Summer Evening with Friends

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Christmas 2011

I’m low on time.

I’m high on orange and mango cordial.

(2 small bubbas’ll do that to ya…)

I would like to share some pics from our Christmas feast with you.

Only a few.

Enjoy!

SPINACH SALAD WITH ORGANIC BLUE STILTON, CARAMELISED PECANS AND HONEY VINAIGRETTE

GREEK RISONI SALAD

ROAST PORK

ROAST TURKEY WITH AMAZING CRANBERRY AND PINE NUT STUFFING 

ROAST GLAZED HAM

FENNEL SALAD

FAMOUS PLUM SAUCE

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!

 

Out of this World! A “Space” themed Birthday Party for an OUTATHISWORLD little guy!

I love kid’s birthday parties.

EVERYTHING about them.

I love planning them, cooking for them, hosting them, eating at them…..everything!

I must disclose, however, that in this post I am pretty much just the messenger…. apart from the “Alien Star” food labels with the googly eyes and the “Metoeorites” I had pretty much nothing else to do with the entire event!

The party was hosted by my sister “N” in honour of my gorgeous nephew “A1″ turning 3! Happy Birthday Louli-pop!

THE INVITATIONS

The invitiations were bought in a pack of 12 (I think) from Papier D’amour – the store is in Double Bay (in Sydney) but you can shop online by clicking here.

They had rockets and aliens and UFO’s on them, but were still stylish, if that makes sense! Not cheap but vey cute!

THE DECORATIONS

Being a 3rd bday, Sissy didn’t want to go cwaaaaazy w the decos so she kept it pretty minimal.

Using chalk, she wrote the numbers counting down from 10 to 1 on the pavement.

She then made a really simple “BLAST OFF” sign.

Double sided silver cardboard stars, courtesy of Aunty T, were hung in the garden with fishing line.

The cups and plates were all blue with stars on them and the straws were blue and white striped!

It must be noted that the garden looked BEAUTIFUL as well – the hydrangeas are STUNNNNNNNING at this time of year!

THE FOOD

METEORITES aka Honey Joys. Childhood memories with every bite. Get the recipe here

STAR SAMBOS – also moons, rockets and aeroplanes – with Vegemite, and Ham and Cheese.

MOON ROCKS – aka Chocolate crackles. Get the recipe here. Thanks Morls!

FRUIT ROCKETS - aka fruit on a skewer in shape of rocket.

MILKY WAYS

ALIEN CUPCAKES – Alien character from Toy Story 3

ROCKET ICY POLES – Watermelon flavour.

DONUT PLANETS – Jam Donuts

LOLLY BAGS

I loved what Sissy did with the lolly bags! She covered take away coffee cups with alfoil, made a cardboard cone as the top and little wing-y things as well! SO clever. She wrote each childs initials and age on the side of the “rockets”.

THE CAKE

The cake was a “Rocket” made from a basic vanilla cake recipe with vanilla and chocolate layered icing.

It was decorated with silver and red balls and liquorice.

It was placed on a black cake board which was decorated with silver stars and layered with white marshmallows (rocket smoke from take off)

It “took off” via sparklers that were inserted into it’s rear.

The kids went NUTS for it!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out the one I wrote after my daughter’s 1st bday party – click here!

Happy Birthday Louli!

Phreakish Witches Phingers – HALLOWE’EN 2011

As a wee Phoodie, I distinctly remember how much it sucked on Hallowe’en when you’d knock knock knock on someone’s door whilst trick or treating, only to be loaded up with something so NOT fun. Like Sultanas. Or strawberries. Or a cheap plastic novelty toy. ARGH! I swore that when I grew up, my house would be packed to the rafters with chocolate bars and boxes of lollies and the like, so that no visiting trick or treater would ever leave disappointed.

I stayed true to my promise.

Ever since I’ve been a grown up (or perhaps since I was of ‘age’….still not sure that I am grown up) I have made sure that on the eve of October 31 the house has more sugar in it than even Willy Wonka would approve of!

This year however, despite the chaos that is my life, I decided it would be a good idea to bake for the visiting kids in the street – something yummy but also something that they would get a laugh from too!

And that is where these ‘Phreakish Witches Phingers’ stepped in!

The recipe is super simple, like most on this blog, so not only won’t these biscuits take you long to make, but if you’ve got kids then they can help you whip them up as well!

