Fast, Easy and Delicious

Casseroles have really gone out of style in terms of food. But I love casseroles. They usually contain at least one vegetable and a protein. My favorite part of a casserole is the leftovers. My husband eats all the time, and by all the time I mean, his meal starts in the morning when he awakens and lasts until he falls asleep at night. He easily eats every two hours. So leftovers in my house rarely go to waste. Casseroles are the best way to get him to eat vegetables. If I have a left over roast for example, he'll eat up the meat but will never eat the leftover veggies or even potatoes. If it's all mixed up in a casserole, he gets veggies with each serving! Needless to say, I'm always trying to create new and different casseroles. This was a very successful casserole experiment that incorporates pizza ingredients.

Upside Down Pizza Casserole

2 pounds of lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1 medium pepper, red or green, your preference
1 clove garlic, minced, add more if you prefer
1 teaspoon Italian Herb seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups of prepared spaghetti sauce, preferably meatless

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large skillet brown meat, breaking it up with the spoon as it cooks. Drain off fat and liquid. Discard. Add onion, peppers, garlic and herbs. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Bring to a boil. Simmer about 10 - 15 minutes until thickened.

Prepare crust mix

Mix 1 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and 2 eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until well beaten, about 1 minute. To this add 1 cup of all purpose or whole wheat flour and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix on medium speed for about two minutes. When the meat mixture is ready pour in to an ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Top meat mixture with 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese. pour crust mix over top. Sprinkle with about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Bake in preheated over about 30 - 35 minutes until the crust is lightly browned and looks bubbled up. Let sit about 5 minutes. Serve with salad. Makes about 6 - 8 servings

Tropical Carrot Cake Surprise

When it comes to family gatherings, I'm usually the baker. For Christmas I made cheesecake, a family favorite and chocolate chocolate chip cake. But for New Years' I wanted something different. I didn't want anything too sweet so I decided on a carrot cake with a twist. It came out great and there was hardly any left when I went to take a picture of it! This is a little time consuming, due to the ingredients and the surprise, but it's well worth it. Enjoy!

Tropical Carrot Cake Surprise

Filling

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Set a side.


Cake

1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ginger
2 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins

Grease and flour a bundt pan. Preheat oven to 350F

Mix oil, eggs, brown sugar until blended, beat at medium high speed with electric mixer for 1 minute. Stir in flour, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, salt and ginger. Beat until well blended. Fold in carrots, pineapple, nuts and raisins.

Place all but about two cups of batter in cake pan. Spread filling evenly over batter. Cover with remaining cake batter. Bake 50 - 55 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for ten minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely.

Frost when cake is completely cooled.

Cream Cheese Drizzle Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 -3 tablespoons milk
1 - 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add milk if necessary. Beat in vanilla and 1 cup of sugar. Beat until smooth and the consistency is right. Should be thick enough to run down side of cake but not run off cake completely. Add sugar as needed to arrive at the right thickness. Pour over cake.

Serves 10 - 12

Cookbook Review

The Gourmet Cookbook

I am, or I should say now, was a huge fan of Gourmet Magazine. November 2009 will be the last issue they will publish of one my favorite food magazines. I subscribed for years and kept every issue. Searching for recipes was a long and cumbersome process. Because the magazine is so beautifully photographed, I would often get side tracked reading or re-reading the wonderful articles about food, travel and restaurants around the world. A few years ago for Christmas, I received The Gourmet Cookbook.
It is a collection of the best recipes from the magazine's sixty year history. It has made searching through the recipes fast and easy. It has a huge selection of recipes, over 1000 of them, covering a range of cooking styles and cuisines. I refer to it often.

The book is a virtual encyclopedia of cooking. It covers everything from hors d'oeurves to desserts. It has many helpful articles throughout the book which give great explanations on cooking techniques and exotic ingredients. It doesn't, unfortunately include any of the wonderful photography from Gourmet Magazine.

I would recommend this book if you are an adventurous cook with a good degree of skill. If you are inspired by photos, this book will not get your creative juices flowing. Many of the recipes are geared for a cook with a higher degree of cooking skills.

Editor: Ruth Reichl
Hardcover, 1056 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
September 2004

Canadian Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we were just us. No road trip, no visitor or extra mouths to feed. I made a simple meal of roast beef, roast potatoes and baby carrots with green and wax beans. I decided to make soup as a starter. I love homemade soup. Every time I make chicken or turkey, I make stock so when I feel like making soup, I have some on hand. The key to really good soup is simple. Homemade stock. It has much more flavor and layers of tastes that make any soup great.
Today I made a creamy broccoli soup with a chicken base. If you want to make it vegetarian, you could easily use vegetable stock and it would be just as good.

Creamy Broccoli Soup

1 medium sweet onion, finely chopped
1 rib of celery, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
I head of broccoli, stem chopped
2 tablespoon of butter
3 cups of water

2 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoon of all purpose flour
4 cups of chicken stock

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup of light cream or whole milk

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Cook until onion is soft and translucent. Add water and broccoli. Cook until broccoli stems are tender, about 20 minutes. train, reserve liquid.

In a large soup pot, melt 2 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. With a whisk, blend until smooth and creamy. Slowly pour in chicken stock. Bring to a low boil and simmer while you puree the vegetables. Slowly add the pureed vegetables to the chicken stock. Simmer 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add milk by melting 1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon butter in a small saucepan. With a whisk, blend until smooth. Slowly whisk in milk. once all the milk has been added to the flour mixture and it is smooth and creamy, slowly whisk milk mixture into the broccoli mixture. Simmer 20 minutes, until thickened. Serve immediately. Serves 8.

Chicken Tonight!

I love chicken. It's one of my favorite foods. My husband on the other hand, could eat chicken twice a year and have had enough. As a result of his distaste for chicken, I have created a variety of ingenious and delicious recipes over the years. One even my chicken hater likes is this spicy drumstick recipe.

Spicy Chicken Drumsticks

As many drumsticks as you need - I make 24 at a time. (They can have skin or be skinless whatever you prefer)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Montreal Steak Spice

Preheat oven to 400F. I use convection for this recipe. The circulating air in the oven makes the chicken seem barbecued and helps cook it quickly.

Place all the drumsticks in a large bowl, big enough to hold them all. Drizzle oil over them to give them a slightly oil surface. They shouldn't be dripping in oil, just lightly coated.
Now sprinkle them with spice. You can use seasoned salt, garlic - whatever you like. They turn out even better if you can let them marinate in the spices for awhile before you cook them. I prepare the chicken in the morning, cover the bowl and refrigerate then only cook them hours later for supper. If you don't have time to marinate, you can cook them right away also- they still taste great.

Place them on a rack, place the rack in the center of the oven, cook until done. In the convection oven at 400F they cook in about 30 - 35 minutes.

Serve with your favorite sides. We like pilaf rice and broccoli with ours - at least I do!.

Great recipe for a crowd. Can also be served cold.

Labour Day - Good Bye Summer

Labour Day generally signifies the end of summer. The kids go back to school, you notice the days getting shorter and the evenings getting chillier. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I like the days with no humidity and cooler nights that are great for sleeping.

In honour of the return to school, I decided to bake for the girls. I wanted to make muffins, but, I am ashamed to say, I had no milk in the house! Imagine - a dairy farm with no milk! Today wasn't the first time either. Some mornings you're just a little too cloudy to remember the empty pitcher!

So I scoured around for s recipe that didn't require milk. I couldn't find a muffin recipe - except one that called for plain yogurt - another item I didn't have. I did find one for a great "Blondie".

They are quick, easy and simple. All you really need is a saucepan and a spoon.

Blondies

2 cups packed brown sugar
2/3 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 13"x9" baking pan. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, melt butter and sugar together over medium low heat. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Cool slightly. Using a wooden spoon, stir in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Spread batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with chocolate chips and nuts.

Bake in oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars while still warm. Cool completely in pan.

Makes 36 bars

Cheesecake Recipe

Gary's Birthday Cake

This past Sunday, was my company barbecue. One of the employees was having a birthday. I was to bring dessert, so I asked him his favorite kind of cake. Luckily, he chose cheesecake! My favorite to make. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo because it was cut up and eaten before I had a chance to take one.

Classic Cheesecake for a Crowd

4 packages (8 oz each) of cream cheese, at room temperature
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup of granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
30 Oreo cookies
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325F. Line one 9" x 13" baking pan with parchment paper. Crush the cookies to make fine crumbs. Add melted butter and mix well. Press into the bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat softened cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, blending well between each addition. Add lemon juice. Blend in sour cream. Pour mixture over crust in prepared pan. Bake at 325F about 50 minutes until center of cake is set. After center is set, turn off oven, but do not remove cake. Leave the cake in the oven for about one hour to cool down. After about an hour, place pan on cooling rack to cool completely. Once cake is completely cooled, refrigerate. Top with your favorite fruit or pie filling before serving. I use a combination of pie filling and fresh fruit. Blueberries are my favorite.

Serves 16

For a fluffier cake, place a oven proof dish of water on the lower oven rack. This will add moisture to the oven's atmosphere and help make a moister cake.

Best Time of The Year

Everything is is Fresh

I love this time of the year. Locally grown fruits and vegetables are abundant and flavourful.

We just finished strawberry season and raspberry season and fresh locally grown corn on the cob is starting to appear at the farmstands along the roadsides. This week-end, the oldest fair in Ontario is held in Williamstown, ON, not far from our farm. When the girls were young we went every year. On our way home we would stop at the same farmer's stand and buy fresh picked corn on the cob, usually the first of the season. Supper on "Fair Day" would always be hamburgers on the barbecue and fresh corn with lots of butter.

We are lucky to live in Canada. We have a huge variety of Canadian produced foods that are well raised, safe to eat and affordable. Enjoy your supper tonight and buy local as often as you can.

I am also growing my own tomatoes and cucumbers this year. Gardening is not a passion of mine, but fresh tomatoes are! So far I have enjoyed a few fruits from my labours - four tomatoes and two cucumbers have made it to the table in the last week or so. My younger daughter is helping and absolutely thrilled to see the tomatoes, green and getting bigger by the day. Once the tomatoes start ripening, I'll post a couple of my favorite tomato recipes.

Some of my Favorite Things (3)

There's one cooking appliance in my house the whole family actually uses. It's The Griddler by Cusinart. Even my husband uses this, probably even more than he uses the toaster! It's handy and is actually a permanent fixture on my counter. It can be used as a grill, griddle or panini press.

When I orgiinally got it, I wanted to used as a panini press. I even bought cookbooks for panini and everything. It's now mostly used to grill meat. Burgers are my husband's favorite. It cooks them fast because you can cook both sides at the same time. I have used it for pancakes and french toast - 8 slices at one time! It's great for chicken breasts. I marinate them in a bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and oregano and in less than 15 minutes you can grill up great chicken no matter what the weather!

It comes with two different grilling plates, one flat and the other with raised ridges to give a nice grill line look to the food. It opens up flat - to give you lots of cooking surface. It has a no stick finish and washes up in the dishwasher! What more can you ask for!