Almond Roca Cream wine

 A recent trip to the Costco in Bellingham resulted in this little find. $4.97 for a bottle of Almond Roca Cream. When I picked it up, I thought, "Oh, this is like Irish Cream! This will be a fantastic addition to a nice cup of coffee or tea. And at $5, what a STEAL!". When I was checking out, I finally noticed it went through as a wine. WTF?! cream and wine? That sounds gross. No wonder it was on clearance. I was really hesitant about trying this. The hubby opened it and we drank it out of a couple of wine glasses. The verdict? Not baaaaad... in fact, it could still go into a tea or coffee and it was just like Irish cream. Whoever is in their marketing department should be fired though. If they hadn't put "cream" and "wine" on the bottle, I'm sure they would have sold a lot more and wouldn't sadly be on clearance at a Costco. It's got quite the alcohol content (14%) and a nice creamy toffee scent to it. Alone it's drinkable although I think paired with a good coffee or Trader Joe's vanilla cinammon tea and you've got a sure winner.

Seriously. When you say "Almond, Chocolate and  Toffee cream", you just want to guzzle it and whip it up in some frosting and have it on cupcakes. But throw "wine" in there and you think of curdling and want to barf. Thank God for bad marketing people otherwise it would have been priced higher and I never would have bought it. This bottle will be finished for sure and totally worth $5.

Raspberry souffles

Voila! Raspberry souffles!

So from my previous post, I had embarked on a quest to make homemade mayonnaise. That uses a lot of egg yolks which leaves you with lots of leftover egg whites! What to make? A quick search on google resulted in: Angel food cake (Nica and Ariana don't eat cake fast enough in this house); pavlovas (already made those a few weeks ago and still have some left);  creme brulee (too much dairy); and souffles. Hmmm. Souffles. Further googling (yes, I just verbed that) demonstrated that I could make a sweet souffle. How delicious did that sound?! The first recipe I came across was a strawberry souffle but strawberries aren't in season and I didn't have any in my house. But further searching landed me on this recipe: Raspberry souffles. I had frozen raspberries to use up in the freezer.

I chose this recipe to follow since it had the world "fool" in it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/foolproofhotraspberr_12919

Can't go wrong if fools can make it, right?

Ingredients

• 250g/9oz raspberries
• 4 eggs, whites only
• 100g/4oz caster sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• ½ tsp cornflour, lightly dissolved in a few spoonfuls of water

Preparation method

1. First, evenly butter and sugar ovenproof moulds for the souffles and place in the freezer.
   
2. For the coulis, add half of the sugar to the raspberries. Place in a hot pan and cook quickly for 2-3 minutes with a good squeeze of lemon juice.
   
3. Liquidise with a hand blender and pass through a sieve to remove the seeds.
   
4. Place 2 tsp of coulis in the bottom of the souffli dishes and thicken the remaining coulis with the moistened cornflour.
   
5. For the meringue, ensure the whisk and bowl are free from grease by scalding in boiling water.
   
6. Place the egg whites in the bowl and start to whisk.
   

7. 

   mixing the raspberry base and beaten egg whites together

   Gradually add sugar until a smooth soft peak is obtained.
   
8. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
   
9. For the souffli, take a third of the meringue and whisk into the thickened coulis.
   
10. Lightly fold in the remaining two thirds. Do this gently so the air is not knocked out of the mix.
    
11. Divide the mix between the dishes.
    
12. Smooth the surface of the souffli and trim edges with your thumb.
    
13. When ready to bake, space out on a tray and bake in a medium to hot oven (180C/350F/Gas 4) for approximately 10-15 minutes depending on the size and dish.
    
14. Dust with icing sugar, place a raspberry on top and serve immediately.
    

The end result were beautiful souffles. I didn't scrape the tops flat so yes, they were lopsided but when they come out all billowy and tall, you want to do a tiny dance (but lightly of course since we're dealing with souffles here).


These were really really sweet so next time I think I'll cut down on the sugar. I froze four of them since it says you can freeze them and then just toss them in the oven to make them lift again so we'll see how that goes tomorrow. The great thing about this is that they're gluten and dairy free so a fantastic dessert for those that have those dietary considerations. I still have more egg whites left so the next adventure will be savoury souffles. Mmmm.

Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread

I kept seeing all these post about pull apart bread on Pinterest (damn you, Pinterest) so last night I finally gave in and tried one out since I was making chicken soup for dinner. Here is a recipe for Garlic Parmesan pull apart bread:  http://smells-like-home.com/2012/09/garlic-parmesan-pull-apart-bread/

Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread
source: adapted from Pastry Affair

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) instant yeast
• 1 1/3 cups warm water
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) salted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp dried parsley flakes or 2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

The dough after the first proof

Butter, parsley, seasoning, and mmmm garlic!

1. In the bowl of the stand mixer, stir together the yeast and water. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes until yeast is somewhat dissolved. Mix in the olive oil, salt, and flour. Using the dough hook, knead the dough for 5 minutes, or until elastic. (Alternatively, you can mix the ingredients in a large bowl then knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is elastic, 7-10 minutes.) Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.   

