Holiday Breakfasts

This holiday season has been nice and relaxing, complete with lazy breakfasts.

In the pan waiting for the oven to heat

I recently found a new cinnamon bun recipe that can be as complex as you wish it to be.  In other words you could make it simple by using pre made croissant dough or more complex by making your own pastry.  We opted for the easy route on pre made croissant dough - after all it was New Years Day and we were not really feeling up to making our own croissant pastry.  They turned out quite well, next time I would not coat them in the extra cinnamon sugar.  These would be a fun treat to make with kids of all ages - Tim this is for you!  The original recipe I found here; www.ezrapoundcake.com/archives/11041.

And this is how mine turned out.  As you can see here I added a bit of lemon zest for a bright contrast against the sweet cinnamon & sugar.

Hot and fresh

The next breakfast that I created was baked eggs.  I have seen quite a few recipes for these as they are a popular breakfast item for a house full of guests during the holidays.  They are quite simple and very easy to make with whatever you have in the fridge.  We had breakfast sausages as the surprise inside.
All it takes is the following;
Individual baking dishes well buttered - I used my French Onion soup pots as I was concerned with the depth but usually they are made in ramekins. For more delicate baked eggs use a shallower baking dish.
A surprise in the bottom of each pot - this could be chopped bacon (cooked), sliced sausage (cooked), chevre and herbs, or grated cheese.
Crack your eggs into each pot - we did 2 eggs each with a little extra egg white and a splash of cream.
Top with salt & pepper and bake for 7 to 15 minutes.  The baking time will depend on how deep your pots are.  And you will need to watch them as the egg yolks should be a bit runny so you can dip toast fingers in it!

This is a wonderful breakfast treat for everyone.

So with one more lazy holiday morning I must begin to dream up my next breakfast delight.  I am off to my cookbook library for inspiration.









That is all for now, see you in the kitchen.
E

A small bit of Christmas baking

I have such great timing... just as Christmas is passed and 2010 is ending I finally get some Christmas baking posted. Well, there is always next year for me to be more organized!  We can always think on the bright side; some of this baking could be enjoyed througout the year - really, who wouldn't want butter tarts in June?!

 

So here is what I baked this year:

 Salted Caramel Earl Grey Macarons - this was so much easier than all the other foodie blogs said it would be.  And our first macarons had feet! (if you know anything about making perfect macarons you will know exactly what this means).  The whole process was very involved.  It all started on Wednesday night by leaving the eggs out (on the counter to age at room temperature) to be baked with on Friday night.  I know, I know some of you out there are cringing at the thought of using old room temperature eggs.  But there is a method to this madness, you can incorporate more air into old room temperature egg whites and therefore taller, fluffier meringue and macarons with beautiful feet. 

This recipe was found on here: http://www.foodjetaime.com/2010/11/earl-grey-salted-caramel-macarons.html

There are beautiful photos and a great recipe to follow.

 

Lemon Cranberry Sandies - I made these last year with a ginger variation as well.  I think that these will become a standard Christmas cookie from my kitchen. (recipe below)

Orange Ginger Sandies - a new variation for this year.  These turned out good, mild in the orange & ginger flavour but a nice change from the lemon cranberry.

Whipped Shortbread - Inspired by many other shortbreads that I enjoyed through the holidays.  For this one I used Mom's recipe and it turned out great. 

Butter Tarts - a Christmas favourite as well a Christmas classic.

Cranberry Eton Mess - this is an amazing English dessert.  Similar to Pavlova except the meringue is not soft on the inside and it is served in a small glass bowl or cup.  It is still topped with fruit - cranberries as they are the fruit of the season (but any fruit compote could be used) and whipped cream.

Cranberry Sauce

1 part liquid - could be water, orange juice, port, brandy, red wine... the options are almost endless

Sugar - the amount required will depend on your liquid so adjust to your taste

3 parts fresh or frozen cranberries

In a medium saucepan, simmer liquid, sugar and cranberries until berries are soft and sauce is thickened. Cover and chill.  A nice variation on this could be to add in cinnamon and cloves to the sauce - this would give a warm wintery spice to it. 

Meringues

2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 250F. In a clean stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until foamy and small peaks barely form; slowly add in sugar, a spoonful at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated and the mixture holds stiff peaks. It should have the consistency of whipped cream and there should not be any sugar granules left in the meringue.  There are a few options to the baking shape now.  Quenelles as you can see I made, a large flat cake shape (about 1 inch or so thick - crumbled before serving), or piped into pretty shapes (beware that the shapes may not hold through baking).

On a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, until dry. Cool.  This will make enough for about 4 servings.

