Super easy 4 ingredient biscuits

I am all about making domestic life as simple as possible while still having that 'home made' feel to life and these biscuits certainly fit the bill.

The actually only have 3 set ingredients (all of which are generally in the pantry) and the 4th can be whatever takes your fancy.

Plus you can freeze the mixture and then just slice it up and bake it for 15 minutes when you need it... which means you are only ever 15 minutes away from 'oh these, I just whipped them up this morning'.

Ingredients:
1 cup icing sugar
250g butter
2 1/2 cups plain flour
Plus whatever else you like - I often add orange/lemon zest, choc chips (or broken up Easter Eggs, stolen from your children, if that's all you have), crushed nuts or just keep the mix plain and press them in to 100s & 1000s before you bake them.

Method:
Use a mixer to beat the butter and icing sugar until fluffy then add the flour and whatever your 4th ingredient is. Kneed until combined then divide in half and roll into two logs. Wrap in Glad Wrap.

At this point you can either put them in the fridge for 30 minutes and then unwrap, slice in to 1cm think pieces, pop on a tray (I recommend using baking paper) and bake in a moderate oven until slightly brown (about 10 minutes) or you can freeze the logs for up to 3 months and then just slice while frozen and bake until slightly brown (about 15 minutes).

Too easy (and that's what I'm all about when it comes to cooking!).  

And no, its not a photo of my biscuits (although they do look like this)... my kids ate them before I got a chance to take the photo so thanks freedigitalimages.com!


 

Super easy, kid-friendly sausage casserole

This is one of the easiest casseroles I know ... it's yummy comfort food, perfect for winter and the kids will love it!
 
8 sausages - get the cheap Coles or Woolies ones
Olive oil
1 diced onion
1 tin beans (approx 400g), I usually use canelli or red kidney beans but any kind is fine
1 tin tomatoes with some kind of herbs in them (approx 400g), I used the Aldi ones
3 tbs Gravox, the traditional one is best but I've also used the chicken one and it was fine
Water

Put the sausages in a pot of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes then drain.
When the sausages have cooled a little peel the skins off them and slice them on the diagional into pieces that are about 1cm thick.
Rinse the saucepan, add some olive oil and diced onion. Fry until the onion is soft.
Return sliced sausages to pan, add tinned tomatoes (and all the juice) and drained beans.
Bring to a simmer then add approxinately 2 cups of water and about three tablespoons on Gravox.
Simmer until the sauce thickens, you may need to add a little more Gravox.
Season to taste. You may also need to add a little sugar, depending how sweet the tomatoes you used are.

Ideally serve with green veggies and mash or bread. We have also had it with pasta and cous cous.    

Parsnip soup

I love parsnips. I got a couple of massive ones in our Harvest Hub bag this week and so today I 'invented' this soup. It was a massive success - it is thick, creamy and full of flavour. Perfect for a winter day.

Ingredients;
1 stick celery including leaves
2 huge peeled parsnips (this was probably equal to about 6 or 8 normal sized ones, they were seriously massive)
1 brown onion
knob of butter
1 Continental Chicken Stock PotRoughly 3 cups water (depending on evaporation & how thick you want it)
1 x 375ml can of 'Light and Creamy' Carnation Milk


Roughly chop celery, parsnips and onion.
Melt knob of butter in a large pot.
Add veggies and cook until fragrant and slightly browned.
Add stock pot and water. Simmer until veggies are cooked.
Add Carnation Milk and simmer for a further 3 minutes or so.
Remove from heat for a few minutes to allow to cool slightly and then blend using a stick blender.

Damn you Peter Rabbit! A rabbit had babies in my garden ... now what?

A rabbit has had babies in our garden.

Let me clarify, this is not a longed for pet pregnancy. It is a wild rabbit and no I don't live in the UK. I live on Sydney's North Shore, so what on earth is a rabbit and her babies doing in our garden?

We live next door to a lovely big park and, for as long as we have lived here, a very pretty brown rabbit has occassionally popped under the fence and into our garden.

This displeased me enormously because I was trying to start a veggie garden and the bloody rabbit kept eating my lettuces!

So, whenever we saw her we would chase her out under the fence and block up the hole she had come in.

But lately I've been a bit slack.

I've abandoned my veggie garden in favour of a herb garden and there is mint enough for everyone to share (including the rabbit), it's been raining a lot and frankly I've been a bit lazy about my rabbit chasing.

Now I'm paying the price.

Yesterday I noticed three divine, fluffy, tiny little brown rabbits in our backyard, as well as the big (now Mummy) one. I went out and followed them and it turns out the mother has dug a BURROW (!!!) under our back shed and that's where she and the babies live.

