Wedding Cake

My Wedding Cake is on my Mind, and my Mind is on my Wedding Cake

Okay, okay, okay. In my last post I said that Cheesy Chili was going to be my next Nigella dish, HOWEVER, I've recently jumped back on the proactive wedding planning band wagon, and as such, am planning my wedding cake! ... Also it doesn't feel like the season for eating Cheesy Chili.

We're not really fruit cake people. Mostly because fruit cake tastes yuck. So instead, I'm thinking a 3-tier cake, made up of 3 different flavours. Chocolate (of-course, I'm a mega chocoholic), Lemon, and Carrot cake. Today I even purchased a 3-tier cake stand, just to reinforce this idea. 

My plan this weekend is to make all three cakes... in miniature versions. I think the tin will be about 10cm in diameter. So with the aid of Nigella's cook book, I will be attempting the following:

• Devil's Food Cake
• This is basically a very decadent and rich chocolate cake. My mouth is watering just at the thought of it, as well as the chocolate frosting.
• Lemon Polenta Cake
• I love to mix lemon with sweet foods. It's such a great combination! However, I am a little apprehensive about this cake, as I'm not sure it's the best choice for one of my wedding cakes. But, we'll see how it goes anyway.
• Venetian Carrot Cake
• I had already decided that I wanted one layer chocolate and one layer lemon, and couldn't think of another. It really was the perfect opportunity to ask my fiance what flavour cake he would like, make him feel like he's a part of the wedding planning process. He chose carrot cake. Which is great because I like carrot cake, especially with beautiful cream cheese icing. Although, this cake is a little different from the carrot cake that instantly came to my mind. This cake is gluten free and dairy free. Nigella mentions in her book that this recipe was first made by the Venetian Jews in the original ghetto. So I'm going to give it a go. Even though the terms 'gluten free' and 'dairy free' usually have me running for the hills, as my own narrow mindedness assumes that as it is not full on fat, then surely it cannot be full on flavour. But I am prepared to challenge this semi-ingrained ideal. And if this cake doesn't turn out to be so great on taste, well the full fat cream cheese version is still a very viable option.

Of-course when I make these cakes I will take pictures for my blog, but don't judge me too harshly, as I'm not so talented when it comes to decorating cakes. I'm seriously considering taking a class though.

Fondant is generally whats covering wedding cakes, to give them that smooth, exquisite appeal. My problem is that I've never used fondant before. Ever. And I don't want a white wedding cake. I know you can dye fondant, but is it as simple as sploshing some food colouring onto it? If anyone has some tips with using fondant, please please let me know. Anything would be helpful at my newbie stage. Lesbe-honest, I'll probably just end up YouTube-ing some tutorial.

That's all for now.

Laters,

Kate  :)

Julie & Julia: The Movie

I watched Julie&Julia again over the last 2 nights. I had to watch it over 2 nights because I started watching too late on the first night, and fell asleep part way through. I feel like I have watched the movie on an entirely new perspective, now that I'm doing my own cook/blog thing. 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' seems like a challenging recipe book. Julie Powell probably didn't have enough breakdowns while attempting to cook her way through it. I'm sure everything in it tastes divine, but each recipe has about 20 different ingredients, and takes more than 2 hours to prep and cook. Julia Child said her cook book was 'For the servantless American cook.' It was all good and well then for cooks to spend a couple hours each day preparing lavish dinners for their families, because back then the cook/wife did not tend to be employed outside of her household. Times have changed however, the modern cook tends to already have a full time job to contend with. And this brings us back to Nigella Lawson. She really is the solution for the modern day cook. Her recipes are simple and delicious. But what I like best about them is that I have most of the ingredients at home already. In her book 'Kitchen' which I'm cooking my way through at the moment, there is even a second index at the back which lists all the recipes that take 30 minutes or under to prep and cook. How ingenious is that?! 

In conclusion

I'm grateful Nigella exists.

I'm thankful that I have Nigella as a home cook to idolise, rather than Julia Child. I'm sure Julia was a wonderful woman, but her strenuous recipes are at a level of difficulty that I don't want deal with after 8 hours of work.

I'm appreciative I have the opportunity to do this. I really do enjoy cooking, discovering new recipes and testing out my writing skills with this whole blog venture.

Dinner tonight? KFC.... *sad face*. It wasn't supposed to be, I intended on cooking some Beef Sirloin Steaks. But my fiance talked me into takeaways. Not that it took much, I do love me some K-Fry every now and again. 

