Butter Roasted Vanilla Sugared Almonds

I haven't slept properly in like 3 nights in a row. It's getting to me. Badly.

A tiny thing will totally set me off. Like Friends, it was scheduled to run at 10.30am. I sat there for two whole minutes waiting for Joey's face to appear.

No such luck. Okay two minuites does not sound like a long time, but trust me, when you are so cranky and irratible it's like... urgghh I don't even know how to explain.

 Friends was not scheduled to run today. The TV guide was wrong.

Don't you hate that? I am in such a fit right now. Honestly, if you could see me right now, you would see how much harm I'm doing to this poor innocent laptop by punching the keyes as I type.

Oh well, tough tits. i'm tired, bored, irratible and way way way to overtired to even bother to have a nap.

But on the other hand, by nibbling on these morsels every few minuites kinda gives you a sugar rush and little bit more energy then sleeping in for a couple of more hours. And remember, your energy is way different from my energy. Chronic Fatigue.. duh!

If you magically happen to be in the same boat as me right about now. Don't fight the angryness inside you, make these now and do a favour to those around you prone to your lash outs of rage of not getting a goodnights sleep.

                                                   

Oh and... the monthly visit of Aunt Flo does not help either. Sugar, vanilla and almonds with a hint of butter.. goodbye back, stomach and neck pain. Hello surge of energy.

Butter Roasted Vanilla Almonds

- 1 cup of raw almonds

- 3 Tb Icing Sugar

- 2 Tb Butter

- 1 tsp vanilla essence, or 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.

Method

Place the almonda in a large saucepan and cook ovver moderate heat. Stir constantly until the nuts become browner and it is clear that they have been roasted. Also.. bite into some to check it out. Throw in the icing sugar and keep stirring until sugar is melted. Add the vanilla and butter and keep stirring. The end result should be roasted almonds with a caramel-ly sugary finish and a vanilla hit. The butter is not entirely necessary, it just gives the nuts a little shine and glossyness.

Royal White Icing

I was just in the kitchen for 2 hours. Oh my god.

Oh my god, I'm exauhsted.
Oh my god, I just decorated a Gingerbread house
And oh my god, my mum is going to kill me because there is sugar absoutly everywherrrrrre.

Bits of wafer sticks in my hair, maltesers rolling on the floor, sugar sticking to your feet, and royal icing all over the kitchen tops.

Cuuuuute, eh? Totally worth those 2 hours.

Yes, that is popcorn coming out of the chimney. We (me + the sister) were going to go alll out, but it turned out (not surprisingly) we were out of basically everything. We rummaged around in the pantry and managed to pull out some ice-cream wafered cones. Not something you would use in a gingerbread house.

Did I care? No.
Was I desperate? Yes.

I think you get the drift. Just about every sweet thing I saw I threw in... and there were only like 3 things sweet in the pantry..so it to do.

I didn't even tell you what this was for did I? IKEA.. only like my favrioute store, is having this huuge gingerbread house competition. All you have to do is buy the gingerhouse, construct it.. and design it! I didn't go all out like I said I would, but then again, my pantry didn't exactly help me out in any way did it?

Dont worry! I've still got a recipe for you!

Royal Icing
- 2 egg whites
- 3 cups of icing sugar

Method
- Whip egg whites until soft peak form, then gradually add in sugar, and keep beating until mixture becomes very thick and well combined. Spoon in to a piping bag and pipe pipe pipe away.

A Very Berry Trifle

My sister's 20th birthday was on the weekend and I made a sisterly 'Bed in Breakfast' for her. I'm such a saint sometimes, I owe that much to myself.

I awoke on a early sunny Sunday morning, and started off with her standard cereal;

- Kellogs' Corn Flakes

- Or Kellogs' Crunchy nut (my sister is very fussy when it comes to food, her standards have to be met)

- Covered with a drizzly dollop of honey

That was easy. I also chopped up some banana to try and make the tray look fairly presentable, I didn't want her to think I hadn't put in much effort.

And oh, just a little note; I went to sleep at about 11 the night before. And. I. Need. My. Sleep.

I decided to go with something quick and jazzy I had seen on TV before, with frozen berries, cream and biscuits. But we didn't have any cream in the house so I just left that out and carried on with the beautiful berries and biscuits.

Easily whizzing some frozen berries and crumbling some broken biscuits might just prove to be my new found temptation.

 

Very Berry Trifle

-100g Frozen Berries (Your choice)

- 3 Tb Icing Sugar

- 1/2 cup Whipped Cream

- 100g Digestive biscuits or plain wheat biscuits

Method

Place frozen Berries and Icing sugar into a processor/blender and process. Process until liquified.

Seperatly, crush Digestive biscuits until finley crumbed and place into bottom of wine glass. Whip cream and 2 more Tablespoons of icing sugar and dollop ontop of biscuit mixture in wine glass, then ontop, pour the Berry sauce and repeat layers until the glass if full, or until desired.

-

Shortbread Biscuits

So, a couple of days ago for the easter weekend, i made some shortbread biscuits.. mmmm.
They were actually amazing, like buttery, crumbly and everything. It made about 40 small biscuits (that i cut out from a biscuit cutter).
I started by creaming butter and icing sugar with my trusty electric beater and then slowly adding corn flour.
Corn flour?? I know, but it actually makes the result amazing, so i guess its a pass.
And then added plain flour and spent like a lifetime rolling the cookies.

Put them in the oven, and walla!! Heaven came out!

Sorry, I didn't take the step by step pictures..
The sad thing is that a delicious morsel like this contains hundreds of calories..note the butter below.
Yea.. 200 grams of that. If your weight concious, I reccommend you don't try it because you will end up eating the whole batch.
But if you don't care about weight.. indulge and let the buttery crumbly cookies melt in your mouth.

The pictures may not be so great because of our dodgy camera, but hopefully
we'll get that flashy snazzy expensive professional camera soon!

xoxo

THE ULTIMATE SHORTBREAD RECIPE:
- 1 Cup Plain Flour (All-Purpose)
- 1 cup Corn Flour
- 1/2 Cup Icing sugar (Confectioners Sugar)
- 200 grams unsalted butter


METHOD:
Beat together butter and sugar until light, creamy and fluffy. Slowly add corn flour and beat again until same fluffly consistency.
Sift plain flour and slowly add to mixture. The mixture will still be wet, so its quite hard to roll out and cut. An easier method is to push it through a piping bag and just make shapes onto your prepared pan. Or try to roll them into shapes (hard, but worth the really pretty end result).
Bake at 180c degrees for about 10 minutes. Check every five miniutes.

Note* You dont want the shortbread to be golden brown, just a very pale gold.