​This is one of those pretty desserts that looks just fabulous when served. And what I love is not only does it look beautiful, it tastes beautiful and is it is very easy to prepare. This is a great party dessert as it can be made ahead of time, so when it is time for dessert, all your work has already been done, you just need to serve it.

Use whatever shaped glasses you like, just try not to use really big ones, these sorts of desserts don't need to be huge.​

I tried many strawberry mousse recipes before I finally decided on this Betty Crocker version. This mousse was absolutely delicious. It was fresh, it was creamy, it was lovely.

Strawberry jelly is my preferred jelly here, but I have also tried the new pink glitter jelly which my kids liked.

If your jelly, once set, slides around when you straighten up your glass (this happened with the glitter jelly for me) it is not a problem, just re tilt your glass and pipe the mousse into the glass on the slant, the weight of the mousse keeps the jelly in place, then straighten up your glass and top up with more mousse until it is straight on the top of the glass.

If you don't have piping bags, use a large snap lock bag.

I use a 300ml tub of thickened cream for this recipe. I take out 2 tablespoons for the gelatine, then the rest makes up the 1 cup I need for beating.

If you like, before adding the strawberries to the saucepan, you can pass them through a sieve to remove the seeds, as pictured above. This is completely optional, somes I do, sometimes I don't, below is a picture where I don't. Strawberry seeds aren't too big so I don't mind them.

So if you need a new dessert idea for the young or old and everyone in between, this is a take on strawberries and cream with jelly that your guests will love.

Makes 5-6 depends on size of glasses

1 x 85g packet strawberry jelly crystals
1 cup diced fresh strawberries (approx 125g)
1 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatine
2 tablespoons thickened cream
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries (approx 250g)
1 cup pure icing sugar
1 cup thickened cream, whipped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

​Dollop of whipped cream and fresh berries, to serve
​
Make jelly according to packet instructions. 

Place your glasses in a loaf tin on a slant. Evenly distribute the diced strawberries into each glass. Carefully pour or ladle in your jelly into each glass on the slant.

Allow to set for 3-4 hours or until completely set.
​
For the strawberry mousse: In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatine, add the 2 tablespoons of thickened cream, set aside whilst you prepare the strawberries.

​In a food processor, place the sliced strawberries and the icing sugar. Cover; process until smooth. Pour the mixture into small saucepan, add the softened gelatine. Cook over medium heat, beating with a whisk occasionally, until the mixture comes to a simmer and gelatine is dissolved. Remove from heat, cool for 30-40 minutes.
​
In a small bowl, beat thickened cream with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. 

Carefully fold the whipped cream into the cooled strawberry mixture until well combined.

Place the mousse into a large piping bag and carefully pipe it into your glasses. Refrigerate until set, about 2-3 hours.

​Just before serving, add a dollop of whipped cream and berries of your choice.

Find the recipe at www.whatscookingella.com/strawberry-mousse-jelly-delights.html
​Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060689873459/

​I'd love to know what you think about this recipe, and please let me know if you have made it, I do like to get feedback. Name and comment only required.

​For years I would go to street fairs or food markets and there was always a gozleme stand. It was always the stand with the longest queue. It was always the queue I would stand in, why, because they are delicious and because my daughter would beg me to. You wait and watch as the women roll out gozleme after gozleme, and you tell yourself I need to try and make these, but you never do, as although the women make this look easy, you don't think it will be. And the fillings which should I choose, the spinach and cheese, the spinach, cheese and mushroom, the beef mince one, my goodness the choices. Should I try something new like seafood or sausage or should I stick with the ones I know and love. It really is a long queue, you have loads of time to think about these things. 

But finally, I decided it was time to give this recipe a go, so here you have it, an easy gozleme recipe that you can now make at home, and it tastes like the stall ones. Yes I said it, it really is that good.

Now the dough, this is the scary part, or I thought it was. The dough is super easy to make, especially if you have a free standing cake mixer with a dough hook attachment, it means no hand kneading for you. What I find most important is after the kneading is done, you want the dough soft, but not sticky. I found if it is really sticky, it is hard to roll, and tears easily. So add the flour as per recipe, and if, once kneaded, it feels sticky, add a little more flour.

The dough is fairly easy to work with, it doesn't shrink too much when rolling and it doesn't stick to the work surface. If you find it is sticking, your dough is probably too stick, just lightly dust your work surface with flour.

For me the hardest part of this recipe is lifting the prepared gozleme off the bench and getting it into the frying pan. I find you first need to loosen it a little from the bench, it doesn't stick when rolling, so it is easy to do this. But here is the hard part, using both hands carefully lift it and place in the frying pan, if you get it all messy, you can fix it as best you can in the frying pan. I'm tempted to try and do this on baking paper next time, will let you know if that helps.

As for the filling, I have added mushrooms as optional, I love them in this, so add them if you to love mushrooms. You simply have to slice up the mushrooms, pan fry in a little oil until just softened, then place on a plate until needed. Then scatter over the filling.

Now the original recipe stated this makes 2 gozleme, I get 3 out of mine and they are large. So how many you make will depend on how big your frying pan is.

