Category Archives: Kitchen Diary

Kitchen Diary

POTATO CAKES

23 Comments

I wanted something different for tea the other night, and I thought that because I had heaps of potatoes that I would give potato cakes a go.
DSC_1654[1]These were delicious, a bit labour intensive, but  very worth it.

Ingredients:

  • 10 large potatoes, peeled and grated
  • 5 rashes  of bacon
  • cheese
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Wash and drain potato and squeeze out excess moisture, place into a bowl.  Chop up bacon and cheese add with rest of ingredients to the grated potato.

Mix together until combined.

Heat a non stick frypan and fry in spoonfuls until brown.

ENJOY!!

PS. If you don’t have a non stick pan use a normal one and fry in olive oil.

 

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Kitchen Diary

SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE CHIP BISCUITS

10 Comments

This is our own recipe. My sourdough starter was starting to overflow and I wanted to try some biscuits (cookies).

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These turned out just lovely and after working on the timing of the cooking, we made a heap of them.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups self raising flour
  • 1 cup raw sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 250 grams chocolate chips
  • 2 beaten eggs
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 2 cups starter

Mix dry ingredients add wet ingredients and chocolate chips. Mix until combined.

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Drop teaspoonfuls onto a paper lined baking tray.

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Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees) for 14 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking tray and then place on rack until completely cold.

Try not to eat too many.

PS. You could cut this recipe in half if you didn’t want to make so many biscuits.

PPS. The biscuits will be quite soft until they cool.

ENJOY!!!

 

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Cake recipes

SOUR CREAM APPLE CAKE

18 Comments

I made this cake to take with us this week to the Eisteddfod. We took a picnic lunch so cake is always a necessary addition.

Even though it looked quite plain, this cake is lovely and moist and full of flavour.
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Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon soda
  • 3/4 cup stewed apple or apple butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Sugar mix

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup sultanas

Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and blend on low speed until moistened, then medium speed for 2 minutes.

Pour 1/2 the batter in a greased  and lined 13 x 9 inch cake pan. Sprinkle with sugar mix and then spoon the other 1/2 of the batter on top.

Bake at 180 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.

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ENJOY!!!

 

 

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Kitchen Diary

BOUQUET BIRTHDAY CAKE

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IMG_0755 (1)This is the cake I made for our daughters 10th birthday. I saw something like this on a blog link up but for the life of me I couldn’t find it again, so I am sorry that I can’t link you back there.

I used my basic chocolate cake recipe with added raspberries.

Here is the recipe.

I layered the muffins in the lined bowl, I only iced the top ones, because these muffins are nice enough by themselves.

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Tie a bit of ribbon around the bowl and it looks like a lovely floral bouquet.

 

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Kitchen Diary

BAKED POTATOES REVISITED

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On Friday night we had friends over for our daughters 10th birthday.

We had baked potatoes with bolognaise sauce, coleslaw, grated cheese and sour cream.

They were delicious and everyone really enjoyed them, and they were so easy.

We had cooked potatoes and sauce left, which is great for the next day.

On Saturday night we had some more visitors and we were just going to have baked potatoes again but my oldest daughter suggested we should turn the left overs into a baked potato casserole.

This was a great idea.

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We sliced up the potatoes and layered it with the bolognaise. We covered the whole lot with grated cheese and baked it in a moderate oven for about an hour.

We served it again with the coleslaw and sour cream and was it delicious.

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Kitchen Diary

CREAMY SALMON PASTA

12 Comments

This is a delicious creamy pasta and so easy to make.
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Ingredients:

  • homemade sourdough noodles (or any other pasta)
  • 1 x 375 gram tin of salmon
  • 1 x 375 gram tin of coconut cream
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 1 small sweet potato
  • 1 cup corn kernals
  • chicken stock or 1 packet chicken soup mix
  • pinch salt
  • 5 boiled eggs

Peel and cube sweet potato, boil until soft.  Drain off liquid and add all other ingredients except eggs.

Meanwhile boil noodles and drain. Add cream mixture to noodles and lastly add chopped boiled eggs. Stir until combined.

Serve while still hot.

ENJOY!!

