Strawberry sauce

2 punnets strawberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
15ml brandy
15ml Chambord
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Chop strawberries and place all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until strawberries soften. Serve over pancakes or icecream.

Chicken and cherry pie

Based on Gode Cookery's Basic Meat Pie.

2 Chicken breasts, or equivalen of other chicken pieces, diced
1/2 can cherries
1/4 cup hazelnuts, crushed
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp sherry (or similar cooking alcohol)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Pastry shell of your choice

Prepare pie crust (shortcrust is a good choice for pre-prepared pastry -- puff pastry will get soggy). Brown the chicken briefly in a frying pan, then place in a mixing bowl with the other ingredients. Mix well, adjusting quantities of ingredients if required. Fill pie crust and add pastry lid. Bake for 1 hour.

Roast turkey with lemon

Serves 2

1 Turkey breast
1 lemon
1/4 cup wine (I use white shiraz)
1 tsp paprkia
2 tsp honey

Preheat oven to 180C. Place the turkey breast in a baking dish. Mix together wine, papkira, and honey, and drizzle over turkey. Slice lemon into thin slices, and layer the lemon over the turkey. Roast for 50-60 minutes.

Sweet pumpkin bread

2 cups self-raising flour
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 cup mashed, cooked pumpkin
½ cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
60g butter, melted, cooled
2 eggs, lightly whisked
2 tbs pepitas (pumpkin seed kernels)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a loaf pan. Sift the flour, salt and spices into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

Add the pumpkin, milk, butter and egg to the flour mixture, and stir with a large metal spoon until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle evenly with pepitas.

Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from oven. Set aside in the pan for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Spiced whole-baked pumpkin

I'm fairly certian I saw this recipe on TV a few years ago... problem is, I can't remember where and can't find it anywhere! If anyone knows which TV show it came from, I'll assign it the correct credits.

Wash your pumpkin, then cut the top off and scrape out the seeds. These can be washed, roasted and used to top Sweet pumpkin bread.

Fill the pumpkin with the spice mixture:
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger

Place the pumpkin in a baking dish, replace the top, and bake at 180C for one hour. Serve with the butter and spice mixture as a sauce. 

These quantities are for a small butternut pumpkin and will serve 4 people, adjust cooking time and filling for a larger pumpkin. Another idea is to use very small pumpkins for individual serves. Use any leftover pumpkin to make Sweet Pumpkin Bread.

Blueberry and pimento sauce

1 can blueberries
1/2 tsp pimento (allspice)
splash lemon juice

Drain blueberries, reserving syrup. Place in a saucepan with 1/4 cup of syrup, lemon juice and pimento. Simmer, stirring frequently, until sauce is of an even consistency. Serve over ice cream or pancakes.

Orange and rosewater souffle

50g butter (+ extra for greasing dish)
1 tbsp plain flour
4 egg whites
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup caster sugar (+ extra for dusting dish)
juice and zest of 1 orange
3 drops rosewater

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease souffle dish and dust lughtly with sugar.
Melt butter in a small saucepan, add flour and stir over low heat. Remove from heat and stir through egg yolks, juice, zest, and rosewater.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add sugar whilst beating to firm peak stage.
Fold together both mixtures and pour into souffle dish. Bake for 20mins.

Choc-pear tarts

Makes 6 tarts

1 can pears in chocolate syrup
1 bag caramello bites
1 1/2 sheets pre-made puff pastry
1 tsp cornflour
3 tsp almond meal
Oil or butter for greasing

Grease a 6-hole muffin tin. Drain pears, reserving syrup. Cut pastry into squares (4 per sheet) and line muffin cups. Add 1/2 tsp almond meal to the bottom of each tart. Add 1-2 caramello bites per tart. Fill tart shells with pears. Thicken syrup with cornflour and pour over pears. Bake for an unspecified length of time (most likely 20-30mins), because mine are still in the oven and I don't know how long they'll take.

Red cabbage salad

Serves 2-4 as a side dish

1/4 red cabbage (less if its a big cabbage)
1 small carrot
1 nashi pear
1/2 a small cucumber
handful walnuts
handful crispy noodles
splash red wine vinegar
splash olive oil
pinch salt

Shred cabbage and grate other vegetables. Crumble in walnuts and dress with salt, olive oil and red wine vinegar. Stir through noodles just before serving.

Chicken, onion, and apple soup

This recipe owes a bit of credit to Chicken Normandy at taste.com.au.

For the stock:
Chicken bones
2 onions
2 sprigs rosemary
1 green apple
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp salt

For the soup:
500g chicken thighs (bone in)
2 onions
2 green apples
1 bottle apple cider
handful fresh thyme

Quarter the stock onions and apple. Add stock ingredients to a stock pot. Cover with water and boil for at least one hour. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

Strain the stock, discarding the vegetables and bones. Allow to cool them skim the visible fat.

Brown the chicken thighs, then set aside on kitchen paper to drain. Finely dice and fry the onions, then return chicken to the saucepan and add dices apple and chopped thyme. Add cider and then stock until the desired quantity of liquid is reached, then simmer for at one to two hours.

Remove chicken thighs. Shred the meat and return it to the soup, then discard the bone. Serve with crusty bread.