Just Call Me Suzy

Whipped Shortbread

2011-12-16T16:14:00.003-07:00

Before I lose this recipe yet again, I'm going to post it. Whipped Shortbread are a Christmas staple and yet they are such a pain to make. Delicate and easily burnt, I find I need to make a double batch so I end up with enough.

The secret is to whip the dough until it looks white, not yellow. And don't overbake. 7 minutes in my oven seems to be enough. You don't want to see brown edges - if you do, you've overbaked them.

Whipped Shortbread
Makes 36

1c. salted butter, softened
1/2c. powdered sugar
1/2c. cornstarch
1c. flour
candied cherries, quartered

1. Whip the butter for 5 minutes on very high speed until light and fluffy.
2. Add the powdered sugar and beat on high until combined.
3. Add the cornstarch and flour and beat the mixture on high for 8-10 minutes or until it has turned white.
4. Scoop teaspoon size balls onto parchment paper and top with a quartered cherry.
5. Bake for 7 minutes at 350. Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

Toffee Chip Bars

2011-01-05T14:39:00.003-07:00

I made these for the first time this Christmas. They are very similar to Magic Bars only much much better. So good, in fact, that I think I will make a double batch next year!

Toffee Chip Bars
Makes a 9x13 pan
2 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
¾ cup butter
1 egg slightly beaten
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips divided
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 ¾ cup skor toffee bits

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.Grease 9x13 inch pan

3. Stir together flour & brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add eggs and mix well.

4. Stir in 1 ½ cups chocolate chips and nuts and reserve 1 ½ cups crumb mixture. Press remaining crumb mixture into bottom of greased pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

5. Pour condensed milk evenly over hot crust. Top with remaining crumb misture, 1 1/2 cups chips and the skor bits.

6. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

Eggnog Cheesecake

2010-12-30T13:16:00.003-07:00

I made this for Christmas again this year and made the cardinal mistake of opening the pan too early. Huge crack right down the middle, yep! And the sides fell, too. Nonetheless, this is probably one of the best cheesecakes I have ever made. Just don't open the springform pan until it is completely cool.

I have adjusted the spices a bit from the original and upped the cooking time so that it is not a soggy mess. Other than that, squirt on some whipped cream and enjoy!

Eggnog Cheesecake

Ingredients:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2t. nutmeg
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup eggnog
2 eggs
2 tablespoons rum (I used Captain Morgan spiced rum or you can use 2t. rum flavoring)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl combine graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons sugar, nutmeg and butter. Press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool.

4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

5. In a food processor or mixer combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour and eggnog; process until smooth. Blend in eggs, rum and nutmeg. Pour mixture into cooled crust.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

7. Reduce heat to 250 and bake for 55 minutes, or until center of cake is barely firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and immediately loosen cake from rim with a knife (DO NOT open the pan up). Let cake cool completely before removing the rim.

Irish Cream Brownies

2010-12-07T14:29:00.003-07:00

I have not blogged in a very very long time. Working full time with a toddler does not allow for kitchen experiments on a regular basis. Now that Christmas is almost here (3 weeks!) I am in full on baking mode and had to post what I have made.

These brownies are from the lovely Paula Deen in her usual rich, buttery, fudgy style. I might have overbaked them a bit but once I partially froze them, they were very easy to cut into 36 small squares. I have added more cocoa and will definitely up the irish cream amount next time as well.
Enjoy!

Irish Cream Brownies
Cooking with Paula Deen, Christmas 2006
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate (I used 2/3c. chocolate chips)
2 1/3 cups sugar, divided
5 large eggs, divided
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream liqueur
2 T. cocoa

In a medium saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Cook over low heat until melted, stirring frequently. Set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with aluminum foil and coat lightly with Pam no-stick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, beat 2 cups sugar and 4 eggs with an electric mixer until fluffy (about 4 minutes). Gradually add flour and salt. Stir in melted chocolate mixture. Add cocoa.
In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and 1/3 cup sugar. Beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1 egg and liqueur.
Pour half of chocolate mixture into prepared pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over chocolate mixture. Spread remaining chocolate mixture over cream cheese layer. Run a knife through layers to swirl cream cheese, if desired. Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting. (Or partially freeze).

Pumpkin Muffins

2010-08-29T21:50:00.002-06:00

I think I finally got them right this time. This recipe is from Ellie Krieger who specializes in healthy, but yummy, baking. She uses a lot of spices and more pumpkin (though I ran out and had to use applesauce to make up the difference). Her recipe calls more a mix of whole wheat and white flours but I used all spelt and the texture is fantastic - I can't even tell the difference.

Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 1 dozen
Recipe from Ellie Krieger

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-grain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsulphered molasses
1/4 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup lowfat buttermilk
1/4 cup raw, unsalted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, molasses, oil and 1 egg until combined. Add the other egg and whisk well. Whisk in the pumpkin and vanilla. Whisk in the flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Whisk just until combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center of 1 of the muffins comes out clean.

Quinoa Coconut Cookies

2010-08-21T16:05:00.003-06:00

If you have not tried quinoa, you really should. It reminds me of couscous but the percentage of protein in this tiny grain is astonishing. The easiest way to cook it is 2 to 1 liquid to quinoa. Cook it in water if you want to bake with it or eat it for breakast, cook it with broth if you want it as a side dish - or even coconut milk works!

Now that I have discovered quinoa, I want to use it in everything - even baking! This recipe really surprised me. I thought the cookies would be dry, or else have a pasty texture. Instead, they could easily be my favorite cookies ever. The recipe calls for 3/4c. of sugar but I reduced it to 1/2c. because I think they are a little sweet. I also use dark chocolate chips but you could use semi-sweet or sub in raisins.

Quinoa Coconut Cookies
thepioneerwoman.com

⅓ cups Butter, Softened
⅓ cups Peanut Butter
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla
¾ cups Brown Sugar
1-½ cup Whole Wheat Flour
½ cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Baking Soda
1-½ cup Cooked Quinoa, Cooled
1 cup Chocolate Chips

Beat together the butter, peanut butter, eggs, vanilla and sugar until smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, coconut, baking powder, and baking soda.
Add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix until smooth.
Stir in the quinoa and chocolate chips.
Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees for 11 minutes or until edges are golden.

Cinnamon Buns with Vanilla Icing

2010-04-14T13:26:00.002-06:00

This recipe comes from Michael Smith of 'Chef at Home' on the FoodNetwork. I really like how simple it was, considering they look like they came from a gourmet bakery. You won't be able to stop at one!
One note I would make is that the filling was not quite enough for me. I would like more cinnamon goo in the middle. So the only thing I would change is to make 1.5x the filling.
Also, if you have traditional yeast and not instant, warm 1/3c. of the milk seperately and sprinkle the yeast on top with 1t. sugar. Use the remaining 2/3c. milk to make the milk mixture.
Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls
Michael Smith - Chef At Home

Dough

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups flour
1 package instant yeast - 2 1/4t.
4 eggs

Filling

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Glaze

1 tablespoon vanilla
4 tablespoons cream
1 cup powdered sugar

In a small pot gently warm the milk along with 1 stick of butter, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, the vanilla and the salt. Don't bring to a simmer, warm just enough to melt the butter. Meanwhile measure half the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer along with the yeast. Add the warm melted milk butter mixture to the flour, beat with a paddle attachment until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth before proceeding. Switch to a dough hook and add the remaining flour. Knead until a soft dough forms that is no longer sticky to the touch, about five minutes. Rest the dough in a warm place, covered in a lightly oiled bowl until it doubles in size, about one to two hours.
Knock the dough down and let rest for a few minutes. Meanwhile thoroughly mix together the room temperature butter with 1 cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon. Flour your work surface, the dough, your hands and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough into a long rectangle shape, about 18x12-inches. Evenly spread the cinnamon butter over the top of the dough leaving an inch or two uncovered along one long edge. This will help a seal form. Roll tightly into a long cigar shape from the covered long edge to the uncovered long edge.
Slice the dough log into 12 or 16 sections (I ended up with 16 - 1" sections). Turn each on its side and position evenly in an appropriately sized lightly oiled baking pan. Rest, uncovered, until the dough doubles in size again and the rolls swell into each other.
Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350. When the dough is ready, bake for 40 to 45 minutes (they took me 30min.).
When the cinnamon rolls have cooled enough to handle stir together the glaze ingredients and drizzle all over them.

Lemon Poppyseed Bread

2010-03-27T12:24:00.002-06:00

Ok so this is not a whole wheat recipe and I didn't try to make it one. It sounded too delicious on its own and there was oat bran in the recipe so it is a little bit healthy. This gem is out of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry because this book just can't steer me wrong. I love everything I have tried!

As with the banana bread, carefully folding in the dry ingredients and not overmixing is the key. The bread was moist and lemony and didn't need a glaze at all which surprised me because I find most lemon breads do. It made a sticky glazed top all on its own. I almost sliced the top off the loaf and just ate that.

Enjoy!

Poppy Love
Eat Shrink and Be Merry

1 1/4c. flour
3/4c. sugar
1/2c. oat bran
1T. poppy seeds - I added 2T.
2t. baking powder
1/2t. salt
1c. milk
1/4c. melted butter or oil - I used oil
1 egg
2T. fresh lemon juice
2t. grated lemon zest - it was the zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8x4" loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, oat bran, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, butter, egg, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes (mine took the full 45) or until loaf is light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in centre of loaf comes out clean.

Banana Bread

2010-03-21T21:03:00.005-06:00

Not much to say. This one was super easy and delicious. You must fold in the dry ingredients and don't overmix or it will be tough and won't rise. I used whole wheat flour and skipped the pecans but will definitely add them next time.
Enjoy!

Sweet Home Alabanana
Eat, Shrink & Be Merry

1 3/4c. flour - I used whole wheat
1/2c. oatbran
2t. baking powder
1t. baking soda
1t. cinnamon
1/2t. salt
2 eggs
1/2c. packed brown sugar
1 1/2c. mashed bananas - I used 3 large
3/4c. buttermilk
2T. vegetable oil
2t. vanilla
1/2c. chopped pecans
1/3c. mini choc. chips

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two 8x4" loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.

In large bowl, combine flour, oatbran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and brown sugar on medium speed of an electric mixer for two minutes. Add bananas, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Beat again until well blended.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not use an electric mixer for this step. Fold in nuts and chocolate chips. Do not overmix batter.

Divide batter evenly among the loaf pans. Bake for 30 to 35 min., or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

8 slices per loaf - 173 calories each

Chickpea Curry & Butter Chicken

2010-03-17T17:47:00.004-06:00

Of all the take-out food in all the world, Indian is by far my favorite. It also seems to be rather hard on our maternity leave budget. Not one to let money stop me from enjoying things, I have started sourcing out recipes for Indian dishes that I can easily make at home.

My dear friend gave me this gem and I had to make it for our weekly dinner with the girls. I served it as a side dish to butter chicken - recipe also included - but it would serve two people perfectly with a big salad and naan bread on the side. You must use arborio rice (the same as used in risotto) because I made it with regular white rice and it was just not as creamy.

We had store bought naan bread, sauteed on the stove and I made quinoa using 1c. coconut milk, 1t. ginger paste and 1c. chicken stock as steaming liquid.
Delicious dinner enjoyed with good friends...
Enjoy!

Chickpea Curry
recipe from Heather

1 Can of Chickpeas (190z) rinsed and drained
Arborio Rice 1/2 cup
Cooking Oil 1 tsp
Chopped Onion 1/2 cup
Hot Curry Paste 1 tbsp
Small Garlic clove, minced
Coconut milk 1 cup
Prepared Vegetable broth (I use chicken) 1/2 cup
Liquid Honey 1 tsp
Salt 1/4 tsp
Chopped fresh parsley

Combina chickpeas and rice in grease 2 quart casserole. Set aside.

Heat cooking oil in small saucepan on medium. Add next 3 ingredients. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until onion is softened.

Add next 4 ingredients. Stir, bring to a boil.
Pour over chickpea mixture. Stir.
Bake, covered in 400F oven for about 35 minutes until rice is tender and liquid is almost absorbed.
Let stand, covered, for about 5 minutes until liquid is absorbed.

The Better Butter Chicken
adapted from 'Eat Shrink & Be Merry'

2T. olive oil
1c. chopped onions
2t. minced garlic
1T. grated gingerroot
1 1/2t. chili powder
1/2t. turmeric
1/4t. cinnamon
1 can (19oz.) diced tomatoes, undrained
2T. tomato paste
1T. brown sugar
1/2t. salt
1/4t. pepper
2-3 chicken breasts cut into 1" pieces - I used two b/c I like more sauce than chicken
1/3c. light cream
1/4c. light sour cream or yogurt - I always use yogurt

In a deep 10" skillet, over medium high heat, cook the garlic and onion in the olive oil until onions are tender, about 5 min.

Add gingerroot, chili powder, turmeric and cinnamon. Cook one more minute.

Add undrained tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low.

Add chicken and simmer, stirring occasionally, until chicken is cooked through.

Add cream and sour cream, then simmer, uncovered, for 5 more minutes. If you want the sauce smooth and creamy, remove the chicken and blend the sauce using a hand blender. Add the chicken and simmer 5 more minutes.

I usually leave the sauce chunky, only because it is faster!

Beef Stew with Dumplings

2010-03-17T10:24:00.002-06:00

I made this stew yesterday for dinner at my parents because my dad was craving real beef stew with all the yummy veggies.
Well I did bring real stew but I got the recipe from 'Eat, Shrink & Be Merry' so it definitely was trying to up the fibre content and lower the fat. I will admit that I changed the recipe a fair bit, mainly so that it went into the crockpot because I did not have time to sit and stir stew all afternoon.
In the end, the result was incredibly delicious and the boys had double helpings. I don't have a single scoop of leftovers - which is both good and bad.
Make this stew in a crockpot if you can, or else brown the meat first in a little olive oil before cooking the whole thing in a big pot.
Enjoy!

Beef Stew with Dumplings
Adapted from 'Eat, Shrink & Be Merry'

2lbs. stewing beef - I used skirt steak cut against the grain into 1" cubes
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 white onion, chopped
3 parsnips, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
6 small yellow potatoes, chopped
2t. chopped garlic or 2 cloves
2T. tomato paste
2T. balsamic vinegar
1/2t. marjoram
1/2t. basil
1/2t. thyme
1/2t. rosemary
4c. beef stock - 1/4c. reserved for the end
1T. cornstarch
1 1/2c. Bisquick
1/3c. milk
1/2t. rosemary

Combine everything but the last 4 ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 8hrs, high for 4 hrs. Combine the remaining 1/4c. broth and cornstarch and stir into the pot.
In a small bowl, combine the Bisquick, milk and rosemary. Using a large spoon, scoop the mix into small portions and place on top of the stew - it should make 10 dumplings. Place the lid securely on the pot and turn on high for 20 minutes. The dumplings will steam through and double in size.
Serve and enjoy

Whole Wheat Waffles

2010-03-13T12:39:00.003-07:00

My aunt has always made delicious healthy food so it was really no surprise that her waffles are my go-to breakfast choice. They are golden and fluffy and freeze so well. If you are in a hurry, whisk in the eggs whole. If you have the time, beat the egg whites separately. It does make a difference in the texture.
Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Waffles
My Aunts Recipe
2c. whole wheat flour
1/3c. wheat germ - I added this, optional
1/3c. brown sugar
1 1/2t. baking powder
1t. baking soda
1/2t. cinnamon
2c. buttermilk
1/3c. butter, melted
1t. vanilla
4 eggs, separated

Beat the egg whites on high speed until fluffy.
Mix the dry ingredients in large bowl and set aside.
Combine the wet ingredients and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir. Fold in the eggwhites carefully.
Spoon 1/4c. batter onto each square of the wafflemaker and bake 3 minutes.
Serve hot or cool completely and freeze for up to one month.

Crockpot Chili

2010-03-09T20:44:00.004-07:00

Now that the snow has returned, I felt like a warm and comforting dinner. Chili isn't high on my list of favorite foods but Paula Deen makes such yummy recipes that I thought I would try this one. The big difference between this chili and the standard fare is that the beef is stewing meat, not ground beef. Unfortunately, that makes it harder to scoop onto Doritos which is really the only way Josh eats chili, but he didn't seem to mind.
I whipped it up in no time, basically just opening a few cans. Paula suggests serving it with corn bread but my mom bought a cheddar loaf from our local bakery so we served that instead. This is a fantastic dinner idea especially when you are short on time.
Enjoy!

Update - This chili was a huge success!!! So delicious and devoured by Josh and my dad who are not the biggest chili lovers. If you eliminate the meat, it would be amazing over nachos.

Easy Crockpot Chili
Paula Deen's Christmas Magazine 2008
2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1/2" cubes
1 package taco seasoning mix
1 - 14oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 - 4oz. can chopped green chilies
1 cube beef bouillon
1t. dried minced onion - I used 1/2 a small onion, chopped
1/4t. garlic salt
1 - 16oz. can ranch-style beans - I didn't know what this meant so I used Pinto beans
1 - 15oz. can black beans, rinsed
1 - 11oz. can niblet corn, drained
Garnish - shredded cheese, sour cream

Place all ingredients except the beans and corn into the slow cooker and cook on low for 4hrs, then add the beans and corn and cook for 30min. longer on low.

Cornmeal Whole Wheat Waffles

2010-02-21T13:37:00.003-07:00

This recipe has been retooled from it's original form as I found it on the internet. I reduced the sugar, used whole wheat flour and used cracked cornmeal from Bob's Red Mill. The lemon zest could easily be omitted but I can't believe how fresh it made them taste! We ate them with butter and maple syrup but a compote of blueberries, cinnamon and nutmeg is in the fridge ready to be used this week for quick breakfasts. Two dozen golden delicious waffles are in my freezer. Well worth the work.
Enjoy!

Cornmeal Whole Wheat Waffles

1 1/2c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2c. cornmeal
5 t. baking powder - yes this is correct, you need this much to give them the fluffy texture
2c. buttermilk
4 eggs
4 T. brown sugar
1/4c. melted butter
zest of one lemon

Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, butter and lemon zest. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal and baking powder. Fold in the wet ingredients. Let sit for 5 minutes while the waffle iron heats up. The more the batter rises, the fluffier the final waffles will be. Cook for 3 min or until golden brown.
Makes 12

Double Fudge Brownies or I Love Paula Deen

2010-02-17T17:02:00.002-07:00

Paula Deen needs to be related to me. I don't think any television cook has ever made me as happy as she has. The recipes in her magazines never fail to delight my guests and are so easy! Even her layer cakes are, well, a piece of cake.

Anyway, before I drool all over the keyboard, here is the recipe for my 'go to' brownie. I made a little icing for them - the recipe included below. But honestly, if you let the brownies cool and sit overnight, they really don't need icing. The flavors will have deepened and the fudgy texture develops. Or, like Josh, you just might need your brownies to have icing.
Enjoy!

Double Fudge Brownies
Paula Deen Holiday Baking 2007

1c. sugar
3/4c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4c. Swiss Mocha flavored instant coffee mix
1 1/4c. all purpose flour
3/4c. chocolate chips
1 c. butter, softened
4 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13x9" baking pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat all ingredients except chocolate chipson medium speed until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan. Bake for 30 min.

Icing:
Combine 1c. powdered sugar, 1/4c. cocoa, 1 t. vanilla and 1/4c. milk. Add extra powdered sugar until spreadable consistency.

Meatball Loaves with Tomato Gravy & Smashed Potatoes

2010-02-09T15:36:00.002-07:00

I was home today and Seth was willing to sit in his highchair for a while so I managed to whip up a yummy comforting dinner.

This recipe came together so easily. Maybe a little more time consuming than some recipes I have made but I can't believe how easy the mashed potatoes were. For some reason they turned out so creamy but I never took out my handmixer which is always such a pain.

