RECIPE - Mushroom & Red Wine Soup

Here it is by special request of RayRay. Enjoy!

CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP ( with liquor yeah!)
45g butter
700g field mushrooms chopped
1 onion chopped
1 garlic clove crushed
2T flour (rice flour is great)
100ml red wine or sherry
700ml chicken or vege stock
175ml of cream (or milk if too rich)
salt n pepper
chopped flat parsley to garnish

Melt butter on LOW heat, then turn up to a MED heat & add onion, garlic, mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes. Remove from heat & stir in flour for 1 min. Return to heat & add wine/sherry. Gradually add stock continuing to stir. Season & bring to boil. Simmer for 20 mins.
Puree the soup in a blender. Cool it off a bit. I have tried doing this while hot and the top blows off the blender and you end up with 3rd degree burns!. Return to pan and heat, add all cream/milk except for 4T. Serve in 4 big bowls garnish with dollop of remaining cream and sprinkle with parsley.

RECIPE - Raspberry & Orange Upside Down Cake

After being sick with a nasty nasty stomach bug for what seems like half a lifetime, my appetite is back AND with cravings for bad sweet naughty food. And cake. Lots of cake please.

But the bug has left me with even worse food intolerances. So no wheat & no lactose whatsoever for Aunty. Not even lick the spoon after scooping an icecream for Oscar. And I really love doing that. So here is a delish sweet but berry tarty cake I made recently. I don't go in for the pretty looking iced cakes as I don't have the patience or skill. So this upside down cake is just perfect.


In the recipe photo it looked a perfect raspberry red & orange combo but mines more of a muddy purple! But its a super delish muddy purple cake.

RASPBERRY & ORANGE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
Serves 8 (or 3 in my house over a wet weekend)

1 1/2 cup Gluten free flour or plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
150g almond meal
3 large free range eggs
3/4cup caster sugar (1/2 cup of you like a tarty cake)
175g butter cubed & at room temp
2T grated orange rind
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
300g froz raspberries
3 tsp demerara (raw) sugar

Preheat oven to 170C (no fan). Spray a fluted non stick ring pan with oil. Line the base with good baking paper. Beat butter, sugar & orange rind together until light & creamy. Add eggs one at a time until well combined. Fold in combined flour & almond meal & juice.
Arrange half the raspberries at the bottom of the tin (which will be the cake top). Top with half the cake mix. Tap on the benchtop to settle. Repeat with remaining raspberries & cake mix. Tap tin on bench & smooth with a spatula.
Bake for 50-60 mins or until a skewer comes out of the centre clean. Set aside for 10 mins to cool. Take a clean flat knife and run carefully around inside of pan. Turn the cake onto a platter & sprinkle with demerara sugar. Serve with cream or ice cream or in my case eat half the cake neat over the course of 3 days. oops!

Cooking with Kids

I am so happy little Oscar loves baking as much as I do. as soon as my big baking box filled with flour, baking powder, cocoa, choccy buttons etc comes out of the cupboard he's off to find his stool to stand on so he can "help" Mum. I try to set up the ingredients in measuring cups before he clocks the baking box otherwise my little helper gets over eager and we end up battling over flour & sugar & milk. We have had one incident when Oscar ended up with a jug of oil on his head which we all thought was pretty funny until someone had to have TWO baths in one day!






By keeping the ingredients nice and simple the whole baking process is fun and kids start to remember what ingredients make scones or simple muffins. I also like baking for kids as I know I am putting in little or no sugar and flavouring my baking with raisins, berries, choc chips or cheese instead. Biscuits have WAY too much sugar in them for tiny growing milk teeth. Baking is a learning process for kids in so many ways too - following instructions, turn taking, taste & texture, nutrition. Its even a science class on chemical reactions especially if your little one tips in a cup of baking powder!

So get baking with the kids. Its messy, fun & delicious.

Dunkley's Craft Show Ahoy!

Hoorah for the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show! My stall was a great success at the show and I was pleased with my "budget" set-up with fuzzy felt flowers & calico backdrop. I even stole my husbands favourite orange couch rug for the display! He couldn't figure out what happened to it until he came to my stall. ooops! Here is Aunty's Natural Muesli on display. I had lots of people come & taste my samples and I hope they visit me at the Taranaki Farmers Market soon.

The other stallholders were good fun too and were really helpful when I was setting up.


Here is Ian sellng his preserves. It was his 18th year touring with the Dunkleys Craft Show.



There were so many fabulous stalls. Belgian Truffles, Vintage Vixen Jewellery, the lovely Angie with her jewellry too AND she won Best stall Display with her dazzling Vegas style lights. I also loved the Nana knitting stalls and bought a lovely Merino sleeping bag for my best mate Jane who has no 3 on the way next month. There was also a lady selling "Quake Art". Her studio was battered by the Christchurch Quake and she has created some cool art work from her battered paintings and broken mirrors.



Here is my honey supplier Fiona from Bees R Us. I use her Manuka Blend in my muesli which gives it a rich & sweet flavour.

She also has a Macdamia Bush honey which I am quite a fan of

The show was well advertised, well organised and a big hit. If you are considering having a stall at one of the shows I HIGHLY recommend. Stallholders go to a massive effort to get ready for these shows and sometimes the organisers don't let the public know its out there.

Thanks to the Dunkley family for a great weekend!

Aunty's Does the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show!

Aunty's been a very busy baker making & packing almost 300kg of muesli over the past few weeks. Its really hard work and the packing fiddly but now comes the fun part! I have a stall booked at the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show in New Plymouth this weekend. Its a 4 day event tagging onto Mondays Public Holiday here and held in a big stadium. I think there will be about 80-100 stalls selling everything from handmade cards, knitted booties to Old Busmans Bourbon, leather bags, pottery and of course muesli! Aside from making muesli I need to decorate my stand to attract some customers. I haven't had much time (or money!) to put a display togther but bought 10m of fabric to cover the MDF stall boards, sewed some gingham tablecloths and then will scatter my felt flowers & leaves I whipped up last night. I was going to stuff the flowers too, like the leaves, but my orange thread ran out!



But its worked out for the best as the leaves are quite heavy and might not stay up plus I have twice as many flowers. Funny how disaster turns into a plus like that. Well wish me luck I am really hoping to win a prize or place for Best Dressed stall. I'll post some Show pics next week!

Topshop Duffle Coat

I love this Duffle Coat! I NEED this Duffle Coat! Its cold & dark and I NEED it! Theres a few problems with me actually buying one.


1. Its from Topshop UK
2. They only have summer stock in their on-line store.
3. I have no money!

Auntys Art Deco Holiday

Have you ever been to Napier in NZ? Its an Art Deco mecca. The whole town centre is decked out in 1930s buildings thanks to a devastating earthquake that flattened the town in February 1931 that tragically killed 256 people.



The town council really put a lot of thought and time into the rebuild & employed Louis Hayes and others to redesign Napier in the spirit of Lloyd Frank Wright.



My fav deco part is the beach front gardens, the still in use soundshell & fountains. And I love the way the buildings are in the 1930s classic pastels. Not bright & flashy like Miami but more muted & humble.

There is also a bell-type glockenspiel in the Civic Park that chimes out Split Enz's "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" at 11.30am and Dave Dobbyn's "Loyal" at midday. It was very odd and even irritating the lunchtime crowd!

I also caught up with my Uncle Bill who is a retired Marist Brother. He studied and worked at the old Mission Estate Winery in the 60s and lucky us got our own special guided tour! Well my family did while I played outside with 2 year old Oscar on the Estate lawns. I did get some nice wine to take home with a massive 25% discount. Thanks Uncle Bill you're tops!