Dirt Cake.....sounds horrible, tastes fantastic!!



This is a yummy treat I discovered while living in Newcastle from a friend.  This is called "Dirt Cake" and both of my kids decided to have this for their birthdays before Christmas.  It is super easy and a few friends have asked for the recipe so I thought I'd share:

Dirt Cake

250g cream cheese

3 1/2 cups milk

1 cup icing sugar

1 1/2 cups whipped cream

2 packets instant chocolate or vanilla pudding mix

1 packet of Choc Ripple or Oreo biscuits crushed

• Beat cream cheese and icing sugar together
• In another bowl mix milk, pudding mix & whipped cream
• Combine the two mixtures carefully but thoroughly
• Put 1/3 of the biscuits in the bottom of a foil lined clay or plastic flower pot (I have used a tin bucket)
• Top with 1/2 the pudding mixture followed by 1/3 of the cookies, other 1/2 of the pudding mix and top with cookies (which looks like dirt!).  Refridgerate until ready to serve.

Top with flower lollypops, sour worms, chocolate ladybirds, whatever takes your fancy and you can serve with a little spade/trowel.

Note:  Light cream cheese and milk also work well (just not light cream as it won't whip).  The pot should be at least 18cm high.  Mine came from the Reject Shop.

Happy Cooking....Sam 

Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon....

This is one of my favourite "special" breatkfasts and well known to anyone who has been a house guest.  I first had this for breakfast at a fabulous little restaurant on Brighton beach in Melbourne over 10 years ago.  It is so easy to make and a fabulous way to start the day!!

for 2 people:

small piece of butter

3-4 spring onions sliced

50 grams smoked salmon diced

4 eggs whisked with a dash of milk

toast to serve (I had some fabulous grainy sour dough)

Melt butter, fry spring onion.  When done add amoked salmon, cook for a minute or two then pour in egg mixture.  Keep it moving continuously so you don't overcook it, then when you're happy with your eggs serve on your favourite toast.....it's that easy and never fails to impress guests!!

Let me know what you think!! 

Sam

Summer Harvest!!!

This is the first of our summer vegie crop!!  So exciting, it was lovely to have fresh tomatos for breakfast and the spring onions were just fab in my scambled eggs with smoked salmon.  It so lovely to get out of bed, go for a stroll in the garden and return with something lovely and fresh to eat for brekky.  Stay tuned for my recipe....

Sam

Preserving - Summer Fruit!!!

I just love the start of summer and the beautiful fruit that comes with it.  We had a small orchard when we bought the house with a few fruit trees - most need a bit of TLC.  However, the apricot tree had about 5kg of fruit on it so after eating a few straight off the tree, we rescued the rest from the birds.  Family also brought a box up from our favourite old veggie store in Bacchus Marsh, so in total we preserved and jammed 15kg of fruit Christmas Eve (mind you, finished the pav at midnight, but it was really yummy!!).

I have made jam for quite a few years and was lucky enough to be given a Fowlers Preserving kit by a very dear old friend with boxes of jars.  I hadn't really used them before until last year (because you start preserving when you're moving house???? NOT!!) as we had a peach tree we had planted in our garden in Melbourne and of course the first year it fruited was our last year in the house so I bottled it all up and brought it with us!!!  So of course now I have been scouring all the garage sales and collecting the Fowlers jars. 

It is really rewarding to know that a couple of days work will provide yummy fruit (for fabulous Apricot Chicken in the slow cooker) and jam for the rest of the year!!!  I know preserving is something 'Nanna' used to do, but give it a go.....it's fantastic!!

Happy Cooking, Sam