It made enough for four people but will be so delicious tomorrow for hot lunches. That's the best kind of dinner!
Enjoy

Meatball Loaves with Tomato Gravy & Smashed Potatoes
Rachael Ray Magazine

4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed - I used yellow flesh organic
1/2lb each ground pork, veal and beef - I used extra lean beef
1 1/2c. freshly grated Pecorino Romano cheese - I used grated parmesan
1/2 to 3/4c. Italian breadcrumbs - I used plain crumbs and a teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/3c. heavy cream
1 large egg, beaten
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 T. Worcestershire sauce
1/4t. allspice
ground black pepper
1/4c. olive oil
1 carrot, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
2T. chopped fresh rosemary
3T. tomato paste
2 1/2 c. beef broth

1. Preheat the oven to 425. Place the potatoes in a pot, cover with cold water and cover the pot with a lid. Bring to a boil, then salt the water and cook the potatoes until tender, 12 to 15 min. Drain the potatoes and add them back to the pot.

2. While the potatoes are cooking, in a large bowl, combine the ground meats with 1/2c. cheese, 1/2c. bread crumbs, a splash of cream, the egg, half the chopped garlic, the Worcestershire sauce and allspice; season with salt and pepper. Drizzle 1T. olive oil onto a baking sheet, form the meat mixture into 4 loaves about 1 to 1 1/2" thick and place on the baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 T. olive oil. Bake for 20 min.

3. While the meatloaves bake, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 2T. olive oil over med. heat. Add the remaining garlic, the carrot, onion and bay leaf and cook until tender, 7 to 8 min.; season with salt and pepper and rosemary. Stir in the tomato paste, and cook for 1 min. Whisk in the broth and simmer until thickened. Discard the bay leaf.

4. Add the remaining 1/3c. cream and 1c. cheese to the potatoes and season with salt. Smash to desired consistency. Divide the potatoes among 4 plates and make a small well in the center. Remove the meatloaves from the oven, turn in the sauce and set alongside the potatoes. Spoon extra sauce into the wells and over the loaves.

Spicy Caponata Caviar

2010-02-05T15:44:00.002-07:00

I wanted to post this recipe before I lost it. We served it at a dinner party and it was a big hit. Definitely a bit on the spicy side but something different rather than the same old same old bruschetta and spinach dip routine. Serve with a really buttery cracker, toasted baguette rounds or melba toasts. I used my Cuisinart mini chop to make sure the pieces of veggies were uniform.

If I had to describe the taste, it would be similar to a jarred antipasto but completely vegetarian.

Spicy Caponata Caviar
Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

1 large eggplant
2 T. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 pinches crushed red pepper - I omitted this
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cubanelle pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped - I used a couple jarred pepperoncini
1 roasted red pepper, finely chopped
6 black olives, finely chopped - I used 12
6 green olives, finely chopped - I used 12
1 T. capers, drained - I used 2 T.
flat leafed parsley, finely chopped - I omitted this b/c Josh hates parsley

1. Preheat the oven to 450. Prick the eggplant with a fork and roast until soft, about 25 min.

2. While the eggplant is working, in a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, crushed red pepper, celery, onion, and Cubanelle pepper. Cook for 7 min. Stir in the roasted red peppers, olives, capers, and parsley. Transfer to a large bowl.

3. Carefully peel the roasted eggplant. In a food processor, puree the eggplant into a smooth paste; season with salt and pepper. Stir into the veggies.

Smoky Fish Chowder

2010-01-27T11:05:00.002-07:00

I tried another one pot dinner from 'Real Simple' magazine. Josh was skeptical of the ingredients and especially the fish part of the dish. However, it turned out so delicious that he devoured his portion and Justin ate a huge bowl as well. The trick is to use a very mild fish - I used cod, although halibut would work just as well.

Don't make it in a crock pot. The long cook time will ruin the fish. I think it took me all of 30 minutes to put together from chopping the veggies until it was hot and ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Smoky Fish Chowder
Real Simple Magazine January 2010

8 oz. Chorizo sausage, sliced thin
2 leeks, thinly sliced
1 1/2 lbs Yukon potatoes, cut into 1/2" pieces
28 oz. can diced tomatoes
2 lbs. firm white fish, cut into 2" pieces

In a large pot, brown the chorizo over medium-high heat, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the leeks and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to soften, about 4 minutes.

Add the potatoes, tomatoes with their juices, 3 cups of water, salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the potatoes are just tender, 10 to 12 minutes.

Add the fish and simmer gently until opaque throughout, 5 to 6 minutes.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew on Buttered Egg Noodles

2010-01-18T16:42:00.002-07:00

I love the new - well new for me anyway - magazine 'Real Simple'. This month they featured quick and hearty winter soups and stews, one of which is this stew. I love the idea of serving it over noodles, sort of like beef stroganoff.

This dinner was so fast, I cut up the meat and veggies last night after Seth went to bed and then threw it all in the crockpot in the fridge until the morning. Turn it on first thing and it is ready when Josh gets home.

Enjoy!

Classic Beef Stew
Real Simple Magazine January 2010

2.5lbs beef cubes - I used fondue steak already cut up in the meat dept.
2 T. olive oil
1 - 6oz. can tomato paste
1 stalk celery, cut into 1" lengths
1 small onion, cut into small chunks
1/2 bottle red wine - I used a merlot/cab blend
2 bay leaves
1 lb. carrots, chopped into 1" lengths - I used baby carrots
1 lb. turnips, chopped into 1" cubes
1 T. cornstarch
12 oz. egg noodles

Throw all the ingredients - except the noodles and the cornstarch - into the slowcooker. Add 2 c. water and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for either 8hrs on low or 4hrs on high. Mix the cornstarch with 1/4c. water and add to the pot. Simmer a few minutes more, until thickened.
Cook the noodles as per package directions and serve, buttered, with the stew ladled over top.

Peach Spelt Muffins

2008-03-24T19:16:00.003-06:00

I am starting to love baking with healthy ingredients. At first it was very hard to find recipes that used spelt as the flour and honey as the sweetener but as I started searching the internet, I realized there are a lot of bakers out there trying to reformat the processed ingredient recipes.

This is one of those finds. The original recipe calls for brown sugar but I bought some delicious buckwheat honey (which I highly recommend) and wanted to use it as the sweetener. So I dropped the brown sugar and adjusted the flour accordingly. I also sprinkled the tops of the muffins with Sucanat - unrefined cane sugar - which I just discovered last year thanks to my mom. It has a molasses taste and the crunch of sprinkles. This worked as the perfect topping for the muffins.

The recipe below has the adjustments for honey or brown sugar - and I also think whole wheat flour would work in this recipe equally as well. I also used almond milk instead of soy milk but either will work.

These were extremely flavorful and moist which sometimes is hard to find in a healthy muffin. Definitely give these a try.
Ciao!

Peach Spelt Muffins
Makes 16
Ingredients:
2 Cups spelt or whole wheat flour (add 1/3c. extra flour if using honey)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar or honey
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Cup Soymilk
1 Tbs Lemon Juice
1/3 Cup canola oil
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2/3 Cup Peaches, chopped (fresh or canned)
Extra Brown Sugar or Sucanat for sprinkling on top

Directions:
Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Whisk wet ingredients in a seperate small bowl. Fold gently into dry ingredients.
Fold in peaches.
Fill paper muffin cups 2/3's full and sprinkle with brown sugar or Sucanat.
Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

How To Use Up A Jar of Nutella

2008-03-15T13:08:00.004-06:00

I made Nutella cupcakes last week and managed to use up half the jar, which is a big frustration for me. Half a jar of Nutella is a big temptation. After all, Nutella was not a baking ingredient in my house when I first brought it home. It was spread on toast and I absolutely loved it. So to use up the jar, I had to find a new recipe, and quick.

There is a Nutella cookie recipe on this blog already but that wasn't what I was looking for. Instead I had the idea to replace peanut butter with Nutella in a Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie recipe I have in my files. This would hopefully make a soft and chewy cookie.

Turns out the Nutella easily replaced the peanut butter in texture but not in flavor. I always thought Nutella had a very strong cocoa taste but in cookies it all but disappears. That is not to say these cookies weren't good. Quite the contrary, I had many compliments. They were sweet and chewy but more in a soft shortbread sort of way. The real flavor was a buttery white chocolate taste with a cocoa background but they were delicious.

I don't have any comments on these cookies really. I used white chocolate chips but I think semi-sweet would work just as well. I also think pecans would have been a good addition but, like I have mentioned before, Josh doesn't like nuts in cookies so I omitted them.

Try these in place of normal chocolate chip cookies or if you have a half jar of Nutella looking to be used up.
Ciao!

Nutella White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups Nutella
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
1 package white chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets. Cream butter, sugars, Nutella, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda & salt.
Add eggs one at a time.
Stir in the flour and chips.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until set.

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes - Third Times A Charm

2008-03-10T18:13:00.012-06:00

Some recipes must be wrestled with before they are any good to serve the public. Normally, I suggest doing this in the privacy of your own home but I had to use other people as guinea pigs for the first two disasters.

Let me preface this by saying that Nutella cupcakes are common in the blogging world and there are many variations floating around. The concept, in theory, should be easy. A vanilla cake batter swirled with Nutella to form a fudgy ribbon once the cupcakes are baked. Ok so onto the flawed attempts...

Disaster #1: I used a recipe found on the net and ended up with a greasy, bomb like poundcake cupcake with a soggy Nutella ribbon. Seriously rich and not good.

Disaster #2: I decided to use a vanilla cake mix (yes, I know - puritans do not be mad) and I used a name brand. Problem is, cake mixes are extremely light and fluffy and so the Nutella fell to the bottom of the cupcake like a rock and then burned onto the bottom of the muffin papers.

So I turned to my beloved Betty Crocker cookbook for the perfect yellow cake that would hold the Nutella into place. Sure enough, the cake that I picked was the right one - finally! - and the Nutella made these delicious fudgy ribbons in a cake that held together beautifully. Josh's office loved them and I am definitely going to make them again.

Ciao!

Nutella Swirl Cupcakes
24 cupcakes

Ingredients:
2 1/4c. all purpose flour
1 1/2c. sugar
1/2c. butter, softened
1 1/4c. milk
3 1/2t. baking powder
1 t. salt
2 t. vanilla
3 eggs
1/2c. Nutella

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin cups with papers or grease lightly.
Beat sugar and butter until creamy.
Beat in milk, vanilla and eggs.
Stir in flour, salt and baking powder.
Fill each muffin paper with 2T. batter, or about one third full. Top the batter with 1t. Nutella and then top with another 2T. batter or until the papers are two thirds full.
Using the point of a knife or a toothpick, gently swirl the Nutella through out the batter.
Bake for 20 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

Monster Cookies for Gertrude

2008-03-09T12:42:00.007-06:00

Do you remember those Dairy Queen commercials? The ones for the Monster Cookie blizzard? Two monsters are working in a cookie factory and the one make a really hideous cookie with green M&M's "for Gertrude". I loved the commercials but I loved the blizzard even more. The cookie dough was an oatmeal and peanutbutter batter with chunks of M&M's. Josh and I craved the stuff and I vowed to find the recipe.

After a bit of a hunt, the recipe has been perfected and my Christmas baking would not be complete without these cookies. In fact, of all the recipes I make, these cookies are requested the most of all. Just be prepared for half the batter to be eaten before the cookies are even ready for the oven. Josh eats the dough by tablespoonfuls.

I think it is the very subtle peanutbutter taste that makes the cookies. Don't expect a typical Jif Peanut Butter taste with these. They taste more like an old-fashioned oatmeal cookie with a hint of peanut butter. They make a huge batch, taste amazing and, the best part is, they stay soft for weeks - if you can get them to last that long!

I made them with Christmas M&M's over the holidays and today, to celebrate spring and the beautiful weather we are having, I made them with Easter M&M's. Nothing to add to this recipe other than the reminder not to overbake! 10 minutes is all they need.

Enjoy, enjoy. These are amazing.
Ciao!

Monster Cookies
Makes 3 dozen

Ingredients:
2/3c. butter, softened
1/3c. peanut butter
1 1/3c. brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
2t. vanilla
1t. baking powder
1t. baking soda
1c. flour
2 1/2c. oatmeal
1c. white chocolate chunks or chips
1 1/2c. M&M's

Directions:
Beat butter, peanutbutter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until creamy and light.
Stir in flour, powder and soda. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Stir in the oatmeal and white chocolate.
Carefully, with the mixer on low, or by hand, fold in the M&M's.
Make tablespoon size balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 1o minutes at 350 degrees

Its A Muffin... No, It's a Chocolate Bar

2008-03-05T20:58:00.005-07:00

One of my favorite blogs is by Peabody. The photos are gorgeous and the recipes are fantastic, This recipe, which reminds me of my favorite candy bar is from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. I am not sure how many people have had an Almond Joy in Canada. They are rather hard to find. I have bought mine in the States and loved every one. It is a coconut macaroon base, topped with two almonds and bathed in chocolate. Moist and chewy and so delicious.

Peabody made the bread version, and then I made it into muffins because they are easier to dish out in Josh's office. Plus it makes each one a mini bundt cake which looks fantastic and keeps the moisture in. I really wish I had a picture but we hurried them off to the office before I could take one. Just look at Peabody's picture and you will get the idea.

I did not use the glaze or the chocolate drizzle because I didn't have a ton of time. I am not sure the muffins even need them as they are so moist on their own and packed with flavor. Josh's office loved them and I will definitely make them again.

Ciao!

Almond Joy Muffins
Makes 24

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
¾ cup canola oil
¼ cup melted unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp coconut extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup sweetened coconut
½ cup almonds, chopped or slivered
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine the first 6 ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat ingredients on medium speed for 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl, sift and combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
Starting with the flour mixture alternate flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk and flour…in that order. Mix until just combined.
Fold in coconut, chocolate chips and almonds.
Pour into muffin tins that have been greased and floured. Bake at 350F for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Remove from oven and place on rack to dry. While muffins are still warm, brush on Coconut Glaze. When muffins are completely cool, drizzle chocolate ganache over the tops.

Coconut Glaze

1 cup sugar
½ cup water
1 TBSP unsalted butter
1 tsp coconut extract

Place ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Allow to boil for about a minute. Turn heat off but leave saucepan on burner. Glaze muffins as instructed above.

Chocolate Ganache
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup heavy cream

Place chocolate into a bowl.
Place cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Once cream has boiled pour over chocolate. Let sit for 3 minutes.
Stir with whisk until smooth and glossy.

New Tasters, New Oatmeal Cookies

2008-03-05T17:59:00.005-07:00

So Josh has a new job - well not new anymore but new for me to talk about on the blog - and with it comes a whole new baking audience. I have sent Almond Joy muffins (which I forgot to get a picture of but I will post about eventually) and now I have sent Oatmeal Cookies. It's so fun to have people to bake for again, because my family can only eat so much. And I certainly don't want three dozen cookies sitting around the house.

I have never made this recipe before, but I really wanted to because oatmeal cookies are some of my favorite. They seem wholesome and are more substantial. I love the nuttiness that the oats bring and the way it mixes with creamy chocolate. This recipe has been floating around my files for awhile and I really love it except for one thing - the amount of oatmeal. Three cups was far too much and made the cookies stiff and a little dry if you forgot them in the oven for even a moment - which I did. So I will definitely make them again but the oatmeal should only be two cups.

I mixed milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips and raisins for sweet chewiness. Mix and match as you like, I know some people are raisin oatmeal puritans. There is also a teaspoon of cinnamon in the dough which added amazing subtle flavor and worked extremely well with the chocolate.

This recipe made a huge batch and was a big hit. I hope you enjoy...
Ciao!

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. butter
1 c. dark brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. oatmeal
1 c. raisins (soak in boiling water for a couple of minutes & drain)
1c. chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Cream wet ingredients for two minutes until light and fluffy.
Slowly add dry ingredients and combine.
Stir in oatmeal, raisins and chips.
Scoop by tablespoon and bake for 10 minutes on a greased sheet.

Some Spring In The Dead of Winter or Rhubarb Crumb Muffins

2008-03-02T11:51:00.006-07:00

One of my favorite stores is Planet Organic which has one of the largest frozen organic produce sections in my city. I always feel better buying frozen organic produce because I know that it is straight from the ground and into the bag - brown paper freezer bags even! Planet Organic keeps the frozen fruit very reasonably priced and I appreciate that because the chances of finding rhubarb in the dead of the arctic north winter is a big challenge and I assume that anyone who was smart enough to save some and freeze it will want to capitalize on their brilliance. Not so at this store. They even put it on sale in January and I stocked up. I figure by the time the strawberries come into their peak - and they are just starting to now - I will have rhubarb for Amanda's favorite Rhubarb Strawberry Crumb Pie.

In the meantime, I wanted to use up some of the copious amounts of rhubarb I bought at said sale, and muffins are the perfect way to do it. No one can resist a golden crumb topped muffin and that sour surprise of the rhubarb is a big hit in my family.

I found this recipe on Epicurious. They are by no means healthy, although I did split the white flour in half with whole wheat to continue my trend this year. I don't think the muffins were too dense or dry because of the rhubarb which moistened the middles. The one thing I will say is that the amount of crumb topping was way too much! In the recipe below I have printed the more accurate amounts that you will need.

We loved these muffins and I will continue to make them - hopefully with fresh rhubarb in the spring.

Ciao!

Rhubarb Crumb Muffins
Gourmet, April 2003

Ingredients for topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 lb fresh rhubarb stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

Ingredients for cake batter:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (or 1/2c. whole wheat & 3/4c. white flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup whole milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter muffin cups and top of pan.
Make streusel for topping by whisking together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture forms small clumps.
For the batter, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until blended, about 2 minutes.
Add eggs and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture and milk alternately in 2 batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined.
Divide batter among muffin cups (each cup will be about half full).
Toss rhubarb with confectioners sugar and sprinkle batter with rhubarb, then crumble streusel evenly on top.
Bake in middle of oven until tops are golden and a tester inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 22 to 25 minutes.

Roasted Cauliflower Corn Chowder

2008-02-24T10:50:00.004-07:00

I have been missing for weeks and weeks. Life gets busy and blogging ends up on the back burner. That doesn't mean I have not been baking and cooking though. I actually made the Whole Wheat S'more Cookies again because they are such a big hit in my family.
What I tried this week, though, was this chowder. Josh and I wanted something very healthy and reheat-able for work. I like to make soup because the big soup pot makes enough for dinner and then three more lunches.

The recipe is from Shape and I find that they have very healthy recipes that actually taste good. Sometimes that is hard to do. What I loved about this soup was the rich flavors and how creamy it was, considering there was no cream in sight.

I am posting the altered recipe I used, as opposed to the origingal from Shape. I have been learning alot about how to make chowders that taste fattening, but really aren't and I didn't like some of the ingredients that Shape included.

So here are some tips I used:

Use a can of skim condensed milk for all the creaminess, and almost no fat. This is my new favorite ingredient in creamy soups. Just remember to add it at the end and not overheat it, or you will have curdling.
I roasted the entire head of cauliflower instead of half of it as Shape suggested. It added a real depth of flavor.
I didn't have fresh basil so I used 1T. of dried instead, which is not ideal but the fresh basil at my market did not look fresh enough to consume.

So enjoy this recipe. It was so delicious with a shaving of fresh Parmigian cheese on top and a crusty roll on the side.
Ciao!

