If you've never tried then today is the day to start. It's really not difficult. I don't know why some people think or say it is. It's actually very simple. And if it's the béchamel sauce (white sauce) you're worried about - which is also not hard to do- I do have an easy way out for you.

I looked up the spelling of lasagne because my spell check is telling me it should be with an a at the end. According to Wikipedia lasagna is singular for the pasta sheets used and lasagne is plural and also the way it's spelled in Italy. You need more than one sheet to make lasagne.

Lasagne has always been my favourite dish and when I became interested in cooking and wanted to learn to cook I didn't want to start with boiling an egg as my mom tried to convince me. I wanted to make lasagne. So as far as I can remember that's the first thing I learnt to cook and still my favourite. I do it without a recipe now.

Whenever I make a mince dish I cook extra mince, like double or three times what I need and freeze it in smaller containers. Ready to be converted into a quick lasagne, cottage pie, spaghetti Bolognese or whatever.

Ok, I'm going to give you my recipe which I've been making for years and years. I wish I can remember how old I was. This is so good, I never order lasagne in a restaurant because it's never as good as this one. Along the way I'll give you some optional extras which I add depending what I have in the fridge.

Oh I just noticed my recipe is in Afrikaans! I will translate.

Lasagne (This makes quite a big dish, could probably serve 6)

5 ml olive oil

500 g mince

1 packet minestrone soup powder (or a few teaspoons vegetable stock powder - Ina Paarman if you're in SA)

1 tin tomatoes

30 ml red wine or water

lasagne sheets (I like the green spinach ones)

50 g (60 ml) margarine

50 g (100 ml) sifted flour - I never sift it

570 ml milk

5 ml salt

pepper

100 g grated cheese of your choice

Cook the mince.

Add the soup powder (or veg stock), tomatoes and wine/ water.

Melt the margarine in a separate pot.

Stir in flour.

Gradually add the milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

Add salt and pepper.

*Now for years I used to make the béchamel sauce like this on the stove. Then I learnt a much easier way from my mother in law - use the microwave! So you melt the margarine, stir in the flour and then I add about 1 c milk and mix well. In the micro for 1 min and then stir again. Do 1 min at a time and take out to stir otherwise it will boil over = BIG mess in your microwave. You don't want to have to clean that too. When that one cup starts to thicken add some more milk and carry on until you have enough sauce and it's thick enough. I don't measure the marg, flour and milk anymore but do if you're not sure. Otherwise it might not thicken and you will end up frustrated and never want to make lasagne again and I don't want that.

Now you are ready to layer in your oven dish. The order of layers vary and I can never remember so this is the one thing I still until recently got the recipe book out for! Right at the end I have to find the lasagne page to see which layer goes first! Now I'm not that bothered and just put whatever first. As long as you end with a sauce layer and cheese.

So this recipe I have here says lasagne sheets first, then half of your bolognese, and half white sauce. Then repeat pasta, mince and sauce and top with cheese.

Bake 30 min at 200 C (without a lid.)

*I add the without a lid part because after my mom moved to Germany years ago I had to phone her to ask if I need to put the lid on the dish or not? They should tell me that in a recipe!

*Some extras to add when you're cooking the mince (bolognese sauce): chopped chilli, green pepper, mushrooms (we always add these three). Also when available in the fridge some kind of veg like finely chopped carrot. Be creative and make it colourful! You can also add some tomato paste if you like it more red. I do. And a fresh tomato too if you like it tomato-y. I do. Mmmm.... what else... I think that's it. Oh garlic and onion!! How can I forget those two! I can't believe this recipe doesn't add that. It's a must.

*By the way, you know you don't have to cook the lasagne sheets? You just place them in the dish and make sure they don't overlap.

Ok, so that was my original trusted recipe. Then another recipe my sister sent me which is supposed to be a healthier (read less fattening) version is what we tried last night and this is the one in the photo - although the above recipe turns out looking the same. You know the top layer of lasagne will always be cheese so will look the same :-)

Now I still have to ask her how all this cheese is better than the milk in the white sauce, but here it is. I call it the:

Easy-way-out Lasagne!

