Pizza Night

You can hardly call it cooking, but Little P and I had so much fun making pizza tonight that I had to share.  We didn't make the crust, instead we just used store bought pita's to make personal size pizzas.

I put all the toppings out, and Little P thoroughly enjoyed picking out handfuls of veggies, meats and cheese and deciding who would get what on their pizza.  Once all the pizza's were dressed, I popped them in the oven and she waited anxiously for them to cook.  She was so excited to get into them when they came out of the oven that she could barely wait for her pizza to cool down before diving into it.  We will definitely make this a weekend tradition.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is probably Little P's favorite food.  Every weekend, and some mornings on the way to school we stop off at a local café for a soy flat white, a babycino and a slice of banana bread, lightly toasted, with butter.  So this weekend, with the rain keeping us in, we decided to make our own.

We went for a really easy recipe...

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp banilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Little P was a big help on this one... peeling all the bananas - and then smashing them up with her spoon.  As you can see from the pictures, she even had a little help from her Toy Story friends!

Once the bananas were all mashed up, we added the melted butter and mixed it well. I melted the butter on the stove, but you could easily do it in the microwave.  Then we added the sugar, the egg and the vanilla and stirred it until it was smooth, before adding the baking soda and salt and mixing it well.

Finally we added the flour to finish off our banana bread batter.  However, we decided to make this loaf an extra special treat, so we added about 1/4 cup chocolate chips.  You could also consider adding nuts or even shredded coconut if you wanted to do something different.

We baked the banana bread at 175 Celsius for about an hour, until it turned a beautiful golden brown. We only let it cool a short while because we couldn't wait to get into it!

Roasted Tomato Soup

Today was a chilly, wet day in Sydney... the perfect conditions for soup. I am trying to eat better, and to teach my daughter the importance of eating fresh, healthy food that doesn't come from a package.  So we decided today was a great time to try some homemade tomato soup.  Just this week, I had picked up the Starlight Children's foundation's new cookbook "Dinnertime!" featuring recipes from some of Australia's favourite chefs.  There was a beautiful recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup, submitted by Chef Hadleigh Troy, from Amusé Restaurant in Perth.

The recipe (below) was simple, and the result was beautiful.  It took less than an hour to wip up this soup and it was so much nicer than anything that we could get out of a can.  As always, Little P loved being involved, and in addition to measuring and pouring various ingredients, I gave her the special task of cutting the basil leaves into tiny pieces with her toddler scissors.  

We will definitely make this again, and I will be trying more fresh, homemade soups when the weather is chilly.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg tomatoes, quartered
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 basil leaves, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 medium-sied brown onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 2 cup water
• 2 cups vegetable stock

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius
2. Place the tomatoes on a baking tray.  Drizzle with half the olive oil, sprinkle with basil and season with salt and pepper.  Roast for 15-20 minutes, or until soft.
3. In a medium saucepan, sweat down the onion and garlic with the remaining oil, then add the tomato paste and sugar.  Stir in the stock and 2 cups of cold water. Cover, bring to the boil, add the tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes.  Allow the soup to cool a little and then blend until smooth.
4. Heat to serve, sprinkle with some extra basil and serve with crusty bread.

Makes 4 servings.

Halloween Pumpkins

This week was Halloween, so Little P and I decided to make some yummy Halloween treats!  We decided to make little Rice Krispy (rice bubble) jack-o-lanterns., and it was such a fun and easy afternoon activity.

We just used the recipe on the kellogs website for rice crispy squares:

• 3 Tbsp of butter
• 4 cups mini marshmallows
• 6 cups Rice Krispies

We also used

• wilton orange icing colour paste
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 15 chocolate bullets
• wilton black decorating gel tube

We melted the butter over the stove, then added the marshmellows and mixed them over the stove until they had melted.  We then added wilton orange decorating gel and mixed that until the mixture was bright orange.  Then we added the Rice Krispies (or rice bubbles here in Australia!).

Once everything was mixed together, we formed it into small, round balls.  The mixture was quite warm and VERY sticky, so we put a large spoonful onto cling wrap and used that to shape the ball before putting it on a flat surface.

Once they had hardened up a bit, we melted some chocolate and used it to attach a chocolate bullet (these are available her in Aus - they are little pieces of black licorice covered in chocolate) as a stem.  Then Little P used the decorating gel pen to make "silly faces" on the pumpkins.  She had so much fun, and everyone loved them!