Spaghetti Casserole

This is one of the greatest meals of my childhood - Spaghetti Casserole. My mum used to make it all the time when I was a kid and it is so delicious! I make it often as an adult and without fail, if I make it for someone as a drop off meal or they have it at our house, they want the recipe. I always thought it was an old family recipe that Grandma Goodlet used to make, but mum recently corrected me, she tore it out of a Women's Weekly magazine when she was younger. Baha. Still an absolute winner no matter where it came from! I posted a picture on my instagram story when I made it a few weeks ago and my cousin messaged and was like, oh my gosh I remember that! That stuff was the best. Yes it is.

Spaghetti Casserole

250g spaghetti (half a standard pack)
250g beef mince
3-4 rashers short cut bacon
1 large onion
170g tin tomato paste
2 cups water
Grated cheese to taste

Cook pasta according to packet directions, rinse when cooked and set aside
Dice onion and fry until brown, add diced bacon and fry off, then add mince and do the same.
When all the above are nicely cooked, add the tomato paste and 2 cups water. Allow to simmer until well combined and slightly thickened (only thickens a little!)

Assemble with half spaghetti, half meat mixture, then a layer of grated cheese, then repeat.
Bake at 160°C (fan forced) for 30 mins, then allow to stand for 10-15 mins before serving. This allows it to settle, or it just falls apart when you try to serve it.

Tomato relish

Who knew I would be the person making jars of pickled stuff in my kitchen? Not me, that's for sure. But as time goes on, I feel more inclined to increase my food storage and make things in my home for our family. I love baking and sharing what I have made - and now that my kids are obsessed with tomato relish (seriously - a standard breakfast here is toast spread with butter, tomato relish and sliced cheese. I really can't blame them either - it's delicious!) I felt like I needed to make my own. Mum has been making it for years and when her neighbour (same one that gave me the incredible vintage dresses) gave her some of her own batch recently, she decided to change to her recipe as it's amaaaaazing. So today we made tomato relish. Two triple batches in fact.

TOMATO RELISH

1360g ripe tomatoes

1 tablespoon mustard

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 small tablespoon curry powder

450g white onions

1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour

450g white sugar

1 cup vinegar

salt to taste

Method:

Cut tomatoes and onions into small pieces. 

Put contents into dish, add salt to taste, mix then cover and leave overnight.

Drain in morning, add one cup of vinegar, boil for five minutes, then mix in cayenne pepper and sugar.

Mix flour, curry and mustard with a little vinegar, then add to the tomato mixture, boiling for one hour. Stir regularly to avoid mixture sticking to the base of the pot.

Bottle while hot.

This is definitely a story for generations to come. I had to cut up eight and a quarter kilograms of tomatoes, then almost three kilograms of onions last night. Poor Madeline decided to stay up and wouldn't go to bed because they didn't have school today and kept crying because the onions were so strong. Literally sitting on the couch crying from the fumes - but wouldn't go to bed. It was hilarious. She'd rather have her eyes on fire than go to bed. 

So today we made up our witches brew as dad called it, then bottled it (hot tip, put the jars in the sink in hot water first so they warm up and don't crack cause the mixture will be boiling.) ready to be eaten. Yum. 

We did really well, there was only one jar that didn't pop seal at the top

and we got 24 jars from our mix! So happy. I am sure that will take us a while to get through.

RIP kenwood

it is with absolute devastation and sadness that i write this post, mourning the loss of my much used and loved kenwood mixmaster, which has been mine since douglas and i were married in 2006. but. this particular machine actually belonged to my grandmother (my mums mum) from new, and was forty-three years old! goes to show just how good their products are doesn't it!

i was actually so sad about it blowing up and unfortunately there was no chance of it even being repaired or looked at, it had to go straight in the bin - as there was a popping noise and sparks... definitely not something worthy of a second attempt. thankfully i had finished the batter for alex's birthday cake - but still had icing to do!

i was pretty freaking stoked though, because my lovely husband not only took me to get a new one today - but then didn't complain even a little when he had to nurse it all the way home from costco, because the back of my car was full to the brim with a mini inflatable bouncy castle and a bunch of mini ride on vehicles for alex's birthday party tomorrow. that's real love... nursing my kenwood. haha.

i still am honestly in awe of the amount of time nanna's one lasted though. i know she used it a lot before it was shelved when she passed away - and i have used it pretty much daily, and multiple times a day at that for the last (almost) 15 years!

i definitely knew that another kenwood was the way to go, so i got the chef xl, in the hopes that we might get another 40+ years out of it. can definitely vouch that they are built to last.

new kenwood? let's bake! i have a big batch of icing to make for a small child's birthday tomorrow! 

😂❤

apple + mulberry shortcake

my whole life mum has made a gorgeous apple shortcake for the family on many an occasion. her recipe is great and there have been many variations of it, apple and lemon, apricot, mulberry... 

i'm ashamed to admit it, but today was the first time i actually attempted making one myself! i have had a bunch of mulberries in the bottom of my freezer for ages and whipped one up with a small can of apples.

apple shortcake by barbara goodlet

125gms softened butter (needs to be real butter!)

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 egg

3/4 cup plain flour

3/4 cup self raising flour

440gm tin pie apple

lemon zest from half a lemon

cream butter and sugar

add egg and beat together

add the flour and beat until it all comes together

make into a cylinder shape and cut into two rounds

grease and line a 20cm cake tin with paper

press half the mixture into the tin, bringing it a little up the sides

mix lemon zest and apples together and spread over pastry

roll out the pastry for the lid on a piece of paper to fit tin, then flip it over and drop it in

press edges together to seal the fruit in and then sprinkle top with a little sugar

back at 170 deg celcius for around 30 mins

leave in tin for 5 minutes, run a knife around the edge and remove to cool on a wire rack

i am please to report that i got it right and it was great! storing that one away for future use. so lucky to have mum and all her awesome recipes available to me. seriously so blessed.

yum!

marlee's trolls cake

i finally got to make my first chocolate overload cake this weekend, a trolls birthday cake for my friends sweet daughter marlee. i had always considered making one but had no good reason, until now. but it was super fun. 

i used this recipe that i made jett from next doors birthday cake with, doubled to make four cakes - along with the same icing. 

layered with icing as filling, and coated around with it too, before i started adding decorations

grabbed some bits and pieces from kmart (the rainbow straps) coles (twirls, freddos, hundred and thousands biscuits, curly wurlys and coloured pearls) and the reject shop (windmill lollipops) and thew it all on there til it looked good and finished, then added trolls. bobs your uncle. the birthday girl was very pleased, so i was happy!

happy birthday little miss marlee! 

creamy chicken pasta

there have been quite a few experimental recipes happening in our house lately - one of them being this creamy chicken pasta. please excuse this very unappealing photo, but the kids loved it, even the little nugget that claims not to like zucchini - so here is me recording the recipe for future reference.

based very loosely on a recipe from here:

creamy chicken pasta

-500g penne pasta

-2 diced zucchini

-1 bunch chinese vegetables

-400g diced chicken thighs

-1 teaspoon onion powder

-2 teaspoons minced garlic

-250g cream

-1/2 cup chicken stock

-sprinkle of dried parsley

-parmesan cheese to serve

1. cook pasta according to directions

2.  cook garlic in a small amount of oil until fragrant. add chicken and cook until brown. add diced zucchini and chinese veggies and allow to cook until soft.

3. stir in cream, stock, chicken, parsley and onion powder, allow to simmer until well cooked.

4. add pasta, stir in, then serve. top with parmesan cheese.

fig salad

mum gave me some fresh figs this week. i love figs! one of my fondest childhood memories is climbing the gigantic fig tree at a neighbours house (neighbours where we grew up was a kilometre or two away haha) and picking buckets of figs for mum to make jam from. i would eat them by the dozen, until my mouth hurt (for those of you unfamiliar with figs, they act like pineapple after a while and make your mouth itchy and a little sore) but i have never gotten sick of them. i love fresh figs, dried figs, fig jam... anything fig. yum!

so... i was trying to be fancy and make something different with them. my friend google helped out there and i found a recipe for fig, rocket and goats cheese salad. i actually had goats cheese too, so i decided to give it a whirl. i found the recipe here and then based mine loosely around it.

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fig and goats cheese salad

ingredients:

95 g whole almonds (i used brazil nuts oops, use what you have haha!)

2 tsp honey

2 tsp soy sauce

¼ tsp sweet paprika or chilli powder (optional)

¼ cup olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (i used regular brown)

100 g rocket (i used a bag of mixed lettuce leaves)

6 fresh figs

150 g goat's cheese

method:

preheat oven to 180 ̊C/160 ̊C fan- forced.

place almonds (brazil nuts here my friends!) on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. next, combine honey, soy sauce and spice in a bowl. add almonds, toss to coat then return to the tray and bake for a further 4 minutes. set aside to cool. once cooled, roughly chop.

combine olive oil and vinegar in a separate bowl and lightly season with sea salt and ground pepper. drizzle half of the dressing over the rocket and toss well to coat.

place leaves on a serving plate. cut figs into quarters and arrange on the rocket. next, crumble over goat’s cheese and scatter over the chopped almonds.

drizzle with the remaining dressing just before serving.

