Category: Savoury Pies and Tarts

September 2003 – Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom!

“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane”…so begins the fabulous REM song, “It’s The End of The World As We Know It”.  And for me, this year actually began with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake when we were holidaying in Darwin.  Last month we celebrated my birthday in absolute chaos (more on that later) whilst on holiday in Port Douglas. And when I say chaos, I mean a total f*cking nightmare.  So when the random number generator chose “Birthday Party, Cheesecake, Jelly Bean, Boom!  I thought it might be a good chance to reset and have a little party to make up for the day that was ruined!  The vehicle of choice for this month is Super Food Ideas, from September 2003 and I went in search of party food.  

Butterfly Cakes

But first, let’s take a little wander down the memory lane to the heady days of September 2003.  R Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) was #1.  Less said about that the better I think.  Finding Nemo was top of the box office and The Da Vinci Code was still the most popular book!  

The Menu – September 2003

Birthday Party Menu

Margarita

Now, I can’t think of a much better way to kick of any birthday celebration than with a classic Margarita!  And this one was perfection!!!!!  I 

Margarita

 

The cocktail napkin you see in the above photo was one of a set of napkins I bought in Port Douglas.  They are all super cute and also an inspiration to make the rest of the cocktails featured on them! 

And as with the margarita, the first four days of our holiday were wonderful.  Port Douglas is such an amazing place.  Rainforest, reef and beach – great restaurants, perfect weather….the only downside is the crocodiles…and the murder birds!  

Margarita Recipe

Margarita recipe

Seafood Pizza

As you may have noticed, I love my seafood!  This nicely leads me to where our holiday turned paradise into a nightmare.  Day 5 of our holiday, which was my actual birthday we had planned to move from our PD central apartment to a house around 10km out of Port Douglas.  It was also the night of The Matildas v England final of the Women’s World Cup.  We had been out for a lovely dinner the night before so the plan for my birthday was to grab a seafood platter from Port Douglas when we left and then enjoy the evening in our house.  Dip in our private pool, , bit of football on the telly, champagne on ice, and our gourmet seafood platter…could life get any better?

Seafood Pizza 1

Better?  No.  What we hadn’t figured was that it was about to get a whole lot worse!  

We turned up at the house, for which we had a confirmed booking from one of the largest, if not the largest booking agencies in the world.  The Fussiest Eater sends a text to the owner asking for the keypad number as the gate is locked. We are there for about 5 minutes when a woman comes out of the house.  “Can I help you?” she asks.  “Oh, yes, you probably just got our text.  We’re here for our holiday”  

Apparently we weren’t. 

In the time that we had made our booking and our actual holiday, the house had been sold.  It was no longer holiday accommodation.  

It was now 3:00pm on a Saturday, we had no place to stay for the next four nights and we had a rapidly warming seafood platter on the back seat of the hire car. 

Seafood Pizza Recipe

Seafood Pizza

Party Pies

Party Pie1

You know this is an Aussie Meat Pie because the secret ingredient is a spoonful of Vegemite!  I made mini versions of this pie – in Australian we call these Party Pies so they were perfect for my Birthday Party Menu!

Now back to Port Douglas.  The Fussiest Eater began calling the owner of the house. He confirmed that he had sold the house and had told the booking agency to cancel all future bookings.  I started trying to find us accommodation.  The first place I found wanted $15,000 for the four nights.  The second $6000.  Finally, we were able to find a studio room back in Port Douglas for the four nights for a price that we could actually afford.  And that had a fridge in which we could put the seafood platter!  From there we called the booking agency who offered to not only refund the cost of the house but also to pay for the emergency accommodation.  

The following day we were also able to move into a one-bedroom apartment in the same complex which was a lot better than the studio but still how we had wanted to spend the last few days of our holiday. 

As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment.  We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the house technically we are not out of pocket.

Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected. 

Technically I could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference. 

I didn’t want to be an arsehole. 

I’ll leave that up to them.  

