My first ever Tyler Flore Fridays, introduced to me by fellow blogger and long distance friend Megan, and really, I think the pictures speak for themselves.
I mean seriously, look at all those lovely ingredients, waiting to meld together in the oven. The star, beef brisket, ready to be braised with carrots, garlic, celery, onions, tomatoes, herbs and half a bottle of red wine.
My only complaint (aside from the cost, but I found a source for local, organic beef and it was worth it!) is that this needs more veggies. I plan to make this again in the future, but will more than double the veggies. Especially since I ended up freezing a generous amount of the meat and sauce and still could use more veggies.
Unfortunately, I pulled this recipe off of Food Network's website and it seems to have disappeared since then. I can find one there, this one, but this isn't the one I had pulled off. The one I had suggested a parsnip puree with it, but this is fairly close.
So find some good brisket and try it!
Oh, PS to Megan - I didn't just buy one book - I BOUGHT TWO!!!!!
Tyler Florence Fridays: Braised Beef Brisket
Weekend Cookbook challenge: 5 ingredients or less
Don't you love it when a blog event and a menu plan come together? I know I do!
I don't often get to make it to this event, the Weekend Cookbook Challenge hosted by Sara of I like to cook, but every once in awhile I manage to catch it. This months theme of 5 ingredients or less, chosen by non-blogger Lynn, was perfectly matched with a few items on my meal plan for the week.
This meal was fairly successful though, so it is the one I'm picking!
I used to really enjoy watching Fixing Dinner on FoodTV. Sandi has such good ideas for meals, that look nice when presented on the tv screen, but that don't always translate well to my kitchen. I've had some successes and some flops, but mostly alot of, "eh, whatever" from her recipes. So much so that I hadn't tried anything from her for awhile (and honestly have spent YEARS browsing her cookbooks and trying to decide if I want them,) but decided to give this one a shot when I ran across a printout of it in one of my binders.
So I didn't go into this recipe with very high expectations, I thought it would be decent and would be a nice change. Plus I was going to make a small change or two to it.
First off, I used pork tenderloin instead of chicken thighs. Easy decision - I had pork in the freezer, I had no chicken thighs. Second, I omitted the Mrs. Dash, partially because I have none, and also because I've never really found it added anything to the flavor. Oh and I replaced the dried onions with half a fresh onion, which to me takes no time at all to chop.
Don't crinkle your nose when you read the ingredients. This turned out nicely - every single person ate it, my youngest went back for more sauce, my husband went back for seconds, and took the remainder in his lunch today.
And it uses 5 ingredients or less, so it is my choice for the Weekend Cookbook Challenge!
Hot and Sour Pork
based on this recipe from Sandi Richard of Fixing Dinner
2 pork tenderloins, cut into chunks
1 cup Catalina salad dressing
3/4 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1/2 onion, diced
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Place chunks of pork in the bottom of a small dutch oven. Sour the rest of the ingredients over top of the pork, then mix well to ensure all the sauce ingredients are well blended and all the pork has been covered with the sauce.
Bake, covered, for 40-45 minutes. The sauce will bubble over slightly, so keep an eye out in the last 10 minutes.
Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes, then serve pork and sauce over rice.
Btw, don't forget about my housewarming party. The deadline for entries is coming soon, on January 30th. Send your entries to allthingsedible (at) hotmail (dot) com, and don't forget to send me your link and your picture.
It is going to be such a fun party!
Menu Plan Monday
Last week went fairly well. I had to switch one night with another, and did not end up making Megan's Challenge on Friday (was just too tired and had enough left overs that dinner that night was unnecessary, but I plan to make them for lunches, so it will be made.) We ate at home every night though, and I never had to run out for an ingredient or postpone because I was missing an item.
Now let's see how I do with this week.
Sunday: Sweedish meatballs with potato rosti, cream sauce, and lingonberry sauce. Bought frozen from Ikea.
Monday: Braised Beef Brisket (source for this later)
Tuesday: Fish and Chips. Recipe for the fish coming from the Nintendo DS. (See here if you are wondering what I am talking about.)
Wednesday: Hot & Sour pork tenderloin with rice and green beans
Thursday: ham and cheese sandwiches with fruit, food on the run night!
Friday: Thai Style beef and noodle bowl (from a Rachel Ray cookbook, I will post it if I get a decent picture and if we like it.)
I've just noticed I have no magazine recipes in this group, but also have not planned out any baking for the week, so I will have to look through and see what I come up with.
Don't forget to go see the list of other Menu Plan Monday planners, see what ideas you can get from some of their great recipes!
