My granny's home made coffee ice cream was the favourite dessert of my childhood, and remains my favourite ice cream today.  Cooked in a country kitchen decades before the advent of home ice cream machines, you won't believe just how luscious and creamy the results are, or how simple it is to make.  And you read right, you don't need a machine.

Last year I created a Christmas spice version - very yummy - but it never occurred to me to make a chocolate version until a friend suggested it the other day.  I literally flew out the house in my rush to get the ingredients and give it a try.  The results were (even if I say so myself) pretty spectacular.  But don't take my word for it - give it a try yourself!

{Ingredients} Makes around a litre

• 250ml cream
• 1 can condensed milk
• 3 tablespoons of drinking cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet of Maltesers

{Making the ice cream}  Prep time 20 minutes tops

• Separate eggs and place egg whites in fridge.  There must be no yolk in the whites or they will not stiffen properly.
• Dissolve the cocoa powder in a small amount of boiled water, just enough so that it is all dissolved and there are no lumps.
• Pour cocoa powder and condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and stir until well combined.
• Whip cream in a separate bowl until it forms stiff peaks, don't turn it into butter.
• Fold the cream gently into the condensed milk and cocoa mixture with a whisk.  
• Beat egg whites until they are glossy and forming very stiff peaks.  You should be able to hold the bowl over your head without the egg whites falling out.
• Gently fold the egg whites into the condensed milk and cream mixture.
• Pour into a freezer safe dish or bowl.  I like to use a glass loaf pan, a pie dish is to shallow.
• Drop Maltesers onto the ice cream, let them sink down on their own.
• Refrigerate overnight.

{Top Tips}

• Use a whisk to fold the ingredients together, its the best way to mix the ingredients well without losing the air in the cream and egg whites.
• Clean your beater well between whipping the cream and the egg whites, it needs to be totally clean otherwise the egg whites don't stiffen as well as they should.
• I think Maltesers were the perfect chocolate to add but you could add choc chips or flakes.
• Recipe doubles easily, no matter how much I make it always gets eaten up!

People are always asking me for the original ice cream recipe and I always give it to them.  They are often surprised, thinking I would like to keep it a family secret, but my thinking is that every time it gets passed on it keeps the memory of my Granny Pauline alive.  So make it for your family and friends and raise a spoonful of it in Pauline's memory, enjoy, and please pass it on yourself.

This is my favourite soup at the moment, perfect for chilly days and cool nights.  Packed with vitamin C to fight off winter colds and easy to prepare, this is sure to be your family's favourite too.  

Ingredients:
- 1 block feta
- 3kg fresh tomatoes
- 2 large onions
- a handful of thyme, marjoram & basil 
- bunch of Italian parsley
- olive oil & balsamic vinegar

To make:
1 - Peel & chop onions roughly, chop tomatoes into large chunks & place in large roasting dish
2 - Drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar
3 - Add handful of fresh thyme, marjoram & basil, and season with salt and pepper
4 - Roast in a medium oven (175 C) for a few hours until tomatoes are well cooked and starting to caramelise
5 - Pour tomato mix into a large soup pot and blend with a hand mixer.  I used my All-in-One which was fab as usual.
6 - Season to taste

To serve:
1 - Chop a large bunch of Italian parsley
2 - Crumble a block of feta
3 - Serve feta and parsley in bowls so that people can add to taste.

I always loved tomato soup but the feta and parsley, something I learned from the lovely B (she knows who she is), takes this soup to a new level.

I recently made this soup for a casual dinner with friends and was amazed that all the ingredients, plus a lovely sourdough and a huge bowl of new season strawberries cost less than $30.  Amazing to be able to serve such a delicious meal to six people for $5 a head.  So no excuses, put the ingredients on your shopping list this week, cook and enjoy.  

I have wonderful memories of eating this sweetly spiced, biscuity, wobbly treat as a child on my grandmothers farm.  It takes me back to the High Veld heat, the dappled shade of the wisteria in the courtyard, the plink clinking of the ceramic wood chimes in the breeze of the rain window, and the feel of cool polished slate floors on my bare feet.  Treasured memories of her wonderful home and the magical holidays and spent with her.

