Excuses, excuses

It’s happened again. As soon as I decide to start cooking healthy my posts dry up. I think I have figured out the problem. It has nothing to do with my inability to eat healthy for any prolonged period of time. Oh no… you see I only like to take pictures in natural sunlight and since I can only get home from work when it’s dark then I have to make my foods for the post on the weekend and to be honest after eating healthy all week there is just no place for a salad or egg whites omelette on the weekend. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. We have been very social for the last couple of weekend and so I haven’t been cooking at home much. These are all valid excuses but I am not going to give up on the health kick.

I am not sure what has been happening with my sister’s health kick as everything has gone very quiet on that front from all of us except for my Dad, who has been doing absolutely fantastic and is dropping pounds by the week. He is working very hard at eating the right food and so is completely justified in all the gloating he is now enjoying. I am determined to catch up. I don’t plan to loose as much weight as Dad but I aiming for a good second place. Now that’s fighting talk.

In the meantime I have a little finger food recipe that I learned from my lovely friend S who is still in the UK (come back S we miss you). These little salmon rolls as so easy to make and every time I have served them at parties while waiting for the food to cook they are whipped up.

Smoked Salmon Rolls

200g smoked salmon
Sliced Brown bread with the crusts cut off
Philadelphia Cream Cheese
Chopped chives

1.Spread the Philadelphia Cream cheese on the bread and then put the smoked salmon on top and sprinkle with some chopped chives
2.Roll up the bread (lengthwise or width wise will both work)
3.Wrap the roll tightly in cling film and then refrigerate for a few hours (or if you don’t have a few hours to spare pop in the freezer for a little while)
4.When you are ready to ser unwrap the rolls and cut into slices.

mini treat

Don’t you just love when you have some business that takes you to the part of town where your very favourite cake shop is? I am lucky this shop is not closer to where I work or I would be there every day. These little cups cakes are just divine. The Cake itself is so light and fluffy and the icing is creamy and light but not too sweet for my taste. Cupcakes on Pitt make all sorts of flavours and now that they serve them in mini sizes it means you get to try out more of the options available. I went for a six pack with the intention of sharing them with the girls I work with and as I was travelling back to the office I spent the whole journey debating which one (or two) I would keep for myself. They are all so good.

And so now to explain that I have been on holidays so the food making has been on hold recently. We have been off skiing in Whistler and having the most wonderful week of fresh air and fun on the slopes. Before I headed to Whistler I made a surprise visit back to Dublin and while I was there spending some quality time with my family we all decided we needed to trim down a little. Since we are all pretty competitive in my family we thought the most fun way to achieve this weight lose was to set some goals and but some money where are moth is. Yes, we have a wager going and I can assure you all that I will be coming out of this smiling. The End date is August 1st and between now and then you will see some different types of recipes on this here blog. We are taking healthy tasty low cal all the way baby. Bring it on. Now I must hide all those cake cookbooks for the next few months and rely on fresh quality ingredients to tempt you all.

Surprise Visit

Much as I love living in Australia there are times when I feel very far away from my family. I hate feeling homesick but it is very difficult to just hop on a plane when you live on the other side of the world. I missed out on a great girlie get together for my sisters 40th in January. It was so lovely to hear all the fun my Mum and sisters were having but it nearly killed me not being able to join them.

Then plans started to be made for my Mums surprise 70th Birthday get-together and that was it for me. I had to make it home. I had to be a part of this. I was supposed to be going to Canada around the time of Mum's birthday so I changed my plans and booked myself a round-the-world ticket and factored in a few days stop over in Dublin. My sister S, who lives in Limerick, very kindly made all sorts of arrangements to make sure she could also join in the surprise by coming to Dublin.

It was so much fun because my Mum had no idea I was coming. Usually when there is a plan to meet up in Dublin or Sydney we spend weeks counting down the days until we are going to see each other. Now there would be no count down, just me appearing at a lunch Mum thought she was having with my sister E, who lives near by. The look on Mum's face was absolutly priceless.

We had so much fun over the five days I was home. My sister did a great job of secretly cancelling all the arrangements Mum had but there was one golf day that could be cancelled as Mum is now the lady Captain of the club. While Mum was off golfing I spent the day with my sister and three of her beautiful daughters. We had a morning of baking. I would love to say I showed them my favoutire recipe for making cupcakes but the truth is we went to the shop and bought one of those packet mixes. We still had lots of fun and the girls loved the whole process of making cakes that they could then eat as fast as their little hands could get them into their mouths.

