Facebook Alert

Hi Readers

Just to let you know, while I was supposed to be doing an insane amount of uni work yesterday I instead started up a Facebook Page for Lady Sadie's Emporium.

Would love you to become a fan!

Click on the link to the right of the page to become a fan.

Sarah
x

Beatrix the Bouganvillea

Hello Readers!

As I was driving through my compound yesterday,  I noticed that one of my neighbours had bought some beautiful pot plants for the front of their house. Not to be outdone, I immediately called upon my best Gal Pal in Doha, Catherine to help me tart up the front of our villa. Catherine is quite a keen gardener and knows so much more about gardening than I ever will!

So yesterday afternoon we hot footed it down to our local plant nursery to set about trying to find the best looking plants that were also very easy for me to take care of!

Towards the back of the nursery I noticed a beautiful almost matured bouganvillea tree. I had to have it! And for only $30 I was promised it was a good deal! I would spend ten times that on a pair of shoes so thought Mr D would be only to happy with my new interest in gardening!

Along with my new bouganvillea I also purchased 2 pots which are now filled with pretty white and pink flowers which I have since forgotten the name of but apparently they will flower throughout the year.

The great thing about the Middle East is that every need you have is catered for. There was no way I was going to schlep these plants home and pot them myself but thankfully the lovely man who was helping me did all the hard work for me and even loaded them into the car. All that was needed from my end was to take them from the car to the front of the villa...job done!

Now I'm not the best of gardeners, I tend to forget that I actually  have plants that are in need of TLC but I figure, my new babies are situated right at  my front door, I surely cannot forget to water them...can I? Only time will tell I guess.

I'm now filled with fantasies of being the next Martha Stewart and creating award winning gardens... this will never happen but a girl can dream can't she? Also, no gardener can be complete without cute as a button accessories! I think I'll go all out and kitsch with a bit of pink on pink on pink.

OTT Girly Gardening Accessories

My new pretty pink flowers

Beatrix the Bouganvillea

Champagne and Cupcakes = Inspiration!

Hello Readers!

The Derrigs returned to Doha yesterday after a glorious two weeks in Sydney! The main event was a family wedding. My gorgeous brother in law Paddy married the equally gorgeous Ariel in a wonderful two day celebration! The newlyweds are now enjoying themselves on a romantic honeymoon in Tahiti! Jealous much?!?!

We got up to so much during our stay, the weather was sublime, the scenery to die for and a much needed catch up with family and friends.

I tried to see as much of my best friend Sarah as possible. While gossiping over champagne and cupcakes one afternoon, the talk of my blog came up. Sarah loves my blog, however, she is not a cook and has no interest in cooking and suggested that I add more to my blog than just recipes. She loved reading my blog for the stories and the photos but not so much the recipes! She was right! I have so many interests in life...fashion, photography, cooking, interior design, movies, books the list is endless. So while sipping on our Moet we decided that my blog was going to become an Emporium of all things that interest me in life!

So as you can see, the look of my blog has changed slightly, as has the name! I'm still playing around with the template design, so bare with me! Jetlag is a bitch and I'm suffering severely with it today!

Sparkles Cupcakes in Surry Hills, NSW

Mini Meatloaves

Hi Everyone

Do I have any readers left??? If so, big apologies for not blogging in a very long time. I've seen from my stats page that I'm still getting a lot of daily hits on the blog. It seems my chicken with mushroom sauce is the most popular!

As you would have read in my last post, I went back to work...that lasted two months!

Seems I really am passionate about being a stay at home Mum and while I thought the grass was going to be greener, I missed lazy mornings with Sadie, casual coffee's at the mall, running errands and just a general feeling of peace and happiness playing house.

I have however embarked on a University Degree (all online)! I'm absolutely loving the challenge and while at times I second guess myself, I'm so glad I've taken the big step as it's a dream I have long wished to fulfill!

So why am I back blogging? Well as I'm sure you are all aware my country has been hit with its worst natural disaster. Major flooding has occured in the north eastern state of Queensland. While I'm lucky not to have lost any family or friends in the tragedy I have been sitting at home today feeling a deep sense of loss for those families that are truly suffering right now.