Magazine Mondays
Do you know how many food magazines you have in your house?
I do.
But only because I recently had to pack them.
And, no, they aren't all unpacked yet.
Ivonne is right. We have all these wonderful recipes from magazines, with beautiful, mouth-watering pictures. Why aren't we cooking them?
Well I am going to try.
If I want variety in my menu plan, and I want to make use of the resources I have, then cooking from the stack of magazines I had to box up and bring with me is a good way to go.
I "think"this came from a Canadian Living magazine. A more recent one, one I had pulled a page or two from before not packing it up. (Yippee! I was right, and found the recipe on the Canadian Living website too!)
It is called Mustard-Garlic flank steak, but needs more garlic to really be garlicky. It was good, tender and flavorful, just not very garlicky. And can someone tell me what exactly the rosemary sprigs did for the flavor?
This took a bit of advanced planning, either marinating it about 4 hours in advance, or as I did, overnight. Which works for me, overnight is a good time to marinate for.
No guarantees I'll be able to put a recipe up each week for Magazine Monday, but like the menu plan, I'm sure gonna try!
Mustard-Garlic Flank Steak
from Canadian Living
- 3 clovesgarlic
2 tbsp (25 mL) dijon mustard
1 tbsp (15 mL) each balsamic vinegar and vegetable oil
1-1/2 lb (750 g) beef flank marinating steak, 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and pepper
Using garlic press or knife, mince garlic. In glass baking dish, whisk together garlic, mustard, vinegar and oil. Add steak, turning to coat.
Place 2 sprigs of rosemary on top of steak; place 2 underneath. Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours. (Make-ahead:Refrigerate for up to 24 hours.) Discard rosemary sprigs.
Place steak on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and grill, turning once, until desired doneness, about 10 minutes for medium-rare.
Transfer to cutting board; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Tent with foil and let stand for 5 minutes before slicing thinly across the grain.
Canadian Living Magazine: July 2008
Those black and white things again
Well, they aren't pretty.
And, as usual, I have problems with recipes from Martha.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.... Try 2 1/2. Using a scoop of the size indicated.
My icing never thinned out enough to make spreading easy, and if I had added much more water, I'd have had a glaze, not an icing. Hence the streak marks, worse on the "black" side.
Spread on flat side of cookie.... So the bottom of the cookie? Cause that is the only flat side I had, the top was very rounded and would not have set down on a plate well if I'd have iced the bottom side.
On the other hand, my oldest is drooling to have some (instead I've sent him to bed for the night and said he could have some in his lunch.)
And the recipe is so quick and little, that throwing out the first batch of dough was not much of a waste. Yes, it was still as waste, but not nearly as bad as some other recipes-gone-wrong I've had before.
So, Megan, Nicole, what's next?
Multi-tasking and cookies do not always mix
There is supposed to be a picture here for you, a picture of black and white cookies, which I was "baking along" with Megan and Nicole.
Instead, let me tell you a little story....
Thursday afternoon I was home, with lots of things to do, but time in there to get some baking done before I had to run off, get my kids off the bus, throw them into the van with their dinners in a lunch box and not come home until all of their combined activities were done. This is our new Thursday routine, trying to maximize our time and minimize my driving. My plan ahead was for Sheppard's Pie, which was in their thermoses, and I thought cookies would be a nice addition as well.
So the potatoes were on the stove, boiling, the meat was already browned, the oven was preheated. The butter was softened and all the cookie ingredients were out, the try was lined with parchment. I was all set and ready to go with the cookies, creaming away when the phone rang.
Taekwon-Do. Our school is hosting a tournament next month, a big one, and in addition to some of my usual office coordinator tasks for the school, I have also been working on a team jacket with logo for the students to wear at the tournament. The jackets we picked look great and we were just settling the last few details of the logo.
Mixer running, in and out of the room I go, jotting down notes between adding ingredients (oops I was supposed to put the buttermilk in two additions, not all at once!), scooping the dough onto the pans, a few more notes, into the oven the cookies go, another note, back to the potatoes, drain them, melt my butter and warm my milk, another note, another phone call with the supplier about my previous notes, write notes from him with his corresponding information, put the Sheppard's pie in the oven, those cookies cooling on the counter do not look like the smooth topped cookies I expected.
Phone calls done, cookies cooled, onto the glaze, clean up the counter a bit first, what is this I see?
An egg.
No, the egg.
The one supposed to be in the cookie dough.
Not sitting on the counter.
Hmmm wonder how these cookies will taste without it, can I fake it?
No. Not so good for faking.
