Roast Pork with Potatoes

One thing I remember my mum teaching me was how to roast a chicken. A basic, but very useful skill. Well tonight I taught Caitie how to roast pork. Nothing too fancy here, just plain roast pork, Mum style. :)

The pork was already scored, so Caitie drizzled it with oil and cracked pepper and salt over it. Then it went in to the oven at 180 degrees Celsius. About 30 minutes later, she cut potatoes and tossed them in oil, salt and pepper too, and in they went. About 40 minutes later we popped some frozen mixed veges on to boil and bumped the oven up to 200 degrees for the last few minutes to help the potatoes and pork crisp up a little.



Pretty darn good looking roast pork for about the most basic 'recipe' you can get! :)

Squidgy Chocolate Brownies

Caitie made the most delicious brownies today. The recipe was from the Kids' Cookbook (no author noted). The book says 'these lovely chocolate brownies are chewy and squidgy in the middle'... Well, they were right!!

Here's how she made them...

First she had to melt 50g chocolate. She did this by heating water in a saucepan and stirring the chocolate in a bowl over the hot water. I call this a water bath, but her dad calls it a bain-marie. :) Either way, the chocolate melts without burning!

Then she added 100g butter and 225g sugar to the chocolate. We were supposed to add a teaspoon of vanilla essence too, but we didn't have any! Oops!



Then Caitie cracked two eggs (without getting ANY shell in there - way to go Caitie!) and beat them before adding them to the mix. Then she sifted 50g flour, half a teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt. She mixed it all together and poured it in to a baking tin. Then it was baked for 28 minutes. After 28 minutes it didn't quite looked cooked, but a skewer came out clean, so it must have been ready.



They were moist and delicious. Possibly the best brownies I've ever eaten! YUM!

Gingerbread Biscuits

Caitie made gingerbread biscuits today. This recipe was from the Kid's Cookbook (no author noted).

She preheated the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, then sifted 225g flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 teaspoons ground ginger.



Then she melted 100g butter, 75g brown sugar and 2 tablespoons golden syrup in a saucepan.



Then the mixture was added to the flour mix and combined in to a dough. Caitie cut out butterfly shapes and we popped them in to the oven.





We followed Baker Dad's advice (from the chocolate layer cake entry) where he recommended we put the timer on for less than the stated time because all ovens cook at different speeds. The recipe said 10-12 minutes. Well, we put the timer on for 8 minutes and they were well done! Thank goodness we hadn't put them on for 10 or 12!



They were fairly subtle on the ginger, but quite nice. :)

Granny Rhodes' Almond Snaps

This morning we had a quick baking session before school, as we were running a wee bit low on stuff for the lunchboxes. We kinda cheated and used the leftover dough from the last time we made Almond Snaps, that had been sitting in the fridge.

Since that previous time, we've bought Caitie a rolling pin that's more her size, so rolling out the dough was much easier this time.



The recipe said to bake them at 190 degrees Celsius for ten minutes, but after just six minutes, they were well done! Never mind, there were a couple that were a bit overcooked, but I taste-tested one of the wee 'pigs' (the other shapes were clouds) and they tasted good!



In to the lunchbox for today's school lunch they go! Yum!

Muesli Bars - FAIL!

For those of you following along at home, don’t try this one! It was a fail. I considered not posting it, but then remembered one of the judges on Junior Masterchef telling the contestants “You have to fail sometimes, because that’s the only way to learn from your mistakes. The important thing is not to give up.” So here you go!

Tonight we decided to try making our own muesli bars for school lunches. We bought oats, sunflower seeds, mixed dried berries, dried apricots and peanuts.

We stirred them all up with some honey (to make them all stick together!).




And then we squashed them in to a baking tray and baked them at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. They looked good! Unfortunately when we tried to cut them, they just fell to pieces.

Caitie and her brother tried eating them as muesli, but I don’t think it was a hit.



After some research, it appeared our biggest mistake was a lack of butter. Oops! Next time we’ll follow a recipe!!

Four Tier Chocolate Layer Cake

We sat down and watched Junior Masterchef (Australia) last night and Caitie asked if we could make Donna Hay’s Four Tier Chocolate Layer Cake. Well, why not? :)

So Sunday morning, Caitie and her dad started making the cake.

