Cooking Memories with my Dad.

Trying to find the time to start blogging again, I need to give myself a goal to push myself. I especially want to save some of my Dad's favourite recipes so I have them to pass on. My Dad and I love cooking together, we would work in silence mostly but we had a rhythm and seemed to just understand what each of us needed to do. Since he pass last September I've cooked a couple holiday meals that remind me of him as they were his specialties. Recipes that he either invented or doctored up.

His Meatroll was a Christmas Eve staple for our family and his Easter Ham boiled in cola and then glazed with Brown Sugar and Dijon Mustard. I made both of these and did my best to recreate his recipes but every cook has different touches that they add or alter and both my efforts were tasty but not the same as his creations. But at least when I try to remember his recipes it brings me closer to him and I remember the feeling of working with him in the kitchen. I can only hope that Otis takes a interest and I can share all my knowledge with him and pass on 4 generations of home cooking.

For now I just need to start blogging again and get my brain working.

Will update soon!

I know, I'm a horrible blogger but that will change! I promise! More good stuff coming soon.

French Onion Soup

Ever since I was a kid I have loved french onion soup. What's not to love, all that salty oniony, cheesy goodness. Of course as a kid it was Lipton Onion Soup Mix that rocked my world. Back then I had no concept of the obscene amount of sodium contained in each package, I just knew it was pretty tasty stuff that made weird things like meatloaf and sour cream palatable.

I think the first time I had real onion soup was at The Keg Steakhouse with my parents sometime in the early 80's. As a kid The Keg was pretty fine dining, it was an old school steakhouse with wood paneling everywhere and with historical photos of lumberjacks and gold rush miners hanging on the wall. They had a salad bar which I loved and I would pile my plate with baby corn and sunflower seeds. They served baked potatoes with all the fixings, traditional cuts of steak (I always had the bacon wrapped filet mignon, medium rare), sauteed mushrooms and Billy Miner Mudpie. I'm pretty sure the menu hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. I think the appetizers were pretty standard for a steakhouse at the time, stuffed mushrooms, shrimp cocktail, I vaguely remember escargot and of course they had French Onion Soup.

Typically we didn't order appetizers, I mean we were having salad, baked potatoes, steak, not to mention the fact that I would also have worked my way through a couple Shirley Temples served with a side of maraschino cherries and I had to save room for mud pie so really why would you need an appetizer. Its no wonder I was a chubby kid. But I remember seeing that little brown earthenware bowl with the handle encrusted with golden bubbling melted cheese go by and I had to have that. I asked what it was and when my Dad told me French Onion Soup I was amazed. Until then I had only known French Onion Soup to be served in a coffee mug, simply boil water, add soup mix, stir, be careful not to burn your tongue. This delectable bowl of cheesy goodness can't possibly be the same thing! So I asked for a bowl, Mom said no, so I begged for a bowl, Dad said yes :)

I'm sure the Keg's French Onion soup was nothing special, most likely reconstituted broth that they topped up with some croutons and cheese and threw under a broiler but to my 7 or 8 year old taste buds it was heaven. And when I got home that night I discovered that we too had those cool little bowls with the handles, they must have been all the rage as a wedding gift in the 70's. So from then on I would boil water, add soup mix, stir, add croutons, add cheese and be careful not to burn my tongue. Now that was a fancy snack!


Anyway my favourite food blogger posted a recipe for REAL French Onion Soup and I couldn't resist. Besides I'm trying to have more meatless meals for us during the week and this recipe is perfect.

I need to go get those bowls from my Mom's house so I can make it again, but here's how it turned out.

Triple Chocolate Oscar Brownies

Recipe to come, but look at this..

Ok these brownies were alright, good chocolatey flavour but not the right texture. They were almost like fudge whereas I want that chewy brownie experience. So I'm not going to post this recipe as it is by no means the perfect brownie.

Roast Chicken

I am Roast Chicken challenged.

It seems like such a simple thing but I always manage to screw it up either by under or over cooking the poor bird. I also always break the rule of don't try something you haven't mastered when you are having people over for dinner, but since a 4lb chicken is just too big for 2 people I always invite someone over and I just love the image of carving the bird and serving all the fixings like mashed potatoes and stuffing & gravy. In my head a roast chicken is the perfect homey dinner party meal. I just haven't mastered it yet. Sigh.

