Kitchen Therapy

Tag Archives: my life


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Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Onion Biscuits

I was excited about making these biscuits.
I fried the onions.
Sifted the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
Creamed the butter into the dry ingredients with my finger tips…

And then my 14 year old daughter and her friends asked if I could show them how to use the curling iron to curl their hair for the Taylor Swift concert they were going to.

I was happy to demonstrate.
Last time we went to a wedding I decided to teach myself to curl my own hair by watching a You Tube video!
(It is amazing what’s on there! I also learned how to apply eye make up like the girls from the Hills (?!) and many ways to wear a scarf!)
What can I say? Some things just aren’t “my thing” and I was in awe of what you could learn on You Tube!
I shared my excitement with my wonderful family, and they laughed at me!
Ha! Who’s laughing now!

The curls came out perfect (thank goodness!)
And I returned to my dough.

Not a minute went by before I heard “Muuuuummmmm!”
This was backed by shouts of “We don’t know what we’re doing! We need your help!”

 Four heads and a can of hairspray later I returned to my dough.

My head reeling from the hairspray fumes I finished the biscuits!

But I guess sitting there for an hour didn’t do them any favours!
My biscuits came out flat as pancakes!!!

(Oh! And while I was off curling hair, my husband ate the ham I bought to fill the biscuits!)

Despite the lack of height and filling, I thought this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe tasted simple but nice.
I can’t wait to see how what the rest of the group thought
(and also to see how these should have looked!


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Gorgonzola Apple Quiche and Hawaii

We spent two magical, glorious, incredible, fun-filled weeks in Hawaii.

We swam…

We surfed…

We went paddle boarding…

We shopped…

And we shopped some more…

We toured Kualoa ranch on the east coast where Jurassic Park, Lost and Pearl Harbour and were filmed…

My husband loved it here on the east coast of Oahu the  most…

Where the mountains met the coast…

We watched scenes being filmed for Hawaii 5-0 at our hotel… (can you tell my daughter loved this the most!)

And we ate…
Buffet breakfasts, freshly made omelettes filled with vegetables and plate after plate of the sweetest pineapple, papaya, cantaloupe and watermelon you can imagine. Duke’s on Waikiki beach was our favourite breakfast hangout! (pic is of buffet at Hilton Hawaiian Village where we stayed)

We ate Haupia pie on the North Shore at Ted’s Bakery…

Garlic Shrimp and grilled corn at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck on the East coast…

And we discovered the Cheesecake Factory!

We looooved the Cheesecake Factory!!!!!

Between us all we snapped about 2000 pics on our iphones and ipods.
Flicking through all the photos to get to the pics of the gorgonzola apple quiche has been another bonus to this week’s French Fridays with Dorie!

Coming back was hard. We had such an amazing family holiday we didn’t want to return.
But I have to admit it was nice to get back to into the routine of normal life and I realised how much French Fridays with Dorie has become a part of my life! I hate blue cheese with a passion! But I missed the group and the baking and there was no way I was going to miss another week! I knew I could try a different filling but hey, when will I ever have the opportunity to try gorgonzola and apple quiche in my life! I knew this was the perfect time! Fresh from my adventures in Hawaii I made the quiche…

Along with a salad I found in a magazine for American Cobb Salad (I replaced the blue cheese with Haloumi though!)

My family ate the quiche and we loved the pastry and the filling (without the gorgonzola bits!) What can I say! We are not blue cheese people!

So thank you French Fridays with Dorie for again introducing me to a new taste and allowing me to reminisce over two of the best weeks in my life!!! Can’t wait to see what every one else thought of the gorgonzola apple quiche!


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Bubble Top Brioche

I’m not sure how other countries format their school year but here in Sydney, Australia we have 4 school terms that go for 10 weeks each. The kids have two weeks off school at the end of every 10 week term. Except for Christmas, when they have 6 weeks off school.

