vicky's birthday brunch

the english speakers' craft group gets together once a month to knit, or work on anything else they might be doing at the time, and although i haven't been at many of their meetings i try to make it as often as i can (i.e. when i don't have any urgent translation deadlines to meet). this week the crafty ladies decided to throw vicky a surprise birthday brunch on craft morning. and although not much crafting actually got done at the meeting everyone worked hard creating a large assortment of scrumptious brunch food to bring to the party. there were borakus, quiches, blinches, salads, cheeses, bread, different types of fish, cake and cookies...and of course any aspirations i might have had of sticking to my diet were left outside in the dust.

here are the recipes for the things that i made, which i promised to some of the ladies...

focaccia

this recipe is so easy and fun to make.

51/2 cups bread flour (i used regular white flour)
1 package powdered yeast
11/2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water
4 tbs olive oil

coarse salt, fresh rosemary, dried oregano (or basically any other type of topping you feel like using).

1. pre heat over to about 180oc

2. place four, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl (if you want you can also add some fresh/dry herbs in here).

3. stir the water and 3 tbs of the olive oil in with a wooden spoon (i usually just put it all together in the mixer and let the mixer do the hard work) and beat for 5 minutes.

4. cover bowl with a clean towel and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for about 40 minutes (it should double in size).

5. place dough on a floured surface and gently knead for one minute.

6. divide the dough in half and place each half on a baking sheet. press each half out.

7. cover with clean towels and leave to rise for about 30 minutes.

8. make indentations all over the surface of the focaccia with your fingertips, brush each one with the remaining olive oil.

9. sprinkle with coarse salt (and herbs).

10. put in the oven for 15-20 minutes (until golden brown)

11. take out and enjoy.

tehina cookies

2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup tehina paste
200g butter – soft (or margarine if you are making them parve)
2 tsp vanilla essence
almonds for decoration

1. warm oven to 180 degrees c.

2. mix all ingredients together

3. place 5 cm apart on baking tray.

4. bake 15 - 20 mins. don't let them get brown.

cabbage salad

1 carrot
1 onion
1/2 cabbage
1/2 vinegar
1/2 oil
1/2 sugar
salt
2 tsp dijon mustard

chop the carrot, onion and cabbage finely, place in bowl and mix together.

mix the vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and mustard together on a low heat until it is mixed well.

pour over the veggies and mix together.

the delish birthday cake which my mom made for vicky

thank you all (especially you, mom) for the wonderful morning. looking forward to the next one.