Lesson number 1 learnt. Tick.

Recipe # 35 and 36. Last Night we had Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Sauce served over hot pasta and Mediterranean Chopped Salad.

Crème Fraiche. The dictionary meaning should be 'Devouring Delicious-ness'... although you do pay for the DD.

First I deseeded and chopped the (home grown) chilli, then the bacon and mushrooms. I heated the oil in a pan and forgot about it until it started smoking.

I added the bacon and gave the kitchen a oil shower of oil and bacon fat.... mmm mum loves me :) While the bacon was frying I had put the water on to start boiling for the hot pasta. I started chopping the Mediterranean Chopped Salad. Again I started with a home grown chilli which I deseeded and chopped along with tomatoes, onion, olives, lettuce and some wilted home grown basil. I made the dressing in a jar and DID NOT pour it over the salad yet as I have learnt my lesson with 'Soggy Salad'.


I added the tube pasta to the water and put the timer on so I wouldn't forget about it like I had forgotten about the oil. Next the mushrooms, chilli and fresh thyme was added to the now crispy bacon. Stirred until the mushrooms were coated in the bacon juices and then 4 tablespoons of Devouring Delicious Crème fraiche was added till bubbling.


Pasta is done and drained and poured into the pan of bubbling creamy bacon stirred through and seasoned with salt and pepper. Served straight away and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese.

Pasta and crème fraiche... Do I need to say anymore??


Salad was nice but the wilted basil made it bitter. Will leave it out or add fresh oregano next time.

A little bit of inventing.

We had our ritual girl’s dinner the Wednesday that just past and we devoured a Lemon Meringue Pie that the host prepared for us along with minestrone soup. Was it as good as it sounds...? Hell Yes it was!! :)


But I couldn’t resist myself and had to make something and bring it along with me. I have the cooking bug at the moment and sorry Jamie but it’s not for your fish recipes... I did the wrong thing and cooked everything I was dying to cook to start with now I’m left with baked apples... 4 types of porridge... and more cod. Ah well, I will get through and be gastronomically wiser after.

Anyway back onto last Wednesday night I made a Baked Artichoke dip. I tried a similar dip to the one I made at a friends house and thought it was delicious so while looking through a few recipes online I took initiative and made my own version. It's very simple and very decadent. It's almost like a creamy artichoke fondue.
-- If you are cooking to the dip straight away- Preheat your oven to about 190 degrees Celsius. --
1. Add 6 tablespoons of mayonnaise, 6 tablespoons of sour cream, 1 teaspoon of dried marjoram and 8 tablespoons of grated vintage cheese in a bowl along with 2 clove of fresh garlic minced.
2. Mix everything together and season well with salt and freshly grated black pepper (be careful not to over salt at this point).
3. Dice a 400g can of Artichoke hearts to the size you like. (I diced mine into little squares to give the dip some texture.) Add the chopped artichokes to the cheese mixture and mix well.
4. Test to see if it needs more pepper or salt. WARNING. It will taste VERY garlic-ee at the moment but do not be alarmed the hot-ness of the garlic does calm down when it’s baked. Pour the dip into an oven prove dish- I use an oval shaped one (very retro!)
* -- If you are making the dip a day in advanced stop now and cover with cling and refrigerate until required.--
5. Top with grated Parmesan Cheese and bake for about 20 min or until heated through. Move the dish up in the oven to let the cheese bubble on top. You may need to dab a bit of the oil from the top with kitchen paper so that guests don't feel too guilty indulging and Serve with crusty baguette pieces and carrot fingers. The carrot gives a lovely refreshing change to the satisfying rich-ness of the dip its self.

Mmmm mm

Congrats Veronica and Shadi!

Recipe # 33: Cracking Burgers.
Hamburgers for dinner last night, obviously not made with ham... why do they get the name hamburgers?? If anyone out there in the endless void who actually reads this knows, please share this bit of trivia.
Cracking Burgers starts with Jamie asking you to bash 12 Jacob cream crackers in a tea towel and add them to 500g's of beef mince in a mixing bowl. We didn't have any crackers like Jamie uses (Auzzie version is sayo's) so I used store bought bread crumbs. My opinion is if your going to use store bought crackers you may as well use store bought crumbs. If your using fresh breadcrumbs on the other hand that is completely different.
Next went in 2 heaped teaspoons of Dijon mustard. Mmm I love the colour of Dijon mustard when it’s heaped out on a spoon. It almost looks gold.


