Anything for love "huevos" rancheros

If you have a partner you have been where I was this morning. Dreaming from the night before about using my texmex left overs for my very first attempt at Huevos Rancheros. Getting up I asked "TheHusband" if he would like a cheese omelette and got a resounding "yes" so bounced (as much as an 8 months pregnant lady can) off into the kitchen to make our respective breakfasts. I open the carton of eggs only to discover 2 lonely eggs staring back at me.

What do I do? Tell make TheHusband porridge and hope he forgets he was offered eggs, or give up on my breakfast fantasies? As you may have guessed from the title of this post I chose to forfeit the eggs. I however do not regret it as my breakfast was delicious (and ultimately way too much for me anyway)

Sour Cream Brownies - Rich and delicious

I have always been a lover of "loot", I am never one to turn down a gift for any reason. Sure, I will do the polite "aw you didn't have to" but I will be very glad you did. I am equally excited about giving gifts and often leave gift buying for the last minute to avoid having to wait to see someone's reaction to a gift I bought which I felt was perfect for them. Sometimes I make it the other person's challenge by giving them the gift early and informing them that they cannot open it until the big day arrives. On the same level I tend to wait till after a party to open my gift, a little challenge to myself, something fun to have once all the guests have left and the party is over.

Such it was with the "brownie baking pan" that Nicola, from Wots for Lunch, gave me for my housewarming. She didn't make it easy, telling me she saw it at home and thought it was something I would definitely want. She did say if she got it wrong I could exchange it but I knew it would be so right. In the time that I have known Nicola, every gift she has given me has been thoughtful and just right. 

As some may know I had a #FoodieWarming. My housewarmings are going in stages, my flat is smallish and I wasn't sure what my limit was. As usual I totally over catered for the event (except on the tortilla's side, I didn't make enough) and was left with plenty food at the end of the night. What could be frozen was and what couldn't, was used (salsa makes great omlettes). I wasn't sure what to do with all the left over sour cream but when I saw Nicola's gift I knew that somewhere in the world wide web there must be a recipe for Sour Cream brownies and I was so right.

Sour cream brownies
(recipe adapted from TLC - how stuff works)
What you need:
1/2 cup butter softned
1 cup caramel sugar (you can use light brown sugar too)
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup NoMu cocoa ( I mention brand because their cocoa is very potent, other brands use 1/2 cup)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 cups cake flour
1/2 cup milk
1 bar dark chocolate (I had a bar of Lindt Dark Chocolate Mousse - it was either that or Madagasse)
What to do:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter a 33X22cm pan or brownie pan.
Cream butter and sugar in large bowl until blended. 
Add egg, sour cream and vanilla; beat until light. 
Add cocoa, baking soda and salt; beat until smooth. 
Alternate flour and milk well mixed. 
Stir in chocolate.
Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until center springs back when touched. Cool in pan on wire rack.
Cut into which ever shape you like or if you lucky like me the pan has already done that for you.


Serve with a cold glass of milk. 

Oreos - Home made is better

As much as we like to deny it, our lives are full of America. The TV shows we watch and the foods we crave, the good ol' US of A is all around us. It frustrate my husband no end that we are "allowing them" to brainwash us with their cool shows and delicious fast food but I am not complaining. Some things are just better with a twang.

One such thing, is the oreo. How we all rejoiced when they originator of the "but you can have the rest of my meeelk" graced our shores and several years on the cookie, and the iconic advert, still remain firm favourites. So, on one quiet and creative afternoon I thought "well how hard can it be?" and dived head first into the millions of results google handed me. Many very american short cuts like "chocolate cookie mix" later I finally found food networks version and made a few tweaks to match what I had (I was not in the mood to go shopping, if I was I would have just BOUGHT oreos and settled down with a glass of meeeelk)

What you need:

For the Dough:

• 1 1/3 cups NoMu cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 225g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling:

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 3-4 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

What to do:

Prepare the dough: Sift together the cocoa powder, flour and salt in a large bowl.Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, incorporating each ingredient before adding the next. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Divide the dough into 2 pieces; place one piece between 2 lightly floured sheets of baking paper and roll into a half centimetre thick rectangle. Repeat with the other piece of dough. Refrigerate both rectangles, covered with the baking sheets, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to several days.

Using a 4cm round cutter, cut the dough into 64 circles on the baking paper. It's easier to move the dough in between then the individual cookies. (You can reroll the scraps once.) Place the cookies about 4cm. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C.

Bake the cookies until they are set and slightly darker around the edges, about 20 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Using a mixer, cream the butter and vanilla until creamy. Beat in the icing sugar and lemon.

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with 1 level tablespoon of filling. Press the remaining cookies on top to make sandwiches.

Serve with a glass of cold milk and make sure your dogee doesn't get any cho'clate

Guest post by Homemade Heaven

I am loving my guest post slot. I get to feel a certain sense of pride that my tiny little blog gets to host some of the best bloggers in the industry. My next gust is no exception. Rosemary from Homemade Heaven was someone who I discovered in the food24 stable, I always admired her cooking and baking and she was one of the blogs I missed most when I stopped reading the food24 blogs. Happily I get to follow her again and enjoy her kitchen skills as well as her inspirational trips to Namibia.