This brings me to food. Food can be so comforting to people during times of hardship and while thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight, I remembered back to my Mum's meatloaf. It is by no means a posh dish, I've always actually been embarrassed to say that I love it as much as I do! However, every year on my birthday I would always ask for two things. 1. I always wanted to go to a fancy restaurant with my family and 2. the next night I wanted my Mum's meatloaf!

My Mum had sent me her recipe ages ago and in the move from Abu Dhabi to Doha I've lost that bit of paper. So for this recipe I've taken what I can remember from my Mum and also added my own touch. What is new about this meatloaf is its presentation. While thumbing through one of Nigella's cookbooks I came across her version of mini meatloaves! They looked irresistibly cute but I wasn't impressed with her recipe. There are no herbs, spices or vegetables in Nigella's recipe and I fear they would be too bland.

Mini meatloaves are great for many reasons but in particular they will make a great packed lunch for my Hubby and you can make a whole batch of them and freeze to use when needed.


Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please send your thoughts and if you pray your prayers to the victims of the QLD floods. If you would like to donate to the victims you can click on this link: http://telethon.smartservice.qld.gov.au/

Enjoy
x

Ingredients - Serves 4
750g mince
1 cup of grated zucchini
1 cup of grated carrot
1 egg
3/4 cup of breadcrumbs
generous squirt of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Spray mini loaf pan with cooking oil (if you don't have a mini loaf pan don't stress, you can mould the loaves with your hands and bake on a cooking tray. Once your tray has been prepped you can start grating the vegetables.

2. In a mixing bowl, add all the indredients together and mix with your hands or a fork until well combined.

3. Divide the mixture into 4 and either place in your mini loaves tray or shape into mini loaves.

4. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.

Lady Sadie's Kitchen Blog Update

Hello Readers!

I know, I know, I know it's been almost 2 months since I last blogged.

Unfortunately my blog has fallen by the wayside as I've got myself a full-time job! Ahhhh!

I'm the new Head Teacher at a Nursery School here in Doha and my days are now starting at 5.30am and by the time I get home all I want to do is chill out with Sadie! So my cooking has taken a big back seat. All I can muster up these days is a bit of Spaghetti Bolognese and some simple stir fry's!

I promise I'll get back to my blog eventually and hopefully it will be in the not too distant future.

I hope you appreciate where I'm coming from and will check back in with me soon for some more fabulous new recipes!

Take care and lots of love
Sarah
x

Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

One of things I miss most about Australia are the apple muffins from Muffin Break. I used to pick one up for breakfast on my way to work each morning and wash it down with a fresh apple juice. When Sadie and I were home in May, we indulged a couple of times at Muffin Break but I didn't feel so guilty as I would share one with Sadie so I was only eating half the calories!!

Last year whilst living in Abu Dhabi I tried an apple & cinnamon muffin recipe and they turned out to be a disaster! Very bitter in taste and too heavy on the cinnamon.

Whilst browsing the shelves at my local supermarket yesterday I came across tinned apples. I thought to myself that maybe....just maybe the sweetness of tinned apples would take away that bitter taste that fresh apples can give you sometimes, especially when we are not spoilt for choice with fresh fruits in this part of the world!

Tinned apples are my savior! It was definitely what was needed in this recipe to lift them to pure sweetness!

Now be warned, when making this recipe the batter is very very thick, much more like a dough than a traditional batter, but don't be put off, a bit of elbow work in the stirring department and all your ingredients will come together to create a very moist sweet sensation of apples and cinnamon.

The recipe makes approximately 24 regular sized muffins however I made 12 and with the remainder of the batter made small loaves which I have since sliced and frozen so they can go in Sadie's lunch box when she starts back at Nursery School next week.

Enjoy
x

Ingredients


2 cups caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup of vegetable oil (I also think you could substitute the oil for apple sauce if you'd like, however I haven't tried this)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 tin of apples

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius (350 fahrenheit). In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla.

In another large bowl, combine all dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the whisked mixture. Remember the batter will be very thick. Stir until everything is combined and then stir through the tin of apples.

Butter and flour your muffin tins or use paper liners. Fill muffin tins to the top and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

Serve warm from the oven is best however, these are suitable for freezing. Great for school lunches!

