Just found this in mum's New Idea magazine and Ryan wants to make them...

Creamy chocolate:
1 cup thick vanilla custard
2/3 cup milk
1/3 cup chocolate topping

Creamy strawberry:
250g punnet strawberries, stems removed
2/3 thick vanilla custard
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup Strawberry topping

mix each set of ingredients, whisking well in a food processor
pour into moulds and freeze until set.



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Biscuits & Cookies

Cakes

Casseroles & Stews

Curries & Indian Food

Gluten Free

Other Sweet Treats

Slices / Bars

Soups

Thermomix Recipes



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Gluten Free Kids Party Ideas

Gluten Free Lollies (Australian)

Gluten Free Recipes (Blogs & Links)

Tips for Cooking Gluten Free (for Novices)



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

which one do you like better?
Grunge Floral
or
Pizza (i'm not so keen on the colours in this one)
or
Liquidity Graph

hmm i just found some more
Simple N Sweet

or soemthing totally different Turnout Mag


I wanted a food theme one but i definitely like the first one best!

no matter how health conscious you are trying to be extra-light cream cheese to make cream cheese frosting. it will be a DISASTER and way too runny to do anything with. even when you add an extra cup (or so) of icing sugar it will not thicken. It's only when you luckily discover an unopened in-date (what are the chances?!) pack of full fat cream cheese in teh back of the fridge that it will thicken enough to be used!!!

of course then you end up with twice as much as you need. hope it's still usable after freezing and defrosting :|



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

*** Happy Australia Day! ***

today we spent most of the day with good friends, having a BBQ lunch at one house, all bringing food to share. As Rora loves the Asian Noodle Salad i made that but was missing at least half the ingredients lol it was still very nice so I thought I would record the variation in case it was useful to anyone :)

I also did a quick conversion of the Nem Nuong recipe from Taste

both recipes are gluten free :)

Asian Noodle Salad Variation
1/2 chinese cabbage (wom buk) shredded finely
1/8th red onion, sliced very finely
100g roasted cashews
1 pkt chang's gluten free fried rice noodles
approximately 15 leaves (or half a bunch) of vietnamese mint, finely sliced

dressing:
1/4 cup white vinegar
approximately 2-3 tablespoons apple juice concentrate (or any other sweetener)
1 tab gluten free soy sauce
a few tbspns of sesame oil
around 2 tabs sesame seeds

combine all dressing ingredient and shake well
mix all ingredients except the noodles. add the noodles and mix well just before serving.


Nem Nuong variation
35g jasmine rice
4 garlic cloves, peeled
5 green shallots (scallions / green onions), ends trimmed, cut into 2" / 5cm pieces
500g beef or pork mince (tradionally pork but i only had beef)
20g fish sauce
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp caster sugar (I forgot this and they were fine so i guess it's optional ;))
25g rice bran oil (peanut oil or any other mild flavoured oil)

heat rice on varoma for around 6 minutes speed soft until fragrant
grind on speed 10 for 30 seconds
add garlic and chop for around 10-15 seconds speed 6
add shallots and chop on speed 5 1/2 for 10 seconds
add all other ingredients and pulse using turbo / closed lid until well mixed
roll into small balls and chill before cooking if possible.



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

oh dear, i have 133 links saved in my bloglines ! no wonder it's so hard to find the new posts if there's not more than about 50 lol so here are the Indian ones I had saved to try one day...

Curry (Leaf) Powder
cumin / jeera bread
GLUTEN FREE bajra roti

Palak Panir
moth beans spinach gravy (what are moth beans)
vegetable & egg pulav
egg biriyani
pulav with whole spices
sweet & spicy okra
tomato saar (have made this and it's nice, VERY quick)
paneer butter masala
quick chickpea curry
aloo methi
bean & potato stirfry
garlicky lentils with spinach
potato okra stirfry
brinjal potato stirfry
tomato paneer
potato cauliflower curry
chickpea curry
Channa hariyali (chickpeas with coriander)
black bean curry & potato curry
mock aloo gobi (tmx)

chicken biriyani & gravy
methi chicken
grilled chicken kebab
Hyderabadi chicken biryani
methi murgh - chicken with fenugreek
murgh masallam
chicken vindaloo
chicken masala

koftas

aam kulfi
doodh peda
aam khand

hmmm well that got rid of 32 links lol i feel likei need to hold an indian themed dinner party to try some of these recipes - who's in?!