We are half way through our Christmas school holidays and next week we leave for 2 weeks in Hawaii! Yay!
I can’t wait! It’s been about 15 years since I was last there and I have such great memories from that trip and now I get to make new ones with my children!

My husband is excited for the opportunity to have a break and spend time with his family.
My 14 year old daughter (who couldn’t wait until January 1st so she could announce that next year she’ll be 16) can’t wait to go to Hawaii so she can get a tan her friends will be jealous of.
My 11 year old son has decided he wants to learn to surf (and befriend the penguins that are at the resort).
And my 4 year old son is just outraged we chose to go to Hawaii over Queensland, where all the theme parks are!

I am looking forward to going to the beach, just like we do here at home…
Without having to clean the sand out of my car or wash the endless stream of beach towels!

So I really wanted to do one last French Fridays with Dorie before we take off for a few weeks.
And as usual I picked the least practical day.
We had a great, but very late night, at an Irish/Italian wedding…


Followed by an early to start to meet friends at the water slides. They slid non stop for 8 hours…

And then, to top it off, a bunch of the boys came back to our house for a sleepover.
At 10.30 that night they settled down to watch Batman so I took this opportunity to start the dough!

I was exhausted but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed making the dough.
It felt incredibly good and satisfying.

The next morning I finished the recipe and they returned from the park having discovered new ways to ride their scooters and skateboards…

They ran inside demanding to know what smelled like croissants!

The brioche rolls were fresh out of the oven and they really did smell like freshly baked croissants.
When I pulled one apart it was incredibly soft…

And light. And fluffy. And totally delicious!

They shoved them in their mouths.
Some with jam and cream…
Others with Nutella.

They all agreed Dorie’s Bubble-Top Brioche tasted great!
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the French Fridays with Dorie team came up with!


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2012 – Resolutions and Peach Jelly and Vanilla Panna Cotta

I am a sucker for New Beginnings.
A Fresh Start.
Hope and Possibilities.

To me, a New Year is like buying a new Journal.
The pages are crisp, clean and waiting to be written on.
I get butterflies in my stomach in anticipation.

I love setting New Year Resolutions.
(I forget most of them by mid January).
But my goodness I love setting them!

So with New Year’s Eve approaching, I was not going to let my favourite time of year slip by me in a blur of busy-ness!

I have been wanting to do the Bondi to Bronte walk for a few weeks now.
So I convinced my husband and kids a 7 km, cliff walk, was exactly what we all needed!
The cliffs, the ocean, the crashing waves, it all feels so… cleansing!
But at the same time it’s Bondi beach.
It’s fun and exciting and a place where anything can happen!

So as we walked from Bondi beach…

Past the Bondi Icebergs…

And made our way to Bronte…

Where we stopped and had lunch…

I FELT the frustrations, the regrets and the limitations I had wittingly and unwittingly imposed on myself and exposed myself to.
The hurts, humiliations and embarrassments.
The worries that kept me up at night.
The people that let me down (again and again) as I turned a blind eye.
And those that were always there and I shamefully took for granted.
I didn’t run away.
I wanted to!
But that’s not what today was about!
Today was about new beginnings and making resolutions.
And I couldn’t get to the fun part until I worked through the messy bits.

On the walk back I thought of all the good stuff of 2011.
The achievements, successes, joy and love.
I tried to pinpoint what I was doing around the times that I felt at my best.

I also starting to think about a story I read by an author (no idea who it was). They said one year they set themselves one resolution. To not tell a lie. Sounds simple! But this one little resolution led to the dissolving of friendships and relationships and incredible turmoil. In hindsight, they said they could see it was a necessary step to finding what they’re about in this life.

So rather than making my usual list of resolutions, I too have only picked one resolution for 2012.

To be PRESENT.

Science has now confirmed that our mind can change the brain’s circuitry and change the connections our brains make. We filter input in our own unique way based on the life experiences we have had. As a result we can get into a rut, making the same choices again and again.
Choices that are familiar and comfortable but not necessarily good for us.