Check the time, bus is arriving in 30 minutes, still have to pack up for piano and assemble the thermoses.
Do I have any more butter out at room temperature?
No.
Do I have time tomorrow to try this again? Hmmm maybe. Have to see. (And for the record, no, I did not.)
Oh dear.
And that is my tale of the cookies that aren't. Looks like I will have time to make them tomorrow though, after swimming, before I need to go out again, so I'll just take some butter out now.
Sigh.... I'm sorry Megan and Nicole!
Comparing apples to apples?
I admit, I am a recipe junkie. It doesn't have to be cookbooks, though I love cookbooks. It doesn't have to be from a magazine. It could be an online recipe, or from a friend. It could be anywhere. I just like recipes.
So I admit, Nintendo had my attention the first time I saw the add for What's Cooking? with Jamie Oliver. Seriously? A "cookbook", recipes, cooking games and a shopping list? On a DS?
Okay, that appeals to me. Especially the shopping list part, actually. I had an older Palm Pilot at one point, used for the phone book and for groceries, but it kept dying on me. Usually while I was at the grocery store with the list open.
Anyone have this? Is is worth the $40 for it? I'm not sure, which is why I didn't buy it.
Now this one, on the other hand, was only $20.
And, it came with a very good recommendation from this fine young cook, Sabrina. So I took her recommendation, borrowed one of my children's DS, and sat down to find a recipe to try.
There were 245 of them to choose from. No games that I've seen so far though.
In the end, I decided to do a little "bake off", making the recipe for pound cake from the DS Personal Trainer, against the pound cake recipe from the Barefoot Contessa.
It isn't really a fair comparison though. The DS recipe makes a perfectly good pound cake, a small loaf, with very few ingredients. It was good, I liked it. Ina's recipe, on the other hand, had alot more ingredients (it was supposed to have an orange syrup poured on it while hot, and then had an optional orange glaze, both of which I skipped,) and made two large loafs of pound cake. 
But if you look closely at these two cakes, you'll see crumb wise, there really isn't much difference between them. The Barefoot Contessa cake is on the left, the larger loaf, and has orange juice in the batter. The cake from the Personal Trainer is the smaller one on the right. It does not have orange juice mixed into the batter.
If I were to pick my favorite recipe based on easy of making and the least amount of mess made, the DS Personal Trainer recipe would win, hands down. It was 5 minutes together, with very few bowls and minimal mess.
If I were to base it on consistency of the cakes, it would be about equal.
In the end, though I liked them both, my two testers, the hubby and my oldest child, gave Ina's cake the slight edge. My husband thought it might have been the orange juice. And the fact that there was alot more of it to test with than the smaller DS loaf.
Still, not bad for a recipe found on my son's hand held gaming unit. And since the instructions are clear, with voice, pictures and words, this looks like it might be a good thing for my oldest son to use to try and get into the kitchen more, a goal we both have this year.
Now.... Anyone have any opinions on the Jaime Oliver one?
Pound Cake
from Personal Trainer: Cooking from the Nintendo DS
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
3 medium eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
dash of vanilla extract
I'm actually going to write down what the program says to me when I have it ready to cook this recipe. Yes, it talks you through the recipe.
Warm the butter to room temperature - you'll need a mixing bowl. Take the butter from the fridge and put it in the mixing bowl. Leave it to warm at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 35oF.
The next step is to prepare the cake mix - you'll need a mixing bowl, a fine sieve and a whisk. Place the sieve over the mixing bowl and place the flour inside. Add the baking powder. Stir the flour and baking powder with the whisk and sift them into the mixing bowl.
Next you'll need a small bowl to break the eggs into. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat them.
That's it for preparations!
Mix the softened butter with the whisk. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly, until the mixture is pale. Gradually add the eggs and mix them in thoroughly. Mix in a dash of vanilla extract. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and use the rubber spatula to fold it in.
The next step is to line the loaf pan. You'll need a loaf pan and parchment paper. (I'm going to skip the details on how you line your pan, though it suggests a 9x3x3 loaf pan for the size.)
Pour the batter into the loaf pan and flatten out the surface. Tap the bottom of the pan gently against a hard surface to remove any air bubbles.
Now it is time to bake the cake. You'll need a wire rack. Bake the cake in the 350F oven for around 45 minutes. After removing the cake from the oven, place it on a wire rack to cool.
It goes on to give instructions about removing from the pan, slicing and serving, so I'll skip those too.
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.
Birthday request
This does not look amazing but it sure tastes good! I always double the recipe, yet there are very few leftovers.
