chicken & broccoli bake

This one comes from my dear friend Fiona... who has recently packed up, and carted her family off to Australia, on new exciting adventures, following and building a new life with, her husband and love of her life, German (that's his name...)  Fiona helped me do many, many things at cupcake.. Without her I would never have found the time to get married, never mind give birth to Olivia 10 months later.   Fiona has always had a love for food, and would often be found pottering around our kitchen.  Mother of two, she eventually followed her dream to study to be a chef, and of course came top of her class.  I can't wait to see what she is going to come up with in Australia, with her wonderful family to support her.

Anyway, this chicken and broccoli bake is a little momento of Fiona.  She had to scribble it down for me at her farewell dinner, just to make sure if its original ingredients.  And this was very popular  in the cupcake days... oh, and peter, this one's for you too! (who would phone to check if it was on that day's buffet). And Jan, who always had the biggest helping.... (unless there was also cottage pie....)

1 free range chicken, roasted | reserve all juice & shred the meat

1 onion | finely chopped

2 clove garlic | crushed

1/2 cup mayonaise

1/2 cup cream

1/2 cup plain yoghurt | double cream greek works best

2 heads broccoli | cut into florets

2 tsp mild curry powder

1 Tbsp lemon juice

salt & pepper

flake almond (optional) | toasted

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup grated cheddar or mozzarella

a few blobs butter

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius | Fry onion and garlic, till translucent | Add the chicken, curry powder, lemon juice & broccoli | cook together till broccoli is just beginning to get tender | add the mayo, cream & yoghurt | remove from heat

Pour into your favourite oven dish | sprinkle the breadcrumbs & cheese on top | blob with butter | bake till golden (about 30 minutes)

Ariana's fairy princess party

 Little Ariana celebrated her fourth birthday recently, and I offered to help with some decor and nibbles in exchange for the these beautiful photos taken by her mom, Catherine Boyd.

I whisked up some bite sized pink meringues, teeny cupcakes, pink lemonade, iced sugar cookies and fruit kebabs.... and tissue paper flower garlands, and of course the pink piñata!  

But my favourite was Catherine's idea for the fairy wings!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIANA!!

victorian vanilla sponge cake dressed in pink buttericing

Three layered victorian sponge cake, all in pink, snapped quickly as I ran out the door to deliver. 

But the most fun was had after, with the left over cake (minus one slice..... martin's grubby paws) and icing, as Liv and Ariana smeared and sprinkled every sprinkle they could find, to their heart's delight. And then an impromptu tea party around the kitchen table!

my farm girls

I hold myself back from using this blog as a front to exhibit photos of my children doing this, that and the next thing... as much as I want to, because they really are just too darn cute.  (so I just attack all my unfortunate facebook friends with pics, once in a while) But, Martin just took the most beautiful photos this weekend, while staying on a friends farm, with his old pentax film camera, that I just had to share.  Oh, and never mind the added bonus of actually having to take your film to get developed, and waiting a whole day before you can see if what you have captured is magic... or not.   Those moments of waiting for the assistant to find your envelope of photos, feeling them in your hands, opening the flap and slipping the pile (or contact print) into your hand.  The pleasure of flipping through them, and giggling at memories remembered and ahhing at moments captured...

how to make a piñata

photo by catherine boyd

I thought it might be fun to try make a piñata for Ariana's (Liv's friend) fairy princess party.  I remember the last time I tried paper maché,  I think I was about 10 years old, and I didn't finish it.  Warning: it takes a few days.

Step One

We decided on a heart piñata, and after searching high-and-low for an affordable heart shaped balloon, I had to make another plan: tape together 2 well blown balloon with masking tape.... you might pop a few balloons in the process.

Yes, I chose pink, but you may use any colour you like. And hearts on your washi tape or masking tape, is also optional.

step two

Bundle together a bunch of old newspapers, and start shredding: strips and bits.  Rather tear than snip, as the tearing leaves smoother edges..

step three

Mix 250 ml flour to about 200ml water, with an electric hand held mixer, so that there is less chance of  lumpy flour bits.  I like a thick-runny (does that make sense?) consistency that you can roll on to you paper bit with a teeny roller, or a paint brush, or fingers.  

