On to the food!

This week I was fortunate enough to host a Tupperware party with some girlfriends. Given that I spend so much time in my kitchen I have no issues spending a bit of money on well-made, durable, and reliable kitchen gadgets. How can I resist buying things from a company whose products have lasted 30+ years with regular use in my own mom’s kitchen? Ya, I thought so. It also gave me an opportunity to make so tasty snacks!

This recipe makes quite a lot of dip and I was worried I would have to throw a lot out. Well, turns out it is fantastic and a room full of girls will do a quick job of eating it up. It’s not as creamy as most restaurants and doesn’t have a heavy taste, I found it to have just the right balance!

This recipe comes from a fellow food-blogger, Brown Eyed Baker.

Ingredients

• 1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained¹
• 1 package (10 oz/500g) frozen, chopped spinach²
• 1 ½ cups grated parmesan cheese
• 1 ½ cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
• 4 oz (½ block) cream cheese³
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• Paprika, salt, pepper

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 30 minutes

Serves a crowd

Preheat oven to 350F.

Open your artichoke hearts and drain them well, turn out onto a cutting board and chop finely. Place in a large bowl.

Pour your spinach into a colander in the sink and allow to defrost and drain over several hours. Alternatively you can put the spinach in the microwave for 30 second intervals until you can break it apart with your fingers. Once you’ve reached this step, pour your thawed spinach into a colander and with a few sheets of paper towel squeeze out the moisture. Add spinach to the bowl with the artichokes.

To the bowl add the cream cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise. Add both of the grated cheeses, reserving a ¼ cup of each to sprinkle over the top. Combine everything with a spatula. Add paprika, salt and pepper to taste.

Spread the mixture into a 1.5 litre casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Serve immediately with taco chips, crackers, or veggies.

This is all that remained after the party.

Notes:

1. I strangely found the artichokes with the jarred olives and pickles and not with the other canned veggies. So if you can’t find them, try the condiment section. Be sure to get ‘hearts’ and not ‘quarters’.
2. When it comes to draining spinach it’s really a toss up of how much to drain. There is a lot of moisture in the spinach so as long as you’ve given it a good wringing out you’ll be fine.
3. It helps in the mixing stage if the cream cheese is nice and soft so if you’re taking it right out of the fridge, toss it in the microwave for a few seconds

I recently picked up “The Best of Chef at Home: Essential Recipes for Today’s Kitchen” by Michael Smith. I’m a big Food Network junkie and Michael Smith never fails to have classic, simple, and tasty recipes. I really love this cookbook as it provides variations for all recipes and there is a picture for every recipe. I’m surprised there are even cookbooks out there that don’t have a million pictures. It is an extra large selling-point for me.

Here’s a recipe I’ve made three times in the past week. The dressing recipe makes about 1 cup and will last one week in the fridge. For the salad listed you’ll need about ¼ cup of dressing. Reduce the dressing if you’d like but trust me when I say you’ll want to make it again tomorrow.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups sliced strawberries
• ½ cup pine nuts or chopped almonds¹
• 6 cups arugula or mixed greens (including arugula)

Dressing:

• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• ¼ cup liquid honey
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard²
• ½ teaspoon ground fennel seed³
• Sprinkle of sea salt & fresh ground pepper

Prep time: 15 minutes

Makes 1 large dinner salad and enough dressing for a week

Method:

To toast pine nuts or almonds, pre-heat oven to 350F. Space pine nuts evenly on a baking sheet. Bake for 5 minutes or until fragrant. These burn easily so keep an eye on them depending on your oven strength. Allow nuts to cool before you add them to the salad.

Combine arugula, strawberries, and cooled nuts in a large bowl.

For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a container with a tight seal and shake very thoroughly. The salt has a tendency to get stuck at the bottom so really give it a good shake.

When ready to eat, drizzle dressing over salad and serve immediately.

