Easier Than Falling Off a Log
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January 23, 2010 at 8:55 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I made these to bring in to my new job, because that’s only right and correct – it’s a gift for people who already like me, and a bribe to people who don’t know me yet. If you start a new job and don’t bring in delicious baked goods, you might be a jerk. Or, y’know, maybe you don’t bake or something. You decide. Anyway, I sent around an email saying these little beauties were sitting around waiting to be eaten, but I had to let everyone down when I explained that despite their name, they don’t contain any actual scotch.
I got the recipe from Appeale. Apparently these little delights are an Iowa thing. I may have Canadianed them up a bit, though – I thought I had enough Karo syrup, but it turns out I had more like half of enough. I ran up to the Hi-Lo to try and grab some more, but it was MLK day and they were closed! I didn’t have time to go to the real grocery store, which I knew was open, so I came home and substituted the rest with maple syrup. Guys. This is a very good idea. You might think that with the peanut butter, chocolate, butterscotch, and now maple, there would be too many flavours competing in your mouth, but they all go together really well. It is pretty sweet, though, and sticky, so small pieces are the best way to go.
Maple Scotcheroos
Ingredients
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup smooth peanut butter (or I suppose you could use crunchy, but bear in mind it’s going to be mixed in with a bunch of crunchy cereal)
6 cups – ahem – crisped rice cereal
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks or hacked bits off a block, it doesn’t matter, you’re going to melt them anyway
1 cup butterscotch chips
Method
Get a pot big enough to hold all the cereal and pour the syrups and sugar into it.
Cook over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbling.
Remove from heat.
Stir in peanut butter until it’s fully melted and incorporated.
Gently stir in all the cereal until it’s all well coated.
Spray a 13×9 pan (or be cool like me with my 8×12 casserole dish) with cooking spray.
Spread the mixture evenly into the pan.
Put your chocolate and butterscotch chips in a bowl and melt them together in the microwave.
Spread evenly over the cereal mixture in the pan.
Throw the pan in the fridge to cool completely (seriously, completely – otherwise you get gooey stretchiness and drag the chocolate coating around with every cut if you just leave it to sit on the counter until it’s no longer particularly warm) before cutting.
January 23, 2010 at 12:33 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m pretty sure people from pulled-pork parts of the country make this with more than 3 ingredients. I’m also pretty sure they get all aghast if you mention barbeque sauce out of a bottle (even if it is the Jack Daniels kind). Too bad for them. This is good and easy and the only thing I’m from the south of is Canada, which doesn’t count. So if anyone is allowed to make cheater pulled pork, it is me. And I will, and did, enjoy the heck out of it.
The recipe, insofar as one needs a recipe, is from Guilty Kitchen, although I hope she wasn’t feeling guilty about making this. I certainly wasn’t. The only thing I changed was using regular old pork chops (which, I know, slow-cooking things mean you’re supposed to use tough meat, bear with me) because our supermarket didn’t have pork butt steaks and I haven’t worked up the courage to go into Meatland yet. To paraphrase Steven Seagal, “thass right… Meatland.” There’s a butcher shop across the street from our supermarket and that is its name. I envision a theme park of meat. But I am also a little intimidated because I’m not all that knowledgeable about the subject, so I haven’t gone in yet. And that is the story of how I used a too-tender and non-slow-cooker-requiring cut of pork to make this pulled pork. Not that it made a difference, I just guess I could have saved myself some money if I’d bought cheaper, tougher meat and it would have turned out just as well. This amount I used works for 2 people.
Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork for Cheaters
Ingredients
a couple of smallish pork chops
1/2 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 cup water
Method
Chuck all the ingredients in a slow cooker.
Put it on high for 3 1/2 hours.
Shred the pork with two forks. You can do this in the slow cooker, but mine is small and I had a hard time, so I took the pork out and shredded it on a plate. Whatever suits you.
If you took the pork out, put it back in and mix it with any remaining sauce so everything is nice and saucy.
Serve on soft buns. Don’t be a loser like I was with the shredded beef I made donkey’s years ago and bake crusty buns to serve them on. That defeats the purpose of supertender shredded meat.
