Mouthwatering Mondays - Veggy pie

As some of you know my wonderful MIL is visiting. She is all about food - I am sure you all have someone in your lives that is just like that. She just feeds and cooks and it makes her very happy. I had such a huge smile - before she came to visit I told our au pair she was coming the next week - A chipped in "You will have to eat, you know. She will feed you. ". That's her - and just one of the reasons we love her so much. So I though I would share one of her recipes with you today. I love this pie - to me it's the perfect lunch for a Saturday afternoon and makes a great lunch to take to work too - all in one.

Veggy pie (and how to get kids to eat a heap of veggies):
This recipe makes two pie dishes - so eat one today and freeze.
There is no crust - it is quite firm enough so you do not need to add or bake one
It makes a wonderful light lunch but works great as a side dish to a braai. One can then leave out the bacon - or for a Meatless Monday recipe.

Ingredients:
1 carrot - finely grated
6 baby marrows - finely grated
1 onion - finely grated
Garlic to taste - finely chopped
6 eggs - whisked
1 tin sweetcorn
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup diced butternut (dice into small blocks)
half a cup of feta cheese - diced
1 packet diced bacon

Fresh parsley if you like the taste
I cup self raising flour mixed with half a cup oil and one cup milk.

Method:
Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C
Fry onion until soft. Remove from pan,
In the same pan fry bacon. Remove from pan.
Either fry butternut in same pan or oven grill until browned.
Mix all the ingredients together.
Season lightly with salt and black pepper to taste

Bake for about 30 minutes until eggs are solid and lightly browned.

Mouthwatering Mondays - Fudge!

So I thought that I will share some of my favorite recipes (or maybe I will get to my goal to make some new recipes this year) on some Mondays. My first one however is one that I have promised Marcia and Laura as both of them have posted about trying to make a great fudge and finding just the right recipe. Hunter and the Princess are our two fudge lovers - although in all honesty we all like it a lot. So the two of them have hit on a wonderful recipe which she eagerly makes (with a bit of stirring help from us - 40 minutes is loooong to stir a pot). This is a wonderful fudge with that great silky texture and not sandy or sugary at all. I have found that a little less sugar also works well- it is very very sweet - but I will publish the original recipe here.

Perfect Fudge (Taken from The complete South African Cookbook by Magdaleen van Wyk)
The secret is in the method - follow it 100%

Ingredients:
800g sugar
250g butter (she says marg as well but we have only made it with butter)
250 ml milk
250 condensed milk
10 ml vanilla essence

Method:
Cook the sugar, butter and milk over a medium heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved completely.
Add the condensed milk and boil for 40 minutes - stirring continuously. Not doing it at a high enough temperature will result in it not solidifying. Too high will burn it - so watch it carefully and stir all the time.
Remove from the heat and add vanilla essence. Keep beating until the mixture is thick and creamy.
Pour into a shallow greased pan and mark in squares. As soon as it is completely cooled down cut into squares.

Enjoy!

Death by Chocolate cake

I got this recipe from Edna- May and I have to say that it is the best chocolate cake I have EVER eaten, never mind baked. I place the recipe below exactly like she gave it to me.

Just a few notes on the below: I did use butter, I do not have margarine in the house. It was delicious! Also I did not use one of the fillings she named. In stead I made the icing double and used half in the middle and half on the top. The cake is not sweet at all (despite the 2 cups of sugar in the recipe) - so do not expect a sweet cake. It's more like a dark chocolate cake with the texture of red velvet cake.

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

¼ cup Cocoa }*

½ cup oil }* * Heat together in saucepan

125g Margarine }*

1 cup water }*

2 cups Flour }

2 cups Sugar } Mix together in a large bowl

2 Eggs }#

½ cup Buttermilk }# Beat together lightly

1 tsp Bicarb }#

½ tsp Vanilla Essence }#

Pour * mixture over sugar and flour – mix in gently.

Add # to full mixture. Mix gently.

Grease two 20cm pans and line the base with baking paper (very important). Divide mixture between the two pans.

Bake at 160 – 180 °C for approx. 25 minutes. Test before removing from oven.

Cool for about 5 minutes then turn out onto wire rack – take care not to break the cakes!!

ICING

60ml Cocoa 60g Margarine

½ cup icing sugar 15ml Milk

Bring nearly to boil, beat well. Allow to cool, beat well again before pouring over the cake.

A few tips from my experience with this cake!

