Recipies
Our newsletters contain awesome recipes! The links below will take you to the newsletter archive containing the full recipe.
Anita's Chunky Tomato Sauce Recipe
A great way to use up home grown tomatoes, and perfect for pizzas, pasta, lasagne etc.
Anita's Mince Pies Recipe
Getting into the Christmas spirit, you can make these in a big batch to share with the whole family.
Georgia's Baked Camembert Recipe
Simple but delicious, perfect for a winter evening in front of the fire.
Anita's ANZACs Plus Recipe
This is a super easy recipe that Anita's adapted, and as it's Anzac Day shortly, it seemed timely.
Kiwi Crisps
One of Anita's favourite cookie recipes, ideal for Christmas baking to give away as gifts.
Chocolate Baileys Cheesecake
This delicious cheesecake can be made with Baileys or any other cream liqueur, and it only takes 20 minutes to prepare!
Lemon Curd
You can store this curd for up to ten days… if it lasts that long! It goes great as a filling in friands, on top of pancakes, or straight out of the jar.
Anita's Easy Artisan Bread
Perfect for potluck dinners, or to go with our Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe.
Georgia's Raspberry Vanilla Spritz Mocktail
A mix of fruity and refreshing, this drink is the perfect drink for summer!
Ena's Scotch Rolls
A fantastic recipe from Andrew's mum that goes perfectly with a nice hot soup.
Spaghetti Aglio Olio e Peperoncino
This is a classic but delicious spaghetti dish with garlic, oil and chilli.
Andrew's Margaritas
Andrew's developed a bit of a reputation for making awesome Margaritas. With summer on its way, these are a must on hot afternoons!
Gluten Free Flatbread
Great for platters with harissa spiced chicken pieces, tzatziki, hummus, halloumi and whatever other bits and pieces you have.
Tomato Chilli Jam
Anita has had so many tomatoes and chillies out of her vege garden this year that she's been making all sorts of sauces. This Tomato Chilli Jam is a Ruth Pretty recipe and is so easy and good we know you'll enjoy it.
Dry Rub and Spicy BBQ Sauce
Anita loves using her outdoor pizza oven for all sorts of things, and her spicy smoked pork roast with her bbq sauce has become a much requested item at pot luck dinners. The secret ingredient is the spice rub that is used to put on the pork also goes into the sauce mix.
Spicy Chorizo Pie
An old favourite! Very simple to make and so tasty, either hot or cold, for lunch. Alternatively serve it for dinner with boiled new potatoes and a green salad, and some Branston pickle on the side!
Gluten Free Berry Friands
Georgia was diagnosed last year as being coeliac so it’s meant a few adjustments in her way of eating. She loves experimenting and has found this friand recipe from Sally Holland’s Goodbye Gluten recipe book
Roasted Tomato Soup
A super easy and tasty recipe to use up extra tomatoes. No added sugar so perfect for those of us trying to cut that out of our diets.
Pomegranate Braised Beef Pie with Polenta Dumplings
Nothing can beat a slow-cooked meal on a rainy day. This recipe serves 6 but the leftovers make great winter lunches.
Christmas Cookies / Coconut Kisses
A special Austrian recipe from Carmen great for Christmas festivities and special occasions!
Tomato Sauce Recipe for Pizza or Pasta
A tasty, versatile tomato sauce which can be easily doubled/tripled to freeze and use another day for another dinner!
Heather's Toasted Muesli Recipe
A delicious breakfast recipe to make your own muesli at home. Add your choice of nuts, seeds and dried fruit.
Alison's Christmas Turkey Stuffing & Gravy Recipe
Christmas Turkey (or chicken) needs a good tasty stuffing and heaps of yummy gravy. These recipes are how Anita's mum (Alison) makes stuffing & gravy (also great on Boxing Day with the leftovers and bubble 'n' squeak!)
Georgia's Corn Fritter Recipe
Perfect for using leftover corn on the cob – and with summer on the way there'll be plenty of that around!
Hugo's Crepe Recipe
Quick, easy and delicious! Perfect for Sunday brunch at home.
Chelsea Winter’s White Chocolate & Berry Cheesecake
Anita's made this cheesecake a couple of times and it is simply the best. So easy too! Definitely a winner for the Christmas dessert option.
