700g small potatoes
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
50g butter melted
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, chives or green onion (optional)

Bring a pot of water to the boil add salt and cook potatoes until soft and very easily pierced by a fork. Small ones should take around 20 to 25 minutes.
While the potatoes cook, preheat the oven to 220°C.
Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over a large baking tray. Brush the oil so it is evenly distributed. Use two trays if necessary as potatoes need a little breathing room around each one.
Drain the potatoes in a colander and let them dry for 5 minutes.
Place the potatoes on the oiled tray and use a large fork or potato masher to gently smash each potato to a height of about ½ inch keeping them in one piece. Thinner potatoes will be more crispy.
Leave on the tray to steam dry for 5 minutes.
Drizzle each one with melted butter and just a bit of olive oil.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake until the potatoes are nice and golden on the edges, about 25 to 30 minutes.
Sprinkle them with chopped fresh herbs, and serve hot.

Mum cooked every Saturday morning and always made an Orange Cake for my brother Peter

125g butter softened
¼ cup milk
¼ cup orange juice
2 eggs
¾ cup caster sugar
1 ½ cups self raising flour sifted
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated
Orange icing
1/3 cup butter softened
1 ½ cups icing sugar sifted
2 tablespoons orange juice or to taste
½ teaspoon orange zest, finely grated

Heat oven to 180°C
Combine all cake ingredients and beat thoroughly for 3 minutes.
Pour mixture into a greased 20cm x 10cm loaf or 20cm ring tin.
Bake in the centre of oven for 30-40 minutes.
Turn onto a wire rack and allow to cool.
Mix orange icing ingredients together in a bowl, then ice cake.

Serve warm or at room temperature 
1 can chickpeas
1 can lentils
1 can black beans
2 medium eggplants diced into 3cm cubes
2½ tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
cherry tomatoes, halved (large quartered)
torn rocket, lettuce leaves, spinach leaves
cucumber diced
crumbled feta cheese
GARLIC LEMON DRESSING
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove minced
1 teaspoon thyme leaves fresh chopped or ½ teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Shake salad dressing ingredients in a jar

Drain and rinse chickpeas, lentils and black beans, then microwave briefly until warmed through. Pour over some of the dressing, stir then leave to marinate for minimum of an hour (overnight fine).

Preheat oven to 240°C.
Line a tray with parchment/baking paper.
Place cubed eggplant in large bowl, drizzle with oil, salt and pepper.
Toss well, spread on tray not touching and roast for 20 minutes. Turn and roast for a further 10 minutes - edges should be caramelised, soft inside but not shriveled up.
Mix salad ingredients and marinated lentil mixture, drizzle over most of the dressing, then toss. Pour onto serving platter.
Top with roasted eggplant and drizzle with remaining dressing.
Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese.

Brine:
4 cups water
125g cooking salt
For each 3 cups brine add 1 cup malt vinegar

Sterilize Jars
Wash olives
Put in jars
Add brine
Add film of cooking oil to top
Leave 3 months
Rinse olives
Mix olive oil, garlic or black pepper and oregano.
Shake up and add to olives in jar ready to eat.

6 egg whites
1¾ cups caster sugar
2½ teaspoons cornflour
2 unwaxed lemons
½ cup flaked almonds
300 mls double cream
325 grams jar lemon curd
Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny.
Sprinkle the cornflour over the meringue, then grate in the zest of 1 lemon and add 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.
Gently fold until everything is thoroughly mixed in.
Mound onto the lined baking tray in a fat circle approximately 23cm/10inches in diameter, smoothing the sides and the top with a knife or spatula.
Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 150°C/130°C and cook for 1 hour.
Turn oven off and leave the pavlova inside with the door completely open. Remove when pavlova is completely cold.
Toast the flaked almonds, by frying them in a dry pan over a medium to high heat until they have started to colour. Shake the pan at regular intervals and don’t let them burn. When they’re done, remove to a cold plate so that they don’t carry on cooking.
About an hour before you are ready to eat turn the pavlova onto a large flat plate or board with the underside uppermost.
Whip the cream until thick and airy.
Put the lemon curd into a bowl and beat it with a wooden spoon or spatula to loosen it a little. Taste the lemon curd and add some lemon zest and a spritz of juice if it’s too sweet.
Spread the lemon curd on top of the meringue base and top with the whipped cream, peaking it rather as if it were a meringue topping.
Sprinkle with the zest of the remaining lemon followed by the flaked almonds and serve.

