I still have half a bottle of crème de menthe sitting in cupboard which is slowly being used up since making the Purple Corset Cake. One day the hubby came across a recipe for chocolate dipped crème de menthe marshmallows on the interweb and encouraged me to make them. I didn’t have the right amount of gelatine required in that particular recipe, so I turned to my copy of Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever (where the Chocolate Malt Marshmallows came from) and lo and behold there was a recipe for Crème de Menthe Marshmallows so I got to work.
Fruit Tingle Macarons
The hubby and I were off to spend a few days with friends and as the hubby was taking some of his home made beef and pork jerky for P (the boys love their jerky), I thought I would take something sweet for B seeing as how sugar is our weakness. Given it has been a while since I last made macarons I thought it was a good time to whip up one of the varieties that I had on my macaron Pinterest board for a while now.
Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes, a blog I have been following for years now and was the inspiration for the Checker Board and Honeycomb Cake as well as the Snowmen Macarons on my White Christmas Cake, has used a fruit tingle icing for an orange cake and then also used it to top some passionfruit cupcakes, with the leftovers being used for some macarons. I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them and knew that the upcoming trip would be the perfect opportunity to make some fruit tingle macarons of my own.
White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Rose Water Syrup
To mark the first year since I started my current job, I made white chocolate panna cotta with rose water syrup and took it in to share with my colleagues. Since then, I have been encouraged to make it again and so after another two and a bit years I finally did (no need to rush these things).
For a morning tea we were having to mark the upcoming wedding of one of the women in the office, a request was made for me to bring something sweet and after suggesting this dessert to the bride to be, I didn’t need to go through any of the other options I had in mind.
The timing also worked out well as the ingredient for the next Get Your Chef On hosted by White Lights on Wednesday and Four Marrs One Venus was announced and it was chocolate. It was all too perfect so I signed up to participate.
Basil Pesto
One of my favourite things in this world is pasta. And it is a good thing too because apparently a lot of restaurants think that if your vegetarian you must love pasta as that is usually the default vegetarian dish on the menu. I am not whining too much about it, I would just like another choice or two sometimes.
But I digress.
Generally when we have pasta for dinner it is a tomato based sauce, and although I love pesto, I have never made it. Shocking, I know. But that has changed my friends as a few weeks ago we made this pesto, with a little adjustment, and have made it three times since. And it ALWAYS tastes better the next day.
Rose Macarons
In November there is a little race which stops the nation going by the name of the Melbourne Cup. I am not really into the whole horse racing thing, but I would not knock back the opportunity for time out of the office for afternoon tea.
This year we put on a spread, and over catered as usual, with my contribution being some Rose Macarons.
Pea and Ham Soup
When I first started seeing the hubby, in winter he often made a stew full of pork and veggies. I never ate any obviously, but he really enjoyed it.
However, as he had been making this for quite a few years he thought it was time for a change and decided to give pea and ham soup a go after seeing it on one of the numerous cooking shows we watch.