Another Saturday in the life of Shazz has come and gone, yet again.  A reasonably quiet day, a voting day and a cooking day.

No babysitting today, I didn't have to be up early and yet 7.00 am comes and sleep is gone so up I get. I sneak around making coffee so that I don't wake my kids up.  I love a nice peaceful first coffee of the day.
8.00 am arrives and so do the kids. That signals my departure for the kitchen. Let's get the cooking started.

I had seen a recipe earlier in the week for mint fudge made with mint, not peppermint, mint extract. Never heard of it, never seen it. But aside from that the recipe was easy.  Of course I'm going to change it a bit.
So peppermint choc swirl fudge it is. Easy as pie, melted white chocolate, condensed milk, PEPPERMINT essence, green food colouring and dark choc chips. Into a tin and into the fridge. I licked the spoon...as you do.. yum. Set it for a couple of hours and try not to eat it.

After making the tim tam balls last week with the dark chocolate and red velvet, I decided to make some with the tim tam original.  The kids ate the last lot so fast but then they were pretty good.

Apparently I have the taste for peppermint this week because I figured if I could use tim tams, I could use mint slice biscuits and make balls out of them the same way. But of course I don't have the biscuits, so I need to shop, and because it's our State Election day, I'll vote on the way. Our lucky day, no queues at the polling booth or the supermarket so home pretty quick. So I blitz up the biscuits and stir in the condensed milk, roll the balls and to be a bit different let's  put green coconut on them.

So that was the morning gone. I have a cuppa, the man's out mowing the lawn, the kids are helping and my brain's ticking over thinking about dessert. We are barbecuing again for tea so not much thought needed there. I was just going to make a coca cola cake and then had a change of mind, sort of. Chocolate caramel cheesecake cake. I made the coca cola cake. That involves bringing to boil, butter, oil, cocoa and coca cola and adding that mix to flour and sugar then adding in milk, eggs, vanilla and bicarb soda. That gets poured into a swiss roll tin and cooked for about 25 minutes.( the actual recipe is on a page  here a fair way back)

While that was cooking, I made an onion dip .  So easy. 1 packet maggi onion soup mix(powder) and 300 mls sour cream. Mix together and refrigerate till needed.

Once the cake was cooling I figured I better clean up before everyone arrives. Got that out of the way, and took what I thought was a well earned rest.
Number five son, miss Tash and the chunky one arrive, where did that time go. Miss Tash bought the cream cheese I forgot to buy, with her, so back to the kitchen to make the caramel cheesecake to grace the middle of my cake.  I microwaved the 2 tubs of cheese for 40 seconds to soften it up then I beat the cheese and then beat in caramel top and fill.  That needs to go into the fridge for about an hour.
Lizzy Lou and the kids arrive and while we wait for hubby to finish what he's doing and cook tea, I bring out the dip.

That gets demolished in about 5 minutes so I send the man out to cook the barbie while I make the salad.
We eat and I head back to the kitchen to finish off the cake. I quickly make some chocolate icing, cut the cake in half, place a piece on a plate, cover it with the caramel cheesecake, put the other piece on top, ice it and cover it with strawberries. I whip some cream and dessert is served.

We couldn't fit in the rest, so I have lots of chocolate balls and some fudge to munch on for the next week.

Last week I made some really easy vanilla slice with passionfruit icing and vanilla strawberry two tone slice.
I had actually made it for last Saturday nights tea but didn't get a pic I was happy with (new camera) so I added it this week. They are made with sao biscuits, instant pudding mix and thickened cream. The two tone one is my own design lol.

So thats that. Tomorrow's another day.....

CHOCOLATE CARAMEL CHEESECAKE CAKE

CAKE
-----

113 grams butter
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup coca cola
3 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon bicarb soda

preheat oven to 180c.  line a swiss roll tray with baking paper.

place sugar, salt and flour in a large mixing bowl. put aside.

in a small pot, over a medium heat, bring the butter, oil, cocoa and coca cola to the boil, stirring.

using an electric mixer, add hot mixture into flour and sugar and beat well.

add milk, eggs, vanilla and bicarb soda and beat well.

pour into tray.

cook 20 -25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

cool completely.

about an hour before serving make the cheesecake filling.


CARAMEL CHEESECAKE
-------------------

500 grams cream cheese, softened
1 can nestles caramel top and fill

with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.

add the caramel and beat till well combined.

refrigerate for an hour.