The oven was preheated to 150 degrees Celsius (fan bake) and then they heated 125ml water, 60g butter and 2 tablespoons cocoa in a saucepan until the butter melted. 1 cup of flour, half a teaspoon of baking soda and 1 cup of sugar was put in a bowl and the hot cocoa mix was added and whisked. Then came 1 egg, quarter of a cup of buttermilk and half a teaspoon of vanilla essence.





Then the hard part. Uh oh, our tins were much bigger than the ones they used on the show! They had 12cm tins and we had 20cm tins. Oh well. They carefully divided the mixture between the two tins, weighing each tin to make sure it had half the mixture in it.



The tins then went in the oven for 40 minutes. Caitie was instructed by her dad to ‘always set the timer a few minutes less than what the recipe says and check it then, because different ovens bake at different speeds.’ Ooh, hadn’t thought of that. So the timer was set for 37 minutes. I think the cake actually took slightly more than 40 minutes to cook though.

After the cakes were cooled, they had to be sliced in half horizontally. But because our tins were so much bigger than the ones they used on the show, our cakes were thinner. Caitie made the decision to go with two tiers instead of four. Thankfully some of the kids on the show had the same problem, so we didn’t feel so bad!!

Caitie’s dad did cut the rounded tops off the cakes though, so the layers would nice and flat and smooth.



Caitie made the chocolate cream cheese frosting which involved beating 50g butter and 250g of cream cheese until pale and creamy, then adding 1 cup of icing sugar and quarter of a cup of cocoa and beating until light and fluffy. Easy!



Spreading the frosting on was easy, but then came the really fun bit – decorating the cake!!





Caitie tried her hand at making whipped cream rosettes, but it’s harder than it looks! Her dad ended up doing these for her.







Then she added chocolate finger biscuits, mini marshmallows and chocolate buttons. Oh, and don’t forget the sprinkles on top of the cream rosettes!







Ta da!





Caitie and her brother liked the cake, but it was far too sweet for the adults. Still, not a bad accomplishment Caitie! Well done!

Decorating Cookies

This morning we headed out to the Birkenhead market to catch up with Little Cookies who had a stall where kids could decorate cookies. This was all the fun, without the mess!





It was also a good practice run for the cake Caitie has to decorate tomorrow...

Banana Bread

This is the second time Caitie has made this banana bread. The original recipe is from The ABC of Kids Cooking book by Woman's Day. We took out the berries and the resulting banana bread is just so yum.
Caitie nagged me all day to make this. "Mum, can we make the banana bread today?" "Mum, when are we going to make the banana bread?" "Is it time to make the banana bread, Mum?" "Mum, you promised!!"

Our ingredients were 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, half a teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 cup brown sugar, 3 bananas, 125g butter, 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

We preheated the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and greased and lined a loaf tin. Then we sifted the flour, cinnamon and baking powder. Yep, we're getting good at sifting! Stir in the sugar, then we had to put the banana, butter, egg and vanilla essence in a seperate jug, mashing the bananas with a fork which Caitie enjoyed.

When the wet ingredients were all mashed and mixed, we combined them with the dry ingredients and Caitie poured the mix into the prepared loaf tin.



We baked it for 55 minutes, then Caitie tested it with a skewer (actually a chopstick!) to check that it was cooked. It was!





When it was cool, we all enjoyed a piece. So good.



It was hard to put the rest in the container for school lunches and not just eat it right away!

Poached Eggs on Toast

I'm not sure if it was a late breakfast or an early lunch... I suppose you'd call it brunch. :) Either way, it was poached eggs on toast.
Caitie is getting pretty good at toasting bread under the grill, but she's just starting to learn the different stages of heating water. Simmering is the little bubbles, boiling is the big bubbles. :)

I cracked the eggs for her, but she put them in to the saucepan.



I fished the eggs out of the pan for her and we added a touch of salt to hers, and pepper and salt to mine. A delish start to the day!

