Sweet Fabric:
cooking

Now known in our house as "Firework Soup", so named by the little guy because of the explosion of corn with each bite.

It's very easy & tasty too. All our kids love it but if you'd like a bit of fire with the corn perhaps add some chilli once you've served the kids.

Chicken & Corn Soup

6 Fresh Corn Cobs cooked & then removed from cob
500gms quality chicken mince or breast cooked & set aside

4 Potatoes peeled & chopped
2 Leeks finely chopped (whites only)
Olive oil
1 litre of chicken stock

First add a generous slug of olive oil to your saucepan. Next add the leek & cook until soft & transparent. Then add the potato & the chicken stock.

Cook until the potatoes are soft.

Blend the pototo & leek base until smooth & then add the cooked chicken & corn and heat.

Add some flat leaf parsley & some cracked pepper too.

Enjoy.

This morning I was on the hunt for a nice chicken & corn soup. My kids are having a love affair with corn at the moment & the love of a veg is something I'm always keen to encourage.

I found this recipe in The Thrifty Kitchen (such a lovely cookbook) & once I read the little pre-amble there was really no other choice was there?

I'll let you know if it lives up.

I made a lemon birthday cake for The Date...for desert at the family(his) lunch.

I'd scoured Delicious and found just the recipe. A nice list of ingredients that made me sure the resulting cake would live up to the "delicious" promise.

I made sure I had the best ingredients, nice olive oil, home grown lemons, quality prosecco, beautiful eggs. I set to work and made the cake. It did all the right things in my new oven (which I'm not great mates with yet) & looked gorgeous when I removed it from the tin.

I tasted the tiny bit that stuck to the side of the tin & my heart sank. It tasted very eggy.

What was I worried about? I'm normally pretty good with this sort of thing. I thought that there'd be plenty said about the egg cake rather than the lemon cake. Then all sorts of crazy food poisoning scenarios were running through my head.

I knew I wasn't going to be serving my cake. We went to Browns on the morning of & picked up a white chocolate & raspberry cheesecake (stunning) & a flourless orange cake (meh).

The cake was duly sampled when we returned home on Monday evening & it was, just as the magazine promised ... absolutely delicious.

There's a lesson here ... if you think it's good - it IS good & who cares what other people think.

It really is all about the kitchen this week isn't it? Maybe it's something about the looming auction but I'm feeling the need to feed this week.

This cake is fabulous! One bowl & one spoon - there really couldn't be anything better than that.

Delicously moist & a favourite with the kids.

lemon cake...
1 & 1/2 cups of SR flour
1 cup of caster sugar
1/2 cup of dessicated coconut
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs
125gms unsalted butter
1 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 170 C (fan forced).

Prepare your cake tin. I like to use a ring tin for this cake ... but that's just me.

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.

Melt butter in saucepan.

Add melted butter, milk & eggs & mix with a wooden spoon.

Spoon into prepared tin & cook for around 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

PS...yesterday I discovered the joys of toasting the banana bread. It's taken it to a whole new level.

Absolute favourites in our house.

I made these last night. The delicious buttery vanilla smell filled the house.

I let them cool & then put them straight in the freezer for lunches so I wouldn't wipe the lot.

Seriously, these are just the yummiest cookies ever.

white chocolate cookies...
180 grams softened butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1 packet nestle white chocolate drops

Preheat oven to 160 fan forced.
In a large bowl, cream butter & sugars until light & fluffy.
Beat in egg & vanilla.
In a separate bowl sift together flour & baking powder.
Blend into creamed mixture.
Stir in white chocolate drops.

Drop tablespoons onto baking sheet about 5cm apart.

Bake about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool for 1 minute on tray & then transfer to wire rack to cool.

Recipe originally posted on kootoyoo a blog lifetime ago.

Almost good for you.

Banana Bread

1 cup Self Raising Flour
100g Almond Meal
2/3 cup Caster Sugar
3 eggs lightly beaten
4 ripe bananas peeled & mashed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cap of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line a 4 cup loaf tin with baking paper.

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl.

In another bowl beat the eggs, banana, olive oil & vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry & mix with a spoon.

