Long time between posts!

Argh - I've been really bad at posting recently. I've been super busy, with applying for jobs, then getting school reports done, and then just being busy with friends and going out and shopping and and and.... Yeah it's been busy. 

I cooked up a big roast dinner for some of the teachers from my school - that was a messy night! I discovered Madhur Jaffrey's method of cooking a whole chicken, Durban style and it's become my staple method of cooking a whole chook! I don't always slash it, or spice it, or take the skin off (so I totally change it really), but I end up with a juicy delicious chicken no matter what I do! Try it for yourself, it's so easy and awesome. I chucked 2 chickens in the oven with a leg of lamb and cooked them the same way (lamb was studded with garlic and rosemary) and they were both gorgeous. Teachers are hungry and they polished off most of the food (and the wine!).

Anyway, I'm back - for now! 

On the 21st S and I are headed off to Bali for 17 days! Being a teacher I get a lot of holidays, however it's not negotiable when I take them, so S and I don't often get time off together often. This year though, were packing up and heading to Bali - neither of us have been before! I'm really keen to avoid all the drunken, Bintang singlet wearing, obnoxious bogan Aussies that flock there, and so we're avoiding some areas and are heading around the island a little bit!

One of the things I'm really looking forward to, is Christmas dinner at Mozaic, Ubud. This restaurant headed up by Chris Salans has won a number of awards, including being listed #12 in the Miele Top Asian Restaurants in 2011/12, as well as the being in the top #50 of the San Pellegrino Best Restaurants in the World in 2009. Check out the Christmas menu HERE. Would love to hear from anyone who has been here before! 

We also got a tip to head to the Gili islands as well, and upon researching decided that we were definitely going! A bit of island paradise is definitely what we need after this hectic year!

Any Bali tips that we need to know about!? We're staying in Sanur, Ubud, Gili Trawangan, Padang Bai and Seminyak!

Spiced apple muffins

I realised at about 7pm that I was meant to bring something to school tomorrow for morning tea... We spent the day out, checking out Sculptures by the Sea at Cottesloe, wandering Fremantle buying books, and then having tapas at Duende for dinner. I really couldn't be bothered, but I had pretty much everything I needed to bake, and it was better than leaving the house again to buy something. And really, homemade is so much better... I know there will be a spread of last minute shop bought cakes, party pies and chips/dip. I'm totally ok with the party pies though.


I had a quick look through my cookbooks and found a Bill Granger recipe for crunchy topped pear muffins which looked easy and I had all the ingredients. Cept for the pears, cinnamon, pecans and yoghurt.... Its ok, I subbed apples, allspice, slivered almonds and milk. They turned out pretty great! They're the kinda bake that tastes a lot better the next day, as I ate one when it was still pretty hot and I wasn't impressed. An hour later, I ate the other half of it, and it was much better! Hot tip - bake these the day before you need them!

The recipe stated that it made 6 muffins. 6? That's not many... so I doubled the recipe. It made 12 muffins and a cake. I think Bill was using a mega muffin tin! Its OK though because now we have muffins that can be chucked in the freezer ready to be eaten whenever we need em, and I'll take the cake to work! Bonus!


The following recipe is my adaption of Bills recipe, from Holiday.


Crunchy topped spiced apple muffins

Makes 12 cupcake sized muffins

1.5 cup plain flour
3 tsp bicarb
2 tsp allspice
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup canola oil (or any flavourless oil)
2 apples, peeled and diced into 1cm pieces

Topping

brown sugar
slivered almonds (I didn't measure them I just poured until it looked right!)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C and line/grease your muffin tin.

1) Add flour, oats, bicarb, allspice, and half the sugar into a bowl and combine.

2) Add the eggs, milk and oil into another bowl and mix thoroughly.

3) Combine the wet and dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix.

4) Fold in the apples gently.

5) Spoon them into the muffin tray, filling them pretty close to the top.

6) Combine the topping ingredients and put a heaped tsp on each muffin.

Pre bake

7) Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Post bake

I doubled this recipe, and ended up having enough for a small cake - this took about 30 minutes and turned out looking gorgeous! I prefer it to the muffins! The muffins didn't rise as much as I thought they would, but they are still light. 

Will I make these again? Yes. But with cinnamon instead, and a little more sugar in the batter, it'll make a world of difference!

Were they easy to make? Yes.

Should you make them? Yes!