Wind back Wednesday: Chocolate rice pudding, beef pasties, pesto pasta and more

 

Hello again! Here's another 'Wind back Wednesday' post - a collection of things loved and shared over the last week.

Recipe: Manila Spoon's chocolate rice pudding

Manila Spoon was one of the first food bloggers I found on Facebook. It wasn't long before I fell in love with Abby's page - and I am still having a food affair with her beautiful recipes! I not only love so many of her dishes but I love that she has all these traditional recipes from the Philippines as well.

 

This week she shared another traditional Filipino dessert - Champorado (Chocolate rice pudding). I've had a coconut rice pudding when I was last in Manila (AMAZING!!) so I was excited to that Abby shared this chocolate version.

 

Check out her recipe here: Champorado (Chocolate rice pudding)

 

 

Recipe: Beef Pasties

This beef pasties recipe is very close to my heart. It always reminds me of home and my family, because it's a meal my Mum used to make all the time when I was at home. I now make it at home for my baby family (just me and Mr Steph at the moment), but I hope that it will be a recipe my kids will one day feel the same about.

 

What makes these pasties different to others is that it doesn't have the usually veggies (like potatoes and carrots) that other recipes have. My Mum used to make it 'kid friendly' with onion, beef mince and seasoning in delicious puff pastry. Over the years I've adapted it slightly, but it's still "Mum's".

 

Here's the recipe: Beef pasties

 

 

Recipe: Creamy pesto pasta with ham

This is a newer recipe to my kitchen. It's become one of my Sunday hot lunches, and another quick dinner recipe I can throw on the table. Your first thoughts might have been 'oily' or 'pasta sitting in cream' but the best part about this recipe is it's the opposite - it's a sticky sauce that simply coats your pasta (not pooling around it).

 

Check out the recipe: Creamy pesto pasta

 

 

 

Cakeriffic Expo

Last week I went to the Cakeriffic Cake Expo here in Melbourne. If you are a fondant decorate this place was fondant heaven! There were so many amazing cakes on display, and I got to meet the lovely Julie from the Great Australian Bake Off.

 

Read the full article here: Cakeriffic Expo

 

 

 

 

 

Steph xo

Wind back Wednesday: Creative Wednesdays, store bought me, butterflied chicken, chocolate mousse

 Blog: Pink Recipe Box's Creative Wednesday

The lovely Nicky at Pink Recipe Box holds a Creative Wednesday link party every week on her blog. Here people can share their latest blog post - whatever the topic!

 

I love Pink Recipe Box in general (yes, I am subscribed!), but I just love this great idea that she has come up with. So I thought I'd check it out last week - and my post was featured this week as one of the most popular shared! (yay!)

 

The post I shared for last week's Creative Wednesday: Cranberry and Almond Cookies

 

Visit Pink Recipe Box's page to check out this week's links.

 

 

 

Article: Accepting store bought me

I am a busy cook, living a very busy life. And yes, sometimes that does mean that I buy things that can make my life a little bit easier. In this article I talk about accepting that it's ok to buy store bought things and that doesn't make us bad cooks! It just makes us busy.

Read the full article here: Accepting store bought, busy me

 

 

 

 

Tips and hints: How to butterfly a chicken

I butterflied my first chicken on the weekend - and my, oh, my, it was an experience! I definitely need more practice (and a new pair of sharper cooking shears!). I spent the whole time apologising to the chicken as I felt so disrespectful hacking away at it.

However, in my search of how to do it I did find a great video that explained everything. I only watched it the once and I was on my "merry" way.

Here's the video: How to butterfly a chicken

 

 

Recipe: Chocolate Mousse

I entertained for the first time in a very long time on Saturday night. When I asked about what people would like for dessert, giving them a few options, everyone picked chocolate mousse!

So I set off to make it for the first time, and it was much easier than I thought! I actually split the recipe in half and made raspberry, white chocolate as well (for me, that was my favourite).And the best part was everyone LOVED it.

Try the recipe for yourself: Chocolate Mousse in Minutes


Steph xo

Wind back Wednesday: Pigs wings, winter warmers, cookies and pides

Welcome to the second "Wind back Wednesday" post. Here's a few things I've loved and shared with you over the past week ...

Article: Apparently pigs do fly!

Image from Digital Media 1 @ NJCU

Flicking through Twitter yesterday I stumbled across a very interesting article. During a recent RSPCA survey it was revealed that there may be a little confusion about what animals do what. I never thought understanding what flies or what walks was complicated ... apparently it's more confusing than I thought!

 

According to the survey 8% of people answered that they had tried 'pigs' wings'. I don't know about you - but these wings would be some pretty big wings! It is just amazing how ignorant people really are about where food comes from.

 

You can check out the full article here: Survey reveals ignorance about food sources

 

 

Event: Winter warmers party (thank you!)

Thursday last week I came home from work to a lovely 250 fans on Facebook! That completely made my day. Even now that I'm writing this it has climbed still to over 270!! I would like to thank each and every one of you who simply clicked "like" and read my blog. It might seem small to you, but to me I feel so blessed that so many of you want to share my love of food with me.