A milk tart is much like an Australian vanilla slice, an egg custard pie that should be set firm but still have a wobble in the center.  But for me the vanilla slice can never compete with cinnamon flavoured milk tart.  Milk tart is a very traditional South African dessert and every family has its own favourite version of the recipe.  But none of the recipes I tried have lived up to my memories until I discovered this one by Shades of Cinnamon.  I have to admit that I cheated and bought the pastry cases, but any sweet tart pastry will probably work well.  When I have a little more time I will test out the one at Shades of Cinnamon myself and update this post.

Ingredients for milk tart filling:

• 4½ cups milk
• cinnamon stick
• 3 eggs
• 2½ Tablespoons cornflour
• 2½ Tablespoons flour
• 1 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 large sweet pastry cases

Recipe for milk tart:

• Pour milk into a large pot and add the cinnamon stick.
• Bring milk to the boil slowly, make sure you don't burn the base of the pot and taint the taste.
• Remove from heat and remove cinnamon stick.
• While milk is boiling beat the eggs, then add the flour, cornflour, sugar and salt and mix well.
• Once the milk has boiled pour it into the egg mixture and stir well.
• Pour mixture back into the pot and return to a low heat, stirring continuously until the custard thickens.  You will know its thick enough when you can feel it pulling against your whisk and 
• Add the butter and vanilla and mix well.
• Pour into the pastry cases and chill in the fridge until set.  It should be firm but wobble slightly in the center.
• Sprinkle with cinnamon before serving.  Milk tart is best served chilled straight from the fridge.

This recipe filled two medium pastry cases and 6 muffin size ones, its a lot of custard!  

I thought I had made far to much but it was all gone by the second day!

I am planning to make it again these school holidays, perhaps even teach Miss E, and I hope you get to enjoy some soon too.   The blog may be slow the next few weeks as I spend time with my family, but I will be back in a few weeks with some amazing projects that we are busy completing.

We had the loveliest Big Morning Tea this morning and I just had to share the star of the show with you all.  A very creative and talented friend made this gorgeous Tea Party cake for us all to share.  Isn't it amazing?  

I am happy to admit when I have been out caked any day of the week, especially when we all get to eat the cakes afterwards.

Details of the gorgeous little girl complete with a bite out of her sandwich, the little doggie with his silver studded collar, jam cakes and tea cups.

I served up my share the love cupcakes and a pink ombre lemon cake with a bircher muesli.  If you want to make your own have a look at my rainbow layer cake secrets when I made Miss J's rainbow layer cake.  Another friend brought an incredible Dutch apple cake which was spiced and sweet and delicious.  It is safe to say none of us went hungry.

Hope you have a morning tea of your own, what could be better than breakfast with friends and raising money for a great cause.  Let me know whats on your menu.

In honour of my Auntie Bar, who lost her battle with cancer a few years ago, I am hosting a Big Morning Tea this year.  Its been a big day of baking, and not much blogging, as I prepare cupcakes and a pink ombre layer cake for tomorrow morning.

I will share the layer cake, and a truly amazing cake a dear friend is making later this week.
For now, remember to hold those dear to you tight today, and our thoughts go to all the people and their families who are fighting this battle right now.  

Please feel free to copy and use my "share the love" cupcake topper if you want to make your own cupcakes to help support this event.

This tea is part of the Cancer Councils Biggest Morning Tea series for 2013 and we will be donating all funds from the morning to the Cancer Council.

Seriously - you can also be the rainbow cake queen.  If I can ice that thing believe me you can too.  I can bake, a little, Green's cake mix is my fave (oops the secret is out), but icing has always been beyond me.  I was determined to do better for Miss J's 2nd birthday rainbow party and the look on her face made all the effort worth it!!  Scroll down to get the skinny.

You need lots of time but its not difficult - this cake took me all day to complete

The cake
This is the easy part.  All you need is:
- your best sponge cake recipe, or in my case three boxes of Greens Lemon Cake mix
- food colouring
- cake tins with cutter bar (see this one)

You are going to make three cakes.   Split each cake batter in two and add colour.
If you have enough cake tins you can make them all at once.  I only have two so I have to do three batches.

