cheese biscuits

i needed to take something to a party last night and was at a loss as to what to bring...everyone had already made it known what their contribution was going to be and all the things i could have brought were being brought by someone else...then, i thought about these...they're yummy, and everyone asked for the recipe, so here it is...

200 grams sharp cheedar cheese
50 grams parmesan cheese
250 grams butter
500 grams strong bakers' flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
paprika


preheat the oven to 170C.

line baking trays with baking paper.

place the cheddar cheese in the thermomix bowl and grate for 2-3 seconds on speed 8. set aside.

place the parmesan cheese in the thermomix bowl and grate for 8 seconds on speed 8. set aside.

place the flour, sugar, peppers and butter in the thermomix bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5 or until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

add the cheeses to the flour mixture in the bowl. place the dial on closed lid position and use interval speed to knead for 2 minutes.

portion the dough as desired. i used a mini icecream scoop.

sprinkle with paprika.

bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

anzac biscuits

i always like to make anzac biscuits on anzac day. this is what we do.

there are lots of recipes out there for anzac biscuits and most are quite similar and contain the essential ingredients. this is my favourite recipe for them. mind you, when i make them, quantities sometimes vary, especially with the golden syrup. i usually eyeball that because it's messy to measure (i know you can warm the syrup or oil your measuring utensil of choice and all that, but these are homemade biscuits and it's good to have inconsistency with homemade. that's what makes it special), and invariably put in too much, but that's all right - the biscuits still turn out fine.

1 1 /4 rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
3/4 cup brown sugar
125 grams butter
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius.

line a baking tray with baking paper.

combine the butter, water and golden syrup in a medium saucepan. place over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter melts. remove from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

combine the oats, flour, coconut and sugar in a medium bowl and mix well.

pour the oat mixture into the saucepan and stir to combine.

roll the mixture into walnut sized balls and place on the lined baking tray about 5 centimetres apart.

press the balls down slightly with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

bake the biscuits for about 20 minutes or until done to your liking. if you like them chewy, try 18 minutes. if you like them crunchy, try 22 minutes.

sit down and enjoy these biscuits with a glass of milk or put a scoop of your favourite icecream between two biscuits and have yourself a anzac ice cream sandwich.....if you are someone with patience, put the wrapped ice cream sandwich in the freezer for a while and let the biscuits soften - i love them this way, but hey, if you're a crunchy person, you do your thing.

sponge cake

the first time i remembered having a freshly made sponge cake was back in september 1971 and i think it was a sunday. if it wasn't, then it was a saturday, but in my mind it was a sunday. my parents and i were at echo point park and we bumped into one of dad's architect friends, tony, and his wife, megan.
from echo point park, you could see this piece of land we had in castle cove. all we ever did when we first bought the land was just look at it. then the years passed and the novelty of looking at it wained. but i digress....
one thing led to another and we ended up at tony and megan's place and we had afternoon tea there. megan (who is jeff wiggle's sister....i know, small world...i also know jeff wiggle's mother) whipped up a sponge cake and dressed it with strawberries and cream.....can't remember if there was jam, but there definitely were strawberries.
i remember being so impressed that someone could just whip up a cake just like that while guests were there. i knew then and there i wanted to be as clever as that when i grew up. i thought i wanted to be able to just whip anything up at short notice. more recently, i did bump into megan, and she's still the very beautiful, tall, stylish and slender lady she was then. amazing how she hasn't changed. i did tell her about how inspirational she was; she didn't remember the occasion, but i'm glad i did.
this isn't megan's recipe, it's actually a recipe for a sponge roll which i use, and it's very quick and easy. the thiness of the cake really speeds things up so it's quick to bake, quick to cool and fill and ultimately quick to get onto the table.

3 eggs separated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup wheaten cornflour
2 tablespoons hot milk
1/2 cup jam
300 millitres thickened cream
fresh berries


preheat oven to 180°C. line a 20 x 30cm swiss roll pan with baking paper.
using an electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until pale and thick.
sift self raising flour and cornflour over egg mixture.
drizzle boiling water around edge of bowl.
use a large metal spoon to gently fold ingredients together (don't over-mix).
pour mixture into prepared pan.
bake for 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.
sprinkle an extra 1/4 cup of sugar onto a sheet of baking paper.
turn sponge straight from oven onto baking paper.
gently roll up sponge in paper. wrap in a tea towel.
set aside to cool.
whip the cream.
unroll sponge and remove paper.
spread jam, cream and berries on sponge.
reroll and slice to serve.

alternatively, slice the sponge in half lengthways and fill with berries, cream and jam and sprinkle with icing sugar. this is my favourite way of serving this cake - since you don't have to roll it, there can be lots of filling with not too thick layers of cake. yum.

movies

some movies i like because they're different:

the bank - david wenham, anthony lapaglia
the castle - michael caton, eric banana (before he became a mega star)
bootmen - adam garcia
proof - hugo weaving, russell crowe (before he became a mega star)
priscilla, queen of the desert - terence stamp (have to confess that we were nuts about him when we were in our early teens...and now look at what happened....)
looking for alibrandi - pia miranda, anthony lapaglia