July 8th: Chocolate Chip Crisps AND Thai Noodle Salad

[SEE BELOW FOR UPDATED VERSION]


Olivia and I planned to make these cookies today, but we ended up having help, as Jayna and Grace joined us for the baking. This went surprisingly well; each girl took turns adding ingredients and stirring or mixing. Plus, they were happy to snack on chocolate chips while waiting their turns. Yummy crispy cookies, from Best Summer Weekends Cookbook:


Chocolate Chip Crisps


1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups crisp rice cereal 
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or, as we did, a mix of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips, yum!)


Preheat oven to 350 F.


Beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed of an electric mixer until light and creamy.


In a second large bowl, combine flour, oats, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture, stirring until blended.


Gently mix in cereal and chips. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 8-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Underbake for chewy cookies; bake longer for crisp ones. Cool on wire rack.


Makes about 5 dozen cookies. (We made 61!)

Then - Supper. It's taken me almost two weeks to find the time to type out this recipe, but I couldn't let it go; this was the best meal I've made since Cinco de Mayo. Vietnamese and Thai food are some of my favourites, and this salad is much like lunches I used to buy when I was working, only better, because I made it myself. It's full of strong flavours: lime, cilantro and fish sauce. Greg and Olivia probably didn't love it quite as much as me, but I thought it was fantastic. I ate the leftovers for breakfast the next day. I topped our salad with cooked chicken; you could also top it with shrimp or tofu or spring rolls. Yum yum. Awesome summer meal: from Best Summer Weekends Cookbook: Thai Noodle Salad:


Thai Dressing


1-2 fresh hot peppers, seeded and chopped, OR 1-2 tsp (5-10 mL) red chili paste
3 tbsp (45 mL) fresh lime juice
2 tbsp (30 mL) fish sauce
2 tbsp (30 mL) vegetable oil
1 tbsp (15 mL) sesame oil
2 tbsp (30 mL) crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp (5 mL) sugar
2 tbsp (30 mL) fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, finely chopped


Combine all ingredients for dressing and refrigerate until needed.




Thai Noodle Salad


6 oz (170 g) rice vermicelli or rice stick noodles
1/4 lb (125 g) snow peas (about 2 cups/500 mL)
1/2 red pepper, seeded and cut in slivers
2 cups (500 mL) lettuce, shredded
2 green onions, cut in diagonal slivers
1/4 cup (60 mL) peanuts, chopped
1 lime, thinly sliced 


Cook the noodles or vermicelli in a large quantity of boiling salted water until tender, about 3-4 minutes for the noodles and a scant minute for the vermicelli. Drain well, toss with a little dressing, and refrigerate until needed.


Blanch the snow peas for about a minute in lightly salted boiling water. Drain and immediately put into ice water to stop the cooking. Drain again and slice on the diagonal.


Just before serving, toss noodles with snow peas, red pepper, and remaining dressing. Arrange salad on a bed of shredded lettuce and garnish with green onions, chopped peanuts, and lime slices.


Serves 4. 

January 15th: Chicken Noodle Stir-fry

Another one from Mama's Christmas-present cookbook: Chicken Noodle Stir-fry. Stir-fries always pretend they're going to be simple, but can be tricky. This one, for instance, called for slicing the baby bok choy in half lengthwise. I did, thought they still looked too big, but left them. Sure enough, I later had to pull them out of the hot pan to cut them smaller, because they weren't cooking properly. Go with your gut, Kirsten.


I bought two packs of Mr. Noodles for the ramen noodles called for in the recipe. I was really excited about this, as I used to loooove Mr. Noodles, but wow, they kind of suck. They taste on the processed side. Next time, will try to source out good quality ramen noodles. Does this exist?


The recipe was good, though, don't get me wrong. All three of us enjoyed supper tonight. A few tweaks, and I'll definitely make it again.

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.

February 13th: soft pretzels, chicken lo mein

Some time ago, Liam got me hooked on this website: Instructables. Although I don't need instructions on building a Lego alarm clock, I have come across a few recipes that sound good. Today I tried out Easy Soft Pretzels, though I am dropping the 'easy' from the name, as they are not simple. They are good though! I made all three versions: salt, Parmesan & garlic, cinnamon & sugar. All three were yummy. If only I had some pork shop mustard for dipping the savoury ones into!

One point of confusion: the ingredient list calls for instant yeast but the instructions call for active dry yeast. Aren't these two different things? I used active dry yeast and I think they turned out okay, but they were slightly doughy and slightly tough, so I'm not sure. Maybe they needed more kneading? (BTW, try explaining need vs. knead to a 3 year old. Not easy.) Maybe I should have left them in the oven a bit longer. Who knows...

Here's the recipe:

Soft Pretzels

Active time: 30-45 min; Total time: 2 hr 15- 2hr 30 min

Ingredients:
1 tsp instant yeast/active dry yeast (not rapid rise or 'bread machine' yeast)
1 tablespoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 cups warm water for proofing (110°F, at the temperature of a comfortable bath. Any hotter and you risk killing the yeast)
4 1/2 cups All Purpose, non-bleached flour
4 tablespoons of butter, melted

2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
Kosher salt for topping

Other Topping Options:

Savoury
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Sweet
1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions

Stir yeast, sugar and salt with 1 and 1/2 cups of warm water. Let the mixture sit for five to ten minutes. The yeast is active when the mixture is foamy and smells a bit like bread. In a large bowl, combine flour, butter and yeast-water mixture. Mix the ingredients just enough to create a shaggy dough.

Flour a clean work surface and roll the dough onto it. Knead for 5 minutes. If the dough sticks, re-flour your surface just enough to stop it from sticking.

Oil another large bowl with vegetable oil. Place the dough inside, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size. About a half hour into the rise, pre-heat your oven to 450°F.

When the hour is up, flour a clean work surface. Take the dough out of the bowl and knead again for about 5 min.

Bring 10 cups of water and 2/3 of a cup of baking soda to a boil.

Meanwhile, divide the dough into 8-12 equal size pieces. Roll the pieces out until they are about 2 ft long and thick as the diameter of your thumb. Then:

• Form each piece into a U shape
• Twist them around and roll corners towards the center
• Twist the ends over each other once
• Flatten ends down to the top of the bottom of the dough to make a pretzel shape

Once the pot of water is fully boiling, place pretzels in one at a time for 30 seconds each. You can place three or four in at a time depending on the size of the pretzels. Remove and set aside on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Beat egg yolk with a tablespoon of water for egg wash; brush the pretzels with egg mixture and sprinkle on your toppings. (Unless you are doing sweet; see below.)

Topping Options

Traditional:
Kosher Salt

For garlic cheese pretzels:

Combine 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan with 1 teaspoon garlic powder.

For cinnamon pretzels:

Instead of brushing the pretzels with the egg wash, brush with ¼ cup honey. Combine ½ cup powdered sugar and 1 tbsp cinnamon with 2 tbsps water, just enough to make a glaze and not be soupy. Once they have come out of the oven, brush with cinnamon-sugar glaze.

Bake the pretzels at 450°F for 12-14 minutes. If using 2 baking sheets, rotate the sheets once half way through to ensure even baking.

L-R: cinnamon-sugar, Parmesan-garlic, salt

For supper, I made Chicken Lo Mein with Ginger Mushrooms, from Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge, which was in the Ottawa Citizen's Chinese New Year recipe collection. I found the recipe a little dull the first time around, but G&O loved it. When I ate leftovers the next day--at room temperature--I loved it too. We'll try it again. Here's my simplified version:


Chicken Lo Mein with Ginger Mushrooms


12 oz (350 g) egg noodles
2 tsp (10 mL) sesame oil
1 tsp bottled ginger purée
1 tsp (5 mL) + 1 tbsp (15 mL) sherry cooking wine
1 tsp (5 mL) cornstarch
1 tsp (5 mL) + 1 tbsp (15 mL) soy sauce
1 tsp (5 mL) salt, divided
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
12 oz (350 g) skinless, boneless chicken thighs, sliced small
2 tbsp (25 mL) peanut or vegetable oil, divided
1/4 tsp (1 mL) red pepper flakes
3 cups (750 mL), or 5 oz, thinly sliced Napa cabbage
2 cups (500 mL), or 4 oz, fresh shiitake mushrooms*, stems removed and caps thinly sliced
1/2 cup (125 mL) thinly sliced green onions


Cook egg noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse well with cold water. Return well-drained noodles to pot, add sesame oil and toss until well combined. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, combine ginger purée, 1 tsp of the sherry, cornstarch, 1 tsp of the soy sauce, 1/4 tsp (1 mL) of the salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in sliced chicken. In another small bowl, combine the remaining 1 tbsp sherry and 1 tbsp soy sauce.

Heat a large wok or frying pan until hot. Swirl in 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the oil, add the red pepper flakes and stir-fry 10 seconds or until fragrant. Push the pepper flakes to the side and carefully add the chicken mixture. Spread it evenly in one layer and cook undisturbed 1 minute. Stir-fry 30 seconds or until the chicken begins to brown. Add the cabbage and mushrooms and stir-fry 1 minute or until the cabbage is just wilted but the chicken is not cooked through. Transfer the chicken and vegetables to a bowl and set aside.

Swirl the remaining 1 tbsp oil in the wok. Add the noodles and stir-fry 15 seconds. Swirl the soy sauce mixture into the wok, add the green onions, chicken mixture and sprinkle on the remaining 3/4 tsp (3 mL) salt. Stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and noodles are heated through.

Serves 4-6

*can substitute cremini or white button mushrooms, sliced

October 17th: Chicken watchamacallit and cupcakes with bacon

Verdict:
Keep: Cheesy Chicken Watchamacallit
Try Again Toss: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Bacon Icing

Seriously: cupcakes with bacon icing. Have you heard of chocolate-covered bacon? I have not tried this, but how could it not be good? In PEI this summer, Greg and I had chocolate-covered potato chips, which I think are comparable. It's that incredible blend of salt + sweet, and in this case, sugar + meat. What's not to like? But, to dessert in a minute.

First, supper. Tonight I repeated a recipe I made two years ago, when O was just a babe. Ah, memories.... Focus, Kirsten, focus. From October 2008's Today's Parent: Cheesy Chicken Watchamacallit. Kind of a ridiculous name, but basically it is a simple chicken + cheese + mushrooms + noodles + a tiny bit of spinach casserole. And it's really good. The recipe makes two pans, one to freeze for later, but I'm not much of a freeze for later girl, so I halved it and made one, for supper and several lunches. Yummy stuff, and we'll keep the recipe.

Paired with a salad, supper was done.

Then, dessert! From October 2010's Chatelaine: Pumpkin cupcakes with maple & bacon icing. Blast it, but I didn't have enough maple syrup for the icing, as I had used it all up in some granola I made in the afternoon. More on that later this week. So my icing is really just bacon icing, which is not so bad. It's actually a little disconcerting to bring a cupcake to your mouth and inhale the scent of cooked meat cold. Sorry if I'm grossing some of you out; I know you don't all eat bacon. Casey, can I expect a random visit from you tomorrow? I think I like these cupcakes. I ate one late tonight and I'll see over the next couple of days whether or not I want to try the recipe again.

P.S. 24 hours and three cupcakes later, it occurs to me that cupcakes with MEAT on them should probably be refrigerated. Doh! Will not be keeping this recipe after all. Too much of a headache to try to find room in the fridge.

October 11th: Beef Stroganoff

Verdict:
Try Again: Beef Stroganoff

This is a re-try from last year, from a Philedelphia cream cheese ad: Creamy Philly Beef Stroganoff. It is really good, and G&O voted for it to go in the keeper book. I wasn't entirely convinced, but decided it was because it is a pasta recipe; maybe with potatoes I would like it more. So I will try it again, maybe next year, and we will see then!

September 28th: creamy chicken and noodles

Verdict:
Try Again: chicken & noodles

Soooooo yummy. From a real cream ad (which are almost always winners in my books): Chicken & Noodle Skillet Supper. An unimaginative name for a truly delicious, one-pot meal. I did make a few changes, using fresh vegetables in place of frozen, and a combination of whipping cream and 2% milk in place of half-and-half. For future tries, I will replace the dried basil, which I don't like, with thyme or oregano, or both. Fresh basil would be a nice addition too, but sometimes on weeknights it is easier to go with dried herbs, no? With a classy bagged salad on the side, we were good to go. All three of us loved this meal.

September 9th: Caesars, Japanese noodle salad & wings

TGIT! After a three-day week, I needed some down time tonight. No, really. Break out the Caesars! Okay, do you really need a recipe for Caesars? Well, I've never actually made them, so I found it handy. From September 2010's Chatelaine: Classic spicy caesar. Shouldn't Caesar be capitalized? I don't know.* I went light on the vodka, heavy on the spice, and threw in some of my spicy asparagus and dilled green beans from September 5th. Yummy. A definite make again. Here they are, plus Olivia drinking her virigin Caesar. She didn't love it, but she did eat the lemon and the pickled veggies.

*According to Wikipedia, yes.

Next up, Japanese noodle salad. Also from Chatelaine, though the recipe is not online. Cook rice noodles, rinse till cold. Combine with shredded carrot and cucumber and sliced green onion. Top with dressing, a combination of white miso paste, lime juice, garlic and honey.

Very good. A light accompaniment to the grand finale: wings!

From September 2010's Chatelaine: Blue cheese chicken wings. Greg and I love wings. Greg has one stipulation when we make wings: no blue cheese! He can't even stand the smell when I dip mine in blue cheese dressing. Not that that stops me. So he was not keen on this recipe, which calls for dipping the raw wings in blue cheese dressing prior to deep frying. I persevered. He was pleasantly surprised. Somehow, the wings didn't have much flavour. (?) I don't own a deep fryer (nor do I want one!) and we usually do wings in the oven, so this was an experiment. I'm a little terrified of deep frying on the stove top, ever since Devin's house burned down when we were 12, but no such accidents tonight. Deep frying provides a moister, plumper wing than baking. Also, the cooking time is MUCH shorter. Felt a little dirty though, deep frying. Yum. Not sure if we'll try this one again or not.

Comments! Feedback! I've been getting some! Yay! Thanks for the support. Apparently Grandma wasn't sure why anyone would care what I'm cooking for supper (a thought I've had myself) but a few of you out there are interested, so I'll continue on. Fun for me anyway. :)