Kale, two ways

Week one of our CSA included some purple kale, a vegetable I've actually never used before.

Of course I made chips from them. Kale Chips are probably one of the most popular seasonal recipes around, so it seemed a good place to start.

I didn't take any pictures of those chips, however, as they were mostly overdone (and frankly, they aren't very photogenic.) The recipe I followed said 20-25 minutes in the oven, but after 15 minutes, I felt they were very overdone. If I were to make them again, I'd check them after 10 minutes.

Since I only used half the kale for the chips, I had some left over to use with another meal.

How about on pizza?

After a chop, I gave these a quick saute with some butter and garlic scapes, just enough to soften everything together. A little dough, given a quick prebake on the BBQ, tomato sauce, sausage crumbles, roasted red and yellow peppers, kale and cheese, then back onto the bbq for a few minutes.

This is what my kids though of kale.

Which was actually fine by me - I scooped up this kale and added it to my pizza.

I'm back with something yummy!

It has been a bit turbulent around here the last few months, between work, school and the computer problems I've had, but things seem to finally be settled down and I have time to get back into the kitchen!

Or in this case, the bbq.

And when I finally have time to cook again, to whom would I turn for inspiration but the Pioneer Woman herself, Ree. This is my variation on Ree's CPK's BBQ Chicken Pizza.

So good and so simple to make, I only made a few tweeks to it.

The recipe starts with Ree's pizza crust, though you can make any crust you like, or use store bought. I used hers, as I have been for a few months now. It is a good, basic crust, with nothing fancy in it.

Then it moves on to cooking chicken breasts in bbq sauce.

I don't think so - this is BBQ chicken pizza, so I grilled my chicken on my BBQ, and then slathered it with sauce while still on the grill. The chicken was moist and flavorful, but also had a good sticky "skin" from the last minute saucing.

I admit, I also cooked my pizza on the bbq itself. If you have never done this before, it is very simple: stretch and shape your dough out then place it on your oiled grill, over medium heat. It will only take a few minutes to cook the bottom of the dough, which is all you want to start. When you pull the dough off the grill, you will only have cooked one side of it, which is exactly what you want - flip the pizza over so the cooked side is on top. Add your toppings then put the pizza back on the grill, uncooked side down, close the lid and wait just a few minutes for your pizza to finish cooking, your cheese to melt and pizza goodness to come together. Yummy!

(This method makes having a Make-Your-Own-Pizza-Party a breeze, since you can prepare everything in advance, precook the crusts in individual sized pizzas for people to customize, then pop several on the grill at once. Since the pizzas take minutes to cook in the closed, hot, bbq, no one wait for too long for their pizzas. Easy as can be and you don't need to heat up your house by turning on the oven!)

I added more bbq sauce to this pizza to the cooked top of my pizza before adding the chicken, red onion and cheese. A few quick minutes on the bbq for everything to come together and this was amazing!

I didn't have any cilantro to top my pizza with, but it would have been a nice touch. Instead, I served it with a salad consisting of mixed greens, oranges, strawberries, green onions and some shredded Cheddar cheese. Left overs did not make it to the next day.

I'm not sure if Food Fans of the Pioneer Woman is active right now, I hope it is. I'm going to submit this for Debby and Muneba, and whomever is co-hosting for the month.

I Heart Cooking Clubs: Mark Bittman Edition - Potluck it is!

It is a beautifully sunny day outside. About 25C outside, not too hot, not too cold. Perfect for a light, summery meal.

Which is why I'm posting about pot roast and popovers for this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs, Mark Bittman Edition.

Don't laugh. It's all I had pictures of, despite the stacks of recipes made recently. This was it.


And somewhere in the world, there is a Mark Bittman fan, a reader of my blog, who is going into winter and could use some warm comfort, the kind you can only get from a good pot roast.


This pot roast was fine, but the star of the meal was the popovers, or Yorkshire Puddings. Light and fluffy on the inside, crisp on the outside, the right shape for sucking up gravy. I had not made these for quite some time, so all my boys, husband included, were quite excited when I placed the bowl on the table. And they are so simple to make, made me wonder why I don't make them more often.

Recipes for both of these can be found in How to Cook Everything. The Pot Roast on page 437, and the Popovers on page 253.

If you like Mark Bittman, or are just curious, go check out the I Heart Cooking Clubs page and see what everyone else made.