Tips:
- make sure the cake tin is well buttered, you want the layers to come out easily.
- let the layers cool completely before you try and remove them from the tin.
- once cool use a bread knife to trim the top of the cakes so they are reasonably flat.  Mine are always a little rounded in the middle.

The assembly and icing technique
I have always battled with putting the layers together, I needed skewers to stop the layers sliding off each other and my icing always let me down.
This time I followed this icing recipe and assembly technique by Rachael from Made from Scratch.  I used her butter cream icing and her technique and the results were seriously impressive.  One of the nicest icings I have ever made too. 

As Rachael says it is all about patience and allowing each layer to cool and set before you use it.
It seems like a lot of effort but adding a crumb coat layer by layer, and setting in the fridge in between, creates a really sturdy cake and a brilliant base for your icing.  No skewers required!

- I added a little lemon to my icing and left off the poppy seed step.
- for this 6 layer cake I needed two batches of icing, it was a huge cake!

OK rainbow cake queens, have fun and let me know how you go.  The collective oohing and aahing is going to make all your effort worth while.

Images by Eva of Build House Home

Meeting other bloggers is always fun, meeting them for a great cooking demo followed by delicious morning tea is even better.  This is exactly what Appliances Online organised last Monday when they hosted a morning tea for bloggers with a fabulous cooking demo by the lovely ladies of the Monday Morning Cooking Club (MMCC).  I met some lively bloggers like Caro of Caro & Co, had an eye opening discussion with a blogger who has been a dominatrix (I am not telling who, those who were there will have to guess), ate more chiffon cake than was strictly good for me, and generally had a very good time indeed.  

The ladies from the MMCC put on a fabulous spread with no less than three different chiffon cakes (the orange wins for me), salmon and bagels and other freshly baked goodies from the Appliances Online kitchen.  I will tell you more of the MMCC story another day, community memory and story gathering through food, fascinating and moving.  I would love to cook with them myself some time.

During the demo the MMCC used the Breville All In One.  I was impressed.  The double bladed mixer easily ground fresh almonds into almond meal and made several beautiful looking doughs.  I have an elderly Magi Mix given to me by my granny when I left home.  It is showing it's age (unlike me I hope), it works perfectly but the plastic has become brittle and is cracking in less and less avoidable places.  I also have a drawer full of mandolin and stick mixer bits that I can never find quickly enough.  This gadget made me take notice, it obviously worked well in the demo, does everything my Magi Mix, mandolin and stick mixer can, and afterwards it stacked neatly into the storage stand.  Impressive.  So imagine my delight when we were presented with a All In One to test in our own kitchens, with a copy of the MMCC book to give us inspiration.  If only all Mondays were more like this.

I raced home and spent a happy afternoon musing over recipes and mixer attachments, I had to test it that very day.  Now I know you are expecting some gourmand recipe, but really what I made was mashed potatoes.  I wanted to test the mashing attachment, something I hadn't seen before, and (drum roll) result was mashed potatoes in minutes.  Yummy, creamy, easy!  Next I am planning pesto, I have a giant basil bush in the garden.  Or I might make my granny's pecan nut biscuits, very similar to the kifli the MMCC made for us, I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you again to Appliances Online, they are a great resource for the time poor who know what they want and just want it delivered to their door.
And a reminder to my readers that all opinions are truly my own.  I love testing products but rest assured feed back will always be genuine.

I am not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, I like to think that I celebrate loving all members of my family every day and not at the whim of Hallmark.  



But I don't want to be Grinch-like about it so I decided to test these cute valentine sandwiches for the girls lunchboxes.

Very simple to do: 
- cut crusts off 4 pieces of bread and cut center out of 2 pieces with a heart shaped cookie cutter
- butter the large pieces and sprinkle hundreds and thousands onto bread
- complete sandwich with heart piece so colour peeks through
- make mini heart sandwiches with the heart shapes, butter edges and roll in hundreds and thousands

From the trail of sugar crumbs across the veranda and into the garden, and the general stickiness of Miss J's hands I would say they are a success.  One is a sweet surprise hiding in Miss E's lunch box.

I will celebrate having people to love every day, but I guess a little extra sweetness of the 14th Feb can't hurt.

