Avocado salad!

Delicious!

Now I love a good caprese salad but sometime I just need something else. A little more texture.

In steps the avocado.

Super simple, super tasty.

Ingredients

Cherry tomatoes

Avocado

Mozzarella cheese

Lemon juice

Olive oil*

Salt and pepper**

Slice and mix it all up in a bowl

* Make sure you have a good quality extra virgin olive oil.

** I also added a splash of balsamic vinegar but it is great without if you don’t like it.

Ginger soy Veggie Kabobs!

I love these.
I make them every time we grill because I know I love them and there is a possibility I won’t love anything else I am cooking :D
So here they are":
Ingredients

• Veggies of your choice (I like pearl onions, red peppers, Zucchini and mushrooms.
  
• soy ginger sauce
  
• paprika
  
• red pepper flakes
  
• a little fresh basil
  
• olive oil
  
• honey
  
• a touch of chili powder

And guess what?
Its super easy to do.
Throw everything into a baggy and shake it up for a minute and then refrigerate for as long as you can then skewer (remember to soak them if they are wood skewers)
Heat up the grill for medium heat and then grill for 5-8 minutes.

Enjoy!!
Katey

Last Blueberries!

We had a left over tray of blueberries that were starting to look sad.

So out comes the buckle recipe.

I soaked the blueberries in water overnight just to re-plump them a little, laid them out, pulled out the bad ones and then we were set to go.

Blueberry Buckle

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of butter softened
  
• 3/4 cup of sugar
  
• 1 Egg
  
• 2 Cups flour
  
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  
• 1/2 cup of milk
  
• 2 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries.
  
  Topping
  
• 2/3 cup of sugar
  
• 1/2 cup of flour
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  
• 1/3 cup cold butter.

Directions:

1. In a small mixing bowl cream together the butter and sugar
   
2. Beat in the egg
   
3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt
   
4. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk
   
5. Fold in the blueberries
   
6. Pour into a greased 9inch baking pan
   
7. For the topping combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl.
   
8. Cut in the cold butter until its crumbly (I used my fingers to rub it in)
   
9. Sprinkle over blueberry mix
   
10. Cook in preheated oven at 375 for 40 to 45 minutes
    

Serve warm and enjoy!

We really liked this!

Steve said the topping was a little thick in places but i think that was because i only had a 8inch pan and so i had a smaller area to spread the topping over. So next time i will defiantly use a 9inch pan!

Genius

So my only issue with my mixer (see post below) was that you had to scrape the bowl to get everything to combine.

I was annoyed with this partly because i am lazy and therefore didn't want to have to scrape the bowl and partly because well i could use the hand mixer and not have to scrape the bowl!

So whilst making a sweep of my favorite store (oh what a wife i have turned into) Sur La Table we came across this Beater blade and after initial issues with getting the correct one for our model we are the proud owners of a beater that solves all the problems.

It scrapes the bowl while it turnes

Genius!

Adventures with pumpkin

The only pumpkin thing i had tried before coming here had been pumpkin pie which i really didn't like.

Since being here i have tried a bunch of things.
We had half a can of pumpkin in the fridge left over from another recipe so i decided to try making pumpkin spice cake.

It was good, i frosted mine with cream cheese frosting but i am sure you can try other frostings.

The final verdict will be when Steve gets home tonight and tries it.

So the recipe.

Pumpkin spice cake

• 4oz (1 stick) of room temperate unsalted butter
  
• 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  
• 1/4 tsp allspice
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 cup of Pumpkin Puree
  
• 1/2 cup warm milk

1. Heat oven to 350
   
2. Butter a 9" cake pan
   
3. In a large bowl sift together flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, salt, baking powder and baking soda and set aside.
   
4. Using a electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
   
5. Add eggs and beat until combined.
   
6. Add pumpkin and milk and beat.
   
7. Add flour mix and mix gently until combined.
   
8. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 45 minutes until cake tester stuck in the middle comes out clean.
   
9. Rest cake for 20 minutes on a wire rack and then frost.
   
   
10. And enjoy!
    

I actually found this cake pretty easy and i liked it!

So i guess pumpkin is not all that bad.