Perfect Pancakes

I've been looking for a nice, fluffy pancake recipe for a while now - only have found flat, dull, and uninspired offerings.  My usual breakfast is  hard boiled eggs and prune juice so when I find the urge to splurge pancakes are go to.  I could never find the right recipe,  leaving me with earth shaking anger and frustration, things are looking up.

Luckily I found this recipe which has worked on two sepearate occurances, once when I was serving  mimosa (serving for four - drinking for one) and once when I was stone cold hung over.   Both worked, so i assume this is a failure free moment, and in those extreme hangrey moments, this fluffy pancake receipe will not let you down.

Here's what you need:

• 3/4 Cup of Milk (2% or buttermilk) - shud up- you don't have these everyday
• 2 tbsps of white vinegar (sours the milk, used only if you are using 2% - stay with me)
• 1 cup of white flour
• 2 tbsp of white sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking power
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of melted butter

Fool proof (hung over or not) directions:

1. If your using 2% milk add the vinegar to the milk and let it sour.
2. Combine all your dry ingredients to the flour sifter
3. Combine all your wet ingredients to the soured milk
4. (do the math) and Combine dry and wet ingredients together, whisking so there are no clumps.
5. Drop 1/4 cup globs on to a medium heat pan / skillet. 

the batter is pretty thick so good luck getting perfect circles

Norman Rockwell eat your heart out.

The Tree is up and now, there is shortbread in the oven, that's right SHORTBREAD.

There is something intimidating I think about shortbread, but fear not!  Here is a easy recipe that will have your holiday (no CHRISTMAS) guests asking / demanding (depending on your guests) for more.  Here is how to start:
Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups of Butter (room temperature)
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt

The non intimidating instructions:

- Pre heat oven to 350
-With an electric bowl mixer cream together the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy

mix at warp speed.

- In a seperate bowl sift together flour and salt
- Add the flour to the creamed butter mixture, mix until .... mixture comes together
- Drop the combined mixture on a floured surface and shape into a disk.  Refrigerate the disc for a half an hour
- Roll the dough out to 1/2" thick and play with the shapes a bit.  My only suggestion is to keep shapes that are similar.

- Bake for roughly 20 mins ( i did 15 mins. because my shapes were smaller)

Cabbage Bombs

I've decided to do two things that I haven't done in a while:

1. Cook something that I've never tried before and...
2. Write on my beloved blog!

I apologize for my absence, I'm sure you were all hanging on my last post... so many unanswered questions... well, I'm back.

When I deciding to make cabbage rolls, I had to come to terms with the idea that these probably won't be as good as my moms or the Ukraniane cooking wizard that I once had the pleasure of eating (wait... I didn't eat the wizard, I just ate her cabbage rolls.).  Anyways here's the recepie I worked with

Ingredients:

die cabbage!

• One Medium Cabbage
• One Pound of Lean Ground Beef
• One Chopped Onion
• Three Garlic Cloves minced
• A dash of Seasoning Salt
• A couple pinches of Chipotle Chilli Powder
• One Large Egg, beaten
• Three to four cups..... (WHAT ?!?!) .... cups of cooked white rice*
• it was at this point when I realized that I had made my first mistake.  When I originally read the reciepe I thought this said 3/4 cup of white rice.....these maaaaay be a little heavy.
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

careful

1. Saute Ground Beef, Onions, Garlic and add your dry spices.  Cook until there's no pink and the onions are soft
2. Drain the beef and add the THREE TO FOUR CUPS of cooked rice
3. Cut the core off the head of cabbage and carefully remove the leaves.  Take the leaves and place them in a boiling pot of salted water for 3-5 mins.  Drain leaves on paper towel and wait till they cool.  When the leaves are cool enough to handle, trim the excess cabbage leaf stem.
4. Place the meat / rice mixture in the portion of the blanched cabbage leaves where the stem was and roll the cabbage leaves as you would a wrap..... if you don't know how to do this your screwed.
5. Place the rolled cabbage with the wrapped side down, this will seal the cabbage rolls, although you may need tooth picks as well.
6. bake as per sauce recipe.

