The Yum Yum Factor

Sometimes I don't want to make six servings of creme brulee because, frankly, I don't want to find myself eating the three leftover ramekins the next day when I am home alone and they are in the fridge, singing their siren song. I have often dreamt of being able to make just one or two perfect little creme brulees so that the kid could could have one after dinner and then another for breakfast because all children benefit from a breakfast of leftover pie, cake or custard from time to time. There is no way I was going to preheat the oven, get a water bath together and go through all those hoops just to make one little ramekin but that was before my Instant Pot. With a pressure cooker, making one serving suddenly became not only possible but necessary! The Kid and I did a day of taste testing until we decided that this version is the one we liked the best. Two eggs made it too rich and dense, if that is at all possible and we both agreed that this version r...

A while back I was given a few bars of Green and Black's Maya Gold organic dark chocolate  to use in my Mexican Compost Bars   and I was left with just a little bit of chocolate at the end of it all. It sat in my cupboard, sad and lonely with the knowledge that it was destined for bigger things than being shoved down my throat at 1am in the throes of a late night sugar attack. That is what Trader Joe's Spekulas Cookie Butter and a tea spoon is for. Maya Gold is a really fragrant, spiced dark chocolate, full of orange, nutmeg, cinnamon with a bit of vanilla and I had just enough to make a tiny batch of ganache and that is how this recipe for Creme Brulee with Ganache came about. It is a much more honourable fate for this majestic chocolate, right? You can cook this without the pressure cooker in a water bath in a 300F oven for 40-45 minutes if you like but using a pressure cooker is quicker and more efficient Creme Brulee with Ganache makes 6 ramekins 3...

What to do with a 1 lb bag of gorgeous, organic baby red potatoes? I have been eyeing this recipe for Baby Potato Roast  on Relish the Bite forever and so I used it as my inspiration for this dish. Many of the spices she uses will not be familiar or easy to find for many people and I already have my own spices that I like to use so I made quite a few changes. Also, I thought some beluga lentils would be nice so they could get a bit crispy and add some protein so those were added to the mix as well but this delicious recipe was the inspiration for my own Indian Spiced Baby Potatoes. Earth Fresh Foods asked me if I would come up with a recipe using their Organic Red Baby Potatoes if they sent me a bag, so, of course, I said yes. Earth Fresh are Canadian producers of premium potatoes, carrots and onions but they specialize in potatoes, sourcing their products in 9 Provinces and 38 States. These are some nice potatoes and you can find them at Longos and Metro. Because t...

Never mind when Harry Met Sally. Whatever. Tonight, my new Anova met Instant Pot and it was glorious. Although I just got a new  Anova Precision Cooker Wifi  , I have had an Anova sous vide for over a year now and I love it but this one is even cooler.

You know how you can sign up for coffee delivery services where you get a couple of pounds of coffee dropped off at your door every month? Well, who knew you could get a granola delivery? OatBox is a company out of Montreal that is making really great quality, all natural granola and shipping out two different bags cereal (about 8 servings per bag) to their monthly subscribers. The flavours change constantly, inspired by the seasons and the whims of the chefs creating them. This isn't just open to Canadians either because Oatbox ships via UPS to American customers, which means that Americans are getting an even better deal these days, since the Canadian dollar is worth about 3 cents. Okay, you know if I am pushing this service there must be a bit more to it and there is. Oatbox has partnered up with Breakfast Club of Canada and for every shipment of cereal that goes out, a child will get a full breakfast at school. Food security, especially when it is concerning ...

Okay, this is a quick and dirty recipe.  Dulce de leche is made throughout South America by boiling a can of condensed milk in a pot, fully immersed in water and hoping that it doesn't explode. You can also submerge the can in your pressure cooker too but why? It takes an extra 60 seconds to open the can, scrape the condensed milk out into a nice, glass canning jar and do it without worrying about that nasty tin lining and without the fear of a sugar explosion. This is not a recipe as much as it is a method. Feel free to leave out the cardamom or  add something else like ginger Pressure Cooker Cardamom Dulce De Leche Easy, peasy. Ready: 1. Put a trivet in the bottom of your pressure cooker. 2. Open the jar of condensed milk. 3. Pour the contents of the can in to a glass, canning jar (I use a small jar since 1 can is only 300ml) 4. Add 2 to 4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed 5. Put the flat lid and the ring on the jar and finger tighten 6....

When a company contacts me and asks me if I would like some cheese to play with, I am certainly not going to say no. Do I look crazy to you? Only a crazy person turns down free cheese. Armstrong cheese has been making Canadian cheese for over 100 years so they know a thing or two about making a good product. As soon as I tried the old cheddar, I knew what I would make with it. For an old cheddar, it's actually on the milder side and the texture is very smooth and creamy - some cheddars can be grainybut I could tell that this one was going to melt beautifully, and it did. If the cheese was too strongly flavoured, it would have overpowered the delicate flavour of the lobster but this cheddar let the lobster sing it's lobster song. Mac and cheese, baby. But not just any old mac and cheese. LOBSTER mac and cheese. Not just any lobster mac and cheese. PRESSURE COOKER lobster mac and cheese. I have been dying to make the pressure cooker mac and cheese from America...

The Contest Once again, the time comes in a young girl's life where she has to come up with a recipe for the annual Lentil's Canada recipe contest. This year, the theme is "Star of the Show" and all of the entrants must make a short video to go with their recipe, so here is mine   - please feel free to go and watch it, like it, share it using the hashtag #LoveLentils . You can see all of the great entries  here  2016 has been declared the International Year of the Pulse by the UN and the fact that Canada is the world's largest producer and exporter of lentils was not lost on me. Even though I cook with them often anyway, I am making a concerted effort to make sure they are on the menu at least a couple times a week this winter. Last year, my Dulce De Lentil Ice Cream took first place in the Dessert Catagory, was featured in the Ebook along with my Spicy Caramel Corn With Crispy Lentils , a runner up in the freestyle catagory. The year before, my C...

I think I might start a series called "Instant Pot Diaries" where I can share my experiments and fails and not just the successes because otherwise I think it makes it seem like everything I make works like clockwork the first try. This couldn't be farther from the truth, to be honest. Some things come out perfectly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd times and other things require a bit more tinkering. From now on, when I am offering tips, lessons learned, failures and other times where I fall flat on my face, I will tag it "instant pot diaries" so you can have all of my shame in one convenient place.