Jamie Oliver is a food god. A king of the culinary. I was hesitant about this recipe but it turned out better than expected, the perfect combination of crunchy walnut, sweet butternut pumpkin and little bursts of brown sugar lumps. Resist eating this straight out of the oven, it tastes better after the flavours get to mingle and know each other for a day or two.

ingredients:

• 400g butternut pumpkin with the skin on, it seems odd but it works
• 350g light soft brown sugar
• 4 large free-range eggs
• sea salt
• 300g plain flour
• 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder
• handful of walnuts
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 175ml extra virgin oil

for the frosting: (I love that word, frosting, so much better than icing)

• zest of 1 clementine, I used an orange instead
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 140ml sour cream
• 2 heaped teaspoons sifted icing sugar
• 1 vanilla pod, split length ways and seeds scraped out

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Line muffin tin with paper cases, or grease cake tin.
   

   Notice the skin still on!

2. Whiz the squash in a food processor until finally chopped. Whiz for 30 seconds with the walnuts. If your food processor is big enough, add the sugar, salt, eggs, flour, cinnamon, virgin olive oil and baking powder. If it’s not, mix all of these in a big bowl until everything is combined and moist. Don’t over-mix, you don’t want this to look like cake batter.
   
3. Fill the muffin tin or cake tray with the mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins. If a wooden skewer comes out clean, it’s cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
4. Make the runny frosted topping by mixing the clementine zest, all the lemon zest and the lemon juice into a bowl. Add the sour cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds. Mix well and taste. If you think you want more sour, add more lemon juice, if you want more sweet, add icing sugar. It’s a personal taste. Put it into the fridge. You want to put the toppings on just as the cakes are served, otherwise it doesn’t keep that well. Jamie recommends decorating with rose petals and dried lavender flowers, but I didn’t have any around.
5. Eat and know that you’ve done your healthy deed for the day. Yum!

The recipe was taken from the wonderful book Jamie at home.

Post-eating note: If someone isn’t used to eating desserts, you might want to try serving this without the icing. One of my friends found the sauce too rich and distracting for her taste buds.

If I could use four words to describe this recipe it would be: simple, easy, tedious and time. Don’t let the tedious part deter you, I did this while watching T.V and it took half an hour, I’ve been reaping (a.k.a drinking) the benefits for the last three months and it has been yum!

You’ll need:

• 2 liters of vodka
• 12 lemons
• a peeler
• a big jar
• a strainer
• someplace dark

1. Wash all the lemons. Get a scourer and rub down the skin with soap and water. We’re doing this to get rid of any pesticide or wax. A thin layer of edible wax is put on the lemon skin to preserve them for longer and to deter bugs. If you get lemons from a farmer’s market, you’re laughing.
2. While the lemons are drying, fill the biggest pot you have with hot water and bring it to a rolling boil. Put in your big jar and it’s lid for ten minutes. Drain and leave to dry on absorbent paper. This sanitises it so you eliminate any chance of mold growing on your vodka. Ew.
   
3. Start peeling your lemons and putting the rind into the jar. This is the tedious part so watch T.V or listen to an amusing podcast at the same time. DO NOT get any of the pith (white stuff) into the jar, avoid it like the plague. It’s bitter, nasty stuff. The lovely lemon flavour only comes from the zest. Once all the lemons are peeled, fill the jar with vodka. Keep the original vodka bottle.
   
4. Place in a dark corner for six weeks. Once a week, give it a swirl. Marvel at the change of colour. The vodka is going to suck out all the good stuff from the peel. You’ll know your vodka is ready when it’s a bright yellow colour and the lemon peels are drained white and brittle when you break them.
5. Strain the vodka twice into the original vodka bottle. It’ll smell and taste like lemons. Yum. Enjoy the potent mix.

If you want to be really decadent, make a simple sugar syrup by boiling a cup of water, taking it off the heat and mixing it with two cups of white sugar. Wait to cool then mix this with a liter of the lemon vodka and shot it down like an Italian, or even better, with an Italian.

Last night I went over to a friend’s place and made a Lemon Vodka mojito with mint, sugar syrup, 7-up, loads of ice and lemon vodka. It went down a treat and didn’t leave me with a nasty hangover this morning. The options are endless.

When I was a young teenager, every school holiday my father and I used to travel an hour into Sydney to visit the library. We lived out near the suburbs of Blacktown and while it would have been easier to go to the local library, my father and I were convinced that Sydney’s books were magical, brand spanking new and packed with ten times more knowledge than the battered versions we had at the local. Maybe it was the journey that made the books that much worthwhile, or maybe I’m showing too much of my nerd streak right now.

The Sydney library had the most extensive Anne Rice collection I’ve ever seen. The goth that I was drooled at the collection. These books took commitment to carry around, they were bigger than the bible and weighed twice as much, yet I found myself borrowing and re-borrowing them, I even lugged a couple to Sri Lanka and back! My parents were so proud of my vivacious reading, if only they knew what I was reading; delicious illusions of immortality, love between men whispered in French, bisexuality and explicit slivers of porn. One of the books even had a lusty hermaphrodite in it. I’m laughing as I think about my informal education.

