Maple Mustard Chicken (aka Man Pleasing Chicken)

I have a confession to make. I've been keeping something from you. One of the best recipes I've made, and now one of my favourite meals to make. It wasn't on purpose! Honestly! I've been making this chicken dish for a year or so now, and it's delicious. I get compliments every time I make it and it's just so so easy. It's just that every time that I make it I take photos all the way through and then once it's done....no photo. So I haven't been able to do a blog post on it yet. But I've finally remembered to get those final photos. Here goes!

To make this chicken, which you should absolutely do immediately, preheat your oven to 230ºC. Then, mix together 1/2 cup of dijon mustard, 1/4 cup of maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. 

Put your chicken fillets in a foil-lined oven proof baking dish. I find that boneless, skinless thighs work best. Eight came in my package - but 2 per serve is usually enough. Sprinkle your chicken thighs with salt and pepper (I always forget that part. Oops!)  

Pour your maple mustard mixture over them, turning the thighs in the mixture so they are fully coated. 

Put the chicken thighs into the oven, and let them bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste the chicken with more of the sauce.

Return the thighs back into the oven and let them bake for another 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 75C (or 165F). 

Let the chicken rest for five minutes before serving. Make sure to spoon extra sauce over the top when serving the chicken. Sprinkle over some fresh rosemary.

Maple Mustard Chicken
1/2 cup of dijon mustard
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1 tbsp of rice wine vinegar. 
Boneless & skinless chicken thigh fillets (approx 2 per person)

1. To make this chicken, which you should absolutely do immediately, preheat your oven to 230ºC. Then, mix together 1/2 cup of dijon mustard, 1/4 cup of maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. 
2. Put your chicken fillets in a foil-lined oven proof baking dish. Sprinkle your chicken thighs with salt and pepper.
3. Pour your maple mustard mixture over them, turning the thighs in the mixture so they are fully coated. 
4. Put the chicken thighs into the oven, and let them bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and baste the chicken with more of the sauce.
5. Return the thighs back into the oven and let them bake for another 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 75C (or 165F). 
6, Let the chicken rest for five minutes before serving. Make sure to spoon extra sauce over the top when serving the chicken. Sprinkle over some fresh rosemary.

Recipe Source:
Witty in the City's recipe for
Man Pleasing Chicken

Beauty product must haves

While I'm not that big on make up or beauty products (In fact I'm clueless! - I still haven't learnt to put eyeliner on - how do you get the line so close to your eye?!) I do have my go to products that I use on a daily basis. They're pretty much the basics, but whenever I use them I always feel good about myself - like I've gone to a bit of effort and I like that I still look very natural at the end.

Klorane Dry Shampoo | Dove Tinted Moisturiser | MAC Golden bronzer

Loreal Lash Architect 4D Mascara

Beauty

I’ve always wondered how people see me. What they truly think of me, my looks and how I come across to them (although sometimes I wonder if I'd really want to know!). I’ve always been self-conscious about how I look and have never had a high opinion of myself – every now and then I concede that ‘maybe I like ok/nice today’ but I’ve never seen myself as beautiful. I think that’s why this video affected me so much – I really teared up when I saw the women looking at their end pictures and they saw the difference between how they saw themselves and how others saw them. Such a beautiful but very true message. We really are more beautiful than we give ourselves credit for.

Portuguese Custard Tarts

It was back in 2006 that I took my first ever overseas holiday. I’d just turned 21 and my sister and her partner had spent the last couple of years living and working in London, so I decided to travel over to visit them. I spent two weeks with them in London while they finished up work and then we travelled together (along with another sister who met up with us along the way) through a few different countries including Ireland, Spain, Morocco, France, Germany, Croatia and Portugal. Until my holiday late last year it was the most amazing and fulfilling thing that I’d ever done in my life – I felt so brave flying over to London from Melbourne on my own and spending the two weeks exploring London on my own. 

