HotMix Pro Recipes: Kingston Truffles, perfect for Mother's Day

One of my most favouritist and easiest sweets I like to make that is always a crowd pleaser is Oreo truffles. Everyone loves them and I so wish that I invented them, but alas its a borrowed idea and basically I make them over and over using my favourite cream biscuits, because naturally I unfortunately have many of them!

I particularly enjoy the Arnott's Kingston. This chocolate cream is sandwiched with what can only be described as mini butternut biscuits. Many of us know that butternuts are perfect for a no bake base for cheesecakes and other slices. So why not use them for a truffle?

What you will need:

2 packets Kingstons
125g Philly cream cheese
200g quality chocolate ( I used Cadbury melts)

Method

1. Put Kingstons in HMP with blades on speed 8 for 20 secs.
2. Add cream cheese and mix with blades on speed 5 for 20 secs. Scrape sides and mix a further 15-20 secs or until mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. Leave mixture in bowl if you want and refrigerate for 20 minutes or freezer for about 10mins.
4. Using a spoon roll mixture in balls and put into either mini muffin trays or on baking tray. Put back into fridge or freezer while you melt chocolate.

5. I use mini muffin trays as I find these easy to keep the truffle where I want it and its easy to cover them with chocolate. I use a spoon to drop chocolate over the biscuit balls. Otherwise you can use a skewer and dip balls in chocolate. Refrigerate until set.

Store truffles in a container with a lid in refrigerator for up to 7 days or freeze.

These are easy to make and would make a perfect treat for your mum! Best of all, you can make these truffles with any kind of biscuit, but cream biscuits are best:) Enjoy!

HotMix Pro Recipes: PB n Caramel Choc Cream Pie

One thing that I particularly like about this recipe is that I didn't clean out the bowl once after each step. Each layer of this pie has flavours that marry well, so I didn't feel the need to concern myself with cleaning the bowl. Its up to you, but try it out if you like.

Ever since watching "The Help" I have been a little obsessed with searching for pie recipes and making pies. If you have seen the movie or read the book, you can smile with me as you remember the classic line of Minnie's, "Eat, my, Sh*$!!". I crack up each time I picture it in my head. I suppose you could say I was inspired by the chocolate pie fiasco a little with this recipe I concocted. I actually mixed up a lot of things that I have discovered along the way of my pie searching. Of course you can make this recipe without a HMP, but the HMP just makes it that much easier and quicker. You also get an amazing consistency with the HMP. So here is what I did.

Base Ingredients
1 packet digestive biscuits
1 cup pretzels
130g butter melted
1 tbsp peanut butter

Filling
1 can caramel top and fill
100g cream cheese
1-2 tbsp peanut butter ( peanut butter is optional but is a great flavour)
1 tbsp gelatin or 1 packet
400ml hot water to dissolve gelatin

Topping
200ml cream
1tbsp quality cocoa
1 tbsp icing sugar

Method

1. Biscuits and pretzels on speed 5 for 20 secs
2. Add melted butter and peanut butter and mix on speed 2 for 30 secs
3. Press into pie dish and refrigerate.
4. Mix can caramel, cream cheese with paddle attachment on speed 2 for 20 secs. Scrape sides and remove paddle attachment. Add peanut butter and mix on speed 3 for 30 seconds
5. Mix gelatin in hot water with a fork and mix well.
6. Add gelatin to caramel mix and mix on speed 1 for 20 secs
7. Pour caramel mixture into pie dish and put back in fridge for at least 2 hours.
8. When caramel layer is set mix cream, cocoa, and icing sugar using paddle attachment on speed 3 for  around 1 minute or until it has stiff peaks.
9. Spread over pie.

The pretzels and peanut butter add the right amount of salt to balance out the sweetness of the other ingredients. Its a really great dessert that can be made in the morning or afternoon and be ready for the evening. All ingredients can be stored in your pantry, even the cream! Yes you can get UHT cream, but make sure you refrigerate the cream for at least 1 hour before you whip it or it won't whip.

