Manu's spicy olive tortilla wraps

A great place for picking up new recipes after confirming their tastiness are work functions. Especially if your work is fond of the potluck party.

Manu, an colleague from an old job has given me tasty recipes in the past: Manny's heavenly hash, chicken soup. Another party pleaser that he often makes are his spicy olive tortilla wraps. I can never have just one. So when my new workplace had a potluck party, I e-mailed him for the recipe. And here it is:

	green onion, finely chop
1 can	black olives
6 cloves	garlic
1/4 bunch	cilantro
2 containers	Herb and dill cream cheese
1 tbsn	paprika
1/2 tbsn	pepper
2 pinch	salt
	burrito shells

Instructions

1.  Chop up very finely a bunch of green onion, can of sliced black olives, 6 cloves of garlic, ¼ bunch of cilantro and throw in a bowl
2. Add 2 containers of herb and dill cream cheese (Don’t use low fat, the real stuff) add to bowl
3. Add a table spoon of Papirika, ½ table spoon of pepper and a couple pinches of salt (Manu's notes: I like it spicy so I add a generous amount of chilli flakes or cayane pepper)
4. Mix it all up real well and taste – if you want add more of something now is the time to do it
5. On a regular size burrito shell (doesn’t matter flavor, white or brown) spread a layer all over
6. Roll it up, cut the ends off (either throw them away or eat yourselves), and with whats left cut in about1.5 inch pieces

The Finished product - sorry it's so blurry!

Ariana helped me make these - and if a 2-year old toddler can make them, anyone can. She even declared them to be "good" and couldn't stop pinching them. They were quite garlicky and slightly spicy so I'm surprised she didn't spit it out. But then again, she is part Romanian and it was inevitable that she like garlic!

Notes: 
1. I mixed all the first ingredients up in my food processor to "finely chop" everything. It didn't detract from the taste, but I think the next time I do this, I'll manually cut up the olives to improve the texture of the rolls. I think it need some chunkiness to it. 
2. I didn't buy two separate tubs of herb, and dill cream cheese (since the combination didn't exist and I wasn't entirely sure if that was a typo on Manu's part or not) but one large tub of herb and garlic.

A great vegetarian finger food for future parties. Thanks Manu!  

Homemade Crumpets

I like crumpets. They remind me of my mother who use to have them with butter and jam. So when I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I read through it, realized I had all the ingredients and figured I'd give it a shot.

Ingredients:
3 Packages Active Dry Yeast
3/4 Cup Warm Water
3 Teaspoons Sugar
1 Cup Warm Milk
3 Eggs
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
Butter
Makes 25 Crumpets*
1. Mix the Yeast, Warm Water and Sugar in a glass bowl.  Let the yeast "proof" (get foamy) for 5-10 minutes. 

2. Into the Yeast mixture, whisk the Warm Milk, Flour, Eggs and Salt until no longer lumpy.  Cover with a towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

3. Cut 1/2 Tablespoon of butter and melt it on your griddle/frying pan at Medium-High Heat.  Scoop out about 4 Tablespoons of batter and pour it on to your griddle for each crumpet.  You can "eye" it up - pour enough batter to make the size of crumpet you'd like! 

4. Cook the crumpets on one side until they bubble through and appear mostly dry on the tops.  Then, flip them and cook for another 15 seconds

So this is what mine looked like:

Sorry, blurry picture of the batter - very elasticy

crumpets on the griddle.

They were ugly but tasted ok and we didn't need to freeze any because we all ate them within the next few days. I wish I had my homemade butter to go with it.

I tried making some in a circular form I had but it was impossible to pop it out without having some of the batter cake to the sides. I even tried a mason jar lid that someone on the blog had suggested. I gave up on that idea.

While making them, they reminded me of mini-pancakes. The yeast I used had expired back in December but it still foamed. I wonder what the results would have been like if I had used fresh yeast.

Wouldn't mind trying this recipe out again. Maybe with lactose-free milk (or maybe even leftover buttermilk from making real butter) and gluten-free flour.

Jacob's Creek Moscato

On a recent business trip to Victoria, I wanted to thoroughly enjoy my child-free days. Don't get me wrong - I love my kid but it's not often that you get the opportunity to drink without having to worry who's watching the kid.

I picked up this bottle of wine from a hotel-attached liquor store on my way back to my hotel. It was the only Moscato they carried and I was desperate for something easy to drink. I think it was $14. Less than a glass of wine bought at the hotel restaurant. It was a pretty label but I should have turned it around and read the back because I only discovered back in the hotel room that it was carbonated or "frizzante" as indicated. Yuck. Hence the low rating. Otherwise if you like a sweet, fizzy wine this is perfect for you. I let it sit overnight to try it make it go flat and not wanting to be wasteful, tried to finish it off before I left. Couldn't even do that. I think I left what you see above. It was difficult for me because not finishing a bottle of opened booze is alcohol abuse in my eyes! lol.

Wouldn't buy it again but not due to the taste but because I'm not a fizzy-drink kind of gal.

Salmon with Sesame Ginger Citrus Glaze

I had Sandy and her family over back in August for dinner and found this recipe for salmon:
http://cary.wholefoodsmarketcooking.com/recipes/11780_salmon_with_sesame_ginger_citrus_glaze

Serves 4

• 2 Garlic cloves, minced
• 4 teaspoons grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon Brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Orange juice
• 3 tablespoons Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
• 1 dash toasted sesame seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon Red pepper flakes
• 2 Scallions, optional
• 1 20-oz salmon fillet (cut into 4 5-oz pieces, season with salt/pepper)

In a small bowl, mince garlic and grate ginger. In a large zip tab plastic bag, combine next ingredients brown sugar, orange juice, soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. Then, add seasoned salmon, garlic, and ginger to zip tab plastic bag; seal. Marinate in refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Coat broiler pan with cooking spray. Place salmon on broiler rack and brush glaze on top. Broil for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Thinly slice scallions and sprinkle the scallion slices over the cooked salmon as a garnish.

I bought wild salmon from Costco and I was so impressed with how this came out. It was moist and flavourful and super delicious. I'm having another friend over this Monday and I can't wait to make it again. Photos to come!

Apple Pecan Quinoa Muffins

Ugh. Quinoa? Quinoa MUFFINS? Sounds gross. But Trang at work said that these are delicious. I will try before I totally slam them. Link to recipe: http://lemonsandanchovies.com/2012/08/apple-pecan-quinoa-muffins/#.UOJrl3fVqWE

Apple-Pecan Quinoa Muffins

Author: Lemons & Anchovies

Serves: Makes 12 muffins

 

Forget greasy muffins. These muffins are packed with apples and pecans and healthy, too.

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole wheat flour (or your flour of choice)
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• ½ cup lightly-packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• ⅔ cup milk (I used nonfat)
• 1 cup chopped apples (about ½ large)
• ½ cup chopped pecans (I used candied pecans for more flavor)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 12-muffin tin (or use cupcake liners; I used a ⅓ cup muffin tin) and set aside.
2. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a large bowl then stir in the cooked quinoa.
3. In a separate bowl combine the oil, milk and egg then stir into the dry ingredients.
4. Fold in the apples and pecans and spoon the batter into the muffin tin.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Notes

Substituting the apples and pecans for other fruit and nuts, as well as substituting the whole wheat flour for gluten-free flour, this would make a good base for other flavor combinations.

Strawberry Trifle Cake

Colleague at work gave me this recipe - said it was an extremely simple layer cake recipe (all it is, is assembling). Something I could do with my 2 year old toddler!

> Original recipe makes 1 trifle Change Servings Makes  servings US

> Metric Adjust Recipe (Help)

> 

> 1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

> 

> 3 cups cold milk

> 

> 1 (9 inch) angel food cake, cut in cubes

> 

> 4 bananas, sliced

> 

> 1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed

> 

> 1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed

> 

> Check All Add to Shopping List .Directions

> 1.Prepare pudding with milk according to package directions. In a

> trifle bowl or other glass serving dish, layer half the cake pieces,

> half the pudding, half the bananas, half the strawberries and half the

> whipped topping. Repeat layers. Cover and chill in refrigerator 4

> hours before serving.

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.