But I will not give up! Especially now that I'm the mother of a big healthy baby boy who I envision as a teenage eating us out of house & home, for him alone I must learn how to roast the perfect chicken. So tonight I am once again roasting a chicken but its just for me & Ian so I have hope that I'll break free from my past failures and roast the perfect chicken. I have read dozens of recipes from all the pro chefs and homemakers and noted all their techniques. Tonight I am going simple.

Butter
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Onion
Garlic
Potatoes

I loosened the skin around the breast and mashed in 2 tbsp of butter. I greased the outside of the chicken with olive oil and liberally salt & peppered it. I quartered an onion and put half of it inside the chicken and the rest is lying in the roasting pan. I tossed in a handful of garlic cloves about the pan and half a dozen yukon gold potatoes. I'm going with the recommendation of 20 minutes per pound plus 30 minutes at 400F, so that should be 110 minutes or just shy of 2 hours. I'm going to roast it breast side down for 45 minutes and then flip it and roast it breast up for another 45 minutes and then I'll check it and see if it still needs another 20 minutes.

Wish me luck.

Here's what it looked like the first time I took it out of the oven, it looked promising but the under side wasn't done, it needed an additional 30 minutes to get the juices to run clear. I think my mistake was the bird wasn't at room temperature when I put it in the oven. It was tasty but we didn't get to eat it until 9:00. sigh. I'll try again. Next time, room temperature bird, 60 minutes breast side down before I turn it, then another 45 to 60 breast side up.

Things to do with Clementines

We overdosed on tangerines, mandrines and clementines this winter. Great for beating the winter blues and getting lots of vitamin C but we are so done with them now and I still had 2lbs of clementines in the fridge. Here's what I did with them and wow what a great revitalization of a fruit that we were sick of, the cake in particular was exceptionally yummy.

Nigella's Clementine and Almond Cake


Clementine & Vanilla Marmalade

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the best cookies in the world. I swear. Well, unless you have a nut allergy and then they would be deadly. But if you need a flourless, dairy free option these cookies are for you.

My friend Nicole sent me this recipe and I love it. The only thing I change is I use mixed nuts instead of slivered almonds, its gives the cookie more flavour and texture. I always have pecans & walnuts on hand but last time I made them I had hazelnuts & almond too so it was a nut extravaganza and I think they were the best I've made so far.

Portuguese Winter Soup

So I saw Alton Brown make a Portuguese Kale soup over the holidays and I thought wow that looks good so I decided to try to remake it. Although I didn't have any Chorizo handy so I replaced it with Double Smoke Ukrainian Farmers Sausage and then tweaked the seasoning. And it worked, so yummy and good for you!

1lb Farmer's Sausage or Chorizo
2 medium onions
6 cloves of garlic
4 large kale leaves
1 tin chick peas
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 L chicken stock
1 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp smoked sweet Spanish paprika

Roughly chop up sausage and saute in olive oil until it begins to brown in a large soup pot, I used my Le Creuset Dutch oven. Mince onions and add to sausage and cook until softened but not brown. Add garlic and cook for a couple minutes to mellow the flavour. Add in stock and scrape the bottom of the pot to deglaze. Add in tomatoes, chick peas and seasonings and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook for about 15 minutes. Stem and roughly chop the kale then add to the pot, cook for another 5 to 10 minutes to wilt the kale. Salt & Pepper to taste, I usually just add pepper since the sausage is quite salty. Serve with crusty bread.

HOMEMADE ICE CREAM!!!

You must go buy an ice cream maker, now! Seriously. Go. Go now.

I credit William Sonoma whom I don't really like as I find them to be snooty and overpriced but I'm on their mailing list and low and behold they had a 1 day sale on the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and it just happened to be in red, with a extra bucket and it just so happened to be my birthday so we went and got one. I have no regrets.

I have 2 memories of making homemade ice cream before now and both of them are fond. The first was at my Grandma's cabin in LaPine Oregon one summer. She had the old a fashion kind that was a wooden bucket that you filled with ice & salt and a metal canister sat in the middle with a iron crank. I remember we all took turns for what seemed like an eternity turning the crank and adding more ice and salt and after what seemed like a ridiculously labour intensive process we were finally all rewarded with a small bowl of glorious homemade vanilla ice cream. I think I was vaguely disappointed in the fact that it was vanilla but that was when I was young and foolish and didn't understand the pure simple elegance of what is vanilla. We also probably didn't use a vanilla bean.

My second memory of homemade ice cream was in Sandy Hill's 8th grade science class. I think he was demonstrating the use of salt to raise the boiling point of water and how it makes ice water cooler, or something like that, clearly the lesson to me was homemade ice cream rocks. He used a similar old fashion maker to what my grandmother had but his was broken somehow and using it involved someone standing on a desk with one foot on top of the maker as we furiously cranked away.

