LICORICE ICE CREAM

As my granddaughters will tell you, I love licorice.  They very kindly add extra to any lolly bags they’re making for me and even give me some from their own, such lovely girls………..  So when I saw this Licorice Ice Cream recipe I couldn’t resist sharing it, although I think, like me, you’d need to love licorice.

TAPAS SELECTION

This selection of Tapas delicacies was published in the Herald Sun in about 2002.  Of course they are much more common now, but this selection are fairly simple to make and as the accompanying article says are ideal “taken with a glass of sherry, beer or wine”.

BERRY SLICE WITH STRAWBERRY SAUCE

I almost didn’t post this recipe because Vitari is no longer made by Nestle.  I changed my mind though on googling it and deciding you could use Weis Sorbet instead or at a push a good ice cream.  It looks so tasty in the picture I thought it was worth doing.

CORN AND POTATO PIE

The cheesy pastry base in this recipe is filled with mashed potato, bacon, spring onions, creamed corn and more cheese, which sounds like a great combination.  It doesn’t say so, but I’m assuming they mean for you to heat it hot, although cold the next day might be interesting as well.

GEM SCONES

I’ve included this recipe because it brings back a lot of memories. Gem scones are a cross between a scone and a muffin, but sadly impossible to cook unless you have a gem iron, which I don’t think you can buy these days.  My cast iron gem iron was made for me by a friend of Mum & Dad’s, when he made one for Mum.  The secret of cooking them is to get the iron super hot so that the mixture sizzles when you drop it in.  They taste great and finding this recipe now makes me want to cook a batch again.

GARLIC MUSTARD RACK OF LAMB

In Mum’s time lamb was a cheap and tasty meat to use, but with the cost of racks of lamb at what they are today if you’re going to cook them you might just as well push the boat out and add a great topping. I don’t think you can go wrong with this mustard, garlic and soy sauce combo spread on top.

OLIEBOLLEN – Dutch Doughnuts

I’ve been watching contestants on recent cooking shows struggling to successfully make doughnuts and thinking that it was a new dessert, that is until I found this old recipe in Mum’s collection.  It made me look up the meaning of Oliebollen and Wikipedia describes them as  “a traditional Dutch and Belgian food. They are called oliebollen in the Netherlands, while in Belgium they are also called smoutebollen and croustillons in French. In English they are more commonly known as Dutch Doughnuts or Dutchies.”  Whatever the name they taste great, just hope you have more success with them than some of the contestants.