Brown Sugar Oatmeal with Berries

It's getting cooler here in the morning. One of my favourite things to do on a Sunday morning is snuggle up with my dog, a hot coffee and a warm breakfast and watch Sunday Morning on CBS. I usually make pancakes, but sometimes I'm looking for something easier so last week I pulled out a bag of Quaker oatmeal and I might not turn back. 

I pretty much followed the recipe until the end when I opted to make it a little more decadent by adding cream and sugar -- balanced out with some blueberries of course. 

Ingredients (makes 2 servings)

• 1/2 cup Quick oatmeal (3-5 minutes to cook)
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cream
• 1/4 cup blueberries

Directions

• Bring water to a boil and add oatmeal cooking for 3-5 minutes (or, as per the bag's directions)
• Remove from heat and add brown sugar and cream. Stir in
• Add blueberries and mix in, letting warm up slightly
• Serve in bowls and sprinkle lightly with more brown sugar and a few more blueberries

Bacon Rollups

Appetizers, in my experience, tend to be cold because the cook is always using the oven for the dinner. But when I get an opportunity to use the oven for an appetizer, I make these bacon rollups that my dad has been making for years. 


Ok, they're pretty bland looking (though they're better if you bake them seam-side down as I indicate in the recipe), and have no illusions about the health content of these little guys -- bacon and cream cheese?! -- but they explode like little bites of heaven in your mouth. I know it's everything in moderation, but I could eat the entire plate of these. Don't judge until you've tried them.


Ingredients

• 6 slices of bacon, diced
• 2 cups finely chopped mushrooms
• 1 onion chopped
• 5 oz. cream cheese
• 15 slices sandwich bread
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Directions

• In a skillet, cook bacon
• Add mushrooms and onion for 5-8 minutes
• Stir in cream cheese until melted
• Trim crusts from sandwich bread and flatten slices with a rolling pin
• Spread 2 tsp of bacon mixture on each slice
• Roll each piece like a jelly roll and secure with a toothpick
• Place seam-side down on a baking sheet
• Cover and chill for at least an hour
• Brush with melted butter
• Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until brown
• Remove toothpicks, cut in half and serve

Salmon Cakes

We grocery shop on Thursdays so by Wednesday, we're pretty much out of food. I'm desperate to learn how to menu plan (any tips out there?), but I'm thrilled if I can scrounge something up for dinner on Wednesday.

Enter: salmon cakes.


My dad makes these and they're simple to make and use ingredients that I always have on hand. I was able to whip these up and still have something healthy for dinner.




Ingredients

• 1 potato (fairly large or two small)
• 1 tin of salmon, drained well and cleaned
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 7-8 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
• 3 tbsp bread crumbs
• 1 egg
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Boil potato while cleaning the salmon and sauteing the onion and green onions
• Lightly mash the potato and add it to the salmon and sauted onion and green onions in a bowl
• Add egg and all other ingredients
• Mix ingredients and divide the mixture into six
• Shape into six patties and place them on a plate
• Cover and chill in fridge for 30 minutes
• In a skillet containing melted butter, sear the four patties for three or four minutes on each side, until lightly browned
• Put the patties on a cookie sheet and place in oven and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes
• Serve with lemon wedge or roasted garlic mayonnaise

Mango Chicken Curry

One of my favourite restaurants in Toronto is Salad King. They make the most delicious mango chicken that is sweet with a mango sauce full of chunks of mango and red and green peppers and served with a steaming side of rice. Due to a problem in the building, Salad King has been closed for months and I have been craving this delicious meal so to satisfy my craving, I turned to Google. I think mango chicken as I know it must be a Salad King original but I found a decent recipe on www.allrecipes.com.

This dish was more of a curry (and for those of you who don't know me well, spice and I are not super close), but since I was making it I could monitor the amount of spice I put in. This was also the first time I had cooked with coconut milk and I really liked how it added a light thickness to the meal. And, with the exception of the coconut milk, I had everything else on hand.

Overall, not exactly what I set out to make, but still a really good dish that I will certainly try again. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, julienned
• 1 medium green pepper, julienned
• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into strips
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 2 tsp minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup chopped, peeled mango
• 3/4 cup coconut milk (I used lite)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• hot cooked rice

Directions

• In a large skillet, saute onion and red and green pepper in oil for 2-4 minutes or until crisp tender
• Add the chicken, curry, ginger, garlic, salt and cayenne. Cook and stir for 5 minutes
• Stir in the coconut mil and tomato paste. Bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink.
• Add mango and simmer for a couple more minutes. 
• Serve over hot rice.

