It’s the last day of my holidays so I thought I would make a special breakfast and try out my new camera. I’ve been doing an on line youtube tutorial on how to use this complex gadget, so hopefully there is a difference in my photography. I am still playing with the lighting but you can definitely see that I am able to control the depth of field!

Ham 'n Cheese Panini Crèpe

Crèpe (I tend to eyeball this, so the recipe is very loosey goosey) – makes two crèpes, give or take!

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup flour
• soda water (my mom always used soda in crèpes, she said it made them lighter!)
• pinch of salt

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend, adding soda to make a smooth slightly thick batter (not lumpy and thick like pancake batter).
2. Pre heat a cast iron crèpe pan, rub with olive oil.
3. Pour 1/2 the batter onto the pan and spread out to form a thin circle. Cook until brownish on one side. Flip for about 1 minute (these crèpes will be cooked again on a panini pan, so you want them quite pliable).
4. Repeat with second crèpe.

Dijon Béchamel Sauce

• 1 tbsp butter
• 3-4 tbsp flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard, or more to taste
• pinch of salt

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan, add flour and cook through (a minute or so)
2. Add milk slowly, whisking to create a smooth sauce. The flour will thicken as it cooks. Add Dijon and salt.
3. Cook on medium heat until desired consistency is achieved, adding more milk as required.
4. Keep warm.

Panini Crèpe

• 2 slices of ham
• 1/2 cup + of coarsely grated double smoked cheddar cheese
• 1 cup spinach and arugual leaves (washed and dried)
• 6 mini tomatoes, washed and sliced in half

1. Preheat your panini pan/maker (we have a cast iron one) and rub down with olive oil.
2. Lay each crèpe out flat. Add one slice of ham, about 1/4 cup of cheese, 1/2 cup of the greens and 6 mini tomato halves.
3. Fold each crèpe into 1/4 of a circle.
4. Place on panini pan and put another clean cast iron pan on top of it. Cook until the crèpe is heated through and cheese is melted (you want grill marks).
5. Plate 1 crèpe on each warm plate, drizzle with hot Dijon sauce, and garnish with a little additional cheese.
6. Enjoy!

Profiteroles

Our good friends Rae and Mon invited us for Boeuf Bourguignon so I volunteered to make a French dessert, Profiteroles! This group are not huge chocolate eaters, so I made a Butterscotch sauce instead. The recipe for the Pâte à Chou came from a cookbook my dear friend Kim from university gave me in 1984, Traditional Cakes and Pasteries by Babara Maher – published by New Burlington Books in 1984, but I see there are updated versions now (yes, they had books back then!). It’s best to get everthing organized before you start. I modified the recipe only by its quantity.

• 65 g all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sugar (omit if you are using this as a savory dish)
• 60 mL water
• 60 mL milk
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F.
2. Sift the flour, salt and sugar together 3-4 times, set aside in a handy location close to the stove.
3. Break two eggs into a measuring cup and whisk to combine. Set aside.
4. Prepare your hand mixer so that it is ready when needed.
5. Measure milk and water into a deep heavy bottomed pan.
6. Cut butter into smallish chunks and add them into the milk mixture. Heat gently until all the butter has melted.
7. Increase heat on the butter milk mixture until is comes to a rolling boil.
8. Remove from heat and pour flour into the milk mixture all at once. Beat vigorously with a wooden spoon.
9. Return to a low heat and continue beating with the wooden spoon until the flour forms a smooth paste and has come cleanly off all the sides and bottom (should be shiny and smooth). The recipe says to avoid over cooking this paste as the buns will become heavy.
10. Remove from heat and slowly pour the eggs into the mixture, beating well with the hand mixer with each addition, being careful to to make the paste too runny (the recipe indicates that the amount of egg required depends on the humidity, so add in smallish quantities). The paste should firm but elastic and should be able to stand on its own when dropped by spoonfuls. This paste may be kept for a couple of hours covered with a damp cloth. Also, the recipe indicates that this paste can be frozen and used successfully (next time I will freeze excess balls individually on a cookie sheet, and bake individually as required in the future!).
11. Prepare a cookie sheet by running it under cold water, shaking excess water off, but leaving it damp.
12. Place tablespoons of the mixture about 10 cm apart (the chou’s will double to triple in size).
13. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the exterior is golden – do NOT open the oven for the first 15 minutes. Chou needs to be golden otherwise they will collapse as cooling.
14. When done, remove from the sheet to a baking rack, piercing with a toothpick to allow steam to escape. Chou pastry may be reheated for about 10 minutes to crisp them up again.

