Friday 4th September '09

Morning Tea at Work
Nikki's Mini Mango Muffins
Try saying that ten times fast!

Yesterday at work, we were talking about food. Gee, really!? We got onto the subject of roast dinners and pork crackle. *Drool*

I stopped by at the shops after work yesterday and even though I had a steak in the fridge for dinner last night, I bought some pork to roast. I didn't have any fresh rosemary at home but I remembered that Marissa has heaps in her garden so I decided to have the steak as planned last night, and the roast pork for tonight. I asked Marissa to bring my some rosemary, which she did.

As soon as I got home, I had a snack.

Dorsogna's Cheese Kransky
I love these sausages. I just heat them in the microwave for about a minute and a half. I find it's better to slice them up first or else the cheese gets hot and causes the sausage to split and pop in the microwave.

Mum noticed that Simba had buried one of his rawhide bones in the soil of one of her potplants outside. She went to check the rest of the garden and she was shocked to find that Simba had somehow managed to get a hold of a whole family block of KitKat chocolate and buried it in a foam esky of potting mix!! She said only a small corner of the packet was visible, and she had to dig it out. Luckily he hadn't torn the packaging. He must be disappointed that his treat has been reclaimed!

Now, I came across a recipe for a dessert that I was really excited to try. I made a trip out to the shops to get the ingredients that I didn't already have. I'm still not feeling that great so I'm having a quiet night in tonight. The perfect time for me to try this recipe!


White Chocolate, Cranberry & Pistachio Hedgehog Slice

180mL sweetened condensed milk 60g chopped butter 180g Milky Bar white chocolate 150g Arnotts Scotch Finger biscuits 65g dried cranberries 45g roasted unsalted pistachios

First, I heated up the condensed milk and butter in a pan on low heat.

I turned the heat off, then broke up the Milky Bar chocolate and added that into the condensed milk mixture and stirred it until the chocolate melted.

In another bowl, I broked up the Scotch Finger biscuits into small pieces and mixed in the cranberries and pistachio nuts. I forgot that the recipe asks for unsalted pistachios, so I took the risk and used the salted one that I bought. I ate some while I peeled them and they didn't taste very salty.

I added the condensed milk mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients and mixed them up. I transferred it all into a rectangular baking dish that I had greased with butter and lined with baking paper, leaving about 15cm additional paper to overhand one edge.

Into the fridge to set for three hours!


Dinner
Roast Pork Scotch Fillet with Vegetables and Apple Sauce

In a baking dish I placed some chopped carrots and potato, drizzled them with olive oil and scattered some fresh rosemary and popped them into the oven at 180C. I then took out the pork roast to prepare.

The roast pork scotch fillet came tied up to maintain the shape during roasting. I made slits over the top of the meat and inserted a clove of peeled garlic and fresh rosemary. When I was done, the pork looked a bit like a hedgehog!

I peeled a few Granny Smith apples, decored them, and sliced them up. In a pot with a small amount of water, I cooked the apples on low heat for about fifteen minutes until the apples were soft enough to mash up. I also added about a tablespoon of honey and mixed this in.

When the pork was ready, some of the cloves of garlic had actually been squeezed out of the meat!

I served a thick slab of the roast pork with the roasted potato and carrots, and some of my homemade apple sauce.

After dinner, I checked to see if my hedgehog slice had set, and it had. I unwrapped it and cut a slice at one end and was rapt to see that it had turned out and was incredibly delicious to eat with my mug of hot coffee! I am so proud!

I just love the colours!

*Aah Saz, you've done it again!*