Whatcha Eatin'?

Snowman Cupcakes

2012-01-15T16:40:00.001-08:00

Have I mentioned yet my new found love of Pinterest? Of course, if you are crafty you probably already know about it and are more than slightly hooked on it. Well, my daughter turns 2 tomorrow. We aren't having her party until next weekend, but I couldn't let the day pass without something special. I decided to make cupcakes for her to take to daycare and share with the kids there. I searched 'cupcakes' on Pinterest and my goodness there are some amazing cupcakes out there! Wow! I needed something fairly simple though and I saw these. Aren't they cute? My daughter loves snowmen so this is perfect. The eyes and mouth are upside down chocolate chips and the nose are cut up pieces of fruit gummies - so simple.

A Maritime Christmas, make that New Year's Feast!

2012-01-11T16:34:00.000-08:00

I was sick, and I mean the kind of sick where you don't move for a few days kind of sick over Christmas. We still had our turkey dinner, but I didn't make it. In fact, I didn't eat it. But my husband and our guests (good friends who understood me sleeping on the couch) enjoyed it. Thank goodness my husband knows how to cook (and well!). By New Year's I was feeling well enough to eat, just not well enough to go anywhere and do anything New Years-ish. I had also been seeing a lot of friend's Christmases on Facebook. It seemed every family I know who lives here in our little village, or one of the nearby villages bought lobster pretty much right off the boat for their Christmas Feasts. I haven't had lobster since just before we moved away to Toronto a couple of years ago, and now being back here, it just fits. So for New Year's we had Surf and Turf. Jonathan marinated a couple of t-bone steaks with his own special seasoning rub and I picked up 2 lobsters. Here are a few photos of our little feast. Did I mention Jonathan did up his own homemade onion rings and deep fried shrimp to go with it all?

Giving the lobsters a little last run.

The feast.

mmm lobster!

steak with shrimp

*Sorry, no recipes this time - just the pictures!

BLT with a twist - guest post

2012-01-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

If you know me well, you know I didn't make this and I didn't eat it either. Much to the amazement of my friends and family who swear by it, I can't eat bacon. But my husband is among those who just love bacon. And this is his creation.

Bored with your BLT ?

Try this one on for size. It isa BLT with a twist.

Preheat your oven to 350. Next grab two baking sheets.

Lay out your bacon onto the sheets. Mix the followingseasonings together:

Granulated garlic, onion powder, Cajun spice, and a dash ofJerk Seasoning.

The mix should be 2/3^rd garlic and onion powderand 1/3^rdCajun and Jerk seasoning. Next sprinkle this mixture overthe bacon evenly. It is good to have a moderate coating of the spice.

Bake the bacon at 350 for 10-15min. or until desired crispness is reached.

Slice some fresh tomatoes. Toast a hoagie bun lightly. Addmayo. When the bacon is cooked, take 3 or four strips per sandwich and cut itinto chunks (this prevents a whole strip of bacon from coming out of thesandwich on your first bite). Layer tomato slices over the bacon and sprinklefresh oregano over the tomatoes- just a light dusting.

Cut the sandwich in half, et voila. A delicious twist on aclassic sandwich. Add lettuce if you must.

Best Beef Dip! - for a slow cooker

2011-12-29T18:36:00.000-08:00

Beef Dip is one of those recipes that I always order at a diner. I love it. It's a treat when made well, but I've never thought to make it myself. Rewind to two weeks ago, I was browsing at one of my favorite recipe sites, food.com, and found this recipe. It had very high ratings (4 1/2 stars out of 5) and a lot of positive reviews. The ingredients were simple and staples in our home. It looked super easy (and it was) and honestly, I couldn't believe how delicious this really was. My husband has not stopped talking about it ever since. He has asked a number of our friends if they have slow cookers and told them to get this recipe off of me. That's high praise :) The original posting is found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/french-dip-roast-beef-for-the-crock-pot-103403.

3 1/2-4 lbs boneless chuck roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
3 -4 peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
12 French rolls , split - (even better when toasted and then spread with a little mayo before adding the meat)

Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients. Pour over roast. Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered. Cook, covered, on LOW for 7 hours or until very tender. Remove roast, reserving broth. You may shred roast with a fork and serve on sandwich rolls with the broth on the side for dipping.

The Best Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce!

2011-12-04T16:08:00.001-08:00

When we were living in Toronto we made some fantastic friends. We met through work (the man being my husband's boss) and were invited over for lunch out of politeness to get to know each other better. I had to laugh later on as both couples afterwards had the same conversation of, "those guys seem really cool, I hope we get to know them better" and over the next year and a half we did. Both families love to cook so we spent a lot of meals together. One of their standards was their home made pizza. They make a lot of dough and put out a wide variety of toppings and everyone just goes for it creating.
Since we moved to where we are currently living, I've made home made pizza a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same. So I emailed Tiffany and asked for her pizza dough recipe. Tonight we made it and this is it. This is simply the best pizza dough recipe. It turns out so well. The dough rises really nicely and it crisps up well on the crusts. I paired it with a pizza sauce recipe I found on All Recipes. It has a 4.5 star rating and I can see why. It's tasty and a great consistency.
We made 2 pizzas tonight. The first was the kids' basic cheese. The second was a little more adventurous (and perfectly delicious). Half was fig and goat cheese. The other half was shrimp, sun-dried tomato, onion and feta cheese. I couldn't pick a favorite, just delicious.

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast
3 ½ C flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.       Pour ½ cup warm water in a measuring cup. Stir in the yeast and let it stand until dissolved and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, make a well and fill it with the yeast mixture. Add olive oil and 1 cup of warm water. Stir until a rough ball of dough forms. Turn out of bowl and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. You may need to add some flour along the way.

3.       Shape dough into smooth ball, place in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch down and divide into 4 balls. Can be frozen up to 3 months. Yields 4 10-inch pizza crusts.

Tiffany's Notes: makes roughly 2 pounds of dough. I use about 1 pound of dough per pizza (so my pizzas are bigger than theirs), thus I usually double this recipe. I often use about 1 ½ C whole wheat flour and 2 cups AP flour per batch. I usually bake the pizza at about 450.

Pizza Sauce

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the shaker)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional) - did not use, would love to try
3/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (did not use - worried about spice for kids)
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
salt to taste (left out)

In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

She has this as a recipe for 1 pizza, it worked well for the 2 that I made without having to double it.

How To Make A Stock

2011-11-06T09:10:00.000-08:00

Making a stock is one of those things that is so super easy that you will have yourself wondering why you didn't do it before. So many soup recipes call for a stock, usually chicken, beef or turkey. Now you can go and buy a pre-made stock at the store; or, you can use what you have on hand. I make my stocks ahead of time and freeze them, ready to use when I need them.

I usually buy a rotisserie chicken every couple of weeks and once the meat has been used up, I save the bones and skin for this. We also keep a small container of our onion tops and skins as well as garlic skins and bits of sweet peppers not used thoughout the week. This really makes making a stock easy.

You take your chicken bones and vegetable bits and put them into a large cooking pot. Put just enough water in to cover everything. Put a lid on and bring it all to a boil. Once boiling well, reduce the heat to minimum and let simmer for about an hour. Let cool. Once cooled, drain the stock into a large container, ready to freeze.

I do the same thing with my turkey bones, just using a larger stock pot for the process and often get enough stock for 3 or more containers of stock.

You can make a vegetable stock as well by putting in large chunks of veggies - onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and tomatoes work well for this.

There you go, super easy and a great way to use up everything you have on hand.

Pumpkin White Chocolate Cookies

2011-10-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

I have been searching for a pumpkin cookie recipe that actually turns out like a cookie instead of a cake/cookie. This is it! And with white chocolate chips to boot. Thank you Food.com. The real test was in my family of taste testers...they all went back for more. Definitely a keeper. I used fresh pumpkin in my version, but you can used canned. To use fresh, bake the pumpkin like a squash and let cool before incorporating it.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups white chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 300*. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda and set aside. In a large bowl beat the butter and brown sugar together. Mix in the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture. Finally, mix in the white chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 4 dozen.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

2011-10-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make pumpkin white chocolate chip cookies today. I was so excited about it until I read that the recipe called for pumpkin pie spice. Seriously, that is one of those ingredients that I never buy because I don't need it often. I usually just need a tsp or so once or twice a year. So, I did a little googling on Food.com (one of my go to sites for recipes) and I found this. It doesn't make a lot, just enough for what you need. Mix the following together and store in an airtight container.

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-10-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

As I was searching my cookie recipes last night, I couldn't believe that I hadn't posted this recipe before. These cookies are THE cookie around our house. If we are going to make cookies, these are the ones we make. I have a fond attachment to them and joke that this is the cookie that hooked Jonathan to me for life, as I would send them to him in college care packages when we were dating.
Needless to say they are fantastically delcious and don't last long in our home. They are based on an old Mrs. Field's recipe, using a few of my own adjustments. Enjoy!

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened (the trick to a really good cookie is using real butter, not margarine)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup mashed banana (about 1 banana)
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300*F. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt - set aside. In a large bowl blend the sugars together. Add butter and mix to make a grainy paste. Add the egg, vanilla, and banana and mix. Add the flour mixture and the chocolate chips. Blend until combined - don't over mix. Drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray). Bake 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a cool surface to cool down. Enjoy with a glass of milk on the side!

Curry Squash Soup

2011-09-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

I'm terrible at getting bowls of soup to look good in pictures. It just doesn't happen for me. So just the drawing today, but trust me, this soup is good! I make this soup at random in the sense that I just make it, I don't really take the time to measure out stuff, so the measurements are by what I think they are as opposed to really measuring it out. I love this soup for fall when squash is out at the markets. I only just realised that I've never blogged this recipe before. It is one of my staples. This time I made it, I used a buttercup squash (which is in season right now) - I've also used butternut with this recipe.

1 tbsp butter or margarine
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp ginger, finely chopped
1 tbsp or so curry powder (you can use less depending on your curry preference)
1 squash cut into chunks - (about 6 cups?)
4 cups chicken stock (enough to cover squash)
1 tsp or so chicken bouillona dash of salt

Over med-low heat, melt the butter in a soup pot. Add the ginger and onion and saute until they are softened. Add the curry powder in. Add in the squash and the chicken stock. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the squash. Raise the heat up to med-high to boiling. Lower heat again to simmer to allow the squash to cook and soften. Use an immersion blender to puree everything together. Taste and add bouillon and salt for flavor. Mix in. This makes a lot of soup. It's good to freeze to save for future meals or in individual packets for lunches.

BBQ Corn

2011-09-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

Foodie admission of the week. When I see people shucking their corn into the bins at the grocery store, it takes all that I have in me not to shout at them, "Stop! What are you doing? Don't you know the best way to cook corn requires the husks to still be on?!!". So far I've been restrained. This past grocery trip my 4 year old son was not as restrained. We bumped into an acquaintance who was shucking her corn as we were just bagging our unshucked to go. My 4 year old asked her, "Why are you doing that? We cook ours with the green stuff on." She looked at me in question for confirmation which led to the explanation of BBQ-ing corn. For some reason I just assumed that everyone knows about this, so I never blogged about it. But apparently everyone does not know about this, so here is the brief as I can be explanation.Put your BBQ heat to med-low. Put the corn (still in the husks) onto the grill. BBQ for 10-15 minutes, turning every so often. The greens will get dark brown and blackened. Then shuck it. You can stop there and eat, or, you can put the shucked, cooked corn back on the BBQ for a little browning of the corn. Both are delicious. Like really fantastically delicious. As in since we discovered this we have never boiled our corn on the cob again, ever! Enjoy.

Cake Balls

2011-09-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

These big lumps are not balls of play-do. These are for lack of a better term 'Cake Ball". Kind of like Cake Pops without the lollipop stick. I made them for my son's class at the end of the school year for his birthday. (You can tell, I'm way behind at blog posting recipes over here!). The long and the short of it is that this is what I did with a bunch of frozen leftover cake (cast offs from birthday cake molding) and leftover fondant from my other son's Mickey Mouse Cake, also frozen. The kids enjoyed them and I would make them again. Very sweet and very good!This recipe is really random in not having measured ingredients, here's my best guess.1 cake or the equivalent in leftover cake (I used about 4 cups of cake?)1 block of cream cheese (250ml or 1 cup) - softened1 tbsp milkmarshmallow fondant (recipe here)Tear the cake into pieces and place into a large bowl. Mix with the softened cream cheese and milk. You can use your hands to really squish and blend everything in. Take bits of the cake mixture and roll into balls. Place onto a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place into a freezer overnight. The next day, roll out the fondant. Cut into strips, larger than the width of your cake balls. Place cake ball on the the end of a strip and roll up to cover with the fondant. Use your fingers to make edges meet and smooth out the surface. Keep cold until ready to serve.

Canada Day Strawberry Shortcake

2011-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't that cute? This is the second time I've used this recipe. I found it on food.com. The first time I made it using her directions. This time I made my own little changes and decorated it to look like our flag. The cake part is more like a sweet biscuit than a traditional strawberry shortcake cake. You can make this and leave the cake as is, putting whipped cream and strawberries over all of it. Or, you can slice into two cakes, layering it with cake, whipped cream and strawberries, cake whipped cream and strawberries. Both ways are yummy.

1 beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup Splenda or sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened (real butter is so much better than margarine in baking)
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup whipping cream, whipped (I usually add a tbsp of sugar to sweeten it a bit)
sliced strawberries (as many as needed)

Preheat the oven to 450*. In a medium sized mixing bowl beat the egg. Add the milk and sugar and mix together. Whip in the butter. Add the flour and baking powder. Mix well. Using your hands kneed the dough for a minute. Bake in a 9 x 9 inch pan for 15-20 minutes. Cool. Remove from pan. From here you can either decorate it with the whipped cream and strawberries, or, slice it into two, then layering the cake, whipped cream and strawberries. Enjoy!

Crab & Artichoke Dip

2011-06-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

Last summer we were fortunate enough to have a family vacation to BC to visit with our families. For Canada Day my sister-in-law hosted a feast - really there is no other word to describe it. For a fantastic appetizer she made a crab & artichoke dip that was better than most you'd get in a restaurant. Since then, my husband has been asking me to make the same dip for us to enjoy here at home. Not quite a year later I did. I had a lovely chat with my s.i.l. yesterday and she gave me the recipe out of her head. I thought I had most ingredients on hand, and I was right. Just a few variations, which as she put it, once you have the basics, the rest is very forgiving.

