Superbowl Pigs In A Blanket Pizza Recipe! James Guest Post Food Friday

Doo doo doo doodoo doooooooo, doo doo doo doodoo DOOOOOOOOO!!! Don’t worry, Violet didn’t have a stroke, it’s me! JIMMY!!!! =)

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And that first sentence was my attempt at the start of the Superbowl song!!! I should probably mention that neither of us are very into sports. At all. I used to be really into skating, BMX, snowboarding, the kind of stuff that resulted in a LOT of homemade ramps and even more injuries, but that’s about the extent of my sports enthusiasm. The only two games I did use to watch when I lived in America (other than my schools games) were the Thanksgiving Day game and the Superbowl.

But the Superbowl isn’t so much just a game of football as it is an event and that’s why in two days an estimated 111 MILLION people will be watching it. It’s gonna be HUGE!!! And with almost any American sporting event, there will be food!!! FOOOOOD!!!!! Since it’s such a big game the food has to be equally impressive.

 

Image Credit: Yummly.

To get an idea of how impressive the food should be, football announcer John Madden brought back the popularity of the Turducken during the Thanksgiving Day game. For those of you who don’t know, the Turducken is a de-boned chicken, stuffed into a de-boned duck which is then placed inside a de-boned turkey and then cooked, sometimes stuffing or sausage meat is used to fill the cavities not taken up by poultry. Sounds delicious, I know. If you could find a way to get beef in there then it would be my idea of heaven, but that’s was just for the Thanksgiving game!

 

Image credit Wikipedia.

 

Sorry to any vegetarian readers, but I’m allergic to fruits and veg (seriously) so meat has become my best friend. I’m getting a little off topic. The Superbowl spread has to be awesome and that’s what I’m here to help you with today! This culinary creation is inspired by a dish from Japan where you can actually order it from Pizza Hut! I have no idea why this was never made on Iron Chef, but ladies and the two or three gentleman who read this blog, I give you…THE PIGS IN A BLANKET PIZZA!!!! *choir of angels*

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As you can see it’s a pizza, but the crust is made up of pigs in a blanket!!! Brilliant!!! I’m gonna guide you through making this, but I would like to start by saying that if I could have gone to shops and bought crescent dough for the pigs in a blanket, I would have. It tastes so much better, but it’s pretty hard to make and you can’t buy it in stores here. The reason I didn’t use puff pastry is because I takes about 30 minutes to bake and the pizza takes 15, so it would burn.

You will need:

  • Flour
  • Oregano
  • Salt (I use garlic salt because we love garlic)
  • Sugar
  • Dry yeast
  • Sausages
  • Pineapple
  • Ham
  • Basil
  • Tomato paste

Start by pulling a stupid football pose that you thought was a good idea but actually just looks like you’re trying to stop someone from murdering you.

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Then REALLY start by combining 3 cups flour, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar and 3 tsp yeast. Yeast varies from type to type, so see how much you will need against how much flour you’re using and whether it needs to be dissolved in water first.

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Mix everything up and then make a well in the middle and add 1 and a half cups warm water. Mix that up until it it makes a rough sticky dough.

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Pull a stupid face because your hand looks like it’s mutating.

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Pop the dough onto a well floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes. I like the folding technique. Once it’s come together in a nice ball, pop it into a well greased bowl and cover it with cling wrap. This needs to sit in a warm area to rise, I fill my sink with about 4 inches of fairly warm water and put the bowl in that. Let it rise for 30-45 minutes until it’s doubled in size.

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Does it looks like this? If so, congrats, you didn’t kill the yeast!

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At this point you can work out how many sausages you’re going to need.

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Deflate the dough by dropping it onto a floury surface once again and then flatten it. At this point you need to work out how much dough is going to be your pizza base and how much is going to be for wrapping your sausages. I put two thirds to the dough and one third to the sausages. This gave me a medium crust and plenty for wrapping.

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Roll out your sausage dough into a square (or if you’re an idiot like me then a circle for some reason) and then cut the dough into triangles. This is much easier if your dough is a square…roll your sausages up in a triangle of dough. If you REALLY like your guests then at this point you could also wrap the sausage in bacon and add a little cheese. Mmmmm heart attack-y!

