Oreo brownies for the school lunch box

Aah. The school lunch box.  What's in it today?   The school lunch box is a tricky thing you see, especially when schools are "nut-free" and all my girls just really want for is anything with Nutella.  Either that, or they'd rather have rice with anything (even hotdogs) than a ham and cheese sandwich.  Yes, I have raised them well into the Filipino food culture.


The new school year has started and we are back again into routine.  Morning lunch box prep, homework, assessments, piano lessons, cello, sports, etc etc etc.  Although we have minimised the girls out-of-school activities, I find that the start of the new school year always brings unnecessary anxiety.  Are the lunch boxes packed, water bottles, snacks, fruits.... do you have your library bag?, did I sign that permission note?, did we check head for lice? (yes - the most important of them all!).  Did we?  Did I?  .....


Sometimes I get organised and prep the lunches in the evenings and then get that extra few minutes of sleep in the mornings.  Most of the time, I open the fridge door in the morning and prep what's on offer.  Sometimes its a jam sandwich, or a cup of rice with what's left over from dinner, at odd times the girls will have some onigiri because I felt like I had superpowers for the day.


I drool at lunch box bento boxes prepared by other mums who I follow on IG like Nami from Just One Cookbook.  I want to, but at the same time, I don't.  Hahaha!  With 4 girls going back to school, I don't think I have enough superpowers to do them all equally attractive and bento-box like.


While I don't prepare bento-box like lunchboxes, I do love going back to their favourites and adapting them to the school's nut-free policy. This is a favourite brownie recipe with the nuts replaced with Oreos.  Now who doesn't love Oreos?

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, chopped

125g butter, chopped into cubes

1 1/4 cups or 280g caster sugar

3/4 cup or 115g plain flour

1/4 cup or 30g unsweetened cocoa powder

150g Oreos (1 foil pack from the double-pack box), roughly chopped

3 eggs, slightly beaten

 3-4 packs mini Oreos for topping

Method

Pre-heat over to 180 degrees C. Line a 28cm X 18cm brownie pan with non stick baking paper.

Put the chocolate and butter into a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. 

Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside to cool slightly, 5-10 minutes. 

Combine the sugar, flour, cocoa powder and Oreos in a large bowl. 

Using a wooden spoon, stir in the eggs and chocolate mixture until just combined.

Pour into the prepared pan, and top with the mini Oreos (as many or as little as you want) slightly pushing them into the batter.

Bake for 30-45 minutes, or until moist crumbs cling to a skewer when inserted into the centre.

 




Tips and tricks:

* Brownies are very versatile.  You can add any kind of nuts or leave them plain. 

*  Instead of Oreos, you can also top them with salted pretzels, Ferrero Rochers, Reese's cups - which I've seen from IG feeds.

* Here's another tip I learned from TAFE when lining square pans.  Cut the edges diagonally, and then slid them side by side to fit the pan.  No need to cut a square and line the sides. 

And so 7 weeks more before the next school holiday, but I'm not counting.  While I surrender back to the chaos and regularity that is our life, I also love sitting back and enjoying the peace and quiet when I'm not working and have the day to myself - which days have been filled with physical activity: walking and badminton and yes, more time in the kitchen to cook and bake.

Now, what's for the lunch box tomorrow?

Chocolate and almond pear pastries

Pears with dark chocolate and almond surprise pastries (minus the caramel)

I have missed this last month's SABH.  Boo hoo.  Although I have made these simple desserts just for that hop. But no matter, as I'm sharing this easy peasy dessert anyway.

No excuse.  I've been on monkey mind mode for weeks now and have been busy with the extra guests we have at home.  The grandparents are here, that's why.  My parents were granted a 3-month multiple entry visa hence the unplanned visit.  As it is with visa applications from the Philippines, it takes ages to get especially as my folks are over the age of 70.  And while they are staying with us, I'm taking advantage of the adult conversations and extra help around the home.  They have grown older though.  It's hard to imagine our own parents being old.  To me they have always been the people who are always moving about - walking, gardening, buzzing buzzing every minute.  Two years away and my mum has changed.  She prefers staying home now, reading, no longer interested in gardening and when we go for walks the steps are slow and the walks longer.  

My dad on the other hand is still the keen cook that he is, taking after my grandmother.  I love our dynamics in the kitchen.  While he's cooking, I take a peek and taste and add some salt or pepper or other seasonings.  And the same when I'm cooking, he peers and adds his own dash of whatever. 

Pear with dark chocolate and almond surprise pastries with caramel glaze

Dark chocolate bits and almond slivers peeking...

