Apothic Red

This is a food and WINE blog... so where's the wine, you ask? Good point. I haven't reviewed wines for so long which doesn't by any means mean that I haven't been drinking it... just bad at reviewing and posting!

I have to credit Andrea for introducing me to this next wine - Apothic Red. It retails for about $20 in BC Liquor stores and half the price down in the States. Yes, I know. We get ripped off.

Here's a link to their website: http://www.apothic.com/wine.html

Essentially, in lamen's terms, Apothic is a shit mix of varieties. But a GOOD shitmix. It has Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blended together for this smooth, chocolately velvet taste. Fantastic smooth finish. None of that gross dryness or tannins on your tongue afterwards. You should probably let it breathe a few minutes before drinking but I had bought one of those Vinturi wine decanters and none of us could taste the difference. Maybe I wasn't drunk enough but this wine sure had me reaching for my glass a lot!

Anyway, all in all a great wine. Sophisticated label, worth the price range (even at $20) and a bargain if half the price.

Home made granola bars

My sister Jen came over the other day with her kids and father-in-law after we visited the pumpkin patch. She also brought cinnamon buns (which we promptly consumed by Nica) and homemade granola. Now normally I detest granola. I find it way too chewy and dry and... healthy (Lord forbid). But I took one bite of hers and I couldn't stop! I asked for piece after piece until it was all gone (sorry kids).

Surprisingly, Ariana who normally eats everything didn't like it even though it had raisins and it was sweet. Must have been the texture.

Here is the recipe that I can't wait to try out:

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/gluten_free_chewy_honey_nut_snack_bars.php

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (60 mL) almond butter or natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) liquid honey
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) cinnamon
• 2/3 cup (150 mL) gluten-free large-flake rolled oats
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped dates
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) hulled unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 egg white

Preparation

In saucepan, bring almond butter, honey, brown sugar, oil, salt and cinnamon to boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved, about 1 minute. Let cool slightly.

Meanwhile, in bowl, combine rolled oats, pecans, dates and sunflower seeds; set aside.

Whisk egg white into honey mixture; fold in oat mixture until evenly coated. Press firmly into parchment paper–lined or greased foil-lined 8-inch (2 L) square cake pan.

Bake in 325°F (160°C) oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. Cut into bars.

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?

Peanut Butter Reeses Pieces Cookies

Stole another recipe for my friend Victoria who bakes the most amazing desserts. Surprisingly, she's never owned a Kitchenaid until recently. Don't know how she survived without one!

Anyway, I've had these cookies before - yum, yum, yum. I tried to make them once but never successfully bought a bag of peanut butter cups that survived to make it into cookies. Ah well. Maybe this time...?

I'll post a photo when I finally attempt this!

Peanut Butter Reeses Pieces Cookies

Combine:

½ cup white sugar

½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

½ cup softened margarine or butter

And beat until light and fluffy

Add:

½ cup smooth peanut butter (measure PB after using half cup measure for flour and it won’t stick)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Blend for several minutes.

Add dry ingredients:

1 ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch salt, more if PB is unsalted and fold in

Batter will be fairly loose. Chill some hours of overnight. Put bags of PB cups in the fridge too

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Makes 4-7 dozen depending on how skimpy you scoop the PB cookies. Be sure to get at least two bags of mini PB cups

Bring dough out at the same time you start the oven preheating. Unwrap the PB cups and put back in the fridge.

Roll 1” balls of cookie dough and place in muffin tins – use the paper liners because these are greasy! You don’t need a lot of batter per cookie – they rise a lot. Press finger into the top of the ball to spread the dough a little. Bake for 6-7 minutes, or until it starts to brown on the edges.

Remove pans from the oven. The cookies will have puffed up, firmly place a peanut butter cup in the middle of each cookie “pillow”. Cookie edges should be even with or above the candy, as much as possible. Place back in the oven for a minute or two to melt the chocolate.

Remove and cool on racks for some time until the chocolate has set back up again. This will take at least an hour. Do not rush this part.

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.

