I have a little tab at the top of my page here called my Kitchen Wish List.  On it I have a list of things that I have always wished for to have in my kitchen.  Surprisingly, or not . . . I have been so blessed to have received quite a few things from my list.  Yes, I am one very lucky girl!

  

After practically burning out the motor on my food processor trying to make almond butter a couple of months ago, I added this to my Kitchen Wish List.  I had been eye-balling this on the Froothie page for a while.   The Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender.   It promises to be as good as any other high powered blender on the market today,  with a powerful industrial quality high speed 3 horse power motor . . . the most powerful motor for any blender!  I just knew this would be my ticket to greatness when it came to blending.  Imagine my surprise and joy when this arrived in the post just a few weeks ago!



Yay!!  And it's mine, all mine!  The motor base is solid and heavy, but the jug is amazingly light.  And it fits perfectly in the space on the counter  beneath my kitchen cupboards, so I don't have to try to find a place to store it.  I can keep this lovely creature out all the time, which means I will use it more often than I would if I had to keep it tucked away somewhere.



I love, LOVE the sleep design of the motor base and it came with a handy tamper to use and a specially shaped scraper to help scrape down the sides.   Also included were these two books . . .



A user's manual and a cookbooklet filled with lovely recipes to help me to make the best use of this lovely machine.

My sister has been after me for a long time to start eating healthier.  She is a big proponent of raw foods and fermenting, juicing, etc.  It was because of her that I spent a bucket load getting in some coconut oil and buckwheat to sprout.  (I'll get to it sis, I promise!)  She makes lovely stuff.   Last year when I was at my mom's she mailed me some of her strawberry GRAWnola bites and some raw carrot cookies, etc.  She is always sprouting, fermenting or grinding something tasty up.   I do believe this wonderful tool will be just the ticket to me following in her ways!

The first thing I decided to do was to make a nut butter.



I love, Love, LOVE macadamia nuts!  The thoughts of a macadamia nut butter were making my tastebuds tingle.   A delicious nut butter created with only nuts and salt, with no preservatives added.   I wondered how long it would take me to do it in this machine.

I took 2 cups of macadamia nuts (about 400g) and toasted them for about 8 minutes in a nice warm oven, just until I started to smell that gorgeous nutty smell.  A nut butter with roasted nuts just has to taste better than one with unroasted nuts in my opinion.  After roasting I threw them, still hot from the oven,  into the Froothie Optimum 9400 Blender along with half a teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt.   (Another suggestion of my sisters!)  I was a tiny bit sceptical after my experience making the almond butter in my food processor.



In less than two minutes I had THIS!  Yep, less than two minutes later I was pouring this beautifully creamy macadamia nut butter into a jar.   It was perfectly smooth, and boy oh boy . . . does it taste good!



If I had not seen it for myself, I would not have believed how quickly this was made.  I stopped it twice during that time to scrape down the sides, but it was amazing to me how very fast it worked!    I stuck a whole macadamia nut into the top of the jar for illustration purposes, so that you could tell what kind of butter it was.   Without it, it just looks quite dull and uninteresting.

*Roasted Macadamia Nut Butter*

My sister is always creating something interestingly tasty.  She is really into healthy eating and tries to encourage me the same.  She likes raw food and makes all kinds of raw food goodies, and she ferments her own sauerkraut, and makes her own beef jerky, etc.

 

A few days ago she shared this recipe she found for a tasty raw nut butter and I was so intrigued by both the pictures of it and the list of ingredients that I just had to make some for myself.   I mean . . . with a name like Oatmeal Cookie Dough Nut Butter . . . how could I resist??



It's made from all natural and raw ingredients . . . dried organic raisins and dates, raw cashews (yum) and macadamia nuts (double yum!) . . .  raw honey (I couldn't get this so I used organic liquid honey), raw organic coconut and coconut oil, with a few other additions like cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and some pink himalayan salt.  I already had everything in my cupboard.  She'd talked me into getting coconut oil and the salt a while back.  I was glad for another reason to use it.



The recipe is adapted from a blog called The Healthy Foodie.   It is a goldmine of healthy recipes.   If I hadn't already been intrigued by the name of the butter . . .  the picture of it alone would have convinced me that it was something I had to try.   You will need a food processor for this.  I used my mini food processor and cut all of the ingredients in half and it turned out beautifully.  Next time I will make the full recipe and use my full sized processor.



