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.