Mac N' Cheese

My friend Janine is a vegetarian and the other day came into work complimenting a recipe she had tried the night before. It's Rachael Ray's mac n' cheese with roasted parsnips and cauliflower. She said it was easy to make and soooo delicious.

Having a toddler, mac n' cheese was a surefire win, right? (then again, my kid eats anything so that's not much to go by). Without reading the recipe, I bought a parsnip before I headed home.

It took me a few days before I finally had a night to try the recipe and by this time Mommy-brain had kicked in and I was convinced it was a risotto recipe. *sigh*. Anyway, I googled the recipe and tried it out. Turns out I should have bought TWO large parsnips (not one) but it did still turn out quite well. I had also run out of my regular extra virgin olive oil so I used less than what was called for (I only had super good extra virgin olive oil that I use for salads).  Also, instead of roasting the garlic with the oil (to make garlic oil), I just wrapped it in foil and tossed it in the oven along with the cauliflower.

The end result? 8 out of 10. I saw Nica sneak at least three bowls and Ariana finished off her plate too. Would be great for a children's party!

Here's the website link: http://www.rachaelray.com/recipe.php?recipe_id=4566

And here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 4 cloves garlic, halved
• About 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tablespoons fresh thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup chicken stock or vegetable stock
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• Freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Fontina cheese or Gruyère cheese
• 1 pound regular or whole wheat ziti or Italian-style, straight-cut macaroni

Serves 4-6

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F.

In a small pot, combine the garlic and EVOO; heat over a low flame and gently cook until the garlic is light golden in color and very fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Remove the garlic cloves and reserve.

Pile the cauliflower on a baking sheet and dress with the lemon juice, about 3-4 tablespoons of the garlic-infused oil and the thyme, salt and pepper. Toss to combine and spread the florets out in a single layer. Roast to brown at the edges and until tender, 20-25 minutes. Cover with the Parmigiano Reggiano and roast for 5 minutes more. Turn the oven off.

Meanwhile, boil the parsnips in salted water to tender, 10-15 minutes. Puree in a food processor with the garlic cloves.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.

In a saucepot, combine the remaining garlic oil and butter over medium heat. When the butter foams, whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute; add the stock and milk and thicken. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg; combine the sauce with the parsnip puree and melt in the cheese.

Cook the pasta to al dente. Drain the pasta and toss with the sauce. Arrange in a serving dish topped with crispy cauliflower florets on top.

This is one of many "Yum-o!" recipes – it's good and good for you. To find out more about Yum-o!, Rachael's nonprofit organization, visit
www.yum-o.org.

Cinnamon Rolls

lo and behold, Sandy has given me yet another recipe that is another go-to. She recently purchased a bread machine and tells me that it's on practically every single day in her house. One of the most requested items? Homemade cinnamon rolls!

before the rise

Now I'm sure if you were as daft as me, you're sitting there scratching your head wondering how a rectangular contraption like a bread machine, can produce cinnamon rolls. As in, how you toss in all the ingredients, walk away and POOF, voila, out come a dozen perfectly formed cinnamon rolls in a couple hours. Yeah, not one of my finer moments. Apparently you only do the dough until after the first rise (the dough needs to rise twice). After it rises the first time, you have to take it out, roll it, sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar, roll and then wait for it to rise again.

Well, I haven't convinced myself to buy a bread machine yet so I had to use my parents. Now, my parents own EVERYTHING under the sun. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that what they own is new, or even usable. So when I attempted to make this for the first time at their house, I made a few key errors:
1. The order in which you add ingredients to a bread maker is CRITICAL. I did not realize this and apparently dumped everything in the wrong order.
2. Everything needs to be room temperature. I was trying to rush it and added the eggs in cold.
3. The yeast was kinda expired. Ok, it was expired but only by a month so I figured it would be ok.
4. They only had whole wheat bread flour.
5. My mom wasn't 100% sure if the bread maker worked.
6. It doesn't help if you fall asleep and then forget about the contents of the bread maker for a day. Ok, ok, I admit I didn't' *forget* about it, but when I took a peek inside and realized it was nothing like how it was suppose to look, I couldn't face it and escaped to work instead.

