You may remember our Salted Caramel Sauce from Monday.
Alternatively you can make your own.
This is a quick one. Pop a spoonful of the Salted Caramel sauce into the microwave for 30 seconds or so –
I always put in some water in to microwave as well to prevent the sauce getting too hot. You could always nuke it for less time..
Drizzle some ice magic – if you have it and like it – as well as the salted caramel sauce – onto icecream. Super simple but extra tasty. :)
This is what you need to start your week. If you want salted caramel in a convenient form that you can keep in the fridge, Run, don’t walk, to your nearest Woolworths, and grab this –
Woolworths Gold Salted Caramel Dessert Sauce. Or make your own. Yum!
The Woolworths version is not really in a sauce form, not sauce as we know it, however you can spoon some into a plastic container, whack it in the microwave for 30 seconds or so – best to put in a small container of water as well, and keep an eye on it because it can get very hot very fast – then it will assume sauce form.
Once you’ve done that put some sugar – I used coconut sugar but you use what kind you like – into a cup. If you have a coffee machine that will do an espresso shot, put an espresso shot over the sugar, add the caramel sauce, and stir well to combine. If you do not have a coffee machine but would still like coffee in this shake, use instant coffee and add hot water.
But ohhh wait, this is a milkshake, why use hot water or a hot espresso shot? You want the ingredients to dissolve, so you need to use hot. But to cool it down fast once the ingredients have dissolved, use a couple of ice cubes.
This will not take very long. This photo was taken maybe 30 seconds after the first one. The cup you saw with normal sugar and the brown stuff is Milo, which the other half wanted instead of salted caramel. So you can tweak this shake to fit everyone. ;)
Now you want to ice cream it up. Vanilla is fine but you could use chocolate or even a salted caramel ice cream if you have it. Add ice cream to the cups you are planning to put your shake into, as well as into the blender with your mixture you have created. If you like it super cold, add more icecubes as well.
Now you are ready to blend. I have a knock off magic bullet which I got from Homeart for cheap which is super handy for making drinks like this, it came with 4 different drink cups, but you can use any blender you have access to.
And serve.
Now, if you made too much of the liquid mix? You can pop some alfoil on the top and put it into the freezer to add to your next shake. Even if I froze some, I always use some of the “hot” then iced liquid when making this shake because I find the flavour distributes through the shake more evenly that way.
So, how did I nearly set the microwave on fire heating this sauce up? Well, our microwave is an LG Solardom which is a microwave, grill, and convection oven. Somehow, one of the little plastic feet on the metal tray had worn away, and so when I was heating my sauce using the microwave function, it was metal on metal, and sparks flew all over the place.
I was watching it – I usually do if it is just a quick thing and I had put this on for 30 seconds. So I stopped the microwave right away and we worked out what happened. But even if you do not have this kind of issue, you want to be careful with caramel in the microwave, it can get super hot very fast. :)
Later this week – another way you can use this sauce.
Snoskred loves a cup of tea. Bizarrely, her favourite brew was invented by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister and foreign minister of Australia. Dude can’t delegate work to others or run a country without getting backstabbed by his own political party, but boy can KRudd blend a tea. He won a competition back in 2011 for his tea blend..
Originally meant to be a limited edition for just 12 months, the Australian Afternoon Tea proved so popular that it is now a permanent member of the Twinings range.
I am not a fan of KRudd at all, but I love this tea blend, and I recently picked up 100 bags for an insanely low price which will last me quite some time.
I do not drink tea daily. On a day that I drink it, I will usually brew a cup mid to late afternoon. Rainy or cold days are more likely to result in a cup of tea.
I like honey in my tea as the sweetener. Something magical happens when you combine honey and tea.
For some teas like the Australian Afternoon Tea and various forms of black tea I will use a dash of cream if I have some, milk if not.
For teas that are more herbal in nature like the Madame Flavour range, Cinnamon and Orange, Lemon Ginger, green tea or fruit flavoured teas I will only add a touch of honey and no form of milk or cream.
