Walnut butter ... tomato... curried... hummus????

Today was one of those days where I create a complete kerfuffle in the kitchen.  A day where I start with a recipe in mind, and then snowball in to something completely different.

I decided I was going to make something with a homemade walnut butter, still inspired by this months Daring Cook challenge.  I didn't have a lot of walnuts though.  So I started making the butter and decided that it was not enough.  I see sage and walnut butter go well together so I put in sage.  In my hurry it turned out that I put in thyme, which was next to the sage.   So then I put in some sage also.   My blender is working so hard, but the butter is just not forming because it is a grandmother of a blender with the torque of a cooked noodle.  So, as the snowball continues,  I threw in the last of my table cream.  I thought, walnut sage butter.. thyme.. cream sauce?

I tasted it.  It wasn't terrible by any means, but it didn't have a wow.  Or even a "let me lick the spoon again."   So, I think to myself, maybe I should add more vegetables.  Before I know it i've dumped in the remaining pint of grape tomatoes I desperately need to use up.   I blend that down and it tastes just TOO tomato-ey.    Over powering tomato.  Gross!  So I think to myself, what goes well with tomatoes?

Salt.... Pepper....  Basil... Those go in..  Then? Curry powder??  Seemed like a good idea at the time so I put in the curry powder and blended down.   Still, way too tomato-ey.   So, I add some spice.   I put in some of my spicy fajita seasoning.   Obviously, this doesn't counter the tomato taste.  Then it comes to me.  What do I always use to cut through an overpowering taste that I don't like? GINGER!  So I throw in a teaspoon of minced ginger and voila! Fixed!

Not exactly.  Though if finally did taste a lot better, I couldn't stop myself from continuing in my snowball.   I open my pantry doors and what do I espy? Chick peas!   So I dump in a can of chick peas, but what do you always need if you're going to blend down chick peas? Garlic.  So in goes two cloves of garlic.

I cross my fingers thinking, this is kind of like a hummus with all the chickpeas.   I dip in my spoon and taste, and what do I find?  Deliciousness!  How wonderful!  So here is my approximate recipe!  Yes, don't mind the massive amount of ingredients, its as I said.  Just one of those snowball days.

Walnut curried tomato hummus

• 1 cup walnuts


• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 1/4 tsp thyme


• 1/4 tsp sage


• splash of balsamic vinegar


• 1 tsp spicy fajita seasoning


• 1 pint grape tomatoes


• 2-3 tbsp table cream


• salt and pepper to taste


• 1/4 tsp basil


• 1 tsp curry powder


• 1 tsp minced ginger


• 1 can chick peas


• 2 cloves garlic

Blend all.  Or read my incessant ramblings above.  I'm quite sure as long as you grind down the walnuts first, you should be in the clear.

Now, before I sound too biased, being a self made recipe that I myself enjoy, I did test it on my family.  Their verdict was,  it was good!  It could use more garlic in my opinion, but the reason I didn't put in that much is because the longer something sits with garlic in it, the more the garlic starts to take over the flavour.  I figured this might be in the fridge for a week, imagine the garlic taste by then!  The problem with their verdict is though , that no one in this family is quite used to hummus.  So I tested it on my father, and he said "yea it doesn't taste bad. I just have to get used to this type of food".  Which means, hummus isn't traditional old Czech, therefore out of his food-comfort range.  Obviously.  I need to find someone with hummus experience to taste it.

Daring Cooks July challenge : Nut Butters!

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

I joined the Daring Cooks a few months ago but I've yet to actually recreate any recipe on site. I got the idea from a friend who started it, I thought it would be fun. It would give me kind of a personal challenge every month for my cooking so that I don't settle in to a culinary rut. I was putting around their message boards today having seen their tag on random cooking blogs I Google and thought now is as good a time as any to get going! So my first challenge? Nut butters! I chose the pecan, because it is a soft nut and I do not have a food processor. Maybe if I'm good, Santa will bring me one this year. A soft nut, like pecans, have a chance in a regular kitchen blender. Something like an almond is too hard for a regular kitchen blender unless you have something heavy duty.

