I love experimenting in the kitchen and sometimes I even come up with a real winner. Here are some of my best inventions. Not counting the puddings – they are mostly made up on the spot and then forgotten about until I get asked to please make ‘that’ pudding again by someone who was at whatever occasion I made it for. And then I have to confess that I have no idea what I did that time. Puddings are always winners – I mean you can’t go wrong there. So by creating this page I have somewhere to record those puddings in future.

Kitzapeesh

First step is to make a tomato-onion gravy. Usually when I do this I grate the tomatoes but for Kitza-peesh the tomato must be chopped. Once that is ready, grate a bunch of cheese. Then put a large pan on medium heat with a little oil in it. Now beat up 3 or 4 eggs (depending on the size) and mix enough flour to make it thick but not stiff.

Pour the egg mixture into the pan. It should spread out a bit and you should spread it out further with the back of a spoon or fork. Bring it near the edges of the pan but not all the way.

Using a slotted spoon so that the juice is left behind, spoon tomato-onion gravy over the base. Cover with grated cheese and close the pan. Turn the heat down to very low and leave it until the egg is cooked and the cheese melted.

You can vary your seasoning in the tomato-onion gravy and be creative with the toppings eg. Put Italian herbs in the gravy and add olives and feta before you top with the grated cheese.

Broccoli Soup

Cook a whole head of broccoli in salted water until easily pierced by a fork but not falling apart. Drain but reserve the water.

Put the pot back on the stove on medium heat. Add some butter/olive oil. Chop a small onion and fry until turning brown. Cut the centre stalks from the broccoli and chop up – not too small – and add to the onion. Fry for a few minutes then add a heaped Tablespoon of flour and stir well. Add milk a bit at a time and stir well until it thickens before adding more. Use altogether about half to two thirds of a cup of milk. Then add the water from cooking the broccoli and the flowers. Stir well, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve with crusty bread rolls.

Optional: Stir in ½ cup of grated cheese just before serving.

Dangerous Stuff

The reason I called this ‘Dangerous Stuff’ is because it is impossible to stop eating it. You can close the container and put it away but 10 minutes later you will find that you are eating it again and wont know how it happened. Besides, I have no idea how many calories/cholesterol it contains.

You need a bag of Cerix (puffed wheat) but the non-sweetened variety. It’s becoming hard to find these days. Also peanut butter, oil and golden syrup as well as sesame seeds.

In a pot on the stove on low heat mix 1 cup of peanut butter with ½ cup of golden syrup and ½ cup of oil. (Sunflower or Coconut are best).

Pour the Cerix into an oven tray and pour enough syrup over to coat them all. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and put under a hot grill. You need to sit in front of it with the oven door open. Every few minutes, take it out and stir it all around before putting it back. Once they are all nicely browned pour them onto another tray to cool and do the next batch, until all the Cerix and syrup are used up. After they are fully cooled down, you can eat them. While they are still warm they are not so good and crisp. Store in an airtight container.