Donna Hay Vanilla cookies

 It's a tradition in this household that we make Christmas cookies every year, some of which we wrap up and give away to neighbours as gifts. I made these cookies this year - they are the Donna Hay Vanilla Cookies. They were delicious, although quite buttery. My daughter helped me decorate!

RECIPE:

185g butter, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
2 1/2cups plain flour
2tsp vanilla extract (or use vanilla seed paste)
1 egg

Place butter, sugar and vanilla in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the flour and egg and process until combined. Remove mixture and wrap in cling-wrap. Refrigerate the dough for 30mins. Preheat the oven to 180C. Roll out the dough on baking paper or lightly floured surface until 5mm thick. Cut the dough, using  7cm round cookie cutter and place the biscuits on the trays lined with baking paper. Bake for 10-13mins until the cookies are golden on the bases. Cool on trays. Makes 24.

They look so festive placed in little containers and decorated with Christmas ribbon!

The neighbours loved them!

Easy Christmas treat

I found this recipe on a facebook page - I can't remember which one, just remember it coming up in my news feed.

SO simple, yet so festive and tasty.

Simply place two candy canes facing each other to make a heart shape. Place onto a lined baking tray, pour melted chocolate in the middle and sprinkle with 100s and 1000s. Refrigerate until set.

I then wrapped them individually, tied with a bow, and gave them away as gifts for Christmas!

Zucchini, Bacon and Tomato slice

I made this for dinner tonight after getting the recipe from the recipe book "The Thrifty Kitchen" by Suzanne and Kate Gibbs.

Basically all it is is throwing all the ingredients into a bowl, including: 4 grated zucchinis (drained), i diced onion, 3 rashers of bacon (finely chopped), 1 cup of grated cheese, 1 cup of SR flour, 5 eggs, 1/4 cup of rice bran oil and salt and pepper. Pour the mixture into a lined loaf pan (however, I used a baking dish), spread some sliced tomato on top, and bake in a 200 degree oven for an hour.

Perfect when served alongside a salad.

Kit-Kat Cake

I made this cake for my daughter's 4th birthday. This was the cake we cut on her actual birthday, but for her party in a few weeks she has requested a mermaid cake.

The mud cake I made was a simple mudcake (ok, it was the packet mudcake from Aldi). Once that cooled, I spread the top of the cake with a thin layer of chocolate ganache (chocolate and cream over the stove top, stirred until melted).

I then started placing the kit kats around the cake, tying it with the first ribbon to keep them from falling down. I then poured the remainder of the chocolate ganache on top until it was flat, and placed the maltesers and smarties on top.

It's a fairly simple cake, although it's a tad fiddly.

Everyone loved it!

Chicken and veggie sausage rolls

These are so easy to make and taste absolutely delicious! Everyone at the party commented on them.

Ingredients:

600g chicken mince
2 slices of bread, roughly torn
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 medium zucchini's, grated
1 medium carrot, grated
1 onion, finely chopped
100g mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
5 sheets puff pastry
1/4 cup of milk
Sesame seeds

Method:

Put chicken, bread and soy sauce into a blender and blend.
Add the zucchini, carrot, onion, mushrooms and parsley. Season with Salt and Pepper.
Process in the blender.

Once the pastry has thawed, cut in half.
Spoon the mixture down the centre of the pastry, brush the edges with milk, and roll.

Brush the rolls with milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and then cut into small pieces.

Place on a greased baking tray and cook until pastry is cooked and golden brown.

Alternatively, freeze and then place in a zip-lock bag, to be baked at a later date.

My son's first birthday party

I've been MIA for a few weeks as I was busy cooking and preparing for my son's first birthday party, and then my laptop went in for repairs.

My son's first birthday party was a few weeks ago and it was FULL ON.  I made pretty much everything from scratch!

I made chicken and veggie sausage rolls, bacon and leek mini quiches, spinach and fetta triangles, BBQ chicken tenderloins, cold meat platter, anti pasto, mini hot dogs (bought), and my mum bought mini lebanese pizzas!

Dessert was DELICIOUS.  The theme for the day was Nautical.

The cake - well I've developed a newfound respect for cake makers around the world!!! It was so hard - but I'm proud of myself given I've never worked with fondant before! AND I even made the cake topper myself, from polymer clay. It was a chocolate mud with chocolate ganache and blue fondant.

The cake was a little dry so I will use a different mud cake recipe next time I think.

Other desserts I made included Chocolate Butternut Fudge (from the Aldi cookbook!), Mars Bar Cars, red jelly for the kids, and a fruit platter.  My sister made Tiramisu, and my mother-in-law made home-made apply and custard pies as well as a lemon meringue pie.

I will post a few of the recipes I used over the next week.

Wholemeal veggie muffins

INGREDIENTS

2-3 grated carrots
1 grated zucchini
1 cup grated pumpkin
1 cup wholemeal self raising flour
1 cup Self raising flour
1 tbs chives
1 tbs parsley
3/4 tbs salt
3 eggs
Half a cup of milk
3 tbs butter/margarine (melted)
Half a cup of grated tasty cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Canola spray

METHOD

Squeeze the juice from the zucchini and pumpkin and place all grated veggies in a bowl.
At flours, herbs, and salt, and mix until the veggies are coated in the flour.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs, milk and butter.

Make a well in the centre of the veggies and add the egg mixture.  Add the cheeses and stir until mixed well (but not too much or the muffins will become tough).

Spoon into a greased muffin tray (12 capacity) and bake on 180 degrees C for around 25 minutes or when squewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Once cooled, freeze individually wrapped in cling film.