Crisp Days Deserve Crisps

This stuff is my new best friend...I love it.

Dad recently gave us so many apples from his trees that we couldn't eat them fast enough. After giving some to everyone in the neighbourhood, I still had too many. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"...at this rate we should live to be 106. And "an apple for the teacher"..."here, how about 53?". Next year I'm going to make sure I take some down to the food bank...this year my car was broken down for 3 weeks out of the past 4. And good intentions just don't get it done...I needed transportation!

So how does this all tie in together?...let me tell you. I decided to make an apple crisp to use some of the apples that were starting to soften. Having searched for my favorite, simple "recipe" (it really isn't much of one - crisps are so basic), I decided to "wing it" when I couldn't find it. And it was the best damn apple crisp I'd ever made....Ty concurred with that. I was going to take a picture to post, but we ate it all straight out of the oven. I made another and we did it again.

I don't have exact "amounts", so wing it, as I did. Foolproof....really it is.

-Butter/margarine (to "grease" bottom of baking dish)
-Apples (as many as you need to fill the bottom of whatever baking dish you're using) - I used a small casserole dish and 5-6 small apples
-Lemon Juice (I used fresh stuff)

-Brown Sugar
-More Butter/margarine
-Rolled Oats (I use the instant ones, pictured above)
-Flour

"Topping" from Quaker Supreme Oatmeal (Maple Walnut flavour)

Butter a baking/casserole dish of any size, depending on how many you're feeding. Peel apples and cut into small wedges/pieces. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice on the apple slices and toss. Put in greased casserole dish and set aside.

In a bowl combine* 1/2 C brown sugar, 1/4 C flour, 2 packs instant oats, 4 TBSP butter/margarine in a bowl. Mix together and, if it seems a little too "dry", add a bit more butter. (*You can play around with the amounts of the ingredients, this is approximately how much I used).

Dump mixture on top of apples and spread out, evenly.

Sprinkle on one pack of the "toppping".

Bake at 325 for approximately 30 minutes.

Top with ice cream and enjoy.

Italian Goulash

This is from one of my favourite cookbooks, ‘The Wiseguy Cookbook: My favorite recipes from my life as a goodfella to cooking on the run’ by Henry Hill, the gangster immortalised on film by the beautiful Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. He has a real passion for food that really comes through in the book. He writes in great detail about ingredients and has masses of really useful tips. He may have once been a properly scary gangster but the man knows how to write a good cookbook. This is a proper hearty monster of a pasta dish from the ‘Fast Recipe List’ - “ Here are the recipes you can make ‘on the run’. Any one of these will take you less than an hour to make from start to finish.”

I’ll quote Henry’s words exactly. When cooking I find it helpful to imagine Ray Liotta reading the recipe out for me. Sigh

“I call this goulash because it reminds me of a Hungarian goulash I used to get in New York. You can make this dish with any type of steak; it doesn’t have to be expensive. The liquid from the tomatoes will tenderize the meat.
Americans like more meat in their sauce than Italians – don’t skimp on the protein! If anything, add extra.”

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1-1.5 pounds steak (any kind) cut in 0.5 x 2” pieces
2 medium or large red peppers, cored, seeded and diced
One 28-ounce and one 14-ounce can plum tomatoes + their juice
Quarter cup chopped fresh parsley or 2 teaspoons dried
Half teaspoon salt
Quarter teaspoon black pepper
Dash cayenne or red pepper flakes
Half cup dry red wine
1 pound penne, cooked and drained, reserving 1 cup pasta water
Grated Parmesan for serving

“Heat the oil in a large skillet or pan over a medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook 1-2 minutes (do not brown). Add steak pieces, raise heat to medium, and cook until almost done (barely pink inside). Remove steak to a bowl.
Add red peppers to remaining oil in skillet. Cook 2-4 minutes until beginning to soften. Drain tomatoes and add juice to peppers. Either crush tomatoes well in your hands or chop fine on a cutting board and add to the skillet along with the parsley, salt, black pepper, and cayenne or red pepper flakes. Cook 2 minutes. Return meat and any juices in the bowl to the pan. Cook 20 minutes, skimming off any oil or foam that rises to the top and stirring occasionally, until tomatoes are beginning to break up and get ‘saucy’. Add red wine and reduce sauce, stirring, about 4 minutes. Sauce should be medium thick. If it gets too thick, add 0.5-1 cup pasta water. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning. Toss steak and tomato mixture with pasta and serve immediately with Parmesan on the side”

"Red meat mixed with pasta is a hefty combo. It'll satisfy the biggest appetite around"

Sushi Goodness

(partly reposted from my blawg) We are off to go get Sushi. I like this sunday tradition. Sushi Sundays!! I found a recipe for California Rolls from Sushi Day dot com. One day I will learn how to make my own! Do any of you know how to make Sushi? Barb, when I move to Calgary, do you want to learn with me? I think it would be fun!!!!! :) Happy Sunday!

