Rachel, the creator of two food blogs, Food Maven and Coconut and Lime, is the hostess of a what looked like a really fun blog event - What's in your basket?
The rules were simple: go grocery shopping, take pictures of what you bought, blog about it, including what you bought, what you spent and where you went shopping. Just like it is an education to see what other people are cooking, it is equally fascinating to see what people are buying.
So here is what was in my basket this afternoon, purchased at Farm Boy:
500ml Homo milk - $2.59
Large tub strawberry-vanilla yogurt - $1.99
12 package fruit pieces yogurt - $3.99 (minus $0.75 coupon)
English muffins - $1.29
Lean Beef stew meat - $7.21
500ml Light (6%) cream - $0.99
1lb unsalted butter - $3.99
boneless skinless chicken breast - $8.59
1/2 lb package vermicelli sized rice noodles - $1.49
2 pints blackberries - 2 for $5.00
banana's - $1.24
Royal Gala apples, 6 - $3.20
2 pints blueberries - 2 for $5.00
Red Spanish onion - $0.91
2 packages of fresh basil leaves - $1.49 each
5 peppercorn mix - $1.89
Cheddar cheese curds - $3.10
green seedless grapes - $4.08
red seedless grapes - $4.26
3 package organic garlic - $0.99
White Spanish onion - $1.19
minus bag credit of $0.10
Total spent: $65.12
I could easily have bought more items but was walking home and knew I would have to carry whatever I bought, so I behaved myself. The beauty of this store is that I can go daily and buy fresh as needed. I still need to go to the regular grocery store, get items like cereal and cleaning items (my family goes through massive amounts of hot and cold cereals), but those can wait until later this weekend.
So what's in your basket?
What's in my basket (or yours?)
Three cheers for Cream Puff!
The truest compliment of a recipe. The empty plate of a slightly picky child.
Tonight's plan ahead for dinner involved pan fried pork loin chops, with baked rice and carrots. A little bit of "plain"to go with a little bit of a risk. Okay, with my children, a big risk.
But Ivonne promised me easy to make rice that was creamy, and tasty, and I decided to take her up on it, despite the risk of having a full container of rice for myself to eat.
I'm sorry I did not get a picture of the rice before it was served - I admit, this afternoon hasn't been pleasant with my children and I was not in the mood to listen to one more little voice demand to be fed dinner, so I just dug in and fed them. I knew they would eat the carrots, that is the only guarantee I had for the entire meal. Instead, I ended up with three empty plates, every bit eaten, and compliments on the rice.
In the comments of Cream Puff's post, I mentioned I was going to make a substitution, and I did. I didn't have any Pecorino Romano cheese, but did have a good sized block of Grana Padano which I used instead. I would like to try the recipe again using the proper cheese, but for now I used what I had and it worked out just fine. I also didn't have any fresh parsley but that is okay because adding fresh parsley on top of food is a clear way to get the children to not eat it.
So thank you for the lovely recipe Ivonne! It is a keeper!
Schmecks really does mean good!
So earlier this month I kept seeing blog posts involving the word "schmeck" and they all linked back to Jasmine at Confessions of a Cardamom Addict.
I'd never even heard of Edna Staebler, let alone food that schmecked! What the heck was a schmeck!
Schmeck!
Schmeck!
Schmeck!
Sounds like I'm cursing or crazy!
(Btw, turns out I'm neither, I think.)
Jasmine did a fine job explaining what schmecks is about:
Schmecks is a word that Mennonites use to mean tasty…flavourful…yummy.
Her original event was so popular, she decided to have a repeat event, a part two, and invited all her readers, some of us by personal invitation, to participate and make either an Edna like recipe, if not one of her actual recipes.
Any event that requires I make something yummy sounds like fun to me.
I checked out all the original posts and decided I wanted to cook something new for this event, but I admit, I didn't really want to go out and buy a new cookbook. I haven't even been able to finish reading the pile I have. So I cheated a bit, visited my local bookstore, checked out a book or two and ended up copying out a recipe from More Food that Really Schmecks, Hurry Up Chocolate Cake, as well as Cocoa Fudge Icing.
I picked this recipe because my interest was piqued by the idea of making a chocolate cake in the pan, one that didn't involve cake mix, but was as easy as cake mix. Would it stick to the pan and come out in crumbles instead of nicely cut pieces? Would it have enough chocolate flavor to satisfy my chocolate needs? Would my children eat it, or just eat the icing?
So here are the recipes I copied out:
Hurry Up Chocolate Cake (use a 9x9 cake pan)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 rounded tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1 cup lukewarm buttermilk
Sift all the dry ingredients into the pan and stir to blend. Bump pan on the counter to level off. Make 3 hollows in mixture with a spoon. Put vanilla in one hole, vinegar in second hole and melted butter/margarine in 3rd hole.
Pour buttermilk over top. Stir and blend until smooth with no flour showing. Thump on counter and bake in 350F oven for 30 minutes.
Cocoa Fudge Icing
1 cup sugar, brown or white
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Combine sugar and cocoa. Stir in milk until smooth. Drop in butter and stir over moderate heat. Boil for 1 minute only.
Remove from heat and cool quickly (cold water in sink.) Stir in vanilla and beat until creamy and thick. It will stay soft - but firm, on cake. (Her words, I didn't really see it though.)
So here is my messy first piece of chocolate cake, with icing. It was very fudgy looking, moist and with a good crumb. Currently my husband is having his second piece, and my youngest child ate his entire piece instead of just the icing.
A cake recipe that only makes a 9x9 pans worth is actually quite practical for a family of four - not too much cake, we won't be eating it for days, but just enough that we will be able to all have some in our lunches tomorrow. It will be a special treat in the kids lunch boxes, a nice way to start off the week.
I am looking forward to other people's submissions to this event, so I can increase my recipe base with more of Edna's quirky recipes.
Vegetable, not vegetarian, chili
I first had this at a friends house for dinner, where the evening started with the question, "Do you like chili?"
The answer was, "No."
Try as I might, I just don't like most beans and legumes. (And, yes, I know that authentic chili doesn't have beans in it, and that kind of chili I do like.)
I like my mom's baked beans, on the rare occasion when she makes them. But I can't stand anything involving kidney beans, even if you pick them out, the flavor lingers and I don't like it.