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Smooth your pizza dough to fit your pan and place the wrapped sausage around the outside. I used a little bit of water to help them stick.

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For my sauce I use tomato paste and a sprinkling of dry basil.

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This is going to be a Hawaiian creation, so I added ham and pineapple.

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Add some cheese and it’s almost done! Stick it in a preheated fan forced oven at around 170c (330f) for 15 minutes

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Done!!!

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Just in time for some stupid eating poses!!!

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Seriously, it tastes awesome. I meant to brush on an egg wash over the sausage dough, but I was REALLY hungry at this point. Eat the pizza part then dip the pig in a blanket into some ranch/BBQ/tomato sauce, you’re gonna love it! Yummy! Now sit back and enjoy the game. GO PATRIOTS!!!!

Berry Timtam Crush Recipe – Food Friday

Woohoo the return of Food Friday! It’s been quite a while, mostly because I haven’t been well organised. You’ll be surprised to know that I didn’t stop eating for these last few months, I only stopped remembering to charge my camera when I did so no photos 😉

Hopefully this will make up for it though, it’s my current favorite dessert (and sometimes breakfast) the Timtam Berry Crush. I’m very sad that the rest of the world doesn’t have Timtams, I know the UK has Penguins but they’re not quite the same thing (not better or worse just not the same). The wikipedia page has their availability in other countries if you want to try to hunt some down! It’s totally worth it even if they’re a bit pricey. Random tivia: Timtams are one of few “Australian” things I actually like!

And this is what I’ve been doing with mine recently:
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You need:

  • 2 Timtams
  • Blueberries
  • Strawberries
  • Thickened cream (heavy cream/whatever the type of cream you generally eat with cake is called in your country, something with at least 35%+ fat)
  • Sprinkles
  • Fruitcake (not really needed but I had some spare to use up)

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Now I see a lot of people making these fancy looking desserts in fancy looking wine glasses etc. I love how pretty they look but I also hate eating out of them because it’s hard to get the last bits out and the ones we have are small compared to regular glasses so I say screw prettiness, go with the biggest cup you have >:D

Left: Very pretty. Right: Realistic of how much I want to eat chocolate.

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So this is the simplest concept ever: layering!

Stick a spoon full of fruitcake in the glass and pour a spoon of cream on it. If you’re not using fruitcake you can substitute with regular sponge cake or more chocolate biscuits.

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Add some blueberries and chopped strawberries.

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Roughly chop the Timtams and add some.

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More cream!

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Continue layering deliciousness until you get to the top.

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Lastly add the sprinkles and enjoy!

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eat while watching crappy movies or playing video games.

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Took around 5 min to make and as the cream melts into the Timtams it forms the most delicious mush in the universe. *craving again*

Food Friday is as healthy as ever 😉 Next week I’m going to share my budget recipes, money is tight here at the moment so we’ve been cooking frugally. Sometimes the best comfort food recipes are the cheapest! ^_^

Delicious Thanksgiving – Food Friday-ish

James grew up in America and he misses it… especially the food… a lot. His Mum still did the big American-style feasts when they moved to Russia and then over here too so when he moved in with me and discovered that I didn’t really cook he took it upon himself to make that happen as often as possible XD

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So this year he decided to make some kind of epic Thanksgiving feast. It’s not an Australian holiday so I really only know what I see on the US tv shows here but I think he did a pretty good job!VioletLeBeaux-Thanksgiving_4199_10512He made slightly burntcrispy pumpkin, scones (which apparently are called biscuits in the US and are eaten with savory meals?!), roast chicken, chicken nuggets, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potato and baked asparagus.VioletLeBeaux-Thanksgiving_4204_10517

I know you’re supposed to have turkey on Thanksgiving but it’s so expensive here (like $60 for a bird) so we opted for the much cheaper pre-prepared Woolworths chicken for $9. We did have turkey but more on that later!

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Does anyone know why scones are called biscuits in the US? I have the feeling there would be some awesomely epic misunderstandings if I visited and asked for a biscuit and was presented with a scone instead of a cookie XD I’m confused just thinking about it. Also the idea of eating scones with savory food squicks me out, scones should be served only with jam, cream, butter and a good cup of tea 😀

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My delicious dinner:

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Of course I couldn’t resist trying a nugget in a biscuit while dipping it all in mashed potato, I did skip the barbecue sauce though 😉 A slice of dessert if you get the reference haha! It really tasted horrible XD

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I stuck mostly to the mashed potatoes and asparagus, so yummy!

