Apple & Macadamia Crusted Lamb Rack w’ Roasted Potatoes & Truss Tomatoes

When it comes to lamb I am usually a devotee to the method of slow roasting, this typically entails marinating a shoulder of lamb in a concoction of balsamic vinegar, honey, chicken stock, garlic and rosemary, placing in a low oven and leaving the lamb until it is cooked to that melting, sweet, tender, fall off the bone stage that is just divine.  This method unfortunately is better reserved for the colder months.  As the weather warms up I need a new way to enjoy my beloved lamb and I have found it, apple and macadamia crusted lamb rack!

Lemon & Honey Biscotti w’ Lemon Drizzle Icing

Biscotti.  I know, I know, I have been baking biscotti like a mad woman of late but I just can’t help myself, I love them!  I am obsessed with their gorgeously chewy texture, sweet nutty flavour and they look so cute snuggled next to my espresso cup.  Biscotti are clearly my latest obsession and I make no apologies.

Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni

Red wine and pizza has to be one of my favourite Friday night naughty suppers; I just adore the pairing of melted cheese, piping hot tomato sauce and crimson vino.  A Friday night, spent at home making pizza and drinking sangiovese with my husband is pure bliss.  Last night, however I opted to forgo our usual pizza routine and decided on making instead a baked broccoli and cauliflower cannelloni.  It had all of my beloved pizza elements, molten, crispy almost charred melted cheese and bubbling hot tomato passata spiked with basil and garlic so I knew my cannelloni bake would marry perfectly with my wine and also be utterly delicious. 

Devilishly Good Chocolate Cake

My husband loves sponge cake.  Yes, boring old vanilla sponge cake.  I, on the other hand hate baking sponge cake.  It’s boring, tedious (sifting flour three times is just crazy) and only tastes half decent the day you bake it, by day two it’s a dry, stale, tasteless hot mess.  I see no point in baking sponge cake so I don’t.  Every other type of cake under the sun is up for consideration, sponge however is not. 

Bacon, Pea & Mint Casarecce

Thinking of what to cook for dinner each and every night can sometimes be a little daunting.  That’s why I keep a standby list of dinners in my repertoire to go to when my imagination and motivation are both low.  Bacon, pea, mint and ricotta cassarecce is one of them, and by far one of my favourites.   

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins w’ Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

I go through food moods.  Obsessions you could say.  An unhealthy fixation on muffins has been one of them.  Years ago, when I was stuck in cubicle office hell, muffins were my savior.  I remember walking to walk with utter dread in my heart as the cold winter wind would nip at my already frozen cheeks and red nose, I would be riddled with anxiety as to what my day in office hell would bring and the only slight of hope I had to make it to 5pm and the train ride home was my morning coffee and muffin fix.  Discovering this little ‘hole in the wall’ style café filled with the aromas of coffee and a cabinet full of the most delicious, gigantic, beautifully coloured, comforting muffins I’d ever seen was like help sent from the heavens.  Suddenly I had a little glimmer of something lovely to look forward to, an escape, just across the road from work that I could snuggle in, read a book, sip coffee and pretend that my work life did not exist.  Muffins were indeed my savior.

Caramelised Red Onion & Blue Cheese Tart

Red onions, when baked slow and long in the oven evolve into the sweetest caramelised little darlings.  Any acrid like taste that can be all too easily associated with onions is lost forever when you pull them from the oven bubbling in their marinade of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and just a light dusting of brown sugar.   They are transformed into a completely new offering, one that presents a plethora of new culinary opportunities. 

Choc Pecan Caramel Bars

These choc pecan caramel bars are wicked.  Really wicked.  They are sinful, naughty, devilish and bad for you in the best possible kind of way.  Without pretense to anything but pleasure, these choc pecan caramel bars are pure indulgence.  

Lemon Cream Pots & Almond Shortbread

A bench top full of canary yellow lemons and sweltering summer like heat had me contemplating and lusting after a smooth, creamy, cooling and refreshing dessert perfect for this time of year.  My desires lead me to these cute as a button lemon cream pots and I am very delighted they did.  

Orange Poppy Seed Cake with Grand Marnier Syrup

As a child I couldn’t fathom why people, given a choice, would bake anything other than a chocolate mud cake.  To me, it was the epitome of delicious and all else seemed like a massive waste of time and energy.  As I grew older (and a little wiser) I soon began to discover the delights of an assortment of equally exquisite cake offerings, orange and almond cake, lemon yoghurt cake laced with blueberries, banana bread, lime chiffon cake, raspberry crumb cake, strawberry sponge and the list goes on and on.  In fact, I now find it difficult to return to my beloved childhood favourite the chocolate mud cake, for what once seemed to be the ultimate in baking pleasure now seems too heavy, sickly rich and to be honest a little over the top.   Nowadays, I much prefer the light zesty freshness offered up by lemon, lime or orange cake, I now relish in the slight tang of yoghurt cakes and very much celebrate the simplicity of a wonderful sponge with simple whipped cream and fresh berries.  Times are indeed a changin’ and I couldn’t be happier.

