Halloween Party Ideas

Halloween Treats are so much fun to create and this year I have some special treats for all of you. This is a really simple and easy recipe to create and get the kids involved they love doing this sort of stuff. The bloody monster fingers and angry marshi's will complete your halloween party.... 

Now the monster fingers ofcourse are not for any faint hearted individuals who do not like the sight of blood, as they really do look like fingers that have been chopped off. BEWARE!!!!! Don't say I did not warn you..... 

What you will need for the Bloody Monster Fingers: - 

Hotdogs (I used vegetarian hotdogs for this recipe) 

Brown onion, cut into squares 

Tomato sauce

To put it all together you need to cut the hotdog in half. Using a knife create three horizontal lines at the top and bottom of the finger to create a crease like you see on your fingers :). Using the knife cut out a really thin square piece at the top of the nail to create a nail bed for the square cut out of onions. Now place alittle tomato sauce into the nail bed and press the onion square firmly onto it to create a "bleeding" nail. You could also dip the bottom ends into tomato sauce and place onto a platter with a layer of tomato sauce underneath so that it looks very realisitic and also quite scary!!!!!!

What you will need for the angry marshi's: -

Edible food pen to draw the faces

a bag of marshmellows (you could dip these in food colouring to create green or orange marshi's) 

Draw different faces onto the marshmellows and place in platter or scatter over the party table. Enjoy :) 

Diwali boxes 2014

Today I will not be sharing a recipe with you, but I thought I would share some of the pics of some of the tasty treats I created over the diwali season. This is why I have not blogged over the last couple of days, as I have been busy creating these beautiful treats for all the people who ordered diwali boxes from me. 

The Louis Vuitton and Versace cakes were both eggless cakes. The Louis Vuitton was a pink ombre cake covered with a two tone rose buttercream icing. 

The Chanel cupcakes, were actually burfi cupcakes, which is an indian sweetmeat. 

I really do not do very well when it comes to baking biscuits, but I was quite impressed when I made these button biscuits and stringed them together with a hemp cord and pegged a happy diwali tag on the top. 

The lollipops were coconut slice swirled together. Really tasty mind you and very addictive too. 

It truly gives me a lot of pleasure to create such beautiful foods. A lot more designer and customed than a traditional diwali box. Much love CC :) 

Home made Tagliatelle & Pasta Sauce

Mama Mia what do we have here?!?!?! This is a dish that I am still smiling about today. It was a huge achievement for me as I made the pasta from scratch. It was my birthday recently and my dear husband surprised me with some really expensive and gorgeous cooking equipment one of them being a pasta machine. So ofcourse I could not wait to use the machine and I am so glad that I did. I never realised how easy it is once you have a pasta machine, that it takes out all the hard work and effort of rolling and folding the dough. This is my homemade organic tagliatelle pasta and homemade organic sauce, which I am super excited to share with you all. This recipe is dedicated to my amazingly gorgeous and loving husband. 

Ingredients: - 

To make the pasta 

It is all dependent on how many people you are intending on feeding so for each person it is a 100g of wheat flour and one egg. I was feeding 2 on the day so 200g flour and 2 eggs. If you do not want to use eggs you can use a glass of natural mineral water (1 glass of water to replace 1 egg). DO NOT ADD SALT TO THE DOUGH. 

To make the pasta sauce

1 TBLS Olive Oil 

3 tomato's (blitz in a food processor with the skin on)

1 med to large brown onion, finely chopped

1 handful of curly parsley, finely chopped

2 Cloves of garlic (crushed) 

1 Tsp italian herbs 

1/2 red chilli crushed

2 Tsp tomato sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

250ml of thickened cream

1 Can of Tuna (optional) 

Method: - 

To make the pasta dough 

Combine the flour and eggs in a food processor until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Tip the breadcrumbs onto a lightly floured board and combine together until you have a firm dough. I usually add about 1 Tablespoon of water to make the dough a little more pliable. This is the part that takes abit of elbow grease. So knead the dough until you have a silky textured dough, it will still be firm but you will feel it when it is silky. This takes time so be patient and stick with it. The reason for this is you want to get the gluten working in the dough to give you that al dente pasta otherwise you will end up with thick, chunky and not so tasty pasta. 

