Spicy Persimmon Muffins

We bought a persimmon tree many years ago and it didn't fruit for the first eight years. The lady who sold it to us came with her father and they grafted a couple of branches from a fruiting tree on it to see if that would help. It felt like the poor tree was doomed as our son was staying for a few months and he had one of his pet goats with him at the time. Said goat quite liked the new grafting's.

Said friend came back again after our son moved on and tried another graft and between them all, something happened to the tree. The first year there were three fruit that survived to be eaten but the second year it bore a heavy crop. The next was poor but this year, there were bucket loads. 

So what to do?

I made jam, stewed some for having with muesli for breakfast and decided to attempt making some muffins. At first I tried a recipe I found through google but they were a bit bland. Using the recipe as a tried to tweak it a bit and after a couple of attempts that still didn't pack much punch I created this one.

Ingredients

1 ¾ Cups Flour 

2 tsp Baking Powder 

1 tsp Ground Ginger 

2 tsp Cinnamon 

½ tsp Nutmeg 

½ Cup Sugar 

1 Cup Persimmon Pulp 

100gr Butter 

1 Egg 

½ - 1 Cup Milk 

Preparation 

Grease a 12-hole muffin tray (or line with muffin cases if preferred) and preheat the oven to 210°C.

Combine the first six dry ingredients in a large bowl, and toss well together.

Measure out the pulp from ripe persimmons cutting firm flesh into pea size pieces. (I actually used over ripe persimmons so it was just a matter of slitting the base of the fruit and squeezing out the pulp). 

Melt the butter until just liquid, whisk in the egg, stir in the persimmon and add ½ cup of the milk. 

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry adding more milk if the consistency is too dry after 8 folds. (I don’t fold more than 14 times as muffins should not be over mixed and it is fine if there are still traces of dry flour) 

Fill the muffin tins to almost fill and place in the oven on a high shelf to bake at 210°C for 12 to 15 minutes. They should bounce back when lightly pressed and be slightly crisp on the top. 

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tins, then cool on a wire cooling rack.

You may want to vary the spices to your liking using more or less but I liked this balance.

I usually eat my muffins unbuttered but I found they needed a bit of a buttery taste while nice and warm!

Mumsey’s Feijoa Loaf

‘Tis the season for feijoas. 

We call them feijoas in New Zealand but they are also known as the 'pineapple guava'. 

We had some trees “up the path to the top house” when we were young and lived in Paekakariki. I remember sitting underneath them in a sort of bush setting eating the fruit until I was full of them. So I have really grown up with them. 

When we bought our section there were four trees but we have removed two as there really was too much fruit. We try to process as much as we can and then bag them, setting them at the gate for anyone to take the rest.

I have an assortment of recipes that I try every season sorting out which ones to keep and which to just toss. I do all sorts of things with them; baking, chutneys, jam, preserving and this year Harry is freezing some for making wine! 

This recipe can be found on the Chelsea Sugar website but I have adapted it to my own liking so making it mine. 

1 heaped cup peeled and chopped feijoa's 

1 cup hot water 

½ cup white sugar 

50g butter 

1 egg, beaten 

2 cups self-raising flour 

1 tsp baking soda 

1 heaped tablespoon crystallised ginger chopped small (you want it about the size of rice)

Topping 

½ cup raw sugar 

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 180°C bake and line a large loaf tin (approximately 22cm x 12cm). 

Place prepared feijoas, water, sugar and butter in a large saucepan. 

Bring to the boil, stirring to prevent sticking/burning. 

Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then set aside to cool for at least 5 minutes. 

Mix in egg, flour, chopped ginger, baking powder and baking soda. If you add this to the mix while it’s still too hot it will foam, so you will need to work quickly to get it into the oven. 

Pour/tip into prepared tin and top with the cinnamon sugar. As much as you like.

(You can save the left overs in an airtight container.) 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until loaf springs back when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Lovely spread with butter or you can have thicker slices warmed with cream, ice cream or yogurt for a pudding.

Deviled Sausages

My hubby is not a great one for experimenting with new meal ideas or flavours so we tend to stick to the same sort of meals.

