OMG YUM! Twice the yum for a Saturday!!

So, I woke up early enough this morning with enough of an appetite to make breakfast... YAY!

I decided to use the leftover mashed potatoes from the elk roast I had last night to make some potatoe pancakes. It's not a new recipe, I've used it a few times, but I think I FINALLY got the recipe perfect!! And then there was dinner... HOOOOOLY, yum, so tasty!

So, without further ado...


Leftover Mashed Potato Pancakes

What We Used:

1 and 1/2 cups mashed potato
2 eggs
a splash of milk
salt and pepper


Method:


Use a mixer to blend everything together in a bowl. It SHOULD have a consistancy slightly thicker than pancake batter. Season it with other things if you wish, such as garlic or hot sauce or whatever!!

I cooked my pancakes in the same pan as bacon. Any type of oil would be good, though, and you'll want to use plenty of it or the poor tatorcakes will stick. Cook them much the same as you would pancakes, but be a little more gentle with them since they won't be quite as glutenous as pancakes.

I also ate mine with butter and jalapeno jelly. YUM!



Taco Meatballs with White Kidney Beans


What We Used:


Meatballs

1 pound ground beef
coriander
cumin
cayenne pepper
chili powder
garlic powder
onion powder
1/2 a fresh onion, chopped
1 egg
1/2 cup finely crushed crackers
3/4 cup uncooked rice

1/2 cup grated cheese
1 can tomato soup
1 bottle salsa (We used mild, you can use whatever you'd like)
1 can white kidney beans


Method:

Mix all the ingrediants for the meatballs together in a large bowl. Roll the meat into 1 inch balls and lay in a large casserole dish. Drain the liquid from the beans into a bowl, add the salsa and the soup. Put the beans on top of the meatballs, cover everything with the salsa mix. Put the cheese on top and bake, covered, until the rice in the meatballs is tender. Cook uncovered if you want the dish to be a little more solid and a little less soupy.

We served this with buttered toast, it was DELICIOUS!! Sooo filling because of the rice in the meatballs and the beans.

New Starts! And a new recipe!

Hurray! A new post from a new kitchen! The delay was a long one but hopefully the wait will have been worth it. We've moved into a big, beautiful house together and the kitchen is inspiring to say the least. Since these were such a success last time I made them, I decided to share the recipe with the world!


Sam's Chocolate Banana Zucchini muffins - Super Easy to make

What We Used:

2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar

1 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shaved chocolate
1 cup zucchini
2 bananas

Mix the eggs, the oil and the sugar together in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingrediants and stir together till everything is wet. Spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin so the cups are about 2/3rds full, then bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

While the method for these is super easy, I thought it might be good to add in a few pointers about some of the things included in the recipe!!

For instance, shaving chocolate can be a bit of a chore, so you can substitute chocolate chips for a different texture and flavor and to save yourself a bit of a headache. We have a handy dandy Pampered Chef grater that I used to shave the chocolate, and it works like a dream.

In the case of the Bananas, freezing bananas that are getting too ripe is a great way to do it! You could mash a fresh banana by hand, but a frozen banana is already mush when it thaws, saving a bit of time.

If you're missing the bananas or don't have zucchini, substituting pumpkin would also work brilliantly.

These are very moist and full of flavor, and they're relatively healthy despite the chocolate in them.

Oh Food Blog, how I have missed you!!! Pictures will be put up soon of some of the things we missed blogging about during our long silence!

- Sam

Beach Day, 40 degrees and grilled Souvlaki

After a wonderful day in the sun at the lake, I got the idea to do some sort of souvlaki for dinner since we have plenty of pork tenderloins still and some leftover ingrediants from movie night I've been itching to use.

Pork Souvlaki in Orange Yoghurt Sauce - Easy

What We Used:

• 1 cup plain yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• pinch of white pepper
• pinch of rosemary
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 orange, zested and juiced
• a dash of Worchestershire Sauce
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 2 cloves elephant garlic
• 1 red pepper
• 1 zucchini
• 1/2 onion
• 1 pork tenderloin, cut into medium sized cubes

I prepped the sauce first since I needed to put the pork into it right away. I put the yoghurt, spices, oil, Worchestershire sauce and the orange juice and zest into a bowl, mixing it all together and letting it sit while I cubed the pork. I then dredged the pork in the sauce. YUM. It makes such a lovely sound.

After that, I prepped the vegetables. I sliced the garlic and the pepper into thick slices, cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and then into half moons, and cut the onion into quarters, pulling it into petals.

After everything was ready, we broke out the skewers! You can layer them however you want, add whatever other vegetables you'd like or take things out if you don't like them. We ALMOST had exactly enough stuff for each skewer, but we still ended up with one that was only meat, onions and garlic.



We used our grill, but you can also use a barbecue to cook them, or broil them in the oven until the meat is cooked all the way through and browned however much you'd like.

We paired these with Crash Hot Potatoes, which are such a hit, I think they've become a staple in our house.

-Sam

Wednesday Movie Night!

Tonight's choice was made by Jess!! It's a hilarious comedy called 'Stiff Upper Lips' and it spawned the dinner theme of "English tea party."

Or something of the sort. There's a TON of food coming our way tonight, and we're contributing several items ourselves! Bread Pudding compliments of my little brother G, curry, lavender sugar cookies and cucumber sandwiches.

