Food - Amy Kane

Hot Love Brownies, my recipe

Everyone has their own brownies recipes but I have mine and I call them Hot Love Brownies because when you put it in your mouth you'll know what my hot love tastes like. 

Ingredients

400g of cooking/melting chocolate
250g of sugar
250g of flour
1 pinch of salt
A few drops of vanilla extract
250g cups of fine icing sugar
250g of butter
4 eggs 

Directions

In a pot melt the butter (about 175 grams or 2/3 of your 250g stick) very very slowly on the lowest heat level. Once the butter is fully melted you can put in 200g of the chocolate in and be careful to make sure the chocolate doesn't burn. 

Next you should have a large mixing bowl, crack the 4 eggs and whisk them well. Then you can add in the sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Once you are finished that you can pour in the butter/chocolate mixture and mix this up very well. Last you can add in the flour and you should have a very tasty mix that is ready to bake.

In your baking tray just take a stick of butter and give it a thin layer which helps prevent the brownie mix from burning or sticking to the pan. Then take a few pinches of flour and make a very very fine layer of flour on the bottom. Preheat your oven to about 175oC and then place in the over and bake for around 30 minutes but check every 5 minutes to make sure everything is cooking properly because some ovens are more sensitive and cook faster, don't burn the hot love brownies!

While they are baking you want to make the chocolate icing. No problems. 

Take the remaining butter and slowly melt it, then add in another 150g to 200g of chocolate. Once this is done take another mixing bowl, get 250g of the icing sugar and mix it all in hard, very hard so you get no clumps. You can add some cream liqueur to the mix and another touch of vanilla extract. Once this is done, take the brownies out of the oven and pour my hot mixture all over it, get a nice or a tea spoon and smear the chocolate everywhere to create a uniform layer of chocolate delicious icing.

Enjoy!

Snag a charity bag

Sometimes girls buy stuff without thinking of the consequences of their decision. Like for example if make up is tested on animals or if their clothes is supporting child or slave labor or if they are directly or indirectly harming the environment. Some companies and corporations are trying to do more but sometimes you feel like they are doing bogus stuff just for the sake of trying to look good like they are about people and have morals instead of a corporation that just wants to make big dollars.

Well I ran into something that I wanted to share quickly which are these super cool eco-friendly bags by the label Itzy Ritzy. These are snack bags and you can call them a whole bunch of other things too like food purses or food pockets. I like to call them food pouches or just fouches, inside joke.

These bags are limited edition and buying them helps support the yum brands world hunger relief campaign. I am almost pretty sure that Yum! brands are Kentucky Fried Chicken but don't quote me on that.

Anyways these purses or pouches are great as they keep your food fresh and it is better to put sandwiches or fruits into one of these which you can just drop into your purse or bag so you don't get your food all nasty and dirty like Lindsay Lohan.

I bought 2 of them and use them almost every time I go out which lately has been almost daily. Check the link and be sure to share it on facebook if you believe in this good cause:

 

http://bagbunch.com/limited-edition-itzy-ritzy-snack-bags-new-eco-friendly-food-purses-for-world-hunger-relief-charity/

Chocolate cake recipe to share

I am not going to record the ingredients nor the instructions as I think the full credit is due to Nigella Feasts and below I have posted a video of a chocolate cake recipe that I was searching for. In the past month I made 3 different cakes and the other 2 were very good but they don't compare to this recipe in this video.

Just remember if you need to find a good recipe or you are bored and want to cook something because you have that energy in you to try something new, have a look at the bbc recipes website where you can find the link here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/

I swear if you visit this website once a week and try a recipe you'll not only gain a whole lot of weight like me where I'm 5'5" and 200 pounds but you'll expand your reportoire of recipes and delicisous dishes to make.

Maple Pie recipe and ready for spring

Spring is here and it's time to start cooking some good food and finding any excuse to get outdoors. Of course it is nice to open a bottle of wine, get some sun and snack on anything. Well how about wine, tea or coffee on the terrace with a slice of Maple pie.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some Canadian maple syrup then you have almost everything you need to start cooking.

Ingredients

1 to 2 cups of brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of cream
1/2 cup of dark amber maple syrup
2 table spoons of butter

Also it helps to have 1 pie crust in advance.

Preheat the over to 350 °F to 375 °F

Now roll your dough for your pie crust base or use a prepared pie crust which is always a lot easier.

Vigorously whisky the eggs with the brown sugar and make sure you do this very well, otherwise you'll get some foam on top of the pie.

Next add the maple syrup, cream and button and whisk until your arms get sore.

fill this to the top of the pie and leave maybe half a centimeter of space.

Turn the head down to 325 to 350 and bake for 45 to 60 minutes and use judgement as to when the pie should be done.

Enjoy!