Being present means we remain open to ourselves and others.
It means, when stuff comes up for us, we don’t react in our usual ways.
It means sitting with unpleasant feelings, like uncertainty and vulnerability, without reacting.
And when the need to run, fight, please, or plead subsides, we have clarity.
We are open to the present moment without judgement.
We are open to all the possibilities of life.

And what could be more exciting than that?

A clean slate to write on for 2012.

We came home and made this Peach Jelly and Vanilla Panna Cotta.

I saw this dessert in Issue 6 of the Donna Hay Magazine a few years back.
It looked so festive and elegant I couldn’t resist it.
I have been making it every year since.
It’s become tradition.
We all look forward to it.
As the panna cotta sits on the stove cooling, we stand around, chatting and dipping our spoons into the silky smooth mixture.
We all look forward to it.
For our family this dessert signals the holiday season is here.

PEACH JELLY AND VANILLA PANNA COTTA
(pretty much as it appears in Issue 6 of Donna Hay Magazine) 

Peach Jelly

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
3 peaches, halved and stoned
1 tbsp gelatine
1/3 cup raspberries

Vanilla Panna Cotta

2 tbsp gelatine
1/3 cup warm water
3 3/4 cups single or pouring cream
1 cup icing (confectioner’s) sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. To make the jelly, place the water, sugar and vanilla bean in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Add the peaches and allow to simmer 3-5 minutes or until soft. Remove the peaches, slip off skins and set aside. Place 1/4 cup of the peach liquid in a bowl, sprinkle over the gelatine and set aside for 5 minutes. Add the peach and gelatine mixture to the remaining peach liquid, stir and simmer for 2 minutes or until the gelatine is dissolved. Remove the vanilla bean. Place the peaches cut side up in a well greased loaf tin, sprinkle with the raspberries and pour over the liquid. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.

2. To make the panna cotta, sprinkle the extra gelatine over the extra water and set aside for 5 minutes. Place the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the gelatine mixture and simmer over low heat for 4 minutes or until the gelatine is dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Pour the panna cotta mixture over the set jelly and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight. Invert and slice to serve.


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Gingerbread Christmas Cookie Tree

I remember someone telling me that the purpose of meditation was to give us a break from our daily lives. While meditating we are focused on other things, our breath, our body, the present moment. Anything but what has been consuming us and occupying our thoughts. At the end of our meditation time we step back into our lives. But we do so refreshed. We’ve had a break from all our worries, duties and roles. And now we return recharged and the time away has, hopefully, given us a new perspective. A more detached and objective way to see our lives, and with fresh eyes, we can tackle our concerns with new ideas that were hidden from us while we were caught up in the story that was our life! I honestly cannot remember where I picked up this broad definition of meditation, but it’s stuck with me.

That’s what I love about cooking and in particular, baking. My way of being in the world can be very much in my mind and not much happening in the body! My mind can be a hive of activity, sometimes it feels like it’s home to a loud, chaotic, formula 1 race track. You’d never know what’s going in there by watching me, my body goes through the day doing it’s thing and not getting in the mind’s way. Actually it’s learnt to stay out of the mind’s way! And that’s where baking and cooking come into play.

Doing something that is physical and new requires me to focus fully on the activity at hand. My mind tries to gloss over instructions so it can get back to solving the latest drama, but I’ve learnt the more active my mind, the more complex the recipe I need to pick needs to be. I have to concentrate on what I am doing and force myself to take a break from the tapes playing in my head. And when the business and dramas are big, like at Christmas time, doing anything complex is the last thing I want to do! That’s how I new it was time to undertake a challenge. I have been wanting to make a Gingerbread House, but I have been sick with the latest bug the boys brought home and when I saw Gingerbread Christmas Trees I was sold! They looked amazing and somehow not as daunting as the houses, to me.

