What You Need:

• 1 doz oysters
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1/2 onion
• cheese, finely grated
• salt and pepper

What You Need To Do:

Heat the oven to 170 degrees and line a baking tray with scrunched up foil or baking paper. This helps to hold the oysters upright. Finely dice the onion and the tomato, mix together and place a spoonful on each oyster. Season with the salt and pepper and then sprinkle on the grated cheese. Place the tray in the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown.

If you are serving them nicely, as opposed to eating them straight off the baking tray as he did, (well it was Sunday night dinner, you know the toasted sandwich/leftovers/make your own type of dinner!) place some rock salt on a plate before putting the oysters on top. This will keep them upright so all the juice doesn’t run out. Serve with some lemon wedges.

What You Need:

• Turkish Bread
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Baby english spinach leaves
• Onion finely sliced
• Cucumber
• Cherry tomatoes
• Fetta cheese

What You Need To Do:

There are a few ways to make this really tasty.  You can simply toast the bread in the toaster or under the grill but if you really want to ramp up the flavour brush the bread with some oil and grill it on a hotplate, the bbq is perfect!

Once the bread is toasted, put it on the plate you are going to serve it on because you don’t want to be moving it around too much!  Drizzle some of the oil over the bread to moisten.  Layer the spinach, cucumber, tomato, onion and fetta over the bread and pour a little more oil over the salad.  Next tip a little of the balsamic over the top.  You need to moisten the salad enough so some of the oil and vinegar mix and soak into the bread a little ( this is divine!).  Season with a little salt and pepper and dig in!

It’s a really easy and quick meal to make and really flexible with the ingredients.  I usually try to use red onion but I didn’t have any today so I had to use brown.   You can even reduce the balsamic over a low heat and add some brown sugar to sweeten it up if you like.  This makes a really tasty sticky dressing that is perfect with the fetta!  Enjoy and I will try to take some more photos soon!!

What You Need:

• 1 sheet puff pastry
• 1/2 bunch spinach (silverbeet)
• 6 rashers bacon
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• salt and pepper

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.  Wash and finely chop the spinach and cook it with the olive oil and the garlic, until wilted.   Transfer this to a dish and let sit for a while.

Finely chop the bacon and fry in the same pan as the spinach and garlic.  Cook lightly, about 3 minutes, then drain on paper towel.

Cut the thawed pastry sheet into 4 equal squares and place each square into a muffin tin hole.  Remember to spray the tin first!!

Make sure the spinach is not too wet, you may need to lightly squeeze out the excess liquid and divide equally between the four pastry cases.  Divide the bacon and then carefully crack an egg into each case.  It is good to crack the egg into a bowl first so if you break the yolk you can use it for something else because they look better with the yolk whole.  Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven

Cook for about 10 minutes, depending on how you like your eggs and whether the pastry is golden brown and flaky.

Serve with some rocket and a light dressing and some cherry tomatoes.  You could also add some fetta cheese or put the cherry tomato with the spinach and bacon, for some extra flavour.  Makes 4.

What You Need:

Filling

• 250g cream cheese
• 1 x 400g tin condensed milk
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Base

• packet of sweet biscuits, crushed ( Nice or Butternut Snap)
• 1/3 cup melted butter

What You Need To Do:

Crush biscuits into a fine crumb, mix with melted butter and press into base of springform tin. Refrigerate while making the filling.

Mix, with an electric beater, cream cheese, condensed milk and vanilla until very smooth.  It helps if the cream cheese is at room temperature.  Mix in the lemon juice and pour into the base.   Refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours.  Top with your favourite flavours, or serve, as is, with some delicious thick cream.

Update : looks like Alvin’s new website is at : Cinnamon Pig > http://cinnamonpig.com.au/

What You Need:

Cooked cake

• Icing
• Chocolate to melt
• sticks
• assorted lollies for decorating

What You Need To Do:

This is such a fun thing to make. I haven’t listed any quantities because it’s all about the consistency of the mixture rather than the amount of each product! Basically you need to break up the cooled cake into fine crumbs and mix in some icing or you can buy the ready made tins of frosting. Mix it well until it is fudge like and roll into balls. Using the stick pierce a whole in the bottom of the ball ready to take the stick when you dip them. Place these into the freezer on a baking sheet until they are firm.

I made skulls, so I shaped them a little so when they were dipped in the chocolate you could see the indentations for the eyes and the cheeks. The werewolves were just rounded cylinders. You can make any shape you like!!

Melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water. Dip the end of the stick into the chocolate and place it into the hole you made earlier. The choc helps it to stay in place. Now dip the whole cake ball into the melted chocolate. Tap it a few time to get rid of any drips. It helps to have a box or piece of styrofoam ready to stick the pops into so they can set.

Have your lolly decorations ready to stick on the setting chocolate. I waited until the white choc had set and then used a tube of black icing to draw on the skull features and then stuck the eyes into the icing. For the werewolves I dipped them, let them set and then brushed on some more choc on the front, waited for it to start setting and then used a skewer to mark the choc to look like the hair and then quickly stuck the eyes, nose and teeth on!! Fiddly, yes, but they turned out pretty good!

The kids absolutely loved them and they sold out at the disco!! The great thing about these is you can make any type you want for whatever occasion! Check out Bakerella for fabulous inspiration, they are sensational!!!

What You Need:

• 2 cups self raising flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 cup of sultanas
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup mashed banana
• pinch salt

What You Need To Do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line the base of a loaf pan about 23×15 cm

Start by sifting the flour with the baking powder, salt and cinnamon then stir in the sugar and the sultanas.  You could use dates or raisins if you don’t like sultanas.  You could leave them out altogether or add crushed walnuts for a change.  Thats what I like about this recipe, it’s a really pantry friendly!

Combine the milk, beaten eggs and the mashed banana and whisk until well combined.  Use a metal spoon and stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.  Pour the batter into the pan and place some sliced banana along the top for a nice effect!

Cook for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  Allow it to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack.

It is delicious warm, and is so moist that it doesn’t need any butter or anything!  It is quite a dense cake, and because there is no fat in the recipe, it might not keep as long as other breads so you could keep it in the fridge ( if it lasts that long!) You could also toast it under the grill and have it for breaky with a nice cup of tea!