Well I'm happy to say that ice cream makers have come a long way and are very simple in design. Put bowl in freeze the day before, make a custard or at least I like the custard kind best but you can literally just mix milk, cream and sugar and use that. Let the custard chill in the fridge for a couple hours. Pour into bowl, turn on maker and 20 minutes later you have pure creamy goodness.

I can't claim the recipe as I just followed Cuisinart's instructions although I did use half & half instead of heavy cream, and next time I make some (tomorrow) I'm going to use a tad less sugar. But that is the beauty of making your own ice cream, you can control the fat & the sugar.

Slow Cooker: North African Beef Stew

I love beef stew, but after making this recipe I really love beef stew. I spice it up a little so if you don't want the heat but still want a very flavourful stew just omit the chipotle chili pepper.

olive oil
2 pounds trimmed & cubed stewing beef
salt & fresh ground pepper
1 large white onion coarsely chopped
4 medium carrots chopped
4 cloves of garlic sliced
2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chipotle chili powder
2 cups chicken stock
1 can of chick peas or mixed beans or lentils
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp sherry

Salt & pepper beef and brown on all sides in olive oil. Transfer to slow cooker on low. Careful not to crowd the pan and brown the beef well. Add onions and soften for a couple minute before adding the carrots and the garlic. Cook for a couple minutes before adding the spices. Toast the spices for a minute and then deglaze the pan with the sherry. Transfer the veggies to the slow cooker, add the raisins and the stock. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Serve with wild rice or couscous.

Slow Cooker: Drunken Irish Pork Chops

So cooking with a new baby presents an interesting challenge, time pressure. Bascially my window of opportunity for anything revolves around Otis' nap schedule which is somewhat unpredicable. If I'm lucky I get an hour, not so lucky 30 minutes and really lucky 90. Of course in that time I have to shower, pump, eat and try and make dinner. So my new best friends has become the slow cooker.

I found this recipe for Smothered Bourbon Pork Chops that turned out amazing. I didn't have any bourbon but we did have a bottle of Irish Whiskey so I fiddled with the ingredients a bit and I guess my take on it is Drunken Irish Pork Chops.

Olive Oil
salt
pepper
4 1 inch thick bone in pork chops
2 tbsp butter
1 large white onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely diced
1/2 cup Ketchup
1/4 Irish Whiskey
1/3 cup Maple syrup
1 tsp Frank's Redhot
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 chicken stock

Premix the sauce in a bowl and set aside.

Salt & pepper chops and then brown chops on medium high heat in a skillet with olive oil. About 2 minutes each side. Remove and set in slow cooker set on low.

Add butter to skillet, melt and add onions. Cook onions until soften, add garlic and saute for 1 more minute. Add the sauce and deglaze the skillet, scraping up the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Reduce for about a minute and then pour over chops.

Cover and cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Don't rush it. Let it cook low & slow and you'll have sweet and yummy melt in your mouth chops. Serve over rice or polenta.

Blueberry Muffins

I adapted this recipe today and it was so good I will make these again. Sorry we ate these so fast there wasn't time to take photos.

1/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
juice of half a lemon
zest of half a lemon
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups blueberries
1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup chopped pecans
Topping:
1 teaspoon sugar mixed with 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375°. In large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon until light, about 4 to 5 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold dry ingredients into batter, a little at a time, alternating with milk. Fold in blueberries and the pecans. Spoon into 8 paper lined muffin cups.
Sprinkle each muffin with the sugar and spice mixture.
Bake until muffins spring back when lightly touched, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Bastardized Red Beans & Rice

Ian having grown up in the South always wants Red Beans & Rice and the problem is I have no clue on what they are supposed to taste like since I'm of Northern stock. I googled about a dozen recipes and I finally settled on combining about 3 different recipes into 1. I know this is by no means authentic but here's my bastardized version of Red Beans & Rice. It was damn tasty and I will definitely make it again.

6 strips double smoked thick cut bacon, rough chopped
1 double smoked link of farmer sausage, quartered & chopped
2 cans red kidney beans
1 white onion, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
3 pods of garlic, minced
1 sweet red pepper, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 tsp cumin (less if you don't want to feel the burn)
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (less if you don't want to feel the burn)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 l low sodium organic chicken stock

In a dutch oven or large heavy bottom pot with a bit of olive oil render off the bacon on medium heat. Let the bacon just begin to brown up not crisp and then set aside. Keep about 1/4 of the bacon fat in the bottom of the pan. Add in farmer sausage and let it begin to brown. Add in onion, celery & pepper, reduce the heat so that the veggies soften but do not brown. Add garlic once onions are soft. Toss in cumin, cayenne & red pepper flakes and stir gently, I like to toast the spices a little to get more flavour out of them. Drain & rinse the beans well before adding them to the pot. Toss in the bay leaf and gently pour in the stock. With a wooden spoon scrap the bottom of the pan to deglaze it and get all the yummy caramelized bits off and into the sauce. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat so the beans can simmer for about an hour. I'm told the consistency is thinner than chili but not soupy so use your judgment, if it gets too thick add more stock. Stir occasionally so it doesn't burn on the bottom.

Serve over rice. And I know this isn't authentic but I like it with a dollop of plain yogurt.

Celeriac 2 ways, Apple Chop Salad and Fried Pork Chop Dinner

I'm a big fan of sit down Sunday night dinners and I like to make them special. Ian and I usually eat all of our dinners together but during the week I usually make 1 pot 30 minute meals so for the weekends I try to put in a little extra effort.


It all started with this giant celeriac that I bought that was clearly more than what could be consumed by 2 people. So I decided on Celeriac Gratin, which I've already posted the recipe. And I had just read another one of my favourite food bloggers David Lebovitz post for Celeriac Remoulade which I love and used to have to make in vast quantities when I worked at La Baguette and L'Eschalote on Granville Island.

Since both of those dishes are fairly rich with mayo or cheese I had to figure out what would pair well. It just so happened that I these amazing pork chops in the fridge from a recent trip to Organic World in Maple Ridge which is now only place I want to buy meat from. Nicole told me about the place when I was searching for a new raw meat supplier for Boomer as his diet was costing us a fortune in the city. Not only are they inexpensive, they are organic, free range and humane, plus they stock every type of meat you can think of, make their own sausages and sell raw organic dog food for $1.50 per lb. I now have a freezer full of elk, bison, pork, lamb & chicken and Boomer has discovered that he's quite fond of deer liver.

Anyway so I had these gorgeous bone in pork loin chops. What to do, what to do. I started surfing my usual sites and flipping through the Fanny Farmer and I found a couple different recipes for pan fried chops and here's what I did

1/2 cup flour
1⁄4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1"-thick pork loin chops (fry with the bone in)
1 tbsp granulated garlic
freshly ground black pepper
kosher salt

Salt & Pepper chops

Mix flour, cornstarch and garlic with a pinch more pepper and salt into a wide shallow dish.

Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Dredge chops in flour mixture, shake off any excess, and fry, turning once, until well browned and cooked through, 5–6 minutes per side. Transfer pork chops to a rack to drain off excess oil, this will keep the coating crisp, don't just drain them directly on paper towel unless would want soggy chops.

Transfer pork chops to a cutting board and cut meat away from bones before plating.

Lastly pork and apple just have to live together, so I made a quick little apple chop salad. I just made this up and it is now a new fave.

1 granny smith apple (buy organic, read about the dirty dozen and you'll know why)
1/2 a lemon juiced
handful fresh chives (I grow my own, they grow like weeds)
1 tbsp Hazelnut oil
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

dice up the apple, leave the peel on
squeeze lemon over apples
roughly chop chives
toss in oil
salt & pepper lightly

Serve with a healthy dose of Glee or the Fringe and if I wasn't pregnant right now I would recommend a nice cool glass of Riesling.

Two recipes to share

I can't take credit for either of these recipes but I have to share them because they are simply so darn good.

The first one came to me from my friend Nicole who posted it. I tried it and Ian went nuts, literally for them. Now usually I shy away from things that try to be glutton free because I often find the substitute ingredient more offensive than just using flour, but in this case it totally works and makes for an enjoyable cookie experience.

http://eatthecookie.wordpress.com/2010/02/20/almond-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from clean eating magazine)

1 cup almond butter (go to Costco and you can get a giant jar for a very reasonable price)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

method:

preheat oven to 350f. line baking sheets with either parchment paper or silpat. racks should be in center of oven.

in medium bowl, stir together the first 5 ingredients until blended. stir in chocolate and almonds.

drop dough by rounded tablespoons, a few inches apart. do not squish these down. they will spread slightly.

bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet to set up, then transfer to cooling racks.