I made the dough using the recipe below from Gourmet Traveller. I also had five 11-year old boys in the house having a sleepover, friends dropping in and still feeling weak from the bug. The combination wasn’t great. After many hiccups, I took my first batch out of the oven and then dropped them!
At this point my 14-year old decided to step in. My goal was to spend some mother daughter time while the boys were destroying the house. She was reluctant to begin with, but I stepped back fully and other than making the dough and destroying the first batch of stars, she did everything. 

She is also an “in her head” sort of person. 
So it was great to sit back and watch the meditative process of baking in action.
She was in “flow”.
She had purpose and an incredible sense of achievement at the end of it all.
And while she took pics of her creation to post on facebook and tumblr, I took pics of her to post here.

Remember to take a break from the busy-ness of the season, whatever form your ‘meditation’ takes, take time to do it and you will be rewarded with a renewed sense of perspective, love and joy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Gingerbread Recipe (as it appears in Gourmet Traveller for their gingerbread house recipe)

700g plain flour
190g each light brown sugar and dark muscovado sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
220g cold butter, cubed
180g golden syrup
2 eggs

1. Process half of each of the flour, sugars, baking powder and spices in a food processor to combine well. Add half the butter, process to combine, then add half the golden syrup and 1 egg and process until mixture comes together (3-4 minutes). Turn onto a work surface, knead until mixture comes together, wrap in plastic wrap and repeat with remaining ingredients. Refrigerate to rest for at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Roll our each piece of gingerbread on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick. Cut decorative shapes out and place on trays lined with baking paper and bake in batches until darkened around the edges. About 10 minutes. Cool on trays for 5 minutes then cool on wire racks.

Royal Icing Recipe (as it appears in Gourmet Traveller for their gingerbread house recipe)

2 egg whites
450g pure icing sugar

Whisk egg-whites in a bowl, gradually adding icing sugar to the mixture until it is smooth holds a stiff peak. Leave white or colour what ever shade your desire the spoon into piping bags fitted with desired piping tubes.

To assemble:
Pipe icing onto each star in whatever pattern you fancy and we dabbed icing in the middle of each star to stick the tree together.


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Potato Chip Tortilla

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was a perfect fit for the week we’ve had!

In Sydney, it is the last week of school for 2011!

It’s a week of school concerts, presentation nights and christmas get togethers at friend’s houses…

There’s a lot of food, a lot of kids and a LOT of driving everyone around!

It’s not just the end of school for 2011…

And saying goodbye to friends going off to high school…

It is also the end of all the extra curricular lessons & activities for the year.

Music lessons…

Sports…

And oh so many parties!!!

 As everything winds up for the year, things get incredibly hectic!

So, for us, this week’s recipe was perfect!
It was easy and delicious.


And as everyone came and went throughout the day, we snacked on the tortilla wedges!

I am looking forward to reading how the rest of the French Fridays with Dorie group went with this recipe!


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Roasted Rhubarb and Vanilla Rice Pudding

This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was Roasted Rhubarb.

It really doesn’t get easier than this.
Chop up half a kilo of rhubarb and sprinkle half a cup of sugar and the rind of half an orange over it.
Cover with foil and bake at 200 degrees celsius for 15 minutes.
Uncover and bake for a further 5 mins until the syrup bubbles.
That’s it. Simple.
Dorie suggests trying it as soon as possible and adding honey if too sour.
I figured the sweetness of the vanilla rice pudding would work well with the sourness of the rhubarb as it was.

Vanilla Rice Pudding

1 cup Aborio Rice
1 litre milk
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 Vanilla bean, split and only use scraped out seeds

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until rice is tender.
The Vanilla Rice Pudding was absolutely delicious.
It went really well with the tartness of the roasted rhubarb.

Best of all, I was able to share the evening with my parents. The last time  my dad was over for dinner was September 2010. November 18th he had a stroke and a heart attack that he was not expected to survive. Over four months in hospital and lots and lots of rehab later, he is finally back home. It was great hearing his stories of how they make rice pudding in Serbia. He had fond memories of it topped with cream and meringue. Sounded great but figured it best to give it a skip unless I wanted him back in hospital with another stroke!

