RECIPE: RASPBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

I felt like baking today so I decided to make muffins and a Malaysian style bread pudding. I’ll post the recipe for the pudding tomorrow.

The muffin recipe is by Ainsley Harriot and it is really yummy. The recipe makes 8 medium sized muffins but I recommend that you make double the mixture because it won’t last long. With all muffins, make sure that you do not over mix and use a metal spoon to mix the ingredients.

I have copied Ainsley’s recipe to the letter but I made my muffins at 190°c for 25 mins. You may need to adjust your cooking time according to you oven. Also I used ordinary caster sugar and frozen raspberries [by the way they are on sale in Coles this week (Creative Gourmet Brand) if you are interested….I bought a kilo each of raspberries and blackberries for the freezer].

Ingredients - makes 8
300g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
150g golden caster sugar (I used ordinary sugar)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract (not essence – you may need to put more if using essence)
225ml milk (I heated it for 40 sec in the microwave)
50g butter, melted
100g fresh raspberries
75g chopped white chocolate (I used Nestlé white choc melts and crushed it coarsely in a mortar and pestle)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°c/400°f/Gas 6. Cut parchment or greaseproof paper into 8x15cm/6in circles and push, creasing the paper to fit, into a muffin tin (I used paper cups).

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Crack the egg into a separate bowl and whisk in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter.

Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients with the raspberries and chocolate, taking care not to over-mix. Spoon the mixture into the parchment cases and bake for 30 minutes or so until well risen and just firm.

RECIPE: HAM STEAKS WITH GRILLED PINEAPPLE, POACHED EGG AND CHIPS

It is freezing here in Canberra, and according to the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, it is currently 10°c outside. Well I can tell you that it is more like minus 10°c! All I want to do is get under the doona and curl up, so it is the ever faithful ham steaks to the rescue. Thank you Mr G. Nothing much to do except to cook your steaks in a frying pan/on the barbie/under the griller with pineapple slices, accompanied by poached or fried sunny side up egg/s, chips, grilled tomatoes or salad. Always handy for CBB days (can’t be bothered)!

Also, the smiley faces of the ham steaks always entice children to eat their meal….not only are ham steaks easy to cook, they also don’t cause fights with fussy eaters.

NATTER: WOMEN....AND THEIR THOUGHTS ON MEN!

As promised, and to be fair to the status quo, I found something on the web on what women think about men. See if you can associate with any of these thoughts!

Mae West:
Do not marry a man to reform him. That is what reform schools are for.

Zsa Zsa Gabor:
A man is incomplete until he is married. After that, he is finished.

Gloria Steinem:
The surest way to be alone is to be married!

Ann Landers:
The poor wish to be rich, the rich wish to be happy, the single wish to be married, and the married wish to be dead.

Courtney Huston:
Okay, so God made man first, but doesn’t everyone make a rough draft before they make a masterpiece?

Catherine Aird:
If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

Rhonda Hansome:
A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. A woman must do what he can’t.

Margaret Thatcher:
If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.

The Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life:
Fill what’s empty, empty what’s full, and scratch where it itches.

Molly McGee:
When a husband brings his wife flowers for no reason, there’s a reason.

Kimberly Broyles:
Adam and Eve had an ideal marriage. He didn’t have to hear about all the men she could have married, and she didn’t have to hear about the way his mother cooked.

Anne Bancroft:
The best way to get most husbands to do something is to suggest that perhaps they’re too old to do it.

Lizz Winstead:
I think, therefore I’m single.

Adrienne Gusoff:
Shopping is better than sex. If you’re not satisfied after shopping you can make an exchange for something you really like.

Zenna Schaffer:
Give a man a fish and he has food for a day. Teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him of the entire weekend.

Rita Rudner:
I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy:
I’ve had an exciting time. I married for love and got a little money along with it.

Jill Tweedie:
Always suspect any job men willingly vacate for women.

Kathy Lette:
Why can’t women tell jokes? Because we marry them!

Maryon Pearson:
Behind every great man there is a surprised woman.

Zsa Zsa Gabor:
I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house.

NATTER: MAN....AND THEIR THOUGHTS ON WOMEN!

A colleague forwarded this on today (as you can see, we had plenty done at work...he!he!). I thought it was quite amusing, so I am putting it on my blog. I have to find one on women about man and marriage and post it on my blog to be fair to us women. We aren’t all that bad, are we????

Sacha Guitry:
When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.

Hemant Joshi:
After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.

Socrates:
By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

Dumas:
Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.

Sigmund Freud:
The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?

Henny Youngman:
"Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."

Sam Kinison:
"I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."

James Holt McGavran:
"There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage."

Patrick Murray:
"I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't."

Nash:
Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming: 1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it, 2. Whenever you're right, shut up.

Henny Youngman:
You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.

Rodney Dangerfield:
My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.

Milton Berle:
A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.

Anonymous:
Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.

A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Wife wanted". Next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine."

First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!"
Second Guy: "You're lucky, mine's still alive."

I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me. The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.