Nut butters are really easy to make it turns out.  Stick your nuts in a blender or food processor and just run it until you have the butter.  (atleast 1 1/2 to 2 cups of nuts people!)

my pecan nut butter

chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms

Pecan Cream:

• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Pecan butter


• 1 cup (240 ml) water


• 3/4 teaspoon (3 ml) salt, more as needed

• 1 tbsp deglaze (water, white wine, whatever. optional)


• 1/2  pound (225 g) egg noodles or pasta


• 4  boneless, skinless chicken breast halves


• 1 teaspoon olive oil, more as needed


• Salt & pepper to taste

Sauce:

• 1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil, more as needed


• 1/4 cup (60 ml) finely chopped shallots


• 1/2 pound (225 g) mushrooms, sliced


• 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) fresh thyme leaves


• Chopped pecans, (optional garnish)

Make the pecan cream, mix the nut butter with the salt and water  until smooth, set aside.

Cook noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Drain, rinse, and keep warm.

Sprinkle chicken with a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Heat 1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add half the chicken; sauté 3 to 5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Cook the chicken in 2 batches, adding more oil if needed for second batch. Set aside cooked chicken on a clean plate, cover to keep warm.

Add deglazing liquid to pan if using and stir up any browned bits. If needed, add another teaspoon (5 ml) of oil (or more) to pan for sautéing the shallots and mushrooms. Sauté the shallots and mushrooms over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and starting to brown. Add fresh thyme to the pan. Stir in pecan cream; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 1/2 minutes till reduced slightly.

Slice chicken into thin strips. Divide the noodles among serving plates. Add a scoop of the mushroom pecan sauce on top of noodles. Lay sliced chicken on top. Garnish with fres

h thyme and/or a pinch of chopped pecans if you want to go all the way.

Now to make this quicker for me I bought the already pre-sliced raw chicken breast.  It also happened we are officially out of chicken and my husband won't be home until I am finished cooking this so I had to run out with both children.  It is not fun walking through a grocery store with two kids, no car, and no cart! So the raw strips works out for now.

Strawberry Bread Pudding

A delicious failure!

Strawberry Bread Pudding

• 1 pound fresh ripe or frozen strawberries (if using fresh, save 1/4 lb. unsliced for topping)


• 3/4 cup orange juice


• 4 cups French bread cubes


• 4 Tablespoons butter, melted


• 1 cup half and half


• 3 eggs, beaten


• 1 cup sugar


• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Soak strawberries in orange juice. Place bread cubes in a bowl. Pour melted butter over all, toss to coat. Then you whisk half and half into beaten eggs.

In a mixer on medium speed; combine sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, salt and nutmeg. Blend well. Add the egg/milk mixture and mix well and add strawberry/orange juice mixture, mixing until fully combined. Pour mixture over buttered bread cubes; cover and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

Bake this at 350 degrees for 45 minutes covered, and at 400 degrees for 10 minutes uncovered.

This was a failure.  I'm not sure what i did wrong but the cake just wouldn't set!   I must have hit an hour mark in the oven and it still just wouldn't set in the middle.  I'm wondering if the pan I used was just too small, so it couldn't cook through properly.

Even though this failed though, in presentation and directions, it tasted mighty delicious!   I'm thinking after I go berry picking I'm going to attempt this again.  If it doesn't work I think i should stick to cobblers.   No pictures exist of this but I kind of wish I took a few because I could use them as learning points.

Bolognese Sauce

So it comes to that time of day again. I'm standing in front of the freezer wondering which meat to defrost, and what to do with it. So I decided that I want to try another recipe. So I bust out my veggies and get dicing, then i hit the store and get anything I don't have. I decided today I'm going to experiment with my first sauce, something that isn't just a regular tomato sauce. So I decided, after some recipe searches, to make a variation of a Bolognese sauce.

