Nik'ee cooks thru Edmonds cookbook(illustrated)

whats the link!

Hi its Nik'ee here, today I started my project,I cooked 3 recipes,and I loved doing them.
1st was BANANA CAKE with lemon icing,it went very well, it cooked well in the middle I used a round tin.
2nd was BELGIUM BISCUITS with pink icing,I have never baked them before and they looked great.
3rd was CARAMEL SLICE with choco icing,the first batch of the caramel middle burnt and went in the BIN,but 2nd try was great,just as a note to myself and others you can never have too much icing sugar,I ran out and my choco icing was a bit runny. But guess what even though I have trouble with eating I tryed them all and I loved them. Some people wanted to know what version of the EDMONDS cook book im using, Its the big illustrated book easy to read.
Thanks to all who are reading about my project.
Im going to post photos on my profile page of my work,will take a few days to get it up there--click on twinsmakefive-then profile.

Hey sounds like you've been blimmen busy then! My sis has that recipe book. it's quite good!

Good on you. As for the waistline, you'll soon get sick of sweet stuff and most of it will go into the freezer to go into the lunch boxes on the 'meat and veg' days.

As you get into it, it would be good to know which recipes taste good as they are, which ones could be adapted and which ones will freeze well. The processed food recipes are there for people who choose to use them and are just as valid as any with 'whole' ingredients. Enjoy.

Hi Nik'ee here for lunch today I made cheese scones from the edmonds illustrated cook book, they turned out great.I loved rubbing in the butter it feelt very therapeutic,I probably rubbed it in longer than I needed but it didnt matter.
For tea tonight for the family im cooking shepherds pie,its just about to go under the grill,I let you all know how it tasted.(even though I am a vegetarian,to stay true to my project i'm going to eat a mouthfull)
PLEASE I'd love to hear from people.thanks.---from Nik'ee B

Hubby did something similar.
He cooked his way through the baking section.

Hi Nik'ee here again yesterday I completed the shepherds pie,watched it go under the grill,watched the chesse bubble and go golden brown,smelt devine. I ate a spoonfull as i promised i would,I enjoyed it.
This morning as a treat a made french toast,the aroma of cinnamon and butter--yum,they were gone very fast.great way of using stale bread.
6 recipies down 217 to go.
thanks for reading and writing to me.

Hi Nik'ee .B here, ive been trying all day to upload some photos to show you of my Edmonds cooking book project, but our computer doesnt haveUSB port and I tryed putting photos on a disk and doing it that way but no luck.--so ive decided rater than stressing out anymore about it I will think of this as a great time to use lots of great describing words.
post again soon.

Do you have a blog you are using to update your progress! can you please put the link up here! thanks

I was telling my husband about you today normally he thinks people that post on here are a bunch of weirdo's talking a load of bollocks. BUT as he is a film maker, he thinks you idea is amazing, and with your background, wants to get in touch. Can you touch base though my auctions as we would like to talk you to you further cheers

Hi nik'ee. Good for you great idea. My bestie gave me Julie & Julia for my birthday. Great Movie. Clicked on your profile to see if you had posted any photos on there. Did you make the stunning beehive cake! It's amazing!

hi Nik'ee here just to answer a couple of questions, im using this thread as like my blog,Im not really great on the computer lol so i know how to use these message boards, also the cake picture with the bees on that i had on my profile was just 1 i found online,i tryed to upload photos of my cooking but i ended up with soo much time wasted that i could hve been cooking, the bee cake sort of ended up there where my photo should have been,I have made cakes very similar to that cake B4 though.
Im making a neat vegie dish for tea tonight,and bake some things during the day, i'll blog you all about my cooking/baking day later in detail, i look forward to it. blog u soon. luv Nik'ee.B.

Hi everyone out there its Nik'ee here again, i was tired last night and didnt get around to bloging about my cooking/baking day yesterday,
my day started with me going to visit a friend"hi clare", we talked abit about my plans for the day with regards to my edmonds project and clare looked through the illustrated book,when I got back home I picked up along the way another friend of mine and her 2 children and brought her back to my place"hi Kelly",
As soon as I got home the oven instantly got switched on and baking/muffin tins out and paused ready to go.
1st I made what the recipie book calls a "tennis cake", its light in colour with brown coloured rasins and glace'd red cherries flowing throughout the inside of the cake,with an amazing aroma of cinnamon and almond, dusted off on the top with sifted incing sugar.
I enjoyed making this cake seeing the colours,smelling the almond,snecking a taste of the mixture-inspires me to not be afraid-this food is not my enemy.took 1 half hours to cook,some of my friends ate it and liked it,(i hope).
2nd I made bran muffins, I had to improvise alittle, I only had oatbran I had run out of bran so I took the plunge and used oatbran,and I had this delectable plantne' banana they are the ones that are orange coloured inside(i leant about this fruit when i visited Tonga years ago)so i omited the rasins for this banana insteed.
I mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients sperately and gentlly folded them together,just enough to combine them like a gently flowing river meeting a still quiet lake. I used cupcake papers and spooned the slightly orange coloured mixture into the tins it made 22 standard muffins, most of these were gone and devoured gratefully by my friends and family,I ATE A WHOLE warn one too and I ENJOYED it.
3rd thing I made was a grilled vegie dish with vingerete dressing.
It called for vegies very much out of season,so acording to our budget I improvised. I used frozen mushrooms,courettes and red peppers,it called for asparagus(canned would be mushie and soft,a biggreen blob) i used red yams insteed,also carrot and pumpkin.I looked at all the beautifull colours and thought--It needs yellow,I found some frozen corncobs(what a nightmere cutting frozen corncobs) with that completed I put some vingerete on sort of like a maranade and cooked them in the oven just a smige leaving them still crunchy and healthy,tasted great and non gulty.
Blog you all again soon luv Nik'ee.B.

i got to try the tennis cake and it was yummmmmmmm. nik'ee did a great job, it was delisious thanks heaps nik'ee!:)

hi everyone out there in recipe cyber space its Nik'ee.B. here updating again on my progect.
I havent been having the greatest of days today,im feeling quite down and wanting to revert back to ways of coping that I have in the past with my BPD.At around 4pm today I could have quite easyly gone to bed and tryed to sleep away my thoughts, Then I remembered this project and some wise words from a very good friend of mine "hi alice",she said a while ago to me that her mum had advised her "if you dont know what to cook for the evening meal or
even where to start,melt some butter,chop and brown an onion and the rest will just flow".Well I love all my friends and the help we have to offer each other tonight those words,those actions,were just what I needed.
I peeled a brown and a red onion and and cut them so they would make rings,i paused everything else in my mind and put all my energy into these onions,I enjoyed pushing the ring shapes out watching the butter melt,hearing the sizzle as they merged together, I didnt even mind as the aroma from the raw onions made my eyes weep,its a welcome change from my eyes weeping from my constant flood of emotions, then the smell/aroma from the onions browning filled the whole house and I found a recipe from my project cook book it was spinach and bacon sauce,served on pasta.
After the onions were browned,it was cooking bacon time,I didnt find this easy as I dont eat meat, but i liked the sizzle it made as I cut it and fryed it in strips,fresh spinach at the moment is very expensive so trusty frozen spinach it is for us tonight.
the spinach,bacon,onions now all flowing together in the frypan the colours looked great,onions luckly drowned out the bacon smell.
The pasta added to slightly salty water was now soft and cooked and ready to drain--and the spinach/bacon/onion dish was also ready to eat,only problem was Id been so eager to cook for a distraction that the time now was only 5pm LOL, so our family ate at what I called GRANNYS DINNER HOUR LOL.
And being true to my project I ate a little bit of it and even though I dont eat meat I did and the dish was yumm.
Well its late now my bed time, my luv to you all from Nik'ee.B.

I haven't made the Tennis Cake for quite some time but this was the recipe I always used for a light fruit cake because I knew it always turned out well. Will be interested to hear about whatever you decide to bake next.

hi everyone Nik'ee here again, I didnt blog yesterday, so I guess Ill tell you about the 5 recipes Ive made over the past 2 days.
Im still struggling withmy anxity and just feeling "low", so I thought id try a recipe that my mother used to make when I was a child,Its called "caramel meringue".I thought id double the caramel in the middle of it due to having 5 kids I didnt want anyone to fight over it--but I must tell you what a mistake that was.I enjoyed making the dish molding the shortcake base into the glass dish to cook,watching it rise, then smelling the caramel as it was being created(I was abit concerned when it said to add egg yolks to the warmed butter/flour rue' I pictured the yolk cooking and making lumps in the caramel,but I used my electric beater and all was well.) I had the meringue to make now that too was with my electric beater it always amazes me how plain simple egg whites with suger can whip up so white and fluffy. I poured the caramel on to the shortcake base then the meringue on the top--into the oven till golden brown.It looked amazing,I let it cool down and cut it WHAT A MESS caramel everywhere running all over the table, the kids loved it I try it caramel dripping down my chin "shiver", but I so wish that I hadnt doubled the caramel, this recipe wont be made again by me in a hurry.
For dessert I made "Easy Chocolate Mousse" --what part of this is
EASY lol,It uses about 4 seperate bowls to mix different parts of it before they finaly all flow together to finish it. It was very rich,I could only manage a tsp of it even my kids left most of theres and finished them off during the day today.
Today 1 HOUR before they were meant to have them done my older kids were reminded about a fundraiser bake sale, so on with the oven and opened my trusty Edmonds book and found the simpleistbiscuits I could find which were "hokey pokey biscuits", I made 3 batches of these my fav part of making these is watching the mixture rise and change colour when you add baking soda to the warm butter stuff mixture. I added allspice and cinnamon to the 2nd batch to make them "hokey pokey spice biscuits", and to the 3rd batch I added cocoa powder to make them "choco hokey pokey biscuits", the last batch cooled and packed into an ice cream container just as the kids had to go--what a rush realy not good for my anxity.
Then healthier things for dinner, "Carbonara"(ham and mushroom sauce) on pasta sprils, and greek salad.
I got to melt butter cut up onion rings again and savour the aroma, I even got to use parsley from my garden,--great dish, tasted great and as promised I ate some of the meat(ham).
Greek salad was light and refreshing I omited Black olives for black grapes(olives are not a fav food for anyone in our house) also omited fetta cheese for cottage chesse(budget only goes so far).
I would definantly recommend both these dishes,and I will be making them again,but I still have many more recipes to make 15 done.
Blog you all again soon, I hope there are still some of you out there reading my project, my luv to you all from Nik'ee B.

Loving reading about your progress Nik'ee!

Loving your enthusiasm and attitude. Be proud of yourself Nik'ee.

You're an inspiration;thank you. There's no reason for me not to be a confident cook.

I'm always raving about my ancient Dollars and Sense cookbook. Mine is so well used it's falling to bits, but when I look through it, I see that I mostly make the same things. Something else I did that I haven't done for years is read the introductory pages. Waste not want not, Don't let god food spoil, Buy Cook Serve the amount of food required, First-Make a List, Substituting ingredients, Edible containers. What good advice!

Starting today, I'm going to make every recipe in the book(maybe not every day though). I'll tick the index with the dishes I make regularly and start on new dishes.

Thanks again Nik'ee and the best of luck with your fabulous blog. p.s I loved the movie too.

Well done! enjoying reading your "blog", cooking is abit like gardening very relaxing.

Thank you for sharing Nik'ee. It is lovely to read your posts and your desciption of what and how is fun. Keep up the good work and have fun.

Nik'ee I've only just found your thread today but already i'm hooked!As you described the belgim biscuits I had little childhood memories.cant wait to hear what else your making

Hi nik'ee if you want to post photos you load them as if you were putting up an auction then copy and paste the ''information in the browser address bar'' Sorry don't know what they're actually called. Perhaps someone else will know how to explain better than me.
Can't wait to hear what you're cooking next. Hope you're feeling a bit better now.

Hi everyone its Nik'ee here again,I finally got some time on the internet I have 5 kids waiting to use it all holidays long.
2 days ago I made a lovely peanut slice, I sat down and picked the skins off a whole lota peanuts that took at least an hour if not longer I managed to con my oldest son into helping me, I going to the supermarket soon to stock up on food 1 of the things im going to get is peanuts already deskined lol,
I enjoyed making this slice but I do admit I cringed at the amount of butter it took 250grms in the shortcake and another 100grms in the icing/topping, I mostly enjoys pressing the shortcake mixture into the dish it was warm and fun to squish between my (clean lol) fingers. This slice tasted yum when I ate it I had to blook out of my mind BUTTER,BUTTER,BUTTER.would recomend this slice and i'll make it again one day.
Yesterday I made speg bolognese, Once again I got to experence the aroma of browning onions,adding herbs makes different aromas too--beautiful, I make this dish alot for my family but this is the first time I have stuck to a recipe--and it was worth it My family loved the flavour, I will use this again and again.
There arent that many vege recipe in this book, but I made cream corn fritters using a recipe in my book--the family loved them--I ate a little bit of both, I would use this recipe again too.
I havent followed any recipes today as I have run out of butter and flour.thats for reading and supporting me, all my luv Nik'ee B