August 14, 2009 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Well, even though I can’t get anywhere with Foodgawker, Tastestopping has posted my plantain casserole! I honestly thought that was a good picture, you guys. Granted it loses some resolution on the Tastestopping page, but the original wasn’t so bad! I appreciate what they do there – making a place for all the rejects, whether the reasoning behind rejecting them be understandable or obscure, that the big foodblog aggregators wouldn’t take. It’s nice. Of course, there is someone who goes around there commenting on people’s photos with critique and criticism, which is kind of counter to the point, but if you can steel yourself against having your photos dissed one more time, I say submit away. If that site gets big and important, I’ll be happy as pants.
Weirdly enough, though, the link to my site from there isn’t showing up in my comments or linkbacks, and my stats aren’t registering it as a place that has linked to me. I know it does link to the right page – I clicked it – but I wish it would “count” over here too.
And your chips update for the day is that the just-sea-salt flavour of the Good Health Naturals avocado oil chips is great. It’s a good, plain chip – I used to eat plain chips exclusively, so I should know – and the fact that it’s better for you is just a bonus.
July 28, 2009 at 11:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m not ashamed to say this is a space-filler post. I have a few recipes in the pipe, but I haven’t gotten the photos off my camera yet.
So let’s talk about the fact that I just finished the Roasted Red Pepper Humbles, which had a subtle red pepper flavour – enough for Matt not to be interested, but that’s his loss – and that I’ve just started the bag of Chilean Lime Avocado Oil Chips. The lime flavour is light and not overpowering, and it’s interesting to have a potato chip with a lime flavour. I’ve had the tortilla chips with a “hint of lime,” as their packages say, and it’s the same sort of idea, but with the texture and taste of a kettle chip instead. Of course, much like the Barcelona Barbecue flavour, I don’t understand what’s so Chilean about these, unless lime-flavoured potato chips are huge over there.
Like the flu, but more delicious, Amish Friendship Bread was going around my workplace a month or so ago. It’s more of a coffee cake than a bread, I’d say, and it’s particularly good when you substitute applesauce for half of the oil (I didn’t try substituting it for all the oil, but I wonder…). It’s moist and cinnamony – if someone offers you a bag of the starter for it, do not decline! And that brings me to the point that I can’t post the recipe, because it is one of the great mysteries of life (well, unless you’re Amish, in which case what are you doing reading this online?). Someone gives you a bag of “starter” and a sheet of instructions. You keep the bag out on the counter, squishing it every day, and adding some ingredients every few days. Finally, you separate it into 6 portions – 2 for you (it fills 2 loaf pans), and 4 to give away. At no point in the process may you use metal implements – no metal spoons or bowls allowed! The loaf pan can be metal, though. I took note of the fact that my friend who gave it to me had already almost saturated our workplace’s bakers, and knew that I wouldn’t be able to find enough people to give it to, and I only have one loaf pan, so I thirded the recipe in order to end up with only 2 portions – one to make, and one to give away. It worked perfectly. Mmm, delicious math!
July 26, 2009 at 12:11 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I actually know the exact date I made this, because it was me taking advantage of having July 3rd off (because the 4th was a Saturday). Except I didn’t start making it until the time I’d have gotten home from work anyway, since I’d been out with friends. But I suppose I did get to buy the ingredients earlier, so it wasn’t a total non-entity of a day off. I mean, in terms of cooking. In terms of everything else, it was pretty great.
The recipe was taken from here, and that made a zillion, so I cut it in half. I was really good at sneaking things into this, too. There are roasted red peppers in here, and cream cheese, and Matt doesn’t like either, but he enjoyed this and didn’t notice the incorporation of the offending foods. Or noticed and didn’t care. Either way, high fives to me. But subtract one high-five for not having crushed tortilla chips – I didn’t want to buy a big bag, and I couldn’t find a small bag for the life of me. Maybe they don’t exist. Anyway, once we had leftover salsa, we wound up buying a big bag anyway…
Taco Stuffed Shells
Ingredients
1/2 a box jumbo shells
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 roasted red pepper, diced
2 oz (1/2 a can) diced green chilies – I know that’s a drag, but you can save the rest or use them as a garnish, or you can even go with the whole can for a little more bang for your taste buds’ buck.
