Tryout Tuesday.....

yeah, I know it is a little late  ;-)

I tried out a recipe from Best Recipes Chicken and Mushroom Pasta


This was a really quick and easy dish to make - ofcourse, I made it without garlic, but it was still very tasty without it - I think all the lovely bits from the bacon and mushrooms make it ;-)


Thank you for visiting my blog today - I hope you have a good day.
Remember, any day doing something you love makes it a good day ;-)

Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.

Challenge #67 is up and running

The Admin Team at http://www.taste.com.au/ have set the challenge for this fortnight!

Cook's Club Challenge 67

The Pumpkin, Lamb & Feta Pasta bake looks good ;-)

My new toy - a learning experience ;-)

Have had two attempts at making the perfect loaf of bread - we have attained a 95% success rate ;-)

the first loaf (750g) was not crusty enough on the top, but lovely everywhere else.
the second loaf (1kg) raised too much and stuck to the window, but was lovely to eat nonetheless ;-)

I am attempting another 750g loaf today, following the instructions on the Laucke Breadmix packet.

We will have crusty bread with our Pasta Carbonara for tea!

Cook's Club Challenge #57 - my turn ;-)

it is my turn for Cook's Club and I must confess, this time it has been difficult to pick my three dishes.


Whilst going through my favourite things to cook, I realised that most of the dishes I cook now are actually from Cook’s Club Challenges!

I always used to have problems with my timing when doing a roast, but this one flows beautifully.


Roast Rack of Lamb & Potatoes (serves 2)
Ingredients
1 french cut Rack of Lamb (8 ribs - approx 300-400g)
Herbs – Rosemary & Thyme – approx 1 tsp each (adjust to suit personal taste)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized
Serve with your choice of vegetables and gravy.


Divide rack of lamb into two sections and marinate in Oil & herbs (I use a zip lock bag) for 30 mins.
Pre-heat oven (I set my oven to approx 190C)
Peel potatoes and cut into quarters and rinse.
Line Roasting dish with baking paper – give a quick spray of olive oil. Place cut potatoes curved side down and give a quick spray with olive oil.

Bake potatoes in oven for 20 minutes.
Turn potatoes to a flat side and bake for a further 20 minutes.

At the 10 minute mark of the second 20 minutes pre-heat frypan and place marinated lamb racks skin side down (I usually have the Heart Smart cuts of lamb, so the skin is almost not there) and cook for 2 minutes, turn lamb and cook each surface for 2 minutes. Remove from frypan. (I use this frypan with the residual oil & herbs to cook up some mushrooms).

Around now, the timer for the potatoes will be going off.


Take roasting pan out of oven and turn potatoes over to the other flat side and place the rack of lamb in roasting tin and return to oven for another 20 minutes (may take a bit longer depending on your oven and the size of your rack of lamb).

Please forgive the out of focus photo – I think the heat from the oven fogged up the lens ;-)


Remove lamb from oven and rest for a short time (cover with aluminium foil) while you plate up your potatoes and whatever other vegetables you have prepared. Enjoy!

Next is a salad that I got from my SIL – we have it whenever we have a BBQ


Pasta Salad

Ingredients


Pasta - approx 150g
Kabanas – 1 stick
Gherkin – approx 1 tbsp chopped (or more if you like gherkin)
Cubed Cheese – approx ½ cup
Boiled Egg x 1
Mayonnaise
Mustard Sauce

Mix up mayonnaise & mustard sauce – I do about ¼ cup mustard sauce, ¾ cup mayonnaise – you can alter ratios to suit your preferences
Slice up Kabanas, gherkins and chop up eggs & cheese
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl


Next is a dish that has been in my ‘to try’ list for quite some time – so I will be trying it along with you ;-)


Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie Slice
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15334/chocolate+cheesecake+brownie+slice

Cook's Club Challenge #55 is up an running

CCC#55 is up and running.

I am going to try the lasagne and the spaghetti with prawns - YUMMO!

Cook's Club Challenge 19 - my turn

Over on CCC19 it was my turn to pick the dishes for the challenge.

I chose a quick & easy theme - Savoury Nibbles - Pizza Wheels, Pasta Carbonara (no cream)

Choc Banana Muffins.

The Pizza Wheels won the vote - they are my favourites too!

I have enjoyed participating in these challenges and do intend to keep trying new things - time just gets away from me sometimes.

The forum is very friendly and there is no pressure to participate, you are made to feel most welcome when you do.

Check out the www.taste.com.au site it is a great visit!

Cooks Club Challenge #5

Here is my third success! Lemon Meringue Pie from Challenge No.5

This was lovely - both hubby & Dad went back for seconds - I love the way the lemon came together and just flowed into the pastry case.

Here is my next success - Chilli tomato & mushroom Fettucini. this dish was really nice - had a really nice kick to it. This is another dish I regularly make up for myself in a big batch and divide into single serves for later.

Now for the first FAILURE!

I have never had much luck using yeast or geletine in anything I have made in the past.

I figured, with my new found confidence, I would make Hot Cross Buns. I followed the instructions step by step, they looked quite nice in the pan before they went in the oven.

When they came out, they looked OK (if a little darker than what I would have liked ;-( ) but on the big taste test - BAA BAAM - they were so rubbery. The flavour was good, but the texture was so wrong!

This failure has not deterred me from trying other things - there are one or two more failures to come which I will report on a bit later - these failures are usually 'operator error' as a result of me not reading the instructions properly.

Will post some more cooking results soon.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

Cooks Club Challenge #1 2008

Here is the second dish I tried from Cook's Club Challenge - full thread can be found here.

Bacon & Pumpkin pasta - unfortunately, I did not make my own pesto, but used Leggo's pre-made basil pesto.

Usually, I am not a fan of vegetables but this dish has changed the way I think - especially about pumpkin. I now make up a batch of this at least once a month and divide it up into single serves to have later. It freezes well and reheats well (if treated gently).

That's two dishes I have tried and two successes - I am feeling very chuffed with myself and my new cooking ventures!