Lemon Cordial

Ingredients:
4 lemons
1 cup sugar
4 cups water

Method

Peel lemons. Boil the peel with the sugar and water for 15 min. Juice lemons, and pour the juice into the boiling syrup. Bring to the boil again, remove from heat and strain.

Caesar salad

Delicious! :)

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1/2 (12cm) ciabatta bread loaf, cut into 2cm pieces
• olive oil cooking spray
• 2-4 rashers bacon, sliced
• 1 large cos lettuce, leaves separated, torn
• 2 hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
• 40g parmesan cheese, shaved

Caesar dressing

• 1/2 cup light whole-egg mayonnaise
• 1-2 teasp mustard (I used english)
  
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place bread on tray. Spray with oil. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes or until golden and crisp.

2. Make Caesar dressing: Process mayonnaise, anchovy, garlic and lemon juice until smooth. Season with pepper.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add bacon. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

4. Place lettuce in a large serving bowl. Add croutons, bacon, egg and cheese. Toss to combine. Serve drizzled with dressing

Anzac biscuits

One of my favorite biscuit recipes so far! =)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups plain flour, sifted
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup desiccated coconut
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup or treacle
• 150g unsalted butter, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Place the flour, oats, sugar and coconut in a large bowl and stir to combine. In a small saucepan place the golden syrup and butter and stir over low heat until the butter has fully melted. Mix the bicarb soda with 1 1/2 tablespoons water and add to the golden syrup mixture. It will bubble whilst you are stirring together so remove from the heat. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix together until fully combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place on baking trays lined with non stick baking paper, pressing down on the tops to flatten slightly. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Sticky Date Pudding

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 brown sugar
3/4 cup SR flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teasp bicarb soda
100g butter
1/4 cup golden syrup
1 cup chopped dried dates
1/4 cup orange juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Sauce:
80g butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup cream
2 tab golden syrup

Grease a 20cm square tin, preheat oven to 180c.
Sift flour & soda into large mixing bowl. Combine in small saucepan sugar, butter, syrup, dates, and juice. Sirt over medium heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Fold date mixture into the flours. Add eggs and stir until smooth. Pour into tin, and bake for 35 min or until skewer comes out clean. Leave for 5 min before turning out.
Sauce: Combine all ingredients in small pan. Stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved and butter melted. Serve over hot pudding.

Stir-fry

Fairly easy and multi-purpose meal. Serves 4, time: about 30 min.
Ingredients:
Anything really that goes with rice. I used
1/2 a Cabbage, Sliced
1 large onion chopped
2 sticks of celery chopped
1 red pepper (capsicum) cut in strips
500g beef strips (you could use chicken)
Soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper to taste.

You could put in (or leave out) ingredients to taste.

It's good to sweat the cabbage in the wok with some water first until a little soft. Remove, and heat oil in wok until hot, and fry meat until no red is showing. Remove, and fry onion until golden, add celery and pepper, cook until almost soft, add cabbage and cook for about 5 min, until soft. Add meat and seasonings. Serve with rice. :)

Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients-
380g wholemeal flour
380g white flour
50g gluten flour
1 tab olive oil
3 teasp yeast
3 teasp salt
1 1/2 tabs sugar
Lukewarm water

Method-
Place flours, oil, yeast, salt, and sugar in bowl. Pour in enough water to make a dough. Mix well. Turn onto a well floured surface. Knead for 15-20 min, depending on temperature of room. Proof until doubled in size. Knead for another 5 min. Place in prepared trays and bake on 200c until browned and hollow sounding when tapped.

Penne and Meatballs

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 500g extra-lean beef mince
• 1 medium zucchini, grated (I didn't have any Zucchini, so I put canned corn in instead.)
  
• 1 small carrot, grated
• 1 small brown onion, grated
• 2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
• 800g can no added salt crushed tomatoes
• 375g dried penne pasta
• Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Grease a 5cm-deep, 18cm x 20cm (base) baking dish.

2. Combine mince, zucchini, carrot, onion, mushroom and cheese in a bowl. Roll 1 tablespoon mixture into a ball. Place in prepared dish. Repeat with remaining mixture. Top with pasta sauce. Bake for 30 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water, following packet directions, until tender. Drain. Divide pasta between plates. Top with meatball mixture. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve.

Savoury Carrot Pudding

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
750g carrots, sliced
2 large onions, sliced
2 tab melted butter
3 tab chopped parsley (we had no parsley growing, so I put a small handful of dried basil instead.)
3 eggs (I used between 6 and 8)
1 1/2 cups milk
salt
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of cayenne pepper

(I also put about 200-250g of canned corn in, which was nice. I think fennel would also go very well in this.)

Method:
Cook the onions and carrots in boiling salted water until softened; drain well. Toss them in the melted butter, with parsley, until well coated. Transfer to an ovenproof dish. Beat the eggs with the milk. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg. Pour over the carrots and onions. Bake in a moderate oven for 30-40 min, or until firm.