ANZAC Biscuits

So I know I missed a post last week. I was so excited to make Hot Crossed Buns and share the recipe with you, but let me tell you... it was a disaster! My yeast has lost it's oomph and the buns did not rise... at all! I continued to the end thinking that they would at least still taste ok after baking them. Nope. Since they didn't raise, the dough in the middle did not get done. I was so sad! I think its kind of funny now and someday I will try them again.

Anzac biscuits were sent overseas during World War I to the Australian and New Zealand soldiers. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp and Anzac Day is similar to what we American's celebrate as Memorial Day. We were in Australia last year on ANZAC day, but didn't get to experience it fully (we wished we would have!). The town we were living in had a ceremony at dawn and a parade or march later that day. We were able to walk to the post office that evening and saw lots of crosses representing those who had lost their lives in WWI.

I thought since ANZAC day is just a few days away (April 25), I would make some bikkies to celebrate it. I found this recipe and modified it just a little.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut
1 stick and a little (125 g) butter*
2 Tablespoons Golden Syrup
1 Tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda (bicarbonate of soda)

*Conversions never really match up. I used about 9 Tablespoons of butter

Instructions:

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, rolled oats, and coconut.

Melt the butter along with the golden syrup and water in a saucepan.

Stir the baking soda in.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ones and mix well.

Form small balls and place on an un-greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350*F (175*C). For a more chewy cookie bake for 12 minutes, then leave them on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes after taking them out of the oven. For a harder/crunchier bikkie, bake for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Happy ANZAC Day!!

Curried Egg Sandwich

I don't know about you, but here in America, we dye hard boiled eggs around Easter. I don't really know why, we just do. Maybe I should look that one up... but I have done it since I was a child and still love doing it! After we finished dying the eggs, we usually admired them for a while, but then would make Deviled Eggs or Egg sandwiches. While I lived in Australia, I went to a church function. There they served a variety of sandwiches, one of which was an egg sandwich. I had to get one. Little did I know that I would end up eating about 5! (One sandwich was cut cut into 4 triangles, so really it wasn't too much...) They were delicious! I found out that they put curry in them. I decided I would use up some of my Easter eggs to make a curried egg sandwich.

Preparation Time: 5-30 minutes (It all depends on if you have your eggs already boiled and how far above sea level you are, but they are fast to make)

This recipe makes 3-4 sandwiches depending on the size of your bread

Ingredients:

4 Eggs
1/2 cup Mayo
1/2-1 tsp Curry Powder (depends on how strong you want the taste)
6-4 slices of bread
Chopped Lettuce
Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Boil your eggs. When they are done, I run them under cold water. I have found that this helps them peel better.

Mix Mayo & curry powder together.

Chop your eggs or do what I do... just smash them with a fork.

Add the eggs to your mixture.

Add salt and pepper to taste, spread egg mixture on the bread, sprinkle some lettuce on top, and your ready to eat.

Fast and easy and a good way to use up all those Easter eggs you dyed :)

Mexican Rice

I realized that some of my Mexican dishes I always say, "Serve with rice and beans." I thought that I should probably post a recipe for those. Today I am featuring my moms Spanish rice. This recipe is fast and easy.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup rice
1/3 cup oil
1 onion chopped
1 can stewed tomatoes (or you can use 1-2 fresh chopped ones)
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt
3 chicken Bouillon cubes

Instructions:

Heat oil in frying pan. Add onion and rice to brown them.

Add stewed tomatoes, water, and spices. Stir it around.

Let simmer for 10 minutes and stir again. Then leave it alone for 20-30 minutes.

Serve it up with you meal and enjoy! You can pair it up with one of these recipes (1, 2, 3) or your own.

Mine didn't look quite like when my parents make it, but it
still tasted the same.

Chicken Fried Rice

Michael and I have a really good Asian friend. We played basketball with him this semester and our team ended up winning the championship! We were so excited we decided to have a "Super Asian Basketball Champion Party" with our team. I volunteered to make some fried rice. Cheng, our Asian friend, approved of it, so I decided it was good enough to put up on the blog :)

This rice was super fast and easy to make. Mostly because I used leftovers (rice and chicken). I don't like when people say add this and that and boom, your meal is done. I hate to admit that when I made this, that is exactly what I did, but I tried my best to guesstimate with the measurements.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil

4 cups cooked white rice

3 eggs

1/2 chopped onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 package of peas

1-2 cups chicken

salt to taste

soy sauce (optional)

Instructions:

If you don't have rice and chicken already, I would suggest cooking that first. 