Roasted Cauliflower and Corn Chowder
Ingredients:
1 medium head of cauliflower
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium white onion, chopped
2/3 cup corn kernels (1 medium-size ear) - or one can corn kernels
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 medium zucchini, chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
12 ounces can skim condensed milk
3 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

Separate cauliflower florets from the stem. Toss florets with olive oil and roast in oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes, or until slightly golden. Remove from oven and set aside.
In a large pot over medium heat, saute onions and corn in butter until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add zucchini, chopped cauliflower, thyme, salt and white pepper. Cover and cook for several minutes more, stirring occasionally and adjusting heat so the vegetables don't burn.
Add stock to pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook, covered, 20 minutes. Add the basil and milk, and adjust seasonings.
Transfer the soup in thirds to a food processor bowl and pulse so that the soup is slightly pureed with bits of vegetable remaining.

Whole Wheat S'more Cookies

2008-01-10T19:45:00.002-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that Bon Appetit has some whole grain recipes in this months issue. This is good news for me because I love to bake but I really want to start adding ingredients that are a little more wholesome and perhaps have some health benefits without tasting like cardboard.

Flour is a good way to change a baking recipe for the better. I find whole wheat flour to be nuttier and more filling, so not only does the baked good taste richer, it also only takes one serving to fill you up. The problem is in the density of whole wheat flour. After all, no one makes a chiffon cake out of whole wheat flour. It is heavy stuff! Every time I add it to cookies or muffins, I end up with a heavy product and the texture is not quite where it should be.

After looking over this cookie recipe, though, I noticed that the butter is melted before hand which definitely makes for a chewier cookie. The hope was not to have a "healthy" tasting cookie but a yummy, chewy cookie that no one would take a bite and say "these are different". That is rarely ever a good response.

The cookies have virtually no difference from any other chocolate chip cookie recipe I have made except for the 3 cups of whole wheat flour. The marshmallows and chips are still there, as is the sugar but you get the added flavor and benefit of a whole grain. So maybe this is a bit of a stretch in the grand scheme of healthy eating ... but I never said this cookie was for dieters!

I also cannot, in all honesty, say these would easily replace my beloved chocolate chip cookie recipe. The end result was almost like a bran muffin top. Cakey like a muffin but the ingredients of a cookie. Make sense? Don't get me wrong, they were delicious but just not what I was expecting at all. The marshmallows exploded a bit in the cookies, leaving gooey carmelized puddles and I used milk chocolate chips for creaminess although the regular semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips would go really well with the nutty flavor. I omitted the nuts, as usual, because Josh hates nuts in his cookies, and I don't think I would recommend using them anyway now that I know these taste more like muffins. I think the crunch would detract from the finished product.
So try them out and see what you think. Don't think healthier, think heartier.
Ciao!
Picture coming tomorrow!

Whole Wheat S'more Cookies
Bon Appetit, February 2008
Ingredients:
3c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2c. packed brown sugar
3/4t. salt
1/2t. baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2c. buttermilk
1 T. molasses
1 1/2t. vanilla
1/2c. butter, melted
1 1/2c. milk chocolate chips
1 c. mini marshmallows
3/4c. coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 35o. Line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl.
Whisk eggs, buttermilk, molasses, and vanilla extract in medium bowl. Whisk in butter.
Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, stirring until dough is evenly moistened.
Stir in chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts.
Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing about 3 inches apart (about 12 cookies per sheet). Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until golden brown, dry to touch, but still slightly soft, about 15 minutes.
Let cookies cool on sheets 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool (cookies will firm up).
Can be made two days ahead.

Skinny(er) Salmon with Dill Sauce

2008-01-08T16:29:00.001-07:00

What a cliche' - a healthy recipe at the beginning of the new year! I am sure blogs all over the globe are devoting themselves to cleansing the stomach after a good month of gluttony. Josh and I are doing everything in moderation but I did feel the need to get some healthy protein back in our lives.

For those of you who have never seen or heard of the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry cookbook (they have a television show as well as several cookbooks) think of it as remakes of all your favorite recipes with less sugar and fat. I love the humourous anecdotes in the margins and the recipes are easy and simple.

In this case I was craving a fattening tartar sauce to go with our salmon. Maybe even a dill cream sauce. This is where I decided to try a recipe I have looked at for quite some time and never followed through. Josh marinated the salmon in lemon juice whisked with dijon mustard and some chopped dill for about an hour before we grilled it on our indoor grill. I think marinating is always a good idea but we have definitely just thrown the salmon steak on as is and ended up with a good result.

The sauce was extremely easy and, except for the dill, used ingredients found in my cupboard and fridge all the time. The result was a tangy sauce that offset the salmon very nicely and we will definitely make again to replace our beloved tartar sauce. As much as the idea of low fat or fat free sour cream turns people off, I did not even notice the difference in the sauce once the other flavors were mixed in.

In the picture you will see some dark spots on top of the salmon and the white dill sauce. That is Josh's addition of chipotle hot sauce because there are very few foods he eats without hot sauce. Believe it or not, it was actually quite good on top although I am not sure I would recommend that addition.

As an aside, I just received Bon Appetit February 2008 today and it looks like I am not the only one who is looking at the lower sugar and lower fat options in recipes. There is a fantastic article on using whole grains in baking as well as a few articles on the slow food movement. Definitely worth picking up this month!
Ciao!

Hook, Line & Simple ... or Creamy Dill Sauce for Salmon
Ingredients:
1/3c. light or fat free sour cream
2T. maple syrup
1T. dijon mustard or honey mustard
1T. fresh lemon juice
1T. minced fresh dill
1t. grated lemon zest
Directions:
Whisk together all the ingredients and serve very cold over freshly grilled or broiled salmon.

Maple Sugar Cutout Cookies

2008-01-04T11:55:00.001-07:00

I have another submission for my Christmas baking saga. I do apologize for the lack of photos. Seems in all the busyness of the holiday I did not snap as many pics as I normally would have. It's too bad because everything looked so good and I find recipes are more appealing with photos. However, you have to trust me on this one.

Sugar cookies are a Christmas staple around my house although I think they are awfully tedious for the end results. I have decided that picking one cookie cutter and sticking with it for the whole batch is sufficient. It eliminates the ultimate problem of keeping like sizes with like to avoid burning and then no one is fighting over who got the bigger cookie. So this year I made Maple Sugar Cookies and used a 3" snowflake cutter.

This recipe is one of the most delicious sugar cookies I have ever made. I do hesitate to use the word "Maple" in the title because, while there is both maple syrup and maple flavoring in the dough, neither came through all that much. There was a definite richness to the taste and I would say it is a cross between a sugar cookie and a Gingerbread cookie. When I opened the tin a week later, I was hit with the most amazing aroma.

One of my favorite features of the dough was how easily it rolled out. Even the third and fourth rolling of the scraps were no trouble at all. The tiny cracks, what few there were, easily rolled back together. I definitely doctored the amount of maple flavoring and the cinnamon. If you aren't a big cinnamon fan, I would consider cutting the amount in half again, although I already did quite significantly.

The one batch made 4 dozen which was plenty. They stayed soft for the first week and then were more on the crisp side. I loved them dunked in coffee and they definitely kept their flavor weeks later. This recipe is worthy of a card in my recipe box and is now a Christmas staple in my house. I hope it will be in yours as well.
Ciao!

Maple Sugar Cutout Cookies
Ingredients:
2/3 cup softened butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3 T. maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp maple flavoring
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Directions:
In a large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg, maple syrup and vanilla.
Blend in cinnamon, flour, baking powder and salt until well mixed.
Divide dough in half and chill for 1/2 hour.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Grease two large cookie sheets.
On a lightly floured surface, working with half the dough at a time, roll 1/8-inch thick. (Have some flour on hand to dip cookie cutter into.)
Dip cutter into flour and cut dough into shapes.
Using a metal spatula, place cookies 1/2-inch apart on cookie sheets.
Reroll trimmings and continue to roll into shapes.
Bake 8 minutes or until very lightly browned.
Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Cranberry Pecan Drop Cookies

2008-01-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

I am always very excited to try new recipes at Christmas. In fact, very few items on my baked goods plates are tried and true favorites. I think it would be much smarter for me to make the same dozen items every year, but it is always so satisfying to try something new and have people love it.

Such is with this recipe. This was the perfect addition to my repertoire as I tend to make everything very sweet and full of chocolate. This cookie is the opposite entirely. It is not sweet really at all and the tart cranberries and chopped pecans were such a fantastic combination with the bourbon.

I ended up making a mistake somewhere along the way and had to reconfigure how the cookies were formed, yet I think they turned out better than the original would have. I think they were supposed to be more shortbread or sable - like. The dough was to be chilled and rolled into a log, then sliced. Well my dough was sticky and soft and perfect for a drop cookie. I was impatient as always and just scooped it into tablespoon balls. They baked puffy and cakelike. The best part of this cookie is they were still soft three weeks after baking, which is quite unusual.

A few tips for this one. Chop the pecans really finely. I used a mini chop until they were tiny pieces. You want crunch not actual discernible pecan chunks. Also, I soaked the dried cranberries (and this recipe would be equally good with raisins) in the rum (you could also use bourbon or brandy) for about an hour which plumped them up considerably. If you don't want to use alcohol, I think applejuice or cider would work equally as well.

The flavors were much deeper a few days later when they had time to sit in an airtight container. This is definitely a winter cookie that would be good to make long after Christmas is over.
Ciao!

Cranberry Pecan Drop Cookies
Makes 36
Ingredients
1/2 C sugar
1-1/4 C flour
1/2 stick (1/4 C) butter
2 eggs
3/4c. pecan pieces
1c. dried cranberries or raisins
1/4 C rum or bourbon
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
confectioners sugar
Directions:
Soak the dried fruit in the liquer for about one hour. Drain the liquid from the fruit and set aside.
Sift the flour and mix with the nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder.
Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one.
Alternately add the liquer and the flour mixture. Fold in the dried fruit.
Chill the batter for 30 minutes and then scoop tablespoon size balls onto a greased baking sheet.
Bake 8 minutes in a preheated 350º oven. Cool and sprinkle with confectioners sugar.

Homemade Two Bite Brownies

2008-01-01T14:17:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had a two bite brownie? Is it not the most amazing product? They sit on store shelves for months, maybe years, and still manage to be moist and fudgy and delicious. How do they do it? How many chemicals are in the recipe? I shudder to think.

I can, however, make my own and I do just in time for Christmas. I am a sucker for all things holiday and those cute red and gold foil candy cups are one of the frivolous products I end up having too many of. They work perfectly for this recipe and add an extra touch of color to the cookie trays. Plus, they keep the brownies nice and small, literally two bites! My mom found my mini baking cups at the dollar store so I would suggest looking there before spending the high prices in baking supply stores.

These brownies are more of a dark chocolate flavor than the kind you get in the store. I think if I had used milk chocolate chips, it would have toned that down but everyone seemed to like that they were not too sweet. And the Rosebud chocoloate candy on top added the icing sweetness that I was looking for. If you don't know what a Rosebud is, they come in those Nelson chocolate boxes from places like Walmart. I think I only paid 99 cents fo mine.

I don't have much to add to the recipe except that overbaking them will ruin the fudgy texture so bake no longer than recommended and, if your stove tends to be on the hotter side, turn it down to 325. Also, don't double the recipe. They lose their texture. I just made three seperate batches.

These brownies were moist and fudgy right through the new year, though I only had a couple left of the 3 batches that I made. Chances are you won't have many left either!
Ciao!

Brownie Miniatures
From the Canadian Living Christmas Book
Makes 24
Ingredients:
1/3c. packed brown sugar
1/4c. butter
3oz. semi sweet chocolate
1/2t. vanilla
1 egg
1/3c. flour
24 chocolate rosebuds
Directions:
In a saucepan melt sugar, butter and chocolate over low heat until chocolate is just melted. Remove from heat and let cool one minute.
Blend in the vanilla and the egg, then gently fold in the flour just until blended.
Spoon into tiny baking cups, about 2/3's full. (I placed the baking cups inside mini muffin tins for added stability but I have also just placed them all on a cookie sheet as well).
Bake in a 350 oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and set a Rosebud on top of each one. Let completely cool.

Tis' the Season for Exhaustion

2007-12-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

It is now New Years Eve, and thank God for that because holidays that last this long are a bit too much. The non-stop eating and the very late nights have lead to Josh and I being lethargic and bordering on the grumpy side. I think it is because we are out of routine and we haven't eaten enough veggies!

So tonight we will have some yummy food with dear friends and ring in another new year. After that, I hope to stop baking and start cooking up a storm from my dear Rachael Ray who never fails to have easy recipes that are perfect for after work.

My postings have been non existent and I do apologize. I had a very successful baking Christmas with only one eggnog fudge flop. I think everything else turned out really well and I found a new favorite or two which I promise to share. Maybe my New Years Day will be quiet enough to get this done.

I did receive a gluttony of cookbooks for Christmas this year - three Paula Deen's, a Nigella Lawson, a Dorie Greenspan and a Jamie Oliver. Very excited about them all.

Happy New Year, happy new recipes.
Ciao!

Cheaters Eggnog Bundt Cake

2007-12-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

We had a whirlwind weekend of Christmas activities to usher in my favorite holiday. I don't think I could have fit more events into two days if I tried.

Friday we picked out our Christmas tree in possibly the coldest weather we have had yet. Matthew put his arms around each frozen pillar of tree and helped Amanda and I pick based on the girth, not the shape, of the White & Nova Scotia Pines. It was definitely a gamble and at $65 - yes, I did pay that for a Christmas tree - I was hoping it would be beautiful. Turns out, the girth trick did work because my tree is 6 feet of perfectly spaced branches laden with my 1950's glass ornament collection. I am in love with this tree.

Saturday night we decorated my parents tree and we had a full house to do it. My sister brought over her new pup and my mom's dog was there as well. Organized chaos! It was for this night of festive fun that I decided to bring the dessert.

Eggnog was a must ingredient but other than that, I had no idea. It was on one of my favorite sites Taste of Home that two lovely ladies came to my aid with a quick and easy cake. I will admit that the central ingredient is a box vanilla cake mix and I am very sorry to disappoint any baking purists, but the results were well worth the shortcut.

This cake, when warm and first glazed, reminded me of an eggnog Krispy Kreme donut, but once it cooled off, the trademark heavier bundt cake texture came through. The flavors are fantastic and I have nothing to add to this recipe. Just glaze it once when it has come out of the oven and then drizzle glaze over it again when it has cooled.
Ciao!

Eggnog Bundt Cake
Ingredients - Cake:
4 Tablespoons butter or margarine
1 packaged yellow cake mix
1 1/2 cups commercially prepared eggnog
2 eggs
1 teaspoon rum extract
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Ingredients - Glaze:
2c. powdered sugar
2T. melted butter
3T. eggnog
1t. vanilla

Directions - Cake:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the cake mix, eggnog, eggs, rum extract, nutmeg and melted butter on low speed for 30 seconds or just til moistened. Beat on medium for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour into greased bundt pan.
Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
Brush with half of the eggnog glaze.
Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Drizzle with remaining glaze.

Directions - Glaze:
Combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl, whisk well. Add more eggnog if needed for a consistency that will drizzle from a spoon.

Pass The Rumballs!

2007-11-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Rumballs are one of my favorite Christmas treats. I could eat a dozen in no time. Maybe I like them, not only for their taste, but for the fond memories I have of my Grandma when I make them.

It was at her house that I first learned how to mix the ingredients and shape the balls so they were all even. Grandma does not think that rumballs made with graham crackers are even remotely the real deal so I have come to learn that the extra expense for the Nilla wafers is worth the end result. While Grandma still bakes each Christmas, the rumballs have fallen to me and I make far too many each year. I think we were still eating them in February last holiday.

That's not to say I won't make just as many this year, but I will not keep them hidden. We were all so afraid of running out that I tried to ration us. And I guess a bit too much. This year, let the rumballs - made with Nilla wafers - flow.

There isn't too much to say about the recipe. I find that the rum and corn syrup amounts are not completely accurate and you have to adjust as you go. The dough should be not too wet - too much rum - and not too sticky - too much corn syrup. So whisk in the rum and corn syrup mixture and use your hands to knead it in. If it is not making balls that easily roll together, you need more liquid. Dry rumballs are terrible, plus the powdered sugar coating will absorb some of the moisture so err on the side of sticky rather than just barely holding together.

Also, the ingredients need to be really finely ground so use a food processor. Grind the nuts until they are wet and sticking together. This will really help the balls form.I store mine in an airtight - do not use cheap Christmas tins for this - container so that they age but do not dry out in any way. Be prepared when you open the lid, they will smell really strong after a few weeks.

I made three batches the other night and that is tons. Hope someone eats them. What am I saying? They will be gone before I know it!
Ciao!

Grandma's Bourbon Walnut Balls
Makes 36
Ingredients:
2 1/2c. finely ground vanilla wafer crumbs
1c. finely ground pecans or walnuts
3 T. Cocoa powder
1c. powdered sugar
1/2c. bourbon or rum
3T. corn syrup
Confectioners sugar to roll the balls in

Directions:
Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl.
Whisk the corn syrup and rum or bourbon together. Pour into the dry ingredients.
Mix with your hand until sticky but solid walnut size balls form. Add more of the wet ingredients if needed, starting with more corn syrup.
Roll balls into powdered sugar and store in an airtight container.

A Make Ahead Dinner

2007-11-27T18:54:00.001-07:00

With all the Christmas entertaining coming up, I wanted to put some dinners in the freezer that I could pull out at a moments notice, heat and serve. These stuffed shells are so simple and I spent last night building two foil baking pans full.
The easiest way to serve them is with a big salad and crusty garlic bread but I am going to serve them on the weekend as a side dish with an italian chicken parmesan or veal parmesan and a salad.
There really isn't much to say about the recipe. I eyeballed the amounts more or less and you can do the same. Just make sure that the mixture is stiff so that it doesn't leak out of the shells.
The big trick is not to overcook the pasta. Cook them until they are too firm to eat and not too soggy - about 7 minutes.
I used the pre-shredded Italian blend Kraft cheese but a mixture of parmesan and mozzarella or just mozzarella will work really well. I also used canned spaghetti sauce to make it quick and easy.
Ciao!

Ricotta Spinach Stuffed Shells
Makes 24 shells
Ingredients:
1 box jumbo pasta shells
3c. ricotta cheese
1c. drained, chopped spinach
2c. grated cheese
1 egg
2c. tomato sauce

Directions:
Cook pasta shells in boiling water until not quite al dente. Discard any broken shells.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, egg and 1c. cheese.

Spoon 1c. sauce into the bottom of the baking dish.
Scoop filling into the shells so that they are full but not overflowing. Place open side up in the baking dish.

Spoon remaining sauce over the shells and then sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until hot and bubbly.
Or wrap pan in foil and freeze for up to one month.

Fruitcake for the Fruitcake Haters

2007-11-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

What is there to say about fruitcake really? Most people despise it, and for good reason. I will agree that fruitcake, on average, is a dry, dense brick with nothing for flavour but the sickly sweet afternotes of old candied fruit. Sounds appetizing doesn't it? It certainly doesn't look appetizing. Have you ever seen fruitcake in a store? Nothing is as unappealing as that.

I will admit to buying store fruitcake last year. The recipe was a new one and I will never use it again, by the way. Fruitcake Rumballs promised to be delicious and I believed the catchy descriptions. I crumbled the storebought cake into the food processor with cocoa and rum and tried to make a dough that I could roll. Bottom line, the balls were lumpy and wet and the only one who ate them was my mom, I think out of obligation. For future, I will stick to my tried and true rumballs and leave the store's fruitcake to the Boxing Day bargain shoppers.

So after my fruitcake issues, you might wonder why I am posting a fruitcake recipe. I hate fruitcake like the next person but this recipe from my Canadian Living Christmas cookbook is a wonderful cake. The book claims it will win over all fruitcake haters and they were right. Except for the few in my family who refuse to eat glazed fruit no matter what, I managed to pawn off many slices and people came back for seconds.

