In Season

I find it very exciting that I can walk into the grocery store and find more than apples with a sign that says product of Canada. It is only a few weeks until this years csa starts and I am so looking forward to each week’s fresh bounty.

Right now we are in prime asparagus season and as a result it has been a real star in our meals. I have been oohing and awwing over different asparagus recipes. There has been asparagus and poached eggs with slivered parmesan and fresh cracked pepper, asparagus soup, spaghetti with shaved asparagus ribbons…mmm spring.

I know this might seem repetitive to some but to me it just means spring is officially here. The picture above is a quick week night meal which was perfect for us tonight as we had to run to our French lessons!

Also on a side note – I am loving pinterest right now – check it out!

In honour of tonight’s French lessons Martha’s

L'asperge avec l'oeuf et le parmesan braconné

o 1 pound asparagus, trimmed and peeled
o 4 large eggs
o extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
o 1 ounce Parmesan cheese, thinly shaved
o fine sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1. Steam asparagus until tender, 2 to 6 minutes.
2. Fill a large saucepan with 4 inches of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. When water is barely simmering, break 1 egg into a small heatproof bowl. Gently tip bowl, sliding egg carefully into water. Repeat with remaining eggs. Cook until whites are set but yolks are soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer eggs to paper towels, and drain briefly.
3. Divide asparagus among 4 plates, and top each with an egg. drizzle with oil, sprinkle with parmesan, and season with salt and pepper.

Spring has Sprung

Every year, I am amazed at how spring arrives overnight. Yesterday, we spent the day outside with our niece; sidewalk chalk, 2 park visits, bike riding and skipping. The winds were suddenly warm and the daffodils were abloom. As we walked the sidewalks to the park, we stopped to gaze at the bright green grass that has exploded throughout the neighbourhood.

It is crazy how spring arrives every year, yet still manages to astound you.

Anna Olson's Mini Lemon Meringue Cheesecakes

ingredients

crust
• 1-1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1-1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

cheesecake
• 2x8 ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs, room temperature

Meringue

• 2 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp cornstarch

Crust

Preheat oven to 350°F and line 48 mini muffin tins with paper cups.
To make crust, combine all ingredients until evenly blended and crumbly. Press into bottom of mini muffins cups. bake for 8 minutes, then cool.

Cheesecake

To make cheesecake, reduce oven to 325°F. Beat cream cheese until smooth and fluffy, then gradually add sugar while beating, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Beat in cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, scraping well after each addition. Spoon or pipe cheesecake filling into cooled mini muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes, until cheesecake still moves a little when pan is shaken gently. Let cheesecakes cool to room temperature. Meringue layer can be made once cheesecake have cooled and cheesecakes can be chilled overnight and then finished

Meringue

For meringue, preheat oven to 375F. With an electric mixer, whip egg whites with lemon juice until foamy. While whipping, gradually pour in sugar and whip on one speed less than highest until whites hold a stiff peak (the meringue stands upright when whisk is lifted). Whisk in cornstarch. Fill a piping bag fitted with a large star or plain tip and pipe on top of each cheesecake. Bake pie for about 6 minutes, just until meringue browns lightly. Allow cheesecakes to chill for at least an hour and up to a day before serving.

Ode to the Egg

Lately, my lunch has been pretty predictable: grapes, cottage cheese, some crackers, a few slices of cheese and a hardboiled egg. If I’m feeling bold, I’ll make the egg into an egg salad sandwich. But I’m bold less often than not.

This morning I was making lunches and realized we were out of hardboiled eggs.

All day.

All day.

I have been thinking about that egg.

On my drive home I dreamed of many dinner menus involving eggs. Infront of the fridge I was so happy to indulge my craving. I gathered the following:

• mixed greens
• red, orange and green peppers
• cucumbers
• cherry tomatoes
• red onions
• a wedge each of feta
• a little hill of fresh cracked pepper; and
• a few eggs.

This promising collection of ingredients became a beautiful salad, but really it’s the egg I’ve been thinking about. At this point a hardboiled egg just wasn’t going to cut it. In my head I saw a beautifully poached egg. Only one problem – I’ve never poached an egg.

Well, today was the day.

Finally, I sat down and atop my salad bowl sat a gently poached egg, white and swollen. Happily, I punctured the egg and its yellow yolk spilled onto the tangle of mixed greens below.

Sacred Saturday Mornings

Our weekends are usually pretty packed. Between family and friends we never seem to have an empty night. We often get nostalgic and ask each other “hey remember that weekend we did nothing but watch cake challenges on the food network?” “That was a good weekend”.

I’m okay with the busy nights, but Ryan is wired differently. He gets quite twitchy when we don’t have a free night in sight. To compromise (since I am usually the one jam packing our schedule with dinner dates) we try very hard to keep our Saturday and Sunday mornings free. They’ve become sacred really.

We have a routine; whoever wakes first goes to the couch and waits for the other to come with the pillows and quilt. We have a bigger brunch – usually carb filled and curl up on the couch trying to catch up on the shows on the pvr.

This weekend was no different. Saturday morning we met on the couch and caught up on a couple episodes of amazing race while eating Molly Wizenberg’s Scottish Scones.

½ c milk
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp salt
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 tbs sugar

preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar and lemon zest, and stir to mix. pour the wet ingredients into the dry, reserving just a tad of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead it no more than 12 times. Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. place on an ungreased baking sheet. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden.

Cheers!

I like to celebrate. I’m a holiday kinda girl. Any reason to gather with family, put out a seasonal ornament or make a fun recipe is a good day to me! Family day is a my kinda day. A 3 day weekend? Yes please. A teddy bear picnic to celebrate with my niece? Fantastic!

So, for this year’s family day, I’ve baked the tried, tested and true – chocolate chip cookies. The empty milk glasses and crumbs at my house prove you really can’t go wrong with this one.

Happy Family Day!

Anna Olson’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate

Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.
Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.
Drop onto a greased baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown around the edges.

Delicious Solution

Point, proof, comment? Point, proof, comment? Remain objective. Relate to thesis? Conclusion?

Welcome to exams.

Exams are a toss up. We only have the students for half days which is really nice. But, essay after essay cause my eyes to cross.

You can tell by our couch if it is a heavy marking week for me; there is an indented cushion surrounded by tea cups and drained red pens.

You know how some weeks go by and you haven’t turned on the oven? Exam week is one of those weeks. We’ve been living on cheese and crackers, pitas and egg salad sandwiches; really anything I can whip together quickly, take back to the couch and continue to mark. There is not a lot of balanced eating in exam week.

When Saturday finally came and I felt I had made some progress with the mountain of exams, we were craving something good.

Ben’s French Onion Soup was the perfect fix.

Ben wrote out this recipe on the back of our sushi menu Friday at lunch. He doesn’t really do recipes but more grocery lists. So, this is me adding a little structure.

Ben’s French Onion Soup

unsalted butter
lots of onions (a mixture of sweet, red and shallots), sliced in thin half-moons
sea salt
cracked black pepper
1 cup red wine
1 quart beef stock
1/2 cup water
1 loaf of french crusty bread – sliced diagonally
strong cheddar (i used a 5 year), grated
good mozzarella, grated

Heat the butter in a dutch oven over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the onions, salt; stir, ensuring that the onions are coated in the melted butter. Cook the onions over medium heat, until the onions become translucent.
Once the onions have become translucent, slowly add the red wine. Then, add the beef stock and water. Let the soup boil for 15 minutes.

Turn soup down to low and let simmer. Turn on the broiler. Place the bread slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet; toast under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. While the slices toast, ladle the soup into oven-safe bowls or crocks. Once the tops of the bread slices have toasted, remove them from the oven. Float slices, toasted side down, on the tops of each bowl. Top each bowl with an equal amount of the shredded cheddar and mozzarella. Slide the pan under the broiler for a final 3 to 5 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.

Crack fresh black pepper and salt to taste.

Snowy Saturdays

We really had a beautiful fall this year. The leaves stayed crisp, the cooler evenings were filled with sun soaked skies and best of all; it lasted well into November. I think this is why I am having a much easier time dealing with winter. I can even go as far as to say when we woke up to a winter wonderland I was excited.

Originally we had planned to go out for breakfast but decided to stay in. This left me looking into the cupboards. Cereal and toast just wouldn’t cut it. I needed something that suited a January morning of woolen sweaters, pajama bottoms and chapped lips. I needed something comforting. I fingered through cookbooks and then curled up on the couch to check some of my favourite food blogs.

That’s when I found this recipe. I set to work and just as the recipe promised quickly whipped up super fast cinnamon buns. They are okay. They aren’t great. The dough is firmer and doesn’t have the soft, sweet chewy consistency I was hoping for. I decided, before the weekend was through, I had to have a great cinnamon bun recipe.

My taste tester was very excited about this and happily went out to get some more eggs and puff pastry. Here we are Sunday night and I think I can say I was mildly successful. I found a delicious sticky bun recipe.

I’m still a little confused as to what the difference is between sticky buns and cinnamon buns but it really doesn’t matter to me. All I know is the recipe that follows is deliciously comforting.

Easy Sticky Buns
adapted slightly from Ina Garten

ingredients
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup pecans, chopped in very large pieces
1 package frozen puff pastry, defrosted

for the filling:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place a 12-cup standard muffin tin on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper.

In a bowl with an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the 12 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Place 1 rounded tablespoon of the mixture in each of the 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle the pecans evenly among the 12 muffin cups on top of the butter and sugar mixture.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out 2 sheets of puff pastry. Brush both sheets with the melted butter. Leaving a 1-inch border on the puff pastry, sprinkle each sheet with the 1/2 the brown sugar, and 1/2 the cinnamon. Roll the pastry up snuggly, finishing the roll with the seam side down. Trim the ends of the roll and discard. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, each about 1 1/2 inches wide. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 12 of the muffin cups.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. be careful - they're hot! Allow to cool for 5 minutes, invert the buns onto the parchment paper (ease the filling and pecans out onto the buns with a spoon) and cool completely.

