My GOAL to bake an APPLE PUDDING

A nice a quick and easy pudding is always very handy to have in your recipe book and this one is definitely like that.   It has a hand full of ingredients, it is easy to follow and the end result is absolutely awesome.

This is how easy it is:

Take 6 Granny Smith apples, core and peel them and cut them into quarters.

Place apples in a dish and sprinkle with raisins.

Beat 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar and two table spoons margarine 

and pour into the flour mixture.

Once smooth add 1 cup of milk.






Pour mixture over apples and put into the oven.

     Bake in oven at 180deg for 30min till golden brown.







SAUCE
Combine 1 cup milk and 1 cup sugar and a teaspoon of Vanilla Essence and slowly bring to the boil

    When apples are cooked take out of the oven and while hot pour over the sauce

Serve as is or with a little bit of custard.

Goals in our lives are extremely important, but we are inclined to set the goal and then complicate all the steps, which sometimes makes it so complicated that we just give up the goal.

Set your goal and then do a simple recipe for it.  In this recipe we could add orange or lemon zest, we could add Ideal Milk instead of normal Milk, we could add sultanas, cherries (green or red) or a cup of this and a tablespoon on that, and really make this recipe complicated, but we didn’t.  It is straight forward, simple and delicious.

This does not mean that while you are working on it, you cannot add a bit here and a bit there to make it better, by all means try it, but keep the basic recipe simple – that way you will get your pudding.

Treat your goals the same way. Keep them simple.  As you go though each step, add here and take away there, but keep the basic steps simple.  This way they are easy to follow, attainable and eventually you will sit back baking in the glory of having reached and achieved your goal. 

CANNELLONI - A start and an end

Always Trust a Fat Cook

CANNELLONI – A start and an end.

Choosing what to do for supper every night can really be a bit of a pain in the butt as when one does it every night, but cooking is like everything in life.  There is always a beginning and always an end - so the best thing to do is to start it, give it your best and then savour it and enjoy it.

 

So it was with this in mind that I started chopping up my onions and tomatoes, 

 

 grated my cheese and opened up a tin of whole peeled tomatoes. 

 

 

I fried my onions until they were nice and brown and then added a nice dollop of garlic that has been soaking in some nice extra virgin olive oil.   

Once this was done I added my spices and herbs and then blitzed my tinned tomatoes with some onion and fresh tomatoes and another dollop of garlic. 

I tool a little of that mixture and poured that into the mince as I needed some sauce, and then just let that simmer for a while to get the flavour all mixed in and wholesome.

Once that was ready, I put it to one side and then went off to have a cup of coffee as I needed the mince to cool down.

 

Once the mince was cooled down I took the cannelloni shells (which I bought pre-cooked) and with a teaspoon started filling the shells with my nice moist, cooked mince mixture.

  

A bit of the tomato puree that I had made was spread at the bottom of the dish and the filled cannelloni then placed on top.  Once I had filled them all I then covered the filled shells with the rest of the tomato paste.

 

Then I covered it all with a good portion of cheese.  The only extra that I added at this stage is a couple of dollops of margarine – and then it was into the over.

The smell wafted through our house, and by the time we took it out we were all starving as the smell did nothing but stimulated out taste buds to no end.

Cooking and life are so similar.  Every meal has a beginning and an end and the same applies to life - there is a beginning and an end – but the important thing about life is what you do in-between the beginning and the end.  You can make you life so spicy that it wafts with absolute delight that invigorates you to experience new and exciting things.  You can keep adding to it, decorating it, experience it or just sit back at times and breath it all in.

Life is short, use it.  Our “Life oven” is on, we are right in there being baked, grilled and cooked, but the timer will eventually run out – so begin now and live a full life before your oven’s timer goes “ping”

a little foot note:

BASIL :  Basil is really a lovely herb to add, but my family does not like the taste - so if you are partial to the taste, then chop some up and add it - it really does give it such a nice flavour.

One Recipe, many inspirations

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ONE AWESOME LIFE

Living Life - Easy Fridge Tart

Always Trust a Fat Cook

I decided to make my family some pudding for tonight and decided to make a quick and easy Fridge Tart – knowing that it would not take me too much time, and I could literally plonk it in a plate and my family would be happy with it.

I took out the strawberry Jelly, the Ideal Milk that had been in the fridge for a few days already, got out my tennis biscuits and was set to go.

 

I took one cup of boiling water and put that into the jelly; which Bethany stirred for me and then put that in the fridge to set slightly.

