Peppermint Marshmallows

Sandy has done it again. She wow'ed me with her mad baking skills by bringing over peppermint marshmallows. HOMEMADE! Yeah, who knew you could make your own marshmallows? To me, they were always those dry sticky things you bought in a bag from Safeway before you went camping.

But these things - ohmigod (I'm rolling my eyes to the back of my head right now as I wipe drool off the side of my mouth) they're so good you can eat them just as they are. Also, since they're homemade, you can eat them FRESH. I've never had fresh marshmallows before and now I will never have them any other way. They were fluffy and soft with just a hint of peppermint. YUMMY.

Nica ate a few. Ariana ate a couple. I ate quite a few. I took them to a party and they disappeared. I can't wait to make these! If I can successfully make this, then I will never ever buy marshmallows again. Also, people may be receiving this from me as a future xmas gift. :)

Here's a link to the blog it's originally posted on. The author has some GREAT photos and lots of other crafty ideas and recipes too.

But for laziness sake, here's the recipe:

Peppermint Marshmallows:

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. cornstarch
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 1/3 c. sugar
2/3 c. light corn syrup
1/2 c. crushed peppermint candy canes (about 6)
1/8 tsp. salt

*Tip: to crush your candy canes, break them up in large pieces, then seal them in a Zip Loc bag. Put your bag on a sturdy cutting board and use a hammer to smash them into a powder. The finer the powder, the better.

1. Into a small bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cornstarch. Line a 9x13" pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Sift 2 Tbsp. of the powdered sugar mixture into pan and tilt to coat all sides. Leave excess in pan.

3. Place 2/3 c. water in a large bowl and sprinkle with gelatin. Let soften 5 minutes.

4. In medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, heat sugar, corn syrup, candy cane, and salt over medium heat until completely dissolved (about 7 minutes).

5. Pour into bowl with gelatin mixture and beat on high speed with electric mixer until light and fluffy (10-15 minutes). 

6. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Smooth top and dush with powdered sugar mixture. Let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

7. Lift from pan with foil. With a small, wet cookie cutter, cut shapes and dip sides in sugar mixture. Cut up remaining marshmallows into small, irregular pieces (these are the ones I let my kids and husband eat!). Or, using a wet knife, cut into 6 large squares and dip sides into powdered sugar mixture. Then cut each of those squares into 9 pieces and dip in sugar mixture.

8. Store at room temp, loosely covered.

Hope she doesn't mind, but Sandy said she modified this recipe by:
"I make double the recipe bc one is not enough-trust me on this.  Plus, two batches fill up a 9x13 Pyrex pan nicely

If u make two batches, double everything except the cornstarch & icing sugar.

I only use 1 cup sugar per batch.

Green & red candy canes are ok.  I just add a drop of red food colouring."


I have no idea how she figures out how to modify recipes, but she has not failed me yet. So I am going to follow her modifications to the T!

Update July 2012:
How sad am I... it took me almost half a year before I found the time to make these. It's SUMMER! Anyway, first attempt went all sorts of horrible. I think I might have made myself sick. I stored them in an "airtight" container but they were so moist that the corn starch/icing sugar kept absorbing so they were constantly sticky balls of mess. Something about eating corn starch directly irks me. Maybe it's a mental thing.

Anyway, the second time I tried it, they turned out not bad. No one really wanted to eat them though because it would be perfect in a hot cup of cocoa, not something normally craved for in the height of summer. lol. Oh well. If I procrastinate just 6 more months it'll be perfect.

Caramelized Onion Spread

With the festive season comes... dinners! Lots of them this year. It's the time of year when we get to catch up with friends and family and for me, sample new appetizers and food. There were a few key dishes this year that caught my interest of my tastebuds.

One of them, was a caramelized onion spread. My sister's hubby made it as a Christmas Eve appetizer. Nica and I attacked it - eating so much that by the time we were suppose to eat our entree, we were stuffed. We couldn't help ourselves - this spread has roasted garlic and the Nicas LOVE garlic!

I will be honest - visually, it didn't look that appetizing. It's a caramel coloured brown and creamy. Kind of like hummus. But the taste was out of this world. The caramelized onions gave it a sweetness. The roasted garlic added lots of flavour while the cream cheese and mayo contributed the smooth and creamy texture and harmonized the onion and garlic. Served on crispy slices of toasted baguettes, the texture was a nice complement of crunchy and smooth. Yum.

Here's the recipe:

Caramelized Onion Spread

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 cups chopped yellow onions (or thinly sliced)

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup (4 oz) block-style cream cheese

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh chives

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1. Heat large skillet to medium-high. Add oil, swirl to coat bottom. Add onion and garlic. Saute 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 35 minutes or until onions are very tender and caramelized, stirring occasionally.
3. Add cream cheese, stir to combine.
4. Removed from heat. Stir in mayonnaise, chives, pepper, salt.
5. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Refrigerate up to 2 days.

- Cooking Light magazine, December 2011

Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars

Well Sandy has done it to me again. She has introduced me to a new food that I can't get enough of! We went for coffee the other day at Starbucks and she convinced me (didn't take very much, mind you) to buy a Cranberry Bliss bar.

OMG, it was DIVINE. I meant to share it but ended up eating the whole thing.

