Gluten Free Dairy Free Cake

Tonight I am attending a friend's birthday dinner and opted to make a cake for the occasion. The only issue was that some of the attendees were either lactose intolerant or couldn't have gluten. This made cake choices just that little bit harder. Nonetheless, I was determined to make something everyone could eat and stumbled upon this recipe on ninemsn - http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/food/freshtv/784789/chocolate-cake-gluten-and-dairy-free

How delicious does this look?

Image from Ninemsn

I am happy to state that my new oven cooked the cake to perfection. I've now just got to finish decorating it this afternoon and will upload an image for you.

Testing my cooking skills

With darling husband working late nights recently, I have taken to cooking and trying different things at home to have ready on the table. Last night I cooked with Dukkah and Quinoa for the first time.

Whilst quinoa is probably an acquired taste, I did like it. I made Dukkah coated chicken with a quinoa salad.

Quinoa, available from some supermarkets and delis

 

Dukkah - I used the Pistachio one but you can get a spicier Dukkah

 Salad before adding in the quinoa

Quinoa salad

 The finished product

Tomorrow is Pancake Day!!!

I was excited to learn this afternoon that tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday and worldwide Pancake Day!!! I am now trying to work out if I make pancakes for dessert tomorrow evening, as I'm totally unprepared presently i.e. the pantry does not have the correct ingredients. These images look delicious...

The Traditional Maple Syrup Look
(Photo from http://groupon.com.au)

Pancakes with Berries
(Photo from http://kidspot.com.au)

Nutella and Banana - sooo want to try this!
(Photo from http://photogrinder.com)

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the beautiful fish curry I just made for dinner...


March's photo challenge was posted today but I feel I can't keep this up, so February was definitely the month to try this challenge and I can't believe I haven't missed a day to date. Speaking of which, here's today photo challenge.

Day 20 (of 29) Challenge - Handwriting


This is one of my favourites quotes of late.

Poaching a Chicken

It's at this point that I'd love to tell you this post is about my husband's morbid fear of spiders but alas, I am actually talking about the art of poaching food. I attempted it tonight for the first time with chicken breast and the end result was a very succulent morsel (apologies to the vegetarians!). The process is really easy too...

1. Place the chicken in a heavy pot snuggly and cover with water and bring it to the boil. Reduce it to a low simmer, straight after it boils. Leave it at this temperature for 10 minutes.


2. Take it the off heat and leave for 15 - 20 minutes in the water. The result will be something similar to my below cut up chicken (subsequent to poaching).


3. You can then serve your chicken or use it for something else. I made enchiladas.


Here's my catch up on February Photo a Day:

Day 7 (of 29) Challenge - Buttons

Day 8 (of 29) Challenge - Sun


Sun? What sun? Brisbane decided to rain on my parade today. This was the best photo I could get of today's 'sun'. Note the sun colours on Chalk and Cheese's A Frame :).

Monday Catch Up

The weekend just gone wasn't without drama (neighbour complaining about our beautiful dog for one thing) but thankfully I had other things to keep me occupied with positive thoughts like a wonderful birthday party to go to, a friend's engagement to celebrate and my February challenge of a photo a day...

Day 4 (of 29) Challenge - A Stranger

This photo was taken at the Limes Hotel, at my friends' joint birthday party. I loved the wall in the background too that says 'Excuse me whilst I kiss the skyy'.

Day 5 (of 29) Challenge - 10am

After not drinking much the night before, this was 10am on Sunday - hanging out the washing...riverting, yes I know!

Day 6 (of 29) Challenge - Dinner

I quite enjoyed today's challenge because it meant I got to make a dish I've been wanting to try since last week. It is a standard Asian stir-fry recipe but I added spinach, lamb and capsicum to it. A plus to the meal is that my husband actually liked it too - hurrah! It looks so colourful in the photo...which is what I was going for (and a wholesome meal of course).