Alien eggs or cabbage rolls ?, only time will tell.

Sauce Ingredients :

• Three cups of Tomatoe Juice
• 1/4 Cup of Butter
• 1/4 Tsp. of Salt
• 1 Tbsp. of Brown Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. of Vinegar

Boil Sauce for 10 minutes, and pour over the cabbage rolls.  Cook for 2-3 hours at 300 degrees.

I'll let you know how these turn out, and if you do make this recipe with the right amount of rice, let me know !

Made a Meatload, I will never be the same.

this is how i felt through the entire process

Don't ask me why I had a craving for meatloaf, my former vegetarian self is rolling over in his grave. I would like to reassure my vegetarian self, that I will never crave this again. It could be the amount of Walking Dead that I've been watching, but the tactile nature of making meatloaf disgusted me half way through meatloaf production, and I really wanted to abandon ship. I initially envisioned a cute little meatloaf in a bread loaf pan, however this recipe from the barefoot contessa had another vision, a mass of ground meat beat, packed and slapped down onto a baking sheet and shaped into a rectangle or death! (i might be a little dramatic here). This recipe apparently serves 6 -8 ppl, (no way in hell), this recipe will likely serve 20,000 people easily, and I'm not being dramatic now. Although the finished product had a good flavor and I will probably make the sauce again for another dish I would regretfully crown this my first culinary failure of 2013. But if hunk's of meat are you thang, here's the recipe;

looks manageable here

Meatload:

1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh chivesplus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh thyme leaves, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce

serves 6-8 ?  ah no, too much...  

1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups finely ground Panko
2/3 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
I added:

-three garlic cloves

-1 1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes

Sauce:
cups chicken or beef stock
8 to 10 cloves roasted garlic
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

For the sauce, combine the broth, roasted garlic and butter over medium high heat and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until lightly thickened. Add 1 teaspoon of each of the chopped thyme, chives and parsley. Slice the meatloaf into serving portions and spoon the hot sauce over the meatloaf and serve.

all and all, make the sauce, not the meatload.

Holiday Unwrap

of course there was too much of this

As the holiday season finally draws to a close, and that early Monday Morning curtin call draws near,  I thought I would share my favorite holiday culinary hits and misses. 




 



Pizza works on so many levels, even for a grown up pizza party.  One of these is made from a pita, and the other is made from an experienced pizza dough / maker.... I can't remember which one, (too much sampling from the first photo), but i do remember that both were great.

 

Above: 

Buffalo mozzarella, basil and salami (?)

Right: 

 sauteed mushrooms, with arugula and topped with truffle oil.

Pizza Interogator: WHAT'S ON YOU? ! ? :  Pizza: ah... ah... Buffalo mozzarella, basil, chrizo and basil(?) I think, should have made more notes.

I didn't do much baking this year, but I did make some zippy snappy ginger patties:

crystallized ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups all - purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup unsulfured molasses

1 extra-large egg,

1 1/4 cups chopped crystallized ginger 

The Bounty

I guess I did do some other baking, i made 1 lbs of home made dog treats!  (what a great pet parent), unfortunately Watson doesn't like them now... Fortunately they aren't bad with a little goats cheese and fig jam...

On new year eve, Watson may have dressed up, but before the ball dropped, he was bow tie less and running around the house.   I blame it on these holiday drinks that really made the season extra bright, but don't talk to Watson the next day:

 

Watson before

Watson after, the next day.

2 cups (16 ounces) good vodka (recommended: Stolichnaya or Finlandia)
1 cup (8 ounces) orange liqueur (recommended: Cointreau)
1 cup (8 ounces) pomegranate juice (recommended: Pom Wonderful)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (3 limes)
Lime peel strips, to garnish

Combine the vodka, orange liqueur, pomegranate juice, and lime juice in a pitcher and refrigerate until ready to use. Pour the mixture into frozen martini glasses with a twist of lime peel and serve immediately. 

 Hope everyone has a great 2013, and  weeee! the Mayan's were wrong!

Pie. (no explaination is needed).

