Easy Cheesy Sunflower Crackers

Its time for the annual Xmas baking rush. These simple cheesy crackers made from sunflower seeds and grated cheese can be pimped up with all sorts of different herb and spice flavours and seed toppings to make a good selection for holiday snacking.

The original recipe comes from "500 Low-Carb Recipes" by Dana Carpender.

Ham Risotto in the Rice Cooker

I make a lot of Asian-inspired rice cooker dishes, but tonight I fancied a more European flavour to my rice.

Rice cookers can be subverted into cooking a risotto. The trick lies in how a rice cooker works. A basic rice cooker heats the carefully measured water and rice mixture until the water evaporates, at which point the temperature rises above 100C and the rice cooker switches off.

To cook a risotto, you need to add more water than the rice needs to cook through, and manually switch off the rice cooker when the rice has finished cooking.

Best of all - with the rice cooker risotto method, there is no need to stand over the pan constantly stirring and adding liquid!