2 cups whipped cream
1 block cream cheese (250 ml)
1 dollop sour cream
1 tbsp mayo
1 package of artificial crab meat
1 can real crab meat
1 cup grated hard cheese (mozzarella or cheddar)
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 cup jarred artichokes (drained)
few drops Worchester
few drops lemon juice
good shake of Old Bay Seasoning

In a large bowl whip cream, cream cheese, sour cream and mayo all together. Add everything else and using a hand blender, blend it all (can put it all in a food processor too). If it is too thick you can add a little milk in to thin it out.

Divide into pie plates, cover with foil and bake at 350* for 20 minutes.
***********************************************************************************
My variation last night with what I had on hand.

1 cup whipped cream
1 cup whole milk (3 1/2%)
2 blocks cream cheese
1 tbsp mayo
1 package artificial crab meat
1 can real crab meat
1 cup grated cheddar
1 cup jarred artichokes (drained)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
few drops Worchester
few drops lemon juice
few drops hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Follow mixing directions as above. I baked everything in a large covered casserole dish together at 425* for 30 minutes (I have a slow oven).

Both were delicious.

My Sister-in-law's crab dip at last year's Canada Day family gathering.

My husband with his sister in her kitchen.

Sliders

2011-06-25T11:13:00.000-07:00

You see sliders everywhere now. They are so popular and it's no wonder. They are tasty little burgers. And they are a great size if you have kids. I'd like to thank Donna from My Tasty Treasures for posting her technique of making these burgers. Mine are made the same way, but I have a different recipe for my burger part.

2 pounds ground beef
1 onion - chopped finely
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
16 cheese slices
16 mini rolls - I use dinner rolls and they work well, but you can use whatever
Ketchup
Mayonnaise

Heat oven to 425* (my oven is not hot so 425* works well for us, probably 350* would do well for a hotter oven).
Mix ground beef, chopped onion, bread crumbs, Dijon, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix everything in well (one of those times you want to use your (clean) hands for mixing).
Put the beef mixture on a baking sheet and press it flat, right out to the corners so it covers the sheet completely.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
Drain the grease by tipping the tray slightly over your grease catcher (coffee can or whatever you use). Make sure to hold on to the beef with an oven mitt to keep it from sliding off the tray. The beef will have shrunk a bit in size.
Spread the cheese slices over the beef to cover it completely.
(Here's the trust me, it sounds tricky but it makes sense part) Put the tops of the buns face down on the beef/cheese, leaving no gaps between buns.
Then, put the bottoms of the buns on top of the tops, face UP!
Put the baking sheet back into the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and heat the buns.
Remove from the oven.
Get the mayo and ketchup ready. As you remove each bun bottom, spread a little mayo and squirt a little ketchup on each. Set aside on a plate for a few minutes.
Take a knife and cut out each burger on the tray. You basically have to just run it down and across in between each burger. Use a spatula to lift each burger out and place onto a bottom part. That's it. It sounds trickier than it actually is. (Check out Donna's site for pictures if you need them). Serve with onion rings or crispy fries (or both) and a homemade milkshake for extra goodness!

X-Wing Cake

2011-06-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

My son started planning his 7th birthday party slightly before his 6th birthday party happened. His 6th birthday had a superhero theme with a fantastic Spider-Man cake, one of my favorite cakes I'd done. For his 7th he wanted Star Wars. I started planning an R2 D2 cake. I thought about a Millennium Falcon. Nope, he wanted an X-Wing. Really? Does he think I'm Cake Boss Buddy? He would do an amazing one. Me? My skills are limited. I couldn't quite figure out how to do the X wings, so they are closed on this one.
The body of the cake was made with a 9x12 pan, then cutting out the shape. The wings were made in 2 small bread pans (one recipe split into 2) and then cutting the shape. The cake is covered in vanilla icing. I then used a combination of licorace, ju-jubes, chocolates and oreo straws to make the decorative features. I know it isn't my best cake (that would be my other son's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake) but this worked and I was pleased with it.

Squash Pancakes

2011-06-20T07:09:00.000-07:00

Pancakes once were a regular feature in our home and I still like to make them as much as I can. The fantastic thing about pancakes and a picky eater in the house (mine is 4) is that you can hide a lot of different fruits and veggies in the batter. This time, the veggie was squash. My kids loved them. My picky eater ate 3 or 4 of them the first morning. They are fantastic re-heated the next day too. I used some previously cooked butternut squash in the batter, making the batter more squash than anything else.

1 egg
1/2 cup applesauce
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnimon
2 cups squash (guestimate) - previously cooked and mashed well

Mix everything together. Heat the griddle or frying pan. Spray with non-stick spray. Pour 1/4 batter at a time onto the griddle. (you can also add Mickey Mouse ears with a little extra batter for fun). Let cook through on one side before flipping to cook onto the other. Serve with butter and syrup.

Pizza Biscuits

2011-05-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

My 6 year old calls these pizza pucks, my 4 year old just calls them yummy. This is a very easy twist on baking powder biscuits that helps me get a little more meat into my kids diets.

2 Cups Flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup chopped pepperoni (I just used one 100 gram pepperoni stick)
1/2 cup grated cheddar
3/4 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Add the pepperoni and cheese. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. This recipe makes about 16 biscuits.

Sheep Cupcakes

2011-05-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Aren't these cute! This was my craft idea for last night's messy church at my church. Messy church is a once a month event that we have for families. Each "Messy"
involves a craft, an interactive lesson and dinner for families. Last night's theme was "The Good Shepherd knows his sheep". I knew we hadn't had a food craft in a while and have never done cupcakes, so I googled sheep cupcakes to see what I could find. I found the idea for these on the Food Network's Site. Their cupcakes are slightly different than the ones we did. You can see theirs here. We couldn't quite find all of the decorating ingredients that they used (the candy eyes and the gumdrop noses) so we improvised and used mini M&M's. I also didn't make their cupcake recipe so I don't know what that part tastes like. I did make their icing, but had to abandon it as it was too thick and tearing the cupcakes apart. Fortunately, I discovered this as I was making the sample 45 minutes before the event started and had time to head out to the store and pick up some ready made. The ready made worked well and was easy for the kids to use. The kids and parents really loved this craft. And that is what I would recommend it for, a craft. It is very time consuming - unless you are the kind of person who loves to spend all afternoon decorating cupcakes like this.

How to make:

Make the cupcakes first, try out the foodnetwork.com recipe, your favorite recipe or cheat like me and use a box mix - let cupcakes cool.

For decorating:
-frosting
-marshmallows (1 per cupcake)
-mini marshmallows (24-30 per cupcake)
-mini M&M's (3 per cupcake)
-purple mini jellybeans (4 per cupcake)
-pink mini jellybeans (2 per cupcake)
-licorice shoelaces (cut into 1cm and 3cm pieces - 1 each per cupcake)

Frost the cupcake. Stick a large marshmallow on top to be the sheep's body. Use the frosting like glue for the rest of the stick on ingredients, putting the frosting on it first and then sticking on. Start with the Mini M&M's for eyes and nose. Use the 1 cm licorice shoelace for the mouth. Start at the bottom and work your way up and around with the mini marshmallows to make the sheep's wool. Use the 4 purple jellybeans for feet and the pink ones for ears. Take the 3cm licorice shoelace, curl it and stick it on for a tail. So cute!

Sugar Cookie Icing

2011-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

This week my husband and I celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary. These cookies were my anniversary gift to him. These are no ordinary cookies. These are our wedding cookies. Cookies were a significant part of our courtship. As such our wedding gift to our guests were these fantastic cookies (you know instead of mints, or whatever other token gift is on the reception place setting). A friend of my mom's (Lori) did all the baking for our wedding. She made these cookies, which my husband declared the best cookies he had ever had. They were 2 sugar cookies, iced and in the middle sticking them together was a little bit of jam.
This past Valentine's Day I made sugar cookies with cookie icing for the first time. Sugar cookies I had made lots before, the icing was new to me. As he ate them he told me that this was it, these were the cookies similar to what was at our wedding. So for our anniversary, I made the cookies, complete with the jam filling as a gift to him. I did the icing here yellow as yellow was our wedding theme colour.
Here is the recipe for Sugar Cookie Icing. It is so easy to make. I recommend putting the icing on with a butter knife or icing spreader, I found a pastry brush was too tricky to get the icing to spread just right.

1 cup icing sugar
2 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup*
1/4 teaspoon almond extract**
assorted food coloring

*Can use honey or maple syrup in place of corn syrup
**Can use any flavor extract, I used vanilla

In a small bowl, stir together icing sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup.
Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush (or spread with a butter knife).

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2011-04-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

I love these muffins. They are one of my favorite baking recipes. Not only are they delicious, but they are full of a secret ingredient. The secret to these fabulous muffins? Cauliflower. That's right. These are quite healthy and a sneaky way for me to get some veggies into my picky eater. I originally found this recipe at Once Upon a Gourmet Gin. I decided it was time to post it myself as I've adapted it a little. She uses self-rising flour, something I never have in the house. It's very easy to find a substitute. The secret formula is for each 1 cup of self rising flour, use 1 cup all purpose flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. That's it.

Here's my adapted recipe.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups steamed fresh cauliflower, mashed and cooled
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400*. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray (or line with muffin cups) In a large mixing bowl sift together the dry ingredients (1st 5). In a mixing bowl stir together the eggs, milk, melted butter, mashed bananas and cauliflower. All to the flour mixture and stir until just moistened. Add the chocolate chips. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them 2/3 full. Bake approximately 15-20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan. ENJOY!

My Brother, the beer expert!

2011-04-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

My brother has published his first guest post on a city blog. The topic is beer. (And not in a bad way). He knows a lot about different kinds of beer (and other alcoholic beverages) from his job at a liquor store. It's well worth reading. Check it out here.

Peanut Butter and Honey Tofu

2011-04-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

During my Lenten vegetarian journey I've been making a lot of my favorite chicken dishes using tofu in place of chicken. This dish was a take on one I remembered from when I boarded with a vegetarian family back in university. I remembered that they would make peanut butter tofu with soy sauce as a stir fry quite a bit. I used the peanut butter part as an inspiration for this dish. Here's what you need to know about cooking with tofu. Tofu comes in a variety of firmness degrees. If you want to stir fry it, the firmer the better. Firm to extra-firm if possible. Medium or soft will just fall to mush. Also tofu takes on flavor really well so marinate it for at least 1/2 hour before cooking. Tofu on its own is pretty bland. I remember the university residence's 'veggie' burger way back when was just a slab of plain tofu between a bun. That is just wrong. Fortunately vegetarian cooking has come a long way in North America since then.

I didn't measure any of this, I just played as I went along. The result was so tasty that I made it again within a week (a true sign I've made something right). Slice the tofu into cubes. I cut 1/4 a brick as I was the only one eating it. You could do a whole brick if you are serving to others. Put the tofu into a small bowl and add some hoisin sauce (I used about a tablespoon or so). Mix it up so the tofu is coated. Put in the refrigerator to marinate it for at least 1/2 hour.
Heat a frying pan to medium/high heat with a little bit of cooking oil, or non-stick spray. Add the tofu to the pan plus a tablespoon or 2 of peanut butter and a tablespoon or 2 of honey. Mix in well. Stir fry for a few minutes until everything is heated through. Serve with rice or noodles. I served this along with a veggie stir fry with noodles. As a side note, I did the exact same thing to some chicken meat for the rest of my family. They liked it. I haven't had the chicken version yet, I'll let you know after lent.

Lentil and Mushroom Loaf with Savory Potato Filling

2011-04-02T05:09:00.000-07:00

When my college roommate Ang heard I was going vegetarian for Lent, she remembered this dish I made back in the day and asked for a copy of it. I'll admit I haven't made this in years, but I remember loving it. Like all good recipes it comes with a back story. I ate vegetarian for about 10 years. When I boarded in college I lived with a vegetarian family for 2 years. They had some fantastic cookbooks. This recipe came from Vegetarian Celebrations. This book was dedicated to finding delicious holiday vegetarian dishes. This recipe is one I would often make at Christmas and Thanksgiving in lieu of Turkey. When I started cooking on my own I wanted a copy of this book. Unfortunately by then it was no longer in print. One bookstore was able to find me a copy an order it in (remember this was before the days of Amazon) and I'm glad to have this book in my collection now.

Shell:
1 cup raw lentils
1 tbsp canola oil
2 cloves minced garlic
6 oz white mushrooms
5 oz thawed frozen spinach
1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp wheat germ
freshly ground pepper to taste
dash nutmeg
1 cup firmly packed grated Stilton or Gruyere Cheese (or sub. mozzarella style soy cheese)

filling:
1 tbsp canola oil
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1 cup coarsely mashed potato (from about 1 medium cooked and peeled potato)
1/2 tsp each: seasoned salt, dried thyme, and dried basil
freshly ground pepper to taste
curly parsley for garnish

Rinse and sort lentils. Combine in a heavy saucepan with 4 cups water. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer, covered, until the lentils are tender, about 45 minutes. Drain.
Preheat the oven to 350*
Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and mushrooms and saute over medium heat. stirring until the mushrooms are wilted. Stir in spinach, lentils, soy sauce and wheat germ. Grind in some pepper and add the nutmeg. Cook, stirring unil the mixture is heated through, then stil in the cheese.
Lightly oil a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Pour in about 2/3 of the lentil mixture. Press some of the mixture up the sides of the pan to create a shell about 1/2 inch thick. Transfer the remaining lentil mixture to a small bowl and reserve until needed.
Rinse the skillet and heat the oil. Add the onion and saute until golden brown. Add the remaining filling ingredients and saute, stirring occasionally for 5 minutes. Transfer into the lentil shell, then cover the top with the reserved lentil mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until the top is crusty.
Remove from the oven and let the loaf stand for 15 minutes. Slide a spatula or knife around the edges to loosen it. Cut slices and arrange them on a serving dish, Garnish with parsley and serve.

Pimp my Pizza

2011-03-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, I cannot believe I just used that as a title of one of my blog posts. *LOL* It just popped in my head so there you go. Laugh with me if you will.
So this is about pizza. I love having an easy meal to pop in the oven each week. We have a regular pizza night. I don't order in. I buy frozen. You can get frozen pretty cheap, and much less oily than take out. I get them 3 in a box at Costco for about $12. My kids like plain cheese, but I like my pizza more interesting than that. I really don't like frozen pizzas that already have veggies on them. I'm sorry, but they just don't taste very good. What we do is bake one plain for the kids and then add to the second one for us.
Last night's was soooo delicious. I grated on a little cheddar. Then added some chopped red onion, red pepper, mushrooms and tomato. Finished it up with some crumbled feta and baked it according to the box directions.
The possibilities are endless for pizza. Add as much or as little as you like. Sometimes we just add a little sliced onion and few tomatoes and that does it. Just gives it a little bit extra to make it that much better.