This is not the recipe you want to make on a tight budget, however. With 3 types of protein, it can really add up.
Jambalaya
makes 2-4 servings, depending on who is eating
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 large sized boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces, coated in 1 heaping teaspoon of a good chili powder blend
1 large link of chirizo sausage, sliced
1 large red onion, diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
1/2 a yellow bell pepper, diced
3/4 cup long grain rice
1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3/4 cup peeled, de-veined shrimp, cut in half and tossed with 1/2 teaspoon a good chili powder blend
2 tablespoons freshly minced parsley for garnish
Heat a good sized non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the sausage pieces, stirring frequently, cook 4-5 minutes until they are browned lightly. When done, set aside in a bowl large enough to hold the sausage and the chicken. While the pan is still hot, add the oil and the chicken, again, stirring frequently, until the chicken is cooked through and browned. Set aside with the sausage.
In the same pan, over medium heat, add the celery, onions and bell peppers. Stir frequently, cook for 6-7 minutes, or until the onions are lightly browned. Reduce the heat to low then add the rice, giving it a good stir, for about 3 minutes, so the rice toasts slightly with the vegetables.
Add the broth, tomatoes, thyme, black pepper, red pepper flakes and chicken mixture to the pan. Mix well. Bring the liquid to a boil, then reduce the heat back to low, cover the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally, keeping an eye on the volume of liquid remaining and the firmness of the rice.
When most of the liquid is gone, and the rice is nearly cooked through, but still has a bit of a bite to it, stir in the shrimp, recover the pan and cook an additional 3-5 minutes, by which time the shrimp should be done. Taste the rice mixture and adjust seasonings as necessary.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Menu Plan Monday
What an interesting week I've had. My to-do list keeps getting longer and longer, even with my getting some stuff done.
It was nice to have my meal plan, though. What I need to do next is make it more visible for the rest of the family - partially so I remember what I'd planned to make, and also so they know what is coming. Saves some confusion (such as Thursday when my plan called for homemade chicken soup but my husband thought the stock I was making that morning was for something else, so when he came home and the kids and I were gone already, he did not realize the pot of soup on the stove was dinner.)
See? The to-do list just had another thing added to it!
On to the plan!
Sunday: Shredded salsa pork on tortillas with sour cream and cheese (plus left overs)
Monday: Chicken Tikka Masala with rice and naan bread
Tuesday: Mustard-Garlic flank steak with roasted potatoes and greens (pulled from a magazine, so recipe to follow after)
Wednesday: Cheesy broccoli and pasta bake (another magazine pull)
Thursday: Sheppard's Pie (Thursday's are the busy night for the kids and I, so I am planning things they can eat on the run. This they can eat from their thermoses in the van actually.)
Friday: Megan's Challenge!
Saturday: This is traditionally my husband's night for dinner, to give me a break, so I never know what we are having that night, unless we have company coming.
Now to work on posting this up for the family!
PS Like to menu plan, not sure where to start? Go see the looooooooong list of dedicated menu plan bloggers at I'm an Organizing Junkie.
Come on in and celebrate with us!
It is very easy to join in to this party, and won't require you to have a passport either. Just cook up something in your own home, your choice of savory or sweet, something to eat or something to drink, and bring it on over by January 30th. Post it on your own blog, then send me the link, with the title "Housewarming" to allthingsedible(at)hotmail(dot)com, so that I can include you in the round-up on January 31st.
For Daring Baker's, I've deliberately set the date for after the challenge so that you can have the option of using a variation of this months challenge (a good one!) for your dish.
Oooh I can't wait to see what everyone bring!
Yes, I'm excited to have you all join in our celebration of our new home.
With all this snow falling, be sure to wipe your feet when you come in, while I get you a hot drink.
Settling in, back to routine and a BLOG EVENT YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS!!!!!
Enough exclamations for you?
Yesterday was back to school for kids everywhere. A new school for my boys, a completely new routine as they are no longer "walkers" but instead are bus kids!
To start their day out right, when I woke them up yesterday, I greeted them with a warm and comfy breakfast, cinnamon sugar french toast.
Your day can never go all bad when it starts out with lots of love, and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.
I know you want a recipe, and I'll provide one, but you are really waiting to hear about my Blog Event, aren't you? Well wait no more!
It's...
No surprise, I'm sure, but fun all the same. So bring me your best appetizers, your favorite drinks, a tasty dessert, bring me anything you'd like, the more the merrier!
To be part of my housewarming, just send me the link of your post, showing me what you've made, by January 30th. Then come on over on the 31st to see the round-up!