I found this website that has the "secret recipes" to everything. Here is the one for Starbucks' cranberry bliss bar:

Cake
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries
4 ounces white chocolate, cut into chunks

Frosting
4-ounces cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup chopped sweetened dried cranberries

Drizzled Icing
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening



1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Make cake by beating the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the eggs, ginger, vanilla, and salt and beat well. Gradually mix in the flour and baking powder until smooth. Mix the chopped dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks into the batter by hand. Pour the batter into a buttered 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Use a spatula to spread the batter evenly across the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned on top. Allow the cake to cool.

3. Make the frosting by combining the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. When the cake has cooled, use a spatula to spread the frosting over the top of the cake.

4. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of chopped dried cranberries over the frosting on the cake.

5. Make the drizzled icing by whisking together powdered sugar, milk, and shortening. Drizzle this icing over the cranberries in a sweeping motion with a squirt bottle or fill a small plastic storage bag with the icing and cut off the tip of one corner.

6. Cover the cake and let it chill out in the fridge for a couple hours, then slice the cake lengthwise (the long way) through the middle. Slice the cake across the width three times, making a total of eight rectangular slices. Slice each of those rectangles diagonally creating 16 triangular slices.

Makes 16 bars.

I have no idea where to buy crystallized ginger. I know Trader Joes sells it but the last couple of times I've gone down, they've been out of stock. One of the staff told me there was an issue with their packaging. d'oh!! I can't WAIT to try this recipe out.

Update December 20, 2011: 
I made this after finding crystallized ginger at my local Save-On-Foods. It wasn't bad but it was so SWEET! It seriously hurt my tooth when I ate it. Nica kept sneaking into the fridge to eat it. I meant to take some into work but by the time I went to plate it, it was half gone. *sigh* I did let a couple girls at work try some since I took one piece in as an after-lunch snack and they said it was really good. Not sure if they were just saying that though.

Things to remember for the next time I make this: 
* I cut a hole much too large when I was covering it with the drizzled icing. I think I could have skipped that part of the bar entirely and it would have been fine. 
* The entire bar was WAY too sweet. Next time, I will definitely cut back on the sugar. 
* Don't put crystallized ginger in the mini food processor. The ginger gets caught in the blades and just makes it a gooey mess. I'm guessing it would be ditto for the cranberries although I smartened up and chopped them with a french knife after the ginger fiasco.
* line the baking pan with parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the sides.

Interestingly, it seemed to taste a lot better after a few days in the fridge and then eaten at room temp.

Pulled Pork

I swear I'm not pregnant again, but I have been CRAVING pulled pork. So when my latest tv show addiction, Recipe to Riches, had it on an episode, I started salivating. The reviews looked amazing too! Luckily for me, they actually post the recipes on their website. So here's another dish I'm going to attempt tomorrow when Debs comes to visit.  Here's the link for the recipe:

Pulled Pork

• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 kilograms bone-in pork shoulder picnic roast
• 8 unit sandwich buns, such as Portuguese buns or soft white buns, halved
• 1 package coleslaw mix
• 1 cup coleslaw dressing

Sauce

• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup cola
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions

Pulled Pork

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160C).
2. In small bowl, stir together paprika, brown sugar, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, mustard, cayenne, coriander and cumin. Measure out 2 tbsp (25 mL) of the spice mix; rub remaining spice mix all over pork. Place in metal roasting pan. Tightly wrap pan in foil. Bake in oven until meat is tender and falling off bone, about 5 to 6 hours.
3. Meanwhile, make Sauce: In saucepan, combine ketchup, vinegar, cola, maple syrup and reserved spice mix. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to simmer; cook uncovered until reduced to 1-1/2 cups (375 mL), about 25 minutes. Set aside.
4. Unwrap pork. Pull meat away from bones. Shred meat with two forks. Combine pork with half of sauce. Slather remaining sauce on cut sides of bottom buns; top with pork. Mix coleslaw mix with dressing; mound on top. Top with bun lids.

Luscious Lemon Pudding

I am addicted to this new show called "Recipe to Riches". A couple of recipes have intrigued me and just so I don't lose them, here is one of them. It's called "Luscious Lemon Pudding".

Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 unit eggs, separated
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups 2% milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Butter 8-inch (2 L) square glass baking dish. In bowl, sift together sugar and flour; set aside.
2. Place egg whites in bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Beat on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Transfer whites to another bowl.
3. Add egg yolks to same bowl and return to stand mixer. Using whisk attachment beat on medium-high speed until yolks are thick and lightened in colour. Reduce speed to medium and add butter, lemon rind and juice; beat for 1 more minute. With machine running on medium speed, alternately beat in flour mixture and milk, making 5 additions of flour and 4 of milk.
4. Remove bowl from mixer. Fold in egg whites. Transfer to prepared baking dish. Place dish in large shallow roasting pan. Add hot water to half way up side of baking dish.
5. Bake in centre of oven for 50 to 55 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes. Top two-thirds will be cake consistency and bottom third will be pudding consistency.

I can't wait to try baking this! My best friend Debbie is visiting tomorrow so I might just give it a shot.

