Hey again.  How quickly does the week go.  Hardly a blink and Saturday is here again.

I was so tired last week that I forgot that I had done some cooking through the previous week.  I added the recipes which were :-
thai green chicken curry

banana choc chip muffins

chocolate orange choc chip muffins

So with the week just gone I have been playing around with pumpkin recipes.  I came up with spiced pumpkin apple pie cake.  this was really really good.

You wouldn't know that there was pumpkin in this. Maybe just a slight bit in the colour, but it makes the cake really moist and gives it a fantastic flavour along with the spices. And it's really easy to make.

Now to today.

I'm having a really easy tea tonight.  Chicken wings, some with satay and sweet chilli and some with honey soy,  store bought lasagne because the kids like it, loin lamb chops, potato wedges and a quick salad.  Because none of this needs to go on before about 5.00 pm, I have all day to make cake.

I have the grandkids today, so I like to make things that done require too much thinking lol.
So that said, I decide to make portuguese tarts which I haven't made before, but Lizzy Lou likes these so I'm going to have a shot at them.
So they are basically a sweet custard tart made with puff pastry. The pastry is doubled and rolled into a log shape, then cut and rolled out and pressed into a muffin tin.  Why you do that, I have no idea. I don't know what the difference is.
The custard is made prior to the pastry because it has to cool. Its an egg yolk base with vanilla, sugar and milk.

Because there are 4 yolks in the recipe, I now have 4 whites as well. While the custard is cooling, I decide to make coconut macaroons.  These are really easy. Beaten egg whites, sugar and coconut, 10 minutes in the oven.

 Three trays of macaroons later, I'm ready to finish the tarts. The custards cool, I layer, roll, cut and roll out. Not so bad.  Fill the tin, fill the pastry and cook them for 20 or so minutes.

A little voice next to me pipes up with "nanny I hungy". Miss Lily pily wants lunch.  So does the mini food critic.  A couple of vegemite sandwiches and a cordial makes them happy.  Looks good, so I'll have one too.
And a coffee.  I might even play on the computer for a while.  The boys are getting their own lunch which involves a bit of mess, so I'll stay out of the kitchen till their finished.  I go back in in time to see Brian making a ham and chocolate spread sandwich (that's both on the same sandwich)  Yummy, NOT.

When I made the spiced pumpkin apple cake the other day, it went so quick that I decided to make another one for tonight. I'll serve it as a dessert with custard.  Because I still have pumpkin left, I'm going to make pumpkin whoopie pies as well.

The apple cake is made and needs to cool before I ice it.  The icing is really good, made with butter and brown sugar which is cooked before you add icing sugar.  I'm going to make the whoopie pies while I'm waiting.  These are quite easy to make especially when I have a whoopie pie tin. Pumpkin and spices yet again but number one son will love these.  They are filled with  cream cheese, vanilla, icing sugar  and cinnamon.  Basically they cool while you make the filling.

They're done. So back to the icing.  Melt the butter, add the sugar, add some milk, cool, add some icing sugar and quickly ice the cake.

Miss tash is here.  Whoa, its 5.00 pm.  where did that afternoon go?  Time to organise tea.  I quickly make a cuppa for miss Tash, we try a whoopie pie,  I could eat a lot of these. Really yumm and the smell in my kitchen at the moment is divine.

So anyway, I put the chicken wings, and lasagne in one oven, and I decide to cook the chops,covered, in the oven for an hour as well (then just throw them on the griddle to finish them off) so they go into the other oven.  I'll put the wedges on a bit later.

I set the table, clear the bench, I'm going to let everyone serve themselves which makes life a lot easier, so I just throw plates, tongs and serving spoons on the bench along with some boards to put the hot dishes on.
Put the wedges on, put the chops on the griddle and make the salad.  I cut some avacado.  It's half black inside. Total waste of money.  Then we wait for the rest to arrive,

I so love these easy meals.  We eat, we eat lots of cake, we drink coffee, the kids play and yell and scream and then everyone goes home.

Clean up.  The man does the dishes.  Cool. Thankyou.  Phew.  I'm done.  My ankles are aching, I need to put some type of mat on my tiled floor to make it easier to stand all day.  The man brings coffee. Thanks again.  Its now 11. 14 pm., an early night for me.  I have the kids again tomorrow so I'm going to relax for half an hour and go to bed.

nite all.