Grated Apple &Potato Crepe

Now that Luke is having his afternoon nap I thought it would be a good time to update my blog. I just made these beautiful yummy apple and potato crepes that I thought I'd share the recipe with you. They are not something you can eat everyday because of the calories(610 kcal per 40 g) but they are a wonderful Sunday brunch treat. I love to have them with smoked Tasmanian salmon but my hubby doesn't eat fish so I buy a good quality smoked ham for him. Its a fairly easy recipe and the results are really impressive, light and with that wonderful sweet and sour hint. It is a great recipe to do when your apples are starting to have a sorry look, here at home we always have apples but they tend to linger too long sometimes. So here it goes:

Ingredients: (this will make about 6 crepes)

1 onion (medium size)

2 potatoes (medium sized)

3 granny smith apples (I think they are the best ones for this recipe but if you don't have them in the house, any apple will do)

1 egg

2tbsp plain flour

Chives

Horseradish cream

Dill

Sour Cream or Cream Fresh

Salt

Pepper


Preparation: (45 minutes)

1. Peel 1 onion and grate on a hand-grater. Put it in a bowl. Peel and wash the two potatoes and grate them coarsely on the grater. Wash and peel the three granny smith apples(if you have large ones use only two apples). Grate them coarsely as far as the core and add to the bowl with the grated onion and potatoes.

2. Stir one egg into the mixture and add salt (1tsp), pepper and the flour, mixing well. Add the chopped chives and mix again. The mixture should not be dry, if its too runny add a little more flour.

3. Heat a good quality oil ( I use rice bran oil because of it's high heat point) in a non-stick frying pan and add a little butter if you like. With a spoon add the batter and press it a little till its flat. The best, so far for me is three crepes at a time, cooking them for about 4 to 5 minutes in each side. Set aside in plate with some paper towel to drain any oil.

4. Put a generous amount of smoked ham (triple smoked is the one I usually use) on top of the crepe. Add 1tsp of sour cream to the top. Sprinkle some chives over the sour cream and serve. For the salmon crepe: Add a nice generous slice of smoked Tasmanian salmon on top of the crepe. Add 1 tsp of sour cream, 1/2 a tsp of horseradish cream on top of the sour cream and sprinkle with fresh Dill. Its ready to serve and devour!!!

Hello hello from OZ... anyone out there!!!!

Hello my fellow bloggers.....I have missed my little blog very much!!! Sorry again for the strong case of disappearance that has been keeping me away form my beloved little blog. Can't stress enough how being a mom has truly changed my life. Gone are the spare hours that I had to add nice pictures of holidays to the blog or great recipes that I tried one afternoon or even better yet, the little craft projects that I used to do. But don't worry I might be less frequent on my posts but they still will be added with great pleasure, just not as frequent!!! So much has happened, cant believe that it has only been 2 months since my last post (it feels like 6 months!!).

OK... update on the baby front. Luke is growing so fast, he is not a newborn anymore, each day he discovers something new in this big wide world of ours. He is such a good baby, cant complain at all. He sleeps through the night and always wakes up with such a big beautiful smile in his little face. I wish I could wake up with such a smile in my face every morning, it truly makes you appreciate your life more, he is only 4 months old and already he is giving me life lessons. He is a very content little boy who always smiles and giggles, I'm in love...really! Motherhood has been one of the best decision of my life, really cant complain at all ....I am loving it!

On the craft front... I have been busy making baby pants which I got a tutorial made by a great fellow blogger Jessica who created it just for me (isn't she awesome!!!). Here is the link to her tutorial (http://balancingeverything.com/2009/04/21/how-to-make-easy-baby-and-kid-pants/), check out her blog is just great! Will post pictures of the baby pants that I made for Luke and some for Kim's new baby boy that I made but it will have to be another time cause didn't have the time to take the pictures of it yet...sorry guys. Also I made a baby blanket/quilt for Kim's little baby boy which also I have no pictures....naughty Alex!!!