Weight Watchers zero points vegetable soup

It being Fall, I figured it's time to start breaking out the soup recipes. My friend Sandy told me about this one from Weight Watchers: http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2006/01/day-285-weight-watchers-zero-points.html

She added celery and a can of diced tomatoes and said it's totally filling. I've been dying to try it, so here goes!

RECIPE

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 1 1/4 hour
Makes 9 cups

6 cups broth (today I used Light Vegetable Stock)

Cooking spray
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 large onion, diced
4 teaspoons garlic (from a jar or substitute four cloves minced garlic)
1/2 cabbage, chopped (or use a bag of slaw, the biggest chunks you can find vs the fine, don't skip the cabbage for it somehow makes the soup)
1/2 pound frozen green beans
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 large zucchini, diced

Bring the broth to a boil in the microwave. (This is a time-saving tip that can be skipped if there's no hurry.)

Spray a Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat on MEDIUM HIGH. Add the carrots, onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes. Add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the zucchini and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to MEDIUM and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. Add the zucchini and cook until the zucchini are tender. Serve and enjoy!

NUTRITION ESTIMATE
Per Cup: 61 Cal (3% from Fat, 24% from Protein, 73% from Carb); 4 g Protein; 0 g Tot Fat; 0 g Sat Fat; 13 g Carb; 3 g Fiber; NetCarb10; NetCarb10; 52 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 701 mg Sodium; 0 mg Cholesterol; Weight Watchers ... hmmm ... 1 point

NUTRITION NOTES This soup is low-cal, low-carb, high-fiber and no-fat.

Pineapple Carrot cupcakes

Attempt #2. I'm still on the hunt for that delicious recipe that my high school home ec. teacher gave out. Here's a recipe I tried tonight for pineapple carrot cupcakes. Figure cupcakes are so much cuter to eat!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/carrot-cupcakes-with-white-chocolate-cream-cheese-icing/detail.aspx

pre-icing. Serious quality control issues!

For some reason, some cupcakes totally rose and some didn't. I skipped the walnuts and white chocolate icing since my sister is allergic to nuts and I didn't have any white chocolate on hand.

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/8 cups white sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

Beat together the eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl, and mix in the oil and vanilla. Fold in carrots and pineapple. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix flour mixture into the carrot mixture until evenly moist. Transfer to the prepared muffin cups. 

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks before topping with the icing. 

I used this recipe for the cream cheese icing. Holy moly, did it ever use a lot of cream cheese. (Handy tip: go to the States to buy the cream cheese. Sooooo much cheaper! It was $6.45 for a 3 lb or 48oz brick. Yeah. I know. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.)

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use. 

final product

I think the cupcakes are ok. Nica keeps sneaking into the kitchen to eat them so he must think they're pretty good. Wait... he just told me he gives them a 9 out of 10. Personally, I think I'm closer to 7.5 or 8. We'll see what the family says at Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Japanese Cucumber salad

The other day I decided to have a Japanese themed night. In addition to sushi, I thought it'd be nice to have a nice light salad so I attempted to make sunomono. Now, my friend Vania had given me a recipe (handed to her from her nutritionist friend Tina) and of course I filed it away, didn't document it and lo and behold, couldn't find it when I needed it. I googled "sunomono recipe" and ended up using this: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-sunomono but it wasn't what I was looking for.

Anyway, I still have to try Tina's recipe, but here it is (now documented electronically so I can find it when I need it!)

Japanese Cucumber Salad:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
- dissolve sugar over heat
- pour over cucumbers and chill
Don't forget to boil some vermicelli and wakame and if you're looking for a final kick, a slice of lemon and some prawns.

Easy Pasta recipe

When I finally found a seller for a pasta roller on craigslist, he parted with his pasta recipe as well. So far, it's been the best one I've tried! It's super simple too. Here it is:
- 2 cups flour
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- max 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon of oil.

Mix it all up (i.e. put flour and salt on table, make a well, put in egg and oil, mix with flour and then add water as needed. , put it through the pasta roller and voila!

Recently my brother was attempting to make his own pasta and I was trying to find this recipe (it was only written on a post it and buried in the depths of all our moving boxes). Now that I've found it, it's going electronic so I don't lose it again!

Costco "secrets"

Even though we are only recently a family of three, I am a Costco junkie. I love going up and down their aisles, looking for things to fill my home with.

Here are some Costco "secrets" that I've discovered...
1. Those items ending in '.97' are clearance items. Get 'em while they last!

2. For Canadians, it's better to buy a Costco cash card in Canada and use that in the States versus using your Amex credit card. The exchange rate is slightly better but I still find it more beneficial to take cash down. That way, you determine the exchange rate  you pay. (i.e. buy American $ when the rate is good!)

3. I recently had to renew my membership. By coincidence, I happened to be shopping at the Bellingham Costco when it came up for renewal. The cost? $100. With no tax. So, factoring in the US/Canadian exchange rate AND the fact there's no HST charged, I saved!

4. The States doesn't always have better deals. I was recently comparing electronics (SD cards, external hard drives) and Canada was better.

5. In the States, they don't give you coupons at the door. You have to go to the membership desk to ask for the coupon booklet. Be careful too. If a coupon book has just ended, they only give the new ones out the following Thursday. So there's a few days there where no coupons are in play.