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

before...

Made this for breakfast this morning and gosh it was yummy! will make this one again and again - it was also very easy!

After some research on the best gluten free "baking" book, I bought myself a copy of "Gluten-Free Baking Classics" by Annalise G Roberts from the Book Depository (sooooo much cheaper!) This is the first recipe I've tried so far and I'm very impressed.

and ready to gobble!

only thing i would change is to double the recipe as it makes a very small quantity.

the dough didn't double in size like it was supposed to, so i was a little worried, but it was light and delicious anyway! (i put it in the car to prove, as suggested by thermomix-er, but given it was nearly 30'c here at 7am perhaps it was too hot in there lol)

here is the recipe (it's called Rustic Flatbread) http://www.foodphilosopher.com/assets/docs/0706menu.cfm

I will make it again very soon and do a thermomix conversion so stay tuned!...



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Made this for last night. I knew what i wanted to put in the dressing but felt like i was missing the magic ingredient. when i googled I found a recipe that was virtually identical to what i'd already done! so i knew i was on the right track ;)
by the way the 'magic' ingredient was seeded mustard lol

amounts are to your taste...

pumkin, cubed (peeling optional)
baby spinach
pepitas (pumpkin seeds), lightly toasted*
feta
red onion, finely sliced (i forgot this even though i'd bought the onions specially! but it would be goooooood)

dressing:
honey
olive oil
lemon juice
seeded mustard
salt
pepper
(some dill would be lovely too, if you like it)

mix dressing, pour over salad and toss. yum!


* i toast over a low - medium heat in a small pan



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

today we are finally having our family christmas with my family haha not very festive feeling ;) because i was sick yesterday mum is doing most of the food.

greek style slow cooked leg of lamb
pumpkin & baby spinach salad (& feta?)
asian noodle salad (gluten free)
strawberry foam
GF foccacia

for the rest of the week:

pumpkin, bacon and herb risotto
black eyed bean jambalaya
pasta with salami (tmx)
stir fry with plain or fried rice
leftover dahl with silverbeet and rice



posted by Karen at http://brazen20au.blogspot.com

Last weekend we went camping for a weekend down at Batemans Bay. Hard work with kids as always but nice just the same.

It was a fairly last minute decision to go, and I wasn't feeling well before we went, so we weren't very prepared and decided to eat out most of the time (totally opposite to usual, and with all we spent will probably never happen again! lol)

before we left I did some googling and used the list of links i posted last week to find some places we could eat (see below).

First night we ate out at South Bank 2536
They were supposed to have some gluten free options available. On the Friday night they had "far out Friday" which meant for $24 each (adult) we got garlic bread, a main (5 to pick from), a dessert of our choice and a glass of wine or a beer. They also had a kids menu - burgers, nuggets, pasta or fish, all with chips, a drink and icecream for $6.90.


The GF options were the pumpkin salad or the steamed fish, neither of which was Rora-friendly! so instead they offered to panfry some chicken tenderloins to have with their fries, which were GF. She ate this happily and they only charged us the usual kids meal price which we were happy about :)

The next day we had a BBQ lunch at the tourist park, and then went to a pizza place we had spotted who had GF bases. Heat Woodfired Pizza Bar is a tiny place that does yummy pizzas! The GF bases were easily the best GF bases we've had yet!!! Unfortunately the garlic pizza we ordered also came with herbs (lots) and chilli so the kids (especially Ryan who doesn't eat cheese) weren't happy, but the cheese and garlic one was popular. Geoff and I had a mexican one hwich was quite nice too (not GF).


Heat is obviously a family business, judging from the resemblences I'm sure I could see! and the staff were very friendly and helpful (and good at tossing bases hehe). They are very popular so expect an hour or so wait for your pizza, or if you don't want to wait that long head in before 6pm and your pizzas will be ready very quickly (or call and order ahead). they don't charge extra for GF bases which was a wonderful surprise!