Mother's Day Craft Inspirations for School, Home, and Church

Its almost one of the most special days of the year! Or should I say the most?  Of course, being a mum, I love this day. I love that my kids and my husband go to great lengths to show me how much I mean to them. The best part about Mother's day for me is to see the Mother's Day crafts that the kids have been putting so much love and effort into at daycare and school. Whenever my husband asks me what I want for my present, I let him know that all I care about is the kid's crafts. Every year I look forward to seeing what they have created, and being a creative person, when they tell me how much effort they put into it and what kinds of things inspired them, it's truly priceless:)

I also like to check out Mother's Day crafts for my church and school classes. I usually scour the web, but since Pinterest has been around, its been so easy to find new creative and amazing little crafts. I would like to share some of them with you. Please see my 'follow me' Pinterest button to the right and follow me:) You can also see all my craft inspiraitons at my Craftsie board. If you want to follow my foodie inspirations, see my Yummo Food board.

I hope you like these ideas and please be sure to check out my Craftsie board so you can get the full links on how to do these awesome crafts:) Happy Mother's Day!

Microwave Jenny....I'm hooked!!

I know I love my food, but it wasn't the fact that this band's name is a food cooking appliance that got me interested! No, every now and then you hear a song that just hits something in you, and it gives you goose bumps and almost brings a tear to your eye as it wells up an emotion you didn't think existed until that moment! I know you have a few of those, as I do. One of my latest new found bands that I fell in love with straight away was introduced to me by one of my best friends. She told me, " My sister-in-law's sister sings with her soon to be husband and their group is called, Microwave Jenny, you should hear their songs I think you would like them!" She played two songs from her iphone, which I couldn't hear very well, so I had to go home and check them out myself. I am so glad she introduced me to this duo.Not only do I feel that I am somewhat connected in the most round about way to a popular group (hahaha), but I am a true lover of good folk music and I believe Microwave Jenny is the modern version  of folk or what I would call 'folk pop' the story telling music. I believe they call it 'Indie pop', either way its quality music and I'm hooked!

 I am sure you have been in a situation before where you love the beat of a song and it makes you want to get up and dance around, but when you hear the lyrics you might be shocked to what the song is truly about. I personally have to watch myself because I am the mother of 4 kids who listen and watch pretty much everything I do, especially when it comes to music. I had no hesitation in sharing my newly downloaded EPs from Microwave Jenny. The songs are catchy, cute, and stir up memories that make me smile! Anyway, enough of my chit chat, here is a taste of some of my favourites of Tessa and Brendon's. Oh, and if you are wondering what the meaning of their name is, apparently it came from the movie, "The Castle"! I downloaded their songs via Itunes.

When you don't call.

Melting Crayons Holiday Art & Special Needs Art Class

Ever since I discovered that you can can melt crayons and make it into an art piece or a new medium to reuse, I had to do my own!! The wonderful world of Pinterest introduced me to this artform and while some of you may think it simple and not really art, to me its quite expressive and the most amazing part is that the you are only limited to your own imagination with what you can come up with!

About 4 years ago I started working in special education and one of the activities I did with one of my classes was to break up crayons, which the kids loved to do and put them into silicon shaped cupcake trays and then pop them in the oven. The crayons we created were well recieved by the students and the art works that followed with the students using them were fun and creative! Melting down crayons are fun and make great presents for kids.

Well back to what I has inspired me lately. Here is a picture that got me thinking.

Then I came across this blog about working this idea into a special needs classroom which inspired me further to try and make this particular artform work in my class this year. Aside from that I really wanted to experiement with this idea at home and make something with the kids to put up on our walls. So I purchased some canvases from the Hot Dollar shop and two packets of 25 crayons, not crayola brand, but any wax crayons work well, it just depends on what colours you want to use. I wanted to do something with my kids's hand prints and then have the melted crayons around the hands. I decided to use clear contact. I traced around my son's hands on the paper side of the contact then cut them out. I stuck each hand on the canvas in the position I wanted them. Then I went about melting the crayons. I didn't do it the exact way as above. I really had no specific plan other than to give it a go and see what came of it. I think it worked out well. When you have finished melting the crayons and got the desired look, carefully peel away the contact.

You have to be really gentle with your hairdryer as I had some issues with the contact rolling up and off the canvas. Its a little bit fiddly, but I enjoyed it. My boys( 3, 6, 9) on the other hand got a bit bored, but at least I had fun right?!! I will also note that this can be done with your regular hair dryer and it will take a little while to do the crayons melting. Otherwise you can use a heat gun which can be purchased at Bunnings. The last time I was there I saw them for $20, I didn't get one because I wanted to see how my hair dryer went first.

