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How do you like your eggs ??

this week we did things with eggs, now this stuff I can do in my sleep but it was still fun to do . Im officially so over eggs right now , it will be a few weeks I think before I can even think about eating eggs for breakfast, We roughly used about a dozen or so per day, doing this for 4 days , I tasted more eggs this week than I have done over a period of 5 or 6 months.

Eggs benedict . folded omelette, cigar omelette, spanish omelette, potato and spinach frittata, eggs en cocotte, french toast with orange/lemon syrup, and my personal favourite dessert omelette with a berry couli

Quiche Lorraine always a popular favourite

Let me tell you about a few of these, I have always been an eggs benedict fan when going out for a breakfast , still love them but wont be eating them for a while. Omelettes are great for a gentle dinner, Potato and spinach frittata , great for picnics, great hot , wonderful cold ,and frittatas can be flavoured in so many different ways. Eggs en cocotte seriously have to be the worst egg dish I have ever tasted . They have a base of spinach and onion cooked in cream and reduced down a little then an egg popped on top and cream floated around it and cooked in a ramekin for an individual serving.

Cooked in a water bath in the oven so that it is just poached.

the texture of the egg and the cream together just made me gag and I think its a good thing that this dish is no longer popular , people would probably die from a heart attack after eating it.

And the eternal favourite French toast , this was light and fluffy and had orange and lemon maple syrup over the top

mmm the breakfast of sweet champions :o)eggs benedictfolded omelettespinachpotatofrittata.jpgquiche lorraineouefencocottedessert omelettefrenchtoastlemon french toast

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West Auckland Hospice Mothers Day Cake

cake on displayI do volunteer work at the West Auckland Hospice and made this cake for them for Mothers Day. They just wanted a very simple cake with a single pink rose so here it is.more wah cake

The colour was more pink in real life , its a rich chocolate cake with a raspberry buttercream filling and pink marbled fondant on top with a freehand made rosewahmothersdaycakewahrose

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Potatoes mmmmmmmmmm

My Irish roots are showing when it comes to this fabulous vege. They would be one of the most versatile foods grown. You can do so much with the humble spud and there are so many varieties. The United Nations have made 2008 the year of the potato . For developing countries this is a great food crop as the yield per plant is so much more than other kinds of starch crops and its fairly easy to grow.

This week in class we played with our potatoes and came up with some great hot stuff.

We did Gourmet potatoes, which were a baked potato stuffed with semi dried tomatoes and spring onions mixed with basil, potatoes, and a little sour cream.Fondant potatoes , brushed with melted butter and braised in the oven, hot chips, roasted wedges, creamy mash, and one of my absolute favourites, saute … Yumfondant potatoesgourmet potatopotatotrio2potato

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Salad,Ensalada,Salat,Salade,Insalata, in any language is still a Salad

There are so many different styles of salads around the world , every country has its own traditional and favourite salads. It can be just vegetables, fruits, meats, proteins such as eggs and cheese, seafood, rice, pasta, other grains its only limited by ones imagination.

This week at school we did some classic salads mmmmmmmmm yum , I love salads , I will even eat salads in winter time , I tend to prefer my veges mainly raw and there are so many ways to make salads. Some are very classical and you dont mess with the formula others you can be as creative as you want to be.

I think you cant beat a great salad that uses good quality ingrediants and is freshly made.In a restaurant a great salad is totally worth its weight in gold.

Let me present to you some great classics

green salad, rice pilaf , coleslaw,pasta salad with chorizo and sundried tomato, caeser salad , all made with fresh from scratch mayonaise or dressings,

garden saladgarden salad1salad triocaeser sakad

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Eggplants,Courgettes,Capsicum,Spanish Onions

These fabulous veges are a marriage made in heaven. They combine so well together and are such great tastes that they can stand alone in their flavours as independant veges. The people who live in the Mediterrainian , really can show us how good these veges are. This week we  made Ratatouille and Char Grilled Veges, mmmm got love those vege combos especially when combined with good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, a little fresh basil and garlic.