And I'm probably the least picky of my family, when it comes to beans.
Notice, however, the beans in the picture of this chili? Aren't that many, are there? Now, see all the yummy vegetables?
This chili actually qualifies as a 30 minute meal, start to finish, because it uses a convenience food (or two): canned baked beans in tomato sauce, and white corn and black bean salsa sauce (President's Choice brand.)
So, the recipe:
1 - 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped (I like red)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 broccoli, cut into florettes
1/2 cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
a bunch of carrots, cut into bite sized pieces
any other vegetable you want in your chili. (I wanted red or yellow pepper but the kids won't eat them, so didn't bother.)
1 jar President's Choice White Corn and Black bean salsa
1 can baked beans in tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
sprinkling Italian seasoning, chili powder, salt and pepper
Brown ground beef in a large pot - don't bother draining, you'll want the fat to saute the vegetables. Add chopped onion and carrot pieces, cook a few minutes before adding in the rest of the vegetables and continuing to cook over medium heat. Sprinkle in the spices of your choice. (I didn't have any Italian seasoning and was in too much of a hurry to pull out the basil, oregano, and thyme to make my own, so skipped it - and never noticed the lack of flavor from omitting them.)
Add in jar of salsa, beans and tomato paste. Fill tomato paste can with water and add into the chili. Or for a more grown up version, use red wine instead. Once mixed, turn heat to low, put lid on the pot and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Serve with toppings of choice and dippers, see list below. I've marked our required toppings with a *.
Topping suggestions:
shredded cheese*
sour cream*
green onion
cilantro
avacado
garlic bread
tortilla chips
So the next time someone asks me if I like chili, I won't answer no right away. I'll wait to see how many beans are in it first.
I think I have a new go-to quick bread recipe!
I'm falling behind on my reading.
I have a stack of lovely new cookbooks, a brand new novel given to me for Christmas, and piles and piles of magazines around me. And when my new issue of most of those magazines come in - I devour them!
The new Today's Parent was no exception. I've said it before - I love the recipes.
This issue had the winners of the quick breads contest that I had totally failed to notice was happening. How observant am I?
This recipe appealed to me for a few different reasons - it was a quick bread that was appropriate for the kids lunches, I could make it quickly (with help if necessary).
And it didn't involve bananas!
Plus I had all the ingredients on hand to make it, including the strawberries.
To me, that was a sign that this was the recipe I should be making. So I did. Two bowls, quick mix up (took longer to crush the strawberries than it for the entire rest of the recipe.)
And it was so good, that the next morning, there was a small heel of the second loaf left, and that's it!
I did learn one little quirk about this recipe afterwards - the bread lacks its vibrant flavor and texture when it is cold. I learned this when I had a piece for myself as a snack left in the van while I worked. When I came out and had a piece of the bread, it fell flat. Room temperature in the rest of the lunches, there were only crumbs left.
I wonder if the rest of the recipe winners will be nearly as good?
One more for last week
Again I'm late, and again, it is a horrible picture. (I will be really glad when it stops being pitch black at 5pm at night so I can go back to taking some more reasonable pictures!)
Sunday was cold and the end of a very long weekend, filled with company and overnight guests and too much to do. I didn't really want to cook but forced myself to go with my plan ahead of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Homey and with lots of left overs.
My recipe of choice for the meatloaf came from The Food Network and a show I had seen a few weeks back, Good Deal with Dave Lieberman. In it he made three make ahead meals that were easy on the budget and allowed for lots of left overs for a busy week. Just what we'd had and just what we needed.
I specifically wanted the turkey meatloaf recipe as I hadn't made any kind of meatloaf for awhile and hadn't used a specific recipe for any of those. Mostly meatloaf is a recipe I tend to just do by the seat of my pants. Or the contents of my fridge and pantry.
I was a little leary about trying a red pepper sauce after the fiasco that was red pepper pasta sauce a few months back but decided that since it wasn't going to be the feature flavor, I could risk it. And as luck would have it, my local grocery store actually had ground turkey in (doesn't happen that often) and specially packaged up the amount I wanted.
This was a good choice. It came together quickly, smelled lovely while baking (even my husband complimented the smell of dinner cooking) and was enjoyed all around. (One exception - oldest son was sick so picked at his veggies but chose to go to bed early instead. I find it amusing that my children tend to eat their veggies first at dinner time.) Left overs the next day were also quite good - the meatloaf had a bit of a warm kick to it, from the cayenne pepper in it.
So total new recipes (from actual books/magazines) is well above my required one.
Wonder if I can keep that up?
A weekly round-up of recipes
I actually did alot of cooking this week, and surpassed my minimum of 1 new recipe for the week fairly early.
I also broke one of my own "guildlines" - finish reading a new cookbook before you start cooking from it. Which is why no one has seen recipes form me from The Vegan Lunch Box, or either of the ACES Bakery cookbooks. I'm still reading them.
So early in the week I had the hankering (funny word, I know, I just like it right now,) to roast a chicken. It was something I could prep in advance and put into the oven before I go do the 45 minute-plus drive to pick up the husband from work on the days I have the van. I've done a few roasted chickens lately, always involving a brine and garlic, but haven't really been satisfied with the results. Having to take the time to prep the chicken a full day before for brining should yield good results, and maybe it's just been my roasting, but I haven't been happy.
So I went net searching for a different type of roast chicken, something that didn't require alot of advanced work and found this. The combination of the basil, oregano, cayenne and paprika intrigued me, as they aren't four flavors I would have thought to put together for chicken. But it had all my requirements so into a bowl they went, out came the oil and the chicken, and into the oven it went.
Then promptly into our stomachs afterwards!
It smelled good, it looked good and mmmmmm it tasted good!
A new recipe to add to my expanding blue book of tried and true recipes.
Friday I had company coming, my grandparents, whom I don't get to cook for often. I had "comforting and elegant" in my head and for some reason felt that meant soup, homemade soup, with good sandwiches. And since my grandfather was involved, there had to be dessert as well.
I didn't want just any kind of sandwiches but something a bit special - I ended up deciding on California BLT's, which I found in my new Ina Garten cookbook, Barefoot Contessa At Home. When asked by friends what I was making, the California portion caused confusion, so to ease that "huh?" factor, the difference is avocado slices added in with good, crisp bacon, fresh, ripe tomatoes, buttery lettuce and a sprinkling of salt and pepper, a smear of mayo. And to up them up in special quality, I made bread, honey white bread, also from the same cookbook.
This bread worked perfectly to the recipe and was so well received that I've just pulled out a new batch from the oven. My children loved it both with a bit of butter and toasted with jam. And it was just what I needed to make my sandwiches have that special touch.
Btw, the second picture of the bread, before I sliced it, is being admired by my grandfather.
Okay, really he's just being silly, but then if he weren't being silly, we would wonder what was wrong!
My last item for dinner was the soup, and again I knew where I wanted to go with it. I wanted roasted cauliflower soup, topped with some sharp, shredded cheese. And I could not find a recipe that was specifically for roasted cauliflower.
So I winged it.
I roasted up a head of cauliflower pieces with some chunks of onion, roasted in olive oil, salt and pepper. Then I added them into some chicken stock, more salt and pepper, a sprinkling of cumin and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I also added in the flesh of a baked potato, for thickening. Then I pureed it all together, added a bit more salt and pepper, and some pieces of a sharp white cheddar. Each bowl was served with additional cheese sprinkled on top.
This soup did not look good at all. The picture is terrible, I could not find some good light to take one, but even before I took one, it looks icky. And was an excellent example of don't judge by looks. It was amazingly good, even better two days later (I had the leftovers for lunch yesterday.)
My final effort of the day was homemade vanilla ice cream. Sorry, no pictures, so you will have to simply imagine the flecks of vanilla beans generously floating through the thick, creamy ice cream. It went very well with the apple pie my grandmother had brought, baked up by me.
My only other effort that weekend was to make some muffins for breakfast with my 4 year old. My grandmother had cleaned up her fruit bowl by bringing everything to me, which meant over ripe bananas. So we remade the chocolate banana bread, in muffin form, and fancied them up a bit more using chunks of banana chips, broken up by the assistant chef. (Oh, one thing I failed to mention with the original post about the bread. I don't use nuts in my baking, so did not add them.)
Hopefully I will be able to post more often, by recipe instead of by week, but work has been keeping me busy. I'll figure it out eventually.
Sorry about the horrid picture
It was late in the day, no light, and I had to take a picture before this was devoured by the children!
So my neighbor had a baby last week, her forth boy. What do you give as a shower gift to someone who has four boys? And her baby shower was scheduled at the same time as the husband's birthday party, so I couldn't do more than drop in for a few minutes. (And for the record, my shower gift was a gift certificate to Build-a-Bear so they could make a stuffed bear for him.)
We jokingly laughed about the cake party I was hosting, and how I would try to bring her some of the left over cakes, which she loved the idea of!
No suck luck. The really, really good stuff (read that as cheesecake) was eaten right away.
So instead I made her some banana bread, but not your normal, everyday banana bread. Having a forth child deserves something a little more special than my standard banana bread!
How about chocolate banana bread, loaded with white chocolate chips?
Now that is a bit more like it!
And as it happens, I had just found a recipe for chocolate banana bread at Joy of Baking. Plus this let me fulfill my requirement of at least one new recipe a week, and it gave me something I could bake with the 4 year old chef-in-training. (We even had to use his new bowl, measuring cups and spoons, those that Santa brought him - couldn't find his little hat or apron though.)
This bread came together quickly, as most banana breads do, and was just special and different enough to be a lovely change from the norm. The chocolate was deep, though not intense, and a bit surprising since it was only cocoa powder. The white chocolate chips added a touch of texture, despite not being overly obvious.
I will make this recipe again, anytime I feel like a change, or want something special.
And maybe next time I'll get to use my own bowls and measuring spoons.
How to celebrate a birthday
"Mommy, I'm having my birthday soon. Tomorrow."
"No you aren't, your birthday isn't for a long time."
"How many sleeps?"
"Alot, over 300."
"We'll who is going to have a birthday then?"
"In our house, Daddy is next."
"He's going to have a party. We can invite all my friends. And they can all bring a cake." (note who's friends he plans to invite?)
"A cake?"
"Yes, it will be a cake party. Everyone has to bring a cake for Daddy."
Don't ask why, but we went with this idea. All the girls thought it was a hilarious idea for a party, while my husband, "Daddy", said, "Um, I'm in training right now."
Yes, we ignored him. :-)
Normally he requests black forest cake for his birthday. This year was a bit different: he asked for something involving chocolate and orange, but left the rest of the details up to me.
I settled on this: Decadent Chocolate Orange Cake.
I have to admit, I didn't like this cake. But I also am not a person who really likes chocolate and orange together, despite it being a classic combination which is supposed to marry so well together. Sorry, I just don't go crazy for it the way some people do.
And the name of the cake is very deceiving. It isn't a chocolate orange cake, it is an orange cake with a chocolate ganache. The orange in the cake comes from the rind of two oranges (I zested mine straight into the sugar instead of peeling, chopping, then adding to the sugar to puree) as well as orange marmalade both in the cake and in the filling. The filling itself is simply cream cheese, marmalade and a bit of sugar, which is then given a coating of the chocolate ganache.
I made one other change to this - I didn't use the pans specified, but instead used the square silicone pans I was given for Christmas. It meant I could not split the cakes in half to make four layers (the cakes baked up very lopsided and only careful work on my part resulted in a square cake that was not completely off balance,) but allowed me to have a nice square cake.
In the end, we had 6 cakes: my chocolate/orange cake, a banana chocolate chip cake, a triple chocolate torte (I need the recipe for this one), a lemon cake from a local bakery that I so want to visit, a black forest cheesecake and a caramel chocolate brownie cheesecake (which was so rich I actually could not eat it!)
Yes, there was alot of cake! And alot of giggling over the idea of a cake party. One has been requested by another adult for their birthday later this spring, and one adult as asked for a variation - a cookie party!
So the next time you are looking for a different idea for a celebration, ask a 4 year old what kind of party he thinks you should have. Just don't let him compile the guest list. :-)
Birthday smoothie, and the new year
Today is the husbands birthday, so we started the day out early (it is only 9am now) with some cooking and not cooking. The cooking part involves a large pot of homemade tomato sauce simmering on my stove, for use later today when I make some lasagna for the dinner party we are having (more about that fun event later!)