Here's a blurb about the movie:

"Emily is now 22 and ripe for marriage. Her idiotic brother Edward decides, in cahoots with Aunt Agnes, to pair her off with his upper-class twit friend Cedric Trilling. Emily has already had and refused a proposal of marriage from the local vicar Mr. Tweeb on the eminently sensible grounds that his eyebrows were too bushy! An accident at the family lake brings Emily very closely into contact with the naked, handsome, muscular, lower-class peasant George and she is instantly attracted to his ripping unmentionables! Seeing the undesirability of the match Aunt Agnes takes the family first to Italy and then to India to try to separate the lusty, ill-matched couple but George accompanies them as a servant. Will lust prevail or will Emily be forced into a loveless marriage with the extremely dull and boring Cedric?"

It's been a busy day already in the Kitchen of Despair!!

Lavender Sugar Cookies - Easy

What We Used:

• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• lavender sugar* for garnish

I sifted together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set it aside. Then I creamed the butter together with the sugar, added the egg and vanilla and beat it till it was all incorporated.

I gradually added the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon instead of using the mixer, and eventually I just mixed it by hand since the dough is heavy and a little dry. I then shaped the dough into balls using one teaspoon of dough for each. I dipped the top of each ball into the lavender sugar before putting them onto the cookie sheet. We baked them at 375 for 8-10 minutes, or until they turned golden brown, then let them sit for a bit on the pan before moving them to the cooling rack!

Verdict?

Gaaaaah, it smells so good in here. These cookies are DELICIOUS!! Even the ones I overcooked. I'd definitely use this recipe again! Not too sweet and deliciously buttery.


*Lavender sugar is really very easy to make. You take blossoms from a lavender plant and put them into a sealed container with 1 cup of sugar. Keep it in a cool, dark place and use whenever you feel the need for something sweet and fragrant in your cooking!


Meanwhile, I trimmed the crusts off of slices of homemade bread to get the right shape for the cucumber sandwiches, and my brother used the scraps to make bread pudding!


G's Bread Pudding

What We Used:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups milk
• 1 1/2 loaf of bread

G mulched the bread in the food processor, whipped the eggs with the sugar and added the spices and vanilla. He then added the milk into the eggs and mixed everything together, adding the bread in and beginning to soak it. He moved the mix into a Pyrex loaf pan, letting it sit for half an hour. Then we heated the oven to 375 and popped the bread pudding in. It was cooked until a knife stuck into the center came out clean.

Verdict?

Sweet and spicy and very tasty! Too bad I was too full to eat more than a few bites.


The chicken curry was lifted from this recipe here, so no reprinting. The bread is the same recipe posted in an earlier post here on the blog.

-Sam and Jess

Butternut Squash Gnocchi with Roasted Vegetable sauce

Today we took on something rather adventurous... Gnocchi!! This is a pasta alternative made with potatoes or other root type vegetables that is usually boiled and tossed with sauce or flavored butter.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi - Intermediate and time consuming

What We Used:

• 1 butternut squash, steamed and peeled
• 2-4 cups flour
• salt and pepper to taste
• onion powder
• 2 eggs

We cut and gutted the squash, then quartered it (it was pretty small) and tossed it in our lovely steamer. Once it was done cooking, it was set aside to cool. I got my brother to peel it for me while I was busy with the sauce, then he mashed the squash and set it to cool a little further. We mixed in two eggs, the spices, then started adding flour until we had dough the same consistancy as pasta dough.

After that, I cut the dough into small pieces and we rolled them into roundish shapes and squished them with a floured fork. This part is actually best done with a pot of boiling water on hand to put them in right away. *sigh* Unfortunately, I didn't think of that at the time and some of the gnocchi ended up sticking together in a glob.

We added the gnocchi to boiling water and waited for them to float to the surface, indicating they were done. Then they were scooped out and set aside. I oiled them a bit in preparation of baking them and to keep them from sticking together.

I baked the gnocchi at 375 until they were crisp and golden in color on either side, then served them with meatballs and the sauce.

Roasted Vegetable Sauce - Easy

What We Used:

• 1 orange pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove elephant garlic ( or about 6 cloves of regular, my current garlic is on steroids )
• 4 tomatoes
• corriandar
• basil
• oregano
• onion powder
• oil

To start with, I gutted the peppers and cut them into quarters, laying them in a baking dish and sprinkling them with oil. I cut an onion into quarters, removed the skin and pulled the whole petals off. I halved the tomatoes, cutting a shallow X into the bottom half to make sure the skin peeled back properly.

I put the garlic in the middle of another baking dish, put the tomatoes around it then tossed the onions in. Both dishes went into the oven at 350 degrees until the tomatoes were soft, the garlic was tender and the onions were crisp around the edges. The peppers took a little longer. I pulled them out when the skins were beginning to turn black and set both pans on the stove to cool.

Once they were cool enough to handle, I pulled the skins off the peppers and tomatoes, cut everything into large chunks and tossed it into a pot along with the spices. It simmered until the meatballs and the gnocchi were finished baking.

Verdict?



VERY good! The sauce complimented the slightly sweet gnocchi perfectly! And my curry meatballs were great with the whole dish. This is something I'd definitely do again!


~Sam

Doctor Who Night: Pizza Bites

Doctor Who night, which sadly will end for the year tonight, was the time for appetizers. Sam and I came across a blog talking about pizza bites a while back, and we decided to try our own take on them.

Pizza Bites (intermediate difficulty)

What We Used
Dough:

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp white sugar

Filling:

• Pepperoni
• Mozzarella Cheese
• Cheddar Cheese

The dough was actually fairly easy to prepare, though time consuming. We dissolved the yeast in the cup of warm water and let it stand about ten minutes until it was milky.