Ingredients

* 6 sheets of nori
* 6 cups sumeshi
* 1 medium avocado
* 1 cup imitation crab
* 1 small cucumber (optional)
* ¼ cup mayonnaise (to taste)
* sesame seeds

Cooking Directions

1. Cook sushi rice.
2. Mix imitation crab and mayonnaise, separating crab pieces and mashing into smaller pieces.
3. Cut the avocado in half, discarding the pit.
4. Cut off the hard skin and discard.
5. Slice the avocado into thin sticks.
6. If you choose to use cucumber, slice it into long, thin sticks.
7. Using avocado sticks, cucumber(if desired), and the imitation crab mix as your fillings, roll and slice the sushi
8. Garnish with sesame seeds, and serve with wasabi, shoyu, and ginger (if desired). Enjoy!

Six Ingredients Or Less

This is one of my all time favorite cookbooks. Why? Because it simplifies things. Instead of long lists of ingredients that I've never heard of (and don't particularly want to buy for one recipe only), each and every recipe in this book has six ingredients or less. It also has entire "menus" for meal planning in the last section (including dessert), with a grocery list for each one and "short cuts" to speed things up. Even those with the weakest culinary skills can throw together a meal fit for a king with this book. Here's one of the many recipes I'll be posting from this book:

SMOTHERED CHICKEN:

1 chicken, cut up
1/2 C flour & 1/3 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 tbsp butter
1/2 C finely chopped onion

Wash chicken and pat dry. Combine the 1/2 C flour, salt & pepper - I sneak extras in sometimes (cheater), like garlic powder or Italian seasoning. Roll chicken in flour mixture to coat. Heat butter in large, heavy skillet then brown chicken on all sides. Place chicken, skin side up, in a baking dish or roasting pan (approx. 9 X 13"). Add onion to dripping in skillet and cook until soft. Add 1 1/2 C water to skillet and bring to a boil. Pour over chicken. Cover tightly with a lid or foil. Bake at 350 for an hour. Remove chicken and keep warm.

Carefully pour liquid from baking dish into skillet used for browning and bring to a boil. Combine the remaining 1/3 C flour with a cup of water and mix until smooth. Add to hot liquid. Cook, stirring constantly until gravy thickens. Taste for seasoning. Makes 4 servings.

Berni's World Famous Cranberry Orange Muffins

I just realized that these are actually from the Canadian Living cookbook, and all this time I had thought my sister Berni invented them. She did introduce them to me, however, and they are my favourite muffin, bar none.
They are even better the second or third day and they freeze really well, so you can easily double or even triple the batch if you are so inclined.

Cautious: highly addictive

Combine:

1 cup flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

Add:

1 cup whole cranberries (fresh or frozen)

Mix together:

3/4 cup orange juice

grated peel of 1 orange (I've used 2 if I'm feeling really orangey)

1 beaten egg

1/4 cup melted butter

Add to dry ingredients and mix until just blended.

Bake in large muffin cups at 350F for 15-20 minutes.

(You can also make into a loaf by putting into a 9x5" pan and baking at 350F for ~50 minutes.)

No Fat Pineapple Cake

Barbara W heard our recent pleas for pineapple upside down cake and very kindly sent us this recipe for a non-fat pineapple cake. She claims that it is even simple for her to make, which means that I just might be able to pull if off as well.

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup raisins
2 eggs
squirt juice of lemon
1 cup pineapple tidbits, with juice
2 teaspoons baking powder

mix together
put in 9 x 13 pan, non greased (but maybe use Pam)
bake 350-375 F for 30 to 45 min, according to toothpick test
let cool before serving

Punch Bowl Chocolate Trifle Dessert

I make this once, every five years. Its so rich, you can't make it too often.

1 chocolate or white cake, cute into small squares (I used this cake recipe)
2 tubs of Cool Whip
3 packages of instant pudding; 2 chocolate, 1 vanilla
4 crispy crunch bars, broken
5 cups of milk

Mix instant puddings with 5 cups of milk.
Layer ingredients into a large bowl in the following order:
Cake
Pudding
Cool Whip
Cake
Pudding
Crispy Crunch
Cool Whip

Sprinkle the remaining Crispy Crunch pieces on the Cool Whip. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

"A's Vanilla Cake"

This is a family recipe, we never really came up with a real name, nor do I have any pictures, sorry. We started calling it "A's cake" because I used to ask my Mom to make it for my birthday. This cake doesn't need icing, its very spongy.

