More shortbread

Shortbread:

My Dad regards the jam thumbprint as the "Mac daddy" of all cookies! Filled with raspberry preserves and sometimes a covering of chopped almonds, the cookie has to have a tender crumb and a melt-in- your-mouth consistency. Savouring this simple confection can very well be your "saviour" to a "me moment."

Ingredients:

Half cup and 1 tbsp of organic sugar( Repunzel) or any sugar you desire. 8oz European unsalted butter. Beat these two ingredients until creamy and you no longer feel the sugar in the mixture. Add a pinch of kosher salt and 2 tsp vanilla( from Santo Domingo preferably). Sift together one and three quarter cup all purpose and a quarter cup corn starch and then fold this mixture into butter and sugar mixture. Do not over work. You can mix all you like but the minute you fold the flour into any mixture, the less you have to handle the dough! unless of course you are making bread where you want to develop the gluten! Roll into small balls, flatten a little and imprint a thumb print and fill with your favorite preserve. Bake at 350 for 25 mins or until you smell the aroma of the cookie. A good baker can tell when something is done just by that sense of smell!

Variation: Bake the cookies with the thumb print and when cool fill with melted Lindt chocolate.

Old fashioned farmhouse bar

This bar of soap has a special type of "feel" to it if you will. It is so smooth and I can either make it in an oatmeal, milk and honey fragrance or a fresh pure grapefruit fragrance. It has goats milk, shea butter, black seed oil....etc

Whenever I use this soap, I imagine myself in one of those old tubs in a " spaghetti western movie". Try it and you may just cross over into yesteryear!!

Nazarina.

Birds custard( pudding)

Hurrah! to the English for coming up with pudding. No need for a stiff upper lip here to enjoy that silky, smooth texture, just dig in and satisfy your salivation. Pudding will remain unostentatious but showy enough to compete with the creme brulee any day. This modest creation is comforting enough for a mere peasant to a pope!

Ladyfingers, birds custard, milk, vanilla, cream and chocolate are all the ingredients you need to make this smashing dessert.

This was my very first recipe that I "made up" years ago and people always want me to make it above all the other complicated dessets.

Baked butternut with a touch of brown sugar

As you have most probably noticed, I love almost all things caramelized and golden brown!

This is no exception! So easy peasy, just sprinkle butternut with a little brown sugar, "smear with some pounded fresh garlic, a little roasted bell pepper seeds and some cinnamon and a tiny bit of kosher salt and last but not least a pat of unsalted butter and bake in the oven until tender and brown. To serve, stuff the little cavity with some basmati and chives.

Nazarina

Stuffed jalapenos with a roasted poblano and corn soup

Soup will fix anything that ails ya! The crunch echoes in your ears when you bite into these cornmeal chillies!

Saute' one medium onion( small dice) with 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic, 1/4 c chopped red bell pepper and one tablespoon of olive oil until caramelized. Roast 2 poblanos with a pinch of kosher salt and a tablespoon of olive oil in the oven, until skins are blistered. Peel off the blackened skin, remove vein and seeds and set aside. Cut kernels of 3 ears of corn off the cob and add to onions and saute' further until corn is tender or you can use corn in the can. Blend a small can of creamed corn and add to this mixture as well.( this will thicken soup). Season with kosher salt to taste and then add about 1 cup of water or chicken stock and simmer for another 10 mins. Add the roasted poblanos and a bit of chopped cilantro and cook for another 10 mins. If you think the soup is too thick, then just add some more water.

I took the whole green chillies ( jalapenos) in the can and stuffed them with a sauteed mixture of panko, garlic, chopped red bell peppers, green onions.and chopped cilantro. Cool this panko mixture, add grated pepper jack and then stuff the chillies and close with tooth picks. Dust with some potato starch or flour, dip in beaten egg and then roll into corn meal or panko and shallow fry. These chillies would serve as the "croutons."

Garnish with chopped fresh tomato and a sprinkling of kosher salt.

For a gluten-free version: Use gluten-free breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes instead of panko.

Nazarina.

LJ and Don's story.

I'd like to say that I played a little part in the union and now the coming of the little one of LJ and Don. From the delicate white chocolate heavy whipping cream mousse frosting on the wedding cake and the making of the wedding bouquet to that same frosting on the baby shower cake and fondant bears and not forgetting the chocolate mousse frosting on the inside. It was indeed a nail biting long ride to the venues to deliver these cakes, but sooooo worth that feeling of accomplishment. As you know I did not attend a culinary school so I am not that elaborate with decorations, but I would hope to think that the mousse frosting would count for something!
Nazarina.

I piped a little baby " frill" around the edge. 11" by 15"

A fresh strawberry sauce accompanied this cake. Served 100 people.

Funny ski clip

Cape Malay Cooking! (Cape Town, my birth place)

Bridal soap favors

These bridal soaps has a lot of detail. Brides and bridesmaids love this quaint little gift!

Savon de marseilles

This was the very first bar of soap I made. Martha Stewart made this soap in a milk carton and it looked so luxurious and good for the skin that I decided to try the art of saponification. It has shea butter, olive oil, green clay .....etc. There was also a segment of her and her niece Sophie where the both of them were laughing uncontrollably. Her niece said to use a "hoe" to smooth the soap instead of pantyhose!

I have been making soap ever since and have about 40 different designs.

Nazarina.