When the yeast was done turning into slime, we stirred all the dough ingredients together in a bowl, then kneaded (add a little more flour if it's waaaay too sticky during this stage) until it was thoroughly mixed. Then we let it sit for a couple hours until it doubled in size.

When it was done growing, we pulled off little palm sized chunks and formed them into little discs. We filled the discs with a few pieces of cubed pepperoni and cheese then pinched the discs closed to make little filled balls which we placed in a 9 x 11 cake pan. We covered again and let them rise again for a while.

Once they were the size of small buns, we placed them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Before you put them in the oven you have the option to brush them with olive oil and herbs... we used garlic and basil, which was awesome. Some parmesan cheese would have been lovely as well, but we didn't have any.

We served with a dish of maranera sauce, and the entire thing was fantastic. Nice little snacky pizza pockets.

-Jess

Wednesday Movie Night: One Week

I love movie nights! Megan's turn this week, with an indie offering titled 'One Week'.

"Ben Tyler has been diagnosed with cancer. With a grim chance of survival in the best case scenario even if he immediately begins treatment, he instead decides to take a motorcycle trip from Toronto through the Canadian prairies to British Columbia."

It's kind of a love letter to Canada, which naturally means Canadian food. Which naturally means someone brought poutine, and we're all getting Tim Hortons... but besides that, Sam and I decided to take another shot at Flapper Pie... which was a dismal soggy mess last time I made it.

Flapper Pie is like a vanilla custard merangue pie of fantastic on a graeme cracker crust and one of my favorites, despite my inability to make one.

Sam, however, is a ninja.

Flapper Pie

What We Used:
Crust

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup butter, softened

Filling

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Meringue

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

There was a lot of me dictating to Sam today, as my foot is still resembling a softball and standing is a bit annoying.

The oven was preheated to 375 as Sam prepared the crust. All three of the crust ingredients were mixed well in a bowl. We reserved a couple tablespoons of the mix for the topping then pressed the rest into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate, which was baked for about 8-10 minutes (depends on the heat of your oven really... )

The next bit is easy to burn, so we made sure all of our ingrediants were ready to go before we began (ie: make sure you seperate your eggs right now.)

The sugar, cornstarch, flour and salt were measured into a saucepan, then the milk was added gradually. Once the milk was in, the mixture was cooked over medium heat until thickened, stirring very frequently. It was cooked for about two minutes after coming to a boil, then some of the hot mixture was used to temper the egg yolk. The yolks were stirred into the mix and then cooked for another minute or so.

Everything was removed from heat, then the butter and vanilla was stirred in. The entire thing was cooled for about fifteen minutes before being poured into the crust. Then it was left to cool completely.

Once the thing was cool (and after a few rounds of certain video games) we made the meringue by beating the egg whites, vanilla, and 1/4 cup white sugar until they could hold a hard peak.
The meringue was spread over the cooled pie, then the reserved graeme crumbs were sprinkled over top. Then the pie was baked again at about 425 until the meringue was golden brown.

Verdict?

It was tasty! Not worthy of pictures being a messy custardy pie, but it was still very tasty!!

-Sam and Jesso

Breakfast for Dinner?

I love doing this. Really... and we've been looking for a good reason to break out Sam's cast iron griddle.



Jess's Mom's Awesome Buttermilk Pancakes

What We Used

• 2 cups of buttermilk
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs (separated)

We sifted the dry ingredients first, then added the buttermilk and stirred until smooth. Once it was smooth, we added the egg yolks and melted butter. If the mix is too glue like at this stage, you can hit it with a shot of regular milk to thin it up a bit.

We heated up the griddle, and while it was getting ready, we beat the egg whites until they could hold soft peaks. Right before we were ready to cook, the egg whites were folded in.

An easy way to tell when it's time to flip your pancake is when it starts bubbling slightly. And don't worry... the first one is almost always ugly.

Huckleberry Compote

What We Used

• 1 1/2 - 2 cups huckleberries
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• splash of parrot bay coconut rum
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Sam combined all the ingredients in a pot over medium low heat and simmered until it reached the consistancy of a sauce. There was also a random pine needle in our sauce... which just shows how fresh the huckleberries were.

-Jess

Stuff in the Fridge Sunday! Sam's Meatballs, mashed taters and fresh corn!

Kay, so I wasn't entirely truthful. I decided to wing it on my own tonight so without further ado!!


Stuff in the Fridge Sunday presents


Sam's Meatballs


What We Used:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 tsp curry powder, coriandar, smoked Paprika
• pinch of white pepper
• 1/4 onion minced
• 1 egg
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• bread crumbs
• a dash of Lee and Perrin's
• 1/4 cup deli style mustard ( I used the grainy stuff )

Throw your ground beef into a bowl and start adding in all the other ingredients, minus the bread crumbs and egg. When you've got the stuff mixed up, put your egg in and mix well. Then add bread crumbs until you've got the desired consistancy you want for meatballs.


Form into balls and place into a baking pan. I used my big Pyrex dish for these and baked them in the oven at 350 till they were done!


No pictures tonight, we all know what meatballs look like anyway. This used up some leftover onion and leftover ground beef I had in the fridge! Looking forward to tomorrow's adventure!


-Sam

Chicken Cordon Burgers

Ryan is kind of a pre-packaged type guy. Frozen chicken...fries... sidekicks. That there is the repitoire.

