Meh

I made posting regularly in my food blog a new year's resolution, but those things are never meant to be kept.

I'm suspending my blog for the unknown future, because it's not interesting to do a blog when no one reads or comments on your recipes or how you could improve it, but also because my mom doesn't like me experimenting with meals or desserts she can't take to work and has basically limited the menu to the same 5 dishes.

Maybe if I ever get to live in a place where I have the freedom to cook, I might start it up again.

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!