Chicken Schnitzel with Mushroom Sauce

I know, I know...it's been a month since my last blog! My heart hasn't been in the kitchen over the last few weeks. You see, my Husband was retrenched 4 weeks ago. The last thing on my mind has been cooking and blogging but now things are looking up. Matt has scored himself a new job (well he's still negotiating his contract but we're staying optimistic!) We just aren't ready to leave the Middle East and we will be so thrilled if we get to stay!

It's also Ramadan at the moment and the Middle East comes to a stand still during the day, while Muslims fast and then at sundown it's a whole different story! The city comes to life and it's quite thrilling be a part of it. However, I must say that it's quite boring being at home all day every day but it got me back into the spirit of blogging so I'm back!

I wasn't in the mood to scour through my cook books, nor was I in the mood to try something new or difficult. I just wanted to get in the kitchen and throw a few things together! My Mum makes the BEST chicken schnitzel so that's where I started but I wanted to add an extra layer of flavour and that led me to creamy mushroom sauce.

I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms but for some reason when they're sauted with some shallots, garlic, stock and cream they taste a hell of a lot better! I became ADDICTED to mushroom sauce ten years ago when I was backpacking through Europe. I spent a month in France and I think I had chicken with mushroom sauce almost every night for dinner! I've never made it myself but I figured I would just give it a go, no recipe in sight and you know what....it was delicious!!! I'm sure there are a number of different versions of this sauce but I've kept it very light and simple and not too heavy on the cream.

I also had a new guinea pig to test out the recipe. Our friend John is a bachelor at the moment while his lovely wife Catherine (and my very good friend) is back in the UK with their boys visiting friends and family. I promised Catherine that I would take care of John while she was away as I think she believes John will be on a diet of Pizza Hut and McDonalds for the next month! John was very impressed with the sauce however he did let slip that he makes his own version of creamy mushroom sauce and I think there might be a sauce off in the not so distant future!

This dinner is really easy to make as long as you have all your ingredients chopped and ready to go and you time everything to perfection! I served the chicken with peas and roast potatoes (pure comfort food was needed) but I think it would also be lovely with a fresh salad or french style with garlic green beans and boiled potatoes.

Oh and a quick side note. You can easily serve the chicken as is without the sauce and it's still delicious! Or alternatively the sauce would be great over steak!

I hope you enjoy!
x

Ingredients


Chicken Schnitzel
4 x chicken breasts (I used 2 per person as the chickens here are tiny!)
2 x cups of all purpose flour
4 x eggs beaten
2 x cups of bread crumbs
1 x tablespoon of dried parsley
Salt & pepper for seasoning
Olive oil for shallow frying

Creamy Mushroom Sauce
1 small shallot finely diced
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tablespoon of butter
250g mushrooms (I prefer button but whatever tickles your fancy)
250ml of chicken stock
2 generous tablespoons of thick cream

Method


Place your chicken breasts on a plastic cutting board, cover with cling film and then beat them with a rolling pin or mallet until they are nice and thin. This is great therapy if you're in a bad mood!

Using 3 shallow bowls place the flour in bowl 1, eggs in bowl 2 and combine the bread crumbs and parsley in bowl 3. I also season my flour with a little salt and pepper. Start by dredging the chicken breast in flour, then moving onto an egg bath follwed by a further dredging in the bread crumb mixture. I suggest crumbing your chicken and then chilling in the fridge a few hours before cooking. This will help the bread crumbs adhere to the chicken.

To make the mushroom sauce, start by melting butter in a saute pan over medium to high heat. Once the butter is melted add the garlic and shallots and fry until the shallots are tender and transparent in colour. Now add the mushrooms and cook until tender. Once the mushrooms are tender turn the heat down a little and add the chicken stock and cook until the stock has reduced by half.

While the mushrooms are cooking you can start pan frying your chicken breasts. Heat up enough olive oil in a fry pan to coat the bottom of the pan so that the chicken does not stick. Once the pan is nice and hot add the chicken breasts but do not over crowd the pan. You will need to cook in batches. The chicken should take about 4 minutes per side if they are nice and thin. You will know when the chicken is cooked through when pierced with a knife the juices run clear.

Once your chicken is cooked, add the thick cream to your mushroom sauce and stir until heated through. Serve immediately and enjoy!