The non-cooking is just as tasty as homemade sauce though - fruit smoothies! Just the thing to fuel a runner pre-morning run, and just a bit special for his birthday!
I didn't plan in advance to make this for him, so what went into it was made up of what I had on hand, which was fortunately a good variety. Frozen strawberries and pineapple joined a ripe banana, pureed together with orange juice (which I was just about out of) and orange, raspberry, passionfruit juice. A scoop of vanilla frozen yogurt was added for a touch of creaminess and decadence! Yummy! It was so good!
By the way....
Belated Happy New Years!
Yes, I know I'm almost a week late! I've been busy with kids, clean up, going back to work (a week before school starts, so bringing kids with me.) Cooking almost every day but nothing new, nothing fancy again. Even today's lasagna is nothing new.
Despair not! New recipes are coming! I have all kinds of lovely new cookbooks to read, recipes in my "to try" pile are growing faster than the weeds in spring and I have a resolution to back up that long, long list!
Resolution you say? At New Years! How surprising! (hehehe)
1. No arrowroot cookies for me! (This is work related - we provide the children with a snack of apple juice and arrowroot cookies - and usually have lots left over for the parent volunteers and staff to munch on. These cookies are like chips - bet ya can't eat just one!)
2. No eating after 8pm, parties excepted. Or late night dates with the husband.
3. You will make one new recipe per week, minimum! Try new things, even if it is something made that only I will eat for my lunch, try some new things!
No the smoothie was not my new recipe for the week. Actually I made my recipe yesterday, a birthday cake that needed to set up over night. Haven't taken pictures of it yet, though I will do so at the party this evening, so will post about it either later tonight or tomorrow.
For now, live vicariously through us - enjoy the sight, though not the taste (sorry!) of the smoothie, and keep thoughts of chocolate and orange in mind.
More Christmas dinner pictures
Still working on the pc, getting things set up. Realized this morning there are a few more programs I want on it.
Here is a picture of my two desserts, before I cut into them, waiting on my hutch for after dinner. Look yummy, don't they? (I still have some left of both if they look good to you - send me a note and we'll work out a way to get you some!)
And here is dinner for the adults on Christmas day (the children were uninterested so had their own little feast elsewhere.) In the foreground is prime rib, seasoned with the rub I had made with my mortar and pestle earlier in the day, which I posted a picture of on Christmas day. It involves garlic, fennel seeds, fresh thyme, pepper and olive oil. The smell of it in the oven is so wonderful, and the impact of flavor is melt in your mouth amazing.
This was served with mashed potaoes (not the low fat kind - these had lots of butter and used cream in place of milk or stock,) sauted carrots and oven roasted asparagus. Yummy!
Unfortunately, my probe thermometer chose that day to die, giving temperature readings between 44 degrees and 382 degrees, so having set it to 125 did me no good at all, and hence the roast ended up a little too rare, even for me. Next day leftovers, reheated in the oven, however, were amazingly good - the perfect balance between rare tenderness and flavor.
And I think that is all I can say at this point about Christmas day dinner!
No new meals to post about in the meantime. Having low key items such as hamburgers and coleslaw, taco's and sheppard's pie, so good, but nothing postable.
Happy Eating!
Details to be delayed
Here are a few pictures of the desserts I made for Christmas. I'll try to post more about them later.
This is a white chocolate cranberry cake, which I read about on another blog but can't for the life of me remember from who's blog! So if anyone knows where I copied this from, please send me a note reminding me!
This is Cheesecake with apples (but without the topping), brought to me by Ivonne, of Cream Puffs in Venice. I don't own a torch and did not want to put my glass bottomed springform pan under the broiler, hence the lack of topping.
And this is why things will be a bit delayed - my new pc! I am still in the process of moving things over and setting things up, while my children are home from school for holidays, my husband is home, and my teenaged brother is visiting. So it is going to take me some time!
Merry Christmas everyone
Hohohoho to everyone!
Lots, and lots of pictures.
Bob (my mixter, nicknamed by my young brother) and I have been very busy, so busy that while I've snapped some pictures, I haven't had time to come blog them all!
So here is some pictures of a few things I made late last week, and a peek at what this family had for breakfast this morning!
The top picture is of some fudgey chocolate cookies, the recipe I found in a magazine I bought to read while sitting in the waiting room of my children's doctor's office for walk-in hours to be done. The wait was very long (and I knew it would be, so I came prepared), but fortunately my son did not have strep-throat and I found a funky recipe or two! And sometime after Christmas I will find where in the mountain of cookbooks and magazines I left that magazine and put up either a link or the recipe for those cookies. They were a huge hit at the friends gathering we hosted on Saturday, being very fudgey and chocolatey!
Next you will see a
picture of some sugar cookies, the Sour Cream Sugar Cookies featured in the December Today's Parent magazine. I really like the recipes from the magazine - they are real, use reasonable ingredients that don't cost a fortune, and are kid tested and family friendly. These cookies are a good example - I made the dough early in the day with help from my 4 year old, which chilled in the fridge while both children were at school. After school we pulled out the decorations and they designed and got fancy while I rolled and cut. The scraps really do re-roll very easily and the cookies still taste tender.
I didn't just make cookies, I also made some mini quiches which I could prepare well in advance, freeze, and then cook right before our little party. Bacon, Leek and Cheese mini-quiches, from Fine Cooking, were simple to make, froze wonderfully and cooked up golden, crisp and tasty. And they smelled very, very good.
The recipe is in the December issue, but not showing up on the website, though I haven't logged in to see if it is visible for subscribers only. So if anyone wants the recipe for the, just drop me an email and I'll jot it down for them.
I haven't tried reheating them yet, since 4 dozen mini quiches was alot for 5 adults to eat, especially when there was a table full of other goodies to eat, including another banana cream pie, more cookies and sweets, veggies, fruit, dip, and homemade latke's in the kitchen.
Finally we arrive at this morning, Christmas day. In our family, there are a few little traditions. Calories don't count on this day, so usually breakfast involves alot of very fattening items that you can just pop in the oven, Pilsburry buns and turnovers, while bacon is cooked up and eggs are made to order. Last year my oldest son made a request - Shortbread waffles with fruit and whipped cream. Well, these things are so decadent that you need a special day to have the excuse to have them. So when he repeated the request for this year, well all agreed.
Let us begin.....
You'll need a waffle maker for one - and for this, I recommend you not leave it straight on your counter. Put a sheet pan underneath it, to catch the drips. While it heats up, mix together in a small bowl 1 3/4 cup of flour and 1 cup of sugar. In a larger bowl, whisk together 4 eggs until they are fluffy. Add the flour mixture to the eggs and beat to combine. Then mix in 1 cup of very soft, but not melted, butter (I use salted since there is no other salt added.) And squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Mix it well.
That's the recipe, only 5 ingredients.
You'll need the sheet pan because melted butter will leak out of the iron while the waffles crisp up to a golden brown color, though it won't be a uniform dark. These waffles will be soft upon removal from the maker (use a spatula to get underneath them and lift them to a plate,) but will crisp up on the plate.
These waffles are not the kind you serve with maple syrup, though bacon is a nice side. Instead, mound them high with freshly whipped cream, mine was made with a touch of fresh vanilla bean in it, and then top the cream with fresh berries. Since it is December and there are not good, fresh berries around here, I used frozen ones, defrosted with a touch of sugar to create a nice syrupy sauce with them. And my choices for this year were strawberries and blueberries.
And serve with lots of good orange juice. Coffee if you like it, which we don't. Which is why we used the mugs from my good dishes for juice instead of coffee. (Hey, I'm willing to let the kids try eating on the good plates today, but not yet willing to let them try crystal glasses!)
Merry Christmas to everyone - and here is one last pictures, a
sneak peek at a part of dinner:
Learning from the expert
One of the problems with Christmas is trying to figure out how to spend time with all of your family. You can't make everyone happy, so usually some middle balance is sought, where everyone is reasonably satisfied.
This last weekend was like that for my little family of four here. We went up for a very short trip to visit 2/3rds of my family, while my sister made the same trip from her portion of Ontario.
As a result, I got to spend some one on one time with my grandmother, making pies for my mother's pre-birthday party. (Insert big happy face here.)
Two banana cream pies were a joint effort. I copied out her recipe for the cream filling, which I then made, and she rolled out the crust for them. My grandmother makes this pie at least once a year, on my grandfather's birthday. When he used to work shift work, he would sometimes be scheduled to work on his birthday. On those days, the boys on the job were a lucky group - she used to send in a pie with him to have for his lunch!
Pastry cream, which basically what the filling is, is not very hard to make, it just requires alot of patience, standing over the stove stirring constantly. In this case, using unfamiliar equipment, I accidentally reversed the order of the pots for the double boiler, so I did not have the most stable of base to be stirring. 
I'd never made pastry cream from scratch before, but had nothing to worry about. Apparently I know enough about cooking to successfully make one on the first try. My cream was just the right consistency in thickness, sweet and smooth. And just right for putting down over top of a layer of bananas and hand made pie crust.
Most banana cream pies are topped with cream, but not my grandmothers. The meringue topping probably came about out of economy. The pastry cream requires 3 egg yolks, so why not use the remaining whites to make a topping for the pie with?
So after a lovely morning baking with my grandmother, something I haven't done since I was a child, we were able to present to my mother two beautiful pies to end her birthday dinner with. (Which was also made by the joint effort of my grandmother, grandfather and I. We made her Hawaiian spare ribs, with the sauce I have posted about before.)
The only downside to this pie making expedition didn't come from the pies itself, but from my little boy. He was so sick this weekend that he was not able to enjoy a piece, though he was offered some and declined in favor of plain banana. Instead he has asked me to please make one for him another time, which I have promised to do. That other time is Friday, for a little gathering with friends, where I will see if I can still make a good pie without the assistance of the expert pie maker, my grandmother. And I plan to have my little assistant helping me.
Dear Blog, Please forgive my recent neglect.
Yes, I have been very neglectful of my blog lately.
It's not that I haven't been cooking. I've cooked at least one item a day, though not all of it has been new, or very "exciting." I've had a very good success rate for meals with the family lately, partially because I have not been doing anything too "strange."
So here's a quick little recap of some of the items I've made in the last little while, along with today's baking.
This fun looking item is an oddball version of stuffed pork tenderloin. I had this desire to stuff one, so picked one up, had my butcher butterfly it for me, with the intention of stuffing it with apples, cinnamon and raisins.
Good concept, bad execution.
I only cut up two apples, but that was alot of apple for one little tenderlion. So instead I layed the apples out on top and baked it together. The apples softened, and let go of some juices into the tenderloin below, and the raisins also gained a bit of moisture and softened up.
I liked it, but next time I will rethink the actual process of stuffing before I prepare the item to be stuffed.
A few days later I went Greek, but in my own kitchen instead of the take out counter or the premade souvlaki from my butcher (which is quite good), though I did purchase my tzaziki premade. (I don't like cucumber, but do like tzasiki, though I doubt I would if I made it myself.
These chicken breast, marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and oregano, were very, very moist, and full of flavor. I served them with the dip, grilled pita, red peppers that I had added to the chicken, and sliced cucumber (for the children.) This was a very popular meal and I hope I am able to recreate the marinade again.
Oh and I also had steamed brocolli, which I drizzled with some of the liquid from the chicken - mmmm lemon, garlicky goodness to the veggies as well.
Again chicken here, not as exciting. A whole, roasted chicken. I brined this bird for a few hours, in a combination of kosher salt, cold water, peppercorns and a few cloves of garlic, sliced into the brining liquid. This made my fridge smell very strongly of garlic but I'm not sure it added too much flavor to the chicken (though I served the chicken with a dipping sauce, made from a package I picked up at the grocery store, so the sauce may have over powered the garlic.
This afternoon I did a bit of baking again, making Caramel Shortbread. I had made a batch of this a week or two ago (though it is long gone,) and wanted some in the freezer to take out next week when we have friends over for Christmas. Redoing the recipe today made me realize I had neglected to include the corn syrup in the last batch, which didn't seem to make the least bit of difference to those eating it. Which is good, because in today's batch, I forgot the vanilla. (The recipe has already been tested, and 3 out of 3 testers did not notice the lack of vanilla.)