Sometimes when you want to cook up a meal a little different from the meat, potato and two vege you reach for a packet mix to add flavour and something more exciting for dinner. You might follow the recipe or maybe boost a simple meat meal to something more exciting in taste. As much as I have used these I’m never quite sure what is in the mixes so I like to make the dish from scratch using my own ingredients and adapting them to our tastes.

The deviled sausages mix I have used in the past is an easy one to copy and bring in the spices you like. The prepared tomato ‘n chilli mustard is from a jar from Nanric Road, a New Zealand company but any mustard would do. You can really add or omit to get the flavour you like.

Now I don’t really like the name of this dish, but at least we all know what I’m talking about!

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. of olive oil for frying
6 pork sausages
I onion thinly slices
1 clove garlic crushed
I apple halved, cored and sliced thinly
1 tsp chicken stock powder
½ cup tomato sauce
2 tsp Worchester sauce
1 tsp of prepared tomato ‘n chilli mustard
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp coriander
1 tsp curry
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup water
½ cup of corn
1 Tbsp. cornflour

Preheat oven to 180°C
Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the sausages until just turning brown on all sides.
Remove to a plate.
Add the sliced onion to the pan and cook until nearly transparent but not browned.
Add crushed garlic and apple and cook for a couple of minutes just to soften but not brown.
Mix together the stock, sauces, spices and brown sugar then gradually stir in the water.
Pour into pan and mix with the other ingredients for a couple of minutes.
Cut sausages – I like to cut them into four pieces but you can do thirds or just in half. (Or even keep them whole).
Place sausages into a casserole dish and add the mix from the pan stirring all gently and sprinkle corn over the top.
Cover and cook in oven for 30 minutes.
Mix the cornflour with a little water to make a smooth paste and stir into casserole.
Cook a further 10 minutes and then remove from oven.
Let stand for a few minutes just to cool a little and thicken.
Serve with steamed rice, boiled or mashed potatoes.
You could add/substitute peas or beans to the casserole

Feijoa and Apple Loaf

I made a banana and feijoa loaf the other day and Daniel asked if I could make an apple and feijoa one. I have plenty of feijoa loaf recipes but I had to go looking for one with apple in.
I found a cake recipe from here and have adapted it to bake as a loaf.
You will need a food processor or kitchen whiz. Not sure how it would work without one.
It definitely has cake consistency to it but is nice eaten in slices.

Feijoa and Apple Loaf 

Ingredients

Skin of 1 orange
1 cup raw sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup white flour
½ tsp ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
Good pinch of tsp salt
½ cup wholemeal flour
¾ cups sliced apple (cored and quartered – skin on – thinly sliced cross-ways)
¾ cups sliced feijoas (skin, halve and slice thinly)
½ cup vegetable oil (not olive – I used canola)

Method

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Grease or line a loaf tin with baking or grease proof paper.
With a potato peeler finely peel the skin from the orange. You don’t want any of the white pith so be careful as you peel.
Place this and the sugar into a processor bowl and pulse until the peel is chopped a bit.
Break the eggs into the orange sugar. Pulse for a few seconds and leave sitting while you assemble other ingredients.
Sift white flour, baking soda, ginger and salt together into a small bowl then gently stir in wholemeal flour. Set aside
Measured sliced feijoas and apple flesh separately.
Process the sugar and egg combo for a further couple of minutes.
With the motor running, dribble the oil very slowly down the feed tube.
Process for another couple of minutes, adding the apple slices.
Remove lid and add half the dry ingredients, pulse, add the remainder and pulse again.
Add the feijoas to the mixture and pulse briefly until just combined.
Spoon mixture into prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes or until a screw comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely and with serve with icing sugar sprinkled on the top or with a light spread of butter.

Feijoa and Banana Loaf

 I do not claim this as my recipe. It can also be found on the food in a minute page

If you have to buy feijoas - I'm sorry
If you get given feijoas - enjoy
If like me you have trees and so many by now you are over them...
Try this. Its lovely and moist and I just have a bit of butter on it.
It would be nice served as a desert or just thicker with a hot drink and served with custard, whipped cream, ice-cream, yogurt or a combination.

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp mixed spice
1 cup raw sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil  (I used olive oil as I didn't have any vegetable)
1 egg
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas)
1 cup chopped ripe feijoas (about 3-4 feijoas)

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C .
Grease and line the base of a 13cm x 23cm x 70 (6 cup capacity) loaf tin with baking paper.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and mixed spice into a mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl beat together raw sugar, oil, egg to combine.
Add banana in hunks and beat in.
Pour into the dry ingredients along with the chopped feijoas and fold in trying not to over mix.
Spoon into prepared loaf tin.
Bake for 55 - 60 minutes until cooked. A skewer inserted into the middle of the loaf will come out clean.
Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes before turning onto a cake rack to cool completely.
Cut into slices when cool to serve.

Pumpkin-Raisin Tea-bread (Or Muffins)

I love pumpkin and I have finally got my hubby to decide its not so bad after all, especially when it is roasted.
How ever if you grow pumpkins, (which we often do, by accident you know ... the seeds just sprout from the compost or an old hen run) what do you do with all that pumpkin once you have cut into it?

As long as you take the seeds out you can store it in an airtight container in the fridge for quite a while. You can also de-seed it (making sure you have scraped out all the soft stringy center) and then if you cut it into serve-size pieces, you can freeze it without having to blanch it. Great for just grabbing a few and throwing them into the roasting pan with other roast veges and they only take about half an hour.

Another way is to use some in baking.

You first need to make some pumpkin puree. I just simply bake it in the oven in large hunks that have been de-seeded but not even peeled while cooking something else. (like a roast or casserole in a separate pan.)
Once cooled you peel the skin off and then can either puree it straight away or store it in the fridge for a few days.
I then puree it in my kitchen whiz (food processor).
You can use it for baking or either freeze it or store in the fridge for a few more days until you are ready to bake. In airtight containers.

This recipe can be made as a tea-bread or muffins and is lovely and moist.

1 cup caster sugar
125gr butter
2 large eggs
1 cup (250gr) cooked, pureed pumpkin (about 400gr raw)
Grated rind of 2 oranges
1 tsp vanilla essence
⅓ cup (60gr) raisins
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease and line a 23 x 12 cm loaf tin.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and creamy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time and then gently beat in the pumpkin puree, orange rind and vanilla essence until just combined.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, ginger and nutmeg and fold in with a wooden spoon (do not beat).
Gently stir in the raisins.
Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.
Bake for I hour until golden on top and a skewer inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Transfer the tin to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before turning out on the rack to cool completely.

This mixture can be made into muffins…

Preheat the oven to 200 °C
Grease or line with paper cases, a twelve hole muffin tin.
In a large mixing bowl mix the sugar, flour, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, grated rind and raisins together.
In a separate container melt the butter and beat in the eggs.
Then using a folk, beat in the pumpkin puree and vanilla essence.
Fold wet mixture into dry ingredients until a lumpy texture (Do not over mix)
Spoon mixture into the muffin tins/cases.
Bake for 15 mins or until golden and cooked through.

Chelsea Pancakes

As a family we have always liked having pancakes or large pikelets for a breakfast or lunch time treat.

We will also use a pancake batter in the waffle maker rather than the standard recipe for waffles that requires the separation of egg white and beating them, then folding them in - something my cherubs have not wanted to do when whipping up a quick snack for themselves.

We usually use a recipe from an old Edmonds cook book or one of Alison Holst's but I thought I would try this recipe that came in one of the New World mailbox drops.

It is actually from the Chelsea Baking Club website and can be found here.

Ingredients
1 cup self raising flour
2 Tbsp white Ssgar
½ tsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
30g butter, melted

Method
Sift the flour and sugar into a bowl.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.
Mix together the lemon zest, milk, egg and melted butter
Add to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine.
Heat a large non stick frying pan over medium low heat and grease lightly with butter or oil.
For each pancake, place 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan.
Cook for 2 minutes or until bubbles form on the surface. Turn and cook for a further 1 to 2 minutes or until the pancakes are cooked through.

We have found the first pancake/pikelet always seems to not turn out right and yet with a few adjustments to the temperature of the pan the rest are fine. (the first test is for the cook!)

I served these with sliced banana and a sprinkling of lemon juice and some sugar. And I must say they were rather nice.

