Writing Letters

Ours is a digital world. Our lives are fast and we have technology to make them faster. In all this mess we seem to forget the important things.
I don't know a single person who sends letters in the (snail) mail anymore, even though receiving something in the mail (other than a bill) is one of the best feelings in the world.
Reconnect with someone who have moved interstate or overseas. You may not get a reply, but just knowing you made someone's day can brighten your own.
With this in mind, I'm going to use this idea in a slightly different way. The special person in my life is my one-year-old cousin and goddaughter.
Since she's too young to read and would probably eat anything I give her, I've come up with a plan. I got this idea from a friend's 21st, whose dad wrote him a letter on the day he was born and then read it during the speeches. His mum got a group of his close friends to write him letters, put it in a scrapbook and each person read their letter out during speeches as well. It ended up being his favourite present.
For Kiara I am going to write her a letter every year around her birthday, make it all pretty, put it in an equally-pretty sealed box and give it to her on her 21st birthday.
Imagine receiving a present 21 years in the making!

The first step is to find your materials in your local Arts & Crafts store.. I've gone with a pink flower theme.

Here you can see I've got two different types of paper, an envelope, some stick on jewels, some pins to attach the paper together and some heart sparkles.

I used a stencil to make her name the centrepiece of the page and wrote my message underneath. This year I've just gone with a simple poem about how happy I am to be her godmother.

Using gel pens I wrote it all out.. it's best to get a few spare pages so you can test your different pens. Using gel pens on glossy paper with stencils can often lead to smudges so you have to be very careful and clean the pen tip and stencil after every turn, allowing the ink to dry before doing the next letter. After I finished writing the letter I added my little stick on jewels for decoration.

Happy 1st Birthday. Here I've used the other paper I have, using my stencil again, but with my silver paint-pen. Paint-pens are even more difficult to use than gel pens.. This took me a while to get it right!

Stick both pages together using one of the pins, decorate your envelope and put inside.

As a last little touch I added 4 photos of us in her first year.. This one is my favourite and is the first time I ever held her! 

Have a go at writing letters to your loved ones!

Happy Making!

Naé Danielle..

Apple Crunch

This recipe I recently rediscovered after finding there was no bread or milk in the house for breakfast. It's simple, quick and uses mostly staple items from the pantry, so you don't even have to go shopping for ingredients!
The truly great thing about this recipe is that it can double as a snack or dessert and it comes in at 351 calories! Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

1 apple, cored and sliced (You can replace the apple with pear or use a mixture of both)
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of quick oats (fast cooking oats)
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/8 of a teaspoon ground cinammon
1 tablespoon reduced-fat margarine/butter, softened

METHOD:

The oven should be preheated to 175°C. Place the sliced apples into a small baking tray, covering the bottom.

I chose to use a red apple, because I like the sweeter taste. If I was cooking an apple pie I would use green apples. Combine all the dry ingredients into a small bowl.

 Rub in the margarine with your fingers (you can use a fork but using your fingers works better) until the mixture starts too look like crumbs.

Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. The fruit should be tender when pierced and my mixture crunchy. Take out of the oven and allow to slightly cool.

One of the bowls I made, served with yogurt! So tasty! A quick and easy snack, meal or dessert!

Give it a try and tell me how you go!

Happy Cooking!

Naé Danielle..

Pumpkin and Feta Arancini Balls

I've always loved Arancini balls, but this is the first time I've ever made them. It was more work than I expected, but it was definitely worth it!

INGREDIENTS:

250g butternut pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cubed into 1cm pieces
3 cups of chicken stock
1 small brown onion, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
100g feta, crumbled
2 tbs finely shredded sage
1/2 cup plain flour
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup dried (packaged) breadcrumbs

METHOD:

Place the pumpkin on a baking paper covered oven tray and drizzle with some oil. Place into oven on 180°C until tender (Approx. 20mins).

Once it's done bring it out and allow to cool.
Place the stock into a saucepan, bring to boil and then allow it to simmer. Put some oil into a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onion and garlic, cook until tender. Add the rice and stir until the rice appears glassy. Add the wine and stir until completely absorbed.
I don't know anything about wine, but I used one I've heard tastes fantastic and a colleague of mine makes! I've given this away as presents before and have always heard amazing things!

Pimpernel Vineyards.

Once the wine has been absorbed add a ladle of stock, stir in until absorbed and repeat until all stock is used. 

The rice should now be nice and creamy. Set aside risotto mixture to cool.

Once the rice is completely cooled add the pumpkin, feta and sage and mix.

Set up a work station with the flour, eggs and breadcrumbs in separate bowls.

It took all my will power not to just eat the risotto..

 Take some of the risotto and roll into a ball in your hands. 

 Coat in flour.

 Cover in egg.

Roll in breadcrumbs until completely covered.

Repeat with all the mixture, place onto a tray covered in baking paper and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Heat some oil in a pan and place the risotto balls in, turning to evenly cook each side. If you have a deep fryer you can use go ahead, I don't know how to use the one at home and mum wasn't there to ask!
Once cooked, eat!

Yum!