A couple of weeks ago I took the day of from Luke, it was a Sunday and the Quilt show was in town here in Perth. So my mother in law and I spend the day with wonderful quilts and wonderful fabrics to buy. It was great but cant say I didn't miss my little guy...it was the first time we were apart and it was a little weired. I kept calling Rob to check if everything was under control. But apart from that, I just had a great time. All the beautiful quilts gave me so much inspiration to make new quilts and new little projects. Oh and I bought such fantastic Japanese fabrics, they are so cute but also have not had the chance to take some pictures of the fabrics so all of you could have a look. But I did already upload the pictures from the quilts in the show so I hope you all enjoy it. Really Australian quilters are so incredibly creative and artistic, I'm so lucky to be able to see there work.

In another note my brother is getting married tomorrow but sadly we had to cancel our trip to go back to Holland because we could only get really crappy flights which would mean that we would have a 32 hour trip in total to get there and also a 32 hours trip on the way back and I just could not do such a long trip alone back with Luke. So sadly we wont be able to share on his happy day with Vivianne but we will be there in spirit! My father has come to us for 10 days and I can really say I was proud of him, he is 75 and managed a long trip to see his grandson. It was very nice to have him here with me. Now my mom has to come and visit also hopefully in September she will be able to come for a visit. We are also planning to go to Holland next year in Spring.

Well that is all the news that I can think of at the moment so till the next post hopefully it wont be too long. Enjoy the slide show of Perth's Quilt Show.

Luke Gabriel was born!!!

I am so sorry for my very long silence but I have great news for those who don't already know. Luke Gabriel was born on the 3rd of February at 10:16 pm at the Birth Center. I had a natural labour and it was about 7 hours. For the most part of it I stayed at home and around 6:30 pm Rob took me to the Birthing Center, were I stayed in the hot tube till minutes before pushing my little angel to the world. I had only one shot of morphine for pain relief which was enough for me, I was very lucky; my labour was very fast and I could handle the pain well. Rob took two weeks off from work and they gave him one week paternal leave. It was great, cause I really needed the help in the first month. Now Luke and I are trying to get into a routine. He suffered from colic and also my milk supply is low so at the moment we are working to get my supply up. I never thought one would have this problem, I just thought milk would come poring out, like non-stop! For the rest we are all doing really well, the weather is starting to cool down which for me is a relief. Also I am already planning my holidays in Holland for June cause my brother is getting married. So very busy, as all of you can see, I hope I will be able to update the blog more frequently I will try my best to at least do one post a month. I have done a video of Luke Gabriel, I hope you all enjoy. It's a funny one, he is doing his business and he makes some funny faces, well enjoy. Hugs to all of you!

Brazilian Pudding (Pudim de Leite Condesado)

I have noticed that this particular post is very popular, so welcome to my blog, please feel free to also see other posts and features in my blog. It would be great if you would come back now then and see whats new. Well enjoy!!! For all of you who want a very nice dessert with no fuss, you should try this classic Brazilian pudding. It has a lot of sugar so its not something you should make every week. This dessert can make any occasion special and it will hit all the right places. But please be warned that this dessert is addictive, once you start eating you cant stop! It needs to be cold so take that in consideration when making it. I usually make it on the end of the day and eat it the next day. Like any pudding there are a lot of variations to this traditional recipe out there, I have altered the recipe as well just because I like an extra hint of orange to my pudding but they are all basically the same. The big secret of this recipe is how to make the pudding have the little bubbles in it, don't worry this recipe guarantees the bubbles in your pudding. The method seems very difficult and complex but when you do start you cant believe how easy it is! I will write this recipe in English and Portuguese so bare with me OK. Lets start....


Ingredients (Ingredientes):


2 cans of condensed milk (2 latas de leite condesado)


2 cans of milk -use the same cans from the condensed milk for mesaurments. (a mesma medida de leite comum)


5 eggs (5 ovos)


1 orange zest (1 raspa de laranja)


Vanila extract (estrato de baunilha)


sauce (calda):


1 cup of castor sugar (1 xicara de acucar)


1/2 cup of water (1/2 xicara de agua)


*You will need a bunt baking pan; the one that is round with the tube in the middle.


