Simple but delicious Dogs. Of the Hot variety.

After a day of rain & heavy lifting, ease was important when we considered our meal for the night. 

We cooked some sausages,

Caramelised some onions, 

(took a nap), 

Put it all in a fresh bun with relish, ketchup & american mustard, 

Topped up the plate with brussel sprouts & ate like kings.

So:

Cook it Mofos. 

BBQ Chicken & Bacon Pizza

This is an all-time favourite in our little family. It's simple & delicious. We've gone with pre-made pizza bases & a BBQ chicken tonight to increase the ease factor. If you're feeling overly adventurous please feel free to make your own base & cook your own chook. We won't judge you :)

Cook it Mofo & you'll see why we love it. 

You need:

Pre-made Pizza bases

A BBQ chicken

2 bacon rashers (does everything we cook include bacon??)

Good quality BBQ sauce

Red capsicum, red onion & garlic

Mozzarella & tasty cheese

Baby spinach 

All you have to do is:

Chop your veges - capsicum, onion & garlic

Saute your bacon, onion & garlic (keep some onion fresh for the crispness)

Get your bases all ready 

Generously add all your goodies on top & cook it mofo.

This will be your reward. 

Caramelised Onion & Camembert Hotdogs with Baby Spinach

Indulging in a little camembert & homemade quince paste from Biancos, we started to think about dinner

This was our inspiration & the Caramelised Onion & Camembert Hotdog with Baby Spinach was born.

First cook your snags & your caramelised onions (cook onions in EVOO & butter, sprinkle with brown sugar & Worcestershire.)

Then layer camembert:

A sausage: (the order is EVERYTHING). The heat of the sausage turns the camembert to goo....mmmmmm

A bunch of caramelised onions:

And finally sprinkle with a little crisp baby spinach. 

Cook it Mofo. 

Rocky Road Cupcake Mania

So, we love Rocky Road & we love cupcakes - how about combined? We are big-time fans of turkish delight but find we definitely don't have enough opportunities to use. It is time.

Let's do this!


Pick up:
2 eggs
1 cup (220 g) sugar
1 cup (110 g) all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2/3 cup (160 ml) milk
2/3 cup (150 g) butter
The exciting bits:

1 cup Chocolate covered turkish delight cut into 1cm cubes 

1/2 cup pink and white mini marshmallows

1/2 Slivered almonds

You simply MUST: 

Set your oven to 180 and get your muffin trays ready. ALWAYS use patty pans - who the heck wants to do more cleaning than necessary right? Tip: we have just started using the silicone muffin trays & have found them pretty awesome so far. 

Toast up your almonds until golden. This will give the bit'o crunch we all love. 

Beat the eggs with sugar, mix in your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, vanilla and milk. SIMPLE! (& you have to say "SIMPLE" just like Neg from Balls of Steel )

Then all you have to do is fold in the melted butter before you get to the good part. 


Time to stir in the goodness. Gently mix in your turkish delight, almonds and marshmallows. 

Spoon into your prepared muffin trays and get those bad boys into the oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes. We had to do 2 lots - 1 lot of 12 was pretty huge and the second lot of 8 was smaller. Inserting a skewer into the centre of this is pointless as turkish delight & marshmallow will stick all over it. We found 30 mins was perfect for us.  Be sure to cool before removing the wrappers - you'll thank me for this as the goodies will stay inside, not on the paper. 


They will will look like this & you will eat them. I envision these with a scoop of icecream later tonight... yes, yes I do. 

Cook it Mofos. 

Bacon & Leek & Potato Soup to Soothe the Soul.

It's soup weather & we like to serve up the heartiest of soups. 


This is our way of saying "Screw you winter - You will NEVER get the better of us!"

• Go ahead and get: 
• A little chunk of butter
• 4 bacon rashers (pop one of these aside for a garnish)
• 1 onion , diced
• 3 or more garlic cloves (obviously to your own preference)
• 2 leeks, thinly sliced and well washed
• Roughly 1kg of Royal Blue potatoes
• 4 cups of vegetable stock & 4 cups of water
• Sea salt and cracked pepper for seasoning. 

FIRST - You'll cook up all your bacon. We like to cook first & chop second - avoids some of the spitting. Drain on paper towels to soak up that fatty goodness. 

Chop all your goodies - Potatoes, diced, garlic, finely chopped, onion, diced & leek, thinly sliced, so they're all ready to go

Use your little chunk of butter to saute the garlic, onion & leek in your soup pot until soft & fragrant. Add stock and 1 litre of water - Bring to the boil before adding potatoes. Season generously with sea salt and cracked pepper. 

Reduce heat and simmer for until potatoes are soft (about 30 mins) before adding your bacon. Now you can take your soup off the heat to cool slightly and whip up with your bar mix until all the big chunks are history. 

Serve in your LARGEST soup bowls, slap a salty piece of bacon across the top & add some freshly cracked black pepper. Aaaaaaand VOILA! 

Serve with the crustiest buttered white bread you can find & you have yourself one heck of a winter warmer. 

Cook it Mofos. 

Lamb Roast - Sunday Special.

