I had my very first try of pâté when I was a teenager. A friend of mine at the time used to invite me to Symphony and Opera in the Park with her family.  They would unpack the food and there was always pate and water crackers and I would experiment with this unusual spread that I had never eaten before. My parents weren’t big offal eaters at all, in fact I don’t recall a single offal dish ever gracing our table ever. The first time I tasted it I tasted the strong livery taste as well as that of brandy which was another item that never saw the light our table. I was intrigued but I liked it.

Every year that we went it always rained and we’d sit on the soggy ground underneath raincoats contemplating when was too wet so that we could leave or whether it would stop altogether (it never did).We’d never see the end of the operatic performance and instead her frazzled mum would bundle us all into the back of her VW beetle with our legs slick with rain and sandpapery grains of dirt and grass and drive home. I never really paid much attention to what was happening on the screen as we never saw the ending. It was all about the pâté and the food.

A picnic friendly version with a lid

That friendship went in the way of the black hole but after many Operas in the Park liver pate is one of my favourite ways to eat offal. I had no idea it was so easy to make and a quick glance at the A Cook’s Guide by Donna Hay showed me how easy it actually was. I wanted to make this for another outdoor event, a picnic, to create some newer memories from those hazy ones from decades ago.

It was almost too easy to make pate but there are a few tips I should share. Chicken livers need to be bought fresh so buy them as close to when you are going to make them. I bought mine the day before (and they were a steal at $1.60 for the whole lot). You also need to trim the livers of the white connective tissue and the bloodlines and any darker patches that can make it bitter-you can see that I went a bit overboard but I wasn’t sure how far to trim.

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Do you remember when 10c bought you a treat that lasted in your memory for the longest time? That when you bought it, you retreated from from your friends and the rest of the world and sucked the existence out of a toffee (and in the process ate bits of waxed patty paper, a job hazard if ever there was one). Do you remember school fêtes that would offer an additional chance of culinary joy for children with trays of food that was ordinarily reserved for those fantastic things called birthday parties.

If you had asked me between the ages of 6-10 for my dream menu it would have consisted of: pink and white hued coconut ice, golden honey joys, light jam and cream filled sponge cake and pikelets with a jam and cream. Yes it appeared that I was a pint sized member of the Country Women’s Association. Every time a fete was held I was given 20c and carefully, and with much consideration, I would buy one of these things based purely on size-whatever looked the biggest had to be the best.

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I scared you there for a minute Dear Reader didn’t I? Don’t worry I haven’t gone over all healthy on you although I do have my moments and post Christmas is my inevitable moment. The time where I scramble to find healthy ways to make food in a kind of schizophrenic but well intentioned bid at losing any kilos that Christmas hath giveth (although alternating it with a rich cheesecake the other day might not be the smartest idea…).

Mr NQN asked me why I was making healthy food but then going out for pizza, pasta and ribs and I answered him that it was a carefully balanced and orchestrated way of eating that he simply wouldn’t understand. Ahem. But look  isn’t that a famous sportsperson over there*?

*subject changing, I do it often.

One meal that I just love but is not considered a low fat or low calorie affair is the afternoon tea. It is usually seen as a chance to legally eat copious amounts of cupcakes, cakes and pastries in the tiresome lull between lunch and dinner. I received a book in the mail called “The Complete Food Makeover” from ABC books which lo and behold held an afternoon tea section! Curious to try out a few recipes I reasoned that I should invite the girls over so I sent out an invitation to some lovely lasses for a New Year’s Resolution friendly afternoon tea. I raided my darling friend The Second Wife’s teacup and teapot and travel spoon collection-if a friend lends you her precious Limoges Legle tea set you know she’s a great friend!

I made a range of things including Portuguese custard tarts (not from the book) using reduced fat puff pastry and skim milk instead of full butter and cream, chocolate truffles, blackberry matchsticks, chocolate and banana muffins, scones, profiteroles, little stuffed sandwich rolls,  iced Turkish apple tea, Pimms and lemonade and caramel black tea.

After trying half a dozen recipes from the book everyone assembled liked the taste of most of them except for the chocolate banana cupcakes which were in Sisko’s words “Just not right-like the banana and chocolate are battling each other”. And I made the brownies but didn’t even serve them as they were as hard as a rock. The author likes to use raw sugar which as most bakers know, does not cream well and remains as hard, crunchy crystals.

My favourite tea cosy-I actually bought this as a gift for Queen Viv but couldn’t bear to part with it. I’m so mean!

I also tried the book’s recipe for faux cream which is made by whipping up a chilled tin of evaporated milk but there were no instructions saying that this had to be used straight away or it would dissolve and break down-in fact it told us that the cream kept its volume which it didn’t. I made it the day before and stored it in an airtight container and found a strange, half deflated holey creation in the fridge. I passed on serving this as it tended to dissolve on contact with spoons and heat (it was a hot weekend).

Flowers from Queen Viv

The favourites were the chocolate truffles, Portuguese custard tarts, matchsticks and the heart shaped scones. I found the recipes a bit hit and miss and some recipes were just not very good-not only did the chocolate banana muffins taste “funny” the recipe also said that it made 24 muffins. Using my standard muffin tray I could only make a meagre 6.5 muffins!  Quantities seem a little odd in many of the recipes that I tried. On the plus side there are some clever ideas for saving fat-I thought that splitting the baked puff pastry rectangles in two and using each half to sandwich the ricotta cream and berry was very clever and a way to lower the fat. And the ricotta cream is a nice substitute for cream and the faux cream is interesting and perhaps quite good if you want to use it straight away.

A gift from Myriam

Besides the food, every now and then you need to have a sports free zone, a chance to get together with the gals and discuss the important things in life. Who bought what shoes, which celebrity has new boobs and conjure up new and bizarre dinner party ideas. Vive la girlfriends!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you trying to eat healthier at the moment? If you are, how is it going?

Chocolate truffles

These chocolate truffles don’t use any chocolate itself but cocoa powder and are a ground up mixture of dried dates , sultanas and coconut and almond meal. They’re very quick to make and are about half the calories of a regular truffle. Although they aren’t going to match a luxurious hand made truffle they are very good at satisfying a sugary, chocolatey craving and had Mr NQN baying for an invite to the afternoon tea. I told him no unless he wore a dress.

Approximately 35 calories, 1g fat each

Makes 40 truffles

Adapted from The Complete Food Makeover  Click here to read the full story