Little Kitchen on the Prairie

Wholey Chicken Wings Batman!

2012-02-27T21:21:00.000-06:00

Chicken wings are a favourite in the Little Kitchen. I make chicken wings more often than I write about. If I actually wrote about chicken wings as often as the boys actually eat chicken wings then this blog would be called "Little Wing on the Prairie". I kid you not....wings are no joking matter.

We are making the effort to be more healthy lately so when it came time to dredge the wings in flour, I reached for the whole wheat flour instead. The boys claim that these wings were the crispiest wings ever...even better than the other wing recipes I've posted about such as this post, this post, or this post. Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I made these wings again last night with the same crispy baked goodness. This is another one of those recipes where I didn't really measure too closely on this one.

Crispy Baked Chicken Wings - printable recipe

Big ole package o' wings

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tbsp dry mustard powder
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black peper
(If you have it on hand, 1 tbsp smoked paprika goes well with this mixture too!)
1 pkg chicken wings and drumettes (This was a Costco size package)

Pre heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Line 2 baking sheets with a sheet of foil and a sheet of parchment paper. I find the wings get crispier on parchment then they do if you use a silpat or silicone sheet liner.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients until well blended.

Rinse the chicken wings with cold water and drain.

Dump the wings into the flour and stir to coat all of the wings. Use your hands or a fork...what ever works to get each wing coated.

Shake the excess flour off the wings.

Spread the wings out on the sheets. If the wings are too crowded together, they will not crisp properly so make sure to give each of them their space.

Bake for 25 minutes then flip the wings over and rotate the pans.

Bake for another 25 minutes.

Once these wings are done you can douse them with your favourite hot sauce. (Or any sauce you like)

I opted to toss some of the wings with some Hawaiian black lava sea salt and pepper for the most amazing salt and pepper wings EVER! (If only I had a lemon to zest and add to the salt and pepper....mmmmmm)

Tasty, tasty, tasty...

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Bacon Love

2012-02-25T22:08:00.000-06:00

Do you do anything for the Oscars? I don't normally make anything extra for Oscar night, mostly because the Boy usually has a baseball practice that night...and guess what....the Boy has a baseball practice on Oscar night! At times, I think I should do more to observe these sorts of things but in reality, that's not going to happen so I do what I can.

As I was browsing through blogville and all things internet, I started seeing all sorts of ideas and menus. I had all sorts of ideas milling about in my head (some of them were even good ones). Oscar night is a star studded event so I was thinking about making something that was also star studded. Star studded with bacon of course!

Bacon peanut brittle came to mind so I started to browse the wild world of the internet and found many different recipes and you know what I discovered? I discovered that you can take any peanut brittle recipe and add bacon to it. I don't have a tried and true recipe for brittle so I used the recipe found here at My Man's Belly with only a couple of adaptations.

Bacon Peanut Brittle
Printable recipe here

Make sure you have a candy thermometer for this one. You will need it. Also, gather all of your ingredients into bowls before the sugar is done boiling so you can add it all in quickly and pour the molten hot mass onto the cookie sheet.

Gather up the following into their own separate bowls:

1 lb bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped into small pieces
1 cup roasted, peanuts. (I used unsalted but salted would work here to)
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp vanilla (I will use a full tablespoon next time)
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt

Affix the candy thermometer to the side of a large pot and add to the pot:

2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup water

Prepare a cookie sheet with either a silpat or silicone liner or butter it generously and set it aside so it is ready to use when it comes time to pour out melty, hot, molten sugary goodness onto it.

Place the pot on the element and turn the heat to medium. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves, then set the spoon aside until it is time to stir in the other ingredients.

Stay in the kitchen during the boiling of the sugar. It can burn so quickly. Don't even run to the bathroom to pee quickly or duck into the other room to check the score on the Jets game!!! (This means you Mrs Kimball!)

This can take a while but do not turn up the heat on the stove, it will be tempting but burnt sugar is gross and messy so don't!
When the temperature reaches 290 degrees or the hard crack stage, remove the pot from the heat. This is important because even if you turn the heat off on an electric stove, the element stays hot and you can burn the sugar.

When 290 degrees has been reached, quickly dump in the peanuts, bacon pieces, and butter. Stir quickly to incorporate. Now just as quickly, dump in the vanilla, salt, and baking soda. It will bubble up so be careful. Stir until it stops foaming and quickly (carefully too) pour the molten hot mass onto your prepared cookie sheet and let it spread out. Do not use a spatula or the spoon to smooth it out because it will deflate the brittle.

Allow the brittle to cool completely before breaking it into pieces.

Savour it slowly....enjoy it.....every bacony piece.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Growing Up Too Fast

2012-02-21T20:48:00.000-06:00

Warning....this post is a little sappy because my baby is growing up quicker than I'd like....

Consider yourself warned!

~~Strange~~ Exciting things are happening in the Little Kitchen!! The Boy has earned his learner's permit....he has even been behind the wheel of the car!! A few of his friends have their licenses already and let me tell you, I have a mini panic attack every damn time I hear "so and so said he'll pick me up" or "so and so drove us to the mall for lunch today" (I didn't even know he had money!). As a mom, it does rattle the nerves. You worry about their safety, their where abouts, the choices they make with their new found independence, have I done my job properly......(see, just thinking about it put me on the verge of a nervous breakdown).

My own mom never let me drive when I was learning so I already knew that I didn't want to be like that. I took him to get his permit and then took him to an empty parking lot to practice driving around....then I let him venture out on the street and drive us to the mall for dinner. He did such a fabulous job, you know, for his first time behind the wheel and all.

This all really makes me think back to all the little steps of 'letting go' as a parent. Things like letting him walk to school on his own for the first time, riding his bike around the neighbourhood with his buddies (without me following them around), and sending him to the IGA to pick up a couple of ingredients for dinner on his own are all in the back of my mind these days. Until he gets his actual license, he needs to have a trusted adult in the passenger seat but I will hold on tightly and do my best to let go when the time comes....if I have to....

Let's get to the food now, shall we?

Since we've been busy, I have been trying to cook up a a big batch of something tasty on the weekend and using it during the week. This week I got an email from the Canadian Parent website with a slow cooker recipe for Beef Stroganoff that looked so simple and straight forward, I gave it a shot. Here's the link to the site. I won't post the recipe here but please go to the website and check it out. There are some pretty neat slow cooker ideas there.

Pile stewing beef, onions, mushrooms, and beef broth into the slow cooker

Reheat in a large skillet on the stove

Boil your pasta

Roast asparagus at 400 for 10 to 15 minutes (brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Guess what, everyone loved it. It smelled soooooo go while cooking but we actually didn't eat it until the next day but it heated up so nicely. I heated the beef on the stove while boiling the pasta and roasting some asparagus! It really was a tasty meal!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well. (also, drive safe!)

Things I tried in Hawaii

2012-02-20T22:39:00.000-06:00

Wow, I am a lame brain and still trying to get back into the swing of things....in fact I should have posted what I made for dinner tonight, but I didn't...I am working on that, dinner was delish!

I didn't actually bake anything for Valentine's day like I did last year. I did however think this would be a time to share something I tried while I was in Hawaii not too long ago. While the temperature is warmer this week, it dipped way down again other week. Two Fridays ago it was -40 Celsius with the windchill....brrrrr....That is a good 70 degrees colder than it was when I was in Hawaii! (I want to go back!!!!) One day while wandering through one of the many ABC stores, not sure of what I wanted to snack on, I happened upon this small heating/keep stuff warm unit. Inside were these little curious bundles...I just had to try one. Turns out that if you take a piece of Spam, dip it in teriyaki sauce, pair it with some sticky rice, and wrap it in nori, you get a tasty little fast sushi style snack!!

Seriously, this was quite tasty!

I will work on that dinner post for tomorrow!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Just Stuff It!! Pretzel Sammies

2012-02-12T19:51:00.002-06:00

It is ~~Saturday~~ Sunday today! Hooray! I was supposed to vacuum but I haven't done that yet. What I did do was make some pretzel bites and pretzel sammies. Spring training is upon us and that has me thinking of pretzels!! I used a good old stand by recipe that I have posted before because it was tasty and lets face it, sometimes it is just relaxing working with a recipe you know works and works well. I made the pretzel bite using this recipe here. It can also be found at this link. For the sammies, I did switch out 2 cups of all purpose flour for whole wheat this time without affecting the texture or the taste. These sammies were an absolute hit!!

Ham and Havarti pretzel sammies

Pretzel Sammies

Printable recipe

For the pretzel dough:

· 2 cupswarm water

· 2 tbsplight brown sugar

· 1 pkgactive dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp)

· ½ cupbutter, melted

· 3 cups allpurpose flour

· 2 cupswhole wheat flour

· 3 tsp salt

Hot water bath

· 6 cupswater

· ¼ cupbaking soda

Egg wash

· 1 egg

· 1 tspwater

For the fillings, gowith your favourite combinations of meats and cheeses. Today I went with ham and Havarti, salami andprovolone, as well as pastrami and cheddar.

Combine the warmwater, yeast, and brown sugar. Set asidefor about 5 minutes and let it get all foamy.

Add the melted butter,the flour, and the salt.

With the dough hook,mix everything. The dough will cometogether. If the dough is sticky, add abit more flour.

Knead the dough forabout 5 minutes.

Place the dough in alightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel and set it in a warm spot to riseuntil double in size, about an hour.

While the dough isrising, cut the cheese into cubes and the meat into more usable portions.

Divide the dough intoequal 15 portions. I used a scale and was able to get 15 portions of dough thatwere roughly 3 oz each.

Form each piece ofdough into a ball and cover them with a clean tea towel while you work with afew pieces at a time.

Flatten each doughpiece into a flat circle and start piling on the toppings alternating cubes ofcheese and pieces of meat. Pile thefillings on until you think it won’t close.

Pull the dough uparound the filling and start pinching to seal all the sandwichy goodness upinside.

Put a large pot ofwater on the stove to boil. Once it isboiling, reduce the heat slightly to a high simmer and slowly add ¼ cup ofbaking soda...it will bubble up so add it slowly!

Simmer the sammies inthe hot baking soda water bath for about 1 minute flipping over after 30seconds. Transfer to a baking sheet, brush with an eggwash.

If you like, sprinklewith coarse salt after the egg wash. Althoughif you aren’t eating these right away, then skip the salt as it will just meltaway in storage. If you are making morethan 1 kind, use a piece of the meat to lay on top of the sammies to helpidentify them.

Bake at 425F for about15 minutes until golden brown.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Bacon, Pasta, and Power

2012-02-07T22:46:00.001-06:00

Tonight was one of those nights I actually got some time to myself after work. I must admit it is a bit of a strange feeling. The Boy is at school until 6:30 for driver's ed, Hubby has a class, and there was no rehearsal for the school production due to a meeting (that I didn't have to attend)!! What to do with that time??? I thought about having a nap but didn't think I would wake up until tomorrow morning. Instead I wandered over the the IGA by my house to browse the shelves and get some ingredients for dinner. I had a recipe in the back of my head and had a quasi-mental list...okay, I confess, I checked a recipe in my new Jamie Oliver cook book and knew what I wanted to make.

The original inspiration for tonight's dinner was "mini shell pasta with a creamy smoked bacon and pea sauce". Such a long title but it was an easy peasy recipe and has bacon in it! Once I got to the store, I discovered that IGA didn't have fresh mint and things just got worse from there. As I was at the dairy case, the power went out. It did kind of throw me for a loop. It wasn't dark as it was actually still light out and there are windows but it still caused me to forget to grab some frozen peas and double check what I was getting as all the interact machines were down!

So I walked home from the powerless store to my powerless house and put my groceries away in my powerless fridge. With no power to cook supper, run the Internet, or heat the house I bundled up and walked over to my friend Marie's house. We drank some beer so it wouldn't go bad....and she has three fabulous dogs that took turns sitting with me to keep me warm!!

The original recipe can be found on page 52 of Jamie Oliver's book Jamie's Food Revolution and calls for:

10 slices smoked bacon
a small bunch of mint
salt and pepper
1 lb mini shell pasta
olive oil
a pat of butter
2 cups frozen peas
2 tbsp creme fraiche or heavy cream
1 lemon
6 ounces Parmesan cheese

As some of you may know, I have issues following ~~rules~~ recipes so many times the recipe I start with is very different from what I actually cook. I do like to use the recipes as a base idea and then add my own flair. The pasta dish I served up tonight included:
Printable recipe

1/2 lb bacon, cut into small pieces
basil
salt and pepper
rotini pasta
1 cup frozen peas (dug in the freezer and found some)
2 tbsp half and half
1/2 lemon
2 cloves garlic (because hey, it's garlic)
1 cup chopped tomatoes in juice (I had some left over from the other day. I blitzed them with a hand blender first)
sauteed mushrooms and asparagus (these were left over from last night's dinner. They had been sauteed in garlic and were fan-freaking-tastic)
Parmesan cheese (I actually had some leftover from making the chicken fingers last week! It was about 1/2 a cup)

Put a pot of water on to boil, heat a skillet, and chop the bacon.

