Could you make a meal in five minutes?
The Cauliflower rice took me a tad longer than five minutes, but it was super tasty and the M.o.t.h. gobbled it up thinking it was fried rice!
I added onion, shallots, capsicum (red pepper) and doused it in soya sauce.
Simple and easy.
A versatile dish that can made using a variety of ingredients to hand in the fridge and pantry Full recipe of Nasi Goreng.
If you enjoy the flavour of honey and want a snack food that is healthy, this recipe for Honey and Oat Cookies, (Biscuits in Australia), may fit the bill. Or perhaps Quinoa Salad with its Honey and Lemon dressing is more your preference. Measuring honey leaves for one sticky clean up. Is there an easier way?
To prevent a sticky measuring cup or spoon when cooking with honey, oil the measuring cup with a thin smear of cooking oil and rinse in hot water before using.
You won’t be left with a sticky cup or measuring spoon to wash!
Honey has been on my mind, lately, as I was interviewing an expert on Beekeeping, in my job as a reporter, for a community magazine.
I can now tell you loads about the complexities of a bee colony, what threats they face, how they are heavily regulated by themselves and the bees and the process of making honey.
Whilst beekeeping can turn into an obsession, I am more obsessed with honey and its use as food. I sourced a wonderfully tasty Immune boosted raw Honey from the Beekeeper himself. This honey has all sorts of health benefits as the bees graze from a wide variety of food sources.
Apart from having one teaspoon of this delicious food from the Gods, each day, I made some Honey and Oat Biscuits, (or Honey and Oat Cookies if you are American), using a favourite recipe of mine, that I will share here:
Makes about 15- 18 cookies
This is a recipe published by the Australian Women’s Weekly Magazine some years back. In my and my family’s opinion, this is one of the best lemon cake recipes around. Perfect to have with a cuppa.
Method:
The topping is optional as the cake is sweet enough without, but if you wish to make it here it is:
This cake is suitable to freeze but not suitable to cook in the microwave.
I have had this small tin of crab meat in my pantry for (mumble, mumble) quite some time now. I really did not know what I was going to use it for.
I think it was originally destined for a party, hanging out with other Swedish sandwich cake ingredients, but things did not work out between them, and so the crab meat, was left on the shelf… literally!
Inspiration hit me one night when the Moth aka hubby and I were on our own, no family to cook for and decided on a light meal to end the week. Surfing the net always provides inspiration and along the way I found a recipe for Hot Crab Dip.
As one always does, there were adjustments I just had to make, serving it cold, and adding some extra vegetables for crunch. As I like fresh and crunchy celery, cucumber and capsicum, I chopped these up and added them in. The dish has some added Vitamin C and fibre this way.
But credit goes to Will Cook for Smiles for the essence of the recipe. She baked hers in the oven, whilst I often prefer my seafood cold, so I didn’t. It is totally agreeable either way.
It is just your own preference.
Here is what I mixed to make this superb light meal/appetizer/dip/wine & cheese accompaniment.
Optional Extras if serving it cold:
Mix all ingredients together. Serve with crackers, fresh bread or baguette.
To Serve Crab Dip Hot:
It was hard to stop nibbling this more-ish mix with my water crackers!
Next time I’s serve it hot with some fresh salad and a secondary dish.
Enjoy.
Quintessentially Aussie – ANZAC Biscuits
Merle is an Aussie Grandma and a fantastic cook who released a book of Australian recipes, and one of the all-time favourites is reproduced here albeit with a few alterations.
The recipe is posted here, as it was Anzac Day, yesterday.
Every year on 25 April, Australians remember the Anzacs in memorial services in every suburb, in every city in Australia, and it is a national holiday. I would venture to say a sacred day in the consciousness of all Australians.
Anzac biscuits are named after the Australian and New Zealand Army troops who fought on the side of Britain during WWI. They were unfortunately slaughtered in an mistaken decision made by the British command.
