Easy Sausage Rolls

I was introduced to these little things in Australia. However, they do originate from England. It's the epitome of finger food and it is considered a take-away (fast food) item. I love them... a lot! I have been craving them since we have gotten home, so of course I had to make them. I cheated and made them really simply. I also found this recipe that sounds like a good sausage mix that I will have to try someday. So you can choose your level of baking with this one :) Oh and just so you know, if you do use the other recipe, they call mince what we call ground i.e. beef mince = ground beef

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Baking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients: 

1 pound Sausage*

Frozen puff pastry

*I used the Jimmy Dean roll, but you can use whatever you want. I've used linked sausage before and it's even easier!

Instructions:

Thaw puff pastry (40 minutes or put it in fridge overnight).

Roll out and cut into three strips.

Arrange sausage in the puff pastry (It's easier if you arrange the sausage in the middle)

Sorry the lighting is bad in all these pictures....

Roll up.

Cut and place on baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes at 350*F (or whatever directions your puff pastry recommends).

Serve with tomato sauce AKA Ketchup

Easy and tasty! If you want to have this for more of a meal rather than finger or party food, I would cut the puff pastry in half, arrange a bit more sausage in the middle, roll it, then cut in half again (so you would get 4 sausage rolls out of one puff pastry sheet). If you choose to eat it this way, it's more the way you would get it if you went to a cafe.

Steed's World Famous Pavlova

Since Australia Day is just around the corner (January 26), I thought I would share a little piece of Australia with you. Pavlova is considered the national dessert of Australia, however, New Zealand also claims it. I am not quite sure who was the first to claim it... I guess it's one of those "did the chicken or the egg come first" questions. Anyway, while we were in Australia, we became friends with a wonderful family. The mother makes the BEST pavlova, so my husband and I call this recipe

"Steed's World Famous Pavlova"

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 1/2 hours
Preparation time before serving: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 dessertspoon* cornflour

Half pint heavy whipping cream
Toppings (Fruit, chocolate, etc...)

*Did you know Australian cutlery includes a dessertspoon? It's specifically used to eat their dessert. If you do not own a dessertspoon, use 2 teaspoons per 1 dessertspoon.

Instructions:

Beat egg whites with electric beater, gradually adding sugar until stiff.

 So stiff it didn't move when I tilted the bowl

Fold in vanilla and vinegar and cornflour.

Preheat oven to 390*F (200*C).

Pour pavlova onto a baking sheet in the shape you want.

Put Pavlova in oven and turn it down to 250*F (120*C). Bake for 1 1/2 hours. Turn off oven, and open the door to let it cool off.

It's not perfect, but it will work

When completely cool, decorate with whipped cream and any topping you like. Usually they put passion fruit, or any other kind of fruit on it.

I used banana's and chocolate for the topping and it tasted great!

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!