***EXCI-TOSIS****

So my other food blog, featured on the MAIN page of the website - yes the MAIN PAGE - today and I have received more than  4000 views and a 5/5 rating!! I'm not that fased by the small stuff but the fact that I saw it on THEEE MAINNNN PAGEEEEE 

 

Made me jump for joy and skip around my office like a young kid!! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!!

What comes from a cow....

.....MILK TART :) :) :)

I generally enjoy eating Milk Tart but have never atually gone to the store to buy one (which reminds me - Woolies now sell Milk Tarts - I haven't tried them yet - let me know what they're like ;))

Anyway back to the matter at hand...I made my own Milk Tart or Melk Tart (is it tart or tert)!!! I got the recipe from a colleague at work, who I think got the recipe from The Hulletts website? Took about half an hour to make? No baking is needed for this tart (I laugh eveytime I say that - TART haha)

Considering it was made so quickly, it was really tasty - REALLY TASTY :) Soft, smooth and creamy like milk tart should be :)

Crumb crust made with 1 packet of crushed Tennis biscuits and 125g butter, melted.

FILLING:
500ml (2 cups) milk
Piece of cinnamon stick
60 - 100ml Huletts White Sugar, depending on personal taste
2 eggs
45ml (3 Tablespoons) cornflour
45ml (3 Tablespoons) flour
3ml (½ teaspoon) vanilla essence
30ml (2 Tablespoons) butter
Cinnamon and sugar for sprinkling

The really good part

1. Heat the milk with the piece of stick cinnamon to just under boiling point. - I used two cinnamon sticks
   
2. Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs with the sugar, then add the cornflour and flour. - with an electric beater
   
3. Pour the hot milk onto this mixture, stirring rapidly. Return the mixture to the heat and cook, stirring till the mixture becomes very thick. Thorough stirring is important to prevent the mixture from catching on the bottom of the pan, and to prevent lumps.
4. Off the heat, add the essence and add the butter. Stir well till the butter is melted.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tart crust. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

{SIDE NOTES}

Soo, the recipe didn't say anything about greasing your pie dish before placing the tenis biscuits in the dish?? Guess that's common sense though? Well last night, I lacked that common sense and I struggled to get the base (of the tart) out of the dish this am! haha

Mixing the actual tart mixture - U need strong arms and quick movement to make sure that the mixture doesn't stick to the base of your pan OR get lumpy. Next time I make this tart, I will have my blender whisk close by - less of a workout :)

Enjoy! And let me know how your turns out...

 

What did u do last night??

I was in the mood to try something different yesterday...I rushed to the grocery store..got some random ingredients (cream, basil, fish, bran, cup cake holders, and and and) and threw everything together when I got home...

The result....a yummy creamy fish spaghetti dish....served with caramalised onions (did I mention that I love caramalised OnIOnS?!?!?!?! - Yes I do...probably not so good to eat if ure going on a first date but I have a loving man who loves with my onion breath hahaha)..All of that was served with some yummy Merlot..just one glass! Good for your health and sense of humor :) Someone out there wull probably frown at this combination, but there is no rule book when it comes to taste buds! 

Dinner down.. 

There is no set recipe for this dish as it really was a "throw-together-get-in-mytummy-now" dish! I used hake, fresh basil, garlic, butter for the fish..ordinary spaghetti (500 grams) and 500ml fresh cream...I love chillies so I added some to my dish as well. Fresh red chillies. 

Fish in the pan.. I added garlic, basil and butter to this mix

"CarMAlised Onions" :)

Fresh Basil..so pretty and earthy and fresh!

End result...creamy pasta!

(From my old blog home)

But I realised that this qas written 2 years ago and Survivor was on TV...Guess what...Survivor is currently on SABC3! hahaha Freaky

All the talk yesterday about mashed potatoe on brightsides' blog made me hungry..and seeing that potatoes are my poison, I decided to ditch the healthy eating for one night and indulge!!!

Soooo I made mashed potatoe !!

 

boil potatoe in water and however u decide to make it *wink wink*. BUTTT hold on...the mash was missing an important ingredient!! BUTTER!!! I always make my mash with salt, pepper, milk n butter but seeing that we're trying to be healthy our house, we haven't bought butter for 2 months...mash was a little...um boring... (how else do u make mash creamy without using butter)

Couldn't eat the mash alone so I decided to lightly fry some fish. I usually mix flour, fish spice and egg for the batter but was lazy so decided to ditch the egg (but more on this later ;).

• Hake Fillets cut into quarters
• Roll fish quarters in the flour and fish spice mixture (about a quarter cup of flour and 2 spoons of fish spice - depends on how much fish u're doing)
• add to frying pan...fry lightly on either side till u think it's done ;o)
• Fish is done...set aside

Was wishing for a gravy of some sorts so decided to make a 'deluxe' baked bean gravy (ingredients below):

• 1 onion
• garlic
• ginger
• coriander
• basil
• some curry powder
• 1 can of baked beans in tomatoe sauce
• ALL GOLD tomatoe sauce (I prefer all gold but any tomatoe sauce would work) 

Finely chop the onion and add it along with the garlic and ginger to some oil. Fry until golden brown. Chop coriander and basil and add that to the same pan. Then add the curry powder (i used one spoonfull of mother in law spice) cook for a few minutes (like the spice to cook before adding anything else). Now add Baked Beans and stir all together ;) You could do this in order I guess - it wouldn't make a difference (don't think it would) Then add tomatoe sauce and leave to simmer for few minutes.

"Dinners ready babe" .....