I'll be posting a few things for the party between now and then, in eager anticipation.
Can't wait to see what you bring!
Cinnamon Sugar French Toast
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
cooking spray
10 slices of bread
Heat a griddle or non stick pan over medium-high heat.
While the pan heats, whisk together the eggs, milk, cream and nutmeg in a bowl big enough to lay a piece of bread flat on the bottom. In a smaller bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar.
When the pan is hot, but not smoking, coat with cooking spray. Dunk a piece of bread in the egg mixture, being sure to coat the entire piece of bread. Lay in the pan and repeat until you cannot fit in another piece. Try to leave a bit of room between the slices of bread. Sprinkle a bit of the sugar mixture over each slice of bread, in an even layer.
Allow to cook for about 3-4 minutes, then check to see if the underside is toasted and browned. If not, give it another minute, otherwise turn the slice over and continue cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Repeat until all the egg mixture is gone, which for me was 1o pieces of bread.
Serve warm with maple syrup.
Menu Plan Monday
I've always had a written menu plan, in a spiral notebook. If I can find my last one, I'll get a picture of it and post it up - I made that notebook last over two years!
However, I've always given myself flexibility when it came to my menu plan - I could write something down, change my mind, find I was missing an item, and either change the plan or walk to the grocery store up the street.
I don't have a grocery store less than a 15 minute drive away anymore, and a convenience store that is good for the odd milk/bread run, is not good for a menu plan.
With things like this in mind, I want to be more proactive with my menu plan, and a bit better organized with my shopping. This plan for the week is not overly creative, but it should work for us.
Sunday: Roast beef with sour cream and chive smashed potatoes, roasted green and yellow mean mix.
Monday: Shrimp Green Thai curry with rice noodles (sauce from a jar)
Tuesday: Hubby's birthday! By request, jambalaya (recipe to come later)
Wednesday: homemade pizzas with dip
Thursday: chicken noodle soup
Friday: homemade waffles with fruit salad
Saturday: We are having a party, so the menu will be varied and plentiful, with more details to come later!
I'm going to attempt to make this a weekly detail on my blog, so wish me luck and please feel free to send me suggestions for my menu plan as well!
Happy New Years!
Another year over, with lots to look back on and reflect.
We've had a busy year in our family, with multiple files of pictures to show for it. We've spent time with friends, laughed and loved, and had sadness. We've made tough decisions and some major changes. We've set goals, some we succeeded with, others we failed.
Probably just like everyone else.
This year I have a few goals in mind, a few resolutions. Seeing as I am no longer a short walk to the grocery store (or even a short drive actually,) I hope to be more proactive in my meal planning (which will show up this weekend for the following week), and more organized in my shopping.
I want to continue with last years goal to make more from my cookbooks, some of which are still in boxes, along with my good dishes (with plans for them to come out today.)
I want to try to build up some savings, and reduce some of my spending. Circumstances resulted in my stopping my cash budget, but now is a good time to go back to it.
I have a mental list of things I want to make this year, a few carried over from last year: Naan bread, marshmallow fondant, pho soup....
With change and goals in mind, I put out this question - what resolutions did you make last year and how well did you do with them? To start everyone off, I will list a few of my past resolutions and the results of them:
Resolution: No french fries. I resolved this several years back when I looked at my diet and realized that while fries are bad enough (even the kind you bake at home in your oven), it was worse for me because my dip of choice was mayonnaise.
Results: This year I allowed myself to try sweet potato fries at a restaurant (homemade sweet potato fries where I toss the wedges lightly in oil with salt and pepper have always been allowed by me), and those have been the only fries I have eaten in years. Still won't eat regular fries, so successful.
Resolution: Eat breakfast every morning. By this I mean something breakfasty - not left over birthday cake. Try to start the day out right with a good foundation.
Results: Pretty good. There have been the occasional time when I skipped breakfast, but no cake was eaten in its place.
Including this cake.
Resolution: Make two new recipes a week, either from a cookbook or from the internet.
Results: I was doing very well at this until about September-October, when life suddenly became much busier and had to be much cleaner. Then it had to be packed.
However, since we've moved, there has been on average one new recipe a day, so I think I've made up for things. I want to continue with this.
Leave me a comment, or treat this like a meme, but tell me what your past resolutions were, and how you did at them, and maybe share a resolution for this year.
As with last year, I see changes in the year ahead. For All Things Edible, there will be a few: more postings, more recipes, and some product reviews that don't necessarily have anything to do with eating. And coming soon, my own little blog event!
So don't go far!
