{Recipe} Overnight Eggs Benedict Casserole

For the past two years we have had this eggs benedict casserole for breakfast on Christmas morning.

It's seems I've started a tradition but the kids did ask that we have it more often than just on Christmas morning because they don't want to wait a whole year to get to eat it again.

I've also made this without leaving it in the fridge overnight and it still turned out just as good, so if time isn't on your side and you need this breakfast in 45 minutes, then no worries. It will not disappoint.

Ingredients:

Casserole-

6 English Muffins- cut in half and some in quarters (you want to fill all the gap in your casserole dish)
4 eggs
6 rashers of rindless bacon- diced
2 cups of milk
3 shallots (green onions)- sliced
1/2 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of onion powder
salt and pepper to taste

Hollandaise Sauce-

4 egg yolks (you can use your egg whites to make a pavlova ;) )
130 grams of cold butter
Juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Dice bacon and spread half on the bottom of your casserole dish
Cut up your english muffins and layer on top of your bacon
Cover your english muffins with the remaining bacon
Mix 4 eggs, 2 cups of milk, shallots, onion powder and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl and then pour over your muffins and bacon.
Wrap with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning preheat your oven to 180 degree celsius and removed the cling wrap from your casserole dish and replace with alfoil.

Bake in oven for approx 30 minute or until the eggs are set. Remove the alfoil and let the top go golden brown for approx 5 minutes.

Whilst the casserole is baking prepare your hollandaise sauce.  Now I use my thermomix to make my hollandaise and I follow these instructions-

Place all ingredients into bowl with the butterfly in place and set at 90 degrees, speed 3 for 8 minutes.

If you don't have a thermomix you can make your hollandaise using this method.

Then simply pour your hollandaise over your baked casserole and sprinkle with paprika.

NB- I don't seem to have a photo with the hollandaise on and if your kids are weary of spices like mine you can sprinkly the paprika BEFORE you pour the hollandaise and they will be none the wiser :P 

Minecraft Creeper Cupcakes

So Caden turned 9 today, NINE! And of course like most nine year old boys in 2015 he is obsessed with Minecraft and had requested to take some Minecraft cupcakes to school to celebrate his birthday with his classmates.

Well, he made this request and then I promptly forgot about it until the last minute. Yep, bad mum right here. But luckily I had some black and green fondant colouring in the pantry and hubby ran to the shops for me and bought me some roll out fondant. So once I had all the supplies these came together really fast.

I just used a basic chocolate cupcake recipe and this cream cheese icing recipe but omitted the cocoa powder.

Then I made some green icing and dyed the roll out fondant black and followed the steps in this youtube tutorial.


And here is how mine turned out-

They aren't perfect, but the birthday boy liked them and that's all that matters!

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffins

I've been busy with back to school baking lately and I've been tweaking a pumpkin muffin recipe for a few weeks. I'm finally happy with this one so thought I would share.

All three kids loved them and I've already got another batch on my to do list for this week. 

 Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups plain (or wholemeal) flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (make sure it's DARK brown and not just brown)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (if you don't have coconut oil just use butter and cream with the sugars first)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin puree

Method: 

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. 

Sift flour and mix dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix coconut oil, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla extract until well combined. Fold in dry ingredients until incorporated well.

Spoon in lined muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes in pre-heated oven.

Filling our days

Well the first week of school holidays is almost over and so far it has been a pretty great week. Yes, there has been some fighting between the three cherubs, but mostly there has been fun had by all.

We've played Lego A LOT, we've gone for scooter and bike rides, jumped on the trampoline and done some Easter baking.

Fingers crossed next week goes just as well as this one has.

How do you fill your days on school holidays?

RECIPE: Banana, Coconut and Chia Muffins

Ingredients:

160g Self Raising Flour
150g Plain Flour
180g Milk
2 Bananas
2 tbs of Chia Seeds
150g Raw Sugar or Rapadura
2 Eggs
70g Coconut Oil

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Place wet ingredients in bowl and combine well then add sifted flour and mix until well combined.

