As I mentioned in the previous post, I have been house sitting here in England. We had been shopping for the staples... milk, eggs, bacon, bread, vegemite, chocolate ... but I neglected to buy butter for baking - what on earth was I thinking?
As a result, when I baked yo-yos to take up the hill for another afternoon tea, I had to use the 'low fat, olive oil based spread' I had here in the fridge. Mmmmm?!
The yo-yos baked well but as one might expect, they weren't yellow, and had a very bland taste! I think they were saved by the very lemon-y icing I stuck them together with!
Still, we all ate them. We did have to explain to the 12 yr old English friend what a yo-yo was, but once she gathered they were a little like a shortbread, she too ate hers with gusto!
Monday, December 20, 2010
Scones
I've been making some scones here in England lately as my sister 'T' claims I make the best scones ever... but it seems, to keep getting the compliments, one has to keep making the scones ;-)
On the snow days when school was closed I made some scones for the wet, cold hungry troops to eat after a long day tobogganing down the slope. It seems the most popular scone in 'T's' house is the 'plain scone' with the obligatory jam and whipped cream - we are in England after all :-)
Just because I love them though, I made 'sultana scones' too, which also were eaten quite quickly.
Yesterday I asked the family down to our house for afternoon tea - well actually 'T' rang me and asked me to invite them down for afternoon tea ;-)
As we're house sitting at the moment, and I don't have a full range of ingredients at hand, I was a little constrained with my choices for afternoon tea, but of course scones had to be on the agenda. I baked the popular 'plain scone' but for a change, I also did a 'cheese scone' and an 'apple roll' too.
As far as the children were concerned, the 'plain scones' still won out, but there was one eater of the 'cheese ones' and he even took the left overs home.
Sadly, the 'apple rolls' weren't the most successful, but still eminently edible.
I have no photos, but I do have the recipes!
On the snow days when school was closed I made some scones for the wet, cold hungry troops to eat after a long day tobogganing down the slope. It seems the most popular scone in 'T's' house is the 'plain scone' with the obligatory jam and whipped cream - we are in England after all :-)
Just because I love them though, I made 'sultana scones' too, which also were eaten quite quickly.
Yesterday I asked the family down to our house for afternoon tea - well actually 'T' rang me and asked me to invite them down for afternoon tea ;-)
As we're house sitting at the moment, and I don't have a full range of ingredients at hand, I was a little constrained with my choices for afternoon tea, but of course scones had to be on the agenda. I baked the popular 'plain scone' but for a change, I also did a 'cheese scone' and an 'apple roll' too.
As far as the children were concerned, the 'plain scones' still won out, but there was one eater of the 'cheese ones' and he even took the left overs home.
Sadly, the 'apple rolls' weren't the most successful, but still eminently edible.
I have no photos, but I do have the recipes!
'Plain scones'
2 cups plain flour
2 Tablespoons butter or margarine
skim milk
Preheat oven to 200°C.
Sift the flour and a large pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl.
Add the spread and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Stir just enough milk into the scone mixture to make a soft, dough. Turn onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour and knead lightly for a few moments
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2.5 cm. Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out rounds. Place the scones on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining milk mixture. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
'Cheese scones'
225 g self-raising white flour
2 tbs butter or margarine
40 g Grated Tasty Cheese
2 teaspoons of mixed dried Italian herbs
25 g grated parmesan cheese
skim milk
Preheat oven to 200°C. Sift the flour, baking powder and a large pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the spread and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
Stir the cheese into the rubbed-in mixture.
Stir just enough milk into the scone mixture to make a soft, dough. Turn onto a surface sprinkled with a little flour and knead lightly for a few moments.
Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2.5 cm. Use a biscuit cutter to stamp out rounds. Avoid twisting the cutter as this prevents the scones from rising well.
Place the scones on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining milk mixture and sprinkle with the reserved cheese.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
Friday, December 10, 2010
European trip
The great trip to Europe began a couple of weeks ago and I have been far too busy or far too tired to consider blogging about where I've been and what I've eaten. Today I am changing that! ;-)
We flew Australia's favourite airline to England and so I thought as this is ostensibly a 'foodie blog' I'd blog the food we ate on the long haul flight. It's been a while since we've chosen to fly this airline as, to be honest, the service and food was fairly abysmal the last time we were on this carrier. On this trip however I thought they had improved no end!