Cream Herbed Potatoes
from The Pioneer Woman Cooks (with my changes in italics)
4 to 5 russet potatoes (I used 4, hand sliced)
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter (sorry PW, I only used half a stick!)
1 medium onion, finely diced
8 ounces cream cheese (I used light, it has more tang)
3/4 cup heavy cream (I didn't measure this but suspect I only used about 1/3 cup
1 cup whole milk (half & half works, too) (again, didn't measure, used 1% until it looked good)
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon finely chopped parsley (didn't have any)
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives (I increased this, since my kids love chives)
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped sage (didn't have any)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Slice potatoes very thinly.
Add butter to a large skillet over medium low heat, When melted, add diced onion. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add cream cheese to the pan and stir to melt.
Pour in cream and milk, stirring to combine.
Season with plenty of salt and pepper, then add chopped herbs.
Place potatoes in a buttered baking dish. Pour contents of skillet over the top.
Top with Parmesan cheese and bake for 45 minutes, or until bubby and…bubby. Allow potatoes to sit 15 minutes before serving.
Daring Bakers: Yule be impressed
This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. Take a jump over to either of their sites for the original recipe. But be warned. It is looooooooooong.
This log is very different from the Yule Log we made last December, but no less a show-stopper in appearance.
And unlike last year, I did not make this several times. Actually, I have only just finished making it today, and my piece is sitting at the table while I write this post.
Rather than write a long and detailed post about the various components of this cake, I'll let some of my pictures do most of the talking for me.
I had to make my own praline, having not thought to buy some. This is almond praline.
(I should add that I did not even bat an eyelash at the idea of making a praline, which goes to show how far I've come when it comes to hot sugar.)
Assembly station. I'm still working on the best place for light and pictures in my kitchen. This is my baking corner, but does not seem to be great for light.
I decided to make two mini's instead of one large. I think I should have smoothed down the mousse on this - or followed the instructions and banged the tins on the counter a few times. You are about to see why....
Hmmm how to cover up those lovely sides. One batch of icing is not going to be enough.
Ah, left over praline!
Leftover ganache and praline crisp insert! You have saved me from ugly logs. Sorta.
I had enough cake for a top and a bottom, so my layers, from the bottom up, are:
Dacquoise biscuit - simply almond.
White chocolate ganache, which looks like caramel and tastes pretty close to it.
Vanilla mousse, with very obvious vanilla beans in it.
Milk chocolate praline crisp - almond praline and cereal.
More mousse.
Vanilla creme brulee, again, lots of vanilla beans there.
More mousse.
Another layer of Dacquoise.
Milk chocolate icing. A double batch actually.
Yes, it is impressive to look at.
I'm getting this in right under the wire. Lots of things delayed me, including the flu on Christmas day, but am pleased to say that I did not miss this month's challenge.
Now I really, really hope we do something a little less time consuming and sweet next month.
Thanks to Hilda and Marion for hosting this month. And ongoing thanks to Lis and Ivonne for being our leaders and letting us be their followers.
Sunburst Lemon Bars: Breakfast fruit bars?
I was fortunate to come across some Meyer lemons when doing my pre-Christmas grocery shopping. They were just quietly sitting next to the regular lemons, which I was getting to make lemon squares. Faced with the choice between regular, tart lemons, and sweet Meyer lemons, there really was no choice to be made.
These bars have not lasted long, but instead have been eaten for breakfast and "I need some fruit" moments by my husband.
Sunburst Lemon Bars
from Pillsbury The Complete Book of Baking
Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup butter, softened
Filling
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup lemon juice (preferably from Meyer lemons)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Frosting
1 cup icing sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice (preferably from Meyer lemons)
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Heat oven to 350F.
In large bowl, combine all the crust ingredients together until crumbly. Press mixture evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 pan (line the pan with foil for easier removal - I learned this the hard way.) Bake for 20-30 minutes or until light golden brown.
When the crust is golden, combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl, except the lemon juice and zest, if using. Blend well. Stir in the juice and zest. Pour over the warm crust.
Put back in the oven and bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown. Cool completely.
In a small bowl, combine the 1 cup icing sugar and just enough lemon juice to get a nice spreading consistency for the icing. Mix until very smooth, then add the zest, if using. Spread over the cooled squares. Cut into squares.
Makes about 36 bars.
Have a safe and Merry Christmas!
It is Christmas Eve and the children are in bed, finally.
Important advice for everyone out there - do not wait until Christmas Eve day to do your baking! Even if you have everything else done, this is not good planning!