You also have two ways to make them, you can roll out one round of pastry, top with the filling, then top with another pastry round, seal and fry. Or, you can roll out one dough, place the filling on half of the dough, then flip the other half to enclose the filling, seal then fry. Either way works. Do what you find easier.

So here you have it, home made gozleme. When I make this it is gone so quickly, my family love it. If you love gozleme, you no longer need to wait for the next street fair, you don't need to queue up anymore.

Give these a try, they won't disappoint.

​Recipe adapted from www.notquitenigella.com 
​
Makes 3 gozleme

2 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra for cooking
3/4 cup water

For the filling:
150g Danish Feta
150g baby spinach
8 button mushrooms, sliced, sauted (optional)
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 lemon, cut into quarters

Place the flour and salt in a large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add the olive oil and water. Knead on the lowest speed until it becomes smooth and elastic, it will take about 5 minutes. Feel the dough, if it feels sticky, add a little more flour. Cover the dough with cling film and rest for at least 30 minutes.
​
Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large bowl crumble in the feta, add the baby spinach and egg. Season with pepper, but only a little salt, as the feta can be salty. Season to taste. Mix it all together, until well combined.
​
Divide the dough into 6 even portions (remember you are rolling the pastry out only as large as your frying pan).

Shape the portions into balls, roll out one ball of pastry as thinly as you can get it, then roll out another and try to get the second round slightly larger than the first. 

Top one round with 1/3 of the spinach and cheese mixture, leaving a 1-2cm border. If you are using mushrooms, scatter them over the filling now. Carefully place the other rolled pastry round on top of the the filling, seal the edges by pressing down with fingers.
​
Repeat with the remaining dough and filling, until you have three gozleme.
​
Heat the frying pan on low-medium heat and add about 1 tablespoon oil. Carefully lift one of the gozleme and place it in the frying pan. Fry the gozleme on one side until golden brown, then flip it over and fry until also golden brown. 

Slice into wedges and serve hot with lemon wedges.

Find the recipe at www.whatscookingella.com/spinach-and-cheese-gozleme.html 
​Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060689759694/ 

​I'd love to know what you think about this recipe, and please let me know if you have made it, I do like to get feedback. Name and comment only required.

​For years I was going to Croatian weddings and I would have Sarma. This is not food I grew up on at home. When I was little, my mum made Stuffed Capsicums a lot, but never Sarma. After I got married and left home, my mother learnt how to make Sarma, she likes trying new things, as I do now, and this is how she makes it and now I do to. We all now love it and it is extremely popular at parties when she makes it.

Now this I say is Croatian, as I've only ever tried a Croatian version, however, I'm not sure where it originated.

You can easily use store bought sauerkraut, or very soon I'll post how to make your own. I must confess I do love our own sauerkraut better, but am happy with store bought also.

This recipe can be doubled, just keep layering the sarma in the saucepan, as needed.

​These days you can buy pickled cabbage leaves already separated, if you can't find a whole head of cabbage, feel free to use these.

Rinsing the cabbage and sauerkraut: This all depends on how sour the sauerkraut is. I taste the sauerkraut and cabbage, if I like the flavour, I don't rinse it. If it is strong and very sour, then it needs a rinse, that does depends on the sauerkraut and your taste buds.

I do say to cut off the thick rib of the cabbage, however, I quite like it, so sometimes I leave it in, my mum never would, but I don't like superfine sauerkraut, so I like it. If you cut it out, don't throw it away, slice it up and add the other sauerkraut.

With cabbage leaves you want them to be similar in size, for even cooking, I don't care for just my family, but if I was doing this for others, I would, so you can cut large leaves in half, or join two smaller leaves together as you go, if you want same sized Sarme.

With the mince, you want to gently form a sausage shape in your hands, but don't compress them too hard, you want it to be soft, not dense.​

Now I have written 10-12 tablespoons of soda water, I will explain why. As you are adding uncooked rice to the mince mixture, if you added no soda water, the rice would absorb moisture from the mince and you would be left with hard, dry, boring mince in your cabbage rolls. So I add soda water, so that the rice can draw on that to cook through in the cabbage rolls. I add 3 tablespoons of soda water initially, mix it in with you hands. Now I keep adding soda water, 2 tablespoons at a time, until I feel the mince is moist, but not wet, you don't want a pool of water in the bottom of your bowl. 

Cabbage rolls are tastier the next day, so it a great make ahead meal.

You can also bake them instead. Just assemble and place in a baking dish, place in a preheated 150C for about  2 1/4 hours.

So here is a great dish, that my family loves, hopes yours do to.

Recipe adapted from The Art of Croatian Cooking by Anna Bozin

1 whole head of pickled cabbage
1kg pork and veal mince
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
10-12 tablespoons soda water
Salt and pepper, to taste
60g rice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons ground paprika
800g sauerkraut
200g smoked pork ribs
1 onion, diced
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons plain flour
Enough water to cover the rolls
​
Separate and rinse the cabbage leaves in warm water. Cut off the outer (thick) ribs without damaging the leaves. Set them aside. If the leaves are too large they can be halved.

