The Yum Yum Factor

photo by Chris Couper I have a dear friend named Kate. One of my first blog posts was about me making cookies for Kate's mom to take to a cookie exchange party at Christmas because Kate's mom, like Kate herself, doesn't cook. Imagine my shock the year that Kate brought this chocolate cake, covered in whipped cream to our annual Christmas Eve party? My son ate half of it and proclaimed it to be THE best cake he had ever eaten. He even asked if Kate could make it for him as his birthday cake. That would be like Kate's daughter asking me to organize her room. I decided that I wanted to make this magical chocolate cake myself and asked Kate for the recipe. She looked at me like I had three heads and said "there isn't a recipe. Are you making fun of me?" It seems like I am the only person of our generation who did not grow up eating this Nabisco chocolate wafer refrigerator cake. My mom was the queen of easy desserts and I certainly ate my sha...

I'm really turning into a sandwich person. I still don't like them totally loaded down with oodles of gooey cheese but I am actually enjoying all of these grilled cheese variations, which has taken me by surprise. I will miss April, month of the grilled cheese because it has been fun. I look forward to months of grilling and salads and charred things but at least now I have added a whole new catagory to our dinner choices and I have something new to do with all that leftover grilled meat this summer apart from my go to vietnameseish noodle thing or feeding it to the dog (sorry Reno) Cheesey Turkey Panini makes two big sandwiches pesto mayo: 2 tbls mayonnaise 1 tbls sundried tomato pesto 1 clove mashed, roasted garlic (i did my garlic with the caramelized onions) 2 chiabata buns tomato pesto mayo thinly sliced tomato 100 grams of sliced swiss cheese 100 grams of sweet mustard coated roast turkey 1 small onion, thinly sliced and caramelized along with 1 huge ...

We are not birthday cake people at all. For my birthday, I usually have a lemon tart or a pie - this year, Jen, at Piccante Dolce made me a delectable lemon meringue pie which was THE highlight of my birthday dinner. Last year the kid requested a chocolate wafer/whipped cream cake that my good friend, Kate, makes and this year he asked for creme brulee. The problem is that I couldn't find my creme brulee recipe anywhere. I read a hundred others and couldn't find anything that sounded right and I was about to have a breakdown when I thought "Look to Ina. If anyone knows a really fattening, terrible for you but delicious, decadent dessert it would probably be her. I took down my Barefoot in Paris book and there it was. The perfect creme brulee with just a couple of small changes and now I don't care if I ever find my old recipe because this one is absolutely perfect. Creme Brulee adapted from Barefoot in Paris 1 large egg 4 large eggs yolks 1/2 cup sugar p...

I looked and looked to find one of the blogs where I first saw this little treat and I couldn't find one, even though I have seen at least two or three different versions. At any rate, I wanted to make something quick and simple and easy to transport to take to visit my family this easter weekend. Honestly, this is candy making for dummies. preheat the oven to 350F waffle pretzels candy melting wafers cadbury mini eggs coarse sanding sugar Get small waffle pretzels - I got mine at Bulk Barn. Lay them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. Lay a candy melt in the centre of each pretzel (mine are wilton candy melts like these  that I also bought at bulk barn). Put the baking sheet in the oven for 3 minutes. Take the tray out of the oven and lay one cadbury mini easter egg on top of each candy melt. Sprinkle  some sanding sugar in a contrasting cover over the tops of each one and let sit until cooled enough to move onto a wire cooling rack and then l...

Who would have thought that I would ever be the proud owner of a 12 year old boy? One day you are pulling him down off of the bookshelf and the next, you are buying him Axe deodorant and he is asking you if you think he will look good with a beard?

So, it's the third week of Grilled Cheese month, otherwise known as April, and I was craving something that would feel taste like a cheese ball. Doesn't everyone my age have happy childhood memories of parking themselves right next to your aunt's famous cheeseball that she rolled in toasted walnuts and just hoovering the entire thing? The cheeseball I am remembering had a bit cayenne and a tiny bit of brandy added to it so it was exiting to eat as a child. I would pretend that I was feeling all tipsy from consuming a tbls of booze. Or is that just me?