The biscuit / cookie is simply shortbread. Any old, basic shortbread recipe works here. I have used Nigella Lawson’s which you can find by clicking here. I normally use this when making “traditionally shaped” shortbread so I thought why not for my phingers! For this recipe though, I replaced the vanilla seeds with 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence. The reason for this is that I didn’t want my fingers to have little black dots all over them! You can use either.

Apart from the ingredients listed by Nigella, you will also need Blanched almonds for the fingernails and red food gel for the blood!

Below are some pics of the dough…..

Once I’ve made it, I always refridgerate for about half an hour before rolling out.

When ready to roll, (I take out only about a large handful of dough at a time to work with – this is because the dough “melts” pretty quickly, making the shaping of the fingers tougher!) take about a teaspoon and a half of dough and roll into finger shape, pinching in at the knuckles. Use a knife to cut lines in knuckle and upper part of finger. Press Almond firmly into top of biscuit as the nail.

Place biscuits on a tray and shove into a pre-heated 160 deg cel oven for about 25 mins or until shortbread is slightly golden.

As soon as you take the biscuits out of the oven, lift up the almond, squirt the red gel on the nail bed and push almond back down on top.

Cool on a cookie stand. Or a pizza tray.

Finito! EASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSY!

Oh, and just because I had HOURS of spare time on my hands (not!!) I tested out some smaller phingers (about a teaspoon of dough). Below you can see them cooling alongside the larger ones. For the record, I think the larger ones look better.

Happy Hallowe’en folks!

So, Phor now….. Pharewell……

Dear y’all lovely, loyal and supportive phollowers,

As many of you know, Phoodie Junior #2 is about to enter the world.

I am SUPER excited but also very realistic about what this means for my blog (in the short term!)

Bye bye Nachos and Nicoise and HELLO Nappies and Night feeds!!!

No doubt a wave of exhaustion will engulf me as I do the best I can to keep my head above the water! NO ONE said 2 kids under 18 months was easy!

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I have appreciated your ongoing support over the last 2 or so years and I WILL BE BACK, I’m just not sure when!

The best thing for you to do to stay updated, if you haven’t already, is to subscribe to the blog – you can do this by clicking on the button to the right of the page and entering your e-mail address. By subscribing, you will get automatic e-mail notifications every time I update the site / add a new post.

Before I say ‘pharewell for now’, I thought I would leave you with some snaps and links to my “Most Popular Posts of all time” …..y’know…. a little somethin’ from the Phoodie archives! Click on the headings to go directly to the full post.

ENJOY!

ALICE IN ‘ONE’DERLAND – Bubba’s 1st Birthday Party

HAMBURGER ‘CUPCAKES’

ADRIANO ZUMBO’s 2011 EURASIAN COLLECTION

“POT PLANT” DESSERT – CHOCOLATE MINT MOUSSE

WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES AND CREAM ROCKY ROAD

BROCCOLI AND LEEK SOUP

2011 FABULOUS EASTER PHEASTER

CHOCOLATE COCONUT CAKE WITH RASPBERRY CREAM AND DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Don’t forget to click around the site and look at all my other phabulous posts. There are tonnes of recipes and reviews that will keep you entertained and inspired for hours!

Adios Amigos!

See you soon!

Take care,

Phoodie

p.s click this link phor one phinal phavourite post?! WHO STABBED MY CHICKEN!?

Ciao!

White Chocolate Cookies and Cream Rocky Road

Pheed me white chocolate intravenously.

All day.

Every day.

Also pheed me rocky road in the same manner.

ALSO pheed me Oreos that way.

My head……day – dreaming……la la land……..recipe pops in.

Here it is.

Weep.

Love.

Takes 3 seconds to make but will KNOCK the socks off anyone who chomps on a slab!

INGREDIENTS

750g white chocolate

2 packets white marshmallows

1 cup shredded coconut

1 packet Oreos

METHOD

1) Melt the chocolate over a bain marie 

 

2) Toast coconut until golden.

3) Place marshmallows on plate, then chop each one into half / thirds.

4) Roughly chop Oreos into large chunks.

5) Now the chocolate should be completely melted, add the coconut to it and stir.

6) Add in the marshmallows…..it’s ok….it’s ok…. I also ate half of them prior to chucking them in!

7) Now it’s Oreo time – in they go!

8) Mix everything all together well!

9) Pour mix into lined rectangular tin – approx 20cm x 30cm – then place in fridge. This will set in 2 hours but if you can leave for 3-4 that is more ideal

10) Once set, remove from fridge and prepare to chop.

11) With a sharp knife, cut into thick 2 inch fingers.