Saute the bacon until it is crisp. Drain the fat (or at least some of it). Add the peas, mushrooms, and asparagus. Also grate on a micro plane or use a press to add in the 2 cloves of garlic. This is also a great place to add in a couple grinds of pepper.

To the pot of boiling water, add a hefty pinch of salt and plunk in the pasta. Cook according to package directions.
Pour the tomatoes into the skillet along with some pinches of basil. Let this boil down until the pasta is half cooked.

Add 2 tbsp of half and half to the skillet and stir.

Remove the pasta from the water and add it to the skillet. Mix it all together and add the squeezings of half a lemon and the Parmesan cheese.

Serve with salad or veggies.

This dish received fabulous reviews from the boys and heated up nicely for Hubby when he got back from his class tonight.

Devour!

FYI, the power did go back on just before 6pm, after 2 hours. Apparently the hydro company had to shut off the power so they could fix a hydro pole fire issue.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Dreaming of sunny weather and blue waters...

Comfort Food for Finals

2012-02-05T19:14:00.000-06:00

Oh my!! Where has the time gone! I cannot keep making excuses for abandoning my blog and my precious readers. We have been doing our darnedest to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. January has been cold and busy here on the prairies. I have kept up going to the gym 3 to 4 times a week and feel great!!

I miss Hawaii sooooooo much!

Unfortunately my sun kissed glow from my holiday trip to Hawaii has faded. The new freckles stayed though! We have sort of settled in to a sort of winter routine here. The Boy is busy with all things studying, baseball, and now, drivers' education. That's right. You heard me. The Boy is learning how to drive....ACK! I can't be old enough for this! He can't be old enough for this! Am I ready for this? I am going to have to be.
This past week was exam week at the high school and while he won't admit it, nerves played a role. To help get him through, I made a couple of the Boy's favourites for dinner. Nothing like a little comfort food to get you through! Chicken Fingers and fries. He asks for homemade chicken fingers every time I buy boneless chicken breasts! Of course, this can be a messy undertaking because you need to dredge the chicken strips in flour, dip them in egg yolk, and then in the bread crumb mixture but it is so worth the effort!

First start your french fries!! Heat the oven to 400F and scrub 3 large russet potatoes. Line a baking sheet with a layer of tin foil or parchment paper. Cut the potatoes into fry size sticks. Toss the fries with 2 tbsps oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt. Place the fries in the oven.

Chicken Fingers

3 or 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 4 strips each
3 eggs
1 cup flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 cup panko
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper

Take out 3 dishes or pie plates.
In the first dish, toss in the seasoned flour.

In the second dish, beat the eggs.

In the third dish, mix together the panko, Parmesan, garlic powder, onion powder, a big pinch of salt and a healthy grinding of pepper.

Get a baking sheet ready with either parchment paper or a silicone baking sheet.

Now, first all of those strips of chicken need to be dredged in the flour and shaken off.

Next, plunge the flour coated chicken into the beaten eggs and let the excess drip off.

Plunk the drippy chicken into the panko mixture making sure to coat the entire piece of chicken in crumbly goodness.

Place the strips onto the prepared baking sheet and slide it all into the oven with the fries. You can flip the fries over if you want, I never do and things always seem to turn out just fine.

Once the chicken strips are in the oven, everything should be cooked in 25 to 30 minutes.

The fries and strips should both be golden brown when done.

Homemade honey mustard.

1/2 cup mayo
2 tsp mustard
2 tbsp honey

Mix all three ingredients together until thoroughly mixed.

Serve with chicken fingers.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Christmas Dinner

2011-12-26T20:40:00.000-06:00

My apologies for the lateness of this post. I had such a crappy connection at the hotel it just wasn't a feasible thing to post. Now that I am back, I hope to get back into the swing of things...I know, I've been saying that for a while now...sorry. If it helps, I am having trouble adjusting to slushy snow instead of sand....

I must say, I loved my view of Diamond Head during dinner!

I hope everyone celebrating Christmas had a fabulous time and your dinners were everything you expected and more. We attempted another BBQ but unlike last year's disastrous Christmas day BBQ we are in a warm and sunny spot in Waikiki. We found a place called the Shorebird in one of the hotels close by (The Outrigger Reef hotel). They have a sunset special where you get an 8 oz steak and an all you care to eat salad bar for 16.95! We decided to go there for our Christmas dinner. The neat thing about this place is they bring out your steak (or whatever meat you ordered) and you grill it yourself at the massive grill.

Our steaks and a packet of mushrooms for the grill

Of course we put the Boy in charge of grilling since he does such a fabulous job.

Hubby giving the Boy a hand putting the steaks on

I started my meal out right....

The Shorebird has a fabulous salad bar that even has some hot items on it such as pastas.

The grill had plenty of room for everyone to get their grill on!

We even snagged some bread from the salad bar, extra butter and garlic to make some garlic toast!!

The Boy likes to put butter on the steaks...

Gratuitous steak shot

As always, the Boy grills my steak to perfection!!

I really need to figure out how I can get to do this every year...this Christmas day sunset was a fantastic Christmas present!

Well, that's it for today's post. I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday season and wish everyone all the best in the new year!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

Melike Liki Maka

2011-12-25T01:12:00.001-06:00

Melike liki maka everyone! The folks of the Little Kitchen have embarked on a fabulous adventure this holiday season. If you haven't already guessed it, we are in Hawaii! We left in the wee hours the other day, getting up at 3am and staying on the go for approximately 24 hours straight! It was quite the day with a stop in Calgary, Alberta, and another stop in Vancouver, British Columbia before boarding the third plane of the day to take us to Honolulu!

After a very long but exciting day, we had a laid back Saturday. A stop at the Honolulu Farmers' Market was the only must do thing on my list today. I must say, I will be back there. Some amazing sights, sounds, smells, and tastes going on there! I've got a few pictures to share but that is about it. The internet connection is very slow at the hotel but I hope to post some pics for you guys over the next few days.

We finally saw the sun while leaving Calgary!

Getting ready to go into the market

Opening the coconut

Enjoying some fresh coconut water

Big wave tomato grilled pizza

A very Merry Christmas to everyone! Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Cake, Cake, and More Cake

2011-12-11T19:06:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone! Is it really December 11 already? Oh my how time flies when you are busy. I think we are now officially past the busy birthday season in the Little Kitchen. I have been making cakes this fall and it has kept me out of trouble...well almost out of trouble. :)

Since September, I have made 3 cakes for 3 special birthdays! My friend Allison's son had a birthday back in September. Her son is kind of like me and is a Star Wars nut soooooo he got this cake for his birthday:

I found some neat Yoda cakes online and did the best I could with what I knew I could do. I want to try this one again.

Then Nephew's birthday was last week. He has been on a pirate bender so he asked for and got this:

For this pirate cake, I searched for pirate ship cakes online but ultimately did this one on the fly with my own drawings.

Today my friend John-Luke's son celebrated a birthday and being only 1 he loves Elmo so....

Full instructions on how to make the Elmo cake can be found here.

Well, I do hope to be able to make a post or two in the next little while but with this busy season, I make no guarantees. In case a I miss the chance, I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season this year.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Busy But Fun Birthdays

2011-11-26T16:18:00.001-06:00

Times just keep getting more and more exciting in the Little Kitchen! It was birthday weekend! Hubby and the Boy both celebrated their birthdays Saturday!! Everyone had Friday off work and school so we spent the day roaming the city. Partly due to the fact that we had no running water and partly because our day seemed to quickly fill up with appointments and opportunities. First we stopped at the CTV studios at 7:30am (thanks to Susie for setting that up for me) for a spot on their morning show, next we stopped at the sports injury clinic for an appointment and checked up on my stupid ankle which, by the way, is still being stupid. Third, we stopped at the Travel Health offices and the Boy got 4 needles divided between both arms...he is all vaccinated and ready for his exciting trip to Kenya on spring break. After that we stopped at the book store, because at least they had running water. Our last stop of the day was the movie theatre to see the new Muppets Movie. It was an awesome movie! We also stopped for a bite to eat somewhere along the way! It really did feel like we had been out all day....oh wait, we had been out all day....

You see, I don't kid around about being busy!!

Saturday, we ran a few errands then came home as the Boy was having friends over. Then I got myself into the kitchen, cranked the tunes, and starting baking.

I find all too often that I bookmark things from other blogs with the intent of trying things out and half the time I never get to them. This cake recipe is one I knew I would make for birthday day. I found it on Brown Eyed Baker's blog and couldn't resist! Michelle's recipe is for a bundt cake but I don't seem to have a bundt cake pan so I turned this moist cake into cupcakes and Marvel heads. Why not? Here is the link to Michelle's post with the recipe. I used it as is with the exception of the cake pans. The cupcakes took about 17 minutes at 325F and the marvel heads took about 22 minutes.

This cake smells sooooooo good while it is baking. I didn't want to wait for the birthday party. I was tempted to sit in the corner and eat the whole batch by myself. Instead I opted to drink the rest of the rootbeer....

Make this cake a day ahead if you can...the rootbeer flavour gets better as it sits!!!! It is actually quite an easy cake to put together and well worth the rootbeer!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Preparing For The Big Game

2011-11-25T08:41:00.001-06:00

Helloooooo football fans and welcome to the Little Kitchen. I am so glad you dropped by today! I had the amazing opportunity this morning to be on CTV Morning Winnipeg this morning to talk about snacks for the Grey Cup. For my readers South of the border, the Grey Cup is our Superbowl and this year the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in the final game. They will be playing the BC Lions this Sunday in the season finale game!

Here is the link to the segment from CTV Morning Live: Click here to get to the CTV Morning live website, then click on "Grey cup snack attack" to see the clip.

I promised the links to the recipes I used on the show this morning and here they are:

Pulled pork: This you can assemble the day ahead and plug the slow cooker in the morning of the big game. When it falls apart, it is done! If you don't want pork, use chicken thighs or a chuck roast in the slow cooker with your favourite BBQ sauce instead. For a printable version of this recipe, click here.

Pulled pork sammie with coleslaw!

Chicken Wings: Make these beauties the day before and heat them up before game time. provide hot sauce and bbq sauce on the side for dipping! For a printable version click here.

Hummus: The recipe ont his page is for the Hot Wing flavoured hummus. It is truly divine! Again, make it ahead of time and relax during the game! Serve with veggies and pita wedges. You can find a printable version of a hummus recipe here. For a spicier version, called Buffalo Wing Hummus, click here.

Crispy wings baked in the oven

Jalapeno bundles: These are a favourite, easy to make ahead of time and bake just before the game. They are also wrapped in bacon....need I say more? You can find a prinatble version of this recipe by clicking here.

Jalapenos wrapped in bacon....

Brownies: This link has the basic brownie recipe on it. For the footballs shapes, I quadrupled the recipe, coole and iced the brownies (use store bought) then cut them out with a football shaped cookie cutter. The white lines were made with the store bought white icing that is already in the tube...just squeeze and draw! For a printable version of the full recipe, with icing, click here.

Some game day tips:

Plan ahead. Think about what you can make, when you can make it, and when to heat it up. You want to enjoy the game with family and friends, not spend the entire game in the kitchen!

Throw fancy out the window. Keep it simple for the big game. Finger foods are essential. People want to eat, chat, and watch the game not fuss with cutlery.

Make use of the help...precut veggies, premade icing, shredded cheese. Who says you have to do it all yourself?

Make use of things such as tin foil and parchment paper to line your baking sheets. It makes clean up so much easier!

Two words: Paper plates.

Happy game day everyone!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

You're Going Where?

2011-11-19T15:33:00.001-06:00

It has been such an exciting week in the Little Kitchen! There is news to be told!! While baseball is still officially the Boy's first love, in the wake of his injury, he has been exploring other options. He came upon an exciting endeavour being offered by his school through EFtours. After much thought and discussion, we have decided that this opportunity now in front of him to just too good to pass up. I am so excited, I can barely contain myself....The Boy is going......to......KENYA!!!! He will be participating in a voluntour with Free the Children and the Me to We people!!!!!!!!!! What a fantastic opportunity for young people! The itinerary looks amazing! He also gets to go to WE day this week as well!

How can I as a parent not do everything to help make this opportunity happen for my child? I wish I could go!! Of course to help celebrate this event, I have been researching some recipes for Kenyan foods! The one we decided to try first is for a very simple flat bread called Chapati that we found on the internet here. There some other recipes on this page that we hope to try out over the next few months before the Boy leaves on his trip.

