Pork, Sage and Onion Burgers

Are you looking for a seriously easy, seriously good, quick meal - then this is the one for you!!

Who doesn't love a burger - well this is a combination of a burger with the good old snag - add a few posh condiments and you have a great burger!!!  What more can you ask for?

This burger recipe can be found in Valli Little's Faking it Cookbook - she turns the complicated into the easy - makes everything look like it was so much harder and much more "posh" than it really is.  Gotta love that!!!

Pork, Sage and Onion Burgers


Serves 4

500g pork sausages
100g sage and onion stuffing mix *
1 egg
olive oil to brush
4 turkish rolls or panini split, toasted
baby rocket or spinach
cranberry sauce
sour cream

Remove the sausages from their casings, then place the sausage meat in a bowl with the stuffing mix and egg.  Season, then mix well with your hands.  Using damp hands, form the mixture into 4 patties.  Cover and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170C.  Brush a frypan or chargrill pan with oil and heat over medium high heat.  Cook the patties for 2-3 minutes each side until golden.  Transfer to a tray, then bake for 5-6 minutes, or until cooked through.

Fill the toasted rolls with spinach or rocket, patties, cranberry sauce and sour cream.

* Stuffing mix available from supermarkets - usually in the spices section!!

Just don't tell anyone how easy these were to make - they are sure to impress!!!

Chocolate Cornflake Slice & Cornflake Cookies

Joy, oh joy, I have my oven back in action!!  I have all my appendages back in action!!!

A rainy weekend, what is a girl to do (particularly when her oven has been out of action) - BAKE of course!!!

In the interests of school lunches I set to to make a few treats!!

I had purchased a packet of corn flakes at some point to make something - don't actually remember what now, so I thought I must make something to use these up - pulled out the ancient Women's Weekly Beautiful Biscuits Cookbook (circa .... well let's not admit!!!) went to the cornflake section - and there they were - they were called Weekender Biscuits - but I say into the new millenium - they are now Cornflake Cookies!!!!

Cornflake Cookies


Makes approx 24

125g butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup sultanas
1 cup self raising flour
2 cups lightly crushed cornflakes


Preheat oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg, beat well.  Fold in the sifted flour and sultanas . mix well.  Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture into the cornflakes, roll lightly.

Place onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper (make sure you allow room for spreading).

Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden.

Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Now, I did not use all of the crushed cornflake crumbs - and there was still a lot left in the box, so I decided to convert an old favourite - Weet Bix Slice - into Corn Flake Slice!!

Corn Flake Slice

1 cup self  raising flour
1 cup crushed corn flakes
1 dessertspoon cocoa powder
1 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
3/4 coconut (I used shredded)
125g butter, melted

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.  Press mixture into a slice (lamington tin).

Bake in oven (180C) for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven - allow to cool slightly - then ice with chocolate icing.

Chocolate Icing

1 cup icing sugar

2 tbs cocoa

few drops vanilla essence

20g butter, melted

1 tbs milk (plus extra if needed)

Coconut, extra

Place the icing sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and butter in a bowl.  Mix together, then add 1 tablespoon of milk, adding more if necessary to form a smooth paste.

The end result - I think Cornflakes make the slice even better - more crunch - this is now my new favourite!!

Now all is balanced in the world - when your oven works -you feel so much better!!  Plus I have been to the movies this afternoon - I saw Eat Pray Love - I think an odyssey of my own is in the cards!!!!

So Dear Readers what do you do when the weather turns bad - do you bake up a storm??? Or do you go to the movies and "escape" for a while??