 

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Kitchen Diary

QUICK AND EASY NACHOS

18 Comments

The other night I wanted something quick and easy for tea, so I made a special version of nachos.
DSC_1450We had some of those grain chips – not brand name ones, just the ones from Aldi in the cupboard so I thought that I would use these instead of corn chips.

Ingredients:

  • mince cooked up with onions and tomatoes
  • lettuce – chopped up
  • grain chips
  • coleslaw  (left over from birthday party )
  • grated cheese
  • sour cream

We put the lettuce on the plates first then added the chips, on top of this went the mince, coleslaw, cheese and sour cream.

Now I know this probably isn’t really nachos, but it was absolutely delicious anyway.

 

 

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Cake recipes

FIRST BIRTHDAY CAKE

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I had been given the honour, the privilege, the joy of making the birthday cake for our No 2 granddaughters first birthday and dedication day.DSC_1417I used my usual chocolate cake recipe.

Ingredients – THIS IS THE BASIC RECIPE BUT I DOUBLED THE AMOUNTS WHICH THEN ADDED TIME ON THE BAKING. IT TOOK ABOUT 1 HOUR TO COOK BUT I CHECKED IT AT 30 MINS AND TURNED IT AROUND AND CHECKED IT AGAIN AT 45 MINS.

  • 3 cups self raising flour
  • 2 cups raw sugar
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups cold water
  • 10 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup raspberries

Mix dry ingredients, add raspberries and liquid. Mix all together and bake in a moderate oven for approximately 30 mins. Test with a skewer to see if done.

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I cooled the cake and then started decorating it.  No 2 daughter gave me a hand.

We iced the sides of the cake with chocolate ganache and the top we iced with green tinged white chocolate ganache. This is to give the impression of grass.

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No 2 daughter cutting the icing to make pickets

We used ready to roll icing to make a picket fence and placed this all around the sides of the cake.

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On the top we used ready to roll icing that we coloured with different colours.  We cut out flowers and placed them on the top of the cake.

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I bought some chocolate letters and used these to spell out happy birthday Miss M. In the pack there were some chocolate hearts and stars and we used them too.

We then added some silver balls to just add a bit of sparkle. Overall we thought it turned out just great.

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Cake recipes

CHOCOLATE APRICOT CAKE

16 Comments

Now you might not think that chocolate and apricot would go together in a cake but this was just delicious and easy.

DSC_1364[1]Ingredients

  • 3 cups Self Raising Flour
  • 2 cups Raw Sugar
  • 3 tablespoons Cocoa Powder
  • 1 x 375 gram packet chocolate melts
  • pinch Salt
  • bottled apricots
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Mix dry ingredients, add chocolate melts.

I opened a bottled of home preserved ones so it probably equaled approximately 750 ml.

Add apricots and juice and olive oil. Mix this together and then add enough of the 2 cups of water to make a nice moist mixture.

Spoon into greased and lined tin and bake for about 30 mins in a moderate oven.

This cake was delicious and moist and didn’t need icing, but you could ice it with chocolate icing.

 

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Kitchen Diary

MY BEEF ENCHILADAS

18 Comments

What goes together better than mince, tomatoes and cheese?? These three ingredients are almost a staple here and we are blessed to have our own beef most of the time.DSC_1320

I was looking for something for tea the other night and enchiladas came to mind.  I actually have this “need” to make things from scratch, so I made the flat bread for this meal.  Sometimes this “need” is good, sometimes not.

The flat breads weren’t hard to make, but it did take a bit of time and I took my daughters advice and kept them warm so they wouldn’t crack.
DSC_1319I opened a jar of canned mince (ground beef) and a jar of tomatoes.  I put some tomatoes on the base of my casserole dish and then saved some for the top.

To assemble I just placed some mince on the flat bread and then rolled it up and placed it upside down in a casserole dish with the tomato on the bottom.  I continued this until all the flat breads and mince was all used up.

I then poured over some more tomatoes and then covered the top with grated cheese. I baked this in a moderate oven until all the cheese was brown – about 45 minutes.

Served with a fresh salad and some home made tzatziki this was a most delicious meal.

PS. My canned beef has already been cooked up with onion and seasonings.