My Perfect Omelette.

I think in the world, there are two types of people; those who can keep an omelette in one piece, and those who end up making scrambled eggs.  Of course, there's a whole different subsection of people who can't eat eggs, don't eat eggs, don't like to cook eggs... but they don't count.

Ninety-nine times out of one-hundred, I'm the second type.  The one who goes "oops, I broke the omelette... scrambled eggs it is!" and then mourns the loss of my previously attractive breakfast to a plateful of yellow lumpy stuff with other bits thrown in.

This morning, however, I created the perfect omelette.  For me, I mean.  I have never created an omelette so pretty and in one piece in my entire life!  I am so proud of said omelette, I am posting it here for you all to ooh and aah over and tell me that your omelettes are far prettier or tasty.  Enjoy!

I used one medium sized egg, a cap of trim milk, with a vine-ripened tomato, four fresh basil leaves, grated Bega Vintage cheese and slice of Christmas ham that was inside the omelette.  Delish!

goodie blaaah

So, I got a little lazy over the Christmas break and didn't post -anything- I did!  Oops!  So here is a quick photocentric blog of the things I made over Christmas for the goodie binge.  Comment if you want the recipe or the how-to for them, and I'll blog it in a second post.  Or email you.

Christmas Goodie Binge: Recipe Two. The finished product.

That... thing on the left there.  That's my gingerbread house.  I'm not sure if I ought to be proud of it, or insist that it was actually my toddler cousins that made it, and not a 19 year old girl.

I used royal icing (simplest recipe of it can be seen a bit further down), white fudge writing gels, glitter writing gels (both of which can be found at the supermarket), silver cachous and just the leftovers of a packet of 50c lolly mix from one of old school candy dispensers.  I miss those- you used to be able to find them everywhere in the 90s.  Couldn't step foot into a supermarket without having to beg mum for 20c (or 50c for the expensive ones) to get a little bag of smarties, or fizzy lollies, and all sorts of other little treats.

For your piping, if you don't have one of those piping bags, you can get a snaplock/ziplock bag and just cut a -very- small amount off the edge, depending on how thin or thick you want your icing to come out.  I'd recommend using the glitter gels for icicles- the white one looks particularly good against the royal icing, I think, although it doesn't capture so well on camera.


Royal Icing:
1 egg white at room temperature
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 tspn lemon juice

Whisk together in a beater, and when mixed, quickly transfer into the piping bag, or an airtight container if you won't be using it right away.  If it starts to set before you finish using it, just add a tiny bit more lemon juice.

Christmas Goodie Binge: Recipe Two, Part Two

So, here is part two of the Gingerbread House.
To make the gingerbread house, I am using the one-room template from Celebrating Christmas.You can see the pieces just on the side there; you can also probably see that they're not -exactly- the same shapes so it does pay to make an extra sheet of pieces, just in case you square off the first ones wrong. 
 
To Get your Gingerbread ready for baking:

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C; roll out gingerbread onto a floured surface so it is about 75mm to 1cm thick and lay out the templates (which you will have printed off and cut out) approximately 3 cm apart.

2) Cut around templates with a sharp knife to avoid dragging the dough; ensure the gingerbread template is squared to the paper one before removing paper- you can't cook them with it on!  Lay your gingerbread onto grease proof paper, and ensure they are is at least 3cm apart on the tray, as the dough will spread and change shape slightly.

3) Place gingerbread into the oven and bake until just browned at the edges; should take about 10-13 minutes for them to be sufficiently cooked through.  If you touch the gingerbread and it feels on the edges, leave it in for another 2 minutes at a time until it it cooked to your satisfaction.  If the centre is soft but the edges are burning, take it out.

4) Work quickly!  While the gingerbread is still warm, re-lay the templates over and cut to ensure that they are the same size as the templates.  You want everything to be squared and match up.  Leave them to cool and harden for approximately one hour.  While waiting for them to cool, get your eggs out of the fridge (you'll need two large ones) and leave them to settle at room temperature.