OMG look at these gingerbread men

Well I was looking for recipes to make either a gingerbread house or gingerbread men and I didn't expect to stumble on what I ... um stumbled upon. Rather than explain it how about I share the picture that it explains it better than I can.

To find the picture look for google images and search for 'gang gingerbread man' and maybe add some words like obscene to help be a bit more specific.

So yes now you can see it, it is a bit of a gingerbread men/man party featuring one female gingerbread woman.

ok so here are the recipes, I've tried these ones yesterday and they are very good but a bit hard

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9761/gingerbread+men

 

Lazy cooking week

This week I apologize but I'm very lazy and have worked too much to bother making something healthy and delicious that requires hours to prepare. Instead I've resorted to quick dinners that are easy to prepare and going out to eat.

For restaurants I've been using Restalo.com which is a cool website for europe and sometimes UK to find good restaurants. You can book online and when you want to save money look out for restaurants that have discounts when you book with them. Super cool!

Lazy foods I am just making omelettes, sandwiches and pasta. Anything else requires too much of my time and that's when I go on Restalo depending on the city I am in when I'm traveling.

Next week I'll have more time at home to pamper myself with better foods. I will also check out the BBC food and recipe section which is starting to seem like one of the best places to get great recipes. Seriously where was this information 10 or 20 years ago. I love the world in which we live.

Munch Munch

lazy cooking: pesto pasta

When I need energy in the day or evening and don't feel like cooking for more than 30 minutes I rely on pesto pasta. Pesto tastes great and if you use whole grain pasta then you are doing something good for your body as well. You need energy in the day so pasta is a great way to fuel your body.

I love this pasta dish because you can get pesto ready to go in a jar at the grocery store and it doesn't cost too much money. Plus you don't need to use a lot of pesto either.

If you want to get creative you can mix in some fried vegetables to give it more nutritional value. If you want to add in a bit more protein then find some cheeses to add in. I prefer to add a light riccoto cheese.

cereal mix ideas

Sometimes in your cereal you don't get enough of what you need to start your day. what I like to do is mix things up and make my own blend of cereal that is tasty and gives me the right energy and protein to start the day. You can make your own cereals as well just be creative and understand exactly what you are getting and putting into your cereal. Just avoid too much sugars.

Cereal base: You can use this as the main ingredient and use other things to mix and add. I like to use Special K cereal but you can also do the same with whole grain cheerios or all bran flakes.

Foods you can add:

dried banana slices

nut mixes: I usually get these at the food markets and mix up the types of nut mixes

berry mixes: same as above but I always pick something different for each mix.

that is all. It tastes good and it gives me what I need to start my day.

super snack foods: popcorn and chocolate

I was like watching tv the other day and I had a bimbo moment as the tv show came on that showed that snacking is a good way to help you lose weight. At first I thought this was just totally stupid but what they said made complete sense.

Snacking helps keep your metabolism active and going but you don't want to load up on carbs and calories so the 2 suggestions they had were simple.

Popcorn, so easy to make and just don't be a big slob and load it up with butter or salt. Eat it the way it is and one kernal at a time.

Chocolate, yes eat dark chocolate about 20-35 grams of chocolate every 3 to 4 days is good for you. Go figure just stay away from the nasty stuff you can buy at the store that is loaded purely with sugar.

Butternut Squash soup delicious winter recipe meal

I started experimenting with some soups and decided to read up on some Butternut Squash soup recipes and see if I could try my own version and to make some adjustments. Well I made it a few times and I think I have perfected my own favorite version and I'm happy to share this recipe with you.

Ingredients:

1 Butternut Squash
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
Curry powder
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1 granny smith apple
black pepper
salt
1 vegetable broth cube
vegetable oil or butter
Bacon
Sour Cream

Instructions

Cut the butternut squash into small cubes so they are easy to bake. Remove all the seeds and wash them and dry them off with a paper towel as you will need them later. Take about 600 grams of your butternut squash and give them a light coating of vegetable oil and 1 table spoon of brown sugar.

Dice up the apple into large slices.

Chop up your garlic

Cut your onion in half

Make sure all of these ingredients get a light coat of vegetable oil and put in the oven at 350F for 1 hour.

Make a vegetable broth using boiled water and your vegetable cube. Prepare about 1 to 1.5 litres of water. This depends on how thick you want your soup.

When your vegetables are all cooked you can put them in the soup pot and keep it at low heat for up to 1 hour. Here you can now add in a pinch of cinnamon, 2 pinches of curry powder, pinch of salt and a pinch of black pepper.

during this stage is when you can coat the dry butternut squash seeds with oil and bake them at 300F for 35 minutes or longer. If you can find a way to cut the seeds or crush them after it makes it easier to eat. These go in the soup on top after it is done.

Also cook your bacon and chop up the cooked bacon. You can add bacon grease to the soup to add some oil flavor and texture.

Puree the soup and you're ready to serve and enjoy!