Spoon into muffin tin and bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes. (My oven is a bit temperamental so I can't give you an exact time, sorry!)

Thermomix instructions:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.

Place all ingredients into the TM bowl and mix for 50 seconds on speed 5.

Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake in pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes.

Makes 12-18 muffins depending on size.

{Recipe} Orange Cake

Ingredients:

250g Sugar
Juice and rind of 1 Orange
170g Butter
4 eggs
50g Milk
250g Plain Flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Thermomix Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celius
Place sugar and rind into TM bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 8.
Add the butter and eggs and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5.
Add milk, juice, and flour and mix for 30 seconds on speed 6.
Add baking powder and mix for 5 seconds on speed 6.
Pour cake mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm cake tin.
Bake in a pre-heated over for 45-55 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

Standard Instructions:

Grate the rind of one orange and add to sugar. Mix well with a hand mixer.
Add butter and eggs and mix well until 'creamed'.
Add milk, juice and flour and mix well again. Finally add baking powder and combine well.
Pour cake mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm cake tin.
Bake in a pre-heated over for 45-55 minutes.

Serve sprinkled with icing sugar.

The Great Sourdough Experiment of 2013

If you follow me on Instagram would would have been privy to daily snaps of my sourdough starter, sorry about that.

But I'm excited by it!

For the sourdough starter I did the following:
Day 1: 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour into a clean jar. I did not secure a lid to it at all.
Day 2: Add 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour to the previous days mixture
Day 3: Add 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour to the previous days mixture
Day 4: Add 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour to the previous days mixture
Day 5: Add 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour to the previous days mixture
Day 6: Add 1/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of flour to the previous days mixture
Day 7: Discard all but 1/4 cup of mixture and feed 2/3 cup of flour and 2/3 cup of water to starter and stir well.

So yesterday was day 7. I discarded the mixture and fed it in the morning and then last night I made the dough.


And I woke this morning to find that it did actually rise!

I was planning on baking it in a cast iron pot, but B has been complaining about the bread not being the 'right' shape...

So this is how it looked when I put it in the bread tin before it's second rising time.

 And this is how it looked fresh out of the oven.

And it tastes amazing, if I do say so myself!

I used this recipe from The Stone Soup. After I made my dough, I fed the starter again with 2/3 cup of flour and 2/3 cup of water to beef it up for my next loaf. From now on I will just be feeding it with 1/4 cup of both water and flour daily. We are going away soon too, so when we do I will just be refrigerating it so that it doesn't die while I'm not feeding it.

Along with The Stone Soup, I used this post from Inner Pickle when I was starting out with my starter.

And here is a pic of my starter today-

Are you a fan of Sourdough? Does the thought of making it yourself scare you?

It did scare me up until this morning, now that I've actually done it, I can't wait to do it all again. 

Daily bread

About a fortnight ago I finally decided to start baking all of our own bread again. It was triggered by buying yet another less than stella loaf from our one and only supermarket. We have no bakery here or any other options for shopping.

The bread that is sold in our supermarket is flown up from Perth to the airport which is an hour away in another town. It is then picked up by a ute and driven back to town while being baked all over again in the hot sun in the back of said ute.

So really it was an easy choice, I have been trialing a few ways to make and bake the bread. I tried out a new recipe in my thermomix, 

I have also been playing with a no knead bread

and finally I decided that now would be as good a time as any to try sourdough and make my own starter.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 4

So far the starter is going well. I can't wait to bake my first loaf of sourdough.

Do you bake bread?

Chocolate and Maple Syrup Slice

Please excuse the bad photo. I need to replace my lens on my camera after I dropped it just before Christmas! 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa
• 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup 100′s & 1000s

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Mix flour, cocoa and coconut.
3. Melt butter
4. Lightly beat the egg.
5. Add melted butter, egg and maple syrup and mix with a wooden spoon.
6. Press into a lined baking tray
7. Get the kids to sprinkle the 100's and 1000's on top, Or you could just do it yourself.
8. Bake in pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes depending on your oven. I am still getting to know my new oven so I checked it at the 20 minute mark and had to give it a few more minutes.

