Apricot, Date Bars

Recipe from NMAA Cooks
Images by Yasmin

This is a healthy fruit bar to have as a snack in lunch boxes, with coffee, for afternoon and morning tea, or as a snack during the day. It has a crusty appearance and texture similar to shortbread. The flavour is delicious though!

Ingredients:

• 125g dried apricots, chopped
• hot water
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 3/4 cup coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 185g butter or margarine, melted

Method:
Soak chopped apricots in hot water for 30 minutes, drain. Put in bowl with sugar, sifted flour, coconut, dates, salt. Add melted butter, mix well. Spread mixture into greased lamington tin. Bake in moderate oven for approximately 25 minutes or until cooked. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and cut into squares.

Variations:

• Omit dried apricots and double quantity of dates
• Omit 1/4 cup flour and substitute 1/4 cup wheatgerm

Cornflake Cookies

Recipe from Hannah
Images by Yasmin

This is a VERY quick and simple cookie to bake in a hurry when you want something to snack on. I do warn you though that it is mostly margarine and is very bad for you. The mixture is very yummy though! I know when I made it that there wasn't much mixture left to make the cookies! The texture is very nice, a combination of crunchy and soft with the overall sweet flavour! YUM! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 250g margarine (can put in only 200g if wanted)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla flavouring
• 1 1/2 cups cornflakes

Method:
Preheat oven to 180'C fan-forced. Sift together flour and baking powder in one bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Add sifted dry ingredientsand cornflakes. Mix for about 2 minutes. Drop in tblsps onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake in moderate oven for about 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown. Makes approx. 30 (unless you eat the dough!!!)

Zucchini, Cheese and Chorizo Twist

Recipe from Recipes magazine
Images by Yasmin

This is a truely scrumptious dinner! It's texture is similar to rizotto, but in pastry! This meal is perfect for taking a plate or dinner over to someone's house to share, it is really big and very filling. Dig in!

Ingredients:

• 3 large zucchini
• 2 tblsp vegetable or olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 cup cooked long-grain white rice
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped chives
• 2 sheets of frozen shortcrust pastry, thawed
• 100g packet of chorizo slices, or 1 chorizo sliced
• 3-4 hard boiled eggs, peeled, halved
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds

                                                                         (Uncooked)                                                                       

                                                                          (Cooked)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180'C fan forced. Grease and line a large baking tray with baking paper. Coarsely grate zucchini; using hands, squeeze out excess liquid. Heat oil in large frying pan over moderate heat. Add onion and garlic; cook and stir mixture for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Add zucchini; cook for 2-3 minutes or until zucchini begins to wilt. Drain excess liquid. Cool to room temperature. Add rice, cheese and chives. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Place pastry on prepared tray. Allow the ends to overlap for approximately 4cm (this will make the dinner longer to hold all of the filling).  Gently press pastry together to seal. Arrange chorizo slices in centre of pastry, leaving a 7-8cm boarder. Spread half of the zucchini mixture over chorizo, top with hard boiled eggs, then remaining zucchini mixture.

Using a sharp knife, make cuts at 2cm intervals in the pastry surrounding the filling. Bring ends up to enclose filling and bring alternating strips up over filling to enclose. Brush with egg, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Remove tray from oven. Stand for 5 minutes. Slice to serve.

Simplicity Cake/ Multicoloured Cake

Recipe from NMAA Cooks
Images by Yasmin

This is the most basic recipe on the planet and should be the first thing everyone learns to cook; a cake. Once you learn how to make a cake, you can do many wonderful and creative things to it, such as making a decorative cake or another flavoured cake altogether. I have made many different cakes by adjusting the ingredients or flavouring slightly, such as coffee, orange, lemon, banana, choc chip, chocolate (more my sisters than me) and multicoloured cakes. I am going to explain to you how to make multicoloured cakes on this post following the simplicity cake recipe. This of course is optional. You can just make the basic cake and put it in the oven, your choice! I like to be a bit creative!!!

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the cooked product, because my friends and I ate it before I realised I needed a photo!!! Good times though!

