craftjuice

my bircher museli recipe

 

I love Bircher Museli. Oh yes I do. This afternoon I've made a big batch of it to store and have for my brekkie this week!  All I need to add is a big glob of yoghurt, orange juice and a grated apple the night before and pop it in the fridge - wha la! Bircher museli for me!

Here's my recipe:

Dry ingredients (mix and store)

• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 cup flaked almonds
• 1/4 cup chopped cashews
• 1/4 cup papitas
• 1/4 cup sultanas
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon (I love cinnamon, add less if you don't)

To these proportions add

• 1 grated green apple
• 1/2 cup orange juice (you might prefer apple or another juice)
• 1/2 cup natural yoghurt

Mix well. Leave at least an hour, if not overnight.

Makes enough for two serves.

Enjoy. Lots.

the magical rainbow pony birthday cake

This year we decided to have a 'pony party' for Miss M at a great place just down the road called Mini Mates. It's a miniature pony riding school and they do a great kids party with riding, wheelbarrow and hay races, brushing the horses and feeding them. Awesome.  Theme set. Now for the cake. What to do? 

Miss M had been to a birthday only a few weeks before and Miss K had an awesome birthday cake with a fabulous rainbow, my little pony's and fairy floss for the fluffy clouds!  It clearly made an impression as I was asked to replicate said cake. And here was I dreaming of cowgirl cakes...oh well.

Now I need to do two cakes. One for day care and one for the actual day. So I usually use the day care cake as a dry run and then work up to some sort of cake masterpiece (if only!).

So I involved Miss M (who is very good at mixing food colouring) and set about making every colour of the preservative rainbow...

Scary eh?

I then made a simple square butter cake and thinly iced it, Miss M sprinkled green dessicated coconut for 'grass' (Miss M was very handy with the whisk to make this!). Note that the result of fingers in the icing has already kicked in...

Now onto the rainbow. I pulled out my throwaway icing bags and a fancy schmancy nozzle and boldly squeezed out this rainbow. Lucky four year olds don't care about technique!

Sprinkles make it look more magical don't you think!?

Then to finish, I just whacked on some $2 shop ponies, more icing and sprinkles and wha la!

Magical Rainbow Pony cake :)  Note to self: ensure flammable pony hair does not get near candles...

Here's what the bigger cake looked like for her 'real' birthday party...

I added some icing flowers.

Miss M added fingers...

Happy 4th Birthday Mackenzie. I love you baby girl.

greek easter bread - tsoureki

Miss M and I have come down with some sort of energy sapping, body aching sickness this weekend, but it hasn't deterred us from our enthusiasm for Easter baking. (Yes, we've washed our hands.) I discovered things with yeast allow us to have a little lie down between efforts to recharge while the dough rises! Perfectly civilized.

Today we performed our final baking act in the kitchen...BEHOLD! THE GREEK EASTER BREAD!

And can I just tell you, it's freaking delicious. Like, really delicious. It really is. And easy. Easy peasy Greekeneesy.  I love making bread. I don't know what it is about it. But I love it. And it's not that hard. People get all freaked out about making bread, but it's simple. You should have a go.

And its great to get the kids involved too...Miss M could contribute to all steps as you can see (even the vacuuming up of a gazillion sesame seeds from the floor) - and she loved seeing how the bread rose up in the bowl and helping to shape and decorate with eggwash and various toppings (We used caraway - because I'm MAD for it, sesame seeds and slivered almonds).

This bread is slightly sweet with a faint citrus scent - fantastic for breakfast toast me thinks. Miss M was most adamant that there was to be no red egg in it, like the traditional Greek loaf. So there is no decorative egg. Which I was a bit sad about. Oh well.

Instead of the mahlab I boiled together and strained 2 cups of water, 3/4 tablespoon aniseed seed and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Instead of the mastic I just used the grated rind of one orange.

I followed the quantities in the recipe and came out with four beautiful braided loaves. This bread has a lovely texture - a little chewy but soft. And I love the braids - braided bread is my favourite. Don't ask me why. Maybe I have a Heidi thing going on.

Oh! Miss M found a good way to break an egg all by herself without it a) exploding over self and kitchen or b) end up with shell within.  She taps the very top of the egg on the rim of the bowl until it cracks, then peels the top off like flipping the lid off a bottle. Then she just pours out the egg. Very clever Miss M!

I'm off for a well earned sit down, coffee and of course...a slice or two of warm tsoureki!

Purely medicinal for us sick girls of course...

hot cross buns

So they didn't turn out exactly like Nigellas, but for a first ever attempt, I give you my first ever Easter Hot Cross Buns!

They were lots of fun to make...

...lots of new ingredients for Miss M to explore such as yeast , orange rind and lots of new spices to smell and taste like cardamom, cloves and allspice!  Mmmm. Yummy.

Has anyone else given hot cross buns a go this year?

Next on the list for tomorrow's Easter adventures in baking is Greek Easter bread.

easter sugar cookies

Yesterday Miss M and I made these lovely sugar cookies for all her friends at daycare for Easter.  I sprinkled them with different coloured sugar for fun - note where the fingers had gone into the bowls - I think this is some sort of quality control...

I purchased the most lovely metal cookie cutters from our local kitchen shop - duck, chicken, lamb, rabbit and egg - all in glorious Easter colours!

I packaged them up in cello bags with festive ribbon...Claude looks decidedly unimpressed with the new abundance of Easter chicks...

Easter loveliness!

chocolate easter nests

This morning Miss M and I made these great chocolate Easter nests - too cute! too yummy! I used tiny little candy covered chocolate eggs. Miss M had trouble putting the chocolate in the bowl, rather than her salivating mouth, for melting. A very easy recipe to get kids involved in.

If I made them again, I think I'd use dark chocolate instead of milk for greater contrast with the eggs.

let easter begin!

There is SO MUCH great Easter stuff to do!

This week I'm planning on doing some great Easter cooking with Miss M.  Here's what I'm thinking...ambitious, but will be lots of fun!

Hot Cross Buns         Greek Easter Bread   Chocolate Nests         Sugar Bunnies

Those sugar coated bunny cookies would be great for the daycare teachers! Now I just need to find a bunny cookie cutter!

I also found some REALLY FABULOUS Easter menu and food idea recipes on the Woman's Day website...! My favourite is the four Easter Brunch menus...they look absolutely delicious and cater for all cooking skills - from no cook to 'wha la!'

The Woman's Day website also has some really great Easter crafts...

Pom Pom Chicks       Easter Tree               Stacked Bunny Box    Knitted bunny!

I'm really looking forward to making an Easter Tree with Miss M! 

good morning pancakes

So good they are almost healthy!  

• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

Sugar. Butter. Lemon. Yum.

My friend Mark added 1 tablespoon of cocoa and substituted brown sugar for white sugar and came up with these...

 

He he - dueling pancakes.

i've just remembered it is now officially winter!

So now there is no excuse to make this again.

Mmmm...self saucing goodness.

my favourite pumpkin soup

It's turning colder here now as Winter approaches and I thought I'd share my favourite pumpkin soup recipe...adjust quantities to suit whatever is in your fridge.

Ingredients

• 1L chicken or vege stock (or even just water)
• 1/2L extra water
• 4 cups chopped pumpkin (about 1 small butternut)
• 1/2 cauliflower chopped
• 1 onion chopped
• 1/2 kg bacon bones (this is just for flavour only - I guess you could use a ham hock and return the meat to the soup or even just some bacon and blend in later)
• 1 tin (400g) of white beans (optional - I add these in for more healthy fibre and thickening)
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger (optional)
• mascapone cheese

Method

• Throw everything except the ginger and mascapone cheese in a big pot.
• Simmer it for about 1/2 hour.
• Take out the bacon bones (I just wash them off and pop them in a zip lock bag for later use - they seem to be good for 2 lots of soup but then start to break up)
• Blend smooth with a hand held whisk
• Add the ginger if you like it
• Dollop mascapone cheese and serve with crusty bread.

Autumnal goodness.