Ice Storm

We still haven't cooked a thing on the new grill as we couldn't get it lit properly on Monday night, and it was freezing cold to stand out there, so I had to make the burgers inside (so not the same). And last night I had chicken marinated and all ready to go but we had the beginings of an ice storm and it was too slippery to stand outside and grill, not to mention too cold,so I ended up making chicken ceaser salad.

Of course school is closed today because of the ice situation, even though the roads are clear. We are just hanging out at home and the kids are finishing their valentines to take to school tomorrow.

The ice is really inconvenient, but very, very pretty!

Brrrrrr.... Grilling....

What's the first thing you think of doing in bracing 29F weather? Why, grilling some burgers of course!! At least that's what my husband is going to be doing tonight on our new grill!! We bit the bullet yesterday and bought a new grill from Costco, because if you shop at Costco you know that if you see it and might even have a vague thought in the back of your head that you might want that thing, you have to buy it on the spot. You can always return it later.

Our old faithfull grill which we bough the day we moved into this house 10 years ago was on its very last legs, not helped by the fact that it had been spray painted brown instead of black, the brown making it look even sadder than it really was.

We bought the grill yesterday and my husband and his friend put it together outside with a 10F windchill. It took them forever, but it eventually got done and then we promptly ran out of gas, so we couldn't even test the grill.

Tonight is the night. We are testing it out no matter what the weather. Isn't it shiny and clean?

Brush with Fame... Sadly Not My Brush

Erika managed to get her photo on the front page, above the fold, of the Washington Post today. I nearly choked on my Special K with Strawberries when I flipped the paper open. Even though Erika is one of my blogging friends, we have actually met IRL, as we don't live that far away from each other, so it was even easier to recognise her. She has some great photos of the experience on her blog!!

Butterfly Cupcakes

Today is my 5yr old's Daisy Girl Scout Valentines Party and I offered to bring the cupcakes. I made these with my Vanilla Fairy Cakes recipe and then cut the tops off flat and halved the tops and dusted with confectioners sugar. I iced the cupcake and then placed the halves on top like wings.

This is a very Australian way to do cupcakes. The more traditional method is to cut a bit from the top of the cup cake and fill it with strawberry jam and then top with some whipped cream and put the "wings" on top of the cream and dust the whole thing with confectioners sugar. I jused to love that when I was a kid, but I find lots of kids don't like the strawberry jam, so I did it the quicker way with regular icing (confectioners sugar, water, one drop of food colouring).

Don't they just look like litte butterflys from the top?

Addicted to Licorice

Last night my 7yr old had his first "away from home" sleepover. It all went very well, but in case I needed to drown my sorrows, my husband brought home from Costco a bag of Lucky Country Aussie Style Soft Black Licorice. I LOVE that stuff, and it's not very common here in America. And just so you know this is definitely not licorice, and these people don't serve food that is remotely Australian.

It's super fattening, so you can't sit down and scarf a whole bag at once (or you shouldn't), but it's a really nice treat for me and a taste of home. The only other place I've been able to get good black licorice is Trader Joe's, they sell the Panda brand.

If you've never eaten good soft black licorice before, you should give it a try!

Tet - Vietnamese New Year

My daughter was invited to her friends house to share their Vietnamese New Year's dinner on Thursday night. I was lucky enough to be able to take some photos of the food and talk to the family about the food and the preparation. It all looked so delicious, and I did get to have a nibble on a couple of things!! The Dad of the family was the chef for the evening, and he was very nice to explain all the food to me.

The top photo is Nuoc Cham or Fish Sauce, made of garlic, chili, sugar, fish sauce, water and vinegar and lime. It looks so pretty in the bowl!



He also made Pate Chaud, which is made from French Pastry and chicken. I had one of those - totally yummy! The Vietnamese have adopted lots of food from the French who colonized Vietnam for about 100 years. There was an amazing Vietnamese bakery where I lived in Sydney, and they made the most fantastic French Bread I've ever had!

There was plain rice and sticky rice, which my daughter loved, and grilled beef with lemon grass, which unfortunately I didn't get a photo of.



The most important dish of all which the cook told me was the main traditional dish and was served every New Year without fail was a caramelized pork dish. It's basically pork braised in a fish sauce, and he used a cut of pork from the top of the thigh. This is one recipe for it, but there are a lot of variations out there.

Uninspired, but still here

I just looked at my blog and realised that I haven't posted for over a week!! This is due to a general case of the blah's. I haven't cooked anything interesting, or eaten anything very intresting, and it's hard to get inspired about sandwiches, although I did make some nice pannini's on Thursday night with slow roasted plum tomatoes, mozzarella and chicken.

