Pistachio Spread

Pistachios are delicious. A wonderful more-ish snack for lazy days when you don't feel like cooking.

Today, I am stuck at home. Why? You might ask. Well, after 3 months of drought, empty rain tanks and stifling heat. We are now enjoying a flood. The large river which runs through the centre of our town has turned into a giant lake.

This does happen several times per year so it's not as if we weren't expecting it. However with school starting tomorrow and our house being on the other side of town, my little brother is behaving as though he just ate a kilo of sugar.

My school is on the same side of town as us, so I still have to go (weeps silently). To cheer myself up I combined two great loves (Pistachios and spreads) to make this:

 I wondered around on the Internet looking for an exciting spread I could make within my minute concentration range....and couldn't find one which appealed to me particularly. Grasping at some key points in all of the recipes I found, I came up with my own delicious version:

In this spread I used:
2 tablespoons of onion
1 garlic clove
1/4 feta cheese (most of the recipes suggested blue cheese, but I didn't have any)
1/2 cup of Greek yogurt
1/2 cup of pistachios
1 teaspoon olive oil

Step 1.
Mince and fry the onion and garlic in olive oil.

Step 2.
Combine the onion & garlic with the yogurt in a food processor. Lightly process then add the feta cheese and pistachios. Process until smooth.

Step 3. Lightly toast some bread and serve with pistachio spread.

Enjoy!

Honey Bread

I woke up this morning to rain! We have been hoping for rain for weeks. Our lawn was brown, and our geese were grumpy. Now our geese are running around honking, and our water tank is finally filling up.

To celebrate I made Honey Bread. Warm from the oven, and spread with butter it is a delicious rainy day food. Thanks to the hot bothersome weather I haven't been able to do much baking, but now that it's raining I am free to bake at last!

To make Honey Bread you will need:

3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 cup milk
2 cups Self-Raising flour
Oil spray

Step 1.
Grease a bread tin with butter or spray with oil. Set the oven to 180C.

Step 2.
Mix the sugar, honey and milk together. Add the self raising flour and stir until smooth.

Step 3. Pour the bread mixture into the greased bread tin and cook for 30min. Turn the oven off and leave the bread inside for 10-15min.

Slice warm from the oven, spread with butter and eat.

Tip: Honey bread is best eaten the day it is baked.

DIY Sock Bun

I recently re-organised my clothes cupboard and was un-surprised at my collection of lonely socks. Ah-ha! The sock monster strikes again!

What to do with my all my one-some socks?  The 35C+ weather and my un-tamable long hair (I'm growing it for the formal)  made the decision for me; Sock buns. Easy, suitable and a non-time consuming project.

For this project I used:
A thick, knee-high sock
Scissors
A hot Glue-gun
A pen and ruler

Step No.1
Rule a straight line across the sock, just under the heel. Cut across the line and discard the foot.

Step No. 2
Start rolling your sock up, beginning at the elastic end. The longer your hair the bigger your rolls should be.

 Step No. 3
Fold the leftover edge down, and glue with your hot glue gun (Alternatively you can hand sew it down)

Step No. 4
Turn the roll so that the ragged edge is on the inside.

Then use it to make a super cute bun!

Mango Smoothie

In my wonderful country town we are currently 'enjoying' a blend of 37C-40C. Thankfully our old house was built with this sort of weather in mind, and our house is staying at a slightly more reasonable temperature.

Whilst I am definitely not basking in the delightful heat, I am happy that I finally get to follow the lead of Miss Indie who has been making an array of smoothies. I have been very impressed by the ingredients she has used, but I'm going to try her Peanut Butter & Jelly recipe another day and stick to an old favourite of mine.

Mango Smoothie

I love mango's. I learnt pretty quickly that it's a hate or love situation, I'm yet to find an in-between-er....So if mango's aren't your thing, steer clear of this recipe because the mango flavour comes out prominently .

You will need:
A blender
Mango cut in chunks and frozen
1/4 cup of milk (I use slightly less)
Frozen berries
 A drizzle of honey/sugar

1.Blend your mango and milk together until smooth.
2. Add honey/sugar to taste
3. Pour into a tall glass and top off with some frozen berries.

Cold, scrummy and healthy!

Statement Collar

 
I love burda. I think it's the coolest fashion magazine for those who like to make their own stuff, rather then buy it.

Unfortunately the rest of the my family, the female side, feel the same way. This is when my Mum pulls rank, and gets to browse it first. Next is whoever happened to be on the scene when my little brother gets the mail.

"Mum! Mum!" (running into sewing room) "Can I read burda after you!" (Pokes tongue out at other sister).

Anyway, the most recent burda (1/2013) had a page on Peter Pan Collars. The brief tutorial shows how to remove a collar from a guy's shirt and make into a cute accessory.

I don't know about anyone else, but my Dad doesn't throw clothes out. He is horrified when Mum threatens to throw out his clothes because they have holes in them. "Throw it out? Are you kidding?That shirt had at least another 10 years in it. The hole isn't even visible from the front."

I didn't even bother asking Dad if he would donate a shirt to me, instead I made my own collar.

I made the collar out of a vintage fabric (donated by Grandma, she bought it 35 years ago) and added a cute bow which I hoarded from the top of a Birthday card. (I may have a compulsive'I could use that one day..." problem, but hey, every other crafty person I know has it too!). Then I coaxed (Tea, Chocolate Sundae and lots of compliments) my Mum into sewing a button loop on for me, and added a little button to the other end.

Cute huh?
To bad I forgot to take step by step instructions. I pinky promise that when I make another (eyeing cute grey fabric in fabric stash) I will do a detailed tutorial.

Sponge Cupcakes & Peppermint Cake Pops

Christmas is almost here, and its time to bring out the sugar.

This delightful Christmas cup is full of Candy Canes, Sponge Cupcakes and Peppermint Cake Pops. I claim no credit for the candy canes, I bought them at the shops. However the Cupcakes and Cake Pops are my unoriginal creations.

Sponge Cupcakes:

You will need:

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup flour

1-2 drops vanilla essence 

a cupcake tray filled with patties

1. Beat the eggs until thick and bright yellow. 

2. Beat in the sugar gradually, until well mixed. 

3. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture gently.

4. Add the vanilla essence, and pour into cupcake patties.

5. Cook at 180C until lightly brown on top.

I iced my cupcakes with pink butter cream using an "AVANTI" icing gun. You might like to try crushing candy canes and sprinkling them on top of the icing.

Peppermint Cake Pops:

You will need:

A bowl of crumbled cake  (I made a double batch of sponge cupcakes and crumbled half of them warm from the oven)

A large spoonful of jam

Melted dark chocolate (approximately half a  standard block of chocolate)

4 candy canes

Lollipop sticks or short marshmallow sticks.

1. Crush the candy canes roughly on a chopping board.

2. Stir the jam and cake together and roll into small balls.

3. Melt the chocolate over a low heat.

4. Dip each stick into the chocolate and insert a chocolate coated end into each ball. Freeze for 10 minutes.

5. Re-melt the chocolate and dip each cake ball in, making sure the chocolate is even. 

6. Whilst the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle the crushed candy cane over the cake pops and stand in a cup. 

7. Once all the cake pops are coated and sprinkled, freeze in the freezer.

 

Cinnamon Scrolls

I happened to come across a recipe for Cinnamon scrolls on the Internet. It didn't take long for my mouth to start watering, and with a few tweaks to the low-fat recipe they were delicious!

To make these sugary treats you will need:

1 1/3 tablespoons of yeast

1 cup of milk

1/4 cup of white sugar

3 cups plain flour

2 egg whites

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon