Our House - Nightwolf's Den

I’m konverted, I think

So. If you’ve been anywhere on the interwebs recently, you’ll probably read about or heard people talking about that book, or things that spark joy. No idea what I’m talking about (where have you been :p)? It’s The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

(From Amazon)

This #1 New York Times best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing.
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list).
With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller featuring Tokyo’s newest lifestyle phenomenon will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

Mum bought me the book & I’ve read it, twice and I have started to KonMarie my clothing. So far – 3 bags to donate (admittedly some of the clothing was the girls) and the way she suggests folding and storing your clothes seems to be working well for me. Lots f the book really resonates with me and how I’d like our house to be.
I’ll be interested to see how it goes in coming months and see if I personally can stay decluttered and organised. I’ll keep you updated.

Have you read the book? What do you think? Have you been Konverted?

In the Den Kitchen – Mars Bar Slice

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.
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So what do you do when you want something a little (hell who am I kidding – a LOT) sweet. Maybe something like Mars Bar Slice (YUMMO!) BUT, oh no, no Mars Bars in the house 🙁 and the shops are closed/you can’t be bothered going out 🙁 🙁 Well don’t despair! You can make Mars Bar Surprise Slice!!

This wonderful recipe I found one night while reading a great little book by the name of The $21 challenge. My whole family loves it and when my daughter asked me to make it for school the next day, just as she was going to bed I thought I’d see how well it converted to Thermo. So here it is – Thermo Mars Bar Surprise Slice (if you want the original non Thermomix recipe go here – page 6)

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From the Den Kitchen–Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake Slice

This is a family favourite slice. I have fond memories of my Godmother or my Mum cooking it when we went away for family holidays.

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In the Den Kitchen–Chinese Chicken & Corn soup

This recipe is a family favourite. I often remember having Chinese Chicken & Corn soup especially of a weekend. The recipe comes from the Women’s Weekly Chinese Cooking Class cookbook (I LOVE this recipe book – I cook so many recipes from it) but the recipe below is my modification to it.

It’s a winter warmer and so easy to use leftovers from a roast chicken or buy a roast chook from Coles or Woolies.

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In the Den Kitchen: Anzac Biscuits

Tomorrow is Anzac Day. A national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders “who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations” and “the contribution and suffering of all those who have served.”

It’s also a time when we make Anzac biscuits (these are NEVER to be called cookies). You can make these any time of year but they always seem more special on the 25th April.

ANZAC Biscuits

A little history of the Anzac biscuit (thanks to Sky News, you can read the whole thing here)

The first known Anzac biscuit recipe appeared in The War Chest Cookery Book, which was published in Sydney in 1917, but this recipe was for a cake, not a biscuit.

It is said that biscuits with a similar recipe to the one we knew today appeared in magazines under different names, sometimes called “Rolled Oat Biscuits” or “Soldier’s Biscuits”. The current name only came about after the legendary ANZAC Gallipoli Campaign.

Anzac biscuit recipes, in the form we know them today, began appearing in cookbooks in the 1920s. They were sometimes called “Anzac crisps” or “Anzac crispies” (but not “Anzac cookies”) in reference to their hardness. The earliest recipe for these “crispies” found to date is from a New Zealand cookbook published in 1921.

There’s hundreds of recipes out there but I’m sharing the recipe I’ve made for years. We also now make the Anzac biscuit recipe in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook but this one is my favourite.

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In the Den Kitchen – Happy Easter

Slightly belated Easter greeting. Two things I love about Easter -it means it’s time for Hot Cross Buns (yay) and Cadbury Creme Eggs. But as much as I love these buns I’m not a fan of them appearing in the stores in late December/early January – I mean, really? And, I might get heaps of hate for this, but I’m not a fan of those which are full of fruit. Me, I prefer simple – sultanas and currents (or craisins) or choc chip.

The last couple of years I’ve been making my own. I’ve been using the recipe in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook. I modify it every time I make it. This year I’ve added a little YIAH Pumpkin Pie baking spice. I thought I’d also share with you my choc chip modification of the original recipe. This is hubby’s favourite – he doesn’t like dried fruit (strange man LOL)

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And the best bit – leave off the cross and they are yummy choc chip buns to eat any time of year!

In the Den Kitchen – Afternoon Teal

I am turning into a food blogger LOL looking at my last few posts – they are nearly all foodie ones. And here’s another!

Last Sunday I held one of my annual fundraisers, raising money for Ovarian Cancer Australia. This year Scrap Teal You Drop was a smaller affair mainly due to a rescheduling of date (we were going to hold it in mid-February but a little person got sick) Anywho, we raised about $800. If you are interested in donating you can go to my Afternoon Teal page. I’ll be blogging about my Afternoon Teal next week.

Today on In The Den Kitchen – Afternoon Teal I thought I’d share some of the food that I cooked for everyone to munch on after a day of creating.

I’m still doing lots of experimenting with YIAH products. First of the sweet treats I cooked was my favourite 5 second coconut slice but I added some YIAH Black Forest Dukkah to the base and some YIAH Chocolate Raspberry Truffle powder to the icing. Next was Chocolate Orange Balls using YIAH Choc Orange powder (this stuff smells and tastes like Jaffas) and Apricot Fudge using YIAH White Chocolate powder.

Afternoon Teal food Afternoon Teal food - Coconut slice

I also made some Mars Bar Surprise slice, Teal cupcakes and a Teal Ribbon cake

Afternoon Teal food Afternoon Teal - Teal Ribbon Cake

In the Den Kitchen – Cob loaf

You can now find previous In the Den Kitchen posts here or on Pinterest. Clicking Recipes in the menu above will also take you to my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’m slowly reworking some older posts so they will show up there too.

So last week I promised you my recipe for Cob Loaf. This is a Thermomix recipe but you could easily make it without.

cobloaf

[yumprint-recipe id=’16’]Now you can just eat this as is with butter (warm from the oven yum!!) or fill it with one of the many filled cob loaf recipes out there (like the one I shared last week)
Enjoy!

In the Den Kitchen

Since we’ve waved goodbye to summer here in Australia I thought I’d share my favourite recipes for using up your summer berries. You can do these any time of the year with frozen berries (just check your berries haven’t been recalled first – well months after you use them :/)

Of course a big favourite for berries is jam. Over Christmas I made a few batches of jam in the attempt to gather a few favourites I will use over & over. So here they are – Nightwolf’s Den favourite jam recipes…

In The Den Kitchen Nightwolf's Den favourite jam recipes

Strawberry Vanilla Jam by Tenina

Photo of Strawberry Vanilla Jam

Raspberry Jam (I used recipe 1)

Thermomix Raspberry Jam Recipe

Orange Marmalade

Bacon Jam by ThermoFun (not a fruit jam but so, so yummy. If you like bacon, try it)

ThermoFunBaconJam

and finally not a jam but a way to use up leftover strawberries – Strawberry Sauce (very nice over ice cream, in a milkshake or mixed in lemonade)

What’s your favourite jam recipe? I’m always looking for more jams to try out.

In the Den Kitchen–an update

This week I’m doing a little forward planning. Creating a list of recipes I want to write up and share. Creating a list of recipes I want to try and share.

So no recipe this week. Just a photo of some yummy looking Braided Nutella Bread (yes I’ll be giving this a go)

Braided Nutella Bread

If you want some foodie ideas you can check (& maybe even follow) my In the Den Kitchen Pinterest board. I’ll be back next week with a new recipe 😀