Here she is with some more chocolaty goodness:

When I was asked to write this guest blog post, I couldn't help but think about how I got started in blogging.

I was remembering the months before of reading other food blogs and the inspiration I felt reading about other people's cooking and life experiences.

The most difficult part for me was the writing part. As an infamously bad speller (even with spell check), appallingly bad grammar and very little creative style, I knew that I was always going to have an uphill battle.

All this said, I embarked on my first blog post on 29 August 2007. I am very happy to say that while I still battle with all my short comings, I have managed to post over 300 posts in 3 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing everything from baking cakes to hiking the Namibian mountains!

The most rewarding aspect of blogging has certainly been the people I have met and most not even in the flesh. I have grown to love my blogging friends and have really enjoyed sharing the ups and downs of their's and my life. I have learnt so much about writing and photography over the last 3 years, especially after attending the Cape Town Food Bloggers Conference in February.

I hope that my blog will remain a true reflection of who I am and the beliefs I have.

I am sharing my recipe for mint chocolate chip muffins, as it is by far the most popular treat in my home. As a naturally lazy person, I love recipes which are simple to make, with maximum pleasure and these muffins certainly meet all these requirements.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 Eggs
240ml of Buttermilk
120ml Oil
200g Sugar
250g Self Raising Flour

120g Cocoa Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
100g Mint Aero Chocolate

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Muffins bake for about 25 mins.
In one bowl mix all the wet ingredients together.
And in another bowl mix all sifted dry ingredients together.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and stir roughly.
You must not beat until it is smooth.

Guest post by ThePartner

As some of you may know I have been plotting to start my own baking and catering company for a very long time. I guess if you read the Hello Kitty post you would know. Well I am very much well into the process of doing this...well I have a logo and a partner. My partner is an old friend of mine, she has been my friend for 16 years (what? wait? how old am I again) and one afternoon we played around with the idea and play turned to seriousness and now well..you will soon see the results.

ThePartner is talented in very many aspects, 2 of which are baking and photography and if you don't believe me, see for yourself:

I was compiling my CV the other day, filling in my education details and long forgotten high school awards, when I reached the subsection entitled, “Hobbies and Interests”. About two years ago, when I last needed a CV, I would've written, 'writing, photography, cooking, reading and travelling,' but that was before I became a full-time pastry chef. My actual hobbies now involve working, eating, sleeping, then repeating the process on a daily basis, with extra sleep on Sundays, when possible. Travelling now means going to Mossel Bay on occasional weekends to prove to the in-laws that I'm still alive, and photography is something I do with my phone when I see my friends, (or their pets) in embarrassing situations.

Enter Mister Retrenchment. With a week's notice, I now have all the time in the world to do as I please. I can stay in bed all day, catching up on all the books my iPod can handle, or I can stare at Facebook until I'm blue in the face. Just knowing I have the choice is enough to put a smile on my face and make me forget the rising dread of the upcoming job search. I now have TIME to pick up my camera, my notebook and my whisk and juggle them in the air until they blur my vision and form the amalgam that lies before you; a food blog post.

LadyRaven picked a good day to have me as her guest blogger, because I made the yummiest batch of chocolate brownies this afternoon. They're not just good, they're completely transcendent. I usually make brownies with toasted nuts, but today I was only after chocolate; as much of it as I could fit into one recipe without losing the cakey, fudgy texture that is characteristic of this all-American treat.

I'm working on the food photography, it's far from perfect, but I'm pretty sure I got this recipe right; a dense chocolate brownie with a just-set fudgy centre and a thin top crust. Not for the faint of heart or the weak of will, this recipe only makes 9 brownies, so hide them away from yourself if you're planning on sharing with someone who won't be around when they come out the oven. If you can hold out long enough, they keep nicely for up to 3 days.


Gooey-Centred Chocolate Brownies
175g dark chocolate, chopped (I used 70% cocao mass discs)
115g unsalted butter, cut into cubes for quick melting
25g dark cocoa powder, sifted
3 eggs (I used extra large, free range)
200g sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
140g flour, sifted


Preheat the oven to 180 and line a 20 x 20cm baking pan with baking paper, cutting down the corners of the paper so that they don't crumple in the pan.

Place chocolate and butter in a medium-sized heat-proof bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and stir until completely melted and combined. You should have a smooth, glossy chocolate liquid.

Remove bowl from the heat and whisk in cocoa powder, then eggs, making sure the mixture stays smooth. Continue stirring as you add the sugar and vanilla extract.

Lastly, stir in the sifted flour and stir well to combine. Scrape the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for  about 25-30 minutes, depending on how gooey you want your brownies. My oven is a bit strange, so check on the mix after about 20 minutes to make sure it's baking evenly, before deciding how much longer you'll want it in the oven.

Once done, cool completely before cutting. Trust me, it's worth the wait.
You might also want to close all your windows, so that the neighbours don't crawl through them when they smell the deliciousness wafting through the air. These brownies are too good to share, unless of course you have a glass of fresh milk with which to devour them. Happy baking!