Vexing Veganism

  I consider myself a fairly worldly Domestic Goddess. I’m up with all the newest superfoods, and latest diet trends and fads. I’ve cooked gluten-free gingerbread (read about that here), we have play dates with kids that are lactose intolerant (Oreos are a god/dess send!) and with a vegetarian sister-in-law I am quite adept at modifying my cooking and baking skills to whatever dietary requirements the diners may require. And, (if I do say so myself) I’m pretty good at it.

 But this weekend I hosted a dinner party for a work mate and his girlfriend who are Vegan. They have previously been Paleo, but decided to try vegan for health reasons, and as she was already vegetarian. They’ve been doing it for about 4 months and have been going along quite well – lots of yummy looking salads for lunch, an amazing brownie made with applesauce that was sent along to work, as well as cool new cafes with vegan menus they had discovered. So I though having them over for dinner would just mean looking through my recipe book and picking a handful of potentials.

 How wrong I was.

 Let’s start with entrée or nibbles. My Go-To is usually a cheese/dip platter, with maybe some cabana/cured meats. So just make it vegetarian dips, carrot/celery and crackers right?? Easy! Well yes, but most “crackers” (apart from water cracker and rice crackers) have butter as well “milk solids” in them. So none of my fave Lavosh bikkies got put out, but I did get to whip out the recipe for a roasted capsicum dip (muhumara) and make that. And I also made the good ol’ bake-in-your-oven pita crisps (olive oil spread on a pita bread with or without a sprinkle of paprika and baked at 200’C for 10 mins until crispy). Add some carrot and celery and a (store bought) roasted onion hummus and we were starting well.

 Main course I figured would be pretty easy; after all I’ve been cooking vegetarian meals for years! I had plenty of soup options (minestrone, red lentil etc) but that didn’t really say “Dinner Party Main Course" to me (more like “Casual Lunch”). I have a great stuffed mushroom recipe that I thought I could substitute pesto for the fetta – forgetting that pesto has Parmesan (fail). My dahl recipe is vegan (as long as I use vegetable stock and not chicken) but again, not really fancy.  Or maybe a big plate of roasted veges? With gravy made with vege stock? Suitable but Not likely.

  Not to worry, I have a Heap of pasta recipes – surely they can be vegan-ised!!

 First option was a “vege bolognaise” that uses a heap of veges and some lentils to make it seem hearty and "meaty". I’ve cooked this before and it has worked well. Add some home made fettuccine and we’d be on to something! (even without Parmesan to top it off)

 However.

 Husband does take issue with things that Should be meat that Aren’t (don’t get him started on vegetarian lasagna!). So that go struck out.

 Then there is a great recipe that uses roast pumpkin and pine nuts, but also Persian fetta (*sigh*). Then I had several gnocchi recipes, which again, sometimes used parmesan (starting to panic slightly)

 Luckily I have a sweet potato gnocchi recipe that is just sweet potato, (normal) potato and flour – phew! The sauce is a “roast capsicum with gorgonzola” which (as I despise gorgonzola) I have made without the cheese before and its still quite delicious. But then on closer inspection, it has cream in the sauce (Argh!!).  Would it still stand up without cream? Just to be safe I added a few more steps from another pasta sauce recipe to give it a bit more flavour (frying onion and garlic, deglazing with white wine etc).

 Dessert, I knew was going to be tough – not being able to use butter, eggs or milk pretty much cancels out all of my Dessert cook book section! I know there are lots of vegan desserts, but they seem to use a lot of dates and other very sweet things which (ironically) is what I’m trying to avoid in MY diet. I can’t even use honey with vegans! Though, thankfully maple syrup would have been ok. 

 I could have spent several hours searching  on Google, or caught up with my vegan school mum friend and picked her brain, but as time was running short, I went with the easy option of a fresh fruit/nut platter and some of the yummy Loving Earth (vegan) chocolate that I had (conveniently) been gifted for a birthday present. I am happy to report that Salted Caramel Swayzee and Very Buck n’ Berry were both delicious (in a totally non-chocolate way) and Husband found a yummy (if expensive) punnett of strawberries to have with some grapes.

 And thankfully my guests were not too fussed when it come to which wine to drink because egg whites are a common agent used in wine production = sheesh! I’m learning so much from this!!

 So the pasta sauce came together nicely (and had the kitchen smelling of roasted capsicum all afternoon). The gnocchi was a bit tricky in that it was quite a sticky dough, even with adding more flour than suggested. And also leaving it to sit  it for a few hours did make it more like globs rather than lovely “parcels”. But they still tasted yummy, and when smothered in sauce, who cares what they look like!

 But as with all dinner party, the most important ingredient was the people, who were lovely and gracious about the lengths I had taken to ensure I was correctly feeding them. And we exchanged tips about using applesauce and flaxseed meal as an egg alternative, which will be very helpful for the Next time we have them over for dinner.

 In the meantime I’m googling vegan chocolate cake for a special Friday treat....

Tra-Dish-onally

 Traditions – those time honoured rituals that can put a big smile on your face and make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, or conversely scowl and fume with obligation. They can have been around for thousands of years or just a nice recent habit that kept going. On the whole, I love A Tradition – something that you often get to do only once a year, which reminds you of the fun times you had doing it in previous years. Some are outdated, some don’t correspond to our hemisphere and some we’ve just adapted for the obscurest of reasons, and some are just, well, Tradition.

 It was Easter the weekend just passed; four days with lots of traditions (some more strictly adhered to than others)

Tradition: we catch up with friends (Mr and Mrs Frenchman) for dinner.

 This lovely tradition has been happening since the early Getting-to-Know-You days of our friendship; in fact I think it was our third or fourth dinner together that we caught up on Good Friday, because I happened to mention that I cooked homemade Hot CrossBuns. Which became that dinner’s dessert. And I think we've caught up every Easter since; 4 days off means 3 nights to catch up, plus there is usually a baby sitter or two available. So it was our turn to host this time. But what to serve?

  I do love the planning stage of dinners. You can start in one cuisine and end up totally in another. I usually start with a dish or a theme in mind and go from there, but this time I had Nothing. Nada. Not even a half inkling. Maybe is the working-full-time thing, where I am cooking less during the week plus being a Bit Worn Out, but I hadn’t the vaguest flash of inspiration. I thought maybe something pork? but that was only because I had seen a few recipes using it recently. Plus it was a white meat…

Tradition: don’t eat red meat on Good Friday.

 Ahhh That religious tradition. This was one I strictly adhered to throughout my childhood – you would always have fish fingers or I & J fish fillets for dinner on Good Friday. As I got older and realized where the tradition came from, I took great joy in eating hamburgers, or spaghetti bolognaise or steak on Good Friday. But this year, it seemed like a good source of inspiration (or madness).

 I would make Fish Tacos. Again.

 Whenever I have a recipe fail (read here if you need a reminder), I always feel I need to go back and Get It Right. Prove that I am the Domestic Goddess that I like to think that I am. So this one had been bugging me for a while, and if Good Friday wasn’t a good day to cook fish then I didn’t know when was!

 Right – so Tacos. Which makes me think of Mexican. And the Tapas Feast that wasn’t. I had the same dinner guests which meant they would have a chance to try the dishes they missed out on (except the pulled pork tacos), such as sherry glazed chorizo and chickpeas and patatas bravas. And now we had a Theme (sort of)

 Dessert is always tricky in Mexican meals, so I decided to ignore that and just cook something yummy. The latest Delicious Mag had a chocolate dessert sections so I had a short list of about 5 to choose from. But I ended up going with the Baked Doughnuts (with whiskey chocolate glaze). Possibly because all the proving and rising of the dough reminded me of hot cross buns, possibly because of the chocolate whiskey glaze (so Easter but so Adult), possibly because I figured I could make non-glazed ones for the kiddies to munch on. But mainly because I had this picture staring at me from benchtops for a week or two

You want to eat them, don't you?!?

 Plus, being doughnuts, this was a dessert that was more …..hol(e)y 

 And I was interested in making Baked doughnuts, as one of the reasons I am reluctant to make traditional doughnuts more often is the whole Frying in a Large Pot of Boiling Oil thing. Which I really should get over as I have about 4 or 5 yummy looking recipes to try.

 Right so mains and dessert sorted, just appetisers/nibbles to organise. Well, that was easy.

Tradition: we start our dinners with bubbles and cheese.

