mosaic road

Easter Eating

Easter celebrations differ from family to family and community to community but ours here is about eating. We all show total disregard for any diets we may have been following and rejoice in our Easter eating. We start early on Good Friday with hot cross buns, warm and buttered with butter, yes the real deal.

Ratatouille on polenta is a warming meal as our autumnal chill sets in and is so easy to prepare that is it perfection as a holiday meal.

And Easter eggs abound - not huge ones but lots of the little versions - they make you feel less guilty.

Caramel Scone Pie

I made this as a trial for Easter but while it was really nice it had too much pastry. If I was to repeat this recipe I would double the caramel filling and halve the batter or dough bit. It was lovely on the day I made it and not too sweet but you would need to warm it if there were leftovers as I think it would be dry  and crumbly after day one. It did look rustic and pretty and was a tasty experiment.

 

Mother Nature Gone Awry

Here we are mid March, early Autum and my cherry tree has blossom on it. It must be terribly confused but for no apparent reason. Our summer has been hot as expected, so far autum has been warm to mild which is normal. What is not normal though is the appearance of the blossom. Should I expect fruit in winter ??

 

 

Happy Birthday Sally

We had a birthday dinner last night with 11 guests . The birthday girl chose the menu. We had dumplings from "Aunties", our favourite Asian takeaway. This was followed by 2 varieties of self saucing pudding made by moi, choclate and banana butterscotch. The night consisted of much chit chat, a dog walk and a bit of tv watching. The Block final was on in one room and MKR in another. Perfect family celebration.

Smash & Grab

 

 

Good reason to miss the gym this morning !! I found my window smashed in and gym bag stolen !!

Cooked Bananas

I know I am odd but I way prefer cooked bananas [ baked or pan fried or microwaved] to the plain old peeled one straight from the fruit bowl. When sprinkled with a little cinnamon and served warm you have a quick and healthy  dessert, add yoghurt and you have breakfast or an anytime of day wholesome snack. I think years of opening my school lunch and seeing a sad banana,  battered and bruised, from being lugged around school put me off them for life. These days you can purchase a nifty container, a banana guard, to stop this exact thing from happening.

Luckily my days of school lunches are well behind me so I will just continue to enjoy my bananas, cooked.

4 Ingredients

I think two clever ladies have written a series of cook books comprising recipes that only use four ingredients . I don't have the books but found this apple slice recipe here when I needed a dessert in a big hurry that was quick and used ingredients I had on hand. I, naturally , unable to control myself added a fifth ingredient !! I added a heap of grated lemon rind to the cake batter. Cake batter is made from a commercial packet cake mix [I know, most unlike me !! ] and melted butter, topping is a can of pie apple and sour cream. I had no pie apple but diced in a chunky fashion four apples. Leaving their skin on gives a pretty pink tinge. This recipe is fast to make and cook but needs time in the refrigerator before serving.

Choc Cherry Toms

 

I hate to disappoint any chocholic readers but there is no real chocolate involved here - just a new variety of cherry tomato I found this week in the supermarket called Choc Cherry. New to me, I mean, as others may have come across this flavorful little baby. They are quite dark inside with a dappled outer - greenish brown streaking the red skin. Taste yummy !!

 

Our Endless Summer

We are in the middle of creating a weather record apparently for March. Everyday it is over 30, hovering around 34 or 35, not skyrocketing to 40 luckily, but it has been the same day after day. I think the record is for 7 days straight and we are almost past that already with no change or rain in sight. So salads are all we want to eat and a mixed pasta salad fits the bill. It is colourful and a bit of a culinary lucky dip for the eaters.

Sidewalk Stall

We were all visiting Grandma today and decided to walk the Cocopop round the block in the sun when we came upon a very sweet little scene.  A group of little girls had a stall selling sweets, brownies and cookies on the footpath in front of their mum's dress shop. There was a big array to choose from - labrador heaven !! We bought a yummy brownie for $1.00 and won a prize - a cup of mixed sweets and chokkies !! I hope they had a successful day of sales !