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!