The mess

One of the problems with cooking with kids is the mess. Grit your teeth and enjoy it. It's all part of the fun - although mum and dad have to wash up when the little ones are fast asleep!

Queen of puddings

3 Tbps jam
450 mls milk
1/2 cup sugar
25g butter
3 eggs, separated
100g Madeira or sponge cake (or breadcrumbs)
Tin pie apples

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Spread the jam over the bottom of a baking dish.

Heat milk, butter and five table spoons of sugar in a saucepan, stirring until all ingredients are dissolved. Place the egg yolks in a bowl and crumble the cake over them. Pour the hot mixture over this while stirring. Bake in oven until set.

Remove to cool.

Spoon the pie apples over the mixture.

Whisk egg whites and sugar. Spoon over the pudding.

Bake until meringue is brown.

Cottage pie

8 medium potatoes
Frozen veg. (soaked in boiling water)
1 onion
1 pepper
Ginger / garlic
Herbs / spices
500 g mince
1 cup grated cheese
Milk

Quarter the potatoes and boil until tender.

Brown the onion, ginger, garlic, mince and pepper. Add herbs / spices. When warm add frozen veg.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

When potatoes cooked, mash with milk and cheese until smooth.

Place mince etc. into oven-proof pot.

Cover with mashed potatoes and brown in oven. (About 20 minutes)

Calzone

Puff pastry
Ham / salami
Red pepper
Onion
Garlic / ginger
3 tomatoes

Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C
Fry all ingredients until cooked and tender
Cut a square of pastry, place ingredients down one side, fold over in half, moisten edges and seal.
Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden.

Coffee

After dinner, we love a cup of filter coffee.

Our preference is the medium / dark roast from Origin Coffee which is "Sourced directly from the Muljane district in the high-altitude Shire Highlands of Malawi, this central African country's principal crops are tea and tobacco. Company director, Roger Sheppard, is a former South African plantation owner and coffee grower who personally selects the best beans of the crop from private estates to be imported into New Zealand, roasted and then packaged - ready for fresh delivery throughout New Zealand and the world!"

Recommended.

Check the ingredients

Always check that what you put in is what you think you are putting in!

We made a stunning pudding and served it up expecting rapturous compliments.

People were eating it but pulling faces and glancing looks and questions off each other. Eventually someone asked "Is this pudding supposed to be salty?"

The penny dropped! We used salt instead of sugar, The containers were both open and we were rushed.

One ruined pudding. A group of embarrassed chefs. A group of guests that were far too polite.

If in doubt, stick your finger in and taste!

Quick apple tart

1 sheet sweet pastry
1 tin pie apples
Sugar
Syrup

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Bake the pastry blind for 15 minutes.
Remove the blind and bake for another 5 minutes.
Spoon in the pie apples, sprinkle over the sugar and syrup and bake for another 5 - 10 minutes.
Serve with custard, cream or ice-cream.

Quick lasagne

1/2 kg mince
Chopped garlic and ginger
Herbs and spices
Chopped onion
3 Tbsp tomato puree
Packet soup mix - tomato or onion is best
1 tsp beef stock
Worcestershire sauce
HP sauce
2 cups hot water
3 cups lasagna squares - NOT lasagna sheets
Cup grated cheese

Sauce

2 tsp cornflour
Cup milk
2 eggs
Cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
Pour boiling water over the lasagna and leave for 5 minutes. Mix the ingredients from the mince to the HP sauce together. Add the hot water and combine together.

Layer in ovenproof dish as follows:

Mince
Lasagna
Cheese
Mince
Lasagna
Cheese
Mince

Bake for 50 minutes.

For the sauce, mix ingredients together and pour over lasagna bake. Bake at 160 degrees C for 10 to 15 minutes or until set.

Tools : Knives and spreaders

We bought these from Alison Holst

To quote:

"Serrated Knife

We find these knives unbelievably useful and we're sure you will too! They are perfect for cutting cooked meats, ripe fruit and vegetables, and slicing bread and baking. Treated carefully, these blades stay sharp for years. The serrated 110mm blade is rounded at the end with a black (dishwasher-proof) nylon handle, each knife comes in an individual plastic sheath.

Spreader/Scraper

After our knives, these must be the most used tools in our kitchens! With a comfortable plastic handle, metal shank and flexible plastic blade (suitable for use on non-stick surfaces), these are excellent for mixing muffin batters, stirring and scraping bowls, spreading icings, turning pikelets etc., etc...."

We can only agree - we like the knives so much we've got lots of them!

Aside : Red-hot pokers in the garden

Nothing like some vibrant colour to pierce the winter gloom.