I find that most of my great memories from that trip include some sort of delicious food or another. One particular food memory I have is from Portugal. We didn’t spend a lot of time in Portugal, but we did hire a car there and travelled from the south to north before catching a train back into Spain. I remember while we were there though that we all became addicted to the custard tarts. Every time we stopped for food we’d get a little tray of them. They were just so delicious! Not long ago I found this recipe through Pinterest for what seemed like quite an easy recipe for Portuguese Custard Tarts and decided to give them a go. They actually turned out really nicely and are very similar to the ones we had back in Portugal (from my memories anyway).

To start off with, grease a muffin pan - one on the smaller side is perfect - and preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, or 390 Fahrenheit. Then, in a small saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour until well combined. Slowly pour in the milk and mix well. 

Place the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Let it simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Once it's nicely thickened, remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.

Transfer your custard mixture to a bowl and allow to cool.

Thaw the puff pastry sheets and cut out circles of pastry big enough to fit in the muffin pan. Lay each circle into the muffin pan spaces, pushing them down so they sit in the holes nicely but not pressed against the bottom of the pan.

Pour the cooled custard into each tart case up to about 3/4 level and bake for about 25 minutes. The custard bubbles up a little during cooking, which is normal. The finished tarts should have some brownish black patches on the top. Then all you have to do is sprinkle cinnamon powder on the top of each tart and enjoy!

 Tell me, what's your favourite overseas food memories? Or do you have any favourites from your local area? 

Portuguese Custard Tarts

Makes 12

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp cornflour

400ml milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Puff Pastry Sheets (I used 3)

Method:

1. Grease a muffin pan (small muffins) and preheat your oven to 200C.

2. Place the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a pan and whisk together until well combined. Slowly pour in the milk and mix well making sure there are no lumps.

3. Place the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Let it simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from heat and add the vanilla extract.

4. Transfer the custard to a bowl, cover and let it cool. 

5. Thaw the puff pastry sheets and cut out circles of pastry big enough to fit in the muffin pan. Lay each circle into the muffin pan, pour the cooled custard to about 3/4 level and bake for about 25 minutes. The custard will bubble up during baking, which is fine. The top of each tart should have brownish black patches for that authentic Portuguese custard tart look.

6. Sprinkle cinnamon powder over the top and serve. 

Camping Holiday

I've been away camping this past week with my parents and my sister's family. We try to get away most Easter breaks, and usually head up to the same spot on the Murray River each year. It's perfect (especially after the Easter long weekend crowd has gone home) as there's a lovely beach that goes down to the water. It was such a relaxing break, and the perfect opportunity to get through most of the book I'd been reading - The Sunne In Splendour 

This is where we had our seats around the fire. We cooked most of our meals here as well as damper. My nephews loved toasting marshmallows here a couple of nights too.  

This was my tent - please excuse the towel hanging out to dry, it does detract from the background view. 

My nephew A even caught a fish! He was so proud! But it was just a touch too small so he had to put it back in the water. 

TV show addictions : Pt 2

I wanted to share more of the TV shows that I've been watching lately. Being on holidays at the moment means more time to chillax and watch the shows that I want to. I seem to be going with a bit of a darker theme lately, not for any reason in particular but I do love period movies & tv shows so Game of Thrones and World without end are perfect for me. As for Nikita, I'm usually not into spy or action tv shows, but I'm seriously addicted to this one! 

Nikita: 
When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn't tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Throughout her gruelling training at Division, Nikita never lost her humanity, even falling in love with a civilian. When her fiancé was murdered, Nikita realized she had been betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust, so she did what no one else before her had been able to do: she escaped. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. Written by The CW

Game of Thrones: 
Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Political and sexual intrigue is pervasive. Robert Baratheon, King of Westeros, asks his old friend Eddard, Lord Stark, to serve as Hand of the King, or highest official. Secretly warned that the previous Hand was assassinated, Eddard accepts in order to investigate further. Meanwhile the Queen's family, the Lannisters, may be hatching a plot to take power. Across the sea, the last members of the previous and deposed ruling family, the Targaryens, are also scheming to regain the throne. The friction between the houses Stark, Lannister and Baratheon, and with the remaining great houses Greyjoy, Tully, Arryn, and Tyrell, leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war and political confusion, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night's Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond. Written by Tfilm78 and Cajunman

World without end: 

The English town of Kingsbridge works to survive as the King leads the nation into the Hundred Years' War with France while Europe deals with the outbreak of the Black Death.

Are you watching any great TV shows that you'd recommend?

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns

We're coming up to Easter, which means school holidays for us here in Victoria and for me that means two weeks of holidays which I'm really looking forward to. I've been invited to go away with my sister and her family, camping on the Murray River so I may have a chance to catch up on my sleep and reading while I'm there. Another thing that I've been wanting to do before Easter arrived is to make some home made hot cross buns. 

I made these hot cross buns that I found on Not Quite Nigella a couple of years ago for Easter and fell in love. The addition of cinnamon to the buns and the chocolate chips makes for a really nice alternative to the usual sultana or choc chip hot cross buns. I said this the last time I made them but I still think they taste a lot like cinnamon buns, especially with the sweet sticky top and white chocolate crosses. 

Unfortunately my go to shop for American foods didn't have much of a range of choc chips when I last looked so no Hershey's Cinnamon chips for me. I ended up having to make my own which was really easy. It was just a matter of melting some white chocolate, adding cinnamon, setting it in the fridge and then chopping it up into small pieces.

In a separate bowl I mixed together the yeast, sugar and warm milk and let it stand for 15 minutes until it looked like this. It's hard to see but the top became frothy after it was left to stand.

In the bowl of a mixer I added the flour and salt and made a well in the centre to which I added the above yeast mixture, butter, egg, cinnamon and a third of my cinnamon chocolate chips and mixed it all together. After kneading I let the dough sit in a bowl covered with a tea towel for 1.5 hours. 

As you can see I still need to work on shaping the buns correctly lol! 

After letting the dough rise, I kneaded the dough a little bit more and added the rest of the choc chips. Then I divided the dough into balls (well sort of) and placed them on a tray and covered them up again to let them rise further. Then into the oven for half an hour to bake.

After taking the buns out of the oven (by which time they smelt delicious!) I brushed over a sugar, water and gelatine mixture and then finished off by adding a white chocolate cross to the top of each bun.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients for the buns

2 tbsp instant yeast

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk

4 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

50g butter melted

1 egg lightly beaten

1 tsp cinnamon

2 1/2 cups Cinnamon chocolate chips (or 2 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips melted with 2 tsp of cinnamon, allowed to set and then chopped up)

For the glaze

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup hot water

1 tsp gelatine

For the crosses

75g white chocolate

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl mix together the yeast, sugar and warm milk. Set aside for 15 minutes until the mixture becomes frothy.

2. Sift flour and salt into a large bowl, or the bowl of your electric mixer. Make a well in the centre and mix in the yeast mixture, melted butter, lightly beaten egg, cinnamon and one third of the cinnamon chocolate chips. 

3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until elastic and place in a large greased bowl covered with cling wrap in a warm area. Leave for 1 1/2 hours until dough is doubled in size.

4. Using your fist, punch down the dough and add the remaining cinnamon chocolate chips. Knead lightly and divide into small balls. Place close together on a lined baking tray. Cover with cling wrap and allow to rise again in a warm place for 20 minutes.

5. Preheat your oven to 200C (400F). 

6. Bake hot cross buns for 20-30 minutes until done. While the buns are baking, prepare the glaze - mix together the sugar, hot water and gelatine.

7. Once the buns are ready, brush the tops (and sides if you wish) with the glaze mixture.

8. Melt the white chocolate and spoon into a piping bag, or a zip lock bag with a small hole cut in the corner. Pipe two lines across the buns to make the crosses. Best served while still warm. 

Recipe Source

Not Quite Nigella's recipe for 

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns