Tasty Tuesday - Zucchini, Cranberry & Walnut Bread

There is whispers of spring in the air... it's trying to break through these murky days of overcast and dreary clouds and chilly winds. I love to see the trees and plants slowly coming back to life with buds and leaves slowly unfolding to begin a new cycle of growth.

Th flowers are getting ready to burst forth when spring truly arrives. To show off their glorious display of colour and foliage. It's mother natures fashion show really and it's my most favourite time of year. Knowing that the cold winter days are behind us for another year is a relief - to say the least. Winter is not my favourite season at all. Mind you the only thing I do like is the comfort food during these months. .

Boy does my body know it when spring rolls around! I end up with a few extra curves than I started the season off with. Oh well. Now that spring is on it's way it's time to get some recipes under your belt ready for the picnic season. I love sitting out in the sunshine, on a clear blue skied day, picnic blanket underfoot and a nice lunch spread out before me and my hubby. Sitting back relaxing and enjoying each other's company and a good picnic lunch and if your feeling indulgent a glass of wine in hand!

The basics of a good picnic basket must be food that can either be eaten with your hand, or easily packaged to be eaten with minimal fuss, easily transported, food safety kept in mind and it must TASTE good! I thought this loaf would make a fantastic addition to any picnic hamper in the spring and summer season to come. It's easy to make, tastes REALLY good and makes a nice light lunch when served with a nice soft cheese such as Brie.

What is it you may ask? Well it's a Zucchini, Cranberry & Walnut Bread. It's something a bit different to your normal run of the mill nut and fruit breads and with the addition of zucchini and cranberries it's packed full of goodness... if you kindly turn a blind eye to the amount of sugar that's in it! All in moderation I say.

Zucchini, Walnut & Cranberry Bread

{Download & Print Recipe)

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups Plain Flour

1 Tsp Bicarbonate Soda

½ Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Cinnamon

¼ Tsp Mixed Spice

1 1/3 cups Caster Sugar*

½ firmly packed cup Brown Sugar

3 Eggs, beaten

2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
200ml Sunflower Oil

3 large Zucchini, grated

¾ cup Walnuts, toasted, chopped

Plus 6 whole Walnuts to garnish.

1/3 cup Dried Cranberries (Craisins)

 Soft Cheese (Such as brie), to serve 

 *You can probably add less of the sugar if you would like.

  

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 2-Litre loaf pan.

Sift flour, soda baking powder and spices into a large bowl.

Stir in sugars, and then add egg, oil, vanilla extract, grated zucchini, walnuts, cranberries and a pinch of salt.

Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined, then spread into the prepared pan and top with extra walnuts.

Bake in middle shelf of oven for 1- 1 ¼ hours or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool slightly in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Slice and serve with cheese. 

This loaf would also make a great addition to brunch with friends and family served with fresh fruit and coffee of course. If you don't like soft cheese then a good slather of butter also works well on this loaf. It keeps for a good week in a air tight container and would also freeze really well.

Also don't forget to enter the Coco & Milo Cushion giveaway for your chance to win not one but TWO gorgeous cushions. The competition finishes up on Thursday 1st September and the winner announced on Friday the 2nd September.

What's your favourite thing to pack in a picnic hamper?

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Feature Friday - Handmade by Coco & Milo

I am so very excited to launch my first Feature Friday today. What this segment is about is to showcase some of Australia's handmade products and the designers behind them. I hope this gives them the chance to showoff there style, tell a little a bit about themselves and also give you my lovely readers a chance to win something from there collections.

My first designer is Angela who owns and operates Coco & Milo. I

Angela makes the most gorgeous cushions and homewares - I first fell in love with her designs when I spied some of her french designs on madeit.com. It was love at first sight.

Here's angela's story about herself and her wonderful business.

Coco and Milo was born of humble beginnings in 2007. Starting out sourcing vintage materials and transforming them into reclaimed pieces of jewellery, Coco & Milo has since changed direction and is now producing funky, original cushions and homewares. My range is English and French inspired, using many vintage materials and contemporary fabrics. 

Finding that I could never find homewares that I liked, I decided to create my own and have since been selling to friends and at markets as well as around the world.It gives me great pleasure to know that someone loves my range as much as i do even from as far away as Paris.Enjoy and don't forget to contact me if you would like your very own individual Coco & Milo cushion, always happy to help. All my cushions are completely handmade and hansewn by me at my kitchen table so each one is individual and unique.