Notes:

1. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TRUST ME ON THE TOASTING. You will not regret it. Also, chopped almonds are much cheaper than pine nuts. I’ve made the salad with both and it’s just as good so the choice is yours.
2. I HATE mustard with a fiery passion. There is no mustard taste in the final product. The mustard instead acts as an emulsifier and keeps the oil and vinegar from separating.
3. Fennel seed has a smell similar to black liquorice which is not very popular, much like the mustard the dressing does not taste like liquorice. If you’re hesitant, start with less and taste-test until you’re satisfied. So far I’ve only found whole fennel seeds which I have ground up in a coffee grinder or Magic Bullet. The smell is very strong and so after you’ve ground it up you’ll want to soak the grinder in hot soapy water and may require a run or two in the dishwasher.

Ingredients:

• 75g lemon tea biscuits
• 3 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 blocks (16 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
• ½ cup extra-fruit strawberry jam
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Prep time: 20 mins

Bake time: 20 mins

Makes 12 standard cupcakes

Preheat oven to 375F

Line muffin tray with paper cups.

In a food processor, whirl the cookies until they are fine crumbs, should have about 1 cup. Add melted butter and pulse a few times to combine. Should have a coarse crumb now. Divide evenly in muffin cups. I used the bottom of a shot glass to press the crumbs in. You could use your fingers or the back of a teaspoon.

Wipe out the food processor and add the cream cheese, jam, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Whirl until combined, showing no lumps of cream cheese. Divide batter evenly in the muffin cups. Tap the tray on the counter to get the batter to settle.

Bake for 20 minutes. The cakes should show a few cracks in the top.

Allow to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Serve chilled.

Notes:

1. I used Peak Freans lemon social cookies… or something like that. They look like little wafer cookies and this recipe used approximately ¼ of a box.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup white-wine-vinegar
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp white sugar
• 2 tsp minced fresh tarragon or ½ tsp dried
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 lb your choice pasta (I like shells or bow-ties)
• ½ lb edamame beans, steamed and drained¹
• 2 pints cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half
• ½ cup fresh basil, cut into ribbons (I can’t spell chiffonade)

Prep time: 15 minutes + fridge settle time²

Total servings: 8 for a potluck, 4 as a dinner side

Whisk together vinegar, water, salt, tarragon, garlic, and some black pepper to taste. Add oil in a stream, whisking will pouring. Give it all a serious whisk and set aside.

In the meantime, cook paste until tender and rinse well. Toss pasta, tomatoes, edamame, and basil in with the dressing. Serve cold.

Notes:

1. I must give credit to my friends Jay & Keo for choosing to put the edamame beans in. The original recipe calls from frozen peas. You could totally do this also but the edamame is awesome. You can find edamame in the freezer section at the grocery store. At my local store it’s not with the other vegetables but with the… vegetarian healthy stuff? I’m not sure… but it’s there! You cook them the same as frozen peas. I make it easy for myself and do it in the microwave.
2. Really you could eat this right away but do yourself a favour and give it a few hours to settle.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 tbsp minced ginger root
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Vegetable oil
• 1 lb skinless, boneless chicken, cubed (breast or thigh)
• 1 onion, small diced
• 1 red bell pepper, thin sliced
• A couple of good handfuls of spinach
• 1 package egg noodles

Prep time: 30 minutes

Makes 2 large portions… if you’re serving more than 2 people, double it up.

Combine soy sauce, peanut butter, ginger, sugar, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and garlic in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a wok or large skillet, heat oil over high heat and add chicken and cook through. Remove chicken from pan, reserving any juices.

(now is a good time to put your pasta on to boil)

Add onion and peppers to pan and sauté for 3-5 minutes.

Reduce heat, return chicken and juices to pan along with peanut butter sauce. Toss to coat. Let simmer 2 minutes

Add spinach and toss until the spinach is fully incorporated and soft. (The spinach will look like a lot but it warms down to just about nothing.)

Serve over hot pasta!

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup Italian salad dressing
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese (dry stuff or fresh grated works too)
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• Salt & pepper

Optional: ¼ cup finely chopped white onion

Makes about 80 1” meatballs (enough to share!)