Champagne is a no-brainer. I think most of my celebrations and parties officially start when the cork is popped. Cheese is a Let’s-Be-French tradition that we have heartily adopted (though our hearts probably don’t appreciate too much d’aphinois).

So menu sorted, ingredients purchased and a day off to get it all sorted.

Tradition: I will forget at least one ingredient.

  So this time, it wasn’t a Forgetting, rather than an Assuming – that the ice cream we had in the freezer was vanilla, when in fact it was Cookies and Cream, which is quite yummy but might just be a bit too much chocolate for some. But where to buy ice cream on Good Friday when all the supermarkets are closed? I had hope my local petrol station/mini-supermarket would have some small tubs but alas they didn’t so we switched to cream for dessert. No biggie.

 The chickpeas were another story. Now in my defence they were on the shopping list, just put it down to shopping on the Thursday Before Good-Friday (when people at supermarkets are mental!!) by Mr DG (the artist formerly known as Hubby). Luckily I had two small tins in the cupboard for use in salads, so it just meant a smaller batch, but as it was a Side dish that was ok.

 Not sure what happened to the fresh coriander, I think that was me. But luckily the dried stuff worked ok.

Tradition: The new recipe I try will be almost perfect (but not quite).

 Common hostessing lore suggests you never cook a new recipe when throwing a dinner party. I use dinner parties to try out new recipes! Which as readers will know, usually turns out ok. But more often than not there is something that could be improved. The doughnuts were going along swimmingly, rising and proving. I didn’t have a 3.5cm cookie cutter for cutting out the holes so had to freehand it. The glaze was all made and I was preparing to dip them. However I don’t think I let the glaze cool quite enough as it was still a bit runny, which mean they weren’t as picture perfect as the cover. Still tasted quite yummy, if anything it meant there was more glaze to dip your doughnut in (which is never a bad thing).

 

"Mmmmmm ... double glazed.."

 So all things pre-prepared as much as possible, guests arrived,, champagne popped and cheese munched on while I cooked the dinner. Learning from my mistake, I had the frypan in med-LOW (not med-high) for cooking the fish and had plenty of olive oil in the Good Frypan (the one whose non-stick base hasn’t been scratched and worn away). And the tacos turned out great! My only Point of Improvement would be to not “flour” them until just before cooking (the recipe calls for throwing your pieces of fish into a mix of flour ad spices to coat them). The flour did become a bit like a paste on some pieces, which thankfully didn’t increase their sticking to the pan-ness.

 So with nicely cooked fish, some yummy salsa and sour cream, and tapas side dishes, out Mexican feast was ready to consume.

Front-back: Fish, tortillas, salsa, lettuce, sour cream, patatas bravas
(& sauce) and sherry glazed chickpeas

 Followed up by yummy doughnuts (for those that still had room), it marked another delicious Easter feast....

Not as pretty as the picture but still yum

... even if the glaze slid off and it was cream not ice cream on the side.

What traditions do you like to follow (or ignore)?

S'more and more

 Cooking is such a collaborative process. There are only so many ingredients to cook with (until they find the next super food that is OMG totes amazeballs and will, like, totally Save Your Life!!) and unless you get all finicky and molecular gastronomic (yes, it’s a word), only so many way to cook it. So you take a handed down recipe from Grandma and tweak it yourself, you substitute an ingredient for another you prefer and a new dish is born, you see an idea and think – Hmmm, I can do better than that. Which is my favourite part – seeing an idea in a magazine, on a Pintrest board or in a You Tube video; and making something cooler and (slightly) newer.

 Here are some of my recent creations, or Riffs on the Traditional.

Oreo Ice Cream Sandwiches

I’m not sure where my fascination for ice cream sandwiches came from, but I’m going to blame Ro from Nerdy Nummies, who had these super cute cheeseburgers ice cream sandwiches. And then she followed them up with Captain America ice cream sandwiches! (love the star on that one). And THEN I saw a Jamie Oliver recipe with a sponge like “bread” rather than biscuits. Plus we went to Fat Bob’s Burgers (which I highly recommend) and they had Pat and Stick’s IceCream sandwiches, which were small enough for Son 1 and 2 to have one each – hooray! So it just got  to a point where I felt I HAD to make them. Like when you see a new fashions trend that you think you’d NEVER wear but after seeing it over and over and over, you start to think, “yeah, I could totally pull off harem pants!”.

