and Orange and Date Muffins

New Cookbook

The other weekend I headed home to help my sisters hold and run a garage sale. I took a few things down myself but ended up heading home with more things. One of the things I brought was a new cookbook. Well it is a lot more than a cookbook. It is a general guide to all things handmade. 

Reader's Digest

The basis of my cooking choice was simple. I had to be able to find all of the ingredients in my kitchen and since I  had a lot of oranges already, I wanted to use some of those.

Orange and Date Muffins

Preparation: 15 mins

Baking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 cup pitted and chopped dates
• 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 whole orange, chopped, seeded and puréed

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease (or line) 15 muffins tins, each 7cm in diameter. 
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl. Add the dates and toss to coat.
3. In a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl), beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in the egg, orange juice and puréed orange.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients - do not over mix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20mins, or until goldern on top and risen.
6. Turn the muffins out on a wire rack to cool.
7. Serve warm or cool.

Ingredients

Cut up oranges

Purée in a food processor

Chop up dates

Mix dates into dry ingredients. Remember to always sift your flour.

Add butter and sugar to mixer bowl.

Beat until pale and creamy.

Juice orange/s. I had one huge orange which made 1/2 a cup of juice.

Add egg, orange juice and puréed orange to butter mix.

Then mix.

At this point the orange mixture may not look the best. 

But don't fear. It will all turn out.

Stir in flour mixture in 2 lots. This helps to reduce the lumps.

Now it's looking better.

Add mixture to the cups.

Flatten the mixture out a little with the back of

a small spoon. This helps to judge levels.

Straight out of the oven!

I love the cafe style cases.

But I only had 12 so the last 3 went into normal ones.

We ate those ones.

Bitten in to. YUM!

Verdict:

These light little muffins were very delicious. The puréed orange and orange juice gave it a lovely colour and there was no need for milk or any other liquid. The dates (I used medjool) added a great extra dimension to the muffin. It was a little bit of sweetness in the citrus mix. I think it's a great alternative recipe to the much loved orange and poppyseed one. 

Will bake again!

Unitl next time.

Love, love Elle.

and chocolate fondue

and it's all better covered in chocolate...

Valentines dinner

Mandeira Cake

After not that much thought at all really, I decided that a chocolate fondue for dessert would make the perfect end to our Valentines dinner. It's fun, messy and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 300ml of double cream
• 1/4 cup Grand Marnier (or other liqueur)
• 200g milk chocolate
• 100g dark chocolate
• Fruit
• Marshmallows
• Madeira cake
• Lollies

Method:

1. Heat cream in a saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling. Stir in Grand Marnier.
2. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate. Stir with a metal spoon until melted and smooth. Pour into a warm bowl or small ceramic fondue.
3. Serve with fruit, marshmallow, cake and lollies.

Other options of things to dip:

Caramels

Turkish delight

Other cakes, doughnuts, churros

Biscuits

Pretzels

Apricot coconut slice

Crystalised ginger

Fruit you many not think of:

Dates (medjool)

Dried fruit (apricot, figs, apple)

We sat down and enjoyed our dessert while we watched 'The Princess Bride' (my favourite) and Amelie (his favourite).

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day no matter who you were with or what you did.

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and all the way to 42

Days 29-42

I am still going strong with my photo a day challenge. I have loaded a few onto my Facebook page the following day, but I still haven't missed a day. Some days I struggle to think what I  should take a photo of . I fear a few too many food photo's are slipping through.

Day 29:

My jewellery tree arrived from Modcloth. I set it up and did a mini jewellery purge.

Day 30:

Enjoying a nice cup of tea and some biscuits after 2 kickboxing classes, 

in my favourite mug.

Day 31:

Took my car through the car wash on the way to a boxing class. I love car washes.

Day 32:

Making Dulce de Leche for a cheesecake to take to a friends barbecue.

Day 33:

Playing with Stirling at the barbecue just after I woke him up.

