Weekend Baking - Lemon Slice

Hello and Happy Friday!!!
We have some weekend baking here today. Well, weekend no-bake baking to be exact, and to be even more exact...this is flippin' delicious!!!

                                                                                     

So, this all began last week when, mid-cake-cooking mind you, my oven decided to bust it's element and just completely stopped. I went into slight panic mode at the thought of not being able to bake until it was fixed but then, once calm and breathing resumed, I realized I could in fact conquer this first-world disaster with the simple art of.......the no-bake bake!! And this particular no-bake bake has now been non-baked about 50 times in the past week. Well, at three times I'm sure.

                                                                               

Yep...we're talking good old Lemon Slice.........

                                                                               

The recipe I used I found here but I did, typically, do a few things differently.
Right then...let's get baking....in a no-bake kind of way..............

                                                                         Lemon Slice                                                            
Ingredients.......

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
100gms butter
1 packet marie biscuits
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
Rind of 1 lemon, finely grated

Method................

1. Crush the biscuits either using a food processor or I often throw the biscuits in a ziplock sandwich bag then roll and smash those biscuits into crumbs.

2. Combine the biscuit crumbs with your coconut and lemon rind.
                                                                
3. In a small saucepan gently melt the butter and condensed milk.

4. Add the butter mixture to the biscuit mixture and combine it all together.

5. Tip and press the biscuit mix into a greased (actually I didn't even bother to grease my last batch and it came out of the tin fine) slice tin. Although, if you like to pull your whole slice out of the tin at once then of course line it first with baking paper.

6. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until it's cool and firm.

7. Ice with lemon icing. To be honest I don't actually have a recipe for icing. Never have. I just throw some icing sugar in a bowl with a smallish dob of butter and vanilla extract then keep adding hot/boiled water and more icing sugar until I have the right amount and consistency. For this lemon slice I squeezed in the juice of the lemon, that was still hanging around from grating the rind earlier, into the icing mix at the start. Next time I whip up a batch of icing I shall try and measure things and see what I come up with. It's all soooo professional around here.....

8. Spread your icing over your slice, allow to set, then try and stop eating it.

9. Bet you can't!!??!!!

                                                                                   

                                                                                   
Please let me know if you try this. And if you're as addicted to it as me!!!

                                                                                 

Now go and have a fabulous weekend!!...............

                                                                               

I'm off to eat slice................

See you soon...............


                                         Janelle  xx                                                                              

                                                                                       

A tasty DIY...................

Hello!!
Up for a little D.I.Y today?? All very quick and simple yet strangely satisfying...always a good thing.....
Ok....first up we have a message sign........


                                                                                 

All very lovely, yet it never seemed to quite fit in with things around here, I don't think the red quite worked with the colour of the walls, or something like that, so...............

                                                                                     

It got slathered in white.........

                                                                                   

Then a little re-wording..........

                                                                                   

 

Yep......very appropriate for around here........

                                                                                   

It's certainly not perfect but, hey, nobody else in this house is so it's working out just fine. I plan to get Mr WF to  hang it on the wall next to our dining table..........

                                                                                   

So whatcha think???!?

Happy Thursday folks.....I'm rustling up a yummy I-can-not-stop-eating-this weekend recipe for us.....

See you soon!!


                                          Janelle  xx                                                                                  

Happy Wednesday................

Hey there!!........

                                                                                 

Just out and about enjoying some much-needed sunshine........

                                                                               

How about you?

Wishing you a fab Wednesday!!!


                                                  Janelle  xx                                                                              

Slow-cooked Sausage Casserole

Hello there!! Well we are taking things a bit slloooooowwww here today on the farm.

Actually that's completely made up, nothing seems to go slow around here, however we do have a little slow cooking happening. As I'm my oven is still sulking and awaiting repair I had to resort to the good old trusty slow-cooker for dinner last night. I had sausage casserole planned which I often just shove in the oven for an hour or so but it is just as good cooked slowly over the afternoon in the slow-cooker. Now this is not really a 'recipe', it's more a let-me-share-with-you-what-I-cooked-for-the-fam-yesterday type thing. It's extremely slap-dash, throw in whatever you may have in the house kind of cooking. My kind of cooking. I definitely prefer to bake, could happily bake all day long, but really only cook dinner because if I didn't we would all die. Period.

                                                                                   

So, let's get on with this casserole shall we? I used to make this using one of those packet powder thingys from the supermarket but now just use what I have in my fridge and pantry to add flavour and fore-go the added powder that scares me a tad because I'm not exactly sure what is in it. HOWEVER...I am not saying I'm totally against them and they certainly make life easier for a heck of a lot of busy mums which has got to be a good thing.

Ok, here we go................

