Donut Cake

So I made this cake for B's birthday back in July, but completely forgot to blog about it.

He requested a donut cake for his birthday like a proper deep fried donut... and well that was just to much hard work for me. So I made him a baked donut cake instead.

It was topped with a chocolate glaze and sprinkles and it went down nicely.

I just googled a regular baked donut recipe and instead of dividing the mixture into individual donut moulds. I used a nice big jelly mould to bake it in.

The kids loved it and so did B.

Have you made a donut cake before?

Three Good Things

I have told you before the I love Hugh and the whole of River Cottage. (I have a soft spot for Gil too!)

My whole family know of my infatuation with Hugh and Co that every time time a new book is realised it finds its way into my hot little hands.

I have already started adding things to our menu plan.

And I can't wait to try them out.

So what about you? Do you love Hugh? Or do you find him a little blah?

 

 

{Recipe} Prawn and Crab Linguine

Another meal we enjoyed for our anniversary dinner was Prawn and Crab linguine.

Please note some of the amounts are a guess as I hardly ever measure when I am making a savoury dish. Sorry!

Ingredients:
400g crab meat (can use fresh or tinned)
200g Peeled cooked prawns
olive oil
Dry Linguine
1x large Red Onion
1 small red chilli- seeds removes
1 small green chilli
Parsley
Salt
Pepper
2 cloves of garlic

Method: 

Put large pot of salted water on to boil and follow packet instructions to cook linguine.

Heat olive oil in pan and add minced garlic cloves and diced red onion. As soon as onion starts to turn transparent reduce heat and add crab meat and cooked prawns. Since the crab meat and prawns are already cooked, you only want to reheat them slowly. Add drained linguine.
Mix well and season with salt, pepper and chopped parsley.

{Recipe} Vol-Au-Vents

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, we opted to stay in and have dinner with the kids instead of having to get a babysitter and going out.

One of the things I made were Vol-au-vents. Yes they are so very late 80's/ early 90's, but I still love them, I remember my Mum making them for us all the time. Anyhow, last night I tried out two different filing types. A Prawn and Crab and a Mushroom.

I had never tried a mushroom filing before, but I think I will be doing it again, and soon!

Mushroom Filling:

5  button mushrooms
1-2 teaspoons of Dijon Mustard
Salt
Pepper
1 tbs olive oil
Bechamel Sauce

Heat oil in pan, add sliced mushrooms. Once mushrooms are cooked stir through Dijon mustard and bechamel sauce, salt a pepper.

Spoon into Vol-au-vent cases.

(The above filling fills about 8-10 medium vol-au-vent cases)


 Prawn and Crab filling:

300-400grams of crab meat
1 tin of cocktail prawns (175g)
salt
pepper
parsley
olive oil
bechamel sauce

Heat oil on a low/med heat. Pour in crab meat and prawns and mix through. Add bechamel sauce, season with salt and pepper and add a small amount of chopped parsley as desired.

Spoon into vol-au-vent cases

(The above filling fills about 8-10 medium vol-au-vent cases)

 
Bechamel Sauce (1 serve):
15grams butter
15 grams flour
1 cup milk

(adjust above qty's as required)

Melt butter and add flour stirring continuously then gradually add milk whilst continuing to stir over a low heat.


I am linking up over here

The Best Ever Birthday+ giveaway

Product Talk by Nuffnang

We were recently sent a copy of the brand new book The Best Ever Birthday by Louise Fulton Keats (yes, she is the granddaughter of the amazing Margaret Fulton) and the kids have just loved it.

The book follows Lulu and Harry as they prepare for Lulu's birthday party. Will they get everything done in time? Will it be a success?

This gorgeous story is filled with wonderful illustrations through out 

And then it includes some wonderful recipes from the story too.

We tried our hand on making some of the chocolate meteoroids from the book, but B and the kids ate them before I could get a photo...

 AND it also has this wonderful conversion table which I think all cookbooks should include!

