Dessert: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Buttery Cream-Cheese Frosting

These little beauties didn't turn out as red as we hoped... actually barely red at all as we didn't have ANY red food dye or as Nigella calls it 'Christmas-red paste food colouring' so these supposed to be red velvet cupcakes turned into sunny caramel cupcakes as I added yellow food colouring to replace the red. A mistake I made when I was whipping together the butter and the sugar was that I didn't melt the butter for long enough, so I made some sand like stuff. I pulled the cubes of butter that hadn't combined yet, out and put them back in the microwave. The cream-cheese frosting was amazing, it made the perfect texture, so when you bit through both the cake and the frosting you got this mouth full of flavour, it was perfect. I would defiantly make these cupcakes again, but I wouldn't leave them in the oven for as long as I did.

Don't ask why I put grapes in this photo, I thought it looked good :)

Dinner: Ham Hock and Broad Bean Salad

Lets just say if our family opened a cook book looking for something for dinner I doubt very highly that we would stop on the ham hock and broad bean salad and go "Wooowww!"

This salad really isn't to our likings as dad isn't a big fan of offal or anything that looks remotely like the animal did before. The salad was actually okay, it was fresh, green and the meat was really tender but isn't on my list of 'Must Cook Again'.
...Can't wait for pork knuckles

Dinner: Ham Hocks in Cider

I had a bit of help from mum with this one as I was a tad busy with homework but may I say, Ham hocks are GROSS wrinkly things that kind of make your want to chuck up your lunch after handling them, especially when in submerged water. So basically after 2 hours of cooking these little babies are ready to do whatever you want with them, make some stock, maybe even some ham and leek pies and you can't forget good old ham and pea soup, but mum and I decided to Ham hock and soya bean (or broad bean) Salad... simple fresh and really green (that's new). That will be my next blog as for now I will continue to talk about the Ham Hock and its creepiness. The Ham Hock comes from the lower leg it can also be called the 'hough'. Interesting... lets see how that Salad turns out...

Dinner: Cheesy Chilli

Australian definition of 'Chilli': the small red hot-tasting pod of a type of capsicum used forflavouring sauces, pickles, etc

English definition of 'Chilli': A cheesy, meaty mess.

Personally I didn't like it but mum said it was okay... i have a feeling she lies.

It just wasn't the nicest of all meals, the cheese stuck to the spoon and had a kind of gaggy flavour to it, mum kind of liked it and I'm not really sure if dad had any but, it really wasn't that pleasant so I don't blame him if he didn't try it.  I was expecting a mince dish without chunks of sausage and cheese floating around in it, but oh well, it over now I don't have to make it again.


A quick change of subject but a girl from my school who used to be in a wheel chair started up this campaign for 1 million smiles, smiling was the one thing that gave her hope and now her goal is to get everyone across the world to smile on this one facebook page. Click on the link and help her reach her goal and to get more information: http://www.facebook.com/pages/One-Million-Smiles/134156283326732?sk=wall

Dessert: Marmalade Pudding Cake

Fresh, Citrus, Sweet, Tangy! These are only some of the words that describe this amazing pudding. I wish I had made more of the sauce for this one because it was an amazing sticky orangey glaze that should have been dribbling off the pudding instead of soaking it up. Today I saw group 2 people for the first time in 6 weeks! So I thought I would make this special but in the end I forgot about it and they didn't get any. Oh well the thought is still there :)
I have to own up to something, we didn't have any ice cream or cream or whatever so that little white blob in the corner is actually cheese, it looks fine though so thats good.
Hopefully coming up is Cheesy chilli which should be nice a spicy, hopefully not too spicy.

Tip: How to use BLOGGER

My friends and family have been telling me they have know idea how to use blogger, so I have taken some screen shots to show you how easy it is to set up an account and comment on my blogs.

Fist go to my home screen "The Dawson/ Lawson Project" and move your curser onto the "Followers" box on the right hand side and click on the "Follow" rectangle.




A screen should appear and because you have not started an account yet (or if you have just click on Google) click on "Create a new Google Account".

