We started off all of the major holiday festivities that will continue this week, last night, with our cookie party. We all got together and made as many cookies as we could until we were so sugar sick we could not take it any more. The picture above is only a tiny portion of our end product. Needless to say I left with about 300 cookies and I am not exaggerating one bit. There were many wonderful recipes, but I will share with you my very favorite. I found it on the food network website and I will be definitely making it again,  Hazelnut Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Peppermint krispy kreme! Their xmas range is so great! Wanna try Gingernut Krunch and Caramel Snowball next…

The star ginger product at this time of year is of course gingerbread, but I was almost as excited by this Ginger Ale KitKat as by the countless adorable gingerbread houses on Flickr (like this CUTE one, or this SWEET one, or this fairyland) Anyway, Ginger Ale KitKat, huh??? How’s that gonna work?

It’s a white chocolate one and the package says it contains 0.3% lemon powder as well as natural and artificial ginger ale flavours.

Hmmm, will that be enough to capture the bubbly, zesty spiciness of carbonated ginger ale? The KitKat smells crazily like Wizz Fizz sherbet, and it tastes lemony and gingery and a fraction fizzy. I think the chocolate has some soda or sherbet powder in it to make it taste fizzy (it’s only a hint but it’s pretty cool). Overall, though, I think most people would argue that the flavour falls a bit *flat* of the real thing. It’s fun to try, though! I bought it at Miracle World Square but it’s also on eBay.

After a year i finally told my wallet to suck it up, take a hike and stomach the cost. Finally. Got my Nikon D90! Although I’m nowhere near finishing the hefty 300 pages manual – I think I can make due with my limited skills… I’ll have to work on becoming a pro-d90-user soon. real soon.

So to mark my progress and yet another attempt at blogging (yes, i’m bit of a geek sometimes), thus this blog was born!

Let’s start with… cupcakes… tonight i finally baked and tested out my mom’s new stove =)

I like listening to my ipod while baking.

My mom has really vintage machinery… must be circa 70’s / 80’s …  but whatever gets the job done, right?

Initially I was going to make strawberry meringue buttercream cupcakes, but i realized that i had no more strawberry jam, so I optioned for cream cheese frosting instead… really glad i took home the leftover decoration from my friend’s gingerbread house making party… the green sprinkles mixed with coconut bits looks yummy… unfortunately i was too ambitious to pipe the icing – I didn’t wait for those naked cakes to fully cool, the icing started melting… opps!

Almond Biscotti, Christmas baking success… 

Flicking through Issue 7 of Jamies Magazine last Friday I came across the feature Edible Gifts.

A few years back when I first moved to Munich I decided to get through the December winter blues I was going to bake Christmas cookies. By the time I had finished I had baked around 300 cookies and decided then and there to wrap them up and give them to friends for Christmas. What a great idea you are saying – well not really as I nearly broke everyone’s teeth as I was hailed at the time one of the worlds worst bakers….

A lot has changed since then. So after reading the article in Jamies Magazine I decided to give baking another try. I said to myself  that my 2009 Christmas gifts to friends is going to be Pistachio & Saffron Biscotti – sounds yum yum right. Last Friday after work I went out picked up all my ingredients and returned home to start baking. As I was peeling the shells off the pistachio nuts my partner said, ‘aren’t they meant to be un-salted Pistachio nuts’? Good call. I have no idea and Jamies Magazine unfortunately to provide any further information regarding this, so instead of causing another baking disaster I decided to switch Pistachio nuts for almonds and Saffron for Vanilla. The result of the first batch was great, the second batch on Saturday was even better as I actually put in some Vanilla essence as well.

Once my Biscotti had cooled I put a handful of them in little white paper bags and closed it with a  silver bulldog clip on the top. A great looking present.

At a friends Christmas party on Sunday I handed out my little packets of edible gifts and since then my phone has been ringing off the hook with friends complimenting me on my Biscotti (and thanking me for not breaking their teeth this year). Once again…. Thanks Jamie

Jamies Pistachio & Saffron Biscotti recipe can be found on page 54 of Jamie Magazine issue 7. For further information visit www.jamiemagazine.com

There is such a wealth of great foodie pressies around this year so I thought I’d compile them into a little online xmas buying guide for foodies!

1. M-Cups (above) by Fred. Matryoshka (Russian doll) measuring cups that stack inside each other to form one Russian doll. They’re so cute they make you wanna start measuring out your ingredients and get cooking. Avail online at hart & heim or in the Fred section on Amazon.

2. Cool Jazz Ice Cube Stirs also by Fred. Eeeeeeeeek how cute are these ice cubes/swizzle sticks!! Perfect for a round of Guitar Hero. $7.50 for three on Amazon or $9.99 on Wee Can Shop.