Now what am I supposed to do?? The babies are insanely cute but I have enough babies of my own to look after and I really don't want an ever-multiplying family of rabbits living in my garden.

But I don't want to kill them either (although a friend of mine has just opened a restaurant, Hartsyard, and they do all kinds of interesting things with meat so perhaps I could sell them the rabbits ...) so putting a running hose down the burrow isn't an option.

Should I call the council? would they care? should I catch them and give them away as pets?

When I was little I used to feel so sorry for poor little Peter Rabbit, always being chased by the mean farmer, but now my sympathy is definitely with the poor old farmer.

So, I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do. Really, I just want them to go and live at the park next door like a good little rabbit family.


In the mean time here is a recipe for rabbit stew from The Saucy Onion .... and all suggestions for what to do about the rabbits are incredibly welcome!!

Recipe: Rabbit Stew

Ingredients:

1 farmed rabbit,1.2 kg (or wild if you can get hold of one) jointed

2 tablespoons plain flour, for dusting

250g smoked pancetta, cut into lardons

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 large carrots, diced

4 celery sticks, diced
4 potatoes, halved

2 fresh bay leaves

 2 sprigs of thyme ( more if you like its woodiness)

500 ml chicken stock ( homemade if you have a stash)

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

salt and freshly ground black pepper

boiling water

Method:

Set the oven to 120 degrees celsius.

Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a casserole pot and gently fry the pancetta until it crisps and releases a little of its porky fatty juices. Transfer the pancetta to a warm plate.

Now lightly dust the rabbit pieces in flour and brown them being careful not to crowd the pot. Place the rabbit pieces with the pancetta.If you have any burnt bits of flour in your pot wipe clean with some paper towel.

Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil  in the pot and sweat your onions, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaves until they are translucent without any colour, about ten minutes.

Now add your red wine vinegar and honey and reduce by half.

Throw in your chicken stock, return your rabbit pieces and pancetta and check for seasoning. Throw in your potatoes, add enough water to just cover the rabbit and bring to the boil.

Take off the heat and cook gently in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours or until rabbit is very soft. (I removed all the saddle and breast pieces and left the legs in for another 40 minutes until they were very tender. Cooking times will vary depending on the size of your critter)

Serve the stew hot with some rice, polenta or just on its own.

Ideas for getting kids to eat vegetables

It is a universal parenting truth that at some point in their lives kids realise that they aren't supposed to like veggies. All of a sudden your little darling who used to devour pumpkin, beans and mushroom all pureed together won't even eat sliced tomato.

At various times all my kids and step-kids have disliked veggies. Princess is being particularly painful about it at the moment.

I have pretty high expectations of  their veggie consumption so here are a few tricks that I have come up with to make sure they eat even just a little bit

Please post any tricks that you have in the comments section. The more veggies the merrier!!

Hide them: Well-cooked, pureed veggies can be hidden in most things, just choose a mild flavoured vegetable like pumpkin or sweet potato, steam well, puree and add them to your favourite recipe.

If you are making a curry or spagetti bolognaise you can add peeled and grated eggplant, pumpkin or sweet potato and then simmer it for a long time. The veggies will decompose and just become part of the sauce.

One of my favourite versions of this involves cheese sauce - cut some florets of cauliflower and thoroughly peel a zucchini (there should be no green left at all), steam them both until they are very soft and then puree them well. Add to cheese sauce when making lasange or macaroni cheese. No one will ever know. 

Frozen peas: If Wild Man is hungry in the lead up to dinner I often let him have a little cup of frozen peas, still frozen. He loves them and eats heaps.

Grated or finely diced onion: It counts as a veggie but your kids probably won't think of it take way. Same with tinned tomatoes.

Meatloaf or rissoles: I include half a zuccini, two carrots and half an onion when I make meatloaf. I grate them all as finely as possible and mix them in with the mince. When the big boys were in their anti-veggie phase I would act as though there were no veggies in the meatloaf and encourage them to eat some salad too.

Mushrooms added to taco mince: Finely diced mushrooms are undetectable in taco mince. I only use two thirds of the beef mince I used to use when making tacos or burritos and I make the rest up with very finely diced mushrooms. Seriously, the taco flavouring means no one can tell the difference (and most of my kids HATE mushrooms).

Creamed corn: If you are making scrambled eggs or an omlete add a tablespoon or two of creamed corn. The corn is the same colour as the yolk and the kids will never know. My Mum also used to make corn fritters using creamed corn, just make a savoury pikelet batter and add a couple of tablespoons of creamed corn.

