Auntie Marie's Golden Syrup Dumplings

Auntie Marie and Owen September 2010

Auntie Marie is a beautiful, kind and loving person.  I love her dearly and I always call her an angel lady.

When we were children she would always make golden syrup dumplings for desert and the tradition has stuck.  Everytime I visit her  in the south-east at Mt Gambier she makes dumplings.

Auntie Marie and her family are awesome cooks.  She grew up on the family's dairy farm where there was always an abundance of cream and milk for beautifully made deserts and other foods.   Her mum Doreen Hayes used to make the best sponge cake, so imagine that with jam and cream.  Auntie Marie told me she hasn't ever mastered her mother's sponge recipe as it's always a flop and she doesn't know why.  So I said to her we will know her for dumplings instead.

Here is the recipe:

Instructions

Sauce

• Put in saucepan
• 1 tablespoon of golden syrup
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 cup of hot water
• 1 cup of sugar

Dumplings

• Mix 1 cup self raising flour and rub in 1 tablespoon of butter. 
• Stir in beaten eggs and a little milk. 
• Roll into about 8 balls. 
• Drop them into boiling water and put lid on top. 
• Cook for about 20 minutes. 

Donna's potato bake

Donna Jenkins is my cousin on Mums side.  We've been great friends since our childhood and it's awesome to see our children are playing together.  We usually catch up during my holidays at Mount Gambier to visit family and friends. 

Donna made a delicious potato bake when I was holidaying with the family in September 2010. The french onion soup and cream are a great combination.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• Potatoes -  approximately 10 potatoes (1 1/2 per person)
• French onion soup - 1 packet or more if required
• Cream - 2 cups
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Peel and thinly slice the potato for each person. 
2. Put half of the potatoes in a cassarole dish. 
3. Combine cream and 3/4 of the french onion soup and pour about half of the mixture over the top of the potatoes. 
4. Add the remaining slices of potato and then pour of the rest of the cream/french onion mixture.
5. Sprinkle the remaining french onion soup of the top of the potato to give it a more crunchy taste. 
6. Cook in a hot oven for about one hour. 
7. To cook more quickly soften the potato in the microwave first before finishing off in the oven

Melba's pea soup

Auntie Melba Hofmeyer

Auntie Melba was one of Lindstrom sisters (my Nanna's sister).  All of the Lindstrom girls where beautiful.  She was married to Don Hofmeyer. 

This is her pea soup recipe she gave to me when I was collecting recipes from the family in 1995.


Ingredients

Can use a ham, shank or bacon bone.  For a shank boil the meat first the day before then take off the fat.  With bacon bones you cook them that day.

250 grams green split peas.  Soak peas in hot water with a bit of carb soda overnight.  Cook separately the next day.  Tip out the water from soaking overnight, and put the peas in a saucepan of hot water and bring to the boil and keep an eye on them.  Keep simmering to nothing. 

Add onion, carrot or soup vegetables, parsnip, turnip, celery. swede (turnip is white and swede is yellow).  Chop up the vegetables. 

Add macrone or any type of pasta.

Add simmered down peas to the vegetables and meat.

Salt/pepper when the soup is cooked. 

Put in cubes of bacon/chicken powdered stock.

Patrick's chocolate cupcakes

5. Adding the white chocolate chips

Patrick and Kathryn are my cousins on my Dad's side.  She is the grand daughter of my great Auntie Ailsa and great Uncle Jo on the Saunders side.  Kathryn and I share many common interests such as exploring new opportunities and love for life, love for family especially our children and friends and have a genuine interest in family history.  Also, we share a common bond in our family ancestral ties and she is an awesome gal!  Kathryn's husband is Cameron and they recently returned from a working holiday in Dubai and are now living Sydney.  I'm hoping to visit them in Sydney sometime.

Patrick and Kathryn have been kind enough to share their chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate chips recipe and some awesome shots cooking these delectable cupcakes were provided too.  So thanks for sharing.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips
• 1 cup brown sugar packed down
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 3 oz (85 grams) butter melted
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk till combined. 
2. In a separate bowl combine milk, eggs, butter, vanilla and mix until blended.  Mix wet and dry ingredients together. 
3. Add chocolate chips, stir until blended.  Put in a moderate oven 180 degrees celsius until cooked (approx 10 to 15 minutes).

1. Patricks copy and the original

2. Mixing the dry ingredients

3. Mixing the wet ingredients

4. Stirring it all together

6. Ready to go into the oven

7. Fresh from the oven

Charlie's mini pikas

Last weekend Charlie and I made some pizzas for our lunch.  Charlie really loves pizza.  In fact it was one of his first words, pronounced "pika".

As you can see from the photo he was pretty happy about making his own delicious pizza. Too bad it ended toppings down on the floor just a few seconds after taking this photo. 

I'm still teaching Charlie about keeping the plate straight and the seven second rule.  Don't worry, he ate Daddy's pika instead.

Ingredients

- tomato paste

- cheddar cheese grated

- ham shredded

- red capsicum cubed

- mushrooms sliced

- basil

- mini pita bread

Anything goes with these types of pizzas. We were just using what was in the fridge.

Instructions

1. preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius

2. cut up your ingredients

3. using a spoon cover the pita bread with the tomato paste and then add all of the other ingredients

4. Cook the pizzas for about 10-15 minutes.