So welcome Sunday.


Saturday, same old same old.  Kids, noise, barbecue tea.

Dessert, well I'm still on my ice cream run. Hot weather and ice cream. yum.

I made cookies and cream ice cream,  following the same basic recipe of cream and condensed milk. I added some crushed oreo cream cookies and stuck it in the freezer.  I figure it should freeze enough by tea time.
I also made a coca cola  cake to have with it.  Chocolate cake, ice cream and chocolate topping. Tastes pretty good.

When I was rifling through my fridge I discovered I had 4 x  600 ml bottles of thickened cream that needed to be used. So I figure I should make more ice cream.  I want something different, so I raid my cupboards and come out with a large can of peaches and 2 small cans of passionfruit pulp and a large can of pie apples.
Hmm.
Peach and passionfruit ice cream and apple and cinnamon ice cream.  Sounds good in theory.  Let's put it into practice and see what happens.

So I drain the syrup off the peaches and puree the fruit.  I strain the seeds out of the passionfruit and add the rest of the pulp to the peaches. Beat the cream and the condensed milk, beat in the peach and passionfruit, pour into a container and freeze. This is not going to be ready tonight.

Same with the apple and cinnamon. I beat the cream, condensed milk and some sugar, added 2 cups pureed apple, a couple of tablespoons of cinnamon and poured that into a container and froze. This will not be ready either.

So we had our barbecue tea and I grab the cookies and cream ice cream out of the freezer. Perfectly frozen.
So some had with cake and some had with topping.  Very yummy.

The rest has to wait till tomorrow.

So Sunday.

Kids, noise, mess, what's new. Let's cook.

I had a cup of pureed apple left over so I decided to make some spiced apple cookies.
I used my basic cookie recipe of butter, sugar, condensed milk and self raising flour and added the pureed apple, a couple of spoons of cinnamon and 1/2 cup more flour to compensate for the moisture from the apple. Roll walnut sized balls into cinnamon sugar and cook. Hopefully they will turn out, my recipes are usually hit or miss.  This one hit. They turned out great.

Grandkids leave, we have leftovers for tea and it's time to try the icecream.  Wow. I don't know which one I like better. They are both excellent even if I do say so myself, I think the peach and passionfruit just tipped the scales though..

So I'm a happy girl, because every thing turned out well and the kids are happy because they got ice cream two nights running.

That's me for the week. Happy Australia day for tomorrow.

SPICED APPLE COOKIES


250 grams butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 can condensed milk
3 cups self raising flour
1 cup  canned pie apples, pureed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

preheat oven to 180 c
line baking trays with baking paper.

with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar.

add in condensed milk, beat till well combined.

fold in flour, spices and apple.

roll into walnut size balls.

roll in cinnamon sugar.

place 12 to a tray and flatten each one lightly with a fork dipped in the cinnamon sugar.

cook 10 - 12 minutes till lightly brown and firm to touch.

should make about 6 dozen.

I made 3 doz and froze the rest for another day.

CINNAMON SUGAR

2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon.
mix together.

APPLE AND CINNAMON ICECREAM


2 cups canned pie apples, pureed
2 x 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 cans condensed milk
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon


in a large, deepish bowl,with an electric mixer, beat the cream, condensed milk and sugar together until starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.

beat in apple and cinnamon until well combined.

pour into a 3 litre container and freeze over night or until well set.

PEACH AND PASSIONFRUIT ICE CREAM


1 825 gr can sliced peaches
2 x 170 gm cans passionfruit pulp
2 x 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 cans condensed milk

strain the passionfruit pulp to remove seeds.

drain syrup off peaches. discard syrup. puree fruit.

in a large, deepish bowl, with an electric mixer, beat cream and condensed milk togther until thickening, about 5 minutes.

beat in pureed peaches and passionfuit pulp until well combined.

pour into 3 litre container and freeze overnight or until well set.

my own recipe.