But wait....I remembered that I wanted to make "CARMALISED" onion *haha* so decided to finely chop one onion...kinda fried it till it was 'soft' then added sugar (carmalised in my mind = sugar+onion) fried a little longe till thought it was ready! Got my loving boyfriend to test! (drum roll.....) was toooo sweet! So we decided to add vinegar! Ta daaaaaa....we have sweet n sour onions!!

And finallllyyyy dinner was done...in time for us to watch survivor!

My 1st time....

 I'm so farking excited!!!!!!! Today was the first time, in my ENTIRE life, that I used an SLR camera! A Canon EOS 550D to be exact!! Oh my heart be stilll....

The downfall...it's not my damn camera! It belongs to a colleague who had his old one replaced (by insurance) after it was stolen! NXA! Can u say JEALOUSY!?!?!?!?!

Our office is really boring so I decided to take pics of someones fruit :)

I want one I want one I want one I want one I want one I want one I want one I want one I want one! 

Not specifically a Canon...I just want an S.L.R...is that too much to ask for??

Can u say FRUSTRATED~

A day from farking hell!!SH*T...

I think I'm going home to do this. ..as well as a hot bubble bath, good food and wine!! Yay! :)

My See.I...Tee.Why

Is where I have lived for most of my life - Joburg City..better known as Johannesburg.

Last night, I attended a movie premierer with a few friends at the new hip rooftop bar, Randlords. Situated in braamfontein, the outer edge of the inner city, Randlords is at the very top of a high rie building...beautiful and apt setting for the movie we were watching - Litshe le Golide (Stone from Gold). A story by two young SAfricans, about the beauty of this thriving-yet-not-for-the-fainterhearted city. The movie...all of 8 point summin minutes was BEAUTIFUL and thought provoking. (more on that in another post)

AWESOME evening with the most amazing people and the most amazing views..the experience in pics

Decor in the bathroom

View of the city

Isn't it just beautiful

Afraid of heights?

Light "bubbles" above the bar

The Nelson Mandela Bridge

I love love

from Slice of life

Ever get that feeling...

from Slice of life

Hmmmm...anyone for some tea??!

thedailywhat:
Tea Bag of the Day: The Tea Bagging Bag from The Cheeky is a completely normal-looking tea bag that neither resembles a familiar anatomical feature, nor references a non-penetrative sexual act that is often mimicked in online video games.

:) :) :)

***My budget beater dessert***

(this is an old post from my old blog home)

hahahaha I am so freaking broke it's so sad i tell u and my kitchen cupboards are bloody empty! It was kinda cold and that made me wish for a 'cakey-desserty' tasting summin...sooo I made the following:

Ting's January-Cheapest-Dessert-ever hahah
Slice of white bread

butter - as much as u want
sugar - as much as u want

Spreeaaaaddddd butter on the bread (I used about a tsp of butter), toss some sugar on (i used about a tsp here as well ;) and then pop into the microwave...not for long though..u just want the butter to melt a bit..

Voila!!!!!! Dessert in seconds! haha

I even rolled my bread into a swiss roll looking thing to make it look a little different! I've also added cinnamon and sugar to the bread - ahh lovely!

I enjoyed it soooooo much that I had 3 more slices ;) (smack on the wrist)

Oh my heaven!!!

I have this unbelievable love and "lust" for potatoes! I could eat potatoes all day everyday..any which way - boiled, baked, fried, steamed, mashed, curried and a whole host of other ways!! I came across the following recipe a few weeks ago and decided to give it a try, the same night I got the recipe.

Now, I'm not a fan of camembert cheese, but I love cheese! And I figured that Cheese, all stringy and tasty, would go so well with my 1st love - POTATOES!!!! It took me more than an hour to make this dish (prep time and cooking time) but it was OH SO worth the wait!!! I had this dish for 2 consecutive days and my heart broke when I had to throw out the last little bit of pie! Anyway I hope u enjoy this pie as much as I enjoyed making it and eating it!!! :)


6 large potatoes, peeled and cooked (I used 10 potatoes cos mine were kinda small and I LOVE potatoes ;))
2 large onions, finely sliced
1 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 rolls puff pastry
1 1/2 cup grated mature cheddar
2 rounds camembert, sliced
Salt, pepper & paprika to taste
125ml cream
2 Tbs onion soup powder
1 egg, beaten

In a pan, fry the onions in some oil until soft and golden.

Add the garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.

Remove and set aside.

Thinly slice the potatoes, and set aside.

Roll the pastry out to about 2-3mm thick.

Place on a suitable baking tray.

Spread the onions over the pastry leaving a 2-3cm border free.

Scatter the Cheddar cheese over the onions followed by a layer of sliced potatoes.

Season each layer of potato well with salt, pepper and paprika.

Layer the camembert over the potatoes, followed by another layer of potatoes.

Season well.

Mix the soup powder with the cream and beat until smooth.

Slowly pour over the potatoes and bring the edges of the pastry up.

Roll out the remaining roll of pastry and lay over the pie.

Crimp the edges and brush with the beaten egg.

Bake in the oven (180°c) for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden and crisp.

Some notes:
- I don't think two rolls of puff pastry are necessary! Yes having pastry at the bottom of the pie is great but you don't have to use it.
- Make sure that your potatoes are cooked thoroughly cooked through. I made the mistake of parboiling them thinking that they would cook faster in the oven (mistake!! so I had to bake my pie longer than the prescribed time shown above)
- I tried to be smart and used a whole carton of cream (it was really creamy and great but while it was baking in the oven, some of the cream 'escaped' from the dish :)
- Don't be shy with ur cheese!! Or the paprika! :)

Enjoy with a green salad if u're feeling guilty about this indulgent dish! I never had that feeling *cough cough* hahaha

Hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did! I will most def b making it again!