Total prep time: 15 minutes

Total bake time: 22 minutes per tray X 4 trays

In a large bowl combine meat, eggs, dressing, cheese, and garlic. I like to mix it after each ingredient to ensure full integration. I use a fork or my hands. It’s super slimy but it’s the best way to get it all mixed up. Give it a try, live a little.

Add the bread crumbs last.

Spray a large cookie sheet or line with a silicon baking mat. The mat works marvelously.

Roll the meat mixture into 1” balls and place on the sheet. I got about 20-25 on each sheet. You can put them pretty close together as they don’t expand.

Bake at 350F for 22 minutes.

The rest is up to you!

A nice weekday meal that I like to put together… in a large skillet, add your fully cooked meatballs and equal parts ketchup and grape jelly (trust me!!). If I’m using all the meatballs it takes about a cup of ketchup and a cup of grape jelly. Allow to heat through and all the jelly lumps are gone. Serve over rice.

Ingredients:

Filling

• 1 ½ lbs extra-lean ground beef
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 tsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp paprika
• ½ tsp thyme
• 1 cup frozen peas and carrots combo
• 1 cup frozen or canned corn
• 2/3 cup beef broth
• 1 ½ tbsp chili sauce (I used Tabasco)
• 1 ½ tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce¹
• ¼ tsp salt and pepper

Topping

• 2 lb yellow potatoes
• 2 cups chopped butternut squash
• ¼ – ½ cup sour cream
• ½ cup parmesan cheese
• ¼ tsp salt
• Dash nutmeg

Total Serving: 6

Total prep time: 40 mins + 25 mins bake time

To prepare the topping, chop the potatoes and squash into similar sized chunks. Toss ONLY the potatoes in a pot of water and turn to boil. Once water has begun boiling, add squash pieces². Boil under tender and drain.

Mmmmm boiling potatoes and squash…

Return vegetables to pot and dump into almost all of the parmesan. Put the lid on to allow cheese to melt, about a minute. Add the sour cream³, salt, and nutmeg. Mash the crap out of it and get rid of lumps. Put the lid on the pot and set aside.

To prepare the filling, add the meat, onion, and garlic to a large frying pan on medium high heat. Cook until meat is no longer pink and onions are soft. Add paprika, thyme, peas, carrots, and corn. Mix well and allow to continue to simmering at medium heat.

In a bowl, combine broth, chili sauce, flour, and Worcestershire. Add this to the pan with the meat along with the salt and pepper. Turn heat to medium-low and allow to simmer 5 more minutes. Sauce will thicken.

Once filling is thickened up, pour it all into a large 8 cup casserole dish⁴.Top with the potato mixture and the remaining parmesan cheese. Fluff the potatoes with a fork. Bake for 25 minutes or until sides are bubbling at 375F. Allow to rest 5 minutes before serving.

There she is!

Look at that fluffy topping! It’s so light and tasty with the squash.

Notes:

1. Wor-chest-ter-shire…. Wor-sest-ter-sheer…. Wor-chester-shireee…. Ok, here’s a secret… it’s pronounced Wusst-i-sheer. ‘Wusst’ like ‘What a wuss’ but with a ‘t’. The ‘i’ makes the same sound as the ‘i’ in ‘Erica’. WUSST-i-sheer. Now you know.
2. The squash cooks faster than the potatoes and will get slimy if they cook too long.
3. In the original recipe it says ½ cup sour cream but this was too much for my potatoes. I recommend adding it by the tablespoon and stopping once your potatoes are smooth. Alternatively you can use milk, butter, cream, etc. Any will work, all a matter of preference.
4. I used one of those large round Corel casserole dishes but you could easily put it in a lasagna pan or whatever you’ve got. Make sure it’s not over full as it will bubble up the sides and spill out into your oven if the dish is too small.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups cake/pastry flour (not self-rising) sifted
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups white sugar
• 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon red gel food colouring¹ OR 1 bottle liquid colouring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk²
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

Makes 24 standard cupcakes.

Preheat oven to 350F, line muffin tin with liners

Whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder, set aside.

With an electric mixer on medium, combine sugar and oil. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in food colouring and vanilla.

Reduce speed to low and alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and finishing with flour. Stir well after each addition. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar (foamy! science!) Add this to the batter, mix on medium for 10 seconds.

Fill muffin cups ¾ full. Bake for 20 minutes, rotating halfway. If you put 2 trays in at once it may take a few minutes longer. With one tray at a time I was right done at 20 minutes.

Cupcakes can be stored at room temp overnight in a container, in the fridge for 3 days, or 2 months in the freezer.

Notes:

1. I recommend gel food colouring. It’s available at Michael’s with the cake decorating supplies. You get a much more vivid colour and it also doesn’t change the consistency of your batter. I bought a box of 8 colours and it lasts a very long time, you only need a little.
2. You can make a buttermilk substitution by combining 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar with enough regular milk to make 1 cup, let it sit 5-10 minutes and you’re good to go.

I used cream cheese frosting and this INSANE chocolate frosting from this Anna Olsen recipe. If you’re not into piping or decorating or you’re just not feeling like standing in the kitchen for 4 hours, stick with the cream cheese frosting. If you like A LOT of icing, double this recipe. If you’re alright with a modest amount stick with this.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• 6 oz cream cheese, room temperature (3/4 of a philly box)
• 2 cups icing sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

With mixer on medium speed, or a well-toned wrist, combine butter and cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add sugar and then finally vanilla. If you’re not using it right away it will stay in the fridge for 3 days, just bring it to room temperature before using

Ice your cupcakes and Enjoy! I’m already scheming dying the frosting green for Christmas. Really, how cute would that be… red cupcakes with green frosting? It’ll happen.

Here’s what mine looked like!

Now here is my banter… I insist on banter because I was in my kitchen for FOUR hours last night. Let me have my banter.

After taking the dog for a long walk after work yesterday I found myself with an entirely free evening. As this occurrence is pretty rare I decided to do something that I knew would a) be worth it, and b) take the whole evening. I made cupcakes and then decorated them for Halloween. I dusted off my Martha Stewart Cupcakes cookbook…. Ok that’s a lie, that book sits next to me on my desk. Anyway, I OPENED my Martha cupcake book and based on a recommendation from the lovely Ms. Rosen I found the recipe for Red Velvet Cupcakes. Feeling a little festive I felt that a dark red cupcake was appropriate. Velvet is a great word to describe these cupcakes as they are very moist and almost delicate tasting and smooth yet they still rise to form nice domes for frosting. Pretty much you are heading for a win-win. It quickly turned into a win-win-win when cream cheese frosting came into the picture.

Sidebar: WHY is it that nearly every icing recipe which accompanies a separate recipe, whether it be a cake, loaf, cupcake, etc, results in nearly twice as much as you need? In the partnering picture it doesn’t LOOK like there is that much more icing than you have put on. Pretty much I have started halving all icing recipes. I have yet to lose. Well, technically I lost this weekend when I made a German chocolate cake and had this killer chocolate icing leftover… but I was a smartie and it went into the freezer and was ready for me to use last night.

Back to cupcakes… I whipped up the Red Velvet Awesome-cakes and then went to work. With Halloween on the brain I chose to ice half of the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and the other half with chocolate. I got out my handy piping set and began drawing bats and ghosts on my cupcakes. Does anyone else get really excited about how great cupcakes look when you put a little piping effort into it? Yes, awesome. So the results are shown above. I urge you to experiment and trying drawing different things! If you are new to piping, you can pick up basic piping tools at Bulk Barn. You’ll need a piping bag and a tip. I used a small-ish (not the smallest) round tip. While you’re at Bulk Barn pick up a few piping tips… they are SO much fun. If you get more than one tip you’ll want a ‘coupler’, this allows for easy tip-change. Ok, here’s pictures to make everything I said make sense…

Here’s your piping bag, piping tip, coupler, and coupler ring.