I found the best margarine to use is Wooden Spoon. In this recipe, it must be margarine and not butter (for the purists).

* ingredients shouldn’t be too hot otherwise the flour and sugar become a gluey mess!

Watch the icing mixture when warming the ingredients as well – it can become fudge very quickly.!

The fillings for this cake are endless:

Marmalade for orange flavour;

Strawberry jam filling serviced with cream and fresh strawberries – yummy.

Caramel is quite decadent;

Mixed berry jam filling serviced with cream and fresh berries – to die for!

Have fun and enjoy!

A little Fathersday win

I have always known that I not only married the best man for me, but also the best dad any of my children could wish for. This year, more than ever he showed just how fantastic he is. With my shoulder surgery and basically being able to do very little he stood strong and kept the whole household on track.

We have a few ideas as to how we are going to make his day special but mostly we will let him choose what makes him happy. In case you are out of ideas, the kind folks at Sasko sent me a great one for Fathersday

Sasko Chouxnuts dipped in Chocolate Icing
Sasko has developed an easy yet delicious recipe that you will enjoy making as much as you will
enjoy eating it! Sasko Chouxnuts are a heavenly combination of a doughnut and a choux bun.
Decadent and chocolatey, these chouxnuts are the perfect dessert option for Father’s Day.
Choux pastry is the lightest, crispiest pastry commonly used to make puffs and éclairs, but why limit
yourself to just these options? Simply reshape the pastry into a doughnut form, bake and then try a
combination of different toppings like melted chocolate, chopped nuts and cherries on the top half
of the chouxnut.
Visit the Sasko Flour Facebook page for this recipe which will be up before Sunday and more , product information and baking hints and tips.

And now for the very best part - I have one very gorgeous Carrol Boyes Bread bin (worth over R2000,00) to give away for Fathersday. Come back later today to see how beautiful this tin is! It will look wonderful in any kitchen - mine too to think of it!

To enter:
 1. Leave a comment and tell me what you are planning to make for dad for Fathersday using SASKO flour AND "like" Sasko's Facebook page. (If you already like it it's fine) 2. For an extra entry tweet about the competition mentioning my Twitter handle @catjuggles

Rules:
Competition closes at 12 noon on Saturday 14 June . 
Maximum two entries per person one each of the two items above Winner will be chosen from a numerical sequence by random.com and announced here and on Twitter. Prize will be dispatched and delivered by Sasko and their marketing company - I have no control over the timing, and is open for South African residents only. 

Note:  
We have received nothing in return for running this competition. I just love to give something away. 
Comment moderation has been enabled because I seem to be under a spambot attack but rest assured I will post yours

Competition time right on time for Mothersday.

One of the things I love most about Mothersday is that "pretend to be asleep hearing the scurrying in the kitchen and acting all surprised". The joy on those faces and the very special act of making mom something is priceless. In the same breath we honour our own moms.

The lovely people at Sasko have not only given me the perfect recipes for you to bake for your mom or the family to bake for you,  but two lovely hampers worth a R1000 each to give away to treat yourself or your mom the choice is yours. In any event if you love baking like we do take some time to make these heart-warming cookies as a gift for your mom: Rooibos Biscuits dipped in white chocolate, Jasmine Tea Biscuits with dark chocolate and Goji berries and Earl Grey Biscuits with orange frosting.

Fragrant Jasmine, delicate Earl Grey and our very own South African favourite Rooibos – these teas are all perfect for using as an ingredient. Simply choose the tea that your Mom enjoys the most, empty a few teabags and mix the tea leaves in with the rest of the ingredients.  

 

Earl Grey Biscuits with orange frosting

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treat Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Earl Grey tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

Icing:

250g icing sugar

70ml orange juice

1 tsp orange zest

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before icing.)

Mix the icing sugar, orange juice and zest together in a bowl and, using the back of a teaspoon, smear a small circle of the icing onto each biscuit. Allow the icing to set completely before storing in an airtight container.

 

Jasmine Tea Biscuits with dark chocolate & Goji berries

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treats Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Jasmine tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

200g dark chocolate

50g goji berries

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before dipping in the chocolate.)

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler on low heat on top of the stove.

Dip half of the tops of each cookie into the melted chocolate, sprinkle over the goji berries and place on a sheet of baking paper to dry.

Allow the chocolate to set completely before storing in an airtight container. (This will take a few hours.)