Chocolate Anzac Biscuits

ANZAC biscuits as we know them have always been a healthy favourite and it's nice to try a variation on the recipe. Here is one I have tried and like. It's the basic recipe but with the added delight of dried apricots and chocolate chips. It could almost pass as a muesli bar. Its one of those great one pot recipes.

It is actually found here on the Chelsea Sugar website.

Ingredients:
120g melted butter
¾ cup raw sugar
3 Tbsp golden syrup
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup flour
½ cup diced dried apricots
½ cup dark chocolate chips
¼ cup shredded dried coconut
1 tsp baking soda

Method:
Preheat oven to 190°C conventional or 170°C fan bake.
Heat until just melted the butter,golden syrup and sugar in a large pot, or in a bowl in the microwave.
Add all the other ingredients and mix till combined. (I add the chocolate chips last so they don't melt too much from the heart of the melted mixture.)
Place 1 tablespoon of mixture onto the greased baking sheet, press down with fork.
Bake for 12 minutes.

Mumsey's Feijoa Crumble Square

As usual for this time of year, the feijoas are falling and carpeting the ground so they need dealing with.
I experimented with a recipe I have for a kiwifruit bar and came up with this slice which is very nice served warm as a dessert as well as a slice to have with a cuppa.
Serve with lightly whipped cream of vanilla yogurt.

Ingredients
450gr ripe feijoas
1/3 cup Raw Sugar
2 tablespoon Cornflour
2 cups Flour
1 cup Rolled Oats
4 tablespoon Ground almonds
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
170g Butter

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Line with baking paper a swiss roll(16 x 24 cm approx) baking tray.
Peel and slice the feijoas down the center from tip to tip and then in slices.
Combine the feijoas, first amount of raw sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Set aside.
In another big bowl, mix together flour, rolled oats, almonds, brown sugar and baking powder.
Melt the butter and add mixing well, so it resembles coarse crumbs.
Reserve about 3/4 cup of the mixture and press the remaining mixture into the pan, pressing lightly to pack it a little tight.
Spread carefully and evenly with the feijoa mixture.
Sprinkle the reserved oat mixture over the top and pat lightly again.
Bake until light golden brown on top, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool before cutting into squares.

Simple Feijoa Muffins

This is a very basic feijoa muffin recipe and is quite nice. It comes from my mother's recipe book, so not quite sure where it has come from originally, but it is quick and easy to make. Depending on how ripe the feijoas are will determine how much milk you will need.

1 cup chopped feijoas
75 gram butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
Milk to mix

Topping 
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp Sugar

Make up a cup of cut up feijoas either scooping out little bits  or peeling them and chopping them. You want pieces about 1 cm 'square'.

In a large bowl toss together the sugar, flour and baking powder. Set aside.
In a separate container melt the butter and add the feijoas.
Beat the eggs and add.
Add about half a cup of milk and then mix all lightly into the dry ingredients adding more milk if necessary to achieve a soft muffin batter consistency, but don't over mix. There can still be bits of unmixed batter showing. This is not a runny mixture - don't add too much milk.
Fill 12 well greased muffin tins.
Mix the topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of muffins before baking in a preheated oven at 200C for ten to fifteen minutes.

Is Eight Enough?

Do you remember an American comedy series in the 1980's called "Eight is Enough"?

It was based on a real life father of eight children Thomas Braden who wrote a book about his life and sadly died at age 92 of a heart attack.

Now for some of you, you will think that eight is certainly enough - in fact maybe you think it is too much when it comes to having children - but for some of us the number of children we have is irrelevant to what anyone else thinks and really if we can and want to then, we just will.

We for one, have had five children and that is not counting the two we lost through miscarriage at twelve weeks. We believe children are gifts from God and we wouldn't turn down the blessing of them even to the extent that we stopped all birth control except natural control after issues with IUD's after our second. This was when we had our first miscarriage and we believe the damage done by the faulty insertion (and subsequent surgery for removal) of the devise was what caused the miscarriage. Natural Birth Control gave us full control of having (or not) children, which we allowed to 'lapse' for when our last two were conceived.

Mark 10:13-14
The Little Children and Jesus
13 People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

There are many famous large families around the world and one that is quiet 'famous' is the Duggar family They have 19 children and lost two as well. There are some in New Zealand to name a couple... Craig and Paulette Venables, live in a five-bedroom house in Whangarei with their 12 children; founder and CEO Jane McAllister of Dimples and husband Sam have 14 children.

We have a family in our church who have just welcomed their eighth child into their family and I thought of no better way than to bless them with some baking. So over ANZAC weekend I gathered up some recipes and tried some new ones I had found.

They are posted on my other blog My Julie/Julia Attempt.

There are two different Anzac Biscuits,
Chocolate Chip biscuits,
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins and
an ANZAC Caramel Slice.
Bible reference from New International Version (NIV)

Mecki’s Courgette Cake - Part two

Before I post this recipe I thought I would tell you a bit more of the story behind it.

For those of you who follow this blog and my facebook page you will know I have another blog My Julie/Julia Attempt  On this other blog I am trying to work through a plastic bag of recipes I have collected from all manner of places. You know; magazines, newspapers, flyers, friends, web sites, the back of packets food comes in and just anything that catches my eye. I had originally thought I would make a recipe a day – just like in the book by Julie Powell, ‘Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously’, that was made in to the film Julie Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.

Since it is just Harry and I at home I am reluctant to do too much of the baking of some food because unless I can freeze it (and there is a limit as to how much I can fit in the freezer!) I have to eat it myself (and yes the weight is going on!) or take it to somewhere where it will be eaten for me.

Now as I have lamented to you before, my vegetable garden was not very successful this year (well of course it isn't – you have to work at it to have things grow) but I have friends (no smart comments thank you) and they have gardens – and abundance of crops.

As in a previous post I was given some zucchini; also known as the courgette and if left for too long – the marrow, and attempted a new recipe to add to my Julie/Julia Attempt. Then I discovered the omission of the amount of flour. But not to be down at the first or second hurdle I finally decided, after the gifting of more zucchinis from Frances, to try the recipe again.

The recipe below is what was posted in the newspaper with the added amount of flour. Now I still think the first cake I made with 2 ¾ cups of flour and being left in the oven for slightly longer was nicer than this one but it was still quite nice.

Mecki’s Courgette Cake,
named after Mecki the German Wwoofers who made it while staying at Annette’s Taylor’s place.

500g courgettes, grated
1 small cup oil
1 ½ cups sugar
3 beaten eggs
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 150°C. Line a 22cm coke tine with greased paper.
Combine courgettes, oil sugar and eggs.
In another bowl sift flour and other ingredients except almonds.
Slowly stir the flour into the courgette mixture. Add almonds and mix well.
Pour into cake tin and bake for about an hour. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from tin. Sprinkle with icing sugar, and if desired, slice in held and add whipped cream

My Other Recipes

As its been a cold snap the last few days and we have even had the fire going, I thought I would sit in the sun a little and read with a good book. Of course I always like to have a warm cuppa with a bite to eat.

I made this nutty chocolate slice for Easter and the recipe can be found here on my other blog My Julie/Julia Attempt. It is also on the Countdown website.

The other blog has not been as successful as I had hoped but I keep adding to it. It started after I had read the book Julie Julia and then seen the film. I want to do something the same so thought I would attack my large plastic bag of 'saved' recipes I have collected over the years - and yes I mean years.

This recipe was very recent and I thought I would just try it straight away before it got thrust into the bag along with all the others. This way it can just be discarded now I have tried it.

And as for the cold - well its been snowing in the South Island and very cold here, just a gentle nudge ( or maybe a kick up the backside!) to get the firewood in for the winter before it is all to late.

“Mecki’s Courgette Cake”

Book club for March was at my place.

We are a group of five women who meet once a month and talk about books….
Well sometimes we talk about books the rest of the time we catch up on the things that have happened in our lives, the goss of what shops/cafes are opening/closing in Tirau and whether the price of cheese will affect whether we make our own or not – well for Sheryn it is.

So to go with all this we eat and drink good food and wine or something else to our liking. Each month we go to a different members home and the host produces the food and so I decided to make a pizza for after the nibbles and finish up with a nice cake for dessert.