Chapati

1 cup flour
1cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp oil
3/4 to 1 cup water
salt to taste (1 used 1/2 tsp)

Mix the flours, salt and oil in a bowl.

Slowly add the water, mixing and kneading as you go. You will know you've added enough water when it comes together to form a slightly sticky but kneadable dough.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and stiff.

Wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap and set aside to rest for at least 30 minutes (or longer).

Heat a fry pan or griddle to medium/high. Split the dough into 6 equal size pieces and dust with flour. Roll each piece out to a thin roundish shape.

Brush the pan or griddle lightly with oil and lay one piece of dough in the pan. Let it cook for about 1 minute on the first side then flip and cook for another minute. Each side should have some browning starting on each side. As you cook the rest of the the Chapati, keep the cooked ones warm.

We find these easy to make flat breads quite tasty and are perfect with hummus and we are looking forward to trying them with other meals.
We are just so excited to be able to help the Boy have this opportunity to travel to Kenya and will keep looking from some regional foods we can make right here in our Little Kitchen.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Between The Crosses, Row on Row

2011-11-11T09:52:00.001-06:00

I know I posted this video on my 9/11 post, but this one is so fitting for Remembrance day. If so inclined, please donate to (or go check out) the Hero fund at Herofund.ca. As the saying goes, We can never give as much as they did. This song also gets me a little teary eyed.

The poppy is a symbol of Remembrance, with thanks to the poem Flanders Fields by John McCrae. McCrae wrote this poem during World War I after being witness to the death of a friend. Poppies flourished in the soil on Flanders' field were the war dead are buried. Due to this, poppies have become the most noted symbol of Remembrance I know. We buy our poppies every year and wear them with pride as a sign that we pause to remember and think about all the brave people who have risked everything for us to be able to live the way we do. Here I've found a video with the poem being recited.

Because of the poppy, I thought baking something with poppy seeds might be in order. Naturally, I immediately thought of lemon poppy seed loaf. Naturally, I turned them into some cupcakes.
I adapted the recipe from the Canadian Living website.

Lemon Poppy seed cakes

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon zest, grated
3 tbsp poppy seeds
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk

Beat together the butter and the sugar until light and pale coloured.

Add the eggs one at the time, beating well after each one. Continue to beat the mixture until it all comes together and is a pale yellow.

Add the lemon zest and mix in.

Most people will tell you to mix the dry ingredients in another bowl, which you can do if you like. I prefer fewer dishes to wash so I just add the flour, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds on top of this mixture. Mix everything together.

Add the milk and mix until it is well incorporated. This batter is quite thick but bakes up oh so tasty!

Line a cupcake tine with liners and divide the batter evenly between the 12 cups.

Bake at 325 F for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While the cakes are in the oven. Mix together 1/2 cup icing sugar with enough lemon juice to make a thick glaze. Put a teaspoon of glaze on the top of each hot cake and let it melt and ooze all over.

Allow the cakes to cool and enjoy! These little beauties got the full thumbs up approval by both Hubby and Boy (and me as well) I will be making these again!)

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

A Southwestern Meatball's Chance in....

2011-11-07T21:03:00.001-06:00

The view from my front door this morning. ACK!

Well, the prairies woke up to a blanket of snow this morning. It was pretty wet snow and it melted off the sidewalks pretty quickly so I don't think it will last. I hope it won't last. I do enjoy the snow and in fact it looked quite pretty out there this morning. I am just not ready for it yet. Also, I think I need a new winter coat but haven't had the time to go shopping yet....It also means there were PLENTY of snowballs being thrown out on the playground today!! (And not by me!!)

Tonight is a gym night, it has to be. I have a headache but I need to go. My local expert tells me it is the best thing to do. When I got home from work I prepared everything to cook dinner. A mise on place if you will. I made the turkey meatballs and placed them in the fridge, cut up all the veggies for the warm corn and black bean salsa. All I have to do when I get home is cook everything and according to the recipe in the October 2011 edition of Clean Eating Magazine, this will only take 10 to 15 minutes to cook....

Mise en place: everything is ready to go

Turkey meatballs ready for the fridge.

Okay, I am back from the gym and ready to cook.

Southwestern Turkey meatball skillet
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine October, 2011

1 lb ground turkey
2 large egg whites (I used one whole egg)
1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (I used wheat germ tonight but don't tell Hubby or the Boy....)
1/4 tsp sea salt (I used kosher)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp olive oil (I may have used a little bit more...
1 cup frozen corn
1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups diced fresh tomatoes
1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used water because I only had broth frozen in 4 cup blocks....)
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1/4 fresh cilantro

I also added
1 onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic

First mix up the meatball mixture. In a bowl mix together the turkey, egg, crumbs, salt and pepper. I also added extra cumin to the meat balls but after eating them, they need way more spice.

Heat a large skillet over medium, add the olive oil, then the meat balls. Brown the meat balls, turning to a new side as they brown for about 5 minutes.

Once the meatballs have a decent brown going on, add in the onions, green peppers, tomatoes, corn, black beans, broth, cumin, and lime juice. Mix everything up, being careful to not break the meatballs up. (This is where I added the garlic. I grated it in with the micro plane...I just love garlic and I am glad I added it)

Slap a cover on the pan and let it all get happy happy for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle on the cilantro and another squeeze of lime juice.

I served this with rice tonight, but the Boy ate his with multi grain tortilla chips.

It really did only take about 15 minutes to cook this dish!! Overall the warm salsa very tasty and I got the approval to make it again. The meatballs were quite bland and I kind of knew they would turn out that way when I started. We decided however to add more spice to the meatballs. The winners of the spice discussion were smoked paprika and come chili flakes along with more cumin. (Perhaps some crushed garlic as well).

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

November Rain, Chicken Noodle Soup & Biscuits

2011-11-06T20:45:00.000-06:00

Here we are on November 6 and it is raining on the prairies. Normally I enjoy a rainy day but in November we run the risk of rain turning into ice and snow. Ice and snow tend to leave layers of slippery ice on the streets and sidewalks. Good thing I have a pair of these to wear on my shoes for my walk to work.

I haven't tried these grippers before but I do hope they help. I do have a tendency to fall and seeing as my ankle is still technically healing from my fall back in June, I am trying to be extra careful! It is a good thing I have these because it just turned to snow out there!!

To help chase this cool rain away I felt the need to make soup and biscuits today. This was one of those days were I started rooting through the kitchen and chopping knowing only that I was making soup and biscuits, just not what kind. As the I was chopping up the veggies for the soup, a good old fashioned chicken noode soup was taking shape. As I searched through the kitchen I found everything I needed for chicken noodle soup. I started out thinking I would make a broccoli cheddar soup, but didn't have enough milk to make both that and the biscuits.

I found cheese, and a jalapeno so I went with my jalapeno and cheese biscuits from this earlier post. I used havarti and cheddar cheeses this time.

Chicken Noodle Soup

4 cup chicken stock (mine was still frozen so I had to thaw it in the microwave)
2 carrots, cut into coins
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
pasta of your choice. (I had a box of spaghetti with just a little bit left in it, so I used that)
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I found 2 breasts left over from the BBQ the other night!)

While chopping your veggies, heat up your soup pot over medium then add the olive oil. Saute the onion for a coulple of minutes with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper.
Add in the rest of the veggies and conitnue to cook for about 5 minutes.
Add in the bay leaves and the stock. Put a lid on it and let it simmer for about 10 minutes before adding the raw spaghetti noodles.
After another 10 minutes, when the noodles are cooked, add in the shredded chicken and simmer until it is heated it through.

While the soup is simmering and getting all happy is the time to get the biscuits shaking and baking. I won't bore you with that recipe here but you can click on the link and find it here.

This afternoon we made a batch of hummus for lunches for the week. It was so tasty, we had some with our soup and biscuits. I found the recipe for a Buffalo Wings hummus in the October issue of Food Network Magazine.

Buffalo Wing Hummus
Adapted from Food Network Magazing, October 2011

3 cups chickpeas, rinsed and drained (save 1/2 cup of the liquid)
2 or 3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup lemon juice (I only had limes, so we used lime juice)
1/4 cup tahini (had no tahini, so we left it out)
1 1/2 tsp paprika (we used smoked paprika and loved the taste)
2 tbsp bbq sauce
2 to 3 tbsp cayenne hot sauce (We used Frank's Red Hot)
1 tbsp white vinegar

Put everything in the blender and bend until smooth. I added about 1/2 cup of water to the mix as it was a bit thick without the tahini.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Summer Lovin', : Little Cabin in The Woods - Canoe Capers and a S'mores Pudding Cup

2011-11-06T16:21:00.000-06:00

I am ashamed to admit that I have had this post almost completely written for a while...a long while....in fact, an embarrassingly long while. With the thoughts of Christmas and the ever impending snowfall, I find myself dreaming back to the lazy days of summer at the Little Cabin. Without further ado, or to much prattling on, I give you, Little Cabin in The Woods:

There has been some excitement out in the woods this year!! After some shopping around and a huge sale at Canadian Tire, The Little Cabin finally got a new canoe! Our old canoe inadvertently got destroyed by some workers who needed space. The circa 1970s fibreglass canoe was still embedded in the ice and snow but the workers needed it moved so they pried it out thus ripping off the hand crafted wood gunwales and tearing out the yoke and one of the seats. It really is a sad sight, this lovely old canoe in such a state.

The new canoe next to the old canoe

We however were craving some time on the water....we went in with my sister and my dad to get this beauty. It was carefully strapped to the roof of my little Calibre....we were on our way to the Woods when a gust of wind came up and promptly removed the canoe from the roof....yes, there was plenty of cussing. A call to my dad to bring us some fresh rope and his canoe knowledge.....and we were back on the road. This new canoe amazingly bounced off the highway and is completely fine, except for a few scratches! (The canoe was hereby named "SS Fell Off The Effing Roof")

Once we got the baby into the water, everything just seemed right. Calm, relaxing, and just plain fun. Nothing beats an early morning paddle on a calm lake.

The Boy and I out on the lake

I even offere a paddle up coffe service for morning paddlers!!

Nephew loved the canoe too!

And away they go!!

Of course we paddled at sunrise, at mid-day, and at sunset but I am not brave enough to take my camera out on the lake so unfortunately I do not have pictures of the fabulous sun set the Boy and I paddled out to watch...completely gorgeous. My summer just isn't complete without at least one sunset!! While the Little Cabin is lake front, we don't get a clear view of the sunset so we do have to either get out on the water or down the road to the beach to see the sunset.

We did get down to the the beach to watch a sunset. See....

That is enough chatter about canoes....what did we eat? Well, on this particular weekend, I made some brownies, and some vanilla pudding....I found some graham crackers and marshmallow....

S'mores Pudding cups

Pudding of your choice. (I used vanilla)
graham crackers, some broken up
brownie of your choice, broken up
marshmallows

This is so easy:
alternate layers of graham pieces with pudding and brownie chunks. Top with a marshmallow and a whole cracker.

Dig in!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Diving Into Darknes and an Upside Down Plum Cake

2011-11-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

I just can't wait for daylight savings time!! It is soooooooo dark in the mornings it feels like the alarm is going off in the middle of the night! Walking to work in the dark is also kind of scary......just sayin'. Perhaps I should take a flashlight.... At least I get home while it is still light out. As we delve deeper into autumn then into the depths of winter, it will be dark at the beginning and the end of the work day. OK, enough about the impending darkness on the prairies, we are after all, here for the food!

The other week we bought a bunch of these cute Italian plums. Hubby loves plums and he figured he'd take them in his lunches to work. The very first day, I got a message from him that read. "These plums are tasty". Followed very quickly by "I just found a worm in the plum". Well, at least it was the whole worm.....right? Understandably, he was a little gun shy about taking any of the plums after that.... ICK!

Now I just can't let a basket of plums sit there and not be baked into something! I started searching the Foodbuzz archives for plum recipes and found this delectable looking upside down plum cake from Boulder Locavore. After checking the cupboards, then running to the store for milk, coming back, starting the baking, it was after 9:00pm. So what did I do? I kept going forcing me to stay up late. Yes, 6:00 am comes quite early but once I started mixing, I just kept going! Did I need the cake for anything? No. But with my Hubby and the Boy both studying for their courses, I needed something to pass the time. Also, the plums make me think of summer....

I slightly adapted the recipe to suit my baking style but this cake is so fabulous you should go check out Boulder Locavore yourself. This cake would go well with other fruit if you don't have plums on hand.

Upside down Plum Cake

· 1/2 cup butter,softened (divided into 3tbsp and 5 tbsp portions)

· ½ cup packed lightbrown sugar

· 2 tablespoons water

· 3 cups pitted plums

· 1 ¾ cups flour

· ½ cup ground almondsor almond meal

· 1 cup white sugar

· 1 tablespoon bakingpowder

· ¼ teaspoon salt

· 1 cup milk

· 2 eggs

· 1 ½ tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Wash and cut the plums into wedges.

