good things for (sometimes) good people

I’m participating in a Virtual Cookie Exchange organised by Notes from a Cottage Industry. The idea is to do an online bake swap for ideas for yummy Christmas treats. Last weekend I tried out a new recipe for Ginger Crunch from Jason Robert’s Graze and it went down very well (though you DO have to like ginger). I added some chopped crystallised ginger to the icing to make it even more gingery. I think it makes a nice alternative (or addition) to gingerbread so it’s my contribution to the bake swap!

To Christmas it up a bit, instead of cutting it into squares, you can use festive cookie cutters to shape them into Gingerbread men (I’d suggest pre-cutting them before putting on the icing and then cutting them out again after the icing has set).

Ginger Crunch Slice

(note these are Australian metric measurements - here’s a converter if you need it!)

The Crunch Part:

• 250g softened butter
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• a pinch of salt

The Icing Part:

• 1 cup sifted icing sugar
• 60g butter
• 1/4 cup golden syrup
• 2 teaspoons ginger
• 1/3 cup crystallised (or candied) ginger, chopped finely

Line a 20×30cm (approx 8″x12″) baking tin with baking paper.

Preheat your oven to 180C (356F). (I did the following all in my stand mixer) Cream the butter and sugar until they are white and fluffy. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt until well combined. It should be thick and sticky.

Press the mixture into the tin so that it is spread out evenly. Let it bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

While the crunch part is happily baking away, mix up the icing. In a saucepan over a low-med heat, melt all the icing ingredients and heat for a further two minutes. Pour over the crunch part while it’s still warn.

Slice into squares (or experiment with cutting it into Christmas shapes!).

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ve been wanting to try this out for a while and cooking dinner for a friend tonight gave me that opportunity.

Put the following into a large bowl:

500g frozen raspberries

300ml fresh cream

1/2 cup caster sugar

Blend well using a hand held blender (or alternatively whizz it up in a food processor) until it’s all nice and smooth. Serve straight away.

You could use any other frozen fruit you like - mango or another berry would work very well.

My friend brought over a perfectly ripe pineapple and it went surprisingly well.

thy name is brownie…

here’s the recipe for the easiest and tastiest chocolate brownies you will ever make.

While looking through redbubble.com, I found discovered this gorgeous illustration by Chelsea Greena Lewyta:

It’s available as a card and in a couple of print options. According to the artist, it’s “A piece I did for Easter. The Alice and Wonderland colors of the girl are coincidental, but if that’s what you want it to be, then fine.”

Here are a couple more that are just stunning (click on the pics to go to the redbubble.com links for purchasing options):

For more, check out her redbubble.com profile, her webpage and/or her blog. She’s got a couple of cute kitties too that feature in her blog posts.

Don’t ask me what I’m doing - just trying to sort something out.

Theresa Fu, canto pop goddess with On Your Mark - quite possibly the catchiest pop song ever written?  Nah, but it’s good. It’s my current favourite along with the Fearless track.

You can see another version of the video here, if you so desire.

Not really sure where to get them, could be on Amazon - I’m hoping they’ll be easy enough to find on my next trip to my local Chinatown.

Yeah, this is one of the ones that I do like despite myself. So sappy but there’s just something too addictive about the chorus after hearing it a few times.

Leo Ku singing Belated Love or Never Too Late depending on your translation.

Jolin is a little creepy. She looks a different person every time they change her make up and hair.

You could have told me there were two main singers in this clip for Let’s Move It and I would have been yeah okay:

She’s from Taiwan like Jay Chou.

Here she being all butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth in Ideal State:

And is this the same person doing Zheng Yi Zhi Yan, Bi Yi Zhi Yan - apparently..

Have been listening to some sino pop, strangely nothing to do with the Olympics. Just the usual thing where I hear one good tune on YouTube and then I follow the links - suddenly, it’s already lunch and I have no work done. But the Olympics is a good excuse I guess. So today and for the next few days, I’ll post a series of popular canto and taiwo pop music videos. Some are very catchy, others I like despite myself. Anyway, you can be the judge…

First up, Taiwanese born Jay Chou’s Fearless from the martial arts movie of the same name. And yes, apparently that IS him doing a falsetto duet with himself. Love it.

Minipop brought to you by the sixty one - a musical experiment. If you have indie leanings then there are plenty of little gems to be found.