Here are some of the teas in my tea cupboard –
Shoot me an email to snoskred {at} gmail {dot} com or contact me via the Contact Form with a postal address – don’t leave it in the comments for safety reasons – and I will send you a sealed Australian Afternoon Tea Twinings tea packet, from their range where you buy 10 foil sealed teabags in a box! Make sure to include your blog address if I don’t already read your blog, so I can add you to my feedreader.
Leave a comment to let me know -or write a post on your blog and link to this post. :)
With the Berry Chicken Auction coming up next weekend, things are in a state of preparation in Snoskred Land. Painting is going on. It was such a gorgeous day on Sunday that the painting went on outside in the sun..
We are building a chicken tractor with coop for the new girls to hang out in – they will live in here for four to six weeks once they arrive. This is mostly for quarantine purposes because we love our current flock and want to protect them from anything the new girls might be carrying as a surprise, but the added bonus is, they will mow, aerate, and fertilise the lawns for us in allergy season when for us, lawn mowing is generally off the table for a bit..
If you want to know more about quarantine, here is a great post about it by The Chicken Chick. Quarantine of Backyard Chickens: When and How – and after that, we will have to introduce the girls carefully. You can read more about how to introduce new girls into a flock here. How do I introduce new chickens into my old flock?
During Quarantine they will be well protected with wire and a wooden coop section, complete with roost. We think the outdoor section touching the ground will be clear of wire at this stage, but we can always change our mind on that. We’re currently debating where the roost is and whether it might be too high with the doors closed, making it hard for the girls to get onto, so that might get moved downwards a little.
Each day, I’ll go out and sweep out the poop which will land on the floor under the roost, and pop in a large kitty litter tray of sand for them to dustbathe in. This tractor can be used long term, which is why I am painting it good. The coop and run have held up super well over the years with our undercoat and Taubmans Endure on top.
In other news, there is a lot of fruit being added to soda water here at the moment. I bought some special ice cube trays from Avon some years ago which take a slice of lime or lemon in the middle. I found them in our recent de-clutter so I gave lime slices a try and found them to be amazing.
The thing that is most amazing.. something happens with the water once you put it with the slice – every drop becomes lime flavoured. So the moment the ice cube starts to melt, you can taste the lime.
I also have been trying some frozen fruits. They work incredibly well – they serve two functions, to cool the drink, and to flavour the drink. Mango is my current favourite but I have also been using blueberries and mixed berries.
My final piece of news today involves a lunch out with girlfriends on Friday in which I heard the awesome news that Karma has come back as a surprise to some of the work people who were involved in making my workplace somewhere I no longer wanted to go. One of them has been seriously demoted and is no longer a manager.
The other one has been seriously demoted and is no longer a team leader. I count this as a WIN for humanity, but it does not inspire me to return, as other things have gone down the toilet extremely quickly for my poor ladies who still remain there. :(
On the way home, I thought I was going to run out of fuel – my Polo has a 45 litre tank, check out how much petrol it took when I got to the station! Two and a half months out of one tank of fuel was pretty awesome, the last time I filled up was at Costco back on 31 August.
I’m not one to follow recipes very often. Much of my cooking is inspired by a recipe and then I go forth and experiment. Such was the case with this soup which was inspired by this post – Chilled Red Pepper Soup with Yogurt and Herbs – though what I made was nothing like the recipe.
I also like my recipes to have “offramps” – points at which you can stop and tada, it is done. This recipe has a couple of offramps..
So here’s what I did, with pics. This is super simple!
1. Chop and prepare 5 capsicums – any colour you like. I chose red today because they were on super special at Aldi. Peel some potatoes – amount is up to your preference, some people might like more potatoes than I used to roast but I knew I would be adding a couple more in at Slow Cooker Time.
2. Check in with your Kitty Supervisor to make sure you have done step 1 correctly. Set the oven to 200 degrees C (400F).
3. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil on base of roasting pan. Smoosh the capsicum and potatoes around in the oil to make sure they are covered with olive oil. Layer your items thoughtfully in your roasting pan so they will provide each other with flavour.
4. Get spicy! Add your choice of spices – you could use any you like, I chose paprika, cinnamon, cayenne, parsley and cracked pepper. Put this in the oven for 1 hour in a covered lid pan – you may need slightly longer and/or a lower temperature for uncovered pans.