Lemon Cranberry Christmas Sandies

1  cup  butter, at room temperature

1/2  cup  icing sugar

1  teaspoon  vanilla

2  cups  all-purpose flour

1  cup  finely chopped dried cranberries*

2  teaspoon lemon zest

Coloured sanding sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Cream butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add icing sugar. Beat until combined, scraping bowl. Add in vanilla and flour. Gently stir in cranberries, lemon zest.
2. Shape mixture into 1/2-inch balls and roll dough in sanding sugar. Arrange balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheets. (if your cookie batter is soft the cookies may spread out as they are baking - not a bad thing but it surprised me)
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies are light brown. Transfer to wire racks and let cool. Makes about one hundred forty-four 1/2-inch cookies.
*Tip: Place dried cranberries in a food processor. Cover and process until finely chopped. Or finely chop cranberries by hand.

Variations:
Change lemon zest to orange zest and add in finely chopped apricots instead of the dried cranberries.
Add in 1/2 teaspoon each of ginger & cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves & freshly grated nutmeg. The measurements of the spices is completely experimental - feel free to add more for more of a gingerbread flavour.  I was thinking to give these a real gingerbread flavour they need molasses.  I have an idea for that - back in the kitchen and we'll have to see how my idea turns out.


So that is Christmas Baking of 2010, see you all in 2011 for another great year of cooking adventures.

As the snow flies...



Out relaxing after a few meals of harvest



It has been a wonderful summer, a beautiful fall and now we are all ready for winter, the garden is all put away and the yard is tidy and ready for its winter blanket.  I was going through photos (looking for possible Christmas card pics) and I came across a few 2010 harvest pics and I just thought that you would enjoy seeing these!  This is just a small portion of the harvest.  This day we just harvested enough for a few meals.  

The potatoes this year were absolutely huge, not as many in quantity as last year but just as much if not more in weight.  We have eaten through them quite quickly this year but that is much more satisfying than having them stick around and begin to sprout.  We left many of the carrots in the garden until just a few weeks ago, they had a few good frosts and cool nights which as I have been told gives them a sweetness that store bought carrots never have.  And the carrots this year are as sweet as we have ever tasted.  This was the last of the beans, not a bad bean season, not quite as prolific as last year but still had a few good meals plus some to share with family.  Next year we want to grow a few more onions.  They were fairly small but very flavourful.  You'd better be prepared to shed a few tears while chopping onions or else invest in some onion goggles!  This was not the year for zucchini, (so different from last year where we had pounds of them) we only had a few small ones that got chopped into salad as they were so small and tender we thought... why cook them?  We planted spaghetti squash this year just for something fun to try. They didn't turn yellow though, we need a longer and hotter growing season for them to really turn yellow and develop all their flavour, but they were still edible.  Baked and served just like spaghetti with a home made tomato sauce and cheese.  A great fall treat.

Tomatoes gave us another interesting growing season.  The plants in the garden grew to new heights as you can see in the photo below and these plants have even been trimmed a bit too!  It was found that the garage reflected so much heat from the day that the tomatoes fluorished, plus a drip irrigation system gave them their much needed drink consitently. We snaked the drip irrigation hose through and around the beans, peas (when they were still there), carrots and into the zucchini as well. 

Over all this harvest was a success, an experiment I must say, but when dealing with Mother Nature what else can we expect?  We have already began talking about next year; what to try again, what to avoid and some new things to try and grow.  Gardening is meant to be exciting and rewarding, because why on earth would we do all that hard back breaking work day after day and always be worrying about the rain, the sun and the frost to not be able to enjoy a sweet crunchy carrot?  Especially while laying out in the sun on the cool grass!

That is what it is all about... and cooking with it too! 


See you next time, in the kitchen.
xoxox

Good Food Sticks to Your Ribs!

We had a complete day at home and so a slow cooked dinner was on the menu.  Simple and hearty, perfect after a chilly day spent outside in the yard.  A whole rack of ribs, sliced onion, lots of garlic and bbq sauce (store bought this time - I wanted to spend the day outside!).  Slow cooked for about 6 hours and then transfered to the oven just to caramelize the sugars in the bbq sauce.  This last bit takes about the same amount of time that you will need to make mashed cheddar potatoes, steamed garden carrots and a crisp green salad.  Be sure to serve this one with lots of napkins as it is saucy finger food! The ribs are so tender that the meat actually falls off the bone, there is no need for barbaric bone gnawing at the dinner table.   D-lish

Not much else to tell you about this dinner, it was that simple.  But I am sure that a few photos would tell you a bit more.

Caramelizing in the oven.  All sticky and sweet.

A Delightful, yet Frightful Hallowe'en Dinner

Great things take time and this dinner was no exception.  It all started back in the week before Halloween with the planning of our menu.  As those decisions were made the dinner began to take the shape of a fantastic Autumn feast.  And this is how it rounded out in the end.

Then came the research and prep work, shopping for just the right ingredients and preparing the garden vegetables (carrots and potatoes).  Parts of the meal were a complete experiment and for once it was truly successful even as an experiment.  

Starting from the top; 

The Sangria - well that is always a winner.  Fortified wine with fruit, simple and yet oh so d-lish.  It was a mixture of thinly sliced oranges, cranberries & pomegranates (we need our antioxidants!) and cloves for an Autumn twist all immersed in a deep dark red wine.  Fortified with a cranberry vodka and an apple cranberry sparkling juice added sparkle and sweetness.  

