Lemon Meringue Tarts

It’s Kate’s birthday on Monday so I made these for her and the girls to take on a picnic on Friday evening. I thought they’d be less hassle and mess than a whole pie.

The pastry is Mum’s recipe but I found a new lemon filling recipe here and it’s awesome! I added lemon rind to mine for an extra bit of zest. I blind baked the pastry cases in muffin tins then removed them to be filled and topped before baking all together. Fortunately I made some extras for the boys for the pre-roast lunch yesterday. Feedback was that the pastry to filling ratio was a bit high (thinner next time) but otherwise delicious.

I still had some lemon filling and meringue left over which I threw into a pie case made from frozen pastry – it’s tasty but no where near as good as homemade pastry.

Eating

We’ve enjoyed a few family meals lately. Just us then with the Andos and then with the Tooses. The piccy is our first family meal in our new kitchen – French toast with fruit and maple syrup – yum! We had spag bog with Andos at our place and then curry at Nic & Claire’s and a meal at The Three Weeds with the Toose clan. Good times!

Cooking

We cooked for the young adults on the Norwest Anglican church weekend away. They heard talks on Christian ethics the big idea of which that though a lot of the issues are tricky we must show God’s love especially to those who are thinking through or living with decisions. We had fun!

Looking Forward

This last uni assignment is dead set horrible and it’s making me sick with anxiety – not a nice feeling. I used the word insurmountable to describe it earlier and it still fits nicely. We do however have things to look forward to:

Sophia’s baptism – in less than 10 hours.

Cooking on the Norwest Anglican young adults weekend away – next weekend. Check out the preliminary menu below.

Visits to the new apple store and Cordial.

Catching up with friends including Steve and Sam

School holidays for Kate – I think she’s planning on painting the kitchen in an attempt to move away from the groovy 1970’s / ‘Papa Giuseppe’s Pizzeria’ vibe we’ve got going?

I’m looking forward to handing this assignment in…

Toose Hoose Italian style

Starter
Garlic Bread

Main
Chicken Breast wrapped in Prosciutto and pan fried (Chicken Saltimbocca)
Mushroom Risotto with Truffle Oil
Steamed Broccolini

Dessert
Tiramisu

Scott and I were wondering what other desserts or recipies use coffee or more specifically espresso in their ingredients. I thought of some chocolate cake recipies and even a chocolate mousse that have coffee in them. I used 2 double shot long blacks in the Tiramisu – Yum!

Daylight Spending

Almost as funny as an April fools joke (maybe that’s why they changed it to April) is forgetting to change the clocks. We were an hour early for creche this morning! Those of you who know us well would be familiar with our penchant for sleep. I even joked with Kate as we drove to North Rocks this morning about how poorly we would fare if we were to have a baby.

So with an hour to spend we returned home to change the time on 12 appliances (only two of which were actual clocks!), tidied the lounge room a little, I synchronized my watch with the talking clock (phone 1194), Kate played on facebook, I checked the pantry for the ingredients for scones that I’m planning on making for church supper tonight and posted this. Priceless.

Chocolate Cake…

… makes everything better. Work has been particularly stressful and draining at work this week so I made this chocolate cake for the staff. It helped a little, I think, but didn’t stop me from being off sick today : ( . It was sweet, dark and rich – yum!

Hope the Greek and Hebrew exams go well today – let me know if you need some chocolate cake?

Love

It’s valentine’s day not that it really means much to us seeing as our wedding anniversary is tomorrow but it gives me an excuse to talk about food.

What the?!?!

I love food, my wife too of course, but I love food. We watched Ratatouille today (Kate was home sick) and I loved it. The movie, not Kate being sick. It was all about food ( and a rat and a young French guy) and it was brilliant, funny and touching. We then had spag bol for dinner of which I made extra for one of the girls at work who just left hospital. Supreme comfort food, cooked for over an hour, pasta al dente, freshly grated parmesan – I love food!

ps If you get a hold of the DVD watch the obligatory Pixar short film ‘Lifted’ – nuff said!

Cooking Weekend

Kate and I spent the weekend serving (literally) our brothers and sisters at Cumbo Uni Church. We cooked for them on their weekend away while they heard talks on Eschatology or ‘the end times’ (I had to ask). They had a great time and so did we. It was great to be a part of a small Uni Church again after our Mars Hill Anglican Church experience at Macquarie Uni a few years ago.

The highlights were pancakes, lots of apple crumble and choc chip cookies. This one is from the dough that didn’t fit on the trays – so we made a huge one!!!

We also went to Fresh on Sam and Soph’s recommendation. I had a piccolo of their fair trade Sumatran Single Origin and of their House blend. Both very good! Amazingly we ran into Libby and Matt as they were also following Sam and Soph’s advice while in the mountains for the CMS Federal AGM (I think?!?!). They were roasting as you can see on the embedded blogger video below (new feature!)

Where is the love?

One thing I really love is a bargain. Never pay retail! Another thing I love in close conjunction with my affinity for a deal is my credit card (a very dangerous weapon in the hands of an experienced operator). It was in this pursuit that I visited Aldi today. This is probably my fourth excursion to the great German supermarket. I was looking for two of their ’special items’ – a cast iron enamel skillet and frypan (I also love cooking). Unfortunately they were sold out so I had to settle for a dutch oven (heh heh heh). What annoyed me was not the fact that they sold out within 2 hours of going on sale but the severe lack of assistance and courtesy (verging on rudness) supplied by the staff and then they slugged me a surcharge for using my credit card. Where is the love?