Frozen pizza as is.

Frozen pizza plus!

Vegetarian Chili

2011-03-27T12:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry no picture, I forgot! But this recipe is well worth remembering. I found it on food.com. It is very delicious and filling. This was also the tale of making sure you plug in the crock pot - I was sure I did and was kicking to find out it wasn't plugged in - only to find out my husband had unplugged it to plug in the kettle, forgetting to plug the crock pot back in. That happened not once, but twice with this chili! All was good though as I adjusted from cooking on low to cooking on high. It all worked out!

1 (11 ounce) can condensed black bean soup (or canned black beans in juice) - I used the canned black beans
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
1 (16 ounce) can vegetarian baked beans (in Canada beans in tomato sauce)
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chopped tomato puree (I used a hand blend to puree a 28 ounce can of tomatoes)
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (I don't buy canned corn so I used the equivalent in frozen corn - 2 cups)
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can diced chilies
1 -2 jalapeno peppers, chopped (depending on how much heat you want)
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon cilantro (optional)

In a saucepan, saute the onion, bell pepper, zucchini, and celery for about 5 minutes. In a slow cooker, combine black beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, baked beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, bell pepper, zucchini, jalapeno, chilies, and celery.
Season with garlic, chili powder, cumin, parsley, oregano, basil (and cilantro if using). Cook for about 6 hours on low.

Beer and Butter Tarts

2011-03-16T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sounds like a great title eh? Yes, my Canadian is showing a bit here.

About a year or so ago, my mom was hosting her book club. The selection of the month was Welcome Home, Stories in Small Town Canada by Stuart McLean (great book if you have a chance to check it out). As hostess for her book club she needed a menu to offer. She wanted all-Canadian food to match the book and was looking for ideas. My first thoughts were bacon and bannock. Surely we have more to Canadian food than that. Once we thought about it the ideas kept coming. Nanaimo Bars, poutine, cherry/cream cheese finger sandwiches, smoked salmon, beaver tails, Malapeque Oysters...now we were on a roll. I don't remember what her final menu included, but I know we had fun coming up with the ideas.

Last week I noticed a button on another foodies blog for Beer and Butter Tarts. I had to check it out. I'm glad I did. Beer and Butter Tarts is an aggregator for Canadian food blogs. I'm proud to say that Whatcha Eatin' is now a part of that venture. Canadians have a great love of food and being such a wide-spread, multicultural country there are all sorts of great foodies out there. Check Beer and Butter Tarts out here or on my sidebar button and enjoy!

Going Vegetarian for Lent

2011-03-11T17:49:00.000-08:00

This past Wednesday marked the beginning of the season of Lent. Lent is the time observed in the Christian calendar as the 40 days before Easter (relating to the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness after His baptism). It has been traditionally observed as a time of prayer and fasting. I've chosen to observe Lent in various ways in the past. This year I felt called to give up meat. I had considered a full Daniel fast of no meat, no dairy and no sweets, but as I'm still nursing my daughter I didn't want to affect my milk supply. I'm not new to a vegetarian diet. I was a vegetarian from the time I was 15 to 24. I've learned a lot about food and cooking since then. I've also developed a love of meat so this should be a good practice of self-denial for me.

I've planned out my first 2 weeks of meal ideas, but I'd love to have suggestions for other dishes to try over the next month and a half. If you have a great idea for a vegetarian dish, please share in the Linky below. I love trying new dishes and can't wait to see all of your fabulous recipes!

Current Vegetarian Meal Ideas

Veg. Chili
Spaghetti
Spanikopita with Greek Salad
Red Lentil Soup
Chinese Mushroom Stir Fry
Sweet Potato Curry
Vegetable Jalfreezi
Aloo Ghobi
Veg Baked Bean and Rice
Greek Pizza

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Cake

2011-03-09T11:47:00.000-08:00

Here it is, my son Jeremy's 4th birthday cake! This is my first cake using marshmallow fondant. I am so pleased with the results! I have stayed away from fondant in the past because let's face it, it looks pretty but tastes disgusting! Marshmallow fondant is different. It looks great and tastes nice and sweet, the way icing should taste. I used a lot of icing dye to get the colours just right. It takes a while to really kneed it into the icing so it has an even consistancy (especially red, the blues and yellow wasn't as much work). The figures I picked up as a set at the Disney store. If I keep making cakes like this, I may have to invest in some more cookie cutters (I could use a set of letters anyway). I used the fondant recipe found here with no adjustments needed.

Tikka Kebabs

2011-02-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

This was a fantastic recent find of mine. I have a couple of amazing cookbooks by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. They are a couple who travels in different parts of the world (mostly Asia) and learn to cook in villages by the locals. They have the most wonderful recipes in beautiful books. This recipe came from Mangoes and Curry Leaves:Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent. It just so happened that this book was the end book on my cookbook shelf. The back cover picture kept staring at me calling my name until I became determined to find out just what that dish was. This is it. As my husband said, this was the best marinade he's ever had. And this is a man who is serious about eating good meat!
The recipe is supposed to be for lamb kebabs (not much in the way of beef recipes in India) but seeing as we do eat beef here and good lamb is harder to come by, I used beef instead of lamb when we did these up. We've had them twice in the past 2 weeks, once without the yogurt in the marinade as I didn't have any on hand and once with. Both versions were good. I even managed to convince my husband to BBQ them for me in the snow - isn't he great?

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder (I used stewing beef in substitution)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tsp minced garlic (or garlic mashed to a paste)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4-1/2 tsp ground black pepper (optional)
lime or lemon wedges

Trim the meat of any excess fat and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Set aside in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, coriander. oil, 1 tsp of the salt, the cayenne, and black pepper. Pour over the meat. Stir with a spoon or your hands to get all the meat surfaces coated with marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or for as long as 12 hours.
Thread the meat onto metal skewers, without pressing them tightly together, grill over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until browned on the outside and pale pink in the centre (or all the way through if you prefer).
Just before serving, sprinkle about 1 tsp of salt over the meat. Put out lime or lemon wedges so guests can squeeze on fresh juice.
Serve with flatbread.

A few Valentine's Pics

2011-02-19T08:50:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing that I took a picture of these sugar cookies when I did, they didn't last out the day!

Our Valentine's feast went well. The salad was an avocado one that I don't think I'd make again. It was slightly too oily. I liked all the ingredients though (avocado, tomato, feta, corn), maybe next time I'd up the amount of lime juice and hold back a bit on the olive oil. The steak I did in Montreal Steak Spice and fried it in the cast iron skillet with the onions. It was perfect!. The shrimp were cooked in garlic butter and also came out perfect (don't you like the hearts I made with the shrimp?)

The potatoes were the find of the evening. I tossed them in a little olive oil with herbes de provence and roasted them for over an hour in a baking dish (turning occasionally). So yummy! We did follow up with strawberries in chocolate, but no picture for that. Hope your V-Day feast was just as yummy!

Plans for Valentine's Day

2011-02-12T18:57:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is one of those holiday/non-holidays that I can take or leave. When I was single, I spent many a Valentine's Day dressed in black with my other single girlfriends, treating ourselves out to a nice dinner and then having a fantastic time letting guys buy us drinks and dancing the night away.
When my husband and I began dating I made him cookies for our first Valentine's Day. He loved that. He's a sucker for homemade gifts. The cookie theme stuck throughout our courtship (including me express posting packages of them to him when he was in college across country). Incidentally, we had cookies for guest treats at our wedding instead of the traditional party mints to keep with the theme.
We've had a variety or Valentine's dates over the years. One of the most memorable we spent at a cooking class that was advertised as a romantic night of cooking for two. There were other couples there ready to learn and feast with this great chef. The funny part (and unromantic part) was the lone single woman who kept inturrupting the chef and the company host who insisted that the chef portion out small to us. She was also a rather brash personality that just did not add to the ambiance of it. We ended up picking ourselves up a burger afterwards so we wouldn't go hungry. Ahh well, we tried.
This year we are on a rather strict budget so no going out date. We have become experts at the at home date, once the kids are in bed.
Kids see Valentines Day as something special too. What kid doesn't get excited about all the cards being exchanged with friends. Never mind all the heart cut-outs and small school celebration attached to it. Anything to break the routine of day to day school.
I like to do a little something for my kids on Valentines day - nothing too big (it's not a second Christmas) but a little treat because I love them. I went to a card-making craft session on Friday and make everyone some cute Valentines. And I've stocked up on Hershey's kisses and cinnamon hearts to have on the table on Monday. Do you want to see the cute jam heart breakfast sandwiches I'll be making? I got this idea on Chatelaine's website here. Cute eh?

What I didn't realize until today is that I do not have heart shaped cookie cutters of my own. That's just not right! I did pick some up at the dollar store this afternoon. I'm planning on making some sugar cookies with my boys tomorrow. Always a great treat.
Here's my favorite sugar cookie recipe. It is from Mrs. Field's Best Cookie Book Ever.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt with a whisk, set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture, Blend on a low speed just until combined, don't overmix. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate one hour until firm.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into fun shapes. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

And for our Valentine's dinner - here's the planned menu (shh, don't tell my husband, it's a surprise for him!) - Basically, it's his favorite meal. Avacado salad, Shrimp in garlic butter, steak, baby potatoes followed with strawberries dipped in chocolate. Sounds good, doesn't it?
What kind of plans do you have for your Valentine's Day this year?

Shepherd's Pie

2011-02-01T12:00:00.000-08:00

I love this recipe for a cold winter's night. It is the tastiest shepherd's pie I've ever had. I use Jean Pare's recipe from Cooking for Two, but I double it each time. Here are the measurements for a double recipe (which feeds my family of 5 nicely). You can of course halve it to make the smaller 'for 2' dish.

2 tsp cooking oil
1 lb lean ground beef
2 1/2 cups chopped onion

2/3 cup water
4 tsp beef bouillon powder
2 medium carrots, sliced thinly or diced (I dice them)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
sprinkle each of salt and pepper

2/3 cup frozen peas

3 cups cooked mashed potatoes
2 tbsp milk (to mix into the mashed potato)
sprinkle of salt (to mix into the mashed potato)
sprinkle of paprika

Heat cooking oil in frying pan. Add ground beef and onion. Scramble-fry until beef is browned and onion is soft. Drain.

Combine the next 7 ingredients in saucepan. Stir. Heat to boiling. Cook slowly until carrot is tender. Add peas. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add ground beef mixture. Stir. Pack into a casserole dish.

Cover with mashed potato. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake, uncovered in 350* oven for about 30 minutes, until very hot.

Homemade Ravioli and Tortellini- 3 different fillings

2011-01-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

First, I'm going to admit that this was supposed to be just homemade ravioli. Unfortunately for me, I had a little lesson in homemade pasta storage. My beef raviolis stuck together overnight and broke apart a little when I pulled them apart. Fortunately, I re-shaped them into tortellinis and they were delicious. My cooking counterpart was much more clever than I, putting a liner of plastic wrap down in between each layer of raviolis in her container. She had no problems :o)

This is my second go at making pasta. A friend has a pasta roller attachment to her Kitchen Aid (2 things I would love to have). She kindly brought it over and we had a great morning of pasta making. We made 3 different kinds of fillings between the two of us. All turned out. All were yummy.

Here's a few step by step pictures of laying out the ravioli.

Use a pasta cutter (or pizza cutter like we did) - spoon a small amount onto the strip, about 2 inches apart. Brush an egg wash around the filling to help seal it later.

Put the matching half over top. Press down around the filling to seal (press out air bubbles). Use your cutter to divide. Press the seals again around the edges.

My friend's beautiful pasta storage job.

Here are the recipes:

Pasta
2 cups flour (we did one batch with 1 1/2 cups white and 1/2 cup whole wheat and then a second batch that was 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat, both worked)
3 eggs
1 tsp water
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until the mixture begins to form a ball. Kneed the dough for a few minutes, sprinkling extra flour as necessary so the dough is not sticky. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Cover 3 with plastic wrap while working with the first one. Flatten out a little by hand or rolling pin and follow your pasta roller's instructions to create the kind of pasta you desire.

Beef and Cheese Filling
½ lb Ground Beef
3 oz Parmesan Cheese (I omitted, she used, both were good)
¼ Onion
2 – 3 cloves Garlic (I used 3, she used 1, again both were good)
1 Egg
some Fresh Oregano
some Fresh Parsley
(I didn't have fresh herbs on hand, I used some Italian seasoning, plus some dried oregano and dried parsley)

Chop and mince garlic and onion.
Grate parmesan cheese
Brown ground beef.
Add in chopped garlic and onion and finish browning beef.
Drain browned ground beef, garlic and onion in colander.
Chop or process fresh oregano and parsley.
Add oregano and parsley to browned ground beef, garlic and onion.
Beat or whisk an egg and stir into mixture.

*recipe courtesy of http://www.culinarysavant.com

Artichoke and Cream Cheese Filling

2 green onions, chopped
8 artichoke hearts, cut into quarters (I used marinated)

1 1/2 tbsp butter

salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup cream cheese

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add green onions and artichoke hearts. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Saute over medium-low heat for about 15 minutes

Place into a bowl and puree with a hand blender (or put into a food processor and do the same). Add cream cheese and egg. Continue to blend everything together.

*Adapted from Artichoke Filling for Ravioli or Tortellini on Food.com

Butternut Squash and Cheese Filling

1 1/2 C baked butternut squash

1/2 cup strained ricotta cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Blend all ingredients together

My friend served this one the following way: "sautéed shallots in a lot of butter, tossing in chopped walnuts and lots of sage at the end for a few minutes and then poured it over the squash ravioli as a topping" She said is was delicious.

Tim Horton's Breakfast Sandwich - Copycat recipe

2011-01-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

I've posted before how much I love the Tim Horton's Breakfast sandwich. I order the egg and cheese on a tea biscuit. It is such a yummy way to start the day (especially with French Vanilla coffee to accompany it). I've never quite figured out how to do the egg part. It completely eluded me. At home, I've been making a cross between an Egg McMuffin and a Tim Horton's breakfast sandwich for a few years now. Today, I figured it out. Now that I know what I'm doing, it's so easy! I'll let you in on the secret.