One of our favorite 'Ryan' foods, however, is Chicken Cordon Burgers... we usually do it with pre-frozen chicken patties, ham, swiss cheese... We decided to do a new take on it and make our own chicken patties for this particular version of the meal... which is what Sam set out to do while I was making Chocolate Chip Cookies (from the same kids cookbook as the delicious brownies we made last time.)



Chicken Cordon Burgers

What We Used
The burgers:

• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 green onion
• 1 tsp smoked paprika (or regular if you don't have smoked)
• breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• onion powder

The Fixings:

• Old Fashioned Ham deli meat slices
• swiss cheese
• mayo (if you like it...)
• whatever type of hamburger bun you prefer

Sam started out by mulching the chicken breasts with the pepper, the green onion and the paprika in the food processor. Bread crumbs and egg were mixed in until the mess had the proper consistancy (ie: It would hold a patty shape)

The patties were covered in bread crumbs and a little onion powder and then put in a pan with grapeseed oil to fry. After the patties were done, they were topped with a slice of swiss cheese and the ham and placed lovingly on a bun.

Ryan, of course, approved. Which is what was important.

And there was cookies!



-Jess

Wednesday Movie Night: Big Trouble

Sam's turn for the movie of the week, and her choice was 'Big Trouble', a comedy that quietly snuck in and out of theatres in the aftermath of September 11th (September 21st 2001 was the original release date, but it was pushed back to 02 because of a scene involving smuggling a bomb onto an airplane... so no one has really heard of it.)

"A chain of events starts with the arrival of a mysterious suitcase in Miami. Arthur Herk, a corrupt business owner, wants to get his hands on the case. At the same time, two hit men want him whacked. Tired of his constant fixation on drinking and television, Herk's wife Anna and daughter Jenny decide to find new love interests in divorced dad Eliot Arnold and his son Matt. To add more complication, two thieves decide to steal the case and lead a Miami police team and two FBI agents on a wild goose chase."

So the food of the week was miami cuisine... Which for us meant Key Lime Pie, cuban sandwiches, and Arugula pesto.

Unfortunately, Key Limes aren't in season up here... So lame lame Jess made Lime Out of a Box.

Sam, on the other hand, was still delicious.

Pasta with Arugula Pesto

What We Used:

• Fresh baby Arugula ( not sure about how much, I used about half a 142g package )
  
• 1 cup pecans
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 clove elephant garlic
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
  
• 2 cups macaroni

Okay, well, this was supposed to be an easy thing to make, but it took a little bit more effort than I remember. First things first! Prep your ingredients, make sure you have them all on hand and get your food processor ready.

Start with some of the arugula, put the pecans on top to weight the leaves down (I found it a little hard to get the right consistancy at first) and start grinding them up. Add the garlic, the parsley and the olive oil, and more arugula if you need it. After that, add the grated parmesan!

After everything is ground up nicely, taste it. Add salt and pepper if you need/want to.

Cook your pasta, and toss it with some of the pesto, using however much you like! Add more parmesan as a finisher and voila!

Cuban Sandwich

What We Used:

• 1 loaf french bread
• Grainy deli mustard
• pickles (bicks garlic baby dills)
• roast pork deli meat
• old fashioned ham deli meat
• swiss cheese

It's fairly quick and easy. Slice the french bread open like it was one enormous kaiser roll. Slather some mustard on the bottom layer, then a layer of sliced pickles, a layer of roast pork, a layer of ham, then finish off with swiss cheese. We put the top back on, sliced it up into portions, then due to our lack of panini press we just put portions into a hot frying pan and pressed on it with a second pan until the cheese was melted.

Anyway... time to get back to work. I have a key lime pie in a box that needs making.

-Jess and Sam

Maple Chipotle Lamb and Jess' Experimental Corn Chowder

So, today we decided to step away from our usual comfort zone when it came to our choice of meat and decided to try and recreate an amazing soup we had at Hector's Casa, a lovely Mexican restaurant in downtown Kelowna.

Jess' Experimental Corn Chowder

What We Used:

• 1/2 onion
• 5 cobs of corn, shucked
• 5 red chilies, chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups milk or cream
• 1 cup cheese, grated
  
• salt and pepper to taste

To start with, we heated some oil in the bottom of a large pot. We chopped the onions and chilies and added them to the oil, cooking them till the onions were transparent.

After shucking and rinsing the corn down, we cut the kernals from the cobs and added them into the pot with the onions and chilies, setting a portion aside for later. Then the chicken stock was added and we let it simmer.

After the corn was tender, it was time to mulch the soup so that everything was properly incorporated. We tempered the milk (we used milk instead of cream, but you can use whatever) and added it in slowly, then added salt and pepper to taste. The reserved corn and grated cheese were thrown in to finish the soup off.

Verdict?

Hooooly~~~~

Sweet with heat. Absolutely awesome. We're thinking of tossing a strip of bacon in the pot during the onions and chilis frying... but other than that it was perfect.

No recipe for the Maple Chipotle Lamb... We just grilled a butterfly cut lamb sirloin with a Maple Chipotle sauce we picked up from Quality Greens. Sam had never had lamb, and even though it wasn't quite the traditional method of cooking, it was all good.

Verdict?

HOMIGAWD, sooooo good. I would DEFINITELY eat lamb again, it was SO GOOD. We cooked it medium rare, it was so tender and juicy and the Maple Chipotle was sweet and just the tiniest bit spicy. Delicious!

-Sam and Jess

Stuff in the Fridge Sunday: Rainbow Cake and Nachos...?