Here’s a close-up of the coupler pieces so you know what to look for:

Now, you’re going to want to insert the large part of the coupler into the pastry bag. You will likely have to cut the tip of your pastry bag as you want the bag to just come over 2-3 threads of the coupler.

Now the tip fits into the end of the coupler.

…and the coupler ring screws on!

Now, this is handy because you can now take the tip off of the pastry bag without having to empty the bag and flip the whole thing inside out. All of this stuff is VERY cheap. you could get 2 couplers, 2 pastry bags and 2 piping tips for about $10. When I made these puppies I had 2 bags going (white & chocolate) and so when I switched colours I just had to take the tip off, clean it out and screw it on to the other bag.

While I was in Rome I ate so much tasty food and made a bit of a photo diary of everything. Here we go folks… my food adventures across the pond…

First night in we went out in Trastevere, area which Andrea & Steph live in. It is famous for all of the restaurants and bars. I figured since it was my first night I’d go traditional. We had bruschetta… which apparently means ‘plate of goodness’ and not just ‘tomatoes on toast’… I even ate the mushroom tapenade. Booya.

For main I had a favourite, Penne Arribiatta… or penne with spicy pepper sauce. It’s simple but the taste was powerful. My mouth is watering.

I did a lot of different things while I was in Rome… what I am most proud of is eating gelato… every single day.

As I was staying in Andrea’s apartment, I had access to a kitchen. It was nice as we could save a bit of money. The second night we stayed in and Andrea whipped up a nice tortellini dish and some (obviously) bruschetta. It’s so easy to cook there and get good results, all of the cheese and pasta is fresh.

I went to the Vatican on the 3^rd day and had a little sit-down for some pizza and reading. (I ate a lot of pizza… its so hard to say no to…)

GREATEST COOKIES EVER! From a bakery down the street from Andrea’s place… I am so envious of the woman that runs it. She had a massive oven with cookie trays the size of my kitchen table… my dream.

On our last night we went to a wonderful little restaurant near Andrea’s… as it was my last night I had to have more buschetta… I could really live on this stuff.

This was a plate of grilled vegetables. I wonder how these people make everything taste so good? Maybe I need to be a bit more liberal with my olive oil? That or quit trying and just move to Italy.

For my main I had… some sort of pasta. Haha, we all had pasta and we were all sharing. The noodles taste like they are made of butter and everything was just perfect.

I obviously ended the night with gelato…

Awesomely super trip! All trip picturesare on my facebook page. I hope to return to Italy and see more than Rome… maybe do some sort of food & wine tour? Oh I can keep dreaming…

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts of pecans (I used pecans)
• 1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or un)
• ½ cup raisins or dried cranberries (I used cranberries)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 325F and set racks to bottom and top thirds. Butter and flour three 9×2” round cake pans.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, combine carrots, cranberries, and pecans.

With a stand mixer fitting with the paddle attachment, (or with a hand mixer in a large bowl) combine sugar and oil together. Add eggs one by one. Beat until batter is smooth. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture just until combined. Fold in carrot mixture. Divide batter evenly between the 3 pans.

Set 2 pans on the bottom rack and one on the top. Bake for 40-50 minutes, rotating pans halfway. The cake should be pulling away from the sides and produce a clean toothpick from the centre. Set cakes to cool.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese (one block) at room temperature
• ½ cup butter, at room temperature
• 3 ¾ cup icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup shredded coconut (optional)

With the paddle attachment on your stand mixer… or a spoon and a powerful wrist… beat the heck out of the cream cheese and butter. Gradually add the sugar and eventually the lemon juice. Beat until smooth and lovely. Stir in coconut if you fancy it.

ASSEMBLY!

Flip your cakes out of their pans. Start with one layer, upside down on a plate. ICE IT! Add the next layer, right side up. ICE IT! And finally, the last layer, also right side up. ICE IT ALL!! Top with some coconut and toasted pecans. You can eat it from the fridge or at room temperature… the icing is better at room temperature.

Lastly, phone all your friends and invite them over for cake. OR take pity on your friends and bring it to them.