Hamburgers

We decided on hamburgers for dinner tonight. We bought beef mince (ground beef for any Americans reading this!), lettuce, tomatoes and eggs. For those same Americans, yes, we enjoy eggs on our hamburgers here!! :) We knew that Caitie's dad and brother both enjoyed beetroot, so we bought some of that too.
But how do you cook beetroot? I've always bought it tinned before. A call to Caitie's grandad found out the answer - wrap it in tinfoil and roast it for an hour. We can do that! So we wrapped it in tinfoil and popped it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius while we got to work on making the burger patties.
We didn't have a recipe for the burger patties, but Caitie's dad suggested adding breadcrumbs, egg, salt, pepper and herbs to the beef mince. Caitie toasted two slices of bread under the grill (we don't have a toaster) and we crumbled them in to the mince. Then we added the leftover egg whites from our smurf biscuits and the leftover egg from our almond snaps. We added some parsley and some freshly ground black pepper and sea salt.

Caitie had to divide the meat in to six portions, which I helped her with, then shape them in to patties which she did by herself.



Then I fried them for her. She asked if she could fry them and I said no, she's still too little to be using the frypan. She burst in to tears and said 'Well I'm not a proper cook then, if I can't do everything!' Aw, Caitie! I reassured her that she was far above most children her age, and that she would learn to do the hot stuff as she got older. She soon snapped out of it, she's not the type to sulk for long.



We lightly toasted the burger buns and then I chopped the tomato while Caitie was in charge of the lettuce. Caitie's dad poached the eggs for us and we got him to do the messy job of peeling and slicing the roasted beetroot (which was cooked perfectly!).

How's that for a burger?!



Yum!!

Fairy Wing Fluffies

Caitie found this recipe for 'Fairy Wing Fluffies' in a Christmas book I gave her last December called The Fairies Christmas Wishes by Jen Watts. I made these myself as a kid and called them angel cakes or butterfly cakes, but I'm happy to go wtih Fairy Wing Fluffies! :)

So we needed 125g butter, three quarters of a cup of caster sugar, 2 eggs, 2 cups self raising flour, half a cup of milk and then whipped cream, strawberry jam and sprinkles to finish.

First we preheated the oven to 180 degrees Celsius, then creamed the butter and sugar. Caitie knew what to look for this time, after learning how to cream butter and sugar for the smurf biscuits. We added the eggs and then the flour and finally added the milk 'a little at a time.'

I had to help her with the filling of the first few patty cases.



But then she got the hang of it...



I helped her cut the tops of them to make the 'wings' but the cream, jam and sprinkles were easy. Then we ate them! Yum!!

Granny Rhodes' Almond Snaps

This recipe for Almond Snaps comes from Caitie's great-great-grandmother. It's the first time we've ever tried it, so a bit of an experiment.
The original recipe used ounces, which of course we don't use anymore in New Zealand, so we had to convert everything.
So we needed 8oz flour, 6oz butter, 4oz caster sugar, half a beaten egg and 2oz ground almonds, which became 226g flour, 170g butter, 113g caster sugar, half a beaten egg and 56g ground almonds.

First task was sifting the flour. Caitie's a pro at this now, after making the smurf biscuits earlier!



Then a fun new task - rubbing the butter in to the flour. I've always done this with my fingertips against my thumb, but we deferred to Caitie's dad (the baker) who suggested that simply rubbing it between her hands would be easiest. I think he was probably right.





After stirring in the rest of the ingredients, we had to chill the dough for half an hour. After half an hour, the dough wasn't that cold, so perhaps we should have put it in the freezer?
Then our instructions were to roll it thinly. Baker Dad only has a huge stainless steel rolling pin in the kitchen, which was a bit tricky for Caitie to manage, so thankfully he arrived home from work in time to roll it for us.



The recipe we were using was from Caitie's great-great-grandmother, so it was quite old. After rolling it out thinly, we were supposed to stamp in to rounds and then cut out the center using a thimble! Ha ha! Well, we didn't have a thimble handy, so we just used cookie cutters. Then Caitie pricked them with a fork and they were in to the oven for ten minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit which was 190 degrees Celsius for us.



Perfecto! We pronounced Granny Rhodes' almond snaps to be quite good!