I also have another general blog, which I've decided to combine with this blog, although this will be mainly about food and cooking, I will be throwing a bit of my life in here as well, so hopefully I'll have something to say at least every second day from now on!!

Thai Chicken Larb

Back in Australia, I used to have my favourite hole in the wall Thai restaurant and they served a wicked chicken larb. It's not that common over here, or I'm just not going to the right Thai restaurants to find it, so I was excited a couple of years ago to find this Larb recipe in Cooking Light. The first time I made it, it was OK, a bit bland, so I didn't make it again for ages. When I was cleaning out my recipes the other day, I rediscovered it and made it again with a few significant changes.

Instead of just cooking the chicken and then just coating it with the dressing mixture at the end of the cooking, I marinated the chicken overnight in the mixture. I'm really happy with the results, it tasted spicy and yum! I served it in crisp iceberg lettuce cups with sides of rice noodles and a cucumber/cilantro salad which I drizzled with a couple of squeezes of lime juice.

2 teaspoons grated lime rind
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon chopped serrano chile
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
12 oz ground chicken
Iceberg lettuce

Combine the first 7 ingredients, stirring with a whisk until until sugar dissolves. Pour over chicken, marinate overnight or for a couple of hours.

Heat 1tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken mixture and saute until done. I drained off the juices and served the chicken a bit drier. Divide chicken mixture up into about four lettuce leaves and serve with rice or rice noddles and a side dish if desired. This would also make a nice appetiser.

All the news that's fit to eat....

Yesterday was a big day for food in the newspaper. First of all it was reported that Nigella Lawson is going to make her kids bring home their own bacon. Apparently Nigella herself is worth about $36 million and her husband about $200 million. Nigella thinks that she won't be doing her kids any favours by leaving them enough to live off without having to work. She's probably right, look what it did for Paris Hilton. Anyway, Nigella is adamant about this. The kids can relax though because I'm sure she'll pack them a fabulous lunch everyday to take to work with them.

The Washington Post Food Section had a couple of good articles yesterday. One was that we the consumers are becoming the new Food Inspectors, reading labels, insisting on organic where possible and shopping at more than one supermarket weekly to make sure that we are purchasing the best food possible. I shop at more than one place and I know plenty of people that do the same thing. I use Giant for my regular shopping basics like cream cheese, bread, canned tomatoes etc, Costco for all the bulk stuff, which includes milk, eggs, cheese and frozen meats and seafood, Trader Joes for all my kids snacks for school, and some of my basics like Pizza Sauce and Wine (haha), and then Whole Foods or Wegmans for a couple of speciality items for the kids, like Yoghurt in a tube that does not contain high fructose corn syrup. (I buy Horizon Organic Yoghurt Tubes Strawberry and Blueberry) . I cannot believe the garbage they they put in kids yoghurt and then have the nerve to call it healthy. Tons of high fructose corn syrup, food colourings, sprinkles, M&M's the list goes on.

I'm also amazed at the schools. They are passing a bill in Virginia about banning trans fats in the food at schools, which is great, but we still have a long way to go before these school lunches are actually good for the kids. My 7 yr old used to buy chocoalte milk three times a week to have with his lunch, which I pack for him everyday. On the first day of school this year he came home and one of the first things he said was "the chocolate milk has high fructose corn syrup in it". The school district changed milk vendors and now the milk has HFCS. Last year it was regular sugar and cocoa. I just don't get it. The school district makes a huge fuss about fat content and balanced diet (that's why they have blue ice cream and huge chocolate chip cookies for sale), and yet they buy milk with HFCS because it's cheaper. I would be happy to pay more for organic chocolate milk and I'm sure that many other parents would be as well, or at least have the option of buying organic milk at school.

Last but not least,the Washington Post gave two different guacamole recipes which looked good, but neither of them looked half as good as the recipe that I use!

Braised Chicken Curry

For the last two nights I have made dishes that I have found on some of the fantastic food blogs that are out there, and so far I have not been disappointed. Friday was the Scallops with Sweet Chili Vanilla Dressing and last night was Braised Chicken Curry with Yams from Sunday Nite Dinner.

We really enjoyed it, and it was a one pot dinner, which means easy clean up, and there was enough left over to freeze and have for another dinner.

I'm going to try and do a whole week of menu planning from recipes that I find from other food blogs. I'm sure it will be a huge success. There is some really great stuff out there

Cappuccino Cupcakes

These little mouthfuls of joy are from Nigella's Domestic Goddess and are SO easy.They are a coffee sponge cake with a white chocolate icing and a dusting of cocoa powder. You just throw everything into a food processor and then drop the mixture into the cupcake tray and bake for 20 minutes. I also love them, because I love things with a coffee flavour, and don't they just look like little mini cappuccinos?