This recipe comes from my Great Great Grandmother and possibly originated in her native Wales.
In my Gran’s house it was a great stand-by if unexpected visitors turned up for lunch or even in the evening where in those days supper was always offered to guests along with a cup of tea. In Gran’s later years family members would look after her during the day. Sometimes I would go down to give Mum a break and Gran’s eyes would light up every time I would offer Cheese & Onion on toast for lunch. Years later when Mum had to go into care in a nursing home her daughter Lel travelled over 100kms to visit her every day and would regularly cook Mum’s favourite meals and take them to her so she didn’t have to always eat hospital food. Mum’s eyes would light up just like her mothers whenever Lel cooked this.
Whilst it is a family favourite and very tasty it does not look particularly appetizing and I have found that if you have not been born into the family then usually you will not even try it.

Chopped onion
Chopped tomato
knob of butter
Diced cheese (we always used Kraft Cheddar - mainly because it was pretty well the only cheese readily available - anyway you would need a cheese that melts easily)
Some milk
Salt and pepper

1. Put all ingredients into small saucepan or small frypan and stir over low heat until creamy. 
2. Serve straight away on hot buttered toast.

My Aunty made these delicious cakes in her wood oven.
From my cousin Trevor – when we were kids at home, Mum used to bake goodies while we were at school and so they were not eaten as soon as we got home she would hide them. We used to find some of them but as Mum had so many hiding places even she would forget where she put them. Weeks later she would find them – a nice fluffy looking green colour!

4 eggs
½ cup of corn flour
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
½ cup caster sugar
¼ cup plain flour
½ teaspoon of bi-carb soda
1 carton of whipped cream and bananas to fill

1. Beat eggs until thick and creamy.
2. Add sugar and beat until dissolved.
3. Fold in sifted corn flour, plain flour and risings.
4. Pour into a greased tray.
5. Bake in moderately hot oven for approximately 15 minutes (180ºC-200ºC).
6. Turn out on a slightly damp cloth and roll up, when rolled unroll.
7. Spread with cream and banana pieces evenly.
8. Roll up again and dust with icing sugar.

From my sister Lyn - Could make these with my eyes closed – there wasn’t a kid’s party, prom pre-party, picnic or general celebration where finger food was used that didn’t involve these. The girls would be looking for a taste as soon as they were out of the oven to the point where I had to tell them I had counted them and knew exactly how many there were. It worked in the same way as when they were young and I had had enough of them being under my feet, I used to put them outside to play and tell them I was locking the door, which I never actually did, but they would take it at face value and never try the door handle to see if it would open (something Mum used to do to us as kids)

750gm sausage mince
1 large onion
¼ teaspoon mixed herbs
salt, pepper
4 thick slices white bread
warm water
puff pastry
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

1. Put sausage mince, peeled and grated onion, mixed herbs, salt and pepper into bowl.
2. Cut crusts from bread, put bread in separate bowl. Pour over enough warm water to cover, let stand for 5 mins. Drain off excess water, squeeze bread gently to extract water.
3. Add bread to sausage mince mixture, mix well.
4. Roll pastry on floured surface.
5. Add a pipeline of meat mixture across width of pastry and roll up until completely enclosed.
6. Cut along edge of pastry and with back of knife make indentations at 1cm intervals along length of roll.
7. Cut into 5cm pieces and put onto greased oven tray side by side. Do same with rest of mixture.
8. Brush tops with combined water and egg yolk.
9. Bake in hot oven (230°) for 10 mins, reduce heat to moderate (190°) cook further 15 mins or till golden brown.

Makes about 24