I've made a small adaptation to this recipe from the hand written copy I was given a few years ago. It calls for making the caramel in a glass bowl in the microwave, stiring every 30 seconds to 1 minutes. That's alot of stiring without much control. Instead, I choose to make the caramel on the stove (and this is where a non-stick pot really comes in handy.) Cooking it on the stove allows me to not only multitask (I started the caramel before the shortbread base, in order to give it lots of time to darken up,) but lets me have more control over how deep the caramel becomes. It takes a bit of stirring, since the butter, syrup and condensed milk do not like to stay together, but in the end, the dark, amber color and thickness of the caramel more than make up for the effort. And since you can do other things while it cooks, letting you come over and occassionally stir, it makes for less of a hassel in the preperation.
Last but not least, here is a lovely photo of some of the little presents I've bought myself recently.
On top is the batch of vanilla beans I purchased off of ebay, which arrived yesterday, soft and fragrant, making my entire main floor smell of vanilla.
Underneath is my signed copy of The Vegan Lunchbox, by Jennifer McCann, whose blog I have referred to before, again called The Vegan Lunchbox. No I have not suddenly gone vegan (obviously) but so far I am very much enjoying the book. It has alot of very cool ideas for the lunch box, some of which my son might actually eat!
The bottom two books are the Ace Bakery Cookbook and More from Ace Bakery. These both came highly recommended to me by Ivonne from Cream Puffs in Venice, a fellow blogger that I can't wait to actually meat in person.
I haven't actually cooked anything from any of these books - I tend to read them front to back first, then go back and choose something. So far I have all three of them at a different stage in reading. :-)
Again, blog, I am sorry for the neglect. I will try to be better, but please have some patience with me as it is almost Christmas, things around here will be busy, and I may have some delays in posting. In the meantime, here is a recipe to make up for the neglect......
Caramel Shortbread
1 1/2 cup softened butter, divided
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup flour
1 can (300ml) condensed milk
3 tbsp conr syrup
1 tsp vanilla
3 squares semi sweet chocolate (or a handful of chocolate chips)
Preheat oven to 35oF.
Beat 1 cup of butter with icing sugar and salt, until fluffy. Add flour and mix gently to combine. Press into 9x9 greased and floured baking pan (glass pans not recommended for this) with floured fingers. Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool slightly.
In small pot, preferably non-stick, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add condensed milk and corn syrup and stir to combine. Cook gently, stirring occassionally to recombine mixture, until the caramel turns a dark color. This will take some time, be patient.
Stir in vanilla when the caramel has reached the desired color, then pour over crust.
If using chocolate squares, chop and place in microwave safe bowl (or ziplock bag.) If using chips, put in ziplock bag. Microwave either one to melt, being careful not to heat for too long. I like 20 second time blocks to start. Snip corner from the bag, or use a fork if chocolate is in a bowl, and drizzle the chocolate over the caramel. Chill until firm.
This freezes beautifully (I like them when they are still slightly frozen.) However, if you are going to freeze them, cut them into squares before you freeze them. Or plan to eat a 9x9 square of the shortbread. :-)
More cookies
So more pre-Christmas cookie baking at my place this morning. Actually I spent most of my day in the kitchen, baking up different things, and still have a few more I'd like to make.
First up was Raisin Ruglachs, the recipe for which I found in a little Robin Hood Flour booklette that came in the mail. They looked cool, though mine look absolutely nothing like the picture. I learned really quickly that I am not very good at making even cuttings, getting 12 out of a circle, and after the first half of the dough, gave up and went with 8 instead. The end product was much larger than it should be, but they were neater looking. And they still tasted good, the combination of raspberry jam, cinnamon, sugar and cocoa, all rolled up in a cream cheese dough with raisins. My youngest son loved them, my oldest hated them. Oh well.
Next on my list was Pistachio-Cranberry Biscotti Straws, which I found in my December 2006 Fine Cooking Magazine. The picture for these is lousy, sorry about the blur, though you can still see the pieces of pistachio and cranberries in them.
You can also see they are very thick, mostly because I can't read. I read, then reread, then reread every recipe I make, as well as keeping the recipe nearby to consult with. In this case, I couldn't seem to grasp what 1/3 inch was, and instead cut my biscotti into what I considered a good size. So my version resulted in 13 thick, but nice and crunchy (and very yummy) biscotti, rather than the 2 1/2 dozen the recipe suggests can be made. Hehehe. 
The last of today's baking was more shortbread, this time Shortbread Meltaways, again from the Robin Hood magazine. These cookies actually are on page 8, whereas the Rugalachs are on page 9. Funny how that worked out.
I barely tried these cookies, not being in the mood for shortbread, but from the amount left on the plate when I cleaned up after dinner, these went over very well. I know both my children tried them and enjoyed them, and my husband told me I wouldn't like them at all so I should just leave them all for him. I think that was a compliment.
So plan for tomorrow involves making some brownies, but not for Christmas. Instead my children and I are contributing to a package going out to a Canadian soldier who is stationed in Afghanistan, though we don't know the name of the person who will be getting them, and won't unless they choose to write us back. Brownie bites seem like a good choice, and I know they handle mailing well.
Happy first weekend in December everyone!
Bowls full of potatoes
Winter finally arrived in Ottawa on Friday. And it came in with vengance! Snow, and ice, blowing and freezing everything in sight! It was the kind of day that said, "Stay in your pj's, put the fire on, and find a book, cause we are not going outside today!"
Unfortunately, I had to go outside. Work, picking up kids, essentials like that.
My plan ahead for dinner that night involved nachos with cheese. Low key, simple, loved by all and a break from routine and proper meals.
I, however, wanted something warmer, healthier, and that would make up for having to get out of my pj's and facing the cold, icy world. I wanted soup. And I didn't care if no one else in the house would eat it (they didn't.)
With my food processor doing the shredding for me, this soup assembled in minutes. And not having to peel the sweet potatoes really helped as well!
Minor changes - I didn't put in a chipotle pepper but instead sprinkled in a bit of cayenne pepper. I didn't really want to open a can for one pepper, and also didn't want too much spice. I wanted to taste the potatoes. I also sprinkled in a bit of fresh nutmeg, just to provide some balance with the cinnamon.