Baked beans on pizza: If you are making pizza or cheese on toast for the kids use mashed baked beans instead of tomato paste. They have more fibre and less sugar.

Tofu mince: OK, this isn't exactly a veggie but if your child is all about meat and carbs it might provide an alternative. I just make it into spagetti bolognaise sauce and none of my family can tell the difference (yes, I did run an experiment to see if my meat-loving stepsons would notice and they didn't).

A volcano: Sometimes I make Wild Man a 'volcano' for dinner. It is often made of meatballs on the bottom but if can be whatever you like. The important part is the lava on the top which is made of diced tomato, grated carrot and grated cheese all mixed together.

A herb garden: Grow some parsley in a pot and encourage your kids to grab a handful when they are playing outside (or perhaps forbid them from eating them, whichever works!). Weirdly, for Wild Man and Princess this has worked so well that they can regularly be found eating handfuls of basil and corriander!

Do your kids eat veggies? And if not, what have you done to try and hide them?

Smashed cauliflower

Easy, delicious and popular with kids ... what else could you ask for.

1/2 cauliflower (although we did once eat a whole cauliflower between 4 of us!)
paprika
pinch of salt
3 or 4 tbs butter

Chop the cauliflower up into very small pieces, smaller than your little fingernail.

Steam the cauliflower, it needs to be really really soft. I do this in the microwave.

Transfer cauliflower to a hot frying pan, making sure none of the steaming water is transfered. Add butter and start frying it. If the cauliflower isn't in small enough pieces you can use a potato masher to mash it up at this point.

Sprinkle with paprika (quite a lot, the cauliflower should change colour) and a good pinch of salt, stir to combine.

Keep frying it until the edges of the cauliflower go brown and slightly chrispy. Eat immediately.

Chicken, bacon and leek casserole - recipe

This is a great recipe for the slow cooker.

Somewhere between 1kg and 2kg diced chicken (I use breasts because thighs gross me out)
1 leek, finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely sliced
250g diced bacon
A few handfuls of sliced mushrooms (optional)
1 can carnation milk 
salt and pepper to taste

Don't brown anything and don't bother cooking the bacon or leek, just chuck it all in the slow cooker* for four hours on high.


Serve with cous cous, pasta, rice or bread. 

*You could also make it in a casserole dish in the oven but for a much shorter time and make sure it doesn't get too dry.

Slow cooker rice pudding - recipe

Easy and totally delicious.

1 cup rice (I used medium grain)
1/2 cup caster sugar
5 cups milk
5-10cm long piece of orange rind
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or imitation vanilla
2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in your slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours, stirring several times along the way. Remove rind before serving.

Serve with cream, icecream, stewed fruit, sprinkled with cinnamon or whatever else takes your fancy.

Warm, easy, delicious winter goodness.

Super Easy Caramel and Macadamia Slice - Recipe

1 packet vanilla or butter cake mix (I used Coles brand which costs about 90 cents)
125g melted butter
1 cup coconut (optional)
1 tin Nestle Caramel Top 'n' Fill
1 packet macadamia nuts (you could use any nuts you like)

Line a small slice tin with baking paper. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine melted butter, cake mix and coconut. Mix well and press into slice tin. Bake for 10 minutes or until starting to brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly, then use your hands to press down to get rid of any air bubbles.

Meanwhile, tip Top 'n' Fill into a microwave safe bowl and heat, stirring regularly, until melted and smooth.

Spread macadamia nuts over cake base then pour Top 'n' Fill over the top. Spread to make sure all the cake base is covered with caramel.

At this point you can either return the slice to the oven for 10 minutes (or until the caramel starts to brown) or you can just pop it in the fridge.

Either way, once cool cut the slice into squares and try not to eat too many!

Tuna, Cheese and Tomato Rice Bake - Recipe

This recipe, courtesy of my Auntie Lea, is super fast, easy and cheap. Plus it is made of things you almost always have in the cupboard and my whole family loves it.

2/3 of a 425g tin of tuna (roughly, add however much works for you)
1 onion
1 tsp diced capsicum
1 tbs butter or margarine
1 420g tin diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
pepper
grated tasty cheese (about one big handful)
1/2 cup uncooked rice

Combine all ingredients except cheese in a  bowl. Put half of the mixture into a flat casserole/dish, spread out and top with half the cheese. Repeat with remaining mixture and top with the rest of the cheese. Put into a moderate oven and bake for 45min or until the liquid is gone and the rice cooked.

You could also add:
1 teaspoon of curry powder
frozen peas
frozen corn
Other diced veggies
leek or shallots
a sprinkle of chilli
More cheese
use salmon instead of tuna

YUM!!