Entries Tagged 'Food' ↓
March 27th, 2009 — Food, Recipe
When I went on a holiday trip a while back, I bought myself the Essentials magazine to read on the plane. I’m not selling it, but I was amply impressed. Other magazines give advice on achieving financial freedom in 10 easy steps, or how to create a better “you”. There may be some truth in some of the things that they advise, but most of it is just a bunch of writing to make up the words on the page – in my humble opinion.
Anyway, the point which I was getting at; Essentials is a great magazine for someone who loves cooking & general “house” stuff. I found a couple of recipes in there, which I still have to try. And also found really cool home decor ideas! One of their tips, was to use tea cups as flower pots – especially old ones which don’t form part of a set anyway!!
One of the recipes which I did try out was a potato recipe. I modified it a bit according to our food pref’s.
You basically make baked potatoes in the oven, but with a bit of an interesting, yet easy-to-make twist. First rub them with oil before baking, and then sprinkling with sea salt. Bake for about an hour and a half, at 180 degrees Celsius, or until fully cooked. Once they’re done, remove from the oven, slice potatoes in half, and scoop out the flesh. Stick the potato skins back in the oven, and back for about 20min, until crispy. While waiting for the skins to crisp, mash the potato flesh, and mix with a bit of butter & milk (not too much to make it runny, just enough to form a smooth paste). Add fried or grilled bacon, fried onions, grated cheese, green peppers, or whatever you prefer to mix in with the mash.
Once the skins are crisp, scoop the mash-mix into the skins and and return to the oven until the cheese is melted.
I was really impressed with this recipe, as its really easy to make. It can also be easily modified, by adding cream cheese, sour cream, spring onions etc. etc. The quantity of bacon can be increased if you want to have potatoes for a light meal, or reduced when having as a side dish at a “braai”, for instance.
Thank you Essentials for adding a bit of variety on the menu 
February 24th, 2009 — Food, Recipe, cake
I found such a cool recipe for rainbow cake on Omnomicon, and just had to post about it. It seems pretty easy to make. Two boxes of vanilla cake mix, some gel food colouring, jelly (American Jello), and Sprite Zero (instead of eggs, oil and water apparently!)
However, for those of you who do not use the same cake mix, and like me, are scared that the Sprite Zero might mess up the recipe, you can follow the instructions of the cake mix packet. Depending on the number of gel colours you have, divide the batter into equal parts.
Drop the colours, one by one, into the middle of the pan, in neat concentric-ish gobs. Remember the cake is going to be sliced in the side there, so mixing it around on top isn’t going to make your slices any more psychedelic (trust me, I did the three-dimensional thinking for you already).
When you’re three colours in, start doing the reverse with the other pan. Since I’m going in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, I got from red to yellow in the first pan, then purple, blue, green in the second. This is so that your two pans are equal if your measurements aren’t exact (and they’re not likely to be).
Tips From Aleta
The gel colours, while not as good as pigment dye, are much bolder than the very liquidy food colouring you probably grew up with.
The first colour you drop into the pan, use about 2/3 of the mix for that colour. Otherwise, the top (last) colour will really dominate. I used a heaping1 cup of each colour.
For the frosting recipe, see Omnomicon or buy ready to use frosting – I LOVED the Devil’s Food frosting which is available in England – absolutely delicious, but I’m sure traditional frosting will be just as tasty.
February 10th, 2009 — Food, Interesting Facts, Recipe
I found that questions several times as a comment to my post on Chocolate Cake In A Mug, and I decided to do a whole post about cake flour. It never occurred to me that there might be other countries in which cake flour isn’t as popular or widely available as in South Africa. For those of you who mostly use all purpose flour, I have below the definition of what cake flour is, and then also a substitute for it 
When I searched the internet for a proper explanation, I found this…
Cake flour is a highly specialized type of wheat flour, intended for use in making cakes, cookies, and other delicate baked goods. Several characteristics differentiate cake flour from other wheat flours, making it unsuitable for certain tasks like baking bread. Many markets carry cake flour, and in a pinch a substitute can be made with ¾ cup sifted bleached all purpose flour and two tablespoons of cornstarch.
When baking a cake, most cooks aim to create a light, fluffy cake with a tender crumb. This requires a flour with a low protein content, as protein promotes the production of gluten, which can make baked goods more tough. It also means that the flour must be very finely milled, to keep baked goods from getting heavy. Finally, a flour which is starchy and able to hold large amounts of fat and sugar without collapsing is required.
All of these needs are addressed with cake flour, which is made from the endosperm of soft wheat. The endosperm is the softest part of the wheat kernel, making cake flour the finest flour available. As cake flour is milled, it is heavily bleached, not only to make it white but to break down the protein in the flour. Typically, cake flour is around seven percent protein, much lower than other flours; bread flour, for example, has twice that amount of protein.
The delicate, fine texture of cake flour is accomplished by heavy milling. The fine grain absorbs fat readily, ensuring that butter and other fats in cakes are well distributed throughout the batter. Cake flour can also carry a high volume of sugar when compared to higher protein flours. Since cake flour is a high-starch flour, it is extremely well suited for certain baking tasks. Cake flour is also lighter than conventional flour, which is why the substitution above falls short of a full cup.