Christmas Goodie Binge: Recipe Two, Part One

Whoever said gingerbread houses were easy must have got theirs as a flat-pack, ready-to-assemble, edible IKEA version.  I've mixed the gingerbread- and managed to get it in my hair, under my nails and all over the kitchen- and now it needs to sit in the fridge to chill for a good few hours until it's actually solid enough to bake.  This is the same recipe I've been using for about three years now, although I've never tried to make a gingerbread -house- out of it before; only men and Christmas trees.  Here are the ingredients, and part one of the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar (press it down to get a full cup)
1 cup golden syrup (the trick is to coat the inside of the cup with a little bit of oil so it doesn't stick
5 cups plain white flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Method:
1) In a large bowl, beat the butter/marg until soft; add the brown sugar and beat for around 2 minutes until fluffy then slowly mix in the golden syrup until combined.

2) Combine dry ingredients then slowly introduce to wet batter a little bit at a time.  If the dough becomes too thick for a beater, try using a silicon non-stick stirring spoon, or a knife.

3) Divide dough into thirds then wrap in clingfilm (or store in ziplock sandwich bags) then store in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours; preferably, leave it overnight.

I'm leaving it overnight.

Christmas Goodie Binge: Recipe One

Vegan Bananaberry Loaf

That's my bananaberry loaf on the side there.  Yep, made it myself, just by modifying a recipe I'd found in the December issue of The Healthy Food Guide.  Try making it for yourself, but -don't- make the mistake I did- forgetting to use baking powder and baking soda.   I only used baking powder.  Oh well, never said there was such a thing as a perfect chef.  Italics on the ingredient list below show the sections of the original recipe that I made changes to.


Ingredients:
2 cups plain high-grade white flour (alternatively, 2 cups Healtheries Gluten Free Baking Mix)
3/4 cups of sugar (or a measure-for-measure sweetner)
1 tspn baking powder
1 1/2 tspn baking soda
4 small ripe bananas, mashed up (alternatively, 3 small ripe bananas and one egg)
1/2 cup of light oil (e.g. rice bran)
1 1/2 tbsp water (or 1 1/2 tbsp trim milk)
1 cup mixed berries (fresh or frozen)

Method
1)  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C; in a bowl, mix together all dry ingredients- flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda

2) In a seperate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients; mashed bananas (and egg if being used), water, oil

3) Sift dry ingredients into the bowl with wet ingredients and mix; gently fold 1 cup of berries into the mixture

4) Pour mixture into a loaf tin (mine was approximately 20cm long x 5cm deep x 5cm wide) and fill 3/4s.  Bake for one hour at 180 degrees C.  The loaf is fully cooked when the knife comes out clean.

Christmas Goodie Binge

There are now only about 11 sleeps until Christmas, so I think it's time to start my Goodie Binge.  It's a new challenge I have come up with all by myself; 11 sleeps, 11 Christmassy goods.  I may, or may not, get all 11 recipes done, but I will do my best to try!

My first Goodie Binge is a vegan-friendly Bananaberry loaf.  It's Christmassy because when I was folding the berries into the loaf, it kind of took on a marbled candy-cane look.  I'm hoping that's how it'll come out.

My next two Goodie Binges are to make gingerbread cookies, and then to turn them into a house.  I think that counts as two, because really, I think it's a lot of work for one person!

And then the other Goodie Binge ideas that I have are homemade candycanes, gingerbread loaf, spice cookies, a delicious Christmas Turkey, and some other surprises along the way.

Stay tuned for the Bananaberry Loaf recipe!

Christmas Pasta!

I went to Thorndon New World yesterday on a city-wide mission for Fry's Peppermint Cream chocolate and a chocolate-covered Kendal Mint Cake.  I didn't manage to find either of those, but I found something even cooler!  German (I think...?) Christmas-themed pasta!  I haven't cooked it yet, but it looks pretty yummyyy.  Only cost me (dad) $6.49!  Not too bad considering it's an import; they had to put an English label on the back because the one on the packet is in another language.  The whole pack is meant to serve 4 people with half a serving left for the next day, and each serving is only around 209 calories (857kj) or so by itself, and the recommended meal serving size is usually 400-450 calories depending on your daily needs!  Can't wait to try it, and will let you know when I do.  There's another picture of it after the break.