The Carrot Soup I started on Saturday night by cooking the carrots with onions, garlic (for vampires), bay leaf and garden tarragon (carrots best friend).  Then Sunday afternoon I reheated the carrots less the onions and garlic and blended till smooth and thick with home made chicken stock.  With a garnish of creme fraiche and the usual fresh parsley the soup had a wonderful warm Autumn flavour.  No chill on our bones now!  

Moving along to the Mushroom Trio Bruchetta, this was part of a Julia Child recipe and part of a Laura Caulder recipe.  Our trio was King Oyster mushrooms, Shiitaki and Crimini.  The only thing that I would change about this course was the King Oyster mushrooms were quite fibrous and challenging to bite through therefore next time I will cut them into more bite sized pieces.  Other than that, flavour was deep and intensely earthy.  

The Main Event was a wonderful combination of deep Autumn flavours and a palette cleansing brightness found in the salad.  The Tenderloin of Pork had a great herb and spice crust that held on tight all the way through the BBQ-ing.  There was a combination of garden herbs (sage, rosemary & thyme) and cayenne pepper for an earthy spice and cumin to add interest and complexity.  The Slow Roasted Tomatoes were bursting with flavour and sweetness that only home grown tomatoes seem to deliver.  Duchess Potatoes are a wonderful way to have potatoes; providing you have the time to fuss and have a trusty Kitchen Aid mixer to do your smashing and creaming.  The surprising ingredient in here were egg yolks, not really a healthy mashed potato but we like to believe all in moderation is a healthy choice!  I must admit that the presentation of the potatoes was particularly festive for Halloween as they looked much like ghosts popping out of jack o'lanterns.  For our palette cleansing course, the salad was made up of only green vegetables and the dressing was a lime and garlic vinaigrette, just to keep with the green theme.  Definitely a Garden of Evil Green Salad. 

The Dessert course I was so excited about.  There are a few people in this world who have a severe addiction to Rum Butter cake... (and yes, you know who you are - counselling will commence next week.)  So the best way to enjoy this Rum Butter cake is to tuck into our last layer of wedding cake, it was partially to satisfy an addiction as mentioned but it was also in celebration of an upcoming wedding and all the hard work and planning that is happening.  Plus we were mildly curious of just how good our cake would be after 2 years, and we were not disappointed at all.  To keep up with the Halloween and pumpkin theme we decided to top the cake with nothing less than... are you ready for it?... DQ Pumpkin blizzard!  It was fantastic!  A little different to pair something so formal with something so casual.  The flavours were so contrasting but perfectly complementing.  

If I were to do it all over again, there is not much I would change, everything was so perfect.  The kitchen was tidy & organized (for once!), all the food was ready on time (partially to do with the tidy kitchen), and most of all the company was warm and comforting.  These dinners will not last forever but our memories that we have created through all these dinners will stay with us forever.  

This is one to remember and just like the dessert course was named;

Till Death Do Us Part - Our friendship and our memories are here to stay.

So that was 2010 Halloween, I hope that my writing has given you a clear image of our dinner and just how much fun we have in the kitchen.  For that is what it is all about!

See you in the kitchen.

xoxo

E

A small harvest and our version of a 100 mile dinner

Thought we would have a 100 mile dinner one night, which means that dinner started in the garden. Start with the potatoes- about 8 potatoes from one hill, they were HUGE! Check out the pictures and be prepared to be amazed! One potato (the one pictured on the scale was enough for 4 servings of smashed potatoes.  Fresh garden beans and carrots - those were so tender and sweet. I found a new way to have oven roasted tomatoes, the trick is to use small or medium tomatoes and keep them on the vine.  In a baking dish drizzle olive oil and a bit of sea salt, bake at 350 for a while... not sure how long but watch them, should be at least 25-30 minutes.  When they are all wrinkled up and soft they are done!  Let them cool for a bit and enjoy.  The tomatoes become all soft and saucy and so sweet.  D-lish!  One little tip could be to cove them loosely with tin foil, this will help keep your oven clean, the oil has a tendency to splatter a bit.

Ok right, back to the dinner... to top off the menu we had roasted lamb, local lamb that is.  All to contribute to our 100 mile dinner! We did oven roast with fresh herbs and it was so tender and succulent.

All together the dinner was so good, a wonderful way to celebrate the start of a great harvest season.

That is all for now!

A Summer dinner - Alfresco....

A fine summer night... start with Sangria - a delectable blueberry nectarine with a hint of lemon Sangria and move on to fondue, nothing too special except for the guests and the conversation!  The sun was shining and the birds are singing it is a perfect start to the summer dining season.  I was a little worried about the weather as the day was blustery and cool but the evening changed for the better.  All I can say is thank goodness!

This night shows so much promise for the summer.  The garden is starting to produce beautifully and our harvest will be wonderful.  We are so looking forward to our outdoor dining experiences to come!  Hope you all will join us too.


xoxox
See you all out on the patio!

E