I tried the hands again with my daughter who is 10, almost 11, and the contact didn't stay on well for hers so this is what we ended up with.

Its still bright and I will definately be putting both up on one of our walls in our house. My daughter really enjoyed this activity. She loved seeing the crayons melt into each other. The above picture isn't the best and doesn't really do the canvas justice unfortunately, but its the best I can do with no digital camera!
I am yet to get my other boys interested. They cared more for Wizard 101 today, which is a shame. I might just go ahead and do something for them anyway.

If you wanted to consider this for an art activity for a special needs class and you have students with high support needs. You can easily use a switch adapter for the hairdryer.

HotMixPro Review Part 3, The Recipes

Hi to all! I have finally organised some time to get some recipes up. As I mentioned in my last post, I will gradually add recipes so please check back often. Now you will have to forgive me for some of the photos I will be posting. Not too long ago, I took a drink from my water bottle and put it back in my handbag, to discover a couple of minutes later that I hadn't screwed the lid back on properly and a good 400ml of water was trapped in my bag and pretty much everything except my purse got destroyed, including my much loved digital camera:( So I was very upset about that but more so because I could only blame myself, which was upsetting!!! Anyway, I have been taking some pictures on my Iphone 3 which isn't the best, until I either get a new one or borrow my mums, which ever comes first!!

I have really got used to using my HMP and it really is an amazing machine. There are some appliances that I haven't touch since I started using my HMP, which really goes to show how versatile the machine is.

The first recipe I want to share with you really shows how amazing the HMP Gastro model really is. A lot of people ask me why I would want a cooking machine that goes up to 190C, what is the point? Well, if you have ever stood at stove stirring constantly to make caramels, or toffee, or caramel for caramel popcorn, or praline for that matter, you will love what you can achieve with the HMP Gastro. Not only do you not have to stand at your stove top stirring consistantly and constantly, you also don't have to concern yourself with a cany thermometer or if you don't use one of those, you don't have to worry about when you reach soft, or hard crack stage or worry about burning anything because its all done for you in the machine. Set the temp, the speed and then walk away, its that simple!

Honey Comb

1 1/2 cups (335g) white sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) honey
1/3 cup (80ml) water
2 tbs golden syrup
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g dark chocolate, chopped Line deep dish tray with baking paper 1. Add sugar, honey, water, and golden syrup to machine. Mix on speed 1( or no speed) and set to 154C wait temp. Make sure the stopper/centre lid is in place, if its not in place for the full cooking time the toffee won't crystalise properly and it will be useless. * 'Wait temp' basically means that you set the tempature you want the mixture to reach and the machine will gradually reach that tempature and then the machine will stop. 2. Pour mixture into a stainless steel bowl and add the bicarb of soda and mix with a wooden spoon and make sure it is mixed well but quickly. 3. Pour into the prepared tray and leave to cool which can take up to a couple of hours. 4. Melt chocolate and pour over honey comb and smooth over top. Once it sets, break honey comb into pieces and enjoy. I personally didn't add chocolate, our family love it without:) Its so simple to do and takes very little time. Its perfect for a treat or to make up for a gift:) The next recipe is the answer to a lot of mum's prayers on how to get the kids to eat veges. I have made this for my kids several times now and not once have they asked me what I put in it. So for me its a winner!! Vegeful Spaghetti Bologanese 1 carrot  1 capsicum 1/2 red onion 1/2 tbs minced garlic 1 zuccini 1 tomato 250g lean minced beef, or pork, or chicken 1 jar tomato pasta sauce salt and pepper to taste 500g pasta cooked seperately to packet directions grated cheese Directions 1. Chop each of the vegetables into a couple of pieces and add to machine with garlic and chop on speed 4 for 10 secs. You can cook the pasta at this stage. 2. Add a small amount of oil and cook on 70C using speed 1 for about 2 mins. 3. Break up mince and add to machine and cook on speed 1, 85C for about 15mins. 4. Add jar of tomato pasta, salt and pepper, and mix through on speed 2 for 2 minutes on 85C. 3. Add bologanse to pasta and top with cheese and serve. Its a winner and you can clean up while it cooks! You can add any kind of vegetables you like. For our big family, I actually make this up with 400-500g of mince and it makes enough for the meal and left overs. That's it for now, but stay tuned for more recipes:)