Just a quick note on the computer problems I've had lately: they aren't over yet. I bought a new computer, much needed, however my new computer was defective, so I have been waiting for my new new computer. Basically, right now, I'm stuck between two bad computer options, which makes it very difficult to do things that require a computer.

I'm told my replacement computer will be here this week, and if works when it gets here, I will be on the road to computer recovery. If it doesn't work, then I'm sending it back and going to go look at a Mac.

Happy Mother's Day, Mark Bittman Style

I'm a mom.

Meet my punks, my boys....


Yup, that's my oldest. Growing up so fast and gaining maturity. (hehehe)


And my little Sous Chef, in a very normal, typical position for him.

If asked what I've accomplished in my life so far, those two are my answer. I have two beautiful, silly boys, each confident in their own selves, polite to others, and unique in their own way.

My little one greeted me this morning with a couple of lovely Mother's Day cards he'd made at school, then jumped right in to make juice for me. But first he said, "Pancakes! I want you to make pancakes for breakfast this morning!"

I declined on the pancakes and instead jazzed up my selection for this week's entry for the I Hearts Cooking Club, where the theme was Breakfast in Bed.


I have been craving scones lately, so when my copy of How to Cook Everything just happened to be open to page 252, where Cream Scones are featured, I took it as a sign I should make my own.

What I'd really like is white chocolate blueberry scones (thanks so much Starbucks, you put the idea in my head!), but I keep forgetting to pick up dried blueberries for them. Instead I made only one change to this recipe (other than shape) - I replaced the dried currents/raisins with vanilla bean instead, to give these scones a delicate vanilla flavor.

The scones on their own, not bad, but as I've found with almost every Bittman recipe I've made so far, lacking in the flavor department.

So I added some....


Now, I don't know that I'd want to eat this in bed exactly, unless I had a very big napkin to catch any drips I might make with that lovely, bright strawberry juice. I'm a messy eater, and probably would splash something.

Happy Mother's Day to all you other Mom's out there. May your morning include breakfast in bed, and funky homemade cards from your own punks.

I Hearts Cooking Clubs, Mark Bittman Edition: Pantry Raid

It's the second week of Mark Bittman and I'm still here and still cooking from How to Cook Everything.

On the advice of several other bloggers, I did look into borrowing the libraries copy of Kitchen Express. It is now sitting on my living room couch, waiting for me to read it.


This week's them was Pantry Staples, and what pantry does not have banana's waiting to be used?

One of the things I like to do when trying a new "chef" is to try a few basic recipes, things that we like alot and that are made regularly in my house, such as banana bread. I even made banana bread for one of my choices for Tyler Florence Fridays, the predecessor of this little group.

So this week I made Mark Bittman's banana bread, a suitable choice for the pantry staples theme as I did not need to pick up a single item to make it.


However if you look closely at my pictures, you will see this bread looks more like coconut bread than banana bread. That's because the recipe calls for coconut in the batter (and nuts, which I omitted.)

And it tastes more like coconut bread than banana bread.

Not a bad thing, if you like coconut (hubby and I do), but not a good thing if what you wanted was banana bread. And I wanted banana bread. The kids wanted banana bread. The hubby wanted to know where the butter was so he could butter his slices before adding them into his lunch box.

Not a bad recipe, not a bad result, just not what I wanted. Though it did help me use up several over ripe bananas and for that I'm happy.

Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman: Wildcard breakfast

Debby pronounced it Wild Card for this rounds theme of Foodie Fans of the Pioneer Woman, my favorite theme. It lets me do whatever I want and this time, this is what I wanted:





Found on pages 36 to 39, this recipe for Cinnamon Rolls makes alot of rolls. We had 2 pans at home, I gave away 2 pans, and I still have one in the freezer. Think I'll pull them out tomorrow morning and surprise the kids with them for breakfast. (I foresee very happy children in my future.)

We like raisins in ours, so I added some in, and next time will reduce the icing and switch out some of the white sugar for brown sugar.

RIP Marvin

Just a baby.

Do you remember Marvin? My beautiful and well loved sour dough starter, loved "nephew" of Aunty Sour Dough?

Unfortunately he has met with an unexpected end and I am sad.

As balls of homemade Timbits.

I had not baked with him in awhile, but that was okay, he was dormant in the back of my fridge. My instructions were to take him out every 6-8 weeks and give him a feeding, maybe bake with him. And this weekend, it was time to take him out and at least give him a little love in the form of warm water and flour.

Alas, poor Marvin, he was frozen solid.

Marvin made such beautiful loaves of bread.

