Chocolate Dipped Orange Shortbread Rounds

As I mentioned before, I never used to be a big fan of shortbread. Maybe because it wasn't sweet enough for me. In the past few years though, I have started baking it more, and have discovered a few important lessons. The most important being that you really do need to make sure that the butter is softened. The first time I made these cookies I had to make the dough twice, because the first batch crumbled. With butter at the right temperature it was much easier to work with. I love the mix of orange and chocolate in this recipe.

Creamy Chicken and Green Bean Toss

This is a nice mid week dinner, but I would recommend if you want to cook it quickly (about 20 minutes) do a bit of the prep in advance. I cut the chicken and sliced the onion, as well as prepped the green beans before hand. It made the actual preparation pretty quick and smooth. While I'm not usually a huge fan of Israeli or pearl couscous, I did like it with this meal. Another note, I searched high and low, and eventually found sumac, however I did notice the recipe did mention if you can't find it you could replace it with smoked paprika. I'm not sure how it would change the flavour, because as it was, this dish was super tasty. 

Chocolate Toffee Shortbread Cups

I've only recently started enjoying shortbread, and realizing how versatile it can be. Now that the holiday season is coming quickly upon us I figured what better time to start trying some different recipes. This one comes from Canadian Living's December issue. There are five basic cookie dough recipes (sugar, shortbread, biscotti, chocolate and ginger) and four different variations to try with each dough. Seeing that I absolutely love anything with toffee and chocolate I decided to try out this recipe, and as usual, it did not disappoint. I'm sure my Econ study group will enjoy them too!

Vegetable Quinoa Soup

This soup is packed with healthy food - quinoa, sweet potatoes, kale. And it was really quick to prepare and tasty to boot. Next time I might use yams, just to add a pop of colour.

Shredded Pork Chili

Chili is such a great and versatile dish. It can really be thrown together with whatever you have in your pantry, and is fun to experiment with. I remember in University one of my roommates serving hers over rice, love that idea. This recipe uses the leftover pork I had from this recipe here. I had frozen the rest of the pork in 1 cup portions, and all I had to buy to put this together was a can of tomatoes and a can of kidney beans.

Fondue's and Don'ts

My family used to have oil fondue's on Christmas Eve every year. It was a lot of fun, but also a little precarious. Hot pots of oil, usually a dry Christmas tree, and a few clutzy girls (I was the worst) - I think we were all on edge most of the time. After I had a wee bit of a grease fire in 4th year university, we opted to change it up and do Raclette, which is awesome. Today's post however, is about fondue, and while I still love to fondue, now I keep it to cheese and chocolate.

Fondue's and Don'ts
- Do use quality ingredients in the fondue, good cheese and wine are musts
- Don't worry too much about the dippers - the focus is on the cheese - a few blanched veggies, apples, and some breadsticks and bread and you are good to go
- Do serve a light green salad on the side, but don't worry if it doesn't get eaten!
- Do invite friends over to share
- Don't try and have too many people, crowded pots are never a good idea

Mexican Pork and Rice Bowl

Canadian Living's November issue has on the cover 'The Comforts of Home: 20 Easy Slow Cooker Recipes'. It is a little misleading however, because it is really one slow cooker recipe for shredded pork that yields 20 different potential recipes. I decided to roast the pork one day, and then make two of the recipes. I will have some leftover, but it says it will freeze for up to 3 weeks. The pork recipe is super easy. You take a 1.35 kg boneless pork shoulder blade roast, trimming and discarding any excess fat. Put in slow cooker, with 1 1/2 cups beef broth and pinch salt and pepper. Cook on low for 8 hours, let cool slightly, discarding liquid. Using two forks, 'shred' pork, makes 4-6 cups.

The first recipe I made was a mexican rice bowl, and was very reminiscent of a burrito bowl at a Chipotle or Red Burrito. You could add avocado or cheddar cheese to kick it up a notch if you want. We added some fresh cilantro, which is key for any great mexican dishes.

Mock Skor Bars Success

My sister Beth came to visit right before I was due, and helped fill my freezer in preparation of taking care of a newborn. One of my favourite things were these mock Skor bars, unfortunately I liked them so much I ate them all before the baby was born! Skor bars have always been one of my favourite chocolate bars, so I recently decided to try my hand at the recipe. It was a complete failure!

First failed attempt

Sunday Night Dinner - Retro Style

For dinner tonight I decided to go old school and make meatloaf. We didn't have meatloaf a lot growing up, to be honest I can't remember having it at home ever. This recipe is nice because it makes about 4 servings, which is perfect because meatloaf isn't something I could eat every day, although I'm sure Brent would be happy with more leftovers!

