Not only a winding road, but a rocky one...

Tonight was one rocky road; though the sweet itself only took about 20 odd minutes to prepare, the chef & prep'er (me on this occasion) were on a different sort of rocky road...Ok, before continuing and just to clear things up, it was nothing more then 2 horrible days at work colliding with one another, expected and normal.

A learning curve was indeed created though, which is always a silver lining. Rocky road is probably the only (or one of few) sweets that you can make successfully whilst in the midst of argument.

The chopping of the marshmallows, raspberry candy and peanuts all lend a hand. The marshmallows symbolise the love that gets mushed about when arguing, the raspberry candy are oh so satisfying to chop and symbolise the perfect amount of resistance the argument should have and the peanuts are the momentary regrets, i.e. no satisfaction in the chop and one misguided chop could see blood drawn, meaning something you wish you hadn’t said.

Then mixing it all together is what the make-up should be, because sometimes a bunch of mismatching ingredients just work.

In the end all you need is to place the mixture in a tray lined with baking paper and pop it in the fridge until it sets and vuala.

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Total prep-time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
- 500g chocolate (melted)
- 200g marshmallows (chopped)
- 150g Allens raspberry soft candy (chopped)
- a handful and a half of peanuts - I have large hands and thus used 1 handful (also chopped, but be careful, when doing this!)
- Optional: grated coconut (add this is for the Kapiris special rocky road)

How to work the magic:
1. Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl
2. Place in a as deep as required tray lined with baking paper
3. Place in the fridge to set for at least an hour or so.
4. Cut into pieces and shove a piece in you gob!
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I saw on TV once, they put the knife under hot water before cutting the finished product into pieces so it would make it easier, didn’t look as easy as they made it out to be, I think just a sharp bloody kitchen knife is the way to go :)

Note: I obviously didn’t mean the knife had to be bloody…=P

Another note is that this sweet was maid so as to take away camping, well actually, duck hunting I hate to say. The good news is that I myself have a bag limit of only one, which I have every intention of cooking stuffed with feta, couscous and a range of other wonderful ingredients.

So for now have a wonderful weekend and a safe one, hopefully my camping is an enlightening journey that I can share with you next week. For now kalinixta!

Crunchy Croutons - My new favourite

Well these are truly the easiest little babies to make. They’ll give that sexy touch to a salad or fill the void of that ‘missing something’ in those scrambled eggs, they can even give balance to some couscous.

Ok so get 2 slices of bread of your choice. Using a nice’en sharp knife, chop the slices of bread up into little cubes.

Put 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a frypan (I don’t really even know the difference between extra virgin and your normal virgin olive oil, I just like saying extra virgin) and on super low heat, throw in the chopped bits of bread.

Move the bread bits around until toasted and crispy, now just before you turn the heat off, sprinkle a bunch of parmesan cheese over the top and let them sit for about 35seconds. AND YOU’RE DONE!

Now feel free to put them on salad, soup, rice, omelette and anything you so desire, the first time I made these, I actually had them on their own they tasted so good, the olive oil and parmesan really give them that extra flavour. My wife actually yelled at me when I said I was going to try put parmesan on the bread bits, but she stuffed her face with them and her words were “now that is amazing!” how can someone swing so quickly…I’ll tell you how, olive oil and bread they key to everything...everything female that is ;)

Simple Lemonade Scones

What you'll need
If you want to impress with these super easy to make scones all you have to do is wake up 30mins before your partner and serve them with either a nice tea or coffee in bed.


A little hint for all the chocolate lovers is to add a few choc bits into the mixture and yummo!! I'd suggest trying the standard style below, but if you're game, go for it.


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Total prep-time: 25 minutes

Ingredients


- 4 cups flour (plain is ok, self raising is better)
- a can of lemonade (375ml)
- 300ml Thickened Cream

How to work the magic:

1. In a nice big bowl, mix in the flour, lemonade and cream to form a soft dough (If mixture still feels wet, add more flour)
2. Flour a flat bench or table top, place the dough on the floured surface and flatten it so it's about 4cm in thickness
3. Use a glass (flour the rim) to cut out nice circled dough blobs, now place the little circle blobs on baking paper on a tray and cook for approx. 15 mins at about 170 degrees4. Whip some cream up and serve them with jam as well :):)


This will make about 10-12.
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HANDY HINTS:1. To know if they are ready simply stab one with a skewer, if it comes out clean they're good to shove down your gob..!2. Feel free to add choc bits to the mixture, i like a few white ones, but then again, i'm a bit of a pig :)3. They might be simple but don't bloody burn'em, you want them to be nice and moist4. For guilt free eating, use wholemeal flour, they're actually just as tasty.5. Serve with some peppermint tea so you don't feel as bad when you're scoffining'em down ;)

Good luck and let me know how you go!