Melt 3 tablespoonsbutter and pour into the bottom of a 9 x 9 pan. (I used my spring form pan andthe butter leaked out so play it safe with a regular pan)

Add to the butter in the pan the brown sugar andwater. Stir to combine and spread themixture evenly across the bottom of the pan.

Arrange the plums onthe bottom of the pan and set aside.

In a large mixing combineflour, ground almonds, white sugar, baking powder, and salt.

In anotherbowl, mix together the milk, 5 tbsp of softened butter, eggs, and vanilla.

Add the wetingredients to the dry and beat until well combined, then beat another minuteon medium,

Bake for 45 minutesor until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I ~~think~~ know my cake needed another 5 to 10minutes to bake.

I lost a lot of the brown sugary goodness through the pan....

Allow it to cool for5 minutes on a cooling rack (note: do not allow it to sit longer or it may bedifficult to remove from the pan). Run aknife along the sides of the pan and carefully turn onto a serving plate. Coolabout 45 minutes.

I highly recommend this cake. It was the perfect thing to have for breakfast this morning!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

The Tastiest, Easiest Fudgey Pumpkin Cookies Ever and an Epic Battle

2011-10-25T21:40:00.002-05:00


Gratuitous fudgey pumpkin cookie shot....something to look forward to....

The Nephew slept over Saturday night so I got to spend my birthday with my 3 favourite guys....Hubby, the Boy, and the Nephew! We watched a movie, watched the nephew get over tired from going to 2 other birthday celebrations, and had a massive Nerf dart gun battle. You know you are in trouble when you see this:

Or this.....

The poor little guy, because of the cast, he needed help loading gun for EVERY shot! It still didn't stop him from chasing the Boy into the bathroom and cornering him in the tub though!

Darts were flying everywhere!!

Eventually though, snacks were needed....energy was needed to keep up the battle.....

And to keep everyone happy!

A happy Nephew and his pirate loot!

The moment I saw these, I knew I had to make them. I have made them twice now. Since Sunday. It is only Tuesday. Hubby did take some to work and I did some to my mother in law's for supper last night. Cleo Coyle not only writes the Coffee House Mysteries, she manages to whip up some very tasty treats! Cleo did a guest post on Dying for Chocolate and that post introduced me to Chocolate Fudge Pumpkin Cookies. You only need a few items from the pantry to make these.

A box of devil's food cake mix, a can of pumpkin, vanilla, and chocolate chips!!! For the glaze, all you need is butter, water, pumpkin pie spice, orange colouring, vanilla, and icing sugar. Seriously.....go to the dying for chocolate link, get the recipe, and make these....then go to the Coffee House Mysteries link and check things out.

Mix the mix, pumpkin, and vanilla

Keep mixing....it will come together

Add the chocolate chips

Scoop and bake

Make the glaze

Drizzle with Glaze

Seriously, make these cookies.....I dare you!!

Make sure to check out the blog hop for Melt in you Mouth Monday over at Make Ahead Meals!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Cook For the Cure

2011-10-23T18:35:00.003-05:00

Every week in our staff room, someone has the nasty job of tidying up, running the dishwasher, and bringing in some treats on Friday. It is a neat idea to keep things neat but sometimes it seriously feels like some people use it as a license to leave dirty dishes in the sink and leave their crumbs everywhere. While I was loading the dishwasher, I grabbed a glass from the counter. It turned out is was actually 2 glasses nested together and the outside glass was broken. There was actually a shard of glass on the counter! Lucky for me I notice before a grabbed tightly and pulled the glasses apart!

For the past three years, I have used my clean up week/treat day to raise money for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation through their Cook for the Cure party. All I have to do is register my party online, tell my co workers that on my Friday I will collect donations for the CBCF. Donations are optional and everyone is invited to snack. The CBCF always helps me out by sending items to raffle off, things to use as thank yous such as post it notes and name tag lanyards.

This year's treats included: Brownies with pink icing, pumpkin spice cupcakes with maple brown butter icing, strawberry mini cupcakes with strawberry meringue icing, chocolate cupcakes with chocolate meringue icing, pink strawberry Star Wars sugar cookies, banana bread Marvel heads, and some chips with onion dip and popcorn....you know, just to have some salt!

Between donations and raffle tickets, the lovely people I work with, donated $500!!! WOW! Thank you guys! The prizes sent to my by CBCF were 2 cookbooks with a pink apron attached to each one, 2 pink Webkinz poodles, and 2 pink ribbon travel mugs. Each raffle winner was very happy to win their prize!! I really should have taken pictures, but I left my camera at home the day I did the raffle. (Shucks!)

Anyone interested in donating, please go to this link and click on the 'sponsor me button'.

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1254427&langPref=en-CA

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Tale of Two Mexican Restaurants

2011-10-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

We seem to have a bunch of Mexican restaurants opening up around the city and I must say I am a fan of this concept. Hubby, the Boy, and I have visited two of these restaurants in the past month and have had some pretty darn tasty food! As I write this I am still so full I could fall asleep! The food at both places was delish but at the same time quite different from each other.

Tonight we visited Burrito del Rio on River Avenue. It is a brightly painted, Subwayesque place where they make your food in front of you so you can choose the fillings. Burritos are the main item but they also offer tacos and fajitas. Once you choose from a variety meats such as chicken, carnitas, beef, (or veggie), you can choose from two different types o beans as well as corn, rice, lettuce, jalapenos, cilantro, green onions, and even different sauces and salsas. There is quite a bit to choose from.

I opted to try the pork carnitas burrito tonight. When asked if I wanted the vegetarian black beans or the pinto beans with bacon, I obviously said "the ones with bacon please!" When you order a burrito, seriously, order the medium. It is easily enough food to feed a small army (or a teen age boy). The burrito itself was quite tasty. The sauces were flavourful but I found the carnitas itself to be quite bland and in need of some help from the other ingredients. The medium salsa I had the girl put in the burrito was more of a mild salsa so I think next time I will opt for the hot.

Hubby and the Boy both ordered the beef burritos and varied their options to suit their own tastes. Hubby tells me the hot salsa needed more heat and he resorted to multiple additions of hot sauce. The beef had more of a flavourful, Mexican inspired spice to it than the carnitas did and was quite tasty.

Cost wise, Burrito del Rio was nice. We paid just under $40 for 3 medium burritos, a basket of taco chips with guacamole, 2 can drinks and 1 sangria (I just had to try the sangria. It was from a bottle and not homemade so I was a little disappointed there). We all left full and happy with our food.

Overall the meal was very tasty and filling. I don't think I would order the carnitas again but will definitely give something else on the menu a try. I am not a fan of the basket lined with foil thing they have going on. We all used a knife and fork to eat and that just cut right through the foil. We did notice many people pick up their burritos and eat them like that but I just couldn't fit that in my mouth. We will go back and try more food.

A couple of weeks ago, we tried out another cafeteria style Mexican joint on Henderson called JC's Tacos and More. This is another brightly painted place housed in the old Elmwood post office. Once your read through the board with a decent number of choices, you have to make up your mind!! JC's uses all natural and organic meats so that has been worked into the cost. We paid just over $50 for the three of us to eat here for 3 meals and 3 canned pops. There is also a nice offering of home made sauces of varying heat to try out, each one was delectable.

JC's is a cafeteria style restaurant where you order at the counter. Some of the fillings and items they house up here. Items such as the rice, beans, beef, and carnitas are held up here but lots of prep goes on in the back. Other dinners had ordered a burrito and when this tiny lady walked by to deliver this ginormous burrito to the table next to us, I was suprised she could carry it, it was just that big!!

That night, the Boy was still recovering from his gastritis and order a chicken quesadilla. Grilled chicken fresh ingredients, he truly enjoyed the quesadilla.

quesadilla

Hubby ordered the 3 taco platter with the shredded beef. The platter came with rice and beans. This proved to be quite the filling platter. The shredded beef was quite flavourful and lent a punch to the taco.

3 taco platter

I ordered the enchilada with grilled chicken...I adored this enchilada. The ingredients used were fresh, the grilled chicken in particular was lovely. I wound up taking leftovers home.

Enchilada platter

a bottle of tasty hot sauce

We did enjoy both restaurants will most likely go back to both of them but at the moment I must say I am leaning towards JC's as the food I enjoyed more.

I am so ready for my burrito coma. I will have to save my ice cream for tomorrow....perhaps for breakfast...

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

A Pumpkin Fell into My Cart!!!

2011-10-18T21:53:00.001-05:00

I popped into the store this evening to pick up "just a couple of things" and left with a pumpkin....you know how it goes. They didn't have the hair product I was looking for so I bought food related items instead....sigh. I just really fell in love with fall, pumpkins, and pumpkin seeds! That's right, I just wanted to roast the pumpkin seeds....some roasted/pureed pumpkin is just a bonus.

The Boy wanted to test out some of his carving skills this evening, so I figured why not? I killed the pumpkin and scooped out its brains then prepped the pumpkin seeds or roasting in the oven. I used Boulder Locavore's method of roasting the seeds, they were nice a crisp!

The Boy went to work with sharp utensils and such to see what he could come up with.

When he is done, I will roast up the pumpkin flesh and have some bake worthy goodness to bake with. This is a win-win situation.

I was somewhat disappointed with the amount of seeds in this pumpkin, but that is the chance you take when you buy only one pumpkin!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Fall Check In: Part II

2011-10-16T10:29:00.002-05:00

Well things seem to be moving in the right direction now in the Little Kitchen. ~~It has officially been over a week since we've lasst been to an emergency room for any sort of visit (YAY).~~ We met my sister at the ER yesterday because Nephew broke his arm. The Boy is feeling better, although still on the DL for baseball (disabled list) until his ab. muscle heals. (To be quite honest, he may be driving me a bit batty, but then again, he is a 15 year old boy....who has an injury....)

The boys were all thumbs up and smiles!

My little baking buddy tripped running to the next activity at gymnastics, d'oh! He is such a trooper. The Boy came with me to meet my sister and nephew at the hospital and boy did Nephew's face light up when he saw his big cousin! We brought a lego kit with us and the two of them worked on it while we waited.

Things are looking up though for a few reasons:

1) The beloved Winnipeg Jets are back in town and this town is ecstatic! I am not the biggest hockey fan around, but I understand the significance of this event. The villagers were so sad when the Jets left...even though the Jets lost last their first home game (and the all the games since), it still felt like a win here.

2) Another bonus to this fall season is the Yankees have been knocked out of the World Series! As a true Mets fan, I am not happy with play off season until the Yankees are out. If you don't believe me, you can take note of how I celebrated with last year's Buh Bye Yankees post! I think I will have to bake some pretzels today...

3) This year, not only have the Yankees been eliminated, so have the Phillies! I must admit I am sort of rooting for St. Louis these days. Perhaps because we spent opening day in St. Louis at the festivities and went to a game. I am also rooting for the Texas Rangers as they have had a rough year and it would be nice to see them win

4) While the fall weather has kicked in and it is getting a bit cooler, overall the weather has been wonderful. The leaves are coming down and the geese are gathering but the weather is still working in our favour. (you know, we can stil BQQ!!!)

I really do need to get baking/cooking for you guys. Hopefully things will slow down a bit now and we can bet back to basics!

This is my favourite picture of the day. We stopped to pick up his favourite subway sammie on the way home. He is still a Little dopey from the meds and is wearing my Mets hat! Love the little guy!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Fall Check in

2011-10-16T10:04:00.000-05:00

Why is it ~~Friday~~ Sunday already?? Where is the time going? We just celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last weekend. Usually we pull out all the stops, roast a turkey with all the fixings and eat ourselves into a coma. With the Boy still recouperating from his gastritis and my family all being out of town, we decided to lay low. Saturday we spent the day putting the garden to rest for the winter and raking up some of the many leaves that have fallen. I was able to harvest a whopping 4 wheel barrows full of fabulous compost to put on my garden!! Yay for compost!

We also had the Boy BBQ some fabulous steaks for dinner on Saturday. I have been officially given the boot from BBQing steaks because he does such a wonderful job!

Sunday was the day many Canadians had their dinner with their families. We popped into my Dad's place to help him with his computer issues and to get him packed for a trip. When we came home, the Boy had cooked up a tray of bacon in preparation for some of the tastiest BLTs this side of the 90th parallel! Fresh tomatoes from our now sleeping garden where soooooo tasty!

After that, we headed off to the cheapie theatre to see "Captain America". Quite the great movie, if I do say so myself!!

