Recipe time ...Great for Brunch.... Hash brown/potato cake stack , with poached egg.....

Hello , hope your week has started off well xx

 Popping in from my kitchen tonight :) 

I have been playing with a recipe we (my four sisters and I) ate as children and still enjoy today..

 .... Not sure what to call them,,,,, Hash browns or potato cakes? anyways it doesn't matter what I call them they taste great, are quick and easy to make and best of all you will most probably have the ingredients in the pantry......

Ingredients...... ( makes 8 pancake size hash browns) 

*2 medium sized potatoes grated                      *1   Egg                      

*4 tbsp plain flour                                             *Fresh herbs ( you could also sprinkle in dried herbs)

*3 tbsp Milk                                                     *salt and pepper or allpurpose seasoning
                                          

Grate potato , mix in flour ,seasoning and herbs , beat in egg and milk, mix well.... drop a good size dollop into frying pan in hot oil or butter and cook until golden brown....
 ( the ones in this photo do not have the herbs in them) 

 flip onto plate, stack two or three ,, top with poached egg and a drizzle of ranch dressing or aoli mayo :) easy peazy brunch, its also yummy and a little bit fancy with a slice of salmon or bacon under the egg ... I Love to add fresh rosemary and garlic into the mix as well ...... 
 ( I actually had them for tea tonight , hence the dodgy photos ;) .... 

                                               enjoy xo

I'll be playing around crocheting for the rest of the night .......
Hope you have a good one xx

Thanks for popping in 
Until next adventure 
Take care 
Kris
XXX

Sharing an easy Date and maple syrup loaf cake recipe

Hello ,,, Hope this little post finds you all well and happy x

I was a lucky lil duck the other day,, Hubby bought me a new mixer ( mmm its not the dreamy kitchenaid I have been lusting after BUT beggars can not be choosers right :)
anyways It got me all excited to bake again so I went through the pantry to see what I had on hand..... I found a hand full of dates and a drizzle of maple syrup that sound like a lovely combo,, so I typed that into the wonderful world of google and it came up with lots of delish looking recipes but one stuck out ... it has weetbix in it and ...well.. I always have plenty of that breakfast cereal on hand ..So I tried it and it turned out so yummy I thought I would share ,, I have tweaked the recipe a little as the sound of dates and maple syrup together got me drooling :)

Recipe I used is here

I left out the sugar and replaced with 3 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar and 3 table spoons of maple syrup when soaking the weetbix...

Oh... haha and its mixed with a wooden spoon ,, so I didn't get to use my new mixer,,,, not to worry plenty of time for that to get a work out later though

I cooked it on 180 for 45 mins and it came out lovely and moist

But as I do I slathered it in butter when still warm :)

I sat here enjoying the fact that I have my cake and eating it too ;) ,, it went down so well

I went back for a second slice ;)

Ok my lovelies that's it from me and Co at this shabby old cottage for now.

Until next adventure
take care
Kris
xxx

A little cottage meat loaf recipe and stuff ;)

Hi,, I'm here again..
Back in story telling mode..back sharing my life here at the cottage. Hope you can join me x

Come on over,,,,Just in these doors, in the back of Avondale cottage

is the cottage kitchen window,
There has been a little baking, a little cooking and a whole lot of mess going on in here, ( that's not the meat loaf cooling on the bench ,,, nope, that's banana bread ( more about that in another post ;))

Have you got comfort food?, food that means more to you than just filling your belly?..
I have.. This meat loaf in BBQ sauce, it was my mums recipe,
the smell of this cooking brings back some wonderful memories of long ago Home..That kind of comfort food, you know,,the stuff memories are made of....and ooh,, then the next day at school,, I would open my lunch box to this wonderful smell of meat loaf sandwiches :),,, Bliss.....
I wish I had taken some fancy photos of this being made, but well,, I just wasn't thinking I was going to blog about it,, But ya know its just to good not to share this wonderful recipe,,, so here it is on my plate just before I gobbled it up..
Real food, in the real world ,yes,,the real cottage messy way ;) So here it is...Served in all its glory with steamed veg...

Meat loaf in BBQ sauce
500g mince meat                                                           1 egg ( lightly beaten)
500g sausage meat                                                        salt & pepper
1 cup breadcrumbs                                                        1/2 cup milk
2 onions (diced)                                                             1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons Curry powder                                           1 tbs chopped parsley

Combine sausage meat and mince, breadcrumbs, diced onions, curry powder, salt and pepper, parsley and lightly beaten egg in a bowl, mix until well combined,, Gradually add milk and water,, continue mixing until very smooth. shape into (greased) loaf pan and bake in mod oven for 30mins... remove meat loaf from oven and pour off the fat.....