I started coco & milo with the intention of being able to earn some money from doing something creative that I love. Having two young boys under the age of 3 and not working, I found that I could sew whilst the boys were asleep ( this has changed now of course) but I found it relaxing and the boys loved dressing up in my scraps (don't tell their dad!).

 

Coco & milo represents everything thats whimsical and quirky. I could never find cushions that were handmade and unique and not totally mass produced so I decided to make my own. I love all things British and French and adore anything vintage so that is where my inspiration comes from. My boys of course are also my inspiration, especially for my children's cushions as they seem to overcater for girls homewares in the shops and not boys. I can determine a cushions success by my two and a half year old's exclamation of ''thats so cool mama or that's yucky mama!''

About Angela.....

MMM  likes would be: love french films, chocolate,kisses and cuddles from my boys,dancing in the rain,vintage homewares,old movies(anythign with Cary Grant, Audrey hepburn), etsy, madeit.com.au, english home shows ( love Phil and Kirstie from Location, Location), John Krasinkski, Ryan Reynolds.

Dislikes: people who are rude to other people, spiders, snakes, vegemite, bullying

Wow thank you so much angela for sharing with us today. Angela has kindly donated two cushions for her collection to giveaway to one of my lucky readers.

Aren't these cushions just the cutest. I am tempted to keep them for myself! I love the moose head one so whimsical!

To enter simply visit Angela's store Coco and Milo and come back here and leave a comment about what your favourite cushion is and why.

For further chances to win  make sure you visit me on facebook and become a follower and come back here and leave a comment. If your already a follower leave me a little message on facebook and come back here and leave a comment.

Be sure to support the local aussie handmade scene by purchasing one of Angela's beautiful cushions for yourself or a family member. They would make great gifts as well! You have until Thurday 1st September 2011 to Enter and the winner will be announced next Friday 2nd September.

Here's a sneak peak for next Tasty Tuesday... hope you all have a great weekend...

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Projects On The Move....

I haven't really been motivated lately to try and undertake the massive list of projects I need to do around the house and you know what I seem to keep adding to them by buying bargain pieces of furniture that I find around the place. It's a weakness I have for cheap run down furniture that I can buy and do up. 

I wonder if there is a name for that kind of condition - Trash & Treasure Addict, Dumpster Diva?

Anyway I have made a start on two projects last week, which have been sitting on my to do list for sometime.

This little side table which I picked up for $10 at my local op shop. I can't stand the garish orange stain that's currently on it. It kinda doesn't go with the other colours in the family room. I tackled this little fella first because it was small, easy and quick and that's the kinda projects I like to do as I am really not a patient person... Lol!

 This is it after a quick sand. I will show you the finished product in another post as I am still in the process of distressing and waxing it so this project is "To be continued"

This is my second project I have started. It is a hall table that I have in my spare bedroom and it matches the small side table I did up recently. I wanted to get rid of the dark timber stain and create a more "rustic" country piece that will fit into the house. It will look much the same as the side table does when completed.

Side Table completed.

I have sanded it back and painted a few coats of paint on it so far. I am yet to stain the top and distress and wax the whole piece. So this piece is also a " To Be Continued" project. I thought I would pique your interest with what's on the go at The Whimsical Wife house.

I am still on the go with the slipcovers. I have started trying to do an hour every couple of days to get on with it as I wanted it done by spring.... doubt that is going to happen but again I will keep you posted on the progress with this.

On another note.... My Home Cook Of The Year Entry was chosen in the Top 20 from the Australian Good Taste magazine. However unfortunately I didn't make it into the Top 6, which if I did allowed the contestants to be flown down to sydney to cook there dish for the judges.

Anyway I am pround of my achievement to have gotten into the Top 20 and I was lucky enough to have my recipe photo published in this month's edition of Australian Good Taste (Pg 22), and on their online version.

I had a lot of fun creating my dish and I hope you all can have a go at making it as well.

Anyway I can't wait until friday to show off my first designer for Feature Friday. I received the giveway in the mail today and am super excited about what this person makes! It's gorgeous! Keep your eyes and ears posted for friday....

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Tasty Tuesday - Heirloom Beetroot, Goat's Cheese & Walnut Salad & Winner !

I recently posted about the heirloom beetroot that I have been growing and harvesting in my vegie patch. It has been a thrill to pull out golden beetroot, and purple and yellow carrotts as they become ready to pick. If you grow your own vegies sometimes you wonder what on earth your going to do with all this produce. 