Once you have filled in your details click on "I acept, create my account".
That should take you back to my home page where you should refresh your screen.
Don't forget to comment! Select your profile as (Google) type your comment and post it :)
I hope this helps any problems you have been having subscribing to my blog.

Dinner: Crustless Pizza

WHY>YOU>EM = YUM! This is one of the strangest dish's I have cooked so far (not as weird as the grasshopper pie, but still) I couldn't believe that a batter as runny as what it was cook form a crunchy cheese mouth watering pizza. I was very worried that the pizza would stay wet and runny, but it didn't which was fantastic. I added olives to my pizza because I obsoletely love them on pizza's they make even the worst pizza's ever taste amazing.
I rolled my piece up into like a little scroll thing and ate it which made it taste better.
My birthday is coming up so I might not be blogging as much, but thats okay. People have been complain on how they don't know how to use blogger so I will do a step by step instruction blog closer to my birthday.

Dinner: Golden Soul

A fish dish! FINALLY! I have been craving fish for ages, there where only two major problems in this meal, one soul is a fish that isn't found over our side of the world so I had to use a King Dory and when it came to cooking the fish I slightly undercooked two out of three pieces. Oops!

In the end it taste pretty good, I had to put it back in the pan again but it still tasted great. 
I'm really loving my new camera as you can probably see by the quality of the pictures.
There is really not that much to talk about relating to this dish but I have some good news... kind of... I have done 35 dishes throughout April and May, which I'm pretty proud of.
Coming up is a "Crustless Pizza" odd? 

Dessert: Grasshopper Pie

This was meant to be one of the nicest things I have ever tasted, instead it was one of the not so nice things I have tasted. Instead of using double cream mum made me use "thick" cream not knowing the difference... ones double, ones thick... oh mum. The ingredients used in the filling where mainly alcohol and marshmallows. Cooking marshmallows in milk is one of the strangest things I have ever done, even as a kid I wouldn't have thought of that as a cooking technique. When I made the cookie pastry thing for the base there wasn't enough so all the sides where uneven, but that was okay... i guess. Once I mixed together the cream and the liquids it made this sick green colour so I had no choice but to put food dye in. The filling was very runny and took over 4 hours to set and the end result was a slimy green slab of goo... but the crust was nice. Wont be making that one again, I preferred the Key Lime Pie.

Lunch: Sluts Spaghetti

A few weeks back I watched Nigella cook this dish on her should "Nigella Kitchen" and she made hers very spicy, I'm talking chilli flakes, green chillies, red chillies and jalapeno peppers that where sliced and diced to be mixed with tomato goodness. The the pasta water seemed to take an unusually long time to heat up and then once it did the steam it created was really impressive, by the time I had the pasta cooking the sauce was already done to I had to stand they slowly stirring the sauce while I cooked the pasta as quickly as possible. We didn't have as many olives as hoped for because since we bought them until the time I actually made the spaghetti SOMEONE had been eating them. 

In the end there wasn't enough sauce to cover all the pasta but we where that hungry and it tasted that good it didn't matter.

Dinner: Egg & Bacon Salad

Eggs. Yuck. I used to love them now I don't simple as that. Now I have never actually cooked an egg before but i thought it would be pretty easy... I was wrong, I placed the eggs one at a time into the pot and let it boil away for awhile, then I realised that I had cracked one of the eggs and all its insides where oozing out, great. Apart from that it all went well except for cutting the eggs I don't know what i did wrong they just looked like they had been run over with a truck. The lettuce was also really bitter which I wasn't so keen on, over all not such a good dinner.

Dinner: African Chicken

Tonight would have to be one of dad's favourites, chicken, African style?!? I don't know how this chicken represents Africa but I didn't name it so I don't know. I marinated the chicken in this fishy, oniony marinate, I had to squish 12 instead of 8 legs into a small dish. I put the chicken in the fridge and got back to them later.

Later
The chicken cooked in the oven while I made the Egg and Bacon Salad (next blog) and came out a looking golden and crisp. Before they went in the oven I had placed the marinate on the top of the chicken in little blobs which made them look extra yummy. Sadly these were not to my appetite but dad seemed to like them he deffinantly ate more than half of them.