Next on the to-do-recipe-list?  Cheesy Chili.   

Stay tuned,

Kate-o.

I already had the chicken, so...

(This font looks like type-writer font.)

I have a headache, I think I'm getting sick. It's strange because I rarely ever get sick. And it's summer. Summer! I don't get allergies, like hay fever, or anything, so yeah, it's strange. But mostly annoying, because I don't have the patience for being sick. Anyway, whine-time over. On to more appealing things...

This evening I made Crisp Chicken Cutlets. I was going to wait a while before doing another Nigella recipe, buuuut I was going to cook chicken anyway, and this happened to be the next recipe in the book. So here we are again :)  It also helped that I had all the ingredients at home, except Buttermilk, which was easy enough to pick up on my way home from work.

Nigella describes these as "grown-up chicken nuggets." And she's right. Served with a side salad, this really is the perfect summer meal. 

• 4 Chicken Breast fillets - you're going to need to bash these with a rolling pin until they're thin. I've never bashed chicken breast before, or bashed anything with a rolling pin either, so this really was a lot of fun :P
• Whisk together 1 Cup of Buttermilk and 1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce. Marinate the chicken pieces in this. 30 minutes is long enough.
• Mix together 2 Cups of Breadcrumbs, 1 Teaspoon of Salt, 1/4 Teaspoon of Pepper, 1 Teaspoon of Herbs and 1/2 Cup of grated Parmesan cheese.
• Once chicken is done marinating, coat the chicken on both sides in the seasoned crumbs.
• Cook in frying pan, use lots of oil. Like cover the base of the pan with 1/4 inch of oil.

So it's pretty easy, and tasty. The only dumb thing is having to wait for the chicken to marinate. But I suppose if you're super organised you could marinade the chicken overnight, so you're all prepped. I just don't think that far ahead, unfortunately. 

Probably the best thing about this though is the left-over Buttermilk. I can use it to make something sweet, like scones or pancakes. Mmmmmmmm. 

Not tonight though, don't know if I'm game enough to cook 2x Nigella recipes AND blog about both of them all in one night. Plus, I need to get some more eggs. But don't worry, my leftover Buttermilk doesn't expire until 1/02/2014. I've got pleeeenty of time to buy some eggs ;)

And pictures of tonight's feast are as follows:

Chicken marinating in Buttermilky goodness.

The seasoned breadcrumbs mixture.
If you have any leftover that you don't want to throw away, you can always freeze it, to be used again another day.

1x Plate

2x Plates

That's all folks.

X O X O

Cooking Girl

A favourite of all ... Pizza!!

Yep, that's right, as the title of this post suggests - I made pizza. Not just ordinary pizza though, this was Nigella's Crustless Pizza. 

I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about this recipe. I love the crust on a pizza. More specifically, I love the cheesey stuffed crust on Pizza Hut pizza's. I feel so guilty when I eat that, not because of the carbs or the fat content or whatever, but because all I can think as I'm eating that beautiful crust is, "Cheeeeeese, cheese is my most favourite food everrrr." I feel guilty about thinking this about this product mostly because it's not even real cheese, it's so fake and processed, and there are so many more delectable cuisines out there, yet I cant help myself. So I guess if everyone has a guilty pleasure, this is mine! And now back to thee Crustless Pizza, well, it was actually delicious. I didn't think about Pizza Hut's cheesey stuffed crust pizza once. It's even incredible easy to make. Here's how to do it:

• Beat together 1 Egg, 2/3 Cup of Flour, 1 Cup of Milk, a pinch of Salt and 1/2 Cup of Cheddar Cheese (I used mild).
• Once the above becomes a smooth batter, pour it into a pie dish. Yes, I repeat, a pie dish. Then chuck it in the oven for 30 minutes at 200 degrees celsius. 
• Take it out of the oven and sprinkle on another 1/2 Cup of Cheese (I used mozzarella, but cheddar is a-okay), and slices of salami or chorizo. But really any toppings you're in the mood for, or have sitting in the fridge at moment, would suffice.
• Put the dish back in the oven for a few more minutes to cook through the toppings, and melt the second batch of cheese.

So, so easy. And so, so delicious. This is a pizza base like I've never eaten before, thin yet chewy. I was a little skeptical due to the very few ingredients that were listed, but am happy to report, that I am now a believer! 

This really is a must try. If anyone does give it a go, please let me know what you think. 

Pictures below :-)

Smooth batter mixture poured into pie dish - pre oven time.

After 30 minutes in the oven. Definitely did it some good.

Toppings added, and ovened for another few minutes.

The perfect home made slice.

So if anyone read my intro post, they'd know that I had only intended to do one post a week. This is now my second post in 3 days. What can I say? I'm hooked! Hooked on blogging, cooking and Nigella'ing. Mostly Nigella'ing. Here's hoping this "Honeymoon period" lasts, haha.

Yours truly,

Kate

Bibliography

C A Callard, 2014, direct quote

Mortadella and Mozzarella Frittata

So, guess what? ... My recipe book came in the mail yesterday! I've been eager to get started, so here goes.

First recipe up for cooking was 'Mortadella and Mozzarella Frittata', as you may have guessed from the title above. Initial question that came to mind: What is mortadella?! Turns out mortadella is a large Italian sausage, which is made of hot pork and some other additives. Ok great, next question: Where can I get this mortadella? Not from my local supermarket apparently. Maybe from some specialty butcher? Not sure, but I decided I'd go with the next best thing. Google told me that pepperoni is a good substitute for mortadella, and that's what I went with instead. So effectively, this meal should really be called "Pepperoni and Mozzarella Frittata". 

If anyone's wondering what a Frittata is, because my fiance didn't know either, it's a type of Italian omelette. With no flipping necessary.

 My cooking of this meal went as follows...

Mix the following in one bowl:

• 6 whisked eggs
• 115 grams chopped pepperoni
• 115 grams chopped mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon parsley
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil and butter in frying pan, then add bowl mixture to frying pan. Cook on a low heat, and keep covered. I left mine to cook for almost 20 minutes. No stirring or anything is necessary while contents are in frying pan. Nigella said to use a broiler. I don't own a broiler, which is why I only used the frying pan. An adequate alternative, I think.

And the verdict of this meal: It was pretty alright. Quick and easy to make, and due to all the eggs, it was REALLY filling. My fiance also liked it, saying it tasted like an "omelettey-pizza". Obviously it wasn't perfect being my first go at it, but I still feel like it was a success. 

Mixture - before being poured into the frying pan.

Cooked frittata - slid out of frying pan onto plate.

Slice of frittata with a side of green beans :-)

Not only have I now completed my first Nigella recipe, I've discovered a new tasty meal. It's so easy to get stuck into a food rut. Just picking up pretty much the same stuff each week from the grocery store. Pasta Tuesday's, Mince-something Wednesday's, Chicken stir fry Thursday's, and so on. I think this journey is going to keep our dinners and, hopefully soon, desserts interesting and flavoursome and delicioso.

Until next week, x2 readers!

Introduction

This is the Kate Williams and Nigella Lawson Project

I've always been a big fan of Nigella, and have viewed her as an idol of mine for some time. Her TV shows are incredible; so inspiring and captivating.

Recently the media has been telling us of her apparent drug addiction. I honestly don't believe she's addicted to cocaine. She's been at the top of her game with her TV Shows and Cook Books for quite some time now; a cocaine addiction would not have allowed her to keep up this status, not to mention her beautiful voluptuous figure. If Breaking Bad (The US TV Show) has taught me anything, it's that people don't function well on hard drugs and that when they are addicted, they get super-skinny and become not-so-pretty. And if it does turn out that I am completely wrong, and she has been addicted to cocaine this whole time, and that I'm completely talking out of my ass right now, WELL, I'll still think Nigella is fantastic.

I recently purchased her book 'Kitchen' from bookdepository.co.uk. My intention being that once a week, probably on a Sunday evening, I'll cook/ bake something from this book. I thought this would be a realistic commitment as I work full-time, study part-time, am in the process of planning my own wedding, and also would like to maintain some semblance of a social life.

When I mentioned this good intention to my wonderful friend Cassie, she suggested I write a blog about it... Kind of like Julie&Julia. As Julie&Julia is one of my favourite movies, I thought her suggestion was brilliant.

So here I now am, about to embark on this journey, hoping like hell I have nowhere near as many breakdowns as Julie Powell (portrayed by Amy Adams in the movie) had. I must remind myself that I'm not on a time limit here, that only one recipe/ blog per week is the goal.

As it takes 7-10 working days for books ordered from bookdepository.co.uk to arrive in New Zealand, I should have "Kitchen" by about 8/01/2014. So my first actual, non-intro, blog should be up by the following Sunday.

Hopefully I get more readers than just Cassie and The Fiance, only time will tell.