That’s what I love about food. It brings us together and creates happy times and great memories.

For more stories and roasted rhubarb recipes head over to French Fridays with Dorie.


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Quiches and Tarts – and everything in between!

It has been another busy week.
At home there’s school, soccer, band, karate, dancing, netball, get togethers, parties, homework, assignments, fights, tears… mostly mine!

Netball Gala Day to raise money for Cancer Research

Band Workshop

Helping out at school

At work there’s more tears, lots of them, but at least there the tears are from clients trying to cope with their own lives.

In all the madness I tried to foster a sense of control so I went on a cleaning and purging binge!
I cleaned everything! Including my iphone… and all the photos… including the one’s of this week’s recipe.

Probably how I looked when I realised I wiped the photos!
(Don’t you love the pics the kids think are hilarious to take!)

Anyway…

I can tell you Dorie’s Spinach and Bacon Quiche was amazing.
Everyone loved it, from the 3 year old to my 70 year old dad.
Absolutely amazing!
To see actual photos of Dorie’s Spinach and Bacon Quiche from the talented French Fridays with Dorie cooks, click here. 

I made this quiche on the weekend, so I was going to be really good (after missing last week’s recipe) and get my post ready nice and early.
When I discovered I’d wiped my photos I was bummed but ready to make another quiche.
Everyone loved it after all…
But then, as I was flicking through my copy of Around My French Table, I noticed the recipe for Gerard’s Mustard Tart.
I joined after the group made this and I happen to love mustard so I thought I’d make this instead.

Dorie uses the same tart dough recipe for both recipes and I had my trusty sidekick helping…

The dough is so easy to make…

The filling for both quiches was even easier to prepare…

As I said I love mustard.
I also love leeks and pasty.
The taste was unusual and unfamiliar, but in a good way.
It left us with a quizzical but appreciative look on our faces.
I definitely recommend stepping out of the familiar and giving this tart a go.
And the spinach and bacon quiche will definitely be made again and again!

A very comprehensive and detailed recipe of Dorie Greenspan’s mustard tart can be found here. 


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School Holidays and Vanilla Eclairs!

It’s school holidays in Australia! Yay!
I missed the last two challenges of French Fridays with Dorie. The first week I was sick with the flu and the next we were in Melbourne.
I was determined I was not going to miss another week!
So I decided, despite having 6 of my 10-year-old son’s friends over for the day, I would make this week’s recipe!

The Vanilla Pastry Cream came together perfectly over arguments discussions about why they can’t watch Sucker Punch or Red Riding Hood at the cinemas.
It chilled in the fridge as I stood out in the middle of the street directing traffic so the boys could scooter and skateboard out of our steep driveway at full speed.
It was all good! I was in control and feeling pretty chilled!

Next, the Cream Puff Dough!
I went through a phase some years back when I made profiteroles on a regular basis so I was feeling pretty confident.
Now somewhere between chasing running after the angels as they moved like lightning between our house and the oval at the end of our street
and more ummm… ‘debates’ as to why they can’t play knock and run or go into the National Park surrounding the oval by themselves,
my Cream Puff Dough didn’t… puff!

Hard as I tried, there was no way these babies were going to be filled. They tasted pretty good, but were flat as pancakes!
I learnt something from my house full of tenacious and relentless boys, don’t give up, cos you’ll eventually get what you want if you keep pestering trying!
The second time around I cut a hole at the end of a sandwich bag, filled it with the dough and squeezed out the eclairs!
Yes! This time it worked!

I was pumped! I managed to complete the recipe!
I piled the boys in the car and met a friend who had the rest of their friends waiting for us at the cinemas.
We settled on ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2’.
We sat them all into their seats and just as we started to think okay! They are in a contained space and we can relax for the next 90 minutes or so, we realised we had taken boys, that already had the resources and stealth of seasoned ninjas, to watch a movie that turned out to be an instruction manual on how to get away with absolutely anything!
We sat and watched in helpless terror!