Lunch: Soup made with Garlic & Love

Awww, how precious soup made with the strong power of garlic and the homey warmth of love.

Yes this soup is the perfect broth to make when sick, but it is also a nice comforting meal on a cold winters day. Now this soup contains about 80% garlic and 20% love so don't blame me if your friends don't want to hang around you anymore because of you horrendous odour. I nearly forgot to put the garlic in but luckily my assistant chef (mum) reminded me. I cooked the soup, slowly adding the potatoes half way through, going upstairs for awhile and finally a salty bowl of love as the name refers to. Mum loved it so much she had three bowls of the stuff... As you may have notice I have a new camera that is ten million times better than my other one, you can practically reach in and grab the food yourself. Also as you know I had a bit of a long break between my last dish and this one reason for that is all my inspiration had kind of left me but I'm back and ready to go, expect to see a lot of dishes coming your way.

Lunch: Barbecued Beef Mince

Also known as NACHOS! As you may very well know today is mothers day, but one of our close family friends mothers is in America so we invited them over for some lunch (the Coopers). The base idea for the meat was for dipping your chips in, I was a bit distracted and I forgot to put the celery in the blender with all the other vegetables that had been cooking for a good 10 minutes before I realised. We where also making double the amount of meat but stupidly instead of cooking it in some sort of deep pot I cooked it in the exact opposite, with all the liquid and vegetables and beef put together I was worried it was going to overflow. The liquid bubbled and spat but remained in the pan... mostly. Once the chips had cooked in the oven with the melted cheese on top it was time to eat, the mince was very sweet as it had brown sugar in it, but it didn't stop us demolishing it.
All in all it wasn't a bad meal probably wouldn't cook it again though.


Sadly I didn't get a photo of the finally result, but it looked pretty good :)

Breakfast: Chocolate Banana Muffins

I'm back, and its mothers day today I for my mum and grandma I am making Banana-Choc Muffins. My mum also has a recipe for banana BREAD which is basically the same recipe as Nigella's but in a oaf tin and without the cocoa. Mixture was pretty easy to make and putting the mixture in the muffin tin was easier than expected, but transferring the SILICON muffin tin from the bench to the oven was a messy job, my neat clean job of putting the mixture in each muffin compartment was ruined as soon as I tried to pick up the muffin casing. Eventually I had the genius plan of putting a board under the tray and then taking it over to the oven... it worked. Once cooked the muffins where beautiful little beauties, moist and spongy. Its amazing how something small can look so wonderful without actually dressing it up too much. Later on I will be making Barbecued Beef Mince i.e NACHOS! for our family friends who's mum is actually in America at this current time, looking forward to that.

Dessert: Lemon Meringue Fool

Not looking forward to eating this one. I hate cream so this was a big step for me and its another one of those dishes where you gain 20 kilos by just looking at it. Basically you mix about 5 litres of double cream some meringue bowls, lemon curd, lemon juice and liqueur together, a mistake I made was to let it sit in the glass until dinner was finished. It tasted literally like sweet creamy goo, no offence intended Nigella. 


Tip:
If you choose to make this dessert, add lots of liqueur to make the mixture runnier and add the meringue at the end (before your about to serve).
The mixture was so think it didn't go to the bottom of the glasses and it just slopped everywhere and made everything look horrible and unattractive. It was just one giant mistake that I HAD to make, I couldn't even eat it all and I love sweet food. I think I'm going to have a break for a few days, no cooking.


...Adios Amigos

Dinner: Sweet Potato Supper

Improvement. I'm still a bit forgetful but you know nothing to bad, this meal turned out quite well actually and I love sweet potato it's my favourite type of potato :P
Everything actually went really well apart from that I forgot to put the asparagus in until the last 10 minutes of the slow cooking, but it didn't make much difference. Once cooked the sweet potato literally melted in your mouth it was really tasty, the bacon did a good job adding extra flavour to this dish. Next up tonight Lemon Fool.

