Posts tagged Gadgets

Have a very Furoshiki Christmas!

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I hope you have been enjoying their Christmas Eve. I just thought that with the whirl wind of activity that I’ve been going through I’d just drop a note to wish you a very Furoshiki Christmas.

Scarves have never looked so cute! =)

Thermomix

When I heard from Cate’s blog that I could book in a demonstration for a Thermomix party, I was so there! Just a little background info:

The Thermomix is basically a blender with a heating element. It’s really popular in Europe, and with chefs around the world. You can control the heat settings, and you can also choose to put the blender bit in reverse. All that control provides you with the versatility to work many different recipes just with the one machine!

So the lovely Jan came over one Sunday afternoon, and we made a whole bunch of things. There was buckwheat bread done entirely with the thermomix – no messing around with warm water trying to get the yeast to start!

Dough for buckwheat bread rolls

And we also pulverised some parmesean to go with the rissotto we were going to make later.

Pulverised parmesan

First up, hummus, which took minutes! I’m not a fan of chickpeas usually, but this was so full of flavour, and tasted really hearty. So addictive.

Hummus, with a topping of paprika and olive oil

Then the beetroot/carrot/mint/apple salad. It was so refreshing, we finished the whole plate practically as it came out.

And look how well chopped it came out with under a minute in the thermomix!

Chopped up beetroot and apple salad

And the piece de resistance for me – the mushroom rissotto. The Thermomix did all the cooking – no stirring or messing with ladles and stock, it’s all done for you!!!!! How crazy is that? And it just smelt so SO good. Everything was in the one bowl – onions were sauteed in the Thermomix, and so was the stirring of the rice and so on. It was absolutely crazy.

Mushroom risotto

And for those of you wondering how the bread would turn out:

Buckwheat bread, with a great crust and fluffy interior.

How sexy is that? Soft on the inside, and crusty on the outside, Jan even ground her own buckwheat flour. Right in front of us!!

She also made some lemon custard.

Thick and gooey lemon custard

It was soft and goey and thick. Just like a good custard should be!

So yes, it is a fantastic piece of machinery, and it works wonders fast. It is on the expensive side, but it does replace a whole host of appliances you might need. A home demonstration is completely free, so if you’d like to see what it can do for yourself, you can call Jan and set up a home demo!

Thermomix Consultant:
Jan
jan.vandergraaf@optusnet.com.au

These are a few of my flavour-ite things

Just a light post for the weekend…

This is absolutely nuts!! I am a professed bacon lover and even I think this is crazy (and a part of me wants to try it). I found this on Craftgossip, and naturally I followed the link to the shop website. They’ve got an entire bacon themed section!!! They even have things like bacon flavoured jelly beans (in a stylish bacon looking tin of course), bacon flavoured lip balm…and a whole host of other things.

It’s like my fantasies coming true in a carnival-funhouse-mirror kind of way. I LIKE!

Did I mention that I actually have bacon-flavoured salt in my cupboard? hehe.

Under Pressure

Guess what I got today??!!! I’ve always been a biiiiiiig fan of stews – they are very satisfying on a cold night, and they are a good way to spend very little but get a lot – but the problem always has been that they take too long. The answer to that problem?

A pressure cooker!!

I’ve been thinking about one since last winter, and now that we’re finally going into the cold season again, I’ve got one!! I’m so very excited. That pot just helped me make a full-flavoured bolognese…in thirty minutes!! I can’t believe that I’ve just completely halved the time for a stew.

Now just some al dente homemade pasta to go with the sauce!

Happy munching!