This is what I spent today doing. My baking. I had to, or we'd have had nothing to put out for Santa tonight. Not even a box of Oreos. I probably could have found him some chocolates. I do have left over cake. But Santa deserves baked goods that were made just for him. Left over cake won't cut it.
From left, around, are Gooey Coconut Dream Bars (from Phe/om/enon Holly,) Meyer Lemon Squares (recipe later), Raisin Oatmeal Cookies (Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, minus the pecans), and Spicy Ginger Cookies (from The Canadian Baker, not my usual recipe since I would have had to look for mine.)
In addition to these items, I also "threw together" our Chritmas Eve dinner, a broth fondue with fresh veggies, a bit of this and a bit of that. The children loved being able to pick at what they wanted to eat, but spent a good chunk of dinner running back to my laptop, conveniently found on the kitchen counter, so they could see just where in the world Santa was right then! (And for the record, at 10:17 pm, he was in San Juan, Puerto Rico.)
(In retrospect, maybe the last minute baking was a good idea - I didn't make nearly as much as I might have otherwise, if I'd been doing so well in advance and freezing as I went.)
Dinner was followed by a walk around the block, to see the lights. Unusual that we needed umbrellas and snow jackets to do so, though. Rain is melting the snow, but also making things very slippery around here. So if you are driving, be careful!
Before getting the boys off to bed, we had to assemble our tray for Santa and the reindeer. We break with some traditions, providing the reindeer with apples instead of carrots, and normally we leave him chocolate milk, something he rarely gets. This year, with the cold and the rain, we decided to leave him hot chocolate milk instead, kept warm in a thermos, with a mug nearby. The children chose what to leave him for cookies (the ones they themselves had just been sampling.)
The kitchen is cleaned, the dishwasher is running, the Christmas lights are on. I think it is time to curl up and enjoy a few minutes of quiet before the chaos that is Christmas morning comes.
May you and your family have a wonderful day, filled with love and happiness. And a good cookie or two.
Back in the swing, but starting simple
The pile of boxes is getting smaller, at least in the kitchen area. And a month of take-out and frozen foods has made us all long to get back to home cooking. Even though there is more clean up involved in that.
Having a grill in my kitchen is great so far, even though it tends to set off the smoke detector at odd times.
Homemade hamburgers are superior to the take-out kind, and cost a fraction to make. For my children, the downside is no surprise toy with the burger.
Simple Burgers
1 1/4 pounds lean ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
scant 1/4 cup breadcrumbs, just enough to help the mixture bind
Mix everything, gently, together in a bowl. Do not squish the meat.
Preheat grill to medium high heat.
Form meat into 6 equal portions, gently rounding the portions into a patty that is a touch thinner in the middle than on the edge.
Grill, turning as necessary, until the burgers are cooked through, but not dry, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Serve on toasted buns with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.
The new kitchen!
What a weekend!
I don't ever want to move again.
Alot of cleaning, boxes, and more cleaning, but we got here, finally.
Fancy stemware present and accounted for, my boys and I, all three, husband included, toasted our first night in our new home with some de-alcoholized bubbly. Pink bubbly. Then we set up air mattresses and sleeping bags and camped out for the night.
Did you know that every house has noises? And when you aren't familiar with those noises, everyone of them is very loud. Especially at 2 am. And 5 am.
This is my new kitchen, pre cleaning, pre influx of boxes and furniture, and devoid of real dishes and food. Unless chocolate counts, in which case, I had lots of food.
Don't you love my pretty pointsetta on my island? That was part of our first housewarming gift, from our agent.
For a quick tour: the window is over the sink, a large sink with a little vegetable sink as part of it. There are lights underneath all the counters, which run around the room. On the island, right behind the plant, is my cooktop, a Jenn-air which has two induction burners and then the other side converts. Included in my gadgets is a griddle, a grill, some coil burners, a deepfryer and a rotissary. On the other side of the island, oposite the window, is the wall oven, again a Jenn-air, with a convection setting. It sits beside the fridge, which was absent at the time this was taken but has since been installed, hooked up to the water line and filled with stuff. Above the oven sits an alcove for a microwave, and above that, a cabinet built specfically to hold baking pans, with racks to hold them up.
I have alot of counter space and cabinet space, which has quickly been filled up with the contents of 73 boxes, at least. In addition to this, though, I have a little bonus room near my kitchen:
The previous owners use this as a sound booth for his music, and built in the shelves. I saw it and thought, "PANTRY!!!" I've since done some grocery shopping and unpacked boxes that had pantry items in it, so it isn't so bared and empty anymore.