On the day we were heading home we had a small breakfast at the tent and then decided to have a brunch at North Street Cafe & Bar, because we didn't think there'd be anywhere to eat a GF lunch in Braidwood (and we figured - very wrongly - that it would cost us as much to buy stuff to make lunch as it would to eat a quick brunch). I was VERY impressed that EVERYthing on the menu (about 12 items maybe) could be prepared GF. Not sure about the cakes on display but assume most if not all of them would be GF too. the decor is very sleek and modern and *cough* boring lol


The food was ok, Rora's coconut bread with caramelised bananas was VERY nice, but it was quite expensive - Rora's was $10, our egg & bacons were around $12, a full cooked breakie was about $16ish i think. I was also a bit :| about the caramelised bananas part - which consisted on cut up bananas with a caramel sauce. shouldn't something that's 'caramelised' be cooked until it reaches a 'caramelised' state? the meal was OK, but we left feeling very overcharged for something quite average for the most part. (and the service could have been happier lol)

As we headed into Braidwood Geoff saw a sign saying "Lots of Gluten Free" so I made him turn around and go back for another look LOL we didn't get out and go in so have no idea what sort of things they have, but the Criterion Cafe will be one place we check out next time - we always need a driving break by the time we get to Braidwood.


For the record we stayed at Pleasurelea Tourist Park, and thought it was quite nice. we will definitely return. though next time we will be more organised and save ourselves lots of money by cooking ourselves! lol

here is the list of possible restaurants i compiled:

Aussie Pancakes. I was recently in Bateman's Bay. N.S.W. There is a restaurant/coffee shop which is, to the best of my recollection, called Aussie Pancakes.

North Street Cafe and Bar 5 North Street 4472 5710 GF items marked on the menu

Starfish Deli Old Punt Road, Batemans Bay

South Bank 2536 11 Clyde St, Batemans Bay

barkala kitchen & bar - Tapas - Address: on the promenade Batemans Bay NSW 2536

On the Pier Seafood Restaurant Old Punt Road, Batemans Bay • 02 4472 6405

Rafters on the Bay - BYO 28 Beach Road, Batemans Bay • 02 4472 4288

8 lunch bar Shop 8 Connells Arcade Orient St Batemans Bay 2536 ph: (02) 4472 4436

BERRIMA Old Bakery Tea Rooms Wingecarribee Street 4877 1343 GF sandwiches, cakes, loaf & muffins
The White Horse Inn The Market Place 4877 1204

BERRY Delicious Food by Lisa Shop 3/62 Albert Street 4464 3650 GF items marked on the menu
127A Queen Street 4464 3110 GF items marked on the menu
(Professional Member)
Burgers and More Takeaway
Berry Jetz Café 1/94 Queen Street 4464 3320 Gluten free menu available
Hedgehogs Coffee Shop Shop 4/98 Queen Street 4464 3051 Knowledgeable staff

BROULEE 3/79 Coronation Drive 4471 6890 GF items marked on the menu
(Professional Member)
Broulee Pizza

MERIMBULA Merimbula Aquarium & The Wharf, Lake Street 6495 4446 GF itens marked on the menu
Wharf Restaurant 1-11 Merimbula Drive 6495 1197 GF rolls and batter mix available.
Contamination management a priority
Hungry's Takeaway

NAROOMA 1/120 Wagonga Street (Cnr Canty Street) 4476 1241 GF items marked
on the menu (Professional Member)
Casey's Wholefood Cafe

NOWRA The Melting Pot Coffee Shop 7, The Main Arcade. Egan's Lane 4422 7775 GF options available

SHELLHARBOUR Muffin Break Shellharbour Square Shopping Centre

TUROSS HEAD O'Briens Boatshed 93 Trafalgar Road 4473 8127 List of allergens in menu items available

ULLADULLA Boardwalk Cafe 1/92 Princes Highway 4454 2555 GF items marked on the menu
Harbourside Restaurant/ Shop 5, 84 Princes Highway 4455 3377 GF items marked on the menu
Espresso/ Bar

Cliff Place Cafe Cafe, Gluten-Free, Seafood, Vegetarian Tathra

Peppercorn's Cafe Queen St Berry

Red Raven 55 Junction St, Nowra

Amy's Restaurant at the Forest Gallery - Durras Road, South Durras 02 4478 6161

The River- 16b Church Street, Moruya 02 4474 5505

The Whale Restaurant - Licensed Whale Motor Inn, Wagonga Street, Narooma 02 4476 2411

The Quarterdeck Marina - BYO 13 Riverside Drive, Forsters Bay, Narooma 02 4476 2723

Tilba Valley Winery Lake Corunna Estate, 947 Old Highway, Narooma 02 4473 7308



posted by Karen on http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/

based loosely on this recipe, i had a craving for fenugreek seeds and not much but some pumpkin in the fridge.

i heated some oil and gently fried some fenugreek seeds and coriander seeds, and a few chilli flakes.