Cupcakes:

3/4 cup self-rising cake flour
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter (1 stick)
7 tablespoons of sugar (I actually used 8 after testing the batter)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon instant espresso
2-3 tablespoons milk (I used 3 for the right consistency)

Icing

5 1/2 Ounces white chocolate (Bakers brand is really good)
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sour cream
1 2/3 cups confections sugar, sifted scant teaspoon cocoa powder**

** just means slightly less than a teaspoon.

Preheat oven to 400F

Put all the cupcake ingredients except for the milk into the food processor and blitz to combine. Pulse again, adding milk down the funnel to form a batter with a soft dropping consistency. Spoon into the baking cups in their pan and then cook for about 20 minutes. When done, leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack.

When the cupcakes are completely cold, make the icing. Melt the chocolate ad butter in the microwave or a double boiler, and after it cooled a little, stir in the sour cream. Gradually bet in the sifted confections' sugar. If the consistency isn't right or the icing, add either hot water to thin or more sifted sugar to thicken. spread roughly and generously over the top of each cupcake, and then dust sparingly with cocoa, but pressing a little through a small sieve, so that they look like little cups of cappuccino.

Makes 12.

Scallops with Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing

Tonight I made Steamy Kitchen's Scallop Salad with Sweet Vanilla Chili Dressing . It was a huge hit. We loved it!! (well, the kids didn't eat it, but that was to be expected)

I didn't have any Asian style greens for the salad, so I just used Romaine lettuce, which I tore up and sprinkled a little bit of lime juice and some cilantro. Then I put the scallops on top of that and then added the dressing, which was totally delicious. I also just used a couple of drops of vanilla in the dressing, not the pod.

After I finished my salad, I stole some of my sons rice and put the left over dressing over that and ate it up in about two seconds flat!

Good for a Cold Night!

I was supposed to be snow flurries tonight, but we are spared the snow and it's just really, really cold, so I thought that the Braised Short Ribs would be good for tonight. I changed the recipe up a bit by adding about 1/4 bottle of Merlot, which I haven't done in the past even though the recipe calls for it, and serving it over rice (as I had lots of left over).

It was perfect for a winters night!

Coffee!

This is 100% Organic Fair Trade Coffee that my husand brought home for me on the weekend (to go with the pie). I'm lucky enough to have my own espresso machine, so I had a capuccino made with this at breakfast, and I also felt good because it was fair trade coffee. He bought it here and it's their house blend!

Trader Joe's also has lots of organic and free trade coffee!

I'm such a mean Mother!!!

Would you push this around your plate for 45 minutes and then cry and go to bed on an empty stomach if I served it up for your dinner?

My 7 yr old would, and did. The dinner consists of chicken thighs roasted and then I cut it off the bone and cut it up, one very small piece of roasted sweet potato , roasted potato and six french cut green beans (from Trader Joe's - best frozen green bean ever!!) He hadn't eaten a thing since lunch at school (they sit down to eat at 11:25), so he must have been hungry by 6:00pm. We had to fight to get him to eat about three quarters of the chicken and one green bean.

My 5yr old did a bit better, eating half of a piece of sweet potato, all her green beans and 1 bite of chicken. Still took her forever.

Consensus from the kids at the end of the meal - I am really mean for cooking this for them!!

I feel like I'm hitting my head against a brick wall!!!

Fruits of the Forest

I cannot tell a lie.

I did not make this pie.

But it is almost home made! It's from the fantastic Hepburn Orchards Bakery in Hancock, MD. They have 34 kinds of regular pie, 6 kinds of "no sugar added" pies (not sure I want those ones!) and 6 kinds of meringue and cream pies.

We have bought pies from them quite a few times over the past 10 years. This last weekend my husband took the kids to see his parents in Pennsylvania, and he kindly stopped on the way home in Hancock to get me this Fruits of the Forest pie. I love berry pies and desserts, even though I'm not a great pie lover in general.

Highly recommended if you are ever passing through Maryland on Rt 70!

The Devil is in the Details!

Disaster!!!! I made this Devil's Food Cake today, which I saw Martha make on a re-run over the holidays. It looked so easy! And so delicious! And so impressive!

Not. Don't know yet. And not.

I did all the prep. With Martha recipes it's always very important to prep exactly as the recipe states otherwise you are going to get to somewhere in the middle of the instructions and want to plunge a serrated knife into your heart.

This cake is supposed to be 3 eight inch layers, but I only have 2 eight inch pans and 1 ten inch pan, (you can already see where this is going), I made it in the three pans I have with clever plans to cut the 10" one down to size when it had cooled. As you can see by the two layered cake in the picture, the cutting down didn't go that well. The kids are eating that "layer" after dinner tonight.