We left Melbourne at a strange time - 11:55pm - so were fed at 4 stages and at slightly bizzare times too! Although I hasten to add we were both ready to eat each time the 'hosties' came around with the food (and drinks) trolley ;-)
Our first meal was supper on the leg from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This tray was laden with 'cucumber and cherry tomato salad with a lemon and chardonnay vinaigrette', the main dish - which was a choice of 'sage roasted chicken with a pearl barley and mushroom risotto' or twice cooked pork in a spiced master stock with fragrant rice'. Both H'o'M and I chose the chicken - because who would order pork on the plane????
The dessert was a hideous though a 'white chocolate mousse' which tasted of nothing but whipped cream! Not even a hint of chocolate! Blah!
We were supposed to sleep now, but I didn't get too much shut eye...we tried to watch movies instead, but I just couldn't concentrate.
So next was another meal....breakfast! Just a light one this time. OJ, fresh melon salad, cereal, date pain de mie (whatever that is).
At some stage just before we landed at Heathrow, we were served with lunch. I guess this got us into the time zone of England as we were landing at 12:30pm.
Lunch was very tasty and the tray was absolutely laden with food! There was the obligatory salad - this time a 'vegetable salad marinated with sesame dressing' and I chose the 'steamed fish with cantonese rice wine sauce, rice and choy sum'. The big draw card for me was the choy sum actually. I ate most of the fish and the vegetables, but H'o'M ate my rice after he had eaten his own 'braised beef with mash and green peas'!
As you can see, there was also 'Tim Tams' - which H'o'M ate both packets of - bread, biscuits and cheese.
We were very definitely well fed!
We flew Australia's favourite airline to England and so I thought as this is ostensibly a 'foodie blog' I'd blog the food we ate on the long haul flight. It's been a while since we've chosen to fly this airline as, to be honest, the service and food was fairly abysmal the last time we were on this carrier. On this trip however I thought they had improved no end!
We left Melbourne at a strange time - 11:55pm - so were fed at 4 stages and at slightly bizzare times too! Although I hasten to add we were both ready to eat each time the 'hosties' came around with the food (and drinks) trolley ;-)
Our first meal was supper on the leg from Melbourne to Hong Kong. This tray was laden with 'cucumber and cherry tomato salad with a lemon and chardonnay vinaigrette', the main dish - which was a choice of 'sage roasted chicken with a pearl barley and mushroom risotto' or twice cooked pork in a spiced master stock with fragrant rice'. Both H'o'M and I chose the chicken - because who would order pork on the plane????
The dessert was a hideous though a 'white chocolate mousse' which tasted of nothing but whipped cream! Not even a hint of chocolate! Blah!
We were supposed to sleep now, but I didn't get too much shut eye...we tried to watch movies instead, but I just couldn't concentrate.
So next was another meal....breakfast! Just a light one this time. OJ, fresh melon salad, cereal, date pain de mie (whatever that is).
No photo of these meals!
After a hideous sleep - again - we were woken with breakfast. It consisted of a 'potato and egg frittata, with bacon and oven roasted tomato'. On the side there was fresh fruit salad, yoghurt and orange juice ... for dessert there was even a banana muffin. It all sounds quite fancy when described like that but of course was just the usual airline fare really.
It was tasty though and I ate the majority of the frittata, but left the yoghurt as it was strawberry - clearly not my favourite ;-)
At some stage just before we landed at Heathrow, we were served with lunch. I guess this got us into the time zone of England as we were landing at 12:30pm.
Lunch was very tasty and the tray was absolutely laden with food! There was the obligatory salad - this time a 'vegetable salad marinated with sesame dressing' and I chose the 'steamed fish with cantonese rice wine sauce, rice and choy sum'. The big draw card for me was the choy sum actually. I ate most of the fish and the vegetables, but H'o'M ate my rice after he had eaten his own 'braised beef with mash and green peas'!
As you can see, there was also 'Tim Tams' - which H'o'M ate both packets of - bread, biscuits and cheese.
We were very definitely well fed!
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