Thursday cake

I came home from work today craving a slice of cake.  Two layers, yellow cake, chocolate frosting, home made.  So I made it. 

And I ate it.  Despite not having gone to the gym in over a week.  Happy Thursday!

Not all it's cracked up to be

"Crack is whack."

                                                                                                                 - Whitney Houston 

I'm a little late jumping on the Crack Pie bandwagon but on Monday I finally found an excuse to make it.  The recipe is from Momofuku, a trendy restaurant and bar in New York City.  This pie costs $44 if you want to buy one from their Milk Bar and has a major following.  Earlier this year the L.A. Times published a recipe for it and it's been sweeping the blogs since.  With a name like Crack Pie, it's gotta be good, right?  Well, Monday was Mr. T and my two year wedding anniversary so I used it as an excuse to make the pie, which contains butter, lots of sugar, egg yolks, all in a homemade oatmeal cookie crust and weighs in at a whopping 432 calories per slice.  We didn't get around to eating the pie until the next day because we had an amazing dinner at Bar La Grassa (I highly recommend the soft egg and lobster bruschetta--to die for!) and we were too stuffed to eat anything else.  We finally settle in after dinner on Tuesday with a slice each of Crack Pie, although the creator of the pie recommends that you eat it "with a spoon, while it's still in the pie plate, with your favorite someone."  While Mr. T quite liked it, I thought that it was just too sweet for my taste.  I didn't dislike it.  The filling is buttery and sweet, not unlike a pecan pie without the pecans, and the crust it crunchy and just a little bit salty.  The crust is definitely the best part.  I'm not saying that I won't enjoy eating the rest of the Crack Pie, I just won't be needing to go into rehab any time soon.

Squeaky Clean

I made my own shampoo this morning and  washed my hair with it.  I'll pilot it out a bit longer and let you know how it goes.

I just combined 1/3 cup of tea tree liquid castile soap, 1/3 cup of water and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.  It's just a small batch while I am in the experiment stage still.

Day 1: My mane feels squeaky clean.  Now I'm off to google hair conditioners.

N

Best Blueberry Muffins

As promised, I have what I believe is the bestest blueberry muffin recipe I've ever baked.  I found it in a James Barber (LOVED that guy!) recipe book that is no longer available in print, and I've tweaked it a bit to my liking. 

Blueberry Muffins

1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Mix dry:
2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
dash of cinnamon

Mix wet:
1/3 cup orange juice
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 egg

Mix the two together being careful not to overstir, and fold in 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.  Spoon into lightly oiled muffin tins, sprinkle a little sugar over top, and bake in a 400F/200C oven for 15-20 minutes.  Take out of pans immediately, and cool on racks.  Makes 12 muffins. Enjoy!

N

Blueberries Here, There & Everywhere

Just popping in to say that I still have probably 5 pounds of blueberries left!!!!   Please do not misunderstand me.   I'm far from sick of them.  this is a pretty sweet situation to be in.  So far I've made blueberry sherbert, blueberry muffins, blueberry salad and blueberry sauce.  I'm thinking blueberry pie next.

I definitely have to share some of these recipes as I am fully aware how mean it is of me to post these images of mouth-watering food and not point you in the right direction.  Mea culpa.  First I must put in a day of hardly working, I mean working hard.

Toot, toot.
N

Bean Salad Yummy Yummy

My mum has been making this bean salad since forever.   Thankfully, she passed the recipe down to me when I began contributing to family picnics and potlucks.  Not only is it tasty, but it makes quite a lot, and it takes five minutes to make!  This bean salad has been made hundreds of times, and it's a winner.

Mum's Bean Salad

• 1/3 cup oil
• 2/3 cup vinegar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• salt & pepper to taste
• pinch of dry mustard
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 can green beans, drained
• 1 can yellow beans, drained
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 1/2 red onion, sliced rings

The day before your picnic/potluck, dump the three cans of beans and the green pepper and red onion into a large container.  In a large pouring vessel (I have a dressing shaker thing-y from Tupperware), mix the oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, and dry mustard.  Pour the vinaigrette over the bean mixture.  Put the lid on the container.   Store your salad in the fridge, and let marinate overnight.  Just before serving, drain your salad.  Add a big spoon and serve!  Take sweeping bows when complimented.

Happy summer potluck season!