ICING
------

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
1 tablespoon butter
approx 3 tablespoons milk

beat all together, adding milk a bit at a time until spreading consistency.

PUT TOGETHER
-------------

cut cake in half width ways.

place 1 piece on a plate.

cover with caramel cheesecake.

place other piece of cake on top of cheesecake.

spread with icing.

decorate.

CHOCOLATE MINT BALLS

400 grams (2 pkts) mint slice biscuits
3/4 can condensed milk
1 cup dessicated coconut
20 drops green food colouring

mix the green food colouring into the coconut, 5 drops at a time, stirring till mixed through. put aside.

finely crush or blitz biscuits.

stir the condensed milk into the crushed biscuits until well combined.

roll teaspoonfuls of mix into balls and roll in the green coconut.

place in small paper patty pans if desired.

leave to set.

place left over coconut into airtight container to use next time......  there WILL be a next time.

PEPPERMINT CHOC SWIRL FUDGE

247 grams white chocolate
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 can condensed milk
2 teaspoons peppermint essence
3 drops green food colouring
1/4 cup mini dark choc chips

extra 1/4 cup mini dark choc chips

grease and line a 8 x 8 square cake tin with baking paper.

in a heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water, melt white chocolate and butter, stirring till smooth.  remove from heat.

quickly stir in condensed milk, stir till well combined.

stir in peppermint essence, then food colouring.

stir in  1/4 cup of choc chips until just swirling. They dont have to all be melted.

spoon evenly into tin .  smooth top.

Cover the top with the extra choc chips, pressing in lightly.

refrigerate for at least 2 hours till set.

in hot weather, keep refrigerated, otherwise an airtight container.

VANILLA STRAWBERRY (TWO TONE) SLICE...
no bake.


2 packets sao biscuits

1 packet (100 grams)  whitewings vanilla instant pudding

1 packet (100 grams) whitewings strawberry instant pudding

2 x 600 mls thickened cream
        -------------------------------

line bottom of a large plastic or metal container with biscuits, cutting to fit if necessary.

quickly whisk 600 mls thickened cream into packet of strawberry pudding mix till thickening but not set.

pour over biscuits and smooth top

refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

quickly whisk the other 600 mls thickened cream into vanilla pudding mix till thickening but not set.

pour over strawberrry pudding, smoothing top.

cover with sao biscuits, again cutting to fit if necessary.

refrigerate while making icing

ICING

4 cups icing sugar
5 teaspoons strawberry essence
3 - 4 drops pink food colouring
1 tablespoon butter
milk to mix (about 1/2 cup

mix all ingredient together to make a smooth, spreadable paste.

spread over biscuits.

refrigerate till needed.

*NOTE*
if you can't get strawberry instant pudding, add strawberry essence to taste and a few drops pink food colouring to a packet of vanilla instant pudding mix.

OH SO EASY VANILLA SLICE...no bake, with passionfruit icing.


1  - 2 packet sao biscuits( depends on size of container)

1 packet whitewings vanilla instant pudding

600 mls thickened cream

           -----------------------

line bottom of container with biscuits (I used one that held 9 biscuits -  3 rows.)

quickly whisk pudding mix and cream together, till thickening but not set.

pour evenly over top of biscuits.

cover pudding with more biscuits.

spread with icing.

refrigerate.

icing
------

2 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1 can passionfruit pulp

mix all together, using just enough of the pulp to make a spreadable consistency.

spread over top of biscuits.

Well another week of my life over. Been a busy one yet again,  babysitting, swimming lessons and  going out for coffee with number two son and other family members..he likes Gloria Jeans coffee, so we have to suffer through it. Apparently can't get it in Seattle where he lives.

Anyway had tea at number ones place on Thursday night.  He made Thai  fish curry and I made dessert. Because number two hasn't had crack roll I made them, and because he likes lemon things I made lemon tarts. If you don't know what crack rolls are (the recipe is back aways on a page), they are slices of bread with the crusts removed, flattened with a rolling pin, spread with cream cheese mixed with icing sugar, dipped in melted butter, rolled in cinnamon sugar and cooked in the oven.

Number one likes to dunk them in custard. Try stopping at one which ever way you eat them

The tarts are butternut snap biscuits that have been heated and shaped in a pattycake tin, filled with lemon curd and topped with a cream cheese, butter and lemon curd frosting.