                                                                               

                                                        Sausage Casserole 

                                                                                

1 packet sausages, cut into approx 1" pieces (chicken, beef, whatever you fancy)

1-2 onions, roughly chopped

1 sweet potatoe, roughly chopped

3-4 potatoes, roughly chopped

3 carrots, yep, roughly chopped

frozen peas

1 teaspoon mince garlic (use fresh cloves if you have)

2 tablespoons tomatoe paste

About 3/4 tin apricot nectar

A good splosh of red wine if you have or so desire

salt/pepper

A few good sprinkles of dried italian herbs

(This is purely what I threw in yesterdays batch. Please feel free to add or subtract what you like. Or ignore this altogether.....)

Throw everything into slow-cooker pot, give a light stir to mix paste etc through, pop on lid and cook on high for approx 4 hours. (I'm guessing you could do on low for 6-8 hours)

I added my peas at about the 3 1/2 hour mark as they really don't need long at all.

And that's it!!

                                                                                 

 

Eat and enjoy!! As I said this is really very much a throw-together very average family meal but I thought I would share it on here as I know I always love hearing what other 'normal' mums are cooking up for their families.And one can get sick and tired of thinking up new things to give the children who may then turn their adorable little noses up at whatever you have slaved away at to try and spice things up a bit. Or is that just us??!??

                                                                                   

      

I'm off to enjoy a little 4-days-until-spring sunshine......

                                                                                 

     

Have a lovely one...............

                                            Janelle xx                                                         

Weekend round-up

Hello and Good Evening!!
A little round up of what's been going on around here this weekend. Nothing particularly thrilling really but enough to keep me occupied and happy.
A lazy Sunday morning reading session with my besties Donna and Nigella............

                                                                                 

A little project I've had on the go for a couple of weeks is finally looking like it MAY actually get completed. More on the blog hopefully  this week. I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming along.......

                                                                                   

And of course what would a weekend be without some time in the kitchen??!? I was sent into a slight panic a few days ago when my oven decided to completely shut down and just STOP WORKING. With a cake still baking inside. Oh the dramas!!!! Luckily the cake was pretty much cooked but it seems my best buddy probably needs a new element. Again. Grrrrrrr....Anyway, in the meantime I am delving into the wonderful world of no-bake baking. Enter the utterly scrumptious Lemon Slice......

                                                                                   

And there we have the trial and tribulations of life on the White Farm. It's all happening here folks..............

How was your weekend? A good one I am hoping!!

Be seeing you next week.......



                                                  Janelle  xx
                                                                      

Banana and Chocolate Muffins...............

Well Hello Friday!!

 Are we feeling like a little weekend baking??

                                                                                   

I baked these muffins earlier in the week and thought I could share the recipe here with you guys. They are easy, tasty and pretty much made-up-as-we-bake.....

                                                                                 

Ready? 

Let's go...............

                                           Banana and Chocolate Muffins

Ingredients......

2 large bananas, mashed

2 cups self-raising flour

1/4 cup raw sugar

2 eggs

3 tablspns butter, melted (do this first so it has time to cool!!)

1/2 cup milk

1 tablspn cocoa powder

2 tablspn boiling water

 Method.........

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees    

2. In a large-ish bowl throw flour (sifting optional), sugar, eggs, mashed banana, milk, and butter. Beat until well combined (use an electric beater, spoon or whisk...your pick)

3. Now in a small bowl, cup etc stir together the boiling water and cocoa powder, it will be a lovely brown runny mix.

4. Now add that runny mix into the banana-ry  mixture and just very lightly swirl it through. DO NOT (sorry, bit capital-letter bossy here) mix it right in.  

Your mixture should now look a bit like this.............

                                                                                   

  

5. Ok, now start spooning the mix into your greased/lined muffin tins. This mixture will make about 12 large muffins.

6. Bake for approx 15-20 minutes.

7. Try eating them fresh and warm from the oven.....delicious!!!

                                                                                   

   

These are certainly not an overly sweet muffin but we like it like that around here. However there is certainly nothing stopping you from adding extra sugar in if you feel it needs it. I think a splash of vanilla extract could work quite nicely too.

                                                                               

     

Mmmmmmm......

                                                                                 

Right....off you pop to that kitchen and enjoy!!!!

                                                                                 

Have a Happy Weekend!!.................

                                  Janelle  xx                                                             

Thrifted love..............

Hey there! So look what I happened upon whilst hunting through the thrift shop...............

                                                                               

I think I may love them....

                                                                                 

                                                                             

They are pink...they are cute.....they are silicone. And I cannot wait to pop a cake in them.......

                                                                                 

Have a lovely Wednesday folks................

                                                         Janelle  xx                                                                                  

Muffin Liners.............