Sunday, we jumped in the car and headed over to Hubby's Grandmother's place. We spent the afternoon with Hubby's 92 year old Grandma and his Mom. We were going to go to a restaurant but Grandma wasn't up to so we ordered in. Turkey dinners from the local Smitty's restaurant. We watched the Detroit/Texas game of the MLB playoffs. Grandma loves baseball so we always watch a game if it is on while we are there. (This totally reminds me, I still have a post to make about celebrating Grandma's 92nd birthday this summer! D'oh!)

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

We Be Grillin'

2011-10-03T20:10:00.000-05:00

The fall weather is just so lovely right now we want to get every last bit of BBQ time in that we possibly can. Tonight we grilled pizzas! I made up a batch of pizza dough, the boys prepped the toppings, then out to the yard we went or our grilled pizza party! You can either make your own dough or use store bought, it is up to you. Get some help slicing up your favourite fixings, get everyone stretching their own dough and topping their own pizza and you get a whole lot of fun, with everyone pitching in!

Grilled pizza party

The boy works on his pizza

Pizza dough of your choice
toppings of your choice
pizza sauce of your choice
garlic oil
oil
pizza peel or non melting cutting board
tongs

Pre heat the grill, scrape clean, and oil up the grates.

Stretch out the dough into small pizza shapes....the fun here is stretching out your own dough, and making any shape the dough will go.

Brush some oil on to the dough and slap it on the grill.

no worries if some pizzas are funny shapes...it all tastes great!

Close the lid and let the dough bake for a few minutes.

Carefully remove the half baked dough from the grill and flip it over. The cooked side is the side you will arrange your toppings on.

Slide the pizza back onto the grill, close the lid and let it bake a few more minutes.

Enjoy!!

Everyone made their own pizzas tonight and we all made extras for lunch tomorrow!

These pizzas were so darn tasty! They hit the spot and made a great lunch!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Very Busy Fall

2011-10-02T20:20:00.000-05:00

Oh my do I miss you guys! Where has the time gone? Fall has snuck up on us with the changing colour of the leaves, the cooler weather and getting back to school. Between work, baseball, work, a couple of visits to the ER, baseball, Hubby being out of town, and this head cold, I have been busy! I actually have lots of pictures, recipes, and ideas to share but I've had no time to write.

Lots of great baseball weather still!!

We've found some time to go to a couple of fall feasts featuring fabulous local produce, meats, and grains...all the food was absolutely fabulous!

The first dinner Hubby and I went to was out at the St. Norbert Market where we got to wander around to different booths at the Farmers' Feast. We got to talk not only with local chefs but local farmers and producers as well. We definitely left stuffed and ready for a nap!!

Pulled pork sliders and other yumminess

Manitoba beef sliders, and beer

soooooo goood.....

the yumminess continues

Everything is better with bacon!

The second supper the Boy and I went to was the feast out at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach for their Supper from the Fields. We went with Trina and quite the fun drive out there and met Susie and her boys there. We had such a fun time and the food was fabulous!!

The Boy spinning the wheel for the food Manitoba game

Farmers' market

Salads....soooo yummy! Orzo, beets, panzanella

Apple crisp with sunflower brittle

Susie's girl not happy about sitting with the Boy!

The Boy and our bag of free loot!

Fun on the tractor!


Putting his moves on the statue....

Once again, my apologies for the absenteeism, I am working on getting back into the swing of things. As things return to normal around the Little Kitchen, I will continue to post some of the many pictures and recipes I have waiting (some are still from the summer)

The famous Windmill at the Village.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

An Apple Galette to Remember.

2011-09-11T19:54:00.001-05:00

This goes out to each and every hero everywhere.

This song is a personal favourite of mine. It always makes me pause to remember those we have lost and those who still fight. (The Highway of Heroes is a stretch of highway 401 in Ontario and happens to be the route our fallen soldiers are taken when they arrive home. People gather on the bridges along the Highway waving flags and signs to honour the fallne.) It never fails to make my eyes well up.

September 11, 2001 will forever be etched in our minds. It is the focus of the "Where were you when" questions of this generation. I remember where I was, and I know you do as well. I was working in a grade 7 classroom in which the teacher had stepped out for a minute. When he came back, he poked his head in the door and asked "May I speak to you for a minute?". I stepped to the door and he said to me "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!" I stood there perplexed, taking in the statement. I think everyone that day instantly craved more information. What happened? Why did it happen? Are people okay? What we going to do?

The next few days were spent glued to the TV news, reading the papers....The reality of it all was so overwhelming. How could something like this happen?

Today's memorials on TV have been just as emotional to watch. The memories, the thoughts, the hopes that people have been able to move on, recover, and live.

I know how emotional I became just when we visited New York in 2008. Just being at the site brought on so many emotions. As I read through some blogs today, all of them had lovely words of remembrance as well as stories.

Each of us does something different to remember and honour those affected by the tragic events of 9-11. Marla over at Family Fresh Cooking has great idea for those of us who bake. We bake to remember is a great way for bakers to read and share their thoughts and stories about 9-11. We also get to link up our post and see other posts of what everyone has put together.

Today was a busy day but lucky for me I had some pie dough in the freezer. I also had a couple of granny smith apples hanging around....hmmmm....how about an good old apple pie?

1 pie crust of your choice.
2 granny smith apples
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup flour (or 2 tbsp corn starch)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tbsp water

Peel and slice the apples. Mix in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour and set aside.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and roll out the pie crust. Transfer the crust to a baking sheet.

Tip the apples onto the centre of the crust and fold up the edges so they come over the top edges of the apples.

Beat the egg with the water and brush this egg wash on the crust.

Bake in a 400 F oven until the crust is golden and the apples are cooked.

(I think next time I will remember to add some dabs of butter to the top of the apples).

I had some left over pie crust....hmmm......I rolled it out, cut it into strips, gave them a few twists, brushed them with egg wash....then sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar......bake at 400 for 15 minutes....oh my!!

Delish!!

I bake to remember. Enjoy your baking with your loved ones.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Back to Work Cheesey Stuffed Burgers: The Last Meal

2011-09-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

Please don't make me go back...the summer flew by so quickly....I am no where near done with my summer. SIGH...

Now that we have the new BBQ we have used it twice in as many days! After all, we must squeeze in as much summer as possible! The evenings have a chill settling in over them and mornings are quite cool. This is a sure sign autumn is creeping in. SIGH. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the bounty of the garden with fresh tomatoes, corn, carrots, and beets almost at the ready but the fact that dusk is settling in around 8:30 pm means we are getting closer to cooler weather. I do look forward to the beautiful fall colours and the change....I just wish winter didn't last so darn long.

Some of our garden bounty

I dubbed tonight's dinner "Last meal" as it is my last dinner of summer vacation. I really can't complain, I do get 2 months off....but going back is just so darn hard. Tomorrow morning I actually have to get out of bed when that alarm goes off instead of giving Hubby the boot....ACK!! I will definitely need my morning tea, my mid morning tea, my lunch hour tea, and my mid afternoon tea.....or perhaps a caffeine patch of some sort.

While assembling the meat and fixings to make burgers this afternoon, I decided that I wanted to make these burgers a little more special so I tucked cheese in the middle of each burger. But you know what? That wasn't special enough for me so I made some pretzel rolls. Guess what? It still needed something else so I cooked up the rest of that bacon left over from making that sinful pie.

The Boy manned the BBQ again tonight...he does such a fabulous job cooking up burgers!

The boy certainly chose the most comfy chair possible for his BBQ session!

Cheese stuffed burgers. This made 9 burgers tonight.

3 lbs ground beef
2 small onions
1 egg
2/3 cup bread crumbs
salt
pepper
9 slices cheese (I used processed cheese slices today but any think square of flavourful cheese will do)

Grate the onion, mix in a healthy pinch of salt and a healthy pinch of pepper.

Add the ground beef and bread crumbs.
Gently mix by hand.
Divide beef mixture into equal portions. For these burgers, I used a 1/3 cup measure. (Next time I will use a 1/4 cup measure for each half, just so the burgers aren't so big...they were soooooo filling!)

Each measure will be joined with another to make sandwich cheese in the middle.
Flatten out half of your meat lumps and pair them with another portion of meat.
Fold a slice of process cheese into quarters.

Place a quarter in the middle of each patty.

Take the partner meat lump, flatten it out and place on top of the other. Make sure to gently pat and form the patty to seal the edges.
Let the patties rest in the fridge

We had a couple of cheese blowouts!!!

How could you not enjoy these??

Have a great week everyone. Wish me luck on surviving my first week back!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

If Sin Was a Pie, Then this Pie is The Biggest Sin EVER

2011-09-04T22:13:00.000-05:00

Happy Bacon Day!!

Yup! That's right...this pie has bacon on the top of it....yes, it is an apple pie. Yes, it tasted so good, it was sinful!! I needed something a little sinful so close to the end of summer...

Tuesday will be my first day back at work...my summer is over and a new school year begins. No more sleeping in, no more staying up late, no more fun...no wait, that's not right. Fun is always to be had, sleeping in and staying up late will happen on the weekends! All is good. This week was much better than the week before.

It was a busy week!!

The show "Wicked" was in town, and it was just that, Wicked!! Amazing!!!

Trips to the gym, Cost co, and just plain getting ready for the back to school season....felt busy, but good.

The Boy and I made perogies (with a cheddar bacon potato filling). He did a fabulous job pinching perogies. Although I don't think we got as many in the freezer for fall as I wanted. Many perogies fell into his mouth as soon as they were boiled! I am surprised he didn't burn his mouth! We had fun and they tasted great.

BBQs went on sale at Home Depot so we upgraded. You know, from no BBQ to one so big it is like challenge to see just how much food I can fit on the grill. We are working on some ribs for the inaugural BBQing. The Boy helped with the ribs as well. I think my kitchen job is in danger!

Now on with the sin....It felt so sinful just thinking of making this pie, never mind actually baking it. I originally got this idea from Karen at Tasty Trials. I had bookmarked this recipe when she first posted it and National Bacon Day seemed like the perfect time to try it out. Now I didn't follow her recipe exactly, I mean how many of us actually do follow the recipe? Karen is much like me and usually forgoes recipes. Recipes are really just guidelines. Once you know the methods, you can change it up.

Sin is In Apple Bacon Maple Pie

Printable recipe here

Pie crust of your choice (homemade or store bought)

14 slices Bacon (10 slices for the top weave and 4 to cook and crumble)

reserved bacon grease

8 granny smith apples

Squeeze lemon juice

1 tsp cinnamon

½ cup maple syrup (give or take)

¾ cup brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ cup white sugar

springform pan (or a deep dish pie plate)

Roll out a thicker bottom pie crust than you normally would. (you want a substantial base for all the apples and bacon.) Chill the pie crust until ready to use.

On a piece of parchment, construct a weave of bacon. Place in a cold oven and turn oven on to 300F. Let the bacon weave bake away until slightly crisp but not overly crispy as it will continue to cook on the top of the pie.

In a large fry pan, fry the last 4 slices of bacon until crisp. Be careful not to burn the bacon or the pan. Drain the bacon on paper towels and cool. Save the bacon fat in a bowl for later.

Peel, core and slice your apples. Toss with some lemon juice. Mix with the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour.

Add the white sugar to the hot pan with the bacon grease and tasty bits to start the caramelizing process. Add in about ¼ cup of maple syrup.

Tip the apples into the pan and cook until caramelly and thickened but you don’t want the apples cooked through. Let the mixture cool.

Crumble the four slices of bacon and mix in with the apples.

When the bacon weave is cooked, but not crisp, remove it from the oven and place it on paper towels to drain.

Remove the pie crust from the fridge and brush the entire surface with bacon fat.

Pour the apples and syrup mixture into the crust and bake at 400F for 20minutes. Check the pie, if the edges are over browning, cover with foil and bake another 10 minutes.

Top the pie with the bacon weave. Brush the bacon with 2 tbsp maple syrup. Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove pie, brush bacon with more maple syrup, reduce oven temp to 300. Bake for another 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pie, brush again with maple syrup and bake for another 12 minutes.

Resist eating the pie until it has cooled somewhat... you don't want to burn your mouth!!

Serve while in the company of good friends!
I am not going to lie to you....this was absolutely divine!!! Discussion actually touched on the topic of 'too much bacon' (if you can believe it). Suggestions were made of perhaps a litte extra bacon in the pie and no weave on the top....as nice as the weave of bacon looked, it was a LOT of bacon! The caramelly/maple goodness went sooooo well with the bacon. This pie is a must to try at least once!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

A Fresh Week, A Fresh Outlook, and My Mini C-Cups

2011-08-29T01:15:00.001-05:00

First I would like to wish everyone on the Eastern Seaboard of North America all the best and I hope everyone is safe and sound after Irene passed through. My thoughts are with you all.

