Ringing in the New Year

Here's wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year. Whether you are out whooping it up or holed up in a blanket fort battling a cold like Hubby may you ring in the new year in style! Tonight our style involves warm pjs, fluffy socks, piles of comforters, and boxes of Kleenex. Yup! The Boy started out with this cold last week and he has graciously shared it with us. We whooped it up by making a fabulous pot of broccoli cheddar soup. I found the recipe on Pioneer Woman's site. It turned out so well and helped warm us up. Did I take photos of the soup? No. Why? Because I suck and as tasty as this soup is, it isn't really a pretty soup.  Besides, right about now I kind of wish we were in the spot we were last year at this time.... On the beach in Hawaii...

We curled up with our bowls of soup and watched season 2 of Flashpoint, a fantastic Canadian show about a police strategic response unit. The show just recently had its series finale and we are getting caught up on missed episodes.

Of course with it being New Year's Eve, we indulged in dessert. Sticky toffee pudding cakes! Yum! This is a recipe I found online from Chatelaine magazine and really reminds me on a Christmas time steamed pudding my Mom used to make, This one is complete with a brown sugar sauce to top it off. (Of course adding some Bailey's Irish Cream to some whipped cream doesn't hurt!)

Once again, here's wishing you a happy, healthy new year!  Here it is only 9pm and I will probably be asleep soon....there's always next year!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well.

Three Cheese Jalapeno Biscutis and a Horror Story

Yesterday I made some oh so tasty baked sweet potato fries with a sriracha mayo dip....they were so yummy.  I took photos like you would not believe.  One of the things I have been working on is trying to get baked sweet potato fries nice and crispy on the outside. This was the batch that was going to work, I could feel it.  After writing a lovely post to go with the photos, I opened the little window that houses the memory card......a scream and some expletives escaped my mouth......there was no card in the camera.  The card was still sitting in the card reader of my laptop.  AHHHHHH!

My apologies, I will remake the fries and actually put the memory card in the camera.

The Little Kitchen is in cleaning out the fridge mode as we gear up for a trip South to St. Louis Mo.  Why St. Louis? The Boy and his team are heading there to play ball, that's why.  For baseball players to get a chance to play this early outside on real diamonds, we need to South; there is still so much snow on the ground here! We are so excited! So much to do, cleaning, packing, lists to make so I can pack.... we didn't go grocery shopping this weekend, save a few fresh items.

What do you make when you are trying to use what you have and not go grocery shopping?  Well, sometime you get inventive and sometimes ideas just happen. This weekend I picked up a rotisserie chicken from the store, knowing I had the veggies needed to make a chicken pot pie!!  I didn't however feel like making a pie crust so I went with biscuits instead...go figure, they probably take the same amount of time and work.  I guess I just felt like biscuits.

Hubby was washing some dishes while I was measuring out the dry ingredients for the biscuits and a discussion regarding what was left in the fridge ensued....to make a long story short, we banded together to make 3 cheese jalapeno biscuits to go with the pieless chicken pot pie (which is essentially a stew).

Fabulous things can only happen when you add cheeses and jalapenos to something...it is just magical!

The biscuit recipe I use on a regular basis now is from Stumptown Savoury....it is the perfect recipe.  I have altered it somewhat to make these biscuits, but you should check out his post for the original recipe here.

I must admit to attempting to double the recipe by memory but failed to double the baking power, soda, or the buttermilk....strangely enough, the biscuits still turned out wonderful!

3 cheese jalapeno biscuit with crustless chicken pot pie

3 cheese jalapeno biscuits

• 2cups all purpose flour
• 2 cup pastry flour (trust me, this makes it so much better)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• handful grated cheddar
• handful grated smoked gouda
• handful grated parmesean
• 2 jalapenos, diced small
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tsp lemon juice with enough milk to make 1 cup)
• 1 cup butter, frozen then grated

In a large bowl, stir together the flours, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Now Gareth likes to freeze the butter then grate it...I agree. This works wonderfully.  However if you are strapped for time or don't have butter stocked in the freezer (which by the way works wonders if butter is on sale). You can cut the butter into cubes and use your fingers to rub the butter into the flour.  Just make sure to chill the dough for about 1/2 hour so chase away the warmth from your hands.

Once the butter is all small bits rubbed into flour, pile in the cheeses and the jalapenos and stir those in.

Add the buttermilk and stir.  It won't come together as a dough so don't worry about that here.

Dump the mixture out onto the counter and start folding and patting....just like this:

Keep on with the patting and folding until it comes together nicely.

You can either cut it into squares or use a biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits.

Bake in a hot, pre heated 400F oven for about 12 minutes, until lightly golden on top.

Don't burn your tongue, let them cool a bit!

I will do my best to send out a few messages and posts during our baseball filled trip. 

Until next time, stay warm and well!

"What do I Aways Say is the Most Important Thing?"

Bonus points to anyone who knows where the quote in the title comes from and knows the answer to the question!

It is another cold morning on the prairies, yes I know I have been complaining about the freezing temps and many of you are most likely thinking "Suck it up buttercup, you live there, get used to it.....blah, blah, blah....)" I will say this about this morning's weather:  At least there is no windchill.  After a certain point I wonder if it really matters what the temperature is, cold is cold.  The sun is shining, which is nice as that means no more snowfall for the time being. And since it is cold, it is the perfect time bake something so I can turn the oven on!!

I have been wanting to make these tasty little morsels of breakfast goodness for quite some time....I would hazard to say since Mandy from Whipped posted the recipe I have had these in the the back of my mind. So here I am almost an entire year later finally making them!!  I did make a few adaptations to Mandy's original recipe. Partly because I only had buttermilk in fridge and partly because I have been trying to incorporate more while wheat flour into my recipes.

Mmmm....bacon....

Bacon Cheddar Breakfast Muffins

In a small bowl, mix together 1 strip of crisp cooked crumbled bacon and 1/4 cup grated cheese and set aside.  This will be used as a topping for the muffins.

Spray muffin tins with non stick spray, or brush with oil, melted butter.....something to keep the muffins from sticking.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

In a large bowl, mix together:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mix together with a whisk and add to the dry ingredients:

• 1 cup grated old cheddar cheese (or which ever cheese you have on hand)
• 7 strips of crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions, or chives

Mix until the cheese, bacon, and green onions are coated in the flour mixture.

In another bowl mix (beat) together:

• 1/2 cup canola (or veggie) oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I want to try these with ricotta)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until well combined.  The batter will be thick.  Scoop into the muffin tins.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes then remove from pans.  I loved the crispiness these muffins have from the cheese melting and crisping up on the edges of the pan.  Cheddar bacon breakfast muffins are indeed tasty and everyone enjoyed them on this cold winter Saturday morning. Highly recommended!

Stay warm and eat well!

Complete ingredient list:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup grated old cheddar cheese (or which ever cheese you have on hand)
• 7 strips of crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions, or chives
• 1/2 cup canola (or veggie) oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I want to try these with ricotta)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp maple syrup

Like a Rolling Scone

Once upon a time on a blog far, far, South from the the Little Kitchen, a man made scones....and they looked so amazing the Little Kitchen wanted to make it's own tasty little bundles of scone goodness.  What follows is a brief synopsis of the great Scone Adventure of 2011!

Cheddar, apple, walnut scone with chamomile tea

The other day I stopped by Stumptown Savoury to read a little bloggy goodness. Gareth not only made scones, but he posted a lovely tutorial on making scones. I learned a thing or two about scone making that I did not know before! If you haven't been over the the Stumptown Savoury, you should. Lots of great recipes and ideas over there.  I do love to bake, and I do love to bake bready goodness and all things related.  Tonight just felt like a baking night.  Middle of the week, chill in the air (yes, up here a mere -14C is considered a chill in the air), this all means a warm oven to bake with will help take the chill out of the house.

Just before I was going to get a start on the scones, I sent Gareth a tweet asking how the snowfall in his neck of the woods was and it was deep, especially for Tennessee!  He suggested that perhaps apples and walnuts would go well with cheddar.  I thought this was a fantastic idea and I even had all the ingredients!  (My son even went on to suggest this combination was genius!)  I am very grateful for the idea as sometimes I do have trouble coming up with combinations of flavours like this.  Perhaps I am just nervous about making the wrong combinations? Perhaps I have watched Gordon Ramsay berate one too many chefs for bad combinations?  Who knows, but it is nice to have some help on this issue every now and then.  These turned out absolutely fantastic!  So fantastic that you should all go visit Stumptown Savoury and make your own scones!!
I just know I can't do the scone tutorial justice so I am not even going to try.  What I will tell you is this:

The first batch I made tonight were apple, cheddar, walnut.  I mixed into the scones, as per the instructions:

• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 cup shredded old cheddar cheese
• a couple of handfuls of walnut pieces (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup)

What I learned about the scone making process was the folding the dough over on itself.  I don't think I have ever seen this instruction in any scone recipe I've seen.  I definitely noticed the lovely layers of yummy goodness  forming while you work.

The second batch I made tonight were maple raisin oat scones.  For this recipe I left out the sugar and replaced it with maple syrup.  This means I had to reduce the buttermilk by the same amount.  I also got a little fancy and brushed a couple of layers with maple syrup before I folded the dough.  Next thing was to brush the tops with maple syrup before baking....yummy!  (A glaze made with icing sugar and maple syrup also goes well on top) To the dough I added:

• 1 cup raisins
• a couple handfuls of oats (1/2 a cup)
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (leave out the sugar, reduce buttermilk by 3 tbsp)
• brush the tops with maple syrup and sprinkle some more oats on top.

Once the first batch of scones were hot from the oven, and I had a hot pot of chamomile tea was ready, everyone was happy!  

Maple raisin oat scone with maple glaze....yum!

Thank you again Gareth for the scone recipe!