This house has required alot of cleaning, even before anything came through the door. I had some help from family, but also had some help from a great Daring Baker, BC, who in addition to scrubbing out my stove and all its parts (isn't she amazing to do that for me!?!) brought me a cooler full of goodies to eat. Some store bought goodies were topped off with even better homemade goodies, such as a glutten free cake (you were right, I could not tell it was glutten free), an apple compote to go with the cake, and a jar full of salsa, which was inhaled by everyone around, it was so good!
Oh, and she also brought me a very important, but necessary ingredient, to this months Daring Baker challenge - and no I'm not going to tell you what it is!
Our first night in the house, we stood around the island and ate roasted chicken from the grocery store, with wedge fries and salad. Our second night, surrounded by boxes, things everywhere, I managed to find enough dishes and pots to make dinner. Unsurprising to anyone who knows our family, it was pasta, whole wheat spaghetti with a meat sauce (made up from equal parts ground beef and hot Italian sausage meat, sauted onions, canned tomatoes and crushed tomatoes) and a whole wheat baguette (part of our present from BC.) I didn't find the Parmessan cheese, but did find the cheddar and a box grater.
Unpacking and organizing is coming along way too slowly for my liking, but like any sensible Mom, Cook and Baker, I started with the kitchen. With a bit more time, and alot more hard work, I hope to be able to get back to baking very soon, and provide alot more pictures of my new kitchen.
When you are a kid, one of the bonuses to moving is the boxes you get to play with after. Especially if your mother orders an appliance and salvages the box for you.
It's almost time
Moving day.
After all this time preparing, we are ready to go. Wish I could say the same for the weather.
Mother Nature has a nasty sense of humor - just look what she brought us!
No matter, we will get this done.
My pantry is down to a bit of cereal, some popcorn and the peanut butter. My freezer has ice pops in it, and not much more of anything else. There hasn't been much cooking done around here lately, unless you count big pots of cream of wheat in the morning for breakfast (now gone, I am eating the last of it this morning.)
Ever notice how the less time you have, the busier to you are?
Monday had my boys eating the last of the bacon from the freezer for dinner, with eggs and toast, while I was out with my co-workers for a little end of year celebration. Our program is done for the year, we go back in January. Reason to celebrate?
Relaxed among the ladies, I tried something new and different. I ordered a drink. One with alcohol in it. I know, shocking. And I drank the entire thing. Even more shocking. (For those of you who do like to have the occasional drink, don't take offense - I tend to not like the taste of most alcohol, a big factor to why I don't drink, not a moral decision or anything.) I even took a picture on my cell phone, my Absolute Cosmo.
Can anyone tell me - it is supposed to be raspberry vodka in a Cosmopolitan? It seemed a little out of place to me, and while the drink was tasty, I think I'd have preferred being able to taste
the cranberry and not have it overwhelmed by the raspberry flavoring.
Oh, and the buffet at the Rideau Carleton Race Track is not bad, especially for $9.99 on a Monday night, but their desserts and dessert attendant are sorely lacking.
Last night the snow storm blew through. A perfect night to stay safe at home. Which we didn't do. We had to be out doing some final paperwork for the house, and I had been itching to try a new restaurant that just happened to be very near by, the Grand Central New York Deli. I had read about it awhile ago on a Ron Eade's Omnivore's Ottawa, a writer for the Ottawa citizen who maintains a blog about the food scene in Ottawa, and he had updated on Sunday that the Deli was finally going to open on Monday.
Woohoo! Smoked meat piled high for me! Not just any smoked meat, but a dry-rubbed smoked meat that was flavorful, moist, but not greasy or fall apart. On bread make from a local bakery. With coleslaw made on site that was creamy and flavorful and oh so good. I had mine with the sweet potato fries and ate every single one of those fries, the only fries I have eaten in years.
I should have taken a picture, even though it would be another terrible one on my cell phone, of the cheesecake they serve. Go look at Ron's site, see what I mean about the cheesecake. The four of us shared a piece and it was plenty for us!
Next time we try the deep fried pickles.
Today was another busy day, a pot luck lunch with all the play leaders that work in my program. No homemade goodies from me, but at least I was able to attend and contribute something (crackers, cheese, dips and veggies for those curious.) And I came home with a box full of chocolates.
Now to figure out what to feed my children for dinner tonight, using my fancy china. Isn't it lovely?
With luck in the paperwork, at this time tomorrow I will be standing in my new kitchen, ready to scrub every surface before I bring out my dishes and start figuring out how I want to arrange things.
And if I never move again, it will probably be too soon!
Hugs and kisses everyone - talk to you soon from the new house!