I didn't send off a panicked email to his Aunty, but instead took him out to let him defrost and waited to see how he would do.

Poor Marvin, he never defrosted but instead stayed a block of very sour smelling and greenish-greyish looking ick.

His favorite way to shine, as a breakfast muffin.

You will be missed, Marvin!

Tyler Florence Fridays: Let them eat bread!

Do you regularly follow Tyler Florence Fridays? If not, then you missed the announcement recently that Tyler himself has been keeping his eye out on us!

Not only that, one entry per week will be chosen to be featured on Tyler's own website!

I had no chance at all last week, especially not against Karen's beautiful cheesecake - my potatoes, while tasty, were not even remotely photogenic.

How about this week's choice, however? Doesn't my banana bread look so much better than my potatoes did? You can't even compare them for taste, though: apples to oranges, both Tyler, both tasty, but so very different from each other.

The recipe for this calls for pecans, which makes sense when you read the name: Banana Bread with Pecans, but I don't like nuts in my banana bread, and the kids can't have anything nut at all at school, so I simply removed them.

Oh, and I doubled the recipe to make two loaves instead of one. Which you will want to do after trying this.

Let me tell you, all banana breads are not made equal. This one, with the unusual step of creaming half the banana with the sugar to make a banana cream, makes for a wonderful bread. Not greasy, with extra banana flavor but without huge chunks of banana dominating the bread. So good.

I've actually made this twice since I took this picture, doubling the batch both times. It is very easy to have 8 over ripe bananas (and if you are frugal kind of person, overripe bananas are very cheap in the "sell quickly" section of the produce department.)

Don't forget to head over to Tyler Florence Fridays for the round up!

Banana Bread (without Pecans)
by Tyler Florence, as found on Food Network

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 overripe bananas
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Optional: 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (I skipped this - unless I had company coming and was trying to pretty things up, it really isn't necessary.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar together for a good 3 minutes; you want a light and fluffy banana cream. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla; beat well and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated; no need to overly blend. Fold in the mashed bananas with a rubber spatula (and nuts, if using). Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Give the pan a good rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Don't get nervous if the banana bread develops a crack down the center of the loaf; that's no mistake, it's typical. Rotate the pan periodically to ensure even browning.

Cool the bread in the pan for 10 minutes or so, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

Tyler's instructions also add in: Toast the slices of banana bread, dust with confectioners' sugar, and serve. But again, unless I was trying to impress someone, I'd skip this step. The bread speaks for itself.

The bread of love

Remember when I said my wonderful friend Mary sent me a present of Teff flour so I could make the Injera bread with the Bread Baking Babes last month? Well she also sent along an extra little present, a bag of wonderful King Arthur Whole Wheat flour! I was so excited, I could not wait to get to baking with this flour as I have heard so much about it!

It took me awhile to discover what I wanted to make with it. Afterall, whatever it was, it had to be something exceptional, a bread worthy of my special flour.

Then it hit me: Mary's Oatmeal bread that she made me for my Housewarming Event! It was too perfect, I couldn't possibly make anything else!

Luckily for me, Mary was home when I started making this, as her posted version of the recipe is missing one little detail: the molasses. The directions say when to add it, the ingredients do not list it. If you make it, it is 1/3 cup of regular molasses, not blackstrap. (The recipe has since been corrected, so you are safe to make it straight from Mary's site.)


You know, there is something so relaxing and theraputic about having your hands in bread dough. Flour all over the place, on your clothes, the counter, sometimes your face, and you just know it won't be a simple clean up job to get it all, but still, it is so relaxing and satisfying. Seeing the dough rise, smelling it as it bakes up golden and brown, and knowing you will get to eat it soon.

This bread came out so nicely, and smelled wonderful! It was hearty without being heavy. Tasty, tasty, tasty! (I love having fresh bread in the house.)

Since this was a bread made with love, love in the recipe, love in the flour, it was only appropriate that I pass on the love, which is why I gifted one of my loaves to a coworker for her birthday, who was thrilled to receive it. She tells me she refused to share her bread and enjoyed every single crumb of it.

Big hugs and thanks to Mary for my adorable bag of flour. I still have some left, which I likely will use in the cookies I want to make later tonight.

Now go make some of this bread!

Oatmeal Bread
adapted from the 1943 version of the Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book
from The Sour Dough

Makes two (2) loaves

1 cup cooked rolled or steal cut oats (not quick cooking)
1 cake yeast (.6 oz cube) (If you don't have fresh yeast, substitute 1 package active or 2 tsp rapid rise)
1/2 cup luke warm water
1/3 cup molasses
pinch of sugar
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp butter, melted
2 1/2 cups ap flour
1 cup bread flour
1 cup KA white wheat flour or whole wheat flour

Cook oats per instructions, remove from heat and allow to cool completely and absorb any excess water. You want a big "glob" of oats. (I used steel cut oats, made 4 servings, used half in the bread and my son ate the rest for breakfast the next day.)

Proof yeast in lukewarm water and pinch of sugar. Allow to sit for 5 - 10 minutes until foamy.

In bowl for stand mixer or large bowl, break up cooled oatmeal into medium chunks, and using the dough hook (if using stand mixer), stir in proofed yeast, molasses, salt, and melted butter until oatmeal is completely broken up.

Add in bread and wheat flour and stir until wet dough formed. Add in 1 1/2 cups AP flour until shaggy dough ball is formed. Add in remaining flour 1/2 cup a time until soft dough ball that cleans bowl if formed. Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes to absorb excess flour. If using stand mixer, hand knead for 5 or 10 quick turns.

Dough should be soft and very slightly tacky. If clumps of dough stick to hand, knead in additional AP flour on palmfull at time.

Place dough in greased bowl, cover and let rise until double (about 2 - 2 1/2 hours). Punch down, form 2 loaves, place in 8 1/2 x 5 greased loaf pans, lightly grease top of loaves, loosely cover, and allow to rise until dough is about 1/4" above edge of loaf pans.

Slash top of loaves down center if desired. (I desired, doesn't it make the top of the loaf look rustic and fresh?)

Place loaves in preheated 350 degree oven and bake 30 - 35 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 190 degrees.

Allow to cool completely before slicing. (Or try anyways.)

Well I've got good news and bad news

First the good news: the Anadama Bread, the first bread baked by the newly formed Bread Baker's Apprentice group (no, I am not a part of it, I was too late, again,) is fabulous.

My children loved it - one even asked for a slice of "that amazing bread" at dinner tonight.

And that is with mine not rising quite as much as I think it should have, it just didn't seem to want to go any higher. So my loaves are a bit on the small side, but that's okay, good things come in small packages!


The bad news?

Today, I killed my bbq.

With a fire extinguisher.

I had to! I really did! It was not a ploy to get a new one, it seriously was flaming and flaming and flaming, with nothing on it anymore, no gas on, nothing, and the flames were getting worse!

Good thing I'd taken my chicken off when it started. Or we'd have had no dinner. Except for the bread.


I was cooking chicken, legs and thighs, on the bbq. I had all 4 burners on, not because I needed the flames but because I was creating an oven. I'd grilled the chicken pieces on a high heat, to get my grill marks, and then had lowered the temperature on the two middle burners to low, but left the outside ones to medium, and was cooking the chicken slowly. When I was ready to start basting with sauce, I put a double layer of tin foil on the grill and placed the chicken on the foil, before I added even a drop of sauce. I wanted the sauce to get sticky, not to burn.

Since I didn't want the chicken to stick too much to the foil, I was keeping a pretty close eye on things, so I noticed that there was alot of flaming going on at the back half of the bbq, in a spot where nothing had flared up before, and where there was nothing over top of the flames. Just to be sure, I turned down the heat some more and moved the foil closer to the edge. Just to be sure.

Well, the flaming started getting worse, and spreading. Not from the burners, from something else on the bottom.

Now I will admit, the bottom tray of my bbq was not pristine, but it wasn't a huge mess either. I had scrubbed down my bbq in the fall before I shut it down and moved it into the garage prior to our move. It has been used maybe 8 times since we moved, so it hasn't had a chance to have a huge build up of gunk in the bottom.

Getting nervous, I turned the gas off entirely, removed the chicken and moved the foil as far away from the flames as possible - by then I had to, the foil was starting to light on fire and burn! How hot does fire have to be to make tin foil burn?

Closing the lid, with no gas, did not seem to make a difference, the flames were, again, just getting worse and worse. And higher.

So I had to take out the fire extinguisher.

Can you use a bbq once you've used a fire extinguisher on the burners? After a very good scrub, that is.


On the bright side, my children were across the street playing with a friend, so they never saw the flames, and were no where near when the extinguisher came out.

I think I will be without a bbq for the rest of the year. (Sigh.....)

TFF: Dessert is served

Was it only in February where Tyler's mixed berry bread pudding was popping up on blogs everywhere? It seems right, that during the "longest" month of the year, when the dark and the cold is depressing and dragging us all down, that Tyler's bread pudding would be a comfort food that calls to the masses.

I admit, I skipped over this when I saw it in his book. I think it was the lemon fondant part of the title. To me, fondant is the sugary stuff you roll to put over a cake. It is there to make a cake look pretty, not for the taste.

Then I read a few reviews and decided to give it a try. I found some egg bread, the best I could do, pulled my bag of frozen mixed berries from the freezer, and made bread pudding. It took longer to cook than Tyler indicated, but that's okay. I'd rather take an extra 10 minutes to bake something than have it cook 10 minutes sooner than expected and end up burnt or over done.

I halved the "fondant", being reluctant to add 2 full cups of icing sugar to the pudding. After all, there was already enough eggs and cream that it wasn't exactly health food, even with all the fruit. Turned out to be a good decision as the touch of lemon from the fondant was perfect! Not too tart, not too sweet, just nicely there.

It was even better the next day, cold.

A definite make again, probably at the request of my oldest, who loved every bite of this and asked for seconds.

This is my submission for this week's Tyler Florence Fridays. No worries, I haven't abandoned my deep fryer, but just looking for a bit of variety, that's all!

Mixed Berry Bread Pudding with Lemon Fondant
by Tyler Florence, from Stirring the Pot, recipe found on Food Network

Butter, room temperature
4 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for dusting and topping
4 large slices brioche bread
2 cups mixed berries (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries), plus more for garnish

Lemon Fondant:

2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 lemons, zested and juiced

Butter and sugar a large sized casserole dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and sugar. Combine well with a whisk.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Tear the brioche up into large pieces using your hands, add to the custard mixture and toss to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepare pan and gently press down on the surface. Sprinkle with more sugar, then refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes to let soak.

Bake for 25 minutes in the center of the oven. The pudding is ready when it has puffed up and the custard is set. The top should be a nice golden color. Remove and allow to cool slightly.

Make the fondant. In a mixing bowl combine sifted powdered sugar, water, lemon zest and juice.

Once the pudding has cooled slightly, drizzle the lemon fondant over warm bread pudding and serve with extra fresh berries.

Bread Baking Babes: Pain Francese

It has been awhile since I joined in to become a Bread Baking Buddy, and I almost passed up this month. I'd glanced over a few blog posts, but kept hearing about a levian and a chef, and did not feel I really had the time to deal with either right now. Some encouragement, and "education" from my bread baking guru Breadchick, however, cleared up my misconceptions, which is why I'm here now, trying out the Pain Francese, this months BBB choice, chosen by fellow Canuck and DB'er, Sara.

Before I could start, I had to bring out my sour dough starter, Marvin, and give him a wake up. Poor Marvin almost lost it during our recent move, he was nearly thrown out at one point by someone unaware of who and what he was, and then was nearly abandoned in our old home when no one knew what to do with him, and I was not available. (Truth be told, I got some very funny looks from some family members when, with everything else coming and going and the stresses, I went into near panic mode, ripping containers apart, trying to find what had happened to Marvin. Unless you've put the time into making and nurturing your starter, how can you understand?) Fortunately he was found, safe and still dormant, but had been sitting quietly in my fridge since the move.

Using some of Marvin instead of the chef, I set out to work. I had forgotten what I both loved and hated about making bread. I love the feel of the dough, the way things come together, the destressing that comes with kneading, and of course, the final outcome, warm, fresh bread. What I dislike is the mess, on my hands, my clothes, my counter. And waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

This bread involved alot of mess and alot of waiting.

And when all is said and done, I can't tell you if I like this bread or not. Yet.

See, my "new" oven works on convection, and while I've figured out the adjustments I have needed to make for most baking, it didn't work for this one. The picture you see of the bread I made looks lovely, golden with a very hard crust. What it doesn't show is the burnt bottom and the almost raw, doughie inside. I was able to cut off a bit of the bread to share with the family, since they were starving and could not resist, but not enough for me to really have an opinion about this bread.

Another consultation with Mary has resulted in another batch rising on the counter right now. So I haven't given up on this yet, I just won't have a finished, cut, product ready in time for joining in.

Thanks for the "kick in the butt" Mary, and encouraging me to get back into bread. Now go see the other BBB's bread, and be a budy yourself. (And if you will excuse me, I need to go see a starter about some bread.)