The trick to this recipe is the dough that binds it together. There is more of it than most fruitcakes I have made and it is not cloyingly sweet, nor is it molasses bitter and dark. The orange and almond flavor is prevelant and the cake is delicious. I use more raisins and nuts than fruit to make sure my family will eat it. I would highly recommend you give this one a try in the coming weeks. Just make sure you leave a good 3 weeks for it to mellow before serving.

A couple notes since I made it on the weekend...
I used the full amount of nuts and raisins and only 6 cups total of fruit - mixed candied and mixed peel. If you are using whole fruits like the recipe calls for, then use the full amounts. If you are using the tiny diced mixed fruits you can use alot less and should or else there will not be enough batter to go around.
Use metal loaf pans if possible. The glass ones that I used took a lot longer to cook, 3.5hrs, and I found that the cake does not cook as evenly.
Let the cakes cool for as long as possible before removing them from the pans. They should be completely cool, otherwise the cake starts to have small cracks.
Once the cakes are on a board and out of the pans, brush all the surfaces with rum or orange juice or a combination of both.
I stored mine wrapped in plastic wrap and two layers of tinfoil. After a few weeks, brush them with your choice of liquid again.

Give this recipe a shot, it might surprise you.
Ciao!

Light Orange Almond Fruitcake
Canadian Living Christmas Cookbook
Ingredients:
3 cups mixed candied fruits
2 cups golden raisins
3/4 cups candied green cherries cut in half
3/4 cups candied red cherries cut in half
1 1/2 cup chopped candied pineapples
1 1/2 cup coarsly chopped blanched almonds
1 cup candied lemon & lime peels
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp coarsly grated orange rind
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange liqueur or orange juice

Directions:
Grease and flour two 9x5 in. loaf pans; Set aside.
In large bowl, combine the fist seven ingredients; toss with 1/2 cup of the flour. Set aside.

Mix remaining flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, orange rind and almond or vanilla extract, beating well.
Add flour mixture alternately with orange liqueur or juice. (Three additions of dry, two addition of wet) Mixing just until flour is incorporated. Fold in fruit mixture. The batter will be very thick.

Pour into prepared pans, smoothing tops. Place a shallow pan half filled with boiling water on bottom rack of oven. Bake cakes on center rack in a 250 (yes, 250) degree oven for 2 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserter into center comes out clean. (This make take as long as 3 hours.) Cover loosely with foil if cakes start to crack. Let cool completely in pans.
If you wish, wrap in two thicknesses of cheese cloth soaked in brandy and in some aluminun foil until ready to eat.

A Simple Applesauce Cake

2007-11-10T23:25:00.001-07:00

My fridge turns into an abyss for half used jars of food. I don't know how it happens but eventually I will clean out the fridge and find the tomato sauce I had had so many plans for, or the capers (who uses capers?) that would have been perfect if only I had known where they were.
So that is how this half full jar of applesauce came to be. I needed part of it for the Caramel Apple Cake I made the other day and then stuffed the jar into the fridge and forgot about it. Now, a week later, I need to use it up and I don't have a single applesauce cake recipe. Enter Martha Stewart and her wealth of recipes on the website. A quick search led me to this cake which I am now in love with.
The cake is very simple with subtle flavors. I like it because you can pick up a slice and snack on it, or top it with icecream (we used Chapman's Eggnog icecream) and serve it warm as a delicious dessert. I put the whole cake together in minutes and, what I love best, all the ingredients are staples in my pantry.
I upped the spice and omitted the cardamom in the original recipe, adding allspice instead. Other than that, I did nothing to it. Simple, quick and delicious!
Ciao!

Applesauce Cake
Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
2 cups applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
In another bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and honey until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat just until combined. Beat in applesauce.
Generously coat a nonstick 9-inch tube pan with cooking spray. Spoon batter into pan; smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (but slightly wet), 50 to 60 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Turn out of pan onto a cutting board or baking sheet; invert cake onto rack, top side up. Cool completely.

Christmas Already!

2007-11-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the picture on the left, Christmas is now upon us. Or at least that is what the catalogs and department stores would have you think. In reality, they have been eagerly hoisting the holiday on us since October 15th. What exactly is so appealing about an artificial tree and light strung garland stuck in amongst jack o' lanterns and witches garb? Seems like such an odd juxtaposition.
Nevertheless, Christmas is now an almost three month holiday. My LL Bean catalog came in October, christmas Cd's emerged in Costco shortly after. I have even begun to Christmas shop, and did much of it on the Thanksgiving weekend. Why? Because sales are aplenty in the fall and stores love early shoppers. They know that even though you break the bank in November and swear you are done, you will be back the last week of December for that "one extra thing". It's a gold mine.
To sum up this little diatribe, I do love Christmas and all it offers. I will begin my Christmas baking this weekend and won't stop until the third week of December. So here is to weeks and weeks of yummy smells and new, hopefully successful, recipes.
Ciao!

Baking With Rachael Ray

2007-11-05T16:07:00.001-07:00

Can Rachael Ray bake? My guess is no. Well, at least not well enough to make the cake featured in her November 2007 magazine. She must have realized that all good magazines need a dessert recipe, or two, and hired a pastry chef to fill this gap.
At any rate, I had to try the cake for my Dad's birthday because a chocolate fan he is not. Caramel on the other hand, is a favorite and this cake looked like it would fill the bill. I love the idea of fruit fillings instead of even more icing.
So the cake was easy to make and tasted delicious. Hard to slice, I found, but I think a serrated knife would have worked so much better, as the cake is delicate and the apple slices need to be cut through as well.
A few quick tips for the cake-
I used the Pam Baking spray again, and again I was pleasantly surprised. The cakes fell right out of the pans, no crumbling issues at all.
The tops of the cakes are a tad wet looking. If you try and get rid of that look, you will burn the rest of the cake. Don't rest the cake upside down to cool because the wet spot will stick to the board and not let go.
Freeze the cakes for a half hour or so before frosting so the wet spot firms up and doesn't stick to the icing knife.
To ice it, run a two inch strip of frosting around the top edge of the bottom layer and then pile the apples in the middle to avoid leakage.
I used about 4 cups of icing sugar in the frosting but I also used more caramel sauce. The frosting is definitely a preference thing and it firms up really well in the fridge so don't worry about making it too thin to get the desired flavor.
Ciao!

Caramel Apple Layer Cake
Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups plus 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 sticks (1 pound) plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 crisp apples (about 1 pound), such as gala, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup store-bought caramel sauce

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Generously grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.
Using an electric mixer, combine the flour, 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, the baking powder and salt.
Mix in 2 sticks butter at low speed until the mixture is crumbly.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, 1/2 cup cream, applesauce and vanilla. Mix into the flour-butter mixture at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans.
Bake until springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the cake to release the layers, invert onto the rack and let cool completely.
In a medium skillet, melt 3 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat.
Add the apple slices and remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar and cook, stirring often, until the apples are tender and the juice is syrupy, about 15 minutes.
Stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons cream and simmer for 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let cool.
Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 2 sticks butter and the caramel sauce. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar to taste, and until light, creamy and spreadable. Place in the refridgerator if too soft.
Place 1 cake layer on a cake plate; spread the apple filling evenly on top, then cover with the remaining cake layer. Using an offset spatula or butter knife, cover the top and sides of the cake with the caramel frosting, swirling the top to make a decorative pattern.

Do You Daydream In Cookies?

2007-11-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you buy something just for the sake of buying it, or because it is a new product you have never seen before. Both of these reasons would apply to the ridiculous - although cheap - purchase I made in Target a few weeks ago. Now bear in mind that we do not have a Target in Alberta. This is a glorious store that trumps Wal-Mart in every way. So you can't blame me for being dazzled by the lights and sheer amount of amazing products.

It was in the Halloween candy aisle, while looking for mini Almond Joys, that I came across Hershey Kisses Candy Corn edition. You can read more about them at Candyblog although I think they give the kisses an unfair review.

True, the candy is not chocolate in any sense. And true, doesn't taste like chocolate but then again, I didn't really expect it to. What you do get is a creamy confection that is a cross between real candy corn and butter flavored wax. Now before you say "yuck" I would suggest a taste. They are extremely addictive. I had to put the bag away before my "taste for research purposes only" went any further and I did not have enough left for cookies.

And I did want them for cookies. I envisioned yummy candy kisses cookies in butterscotch flavor perhaps? Well, apparently there are very few original Kiss Cookie recipes on the net. Almost every one I found was peanut butter and very little variation from the theme. So after hunting for days and days for the perfect recipe, I finally, and quite by accident, stumbled upon this one on the Martha Stewart website. She used mini peanut butter cups in the middle, which I think would be far more delicious than my freaky Kisses. What I loved about her recipe was it was simple, and promised a softer cookie. I did not like the idea of a hard as a rock peanutbutter cookie with a soft Kiss centre.

Well, the cookies were amazing. So amazing in fact that Josh thought about them all day at work. Justin devoured them, and Johnson ate entire cookies in one bite. They are heaven. Soft and chewy, peanutbuttery and smooth. The candy corn centre was rich and a perfect balance with the cookies.

Because we do not get the candy corn kisses in Canada, I will use the Caramel Chocolate Swirl Kisses instead. These cookies will definitely have repeat peformances in my house.
Ciao!

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies
Martha Stewart, Makes 3 Dozen
Ingredients:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar, for rolling dough
36 chocolate kisses or mini peanut butter cups, chilled and unwrapped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using an electric mixer, cream peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl until smooth.
Add brown sugar; beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed.
Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until incorporated.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat in flour mixture in two batches.
Scoop off dough by the tablespoon; roll into balls. Place granulated sugar on a plate; roll balls in sugar, coating completely. Place 2 inches apart on a nonstick insulated baking sheet.
Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
Press one peanut butter cup in center of each cookie. Return to oven; continue baking until cookies are golden brown and chocolate has begun to melt, about 3 minutes more. Let cool at least 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely.

Mom's Halloween Birthday

2007-11-01T19:31:00.000-06:00

It is my Mom's birthday. On Halloween, I know. We actually like having her birthday on Halloween because it gives us a good excuse when we are trying to get out of another brutal Halloween party. This way we can hand out candy to the cute little kids, and then turn out the lights and watch a movie when the older, more obnoxious 'trick or treaters' come around. This year A & J opened their home to the party. A good idea because they are in a new neighborhood with lots of young families so we had adecent turn out of cute little kids. It also gave A a chance to practice her baking skills with me as we attempted my mom's birthday cake. I say attempt because I hate making layer cakes. I never end up with an even looking tower. It's always lopsided or one layer is careening off the top.

To stack the deck in my favor, I chose a cake from my beloved Paula Deen. Her cakes look amazing, are easy to prepare and I am sure cannot fail. This specific one is out of her Christmas Baking 2007 magazine which mom picked up for me in the States. I have poured over this magazine so many times that I probably know where every recipe is in it. The cake turned out really well with nice, even layers. The icing tasted really yummy the night we made it and was ten times better the next day. I think I will use it on cupcakes in the future. The layers of cake were light and moist and did not rise up with too much of a dome so the cake stayed flat. Next time I will partly freeze the layers first before icing as it was a little difficult with them slightly warm. I used the Pam Baking spray again and the layers fell out of the pan perfectly.

When we sliced the cake open, it looked so even and delicious. It tasted even better. The cake went a long way. It is quite rich and half the cake fed 9 people generously. Looks like alot of work, really wasn't. Oh, and the orange and black balls on top are malt balls, Halloween edition. Ciao!

Chocolate Malt Cake
Paula Deen's Holiday Magazine
Ingredients for cake:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1 cup malted milk powder - such as Ovaltine
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Malted Milk Balls for garnish

Ingredients for icing:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup malted milk powder
5 cups powdered sugar

Directions for Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 3 - 9" cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder.
In a small bowl, combine milk and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve.
Add milk mixture, oil and eggs to flour mixture, beating at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add sour cream and vanilla, beating until just combined.
Pour batter evenly into pans, and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool and then remove from pans. Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with malted milk balls.

Directions for icing:
In a large bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
In a small bowl, combine cream and malted milk powder, stirring to dissolve. Add cream mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed to combine. Gradually beat in icing sugar until spreadable.

Sweet Potato Bourbon Poundcake

2007-10-29T12:12:00.001-06:00

Can I tell you how much I love sweet potatoes? And bundt cakes. I make alot of Bundt cakes. Not on purpose really, but I find they are very easy to make and always turn out beautiful and delicious. When I found this recipe last week it seemed like the perfect autumn cake to make while I had Saturday to myself.
Yes, I had the whole day completely to myself. No Josh, no guests, just me. With all that free time I managed to get alot of housework done and make the applesauce that I have posted, below. While the applesauce simmered away, I made this cake. The best part about bundt cakes is you can mix them up in minutes and then throw them in the oven for an hour and not worry about them. I have never had one burn or be too dry.
This cake could be compared to a carrot cake but without the overwhelming vegetable taste. It definitely is dense and not sweet which, for having 1.5 cups of sugar in it, was a bit surprising. Nevertheless, it is very subtle and would go quite well with whipping cream. We ate it with good vanilla icecream.
I really don't have much to add to this recipe.
The original recipe called for very little spice so I upped it quite a bit. Even with the additions, I think it could even use some more.
I roasted the sweet potato in the oven which meant I had to let it cool for a while in the fridge before adding it to the egg mixture. If you have sweet potato left over from dinner, this would be a much easier step.
Also, the syrup mixture looks like alot but if you baste the cake with it right out of the oven and while still in the pan, then you will get the bottom of the cake nice and moist. I turned the cake out of the pan while barely warm and basted it probably three more times flipped the right way up. This kept it really moist and held the pecans to the top a little better.
Ciao!

Sweet-Potato Bourbon Bundt
"Bundt Classics" by Dorothy Dalquist

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 cup cooked sweet potato
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup bourbon or apple juice
1 tablespoon baking powder (yes, a tablespoon)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
Nonstick cooking spray with flour
1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together brown sugar, butter, and eggs until very light and fluffy.
Add sweet potato and vanilla; beat to combine.
Combine flour, baking powder, pie spice, and salt in a bowl.
Add half the flour mixture to the mixer and mix until just incorporated.
Add the milk and combine.
Add the remaining flour and combine.
Finally, add the bourbon and 1 cup chopped pecans and stir in just until incorporated.
Lightly spray a 10 or 12 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Sprinkle bottom of the pan with 1/4c. chopped pecans. Pour in cake batter.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.
Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.
Brush cake with bourbon syrup.
Serve cake slices with any remaining syrup.

Bourbon syrup:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Boil for about 5 minutes
Add 1 T Butter
2 T Bourbon
1 tsp. vanilla
Boil for another 2 minutes, until beginning to thicken

Have Apples ... Make Applesauce

2007-10-24T15:18:00.001-06:00

The apples were still mounded on my kitchen table. I looked at them often and wished they would disappear. Not that I wish I hadn't bought them. Quite the contrary. I have had rave reviews from the strudels and my grandma was thrilled to make applesauce and pies. I just wanted them out of my house so I didn't have the project hanging over my head. Every day they sat there I lost another one to mush.
So enough is enough. I turned them into applesauce for the freezer. There were plenty to make a pie or two but I think they might have been a bit past their pie prime. Applesauce is quick and easy and will be most appreciated when we have roast pork in the winter.
As per usual, I have to try a new recipe. My grandma's recipe worked really well but I also have frozen cranberries to use up and this is the perfect opportunity to use them.
This recipe comes from Joe at Culinary in the Country. If you have not had a look at his blog, you really ought to. I love his writing style and the food he makes. He gave this applesauce a rave review so I knew it would be good.
I don't really have any hints or comments for this recipe. It was extremely easy and delicious. I used my immersion blender to make the applesauce extremely smooth but if you like the chunks, use a potato masher.
Ciao!

Chunky Spiced Cranberry Applesauce
Ingredients:
10 cups cubed peeled apples
1/2 lemon
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup water
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

In a large bowl, add apples and cover with cold water - squeeze juice from lemon half into bowl and then place the lemon with the apples. Set aside.
In a Dutch oven, add cranberries, sugar, maple syrup, water, cinnamon and nutmeg - bring to a boil while stirring occasionally.
Cook until the cranberries pop, about 3-5 minutes.
Drain apples and discard lemon half. Add apples to the pan.
Cover, reduce heat and simmer until the apples are soft, about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove the cover and bring back to a boil - cook until very thick, about 15 minutes.
Remove from the heat and use a potato masher to mash the apples.

A Twist on the Pumpkin Muffin

2007-10-23T10:40:00.000-06:00

Everyone is making pumpkin muffins. Even my sister, who almost never bakes, joined in and made a batch the other night. Justin proclaimed them "really good" which is a triumph for her. I am very impressed. So yes, everyone is making pumpkin muffins.

I have a multitude of recipes that could have done the job last night. Some are tried and true and some I am nervous about, so I haven't made them yet. But this recipe was different from all the others. It contained no fat and only 2T. of sweetener. I was skeptical to say the least.

The recipe read like a big mistake. No fat, very little leavening and whole wheat flour to boot? These would be bricks. Bland, tough bricks. Maybe it is my previous experiences with whole wheat flour in muffins that I have such a preconceived notion of what they will be. While I love the nutty flavor of whole wheat, I despise the leaden quality it brings. Usually I just use half whole wheat in my recipes - the ones with oil in them! This recipe was too sketchy and I almost backed out of the whole project.

Good thing I followed through. These muffins are fantastic. Moist and all the texture of a regular muffin. Plus, for any Weight Watchers point counters, they are only 1.5 points a piece! Wow, pretty good for a muffin.

A few notes -
I changed the spice amounts so that there was more depth of flavor. The original recipe would have been a bit bland and I think the amounts posted in the recipe below could still be kicked up a notch.
The recipe calls for molasses but mine has expired (does molasses even expire? who knew?) so I doubled up the honey amount.
I did add chocolate chips but only because I was worried these would be an utter failure and I thought the chips might save them.
Next time I will sprinkle them with brown sugar and cinnamon before baking because the tops are not pretty in any way and I think the added crunch will be nice.
Also, the muffins harldy rose at all so feel free to fill the pans pretty full.

Be adventurous and try these out. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
Ciao!

Whole Wheat Spice Pumpkin Muffins

2 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp molasses
1 egg
1 egg white
½ cup water
1 can (15 oz) canned pumpkin
Non-stick cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Double sift all the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Set aside.
Whisk the egg, egg white, honey, molasses, and water in a large bowl. Mix in the pumpkin.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just mixed (you don’t see anymore dry ingredients). Don’t over mix!
Spread the muffin batter evenly into 2 6-muffin pans sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
Bake for approximately 18 minutes.

Apples Everywhere

2007-10-16T16:06:00.000-06:00

Ok, so I went a bit overboard. I will admit it. But the woman selling them was so friendly, and they looked so amazing and then we were offered 20% off because my Grandma is a senior. How could anyone say "no" to 50 lbs of orchard fresh apples for only $15?

Well I couldn't, and didn't and so here I am stuck with this enormous case of Gala and Granny Smith apples. They are so fresh and smell so good. I am addicted to the idea of baking with them, but finding the time and the energy is a whole other thing. This is one of those times where I want to quit my job and stay home to work on projects that I enjoy, like baking. Josh always reminds me, though, that not everything about staying at home is as fun as baking. I will agree with him there.

In any event, I started thinking about what I could do with my autumn bounty. Applesauce was an easy choice and I made soup pots full of the stuff with my Grandma. We made it quite simply - she never uses a recipe - just some sugar, cinnamon and lemon zest. I suppose it is like apple butter and less like the applesauce you get in the store, but homemade isn't supposed to taste like the canned stuff or I would have bought a can and saved myself all this work.