 I decided to stick with cookies for my “bread” and was going to go with a basic sugar cookie recipe like Ro, but while flicking through my recipe book I glanced at my Double Chocolate Cookies recipe. Hmmm (me thinks) – if I don’t add the white choc chips, that would make a great chocolate cookie recipe. And THEN it would be like an Oreo – chocolate biscuits with vanilla filling – winner!

 I made the cookies using a scone cutter to get a sensible size (which, for those of you playing along at home, is small enough to eat in one hand). Watching Ro’s two rather unsuccessful attempts to make the ice cream centres, I devised my own; allow your ice cream to soften and then spoon it into your cookie cutter (much like making a vege burger); pop these circles on a tray back in the freezer until serving time when you assemble said sandwiches- much less mess and fuss and wastage and faffing.

You will note that the scone cutter didn't make Perfect Circles of Ice Cream.
 Which I kind of like 

 And two big thumbs up from the 5 boys I served them to as well.

S’mores cookies.

 This one was more of a direct substitution. My Cupcake Addiction had a great video on Bake Sale Hacks, which had some really cute ideas. Now while I will probably never make a Twix Pie, I did like the idea of the S’mores cookies.

 S’mores have been another treat that has been kicking around my brain for a while; it’s the whole American thing as well as it taking me so long to figure out What they were, and I STILL haven’t worked out how to make them on a campfire! So these cookies seemed like a great idea for a burnt-finger-less S’more. And while I love choc chip cookies, I did think that the traditional Graham cracker would work better. But as we all know, we don’t HAVE them in Australia, to the vexation of many American ex-pats and those who have partaken of the s’mores while overseas. As luck would have it, Ro had done a video where she made s’mores cookies, as well as the marshmallow filling From Scratch! So I grabbed her recipe, adjusted it for Australian cooking (note – Pastry Flour is not SR Flour or Plain pasta flour; its  something we don’t have Down Under– I got a conversion that its plain flour with cornflour mixed in. OK? OK).

 So I made a heap of graham cracker circles; I was even going to put a smiley faces on them (with two choc chip eyes) and call them Smiley S’mores but thought perhaps too much chocolate? Maybe next time….

  When I added the chocolate and marshmallow to melt, I found that if I had my oven on Really Low it took forever (I blame my electric oven that takes Forever to heat up!) – so I bumped up the heat and kept an eye on them. I found that the freezer is indeed better than the fridge for “setting” them, after which you can then store them in a container until they are devoured by the 9 kids at your lunch-catch-up.

  So with the success if them, it was only a matter of time before I made the link to ….

S’mOreos Cookies

I think Son 1 and I where chatting about whether he could have a s’mores cookie or an Oreo as his “treat”, when I made the glorious link to a s’moreos: marshmallow/chocolate filling but with Chocolate biscuit rather than Graham Cracker. (who was saying something about too much chocolate??). So substituting the cookie recipe from my ice cream oreos worked a treat, and they looked good as that recipe makes quite a dark chocolate cookie, which meant you could see the milk chocolate inside.

 Again heartily munched on by one and all, definitely a Treat rather than Snack, but it gave me the satisfaction of (maybe) creating a new cookie (which will go straight to my Pintrest board)

 What new dishes or baking creations have you come up with?

Hot Chocolate

 I do love it when you work out a solution to a problem – especially when it doesn't involve paying someone/buying something/spending hours searching on the internet. It can be as simple as a system for taking washing off the line (Things that needs a hot iron off first so they are at the bottom of the basket and will be ironed last when the iron is the hottest), or for keeping you Tupperware drawer tidy (lids all in one spot people!). Thankfully this was a bit more of an interesting problem to solve – how to keep melted chocolate, well… melted.

 After my recent fondant fetish (click here and here and here!), I had started experimenting with melted chocolate as a decorating tool. It started with plans for Son 2’s Minecraft birthday party, which involved making black shapes for Creeper faces.

This is a Creeper. It explodes if you get too close. Just so you know

 While I was wandering the cake supplies shop, I noticed that black chocolate melts were much cheaper per kg than the black fondant. Interesting. PLUS chocolate could be piped in fine lines for smaller creeper faces (which I was planning to put on green rice krispie squares for taking to school) , where as it would be annoying to cut out very small slivers of fondant. AND it always looked so easy when my You Tube bloggers used it – what could possibly go wrong?