Bolognese Sauce

• extra virgin olive oil


• 1 med onion chopped finely


• 2 stalks of celery chopped finely


• 2 carrots chopped finely


• 4 cloves garlic minced


• 1 cup mushrooms chopped finely


• 1 lbs extra lean ground beef


• 1 lbs lean ground veal


• 1 cup of white wine (pinot grigio works well.. Something dry)


• 14 oz crushed peeled tomatoes


• 1 quart of chicken stock


• dash of cayenne


• 1 tsp curry powder


• 1 tsp dried oregano (or tbsp fresh)


• 1 tsp dried basil (or tbsp fresh)


• 1 cup table cream ( I used 18% m.f.)

start by heating up a big pot with the olive oil. Toss in your onions, celery, garlic, carrots and cook for about 10 minutes on medium heat.
Raise the heat a little and add your meats, cook it until its no longer pink.
Add the white wine and simmer until the wine evaporates. This could take a while.
Add the tomatoes, and the chicken stock, the cayenne, curry powder and some salt and pepper to taste, add basil and oregano.
At this point it gets easy. Lower the heat and simmer for around 2-3 hrs until its thickened.
Once its thickened up add the cream and simmer for another 20 or so minutes.

So.. Delicious.  My 1 year old is doing laps around the rooms acting like my wooden spoon is a lollipop! My husband set aside a container full for tomorrows work lunch before he was even finished his dinner.

Spicy Cherry Tomato and Pesto Spaghetti

Pasta is a way of life.   Pasta is possibly the only food you can buy for ridiculously cheap and feed an entire family with.  It maintains ridiculously well, it cooks nice and easy, and you can make virtually millions of versions of the same dish.  Also, when I run out of groceries,  its the first (and only) thing that I reach for.   This happened to me not to long ago, during a week we were rather tight pocketed and I was at a loss on what I could make to nourish my babies, and have them actually want to eat it.   So I thew together a tiny inventory, and reached for my spaghetti.   This is what I came up with and I absolutely loved it!  I actually thought I entered this here awhile ago since i'm making it again tonight but turns out I did not.  To the recipe!

Spicy Cherry Tomato and Pesto Spaghetti

• 2 cups of Cherry or grape  tomatoes, halved


• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced


• 1 tsp hot pepper flakes (use less if you prefer less spicy, or none at all if you dislike spicy.)


• 1 - 2 tsp dried oregano (or 2 - 3 tsp fresh oregano)


• 3 tbsp chopped parsley (from my garden. Woohoo!)


• 3 tbsp chopped basil  (or more)


• 4-5 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil


• spaghetti


• Pesto sauce (I just use that from a jar)

Boil your pasta in a nice pot of briny water.  A pasta water should taste like a nice day at the beach (near the ocean.. obviously haha).   While your doing this, heat up the olive oil in a pan with the garlic and hot pepper flakes.  Let the garlic cook for a bit.    When cooking things in oil on the stove, you have to make sure that you get the pan super hot before putting the food in.   If you put cold food in to a cold pan the food absorbs all the oil and everything will just taste like oil. Once thats softened and cooked a bit pop in the tomatoes, let them cook for a minute or two before adding the herbs.   Cook that down until the tomatoes are cooked through, soft and wrinkly.   When that's done, just wait for the pasta to finish, if its already finished obviously drain it, and put in 1 - 2 spoons of pesto sauce, depending on your taste.  Stir those up, and then toss in the cherry tomatoes mix.

Each cherry tomato just pops in your mouth.  It is a flavour and experience I have neglected to give myself growing up when my mothers garden yielded seeming mountains of them every summer.  My mother would never cook them, and to this day I still can't manage to eat an uncooked tomato.   You can refrigerate any leftovers, my husband loves taking them to work so he can show his colleagues that he doesn't have to eat sandwiches every day.

I will edit this entry with a photograph once I take one tonight.   I'm also in the market for a smaller personal camera.  The one I use now is amazing, it is the photographic love of my life, but it is to valued, expensive, big and precious for me to want to haul it around for my various exploits.  I have a few leads, be patient.   I'm also soon to update my newest regular recipe.  The Esmeq Zucchini bread supreme! No fail, and when stale, tastes like gingerbread.  Delicious.