 

Then I took the Ideal Milk and whisked that up until it was all light and frothy. 

Once the jelly had slightly set, I mixed the Ideal Milk and the jelly together and then took the tennis biscuits and layered this mixture with the tennis biscuits.

To top it off, I crushed the Tennis biscuits that were left and put this on top of the pudding and HEY PRESTO – DONE.

It was then that I remembered that a friend of mine was actually at a memorial service saying goodbye to her nephew, who was very close and precious to her.  Wayne had passed over after having an absolutely horrific and tragic motorbike accident at the tender age of 23. 

Situations like this always make you wonder if you have done everything that you have wanted to do before it is your time to cross over, have you said all the things you want to say, have you told everyone how special they are to you and have you done the best that you can in the years that have been given to you.

Had I done the best with this pudding – by no means!  I had put together a mediocre pudding that I was going to give to my family whom I love more than life itself.  The question then arose again – had I given it my all, had I given it my best and should this be one of our last meals together would this be the type of pudding I would put in front of them. . . . . the answer was definitely NO.

So with this renewed sense of appreciation, I brought out the chocolate and the strawberries and set to work.  I melted the chocolate over a make shift double boiler, dipped the strawberries and then decorated the plate the best way I felt I could for my family.

So Wayne, thank you, you have just reminded me how important it is to live our lives giving of our best at all times.  Doing our work to the best of our abilities, living our lives to the absolute maximum and appreciating every second we can share with those near and dear to us. For reminding me to tell those around me how much I appreciate them and to really take a good look at life and appreciate that it truly is a precious privilege we all share on this earth together, and because we all share this wonderful earth of ours, to show as much love and kindness to all those we cross paths with.

Even though I never met you, you have touched my life through knowing your Aunt whom I am extremely fond of and love dearly as she is such a special person.

So Wayne, may you fly high and enjoy this new experience you are having right now.  I will meet you up there one day. . . . and oh yes, thanks to you, my family got an extra special pudding tonight.

So in conclusion:   Life is really too short to not give of our best, to not appreciate life and to not appreciate those around us.  Life is really too short to hold back when we want to say “I love you” or “you are great” or “you are truly special”  Life is really too short to put off that phone call just to say hi, or to arrange to have that cup of coffee with a friend.  Life is really too short to not just enjoy every step of the way.

One Recipe, many inspirations

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ONE AWESOME LIFE

Putting this and that together and making it work SPEGHETTI BOL A-LA HOWARD

Always Trust a Fat Cook

Life truly is a very simple experience, put together by events, situations and experiences.  I believe that one must always do what we love, but I had the problem that I liked to do so many things and just did not know which one to choose, as I did not only have one passion. 

 

My dear husband, Howard was cooking supper for us one night, and I thought - life is very much like a recipe.  He took some tomatoes, mushroom, mince and onions and a packet of spaghetti and set out to make us all a scrumptious meal.

Just like these ingredients, that would all eventually just add up to one succulent meal, so I could put all that I loved to do together and make one awesome experience.  The one love that I have is cooking, so as I watched my husband chop up the onions and the mushroom and turn to the pan to brown the onions and mince, I thought that what I do as my mission in life has to have something to do with cooking.

After browning the onions and mince,  he drained off 

the extra fat that we seem to have in our mince.

then added the spices that 

he wanted to use.

 

The mushrooms were next into the pan, which made me think of what else I really enjoyed doing and my photography came to mind.

 

It was then time to take the tomato that he had quartered and blitzed it into a lovely fresh puree which he then poured over the mince and mushrooms and then he just let it bubble away.

A pot of spaghetti was then put on and as all this boiled away I added writing and baking to my list of what I really enjoy, and as I sat and allowed these thought to bubble in my own mind I thought – wow – add all these ingredients together will eventually make one lovely meal – something that has many parts but one mission.

I got all inspired, which is another passion of mine – so threw this into the mix and as my husband dished up this absolutely stunning meal, I came up with my blog.  “Always trust a fat cook.”  Here I can cook, bake, take photos and experience the inspiration that life around us has in such abundance.

And that is truly what life is all about.  It’ about doing what you love, but like so many of us, there is just so much that we enjoy but just cannot settle on one idea, so throw them together, spice them up, fry them, drain off what you don’t want, blitz some ideas and add them to the mix.  Then, sit back and let it bubble, boil and toil for a while and see what dish you can serve up for yourself.

One Recipe, many inspirations

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ONE AWESOME LIFE