Category: Homemade Recipes

New camera, wedding bands and Toad in the Hole recipe.

I tell you, it seems like the universe is conspiring against me when it comes to blogging. First, my long time camera just stopped performing.

# – Abused and used.

I mean it still take pictures and all but every picture has a faint line across it and the screen is basically purple now, thanks to hubby sitting on it on a drunken stupor. We’ve used it for almost 3 years? I’m not too sure it seems a looooooooong time and we’ve certainly gotten our money worth.

# – Purple.

But all is well, we’ve bought the Canon G12. I wanted a camera with flip camera for easy camho so I was thinking of getting the G1X, but after trying it…it’s macro capability is basically laughable. 20cm is not macro, I mean if I had shorter arms I probably wouldn’t be able to camho with it WTF? Stupid.

So we decided to go one generation back with the G12…smaller, can take closeups so close it’s crazy and best of all, a lot cheaper. Very happy with the purchase and hopefully, I will start blogging more actively again.

# – One of the 1st test shots with the G12 – flip camera for perfect camho yay!

Besides not having a camera that works properly, I was also bogged down by a lot of wedding planning. It’s quite crazy how consuming researching about wedding is. I mean, I sat down thinking I’d give it an hour browsing through vendors and stuff but when I looked at my watched, 5 hours gone. Just like that.

One thing I’ve come to conclusion is that wedding not only takes up your money….it takes up A LOT of time too.

# – Speaking of wedding AND money, have chosen my wedding band. Here it is with my engagement ring. Platinum with more bling teehehehe cause they are forever mah (p/s: See how close I can get with my camera!)

# – G’s band is actually exactly like mine, only without the rocks.

Anyway, we’re collecting the rings in a month, so, so, so excited!!!

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I know I’ve neglected blogging, but I’ve also neglected cooking too for the same reasons – no camera and no time :P

So with the new camera, cooking mood instantly comes back! So decided to share a Toad in the Hole recipe.

Why is it called Toad in the Hole? No idea. How do English people come up with names like Spotted Dicks, Pork Scratchings and Bubble & Squeaks?

The chinese always call their foods majestic names, no matter how disgusting they are but the english name theirs after genitalia, unattractive habits and slimy animals. Weirdos.

Anyway, toad in the hole is basically sausages baked in yorkshire pudding. OMFG right?

# – Toad in the Hole.

The ingredients:

  • 115 grams of flour
  • 290 ml of milk
  • 3 eggs
  • A pinch of salt
  • 6-10 good quality sausages
  • Cooking Oil

    • #1 – First, mix flour, milk, eggs and salt in a bowl.

    #2 – Whisk hard until combined. This is your yorkshire pudding batter. Leave to stand for 30 minutes.

    #3 – Heat up oil in a roasting tin (just about cover the bottom) in a preheated oven at 210 degrees celcius. Don’t put too much oil (my picture shows too much oil, I had to pour it out in the end :P) or you’ll get soggy puddings.

    #4 – When oil is smoking, dump the sausages in. I recommend that you thaw the sausages out first, frozen’s fine but it is SCARY! Close oven door quick! Will be quite smokey at this point too…

    #5 – Turn the sausages all the time to brown evenly. After about 10 minutes, pour the yorkshire pudding batter straight into the roasting tin. Then quickly close the oven door and never open again for 20 minutes. As it is a complex manuever, I didn’t take picture but this is the sight after 20 mins. Puffed up magnificently!

    #6 – Toad in the hole, DONE!

    #7 – Serve with a dollop of wholegrain mustard and onion gravy (recipe in next post, very easy to make).

    Till the next post, hopefully not too far away. Have a good week!

    Recipe for my version of incredibly awesome mac & cheese.

    You know what, this is not even really mac & cheese because I used spirali rather than macaroni.

    You could substitute macaroni with other kinds of short pasta and it doesn’t matter what pasta you prefer but do take into account the pasta shape.

    “Will it be able to trap all the delicious sauce?” – that’s the question you must constantly ask yourself!

