Lemon Cheesecake Slice

As much as I crave chocolate and all it's glory I actually prefer fruit base desserts. I find that they allow me to feel healthy as I ingest copious amounts of sugar. I don't tend to have that OMG I AM GETTING FAT moment after it either. All positives to a fruit dessert.

In a week where Adelaide is hitting the high 30s temperature wise, these are definitely easy to make with the maximum flavour effect. I made these a few weeks back  for a dinner/ movie night with my second family (partner's side). They went down an absolute treat with the vast amounts of wine we were drinking.

I used Exclusively Food's recipe, the only thing I changed is I basically doubled the amount of lemon juice, and added a whole orange to it.

Carrot and Apple Quick Bread

What kind of blogger am I, not blogging for a full 8 weeks.... I have a good excuse I promise.

I was in Asia for six weeks, travelling around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali. I can honestly say that Vietnam was my favourite country. The food was fresh and full of flavour. I may have become addicted to Pho, the national dish. I may have bought a ridiculous shirt stating my love of Pho. Furthermore, I may have had my own personal Pho lady. If it didn't take over a day to make it, I would have already made it......fifty million times.

I also loved Cambodia, the history and beauty of this country astounds me. Angkor Wat was surrealistic, I was climbing (they loved stairs) ancient temples that had been overrun by trees and bugs, and I loved every minute of it. My time in Cambodia was slightly hindered as I developed food poisoning, I survived but for the last two weeks of my journey I looked at each bit of food and pondered if it was going to try kill me again.

I have been back for a week now. It is an adjustment, a hard adjustment after being away for so long. However, this year I start Honours in Psychology a year filled with sleepless nights and hissy fits. However, I have a wonderful partner that will always be there for hugs and endless cups of teas.

One more announcement before I get to the delicious bread I made. Before I left one of my photos was accepted on foodgawker.com! It is a website which showcases delicious food photography and my photo of the pannacotta was accepted. YAY! I aim to get more photos accepted.

To the bread.... yum! simple. I owe you more detail then this. Well I don't like carrot bread, and never been a fan of cream cheese icing, but I have been eating this quick bread non stop since I took it out the oven this morning. Don't worry, there is no sugar, so my waistline should hopefully maintain its skinny-ness from the big trip. 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of self raising flour

2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp mixed spices

1 tsp baking powder

1 medium grated carrot

1 medium grated granny smith apple

1/2 orange and it's zest

1 cup of greek yogart

1/2 cup of honey*

2 tsp of oil

1 egg beaten

* Big call out to Honey lady who provided me some delicious samples of her amazing honey, check out her blog: Honey Lady's Kitchen

HOW TO COOK IT

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease the loaf tin. Then combine all the dry ingredients. Then combine all the other ingredients into the bowl and mix till just combined. Place the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for an hour. 

Please be careful and start checking it after 40 minutes, if it starts to burn on top, but still not cooked in the middle, place an ailfoil tent over it and continue cooking it. 

OPTION: Mix cream cheese, a good squeeze of lemon juice and a few pinches of icing sugar together, spread on the bread and DEVOUR IT! 

Cooking Fear: Vanilla Pannacotta

Do you have cooking fears? Those recipes that seem impossible or that ingredient that just seems to tricky. I had this with panna cotta.  It seems that my fear was unwarranted, this was possibly one of the easiest things I have ever made. I was inspired to go out of my comfort zone as this was the dessert for my boyfriend and I going away. That's right we will be departing Adelaide, Australia, a little town known as the city of churches, Farmers Union Ice coffee, Frucchocs and the Malls Balls to the bustling streets of Hanoi, Vietnam where we will be over landing through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali for 6 weeks! This will mean that posts will for a short time will not be any of my recipes but all the interesting and yummy food that we will be eating. 

Anyway, back to the food; the panna cotta was everything I wanted it to be creamy, silky and had a beautiful vanilla taste, it tasted incredibly refreshing and not heavy, despite being 99% cream. I paired it with cherries that I got at my local farmers market that morning. 