To celebrate reaching 250 likes I hosted a winter warmers party over the weekend. It may seem strange to some of you as it's far from winter where you are, but here in Melbourne (Australia) it has been one cold winter. Lots of great recipes were shared from main meals and desserts, to drinks to snuggle into the night with.

A big thank you to everyone that shared recipes over the weekend and made my first milestone party a great success. For those of you that missed it or would like to go back and have a look a the recipes shared, you can check them out all on my events page.

Recipe: Cranberry and almond cookies

During my winter warmers party I shared with you my cranberry and almond cookies. With all the recipe sharing I wouldn't be surprised if it was easily missed. I am proud to say that these cookies are now in a better place - my tummy!

 

I adapted my Mum's choc-chip recipe that she has had for as long as I can remember. To make the inside of the cookie a little bit more cake like I added a little less flour before adding in my dried cranberries and almond flakes. It makes the dough a little bit more sticky to work with, but I guarantee it's worth it!

 

You can check out the recipe here: Cranberry and almond cookies

 

 

Recipe: Susan's Sumptuous Suppers home-made pides

On Thursday I shared with you Susan's Sumptuous Suppers home-made pide recipe. I've never had a pide before nor made them so I thought it would be great to try this weekend.

 

I have to say, it was del-ic-ious! I made a Moroccan beef mince and spinach one for myself, and a spicy one with mince and chilli for Mr Steph.

 

If you'd like to try the recipe for yourself, here is the recipe: Home-made Pides

 

 

Steph xo

Wind back Wednesday #1: Articles, recipes and blogs from last week

 

 

If you follow Steph's Kitchen on Facebook or twitter you will know that I share a lot of recipes, food ideas, blog posts, and just anything delicious looking on a regular basis. I don't know about you but sometimes its hard to keep up with what has happened in a week, let alone what I've liked in my feed or even read. I have to make an actual note or bookmark something so that I can go back and remember, and even then if things get crazy busy (as they do) I might not stumble across something for several weeks.

So I thought I'd start a new little section on my blog: Wind-back Wednesday.
Every Wednesday I will put together a post of a few things I've loved and shared over the past week. It could be from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or even here on my blog. It will sort of be like a post of highlights from the last week.

Here are just a few of the things I've loved and shared over the last week that you may or may not remember ...

Article: Cooking has ruined restaurants

This is a topic that I have been thinking over for a very long time, so on Sunday I put pen to paper.

When everyone is sitting around the table almost eating the menu, my brain is deconstructing dishes and being rational. Are you like this too? Let me know your thoughts on the topic!

If you missed it, here's the original post: Cooking has ruined restaurants.

Recipe: Curtis Stone's beef ragu

I made this on Saturday, and I must say it was AMAZING! It was also super easy, so I recommend. I did adapt it slightly, which is what I do as I'm terrible at following anything to a T, but only skipping celery and adding a little bit more stock as I had just over 600g of meat instead of 500g. I also added some English spinach from my garden because it was going crazy and needed it be used. I simply added it towards the end, mixing it through and letting it cook for another 10-15 mins.

I was going to make Donna Hay's beef ragu, but I really didn't want to open up a nice bottle of red wine, and I was in no mood to go and buy one just to cook with! It looked equally as nice, I'm just more of a 'cook with what you have' sort of person. I also had chuck steak (or casserole beef) and her recipe called for a whole brisket.

Curtis' recipe (yes, I'm on a first name basis with him ... I wish!) just seemed to be more me. It used balsamic vinegar as well which got me very curious as I have never used it in cooking so heavily before - with the recipe calling for a 1/4 cup.



Image from Dani's Delicious Dish.

Blog: Dani's Delicious Dish

I stumbled across this gem of a blog on Saturday after I read Dani's guest post on Food Stories. I LOVE her writing style, and she is just hilarious. It is not very often I'm actually giggling loudly and having to read bits out loud to Mr Steph - who apparently didn't find it as amusing as myself (his loss, I say). He simply looked at me oddly and smiled, thinking 'This girl is a special type of special ...' - which now that I think about it he tells me all the time. I call it being 'quirky'.

Back to the topic at hand, not only are her posts great to read but she is also a foodie - so double points Dani!

Here is the original post from Food Stories where Dani talks about her food journey (a must read!): Dani and the Spaghetti Story

 

Image from www.apartmenttherapy.com

Food idea: Ten alternative uses for an ice cube tray

Nicky at Pink Recipe Box is one clever foodie! Last week I shared her nifty article on things you can freeze in an ice cube tray - from herbs and oil, to tomato paste and icecream bites! I loved this article because it made me think about freezing things that I never had before. The fact that it is conveniently in an ice cube, and you can just grab one out without having to defrost everything, is genius!

If you haven't already I would recommend reading her article "Top Ten Alternative Uses for an Ice Cube Tray", and also check out her blog (Pink Recipe Box).


Do you have any recipes or blog articles that you've fallen in love with over the last week? Share with me in the comments below!

Steph xo