Biscuit Recipe

2 Cups Flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 tsp onion powder
3/4 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 450*
Mix all the dry ingredients together. Use a pastry cutter to add in the margarine until it's really nice a crumbly looking. Stir in the milk (dough will be quite sticky).
Flour a flat surface and kneed the dough until soft and workable (flour your hands really well too for this). Roll out about 1/2 inch thick. Use a circle cutter (I use one of my kids plastic cups, about 2'' in diameter) to cut out the biscuits. Place on non-stick sprayed sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. I err on the side of less time to avoid burning and keep the baking sheet on a higher up rack. This recipe makes a dozen biscuits.

The Egg part

Spray a coffee cup with non-stick spray. Crack an egg into it. Mix well. Add a little salt, pepper and parsley flakes to season. Mix. Cook in a microwave for 1 minute on high heat.

Putting the Sandwich together

Cut one biscuit in half. Lay a slice of cheese* on the bottom. Put the egg on top of the cheese. Top with the top half of the biscuit. Enjoy!

*Processed cheese slices are what they use at Tim's. Now that you know what to do at home you can mix it up a bit with different cheeses. Add a slice of ham or bacon if you like.

Super-Easy Banana Muffins

2011-01-19T07:40:00.000-08:00

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that my middle child is really picky about fruits and vegetables. He seems to only be able to eat them when they are in another form, so I'm always on the search for ways to get them in him. I found this recipe on food.com. It is the easiest banana muffin recipe ever! Very tasty and moist. And my son loved them, he ate 3 the first day we made them. *I know these aren't the healthiest option out there, but man are they good!

1 cup Miracle Whip (I used Hellman's Mayonnaise instead)
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
4 bananas (mashed with a fork)
1 tsp baking soda

Hand mix ingredients together. Fill muffin tins with batter. Bake at 325 for about 25 minutes (or until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean). Makes 12 muffins.

Daisy flower birthday cake

2011-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

My darling baby girl turned one today! Here's the cake I made for her. I have to say it's fun to make a cake for a little girl. My husband thinks this is my best cake to date. I don't know if that's true, but I think it's pretty cute :o)

Cajun Bagel Crisps

2011-01-10T08:05:00.000-08:00

These were a super tasty find in my Christmas Gifts from the Kitchen book this year (Jean Pare, Company's Coming). They aren't just for Christmas snacking, they will do well year round. Easy to make and yummy to snack on. We munched on these plain, with cream cheese and with cream cheese and smoked salmon. All good!

2 large bagels (they suggest trying a savory flavour, but we just used plain)

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated

Cut bagels in half crosswise. Cut each half into 1/8 (3 mm) half-moon slices. Arrange in a single layer on greased baking sheets (I just sprayed mine with Pam).

Combine the next 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Brush both sides of the bagel slices with the margarine mixture.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake in 400* oven for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. Cool. Makes about 2 1/2 dozen crisps.

Beirut Tahini Swirls

2011-01-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine lent me this beautiful cookbook. At first glance, you kind of wonder - bread? But truly bread is a connector in cultures globally. Every culture it seems has some sort of take on bread and home baking. I am now on the look to get this book for myself.
This bread was so tasty for my family (though my friend loves it, she did tell me that her family doesn't like it as much, I think you have to love tahini to love this bread).

The authors found this bread while wandering around in Beirut. It's sweet, but not too sweet. Well worth a try.

1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (about)
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil

Filling
3/4 cup tahini
3/4 cup sugar

In a medium bowl, dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water. Stir in 1 cup of the flour, then add the sugar and oil and stir in. Incorporate a second cup of flour, then turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 5 minutes, or until smooth.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let rise for 2-3 hours, until doubled in volume.

Mix the tahini and sugar together and stir until smooth, set aside.

Place a baking stone (or baking sheet) on the middle oven rack and heat the oven to 375*.

Cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. Work 3 at a time, keeping the others covered. Flatten each out on a lightly floured surface, then roll each out to a rectangle about 5x10 inches. Spread 2 1/2 tbsp of filling mixture on top. Roll up each rectangle from the long side to a cylinder, which will stretch as you roll to about 20 inches long. Anchor one end as you coil the rest around (like you are making a snail shell). Tuck the end in on itself. Flatten with the palm of your hand, set aside, covered while you fill and shape the other rectangles.

Return to the first coil and roll out gently with a rolling pin. Roll the other 2 out a little, then return to the first, continue until they are thin, each about 6 ir 7 inches in diameter.

Place the breads on the hot baking stone (or baking sheets) and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and flaky. Transfer to a rack to cool. Shape and bake the remaining 3 pieces of dough while the first 3 are baking. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sweet Potato Curry Puffs

2010-12-29T19:01:00.000-08:00

This little side dish was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants, Suwanna in Saint John. They are kind of a Thai/Samosa type side. I served it alongside a Red Thai Curry Beef. So yummy! I know these aren't exact measurements, but I was making it up and winging it. You get the idea.

Here's what I did. I boiled a few sweet potatoes and then drained and mashed them with a little bit of butter. In a frying pan, I sauteed some diced shallots, grated ginger, and pressed garlic with a teaspoon or so of curry powder. I added the sweet potato and mixed up together, allowing the flavors to work together.

I then took some filo dough, brushed a little melted butter over top. I cut the dough into strips and put a spoonful of potato mix on each at the end. I then folded up the puffs into triangles (like samosas or spanikopitas). I brushed a little more melted butter on top of them and baked them at 425* for about 10 minutes.

They worked out better even better than I hoped and can't wait to make them again.

A Feast of Indian Food

2010-12-22T05:34:00.000-08:00

I don't think there's a week that goes by in our house without me making one kind of curry or another. All of these recipes came from 2 of my favorite cookbooks. I became so addicted the the Bhajis, I made them again the following week. So tasty (and probably terrible for you, but great with a glass of beer)

Jamie Oliver's Vegetable Bhajis
One of my favorite discoveries this year.

2 large carrots (I used sweet potato instead the second time I made these and they were just as good)
a 4 inch piece of ginger root
2 medium red onions (I substituted the equivalent in shallots)
2-3 red chilies (I didn't have these so I used jalapenos instead)
a large bunch of fresh cilantro
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp tumeric
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp sea salt
1 heaped cup self rising flour (I don't carry this on hand, I used one cup all purpose flour plus 1 1/2 tsp baking powder)
1 quart vegetable oil
a piece of potato (to test oil heat)
juice of 1 lemon
2 limes (optional)

Prep
Peel and grate or shred the carrots, ginger and red onions and put them into a large bowl. Finely chop the chiles and add to the bowl. Roughly chop the cilantro. Add the mustard seeds, tumeric, cumin seeds, salt and chopped cilantro to the bowl, Add the flour, plus 1/2 cup of cold water and scrunch together using your hands. The mixture will be messy and thick.

Cooking
Use a deep fat fryer if you have one, which I don't. I used a large cooking pot. Add the oil. Drop in a piece of potato - when it floats to the surface and begins to sizzle, the oil is ready. Remove the potato using a slotted spoon. Pick up a tbsp of the bhaji mixture, press it together and carefully lower it into the hot oil. Repeat so you are cooking several at once. Cook for 5 minutes until they are crispy and golden. Remove using the slotted spoon and put them on some paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with a little salt and squeeze of lemon juice (I skipped that part). Repeat with other bhajis.
Serve with lime wedges.

*Bhajis can be made with all sorts of vegetables, just keep the onions the same.

Jamie Oliver's Vindaloo

2 medium onions
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 red chiles (I left this out, I knew the vindaloo paste would make it hot enough for me without)
a thumb sized piece of ginger
a small bunch of fresh cilantro
4 ripe tomatoes (I didn't have on hand so I used 4 canned tomatoes instead)
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1 3/4 pounds meat (he suggests pork shoulder, I used chicken)
1/2 cup vindaloo or hot curry paste (Patak's is the best)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 cup plain yogurt
1 lemon

Prep
Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Finely slice the chile. Pee and finely slice the ginger. Pick the cilantro leaves and finely chop the stalks. Cut the tomatoes into quarters.

Cooking
Use a large casserole type pan. Put it on medium to high heat with a little oil and the butter. Add the onions, garlic, chile, ginger, and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden. Add the meat and the curry paste. Stir well to coat everything with the paste and season with a little salt and pepper. Add the tomoatoe, balsamic vinegar, honey and 1 2/3 cup water and stir again. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat and let simmer for 45 minutes. Check and stir regularly to keep the meal from catching on the pan. Add extra water if you need it. Serve over rice (basamati is best for Indian curries)

Dal with Coconut Milk (from Mangoes and Curry Leaves)

This is a dish from Sri Lanka, and so tasty. Don't get over excited about the coconut milk like I did and add too much, stick with the measurements listed to make a nice, thick dal.

1 cup masur dal, washed (orange-red lentil)
5 cups water

1 tbsp veg oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp minced shallots or red onion
6-8 fresh or frozen curry leaves
2-3 dried red chiles
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
1 cup coconut milk

Put dal in a medium pot with the water. Bring to a boil, reduce the head to a low simmer and cook fo 20 minutes. Keep warm over low heat.
Heat a wok or heavy skillet over medium high heat and add the oil.. Toss in the garlic and shallots and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the curry leaves, chiles and ground coriander. Mix well and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the salt and coconut milk. Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the tempering mixture to the dal and simmer for a for minutes to blend the flavors. The thicker you simmer it the thicker it will get.

Candy Cane Cookies

2010-12-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

This little twist on the traditional sugar cookie is just what we needed to jump start our Christmas baking. It was so easy to do. Make your regular sugar cookie recipe. Add 1/4 cup* of crushed candy cane to the dough, mix it in well. Bake as usual

Once the cookies are done baking let them cool for just a couple of minutes, then press them one by one into a mix of equal parts icing sugar powder and crushed candy cane (3 tbsp of each). So tasty!

To crush your candy canes, put about 8 regular sized ones into a ziplock bag. Cover with a tea towel. Pound with a rolling pin or a meat hammer until the candy is in little bits.

Here's my favorite sugar cookie recipe. It is from Mrs. Field's Best Cookie Book Ever.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, combine flour and salt with a whisk, set aside. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla, beat until well mixed. Add the flour mixture, Blend on a low speed just until combined, don't overmix. Gather the dough into a ball, flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate one hour until firm.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough into fun shapes. Bake for 13-15 minutes.

*1/4 cup candy cane was added to half of the dough, the other half I baked as directed.

Pita Pizzas with a Kick - a guest post

2010-12-02T18:29:00.000-08:00

My husband has been creating in the kitchen again. Here's his great twist on our pita pizzas!

Cooking never has to be boring. If you cooking is boring and you are tired of the same old flavors then you need to mix it up a bit. One of my favorite ways to mix it up lately is to add a twist of Indian. I used this recipe from AllRecipies.com and added a half a teaspoon of Patak’s Vindaloo Curry Paste. Yum! I kept the quantity small enough so as not to override the flavor of the pizza sauce, but to add a twinge of Indian kick. The result: wow!

Ingredients:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

Pepperoni

Cheddar (grated)

Feta Cheese (grated)

15 Kalamata Olives

What gives these pita pizzas such a gourmet flavor is the flavor of the ingredients themselves. Lately, Kristen and I have switched from using Red Bell Peppers to Long Sweet Red Peppers. They have a robust flavor. You don’t need a lot of feta cheese to add great flavor. The onions and peppers are sweet, the feta and the Kalamata olives are bitter and salty. This pizza sauce has a wonderful taste even without the “Indian Kick”, due to the garlic, herbs, and honey. Slice up the vegetables, grate the cheese, remove the pits from the olives and slice them up. (I prefer Kalamata olives in brine to canned sliced olives as they have much more flavor.)

Cover the pitas with as much sauce as you like. Add the pepperoni, onion, pepper, olives, cheese, and then bake at 350 for 20 min. Enjoy your gourmet pita pizzas!

Another variation on these pizzas:

2 Greek Pitas

Pizza Sauce w/ Indian Kick

½ Red Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 shallot (thinly sliced)

¼ Onion (thinly sliced)

½ Jalapeno Pepper (thinly sliced)

1 clove of Garlic (crushed)

6 oz Rotisserie Chicken (cut in chunks)

1 tsp Olive oil

Cheddar Cheese

Feta Cheese

Kalamata olives

In a small fry pan lightly sauté the thinly sliced shallots, onion, garlic, and Jalapeno pepper in Olive oil, and then cool. Cover the pitas with pizza sauce, add onion, garlic, shallot mix, and spread evenly. Add chunks of chicken, red pepper, and Kalamata olives. Finish with cheese and bake at 350 for 20 min on a baking sheet. Enjoy!

Pizza Sauce:

Pizza Sauce Recipe from AllRecipies.com

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees

F/45 degrees C)

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

salt to taste

In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.

Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired.

Making Pasta

2010-12-01T08:46:00.000-08:00

Last week, a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to come by and make pasta with her. I've never used a pasta maker before so I was pretty excited to see how it worked. It was surprisingly easy, just time consuming. But time flies by when you are creating in the kitchen with a friend. Here's the recipe and how it all went.

2 cups flour (we did one batch with 1 1/2 cups white and 1/2 cup whole wheat and then a second batch that was 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat, both worked)
3 eggs
1 tsp water
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until the mixture begins to form a ball. Kneed the dough for a few minutes, sprinkling extra flour as necessary so the dough is not sticky. Cut dough into 4 pieces. Cover 3 with plastic wrap while working with the first one. Flatten out a little by hand or rolling pin and follow your pasta roller's instructions to create the kind of pasta you desire. I made fetuccini noodles with mine, and my friend made lasagna. I'll be posting the alfredo sauce my husband made to go with it soon.

getting set to mix

the dough

me using the pasta roller to flatten the dough down

cutting the noodles

The noodles drying

Babyfood Recipes

2010-11-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

A few months back I posted how I was going to attempt to make all of my daughter's food. She is 10 months old now and I have been successful at it. Yay! It's been a lot easier than I thought it would be. I thought I would share a few of my recipes and tips with you all.

Chicken and Veggies

I usually buy a rotisserie chicken when I go shopping to use in meals. To use it with baby food, I take about a cup of meat and chop it up. I add it to a baked squash or a few baked sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl. Add a little bit of chicken broth and puree with a hand blender. She loves it.

Beef Stew

1 pound stewing beef - cut into 1 inch slices
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 potatoes, peeled and sliced into chunks
1 cup frozen peas
enough water to cover the food
1 tbsp beef boullion

Boil everything together until the meat and veggies are soft. Add water as necessary. Puree with a hand blender.

Apricots and ?