You can use a thicker or thinner mixture, but just remember that it is the flour that makes it go hard... so the more flour, the better.

step four

Roll some mixture onto your paper bits and paste onto balloons. Cover the entire shape of the balloon and leave to dry overnight.  When it is dry, paste another layer.  I had about 5 layers all together.

Make sure that each layer dries completely.  If there is any wetness, mould will grow.

step five

Sweets?  Before pasting on the last layer, I made a small hole on the top of the piñata, and dropped the sweets in.  Then I pasted paper over the hole.

step six

Paint, glitter, stick.  I pasted on some white tissue paper before I started painting, so that there was no newspaper bits shining through.. you could also just paste a sheet of colour tissue paper on, if you don't feel like painting your piñata.

step seven

Make a hanging thingie.  You will need:  1 - 2m string / ribbon.  5 cm long dowel stick.  Tie the ribbon, very tightly on the middle of the dowel.  You can also glue the ribbon on, so that it is extra secured.  Make a small hole, where you want the piñata to hang from, that the dowel can slide through. Slip the dowel through the hole.  Make sure that the ribbon stays attached.  The dowel will turn vertically when completely in the piñata once you pull the string that it is attached to.  sorry I have no pics of this step, but I hope that make sense.

step eight

HIT, BREAK, MUNCH

send me you pics if you make one! would love to see.. x

photo by catherine boyd

photo by catherine boyd

venison pie

I recently made a commitment to myself, that as a english chick married to a cool afrikaans boy, in a somewhat afrikaans community, it really is my duty to muster up the courage and become a bit more adept at some local afrikaans traditional recipes.... with all my foodie background, I never really delved into local  cuisine, except for a little here and there (I do make a mean bobotie - but that is for another day).

And then Stefanie and LJ gave us some venison, and I was seriously thrown into the deep end.  I have no experience cooking venison.  Specifically gemsbok.

First things first: phone the mother-in-law.  Martin took over stage one...boiling the meat of the scraps of bones.

For this you will need a pressure cooker,
1 litre water
1/2 cup brown vinegar
8 whole cloves.
bones with meat

Cook in the pressure cooker for 1 hour till the meat starts to fall off the bones.
Allow to cool a bit, then remove the meat from the bones.

Making Pie...

I did some research and came up with this:

1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 clove garlic, crushed
4 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped into small cubes
3 cups beef stock (I used Nomu)
1 cup of red wine
3 Tbs peach / apricot chutney (otherwise use apricot jam)
3 bay leaves
a small handful of fresh thyme
1 packet shop bough puff pastry (sorry not yet brave enough)
1 egg

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Fry the onion and garlic over a medium heat (in a pot). As the onions become translucent, add the bacon, fry for 1 minute, and add the meat (enough for one medium size pie), beef stock, carrots, red wine, chutney, bay leaves and thyme. (If you want to add peas or other veggies, knock yourself out). Bring to the boil, and the simmer till the juice has reduced and you are left with yummy pie filling. About 20 minutes.

Scoop filling into pie dish.  Roll out pastry, which should be at room temperature, on a floured surface.
Brush some of the whisked egg mixture on the edge of your pie dish, and cover the dish.  Use the prongs of a fork to push the edges of the pastry onto the rim of your pie dish, and scrape off any excess pastry. Cut a small incision in the centre of the pastry.

Brush the pasty with the egg, and pop into the oven for about 30 minutes or until your pastry is golden brown.

For some sides:
Made a simple tomato, red onion and basil salad, drizzled in olive oil.
Peeled and boiled 2 large sweet potato and mashed them with about a tablespoon of butter & a heavy sprinkle of light brown sugar.

Try it. I dare you.  I made one for the extended family on the weekend... it got a 9/10.
Okay, so I can make a venison pie.

Now for those gemsbok steaks.  Any ideas?