I trusted the recipe of the fantastic David Lebovitz

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of Heavy cream

1/2 cup of caster sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla paste/essence

4 1/2 teaspoons of powdered gelatin

6 tables spoons of cold water

Grab a saucepan and combine the sugar and cream. Heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. I kept stirring throughout to not let the cream burn on the bottom of the saucepan. To check if the sugar was dissolved I stopped stirring for 30 seconds (to let the sugar settle) once I started stirring again I listened for any crunchy noises. If there wasn't then all your sugar is probably dissolved!

Stir in vanilla paste, sit mixture aside. 

In  a medium bowl pour cold water in and sprinkle the gelatin over the water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. I also kept stirring my cream mixture during this time to avoid a skin from developing. 

There are two different ways of presenting the panna cotta. If you want to take the easy route which I totally did,  pour the cream mixture in pretty glasses and let it set (This can be left in the fridge for up to two days, or will set in about 2 hours). 

Now, if you want to be fancy: Spray the moulds with oil (non-tasting), then pour mixture in. When trying to get the panna cotta's out, run a knife around the edge of your mould, and slowly place the panna cotta on your plate. 

I served them with de-pitted cherries which I soaked in lemon juice and honey for an hour. 

Meat-bean Balls

Hands up if you have cravings. Most people crave the beautiful creaminess of chocolate or a sugar hit. I am not most people, I am a weirdo. Give me a plate of garlic sauce with hints of a yiros contents and I am a very happy woman. Give me some bacon, or cheese or anything that will had to my cholesterol level and I will have a fork, devouring it. Currently I'm on a serious sour cream hit. People I am not pregnant just designed to be fat. 

So what does a person do when you love garlic sauce but have less than a month to get into a bikini for a trip around Asia do. You make it healthy. Oh baby that sounds sacrilegious-  I mean this is so healthy that even personal trainers will shake their head and go OH NO YOU DIDN'T! Yes, yes I did.

You know what it still tastes freaking delicious, maybe even better than the fat one.

Ingredients

2 cloves of garlic

500g of lamb mince

1 handful of parsely

1 tablespoon of oregano

pinch of salt and pepper

1 tin of butter beans (can be chickpeas)

Recipe

Blender, Blender how I love thee, you make my life so much easier. Shh, I have been in exam study so I'm allowed to blabber.

Anyway, Drain your butter beans and dump them in the blender/food processor with the garlic and parsley. Combine the meat and the butter bean mixture (It will hold with no egg). Roll into little balls or even patties. Place in the refrigerator till chilled (about 30 minutes). Heat up pan with some oil, and fry in batches. The great thing about these is that they freeze very well. 

Enjoy and bask in the healthiness!

Oreo Brownies

I swear Mr. Personal trainer I do not generally eat so many oreos! I swear. I promise this is a one off, I had left over oreos from my brother's engagement. I promise these are left overs, there will be no more oreo recipes. My waistline will not expand anymore!

I have recently started to realise that I am growing up. Decisions are being made that will afect my life. After having 2 very bad days of rejections, decision and waistline issues. I decided to throw in the towel so to speak and make these for my leaving hospitality forever party. That's right, no more smelling like food or being nice to arrogant customers (Thankyou Mr for telling me I walk to loudly!). I will miss the nice ones though, like the lovely couple from the isle of White in merry olde England, the business men who were constantly asking about my degree, or even the little kiddies that used to give me kisses.

But, I need to move on. Also go to Asia in the mean time (future blog will explain).

I give you Oreo Brownies to solve your sorrows and to put a smile on your dile. Growing up ain't so bad as long as there is chocolate, I swear i'll run tomorrow.

RECIPE

Curtesy of the Nestle tin

150g melted butter

1 c baking cocoa

4 eggs

2 c brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla essence

3/4 c plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

20 whole oreo

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Grease with butter and line tin with baking paper. I used a 27cm x 18 cm tin.

Melt the butter fully and stir in cocoa. Let it cool down for ten minutes (when im really lazy I just skip this bit- but its worth it). Stir in the brown sugar and vanilla. 

Sift in the flour and baking powder together. Stir, until combined. 