I do confess I could not resist tasting it right after I made it and it tasted wonderful even then, but 24 hours later it is magically delicious!  Nice and thick and perfect for enjoying on crackers, or toast . . . or by the spoonful.   (SO I'm a glutton.  I freely admit it!)  I do hope that you will give it a go.  It has flavours not unreminiscent of a delicious caramel spread we used to be able to get when I was a girl.  It is going to be a regular thing around this house! 



Put the raisins, dates and walnuts in the bowl of your food processor.  Pulse a few times until the mixture resembles very coarse pebbly sand.  Scrape out and set aside.  Measure the coconut, macadamia nuts, cashew pieces and coconut oil to the food processor.   Process until you have a very smooth and creamy mixture.  This will take approximately 8 to 10 minutes.  Scrape down the sides occasionally Add the honey, vanilla, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Process for a further minute until well combined.  Return the fruit mixture to the food processor and pulse once or twice just to combine.  Scrape the mixture into a clean and sterile jar with a lid.  Cover tightly and allow to rest for 24 hours prior to using.   This will give it time to firm up and for the flavours to meld together.  This is fabulous!

Place all of the ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.  Cover and chill until needed.  Place into a serving bowl.  Drlzzle the top with some extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with a few thyme leaves.  



I also made these lovely little Lamb Kofta Meatballs.  Spicy and just wonderful served with some pita breads and Tzatziki for dipping.    You could fry them if you wanted to, but I just bake them in the oven because they brown nicely, evenly and as lamb is a rather fatty meat anyways it helps to cut down on some of that extra fat.



Crumble the meat into a bowl.   Add the chopped onion, parsley and cooled spices.   Season with salt and pepper.  (If you wish you may cook a small bit of this in the frying pan and taste it to see if you have seasoned it correctly.)   Shape the mixture into 1 1/2 inch balls and place them evenly spaced on the baking trays.  Bake in the heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until nicely browned and cooked through.  Serve warm or at room temperature with sauce for dipping if desired.  

Note: These are also nice served hot and tucked into warm Pita Breads with some lettuce and sauce. 

Happy New Year!  Have fun and stay safe!

Alternately you can layer this in a nice shallow bowl for dipping or spreading on crackers, leaving out the appetizer cups.



They also have a line of veggie pastry cups. These ones were shaped like little flower baskets and were a lovely pink/red colour.  Again there was no real jarring flavour from the cups.  They went very well with the pizza type filling I created for them.

Pidy’s newest retail range the Veggie cups are available in four flavours beetroot, carrot, spinach and celeriac and come in packs of 12. The four flavours capture the true nature, colour and essence of the vegetables as they are made with 30% real vegetable juice extract and no E numbers or artificial colours. The canapés are also made with Pâté à Foncer dough which is lighter and contains 50% less fat than standard pastry.

Again, they were very crisp and the shape and color made for a very pretty little presentation.

 


Alternately this can be spread into a shallow dish and layered like a dip and served with crisp bread sticks or crackers.  I would double the amounts in this case.



Finally I was sent these Vol-au-Vents Pastries.  Crisp puff pastry shells, perfectly baked and waiting for me to fill them with my chosen filling.   These were the perfect size for a first course and so I created a tasty spinach, cranberry, red onion and blue cheese filling to serve in them. 

 


Melt the butter in a large skillet.  Add the red onions and cook, stirring over medium heat until softened.  Begin adding the spinach a handful at a time, cooking just to wilt.  Stir in the dried cranberries and heat through.  Season to taste with salt and coarsely ground black pepper.  Divide the mixture equally amongst the pastry cups.  Top each with an equal portion of the blue cheese crumbles.  Pop into the oven to heat through and melt the cheese.  Serve immediately.



Pidy manufacture a huge variety of products, including savoury pastries for main course, sweet pastry cases, dessert products, canapés and ready to fill pastries. For further details go to their website or follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

You can buy these fab products on Amazon.uk as well as in select farm and garden shops throughout the UK.