Pour into prepared tin & bake for about an hour (just until the top is golden & your skewer comes out clean).

I've made this 3 days in a row. The kids LOVE it & I'm freezing left overs for school lunches next week.

PS: I came in here with my coffee ready to check more creative spaces but the blasted link seems to be on the blink. Sorry & check back later eh? Thanks

This morning while I was shopping for fruit & veg a lovely lady offered some advice.

"Do you know that if you leave the stone from the avocado in the centre of your salad it stops the avocado browning?"

No I did not know! I knew about the lemon thing but had never heard this before. Did you?

I'm taking a green salad to a mates for lunch today. Normally I would cut & toss the avocado through just before serving but today I'm testing out this little gem of a home hint.

I'll edit the post later with the findings.

Edited to add:
I made my green salad at 11am & the stone remained in the centre of the salad until we ate lunch around 2:30pm. The avocado had not browned at all! I don't know how or why this worked but it did!

This post originally titled "Christmas bites".

I gave myself a laugh & then thought better of offending the nearest & dearest.

I fashioned these the other day in order to please the wheat free, gluten free, no tomatoes, no capsicum, no this, no that, no the other eaters in the family. They were very well received by all but the vegetarian (but she's used to fending for herself).

It's a scorching day in and around Melbourne today so I thought some of you might appreciate these little tastes of Australian Christmas.

I just chopped up the cucumber & scooped the seeds out then topped with turkey, cranberry & brie. Delish!

The beach has totally zoned me out. As a classic speedster, always multi tasking it's a complete break & absolutely lovely.

I did just want to pop in & say...

I'm wishing you all a safe & happy holiday. May the pretty drinks be plentiful & the company delightful.

Our kids are masterchefing it with the best of them. They love it!

The Date & I prefer UK but are both enjoying the enthusiasm from the kids. We all watch together each night. The whole experience is much more pleasurable if watched in conjunction with this.

The small boy has been very patiently waiting for chocolate souffle. I'd promised for last night so had to deliver.

I used this recipe from the cook & the chef.

It didn't rise above the ramekins but I think that's because I followed the instructions & only 1/2 filled. Next time I'd do 2/3 full for this recipe.

Needless to say they were a huge hit.

For about 15 minutes making this super speedy, super cheaty kind of dinner for some friends tonight. After school soccer & gym means I need to be prepared. As far as I'm concerned Friday night should be all about the drinks anyway. But it is very tasty.

Then spending the rest of the day on the sewing machine. The buttonholes are being quite good to me so I haven't resorted to buying the foot....yet.

Baked Sweet Potato - Friday night meal
1 garlic
1 onion
250g mince beef
300g red kidney beans
1 tbs tomato paste
1.5 cups salsa

Fry onion & garlic in olive oil until translucent.
Add mince to pan & brown.
Stir in remaining ingredients & simmer.

To cook sweet potato. Peel & rub with olive oil. Cook on a rack in a 200C oven for about an hour.

To serve: Slice sweet pototo in half & spoon mince on top. Serve with sour cream, avocado & cheese.

Happy Friday.

In anticipation of the hot week ahead I've done all the "back to school baking" today.

I made:

Raspberry & White Chocolate Muffins
Mixed Berry & Pistachio Muffins
& Ham & Cheese Pikelets

Now all frozen & ready for next week.

A few years ago I was given this base muffin mixture by a mum at school who is a breakfast chef. They're good & it makes heaps!

Muffin Mixture

5 cups Self Raising flour
1.5 cups of brown sugar
Mix together in a big bowl.

5 eggs
1 cup yoghurt
1 cup milk
1 cup oil (I use sunflower)
Whisk together in a small bowl.

Add wet ingredients to dry & mix. Stir through 2-3 cups of fruit/nuts/chocolate/vegies.

EDIT: Whilst you can eat the mixture raw (& it probably won't kill you) it's best to cook at 180C for 12-15 minutes for the mini muffins & about 20 minutes for the cupcake sized ones. Also, I have those silicone muffin cases & I think I would have baked 1000 muffins at least in them.

I make these in bulk & freeze them. Then they get added straight from the freezer to the lunchboxes each day. They thaw by recess.