6. Eggs, cheese, milk, chicken and pork are so much cheaper in the States. For example: Organic brown eggs in Canada? Over 8 bucks. Down in the states? $4.50.

7. For Vancouverites that cross-border shop: the best place to buy gas is the Bellingham Meridian Costco. Line-ups are horrendous because of all the Canadians that buy, but it's worth it. For example: Current price of 87 octane in Greater Vancouver: $1.38/litre. Down at the Costco in Bellingham: $3.79/gallon.

8. Costco memberships are good all over the world!!! Handy if you happen to be traveling.

9. Finally, it pays to check out this thread before you go shopping in the Costco West stores in Canada: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/costco-west-deal-pointer-thread-1056914/#post13431334
A fellow shopper posts the latest coupon deals and even goes into the store to post photos and prices of those not advertised in their weekly flyer. I'm pretty sure he's influenced Costco sales in the West. He's even been accused of being a Costco employee (which he is not).

Plum and Ginger sorbet

On a recent trip to Napa Valley, my friend Mela and I visited the Culinary Institute of the Arts. It was my Holy Grail. She even surprised me with a cooking class! We got to cook in the CIA kitchen under the instruction of an author of one of their cookbooks.
The chef I cooked with was Cate Conniff, the author of Seasons in the Wine country. We were divided into separate groups and given a few recipes to execute. Afterwards we all sat down together to eat the fruits of our labor.

One of the dishes I really enjoyed was the plum and ginger sorbet. So upon returning home, I found an ice cream maker in my parents magical basement (if you wish for something, I swear it just turns up) and this week with the weird hot spell, I put the recipe into action.

Here's what you need:
- 2 lbs of ripe sweet plums. Washed, pitted and quartered
- 2 cups cold water
- 1 cup sugar
- one inch of ginger, peeled
- 1 tablespoon vodka (lemon flavoured, plain or limoncello)
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice


Combine the plums, water, sugar and ginger. Bring it to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Take out the ginger and then blend it until it's smooth. Strain the mixture through a sieve and then stir in vodka, salt and lemon juice. Chill (at least 2 hours). Then pour it into the ice cream maker.

Yeee-um. It was so easy that now I'm dreaming about making all sorts of ice creams and sorbets with fresh fruit. Blackberries, peaches, strawberries... the possibilities are endless!

Cherry crisp

Cherry crisp product. Pitting was the pits. Tasted ok although I think almond extract would have made it better.

Cherries Galore!

I've recently come into possession of a sh*tload of cherries. I'm talking a good 10 lbs of them. I love cherries (even though I had an unfortunate reaction to them during my pregnancy) but now I have no idea what to do with them.

Yesterday I made a cherry pie from this website: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/CherryPieprint.html

The result was... well, it tasted ok (my friends even went back for seconds) but I was so embarrassed. It wasn't as thick as I would have hoped and there was cherry liquid everywhere! I'm thinking the "Tapioca starch" I bought wasn't the same as "quick cooking tapioca" the recipe called for. My dad tried it and loved it. He gave it a 9 out of 10 and had three pieces. I'm thinking next time I'll find a different recipe that uses flour or starch instead of this "quick cooking tapioca" (whatever that is).

Anyway, here are some of the highlights of my cherry pie making experience:
1. I don't own a cherry pitter. However my brother-in-law Zac (who wins pie making contests!) told me that a chopstick works just as well. That way,  you can "feel" the pit before you push it through and it makes less of a mess. My experience? It went fabulously! I did get cherry juice all over the hand that was holding the cherry but a pretty simple task. Just pull off the stem, insert the chopstick into the stem end, feel around for the pit and then push.

2. The crust is key. I used the tenderflake recipe on the back of the box but instead of water, I used vodka. That's right. booze! My brother-in-laws secret to an amazing flaky crust. Sorry Zac. Secret's out!

3. Transporting a leaky pie. I'm not kidding when I tell you cherry juice was everywhere. I wasn't sure how i was going to transport it to my friend's house. Then I looked around and found an empty sushi tray. You know, one of those huge round ones? Perfect for transporting in my car. It did get a little messy but at least I didn't have cherry juice on the fabric of my car seats.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the pie. Tonight I'm going to attempt cherry crisp so I'll be sure to snap a few then!

Warm Shrimp Salad

Went to Market at Shangri-La with Mela and enjoyed this amazing shrimp salad. She had mentioned she had it before and was totally hyping it up. Now normally, when something is hyped up I'm disappointed with it but this one was true. It was AMAZING. Now I just have to figure out how to make champagne vinaigrette!  Found this recipe... something to definitely try in the future.

http://how2heroes.com/videos/seafood/warm-shrimp-salad

Lemon Tart adventure

Whole Foods Lemon tart ingredients

On Thursdays, I get together with my friends to watch "So You Think You Can dance". It's a girls night, complete with dinner, dessert and a lot of shouting at the t.v. as we pretend to be judges.