Pepper and salt was next, along with fresh chopped parsley. You’re meant to add an egg next but I did a typical Danielle and read the recipe once over and thought I new better then Jamie and forgot to add the egg. I think this was why they were a little dry and didn't stick together well.

I shaped the mince into 4 patties and put them in the fridge while I watched my backed up TV of MKR. (p.s. SO pumped that Shadi and Veronica won!!!)


We had salad fillers such as avo, baby spinach, truss tomatoes, cucumber and gherkins to go with the burgers which were being served with hot Tommy mustard, tomato sauce and focaccia bread instead of burger buns as that was all we had at home.
I oiled the patties with Mum's trusty garlic spray oil (Love it!) and placed them on a hot griddle pan. No idea how long I cooked them for but I cooked them until they were cooked through and the cheese was melted on top. We had frozen wedges with our burgers -left over’s from my 21st that were still in the freezer :) probably not the healthiest choice but it was easy and quick since the grand finale of MKR was on TV last night and nothing was getting in the way of me watching that :)


A delicious meal in all.

Fear of cheats garlic bread FOREVER!

I am back from a dinner last night that makes me gag. No this was not a Jamie dinner or one of my own creations. We thought we'd go the cheats ways and by Coles garlic bread instead of making our own. I could hear Jamie's voice in my head saying...

"Make your own, this is not what Jamie's Ministry of food is about" 

 I should have listened to Jamie because as we started to eat this cheats garlic bread I thought 'hmm this tastes a little funny, maybe its because I'm used to the Woolworth's brand one and Coles brand are a little different. I'm into my 2nd or 3rd piece (I am still trying to block this memory out) and Tristan says "whats that?" I look at the end of my piece of garlic bread to say its just the charcoal bit from the sausages. When I look closer it's MOLD. Bluey-green MOLD. It can't be we both say and look at the whole loaf... Oh yes it was. The 2nd loaf was worse! I actually felt like being sick. The thought of last nights dinner is blur... I feel ill now. How can a store sell moldy garlic bread? If it was on special I can understand maybe... but it wasn't and not they have ruined cheats garlic bread for me forever. EW. 
     The Jamie in my head is reading this and going "told you so, should have made something healthy form my book" and yes I admit I should have and a regret I didn't. 

Use your imagination... fresh cream and fresh strawberries....

A non Jamie dinner tonight but Chocolate chip scones for dessert which Mari and I made on Sunday. We adapted Jamie's fruit scones recipe (recipe #32) and made Chocolate Chip scones as we both are not fan's of fruit scones.

Because we don't have a food processor that hold more then a cup we made them the manual way by rubbing the flour, baking powder, and butter together with our fingers. We added about a tablespoon of cocoa here and took a table spoon of flour out so they would be more decadent. Mari did this while I mixed the Eggs, milk and chocolate chips in a bowl. We made a well in the centre of the crumbly flour mixture and poured the eggy mixture in. Stirred and did a small kneed. Once the dough had come together we cut out our scones and put them in the preheated oven. 


MMM YUM! they were delicious! Not too sweet but just enough to make you want a 2nd but not a 3rd. Would have been delectable with fresh cream and fresh strawberries! Will def be repeating the recipe! 

I'm sorry Jamie.

Recipe's #30 and 31: Dinner tonight was Baked Cod wrapped in Bacon with Rosemary and Baked French Potatoes. Sounds fabulous and restaurant worthy right?


Two words is all tonight gets. YUK and FAIL.


The fish when baked poached... the potatoes also poached in stock that didn't evaporate when it should have. The bacon and rosemary was nice but I'm not a huge fish eater and well cod is a very fishy fish. The thought of food is making me feel ill.


Molly the cat didn't even get the cod that we left uneaten. The bacon was eaten but the cod.... was filed under B for bin.

Fuss Free delicious-ness!!

Recipe #28 & 29: Lasagne (+Bolognese sauce). This recipe was made back in January for our double dater couple. Chloe and I go on dates while our lovely boys have there bro-mance time together. 


