A last post and goodbye

I have finally decided to stop blogging so there will be no new posts on this blog anymore. I will leave the blog open for a few more months and then take it "off the air" for good.

Many things have changed in my personal and financial circumstances during 2008 and I actually realised that I am not getting younger.

I had to decide what is important for me and one of these is my financial future. I was always interested in affiliate and article marketing as an extra means of income and will now use all the knowledge I gained from blogging to make a living from the internet.

As soon as my new website is up and running, I will post a link to it here for those of you who are interested to find out more about working and earning a living from home.

A big thank you to everybody who has visited this blog since I started it in January 2007. I hope you enjoyed the gift ideas and that you actually tried some of the recipes I shared with you.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Torte

I love it when I find a recipe that is quick and easy to make. This chocolate torte fits nicely into that category and is ideal to make if you do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

It doesn't get any easier than this!









Ingredients:

2 x 200g packets digestive biscuits
30g butter
30ml golden syrup
15ml cocoa powder
300g dark chocolate
2 x 250g cartons mascarpone

To make:

Crush biscuits in a food processor, combine with melted butter, syrup and cocoa. Grease a flan pan and line with the biscuit mix. Refrigerate one hour. Melt chocolate, add to mascarpone cheese. Mix well pour onto biscuit base. Refrigerate until firm.

Interesting reading while you eat the torte...

The lighter side of dark chocolate

The history of digestive biscuits

Mascarpone cheese?

Tomato and Chilli Relish

The menfolk in the family will love this homemade chilli relish.

You will need:

2 kg tomatoes, skinned and quartered
2 red peppers, chopped
4 medium sized onions, diced
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and grated
200 ml white grape vinegar
120 g (150ml) sugar
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
15 ml salt
15 ml chillies, dried and crushed
15 ml mustard powder

To make:

Blend the first five ingredients together. Pour the mixture into a saucepan, add the remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer without the lid until mixture is very thick. Don't forget to stir regularly. Store in sterilised bottles.

Tip: Use textured bottles (ask at the local pub to save the empty tequila bottles for you).

Caramel-Peanut Squares

It is summer in South Africa! Hot days and warm nights and yet, all over the country a lot of baking is going on to stock up on food for the Christmas season.

I for one would love Christmas in winter. I would not really mind spending time in the kitchen baking cookies and biscuits then.

I must admit, as I am growing older, I am also getting lazier every year to do a lot of baking. The local supermarket sells lovely shortbread which can be dipped in melted chocolate or sandwiched together with a filling... and who would know that I did not slave for hours in the kitchen to make them...lol.

On the other hand, Gene Bach wrote such a lovely poem for me last year that I sometimes really feel guilty if I do not do some baking at least twice a year... (when did I become sooo lazy?) He has been visiting this blog a lot lately and is always asking for more recipes, so Gene, these caramel-peanut squares are for you, my friend.

Base:

375 g (400 ml) butter or baking margarine
300 g (375 ml) white sugar
3 egg yolks
360 g (750 ml) flour
100 g (190 ml) selfraising flour
90 ml custard powder
3 ml salt

Topping:

300 g (375 ml) brown sugar, lightly packed
270 g (300 ml ) butter
45 ml golden syrup
375 g (625 ml ) roasted unsalted peanuts

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add sifted flours, custard powder and salt, mix to a firm dough. Press mixture into base of greased 27 x 18 x 4-cm lamington tins. Bake in moderate oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven, spread with prepared topping, return to oven and bake for a further 5 minutes. allow to cool in tin, cut into squares.

To prepare topping:

Place brown sugar, golden syrup and butter in a small saucepan, stir over low heat until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Stir in roughly chopped nuts.

Yield about 45 squares.


About this recipe: I found it nearly 30 years ago in "The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits" published by the Australian Women's Weekly. Ten years ago it was published in an Afrikaans weekly magazine again.

In the early 90's I baked from home for nearly 2 years to supplement my income and these biscuits were one of the popular sellers. My late father loved peanuts and it was always a joy to bake these and then to see how much he enjoyed eating it.

Hertzog Koekies - True South African Tradition

These cookies or jam and coconut tartlets are known as Hertzog koekies in South Africa and are part of every South African housewife's traditional recipes.