Then the frosting. 1 quart of heavy cream, 24oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips - cook over medium high heat for 30 minutes until thickend. 45 mins later, still not thickened enough. So I thought that it would probably stiffen up in the fridge while it cooled down, also you add 1 teaspoon of light corn syrup. I couldn't be more wrong. Runny, runny, runny.

Anyway, I assembled the cake, the top cracked, I iced it anyway and I'm going to eat some after dinner while I watch the finale of the Amazing Race. I'll update on the taste later.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it a try. I'd love to know if anyone has success with the frosting!

UPDATE: It's OK. I'm not blown away by the taste - although I think if I'd gotten the icing to really thicken up it would have made a huge difference.

Chunky Guacamole

I had a Tupperware party last night!! Don't laugh, it was a total blast, and cooks need Tupperware!! I'm getting a container that holds a 10lb bag of flour!!. There were about 16 of us and plenty of wine and some snacks. I made Ina ">Ina's Guacamole and served it with blue and yellow corn chips. I also made the Pan Fried Onion dip, which is essentially homemade French Onion. Also delicious.

4 ripe Haas avocados
3 tablespoons lemon juice
8 dashes of Tabasco sauce (it's really important to only do 8 - anymore and it's too much)
1/2 cup small diced red onion
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 medium tomato, seeded and small diced (I usually use 2, I think it makes it better)

What I usually do it prepare everything but the avocado and lemon juice, and put it in a bowl and mix it around.

Then you cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh out of their shells. Then I roughly chop the avocado and put it straight in the bowl with the other ingredients. With the avocado sitting on top, pour on the lemon juice and then gently mix it all in together.

Try and make it as close to the time you are going to serve it as possible, but if you have to make it ahead, cover the guacamole with plastic, putting the plastic directly on the guacamole and sealing to the sides of the bowl. This combined with the lemon juice will help stop it going brown. And then refrigerate until you want to serve it.

New Home!

Thanks for checking out my new blog page. I had some limitations over at Wordpress (eg. absolutely couldn't get my FoodBuzz Featured Publisher widget to work), so I've moved over here to Blogspot. I'm keeping my blog up at the Wordpress address for a while with all my posts on it, as I've only moved over my "greatest hits" to the new address.

Bon Appetit!

Overly Ambitious?

I just got out my folder where I stash all the recipes that I take out of the newspaper or magazines, all the ones that I'm "definitely" going to try. hahahah. I'm never going to make even half of these, so I went through them this morning and most of the time I couldn't even remember why I cut out the page or kept the newspaper, so I just ditched all those, and the 10 almost identical recipes for some combination of lemon/blueberry muffins. Never even made one of those. I did keep one recipe for the muffins, and I'm going to make them today, although I only have raspberries not blueberries, so we'll see how they turn out

Unfortunately, I didn't even find a little bit of inspiration in all those lose papers flying around. I'm still stuck in the slump!!

The War Against High Fructose Corn Syrup

Mrs Names sent me this great blog post about what we are actually putting in our mouths, and how making stuff from scratch is so much better for us in so may ways. One of the biggest enemies in the food wars is of course High Fructose Corn Syrup. It's in everything and is super hard to avoid, because let's face it, I'm not going to bake my own bread for a family of four, I'd never get any laundry done.

I've completely cut out buying cookies at the store, cakes, pastries or pies. If we want to eat that stuff I make it myself along with all the pizza dough we eat. It sounds like a huge drag, but in fact, once you start eating homemade and made from scratch treats, you'll never be able to go back to store bought again. You really have to want to eat it to make it, so generally you don't have a lot of sweet snacks lying around the house. I was in Costco the other day, and one of the sample ladies was giving out some muffins. Of course I took one, and I couldn't even eat the quarter she gave me. It had the total made in a factory taste that you can immediately identify if you haven't eating that type of stuff for a long time.

I was so happy about that! I'm no longer tempted to buy anything like that! Of course my family doesn't agree with me, and they get really unhappy with me if I try and buy any kind of bread that that is remotely brown and good for you. Everyone here likes the Arnold WholeGrain Oatnut Bread. I've had to totally cave on this and just give them what they want. You have to pick your battles. I try not to eat it, but sometimes I just have some. As far as other bread goes, I try and buy fresh bakery stuff from the supermarket and Trader Joe's.

Arnold's are smug about the fact that they have 0g trans fat and 13 grams of whole grains per slice, but they still insist on putting in High Fructose Corn Syrup in their bread. It's the 6th ingredient listed, and then a bit further down they have also added sugar. I'd rather just have the sugar.