N

Dessert in Five Minutes

My favourite dessert to serve in the summer is sponge cake from Briwood Farm Market in St. Thomas topped with freshly whipped cream and berries.  If you live elsewhere, I suggest you take some time and hunt down that perfect sponge cake.  It'll be worth it.  This particular sponge cake stays fresh for two weeks, so I pick up one up every now and then when I am in St. Thomas.  I always have a small 500mL carton of whipping cream in the back of the fridge because one never knows when you need whipped cream, and it is usually good for up to two months.   So all I ever need to do is a quick berry run.   Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries are all good.  Or mix 'em up like I did here.  I think peaches would be pretty snazzy too.  If whipping your own whipped cream is holding you back, do not fret any longer.  This is what I do:

1. Chill your beater attachments and the whipping cream and the bowl (if you can fit it in the freezer - I can't so it's no biggie) in the freezer for about twenty minutes.   Any longer may freeze your whipping cream, and that won't do.
2.  In a large deep bowl, pour a 500mL carton of whipping cream with a tsp. of vanilla and 1/4 cup of sugar.  I might put less sugar.  I really don't know 'cause I just throw in what looks good.  I don't like my whipped cream too sweet.  Let the berries and cake do that work.
3.  Beat with your hand mixer on high until peaks form.  You'll know when it's done.  It takes approximately three minutes.  Don't over mix.  The whipped cream will get all airy and bleh.
4.  Serve with sponge cake and berries, and watch it disappear!

Now we can all be twins!

N

Ol' Days Sweet & Sour Chicken

This pile of messy saucy chicken on rice is my favouritest meal from my childhood (and maybe to this day!).  This is the meal my sister and I chose over every meal in the world for our birthday dinners.  And we've made it for our children, but those silly kids don't beg us to make it more often.  If they did, I might remember to make it more often.  'Cause it's ridiculously simple to make.  And that's not to say that I've not messed it up 'cause I have.  I've been known to stew for hours wondering what I did wrong.  However easy it is, it is also very important, you don't leave anything out.  Trust me. And while it is my favouritest meal, I can't seem to keep the recipe (handed down from my mum) at hand.  I've lost it at least a dozen times to the point that I am fairly certain my mum keeps it by her phone.  I may even be guilty for timing how long it takes for her to start reciting the recipe from when she picks up the phone.  So last weekend when she last gave me the recipe at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, I vowed to never bother her again in the hopes to impress her.   After polishing off another sweet & sour chicken dinner, I sat down to type out the recipe on the blog.  Wouldn't you know that my dear family had ACTUALLY cleaned up the kitchen after me?  This never happens.  In their tidying up, my scrap of paper with all the careful measurements and ingredients was discarded.  I stared out the window at the garbage bags on the curb, and rather than cry, I did my darndest to recall exactly what and how much I threw in the crockpot.  I will not call my mum and declare defeat for the 13th time.  That is what she expects me to do.  Here is what I remember.

Ingredients
2 lbs chicken (I used some cheap skin-on, bone-in thighs)
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/4 vinegar
20 oz can of pineapple (I used tidbits this time, but I've also used crushed)
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced

Directions
Brown the chicken in the oil.  Drain chicken and place in slow cooker.
Combine the rest of the ingredients and pour over the chicken.
Slow cook (I'm humming Slow Ride now) for 6 to 8 hours on low (this is what my mum said, but I did it on high - maybe because my slow cooker is crap).
Remove the chicken to a dish and keep warm. Turn the slow cooker to high. (Mine was already there!) Make some rice while you're at it.
Mix 3 tbsp of cornstarch with 3 tbsp of cold water.
Slowly add the cornstarch mixture to the sauce left in the slow cooker while stirring with a whisk until it thickens.  I find the more cornstarch mixture I use, the more blander the sauce becomes so take it easy.
Serve the chicken over rice, and top with your sweet and sour sauce.  Enjoy!

N

Lazy Daisy Day

The clapotis that I have been knitting behind the scenes is finished, and it's already been stolen and retrieved several times. I keep saying that I have no issue with lending it out for small periods of time, but it's MINE. For keeps. I used about 6 or 7 balls of vintage Eatons acrylic, and it's super drapey, machine-washable, the most soothing shade of pale blue, and cool to wear. Perfect for the summer! If you've been putting off learning how to knit, let this be a good reason to start.