COOKIES AND CREAM ICE CREAM

2 X 600ml bottles thickened cream
2 cans condensed milk
205 gm packet oreo cream biscuits


finely crush or blitz oreos,

in a large, deepish bowl, with an electric mxer, beat the cream and the condensed milk together until starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.

stir in oreos until well combined.

pour into a 3 litre container.

freeze overnight or until well set.

Hello again Saturday. Another week over. Already Christmas is sooo over and done with and the school holidays are almost done too.

Anyways its the man of the house' birthday and he requested a coffee and walnut cake,which at some stage of the day, I'm making. My day is basically same old, same old.  Got the grandkids, the mornings quite cool, they're all inside noisy and messy and I really can't be bothered doing anything. So I'm taking the morning easy, and working the afternoon. Sounded good and actually worked.
After the kids had lunch I wandered into the kitchen to make the coffee and walnut cake.  The man had gone out so I got it made while he wasn't around.

I used a nice basic cake recipe for this.   Flour, sugar, eggs, oil, milk,  some coffee and a bit of water to mix the coffee in. Everything into one bowl and beat with an electric mixer.  Stir in some walnuts and pour into a tin of choice. I used a bundt tin.  Once it was cooked and cooled I iced it with some coffee icing, sprinkled some more walnuts and finished.

The man arrived back in time to have some with a coffee.

We are having chicken enchiladas for tea. Something I've never made before (which will become apparent later)
I started off by bringing a jar of salsa to the boil in a frypan, adding chicken fillets to the pan and simmering, covered, for an hour. This will hopefully ensure the chicken shreds easily and it has a good flavour. (the pic shows it nearly done, with the juices from the chicken making it more watery)

Once the chicken was cooled it did shred easy and had a nice subtle flavour. I added some shredded colby cheese to the chicken and as I was opening my next jar of salsa..omg  salsa...was supposed to be enchilada sauce.  Oh well too late now.  So I blitzed 2 jars of salsa (I used 5 all up) and stirred that through the chicken and cheese.  I then lined up my tortillas on the bench and spooned mix down the centre of each one, and rolled them   I didn't blitz the last 2 jars. I thought the chunks would give the enchiladas a nice texture.
I spread a bit of salsa around the bottom of a large baking pan and placed the tortillas in seam down.  Cover with the rest of the salsa, sprinkle with some cheese and cook till the cheese is melted and golden brown.
When they were cooked, I spooned on some sour cream and sprinkled the top with diced green capsicum and chopped tomato. I made a quick green salad to go with them.

Everyone arrives for tea,  I don't tell them about my mistake, but as soon as number one son took a bite, he new it wasn't enchilada sauce.  But  "Mum they're not the same but they taste really good anyway."  So not quite enchiladas, but the rest of us didn't know because we haven't had enchiladas before.  I thought they were really good and very filling. Next time I'll remember to get the right sauce and see what I'm missing out on. But there again I really liked these, so maybe not.

We let the enchiladas digest for a while before I bought out the birthday cake.  We use any excuse to go the cheesecake shop to get a strawberry fields cake and today was no exception.  We girls love this cake.   Vanilla sponge, a bit of strawberry jam, strawberry cream, strawberries and chocolate. The men apparently like it too, because there was none left.

The man ate some more of his coffee and walnut cake.  It was apparently good, I wouldn't know. Don't like coffee flavoured things. As far as I'm concerned, you drink coffee. That's it.

So the nights done as well, everyone's gone home, the kids are in bed, it's nice and quiet and somehow it's 11.55 pm and almost bed time.
So that's it for me, until next week.

      CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

serves 6 - 8 people

5 x 375 gm jar salsa
2 kilo chicken breast fillets
3 cups colby cheese, grated
1 cup tasty cheese, grated
18 tortillas


in a large pan, bring 1 jar salsa to the boil.  add the chicken breasts and reduce heat.
cover and simmer on a low heat until well cooked (about 60 mins). turn occassionally.

let cool.

preheat oven to 180c.

shred chicken.

blitz 2 jars of salsa.

mix chicken, 2 cups cheese and the blitzed salsa together.

swirl a couple of spoonfuls of last 2 jars of salsa around the bottom of large baking dish.

place tortillas on bench and evenly place about 3 heaped spoonfuls of chicken mix down the centre of each tortilla.

roll tortillas and place seam side down into baking dish.

cover with rest of sauce and sprinkle with rest of cheese.

cook until cheese is melted and golden brown.

if desired, add sour cream, chopped green capsicum and chopped tomato for garnish.

NOTE: I was supposed to use enchilada sauce in this, but made a mistake and bought salsa.
It tasted really good so I'm publishing the recipe anyway. If you don't like the salsa, replace it with enchilada sauce.  Still cook the chicken in the salsa though.

         COFFEE WALNUT CAKE

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water

preheat oven to 180 c.  grease and flour bundt tin. (or grease and line bottom of round or square tin)

dissolve coffee in hot water.

place everything except walnuts into a medium bowl and beat well with an electric mixer.

stir in walnuts.

pour into tin.

cook for 35 - 45 mins (depends on tin) or until a skewer comes out clean.

cool completely.

ICING

2 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 tablespoon hot water
1 tablespoon butter, softened
enough milk to make spreadable.
walnuts, chopped

dissolve coffee in hot water, mix everything together, adding milk a little at a time until you have a spreadable icing.

spread over cake and sprinkle with more walnuts.

Another Saturday bites the dust.  It was supposed to be my parents 60th wedding anniversary lunch but the hostess got diagnosed with chicken pox on Wednesday so that was the end of that.  No chicken pox here thanks because........

I'm going to be a nanny again. Congrats miss Tash and number five.  The chunky one won't know what hit her.

Today started off well with a bit of a sleep in, no grandkids today. I did a bit of shopping, had a leisurely lunch then figured I needed to start cooking for tea tonight It's a miserable day out side so I don't mind heating up the kitchen a bit.

First off, because I have some almost dead bananas, I'm  going to make muffins. But I want something different to just plain old banana muffins, so I'm going to add some caramel top and fill  and see how they turn out. I'm going to stick to a somewhat basic muffin recipe, all mixed in one bowl, not much mess.
So beat together flour, brown sugar, pinch salt, oil, milk,eggs then some mashed banana. Half fill patty pans, spoon in some caramel top and fill, add a bit more mix and cook for 20 mins. Cool completely.

 Miss Tash arrived just in time for a taste test so I dusted them with some icing sugar and topped them with some banana chips and cut one in half to try. Yum nice hidden surprise of gooey caramel. So banana, caramel surprise muffins it is.

I'd been thinking  about what else to have for dessert tonight and I wanted to do something cakey, but because I still had quite a few bananas floating (these ones weren't dead) and some strawberries, I thought I might play around with some ideas while I had a quick coffee.

I decided to cheat and use packet mixes because some chocolate cake recipes are quite dry but the Duncan Hines devils food cake  is a lovely moist cake and turns out the same every time. I'm going to make two because I want to do some layers and quite frankly if you're going to have cake, it might as well be big.

Any way, make the cakes according to the directions on the packet. If you have your own recipe that you like, make it, as long as at the end of the day you have two cakes.  Cool them completely and store till just about ready to serve.

So now it's 4.30 pm and I better move my butt because I have to make some scalloped potatoes and put some seasoned chicken pieces and some barbecue pork rashers on to cook.

So I chop up what feels like a million potatoes, layer them in a dish with bacon, garlic and cheese, pour over some cream, cover them up and bang them into the oven. In about an hour I'll uncover them and sprinkle them with cheese and cook them for another 1/2 hour.

