September 2nd: Packet-baked mushrooms with thyme & Summer vegetable hash

Breakfast for supper!


I took a wee gander back in time to see if I had blogged about this recipe in the past and yes! I have. Not sure if I’ve made it in the intervening years but was ready to give it a go again. Sadie has become a mushroom lover, while Olivia, sadly, has turned away from the joy that is mushrooms. Perhaps she’ll work her way back. I do recall, as a child, I enjoyed canned mushrooms only. Disgusting.


Although my notes of years ago said not to bother eating this recipe with toast, (a) I decided to make this a full-on breakfast for supper meal (with no meat), and (b) Greg has been on a bread-making kick recently so I wanted to take advantage of his latest cheese bread. Good choice! Toasted cheese bread is a delicious accompaniment to this meal. I did take my years-ago advice and added pepper to the goat cheese coating. Good choice.


To round out the meal, I made eggs (over-hard [oops] for me & G, scrambled for Olivia, her favourite, presuming they are served with ketchup) and a vegetable hash. Sadie is my non-egg-eating child. I have tried every form of egg under the sun, with no luck. Even French toast, if it is at all eggy, will be turned away. She’ll eat most other things though, so I let her get away with this. No eggs for Sadie, no mushrooms for Olivia. When did my one-bite rule fall apart?!

I would make and eat both these recipes again tomorrow.


From September 2010's Chatelaine: Packet-baked mushrooms with thyme


3 228-g pkgs button or cremini mushrooms
130-g log soft goat cheese
4 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 tsp melted butter
8 slices country bread (or homemade cheese bread, should you have some handy)


Position rack in centre of oven. Preheat to 450F. Cut out 4 14-in. squares of parchment. Fold each square in half diagonally then open up and lay flat.


Slice mushrooms in half and divide among parchment squares. Fold each into a triangular-shaped packet. Fold and crimp edges and twist ends to seal. Place packets on baking sheet.

Bake until packets puff up, about 20 to 25 min.


Roll goat cheese in thyme and pepper to coat. Slice into 4 rounds. When mushrooms are done, snip open tops of packets. Drizzle mushrooms with butter and top with cheese. Serve with toast.


From August 2015's Chatelaine: Summer vegetable hash

Cook 1/2 red onion, finely chopped, in 2 tbsp butter in a large pan over medium until soft, 3 minutes. Add 1 finely diced zucchini and cook until tender, 3 minutes. Stir in 1 1/2 cups corn kernels and continue cooking until warmed through, 1 minute more. Stir in 1/4 cup finely chopped basil.

February 6th: Three Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Soup

The great thing about skinnytaste is not having to change recipes at all. I made this one exactly as per the recipe and it was simply delish:


Three Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Soup

2 tsp butter
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
8 cups chicken broth
2 cups water
142 g shiitaki mushrooms, sliced
227 g cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 small Parmigiano Reggiano rind (optional)
255 g three cheese tortellini
salt, to taste
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated (optional)

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. When melted, add the celery, onion, carrot and garlic. Reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 8-10 minutes until vegetables begin to soften.

Add the chicken broth, water, mushrooms, rind and increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. When broth boils, add salt to taste and pepper; stir to combine. Reduce heat to low, simmer until mushrooms are soft, about 20 minutes. Add tortellini and cook according to package directions for al dente.

Once cooked, remove the rind, stir to combine and garnish with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano if desired.

Makes 12 cups.

January 4th: Pork and Mushroom Alfredo

This is a cheater post, as I'm repeating a recipe from 2011: Mushroom Alfredo. The teeny difference is that this time I added meat. I have a bunch of pork chops in the freezer and have been looking for ways to use them up. I thought this would work well, and it did. Chicken and shrimp would also be good, I think. And since I haven't gotten around to blogging in 7 months, I'm easing in...

Pork & Mushroom Alfredo

350 g fresh fettuccine

1 tbsp each unsalted butter and olive oil
1 lb boneless pork chops, chopped*

1 lb assorted mushrooms, sliced

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

¾ cup half and half (10%) cream

6 tbsps unsalted butter

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook fettuccine according to package directions, approximately 5 minutes. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta.

Meanwhile, heat butter and olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add pork and mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until starting to brown, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add cream and butter and heat through, simmering gently. Stir in ¼ cup reserved cooking water, cooked pasta, and Parmesan cheese. Thin with more water if necessary.

Serve and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Top with more Parmesan cheese if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

*Can substitute 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, or 1 lb raw peeled deveined large shrimp. If using shrimp, add to pan at same time as garlic.

Served with (gasp) store-bought pre-packaged Caesar salad. I never.

December 4th: Mushroom Alfredo

Who knew Alfredo sauce is so simple? It’s just butter and cream heated together. Seriously. Why do they sell jars of this stuff? I found this basic recipe on epicurious: Fettuccine Alfredo, and made my own riff on it:

Mushroom Alfredo

350 g fresh fettuccine

1 tbsp each unsalted butter and olive oil

1 lb assorted mushrooms, sliced

2-4 garlic cloves (to taste), finely chopped

¾ cup half and half (10%) cream

6 tbsps unsalted butter

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for topping

salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook fettuccine according to package directions, approximately 5 minutes. Reserve ½ cup cooking water, then drain pasta.

Meanwhile, heat butter and olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until starting to brown, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Add cream and butter and heat through, simmering gently. Stir in ¼ cup reserved cooking water, cooked pasta, and Parmesan cheese. Thin with more water if necessary.

Serve and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Top with more Parmesan cheese if desired.

Makes 4 servings.

 

 

Greg thought this was good enough to sell (as in, in a restaurant). Booyah.

November 27th: mini chocolate orange muffins

Did you receive your 2012 Milk Calendar? I certainly got mine! I also got a jumpstart on the 2012 recipes, with O at my side, making mini chocolate orange muffins. They were pretty tasty. 48 mini muffins!

I also put the November 2011 recipe to the test: roast pork tenderloin and mushroom dinner. This is kind of like pork and mushroom soup, but on the healthier side. We didn't love this one. The white potatoes didn't cook through, even with much longer in the oven. If I were to do it again, I would drop the sweet potatoes, double and dice the white potatoes, and double the mushrooms. That might be worth a re-try. The pork was tender and delicious.

  

November 14th: hazelnut butter chocolate chip cookies and stuffed mushrooms

As you've likely noticed the lack of posting this month, I must explain that I've been almost exclusively cooking recipes I've already featured on this blog. It's been a month of good eating.


With my Christmas cookie exchange coming up, I had originally planned to make the same cookies I made last year - sugar cookies and Pfeffernüsse - but then I came across a few recipes on epicurious that sounded yummy, so chose three to try out. I made the first one today: Hazelnut butter chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure the cookies are worth the $12 jar of hazelnut butter; peanut butter probably would have worked just fine. I also don't think they are as good as these peanut butter cookies. I may use the other half of the jar of hazelnut butter and follow the peanut butter recipe to see what I think. They weren't bad. I just didn't feel they were stellar. Also, I halved the chocolate chip amount; 2 cups seemed over the top.

I also made a make-ahead appetizer. I took my Cook's Illustrated Make Ahead Meals magazine to work to loan to my pregnant friend Janice, who is prepping for arrival of baby. Whilst flipping through the book before I gave it to her, I came across a recipe for make-ahead stuffed mushrooms. These can't be frozen, but can be refrigerated, so they're one- or two-days ahead cooking. I thought that sounded like a good thing to make with Shannon visiting this week (her third trip to Ottawa this year!).


I already have an a-maze-ing stuffed mushroom recipe, but it is labour-intensive and I don't know how it would do if prepped in advance - probably fine. My keeper recipe is a cream cheese-stuffed mushroom, whereas this recipe is a goat cheese-stuffed mushroom, which I thought might also be healthier. In any case, I didn't love the Cook's Illustrated recipe, but I did think it was good; in fact, I enjoyed them more the second day than I did the first, so, I'll share:


Make-ahead Goat cheese-stuffed Mushrooms


1 slice high-quality white sandwich bread, quartered
6 tbsps extra virgin olive oil, divided
9 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 3 tbsps), divided
table salt and freshly ground black pepper
24 (1 1/2- to 2-inch-wide) white mushroom caps, cleaned (stems removed and discarded)
4 ounces goat cheese, softened
1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves, or 1/4 tsp dried


Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300°F. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs, about 6 pulses. Toss crumbs with 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp garlic, 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Spread crumbs on rimmed baking sheet and bake, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and dry, about 20 minutes; transfer to bowl and set aside to cool.


Increase oven temperature to 450°F. Mix 4 more tbsps oil with remaining 2 tbsps garlic, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper, then toss with mushroom caps. Lay caps, gill side down, on foil- or parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast mushrooms until they release their juices, about 20 minutes. Flip caps over and continue to roast until liquid has evaporated completely and mushrooms are brown all over, about 10 minutes longer. Remove mushrooms from oven, flip gill side down, and set aside to drain any excess moisture.


Line second baking sheet with foil or parchment; set aside. Mix goat cheese, thyme and remaining 1 tbsp oil together until smooth, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer cheese mixture to small zip-lock bag and snip off bottom corner of bag using scissors. Pipe about 1 tsp of goat cheese mixture into each mushroom cap and top with bread crumbs. Transfer stuffed mushrooms to prepared baking sheet.


TO STORE: Wrap baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days.


TO SERVE: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450°F. Unwrap mushrooms and bake until mushrooms and filling are hot and crumbs are crisp, about 10 minutes.


Makes 24 mushrooms.

We especially liked the crumbly topping; I'm going to try adding this to my
cream cheese stuffed mushrooms, the next time I make them!

November 4th: Hot and sour shrimp soup

Coincidence! Last year on November 4th, I made hot and sour chicken soup. What are the chances? Two different recipes, but both from Chatelaine and I remember modifying last year's so it more closely resembled this one, which I've been making for years: from March 2007's Chatelaine: Ginger-scented shrimp and mushroom soup. I've made some modifications to this over the years: I use bottled or frozen ginger because I don't have patience for gingerroot, I may or may not use the recommended bamboo shoots, and I often add rice noodles and/or bean sprouts. I decided whilst in the grocery store today to make this tonight (this last-minute decision-making is not the norm for me!) and bought ingredients based on memory. Therefore, this one had no bamboo shoots or bean sprouts, but did have onion and baby bok choy. I really don't think you can go wrong. I'm debating leaving out one of the three tablespoons of vinegar next time.


That's a lot of text for a 10 minute soup!

September 18th: steak and mushroom pot pie

My favourite meal of all time - the one I would request on my deathbed - is my mom's steak and mushroom pie, with puff pastry crust. Only, on my deathbed, I would have it all to myself, because there is never enough to go around. I didn't quite recreate this tonight, but I made a variation on it, and it turned out pretty well. We three were impressed. In my case, rather than using a good quality steak, quickly cooked, I had pulled some stewing beef out of the freezer, so I got that simmering and left it for an hour while I napped, then went back to the kitchen and proceeded to make the rest of the recipe. I had intended to put both carrots and potatoes in the pie too, but I was tired after spending the night before with friends from out of town, then getting up to teach a class in the morning and finally heading out of town for a baby shower, so I ended up going simple and the pie was filled with just beef and mushrooms, with a touch of onion and garlic. I could eat mushrooms till the cows come home and it tasted great ... though more veggies would have upped the filling-ness of it, as well as the health quotient. Ah well, here is what I came up with:


Steak and Mushroom Pot Pie - long-cooking variation


canola oil
1 lb stewing beef, cut into bite-sized pieces
freshly ground black pepper
2 cups beef stock
1 bay leaf


[options to add potatoes and carrots here! - 1-2 of each]


1 cup diced onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound mushrooms, any variety, chopped


1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp all-purpose flour


1/2 397 g package frozen puff pastry, thawed


1 egg, beaten (optional)


Heat the canola oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. When hot, add beef and season to taste with pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid evaporates, 10-15 minutes. When pan is starting to dry out, pour in stock and add bay leaf. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for at least one hour. Nap if necessary.

[If using potatoes and carrots, chop them and add them to the pot at the end of the hour, simmering until just cooked, 10-15 minutes.]

Using a slotted spoon, remove meat [and any veggies] to a bowl and set aside. Pour liquid into a 2-cup measuring cup and set aside. Return Dutch oven to stovetop, increase heat to medium, and add canola oil.

When hot, add diced onions, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions soften, 4-5 minutes. If onions start to burn, reduce heat. Add minced garlic and stir for 1 more minute. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, another 5 minutes. Then stir in Worcestershire sauce. Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir frequently for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, add enough water to the measuring cup to bring the liquid amount back to 2 cups. Add all of liquid to pot, stirring to deglaze pot. Return meat and vegetables to pot and simmer gently.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out puff pastry to 1/4-inch thickness. When oven is hot, remove bay leaf from pot and pour pie filling into an 8-inch square baking dish. Place puff pastry overtop, covering to sides, and folding or crimping sides in as necessary. Slice vent(s) in centre of crust to allow steam to escape. If desired, brush pastry with egg.

Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until top is golden and puffed and filling is bubbling. Remove from oven, let stand several minutes, then slice and serve.

Makes 4 servings, unless you are on your deathbed, in which case, enjoy the whole dish yourself!

June 26th: Superbly Herbed Grilled Chicken, Sugar Snaps with Mushrooms and Parmesan

Tonight's supper, an old keeper from August 2004's Chatelaine: Superbly Herbed Grilled Chicken, and a new one that has become a keeper, from June 2010's Chatelaine: Sugar Snaps with Mushrooms and Parmesan. The former will end your use of Diana Garlic & Herb Marinade. I use the full marinade recipe with half the chicken. The latter is that much better if you double the mushrooms. I also ditch the sage leaves.

Marinating chicken

Cooked chicken

May 1st: Salisbury Steak with Mushrooms

I’m going to give this one a quick mention because Greg loved it. I’m super tempted to toss the recipe, but instead I’m going to make some modifications and give it another go. From March 2011’s Chatelaine: Salisbury Steak with Mushrooms. This is essentially fancified fried hamburgers. The meat is super tender and flavourful. The modifications I am suggesting are to double up on the sauce recipe, that being the butter/mushroom/flour/beef broth combo. We loved the sauce and can never have too many mushrooms. Plus, if you are serving with egg noodles and green beans, as the recipe suggests, and as we did, the more sauce the better to pour over the noodles. This one came together fairly quickly and would be fine for a relaxed weeknight.

Easter week!: baked oatmeal, mushroom gratin, hazelnut cheesecake & Easter dinner

Wow, I appear to have dropped off the face of the planet. What actually happened is I have been blissfully on vacation: simply at home for 10 days with next to nothing going on. I did some cooking, but a lot of easy meals or meals I've already blogged about. Oh, and of course, Zach was here for 4 days. Let's get to the yummy food we've had this week:

April 26th: baked oatmeal, mixed mushroom gratin, hazelnut cheesecake

The Baked Oatmeal was a breakfast recipe from Heidi Swanson's super natural every day, via Martha Stewart Living: a banana, blueberry, almond, baked oatmeal. It takes a bit of time, so for breakfast it's not so great, but for brunch, fantastic. I thought it was great-tasting; the rest of my household was a little indifferent. If you eat it right away, it's loose and oatmeal-textured. If you let it sit, you can slice it into slightly stiffer squares. Top with maple syrup for decadence!

Bananas on the bottom
(For the non-banana fans, I'm thinking apples?)

Then blueberries (or other berries)

Oat mixture
Then pour over milk mixture and top with more berries and nuts (not pictured)

Post-baking

Slice and serve

I made the mixed mushroom gratin, which was featured in the Ottawa Citizen, for supper and served it with no-knead bread (this time I used a recipe from Steamy Kitchen). The baked mushroom-cream-Parmesan-panko crumb recipe said it served 4, but I had my doubts and doubled it. Good thing; I could have quadrupled it easily for the 4 of us! This was so delicious; we will definitely be making it again. The recipe comes from 3 Chefs: The Kitchen Men.

Mixed Mushroom Gratin

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
1/2 cup (125 mL) thinly sliced shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups (1 L) sliced mixed mushrooms
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup (50 mL) 35% cream
1/4 cup (50 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (50 mL) panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp (2 mL) chopped thyme leaves

Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Sauté shallots and garlic until light golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms and increase heat to medium-high. Sauté quickly, seasoning with salt and pepper. Pour in cream and reduce by half.

Transfer mushrooms to an ovenproof serving dish. Combine Parmesan cheese, panko crumbs and thyme; sprinkle over mushrooms.

Place under preheated broiler until crust becomes light golden brown. Serve immediately.

Serves 2-4.

Mushrooms and shallots cooked and ready to go

Topped with panko crumbs, Parmesan & thyme

Broiled and ready for eating

As mentioned, Zach was here, and offered in advance of his visit to make cheesecake, an offer I gladly accepted. And so he arrived, frangelico in hand, to whip up a chocolate hazelnut cheesecake. In turn, I offered him the opportunity to guest blog, and so ... here goes:




Verdict:

Hazelnut-chocolate cheesecake - a keeper

Easter dinner - Fo Sho's the same [see more below]

I was just hanging around in Upper Canada this week, and happened to stop in to Ottawa - Kirsten was all like, "Write me a guest blog?" and here we are. It's been a good time - O remains an excellent kid (although with a tempestuous demeanour occasionally [she still needs her naps {as does her mother, geez! DETAILS CENSORED BY KIRSTEN}]). It was a relaxing trip, spent mostly in the house, doing nothing - a perfect vacation. O and I got to stand next to a window one night, and listen/watch a thunder, lightning and rainstorm. Memorable quotes:

"Will there be more flunder and lighting?"

"Why it raining in the house?"

"Aye aye, ma'am!"

I was giving her naval substitutes for words; this last was "yes mommy". She had more trouble with bulkhead and porthole; she remained convinced they were walls and windows. Stubborn girl. Like her mother. And her grandfather. And her aunt. All on the Sellers side.

Both of the meals/foods I helped prepare were old(ish) favourites. The first was brought to the table, if you will, by myself; the second by Kirsten.

My Heavenly Chipped Chocolate and Hazelnut Cheesecake recipe was from allrecipes.com. If you want to try it for yourself, I recommend also following their general tips for cheesecake baking. I don't know if I followed all of those steps exactly, but the water bath is important.

This was the third time I'd made this cheesecake - unfortunately, it was also the worst of the three; things just didn't go well. I decided to try, at Natascia's suggestion (from the second time I'd made it) not to put the chocolate chips into the actual cheesecake batter. It was fine. I prefer with the chocolate chips, but both are acceptable. What went wrong was a leaky water bath. The whole bottom half of the cake appeared to get soaked. It wasn't really noticeable after it had drip-dried, cooled, been garnished and then eaten. However, the knowledge that it had happened kind of put me off the whole thing. Be warned: make sure that tinfoil is waterproof.

Zach/cheesecake

April 27th: Easter dinner

And so we come to the main event of the week: Easter dinner! Usually I make Easter dinner for my family of three (and previously, two) on Easter weekend, but what with taking the week off work and having Zach arriving on Easter Monday, I decided to postpone my fancy dinner till Zach's last night here, that being Wednesday. And since I also offered to sub a class on Wednesday afternoon, I had to request my unwitting guest take over the cooking in my absence. And so we prepared:

Lemon and pepper roast pork
Herbed goat cheese soufflés
Tangy tomato salsa
Collard greens
Whipping cream-smashed potatoes

For the roast pork, I highly recommend making the lemon pepper rub from scratch. I've made the roast with both homemade and store-bought rub, and homemade is infinitely better. Whichever way you make it, I recommend omitting or reducing the salt in the main recipe. Minus the collard greens, which were a stand-in for my usual steamed yellow and green beans, this is the same Easter dinner menu, from April 2004's Chatelaine, that I've been making yearly since 2004. Every year we declare it delicious and agree to repeat the following year. This year we added a new voice to our accord.

More from Zach:

The second meal was truly Agent K's - I just helped her out with a few parts of it. It was delicious. Everything about it was tasty. The soufflés didn't come out of their dishes very well, and appeared a bit raw, but still tasted good. K-dot suggested the pork was slightly overcooked - I think that's just a fascination of Sellerian women: always they find a way to complain about the cooking of a fancy meal's meat dish. Always. It's like a fun pass time or something. I've always found them all delicious, and this was no exception. However, if anyone's looking for advice? I recommend more lamb. 

In the end, I rubbed down and cooked the pork, made the salsa, and dealt with the final stages of the soufflé. It all went off without a hitch, and Kirsten found herself more able to enjoy the meal, with the reduction in cooking stress. I really enjoyed the salsa, especially after having just made it, before it sat and the flavours melded. Definitely a recipe I'll take up.

Here are some Pictures! Yay food!

Homemade lemon pepper rub

Roast pork

The complete dinner, along with candle ("fancy supper" for Olivia)
and a daffodil Olivia kindly picked from the garden

April 8th: fruit smoothie, popovers

One of my and Olivia's favourite post-workout snacks is Booster Juice, but it's not always a feasible option. I've gone through many phases over many years of making fruit smoothies at home--usually in the summer--but always fall off the band wagon with time. Olivia is a good motivator: I'd like her to know we can create delicious, healthy, fruity beverages at home. Today, after a long morning of gym time and grocery shopping, O and I were definitely ready for a pick-me-up when we got home. I made the following fruit smoothie from the Dairy Farmers of Canada, which was quick and yummy, on the not-too-sweet side, and tided us over until lunch was ready:


Wake & Shake


1 cup (250 mL) milk
1/3 cup (75 mL) yogurt (I used sweetened plain)
1/4 cup (60 mL) frozen blueberries
1/4 cup (60 mL) frozen strawberries
1/2 banana
1 tbsp (15 mL) ground flax