 2. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, parsley, Italian seasoning, and minced garlic. Set aside.

 
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ready to go in the oven

4. Gently push the air out of the dough. Tear off a golf ball-size piece of dough, roll in the butter mixture, and place in the bottom of a Bundt pan. Repeat this process until you have one layer of dough balls. Sprinkle on 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese. Continue layering the dough balls and cheese until you have 3 layers. (Note: We ended up with only 2 layers but the bread still turned out fine.) Cover the pan with a clean towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to double in size, 20-30 minutes.

5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until bread is golden brown. Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes then invert the pan onto a large serving plate and let the bread fall out of the pan.  Serve hot.

the end result

My notes: Since you have to proof it twice, it actually took a lot longer than I thought it would. But with my Kitchenaid mixer, this recipe was a snap. And fresh out of the oven? Heaven and loveliness. I modified the recipe by putting FOUR (yes, count them FOUR) cloves of garlic because the husband is Romanian and a bigger garlic lover than I (who would have thought it possible, but it is). I also used Trader Joe's romano parmesan instead of fresh because I was too lazy to actually grind it up in the food processor. I'm not sure if I had "Italian seasoning" (it's an Italian spice mix), so for good measure, I threw in a few dashes of Johnny's Garlic spread and seasoning. I use that stuff on EVERYTHING (goes great with roasted potatoes) and available at Costco in of course, Costco-size.

I don't own a bundt pan so I used my tube pan instead. Hopefully I didn't ruin it by spraying Pam all over it. It didn't make three layers of dough, just one and a few balls in the second layer. Still took about 20 minutes to bake.

The end result was a little salty but tasty! It was fun pulling it apart and dipping it into our soup. To store, I put in a plastic bag and knotted the top to seal the air out. Had another piece today and it's still soft and lovely and yes, very garlicky. Will make this again but will consider using another pan instead of the tube pan. Maybe a loaf pan instead?

Chateau Doisy-Vedrines

Mela came back from Bordeau a month ago and of course, she returned with wine. This is a bottle that she shared with me a 2002 Chateau Doisy-Vedrines. When she saw the cork, she said the Grand-Cru stamp meant that it was an excellent vineyard. A quick wiki search returned the following:

"
Grand cru (French for great growth) is a regional wine classification that designates a vineyard known for its favorable reputation in producing wine. Although often used to describe grapes, wine or cognac, the term is not technically a classification of wine quality per se, but is intended to indicate the potential of the vineyard or terroir. It is the highest level of classification of AOC wines from Burgundy or Alsace. The same term is applied to Châteaux in Saint-Émilion, although in that region it has a different meaning and does not represent the top tier of classification. In Burgundy the level immediately below grand cru is known as premier cru, sometimes written as 1er cru.^[6]"

 I don't by any means have a sophisticated enough palate to distinguish what made it a good wine, but it was tasty. Very flavourful and very sweet. Like crazy sweet. Although it smelled like brown sugar, it also had a high alcohol scent and the lines on the glass told me that probably wasn't far from the truth. But it didn't taste like it. The husband said it reminded him of the top of a creme brulee. Mela drank three glasses. It was delicious and I felt honored that she would share it with me. A great wine with an acidic or spicy pairing (I unfortunately only had triple lemon biscuits from TJ's and wasabi seaweed) but it wasn't bad.

Lemon Blueberry Cake

Going to a girlfriend's house tomorrow and I've been dying to make some moist lemon blueberry cake. Victoria (again), had this recipe to share. Going to try this one and another one I found on Allrecipes.com. We'll see how they compare! I think Victoria's will be quite moist because she has sour cream in it (and I love baking breads and cakes with sour cream because it makes them super moist). I'm not a fan of those crumbly cakes. Anyway, stay tuned for results!

Lemon Blueberry Cake:

2 ¼ cup fresh blueberries

16 tbsp (2 sticks) softened butter

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons

3 eggs

3 cups flour

1 cup sour cream

1 ½ tsp baking soda

Glaze:

2 cups icing sugar

½ cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. butter/line a 10 inch tube pan

Freeze blueberries, this will keep the berries from sinking to the bottom of the cake

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, lemon zest at high speed unti light in colour. Add lemon juice, eggs, and 1 cup of flour. Mix at medium speed until the batter is smooth and well blended.

Add sour cream, another cup of flour, and the baking soda. Mix at low speed until no traces of flour remain.

Combine frozen blueberries with remaining cup of flour. Fold this mixture into the batter, which should feel very thick.

Spoon dough into the prepared tube pan. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes in the pan. Let the cake cool completely before removing it from its pan.

Glaze: Mix together confectioners sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Drizzle over the cake.

October 5th update: 
Made the loaf last night - Ariana helped! We did have one egg fatality. 