To see more versions of this week’s recipe and read more stories visit French Fridays with Dorie!


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Fig & Goat’s Cheese Fritters Salad with Balsamic Syrup

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” – Zig Ziglar

I love this quote.
It reminds that motivation doesn’t just happen, it’s something we have to work at.
Along with my Short Ribs in Red Wine and Port recipe post, I discussed being forced to challenge my rather limited beliefs I held about creativity.
I honestly thought creativity was about the ability to paint and decorate, and therefore confidently declared myself ‘creatively challenged’!
On my journey to redifine my thoughts on creativity, I stumbled across another deeply held yet totally ignorant assumption I had.

I thought if you were creative, your creative ability oozed out of you.

Seriously, I pictured creative people standing in front of an empty canvas and their art just flowing out of them.

Then I read this quote by Michaelangelo:

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

It started to dawn on me that I had made many half-assed assumptions about what creativity meant!
(Yes, I am hanging my head in shame as I admit this!)
But I am sharing this because this relevation was a huge turning point for me.
I not only realised that creativity took many shapes and forms, I finally understood that creative people worked hard at their art!
I kinda figured,  “If I was meant to be a fitness and figure competitor, I would live and breathe the gym!”
“If I was meant to be a writer, words would just pour out of me.”
You get the gist…

Now I realise that these people are good at what they do because they make themselves do it.
They don’t live in a constant state of motivation, they’re just persistent and consistent at their art.
Whatever it may be.
That’s why I like Zig Ziglar’s quote. It sums up perfectly what I’m trying to say, creativity requires motivation to produce art! Whatever your art may be!

I saw this recipe for Fig & Fried Goat’s Cheese Salad with Balsamic Syrup and honestly, while I wanted to eat it, after another hectic weekend, it was the last thing I wanted to make!
But these days I’ve learnt to focus on how I’m going to feel after the work is done!
So in no time I was cutting, whisking, dipping and frying!

And boy was it worth it!


Fig & Fried Goat’s Cheese Salad with Balsamic Syrup

(More or less as it appears in MasterChef Magazine)

2 x 150g logs soft goat’s cheese
1 cup plain flour
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
1 lemon zested
150g baby rocket
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
6 purple figs, stems trimmed, torn into quarters
vegetable oil to deep fry

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tbs sugar


Method

1. Wrap logs of cheese in plastic wrap roll into even log shapes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Place flour in  one bowl, the beaten eggs in another and the breadcrumbs with lemon zest and 1 tsp salt in a third bowl.

3. Unwrap cheese and cut each log into 12 slices. The recipe recommends greasing your knife (and so do I!).

4. Dip each slice into the flour, eggs and finally the breadcrumbs.

5. Place on a tray and refrigerate for 20 mins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. In the meantime put balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan and cool over low heat for about 3 mins or until sugar dissolves.
Then leave to cool.

7. Toss rocket with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and top with the figs.

8. Fill a saucepan or deep fryer about 1/3 full with vegetable oil and heat over medium heat until a cube of bread turns golden in 10 seconds.

9. Lower crumbed cheese into oil and fry until golden. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.

10. Top salad with fried cheese and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

 

I really loved this salad!
I meant what I said about being totally exhausted!
My husband took our 13 year-old with a bunch of friends to watch Rhianna on Friday night.|
Saturday she went camping with her friends (and some of the parents) while we went to a 40th.
The 10 year-old had a sleep over at a friend’s and our 3 year-old spent the night with grandparents!
By Sunday night we were all exhausted so we ordered some woodfired pizza for dinner and I made this as the side salad.

When my husband arrived with our pizza, I took one look at the garlic pizza crust and loaded it with the salad.

I didn’t even taste the other pizzas!
It really was amazing!