Now this second recipe is also crazy good, like I mean crazy. I couldn't stop eating it and just thinking about it makes me want to go make more. This is from a blog that I read by Molly Wizenberg who is a Seattle food blogger who just published her first book A Homemade Life and she is co-owner of Delancey which I haven't been to yet but I've heard makes incredible pizza. She has great recipe ideas and I highly recommend reading her blog.

http://orangette.blogspot.com

Roasted Rhubarb
Inspired by Canal House Cooking, Volume 3

2 lb. rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3-inch lengths
½ cup sugar
½ cup crisp white wine
1 vanilla bean, split

Set a rack in the lower third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Put the rhubarb in a Dutch oven or other deep oven-safe pot. Add the sugar, wine, and vanilla bean, and stir to mix. Bake (uncovered) for about 30 minutes, or until very tender, giving the pot a gentle stir about midway through to ensure that the rhubarb cooks evenly.

Note: I like to eat this cold, though I imagine you could also serve it warm.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings, depending on how greedy you are.

I used Red Rooster 2009 Voigner because that's what we had open in the fridge at the time but it worked beautifully. I also didn't have a vanilla bean so I used some vanilla sugar that I had made from another left over vanilla bean and a splash of Watkins Double Strength Vanilla. I also varied the size of the pieces of rhubarb so some of them dissolved into the sauce and others stayed firmer. I started eating it straight out of the pot when it came out of the oven but we had it for dessert with ice cream and ginger snaps that night. I also had it on plain yogurt the next morning with granola. I'm contemplating make more and taking the juice and reducing it down into a syrup. Right now rhubarb is in season and you can likely get a bunch at your local farmers market.

Sorry I didn't take any photos, it was all eaten so quickly :)

Extra Chewy Ginger Cookies

These are super chewy and have a nice ginger bite to them. I would even recommend using them for ice cream sandwiches or even just spreading a nice butter cream in between to cookies for an extra decadent treat.

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh finely grated ginger
1 tsp ground ginger
3/4 soften butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup fancy molasses
1 egg
1 cup white sugar, for rolling

In a bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a seperate bowl either using a kitchenaid or a hand mixer beat butter & brown sugar together until light and fluffy, then mix in ginger, molasses and the egg. Gently fold in dry ingredients, careful not to over mix. Cover and chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour but up to overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 F

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in white sugar, place 2 inches a part on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes until edges just start to brown. Don't overbake or you'll get crunchy cookies instead of chewy. Let cool for 1 minute on sheet before moving to a cooling rack. In between batches keep your dough in the fridge so it stays firms. This makes about 24 cookies.

Shiitake Mushroom, Acorn Squash and Leek Risotto

I stole most this recipe from Saveur although they called for clams and since I don't do seafood I substituted shiitake mushrooms. I thought they would have the same chewy consistency of clams but a much more appealing flavour to me. Also use whatever kind of squash you have, I didn't have a butternut but I had acorn and a couple other unidentifiable types that I bought for my Halloween centre piece. Use whatever it doesn't make that much difference, some squashes are sweeter, some are more bitter, either way you can balance out the flavour with the stock. the wine or the cheese.

Click here to see the original recipe

1/2 lb. acorn squash, peeled, seeds and strings removed,
and squash cut into dice no larger than 1/2"
1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated, drained & finely chopped
2tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large or 2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed, halved lengthwise,
then cut crosswise into very thin slices
2 tbsp. scallions, white part only, cut into very thin rounds

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 cup chicken stock

Fine sea salt
1 tbsp. chopped fresh marjoram, or 1/2 tbsp. dried marjoram
1 cup Italian risotto rice, such as carnaroli, vialone, nano,
baldo, or arborio
1 cup dry white wine

1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese

Turn oven on to 350°. Lay the diced squash in a baking dish that can contain it all without overlapping. Salt liberally. Pour in 1/2 cup water and put dish in the oven. Cook for 20 minutes. When cool, drain, then set aside.

Pour 6 cups of water into a saucepan and bring it to a steady simmer.

Pour oil into a heavy 4–6-quart saucepan, add leeks and scallions, and turn on heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring from time to time, until leeks and scallions are very pale gold. Add garlic & stir. Add in chopped shiitake mushrooms and stir. Add half the squash together with some salt and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, turning it from time to time. Add marjoram and stir all the ingredients together. Add rice, turning it to coat well.

Add half the wine, steadily stir the rice, and when all the wine has bubbled away, add the remaining half. Continue stirring to keep rice moving away from bottom and sides of pan.