I sliced this up and froze individual portions for school lunches. 

What baking have you done recently?  


I am linking up with 
Anne for Thriving on Thursdays
Grace for FYBF   
Bree for Flash Blog Friday
The Pin Junkie for her friday linky party 

Milo and Coconut Cookies

We are the midst of a big back to school bake off at the moment. I am madly stocking the freeze with sweet and savory lunch box items that will hopefully last us a few weeks if not a month.

One of the things we baked were Milo and Coconut Cookies (or biscuits). I used an old Chocolate biscuit recipe I had scribbled in my recipe notebook and instead of cocoa powder I used Milo.

I think they turned out great. If you try them, please let me know how you went. 

Ingredients: 

• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup shredded (or desiccated) coconut
• 2 tablespoons Milo
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
•  3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup choc chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Melt butter
3. Mix all dry ingredients in bowl
4. Create a well in the middle of dry ingredients and add melted butter, egg and vanilla essence.
5. Mix well
6. Roll dough into table spoon size balls and place a lined baking tray. Remember to allow space for the cookies to expand. 
7. Cook for approx 10-15 minutes depending on your oven
8. Hide from the kids or you won't have any left for school lunches. 

I am linking up here:
Thriving on Thursdays

Chocolate, Lots of Chocolate

So as you may or may not know, my kids are on school holidays at the moment. Caden has declared that we have to do fun stuff all day, everyday while he is on holidays...

Day one started off great. We made some Bunny ears, we played with lego, we played on the trampoline and did some bike riding.

We also made some Easter eggs!

And we will no doubt be making them again before the week is out!

I am thinking about making some Reese's peanut butter cups inspired eggs, YUM! And Mahli has requested some cherry and coconut eggs. Caden just wants anything chocolate... And Ethan, well he is pretty much the same as his brother.

Day two started of with arguing for the eldest two. Fingers crossed I can turn this around into a great day like yesterday!

What have you got planned for the school holidays?

I'm linking up over here too.

Best Coconut Butter Cake

We cleaned out and organised our pantry over the weekend a discovered about 4 packets of coconut, so what were we to do but look through the thermomix recipe books and find any recipe that used coconut. So we made some Anzac Biscuits and this Best Coconut Butter Cake.

I thought I would share the recipe with you because it was a hit with the kids (and B) loved it and it will be made again very soon.

Ingredients:

300g Sugar
250g Butter
4 Eggs
250g Self Raising Flour
Juice of 1/2 Lemon or Orange
70g Desiccated Coconut
50 g Milk

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease and line cake tin with baking paper.
Place sugar in bowl and make caster sugar by milling it for 3-4 seconds on speed 10.
Add butter and mix for 30 seconds on speed 5.
Add one egg at a time and combine for a few seconds on speed 4-5.
Add flour and juice and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5.
Add coconut and milk and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5
Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 40 minutes.


For the juice, I used orange simply because that is what I had on hand. But I am going to try lemon next. The cake has been frozen for the kids lunches, well what was left of it after they cut into it after I took it out of the oven.

I am linking up with Jess for IBOT today, and you totally should too!

I Baked: Buttermilk Bread

Have I told you that I love my Thermomix yet? Well I do! In a big way. I now understand all of the hype and we have been getting to know each other a lot over the past few days.

On Saturday, I decided to have a go at making butter and in less than 4 minutes I had results of a nice creamy butter and buttermilk also.

Instead of putting the buttermilk in the fridge for later I decided to give the Buttermilk Bread recipe from the Everyday Cook book a whirl.

I know... I'll never be a food photographer!

Ingredients:
180g Buttermilk (at room temperature)
200g lukewarm Water
1 sachet dry yeast or 20g fresh yeast
1tsp Salt
500g Bakers Flour
20g oil or Melted Butter

Method:
Place all ingredients in TM bowl in the above order and mix for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Set dial to closed lid position. Knead for 3 minutes on Interval Speed.

