Sausage Spinach Buns

We got some awesome smoked sausage from the wicked butcher outlet store last week, but now they're hogging space in the freezer. I wanted something different other than your standard super-crisped on a bun or with sauerkraut or something else and started digging on the internet for "sausage bread". ...Not the best search in the world, lol. Reading them, they all wanted sausage out of its casing and lots of add-ons or pizza style. Considering I was just looking for whether or not you could bake a whole sausage in a piece of bread, it was odd, lol. But it gave me ideas and I came up with something that actually rocks.

Sausage Spinach Buns


makes 8 buns

1 recipe pizza dough (i'm still perfecting mine, so you can chose your fave)
1 lb smoked sausage, cut into 1/4 inch half moons
300g frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 medium onion, minced
4 oz mushrooms, chopped
1 cup grated mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 F and oil a baking sheet.
Have your dough ready to go, or ready for the final rising, divided into 8 equal balls.
Fry the sausage pieces in a frying pan until nice and crispy.
Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.
In the leftover fat, or a dash of oil, saute the mushrooms and onion until brown and soft.
Stir in the spinach and sausage.
Mix in the cheese just before you start making the buns.
Roll the dough balls into about 6 inch circles.
Put an 1/8th of the filling in the center and pull the edges around it.
Place on pan seam side down and brush tops with oil.
Bake about 15-10 minutes or until filling is hot and dough is cooked and brown.

Enjoy!

Delmonico Potatoes

Saw America's Test Kitchen on the weekend and had potatoes planned for tonight, so decided to internet search it. Love it how all the things that popped up had mixed spellings and varying recipes. The one claiming to be the real recipe from the NY restaurant was just potatoes, white sauce and cheese. I mixed mine up a bit.

Delmonico Potatoes


serves 6 sides

8-9 medium potatoes, cubed
4 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp flour
3 cups milk
1/4 cup crispy onion pieces
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 F and grease an 8x8" baking dish.
In a large, microwavable bowl, mix the potatoes with a pinch of salt and cover.
Microwave 9 minutes, gently stirring a couple times.
In a saucepan, melt butter until slightly brown.
Whisk in the flour and some salt and pepper and cook about 1-2 minutes.
Slowly stir in the milk, whisking all the lumps out.
Cook until thick.
Put the mostly cooked potatoes in the pan and cover with the white sauce.
Sprinkle the top with the onion pieces and Parmesan.
Bake about 25 minutes or until potatoes are fully cooked and top is brown.

Enjoy!

Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza

A night when I would have loved nothing more than to order in pizza rather than cook, but sadly there are absolutely no good pizza joints in town and it wasn't exactly in the budget either. Wasn't going to give up on pizza, but wasn't feeling making dough. Luckily we had some Pillsbury crescent roll dough in the fridge and some leftovers, so I got to do a minimal amount of work and still have some sort of pizza.

Cheeseburger Crescent Pizza


makes 4 pieces, serves 2 as a main or 4 with a side

1 tube Pillsbury crescents
1 1/2 cups fried ground beef crumbs
1 cup grated cheese ( I used a blend of cheddar and mozzarella since there was some leftover cheddar)
1/2 cup cooked mushroom pieces (about 100g raw)
1 med onion, chopped and par-cooked
3 Tbsp tomato paste
pinch each of garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F and lightly grease a baking sheet.
Unroll dough on sheet and press together seams.
Mix spices and tomato paste together and spread over the crust.
Sprinkle with half the cheese.
Top with the burger, mushrooms and onion.
Add rest of cheese.
Bake about 12 minutes or until toppings warm and crust brown and crispy.

A new and interesting way to get rid of crescents when not craving their sickly sweet plain flakiness.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Sauce

This is the recipe I used for the blueberry sauce on the Cheesecake Bites. I've used it to top sponge cake and make meringue mess too. It's yummy and versatile and one recipe I didn't really change when I found it on the internet.

Blueberry Sauce


makes 2 1/2 cups

2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

In a small saucepan, combine blueberries, oj, water and sugar.
Over medium-low heat, bring the mix to a boil.
In a small bowl, mix the other 1/4 cup water and cornstarch together.
Whisk into the blueberry mix along with the almond and cinnamon.
Cook at a gentle boil until sauce coats the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes or until desired thickness.
Serve warm or cool depending on your dessert.
Keeps about a week in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Cheesecake Bites

Was trying to come up with ideas to get rid of my blueberries, and went for blueberry sauce. I thought about doing it on a roll cake but then we had the cream cheese in the fridge and so idea (!): blueberry bites.

The recipe is technically from Fannie Farmer's Baking Book, but we nixed the crust since it was super candy and went for a shortbread type we found in a church charity cook book that makes awesome lemon squares.

Blueberry Cheesecake Bites


makes 25 bites

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 cream cheese bar
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups blueberry sauce (canned or homemade)

Pull cream cheese out and let come to room temperature. (Or chop into little bits and microwave about 20-30 seconds if in a hurry)
Preheat oven to 350 F and pull out an 8x8" glass pan.
Cream butter and sugar together and stir in flour.
Press lightly into pan and bake about 12-15 minutes.
In a tall 4-cup measuring cup, mix cream cheese and sugar together with a stick blender.
Blitz in the egg, milk and vanilla and keep at mixture until really smooth.
Pour onto baked crust and bake about 25 minutes or until not jiggly anymore and you don't leave fingerprints when you touch it.
Cool about 15 minutes and cut the square with a sharp, clean knife. (Super important!!! The crust will be really, really hard to cut when fully cooled, especially if well-done!)
Top with blueberry sauce and carefully find your cut marks.
Serve cool and keep refrigerated.

Enjoy!

Twice-Baked Potatoes

So we had ribs and baked potatoes yesterday and mom loves to make leftovers, so we had some potatoes to eat today. Rather than just heat them up and be boring, go for broke, eh? Mom kept calling for potato skins, but what she really meant was twice baked potatoes so I went for a combo.


Twice-Baked Potatoes


makes 8

4 same-size baking potatoes, baked and cooled
1 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp milk
pinch garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
oil

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Cut the potatoes two, so they're long and flat.
Scoop out the middles, trying to leave a little attached to the skin, about 1/8-1/4inch.
Oil both sides of the skins and bake about 5 minutes each side.
Meanwhile, heat up the insides and the milk in the microwave for a couple minutes.
Mash or smash how you want.
Stir in half the cheese, sour cream, and garlic powder.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Spoon filling into the skins and top with rest of the cheese.
Bake about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and filling is hot.
Serve.

Enjoy!

Fish Chowder

So, had to come up with ideas to use up all that broth from cooking the stewing hen. Chowder time! The recipe varies depending on what we have on hand when we have broth and frozen fish at the same time, so this is really just a guideline of what happened this time, lol.

Fish Chowder


serves 6

5 cups chicken broth
400g frozen white fish, thawed (we had cod this time)
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
1/2 cup milk
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 13oz can of fresh corn, drained
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and carrot and cook until onion is clear.
Add the stock and potatoes and bring to a boil.
Boil the potatoes until almost tender, about 6 minutes.
Add the fish and corn and wait for it to boil again.
Stir in the milk and season with salt and pepper.
Heat until just bubbling.
Serve plain, or with bacon bits or grated cheese or slices of fresh bread,

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pavlova and Chocolate Cream

I finally got around to reading the pre-Christmas Food and Drink Magazine from the LCBO and copying out the recipes that caught my eye and this was one of them. It was essentially perfect, since my meringue craving was building up and we had frozen raspberries and blueberries hanging out in the freezer since my plans for mixed berry and apple stuff went out the window when mom turned the apples into applesauce and I keep forgetting to pick up some more on my daily walks.

When I told mom what it was when she woke up, she was all "I haven't heard of chocolate pavlovas" and I was like, they're yummy. Heh, even changed my FB status to this being my new fave meringue recipe. Though, if I'd thought it through, I would have made like six or eight little ones and left the whip cream and berries separate in the fridge, since my brother isn't into sweets with his cigarette habit and it isn't something mom can take to work. Oh wells, remember that for next time, and there will be a next time, since I want revenge on the fragile state of the silly thing.

Chocolate Pavlova and Chocolate Cream


makes one 9" round pavlova, serves 12

Meringue:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vinegar

Chocolate Cream topping:
1 cup raspberries, fresh or thawed
5 oz  good quality milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup 35% whipping cream
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cup mixed berries, fresh or thawed (if thawed and aiming for perfection, drain the juices off before adding to the cake)

Preheat the oven to 275 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the sugar and cocoa together in a small bowl.
In a large, high bowl beat the egg whites until frothy and then add salt, vanilla and cream of tartar.
Beat whites further until soft peaks this time (more substantial than frothy and peaks are visible but fall when you lift the beaters out of mixture) and start gradually adding in the cocoa sugar while beating.
Sugar should all be in when you hit stiff peaks (the "can hold the bowl upside over you head" stiffness), beat in the vinegar and cornstarch.
Spread on the parchment in about a 9" round with the sides higher than the middle to make a little nest.
Bake about 1 hour or until outside crispy and inside still soft.
Cool completely before assembling.

Press the cup of raspberries through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove the seeds.
Stir in the chopped chocolate.
On the stove in a small saucepan over medium high heat or in a measuring cup in the microwave, heat the whip cream until it's just bubbling.
Pour over the chocolate raspberry mix and stir until smooth.
Cool about 30 minutes on the counter and 10 minutes in the freezer.
Add the cocoa powder and beat the cream until you get a moundable, stiff cream (but not butter).
Just before serving, transfer the meringue to a serving platter.
Spread the whip cream in the center.
Top with the mixed berries.
Serve immediately or freeze leftovers for a day. Fridging causes meringues to dew and go gummy.

Pretty, sweet and a tasty mix of chocolate and fruit.

Enjoy!

Cheddar Biscuits

Been craving them for awhile now and they were such a perfect side to the Chicken Stew. This recipe came from logging America's Test Kitchen viewing hours. Their biscuit recipe is one of the best my mom and I have come across in our cooking journeys. To make it fun, I tossed in some cheddar cheese.

Cheddar Biscuits


makes 12

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted (seriously, melted, not softened!!!!)
1 cup milk + 1 Tbsp vinegar (or 1 cup buttermilk if you stock that)
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese (your favourite, as long as it has flavour to stand up to being melted into the dough)

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (seriously helps with melted cheese clean up!)
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a smaller bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
In a measuring cup, mix the milk and vinegar together and let stand a minute to start the reaction.
Pour the milk mix into the butter and stir. You should end up with little butter grains floating in the milk. Takes the need for a pastry cutter and careful stirring right out of the biscuit process.
Add the wet to the dry and stir until partially combined.
Add in the cheese and finish stirring everything together.
Spoon into 12 even lumps on the baking sheet.
Bake for 12-16 minutes, flipping them over at 7-8 minutes to get even browning.
Serve hot.

Yummy!

Chicken Stew

Gotta love big cooking days. Something about dancing around the kitchen and accomplishing so much just makes you feel relaxed and down to earth.

So mom picked up a stewing hen for an experiment and we turned it into broth yesterday. It's not a bad broth either since the hen somehow has more chicken flavour for being so much older than normal fresh chicken. The only fun thing about the stewing hen was that we wanted to see if we could save the meat, so we had to boil it around 4 hours for the meat to fall off the bones. We ended up with a butt-load of meat though, more than we were expecting from all the internet info about how the hens are scrawny. Only problem is, the meat isn't so hot when it's not in a broth or a liquid of some sort. Therefore, chicken stew!

Chicken Stew


serves 6

150g bacon
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 can 796mL diced tomatoes, with juices
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar (to counteract the super sourness of canned tomatoes)
pinch hot pepper flakes
3 cups cooked chicken, diced
1/3 can water (rinse out the leftover juices in the can)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, add 1 Tbsp oil and the bacon and fry until crispy.
Stir in the rest of the oil and the onion and saute until clear and soft.
Add the garlic and hot pepper flakes and fry about 1-2 minutes, until the garlic starts to turn golden.
Mix in the tomatoes, oregano, sugar and water.
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.
Simmer at least 30 minutes to infuse flavours, or until desired consistency.
Serve hot over noodles, or with bread or biscuits.

An interesting and yummy new (for me anyways) way to eat chicken.

Enjoy!

Blondies

My first time going at them. Some people out there in internet land call them the antithesis to brownies, but to me the recipe reads more like someone put chocolate chip cookie dough in a pan because they were too lazy to make the individual cookies. I mean, aside from having the split of white and brown sugar in cookies, that's basically it. I should have either mixed the sugars or cut back, since they were super intensely sweet, but were too finicky to cut smaller than into 16s.

Blondies


makes 16 or 25 squares, depending on your sweet tooth

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
1/3 cup toppings: choose from chocolate bits/chips, nuts, dried fruit, etc. (I went with chocolate bar bits.)

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease and flour an 8" x 8" pan.
In a bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder and then gently stir into the batter.
Stir in your topping choice until just mixed.
Pour into prepared pan and smooth out.
Bake about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool about 15 minutes and then score your squares to make the final cut when cool easier.
Serve.

For some reason the batter poofed up around the edges and stayed low in the center, so I got some weird little 3D action going on. The chocolate bits were yummy though.

Enjoy!

Beef Fried Rice

More Chinese, but it's one of the simplest things to do to stretch lean supplies. We had leftover roast beef for this one, but fresh beef works and is sometimes better. Any cut too, as long as you marinate the tougher ones and don't over cook them.


Beef Fried Rice


makes 5 servings

1lb beef, cut into small, thin strips
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 large carrot, chopped into half moons
2 cups dry rice, cooked as you like, fresh or day old
4 green onions, chopped
1 egg
3 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cayenne
1 Tbsp sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet/wok heat 1 tsp of the oil.
Scramble the egg in a small bowl, season with a little salt and pepper, and fry flat in the pan with little stirring.
Remove and cut the egg into 1/2 x 1/8 inch strips.
Heat 2 tsp of oil in the pan and fry the beef pieces about a minute a side. Remove from pan.
Heat another 2 tsp of oil in the pan and fry the carrot and mushrooms for about 4 minutes, then remove.
Put the rest of the plain oil in the pan and add the rice.
Fry until nice and crispy, about 8-10 minutes depending on how damp it is.
Add 1 1/2 Tbsp of the soy sauce and stir to coat the rice evenly.
Mix the spices with the rest of the soy sauce in a small bowl.
Add everything back to the pan and pour the soy sauce mix over it, stirring well to combine with the rice.
Top with the sesame oil and green onions.
Serve hot.

Yummy!

Turkey Pot Pie I

Puff pastry and turkey; what else do you need? Well, veggies help, and these were what we had on hand. And since we didn't have any stock, homemade or canned, kicking around, I used the instant powder. The only thing to remember with that is it can be salty, so only salt at the very end, and it has a bit of sweetness, so it's not always a good addition to savory things.

Turkey Pot Pie I


serves 4

2 1/2 cups cooked turkey
2 small onions, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 small head broccoli, stems sliced, 1/2 inch floret pieces
1 clove garlic, minced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups hot water
3 Tbsp chicken stock powder
a splash of cream
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 lb thawed puff pastry

Roll the puff pastry into a 10" by 10" square and cut into four pieces.
Cook according to package directions.
Melt the butter with the olive oil in a large pot over medium high heat.
Fry the onions and mushrooms until onions are soft and mushrooms are starting to brown, about 6 minutes.
Mix in the broccoli and garlic and cook about 2 minutes.
Stir the chicken soup powder into the water and set aside.
Evenly sprinkle the flour over the veggies in the pot and stir to get rid of any white spots.
Gradually stir in the chicken stock mix and cream and cook until it coats the back of a spoon.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour into four over-proof ramekins and put a piece of pastry on top of each.
Lower the oven temp to 350 F and put the pies into the oven for about 15 minutes or up to an hour.
Serve after cooling slightly and with pot holders and trivets if vessels are still really hot.

I thought there were going to be 6 pies until I portioned it out, so I cut the puff pastry into sixes, and hence it's a little smaller than I wanted. Probably could have made 6 but I had no idea where the mini-bowls were and since there were no potatoes in the mix, it wasn't hearty enough to be smaller.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Thawed chicken, a going sorta soft green pepper and a desire for sweet and sour stuff, our basic recipe for sweet and sour pork got a substitution, lol.

Coming from Betty Crocker's International Cookbook, you wouldn't think it would be good since it could be a la Kraft requiring you to use one of their products in every recipe, but it's from before the onslaught of super processed foods, so it just has their best versions of international recipes.

Sweet and Sour Chicken


serves 4

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 medium carrots
1 green pepper
1 can pineapple bites
2 medium onions
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp oil
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2  cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the chicken into 1/4 inch cubes.
In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat.
Add the chicken, season with a bit of salt and pepper and brown on both sides, then remove from pan and keep warm.
Cut the carrots in thin diagonal slices and mince the garlic.
Cut the green pepper into 1/4 inch pieces.
Cut the onions into wedges about the same size as the green peppers.
Open the pineapple and drain the juice into a measuring cup. Add enough water to make 1 cup of liquid.
Add the brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, pineapple juice, garlic and carrots to the pan.
Simmer the mix about 6 minutes, until carrots are tender.
Mix the cornstarch and cold water together and add to the sauce, stirring well.
Add the remaining veggies, pineapple pieces and chicken to the pan and coat with sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.
Heat until everything is warm through.
Serve with your favourite prepared rice.

The green stuff is sauted bok choy since we had it kicking around and I wanted a leafy green too.

Enjoy!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

Had some sweet potatoes kicking around and didn't want to go the more obvious ways of pie or mash, and therefore to the internet! Lol.

There were actually quite a lot of recipes out there, and the few I clicked on were all different! The ones involving taco seasoning were obvious cross outs, since that isn't a staple in our house and I wasn't feeling tex-mex today, but the rest ended up being blended into something quite tasty...except for experimenting with sugar since they kinda went black instead of brown.


Spicy Sweet Potato Fries


serves 3

2 medium-ish sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 Tbsp oil. any kind
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne (more if you want them hotter)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground fenugreek

Preheat the oven to 450 F and line two baking sheets with parchment.
Peel the sweet potatoes until you get past any opaque white flesh and then cut into fries.
In a large bag, combine the potatoes, oil and spices and flip around to coat well.
Spread out the fries on the baking sheets in a single layer.
Bake about 10 minutes on the first side and flip.
After another 7 minutes, stir them up again.
Bake 5 more minutes, or until desired golden brownness.
Serve plain or with a creamy dipping sauce; they don't go too well with ketchup since it's so sweet.

Yummy fries...as a side to oven-fried chicken thighs. A nice and spicy different way to look at the sweet potato.

Enjoy!

Falafels from Scratch

So, most commercial mixes that you "just add water to" tend to be over-salted or really bland and we were getting tired of that. Solution? Make our own from scratch!

The only hard thing about the recipe is planning ahead, since you need to soak the dried chickpeas for at least 18  hours. Some internet recipes suggest using a can of drained chickpeas, but then you're just getting hummus balls and not legit falafel. This recipe is based off of Tyler Florence's and one from a Jewish cook book since they do it with fava beans.


Homemade Falafels


makes 18 balls

2 cups dried chickpeas
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
2 handfuls fresh parsley (no dried stuff here, so wouldn't be the same)
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp baking powder
salt (to taste or about 1 tsp)
1 Tbsp water

Sort through the chickpeas and discard stones and discoloured beans.
Rinse and then in a large bowl, cover with at least enough water to have 2 or 3 inches of height above the beans.
Cover and fridge for at least 18 hours, 24 is better, topping up if the water disappears.
Drain and spread out onto clean dish towel to dry.
In a food processor, grind the beans until they start to form a smooth paste, scraping down the sides as necessary. (Takes about 10 minutes with my mom's 30 year old thing)
While the beans are grinding, peel the onion and garlic and give them a quick chop into quarters.
When the beans are paste-like, add the onion and garlic and pulse until there aren't visible large chunks.
Mix the spices and baking powder in a little bowl and then sprinkle evenly over the stuff in the food processor.
Add the water, aiming to wash the spices down around the center.
Give it another pulse to start mixing it all together.
Add the parsley and pulse until it's small and incorporated (not endlessly until the mix is green)
Chill at least 15 mins, max a couple hours. (Wrap it if you don't want your fridge smelling like parsley and garlic).
In a large frying pan, heat enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan over high heat.
Form the dough into walnut sized balls and then press into flat discs about 1 1/2 inchs wide.
When the oil is hot, put 9 in the pan (unless that overcrowds it) and then turn the heat down.
Cook them about 4 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom and flip.
Cook another 3 minutes or so, waiting for golden brown again.
Remove from pan carefully and drain on a platter lined with paper towels.
Keep frying in batches until all balls are cooked.

Serve with any of:
-pitas
-flour tortillas
-yogurt
-tahini dressing
-tzatziki
-cucumber chunks
-diced tomatoes
-lettuce shreds
-sour cream
-hot sauce
-your favourite topping

Top: the golden, crunchy falafel balls
Bottom: served up on gas-flamed, store-bought flour tortillas with cucumber pieces in yogurt and a squirt of ranch dressing

That's one of the advantages of a gas stove: when you don't feel like making your own tortillas, instead of just microwaving the store-bought ones, you can toast them over the open flame.

A much yummier, and cheaper, version of the sometimes icky mixes when craving a Middle Eastern food fix.

Enjoy!

Spaghetti Carbonara

A slightly carb-y week, but there's nothing wrong with yummy pasta. Again, it's a regular dish in the house and it's gotten even better now that we use real bacon and not that stuff maple leaf calls bacon. The yummy smokiness, the subtly salty flavour and the pieces that turn into part pork-rind are a truly indulgent addition to what we call carbonara. I was watching a show the other day and the chef was like "it's not the dish if you add cream, true stuff lets the eggs make the silky sauce", but in lieu of Parmesan, whipping cream makes a luxurious sauce.

Spaghetti Carbonara

serves 4

350g spaghetti, cooked
3 eggs
2 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp bacon grease
1 lb bacon, diced and cooked
2 Tbsp whip cream
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter with the bacon grease in a large saucepan.
Beat the eggs and cream together.
Add the pasta to the pan and toss to coat with the butter.
Reduce the heat and pour the egg mix over, stirring well to prevent scrambling.
Season with salt and pepper and toss well.
With the heat off, stir in the bacon.
Serve.

 Enjoy!

Turkey Tetrazzini

Leftover turkey is yummy, but you can get sick of it after a couple days. That's okay, because the meat takes to freezing pretty well. Of course, it's a little gummy when thawed, which might make something like a turkey salad sandwich not that appealing, but it's perfect in pies and casseroles.

So we had leftover turkey in the freezer and wanted something simple: turkey tetrazzini came to mind. It's been one of those things we discovered a few years ago when we wanted something different with our turkey leftovers. The veggies vary (mushrooms work quite well, the peas, broccoli or something different) but the cream sauce remains the same. Of course, you don't have to leftovers to do this. If you score turkey parts on sale and just cook them to put in the casserole, that would work too.

Turkey Tetrazzini


serves 4

350g pasta, went with spaghetti noodles snapped in half this year
2 1/2 cups cooked turkey, in 1/2 inch chunks
1 large onion, diced
14oz can of peas, drained
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
a splash of sherry
1 can condensed mushroom soup
4 cans of milk
1/4 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Start prepping the pasta.
In a large saucepan (big enough to combine everything), heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and cook until soft, but not brown.
Add the turkey and cook about 1-2 minutes to start warming it up.
Sprinkle the flour over the turkey and onion and stir to get everything wet.
Add the mushroom soup and splash of sherry and combine. Cook a minute to burn off the alcohol.
Mix in the milk and spices and bring to a boil.
Add the peas and drained pasta and stir to coat.
Serve (or bake in a 350 F oven for 30 minutes up to an hour)

Filling and creamy, a nice alternative to a weekday default meal.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread

Not just a seasonal food, the sweet and spicy mix that is gingerbread is yummy, with or without frosting. Plus it keeps well and makes a semi-healthy portable snack.

Gingerbread


makes 48 1/8 inch thick cookies

1/2 cup butter*
3/4 cup brown sugar, dark or golden
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour

*1/2 tsp salt, if using unsalted butter

Mix the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.
Cream in the molasses, egg and vanilla.
Stir in the spices, baking powder and baking soda.
Beat in the flour until the dough comes together. It's okay if it's slightly tacky.
Cover and chill at least an hour.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 F.
Lightly dust the counter with flour and pull out half the dough.
Roll out to an 1/8 inch thick, or desired thickness, and cut into your favourite shapes.
The dough doesn't suffer from being re-rolled, so save the scraps to fill your cookie sheets.
Cook for about 5 minutes if 1/8 inch thick, or until brown around the edges and a little firm.
Repeat with other half of dough.

Serve plain or you can ice them when cool. Buttery and yummy either way.

This is technically a gingerbread house recipe, so it would probably keep a month on the counter, but I'd suggest freezing in a sturdy container for the best results.

Basic Confectioner's Icing


makes about a cup and a bit

2 1./2 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp milk, plus a little more

Melt the butter and stir in the vanilla.
Add the icing sugar and then spoon the milk over.
Stir to saturate everything. If it's too dry or too stiff add more milk a teaspoon at a time until you have a damp, spreadable icing. Too liquidy and it won't harden and last.

This recipe makes plain white, as you can see from the photo, but you can experiment with adding food colour to make your desired colours to jazz them up.

Enjoy!

Purist Beef Stew and Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

Another lazy day, but there's nothing wrong with that. With winter back again, a beef stew seemed like a good idea to warm the soul. And we're eating through the freezer again, so there was some thawed puff pastry in the fridge. I was thinking of something to do with apples, but mom wants to be in charge of those, since she thinks they're skeazy, so I went with a straight-up cinnamon sugar thing.

Purist Beef Stew


serves 3

2 lb eye of round beef, chunked
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 packet onion soup powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup flour
1 Tbsp sherry
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cups water

Put a large pot over medium heat and add the oil.
Add the onions and cook until translucent, about 4 minutes.
Add the onion soup powder, flour and pepper and mix until everything looks wet.
Add the sherry and cook off the alcohol smell, about 1-2 minutes.
Stir in the water gradually until all the lumps are gone.
Turn down to really low and add the beef chunks.
Even though the meat is sticking out of the liquid, DON'T add more water, since the meat will give off its own.
Simmer about 2 hours, until meat is soft, stirring occasionally. If it starts to boil, just turn it off for a while and let it sit on the stove.

Serve immediately or fridge and reheat the next day (it's always better the next day if you can plan it that way)

If you couldn't tell, I nicknamed it "purist" since it only has beef and onions, none of this potato, carrot, pea and what-not stuff you find in canned stew, lol.

Cinnamon Puff Pretzels

makes 24 mini pretzels

1/2 package puff pastry (about 227g), thawed

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbsp butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425 F

Sprinkle a little of the sugar on a clean work surface and put the puff pastry on it.

Roll it out to a 10 inch by 12 inch rectangle.

Brush the butter over the whole area of dough.

Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle evenly over the dough.

Semi-tightly roll the dough to the middle from both sides, to make a pretzel-shaped log.

Cut into 24 even pieces and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake about 8 minutes and then flip the pastries and bake another 5 minutes, or until brown on both sides. Careful, it can burn quite easily.

Serve warm or cooled. both make a yummy, sweet treat.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Fried Rice

So, first post of the new year. Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays!

Keeping it simple after all the holiday cooking, I went with a simple fried rice. Well, it was supposed to be simple, but the shrimp were old-school in not being zipper-backed and deveined, so that took longer than I thought. I ran a paring knife along the back, and it worked, but then mom comes home and tells me that you can just open the shell from the leg side of the shrimp, lol. Oh wells, shrimp got prepped and into the rice!

Shrimp Fried Rice


serves 4

1 1/2 cups dry converted rice, cooked following directions
1 lb shrimp, cut into pieces
2 medium carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, sliced into medium pieces
2 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
1 tsp honey
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
sesame oil to garnish

In a large wok, heat a tsp of the oil and add the eggs.
Keep the eggs flat and flip after 30-45 seconds. Cook until done and removed from the pan.
Cut the egg into thin strips about an inch long by 1/4 inch wide.
Add 2 tsp of oil to the wok and stir fry the onion and carrots about 2 minutes then add the garlic and shrimp pieces and cook about a minute.
Add a tablespoon of soy sauce, the spices and honey and cook until the shrimp is just ready.
Put into a large bowl and wipe out the pan.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan and add the rice
Cook the prepared rice until it's dry and toasty.
Stir in the remaining soy sauce and coat the rice evenly.
Add the shrimp and veggie mix back to the pan and combine well.
Heat everything back up and then kill the heat and add the egg.
Garnish with the sesame oil, give it a quick stir and serve.

No picture today since everyone was so hungry it was on plates and in bellies before I remembered I needed one. It's a yummy mix with a sweet and spicy taste that's definitely not your take-out or frozen meal dish.

Enjoy!