And on a completely different topic, I baked kale chips this morning before I even had my bowl of bran flakes, and I think I have found my new love. I was gifted this kale yesterday by my dearest friend who had no idea what to do with so much kale. I remembered reading a blog post about the glory of baked kale chips, and I was excited about trying it out myself. I couldn't find where I had seen it, but I did find a basic recipe, and I embellished it a bit with a sprinkle of lemon juice, and all the while, I was very sceptical about these being edible. Well, I do declare these tasty! And I got several thumbs up from pyjama-clad little people passing by in the kitchen. I can't wait to bake kale chips for everyone all around. If you come over to my house today, I may still be in my pyjamas, but you may join me in a circle around my giant bowl of kale chips. I'm thinking of tall glasses of icy lemonade to complement them. Mmmmm.

N

Cobbler Gobblin'

This here's the bestest cobbler recipe I've cobbled together. And it's ridiculously quick and requires little in terms of ingredients. So far I've topped it with slimey strawberries, freezer-burnt rhubarb, bland blueberries, over-ripe raspberries, sour peaches, bruised apples, and questionable blackberries, and EVERY single time, my dessert-eaters request a second serving. Do you dare to try it?

Here's what you need:

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix it all up real good. Pour into a greased 9" round cake pan. Liberally sprinkle on your garbage fruit (2 cups of fresh, frozen or canned), and bake at 35oF for 50 minutes until golden around edges. Enjoy. Sit back and feel smug that you've managed to save that old fuzzy peach. It feels pretty magical, doesn't it?

N

Craft Dinner

It’s been a thrilling week for us Balkan Style bloggers! We’ve never had so many sweet comments. It’s been fun reading your blogaversary wishes and meeting many of you through your blogs. Personally, my bloglines subscription just got longer. Oh dear. And we submitted our Newfie Mitten pattern to the Knitting Pattern Central website, and we’ve had a tonne of visitors. Welcome! Please stay and hang out a while longer. We promise to entertain. Really. I’ll make up stuff if I have to.

Where should I start? Oh yis – the chowdah.

I’ve been on a potato corn chowder kick lately, and thankfully my little family minus the littlest has come along for the ride quite willingly. There’s no cooking fancy for the littlest – she’s an Easy Mac kind of girl. I am certain that one day, she will expand her food preferences, but it will have to go down in history that for her sixth year, she subsisted purely on cheesy noodles zapped in the microwave. But for the rest of us that need a little variety, I have been testing out new dishes, and my favourite is by far is this potato corn chowder. Done in under half an hour and paired up with a crusty whole wheat loaf, our appetites are satisfied. I recommend adding some chopped celery in with the onions.

I’ve also recently been blessed with a throat infection for which there is no cause for concern. I managed to be one step ahead of it getting nasty by heel and toeing it to the walk-in clinic yesterday and sweet-talking the physician to prescribe me ten-days worth of amoxicillin. With three doses a day, I’ll barely feel a thing. In fact, I feel pretty well for being infectious. I managed to knit a few more pattern repeats on a second monkey sock and a couple more inches on a second cobblestone sleeve. I also baked a super moist chocolatey mocha snacking cake ‘cause I have found food being shovelled down my throat quite soothing. Guacamole too. In between knitting and eating, I swept and washed the floors. Not bad for a sick day.

And in amongst my holds from the library, I snagged an illustrated copy of Anne of Green Gables in the hopes that a second attempt might entice B to listen more if there were a few pictures on which to focus. The verdict? She was sawing logs by the second page. I kept reading. Tonight, we’ll tackle Chapter Two: Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised. Again. Maybe a better plan would be to just place a hold on the movie.

N

Git yer' Molasses Crinkles

By popular demand, I present to you, my recipe for Molasses Crinkles.

Molasses Crinkles

2 tbsp butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
2 tbsp canola oil
1/3 cup dark molasses
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp salt
Extra sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, combine the oil, butter, molasses, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir until well blended and smooth.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and salt; add to the molasses mixture and stir by hand just until you have a soft dough.

Roll dough into 1” – 1 ½” balls and roll the balls in sugar to coat. Place about 2” apart on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Bake 12 – 14 minutes until just set around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack to cool or serve warm. Store extras in an airtight container or freeze.

Makes 20 cookies.