What I really wanted, though, was my Apple Strudel recipe. I have made this strudel once, when I was in college and needed to study for a midterm exam. Baking was a wonderful diversion and I think I was drowning in apples at that point as well. This was a strudel recipe made with phyllo dough and the perfect combination of rum, raisins and spices. Every slice was heaven and both strudels were devoured within hours of coming out of the oven. Flash forward years later and I want that recipe. I search high and low, through stacks of Bon Appetit's and Gourmet magazines. Epicurious searched for the beloved recipe and came up empty. Even the Epicurious Community tried to help me but, alas, they did not know of the version I was looking for. So I gave up, found a new version on some obscure cooking website and wished I had the one I really wanted.

As dumb luck would have it, I did find the recipe, and just in time too. For some reason I had set aside a stack of magazines with recipes that I intended to make this year. Stashing the stack beside my bed, I did not search it for the Strudel recipe because I knew I had already looked there. Apparently, not hard enough. In a moment of boredom while watching the election polls, I flipped through the Bon Appetit November 2002 that was set on top. Low and behold, there was the article about the amazing Greek baker, and, better yet, there was my recipe! Hallelujah, my strudel is saved.

Cutting to the chase of this story, the strudel is to die for. I know the dough is phyllo which is a big no-no in my puritan German grandma's mind but the filling is exactly how she would make it, and tastes so much like the Apple Strudel I eat at the local German deli. So consider this the No Pastry Required, Easy Way Out, German Apple Strudel. And if you are Greek, you will prefer this version better anyway.

Nothing really to add to the recipe other than that I used pecans mainly because I know very few people who like walnuts. I don't use as much butter as the recipe calls for because I find the juices from the apples and the rum soak in to the phyllo layers and hold them together regardless of puddles of butter. One other suggestion, I let the apples sit in the cooking juices for about an hour and then use a slotted spoon to remove them onto the phyllo. If you use all the cooking liquid, your strudel will be a soggy mess.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy. I know I do.
Ciao!

Apple Strudel with Walnuts & Raisins
Bon Appetit 2002

Ingredients:
6 apples, peeled, cored, halved, sliced lengthwise, slices halved crosswise
2 1/2T. fresh lemon juice
1/4c. butter
1/2c. sugar
1/2c. brown sugar
1/2c. brandy or rum
1 t. cinnamon

1/3c. walnuts
3T. sugar
1/4c. raisins
1t. cinnamon

12 sheets phyllo, thawed

1/2c. butter

Directions:
Toss apples and lemon juice in a bowl.
Stir 1/4c. butter and brown and white sugar in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until butter melts.
Add apple mixture and brandy. Simmer until apples are tender and juices are 1/2 evaporated. Stir in cinnamon. Cool completely.
Combine walnuts, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until walnuts are coarse. Stir in the raisins.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly oil a baking sheet.
Melt remaining butter in a saucepan and set aside.
Place one phyllo sheet on the work surface with long side parallel to the counter edge. Brush lightly with butter and top with second phyllo sheet. Brush with butter and sprinkle with a few tablespoons walnut mixture. Repeat this process two more times, ending with a plain sheet of phyllo brushed with butter.
Spoon apple mixture into a log about 2inches from the short sides and the one long side of the phyllo stack.
Fold the short sides in and then roll the strudel up, jellyroll style as tightly as possible.
Place seem side down on the baking tray and brush with butter, sprinkling with sugar.
Slice the strudel with 4 slits, just through to the filling.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until lightly brown and juices are bubbling.

An Autumn Cake

2007-10-15T12:34:00.000-06:00

Wow what a whirlwind month September was. Heck, so is this month for that matter. Usually by now I have baked enough to feed an army but that is not the case this year. I also lost my food guinea pigs, with the closing of Josh's office. Now where to send the goodies?

To get back into the swing of things, I chose a simple pound cake that would be comfort food and a reminder of the wonderful, cozy season we are now in. This cake comes from the October 2007 Bon Appetit and I am sure many of you have made it already.

Just some quick notes on the cake: I used Pam's Baking spray for the bundt pan and I am in love with this product. The cake slid out perfectly, no breakage at all. I also upped the amount of Maple extract to 2 tsp. and I put this in the recipe below. In my opinion, it needed even more but I like strong flavors. I also did not put in the espresso in the glaze as the original recipe called for. It seemed out of place and I am not a fan of coffee in dessert. Other than that, the cake was delicious, although quite plain. Definitely not too sweet at all. We served it last night with a small scoop of vanilla icecream and it made a wonderful dessert.

For my next project, apple strudel. I made the mistake of going to the closing Farmer's Market near my house and I now have 40lbs of apples to contend with. When will I ever learn
Ciao!

Brown Sugar and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake with Maple Glaze

Bon Appetit October 2007

Cake:
1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons maple extract
4 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons (or more) whipping cream

Preparation for cake: Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter 12-cup Bundt pan. Spray pan generously with nonstick spray. Dust pan lightly with flour. Mix chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons flour in medium bowl. Sift remaining flour with baking soda, baking powder, and salt into another medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract and maple extract. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chip mixture. Transfer batter to prepared pan, spreading evenly. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan, about 1 hour. Cool cake in pan on rack 30 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

For glaze: Combine powdered sugar, maple syrup and 2 tablespoons cream in medium bowl. Whisk until smooth, adding more cream by 1/2 teaspoonfuls if glaze is too thick to drizzle. Spoon glaze decoratively over top of cake; let stand at room temperature until glaze is firm, about 1 hour.

Vacation

2007-10-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

So I have not disappeared off the face of the earth.
Yes, I want to bake, and very badly but the timing has not been right.
As with many bloggers, the school year is upon us. Luckily for me, I finished school years ago and do not feel the dread. My dear Josh, however, is back in night school to finish his Management degree. This means we finish work at 5pm and then sit in rush hour traffic to get him to campus by 6pm. I would love to say this has no real impact on me, other than inconvenience, but that is not so. Josh studies late at night, every night, so I pick up the household slack. Yes, a toilet brush has replaced my spatula.
Thursday we leave for Montana on our yearly jaunt to the States for Thanksgiving. Oh, how I love to shop at Target! When I am back on Tuesday, I will divulge my yummy purchases such as the new Kraft Caramel Bites I have heard so much about. Then never fear, my annual autumn baking frenzy will begin. I have many new recipes, mainly Paula Deen, to try out and blog about. Happy Thanksgiving!
Ciao!

Dare I Say "Rachael Ray"?

2007-09-18T16:25:00.000-06:00

I know, I know. There is no Foodtv personality that insights stronger feelings than Rachael Ray. I will not even attempt to enter that minefield but I will say this: she is annoying, her show is annoying, her food is wonderful.

Sometimes Bon Appetit and Gourmet, as yummy as their recipes are, seem just too involved and fussy for a weeknight supper. I need something quick, something that uses ingredients that are in my house and won't take longer than an hour tops to create. Enter Rachael Ray. I have two of her cookbooks which I use on occasion but I also find her website to be very helpful. Less Rachael, more recipes if you know what I mean. If we have some random ingredient lying around the house that may go bad within days, I hop on her site and search the recipes. It is in this way that I came across this corn "stoup" - I know, I know, where does she get these dumb names?

What I like about this soup is that it is hearty, flavorful and packs a big vegetable punch without feeling too vegetarian. Josh and Justin will eat veggies, but they don't really want to know that they are. It's a fine line. Ultimately, this soup won them over in a big way. I threw some 'take and bake' bread in the oven and served it along side for an easy meal after the hockey game on Sunday night. There would be pictures except it was eaten too fast for the camera. Mine looked alot like the pic on the website, honestly.

Quick notes:
I used a food processor and finely chopped the red pepper and onion to make the soup less chunky and a little creamier. The guys seemed to like that.

In order to make it a little healthier, I skipped the cream and added a can of skim evaporated milk. Just remember to cook the soup with the broth only and add the evaporated milk at the very end. The long cooking time tends to make it seperate and curdle.

I also dropped the two cups of milk/ cream and just used the can of milk. That would have been far too much liquid. Add a cup of milk, or a cup of cream or whatever you like.

The only thing I would have added if I had some available, is chopped up kielbasa sausage. I know it negates the vegetarian aspect but it would have made it a little hardier and added a little something extra.
Ciao!

Harvest Corn "Stoup"

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 pound small potatoes, cut into small chunks
4 to 5 large ears corn, kernels scraped from the cobs, or one 10-ounce box frozen corn
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, finely chopped
5 to 6 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons flour
One 32-ounce container (4 cups) chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
Hot pepper sauce

In a medium soup pot, heat the olive oil, over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp at the edges.

Add the onion and bell pepper and cook until softened, about 4 minutes.

Add the potatoes, corn, zucchini, thyme, bay leaf and paprika and cook for 4 minutes.

Sprinkle the flour into the pot, stir and cook for 1 minute.

Gradually stir in the broth and simmer until thickened a bit.

Stir in the milk, cream and parsley and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 8 minutes

Season the corn choup to taste with salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce.

My First Contest

2007-09-12T15:45:00.000-06:00

It's true. Browniebabes is the first food blog contest I have entered. Funny that the baked good I despise most of all turned out to be the feature of the chosen contest. Ah, well. You have to start somewhere. Now that I have the hang of it, I am hoping to enter many more. It is always fun to be given a challenge.
Thanks Myriam for the event. Check out the entries and the winner at Once Upon A Tart.

Baking A Classic

2007-09-06T14:46:00.000-06:00

More laundry last night. I am starting to think that my clothes multiply while I am at work. I swear I just put in a load of jeans two days ago. This is ridiculous. I wouldn't mind so much if all of our clothes were wash and wear but, being a downtown office job household, all of our weekly clothes have fancy tags with specific instructions. I break the rules constantly resulting in shrunken and mishapen shirts but, for the most part, I try not to ruin our wardrobes. It's a long, boring and thankless job.
In order to break up the tedium, I baked. What a shocker, I know. Making something new from my pile of recipes is so therepeutic. This little gem is a classic. I wrote about it previously on this blog when I was dieting and practically dreaming about cake. Well, I am still dieting so the entire cake was packed up for Josh's office without so much as a bite snuck. It sure smelled good though. And why shouldn't it? The lovely Ina Garten herself made it. Nothing she touches has ever flopped I am sure.
The only thing I did not do was make the Chocolate Ganache glaze which I included in the recipe anyway. Ganache is not a favorite of mine and I am too nervouse of wrecking it to waste the chocolate chips. Besides, I doubled the orange syrup and that made it sweet enough. I would suggest doubling the orange syrup and glazing the cake with half of it right when the cake comes out of the oven. It will soak in right away and make wonderful bubbling noises. Then I glaze it again when the cake is almost cool so that the syrup forms a nice crust. This is the technique I use on all of my bundt cakes and I think it works very well.
My only other issue, as per usual, is that my stove temperature must not be right. It took one hour and 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Not one hour as stated in the recipe. I think, though, in this case it might not be my oven but the recipe that is wrong. I have never made a bundt cake that only took one hour to bake. At any rate, use a knife or a toothpick to check for doneness at one hour.
Ciao!

Ina Garten’s Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
½ pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs at room temperature
¼ cup grated orange zest (from 4 large oranges)
3 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups good semisweet chocolate chunks
Syrup: ¼ cup sugar ¼ cups freshly squeezed orange juice
Ganache: 8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips ½ cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the orange zest.
3. Sift together 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately in thirds to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the chocolate chunks with 2 tablespoons flour and add to the batter. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar with the orange juice until the sugar dissolves. Remove the cake from the pan, set it on a rack over a tray, and spoon the orange syrup over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely.
5. For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

A Twist on the Marshmallow Brownie

2007-09-05T16:34:00.000-06:00

I don't like to mess with recipes. Sometimes I will add chocolate chips or change the type of liquer used, but for the most part I stick to what is written. Baking is too much of a science to mess with it, and while I admire greatly those cooks who can create and change a recipe, I know it will never be a skill of mine.

Somehow, though, shortly after making the Butterscotch Marshmallow Blondies, I got the brainstorm to rearrange the chips used and create something new. I won't say that this is the brownie winner of winners, but I would make it again with some changes especially because I like the taste of brownies better than blondies.

The only difference I made to the blondie recipe a couple of posts down is to switch the chocolate chips in for the butterscotch and the butterscotch in for the chocolate chips. The only problem with this is that I think butterscotch chips are genetically made different than their chocolate kin and work well as a dough base, whereas the chocolate chips kept the dough kind of dry.

You will also notice in the picture that the marshmallows blew up in the oven and left craters in the top of the brownies. There goes all the gooey marshmallow goodness in the middle of the bars. To remedy this, and I wish I would have thought of it earlier, I would have mixed the marshmallows into 2/3's of the dough and spread into the pan and then spread the remaining 1/3 dough over the top so that the marshmallows were encased inside. That would have been brilliant and way yummier.

So the bottom line is, the switch was do-able and delicious, it just needed more fine tuning. All in all, I love this recipe whether I eat it as chocolate or butterscotch.
Ciao!

Eight interesting things...

2007-09-05T16:27:00.000-06:00

I have been tagged by Trish at One Tiny Pink Kitchen to tell everyone eight things about me you may not know. I also have to tag eight more people which may be challenging as I think most blogs have this entry by now.

These lists are always difficult for me because I assume that most of my life is either an open book or extremely boring and of no interest to anyone, especially when I could insert a recipe in here instead.

1. I have a fascinating and useless degree in Sociology where I focused most of my time on Youth and Family studies, especially interested in the male female parenting roles. Can we say yawn yet?

2. I took the LSAT exam right out of college with the high aspirations of law school. My marks were amazing but sadly, I lacked "life experience". I still to this day am not sure what that means. Apparently I did not feed enough orphans and house enough homeless people. The suggestion that a trip to Africa might help my chances was even batted around by the admissions clerk.

3. I am crazy and hopelessly in love with the long running Frasier series. There is something about the dry humor that I love. This leads into #4....

4. I want two dachshunds named Niles and Daphne in honor of my two favorite characters. Plus, they will both be fixed to continue the true nature of those characters ... they can never find love with one another. If only that had been true on the show.

5. I visit Whitefish, MT every year for Thanksgiving. Mainly because I love to shop in the States where everything is cheaper and cooler and Ben & Jerry's comes in more than 10 flavors.

6. My husband and I went to Disneyland for our honeymoon. We have been teased mercilessly about that, but the thought of laying on the beach is not appealing to two people who can hardly sit still long enough to finish a tv show. We had an amazing time and I would recommend it as a honeymoon to anyone. Romantic and most of all, fun.

7. I am easily placated with KitKats. Josh has figured this out and now uses it as a weapon against me.

8. My favorite job in the whole world is bartending. I think I would do it as a career if the bank would recognize the salary and give me a mortgage. That and if bars did not require so little clothing to do the job.

Ok, so that is 8 random facts about me. I guess this wasn't as hard as I thought. I have enjoyed reading everyone else's lists. It's funny what we all like and don't like and do and don't do in our spare time.
Ciao!

Dozens of Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins

2007-08-28T16:24:00.000-06:00

Blueberries do eventually go a little squidgy - yes, that is a word - and, while I can drown out the ripened texture with yogurt for breakfast, you must admit when a fruit is going bad and bake something with it. Unfortunately, I only had 1 cup of fresh blueberries so I had to add some wild frozen ones but that only made the batter slightly blue and had no bad effects.

These muffins are more like a spice cake, think coffeecake maybe. But they were absolutely delicious. I doubled the recipe to ensure there were enough for Josh's entire office and by noon 2 dozen had been consumed. I count that as a success.

My alterations were slight. I had less than a cup of buttermilk so I substituted heavy cream for the rest. Calories, calories. I think milk in general will work because the real point of the buttermilk is to add liquid to the dense batter. If I had milk in my house I would have tried it for sure. I also used a cup of whole wheat flour, you know to offset the cream effects. I don't think using all whole wheat flour will work because it is so dense and you might end up with bricks but the half and half method worked really well and added a nutty undertone.

All in all a successful night in the kitchen. I am very pleased. By the way, Josh took the pic in his office, note the floppy discs in the background.
Ciao!

Blueberry Cinnamon Muffins
Yields 18 muffins
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh wild blueberries or frozen wild berries

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease or line muffin tins with paper liners.
In large bowl or electric mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Scrape down sides of bowl, then beat in vanilla.
In separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add flour mixture to batter in three additions, alternating with buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
Gently fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter into muffin cups about two-thirds full. Bake in centre of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until tops are golden and spring back when lightly touched and a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Do Not Open The Oven Door

2007-08-27T21:12:00.000-06:00

Josh has been making shakes for breakfast at work. Maybe not a well rounded meal, but liquid breakfast is better than none at all. Trouble is we have issues with deciding how many bananas one person can consume in three shakes a week. Obviously eight is too many. Suffice it to say, I have so many bananas in my freezer that I am consumed with finding new recipes to use them in.
This muffin recipe was highly rated on Allrecipes and I can never turn away from a popular recipe. I didn't eat one but the guys devoured them and that is usually a good sign. I also used mini chocolate chips which I think are better in muffins, they don't overwhelm the same as the big ones.
As for this posts title, and you will notice in the picture, I opened the oven door one too many times and they sunk in the middle. It makes them look terrible but didn't hurt the flavor. I think my oven needs to be tested, the temperature is constantly off by five or ten minutes of bake time, hence the opening of the oven door.
Ciao!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.
Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Browniebabe of the Month

2007-08-27T16:08:00.001-06:00

I really do have a love - hate relationship with Brownies. I love eating them, I hate making them. So it was with great trepidation that I decided to make an entry for Browniebabe of the Month hosted by Once Upon A Tart.
I am not sure what I do wrong exactly. They burn, they sink in the middle, they stay goo-like, they taste like a bad chocolate cake. In every way, my brownies to not make the mark. Well I cant say that entirely. My Malt Brownies are delicious and I wrote a whole post on them, but I do not think that that is a norm with me. The humidity in the air must have been just right or maybe I greased the pan properly or maybe my eggs were fresher than normal. Whatever the case, they worked and I have had at least three failed attempts since. What a big disappointment.
You will notice that my entry is from the blondie family, and for good reason. I honestly think it is the cocoa that is messing me up. I don't think I can properly see what color the batter is turning in the oven. Are they getting too dark? Are they still way too fudgy? So maybe without the chocolate base, I had the chance of being successful.
Turns out, my theory may have been correct. They turned out really nice. I know the pic isnt great, but you have to take my word for it. Even Justin, with a definite hangover, managed to eat an entire one and declared it delicious.
I didn't make many changes to the recipe except to add more baking time. The recipe can be found in various forms on Allrecipes by searching Marshmallow Brownies or Butterscotch Blondies.
Just be forwarned the mixture, before baking, looks like not even close to enough batter and way too many marshmallows. But never fear, those marshmallows turn into the gooey Blondie product in the end.
Ciao!

Marshmallow Butterscotch Blondies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup butterscotch chips
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
Using a microwave-safe bowl, melt the butter in the microwave. Pour in the butterscotch chips, stirring occasionally until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
Mix in the melted butterscotch chips, then the flour, baking powder, and salt until smooth.
Stir in the marshmallows and chocolate chips last.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan. The batter will barely cover the bottom of the pan.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven. Cool, and cut into squares.

Chocolate and Laundry

2007-08-21T20:52:00.001-06:00

A night at home and piles upon piles of laundry to do. I don't think that laundry is ever a chore that you can fully say "I'm done!" and walk away. Sadly, no matter how much I wash, there is always twice as much spilling out of the basket. Now I wish I had taken bathrooms when Josh and I first divied up chores.