Jo Mackenzie’s Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie Recipe
Jo has dealt with us for years and is a lovely bubbly person. She gave Anita this recipe a few weeks ago and we thought it was perfect for autumn. Anita made it for the boys here and they loved it! Enjoy
Georgia’s Recipe
Tartiflette (A real French Christmas time/ winter dish)
Also this recipe MUST be read with a horrible french accentMerry xmas Serves 4
Julie’s Recipe
Simple Seafood Tapas
185g tin crabmeat or any other fish (ie prawns/scallops etc) Drizzle with 1 tbsp lemon juice
River Cottage Pear & Almond Cake
The perfect dessert for a cold winter’s night. You can even watch it being made on Youtube by Hugh from River Cottage.
Julie’s Recipe
Julie is one of our wonderful customers who’s used us for years – not only for her car but also for her golf cart! When she was in the other day her and Anita got talking about recipes and Julie volunteered a couple of hers – here’s the first. Hope you enjoy it.
EASY SPICED RHUBARB CAKE
Summer Recipe – Moroccan Chicken with Couscous Salad & Harissa sauce
This recipe is a joint effort creation by Anita & Georgia.
RECIPE – SIMON GAULT’S INDIAN SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP
Anita’s made this a few times and it is the best soup ever! Anita has doubled Simon's recipe because sometimes you want to go back for seconds…
Reader’s Recipe
ANIL’S FIJIAN INDIAN CURRY
Anil is our cleaner (Five Star Cleaning). He comes in every Tuesday morning, and loves to have a good yak about everything, while he’s working - especially music! Anita convinced him to give her his Fijian Indian curry recipe, and man is it good. Here’s the recipe, with grateful thanks to Anil (who’s an awesome cleaner if you ever need one!)
Reader’s Recipe - Ena Simmonds’ recipe for HOT CROSS BUNS
Andrew’s mum makes the best bread rolls and Hot Cross Buns! You need compressed yeast for it. You can convert the recipe to dry yeast but compressed yeast makes a much nicer product.
If you go and see the lovely man at Brumbys on Tutanekai Street and tell him I sent you, you can buy compressed yeast from him. But you might just decide to buy his as an easier option!
Georgia's Recipe
This season’s recipe is actually from our daughter, Georgia.
I discovered an Annabel Langbein salad recipe last summer.
Georgia has adapted and it’s just lovely. It shows the Moroccan influences from Abracadabra where she works part time!
Moroccan Chicken Salad (serves 4-6)
Anita’s Recipe (actually it’s Andrew’s this time!)
Andrew has always loved Cornish Pasties and especially the ones at the Night Market! He found a recipe and made them for us recently. The secret is in the pastry which I made in the food processor. He did all the rest and loved them! This recipe makes 2 pasties (but easily doubled if necessary).
Cornish Pasties
ANITA’S RECIPE
Since the weather has gotten colder, I’ve been making my version of a spicy vegetable soup. I’ve got a basic recipe that I use, but it really depends on what vegetables are in the house at the time. A “must have” ingredient though is good chicken stock. Whenever I make a roast chicken, I always make stock out of the carcass (just throw it in my crockpot, cover in cold water and leave it going on slow over night). Then I freeze it and use it when I want to make soup! I usually slice up some chorizo sausage to put in for extra oomph, but you don’t have to.
Spicy Vegetable Soup
Anita's Recipe
In my very first Annabel Langbein book (I have a fair collection of them now); there is a recipe for Spicy Chorizo Sausage Pie. I used to make it regularly before we had the kids, but now they are older and can handle a bit of spice, I have rediscovered it and I get requests for it all the time! Very simple to make and so tasty, either hot or cold, for lunch. Alternatively serve it for dinner with boiled new potatoes and a green salad, and some Branston pickle on the side! Enjoy.
Spicy Chorizo Sausage Pie
ANITA’S RECIPE
On 4 December our daughter, Georgia flew out to France for a 3 month student exchange. She is living in a little village called Lencloitre. It is winter there now and she will be having a very cold (maybe white) Christmas with her host family. So I thought it only appropriate that I give you a French recipe for this year’s Christmas treat!
We have a huge walnut tree at our place and last autumn I collected a huge amount of walnuts off it. I found this recipe on www.frenchentree.com while looking for something to do with our haul! It is deliciously rich and you only need a very small portion!