3. Cookie press by Williams-Sonoma. Whip up hundreds of professional-looking cookies in minutes with this thingie. Just scoop the cookie dough into the contraption and choose your design from one of 16 discs. $39.95 at Williams-Sonoma. But they say they just ship to US addresses, so you need to have someone in the US receive it and forward it to you. However, there’s a bunch of similar ones on Amazon.

4. Jungle pancake molds by Williams-Sonoma. Make elephant, lion and monkey pancakes with these molds, $18 here. However it doesn’t look like W-S ships to Oz. T_T. There are stacks of cute pancake molds here on eBay.

5. The famous Fry-panda from Japan, available at Fred Flare for $26. This is the mini version of the pan, it’s about the size of 1 pancake.

6. Pinocchio teapot and two cups. Made in Japan, this stackable, space-saving tea set for two is $56 on Fred Flare.

7. Panda food picks to cuten up your bento. From the eBay shop full of kawaii Japanese stuff, Shop Sukiyaki, $4.99.

8. Gift cake pan from Williams Sonoma, $36. The cake pan mold includes all the detail for the ribbon and bow on these gift-wrapped cakes, so cool!

9. Sandwich cookie cake tins from Williams Sonoma, $29.95 for two pans to make a giant Oreo-style cake! One blogger used it to make a super-cute oatmeal raisin giant cookie cake.

You can easily tell which season it is in Japan by which limited-edition Crunky bar is available. Chestnuts roasting on street corners is a classic autumn scene. That’s how I knew the maple leaves were falling in Japan when this Roasted Chestnut Crunky turned up a few months ago, thanks to my friends Megumi and Fujie. (Yes, I’ve been saving it for a while ^_^)

The white chocolate has chestnut flavouring, crispy rice puffs to provide crunchiness and flecks of roasted chestnut to give the flavour extra oomph. The result? It surprised me. I’m not that into chestnut flavour but combined with white chocolate it tasted great! I’d recommend it! (It’s on eBay.)

If Nestle KitKat wins the prize for Japan’s most creative flavoured candy, Crunky must come a close second. They are always on the ball with fun seasonal flavours. How about Crunky Pumpkin Pudding, a special Halloween 2009 flavour? A very summery Okinawan Pineapple Crunky? Or a winter warmer Cafe Latte Crunky?

Is it me or do these tiny cookies look like they’ve popped out of the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland? Miniature in size, each cookie is about the size of a $2 coin (3/4 of an inch in diameter). It’s like they were shrunk to fit through the door to wonderland and be served at the mad hatter’s tea party. They came all stacked up in a little tube and I really only bought them because they were so tiny. They are shortbread with rainbow sprinkles and icing. I just don’t know why they’re so small! What can you do with such mini cookies?

My adorable friend and fellow Hello Kitty fan Charlotte sent me a surprise candy care package from Japan! It included Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma halloween chocolates. Thanks Charlotto ^_^

biscuit inside!

The Rilakkuma ones had custard pudding inside.

Cute sticky tape on the package! ^_^

Last night I baked cookies for my mom and I to have for dessert. I brought some with me today to share with my boyfriend Jack and his family. I began holiday cookie baking when I was in high school and have continued the tradition ever since. This is my recipe for holiday season chocolate chip cookies; Jack calls them love nuggets. 

This is basically a standard chocolate chip cookie with cinnamon, pecans and dried cranberries, so you probably know just what to do!

Oven is set to 375

You combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a small bowl and the cinnamon makes it far easier to tell when its well mixed! In a large bowl you beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla, once smooth add the eggies (one at a time) and blend until they smooth in. Now you take that awesome cinnamon flour mix and you gradually beat that in too! Now you will fold in the chocolate chips, the pecans and the dried cranberries! You will, I’m guessing, now give a taste test… No? You probably won’t get salmonella!

Okay now you bake these cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Last night I made them double size (a tablespoons worth of dough per cookie) and they took ten minutes for each batch. They were good too! 

Basically, bake and enjoy!

Christmas Markets, cold night … yep it’s Glühwein time!

Last Friday in Munich saw the opening of the Christmas markets (my Last count I think there was 32). Along with gift ideas, Christmas decorations and wonderful food is the Christmas market trademark drink Glühwein.

Glühwein is a traditional German drink to have during the Christmas season.  I believe you should only drink  Glühwein when its minus 5 degrees and snowing.

 Glühwein generally consists of warm red wine, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and citrus fruit. There is also a weiss (white) Glühwein which is just made with white wine instead of the red wine and of course there is also an alcohol free version as well (which is virtually warm punch).