Meat Pie Recipe

Aussie Meat Pie

 

Chewy Almond Crescents

We now turn to the sweet part of our birthday party menu.  These were great!  Really tasty and not overly sweet.  You couldn’t really taste the apricot jam which was a shame.  When I make these again, I will maybe add some chopped-up dried apricots into the mix.  Or maybe add a glaze with the jam.  They were delicious regardless.  These would be great with a cup of tea or coffee or equally with a little glass of Baileys! This was probably my favourite thing on the menu.  I also loved the butterfly cakes but they were similar to cakes I had made before.  These were all new and I was so happy to discover them!

Chewy Almond Crescents

Accomodation saga continued….As of today though, the booking company have yet to refund us the money for the second Port Douglas Apartment.  We are idiots who did not get their OG offer in writing and they are now saying that as the second apartment was cheaper than the house technically we are not out of pocket.

Technically they ruined my birthday and did not deliver on the holiday we paid for and expected. 

Technically I could have chosen the house that cost $15000 instead of that studio apartment as our alternative accommodation and technically they would have had to refund us the difference. 

I didn’t want to be an arsehole. 

I’ll leave that up to them.  

Chewy Almond Crescents Recipe

Chewy Almond Crescents2

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes

These were so pretty and also delish.  I loved the tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cupcake!

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes

The one-bedroom apartment was great.  However, on the first night, I was woken at around 2 a.m. by the sound of what sounded like a woman screaming. Channelling my inner Nancy Drew,  I got out of bed and looked out the window but the side street the room looked out on was deserted.  I was just getting back into bed when I heard it again.  This time I went to the main room to look out of the front windows but the main street which we overlooked was also quiet.  I went back to bed.  I heard the same noise once again at around 5 a.m. This time I wondered if maybe someone in the neighbouring rooms was having an argument as again there was no movement on either street.  

There was no mention of any attack on the news the following day so I went about my business.  As we were walking back to the apartment from dinner I heard the same noise.  This time though I was able to see that it was coming from a bird that we had just walked past.  A quick Google Search identified these murder birds as Bush Stone Curlews.  Thankfully no Nancy Drewing needed for me on the second night.  Or thereafter.  

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes Recipe

Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes

 

My Nigella Moment  – Passionfruit Glazed Shortbread

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious.  In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it but it was one of the most appetising things in the mag!

I love shortbread and passionfruit so these were high on my list of things to make.  They would have also fit in nicely with my birthday party theme but I ran out of time and had to choose between the Almond Crescents and these.  In the end, I have eaten Passionfruit Shortbreads before whilst the Almond Crescents were something new to me so I chose them.  These though?  High on my list of things to make!  And believe me, when I do…I will definitely be popping back to the biscuit tin, Nigella Style, for just one more!

Passionfruit Glazed Shortbread Recipe 4 (1)

 

Super Food Ideas really came through for my birthday-themed menu!  As did Port Douglas for my birthday holiday.  Despite the…ahem…hiccup with the accomodation, PD remains one of my favourite holiday destinations!!!! 

 

 

Savoury Upside Down Pie

Hello friends! On the menu today is a savoury upside down pie (say what?) which comes from a new book to the blog, 250 Quick and Easy Recipes by Woman’s Day from 1986.  It’s actually from Let me tell you , if the savoury upside pie was anything to go by, I am looking forward seeing what the rest of this book has to offer.  This was delicious! I made this back in February and looking back at the photos now is really making me want to make it again!

Savoury Upside Down Pie 2
I chose this recipe because of its unusual cooking method.  You line your pie dish with bacon (yum) then spoon a mix of minced chicken, creamed corn, and some herbs on top of the bacon.  Finally, almost like a tarte tatin, you top the lot with pastry.  The end result is great, the bacon and the pastry turn crispy and the chicken mix stays succulent!  You will see below that the recipe below calls for green capsicum. I can’t bear them.  They also tend to repeat on me for hours afterward so instead of the capsicum, I added some additional herbs from the garden being sage and oregano along with the parsley and mint the recipe called for. 

Herbs

I have been featuring a lot of “posh” food recently.  This is definitely not that.  This is mid-week budget-style cooking.  I think it would be a great family meal.  I served my pie with shop-bought sweet chilli sauce, some zucchini pickles made from homegrown zucchini and a watercress and orange salad which will feature in an upcoming post. 