Ingredients:
For simplicity cake:

• 2 tblsp margarine or butter
• 1 cup Self Raising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla flavouring

For multicoloured cake add:

• at least three different food colouring (I chose Blue, Yellow and Pink food colouring)

Method:
Grease a cake, muffin or patty pan tin. Heat oven to 180'C fan-forced. Melt Butter. Add all other ingredients and beat for 3 minutes. Now either bake the simplicity cake for 30 minutes, or cup cake tray for 10 minutes or complete the following:

Separate the mixture evenly into three different bowls (or as many required for the number of different food colours). Add a few drops of food colour into each bowl to make different colours. Stir thoroughly with a knife until the food colouring is completely mixed in. Using a teaspoon, place one colour in the patty pan (in my case), then another and finally the third. Complete this pattern until all of the mixture is gone, make sure to vary your layers and patterns of cake coloured mixture. Be inventive and creative. You may have most of the cup cake being blue and only one spot being yellow and/or pink.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes if a cupcake tray, or 30minutes for a cake tin. Remove once a skewer can be inserted and come out clean.

Post Competition

Hello everyone!

I would just like to inform everyone about the recipe sharing that is happening on Taste of Pearl City. It is an 'Anyone Can Cook' competition which ends this friday. It is a really great way to share you simple and quick recipes with everyone and gather some great ideas too! All you have to do is go to this website: http://tasteofpearlcity.blogspot.com/ and follow the linking process. It is really simple and fun! I hope you get the chance to look and enter! There are some prizes too! I have already entered the following recipes:

Coconut Loaf with Passionfruit Sauce










Scrolls










Incredible Pie












Pasties












These are some of my favourites!!! I hope you share your simple and quick favourites as well!

Cheers,
Yasmin

Honey Loaf

Recipe from NMAA Cooks
Images by Yasmin

This is a sweet treat and a quick fix (cooking time takes a while though). It is very easy to prepare and is very satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 250ml milk
• 125g raw sugar
• 125g runny honey
• 280g wholemeal self-raising flour

Method:
Heat oven to 180'C fan forced. Grease a loaf tin. Heat half quantity of milk and stir in sugar and honey. Add rest of milk. Fold in the flour. Bake 45 mins -1 hour. Delicious with butter when fresh, and honey later on if it ever gets to that stage!!

Hard Work Continues!!!

Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for your support and lovely comments. It was a great feeling to come back to many familiar faces and some new ones as well! I loved reading all of your feedback.

I have had a lovely holiday and even went whale watching for my birthday! Some of the many photos I took are below. The first one is a dolphin and it travelled right underneath our 12 seater, dingy, speed boat! I haven't had the chance yet to crop some of these photos. We had to stay at least 100m away from the whales as not to disturb them in their natural environment. The last photo is a little hard to see but it is a photo of the whales tail in the air.

At one stage I saw a whale (and I caught it on film!) flapping its tail 5 times in a row against the surface of the water! Then I saw the usual tricks, such as waving and flipping. I had so much fun and I would recommend this experience highly. I also recommend not to watch from a big boat, such as the Steve Erwin tour boat, but from the smaller boats with less people, because you are able to see everything with 360 degree views and can talk/hear everyone, especially the tour guide. Our boat was a 12 seater dingy type boat, the fastest boat in the area, from Liquid Getaway. It was so much fun, even if you don't see any exciting whales, the fast ride out and in is definitely a highlight!!! Here is their facebook website for more photos from other trips: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Liquid-Getaway-Mooloolaba-Ocean-Adventures/219270121425346

I hope everyone had a good holiday if you were lucky enough to have one at this time. Wishing everyone all the best for the second half of the year,

Cheers,

Yas

Holiday Break!

Hello everyone!

I would just like to inform you all that I am going away with my family for a week so I will be unable to post any new recipes whilst away. I have a tone to post when I get back so don't forget about me!!!! I hope you all have a lovely week and I will be up and running again with full steam ahead in one weeks time.

Best wishes and safe journeys for those who are also travelling at this time.

Cheers,
Yas

Coffee Square Slice

Recipe from Rae Barr (friend)
Photos by Yasmin

This is a recipe from my Grandma's friend. It is a combination of a coffee cake and a fruit cake. Delicious idea, perfect with coffee and friends. My sister went to Japan recently and she brought me back some mini hello kitty cake tins. So in this cake I transferred some of the mixture into these pans and put the rest in a lamington tin. They turned out so cute!

Ingredients:

• 180g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 350g mixed fruit
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp garam marsala
• 2 cups walnuts
• 1 cup milk, thickened with juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp bi-carb soda
• 1 1/2 cups flour

Method:

Into a saucepan put butter, sugar, fruit, spices and walnuts. Simmer for a few minutes, then cool. In a separate bowl, add milk, lemon and bi-carb soda. Add to saucepan and combine.

Bake in a lamington tin for 35-45 minutes at 180'C fan-forced. Ice with lemon icing and sprinkle with cinnamon.