In amongst the sorting and folding, I felt like chocolate last night. Well I felt like baking and the chocolate craving followed. Here I thought we had bought so many groceries and yet I found myself with very little cocoa and flour and no chocolate chips to be found. That made my choice of recipes quite limited so I settled on these peanut butter chip brownie cups. These are circulating throughout the blogging world but I think they actually originated on Allrecipes. I have a few versions in my files but this one seems to be the best. I would certainly use smaller muffin papers so they look prettier but Josh's office is not picky about such things. They just want to eat. The reviews were raves and I honestly don't have any suggestions to make them better. The recipe said I would end up with 16 and I had 26, I guess it depends how big you make them. Mine were 4 bites, give or take. Actually, if baked in the mini foil papers for Christmas they would be very yummy one biters, though I think the bake time would need to be played with. Also, 25 minutes was perfect, not too gooey and not too dry.

Ciao!

Peanut Butter Brownie Cups Makes 24
Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
3/4 cup cocoa
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package Peanut Butter Baking Chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper or foil bake cups.
In large microwave-safe bowl, place butter. Microwave until melted.
Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs; beat well. Add cocoa; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well. Stir in peanut butter chips.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups; Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until surface is firm; cool completely in pan on wire rack.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - by Josh!

2007-08-19T21:22:00.000-06:00

Another busy weekend. Amanda had her bachelorette at a dueling piano's bar. If you haven't tried a place like that, you really should. We stayed out late and A was officially inducted into the "married ladies" club. Funny how bachelorettes always remind me of Barbara Streisand singing "I'm Sadie, Sadie, married lady, that's me!". Of course the rest of the weekend was spent with R & J or sleeping after all the partying. Suffice it to say, I did not bake.
Josh, however, was home all of Sunday. I have come to the conclusion that giving him a day to himself once a month is beneficial not only to our relationship but to the general state of our apartment. He cleaned the entire thing, from top to bottom. Everything was put away, including 3 dishwasher loads. Yes, our kitchen was that bad and no, I am not embarrassed about it. Weeks are busy, ok? And I hate cleaning dishes at the best of times, let alone when I get home at midnight.
The best part of all was his baking. Josh rarely ever bakes. He is the cook extraordinaire in our home and the baking only comes out when a massive craving hits him. Last time it was cinnamon buns, last night it was cookies. I keep a file on my computer of all the recipes I come across in my travels and want to try. This Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe can be found on Allrecipes somewhere and it shouldn't be too hard to find because it is getting rave reviews. I have to say this is now the new CC cookie recipe in our house. They are amazing. Chewy and moist and full of chips. Josh isn't the biggest CC cookie fan and he devoured these. He tweaked the recipe a bit, mainly in baking temperature and the size of the cookies. Bottom line, you have to make these. They are just too good.
Hopefully I will be the next one tempting your taste buds. We did a massive grocery shop on the weekend to build up my baking staples stock.
Ciao!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 12 to 13 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

A Brainstorm

2007-08-15T16:19:00.000-06:00

So not much of anything has left my kitchen the last few days, save for an egg or two. Life has been so hectic with Grandma and Matt moving on the same weekend. I really do need to bake for both of them though, while they are busy unpacking.

The reason for this post is to recap the brownie disaster of the other day because I have had a total brainstorm. I left the pan of brownies in the fridge to try and harden. Unfortunately the unappealing shortbread layer is now as hard as a rock and useless altogether. The gooey coconut layer, though, has been peeled from the crust and devoured by Josh and I. It reminds me of a Bounty bar in all its glory and I am totally in love. The texture is chewy yet firm and I can easily cut that part into bars. So I am going to remake that layer in a 9x13, cut it into squares and dip them in chocolate for Christmas. Brilliant.

OK, I know you can't really try this nut job recipe because I haven't posted it. And I would, except the stupid piece of paper it was printed on has mysteriously disappeared. I will find it tonight. New goal.
Ciao!
Update: Found the recipe under my piles of unpaid bills. Fabulous.

Another Flop - Brownies, What A Surprise

2007-08-13T13:53:00.001-06:00

So I really want to try all the recipes floating around my house, really I do. But I am starting to shy away from the strangers. They aren't so friendly lately.

Last night it was getting late and I really wanted to make brownies for Josh to take to work. I pulled out a new recipe that I had found in my Grandma's cupboard when we moved her. For some reason we had never made it before which shocked me because Grandma is big on bar cookie recipes, even though many of them have not worked for her either. This one came from a Robin Hood Flour magazine insert, though, which makes me wonder why it wasn't better. Normally the recipes that come from product labels and their adverts are quite good.

OK, so this one was partly my fault and partly the recipes. I am going to post the recipe eventually so that someone else can maybe try it and see if it was actually all my fault. Chances are it was. The recipe is in two parts: a chocolate shortbread crust and then a gooey egg and coconut mixture that is supposed to ooze into the shortbread layer during the second baking. The shortbread layer tasted bad when I made it - not enough sugar maybe and too much shortening? - but I baked it and it came out really nice. The second layer I messed up. It calls for eggs and brown sugar to be beaten as if you are making a pecan tart filling. I only had white sugar and figured that there would be no harm, so much coconut and chocolate chips were being added that they would even it out. Not so. The white sugar made a coconut meringue type substance that baked crispy on the top of the brownie and stayed gooey in the middle. When I tried to cut the darn things, the crisp layer seperated from the gooey layer which seperated from the shortbread layer.

Josh and I did taste the final result and it was quite good, the shortbread layer was actually a welcome change from the intense sweetness of the coconut layer. I think if I saved it and served a heap of vanilla icecream over top, no one would notice the unattractive nature of the squares. (Josh did manage to cut 4 squares that looked presentable). It definitely would be a good brownie icecream pairing.

So try them out if you think the brown sugar mistake might have been the only problem. Like I said, Robin Hood flour has never steared me wrong before. Must have been me.
Ciao!

Black Bottom Coconut Dream Bars
Crust:
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2c. shortening
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

Combine flour and sugar. Add shortening and chocolate, mix until blended. Press into ungreased 9" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Filling:
2 eggs
1 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1 1/2c. coconut
1c. chocolate chips
1/2c. walnuts
1t. vanilla

Beat eggs until thick and light in color. Gradually beat in sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy.
Mix flour and baking powder, fold into egg mixture.
Stir in coconut, chips, nuts and vanilla. Spread over baked crust in pan.
Bake 35 minutes or until light brown. Cool and cut into bars.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Peanut Cookies

2007-08-10T09:46:00.000-06:00

Nothing is better than warm cookies and milk, seriously nothing. I am a big fan of chocolate chip cookies in all their forms but I get bored of the same old same old Tollhouse recipe. So while going through my November back issues of Martha Stewart ('cause it is never too early to plan for Thanksgiving!) I came across this variation on the theme.

Martha has given me so many wonderful cookie recipes over the years and I think my favorite is still the Torie's Chocolate Chip that I have blogged about previously. In this case, she combines the classic flavors of peanut butter and chocolate and adds the seductive twist of cinnamon. Ever had a Cinnamon Kitkat? Pure genious. There is nothing like spice with chocolate.
I kept these cookies small so that I would have alot to give away and so that they would be two-biters for while we played cards with R & J this weekend. I highly recommend making them bigger just because I think they look nicer, but if you want to set them along side a bowl of vanilla icecream, or just devour them as little muncheables, then tiny is perfect.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Peanut Cookies a la' Martha
Makes about 5 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Put butter and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes.
Add sugars; mix 2 minutes. Mix in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips, peanuts, and vanilla with a mixing spoon until well distributed. Refrigerate dough until it is slightly firm, 15 minutes.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Space balls 2 to 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly.
Bake until just golden, about 13 minutes.

I Made Dinner ... Really

2007-08-09T13:26:00.000-06:00

Ok ok so I have been completely lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. For some reason it does not excite me the same way that baking does. I want to be interested and Lord knows I have a thousand cookbooks from the queen of quick dinners, Rachael Ray, but my best laid plans are never realized. This is proven by my freezer which is bursting at the seams with meat, fish and poultry that I will never use. What sad freezer burned garbage they make. And that is wasteful, wasteful Emily!!! You must use up the tilapia. You must cook the 10 lbs of prawns.

We were home last night, so I did cook. The tilapia unthawed in the sink and Josh made his amazing roasted potatoes and onions. We made dinner and it wasn't that bad. Definitely superior to the box of KD we devoured late the night before.

I was completely inspired by Definitely Not Martha who made fish and chips with her tilapia, and while I didn't use her recipe and it probably didn't taste as good, it sure gave me a good idea. Because tilapia that has been poached is completely flavorless and boring.

I wish I had a recipe but I really don't. The fish was coated in a mixture of cajun seasoning and breadcrumbs. I fried it up in a little oil in a pan.

The cubed potatoes and onions were coated in butter, garlic, cajun seasoning and rosemary and I roasted them at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. Easy peasy.

The one thing, though, that was yummers was the dip for the fish. I guess you could call it a tartar sauce but it had no pickle so that is sort of a lie. I also put it on my potatoes, it was that good.

1/2c. mayo
2T. dijon mustard
1T. ancho chili sauce
Mix in a bowl and serve.

So dinner was dead easy, Josh ate it and raved about it plus I used up the damned tilapia. Best of all, I have lunch for today that does not consist of hard boiled eggs or salad. What a relief!

Ciao!

Questions

2007-08-09T09:34:00.001-06:00

So this is driving me crazy... why does my blog have all the quick edit tools showing when I am not signed in??? And why do some of the text in my posts disappear until you highlight them? Esp. the title of some posts and the last two or three lines.
I am not computer literate by any means and this whole blogging experience has been quite a learning curve. For the most part I have been able to solve all my issues but these two I cannot seem to fix. Suggestions anyone?

The "Diet" Cupcake

2007-08-07T15:02:00.000-06:00

With the summer here, I seem to notice more than ever when I have gained some poundage. It seems like every decadent morsel I put in my mouth instantly shows up in my ill-fitting clothes. Problem is, I am not one to ditch dessert. I cannot. It is too wonderful and I would miss it too much. Josh and I are not have as liberal with the sweet stuff as we used to be and I will attribute that to the fact that I rarely keep the baking in the house. We have also tried to have "lighter" desserts if there are such things and I have to admit I think we are being duped. Two of my favorite icecreams claim to be so low fat and low sugar and I am not sure how they can be when they taste that good.

To further the "light" dessert cause, I have been searching Weight Watchers websites and Self.com for some good recipes. This little ditty was listed mainly because the fat is eliminated. The sugar and flour, however, are still front and center. And of course, no one really takes into account that a cupcake is really nothing without frosting. I was completely lazy - as if using a cake mix isn't pure laziness on its own - and I used a container of Betty Crocker vanilla frosting. Whatever the calories are in that product I can only guess.

The recipe cannot be easier. I poured the mix into a bowl, poured in the soda and the egg and beat for two minutes. The batter was extremely lumpy and the minute I poured in the soda some sort of creepy chemical reaction occurred, causing the dough to foam and begin to rise. The batter was also a bit thinner than normal but that did not seem to affect it. I baked for 20 minutes and ended up with nice domed cakes, not overflowing the pan as they normally do.

My only concern - and I will have to wait for Josh's office feedback to confirm - is that the warm cupcakes stuck to the wrapper in the worst way and crumbled the minute you picked it up. Yes, yes I did have to taste one. Quality control and all! The flavor, though was pretty good. Not an intense rootbeer flavor but not exactly vanilla either. I hope that the flavor has intensified through the night.

So to recap, the cupcake is full of carbs and minus a few grams of fat. Kind of a bust when you think about what the goal was. Nevertheless, I give you the Diet Pop Cupcake. Guaranteed to fool the tastebuds but certainly not the waistline. Enjoy but eat at your own risk!

Diet Pop Cake

1 package vanilla cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)

1 can diet rootbeer

1 egg

Pour all three ingredients into a mixer and beat on medium for 2 minutes. Bake in paperlined muffin cups for 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I have also heard that diet Dr. Pepper with chocolate cake mix is delicious as well.

11am, Josh's office sends an update. The cupcakes are good but not my best. Haha, it's a cake mix, how can that possibly be amazing? However, the crumbly texture is gone and they are not sticking to the liners. Also, they seem to fool the health conscience because the one "dieter" in the office absolutely loved them. A mixed review...

In Search of Comfort Food

2007-08-07T12:04:00.000-06:00

It was a long weekend here in Canada. Sadly, it rained almost the entire time. I feel bad for all the optomistic campers out there who are convinced that the sun will shine as soon as Friday 4pm arrives. They are not so lucky, and while I will admit that leaving town for the three days even in a rainstorm is better than staying at home with not much to do, this weekend proved to be a lazy one. We spent most of it with R & J as usual, but this time they were kid-less which allows for lazy afternoons on the patio and trips to local pubs. The weekend also gave me time to bake yet again, still unphased by the brownie-cookie incident.

Rain always has a way of sending me in a search for a homey comforting dessert of some kind. Cookies and cake won't do it, a light fruity dessert is better for al fresco picnics of which there were none this weekend. No, I wanted something substantial that smelled like my Grandma's house. The only person that I could think of to fill this request was Martha Stewart.

As an aside, I have received many ribbings about my Martha obsession. But to them all, I gladly say that I would not be half the cook, baker and general homemaker if not for her tips and recipes. I have probably 6 years worth of back issues sitting in various piles around the apartment and nothing cheers me up more when I am searching for that "home" feeling.

While flipping through the October issues I have collected - and yes I know it is August right now - I came upon an entire article on the humble Bread Pudding. The basic recipe as well as 4 variations were included and I just knew that this was the recipe I was after. It was simple and would smell delicious and also feeds a crowd.

I made the Banana Rum version but the original is just as good. The secret ingredient I used was the Cinnamon Crunch bread from my local bakery which definitely was dense enough and flavorful enough to stand up to the rest of the ingredients. I would recommend using a denser loaf of bread and preferrably something a bit more exotic than basic challah although that is the easiest option. The recipe came out a bit too soupy and not as eggy as it should so I have tweaked it just a bit and come up with what I think is a fantastic bread pudding. A drizzle of caramel sauce and perhaps some whipped cream would also not go amiss.

Martha Stewart's Bread Pudding
Banana Rum ingredients optional

1 large loaf bread - challah or dense sweet white bread
2c. milk
2c. cream
4 eggs
1 T. vanilla
1c. sugar
1t. cinnamon
1t. nutmeg
Optional:
3T. rum
3T. butter
1/2c. brown sugar
2 large bananas, sliced

Cut the bread into one inch cubes and set aside. Butter a 9x13 casserole dish and set aside.
Heat the milk and cream over medium until just starting to simmer. Remove from heat.
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Slowly add the warm milk, by ladlefulls, whisking well so as not to cook the eggs. Poor the mixture over the bread and stir to combine. Place mixture in greased dish and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes or until the top is brown and the middle is hot and bubbling.

For the rum banana version, add the rum to the custard mixture. Saute the bananas in the butter and brown sugar until soft. Stir the banana mixture into the bread and custard.

An Almost Disaster

2007-08-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

Matt asked for cookies. And how can I say no? As Mr. Editor now, he can call the shots plus I certainly don't mind this type of request.

I wanted to make something I hadn't tried before, naturally, so I pulled out "White Chocolate Brownie Cookies". Let me start off by saying that the recipe looked off from the get go. The proportions of flour and eggs were strange and the chocolate was definitely in overload. But I have made many off ingredient recipes that have totally worked and the picture looked so convincing that I blindly forged ahead.

As an aside, Josh and I have decided to curb our grocery bill spending as it has become horribly out of control. We both have grandiose plans for work week dinners that never come to fruition and I end up throwing out alot of produce. We also have a horrible habit of shopping brand name and for top of the line ingredients. All of this has caused a constant sucking on our budget and is not really necessary. So we have picked the same magic number that most couples our age seem to choose - $400 a month. I thought that was alot of money, turns out it isn't. So when I had to spend $6 on Cadbury Dream Bars and use 2 cups of chocolate chips for this recipe, I suddenly realized how much out of my budget that is and how important it was that this recipe turn out right.

Well the whole thing was quite a disaster. The recipe says to beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla for 15 minutes until it looks like plaster or has doubled in volume. It was also supposed to be thick like merengue. With the egg yolks in the mix, how is this supposed to be possible? I did beat it forever but it stayed liquid and only slightly doubled. Then you fold in the chocolate and butter gently and finally the puny 1/2cup of flour. Well the mixture was extremely thin, like cake batter, and I was very skeptical. The final step is to let it rest in the fridge for 5 minutes to let it grow air bubbles and look like mousse. It did rise, slightly but as soon as I stuck a spoon into it, the air deflated and it turned soupy again.

Enter Josh, who cannot possibly understand why a recipe will not work. He insisted I bake a batch of "cookies" to see if they would work. I compromised and spooned one tablespoon of the stuff onto the cookiesheet and it spread out immediately into a 6" pancake with a sad chunk of white chocolate sticking up from the pool. Seven minutes of baking later and I had a flat, burning pancake that was stuck to my sheet.

In utter frustration I greased a 9x13 pan and dumped the remaining batter into it. The name on the recipe is "Brownie Cookie" so why not make brownies? And sure enough, it did make brownies. Average, would never bake them again, brownies. The top of the batch formed a sticky skin that sticks to your fingers and then underneath that is a fudgy brownie type substance filled with my wonderful white chocolate. Oh well. Sometimes you have to just throw in the towel.

I will not post the recipe because I think it is inherently flawed and would not want to foist that upon you. Suffice it to say, they were yummy enough to eat but not yummy enough to make again.

Josh emailed to say that the office loved them but I think they don't want to hurt my feelings for fear I may stop sending baking altogether. Some people are so silly....
Ciao!

An Update...

2007-08-02T13:25:00.001-06:00

So it has been 8 months now since I started blogging. Honestly, I thought I would have given up by now. How much pleasure can one really get from an online journal that, potentially, no one will read? And how many foodie bloggers can there possibly be in the world? Do they want to read my recipe rantings? Apparently so. In fact, foodie blogs are quite the going concern in cyberworld. Turns out that other apron wearers, from time to time, remove themselves from their Kitchen Aids and log on. I can not tell you how many hours of pleasure I have derived from this community. The recipes I have found, the advice I have taken and just the general food knowledge that I have filed away. What I had assumed was a rather odd hobby - that is collecting and then trying hundreds of recipes just to see if I can conquer them - is actually an international passtime. It also attracts some very friendly and encouraging personalities.
All in all, I think this has been a very rewarding and therepeutic experience and something I will definitely continue, if only for my own pleasure.

Please, please, please feel free to try - and blog about - the recipes on my blog. What are recipes for, if not to share?

It is partly to help other foodie bloggers get their start, and partly because I want to find some more "must read" blogs, that I am adding The Leftover Queens Foodie BlogRoll list to my blog. I have found some wonderful blogs in here and I hope that all of you do as well.

The Ultimate Oatmeal Cookie

2007-07-30T16:33:00.000-06:00

I have finally cracked the baking dry spell.

The real beginning of this drought occurred several weeks ago when Josh's office drastically reduced in size. I sort of lost my momentum and wasn't sure if the smaller, and busier, crowd would care to try my creations. Now that work is back to normal though, and the people who are in the office are as starving as ever, I think I can get back to baking with a receptive audience.

Saturday afternoon I found myself alone for the first time in months. Now that Josh is out of school we spend most time together so this was a strange phenomenon and I cannot say I enjoyed it very much. I did decide to bake to pass the time but once I opened up my fridge, the reality of its contents hit me. I had nothing, nothing to bake with. Normally I would curl up with a good book and forget the whole idea but I was at a loss for things to do that afternoon so somewhere in my vast collection of untried recipes I had to find one that fit the sparse cupboard parameters.

Enter oatmeal cookies. I think these are perhaps the most versatile and comforting of all cookies. Very few people do not like oatmeal and, so long as I don't add raisins, they are always well received.

This recipe was really good. I substituted a chopped up Cadbury White Chocolate Dream Bar for the white chips. I would definitely grease the cookie sheet regardless of the 1 cup of butter in the recipe though because my cookies stuck just enough to be annoying. The flavor and the chewiness were fantastic and Josh was quite upset when they ended up living at A & J's house instead of the leftovers coming home with us.