Cling wrap the dough and place in the fridge for approx 30 minutes (make the sauce during this waiting time). Once you remove the dough, I usually give it a quick knead again to make sure no crusty parts have formed on the outside and then slice into smaller pieces. Now the fun part, use your pasta machine, follow the instructions on the pasta machine manual as they tend to vary in terms of settings.

If you do not have a pasta machine, you will have to roll your dough, dust with flour and fold. You will have to repeat this process quite a few times until you have achieved the correct thickness to make your tagliatelle pasta.  

To make the sauce

During the waiting time while your dough is working hard at getting the gluten going, start with the sauce. Place a pan onto a medium heat. Add the olive oil, onions and parsley to the pan. Allow this to cook until the onions are translucent, add the crushed chilli and garlic and give it a stir. Add the tomato's, italian herbs, salt, pepper and allow to cook until the tomato's are completely cooked through. You will notice the tomato's turn slightly darker.  Add your tomato sauce,(if you want to add tuna add it now. I used tuna for this recipe as I wanted a balance of carbohydrate and protein) and half a tin of the thickened cream. Allow this to simmer for about 5 minutes until your sauce appears to have a thicker consistency. 

Once you have your sauce ready move it aside and get a pot of boiling water onto the stove to add your freshly made pasta. Don't forget to add a splash of olive oil to the boiling water and salt, this seasons your pasta and prevents the pasta from sticking together and becoming gluggy. Cook for approx 7 - 10 minutes until your pasta is al dente. 

Place the pasta into a serving bowl. Top with sauce, grate some pamersan cheese and crack over some black pepper. Garnish with some parsley and serve straight away. :) 

 

Delicious Watermelon Fruit Cake

The warm summer weather is upon us again this year in Australia and sometimes all you need to cool down is a great simple salad. Normally I would serve up a nice big bowl of summer fruit after dinner, but this year I decided I am going to make dessert time a celebration of fruit, with a festive fruit cake. I will be making a couple more over the season so watch this space for more images. 

All you need to make a cake this size is : - 

1/4 watermelon

1 pear

Punnet of strawberries, bluberries or raspberries (can use all 3 if you like) 

A melon baller to make the ball shapes

Cherries 

Grapes 

Lychee/Litchi 

Method: - 

Simply slice the watermelon in half and use the centre of the watermelon to cut out four even sized slices to form the base of the cake. Use the melon baller for the remainder of the watermelon to form balls and place ontop of the slices to create the cake toppings. I did not have berries with me on the day so I used a pear, but my ideal cake would have berries, grapes and any other seasonal fruit ontop as well. I will share more images as soon as I make more festive fruit cakes, just to show you what amazing stuff you can make with fruit. Ciao ciao :) 

Cajun Salmon with Carzoodle salad

I have always had cajun fish, but never have I tried a cajun spiced salmon. I have no idea why that is, but to me it makes perfect sense and the flavours are like a match made in heaven. Ofcourse making the cajun spice rub is pretty easy, but it does require quite a few ingredients. So what I like to do is make it in bulk, place in a jar and keep it ready to use at anytime. You can follow traditional cajun recipes where they would fry the coriander, cumin and fennel seeds until they start to pop and then grind them down to a fine powder. I did not follow the traditional method for this recipe but surprise surprise the flavours came out exactly the same. My advice would be save the time and mix the store bought powders together to create some smashing flavours. 

So here we go, what you will need: - (Serves 2) 

2 Tsp for all the below ingredients (combine together) 

Cumin powder

Coriander powder

sweet paprika

garlic salt

Italian Herbs

Salt

Pepper

Fennel Seeds 

cayenne pepper (pinch) 

You will also need: - 

2 Salmon fillets 

1 Lemon 

1 bunch asparagus

additional salt and pepper

butter

Crushed garlic

1 Zucchini

1 Carrot 

greek salad dressing 

Method: -

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Start of with the salmon fillets and remove the skin. Place crushed garlic about 1 tsp and rub over the salmon fillets. Take the Cajun spice mix and rub this over the salmon fillets until the fillet is completely covered. Place the salmon fillets into a baking tray that is lined with foil or baking paper and place into the oven for approx 20 minutes (depending on how you like the salmon cooked, I prefer my salmon to be cooked through so I usually keep it in the oven for abit longer). 