Saturday, more babysitting, more cooking, more noise, more people, more mess and that's before lunch.
I had seen a recipe on facebook for tim tam balls.  Of course I changed it a bit so it worked for me and the ingredients I had.  Tim tam balls... dark chocolate and red velvet.  Some of the easiest things I have made in ages.  Blitz the tim tams, mix in some condensed milk, roll into balls, roll in coconut and " voila"

Really scrumptious.  I could have eaten the lot, but I was good and saved some for the rest of the family.

I had also seen as recipe on facebook for a nutella cheesecake.  It was made with graham crackers which we don't have here  and  the recipe said 13 ozs nutella which is 368 grams and 450 grams of cream cheese and 1/2 cup icing sugar and crushed hazelnuts.
I used a packet of chocolate ripple biscuits,  a 400 gram jar of nutella, 500 grams of cream cheese and 2/3 cup icing sugar. Why waste the little bit of each that was going to be left.  This is really easy to make too.  Blitz the biscuits, mix in some crushed hazelnuts and melted butter, line a springform tin with the biscuits, mix the cream cheese and icing sugar together, add the nutella, done. So that's in the fridge to set. I'll decorate that later.

The rest of my day was spent running after kids and cleaning up as usual. Number five and miss Tash arrived with the chunky one, so we had coffee while the kids played outside. Miss Tash went shopping, the chunky one got tired and grumpy so when miss Tash arrived back they went home for a while so chunky could have a sleep.
I prepared potatoes and carrots ready for tea. The kitchen at this stage is still tidy,  Won't last.
We are having chicken parmagiana, mashed potatoes and honey carrots for main.
Once everyone arrived I cooked the chicken schnitzel,covered it with  dolmio's " extra garlic" sauce and grated tasty cheese and popped it under the griller. I reckon this sauce is as good a topping as any you could make and obviously much quicker lol.While that's going golden brown, I mashed the spuds, buttered and honeyed the carrots, plated it all and ate.

Time to unveil the cheesecake.  I piped it with whipped cream, plonked on some strawberries and bananas and served it up.  Wow for something so easy it sure is yummy.

The chunky ones still grumpy and won't settle so number five and miss Tash take  her home. Lizzy Lou and I continue eating. You have to have something with your coffee.
Lizzy leaves with the kids and the nights done, except for the cleaning up. I get that done.  Rest for a while. And here I am. It's now 1.28 am and I'm going to bed.

NUTELLA CHEESECAKE....no bake


250 grams chocolate ripple biscuits, crushed

120 grams butter, melted

500 grams cream cheese, softened

1  x  400 gram jar nutella

3 tablespoons hazelnuts, finely crushed (or hazelnut meal)

2/3 cup icing sugar

extra crushed hazelnuts to decorate

         --------------------------------

cover bottom of 22 cm springform tin with baking paper.

mix the crushed biscuits, the 3 tablespoons hazelnuts and melted butter together.

press into bottom and 1/2 way up the side of the springform tin.

refrigerate while making filling.

with an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth.

beat in nutella until well combined.

spoon into biscuit base, smoothing top.

sprinkle with extra crushed hazelnuts.

refrigerate still set.  at least 4 hours or overnight.

decorate.

TIM TAM BALLS.....dark chocolate and red velvet


2 packets  dark chocolate tim tams (11 biscuits each pkt)

1 packet red velvet tim tams ( 9 biscuits each pkt)

1 x 395 gram can condensed milk

dessicated coconut

           ----------------

finely crush the two packets of 11 tim tams.

mix in  3/4 can of the condensed milk.

roll into balls.

roll in coconut.

finely crush the packet of 9 tim tams.

mix in rest of condensed milk.

roll into balls.

roll in coconut.

refrigerate till set.

LUSCIOUS LEMON CURD TARTS

2 packets butternut snap biscuits
226 grams butter, softened
125 grams cream cheese, softened
120 grams lemon curd
4 1/2 cups icing sugar

extra lemon curd

preheat oven to 170 c

you will need the 1/2 round pattycake tins

lay biscuits over holes of tins and place in oven until soft..around 5 minutes

remove from oven and quickly press biscuits into holes so you have a tart shape.

cool.

with an electric mixer, beat butter until creamy.

add cream cheese and lemon curd, beating till smooth.

add in icing sugar in 3 batches beating till well combined.

using the extra lemon curd, place a teaspoon of curd into each biscuit.

pipe or spoon cream cheese mix over top.

refrigerate until needed.

