Surprise cookies

While up at the lake at thanksgiving after many weeks of being busy and stressed we had a snowy cloudy day... and I wanted nothing more than to bake something fun and yummy for everyone.
My Mum had an old Canadian Living magazine and in it was a recipe for Peanut Butter SUrprise Cookies. They looked like a bit of fun and so Yukiho (my brother's exchange student) and I happily whiled away an hour making some of the most delicious little cookies I've had in ages. They aren't too tricky and taste heavenly. I'm not even a peanut butter fan and I loved them. I made them with celiac flour so we all could enjoy them and you couldn't tell at all. I tried out the "food" setting on my new camera. The picture does not lie - they were THAT good...1/2 c unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 c smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1 T milk or cream
1t vanilla
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
3 T sugar (for decoration)

For filling:
1/2 c smooth peanut butter
1/4 c butter or margarine, softened
3/4 c icing sugar
1 T cornstarch
32 chocolate chips

First make the filling:
Beat the 1/2 c peanut butter and 1/4 c butter until smooth. Blend in icing sugar and cornstarch until well combined. Spoon onto a sheet of plastic wrap, use the wrap to shape the filling into a 1/2" thick log and put in the freezer for 10 minutes. While it's cooling make the cookie dough.

Cookie Dough: Beat the remaining butter, peanut butter, and sugars on medium speed until fluffy. Add egg, milk, and vanilla and beat thoroughly. Sift dry ingredients; stir into butter mixture using a wooden spoon. Mix and chill about 10 minutes in the fridge.

Cookie Assembly: Slice peanut butter log into 32 equal pieces. To make cookies, flatten tablespoons of chocolate dough into thin disks and place a piece of the peanut butter filling in the center. Skooch chocolate dough around peanut butter filling to form a ball. Smooth the edges to seal and roll a bit in your palms gently to round them up. Roll balls in sugar.

Baking: Arrange cookies 1" apart on parchment lined baking sheet (we just had a Bakers Secret pan and it worked fine). Flatten slightly with hands to make them ~1/2 " thick and decorate top with a chocolate chip. Bake in 350° F oven for 10 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute on the pan (so they don't fall apart when you take them off) and then transfer to cooling rack or newspaper with a flipper to cool completely.

Yum...

The Polenta of Champions

I was given a "log" of polenta a little while back but only just got around to cooking it. I have been trying to stay away from commercial tomato sauces and learn to make more "homestyle" sauces from Italy. I doubt this would classify as "homestyle" but it was damn good. I hope to learn to make proper polenta at some point, but for now the log will do.

Preheat a pan with olive oil, place chilies and one star anise and one clove in the oil to simmer. That will get the essential oils from the clove and the star flowing and should an aromatic quality to the olive oil.

- Two roma tomatoes , diced. Romas are fleshier than beefsteak and vine tomatoes.
- One vine tomato for the moisture.
- One half a white onion.
- Two cloves of garlic.
- One handful of chopped walnuts. (I have big hands, btw)

Sautee all this in a pan and pour an ounce of single malt whisky for sweetness. You can blanch the tomatoes first if you want the skins completely off. I add the classic "Italian herbs and spices" at this point - basil, rosemary, oregano and sage. I also added 1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika to the mix, just because it was there. And yes, I added a bit of salt. In another pan I had browned some ground pork and add that into the mixture.
After cooking that for a while I add it into a pan over top of the now cut up polenta and grate parmesan over top. The oven has been preheated to 450. Covering the pan I put the polenta in and set the dial down to 400. I let it cook for an hour and then let it stand for 10 minutes.
Mmmmmmm!

Breakfast

One of my goals for this year (Oh I reach high don't I?) was to eat breakfast every day. I never did, and I need to. It bumps my metabolism and (surprise surprise) I'm more alert and happy when I do and not ready to gnaw my arm off by lunch.

I've looked and tried many things and found my favourite quick, filling breakfast to be this: oatmeal with fruit. Don't laugh. Oatmeal gets a bad rap...when you make it up right it can be fantastic. It's good for you, comfortingly warm, healthy and really gives me the energy I need for my day. Oatmeal is full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, potassium and fiber and it's been shown to lower levels of LDL cholesterol too. I used to think I had no time for breakfast, but seriously - I realised that with all I do all day, I'm worth getting up 10 minutes earlier. And that's all it takes - it takes less than 10 minutes to make this, and just a few to eat...and it's delicious. I really could eat this every day. Here' s how simple it is:

Boil 1c water and toss in 1/2c wild oats (to me quick oats are sludgy and have no texture) and stir occasionally. Cook 4 minutes. Put in bowl with 1/2 banana sliced or 1/4 c blueberries or strawberries and a tsp of brown sugar and 1/4c 1% milk and there ya go. I like mine with milk, but some people drizzle on maple syrup and skip the milk. Whatever you like...experiment to find your thing. You can toss in cinnamin too...there's so many different ways to have it. This weekend I'm trying a new way -chai oatmeal. Sounds yummy to me. Any way you have it, it's super healthy and full of energy and maybe 250 calories for it all. Keeps you full all morning.