To make a good apricot puree, re-hydrate dried apricots with a enough water to cover them up. Boil for about 10 minutes. Puree right in the pot. I like to make apricot plus another fruit mix. To make apricots and bananas, I take 2 bananas, slice them and lay them out on a piece of aluminum foil. Scoop a good portion of the apricot puree on top. Add a little bit of vanilla (1 tsp). Wrap the fruit up into a package and bake it at 325 for 20 minutes. Once the fruit is all soft, empty the packet out into a mixing bowl and puree everything together with a hand blender. I do the same with apricot and apple, just substitute a couple of peeled, cored and sliced apples for the banana. And yes, I've done this with just the apple and banana and it works great too. Very tasty!

How to store your baby food:

Spoon into ice cube trays. I label the trays with a dry-erase marker so I remember what's in there. The next day pop the cubes into freezer bags, make sure to label them and date the food, so you know what you have and when you made it. Baby food in the freezer can be kept and used for 3-6 months. Thawed food can be kept refrigerated for a couple of days. The great thing with the cubes is that there is very little waste. You get a good sense of how much your little one will eat and you just need to defrost/heat that much. I usually microwave 2-3 cubes for about 40 seconds. But be sure to stir and check the temperature before you serve it. You don't want your baby to get a burnt tongue from a hot spot. Have fun and be creative!

Authentic Tacos with Pico de Gallo

2010-11-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

A classmate of my husband is from Texas. He came home rather excited last week because he got it. What did he get? Her taco recipe. We are not talking tacos with the package mix here. We are talking real, good tacos. The best tacos I've ever had, ever! He was kind enough to write out the recipe for me to share with y'all too. Here it is:

1 lb of Ground Beef

2 Jalapeno Peppers (For a medium heat. You can add more if you want more heat.)

2 Onions

4 Roma Tomatoes

½ Bunch of Cilantro

1 Lime

½ Red or Yellow Pepper

Iceberg Lettuce

¾ can of Whole or Diced Tomatoes w/ juice.

1 Tablespoon of Ground Cumin

1 Teaspoon of Oregano

a pinch of sugar

Beef Stock

Make Pico De Gallo:

Dice one onion, four Roma tomatoes, ½ a Jalapeno Pepper. Finely chop ½ bunch of Cilantro, and squeeze all the juice from the lime. (A trick for juicing a lime is to roll it along a surface, such as a cutting board, using the palm of your hand. Apply enough pressure onto the lime to break it up inside without breaking the skin. Then cut it open and squeeze the juice out into the bowl). Mix ingredients well and refrigerate. It is best to make the Pico de Gallo a few hours before you plan to serve the Tacos.

Taco Beef:

Dice the other onion, ½ red or yellow pepper, and finely dice 1 ½ Jalapeno Peppers. (Be careful when cutting or grating Jalapeno peppers by hand as the oils on your hands can will cause a burning sensation when anything your hands come into contact with (eyes, nose, face, etc.) Saute the ground beef with the onions and peppers, until the beef is almost browned. Add the canned tomatoes, Cumin, Oregano, sugar and beef stock. (I mix the beef stock with water and just add 1 tablespoon of liquid.) Bring mixture to a boil, and then turn down and allow it to simmer for 20 min.

Fixins:

Serve the taco meat with shredded iceberg lettuce, grated cheese (we like sharp cheddar), Pico de Gallo, sour cream, warmed taco shells. Enjoy!

Inside Out Caramel Apples

2010-11-18T08:18:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of good recipes, this one was passed on from a friend who saw it somewhere else. My friend found it on Random Thoughts of a Supermom (original post here). They looked easy and yummy and seeing as I haven't had much success making real caramel apples, I thought I'd try it out. Okay the picture does not do the yumminess of this justice at all. But trust me, it's tasty. My 6 year old thought so to.

Basically you take an apple (or several apples). Slice the top off, scoop out the inside core. Put a few sliced mini carmels inside with some chopped peanuts, a little dab of butter and bake at 350* for 30-40 minutes (until the apple is soft). Very tasty on a fall night.

Apple Banana Bread

2010-11-14T19:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, I am really behind on my posting. It's a funny cycle food blogging isn't it? I get inspired by all the wonderful recipes you all post and start experimenting in the kitchen. And then I get busy with the kids and everything else going on in my life and suddenly I realize I have a stack of photos waiting to be posted on. Oh well, after a couple of years of food blogging I have come to the conclusion that I don't enjoy it if I pressure myself to be posting all the time. The recipes will still be there for when I get a good chunk of time on the computer.

Here's a lovely recipe I found last month on Lauren's Kitchen (original post here). My son loved it so much that I made it twice within a week. He wanted it for breakfast and in his lunchbox for school. It's really easy and a great way to use up those bananas you've got frozen in your freezer.

1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 stick butter - I had to look this up, 1 stick = 1/2 cup butter, the 2nd time I made it I substituted applesauce for the butter and it worked great.
3 ripe bananas (mashed)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 or 3 peeled, chopped apples

Beat sugar, eggs and butter. Add bananas and mix together. Add baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, and flour. Mix. Fold in chopped apples. Fill greased and floured bread pans 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour - I have a slow oven so I baked this for a little bit longer, just keep checking for when the top is nice and golden and a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it in the middle of the bread.

Peanut Butter Bars

2010-11-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

I am a Reese's Pieces addict. I absolutely love munching on them - too much! These squares were my attempt to make something similar in my own kitchen and they were a pretty good match. Very yummy. As you can see my 3 year old loved them too.

Crust
24 Graham Crackers, crushed finely
1/4 cup melted margarine
1/4 cup melted chocolate chips

Mix everything together and spread out over an 8 inch square baking dish. Bake at 350* for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Middle
1 1/2 cups smooth peanut butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Mix everything together. *Add the sugar to the peanut butter one cup at a time to get a good consistency. Spread over the crust once the crust is cool.

Topping
1/4 cup melted chocolate chips

Spread over the middle while the chocolate is still hot.

Allow the squares to set for an hour in the fridge. I've been keeping these in the freezer which works great too.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

2010-11-06T20:20:00.000-07:00

Just because Oct. 31st has passed does not mean that the time for eating pumpkin is through (esp. you American friends of mine with your Thanksgiving coming up!). Roasted pumpkin seeds are an easy, healthy snack that are so tasty.

Here's what you do:

As you scoop out the 'pumpkin guts', comb through with your fingers to lift the seeds out (they come out pretty easy). Set them in a bowl of water and allow them to soak to help clean them off.
Rinse the seeds, take off any remaining bits of orange.
Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray (I know we are going to use a little oil later, but this part helps too).
Spread the seeds over the baking sheet.
Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil (don't drench them)
Sprinkle with a little bit of salt.
Bake at 300* for half an hour-45 minutes - check every so often to flip them so they don't catch and burn.
Set the seeds in a bowl lined with paper towel (this will blot off any excess oil)

*I like the basic olive oil and salt, but you can have fun with other seasonings too, like garlic powder, cayenne, season salt, onion powder, or mixed seasonings (Cajun, Tex-Mex etc).

Making Pancakes Better

2010-11-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that our family loves pancakes. I decided to spruce up the regular Saturday morning pancakes a couple of times this past month. The first surprise my kids were delighted with. I remember having Mickey Mouse pancakes as a kid and loving them. They are really east to do. Pour the larger centre first and the two smaller ears. My youngest called them "Toodles!" (which you'll know if your own is a fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). The letters I've been wanting to try my hand at for a while. I filled an icing dispenser with pancake mix and did the writing. Everyone got their own letter (1st initial). They were cute (and yummy) and the kids loved them!

The next big of sprucing up I did was for a box mix. I'm not big on box mixed pancakes (I prefer mine from scratch). But we had some in the house that needed eating up. I made them better by:
-grating a peeled apple into the mix
-adding a little vanilla
-adding a little cinnamon
They were so good! It reminded me of eating churros in Disneyland.

They were also my daughter's first pancakes - I think she liked them!

For more pancake fun check out this guy: Jim's Pancakes

Sizzling Calamari Al Diavolo

2010-10-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

This kitchen experiment of mine (like any good recipe) has a back story. My husband I both enjoy eating out, a lot more than we should. In fact at one point we were going broke because we were eating out way too much. The funny thing is that we both like to cook and we are both good cooks. I think we were just tired. We also were finding it increasingly difficult to order when we were out because we didn't want to order anything that we could make at home (and better). We both have a kind of agreed upon policy to order things we can't make at home just as good.
One of our favorite chains to eat at is East Side Mario's. And I pretty much order the same thing every time. Sizzling Calamari Al Diavolo to start and then their Seafood Linguini. The Calamari dish was a fluke when we once ordered regular calamari and they brought us this by mistake. We were instantly hooked. I love this dish.
We are now pretty much reformed from eating out. Eating out has become a treat for once in a while once again. So it really was a treat to stop at East Side Mario's on our way home from a camping trip this August. And of course I had the Calamari. Since then I'd been thinking that there must be some way to make this. We have a cast iron skillet after all. Then last week at my grocery shop a bag of calamari just jumped out at me from the freezer section. I bought it. Last night I did my best to imitate East Side Mario's recipe. Their menu gives a few clues on what's in it. The rest is just my guess work. I was really happy with the results. So was my husband. He said I got the flavor bang on. Yay me!

East Side Mario's Menu reads:
Sizzling Calamari Al Diavoli
Lightly seasoned calamari with garlic, onions, read, green and hot cherry peppers served in a tomato broth. Spicy!

I couldn't find any cherry peppers, so used a jalapeno instead. I also realized I was out of green peppers, so I substituted a yellow in it's place. Here's my recipe:

1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, cut into chunks
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks (can use green)
4 cloves garlic, chopped into small pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup fajita cooking sauce (I used PC Brand Memories of Mexico, but I think any tomato based fajita sauce would work)
2 tsp chicken bouillon powder
up to 1 cup water
2 tsp Tex-Mex seasoning
a few shakes Franks Red Hot Sauce
1 pound pre-breaded frozen calamari (this would be even better if you made your own breaded calamari I think)

Drizzle a cast-iron skillet with olive oil over medium heat. Add the veggies. As the veggies begin to soften add the fajita sauce, chicken bouillon, Tex-Mex seasoning, and Frank's Red Hot Sauce. Mix together. Let the veggies cook slowly to soften well. Don't be tempted to cook it fast or it will burn. Drizzle a little water as needed to keep the food from catching, but don't drown it. Once everything is cooked to done, add the calamari and mix in. Cook for just a couple of minutes to heat the calamari up (cooking too long will leave calamari rubbery). Serve immediately.

*The next time I make this, I'm going to try to deep fry the calamari and then mix it in, just to try to improve the texture a bit. Otherwise, really yummy.

**Edit Update - I made this again, but baked the calamari according to package directions first, then added it to the veggie mix. It was delicious! Much better than adding the calamari in without cooking it first.

DIY Beefaroni

2010-10-27T11:58:00.000-07:00

This is an extremely kid-friendly, fall yummy sort of meal. It is also super-easy.

1lb beef
1/2 onion chopped finely
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 large can tomato sauce (we used our homemade stuff.)
1 can (small) tomato paste
1-2 tbsp Italian seasoning
2 cups uncooked macaroni
Mozzerella cheese (grated)

Cook macaroni according to package directions. While macaroni is cooking, saute the beef in a large frying pan with the garlic, onions and Italian seasoning. Once the beef is browned add the tomato sauce and paste. Mix everything together well. Drain the macaroni and add to the mixture. Add as much grated cheese as you desire (about 1/2 cup - 1 cup works well). Mix everything together to melt the cheese in. Serve and enjoy!

The Best Chili!

2010-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

For the first few years of our marriage, I'd make chili and my husband would eat it, but not enjoy it. The problem is that he really, really loves chili, but I couldn't seem to find a recipe that he liked. So I stopped making chili altogether. That was it. If I wanted chili, I'd get a bowl from Tim Horton's or Wendy's. Now that the fall weather is here, I was craving chili again. I thought I would scour my favorite blogs and recipe sites until I found the perfect recipe and make it. My friends, I have found that recipe. This was the perfect chili. And yes, my husband enjoyed it too. This is my keeper. I found it on food.com (formerly Recipezaar.com) and it is delicious. The only differences that I did with this recipe was use our homemade tomato sauce instead of canned, increased the onion to half an onion, and added a finely chopped green pepper to the mix. Other than that I made it according to her directions. So enjoy, the perfect chili.

Seasoning Mix

* 4 tablespoons chili powder
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon oregano
* 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Mix together seasoning mix.
Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.

* 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
* 1 tablespoon minced onion (I used half and onion instead, I also added a chopped green pepper)
* 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
* 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
* 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans

-In a skillet, cook ground beef until no longer pink.
-Drain.
-Add onion and 3 tsp of seasoning mix.
-In Crock-Pot, add tomatoes, tomato sauce, one can of beans (drain and rinse the beans) and two more teaspoons of seasoning mix.
-Place the other can of beans (drain and rinse the beans first) in a blender and process until smooth.
-Add beans and meat to the crock pot.
-Stir together.
-Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.

Canning Applesauce

2010-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic time apple picking this year. But you know how it is, apple picking goes so fast that the kids fill your bags with more apples than you can possibly use. But this is the year I started canning, so I thought I'd make a little (read a LOT) more applesauce than usual. My kids love it. I looked up a bunch of recipes on sites I like and then thought I would just do the math to make a large batch of the applesauce recipe that I used last year. That recipe was posted by Heidi of Tried and True Cooking with Heidi. It is the best applesauce I've had. You can find the original recipe here. I used 38 apples in my canning version (although it would have been easier to use 40, now that I'm thinking about it, so I'll post as if I used 40 apples)

Yield: 5 litres of applesauce

40 apples
7.5 cups of water
2.5 cups of sugar or Splenda
5 tsp cinnamon

Peel and slice all your apples. Place all of the ingredients into a large stock pot and mix. Cook until the apples are soft, stirring occasionally. Use a hand blender to puree.
Prepare your canning jars and lids. I think you can use a water bath for canning applesauce, but I have been schooled in the safety of pressure canning. I pressure canned this for about 20 minutes at 11 psi which worked beautifully.

Beef Stroganoff

2010-10-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

This is super tasty fall comfort food. I adapted a recipe I found for a venison stroganoff, using stewing beef instead of venison, mini-portabellos and a crock pot. The result was absolute yum.