    # – Spir & cheese, heh.

    This pasta & cheese bake was so delicious. Creamy, cheesy, a little tart from the mayo to balance it all out. The addition of ham gave it some yummy savoury notes.

    Without further ado, lets get on with it.

    Ingredients:

  • 200 grams of short pasta (I used spirali), cooked and drained
  • 1 cup of mayonnaise
  • 250ml of whipping cream
  • 2 cups of grated cheddar
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 red capsicum, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 canned of straw mushroom or button mushroom, sliced
  • 3 slices of ham, julienned
  • 3 slices of bread or garlic bread crisp, torn
  • Salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • Olive oil or grapeseed oil for drizzling

    • # – First, cook the pasta according to instructions on the packet. Drain, give it a dash of olive oil and set aside.

    # – In a pan with some oil, shallow-fry the sliced mushrooms, onions and capsicum until fragrant.

    # – Then, add the cooked pasta and stir.

    # – Pour in the mayonnaise.

    # – Followed by the whipping cream.

    # – And lastly, the cheese. Stir…

    # – Add salt to taste.

    # – Don’t forget the ground black pepper.

    # – Pour the mixture into a baking tin. Then, lay julienned ham all over the top.

    # – If you’re using garlic bread crisp, pound it with a rolling pin until it becomes smaller pieces.

    # – Sprinkle the garlic bread crisp all over the top. Otherwise, just tear out ordinary bread and sprinkle all over :)

    # – Drizzle olive oil or grapeseed oil all over.

    # – Bake in pre-heated oven of 190 degrees celcius for 20 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

    # – Spir & cheese, DONE!

    # – Dig in!

    This is a crowd pleaser, if you have complaints…can scold me :D

    Let me know how it goes.

    Recipe for luxurious bread & butter pudding.

    There are always opportunities to make bread & butter pudding in this household. Since it’s just the two of us, we almost always have more than half a loaf of near expiring bread in our kitchen.

    Bread & butter pudding is easy to make and so delicious in spite of the minimal effort involved. I love it!

    # – Luxurious bread & butter pudding.

    I’ve posted a bread & butter pudding recipe before, but this is quite different. Like the title of this post, it’s a lot more luxurious and tastes rightly so ;)

    The ingredients:

  • 300ml of milk
  • 1 vanilla pod (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence)
  • 40 grams of demerara sugar (or ordinary granulated sugar)
  • 8 slices of white bread
  • A handful of raisins
  • 50 grams of butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 150 ml of whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoon of apricot jam
  • A handful of sliced almonds

    • # – Throw in the sugar, vanilla seeds from as well its pod into a saucepan on medium heat. Pour the milk in.

    # – Stir until the mixture is almost boiling and the sugar has dissolved. Turn off the heat.

    # – Set the mixture aside to cool while you continue with other tasks.

    # – Cut the bread slices across into triangular shapes.

    # – Butter the bread. You can butter both front & back if you’re hardcore like that.

    # – Arrange the bread slices in a baking tin, like this.

    # – Then sprinkle a handful of raisins all over the bread slices.

    # – In the meantime, break the eggs into the whipping cream.

    # – Beat until combined.

    # – Then pour in the milk mixture prepared earlier into the egg mixture. Make sure the vanilla pod has been removed. Stir.

    # – Next, pour the mixture all over the bread. Set aside for 30 minutes to allow the bread to absorb all the milky, creamy goodness.

    # – Put the baking tin into a larger tin filled half way up with water and stick them into a preheated oven at 170 degrees celcius for 45 minutes or until set. You are essentially steaming and baking at the same time with this method.

    # – When done, brush apricot jam all over the crust to glaze.

    # – Then sprinkle a handful of almond slices all over the top.

    # – Stick it under the grill for 10 minutes to brown (top rack of oven, on grill mode).

    # – Luxurious bread & butter pudding, DONE!

    # – Serve with more whipping cream, ice cream or custard sauce.

    # – Yummy!

    Soft & creamy in the middle with a crispy, fruity crust. This recipe is enough for 4 but we hoovered everything up in a matter of minutes, just the two of us.

    What better way to make use of stale bread? Have fun baking!