Churchills error in the Dardenelles against the Turkish forces resulted in an atrocious loss of life and the soldiers who fought there have since achieved saint-like status in the minds of Australians and Kiwis.
These biscuits/cookies keep well for an extended period of time and were sent in tins to the troops fighting in the filthy trenches at Lone Pine and Anzac Cove in Turkey, by the mothers and sweethearts of those brave young men.
Mel Gibson immortalised the Anzac soldier’s spirit in the 1981 film “Gallipoli”.
I cooked the Anzacs at 180 degrees C… sorry Merle love, my oven is happier working at a higher temperature than yours.
Feel free to post what temperature worked for you, if you try the recipe…
Preheat Oven 170 Celsius
Method
1. Sift flour, ginger in a mixing bowl and add coconuts, oats and sugar. Make a well in the centre
2. Stir in Golden syrup, boiling water and bicarb in a small bowl until combined. Add to the dry ingredients, along with the melted butter. Mix well
3. Take heaped teaspoons of mix and roll into small balls. Place on trays and flatten gently. Bake 6-7 minutes ( I baked them for 10 mins)
4. Cool on tray 10 mins til they firm up slightly.
The supreme sacrifice of those men in the cause of freedom, is truly something to eternally ponder about. “Lest we Forget”
Now you can also try these biscuits, and tell me what you think.
Reproduced here for the Danish island school and the children who some years back organized an Australian morning tea as part of their tuition from their fabulous teach who unfortunately passed away some years ago.
RIP Teacher Andrea.
The beauty of this soup is that it works with most leftover vegetables. I chop up things I find in the fridge at the Home by the Sea, such as the leftover broccoli stalks or slightly limp-few days old -beans and add them in. The soup will taste just as good, if not better.
The addition of chickpeas adds a lot of fibre to this recipe and balances out the carbs hidden in the pancetta/bacon.
A hearty soup perfect for an easy family dinner.
I didn’t have a can of chopped Roma Tomatoes, in the pantry, so I boiled up 8 fresh Roma tomatoes, chopped them roughly, then boiling them in a saucepan till soft, [about 8 -10 minutes on medium heat].
Serves 6
If you are a soup lover, you might also like Lemon Broccoli Soup
Salmon is low in fat and high in protein. Not to mention it is a good source of B12, potassium, iron and vitamin D. No wonder the Scandinavians enjoy it.
Making pastry can be a pain but it’s a breeze with this recipe as the kitchen food processor blends and forms a delicious, cheesy pastry shell.
Cooks Notes:
Preheat Oven to 180 C (350F)
Delicious served hot or cold the next day with a green salad.
The Pavlova recipe I make is an old recipe taken from my trusty Aussie Women’s Weekly Recipe book. *(Page 32 is a tomato veal dish, Peggy!)
This book that was gifted to me in 1979, by my Mother. 41 years later, with its spine tatted and broken, this book continues to reveal recipe secrets I have yet to make.
Following is the recipe I use, although I don’t use a piping bag to make the edges.
I just dump the meringue mix on to a lined baking sheet and form it into a makeshift circle, by dragging around the edges from base to tip with a broad spatula. It is less fuss, and noone wants too much fuss in the kitchen, when the mercury soars in summertime!
I cook my Pavlova in an oven set on 150 degees C. (300 degrees F.) for around 35 – 40 minutes. Then I will leave the pavlova to cool in the oven.
Once the Pavlova has finished its cooking time, I turn the oven off, and place a wooden spoon in the door to allow some heat to escape, but not all the heat, at once. This extended minimal heat is enough to dry the outer shell of the Pavlova whilst allowing the middle to be all soft and gooey.
It ends up quite rustic looking but leaves a crater or depression in the top into which you can place your fruits, custard or cream, or all three.
This year I decided to make something a little different. Impressive isn’t it? And it is quite simple.
Do you want to know how to make the Chocolate dome for the top?
Find the directions for this variation at my other blog – Something to Ponder About
A Home by the Sea 
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