Crème Patissière (a slightly modified Butter Cream from my twelfth edition of Fanny Farmer’s Cookbook)

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 egg yolks slightly beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1. In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, sugar and salt, set aside.
2. Break egg yolks into a bowl and whisk gently.
3. Heat milk in a heavy bottomed pan until very hot, but not boiling. Pour into sifted flour mixture and stir until well blended.  Return to pan and continue to stir vigorously over low heat for 4-5 minutes until thick and smooth.
4. Temper egg yolks with a small amount of the creamy flour mixture, pour tempered eggs into the flour mixture and continue to cook 2-4 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla and stir well. Set aside to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, beat in room temperature butter with a hand mixer. Use this cream to fill the puffs above.

Butterscotch Sauce (a slightly modified thick gooey sauce from my twelfth edition of Fanny Farmer’s Cookbook)

• 1/2 dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine brown sugar, corn syrup, balsamic vinegar and salt in a heavy bottomed pan (spray your measuring cup with Pam before you pour the corn syrup in, it will slide right out!)
2. Cook over low heat for about 6 minutes (set the timer).
3. Remove from heat and add the butter, allowing it to melt as you stir. Carefully stir in the vanilla and the heavy cream (be careful, it may bubble up).
4. Serve cool or slightly warmed up. YUM!

Note that the majority of these photos are taken on my bran-spankin’ new iPhone!!!

Niagara Falls in winter

On December 29th we drove down to Niagara Falls for a couple of days of R&R (click here for photo album). We stopped off in Jordan to one of our favourite little shops Beauty Safari to pick up JTs favourite cologne. Then we headed out to Port Dalhousie for lunch at one of our old favourites, Treadwells – a wonderful farm to table restaurant. Front of the house is mastered by Sommelier James Treadwell and the back of the house is by his father, Chef Stephen Treadwell. Food was amazing, as usual. The lovely thing about this visit was that James recalled our last visit with the Doran’s from Illinois AND that JT loves the Viongier grape. I had the Hoisin Glazed Pulled Pork Shoulder on “Fred’s” Brioche Bun with Asian Slaw (actually, only half, JT had the other half) and JT had the Housemade Tagliatelle “alla Carbonara” with Double Smoked Bacon and “Pingue’s” Free Range Egg. Food was wonderful.

We stopped at Henry of Pelham winery to pick up some old favourites. And the trip wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t stop at Picard’s Peanuts for some snacks!

En route we stopped in Niagara on the Lake and walked around a bit. Of course, 4 o’clock rolled along and we stopped at the Prince of Wales bar for cocktails.

Cocktails at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara on the Lake

Cocktails at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara on the Lake

We then proceeded to Niagara Falls to our newest boutique hotel fav – The Sterling Inn, an old converted dairy. They messed up our reservation due to an inconsistency with the web, so they kindly upgraded us to a suite. How sweat is that? Two rooms, a bathtub that could house 10, an a shower for 6! Wow.  We had dinner reservations at AG (silver in the periodic table of elements!). Another stellar meal. I started with the Truffled Jerusalem Artichoke veloute (which is a creamed soup with little to no cream!), JT had green salad. For mains, I had an appi portion flank steak and JT had the venison. All were wonderful. Service was also excellent. This is by far the best restaurant in the Niagara Falls area.

The fireplace in our suite

Cocktails

We had a reasonably early start down to Buffalo for some shopping and of course, wings at the Anchor Bar (famous for developing Buffalo wings).

Anchor Bar, Buffalo New York

We shopped at some premium outlets, which were OK. Not much shopping to be had, believe it or not — even the board guard was surprised! Oh well, maybe next time. We returned to our hotel to do some walking around Niagara Falls.

The highlight of the walking around was the SkyWheel, which was reasonably priced at $9.98 per person! Afterward we hopped in the car to explore the festival of lights, but unfortunately, everyone else in the world had the same idea so the lineup into the drive was ridiculous, so we passed. Dinner was at The Keg; we had appi’s and wine.

The SkyWheel

JT in the SkyWheel

Eva in the SkyWheel

View of the falls from the SkyWheel

The next day we checked out and drove Inniskillin winery and had lunch at Tony DeLucca’s Old Winery restaurant. We both had one of the stone oven pizza’s which were delicious (I had the Jimmy Hendrix and JT had the Jerry Garcia)! Then we headed home for new year’s eve!

despite a minor set-back of catching a head cold, I am almost back on my feet. Having missed the last two days of work for the year (and feeling horrible for it), I spent the last two days holed up in bed, with our iTouch, the remote control and gallons of home-made chicken stock (thanks JT) and drugs, of course! I spent all of Tuesday hooked on a stupid show called Paranormal States which one main character goes from one forlorn to another searching paranormal occupations (be it in someone, or in someone’s house). After about 15 episodes, only one minor thing seemed like it was true, and even that could be dis-proven. So the moral of this story is TV is stupid. There I said it.

Today, I am feeling much better. I finally packaged up my baking and set out  JT to begin deliveries. To recap, I have baked the following:

• Mexican Macaroons
• Anzac Biscuits
• Bargain Basement Barb’s Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Squares
• Nanaimo Bars
• Old Fashion Date Filled Aatmeal Cookies
• Two Bite Brownies All the Goodies
• Chocolate Krinkle Kisses

All the Goodies

Baking gIfts all bundled up

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and colleagues and we wish you health and happiness for the coming year.

