Recipe #14 +15: Spicy fried pork balls with garlic and ginger dipping sauce!

So it was the evening we had all been waiting for! The celebration on our minds, especially Mum's! It was her birthday! I won't say how old she turned or she may be cranky! Anyway I was contributing to the menu with some sort of starters. I came across this pork ball recipe and thought I would give it a go! I made these and also some cous cous for the mains.

So what can I say about this dish! Firstly very time consuming (I was up till midnight), especially seeing as I had to finely dice all the ingredients as we don't have a food processor! grrr! I can't wait till I have my own kitchen and can have an awesome food processor! maybe a red one.
The pork balls had a lovely flavour! just beautiful! I was making them the night before the party and we probably ate almost a quarter of them that night! Well mainly Will stealing away as quick as I could fry them! The texture was ok, I would of preferred them to be a little crispier on the outside. Maybe baked in the oven would of been better, less time consuming and less fattening also!
The dipping sauce was a little disappointing, in that I didn't think it matched the pork balls very well. Would of been great with some seafood though!

Overall a great party starter and all of them were gobbled up within 15 minutes or so.
A nice way to begin a evening celebration of a wonderful lady! Happy Birthday Mum!!

Awesome!

Well all the muffins and nearly all the gingerbread men got sold! and we raised over $230!! enough said!!
Ps. Yummm

Recipe #13: Many kinds of muffins!

Hmmm not sure what I think about this muffin recipe. The recipe calls for a lot of vegetable oil which yes, it does make the muffins crunchy and crusty, although it takes away from the sweetness a bit too much I think. I have used other recipes I like better, especially one from the cafe I used to work at! That recipe is gold!

The good thing about this recipe is that you can use it as a base recipe and make as many different flavours as you like. I doubled the recipe as I need lots of muffins to sell at uni tomorrow (raising money for cancer council). I made three different flavours: mixed berry, double choc-chip and my favourite, banana, date and walnut. No I am not a pig and yes I have tried all the flavours as I made some mini muffins as well, just for me to taste test. hehe. It will be interesting to see which flavour is the most popular tomorrow!

I don't think I would use this recipe again for sweet muffins, a little too oily and bland (maybe needed some vanilla essence or salt). I would use it for savoury muffins though and just omit the sugar. A good foundation recipe for bacon and cheese muffins or something like that.

I enjoyed making up flavours and experimenting on a rainy windy day!

Recipe #12: Gingerbread biscuits!!

Well what a lovely day to be home, baking lots of yummy things, drinking tea, listening to Katie Noonan and cranking the heater! Yes you may have guessed it is pouring outside and the wind has just picked up. Looking out the window everything is grey! It is suppose to be like this tomorrow too which is a bit of a shame because tomorrow I am hosting 'Australia's biggest morning tea' at uni to raise money for the cancer council. Therefore I have been baking today so there are things to sell tomorrow. I have many wonderful fiends who are baking yummy things too!

So these gingerbread biscuits I am thinking of selling for about 20 cents, or maybe 50 cents. They are only small and they taste pretty yummy; nice spices! I am a little disappointed with the texture of them as they are rather hard and I prefer softer biscuits. I think there is nothing I could of done to change this as the recipe states they can be used as christmas tree decorations and last a while. I am assuming that if they are harder, the better they will keep. It was quite a long process to make these as you have to chill the dough overnight and then there are many steps involved when rolling and cutting them out; in and out of the fridge a lot waiting for time to pass!

Anyway I will see how they sell tomorrow at uni! Hopefully they are a hit! Nice with a cuppa on a chilly day, which tomorrow will be!

Recipe #11: Beef Stew! Another delicious evening at my household!

Hmmm..what to say about this stew. I have mixed feelings and there were mixed reviews! Ashley said it was too spicy for her (softy!), although Will and I thought there could of been a little more spice! We also thought it was a little bland! Some more spice/herds could of helped. Mum, being a little tipsy from the left over wine, ate gleefully, giggling away and being as pleased as ever with the flavours, giving it a 9! She was, however a little disapproving of the cost this blog is causing her, seeing as the meat was 12 dollars alone, so I gave her 5 dollars towards it and also told her I would mention her in my blog! So attention everyone ! I would like to thank my mother for her CONTINUED support of this blog, as she is a financial sponsor and official food critic! haha! I personally don't know what she is complaining about! She gets to eat lots of yummy food! So thanks Mum.

Ash also gave a 9, so glad the guest enjoyed it! Always a good thing.
I would probably give a 7. I think some crusty bread or some rice would of been good to soak up the juices. I didn't serve bread with it as we had just had the bruschetta, but next time bread would make it I reckon! Could of been more flavours in the stew. In saying that, the meat was awesome! Chunky tender beef on a chilly evening as the fire crackles away in the other room! I love it! Thank you God for cows!

Made it to the tenth recipe!! Bruschetta!!

WOW this was probably the best bruschetta I have ever had (excluding the one Kristina made me at her house with home grown tomatoes and basil: and she is italian so she knows what she is doing)!! but seriously one of the best ever and that says something, seeing as I order it quite often at restaurants! I had a piece with Mum and she stated 'this is the real ma-coy!'. I couldn't resist and had another when Ashley arrived! I could probably have another piece now, even at 11.15pm! I am using a lot of exclamation marks!