I got ambitious and decided I wanted to try my hand at a Rainbow Cake!! I've been seeing so much about them on the internet, I figured, 'how hard could this be?'

I suppose we shall see. We went to the store to get more food paste for the colors (all the colors of the rainbow!) and gathered some extra things we needed for dinner, then it was to the Kitchen of Despair for an adventure!

Suze's Wedding Cake*

What We Used:

• 4 eggs
• 1 and 1/3 cups milk
• 4 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup softened butter

First step was to grease and flour the pans. We then beat the eggs with 1/3 cup of milk and the vanilla and set this aside.

We stirred together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) and beat in the butter in what appeared to be a modified version of 'cutting the butter in.' This is a new recipe, but the effect of what seemed like a strange way of doing things at the time turned out nicely. and remaining milk at medium speed.

Okay... the batter did something really weird here. It started looking a little like bread dough. We thought we were doing something wrong, but adding in the egg made it look marvelous. Do this in three batches, scraping down the sides as you go.

Once it was all mixed, it was time to break out the food coloring. We put about a cup and a quarter of batter into a different bowl and added the red food coloring, then repeated with the orange, seeing as it was easier to do two colors at a time. The batter looked great! Food paste totally rocks! Continue mixing colors till you've got the whole rainbow... Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple! (though, you can do only a few colors, if you so choose. Some people only do three or four, we're just crazy.)

We scooped the batter into the prepared pans and spread it as flat as we could, then baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes. We had to watch them really closely because they were so thin.

Put them on a cooling rack and when they're all done cooling, ice the layers and the top with buttercream icing. We piped some decorations and used crushed and whole Smarties to make our cake look extra rainbow-y!

Verdict?

Very sweet and buttery. This isn't the type of cake that you can have a big piece of... We shared a single piece and still had trouble finishing it!

*Our friend Suze is a very colorful individual. We've joked in the past about making her a garish wedding cake, and this might just be the scary prototype.

Nachos

What We Used:

• Blue Corn nacho chips
• 1/3 can refried beans
• 2 cups cheese
• 2 chorizo sausages, uncased and ground
• Homemade salsa
• 2 avocados
• sour cream
• chili paste

I prepared the salsa in advance, and mashed up the avocados to make guacamole. I usually add extra garlic into the guac, but with how much garlic was in the salsa, I didn't bother this time. What you do to make guac is just mash the avocados then add salsa in to taste. It's quick and easy and really healthy!

We made some spicy sour cream to go with it, too, by adding the chili paste into the sour cream.

Grate the cheese, uncase and grind up the chorizo, prepare your refried beans, then layer it all on top of the corn chips and shove it in the oven. Then sprinkle on some salsa, drizzle on some spicy sour cream, add a dob of guacamole and you're ready to go!

-Sam

Ye Olde Late Post

The camera is down, so apologies... no pictures while it's being sent in for repairs.

Friday night was a little rainy, and Sam was a bit uncertain about what we should make for dinner. Of course, I decided to shout out one of my old stand-bys: Mac and Cheese. With a twist, of course. My goal was to not use ketchup on top (something I'm notorious for.)

Jess and Sam's Mac and Cheese with Chicken

What We Used

• 2 cups uncooked macaroni noodles
  
• 1 large head of broccoli
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup cheddar cheese, cubed
• black pepper to taste
  
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• breadcrumbs
• seasoning salt
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• asian chili sauce

Sam was kind enough to set the pasta to boiling and cut the broccoli into small bits and set to steaming while I made the sauce.

I generally start my cheese sauce with a blonde roux: In a saucepan over medium heat I melt the butter then add the flour and mix until it's a golden bubbly thing that doesn't look like it contains flour anymore. This thickens up the sauce later.

Slowly I added the milk... Normally I would only use 1 cup, but in the end it was thicker than I liked so I used more milk to thin it. So it's a good idea to reserve some of the milk for this purpose. Once the milk was happily simmering, I dropped in the cheese cubes and stirred until it was all melted. That's about it. I added a little black pepper as well.

You can tell this sauce is done when it can coat a spoon, but isn't so thick that it makes stretchy cheese strings.

We were kind of going for a not quite overwhelmingly spicy breaded chicken to eat with this stuff, but didn't want to do buffalo chicken (which seems to be the standard faire for eating with mac and cheese). Sam butterflied the chicken and rubbed it down with the asian chili sauce, then rolled it in a mix of the breadcrumbs, seasoning salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. We then fried the chicken in grapeseed oil.

When the pasta was done, we strained it, stirred the broccoli and cheese sauce in, and topped it with strips of the chicken and a little grated cheese.

Basically the verdict was 'homg.'

Anyway, sorry for the late post... I really recommend this dish to anyone wanting some good comfort food... and if you have any interesting variations on mac and cheese, let us know!

-Jess

Experimental Pork fricassee, spaetzel, and brownies with caramel sauce

Sam and I are always impressed with how we haven't been repeating recipes. B is probably starting to go 'but what about my favorite??'...

We did pork again, since all of a sudden we have an over abundance of the stuff hiding in the freezer (expect to see 'pork tenderloin' on a lot of our 'what we used' lists for a bit...)



Experimental Pork Fricassee

What We Used:

• 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin
• 1 leek
• 1/2 clove elephant garlic OR 3 cloves regular garlic
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 portabello mushroom, sliced thin
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• butter (for the pan)
  

We prepped everything before even starting to cook. The pork was cut into thin medalions, the garlic was minced, the celery was chopped, and the mushroom sliced. The round part of the leek was seperated from the top and chopped into thin rounds. The leaf part of the leek was julienned for our purposes... but I'm pretty sure it could be cut however you want (Sam insists that all parts of the leek can be used.)