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Now dessert which is all I really care about hahaha! James making his dessert:

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And its…………………. TURKEY BALLS!

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Basically they are chocolate truffle balls with tails and a chocolate peanut for a head! Zomg so delicious!

We also had James’ version of my apple pie! Now that it’s coming into Summer I want to marathon Pushing Daisies again and bake a lot of pies… this can only end well right?

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So yay for Thanksgiving! If you live in the US what do you guys do for it? Any special American foods I should try next year? We had pumpkin pie last year and it was so very not for me but I loved trying it anyway! If you celebrated I hope you had an awesome time!!

Soba and Fried Rice Sushi Food Friday!

Food Friday! Today I’m showing you my favorite summer food to cool down in summer: cold soba noodles, and one of James’ random kitchen creations: fried rice sushi XD

Both of them are ridiculously easy which makes me happy!

Soba noodles first!

Cook noodles and wash them until they’re chilled. Put them onto a wooden rack in a bowl (I didn’t have one so I use the steamer rack from my rice cooker).

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Make dipping sauce out of soy sauce, sugar (or mirin if you have it) and rice vinegar. You can also buy proper soba dipping sauce but this is the cheap lazy version XD You can either dip the noodles in the sauce as you go or just pour it on top which makes eating on the couch much easier!VioletLeBeaux-soba-fried-rice_3930_9619 copy

If you feel like it you can also add some cut up seaweed to the top as garnish, I like using those flavored pre-cut snack versions. Yummy and great to cool down in summer!

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Next this is something James wanted to experiment which I found hilarious because he hates both seaweed and fried rice so I had to be guinea pig >_<

Basically it involves lef tover fried rice and again those flavored pre-cut seaweed snacks. I could eat so many of those *_*

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So take a sheet and place a spoon full of rice on it, warm up in the microwave for a few seconds so the rice wets the seaweed enough to stick.

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Fold it up into a little cone.

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Repeat until you’re not hungry anymore. I wasn’t expecting to like these, sometimes James makes the weirdest food especially when he’s trying to make stuff I would eat. He can’t eat fruit or vegetables and I loooove veges so it’s always odd seeing creations made my someone who doesn’t eat that kind of food… like when Bender from Futurama was a chef XD I hope he doesn’t try cooking me a pony! *_*

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Anyway long rambling aside it was actually pretty nice! I would probably be lazy next time and just eat it all with a spoon 😀

 

 

 

Oriental Tea House, Harajuku Crepes and Schnitz Food Friday

Food Friday time again, this week has gone so fast *_* Today I’m just sharing some photos of two places we’ve eaten at  recently.

There was a Problogger training day here recently and lots of other bloggers came to visit, we went to a Nuffnang dinner with some of them at the Oriental Tea House.

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Left to right, back row: Nikki from Styling You, Dani from Danimezza, Lynda from Live, Travel Blog, Kruppy from Kruppy’s Rants

Front: Me, Vanessa from Uh Oh Daisy and Katrina from The Organised Housewife.

DSC_4542-oriental-tea-houseI’ve been here a couple of times for yum cha and the food has been fairly average, this night we had a banquet instead and it was delicious, much better than the yum cha!

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They do the BEST ice tea too, I always get strawberries and cream and it’s perfect for hot days.

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Vanessa and Nikki being generally adorable.

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The prices here are on the higher side of things but the atmosphere is nice so I would come here for a business lunch or if I had to take my parents out ^_^

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Salt and pepper squid that was delicious!

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Vanessa and I both have a love for vegetables, I couldn’t help but take this photo of her showing her true colours 😉

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All in all it was a delicious dinner. Next time I’ll know to skip yum cha and go straight for the delicious tea and menu items!

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On the way home James and I felt like something sweet so we stopped in at Harakuju Crepes… which is basically as the name indicates: Harajuku style crepes.

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They do all the standards like strawberries and cream etc but they also do specialty crepes like cheesecake… which is literally a slice of cheesecake wrapped in the crepe with whipped cream, strawberries and sauce XD They also do savory versions but I’ve not tried any yet.

