Delicious butter biscuits... a basic recipe...

I found this basic butter biscuit recipe and thought that I would give it a go with my own flavours.  I tried it with pistachios, lemon and some white chocolate bits.  Where those flavours came from, I'm not sure but it was pretty tasty.

Basic butter biscuit mix:
Ingredients:

• 250g butter softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 2 and 1/2 cups plain flour

How to put it all together!

1. beat butter and sifted sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until smooth and changed to a lighter colour. Transfer mixture into a large bowl, stir in flour, in two batches.
2. knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide dough in half; roll each into a 25cm log. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm.
3. preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.
4. cut logs into 1 cm slices; place slices on trays about 2 cm apart.
5. bake biscuits about 10 minutes or until browned lightly. Transfer biscuits onto wire rack to cool.

As this is a basic biscuit recipe, you can add your own flavours such as:

• lemon and pistachio, add 1 teaspoon of finely grated lemon rind into the butter and sugar mixture then add 1/3 cup of chopped pistachios and 1/3 cup of white chocolate bits.
• chocolate choc chip, add 2 tablespoons of sifted cocoa powder to butter and sugar mixture, add 1/4 cup of chopped choc bits before adding the flour.
  

Sugadeaux Cupcake Sampler and the tell-tale heart...

Like the tell-tale heart, I have a box of 5 cupcakes that form this month's Sugadeaux Cupcake sampler sitting on my desk. It's like the tell-tale heart as I promised I would wait to take them home and share them with my husband but they are sitting on my desk saying "eat me! Eat me!" It's driving me crazy!

To be serious though, this is a great way to get to taste some different flavours without making the 'whole case purchase' commitment. This month's flavours are a real sample bag and include:

Black and white
Sour gummy (including an adorable sour worm on top!)
Wattle seed and macadamia nut
Lychee Jasmine
Mexican chili chocolate

(hopefully I got this all ok Miss Jess!)


The next box is available on the 22nd October, visit her website for what will be in it and to get your order in!

Curry Spiced carrot soup with apples...

(you will need quite a few of these guys!)

I had this soup at the New England Soup Factory in Boston last year. It was so delicious that I have been trying to replicate the recipe. Yes, the New England Soup Factory folk do have a book with their amazing recipes, however this one wasn't in the book!

So here is my take on this recipe.

You will need:

• about 750 grams to a kilo of carrots.
• one small sweet potato.
• 2 sticks of celery (with leaves)
• one small brown onion chopped
• one small red onion chopped
• 2 small granny smith apples, peeled and chopped into quarter style
• approximately a litre of vegetable stock
  
• 3 heaped teaspoons of mild curry paste ( I used a korma style with coconut and coriander)
• half teaspoon of minced ginger
  
• pinch of cumin seeds
• coriander chopped for garnish
• 2 heaped tablespoons of coconut cream (to taste)
• 2 teaspoons of samba olek (chilli to taste!)

1. pop onions and celery in a heavy based pot with a good splash of olive oil and sweat down.
2. add the sweet potato and carrot and heat through for a few minutes until all ingredients are covered with the oil.
3. add the curry paste and ginger and toss through to cook off.
4. add the stock and simmer with lid on until all the ingredients are soft and starting to fall apart.
5. using a stick blender, blend the soup until smooth.
6. add the other flavours, salt and pepper, cumin seeds, samba olek and coconut cream. Add more coconut cream if you prefer a creamier soup.
   
7. add the apple and put pot back on a low heat, covered for around 5 minutes or until the apples have softened.
8. Serve garnished with freshly chopped coriander.

This soup is very filling and the apple adds a lovely sweetness to the curry carrots. For a more substantial soup you could serve with some hot naan bread!

Let me know how you go if you try these recipe! Miss Mardi xxx

New York City Cocktails!

As I was in New York City recently during the much warmer weather, I thought that I would be a little more daring than my usual dirty martini and give the above cocktail a try!

It's a Raspberry Vodka Lemondrop martini! It was super delicious. I'm not really sure how it was made but it did include raspberry infused vodka and a homestyle lemonade and had a lovely raw sugar crust! I had it at Eatery in NYC and loved it so much that I had two!

I will be giving it a go myself so stay tuned for the outcomes!

Teeny Tiny Carrot Cakes

I am quite the fan of carrot cake. I'm not sure where this addiction came from but every now and then (particularly when we have loads of carrots!) I whip up some of these teeny tiny carrot cakes.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium carrots grated
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 3/4 cup of light brown sugar
• 1 cup of self raising flour (you can use a half/half combo of normal and wholemeal)
• 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup of sultanas
• 3 tablespoons of pepitas
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of all spice
  

1. mix the sugar, eggs and oil together well and then mix to the other ingredients.
2. pop tablespoons of mixture into 12 lined cupcake/muffin pans.
3. bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celcius for between 20 to 25 minutes
4. cool!

You can ice these beauties with a lovely cream cheese icing or eat just as! They will stay fresh for a few days as long as they are kept in an air tight container. I like to take these as a bit of an afternoon snack at work!

National Sparkling Red Day

Did you know that there is a National Sparkling Red Day?! Well this year it was on Tuesday 15th June and I celebrated with a couple of bottles from my lovely friend David's cellar, great company and some gorgeous food!

I do love a sparkling red, especially with food and particularly with cheese. It seemed the perfect accompaniment to a cold Melbourne's evening and we selected a local Italian restaurant, Di Palmas, to celebrate the National Sparkling Red Day. The starter and main that I chose was an amazing goats cheese souffle with red wine poached pears. This light souffle and pears went perfectly with our first wine, I'm practically drooling just thinking about it! For main I went with a pizza with salami, goats cheese, peppers and anchovies. It was a great gutsy and robust meal to have with a sparkling red wine and I actually love to eat pizza with my hands, even in a posh restaurant!

The two sparkling reds that we enjoyed were:

Anderson's of Rutherglen 2000 Sparkling Shiraz and Hollick's 2004 Sparkling Merlot
(click on the wines to get a little more information about them).

The Rutherglen 2000 Sparkling Shiraz was amazing. It had the perfect amount of bubbles, was creamy, a gutsy red but incredibly smooth. It had some great complexities of flavour that you sometimes don't get in a sparkling red and we all agreed that we would try and hunt down some more of this one!

The Hollick's 2004 Sparkling Merlot had an unusual nose and after taste and at first we weren't that in to it but I did warm to it when I had it with food. It unfortunately didn't stand up to the Rutherglen but you often get that, one will appeal more than another wine.

So, when did National Sparkling Red Day start? Well, it is now in it's 19th year with the first annual celebration starting back in 1991. Always held in June, it appears that a secret society of sparkling red wine lovers all come out to enjoy and celebrate their love of the deep red bubbles.

Having been a fan of the 'red bubbles' myself, I can see this celebration becoming an annual tradition for us with our friends who also like to indulge in these gorgeous sparkling reds.

The celebrations don't always have to be big and elaborate but why don't you think about getting some friends together with some lovely simple Italian style foods, a couple of bottles of sparkling red wines and celebrate with us for the 20th National Sparkling Red Day next year?! I know from our experience that this will become an annual get together for us but don't wait till next June to try some great 'red bubbles'!

Cute food blog...

I stumbled across this great foodie blog called Sunday Suppers. The blog is based in Brooklyn, New York and has gorgeous food photography as well as some great recipes that just make you want to pop your apron on!

I would suggest that you check them out! While you are looking at their delightful recipes I will leave you with a photo of a delicious martini that I had the other night!

Enjoy!