Late summer means there is often a plentiful supply of zucchinis and one can get desperate as to what to do with them. If you haven’t been successful in growing your own you can be rest assured some close friend or neighbour is happily handing you a supply whether you want them or not. Well as you will have seen from an earlier post, my garden had not been successful - but I had obtained zucchinis and for me that meant I could try out some of my recipes I have collected over the years.
(See my other blog "My Julie/Julia Attempt")

So I found a nice recipe for zucchini cake called “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”. Now courgettes and zucchinis are the same thing it just depends on what part of the world you live in. This recipe was from The Waikato Times way back in 2001. I read the interesting article written by Annette Taylor and the recipe checking I had all the ingredients. On the afternoon of book club I made the cake. 

Following the directions I proceeded to step three.
   “In another bowl sift the flour and other ingredients except the almonds….”

The flour - how much flour?
Nope it’s not listed.
Read the directions again; no amount given.
Read the article again.
Annette does say
   “Mecki says this recipe makes great muffins as well and instead of almonds, raisins or other nuts can be used. They can be also be made with wholemeal flour. Having tried the cake, I believe almonds and white flour are the way to go…” 
but no amount.

Oh well ‘google’ will solve the problem. Well that was a task. No actual link to “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”, “Takes the Cake”, “Veging Out,” or any other keywords to do with this recipe and article. So checking out other recipes for zucchini cake I guessed about 2 cups of flour, besides the ingredients were all sitting there waiting to be baked!
I made the cake and, apart from being slightly undercooked in the very middle, it was rather delicious and yes I would definitely stick with the white flour and almonds.

I decided I am definitely going to try and get to the bottom of the correct amount

The following day I sent off an email to the Waikato times….

Hi Jonathan, 

 Back in 2001 (27th February precisely) you (or the person before you) printed in the Waikato times a recipe called “Mecki’s Courgette Cake” in an article titled “Takes the Cake” 
 It was in the section titled FOOD and contributed by Annette Taylor under the heading of Veging Out. I have saved this section of the paper and attempted to make the cake with the abundance of zucchinis I had acquired. 
 Unfortunately in the printing or the submitting by Annette, of this recipe, the ingredient “flour” was missed out. It is not in the list of ingredients but is mentioned in the instructions … “In another bowl sift in the flour…” 
 Now I am supposing that a correction was published at a later date but I failed to see/collect this information. 
 I have searched the web for a similar recipe and even to find the article I have mentioned but to no avail. I am wondering if you (or someone who could be allocated the job) can locate the recipe/article from archives and let me know the quantity of flour. 

 Please. 

 Yours Sincerely 
 Fiona Van Lent

The next day I received a reply…

Fiona: 
Annette Taylor is no longer working for the Waikato Times. However, she remains a practising freelance journalist and I'm guessing she can help you with the missing flour measurement. This is her website: 
http://www.number8network.co.nz 
And her contact details: 
Phone us on 07 8XX XXXX (but not during Dr Who please!) 
You can also call or text 022 XXX XXX 
Or write a letter and send it to this address: …. 

Good luck with the cake. 

Deborah Sloan 
Features editor 

OK I checked out the number8Network link (I had been there before) and there was still no cake.
Right time for action… I emailed Annette from a link on No 8

Hi Annette, 
As per the email below (I sent the email I had originally sent to Jonathan - above) I am looking for the amount of flour in your recipe “Mecki’s Courgette Cake”. 
Deborah Sloan (Features editor) replied with your contact details but no details as to the missing amount of flour! 
I’ve checked out your website but still can't find it. Could you please let me know how much flour this wonderful cake needs!!!!!!! 
Thanking you. 

Annette replied within the day

Hello Fiona - no flour? Eeeeeeek! It was either submitted that way or subbed out - hard to be certain all these years later. However - you are in luck. I am in close contact with the maker of the cake, my friend Mecki who lives in Germany. 

I shall email her straight away and will get back to you immediately. Well done for your determination - it is a lovely cake! (I will also feature the revised recipe on my community website Number 8 Network, with the flour added in this time!) 

Thanks for getting in touch. 