500 g ricotta

4 egg yolks

500 g mozarella

1 c freshly grated parmasan

lasagne sheets

2 cups Bolognese sauce

Mix ricotta with egg yolks and season with salt and pepper. Layer as above, ending with the cheese and bake as above.

*NB I halved the ricotta (250g) and egg yolks (2) and it was enough for 4 portions of lasagne. And it looked rich and cheesy enough without the parmesan so didn't add that.

The ricotta gives it a different taste. I'd say a bit richer and creamier but not too heavy. It was really really good too. I just need to find out which one is less fattening now and that's the one I will continue making. This last one is definitely quicker. Last night I had the mince ready made from earlier in the week so I just had to mix the ricotta and egg yolks and in the oven it went!

Ok, now go make some lasagne for your family!!

Banana-Oatmeal-Choc Chip Cookies

2009-07-10T21:17:00.014+02:00

As I've mentioned before, my sister has been so kind to help me get rid of a few too many Swiss chocolates I ate and sent me a meal plan with lots of healthy tips. Even which fruit are safe (sugar wise) to eat and which to stay far away from -e.g. bananas :-( She's also been sending me some healthy recipes including this one for cookies. Okay so maybe cookies aren't exactly healthy, but it's a healthier alternative if you're going to eat cookies. I baked them today and they turned out so yummy. I left a few spoonfuls in the bowl on purpose to eat while their baking ( don't tell my sister!)

I'll first give you her recipe and then I'll tell you what I did.

Banana-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep: 10 minutes; Cook: 25 minutes.

Ingredients

1 cup oat flour

3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/3 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raw sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup plain soy milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 ripe banana, cut into small pieces

1/4 cup chopped walnuts or other favorite nut

1/3 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips (such as Tropical Source)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine first 6 ingredients (through sugar) in a bowl. Whisk together oil, soy milk, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients; stir to combine. Fold in banana, walnuts, and chocolate chips.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop dough onto pan with a small ice-cream scoop. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown, turning baking sheet halfway through. Let cool on a wire rack.

________________________________

Now in America-land you get all weird and wonderful stuff in the grocery store. Like vegan choc chips? Semisweet?? What is that? Okay, maybe I'm just jealous because you get ANYTHING and everything in the grocery stores there and it's even labeled in English. (But seriously, I don't know what that is.) Anyway. Since I live in Switzerland and I'm not going to buy soy milk no matter where I live she helped me adapt the recipe a bit. Then I adapted it a bit more myself. (After translating the ingredients into German before going shopping.)

Instead of oat flour I used 1 1/4 c whole wheat flour.

Instead of raw sugar I used 1 1/2 c brown sugar.

Instead of the oil I used 1 c butter.

I couldn't find baking soda so only used the baking powder.

I added 2 eggs.

I didn't use any milk.

I didn't add any nuts.

I had a choice between chocolate choc chips or caramel and chocolate chips mixed. No vegan... I used the caramel and choc mix. Really good. Use whatever you find or like.

I just noticed that the recipe says 3/4 c oats, but in the revised recipe she told me to use 3 c oats. Don't know if that was a typing error she made, but I used 3 c and it worked fine. I think only 3/4 c would be too little. Is this getting too confusing? Yes I agree, let me type up exactly what I did and then you can decide which one to follow.

Combine: 1 c butter + 1 1/2 c sugar

Add: 2 eggs + 1 t vanilla

Add: 1/2 t baking powder + 1 1/4 c flour + 1/2 t salt

Add: 3 c oats + 1 c choc chips + 1/2 banana

Then some extras which sister adds, but I didn't. Might try it next time.

-1 c raisins (might try this instead of choc chips for a less kj version)

-2 t cinnamon (I forgot to buy..)

For those of you not baking in the US: 350F = 190C

This recipe says bake for 25 min. In one email my sister said bake for 12 min and in another bake for 9-10 min so I guess it's really up to you!! I started with the 9-10 min then took it out. The next batch I tried for 25 min. Luckily I checked on them after about 15 min and I saved them just in time! I put the first batch back in again after food critic André said he liked the longer baked ones better. I agree.