Make Sauce....
1/2 cup of water                                   1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of tomato sauce                     2 tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup of Worcester sauce                1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder
2 tbs vinegar                                         30g butter ( Melted)

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes... pour over meatloaf, return to oven to bake a further 45mins, basting with sauce every now and then ;)

( My loaf pan was not big enough to fit sauce in as well as meat loaf so I transferred it all to a small baking dish,, this works just as well... keep basting to keep the meat loaf moist as well as the flavour going through it )

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do,, and remember its also lovely the next day on sangas xxx
Cheers my lovelies,, hope your week is bright and sparkly ****

Until next adventure
Take care
xx Kris xx

Avondale Cottage Pumpkin Soup Recipe

 Hello lovelies, fancy a little warming pumpkin soup recipe.. This one is a family favourite.. very quick and easy...


                               You don't need the marigolds in the recipe,, I just liked the picture hehe

 From the pantry=
 About      1/4 of a pumpkin cut into smallish bits                  2 tablespoons of vegetable stock powder
                  1 onion diced                                                         1 tablespoon of All Purpose Seasoning
                   garlic crushed ( whatever amount you like)         1 1/2 cups water
                   1/2 teaspoon of curry powder                               1 cup of milk
                    60g of butter
On the stove
In a large saucepan, melt butter, add onion, garlic, curry powder and all purpose seasoning and fry until well mixed and a little browned.. add chopped pumpkin and fry until pumpkin is covered with seasoning.
cover with 1/2 cup of the water and add stock powder, cover and simmer until pumpkin is soft..
when cooked place into blender ( or  I mash with a hand masher) add the remaining cup of water and 1 cup of milk, return to heat and simmer until hot,, do not boil,,,
Serve with fresh crusty bread ;)

Enjoy xx

                                                OK my sweets, thanks ever so much for popping in..

                                                                      Until next Adventure
                                                                              Take Care
                                                                                 *Kris*
                                                                                 XXXX

Baked vegetables with a twist = a meal in this old cottage.

A meal in itself!

Hi,   how ya doing?....come on in,,,,

Have you ever had one of those days when the cupboard is bare??, your meal plan is over for the week and you hadn't planed or budgeted for an extra day?.... good so I am not the only one....
Yep,, I had one of those the other day, and being a good 30 mins out of a town, I wasn't going to just pop up the road (fuel = $$ too), I am really trying to be frugal and stuff...

I was pottering around in the garden and thought, well, I have some great fresh herbs & I am sure I have some potato's, carrots n pumpkin lurking in the back of somewhere..
So I set to work ..

I chopped the veg into chunky bite size bits & chucked them into a baking dish, sprayed on a good layer of olive oil, sprinkled with all purpose seasoning, threw over a few chopped fresh herbs & popped it into the oven on about 180 for an hour

Checking on them every so often, as I didn't want them to go too crunchy,(to be honest I can not remember how long they took). A little crunch on the corners and a nice moosh in the middle. ( yep about that long)

In the meantime I cooked up some spiral pasta in some water and a spoonful of vegetable stock powder, when that was nearly cooked I chucked a hand full of frozen peas & corn in the pasta pot and cooked that altogether a while longer...

I then plopped the pasta into some bowls and scattered the baked veg on top

smothered it with garlic yoghurt and "whalla", we have our selves some baked vegetables on twisted pasta..yummo..

(we will be having this again for sure,it went down a treat at this old cottage)

A quick re-cap of what you will need if ya wanna try it

 Chunky bite size bits of  *Pumpkin                              Fresh herbs, I used *Rosemary
                                         *Potato                                                                  *Thyme
                                         *Carrot                                                                  *Oregano
                  Sprinkle with *All purpose seasoning                      Spray with *olive oil
                Cook up some  * spiral pasta (or whatever pasta you have in the pantry)
                                         * vegetable stock (add to water for pasta cooking)
                    Hand full of  * frozen peas and corn ( add to pasta cooking)
                And if you like * Yoghurt with some       *Crushed Garlic (mixed in, to plop on top.)
                  *Then..  Bake veg,,, cook pasta,, and throw together.. easy as, and Oh so yummy.*.

Thanks for popping in, hope you have a great day.

   Ours is going to be a little wet.
 Ahhh tanks getting filled, yards getting watered & nice n cool to get a little gardening done in between showers..

Until next Adventure

                                                                        Take Care
                                                                           *Kris*                                                                  
                                                                              xxx

                                                            

a little homemade Pizza YUM

Hello, Do hope you are doing well xx

We had our take away night a little while ago, so I thought I would share..
 Our take away is not really taken anywhere lol as we make it at home and eat it at home,its just easy meals that you would normally get to "Take away"
OK that explained I will continue.