Tomorrow is our turn for snack day so the search for a healthy, tasty muffin begins. I must have bookmarked 20 recipes last night but when I woke up this morning, the only one that was still stuck in my head was  Smitten Kitchen's perfect blueberry muffins  . The only thing I needed to go and buy was a lemon but then they had blueberries that looked nice so I bought some and used those instead of the frozen blueberries I had intended to use. I stuck pretty close to the recipe with just a few changes - I added some whole grain flour and because my greek yogurt was as thick as cement (in a good way of course) I added a bit of vanilla soy milk so that my batter would not require actual kneading. Oh, I threw in some poppy seeds because I am all about the poppy seeds right now and those kids should be too. Blueberry Poppy Seed Muffins adapted from a recipe on  Smitten Kitchen Made 12 regular muffins 5 tbls soft butter 1/2 cup sugar (meant to use brown but forgot - w...

It's time for another tasty grilled cheese sandwich and I was planning to make a brie/green apple/toast sliced almond on brioche but today I want something more savoury. I am just kind of getting into this sandwich thing late in life, never being a sandwich fan in the past. In fact, you could almost say that I didn't believe in sandwiches, unless you were talking a mushy egg salad on white without crusts served at a baby shower. That is barely even a sandwich and it's food that your aunts still make but they seem to be a dying breed. If I attend a shower thrown by young people, it's all dips and flat breads and veggie trays and fancy designer cupcakes. I think I might do a post about those lovely little treats that you only eat at showers thrown by older women and funerals if the funeral has a reception in a church basement afterwards.  One of the few sandwiches I do crave from time to time is a BLT. I didn't think that the crisp iceberg lettuce that wor...

I have done a complete 180 in regards to sandwiches. Prior to starting our no reEATS challenge, it would have never occurred to me to make a sandwich and call that a meal but now, I can't stop making them. I have been doing panini style sandwiches with leftover roast meats but it seems that April is grilled cheese month so I am going to try to do a grilled cheese sandwich every week. For my first grilled cheese, I baked a loaf of light whole wheat bread with poppy seeds. I wanted something nice and colourful and pretty and so I was thrilled to find some orange tomatoes and I started with those. Bright green watercress, roasted red pepper provided some pretty factor while the sautéed mushrooms gave it some earthiness and heft. After sampling the first one, I decided it needed either a spicy mustard or tapenade but since I didn't have tapenade, I added some sun dried tomato pesto and that was a good choice. My Pretty Grilled Cheese Two slices of poppy seed light whole whe...

I almost bought a loaf of sourdough poppy seed bread for some grilled cheese sandwiches the other day until I saw the $4 price tag and thought "why am I buying a $4 loaf of bread when I only need 6 slices?" Instead, I bought a bag of poppy seeds and came home and made some Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes bread and added them to it. I think my home made bread probably cost about 50 cents, if that and I hate to admit it but we probably wouldn't have finished that other loaf of bread anyway. It will probably be no surprise to anyone by now to know that I messed up the dough a bit. I was halving the recipe and I put a whole cup of whole wheat flour into the dough, instead of 1/2 a cup but i just added water and used wet hands to mix it together at the very end and it turned out okay. I would NOT suggest you try it though because I am sure it would be even better had I not made that mistake. Do as I say, not as I do. Poppy Seed Bread adapted from the Light Whole Wheat...

I love my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. It has turned me into a bread baker for the first time in my life. I have a lot of problems with my wrists and I just can't knead a proper loaf of bread so I was just sort of resigned to the fact that this meant I could never bake a proper loaf of bread. I have their new book with the whole grain breads too and I have not made a bread that has not turned out yet. It's such an easy, forgiving method that I truly think a trained chimp could turn out a decent looking boule so I don't get too cocky about my skills. It's basically bread making for dummies and I really should stop telling everyone I know about it because by letting them all in on my secret, I am also taking away some of my own thunder but I just can't keep something this great to myself. I don't know how it can be that I haven't made this particular bread before, since I love Portuguese corn bread but I haven't. I didn't want to mak...