Magazine Mondays

I missed being able to contribute something to Ivonne's Magazine Monday, so did not want to miss this week. While I can't guarantee I am going to participate every week, I am going to try and do so regularly. If for no other reason than to use some of that stack of magazines I moved with me!

Favorite of my cooking magazines, and the one I have never thrown out an issue of, is Fine Cooking. While I don't subscribe to their online service (yet), it is only because I have so many other online sources for reading and recipes.

This recipe comes from the February 2007 issue, and had been sitting bookmarked since it came through the door. The surprising thing is that I had not yet made it until now.

We love cinnamon buns, and quick cinnamon buns are no exception. I wasn't turned off by the addition of cottage cheese to the dough (though if you'd asked me to eat the stuff outright, that was not going to happen!), so it must have simply been the fact that I rarely, if ever, have that ingredient on hand.

These were quite tasty, though the glaze was too thin for my icing liking and lacking cream cheese, a necessity for cinnamon bun icing, in my very prejudiced opinion. Unfortunately my left over buns suffered a horrible fate - they were partially wrapped in foil on the counter when I accidentally knocked over a gingerale, another terrible loss, and the gingerale seeped into the foil and into the left over buns. As much as I like both those items, together, not so good.

I think I will make these again next weekend, for Sunday breakfast.

Fastest Cinnamon Buns
from Fine Cooking, February 2007

For the dough:
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the filling:
1-1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped pecans (optional, I did not use, but did substitute raisins)

For the glaze:
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2 to 3 Tablespoons cold whole or low-fat milk (or do as I do and use 1/2 and 1/2 cream)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 400°F. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9- or 10-inch springform pan with cooking spray. (My only springform pan was busy elsewhere, so I used a 9 inch cake pan instead, turning the buns out onto a plate at the end, which worked just fine.)

In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla. Process until smooth, about 10 seconds. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda and pulse in short bursts just until the dough clumps together (don’t overprocess). The dough will be soft and moist.

Scrape the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead it with floured hands 4 or 5 times until smooth. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a 12x15-inch rectangle.

Brush the dough with the melted butter, leaving a 1/2-inch border unbuttered around the edges. In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered area of the dough and pat gently into the surface. Sprinkle the nuts (or raisins) over the sugar mixture.

Starting at a long edge, roll up the dough jelly-roll style. Pinch the seam to seal, and leave the ends open.

With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 12 equal pieces. Set the pieces, cut side up, in the prepared pan; they should fill the pan and touch slightly, but don’t worry if there are small gaps.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch, 20 to 28 minutes. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Run a spatula around the inside edge of the pan and remove the springform ring. Transfer the rolls to a serving plate.

To make the glaze, in a small bowl, mix the confectioners’ sugar, 2 Tbs. milk, and vanilla to make a smooth glaze. It should have a thick but pourable consistency, so add up to 1 Tbs. more milk if necessary. Drizzle the glaze over the rolls. Let stand 15 minutes and serve.

Monthly Mingle: Healthy Family Meals

When Meeta and her cohost, Michelle, of What's Cooking Blog, picked the theme of Healthy Family Dinners for this months Monthly Mingle, I'm sure Meeta had no idea that I was going to turn to her for my inspiration.

You see Meeta, in addition to being a photographer, blogger and extrodinairy cook and baker, is also a mother. She knows how important it is to feed her growing child good, healthy food. And she knows how important it is that the food taste good, or that growing child won't eat it. Fortunately, my children, like Meeta's son, are sometimes up for a bit of culinary adventure.

Since I have discovered that my boys love Indian Butter Chicken, I decided to try something similar, but different, which is where Meeta comes in: her recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala. Yes, it involved more work than my oldest son's favorite jar of butter chicken sauce, or even of the homemade recipe I've made for butter chicken, but not huge amounts more. And most of it was just planning ahead.

Having an indoor grill is so handy!

That's one of the good things about a menu plan, especially one visibly posted where it can be easily accessed.

The recipe itself is not difficult, and Meeta's instructions are very good, so the only question I had to field to her was about canned cocktail tomatoes. For those of us not in Germany, use canned diced, they work just fine. And if you can't find red chilies, crushed red pepper flakes substitute well. Just be careful of the heat when feeding non-adventurous children.

To go along with this, I also made homemade Naan bread. I don't know where I printed this off from, but it says it was adapted from The Cook's Book, by Dan Lepard, and has some personalized instructions in it, things like, "I used melted butter because I love the flavor." Sounds good to me!