1 pound stewing beef - chopped into 1 inch pieces
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 pound fresh mushroom, chopped or sliced
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup water
1 tbsp instant beef bouillon
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup sour cream

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Mix the flour and paprika together in a medium mixing bowl. Add beef and coat. Once the beef is coated, sear it in the heated olive oil. Remove from heat once all sides of the cubes are done. (throw away the excess flour)
Spray a crockpot with non-stick spray. Throw in the beef and the remaining ingredients except the sour cream and mix well. Cook at low heat for 6-8 hours. Add the sour cream at the end, mixing it in. Serve over egg noodles or rice.

Oh the Habanero

2010-10-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Friends of ours grow their own peppers each year. They know that we are foodies like them (as we often trade recipe ideas and treats that we have made). This year they grew some habaneros and asked if we would like some. Sure, I've never cooked with them before, being a little fearful of the intense heat, but what the heck.
My first venture out, I decided to add them to a batch of salsa. The original recipe called for 10 jalapeno peppers, so I wasn't sure exactly how many habanero peppers to put in their place. I looked up the heat charts and thought that 2 would bring the heat up. The salsa turned out well, but not nearly as spicy as I wanted to make it. I think I'd use 4 next time with that volume.
The unfortunate part of that cooking experience was that I just wasn't thinking about handling the peppers. I didn't wear gloves. Oh my word! The undersides of my fingernails were burning. Really really burning. And not thinking again, I tried to wash the oil off my fingers - note to self - water makes the heat re-intensify. Ouch! Thank goodness I remembered not to let the baby suck on my fingers for teething relief until the oils were truly gone.
Today I tried out a recipe for a roasted spicy squash soup. Doesn't that just sound lovely? I mean, I dream of recipes like this for fall. It called for 3 habanero peppers (I used only 2). Okay, I really, really have to learn my ratios for this little pepper. The house smelled so fragrantly wonderful. I roasted the squash and peppers and garlic. I used fresh turkey stock that I made from my Thanksgiving turkey this past weekend. It should have been beautiful. Until I tasted it. Oh mouth on fire! Mouth on fire! My husband laughed at me. But I thought at least he could enjoy it, loving spicy food that is really fiery more than I. Nope, he can't eat it either. At least not a full bowl full. Too bad. Here's the link to the recipe for those who really like heat in their soup.
So now I am not sure what to do with the rest of the peppers. They still sit there inviting me, making me believe that I can use them in something and it will turn out alright. I like spicy, but not so spicy that I can't eat it. I know some of you are better at this than me!
Incidentally, here are a couple of ways I learned you can reduce the heat from a habanero pepper oil on your skin:
-white toothpaste
-soak your hands in a bowl of cold milk

Red Thai Chicken Curry

2010-10-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

I read in a book recently how cliche the love of Thai food in the west is becoming. That people are discovering fish sauce like some great new secret ingredient. It's true, we've got a love affair with Thai food and I'm no exception. I love it. My husband and I have been trying to re-create a red curry that would be as good as the one at our favorite restaurant back home in the Maritimes. This is the closest we have come. It is really, really good!

Two chicken breasts - chopped into large chunks
Half onion - chopped finely
1 shallot - chopped finely
4 cloves garlic - crushed
Small lump of ginger - chopped finely or grated
2 heaping tsp red curry paste - the curry paste you get makes all the difference in the world, our current one of choice is made by Thai kitchen
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of table syrup or brown sugar
Cilantro - a good amount chopped finely
Lime juice 1 small lime
1 tsp butter
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Half can of coconut milk (I like to use the full can a little at a time, my husband uses just 1/2 a can)

I find it helps to get everything prepped first because this meal comes together so quickly. My ingredients are listed a little backwards, so you'll have to work with me on this one.

Fist, heat the oil and melt the butter in a saucepan, or large (deep) frying pan (medium heat so you don't burn the next ingredients). Add the onions, shallots, garlic and ginger. Cook to let them become soft, but don't overcook to let them burn. Add the curry paste, mixing it in to coat the veggies. Add the chicken and let it cook through. Pour the coconut milk over everything as the chicken is cooking. Add the rest of the ingredients and let simmer for a few minutes. Serve over rice.

Salsa - my first canning experience

2010-09-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

We bought a pressure canner! Canning is a venture that my husband and I had long talked about but never did anything about. I have fantastic memories of helping my mom can peaches and cherries and antipasto when I was a kid. (mmm, home canned peaches!).
Getting the canner was more my husband's doing than mine. He really is searching for a great tomato sauce. And he wants to can it. Last week we went to a local farm and got a bushel of roma tomatoes. He used half of them to make a large amount of tomato sauce with the intent to can. He was disappointed with the recipe and decided to freeze his sauce, rather than canning. I happened upon a salsa recipe at one of my favorite blogs, Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I figured that the recipe would be a keeper because I grew up in a town full of Mennonites. I know they really can cook. I've bought their baking and canning at local events. Delicious. This salsa was too. It is a mild salsa and now that I know I can make it, I know I can play with it a bit for next time to turn up the heat. The recipe originally called for water bath canning, but I pressure canned it as pressure canning is a much safer form of canning (no need to make anyone sick on my first canning venture!). I'm really excited about this and look forward to other kinds of canning in the future.

15 lbs Roma tomatoes
3 lg onions
6 - 8 sweet peppers in a variety of colors
6 - 10 jalapeno peppers, seeded, chopped fine
12 garlic cloves, crushed - (I upped this to 20)
2 - 10 oz cans tomato paste
2 cups vinegar
1 cup lime juice (bottled)
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp paprika
2 Tbsp oregano
3 tsp cumin
1 can black beans
1-2 bunches cilantro, chopped - (I used 3 bunches)

Wash and chop tomatoes, adding to pot as you go.
Finely chop onions and peppers, adding to pot.
Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to boil on medium heat.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Ladle into (sterilized) jars, using canning funnel, cover with lids and screw rings.
Place into hot water bath in large canner, bring to boil and process for 20 minutes. (I pressure canned instead, following the instructions with my canner
Remove and allow to cool at room temp. Keep in cool storage.

Pizza Pinwheels - School Lunch Idea!

2010-09-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

The search for a great lunch for my first grader is officially on. I answered the challenge with help from Jean Pare. Jean Pare is the founder of the Canadian company Company's Coming. I happened upon one of their book collections called Kids Cook. It is a 3 in 1 collection (Bag Lunches, After School Snacks and Weekend Treats). These cookbooks were designed with kids in mind. It is geared to teach kids to cook (ages 8 - 15), but my 6 year old can do a lot of it with a little help from me. We sat down together and looked through each recipe with him ticking off the ones that appealed most to him. We decided that the pizza pinwheels would be the first recipe that we would try. They were quick and easy and tasty. He's had them in his lunch as the main part each day this week with no complaints. This will be a repeat recipe for us.

2 1/4 cups Biscuit mix
1/2 cup water
7 1/2 oz can pizza sauce
2 sliced green onions
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped pepperoni
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp dried oregano

Preheat oven to 400*. Stir the biscuit mix and water in a medium bowl until the dough forms a ball. Turn dough onto a counter that has been dusted with flour or biscuit mix. Kneed the dough 20 times. Roll out to a 12 x 12 inch square.

In a separate bowl, mix the remaining 6 ingredients. Spread over the dough leaving an inch space all around the edges. Roll up the dough from one side to the other (like a jelly roll). Pinch the edges to seal. Cut into 12 1 inch slices. Place the slices on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Back for 12 minutes.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf - Amazing!

2010-09-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

I thought I had an amazing chocolate zucchini loaf recipe posted on here, but I was mistaken (until now!) So I visited one of my favorite foodies who always posts good baking, Monica at Lick the Bowl Good. I was right. She has a fantastic chocolate zucchini recipe. Hers is for a bundt cake, but she posted that she has made it as a loaf and muffins before, so I took her word for it and used her recipe. Thank you Monica! This was so delicious. My 3 year old just thought he was eating chocolate bread all week. He had no idea that there was veggies inside. Monica's original recipe can be found here. Take a look.

2/3 cup cocoa
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cup flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
3 cup sugar (plus more for coating pan)
3 cup grated zucchini (4 med. zucchini)
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small mixing bowl combine cocoa and melted butter . Add vegetable oil to cocoa and set aside.

In a medium bowl sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat eggs and slowly add sugar, until thick and light in color. Add cocoa mixture to eggs until well combined, then gradually add flour being careful not to over mix. Once mixture is well incorporated add grated zucchini and vanilla.

Butter or spray pan evenly with non stick spray, then sprinkle with granulated sugar to form a sugar crust. Pour batter into pan about 3/4 full. Place pan in a preheated oven for 65-70 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Angela's Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

2010-09-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

We have been on the quest for the perfect spaghetti sauce for a long while now. When I saw that my old college roommate Angela posted her mom's version during a recent visit home, I knew we had to try it. I remember Mrs. Collins being a good cook. I know Angela is a good cook too (we used to drive our landlords nuts wondering what delicious things we had cooking in the basement). This sauce worked for us. It's quite a large quantity so we made it, took some enough for that night plus a night of leftovers and then divided out the rest, freezing it in the deep freeze. The recipe is (as all good recipes are) made mostly by instinct of cooking over the years. Angela did her best to write it out, but it's not accurate as she will admit. You can find this fantastic recipe on her cooking blog here.

Johnny's Hamburgers

2010-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

One thing we have noticed since living in the big, bad city and not our old small town is the amount of real hamburger joints around. These are the places that have been open for decades, usually run by the original family whose menus haven't changed, ever. They sell the real deal: burgers, fries, shakes, and onion rings. Of course who could resist such places, especially when you see that they are hopping at all hours of the day? We certainly can't.
This is the best we've found yet. Arguably the best burger place in the GTA, Johnny's Charcoal Hamburgers looks exactly as you would imagine it did when it opened. It has the original orange and wood paneling decorating. There isn't a place to sit (unless you count the rickety picnic table out back). The prices are cheap and the food is delicious. Rumor has it that Mike Myers used to hang out here back in the day as a Scarborough youth and I believe it. I would if I was a teenager in the area.
We took our order to go. We ordered 3 cheeseburgers for our family. They are large enough for our kids to share one between them. You can get it made the way you want. The kids just had ketchup, my husband added bacon and got everything. I had mine with fried onions, tomatoes, ketchup, mustard and relish. We ordered sides of fries and onion rings to share and everyone had a shake to finish.
*side note - if going to a place like this get the shake! They are so much better than anything Mickey D's has to offer.
Everything was just as you would hope for a place like this. This won't be the last burger we have at Johnny's.

School Lunch Ideas - Day 1

2010-09-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

My oldest child starts back at school tomorrow. He's beginning grade 1, which means full day school. This also means the start of 187 (give or take) lunches that I will be packing up and sending off to school. Lunch at home is no problem. Lunch for a family picnic is not an issue either. Lunch for school, that's a little trickier. I know that the lunch I pack has to meet the following guidelines:
-no peanut butter
-nut free
-able to eat in a short period of time
-stay fresh for a few hours out of the fridge
-be interesting enough for my son to eat
-something that doesn't need heating up
-be healthy
The problem with the school lunches for me is the main course part of the lunch. I'm not a fan of the everything comes in a package kind of lunch. I know how much salt and preservatives are in those. The only kind of sandwich my son really loves is peanut butter and banana. Great for home, banned from school. He doesn't really like lunch meats (though he will eat one of those sandwiches once in a while) so the traditional sandwich takes a backseat. At home we eat a lot of hot lunches, grilled cheese, tomato soup, chicken noodle soup, macaroni, mini pizzas, etc. Some of those I know I can make and heat and send in a thermos (provided the thermos doesn't leak everywhere).
I know I'm not the only mom struggling for good solutions here. I'd love to hear what other moms have come up with. As we find winning lunches, I'll post them on this blog, hoping to help inspire some of the rest of you. I'd love to hear what winning lunches you have in the comments section too!

Day 1 Lunch
-hummus and pita bread
-sliced strawberries
-vanilla yogurt
-dried fruit snacks
-orange juice

BBQ Chicken Pizza

2010-09-04T06:25:00.000-07:00

This was one of those 'why didn't I think of this before?' recipes. I love BBQ chicken pizza, but I've never made it. It's so easy, I think it may become a regular part of my rotation.

I made 4 of these to enjoy, so you could make 4 different pizzas at once. I think we'll do that next time and let the boys each do their own.

4 Greek Pitas (the thick ones)
Your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cooked chicken breast - chopped (this was from a rotisserie chicken)
1/4 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion (red onion would have been even better)
grated cheese (I used cheddar, but mozzarella's traditional)

Place the pitas onto 2 baking sheets. Spread the ingredients over all of your pitas. Bake at 350* for 15 minutes, or until cheese is starting to become golden. Enjoy!

The Rotisserie Chicken

2010-09-03T17:11:00.000-07:00

I really think that the rotisserie chicken is one of the greatest gifts that grocery stores have given us shoppers. Think about it. You get a perfectly cooked, flavorful chicken, usually for less than the cost if you bought a chicken and cooked it yourself. I get mine at Costco every 2 weeks, only $6.99 (CDN). You can't beat that. These chickens are so versatile. Here's a small sampling of what you can do with one of these. Please let me know your own uses for these chickens in the comments section - I'm always looking for ways to be inspired.

-chicken dinner
-chicken salad sandwiches
-chicken wraps
-chicken nachos
-BBQ chicken pizza
-chicken for baby food
-butter chicken
-chicken curry
-chicken in salad
-chicken burritos

Adventures in Baby food

2010-09-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

No picture of the baby food because let's face it, my daughter is much cuter than mush. Making your own baby food is so easy that I'm kicking myself that I didn't do it more with my first two children. In fact you probably have instant babyfood around your house already (and much cheaper than commercially made food).

Applesauce - a staple in two forms at our place. I always have a large jar of the unsweetened organic kind on hand for baking as well as the individual apple sauce mixes around for the boys (and now girl too). By mixes I mean the apple/peach, apple/grape, apple/berry combos.

Canned Pumpkin - I usually have this in my cupboard for making pumpkin pancakes, or pumpkin bread. You don't need to do anything to it to serve it to baby, just heat it a little and it's ready.

Bananas - this is one I shake my head at. Why oh why do people pay 60 cents or more for a tiny container of baby food banana? This is the easiest and handiest baby food to make. You take a piece of banana and mash it with a fork. That's it.

Avocado - as with the banana, mash it with a fork

Brown Beans/Chickpeas/Kidney Beans etc... - we usually have the canned versions of these in our cupboards. I drain and rinse first and then use a hand blender or food processor to puree.

Peas and other frozen veggies - steam cook, drain and then puree with a hand blender. Add water a little bit at a time to get a nice, fine puree.

Carrots, green beans and other fresh veggies - same as with the frozen veggies. Just make sure you fresh water, not the carrot water when you are puree-ing. That water will have some things in it that isn't good for baby.