 Well.

 Melted chocolate assumes a liquid form. And the hotter it is, the more liquid it becomes, to the point of it oozing and not making pretty straight lines like you are supposed to. Not good when you are a perfectionist bordering on–OCD.

Not my finest work. They either look possessed, evil or stupid (still tasted yum though).

 Melted chocolate also has a tendency to set when it cools. And this doesn't always happen once it is piped out, it can also happen while it sits in your piping bag. Which leads to lumps of semi solid chocolate blocking up your piping nozzle, and it coming out unevenly. Which leads to much Fiddling and Fixing and Touch Ups and Swearing and Stress.

Like a Monet - good from a distance but a mess up close

 At first I thought it was just the colored chocolate, as it took quite a while to melt and didn't really mix together very well. But when I had the same problem using good ol’ Cadbury that I realised it was a Chocolate Issue.

My Groot Sundaes: more "messy" than "gnarled tree" appearance
(click here for what they were supposed to look like)

 So what to do?? I could use royal icing for all of my future decorating. It pipes nicely, colours well and you can keep it in the fridge between times.

(and a little goes a long way)

 But it doesn't taste as nice. And it’s not chocolate.

 So a solution had to be found. Especially with my plans to make gingerbread trees for my Christmas gifts this year.

LOTS of gingerbread trees!  (this was batch 1 of 3)

 At first I tried microwaving the chocolate intermittently, which worked well. I found I could ice and decorate four trees before it needed a minute in the microwave. But I had to unscrew the metal piping tip and scrape out the solidified chocolate each time. Annoying. And stop piping. More annoying.

 I did think about some sort of hot water bath to put the piping bag in, but I have found the no matter how carefully you seal the bag up or pop it in several plastic bags, water still gets in and ruins your chocolate. Not helpful

 There are cool cups (as in Cold, rather than Clever and Awesome) that you can put in the freezer to keep your drinks cool over summer, I just needed a Hot version .

 So I made one myself! Pour boiling water in a large cup, place a smaller cup inside and voila!

 (I shall add a picture here when I take one at this weekend's piping session)

Pop your piping bag in it in between sprinkled sanding sugar or carefully placing cachoos and you are ready to for your next set of trees. So simple, so cheap, so effective, so clever (well, I think so).

Oh! Christmas tree (s)

 So I hope that this has helped you to keep your chocolate hot and your piping pretty.

In other Kitchen News, I received a kitchen blowtorch at the weekend, so look forward to a creme brulee post in the future (which will hopefully not be entitled “What can go wrong with a Kitchen Blowtorch" or "Effective Ways to put out a Kitchen Fire")

The Way the Cookie (I mean, Biscuit) Crumbles

I have been brooding on biscuits lately; cogitating on cookies if you will. An article in Epicure this week was the inspiration for this blog (Big Bikkies), but they had been on my mind for a few different reasons (and stay with me because this will meander is a bit).

 While celebrating Independence Day (4th July) the other week, we had toasted marshmallows. They were toasted in our kitchen over a candle as it was blowing a gale outside, but at least we got into the spirit of things! One of my girlfriends who moved to America, then sent me a receipe for S'mores ("If you have success roasting marshmallows over a candle, you'll have to try this recipe! ... they're delish!"). They were something I had heard of (thanks, Buzz Lightyear) but hadn't ever found out what they were; and here's the link for anyone else waiting to be enlightened: Classic S'mores. Only in America would they think of adding melted chocolate to a toasted marshmallow!! I was quite excited to try these out the next time we had a campfire, but was stymied by the inclusion of "graham crackers". And since they were out of stock at USA Foods, I googled to find the Australian equivalent. The consensus was a Digestive biscuit (most commonly used in cheesecake bases) or a Marie biscuit; which ironically some Americans-in-Australia thought made their s'mores too sweet. I have decided to wait until I have the "proper" ingredients, but it did get me thinking (again) about the different foods we grow up with in different countries.

