HAPPY EASTER CHICKIES!!!

Easter Nest

Make friends with your office paper shredder, and re-purpose paper recycling - it's therapeutic, makes for perfect packaging, and keeps those special treats for loved ones nice & snug! x

Easter Surprise

Easter Surprise! Pop one of these little cuties into your next batch of cupcakes for a sweet choc caramel centre! YUM!

Tomatoes

When life (the garden/the tearoom) gives you tomatoes... oh what scrumptious things you can make! x

Next to nothing beats sun-kissed, homegrown tomatoes, that have been infused with the full hit of summer!  Chop them up with fresh herbs and heat them in a pot, to make an easy sauce for spaghetti, eat them raw on buttered bread, or simply enjoy tomatoes with sliced buffalo mozzarella and basil leaves - a perfect marriage of flavours.

I love simple dishes with not many ingredients, but ingredients that complement each other.  Today, I made bruschetta, a quintessential summer snack - quick, easy, and absolutely brilliant.  There is really nothing much to it:

Tomatoes - choose nice ripe ones, chop and de-seed if you must (i don't)
Basil - chop or tear, and mix in with tomatoes 
Balsamic Vinegar, Olive Oil & Salt - combine with tomatoes to taste
Baguette - sliced 1cm thick diagonally, grilled/toasted on one side, brushed with olive oil, loaded with the tomato mixture (watch that you drain each spoonful a little, so the bread doesn't get soggy) - buon appetito!

Tasty additions: Pepper, Garlic (for rubbing on the bread), fresh mozzarella...

Happy St Patrick's Day!

It's finally raining again today, what a blessing!  Here's hoping for some green, green grass.  In the spirit of St Patrick's Day - and because there was no bread in the cupboard - I tried my hand at a simple and speedy soda bread.  

If you search for soda bread, you will find most recipes are more or less the same, I read through a few and came up with the following amalgamation.

This recipe doesn't yield a huge loaf, but enough to have with your meal, and is superb as an accompaniment to some hearty, autumnal soup.  Next time I must try half wholemeal, half white, and add some seeds like cumin and caraway.

SODA BREAD

3 cups highgrade flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 & 3/4 cups buttermilk (or natural, unsweetened yoghurt)

Preheat oven to 230C

If you don't have buttermilk (or yoghurt), like me, I'll let you in on a little trick on how to make a fool proof buttermilk alternative. You can actually make your own buttermilk using lemon juice or vinegar! For each cup required place 1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar in a glass measuring cup, add in milk (in my case: soy milk) to equal 1 cup. Stir it and let stand for 10mins. Done!

Now remember you'll need 1 & 3/4 cups buttermilk for this recipe.

In a large bowl, sift in the dry ingredients first, make a well, then pour in the buttermilk.  Gently mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.  I found my dough quite sticky (may have forgotten a cup of flour), so I lightly kneaded some more flour in to make a soft dough.

Shape the dough into a nice round loaf, place onto a baking sheet, and dust with flour.  Score the top with a sharp knife, and off into the oven!

The baking instructions I went with are as follows:

Bake in a 230C oven for 10mins (remember: the oven timer is your friend!), then turn the temperature down to 200C to bake for a further 20mins.

The bread is done when it has risen nicely, and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Let it cool a little (if you can wait that long), and enjoy! x

May green be the grass you walk on

May blue be the skies above you

May pure be the joys that surround you
May true be the hearts that love you

- Irish Blessing

Perfect Day!

It's been a crazy, busy few weeks, and this chook has been running around like a headless chicken, for various reason (personal & professional).  Sadly creativity, and thus The Chook's Nook, had to suffer.  There were quite a few "closed" days, as well as muffin-less Mondays! *Shock Horror!*  My sincere apologies, but am hopefully getting back on track now.

This little chook took part in a little crafty workshop this weekend, and it was so wonderful to get back into some long overdue crafting - card making in this case.  It may sound a bit odd, but it felt like going back to my roots.  When I do art, I feel balanced, happy and confident - at ease with the world.  I even learned some fancy, new techniques, and felt right at home playing with pretty paper, punches, stamps & ribbons!  *BLISS!*