Friday Feast

Good morning and welcome to another Friday Feast. For those playing along at home ( or for those who want to ) Friday Feast is a fledgling link up ( which is so fledgling it doesnt even have a linky yet! ) where we each share a favourite recipe - sweet or savoury, dinner or dessert, budget or blue ribbon. It doesnt matter, as long as its delicious!

This week, i thought i'd go with something sweet:

Fruit and Nut Slice ( originally found in Recipes + magazine )
395g can sweetened condensed milk
125g butter, chopped
1tsp finely grated orange zest ( omit if you arent a fan of zest )
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
250g plain biscuits ( such as Arrowroots )
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups dried fruit of your choice
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
1 1/3 cup milk chocolate melts

1. Grease 26x16cm base baking pan and line with baking paper, leaving over-hang at edges.
2. Combine condensed milk, butter zest and juice in small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until butter melts. remove from heat.
3. Process biscuits into fine crumbs. Add biscuit, coconut,dried fruit and nuts to condensed milk mixture. Stir to combine. Press and smooth into prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hr.
4. Melt chocolate in microwave on medium setting in 30 second bursts, removing and stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Spread chocolate over slice to cover evenly. Let cool for 30 minutes or until chocolate is almost set, then cut into squares to serve.
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I've made this slice quite a few times for my mums group meet ups or morning teas, and i gave my dad the recipe so he could make morning tea for his secretaries at work, and it always gets a great reception. Its moist and a bit chewy and nice and sweet with the fruit ( i usually use dried apricot and cranberries, but you could throw in sultanas or glace cherries aswell ) and the best thing about from the cooks perspective? Its no bake! Plus, it uses ingredients that most of us would keep in our pantries, or that we might have left over from something else. Plus, it keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge - although i'm sure it will be all gone by then!

What about you? Do you have a recipe to contribute this week ? Go, do your post, and then come back and leave a link to the post in the comments!

Food, Glorious, Food!

I am so loving food right now. I'm loving cooking it, eating it, watching it being cooked on tv and i'm loving reading about it. I'm not loving it enough to get hugely, grossly fat though - so no worries about that. I'm just enjoying the rituals of food is all, and how it makes people come together and be happy. ( Most of the time - my failed attempt at soup last night didnt really make anyone happy ).

I sit down of a Friday evening and plan out a menu for the week - i go through my recipe magazines and very few cookbooks that i own and choose the recipes i'd like to make, and write out the weeks shopping list as i go. My mother always did it that way and i always thought she was a bit anal. But you know what? Its so much easier that way! No going to the freezer and/or fridge and going " Uh, what am i going to cook tonight ? " . No getting out your recipe only to find that you dont have any mushrooms/chicken stock/ peanuts ( or, you know, whatever ). I dont plan it down to the specific day though - i just ask Mick in the morning what he'd life for dinner, give him the options, and he usually says " Suprise me! ". Easy as that. This weeks menu includes a beef massamun curry that i'm really looking forward to and my first attempt at beer battered fish.

I'm also enjoying baking. I've baked something almost every week since Flynn has been born, just for that fun of it, and now that we're hosting mothers group at each others houses rather than going to a cafe there is even more incentive to whip up a yummy slice or some muffins. Plus, and i know this is a little big-headed, but i really like getting compliments on my cooking from the other mums. I made a slice a few weeks ago that got the thumbs up all round - i even got asked for the recipe! - and this weeks " Apple and Cream Cheese Friands " scored me a " gee you're a good cook! ". Big smiles from me! And i'm not a baking snob either - i'm totally happy to share my recipes. I know some people are all " oh no, its an old family recipe, i couldnt possibly share it with you " but most of mine come from magazines or http://www.taste.com.au/ so they aren't exactly a secret!

So, in the spirit of sharing, leave me a comment ( if you want ) with your favourite meal to cook, a link to a recipe, or to your favourite cooking website!