Tag: Cooking Chronicles

The Cooking Chronicles: Inspired Spinach Salad

At a Sunterra-catered dinner a few months ago, I had one of the best salads I’ve ever had the privilege to try. Atop a base of spinach greens sat sliced white mushrooms, bits of real bacon, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, and hard boiled eggs. The dressing of choice was a poppyseed raspberry vinaigrette. Much to my dismay, Sunterra doesn’t offer this specific salad in their deli, so on Saturday, I set out to duplicate it the best I could.

I copped out on the vinaigrette, opting to use store-bought Kraft Extra Virgin Olive Oil Signature  Red Raspberry Dressing, and to make life even easier, I used pre-washed spinach greens. Four sliced mushrooms, one crumbled bacon strip, a dash of grated parmesan, and two sliced hard boiled eggs later, my salad was assembled.

The eggs provided the needed protein to an otherwise light dinner, and the bacon added a lovely crunch and flavour boost. While the dressing wasn’t as good as Sunterra’s from-scratch dressing, the salad as a whole was quite good. This would make a great take-to-work meal.

Inspired Spinach Salad

The Cooking Chronicles: Banana Muffins

Though I rarely eat raw bananas, the fruit, unlike others, are useful even when overripe and nearly black. To use up the four remaining bananas in Mack’s fruit bowl, I hunted for a recipe that required oil and not softened butter (as I didn’t have time to wait for the butter to cool to room temperature), and Giada de Laurentiis’s Banana Muffins (minus the marscapone cream frosting) were perfect, even in the quantity of bananas it needed.

My only substitution was extra cinnamon in place of nutmeg that we didn’t have, but other than that, I followed the instructions to a T. Happily, the muffins turned out great! Aromatic (Mack was loving the smell as they baked up in the kitchen), subtly sweet, and lovingly mingling banana and cinnamon flavours, they made a nice treat after dinner.

A basket of these banana muffins would make a great housewarming gift, or afternoon tea addition.

Banana Muffins

The Cooking Chronicles: Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookie recipes never seem to jive with me – I usually have issues with the cookies spreading too much, or not rising enough. As such, I was hoping an Anna Olson recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies would end up okay. The recipe called for an unusual ingredient not usually seen – cornstarch. Apparently, it is what gives the cookies their chewy consistency. Strange, but it worked!

Very straightforward and quick, the only issue I had was keeping Mack from eating all of the cookie dough.


Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Definitely give these a try – and see if you can prevent yourself from eating them all straight out of the oven!

The Cooking Chronicles: Cinnamon Pancetta Carbonara

To break in Mack (and Kimmi)’s new kitchen, we decided to make Giada’s Cinnamon Pancetta Carbonara. I’d been meaning to duplicate a carbonara dish since returning from Europe last year, but didn’t get around to it until tonight.

We picked up most of the ingredients this afternoon (being within walking distance of both a Save On and Safeway helps in that regard), and began our cooking trial. Not having a large enough pan meant a little juggling and transferring into smaller pots, but it worked out okay. Mack and I both agreed that the cinnamon quotient could have been increased even more (I probably added about a teaspoon more than recommended, and it still wasn’t a discernable flavour).

This is definitely not a dish for dieters, as mentioned on another food blog, but simple, filling, and different than your run-of-the-mill marinara and spaghetti, it’s worth a try on a pressed weeknight.

Cinnamon Pancetta Carbonara

The Cooking Chronicles: Chocolate Amaretti Cake

After being repeatedly exposed to photos of Giada’s Chocolate Amaretti Cake, I decided I had to try out the recipe.

Being without a large food processor, I wasn’t able to follow the instructions to a T. After grinding the sliced almonds and amaretti cookies separately, I incorporated the morsels into the butter mixture by hand. I also ended up baking the cake for longer than the proposed time, and wasn’t able to remove the finished product from the springfoam pan until much later, resulting in a slightly piecemeal presentation.