Add the chicken stock to the risotto. Continue to stir until all the liquid has evaporated, then add a ladleful or two of the simmering water. Stir constantly, adding simmering water by the ladleful whenever the rice begins to dry out, threatening to stick to the pan. In about 15 minutes, when the rice is still hard and chalky to the bite, stir in the remaining squash. Continue to cook, stirring steadily and replenishing the water when necessary, until rice has lost its chalky consistency and is tender, but still firm, to the bite. Do not let rice dry out completely when you are near the end, keeping its final consistency loose and flowing.

Add grated pecorino. Remove pan from heat and stir vigorously. Taste and correct for seasoning. Serve at once.

This makes a hefty serving for about 4 people, although I make this for just Ian and I and then then next day I'll make risotto balls. Hang tight for that recipe!

Cornbread Jalapeno & Cheddar Waffles

We love waffles, we especially love waffles on a rainy Saturday morning. I make also sorts but today felt like a savoury day so I broke out my self raising cornmeal mix that I picked up on our last trip to Missouri because you will have a hard time finding in on the West Coast of Canada. I picked some jalapenos from my garden since they are growing like weeds and I rooted around in the fridge until I found the extra sharp 3 year old aged white cheddar. Mix this together and you have some darn good waffles.


1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup Self Rising White Corn Meal Mix (Aunt Jemima is good)
1 tbsp white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sharp cheddar grated
1 jalapeno finely diced
1 3/4 cups milk
2 eggs
6 tbsp vegetable oil
5 dashes Tabasco sauce



Mix dry ingredients plus the cheddar and jalapeno together. In a separate bowl combine & whisk wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry ingredient bowl, stir until combine but don't over mix. Preheat waffle iron to medium heat (3 setting on my iron). Keep warm in a 200 degree oven, makes about 10 waffles. Serve with warm maple syrup.

Rob Feenie's Mac & Cheese

So I totally can't take any credit for this recipe, it is a totally rip off of Rob Feenie's famous Mac & Cheese. I also must admit that my friend Trish makes it way better than I do, I don't know what I do differently but her version kicks my Mac & Cheese's ass.

You should make it and see for yourself, I'm too lazy to type it all out so here's the recipe on the web. Note that I omit the lobster being that a) I hate seafood, b) I'm not that fancy.

http://www.cactusclubcafe.com/menus/recipes/mac-n-cheese

I did however take some pics of my process when I made it. Enjoy.


Multitasking, scalding milk & crisping bacon



Buy this pasta, this brand was called Serpentini, Feenie calls it Succhietto. Basically look for this shape, it is perfect and don't over cook it!



You will know your rue is ready when you smell popcorn, I just learned this tip and it is a life saver.






You can make it in individual ramekins, but again I'm lazy and not that fancy.

It's not done until the top looks like this, you want yummy crunchy golden cheese

You will eat way more than you probably should, it is that good and even better warmed up the next day.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Once you make this hot chocolate you will never want to drink any other hot chocolate again. Trust me. Actually trust my husband as he doesn't even like chocolate but he loves drinking this. Mexican chocolate is special as it's mixed with granular sugar and spices so its sweet, spicy, dark and complex. You can eat it raw but its better in things like a mole or hot chocolate. There are lots of brands that you can get in most gourmet shops but I really like Ibarra and I think its the most popular. What also makes this recipe extra special are the marshmallows, they are homemade and not by me. We have this killer bakery called Butter on Dunbar in Vancouver and if you live here you have to go here, it is heaven and the marshmallows are to die for along with everything else they make. If you don't live here, then I'm so sorry for you cause you are missing out.

http://butterbakedgoods.com/

Anyway here's the low down

1 cup cereal cream or whole milk

1 cup water

1 disk of Mexican chocolate

4 homemade marshmallows

In a small heavy bottom pot slowly heat 1/2 cup cereal cream. The less bottom surface area the better as you don't want to scorch the milk. Finely chop up the chocolate, the finer the better as it will melt faster. Mix in the chocolate into the warm milk and whisk. Once the chocolate has melted and incorporated into the milk add the remaining 1/2 cup and whisk until frothy, then add in the water. Continue to whisk until thoroughly heated and frothy, you don't want to scald the milk so just get it hot but not boiling.

Pour into 2 mugs about 3/4 full, then top with marshmallowy goodness. Now the key here is to let the marshmallows melt and form a yummy foam on top of the hot chocolate so wait a minute before you drink it. Its worth the wait and beside then you won't burn your tongue.