I am giving away one copy of The Best Ever Birthday to one MahliMoo, Me and Three reader. To enter simply leave a comment. Maybe you could tell me about your best or worst birthday ever?

You must be a MahliMoo, Me and Three follower to enter. The winner will be drawn on 25th of June and will be notified via email so please make sure I can contact you. 

Gourmet Garden Blog Off: Spaghetti Marinara

Ingriedents:

1kg Marinara Mix
500g of Spaghetti
2 tablespoons of Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic
Olive Oil
300g Cream
100g White Wine
1 teaspoon of vegetable stock
Onion
4 shallots

Method: 
Dice onion and shallots and set aside. Heat small amount of olive oil in frying pan or pot. Add diced onion and gourmet garden chunky garlic. Cook until onion turns translucent and then add marinara mix. Cook on medium heat until prawns start to change colour and then add white wine, cream and vegetable stock. Cook on low/medium heat for about 10 minutes. You need to make sure that the heat doesn't get to hot or you will over cook your seafood.

Whilst doing the above bring to boil a pot of water and cook spaghetti. Once spaghetti is cooked drain and add to marinara sauce. Combine well and then add shallots, combine again.

It is now ready to serve.

Remember that I normally cook enough to feed our family of 5 and have enough leftover for B's lunches. The above quantities easily feed our family of 5 and provided 2 lunches for B.

Gourmet Garden Blog Off: Basil and Bacon Pasta

Some nights I only have a few minutes to get dinner cooked and on the table and since I had some yummy gourmet garden herbs at my disposal this week I thought I would give them a whirl and make a quick (and cheap) pasta dish for us all.

Ingredients:
Onion
4 rashers bacon
300-500g pasta (depending on how many you are feeding)
1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic
1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Basil
800g tinned tomatoes
Olive Oil

Dice bacon and onion. Heat small amount of oil in pan and add onion and 1 tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Chunky Garlic once oil is hot. Cook onion until it turns translucent and then add in bacon. Once bacon has cooked through pour in tinned tomatoes and tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Basil. Bring to boil and then let simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Whilst you are doing all the above put water on to boil for the spaghetti. Once the spaghetti is cooked add to the pasta sauce and mix through.

Now it is ready to serve!

These quantities were enough to feed our family of 5 and have 2 portions of left overs to freeze for lunches.

So, I am going vegan

Well, for the next 30 days anyway! I am taking part in the 30 Day Vegan online workshop that is be run by Heather from beauty that moves

I am not sure if I will go 100% vegan, but I will be embracing the whole food aspect as that is something we are really trying to do in our house anyway. But I am really excited about it all and can't wait to share my progress with you all.

Are you a vegan? Do you think you could go vegan, even if only for 30 days?

Chicken and mushroom casserole with cider

I am really loving the River Cottage Everyday cookbook that I got last week. I only got it on Thursday and we have already had two main meals from it and have planned many more.

On Saturday night we had the Chicken and mushroom casserole with cider. It was great, it is not a meal I would make during the week, but definitely on a weekend.

Here is what my version ended up looking like

And the cookbook version

Different, but the same. Kinda.


The recipe can be found here.

Are you a fan of River Cottage? You already know I am!


I am linking up here.

Chorizo Carbonara

I have been feeling all uninspired in the kitchen of late. My love of cooking has disappeared and our dinners have become a boring meat and three (or four) vege with the occasional stir fry thrown in to mix it up a little.

I decided to order some new cook books try and inspire me a little. Well of course I decided to get some of Hugh's and I can't say that I am disappointed.

The River Cottage Everyday book arrived on my doorstep yesterday morning and I flicked through it during afternoon nap time to figure out what I could make for dinner. I had all the ingredients for the Chorizo Carbonara and it was a simple enough dinner for me to cook while I am still feeling sorry for myself in this sick state that I am in at the moment. (Yes I know, I am ALWAYS sick!)

