End of a Hectic Week

This week was a busy one for me.  It's the start of midterm season, so just as a heads-up I may not be posting as often as usual in the next few weeks since I *should* be doing revision instead of writing blog posts! After two in-class essays this week, I thought I deserved a treat so I went out and bought a new cookbook and some nice groceries to make some new dishes with, as well as some ingredients for a thanksgiving recipe that I will be trying out over the weekend.

I bought The Australian Women's Weekly Fast cookbook from the bookstore on campus. I looked for it online, and I can't find it anywhere else, but if you do spot it in a shop, it has lots of tasty-looking recipes for quick meals and snacks.
I made a couple of things but slightly adapted the recipes to incorporate the ingredients I had, and they turned out really well.

Kiwifruit and Mint Frappe
The original recipe calls for four kiwi fruit and only half a cup of apple juice, but kiwis are really expensive, and I think I like this version better than if it had that much kiwi.  You still get the kiwi taste, but it is light and very refreshing. Use cloudy apple juice - you want it to be tart and flavourful.

2 Kiwi fruits, peeled and chopped into chunks
3/4 cup ice cubes
1 cups apple juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
1 teaspoon caster sugar

put all the ingredients into a blender and whizz until smooth!


Tomato, Pesto and Olive Tart
So, I meant to put olives on the tart, but I completely forgot! I also used feta instead of ricotta, which worked really well. I also substituted balsamic vinegar for italian herbs - well, not exactly, but I didn't fancy vinegar on the tomatoes, but I did fancy italian herbs, so there you have it.

400g cherry/grape tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried italian herbs
1 portion frozen puff pastry
2 tablespoons basil pesto
1/3 cup seeded black olives
as much feta cheese as you want

preheat the oven to 220C/435F


cut the tomatoes in half, then, in an oven-proof dish, combine them with the olive oil and herbs.  Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
Roll out the pastry into a rectangle, then place on a baking tray.  Fold over the edges of the pastry to make a crust; prick the base with a fork. Put a tray or dish on top of the pastry to stop the base puffing up, then bake for 10 minutes.  Take out the pastry and turn the oven down to 200C/395F.
Spread the base with the pesto, then top with the tomatoes and olives, and crumble the feta on top.  Bake for another ten minutes, then it is ready to serve.
Serve a piece with some greek salad on the side!