Squash Risotto

I love risotto, and am always looking to try new risotto recipes. This one called for butternut squash, but I had an acorn squash sitting on my counter for a week and thought this was the perfect way to use it. Brent might disagree, as his preferred acorn squash is cut in half and roasted with butter, maple syrup, brown sugar and cinnamon...which is also super good. But I digress. The recipe calls for 4 cups of cubed squash, which was about half the acorn squash. Next time I'll try it with the butternut squash, and maybe increase the sage a bit.

Quick Kung Pao Chicken

Kung Pao Chicken is one of my favourite take out dishes. An order of Kung Pao and Ginger Beef and I'm happy. While I still haven't perfected a ginger beef recipe, I decided to try this quick and easy kung pao. I also decided to up the spice in this recipe a little. If you don't want it as spicy, just reduce the amount of the garlic chili sauce that you add.

Beef and Mushroom Stew

There's something so great about a nice hearty stew on a crisp fall day. For some reason this recipe didn't call for any red wine, which really had me confused. Not to worry, I found a way to incorporate it into the recipe. On that note, when cooking with wine, the old saying 'that wine is only good for cooking' is really bad advice. You want to cook with wine that you like to drink, because the flavour of the wine is what sticks around after the alcohol is cooked off. I would go one step further and suggest that you plan to serve the same wine from your recipe with the meal. Just make sure you have enough for the recipe, prep and dinner!

Sunday Night Dinner - Black Bean Rice Bowl

In an attempt to get back into cooking every day I spent half an hour yesterday going through recipes I'd cut from magazines but have never tried, and made a meal plan for the week (taking into account our schedule for the week). I wrote about how planning can be so helpful when dealing with hectic schedules in this post here about 2 years ago. It always comes down to planning, and in the fall when things are getting busier it becomes so much more important. I also get really excited about trying new recipes and eating good home cooked meals every night. Tonight's dinner was not a disappointment, it was easy and quick, with just enough leftover for lunch tomorrow. A couple of modifications could be made if you wanted - tossing some cubed chicken with the spice mix and cooking that together would add a bit more protein, or adding some shredded cheddar cheese on top would also be good. However, the way the recipe is below does make it vegan, if that's your thing. Either way, we will definitely make this one again.

Crunchy Garlic Chicken

Ever since we finished our 30 Days of Dinner challenge, we have been terrible at cooking and eating at home. October has been terribly busy, which hasn't helped. So today I decided I needed to make something for dinner that wasn't macaroni and cheese or stir-fry (my two go-to meals). This recipe is super easy, and you just need to do some veggies or a salad on the side and you've got a great meal. I will admit, I might have been steaming too many veggies for baby purees today, the cauliflower was a tad over done. Good thing I had made a quick cheese sauce to cover that up!

Thanksgiving Dinner for 2.5

We have hosted a number of Thanksgiving Dinners, some smaller with 6-8 people, and some with over 20. The last one we hosted was in 2011, and was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. You can read about it here in Turkey with Some Tears. Last year we decided not to host as I had just come back from a pretty intense work retreat (which I had planned and executed) and was still feeling early pregnancy exhaustion. So we ended up going to the Pinnacle Hotel Lobby Restaurant for their Turkey Dinner. It was good, but not the same as sharing turkey with friends and family - and no leftovers! This year, being incredibly busy with school exams and a business plan project, I just didn't have it in me to try and host once again.

We thought about just skipping it altogether this year, however it is Molly's first Thanksgiving so we wanted to do something. Cooking a whole turkey for 2 people is a little much, plus all the sides. So we have decided to remake a dinner we did for Christmas in 2009, when we were stuck in Vancouver due to this little project I was working on called the Olympics. It's perfect for 2-4 people, so I wanted to post it today, in case anyone out there doesn't have a dinner to go to, but wants to do something to celebrate that's a little easier than the whole turkey and fixings.

Sunday Night Dinner - Spicy Sausage and Rice

Now that our 30 Day Dinner Challenge is over, I've been really enjoying coming up with recipes based on some of the leftover ingredients we have in the freezer and cupboard. It's difficult at times for me to blog these recipes because I am notorious for not measuring or timing anything. So with a warning that all measurements and times are approximate, here is our Sunday night dinner from this week.