Simóne says she freezes hers and eats them straight from the freezer. Oh and I forgot to mention, the rule is one biscuit as your sweet treat per day ONLY. I will try that. The freezer part, I can't promise anything about the one per day part. I can imagine it will make them nice and crunchy.

Hey I just noticed on this original recipe it says 1/3 c choc chips but on the revised one she sent me she said 1 c! I guess she decided there's no hope getting this sister into canola oil, soy milk and vegan chocolates. Might as well give her the full fat version. So if you're not bothered then go ahead and add those choc chips!!

I'm not sure if this really was what I know as vanilla essence. I'm used to it being a very dark colour and this didn't smell as good. I love the smell of vanilla essence. But it tasted good. I added one whole little bottle. It wasn't as much as the recipe said though.

Oh here are those caramel-choc chips I told you about!

These were some really good choc chips!

Mix it up!

Yummy cookies in the making

Go on try them, I know you'll like it!

By the way, they make a nice home made gift too!

Poached salmon

2009-07-06T21:17:00.005+02:00

Tonight I cooked salmon for the very first time! And it turned out great :-) I never cook fish. Mainly because I don't know what to do with it. The only fish we ever eat is tuna from a can and the smoked salmon my mom brought us a few weekends ago which I loved!

When one of the dinners on my sister's healthy menu she set up for me said salmon I started thinking I should give it a try. Then last week André came home from work (and I always ask him what he had for lunch because they get the most delicious sounding lunches at work) and he told me about the salmon he had which was so good. One of his co-workers actually told him how they just cook it in some veggie stock. That didn't sound to hard.

So here's what I did tonight: I bought two salmon fillets in a weight watchers package because it looked like a good size, it looked clean and neat and not like a fish or a used-to-be fish. And an added bonus - it's from weight watchers so it should be even less fattening!

Once in the kitchen with the frying pan out, I started feeling a bit more creative. I got the veggie stock to a boil and then added chopped onion, garlic, red pepper and broccoli.

I let that simmer for a bit, then moved it to the sides of the pan and added the salmon. 6 min on one side then about another 3 min on the other side and it was done.

André wanted some oven baked fries so I had that going in the oven as well as a sweet potato which I wrapped in foil and baked for an hour. Delicious! I love sweet potato.

And here it is! (This is Andre's plate, his looked better with all those fries!)

Now I plan to do salmon once a week and try a different recipe each time.

Salmon & Avo salad

2009-06-28T12:28:00.005+02:00

When my mom came to visit a few weekends ago she brought me some smoked salmon and also an Afrikaans magazine from South Africa, rooi rose. This recipe is from this magazine. I was again too hungry to think of taking a picture of my delicious salad but here is the picture from the magazine:

And here's what you need for this salad:

Avocado

Smoked salmon

1 tin Mandarin slices, drained. (I couldn't find this, then found it last week but I've finished the salmon..)

1 tin grapefruit slices, drained. (I used a fresh grapefruit.)

Chopped pistachio nuts

Fresh watercress

Arrange on serving plate.

For the dressing, mix:

20 ml (4t) orange juice

60 ml (1/4 c) olive oil

5 ml (1t) Dijon mustard

2.5 ml (1/2t) ground ginger

Grated rind of one orange

5 ml (1t) fresh thyme

Warm Chicken Salad

2009-06-27T18:32:00.005+02:00

For the past two weeks I've been eating a lot of salad. And I've been trying to be creative with it to keep it interesting. Most days by lunch time I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture of each salad before eating it, but I remembered this one time!

You need some Thai red curry paste for this one. The recipe says to mix the chicken pieces and curry paste and refrigerate overnight. If you plan ahead and can do this, great, but I've made it many times by just mixing the paste and cooking the chicken straight away. This time though I did plan ahead! I planned so well, I planned for us to have chicken for dinner the night before so I could keep some of the chicken separate for my salad. But then had a change of plan the next day and had a salmon salad instead. So this time the chicken was WELL marinated for two days!

