Fruit Salad Loaf

After making a meatloaf last week that only required a small can of crushed pineapple, and only having a medium sized can of crushed pineapple, I had about half a tin of crushed pineapple sitting in a container in the fridge. Quite some time ago I spotted a recipe in Dish magazine for Fruit Salad Loaf which had only ¼ c of crushed pineapple in it – perfect! The fruit salad aspect of the loaf is that as well as the pineapple, it had a mashed banana, chopped dried apricots and orange juice and zest. The loaf was drizzled with icing sugar mixed with lemon juice.

This loaf was delicious. It is really moist and lasts in the tin for about 4 days according to the recipe – mine didn’t last that long as it was well and truly eaten before then. Well worth making if you end up with a little crushed pineapple and a manky banana in the fruit bow.

Last night’s dinner for my in-laws was a chicken, spinach and pasta bake. I had a really busy day at work yesterday, so wanted to make something quick and easy. I bought a rotisserie cooked chicken on the way home from work, cooked some pasta, made a cheese sauce and combined the lot with home made cheese sauce (a roux with grated cheese added), and baked the lot in the oven – a bit like macaroni cheese. We had it with a green salad and crusty bread.

And fingers crossed there will be photos of a completed kitchen next week!!!

Fruit Salad Loaf (Dish magazine)

150g butter
175g sugar
175g flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp mixed spice
3 eggs
Zest and juice of one orange
8 dried apricots, thinly sliced
¼ c well drained crushed pineapple
1/3 c mashed banana

• Cream butter and sugar
• Beat in eggs, one at a time
• Add the remaining ingredients and stir until just combined
• Pour into lined loaf tin and bake at 180c for 45-50 minutes or until cooked through
• When cold drizzle with a thin icing made with icing sugar and lemonjuice

A Versatile Loaf

I really like the versatility of loaves. They are delicious warm, straight out of the oven, but I also love them toasted with yoghurt. I usually tend to slice up the whole loaf and then freeze it in a zip lock bag – that way you can take out one piece at a time. I love gingerbread loaf as part of a cheese platter with blue cheese and I have also used leftover banana loaf to make French toast.

This loaf is a toasted coconut and vanilla loaf. It was super easy to mix up and toasting the coconut really brings out the coconut flavour. The recipe uses a combination of vanilla extract and vanilla paste giving the lovely little flecks of vanilla seeds through the loaf. The recipe suggested serving the loaf with maple syrup and yoghurt, which I did and it was the perfect accompaniment.



My favourite meal is salmon and it is what I often cook if it is just the two of us for dinner on a Saturday night. This weekend was a fairly quiet one socially, so it was salmon for dinner on Saturday night. I cooked it quite simply, wrapping it in prosciutto and drizzling with balsamic vinegar and roasting. We had it with a very simple salad and crispy oven roasted potatoes.

Toasted Coconut & Vanilla Loaf (Allyson Gofton from Taste magazine)

100g butter
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp each vanilla extract and vanilla paste
2 eggs
2 c self raising flour
1 c thread coconut, toasted
1/2 c natural yoghurt
1/2 c milk

- cream butter, sugar and vanillas. Beat in eggs, one at a time
- fold in remaining ingredients and pour batter into a lined loaf tin
- bake at 180c for 45-55 minutes or until the blade of a thin knife comes out clean
- cool on a rack

Lemon Crumble Loaf

This week the builders got good old chocolate chip cookies (which my husband tells me have been the most popular piece of baking yet – these are real kiwi favourites!) and this lemon crumble loaf. The loaf was very easy to make ( as are most loaves). It is simply a plain loaf with the addition of lemon juice to the batter and a crumble on top of flaked almonds and lemon zest. Like any loaf it is versatile and could double as pudding if served warm with a big dollop of cream on the side. I adapted the recipe from one I ripped from an Australian Womens Weekly some time ago.



