Crazy or Angel...

This ham was the star of the show at our recent Friends of Numinbah Valley Xmas Party.
My glaze included fresh orange juice, brown sugar, mustard and the big secret!
My home-made orange & cumquat marmalade - Yummo!


Also made a huge Vegetarian Lasagne

Roasted Beetroot in dressing

Pan seared & roasted Mini Lamb Leg served with Roasted Capsicum Relish
on a bed of green lettuce with my tangy vinaigrette

What a great day -
happy, laughing faces, wonderful food, playing Bocce on the freshly mown grass.

People surrounded the dessert table ready and waiting to dive in - so -
 unfortunately no pics of  my

Home-made Mango Cheesecake

Rum 'n Raisin Mousse with freshly whipped cream & grated chocolate

Choc-Marble Sponge Cake brushed with Tia Maria Liqueur

Christmas Cake

Date & Walnut Loaf.

Let's not forget the MOT(Men Out There) 

High Tea at my friend Erica's House. 

What a brilliant day! Our councillor attended, Erica provided the magnificent venue 

and yours truly cooked absolutely everything -from scratch - holey moley!

All my vintage china - happy to be used. 

STAR OF THE HIGH TEA TABLE

I was just too busy to get around and take photos of everything. Sigh..
Someone called me 'crazy'
Another called me 'angel'. 

Happy Singing in the Hills.

WHAT A WEEK OF

TWO FUNCTIONS, 

PREPARATION, 

TRANSPORTATION,

 PLANNING,

 COOKING,

 SETTING UP 

AND HOSTING

 - took it out of me, but I did it!

Just in case you're wondering - I did it all for free. 

And everyone felt the love. 

Can't ask for anymore than that. 

The End. 

friday senses

a look at our week......

feeling: colllllllllllld. We are below zero at night all week (-18° when I woke up yesterday morning!) We bundle up in layers and layers and have cocoa and tea every chance we get. But it's BEAUTIFUL. The sun has been shining, the sky so blue, the water is steaming, and there are tiny ice crystals covering trees and floating through the air like little diamonds.
It was

The Little Red House Essentials

You guys! I am so excited about this!

I am constantly getting questions about gear/products that we use......so I've compiled a list--just for you!

I'm hesitant to call it a "gift guide" because I feel like those are usually gimmicky and crowded with stuff you don't need. 

Every single item on this list are products that WE use and love--so many of our favorites are on the list.

I've linked

Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Recipe

Hola Amigos! This is the season for shorter days, long lines, big traffic jams, hustle and bustle, so why not take it easy in the kitchen and make a delicious easy dinner to feed our families with as little effort as possible. But don't get me wrong, not because it's easy means tasteless, au contraire mon cheri, lol! Since we are using just a few ingredients we are going to use good quality and get the best flavors out of this meal!

This is basically a deconstructed classic, chicken cordon bleu we all love but sometimes we don't have all the time in the world to prepare, roll the chicken breast, breading it, browning and baking.

All the ingredients are present on this dish, and if you are missing the carbs from the breading, you get the pasta to complement it.

It's creamy and cheese, no room for dry chicken here! And of course, since everything tastes better with bacon, it has a bit of the good stuff to gives us some unexpected flavor and crunch.

I hope you enjoy this dish, it gives you plenty of time to cook it, enjoy it and head out again to join the shopping crowds, hanging decorations or enjoy a nice relaxing evening by the fire. Remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta

Ingredients

6 Slices Bacon, Chopped

1 Lb Chicken Tenders, chopped

1/4 Lb Smoked Ham, cubed

1/2 Cup White Wine

8 oz Sliced Mushrooms

2 Cups Bechamel Sauce

1/2 Cup Peas

1 Cup Shredded Swiss Cheese

Your favorite Pasta

Directions:

In a large hot skillet brown chopped bacon until fat is rendered. Add chopped chicken and saute until cooked and no longer pink, like 8-10 minutes. Add ham and mix. Add white wine and let the alcohol evaporate, like 3 minutes. Add bechamel sauce and mushrooms, mix well until everything is coated with the bechamel sauce. Remove from heat. Before serving, add peas. Serve over pasta and top with shredded Swiss cheese. Enjoy.