This soup looked, and smelled, alot like an apple sauce (which is probably the only reason my children were willing to try the first, and only, spoonful that they ate.) It tasted, however, like extra smooth sweet potatoes, not overwhelming, not too much of cinnamon, and had a slight background heat to it. Just enough to warm up that final bit. And exactly what I both wanted, and needed, as the first storm of winter blew around my house.
Happy Onion Day!
I'm a little late (Blogger problems whenever I tried to do this), so Happy Belated Onion Day!
In Berne (Switzerland) the annual Zibelemärit (onion market) is be held on the fourth Monday in November. This year it will take place on Monday, 27th November. More than 50 tons of onions - in artistically woven plaits - are offered on this day on more then 300 market stalls.
No, I haven't suddenly taken up researching onions or events around onions. Last week, Ivonne over at Cream Puffs in Venice posted a bunch of fascinating little items, included among them information about a blog event celebrating the humble onion, hosted by Zorra of Kochtopf. Sounded like fun to me.
I'm sorry to say I was uninspiring in my selection. I didn't go searching among my books for something new and fancy to make but fell back on simple and warm. Warm has been a very important part in meal making lately, with the weather usually involving rain and strong winds (instead of snow.) With the prerequists of onions, simple, and warm in mind, what else would I make but French Onion soup?
Again, no recipe involved. Instead I slowly sauted up a bunch of sweet onions with some olive oil and butter, seasoned with salt and pepper. When they reached the color I wanted, I added some stock, deglazing as I mixed the liquid and onions together. Crostini's, toasted in the oven, were floated in the bowls of soup (I don't own proper onion soup bowls, but do own some larger sized Corningware remekins that are perfect for this,) topped with freshly grated Gryere cheese and placed under the broiler. I love cheese, so my bowl had two crostini and extra cheese. :-)
A "plain" but comforting tribute to the onion, usually an unassuming background guest to most meals, highlighted in a bowl of warmth.
Cheers oh mighty Onion!
Only One month until Christmas?
OMG! I better get started on my cookie baking now!
Oh wait, I started already. :-)
Actually, I didn't start out with the plan to get a head start on my Christmas baking. It just ended up happening that way in the end.
My oldest son has been sick the last few days, home from school with a high fever. He is not, however, old enough to be on his own even for the 30 minutes it would take me to get back and forth to school to drop off and later, pick up, his younger brother. So my neighbour, whose daughter is in the same school and has the same hours as my youngest, has been kind enough to do drop off and pick up for me. So my Christmas baking started out as a way to say thanks to her. Funny how things morph from one plan to another so quickly!
Friday afternoon, while my oldest slept off some of his fever, I got busy in an uncluttered kitchen, alone with my stand mixer and ingredients. (It is amazing how much more quickly I can knock out a recipe without 4 year old help.) All my butter was frozen for future use, so recipe options were slightly limited. But knowing my neighbour, I knew she would appreciate a plate full of Ginger cookies. I didn't take a picture of these because I had already posted about them here. The recipe makes more than 3 dozen large sized cookies - more than enough to give her a big thanks and to stash some away in the freezer for when the house is filled with people.
Making ginger cookies put me into an odd frame of mind. Not sure how, but it led me to thinking about my Grandfather. Normally when I am baking cookies, the voice of my grandmother is in my head (sometimes way in the background,) telling me how she never had the patience for cookies, but she could knock out a pie in a jiffy! So baking cookies didn't lead me to think of my Grandfather, but baking coconut macaroons pointed me in his direction.
My Grandfather is in his late 70's, and still likes to tell stories about how when he was a kid he stole packages of shredded coconut from the local store so he could just eat it straight. I once bought a whole coconut so that we could crack it open, educate my oldest son about it, then have it on hand so my Grandfather could snack on fresh coconut for the rest of his visit.
These cookies are very easy to make: Mix together in a large bowl 3 egg whites, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 cup of white sugar, until light and frothy. Add in 5 1/3 cups of sweetened flaked coconut. Scoop by rounded tablespoon (this is where a nice scoop comes in handy) on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake 20 - 30 minutes at 350F, or until they are golden brown. They won't spread while baking, but keep a close eye out because the edges will burn quickly if you don't. Allow to cool on wire rack before chomping down on a few. Store in airtight container.
These cookies will not make it to Christmas, but were so simple to make that I can whip up a new batch even when I only have a few minutes of time. Which is good, because I've promised my Grandfather I will bake him some when we go up to visit next. Or when he comes here.
Btw, like my pretty new plates? I treated myself to a set of dishes yesterday, square white plates and bowls with Platinum rims. I don't know why some people think I am hard to buy for - you can always buy me fun dishes or cooking items!
Having been in a baking mode, today I decided to continue on with it. I had taken one block of butter out of the freezer, so I was prepared for making a butter based cookie. Looking through my traditional recipes, I wasn't smilling. Every year I make a whipped shortbread recipe, which was fine when I was a more inexperienced cook. Not only am I not an inexperienced cook, I'm a more finicky eater. I really don't like that recipe much, it never turns out the way I wanted, and the 10 minutes of whipping, to me, makes them too floury, and easily breakable. I want my shortbread to be tender, but not so tender that they fall apart when you pick them up.
With that in mind, I decided to try the recipe for Multiple Personality Shortbread cookies from Today's Parent. Not too multiple though - I doubled the recipe and made plain shortbread with half then added semi-sweet chocolate chips for the other half. I haven't tried the plain yet, have only tried the chocolate version, but think next time I will use milk-chocolate chips instead.
Though the children both tried them and hmmmm'd through their cookies, then told me that I made the best cookies ever! What greater praise can a home baker get? :-)
The real test will be to see how these handle freezing and defrosting.
I still have plans for several more types of cookies, including sugar cookies (a quiet day project to do with the children), chocolate-caramel squares, and I'm open minded enough to take suggestions from others for a few more recipes, so if you have one and think I should try it, send it along!
Now if you will excuse me, there is a container full of coconut cookies in my kitchen, calling my name.
PS. Speaking of cookies - check out my entry for this months Does My Blog Look Good in This.