We arrived home to a glut of tomatoes.  Amazingly they had survive extreme heat and a cyclone of rain and were hanging plumply off the vines, splitting with ripeness.  The Voice of Reason and I stepped into Martha Stewart mode, picked a bucket (and I mean bucket) of the ripest ones and started cooking.  My contribution was a passata to use with mince for lasagna or bolagnese, Miss J's was eating tomatoes like apples straight out the bucket, the VoR experimented with a secret recipe tomato sauce (delicious).  
Both turned out really well but I can only share the passata with you, the sauce is as I said before, secret.  Hopefully you are enjoying the tomato harvest bounty too.

Ingredients:
As many ripe tomatoes as you want to make into passata.
1kg of tomatoes made 1 litre of passata.
A combined handful of rosemary, oreganum, thyme.
10 - 12 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup of olive oil

To make:
Cut tomatoes in half and place in roasting pan with unpeeled garlic cloves and fresh herbs.
Add the remaining ingredients and place pan in a slow oven (160) for an hour, or until tomatoes have softened.
Remove from oven and cool.
Once cool remove garlic skins, they should pop off easily. 
Place tomato mixture in a blender and blend until smooth.  You can pass the passata through a sieve if you want a really fine sauce but I can't be bothered.
Store your delicious passata in sterilised jars or bottles, or freeze, and end enjoy long after summer harvest is over.

We ate the left overs as a thick fragrant tomato soup.
Totally delicious & totally simple, especially when the tomatoes are out of your own garden.

I have been experimenting with Blurb the last few days, and really enjoying myself! 
We love cooking and you know how it goes, some recipes quickly become family favourites, sometimes an experiment turns out so well it needs to be written down, and sometimes you discover a new recipe you don't want to forget.  But however many times we make them, even the most favourite favourites sometimes get forgotten as the seasons change and the year passes.  

I decided to make a kitchen notebook to record our current favourites.  Like yellow zucchini, chickpea and watercress salad, mango ice cream, simple lentils, and roast pork belly with pomegranate seeds, mmmm mmm.  But I am leaving spaces for new discoveries and inventions.  
Scattered through the pages are my favourite family photos from the past year.  
Below is the pork belly recipe, which was featured in Snowed In Magazine last year.

I like the idea of making two, giving one to my sister-in-law who also loves to cook, and then swapping our notebooks in 2 years time.  A cute way to recipe swap.

This little munchkin is me, with my uncle's horse Gonzales.  I added some old pictures for fun, the girls think its very funny to see us small.  On the right is the note design I chose.

I am a first time Blurb user and I am impressed.  The templates are well designed, there are lots of options for text, note pages, picture or combination layouts.  Its easy to import photos and lay them out.  And I really like being able to format the page layout to my exact specifications, and save that layout so I can use it again.  It cost me approximately $50 a copy, not super cheap, but for a personalised extra special family treasure of the future its worth it.

Thanks Blurb for the opportunity, Blurb generously gave delegates to Alt Summit SLC a voucher to give their system a test drive.  I can't wait to start using it.

Three bowls - no ice cream machine required.  The best homemade ice cream you ever tasted - I guarantee it!  This is an old favourite, a recipe that I loved as a child when my granny made it.  

I believe in sharing recipes, especially special ones.  That's the way they live on after all.  Every time you make it, my granny's memory lives on in your kitchen.  Isn't that great!

So I share it gladly and hope you and your family enjoy it, if you do - pass it on.  This year I have revamped the original coffee flavour with Christmas inspired flavours, but if you want, I will pass on the original coffee recipe too.

Bowl 1:  
- 600ml cream
- stick of cinnamon
- 5 cloves
- 5 cardamom seeds
- ground all spice 
- ground cinnamon 

Pour half cream and whole spices into a pot.  
Add a few healthy shakes of both ground spices. 
Infuse the flavours by heating cream without boiling for about 20 minutes.

Cool in pot and then chill in fridge before beginning the rest of the recipe.

When completely cooled mix spiced and unspiced cream.  Whip until it forms soft peaks.  


Bowl 2:
- 2 tins condensed milk
- ground all spice 
- ground cinnamon
- vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons of rum or whiskey (30 ml)

Mix condensed milk, a few shakes of the ground spices, rum and vanilla.  
Stir until well combined.