Prep Time: 10 minutes                               Cook Time: 20 minutes                     Serves  4

Sharing my tasty  quick meal at these Fabulous Parties:

Smart School House, Hun..what's for dinner?, Our Table for Seven, Kleinworth & Co, Homemade Ginger, The View from 510, Lady Behind the Curtain, All She Cooks, Ducks'n a Row, Kitchen Meets Girl, My Girlish Whims, Pink Box Recipe, The Best Blog Recipes, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Sweet Haute

december favorites

December! It's here!!



I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone. How was your holiday? I spent Thanksgiving day in the kitchen with my two sisters-in-law and we had so much fun preparing our feast. Did you eat your weight in butter? Me too. I'm spending the rest of the week attached to my juicer......actually, where can I get a juice IV?



I love December, and I've put together

Soft gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting and sugared cranberries

Now this is one helluva cake.
If you've been following this blog for a while you know I love cake. This has to be one of my favorites so far. I've said it many times before and I'm ready to stand by it again, I like soft gingerbread cake more than gingerbread cookies. Sorry if I've offended anyone. Pair a soft gingerbread cake with some buttercreamy and tangy cream cheese frosting and you're good to go.

On another note, that dress I'm wearing in the picture below has been spotted before. I promise it's not the only piece of clothing I own, although it's the only white piece of clothing I own. If you know me, you also know that about 95% of my wardrobe consists of black clothing.

Anyway, today is the first of advent in Sweden which is (to most people anyway) when you're supposed to put up all the Christmas decorations. I haven't had time to do that as I have a deadline for my book tomorrow, yet somehow I'm sitting here writing this post.
I should probably finish that. And you can go make this cake!












Soft gingerbread cake 
with cream cheese frosting and sugared cranberries

Printable recipe

Gingerbread spice mix
This recipe makes more than you need for the cake but I figure why not make some extra for other uses? I highly recommend grinding cardamom and cloves with a pestle and mortar instead of buying ready made. It does make a huge difference!

4 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp freshly ground cardamom
3 tsp freshly ground cloves



Soft gingerbread cake
270 g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
4 tsp gingerbread spice mix
1/2 tsp ground bitter orange peel (can be omitted)
2 large eggs
100 g light muscovado sugar (or light brown sugar)
100 ml* cane syrup
125 g butter
100 ml heavy cream (about 35-40 % fat content)
150 ml* milk


Sugared cranberries
Fresh cranberries, a couple of large handfuls
1 egg white (use pasteurized if you're worried about eating raw eggs)
Granulated sugar, for rolling


Cream cheese frosting
I'm using a large amount of butter for this recipe to add stability as this is a rather tall cake. Cream cheese frosting tends too be a bit on the loose side, but not this one! 

150 g butter, softened
180 - 210 g (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups) powdered sugar
200 g cream cheese, cold



Instructions
Soft gingerbread cake
1. Heat oven to 175°C (350F). Butter and flour three 15 cm (6 inch) baking pans. Set aside.
2. Mix flour, baking soda, salt, gingerbread spices and ground bitter orange peel in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy and lighter in color, about 3-4 minutes. Add cane syrup and beat until smooth.
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add cream and milk.
5. Add dry ingredients and butter mixture to the egg mixture in additions.
6. Divide batter between prepared cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, then unmold onto a wire cooling rack.


Sugared cranberries
1. Dip cranberries in egg white and put them on a piece of kitchen paper so they're not soaking wet when rolling them in sugar (this will make the sugar lumpy).
2. Roll in sugar and leave to dry for 30 minutes or so. Make the frosting while you wait.


Cream cheese frosting
1. Beat butter until pale, about 2 minutes.
2. Add powdered sugar and continue beating until frosting is very pale and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
3. If you want the frosting to be as white as possible, add just a tiny bit (start off with a super small amount, like the tip of a toothpick and then add more if needed) of purple/royal blue icing color.
4. Add cream cheese and beat until just smooth.