The pumpkin and feta arancini balls can be eaten with salad or on their own. Either way, it's a very tasty snack/meal!

Have a go at cooking some yourself. You could even put in some different ingredients!

Happy Cooking!

Naé Danielle..

Gouda Cookies

I came across this recipe and thought I like cheese and cookies.. why not give this a shot?
I ended up with a tasty cookie that my family loved!

INGREDIENTS:

1 2/3 cups of grated Gouda cheese.
1 cup of flour
3 1/2 tbsp of baking powder
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of nutmeg

METHOD:

Prepare all the ingredients to start off with. The oven should be set at 200°C.
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until all the ingredients are combined. The mixture will be very crumbly (and messy!), so make sure you're prepared.

This is how crumbly the mixture is!

Once you take it out of the blender, press it together into a flat circle, wrap in plastic and place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

To be honest, I'm not sure what putting it in the fridge actually did, because once I took it out, my mixture still looked like this

In any case I kept cooking! Spread some flour on a board and place your 'disc' on top. Roll out the mixture thinly and use a cookie cutter until all the mixture is used up. I found that a rolling pin was no help with my mixture, so I used my hands instead.

I made my cookies way too thick! I didn't realise how much they would rise in the oven!

Place onto a tray lined with baking paper and place in oven. In about 10 minutes the cookies should turn slightly golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.
Serve with grapes, cream cheese, or anything that goes with cheese cookies!

Have a go at making these cookies yourself! Have you got any ideas for making this recipe easier to manage? Maybe some form of liquid?


Happy Cooking!


Naé Danielle..

Chocolate Brownies

This is a recipe I've grown up with: Chocolate Brownies. It's easy to make and super tasty!
For several years during my childhood I was part of the Australian Children's Choir.
The choir created many fond memories and friendships. The thing that everyone who used to be in choir remembers is the choir camps. We'd go away for the weekend, stay up late, get up too early, sing lots and eat as many chocolate brownies as we could.
My sister and I would go home raving about these so much that mum ended up asking for the recipe! That being said, mum ended up modifying the recipe, making it way better!
So here is the recipe for you! For all the ACC people, don't forget to sing grace!

INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup melted butter

1 ½ cup caster sugar

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla essence**

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

½ cup cocoa

½ teaspoon baking powder

**If you are using vanilla extract do not use this much, vanilla extract is much stronger. At most you can use half the amount.

As usual, get all the ingredients and equipment ready first.

Using a whisk mix the melted butter, caster sugar and vanilla essence into a large bowl. Add the eggs and mix until it looks like this:

It tastes better than it looks.

Combine the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a separate bowl. It's a good idea to sift all these ingredients as once you add it to the egg mixture it can get quite lumpy. Gradually add the flour mix into the egg mixture using a wooden spoon. It's very important to use a wooden spoon or it just won't turn out the same!

Mixing

Keep adding the flour and mix until smooth. Grab a slice tray and either grease or line with baking paper. I prefer to grease it. Do not forget! This is one of the hardest mixtures to get out of a slice tray! Also, make sure not to fill the tray over halfway. The baking soda will make the mixture rise a fair bit. The level in the tray below was a bit too high, it ended up overflowing a bit!

Starting to look good now!

Put the tray into the oven at 180°C for 40-45 minutes.

I made a double batch, so I had the excuse to have this much left over out of the bowl to eat.. I love raw cake and slice mixes! Yum!

Always keep an eye on your cooking... Although I'm training to be a Volunteer Firefighter, there is no way I would want one to ruin my cooking! It’s also a good idea to get a stick thing to poke into your batch to make sure it’s cooked all the way through. The stick pokey thing (I have no idea of the proper name for it) should come out clean. 

It's also important to know your oven! The house we’re in at the moment has a gas oven, when I’ve only worked with electric ovens before, and the cooking time is definitely different. 

Anyway, it should come out looking like this:

While you may want to bury your face in it straight away, remember it's very hot when it comes out of the oven.. I got a burnt tongue from this batch! *facepalm*

So wait until it cools, take it gently out of the tray and cut into slices. It can be served with icing sugar dusted on the top, cream, whipped cream, icecream or plain! All taste amazing!

Here is the finished product:

They only lasted about one second after this photo.

Have a go at making these super easy and tasty brownies. If you were in the ACC and you remember these, enjoy the taste of chocolate brownies and nostalgia! Let me know how you go!

Happy Cooking!

Naé Danielle..

Homemade Pizza From Scratch

Don’t get scared off by the title! This Homemade Pizza recipe is actually really easy! The first thing to do before cooking anything is making sure you have all the ingredients ready. There’s nothing worse than getting half way through cooking something, only to burn it because your next step isn’t ready! Unless you’ve forgotten an ingredient altogether.. don’t laugh, it happens! *facepalm*
So, once you’ve got all ingredients it’s also important to remember to turn on your oven or stove! Also something I usually forget!

For this recipe we are using a large fry pan and a grill. Turn both of these on now, so they are hot and ready for cooking!
The fry pan should be on a low heat and the grill on full heat.
For the dough prep. we will also need a flour covered board (plus more for dusting), and a board for the pizza, once it’s cooked.

