project 148: frozen cheesecake

Now was I impressed with this!  I never attempted anything like this before, and could not believe the end product!  Looked very professional!

125 ml pineapple juice
10 ml gelatin powder
1 container of cream cheese
1 tin of caramel treat
10 ml vanilla
250 ml fresh cream
roasted coconut shavings-for the top
fruit to serve it with

Crust:
 1 packet tennis biscuits crushed
60 ml roasted coconut
80 ml melted butter

Prepare the crust by mixing all the crust ingredients together.  Press it into a round cake pan that you have lined with baking paper.

Pour half of the juice in a bowel.  Add the gelatin and soak for a few minutes.  Heat it through in the microwave until dissolved and add rest of juice.

Beat the cheese and the caramel together, then add the juice slowly.

Mix the vanilla with the cream and beat it until stiff forming soft peaks.  Add together with the caramel mixture and fold it in lightly.

Pour onto the crust and seal the pan with glad wrap.  Place in the freezer and freeze it until hard.

The original recipe from the Ideas magazine said you should use a clamp pan, but I do not have one.  I used a normal round pan, and just removed the cake about 15 minutes before I needed it.  I used baking paper on the sides as well.  I placed a plate on top, and the cake came out easily.  I then simply placed another plate on the crust and turned the whole thing around again.  Worked well!

Finish it off by spreading the coconut shavings on top.  Dish up with fresh fruit.

Project 147: sangria

What do you do with a red wine you do not like?  Make sangria!  And even the ones criticising the wine drink it!

I still had some plums!  So I removed the pips and soaked the plums in strawberry liqueur overnight.  You can use anything you like though to soak your fruit, and you can use any other fruit as well.  I just happen to have plums and strawberry liqueur!

About half an hour before you need it, mix 1 litre of red wine, 2 litres of lemonade/sprite/ginger ale and your soaked fruit(with the liqueur) together and pour in jugs.  Serve with lots of ice.

Even my mom drinks this and she hates red wine! I did not know if she was aware of the alcoholic fact of the sangria until she offered some to my under age teenagers!  I had to stop her!

Project 146: plums in red wine

Having such a lot of plums.......had to test this!

2 pieces cinnamon sticks
1 litre dry red wine

400g caramel sugar
6 whole cloves
2 star aniseed
1.6kg plums

Add together the cinnamon, wine, sugar, cloves and aniseed.  Heat slowly and stir for sugar to dissolve and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Prick your plums with a toothpick and add to the syrup.  Heat through slowly.

Place your plums in a layer in a bowel/dish and pour the wine over.  close with glad wrap and allow to stand for 12 hours. 

After 12 hours, heat through again and place back in your bowel again. seal it again after pouring the liquid over again.

After 12 hours, repeat the whole process again and then bottle it when still hot pouring the wine syrup over and seal immediately.  Allow to stand for 4 weeks before eating.  Can't wait to open it as it smells divine!

Project 145.....plum jam

Still plum recipes!

This was a great success and I'll surely make it again if I am blessed with plums again.  My kids like it, as well as my friends son.  And if the boys eat it, it is worthwhile doing it again.

Remove the pips and half your plums.  Weigh the amount of plums.  For every 1kg add 250 ml of water and bring to the boil until very soft at a low temperature.  You can even do this overnight in your slow cooker.  When very soft add 1kg of white sugar for every kg.  Bring to boil on medium heat until thick.  Stir with times.  Start testing it for softball stadium after 8 minutes. Remove the foam if necessary.  Bottle warm and seal immediately.

Project144: plum jelly

Years ago they had an advert on TV with woman fron the 1800's cooking in the kitchen.  Somebody asked 'what did they do for work?'.......'They cooked!'......'And what did they do for fun?'......'They baked!'......

At work they laugh at me because I bake, cook jams and do pickles when I can not sleep at night!  I hate lying in bed tossing and turning!  It feels like a waste of time!  I'll usually pray for a while(I believe that things coming to your mind to pray for at 2-3 in the mornings really need your prayer!  Not stated in the Bible anywhere, just one of my habits!....and I do not think such a bad one!)......If I am still lying awake after an hour, I just get up and go straight to the centre of our household.....the kitchen.....and I find myself something to do!

I've been lying awake since two this morning, so I decided to come and do my favourite baby marrow and patty pan pickles, as I harvested quite a lot during my night duty week.  Too much for the family to eat it fresh and I don't believe in freezing them as they become soggy after defrosting.

I started by filling the washing machine and turned the dishwasher on after adding the boys last coffee mugs of the night.  I then made myself a nice cup of coffee and decided to drink it first in front of the computer before starting with the pickles.....started blogging!  Is this addictive?  I wonder.....

I'm quickly going to share what I did my last off week during a sleepless night!

One of my friends are blessed with this enormous plum tree in her back yard.  Year after year she waste all the fruit as it is too much for her alone and she is not the domestic type!  She is a paramedic and lives for her job!  She is an excellent one though......

So she decided that I am more domesticated and pitched up at work with almost 10 kg's of plums!....For me to do something with! 

There has been so much, my kids polished half....has diarrhoea of the overdose...I've cooked jam....bottled whole ones in a wine sauce and cooked plum jelly!  All of them a great success!  I'll share the other two as well!  But not now as I want to do my pickles!

Here's the jelly recipe.....

Cut your plums in smaller pieces without removing the skins and the pips.  Measure the amount and use 200ml of water for every 1 litre of plums.  Cook it over medium heat until soft. 

I do not have a jelly bags, so I used a muslin cloth in a sieve to drain it.  Discard whatever stays behind in your sieve.  Now measure your filtrate.

For every litre of filtrate use 200g of white sugar.  Heat slowly and stir it in the beginning until sugar is dissolved.

Cook it without stirring it until soft ball stadium(when you put a small amount on a cold saucer and it forms a firm ball without running).  Scoop off the foam from the top when necessary.

Bottle when hot in sterilised jars and allow to cool down before sealing it.

Now let me be off to do my pickles.........