First things first: I LOVE Lasagne! My mum never makes it enough and only makes it when we're having a dinner party and thats not very often at all. I have to beg and plead for Lasagne so I decided to make my own.. well Jamie's. 


You start with making the Bolognese sauce which takes 45 min to cook once everything is in the pot. Once that is cooked and looking delicious don't be tempted to give up and boil spaghetti. Keep going... keep going! It's worth it let me tell you!! 
    Preheat the oven and grate parmesan into the bolognese sauce. Tear and stir in any large basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Soften your lasagne sheets by pouring hot water over the top and draining. 
    Spoon a third of the bolognese sauce in the bottom of an oven proof pan followed by a  lasagne sheet. Dollop a third of your creme fraiche and smooth it over to cover the lasagne sheets. Sprinkle with pepper, salt and a parmesan cheese. Repeat until you have no ingredients left and making the finishing layer of creme fraiche and parmesan. To make it look pretty add sliced tomato on top and the smaller basil leaves. 
    Cover with foil and bake for 20min in preheated oven. Remove foil and cook for a further 35min until bubbling and delicious.


One word. YUM!


I will make this again and again and again once this mission is over! The creme fraiche makes the sauce delicious and rich but with no fuss!  Just remember to keep on track after the bolognese is made because it is worth it!

Definately the "Bring a Salad" salad.

Recipe #26 and 27: Trout with mustard & oats and Evolution Potato Salad.


The potato salad is a revelation! Delicious!
    (The trick is to dress it while to potatoes are still warm.)
Firstly peel your potatoes and then boil them in salted boiling water for 10-15 min until cooked through. Mean while mix extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, salt natural yoghurt and fresh chive in a jar. Shake!
     While the potatoes are cooking start on the trout. Now I’m not a fish eater and always avoided fish when possible so I am very proud that I not only ate the fish but also cooked it. And you know what!? I’d do it again it was so nice.
     Preheat grill to as high as it goes. Rub a baking tray with olive oil and place washed trough fillets skin side down on the tray. Rub each fillet with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and season with some S&P. In a bowl add one handful of oats for each fillet and drizzle them with olive oil. Pat the oats down on top of the fish and drizzle with more olive oil. I got sick of this patting fish and touching the smelly stuff so I used spray oil and it worked perfectly!
     Put your baking tray under the grill for about 10min or until cooked through and golden on top. By this time your potatoes should be cooked and drained. While still hot dress the hot potatoes with dressing in a bowl.


Serve with a salad (Jamie suggests watercress but we tried this last night and none of us ate the watercress… ew it tasted like someone has spilt their perfume over it.) and enjoy! The only let down was that there was tiny bones in the fish. One of the reasons why as to child I hated fish.

Mum's is better by far!

Receipe #25: So last night we had Jamie's Chilli Con Carne. It was well… lets just say I cannot look at chickpeas again. I LOVE(d) chickpeas but this dish made everything go mushy, watery but also if possible dry. The flavours of chilli, cumin and cinnamon were delicious but the texture was all wrong and I did not need to add the extra can of water which Jamie says to do.


Jamie instructs: Chop garlic, onion, carrot and celery and fry with spices for about 7min. Add a can of chickpeas, kidney beans, 2 cans of tomatoes and then your mince.
When do you brown the meat???...I guess never.
If your reading the recipe in front of you now you’ll notice that I did not include the capsicum. We didn’t have any and as it was raining outside no one was willing enough to go to the shops and buy one.
Next to use a can from the tomatoes and fill it with water. Add it to the mixture. Then chop coriander stalks and add them to the watering uncooked mince stew looking thing on the stove. The only coriander stalks we had were frozen ones… I think they loose their flavour when frozen. Believe it or not you couldn’t taste them at all and there was quite a lot in there.


It takes and hour to cook so thank goodness netball was cancelled from wet weather.
Serve it with rice and sour cream (Jamie says yougart but we have our traditions still).


While everything was cooking I made lumpy guacamole with a hard avocado. I would say it was the highlight of dinner (not being sarcastic).


Fish for dinner tonight but all I can think about is Duck Ragout from MKR. Could I get any more opposite?