Everything's in and cooking so I set the table and await the arrival of family.  6.15 pm arrives and I uncover the potatoes and they are still a bit hard. Damn,  they won't be ready when everything else is. So out of the oven they come. I tip them into a microwave bowl, cover them and zap them for 5 minutes.  Perfect. Back into the original dish, sprinkle with cheese and back into the oven to brown.

We eat and I hurry back into the kitchen because now I have to put the cakes together. My thoughts were....fresh strawberries, strawberry cream, fresh bananas, banana cream and chocolate ganache. I melted some chocolate with some cream and put that aside.  I then whipped some cream with nestles banana quik and more cream with strawberry essence and pink food colouring. Chop some bananas and strawberries and put it together. I cut both cakes in half, levelled the top of one and layered the cake with banana cream and sliced bananas, more cake, strawberry cream and sliced strawberries, more cake then finished it  with the chocolate ganache and more strawberry and banana slices I wasted one piece of cake because I didn't want any more layers.

Just in case it doesn't turn out I decorated a store bought pav with cream and crushed peppermint crisp. Number five son will be happy. He loves pav and loathes strawberries.

I cut into the cake and it looks good. I have a sneaky taste.  MMM tastes good too.

I'm happy to serve it.. So we eat cake,  its that big we may be eating it for a week. Number five eats half a pav, we have a cuppa and everyone goes home.

So here I sit, it's 12 .16 am and I'm feeling a bit weary. So I think it might be bedtime.   Next Saturday will be here before I know it so until then............

...STRAWBERRY BANANA CHOCOLATE CAKE...
               DESSERT



2 packets duncan hines devils food cake
2 x 300 ml bottles thickened cream
3 tablespoons nestles banana quik
3 teaspoons strawberry essence
3-4 drops pink food colouring
2 tablespoons icing sugar
2 large bananas
large punnet of strawberries

GANACHE
250 grams dark cooking chocolate
125 mls thickened cream

make the cakes according to directions.

(or make 2 of your own recipe)

cool completely.

In a heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water, melt the chocolate and the 125 mls cream, stirring till smooth.

remove from heat and put aside to cool.
stir occasionally

whip 300 mls cream with the 3 tablespoons banana quik.

in  a separate bowl, whip the other 300 mls cream with the strawberry essence, food colouring and icing sugar.

slice the bananas and strawberries.

cut cakes in half and level off the top of one.

place bottom of cake onto a plate.

cover with banana cream and sliced bananas.

place levelled  cake top on top of bananas.

cover with strawberry cream and sliced strawberries.

cover with the top half of the second cake.  (you either eat or throw out the bottom section)

stir the ganache well, then spread over top of cake, letting some drizzle down the sides.

decorate with more bananas and strawberries.

Note:
best  filled  and iced just before service so bananas don't go brown.
refrigerate left overs.

BANANA,  CARAMEL SURPRISE MUFFINS

2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup brown sugar, packed
pinch salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
3 large bananas, mashed
1 can caramel top and fill

preheat oven to 180c.  line  muffin tins with large paper patty pans. makes approx. 18 large muffins.

in a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the flour, sugar, salt, oil, milk and eggs together until well combined.

beat in bananas.

half fill each patty pan with mix.

place a teaspoon of top and fill into centre of mix.

cover caramel with more mix till each patty pan is 3/4 full.

cook for approx. 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

cool completely

dust with icing sugar and top with banana chips.

What a long, hot weekend. It was so hot Saturday and I was so tired that this post has become hellooo Sunday.

