Xmas is the time for the Best Things in Life

 

Christmas Morning at my house with close family

 

Today was Christmas and as usual, is the best time of the year to get together with family, eat the good stuff and be merry! (This may involve drinking some of the good stuff too!)

To me, there is nothing that could possibly be better to shove down my gullet, than The Honourable Smoked Salmon. Cold or hot-smoked - it doesn't matter! For some reason, it is the epitomy of great cuisine for me and ask anyone close to me, they will tell you I might be just a little bit obsessed!

This year for Christmas, I decided we should celebrate our new house and host Christmas morning there. Of course, what else to have on the breakast menu for that special first meal, than some beautiful smoked salmon with fresh bread. After looking at various recipes for cream cheese dips to complement this combination, I came up with the following recipe and thought it only fair that I share...

First of all, here are most of the ingredients - we had fresh bread from Farro which we grilled lightly. This was more appropriate for a meal, however I have pictured some rather large crackers here, as this dip will be almost more useful for canapes/nibbles.

Cream Cheese & Dill Dip with Capers & Chives

1 tub cream cheese at room temperature

4-5 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

1 tbsp chopped capers

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp Dijon or English mustard

½ tsp White Wine Vinegar

Pepper to garnish

Optional: 1 tbsp chopped Coriander

 

Method

·         Mash cream cheese in a bowl using a fork

·         Stir in lemon juice, mustard and vinegar and mix

·         Add in the dill, chives, capers and coriander and stir until combined

·         Garnish with pepper and a few strands of dill

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve on lightly grilled, fresh bread or crackers and top with wood smoked salmon and finely sliced red onion. Sprinkle with capers and enjoy.

End of year dinner

Last night was our end-of-year dinner for work... My partner and I both work for my parents and we are a part of a very small immigration firm for Australia & NZ. Because we are such a small company and naturally at this time of year everyone is ridiculously busy, I took upon myself to organise a dinner for us all at my parents home.

I was preparing the food for 3 days - Even though there was only 14 of us to feed we had many challenges involved like different peoples different diets and preferences.

Many of the dishes I created I have already shown before on this blog or were influenced greatly by Petite Kitchen.

The menu consisted of:

Starters - Flaxseed&sesame crackers, baked camembert with rhubarb sauce, baked ricotta and Feta&Lemon stuffed deep-fried olives.

Mains - Dukkah steak salad, smoked kawai&avocado salad, beetroot&lentil salad, grilled chicken drumsticks and soy&ginger lamb kebabs with a spicy peanut sauce.

Desert - Cocoa butter slice, balsamic strawberries with mint&chocolate and vanilla icrecream

Needless to say today I am absolutely exhausted and slowly preparing myself before we head up north tomorrow morning to my grandparents costal farm.

Here are some photos of the food below:

Blogged by: Megan

Wolfish Delicacies

cannibalism

Wolves are renowned for their tight-knit sense of community and strength within a pack, which makes it hard to believe that cannibalism is a reality amongst them.

Wolves live in some extreme and harsh climates, meaning they can't be fussy about food when a source becomes available. Trapped wolves in snares will be rapidly torn apart by other wolves if they are not seen to quickly enough and battles between packs can even result in offspring feasting on a slaughtered parent wolf.




http://therustydagger.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/wolves-are-really-scary.html



a plagued taste for humans

 



Wolves in Asia and Europe are recorded to be far more aggressive towards people than wolves in the USA and Canada. The Middle Ages in Europe contributed to the Wolf gaining a taste for humans when the Great Plague hit. Bodies of the dead were mounded on the outskirts of the cities and wolves which were out looking for their next meals were understandably attracted to the buffet of corpses.

Attacks increased and the people of this era even built raised structures along the highways enabling travellers to avoid attacks from the streets by the predatory wolves. Any attacks heightened the fear of wolves and sparked stories of other demonic and supernatural beings like Werewolves and today's popular Vampire.

http://www.werewolves.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/werewolves.jpg

 

European immigrants to America brought Smallpox with them, devastating the Native Indian people. Thousands died due to low immunity and wolves raided villages, devouring the sick and dead.

 

 

power by pack

 

Wolves often eat their prey alive.

 

Their hunting method is to lunge together as one and tear into their victims en masse. Each wolf will tear at a leg, guts or any available part in order to get a piece and often, the unfortunate victim will still be alive.