The pork was cooked in the mock-wok with butter until it was almost done, then the celery, garlic and the round part of the leek were added. When the celery was soft the mushrooms were added. It was all cooked for about two minutes, and then the julienned leek and the stock were thrown into the mix.

We didn't actually time how long the thing simmered, since we were busy with the caramel for desert... but after a long while we tempered one cup of heavy cream and stirred it into the rest of the mix to thicken it. If you need it, you can add a corn starch slurry... which means you remove some of the liquid from the pan, add corn starch and mix until it's kind of like a runny mud, then add it back to thicken further.

After a couple taste tests, we ended up also adding a dash of the asian hot chili sauce sitting in the fridge.

The question 'what are we serving this with?' always seems to come up with us. Rice or potatoes are the default... but since we have a project in mind, we ended up going with spaetzel... which is like a german dumpling noodle thing. We also didn't go traditional with it (nutmeg) instead opting for saffron and white pepper.

Experimental Spaetzel

What We Used:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• pinch saffron
  
• pinch white pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Sam mixed together the flour, salt, white pepper, and saffron. The eggs were lightly beaten, and added alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. (Since you don't really need to worry about it rising, beat the crap out of it.)

After it was all mixed, we put a pot of water on to boil with plenty of salt added to it. When it reached a full rolling boil, we got to the fun part. Using a slotted spoon, we scooped up some of the batter and pushed it through the holes and into the boiling water. The spaetzel cooked for about four minutes, until everything was floating, and the end result looked a little bit like scrambled eggs.

Dump the contents of the pot into a strainer, then transfer the drained spaetzel back into the pot and keep it warm till you're ready to serve!

I'm not going to get into the brownies, since the recipe used was out of a cookbook... but (as inspired by Sam's sister) we made a Grand Marnier caramel sauce to drizzle over top.

I had a lot of fun with this, since one of my loves is fudge making and I do enjoy candy.

Verdicts?

The spaetzel had kind of a scrambled egg texture... which is how it's supposed to be (I guess). If we were to do it again, Sam and I agreed that we'd try finishing it off by frying or something.

The Fricassee had fantastic flavor, on the other hand, and is a definate 'must try again'



Grand Marnier Caramel Sauce

What We Used:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 2 tbsp grand marnier

Like in any candymaking endevor, I made sure everything was ready to go beside the stove before I even turned on the heat.

Once everything was set up, I set the stovetop to medium heat and put the cup of sugar in. It was stirred vigorously... When you're doing this, you want the sugar to melt, not burn... and it all happens very suddenly. In fact, I was apparently standing there for a while stirring dry white sugar in a pot.

When the sugar had melted and had turned into a glorious amber color, the butter was added. Once the butter was melted, I removed the pot from heat and slowly added the cream and then the liquor. All this was stirred vigorously for a while... the liquids caused the caramel to bubble... but as soon as it was smooth, it was done. I transferred the mess over to a glass measuring cup to cool (do NOT use plastic. Boiling sugar + plastic = melted sugar flavored plastic all over the floor.)

Finally, after it was cool I transferred it again to a drizzling bottle and proceeded to douse my brownies. Which is delicious.

Verdict?

I was worried about the grand marnier flavor when I first tried it, trying to figure if it was orang-y enough... but it turned out fantastic. What we may do in the future, however, is add a touch of salt.

Anyway... dinner was interesting and will definately be something to work on. Until next time, Ciao!

-Jess

Wednesday Movie Night: Ka

Tonight for movie night, my sister Kit is going to be treating us to one of Cirque du Soleil's finest... KA!

"Kà is a story about "conflict and love", of "imperial twins who are separated at the prime of their youth and must undergo a rite of passage of self-discovery. It is about their encounters with Kà, the fire that has the dual power to destroy or illuminate."

Since we're doing a circus show, the theme tonight is Circus food!!

Our menu choices consisted of such things as caramel apples, popcorn and pretzels, but Jess and I decided to put the Kitchen of Despair to use by making homemade french fries and chili dogs!!

Chili Dogs

What We Used:

• 1lb ground beef
• 1/3 red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1 clove elephant garlic (or about 6 regular sized cloves)
  
• 2 tbsp each of basil, oregano, chili powder, onion powder
• 2 tsp each of coriandar and cumin
• dash of white pepper or cayenne pepper (for spice)
• 1 can red kidney beans (or other types if you'd like to use them)
• 3 good sized tomatoes, chopped

This is a cheap, quick, dirty, easy recipe!! You can either slow cook it all day or you can do it fast in a pot on the stove, and you can change up the spices as much s you'd like. Sometimes, I add curry to it to give it a bit of a flair, and I've had it with cinnamon before. If you add more beans, you can take out the ground beef for a wonderful vegetarian variation.

Chop the onion and garlic and add it to a pot with a bit of oil at the bottom on medium heat. Add the ground beef and all the spices, cooking till the ground beef is no longer pink. Add the tomatoes and the can of beans, then simmer over low heat for however long or little you'd like. The best way to get the best flavor is to slow cook it as long as you can. I usually do it in a slow cooker, but I was lazy this morning and ended up doing it in a pot. You can also add mushrooms or more peppers or whatever... it's very versatile!