They were named after General J.B.M. Hertzog, prime minister of the South Africa Union in 1924. According to legend, there was also another cookie baked in nearly the same way (the ingredients were the same) but these were named after General Jan Smuts, Prime Minister from 1919 until 1924 and then again from 1939 until 1948.

Both Smuts and Hertzog played important roles in the early political history of South Africa, both fought in the Boer Wars and the World Wars and both of them had their own staunch supporters. Interesting is that the supporters of the one would not eat the biscuits named after the other one and even today, you will still find a recipe for Hertzog koekies and Jan Smuts koekies if you search for traditional South African cookies.

I grew up with Hertzog koekies (do not know if my ancestors were supporters of General Hertzog...) I personally think that when it comes to good food, politics should not keep you from enjoying food. On the other hand, if politics can lead to such lovely biscuits as Hertzog and Jan Smuts koekies, let the supporters create new recipes and food and then the whole world can enjoy it.

As is so often the case with traditional food recipes, there are many versions and here is the recipe that was used in my family for many, many years.

Ingredients:

The pastry dough

5 x 250ml (5 cups) cake flour
10ml baking powder (2 tsp)
1ml salt
250ml (1 cup) sugar
125g margarine or butter
4 very large eggs

The filling:

Smooth apricot jam
250 sugar ((1 cup)
200g desiccated coconut
5 egg whites

Method:

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cream margarine/butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one by one and beat thorougly after each addition.
Add dry ingredients and mix to form a soft dough.

Note: I decreased the baking powder to 5ml (1 tsp). The dough rises a lot and the cookies just looks neater if less baking powder is used.

Tip: Add a little flour if dough is too moist, or a little water if dough is too dry. If you use large or jumbo sized eggs, this is normally not a problem.

Roll dough out thinly and press out circles. Line the base of greased patty pan tins with dough circles.
Spoon a teaspoonful of apricot jam into the middle of each circle of dough.
Beat egg whites until soft peak stage. Add the sugar gradually, while still beating.
Add coconut and spoon egg mixture onto apricot jam filling.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C (350F) for 20 - 25 minutes.
Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 60 - 72 Hertzoggies.

Tip: To prevent the apricot jam from "leaking" during the baking process, add a teaspoon or two of flour to it.

Festive Touch: Cut red or green glacé cherries into small pieces and add to coconut mixture.

Snickerdoodles - Cookies for old and young

According to Wikipedia a snickerdoodle is a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon. sugar. Cream of tartar together with the cinnamon gives these cookies their distinctive flavour.

I do not bake snickerdoodles very often, but when I do, I always wonder why I am so lazy... lol. They are really easy to bake and taste wonderful.... crunchy on the outside and rather soft and chewy on the inside. The little cracks on the surface combined with the colours of the cinnamon and sugar makes them a very attractive cookie as well.

Here is my recipe for snickerdoodles.

Ingredients:
250 ml (1 cup) cooking oil
300g sugar
2 eggs
330g flour, sifted
pinch of salt
12,5 ml cream of tartar
5ml bicarbonate of soda

Coating
50ml sugar
10ml ground cinnamon

In a large bowl, mix oil, sugar and eggs until thoroughly blended, set aside. In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients, stir into the oil mixture. Refrigerate for 45 minutes, do not omit this part as the dough is rather oily, but once baked, the cookies are very crunchy . Roll into walnut-sized balls.

To coat:
Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the balls in the cinnamon-sugar.Place on a greased baking tray, about 50mm (2 inches) apart. Bake at 200ºC, 10 minutes or lightly browned.

Makes about 55 biscuits.

My lazy tip: Place the cinnamon and sugar in a shallow plastic container with a lid. Shake to mix. After rolling the dough into balls, flatten each ball a little bit between your palms, place 5-6 balls in the container, seal and then shake to coat the dough balls. A lot quicker than to roll individual balls in the cinnamon sugar.

Ever heard of Schneckennudeln? Me neither, until I did a little research on the name of these cookies. Click on the link to read more about the History of snickerdoodles.

I also found another fun snickerdoodle site for kids, have a look if you want to.

