Creamy basil pesto dip from scratch

Mmm, don’t you just love fresh basil? It’s definitely one of my favourite herbs and I’m pretty sure I could eat pesto for months and not get sick of it—especially fresh, homemade pesto! Perhaps the only thing I love more is sushi, which I’m munching on while writing this lunchtime update.

I wish I could say that this basil was from my own garden, but alas I seem to be struggling to coax anything to grow except for my two gorgeous zucchini plants. Ah well. Summer has been taking its time arriving in Australia, so perhaps there is time yet for oodles of home-grown veggies and herbs!

This basil pesto dip was so easy to whip up before having guests over, and tasted great the next day too. The best part is that it isn’t made from pre-made pesto, so you have control over all of the ingredients and can adjust them to your taste. Enjoy!

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Edited: November 6th, 2011

Devilishly Good Cinnamon Buns

I was a pretty lucky kid. My mom loves cooking and was always in the kitchen making lots of goodies—truffles, pies, fresh bread, jam, and oodles of oatmeal coconut cookies. Now that mum is on the other side of the planet though (the Canada – Australia issue), I have to recreate these homey feelings all by myself… and while it’s not quite the same, it is ever so satisfying to recreate a beloved childhood recipe and have it taste exactly the way you remember.

There are a few very specific recipes that remind me of my mother’s kitchen: blueberry pie, almond bread, granola, and these cinnamon buns. While definitely a treat, I remember quite a few pack lunches at school containing one of these cinnamon buns… and nothing quite satisfies like a fresh cinnamon bun, does it? As I said, I was a lucky kid to get treats like these so often!

These cinnamon buns do take a few steps to get them just right, but pulling apart a fresh batch will be so worth it, trust me. Enjoy!

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Edited: August 3rd, 2011

Nanaimo Bars Extraordinaire

Nanaimo bars are a true Canadian delicacy. Smooth chocolate, simple vanilla, and a coconut walnut base make for a dessert that is completely sinful—but too good to turn down! Nanaimo bars originated in Western Canada, and can now be found across the country in cold winter months when that little bit of chocolate is simply necessary to keep warm. (Or at least that’s what we Canadians keep telling ourselves!) They’re also now making a debut in Australia, via my kitchen.

This final Nanaimo bar recipe and method has been a labour of love—I believe it took about three batches of bars, plus some failed elements within those batches, for me to assemble this final version which I can stamp with the “tried, tested, and true” label. It was a journey and a half—the first batch I decided not to use the vanilla custard powder (my thoughts being, “Who needs all those damn expensive and one-purpose ingredients in their cupboard, mumble mumble”), and it flopped, completely. Lesson 1: use the vanilla custard powder. Lesson 2 had to do with proportions and not just taking online recipes for their word at needing roughly 6 cups of ingredients for the base and only 2 cups of icing sugar for the filling, which resulted in a last-minute trans-Pacific phone call to mum and dad for the real recipe & proper proportions. Lesson 3 had to do with finesse—aka, Nanaimo bars are picky little bastards. The various steps require the correct temperatures otherwise they’ll backfire completely—this lesson could be subtitled, “How not to screw up your chocolate topping.”

So, my thanks go to the future in-laws and the folks at Downstream Marketing for eating my somewhat suspect batches of Nanaimo bars before the recipe was perfected. I’m sure it was quite the effort!

Wondering where the Three Cheeses has been recently? You’ve probably noticed I’ve been a bit slow on posting—this is due to a visit from the parents, an engagement (yes, mine!), quickly followed by an unexpected trip back to Canada for a funeral. But I’m back baby, and with new kitchen gear to boot. (Thanks mum and dad!)

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Edited: November 22nd, 2010

Cranberry Nut Loaf

Health alert! This wonderful loaf is moistened with yoghurt, sweetened with honey and molasses, crunchy with walnuts, and has a whack of whole wheat goodness. Can you say, ‘yum’? Even better, this is the last recipe that I’ve been milking off of cooking Christmas in July, and is the result of one of my tips in the Art of Feast Cooking on how to use up ingredients that you have left over from a holiday meal. The ingredient? You guessed it—cranberry sauce!

Now, cranberry sauce doesn’t always need to be used up straight away. It doesn’t go off as quickly as other ingredients—if it’s in a jar and in the fridge, it can last several months after the fact (which is also why I got to doing this recipe only now). And whether you were using home made cranberry sauce or from a jar or can, it also freezes just fine, to be used for your next holiday meal. If you’ve already defrosted it once, though, it’s probably a good idea not to freeze & keep reusing it… you know, food safety and all that! So that’s where this recipe comes in.

This loaf reminded me a lot of one of my favourite muffin recipes, and its moist, dense interior is just so satisfying with a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. I was a bit surprised when I pulled it out of the oven to see how dark it was on the outside, and was thinking with a bit of dismay that I’d managed to burn the whole thing (and ruin my attempt at cleverly using up all our leftover ingredients). Fortunately, it was all a clever guise—once I cut into it to see that it was in fact done perfectly, I remembered that the more complex sugars (such as honey and molasses, which are used in this recipe), tend to darken much faster than normal white sugar. Think of it as a ‘caramelizing’! The edges of your loaf might look quite dark, but they will in fact taste just fine.

Alright, on with the show! See my notes at the bottom of the recipe for ingredient substitutions if need be.

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Edited: August 29th, 2010