This is how we throw our home made Pizza together.
We use Lebanese bread as we like our Pizza thin and crispy and its cheap and easy.

We Grab a few things from our garden, ( loving this part,,,cooking is much more funner when you can grab the ingredients from your very own kitchen garden )...
At the moment in our garden there is some lovely Capsicum, Tomato, Garlic and Herbs.
(Oh bugga...There is definitely something wrong with my camera. I had all these high hopes of showing you pics of glorious looking foods,but they have all turned out with a purplish tinge.. mmm will have to get onto that issue as I do love taking me some photo's)

Back to it...we then pop all of that wonderful fresh ingredients and some all purpose seasoning into a fry pan with a can of diced tomato for extra oomph and let it bubble away for a while,

Now we slice up some olives ( at this point you could add whatever you like on your pizza but we are just having a Margarita this time)

Once the sauce has reduced a little we then spread it all over the Lebanese bread,, top this with cheese and olives and pop it in a nice hot oven until the cheese melts

Hubby likes his cheese just a little melted and if I am starving ( cause they smell Divine) then I will have mine like this too..

But most of the time I like it a little crispy around the edges...(whalla easy peasy all done.)

They are easy, cheap and fun to make, hope I have given you food for thought on a lazy cooking night in.. "Take away style".
Well that's it from me today I am off to scrub that old wood burning stove & give this shabby old cottage kitchen a spray painted revamp. Just the sink area for now ;-)

 As you can see it needs it...The splash back is rotting and rotten with mould, I have scrubbed it and taped it with news paper and am now ready to have a go at it with a can of antique white spray paint, Cant be any worse than it is now...Fingers crossed...
A close up of Before, Yuk hay,,, (I dont think the owner will mind, he did say we should treat the cottage like it's our own xxxx)

                                                                   Until next adventure
                                                                           Take Care
                                                                              *Kris*
                                                                              xx xxx

Road testing a cheap packet cake mix on a rainy day at this shabby old cottage

Hi all, I hope your week is going well for you xx it was a lovely morning here in the Scenic Rim area of the great south east (Queensland).I love rainy stay at home days :) The smell of the country on a wet day is amazing. The garden is also getting a good soak.

I also love the fact that our water tanks are getting filled.

Anyways onto the topic at hand,
 I have been thinking about doing a few road testing of packet mixes, both sweet and savoury, something about the ease of knowing there are a few in the cupboard for these some times weeks when it is best to stay off the roads ( we are not even able to get to our local country store today, due to road flooding)
But some times I just like to be a little lazy and mix up a packet cake. So I thought I would share some easy and cheap ones with you :)
Today's is a Vanilla sponge cake mix I picked up from Aldi for the great price of $0.79c yep,, under a dollar.

It takes 2 eggs, 2/3 cup of milk and 3tbls of butter or marg

 Give it a good whizz for 3 mins,

And pour into cake tin and into the oven for 40 - 45 mins ( lol same as many cake making processes I know, but felt it needed words to go with pics hehe)

OK so while that's baking I got the washing done and hung out, glad I have a nice line under the front porch :) Oh I also road tested the aldi washing powder, usually I make my own, but once again I am feeling a little lazy and thought for the price I would give it a go. Its not to bad at all, I would definitely use it for a back up.

Now time to get that cake out of the oven, I think I may have over cooked it a little, still learning electric oven timing. One thing I do miss from our motor home living days is the gas, both oven and hot water, we have actually been turning our electric hot water system off of a night to try and keep our electricity bills down a little ( another thing I miss about our gypsy life is free camping on solar and gas,, oh well cant have it all, Its time now for us to live our dream in the country in this shabby old cottage)

while that is cooling I have time to go out and check on our little tomato plants, Hubby has become quite the green finger and we are trying to live as green and frugal as possible ( lol I know buying packet cake mixes is not all that frugal but, hay , I am having a lazy moment lol)
Looking good but not ready yet.While waiting for our little crops of tomato to ripen we have been supporting our local farmers road side stalls, love buying local.

Well here we are, I will give this cake an 8 out of 10, it was simple and is moist and light, and the Hubby must like it as this is how I found it when I came back in from the garden, he said it was delicious when still warm with a dob of butter.

Hope you have enjoyed my little road test,

I like the idea of having a pack of this in the cupboard for a quick morning tea cake.

working from home has its peerks lol

OOh ,I have been busy with Candy Rose Creations & making some easy wear skirts come on over and have a look HERE

Well my lovelies, that's it from me today,

Until next adventure

Take Care

*Kris*