A Cup of Spiced Tea

If the food prices keep rising as it has done during the past few weeks, I would really have to cut down seriously on my coffee intake. (I was actually supposed to do it a long time ago, but I love my coffee.... strong and black!)

The price of my favourite coffee has gone up so much in only one week, I immediately had a "talk" to the manager of our local grocery store and the sad fact is that there was no mistake on the price tag.

So, one or two cups of tea will be included in my daily ration from now on. Black tea just does not taste the same as black coffee, but I found a recipe for spiced tea that would maybe inspire me to enjoy more tea from now one.

The spicy infusion can also make a good gift if presented in a small glass jar with instructions on how to use it. You can even include a pretty tea cup and saucer as well as some herbal tea, a small jar of honey or flavoured sugar and tea lovers will really be impressed with this gift.

You will need:

125ml water, 160ml orange juice, 4 cloves and 1 stick of cinnamon.

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for a minute or two, then remove from heat, set aside and allow to stand for at least half an hour.

To use:

Make enough black tea for 4 cups, not too strong, and combine with strained infusion. Sweeten to taste and serve hot or well chilled.

Comments can be Great Inspiration

At the beginning of May I received two comments on what was then the "final" post (written in July 2007)on this blog. Both comments were very positive and I was really thrilled to receive them after my long absence here.

Comments are in a way like the marks you get for exams when in school or college. It is a guideline to show that people like the content of your blog and that they learn something from it. It can also help to drive traffic to your blog if you visit the blog owners who have left comments and look at their blogs and leave a comment. However, it is not really any use to leave a comment in which you just say, " hi, thanks for your visit" - A good comment will be to really say something worthwhile about their blogs and in turn they will (hopefully) come back to your blog again and become a regular visitor.

That is exactly what the Private Chef has done with his comment.

He really inspired me to go on with this blog. Not only did his comment leave a warm feeling in me, but he has made certain that I pay a visit to his site and it is a wonderful place to be when you love cooking. The step-by-step (with photos) "how to" tutorials, as well as the video tutorials make this a very educational cooking site. You can become a member and submit your own videos and/or recipes, there is also a forum which most bloggers know (or should be aware of) to be a goldmine of information and a good way to ascertain traffic to your blog.

I for one will be a regular visitor to see what the Private Chef is preparing every day.

Oh yes, do not forget to visit here every now and then, please. I will also "serve up" new ideas for edible gifts on a regular basis from now on.

The Lemons are in a Pickle (or something like that)

Just a quick post to show you the outcome of my pickled lemons. As is often the case in the small town where I live, I could not find cardomom pods or star anise.

I substituted the fresh ginger with ground ginger, used cinnamon sticks and fennel in the place of cumin. I also left out the ground chillies because my family is not fond of "hot" foods.

I will give some feedback in 4-5 weeks on the taste of the lemons. If it is well liked by every one in the house, think I will make another batch for the wedding feast as well.

Pickled Lemons

My lemon tree has not yielded its usual load of lemons during the past few months, but my next-door neighbour's tree has been overflowing with lemons.

As I am not a gardener, I do not know what kind of lemon tree mine is and also for that matter, not hers either. All I know is that these trees bear lemons, but the difference is in the thickness of the skins.

However, I do know what to do with the lemons that she send over yesterday! No, I am not going to make lemon curd again....lol. There is still a bottle in the fridge from the last batch I made. This time I will make pickled lemons which can be served with fish, chicken or even cold meats.

You will need:

1 kg of lemons (I cannot tell you how many lemons exactly - the size of the lemons will determine the weight).
100g salt
500g sugar
5 whole cardamom pods
6 whole star anise
3ml ground cumin
2,5ml cloves
3ml cinnamon
50 ml grated fresh ginger
15ml crushed dried chillies

To make:

Soak the lemons in cold water overnight. Drain and snip off the end parts. Slice the lemons thinly. Sprinkle with salt and leave overnight or for another 12 hours. Place the sugar, cardamom pods, anise, cumin, cloves and cinnamon in a pot. Drain off the liquid from the lemon slices and add this to the sugar and spice mixture. Heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved, then boil for 2 minutes. Cool. Add the lemon slices, grated ginger and chillies.
Stir through. Layer into sterilised jars and cover completely with the syrup, seal well. Ready to use after 4-5 weeks.