It's cold, it's Sunday & my house smells delicious. 

Lamb Roast - Sunday Special

I refuse to type an ingredients list for a roast as it is a personal preference type'o meal. 

You like beef? Cook beef. 

Pork? Cook pork. 

Lamb? Stay tuned for some tips and tricks to make your Lamb Roast delicioso. 

As always, fresh ingredients are a must. I cannot stress this enough people!! Local if possible but at very least FRESH. & when it comes to a roast - pile it up. Roast veges make an awesome leftover for lunches so don't be afraid to make a mountain of veges (see a few pics down for our vege mountain.) We are experimenting with some roasted mushrooms tonight & Jake is EXCITED. 

& here she is pre-oven: (pretty huh?!)

Jake added about 7 slots into the meat and slid sliced garlic inside. He then placed on some chopped rosemary and a drizzle of oil. Try cooking at about 230 celsius for the first 15 mins then 200 for about 1 hour (this heats the inside for even cooking). 

Vege Mountain.

The proof will be in the eating & seeing as the roast is now in the oven - I will update when all done & dusted.

Chocolate Choc Chip Cookies - Like a Cookie from Heaven....

THE BEST cookies we have ever made & we like to make cookies -            a whole lot.

I think the best way to go here is to share the exact method & ingredients we used because seriously, these turned out so gosh darn good.


So you need -


2 1/4 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder


250g butter (room temperature is key for the butter & the eggs!)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar (we added a shake more)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs (+ 1 yolk)


1 cup of good quality choc chips (or equivalent chopped)


(this will make 60 cookies so feel free to cut in half although we did & now regret it)


& now DO THIS!! 


Pop the oven on to about 180 or 160 degrees fan-forced & cover two baking trays with baking paper.


Combine all your dry bits, flour, baking soda and cocoa in a small bowl (we sifted it all just to be sure we wouldn't get stuck with any lumps). Beat butter, sugars and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl, by hand is fine. Crack your eggs in & away you go. Mix in all your dry goodies to your wet goodies & stir through your choc chips and any other tasty stuff you might like such as nuts. 


Drop little chocolatey bundles (about a tablespoon in size) onto your baking trays with plenty of space between. The mixture will seem a bit tricky and wet but believe me - they will be awesome. 


Cook for 9 minutes (11 maximum). They will try to trick you into thinking they need more time but they really don't. 

Do it! Do it now!


Cook it Mofos.

Fried Rice - Taylor Style.

Starting out as a new blog, you get crazy. You take a zillion photos and write a trillion words. MANY of those pics and those words will never seen by the outside human eye yet the thrill of writing them will always be there.

We are still figuring it out and want to share our food and photography but not overly excited about laboriously typing out exact recipes (truth be told the idea of recipes is obsolete here in the Taylor household). Still finding our blogging flow, the next few posts will determine our format & style. Step by step or interesting snippets, measurements or experiments... Daily or weekly... Who knows! That's part of the excitement. 

We will, however share the important tips and tricks for tonight's meal, sooooo, here we go!! 

Tonights extravaganza was Fried Rice - Taylor Style. As usual it was Jake's job to cook & mine to drink wine and document the event for your entertainment. Yes, cooking is an event in the Taylor household and we intend to keep it that way. 

We have a few tricks to share that will make your Fried Rice the best ever. 

1. ALWAYS pre-cook the rice & let it cool before adding to the rest of your ingredients. We do ours in the rice cooker earlier in the day and refrigerate until needed (this will make all the difference!!) 

2. Fresh is Best. Fresh ingredients will give it the best flavours and textures. Make sure to add ginger, garlic, onions along with carrot, corn, peas. Try experimenting - we're trying cauli tonight. 

 

We also like to add fresh spring onion, cucumber and tomato at the end for that fresh crunch. 

3. Jake swears by palm sugar. It may not be the best for you but add a little finely grated to your fried rice - the flavour is RAD. 

The pics show the variety of the added flavours too & don't be afraid to ask questions xx There is pork mince and bacon, sweet chili sauce, omlette and kecap manis.... sesame and peanut oil... most importantly - family. A whole lot of family. 










This was easily the best Fried rice we have had yet - thinking the bacon was the clincher :) 

Cook It Mofo.

Us. The Whole Package.

He wants to cook, drink, eat and watch footy - I want to document it (the cooking part...)

We are the Taylors.


Jake/Jacobo - the head chef and creative kitchen expert with a soft spot for Coopers Sparkling and a fast paced footy game, Sarah - wine drinker, taste tester and photographer extraordinaire, Diego - critic & Charlie - couch sleeper.


We cook, we eat, we love to spend time together as a family and we love to share it with you. We believe food says a whole lot about a person, about a family, about who we are & with many-an-unsatisfying restaurant dining experience under our belts, our motto has become:


Cook It Mofos. 


If we can crave it, we can find a way to cook it - no need to head to the nearest dine-in or drive-thru, WE are the creators of fun, interesting, creative cuisine right here in our own kitchen.


First up we'll be sharing our Fried Rice - Taylor Style with pics and helpful hints.


Cook It Mofo. 


Enjoy!