:: chocolate pumpkin pie ::

Having visitors for dinner is such a thrill. I love expanding my list of 'tried and tested' recipes and giving something new a go. I'm guilting of not touching my giant recipe book collection anywhere near enough, and hitting Google.

Last Thursday though, I reached for the Coles Philadelphia Cream Cheese book called "Simply Heaven - Chocolate" and I had a real rough time choosing! Every recipe looked like they'd be pretty safe successes. It came down to two for me this time. A rum & raisin icecream cake or this chocolate pumpkin pie. The deciding factor was that the icecream cake had 2 blocks of chocolate, 3 cups of cream & 2 tins of condensed milk....yuck! Whereas, hey... this pie has half a butternut pumpkin in it! That's a day's veg serving for sure, right?!

The difference with this sweet pumpkin pie, is the genius idea of pouring a packet of white chocolate melts over the base of the hot pastry, right after you've blind-baked it. They spred around easily and create a simple yet luxurious layer.

Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

Pastry:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/3 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

125g butter, chopped

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 Tbs chilled water

Filling:

100g Cadbury White chocolate Melts

300g pumpkin, chopped and roasted till tender

250g Philadelphia Spreadable Cream Cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teas cinnamon

1/2 teas ginger

1/4 teas both nutmeg & cloves

1. Combine flour, icing sugar, cocoa & butter in a food processor and blend until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yolk & water and pulse until it comes together. Gently knead till smooth, then wrap and chill for 30 mins.

2. Roll out the pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper to line a 23cm round fluted tart pan. Prick well with a fork and chill for a further 30mins. Bake in a hot oven (200C) for 15 mins. Sprinkle chocolate melts over warm pastry and spread to cover base. Allow to cool completely.

3. Combine pumpkin, Philly, eggs, sugar and spices in a food processor and process till smooth. Pour into prepared base. Bake in a hot oven (200C) for 10 mins then reduce the temperature to 150C and bake for a further 35mins till just set. Serve just warm.

What better way to celebrate beautiful autumn?

:: I got a doll for my first Mother's Day ::

Mother's Day is now on the calender for me. What did I get? I got this little angel of a dude. He even slept through the night AND gave me a sleep-in this morning. How kind is he?!

You've got to let me spam some wee smiles your way.

 

....this boy child is killing me.

We also went out for a scrumptious lunch at the Pancake Parlour and he promptly fell asleep when I lay him on the padded booth seat beside me, so I could eat with both my hands. This son sure knows how to spoil a mumma. I'm blessed beyond comprehension.

Thank you to my own Mother and all the other mothers out there for being phenomenally amazing people, and for all your LOVE that makes us who we are. You shape the world.

xxx

:: homemade sushi ::

I just adore sushi, and I frequented the little sushi noodle shop around the corner from my work. It was agony not being able to choose the smoked salmon version while I was pregnant. That stuff gives me the happies. But if only I knew how frightfully simple it was to make! I could of saved me a lot of dollars.

When my sister and mum came to stay and play with my little bubba, they showed me the ropes and I'll honestly never need to buy it again... it's too easy. I'd like to give brown rice a go (I used to buy that one) but thought I'd better use white for this demo, as brown rice isn't as sticky, and I'd probably make a royal mess of it.

Homemade Sushi

 

• 2 cups of cooled, overcooked rice (with 2 Tab of white vinegar stirred through afterwards)

• 1 bamboo mat (available from regular supermarkets)

• 1 packet of nori

• whatever fillings you like!

1. Start by laying a nori sheet on your bamboo mat, and then spreading a thin layer of rice over 3/4s of it. I like to press the rice down a bit to make it clag together.

2. Lay your filling on the base of the rice layer. I'm using avocado & smoked salmon. Yeah!!

3. With TWO hands (I had to take the piccie on my own) start to curl the mat over, and use your fingers to press on the filling, keeping it in place.

4. Peel the mat back as you gently but firmly continue to roll it all the way up.

5. Once you get to the end, some of the rice may have been squished along. Gently scrape this off.

6. Dip your fingers in some cold water and dab a small amount along the nori to make it sticky.

7. Complete the roll so the damp edge is stuck to the rest of the roll. Use the bamboo mat to gently give the whole roll one final squeeze so it's sealed up nicely.

I like to cut the big roll into two, and pour a little soy sauce in the top of it, letting it run through the whole roll. You can also slice them a lot finer to make little rounds.

I also made some celery & tomato-flavoured tuna ones. This whole pyramid would have cost $16.80 from my local sushi shop. Whereas this cost me (even with the salmon!) around $4.00.

Enjoy!

:: raw carrot cake ::

Sticky, sweet, moist, nutty carrot cake. I love carrot cake. Don't care how it comes, carrot cake is always great. But unfortunatley, just because the word 'carrot' is involved, doesn't mean it's going to be good for you (definitely not with the SaraLee version, I can assure you!).