10-minute Lunch



I don't know what cheese that was, but it was delicious!  Got it from La Bella Italia in Petone.

Easy 10 Minute Lunch



What I used:

40g white macaroni elbows

half a small can of lite tuna

two generous handfuls of baby spinach

A couple bits of your favourite cheese

5 cherry tomatoes

Method:

Cook macaroni according to packet instructions (usually about 8 to 10 minutes)

0When pasta is al dente, mix tuna, spinach and cherry tomatoes and stir through until warm

Pour the pasta on the plate and put your cheese on top or mix it through!

That was today's lunch.  Very delicious, very quick, and only a little bit unhealthy.

Seafood Pasta with Grilled Vegetables

Usually when I cook, the only people that I do it for are myself and my parents.  You won't find any hard core, full course dinner menus on this blog, or fancy desserts.  I like to stick to recipes, which usually just come right out of my head as I see the food in front of me, that are easy to make, and even easier to reproduce.  Sometimes I might take pictures of the food if I plate it up, but usually things in my house are served family style, just put on dishes on the table so you can serve yourself.

This is just a quickly thrown together 'recipe'- I use the term loosely, considering I literally just threw things together as it came to me- from tonight's dinner.


Seafood Pasta with Grilled Vegetables
(Serves 3)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup vermicelli (usually about 1/3 of an average pasta packet)
12 scallops (remove the roe if you don't like to eat it, it won't make a difference)
15 raw king prawns (shelled and deveined, tails off)
1 jar of Bertolli Basilico pasta sauce
1/4 cup chopped basil leaf
1 tbsp lemon juice (plus extra to taste)
6 stalks asparagus
2 small zucchini
Olive Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Fill a large pot 3/4s full (about 1 litre) with water and put 1 tspn salt in and the lemon juice, leave to boil
2. Heat a large pan to medium-high heat, add small amount of olive oil to your liking
3. Blanche asparagus in the boiling water for one minute; remove with tongs (do not drain the water) and put in chilled or iced water; put pasta in water to boil for 6-7 minutes or until al dente
4. Cook scallops in pan until golden on each side and firm; remove then place in oven to warm.
5. Cook prawns in pan until pink and heated through; remove then place in oven to warm
6. Third the zucchini and cook in same pan as the seafood, and fry until golden on each side
7. Remove pasta from the boil and drain; stir through the pasta sauce until coated.
8. Place pasta on a plate and portion the seafood over the top, serving the asparagus and zucchini on the side.

I chose to serve the elements seperately, to make it easier to get portions correct, but you can stir the seafood through the pasta if that's what you choose.  Season with a little salt and pepper to taste, and some lemon juice then enjoy with a chilled glass of Monteith's Radler Bier, a light and fruity lager with lemony citrus notes that complement the flavour of the meal.

This Blog.

My name is Allie, and I am writing a blog of many categories.  I am 19, going on mid-life crisis age, halfway through a Diploma in Beauty Therapy, and an occasional home cook- by no means could I ever call myself a chef, but I certainly worship food.  There's 103 kilos of me to prove it.  I'm constantly switching between bleached beach blonde and bottle brunette; so much so, I can never tell if it's regrowth coming through of if the colour is just fading.  I have a makeup blog, Unbranded Girl, and now I've decided that I got bored of vainly posting photos of myself on the internet waiting for someone to go "you look so pretty today!" and am now going to do a blog which should contain at least one post of the following:

1. My kickass recipes from home
2. Reviews of beauty products or treatments
3. Things to do in Wellington (including the wider Wellington area and a little beyond, up to the end of the Kapiti Coast)
4. Some feedback on films, perhaps..
5. Sometimes things to do outside of Wellington
6. Reviews of the rare few times I go out for dinner

That's the plan for the blog, and I just hope this time I can stick to it!