Here in New Zealand we will be asked to "bring a plate" to a social gathering. This request has thrown many new immigrants, even from England, so I assume it is a New Zealand thing. Many a new New Zealander has turned up with their empty plate wondering why they need to bring one! Maybe the hosts have a limited supply?  Well yes, sometimes that is the case.

Sometimes we are also asked to bring a glass. But they do not mean the same thing. Asked to bring a glass you just need a vessel for drinking out of. Asked to "bring a plate" you are expected to have something tasty on it to share with the other people!

Sometimes as in all cultures, we like to take something to give our hosts when they have invited us for a meal. I had two events last week. The first I was to "bring a small plate to share". Along with my own glass......for wine. Lots of yummy wines for tasting , which were the remains of a Wine Tasting Competition.

My dilemma....what to take to eat. This would be a meal for some. I decided on a Smoked Chicken Quiche, but decided it would be easier for people to handle small individual tarts. I had all the ingredients except the pastry. I must confess I was tempted to jump in the car and head to the supermarket .....but realized it would be quicker and more painless to actually whip up a batch in the kitchen whizz, and it would certainly taste better too.

Flour, butter and water with a pinch of salt . Not too much in the way of ingredients. The main trick with pastry is not to over handle it, and it needs to be cold before it goes in the oven. Using iced water also helps.

I am a lazy cook when it comes to pastry. I haaaaate having to roll it out. So I don't!
I press the soft pastry into the individual pans.....or even a big pan if I was making say a quiche or tart. Then I put the whole tray in the fridge while I mix up the filling.

It turns out beautifully every time.

It is really handy to keep an airtight container full of pastry shells. The second event where I needed a plate of something nice to eat, we were invited to a neighbours for dinner and to watch the rugby. While we were told just bring the wine......the several bottles we got to take home from the Wine Tasting a couple of nights earlier, I know our neighbour loves to have a dessert. He is an amazing cook but doesn't usually do the sweet course.

Again a dilemma. I was feeling a little lazy and had limited time. Aaaahhhhh......I know. I had some  sweet chocolate mini pastry shells I had made several months prior. Would they still be edible? Well.....not only were they edible, they were as tasty and delicious  as the day they were made.

Because they were chocolate flavoured,  I filled them with marscapone flavoured with orange rind and juice, and cointreau for a little kick. Using my favourite cake icing nozzle I filled each mini case, topped with a chip of dark chocolate and they looked great. They tasted pretty good too! I don't usually add sugar, but would have added a tablespoon of castor sugar  if a sweeter filling was required.

Sweet short pastry is just as easy to make in your kitchen whizz and  as I have said can be stored for some time. So keep a little stash in your cupboard for emergencies! You can fill them with any number of fillings.

Another really delicious filling is marscapone mixed with a good lemon curd. It  is quick, easy, and really delicious......especially with some berries on top!

Till next time , Gail

PS I'll put some pastry recipes up in the next few days

I don't know about you but I am often put off trying a recipe that has too much sugar. Somehow I just can't bring myself to make a cake that has three cups of sugar....or even two.Even if it is a large cake like the Lemon Coconut Cake Recipe.  I often cut back the sugar in my baking by around a third and have so far had absolutely no detrimental effects to the end product.

When I am baking fruit pies or crumbles....I NEVER put sugar in the fruit unless it is rhubarb or tamarillos which are very tart.Then I will use a tablespoon of brown sugar which is usually just enough to sweeten things up nicely.

Pastry and scones  will usually only need one or two tablespoons of sugar. I find there is invariably other ingredients that help sweeten things.Make your baking too sweet and these days many people are not wanting to eat it, I find.

That is why my No Butter, Sugar or Eggs Favourite Fruit Cake Recipe is always so popular. The orange in it does the sweetening along with the dried raisins.

If you are concerned about too much sugar in a recipe, I would be very surprised if you have a problem if you reduce the amount of sugar. What are your experiences?

I had a lunch to go to and decided to make these yummy looking muffins that appeared to be similar to some I buy at a bakery when we are travelling north on holiday that I really loooove!

Filled with grated carrot, walnuts and sunflower seeds, raisins and other quite healthy goodies I mixed up the batter just with white flour, and was quite surprised that it required 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder. I was looking forward to these muffins rising quite a lot and filled the paper patty pans level with the top expecting them to rise well above this.

So I was really disappointed when they barely rose at all. I made sure not to over mix the batter. They  were in the middle of the oven and I didn't open the door until they were cooked, so I am wondering if the baking powder may be off despite being in a screw top sealed container, but only a  few teaspoons left .

They were very tasty and everyone really liked them despite their rather small size. Definitely ladylike!

I will try them again soon with a new batch of baking powder to see what happens.