Now that the trans fat war has been fought and the consumer seems to be winning, we need to start fighting the High Fructose Corn Syrup War - we can win that too. Read labels religiously and don't buy things if at all possible with HFCS in it. Or better yet, make as much from scratch as possible, it will also help the environment, with less trash to throw out.

I really believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup is really bad for us, and who knows how it's going to affect our organs in 20 years. Time will tell. Hopefully by then, the manufacturers will be back to using ingredients that might be a bit more expensive, but are not toxic.

Nitrate Free Pizza

Now that I'm rid of my sickness, I took my daughter out last night for pizza (my son was at a birthday party), and we went to Fire Works Wood Fired Pizza. I thought it was delicious.

We had a 14" pizza, half Six Cheese and Herbs (Mozzarella, Provolone, Asiago, Parmesan,Fontina, Gruyere, Organic Tomato Sauce) and half Quattro Carni (Nitrate Free Pepperoni, Salami, All Beef Meatballs, Nitrate Free Italian Sausage, Organic Tomato Sauce and Cheese). I bought the meat half home for my husband, and he also declared it great. Fire Works try and use as much food as they can from local growers, which I like and I also like the nitrate free meats.

It wasn't quite as good as the Flatbread Company in Portland, Maine, where all the food is organic and free range and nitrate free, but it was still very good.

I really prefer to go to the one off restaurants around here, not the big chains, but sometimes they are really hard to avoid, because where we live the chains are EVERYWHERE.

Culinary Slump

I haven't really made anything worth noting for about a week. I did menu plan and wrote it all down and bought the stuff, but didn't end up making anything on my list. We had a lobster tail and crab legs on New Years Eve, and then the rest of the crab leg in rolls the next night, then we had some vietnamese, last night was baked veggies and chicken and tonight is left overs. So very exciting.

However, I did have a fantastic lunch experience today. I met my husband and we went to Five Guys and had burgers. They were excellent! Fresh, simple and yummy. I had a Little Bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato and onion. The fries aren't fantastic, but that didn't stop me eating them!!

The burger was great - but still not as good as an Aussie Hamburger from a milk bar - if that even still exists!

Photo from www.sptimes.com/2007/09/19/images/tb-five.jpg

Pork Tenderloin and Cumberland Sauce

The madness is over!! No more over eating (until New Years Eve!!). I didn't make a huge dinner on Christmas night because it was just the four of us, but we did have a nice pork tenderlion, which we grilled and then I made a Cumberland Sauce to go with it. I made the sauce seven years ago when I first saw it in the Southern Living Holiday magazine, and we had remembered it was good, but never got around to making it again.

The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of port as the main ingredient, and also red currant jelly. Get your red currant jelly early in the year, because the only jar I could find was made by Trappist Monks and was really expensive at the Safeways! We had to divide the recipe in thirds, because we knew we had port, but discovered we barely had one cup. Our wonky thirding made the measurements a bit off, but it still turned out really nicely. I would highly recommend this sauce! Apparently it's nice with turkey as well and can be used as a ham glaze

2 1/2 cups port wine, divided
1 (10 1/2-ounce) jar red currant jelly
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
2/3 cup fresh orange juice
1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

Bring 2 cups wine and next 8 ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan, stirring constantly; reduce heat, and simmer, stirring often, 20 minutes.Stir together remaining 1/2 cup wine and cornstarch until smooth. Stir into hot mixture; bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat, and cool. Pour into hot sterilized jars, and seal. Store in refrigerator up to 1 month.****

Yield: about 4 cups

****or just pour straight into a gravy boat and serve!!

Sauce source

Gruyere and Parmesan Gougeres

These Gougeres (or cheese puffs) are so easy to make, and taste great. Don't let the fact that they are made with Choux dough turn you off. I always thought that would be really complicated, but it's so easy, just make sure you have all the ingredients out and ready to go, because once the dough comes together, you have to move quickly. This recipe is from Ina Gartens "Barefoot in Paris" book. I have made these a few times and it gets easier and easier.

Annual Pierogi Making

Every year for the last four years I get together with my friend Lisa and we make about 140 pierogies and split them. I freeze them and then bag them up and have a supply for about 4 meals. I love them, and it's fun to make them with someone!

It's very simple, but a bit time consuming (which is the whole point of getting together and doing it).The filling is just mashed potato with whatever you want in it. I like cheese and onion.

The dough is super easy:

Curried Carrot Soup

I was so over all the sugar from the 300 cookies I've made in the last two days, I was dying for the Carrot Soup tonight. It's another winner from Everyday Food. Quick, easy and delicious. I ended up mixing in my cilantro and it made it even better.