I have always loved cooking and I think it all stems from helping my Mum in the kitchen. If I could even sew the tiniest seed of that cooking bug into these girls then I will be happy.

Brioche

I'm a busy person. There is nothing I love more than a weekend jam packed full of activity. But every now and then I like to slow down. I like to leave days free to see what happens. Let destiny have a look in. I had one of those free days. It was a lovely lazy Sunday with not a care in the world and not a job to do. I was just pottering around the house and enjoying doing not very much.

Of course that didn't last very long and before I knew it I was scouring my favorite blogs looking for a recipe for Brioche. Why? Just cos that's what having too much time on your hands leads to. Bea at La Tartine Gourmande had a great recipe that was simple but did take a lot of time. Perfect for my situation. I had nothing but time on my hands. Well I did before I started making the bread ...
You see, there is a lot of time spent letting the dough rise ....









... and then letting it rise again. With all of that time on my hands I found myself thinking of other things I wanted to do. I took the dog for a walk which actually turned into a long coffee break at the cafe in the doggie park followed by a leisurely stroll along the water front. All of these lovely activities made me forget about making my bread. When I got home from my walk I realized we had to be at a friends house for dinner in 30 minutes and so I wouldn't be able to make the bread.

I've never made brioche before so I thought maybe I could mix up the dough again and maybe it would rise. Well here's some information I learned the hard way. Two rises is all you're getting out of this dough. All the willing in the world would not make the dough rise again. But I was not going to let this bread get the better of me. So the following day I made it again and on this attempt I made sure I left enough of that precious little thing called time.

Food Growers Market

Saturday morning was a blisteringly hot morning. One of those mornings that doesn’t even have the manners to heat up. It just starts hot and only gets hotter as the sun rises. It was, of course, the first Saturday of the month and so the food growers market was on. My neighbours were coming over for a BBQ on the weekend so I wanted to go to the market to pick up all sorts of goodies to cook up for them.

I met my friend H and her very beautiful daughter and we pottered around the market. I arrived a little early with my dog Teddy and we mingled amongst the crowd getting some idea as to what to cook at the weekend. I have a habit of getting a bit excited about all the lovely food on offer and just buying everything in sight. This time I took my time and planned out my menu for the weekend. Of course this didn’t stop me from indulging in a few extra little treats too like those beautiful plump giant figs that I just had to have.

When H arrived we followed tradition and headed straight for the bacon and egg roll stand. It was way too hot to have coffee so we opted for some freshly squeezed orange juice. This is one of those breakfasts that is so simple and yet so perfect. There is no point in trying to fancy this up. It’s just delicious exactly the way it is. When we finished eating and could take the heat of the sun blazing down no more we started pottering around the stalls tasting all the goodies on offer. I picked up some exceptional lamb back strap and gourmet lamb patties for the BBQ. I also treated us to some organic strawberries for dessert. I have to admit I’m not a big purchaser of organic food but there are three foods that taste considerably better when grown organically. They are Tomatoes, Strawberries and Chickens. Once you taste the organic version you will never be happy with anything less.

I have a great little recipe for the strawberries. This one cam from my Mum when I told here I was going to serve strawberries. I was going to serve a very simple strawberries and cream dessert but Mum told me about this little recipe she had made herself. You heat up some butter. Add some caster sugar and allow it to dissolve. Add in a vanilla pod and then cut up your strawberries and cook them in the butter mixture for 4 to 5 minutes. Serve with some crème fraiche, cream, mascarpone or yogurt. I drizzled the juice from the cooked strawberries over the lot and it was luscious.



God it was so hot. We could only take it for a short while at the market. When H’s little daughter stripped down to her nappy to try and cool off we were both a little jealous. Although when we saw her trying to take her nappy off we both agreed it might be time to head home and cool off in the air conditioning. I know my family back in Ireland will have no sympathy for us sweltering over here as they rug up against the snow. The heaviest snow they have had in a long time. It’s so hard to imagine what snow would be like when you are walking around in 40 degree heat.

When we got home we heard on the news about the bush fires in Victoria. This is such a dreadful time for those poor souls. Out hearts, prayers and donations go out to all of them. I cannot even imagine what it must be like live through the hell they are experiencing. It is tough times and hopefully all of us can make things a little bit easier for some of them.

