Valentine's Dinner

We aren't really the couple that does much for Valentine's day. No presents, or flowers or store bought chocolates. I think it stems mostly from my unwillingness to celebrate the 'holiday', and Hubby's wise decision to follow my lead.

The one thing I do like to do, and Hubby likes to enjoy, is have a nice meal. I mean we have to eat supper anyway so why not make it slightly more special. Of course what a better way to make a meal 'special' than by including chocolate. We didn't limit our selves to dessert however to add this rich ingredient, but we slipped it into our main course as well. The result: Fantastically sinful!

Chile Marinated Steak: (original from Epicurious)
Serves 2

• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup cilantro leaves
• 1/4 cup chipotle chilies
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• Juice of 1 lime
• Steaks

In blender place garlic, cilantro, and chilies, and roughly chop. Add olive oil in stream and puree mixture. Add cocoa and lime juice and continue to blend together. Final marinade will be a very thick paste.

Season steak with salt and pepper. and place in dish. Cover one side with marinade, and then flip and cover other. Cover and marinade in fridge for 24 hours.

Before cooking remove steak and place on counter for 30 min to bring to room temperature. Wipe off excess marinate. and cook steaks either on bbq or under broiler until desired tenderness.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pots:
Serves 5-6

• 8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp rum
• 2 tbsp butter
• Strawberries

In medium sauce heat cream until bubbles begin to appear on sides of pan. Remove from heat and add chocoalte. Let side 1 minute, then whisk together.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and slowly add 1 cup of hot cream mixture. Transfer back to pot and whisk until smooth. Add butter and rum, mixing well.

Pour into ramekins and refrigerate, min of 4 hours, but can be made the night before.

Serve with fresh strawberries, which according to Hubby "make the dish!"
Enjoy!

Better late than never

I have been meaning for weeks now to share all of the wonderful details of our Christmas dinner. Hubby and I had so much fun doing everything, and worked very well as a team. I was initially a little sceptical about this joint cooking venture, as it would have been the first time something like this was too occur. Okay, it is practiacally the first time Hubby would be in the kitchen doing something other than trying to steal a taste of whatever I am preparing ;) But, yes it all turned out. Both of our families were so impressed with everything from the appitizer right on through to dessert. Even now we are still getting compliments on the bacon wrapped, maple syrup baseted turkey we Hubby cooked.

Pictures and recipies were to supposed to follow very quickly after the glourious occasion, but never seemed to make it here. Then all of a sudden it was one week after the holidays, then two and three. Now it is February, and it seems rather inappropriate to be bringing up Christmas dinner all of a sudden (even though that is exactly what I am doing right now). I guess for now most of it will be nicely tucked away, waiting to make its debut next holiday season.

There is one that I will share however, and that is the dessert. I debated and went back and forth on many different choices before selecting and sticking with this tarte. I am so glad this is the one I picked in the end :) It was a nice balance of sweet and tarte and had such a festive feel to it. The magnificent thing about it too was the ability to prepare it in advance, so I wasn't scrambling around at the last minute after dinner.

Chocolate Cranberry Tarte:

Cranberry Topping:
1/2 cup cranberry juice, divided
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 12-ounce bag fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger

Crust:
1 1/4 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (made from about 6 1/2 ounces cookies, finely ground in processor)
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Mascarpone Filling:
1 8-ounce container mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup chilled whipping cream1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Thin strips of crystallized ginger (optional garnish)

For cranberry topping:
Pour 1/4 cup cranberry juice into small bowl; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand until softened, 15 minutes. Combine 1/4 cup cranberry juice, cranberries, and next 5 ingredients in medium saucepan; bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium; simmer until cranberries are tender but still plump, 5 minutes. Strain into bowl; set cranberries aside. Add gelatin mixture to hot juice in bowl; stir until gelatin dissolves. Stir cranberries back into juice. Chill until cranberry mixture is cold and slightly thickened, at least 8 hours or overnight. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.Stir chopped crystallized ginger into cranberry mixture.

For crust:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Combine chocolate wafer cookie crumbs, sugar, and salt in medium bowl; add 5 tablespoons melted butter and stir until crumbs feel moist when pressed together with fingertips, adding remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter if mixture is dry. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Bake chocolate crust until beginning to set and slightly crisp, pressing with spoon if crust puffs during baking, about 14 minutes. Transfer tart pan to rack and cool crust completely before filling.

