What's in the oven?

Strawberry, raspberry and ricotta muffins

Howdy Cowgirl

I have a bit of a country and western thing going on at the moment. My iPod has old school Kenny & Dolly on high rotation, I am loving the Saloon Bar at our local pub and I have started to think that line dancing classes could well be a legitimate way of getting fit. The commitment to all things western has even extended to my wardrobe by way of a checked shirt, which I wore today to meet Eady for lunch in the city. I am not usually a shirt wearer by tradition, no doubt because my essential house-keeping duties do not extend to ironing. But the beauty of this shirt is that it is best worn a little rumpled which means just wash, hang until dry and whack it in the wardrobe until it is needed. Oh yes, I do lazy well and to paraphrase Dr Phil, this shirt is an enabler.

Tonight I am making Eady and I an asian-inspired chicken dish for dinner, kind of like my own special version of Sang Choi Bow. Whilst it isn't strictly in keeping with my current cowgirl vibe, I am excited because it means I get to use my new multi-function stick blender for the first time. I did have one previously but we parted ways a couple of months back. I am what is known in the biz as a pretend chef in that I can't stand chopping, grating or slicing the old-fashioned Master Chef way and so I used my handstick nearly every time I cooked and I guess the handstick took the old adage of "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" quite literally and stopped working permanently. I finally got around to replacing it and in honour of the first use, I have chosen a dish that will allow every ingredient to be processed with the handstick. Obsessed? Well, I guess it is kind of hard to argue against based on my comments above but geez, I do love a multi-function handstick blender...

A week sans Eady - Day 1

This morning I had to wake up at an ungodly hour, for a Sunday morning at any rate, to take Eady to the airport. He is off to Melbourne to attend an intensive course on strategic management for senior managers within the retail industry. He is going to be there until Friday and I am missing him already. Who is going to take the rubbish out after all? All jokes aside though, I do feel like the house has conspired with Eady to ensure that I have maximum "absence makes the heart grow fonder" feelings. The bathroom light bulb has blown, the dishwasher appears to have gone to to dishwasher heaven and I have had to remove a hairy spider from the bedroom wall. And it's only Day 1. 

To take my mind off things, I decided to do some baking and cooking after being inspired by some recipes from today's newspapers. Being inspired to do anything at all by the Sunday papers is quite remarkable considering I have been whinging for months now that there is nothing of interest in them anymore. But I wasn't going to question the improbability of today's inspiration and got myself straight to the kitchen instead. I made pear, pecan and maple cakes from the Sunday Telegraph magazine (delicious and very moist) and the pot-roasted racks of lamb with eggplant and figs from the Sun Herald magazine albeit with a couple of slight modifications by way of adding some chopped dates and rice and cooking in a slow-cooker for 8 hours instead of the oven (super comfort food with so much left over that I was able to freeze a couple of containers for busy days over the coming weeks). With the cooking all finished, I am off to take the rubbish out and change a light bulb or two. After that, I might have to partake in a little crumping whilst singing to Beyonce's "Independent Women" at the top of my voice - yeah!

What's in the oven?

Lamingtons

What's in the oven?

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting from The Humingbird Bakery Cookbook

Love is in the air and it sure smells delicious!

So with the television tuned to the BBC wedding broadcast, the crystal champagne flutes Eady and I were given as a wedding gift filled to the brim with Piper, my Royal Albert Moonlight Rose dinner setting (a present from my parents for my 21st birthday) laid on the table and lots of candles scattered about the place, the mood was set for our Royal Wedding celebratory dinner.

First, we started with oysters with a squeeze of fresh lemon. Notice the dried beans I have used to hold the oysters in place? It was a little nod to the Brits love of a curry.

Then we had my 'specially created RW oyster shooters featuring a single oyster topped with a splash of red wine vinegar, a splash of sweet sherry, a splash of warm water and some finely chopped shallots and chives.

 

For main, a hearty winter beef and stout stew accompanied by yorkshire pudding. I hadn't ever cooked yorkshire pudding before and was not convinced by the whole plain flour/rising to triple the pre-cooked height equation but you know what? It worked a treat and was a bit of carboliciousness amongst all of that protein!

For desert we ate treacle pudding served with fresh egg custard. This picture shows the pudding just out of the oven after it has been skewered in several spots and a delicious concoction of melted golden syrup poured over to then seep into the pudding.

To finish off the evening, I made a chocolate biscuit slice that was based on a recipe that was served at the actual RW accompanied by a glass of deliciously syrupy sherry.

It is probably a bit of an understatement to say that our digestive systems were put under a bit of strain after all of that. However, for us, it was the perfect way of celebrating the wedding of Wills and Kate.

Woo hoo, one more sleep to the RW!

Just one more sleep to the Royal Wedding and by golly, is there a lot of excitment in the K house about this! For me, I can't wait to coo over the dress and flowers worn by the lovely Catherine as I am sure that whatever she wears, she will look absolutely beautiful. As for Eady, he is very excited at the thought of my British inspired menu for the night. Once I decided that we weren't going to attend a Royal Wedding party (God forbid I miss a single second of the telecast by having to be social), I began mulling over what I would cook in honour of the big day. It needed to be reminiscent of the time we lived in good old Blighty yet be ritzy enough to make Eady and I feel like we are celebrating with Wills and Kate despite sitting on the couch in our flannette pyjamas on the other side of the world. So that ruled out bangers and mash. To help with the decision making I turned to a quaint cookbook called "National Trust Recipes" which was given to me by our lovely Scottish friends on our move back to Australia some 5 years ago. The book is a collection of recipes that are served in various heritage listed properties across England and Wales. So after much debate I have decided to start with oysters (Cornwall), proceed to Stout and Beef Casserole (York) before sweetening up with treacle pudding and egg custard (our desert of choice at our local in Cambridge). Earlier tonight I made a chocolate slice that is rumoured to be Will's childhood favourite which I will serve with some sherry tomorrow night a la The Queen. I have warned Eady that he might want to limit his food intake during the day in anticipation of this monumentally stodgy calorific feast but he is pretty confident that he is up to the challenge...