Chicken and Blue Cheese Pasta

We had a couple of friends over for a games night, and I put together a charcuterie platter from some of my favourite shops on Granville Island. I had not been in probably a year, and it was great to get back to Oyama Sausage - which finally has a ticket system for taking your orders! I also visited Benton Brothers Cheese and asked the nice young man at the counter to suggest a couple of cheeses for a platter - a hard, a blue and a brie/camembert. The service was great, and he had me try each cheese before making a decision. I decided to go with a milder blue, as not everyone is a huge fan, and wanted something soft and creamy. His suggestion, a Saint Agur Blue, was perfect, so I bought a larger piece in order to have some leftover to cook with. This recipe came together nicely with ingredients I had on hand, and according to Brent was something he would be happy to have ordered in a restaurant.

Butter Tart Slice

I'll admit that I've never made butter tarts before, however I have made these many times before. This time they didn't turn out as well as in the past, and I think it may have been the sugar I used. The recipe calls for brown sugar, and I used yellow. The sugar itself is a little finer, and I think using regular brown sugar would have been better. Reviews from classmates and Brent say they are great, so I decided to post the recipe.

30 Days of Dinner - Challenge Complete

So we have reached the end of September, and with that the end of our 30 Days of Dinner Challenge. The last week (and two days) were fantastic. Some of the best recipes were waiting for us. This was extra great because of our experience last week. I won't lie, I'm glad the challenge is over, because I am excited to start creating meals again. I have never followed a recipe every day for this long, maybe once or twice a week, but for 30 days was tough. It was great having a plan, but every time we veered from it slightly I felt like I was cheating.

Here are my thoughts on the final days. I'm not going to blog our favourite recipe this week, because it was too hard to decide (although the scallops were a front runner). Who knows, maybe a few of these recipes will show back up after being adapted in the kitchen with Reebs one day!

Procrastination Cookies

So I've been baking a lot more, and I think it's because it's a new way to procrastinate, most specifically from Economics and Finance homework. Tonight I decided to make oatmeal cookies and I kind of spliced two recipes together (one had raisins, the other had chocolate chips). They were a little spicy, that's because in my tired state I mixed up the measurements for the vanilla and cinnamon. I was looking at the tablespoon of cinnamon and thinking 'wow, that's a lot of cinnamon', and as I dumped it in I re-checked the recipe. Woops. They still turned out great!

30 Days of Dinner - Week Three

I have to admit, week three was not great. There may have been other factors influencing this, in particular a trip to the dentist that left my teeth very sensitive for a few days, and therefore taking away a lot of my joy in eating. I was also feeling a little stifled with the pre-planned meals. There were days when I felt like making something different, but we stuck to the plan through and through. Here are my thoughts and our favourite recipe.

Fresh Apple Cookies

This is another great recipe with apples, and what better time of year than the fall to bake some apple cookies? I would recommend laying some wax paper down before glazing the cookies.

I'll be bringing these ones to my economics study group tomorrow, and can only hope my group will forgive me for not understanding the material!

Chewy Granola Bars

I've been meaning to make my own granola bars for years now, and whenever the urge strikes I seem to be missing one or two key ingredients. I finally decided to go out and buy what I needed, and see how hard it really was. These were super easy to make, and so good! The recipe I printed out a couple of years ago, and says they store for a week in an airtight container. I highly doubt these will last a week at the rate I keep snacking on them.

30 Days of Dinner - Week Two

Week two of our challenge has come to an end, and it ended on a great note - Beef Tenderloin Steaks and Kimchi Mash. This week's grocery list was a little more expensive, because there was more meat, including the beef tenderloin. Here are my thoughts for this week, followed by our favourite recipe.

Banana Spice Cupcakes

I decided to see how the cupcakes would be with banana instead of apples. For the recipe I used the same one here, except I substituted one cup mashed bananas (about 2 medium bananas) for the one cup shredded apple.

Brent says that these cupcakes are just like muffins, however, he also says muffins are just cupcakes without icing. Because I usually put chocolate chips in my banana muffins, I decided to make a chocolate cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/3 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa

In stand mixer or bowl, beat butter and cream cheese together, add vanilla and icing sugar and cocoa. Beat until well blended and smooth.

These turned out pretty good, I think I'll be bringing some of them to study group tonight because I cannot be eating cupcakes every day!

30 Days of Dinner - Week One

Week one of our September challenge is complete, and it was great. As mentioned earlier, for the month of September we are following the Canadian Living 30 Meals for 30 Days. We printed out the grocery list and have followed the calendar for the week. The groceries for this week were about $100, and that gave us dinner each night, with leftovers for lunch. Here are my thoughts for the first week, along with our favourite recipe from the week.

Apple Spice Cupcakes

Molly and I are headed to a friends place for lunch tomorrow. I hate showing up empty handed, plus I've been looking for an excuse to bake, so I said I would bring dessert. This recipe is adapted from the September issue of Canadian Living.