 

 



http://jesseshunting.blogspot.co.nz/2009/02/from-email-wolf-pack-takes-down-moose.html

 

 

Awesome friends, hair cuts & 3-headed wolves!

Today I wanted to blog about my friend Will - I think he is awesome!

Will & I in Barcelona 2009

Last week I visited the offices of Gladeye to see my good friend Will so he could cut my hair. These are some super funky offices located in Parnell with games to entertain their employees like table tennis, Street Fighter II and heaps of other cool gadgets about the place. Needless to say I am super jealous of Wills working conditions - apparently they also have a masseuse visit the offices once a week so the employees can have a massage! This is my kind of place!

Anyway being the budget girl I am I very much disliked the idea of paying heaps of money for a hair cut and so heard some rumors Will was talented in this area and negotiated with him I would bake him anything he wanted if he could do the cut! I was a bit nervous when he first pulled out some orange handled office scissors to do the job but I have to say I am so happy with the haircut and it was so painless and easy!

Below are the only photos I have since the cut with my hair out - You can kind of see how it sits!

Go multi-talented friends! Thanks Will you are the bomb!

Will & I (with a super excited Tam in the background) at Sophies 21st 2008

Will also showed me the MOST amazing sculpture I have EVER seen.... A 3 HEADED WOLF!

Talk about WOLFE MAGIQUE! Check out the image below!

Blogged by: Megan

Wolfe Fact of the Week - The Hitler Connection

Not that we want to be associated with Hitler in any way, but thought this was an interesting and little known fact, connecting him to the wolf...

Adolph Hitler (whose first name means “lead wolf”) was fascinated by wolves and sometimes used “Herr Wolf” or “Conductor Wolf” as an alias. “Wolf’s Gulch” (Wolfsschlucht), “Wolf’s Lair” (Wolfschanze), and “Werewolf” (Wehrwolf) were Hitler’s code names for various military headquarters.

http://facts.randomhistory.com/interesting-facts-about-wolves.html
 

http://hollywoodprop.com/posters.htm

Wolfe du Jour - Magic Eye!

 

Who remembers these old Magic Eye's?

 

The perfect challenge for today's Wolfe du Jour...

 

 

Fresh Mint & Chilli Sauce for Lamb



Annabel Langbein's Roast Lamb Rack with Chilli Mint Sauce



Here lies the Fresh Mint & Chilli Sauce recipe as served at our mini Christmas dinner, which you  may remember from one of our previous posts.

 

I thought this was the perfect way to mix up a classic roast lamb and is almost a fusion recipe for mint sauce. The beauty is that you can make the chilli as present or distant as you like. I de-seeded the chillis (which is the hottese part of the chilli) due to one of our guests adversion to spice.

 

 

 

 

You will need to first create the Chilli Mint Sauce and for this you will need:

 

 1/4 cup rice vinegar or white wine vinegar

2tbsp sugar

2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp fish sauce

Finely grated rind of 1 lime and its juice (or lemon if you can't get lime)

2-3 minced red chillis (de-seeded or not, to taste)

 

Shake all ingredients together in a jar or sealed container and stand for 1 hour - 24 hours in the fridge.

 In the absence of lime, lemon may be used

 

Next, you will need to Marinate the meat for at least an hour, with the following:

 

1/2 recipe of the Chilli Mint Sauce, as above

2 tbsp fish sauce

2-3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce

1 tbsp oil

2 tbsp chopped, fresh mint

Salt and freshly ground pepper

 

Combine and spread over the lamb. Season with loads of pepper and some salt.

 

 

 

 

Third an additional 5 garlic cloves and poke small spears evenly into the lamb to allow the garlic to infuse throughout the meat during cooking.

 

 

Back the Chilli Mint Sauce which is marinating in the fridge:

 

Pour boiling water over 40 freshly picked mint leave then rinse under cold water immediately.

Drain and finely slice/chop the mint before adding to the sauce.

 

Mix well and serve separately in a ramekin. Drizzle a little over each serving to taste and voila!

 

 

 

 

 The perfect way to mix up Christmas!

 

 

x

 

Beauty update - Turmeric & Coffee face mask

First of all I would like to warn all fair skinned women out there to probably not try this mask - As excellent as it is this mask because is has no oil base can stain your skin! I will be adding a special coffe & chocolate mask to the blog next week which can be used by you whiteys (me included).

Thank goodness you have me to try out these recipes and risk looking like I have cancer of the liver!