Not being a huge fan of almonds to begin with probably should have clued me into not making an amaretti-based cake, but somehow I didn’t expect the entire cake to taste and smell like it had been dosed with artificial almond extract. My Mum claimed the texture to be like that of a brownie, but I think it was spongier than that, and not as rich or tasty.

Perhaps I messed up the measurements, but I likely will not be making this cake again. Anyone interested in half a box of amaretti cookies?

Chocolate Amaretti Cake

The Cooking Chronicles: Egg, Cheese and Hot Dog Bake

Needing a quick supper idea, and knowing that I had some leftover hot dogs and buns in my fridge, I remembered a Real Simple recipe for an egg, cheese, and sausage bake, and decided to modify it based on what I had on hand.

Substituting hot dogs in place of Italian sausage, green peppers instead of onions, and adding a few cherry tomatoes that I had meant to eat in a salad, it was a very easy recipe to pull together. The final product was all right – it was essentially a quiche-like casserole, the egg-soaked bread pieces ending up tasting like French toast, and overall helped round-out the dish. My family wasn’t as enthused about the bake, but each to their own, right?

I’d say this is a good brunch pick, or one to make if you have children coming over for dinner.

Egg, Cheese and Hot Dog Bake

The Cooking Chronicles: Strawberry Shortcake

Having seen strawberries advertised in flyers over the last few weeks, I was drawn to Michael Smith’s recipe for Strawberry Shortcake in a recent edition of the Globe & Mail.

I tried my hand at it on Monday night, and was sorely disappointed with what was by far the blandest dessert I’ve ever made. The nutmeg-flavored biscuits and sweetened strawberries were passable on their own, but paired together with the vanilla-scented whip cream, ended up tasting all wrong.

Though I could detect the difference in the cream versus butter-based dough (which resulted in a lighter, cake-like consistency) the biscuit itself doesn’t lend itself well, in my opinion, to dessert, and fares better as a brunch item. The whipped cream would have benefited from a sweeter additive like honey, but it probably wouldn’t elevate this dish to second-attempt-worthy status.

I may end up retreating back to my fail safe panna cotta to pair with other fresh berries this season.

Strawberry Shortcake

The Cooking Chronicles: An Evening of Food and Wine

Since beginning this (food) blog last year, my interest in the culinary arts has not been contained to cooking and eating out alone. Due to repetitive exposure to Giada de Laurentiis and Ina Garten’s entertaining strategies, I had embraced the notion of hosting my own dinner party for some time. I had purchased paper invitations on sale at the end of last year, but didn’t yet have a large enough repetoire of recipes under my belt to really build a menu from. Over the last six months, however, I’ve experimented with enough dishes to put together a coherent meal, from appetizer to dessert. And though I knew June would be a busy month, I also acknowledged that if I didn’t throw the party before I left for Europe, it would likely not happen at all, at least not in the immediate future.

So the planning began about three weeks earlier, with “save the date” e-mails to four of my friends (plus Mack, who had agreed to host the party at his house). A week after that, I mailed out the invitations, following rather formal conventions gleaned from the web, including, for example, in place of the standard “RSVP,” the phrase “Favour of reply is requested.” As well, to mark this as a special occasion, I specified a semiformal dress code (in my post-party research, I stumbled upon a great website that offers free, printable invitation templates, most with a whimsical theme – worth checking out if you’re in a creative pinch).

As for the menu, as I am of the belief that I was Italian in a previous life, planned to cook several of Giada’s recipes. I was really interested in making individual servings of dishes wherever possible, not only to make the food easier to serve, but for presentation purposes. And with the dessert, for example, its ‘make-in-advance’ nature is perfect for such an occasion.

Panna Cotta with Fresh Bertries

So on Sunday, at Mack’s house, with the vinaigrette and panna cotta made the day before, we got to work cleaning, decorating, and preparing the majority of the food. With careful planning and a well-stocked fridge, it wasn’t as taxing as I had anticipated.

Table set-up

Toasting the almonds for the salad was a straightforward procedure, and really brought out the flavour of the nuts. Also, I cheated this time around in using canned orange pieces, but I promise to learn how to segment an orange next time. We did have a bit of trouble with moulding the parmesan frico cups at first, but with Mack’s “ingenious” idea of using a plastic water bottle in place of a glass, we were able to move on to the tomatoes.