But this. This is a the Popeye version of carrot cake. It's just packed with good stuff, and is definitely a guilt free treat. And it's not just full of protein blah, blah... it's also raw (as in, it doesn't need baking). Howzat?!

I found it on the Lorna Jane website, and although I didn't give a second thought to trying it (there's no weird ingredients folks!) I wasn't exactly sure if it was going to taste very good. Boy, was I wrong. This tastes awesome! All the nuts really provide a round taste and it knocks my sweet tooth over with only a few dates as a sweetener. Fan-nutty-tastic.

Raw Carrot Cake

from Lorna Jane

3 cups grated carrot*

1 cup almonds

1/2 cup pecans

1 cup Medjool dates (approx 10 large)**

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup oats***

3 teas cinnamon

1/2 teas nutmeg

1/2 teas cinnamon

1/4 cup water

Cashew Icing

1 1/2 cups cashews

2 Tab water

2 teas vanilla

2 Tab Honey

Cake Method:

Combine almonds, pecans & oats in a food processor. Blend until roughly ground. Add the dates, coconut and spices, and blend again, adding water gradually (I actually forgot the water! still worked though).

It should be a cake batter consistency. Add the grated carrot and blend for about 30 seconds to fully combine. You may need to occasionally scrap the sides. Press into a lined cake tin. Smooth the top with the back of a wet spoon. Put in the freezer for 1-2 hours to firm up before icing.

Icing Method:

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend till smooth. Spred evenly over set cake and return to freezer for another 1-2 hours before cutting in squares.

Tips/Alternatives:

*If you have a Thermomix, just chuck all the carrots (roughly chopped) into the bowl and blend on Speed 7 for approx 5 seconds until about as small as grated carrot would be.

** Dried dates are fine. Soak in warm water for 1/2 hour first.

*** For a gluten free version, you could use rice flour or quinoa flour.

Store in the freezer. Take it out 1/2 hour before serving to allow it to soften slightly. If you leave it out for a few hours it will become too mushy to handle.

It's so good.

:: Mr Willem turns ONE MONTH ::

This little smoochable fellow has been in our home for 1 whole month (but in our hearts for a lot longer).

I don't want to bore everyone with a mother's endless praise, but Willem is just such a good little guy, he deserves that we recognise this! Hahaha...

So currently he wakes only once per night for a feed about 3-4am. When he first arrived, he was waking twice (1am, 4am) for feeds. This doesn't sound too bad, but each time he woke, we'd be up for an hour by the end of it. By the time he finished feeding, he'd have pooed (he's a poo machine, ever since birth when he entered the world in a flood of his own creation) and would need changing, sometimes twice, then more feeds - then burping time. He doesn't front up with his burp as easily at night time when he's all floppy on my shoulder, asleep. This would drag on because he always has a burp, so there was no sleep for me until it was out. If I laid him back in his bassinet, he'd start "wind-grinning" as a first sign, and then end up writhing, cringing and grizzling. Once that burp is out though, he's back to peaceful deep sleep till 8am.

But the burping is a little more quick to happen now, especially since mummy is figuring out little tricks to get them to pop. And he doesn't always poo per feed now. Phew! So the one hour sessions are down to about 1/2 an hour.

Once we both get up at 8am and I've fed him, he's super happy to be left on his own (for 20 mins anyway lol). I take this chance to run his bath (we do this every second day). He loves his bath! And I've got this awesome rubber ducky which has a temperature gauge on it. Fantastic to be able to throw it in and make sure the water isn't too hot/cold. Sometimes it's really hard to tell the temperature, esp when my hands are cold and I don't want to dunk my elbow in. I really recommend getting the bath done at this time, as they are usually more docile after having had a huge sleep and a big feed. And besides, bathing is fiddly and annoying, so getting it out of the way before you're even out of your own PJ's is the only way it's gunna get done.

After bath, he gets lots of smooching before I pop him in his bouncer (life saver) and sit on the couch with the laptop/book, bouncing him until he nods off (doesn't take long). Then I buzz around doing whatever housework I can until he wakes again. The arvo is pretty similar. It's true that he hardly cries, except when he has a good reason. Like, when he's been awake for ages and I know he's ready to drop to sleep, he'll have a little cry. This is when I wrap him up in muslin as tight as possible, and pop him back in the bouncer to fall to sleep. His dummy/binky/pacifier aids this process immensely. :)

I know I don't have to apologize for lack of blog posts lately, but I want to. I'm also having a little extra trouble coming up with content that doesn't involve Willem, especially since he's pretty much all I do right now! If anyone has any ideas for me, or something they'd like me to write a post about (can be anything.. meal plans, healthy ingredients, product review, house organisation, styling, whatever) that would be a good help, and a bit of fun yeah?!

Love Han xo