French onion potato bake

I remember my sister used to make this when we lived together, a life time ago. She used to cook all sorts of different stuff, and I hardly knew how to cook anything.

She recently came round to borrow my deep fryer and to ask for some advice on making fried chicken. It started with her asking if anyone knew how to make KFC on Facebook.

I don't know anything about making fried chicken, just like KFC, but I do know how to make fried chicken. Having a pressurised deep fryer helps, but I guess they are not a common household appliance.

For eight years I worked in a fish/chicken and chip shop. I learned lots about life and tons about how to fry shit. I learned a lot about how to prepare and make so many things. Pretty basic things but a lot more than I knew how to make before I started work there!

When I first started work there, I hated it. I hated my boss (she was a hard task master) and would dread having to go. Who would have thought that years later, her family would be like my family and I would have learnt so much, from not only the job, but from her. 

I am so grateful for those years. 

I cooked this potato bake for the community gardeners, at one of our recent meetings, it was well received. Baked with spuds from the garden beds.

1 kilogram peeled potatoes, finely sliced

1 onion, finely sliced

1 packet of french onion soup mix

300 mls of cream

Layer the sliced potato and onion in a casserole dish.

Combine the french onion soup mix and cream in a bowl and pour over the potatoes.

Cover with foil, and bake in a 200 degree oven for one hour.

An InLinkz Link-up

Lemon butter tarts, three ways

Thursday I posted my recipe for Lemon Butter. Here are some easy tarts made using that butter. I bought the tart shells ready made from the bakery section in the supermarket, which makes life a lot easier. Heck if you don't want to make the lemon butter, you can even buy that in a jar at the supermarket!

Lemon tarts

This tart is the easiest. Just spoon in some lemon butter and put some whipped cream on top.

Lemon yogurt tart

This one is my favourite. Use half a cup of vanilla yogurt, mix it with half of cup of lemon butter. Spoon into the tart cases and top with mixed berries.

Lemon Butter cheesecakes 

For every 100 grams of cream cheese, add in a good tablespoon of lemon butter. Beat until fluffy. Spoon into tart cases and top with a sliced strawberry. Place a dab of cheesecake mix on top and place a blueberry to top it off.

Fancy wancy for not much effort.

Open Slather

An InLinkz Link-up

Lemon butter

Lemon butter or lemon curd, whatever you want to call it, is one of my childhood faves. I could just eat this stuff by the spoonful, straight from the jar.

I love getting free lemons. I love getting free anything, but my favourite is fresh produce that I can make something out of. Something to cook with to make delicious food.

You can substitute the lemon rind and juice, for any other citrus, like oranges or lime.
This recipe will make three small jars. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, then place in a 160C oven for 10 minutes, removing just before you place the hot lemon butter in them.

Lemon Butter

3 lemons
1 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 gr butter

Finely grate the rind from the lemons, making sure not to get too much of the white pith just under the skin.

Juice the lemons, then sieve to get rid of the pulp and pips.

Place the juice, rind and sugar in a medium saucepan, on a low temperature. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the eggs and butter, continue to stir until the butter has melted.

Turn the heat up to a simmer and stir until the mixture thickens, about 10 minutes.
Place hot lemon curd into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Ways to use your lemon butter -

• mix with yogurt, mascarpone cheese, or cream cheese for a tart filling
• on toast
• on pancakes
• a glaze for a cake
• spoonfuls straight from the jar when no one is looking
• thinned down for an easy lemon sauce. Add in herbs, chilli, ginger, garlic etc.

This is how I used some! You will need -

A pack of 2, unfilled sponges

300 mls of cream, whipped with a half a teaspoon of vanilla essence

1 small jar of lemon butter

Cut each sponge in half. Spread the bottom layer with lemon butter, then spread with some whipped cream. Place the other half of sponge on top. Repeat layering the cake like this. 

Place the last, and top section of cake.

Mix about two teaspoons of lemon butter with the remaining cream, just so it is swirled through.

Place a thin layer of the lemon cream on the outside of the entire cake. This will ensure the crumbs are held in place. Spread the rest of the cream evenly over the outside of the cake. 

I made some decorations on the top with lemon butter. Decorate it how ever you would like. You could use strawberries, toasted almond slivers, coconut or grated chocolate for example.