Biscotti al Pistacchio

Tomorrow is my father in laws birthday and to celebrate I decided to bake these delightful Sicilian biscotti.  Tender and delicious these sugar coasted pistachio biscotti are brilliantly green inside and are perfect for a birthday celebration.  I came across this recipe whilst reading one of my new favourite food magazines, Taste Italia.  Reading Italian cooking magazines has been the latest strategy I have employed to assist me on my journey of learning the beautifully exquisite Italian language.  Since marrying into an Italian family I have yearned to learn their passionate language but so far I am failing miserably.  It’s not that I don’t try, I do.  It’s just that I sound awful.  Really awful.  But I am not one to give up so in searching for ways to improve my Italian, a kind friend of mine suggested reading literature that I have a valid interest in.  She basically implied to look at what I read about most in English then seek out the equivalent readings in Italian.  My interest in the subject matter was a sure way to keep me motivated in learning my new language and this brilliant strategy lead me to my loved new Italian food magazine and in turn to these wonderful biscotti.  Two birds with one stone, love it.   

Mango and Strawberry Summertime Crumble

Taking stock of what was going on in my kitchen I realised that I was once again faced with an all too familiar dilemma...too many mangoes and not enough time to eat them.   Damn it.  Right before my very eyes I could see the most succulent tropical family of mangoes, a pure celebration of an Australian summer, teetering right on the edge of ripeness.   I couldn’t let them go bad.  I love mangoes way too much for that to happen.  Along with the smell of sunscreen, the taste of watermelon, piping hot car seats and the layer of crusty sea salt left on your body after a dip in the ocean, they remind me of my favourite time of year...summer holidays.  So in an attempt to save my beloved mangoes and relish in a little summer time holiday nostalgia I came up with this dish, mango and strawberry crumble.

Pea Pesto Spaghetti

I was almost going to call this dish Kermit the Frog spaghetti!  Just take a look at the brilliant green colour!  It’s incredible!  I imagine if Kermit the Frog were meant to be a dish, this would have to be it!  However, after a little deliberation I decided to forgo the abovementioned title and opt for the pea pesto choice instead, I realised that the thought of your favourite Muppets star in a dish may not sound all too appetising.  And I did not want to provide you with any reason whatsoever not to cook this fantastic meal, its way too delicious to be passed aside because of a minor naming error.

Fig, Pistachio & Dark Chocolate biscotti

Biscotti.  A relatively new biscuit treat on my food scene.  Before marrying my Italian husband I had only ever heard of biscotti whilst watching my favourite childhood sitcom The Nanny.  To an aussie girl growing up in what sometimes could be referred to as a ‘three veg and meat’ kind of home, biscotti sounded like a very exotic biscuity treat...at that age is was hard to imagine any biscuit being more fancy than the good old Arnott’s Assorted Cream selection!  Through watching episode after episode of my favourite sitcom star with that crazy nasal voice I discovered I understood one very important thing about the nanny named Fran...she loved food so I figured this ‘biscotti’ thing must be pretty good.  Years later, I discovered just that.  Biscotti are indeed quite wonderful.

Chocolate Pots

In life, there truly are problems that can only be resolved one way, with chocolate.  I know this to be very true.  Think way back to when you were a little cherub playing in the yard, some big kid would upset you leaving you in a puddle of salty sullen tears and the only consolation that had any form of acceptability to you came in the form of a chocolate chip cookie.  To you, that chocolate chip cookie represented happiness, joy, goodness and most of all the fact that everything was going to be all right.  We all change and grow up and do ‘grown up’ things, live ‘grown up’ lives and act in very serious ‘grown up’ sorts of ways but I guarantee there is one thing that will never change and that my dear ‘grown up’ friends is the miraculous healing powers of chocolate.

Peach Melba French Toast

Left over from last week’s peach and prosciutto tart are four peaches.  To say these peaches are under ripe is a gross understatement.  They are as hard as rocks.  Each and every morning my hand slides across the bench, picks each peach up and squeezes ever so slightly to see if today is the day these little peachy delights can be added to my homemade muesli and yoghurt for my breakfast.  And every day this week I have been faced with severe disappointment.  The peaches are just not ripening.  It’s unfair.  I have been patient.  This is ludicrous.  Well I have decided my patience is up.  Action must be taken.   I am eating these peaches!  For breakfast, today! 

Asparagus, Bacon & Halloumi Salad with Mint & Hazelnut Vinaigrette

I have to pat myself on the back for this one...not only have I managed to get halloumi and bacon in the same dish but I also have the pleasure of calling this creation a salad (thank you Mr Asparagus), alleviating any guilt that the above mentioned ‘salt laden supper’ may have induced. 

Blueberry Sour Cream Cake

Today is one of those classic beautiful Brisbane days.  The bright blue sky is clear, the sun is shining, the weather is warm and the breeze is cool.  The Jacaranda trees dotted around Brisbane are blooming in their entire lucid purple splendor; slowing shedding their flowers in order to share with those passing by their sweet springtime fragrance.  Today is a shining example of absolute spring time perfection. 

Goat’s cheese & spring onion galette

This morning I discovered the saddest looking bunch of spring onions I think I’ve ever seen.  I felt guilty.  You see, I have a knack for being over excited at the food store which sometimes leads me to purchase goods that once home, I sometimes forget about for a week couple of days: and sadly these spring onions are the latest victim of this trait of mine.  To alleviate my guilt I knew I would have to think quick smart of a recipe that these spring onions could be used in, oh and they MUST be cooked, there is no way in the world these sad little babies can be eaten in the current state, I mean I don’t feel that guilty.