See my Buns.

I'll be adding the recipes for this one and a very nice pumpkin pie sticky bun soon. 

This is simply to keep me motivated.

Oooo Pretty.

Pick a peck of these bitches!

There is no toastie in the world that can not be made better by these pickled red peppers. 

And I swear to you these are beyond easy to make despite the fact that I've turned the how to description into a god damned novel and probably over-shared and rambled this post into oblivion. Apologies for that.... It's 5am at the moment and I've had barely any sleep all week. I may be somewhat delirious... But happy, so just go with it  :)

Oooooh! I almost forgot to mention... You can also swap out the peppers for baby cucumbers! Just use a little more vinegar and maybe add some dill. Who doesn't adore pickles? If you put your hand up for that, you gotta admit it- you're kinda a weirdo. No less loved or welcome here, but odd nonetheless. 

Playing with a previous daring bakers challenge...

I had a shit tonne of fun turning this beautiful bread into a half bread/half cakey something or other. I filled the layers with butter, cinnamon sugar and an awesome sticky sweet home made blueberry jam. I used the full quantities on the website but made two smaller buns, added some honey to the dough and thinned out the layers. Came out really tasty. Everyone was happy. Me especially since I've only this last year or so actually mastered bread making and always wanted to try braiding my bread up all pretty like. 

So, thanks Sawsan
If you wanna have a go at making something lovely as well,  have a look over at The Daring Kitchen

Quick sweet things your grandma once fed you before heaving you back to your parents all abuzz

I'd like to throw a couple of fun naughty bits and pieces at you. Super fun to whip up with the kids. This is the stuff your granny knows. Somehow instinctively built in. Not fancy or complicated but tasty and full of memories of sticky fingers and faces. And somehow she could magic this stuff up in 10 mins, throw on a hat or whatever, grab the purse and she's out the door taking you to the park to entertain and shut you up til your slice or cookies are cooled. 

MARS BAR SLICE

3 Tbs butter

3 Mars bars (chopped up)

3 cups of rice bubbles

Gently melt your mars bars and butter, stirring constantly. Try not to eat this concoction straight from the pot. Ok maybe one spoon. Just to test it. Throw the rice bubbles in a big bowl and once your caramel mixture is cooled slightly pour it over and stir, combining well. Spread evenly in a slice pan lined with foil or baking paper. Make sure you leave some overhang on the bottom layer for easy liftage. 20cm x 20cm for the pan is a good bet. Chill in the fridge to set and there you go.

NUTTY COCONUT CHIPPY CLUSTERS

1 400g tin of condensed milk

2 cups of moist shredded coconut (Half of which you could toast for more flavour)

Generous 1/2 cup of peanut butter, smooth or crunchy, to your taste

1 cup of plain potato chips, slightly crushed up

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl, mix well to combine. In a separate bowl stir your peanut butter into the condensed milk before adding the coconut and chips to it. I wouldn't tell anyone if at this point you wanted to add chocolate chips or whatever takes your fancy. Just make sure you mix it all well.

Drop in spoonfuls onto a lined baking tray. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 for maybe 15 mins or until lightly golden. Enjoy.

GINGERNUTS

1 cup of plain flour

2 Tbs sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

Generous 1/2 tsp of ground ginger, I like mine with a real ginger punch so I'd double that amount. 

1 tsp bi carb 

60g butter

2 Tbs golden syrup

This is crazy easy, are you ready? Combine the dry ingredients. Melt the butter and syrup together. Add it to the dry stuff to form a soft dough. Place in spoonfuls on a lined tray and bake for 15 mins at 180 or until golden. You're done. Go make a cup of tea. You could even wash the the pot and spoon. 

One for the grown ups...

For those with a sense of humour... Or those trying to re-gain one.

BOILED FRUITCAKE..?

1 cup butter.    1 cup water.     1 tsp salt.    

Squeeze of lemon juice.    1 cup sugar.    4 large eggs

1 tsp baking powder.    1 bottle whiskey

1 cup mixed fruit.     2 Tbs brown sugar.    50 g walnuts.

Place water, fruit and 1/2 cup of sugar into a small saucepan and boil for 15 mins. Pour whiskey into a shot glass and sample the quality. Good. Get a large mixing bowl. Check whiskey again, pour 1 large glass and drink. Repeat previous step. Turn on electric mixer and beat the butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1tsp baking powder and 1/2 cup sugar and beat again. Re-sample whisky to ensure it's still whisky. Turn off mixer and break two eggs and bowl to add. Chuck in dried fruit. Mix on the turner. (If fruit gets stuck in beaters pry loose with screwdriver.) sample whisky to tonsisicity. Next sift two cups of salt or something. Who cares? Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add 1 babblespoon of green sugar or whatever colour you find. Wix well.grease the oven and turn the cakepan to 350' greedles. Don't forget to beat the turner. Pour cake mix into cake pan and over bench. Throw bowl out  of window. Stagger into laundry and put cake into oven, set to hot rinse. Continue sapling whisky til the noddle is empty and bo to bed. Sleep tight.

Fancy meeting you here...

A fresh blog. A very fresh, empty, blog. It's almost as daunting as it is exciting. I have so many things I want to add to my lovely little slice of food blog heaven but so little time to write... And re-cook, and photograph and test and tweak. It's a damn good thing cooking and baking is a labour of love for all us crazy obsessed people. 

By the way... Just so you know, I've never had a blogger account. Any journaling I've done in the past has been through other mediums. So I apologise for lack of easy linkage and the general chaos this page will be in until I figure out what I'm doing. 

At the moment I'm sifting through recipes I've created (as much as you can create something new as usually no matter what you do this masterpiece you've sweated blood and tears into perfecting has some other prior incarnation out there) and recipes I've found and fallen in love with, changed to suit my family's taste and then there's the fancy ones I've collected over the years to challenge myself or mark something off my bucket list of foodie must trys. Let me say that this is one dirty bitch of a process for me because I never pay attention to little things like amounts or cooking times or occasionally entire recipes when I cook. I normally cook by sight and feel. Which is now to my detriment. Boo. 

So, that's where I am right now.

The quick, easy things I'm writing up that I'll have coming up first will be:

~ homemade pickled peppers and pickled cucumbers.

~ sexy sticky date pudding with gooey salty sweet butterscotch sauce.

~ toffee and chocolate chip cookies 

~ broccoli pesto salad topper

~ pumpkin and caramelised onion soup

~ dulce de leche, vanilla bean and bourbon ice cream which I adapted from the easy cheaters no churn ice cream recipe from the lovely people at nestle. Which is ready in a matter of hours and is magic taste wise and space wise if you have a wussy little freezer like I have with no space to chill huge bowls and wait a day and a half before even starting to freeze your product. 

Yeah.

Cheers.