Methode (modo de fazer):

1. Start with the sauce. Please be extra careful with this step specially if you have small childeren at home because the caramel can be very hot and make a lot of damage on little or adult fingers. Bring the sugar and the water together in a small sauce pan. Let it boil in medium heat on the stove. You have to keep an eye on this all the time because it can burn and then your pudding will become bitter. When the sauce is becoming a lighter brown keep steering so it wont burn and turn the heat down a little. Let it get a little darker, you will know when its ready when it reaches a medium caramel color. In a bunt baking pan pore the caramel and make circular movements so the caramel covers the sides of the baking pan (be careful with this because the pan becomes hot so use cooking gloves). Set aside to cool completely (this is very important because if you don't let it cool completely it will make scramble eggs of you pudding). While its cooling get a deep backing pan in which the bunt baking pan will fit inside. Poor warm water in it and stick it in the oven and pre heat your oven 200 Celsius. This will insure that the water will be warm when you put the pudding in the water in the deep baking pan. This is the secret for the little bubbles in your pudding!

Misture o açúcar refinado com a água e leve no fogo sem mexer no comeco e depois quando comecar a escurecer mexa até ficar com cor de guaraná. Coloque em forma de buraco no meio e mexa a forma até caramelizá-la por igual. Espere a calda ficar em temperatura ambiente. Caso contrario a temperatura da calda poderá talhar o pudim.

2. When the caramel is cool you can start making the pudding. Put all the ingredients together the eggs, milk, condensed milk, orange zest and vanilla extract (its up to you how much you want from the vanilla) in a blender. Blend it on high for 5 minutes. Pore the liquid into the bunt baking pan. Put the bunt pan on the water in the deep baking pan, who is already hot in the oven. Let it bake uncovered for about ten minutes or till you see the top becoming a nice golden colour. When this happens just cover the pudding with aluminum foil and let it bake for 1 hour, keep an eye on the water and be sure to top it up, you need the water so it wont burn the pudding.

Bata todos os ingredientes no liquidificador por cinco minutos. Despeje o pudim na forma já caramelizada. Para você conseguir um pudim com bastantes furinhos, leve ao forno em banho-maria com a água já quente. O forno deve estar pre-aquecido 200 graus. Deixe o pudim discoberto ate ele comecar a ter uma cor de caramelo ai voce pode ccobri-lo com papel aluminio. Deixe em fogo alto por uma hora.

3. You should be able to see if the pudding is ready if it has risen like a souffle and if you prick the middle with a tooth pick and no liquid comes out than you can take it out of the oven. Let it cool completely before bringing it to the fridge; please leave the aluminum foil on or your pudding will take the flavour of your fridge and that is yuck.

Voce vai poder saber se o pudim esta pronto quando ele crescer como um souffle. Ele quase dobra de tamanho. So pra ter certeza faca o teste do palitinho. Retire do forno e deixe esfriar completamente antes de coloca-lo na geladeira.

4. The next day you can take it out of the fridge and in the same deep baking pan add hot water and let the pudding sit on it for a while, this insures that the caramel will melt and make it easier for you to turn the pudding on a plate. I leave it in the water till the water cools down.

No dia seguinte ou depois que o puddim esteja bem gelado coloque em banho maria novamente so para a calda degrudar da forma. Voce nao presica colocar ele no forno!!!! Deixe ele de banho maria ate a agua esfriar.

5. Now this is the moment of truth!! With a knife cut the pudding from the side of the baking pan. Put a nice big plate on top of the bunt backing pan and turn it upside-down and leave it for a while. Don't mess with it, just let the pudding slowly on its own fall down to the plate. If you mess with it it will brake and you will have an ugly pudding. It will fall, trust me and then there it is you beautiful delicious traditional Brazilian pudding. Very very yummy....specially very cold!

Agora e o momento da verdade. Com um faca descole as laterais da panela. Num prato grande coloque-o em cima da panela do pudim e vir-o de cabeca para baixo para desformar. Deixe ele cair sozinho, nao bata na panela pois vc pode quebraro pudim e ai vc tem uma meleca de caramelo. Deixe o pudim cair sozinho. E quando ele cair vc tera um lindo pudim com furrinhos que e uma delicia!