I knew we were heading for 41 c on Saturday so I had planned ahead for the man to cook a barbie for dinner.  Yay me,  cool kitchen.  Friday night became my let's make dessert night and because it was 35c or something close to that, I made ice cream, again.  I love this basic recipe of cream and condensed milk.
This time, because I have lots of strawberries and some very ripe bananas, I'm making chunky strawberry and banana. Just have to figure out how I'm going to do it.  If I can make a strawberry cream cake with strawberry essence and pink food colouring, why not ice cream?  Ok, beat the cream and condensed milk, add in 2 tablespoons of strawberry essence, quick taste, another tablespoon of strawberry essence, some pink food colouring and 2 chopped punnets of strawberries, into the freezer and hope for the best. Now for the banana, while I was fossicking through my cupboard, I found some nestles banana quik, sounds good so beat more cream and condensed milk, mash 4 bananas add 3 tablespoons quik beat some more and in to the freezer with this too.  Have to wait till Saturday night to find out whether it works.

So Saturday comes, the air conditioners roaring, it never got below 30c during the night so the house was hot from the get go. I don't have the kids, but number five, miss Tash and the chunky one arrive really early because they have no air conditioning, so we all sit around staying cool for a while and then being the idiots we are, we decide to go shopping. Thank goodness for air conditioned cars and shopping centres. So we filled in a couple of hours, even though I only needed bread, and came home.  After sitting around for a while longer, I decide I need to make a cheese cake, just in case the ice cream doesn't work. But because I start late, I don't know whether it will set, so I'm going to start with the recipe for my lemon lime cheese cake, take out the lime, add in lemon zest and to help it a long, add in some gelatin. So this recipe is cream cheese, condensed milk, whipped cream , grated zest of 2 lemons and 1/3 cup lemon juice. Add in 1 teaspoon gelatin mixed with 2 tablespoons hot water and tip into a biscuit crumb base.  Fingers crossed that it sets.

I sit down with a cuppa and watch a cool change blow in, wind and rain and a 10c drop in temperature. At least the man now won't cook while he's cooking tea.
We eat, have a couple of drinks and I wander into my still cool kitchen to fix dessert.  I decided on banana splits. I reckon banana with strawberry and banana ice cream and flavoured topping sounds good. I get the ice cream out of the freezer, have a taste...Yummo.  Proud to serve it

Unfortunately the cheesecake didn't set in time, which was a good thing because we couldn't have fit it in anyway.

But we did manage to try it tonight. I put some lemon curd over the top of it and served it with cream. Because it had lemon zest, juice and curd, I call it triple lemon cheesecake.  Its just the right amount of tang. Delicious.

So that's my week, come and gone.  Next week it's my parents 60th wedding anniversary and I get to cook for that. So until then......

TRIPLE LEMON CHEESECAKE...no bake.

250 grams cream cheese, softened
250 mls thickened cream, whipped
1 can condensed milk
1 pkt milk arrowroot biscuits, crushed
130 grams butter, melted
zest of 2 large lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons hot water
lemon curd to decorate

grease sides and line bottom of a 22 cm springform tin.


mix crushed biscuits and melted 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 cheese until creamy.

add in condensed milk and lemon zest. beat well.

add in whipped cream. beat well.

add in lemon juice.  beat well.

mix gelatin with hot water till dissolved.

beat gelatin into cheese mix.

pour mixture into biscuit base. smooth top.

refrigerate till set.

spread top of cheese cake with lemon curd just before serving.

SHAZZIE'S HOME MADE ICE CREAM

chunky strawberry and awesome banana



CHUNKY STRAWBERRY

2 x 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 x cans condensed milk
2 punnets strawberries
3 tablespoons strawberry essence
1 teaspoon pink food colouring

you will need a  3 litre freezer container.

roughly chop strawberries.

using an electric mixer and a large bowl, beat cream and condensed milk together until starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.

add essence and colouring and beat a couple more minutes.

stir in strawberries.

pour into container. freeze overnight or until set.

AWESOME BANANA

2 X 600 ml bottles thickened cream
2 x cans condensed milk
3 tablespoons nestles banana quik
4 ripe bananas, mashed


you will need a 3 lt freezer container.

in a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat condensed milk, cream and banana quik until thickening. about 5 minutes.

add mashed banana and beat another couple of minutes.

pour into container and freeze overnight or until set.

serve as a banana split....yumm