 Of couse you can't get much more Australian than Tim Tams, which was always the "special treat" biscuit in my house growing up (though with 11 in the packet (and five in our family) there was always a fight over the last one). Family folklore has it that my Dad would eat Tim Tams for breakfast (with warm milk of course); a delicacy he introduced to my delighted cousin one sleepover. They have stayed high on my list, though I have moved to the Double Coat Tim Tams in the last few years (better chocolate to biscuit ratio), and have been quietly impressed with the new flavours that have come out recently (Turkish Delight is divine!!). This is a love I have passed on to my children, who are allowed a Tim Tam as dessert; only after eating all their dinner (and a tub of yoghurt). Son 2 has a "Tim Tam Phone" where he takes off the top biscuit and then proceeds to talk to people ("Hello, Hello! I'm on a Tim Tam Phone!!); Son 1 just eats them.

  Growing up, we also had chocolate Teddy Bear biscuits and Mint Slices, though the latter did seem to infuse all the biscuits in the tin with a minty flavour. And on super special occasions (translation: when mum was away for the weekend) we were treated to the delicacy that is an Iced Vo Vo (has anyone ever seen an un-iced Vo Vo? I can imagine it would be very depressing). Like most kids of my era, I learned to tell the time with Tic Toc biscuits (pink not yellow!) and I have vivid memories of my friend in grade one having a Shortbread Cream (wrapped carefully in waxed paper)  every day for play-lunch. I obviously didn't have anything nearly as exciting as I can't remember what I had! And then there was the joy of the Arnotts Assorted packs - Family assorted, with the Scotch Fingers and Teddy Bear Biscuits, and Assorted Cream if you were really fancy. My go-to was always the Monte Carlo (I loved the weird white and red centre), until someone put me on to Kingston biscuits. Already being a fan of Butternut Snaps, it was natural I would fall in love with these mini versions with a chocolate centre (even if the ad for them was ridiculous).

Then there are the home- made biscuits and family recipes. I have yet to find a better Yo-Yo biscuit than my gradnmother makes; but that may have to do with everywhere trying to make them so large! If you can't fit one in your mouth in one go, it's too big. 
 Being Australian, Anzacs were made every April, and I always found it funny that my Aunt's were the thin and crispy version while my dad's were the thicker "cookie" style. Both delicious for different reasons. My dad also introduced me to the perenially American Tollhouse Cookies, the recipe for which he found on the side of the choc bits package. They were nice, but I prefer a chunkier style; probably because the first "cookie" I was introduced to was  Mrs Fields Semi Sweet Macademia Nut (still my No.1 when I feel the urge). Which brings me to my own biscuit making adventures.

 It has well documented that I am always on the lookout for The Best Biscuit recipe (Baked Goods). I was very excited when I found the Neiman Marcus cookie receipe, figuring that if Americans didn't have the best cookie* receipe, then what hope was there for the rest of us?? It does make a delicious cookie, but is a bit fiddly in its preparation and so has fallen away to be replaced by a much simpler double-choc recipe (from Delicious 'Baking'), where there are two types of chocolate (plus or minus macadamia nuts); versus the other double choc receipe which is a chocolate mix with white chocolate chunks. The most recent addition to my cookie repertoire are Hot Chocolate Cookies, which were part of a Latin America special in Delicious magazine. They were a chocolate mix with chocolate chips, and a touch of chilli and cayenne pepper to give it a kick. Divine.
 And of course being a mother, I have an extensive collection of cookie cutters for making gingerbread shapes, decorated with smarties of course! Such a great activity to get the kids to help make the dough (taking turns adding the ingredients), then choosing their shapes (dinosaur or aeroplane? Crocodile or rocket?) and then waiting for them to cook. I'm not sure whether its the Making or the prospect of Eating that enthuses my boys about cooking, but I don't mind either way. I had them assisting me with making madeleines (for Bastille Day) at the weekend, which I'm still not sure if they are a biscuit or a small cake but they were declious and we ate almost the whole batch!

 So whether you whip up a batch of snickerdoodles to put in the cookie jar, have a Tim Tam Slam or steal the last Delta Cream from the bikkie barrel, enjoy your biscuits any way you can.


* I feel I must clarify my position here on what is a Cookie and what is a Biscuit. In the article, it had Hugh Jackman correcting Oprah Winfrey that a Time Tam is a "biscuit" and I would heartily agree with him. In my expereince, a "cookie" only applies to the American style chewy biscuits, usually with chocolate and nuts. Anything else sweet is a biscuit. (not sure where a "cracker" falls into this categorisation; probably leans towards is being a savoury biscuits, like a rice cracker or water cracker). But really, who cares. As long as they are yum and satisfy that afternoon energy slump.