Divo Italiano recently sent me a delicious assortment of exciting new Italian Cheeses to try out. These are thorougly modern cheeses selected by Aldo Zilli specifically for the British Table.  They are available in five different varieties and I could not wait to get stuck in.  First out of the starting gate was a cheese that I use frequently in my kitchen . . . Italian Parmigiao Reggiano P D O Extra.

 

Crunchy & crumbly texture, matured for a minimum of 24 months for a sweet & salty taste.  I loved it.  I just adore Parmesan cheese anyways, and this was exceptional in flavour.   Parmesan cheese was the one cheese I did eat outside of processed cheese when I was growing up . . . ok, so it was the stuff that came in the green cylinder from Kraft that you could keep on the shelf without refrigerating, but that was quite bold as far as I was concerned.   I am happy to say that my tastes have really advanced since then!  This was a lovely cheese.  It was rich and crumbly and had a beautiful flavour.

I decided to use some of it in our favourite French Onion Dip.

 

This is a dip that comes in incredibly handy during the holidays when people are doing a lot of entertaining.  Sure, you could just crack open a package of dry French Onion Soup mix, and it would taste alright . . . but trust me when I say . . . ONCE YOU TASTE THIS DIP YOU WILL NEVER SETTLE FOR A PACKAGE MIX DIP AGAIN!



Please excuse me for yelling, but I can't re-iterate enough just how gorgeous this dip is.  It has all of the flavours of a good onion soup . . . sweetly caramelized onions . . . cooked slowly in butter and oil until they are golden delish . . . some spice and tang . . . sour cream . . . mayonnaise . . . and a good Parmesan cheese, which is the real star of the dip along with those beautiful onions.



The Divo Italian Parmigiano Reggiano was perfect in this dip.   It was lovely and rich and in short . . . perfect.  I do hope you will give it a try, and I just know you will agree with me when I say . . . this is the best!




Whisk the sour cream, mayonnaise, cheese, celery salt, black pepper, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce together to combine well.  Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.  Stir in the onion mixture.  Cover and chill for at least one hour, but preferably overnight.  Serve chilled with your preferred dippers!

Divo Italian Parmigiano Reggiano P.D.O. Extra Cheese:

Gold and Bronze award winner at the South West Cheese Awards 2013, this Parmigiano Reggiano P.D.O. is graded for quality twice by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium before it is selected by Aldo Zilli, to give it the prestigious ‘Extra’ status.

A crunchy and crumbly texture with fruity and nutty flavours, it is matured for at least 24 months from selected mountain dairies where the cattle graze on the lush high pastures and their milk gives this Parmigiano Reggiano outstanding flavour.

This delicious cheese is ideal served grated or shaved on salads, soups, or simply broken off in chunks and eaten on its own with balsamic vinegar. 

To find out more about these lovely cheeses in the Divo Line click HERE.
Find the DIVO range in Morrisons and online at Ocado.

Many thanks to Divo for sending me these lovely cheeses.  Look for more about the other cheeses I was sent soon!

Sometimes I like to make Todd and I an appetizer for a late supper, instead of a meal.   Then supper feels like a bit of a celebration.  I had made homemade melba toasts yesterday with some stale baguettes and thought it would be a shame not to have something to dip them in, and so I decided to make our favourite Artichoke Dip.



It's not much to look at, but oh baby . . . it's gorgeous and rich and so scrummy to eat!  It's a dish I made often for the dinner parties I catered for when I worked at the manor.



You can add cooked shrimp or chicken to it as well, which makes it even more substantial.  But we like it just as it is . . . filled with lots of artichokes and cheese . . . three kinds . . .



Mozzarella, Cream and Cheddar . . . and garlic and shallots . . . and sour cream . . . mayonnaise and  Dijon mustard . . . and herbs . . .

 

Did I mention how scrummy it is?   I can't overstate this fact.  It's incredibly scrummy.   Everyone will love it.   Seriously.  This is the bomb.



sweet paprika



Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. 

Using an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, mustard and Worcestershire sauce until well blended.  Stir in the artichoke hearts, garlic, shallot, thyme, oregano and jalapeno pepper if using.   Season to taste and mix well together. Spread into a shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle lightly with paprika and then bake in the heated oven for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown.  Serve hot with your desired dippers.