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this has become a family joke to my husbands family. they aren't good with trying new things and no one wanted to eat it! don't worry, it got eaten and it was delicious!!!!! but now my father in law keeps making fig jokes to me all the time. don't worry, i can't take it! (and him!) if you ever have all the ingredients though, for sure make it, it is so yum!

chicken and zucchini poppers

when trying to find gf and df options for emilys bridal shower recently, i did a lot of internet searching in the hopes i would find something delicious, but in both those categories. 

i came across the recipe for chicken and zucchini poppers here (via pinterest) and can i just say, they were amazing! so much flavour and pretty easy to make. i have already made them again since and they are totally on the make over and over list. i think i can say fairly safely that they were a big hit as the whole lot of them were gone in no time at all!

please trust me and go and make them asap.

obviously cook them prior to eating, but yum!

cookie dough fudge

this deliciousness popped in my facebook new feed today... and upon looking at the ingredients i discovered that i had everything on hand to make it, plus an excellent reason (friends husbands birthday) so i got to work. it smells amazing as you go and i must admit i'm pretty disappointed that i couldn't have a taste (this one contains both gluten and dairy)

it was met with good reviews from my taste testers though, which was broadened to include some of the school mums haha.

apparently i need to make it again, so here is the recipe for future reference... give it a go! (the only thing i changed was that i didn't put extra chocolate chips on top, because i thought that the ones in the mix were enough.) filing that one away for the christmas baking ♥

just call me donna hay

tonight was doug's parents 37th wedding anniversary. i decided to invite them for dinner and to cook something fancy, then spent the entire day wondering what on earth i could cook for them! late in the afternoon i remembered a recipe i had seen someone share on facebook last week, donna hays honey mustard chicken and potato bake. quick check of the ingredients and method proved it was a possibility, so off to the supermarket we went. i am no masterchef, but i can certainly read a recipe - and this was fairly easy... and was absolutely delicious!!!! oh my goodness yum. i am so happy i decided to give it a try and will 100% definitely be making it again! 

i had also been planning to make something magical for dessert, until i realised that the recipe i had chosen actually needed to be cooked for quite a long time, and then rest for a while too... so it was on to plan b. we had some bananas, crushed nuts and icecream on hand, all i needed was chocolate sauce... bit of googling found me a simple chocolate sauce recipe (my version was minus the optional kahlua obviously!) and my mini banana splits were perfect! hooray for kitchen experiments and happy anniversary to my beautiful in laws! ♥

malteaser cheesecake

i made this bundle of deliciousness for our family easter dinner on sunday... totally worth the purchase of taste magazine... even though i have since discovered the recipe is available online here.

malteasers are my jam, so when i saw it on the cover, it was a definite must make... it's 3 layers - chocolate brownie base, white chocolate cheesecake centre and a top layer of chocolate ganache, all laced with malteasers. yum yum yum. 

i am pleased to say it turned out... and was a roaring success, especially with my chocoholic sister in law who is visiting from brisbane. i'll definitely be filing away that recipe for future use!

♥

vegan pumpkin pie

a recipe as promised, for grace's birthday dinner a few weeks ago, i made vegan pumpkin pie. my oldest niece is a vegan (and has been for the last few years... very impressive!) and when she kindly brought me back some canned pumpkin from the u.s., i decided it was only fair to ensure she had the change to enjoy pie with me!

the first issue i ran into was the fact that pumpkin pie requires condensed milk... which is, of course, milk. so i did some googling and discovered that there is a way to make condensed milk, without dairy. enter coconut condensed milk! i found the recipe here and made the honey version... perfect!

then a slightly modified version of my favourite pumpkin pie recipe from chowhound, replacing the butter with nuttelex and the egg with an egg substitute. the only issue was, that i had to cook it for a whole lot longer, i think it ended up being another half an hour from memory!

so. the verdict. it was not terrible. it was perfectly edible and my niece thought it was amazing and ate a huggggge piece. i also liked it fine, but i must admit, the crust wasn't as good as it is with butter and i missed the creaminess that comes from the milk in the filling. but it was good! and i would definitely make it again if she asked. so. if you're a vegan but not so into raw options, give it a go!

domestic goddess!

so for all you people who said i was undomesticated and couldn't cook - here is two kinds of proof that i can!! above - exhibit a: brownies for doug and cody's birthday dinner on tuesday night - even dusted and arranged for our guests delight

and below - exhibit b: potato baken (yes - not a mistake) potato bake with added bacon - was yummo. maybe i'll be a "real" housewife one of these days! :)