Rub a little oil into the palms of your hands and remove dough from bowl.
Set aside in a warm place or allow to prove in the oven set to 50 degrees for 30 minutes.
Knead slightly then shape dough into loaf form and set aside again until it has rise to double size.
Place on try and bake in oven for 45 minutes at 200 degrees.

If you don't have a Thermomix, simply combine all ingredients in a bowl using a butter knife to incorporate them well and knead with your hands once the ingredients are combine. Prove the dough for around 3 minutes and then knead slightly and place in loaf tins or make a loaf shape on an oven try and allow it to double in size. Then bake in 45 minutes at 200 degrees.

I divided my dough and placed in two loaf tins to bake. And Viola`

I Baked: Choc Chip & Banana Muffins

If you follow me on facebook or Twitter you might have seen that I have been baking a bit since my Thermomix arrived on Thursday afternoon. On Friday Caden and Mahli wanted to do some baking so we went through the Everyday Cooking cookbook that came with the Thermomix and decided to make some Muffins.

The recipe is so simple and the kids loved these. So much so that I have already made another batch. I think I will make some Orange and Poppy seed Muffins next.

Ingredients:
160g of Self Raising Flour
150g Wholemeal Flour
180g Milk
150g Raw Sugar
2 Eggs
70g Light Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Baking Powder

Additions:
2 ripe Bananas (I am so happy that they are cheap again!)
200-250g of choc chips

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
Place all ingredients in TM bowl and mix for 40 seconds on speed 4-5.
Add fruit/choc chips and mix for 10-15 seconds on speed 1 using spatula to incorporate.
Spoon into greased muffins tins and bake in preheated over for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

If you don't have a Thermomix simply combine all ingredients in a bowl using your hand mixer or wooden spoon. Add in mashed banana and choc chips and combine again and spoon into greased muffin tins and bake in preheated over for 20-25 minutes.

Best Chocolate Cake EVER!

I made a chocolate cake for Ethans birthday last weekend and OMG It was the BOMB! I so want to share the recipe with you so you can do make it and come back and say you where totally right Amy this things is the bee's knees, Okay!?

Please excuse the dodgy decorating of the cake! We had grand plans of a construction themed cake, but with three sick kids last week, that all went out the window!

Ingredients- I doubled this recipe but as it is serves about 12 people

• 200g chocolate, chopped
• 200g butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk

First off you need to preheat your over to 170 degrees  and grease and your cake pan. Place your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute, stopping at around 30 seconds in to stir. Once finished in the microwave stir it until it is smooth and set aside to cool for a few minutes. In the meantime cream butter, sugar and vanilla until all light and fluffy and add eggs one at a time. Then add melted chocolate and beat until well combined. Sift in flour and cocoa and add milk and fold/stir gently to combine. Pour into your cake pan, smooth the surface and bake for approx 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer (or knife in my case) comes out clean.

I iced it with Chocolate Ganache Icing, which is just 200g of cooking chocolate and 1/2 cup of thickened cream microwaved until the chocolate is melted and left for about 30 minutes to set enough to be spread on the cake. 

You so have to try this recipe and come back and tell me when you do!

recipe was adapted from taste.com.au

KitchenAid or Thermomix???

Sorry in advance for talking about kitchen appliances but I need some serious help here guys.

I have wanted a KitchenAid Stand Mixer for so so long, and B has finally come to the party, but we are also investigating a Thermomix and I really don't think he we ever let me own both...

OR

Now, for the finer details. I already own a Breville Ikon Breadmaker that I use to make bread, all our doughs and jam. My oven works fine and I do have a microwave steamer and a semi-decent food processor.
So given these circumstances what would you do. Would you purchase a KitchenAid and a selection of attachments or a Thermomix???

Being domesticated... kinda!

I did some baking last night. I try to do a big batch of baking every few weeks. Usually I make biscuits, slices/muesli bars and muffins. I only managed to fit in some biscuit baking last night and I wanted to share the recipe. It is super easy and makes a HUGE amount of biscuits. I freeze them and pull them out as needed.

