Friday Feast

Good morning and welcome to another Friday Feast. For those playing along at home ( or for those who want to ) Friday Feast is a fledgling link up ( which is so fledgling it doesnt even have a linky yet! ) where we each share a favourite recipe - sweet or savoury, dinner or dessert, budget or blue ribbon. It doesnt matter, as long as its delicious!

This week, i thought i'd go with something sweet:

Fruit and Nut Slice ( originally found in Recipes + magazine )
395g can sweetened condensed milk
125g butter, chopped
1tsp finely grated orange zest ( omit if you arent a fan of zest )
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
250g plain biscuits ( such as Arrowroots )
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cups dried fruit of your choice
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
1 1/3 cup milk chocolate melts

1. Grease 26x16cm base baking pan and line with baking paper, leaving over-hang at edges.
2. Combine condensed milk, butter zest and juice in small saucepan. Cook and stir over low heat until butter melts. remove from heat.
3. Process biscuits into fine crumbs. Add biscuit, coconut,dried fruit and nuts to condensed milk mixture. Stir to combine. Press and smooth into prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hr.
4. Melt chocolate in microwave on medium setting in 30 second bursts, removing and stirring in between, until melted and smooth. Spread chocolate over slice to cover evenly. Let cool for 30 minutes or until chocolate is almost set, then cut into squares to serve.
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I've made this slice quite a few times for my mums group meet ups or morning teas, and i gave my dad the recipe so he could make morning tea for his secretaries at work, and it always gets a great reception. Its moist and a bit chewy and nice and sweet with the fruit ( i usually use dried apricot and cranberries, but you could throw in sultanas or glace cherries aswell ) and the best thing about from the cooks perspective? Its no bake! Plus, it uses ingredients that most of us would keep in our pantries, or that we might have left over from something else. Plus, it keeps for 4-5 days in the fridge - although i'm sure it will be all gone by then!

What about you? Do you have a recipe to contribute this week ? Go, do your post, and then come back and leave a link to the post in the comments!

Friday Feast

Am I the only strange person out there who enjoys the preparations for the weeks grocery shop? Let me explain - I do my weekly grocery shopping on a Friday morning. Just me and Flynny-boy. So, on a Thursday night i sit down with various cookbooks and food magazines and plan out the weeks menu, and write out an appropriate shopping list. I love pouring over the magazines, trying to find recipes that not only sound delicious but that are relatively healthy and that i can make on a budget. I check the ingredients list to see if it has a lot of pantry staples ( thus saving me money not having to buy heaps of ingredients i wont use regularly ) and for things i'm going to be cooking on the 3 days that i work i like to find meals that are relatively quick and easy to prepare. I really do enjoy it, even down to the 3 separate places i need to stop ( greengrocers, meat centre, supermarket ) to get the groceries done.

I also enjoy gathering new recipes that i can make for my family - hence the love of food magazines over cookbooks, and an affinity for the Taste website. So, my question to you loyal reader types is: would you be interested in sharing? I would love to start a " Friday Feast " link up, where we get to share our favourite recipes, whether they be sweet or savoury, and especially if they were budget recipes ( isnt everyone tight on money these days? ). Let me know in the comments if its something you would take part in and if i get enough takers everyone prepare for next week!