Squash and sweet potato - I like to bake these as opposed to boiling them. Bake until soft then puree with a hand blender or food processor. Add a little water to it if you think it is too thick.

Adding Meat - Another wonderful use for those rotisserie chickens. I add some chopped cooked chicken to the sweet potatoes, or squash and then blend it all with a little chicken broth. This would be my daughter's current favorite food.

Mesh feeders - I have a couple of these for my little darling to try harder to puree foods like watermelon fresh apples and cantelope. She loves gnawing away at them and it's great for her teething gums.

That's where we are so far in our food adventures. She does eat the baby food cereals but that's about it as far as commercially sold food goes. It's wonderful to use what we already have around. We're saving money and I think she's getting a better tasting food.

Been Blogging

2010-09-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my newest blog: Crafty Kris. Please take a moment or two to check it out. It's where I'm being creative when I'm not chasing my kids, or in the kitchen, or reading...

Changes

2010-09-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

Notice the new design? I love it! As much as I loved the Cuppy Cakes design that this blog had been sporting, I was ready for a change. I checked back in at my favorite blog designer's site and found this. It is exactly what I was looking for. The site I get my templates from is Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates. I love her designs.
While re-doing the blog I had to remove and then put back all my elements. I hope that I didn't forget someone along the way on my foodie blog list. Let me know if I've accidentally left you off.

Egg White Omelet

2010-08-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

My husband is very much into his own diet plan these days. He is determined that his lunches be 300 calories (or thereabouts). He has a few staples in place and I have to admit that I've picked up this one as one of my new favorite things - the egg white omelet. We've made it a few different ways, but each way starts pretty much the same. It is so tasty and so filling that you really don't need anything else until supper.

The Base - heat a little bit of Olive Oil or margarine in a frying pan over medium heat. Then cook your veggies in it until they are starting to soften. We like to use onion, bell peppers (usually red or yellow), sliced mushrooms (cooking the mushroom through is key) as our regulars. We've also used grated zuchini and sliced tomato. Once your veggies are cooked add the egg white. I add 1/2 cup of egg white (if you don't like just egg whites, mix 1/2 cup egg whites with 1 egg instead) . Let it cook through on one side. Add a little bit of cheese in and flip. The omelet in the picture has cheddar, but the best we've made has feta instead. Let it cook before flipping onto your plate. I have to say I'm no expert at this and it can look pretty messy, but the taste is amazing. Grate a little more cheese on. Add a little salt and pepper or parsley and you're set.

My husband is taking over!

2010-08-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

I was perusing through the past few months worth of pictures looking for recipes I haven't logged in here yet. This is what I found:

BBQ Steak in Jerk Seasoning with roasted veggies and a baked potato.

BBQ chicken with ceasar salad and baked potato
.

Pizza

Deep Fried Shrimp with Red Thai Curry and Rice

Bacon Wrapped Scallops

BBQ Shrimp and Salmon with new potatoes and veg

A Big Salad

Shrimp

These are all fantastic recipes. The only thing is, I didn't cook a single one of them. They are my husband's creations. I'm not complaining. I just find it somewhat humorous. You see, when I first started this cooking blog, my husband saw me taking pictures of the food and said, "What are you doing?". Then he joked about it when company was over, "Oh, we can't eat yet, she has to take a picture". Now, he's taking pictures. I don't know when he was planning on posting these recipes. He's working on his Master's and working part-time. So in the meantime, here are the pictures. One day the recipes may follow.

Spider-Man Cake

2010-08-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that I usually make a wacky cake for my kids birthdays. My oldest son turned 6 last week. He's very into super heroes right now. This is the cake I made for him. To get the shape of Spider-Man's face, I first made a double batch of the wacky cake batter (recipe found here) in a large rectangular pan. I then traced a Spider-Man shaped head on the cake before cutting it out. I scooped out the sides of the cake (and froze them, I mean to make something out of the cake bits later) and then turned the cake over to the foil lined cutting board. I then froze the cake over night. Freezing the cake makes it much easier to decorate. The rest I did by looking at a picture of Spider-Man. The eyes I made by shaping a couple of white chocolate pieces, laying them down on top of the red icing. I did all the black icing last. I am really happy with the result and it turned out to be one of the easier cakes I've done.

Jamie Oliver's Lasagna

2010-08-03T06:54:00.000-07:00

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;I am &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=whaeat-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;o=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;p=8&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=bpl&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;asins=1401323596&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;fc1=000000&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;IS2=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt1=_blank&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;m=amazon&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;bc1=000000&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;f=ifr" style="padding-top: 5px; width: 131px; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" align="left" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=whaeat-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;o=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;p=8&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=bpl&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;asins=1401323596&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;fc1=000000&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;IS2=1&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt1=_blank&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;m=amazon&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;bc1=000000&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;f=ifr" style="padding-top: 5px; width: 131px; height: 245px; padding-right: 10px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" align="left" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>
I am very much in love with this cookbook. I have yet to find a bad recipe in the lot. I find with cookbooks you have to like the author's style of cooking or it's of no use to you. I own probably 20-25 cookbooks but use 5 on a regular basis. This is now part of my regular rotation. What I like about it is that it is simple enough for beginning cooks to use, but interesting enough for those of us who are comfortable in a kitchen to enjoy.

Sauce
*the original recipe uses smoked bacon in it (2 slices), I have a pork intolerance so I left it out
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
olive oil
2 heaped tsp dried oregano
1 pound ground beef
2 x 14 oz cans of tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
small bunch of fresh basil
2 oz parmesan cheese

For the Lasagna

8 oz dried egg lasagna sheets
2 cups creme fraiche or 2 cups thick sour cream (I used the sour cream)
4 oz parmesan cheese
1 large ripe tomato, sliced

Making the sauce

Peel and chop the veggies. Use a large casserole type pan on medium to high heat. Add 2 lugs of olive oil and the oregano. Add the veggies and stir around the pan until veggies are softened. Stir in the beef and the canned tomatoes. Fill one of the empty cans with water and add to the pan. Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper. Pick the basil leaves and place in the fridge for later. Finely chop the basil stalks and stir into the pan. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring every now and again to stop it catching.

Preheat the oven to 375*. Remove the sauce from the heat. Grate the 2 oz of parm into the sauce. Tear and stir in any larger basil leaves, keeping the smaller ones aside for later.

Make the lasagna

Grate the 4 oz of cheese. Boil some water in a large pot. Add all of the lasagna sheets with a drizzle of oil and blanch for about 3-4 minutes. Drain the sheets in a colander and pat them dry. Spoon a third of the sauce into the bottom of a lasagna pan. Follow with a layer of lasagna sheets. Dollop a third of the sour cream or creme fraiche and smooth it out over the lasagna sheets. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper and 1/3 of the grated parm. Repeat the layers twice more, finishing with the layer of sour cream and cheese. Top with some slices of tomato and scatter the basil leaves over top. Drizzle with a little olive oil. Cover with aluminum foil, place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 35 minutes until the lasagna is bubbling and golden. (Total cooking time 55 minutes).

(You'll notice from my picture that I used dried basil instead of fresh, it still tasted good, but fresh basil would have been even better)

Chicken Burritos

2010-07-21T17:19:00.000-07:00

This blog has been seriously neglected for a while. I have a backlog of pictures of meals that haven't been posted. I drifted in my files all the way back to April to find where I left off. These burritos are another way to use that rotisserie chicken meat. They were pretty easy.
vegetable oil
1 onion - sliced into rings
1 red pepper - sliced lengthwise
1 green pepper - sliced lengthwise
tex-mex seasoning
pulled chicken meat
tortillas
fresh cilantro - finely chopped
shredded cheese
sour cream
salsa

Lightly oil a large frying pan. Set heat at medium-low. Add onions and peppers. Sprinkle with Tex-Mex seasoning to your liking. Saute until the veggies are softened. Add the chicken meat, mix and heat through. Remove from heat and set aside
Take a tortilla, add a scoop of chicken/veggie mixture into the centre. Add cilantro. Fold into wraps. Place wraps into a baking dish (lasagna pan size) and bake at 350* for 15 minutes. Top with sour cream and salsa as desired.

Volcano!

2010-06-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

For my husband's birthday this year we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Some of you may know it. It's a themed out restaurant based on (you guessed it) the Rainforest. You know you are in a certain stage of your life when your birthday lunch choice is really more of a treat for your kids than you. We actually did go out for a nice dinner sans kids the week after for our anniversary. As expected the kids loved all the animatronics and the 'storms' that happened every half hour. The price of the food was incredibly marked up (you are paying for the entertainment value of the restaurant!) On the menu that we didn't order, but saw many of was their signature dessert, the Volcano. This $15 baby (yes $15 for dessert) was always brought our by the servers announcing "Vooolllllcaaaannnnoooo" throughout the restaurant. Talk about showing off. Who was the special person that got such a treatment? And they really were flying out of the kitchen that particular day. We opted not to order a volcano. In my mind I did think that it looked easy enough to make...hmmmm.
So I did.
This is what I did:
1 box brownie mix - follow box directions to make brownies, or make your own from scratch - let cool.
On a large plate, scoop up lots of vanilla ice cream into the centre of the plate. Slice your brownies length-wise and form a pyramid over the ice cream. Spray whipped cream 'lava' down each of the brownie sides. Drizzle more 'lava' in the form of chocolate and caramel sauce (heated if possible). Stick a sparkler in the top, light it and call out "Vooooolllllccaaaannnnoooo!" as you carry it out to the guest of honour. Bring lots of forks, this is a lot of dessert, a must share (and then plenty left over).

BTW - my oldest boy thought this was fabulous and loved making it for his dad. My DH thought it was ingenious.
*I don't know why it looks like there were 2 sparklers in the picture above, there really was just one.

This is me being goofy just outside the Rainforest Cafe. I'm supposed to be looking scared of the big snake in the tree, but it looks like I'm being scared of the silly frog instead.

Easy Cinnamon Buns

2010-06-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from Keeper Worthy Recipes, who got it from Ezrapoundcake. See a good recipe really travels around well. What makes these great (besides being delicious) is that there is no yeast involved. They are start to finish less than an hour to do.

Filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
Mix together in small bowl and set aside.

Biscuit Dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
2tbsp packed, brown sugar
2 tsp baking powfer
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp heavy cream (I only used half and half and it worked just fine)

Mix all the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Add 1 1/2 cups of the cream and stir until dough is smooth and forms a ball. Use your hands (floured) to kneed a few times.
On a floured surface, roll dough out until it forms a 9x13 rectangle. Brush remaining cream over it. Sprinkle cinnamon mixture over the dough evenly. From the long side, roll dough into a cylinder. Slice into 9 equal rounds. place the rounds cut side down into a n 8 inch square baking dish or pie plate. Bake 30 minutes at 400*

Icing:
6 tbsp powdered sugar
6 tsp heavy cream

While biscuits are baking, mix the icing together. Drizzle over top the buns when they come out of the oven.

NY Times no-kneed bread

2010-05-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

3 C all purpose or bread flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

In a lg bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 c water. Stir until blended. Dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest for 12-18 hours at room temp (70*).
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it. Sprinkle with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let sit 15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, cornmeal or wheat bran. Place dough seam side down onto towel. Sprinkle with more flour, cornmeal or wheat bran. Cover with another cotton towel. Let rise another 2 hours. Dough will more than double in size and will not readily spring back with poked with a finger.
At least half an hour before the dough is ready, heat oven to 450*. Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When dough is ready carefully remove pot from oven. Slide you hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up. (it may look a mess, but that's okay). Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes (until loaf is browned). Cool on a rack.

Smell of Christmas Pot Pourri

2010-05-26T09:00:00.001-07:00

2 or 3 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
4 cups water
Simmer in saucepan, as water evaporates, just add more

IHOP Country Griddle Cakes

2010-05-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

non-stick spray
1 1/4 c flour
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1/3 c instant cream of wheat (dry)
1 egg
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 c veg. oil
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Cook as you would any other pancake.

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

2010-05-26T08:51:00.000-07:00

broccoli florettes - 2 bunches, separated
3 carrots, diagonally sliced
2 or 3 chicken breasts cut into chunks
1c light mayo
1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp curry - or to taste
grated cheese

Layer chicken and veggies. Mix remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and pour over chicken and veggies. Bake at 350* for 25 minutes. Sprinkle grated cheese over casserole just before it is done and melt cheese over just before serving.

Wild Rice and Turkey Casserole

2010-05-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

2 C cut up cooked turkey or chicken
2 1/4 C boiling water
1/3 C milk
1 small chopped onion (1/4 c)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg seasoned long grain and wild rice.

Mix everything together in a casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350* for 45-50 minutes, or until rice is tender. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more, until liquid is absorbed.

Cold Pizza

2010-05-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

1 pillsbury jumbo crescent roll
1 large philadelphia cream cheese
1 pkg of club house ranch mix
1/3 cup mayo
salad toppings
shredded cheese

Lay squares of crescent roll flat on pizza sheet and press seams together. Bake at 350* until golden brown. Remove and let cool.
Mix cream cheese, mayo and ranch dressing together. Spread over crust when cooled.
Add salad toppings and cheese. Refrigerate (up to 2 days)

Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-05-26T08:22:00.000-07:00

The ultimate triple chocolate cookie! Warning! they are addictive!

1 2/3 C all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c margarine
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Cream margaine in a large mixing bowl at medium speed until light. Gradually beat in brown and white sugars, egg and vanilla until smooth. Blend in dry ingredients on low speed. Mix well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop dough by spoonfuls, 2" apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 375* for 8 to 10 minutes, or until set. Cook on baking sheet 1 minute, then remove from sheet and cool completely.

Sylvia's 100 Cookies

2010-05-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

1 C oil
1 C butter
1 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 egg
3 1/2 C flour
1 C coconut
1 tsp soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 C oatmeal
1 C rice krispies

Mix 1st 5 ingredients. Add dry ingredients and vanilla. Drop from tsp onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350* for 8-10 minutes

Marilyn's Pizza Bread

2010-05-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

This is a loaf of bread, not a bread dough. Very yummy!

2 2/3 C tomato juice (or V8) - room temp.
5 tbsp veg oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup parm. cheese
2 tbsp basil
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tbsp instant yeast
7 cups flour

Mix. Knead 8 minutes. Raise once in bowl and once in pans. Makes 3 lg or 3 med loaves. Bake at 350* until done (20-30 minutes).