Day 34:

I went shopping for some cute stationary for my French lessons. I love kikki. K.

Day 35:

My breakfast. Homemade Sourdough bread from my own starter with homemade

mandarin marmalade. I was feeling very domestic. 

Day 36:

A beautiful bouquet of flowers I brought for my Nanna who

had to spend a bit of time in hospital.

Day 37:

Relaxing after kickboxing with a book and a snuggle buddy.

Day 38:

I met up with some old friends and hit the street for a dinner ride.

Day 39:

Another Friday night push bike ride from Fremantle to the city. This photo is of

the arches inside the Fremantle train station.

Day 40:

Drinks with friends at the Queens. I love how deconstructed the old building is.

Day 41:

Sunday afternoon cliff jumping with work mates.

Day 42:

I love how Dallas is sticking her nose out from under the coffee table in this photo.

I was studying for French and enjoying a homemade pretzel baked

by my plus one.

Well it has been another busy fortnight and I am really enjoying capturing my days.

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.

and Blackwall Reach

and on Sunday I jumped
Blackwall Reach

Blackwall Reach is a cliff on the Swan River, which is popular with rock climbers and cliff jumpers. A group of work mates organised to meet there on Sunday for a bit of extreme action. I was pretty timid about it and after I jumped and climbed back up again, I was shaking with adrenaline for quite a while. I waited for a bit before I jumped a second, and final time.

Me.

Swan dive

Back flip

There were lots of people jumping off where we were and along further. I never knew it was that popular. My plus one and some of our friends often go rock climbing there, but I never realised that the cliff jumping aspect was as popular. At another part of the cliff, some people had set up tripods with a video camera and a DSLR. They had also set up a bouncy castle pontoon thing in the water below. Their friends then jumped from the cliff and on to the pontoon, they then catapulted another friend, who was sitting on the edge of the pontoon into the air, and then the water.

Floating bouncy thing...

MASSIVE DISCLAIMER TIME NOW: Cliff jumping is dangerous. Please consider all of the dangers. Before I did it I searched the internet and found out that a person had actually died in 2006 from jumping off and hitting the water. He was attempting a back flip, slipped and hit the water at a bad angle, breaking his neck on entry. The depth below is however, quite deep and there are no submerged rocks. Surrounding the area there are signs put up saying, no diving. So again, if you chose to cliff jump, you are doing it at your own risk. Feet first is always the safest option, sans not jumping at all.

I have done it now, and I am not going to rush back anytime soon to try it again.

Afterwards we headed to one of the guys house for a barbecue. It was a terribly hot day yesterday and by 3 in the afternoon it must have been over 40deg C.  Well that was my extreme weekend. I hope everyone else had a great weekend and didn't suffer too much from the heat.

Until next time.

Love, love Elle.

and all I want for Valentine's is you

Valentine's Day

To us, Valentine's day is more about celebrating us and less about the commercial side, which makes a lot of people despise the whole notion. But I can't despise something that is all about love. Don't get me wrong, I love presents, but a nice box of chocolates, and maybe a card, is enough. I don't wan't teddies and roses and little devils. Instead of braving the restaurants we stay home and make ourselves dinner.

We haven't looked into what we will be making yet. We try for something different and more difficult from standard on Valentines day. But I have been doing some recipe searching and have found some really nice contenders from across the web.

First, starters:

Fried Haloumi

Strawberry and Goat's Cheese Bruschetta

Champagne Risotto

Main:

Venezuelan Chocolate Chicken Chile Chicken

Pork Tenderloin with Figs and Onions

Steak au Poivre

Drinks:

Sparkling Strawberry Cocktail

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Martini

Bailey's Chocolate Martini

and most importantly, dessert:

Dark Chocolate Creme Brulee

White chocolate & Raspberry Tart

Chocolate Fondue

I think the fondue might be a winner. It's fun, easy and made for sharing.

I hope everyone has a great Valentines day, be you alone or with someone you love!

Until next time.
Love, love Elle.