Am I a fan of Glühwein, well not really. I don”t mind having one but the drink is way too sweet for me. As well have more than 3, then you may find it difficult to be able to walk home.

 Following is a  basic Glühwein recipe I found on the BBC food website www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/gluhwein_2495.shtml

Ingredients

1 litre bottle cheap red wine
30z/75g sugar (to taste)
1 tsp whole cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon or stick cinnamon
juice of 1 orange and 1 lemon

Method

1. Pour wine into a saucepan and add remaining ingredients (you can put whole spices in muslin).
2. Heat until nearly boiling and strain (if necessary) into a warm bowl.
3. Serve warm.

CRANBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

I love cookies, and nothing is better than home baked cookies straight from the oven…….yum yum. I discovered this recipe from Nigella Lawson’s “Feast” cookbook around 3 years ago and since they have become very popular in our home every Christmas. 

One hint thou, make sure you watch the eat of your oven – if it’s too hot these cookies will still taste great but they will be really hard to bite into.

For other great recipes like the one below: visit www.nigella.com

INGREDIENTS

100gm butter
40gm sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
100ml Amaretto
1 egg yolk
140 gm flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
125gm ground almonds
150gm white chocolate buttons, chopped into slivers
1 cup dried cranberries
50gm icing sugar

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INTRODUCTION

A cookie for Xmas time.
METHOD

1. Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla, Amaretto and egg then mix until combined. Add flour, baking powder and almonds, then mix lightly until combined. Stir the white chocolate and cranberries into the mix by hand until evenly distributed. Roll tablespoonfuls into balls and bake on greased trays ( they will spread so leave enough room) at 150ºC for about 15 mins or until cooked and lightly browned. Cool on wire racks until they are cool enough to handle and roll in the sifted icing sugar. Leave to cool completely on rack.

After reading about Adriano Zumbo patisserie on Lee Tran’s gorgeous blog and hearing about her haul of crazily flavoured macarons on their “Macaron Day” (including Chupachup flavour, toasted marshmallow flavour, burnt toast & butter flavour, vegemite sourdough flavour and blue cheese & pear flavour), I had been meaning to visit Adriano Zumbo in Balmain for ages. Finally made it there today thanks to a tour of Balmain’s foodie spots with Liz and Sarah. ( ^_^ ) Picked up a bunch of macarons in very cool flavour combos. The peach-coloured one is peach and pink grapefruit, the green one is fig and something else, the black one is black sesame, the purple one is mango and black sticky rice, the red one is strawberry and balsamic vinegar, and the white one is lychee flavour.

They couldn’t help but remind me of the technicolour macarons I tried in Osaka, Japan in a shop in Shinsaibashi (below)….. they were really that bright!

nanna’s christmas cake

 

3⅓ cups (500g) raisins

250g sultanas

125g currants

¾ cup (125g) candied mixed peel

125g slivered almonds

125g chopped dates

¾ cup (185ml) brandy or sweet sherry

250g butter

1¼ cups (220g) brown sugar

4 eggs

2¼ cups (335g) plain (all-purpose) flour

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground allspice

brandy, extra, for splashing

Place raisins, sultanas, currants, mixed peel, almonds and dates in a bowl and pour over brandy. Cover and allow to soak for at least 8 hours and up to 2 days.
   Preheat oven to 140°C (285ºF). Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Combine butter mixture, soaked fruit mixture, flour, bicarbonate, cinnamon and allspice in a large bowl. Spoon into a 20cm-square cake tin double-lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 2 hours. While still hot, splash cake with a capful of brandy. Allow to cool before serving. Serves 8–10.

Happy Thanksgiving for last Thursday, and for any Americans in Sydney, you’ll be glad to know that you can find the integral pumpkin pie ingredient, Libby’s pumpkin, at Thomas Dux! I was surprised to see it there last Friday, after having a Thanksgiving dinner sans pumpkin pie (pecan pie was substituted). I think they imported the Libbys especially for Thanksgiving. Each tin is about $9. (A lot cheaper than a flight to America to bring it back.)

Saturdays original food mission was Atwater market but that was quickly abandoned when I realized it was only 5 freaking degrees outside. The grimace says it all.

It's 5 degrees outside, I'm an idiot

i made these rather yummy chocolate brownies today. i like to make them with a shot of espresso and rich, dark chocolate, and bake them for the least amount of time possible, so the centre is still moist and slightly gooey.

how do you like yours?

Fresh Basil and Rosemary, Oregano and Parsley, Fresh Thyme and Oregano …………. these are a few of my favourite things….

Indoor Herb Garden Now that the wintery months are starting to kick in, I had to say a very teary goodbye last week to my balcony herb garden that has supplemented my cooking over the past 5-6 months.

