Coconut Flour Pancakes

I’ve had a bag of coconut flour hanging out in my pantry now for about 12 months, that I purchased on impulse one day.  I tried using it once and found it so absorbent that it ruined a recipe that the rest has been languishing until this week. A visit from my niece who is…

Orange Coconut Haystacks

I’ve spent quite some time this weekend considering my options as to what I am going to contribute to this month’s The Cookbook Guru.  The challenge for August is to pick a recipe book from my bookshelf to cook from and share with the group as an introduction that may result in it becoming part…

Special Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate is one of those things that is always a good idea.  A small bite of the good stuff can lift your mood, increase your happiness and delight your taste buds.  Plus if you’re a dark chocolate fan there is plenty of evidence out there stating that the antioxidant properties make it good for us. …

Macaroons

Who knew that macaroons were so easy to make?  Now I’m not saying these turned out like Adrian Zumbo’s perfect round discs of colour, but the flavour and texture was awesome  Given I was using a 1907 recipe from Mrs Beeton as part of The Cookbook Guru I certainly wasn’t wanting them to be high-end French patisserie…

A Tale of Lokum

The time has come for me to attempt this delicious and exotic sweet in my kitchen once again.  Many of you would remember a not so successful attempt that was made at Christmas time to make Turkish Delight (Rahat Lokum).  The weather was perhaps our biggest enemy as the heat and humidity resulted in a…

Healthy Rice Crispy Squares

It’s funny how many childhood favourites stay with you as you grow up and get older.  Tastes change, but in so many ways they really don’t.   As a child Rice Bubbles were always one of my favourite breakfast cereals.  I loved putting my ear to the bowl filled with bubbles and milk and hearing them…

Middle Eastern Inspired Semolina Porridge

This morning for breakfast I decided I needed to eat something different from the Irish Soda Bread that I’ve been obsessed with for the last month.  My wanderings over the last few days through Claudia Roden’s New Book of Middle Eastern Food led me to a recipe for semolina porridge and reminded me how much I…

Spanish Inspired Spiced Almonds

Nuts are one of our favourite snacks.  We will often pop a bowl out on the coffee table to nibble on with our beer or a glass of wine to celebrate the end of the day.  Our recent addiction has been more specifically smoked almonds.  A friend introduced me to them a few years ago…

Toasted Hazelnut, Honey and Ginger Muesli

The middle of last year I had a very disappointing revalation that I had developed an allergy to oats.  As a lover of porridge, muesli, grainy breads and crumbles this was a highly difficult discovery that I wasn’t sure how I was going to get around.  In fact I’m inclined to forget, thinking oats are…

Black and White Rice Pudding

   Reading a Donna Hay magazine from a few months ago got my creative juices flowing and inspired me.  The theme was black and white.  Sounds great, but in actual reality I’m sure it was quite a challenge to food it up without colour… it’s such a big part of delighting the senses.   But…

I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…

…and making this delicious treat is about as close as I’m going to get to having one whilst I live in Australia.  For me born and bred here in the southern hemisphere there is still something about christmas that feels more real when I experience it in a cold winter over a blustery scorching summer…

Homemade Mint Sauce

I really can’t believe just how simple and delicious this sauce was.   I had chosen some lamb cutlets and sausages for a BBQ recently with family and wanted to have something yummy to accompany it.  I’m not particularly a fan of the commercial mint sauces available as I find them to be glutinous and oily…