Meringues - or how to use up egg whites!

As part of my pre-christmas cooking, I made some Vanilla icecream - this required 6 egg yolks, which left me with egg whites to use up! So I went the easy route, and made some meringues, and some mini pavlovas!

There is a "basic meringue recipe" here at taste.com.au .  I just adjusted the quantities.


To make the meringues, I just piped swirls onto the trays.....




For the pavlovas, I piped nests!(kind of wobbly nests, but nests all the same!). 




I filled the cooled nests with raspberry cream, and topped with a raspberry. (to make raspberry cream, I used the cream that I had leftover from making my icecream! - I simply whipped it to soft peaks, added a little bit of icing sugar and some "crumbs" from the bottom of the frozen raspberry packet! )

Melbourne!!! Day 4 - home time

Our last day in Melbourne was a bit of a rush, since we were being picked up to go to the airport at 11am!

So we started the day with a delicious breakfast at Edelweiss Cafe



Janet had bacon and eggs, with lovely thick toast


and I had the Vegetarian Breakfast - which had mushrooms, hash brown, baked beans, tomato and toast!

Then we went for a walk around town - We stopped to take some photos of all of the grafitti in Union Lane -






And then we headed back to the hotel to wait for the shuttle bus.  and headed for the airport.  We had to wait in a long line to check in, and then we had to wait for a long time at the gate - we used up some time by removing some of the 27 layers of clothes we had been wearing so that our carry on luggage was correct weight :-) Since we knew there would be no food to buy on the plane (except pringles) we grabbed some lunch from the airport.

this vegie pizza was the only vegetarian thing I could find. Even the sandwiches all contained meat.


and Janet had a chicken sandwich.


and then it was up up and away, back home!!

Dinner at home - Sausages with French Toast

hmmm, I seem to have cooked lots of sausages lately. I think it must be because they jump out of the freezer at me when I am staring into it before work. Something like that!!

On this occasion, I sliced up some left over bread into thick fingers, dipped it in beaten egg and made some french toast to go with Janet's sausages. The lack of vegetables on the plate was only an issue for me. And I didn't have to eat it, so no problem at all really!

Out for Breakfast - Coffee Club VIllage Square

Another Saturday morning car service means another breakfast at Coffee Club Village Square. Friendly table service, with water bottle and glasses placed on the table as soon as you sit down!!

I tried something different this time - Haloumi & Mushrooms served with toasted turkish bread, baby spinach and pesto. Except I asked for no mushrooms, and for some grilled tomato (I decided to not risk overdosing on mushrooms).  Delicious!!!! (Another slice of tomato would have been nice)

Janet had the bacon, eggs, tomato & toast (again!!) minus the tomato - and loved it (again!!)

I was a little suprised when I read the bill (after we had paid and walked out) to see that they had charged me extra (I think $2) for my one slice of tomato. Even though I had not had the mushrooms, and Janet had also not had tomato. Only $2, but really, I think they could have just thrown it in!!

Dinner at home - breakfast for dinner!

We had eggs that needed using up, so we had some breakfast for dinner! (yes, I could have done some baking, or made a more "dinnerish" dinner, but this went down quite nicely!)

For Janet - fried eggs, bacon and wholemeal toast

for me - an omlette filled with onion, red capsicum, grape tomatoes and a sprinkle of parmesan, with some wholemeal toast.

(I simply sauted the vegies, removed them from the pan to cook the egg, and then added them back in with the cheese before folding the omlette over - not the prettiest thing to look at, since it kind of stuck to the pan a little, but it certainly tasted delicious!!)

Out for Lunch - Just Poppy's, River Hills

Janet was told about this place that makes great burgers, so we had to go and try it.... and yes, the burgers were fantastic!!

The menu was massive - they even have 4 "meat-free" burgers on the list!!

 

I chose the "Tree Hugger" - vegie patty with lettuce, tomato, beetroot, spanish onion, grilled capsicum, halloumi cheese, mushrooms and hommus. Wow, this was a delicious and massive burger - I couldn't finish it. Actually it would have been just as good without the vegie patty, because there was so much other stuff on there! (and the mushrooms were cut up, so I coped with them quite nicely :-)  )

Janet had "On the Run" - egg, bacon, cheese. She thought it was great

 

The chips were fantastic! Crispy and hot, not that we actually needed them, but we ate them anyway!!

