Sunday, October 08, 2006

Chelsea Sugar !!!

Just in case you "missed it", I have repeated this post here, as the video's are worth sharing.

Video's Of Recipes
There is approx. 34 Chelsea Sugar recipes which feature in the video's. Having a quick look thru the list of recipes, I can see 3 classic's my Mother used to make - Anzac Biscuits, Hokey Pokey Biscuits & Banana Cake !!! (That's if the little monkey didn't eat the banana's first !!! hehe)

Where Did Hamburgers Originate From ?

Althought the "hamburger" is well & truly part of USA, it came orginally from Russia. In medieval times, a favourite Russian food was raw meat scraped and shredded with a blunt knife and then seasoned with salt, pepper and onion juice. German saliors visiting the Baltic ports like the meat and took the recipe back to the port of Hamburg in Germany - hence the name, "hamburger". Unable to face eating the raw meat, the Germany's usually grilled it. In the 19th century, German immigrants took the recipe with them to USA. In 1900, when Louis Lassen served the meat between two slices of bread, the American hamburger was born.

Recipe - Coconut Macaroons

Combine 4 cups desiccated coconut; a 395 gram can of condensed milk; half a teaspoon of grated orange rind & i teaspoon vanilla essence in a large bowl, mix well. Shape heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls. Place a cup of desiccated cocnut in a plastic bag - toss your "balls" in the coconut. Place the balls 3cm apart on greased oven trays, press a piece of glace red cherry in the middle of each ball. Cook in a moderate oven (180degree's C) for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Leave on trays for a couple of minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool.

Meat Pies ???

They are trying to put the "meat" back into "meat pie", just don't ask what animal it was. Transtasman food regulators are trying to ensure that the humble pie contains at least 25% "meat flesh", which can/could include skin, fat & connnective tissue. At present a meat pie is defined as a pie containing 25% meat - its formal definition covering the part or whole of a carass of any buffalo, camel, cattle, deer, goat, hare, pig, poultry, rabbit or sheep. But some pies haven't been up to scratch with their 25% meat content and have been dubbed "rat coffins". Others "meat" the 25% by including snouts, ears, tendons, tongues and other unsavoury body parts.
(I wonder if that includes their "willies" ???)
NZer's eat approx. 60 million pies per year.

World Vegetarian Day

Last Sunday was World Vegetarian Day !!! So I am a week late in posting this, but never mind - have a look at the website as I am sure you will find it very interesting.


Tea, Mr Shifter ???

Believe it or not - tea was discovered by a Chinese emperor over 5000 years ago, when some "leaves" just happened to blow into a pot of boiling water - well so the story goes.
Nowadays, you don't have to wait around for leaves to blow into your pot - all you have to do is to take a "teabag" out of the packet and pop it into your cup.
There are three packets of teabags in my cupboard - one is of the old and well known
"Choysa" tea - round teabags I might add, not "square", but if & how it improves on the end cup of tea I wouldn't have a clue. Choysa Tea has been around in NZ since 1905, but no doubt as loose-leaf tea rather than the tea-bags we have today.

The other 2 packets of tea are from another older company called Healtheries which was established in Auckland in 1904, as a miller of speciality flours. Today, 102 years they still mill flour as well as supply cereals, health foods & supplements and a wide range of herbal teas. I drink two of the teas from their range - Peppermint Tea and Chai Tea, which is a blend of enchanting indian spices and decaffeinated black tea.

Where does "Mr Shifter" come into it.............it was advert for Choysa tea, where a father & son monkey were furniture movers. They were moving a "lady monkey's furniture", one of the items of which was a piano. They were trying to get the piano from upstairs, downstairs when the lady called out "Tea, Mr Shifter"? The piano rolled down the stairs !!! They were sitting down having a cup of tea, when the son asked his father "Do you know the piano's on my foot"? The father said.............noooooo, but you hum it son and I'll play it !!!

There were also other "monkey TV adverts" as well, but for some reason or other, that one tickled my funny-bone !!!

I'll be back............