Recipe-
500g Butter
1 cup sugar
4 cups self raising flour
1 cup coconut
1 cup sultanas
1 cup choc drops
1 tin of condensed milk.

Cream the butter and sugar and then simply add the remaining ingredients. Once combined just roll into small balls or scoop out with teaspoon and place on lined baking tray and cook in a pre-heated over @ 180 degrees for approx 10-15 minutes.

Be warned you will need a BIG bowl and a few baking trays lined up!

This isn't all the biscuits! I had two trays in the oven and on Tupperware slice container full already!

Happy baking housewives! :-P

Lunch box ideas... Pretty Please?

Since Caden started kindy 3 weeks ago I have been struggling to think of what to pack for his morning tea and lunch. For Lunch all he wants is a Sandwich with boring Vegemite or some days Chessymite (or special Vegemite as he calls it). For morning tea I have tried- grapes and cheese, olives and cheese (this kids would make his Italian ancestors happy! He would live on olives if I let him!) carrot sticks and rice crackers, cut up apples, pears etc. But most of the time morning tea comes home uneaten even though he helps me pack it and it is everything he asks for. He doesn't want anything else for lunch but comes home and heads straight for the fridge...

So help me please! What are your tricks to getting them to bring home empty lunchboxes!

Wordless Weekend...

Party preps and The Zoo!

Well so much for posting everyday! Maybe that is why Ethan was looking at me like this today

Maybe he new I was telling porkies! 3

Things have been crazy here with Kindy, Swimming lessons and not to forget the preparations from Mahli's 3rd Birthday Party this weekend. I am working all day tomorrow so have to make a start on the cake tonight and Little Miss has requested a trampoline from the Women's Weekly Kids Birthday Cake Cookbook. Which looks easy peasy! I am so glad she changed her mind from the Castle I made from her first birthday. It wasn't hard, but it took A LOT of time, which I don't have at present.

So far I have baked some cupcakes,

started on the pinata,

made some sausage rolls (sorry no photo's of them!) and stocked up the party bags. I still have to make the pizza scrolls, Jelly cups, and well a whole lot more. I was planning on giving each guest a small pencil roll, but when I counted up how many kids are coming (17) and counted down the days I had left to do it I quickly changed my mind!!!

 They are quick and easy to whip up, but I since I have been trying to finish my Sherbet Pips Quilt for Caden I didn't want to put to much on my plate. I am already not sleeping since ceasing my meds that I don't want to overwhelm myself and end up in a blubbering mess again.

I inadvertently ceased my meds! You remember how we went to Brisbane last week to see my grandad in hospital. Well silly me forgot to pack all of my medication (including The Pill ekk!!!) so after 3 days of withdrawals (including irrational thoughts) I decided screw this I am not taking them again only to go through it again when my Dr agrees I can cease. I have been doing pretty good so don't see any harm in my not taking them. I have the self awareness now to know when I am going down hill and ask B for help straight away. 

You're probably wondering where I am going to start talking (or writing???) about the Zoo I mention in the post title. Well that is what my Family calls our house. And since our recent additions of Jessie and Minnie the guinea pigs Brendan has been joking that he is going to start charging an admission fee upon entry. You we do have a few (or ALOT) of animals here. Lets go through the tally.

Dogs-

Bella-our beautiful golden Labrador

Angus- our mischievous Black Lab

Remy- Our cranky miniature dachshund

Cats-

Shadow- Caden's Black and White Moggy

Sophie- My loner seal point Ragdoll

She likes to keep to herself

 Boots- Brendan Blue Point Raggy

Ollie- Mahli's Blue Lynx Point Raggy

He really needs a brush!

Birds-

We have 4 Budgies- Cuddlepot, Cuddlepie, Dora and Deigo

Guinea Pigs-

Jessie is a self golden sow and Minnie is a self black sow.

There you go that is all our animals. We have quiet a menagerie. I will try and post pics of the rest of the tribe next week.We used to have fish until Mahli feed them a red crayon last year. Thankfully she has improved in her per caring skills.

Bye bye for now! I have a cake to bake xx