5 eggs
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
3 tsp of baking powder
1 cup of Vegetable Oil
1 package of Vanilla Sugar (Dr.Oetker)
1/2 cup of milk

Mix sugar and eggs. Stir in everything else. Butter and flour pan, bake at 375' for 20 minutes. (The time may be off, use the needle test).

Thai Spiced Squash Soup

I just found this online at 101 Cookbooks. I'm going to try it tonight!!! I LOOOVE red curry paste!

Keep in mind that different Thai curry pastes have differing strengths. Start with a teaspoon to start and then build from there until the soup has a level of spiciness and flavor that works for your palete. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds.

2 acorn squash, pumpkins, or other smallish winter squash
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon (or more) red Thai curry paste
water
2 teaspoons fine grain sea salt (or to taste)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the oven racks in the middle.

Carefully cut each squash/pumpkin into halves (or quarters). Slather each piece of squash with butter, sprinkle generously with salt, place on a baking sheet skin sides down, and place in the oven. Roast for about an hour or until the squash is tender throughout.

When the pumpkin/squash are cool enough to handle scoop it into a large pot over medium high heat. Add the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and puree with a hand blender, you should have a very thick base at this point. Now add water a cup at a time pureeing between additions until the soup is the consistency you prefer - a light vegetable stock would work here as well. Bring up to a simmer again and add the salt (and more curry paste if you like, I used just shy of 6 teaspoons but the curry paste I use is not over-the-top spicy).

Serves six.

Roasted Cauliflower

I enjoy cauliflower. I enjoy it raw, I enjoy it in a curry, and I enjoy it steamed in the microwave with a touch of butter.

The other day I came home from grocery shopping with a huge head of cauliflower only to discover that I had just bought another huge head a couple of days previous. So I thought it was time to try something a little different.

This recipe for roasted cauliflower, which I found in the Calgary Herald a couple of weeks ago, appealed to me, so I gave it a whirl. It was yummy – sweet and nutty, quite different from regular old cauliflower.

1 head of cauliflower
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

- whisk together -

Cut cauliflower in 1 ½ inch florets, rinse, and pat dry. Drizzle oil mixture over cauliflower florets, tossing until well coated. Place on ungreased baking sheet and bake at 475C for 18 – 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes of roasting.

Meanwhile, prepare topping (optional, but why wouldn’t you choose topping?)

1 tbsp olive oil
1 oz finely chopped prosciutto
1 tbsp finely chopped shallot
1 tsp butter
½ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup Italian parsley

Heat oil in frying pan, sauté prosciutto over medium-low for 3 minutes, until just crisp, add shallots and sauté for 1 minute. Add butter and bread crumbs, sauté for another minute, stir in parsley.

(I had no prosciutto or shallots on hand, so just added some extra bread crumbs instead and it was just fine. You can also use a couple of tbsp parmesan in place of bread crumbs.)

Sprinkle over roasted cauliflower.

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

My Mom used to make zucchini loafs all the time when I was growing up. The only way I'd eat it was if she'd make a chocolate one too. She obliged, thus creating our family chocolate zucchini recipe. Its good, I promise!

3/4 cup margarine or butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
2 cups sugar
2 1/1 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
2 cups zucchini, grated
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In large bowl, beat together butter and sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time. In separate large bowl, sift flour together with salt, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and cocoa. Add sifted dry ingredients in three additions alternately with grated zucchini and milk to butter mixture. Stir in vanilla (and nuts). Divide into two 9X5 greased and flours loaf pans. Bake at 350'F for 1 hour.

Eat one, freeze one.

Pumpkin Spice Cake - a Critical Review

I baked Allison's recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cake on the weekend, and as there was far too much cake for just the family to devour, I took a slab in to work on Monday.

Here are some of the comments I received:

Zonghang: "This is the best cake I have eaten since moving to Canada."
(He's been here at least 10 years)

Nina of the leather pants: "Vat do I have to do to you to make you bake zat cake more often?"

The rest of the folks didn't say much besides "mmmmmmmm", as their mouths were full and they are polite people.

I still have enough for one more serving for each family member and we shall savour it tonight while watching The Office.

Bake this cake!