The Little Kitchen is soooooo ready for a new week to start, even if it is my last week of holidays! I am going to be honest with you: I am glad this week is officially over. Things can only really get better from here. We are a little lost with out the BBQ at our disposal. You never realize how much you use an item until some jerk steals it from your back yard. We are also adjusting to life as a one cat house after the heartbreaking passing of our beloved Daisy. Daisy was the first family pet we got when we moved into our current house 10 years ago. We didn't choose her, she chose the boy. We had heard through the grapevine the local animal hospital had a litter of cats dropped off for them to adopt out. The Boy and I stopped by to visit them and "think about getting a cat". Well let me tell you, the vet's assistant brought Daisy into the room and put this sweet, midnight black kitty on the table. Daisy walked over to the boy, put her head on his shoulder and started purring....she had found her human.

I used to wonder why nothing ever grew in that pot, it was Daisy's nap spot!

Needless to say, we took her home with us that night and from then on, she was the Boy's protector. Standing in between us if he was in trouble, scratching at his bedroom door to be let in, and cozying up to him while he read.

This was a tough week and I know that in the grand scheme of things we have had tougher weeks. We will get through. We always do. The summer really has been a great summer so we are doing our darnedest to not let last week keep us down!

Friday morning helped, I got an email telling me I place 3rd in Canadian Beef's 'Who Rues the Grill' contest for my Chipotle lime Flank steak!! Yay!! Of course now I wish my BBQ hadn't been stolen...ACK!

Zombie head and mini cupcakes cheer me up!

One of the ways I relieve stress is to bake. With all the zucchini coming out of the garden, I can't help but keep making Chocolate Zucchini cake! This time I changed it up a bit and added some coconut! I don't mind telling you that I needed a moment alone with these cupcakes....they were just that good!

Chocolate Zucchini Coconut Cake

Printable recipe

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup oil (you can also use all butter if you wish, omit oil and use ¾ cup butter in total)

1 3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp coconut extract (1 ½ tsp, or 2 if you like it more coco nutty flavor)

1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk soured with 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2 cups zucchini, grated (or shredded)

1 cup cup chocolate chips (optional, but why would you leave those out?)

1 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Pre heat oven to 350F

In a bowl and set aside until ready to use, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a bowl and a hand mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease....) cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time until mixed in. Mix in the coconut extract and buttermilk. Keep the mixer going for a few minutes on medium low until the mixture is a nice pale yellowish colour.

Now find the bowl you set aside with the dry ingredients and add it all to the mixing bowl. Mix until well combined.

Add in the zucchini, coconut, and the chocolate chips, and once again mix to combine.

Now scoop the batter into a pan that has been greased and floured or muffin tins with liners.

Bake minicupcakes for 15 to 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Zombie cupcakes make good eats and make us laugh!

Coconut Frosting

4 tbsp softened butter
4 cups icing sugar
2 tsp coconut extract
enough water to make icing the right consistency (about 4 tbsp or so)

Cream butter with extract and sugar. Add the water 1 tbsp at a time until icing reaches the desired consitency. Thinner for dipping, slightly thicker for piping.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Unbelievable

2011-08-24T09:44:00.000-05:00

Last night, while we slept, some jerk stole my beloved BBQ from my backyard!!! GRRRRRRR!!! Whatever am I going to do now?

Until next time, stay warm, eat well, and tie your things down!

I Can't Believe We Ate The Whole Thing Peach Pie

2011-08-22T22:39:00.002-05:00

Disappointments happen all the time. One minute you think you have a gorgeous crop of tomatoes.

Then you take a closer look and find this.

Bottom rot!! ARRRRRGGGGGG! At least we can still use the top part of the tomatoes....SIGH

Have you ever had one of the weekends that was just one disappointment after another? We just had one of those weekends that just spilled out onto Monday. Nothing seemed to go right. The Boy didn't make the baseball team he tried out for, we came back early from the Little Cabin due to a malfunctioning water pump, the car needs a bunch of work and we have a sick cat to top it off.

Oh, and Canada lost a wonderful man today, NDP leader Jack Layton passed away in the wee hours of the morning. It is a sad day for our nation. You can read Mr. Layton's last letter to Canadians here. He always had a way with words.

Needless to say, we are feeling a bit down. How to cheer ourselves up??? Well, a movie with lots of explosions and shooting helps....you know what else helps??

Bacon. Bacon always helps. We made BLT sammies for lunch today....let me tell you, they hit the spot!!

The Boy even made some scrambled eggs to go with the sammies!

Now, my whole weekend wasn't a complete bust. On Sunday I baked a pie! I don't bake pies too often and I am always nervous about how the crust will turn out. This pie turned out absolutely fabulous!!! How fabulous you ask? Four of us ate the entire pie....the boy had 3 pieces....after a full on steak dinner.....need I say more?

On The Fly Peach and Strawberry Pie
Printable recipe

For the pastry:
4 cups flour

1 tsp kosher salt

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cups butter

1 cup ice water (you most likely won’t need the entire cup)

For the filling:
5 -6 peaches
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
squeeze of lemon juice

1 egg, beaten to brush the pastry

Put butter and water in the freezer to chill

Mix the flour, salt, sugar together in a bowl

Grate frozen butter with cheese grater to get lots of small bits of butter to mix in with the flour. It should resemble coarse crumbs.

Pour ½ cup of ice water into the butter flour mixture and mix quickly to keep from warming the dough. Add more water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough comes together when squeezed.

You don’t want the dough wet...kind of like a biscuit or scone dough. Tip the entire mass of doughy crumbles onto the counter. Fold the mass over onto itself, pressing flat each time and turning. You will quickly see the dough come together and see the layers of flakey goodness you are creating.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. This will give you 4 single crusts or 2 double crust pies. Wrap and freeze the dough you won’t use for another time and wrap and chill the dough you are using for a good ½ hour.

Cut an x on the bottom of the peaches just through the skin.

plunge the peaches into boiling water for 1 minute then plunge them into ice water. Using a paring knife and starting at the x incision, peel the skin off the peaches.

Slice into the peaches around the pit, twist to remove the peaches from the pits and slice the peaches.

Toss peaches with ½ cup of sugar, 2 tbsp cornstarch, and a squeeze of lemon....add sliced strawberries.

Roll out one pie crust and line the pie plate. Brush the bottom crust with beaten egg. (This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy). Tip in the peach/strawberry filling.

Roll out the top crust. You can cut the crust into strips to make a lattice top if you’d like.

Add some spots of butter to the top of the fruit.

Cut the edges down, crimp the edges, and brush with beaten egg.

Bake in a pre heated 425F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F Bake for 30 to 40 minutes more. If the edges get over brown, cover with tin foil and continue to bake until done.

Allow to cool to warm before serving and make sure to serve with vanilla ice cream or vanilla frozen yogurt!

Seriously, this was so tasty, I am making it again for a dinner guest this week!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Peanut Butter Pie For Mikey

2011-08-16T22:28:00.001-05:00

All week I have been seeing lovely posts and photos of this fabulous peanut butter pie. These posts all have significant meaning. They are in support of Jennie from In Jennie's Kitchen, her daughters, and the memory of her husband Mikey. Jennie and the girls lost Mikey so suddenly last week to a heart attack. Such tragedy to a young family is heartbreaking. It genuinely makes you want to hold the ones you love close and never let go. Bloggers across the Internet have shown their support by making this pie, it is about time I did the same. Better late than never. My heart goes out to Jennie and her girls. I have never met them in person but I empathize and think about how I would react if I were in the same situation. I have no idea how I would react, it is just too scary a thought...I adore that Jennie asked everyone to make this pie in his memory and spend time with our loved ones. She made us all stop and enjoy each other's company, thank you Jennie. My thoughts are with you.

Tonight we had Hubby's father over for dinner so for dessert I decided to make Mikey's peanut butter pie. Mmmm! Now I know why it was his favourite! Father in law didn't stay for dessert but my dad popped by so we brought it out and shared the pie. It is divine.

Mikey's Creamy Peanut Butter Pie
Printable recipe
Serves 10 to 12
8 ounces chocolate cookies (or the equivalent in cookie crumbs...I like to buy the cookies already crumbed.)
4 tablespoons butter, melted
4 ounces finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs.
Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well.
Press mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 9-inch spring form pan. (I like using the bottom of a measuring cup to get clean corners)

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.
Pour over bottom of cookie crust and spread to the edges.
Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate and put the crust in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Beat the cream using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Set aside in the fridge for later.
Put the softened cream cheese and peanut butter in a bowl. Beat on medium until light and fluffy.
Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar.
Dump in the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Mix on medium until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream).
Fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour the filling on to the crust.
Allow to chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving.
I like to cut up some peanut butter cups to toss on top with a drizzle of chocolate!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Little Cabin in The Woods - Bannock

2011-08-15T21:56:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh, my happy place....the little cabin in the woods....truly peaceful, calm, relaxing....especially when the water looks like this:

Perfect and calm, like glass.....the perfect day for a paddle on the lake! As a matter of fact, the Boy is waiting for me on the dock!!

"Wish my Mom would stop taking pictures and get in the canoe....."

Things in our neck of the woods have gone from super soaked to super dry...so dry in fact that all back woods travel, cooking/bonfires, and hiking has been forbidden. Unless you want a 450 dollar fine for committing such things, I suggest you don't. We had a close call the other Monday (Civic Holiday Monday, August 2). The Boy and I went out on the lake for an early paddle in the new canoe. It was while we were on the other side we heard sirens and helicopters. These are odd sounds for the middle of the lake so we knew something was up. Later while we were eating a late breakfast at the cabin, water bombers started swooping in low over the cabin and into the river.

Hmmm....something strange was definitely going on.

Turns out there was a small (1/3 of a hectare) forest fire burning not too far from the Cabin near Nutimik...ACK!!! Luckily this fire was spotted early and It got doused early. Whew! We have had dry years and forest fire threats such as this one from 1984.
Unfortunately the travel and fire restrictions mean I couldn't use a fire to bake. That is just fine by me, I would rather have my forest in tact!

Bake on the fire? Yes, that is what I said. I made bannock on the BBQ that weekend but what I really wanted to do was cook it the old fashioned way: it on a stick over the fire. Alas, that will have to wait until the fire ban is lifted.

Crsipy, banocky goodness.....still hot!!

Bannock is a traditional Aboriginal biscuit-like simple bread with Scottish origins. You can read more about the history of bannock here, and here. Almost like a baking powder biscuit. I baked mine on the BBQ in a cast iron skillet but I remember my camp days of wrapping a rope of dough around a stick and cooking it over an open fire. We will have to do that after some rain has fallen and the fire ban is lifted!

The recipe is simple. Traditionally any type of fat on hand would be used such as cooking grease, lard, bacon drippings. I stuck with butter on this one but I do know that at camp we used lard. When the kids make bannock at school I believe they use shortening.

This proved tasty and went well with breakfast!

Bannock

4 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp baking powder
4 tbsp butter, shortening, or lard
2 cups cold water (you may not need all the water so hold back a little)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add the butter. (I like to use the cheese grater to shred the butter, it helps incorporate the fat into the flour)
Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add most of the water and mix. The dough will be slightly dry.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and fold the dough over onto itself a few times, patting it down in between each folding,...just like when making scones. Just when you think the dough won't come together, it does!
Pat the dough into a flat disk. If using a baking sheet, make the dough no more than 2 inches thick.

Toss onto a well oiled pan and bake at 400 for 20 to 25 minutes, or on the BBQ using indirect heat for 20 to 25 minutes.

Flip the bannock over so you can get a nice brown crust on both sides. (You probably won't need to flip the bannock if you are baking it in the oven)

Cut into wedges and serve!

Bannock is great served with butter, jam, honey, good for making breakfast sammies........ best eaten warm.

While driving to the Farmers' Market, I took some photos of how smokey it got out in the Whiteshell. Manitoba Conservation assured me the smoke was from forest fires burning in Ontario. Yikes!

Smoke on the water........

Smoke on the road as well

Well, I am hoping for a really good rainfall, until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Please Help Us Meet Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

2011-08-14T11:24:00.000-05:00

Traditions can be fun, especially when they involve meeting someone you admire, or look up to, or they are a celebrity you follow. I said follow, not stalk. There are laws you know!

Back in 2002, Trina and I met Martha Stewart. She was in town being honoured at a dinner by the Asper School of Business. We were fortunate enough to get to attend the dinner and meet the woman herself. Why do I bring this up you ask? Well I ask because now Trina and I have the opportunity to meet Buddy Valastro, The Cake Boss himself! We have both entered our cakes in the Bake Boss contest sponsored by Redpath Sugar on Facebook.

You can help us out by going to the Redpath Sugar voting page and voting for our cakes! Trina and I are so hoping to continue this tradition and greatly appreciate your vote.

