NEW CAR CAKES!

WOAH! Long time huh? Well I’ve just been doing a bit of this, and a bit of that. Don’t worry, I’ve been baking alright. Just gobbling it up a bit to fast for my camera to get any evidence of my work. But tonight I thought I should put some of my wrongs right and finally UPDATE!
So, here we go...what do you break a fast like ours with. Well I thought I’d do something nice for my brother today. You see despite being a dashing young doctor, he still lives the life of a broke and broken student. And his car reflects this, especially now, especially the broken bit.
Yes his car broke down, with me in it, on the side of the freeway, and it sucked. So I thought in condolences for his crappy car which he does love, and to encourage him to maybe buy something a little safer I’d bake him something. But, “I think it’s time you bought a grown up car that won’t kill us all” is a little hard to communicate in a cake. So I thought what says good cars? GERMANY! Their cars are super safe! And do you know what else the Germans do well? CAKES! So I thought I’d bake him a a German cake, and hopefully he’ll get the point...or just love the cake!

I THINK IT’S TIME TO GET A NEW CAR CAKE!

4 apples, peeled and sliced
1/2 C. nuttalex
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. maple syrup
2 T soy milk
1 t vanilla essence
1/2 t almond essence
1 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cinnamon



Your mates!

1. Oven to 180
2. Slice up your apples and put them in a microwave safe dish, cover them with water and nuke them for a minute to a minute and a half


Slice and dice


Micro!

3. Cream the sugar and nuttalex



4. Mix in your wet ingredients

5. Sift in the dry ingredients



6. Pour into your greased pan



7. Top with apples, make it as pretty as you are!



8. Dust with some sugar and spices for an extra touch of lovely!

9. Bake for 30- 45 minutes. Inserting a knife to see if it’s done. You know how it’s done, comes out clean, ready to go!



10. Eat warm with a little soy ice cream or save it for tea the next day.

11. Go car shopping with your brother (or if you don’t have a brother with a broken car how about just go shopping for whatever you feel like)

HOLY KRAY KRAY I FINALLY DID ONE!

TALKIN' 'BOUT EATING!


That's right! The feel good hit of 2009 is back and better than ever! Still asking the hard questions and getting the straight answers. Never has one indervidual delved so deeply one on one into the psyches of histories great thinkers, in her bedroom, documenting it all on her laptop, between pieces of raisin toast. Trust me, if you can sit through over 7 minutes of mindless small talk, then WELL are you in for a treat!

Easter Easter Easter!...almost

Oh man I'm hella wild about holidays. Secular, religious, festivus you name it. I'm a mad holiday slut!
And I guess not surprisingly the thing I like best is the EATING, you know and the being together blah blah blahhhwherreee are the treats?!!!!
In the first of what I can only assume will be a series of delightful and enlightening seasonal offerings I give you my own little favorite, ginger biscuits. Because as a member of the ginger club I usually like to wear my heart on my head and my hair color in my biscuits. Mmmm Ok so maybe my syntaxes don't make a whole lot of sense, but who needs sense when you have ginger, nutmeg, cardamon and molasses pictures of goodness!

Gingerbread Cut-Out Cookies

1/3 cup oil, canola or rice bran are my favorites. Remember, olive oil is for salad and home made hair treatments, not cookies
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses (I added a tablespoon of golden syrup too. Molasses is great and all but it can taste like your grandma smoked a box of cigarettes and spat into your batter)
1/4 cup plain soymilk

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour (or a mix of both)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

spice blend:
1/2 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamon (if you like it, remember it's not for everyone)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger


A motley crew.

Directions
In a large bowl whisk together oil and sugar for about 3 minutes.


What a sweet heart.

Add molasses and soymilk. The molasses and soymilk won’t really blend with the oil but that’s ok.


Mmm, maybe not so much.

Sift in all of the other dry ingredients, mixing about half way through. When all of the dry ingredients are added, mix until a stiff dough is formed.


Mix it all up y'all.

Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or up to 3 days in advance. If you chill longer than an hour you may want to let it sit for 10 minutes to warm up a bit before proceeding.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease your cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.


They're so sweet when they're young.

On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out to a little less than 1/4 inch thick. Cut out your shapes with your cookie cutters and use a thin spatula to gently place on cookie sheets. Bake for 8 minutes.


So pretty!


Remove from oven and let them cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then move to a cooling rack. Wait until they are completely cool before eating.


Trust me they're so yum, I couldn't even get a picture before they were almost all done!

WHAT HAS 2 THUMBS AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED WALKING TO THE SHOPS FOR INGREDIENTS?

THIS GUY!

Aka me.
Aka Sorry that there hasn't really been any actual baking going on. Truth be told I've been surviving on your general romantic writer come retail workers diet. Cereal and cups of coffee. Nah don't worry I'm totally kidding. I'm more an empty taco shells and wine kind of a girl.
But one thing I do know, even if my culinary knowledge is ebbing away is how to eat out...LOLZZZZZ.
No seriously, here is another dinner suggestion for all you lazy with a side of binge eaters. Oh and this one is omnivore friends friendly too.

TIBAS
Tibas is a good old fashioned family restaurant. If your family was Lebanese and you ma was a hell of a lot better at cooking than mine. It's cheap, the food is awesome and the atmosphere is vibrant and warm. If you're anything like me and you like your food soaked in olive oil and everything with a side of pickles then you may just be in heaven wrapped in pita bread. The menu is extensive and includes all the stables such as every form of souvlaki, dip, salad and side you could ever need. All available in take away late into the night, the perfect plus one to a couple of beers. Just be aware that the place it's self is strictly no booze, selling or BYO-ing. And if you did decide to turn up, totally wasted and demanding your chips in your souvlaki you would not only be massively disrespectful, but alas, also a douche-bag.
But they have all this wicked fruit nectars and pomegranate juice so who needs anything else anyway right.
Now all this is great, but considering it's position on Sydney road one could argue that everyone nice, vibrant lebanese family restaurant can make the same claims, which is when I get to the heart of my point. The set menus.
Once again they do have pretty extensive meat options too, but lets leave that at the door. AND KEEP THE BLOOD OFF OUR HANDS. Ok for all the non vegans out there reading this purely out of friendly obligation, that was a joke. Focusing purely on the vegetarian option, for a small $13 you get: 2 pies (one is cheese and one is spinach but they are more than happy to give you 2 spinach if you are fromage free), dolmades, falafels, 3 dips (again one is dairy but you can ask for extra of the hummus and baba ganoush and skip the third), garden salad, tabouli and a chick pea salad, and some very darling fluro pink pickles. And if that wasn't enough every table is also provided with about a kg of pita bread for free.
Mix this heavenly offering with a guava juice, a side couple of sides (what's a bowl of wedges between friends) and I guarantee you'll walk out of there happy. Well maybe crawl. You probably won't be able to stand for the crushing weight of your stomach for a few days.
I can also highly suggest it for a first meal back after a big weekend, it brought all the good back to my body that Golden Plains took out.



Perfect food for sharing!



HELLO DOLLY!



I'll have an order or bitchin, with a side of bad ass thanks.

TIBAS LEBANESE RESTAURANT
504 Sydney Road
Brunswick
9380 8425

Open for lunch and dinner everyday sans Tuesday.