Pour half the mixture in the tin and spread it to the edges. This is the delicious part, make sure that there are extra oreo's for this bit. Take the oreo's and place them on top of the mixture, you can either be neat or just chuck them in the middle. I used the neat method as it meant that every slice I cut got an Oreo.

Put the other half of the mixture on top of the oreo's, spreading the mixture and making sure to cover the oreo's with the batter.

Pop it in the oven for 35minute for undercooked fudgy brownies, 40-45 for cooked but still delicious brownies.

Wait until cooled to slice. 

Slap your boyfriend hand's when he tries to steal them. 

Ladies for a Day! Hilton Adelaide High Tea

I am the girl that likes to stay in pyjamas all day, sipping a cup of tea whilst watching one of my nerd shows. However sometimes I like to dress up and be a lady. I was fortunate to win a High Tea at the Hilton International Hotel through the Good Food and Wine Festival. It meant that five of my friends and I could dress up all nice and pretty and be ladies. According to my friend N, this means changing our names to Metsy and Betsy.

Overall, the High tea was an enjoyable experience. Would I of actually paid for it, all my friends and I agreed with no. Although everything was adequate, for $39 a head, I personally think you should be able to choose what you want on your high tea platters.

 I liked that I ate out of my comfort zone today, I tried caviar for the first time and pate. I must say, I think I am a girl of simpler tastes. There may have been a bee-line to the prosciutto- does anyone else just eat it out of the deli packet, maybe if the boccincini is in hand grabbing distance I will go between the two. Wow, my eating habits are mmm interesting. 

My favourite food from the High tea would have to be the strawberry and rose cake. It was light, fluffy and did not leave that heavy feeling that I feel from most cake. I think I am going to try and recreate this cake...Anyone work at the Hilton and want to get me the recipe? I'm serious, I'll pay you in cake. Not that cake though, that's mine. 

Now, a food blog wouldn't be right without some pretty pictures.

I just would like to say a quick hello to my wonderful lady friends that came to the High tea, you made my day and the burritos and frozen margheritas that we had afterwards were even more special. 

O-O-OREO! cheesecakes

Who doesn't like oreos's? Ok, if you say that you don't get of this page, I mean how can you not! You basically have permission to play with your food. Twist, Lick, Dunk!

These cupcakes also featured at my brother engagement. I loved the squeals of delight when people realised there was a whole oreo at the bottom. You hear me, a WHOLE OREO!!  Now, I have to admit, I am not a huge chocolate cheesecake fan, I would prefer a chocolate mousse, or just plain chocolate. FYI do not let me buy a jumbo bag of nestle chocolate chips, I have now gone to that stage where I don't have enough to actually make the intended chocolate chip cookies I was going to make. 

To the cheesecakes, make them,then you will make lots of friends. 

These cupcakes have been on the blogging scene for a while but I used this recipe from Handle the Heat. I did not change the recipe one bit, oh i might of added a few more oreos in the mixture..... there are left over oreos, save me!

These make 30-36 depending on cupcake patty pan size. 

Ingredients:

42 cream-filled sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole, 16 coarsely chopped

Room temperature 1 kg of cream cheese, I used Philadelphia 

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 large eggs, 

1 cup sour cream

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 135 degrees (I was surprised about how low this was, but apparently its some cheesecake science). Fill each cupcake hole with a patty pan, then place a whole oreo cookies in each hole...this may include your mouth. I may have been using the one for the tin, one for the mouth technique. Total sugar high!

 Beat the cream cheese, making sure not to combine to much air into the mixture (they can explode- who knew!). Keep beating the mixture whilst gradually adding the sugar, and then the vanilla. Keep on beating whilst adding each egg make sure each one is incorporated before adding the next one. Then add sour cream and salt, and keep in beating! Time to stop that beating and stir in those cookie crumbs.

 Grab a big spoonful of cookie cheesecake mixture and feel each cupcake tin almost to the top. Bake for 22 minutes, TURN THE CHEESECAKES AROUND HALFWAY THROUGH (22 minutes). Cool the cheesecakes completely, then refrigerate for up to 4 hours (overnight is ok). Try to keep the cheesecakes in the cupcake containers till serving.