You have to sit out the back of a kind of dodgy looking shopping centre, so possibly it would be an idea to take your burgers to a park to eat them - so many choices, means we will probably be making a return visit in the not too distant future!

Christmas cooking - Pumpkin, Feta & Leek Tart

This is a very easy recipe - especially since I use frozen pastry. 

First up you have to blind bake your shortcrust pastry - my tart dish is bigger than the pastry sheet, but I can manage to fill in the gaps bu using the corner off-cuts....

While the pastry is cooking, fry 2 leeks in a little butter - cook them gently for about 10 minutes, or until they are really soft and translucent.  Remove the leeks and heat a little olive oil, again, gently fry about 200g's of cubed pumpkin until soft, towards the end of the pumpkin cooking, sprinkle in about half a teaspoon of mustard powder and stir around.

Once your pastry case is ready, spread the cooked leeks over the base of the tart, then evenly distribute the pumpkin over this. Cut up about 100g of feta cheese (roughly the same size as the pumpkin) and sprinkle this through thed pumpkin.

Next, beat together 4 eggs and 250 ml of thickened cream (I use extra light cream), and carefully pour this into the tart.  Bake in a 180C oven for about 25 minutes.

to decorate, I cut stars from some slices of pumpkin and fried them until soft - I put these onto the top of the tart about halfway through the oven baking (in case they sunk  whenb the tart was still liquid)

We atet this cold, but I am sure it wouldbe delicious served warm.

Christmas Breakfast

For breakfast on Christmas Day, we went to Pam & Sids for a delicious start to the day....

This is my bowl of Fruit Salad with Mango, nectarine, grapes, cherries and a lychee.

Barbequeing Bacon & Tomato

Toast, bacon, tomato and eggs for Janet & Pam

and some deliciously buttery hot croissants!!

Out for Breakfast - Coffee Club Village Square Browns Plains

Another Coffee Club Breakfast (due to car service :-) )

The Coffee Club at Village Square has table service, and they bring cold water and glasses to the table almost as soon as you sit down. The staff are nice and friendly here also.  As you can see, we ordered an Orange Juice (for Janet) and a Diet Coke (for me) to have with our breaky.

I was brave this time and ordered something other than my usual salad sandwich.  I had an omlette, to which I added Spinach & Onion.  It was a rather large omlette. And I was greatful for the offer of tomato sauce from our waitress, because well, it was a bit too eggy for me. I am not a big egg eater, so an omlette was probably a silly thing for me to order, but  I was trying to have a breakfasty breakfast! I think next time i will return to my salad sandwich, because it is the most delicious thing ever!

Janet had the bacon, eggs, tomato & toast with the addition of a hash brown, and the removal of the tomato!  AS usual, this was much enjoyed!

Dinner at home - Puffy Omlette

We had eggs that needed using, and I had just been reading Donna Hay's "The Instant Cook" in which I saw a recipe for a rather delicious looking "puffy cheese and spinach omlette".  Now having no spinach meant that my omlette was lacking in the greenery, but still worked out quite nicely....

Puffy Cheese and no Spinach Omlette with bacon & not-bacon (adapted from the instant cook by Donna Hay)

Serves 2 (1 vegetarian, 1 meat eater)

4 eggs, separated

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1 tbs parmesan cheese

sea salt & cracked black pepper

10g butter

1 rasher of bacon, chopped

1 rasher of not-bacon, chopped

Fry bacon & not-bacon separately until each is crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Place the egg yolks, milk, cheese, salt & pepper into a bowl and mix.

Place the egg whites in another bowl and whisk to soft peaks, then fold through the egg yolk mixture.

Heat a 24cm non stick frying pan, add butter, when butter melted and pan is hot, pour in egg mixture.  Cook over low heat for 10 minutes until base is golden.  Sprinkle one half with not bacon and the other half with bacon.  Carefully fold the omlette in half. Cut into 2 and serve with some toast.