I was introduced to these cookies about 28 year’s ago when I visited my BFF at her parent’s home in Owen Sound. Her mom bought these cookies from a local bakery and I literally ate them all, could not believe how good they were (carbs were not my enemy in those days). I have made them from time to time, and they always bring back fond memories of those university days. I found this particular recipe in my second favorite cookbook, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, first published in 1896, my version in it’s 12th edition. I did not alter this recipe.

Date Filled Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 cup pitted dates
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups oatmeal

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a small saucepan, put the dates, sugar and water and gently cook until thick and smooth. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
3. Cream butter and sugars well.
4. Sift flour, baking soda and salt and add to the butter sugar mixture.
5. Add the oatmeal, mixing thoroughly and adding 2-4 tbsp water to make a dough that can be rolled.
6. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.
7. Roll to 1/8 inch thick, and cut with a 2″ cookie cutter. Place a teaspoon of the date paste into the centre and fold the two half edges together to make a crescent. Repeat until all the dough is used.
8. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and enjoy!

This recipe is adapted from one of my old faithful cookbooks,  Five Roses Guide to Good Cooking, page 117. Published in it’s 25th edition in 1983!

Peanut Butter Cookies

• 3cups all purpose flour (Five Roses, of course) (if using regular peanut butter, reduce to about 2 cups)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter or margarine (room temperature)
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 ggs
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter (I prefer Compliments Just Peanuts, crunchy – note that this pb is rather wet, so I’ve increased the flour for this recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 375•F
2. Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.
3. Cream butter; add sugars beating well with each addition.
4. Add eggs and beat well. Add peanut butter and mix well.
5. Add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
6. Shape into walnut-sized balls, flatten with the palm of your hand slightly and using the tines of a fork, press down.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until edges are golden. Allow to cool.
8. Enjoy!
9. Makes about 50 cookies, 2-3″ diametre

Saturday I took my 6 year old niece for the day. We had a full day planned of skating, playing, baking and reading and we did it all but the skating (Mom forgot to check to see if skates fit her!)

We played in the castle at High Park, we lunched in the park, we did our nails, read her new (bday present) Disney story book and baked and decorated cookies (from scratch). She fell asleep in the car on the way home. What a great day we had.

Decorating cookies

Auntie Eva and Annie

Annie the hammie

We bought the tree last Wednesday at Ikea ($20!) and had tasty meatballs for dinner. We decorated on Thursday. We’re ready for the season’s celebrations!

This is by far the best butter chicken recipe I have made so far. It is adapted from a Bombay Palace Cookbook recipe I found on line. Although this dish is wonderful eaten the day it is made, it is far better a day or two later.

Butter Chicken-Murgh Makhani

Serving Size : 4-6

• 3 pounds chicken, skinned, boned, and cut into 8 pieces marinated in tandoori paste — or 3 pounds leftover tandoori chicken
• 3 garlic cloves, mashed and 1 piece of fresh ginger, size of walnut, minced finely
• juice of 1 lemon

Sauce:

• 2 pounds tomatoes, peeled seeded and pulped
• 1 medium onion, browned in olive oil
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces carnation evaporated milk
• 1 green chili, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves for garnish
• 2 tsp meat masala
• 2 tsp garam masala

1. If you have leftover tandoori chicken, bone and cut into small chunks, and go on to step 3. Otherwise begin from scratch. Prepare chicken pieces and rub with tandoori paste. Marinate at least 10 hours or overnight.
2. Grill chicken on BBQ until done. Cut into bite-sized pieces when cooled. Set aside.
3. In a skillet simmer the tomatoes and browned onions gently until their liquid evaporates, leaving a thick paste – this will take 15-20 minutes. Add the masalas, garlic, ginger and lemon juice and cook until fragrant.
4. Add the butter, and season to taste.
5. Add the evaporated milk and chili and simmer gently 5 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Press through a fine sieve to create a smooth gravy.
6. Return to pan and add the chicken and simmer for 5 minutes until thoroughly heated through. Transfer to a warm serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves.
7. Serve with basmati rice and naan.

I am starting my Christmas baking a bit late this year. Partly because I didn’t want sweets in the house and partly because I just couldn’t be bothered. That’s sad. But Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if I didn’t share the sweets. JT just had one request, Nanaimo Bars, so it’s on the list again this year, but this time, I shall actually make them. I am also mixing it up a bit for variety.

• Bargain Basement Barb’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Mexican Macroons (chocolate spicey coconut macroons)
• Chocolate Mint Hershey Kiss Cookies
• Date filled Oatmeal Cookies
• Namaimo Bars
• Anzac Biscuits
• Butterscotchy Almond Bars