Since you will have to scroll through the cakes to find them, Trina's cake is the mermaid cake:

My cake is the Plants vs zombies cake:

Trina and I have been vying for votes and are now falling behind in the contest. Please take a moment to go to the Redpath Sugar Voting page and vote for our cakes.

Just imagine the fabulous post I can share after Trina and I meet Buddy Valastro!!

Thank you for voting!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Marvel-ous Zucchini Chocolate Cakettes

2011-08-11T15:45:00.003-05:00

The season's first zucchini, fresh from the garden!

Bless me fellow bloggers for I have a confession to make....it wasn't a pretty sight......my Tupperware and other assorted containers got completely out of control! I didn't know where to put them anymore. It seems no one else knew where to put them either. Lids and containers stood perilously on counters, fridge tops, and window sills. The slightest of miscalculations in movements would cause a landslide of plastic container hell to come tumbling down. It was unsightly, it was bothersome, it was not what the Little Kitchen needed. Especially since I have been on holidays for a while....how did I let it come to this?

A small portion of the un matched and un used plastic explosion!!

Too much time in the hammock? Too distracted by Cleo Coyle novels? Too many doctor appointments? Who knows. I think I have fixed it.....for now....as long as everyone else co operates...I mean there are only 3 of us in the house. It must be the cats getting into the plastic containers messing them up and hiding lids....hmmmm.

Neatly stacked, lids stored

Lids!!!

Now that I have cleared away the clutter, it is time to de-stress with some baked goods! These honestly made me giggle while baking...I am sure the boys assumed I was up to no good: they were right. I turned zucchini into chocolately cakey goodness.....it just so happens the cakes were in the shape of Marvel superheroes! (A special Thank you to my sister for picking these up at the Williams Sonoma when she was in Oklahoma City, OK!!!!!! According to the sales lady, it was the first day they had them and my sister snagged it up!! THANK YOU!)

Best Cake pan ever!!!

I can assure you that chocolate zucchini cake is a delectably moist and chocolately cake, you won't taste the zucchini at all, just chocolatey cakey goodness!

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
Printable version

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk soured with 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups zucchini, grated (or shredded)
3/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Pre heat oven to 350F

In a bowl and set aside until ready to use, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or a bowl and a hand mixer, or in a bowl with a wooden spoon and some elbow grease....) cream together the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time until mixed in. Mix in the vanilla and butter milk. Keep the mixer going for a few minutes on medium low until the mixture is a nice pale yellowish colour.

Now find the bowl you set aside with the dry ingredients and add it all to the mixing bowl. Mix until well combined.

Add in the zucchini and the chocolate chips, and once again mix to combine.

Now scoop the batter into a pan that has been greased and floured or muffin tins with liners.

This pan takes 1/2 cup of batter per form.

Make sure the batter gets into all the nooks (ears) and crannies!

Bake cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
With this pan, I give it a shimmy shake to make sure the cakes are loose. After a 10 to 15 minute rest, flip them out onto a rack to cool.

Oh Thor, you are so handsome!!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Trip to the Farmers' Market

2011-08-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

Hi, my name is Lori and I am addicted to Farmers' Markets....whew....that is a load off! Hubby knows me a little too well so Saturday morning when he was still snoozing, the words "No worries, I can go to Lac du Bonnet by myself" got him out of bed and dressed so fast, you'd never know it was before 9:00am! Apparently I am not to be trusted at the farmers' market alone. Even a small scale one such as the Lac du Bonnet market. I tend to get over excited, spend more money than I should on things we don't need.....I like having a 3kg tub of honey to use for baking!! Now I wonder what would happen if I attempted the St. Norbert Farmers' Market....

Produce is finally starting to pop up at the local farmers' markets and I couldn't be happier! While my garden is doing fairly well, especially the tomato plants which have become too heavy for the cages, I don't have room to plant everything I wanted. On the same note, not everything I planted is thriving. Luckily we have some amazing markets to help pick up the slack!

Last weekend, the only thing I really wanted from the market was some local honey as I was all out! I found a vendor selling honey and honey products (YES!) They didn't have the 3kg buckets yet but I am happy with my 1kg jar of unpasteurized honey!! ($7.50). We also purchased a small jar of habanero pepper jelly. This stuff is sweet with a big kick!

This sounds like the makings of a marinade.....hmmmmm. I have since used this on both a whole chicken and on chicken pieces!!

Habanero Honey Dijon Marinade

Equal amounts of:

runny honey
habanero pepper jelly
Dijon mustard
olive oil

So if you use 1 tbsp each of everything, you will have a 1/4 cup of marinade

Mix in a pinch of salt and pepper.

Pour it all into a zip top bag, add your meat (I used chicken for this one and I had no zip top bags so I mixed it in a bowl!)

Pop it into the fridge to rest for at least 4 hours or overnight.
(Alternatively, you can rub this all over a whole chicken and pop it into the oven to roast....make sure to get some of this goodness under the skin as well)

Chicken pieces doused in this marinade grill up perfectly on the BBQ!

Some more sights of the the Lac du Bonnet Farmers' market

Pickles, relishes, mustard....

More fantastic honey products!

Tree saplings

Of course the Car B Cue was there!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Little Cabin in the Woods

2011-08-02T22:56:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone! I am still around and just thought I should check in. The Boy and I decided to spend the extra time at the Little Cabin in the Woods. I am typing on my Blackberry so this is a short and sweet note to say Hello to everyone and welcome to new followers. I am so excited to see I have reached 55 followers! I can assure you I have been busy cooking and baking so there are many new posts on the way! I hope everyone is getting a chance to enjoy their summer.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Simple Desserts Make the World go 'Round

2011-07-24T11:40:00.001-05:00

I love desserts....there....I said it. It is out there.... I love desserts! Now of course I don't have desserts all too often. I would if I could, but I can't....sigh....

One of my indulgences includes a subscription to Everyday Food Magazine. I love the ideas, tips, and recipes in this magazine. I found this recipe last summer in one of the editions and instantly knew I wanted to try it out. An instant hit I tell you. I seem to only make this when we are at the cabin. Not sure why but that is just the way it happens.

Last summer's plum custard was a complete hit!!

This fruit custard type of dessert is so ridiculously easy...chop or slice up some soft fruit, whizz up the batter in the blender, bake....It is also so ridiculously yummy!!!

The original recipe is a Raspberry Custard but I have actually never used raspberries to make it. Raspberries never last long enough to cook with around here....we just eat them. Yup....stand in the garden and eat them. It is a wonder they actually ever make it into the house!!

Ahh dessert at the cabin....relaxing no matter what!

Sorry, I was rambling there....Plums work so well, strawberries, any soft fruit or berry will work.

Fruit custard
Printable recipe

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
3 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups soft fruit or berry of your choice (or a mixture!)

Pre heat oven to 400F

Melt butter in a pie plate (or cast iron skillet).

Place everything but the fruit and 1 tbsp of sugar into the blender and give it a whir.

Oh....why yes....there IS duct tape holding the blender together.
A word about the cabin blender....it is a well loved plastic jar blender that used to be my sister's. It was once dropped....the poor thing cracked a little.
Thank goodness there is always duct tape around! That duct tape has been holding this blender together for ages...it just keeps holding on!!
It still blends, even makes an amazing daiquiri!!

Swirl the melted butter around the pan and pour the rest of it into the blender and whir it all up again until the batter is smooth.

Spread the fruit out in the pan evenly.

A combo of strawberries, peach, plum, blueberries.....

Pour the batter on top.

Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tbsp sugar over the entire custard.

Pop it all into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. The custard will puff up a bit and be set in the middle. Feel free to throw the broiler on for a couple of minutes to brown up the top....just watch it carefully!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Too Hot To Bake Bread??? Bah!

2011-07-18T22:35:00.001-05:00

The weather has been hot and steamy here on the prairies! I am not going to complain about the heat because we spend all winter complaining about the cold. We deserve weather like this, really we do! We endure the deep dark depths of a prairie winter to get these glorious long, hot, sultry days of summer. We spent the weekend at the Little Cabin on the dock. We had our sun brellas out, our sunblock on, and our books in hand. When we got too hot, we jumped into the water to cool off. I mean, really cool off. You do have to brace yourself for the cold but after the heat it is just so gloriously refreshing.

I so wanted to bake some fresh bread at the Little Cabin but I dare not turn the oven on for fear of heating the place up even more! The heat and humidity make for perfect bread rising conditions....hmmmm.... What to do, what to do.....

Fresh BBQ Bread (you can do this with any bread recipe you want. I just had all purpose flour at the cabin)

Printable recipe

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp olive oil
3 - 4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt

Combine the honey and the water in a bowl, stirring to mix and dissolve the honey. Add the yeast and give it about 10 minutes to get all foamy and ready to go. Then add the olive oil.

Add 1 cup of flour and mix with a wooden spoon. Now add the salt and another cup off flour.

Keep adding the flour 1 cup at a time until you can mix no more.

Now knead the dough by hand for a few minutes until the dough is soft and elastic.

Place the ball of dough back in the bowl, cover with a clean towel to rise until double in size. (anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes, or sooner if hot and humid!)

Punch the dough down and form it into an oblong loaf.

Now you can either use a baking sheet or tin foil that has been doubled up. Either way, dust the surface with flour to keep it from sticking to the baking surface.

Baking sheet

Double layer of foil - use a board to slide the foil on and off the grill

Cover with a clean towel and allow it to rise until double.

Preheat the BBQ on high for about 10 minutes. Depending on your BBQ you have a few options. This BBQ has four burners so I turned off the middle 2, left the outside 2 on and placed the bread in the middle, on the burners that are off. We are using indirect heat to bake the bread.

Bake for about 15 minutes, lift the lid to peek after 10 minutes but remember that when you lift the lid, you let ALL the heat out and it will take a couple of minutes for the heat to build back up again.

Until next time, stay cool and eat well.

Little Cabin in The Woods - Ribalicious

2011-07-17T20:07:00.001-05:00

Before the summer started, Hubby and I were pondering what we would do for meals while at the lake. The budget is tighter during the summer as I am not working, and that means no $$. Our lovely friends at HMG Meats and Deli (For those in Winnipeg, HMG Meats and Deli is at 642 Leila Avenue, 339-8406)
came out with some amazing deals on freezer packs of meat....and I mean amazing. We bought one of these packs with the the cabin in mind. The only thing we need to pick up at the store before heading out to the woods is our fruit and veggies! It really has been working out quite well. One of our feasts at the lake was ribs.....done on the BBQ......drool.......

You may remember the BBQ disaster on Christmas....turns out it actually was too cold for the propane. I have heard that next time we should keep the tank covered. Apparently propane can actually get too cold to burn...you would think I would have known that, being a prairie dweller....

I used the Alton Brown Dry rub which is essentially a ratio, the rub is basically 6:1:1:1. (All in tbsp)
The day before you plan to cook your ribs, prepare the rub. In a bowl combine:

6 tbsp light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp chilli powder (sometimes I use paprika instead)
1 tbsp of any mixture of spices (this is where you can really alter the mixture to suit your taste):

for example:
½ tsp cayenne
½ tsp old bay
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp dried thyme
(as long as you combine 3 tsp of spices, you will get the last 1 in your ratio)

Prepare the rub by mixing everything together.

If the skin type film on the back of the ribs hasn't been removed, remove it by slipping a knife under the skin, do your darnedest to get a grip and pull it off.

There it is....gently and firmly pull that off!

Keep pulling...

Sprinkle on the rub and well, rub it all in.....

Wrap each rack (tee hee) in foil and let it rest in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Open one end of the foil and add some liquid. You can use beer, juice, wine, broth or stock or even water.

Slow cook in the oven for a few hours (at 250F) or on a low, indirect heat on the BBQ.

Once cooked, slather on the BBQ sauce of your choice and slap 'em on the grill to crisp up the ribs.....

Meat and carbs.......

Enjoy!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Nacho Lunch: Busy Summer Days

2011-07-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

Even though the Boy and I are officially on holidays, it seems as though we have been busier than ever! Between catching up on medical appointments and baseball playoffs it seems like we haven't been home much! City playoffs are going on so we didn't get to the cabin but that's okay we got to watch the team blow 2 games, 2 players and 1 coach get ejected, one big win and one oh so tense come from behind win....whew...it was a busy weekend. Not to much to report food wise....well okay that's a complete lie I have oodles of pictures of tasty food ready but I just have to find the time to write the posts.

Today for lunch the boy and I used some left over grocery store rotisserie chicken to make some super duper chicken nachos! Yeah! That's right, we had nachos for lunch and it was delish!!

Line a baking sheet with parchment, pour on some multi grain chips, top with chopped peppers, onion, tomatoes, chicken, cheese, and anything else you feel like having (hot peppers, olives......)