TOMATO PASTE INGREDIENTS:
1 400g can of diced tomatoes
1 clove of garlic
Balsamic Vinegar
A few basil leaves
**If you don’t like lots of garlic use half a clove instead. Balsamic vinegar can be substituted for Red wine vinegar, depending on your preference. If you can’t find, or don’t want to buy a bush of basil just to use a few leaves, there are products out there that will give you basil paste in a tube that can sit in the fridge for ages. They are usually located near the fresh basil in a supermarket.

METHOD:
Place tomatoes, garlic and basil in a blender. Add a splash of Balsamic Vinegar and blend until smooth. Set aside for later.

BASE INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups of self-raising flour
½ a cup of warm water
**You can also use a pinch of salt and a dash of extra virgin olive oil, but I prefer it without.

METHOD:
Place the self-raising flour and warm water, into a food processor and mix until combined. This shouldn’t take more than 10 seconds. Place the mixture onto the floured board, lightly cover dough and hands with flour to avoid the mixture sticking. Sticky mixture is very hard to get off! Knead the dough until it is the right consistency.. not too wet and not too dry.
If the dough is too wet, keep using lots of flour. If it’s too dry put a splash of warm water.
Use a rolling pin covered in flour (removing sticky dough from a rolling pin is worse than removing it from your hands) to roll out the dough into a rough circle. The circle should be able to fit in the pan you’re using and be about 1cm thick. Place it into the pan with some oil.

Add the tomato paste to cover and allow to cook for five minutes on low heat.

TOPPING INGREDIENTS:
Your topping can have any ingredients you wish, so long as it includes cheese! These are the ingredients I used.
Mild Hungarian Salami, sliced.
Parmesan Cheese, grated.
Mozzarella Cheese, tear up into little pieces.
**I’ve made this dish a few times and have changed the toppings around. I’ve used cocktail onions, capsicum and chilli as extra topping.

METHOD:
Very simple, but not very strict. Put on the ingredients in any order you like! If you’re using ingredients that need to be cooked, make sure they are cooked before putting them on.
First, tear up pieces of the mozzarella and dot it around the pizza. Add salami and cover with Parmesan cheese. Carefully take the pizza out of the pan and put onto the grill.

You can see one half covered with cocktail onions and the other half with chilli. I shared this with my boyfriend and there was no was I was having chilli on my half!

Slide tray back under grill, leaving the door open. You need to keep an eye on this, depending on your grill it could take as little as 5 minutes for the cheese to melt.

 

By this time it will start smelling really good!

Once you’ve got your pizza cooked to perfection take it out of the grill, cut and serve! We had ours with fresh spinach leaves and rocket! Yum!

 

Voila!

Have a go at making your own pizza and let me know how it goes!

Happy cooking!

Naé Danielle..

Birthday Cakes

I recently had my 21st birthday, and as I was going through old photos for my slideshow, I came across birthday photos from my childhood. The thing that surprised me most was not the fact that my hair used to blonde and curly, but the amazing-ness of my homemade cakes.

 

Just look at how I am dragging the table cloth towards me to get at the cake!

As the years went by, we got older and busier. Birthdays came around and it was always a bought cake. Now, bought cakes cane be good (I remember getting the same one for several years), but nothing beats a homemade cake!
So, for my 21st, I decided to make one myself and went with my favorite character, Tigger.

 

I’ve been obsessed with Tigger ever since I met him at Disneyland when I was 6 months old!

Please note: Planning ahead for something like this is a must! Coming home with 4 hours until the party starts, with nothing else done and showing mum a cake tin saying ‘Look what I found!’, is not good for anyone’s stress levels.
So, as mentioned above, we used a cake tin. You can get a cake tin from a cake decoration shop and you just pay to hire it (may include bond). You get instructions on how to use it and such, but you will need to purchase things like icing and food dye separately, something that they will also most likely have. Now, while all this sounds like a lot of money, it ended up being way cheaper than buying a cake!
First things first is to put in your cake mixture and cook it. While that is being cooked you need to prepare the board (we bought a silver one from the shop) and the icing. Mix all the colors you need in, but be careful not to get it anywhere. We found this out after mum tried to remove some black dye from her finger and ended up with black teeth for a few hours!
Once the cake is cooked place on the board and begin to decorate!

Once it comes out of the cake tin, you can see the mold-lines, which you outline in black to get the shape.

 

For the outline we chose the color white because we wanted Tigger to stand out. To get the ‘Smooth’ effect we used our finger dipped in hot water and ran them over the icing until it went smooth.

 

Amy and Mum. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to pull off my party OR my cake without them! They’re amazing!

 

More piping! Piping bags and tips are a must! We had a few different shapes for different effects.

 

Adding the final touches and extra icing covered cupcakes for decoration.

Until finally…

 

Ta-Da!

So my cake ended up being a huge success! Everyone had some and said it was great… Although I wasn’t very happy with them for eating Tigger!!

Have a go at making your own cake and let me know how it goes!

Happy cooking!

Naé Danielle..