Serves 4
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon curry powder
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 cans (14 1/2 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth (about 3 1/2 cups)
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish (optional)

Directions
Heat butter in a Dutch oven or large (4- to 5-quart) saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, curry powder, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes.
Add broth, carrots, and 3 cups water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover, and simmer until carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.
In a blender**, puree soup in batches until smooth; transfer to a clean saucepan. Add more water to thin to desired consistency. Reheat, if necessary. Stir in lemon juice. Serve garnished with cilantro, if desired.

**I used my immersion blender right in the saucepan, and then just left it on the stove to keep hot until I was ready to serve it, and I didn't need to add more water at all.

Cookie Fever Continued.. Chocolate Crackle Cookies

These cookies are also from the trusty Martha Stewart Holiday Cookie magazine from 2005. A little bit time consuming to make, but they always turn out and they taste great! I actually forgot to put in the 1/3 cup of milk, but they still turned out and tasted just like they always do. That's unfortunately what happens when a 5 yr old is "helping".

Makes about 4 dozen

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling

Directions

Melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, or the top of a double boiler, over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Into a small bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk. Mix on low speed until just combined. Divide dough into quarters, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. On a surface dusted with confectioners' sugar, use your hands to roll each portion of dough into a log 16 inches in length and about 1 inch in diameter. Wrap logs in plastic wrap, and transfer to a baking sheet. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut each log into 1-inch pieces, and toss pieces in confectioners’ sugar, a few at a time. Using your hands, roll the pieces into balls. If any of the cocoa-colored dough is visible, roll dough in confectioners’ sugar again to coat completely. Place cookies on prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies have flattened and sugar splits, 12 to 15 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Cookie Fever Day 2: Lemon Flowers

I've adapted these cookies from Martha Stewart. They were originally Lime Flowers, but the first time I made them I only had lemon, so I substituted that, and they were a huge hit. The only problem with these cookies is that one batch of dough doesn't make enough!!

2 cups flour (plus more for work surface)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioners sugar

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Put granulated sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed 1 minute. Add butter and mix until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in vanilla and lemon juice. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in flour mixture.

On a lightly floured work surface, halve the dough. Flatten each half into a 10 inch disk, and warp each in plastic. Freeze until firm, about t 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 325F. Working with 1 half at a time, roll out dough on parchment paper to 1/8 inch thick. cut shapes from dough with a 3 inch flower shape cookie cutter. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cut a hole in centre of each with a 1-inch round cutter, repeat with remaining disk. Warp scraps in plastic. Freeze 30 mins, reroll, and cut.

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until set, about 12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Before serving sift confectioners sugar over cookies.

UPDATE: Dee let me know that I had a typo and had 1/2 cup lemon juice in the cookie batter and it should be 1/4 cup. So sorry to anyone who made it and the batter was too runny or too lemony!!!! If it worked with 1/2 cup let me know!!

Cookie Fever

Today was day one of Cookie Fever season. I had to make sugar cookies for my 7yr old's class party (they are going to decorate them) and I also needed at least 22 cookies for my neighbourhood kids cookie decorating party on Wednesday. I got out my trusty Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies magazine from 2005 and made the Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies. The recipe says "makes about 20". I doubled the recipe and I was going to make a 3rd batch if needed. 97 cookies later..... That dough just went on and on and on.

This is the recipe for 1 batch, which I'm sure you could get about 45 cookies out of. I use a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop to drop the dough and it makes a perfect sized cookie.

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
Sanding sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Put sugars in the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add butter and mix until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs, 1 at a time, and then the lemon juice. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

Using the ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart. Flatten cookies slightly; sprinkle with sanding sugar. Lightly brush with a wet pastry brush; sprinkle with more sanding sugar.

Bake cookies until golden about 15 minutes.

Braised Short Ribs

I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out. The recipe calls for dumping the carrots and onions and then making a sauce out of the liquid, but slow cooked carrots are too nice to throw away, so I just made the vegetables a side dish along with the leeks and potatoes.

I have adapted this from Everyday Food, October 2007

Braised Short Ribs (about 2 hours to prep and cook)

1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper
5 pieces of short ribs (about one pack)
1 tablespoon oil (I use Olive)
2 carrots, cut into large chunks
1 onion quartered
1 big slurp of red wine
3/4 can chicken broth
thyme
1 can whole peeled tomatoes in puree

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place flour in a medium blow; season with salt and pepper. Toss ribs in flour mixture until well coated; shake off excess.

2. In an oven proof dutch oven or saucepan, heat oil over medium - high. Cook ribs turning until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes, and then transfer to a plate.

Add carrots and onions to the pot. Cook, stirring and scraping up browned bits, until vegetables are lightly browned, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add a good slurp of wine, chicken broth, thyme and tomatoes,( breaking them up). Arrange ribs in the pot, bring to boil. Cover and then transfer to oven and cook for 1 hour. Reduce heat to 350F, cook until fork-tender (but not falling apart), about 1 hour more.

Using tongs or a slotted spoon, transfer ribs to a plate and keep warm

This is where I differ from the original recipe. I just scoop out the veggies with a slotted spoon and use them as a side.

To make the sauce if you wish (I don't do this, because it's just as good with the vegies and some liquid), strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve (discarding solids); return to pot. Bring to a boil; cook until sauce is slightly thickened and reduced to about 1 cup, 10 to 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Serve ribs with sauce.

Potato and Leeks

Dice up the potatoes. Clean the leeks thoroughly and slice up. I used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and added the potatoes, leeks and salt and pepper and sweated them on a low heat for about 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.

Roasted Tomato Lasagna

Last night I made my own recipe lasagna, with a topping of roasted tomatoes and mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

I used Campari Tomatoes (which I get from Costco), and I just halved them, sprinkled with kosher salt, drizzled with Olive Oil and then roasted in the oven at 400F for about 1 hour. Keep checking them, they might be done before the hour is up - depending on your oven.

The roasted tomatoes gave it a great flavour and it's a slightly different take on regular lasagna!

1 lb ground beef - fat free as possible
8-10 campari tomatoes roasted (see above)
6 lasagna noodles ( I like the oven ready ones - they are really easy) - if not oven ready follow package directions for prep.
2 cups part skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 medium onion diced
1 clove of garlic or 1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano and 1 teaspoon dried basil
Olive Oil
Mixture of grated mozarella and parmesan for the topping

Prepare lasagna noodles and then place them in the baking dish. I used a 2qt (11"x 7" x 1.5") size and the noodles fit nicely.

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and then add the diced onion and the garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until onions are cooked through and then add the ground beef and cook until it is all browned. Add the diced tomatoes and the basil and oregano. Cook on low for about 15 minutes until cooked through. Try and make this mixture as dry as possible or there will be too much liquid when you try and serve it. I made the mixture of adding a couple of slurps of red wine and it was too wet, but I've made it before without the wine and it's been fine.

Meanwhile, mix together the ricotta, Parmesan and mozzarella and season with salt and pepper.

Lay out a layer of lasagna noodles in the baking dish and then put down the meat sauce. The spread the cheese mixture on top of the meat sauce. Lay down another layer of lasagna noodles. Place the roasted tomatoes evenly spaced apart on top of the noodles and then cover with the grated cheeses.

Bake at 350F for 30-40 mins or until hot and bubbling.

Vanilla Fairy Cakes

I adapted these vanilla fairy cakes from Nigella's basic Fairy cake recipe from Domestic Goddess. They are very easy to make and are delicious! I also doubled the recipe to make 24.

½ cup unsalted butter, softened
7 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
¾ cup self-rising flour
½ teaspoon vanilla extract ( I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to make them very vanilla) 2-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 400F

Put all ingredients except milk in the food processor, and process until smooth. Pulse while adding milk down the funnel, to make a soft dropping consistency.

Spoon mixture into cupcake papers and try to fill each cup equally.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the fairy cakes are cooked and golden on top.

Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Mrs Names is having a tailgate party in her driveway today for the big Redskins/Cowboys game. She's a diehard Redskins fan and her husband feels the same way about the cowboys.

The icing is confectioners sugar, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and then water for the right consistency. I used the Wilton concenrate food colourings. It was really difficult to get the right colour for the Redskins, I used a lot of food colour and it's still not exactly how I wanted it, but it's close enough!

Chocolate Cheesecake Torte

I also made a chocolate cheesecake to take to Mrs Names tailgate party. I took it straight from Domestic Goddess, with only a small alterations. And the reason I'm calling it a cheesecake torte is because it really fell in the refrigerator overnight and is not as tall as when it came out of the oven. However, who cares what it looks like really, it's totally delicious.

(those hands separating the egg are my husbands !!)
This recipe needs and 8" springform pan and the cheesecake is cooked in a waterbath.


1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon or 4 ounces of graham crackers*
1/4 cup very very soft or melted unsalted butter
18 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sour cream
1/2-1 teaspoon lime juice (to taste)**
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted***

*I used the precrumbled Graham cracker crumbs, but I needed 1 cup of crumbs and 1 stick of butter to make the base.

**I used 1/2 teaspoon of lime juice

*** If you have never melted chocolate before in the microwave, you only need to have it in there for about 1 min 30 seconds, and then just keep stirring until it's all melted. That way the chocolate won't burn in the microwave. You might need to pop it back in a for a few more seconds to help it, but no more than that.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Process the crackers and butter together and press into the bottom of the pan, then stick the pan in the refrigerator until the filling is ready.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then mix in the sugar. Add the eggs and lime juice and beat until smooth and creamy. Gently fold in the melted chocolate. When I did this the mixture was cold and the chocolate started to harden up the minute it hit the cold mixture. It wasn't exactly a marble effect, which is what I think Nigella is going for, but it still turned out nicely.

Line the spring-form pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil on the outside, and then tear off another and repeat. Stand the pan in a roasting pan and fill up the spring-form pan with the mixture. Pour hot water into the roasting pan to come 3/4-1 inch up the side of the cake pan and then put it in the oven to cook for 1 hour.

When the cheesecake's ready it should have browned a bit on the edges and the center should be just set on top. remove the cake tin from the waterbath, and take off the foil. Sit the spring-form pan on a rack to cool, then refrigerate before unmolding and let it get back to room temperature.

My cheesecake did flatten out in the refrigerator, but still looked good.

Salmon Tacos

Tonight was Salmon Taco night. Quick, easy and delicious. I don't have a photo because I didn't take one. I was going to rely on the photo from the Everyday Food website, but it appears they have taken that recipe down.

(this is from Everyday Food, Jan/Feb 2007)

1 1/4 pounds salmon fillet
coarse salt and ground pepper
2 tblespoons fresh lime juice
4 scallions, thinkly sliced
1 cup packed fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
8 whole wheat tortillas
4 cups shredded romaine lettuce
2 medium carrots, peeled into strips

Place salmon in a 2 quart shallow microwave safe dish with a lid. Season with salt; drizzle with t tblsspoon lime juice. Sprinkle with scallions and 1/4 cup cilantro. Cover and microwave on high 7 mins until fish is cooked through

Pour off any liquid from dish: using a fork, flake fish.

Make Sauce: Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together sour cream, remaining tablespoon lime juice and remaining 3/4 cup cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble:

Arrange carrots and lettuce down centre of each tortilla

Top with salmon, Drizzle lightly with sauce and fold up.

Banana Cake

I make this banana cake a lot. It's a totally mixed recipe, partly my Grandmothers, partly Southern Living and partly came about because of a mistake I made one time, leaving an ingredient out, and it worked well, made it better really, so I kept making it the "new" way every time after that.

Ingredients

3 - 5 over ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip the banana's for about 5 minutes. Then add eggs and vanilla

Combine next five dry ingredients in a bowl, then add to the banana mixture.

Pour the batter in a greased and floured pan. Any size will do. This mixture will also fit nicely into 2 loaf pans.

Bake at 350 F for 40 minutes, and then check with a clean dry knife. If it comes out clean it's done. If not give it another 10 minutes and check again.

Icing:

I use a coffee flavoured icing for this cake. It might sound wierd, but it's really delicious.

1 cup of confectioners sugar
Drizzel in some coffee a little at a time and mix until you have the consistency you want, and then ice the cake!

Pappardelle with Ham,Pine Nuts and Rosemary Sauce

This is a quick, easy and delicious pasta recipe that I adapted from a “Dinner in 20 Minutes” recipe from the Washington Post ( 9/26/07).

I’ve made this three times now, once with plain pappardelle, and twice with Trader Joe’s Lemon Pepper Pappardelle, and it’s so much better with the Lemon Pepper pappardelle.

My Own Bolognaise Recipe

As you know, last night was Halloween, so I decided to do something easy that I could pepare earlier in the afternoon and then get cleaned up quickly so the Trick or Treating could start. I made my own recipe Spaghetti Bolognaise. I have been using this one for over 20 years, and some days are better than others, but it is consistently yummy.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1lb ground beef - as fat free as possible
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic chopped or 1 teaspoon of preminced garlic in the jar
1 can of diced tomatoes
Couple slurps of ketchup
1 lb of white mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup red wine (optional)
Dried oregano
Fresh or dried basil, 1 tspn each
Salt
Pepper
Shaved fresh parmesan cheese for topping

Spaghetti or any pasta!

Rough chop the onion and garlic. Heat the oil in a saucepan, when hot add the onion and garlic, stirring until brown.

Add the ground beef and stir until all browned, turn down the heat to medium.
Add the can tomatoes, including all the juice.
Put in the few slurps of ketchup, add the wine, then the sliced mushrooms.
Add 1 tspoon dried oregano.
If using fresh basil wait until 5 mins before serving to add, if dried basil, add it now.
Simmer for about 45mins to 1 hour

Serve over spaghetti.

This sauce also freezes realy well, and this makes enough for 2 meals for 2 people.