Top Tips:

• If the tea leaves seem overly large simply pulse them a few times in a food processor until they are smaller in size.
• If you don’t have a double boiler you can use a heatproof bowl that fits snuggly on top of one of your pots – it needs to fit tightly as you don’t want any water from escaping steam to mix with the chocolate, as it will cause the chocolate to congeal. It’s also important that the water in the pot does not touch the bottom of the bowl as it could burn the chocolate.
• If you are baking all of the cookies at the same time make sure that you keep a good distance between the baking trays in the oven to ensure that there is even heat distribution

Rooibos Biscuits dipped in white chocolate

Ingredients:

500g Sasko Quick Treats Cookie Mix

1 ½ tbsp Rooibos/Chai Rooibos tea leaves

140g butter (at room temperature)

1 extra large egg

200g white chocolate

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180*C.

Grease and line two large baking trays.

Put the Sasko Cookie mix into a mixing bowl with the tea leaves and stir with a whisk to ensure that the leaves are well incorporated.

Add the butter and rub into the cookie mix with your hands until a bread-crumb-like consistency is formed.

Whisk the egg in a smaller mixing bowl.

Add the egg to the cookie mix and combine with a wooden spoon.

Remove tablespoons of the dough from the mix and roll into little balls (about the size of a R5 coin) and place them, 5cm apart, onto the lined baking trays. You should get about 35-40 cookies from the mixture.

Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

(Allow to cool completely before dipping into the chocolate.)

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a double boiler on low heat on top of the stove.

Dip half of the tops of each cookie into chocolate and place on a sheet of baking paper to dry.

Allow the chocolate to set completely before storing in an airtight container. (This will take a few hours.)

 So now that you have the baking sorted, lets get to the best part of all. To stand a chance to win one of two Sasko hampers worth R1000 (I wish I could keep one because they are great and who does not love Carroll Boyes and baking goodies?) do the follwing:
1. Leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite thing to bake AND "like" Sasko's Facebook page.
2. For an extra entry tweet about the competition mentioning my Twitter handle @catjuggles

Each hamper consists of:

Carroll Boyes Recipe book stand

Sasko branded baking items

6 x Sasko Quick Treats & 4 x 1kg Cake Flour 
Competition closes at 12 noon on Friday 9 May . 
Winners will be chosen from a numerical sequence by random.com and announced here and on Twitter.
Prizes will be dispatched and delivered by Sasko and open for South African residents only. 

Note:  We have received nothing in return for running this competition. I just love to give something away.

Chickensoup for the body and soul

I grew up next to the Koffman family - we were totally Afrikaans, they were totally Dutch - only a few years in South Africa. Their daughter J and I were one year apart in school - we walked to school together and later rode our bikes. We spent afternoon by afternoon in each other's homes - doing homework together, playing together. The families was a sort of support system for each other with her spending many afternoons eating lunch at our place that my granny cooked - stews, boerewors, pancake, pumkin fritters - all those honest to goodness boerekos. In return I spent may evenings and Saturdays at their home, eating Dutch food - wonderful stuff like bolletjies en muis, poffertjies (like vetkoek with fruit in and sugar around), friet, Nasi goreng and many more delicacies. Oupa regularly made his klapperkoekjes - a recipe my mom still makes today. I also experienced the deliciousness of prawns with them, out to dinner on Friday nights at the Greek easy. It was good good times. Incredible how food plays such a huge part in the memories we keep.I remember their kitchen with the little pine table and chairs, filled with steam and wonderful treats. Well, my mom still sees Tannie Rita every Friday as she is still her hairdresser after all the years although J now lives in Nieu Zeeland and we basically have a Facebook friendship.A few weeks ago I asked for that very best of Dutch food memories - Dutch Chicken soup. I made it on the Friday of the long weekend and my family devoured it, including my boys who are not the biggest soup eaters.It is a wonderful rich and substantial soup and although Spring is just around the corner, the evenings are still cold enough and we will have another big cold front.