It was probably a combination of all the errors above that resulted in my failed first attempt. So gathering my wits about me (and after a few emails to Sandy), I summed up the courage to try this again at home. Without a breadmaker!

after the second rise, before the oven

And you know what? It worked! I took them to work and got thumbs up all around. I personally thought they were above average but not GREAT.

Then I made it again at my parents house. Then again at home, then again at my parents house, then again for a girls night. In a week. Yup, Nica overdosed on cinnamon rolls the last couple of weeks and now he's in recovery mode. lol.

After the oven

If I get it right, I'd give this a solid 9.5 out of 10. I did a couple of batches with whole wheat bread and it wasn't too bad. I have to research how to substitute whole wheat bread flour for regular because it seems like whenever I use it, it's always more moist and sticky before the rise. Also, for one of the batches I made (for girls night), I took some cream cheese out of the freezer and let it come to room temp naturally. Unfortunately, after whipping it in the kitchenaid for practically ten minutes, it still had lumps. When Ali put it in the toaster oven for a couple minutes, the lumps melted but still - lumps in cream cheese icing? Yuck. Next time I'll remember to nuke it right off the bat to melt.

All in all, it's actually a pretty straightforward recipe, it just takes a LONG time because of all the waiting you have to do because of the double rise.

So let me finally get to it. Here is the link on the allrecipes website:
 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cinnamon-rolls-iii/detail.aspx

and as usual, here is the recipe for laziness sake:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup warm water 1/4 cup butter, melted 1/2 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix 1 cup warm milk 1 egg, room temperature 1 tablespoon white sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 cups bread flour 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 3/4 cup chopped pecans 1/2 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 cup confectioners' sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1.	In the pan of your bread machine, combine water, melted butter, vanilla pudding, warm milk, egg, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast. Set machine to Dough cycle; press Start.
2.	When Dough cycle has finished, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 17x10 inch rectangle. Spread with softened butter. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over dough.
3.	Roll up dough, beginning with long side. Slice into 16 one inch slices and place in 9x13 buttered pan. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
4.	Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. While rolls bake, stir together cream cheese, softened butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and milk. Remove rolls from oven and top with frosting.

This one reviewers comments was the most helpful for those who don't own a bread machine:

Reviewed: Sep. 25, 2006

Absolutely wonderful!!! I used the traditional method, without the bread maker. I dissolved the tbs. sugar (I used brown) in the water, along with the butter. If you use cold butter, just boil the water, and pour it over the butter while stirring. By that time the temp is quickly brought to the ideal temp for adding the yeast. Cover with plastic wrap, and fix the pudding while the yeast foams. I add the egg, pudding mix and milk together and stir. Then, I measure out the flour, adding 4 tsp of vital wheat gluten to all purpose flour, (I had no bread flour). By that time, the yeast is ready for mixing. I add the pudding mixture, mixing well, followed by the flour. I knead the dough until it forms a ball-all done in same bowl. After I remove the ball, I pour a bit of oil in, and replace the dough and roll it in the oil. The rest is pretty self-explanitory. After rising for about 1 hr. I roll out, spread filling, cut, and rise again. I cook for my boyfriend and the mechanics at his shop and they wont stop raving about them! My boyfriend says that it's the only time the ENTIRE SHOP just sits in silence, awing over how good they are!! A++++ recipe! Thanks Miss Alix!

815 users found this review helpful

Update Feb 2013:

The sad, never-rising defrosted bun.

I wanted to give these to a friend who likes hot cinnamon buns but how to get this to him right out of my oven?!. I thought I'd give him frozen ones instead that he could bake at home so he'd have warm cinnamon buns. I froze the dough after I had rolled it out with the cinnamon and sugar and before the second proofing. I had it in the fridge for a few days but when I took them out to try and bring them to room temp and have them rise again... it never happened. The rolls looked so pitiful I didn't even bother trying to bake them in the oven. I don't know when in the process you're suppose to freeze this, but I have decided I will never freeze baked goods ever again. Fresh is best! Frozen is gross.