Onion Rings

2010-05-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

This was given to me by a Weight Watchers leader, 4 servings, 4 points per serving

1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp salt
2 large onions, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 serving cooking spray, olive oil flavored to coat onions

Preheat oven to 400*. Coat a large baking sheet with spray. Combine dry ingredients, except crumbs. Add onion and toss to coat. Pour buttermilk into a bowl, add onions, toss to coat. Place crumbs into a separate bowl or bag. Add onions and toss to coat. Bake until golden brown, 35 minutes.

Samosa Filling

2010-05-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

4-5 potatoes, cooked and mashed
4 tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup peas
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 chili, chopped
3 tbsp chopped cilantro
3 tbsp water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 tbsp lemon juice

Cook everything up together, use to fill samosas (can use filo as casing)

Emeril's Essence

2010-05-26T06:04:00.001-07:00

5 tbsp paprika
1/4 C salt
1/4 C garlic powder
2 tbsp pepper
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp cayenne
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp thyme

Mix together. BAM!

Auntie Sue's Yorkshire Pudding

2010-05-26T06:03:00.000-07:00

I may have posted this one before, I don't remember.

1C flour
1C milk
3 Eggs
1 tsp butter
dash of salt

Mix altogether. Spray muffin tins with Pam. Bake at 425* until done. Works best if ingredients are cooled in the fridge while the over is heating.

Mom's ideas for turkey leftovers

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. Chow Mein

2. Shepherd's Pie - using turkey for the base and mashed yams for the top. Follow the normal recipe for sheperd's pie.

3. Turkey Loaf - Cook and stir for 1 min 1 1/2 tbsp grated onion in 1 tbsp butter. Add to it 2 C cooked turkey, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 cup cracker or bread crumbs, 3/4 C gravy or stock, 3/4 C milk, 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 C chopped celery.
Place in a well greased loaf pan. Bake 50 mins at 350*. Place loaf pan in a pan of hot water while baking.

Emptying my recipe box

2010-05-26T05:56:00.000-07:00

I've got an over-stuffed recipe box. Recipes friends have given me. Email recipes I've printed off. Basically, it's a jumble-y mess. One of my projects is to get a little more organized. I bought a recipe organizer and want to re-write everything and print it off. So I'm using my blog. These recipes will not have pictures, and very little directions (a lot of note form). I figure if I can follow them from that, you foodies can too :o) enjoy!

Peanut Butter Bars

2010-05-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Warning - these are extremely easy to make and extremely addictive to eat!

I found this recipe on the side of the PC Brand Honey Nut O's box. Oh my goodness, I love them. I probably shouldn't make them again, but I will. They are very yummy.

3 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups Honey Nut O's
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Melt the marshmallows, peanut butter and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir until smooth. Stir in Vanilla. Add the cereal, mix well. Press into a 9 inch square pan. Shake chocolate chips over top. Allow to cool (I put mine in the freezer so the chocolate chips wouldn't melt). Cut into bars. I am storing this in the fridge as it is pretty warm right now.

Chiang Mai Curry Noodles

2010-04-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is without a doubt the most beautiful cookbook I've ever read. The authors have spent years traveling throughout Southeast Asia. As they traveled they learned how to cook like the locals. This book is part cookbook, part travel/photo essay, and it's gorgeous. They follow the Mekong River, noticing how the cooking of the regions are similar, yet different as the river flows - sort of like we group Mediterranean cooking together. There are similarities, yet each region has its own take on its dishes. I happened upon this book via a new friend. The first time we had lunch with their family, she has make a chicken noodle dish from us from this book. The second time, she made an Indian dal dish from another of their books, Mangoes and Curry Leaves. The cooking was so delicious and so what my husband and I enjoy that we ordered both books from Amazon.
I decided that the first dish I cooked would be this soup from Northern Thailand. It was quite simple to put together and very tasty. It was even better the next day as the flavors really had a chance to melt together.

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp salt, plus a pinch
1 tbsp red curry paste
1 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
3 cups coconut milk, with 1/2 cup of the thickest milk set aside
1/2 pound boneless flavorful beef (sirloin tip or trimmed stewing beef), cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup water
3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
peanut oil for deep frying noodles (optional)
1 pound Chinese egg noodles (bamee)

Toppings and Condiments: Fried noodle nests
1/2 cup coursely chopped shallots
1/2 cup minced scallions
1/2 cup pickled cabbage (Thai style)
1 lime, cut into wedges

Finely mince the garlic, place in a small bowl with the tumeric, a pinch of salt and curry paste and mix well together.
Place a large heavy pot or wok over high heat. Add the 1 tbsp oil and when it is hot, toss in the curry mixture. Stir fry 30 seconds, then add the reserved 1/2 cup coconut milk and lower the heat to medium high. Add the meat and sugar, stirring frequently for 4-5 minutes, until the meat has changed color all over. Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups coconut milk, the water, fish sauce and the remaining 1 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook at a strong simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice. (this soup can be prepared up to an hour ahead and then reheated just before serving).
Meanwhile make the crispy noodles (optional, but I heartily recommend them). Place a plate lined with several layers of paper towels by your stove. Place a large wok or heavy pot over high heat and add about a cup peanut oil, or 1/2 inch oil. When the oil is hot, drop in a strand of uncooked noodle to test the temp. It should sizzle slightly as it falls to the bottom and immediately puff and rise to the surface: adjust the heat if necessary. Toss a handful (about 1 cup) of noodles into the oil and watch as they puff up. Use a spatula or long tongs to turn them over and expose all of them to the hot oil.. They will crisp up very quickly (less than 1 minute). Lift the crisped noodles out of the oil and place on paper towel lined plate. Give the oil a moment to come back to temperature, and then repeat with a second handful of noodles. (the noodles can be made ahead of time and left standing at room temperature for several hours).
To serve: bring a large pot of water to a vigorous boil over high heat. Drop in the remaining noodles (or all noodles, if you didn't make the crispy noodles), bring back to a boil and cook until tender but not mushy (about 6 minutes) - drain well.
Divide the drained noodles among 4 large bowls. Ladle over the broth and meat. Top with crispy noodles and a pinch each of the shallots and scallions (I just used shallots). Serve with the remaining condiments set out in small bowls so guest can garnish their soup as they wish. Provide each guest with chopsticks and a large spoon.

Chicken Korma

2010-04-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

This is the third recipe I've tried from Jamie's Food Revolution and the third recipe that we've loved (I'm seeing a pattern here with this book). I made it mild (omitted the chili) so my kids would try it too. My oldest (who is 5) decided he didn't like it because the chicken was pink (he decided this before tasting, he did admit it tasted good after one bite). My 2nd (who is 3) surprised the heck out of me by eating all of his because he is usually so picky, but he really like this. I'll have to make it again. It was fun plating it out to look pretty with the garnishes. I served it with basamati rice and Na'an bread.

1 3/4 pounds skinless chicken breasts
2 medium onions
1 fresh green chili (optional)
a thumb size piece of fresh root ginger
a small bunch of cilantro
1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans
peanut or vegetable oil
a pat of butter
1/2 cup korma or other mild curry paste (I used Patak's Tandoori mild)
1 14 oz can of coconut milk
a small handful of sliced almonds (I had slivered on hand)
2 heaped tsp unsweetened shredded coconut
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
2 cups natural yogurt
1 lemon

Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Peel, halve and finely slice onions. Halve, seed and finely slice the chili (if using). Peel and finely chop the ginger. Pick the cilantro leaves and finely chop the stalks. Drain the garbanzo beans.
Put a large pan on high heat and add a couple lugs of oil. Add the onions, chili, ginger and cilantro stalks with the butter. Keep stirring it enough so it doesn't catch and burn but turns evenly golden. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the curry paste, coconut milk, half the almonds, the beans, coconut and chicken. Fill the empty can with water, pour it into the pan and stir again. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes with lid on. Check the curry regularly to make sure it's not drying out (add extra water if neccessary). When the chicken is tender and cooked, taste and season with salt and pepper. (I let the korma continue to simmer with the lid off after 30 minutes to let the sauce thicken up a bit).

Serve with rice. Add a few spoonfuls of yogurt dolloped on top, and sprinkle over the rest of the sliced almonds. Finish by scattering over the cilantro leaves and serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over.

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger - post 2

2010-04-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

As requested from comments in my previous post, here is a picture of Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger. This is the reheated version (as are the home fries - I know they don't look great, but they taste good). Even re-heated my husband was raving about this burger, it's just that good!
After much contemplation I did decide to post the recipe. It goes along with the premise of the book. He wrote it with the intention of getting people to cook again. The recipes are easy to follow and have picture tutorials throughout. He also wants people to pay it forward with cooking. Well I recently moved and don't know anyone out here well enough to tutor them in cooking so my blog will have to do it for me. Here's the recipe:

12 cream or plain crackers
8 sprigs of fresh Italian parsley
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1 pound ground beef
1 large egg
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil

Wrap the crackers in a kitchen towel and smash up until fine, breaking up any big bits with your hands, and put them in a large bowl. Finely chop the parsley, including the stalks. Add the parsley, mustard, and ground beef into the bowl. Crack the egg and add a good pinch of salt and pepper. With clean hands, scrunch and mix everything up well. Divide into 6 and pat and mold each piece into a roundish shape about 3/4 inch thick. Drizzle the burgers with oil, put on a plate, cover and place in the refrigerator until needed (this helps firm them up).

We BBQ-ed them and melted cheddar on top. Jamie reccommends using a grill pan as well to cook the burgers. Place into a toasted bun and top with your favorite burger toppings. Enjoy!

Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger

2010-04-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

I posted a few days back how I'd bought 3 new cookbooks that have re-energized my cooking efforts. I had so much fun grocery shopping today as I looked towards the next couple of weeks of meals. But now I'm hit with a quandary. Here's what happened.
We had friends over for dinner tonight. We rolled out the old BBQ and I prepped Jamie Oliver's Cracking Burger from his Food Revolution cookbook. Along with it I served a Cesar salad and my own special home fries. One bite of this burger and was hooked. YUM! much tastier (I think) than the home burgers I've been making. The rest of the table enjoyed them too. So here's my question: I generally don't post recipes as is found in a cookbook. I will post them if I have made my own taste changes and note them appropriately. I just don't want to get into any copyright issues; therefore, no picture as there was no intention to post. This cookbook was designed, however, for the purpose of sharing the recipes with friends, teaching them to them to add to their repetoire (the pay it forward notion of cooking). So what do I do? I'm planning I think 4 of his recipes over the next 2 weeks. If these burgers are any indication then I know already how good the other food is. Do I post the recipes? Review the recipes? Help me out here foodie friends! What do you do with published recipes? I'd really like to know.

Having Fun Catching Up

2010-04-07T11:22:00.000-07:00

I've spent a little time today catching up on your blogs - lots of fun. I've been minimal at blogging the last while (adding a 3rd child to the mix will do that), but I still love visiting you (and drooling over your food). Several of my favorite bloggers have also taken breaks (good for you! - we will welcome you back when you are good and ready to come back) Happy eating!

Giveaway Alert!

2010-04-07T10:51:00.001-07:00

Deb is having a cookbook giveaway and from what she has posted the recipes look delicious! Check it out here

Getting Inspired...

2010-04-06T18:13:00.001-07:00

It seems like wherever I turn these days I am getting the , same message about food. Go a little more natural, less preservatives, less sugar filler just the beauty of the food brought out. Use spices and herbs to enhance flavour. Snack on the basics to meet your cravings (I'm currently munching on nuts and raisins instead of my usual chips and dip and liking it). Stock up with more fruits and veggies. Drink more *gasp* water (I'm really bad at this). So I'm trying a little at a time to untroduce some changes. I figured this blog would be a good outlet for my venture (and hopefully being public about it will help me along). I also bought 3 (count 'em 3) new cookbooks this week.
The first is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. You knew that was coming didn't you? I'm usually not one to get on a cooking bandwagon. I don't watch cooking shows very often (weird for a foodie I know). This is, in fact, the first Jamie Oliver cookbook I've ever bought. I'd been hearing a lot about this book and caught one episode of his show of the same name. I liked what I saw. I checked out his website and the recipes he left on Oprah's site and really liked what I saw, so I bought the book. Yum! I love what's inside. (I love reading good cookbooks - not so strange for a foodie)
The other two books I credit a new friend with. We recently moved and have been meeting new people. We've dined twice at the home of this lovely cook. Her secret to amazing food comes from these books. So, we splurged and bought 2 of them. They are Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's beautiful recipe books. I bought 'Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia', and 'Mangoes and Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent'. I would love to get more of their books (hint, hint). I really look forward to creating with these books. We love authentic ethnic food and I have craved being able to recreate that in my kitchen.
Onto more of my goals in eating these days. 1-better breakfast, I'll blog on that another day. 2-more salads. This is one of my favorites which I never made because my husband doesn't like raw spinach. It just occurred to me that I could just make a smaller salad for myself (well duh!). Very simple, a handful of baby spinach leaves, some sliced strawberries, a shake of slivered almonds and a spoonful of Renee's poppyseed dressing. Renee's is the best I've found when it comes to salad dressings. Sorry my American friends, this is a Canadian brand, I hope you have an equivalent.

Tonight's dinner had this salad on the side of Salmon baked in a honey hoisin sauce (PC brand out of the jar) and some of Jamie Oliver's nutmeg and garlic rice. The family verdict? Salmon - very yummy, salad - only I ate it and loved it, rice - mixed opinion. My oldest son (who is 5) tried it and wasn't a fan. My husband thought it was a nice change for once in a while. I did too.
I used a basimati. Cook the rice first. Separately, in a large frying pan, over low heat, heat a bit of olive oil and a pat of butter. Add 8 cloves of garlic (peeled and thinly sliced), add a little salt & pepper to season. When garlic is just starting to turn colour add a tsp of ground cinnamon and 1/4 ground nutmeg. Add cooked rice and blend altogether. Remove from heat, squeeze juice of 1 lemon over all and serve hot.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cauliflower Muffins

2010-04-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

Yes you read that title correctly! These muffins have cauliflower in them and they are delicious! I am constantly on the hunt for ways to get my 3 year old to eat veggies and I picked this beauty of a recipe up from Gourmet Gin. You can find the recipe at her site here. I didn't even tell my husband about the secret ingredient until they were all gone (he was duly impressed). My 5 year old noticed the cauliflower cooking when we were making the muffins (the boys are my assistant cooks) but missed the step where I put it into the batter. Most importantly my 3 year old loved them. In fact, he asked just this morning if we could make them again.
*You'll notice that the chocolate chips in mine melted that's because I didn't let the cauliflower cool down before adding it to the batter.