What are you been cooking today

[cookie1]

Thank you lots. DB rang early this morning and was a bit down. SIL is finding it harder to walk every day. I think she will start using a frame soon. I feel for them as we all saw how Mum went down hill. We will be there to support them.

[judydawn]

That’s sad cookie.

[achookwoman]

Nice to have support when things go downhill, Cookie.  I was amazed and very grateful when Ral was at his worst with his Platelet problem. Family and friends were amazing and at one stage 10 medical professionals were involved. I was so stressed out that I couldn’t remember my simple iPhone password. A nice man at Telstra used face recognition to get me in.
Need to make bread today.
Friend called in with a smoked trout yesterday. I did a swap for Burnt Orange Marmalade. Fortunately I still had some almond crackle biscuits to have with coffee.
  These are proving very popular. Must make some more.
Had cooked prawns for lunch yesterday. Saved shells and cooked them up and will use liquid for seafood risotto.
It was very warm and humid so made  a mango drink to have with lunch.
1 cup fresh mango pieces, 1 cup low fat milk and 1 cup ice cubes. 1 minute at speed 10.

[cookie1]

The mango drink sounds delicious Chookie.

[achookwoman]

The mango drink sounds delicious Chookie.

Yes it was. Original recipe he’d strawberries. Ral can’t eat strawberries so made with mango.

[achookwoman]

Made Xmas Puds today.  I’ve made 24 small individual ones. Steamed in oven for 30 mins. 1/2 recipe. I’ve found after a huge Xmas lunch it is difficult to fit in a large serve. Also I give several to a friend and she eats the over the coming year.

[cookie1]

I did that one year Chookie. It's fun to grab one from the freezer if you suddenly need dessert.
I started making a boiled Cherry and Sultana cake but then our air con went on the blink so I abandoned it for a bit. DH has growled and grumped and has possibly sorted it out so I will finish it later.

[achookwoman]

Made a light multigrain brioche loaf

[cookie1]

I made a Sultana and Cherry fruit cake. It's a boiled fruit cake but is very nice. It's not large. DD doesn't eat glace cherries so I put dried ones in and also some dried blueberries and strawberries I had picked up at Costco. Photo and link to come.
https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/cherry-sultana-cake/1d412d60-639a-4da1-9264-3cfe46a652e2

[mab19]

I made my shortbread at the weekend.  Plain shortbread, chocolate shortbread from woman's weekly, red & green shortbread tmx, grandma's shortbread from recipe community and walnut refrigerator biscuits from the forum.  Most of it is in the freezer.   Today I made a Christmas pudding to give to a friend and a roast vegetable quiche for dinner.  I still have another pudding to make to go to GD in Queensland.

[judydawn]

My gosh you ladies have been busy baking.

[achookwoman]

Like Mab, I had a big cooking day. I battled to produce a SD loaf. Made a double batch of Shortbread rolls and rolled 7 sheets of pastry ready for Portuguese Tarts. Made a large lot of chicken liver pate. Went to bed exhausted.

[judydawn]

Do you freeze your liver pâté Chookie? 

[cookie1]

I'd be exhausted after all that work Chookie. Cooking is fun but tiring.

[judydawn]

I recently made these Gourmet Crackers and gave them to DD, she has only just let me know what they’re like.  The recipe is a Recipe Community TM version of a recipetineats recipe https://www.recipecommunity.com.au/baking-savoury-recipes/gourmet-crackers/jb4u8rhn-cdbfe-539826-beea0-nssjrwpk.   I happened to have a can of pumpkin in the pantry as I found Costco had them in last time I was there, I picked it up on a whim as I wasn’t aware of this recipe then. Both versions use yoghurt in place of the small amount of pumpkin but as I had the pumpkin and not the yoghurt it was a no brainer that I would use it.  I have frozen a few packets of 65g for future batches.  I wasn’t keen on the colour of the crackers but mine are much lighter so I was happy with that - I wonder if it was because I used pumpkin and not yoghurt??   The comment I just received from DD was ‘They are awesome Mum - so crunchy’.  I only cut and made a small tin of them for her,  the rest of the loaf is now in her freezer to make a batch whenever she needs them. I used dried cranberries, a couple of dried apricots and 2 dried figs, the nuts I used were mainly sunflower seeds with 3 walnuts and a couple of cashews.