What an exciting day. My number 2 son arrived home from America for a visit. Saturday night just got bigger lol.

I was expecting him to arrive here at about 10.30 am so thought I better make something to eat with a cuppa. I fossicked through the freezer and found a bag of pumpkin, spice and everything nice biscuit mix that I had frozen from the last batch I had made.  That was a quick way to cook.  Roll some dough into balls, roll the balls in cinnamon sugar,  flatten and cook.  (used  picture from before)

 Then I cleaned the house and waited for him to arrive. And waited.  And waited. Find out he's still in customs (now 11.30) and figure I better get cooking so I have something for dessert tonight. I was going to make orange and poppy seed muffins and was getting all the ingredients ready and couldn't find the poppy seeds anywhere.  Destructed the cupboard looking for them, then added them to my shopping list for next time.While I was destructing I came across my jar of horlicks malted milk powder which made me start thinking about how much I liked chocolate malted milkshakes and hence double chocolate malted milkshake muffins came about. I just threw all the ingredients into a bowl and mixed them all together with the electric mixer.  Fingers crossed they taste good.  The recipe made 15 large muffins. Was that enough?  Maybe not.  I want to make more muffins because I also found a packet of glace cherries in the cupboard.  Hmmm. Cherry ripe muffins.  Made with real ingredients, not a cherry ripe bar.
So I started out much the same way as the other muffins, but I added coconut and the cherries and an extra egg for good luck.  Got 20 out of this lot.  Fingers crossed again.

Miss Tash and the chunky one arrived just as I was icing the muffins. She got to be the taste tester.  Thumbs up for both.

Number 2 son finally arrives with Lizzy Lou and the kids (no baby sitting today).  By now it's 2.00 pm. We finally have that cuppa.  (picture is Number 2, Miss Tash, the chunky one and Mia Pia)

And talk and talk and suddenly it's 4.30 and I better think about tea. We are having porcupine meatballs, satay chicken, mashed potato, carrots and beans. The meatballs are easy. Minced beef, french onion soup mix, rice all mixed together and cooked in tomato soup.

The satay is easy too. Chicken breasts, coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce, 2 chicken stock cubes and peanut butter.  (both recipes are further back on my pages).

To finish off I'm going to make golden syrup dumpling so I got all the ingredients prepared before we ate so that I only had to cook them later on.  (old photo because I forgot to take one in all the excitement)

So we ate and chatted and listened to music and sang a bit and the kids danced a bit and number 2 was falling asleep in his chair, so everyone went home.  So that's my day come and gone.  

Last but not least for the men out there.....

nighty nite.

CHERRY RIPE MUFFINS
(using cherries, coconut and cocoa)

2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup oil
3 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
200 grams glace cherries, chopped

preheat oven to 180 c.  line muffin tins with patty pans.
makes 20 large muffins

With an electric mixer, beat all together until well combined.

evenly fill patty pans.

cook for 20 mins or till a skewer comes out clean.

Icing
------

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 dessertspoon butter
4 tablespoons milk
coconut to sprinkle

mix icing sugar, cocoa, butter and milk together till smooth.

pipe or spoon on to muffins.

sprinkle with coconut.

DOUBLE CHOC MALTED MILKSHAKE MUFFINS

2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 heaped tablespoons cocoa
1 heaped dessertspoon malted milk powder
2 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk ( +1 tablespoon)
1/2 cup  dark choc bits

preheat oven to 180 c
line muffin tins with patty pans
(I use large patty pans and get about 15 muffins) small patty pans should get 24

Using an electric mixer, beat everything together except for the choc bits.

Mix well.

If you think  the batter is a bit thick, add the extra milk.

stir in the choc bits

evenly fill patty pans.

cook 20 mins or until skewer comes out clean.

icing
-----

2 cups icing sugar
3  heaped dessertspoons malted milk powder
4 tablespoons milk
maltesers to decorate

mix all together and pipe or spoon onto muffins. Pop a malteser on top.

Hay fever season is well and truly here. Coming to you tonight with itchy eyes, sneezy and wheezy.

What a week, again.  Sick kids..never stops.  The chunky one ended up in hospital for the night, last night, because she was dehydrated. Had to have a tube down her throat and big bandages around her hands so she wouldn't pull the tube out.  Luckily she got out this morning almost her old self.