Dessert: Seed-Cake

Still don't feel like cooking but I quickly whipped together this little number forget a few steps and just chucked it all in a bowl to be mixed up. The batter didn't look to appetising but it came out all right VERY OILY but not to bad. Once again I took very few photos so here is a nice blurry photo of the finished product. 


I'm afraid I'm losing interest in this Journey I really don't want to though, I just keep forgetting things lately like taking the photos and I keep putting off cooking and saying "I'll do it tomorrow" I don't want to give up but it seems like cooking has become a chore. I also really miss some of the people in Group 2 China, I can't wait for them to get back. I need to pick up my game again starting with the next recipe I make, and if that doesn't work I will pick a really fun recipe to do this week.


:)

Dinner: Date Steak

Tonight, I really don't feel like cooking all I want to do is relax I am that tired and I know this dinner tonight is going to turn out pretty crap. The whole idea of this recipe is basically the sauce which is like a sweet sticky steak sauce, I was worried that this was all just going to go down in flames but it actually tasted alright (the steak I mean). Dad liked the sauce and so did mum but I didn't think it was that fantastic. Silly me forgot to take a picture of the finished product but here is as good as it's going to get. 

You can see by the picture of the sauce why I was worried that it would be a massive fail.


Next up Seed-Cake

Dinner: Scallops with Thai-scented pea puree

May I just quickly say that I was up all night last night because of that coffee cake, didn't get to sleep until very early this morning. This evening I will be making scallops, which if you don't mind me saying smell really bad! Heres a few little fun facts, I never new that peas float and that they cook really quickly I found it really interesting watching all the little peas bobble around. You could say my chopping skills need some work because I just cant seem to nail chopping up coriander and basil etc etc. The scallops where easy to make and the pea puree was decently spicy and had a odd taste but to tell you the truth it wasn't the meal for me... mum ended up eating it... good old mum the only non fussy eater in the family.
Tomorrow I am making Seed Cake which is one of those dishes I'm just getting out of the way and Date Steak which should be nice.


I don't know if anyone knows or not but if you wish to see a certain picture in a larger scale just click on it and it will go to full size.

Dessert: Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

Yes this is something I was excited about but I did have very high expectations for it, I'm not a really a bit fan of nuts so I was worried it would have that nutty crunch to it but it didn't because I blended the sugar and walnuts into the finest of all fine... things? Anyway so I put the mixture into the oven and set the timer tasted some of the left over mixture in the bottom of the Thermomix and OH MY WOW! That was the most amazing taste I have ever experienced, I even called mum over to have a try, it was that amazing! When I took the cakes out of the oven they had really risen like man where they round so I left them for 10 minutes and came back and no joke they where as flat as a pancake!
So I continued to make the cake piecing it together perfectly, living the right amount of icing for the top, but still having enough to put in the middle and PEFECTO the cake was complete and it looked amazing, I put it in the fridge for a while so the icing wouldn't drip or melt but it did, once I took it out and cut into the cake the icing in the middle had melted oozing it wasn't that bad just a bit annoying. 

This cake could possibly be even better then the chocolate one I made a few weeks earlier, it was to DIE FOR! Mum and I had to put a note on the rest of the cake so dad wouldn't eat it because I wanted to take some to my mentors house.


Tomorrow I'm making scollops (mum's favourite) sadly I'm not so keen on them the smell... kinda gross.

Lunch: Spaghetti with Marmite

Marmite? Whats that? It's the English version of Vegemite :)
This dish doesn't sound very appetising but I made it, I also made a movie for it which I am doing the same thing as the last and uploading it to Youtube, so enjoy and comment.

Later on today I will be making the Coffee and Walnut Cake, I'm so excited its going to be so YUMMY!
I'll tell you what is really handy, the Thermomix It just makes blitzing up cheese all the more easier, just chuck a few hunks of Cheddar Cheese in the Thermo' and BAM! You have instant grated cheese.




Here is the link: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p7Wq-BdokY


...Oh its my birthday in 22 days, just thought I would let you know :P