5. Remove from oven. Delight in the smell.
Here, you could boil the kettle, prepare a litre of stock – chicken, veg, your choice. Add the roasted items and stock to a blender, whizz, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and your soup is ready. If not, continue on with the recipe as follows.
6. Cut up one onion, one fresh red pepper, a few carrots. Saute and sweat these in a saucepan if you are planning to get off at the next offramp, or your slow cooker if you are in this for the long haul.
7. Add in 1 litre stock of your choice, extra potatoes or other vegetables if you would like. Sweet potato (yams) would be wonderful in this. If slow cooking, set for 6 hours.
If you are not slow cooking, simmer soup on the stove for an hour or until everything is cooked through and mushy. Remove from heat, allow to cool a little, whizz in your blender, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, and your soup is ready.
8. When your slow cooker beeps, remove the soup and allow to cool a little.
9. Whizz in your blender, add some cream, sour cream, or yoghurt, cheese if you like it, stir well, pop it back on the stove to get the soup piping hot again, and your soup is ready
Last month our household got hit with one of the most evil flu viruses we have experienced. It was *awful* – neither of us had the energy or talent to cook.. :(
I keep some chicken noodle cup-a-soup in the cupboard for these kinds of situations, as well as cans of baked beans, spaghetti and cheese, some other canned soups and pasta bake in a jar just add cooked pasta, chicken or tuna and bake type things.
On this occasion though, we ran out of cup-a-soup. When we went to Woolworths to stock up on this and a few other things.. I discovered Asian Laksa cup-a-soup.
I’m sure it has been on the market for ages and I am just late to find out about it. I bought a couple of packets of this Woolworths version as well as a Hot and Spicy Continental version.
The Hot And Spicy version cleared my sinuses out so fast, it was amazing but be aware, the Hot and Spicy is exactly that – Hot and Spicy. It is nice to have this as another tool in my sinus clearing cupboard though, as I usually use Wasabi for that and I only like to eat Wasabi with Sushi, which means a drive to the shops to get Sushi, and that isn’t possible at 3am.
The plain version is very mild and yet flavourful. For those who steer clear of Laksa due to not liking the taste of coconut, there is no need to worry here, there is no lingering coconut flavour and checking the ingredients list there does not seem to be any coconut in here. The flavour that does linger is vegetables.
Snoskred verdict? Look how many of them I bought when they were on special for $1, this might be a clue that I absolutely love these cup-a-soups.
I am fairly confident the Woolworths and Continental cup-a-soups are made by the same people, but I could be wrong. I’ll be buying whichever one is on special.
I was not sponsored to say these things, I just really like this stuff. :) You’ll find me talking more about the Woolworths Select range over coming weeks because I have found some products I really love in that range, including their amazing Salted Caramel Dessert Sauce.
I have a story about how I almost set the house on fire trying to heat it up in the microwave.. stay tuned for that one!
It has been years since I have made *real* lasagne. Once I found out about fake lasagne and how easy it was to make, without all the layering, I just make the fake version all the time.
So I bet you are wondering what fake lasagne is. You’re about to find out how to make it. :)
500G cooked pasta, spread out into baking dishes.
Pre-prepared bolognese sauce – you can also use napolitana or a non-meat sauce, that works just as well and there have been times I have used jar sauce, when I am too lazy. On this occasion I made bolognese sauce in the slow cooker the day before.
Combine 6 eggs, 600mls cream, 500g tub of ricotta, whatever herbs and spices you like – I use paprika, cinnamon, parsley -in a large bowl.
Pour egg mixture over the cooked pasta.
Layer your red sauce layer on top, making sure to cover the bottom layer.
Once your layering is complete, sprinkle with cheese and place into 190C oven for 45 minutes. If you do not like your cheese crispy, make sure to cover with alfoil.
On taking out of the oven, make a small hole in the middle. If the bottom layer is still liquid, it needs more time. It should be foofy and look a bit like whipped cream, but a cooked version.
Let me know if you try this recipe! :)
When I was little, my family owned a chain of electronic stores. At the main office, which was in a little cluster of shops, two shops down there was a little “deli” in the old style of delis, run by a Greek family who we were friends with..