I then added one diced onion and the diced pumpkin. cooked til the pumpkin was just starting to soften and added in a tin of drained chickpeas and a packet of frozen spinach (totally forgetting about my garden full of silverbeet lol). also added a few tspns of turmeric, some stock concentrate and some water.

i also added approximately a tablespoon of tamarind puree and the same of agave syrup.

i had to keep adding a bit more water to end up with any sort of sauce - and then of course i added too much at the last minute!

we ate ours with homemade butter chicken, basmati rice and pappadums

here are some links that might help. If you have any others please feel free to suggest them :)

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/dine.html
http://www.glutenfreeshop.com.au/gluten-free-restaurants.htm
http://yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/index
http://www.glutenfreeeatingdirectory.com.au/
http://www.coeliacsociety.com.au/
http://www.glutenfreepages.com.au/
http://www.menulog.com.au/browse/gluten_free#dining

you might like to check this out http://www.glutenfreefaces.com/
it's supposed to be the GF facebook ;) though IMO (unless i'm very confused lol) it doesn't work at all like FB!

hopefully it will grow and adapt into a very useful resource though!

oh if you do join feel free to add me as a friend http://www.glutenfreefaces.com/profile/KarenH577

Yesterday it was 38'c here so we didn't want anything too hot to prepare or eat. Based on our nearly empty fridge we decided on Sang Choy Bau, based on the recipe in Gluten Free and Easy by Robyn Russell

geoff cooked it and made a few minor changes, such a chicken instead of pork / veal mince, cashews instead of peanuts and served with hoisin sauce instead of the dipping sauce (which we couldn't be bothered to make lol)

the lettuce and vietnamese mint you can see in the picture was grown by us in our garden :D

the whole meal was delish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just noticed that I had a tag of "blog stats" and went to check it out, you know how I love stats ;) I posted it just over a year ago and thought it might be interesting to compare - if I can remember how to find the info in google analytics lol I'll put last year's figures in brackets*.

where do people go first up?
22% (30%) of all my hits come straight to the front page
9% go to the page to find more Thermomix recipes (5.4% of all my hits have gone to the white chocolate rocky road recipe (and another 1.9% went to the tupperware version i posted))
6% (3.8%) go to my thermomix review
4% go to my very out of date list of MY thermomix recipes (2.5% are after the honey parsnip soup recipe (almost all of these searchers are from britain))
and 2% just look at the thermomix tag which IS up to date with all my thermomix recipes ;) (2.3% come in for my favourite choc chip cookie recipe!)

well, that's interesting that a year down the track it's almost all thermomix related...

the next 5 are my review of cyndi o'meara's gluten free bread, sweet treats, winter warmers, my thermomix carrot cake recipe and the pumpkin risotto for the thermomix recipe :)


so how do people get here?
* 9% (5.38%) Direct Traffic

* 53% (59.14%) Referring Sites

* 38% (35.48%) Search Engines

the top traffic sources:
google (organic) : 5,364 - 36.76% (420 - 34.26%)
forumthermomix.com (referral) : 1,561 - 10.70% (52 - 4.24%, was 5th)
members.essentialbaby.com.au (referral) : 1,408 - 9.65% (313 - 25.53%)
(direct) ((none)) : 1,281 - 8.78% (66 - 5.38% was 5th)
thermorecipes.blogspot.com (referral) : 1,156 - 7.92% (was blogger.com (referral) : 85 - 6.93%)


top keywords people use to get here:
thermomix review 796 14.21% (20 4.60%, was 2nd)
thermomix recipes 267 4.77%
thermomix reviews 239 4.27%
brazen culinary adventures 159 2.84% (32 7.36%, i now seem to have about 5 or so people all over the world who google my blog name specifically to get in)
thermomix price 91 1.62%
last year (rocky road thermomix : 11 2.53%, honey roasted parsnip soup : 10 2.30%, white chocolate rocky road : 9 2.07%)

and the next 5 are honey roast parsnip soup, carrot cake thermomix, gluten free chocolate cake, honey roasted parsnip soup and review thermomix


* i think last year I didn't get the whole year's stats, but a shorter period. unless my visitors have increased x10...

Last week we headed off to visit my in laws in Campbelltown, and my mother in law wanted to take us all out for dinner. Geoff googled for gluten free places to eat out and came up with Peppers, a steak house which didn't look or sound particularly child friendly (plus it was very expensive). I remembered having seen a pizza place and did some googling of my own and found it.