A couple of Thursdays ago, my friend Vania bought a lemon tart from Whole foods. We had to stop the PVR to relish it. Janine claimed it was a slice of "lemon heaven". And it was. It was light, fruity, sweet and yet slightly tart. The crust was delicious too and I'm not a huge crust fan!

the Whole Foods lemon tart

So I made it my goal to try and recreate it. As soon as I got home, I googled "lemon tart whole foods recipe" and unfortunately, the *exact* recipe was not to be found although there was a whole foods berry tart recipe. Essentially what they said was to use a pre-baked pie shell and add lemon curd. The thing is, it tasted like there was cream in it and sure enough, further google searching found other recipes that did this.

I was heading down to the States that weekend so on our usual trip to Trader Joe's, I picked up pie pastry and lemon curd in anticipation of making it for the next SYTYCD night.

It has been a comedy of errors trying to make this tart but the short of it is that I wasn't able to make it in time of the next SYTYCD night but I was successful in making something that was similar. Here's what I did:

1. Whip 1 cup of whipping cream until it's thick
2. Add 1 jar of Trader Joe lemon curd and mix together
3. Pour into baked Trader Joe pie shell
4. Refrigerate and garnish with fruit

Yes, it's truly that easy. I let Nica lick the spoon from the lemon curd/whipped cream mixture and he loved it. Mom and Dad both praised the crust and they're really judgmental about pastry. I know it doesn't look that tasty in the photo but it was really good! Honest!

Next time I might actually attempt to make lemon curd and the time after that maybe I'll try my hand at pastry dough. We'll see!

Trader Joe's Lemon Curd: $2.99
Pretty good on its own, even better when mixed with whipped cream. Quite sweet with a tart finish. Strong lemon flavour. Imported from England. Would buy it again!

Trader Joe's Pie Crust: $3.99 for two.

Instructions

They give you two in the event you want to make a double crust pie. I thought it would come in a pie shell but it doesn't. You have to thaw and then put it in a plate yourself (which to be honest, is more environmentally friendly anyway). Very delicious. I would easily buy this pie shell again for future pies for its convenience and taste. I only forked the bottom of the pie before putting it into the oven to brown but I really should have pricked the sides as well. Failure to do this resulted in the sides puffing up. Still tasty... but definitely not pretty.

Pavlova WINNING

After telling my tale of pavlova woe to my friend Victoria, she sent me her pavlova recipe:

3 egg whites

.75 cups white sugar (regular will do, or you can take the coffee grinder to it for superfine sugar)

pinch of salt

whipped cream and fruit for topping

hand beater is a must

line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt in a large bowl until they for white, soft peaks -- can stand up on their own but are still kinda foamy

whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, whisking until the sugar is completely absorbed/incorporated into the egg 

it needs to be white and glossy and be able to stand up in a peak on its own

spoon it onto the baking sheet. i like to make a blob and then smooth it into a circle or whatever, and peak it up at the edges.

preheat the oven at 275 F or 140 C, cook for 1.25 hours.

turn off the oven but leave it in there.

for at least another hour. really, until its cold.

i've left it over night. if you aren't eating it that evening make sure you store it in an airtight container. 

and don't prep it until you are ready to serve it, or it will go soggy.

My modifications:

I know Victoria said it was a must, but I couldn't find my mom's hand beater so I used a Kitchenaid mixer. And I made little pavlovas instead a singular large one because I had pavlova meringue on my mind (I was trying to imitate what I had at Bistro 101 the day before). Finally, I had to turn off the oven at about 45 minutes because it was browning and they were super dry already. Which makes sense since there were many little pavlovas instead of one large one. 

Although I wish I had turned off the oven a little bit sooner, the mini pavlovas were delicious. They melted in my mouth and tasted a little like the outside of a toasted marshmallow. They were the perfect accompaniment to my mango chantilly cream (whipped cream beaten with pureed mango added at the end) with fresh raspberries and mango coulis. It was a nice light dessert and got thumbs up all around.

I'd like to try this again, adding some strawberry flavour to the meringue. I'd also like to make all the pavlovas the same size to try and make little mini cookies (like macarons but without the ground almond). I'm also going to make white chocolate buttercream. Stay tuned!

June 13, 2011 update:
I did indeed make the meringues again with freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joe's. I had to grind them up in my mini food processor which worked ok... it created a cloud of strawberry smoke which I'm sure was bad to inhale. It didn't do a consistent job either. Maybe next time I'll use a coffee grinder. Anyway, the freeze dried strawberries totally tasted like the strawberries you get in the Special K Berry cereal.

My mom loved the mini strawberry meringues. I couldn't quite make them look like macarons because when you pipe them, they always get a peak and they only harden and don't melt in the oven. So instead of meringue sandwiches, I served them singly with a dollop of white chocolate vanilla cream. I sort of followed this recipe from the bravetart website for it:

To make white chocolate ganache for the filling, bring 6 ounces heavy cream to a simmer with a split vanilla bean. Shut off the heat and steep for 10 minutes or up to an hour. Remove the vanilla bean, scraping out the cream from inside each half-pod, and return the cream to a boil. Shut off the heat and whisk in 10 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped and 1/2 tsp salt. Depending on the sweetness of your white chocolate, you may find you need more salt. Cool the mixture to room temperature, and then whip on medium speed with a whisk attachment for about 5 minutes to lighten it a bit. 