1/2 a package taco seasoning (I know, again with the half package, but this is way easier to keep, and I’m sure you’ll find a use for it)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
a shake of cayenne
2 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup salsa (if I had really been on the ball, I’d have made my own and used that, but I didn’t have the foresight or time, plus I have no idea how much I end up with when I make it. So I used pre-made salsa in a jar.)
1/2 cup grated cheese – I used cheddar, and that’s what the original recipe specified, but Monterey Jack would be good too, and I bet if you have a different cheese in mind, it would work
1/2 cup enchilada sauce
Method
Preheat oven to 350.
Cook shells according to package directions.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat in a pan big enough to hold all the meat and sauce.
Saute the onions in it for about 5 minutes or until translucent.
Add the meat and cook until browned throughout.
Stir in red pepper and green chilies.
Drain fat – this may be a 2-person job if you have a big heavy skillet.
Add all your seasoning powders.
Stir in the cream cheese until it is fully melted and incorporated.
Once your filling is done and your shells are cooked and drained, you can start the assembly. Pour salsa into your baking dish.
Divide up your filling amongst your shells – there may be some extra shells – and arrange the filled ones in the baking dish.
Pour the enchilada sauce over them.
Top with cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes, at which point it should be bubbly and approximately the temperature of the inside of the earth. Therefore, it might be wise to let them cool a bit first before eating.
I really liked these, not least because regular stuffed shells involve ricotta cheese, which makes my stomach churn. I think Matt wishes he could have that kind, but he liked these too.
P.S., like my chipped plate? Yeah. I forgot to turn it so the chip was out of frame.
July 23, 2009 at 12:06 am · Filed under Uncategorized
And these I made for another birthday! It was a week or two after the first one, and I couldn’t not make something for her when I’d just done it for my other friend, after all. So I did the same thing – gave her the tupperwareful and let her decide how she wanted to distribute them (or not distribute them).
The recipe is from the adorably-named Flour on Her Nose, and it is truly a recipe worthy of the title of this blog. I mean, there is very little you can make yourself that is easier than this. Granted, there are ways to make it harder. You could be some kind of overachiever who makes his or her own puff pastry. You could… actually, that’s the only way. When there are this few ingredients, it limits your options for overachieving. I suppose you could pick the apples off a tree in your back yard, if you are fortunate enough to have a back yard, let alone one that contains an apple tree, instead of buying them at the store. If we have to start talking about refining your own sugar, I’m leaving.
Apple Pastries
Ingredients
for the pastries
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed – in the original recipe, she specifies that it should still be cold. Yeah. Well, I got distracted talking on the phone to my mom, and then had to do delicate (and, let it be said, not entirely successful) surgery to separate the increasingly sticky folded sheet from itself. Not recommended.
2 regular-sized apples – if you’re using monster apples, I suppose you could get by with 1, peeled and sliced thinly
a bunch of cinnamon sugar (look. I don’t know how much I used. I had a little ziploc baggie of cinnamon sugar left over from something else I had made, which I can’t remember now – unless that was this, and I used the leftovers in a subsequent thing? unclear – and I just took a bit, then took a bit more as necessary. Having leftover cinnamon sugar around the house is never going to be problematic.)
a wee bit of butter (you’ll be using one or two teensy cubes per square, and you get 9 squares, so work it out for yourself)
for the glaze
icing sugar
milk
vanilla
Method
Preheat the oven to 400.
Cut your sheet of puff pastry into 9 equal pieces – I mean I suppose you could do more or fewer but this is just the right size for the apple slices, plus you’ve already got cutting guides for the horizontal cuts based on the fold marks.
Layer a few apple slices on each square of pastry.
Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the apples.
Put one or two tiny cubes of butter on each square.
Bake for 20 minutes.
While it’s baking, whisk together the glaze ingredients in such proportions as to give you the desired consistency of glaze. I couldn’t tell you what it is, but you do have to put more sugar in than you think you will.