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 An epilogue to my biscuit adventures occurred at the weekend, where it was my first time cooking medicinal biscuits. Now before you get excited, these are not the cookies or brownies that are illegal in Australia (but soon to be legal in Colorado); these were Lactation Cookies; or as my new-mum friend so eloquently called them; Boobie Bikkies! Somehow I managed to get through breastfeeding two of my own children without realising these things existed. They are biscuits designed to sustain or increase your breast milk supplies, with the special ingredients being linseed (or flaxseed) meal and brewers yeast. According to the many recipes I found online, it doesn’t really matter what other ingredients the biscuits have, and it’s actually more beneficial to eat the dough raw. Being the non-breastfeeding-baking-friend, I chose to bake them (much easier to transport)!

 Having tracked down the essential ingredients (a health food store will sort you out) I proceeded to mix up a batch for two of my friends who had given birth within the same week. I decided on adding white chocolate and cranberries as I though the cranberries would give an extra boost to their immune systems (if they’re medicinal, I want to make them as beneficial as possible!). However, the next batch I make will be more chocolatey (and even double choc)! Having never cooked with brewers yeast before, I didn’t realise the delightful smell and aftertaste it added to the cookies. Its kind of like off vegemite, but not as sweet.; mmmmm. The recipe called for “heaped tablespoons” and knowing this was an Important Ingredient I was probably a bit heavy handed, and the sourness of the cranberries  didn’t really help to offset or disguise the taste. But the New Mums ate them enthusiastically and were very grateful (and I was the favourite guest of one of the hospital midwives; which is always helpful when you arrive just at the end of visiting hours!).

 So making Batch No.2 tonight with lots of Cadbury chocolate chunks; and I think this will be a helpful addition to my Visiting the New Baby care package (which currently includes a small bottle of champagne and some sort of soft cheese). Yum!

Hello Sweetie

 Reading Epicure in The Age this week, there was an article titled "Lollies We Love"  (http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-food/food-news/lollies-we-love-20130128-2dfyj.html)
 Someone had done their PhD on lollies! Australian lollies through the years to be precise. I'm not sure why (or how) they chose this topic and what area of study it relates to (maybe they'll be a Doctor of Lolliology), and what the qualifications of the assessor must have been (I want THAT job), but who cares! Lollies and Sweets and Candy O My!! So instead of a PhD, I present my DgB.

"Lollies are talisman of their era ... Many of our best memories revolve around lollies".
You bet your sweet bippy they do.

 I have always been a Sweet Tooth. Always. Maybe its genetic, my parent's (Mum is a Cherry Ripe fan, Dad is partial to black jelly beans) courtship was apparently moved along nicely by a well timed packet of scorched almonds.  I remember the Great Childhood Ritual of buying lollies at the Milk Bar; the agonising over how to get the best value for money. Do you buy five 1 cent lollies or one 5 cent lollie? This was when 20c would buy you a decent bag of mixed lollies (a 50c bag and you were set for a week!) and you still could buy Fags and chocolate cigars with the red ends. I remember the freaky but utterly cool sensation of crunching on Moon Rocks, of trying to make a tune with a Melody Pop and of long long car trips punctuated by the Tupperware container of Raspberries handed around the back seat. There was the excitement of getting the chocolate "stocking" at Christmas and wondering who was going to want the Mint Pattie or Coconut Rough, and the joy when Santa discovered the Cadbury Stocking. I honed my memory skills learning all of the Quality Street and Roses selections thanks to a yearly chocolate box gift from a family friend (and still no one can tell me what a Noisette Pate is).
 In high school were the slumber parties where we dared each other to try Warheads (which were actually fine once you got through that outer layer), and I got through Year 12 Swot Vac with a packet a Darrel Lea soft eating licorice by my side. Dates at the movies with Hubby To Be involved sharing almost a whole bag of peanut MnM's during the previews. I had the phase where sucking on Chupa Chumps was "cool", and I could probably rustle up a few "holders" if I looked hard enough. Late afternoon slumps brought on by Physics lectures at Uni were often remedied by a Snickers Bar from the vending machine (until I realised they had the highest fat content of any chocolate bar and switched to a Time Out, or a Twirl; much healthier)
  In my working life, I was fortunate (or not) to be within walking distance of a Haigh's chocolates store and those famous Frogs. If we were having one of Those days, there would be the pooling of gold coins for someone to do a "Haigh's Run" - the choice was up to the runner, but Speckles were always a good choice, as was their Nut Combination, Berry Chocs were the In things for a while but there was always the Frogs if you were feeling particularly flush with Cash.