Have you tried lemon butter?
What homemade goodness do you remember loving as a kid?

Santa cupcakes

I had a can of condensed milk in the pantry. It was one of those cans my mum randomly hands over and says, "Take this, you might be able to use it". O.K. then.

Combine that can with looking at my christmas board on Pinterest and we(me and Izzy) made some santa cupcakes with strawberries and  cream. I don't own a piping bag, so a freezer bag with a small hole sniped out of the corner did the job with the cream.

Chocolate cupcakes using a 395 gram can of condensed milk.

150 gr margarine

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs (I used one duck egg)

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 and a half cups SR Flour

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 deg/160 degrees fan forced.

Beat butter and condensed milk until light and creamy.

Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Stir in flour and cocoa, alternately with milk.

Spoon into patty pans and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Icing

2 tablespoons condensed milk

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Combine until smooth. If it is a bit stiff, add a few drops of hot water at a time to get it to a spreadable consistency, a bit like nutella.

I had to admit, it was the best tasting cake mix I have ever tasted!

My pantry is full of pegs, even the freezer!

 The santas were put on iced normal sized cupcakes. The top 'hat' sliced off the strawberry and then a bit of cream piped on and then the hat put back on top with a pom pom of cream. Chia seeds for eyes.

These were whole strawberries placed on mini cupcakes taken out of the case. Cream piped around the base of the strawberry and a pom pom on top.

Aren't these the cutest christmas cupcakes you have ever seen?

Have you got your christmas baking on yet?

Do you use pegs to keep stuff closed?

Jewish Coffee Cake

This cake has nothing to do with coffee, apart from the fact that you may eat too much while drinking one.

I've been mulling over this cake for a while, I have it in one of my tattered books and always overlooked it. The recipe I had called for a packet vanilla cake mix and an instant pudding pack, which I didn't have, so I went to my good friend Google. The recipe I found was completely different, and when I saw the mouth watering photo, I was determined to make it.

Again ingredients I didn't have....sour cream and walnuts. I'm always one for substituting and experimenting, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Instead of sour cream, I used the three quarters of a cup of cream I had in the fridge with a teaspoon of lemon juice in it, and added some yoghurt to make up the cup. I used choc chips instead of walnuts, and didn't do the final layer on top, just the melted butter. It worked, the possibilities of that middle layer are endless, however I will have to try the recipe as it is one of these days.

Jewish Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter                                  1 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar                                     1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs                                             1 cup chopped walnuts

2 cups flour                                     1/2 icing sugar

1 teaspoon bi carb soda                2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder            2 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 175. Grease and flour a 22 cm tin.

Cream together the sugar, butter and eggs until smooth. Add the flour, bi carb and baking powder and beat. Lastly, mix in the sour cream and vanilla.

Mix together the nuts, icing sugar and cinnamon.

Spread half the cake mix into the cake tin. Sprinkle most of the nut mix over, then top with the remaining cake mix. 

Top with the remaining nut mix and spread the melted butter over.

Bake for 1 hour, until the top springs back lightly.



My ever faithful cooking companion

  

Spaghetti Carbonara

This was my pic for the Fat Mum Slim Photo a Day Challenge for the 13th of August - simple. It was also part of our dinner for that night. I needed something quick to go with our chops, and leftover salad (from the night before), and it is quick, it only takes as long as the pasta cooks. It's meant to be made with fettucine, but hey, I had spaghetti. 

You can add whatever ingredients you want. I have used up left over chicken and broccoli(I added this to the pasta pot towards the end), or added mushrooms when cooking the bacon.

Fettuccine Carbonara

280gr bacon, chopped

375gr fettucine

3 eggs yolks

1 cup cream

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper

Put pasta on to cook.

 Fry bacon until crisp, drain.

Beat together egg, cream and cheese.

Drain cooked pasta and combine with cream mixture and bacon.

Serve.

Scone anyone?

I made scones, and I can't stop eating them...help!

Jam and cream, butter and vegemite, I've had 6, cut in half, that's 12 halves!

How do you like your scones?

2 cups SR Flour

pinch salt

2 tspns butter

3/4 cup milk

Sift flour and salt. Rub in butter.

Add milk, make into dough.

Roll out to 2cm thickness and cut 

Put in a hot floured tin and bake for 7-10 minutes in hot oven.

enjoy