Assembling the cake
1. If cake layers are domed on top, even them out just slightly using a serrated knife (you can correct this with an even layer of frosting instead).
2. Put the first cake layer on a cake stand or plate and spread a fairly thick layer of frosting on it using an offset spatula.
3. Keep doing this until you've used all three cake layers. End with a layer of frosting on top of the last layer.
4. Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake and put it in the fridge to set for a 10-20 minutes if needed.
5. Decorate with sugared cranberries and a sprig of spruce if desired.


A few notes
-*100 ml = 6 tbsp + 2 tsp
-*150 ml = 10 tbsp
-If you don't want to use egg whites for the sugared cranberries, Naomi over at Bakers Royale has another way of making them with a simple syrup.

Tropical Pork Steaks Recipe

Hola Amigos! When the weather turns cold I can't but to mentally transport myself to warmer places and one of the best way to do it is through food.

I got a couple of beautiful Pork Steaks at the butcher the other day and in my opinion nothing goes better with pork than the taste of the tropics and it's fruits. Passion fruit, pineapple and oranges are some of the tropical fruits used one way or another to prepare this steaks.

And if you are thinking it's too cold to light the grill. not to worry, these are baked!

They are extremely moist and tender the way they are, but you know me, I need to have some gravy with my meats! My gravy has all the flavors of the steaks and the sweetness of the fruit.

The kids love the sweet taste of the steaks and just to make it even more kid friendly, this time we just had them with some Mac n Cheese! It was a hit alright!

Thank You for visiting today, this recipe shows us that when we don't have the money to buy a plane ticket, we can still travel everywhere we want with food! Remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Tropical Pork Steaks

Ingredients:

2.5-3 Lbs Pork Steaks

1 Cup Orange Juice

2 Envelopes Sazon  with Coriander and Tomato

2 Chipotle Bullions

Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder to taste
2 TBSP oil for frying

1 (8 oz) can Crushed Pineapples drained (save juice)

1 Cup Passion Fruit Juice ( I used Welch) 
1 TBSP cornstarch

Directions:

Prepare the pork steaks to be marinated either in a zip lock bag or a baking dish. Pour the cup of orange juice and sprinkle the Sazon and crushed chipotle bullions, salt, pepper and garlic powder and rub them with these seasonings until they are all covered, there is plenty for both sides. Put in the refrigerator and let them marinate for a couple of hours. 

When ready to cook, Pre-heat the oven at 365 degrees. 

In a large skillet, 2 tbsp oil, heat up. Place pork steaks, one at a time if they are too big, and seared and brown on both sides. Like 3-5 minutes on each side (again it will depend on the size of the steaks). Once browned place on a baking dish.

Pour the cup of passion fruit juice and the saved pineapple juice. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, uncovered and spread the crushed pineapple over the steaks bake for an additional 5 minutes or until pork is completely cooked, (internal temperature of 145 degrees according to the new USDA guidelines). Once time has elapsed, remove from oven and let the steaks rest.

For the gravy, mix drippings with 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in a little bit of orange juice and cook until thickened . Serve on top of pork steaks and enjoy.

Prep and Marinating Time 4 hours                   Cook Time 25 minutes                 Serves 4

Sharing a taste of the tropics at these Fabulous Parties:

Craft Dictator, Tatertos aand Jello, Skip to my Lou, The Chicken Chick, Say Not Sweet Anne, Alderberry Hill, Boogieboard Cottage, Mad in Crafts, Frugality Gal, Carrie This Home, Create with Joy, Feeding Big, Smart School House, Hun...what's for dinner?, Our Table for Seven, Kleinworth & Co, Homemade Ginger, The View from 510, Lady Behind the Curtain, All She Cooks, Ducks'n a Row, Kitchen Meets Girl, My Girlish Whims, Pink Box Recipe, The Best Blog Recipes, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Craft Dictator, Sweet Haute