The recipe doesn't specify much about the topping as you can use many different toppings. I stuck to the traditional tomato topping and the recipe only said tomatoes and red onion. I also added basil, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. The bread made it though! Crunchy hot italian bread rubbed with garlic and salt and drizzled with olive oil!

Simply delicious! Fresh flavours! complementing textures! Seriously try it!

Recipe #9: Carrot Cake!!! Seriously yum!

The guests waited in suspense as the frosting laced the cake and the candles were lit! Lily shuffled in front of me trying to protect the flames from being blown out, as I carried the masterpiece into the fire-lit lounge room. Happy Birthday sounded to the heavens and then the cake was served, oh and alas what a sensation it was! (I know alas doesn't fit in that context, but we were playing a game last night were you make up your own fairytale story thing and alas was said often: that somehow justifies it I guess, haha).

Moving on, this cake is divine! When Natalie exclaimed that carrot cake is one of her favourites, I was delighted as carrot cake (and cheesecake) are probably my all time fav cakes! I wanted a carrot cake for my 21st but Mum said no-one will eat it as it's not a popular choice! WHY NOT people? Like seriously, how good is it!! and the cream cheese frosting yummmm!!

In the past I have made carrot cake and it has always been too dry or too moist that it takes like your eating oil! This recipe, however was perfect! Loving and moist but not too much! When I asked everyone what they thought, it received many 9's out of 10! Natalie's only criticism was that there could of been a little less frosting (or icing for Nat's sake) although this comes down to personal choice. I purposely made double the amount of cream cheese frosting as I love that part! with the walnuts also= so good!

My only criticism would be to grate the carrot finer. The chunkiness was fine, although I think the flavour would of been more evenly spread and more enhanced if the carrot was grated finer.



Definitely a successful recipe for a lovely birthday celebration for a lovely girl! Very fitting: a grand recipe for a grand evening!
Sitting round the wood fire on an Autumn evening, laughing and chatting with friends about life, the universe and everything with some carrot cake and ice-cream! Awesome!

Recipe #8: Rhubarb, apple and date crumble!!

'This dish could have potentially lost us the challenge...'
With masterchef in the background, I sit here with a full belly of 2 servings of sweet rhubarb, apple and date crumble!
So this dish was full of winter flavours...although it would of been really enhanced with a cinnamon stick!

So Natalie's critique:
Her thinking was that the flavours were beautiful, the down side though was the textures (which I agree) and a little too sweet. The sweetness I blame the recipe for, as it said 'a decent amount of sugar' which could be taken in many ways. The texture was a little too mushy; I think it would of been better if I simmered the fruit for less time before putting it all in the oven. Natalie has the same opinion as me when it comes to texture in this dish! When too mushy, it turns to baby food, and you want the flavours to linger! and come on!! CRUMBLE should be CRUMBLY and crunchy and this was not crunchy enough! And according to masterchef, texture in a dish makes up 50-60 % of the final product!

Although the texture could be tweaked, this dish was a lovely way to finish a sunny gusty Autumn day! I love the dates! Loved the crumbly flavour! Thanks to Steph for making rhubarb crumble earlier this week and making me crave it! hehe

Oh and Wills opinion: More crumble! as a man would say! They want less fruit and more gutsy stuff! haha...although Nat and I do agree!

So 7's and 8s out of 10> a great success! Although this post sounds like a negative critique, this crumble was deeeelicious!!

Recipe #7: Chicken with red-wine vinegar and tomato (which was actually white wine vinegar)

Well this recipe turned out quite different to how it could of turned out if I followed the recipe more correctly!

There were a few ingredients I didn't have and seeing as I have a million assignments for uni, I figured I don't have much time to go to the shops...also not much time now as must get stuck into uni work so I will make this quick!

So I had no red-wine vinegar, so used white-wine vinegar instead which seems to work fine, although I can't compare seeing as I haven't tried the real recipe! I also had no shallots so used spring onion and brown onion instead, which worked well! I LOVED the chunks of garlic! really yummmm!

I also added some sultanas which became massive and juicy and burst in your mouth! Added sultanas to saucy dishes has became my new obsession! I cooked the dish a little differently..in the oven for about an hour after browning the chicken with some seasoned flour..

So I sort of modified the recipe a little..but isn't that what we are suppose to do? Use our creativity and all that!

It turned out well..the vinegar was quite a strong flavour and a little overpowering..maybe using the right one would of helped! hehe

Overall, a yummy dish on a windy cold lonely Autumn night!

Recipe #6: Self saucing chocolate pudding...

mmmmm chocolatey goodness with walnuts and coffee and some good mates after some spicey thai..what more could you want in a Saturday night? Oh I know!! maybe some cream to go with it!! yeah bad joke I know!

Anyway was quite a success! Well if you could judge the whole pudding gone in less than half an hour a success, then this was one! This 'success' was largely indebted to Will for taking probably a quarter of the pudding!

Unfortunately I don't think that is all that measures success...the quality of the pudding certainly is also important. In this case, I thought the sauce aspect kinda let me down. Let me explain. My view on self saucing puddings is that it should ooze chocolatey goodness and be really moist, however this recipe for me was not saucey enough. Steph also agreed with me in this aspect and thought it could of been more saucey, however she did give it an 8 and a half out of ten. So despite the lack of enough sauce, it was still very yummy! Especially with some cream and a good chat, a nice warm moment! The walnuts I loved; added some nuttiness and as Steph said, they brought out the other flavours also.

Overall a lovely end to an Autumn evening.

Signing off, the red and white apron baker..