Archive for the ‘- Fun’ Category

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How to….make a golf cake

Sunday, December 16th, 2012

It was my dad’s 80th Birthday last week so I teamed up with my mum to make a special cake for him.

My mum made 2 sponge cakes using a 12 inch square cake tin and her “no fail” hot butter milk sponge cake recipe (check out Myrna’s Birthday cake ) This recipe mixes sugar with the eggs and then folds in the flour (which has been sifted 3 times to make the sponge really light and fluffy!)Meanwhile you bring the butter and milk to the boil letting it bubble up to the top of the saucepan and then pour it in to the cake mixture.  Then pour the mixture into a well greased tin and bake for 20 minutes and then turn out on a rack to cool.

With the 2 cakes step 1 is to sandwich the cakes together – we do this with a layer of whipped cream topped with slices of strawberries and bananas and then cover the fruit with more whipped cream.

Step 2 – Take a dessert spoon and spoon out an area of the top cake – for a bunker and use the cake that has been carved out to to make a hill

Step 3. Make some butter icing and set aside a bowlful and then colour the rest green for the grass and cover the square with light green butter cream icing.  Put the icing underneath the “hill” to stick it in place and  cover it on top

Step 4.Take the white butter icing and fill the hole to make the bunker

Step 5 – Take some dessicated coconut and put into a bowl or bag a mix or shake with some green food colouring – to make the grass.

Step 6 – Sprinkle the coconut around the edge of the cake for the grass and make some darker green icing for the green.

step 7.  Add the finishing touches with a flag on the green and a golf ball – some fir trees and a golfer!

And although I dont have a photo of the cake with candles at the birthday lunch – this is my Dad (and mum and 4 of his 5 grandchildren – waiting for the cake to come!)

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National Olympic dishes

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

I thought it would be fun to find out the national dish from all the counties competing in the London Olympics 2012 – I wonder where some of the athletes will be finding these meals or whether they have brought the ingredients with to make it themselves

There are 204 countries competing so I am going to choose the first 3 on the list to highlight today

Starting with Afghanistan – the first one on the list – apparently their food is neither very spicy nor bland but highly seasoned.  The national dish is Qabili  is which a gorgeous blend of rice, chicken, carrots, raisins and nuts for a crunch.

Albania’s national dish is Tave Kosi a lamb and Yoghurt recipes


Traditional Albanian Dish: Tave Kosi

  • 500-600 grams stew meat or lamb chops cut into 2 inch hunks
  • 3 tablespoons white rice
  • 1 liter white unsweetened yogurt room temperature
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1.5 tablespoons olive oil or 2 teaspoons butter for browning meat
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • salt and pepper as needed
  1. Lightly salt, pepper and roll meat hunks in flour. Heat butter or olive oil in heavy bottom pan and add meat chunks, turning each over as to brown meat on each side. Low-medium flame, be careful not to burn.
  2. Once browned, add 1/2 cup water and let simmer, covered, for 20 minutes until tender. Add more water if necessary.
  3. Remove meat and place chunks 1-2 inches apart in a roasting pan.
  4. In a medium pot (off heat), begin yogurt sauce by adding salt and pepper to taste. Beat 5 eggs in a bowl before adding to the yogurt mixture. Add sifted flour. Stir/whisk until smooth. Add the rice.
  5. Heat mixture on low-medium flame, stiring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken. Approximately 5-10 minutes. Do not boil.
  6. Pour thickened yogurt over the meat that is already in the pan. Cut butter into small pieces and spread evenly over top of yogurt mixture.
  7. Bake at about 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes. Yogurt will firm up and yellow, like a quiche.
  8. Remove from oven and serve 1-2 chunks of meat with 2-3 spoonfulls of warm yogurt-custard. This will delight the Albanian heart- man, woman and child.

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Make Cooking and Shopping Easy

Friday, May 18th, 2012

I just had to write this as when I talk to people about the functionality on our site they are amazed – but so many people don’t know the full scale of what you can do. (And it’s FREE!)

Last weekend I had some friends over for the first bbq of the season and I decided what I wanted to make – In fact I chose one of our dinner party menus (but selected the dessert from a different menu) and added each of the recipes to my shopping list

I then added the extra stuff from my list that I keep on the fridge and get the kids to write on when anything runs out or if they want something and added these extras at the bottom of the list.  By adding these in – The MyDish shopping list sorted everything into aisles so I wasnt running up and down the store to get all the things on my list.

I spoke to someone who said that she always uses MyDish shopping list to go shopping and just decides what recipes she wants in the week and creates her shopping list and when I spoke to her I thought so many peeople would use it if only they knew about it! – Its free for goodness sake!

You can either print off the list which is what I do so I can mark off everything as I get it, or you can email it to yourself or send it to your mobile!

Have a go, you won’t be disappointed!

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