Pavlova FAIL

The other day I took my Mom to Bistro 101 down at Granville Island. The food is made by students but it's always delicious and well worth the money. Currently the school is undergoing renovations so we had to sit in a makeshift dining room but it was kind of neat because it was in the actual restaurant part so you got to see all the different kitchens.

The highlight of the meal was definitely the dessert. As soon as it came out, it had the "oooh" factor. My mom had a berry passion dessert and I got a strawberry meringue topped with mango chantilly cream, a frozen chocolate drizzle, passionberry and fresh raspberries. It was oh so good. I was googling how to make strawberry meringue and mango chantilly cream at the table to no avail. These recipes aren't simply posted on the web.

I was inspired to try and make something similar and the next day I whipped up some liquid egg whites with sugar. I couldn't find any strawberry extract so I walked up and down the Safeway aisle, looking for something I could use as a substitute. I found strawberry Kool-aid.

Yes, I can hear you smacking your head. At the time, I thought I was being brilliant. In fact, when I tasted the meringue before I put it in the oven, it tasted just fine.

Anyway, anything that could have gone wrong with this attempt, went wrong.

First off, I used wax paper. Wax paper, as I discovered is VERY different from parchment paper. Halfway through the baking process, I opened the oven door to a waft of smoke escaping with the strong smell of wax. Oops.

Secondly, liquid egg whites. It's just not the same as real egg whites. Liquid egg whites are so runny that it's hard for the kitchenaid to pick it up. Whereas real egg whites have a sort of gooey consistency so the beaters can actually pick it up to whip it.

Thirdly, temperature. I guessed how hot and long the "mini pavlovas" should have been in for. I guessed wrong.

Finally, as I identified before, I used Kool-Aid. So wrong.

The final result reminded me of salt water taffy. It was chewy. And gross. I can't believe I ate one. I'm surprised I didn't give myself the runs with all the melted wax.

Next time, I'm using a better recipe!

The hunt for Starbucks banana bread

Ali's son, Ben, will only eat banana bread from Starbucks. So I have made it my mission to try and find this recipe. Usually, my staple banana bread is the sour cream recipe. However that recipe results in a lighter coloured moist bread. Starbucks is a lot darker.

So in the wee hours of the morning during another one of my insomniac nights, I googled "dark banana bread" and found this recipe: http://www.grouprecipes.com/51782/black-banana-bread.html


Ingredients:

• 3 large black bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tsp. baking soda
• dash salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup buttermilk 

Directions:

• Line two loaf pans with tin foil and heat oven to 275 F.
• In a large mixing bowl mash the bananas with the sugar and then mix with the salt and soda. Blend in the eggs, then, in order, the oil, flour and buttermilk.
• Pour batter into loaf pans and bake for about 2 1/2 hours or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Buttermilk had proven itself to be the key ingredient in making chocolate cupcakes moist - why not banana bread?

Some alterations:
I didn't use two loaf pans, I just used one.
I added probably 1/4 cup more buttermilk.
I used 4 small-ish bananas that weren't black.
I couldn't stand waiting 2 1/2 hours so I put the oven at 325 F. It took 90 minutes to cook.

My parents gave it 9 out of 10, Nica only gave it 8. I'm with Nica. In comparison to the sour cream banana bread, this wasn't as tasty (but probably just as moist). The colour was definitely darker though.

The true test? Ben wouldn't eat it. he took one look and had a "I'm not eating that" face. Back to the banana board.

Macaron Adventure

I met another Mom in the Oakridge Baby Time class and she looked so familiar. It turned out she was the sister of an old elementary school friend who I actually remembered (I think Mommy brain only effects my short term memory).
She organizes this event called Baker's market - http://www.bakersmarket.com/ and I can't wait to attend this event with my baking friends. She also has another side hobby which is baking macarons. She even went to PARIS to learn how to bake these! Here's a link to her website: http://www.jadorelesmacarons.com/

After browsing her blog, I was hooked. I've never eaten these little creations but they look so pretty and I vowed to have a macaron party and attempt to make them.

I found this awesome website that I've been drooling reading over for the last couple hours. 
http://bravetart.com/recipes/Macarons
The photos are fantastic and the author debunks common Macaron theories such as the effect of aged eggs, when sugar should be added to the meringue, etc.

I'm going to attempt to make the Strawberries and Cream macaron after picking up some Freeze Dried Strawberries from Trader Joes. Wish me luck! If this is successful a pastry bag is definitely going on my shopping wish list.

Chocolate cupcakes

A friend recently gave me some cupcakes that were to die for. They were a day old by the time I consumed them but they were light, fluffy and amazingly moist. I asked her for the recipe and she said it was a good ol' Martha one!
http://www.marthastewart.com/282243/one-bowl-chocolate-cupcakes

One Bowl Chocolate cupcakes:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3 tablespoons safflower oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
   
2. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.
   

Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to three days.

Failed first attempt

I was so excited about making these. To my disappointment, they turned out heavy. So heavy that both my brother and husband commented they tasted like brownies. I refused to eat them after I tried my first one as they reminded me of hockey pucks.

I begged my friend to impart some baking wisdom since this is one of the hobbies I'd like to improve upon during my mat leave. Her hints?