Mixed Greens with a Citrus Vinaigrette served in a Parmesan Frico Cup

The inclusion of a splash of tomato juice and decrease in the amount of breadcrumbs (as observed on my first try) made a noticeable difference to the spinach-stuffed tomatoes – the side as a whole was more moist and tasted better.

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes (before baking)

Individual gratin dishes (from Dollarama!) made the penne with four cheeses easy to serve, and though we didn’t miss the gorgonzola we left out, it probably would have thickened the sauce just that little bit. I did, however, like the hint of tomato mixed in with the cream (and yes, Mack even offered each of the guests “fresh ground pepper” to go with their pasta).

Penne with Four Cheeses

As for the “fire-raising” moment of the night – in hindsight, I should have warmed the focaccia round with the tomatoes in the 375 degree oven and not alongside the pasta in the 500 degree oven. My apologies to my friends who were too polite to not consume burnt bread…

Overall, the timing of the dishes worked out quite well. A wonder what planning ahead can do when setting up a multiple-course meal. Also, Mack’s wine picks did much to set a more mature tone to the evening – a Naked Grape Chardonnay and a bottle of White Zinfandel. I didn’t get to try the Zinfandel myself, but from what I heard, it accompanied our pasta nicely. Lastly, though the table was a bit small for six people, meaning that we had to serve each person individually instead of utilizing a shared platter, it may have been better as each of the guests then felt taken care of.

Ready for dessert!

I had planned for an early 5:30pm start to accommodate one of the guests, so the sun was still quite bright when we began to eat. As the night progressed, however, there was a moment while we were having dessert, close to dusk, candles flickering, with jazz playing softly in the background that I really appreciated the moment and the small accomplishment that (Mack and) I had completed.

Mini Linzer Cookies with Organic Strawberry Jam

But to give credit where credit’s due – I could not have pulled this off without Mack’s help – not only gracious enough to lend me his home, but a hand in everything from music selection to table setting to food to clean up.

Whew!

I found that cooking for six was manageable, with perhaps eight being the upper limit to maintain sanity. I would do it again, but in a different form – backyard BBQ bash, dessert night, wine and cheese evening – but likely not for a while. I’m happy to check off “throw a dinner party” off my list of 43 Things.

Group shot

The Cooking Chronicles: Quesadillas

Guided in part by a recipe I picked up at Save-On Foods a long time ago, Mack and I made Quesadillas for supper yesterday.

We decided to try Maple Leaf’s Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Strips, though after opening the package, I wouldn’t recommend it. It was just enough for two quesadillas, and when an entire rotisserie chicken could be purchased for a few dollars more, even the ease of thirty-second preparation wasn’t worth the expense. In addition to the meat (salami was our other base), we added provolone and marble cheeses, tomatoes, green pepper, green onion, and (for Mack) sour cream. After a light brushing of olive oil and 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven, they were done.

Crispy, filling, and a great way to use up leftover meat and raw vegetables, the quesadillas are a quick lunch or supper idea that’s definitely worth a try.

Quesadilla (cool shot by Mack)

The Cooking Chronicles: Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes

As a practice run before my (fingers crossed) dinner party this month, I decided to make Giada’s Herb Stuffed Tomatoes for my Mum’s birthday potluck this weekend.

Guided by many user comments that indicated that parsely was too strong, I substituted the recommended spinach instead. But who knew spinach was so hard to wash? Besides that challenge, I found the task of hollowing out the tomatoes more time-consuming than anticipated, and likely ended up with less pulp simply due to my ill-experience.
The final product was all right – the dish was presentable, but I received mixed reviews on the amount of provolone I included. As well, the breadcrumbs made the filling a tad dry, so I’d be sure to pour in some of the excess tomato juice (seeds strained out, of course) next time.

Not a bad vegetable side dish, but one I’ll have to play around with a few more times to get right.

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes