Pumpkin Rotolo

It was a bit of a palaver with several stages, including rolling the pasta in muslin and boiling it, but it sure was tasty.

Zucchini

 We are having a bumper harvest.

 Lucky it turns out that they make great chips.

Marinus' Chocolate Crackles

 My parents' neighbour turned 60 on Sunday. They have been neighbours since I was a kid, and he used to drive me to high school. So we have a long standing tradition that I make him chocolate crackles, which he loves, for his birthday. These ones are just a little bit sparkly.

Lasagna

 I've been waiting for my new kitchen to be able to make lasagna - an all time favourite! I finally managed it on Tuesday, and it was so good!

Purple Risotto

My normal risotto primavera recipe made with purple carrots...

Making passata

 Tomatoes fresh from the garden.

 Cut, oiled, seasoned with salt and pepper, with basil, oregano and rosemary.

 Roasted.

 Pureed and ready to go.

Sage butter and roast pumpkin pasta

From Donna Hay's Pasta, Rice & Noodles cookbook. Absolutely delicious!

Kitchen Meme

Bold the ones you have and use at least once a year, underline the ones you have but use less often, italicize the ones you have and don’t use, strike through the ones you have had but got rid of.

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese boards, cheese knives, electric woks, salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, martini glasses, tea strainers, bamboo steamers, pizza stones, coffee grinders, milk frothers, piping bags, banana stands, fluted pastry wheels, tagine dishes, conical strainers, rice cookers, steam cookers (I'm assuming this means steamer pans), crock pots,  pressure cookers, slow cookers, spaetzle makers, cookie presses, gravy strainers, double boilers (bains marie), sukiyaki stoves, ice cream makers, fondue sets, healthy grills, home smokers, tempura sets, waffle makers,  tortilla presses, electric whisks (assuming this is an electric beater), cherry stoners, candy thermometers, food processors, bacon presses, bacon slicers, mouli mills, cake testers, pestle-and-mortars, and sets of kebab skewers languish dustily at the back of the nation’s cupboards.

I stole this from Cozy Spirit, but I don't know where Cozy got it from. I wonder how it will change once Andrew and I get a place...

The Process of a Pudding

 Beating the eggs into the butter/sugar/lemon rind

 Folding in the flour

Lemon juice and sugar in the pudding basin

Tasty, tangy pudding

Marnie's Apple Pie

 When I was young, the best dessert in my life was Marnie's apple pie (Marnie was my paternal grandmother). An apple pie from Marnie disappeared in my house with frightening speed.  I learned everything I know about making apple pie from Marnie, and follow her example faithfully (okay, I use butter instead of lard, but surely that's an improvement?) When I make apple pie for my family, it is eaten and enjoyed, but over all, deemed 'not as good as Marnie's'. Luckily, my inlaws never tasted Marnie's apple pie, so when I made this one on the weekend, not only was it devoured, but it was deemed the best they'd ever had. Maybe I should make apple pie more often...

Sugar Saucers

Another delicious recipe from Baked In America. Chewy, vanilla-y goodness. I need to own that book.

That's a lot of scones

After my last catering job, I got another one. This time, for an engagement party, I was asked to make 50 scones and 25 savoury scrolls. That was three hours cooking, four double batches of scones, plus the bread dough. Then I had to go to work! (Only for the afternoon, thankfully)
It was a great success though, and I've been paid more than I expected, which is nice.

Two Batches of Biscuits

Sometimes, when I'm feeling really nice, I'll make a batch of peanut butter cookies. I have to be feeling nice, because I hate them (as I hate all things peanut) and so I have to make another batch that I'm willing to eat. This week it was ginger (though I have my doubts about the ginger, so they might be unknown spice biscuits)

Lemon Pudding

Steamed pudding may seem like a hassle, but this one is really no harder than a cake. And with an hour and a half to cook, if you wanted, you could get it on, start dinner and have dessert ready by the time you'd finished eating.
The sponge is fairly simple, but that sauce - delicious, tangy lemon. As for what to do with left overs, well, in this house, left over pudding with cream is considered perfectly acceptable breakfast food. It's lucky we don't have it often!

Baked Brussels and Experimental Gnocchi

Tonight's dinner of baked brussel sprouts and pumpkin and gnocchi bake. Naturally, I forgot to take a picture until half way through which is why this plate looks so sadly depleted, but even Dad's disappeared.

A small catering job

 Double choc chip muffins (and raw sweet scrolls, but they're just a by-product!)

 First attempt at blueberry muffins - appearance fail - and savoury scrolls

 Blueberry muffins - Take 2

Two kinds of scrolls

All packed up, along with scones, jam and lightly whipped cream. I made everything else yesterday, but since scones need to be really fresh - preferably warm - I got up early this morning to make those.

It's probably all been eaten by now. I hope it was a success.

Carbonara

Onion. Garlic. Bacon. Cream. Eggs. Parmesan. Pepper. Delicious.

Looks like macarons work at home too

Bitter chocolate and a beautiful tangy lemon.

Made with the help of my dear friend, Michelle, though I got to play expert this time.

She did make carbonara for lunch though!

Velvety Darkness

My big brother is home from London for a while, and decided that he wanted me to make chocolate mousse. I put him off for a day, but since I'm almost always up for some cooking I relented. It's been years since I made chocolate mousse, but I really don't know why - it's so easy! Being made from my usual favourite 72% this is a very dark mousse. With no added sugar, it's not quite what I expected from a mousse, but has a certain dark, bitter charm. I will definitely be making this again, both with this chocolate and with a lighter variety.

Mastering Macarons

For my birthday, I requested money to take a class at William Angliss Institute in Melbourne, and my parents, parents-in-law and brother and sister-in-law kindly complied. I didn't know at the time what class I wanted to take, only that I'd been drooling over their short courses for years, but when I saw the Simply Macaron class on offer, I knew that was the one for me.
Yesterday, I finally got to attend. The day was stinking hot, but the kitchen was air conditioned. The teacher was amazing, my fellow students lovely, and somehow, macaron making became easy.
My partner (whose name I can't remember how to spell) and I made Turkish Delight macarons. We used the Italian method (as opposed to the French which is what I have attempted previously), and the rosewater butter cream was from a French recipe (which involves sugar syrup and egg yolks). I couldn't be happier with how they turned out, and they taste even better today.
Plus, we got to bring home some of everyone's!

 The brown ones in the bottom right are choc-chilli. The mass of pink ones are the Turkish delight ones I made. Green is pistachio, red streak is raspberry cheesecake. The four in the top left are strawberry gum, as in gum tree, and are our teacher's signature flavour. The remaining pinkish ones are peach iced tea, some with dark chocolate and some with white.

 Turkish delight

Top tip: Don't use eggs that are too fresh! For best results, freeze your egg whites, then defrost 24 hours before. Preferably strain them too. All this helps make them more liquid and less gooey.