It was 34 c degrees here today, hot and windy, so the kids couldn't get out side to play.  So it was a bit noisy inside, I  played in the kitchen for a while. There had been a recipe posted on face book for 2 minute chocolate fudge made in the microwave which I had tried earlier in the week.  It looked nothing like the picture and tasted really bad. The recipe said cocoa but I think  my 100% cocoa was too strong. I wanted to try again but this time using Cadbury drinking chocolate. It turned out a lot better, and the kids (big and small) loved it.

original pic. off facebook

For starters, I used the wrong size tin here, but the 100% cocoa made it way too dark and too strong a taste.

with the drinking choc.

I also decided to make an apple slice that I hadn't made for a while. It uses a packet cake mix, coconut, cinnamon,  butter, apple and sour cream.  Pretty yummy.

while I was hunting that recipe down, I also found a recipe for a no bake cheesecake, which I haven't made before and I had all the ingredients on hand, so made that too.   Biscuits, butter, cream cheese, condensed milk, whipped cream and lemon and lime juice.

Because I started cooking early, I got it all done before the house got too hot. We barbecued for tea so easy all round.

During the week I mad some muffins because I needed to use oranges before they went off.  If you haven't already noticed, we're big on citrus flavours here Love the tang.  So orange, coconut and sour cream muffins.

It was also our wedding  anniversary this week.  27 years. Same day as the chunky one was sick so we spent the late afternoon and  early evening waiting at the hospital with the chunky one and Miss Tash.
 But I did get a present off the man. Gorgeous ring (picked it myself)  buckle style, with filigree band and diamonds and a box of chocolates and a really nice card.  Brought a tear to my eye.  I bought him a nice silver cuff bracelet.

and he wrote me a poem

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT TYPE AT NIGHT...
(also known as "the ramblings of a sleep deprived goofball")

Twenty seven years of marriage,
You only get twelve for murder.
When I told that to my wife,
My gawd, you should have heard 'er!

Not sure how she's put up with me,
What is going on in her head?
I got nothing! all that's left to think,
I must be bloody good in bed 

Now that she's stopped laughing,
Her aching sides have eased their pain,
She softly whispers in my ear,
"I am mentally insane!"

If you want to know our secret,
How we've made our marriage last,
With love and lots of give and take
It'll make the years fly past.

We surround ourselves with children,
Ahhh the fun, the tears, the drama,
Then we are blessed with grandkids,
Our sons have learned,"just what is Karma"

So Happy Anniversary darling,
Another chapter in life's tale,
From your chubby, grumpy husband,
And hopefully, your favourite male.!

and of course I had to answer it


because you're bloody good in bed?
I did laugh until I ached.
I only keep you around with me....
because you clean up when I bake. xx

And on that note..I'm taking my itchy eyes off to bed

LEMON LIME NO BAKE CHEESECAKE


1 pkt milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed
125 grams butter, melted
250 mls thickened cream, whipped
250 grams cream cheese, softened
1 can condensed milk
1/6 cup lemon juice
1/6 cup lime juice

(or just a third of a cup of either juice)

line bottom of 22 cm springform tin with baking paper

mix crushed biscuits and butter together.

press biscuits into bottom and half way up the sides of the springform tin.

refrigerate while making filling.

with an electric mixer, beat whipped cream, cream cheese and condensed milk together till smooth.

add lemon and lime juices and beat well.

pour into biscuit crust, smoothing top.

refrigerate until set 3 - 4 hours.

decorate with whipped cream and strawberries.

refrigerate any leftover.

APPLE AND SOUR CREAM SLICE

1 packet (340grams) vanilla butter cake mix
125 grams butter, melted
1 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
800 grams pie apples

340 gram tub sour cream (or can use vanilla yoghurt)
cinnamon to sprinkle

preheat oven to 180c
line bottom of swiss roll (or lamington) tin with baking paper.

in a large bowl, combine cake mix, coconut, cinnamon, vanilla and butter together.

press into bottom of tin.

cook for 12 minutes until just lightly brown.

cool slightly.

mash apples.

spread evenly over cake.

spread sour cream (or yoghurt) over top of apple.

sprinkle with cinnamon.

cook for about 20 minutes or until sour cream is set.

cool in refrigerator.

best kept refrigerated.