Place the minced meat in a bowl, add the parsley, salt, pepper, rice, garlic and 1 tablespoon of the paprika. Now add three tablespoons of the soda water, mix it all together. Keep adding more soda water 2 tablespoons at a time, until your mince feels damp, but not wet. (Read notes in intro, regarding the soda water).
​
Place enough filling (about 2 tablespoons) into the centre of each cabbage leaf and roll it up, tucking in the edges. Repeat until all the mince is used up. Cut any remaining cabbage leaves into fine strips and combine with the sauerkraut.

Rinse the sauerkraut, drain thoroughly.
​
Line the bottom of your saucepan with half of the sauerkraut. Arrange the cabbage rolls next to each other in a circle leaving the centre of the circle free. Fill the centre with your smoked ribs. 
​

​If you doubled the recipe, keep layering.

Cover the top with the sauerkraut.

​In a separate frying pan, fry the diced onion in oil until golden in colour. Add the flour and remaining 1 tablespoon of paprika and fry for about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add 1 cup of cold water, stir continuously to prevent lumps from forming, add more water if it is too thick still. Pour the roux over the cabbage rolls.

Now pour over enough water (or stock, you can add a bit of vegeta here if you like), to cover them. ​

​​Cover, place over a medium heat and allow to the sarma to come to the boil. Once it boils, reduce the heat to low, simmer for about 3 hours. Every now and them shake the saucepan to prevent anything sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.

​Serve hot with mashed potato.

Find the recipe at  www.whatscookingella.com/sarma-cabbage-rolls.html 
Pin it: ​au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060689656287/

​I moved to the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney 16 years ago. At first I didn't like it, the place was beautiful, but I had no friends in the area, everyone I knew was an hour away. But over time I made friends, and now I absolutely love everything about the east, well maybe not the morning traffic, but everything else, I love it.

I love that my kids can walk to the beach whenever they want, that my morning coastal walks are breathtakingly beautiful, that we are blessed with a sea breeze in summer. 

So this drink came about as through my daughter I met five of the loveliest dance/school mums. We decided to go away for a weekend and we decided on Berry. My job was to come up with a drink to make while in Berry.

Well I knew it was going to be Berry based, so off to google I go, and I came up with this one. We loved it, it was so refreshing, so delicious, I could drink this again and again. This sangria is full of berries, sparkling red moscato and raspberry liqueur. You can use pink or white moscato if you prefer, all will work here.

This is a great party drink, as you can make it in large pitchers or in those large drink dispensers, you can even make it in a punch bowl, the recipe can be doubled, tripled, it is just so easy to make.

​The original recipe used blueberry vodka, but as I couldn't find it, I used raspberry vodka.

It needs to be chilled, so allow time for that.

 Cheers to family and friends, Cheers to memories made.

​Recipe adapted from www.onesweetmess.com 

Makes 1 large pitcher

1 x 750ml bottle Red Moscato
1/2 cup framboise
1/2 cup raspberry vodka
3 cups mixed summer berries, fresh or frozen
2 cups soda water
​

Add berries to a large pitcher. Add the moscato, framboise and vodka; stir to combine. Place in the refrigerator to chill.

​Top with soda water just before serving. Serve over ice.

Find the recipe at www.whatscookingella.com/summer-berry-sangria.html 
​Pin it: au.pinterest.com/pin/399413060689368884/ 

​This corn chowder is something my kids ask for all the time, they absolutely love this. It is thick, it is hearty, it is basically made up of corn, bacon, potato and milk, ingredients most kids love. I love it as it is so easy and quick to make, it is a meal in itself so you don't need anything else as it is quite filling.

Recently my kids asked for me to make it, but I couldn't find my recipe, it was a cutout from a magazine and I couldn't find it, so I made another one that I found online, it just wasn't the same, we liked it, we didn't love it. Eventually I found my recipe a few days later, made it and we all preferred this recipe to the other one.

The soup is sweet from the corn so I love to add white pepper to it to add a little heat to it. 

You can peel the potatoes if you prefer, I quite like it with the skin on, but sometimes I peel them, my kids love it both ways. 

So if you want to try a hearty soup for your family, try this, it is filling, it is tasty and it is really easy to make.

​1 tablespoon butter
2 brown onions, diced
250g bacon, rind removed, finely chopped
1/4 cup plain flour
3 cups milk
2 cups chicken stock
1kg frozen corn kernels
500g unpeeled Desiree potatoes, cut into 2cm cubes

​To serve, fried bacon, extra (optional)
​
Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.

Add onion and bacon, cook, stirring, for 3-4 minutes or until onion is tender.

Add flour, stirring constantly, cook for 1 minute. 

Combine the milk and stock, slowly add to the bacon mixture, stirring until well combined.

Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Add corn, potatoes, salt and pepper. Return to the boil again, reduce heat to low, simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes or until thickened and the potatoes are cooked. Season again if necessary.

Serve with extra, fried bacon, on top, if desired.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/corn-chowder.html 
Pin it: www.pinterest.com.au/pin/399413060701944536/