Drizzle the pastries with the glaze while they’re still hot out of the oven.
Cool the rest of the way, or whatever, on a rack.
Yeah. My glaze didn’t really come out. More sugar was needed, or less milk. It tasted fine, but you can’t really see it at all.
February 28, 2009 at 7:28 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I’m disciplining myself not to call it a crock-pot. That is, after all, a brand name, and it’s not the brand ours is. Ours comes from the drugstore (not kidding) and is teensy, which is why this recipe is halved from its original form. And so far, the Crock-Pot company hasn’t offered me any money to name-check their product on my blog – you know, for all 19 people who have read it today to see, talk about a lucrative market going untapped – so I’m going to use the generic “slow cooker.”
This beef was eaten in the Cuban buns I made in the last post. I hear that this is not unlike pulled pork, except it’s beef, but what do I know about pulled pork? I’m from Canada and I live in New England. I’ve never even been to the South. So I’ll let people with more experience judge that. I liked it, but that is a meaningless statement unless you’re me. Matt liked it too, which adds a little bit more credence to the theory that it was tasty. I bet a lot has to do with what kind of barbeque sauce you use. Upon Matt’s recommendation, we went with the Jack Daniels’ brand sauce, because he loves their mustard, and putting booze in things is nearly always a good idea. I mean, give me an example where it isn’t. YOU CAN’T. And guess what? This dish has the addition of booze in the form of beer in the sauce as well!
So, changes: halving it, obviously, and replacing the Dijon mustard with regular brown – Matt detests Dijon, and I don’t eat mustard if it’s not cooked into something (exception: Schwartz’s sandwiches in Montreal. You don’t mess with genius.), so there’s no point having it around the house. And I realized I didn’t have red wine vinegar, so I used balsamic, and that was fine.
Slow-Cooker Shredded Beef
Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 cup barbeque sauce
1 1/2 tsp balsamic vinegar
3 oz, or a light 1/2 cup, beer (I used a pale ale)
a heavy 1/2 lb beef, cut so that it fits in the bottom of the slow-cooker
Method
Mix together the mustard, barbeque sauce, and vinegar in the slow-cooker.
Dump the beef in on top of that.
Pour the beer over the beef.
Put it on low and leave it for 6 – 8 hours.
Take it out and shred it with 2 forks.
Serve it on buns with as much sauce as you like mixed in.
So as it turns out, I might not have needed to halve the thing in order to get it to fit, but we did get 3 and a half sandwiches out of this much, so take that for what it’s worth. Also, I didn’t manage to get a photo of the sandwiches made. Use your imagination.
October 29, 2008 at 3:19 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Ok, this may be old news in the foodblogging world (but I wouldn’t know, because I was just sent the link today, and there’s no date on the thing), but this is a really cool photo essay of families’ food purchases for a week, all over the world. It makes you wonder what yours would look like. Mine would probably be embarrassing.
See for yourself!
September 10, 2008 at 10:40 am · Filed under Uncategorized
I was away this past week visiting family in Vancouver, and I only got one worthwhile post out of it, which I will publish later, once I’ve uploaded the photos. I thought I’d get at least one more, since there was a big family party (sort of like a second wedding reception for all my relatives who couldn’t make it to the real wedding), and I made a couple of things. But one of them was a potato salad that I’ve already made, and the other was this little rolly appetizer I make all the time, but this time I decided to bring them, unbaked, to my grandma’s (site of the party), and just use her oven to bake them, so they’d be hot and fresh. But a few minutes into baking them, smoke started coming out of the oven. It was nothing, just a lot of crud built up on the floor of the oven burning off (not with actual fire… well, except for that one time… just lots of smoke), so we all decided that the goodies would be fine, and maybe they’d have a smokey flavour to them, yum yum yum. And they were fine. Just… grey. Yep. The smoke discoloured them, so instead of a nice golden brown, they were more of a golden grey, which is not photo-worthy. Everyone still gobbled them right up, though.
Anyway, I’m back now, swamped with catching up (mostly at the gym), but I’m going to try to make a couple things this weekend, and as soon as I get those photos uploaded, I’ll have the post from while I was away.