Dutch chicken soup
(I make this in my wonderful high pressure cooker -my favorite kitchen appliance at the moment- and the recipe is for a traditional pressure cooker - but she tells me if you want to do it on the stove top, you ave to add one more cup of water and stir a lot and regularly cook for a very long time)

Ingredients:
5 Stems of celery
A hand full of fresh parsley
One whole chicken in pieces - remove the small bones from the wings and the breast section. Keep everything else.
1 packet of cream of chicken soup mixed with twice the amount of water the packet shows
1 tin of creamed mushrooms
Spaghetti of vermicelli to taste.
1 Tablespoon white wine vinegar

Method:
Cut the celery in pieces, chop the parsley
Add to the pressure cooker with the chicken and the soup and water.
Cook for about 60 minutes in the pressure cooker until the chicken totally falls off the bones. Remove bones but keep skin in.
Add spaghetti or vermicelli to taste (the more you add the thicker the soup will taste), vinegar and the tin of mushrooms.
Cook on high pressure for another 30 minutes.
Remove all other bones.
Serve hot with fresh bread.

You can make this with about 6 - 8 skinless and boneless chicken breasts but I promise you it does not taste the same. The skin and bones add a richness and thickness (due to the gelatin in the bones) to the soup that you simply do not get with the low fat version.

Enjoy - and do tell me if you try this.
I would love to hear some of your childhood food memories

Apple pie , schmaple pie!

At long last the promised apple pie recipe. As far back as I can remember my mom has been making this apple pie. It is anything but the usual apple crumble or apfel strudel recipe - apparently it is a South African version of the old favorite.

2 Desert spoons butter (not margarine)
half a cup of sugar
2 eggs
half a cup of milk
Cream the above together.
Add one cup of self raising flower
It makes a very sloppy runny dough
Pour in a large pie dish (the dough has to be very shallow in the dish)
Pack a large tin of pie apples on top of the dough and bake for 30 minutes at 200 C (392 F)

Make the syrup:
1 cup of sugar
3/4 cup cream
Cook together for 5 minutes
Pour over pie as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Serve warm with cream or vanilla ice cream.

Makes a great tea time treat but also desert

So you want to bake too?

It seems a popular request to post last weekend's Apple Pie and Malva poeding recipies - so without further delay the malva poeding - will do the apple pie when I have a few minutes again)

My mom's malva poeding - it makes a nice moist and saucy poeding - serve with custard or vanilla ice cream

 Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C (356 F) and grease a oven proof dish of medium size.
Ingredients for dough:
20 ml (4 teaspoons) butter
250 ml (1 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs
12,5 ml (2 and a half teaspoons) apricot preserve/ jam
5 ml (1 teaspoon) baking soda
125 ml milk (half a cup)
5 ml brown vinegar (1 teaspoon)
250 ml (1 cup) cake flour, sifted with a pinch of salt.

Cream the butter and sugar. Mix eggs in one by one. Add apricot jam. Mix baking soda into the milk and add the vinegar. Add to the butter mix in turns with the sifted flour. Bake for approx. 45 minutes until a knife comes out clear.

In the meantime, make the sauce:
250 ml (1 cup) pouring cream
180 ml (3/4 cup) sugar
125 grams butter (4 oz)
125 ml (1/2 cup) boiling water
5ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence
Mix all together and heat until boiling. Pour hot over baked pudding as you remove from the oven.

Hope you enjoy it!

A quick Friday night meal

I had a whole other post planned for today, but the day was super crazy, as the rest of the week. So tonight, I felt like a good meal, but not like cooking one. Hence, I took a look at what was in the fridge and freezer and made something out of it, based on a recipe I have used before. I had cooked, frozen chicken and a whole baked butternut. I also had some great quality pasta - this is essential as ordinary hard pasta will not give the same result.

Ingredients:
Cooked white chicken meat, cut into pieces
Butternut - when raw, bake for 30 minutes salted and with black pepper. If cooked, grill with salt and black pepper until brown.
Fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips.
Garlic - about two cloves. Crushed.
100g butter. Margerine will nto work.
About two circles of feta cheese.
Fresh or good quality pasta.

Method:
Place butternut in the oven and roast / grill until brown edges show.
When almost done, put water on and cook pasta until el dente.
At the same time, heat butter in a small pan and add garlic until it makes bubbles.
Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.
When the past is done, drain and add the butter mixture. Toss with the basil, butternut and feta cheese.
Season with salt and pepper and enjoy with a light white wine.

It was truly great and I will definitely make it again. The butternut and pumpkin provides a great sweet and salty taste contrast enhanced with the great taste of basil - my favorite herb. It is super quick and easy. I think some pine nuts will be a great addition, but I had none left.

Another family favorite.

This recipe is a firm favorite in Hunter's family. I remember having them that very first Christmas I spent with his family in Port Elizabeth. Super easy and very fast to make, they are great just as is, but also good heated and served with ice-cream and chocolate sauce for desert. And containing a good helping of oats and not so much sugar, they are a great bit healthier than most cookies.
My MIL's chocolate oats cookies.