Now fold whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture.  Fold gently, a whisk lets you combine well without taking out the lightness.








Bowl 3:
- 2 separated egg whites

Separating the egg whites is the most important step in the recipe.  If the yolks break just start over or the whites will not whip.

Whip the egg whites until they are glossy and make firm peaks.  The consistency is right when you can hold the bowl upside down over your head without getting egg on your face. (ha ha) 










Fold the whipped egg whites gently into the cream and condensed milk mixture.  
Don't over stir, stop when everything is mixed through.

Pour immediately into a freezer container, place in freezer over night.
When you wake up you will have silky ice cream, enjoy.














We will be having this recipe for our Christmas lunch, my beloved granny will be there at the table with us in memory.
Let me know what you think.  And please share your memory recipes with me too.

Slow roasted pork belly with refreshing apple & fennel salad

The perfect dinner when you know will you be busy and want something warm and satisfying.  Less than 10 minutes prep is rewarded by 2 hours of glorious kitchen smells and then a scrumptious dinner.   

The secret is in those Sichuan peppercorns and yes, you need all those peppercorns.

Pork belly is very rich so I like to serve this dish with a fresh, crisp salad of apple, fennel and rocket.    And oven roasted potatoes if the family is hungry.  If you like pork belly you will love this meal. 

Ingredients:

1 kg (2 lb) pork belly (try find a less fatty one)

4cm ginger, sliced

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 star anise

1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed

2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed

Water

Preparation: 

Preheat oven to 180”c (350”F)

Place pork belly in casserole pot with a tight fitting lid. 

Add all other ingredients and enough water to just cover.

Put in preheated oven with lid on for 2 hours.

After 2 hours remove pork and cut into 2cm (3/4 in) slices.  Return to casserole and cook for further 45-60 minutes with lid off.

You will know it is done when the pork is very tender and beginning to brown.

I found this recipe in Every Day in the Kitchen (Allan Campion & Michele Curtis), called simply “the pork dish”, and it is a firm family favourite.  Left-over’s make delicious sandwiches, but sadly there never are any.

I am so excited, the crisp salad of apple, fennel and rocket is being featured in the first addition of Snowed in Magazine which will be launched on 15th November.  This magazine is the latest creative venture of Ashley Pahl of She Makes a Home.  Ashley writes a wonderful blog that is one of my favourite reads. It is full of considered thoughts on her life as a mom and creative business woman, her wonderful card designs (that are sold on Etsy), her favourite recipes and inspirations.
I will remind you when it is launched.   I can't wait to see it especially as Ashley has accepted three of my submissions and I can't wait to find out if they make the final cut and how they look in print!!!  (Inelegant squeaks of excitement)

Have a lovely weekend!!!

When Little Miss J turned one we made these jelly oranges for her birthday tea.  It was nostalgic for me because all birthday parties had these when I was a small child.  Nobody else seems to remember them, do you?Pretty colours + jelly + feeding myself = baby heaven.  

Be prepared for a jelly fall out zone so best to give them to the babies outside on the lawn.

Think she enjoyed them much?  

To make:

- Halve oranges and scoop out fruit (make orange juice while you are at it).

- Place halved fruit skins on a tray and fill with jelly liquid.

- Chill in fridge until set, you may have to top up the jellies as they set, so keep jelly liquid in reserve.

- Once set cut carefully in half.

"mmmmm mmmmm" as Little Miss J would say.

 Today I am linking up this recipe at House of Hepworths.  There are lots of amazing DIY and recipe links already up so make sure you pop on over to see what is happening over there.

I wish I was skiing, its cold in Sydney so there must be good snow somewhere.  At least I can still warm up with some mulled wine.  I will wear my apres ski boots round the house to get into the mood.

Ingredients: cloves, one orange, a few cinnamon sticks, sugar to taste, at least 1 bottle of red wine
Recipe: make porcupine with orange & cloves, add porcupine and other ingredients to large pot, bring to simmer slowly, don't boil!
Serve and enjoy.  Mmmmmmm!  Nice and toasty!
Images by me