Scones

I made some delicious scones the other day.  I was thinking of my wonderful trip to Ireland last year with mom.  Every afternoon we would have tea and scones in the afternoon.  The scones were wonderfully nutty and flakey.  They were always served with that sweet Irish butter, lovely berry preserves, usually strawberry and clotted cream.  These ones I made were good, but they didn't have that nutty taste you get from the Irish flour. 

1-3/4 cup of all purpose  flour 
3 tablespoons sugar
2 - 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon  salt
1/3 cup of cold butter, diced
1 egg
4 to 6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 400F 
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut in the butter using a patty blender, until well combine and crumbly.
In a small bowl, beat the egg 4 tablespoons of cream and vanilla, add to the flour. Mix until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl.  Add additional cream a bit at a time is mixture appears to be too dry.

Turn mixture out onto a floured surface, knead about ten to twelve times just until mixture is smooth.  Form into a disc about 8 inches across.  Cut circle into 8 triangles, leave in a circle and place on a unread cookie sheet.  You cam brush some cream on the top and sprinkle  with sugar if desired. 

Bake 14 -16 minutes until golden brown .   Immediately remove from baking sheet  to cooling rack.  Let cool for about 10 minutes then enjoy.

Sundays are for Waffles

A few years ago I received a waffle maker  for Christmas.  Over time, I have perfected  what I think is the best waffles recipe.   They are easy, soft and somewhat healthy.

Buckwheat Waffles

1 1/4 cup of unbleached all purpose  flour
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup of vegetable  oil 
1/2 cup of sour cream 
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients .   In a separate bowl, whisk together  all the wet ingredients .  Add the wet to the dry ingredients. Mix by hand, just until blended. 

Serve with pure maple syrup  and your favorite fruit..

Crispy Fish Tacos

Back at it again

Now that the kids are both gone, it seems like a good time to restart my blog.

Last night for supper I made crispy fish tacos.  The coating on the fish was perfect and super crunchy, just the way I like it.  I topper them off with a slaw made with a touch of lime and cilantro.  Oh and of course chipolte  mayo.

SLAW

2 cups of shredded cabbage, I used some from a bag because I never you the whole cabbage and I end up throwing out the leftovers.
1 small onion thinly sliced
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup of mayonnaise
Juice of one lime
1/4 cut chopped fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients  together at least an hour before you're ready to eat. Refrigerate  until ready to use.

FISH

1 pound of your favorite  type of fish (I used cod)
1 cup of cornmeal
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon chili
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk

Mix the first 5 ingredients  in a shallow bowl or pie plate
Mix egg and milk in another shallow dish

Cut fish into strip or chunks, place fish and flour in a bax, shake to coat fish with flour. Dip coated fish in egg then into cornmeal.  Fry in about 1 inch of oil, about 4 minutes per side until fish is cooked through.

Place fish, slaw and Chipotle  mayo on tortillas and enjoy.

Fruit Upside Down Cake

Everyone has heard of Pineapple upside down cake. You don't have to make an upside down cake just with pineapple. This is one of my family's favorite fruit topped cake recipes. You can use just about any kind of fruit you like. I generally make it with berries. I like cranberries and blueberries mixed together. But I've made this with peaches, both canned and fresh, strawberries, raspberries alone and together, sometimes fresh and sometimes frozen. The one in the picture is made with frozen fruit, blueberries, strawberries and cranberries, evenly mixed.

Fruity Upside Down Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Generously grease a 10 inch spring form pan. Set aside.

Fruit Topping:

3 cups of prepared fruit, fresh or frozen
2 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small bowl blend butter, sugar and spices until crumbly and well blended. Sprinkle into the bottom of the prepared pan. Cover bottom with even layer of fruit. Set aside.

Cake:

1/4 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

With electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until lemon yellow in color. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well between each. Mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to egg mixture, alternating with dry ingredients. Mixing well between each addition.

Spoon batter over fruit. Place pan on cookie sheet to catch any syrup that drips out. Bake about 40 - 45 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on rake, run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen from the pan. Invert onto serving platter.

Serves 8 - 10.

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.