They would take a Vili’s pasty, slice it open, put cheese in there, and then put it back in the oven for the cheese to melt.
We can get Vili’s here now and when we buy it, we do not mess about. We buy 2 boxes of pasties at a time, 24 pasties in total. They are frozen when we get them and these go into the freezer for later consumption.
I can’t eat them without cheese. I’ve put all kinds of cheese inside there – mozzarella, parmesan, American jack cheddar from Costco, vintage cheese slices, feta, it doesn’t matter what kind of cheese – though the feta was super tangy and took the taste experience up several notches – the Vili’s pasty is king of all pasties.
I hate to break it to you, Adelaidians reading this, but in Sydney they put *peas* and *corn* into pasties. What kind of wickety wack idea is that shiznit? It is wrong on so many levels!
Now, if I could just find a way to get Barnacle Bill’s here.. :)
A big shout out to Pomai – who lives on Oahu – from The Tasty Island. I love your blog, and you inspired this post with two of your posts, specifically –
Costco Food Court: Eat This, Not That
Costco Food Court Honolulu Summer ’14 Update
Here is what we have at the Australian Costco Food Court, roughly 10 hours flying time from Oahu.
Important note – Costco Australia has recently switched over to Pepsi branded drinks – on our last visit a couple of months ago everything was Coca Cola. This greatly pleases The Other Half as he prefers Solo as the drink. I also prefer Solo, Sunkist or Pepsi when it comes to post-mix drinks, I find those a lot less sugary than Coca-Cola. Our visit to Costco is one rare occasion where I will drink flavoured soda drinks rather than plain mineral or soda water.
Let us go a little closer –
I always get the Combo pizza these days. This is because if I do not get it, I find myself deeply wishing I had got it on the way home. The ground beef on this pizza is seriously awesome.
I have tried the chicken bake and it was pretty amazing but not *as* amazing as the Combo pizza.
Unlike the USA, we have a pork hot dog. The Other Half loves these. I do not think we have tried the meat pie, and why would we when we can get those pretty much everywhere but you can’t get the awesome Combo pizza anywhere else in Australia, or the cheap hot dogs. ;)
The chicken and avocado wrap is seriously delicious and fresh. I’ve had that before a few times and loved it. I have not tried the mango smoothie or the iced coffee but a lot of people were getting the smoothie and they seemed to be enjoying it.
I have tried the frozen yoghurt before. It does not have that typical tang you get with frozen yoghurt and is more like soft serve. The serving size is way too big for me – I’d need four of me to finish it. ;)
A lot of people were getting the chocolate cherry thing, and that looked awesome as well.
Churro, ew. If this is what churros are supposed to be like, you can count me out. Not a fan, at all. But people constantly buy them, so they must like them. Maybe it is just me!
The coffees are made by a machine and beware, they are very, very hot. If you are getting a “soda” as well, you might want to put ice in your cup and then take one or two pieces out to put in your coffee. No joke.
I deeply wish we had brought home a pizza now because I have a huge craving for a combo slice writing this post.
If you are heading to Hawaii anytime soon, you probably want to add The Tasty Island to your feed reader. Then again, if you just like looking at pictures of food this is also a blog you should be reading! :)
Also, you might want to check out this great post – Costco Made in Hawaii Eats – we used this as a guide to what we wanted to buy at our visit to Costco on our last Hawaii trip and it was great.
There is something you don’t know about me. I figure I should just come clean and admit it.
…………. drumroll
I secretly hoard recipes on the internet in my bookmarks folder.
And this does not count recipes I have printed and stashed in the kitchen in various locations.
I know. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You probably bookmark recipes in your travels too.
I am essentially bookmarking them in the event that *one day* I might get around to it. Some of them are extremely complicated and demand kitchen skills I do not possess.
But one of the blogs I read – Casual Kitchen – posts a lot of easy to make, quick and simple recipes that I have made and do make. Today Daniel posted links to two really awesome posts which contain 25 recipes each and if you cannot find one thing there to try, then you are probably a kitchen wizard or a TV chef. :)
The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
Chicken Mole has been on my list for a while, I’ll give it a go and let you know. :)