pronto - tomato and mustard tart

pronto - tomato and mustard tart

1 Apr 2011

I made this tart a while ago in the height of summer when the tomatoes were at their peak. I found this simple recipe in Stephanie Alexander's book, The Cook's Companion.



The recipe contains just a few ingredients so quality produce is important.



The recipe is supposed to feed a number of people but I managed to scoff the lot for my dinner. Simple and delicious - the perfect summer recipe.



Well it's finally Friday and I do admit I'm glad the weekend has arrived. 'Someone' forgot to set the alarm clock last night so I slept in this morning. I managed to get out of bed and out the door in a record time of just 11 minutes. I did miss my train though so it wasn't the best way to start the day .

I'll be back again on Monday so until then,

Have a happy weekend.

Jillian

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shopshoot sneak peek

shopshoot sneak peek

30 Mar 2011

Last Friday I did a shopshoot. I decided to reinstall some software on my computer Saturday night and have been trying to work my way through the process ever since. As a result I've not had time to prepare any lay-outs for you. I promise to get them done this weekend though and post in full next Wednesday.

So until then, I'll leave you with a sneak peek. Can you guess where I've been?

I'll be back on Friday with another pronto post,

Jillian

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almond cake 2011

almond cake 2011

28 Mar 2011

Where does the weekend go? Just a moment ago it was Friday morning and I was looking forward to a 3 day weekend and now Monday is over. Apart from doing a shopshoot, I met one of my friends for pizza at Pompei's down at Bondi, voted in the State election and made it to the gym twice. I have the aching muscles to prove it.



March is birthday month around here, including that of Farmer Andrew. He was in the city so we celebrated his birthday at my place with a lamb roast and a big helping of almond cake. Almond cake is our family celebration cake and it must have featured on the blog at least 3 times before.

As we're coming into autumn here, the hydrangea in the photo was the very last flower on the bush. Hydrangeas are one of my favourite flowers but then again as blue is my favourite colour that's hardly a surprise. 



It's a bit of a challenge trying to make the cake look a little different every time I photograph it, so this time I served the cake with blueberries and a big dollop of cream.

Farmer Andrew went home with what was left of the cake as his need was greater than mine.



I hope you all had lovely weekends. See you all again soon.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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bircher muesli with oven roasted pear and plum

bircher muesli with oven roasted pear and plum

25 Mar 2011

What do eat for breakfast? Well I'm a creature of habit, and this is what I eat 6 days a week, bircher muesli with oven roasted fruit and yoghurt. Sometimes the fruit is oven roasted strawberry with rhubarb, whilst at other times it's Brigitte Hafner's oven roasted plum with pear. The yoghurt doesn't vary though, it's very yummy organic raspberry yoghurt. What do I have on the 7th day? I treat myself to an eggy breakfast but that's for another pronto post.

I've increased the amount of brown sugar in the recipe and decreased the honey a little, as I'm not too keen on the taste of honey. I've tried many versions of Bircher muesli but this is the one I like the best.

The recipe is a Bill Granger recipe that I copied into the the back of my work diary a long time ago. I think I scribbled it down from one of his recipe books whilst browsing in a book store. I used to do that all the time before the magic of the internet.

Here's the recipe for you, from Bill's Sydney Food.

Fresh Bircher Muesli
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup apple juice
1 cup coarsely grated apple
½ cup natural yoghurt
juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons honey

Place oats and apple juice in a bowl and soak for 1 hour, or overnight. Add grated apple, yoghurt & lemon juice to oat mixture & mix well. Spoon into serving bowls & top with fruit. Drizzle with honey.

Did you have a good day today? My day off from work was a busy one, but I managed to finish editing my shopshoot images from today's shoot so I had time to whip up a pronto post for you.

Have a great weekend and see you all again on Monday,

Jillian

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berry

berry

23 Mar 2011

Have you heard about Berry? It's a small town on the highway south of Wollongong, and known for it's sourdough bakery and cute shops.

The day I visited, there was a queue for a table at the Berry Wood-fired Sourdough Bakery. Even the pooches were standing in line.

Berry is a popular weekend destination and as I walked around the town I saw loads of cafes and b&b's.

Then I spied this amazing house on the highway. It looked completely out of place amongst the cute wooden cottages but it was fabulous. It reminded me of images I'd seen of the Ace Hotel Palm Springs.

I'd love to know when this place was built, by whom and most importantly, why? It's currently on the market but just a little out of my price range and a bit too far from Sydney.

I hope the week's been kind to you. As I'm taking Friday off, I'm not sure if I'll be back again this week, so if I'm not, then have a great weekend.

Jillian

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passionfruit layer cookies

passionfruit layer cookies

21 Mar 2011

As you know, I have a bit of a thing for cookies. My cookie jar was empty last week so when I had an attack of the munchies, I had to attack my hidden stash of chocolate. I've been baking this weekend, so the cookie jar is full again.

It's still passionfruit season here and when passionfruit are in abundance, I buy up big and freeze the pulp to use later in the year.

I adapted this Stephanie Alexander recipe to make these cookies. Instead of using passionfruit pulp in the cookie dough, I strained the pulp to make passionfruit juice. I sandwiched the cookies together with some cream cheese icing made using passionfruit pulp then iced the cookies with passionfruit icing.

It's a delicate cookie, so a few cracked during the whole process, but that just left more for the cook. The cookies are very yummy just iced and I'm not sure they're better sandwiched together with the filling.

It's birthday week at work so a chocolate cake is in the oven as I write this. Friday is my day off and I'm really looking forward to my 3 day weekend.

See you all again on Wednesday,

Jillian

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