Anyway once again I am using Turmeric as my base ingredient - This time I made a heap of paste by combining 2 cups of water to half a cup of turmeric and boiled it on a medium heat. I gave some more to my Dad to try as he has told me he is seeing significant improvements in his skin tone and inflammation since trying my witch craft. I also have noticed a significant evening in skin tone and my cheeks are much less red - The ways of Turmeric, I love this spice!

So the Turmeric & Coffee mask is to be used no more than once a week as the coffee works as a strong exfoliant.

All I did was follow the recipe for making the paste above and add about 1/2 cup of paste to 1/2 cup of used ground coffee. I mixed this all together and applied to my skin. Leave this on for 10-15 minutes until the paste is dried and then proceed to remove with a hot face cloth. If you do try this and experience some staining then all you need to do is apply a little bit of coconut oil to your face and remove the staining gently with a cotton pad.

While I may not be running to try this mask again soon I can confirm that I am no longer yellow and it has been 5 hours since I applied the mask - Thank goodness I work from home!

Blogged by: Megan

Boy child poses as Santa

It is almost Christmas time and although I do not really celebrate Christmas apart from with my close friends it is impossible to avoid this event. So I figure we should just embrace it and enjoy this holiday and feasting time :)

My sister has an amazing well planned list of people that she sends Christmas cards to and thought we could use her small boy child as a model to make cards. I jumped in on the idea as I am obsessed with my nephew and the idea of seeing him dressed up as Santa almost melted my heart.

So I went to Pak'n'Slave and bought a fluffy Santa hat, and with the help of a white sheet for the background and a few pegs to hold the hat to his head I think we achieved something very great!

If you are not into babies then do not scroll down any further... If you love kids as much as I do then be prepared for extreme cuteness. I am biased as he is my nephew but I think anyone can enjoy his massive blue eyes ahhhhh....

Blogged by: Megan

Steak salad with dukkah

My night to cook for the whanau and I was pretty excited about this one as we have recently acquired two new recipe books in the house! 

'Simple Pleasures' by Annabel Langbein (you can also catch her on TV, I really like her... She seems so down-to-earth and has a garden to die for!). And the second Revive Cafe cook book! I was so stoked to hear about this release!!!! The first Revive Cafe book literally changed the way I approached cooking and I have never looked back since - If you haven't heard about it.. GET INVOLVED! It is completely vegetarian but FULL of the most amazing recipes!

Anyway.. Tonight I took a recipe from 'Simple Pleasures' and added my own twist on it, purely because I lacked a few ingredients :)

I won't share the recipe here as I do believe that if you really want it you should buy her amazing recipe book - However if you want to cook it and you are broke like me you can email me and I will lend you a few secrets ;)

I first created a Dukkah mix which for me included: cashew nuts, almonds, sesame seeds, coriander seeds,  cumin seeds and fennel seeds. 

Then I made a balsamic glaze and marinated the sirloin steak in this for a few hours - I also added some extra salt&pepper and coriander. To add some depth and volume to the salad I prepared red peppers, eggplants and pumpkin to grill on the BBQ also.

Needless to say this meal was an absolute HIT with all members of the tribe and we ate well :)

Healthy eating everyone !!!!

Blogged by: Megan

Christmas Dinner with Friends

As you may have seen from some previous posts, Sunday was our Christmas meal together - And we got our feed ON Wolfe style! After spending the last 3 Christmas's in Spain where it is winter time it was so refreshing to be back in NZ and be able to have a meal like this with some of my closest friends on such a beautiful sunny afternoon.

Below are a few pictures of the afternoon/evening - We were lucky enough to be at Kim & Tuckers new house which looks out onto beautiful native bush. We felt so lucky!

Starters I made - all recipes can be found on my friends blog - Details below!

The aftermath..

Chilling on the deck enjoying the afternoon heat.

Roast Lamb with Kim's incredible chili & mint sauce (blog post please! I want this recipe..)

Delicious roast veges with gravy made by Tucker!

My sweetheart!

Jaimee's AMAZING pavlova 

A game of Pictionary to end the evening :)

I personally made the starters which were inspired entirely from my friend Eleanor's blog:

http://www.petite-kitchen.com/

Be sure to check it out - SO many YUMMY creations! And healthy too!

And for your knowledge we took off our yellow crowns after some strange looks from the neighbors.. Tradition people come on!

This is not related but I just wanted to wish you ALL a Merry Xmas and show you how adorable my baby nephew is :)