 I originally wanted to have this post up for Canadian Thanksgiving, well, clearly that didn't happen, so we'll hopefully have this post up for the American Thanksgiving!  What says Thanksgiving more than pies and since this was my first attempt at a pie crust what a perfect opportunity to immortalize my attempts; all credit is given to Anna Olsen for her following recipes.


This crust is super easy, now you have no excuse not to make your own crust.... sorry.

Two-Crust Pie Dough

2 1/4 cups cake and pastry flour
2 tablespoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons cold water
1 tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar

1. Stir the flour, sugar and salt to combine in a bowl or using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 

• Cut in the butter by hand with a pastry cutter or on low speed until just small pieces of butter are visible and the mixture as a whole just begins to take on a pale yellow colour (indicating that the butter has been worked in sufficiently).

2. Stir the water and lemon juice together and add this to the dough all at once, mixing until the dough just comes together.

•  Shape the dough into 2 discs, wrap and chill for at least 2 hours before rolling. Alternatively, the dough can be frozen for up to 3 months and thawed in the fridge before rolling.

3. Shape into 2 logs and chill.

Apple Cinnamon Galettes

1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp + 1/2 cup dark brown sugar or demerara sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups peeled and thinly sliced Granny Smith, Cortland, or other tart apple (about 3 apples)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 egg, whisked with 2 tbsp water, for brushing
                                                                                                        Turbinado sugar, for sprinklin'


1. Preheat the oven to 375 F and line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Pull the pie dough from the fridge 20 minutes before rolling.
 
2. Slice each log into 3 pieces and roll each piece out on a lightly floured work surface to just under ¼-inch thickness and 8-inches across. Place 3 onto each baking tray and chill while preparing the filling.
 
3. Stir the sour cream, 2 Tbsp of brown sugar and vanilla together. In another bowl, toss the apples, remaining ½ cup of brown sugar and cinnamon together.
 

4. Spoon the sour cream into the centre of each rolled piece of dough and top with the sliced apples. Place a teaspoon of butter on the top of each tart. Fold the dough over the apples, making 5 or 6 creases overlapping each other so that the apples are almost fully covered. Brush the pastry with the eggwash and sprinkle generously with granulated sugar.
 
5. Bake the galettes for about 25 minutes, until the pastry is a rich golden brown colour. Let the galettes cool for at least 20 minutes before serving warm, or cool completely and serve at room temperature.
 

YUM!

The galettes should be served warm or at room temperature, but can be stored chilled for up to 3 days.

Happy Thanksgiving

Black Bottom (Portion Controlled) Cupped Cakes!

One of the reasons why I love cupcakes is because of their predetermined portion size.  One cupcake seems easier to eat that one piece (usually of varying sizing), of cake.  So before you commit yourself to just one of these little guys, reward yourself with a self realization that after you eat the inevitable second or third cupcake, you're probably still not eating as much as you would, if you were eating a piece of cake. . . its all about perspective.

                      

Heres what YOU (not me) will need: 

Black Bottom Cupcakes

1 - 8 oz. Package Cream Cheese, Softened.

 

1 - egg, slightly beaten

 

1/3 Cup Sugar

 

Pinch of Salt

 

1 - 6 oz. Package Chocolate Chips

 

1 Cup of Sugar

 

1 ½ Cups Flour

 

1/4 Cup Cocoa

 

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

 

½ Tsp. Salt

 

1 Cup Water

 

½ Cup Oil

 

1 Tbsp. Vinegar (weird I know, but trust me)

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Method

• In a small bowl combine first four ingredients.
• Add chocolate chips and set aside.
• Mix remaining ingredients well.
• Fill muffin tins, lined with paper cups (large), 1/3 to ½ full with this mixture.
• Drop a large spoonful of cheese mixture on top.
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C)   
•  Yields 20 cupcakes. 
 
 



Cream together the cream cheese, sugar, beaten egg and a pinch of salt









mix your dry ingredents















 



fill the cupcake holds to 1/2 mark, this makes great portions... cuz I'm very concerned with portion control.

 



plop the cream cheese, chocolate chip mixture into the middle of the previous layer.

 



. . . 18 . . . 17. . . get them while you can!