For this one I submitted my picture of star cookies that I made for my son's birthday last month.
Generally when I submit a picture for this (this is my 3rd or 4th time), I'm usually reasonably happy with the quality of my pic, until I see the other entries. Then I just feel like I need to go take some photography lessons. And buy some new dishes. And backdrops. I'm not the only one, but oh well.
Falling behind on my blogging
I took a few extra shifts at work last week, not a huge amount of hours since each shift is only 3 hours long, but enough that I was distracted from my usual routine in regards to cooking and blogging. So here is a make-up post of some of the things I have made since last week, up to today!
I'm finding certain blogs are more "useful" to me than others, though I enjoy reading alot of them and my list of blogs grows with every event. The recent comfort event yielded 7 new blogs for my list! Good thing I love to read! However for recipes I tend to actually print out and cook, one blog has been tagged by me several times: Elise at Simply Recipes. She was one of the first blogs I tagged on Bloglines.
So it was a copy of a recipe from Elise's blog I turned to when I decided to roast a whole chicken last week. She had recently posted about a roasted garlic chicken, and I had immediately printed it off and gone shopping. Of course it took me a few days to actually get around to making the chicken, but eventually I did.
This chicken sat in a brine in my fridge for 24 hours, the brine made up of roasted garlic, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and a bayleaf. It smelled amazing, especially considering it was raw chicken! Once roasted, the chicken itself was very moist and had good flavor, but I did not notice any of the flavor, or any further odor of roasted garlic. Sad, so sad. I love garlic. Despite that, I will make this chicken again. I will simply add more garlic and roast it 10-15 minutes longer so that my chicken is the dark, golden color of Elise's chicken.
Friday was a PD day for both my children. They both went to work with me that morning, then came home to a lazy afternoon. That lazy afternoon included making cupcakes with Mom though, including icing. Not a bad way to spend a day off school.
Our cupcake choice that day was for carrot cupcakes, with a cream cheese icing, a recipe I had used before, which can be found online at Today's Parent. Both boys helped out, with my oldest measuring out ingredients carefully, and my youngest pouring things into the mixer. I probably should have taken a picture but really didn't want icing sugar all over my camera.
The final result looked like these ones in the picture - I did the icing, not one of the children, and the last of those cupcakes were eaten today, making them the longest lasting cupcakes this house has seen in awhile!
Saturday night was date night for my husband and I. I took along my camera to the restaurant and will blog about that at a later time, pictures included.
Sunday night I made hamburgers, by request, but put my own spin on them. Double cheese burgers, but not the usual double of two patties. Instead these had cheese stuffed inside them as well as melted on top of them.
I was after a Tex-mex flare to my burgers, and had intended to use some salsa in or on them (but was personally distracted by coleslaw for on them later.) Lean ground beef was seasoned with salt, pepper and cumin, then bound together with an egg. I can't for the life of me remember what else I put into the burgers for seasonings, but those ingredients I am sure of.
After mixing the meat mixture up, I shapped them into very thin patties, using some waxed papper, piled high the shredded Monterey Jack cheese in the middle, then topped them with another thin patty before sealing them closed and trapping the cheese inside. It was already black outside when I needed to cook them, so I opted for a frying pan rather than the bbq. Still these burgers ended up with good color and very little of the cheese managed to escape the center. Served with coleslaw and flavorful potato chips, dinner was simple but yummy, something we all neeed to have while watching the Grey Cup.
Now I skip ahead a few days to day's dinner, chicken enchiladas, again a recipe I have made many times before, though I always consult my printed copy before I ignore it.
At one point this recipe came from a Weight Watchers CD I own (somewhere - I like cookbooks in every form.) Though if someone who initially wrote this recipe were to come in and see my version, I suspect they wouldn't recognize it as their own. For starters, mine uses flour tortillas instead of corn. And I don't measure much. I swap out green peppers for any other color, and I like cheese, so I use more than is called for. Plus the original produced 8 - 6 inch tortillas filled. Mine produced 14, using 8 inch tortillas. More is better, right?
Today I did something else a bit different while making it, though - I poached the chicken in chicken broth with some pepper. This allowed me to work on my veggies while not paying attention to the chicken, and resulted in meat that was very moist and flavorful. I will be doing this again the next time I want precooked chicken of any kind, it was that good.
This dish was supposed to be served with a simple salad with a ranch dressing, but instead I had it alone with just some sour cream. One of my children now has a fever (and not much interested in eating,) and the other informed me that he just wanted tortilla with cheese to dip, no chicken, no veggies, no sauce. Since it meant more enchiladas for my husband and I, I was not going to argue.
I'll post the recipe for the enchiladas after I have had a chance to look at my original and figure out the changes I made. Then I'll post the recipe I actually made!
Chicken Enchiladas
Sauce:
1 1/2 cups canned whole tomatoes, drained, or 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained (but reserve liquid in case you need to thin out sauce.)
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloved, minced
1 1/2 teaspoon mild or hot chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch ground red pepper, or pepper flakes
pink cinnamon
In a food processor or blender, combine all the ingredients and puree until smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, simmer, stirring occasionally for 20 minutes, until thickenend.
Enchiladas:
1 teaspoon vegetable or olive oil
1 cup diced red bell pepper
1 cup diced green bell pepper (I used yellow and orange instead of green.)
1 cup diced onions, I prefer red onion here
14 8" flour tortillas
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and shredded (try poaching in a pan with some chicken stock and pepper, bring to a boil then reduce and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Allow to cool a bit before shredding with two forks.)
2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Preheat the oven to 375F.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil. Add vegetables and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are softened.
Spread 1/4 cup tomato mixture into bottom of 13 x 9 pan (I prep two pans because one is two small.)
Assembly:
Place a tortilla onto a work surface. Spoon about 1 large tablespoon of bell pepper mixture into the center of the tortilla, in a line. Top with about equal amount of shredded chicken and cheese. Roll up to enclose filling. Place seam-side down in prepared pan. Repeat until out of tortillas, chicken and pepper mixture. You should still have about 1 cup of cheese left.
Top tortillas evenly with remaining sauce then sprinkle evenly with remaining cheese.
Bake 25-30 minutes, until heated through and bubbling.