Anyway, the recipe just required the following:

150g of spaghetti
1 tablespoon of rapeseed or olive oil
175g chorizo- chopped
2 large egg yolks
100ml double cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (I omitted these as the find the spices in the Chorizo strong enough)

The above ingredients is to serve 2 people so I doubled the recipe to feed our family of 5. 

Simply add the pasta to a pot of salted boiling water (I did mine in my thermomix). Meanwhile heat oil in frying pan and add the chorizo. Fry it for about 10 minutes until crisp and cooked through.
Beat egg yolks and cream together, season lightly if desired.

When pasta is done, drain thoroughly and return it back to the hot pan. Tip in the chorizo and the egg mixture and mix well to coat it all in the egg mixture. The egg mixture will cook with the heat of the pasta and chorizo.

Serve straight away.

It was a hit with everyone here and will be made again, but maybe not until late next month as it is not the healthiest dinner choice about.

I am linking up here.

Rich Glen Rubs and Dukkahs- A Review + Giveaway

Dinner in this house has been a bit of a chore lately. I have gone from actually enjoying cooking dinner every night to dreading even thinking about it. So a few weeks ago when I received some of Rich Glens Rubs and Dukkahs to try out I was feeling a little overwhelmed.

But I quickly got over this and pulled out a roast chicken to try the Big Red Olive Oil and Salt Rub with sweet chilli and garlic.

It was really easy to do. All I need to do was, well rub the chicken with the Rub and roast it as usual.

We served the chicken with a simple salad. I forgot to take a snap of the 'adult version' of the salad, but here is the what the kids dinner looked like.

We dressed our salad with some Rich Glen Olive Oil and both the chicken and the salad were delicious.

Now, I wasn't sure what to do with the Dukkah. I have heard about it before and wanted to try it, but never actually have. So I headed over to the website for some inspiration and decided to try it on toast with avocado and it will be a frequent on my breakfast menu from now on. I am also going to be trying it with salad this week too. 

If you would like a chance to try out some of the fabulous Rich Glen Products and win a Rich Glen Sample pack,  simply comment below telling me what you do to get over the dinner cooking blues in your house. 


For an extra entry simply head on over and like the Rich Glen facebook page and comment back here letting me know that you did.

Entries will close next Wednesday 28th of March 2012 and will be drawn on Thursday 29th of Match 2012 and announce on the MahliMoo facebook page and via email.

Edit: I can't believe I forgot to include this, but there was a question in the comments about where you can purchase these products. They are available for purchase through the Rich Glen Olive Oil website and you can also view where else they are available for purchase here.

I have just drawn the winner to the Rich Glen Sample Pack and it is Colleen with her comment:When cookings a breeze
Cook enough to freeze
When in the dinner cooking blues
Open the freezer, cookings a cruise!

I don't have your contact details Colleen, so please contact me through the contact tab on the blog to claim your prize. If I haven't heard from you by Saturday morning I will have to re-drawn. 

Edit: So I had to redrawn this giveaway. The new winner is Effie! Congratulations! Can you email me at amyrea @ rocketmail.com 



Disclaimer: I received these products for the purpose of review. No money was offered or received for this post. All opinions are my own.

The Rainbow Party

Well the Rainbow Party is over! It poured with rain all day so we didn't end up using all the decorations for fear that the rain would wreck them, but we still got out the paddling pool and the jumping castle and put the kids swimmers on as planned... they were going to get wet anyway.

For the food table we had a lot of colour and used a ruffled crepe paper back drop (tutorial for ruffled crepe paper from Made) to, you know, add more colour!

Some of the foods were- 

 a rainbow fruit platter

 Rainbow Jellies

M&M's, Skittles and multicoloured popcorn

I did also make some rainbow fudge but it started melting to fast for me to be able to put it out.

To drink we had rainbow punch

We played pass the parcel and the kids got to whack a pinata

Even Ethan had a go!

We set up a paddling pool for the kids as well as the jumping castle... and I have just realised that I have no photos of the kids on the jumping castle, oops!