Baking notes:
Instead of one big loaf, made four mini loaves and some mini cupcakes too. I think my icing sugar was too old or maybe I didn't whip it enough because it had lumps in it and was really runny. I've given one loaf to Ariana's daycare (with the glaze in a separate container) and will take one to my mom's tonight as well as Julie's. Nica and Ariana both ate some this morning for breakfast and Nica originally gave it an 8.5 out of 10 but upped it to 9 out of 10 when he couldn't come up with why. He said he really liked the lemon-y taste. Ariana on her first taste test, picked out all the blueberries so all I saw on the floor were lemon crumbles.

 I forgot to add the baking soda when adding the flour the second time and only folded the baking soda in, instead of mixing it thoroughly. Not sure what affect this has had on the results, but it seems ok so far. I used pastry flour instead of all-purpose which should helped give it a lighter texture (versus heavy loaf). Seemed to work pretty well. 

I have no idea how cake shops do it, but I'm trying to figure out how they get a soft top to their loaves. This one, when finally baked, has a hardened top.  Maybe it's just how my oven works?

Strawberry whole wheat muffins

Sandy. Again. Love her recipes! She gave me this one for strawberry whole wheat muffins and I've made them a few times now. A hit every single time. I've also substituted mangoes and blueberries instead of strawberries and still a hit. Thanks Sandy!

Here's the website she gave to me: http://www.alidaskitchen.com/2011/06/strawberry-yogurt-muffins.html

Strawberry Yogurt Muffins
Yields 12 muffins

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup nonfat plain yogurt
1/4 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups strawberries, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line or grease 12 muffin cups. 
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside. 
3. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, yogurt, oil and vanilla until blended.  Add to flour mixture and gently mix until combined (Be careful not to over mix).  Gently fold in strawberries.
4. Divide batter evenly between muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes.  Transfer muffins to wire rack and let cool completely.

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.

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.

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

Mint Limeade

As noted in my last post, we had mint limeade at our SYTYCD marathon and I made it again for my dad's 40th BBQ lunch (again, a bit hit!)

Here's the recipe for 2 cups of simple syrup:
Bring 1 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil, stirring until dissolved. Let cool.

Mint Limeade:
Muddle 2 lime wedges and some mint leaves in each glass and add ice. Mix 2 cups simple syrup, 2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice and 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice in a pitcher; pour into the glasses.

Unduragga: 2007 Sauvignon Blanc

My friend Julie has this uncanny knack for finding really good, cheap wines. One of her last recommendations was Australia's Hardy's Shiraz. Under $10.00 and really tasty without being too spicy.
Her latest wine has been a Chilean wine. A 2007 Unduragga Sauvignon Blanc. It was crisp, fresh and not too sweet or dry.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Almond-Topped Fish

My sister gave me this recipe to try. She really liked it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Almond-Topped-Fish/Detail.aspx?src=etaf

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter or stick margarine
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 (6 ounce) fillets fresh or frozen cod or haddock, thawed
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon dill weed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

DIRECTIONS
Place butter in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish; place in a 400 degrees F oven until melted. Spread butter over bottom of dish; cover with onion. Arrange fish over onion; sprinkle with salt, dill and pepper. Combine the Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, parsley and lemon juice; spread over fish. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees F for 18-20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Sprinkle with almonds.
Nutritional Analysis: One serving (1 fillet) equals 223 calories, 7 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 86 mg cholesterol, 716 mg sodium, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g fiber, 33 g protein. Diabetic Exchanges: 4 lean meat, 1 fat, 1/2 starch.

January 31, 2008 update:
Tried this recipe for the first time. Didn't have haddock fish so used the pollack I had instead. Used the Kraft fake parmesan and fresh dill. I think it was coriander too, instead of parsley.



I really enjoy garlic with my food and although this had none, I surprisingly, still really enjoyed it. I wouldn't have thought to bake mayonnaise but it added a really nice crust to the fish, with deep flavour without being overbearing. The crunch of the almonds was a nice textural contrast. The fish wasn't flaky enough for me although I did cook it for longer than the suggested time and it was a bit too moist. Which is not a usual thing for me to say because I don't like dry fish.


AFTER



Rating: 8 out of 10
Things to do different next time: Use a different type of fish. Maybe the ones that are suggested by the recipe.



Update February 1, 2008:
This is NOT a good leftover food to eat when you've drunk too much and you're looking for something to absorb the alcohol in your stomach. One piece in my mouth and I thought I was going to hurl.

Tinhorn Creek Gerwerstraminer

Yesterday Nica and I dined out at the Salmon House Restaurant in West Vancouver. The meal was absolutely delicious. The portions weren't overly generous but that was okay because when we were done, we were pleasantly filled and not full.

Because I don't like dry wines, I asked what sweet wines they had to pair with my porcini mushroom appetizer and citrus shrimp main. The server/bartender suggested the Tinhorn Creek Gewurztraminer as well as the Cedar Creek Pinot Noir. I enjoyed the Pinot but Nica didn't. It didn't have as much of a dry taste but it was mildly spicy and light. It was surprisingly good but the Gewurztraminer was excellent. It was light, refreshing and exactly what a Gewurztraminer should taste like.

So the Tinhorn Creek Gewurztraminer earns a 8.5 out of 10 from me. Would definitely look for this bottle in the liquor store.