Another recipe...

Thanks to my lovely SIL, Sonja, I now subscribe to the craft magazine, 'Handmade'. S gave me an iSubscribe gift card for my birthday. I normally borrow mags from the library so I decided that I needed to do a bit of research to find a suitable magazine which would come to my letterbox for 12 months. I borrowed a variety of magazines from the library which cater for my interests of gardening, cooking and crafts. Eventually the shortlist was 'Handmade' and 'Homespun' and I don't really know what tipped the scales in favour of the former but both magazines have a variety of crafts covered. My first issue came early this month...a Christmas special. There are some cute little elves to knit and some lovely sewing projects that have caught my eye.

Just arrived! Still in the plastic...

On Monday night I was reading the mag in bed when I noticed a recipe; it was called 'Chocolate Coconut Balls' and as I read through it I realised I had all the ingredients on hand.
I had wanted to make something to take along for morning tea at Tuesday's Knit and Natter and had toyed with making some scones or muffins early on Tuesday morning. I now knew what I was going to make...which I did next morning...the recipe was easy...and they were very popular at the K&N.

The rich 'chocolaty' mixture 

And here is the recipe from 'Handmade' Sept 2011 issue

The recipe is in the latest edition of 'Handmade'.
Ingredients:-
1 tin condensed milk
125g butter
100g dark cooking chocolate
1 egg
250 g milk coffee biscuits (I actually used Marie biscuits as i already had
them)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup coconut (plus extra for coating)
Method
place the butter and condensed milk into a medium sized saucepan and stir over
low heat until the butter has melted and the mixture has thickened slightly.
Add the chocolate, stirring until it's melted and combined, then stir in the dry
ingredients and remove from the heat.
Add the egg and mix well then turn the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate until
firm
Place extra coconut on to a plate, roll heaped teaspoonsful of chocolate mixture
into balls, then roll them in the coconut until well coated. Return them to the
fridge until ready to serve. :-)

Enjoy!

Old recipes...

A little while ago Tanya, from Suburban Jubiliee blog, wrote a post on a recipe that her mum used to make here. Sometimes I can forget what day it is, but there was something about that recipe that stirred the memories. I went out to the kitchen drawer where I store a few of my smaller recipe books and also lots of loose pages etc cut out of magazines and newspapers over the years. Deeper and deeper into the drawer I went and there, almost at the very bottom of the drawer, was the recipe torn out of a 'vintage' Woman's Day. Tanya, and possibly her mum, had added their own touches to the recipe and definitely improved it. The original recipe had won the White Wings  Bake Off in 1971. Yes I have kept it that long. I think I only made it a few times and that would have been in the 1970s. Growing up eating Italian style food, I found the recipe  a bit bland...but that was then...

'Try it tonight and make your husband feel like a king'! Yes it says that!!!

So after that little wander down Memory Lane I thought that I would make the dish called 'Husband's Hasty Tasty Pie' again. I had defrosted a batch of my pasta sauce (with meat) and it was too much for the one meal. So I decided to use the left over mince mixture to make the HHT pie.  I added a selection of chopped and steamed vegetables, used Tanya's idea of using the cheeses and the herbs in the pastry rolls, put it all together and voila! a quick and easy meal.

Veggie selection added to the mince mixture

Just out of the oven