Women in My History: Secret Recipes

March is Women's History Month. The history of women in my life, both blood relatives and family through friendships or marriages, is one of great strength and power and goodness.

One thing i am going to do in honor of them, is share with the world an aMAZing recipe. when you share this delectable delight, people will slavishly serve you until you share the recipe. which i never do since having servants is so fun. obviously, just kidding.  there's just something about the life-giving act of feeding.

Two things about the recipe: each word is important. so if it says cream "well" that means, really, cream it WELL. also, after making it, refrigerate. the bars are better when they have been refrigerated.

this won a recipe contest once.
You can attribute it to my grandmother, Mary, who probably got it from her mother but who gave it to my mother long ago.

click on pic to enlarge

whenever we make this recipe we put several 1" squares in little baggies and share with others. it is just too good to eat it all without sharing.

Unwrapped Markets

Look at all the goodies I got from the Unwrapped markets on Saturday!



I've been looking for these brooches since I stole my friend's red one a few months ago! So I got the green one to mix things up. Also, Tara got the red one so hopefully we can trade sometimes! By Kearnsie



Boris the Hippo by My Girl Gwendoline.



The first edition of the MadeIt recipe zine. Because, you know, I'm a bit obsessive about cooking and the like.

Tiger Food: Spinach Eggs on Doorstopper Toast

Morning! This is my new favourite breakfast. It made two gigantic serves, so you could probably use it for four people. In fact, four people ate it because I couldn't finish mine. The original recipe was in the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook "The Fast Egg".

This was actually made pretty much entirely from leftovers of the Carbonara we made the night before - it used up the leftover eggs, facon, mushroom and the loaf that we used to make garlic bread. ECONOMICAL, GUYS. Also good because I've just moved out of home and I can't really afford to waste food.

SPINACH EGGS ON DOORSTOPPER TOAST

Stuff you need:
A loaf of awesome bread. We had a Pane di Casa, but Sourdough would be equally spectacular
3 eggs
Milk
Spinach leaves
Some sort of sliced ham or similar - we used facon because I made it for the Boy but I think the recipe I looked at used pancetta
Mushrooms

1. Cut the bread to your desired thickness of bread. Doorstopper slices are the way to go, but a lot of people like thinner bread so however you roll, homies.


Om nom nom bread

2. Break the ends off the spinach leaves and wilt them in the pan. Put a bit of butter or olive oil in the pan and wait until they've just changed colour (so about thirty seconds) and that makes them a bit less crunchy but not actually mushy. Put them on a plate and whack that in the oven to keep warm.


Pre-wilted spinach

3. Chop up the mushrooms and fry them, and fry the whole slices of your selected ham. I sliced half of the facon and left half whole because I'm silly and forgot I wasn't making carbonara and in fact didn't have to slice the facon. Put those bad boys in the oven as well.

4. Toast your bread. In the toaster, in the pan, under the grill, whatever works for you! Then keep that warm as well.

5. SCRAMBLE THOSE EGGS. I would give you directions for this but I'm not entirely sure how we did it, so... ask your mum how to.

6. Put it all together! We did the toast, then a whole piece of facon, then the eggs, then the vegetables. Serve with your selected breakfast beverage.


Yummy breakfast!

tiger food: carbonara

Heavily adulterated from the Woman's Day Step-by-Step Cookbook, but this is how dinner went down tonight:



PASTA CARBONARA



Stuff you need:

250g pasta (Fettucine is awesome)

1/3 cup grated parmesan

2 eggs

30g butter plus a little bit extra

4 rashers of bacon (or facon, if you're a vegetarian)

That's how I roll.

1. Boil the kettle and make yourself a cup of tea, then put the rest of the boiling water in a saucepan with some regular water. This just makes it boil faster if you're lazy like myself.



2. While the pasta is on, cut up the bacon. The recipe says to do it into strips, but I cut it into cubes because thats how Mum's always made it. Fry that shiznit up. If its facon, don't cook it for too long or it goes gross.

Chop chop chop

3. Melt the 30g butter in a bowl and add the parmesan. Mix it until its all combined, then add the 2 eggs which you previously beat together (see? Pays to read ahead in the recipe). Mix that all up.

mmm... cheese.

4. If you're following what I did exactly, this is the point where the tea comes in handy because the pasta is done, the facon/bacon is cooked, and the sauce (I use that term liberally) is done but your date is late. Hence, relax and read a book for a bit.

mmm.... tea.

5. When you're ready to finish it, drain the pasta and put it back into the saucepan. Add the extra bit of butter and reheat, toss the pasta in the butter and make sure its all coated. Transfer that into the pan you used to fry the bacon, and add the bacon and Liberal Sauce. Mix that together somewhat, and cook it over a low heat til its done. Serve that up, and you're good to go!

yummy in my tummy <3