1. Add 1/4 cup of mayonnaise to the mix.
2. Add a bit more buttermilk (~2 tablespoons)
3. Hand mix the batter initially and only use a mixer for a couple minutes (otherwise the batter will be too glutenous)
4. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack
5. Store the cupcakes overnight in an airtight container (otherwise they'll dry out)

My next attempt to make these were foiled as I failed to check my ingredients before I started to bake. (Fundamental Lesson Pen! Sheesh.). No Flour = No Baking.

Success!

So on Thursday I bought more flour and made sure I was ready to bake Friday night. Tried the recipe again and YUM. So much better. I will admit they aren't as moist as my friends, but at least I'll eat them now!

I'll eat the one on the right, thank you very much!

Failed Attempt on top. Note the size difference

Strawberry Cream Cheese

Trader Joe's is such a fun place to try new things. On my last trip, I picked up some Strawberry Cream Cheese Spread (made from RBST-free milk). I'm not sure what was wrong with me that day. I probably bought around 5 different cheeses and I'm lactose intolerant. On top of all that, I always find myself buying sweet cream cheeses (like the strawberry one up above) when really, I'm a savory fan!

Anyway, I was not disappointed. Tried this cream cheese on some toast this morning and I was impressed! It reminded me of the double whipped cream cheese that you can get down in San Francisco. It was light and easy to spread. Plus, if you can see in the picture, there are actual bits of STRAWBERRY in it! Wouldn't buy it every time I go down, but it's a nice treat.
Cost: $2.49

Trader Joe's Chocolate Covered Belgian Butter Thins

Mela told me about these Chocolate covered Belgian Butter thins from Trader Joe's. I'm not a huge cookie fan so I was skeptical but I tried one and YUM! Delicious. I picked up two boxes on my next State side trip.
I love having them with a cup of orange pekoe tea. The box doesn't contain THAT many biscuits (Maybe 8 of each dark, milk and white chocolate) but the crispy biscuit center is delicious. The only drawback is the chocolate melts on your hand if you don't eat it fast enough.
Cost: $3.49

Cinnamon-Apple Cake

Ali made this cake the other night and used Pear instead of apple. It sounded delicious, it looked delicious and I can only imagine how good it tasted. Here is a link to the recipe: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000000222502

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4  cups  sugar, divided
• 1/2  cup  stick margarine, softened
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 6  ounces  block-style fat-free cream cheese, softened (about 3/4 cup)
• 2  large eggs
• 1 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  baking powder
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 2  teaspoons  ground cinnamon
• 3  cups  chopped peeled Rome apple (about 2 large)
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 4 minutes). Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

Note: You can also make this cake in a 9-inch square cake pan or a 9-inch springform pan; just reduce the cooking time by 5 minutes.

I can't wait to make this!

Homemade Bread

Now that I've mastered chiffon cakes, I thought I'd give my family a little respite from all the cakes and turn to... BREAD! There is nothing like fresh bread, straight out of the oven. I refuse to use the bread maker because it seems like the lazy man's method and I want to to fancy bread - with roasted garlic or olives.

A few months ago, while hooked on the Food Network, I watched this show called "Chef Academy" starring Jean Novelli. In Season 1, episode 4, he showed the students how to make bread and he stuffed Camembert inside with sundried tomatoes. God, it looked delicious and I drooled, just thinking how good it must have tasted.

I finally looked it up online and found the recipe: http://www.bravotv.com/foodies/recipes/whole-baked-camembert

You can put anything inside the bread so I'm really only going to follow his instructions and ingredients for his basic bread dough. Here is the recipe:

Basic Bread Dough
1 lb Strong flour (this is about 3 1/2 cups)
2 teaspoons Salt
1 oz unsalted Butter (= 2 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons Action Bread Yeast (available from most food stores)
1/2 qt warm water (made from 1 part boiling, 1 part chilled) 1/2 qt = 2 cups
1 pinch of sugar

1. In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt, butter and yeast.

2. Stir in the water and mix into a soft dough.

3. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes by hand or 5 in an electric mixer with a fitted dough hook.

4. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a floured bowl. Cover with damp cloth and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

just before the oven

5. Once doubled turn out onto the table and gently press out the excess gas from the dough.

6. Knead a couple of times to smooth out the dough. Divide into 2.

7. Roll each piece out 1 times bigger than the cheese.

8. Preheat the oven to 450F, Gas Mark 8.

9. Place the cheese in the centre and fold over the dough adding some of the ingredients from the marinade.

10. Turn over onto a floured baking sheet so as the folds are on the base. Brush the top with olive and finish with sprigs of thyme, bay leaves cumin seeds, salt and pepper and finish with a dusting of flour.

the final result

11. Allow to double in double in size before baking in a pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes. Spray with an atomizer before placing in the oven and again 5 minutes before the end of cooking.

12. Remove to a large serving board and allow to cool before serving.

Good luck to me! I'm making it for the first time tonight with some homemade chicken soup.

Update: March 23, 2011
Well, I made this bread on March 17th. Used all purpose flour instead of bread flour but they turned out pretty good. All the photos that you see in this blog so far are from that batch. I put brie in some, and some sundried tomato soft cheese in others. Sprigs of rosemary in all. The photos don't make them look very large, but they were pretty big. Mom couldn't eat a whole one.