2 cups raw oats
2 cups self raising flower
2 cups coconut
half cup sugar (the original recipe called for 1 cup, but a half is really enough)
350 grams (12,5 ounces) butter or baking margarine
4 desert spoons cacao
Topping:
2 desert spoons cacao
1 cup icing sugar
boiling water

Heat oven to 180 C (350F)
Melt butter - do not boil.
Mix in all the other ingredients for the cookies.
Press into a well greased oven pan.
Bake for approx. 20 minutes
Cool down slightly and pour over topping. (make it runny enough to pour but not too runny.)
Cut into blocks and store in an air tight container.

So another weekend flew by...

With a visit to granny on Saturday (and a sick Hunter), church and friends over for Sunday afternoon cake and coffee. The princess and I baked cappuccino muffins (no recipe - it was a pre-mix). But they were seriously good.

I also cooked Oxtail.In South Africa, oxtail is a delicacy - not sure about the rest of the world. My mom is well known for her oxtail recipe, but I took it yesterday and changed it a bit - made it a bit healthier and more "modern".It was simply delicious winter comfort food. It aslo went of well with the kidlets - we had 2 out of 3 "happy bowls" (empty bowls) and the third almost there. So being the good blogging friend I am, here's the recipe: ( I even converted it for the US girls - to pounds and liquid ounces). Oh and I forgot to take a picture.

Cat's healthier Oxtail

1,5kg (3,3 pounds) Oxtail ( you can use other stewing beef if you would like to)

Salt and pepper to taste

25ml (0,8 oz) oil

25ml (0,8 oz) butter

Season meat with salt and pepper

Fry until brown in a thick bottom pot.

Decant and keep warm in over.

Make sauce:

One glove garlic, finely chopped or pressed

Half an onion, chopped into very small bits

25ml (0,8 oz) dried mustard powder

250 ml (8,5 oz) beef stock

50 ml (1,7 oz) tomato paste

salt and a small bit of basil

20 ml (0,7 oz) maezina (thickener)

12,5 ml (0,4 oz) worchester sauce

500 ml (17 oz) red wine

250 ml (8,5 oz) natural low fat or fat free yogurt

Chopped parsley

Fry onion and garlic briefly in the same pot as above.

Mix stock, tomato past, mustard, salt and basil.

Add to pot.

Mix maezina and worchester sauce. Add red wine.

Add mix to pot and stir.

Add meat and simmer over low heat for about 6 hours.

Add water when required to cover the meat and stir now and again.

Before serving, add yogurt.

Sprinkle parsley over when serving.

 Please let me know if you try this and loved it too!

Having found a "new" great recipe Makes my Monday.

Playing along with Cheryl.

Makes my Monday - best playdough recipe ever!

Playing along with Cheryl - what a great way to start the week.

I have tried many playdough recipies and this one I begged off The Little Miss' school after they made great playdough on one of their baking Fridays. It is the third time I made this recipe and it is truly great - cheap, easy, exceptionally easy to shape and it keeps for months in a sealed container. This truly makes my Monday.



For a special touch, add food flavoring ie. strawberry to pink , mint to green and lemon to yellow. For extra special add dry glitter - it makes wonderful sparkly dough.

500 ml (16,9 ounces) All purpose flour
500 ml (16,9 ounces) water
125 ml (4,2 ounces) table salt
15 ml (0,5 ounces) creme of tartar
15 ml (0,5 ounces) glycerin
Food coloring and flavoring of your choice

Mix all except the coloring and flavoring.
Cook in a pot on a medium temperature while you keep stirring until it makes a ball in the middle of the pot.
Cool down and kneed well.
Add coloring and flavoring and keep in an airtight container.

I had to convert from the metric - hope it makes sense.

Debi's Baby Picture Sundays - feeding frenzy

When I saw Debi's theme for this week, I knew I had the perfect pictures- taken a while ago but not published yet (although, technically they are not babies any more, are they?)

I am sure you have also seen this somewhere, but I gave it a shot:

Step 1: Thread spaghetti through vienna sausages. (or get the older kids to do it)

Step 2: Boil.

Step 3: Add veggies if you are a veggy obsessed mom like me.

Step 4: Serve.

They loved it! We call it octopus in their sea-garden. Served up with ketchup.