12) Serve on pretty plate…..if there is any left at this point!!!!

ENJOY! And note – if consumed on birthday, anniversary of ANYTHING, overseas, whilst feeling sad / happy / stressed / relaxed etc – IT IS COMPLETELY FAT FREE!

PHRIDAY PHEAST #10 – “Pot Plant” Dessert – Chocolate Mint Mousse

Chocolate.

Mint.

The Garden.

Three of my favourite things.

Ok ok…. I can hear those who know me laughing uproariously re: the garden component, and they’re right…..well kind of….. I don’t like ACTUAL gardening, but I love sitting in the garden, on a rug, sipping a cappucino…..surely that counts?!

So, inspired by my 3 (maybe 2) favourite things and also by a Womens Weekly cake that I saw which was a paddock filled with farm animals, I have put together a little dessert that only a fool would not enjoy.

Like all of the recipes on PHOODIE, it’s roooooooolly quick to make, easy on the eye and tastes damn good too!

Give ‘em a go!

Note: if you like these, you’ll LOVE Phoodie’s “Hamburger” cupcakes!!!!! Click here to see those!

PHOODIE’S “POT PLANT” MINTY CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

This is Nigella’s recipe. You can’t stuff it up. It works every time. It also takes minus 1 second to make.

Click here to see it.

The only thing I change about this is that instead of Vanilla extract I use MINT extract.

Once mousse is made, divide into 4 “pots” leaving about 1/2 an inch at the top for “soil”.

CHOCOLATE ‘SOIL’

Ingredients

6 x dark chocolate Tim Tam biscuits or similar chocolate biscuit – gotta be dark chocolate though!

Method

Place biscuits in between 2 large sheets of baking paper and smash to smithereens with a rolling pin.

Sprinkle lots and lots on top of each pot of mousse.

‘PLANT’

Ingredients

4 x Mint sprigs

Method

Wash and trim.

Insert into “soil”

AND YOU’RE DONE!

These make a really cute house-warming dinner gift orrrrrrrr if you are having friends over you can place them on the window sill just prior to serving and then watch your guests think that you’ve lost the plot as you serve them your mini indoor garden for their 3rd course!

ENJOY!

PHRIDAY PHEAST #9 – Broccoli and Leek Soup

This week’s PHRIDAY PHEAST is brillllliant for a zillion gamillion kabillion reasons.

It’s Phat Phree.

It’s Blooooooody delicious.

It costs minus one cent to produce.

And guess what?! There’s only a few ingredients and it take 34 seconds to make (kinda……)

This soup is a true winter warmer. It also freezes reallllly well (lasting for 3 months), not that there’s generally any left over because once tried, it is inhaled by one and all.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 6 as a starter

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

1 medium brown onion – diced

2 cloves garlic – crushed

2 leeks – sliced

2 potatoes

4 heads broccoli

salt

pepper

curry powder

4 tbsp thick, creamy low fat yoghurt (fat free Jalna is PERFECT)

Additional low fat yoghurt and dill  - to garnish

METHOD

1) In the butter and olive oil, fry off your onions, leeks and garlic until transparent.

2) Once transparent add salt, pepper and curry powder (about 2 teaspoons of each) to the pot and mix through.

3) Next add the diced potato and broccoli and stir everything together for about 5 minutes.

4) Cover contents of the pot with boiling water from the kettle and simmer on medium heat until veges are cooked through.

5) Blast to a pulp with a stick blender.

6) Add in 4 tbsp of the yoghurt and blend again.

7) Serve into a bowl, garnish, weep. AMAZING. (Note: a couple of LARGE pieces of hot buttered sourdough served alongside this soup is optional ….for some, MANDATORY for others *ahem*)

 

Lamb Shanks w Tomato, Carrot and Risoni – Greek Style

This one is a MUST . DEFINITELY . COOK . ATLEASTONCETHISWINTER!!!!

So EASY.

So DELICIOUS.

SUCH a crown pleaser!

Click here for the recipe and a couple of other slow-cooker meal ideas!!

I used to hate Tomatoes. Until…..

….I discovered Heirloom ones.

Thanks to Murdoch Books 365 challenge project, of which I am a very lucky team member, I got the opportunity to cook some of these yumbos up and shove ‘em in my pie hole.

And gee they were HAYMAYZING!

The full write up is on the Murdoch Books’ 365 challenge team page, so CHECK IT OUT, in the meantime drink up the pics below.

The Mozza was BEYOND too.