To make these easy sweet dessert:

Ingredients:

2 pears, peeled, halved and cored

375ml Sangiovese verjuice

 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted

1/2 cup caster sugar

60ml water

Method

Peel and half the pears.  Using a melon baller, core the pear and place in a saucepan with the verjuice.

Cover with a cartouche* and bring to a boil, then simmer until tender- about 15 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, lift the pears from the poaching liquid onto a plate and cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 180*C and line baking tray with baking paper.

Take the puff pastry sheet and cut into 4 squares.

Place a pear half cut-side down onto a pastry square and using a small sharp knife, cut around the shape of the pear, leaving a 1-2cm border.  Repeat with the remaining pear halves and pastry.

Using a metal spatula, lift the pear from the pastry and cover the area of pastry with dark chocolate chips and toasted almond slivers then cover with the pear. Repeat with the remaining pears, chocolate chips and almonds.

Place the pastries on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.  

Place onto a wire rack. 

In a small sauce pan, combine the caster sugar and water and stir over low heat until sugar has dissolved.  Increase heat to medium and let the mixture bowl until the syrup turns golden.

Remove from heat and using a teaspoon, drizzle over the pears.

Leave to cool slightly.

Tips

* A cartouche is covering used to keep the moisture within the poaching liquid.  To make, use a baking paper fold into quarters, cut off the middle point to create a hold in the middle, then cut off the sides to fit the pan/pot. 

* Can be served with thickened cream.

* You can serve withou the caramel and it works just fine.

This sweet dessert is which did not make its way to last month's SABH was a surprise afternoon tea one weekend.  It is adapted from an old Coles instore mag with my own twists.  I poached the pears with Maggie Beer's Sangiovese verjuice instead of the usual water-sugar-cinnamon mix because I love its natural sweetness.  This is easy because all you need is store-bought puff pastry and bake away. 


I love having guests at home.  It breaks our routine and the extra hand/s is always welcome.  Plus it means extra taste testers for dishes I want to try which the girls would otherwise not.  Longer walks and more cooking at home and I'm grateful that both my parents are in a clean bill of health.  In their own little way and in more ways than one, they are an inspiration.  

Hot apple tarts (Tartes fine aux pommes)

 

Time flies when you're having fun!  Do you believe that saying?  Is there truth in it? Absolutely.  I realised a month ago my blog is already on its 5th year.  Hooray!  What started out as a personal journal to keep and remember recipes has evolved into something more. 

Through this blog, I've met the most wonderful people who share the same interest and passion that I have in food, both personally and virtually. 

Through this blog, I developed a keen interest in cooking and baking that I've decided to take Commercial Cookery and I'm onto my last semester.

Through this blog I have learned more about photography and food styling and op shop/prop shopping!

Through this blog I've created a happy place for myself - for those times when parenting, domesticity, work and all other things become frustrating.  Yes.  This has become an outlet of some sort.  Therapeutic as cooking and baking can be, writing brings a different sense of calmness.  Through this blog, I become a story teller.  And as it has been my initial intention, through this blog, my kids will read about their own stories and learn to cook along the way.

Now rewind five years ago, my first blog post was all about a trip to the Blue Mountains with some friends and we went apple picking.   I remember we had so many apples that after getting tired of juicing them and making apple crumble, I went on to make my first ever cake from scratch.  It was one Easter long weekend.  

On a recent trip to the Blue Mountains with the inlaws (hashtag #inlawsarehere) we did the same thing.  Despite the heat and the long drive (actually 2 hours is not that long, except when you have kids perpetually asking - are we there yet? ), we had great fun.  This time though we managed to control our pickings and harvested only what we can consume responsibly.

Bilpin Springs Orchard is 1.5-2 hours drive towards Western Sydney via Richmond. They orchard is open to the public for fruit picking most weekends with a variety of fruits to pick on offer.  It's a different kind of experience for our overseas guests especially apples, plums and pears are not locally grown fruits in the Philippines.  And while we were there, of course we showcased the famous Three Sisters at Echo Point in Katoomba and walked around the local shops.

So.  Five years of adobo down under in the blogosphere sounds like a celebration to me.  Not bad at all.  And to celebrate five years of food blogging, musings and story telling, let me share a simple recipe that embraces the coming of autumn. It is a simple, easy sweet dish that's a crowd pleaser any time of the day.  Its easy because you can use store-bought puff pastry.  Its simple because you only need a few basic ingredients.  But the result is something that looks really fancy.  And then you can say you made tartes fine aux pommes.   This recipe is inspired by Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery.