Savoury Upside Down Pie 1

 

Savoury Upside Down Pie – The Recipe

Savoury Upside Down Pie recipe

The sweet chilli was the perfect accompaniment to the pie – they really worked well together.  The pickles also bought a nice tang.  And it all looked lovely and colourful.  

The pie was also good cold the following day when I had some for my lunch!  I was going to reheat it but couldn’t wait!

Savoury Upside Down Pie 5

250 Quick and Easy recipes really delivered on its title with the Savoury Upside Down Pie!  Add in that it was also really tasty and you have a winner, winner chicken dinner!  There are a few more recipes which sound like they might be worth a try so I’m sure this will not be the last time we see this book!

Have a great week!

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The Dishiest Dish – Pizza Rustica Con Bietola

“Hey mambo, mambo Italiano hey, hey mambo mambo Italiano
Go go go you mixed up Siciliano
All you Calabrese do the mambo like-a crazy”

This week’s dishiest dish has us going to Abruzzo for a Pizza Rustica con Bietola. AKA a savoury tart with chard . But Pizza Rustican con Bietola sounds so much more Italian and glamorous doesn’t it?   And it will have you dancing the mambo because it is super tasty!
Savoury Tart With Chard
 The recipe comes from Made in Italy by Silvia Colloca which was my choice when we did Italian in the Tasty Reads book club a few months ago.
Before I looked inside this book I had my hater face on.  As if some B grade actress was going to have any cooking chops – and bear in mind the Claudia Roden book was one of the other selections. This was going to have to be pretty damn impressive to rival that!
Then I started flicking through and ye-es there were several pictures of Silvia looking both incredibly beautiful and impossibly thin. But it was also filled with what looked like some fabulous recipes and things that were not run of the mill.  And everything I have made to date has been delicious.
This has included:
  • Calimari with Tomatoes and Wine
  • Woodsman’s Chicken
  • Herb Frittata with Goat’s Curd
  • Noodles with Zucchini Blossoms and Saffron Sauce
  • No Knead Spelt Pizza with Soppressata and Potatoes
  • Pasta Strips with Slow Cooked Goat Sauce

So, this is proving a pretty solid choice.  Yay me!  Well, really yay Silvia!  But you know, I write a blog and it doesn’t get much more totally self obsessed than that so I guess yay me is valid.

 

 Six Week Challenges – Update

I am still  on my 6 weeks of no alcohol although I did take last weekend off!  Saturday night we were having lobster – OH. MY. WORD.  So good!!!!  And there was no way on God’s green earth that I was not having a glass of sparkling with that!  And Sunday we went out for a Valentine’s Day dinner to our favourite local Greek restaurant.  And again – it would have been churlish not to have a glass of vino!  But on the whole it is going well . I haven’t really missed it.  I also haven’t felt many of the supposed benefits – weight loss, sleeping better, greater productivity etc.

LobsterI have been struggling with the daily meditation.  I don’t think I have found the perfect time to do it.  In the mornings I am usually too rushed and if i try to do it at night I fall asleep.  Two places it did feel “right” were one day I did it as soon as I got home from work so it was a bit of a chance to decompress.  The other was one morning when I had parked m car at the station, i just stayed in it and did my ten minutes there.

My new one, started February 15th is a flexibility challenge.  Every day  I will do a short workout designed to improve my flexibility.  I am using the program from Fitivity.  I have only done a couple  so far and they have been fine but a bit boring.  I’m sure they will get more challenging as I progress!

I have been thinking of more that I can do over the next few weeks /months:

  • No processed food
  • No sugar
  • Yoga everyday
  • No Candy crush
  • Journalling everyday

Are all on the list.

Reading

Room – Emma Donoghue

I have had this book on my To Be Read shelf for YEARS.  And finally now I have taken the plunge and have started it – simply because I want to have read it before I see the film.  I am probably 2/3 of the way through and I think it is very well written.  There are certain parts that I have found quite confronting and other parts that have annoyed me but once I start reading it I find it difficult to put down.  I am still having some problems with starting picking it up and starting it each day though…..