Here's to making more time for writing!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

A Canada Day Weekend With Canadian Beef!

2011-07-06T22:12:00.001-05:00

Remember to stop to smell the flowers!!

OK, so life gets busy sometimes and I didn't actually get to grill this fabulous steak until Canada Day, which unfortunately was after the end of the Who Rules the Grill contest. I even wrote the post last week and got all ready to grill, take photos and post... Oh well, I wound up popping this steak into the freezer. The great part was that as the steak thawed in the fridge, it continued to soak up some tasty, tasty marinade!!

So without further ado, I give to my a little too late grilled steak sammies:

Pop quiz, what do you do when the package of Canadian beef you bought comes with 2 flank steaks? What do you do? What do you do? I will tell you what you do, you enter the Who Rules the Grill contest being hosted by the wonderful people at Canadian Beef. The other day I made a tasty chipotle lime steak salads, they were so yummy and hit the spot after a couple of ball games. Last night I tossed together a soya sauce based marinade and stored the flank steak in the fridge overnight.

Gingered Flank Steak

1 flank steak
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/4 cup low sodium soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 1/2 tsp ginger powder (you can also use fresh grated ginger)
3 green onions, roughly chopped
1 large zip top baggie

See? Canadian beef!!!!

And a nice looking piece of Canadian beef too!!!

Place all your ingredients but the flank steak into the zip top baggie and mash it all up with your hands.

Add in the flank steak, squeeze out all the air and seal it. Mash/mix it all up with your hands to ensure the entire steak is coated in tasty goodness.

Store it in the fridge until you get home from work.

Take the bag o'steak out of the fridge and set it aside to come to room temperature while you prep other items such as salad fixin's, onions and mushrooms! (You gotta have sauteed mushrooms and onions on your sammie!)

One neat time saving item I found at the store was this package of Texas style garlic toast....all ready to toast or grill! SCORE!!

It came with 2 loaves of 8 slices...perfect for grilled steak sammies!!

Pre heat the BBQ and get it smokin' hot.

Also get the mushrooms and onions working in the saute pan! (A little butter, a little time, some stirring every now and then......and voila!!)

Slap your steak on the grill, reduce the heat to medium and let it cook for 5 minutes before giving it a quarter turn to the side (gets you some great grill marks!) Cook for another 2 minutes before flipping.

Flip your steak over (using tongs) and let it cook once again for 5 minutes before giving it another quarter turn. Cook for another 2 minutes.

Take the Flank off the grill and place on a clean platter or plate and cover with foil. Let it rest until the garlic toast is done.

Now place your garlic toast on the hot grill. Make sure you watch the bread closely as it will burn quickly.

Slice the steak thinly across the grain, stack on a slice of garlic toast with mushrooms and onions.....devour. (a slice of melty cheese also goes well....)

That's right, the boy had 2 steak sammies and beans.....

Of course I should share some of my other photos from the long weekend. I mean whats a long weekend without going to the cabin, relaxing, and playing around with the camera??

Every Canada Day long weekend, they release a bird that has been at the the wildlife rehabilitation centre. In the past they have released bald eagles, golden eagles, horned owls...the list goes on. This year they released a broad winged hawk. The pictures of the hawk taking off didn't turn out because it flew so fast.

Hubby reading in the hammock....this really is the sweet life!

The daisy solo shot

Pretty flowers

Those spiders spin webs on the dock so darn quickly!!

I was so excited to find ripe strawberries in my garden when I got home!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Who Rules The Grill?

2011-06-26T22:42:00.000-05:00

I rule the grill! Today the Boy had a double header out in Sanford Manitoba. It was a bit of a trek but for 2 games of baseball, we don't mind. (FYI, they won the first game but lost the second game.) This morning before we left the house, I made sure to throw together a marinade for a flank steak I had just begging to be flavoured up. The fine people behind Canadian Beef have thrown together a great contest for Canadian bloggers called 'Who Rules The Grill?'. The contest caught my eye on Twitter and I knew I needed to think of something. I chose a flank steak to toss on the the grill but first I had to marinate it for a while. As I browsed through my fridge and freezer I found some chipotle peppers and limes...hmmmm think, think think.....

Chipotle Lime Grilled Flank Steak Salad

3 (or 4) chipotle peppers, chopped
1 tbsp (or so) chipotle sauce from the peppers
zest of 1 lime
juice of half a lime
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt and pepper
1 flank steak, trimmed of excess fat and connective tissue
salad dressing of your choice

Chipotle and lime: the perfect combination!

In a zip top baggie, combine the peppers, sauce, lime zest, lime juice, olive oil, and salt & pepper. Use your hands on the outside of the bag to mix it all up.

The no mess way to mix!!

Add the steak and once again use your hands on the outside of the bag to ensure the steak gets completely covered in chipotle lime goodness.

Place the bag in the fridge to marinate for the day or overnight.

Heat up the grill and grill your fabulous flank steak for 5 - 6 minutes a side or until medium. Remove to a plate, cover with foil and allow the steak to rest for 5 minutes.

mmmmmmmm.......

Give your steak a 1/4 turn half way through cooking to get fabulous grill marks!

Once rested, thinly slice the steak across the grain.

Slicing across the grain ensures a nice tender steak.

Serve on top of your favourite salad greens with your favourite fixins' and dressing.

This really was such a perfect dinner tonight. Tasty protein, lots of veggies....oh so yummy! I think next time I will add some cheese of some sort....

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Dips: It Takes One to Know One

2011-06-22T21:59:00.001-05:00

So while walking with the class the other week, I turned my ankle and fell to the ground in grand fashion! We were only half way to our destination so I pried myself up off the concrete, looked around to see how many students saw and kept walking with the one student who happened to be walking with me. It was slow going that last 1.5km. We were heading to the movies. There is a second run cheapie movie theatre a mere 3km from school so it is a popular spot for June field trips as we can easily walk there. Once we made it to the mall, the student and I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up some first aid supplies to clean up my knee then met the rest of the class to watch "Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2" That movie was great. I truly enjoyed it! One of the teachers was kind and drove me back to the school after. Lots of ice, x-rays, and a couple of physiotherapy visits later, it is merely a really bad sprain....we're talking lower ankle, upper ankle, hurts from ankle to knee at times!!! ACK!! The best part (see the sarcasm) is the bruising. I am fair skinned and bruises show up oh so nicely....it really does look way worse than it feels....I hope!

I figure no one wants to see ugly ankle pictures so let's get on with the grub!
In our venture to eat healthier we have become dippy with dip! To be more specific, hummus and tzatziki! Both hummus and tzatziki are such simple dips and a great way to add some flavour to your veggies, sandwiches, wraps, or whatever it is you want to use them on. Keep a bin or a zippy top bag filled with cut and ready to go veggies in the fridge and you are set for lunches, snacks, even dinners!
I even made some fresh pita. After reading this post here at A Little bit of everything, I just had to make it! I haven't made the roasted veggie dip yet, but I plan to!

A few simple ingredients is all it takes!!

Tzatziki (reminds me of my trip to Greece!) Printable dip recipes

1/2 long English cucumber
1 cup Greek style plain yogurt
1 clove garlic (chopped fine or grated with a micro plane)
salt & pepper
1 tsp lemon zest (optional)

Grate the cucumber. If your yogurt isn't very thick, squeeze out the excess liquid. The PC Greek style yogurt at Superstore is so incredibly thick, I didn't drain the cucumber.

Grate in the garlic, lemon zest (if using), and add the salt and pepper.
Stir in the yogurt. (Use your judgement here. If the amount of yogurt doesn't cover all of the cucumber, then add more yogurt. Consistency is really up to you!)

Let the tzatziki rest in the fridge for a while before eating...if you can wait.

Serve up with pitas, veggies, on sammies, in wraps, by the spoonful....

Hummus (unfortunately I can not find the pics I took of the hummus. I will post them when I find them, or make more and take new photos!)

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 to 2 tbsp tahini or peanut butter (optional)
cayenne (pinch or to taste)
1 jalapeno
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
water to thin out if you don't want to use too much oil

Toss everything but the olive oil and water into a blender or food processor. With the machine running, drizzle in olive oil. If you are skeptical about using too much olive oil, switch to drizzling in water. Keep the machine and the liquid drizzling until you reach the consistency you want. Some people prefer a thick dip and others prefer a thinner dip.
Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. (Remember, it is easier to add flavour and heat than it is to take it away!!)

Until next time, stay warm and eat well. (And stay on your feet!)

Drink Your Cocktails, Cupcake

2011-06-11T20:33:00.002-05:00

Did you know it is very easy to add booze to your cupcakes? It is as simple as brushing on some rum or tequila, or whatever on to cupcakes when they come out of the oven, again before icing, and heck, put some in the frosting as well!

Strawberry rhubarb daiquiri

Remember those amazing strawberry rhubarb cupcakes?? Well, I brushed a batch of these little beauties with rum, twice...then I added rum to the the strawberry meringue butter cream....Yum!! You heard me correctly....just add some liquor to a Swiss meringue butter cream after it is finished and you are set!!

Mango lime margarita

Then there was the wonderful mango lime cupcakes? Those were brushed with tequila, twice then were topped with a tequila lime icing!! Tequila lime icing is as easy as switching out the water or other liquid for lime juice and tequila. A little lime zest never hurts either!!

I took these little gems over to a friend's house to help celebrate her birthday. I must admit I enjoyed hearing the rave reviews!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

Honey Dijon Chicken

2011-06-06T23:27:00.001-05:00

So I had a slight panic attack tonight....it all started with an afternoon snack with the Boy. We noshed on some fabulous garlic sausage (from HMG Meats and Deli), cheese, and pickles....oh those pickles. The pickles were in a bowl....somehow the bowl wound up upside down on my laptop with pickles and pickle juice all over the keyboard. Ack!! The Boy should just be kept away from electronics!! It was a complete accident. What to do, what to do?? First I turned the power off (I am told to take the battery out but I couldn't get the battery out) then put the keyboard portion in rice. That's right, rice.

Things seem to be working well. There was one moment of panic when I first turned it on and every now and then the keys won't move too easily but then a piece of rice pops out. I am still finding some pieces of rice here and there but all is working!! Whew!!

FYI, this rice trick also worked when my Blackberry fell in a puddle!!

Tonight's easy peasy dinner involved minimal dishes and the BBQ again!

Honey Dijon Chicken, adapted from Food Network. You will need:

Dijon mustart
Runny honey
salt
pepper
olive oil
zip top freezer bag for marinating

First: In a zip top freezer bag mix equal parts Dijon mustard and honey. Add some salt and pepper and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Mix it all up and add some chicken pieces, seal up the bag and move everything around so the chicken gets all covered in saucy goodness.

Make a foil pouch and drizzle in some olive oil. Toss in some veggies. Tonight I had some baby potatoes so I used those. You can use carrots, beans, asparagus....whatever you have. Add a pat of butter for good flavour and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Toss it all on the grill.

I do love a Monday night BBQ....it means I can get my toes in the grass and enjoy some time outside.

It's a new BBQ so I am still learning the hot spots.

Yummy!!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!

BBQ Season is Finally Here!!

2011-06-05T22:31:00.000-05:00

We kicked off the weekend with the most fabulous New York strip steaks ever!!! There is a new fabulous store in the neighbourhood. I must confess, we bought NY strip steaks last weekend from here and there were also fabulous!! For those in Winnipeg, HMG Meats and Deli (642 Leila Avenue, 339-8406) is THE place to get steaks, pork, garlic sausage....well they will pretty much take care of all your meat needs...(he he).

One thing I love about BBQ season is cooking everything on the grill. Wrap it in foil if you must, toss it on the grill. I did use 1 pot to boil the corn, but I did that outside on the side burner. Corn is NOT in season at all here and I don't feel bad about boiling this stuff instead of grilling it. I didn't even eat it. I took one bite and...well...ew.

If you don't mind, I think I will just give some pictures of BBQ goodness. After a busy weekend of gardening and watching the Boy play baseball, baking some rye bread, banana bread, and so on.....it is time to relax. Here's to a great week for everyone!!

make a pouch of foil, add a pat of butter, salt and pepper and toss it on the grill!!

Salt and pepper is all these perfectly aged steaks need!!

Potatoes on, mushrooms on, grill marks perfect!

The dissappointing corn looked so good!

Yeah, that's right, there is no green on my plate, wanna make something of it? Didn't think so!

Oh, and some top notch root beer to top it all off!!

I hope to get back to blogging more regularly. I think what is going on (besides baseball season) is that after a long, cold winter us prairie dwellars try to spend as much time as possinle outside when it warms up. In the depths of winter, it is easy to cozy up in a blanket and blog away. I have been baking and cooking and taking pictures. I just need to find some time to write.

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!!