Hello, yeah it's been a while....

Not much, how 'bout you?
Cheesy song lyrics aside (England Dan & John Ford Coley if you were wondering) it has been a while. A rainy summer, a couple of Christian festivals & here we are at April already. For me this means year end at work, hopefully something a little more exciting wherever you are....

So in the spirit of trying not to be such a slacker I have not one but two recipes today, both rather old school, and none the worse for it. After a week of each feeling rather poorly, Mr PK particularly needed a gee up. The Blues are "playing like girls" (his words not mine), Chelsea are struggling to make the top four in the Premiership & the Warriors seem to have lost their way, it is a dismal sporting week and don't I get to hear about it, much better to hide in the kitchen and make Bacon & Egg Pie and Lemon Poppy seed cake me thinks........

Everyone has their own version of this, my mother cooks the bacon first, my sister also, and adds onion (as per the Edmond's Cookbook, I feel rather daring ignoring both recipes) I have heard of people adding peas, but I cant quite believe it.......

Bacon & Egg Pie  enough for 6 good portions

Puff Pastry- I used 5 sheets
Handful of grated cheese ( I use good old Tasty for this)
One 250gr packet of shoulder or middle bacon
10 eggs
Salt & pepper

Pre heat your oven to 180C/350F
Use the pastry to line a pie/baking dish. I use a metal brownie pan, I think enamel or metal is best as it conducts heat better & makes for crispier pastry, but its up to you. Mum always uses Pyrex and her pie is pretty good. Depending on the size of the pan you may have to join a couple of pieces of pastry together, I would not worry about it looking a bit rough, this isn't a fancy pie (as you can see from my pastry origami in the pic below!)
Sprinkle the cheese all over the bottom of the pastry, then chop up the bacon and sprinkle half over the cheese. Beat your eggs together and season with salt & pepper, go easy on the salt as bacon & cheese are already highly seasoned
Pour half the egg over the bacon & cheese, sprinkle over the rest of the bacon & pour over the remaining egg keep a tiny bit aside to brush the top of the pastry

Top with another sheet of pastry, and using a fork go around the edges to seal both pieces together. Prick the top a few times with a knife to let steam escape, then brush with your remaining bit of egg, this makes the top look golden & inviting
Bake for 35-40 minutes, then I like to eat while warm (I loath cold pastry) but if you don't mind that it travels well & makes great picnic food. Mum used to make one to take to Dad's cricket games for tea when we were growing up, their had to be some compensations........

To follow a slice of cake perhaps? I had an email the other day from The Hungry Girls reminding me their third cookbook has been released, very exciting news. These books are lovely, and I remembered a recipe for a lemon poppy seed cake in book one which I had been meaning to try for ages. A bag of lemons at the local shop for a couple of dollars sealed the deal.....

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake (from The Hungry Girls Cookbook )

4 largish lemons
250 gr soft unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
5 eggs
3 tsp poppy seeds
325 gr self raising flour
1 cup natural yogurt (if it is thick Greek style thin with milk)
2/3 cup sugar extra

Butter a 24cm spring form cake tin & line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Cream the butter & sugar until it is pale & fluffy, I use my Kitchen aid but a handheld beater would be fine. Add the eggs one at a time, beating each one in well

Zest your lemons and add to the butter mix with the poppy seeds, stirring well.  I use my Microplane grater, which makes this an easy job, otherwise use the zester side on a box grater

Sift in the flour, stirring to combine. Lastly add your yogurt & mix again. Pour the batter into your prepared tin (it will be quite thick) and bake for 55-60 mins, until a skewer in the middle comes out clean.
About 10 mins before the cake is done, squeeze the lemons and add water to make the amount of liquid about 1.5 cups. Put into a saucepan with the extra sugar & bring to the boil. Boil for about 5 mins, then when the cake comes out of the oven, prick it a few times with a knife/skewer, and spoon over the hot syrup. The cake will soak up the tangy liquid and become even more moist & yummy. Cool on a wire rack, then serve with a dollop of cream, even someone who has had a rather tough week will feel MUCH better..........

I used a very similar recipe to make these cupcakes over Easter, substituting sour cream for yogurt and limes for lemon, delish!

Hot stuff from the garden......

After my last post, and that picture of all my chilli's I was recommended a recipe for Chilli Jam by Paula over at Pod & Three Peas. It sounded intriguing, and here is the result. This stuff is hotter than Hades, but also has great additional flavour from the tamarind and fish sauce. I am trying it in a stir fry first up, and mixed with some yogurt as a dip.....

I am reading a really entertaining book at the moment, called The Fragrant Chilli by Micheal Bailes, an Australian "Chillihead" (his term) He talks about various varieties of chilli, their discovery and uses. They were discovered about the same time as tomatoes, but while tomatoes were initially thought poisonous, chilli's were adopted almost immediately as edible, and spread like wild fire (sorry) through the world. Quite why that first someone thought , lips burning and throat on fire, "oh lovely, that will go nicely with dinner" I cant imagine......but I am glad they did.

Visiting friends in Spain a couple of years ago Mr PK mistook a chilli in the garden for a sweet pepper, he grabbed it straight off the plant and took a mighty bite. Once his face actually started to change colour I suspected it was a hot one, but the sweating, coughing and general disagreeable moaning sounds confirmed it. Once I stopped laughing I did go and get him a glass of milk. Capsacin, the compound that makes chilli hot is soluble in dairy or alcohol, but not water, so don't swig a glass thinking it will cool you down, it wont...