Recipe from www.allrecipes.com 

Peach and Vanilla Bean Pie

(it was hard to take a pic with eight people watching and wondering what I was doing!)

I love vanilla. It's one of my favourite ingredients to cook with and when I saw this recipe over at Ezra Pound Cake, I was excited for the opportunity to bake with a vanilla bean. I found whole vanilla beans at a local/organic type shop (The Big Carrot in Toronto) and the smell was divine. Even the grocery clerk smelled it and I enjoyed the scent wafting from my bag all the way home.

Using the bean was easier than I thought and I simply sliced it open and scraped out the paste. I feel like I've crossed another culinary milestone by using this fresh ingredient!

The vanilla took this basic peach pie over the top and I was excited to bring it up to a friend's cottage as a "thank you." I found it a little nerve-wracking taking up a dessert I myself had never tried (it's rude to cut a slice out before bringing it, right?), but the response was an overwhelming success! Whew!

Ingredients

• 2 basic flakey pie crusts
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 5 cups peeled, pitted, and thickly sliced
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tbsp cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Slit the vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape the seeds from the bean and place them in a food processor. Add the sugar and process for about a minute. (I did this with my hand mixer/immersion blender and it worked fine). 
• Take 1/2 cup of the sugar and put in another bowl and mix with cornstarch. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine the peaches, sugar-cornstarch mix and lemon juice. 
• Roll the bottom layer of the pastry and place in pie plate. 
• Fill pie shell with peaches and dot the top of the fruit with butter.
• Drape top layer of pastry over filling. Cut off excess pie crust and tuck top layer over bottom layer and fold into pie plate. Flute edges with fingers and then poke steam vents in top of pie with a paring knife.
• Place the pie in the centre oven rack and bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 40-45 minutes, untill pie is browning and you can hear the juices bubbling. 
• Transfer the pie to a wire rack and immediately sprinkle half the remaining vanilla sugar (about 1/4 cup) over the top.
• Let cool for at least two hours.

** have some extra vanilla sugar? Try it in your coffee!!!

Recipe adapted from Ezra Pound Cake

Summer Fruit Crostata

When I make my flakey pastry dough, it makes five shells. This means I get two double crust pies and one pie bottom. Last time, I made butter tarts with the left over shell, and this time, I delved into the rustic pie or what Ina Garten calls a Crostata.

Hours before we had company for dinner, I pulled the pastry out of the freezer, let it thaw, threw in some fruit, loosely "closed" it and baked it. It was definitely rustic looking but something I would be proud to take as a dessert to a barbecue or picnic.

In mine, I used peach and blueberries because that's what I had on hand, but you could use any kind of pie filling and it would be great. Glad I have this quick and easy dessert in my back pocket for emergencies!


Ingredients

• 1 flakey pie crust
• 1 pound ripe peaches, peeled
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 tbsp flour, plus 1/4 cup
• 1 tbsp sugar, plus 1/4 cup
• 1/4 tsp orange zest
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 4 tbsp cold butter, diced

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Roll the pastry into a large circle on a lightly floured surface and transfer to sheet pan.
• For the filling, cut the peaches into wedges and mix with blueberries. Toss them with one tbsp of flour, one tbsp of sugar, the orange zest and the orange juice. Place the mixed fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. 
• Combine the 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, salt and butter. Using two knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Rub with your fingers until it starts to hold together. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Gently fold the border of the pastry over the fruit, pleating it to make an edge.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Let cool for five minutes then use two large spatulas to transfer to a wire rack.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa at Home

Mixed Berry Muffins

It's berry season here in Ontario and I had an absolute abundance of berries on hand when I decided to make these. I laughed when I looked at these half way through cooking because the recipe told me "these muffins hide a sweet surprise" -- but the surprise of the berries were bursting all over my muffin tin. I actually think they looked better than if they were just a plain looking muffin. 

I will note that the "muffin" was pretty dense though -- more like a shortcake or even a scone. These would work really well as a summer dessert too -- add some fresh whipped cream and some extra berries on the plate and you're done!

Ingredients

For the filling:

• 2 1/2 cups mixed berries (I used blackberries, strawberries and raspberries)
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/4 tsp lemon zest

For the muffins:

• 3 cups self-rising flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup  butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 egg

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Combine all the filling ingredients in a small saucepan. Gently bring to a simmer and cook for five minutes until the berries give some of their juices. Set aside.
• For the muffins, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Combine the butter, milk and egg in a small bowl. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
• In a 12 tin muffin pan, use half the batter and spoon into each cup. Then spoon a layer of the filling and the add the remaining batter.
• Bake for 20 minutes.

Recipe from 500 Cupcakes