I didn't have lemon grass so just left that out. Same with the red onion and the mint. Also sadly didn't have the fish sauce this time so just made a little dressing with oil and lemon juice. But do try the fish sauce, it's delicious.

Oh and I don't heat the tomato and mint. So I cook the chicken and then just add it over a normal salad with whatever you like in it.

Try it!

WARM CHICKEN SALAD

500 g chicken breast

2 t Thai red curry paste

1 t chopped chilli

garlic

1 stem fresh lemon grass, white part only

1 red onion, chopped

2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

1/2 c chopped fresh mint

1/4 c chopped fresh coriander

400 g mixed salad leaves

Dressing:

1 1/2 T soft brown sugar

2 T fish sauce

2 T lime juice

2 t oil

Cut chicken. Mix with curry paste, chilli, garlic and lemon grass. Refrigerate overnight.
Spray pan. Cook chicken. Remove form pan. Cook onion. Return chicken and any juices and tomato, mint and coriander. Stir until heated and set aside.
Dressing: Mix all ingredients.
Toss all together.

PizzaPizzaPizza

2009-06-10T09:40:00.005+02:00

I love pizza! I can eat pizza all the time! Especially home made pizza and I found this recipe for a thin pizza crust on another blog and thought I'll give it a try. The first time I tried it I thought it's not going to work... but it did and we made it again last night. I could have it again right now!!

So here's what you do. (It makes one pizza by the way.)

Combine:

120g flour

1/2 t instant yeast

1/2 t sugar

1/2 t salt

Stir in: 1/3 cup water (at room temperature). You might need to add some more water. Just at very little bits at a time.

It will be rough looking, not smooth and don't over mix.

In a small bowl poor 4 tsp olive oil.

Add the dough and turn to coat with oil.

Leave for 1 hour. It should double in size, but I don't think mine did...

Then remove the dough from the bowl and press it into a circle. Leave for 15 min. The first time I did this on some flour on the counter top and I had to scrape it off to get it on the oven pan. So last night I just pressed it straight onto the oven pan. Much easier and less to clean up afterwards.

After 15 min, press dough further into a circle. Cover with plastic (cling wrap) and leave 30-45 min.

Pre-heat oven: 220 C

Bake without toppings: 5 min.

Add toppings and bake another 5 min.

I almost forgot to take a picture of the finished pizza! Remembered just in time before we finished it all!

Enjoy!!

Mac & Cheese

2009-06-08T16:35:00.005+02:00

I wasn't going to do a post about macaroni & cheese, but then I thought maybe like me, you also sometimes can't think what to make for dinner and we forget about these simple things like mac & cheese. I was reminded about this when someone posted on facebook that they're making this for dinner. So perhaps you're scrolling through blogs looking for ideas for dinner (like I do) and then I might just be able to help!

I don't know if it's common to add mince to this dish. I grew up with it only being macaroni and cheese sauce with some tomato. But we now add some mince too. Whenever I cook mince I usually make extra to freeze. To spice up the mince I add a can of tomatoes of course and then whatever I have in the fridge like mushrooms, green pepper, and sometimes carrots or zucchini or peas. Finely chopped of course except for the peas.. You can add some fresh tomatoes too and vegetable stock gives great flavour. (Try Ina Paarman vegetable stock if you're in SA.) And don't forget the herbs and red wine!

So you've cooked your pasta (I actually used penne instead of macaroni here), add your cooked mince and cheese sauce. Mix, grate some cheese over the top and bake.

I made this a while ago and I'm actually making it again tonight. We'll be home late so I'll be preparing the cheese sauce and pasta before we go out and the mince is ready anyway. When we get home all I'll need to do is stick it in the oven for about 25 min.

Roast beef - another one by André

2009-06-07T11:37:00.006+02:00

We haven't had red meat since arriving here in der Schweiz. That's almost 2 months ago now. Well, André has some good lunches at work so he probably has had some, but we haven't bought any. It's only been chicken and veg and lots of pizza and pasta.