To make these simple but fancy looking Tartes fine aux pommes:

Ingredients:

2 sheets puff pastry

4 apples (with enough to munch on while making)

50g butter (25g for brushing and 25g cubes to put on top)

1/4 cup raw sugar

cinnamon to sprinkle (optional)

I used a small 3-4cm cake pan to cut out the shapes from the puff pastry.  If you have pastry round cutters you can use that.  Or otherwise, do other shapes.

The layers.  Puff pastry, apples, brushed with a little bit of butter, raw sugar and a tiny knob of butter on top.

Golden crispy pastries with soft cinnamon scented apples.  Divine!

Method:

Sprinkle some flour on your bench top or table.

Using a rolling pin, roll the store bought puff pastry to slightly thin them.

Cut the pastry out to size - rounds or squares or triangles. Whatever you fancy.

Place the cut out pastry onto a lined baking sheet and place in the refrigerator to chill for 20-30 minutes.

Wash, peel and core the apples.

Using a mandoline or sharp knife, cut the apple into thin slices.

Once the pastry has chilled, layer the apples slices onto the pastry.

Brush some of the melted butter on the top of the apples. 

Using your fingers, sprinkle some raw sugar on the apple slices then place a tiny cube of butter on the top.

Sprinkle some ground cinnamon on the tops.

Bake in a preheated 180*C oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Place on a wire rack to cool.

Tips:

* We've made these as squares and triangles and it works just the same.  

* When brushing the butter on the top of the apples, don't use to much.  You only want to wet the apples so the sugar will stick to the slices.

*The tarts are best eaten still warm and crispy a few minutes after baked.  

Happy 5th year adobo down under!  Even though there's no cake in this party, there is a big space to say Maraming Salamat. Gracias. Merci.  For being a part of this celebration.  Cheers! 

A how to post - blanched almonds

Not the most exciting post there is, (but I reckon this post has the most photos!) but its something learned from Kitchen 10 so worthy of a post.  When making the almond bread recently for home consumption and as edible gifts,  instead of buying already-blanched almonds, we did the blanching ourselves.  Just because there are some things we must try.  If not develop the habit out of it, the trying part always becomes a worthy experience – whether it’s a disaster or a success.  Trying something for the first time should always be in one’s to do list.  It doesn’t have to be grandiose and adrenalin-rushing adventures.  It can be anything . Even as simple as poaching an egg, or blanching some almonds. 
 

Pour the almonds into the boiling water

Not much to say here as blanching is what it is – blanching.  Boil some water, add the food item and let it sit for about 5 minutes, scoop out with a spider or slotted spoon and voila – blanched food!  It can be anything from green beans to broccoli to well, almonds!

The skins get loose in a few minutes. Take off from heat at this point.

The skins easily peeled off.  Can you make out my finger prints? Think I'm giving too much away!

Pinch away and voila - naked almonds central!

To peel the skins off, simple pinch the almonds and let it slide from your grip away from the skin.  The girls loved helping out taking the skins off which had us left with just enough almonds to bake with.  One of life’s simple pleasures – spending time with your kids in the kitchen, helping out as much or as little as they can, eating as you merrily along before a distraction such as TV and DS games breaks the scene and you’re back to your own quiet measures.

Naked almonds and their skins.  Yin and Yang.

Skins!  Off to your compost bin if you have one or straight into your garden bed!

Reply option to Blogger comments!

Thanks to Google and to Spice Up Your Blog for this new tip!   Been wondering about that feature but never got ten around to work on it.  Although I've had this space for some time now, I've never really sat down to actually learn the ropes.  But learning is a process and every day we learn something new.   Have a great weekend everyone!  And keep on learning!

How to make boiled egg with runny yolks

I've just thought about this lately.  Kitchen and cooking tips and tricks learned through the years, and some passed on from experts, not necessarily from the culinary world but also from family members who have gained the knowledge through years and years of experience.   So this is a first.  A series of "how to's". 

Tip # 1 - How to make that boiled egg with runny yolks for that Caesar Salad garnish/topping

Heat a small saucepan with enough water to submerge the egg.  Bring the water to a boil.  Add the egg/s as soon as the water boils and cook for 5 minutes.  Take the eggs off and place in a bowl with cold water, to stop the cooking process. Once cool, carefully peel off egg shells (the egg white will be cooked but quite soft so be gentle) and slice in half.  Place on top of the salad. 

Ta da!

P.S - As with all recipes and experiences here, I do not profess to be an expert in the kitchen, but these are tricks that we're passed on to me, some learned, and ALL of which I use when cooking and in the kitchen.