In the mean time while your salmon is cooking take the bunch of asparagus chop the ends off and place into a pan over a medium heat with a knob of butter. Season with salt and pepper and cook this until your asparagus turn bright green in colour. Switch off the heat and keep them covered until you are ready to serve. 

Once you are done with the asparagus, take the carrot and zucchini, using a grater or a julienne peeler to create your carrot and zucchini noodles (carzoodle) for the salad. Take the strips and place them in a bowl and dress them with a homemade or store bought greek salad dressing. At this point check your salmon it is probably going to be cooked. At this stage I would take the lemon and squeeze as much juice as possible over the top of the salmon fillets (half a lemon for each fillet). 

To plate up simply place a generous serve of your carzoodle salad in the centre of your plate. Place salmon fillet on top and finally the asparagus. If you have some butter left in the pan I would drizzle that over the plated asparagus. You could serve this with abit of mash on the side like I have. Now take a  bite into this and taste all the amazing flavours come together. Enjoy!!!! much love CC :) 

Kale & Zucchini Raw Lasagna

Raw food is always a great thing to start the summer season with. I guess using this with Kids is also a great way to get super foods such as kale into their diet. Really easy and simple all you will need is: - 

2 Large Zucchini (Use a peeler to get the long thin strips. As you get towards the centre of the zucchini turn it over and use the other side for more strips.) 

1 Tin of tomato paste

Kale roughly chopped

Cottage cheese or herb mayo whichever you prefer 

Method: - 

Simply take a teaspoon of tomato paste and generously spread over the strip of zucchini. In a seperate bowl mix the cheese or mayo together with the kale and place a teaspoon of the kale mix onto the end of the zucchini strip. Roll up and place onto serving platter. This can be kept refrigerated until you are ready to serve. Great as a starter and as a main meal. Enjoy much love CC :) 

Mars Bar Caramel Crisp

This is probably one of the best and easiest desserts ever. It is decadence personified!!!!!! I am not kidding you, if you have a heart condition or are a diabetic this is something you will want to steer clear from. There are options ofcourse to change a couple things to reduce the caloric intake and sugar intake, but in all honesty life is about living and enjoying everything you can. I will be honest with you I would rather die on a happy stomach then an empty one and if it comes to that I would sure as hell hope I have this in my stomach. 

So this is my take or version on the classic bakers peppermint crisp. If you live in South Africa you are probably familiar with the bakers tennis biscuit packets that would have the recipe on the side. I love that recipe as it takes me back to having dessert at a the end of a huge family get together. 

All you need is 10 minutes and you are good to go. If you have a super busy day ahead and planning appertisers and mains for your guests, this is a quick and easy dessert that you can prepare the day before a big party.

Ingredients: - (this makes enough to serve 10 people)

2 Packets bakers tennis biscuits 200g each (if you cannot buy it from a South African store you can use any other really thin coconut biscuits) 

2 Mars Bar (OR Bar one if you do not get mars bars in your country) 

1 Tin of caramel fill

1 500ml Fresh Cream 

1/2 Cup Chopped almond nuts

Method: - 

Mix the fresh cream and the caramel fill together until light and fluffy. Place a thin layer of the mixture at the bottom of your dessert bowl. Now place a layer of your biscuits (it does not matter if there are gaps between them as it will get filled with the mixture) and cover with another layer of mixture, place chopped pieces of mars bars and almond nuts. Continue to layering process until you have come to the last and final layer which would be your biscuit covered with the caramel mixture and topped with chopped mars bar and almond nuts. Keep this refrigerated until you are ready to serve. Needs atleast 2 - 3 hours for the caramel mix to soak through the biscuits. ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!!!! Much love CC :)