Back in the kitchen for the August ‘Womens and Girls Night’ and we all went for a Spanish adventure!!

Starting off with cups of tea while we talked about our week (or month) and Lindy arrives in a whirl with all the ingredients for Spanish donuts call Churro’s and a chocolate ganache. Yum, we can’t wait to get started. Lindy said the Churro dough needed to be made early and left to sit before cooking so some of us mixed dough while others chopped for the Paella.

We made a start chopping up the veggies for the Paella while the women told us about the importance of a sharp knife and Kate showed us the amazing power of a microwave, which we used the microwave to melt the chocolate ganache. The younger girls stirred in a carton of stock with the rice and then watched all the veggies slide in until it was more like a mountain than ingredients in a cooking pot.

Pam explained that you have to keep on stirring the big pot otherwise the rice sticks to the bottom and you end up with a burnt plate of food. The room was buzzing and the aromas that were swishing around the room were intoxicating and making everyone hungry and wanting to gobble down the food.

We ate the Paella first sitting around the table and with lots of chatter. It tasted good and everyone was excited to try something new.

Back to the kitchen and we put the Churro dough into a piping bag and piped out long snakes into hot oil. They looked so funny like bloated sausages and we were all laughing as we fried them in a big wok filled with bubbling oil – we had to be very careful here so we let the older ladies turn them over to cook them on both sides. Waiting until they were ready seemed to eat seemed to take forever- so we ate our Spanish Paella first.

As we trooped back into the kitchen we marvelled at how well we had pulled off the Paella and hoped that the Churro’s would be just as good, then Pauline pulled the sheet off a plate she had brought in and showed us the AMAZING Spanish orange cake! We all took the recipe so that we could have a go at making it at home…unfortunately we didn’t have time to make it on the night. Thanks Pauline!

Robby helped with the Churro’s while Pauline and Caitlin whispered cooking secrets…

The Churro’s tasted great and so did the orange cake- but we were so full I don’t think any of us would’ve been eating again for a while!!

- by Lulu

On Tuesday night the very first Girls night began, as we all huddled around the kitchen oven hoping to grab a bit of warmth and a good girly catch up.

We soon discovered that on a girl’s night the first course can be changed to yummy wedges with sauce and some good old fruit! Our next discovery, to our delight, was that we had a delicious recipe for apple and stewed quince. We embarked on this exciting journey learning the many kitchen pro’s and con’s with hopes that it would turn out just as good as it sounded!

Along to the sounds of some great music, we munched, chatted, peeled and chopped as we read our way through the recipe, our mouths watering at the thought of this delicious cake!

First we grabbed all our ingredients out of the bags that the leaders had brought with them and sorted out what was what, and what else we needed.

Sifting our flour was a trickier thing than expected! Flour was every where..as were some of the eggs as we practised breaking them in a variety of ways!! Luckily some of our experienced cooks were on hand to pass down those secrets that only girls know.

Whipping was definitely a fun experience for all of us, taking turns to whip eggs, add sugar, check the rise of the peaks; a new experience for us all!

After our many fun adventures in Sunset Rocks kitchen we finally sat down to a nice warm dessert…that certainly was as good as we had hoped after all!

by Lulu