Cook up some hot dogs or smokies or whatever and put the chili in the bun on top or beneath them! A little cheese is also awesome.

Anyway, guests are arriving... time to go and watch some movie!

-Sam

ETA: imaaaage

No Doctor Who night? Lasagna with Mr. Science!

Due to Wine-ing Philosophers taking up Carmen's time this Monday, we asked Mr. Science to guest star on the blog (he's been itching to make lasagna for a while now... what a good excuse!)

Lasagna A La Mr. Science



What We Used

Sauce

• 2 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (Mr. Science prefers extra lean, but admits you need some fat to help everything stick together)
• 5 or 6 roma tomatoes
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 1/2 yellow onion
  
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 tbsp oregano
• dash of marjoram
• dash of thyme
• 4 sticks celery
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 3 brown mushrooms
• 5 white mushrooms

All the Rest of it

• 3 brown mushrooms
• 5 white mushrooms
• Lasagna noodles (We used fresh ones, not homemade, but fresh)
• A large tub of baby spinach, chopped
• A bit of butter for cooking the spinach
• 2.2 lbs Ricotta cheese (or two large containers)
  
• Mozzarella cheese, grated (we used a large block of it, you can use however much you'd like)
  

Saute the onions and garlic in a pot, then add the ground beef and spices. Brown the beef. Chop the tomatoes, mushrooms, parsley, and celery and stir them in. Let everything simmer for about 20 minutes then add the tomato paste.

Slice the additional mushrooms and set them to the side. Mr. Science says that adding in raw mushrooms to the layers gives you better texture and taste.

Chop all the spinach and fry in a pan with a bit of butter until the spinach is cooked. It will cook down a LOT, so don't be intimidated by how much you've got. Mix the spinach once it's cool with the ricotta cheese and set aside.

Once everything is ready to go, it's time to layer it. Mr. Science used a stoneware casserole dish for his lasagna, and greased it before beginning to assemble the lasagna. Assembly goes as follows...

1. Noodles
2. Sauce
3. Mushrooms
4. Noodles
5. Spinach
6. Noodles
7. Sauce
8. Mushrooms

... and etc, etc, until you've got all your ingredients used up! Top with cheese! Bake covered with aluminum foil in the oven at 375 degrees for thirty five to forty five minutes. Bake for five minutes uncovered or until cheese is browned.

Just as a note, using fresh noodles will actually cut down on cooking time, because you don't have to wait for the dried noodles to cook!

Verdict?

Super awesome! We all agree that it could've used...something. Egg in the ricotta layer? Eight more bulbs of garlic? salt? bay leaf? Dunno. But then again, that's the glory of experimentation!

Home Made Strawberry Shortcakes



What We Used

Shortcake

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup butter
• 1 egg
  
• 2/3 cup cream

The Rest of it

• Strawberries
• Sugar
• Whipping Cream
• Vanilla extract
  

Mix flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in butter with pastry cutter or a fork, then stir in egg and cream. Knead until it's one solid lump of dough.

Grease a cookie sheet, and place dough in 1/2 inch thick discs on it. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until slightly brown on top.

While the shortcake is baking, slice the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle a couple teaspoons of white sugar over them. Set those aside. Whip the whipping cream with a little sugar and vanilla to taste. Cover and refrigerate.

When you're ready to eat the shortcakes, slice them in half like you would a bagel. Layer some strawberries and whipping cream on the bottom half, place the top half of the shortcake back on, then put a little more of the strawberries and whipping cream on top.

Verdict?

Tasty! The shortcake was just sweet enough, without being too overwhelming.

Anyway, good night for now, see you in the morrow and ecetera...

-Jess

Stuff in the Fridge Sunday: Twice Baked Potatoes and Buffaloaf

Just a quick post today, since we're running late. Stuff in the Fridge Sunday this week was Twice Baked Potatoes and Buffaloaf, using up some leftover potatoes, chives, bacon and bison that desperately needed to go.

We also served it with creamed corn. Ignore that.



Twice Baked Potatoes

What We Used

• 3 good sized russet potatoes
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 grated cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped chives
• 6 strips of bacon, cooked crispy
• A little bit of butter, to help mash the potatoes

Poke the russets with a fork and wrap them in tin foil, baking them in the oven at 350 until they're soft-ish. They need to be able to hold their shape, so don't bake them until they're completely done.

Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop the insides out and put them in a seperate bowl. Make sure to keep a little bit of the potato flesh in the skins to help them keep their shape.

Mash up the potato flesh in the bowl with a little bit of butter and mix in the sour cream. Grate the cheese, chop the chives, cook the bacon then chop the bacon into tiny pieces to mix into the mashed potato mixture. Spoon the mix back into the potato skins and bake again until the cheese is slightly bubbly and the potato is slightly brown on top.

We reserved a bit of the potato and sour cream mix prior to adding the cheese, chives and bacon to use as a garnish.

Buffaloaf

What We Used

• 2 lbs ground bison
• 1/4 onion, chopped
  
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp seasoning salt
• 2 tbsp garlic powder
  
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp hickory barbecue sauce

Mix everything in a bowl. Seriously, that's the instructions for this thing. Mix it all in a bowl with your hands until it's a beefy lump, then press it into the bottom of a loaf pan. We have a glass pyrex loaf pan that's pretty much only used for this sort of thing.

Cook at 375 until it's done. It should be brown on the top, and any visible onions should be browned as well. Cutting into it slightly should reveal no pinkness. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

Anyway... busy busy.