 So as you can see, lollies and I have had a long and delicious history.

 And since we've just celebrated Australia Day, let give a shout-out to all those distinctly "Aussie Lollies" - Jaffas that were apparently awesome for rolling down the aisles at the movies (what a waste of good chocolate!), Minties who had the added enjoyment of the wrapper ripping contest to see who could get the longest ribbon, Violet Crumble (though I was always more a of a Crunchie Girl myself. And then that blissful spell when Crunchie Nuggets were out! The Perfect proportion of chocolate to honeycomb!!), Fruit Tingles and Life Savers (and seeing who could get it to the smallest circle without it breaking), Choo Choo Bars that you would always find half-eaten and smooshed to some furniture/clothing/car seat like tar, Redskins which always remind me of Mill Valley Ranch (but not the Spearmint! Sacrilege!), Turkish Delight which has been a sweet around the world for eons but it took an Aussie to put it in chocolate, Cherry Ripes which are apparently one of the only Australian delicacies that you can't get in Northern America (much to my Brother's chagrin), Peppermint Crisp which I have never seen eaten by anyone -  just crunched on top of a chocolate ripple cake (Flake was also a good topping option, but the melted green always looked much more impressive), Fantales which were consumed once a  year while watching the Oscars, Kit Kats which were pretty good all along, but then they became Chunky and reached a new level of yum (higher chocolate to wafer ratio! Am I the only person who want a mini Kit Kat Chunky?) and of course Mars bars - not only delicious but a great ingredient in the best "baking" options around; Mars Bar Slice.

 But of course being brought up on a steady stream of American movies and TV shows, I always knew there was more Out There. Hersheys were the first exotic chocolate bar I tasted, and then fell in love with their Cookies and Cream. My girlfriend's travels to the US brought me Reece's and all their wonderful incarnations - peanut butter cups and Piece and more. I got over the weird flavour and sensation of Big Red gum to request it from anyone who was going to America, I loved Galaxy when I was in the UK and even tried Tiffin (chocolate with raisins and biscuits chunks) when a friend sent it over. And then Canada brought us Turtles with their oddly shaped pecans and caramel in chocolate.

 So much chocolate, not nearly enough salad and exercise!

 So what does a Sweet Tooth like me choose to crave now? Well, the peanut MnM's have stayed consistently in my lollie jar, even though they have a pretty high fat content (Almond MnMs just don't taste as good); my reasoning is that there is less chocolate in each one, so one or two won't hurt (especially if you have them with a handful of raw mixed nuts as I do somethings to assuage my guilt). If Hubby or I venture near a Haighs store, we know that Chocolate Macadamias are the go-to purchase (Turkish Delight for him, though he'd probably prefer a good French cheese. Weirdo). As for chocolate, I have adopted a slight snobbery in that Nothing Less Cadbury (sorry Red Tulip and Rowntree), with Lindor being the chocolate of choice. I try to have block and Lindor balls in hand, because some days you don't feel like the awesome yumminess that are Lindor balls. I prefer Milk, but do love the choice afforded by the box of Assorted - Dark when I'm feeling virtuous, Mint for a bit of difference and Hazelnut for trying to spin it that its healthier.

 And what about the next generation? What will be the lollies that take my kids back to their childhood? This being the No Artificial Colours or Flavours  No Sugar No Peanuts No Gluten No Additive generation; the one that ate the plate of fruit kebabs at Son 2's party but left the plate of chocolate crackles. I can't speak for all kids but mine are partial to Smarties or MnMs (because they are ones that Mummy can dole out one at a time guilt free). Kinder Surprise score well, but that may be more to do with the cool toys inside. And really, anything that comes in a party bag is greeted with a smile.
 But the choice for my boys when they've eaten their dinner and a yogurt and thus qualify for a Special Treat? "Tim Tam please!"

 Aussie Aussie Aussie.