I know it doesn't look like I served a vegetable with this, aside from the tomatoes in the sauce, but I did. I just didn't put it on this plate for the picture. Because then it would ruin the prettyness of the tikka masala spread out across the rice. See that's how food bloggers think, isn't it?


Looking forward to seeing what else makes it to the mingle, with such a great and diverse theme to choose from. And now that I'm finally starting to feel better, I may be looking for some culinary inspiration from other families.

Go see Meeta, here, for the Tikka Masala recipe, but here is the Naan, with my notes now, not the ones on my printout.

Naan Bread
adapted from The Cook's Book, recipe by Dan Lepard, no idea where I got this from

2/3 cup water at 72F
1/3 teaspoon dry active yeast
2 cups cake flour
3 1/2 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt (I don't think mine was low fat)
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (I used kosher)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
sunflower oil, ghee or melted butter for kneading (I too used the butter and am just going to say butter in the recipe, but use whichever you want)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley

In a small bowl, mix the water and yeast. Add half the flour, mix together with a fork, then cover the bowl and leave in warm place for 30 minutes.

Stir in the yogurt, then add the rest of the flour, salt and baking powder. Mix together with your hands into a soft, sticky ball. Pour 2 tsp of melted butter into the bowl and rub it over the top of the dough. Pick the dough ball up, butter and all, and squeeze it once or twice. Recover the dough, still in the bowl, and leave it to rest for 15 minutes.

Pour another 1 tsp of melted butter onto the dough, rub it lightly all over, before turning the dough out onto a lightly oiled surface. Knead the dough gently for 30 seconds, then return it to the bowl. Cover and rest for another 15 minutes.

Knead the dough, now a fairly smooth ball, on the oiled surface for a few minutes, then divide it into the number of breads you want to make (I think I had 5). Dust the portions with flour and leave them for 5 minutes.

Heat a wok or a nonstick skillet with a lid over medium heat.

Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it it out into a teardrop shape, dusting well with flour as you go. The dough should be quite thin when you are done rolling.

Lay the rolled out piece of dough in the hot pan, brushing the surface with a little oil, ghee or melted butter (though it is recommended if you use butter to mix it with a bit of oil so it will not burn so easily, which is what I did.) If using the herbs, have it mixed with the butter before brushing it on. Place the lid on the pan and leave for 1 minute. (This is enough time to prepare your next piece of dough.)

When the naan has risen slightly and is slightly browned on the bottom, flip and cook for an additional minute. Remove from the pan and keep warm in a clean dish towel.

Repeat until all the naan is cooked.

Enjoy with some lovely Chicken Tikka Masala.

Daring Bakers catch up, Lavash crackers

I realize it is January, and not September. And yes, I know it is 2009 now, so I am not even in the same year, but late is better than not at all, right?

Back to September, when the Daring Baker's made Lavash crackers, hosted by Natalie and Shel, I did not participate. My kitchen was immaculately clean for prospective buyers, and rolling out dough makes a mess. Now, however, I am making messes often. Sometimes several times a day. And having a wonderful time doing it too!

So I finally bring you the Daring Baker's lavash crackers: I divided my dough and made half mine with chives and the other half with fleur de sel and cracked black pepper.

There were alot more in the basket before I remembered to take a picture, while hands reached in and out for more pieces.

Fairly easy to make, don't take much time, and nice results. I think I will try using my pasta maker next time, though, for an even thinner dough.

Go here for the recipe, please.

And in the meantime, don't forget my Housewarming Party event, coming soon!

I have some goodies of my own coming, and can't wait to see what everyone else brings.

Making bread for homework (and butter too)

With the move now only two weeks away, and last weekend's out of town trip changed to this weekend, now is the time to start packing up what is left of my baking pantry and start on the rest of my kitchen. For the next two weeks, we are going to be having the minimum in kitchen items to work with.

This could be both a good and bad thing. Good because if I do bake something, I will have the chance to see what tools I really can't live without. And bad because the chances are my children will be getting store bought baked goods in their lunches for the next few weeks.

So if you are in Ottawa and see a twitching lady walking around with a purple hat on her head, don't worry, it is probably me going through baking withdraw.

In the meantime, here is something from my archives to keep you entertained while you wait anxiously to see what the Daring Baker's challenge for this month is.