To prove I am not a completely awful wife I picked up these delightful goodies at Delish Cupcakes on Saturday. These lovely ladies organised the Get Your Bake On fundraiser for the Christchurch Earthquake appeal, to which I was delivering Brownies. The event raised a whopping $6600, which is wonderful. Mr Sweettooth made a special request as I was leaving (still in bed) to "please bring home a cupcake". Red Velvet & Pinkie bar, who could resist really?

Snowballs in Spring.....

How cute is a cupcake? I know, every man & his canine are doing them, but they are a lovely alternative to a birthday cake, and provide a higher icing to cake ratio than a normal slice (ok, I am not sure this has actually been scientifically proven, but should NASA ever take on the job I am sure that would be the finding...)

I recently catered a friends parents joint 80th birthday party, and thought snowball cupcakes would be the perfect sweet finale. They look fab, and are easy to make with a hand held beater. A vanilla cupcake laced with lemon zest, containing a teaspoonful of tangy lemon curd, topped with sweet marshmallow frosting and coconut, I want one of these on my 80th birthday please.......with champagne thanks.

Snowballs (recipe adapted from "Cupcakes!" by Elinor Klivans)

Vanilla Lemon Cupcakes (makes 24 normal sized cupcakes)

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 cups sugar (yep, these are sweet little cakes!)

1 cup canola oil

2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

grated zest of a lemon

1 cup sour cream

Pre heat the oven to 180C

Sift the flour, baking powder, soda & salt together into a bowl.

In a large bowl eggs and sugar together until pale & thick (I use my Kitchen Aid but a hand held beater would be fine) With the beater on low add the oil, vanilla and lemon zest, beating until well mixed. Add the sour cream and mix in. Add the flour mixture and beat gently again until all the flour is combined. Pour into 24 lined cupcake cases, filling about 3/4 full, then bake for about 20 mins, until they are pale golden and a skewer poked into the middle of a cake comes out clean.

Cool, then scoop out a tsp of the cake crumb, and fill with a tsp of lemon curd (passionfruit or lime curd is also perfect here, you need something with a tang to counter all that sweet) and top with the following frosting, and a sprinkle of coconut.

Marshmallow frosting

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup water

2 egg whites

pinch of cream of tarter

1/2 tsp vanilla paste (or extract)

Put the sugar, water, egg white and cream of tarter in a heatproof bowl over  a saucepan of barely simmering water. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. Using an electric beater, beat the mixture together until it forms a fluffy thick white frosting, this takes about 5-7 minutes. Remove from over the water, add the vanilla and beat for another couple of minutes, where it will further thicken and cool. Swirl all over your cupcakes in generous swirls (cupcake icing is no time for restraint......) and top with the coconut. Hose down yourself and the kitchen, which will somehow have managed to acquire sticky frosting and coconut all over it..........or maybe that's just me?

I also made sticky honey soy chicken wings, zucchini muffins with smoked salmon (recipe here), chicken and walnut mayo sandwiches, ham and brie sandwiches and hummus...........

oh and of course, sausage rolls! I make mine using my butchers best pork bangers, skinned and mixed with onion, seasoning and fresh parsley. So simple, so retro, so good.

All of the pics above were taken by my lovely friend Briar. Not only can she operate a camera with more confusing buttons and knobs than a space shuttle, she fits in photography around being a clever clogs lawyer and mum to a gorgeous little girl, cooking and  having a better garden than mine. Oh and she is great fun too.

I know, overachieving tart.....

Speaking of gardens, I thought I would share with you my latest garden disaster, in case you are having a rough day and would like to feel superior. Please admire my sad little courgette plant, after a dawn raid by the local snail community............I tried in vain to cox it back to health but the little buggers had eaten all the fresh growth.....my revenge was a liberal does of Quash, firmly shutting the gate as the horse gallops down the road..........

I was chatting to one of my sisters this morning, she lives in Kerikeri, far north of Auckland, where they get more sun and hence an earlier start on Spring crops. She had been talking on the phone to our Mother (whose garden at the moment is quite spectacular, Ma's fingers are green to the bone, what happened to me is still a mystery) and commented her radishes had grown really well. Mum paused for a second then responded "well anyone who cant grow radishes cant grow anything". They get sun in Northland, but also the odd shower of rain on parades...........

You might have noticed I have had a wee break from my blog. It has been a funny few weeks, I have changed jobs, had some rather worrying news and attempted a "staycation", a holiday at home. This was not exactly a success, instead of coming back from a beach in Fiji relaxed and slightly pink (my version of a holiday tan....),  I have a very clean house (even the windows!), and a desire to book a beach break imminently...........actually we are off to Sydney to visit another sister in January so I can look forward to that.
In the meantime I will sit in the sun with my book, finished Vanda Symon's Overkill, great book, am now attempting a Lee Child thriller, not usually my scene but he seems very popular so will give it a go........

Cupcakes........you wont see this at Magnolia kids

I had to share these beauties. Today is cupcake day, raising money for the SPCA, and in celebration of this my colleague Rebecca brought these delish vanilla cupcakes in to work..........inspired by her own beloved Labradors Mollie & Wilson. Isnt she clever? I had them sitting on my desk today, making my office smell like a chocolate shop, lovely.

Wilson modelled for the fondant pooch you can see to the left. He had a wee accident in the car, so looks a tad more confused than he did this morning, but maybe it was a long day......I am especially impressed with the coconut grass, and the wee pink tongue, cute!

The model for the other, well, could have been either really, it's the fly that finishes it off nicely.....tasteful, no?
One each for pud tonight, lucky us. Even the diet diva will make an exception for a good cause.......yes, I know, very noble of me....:)