And here is the cake:

And then the kids went home with these party bags.

They were filled with balloons, coloured pencils, notepads and some chocolate money. We had planned on doing a treasure hunt for the pot of gold under the rainbow, but due to they rain, they went home with the gold in their party bags instead.

Mahli declared it the best party ever. And we are all settling in for an early night and a DVD on the couch. It certainly is the weather for it.

Summer = Lots of Salad

I don't know about you, but when the weather heats up I really don't like cooking dinner. The kitchen is hot enough without having to stand in front of a hot plate/oven to get dinner cooked.

This means that BBQ's and salads are on the menu quite a bit here.

A few weeks back we were asked to review some products by the name of  Rich Glen Olives. I hadn't heard of them before but was keen to try them out. With B's Italian heritage and our recent trip to Melbourne inciting his love of Italian food I am looking for a good olive oil and I was also keen to try out their ready made salad dressing too. I find the run of the mill 'french' and 'italian' dressing a bit blah, so was excited to try their Poppy's Salad Dressing.

We used the Salad Dressing on our basic salad we had for dinner last night and lets just say it is to die for!

Ok, I know my salad doesn't look that great, but OMG it was delish!

 All three kids thought is was great and ate all their dinner. So that gives it major props in my book. I have also been told that the dressing is great on steaks and makes a great sandwich topping too!

Now, if like me you haven't heard of Rich Glen Olives they are situated on the banks of the Murray River in Yarrawonga, VIC. Which I am told it the heart of Victoria's gourmet food and wine region. They are also one Australia's largest family owned and operated olive groves in Australia.

These guys have also just started a Facebook page and would love it if you popped over and said Hi. And for some great recipe ideas why not check out the website: Rich Glen Olive Oil

Over the next few weeks I will be trying out there Zesty Lemon and Lime Olive Oil and the Signature First Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil so keep your eyes peeled for the recipes.

A Handmade Christmas: Food Treats

We all love receiving baked good at Christmas right?! Well here are a few ideas you could try this year.

I have been seeing the Cookie Mix in a Jar on the internet for ages and this year I am finally giving it a whirl. My Mum doesn't get the appeal though... so I don't think I will be giving one to her.

I found this fab tutorial last week and it comes with a cute little printable label. Here are how mine turned out:

Again I reused some old jars. This mix fit perfectly into a Nescafe Jar.


I have been trying to think of something to give my 18yr old Cousin that would fit into my Handmade Christmas theme and came across the concept of Candy Can Vodka!

Source: scarymommy.com via Amy on Pinterest

What rock have I been living under to have never heard of candy flavoured Vodka? That idea is genius!

Another gift you can't go wrong with is Chocolate Truffles.

Image source: weheartit.com

Who doesn't love Truffles? I haven't made any this week as well it is a bit to early for Christmas baking...  but here are a few of the recipes I used last year with great success:

Ingredients:

• 225g good-quality dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 175ml double cream
• Icing sugar, to dust
• Cocoa powder, sifted, to roll

Method: 

1. Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Place cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then immediately pour over chocolate. Mix until chocolate has melted. Be warned do not attempt to taste the ganache, you may not have enough mixture to make your truffles after you have finished 'tasting'...
   
   Set aside at room temperature, covered, for 1-1 1/2 hours to cool completely and until set. Use a teaspoon to spoon out bite-sized pieces.
   Roll in cocoa to finish.
   For a flavoured truffles you can add peppermint, orange, rum- your options are endless.
   

And it wouldn't be Christmas without Shortbread.

Image Source: Weheartit.com

I love a good Shortbread and this recipe is a cracker, Traditional Shortbread Recipe. I have made it a few times and it always comes out perfect.


Simply wrap in some cellophane and ribbon and you are definitly onto a winner!

Do you give baked gifts at Christmas? Do you have a tried and true Christmas recipe you would love to share? Remember I will be hosting a Handmade Christmas linky that will go live on Saturday.