What are you cooking today?

[baf65]

karen...today mus be the day for mayo not working , i also had an usucessful batch, i even tried starting again, using a new egg and the unthickened batch, but no luck! 
somtimes it works for me sometimes it doesnt, i think it does depend on how fresh your eggs are - i have never been able to 'save' a batch that hasnt worked either, such a waste!

[brazen20au]

my egg was room temp, well it felt cool but was straight off the shelf at the supermarket.  bloody expensive batch too - i'd run out of grapeseed oil so used the bottle of coldpressed macadamia i bought for rora's bread - the WHOLE bottle! sigh lol

i topped the cheesecake with shaved chocolate (would have been better with dark and white shaved but anyway) forgot to post a pic

[cookie1]

Love the shaved chocolate, it looks really good.

[wombleydoo]

i made the choc honeycomb cheesecake for dh's birthday (though not with honeycomb as it's not gluten free). i was disappointed in it, it was a bit  boring. anyone else? i felt like it needed some baileys or something  (though i am not a choc cheesecake fan i must admit)

i also did the mayo for the first time, i think i did it wrong as it was really bland and not really very thick (how thick should it be?)

i used it on the coleslaw, but i snuck an apple into the coleslaw (dh hates fruit) thinking it would jsut make it sweet but the apple taste was really dominant. on the flip side ryan loved it where he usually refuses to eat it lol

The cheesecake isn't as flavoured as I would have thought. Maybe it needs more choc in the filling? With the choc honeycomb, it was more flavoursome, but the actual filling is more bland. A shot of Kalua wouldn't go astray in any case LOL There's a lot of cream cheese for the chocolate to contend with and I guess the sour cream takes out the sweetness as well.

I always think the apple comes out dominant in coleslaw. One of the other salads I've had from the thermomix cookbook has an apple in it and I thinks its too much in that too (personal taste, of course).

Haven't made the mayo yet. I did get the grapeseed oil. Just haven't done it.

[brazen20au]

i had anothe rpiece of cheesecake today - as you do (asked dh to take it to work and share it but he didn't  ) and realised it needs COFFEE. like a tspn of instant or a tiny bit of strong espresso perhaps. mmmmmm

this mroning i made cyndi o'meara's bread from the gluten free cookbook - YUM!!! it was sooooo good

[judydawn]

Visitors gone, everything went down well.  I made absolutely everything in the machine.  The steamed garlic rice from Bron was as good as she said it was. We had a dip, corn chips, chicken casserole, garlic rice, steamed green vegies, chocolate mousse and ginger cordial (followed by a bottle of wine!) Still think the mousse was more like a chocolate pot but was very nice. Oh, I had to buy the bread rolls as I haven't mastered that aspect yet. Now to work out my next menu for the next lot of visitors.

[Amanda]

The first time I made the mayo from the everyday book it was a failure.  I was very disappointed and spoke to our rep here in Adelaide who said that she always uses the whole egg straight in - I have made it that way ever since and not had a problem.
I love it with the garlic in it, but raw garlic gives me dreadful heartburn for some reason.  I need to work out some way of treating the garlic first.
While in Italy last year I had some preserved whole cloves of garlic that would be perfect to use as it had all the flavour and none of the reflux (!), but I cannot remember what it was preserved in - bugger!

[judydawn]

Did a bit of research yesterday Amanda and found that you can submerge peeled cloves of garlic in a dry white or red wine or a white or red wine vinegar.  Will keep for about 4 months in the fridge. Storing in olive oil is a no no as we have previously discussed in this thread. You can of course buy whole garlic cloves at supermarkets preserved in something - wonder how they would be for your heartburn.  Mayo seems to be an ongoing problem but will try your suggestion next time.

[brazen20au]

wine sounds better than vinegar to me! hehe

have just made another batch of cyndi's bread and trying to make some little dinner rolls this time

[brazen20au]

just wanted to report that the dinner rolls were DELISH & DIVINE! even dh was raving about them! yum!

[Amanda]

I went to a cooking demonstration last night at a gourmet Italian market (in Campbelltown, for the Adelaideans).  The chef that we saw last night has a restaurant in Unley and I have heard that his food is brilliant - and he didn't let us down last night with 4 dishes that were simple, fresh and divine.  Taking pride of place on the bench was his Thermomix which he is very passionate about!!

While there, I found whole garlic cloves preserved in brine (with an added acidity regulator) which looks to be just what I wanted!!  Hopefully the end of reflux for me.

[judydawn]

Amanda, did he do something different in the Thermomix?  Anything you can share with us?

[Amanda]

He used the Thermomix to mulch up baccala (salted cod, soaked and drained) and potatoes which he used to make little croquettes and then made a squid ink pasta dough for ravioli which he stuffed with crab and bottargo - a salted, dried mullet or tuna roe which is grated  and used in small amounts.  It gives the most divine flavour of the sea.
I can't wait to go to his restaurant!

[wombleydoo]

Tonight I tried Beef and Spinach. It wasn't bad. I think I overcooked the spinach. I didn't put the red wine in coz I don't like the taste. I just put in the equivelent of water and a tbs of stock. I also tried the garlic steamed rice, which was rather nice, but unfortunately, the kids didn't like it. Then they all wanted hot cocoa, so I made it using the hot chocolate recipe in the TM everyday cookbook. That was rather yummy and probably killed the benefits of my workout at the gym LOL.

[brazen20au]

LOL!!!

i haven't used mine much at all this week. i've finally gone off my porridge or polenta in the morning after nearly a year of it non-stop lol

i did make the kids chocolate custard for afternoon tea this afternoon but that's about it.