Heat oil in a pan and add onion and garlic powder to it. 

When the onion is softened add peas and eggs to pan. Add some salt, too.

When you have scrambled the eggs, add the chicken and rice. 

Cook until everything is warm add salt to taste and serve with soy sauce. 

After eating this I was "chi-bo-la"... That's Mandarin for "I'm full." Hope you enjoy!

Enchiladas Suizas

Remember Chile Verde from a few weeks ago? Well if you have heaps left over, you can use it to make Enchiladas Suizas! These enchiladas came from the Swiss immigrants who moved to Mexico and established dairies.  

I had never heard of these enchiladas until I started working at a Mexican Restaurant in town. I had to know what items were on the menu so I could recommend things to customers, so I tried these and liked them (without the sour cream though... I'm not a fan).

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Baking Time: 10 minutes

*Everything I used was already cooked, so all I had to do was pop it in the oven to melt the cheese and warm the tortillas.

 

Ingredients:

Corn Tortillas

Chile Verde

Mozzarella Cheese

Sour Cream

Instructions:

Grease your pan.

Put Chile Verde in the tortilla and roll it up. 

Once the pan is full, pour a little green salsa on top and sprinkle cheese over them. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes.

Mine don't look very pretty because I didn't warm my
tortillas before rolling them up... but they still tasted
great!

Serve the enchiladas on a plate and put a dollop of sour cream on top.

There you have it. Enchiladas Suizas. Enjoy :)

Aussie Meat Pie

Today in America it's Pi Day, you know π, 3.14. What better way to celebrate Pi day than to eat an Aussie meat pie?

My first experience of going to eat Aussie pies went a little like this. We had just made friends with a couple in the town we were living in and they invited us to go to a fun pie shop. We were meeting up with them around noon and I kept asking my husband if I should eat something before we went out with them. I didn't realize that pies are like a main dish in Australia! Good thing I didn't eat anything before we headed out because the shop we went to had heaps of different kinds of pies to choose from.

I found this recipe and read the reviews and it sounded pretty authentic, so I decided to give it a go. It was a pretty good pie. Next time I will branch out and do something different, maybe a chicken curry pie.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Baking Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (500g minced beef)

1 onion, chopped

1 cup water, divided

2 beef bouillon cubes

1/4 cup ketchup

3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon oregano

1 pinch nutmeg

3 Tablespoons flour

2 puff pastry sheets

Instructions:

Brown meat and onion

Add 3/4 cup water, bouillon cubes, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oregano, nutmeg, and salt and pepper.

Let boil and cover for 15 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 430*F (220*C)

Blend flour with remaining 1/4 cup water until it becomes a smooth paste. Then ad to the meat mix.

Let cool.

Grease a pie dish and line with puff pastry.

Add the filling and brush edges of pastry with milk or beaten egg. 

Place the pastry top on and press edges down.

Trim edges and glaze top with milk or beaten egg.

Bake at 430 (220) for 15 minutes

Reduce heat to 350* F (180*C) and bake for 30 more minutes, or until golden brown.

HAPPY PI DAY :)

Enchilada Casserole

While I was growing up, it seemed like we were always having people over to eat with us. One time I remember my dad didn't want to roll up all the enchilada's so he decided to make it into a casserole instead, so that is how this meal came about. And trust me... it's fast and delicious!

I had some ground beef left over from making lasagna and decided to whip this together. In the ingredient section I listed what I used, but you can totally use whatever you want and it will be great!

Preparation time: 15 minutes*

Bake time: 40 minutes**

* I just had to take things out of the fridge, if you were starting from scratch it would probably take you longer.

** Since all my things were cold, I baked it longer. If all your ingredients were already warm, I would just put it in oven for 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients:

Ground Beef (minced beef)

Corn Tortillas

Enchilada Sauce*

Cheese

Olives

*If you don't have enchilada sauce, try using tomato soup and put your own spices in it. That is what I would do when we lived in Australia.

Instructions:

Put a little sauce in a pan

Layer with tortillas, ground beef, enchilada sauce, cheese and olives (3 or 4 layers).

Top with tortillas, sauce, and cheese. I stuck on some extra olives just for fun :)

Pop it in the oven at 350*F (180*C).

Enjoy :)

Super simple right? My husband and I are going to try chicken, with black beans, corn, and tomatoes next time. Let me know if you try any other creative ingredients that are tasty!