Mille Grazia

Most people who know me now would not believe that when I was very young I was very quiet.My mum said I would sit for hours and just observe everything that was going on around me. Today while I am still very observent of what is going on around me, I am more than making up for being quiet in those early years. I'm a talker and there's no denying that. I am lucky to sit beside some great people in work but sometimes I do feel for them having me chatting away beside them all the time.

In order to keep myself in the good books with these poor souls I like to bring in some of my cooked goodies. For a while now I've been the only one bringing in cakes, buns and treats. But the other day as I was making my morning cuppa in the kitchen I was treated to one of my friends cakes. She's got a new man and she's been keen to impress him with her culinary delights. Since I've been treating her she decided to repay me with one of the desserts she has been wooing her man with.

She got the recipe for this mille feuille from here. It tasted wonderful and I just love a recipe that tastes this good and only takes a few minutes to prepare so I had a go at making it myself. I cut each serving into three to make each piece a little bit more managable to eat.

A Fair Dinkum Aussie

I love that Aussies just love being Aussie so much. I love that they feel so patriotic every 26th January when Australia Day comes around. So what if not all Aussies know that Australia Day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. That's not the important thing. The important thing is that they are proud to be Australian and they just love this amazing country they call home. Now much as I will always be Irish the fact that I have now been an Australia citizen for the last 8 years means I know feel the love for this great country every year too.

There are a number of important requirements to make it a proper Australia Day. You must be outdoors as much as possible so thank God for the good weather here, there must be meat ... oh go on then, shrimp on the BBQ (or barbie), there must be an Australian flag and most importantly there must be lots of fun.

We are now at the age where lots of our friends are having kids so recently the all day picnic has been a great day out for everyone. People can come and go when it suites them or their babies. The kids can play without parents being worried about them destroying someone else's house. Dogs can join in the fun for those who haven't ventured into the kids realm yet. We have had a couple of these days out recently and we are learning from each one how to make them better. The main issue we have now is that we all bring enough food to feed everyone which means we end up with enough food to feed an army. In the future we are going to coordinate who brings what so there is not as much food left over.

For this Australia Day we headed to a local Park that looks out onto Sydney Harbor. We brought our little portable BBQ and of course the necessary steaks and prawns. I knew it would be a while before the guys got the BBQ up and running so I decided to make up some little finger food to keep us all happy until the main course. Everyone knows that one of the most popular food in Australia is the meat pie and so that exactly what I made for such and auspicious day.

I had a recipe for these gorgeous little beef and Guinness pies that I really wanted to make. Unlike most pictures of food which entices me by appealing to my appetite these little pies were just so cute. And how could you go wrong. Everyone knows if you wrap anything in pastry it tastes great. These pies were very popular with the guys but I also noticed some of the girls going back for seconds and thirds.

I used Fillet of beef because I wanted the best little morsels of meat in each pie. I also had some left over Guinness and so found I had a very will kitchen helper in J who was more than happy to help me polish it off. That boy just loves his Guinness maybe that's why he got himself and Irish/Aussie wife. Guinness in a meat pie - heaven for him.

Mini Beef and Guinness Pies

MAKES 36

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
500g beef skirt steak, chopped finely
1 medium brown onion (150g), chopped finely
2 tablespoons plain flour
375ml bottle guinness stout
1 cup (250ml) beef stock
5 sheets ready rolled shortcrust pastry
1 egg, beaten lightly

1 Heat oil in large saucepan, add beef; cook, stirring, until browned. Add onion; cook, stirring, until softened. Add flour; cook, stirring, until mixture bubbles and is well browned.
2 Gradually add stout and stock, stirring until gravy boils and thickens. Cover, reduce heat; simmer, stirring occasionally, 1 hour. Uncover; simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes. Cool filling 10 minutes then refrigerate until cold.
3 Preheat oven to hot (220°C/200°C fan-forced). Lightly grease three 12-hole mini (1 tablespoon/20ml) muffin pans.
4 Using 6cm pastry cutter, cut 36 rounds from pastry sheets; place 1 round in each of the muffin /pan holes. Using 5cm pastry cutter; cut 36 rounds from remaining pastry sheets.
5 Spoon 1 heaped teaspoon of the cold filling into each pastry case; brush around edges with beaten egg. Top each pie with smaller pastry round, press gently around edge to seal; brush with remaining egg. Using sharp knife, make two small slits in top of each pie.
6 Bake pies about 15 minutes or until browned lightly. Stand 5 minutes in pan before placing on serving platters.

[tip: Cooked pies can be frozen for up to two months]