Room - Emma Donoghue

 

The Apologist – Jay Rayner

This is my current audiobook.  Marc Bassett is a merciless restaurant critic.  One day a chef commits suicide by roasting himself in his bread oven,  leaving Bassett’s review taped to the outside.  And so begins his career as the apologist.

I am not very far along with this but I am enjoying it so far.

Watching

My Kitchen Rules

I can’t help myself. I am utterly addicted to this.  And the commentary on Flawless Vision.

Listening

I Know What You’ll Read This Summer Podcast.

I have only listened to one episode of this but they hated Girl on The Train almost as much as I did so it’s definitely worth another listen.

Room 101

From time to time I’ve decided to list a few pet peeves on here.  Things that I would like to see banished to Room 101.  Starting with:

Gluten Free Everything

When you label your bread, cakes and cookies gluten free you are doing a good service for those people who cannot tolerate gluten.  When you label products that would never have contained gluten in  a pink fit “Gluten Free” you are indulging in a cynical marketing ploy.  STOP IT.  I swear I saw water labelled gluten free recently.  It made me want to break things.

Quinoa

Has no one else noticed how bad this smells as it is cooking.  I made some the other day and the smell of it made me gag.  I”m never cooking it again.

Tart With Chard

Cooked.com

I took out an annual subscription for cooked.com.  This, for those of you who may not have heard of it is kind of like a netflix for cookbooks.  Does anyone else have one of these?  Do you find it useful?  how long have you had it.  Does it help you to choose which cookbooks to buy or do you not buy them anymore?  I have not actually cooked anything from the site yet.  I guess I’d better start!  Stay tuned!

Kitchen Nightmares

I had one kitchen nightmare this week.  I was all set to make Vitello Tonnato for bookclub only it was a new style “healthy” VT.  So, instead of that gorgeous tuna mayonnaise, my tonnato was made out of tofu, anchovies and parmesan cheese.  And it was rank!  I have never been one to complain about the smell of parmesan cheese.  I remember even in primary school when people would say “Yuck, it smells like sick”, I always thought they were nuts.  This abomination of a tonnato not only smelt like but tasted like vomit.  It was so bad I couldn’t even give it to the dogs.

Now though, I am craving a proper  old school Italiano Vitello Tonnato.  It’s a shame Silvia’s book does not have a recipe.  However, The A-Z of Cooking does.  There will be 1970’s Vitello Tonnato on here very soon.  I just have to allow the memory of the horror that was that tofu tonnato to subside a little!

Pizza Rustica con Bietola

What Silvia’s book does have is this recipe for Pizza Rustica con Bietola.  I am obsessed by those words.  I keep repeating them in an increasingly bad Italian accent!  If you would also like to become obsessed with this lovely tart here is the recipe:

Pizza Rustica con Bietola - Silvia Colloca

This week I am looking forward to cooking…nothing. Because I have been really busy and not done a single bit of menu planning.  However, we have a new Tasty Reads book so I might crack this open and give something a whirl.

Great Australian Cookbook

Oh and this is is my new favourite you-tube.  I have watched it about a million times since I found it.

What was the best thing you’ve made this week?  What are you looking forward to cooking?  Have you read anything interesting? I would love to hear from you!

Have a wonderful week!

Happy cooking.

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The Margaret Fulton Cookbook 3 – Onion and Olive Pie

“When a substantial first course is called for, it is hard to improve on a savoury tart served warm”

– Margaret Fulton

I so totally agree!

MFCB Olive And Onion Tart
MFCB Olive And Onion Tart

I think the Onion and Olive Pie  looks pretty good in both of these pictures. It’s certainly the best looking item on the 1977 page. In the modern picture though, it really shines.

Both make me wonder why this is not called a Tomato and Olive Pie.

If like me, you really want to eat this, here is the recipe.  From the 1977 version.  This ain’t called Retro Food For Modern Times for nothing.

 

Onion and Olive Tart Recipe
Onion and Olive Tart Recipe

Have a great week…if you want to know what I’m up to on holidays check out my daily Instagram!

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