There is only so much you can preserve, so I thought I would post a recipe with one of the ways you can use your freshly picked beetroot. It looks a little bit fancy but it's really simple to make and you only need a handful of ingredients to whip it up. It would really make an impressive entree at your next dinner party or a simple sunday lunch, or evening meal with the family!

 

I know it is still winter and not really salad season but I would call this a late winter salad (since spring is so near) - the beets are served warm and on a bright and sunny winter's day - I don't think you can get anymore simple and satisfying than this. If you want something a bit more sustaining the addition of some grilled or tinned salmon or leftover roast chicken would work well in this.

There is something about eating your freshly picked produce - like eating it within 45 minutes of picking it. I Don't think the supermarkets can "beet" (get it? beet = beat - yeah bad joke i know) you in that regard. I recently walked through the vegie section of our local supermarket. I picked up some baby beetroot they had for sale and it was a limp as..... well I don't really have anything to compare it to but it didn't look fresh to me. The bulb was soft and wrinkly and the leaves were so droopy and tired looking. I know... it looked like it had a bad case of jet lag wherever it came from.

Fresh beetroot should have glossy, fresh looking leaves that are strong and upright and firm bulb to touch - no wrinkles! Keep an eye out for some beetroot at your local farmers market, you don't need baby beetroot for this - normal size is fine but the baby beetroot does have a much sweeter flavour.

Heirloom Beetroot, Goat's Cheese & Waltnut Salad

{Download & Print Recipe}

Serves 4 As a side

Ingredients:

4 x medium Beetroot (Golden, Detroit Red etc)

1 cup Rocket

1 cup Baby Spinach

¼ cup Walnuts

100g Goats Feta

3 Tbsp Caper berries, rinsed, stalks removed

Orange Thyme Vinaigrette:

½ Tsp Orange Zest

Juice of 1 Orange

½ Tsp fresh Thyme, finely chopped

2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 Tsp Dijon Mustard

1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

 Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place washed beetroot on a tray (skin still on) and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place in oven and cook for 40-50 minutes until tender. Remove from oven, cool and remove skins. Cut into cubes and set aside.

In a small saucepan place walnuts and dry fry until brown. Remove and roughly chop and set aside.

For the dressing in a bowl add zest, juice, thyme, mustard and vinegar. Add olive oil in a thin stream and whisk until emulsified.

Combine baby spinach and rocket in a bowl and place mounds of it on serving plates. Gently scatter the beetroot, walnuts, goat’s cheese and caper berries over the spinach and rocket. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

This salad would also work great in the summer BBQ season severd cold with a good medium rare steak! Yum. Oh I am counting down the days until spring arrives. I really do hate winter and am sick of wearing jumpers and jeans - bring on the strappy tops and shorts.

Winner.....

Now for the winner of the "Leftover Makeover" cookbook giveaway,......

Drum roll........

Congratulations Madeline. If you want to email me at diaryofwhimsicalwife@gmail.com with your address so I can post out the cookbook to you.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment. Stay tuned for the Feature Friday giveway!

What can't you wait for when spring arrives???

Feature Friday......

How's your week been everyone? Hopefully it has been full of good and wonderful things and remember... It's Friday today so YAY for the weekend to come - hoping for blue sky's and a warm sunny day. I have got some exciting news for you to end the week off with a BANG!

The Whimsical Wife will be having a new segment on Fridays called "Feature Friday". This segment is about featuring the wonderful Australian handmade products that are being produced here on our shores. I believe in supporting this industry as not only are there some fabulous handmade creations out there but the designers themselves put a lot of blood sweat and tears into each piece that they make and I think they should be recognized for this.These pieces they create are originals, one of a kind, born out of inspirations around them and put into reality in form of their product. 

The happening place that you can find a lot of wonderful crafty things made by many wonderful Australians is on Madeit.com I have managed to contact some great designers who have their products on show here. I will be showcasing their products and they will also tell a little about themselves. Each designer has chosen one of their products to be used as a giveaway for my wonderful readers. Next Friday will be the first day I will post about my first designer... in the mean time here is a sneak peak of what my first featured designer creates.... exciting stuff! If your an Australian designer and would love to be a part of this segment, simply visit my contact page and leave me some details!

 GIVEAWAY......

Don't forget you have until Monday the 23rd of August to enter the "Leftover Makeover" cookbook giveaway. For details on how to enter visit the post. Also for those who don't have facebook to enter you can simply leave a comment on the post.

Here's a sneak peek for next week's Tasty Tuesday......

What have you got planned for this weekend??

I'm planning to get my fingers dirty in the vegie patch and to get some paint on some projects that need to be finished!

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