So yesterday we went to Sihlcity, a shopping mall in Zurich and the COOP there is huge! At first I got excited about seeing such a big grocery store, but then it got a bit overwhelming. I'm not used to so many choices anymore! And it took a long time. But then shopping with André usually takes a long time and we end up buying lots more than what's

on the grocery list. So that's how we ended up buying this great piece of meat. Sorry to the vegetarians.. We don't eat meat often but once in a while a good piece of meat is sooo good!

Doing a roast is not my specialty so I'm not even going to go into details about what Andre did. I enjoy cooking and I actually want to be busy doing something. Making a roast you just put the meat in the oven and wait. Ok, with some spices etc, but still, there's not much going on.

But it was oh so good! I'm already looking forward to having the left overs for lunch!

Andre's invention

2009-06-03T15:56:00.006+02:00

When we came back from our weekend away at Engelberg André volunteered to cook dinner. I was his assistant. We had some potatoes that needed to be eaten and quite a variety of veggies in the fridge. So André put it all together and made us a delicious meal. He's quite good at cooking and his food is always delicious :-) Here's what he did:

He fried an onion and some garlic (always onion and garlic!) then added one chopped chicken breast. When the chicken was cooked he added some zucchini, chilli and mushrooms. I boiled the peeled potatoes. Made a mushroom sauce using half a packet of mushroom soup powder, mixed with milk and white wine. Poured this over the ingredients in the pan. It got quite thick so we added some water to get the right consistency. André is quite particular about how thick a sauce should be...

When the ingredients in the pan had done enough bubbling in the sauce, André arranged the sliced potatoes in the bottom of an oven dish.

Poured the veggie-chicken-mushroom sauce over the potatoes and arranged the rest of the potatoes over the top.

He added some salami and grated cheese.

In the oven until the cheese starts turning golden brown.

Mmmm... a good invention! I just had the left overs for lunch!

Chicken salad

2009-05-25T21:03:00.005+02:00

It was too hot tonight for anything else besides salad so I made a quick chicken salad.

I made up a marinade using about two tablespoons apricot jam (or jelly for the Americans - in SA jelly = jello - not something you'd put on your bread.) Anyway this is the apricot spread you put on bread. Ok, moving on. Add about a teaspoon of mustard, a little bit of vegetable stock or chicken stock with a little bit of hot water to mix it all up. I like veg stock, it gives good flavour. I did not measure anything, just add as you wish.

Pour the sauce into a pan and add the chicken pieces. Here you can see how much sauce I had compared to chicken. You don't need too much.

I cooked it on medium heat. Then got impatient and turned the heat right up! The chicken went golden brown and the sauce cooks away to form a slightly sticky sweet sauce. Mmmm... I like sweet...

Let the chicken cool and add to your salad. We love the bread and cheese here so had some of that with our salad.

I actually started running today, because I've been enjoying the cheese and chocolates too much! Now let's just hope I can keep up the exercise!

Pasta with veg & pesto

2009-05-22T11:05:00.002+02:00

I received this pasta and pesto in a parcel (see this video) from the bank in Germany when we got married. It was filled with interesting things to eat like chocolate (that's the first thing that came to my mind now! It was the most amazing chocolate truffles...) and olives and a bottle of red wine and lots of other goodies including this packet of colourful pasta:

and this sun dried tomato pesto:

André was a bit skeptical about the pesto. He apparently once ordered pasta with pesto and didn't like it. But I convinced him to give it another try, and this was a different kind of pesto anyway.

I knew he wouldn't be very satisfied with only pesto with his pasta so I added some chopped veg - zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper and garlic - fried in a pan with some olive oil.

Here's the final product: Colourful pasta, served with veg and pesto. And freshly baked (ready bought) bread rolls.

Nice and easy!

What's for dinner?

2009-05-22T10:30:00.000+02:00

My husband and I both enjoy cooking. His specialty is pasta and I like to try any new recipe - not always a good thing! Often after dinner I've said, "I should have taken a picture of that, it was so good!" So now I've decided that's what I'm going to start doing. Whenever we've made something worth taking a picture of I'll post it here. And let me know if you try the recipe and how you like it.

It won't always be fancy stuff, probably hardly ever. Mostly just the ordinary, but delicious.