Chocolate tart

1 sheet sweet pastry

50 g butter
250g dark chocolate - 70% cocoa is best - chopped
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup ground almonds
3 eggs
pinch salt

Bake the pastry blind in a oven-proof pudding plate at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes and then remove the blind items and bake for another 5 minutes.

In a double boiler, melt the butter, cream, chocolate, salt and half the sugar. Stir until almost melted and then remove from heat and keep stirring until cool.

Beat together the eggs and the rest of the sugar until pale - about 2 - 3 minutes.

Fold together with the melted ingredients and then gently fold in the ground almonds.

Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes or until cooked.

Serve with cream, ice cream or custard.

Warning dear reader - this pudding is both moreish and very rich.

Hamburgers

Some stale bread - 1 or 2 slices
1 finely chopped onion
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp beef stock
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp HP sauce
1 egg
1/2 kg mince
Herbs and spices
1 tsp garlic and the same for ginger

Sliced red pepper and tomatoes

Remove the crusts, cube the bread and soak in the milk.
Mix all ingredients in a bowl - hands are best.
Make into 4 large patties.
Place on a greased oven tray.
Cook for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees C. Check regularly as it burns quickly.

Serve on toasted buns with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, the sliced red pepper and tomatoes.

Hamburgers may not be gourmet cooking but home-cooked hamburgers are an order of magnitude better than the fast-food variety - and you know what went into them.

Check the oven

Rule number 1:

BEFORE you turn the oven on, check inside to ensure it's empty. My youngest child put her chips in a plastic bowl in the oven.

My eldest child turned on the oven before she started cooking without looking inside.

You can imagine the rest!

Rule number 2:

Refer to rule number 1.

Basic ingredients

Just about every main dish we cook starts off with the same basics:

Sweated onions, garlic and ginger. Gives the food colour, richness and a depth of flavour.

We often also add a dash of balsamic vinegar - this often puzzles people who ask "There's something in here that I can't quite put my finger on". You know the feeling.

Aside : Some vireyas in the garden

Nothing like a bit of colour in winter!

Spices as required

You'll see this dear reader in quite a few of the posts.

That's because half the fun is experimenting. The recipe is not going to be ruined if you substitute some cumin for coriander or leave out the chili!

Play around - that's half the fun.

We don't like bland food, we always add some kind of herbs and spices and we don't cook with salt. That can be added as desired when you tuck in.

Remember:

Life is too short to eat bland food
Variety is the spice of life (pun intended)

Jam steamed pudding

50g butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup self-raising flour
1 egg
Grated rind of 1 lemon - juice optional
1/2 cup milk
3 Tbsp jam - more if sweeter topping desired

Cream butter and sugar
Add lemon rind and egg and beat in
Sift in flour with milk
Place jam at the bottom of a pudding basin
Spoon batter over
Steam in a pot of boiling water for 1 hour - remember to place basin on top of a saucer to keep off the bottom

Serve with thinned syrup, custard or cream.

Chicken pie

1 sheet puff pastry
6 mushrooms
1 onion
500g cooked chicken
150g frozen vegetables (thawed)
150 ml cream
Herbs
Spices as required e.g. cumin, fengureek, coriander

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
Cook mushrooms and onion until soft
Add rest of ingredients and heat
Put all ingredients into pie dish, cover with rolled pastry (remember to make some holes so steam can escape)
Bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is browned

Burritos

1 Burrito kit
1 onion
Chili beans
Cheese
Tomatoes
Lettuce

1/2 kg mince.
1 onion

Brown the onion and add the mince. When almost cooked, add in the burrito mix and 1/2 cup of water. You don't want the mince to be too "wet".

Grate some cheese, chop tomatoes and lettuce finely.

Warm burrito in microwave for 1 minute.

Assemble mince, salsa sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and chili beans inside burrito, fold over and enjoy.

Chocolate self-saucing pudding.

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour.
2 Tbsp cocoa
50 g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Sauce

2 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups boiling water

Heat oven to 180 degrees C

Sift cocoa and flour. Soften butter and work into flour. Add the sugar and stir.

Beat in egg, milk and vanilla essence with dry ingredients to form a stiff mixture.

Scoop into greased 6 cup oven-proof bowl.

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over pudding. Pour over inverted spoon to avoid making a hole!

Bake for 45 minutes or until ready.

Serve with cream or ice-cream.

This pudding has as many recipes and variations as grains of sand on the beach. If you want lots of sauce (and isn't that the point) use more water. Don't let this pudding stand more than 5 minutes because the pudding will gradually absorb the sauce!

This is the first recipe my eldest child made entirely on her own!