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Tis the time of the year where my parents garden begins delivering they're wonderful treats to us who are waiting.  First for us, comes the rhubarb.  I love rhubarb.  My parents always grew rhubarb when I was a kid and we would eat it like celery (after trimming the leaves obviously, since we're all still alive.)   So, when I went over to their house with the little birthday girl, I took as much as I could get.  Originally I was going to make  a pie, but I don't have a rolling pin at the moment.  So I thought maybe a crumble.  I don't have any rolled oats!  So I settled on a Cobbler!

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

• 1 cup  + 1 tsp Flour


• 2 tbsp sugar


• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1/4 cup butter


• 1/2 cup milk


• 2 1/2 cup fresh rhubarb (trimmed, and cut in to 1 inch strips)


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 1 1/2 tbsp quick cooking tapioca


• 2 tsp lemon juice


• 2 tbsp water


• 1 tsp rum extract


• 2 1/2 cup strawberries (trimmed and cut in pieces)

Preheat the oven to 425

First mix up your cobbler dough.  Put the flour, 2 tbsp sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  mix it up, then cut in the butter until it takes on a coarse crumbly texture.  Stir in the milk afterwords.

In a saucepan, combine the rhubarb, 2/3 cup sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, water and rum extract and on low heat bring it to a boil.  Stir it often, sugar is nasty if it burns.  Once its come to a boil let it simmer for 2 minutes covered.  This will let the rhubarb soften up nicely.  Once that's done take it off the heat and put in the strawberries.  Mix it until its coated and put it in a buttered pan or glass baking dish.   This recipe yields about an 8X10 baking pan so if you have company coming you might think about doubling up the recipe.

Put the cobbler dough on top and spread it as best as possible.  It won't be perfect, and it won't cover the entire wet mixture but it will be pretty close. Bake it for 25 to 30 minutes and you got cobbler!

Happy Birthday!

So my darling baby girl has officially turned one year old today!  I mentioned awhile ago that my plan was to bake her cake myself, this turned in to the idea of cupcakes.  I went with the cupcakes, and I must say they were a hit!  They were absolutely delicious and very fresh and spring-like.  Though her family gathering was a bit ago, thanks to the long weekend, I wanted to save her special cupcakes for today.  I chose to make chocolate bumblebees instead of butterflies, because I call her lil Lizziebee most of the time.  I don't know where that started, but its caught on with me to make it a most likely permanent nickname.  I digress now though, onward to the cupcakes!  I made Lemon-Poppy Seed cupcakes, the recipe for which I got out of my precious "Hello, Cupcake!".  This book has not steered me wrong yet!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour


• 2 tbsp poppy seeds


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 4 oz cream cheese (softened)


• 1 cup butter (softened)


• 1 1/2 cup sugar


• 3 eggs


• 1/2 cup milk


• 1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Preheat your oven to 350, and paper line your muffin tin.

Start by whisking together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In another bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and then reduce the speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture, and the milk, in batches.  Beat until just blended, then stir in the lemon peel.

Bake this 15 - 20 minutes, or as the rule of cake baking goes, until a toothpick inserted in to the middle comes out clean.

When these are nice and cooled down, you can start with the Strawberry Meringue Buttercream!

Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 3 egg whites


• 3/4 cup sugar


• pinch of salt


• 1 cup butter, cut in to 16 smaller cubes


• 1/3 cup strawberry jam of your preference

This is a little tricky.  I used a pot too big the first time and dropped by bowl in scalding my arm.  But, in a Stainless steel or glass bowl (do not use plastic!) whisk the egg whites with the sugar over a pot (or saucepan) of simmering water until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mix is warm to the touch.

Put the bowl back on to your electric mixer.   I used a vintage stand mixer my mother in law loned me.  I call it vintage because it is from the 70's, and it shows.  With the whisk attachment, whisk the mixture until you get firm, stiff peaks and its cooled down, probably around 6 minutes.   With the whisking going at a med-low, add the salt and the butter one cube at a time beating well between.  If the mixture ends up too runny, just keep beating it until its right.  Then, gently fold in the strawberry jam.

Molded Chocolate Bumblebees

• Dark chocolate molding wafers


• Yellow molding wafers

This is what you do for virtually any hand made chocolate decoration.  Draw your design on a piece of paper.  I used a permanent marker so it would be very dominant.  Put the design sheet in a cookie sheet and cover with wax paper.

Melt your chocolate in top opened zip lock bags, 30 seconds at a time.  After each 30 seconds, massage the chocolate to help it melt.  Its important to take it slow when melting chocolate because it burns quickly, and burnt chocolate is not very tasty.

Once your chocolate  is melted cut a tiny piece of the tip off a corner of the zip lock and then seal the top making sure you get as much air out as possible.

Then, just trace your design carefully.  Work as quick as possible, you don't want the chocolate to solidify in the baggie.  When you're done all your piping put it in the fridge for atleast 10 minutes.  The chance of the pieces breaking depends solely on how well you chilled it, and how carefully you peel it off the wax paper. So take it slow.

Finished product?

Chicken Quesidillas

• 3 - 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced


• 1 large green pepper diced


• 1 large  red pepper diced


• 1 large onion diced


• 1 1/2 tbsp Spicy Fajita Seasoning


• Grated cheddar cheese


• Tortillas


• 1 tbsp veggie oil

Pre-cook your chicken breast and let it cool down so you can chop it up.  Preheat the oven to 350, and while its doing that put everything else in a pan (minus cheese and tortilla) with veggie oil and cook it for 10 minutes, mixing very often to spread around the seasoning and soften the veggies a bit.  When thats done, spoon mix on half of the tortilla, top with the grated cheese, fold over the other half of the tortilla and bake them for 10 minutes at 350 to melt the cheese.

One thing that I'm not sure people realize with my recipes is that I have a family of 4, and only 3 eat people food right now so I modify my recipes to suit us with as minimal leftovers are possible.  This made us approximately four large quesidallas,  but if you need more just double up the recipe.

Spicy Fajita Seasoning

I'm making chicken quesidillas tonight, the recipe will be coming, but I was wondering how in the world I was going to season them properly.  I tend not to buy those Old El Paso seasoning packets, but I wanted something spicy and tasty to make them extra delicious.  I came across a fajita seasoning mix recipe but I tweaked it mildly.  Now this seasoning mix packs quite a punch, so go easy on it!

Spicy Fajita Seasoning

• 3 tbsp Corn Starch


• 2 tbsp Hot chilli powder


• 1 tbsp Salt


• 1 tbsp Paprika


• 1 tbsp Sugar


• 2 1/2 tsp Chicken boullion (powder form, or cube crushed)


• 1/2 tsp Garlic powder


• 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper


• 1/4 tsp Red pepper flakes


• 1/2 tsp Cumin

Enjoy!

Ginger Garlic pork chop marinade

I noticed that my husband forgot to put the pork chops in the freezer yesterday so I thought to  myself, I have to cook these now because another day or two in the fridge they'll be going straight in the green bin!  So I decided to slow cook them.  My husband absolutely loves my slow cooked pork chops because the meat just flakes away like that of a perfectly cooked piece of salmon, and he can easily take every piece of meat right off the bone without even having to use his hands.    So i quickly whipped together a pork chop marinade to slow cook them in consisting of one of his favorite flavours, garlic, and one of mine; ginger.

Ginger Garlic Marinade

• 1/4 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 soy sauce


• 1 tsp minced ginger


• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed


• 1/4 cup ketchup


• salt/pepper to taste

Mix it all up and pour it over 6 - 8 pork chops in your slow cooker, and cook on low for 6 hrs.

Fruit Salsa!

So the birthday party has come and gone, and the food disappeared just as fast as the time it took my daughter to turn one! Shes not one yet really, that won't be until the 26th but the sentiment is still there.  Time has flown, and I don't think that I will ever know where exactly it went.  On to the recipes!  As I mentioned before I really wanted to go for fresh fruit, springtime feel.  So on the side of platters of blackberries, blueberries, cantelope slices and pineapple, I tried to give the "junk food" a healthy touch.  The kids actually loved it! we must have gone through three pounds of strawberries.  This is the fruit salsa I made, with cinnamon sugar tortilla chips to pick up the dip with.

• 1 pound of strawberries


• 8 oz raspberries


• 2 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and diced


• 2 kiwi's peeled and diced


• 2 tbsp white sugar


• 1 tbsp brown sugar


• 3 tbsp Jam of your choosing. (I had strawberry on hand)

mix everything so its coated and keep refridgerated.  What is great about this recipe is after the party, and a day in the fridge it becomes perfect as a fruit filled ice cream topping!   And then for the chips, you just take 10 or so tortillas, coat one side only with butter.  I melted margarine in a bowl and brushed it on the tortilla.  Then sprinkle the buttered side with cinnamon sugar, bake butter side up at 350 for 8 minutes.

It makes for a delicious dessert afterwords.

Pulled Chicken Sammies

Get out the slow cooker!

I decided to go lazy tonight with something that was absolutely delicious, and absolutely easy for dinner.  My 3 year old is gobbling it up while watching Coraline, and my husband... Well he's not home yet so he hasn't gotten to try it.   We love pulled pork in this house; we rarely ever make it but we love it!   We had seasoned pork chops for dinner last night though and I really don't want to eat a pig two days in a row so I decided to try a homemade sauce and chicken in the slow cooker to make a variation of the pork.

Pulled chicken Sammies

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts


• 1 cup ketchup


• 2 tbsp mustard


• 1/4 tsp garlic powder


• 2 tbsp worchestershire sauce


• 1/2 cup maple syrup


• cayenne and hot chilli powder to preference


• couple splashes hot sauce

throw it all in the slow cooker and cook for 6 hrs on low.  I put them on 4 hrs on high, but that was because after preparing everything I forgot to turn the darn thing on.

After the cooking time is done they easily pull apart with forks.  At this point if you want them really saucy you can make another batch of the sauce, put it with the recently pulled chicken and cook another 30 minutes, if you prefer it less saucy, you're done.

Green Beans!

Every so often I like to purge my pantry.  I find a lot of non-perishible items tend to just stock up.  We keep buying them but seem to rarely use most of them, things like canned vegetables and soups. I've been staring at cans of asparagus and green beans that we've had in the cupboards since we moved in to the basement of this house.  To give an idea to that timeline we now live in the complete re-modeled ground level floor of this house with a baby that's turning one next month.  So today my husband decided he's making steak.  I'm sick of potatoes.  I don't like potatoes all that much, unless seasoned just right.  I especially hate mashed potatoes, yes I realize i'm weird for that.  So I decided to finally figure out a way to use these green beans in a non-traditional european way (throwing them with pork and potato chunks, one of my mothers favorites) and I made kind of an italian feeling  side dish.  I found a recipe online that looked good, I went and made it and upon return to the recipe I realized I seemed to make up the entire thing in my head the minute I stepped away from it because I did virtually nothing on that recipe I thought I was following.

Green Beans

• 4 slices bacon


• 2 cans of Green beans (check the pantry I'm sure some a kicking around from years ago.)


• 3 cloves of garlic


• half a medium onion or 1/4 an extra large onion


• handful of cherry tomatoes


• dash of oregano


• dash of salt


• dash of parsley


• dash of pepper


• dash of hot chilli powder


• small grating of allspice

Cook your bacon till its all nice and crispy.  Set it on paper towel to drain and resist the urge to eat it.  Do not pour out the bacon grease in the skillet, it will add some extra flavor to the beans.  Chop up the onions, tomatoes and garlic nice and tiny.  Set the garlic aside for now, throw the tomatoes, green beans, and onions in the heavenly bacon greased skillet and toss it around so it all mixes together nicely.  Add all the seasonings.  I wrote dashes because as with all seasoning its really to personal taste.  Let that cook away for around 10-15 mins stirring it around every so often to make sure all of it gets some nice heat.  When thats done, toss in the garlic and mix it around and let that cook for maybe a minute or two.  Put it all in a bowl or dish and crumble the bacon on top, again trying your hardest to avoid just eating it right there.  Enjoy!

Cherry Tomato and Pesto Tarts

This is delicious! I'm eating it right now actually.  I can't believe how good it tastes, which is amazing because I don't really like tomatoes.  It actually tastes better than any pizza I've had lately.   What I love most about this is that it take literally a minute to assemble, so its perfect for mothers or working people who need to throw something fast and nutritious together on a limited time frame.  You just basically defrost some puff pastrys (or make your own, whatever you want). Put down a layer of pesto on the pastry, the slice some cherry tomatoes in half and lay them flat side down on the pesto.  Sprinkle with fresh rosemary, oregano, Parmesan cheese, and a bit of extra virgin olive oil and bake for 20-25 minutes at 400F.     Try it out!

Mint chocolate snap cookies

An Esme Q modified cookie recipe! I love mint.  I love chocolate.  I love the combination of mint and chocolate.  I love the combination of chocolate and cinnamon.  I love the combination of sweet and heat.  So I took this wonderful mint-chocolate chip cookie recipe and I added a few personal flares to make it more to my taste.  It is fantastic!  Watch out for my next sweet heat treat, Mayan chocolate cake!

• 3/4 cup butter


• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar


• 2 tablespoons water


• 1 handful semisweet choco-chips


• 1 handful mint choco-chips


• 2 eggs


• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour


• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper


• 1 tsp almond extract


• 1/2 tsp cinnamon


• mini chocolate chips

1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add both mint and semi-sweet chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.


2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.


3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).


4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes.


5. . When cookies are brought out of the oven, put a couple mint choco-chips on top.  Let the chips sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the on top of the cookie. Eat and enjoy!

Canneles

An easy at home variety of the wonderfully delicious french Canneles!  I've made these a few times now and every time I have to fight myself from eating the entire pan!  I'm working on finding variations to this recipe which i will share after I test a few things!

• 1 cup milk


• 2 tablespoons butter


• 1/2 cup flour


• 1 tablespoon sugar


• 1 egg


• 1 egg yolk


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1/2 tablespoon rum

heat the milk and butter just to a boil.  while doing this mix the flour and sugar, then add the eggs, then add that mix to the hot milk.   You're going to want to strain it after this.  It will make a very thin mix, like a crepe batter almost.  Add the extract and rum (or rum extract whatever works yer fancy) and refrigerate it overnight.    Pour it in to mini budnt pans, preferably silicon ones but I have yet to find them.  I haven't seen any silicon baking sheets as of late! I wonder if they've been pulled off the market?  Oh well.  Preheat the oven to 450, bake for 15 minutes.  This makes the outside nice and crunchy.  It will be very dark so don't be worried about that, its supposed to look near burnt.  After 15 minutes, lower the head to 350 and bake for another 45 minutes.

Easy Beef Bourguignon

I was always intrigued by this meal.  The way its always spoken of in high regard.   So I found a relatively easier recipe because as a mom I don't exactly have time to do all the fine points and details of a Julia Child Beef Bourguignon.  The smell was sweet, like that of when my mother cooks her flour dumplings for our Czech goulash.  The taste was wonderful, the onions were soft and flavourful.  I was very pleased with it and I will definitely do it again!

• 3 tablespoons olive oil


• 2 strips bacon, cut into l-inch pieces


• 2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1" cubes


• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste


• 12 small white onions, peeled, whole (cut in half, if desired)


• 1 clove garlic, crushed


• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour


• 2 cups dry red wine


• 2 cups water


• 2 tablespoons tomato paste


• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme


• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley


• 3 bay leaves


• 7 peppercorns


• 1 pound mushrooms

First, you heat the oil in a deep stew pot on medium and then cook the bacon for about a minute.  Then add the meat (salt and pepper it first!)  and brown it on all sides (takes about 6-7 minutes) and empty the meats from the pot.  Toss in the garlic and onion, let that cook for 2-3 minutes then re-add the meat and flour and mix that around.  once the flour isn't visible anymore add everything else except the mushroom.  Stir it around a bit, then just let it cook for 1.5 - 2 hrs on low setting.  Once you're satisfied with that toss in the mushrooms and let them cook with everything for about 15 minutes, discard the bay leaves and voila! Easy Beef Bourguignon! Easier to make than to spell.

yum yum squash!

In keeping with the last veggie post, I am currently eating another delicious and healthy vegitable dish.

Butternut Squash with Maple Cinnamon Butter!



First off just peel, chop and cook your butternut squash as you please.

To make the butter, mix thoroughly 1 lbs butter, 2 tbsp maple syrup, 2 drops vanilla, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and some salt.  pack it up and fridge it to use with whatever you want!

I discovered squash very late.  My mother never liked cooking, and she never liked trying new things so I never tried zucchini, squash, mango's or anything like that until my twenties.  Better late than never!



Roasted Tomatoes

• 12 plum tomatoes, halved


• 8 slices of pancetta or 4 slices of bacon, optional


• 2 onions, chopped


• 4 garlic cloves, minced


• 1/4 cup of olive oil


• penne pasta or other type


• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cut the bacon with a pair of kitchen scissors (its easier than cutting raw bacon!) and toss it with the garlic, tomatoes, olive oil and onions in a casserole dish or glass dish.  Preheat the oven and bake them until the tomatoes shrivel up a bit, the onions and garlic cooks down and the bacon is done (around an hour).  It smells fantastic! eat it as is, or mash it up and put it over penne or some larger slotted or fluted pasta so it holds everything nicely.

We absolutely loved it! so fragrant and fresh!

Hello, Cupcake!

I went to the local bakery supply store last night with a good friend because I wanted to pick up some mint wafers to make a chocolate mint cookie recipe  While we were there I we saw this book with the cutest Westie cupcakes on the front.  We though, OMG  LOLA! (her dog is a westie named lola l-o-l-a- Lola).   I stopped and flipped through this particular New York Times bestseller and we marvelled at these amazing cupcake ideas in the book, and how easy they actually were to create!  I just had to have it.  We then sat in the car drooling on these pictures while we picked one design in particular and proceeded to pick up the needed supplies to bake it!



We made the cupcake batter from scratch and probably should have made the frosting from scratch as well but we were on a limited time frame.  We baked, we decorated, we ate! It was a ton of fun and the smile on my daughters face this morning when she saw her breakfast was a full fledged panda bear make out of entirely edible contents was worth the effort.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

So for dinner I finally made that sweet potato gnocchi and it is very delicious.  It is a little time consuming to make and the dough is very sticky so a good army of flour is needed for the rolling.

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) sweet potatoes


• 1 clove garlic, pressed


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg


• 2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Cook the sweet potatoes until they're mashable, once they are and cooled mash em up and add the rest of the ingredients.  It will be VERY sticky, add the flour bit by bit not all at once. It will create a soft dough.  Flour up yer cutting board and put your playdoh skills to use rolling it out like a snake.  At this point you should have prepared a large pot of boiling salty water.  Cut up your snake in to may little snake pieces and toss it in the pot a few roll outs at a time as to not overcrowd the pot.  Once they're floating take them out.  When I took them out I let them sit in a strainer for a sec to get the water off them and then bowled them.  Eat it with whatever sauce or butter meets your fancy, I ate them plain.

yum!

Buffalo Chicken Fingers!

I saw this recipe and it looked fast and intriguing. I love spicy.  I say that boldly, because I honestly mean that I like SPICY, not HOT.  Hot is tasteless and burning.  I like my heat in my food to be pure flavourful spices.  Tonights dinner is based on that recipe! With adjustments and changes to fit my taste.

• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into finger-sized pieces


• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon garlic powder


• 1 teaspoon medium chilli powder


• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt


• 3/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs


• 2 egg whites, beaten


• 1 tablespoon water


• splash of Jan's Spicy Sauce (substitute for your favorite sauce)