Cookie and cake recipes which call for cake flour should be made using cake flour, if possible. In the production of certain other baked goods, cake flour can replace ordinary flour for a lighter end product, using one cup and two tablespoons of cake flour for every cup of flour called for in the recipe. Cake flour should not be used to make breads and other leavened products, as it is not strong enough. Also, as a general rule, a recipe which calls for “sifted flour” requires the cook to sift the flour before measuring, while “flour, sifted” is flour which is measured and then sifted. Since sifting changes the volume of flour, this seemingly petty distinction is actually very important.
However interesting it might be to know what cake flour really is, I managed to also find a substitute for it, which might be a bit more interesting for you if you want to use a recipe which uses cake flour.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
Directions
To make two cups of cake flour combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch; proceed with your recipe.
September 18th, 2008 — Food, Fruit, Health
Spring is finally in the air, the days are longer and the shelves are filling up with an abundance of fresh fruit and veggies. So what better time to start your detox programme.
Colourful fruits contain an extensive range of body-protecting antioxidants that cleanse the body of potentially harmful free radicals.
Pineapple is packed with an enzyme that breaks down protein and speeds up your digestion.
Papaya and avocado help to rejuvenate the body with their excellent cleansing properties.
Grapes, the perfect spring clean for the liver and kidneys.
Beetroot, this powerful cleanser is a good tonic for the liver.
Celery and apples, help remove excess carbon dioxide from the body with this powerful combination.
Nuts are packed with powerful antioxidants such as vitamin E, and unsaturated oils.
Water is the most important tool in any cleansing programme. It aids the body in flushing out all the toxins, as well as helping it to absorb all the good nutrients from foods.
Don’t forget, being out in the fresh air revitalizes a sluggish circulation, so put on those walking shoes! Walking is the perfect activity for those in need of a gentle detox. All you have to do is turn your everyday walking into fitness walking by lengthening your stride, quickening your pace for 45 minutes, four times a week and you could lose up to 8kgs in fat loss in a year!
Here’s to feeling refreshed and recharged!
June 26th, 2008 — Dizzy Dee, Food, Recipe
Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug
Instructions:
Mix flour, sugar and cocoa:
Spoon in 1 egg
Pour in milk and oil, and mix well
Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)
Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug
Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!
February 5th, 2008 — Chocolate, Food, Recipe
I found Kristyn’s post on Romancing the kitchen: Aphrodisiac foods extremely interesting, and I’ve been reminded of how passionate I am about cooking. I love cooking and baking, and especially love to try out new recipes.
We’ve been sharing some ideas on what to cook for Valentine’s day, and some great recipes surfaced.
Personally I would love to try out Kristyn’s Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe (which, by the way, I think she got from her Mom 
). Not for Valentine’s day in particular, just because I love Chicken Cordon Bleu, and its something new for me to try out.
Once I started thinking about how to make chocolate fondue (I usually just make it according to what looks right), I searched for some recipes on the internet, and found this Original Chocolate Fondue Recipe pretty interesting. The cake together with the chocolate fondue sounds really delicious, but I’ve never tried it before. Maybe I’ll give it a shot!
What are you cooking for Valentine’s day? And I’m asking this specially to the MALES who will be doing the cooking this year. I know its easier to take your honey out for dinner to a fancy restaurant, but honestly we’d like it much more if you’d cook for us yourselves (except maybe the stuck up chicks )
So if you have any plans already, share them, and if you don’t we’ll help you with some ideas
January 31st, 2008 — Dizzy Dee, Food
[January 30th to February 5th - 2008]
For the pancake lovers among us, this is probably great news!!
There are some lovely pancake recipes on All Recipes.com which you can use to vary your pancakes from the normal cinnamon sugar filling.
Personally I’m not keen on all the sweet fillings, so I’ll be reading up on the savoury fillings
Still, I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat pancakes every day for a week…
I also read up on the history of pancakes, and found it rather interesting. Pancake Week is grounded in ancient tradition. During the Middle Ages, it was common practice to prepare for the austerity of Lent by purging the pantry of luxurious foods such as eggs, butter and milk. These ingredients often became big batches of pancakes. To this day, many communities around the world feast on pancakes all the way through Shrove Tuesday–also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras–before the season of moderation begins on Ash Wednesday. In fact, another name for Fat Tuesday is Pancake Day.
July 17th, 2007 — Dizzy Dee, Food, Health, Life, Pownce, South Africa
I spent part of the weekend @ the hospital again. Nothing too serious, and I wasn’t the patient either, but still not nice.
At least I had breakfast with a good friend on Saturday before going to the hospital. The breakfast was great. Except for the chats, the food was also great. I had a BBQ Bacon & Mushroom omelet at Maxi’s – you should really try it. It was YUM.
Other than that I’ve developed a sore throat / cold / flu. Don’t know where that came from since I’ve been taking my vitamins.
Yesterday I went home early because I felt awful. I slept the whole afternoon till 7pm, and went to bed again at 9pm. Which is why I didn’t write yesterday. Sorry.
I’ve also signed up with Pownce, so if you want an invite, just leave a comment. These invites are obviously not scarce, so I wouldn’t be surprised if no one wanted one. I’m indeed impressed with Pownce, and I have to agree with the general opinion, its a bit better than twitter. If you’re already a member on Pownce – add me as a friend!
Hope you’re all doing well. I’ll post again soon. Just wanted to let you know that I’m still here.