WALNUT TART (QUERCYNOISE TARTE AUX NOIX)
ANITA’S RECIPE
We had friends over for dinner recently and I made a Thai Green Curry. I thought it might be a bit hot for the kids, but they all loved it. It is so simple if you use a jar of green curry paste (I use the Volcom one). I also make it in a wok, but if you don’t have one a frypan will be fine. This recipe will feed 4 easily, but can be doubled for a crowd. I don’t know how authentic it is, but very tasty!
Thai Green Curry
Anita's Recipe
I have been making a very simple potato bake that everyone really enjoys, even Georgia’s friends ask for it when they come for sleepovers! Credit for the basic recipe must go to our friend Dean’s sister Lauren who was over from Oz a few months ago and made it for us one night (although I have added the garlic and cheese touches!)
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
Anita's Recipe
Our kids’ favourite thing for me to make is Chicken Satay, so I though I’d give you my satay sauce recipe. It’s so easy and adaptable – I not only make it for this, but you can make Beef Satay instead, I add it to stir fries, have it as a sauce on the side at bbq’s and it probably gets made at least once a week at home. Sometimes I make kebabs with red and green peppers, red onions, mushrooms and courgettes and serve those with the sauce.
Simple Satay Sauce
ANITA’S RECIPE
On 4 December our daughter, Georgia flew out to France for a 3 month student exchange. She is living in a little village called Lencloitre. It is winter there now and she will be having a very cold (maybe white) Christmas with her host family. So I thought it only appropriate that I give you a French recipe for this year’s Christmas treat!
We have a huge walnut tree at our place and last autumn I collected a huge amount of walnuts off it. I found this recipe on www.frenchentree.com while looking for something to do with our haul! It is deliciously rich and you only need a very small portion!
WALNUT TART (QUERCYNOISE TARTE AUX NOIX)
Anita's Recipe
There’s hardly anyone I know that doesn’t like Caramel Slice. This recipe is so simple that Georgia makes it most of the time for us. Absolutely yummy with a cuppa!
Highlander Caramel Slice
Anita's Recipe
I found this crockpot packet mix in the supermarket a few weeks ago and it is very yummy! I don’t usually do a lot of packet mix meals, but sometimes when you want something easy to prepare you can’t go past them. Our kids love it and it’s very moreish! I usually do this on a night when the kids have their sports practice on in town, so we come home to this yummy sausage and tomato casserole all ready just to throw on some toast! The secret is to add the chilli beans as they really add something special to it.
Sausage and Tomato Casserole Crockpot
Anita's Recipe
With winter coming, it’s just about time for me to haul out the crock pot again. I usually get it all ready the night before, then take it out of the fridge in the morning and turn the whole thing on low. It’s great coming home in the cold evenings to the smell of dinner cooking and all I have to do is scrub some potatoes (or even just throw the casserole onto some toast if we want something extra easy!) Now I don’t know if you can call this an actual recipe, (it's kind of a goulash I guess) as it always varys depending on what I have in the pantry, but it goes something like this…
Crockpot Goulash:
Anita's Recipe
For the last couple of years I’ve given you my recipe for Xmas Mince Pies. You can still get a copy of that if you want just click <a href="http://news.simmondsfirestone.co.nz/december-2010/">here</a>.
However, during the summer when we have friends over for BBQ’s, the one salad that I make that is always a winner is Annabel Langbein’s Pecan Pear and Blue Cheese salad. I’ve varied it slightly because I can’t be bothered with spreading the blue cheese on the slices of French bread, but just throw little lumps of creamy blue cheese over the top. Or maybe scatter is a better word… The combination of flavours is brilliant and all you need is a good steak from Russell’s Quality Meats on Fairy Springs Road, a few baby potatoes and a good glass of red wine… yum.
Greens, Pears, Spicy Pecans and Blue cheese
Anita's Recipe
This is another Annabel Langbein recipe that I use all the time over winter. I love her recipes so this time I've decided to give away her book "The Best of Annabel Langbein - Great Food for Busy Lives". Just email anita@simmondsfirestone.co.nz and ask me to put you in the draw - it's that easy! My cousin Jacinta from Wellington put me onto this book and it's brilliant. Enough babbling - here's the recipe
Spicy Sausage and Chickpea Minestrone