White Chocolate Butterscotch Oatmeal Chippers
(Adapted from Canadian Living)
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
8 tablespoons shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/3 cup toffee bits
Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the oats, flour, coconut, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg, making sure to scrape down the bowl. Beat in vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
Using a wooden spoon, stir in the white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, pecans and toffee bits.
Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, drop the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake until the bottoms are golden, about 10-12 minutes. Remove and let sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes about 48 cookies.

Change Is Hard

2007-07-20T11:10:00.000-06:00

I helped my Grandma pack up her kitchen last night. After 29 years, she is leaving her duplex - the only home I have ever known her in - and taking up condo life. There have been so many memories in this kitchen that it was a very emotional experience. I think my Grandma has taught me the most about cooking and baking than anyone else. We have made jam and Christmas cookies and all of the wonderful German recipes she has saved in her memory. I managed to salvage two very important cookbooks that she no longer wants. "The Vermont Cookbook" and "Massachussets Cooks" were written decades ago and contain so many homey, delicious recipes that require very few fancy ingredients. I cannot wait to dive into them and rediscover some of my Grandma's gems.
Here is to many more years of cooking success with her, just in a different kitchen.

Vacation

2007-07-17T16:30:00.001-06:00

So I have returned from 10 days of delicious relaxation. Yes, I went on holidays to the Okanagan Valley, possibly the hottest part of Canada last week. We swam, we ate, we shopped, we ate and then we topped it all off with copious amounts of Naramata wine and summery, girly sangria's. Now that my shoulders are burnt and every freckle on my nose is showing, I must come home and face up to the grim truth of the scale - vacation food is not kind. Luckily for me, Bon Appetit's August edition has arrived and it is full of Farmer's Market inspired recipes. I am so excited to cook some healthy meals where the veggies will not all taste like hothouse mealy cardboard.

For starters, I went grocery shopping which was sorely needed in my house. I must admit I over-indulged on items such as cheese, but what else accompanies a summer salad better than a sprinkling of Greek feta or a few crumbles of blue cheese? To test my theory on cheese and salad, I made a baby spinach salad last night with thin shavings of red onion and a gorgeous pint of raspberries. Then I added cubed goat feta - the only kind there is! - and we decided to try a new viniagrette from the produce section - Guava Pear. I think the dressing was amazing but I don't think it was amazing mixed with this salad combination. I had the remaining salad for lunch today with Kraft's Poppyseed dressing and it seemed much better. But the Guava Pear with fresh baby greens, toasted pumpkin seeds and tomatoes I think would be heaven.

Anyway, stay tuned for the new recipes (and of course I managed to find a dessert in there that I just have to try) and with any luck I will be back to my energetic self, the kind of energy that, sadly, only seems to come from vegetables and fruit.

As an aside, my dear fish Martin was given two new buddies a few weeks ago, in the hopes that he wouldn't feel lonely. Well, I thought he might be lonely, Josh doesn't think that fish can possibly have feelings. Anyway, we bought another goldfish and a creepy algae eater that was definitely not my idea but Josh thought he was cool. Two days later, Frasier II was dead. Then, yesterday upon arriving home from our vacation, creepy algae eater was dead as well with moss growing on his head. I have come to the conclusion that Martin does not play well with others. I think I will keep him an only child.

Moving Day Snickerdoodles

2007-07-03T16:14:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned, it was the big moving weekend and my baby sister has a beautiful new home of her own. I would like to say that I helped put together the copious amounts of Ikea furniture but I hate Allan keys and all the teenie tiny fiddly bolts and screws that come along with their products, so I did what I do best in these "crisis" situations, I bake.
I wouldn't call it a crisis exactly but it was hectic in its own way. A goofy dog slipping across the wood floors, a baby toddling along in all her cuteness, two boys, and a whole lot of adults. I think we accomplished quite a bit and I, for one, built two bar stools using the stupidest wrench ever created. So that is a victory in itself.

As for the baking, I continued on my quest for the perfect Snickerdoodle. As an aside, I seem to go on quite a few "perfect" quests. I have it in my mind that there is this giant recipe box of perfection itself sitting around, and I do not have all these recipes, therefore I must hunt for them until my recipe box is "Suzy Homemaker" worthy. The Snickerdoodle is one such recipe. It seems like such a simple recipe - it is pretty much just a sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar - yet it is so much more. The texture is what I cannot match. It needs to be more like a biscuit - quite dense and yet still moist. Most recipes usually end up tasting like I took my Christmas cookie recipe and rolled it in cinnamon. Not the desired effect at all. This, by far, has been the most disappointing of all my quests. I did end up with a half way decent Maple Snickerdoodle recipe at Christmas time but it wasn't amazing and I am not sure it would be considered a favorite. So this batch of cookies is one that I found on the internet after searching for the Pepperidge Farms Snickerdoodle recipe. My only suggestion is to make the cookies bigger than walnuts - probably two tablespoons of dough as opposed to one. I think that is the important aspect of a Snickerdoodle, the sheer size of them. Also, the timing is hard to get right. 325 degrees is a good temperature but I suggest pulling them out of the oven when they look puffed up as if they may burst, otherwise they are only soft for that brief warm and chewy moment and then hard ever after. Test your oven with the first batch - 12 minutes was perfect in mine.
My final piece of advice is to use the Cream of Tartar. Do not skip this ingredient. It is what gives them that sour cream taste that a normal sugar cookie just does not have.

Pepperidge Farm Soft Baked Snickerdoodle Cookies
1 cup butter (2 sticks), melted
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 egg
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Topping:
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Use electric mixer on medium speed to combine butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in medium bowl until smooth.
In separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
Mix dry ingredients into wet stuff using the electric mixer on medium/low speed until dough is smooth.
Mix topping ingredients together in small bowl.
Measure one heaping tablespoon (or try 2 T.) of the dough and roll it into a ball with your hands. Press half of cookie dough ball into the cinnamon/sugar.
Place ball, sugared-side-up, on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake 12 minutes or until cookies just begin to turn light brown. Be careful not to bake cookies too long, or they won't be soft like the originals.

Happy Canada Day - and happy poundcake

2007-07-03T16:13:00.000-06:00

I have accomplished what I only dream about - I only made new recipes this weekend. No more shall I use my oldies but goodies as a safety net. I can tackle the strangers with gusto.

It was moving weekend for my sister, as well as dear old Canada Day where many a BBQ was lit and many a hamburger scorched. At least at our BBQ there were a few casualties. My project was to come up with dessert which was certainly fine with me. I am always excited to bring dessert and, as most of the people at the BBQ were relatives, I felt it was safe to try the cake recipe that has been sitting patiently in my Inbox thanks to Canadian Baker. Poundcake, I find, is always greasy moist and has a sickly sweet after taste. That is not what I wanted at all for this dessert. I wanted dense crumbs and a real coconut flavor to offset the chocolate fudge and vanilla bean icecream that I was going to pile on top of the slices. Sure enough, it was delicious. Now this recipe is actually a chocolate and coconut swirled pound cake which was fine and I might make again but, in all honesty, I think I would cut out the chocolate portion (I know, I really did say cut the chocolate!), and increase the coconut. It was not sweet at all so I should have added more sweetened coconut flakes and I might have added more vanilla if I hadn't been too nervous.

I will definitely be putting this cake on a recipe card and using it again. I think it would be delicious with macerated berries and whipping cream to take it in a different direction, but then again, hot fudge and icecream is always en vogue!

Lily's Marble Cake
from Canadian Baker's blog
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 cup whole milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1/4 cup cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
1 1/2 cups shredded, sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour a 10-inch tube pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
In measuring cup, combine the milk and vanilla. Set aside.
In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sugar and salt and continue to mix well for about 3 more minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well to combine after each addition.
Alternately add the milk mixture and the flour mixture in 3 additions.
Continue mixing for 5 minutes (beating a long time is important here).
Stir one third of the batter into the cocoa powder in a medium bowl.
Stir the coconut into the remaining golden batter.
Pour the golden batter into the prepared pan, then drop large dollops of the chocolate batter into it. Cut through the batter once or twice with a table knife to make chocolate marble pattern. Do not stir.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Let cool in the pan. Invert onto a platter (for the best taste, cover with plastic wrap and let sit overnight. Slice into wedges for serving. Cake keeps well at room temperature for up to 4 days. Makes 12 servings.

Friends

2007-06-27T16:36:00.000-06:00

I am perpetually staring at huge piles of computer printouts. Poor recipes that I find online and insist I will make "tonight" and then toss on my kitchen table and proceed to bake a perennial favorite instead.
I am not sure why this is. Perhaps I have a fear of baking failure and there is always that risk with a new recipe. Also, I tend to have the ingredients on hand for my tried and true's in case I am called upon to bring dessert to a party or cheer up a sick friend. No one wants to unleash a stranger on a poor starving soul.
Sometimes I do attempt to make friends with the strangers, and I have posted the results on this blog. But, for the most part, I go with my friends - they won't let me down. Strangers on the other hand ... they can be mean!
So without further ado... a dear, dear friend.

Sour Cream Orange Coffee Cake with Chocolate-Pecan Streusel
Bon Appetit Magazine February 2002
Streusel
1 1/2 cups (packed) golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled salted butter, diced
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Cake
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup orange juice
For streusel:
Whisk brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture holds together in small, moist clumps. Mix in pecans and chocolate chips. (Can be made up to 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Sift flour, baking soda, and baking powder into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended and smooth. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then orange peel and vanilla extract. Mix in flour mixture in 4 additions alternately with sour cream in 3 additions. Mix in orange juice. Spread half of batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Drop remaining batter over by heaping tablespoonfuls; carefully spread batter to make even layer. Sprinkle with remaining streusel.
Bake cake 30 minutes. Lay sheet of foil loosely over pan to keep topping from browning too quickly. Continue baking until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 35 minutes longer. Remove foil. Cool cake in pan on rack 20 minutes.

Luscious Lemon Cake

2007-06-25T16:46:00.000-06:00

I know, I know... when was the last time I posted? With a job change etc. my life has been too hectic to blog but not hectic enough that I would neglect the baking hobby I love so well. As usual, Josh's office has proven to be the best of guinea pigs and they eat all my creations dutifully. Sometimes it is nice to receive alocolades that are not work related. And who am I kidding, no one is ever praised in the workplace.

My latest triumph was found while searching for the perfect lemon cake to use up the poor neglected poppyseeds in my spice rack. I love poppyseeds but, apart from Mohn Kuchen - which I think only my German grandma has ever attempted, there is very little need for them. So it occurred to me that I would find a lemon cake and generously heap in the lovely little black darlings.

This cake is from the "Top Secret Recipes" website that I found while Google-ing away. The claim is that it tastes as good as Starbuck's version (apparently it is their version but I find that hard to believe. At any rate, I added some poppyseeds, and some lemon zest and axed the yellowish powedered sugar frosting - replacing it with a lemon syrup which soaked into the cake and made it the moist wonder that I knew it could be.

"Starbucks" Lemon Loaf
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2teaspoon lemon extract
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup oil
4T. poppyseeds
zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a medium bowl, combine eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice with a mixer until blended.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil, poppyseeds and zest and mix well.
Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (It took an hour in my oven). Remove from oven and pour glaze over it, then cool in pan on a rack.

Glaze:
1/4c. water
1/3c. sugar
1/4c. lemon juice
Simmer until reduced in half.

Coconut Cupcakes

2007-02-27T18:21:00.000-07:00

It has been ages since I wrote on this blog, mainly because I have not been working for 2 weeks. Now, though, I just found out I start my new job this Monday so I decided to get busy in the kitchen and enjoy the time off.

Josh's office has been craving sweets and I was craving cupcakes so I decided to try a recipe I have wanted to test for a long time. Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame, makes amazing food and I love everything that she creates. Her coconut cupcakes were no exception. I scored rave reviews with these, even though I will admit to using storebought frosting in a pinch. I topped the cupcakes with Duncan Hines white fluffy frosting and then sprinkled them with toasted coconut. They were sweet and moist and fantastic. Try them out...

Ina's Coconut Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/3 cup flaked sweetened coconut

Line 16 muffin cups with paper baking cups, and set aside.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and set oven racks at top and lower middle levels.
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
Turn the mixer speed to low, and add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after each.
Beat in the vanilla and almond extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and beat again briefly. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.
Fold in the coconut.
Fill each muffin cup almost full with batter. Bake in a 325-degree oven for 11 to 14 minutes on the top and lower-middle racks of oven, then reverse the positions of the two cupcake pans (putting the one from the top on the lower middle rack and vice versa), and bake another 11 to 14 minutes or until the cupcake tops are golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Ciao!

The Brownie Quest

2007-02-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Yes I baked again this weekend, I think it has become a sickness. It seems like a personal mission to get through that pile of never tried recipes. Lately I have been having such great luck in the kitchen - minus the granola fiasco - so that just furthers my drive to dwindle the pile down to nothing.

This time I decided to try a brownie recipe. I did this with much trepidation because brownies are not my friend. I know, I know, brownies are by far the simplest of all baking. Not so in my world. My brownies are dry, crumbly, form huge fissured through the middle, never cook in the middle and turn inedibly black along the edges... can anything else go wrong? Even if the brownies tasted good and just looked shabby, i could overlook it. But they taste horrible and can't hold their shape. So after a total disaster this Christmas with my York Peppermint Patty Brownie recipe, I gave up and vowed to never make a brownie again. How quickly I seem to forget my feelings toward evil recipes.

The recipe was for Malt Brownies and uses one of my favorite things - Ovaltine powder. I was so curious what a cherished childhood drink mix could do to a potentially nightmarish recipe, that my baking conscience was set aside and I took a chance.

I am posting the recipe because these are, yes I admit, the best brownies I have ever had and probably will ever have. I made a full batch with the intention of sending them with Josh to work but, sorry guys, Licia was over for the weekend and we almost devoured the pan. They are really that good. Looks like I am on a hot streak in the kitchen, maybe I should tackle pie crust...
Ciao!

Chocolate Malted Brownies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for buttering pan
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup malted milk powder, such as Ovaltine Malt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300F. Brush a 9- by 13-inch baking pan with melted butter. Line bottom with parchment paper; set aside.
Sift together flour, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside.
Melt chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring until combined. Turn off heat and transfer mixture to a large bowl.
Add dark brown and granulated sugar and stir with wooden spoon until smooth.
Add vanilla and eggs and mix well.
Stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. Let batter cool 5 minutes. Fold in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Spread with a spatula to evenly distribute batter and malted milk balls. Bake until center is firm and surface looks dry, about 45 minutes, turning the pan once after 30 minutes. Let brownies cool completely. When ready to serve, cut into 20 2-by 2-1/2 inch pieces. Serves 10 to 12.

A Favorite

2007-02-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

I always enjoy trying a new recipe, even if that recipe disappoints me horribly and leaves me despising the kitchen for weeks afterwards. There is something very satisfying about finding a gem among, lets face it, alot of duds. I have stacks and stacks of recipes that I have yet to try and really want to.

So why did I fall back on an old favorite? To use up the unbelievable amounts of canned pumpkin I have. I bought it all in October thinking that I would be baking pumpkin everything for the next two months. Wrong. I got completely sidetracked with new recipes and the poor pumpkin kept getting shoved farther and farther back into the pit that is my cupboards. Finally, after throwing a fit about the state of my baking shelf, I cleaned everything up and salvaged the cans.

I made my grandmothers famous Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Rum Cake which really should be a staple in everyones house. Now that I am married and on my own, the recipe has been passed onto me from my mother so that the pumpkin rum goodness need never die. Though I admit, my first time making it was yesterday and already I have messed with the recipe. I didn't change a single ingredient because there really is no need, but I just didn't want to make a bundt cake. Josh's office, as I have mentioned before, is extremely hectic and no one has time to sit down with a plate and fork and eat a piece of cake. They can, however, tote a muffin around the office while they work. So the cake turned into 18 beautiful mini bundts, each with their own glistening rum glaze.

Again, a recipe met with rave reviews. You have to try this one!
Ciao

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Rum Cake
One bundt cake or 18 muffin size cakes

Cake:
4 eggs
2c. sugar
1c. oil
2 cups canned pumpkin (14 fl. oz.)
2t. baking powder
2t. baking soda
1/2t. cinnamon
3c. flour
1 1/2c. chocolate chips
Glaze:
2T. water
1/2c. sugar
1/4c. butter
1/4c. rum

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy.
Add pumpkin.
Mix in all dry ingredients just until incorporated.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour into greased bundt pan or muffin pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes for the cake or 25 minutes for the muffins.

For the glaze, bring water, sugar and butter to a boil and stir for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the rum.
Brush onto still warm cakes and then brush on again when the first coat has soaked in.
This cake is even better the second day.

I take it back

2007-02-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Ok well maybe I don't completely take it back but I am willing to say that there are a few good souls out there.

I am talking about my rant on ungrateful food receivers which I typed out in a huff last week. Normally I would be glad that someone proved me wrong and then move on, still too upset about the other people to let the glass be half full. But this time I have to write about it because I am just so happy about my new culinary enthusiasts.

Josh's office, it turns out, is full of non-bakers and total sweet addicts. This is the office that dies a thousand deaths when I send over Eiffel Tower bakery pastry trays. Since they enjoy baking so much, I decided to use them as guinea pigs over the holidays to try out my many new recipes. The two heaping plates that Josh wrapped up - a mixture of every different cookie and candy I could make in 2 weeks - were devoured by lunch with big compliments all around. So when the baking bug hit these last two weeks, and Josh not wanting to eat my creations, I sent them to the office. The Nutella cookies made on Monday night were completely demolished yesterday. Maybe they are all so stressed over there - it is a magazine after all - that food is the big comfort. Yes, sweet sweet carbs once again save the day.

So I just want to admit that there are baking appreciative people out there in the world and I am glad for the compliments because they will be rewarded ten fold. I hope they know what they are getting themselves into...
Ciao

Success

2007-02-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

After Sundays frustration with the oven, I was determined to make proper granola last night. I suppose I could have eaten the last dregs of Kashi cereal in the cupboard and not bothered to do anything at all (except watch some Frasier and sip a glass of Chardonnay), but I hate to eat the bottom of the bag of cereal. I always feel that there must be something wrong with it. Why hasn't it been eaten up by now? Is it even remotely fresh at this point? Or will I chip a tooth and be more miserable than I was after the granola disaster? In the end, more work for better cereal. And it was definitely better. I ran out of cranberries but we discovered dried pineapple at Community Health and Josh fell in love with it. So that was chopped up along with the usual fare and I stirred the brown sugar in before the oil and honey which i think made it mix better. The real solution to the burning, though, was to use a 35o degree oven and cook until barely 15 minutes had passed. It was golden and chewy and crisp at the same time and, this morning with yogurt, was absolute heaven.

My other project last night was to use up the jar of Nutella in the fridge that taunts me. What is better than Nutella licked from a spoon? I could devour that calorie laden spread if I didn't come up with some ways to use it. I had never heard of baking with Nutella which is odd because it has the texture and creamy-ness of peanut butter so it should be quite versatile. Once I started reading blogs, I realized I was not the only one with a Nutella obsession. Cheesecakes, crepes, cookies and cakes were experimented with and deamed worthy of the Nutella goodness. So I found a cookie recipe at Alpineberry that seemed simple and had at it. This cookie is similar to a peanut butter cookie in terms of crumb and texture but the addition of cocoa and chocolate chips adds an incredible richness. Josh's office loved them this morning with coffee and I think they just might be worthy of a recipe card...

Ciao!

Nutella Cookies

(makes 30 cookies)

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

7 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temp.

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2/3 cup Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup toasted & skinned hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.
Sift together flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside dry ingredients.

Cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in Nutella and vanilla extract. Mix in egg.

Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated.

Add chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

Drop tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake for about 11 minutes until the edges look set. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then carefully remove to cooling racks.

Banff

2007-02-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

I know I promised to make granola, cookies and a cake this weekend but only the granola ended up happening. Not because I am lazy in any way. The grocery shopping was done, the kitchen clean and I was just about to start when Josh surprised me with the news that we were headed to Banff for the weekend.

What a great time we had! I have never stayed in a hotel like the Rimrock before so I felt very rich and pampered. We ate amazing food, sat in a beautiful lounge to watch the Flames game and then came home rested and refreshed for the work week.

I did attempt the granola later on Sunday evening and I would like to show you the finished product but I burnt it. Yes, my gorgeous honey and cinnamon granola shrivelled up and smoked after only 20 minutes. I am still getting used to a brand new stove and I never know what temperature to make my usually tried and true recipes. I really did try to salvage it but the cranberries were black and the whole thing made our yogurt taste burnt as well so I wasted yogurt, I wasted granola, got very angry and gave up on the whole thing. Tonight I am going to try again, underbaking this time, because I really don't think I like crunchy granola. As for the recipe, I use whatever nuts and dried fruit I have on hand. Just make sure the total amount of ingredients is the same or you will end up with an oily sticky mess.

Ciao!

Granola

Letters, Gourmet, November 2006. Adapted from Calle Ocho, New York city

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (I use a thick cut oat like Bob's Red Mill)

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

½ cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup sliced almonds (1 oz)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/3 cup green (hulled) pumpkin seeds (I used sunflower seeds)

1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup mild honey

Pinch cinnamonPinch salt

1 cup tart dried cherries

½ cup dried blueberries

½ cup dried pears (¼ inch dice)

½ cup diced dried apricots (¼ inch dice)

1/3 cup golden raisins

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together all ingredients in a large bowl until combined. Spread mixture evenly on a large (17-by 12-inch) shallow baking pan and bake, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 15 minutes.

Musings on a Kitchen Aid

2007-02-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

How I love my Kitchen Aid! Have I made that apparent yet? I don't know what it is about that sleek black machine but I could use it every day and never tire of it. When we were first registering for wedding gifts, Josh and I just assumed that we had to put one on the list. After all, how could I possibly bake with an inferior model? What could possibly whip my egg whites as frothy while at the same time being able to handle my doubled Cinnamon Bun dough? Ahhhh, the sweet sweet Kitchen Aid. This mixer is a triumph of machinery in every way. I know of people who will not buy one because of the price, but I am here to say that it is worth every single penny, and yes I am aware that they cost a huge amount of pennies. Just buy it in time for Christmas baking next year and I swear you will be in mad, passionate love.

The weekend is fast approaching and I am going to bake again because, surprisingly, I have learned restraint when it comes to cookie eating. It is time to tackle the mountain - and I mean mountain- of recipes I have printed off of the internet. I know I could fall back on my tried and trues, but if I don't get a handle on this stack soon, I will need a filing cabinet to house them - and there is no room for a filing cabinet in my apartment. Definitely not!

So the goal is to make Nutella cookies (I can't remember the blog I found this on. Speak up you!) as well as attempt to make the Apple Bundt Cake out of this months Bon Appetit. The cake is a bit of a toss up because it calls for grated apples and there is no way that I am grating 8 apples. So instead I am replacing the grating with unsweetened applesauce and I just hope that it sets up properly. Hmmmm....

Outside it is snowing and blowing and at least -25. Oh to be inside with my Kitchen Aid and a warm oven. Can it be the weekend now?

Ciao

Torie's Cherry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

2007-01-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

This is the oatmeal cookie recipe I used on the weekend and I have used many times before. My biggest fans of these cookies are the pastors at Northside Friends who devoured them a few Christmas's ago.
I made them for the first time with my grandma who was very upset at the price of dried cherries and then what little they did for the flavor after shelling out the cash. I use raisins or leave them out altogether, whatever you fancy.
Underbake them for sure and grease the cookie sheet or the toffee pieces will stick and burn. I have yet to make less than 4 dozen with this recipe. Martha Stewart must make huge cookies!
Enjoy!

Torie's Cherry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oats
1 cup dried cherries
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
1 cup toffee pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add the egg; mix on high speed to combine. Add the vanilla; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

3. Add flour mixture to egg mixture, and mix on low speed until well combined. Add the oats, cherries, chocolate, and toffee pieces; mix to combine after each addition.

4. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of dough onto a lined baking sheet. Repeat, spacing 2 inches apart.

5. Bake cookies until golden brown, about 10 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.

Little Black Book

2007-01-31T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have very few pet peeves, well mainly three. The first two are fairly basic: lying and gossip. But the third, oh the third!!! No sin is as great as this, in fact it should be on par with murder and ... what are the deadly sins again? Well anyway, the third doesn't have a nice neat name like murder. It is actually an event that I despise. "The unappreciation of the gift of food". Now I know I am no Martha Stewart, Paula Deen or Nigella Lawson (in all her goddess- like glory), but I can cook well enough that my food is edible and, for the most part, down right delish. So would it be too much trouble to say thanks?

This little rant comes from an incident that happened over the weekend and it started with me doing something I naturally do: I give away food. I give it away because I bake and cook so much that hubs and I would be a 1,000 lbs and dying of swollen arteries if I didn't. I also give it away because many - no most - of my family and friends do not like baking or cooking, other than what comes in frozen form from the store. So I figure that in the best interest of both parties (I can feed my addiction to the Kitchen Aid and they can be saved from a slow death due to chemically altered grocery store baked goods) I will bake far more than I need in a household of two and then give away all of the extras. Now normally I find this very rewarding and fun. People are usually pleased to receive and I am equally pleased to hand over my latest creation.

Cut to this weekend where I spent quite a bit of time on my aforementioned banana cake and oatmeal cookies. We were invited over for a party of sorts and I, in my naivete, assumed that a food hostess gift would not go amiss. Half the cake was wrapped lovingly in foil and 2 dozen of the cookies were baked minutes before we left the house and were almost still warm when I arrived at said party. I excitedly handed my offering to the hostess and announced "Banana cake and oatmeal cookies. Your favorite." To wish I received an "oh, ok" and my baking was whisked off into the kitchen and unceremoniously plopped on the kitchen counter. I was shocked, I mean who doesn't at least say thank you? (I have received some terrible gifts, some of them food, in my lifetime and I have never, never, not at least attempted a bit of a thank you and even a tiny compliment.)

It is because of this, and a few other incidents, that I began The Black Book of Unappreciative Baking Receivers. This is for the people who leave my Christmas baking on tables to dry out in their withered plastic wrap, people who expect certain desserts when you offer to bring something and don't allow for any creativity, people who tell you that it looks good but they don't eat sweets so don't bother bringing anything over again, and now the new group: the non thankers. Don't get me wrong, I am not looking for praise or for them to gush and gush and ask for the recipe. I am merely asking for a thank you or a "that was yummy" just so I know my time and ingredients and thoughtfulness did not go to waste on their Nabisco crumbed counter. Is that too much to ask? If I had brought over a bottle of Merlot would that have been honored with a thank you? Maybe it is that people do not like homemade food. Such is their permanent loss because I do not forgive this sin so easily. Poor Rosie is still trying to work her way back out of the pit after a baking event which shall remain nameless.

So there is my rant and I shall now let it go and continue the baking this weekend, only this time I will bestow it upon much more eager recipients - namely Matt and Justin.

Ciao

The Weekend

2007-01-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

It was the baking weekend - finally!
Saturday morning we had that yummy french toast just as planned. If you have not been to Prairie Mill Bread in the Northland strip mall, go now. They have amazing bread that manages to taste as good as the day you bought it after two weeks in the freezer. But what I love the most is the Apple Crunch or Cinnamon Swirl. Plain old white bread for french toast just does not cut it anymore. Eggs, and milk is all I use in my batter and then the toast needs to be cut really thick and left on the griddle for a long time. Of course Licia insisted on adding whipped cream to this already calorie laden breakfast and I had to oblige because it is Saturday after all!

Then after all of this yumminess, I decided to get out the Kitchen Aid and finally try a few recipes that I have found on other foodie blogs. The first was a white chocolate blondie for my Sunday lunch party. The idea was to top it with vanilla icecream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce a la Moxies. The blondie was yummy but not so good that I would post the recipe and insist everyone try it. I still want something with a bit more thickness and substance to it. This, ended up with the right flavor, but the texture was off and left me wishing for Moxies. My guests didn't seem to mind though so I will chalk it up to a success.

I also made Torie's Chocolate Chip Cookies, a Martha Stewart staple recipe that I have used for years with great results. This time I left out the dark chocolate chips and raisins and added white chocolate chips along with toffee bits (got to use up those leftover Christmas ingredients somehow!). I just need to remember to underbake them because I hate hard oatmeal cookies.

The final creation and the yummiest of them all was the Banana Cake. Licia has a weakness for anything banana and I thought she would love this cake - plus it gave me a chance to use my new Bundt pan. The pan worked really well and left the golden brown crust on the outside and kept the cake moist with a good crumb. I have included the recipe and pic because it was just so good! It is always nice to have a beautiful Bundt cake as reward for all the hard work. You won't be disappointed with this one and it uses up a common item in my kitchen - brown bananas. This recipe is from Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger.

So there you have it, I slaved in my insufferably hot galley kitchen all evening and ended up with quite a bit to show for it. Enjoy the recipe!

Ciao

Banana Bundt Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs
1-1/4 cups vegetable oil
1-3/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
3 oz. chocolate chips
3 ripe bananas pureed

Butter and flour a tube pan or a bundt pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt and baking soda).
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs, oil and sugar. With the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that the sugar has been incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and mix for another 30 seconds.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients a bit at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and then to ensure everything is incorporated.
Once the dry ingredients have been added, remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add the pecans, chocolate and bananas. Gently fold them in with a spatula or a wooden spoon. Don't over mix.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes and then test the cake to see if it's done by poking a toothpick or cake tester into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, bake the cake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Sweet Bribery

2007-01-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned yesterday, Matt came over last night for some work on the wedding pics and, in exchange, I served the marinating steak. I must say that Cattleboys for 24 hrs works wonders on any beef but to top sirloin, it is absolute heaven.

These were thick steaks - 1 inch at least. And the smell of them sizzling wafted down to the elevator and, perhaps, to my neighbors. I know I have smelled Indian and Chinese food in the halls so I am certain that my culinary exploits have reached their noses by now. Anyways, the steak turned out raw and wriggling in the middle, seared and grill marked on the outside and just plain unbelievable in every way. I overcame my fear of falling short in the side dish department and decided that nothing beats a baked potato, even if I did cook it in the microwave. (Shame, Emily, shame!) They turned out heavenly, although I am of the mind that anything slathered in sour cream and aged cheddar cheese is delicious in every way. I figure that if a steak house uses baked potatoes, then they can't be all that bad, though not creative in any way. Neither were my veggies which happened to be a few crowns of broccoli and a beautiful yellow zucchini squash. I steamed the broccoli and then added it to a fry pan with the squash, olive oil and a liberal dash of Montreal Steak Spice. I don't usually like this spice on steak, it seems rather predictable, but on veg it really can't be beat.

So I managed to crown my goddess like steak with two quite acceptable and tasty side dishes to make a meal that looked equally appealing. It must have worked its charm because Matt worked on my photos for 3 hours without a break and only witty and wonderful Frasier episodes to keep him company.

Now I will spend tonight grocery shopping for a weekend of entertaining which I have managed to keep fairly simple and, yes, carbohydrate laden because I have been good for far too long and people might begin to talk!

French toast made from the amazing Prairie Mills Apple Crunch bread (I dare you not to love this loaf!), and turkey bacon for tomorrows breakfast with Licia. There will not be a scrap of fruit or vegetable in sight, but the eggs and milk in french toast must count for wholesome nutrient content. Then onto wings for dinner which dear hubs will prepare because only he can mix Chipotle hot sauce and Teriyaki sauce together in theright amounts. As for veg and starch, God only knows. Hopefully something gorgeous will leap out at me from the produce section. Though I doubt it. I don't have that good of a relationship with veggies.

Finally a lunch party on Sunday and that is where the real junk food will debut (as well as my poor neglected Kitchen Aid). I am hoping to keep the veggies and protein to a minimum and fill our stomachs with sweet, sweet carbs. After all, a cheat now and then never hurt anyone.
Ciao

And now for something yummy...

2007-01-25T13:12:00.000-07:00

Because I love cake and I am forcing myself to not bake in lieu of healthier food, I am just going to post every yummy recipe I want to make but can't. So there!

Ina Garten’s Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
½ pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large eggs at room temperature
¼ cup grated orange zest (from 4 large oranges)
3 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups good semisweet chocolate chunks
Syrup:
¼ cup sugar
¼ cups freshly squeezed orange juice
Ganache:
8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the orange zest.
3. Sift together 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately in thirds to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the chocolate chunks with 2 tablespoons flour and add to the batter. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar with the orange juice until the sugar dissolves. Remove the cake from the pan, set it on a rack over a tray, and spoon the orange syrup over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely.
5. For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

Why is this so hard?

2007-01-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

What is it exactly about downtown dwellers? Are we so scarce for food in this concrete jungle that we have to run people over to get at it? Doesn't it make sense that if the store has an onsite butcher shop, chances are they can cut more steaks?

I went to the Market Co-op last night to pick up dinner for tonight. (Yes, everyone who attended our wedding and will not stop pestering me, YES we will have your studio portraits for you tonight!) So dinner, with Matt, who will eat anything I make and tell me all those ego boosting things I love, and that is why he gets steak tonight.

Normally I love grocery shopping. I get excited and creative and happy all at once. But not when I have to pick out red meat. Beef seems to be the bain of my cooking existence. I think I really need to practice more in order to be less intimidated by its rawness. So I plucked up my courage, called Josh to get the cut name right, and began sifting through the packages on the shelf. And of course, because I couldn't be more confused and stressed than I already was, a man was standing next to me, glaring at my obvious failure to choose a package in under 30 seconds. I know he wanted what I wanted, I know this because he made me so nervous that I finally walked away to search for marinades. I watched him from the aisle - mainly to glare right back at him - and sure enough he picked the first package from the top sirloin stack as if he had been picking meat all his life and I was just too dumb to realize that the top pack was perfect in all its marbled meatiness. So fine, I grabbed my trusty Cattleboys bottle and marched right back to the stack, determined not be stared down again. Sadly, there was another "comfortable with choosing beef" shopper and he too, seemed to be impatient. So I grabbed the pack that looked the least disgusting (and held enough for 3 people) and I bailed out of there as fast as possible to be stared down in the produce aisle. Sometimes I hate urban life!

The beef thing, it's so weird that I would find it difficult. I don't think it should be difficult, it is after all, fairly straightforward to cook. So long as it is not all grey and rubbery, you cooked it right, right? Or not. I think it is because the flavor of beef is so robust that I am concerned my side dishes will not measure up. How can sad bits of steamed broccoli and yellow zucchini drizzled in olive oil possibly sit side by side with yummy tender steak that has been marinating for ages in the fridge under a blanket of Cattleboys? And what exactly must I do to potatoes to make them stand out, all white and bland? See if I could serve the steak triumphantly alone in the center of the plate, I think beef would be my favorite thing. But you can't do that, not when you are trying to follow the insufferable rules of healthy eating. Damn you healthiness! So I now have to come up with two side dishes that will look yummy, and not be cold by the time the steak is ready.

This is why I love to bake, because a brownie in the middle of a plate right now, would not be amiss.
Ciao

Chocolate Coconut Buttercream Cupcakes

2007-01-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Of all the yumminess in the baking world, I think cupcakes are pretty far up the list. This flavor is our favorite. It was discovered while trying Crave in Kensington for the first time. Their cupcakes are heaven and big and expensive. So if this is anything like that one was, then Josh will love me forever and I won't need Crave anymore... and all that from a cupcake.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cupcakes
24 regular cupcakes / 350 degree oven
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant espresso powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1. Beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
3. Measure the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and espresso powder into a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
4. Measure the milk and vanilla into a measuring thing.
5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
6. Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 3/4’s full. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Coconut Buttercream Frosting
1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 cups coconut, sweetened flaked
1. Beat butter briefly, scrape bowl.
2. Add the sifted powdered sugar and milk. Beat until smooth.
3. Add coconut and mix until combined.

Tossed salad and scrambled eggs...

2007-01-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

We made dinner last night. Not that we don't make dinner most nights. No, we are not that "dinkish" in our downtown world that we would order out every night. But lately it seems that a quick and easy dinner is in order. And who really could object to poached eggs on toast? I think that Josh makes possibly the best poached eggs ever. Piercing it with your fork so that the gooey lava yellow center spills out.... Pure heaven!
So I had decided to be very organized on Monday and marinate some salmon. Sadly for me, the teriyaki sauce was down to the few tablespoons that tend to stick to the bottom of the glass bottle. Rather than run across the street to Co-op and remedy the problem, I decided to build the marinade in the bottle. A little lime juice, a little orange juice, and the last of the maple syrup. Shake shake shake, add some minced garlic, pour into freezer bags. It looked terrible and smelled wonderful and my only hope was that Josh's grilling skills would save it.
Last night then, we grilled all 4 filets with the idea that I could build the leftovers into lunch for today. (Mandarin oranges, romaine lettuce, slivered almonds and Krafts new peanut dressing - thank you Rose for suggesting it). Let me be the first to say that salmon on the grill is one of those foods that instantly puts me into a better mood plus I think it is quite healthy - bonus!
A quick-cook couscous as a starch, but what for a veg???? Thank goodness that squash manages to stay relatively fresh in the fridge for weeks on end. A little butter, a little drizzled honey and about 45 minutes of roasting.
So after very little prep, but a fair bit of waiting, healthy dinner was served and enjoyed and left us feeling very full. Sometimes goodness is worth the wait!

In other news, this is almost the end of week 3 of the healthy kitchen. January 2nd I spent purging my cupboards and freezer of anything prepackaged and deamed "junk" by Paul Plakas on "X-Weighted". No more packaged hot chocolate, chips, pop, icecream, cookies and on and on it goes. Instead I am now really trying to make apples a snack. However, I don't think apples were intended as a snack, more a healthy food that moms make you eat before dinner. And who would have thought that I would have so many colors and exotic veggies in my crisper? Certainly not me. I don't like veg at the best of times and definitely not at lunch when Wendy's would suffice. But I made us try Kale and squash and zucchini and mushrooms, peppers and onion sprouts. I think it is all staying, at least for now. We both feel better and we are getting so much more creative in the kitchen. Maybe I can learn to enjoy cooking as much as I enjoy baking. Nah....
Ciao

And into the blogging world....

2007-01-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

Of all the things I thought I would never do, having a blog is at the top of the list. I love blogs - I love reading blogs, bookmarking blogs to check several times a day and searching for blogs when I am bored. But I think a blog is a bit like airing dirty laundry, something you do when you are completely ok with being vulnerable to the entire online world. That is something I am not ok with. I am a self confessed internet lurker. I belong to several chatrooms, blog lists etc and yet I never sign in or leave comments or engage in anything remotely interactive. It is so much more fun to be a voyeur in ones head than on the screen.

This all being said, I have now learned two things about blogs. One, they are extremely useful to other people who are searching for random reviews of things I love - things like restaurants, books and magazine articles. Two, they are very therepeutic for the writer, much like a journal only somehow more accessible.

So I have set aside all gut instinct that says blogs are for the shameless and decided to dive in. It seems very daunting (esp. the bits about adding digital camera photos!!!) but I think that this is something the internet world is almost demanding of its participants - so I will follow, probably like a lamb to the slaughter. That, or I will get quickly bored of this entirely, and will not log on again - or lose the password.
Ciao