In Heaven

Yesterday i recieved a package in the mail, and did my innards do a thousand backflips or what. Inside that wee package was my Mother's day present to myself, and what was in that said package you ask well i shall show you.

Yes it was my The Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook.

Who knew someone could have such happiness, not me thats for sure. I have been reading Ree's Blog for about a year and a half now and i am so glad she has produced this wonderful salivating morsel of delight. The recipes are to die for and if i am going to be eating like this all the time i don't care how many kilos i pile on. O.K. i do care but i'll throw caution to the wind and eat like this sometimes.

The pictures in this book are fabulous and Ree herself has done the photography, has this woman no bounds on creativity, i think not. Plus the humor and compassion she shows makes this one cookbook everyone should have in their home.

I cannot wait to try some of the recipes and i think i shall try the chicken fried steak, the fried chicken, steak with whiskey cream sauce, or one of the recipes from her site chicken parmigiana.

Ree also has a site called Tasty Kitchen where people from all over the planet can submit recipes and this is a great place to visit if you are stuck for ideas for dinner.

So go on over and check out The Pioneer Woman because you won't be disappointed take my word for it.

Buon Appettito. 

Party Time

This is a picture of the party table that i set up for my youngest daughters 5th birthday. she wanted an afternoon tea with some of her friends and this is what i did for her and everyone was suitably impressed, it took a couple of days to do all the cooking and it was worth it in the end. They had jam & cream scones, cupcakes with lime icing & and frosted flowers, lemon cheesecakes, pikelets, fairy bread ( of course), raspberry & white chocolate muffins, sausage rolls, mini quiches, chicken finger sanwiches, marshmallows, and a 3 layer choc devil food cake with sour cream and choc icing. All in all i think it was a pretty good spread for an afternoon tea and the girls absolutely loved it, some actually had a cup of tea and the others had some pink lemonade, the Ritz had better watch out i might steal their thunder (lol not). It was actually nice to use some of the platters and cake stands that i was given for wedding presents that have never been used before. If you have a person that loves an afternnon tea why not try it for a party theme and make it a personal and intimate experience, i know they'll love it. Buon Appetito.

From This......

These 4 ingredients make these.....

Yummy sultana scones.

The recipe is as follows

1 cup cream

1 cup lemonade

3 cups self raising flour

handful of sultanas.

Mix all ingredients together and roll out onto a floured surface, using your hands or a rolling pin flatten out until it is about 5cm thick and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush with milk, bake in a 180 degree oven for 20 minutes and voila , a tray of yummy scones to have with jam and cream. 

This recipe is easy peasy lemon squeezy and makes a great quick kids afternoon tea snack or if friends drop by for a cuppa. Buon Appetito. 

Let's Do Lunch!

Today was a good under pressure day in the Zesty Kitchen. I had the girls over for lunch, but in all the haste i forgot to get pictures. At least once every few months instead of going to a resturaunt we have lunch at a friends house, and this time it was my turn, the only thing i had to work this morning and i had to rush to get my plates on the table.
But what we did eat was BELLISSIMO. I made a Panzanella salad or an Italian Bread Salad and my god it was to die for, plus for the first time i made a gorgeous Thai Beef Salad, the other dishes we had were fried rice, chicken, vietnamese rice paper rolls, sausage rolls and my friend who does the best mini lemon meringues and mini lemon cheesecakes plus a couple of tipples of wine just to get through and wash all that YUM down.
The girls left stuffed and saited and extremely happy, we don't need much to keep us happy around here in the Zesty Kitchen. But next time i promise i will take pictures, so until then Buon Appetito.

Cream Buns YUM!

These little beauties are Jam & Cream buns from the recipe book Scones and Muffins step by step and they were very nice indeed. The bun itself is very similar to a Brioche and they were very easy to make but time consuming as the steps have to allow for proving and rising but it was a simple to read recipe. Which is very good for me as i like detailed information.

I took some of them to my sewing group for supper and well lets say i didn't come home with any on the plate, so the girls must have liked them too. Plus when i came home the ones i left in the fridge for the feral family were all gone and the king had 2 so they couldn't have been too bad.

As i have decided to start another blog ( this one ) solely for cooking i suppose i should let you know what will be coming up, well tonight for dinner we are having T-bone steaks and i thought i would try a noodle salad of some sort, perhaps Singapore noodles, i have tried these before but they weren't very good so i will have to try and tweak the recipe. Before i decided to write about my cooking we didn't eat very many varied foods before, we always had our tried and true foods that the whole family ate regularly, but now the faries are older i have thought about broadening our taste buds and trying food that we would possibly never eaten before.Who knows we may become culinary cultured and enlightened.

So until next time Buon Appetito.

Confessions

My name is Natalie and I have a confession, I love to eat and my waistline is a promising appreciation to that fact. I am the owner of many cookbooks, cooking paraphernalia and appliances that are an absolute essential in any kitchen.I am not in any means the greatest cook around (that accolade belonged to my Nana) but i try. I have successes and many more failures but that is life. This blog is the sideline of another i have but this one is solely for the purpose of my kitchen exploits. Join me on a roller coaster of ups and downs and hopefully you will enjoy the ride.
Buon Appetito.