Regards 
Annette 

So I waited, the feeling of being able to post a correct recipe was warming inside me, someone who likes to be correct with the details…Finally nearly a fortnight later Annette replied with a copy of the email from her friend Mecki…

Dear Annette, 

How nice that somebody remembers our zucchini cake...we remembered right away that the amount of flour wasn´t printed in the newspaper...I think it was 250 g.....But I cannot find the newspaper, I know, it´s somewhere, but we found our diary and there I noted: 

3 eggs + 2 cups sugar+ 1 cup oil + 3 tsp vanilla mix and set away. 

1 tsp soda + 3 cups flour + 2 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp salt (sounds too much to me...) + 1/4 tsp baking powder + 1/2 cup nuts + 2 Cups grated zucchini. 

Add Zucchini and flour mix slowly to egg mix and bake for 45 min. 

I hope that´s right, haven´t baked it for some years.... 

OK you say there it is

Um NO!

That is not the same recipe!

The basic ingredients are about the same but the amounts differ and even the flour is still a little suspect as to whether it would be the right amount for the recipe printed!

Annette has said she will try it out and post it to her website in due course.

In the mean time I too will have to experiment…
But it will have to wait until next year as there seem to be no more zucchinis around….

And I hear the Feijoas dropping…….

Lemon Cordial

We used to have a huge lemon tree. At anytime of the year you could go out and find at least one or two lemons suitable to be used. Unfortunately that tree just sort of died over two years and so now we are desperately trying to coax a new one to grow. In the mean time I have to ask other friends and neighbours for the odd lemon or two. As a result of the lovely supply of lemons and living on a budget, I found this recipe and have used it to make a refreshing drink.
The cordial is high in sugar but it is watered down to drink and will actually go a long way.

3 cup sugar

4 cups boiling water

½ cup lemon juice

1 ½ Tbsp grated lemon rind

1 ½ Tbsp tartaric acid

Bring the water to the boil and stir in the sugar.

Turn off the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Add the lemon juice, rind and tartaric acid and mix well.

Once cooled strain and pour into a screw top bottle.

Keep in the fridge.

This will keep in the fridge for a few months.

Dilute to taste.

I use about 1/6 of juice to the volume of container you are using to make up the cordial. It’s a matter of taste really. Serve with ice and maybe sprigs of mint.

Bran Muffins

I was looking for this recipe the other day and I couldn't believe I hadn't posted it on here. This is a recipe from my mother so I don't know where it has come from previously.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup wheat bran
1 cup sultanas
1 tbsp butter
3/4 cup milk

In a large bowl sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt.
Add the bran and sultanas and toss with a fork.
Melt the butter and add milk warming slightly either in bowl in the microwave or a pot on the stove.
Pour the wet over the dry ingredients
Fold in gently so as to just moisten the mix but not over mix.
Spoon into 12 greased medium muffin tins.
Bake for 12 - 15 minutes at 200°C until lightly brown and the tops will bounce make when lightly pressed.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tins before turning out

Orange Grape Muffins

If you are a regular at following my blog you will know I don't like to waste anything. This is especially true with food.

Even though Harry and I have been empty-nesters for a year now we are still getting used to how much food is enough for us and at times some things seem to pass their best. One of these was a bunch of grapes last week. It was also more the fact that they weren't as nice as the usual ones I had been buying. So in the heat of our Summer they had started to dry before our eyes on the kitchen side board. In fact they were beginning to look like raisins and as they hadn't actuality turned moldy I thought, well they are like home made raisins so I will make something with them.

We also seem to have a steady supply of juicy oranges on our tree so I made up a muffin recipe combining the two fruit and it turned out quiet nice even if I do say so myself!
Some of the grapes hadn't even dried yet so you could even make this with fresh grapes if you had a plentiful supply.

Orange Grape Muffins

2 cups of self-raising flour
¾ cup sugar
75 grs butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
Grated rind of 1 large Orange
1 cup or dried grapes (raisins would do)

¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup sugar

Well grease a 12 muffin tray.
Mix the flour and sugar together in a large bowl and add the grated orange rind.
Toss grapes in the dry ingredients. (make sure when you remove them from the stork of the grape "bunch" that you don't allow any of the woody part to come off with the grapes)
Melt the butter until warm and add the milk.
Beat in the egg.
Fold liquids into the dry ingredients about 14 times until just mixed.
Some little bits of flour can still be seen.
Fill a 12 tin muffin tray and bake at 200ºC for 10 mins.
Mix the orange juice and second measure of sugar to dissolve.
Brush over all the muffins while they are still hot and in the tins.
Allow to cool for a few minutes and for the juice to soak in and then tip out.
If you leave it longer they will stick to the tins.
Use a large spoon carefully around the edges if the syrup hardens and they won’t tip out.