I challenge you to eat breakfast every day. You would not believe the difference it makes :)

image source

Best sausage in the world

My husband's lovely Aunt brought us some of the sausages of the gods when she last came to visit and we finally enjoyed them last night. She has amazing taste in food, so we have been curious.
Spolumbo's Deli in Calgary makes the most amazing sausages I have ever had. Now I'm not normally a fan of sausage unless it's Mennonite garlic farmer's sausage. I find it to be fatty and less tha flavourful...but this sausage is, for lack of a better phrase, "to die for".
Seriously. you have no idea.
So we had their chicken and apple sausage...grilled to perfection on the BBQ by yours truly, along with some coconut ginger rice and veggies. Light and flavourful...and slightly peppery.
The best sausage.
Ever.
I've been told they ship and sell across Canada in some stores and deli...I'm looking into anywhere local. J's Aunt went on an on and on about this stuff. Now I know why. The next time J's Aunt comes out to visit I'll be humbly asking them to bring us more sausages. LOTS more.
Yummers...

Saskatoonberry pie

It's fruit season.

Therefore it is pie season.

Do not argue with the logic of the pie.

The pie must be obeyed...

I'm embarrassed to use an online photo for this (our was way better trust me), but some asshat stole my camera while I was on holidays, so I can't offer you any photos of Magnus' and my pie baking extravaganza on sunday afternoon. He had some saskatoon berries and I inherited some blueberries and had a shwack of peaches from holidays in B.C. so it was indeed time for pie. Magnus had wanted to try a gooseberry pie, but I've never made one and don't know anyone who has and have no recipe to go with, so he kept them for another time...he wanted to learn how to make proper fruit pies. I was happy to show him.

We made my favourite fool proof pie crust recipe which is conveniently enough for 4 pies. I made 2 peach pies, with my same recipe from my peach pie post last year. The remaining crust was free for us to make saskatoon berry and blueberry pies. I made the blueberry pie the same as the saskatoon berry one, as the regular recipe I have from my Mum is for wild berries, and I wanted to try something new. Usually I'm not too much a fan of saskatoon berries as they are rather seedy, but having never actually made one before I had to try it out. I hunted about for a good recipe for saskatoon berry pie filling and chose this one:

4 c berries
1/4 c water
2 T lemon juice
3/4 c white sugar
3 T flour
1 T butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F.
This makes a 9 inch pie. In a large saucepan, simmer berries in 1/4 cup water for 10 minutes. Stir in lemon juice with berries. Combine sugar and flour together in a medium bowl, then stir into berry mixture and allow to thicken up. Pour mixture into a pastry lined 9 inch pie pan. Dot with butter (optional). Place second crust on top of pie; seal and flute edges and cut a few vents in the top crust. I made little pie crust leaves and decorated the top...cuz that's what my grandma always did and she made the best pies ever. It make berry pies taste better - trust me :)

We baked the pies at 425 for 12 minutes with something underneath to catch the drips (trust me berry pies tend to make a BIG mess that is impossible to clean). Then we reduced the oven 350 F and baked until the crust was a nice golden brown (for ~35 min ). Let cool 30 min before you eat to let the filling set. Serve with some vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

All in all, another successful pie event. I have been given rave reviews on the blueberry and peach pies and have been told by Magnus that the saskatoon berry pie is also yummy.

It's berry season people! Get out there and make yourself some pie!

Next on my list

Dude.

I was reading my latest addition of Vegetarian Times and salivating over the walnut stuffed eggplant and flipped a few pages further to see this:

A DONUT PAN.







And AND - you can even get a MINI DONUT PAN!







I KNOW.

I have a twinkie pan from these fine folks at Norpro. It rocks... makes the finest derbies in the land. I haven't had homemade donuts since my Mum made them when I was little...and they are deep fried, so seeing as I am without a deepfryer (whish really is a good thing, trust me) I haven't made any.

I think I will be ambulating forthwith to the local Peppers and ordering myself one of these. I mean $15 for baked donuts? And Veg Times had a bunch of different recipes for them.

Joy

The Queen was not amused

Just tweaking things.
Not happy with it yet...I need some photoshop time...the logo have a long way to go.
I just couldn't put up with the food whore thing any longer...