School Holidays! So much time, so little to do! Only joking! Today we made pikelets for the kids for morning tea. Which was good actually because I now have a recipe to use and pass on. I usually cook with the precise measuring system called – a little of this and a pinch of that – so to actually measure out the ingredients was a good exercise. Now my daughter won’t look at me with that quizzical -I don’t understand look- that eight year olds seem to have!

What You Need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Crack the egg into a jug and pour half of the milk in as well and whisk until the egg and milk is frothy. Also add the vanilla to this mix.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour the milk mix in. Mix with a whisk, from the centre, gradually dragging flour into the centre liquid and add more milk until the batter is runny but still coats the back of a spoon. It will be full of air bubbles and very shiny in appearance.

Heat a frying pan and coat with a little olive oil and butter. Use some paper towel to remove the excess and then pour a spoonful of batter into the pan. Wait for the bubbles to burst and then flip it over to cook on the other side. They should be golden brown, but cooked through!

A little tip to keep the pikelets soft, is to put them on a plate and cover with plastic wrap, to trap a bit of the steam. Be sure to let a bit of steam out though because you don’t want them to go soggy. And no, I don’t mean let some steam off because the kids are pestering you for the pikelets that they can smell cooking!

Serve them hot with butter and honey or lemon and sugar ( my kids favourite)!

Hello! Sorry I haven’t been in touch lately but I am trying to sell my house and am a bit hesitant at making a mess in the kitchen because somebody always wants to have a look when you have just rolled out the scone dough or browned the meat or filled the sink with dishes!!! Anyway, I thought today, too bad!, I will make a mess and cook something tasty for lunch. It’s nice on its own or you could have some for dinner with a nice piece of chicken breast cooked in Tandoori or Tikka paste.

What You Need:

• 500g pumpkin
• 1 large onion
• 1 zucchini
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• rosemary
• thyme
• flat leaf parsley
• salt
• pepper
• 1 cup cous cous
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup natural yoghurt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• garlic

What You Need To Do:

First of all roast the pumpkin, onion and the herbs, except the parlsey, with some olive oil, salt and pepper for about 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked through and starting to brown. The onion should be soft and sweet tasting.

I cooked the zucchini on the barbeque so it would have the nice char grill lines on it and it also adds a smokey favour but you can put it in the oven with the pumpkin if you don’t have a barbeque. Just cut it into thin strips and add some garlic and olive oil before placing it on the char, making sure it is pretty hot before you start. It was about this time that the phone rang and I panicked into a wild clean up but it turned out to be a friend calling, not the estate agent, so I calmed down and continued in my normal sedate-like manner!! Phew!

For the cous cous I cheat and use the easy way! Just add a cup of boiling water to a cup of the dry cous cous and cover with plastic wrap and let it sit until it is all absorbed, usually about 5 or 6 minutes. Add some salt and pepper and fluff with a fork until all the grains are separate.

When you have all the bits cooked just toss them together in a large bowl and season to taste. Add the tomatoes, chopped in half, and tear some parsley leaves from the stalks, no need to chop them!

Mix the cumin powder into the yoghurt and serve drizzled over the top.

I bought some corn this morning at the local fruit shop, still in the husk, really fresh and golden yellow inside. I was going to cook in the fire tonight, wrapped in some foil, but I just had to have some for lunch! I just took all the husk off and then all the silk from inside, you know those long stringy bits, and put it into a pot of boiling water. Let it cook for about
five or six minutes and then drain it. I put a decent slice of butter on a plate and put the cob on top and turned it a few times to really coat it in the butter. Sprinkle with some salt and go and sit in the sunshine and enjoy !