Cat-paccinos

Remember when these were a Thing?

Well, I joined in too!! Way back when...

Admittedly, mine are not as awesome as those done by Professionals, but I still think they're pretty darn cute!!

To make your own, homemade cuteness - froth some milk in whatever manner you can (pumping a French press, milk whisk, espresso machine) - I, and most baristas I worked with, find full-fat milk works best...

And make whatever form of black coffee makes you happiest.

Pour the coffee into your favourite mug/ cup reserving a little (preferably with crema, if you can manage it!) and pour in your frothed milk trying your best not to bring the crema up with the milk reserving some of the stiffer froth.

Use the stiffer froth to make little ears and the reserved coffee/crema to paint a little face on using a toothpick.

And then destroy your newly made kitten by drinking it. Because that's how Life works.

What Else to Do With Maca-wrongs?! (Ambrosia)

Remember my original Maca-wrongs?

I have, since, made Maracons that have worked and were fabulous... But this post is not about them. This post is about how to disguise macarons that haven't worked.

I suspect I undercooked these, once again...

But! To no mind!

I mixed 'em with a little whipped cream, a little fruit yoghurt, some marshmallows and some berries and BOOM: Ambrosia!

My now go-to macaron recipe is referenced here. I'll tell you how I do it, sans tea, when I post my success photos! ;-)

To make my version of Ambrosia whip 250mls of cream with a little vanilla essence and fold through 500ml of flavoured yoghurt. Stir through whatever mix-ins you have - marshmallows, berries, bananas, chocolate chips, crunched up mara-wrongs - the possibilities are endless!

This is a great potluck dish!

=^.^=

Buttons and Bows

I may have mentioned this before... but I'm not a very effective preparer of "simple" dishes... the Great Alison Holst describes the following dish as a "well balanced family dinner which can be cooked in half an hour in one pan"... she neglects to add the bit "unless, of course, you are Kat. In which case this'll probably take an hour and a half several pans a couple of pots and maybe even a little floor-space for good measure. But don't worry! Your flat mates will love it!"

And, inexplicably, they do! This is not my favourite dish ever... but it comes to you highly requested by one of my most favourite people ever... and I aim to please! :)

Even I recognise that this is a very cute dish!

The flavour and sauciness for this dish comes almost entirely from a can of condensed soup - so make sure you pick a flavour you like from a brand you trust! I usually pick mushroom soup and then bulk up the flavour with some combination of; shit-loads of garlic, onion, Worcester sauce, soy sauce, chilli sauce, oregano, mushrooms etc... It's a stone soup type recipe!

The bows are provided by the pasta shape... and the buttons come, ideally from carrots and courgettes... but if, like me you don't have any courgettes to hand make buttons, bows and pearls! Substitute in any veggies you have lying around! Make this dish your own...

You can bulk out the greens with salad, as I did here - but with all the veggies in the dish proper salad isn't a necessary addition to make balanced-ness.

And so Joshee, I have for you (at long last!) the recipe for buttons and bow - enjoy!

Maca-WRONGs

Back when I first started reading blogs - French Macarons were all the rage...


Macarons (not to be confused with coconutty Macaroons) are almond based meringue cookies sandwiched together with buttercream, cream, ganache, dulce de leche, jam... you get the idea! And they are notoriously difficult... As such they come with a variety of rules of how to make... And while making my "MacaWRONGS" I broke nearly every single one of them! Including a few of my own, personal baking rules...


The result - if not tpyical was a tasty, chewy cookie which I layered with hazelnut yoghurt for a classy(ish) dessert...

They don't look too bad, do they?

A list of the rules I broke to come up with these would include, but not be limited to:

• Don't even START to bake these if the weather is humid... it was raining...
• Use ground almonds, preferably shop bought (it'll be drier/less likely to clump) and for God's sake SIFT IT!... I used hazelnuts. I ground them myself (although I did roast them first to improve flavour/dry them out a little) aaand... I couldn't be bothered sifting my ground hazelnuts.
• Use day- to week-old room temperature egg whites... Well, my eggs whites weren't day-fresh (point to Kat!) but - I pulled them out of the fridge, maybe 5 minutes before I started making these...
• Whisk egg whites in a stainless steel bowl - or strengthen them with creme of tartar... There's a scientific reason for using a stainless steel bowl which Mrs. Humble explains best, long story short the medium you should most avoid beating your egg whites in is glass... guess what I used...?
• Pipe out small blobs of the meringue mixture with a piping bag... or use a spoon to make oversized puddles...
• Allow to rest for 30-60 minutes, or until tacky... that's the same as 20 ish minutes, right?

And then I probably didn't bake them for long enough - because, although my cookies did form feet (another point for Kat!) they stayed sticky inside/stuck to my parchment paper...

My own rules that I broke:

• Never, EVER bake in a bad mood... I thought I had failed a paper I'd worked really hard for (it turns out, I didn't actually fail said paper - my lecturer just forgot to add my exam grade onto my final result - thus I was 30% short! But I didn't know this yet... = very, very upset Kat.
• Never, EVER dye food purple the first time you make it... Yeah... I don't listen to me all that often...

Chewy, purple goodness...

The moral of this, rather long-winded, story is that although so many people say that cooking, and baking in particular is a "science" and you have to follow recipes to the letter - I disagree! Have fun with your cooking! Throw in a bit of this, or a bit of that - and see what happens!

I mean, look at me - I took one of the most rigid and difficult recipes on the internet and BUTCHERED (ALL the RULES!) and the result, although not perfect was edible, tasty, even! And I managed to create with it what was perceived as a rather spectacular dessert - I love my family!

I honestly believe that many thing in Life, as well as cooking, are only as difficult as you make them out to be... One day, I'll have to tell y'all how I've been casually making Baked Alaska since the age of 11-12 simply because no-one told me it was supposed to be really difficult...

In the mean time, here's my adaption of Mrs. Humble's Macarons - if you dare! :)