Inspired

Okay, it has been two months. Two. Months.

That is a sad state of affairs. It isn't that I haven't been thinking about it. Trust me, I have. I just haven't had the time to take a picture before we eat and writing a post about an empty plate doesn't seem right.

I think I will have to fit this into my new years resolution somehow.

Ryan and I hosted our Christmas dinner this weekend. The gathering of family and friends around good food inspired a post.

Christmas hasn't been as stressful this year. Don't get me wrong, that is not to say I don't have an incredibly long christmas to-do list waiting. The truth is I am even behind in my chocolate advent calendar. I am sure your list looks similar: writing the christmas cards that I resolved to write last weekend, wrapping, shopping, marking 2 class sets of isu's, cleaning, watching christmas specials(what? you don’t consider that a to-do list must?), shopping, baking, baking and of course more baking.

I often add things I have already done to my to-do list just so I can check them off... and now I can check off writing a blog post.

you should add these recipes to yours.

Cranberry Cake
from Kristin at the kitchen sink

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup sour cream
2 cups fresh cranberries
confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. butter an 8-by-2-inch or a 9-inch cake pan. In a large bowl, whisk together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, and salt.

Beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. With mixer on low, beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated; beat in vanilla and lemon zest. beat in 1/2 the flour mixture, then sour cream. Add remaining flour mixture; mix just until combined.

Spread batter into pan. In a bowl, toss cranberries with 2 tablespoons flour and sprinkle over batter.

Bake until cake is golden, about 40 minutes. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving


maple pecan pie
from anna olson

cream cheese pastry
1 cup butter, room temperature
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 cups flour

filling
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
dash of salt
3 cups pecan halves

pastry
Preheat oven to 375º F.

Cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add flour and blend until dough comes together. Shape dough into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.

Roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Place dough into an 8-inch removable bottom tart shell or pie pan and trim and shape edges. Chill for 20 minutes.

filling

Whisk together all ingredients except pecans until smooth. pour filling into chilled, unbaked tart shell. arrange pecan halves on top of filling.

Bake tart for 40-45 minutes, until filling doesn’t jiggle when you shake it, and crust is golden brown.

Soup's On

We have great friends. The kind of friends you fly 9 hours in coach with, travel Europe with and then still plan to go back with. Rare. I know. We don’t get together nearly as often as we would like but every few months we pick up right where we left off. If this isn’t enough to ensure lifelong friendship, an amazing fall dinner where you leave with the recipe definitely is. Thanks Glen and Karen!

Even though we just had this Saturday I had to make it again.

Go to the grocery store, buy these ingredients and make this soup!

Karen’s Carrot Cauliflower Soup

medium potato, diced 1
medium carrots, diced 4
chopped onion 1 cup
small head of cauliflower 1
water 2 cups

water 2 cups
chicken bouillon 4 tsp
beef Bouillon 1 tsp
prepared mustard 1 tsp
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
salt 1 tsp
pepper ¼ tsp
grated medium cheddar 1 cup

Combine first 5 ingredients in saucepan. Cook until vegetables are done. Do not drain. Remove from heat. stir in next 8 ingredients. puree’. Makes about 7 cups.

Thankful

We celebrated Thanksgiving a week early and as always we went around the table to say what we were thankful for. This year the word that came to mind was possibilities. I am thankful and excited for the things that have yet to come. As I get older thanksgiving is starting to become one of my favourite holidays. It seems there is more time; no gifts need to be opened, no eggs need to be hunted and no balloons need to be blown up. Instead there is more time for laughter and love and time to tell those around the table just how much you truly appreciate them.

I hope you enjoy your thanksgiving as much I did mine.

Eat, drink, loosen your belt and be merry!

Anna Olson’s Pumpkin Pie

ingredients

pastry
• 6 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 4 to 5 tbsp ice water

filling
• 2 cups canned pumpkin
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3 tablespoons fancy molasses
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups whipping cream
• 3 tablespoons brandy or orange liqueur

spiced whipped cream
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg

For the pastry, freeze butter and shortening for 30 minutes. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. grate the butter and shortening into flour. toss this mixture with your fingers to coat the fats, breaking up lumps with your fingers as you go. The dough should be a rough, crumbly texture and take on a slight yellow tone. Add 3 tbsp of the water and mix with a spatula to bring dough together, adding a little more water if needed. Shape dough into a disc and chill for an hour before rolling.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under ¼-inch thick. Dust the bottom of a 9-inch pie shell with flour and line with dough. Trim edges.

For the filling, whisk pumpkin with brown sugar, molasses spices and salt. whisk in eggs, then whipping cream and brandy or orange liqueur. pour into chilled pie shell.
Bake for 10 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 degrees F. And bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until filling puffs just a little around edges but still has a bit of jiggle in center when moved.

For the spiced whipped cream, whip cream with sugar and spices until medium peaks form.

Happy Thanksgiving!