-Jess

Homemade Bread

It was Bread Day!!

We got an early start because bread is a bit of an all day chore. We wanted to pratice making buns, too, since bread can be done up in pretty much any shape you'd like. The bread recipe I use is one I found online, but I modified it heavily one day without even realizing it till the dough was already rising. Turns out, the bread was better the way I did it anyway!!



What We Used:

• 2 packages yeast ( If you're using it out of a bottle, the measurements are on the back)
• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup oil (I used grapeseed cause I had the most of it, you can use whatever)
• ~8-10 cups white flour

Start by putting the water in a bowl and sprinkling the yeast and sugar into it. When the yeast turns foamy, add the eggs, oil and salt. Stir everything together and start adding in flour a cup or two at a time, kneading it in well. When the dough no longer sticks to the side of the bowl, place it somewhere warm and cover it with a cloth. Let it rise for two hours, or until it's doubled in size.

Meanwhile, grease a cookie sheet or bread pans, depending on what you're doing. We used cookie sheets since I don't really have a bread pan available in the Kitchen of Despair. Yet. (Hobo kitchen, remember?)

Punch the dough down in the bowl and move it to a counter or other work surface that's been sprinkled liberally with flour. Knead it about 10 times, and then it'll be ready to shape!!

What we did was cut off bits with a bread knife and experimented with bun shapes. Our favorites were braided and simple round buns, as well as a nifty knot that Jess did. I tried... mine weren't nice.

Place the shaped dough on the prepared cookie sheets or in the bread pans, cover and let rise for another hour at least.

We opted to grind up some garlic in the food processor with rosemary, black pepper and olive oil to brush on top of the buns before putting them into the oven. This produced a LOT of smoke, but man, does it taste good! Luckily the weather was nice, so we could open the window.

When it's done rising, put it in the oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes. It works best when you only do one pan at a time, otherwise things start baking unevenly. The result should be golden brown buns or bread that sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of them.

We brushed more of the olive oil mixture on top of the buns when they came out of the oven. Not only does it make them look really nice, the taste is awesome!




-Sam

Comfort Food Time!

In lieu of a bad day, I decided (for Sam) that we were going to do comfort food. This one may be of some intrest to Miss Carmen who requested we post the recipe to the cold day favorite 'Mush'. As for me, my preferred food when I'm feeling down is a cheeseburger (contrary to popular belief which would state that my favorite comfort foods are chocolate and potato chips)

So here we go!

Mush
(looks like sick and tastes like GLORY.)

Mush is one of those glorious foods that warm you up from the inside out. It's an easy to make stove-top casserole which makes it perfect for camping (provided you have a fire-proof pot or a camping stove). It's also extremely tasty, despite it looking like the name it owns: Mush.



What We Used:

• 1 lb Ground Beef
• 6 Potatoes, Mashed
• 1 can Corn Niblets
  
• 1/4 Onion*
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
  
• 1 can Mushroom Soup
• Black Pepper and Salt (to taste)

Everyone knows how to make mashed potatoes, right? You peel the potatoes, put them in a pot with water and a little bit of salt, boil them until they're soft enough to cut with a fork, drain and let the mashing commence!

That's the first step of Mush. Mushing the potato.

Sam followed it up with chopping the onion and the garlic and throwing it in a pan with the ground beef. The beef was browned and seasoned with the pepper and salt, then the corn was tossed in when the beef was almost finished.

Back to the potatoes, we added the can of mushroom soup to the mash and then the ground beef and corn mixture. Mix until awesome.

Sam wants to note that this is where you add some milk if it gets too thick, but that's optional.

Bison Burger with Bacon on Bannok

Obviously, I needed a manly burger for dinner and I happened to have a couple pounds of ground bison sitting in the freezer. I mourn now for my ground bison... the idea of it always being there kept me happy on cold, lonely days.

Bison is leaner than beef, we find, and the taste is almost a bit... sweeter? It is also SO DENSE. I make meatloaf (buffaloaf?) from this stuff and I feel like I ate a brick when I'm done.

A delicious, delicious brick.

Anyway... Bannock, too! Bannock is awesome, and when toasted it makes a wicked bun for a burger. Especially one as epic as these.



What We Used

• 1 lb ground bison
• 1/4 Onion
• Bread Crumbs
• 1 egg
• seasoning salt
• garlic
• Worchestershire Sauce
  
• Monterey Jack Cheese
• Bacon
• Bannock
• Left over Spicy Chipotle Mayo

The first step was to drive over to the Kekuli Cafe and purchase bannock from a member of their fabulous staff. We could've made it, but we're still being lazy and theirs is fantastic.

Sam says: Tomorrow will be less lazy. Tomorrow there will be bread.

The bison, egg, onion (chopped), and garlic (minced) were deposited into a bowl. I seasoned liberally with seasoning salt and Worchestershire, then added bread crumbs until it had a drier consistancy (without the bread crumbs, it's a cold mess that can't hold a shape.)

Patties were formed and put on the grill. The Kitchen of Despair doesn't have a BBQ attachment, so we used Sam's George Foreman thing.

M-Jack was sliced, bacon was fried, and the Bannock was toasted (We find that it holds it's shape longer if it's toasted.) and spread with the spicy mayo.

This, of course, is the point where you can add vegetables (if you swing that way.) In this case, the vegetables didn't make it onto the burger... I just snacked on them while other things were going on.

Construct the burger and enjoy it. :D

What the n00b learned:

• *We have a lot of quarters of an onion lying around. The heck!?

-Jess