Yesterday I made it again, but I figured I'd try it with the whole wheat bread flour that was in the house. The dough was pretty sticky so maybe whole wheat bread requires more flour. Hmm. Something to research before my next batch. In any event, the bread turned out pretty well. All of them were smaller than the first attempt. I didn't use rosemary as much. Lots of garlic. My nephew, Calvin, made me proud as that was the only thing he'd eat for dinner. heh heh. The bread itself once baked felt heavy and I'm not sure if that was because they weren't fully cooked (some of them weren't totally all the way through) or because I had stuffed them with filler.

I wouldn't mind trying this as a pizza dough. Or filling with tomato, sausage and some green pepper to make homemade calzones.

Henry and Christine's most amazing stuffing recipe

Twice a year, for Easter and Christmas, our family has the honour of going over to a family friend's home for dinner. All of us always look forward to the free range turkey and the mouth watering stuffing. It oozes with fat and is oh-so-good. I wrangled the ingredients and recipe from them. Here it is:
Ingredients:
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ground sausage meat - coarse type ( we get the deli to make it leaner)
- Bread crumbs ( can be bought in Safeway or Save-On ) granular texture not cubes
- Bacon
- Fresh sage
- Giblets from the turkey
- Sherry / brandy

In a large frying pan:
Fry diced onions and chopped bacon
Add sausage meat and chopped giblets
Remove excess oil
Add sage and sherry/brandy
Add bread crumbs and water until desired consistency
Put in oven proof dish and bake for 1 hr

Orange Chiffon cake

Still experimenting with Chiffon cakes. Made an orange chiffon cake yesterday but it wasn't cool until 1:30 am so will have to taste test tomorrow. So far, not looking good. Didn't rise as much as I had hoped even though I used cake flour.

Have been up reading all night and will have to adjust my method for beating egg whites and how I separate the egg yolks and whites. Also need to fold more gently. I haven't been sifting either cuz my mom doesn't have one and I'm sure that's had an effect as well.

Don't think anyone is complaining about having to eat cake although it's not helping my mom lose the 10 lbs she vowed to lose by the end of the month.

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Pineapple Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing

When I was in high school, our home economics teacher, Mrs. Haji, gave us a recipe for pineapple carrot cake. Or rather, she gave my sister the recipe since she took home ec and I just borrowed it from her. I remember the paper the recipe was on fondly, with with oil and batter splattered all over it.

I've long since lost that piece of paper but haven't given up baking this dessert. In England I made it once when Nica and I were both over there. I baked it in the evening and planned to have it after dinner the next day. however, after I got home from work and looked for the cake, it had mysteriously vanished. I thought maybe Nica had taken it to our room or maybe our housemates ate it. When I asked Nica, he told me he ate the entire thing. I seriously thought he was kidding. A whole cake?! It was made in a 12x9 pan! With a whole brick of cream cheese! Nope. The whole thing.

Mom and Dad had a ginormous can of pineapple bits so I thought it was time to make this cake again. Since I lost the original, I've been on the hunt for something similar on the web. This is what I used the other night:
http://www.canadianliving.com/food/canadas_best_carrot_cake_with_cream_cheese_icing.php

Canada's Best Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
2cups (500 mL) all-purpose flour
2tsp (10 mL) baking powder
2tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
1tsp (5 mL) baking soda
3/4 (4 mL) salt
1/2 (2 mL) nutmeg
3/4 (175 mL) granulated sugar
3/4 (175 mL) packed brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 (175 mL) vegetable oil
1 (5 mL) vanilla
2 (500 mL) grated carrots
1 cup(250 mL) drained crushed canned pineapple
1/2 cup(125 mL) chopped pecans
Icing:
1 1pkg pkgcream cheese, softened
1/4 cup(50 mL) butter, softened
1/2 tsp(2 mL) vanilla
1cup (250 mL) icing sugar


Preparation:


Grease and flour 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal cake pan; set aside.


In large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In separate bowl, beat together granulated and brown sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla until smooth; pour over flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Stir in carrots, pineapple and pecans. Spread in prepared pan.


Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven for 40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean. Let cool in pan on rack. (Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature for up to 2 days. Or ovenwrap with heavy duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks; let thaw before continuing.)


Icing: In bowl, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in icing sugar, one-third at a time, until smooth. Spread over top of cake. (Make-ahead: Cover loosely and refrigerate for up to I day.)
Additional Information:


*


Tips: Set timer for 5 minutes less than the time specified in recipe, check cake then for the following signs. If the cake is not done, return it to the oven to finish baking.


When is the cake done:
A fully baked cake will spring back when touched in the center. The cake also draws away from the side of the pan, and a cake tester (a toothpick of skewer works well) inserted in the center comes out clean. Also trust your sense of smell: the fresh aroma of butter and sugar wafting out of the oven can be the signal to check the cake.


When cakes emerge from the oven, their structure is set, but the set is still fragile. Let cakes stand in pans on rack for time specified in each recipe, usually 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake, then place rack over pan and invert cake onto rack to cool completely.


My review? It was moist but not moist enough. Nica said that the one I made in England was much better. When I find that recipe again (he said he just couldn't stop eating it even though he kept telling himself to stop), I'll have to keep it.