Apple Spice Cupcakes
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup almond milk (the recipe called for buttermilk but the almond milk worked well)
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- pinch ground cloves
- 1 cup grated and peeled apple (about 2 apples)

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing
- 1/3 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups icing sugar

In bowl of stand mixer, or large bowl, beat butter until smooth. Beat in brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat. Stir in almond milk until combined. In separate bowl whisk together dry ingredients. Stir into butter mixture along with apple until just combined. Spoon into 12 paper-lined muffin cups.

Bake in 375F oven until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, 17 - 20 minutes. Transfer to rack and let cool. At this point you could pretend they're muffins.

For icing, beat cream cheese with butter until smooth; beat in cinnamon and vanilla. Beat in sugar until smooth. Pipe or spread over cupcakes.

You could probably substitute a cup of mashed banana for the apple and they would still be pretty good. Either way, Brent and I taste tested them and they are a great fall dessert.

1 Grocery Bag 5 Lunches

This article in Canadian Living promised that you could 'shop only once for an entire week of easy and deliciously different lunches the whole family will love'. Here is a rundown of our experience.

Day 1 - Fresh Orange Chicken Salad

This was a pretty easy salad to put together. The croutons were a nice addition that I normally wouldn't have bothered with. The instruction about the orange was a little confusing, and I had part of the orange down the garburator before I should have. Luckily I had purchased a couple of extra oranges so had enough to make the dressing. Red onions are nice, but maybe not so much if you are at work.

Day 2 - Cold Chicken Noodle Salad

In order to only have to grill chicken once, I had the two chicken dishes in a row, so this was technically Day 3 in the article. This was a really nice salad, even though I used a green pepper instead of a red. I also used very thin vermicelli because I had it on hand, but I don't think it changed the dish much at all. The dressing was a little garlicky, I felt like I had to brush my teeth 3 times before going out that afternoon. Again, maybe not the best for work.

Day 3 - Tomato and Chickpea Salad

We make chickpea salad quite often in our house, but this one was nice, again a little garlicky. The tomatoes were a nice addition because I would not usually add them to my chickpea salad.

Day 4 - Quick Vegetable Curry

This was a really nice dish, I used hot curry powder and mixed the yogurt and diced cucumber with a little lemon juice. It was a very nice addition to the dish. After the first 3 days I decided to use half the garlic, and it worked well.

Day 5 - Perfect Tuna Salad Sandwiches

Tuna salad is not something I normally like to bring to work, but I was eating at home so didn't worry about it. I did like the idea of putting the toppings on the sandwich at work so that the bread doesn't get soggy. I never would have thought of adding black olives to tuna, and it was actually really nice.

Overall the recipes all worked out well. Although I'm at home, it was nice having lunch prepared in advance every day. That way when I had a few minutes it was easy to grab and eat. There were a couple of things that I did want to point out though:

• Grocery list should include at least 1 or 2 packs of gum, many of the dishes would not be great if you work with clients or have meetings.
• The hands-on and total time for preparation was completely undershot. We quickly realized that if you had all the ingredients prepped (ie. carrots chopped, tuna drained, bread cubed etc.) then perhaps the prep time was accurate.

We are pretty good at packing lunches as it is, but it was fun to explore some different lunch ideas. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who finds themselves eating out 2 or more days a week. It definitely kept us on track.

Back To School

It's that time of year again, back to school madness is all around us. And this year it is back to school for me. With a 5 month old and a part-time MBA program, it helps to get organized, especially when it comes to meal times. With that in mind, I have decided to undertake two small challenges, that I found in the September issue of Canadian Living. The first is an article '1 Grocery Bag 5 Lunches'. So I sent Brent off to the grocery store, and day 1 lunch was great (Fresh Orange Chicken Salad). I will blog about the entire experience at the end of the week.

The second challenge is again from the same issue of CL: 30 Meals for 30 Days. With downloadable calendars and shopping lists, we will be following the meal plan for the entire month of September. This is the plan, and we'll see how it goes. I will keep blogging throughout.

In the meantime, here is a great way to start getting yourself organized. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has struggled with the dreaded spice rack. I have tried so many different contraptions, and different ideas on how to manage this, and every one has inevitably failed - until the latest. This idea came to me from my sister-in-law, and it is great. I love the way it looks, and it is easy to manage. It really makes me wonder why it took me so long to do this.

I've organized my spice rack using mason jars and labels. So simple. Another bonus, it forces you to purchase spices in smaller quantities. They don't last forever, so if you can find a bulk store that sells spices it's a great idea to start purchasing them as you need them. No more falling spices and sneeze attacks every time I'm looking for something.

Happy cooking!