For mascarpone filling:
Using electric mixer, beat all ingredients except ginger in medium bowl just until thick enough to spread (do not overbeat or mixture may curdle). Spread filling in cooled crust. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.Spoon cranberry mixture evenly over mascarpone filling. Chill at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours. Garnish with crystallized ginger strips, if desired. Cut tart into wedges and serve cold.

Enjoy!

Weeknight Dessert

My Hubby has a love for chocolate.

Since we married, I have a love for chocolate.

My daughter has a love for chocolate (I blame genetics).

Consequently we are all on the search for something sweet the moment supper is over. Normally, I try to ignore the craving so my waistline doesn't suffer too much. Hubby will try and fulfil his by eating cereal, something I really don't understand, but Lilly will join him. However, sometimes the cereal doesn't quite fix the problem, but on a weeknight I never feel much like baking something.

At least until now! Thanks to Baking Delights, our house now has a new favorite weeknight dessert. It is so incredibly simple, involving barely anytime in the kitchen, and it tastes wonderful! Thank you Marye, I think I will need to go to the gym more now ;)

Holiday cookbook showdown

Back during the Christmas of 2004, my Mom gave me these three little holiday treat cookbooks. I leafed through the pages, drooled of the pictures and then put them aside. I have flipped through them many times since that first day I received them, but until now never tried a single recipe from one of them.

I am not really sure why. True, some requested ingredients that I didn't stock in my pantry for baking on a whim, such as condensed milk or toffee bites. But, I will be frank and say I think I used that an an excuse. Really I was just over whelmed and didn't know where to start! How could three, tiny books get to me like that? Well last weekend, I wanted to try something new, and selected a recipe in one of them, got everything out and went too it!

The spell has been broken, and it only took just shy of three years!

The cookies, our first of the holiday season, were simple and delicious. I will be trying more from all of those books before too long. I am even going to make sure I pickup some condensed milk so I have no excuses.

Chewy Chocolate-Cinnamon Cookies:

• 6 Tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp, plus 1/4 cup, sugar divided
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips, chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease cookie sheet.

Beat butter until creamy, add brown sugar and 2 tbsp granulated sugar and continue to beat. Add egg, baking soda, corn syrup and vanilla, Mix well.

In a separate bowl stir together flour and cocoa. Add to butter mixture and mix together. Stir in chopped chocolate.

Cover and refrigerate until dough firm enough to handle (approx 30 minutes). Share dough into balls, approx 1" diameter. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon in separate bowl. Roll balls in mixture and place on cookie sheet approx 2" apart (These cookies did spread out quite a bite when cooking).

Bake 9-10 minutes, or until tops cracked. Remove from oven and cool slightly, then move to wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

What to do when you break a promise

My daughter had been so upset I was going to work last Friday morning. There were tears streaming down her face, and all she wanted was for 'Mommy don't leave me'. Talk getting you where it hurts. Unfortunately a two year old doesn't quite understand the concept of jobs, money, and expense yet, so it is slightly hard to explain why Mommy has to go. The one thing she does understand though is the playground! I totally used this to my advantage and promised, actually make that pinky swore, that I would take her the next morning.

Of course Saturday morning comes and it is gloomy, rainy. Not really something you want to venture out in, but I probably would have for the sake of my pinky swear. That is until my Hubby has to borrow my car for work, which contains my car seat and stroller. What does that mean...we are really stuck at home for the day. So now what. We 'make a recipe' of course. Something without eggs, because I was out, and something that she could help with. Nigella to the recuse again! She had the perfect recipe, that I had to adapt slightly to what I had in my cupboards, but it worked! These Rocky Road Bites as we called them were so quick, easy and very kid friends. The best part, they tasted really good :)

Rocky Road Bites: (Makes approximately 20)

• 225 g milk chocolate
• 75 g peanuts (or nut of your choice)
• 75 g mini-marshmallows (I only had big ones and took the time to cut them up, NOT fun)

Melt chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Stir in peanuts and marshmallows.

Drop my heaping teaspoons onto a lined cookie sheet.

Place somewhere too cool.

Enjoy! (See wasn't that ridiculously easy!)

Labour Day

There is something about a long weekend and food. I know traditionally it is a long-weekend BBQ kinda deal, but not for us this year. This morning though, I wasn't running off to the gym or out for a jog like a normal weekend, Hubby didn't have to work until noon and Lilly slept in. So I decided to treat us with chocolate chip waffles for a long weekend breakfast!


