Cooking Up a Storm

Jayden played Rugby at North Harbour yesterday, before staying on to watch the Battle Of The Bridge between Auckland & North Harbour.  Taryn and I were supposed to go as well, but with me having just got over being sick and her still in the throws of it, the weather decided otherwise for us.

So instead, I got busy in the kitchen.  Firstly I made this pastry snack for the boys to have when they got home.  It is super easy.  I saw it in a magazine and just adapted it to suit.  1 sheet of puff pastry.  Mark a cut about 1 cm from the edge all the way around (careful not to cut right through), then prick centre section all over with a fork.  Rub the centre section over with pizza sauce (avoiding the 1 cm border), then top with shredded ham or salami or pastrami or hot pork or whatever you want (just a little goes a long way, I used 4 small pieces of pastrami), then scatter over tiny cubes of a nice cheese (I used Gouda), then tiny pieces of sun dried tomato.  Finally cover with a layer of partly cooked potatoes, drizzle over Olive oil and a pinch of herbs, a quick grind of rock salt and bake at 190 until the edge of the pastry has puffed and is golden brown.  Yummo.

As I already had the pastry thing going on, another sheet of pastry provided pudding.  Cut 1 sheet into 4 squares, then mark each square with a line 1 cm from the edge (taking care not to cut right through).  Prick the centre of each piece all over with a fork.  Spread 1 tsp of maple syrup on the centre section only of each square.  Lay peach slices on the centre square and sprinkle over either raw sugar of coffee crystals and bake at 190 until golden brown.

In between this, I actually got dinner on - Wine Braised Beef with Herby Dumplings - A recipe from one of my Destitute Gourmet books - Super yum and the family love it!  While that was in the crock pot, I then decided to make a chocolate cheesecake brownie.  Pretty sure it is similar, if not the same recipe as Glenna tried out at camp.  I found the recipes in the latest 'Recipes' magazine - pg 83. Totally yum.  I marbled mine a lot more than the recipe showed, but the effect was cool and not so many large chunks of baked cream cheese then either.  The first photo is of it ready to go into the oven, the 2nd just as it came out.    Kids took some to school today for morning tea, along with the leftover potato pastry thing for lunch.