I tried out the new green tea flavour and it was very yummy. Best flavour ever: green tea crepe with strawberries, icecream and chocolate sauce inside. Very yummy dessert!

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The last of my food related adventures for today was trying the new schnitzel place which just opened in the Melbourne Central food court.

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I am a big fan of parmigana so I was very excited, probably slightly sadly so 😉

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Schnitz kind of reminded me of Grill’d but for schnitzel. The prices were similar too, I went for the Swiss Schnitz roll which is a “Schnitzel of your choice plus Swiss cheese, avocado, semi-dried tomato, baby spinach & sweet chilli mayo.” That in a small combo with chips and a drink was $16.40 so more expensive than most of the other food court shops.

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Overall I actually liked the chips better than I did the schnitzel roll. There was nothing particularly bad about it but it didn’t stand out as being awesome either so I can’t imagine myself craving it again enough to spend the money. I do still want to try their parmagana though!

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The chips were actually really good though, they were seasoned with something yummy and they tasted almost like honey. Odd flavour to begin with but quite addictive!

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So those were my food adventures for this week! Have you guys had anything good to eat this week? Anywhere you think I should try out? I’ve been eating out way too much lately, I’m guessing the next few weeks will be back to budget pasta at home to make up for it haha!

Best Jam Drop Cookie Recipe – Food Friday

I’m pretty sure it’s still Friday somewhere in the world right? Planning fail again XD One of these days I’ll get myself properly organised!

So today’s Food Friday is  James’ Jam Drop recipe which I will steal and claim as my own >:D Mine didn’t actually turn out half as nice as his but oh well!

You need:

  • 130g butter, softened
  • 112g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons cornflour
  • 3 tablespoons self-raising flour
  • 150g (1 cup) plain flour
  • Jam for filling and then any decorations you want
Get all of your ingredients together!
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Stick the butter in a mixing bowl.
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Add the suger and vanilla essence.
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Have an argument with your boyfriend over whether a couple of grams extra will *really* ruin the entire batch of cookies… Seriously James is ridiculously particular with his measuring.
Try not to stab him with your butter knife when he insists on spending 20min finding new batteries for his electric scale to get the measurements perfect.

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Whip it with an electric beater until it starts getting fluffy and the butter gets a little lighter.

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Add in the egg…

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And the food colouring…

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Whip it again and until it’s fairly fluffy.

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The recipe here differs depending on who you are…

If you are James then: take forever finding a clean bowl and sift all the flours together making sure to mix thoroughly. Add it to the cookie mixture and mix until it forms a dough.

If you are Violet: get bored looking for a clean bowl and start dumping the flours into the current bowl, sifting is for suckers and people who don’t want to get some crafting done tonight too! Finally dig out a sifter half way through because of the look James is giving you. Sift it all into the bowl and mix until it forms a dough.

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Stick the bowl into the fridge for 20 min to cool, when you get it out again it should be easy to roll into small balls and put on a baking papered tray. I used the 20min to go to the 7/11 and procure chocolate, but you should use yours for preheating your oven t0 180 degrees Celsius 😀

It probably wasn’t actually 20min because my dough was still fairly soft. I was impatient to finish and sit down after having walked most of the day so I ignored the instructions 😀

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Aaaanyway poke your thumb into the middle of them so it forms a little well for the jam.

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Then spoon in some jam! This is my favorite one, it’s strawberry and rose petal.

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I decorated mine with some of those little sugar balls that I can never remember the name of.

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Finally, stick them in the oven for 15minutes or until they look cooked. Interestingly enough it wasn’t the lack of precise measuring that killed my cookies… it was my being distracted by watching Xmen First Class and forgetting they were in the oven hahaha!

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So mine were a little crispier than usual but still very delicious!! Be careful if you put in too much jam they will boil over. Also be VERY careful when you take them out because the jam will be liquidy and very hot so don’t burn yourself!

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Still very yummy but I’ve decided to leave these to James and perhaps retitle this section from Food Friday to “Violet Sucks At Baking… Mostly Out Of Laziness And Lack Of Allocating Enough Time”. Catchy yes? I can totally make a Violet Sucks At Baking icon 😉

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If you’re curious, they did actually taste the same as James’ version just a little browner 😉

 

 

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