The only waffle I grew up exposed to was an Eggo one. Now they remind me of my childhood, but the day I received a waffle iron for a shower gift I could not wait to use it! I made these waffles right after we moved into our condo on Christmas morning. They instantly became a favorite in our house and are now seen at all major breakfast tables. I personally love the light, fluffiness of them. But of course the chocolate plays a large part in its popularity, and probably is the main reason they are requested. The chocolate provides such a nice sweetness that these don't even need syrup, but of course if you want to indulge who am I to stop you! I

I have tried a few other recipes, but none have come close to matching these as of yet.


Chocolate Chip Waffles:

• 1 1/2 cup milk (room temp)
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 eggs (room temp)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder.

Separate eggs and place whites and yolks in separate bowls.

Whisk yolks, milk, vanilla and butter together. Add flour mixture and whisk until forms batter.

Whip egg whites until hold loose peak. Scatter sugar over top until whites hold soft peak. Fold 1/3 of whites into batter. Slowly add remaining whites continuing to gently fold in. Finally stir chocolate chips.

Heat waffle iron, and brush with butter. Pour batter onto hot iron, and cook until golden.

Enjoy!

Heat Wave

We are in the middle of a heat wave at the moment, mid 30's or so (for my American readers I believer that is in the 90's). I am sure many will laugh at what we classify as 'hot' but I live in a climate where it is more common to hit the -30's than +30's and the average temperature for this time of year is normally low 20's.

Okay enough with the weather talk I know, you all want food. Last week, before the temperature rose, it was actually on he cool side. I curled up in the evening by myself, my daughter sound asleep, and watched TV with a mug of my favorite hot chocolate in hand. I know I am crazy, hot chocolate in summer. It was absolutely perfect though, and I have to share it now so when the weather turns cold everyone will have this recipe ready to go ;)

Hot Chocolate: (Serves 1)

• 30g best dark chocolate
• 350ml milk (to be honest I take what ever mug I am using and fill it with milk so I have the perfect amount)
• 2 tsp Honey
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick
• Optional : 2 tbsp rum (Alas I had none)

In small pan over stove heat milk while breaking in chocolate into pieces and adding, also add honey, sugar and cinnamon stick. Whisk in vanilla and rum once chocolate is melted. Remove cinnamon stick and pour into you favorite mug and enjoy!!!

Muffin time

My Hubby, had the lucky job of grocery shopping last week. It was his first trip alone and he did very well, he stuck to the list exactly! Problem, however is I can't remember everything that needs to be on the list. The majority of the time I see something in the store and remember that our house is running low. For example, this week butter. We were already completely out, and it wasn't on the list so he didn't get anymore. Really I know it isn't the biggest crisis in the world, it would just mean I wouldn't be baking this week. But then last night Lilly was in bed so early and I had the whole house to myself; how could I not spend some time in the kitchen? I vaguely remember that some recipies used oil in place of butter, so I dug out my copy of I'm just here for more food and perused the pages. It didn't take long until I found something that fit the bill!


These muffins are definitely not like the muffins you get with your morning latte. They resemble in fact early muffins, and are much coarser and not quite a moist as you maybe used to. Delicious non the less, and gone way to quickly for my liking!


Old-Fashioned Muffins:
Makes 12 standard muffins: (Adapted from Alton Brown)

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in one bowl and all others (minus chocolate chips) in separate bowl.

Add wet to dry and stir until just comes together, not smooth. then add chocolate chips. It is a very, very thick batter, don't worry.


Drop batter into prepared muffin tins, and bake for 18-20 minutes.


So quick and easy, I even was able to watch the sunset from my balcony while I ate one all by myself ;)

Christmas in June

For me there is something about cranberries that just scream Christmas.

Now Christmas is my favorite time of year. I have been known to put my tree up at the end of November and not take it down until well into January. One of the benefits of an artificial tree I guess. Anyway as much as I love the warm weather of summer; every once and awhile I want a taste of my favorite season. So I decided to play with my favorite cookie recipes, to find something that would fit the bill.

Now don't worry I am not getting to adventurous in the kitchen, I know my limitations. These cookies are so easy and so delicious, I couldn't mess them up.



