Our South Africans love our tarts and no birthday will ever go past without us making at least one! My Aunt is the best bakester of this tart that I know of!

Ingredients:
1 pack of tennis biscuits (coconut)
4 cups of plain yogurt (1 litre)
1 pack of vanilla instant pudding
1 cup of cream
1 tin of condensed milk (357gr)

Method:
1. Break the biscuits and mix with melted butter to make a base for the tart. Leave in fridge for a few hours.
2. Beat all the ingredients together and pour into the base.
3. Leave in the fridge for a few hours and serve cold.

Every mother and daughter bonds when you decide to work in the kitchen. It is a great way of sharing something special, something that only a monther and daughter can share.

Make sure you make time to bake together!

I don’t know of any other desert that is as quick, easy or lovely as a Roly Poly. In South Africa we enjoy this great pudding with apricot jam. In England they tend to enjoy everything with strawberry jam. If I can recommend one, it would be the apricot jam. You have to try it at least once.

Ingredients of desert:
1 cup of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 egg
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of butter

Ingredients for syrup:
2 cups of water
1 cup of sugar

Method:
1. Rub the butter in with the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat the egg and mix with a little bit of milk. Add to the above.
3. Roll out the dough and spread apricot jam on top.
4. Boil the ingredients for the syrup together and pour into the dish you are going to use to bake the pudding in.
5. Roll up the dough and place in the boiling syrup.
6. Bake the desert in ‘n pre-heated oven at 180 degree Celsius for 25 minutes.

Serve the Roly Poly with custard or ice-cream.

Cooking at home for your family must surely rank as one of the best things you can do to show how much you love them all. I love cooking and baking, not just once in a while, but every day. I can’t wait to get home in the evenings to start.

I know that time has become a major problem in the times we live in. Everybody are rushing around, having to be everywhere at the same time, meaning that you have no time for each other anymore. It doesn’t have to be like this though. You can make many recipes in a very short period of time. Not just food, but also something great to drink.

I love smoothies and prefer making it myself. Take whatever fruits you have on the side in your kitchen and add them. One of my favourites are adding strawberries and bananas together. It has a great taste! You should try it. I also love mango’s so anything with mango is great. If you have enough you can make a 100% mango smoothie. That is even better.

Take the time to cook a lovely family meal at least once a week, and put a smile on everyone’s face. It will make your heart feel warm inside…

The recipe I am going to share with you today is about 350 years old! A great favourite from the Cape in sunny South Africa where the first brandy from Cape grapes were distilled in 1672! We have come a long way since then, but still, Cape Brandy Pudding remains an old favourite.

Ingredients
250 g of depitted dates, cut up
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup butter/margarine
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, whisked
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts

Method
1. Cut the dates, add the boiling water and bicarbonate of soda to halve of the dates, stir and let it cool down.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar and add the beaten eggs. Mix very well.
3. Sieve the dry ingredients together and add.
4. Add the rest of the dates and walnuts. Then add the dates in water and mix very well.
5. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake in a pre-heated oven of 180 degrees celcius for 30 - 40 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and pour the syrup over the warm pudding.

Syrup
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup brandy

1. Boil together the sugar, butter and water for 5 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and add vanilla and brandy. Mix well.
3. Pour warm over the warm pudding and serve with cream or ice cream.

There is nothing nicer to warm you up on a cold day! Make sure you serve the pudding very hot. You can also substitute the ice cream or cream for custard. Enjoy this wonderful recipe!

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Whether you are wanting something exotic or craving an old fashioned chicken casserole, you are sure to find the right recipe to satisfy your taste buds.

Chicken casseroles are almost guaranteed to be a good choice for potlucks, picnics, and just about any dinner. They are usually easy enough to make, and almost everyone loves them.

50 Chicken Casserole Recipes will provide you with a wide range of recipes to fit almost any occasion. I found it digging around the net and if you like chicken, this will be a real family treat.

== Chicken Recipes

There is really no definitive answer as to how rice arrived in Italy. However, as soon as it made its way to Italy in the fourteenth century, most likely from Spain, it became a hit in Italian food.

Areas of the country outside of Milan have the perfect blend of flat land, water, and humidity to make rice cultivation a very successful endeavor. The intensive rice cultivation that began in the fourteenth century has continued and has made rice a staple in regional Italian food.

Perhaps the most popular example of rice in Italian food is in risotto. Although risotto is considered a very serious dish in Italian food, it actually started out as a joke. As the legend goes a young apprentice was staining the glass used in the Duomo di Milano, a magnificent gothic cathedral, in 1574.

He was relentlessly teased because it looked as if he had added saffron to pigments in order to obtain more vibrant and brilliant colors. When it came time for his master’s wedding, he decided to play a little joke to show how tired he was of the teasing. So, he added saffron to the rice that was to be served at the wedding.

The plan backfired and the rice was so popular amongst the wedding guests that it became the staple of Italian food that we know today.

There are four main components to the risotto we know in Italian food today. The first is the soffritto. Sometimes this can be special ingredients specific to the type of risotto being made. However, it is typically a mixture of vegetables, butter, oil, and onions. This mixture is sautéed in the same skillet where the rice will later be cooked.

The next component is the broth. The broth can be homemade or canned and can be beef, chicken, vegetable, or fish.

The third component is the flavoring ingredient. This is the component that will give the risotto its specific flavor. This can range from vegetables to meat, truffles, or the ingredient that started it all, saffron. Now of course, the final component is Italian rice.

The rice that is used in Italian food is made up of large grains with lots of starch. This rice is perfect for risotto because it can absorb large amounts of liquid and still remain firm.

Risotto is a very popular Italian food dish, but it is also one of the most botched Italian food dishes because of the precise way in which the rice is prepared. Some tips to making it successfully at home include not washing the rice.

If you were to wash the rice beforehand it would eliminate much of the starch that is needed to make good Italian food. There are also different types of Italian food rice and you will want to pick the rice that is most appropriate for your recipe. All rice is not created equal so check your recipe and cookbooks to decide which rice is best to use.

You’ll also want to use a double-bottom sauté pan.This will keep the heat uniform to make sure the rice cooks evenly. It is important to sauté the rice until it is toasted before adding the broth. However, don’t cook it too long or it will harden. This is the most important part of making an authentic Italian food risotto, make sure the rice is toasted. After that it is all downhill.

Just follow these tips and pretty soon you’ll be cooking like a professional Italian food chef.