One of the school projects my oldest son had to work on last semester was about the pioneers. The kids had to pick something about the pioneers and make a model, if they could. Some chose log homes, making them from sticks, others chose toys and tried to reproduce the kinds of toys pioneer children might have had. My son, doing me so proud, chose bread. He wanted to show how the pioneers had to make their own bread, that it didn't come in a bag, presliced, with colorful dots all over the outside. And that butter did not come in a foil wrapped block.

We could have gone to the library or searched the internet for pioneer style recipes, but he was lucky. His cookbook-a-holic mother happened to have a reproduction copy of the 1904 Good Housekeeping Cookbook, that she had picked up for $3.99 one day when bored and needing something to read. I doubt he knew I had that when he chose his project.

With Mom on standby to help with the bread, just in case, he set out to gather his ingredients, mixed his yeast and flour and liquid, checked with me to be sure it was working (it was, lots of bubbles in the rise), until he was finally able to take a turn at kneading, the old fashion way. Without a stand mixer or a bread machine. A messy task, one requiring lots of muscle, but a worthwhile task. The dough was tougher to knead than he thought it would be, so I did have to step in to help with that, but he did show a very good understanding of how you do it, and with a bit more practice at it, could probably do it completely on his own.

He was a very proud young man, with his 3 loaves of whole wheat bread, each a different size, but obviously hand made. What is fresh bread, though, without butter?

So he made some butter too, putting whipping cream into a container, making sure the lid was tight and got another arm work out. Sure, it looks rather ugh, but after he poured off the buttermilk and mixed in a bit of salt, he had very nice butter for his bread.

His classmates loved it, one even asked for the recipe so his mother could make it for him at home.

While he did very well, markwise, on this project, and raved to me how good the bread was, how easy it was to make, I've noticed that he never did ask if he could make it again. Maybe if the pioneers had also make home made peanut butter, he'd have come back asking to make that again.

All Things Edible Pizza....May I take your order please?

Hello? Is anyone out there? I know I'm late, but I brought pizza! And not just any pizza, homemade pizza, with Daring Baker Challenge Dough!

Last month Rosa, from Rosa's Yummy Yums chose pizza dough for us to make, in memory of Sher, who was to be one of her co-hosts for the month. And I missed the party. Actually, I missed most of the month due to illness, so did not get my dough made in time to join the 1000+ other Daring Baker's who brought pizza to the party.

Now I have a pizza dough I am pretty happy with, nothing fancy, but it comes together in a jiffy, and rises in about an hour. It works for us. Which doesn't mean I'm not willing to try other recipes, I'm open to them. Maybe one of them will be even better and come together even quicker than my current recipe.

The challenge was to make pizza dough using the recipe from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, easy enough to do. Oh wait, there was a twist - we had to try and toss at least 2 balls of the dough, and try and get a picture of us doing so.

Do you see a picture of me tossing dough anywhere? Don't go straining your eyes, it isn't there. I tried, I really did. Several times. But this dough is soft! And very pliable. So soft and pliable that picking it up off the counter usually resulted in it being stretched very thin, ready to be topped.


Oh, did I mention I had cleaned up my pantry recently, and had thrown out my cornmeal? It was a surprise to me as well, and a bit of a pain for transferring pizza, ultra thin, pizza too. By the 4th pizza, I gave up trying and simply pressed the pizza out onto a pan instead.


Homemade pizza in my home is usually "make your own pizza" night. I set out toppings that the children will eat, and they each make their own. My youngest always makes a face on his (which did not survive the transfer to the oven, but was still eaten.) I have found I usually go vegetarian on my pizza's when we do this, but went a little different to try out this dough: On half of my pizza I brushed garlic butter, generously, then topped it with marble cheddar, mozzarella and parmessan cheese. On the other half I spread homemade tomato sauce, then used crumbles of a medium Italian sausage and a generous amount of mushroom slices, which I had sauted in garlic and butter, before I put on both mozzarella and parmessan cheese.

It was yummy, though not exactly pretty.

Now this dough did come together quickly in the mixer, though it required the advanced planning of being made a day ahead. It was soft, almost too soft, and while I like thin crust pizza, I like to have the option of a thicker crust, which I really didn't have. It also didn't have much flavor to it, not even the slight yeasty aftertaste which most dough has.

So while it might be good for an ocassional change, it won't replace my regular dough.

Normally about now I'd suggest you get out there and read all kinds of other Daring Baker post about this month's challenge, but I suspect everyone but me has done that already. Personally, I am far behind on my reading, but at least I finally caught up on making the challenge.

Oh and I'm really looking forward to this month's challenge, probably making it this weekend, so no worries about being late with that one!