I must admit I do feel a tad ridiculous about today's post. There I was, in the kitchen, in baking mode. We had somehow, in someway, seemed to have bred bananas overnight so I figured I should bake a few down. Hello Banana Muffins..............

                                                                                 

Well...without the muffin bit.
More the muffin-liner bit.
Do you use baking paper liners when you bake muffins etc? I must admit I don't use them a great deal. My children apparently find them 'annoying' in their school lunches (???) and they can be a little on the fiddly side compared to using cupcake papers or spritzing the trays with a spray of oil. Anyway, today I decided to go with the liners. I have never actually bought these ready-made so I guess I may not really know what I'm on about here, wouldn't be the first time,but all I do is rip (or cut, but I do prefer the look of the torn paper. And it's always all about 'the look' right?!) the baking paper into squares. These were roughly 6 inch squares.


                                                                                     

So you rip them off, then you could fold that square into four then re-open it to find the centre. Then shove them into the muffin tray. This, I think, is where the fiddles start because they tend to keep popping out. I have at times squirted the bottom of the tray with some oil to help the paper stick. This kind of works, but does add more time and effort to your baking.

                                                                                 

They do look lovely though don't they??!? Which is how this post came about...me admiring my muffin liners and feeling the need to share this admiration!!

                                                                               

 

Oh, and the muffins?? Yep, they turned out quite the treat. Stay tuned for Part 2......Banana and Chocolate muffins.....recipe coming soon..........

Have a fab day!!.........


                             Janelle  xx                                                                          

Hello Monday................

Hello and Happy Monday!!

                                                                               

It is a cold one here today...the lamps are on......the fire is stoked high and the soup is simmering away on the stovetop.......

                                                                               

                                                                               

And then there's school pick up....after school activites....in the wind and the rain...just to burst that cosy bubble of mine!!!

                                                                                     

Hope you're having a great start to your week!

See you soon...............



                              Janelle  xx                                                                               

Saturday Kisses................

Well hello there!
Just popping in on this Saturday evening to share a few pics of yep, you guessed it, a little baking!!!!!
Just call Miss Foodie Blogger..............


                                                                             

So, Miss 10 and I found this recipe for 'Raspberry Kisses' in a gorgeous cookbook called Bake by Allyson Gofton. I have a couple of similar recipes which I bake (known as Kiss Cakes around here!) but was interested to try this one out. Of course I couldn't help changing a few things here and there but overall they turned out pretty good..............

                                                                                   

In the book the biscuits are quite round and flattish.....ours?!??......hhmmmmm..............

                                                                               

I won't share the recipe today as I have another version I'd like to try first. In the meantime we'll enjoy scoffing these......

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!...............


                                           Janelle  xx 
                                                                                 

Weekend planning............

Hello out there!! It is Friday afternoon here which I classify as the official start to the weekend, yes??
I thought so.
 A few pics of what I've been up to this week and what I hope to continue 'being up to' over the weekend too............

                                                                                 

Baking....of course!!! I am back in baking-obsessed mode lately. I tried baking these vanilla biscuits using ALOT less sugar. Sadly I can't report back to you that this theory worked as.....it didn't. The texture was just all wrong and the taste not that brilliant either. I am currently challenging myself to bake with more wholesome "cleaner" ingredients but at the same time I really do not want to compromise on the whole home-baked concept and results. If that makes sense??!? The fact is that good old-fashioned baking does in fact contain some sugar and if you mess with that too much you tend to lose the whole taste and point of it all. So I am setting myself the challenge to work around this and look forward to sharing with you along the way. In the meantime............

                                                                                     

These guys are about to get drizzled with a little made-with-sinful-sugar icing so that they will actually get eaten........

Onto a spot of knitting................

                                                                                 

                                       
                                                                                     
I have, as usual, got quite a few knitting projects on the go. Any ideas what these will be made into??!!!!!..............

                                                                                     

And rounding off with another great way to spend one's weekend.......couch, coffee, mags and cookbooks......what else does a woman need I ask you??.

Enjoy!!................



                                           Janelle  xx                                                                  

Lavender, pots and a daydream....................

Hey there....we are out chasing sunshine but it keeps running away on the deck today........

                                                                                 

And breathing in a little lavender love while we're at it.....................

                                                                                 

I've decided to try and pretty the deck up a bit more for spring/summer this year. I'm thinking a few more white  tables and chairs and lots of pots filled with bright happy flowers....white and zinc may be the way to go I am thinking.....as she shows a big fat pic of a terracotta pot - whoops ............

                                                                                   

                                                                                 

Alrighty....I am off inside to the kitchen now....day-dreaming over....baking to be done.............

See you again soon................

                                                                                   

..................................

                         

                                  Janelle  xx