Soft and chewy, summer Christmas cookies:

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 package instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
• 1/2 chopped pecans
• 1/2 dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F

In large bowl cream together butter, and sugars. Beat in the instant pudding until mixed. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Finally stir in chocolate chips, nuts and cranberries.

Spoon onto cookie sheet by tablespoon, and bake for 10-12 minutes until the edge is golden brown.


Enjoy!

Father's Day

It's Father's Day, and well chocoholic husband equals chocolate cake to celebrate obviously! I myself would prefer a rich, dense brownie, but not my Hubby. He likes his chocolate light and fluffy, with lots of icing. He is really pretty easy to please, I can't complain. Baking this cake was really easy. The most challenging part was fending off the two year old who was desperately trying to help, and wanted only to 'taste it' every two second. Definitely makes it a memorable experience.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate cake: (From Feast by Nigella)

Cake: (Sorry everything is in weights as opposed to cups. I do have kitchen scale I use religiously so I have never bothered to measure anything from the Nigella cookbooks out)

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 40g cocoa
• 175g soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 150ml sour cream (or plain yogurt - I ran out of sour cream half way to mixed the two together)

Pre-heat oven to 355F, and grease two cake pans. She suggested two 20 cm sandwich tins with a removable base - that I do not own, so I used two square pans.


Most simple way to make this cake is to put all ingredients into a food processor and process until the batter is thick and smooth. Otherwise beat butter until creamy, and then add cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs. Mix flour sugar and leavening agents together and then mix everything together. I highly recommend the food process, it makes it so easy! Divide batter in half using a spatula and spread into prepared cake pans. Baking time is approximately 35 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Mine only baked for around 22 minutes.


Remove cakes from oven and let cool in their tins on wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn tins upside down and place directly on rack and continue to cool. Mine didn't come out perfect at all, there were some cracks, but nothing a little patch job with the icing couldn't fix :)

Icing:

• 75g unsalted butter
• 175 dark chocolate
• 300g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
  
• 125ml sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla

Melt the chocolate and butter in large bowl, either in microwave (the easy way) or over pan of hot water on stove.

Add the syrup to the melted, and cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla, and finally sifted icing sugar.

Depending on the consistence of the icing you may need to add slightly more icing sugar or else a small amount of boiling water to achieve the right viscosity of icing. It should be liquid enough to coat the cake, but thick enough not to run off.


Choose cake stand or plate for the cake, and line edge with strips of parchment paper to stop the icing running from onto plate. Place one of cakes on the plate and spoon 1/3 of icing onto it's top, and spread. Place the second cake on top and gently press together. Spoon another 1/3 of icing on to the top of this cake and again spread using a swirl pattern. Finally spread sides of cake with remaining icing. Remove paper and volia!


Hubby's comment: "Now that is a cake!"

Dessert should always be first

The members of our house are notorious for their sweet tooth. More specifically chocolate, and more specifically my husband. Since we have been married my own sweet tooth has been developed quite substantially! I don't mind too much, it just means some extra time at the gym...unfortunately I learned that the hard way.

Crunchy Chocolate peanut butter chunks (From: Canadian Living's Best Chocolate)

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup each of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips (I used 2 cups of chocolate, partly due to the fact that I had no peanut butter ones, and partly because the more chocolate the better)
  
• 3 oz bitter sweet chocolate melted

In a large bowl beat butter with peanut butter, gradually adding in the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl (which I will admit I NEVER do) mix flour and salt, using a wooden spoon. Gradually stir into butter mixture until combined and then add chips.

Gently squeeze dough into handfuls until holds together and pat into ungreased 17''x11'' rimmed baking sheet (Mine was a much smaller sheet, and in the end I do think the bigger sheet would have been better to make a thinner cookie)

Bake in a 350 F oven for 30 to 41 minutes...or until firm to the touch and golden. Let cool in sheet on a rack.

In a bowl over saucepan of hot water, melt chocolate (Or the simpler method that I used was to pop it in the microwave) Drizzle over cookie, and let cool completely.
Break into pieces, pour a glass of milk and enjoy!


Now these are to be crispy cookie, nothing soft and mushy here. However, mine were slightly past the crispy stage. I think due to the smaller size of pan I used; it made for a much thicker and consequently harder cookie. It still tasted wonderful with all of the chocolate, it just needed that glass of milk to dunk in. Before I make these again I will ensure to acquire a new cookie sheet to add to my collection!