Ratatouille and Char Grilled Veges  served for your pleasure… happy eatingratatouillechargrilled veges

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trying new flavours or revisiting old flavours that I havn’t liked before

I made a decision this year to be even more adventurous than I have been in recent times and decided that I was going to try as many new flavours as I can and  to go back and try things that I hadn’t liked in the past. Its been working out well so far, I havn’t tried anything recently that was a new taste but I have revisited a few oldies.

A while back  at school I tried and enjoyed seafood chowder which is something I have never really been a fan of, and actually found that I enjoyed the recipe we made. (you can see the pictures over in the link called food from school)

At the food show that Bruce and I went to a while back  I tried an anchovy stuffed queen olive which I actually enjoyed and I also tried a whitebait fritter ( the little eyes always put me off in the past) I felt it was nice , it just needed a little more taste. Anchovies are something I have been able to cope with if it was in a sauce but always found a bit too salty for my tastes if I were actually to eat one

Today at school we were doing classic salads ,I will post pictures of those in the next day or so

one of the salads that we  did was Caesar Salad , which was just gorgous btw. Normally I would pick the anchovy fillet garnish off and leave that on the side but I made a conscious decision to actually eat the Anchovy.

It was just unfortunate that I happened to grab the Anchovy and a peice of crispy bacon in the same mouthful. I got this tasty mouthful that was just a little bit too salty together but absolutely delicious. And the texture of the Anchovy was a little surprise in that it was salty and soft and unctious on the tongue. For some reason I wasnt expecting that texture thing.

Beware little Anchovies Im coming back for more of your tasty little friends.

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Is this a giant cupcake or lemon lime meringue pie

We went to a Potluck dinner last night and I provided dessert

this was a lemon lime meringue pie , but when it was sitting on the stove after the meringue was cooked it looked like a giant cupcake .

I also made coffee profiteroles, and tuttifruitti vanilla kisses. I was so pleased with my choux paste it came out absolutly perfect in texture , evenly cooked and beautiful . The kisses were a tutti fruitti cookie with a rich vanilla buttercream in the middle, the flavour combo was really gorgous

lemon lime meringue piecoffee profiterolestutti fruitti vanilla kissesprofiteroles

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Lest we forget

Anzac poppy cookiesThey shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Tomorrow is ANZAC DAY 25 April
Its the day we here in New Zealand and Australia remember our fallen soldiers originally from WW I who fell at Galipoli giving their lives to keep us all free. It now encompasses all soldiers who have given their lives in all the wars that have followed
We will remember them.
I have made some cookies to represent Poppies the symbol of eternal life and the ANZAC flower
they are tutti fruitti flavour with royal icing
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Fragrant Feijoas

ohh my gosh I just adore these fabulous fruit , to the rest of the world they can be known as pineapple guavas to Every single New Zealander they are the humble feijoa. A true sign of Autumn is this fruit, along with passionfruit, tamarillos, persimmons, are gracing our tables right now.

Feijoas grow really prolifically in Auckland ,. You travel around and you can see so many of them lying on the ground just going to waste which is so sad and to see people actually willing to pay for them at $10.00/kg I think is just criminal.

And they have the most delicious slightly floral fragrance and flavour, you can eat them straight out of the skin, orhave them cooked . They make a great marriage with so many other fruits and flavours, especially apples, pears and apricots, and they go lovely with nutmeg and cardamon. These are my most favourite fruit in winter

If ever you get the chance to try them you must ,. I would put it on one of the must dos in your life timefeijoa1.jpgfeijoa2.jpgfeijoas3.jpg

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brrr a cold snap has wafted in over the last few days

so tonight Matthew its going to be a turn on the oven and heat up the house dinner.

I felt like having chicken but doing something different for dinner tonight , so I had a chicken thigh and drumstick and seasoned it with salt and lemon pepper, sat it on a small bed of curly parsley and added lime juice and fresh pizza thyme and baked it in the oven , at 180 degrees then 20 mins before it was cooked added brown button mushrooms and some whole tomatoes and roasted them off and rounded it off with fresh bread and butter.

I felt like being a bit decadent and have made a vanillary rice pudding with sultanas for later . a rich milky warming comfort dish mmmm yum