What else can I do with bread dough?

With the bread dough being so easy to make, I have had time to play with new ideas of what to do with it, apart from loaves, rolls and pizzas.

One idea from the ABin5 website is egg in bread instead of on bread. This involves lining muffin tins with bread dough, and cracking an egg into the dough before baking. They are fun, but the first time I made them I found the dough didn't cook enough for my liking, so this time I partially baked them before adding the egg. Better this way I think. Maybe next time I will add some chopped cooked bacon so it is truly bacon and eggs.

Another bread idea I have made lately used the Challah dough recipe, which I

rolled out into two rectangles, sprinkled one with finely chopped chocolate, and topped with the other rectangle. I pressed the two together, and cut into strips which were then twisted and placed on the tray. After they had risen, I brushed them with egg, and baked. Yum! We will have these again. Best warm so the chocolate is melted. mmmmmm.

Dinner time...

Well, I have to say that my self set challenge to make a new recipe each week was a little neglected last week, unless you consider discovering that you can make bread with Feijoa cereal that no-one likes a new recipe.

I had an urgent job come up, which was a challenge as it had a tight deadline, and thus left little room for anything else, much to the kids frustration.

But, it is done, and my attention can turn to cooking once more, and so, a new recipe for dinner tonight.

You would think that with a cupboard and part of a bookcase of recipe books, that the new recipe would be from one of those books. However, I had decided that we should eat lentils

occasionally, and set out to find a palatable way to present them.

I came across this recipe for Sausages with Lentils and Vegetables while looking at the Taste website. It is very useful when you have ingredients or an idea of what you want to cook, but need a recipe or more inspiration.

Then, today a trip to Nosh (to buy a birthday present for Sandra), where I found some Merguez sausages. These are a lightly spiced Lamb and Pork sausage. So, tonight's dinner came together

nicely, using tinned brown lentils (tinned because the recipe said so, not because I couldn't be bothered cooking them for 40 minutes).

Also at Nosh, I sampled a gorgeous Kaimai Brie, which was oozingly ripe. This we had spread on fresh bread (I cheated and bought it at Nosh too). The kids were appalled when Daryl explained that the white around the cheese was in fact mould, but got over it and ate it anyway.

So, the verdict? Would we have the Sausages with Lentils and Vegetables again? Definitely.

The new recipe challenge begins

Daryl has mentioned on at least one occasion that I have too many recipe books. Clearly this is untrue as it is just not possible to have too many!  I have however decided that it is time I tried some new recipes, as I have fallen into the habit of cooking familiar recipes most of the time... put it down to laziness.

So, the challenge is to cook at least one recipe each week that I have never cooked before.

This weeks recipe is Individual Ginger Pear Puddings. 

Daryl (he is so helpful) has pointed out that really this is a cop out, as although technically I have never cooked this before, it is actually very similar to one I have done before, albeit with a different presentation.  Anyway, they were still cute, yummy, and low(ish) in fat, so here it is.

The pears are peeled and most of the core removed, and cooked lightly.  They are then pressed into the ginger pudding mixture, and baked, before finally being glazed with warmed, sieved, apricot jam. We served the puddings with a vanilla, greek yogurt cream.  They were judged by the kids as very good, and worth making again.  We think they felt grown up getting an individually presented dessert.

I will try to make sure the new recipes include both savoury and sweet dishes, and try to do this while staying within a newly set grocery budget.  Should be fun!

Andrew has been and gone..

and now the kitchen can recover from the indignities that were inflicted on it by Andrew during his visit.

Cheese sizzlers... not real food, pretend meat.

Chocolate Brownies that sadly, were contaminated with rum essence, dried cherries and marshmallows? Would not have scored highly in the Chocolate Brownie survey that Kyla did for a school project last year.

Microwave Big ben pie.... not proper food.

Andrew's taste in food seems to swing wildly between healthy Japanese and asian food and overly processed, um, junk?  He is very good at cooking asian food, and most of it was very tasty, even the anaemic worms (udon noodles).  The kids were not completely convinced about the Salmon roe however.  Just imagine what they would have thought if the kina had not been so expensive that we didn't buy any.  They even managed to munch their way through quite a bit of Salmon Sashimi which surprised us a little.

All in all he was reasonably well behaved while visiting, and the kids were sad to see him go (oh, and us too- He does dishes without being asked!!!).  They suggested that as he didn't have a job to go to, he may as well just stay here.  Hey, maybe he could be my cleaner?  

So, yes Andrew, you will be welcomed back again.

Welcome to winter

Andrew arrived for a visit a little over a week ago, and to begin with, it was reasonably mild weather, fairly typical for the end of autumn in NZ.  Wednesday morning last week however, we woke to a gorgeous if slightly chilly morning.  From the way Andrew was carrying on you would imagine there had been a foot of snow overnight instead of a bit of a frost, but I digress.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear again, with another frost.  Oh, don't worry Andrew, It won't stay this cold.

Friday morning brought the 3rd frost in three days, and according to the papers, it was -3° in Auckland.  mmmm.  Yes, it really did feel cold that morning, but the kids thought it was fantastic to look outside and see the ice on the containers of water that were sitting in the garden and on the deck.  And even with temperatures like that, Braden still wore shorts to school!  

I did see a lovely looking spider web between 2 fence rails that I thought would be fun to photograph....  but it was so cold...

Happy birthday to Kyla, and Lauren

As you may or may not remember, May is the start of kids birthdays in this family. So far we have had Kyla's 11th, and Lauren's 7th, and Braden will turn 9 in a couple of weeks.  I am trying to persuade Kyla that she needs to update her blog, so will leave it to her to tell you about her party and show you her cake.

We have a few birthday cake books that the kids love to look through and choose a cake idea from.  

This year, Lauren chose a particularly detailed fairy castle that involved colouring white chocolate to use to create such details as shingle roofs and wrought iron gates.  The instructions said the cake was not difficult, but was time consuming.  They were not wrong.  After simplifying the cake slightly (the original used 4 cake recipes + jam rolls) it took me a mere 3 1/2 hours to complete.  She was thrilled with it, so I guess it was all worth it, and it was kind of fun.