Primo Mondo
R6, Centric, Park Central, 4 Hyde Parade, Campbelltown Orders/Bookings - Tel: 4626 2457

Reviews I read (but I can't be bothered to find where they were now lol) said the food was ok but the service was slow and that was definitely our experience (though i think it was more due to only one chef in the kitchen than the service itself). After a slow start we didn't get there til between 7 & 730pm and we didn't get our food til closer to 9pm - we usually eat dinner at 6/6:30ish so you can imagine how hungry the kids were!

Unfortunately the only gluten free food they had was the pizza (they said they'd run out of pasta so obviously they usually do have that) so we couldn't even order an entree to fill them up temporarily.

When the pizza arrived Rora enjoyed it very much and ate half a pizza on her own!!!!!!!!!!!! She had ham and cheese on it.

We were going to get some gelati to take home and they did have gluten free varieties but explained all the gelati was made on the same machine so contamination was possible, so we didn't worry.

as for the food, it was OK. Geoff and I shared a BBQ Carne pizza and a gnocchi with pesto. The pizza was pretty good but I wasn't happy that the pesto was creamy, ugh. I thought the food was fairly average, especially for the price (though, to be fair, all the restaurants in that area were much the same price. I'm assuming Sydney prices must be higher than Canberra prices). Certainly the quality was much the same, if not slightly below that of our fave Zeffirelli

However if you are in the Campbelltown area and are looking for a GF option give it a try for sure.

and if you know of any other places in the area worth trying - for a coeliac child who doesn't eat salads etc - please let me know!

(which is nothing compared to most places around us mind you)

this is what you need...


orange & mango sorbet...

40g sugar, 1 mango, around 2 frozen oranges & 1 tray of ice.

Based on this recipe :)


200g Brown Rice Flour
50g Tapioca Starch
2 tspns Guar Gum
4 eggs
400g Rice Milk
20-30g Rice Bran Oil
50g Brown Sugar
2 tspn Cinnamon

place all ingredients in thermomix and mix on speed 4 for around 5-10 seconds. scrape down sides and mix for another 5-10 seconds.
Rest for 10 minutes before cooking.

so easy and quite yum and nice to finally find a recipe to use up all the guar gum i have and never need LOL i had to double the amount of milk as the original amount was unworkable and inedible.

my carpel tunnel (RSI) is pretty bad atm and i am trying to take a week off the computer :( i had so much to write about too! hope i don't forget what by next week! see you all then, happy cooking :D

missed posting yesterday! in my defence i wasn't feeling well and went to bed super early (as soon as I'd said good night to the kids ;))

we have no bread in the house and we had very ripe bananas and a tub of yoghurt to be used up. i just made these for breakfast. i don't recommend it LOL they are fine for a snack but they are wayyyyyy too sugary and not substantial enough for breakfast.

I will make these again, but next time I will halve the sugar and add some other bits and pieces to make them healthier :)

I've done quite a bit in the kitchen today, but haven't really got much to write about. I actually spent most of the day scrapbooking for the first time in 3 years (am very impressed with myself!) but still managed to cook a lot too (AND go for a walk, I hope this is all boding well for 2010 lol)

I started the morning making Cyndi's gluten free bread, which I hadn't done in ages, because the last few times I made it, it didn't cook through properly. I'm pleased to report that this loaf was one of the best ever I think :)

I then made a smoothie for my breakfast with watermelon, strawberries, a banana and some ginger. I've decided I don't like ginger in my smoothies :-0 REALLY don't like it...

I then made a batch of chocolate chip cookies (gf of course) whcih were a bit .... odd.... the kids seem to not mind them, but they were very cakey, and I swear they had a hint of curry flavour (and as you can see above I hadn't used my thermomix to make curry lol). I did LOVE the sweetness level (ie: they weren't too sweet)

I then spent the whole day scrapbooking until dinner time, when I am cooking a pot full of black turtle beans which I had soaked overnight (they will be going into the freezer, other than those for these sweet potato and black bean enchiladas for dinner tomorrow night, i roasted the sweet potato in the oven with the bread and cookies this mroning.). I have a batch of bolognese sauce (ragu) in the thermomix, which I'll pop in the thermoserver in a few minutes and then some Risotto Milanese (well, fake, i have no saffron lol) to go with it.



posted by Karen on http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/