Living in an inner city apartment in a city like Munich is great when you have a balcony and the opportunity to grow fresh basil, coriander, mint (that strangled most of my herbs), thyme, 2 sorts of parsley, oregano, chives, rosemary – for 5-6 months I was able to grow the greenest healthiest herbs. I loved growing my own herbs and even more I love cooking with them every night as well. So for the past few weeks I have been researching on the internet on how to grow an indoor herb garden and what herbs are the best ones to live in-door during winter and yesterday I came across this great website http://www.indoorherbgarden.org  After reading the section ‘Indoor Gardening Tips’ I am all set this weekend to head out to my local market and pick up some Basil, Parsley, Thyme, Oregano and rosemary plants and start my new winter indoor herb garden. I also recommend for you to check out the forum on indoor herb garden, there are a lot of great reader tips as well.

Asi es fanaticas de twilight Taylor Lautner, el ahora deseo de la mayoria de adolescentes obesas y con acne engalana la portada de la revista Rolling Stone en su edicion de estados unidos, lastima para sus seguidoras que no mostro por lo unico que es famoso, su abdomen, solo en una de todas las pics lo enseña, esto para que lo vean como un actor “serio”, aja, al rato que nadie lo contrate se volvera a quitar la camisa mas rapido que en lo que dicen: “quidditch”

click en las pics para agrandar

It’s not often you see limited edition American candies in these parts so I was excited to find these Transformers Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms in a convenience store in North Sydney. (It’s also not often that ’strawberry’ is used as a verb…) Anyway, they’re like normal peanut-butter M&Ms but there’s “more than meets the eye” ^_^  They’re ’strawberried’. The pack contains red, yellow and brown M&Ms, and the yellow ones have red speckles all over the sugar coating.

If you like peanut butter M&Ms (or PB&J sandwiches) you would <3 these! The strawberry and chocolate combine with the salty peanut butter filling to form a magical flavour combo. Strawberry + peanut butter + chocolate.

They were released in America back in June for the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. M&Ms also released Pirates of the Caribbean M&Ms (white chocolate) called Pirate Pearls and Star Wars M&Ms (dark chocolate) called Darth M&Ms.

So I missed my weekly ballet class last Saturday due to a grave illness called “hungovs” (see post Office Xmas Party + Boyfriend = Destroyed for more info) and opted to make it up today, Tuesday. I knew that my iron-fist-in-a-velvet glove Russian ballet teacher would of loved to seen me cuz she misses me. I know this because she calls me “Strong Legs” girl. Anyways, my make up class started at 5:30PM but when 4PM roll around, I bailed. I was tired, hungry and grumpy. What did I do instead? I went home, made sausage links and drank sparkling wine. Yes, good ballerina I am.

Chi legge i romanzi di Lilian Jackson Braun sa che Koko, il simpatico co-protagonista (insieme alla tenera Yum Yum) dei suoi gialli, ama la lettura.

Koko ogni sera, invariabilmente, tira giù un libro dalle librerie di Qwill, il suo corpulento umano, che provvede a leggere ad alta voce, per la gioia dei due siamesi.

Ora è successo che uno dei quattro puzzoni (ma escluderei Emily) abbia tirato giù un libro, in mia assenza purtroppo, sicché non posso ringraziarlo.

Sì, perché – sebbene avessi vaghe e remote intenzioni di leggere l’autore di quel libro, non avevo idea del momento in qui sarebbe avvenuto. Trovando il libro in terra invece ho pensato, “Toh, uno dei puzzoni vuole suggerirmi qualcosa”.

Questa ovviamente è una mia fantasticheria, al massimo i puzzoni possono suggerirmi che “la ciotola è vuota, e vedi di provvedere, vecchia mia”…

Però io ho letto ugualmente il libro.

Si tratta di tre racconti di Gustav Meyrink raccolti da Jorge Luis Borges.

Ora, inutile trascrivere qui quello che si può leggere anche su wiki. Meyrink è uno scrittore gotico. Uno scrittore dell’orrore soprannaturale, dunque.

E anche se poi ho letto anche altri suoi racconti, e mi è venuta voglia di recuperare Il Golem, questi tre mantengono un fascino particolare. Sono diversi dai soliti racconti gotici. I protagonisti non sono giovani studiosi, giornalisti o avventurieri, ma vecchi ormai stanchi. Gli orrori che vedono non li meravigliano più di tanto, e si sente piuttosto un senso di nostalgia. La natura non è maligna, se attacca l’uomo, avviene in modo quasi dolente, è l’istinto, quasi tenta di ritrarsi, anche da quei paesaggi di pietre e strade abbandonate.

Grazie a Borges, allora. E grazie a Koko, cioè, volevo dire al mio misterioso puzzone.