Oaty Kiwifruit Bar

One of the things I don't like is having food go to waste.
Sometimes in this house food is left and past its freshest to eat raw especially with fruit.
As I see throwing it out a waste of money, I will make a recipe even if it means inventing it myself to use the food up.

This is a recipe like a microwave one I have made in the past but changed to suit cooking in the oven.

Ingredients
450g firm Kiwifruit
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoon cornflour
2 cups Flour
1 cup rolled oats
4 tablespoon ground almonds
1/2 cup brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
170g butter

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grease a 9 x 9 baking tray.
Peel the kiwifruit and cut into small chunks. (or scoop flesh out and cut into quarters)
Combine kiwifruit, 1st brown sugar and cornflour in a bowl and mix.
Let stand while you prepare the rest of the bar.
In another big bowl, mix together flour, oats, almonds, brown sugar and baking powder.
Heat butter until just melted and add to dry ingredients mixing until it resembles coarse crumbs. Spread 3/4 of the mixture into the pan and press lightly with the back of a spoon to pack it a little tight.
Spread kiwifruit mixture carefully and evenly on top.
Sprinkle the  rest of the oat mixture over the top and pat lightly again.
Bake until light golden brown on top, about 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool before cutting into squares.

Orange Jaffa Muffins

This is a recipe from Alison Holst's "More Marvellous Muffins" book called Golden Orange Muffins but I have changed them slightly - as, if you follow my blog you will know I do regularly!

I have made the original recipe which has half a cup each of chopped dates (or sultanas) and walnuts, and I have made just the plain orange muffin with no added fruit of nuts.

This recipe is plain with the added treat of chocolate chips on the top to give it a jaffa flavour.

They will go in the freezer for the Christmas season when I need a plate or friends call.


1 orange (or more to approx 200gr)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
½ cup milk
100g butter, melted

1 ½ cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
⅓ cup of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Grease a 12 hole muffin tin.
Wash and weigh orange (s)
Cut unpeeled orange into quarters and then each quarter into half again.
Removing any seeds, and cutting off any damaged parts, add to a food processor (all the orange including skin and pith) with the sugar and process until orange is very finely chopped.
Add egg, milk and butter; process until just combined.
Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Fold in orange mixture gently until just mixed (a few lumps of flour are fine).
Spoon mixture into prepared 12-hole muffin tins.
Sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.

Trina’s Terribly Tasty Triple Chocolate Cookies

Our youngest has been known as Rina, (eldest sister) Missy Moo, (Father) Treeny, (best friend) Trinaaaaa (eldest nephew calling across a café and it’s kind of stuck) hence the name of these biscuits - but I will always call her Katrina.

She rung the other day and asked me to make ‘her’ cookies and post them on here so she could have the recipe.
So here they are and because they are so bad cos they have so much chocolate in them I will have to post most of them down to her!

The original recipe had raisins and chopped macadamia nuts instead of the white chocolate buttons but as our house tends to be one where we change recipes to suit our tastes and what is in the pantry, Katrina made this recipe for her chocolate fix.

125g butter, chopped
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
¼ cup self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
⅓ cup cocoa powder
½ cup white chocolate buttons
½ cup dark choc chips
½ cup dark chocolate buttons

Preheat oven to 180 °C.
Line two oven trays with baking paper.
Cream the butter, essence, sugar and egg in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth.
Beat in all the chocolates so they are chopped by the mixer blades a bit.
Stir in combined sifted flours, soda and cocoa powder.
Roll about a tablespoon of mixture into balls and place onto prepared trays about 4cm apart.
Press each with your hand to flatten slightly.
Bake about 10 minutes. Watch them as they can burn without you noticing (my first tray did and these in the pic are from the second tray!)
Stand 5 minutes; transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.