A long time between posts...

Oops, life has got in the way of my posting on this blog, but thankfully not in the way of my cooking! I have been chugging along and slowly working my way through the list of dishes left to create.

A quick run down of dishes:

'Spicy chicken dumpling soup'... this was really yummy! I made it again two days later as it was so tasty, and so easy. I loved making the little wonton dumplings! Firstly I minced up the chicken breast using the wonderful attachment that one can purchase for one's Kitchen Aid (not that I have one here at the beach house, but mum does...phew!), then mixed with a few of Donna's secret ingredients and BAM! Chicken dumpling soup!



'Pickled cauliflower bruschetta'. This was always going to be a bit tricky as we know the majority of my family don't like the cauliflower so much, still it had to be done. H'o'M and I were heading to mum's for dinner one night, so I thought I'd make a little pre dinner snack. I know mum likes a good 'giardiniera' (there was always a bottle of pickled vegies in the fridge when I was growing up), so I knew she'd help me out of said 'pickle' ..... scuse the bad word play ;-)
The cauliflower went very well with the blue cheese - we didn't use gorgonzola this time, but a wonderful King Island Roaring 40s blue instead - the tang of the pickled cauli cut through the strength of the blue - or vice versa perhaps

Next was the 'spatchcocks with red currant glaze and bread sauce'. I had been quite concerned about sourcing these spatchcocks since the very beginning of this challenge - where o where would I be able to buy them?!  In the end I just decided to use a chicken! I know, I know it's not quite as classy to look at, but so much easier to source, to carve and to eat.

The actual recipe required a little faffing around... making a bread sauce and a glaze and roasting the chicken and vegies and having them all come out ready to serve at the same time took some doing...to be honest I don't think I quite made it ;-)
My bread sauce lacked the correct consistency I think. Maybe I didn't use enough milk as it was very thick - almost gluggy!?! "soggy bread is the term used by H'o'M to describe it!
The glaze was good, but very sweet and I wouldn't rush to use it again! Poured all over, it would make a whole chicken look rather special though.

Today I made cheesecake swirl chocolate brownie'. I have made many brownie recipes in my day, and they are usually very 'moreish', but this one was great. The brownie part was light and fluffy and the cheesecake part added a wonderful texture and taste.


I don't think I did a terribly good job of swirling the two together  actually. The brownie part was much thicker than I expected, so the cheesecake part didn't get too far down into the brownie.

Tasted good though ;-)