The days are definitely heating up – in fact my summer tan is coming on already! So, we are definitely into bbq season. Last night I marinated some free range boneless chicken thighs which my husband bbqed. I much prefer thighs to breast as even though they don’t look so uniform and pretty, they are so much more flavoursome. I often find chicken breast quite bland. To go with the chicken breasts I made this beetroot, blue cheese, walnut and rocket salad. I love beetroot!! I remember as a child Dad preserving beetroot. He cut it into thick wedges, which I know I would love now, but at the time all I wanted was the thin stuff out of a can! I also remember the beetroot stains which seemed to cover everything – the stove, the wall…… Dad reads my blog, so I bet I get an indignant phone call from him saying that never happened - but it did! I love roasted beetroot, but it does take a long time to cook. I often steam it in the microwave first to soften it a bit and then roast for about half an hour to give it that lovely caramelised taste. Beetroot goes really well with walnuts and also with blue cheese. It is also very good with feta. The salad is simply those four ingredients combined and coated with a simple vinaigrette made with white wine vinegar, olive oil and Dijon mustard.



Lemon Crumble Loaf
125g butter
zest of a lemon and juice of half a lemon
¾ c sugar
2 eggs
¾ c flour
½ c self raising flour
¼ c milk

· Cream butter, zest and sugar, add in eggs one at a time
· Stir in remaining ingredients. Put in lined loaf tin and top with crumble mixture made by rubbing together 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp flour and 30 g butter and then stirring in 2 tsp lemon zest and 2 tbsp flaked almonds
Bake at 160c for 45 minutes or until the blade of a thing knife comes out clean when inserted

Farewell to my Kitchen

Since I started writing this blog over 12 months ago, we have been in our 1970s house waiting for the plans to be finalised, consents to come through and the winter to be over before we start the major re-build. Prior to us moving in there (also about 12 months ago) we lived in a new house with a modern kitchen. When we moved I thought that my right arm was cut off, not having a fan bake oven – I have learned to cope :0) and all the baking you have seen on my blog has been done in my old Atlas oven. It works like a bomb!



However, the time has finally come for us to move out of our house and the builders to move in. I thought you might like to see a photo of what my kitchen actually looks like. And so, here it is! Not in the slightest bit flash, but it has done the trick. Even though it is old it still has a dishwasher and a waste disposal. We move into a little two bedroom flat in the weekend. Not sure what the oven will be like, but it looks fairly new. It will be interesting. Then, once our house is finished in 6-8 months, I will have a state of the art modern kitchen with a scullery, a 900mm wide stand alone oven, a second oven in the scullery, gas hobs, great lighting, a huge island, soft close drawers and all the other mod cons that I could possibly want. I cant wait! Although, weirdly enough I do feel a little sad saying goodbye to my old kitchen!



One of the last things I will cook in my oven is this cranberry, apricot and walnut loaf. The recipe is a Julie Biuso one that you can find here. I didn’t love it – although it is a sturdy loaf and I think it would be quite good toasted and spread with butter. My husband enjoyed it. I think I may have been a bit mean with apricots, craisins and walnuts – so if you make it, be generous!

Using up the marmalade

It is great now that the builders have started on our house, as it is a great excuse to do some baking (although many would argue that I don’t need an excuse!). However, we are now mostly packed before we move out of the house in two weeks, and that also means that most of my cook books and magazines have been packed. I made a compromise with my husband, agreeing to pack up most of my books other than a select few (I chose about 8) on the basis that I could take my magazines with me. So, that is it for the next 6 months or so (other than those that I buy along the way of course!).

On Sunday one of the things I chose to bake for the builders was marmalade loaf, using a Julie Le Clerc recipe which I pulled from a magazine a while ago (I have not packed my two boxes full of clipped and printed recipes!). The loaf was so easy to make and made a lovely moist loaf. It is basically a madeira style loaf with the addition of 1/3 c marmalade. Any marmalade would do, but I used one I made last year that is orange, almond and rose water marmalade. It was the perfect marmalade for this recipe as the almonds added a bit of interest and the hint of rose water was just perfect. I topped the loaf with a simple lemon glaze – orange glaze would have been nice, but I didn’t have any fresh oranges.

Dinner last night was a baby spinach and asparagus risotto - I love asparagus and so look forward to this time of year when it is plentiful. I added a little blue cheese to the risotto which was yummy, and we actually had it with some canned red canadian salmon on top. Very nice!



Marmalade Loaf (adapted from a Julie Le Clerc recipe)

175g butter
¾ c sugar
2 lg eggs
1/3 c marmalade
1 c flour
1 tsp baking powder

· Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time
· Beat in marmalade, then stir in flour and baking powder
· Pour mixture into a lined loaf tin and bake at 170c for 45-60 minutes
· When cold, ice with a drizzle icing made from icing sugar and lemon or orange juice