Eventually it got to this stage where I was re-borrowing these books but getting frustrated because other (presumably) teenagers were putting holds on my books. Filled with the romance that these novels imparted, I wrote on a Post-It note something similar to this:

Hi there,

I don’t know you, but I love Anne Rice. My favourtie book is Merrick. What’s yours? I also like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth. Do you like death metal?

Enjoy this book

Lots of love, a fellow fan

Yes, I’m serious. I stuck that to the inside cover of a library book in the hope of finding a kindred spirit. Needless to say, I didn’t, although when I checked last, nobody removed the note.

Ten years and a one-way trip to Washington D.C later, I was borrowing this library book to find someone has left a shopping list in there. I couldn’t be more stoked.

A shopping list is completely voyueristic. One can only guess at the type of person who felt the need to write cheese and crackers twice. And on the back of a church’s form. I’m imaging a fit woman in her 50s with blue-tinted hair and wrinkles around her eyes. She has to be F-I-T, look at her diet.

Click through for higher res version.

Click for larger pic.

This brings me to our first ever adventure on Little Flutters.

I want your shopping list! I want us to reach out to complete strangers like a love-sick teen, to show a window into our stomachs. To look for similarities and hope for a connection.

I will only link if you want to, otherwise it’s totally anonymous. It can be scanned or photographed, let your creativity reign.

Send to tash@littleflutters.com and have some fun with this.

Lots of joy and hugs,

Tash

Make the extra effort to do this recipe. You won’t regret it. It could be your staple dish to make when people come over. The great thing is once all the toppings are on and you’re good to go, you leave the pizza to rise one more time for half an hour. That gives you enough time to clean up, platter up some appetizers and have a beer.

You’ll need:

• Olive oil
• Semolina (make the purchase, it’s worth it)
• 1 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon rapid-rise yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 41/2 – 51/2 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 sprig of basil, chopped
• chives, or any herb you prefer
• artichoke hearts
• char grilled capsicum (red peppers in U.S land)
• sliced red onion
• sliced ham and/or Italian sausage. Use chorizo if you can find it.
• sliced mushrooms
• goats cheese, sliced
• parmesan cheese, grated
• cheery tomatoes, sliced in half

1. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Smear olive oil on the sheet and dust with semolina. In a mixer bowl, whisk by hand the warm water and yeast. Let it stand for three minutes so it disolves.
2. Whisk in sugar, eggs, oil and salt. Add flour, mix with a wooden spoon and knead if necessary to form a soft dough. Put the dough back in the bowl, sprinkle a little bit of olive oil on the top and cover with cling wrap. Put in a warm place, such as the top of the fridge, for 1/2 an hour.
3. Chop all of the toppings to any size you like. In a small bowl, mix the tomato paste, garlic and basil. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and let rest for ten minutes. Lightly roll out the dough to a large rectangle or circle.
5. Brush the surface with tomato paste mixture. Distribute toppings.
6. Turn oven to 350 Fahrenheit (175 Celsius). Cover the pizza with cling wrap again and let rest for 30 mins.
7. Bake until golden brown on the edges, approx 25 minutes. Cut, enjoy.

Some cookie recipes require you to mix, fridge, cut, fridge, cook, cool. Well, I say “screw that!”. I know you want to cook a Sunday indulgence, but nobody wants to stand around for that long. This is a basic, delicious choc chip cookie that will keep for a week and a half, if you have any sense of control that is.

These were delicious, soft and doughy on the inside with a crisp, brown sugar taste on the outside. Next time, I’m adding more choc chips!

Gather to your bosom the following:

• 2 and 1/4 cups baking flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, pack it in baby.
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups choc chip cookies
• 1/2 cup of any nuts you like, I put in sliced and toasted almonds.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 Farenheit or 190 Celsius. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium sized bowl. Put the butter and white sugar in a bowl and using a mixer, beat until it’s incorporated well. If you’re feeling like the hulk, whisk by hand. Add the brown sugar and mix again. Add the teaspoon of vanilla extract, more if you like your vanilla.
2. Break and add the eggs, beating after each one. Don’t taste it by the spoonful after this.
3. In thirds, add the flour mixture. It should be really thick now. It will taste floury but don’t freak out. Using a wooden spoon, gently mix in the choc chip chocolate and nuts. If you use your mixer, be wary of blitzing the choc bits into tiny, tasteless pieces.
4. Plop tablespoons of the mix onto an ungreased baking tray. The cookie will expand to nearly triple the size of what it is now, so leave space accordingly.
5. Cook for nine minutes, leave to cool on the tray for two minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.
6. Eat two immediately with a glass of milk.
   

When storing left overs, use an air tight container with a slice of bread. The bread controls the moisture, making sure your cookies stay fresher for longer.

You can store the uncooked dough for a week in the fridge and two months in the freezer.

Let me know if you make it!