Blend all ingredients until smooth. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

I've never really known what popovers are until tonight: what they are is ridiculously easy. I shouldn't say a recipe is foolproof if I've only made it once, but I don't see how this could be screwed up. Four ingredients, cold oven, half an hour later: heaven in the form of an eggy bun. I made a batch of 8 and they lasted 6 hours. I expected to have leftovers for tomorrow but no, they were irresistible. I made them to serve with garlic butter roasted mushrooms, and that was good, but I liked them even more with butter and jam. Delicioso. They definitely need to be eaten warm though; once they've cooled off, I recommend heating them up again prior to eating. This recipe comes from December 2010's Canadian Living: Perfect Popovers.

View from the top.

The underside.

March 5th: Happy Birthday to Moi: carrot cake, portos + goat cheese, loaded baked potato skins

Happy Birthday to me! (From Kat)

I first tried this Epicurious carrot cake in the summer of 2008 when I was home in Nova Scotia. Shannon's friend Shannon made it and I thought it was the best carrot cake I had ever eaten. I tried making it once myself before and it didn't taste as good as I remembered. I had faith in the recipe though, so for my 32nd (gulp) birthday, I thought O and I should give it another go-around. There's a lot in this recipe besides carrots: candied ginger, pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts, and we topped the whole deal off with cream cheese icing. Yum yum yum. I skipped the three-tiered dealio and just made a 13x9 inch cake. I SHOULD have divided the batter between the big pan and one small or two mini pans. In retrospect, I remember that was the problem last time around: there is so much batter in the pan that the cake starts to burn around the outside before the middle is cooked. But it was still delicious and the best carrot cake I've ever eaten. My goodness, I've been eating A LOT of it this weekend!

If you don't like ginger, I recommend leaving it out. I love ginger and love coming across chunks of it in the cake, but I know that's not for everyone!

Hard at work

I simplified the cream cheese icing a bit:


Cream Cheese Icing


1 250 g (8 oz) package cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tsp each vanilla and coconut extracts
3 1/2 cups icing sugar


Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add extracts and beat again. Beat in icing sugar and, if necessary, chill until spreadable. Spread over cake and keep the whole deal refrigerated. Or just eat it in one sitting (not really!!).

For my birthday supper, I made two of my favourites: garlic-roasted portobello mushrooms and goat cheese, and loaded baked potato skins. The former comes out of my head and the latter is adapted from Crazy Plates. Here's my version of both:


Garlic-roasted Portobellos with Goat Cheese


1 portobello mushroom
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp each dried thyme, rosemary and parsley
2 tbsp goat cheese


Preheat oven to 400°F.


Remove and discard portobello mushroom stem and clean mushroom cap. Place gill-side up in oiled baking pan.


In a small bowl, combine garlic, oil and herbs and spoon mixture over mushroom.


Bake for 10-15 minutes, until garlic starts to get brown and crunchy (that's how I like it, anyway). Remove from oven and crumble goat cheese over top.


Return to oven and turn on broiler. Broil until cheese starts to warm up or gets browned, however you like it!


Makes 1 serving. Simply multiply the recipe amounts for each person you are feeding!

Loaded Baked Potato Skins


3 baking potatoes, scrubbed and bad spots cut away
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
Cajun spice, to taste
4 bacon slices, cooked and chopped
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
2 green onions, sliced
salsa and sour cream to top


Preheat oven to 400°F. Poke holes in potatoes with fork or sharp knife. Lightly coat potatoes in butter. Bake for one hour, turning over halfway through, or until done. Remove from oven, split lengthwise, and let sit until cool enough to handle.


Carefully scrape out potato flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Lightly brush both sides of potato skins with olive oil and place flesh-side up in baking pan. Sprinkle on Cajun spice to taste. Place under broiler for 5 minutes.


Remove from oven and top with bacon, cheese and green onions. Return to broiler and broil 2-3 minutes, until cheese is melted and potato skins are hot.


Serves 2-3. Serve topped with salsa and sour cream to taste.

I liked them better without bacon, and Greg was happy to eat my bacon for me.

To accompany, I made sugar snap peas, pan-fried with a finely diced shallot. I squeezed lemon on mine but left G&O's lemon-free. They eat enough lemon on my behalf as it is!

Awesome birthday supper. Great birthday weekend. Happy Kirsten. :)

Happy Olivia, cleaning out the icing bowl.