Raw Fish and Kettle Corn

Well! This week isn’t even half over, and already I have tried two new things.

On Sunday night I tried something that I have always scowled at, grimaced at, and gotten chills from, even when I see other people eat it.  We were at Ro Sushi (I love that place, AND discovered on Sunday that I can eat their tempura.. good company, good food and good discoveries!). I had my green hornet roll (prawn tempura, mango, avocado and cucumber) and a yam tempura roll in front of me, and T had a smoked salmon roll, and the dreaded salmon sashimi stuff on rice.

I am a bit of a texture-phobe. I LOVE smoked salmon, but I like the dry stuff (aka the stuff that doesn’t shimmer in the light).  I also don’t enjoy slimy foods, soggy foods, saucy foods (unless they’re sweet), or anything too squishy. However, in the name of adventure, I tried a bit of T’s slimy looking smoked salmon.. it wasn’t too bad. It was slimy, but the taste was good. I survived (and didn’t even make too too much of a face). A few minute later, I was being convinced to try the sashimi. It takes quite a bit for me to try a new food, especially one that I have already decided that I do not like. Raw salmon would be a good example of this.

Back to the sushi restaurant. After much coaxing, and a little bit of bribery (I can now make T eat one thing that he doesn’t want to try, and I’m saving that one for something good), I was handed a tiny little corner of raw fish and rice on a fork. I could feel my gag reflex stretching in anticipation. I made a few faces for this one (couldn’t help it), and eventually shoved the stuff into my mouth.

It didn’t have as much taste as I thought it would. It was kind of slimy, but not as slimy as I had previously decided that it would be. It wasn’t too too bad. I won’t be ordering a ton of it anytime soon, but I survived. I tried something new (and that I thought would be rather yucky) and proved myself wrong, and kept it down to boot. I guess this would be a win.

Thanks T for the new experience, and heads up: I will get you back…

I also tried something new that I knew would be wonderful.

There are many many things to be loved at festivals.. Corn Dogs , Cotton Candy , and Kettle Corn to name a few.  As I can’t see any way that either corn dogs or cotton candy contain 100% name-able and non-chemical ingredients, I will have to stick with Kettle Corn.

Last night I was thinking about things that I could make and bring to work to snack on, and couldn’t get my mind off of kettle corn. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s a little sticky and a little crunchy. I all recipe’d a recipe, and realized that it’s probably also one of the easiest things on the planet to make…

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup kernels

salt

If you have a stove top popper, this is a cinch. If you have a giant pot with a lid, it’s still do-able!

Heat the oil in the pot or popper. Throw in your kernels and sugar, close the lid and agitate (or turn the popper crank thing) until there is about 2 or three seconds between pops.

Put into a large bowl.

Salt to taste.

Stir occasionally to break apart large chunks.

Shovel it into your face.

Quick! Easy! Ingredient Happy and Wonderful (not to mention another win).

 

How about all of you people, did you try anything new this week? Was it good/gross?

Week 5 (I think) in Review

Hello Folks!

So much for updating on Friday night/Saturday morning eh?

Basically Week 5 went really well. Really well, except for the parts where I was a little grouchy, or a little frantic, or pacing back and forth chewing on my nails waging inner war over why I should not (and conversely, should) have a cigarette.

I am happy to report that I did not have a cigarette, and am now on day 10 of not smoking. I am not so happy to report that for the first week or so, my brain was completely fried. Names for things (and sometimes people) were almost always about an inch and a half beyond my grasp, simple things like attempting to cook dinner felt like climbing a mountain in flip flops, in the rain, while trying to balance a soft cover book on my head, and “huuuh?” became an automatic response, followed closely by a blank stare.  My moods were also a little less than stable. I snapped at a couple of people (my apologies, you know who you are), cried over silly things like the people dying at the end of Saw 3, and did a lot of pouting.

Back to week 5. I am feeling great. There are still a few little moments were I regress into the angry Golum like creature that I was last week, but those times are growing few and far between. I have been putting six dollars away per day of not smoking and am spending a lot of time drooling over what I could buy with that money in the not so distant future (a new knife, a crock pot, a juicer, an espresso machine, a dehydrater, and skydiving). Also, because of the not smoking thing, I have not cheated at all this past week.

That’s right people… last week I could name all of the ingredients (and chemicals… I had some regular milk in a couple of lattes) of everything that I ingested. I am considering this a big giant win.

I spent the week munching tons of vegetables (I was on a little bit of a bell pepper kick), home-made, super crumbly granola bars, loads of fruit, free range eggs, coconut macaroons, and much, much more. The highlight of the week was by far Friday.

Friday after work I wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear for a day. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, cook anything or be seen. I wanted to watch something good and trashy, like Toddlers and Tiaras, or ancient episodes of The Bachelor, eat take out pizza and stuff my face with soy lecithin and vegetable oil laden peanut butter cups. Problem is, I had a commitment, so that plan was out (plus I would have to confess the pizza and peanut butter cups, and I was already full of pride about the not smoking thing and wanted to blog about my 100% cheat free week).

Friday I had agreed to cook Cornish game hens for some friends. The challenge was to cook a meal that a friend of mine, who pretty much can’t eat 80% of anything could eat and enjoy. The dinner was to be held at another friends place where her 1 year old daughter would provide the entertainment for the evening (and did!!).

I arrived, groceries in hand and holding back tears of not-Bachelor-watching-in-my-PJ’s. The hens were still frozen (figures), so they had to bathe for a couple of hours. In the meantime we played, and danced, and giggled. I forgot all about being a huge pain and a super grumpy houseguest, and got my giggle on too. It really is amazing how cute kids can bring out the fun crazy in people. Needless to say, my mood improved about a million fold, and it was time to cook.

I mixed up some lemon juice, butter, paprika, garlic and salt and slathered the hens with half of it. Then I shoved some rosemary up their tiny bums and threw them in the oven.I added the rest of the lemon butter stuff about half way through it all.

Then I threw together a simple salad of spinach, strawberries, avocado, cucumber and nuts (roasted in egg white, sugar, cinnamon and salt). Peppers were chopped, drizzled with olive oil, lightly salted and roasted. Rice was put on to cook and asparagus was prepped for steaming.

It went pretty well. I had never cooked hens before, and I think they turned out alright, though next time probably won’t cook one per person. It was a lot of meat. It was also gluten free, contained no red meat, and if you are one of those people who don’t include better in the whole “dairy free” thing, it counts as dairy free too.

A huge thank you to Sharon for the use of her beautiful kitchen, for washing all the dishes, and for letting me throw her daughter around. Thanks too to Gillian for the challenge, and a hundred thanks to you both for getting me out of my funk. What are we cooking next???

Saturday morning I went to the Farmers Market near Nat Bailey Stadium. The beef bacon lady wasn’t there, but I did find some really delicious sausages…without casings!! A friend later pointed out another vendor who was selling sausages cased in seaweed… definitely something to check out next time. I also picked up some apples, potatos, carrots, eggs, and salmon. Being that it was a gorgeous day and all, people were out in droves. This meant that line ups were a little on the long side, but it was great to see so many people buying local and enjoying the market.

That pretty much wraps up week 5… No smoking, no unknown ingredients, lots of veg, cooking/shopping with friends, finding new and exciting options, eating, talking about eating, writing about eating, and taking pictures of what I am eating. I have tons of energy, my waistline is slowly shrinking, and I am getting my brain back as my body adjusts to the not smoking thing. Life is good.

I started this whole Eat Write Play thing to further develop my love for food, my love for writing (and to develop the skills that go with it), and to re-find that incredible sense of play that you see in the eyes of a small child when they are flying through the air, headed for a mud puddle and wearing their good shoes and nice clothes.

Here I am at the end of week five (yeah, yeah, I know I’m actually into week 6, but humour me please people – I’m about to have a moment), and I am realizing that what I had before for food was a high school crush. It was fun, it was fleeting, and I really had no clue what to do with it all. I’m not saying I have mastered anything food, but the torrid love affair I now have with what I eat is much deeper than it was when I started out. By taking the time to learn what is in my food, trying something new,  giving my body more balanced meals and not over-processed gak, and sitting down to eat (as much as I can), I have developed a whole new appreciation for the things that I eat, as well as noticed the difference that eating good food can make. I am so glad that I am doing this.

Thank you so much to the people who put up with me talking about food all the time, and a HUGE to all of the people who I had food adventures with this week. Thanks to you too, for reading, and I hope to hear your thoughts, insights, suggestions, recipes and what you ate last night in the comments (I wish I was joking about the “what you ate” part…. but really, I would love to know).

Eat well, and check back soon for an update. This week I have no idea what I am making, but hopefully it turns out. If not I get to write about it and you can laugh at me. It’s win win really.

Week Four in Review

Wow People.. 28 days ago I started something a little on the crazy side, and, despite my bad habit of abandoning projects, am still going strong. In fact, this week may just be the best yet…

Since the last week in review I have managed to eat something leafy and green every day. Win! This was mostly bok choy or spinach, either in stir-fry or salad form… kind of boring. I also managed to make a tiny batch of edible lefse. I got new milk and started something else a little crazy..

I used to really enjoy a kale-spinach-fruit smoothies in the mornings, as it was a super easy way to incorporate fresh (and raw) leafy greens into my daily diet. Lately though, there have been no smoothies. My schedule has fallen into a blissful Monday through Friday and either 6am-1pm or 8am-2pm kind of deal. Don’t get me wrong: I love it, and will very, very, greatly miss it when the theatre things rolls around again (in two short weeks: eep!). Problem is: I have roomies. Ones that, I’m sure, would not appreciate the blender running at 4:45am, or even at 7am. Easy solution: use the blender at work! This next week I will be making some smoothie packs to bring to work: all of the ingredients ready to go (chopped, mixed and frozen) so alls I have to do is chuck them in the blender and add a little water.

This week had a few yummy  meals. Chicken parmesan, chicken wings, stir fry, meatballs, and one lazy lazy day where no dinner was cooked (I have a semi-valid excuse for this one though…more later).

I also attempted to bake twice, and failed, saw a garden, got some milk, and did something that right now has me a little twitchy.

LEFSE:

Thursday night I attempted the Lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with potato (basically it looks like a tortilla, but because the Norwegians are a brilliant people they found a way to add the yummy potato and make it even more yummy) which is spelled “l-e-f-s-e” not “”l-e-f-s-a” although it is pronounced “Lefsaaaaaaaaaa”, unless you have attempted to make it at home, with a recipe that wasn’t quite right, in which case you pronounce it “F%@!&@$@ Lefsa!” while tossing half of the recipe into the garbage.

If you haven’t gathered yet, this didn’t quite go well.

I got the lefse recipe from my Grandma, who makes it wonderfully and usually I get a pack or two a year. It went a little something like this:

-Make a medium sized pot of mashed potatoes

-Add some butter and salt

-Mix in flour until it turns into a dough

-Roll it out into circles on a floured surface

-Fry in an ungreased pan until brown spots appear

Please note the complete absence of measurements (I guess this is where I get it from..).

Also note the lack of cream (which my Mom found on a bunch of lefse recipes while talking me through my angry mixing of dough phase that came later on).

Last, but not least.. ohhhhhhh…. definitely not least, note the complete lack of the direction: cool your potatoes completely until stiff before adding the flour. DO NOT ADD THE FLOUR WHILE THE POTATOES ARE STILL WARM. EVER. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.

As this last missed direction was, well, missing, I started adding flour after mashing my potatoes. Then I added more flour, and another cup, and some more flour. I noticed that my mixture was not really turning into a nice workable dough, more like a chunky paste. I was on the phone with my poor Mom at the time, so she got to hear my colourful language at this point, as well as some interesting descriptions, and my complete joy at the fact the my Grandma had forgot to mention this one little step of cooling the potatoes. All in all my potatoes ate 6 cups of flour before my mom suggested I chuck out half my recipe and go from there. At this point it was looking and smelling like a really bad batch of home-made play dough. The halved recipe ate about another two cups during the rolling process.

The bottom is the abandoned half, the top was what I tried to save..

After I rolled out about 18 or so lefse I started the frying process. The little potato tortillas of death started doing something strange. When I put them on the hot pan they stared doing this weird thing where they would grow giant bubbly tumours, then the bubbles would move around and expand until they sprung a leak and a geyser of steam would rush out. I think it was due to the extreme amounts of flour that had been incorporated.. the mix had become almost elastic when raw. Whatever it was, it was weird, kind of creepy, and nothing that food should be doing.When taken off the pan though, they actually looked like lefse.

After cooking a few I decided to try it.. I smothered one in butter and rolled it up (it was like a butter filled potato taquito from Norway): not too too bad. In fact, it even tasted like lefse!! The night was finally looking up!

(By the way: this is what I look like tired, after being really grumpy about things not working, in my PJs and stuffing my face with butter soaked lefse)

I got half way through frying my pre-rolled stack when something happened. I guess my dough could have used some more flour (greedy, greedy dough), because suddenly halfway through the stack I went to pick up my next little round, and they all were stuck together. They were stuck together to the point that no matter how carefully I tried, they were not un-stickable.

Imagine if you were to take a stack of potentially yummy pancakes. Now separate the stack and add super glue to the top and bottom of each pancake and reassemble your stack. Now, take a can of varnish, a large can of varnish (yes the whole thing), and pour it over your pancake stack, making sure to completely cover all of your pancake stack. Put the varnish-covered super-glued delicious looking pancake stack somewhere well ventilated and wait 12-24 hours. Then go back, and try to separate those pancakes. That’s where I was at with my lefse at ohhh… about 10:30 Thursday night. Please note that I had put the potatoes on to boil probably around 6:30pm, spent about 2 and a bit hours trying to make a dough out of the stuff, and spent what felt like forever rolling out this precious little stack.

The last face the lost lefse saw

“Then I did something that I almost never do when baking or cooking. I gave up. I threw the half stack of stuck into the garbage (along with the failed half of my original amount). I did learn a couple of things  however:

1) When making lefse, chill your f^(#ing potatoes until they’re stiff.

2) It never hurts to look at more than one recipe when trying something new.

 

GRANOLA BARS:

Friday I felt like I had to redeem myself a little, so I decided to make granola bars because really, how can that go wrong? I mixed up some oats with some melted butter, trail mix, holy crap cereal, coconut and whatever else granola bar additive yummy stuff I could find as well as some sweetened condensed milk.

I like my granola bars chewy, so baked them for about 20 minutes until the edges just started to brown. I pulled them out and turned the pan upside down onto the cooling rack where the whole tray crumbled and fell apart.

I tried to fix this by squashing it all back into the pan and baking it longer. Please note that this doesn’t work. They will kind of stick together, but will still be super crumbly and will fall apart when touched and not be chewy at all. Basically you will end up with slightly bar shaped logs of something that simply turns into crunchy granola when touched. Maybe this is what you’re looking for, in which case, leave a comment and I will tell you how to screw up granola bars.

THE GARDEN:

On a much happier note, I also took a peek at a garden yesterday!!

A while ago I had emailed a woman about taking on a plot in a community garden near my house. Last week she got back to me and explained that she had a wait list of 100 names, and had stopped adding names after that. She suggested I try again late in the spring. Community gardens are a great idea, they use space in unused lots, parks, boulevards for food, flowers or whatever else those people who are lucky enough to have them wish to grow. Usually though the plots are fairly small, very open, very close to the next persons plot and cost about $15.oo a year (which really isn’t a lot).

I was a little bit down about not getting this little patch of Earth, and was telling T about it. While I was being grumpy, he did something wonderful. He looked up a yaardshare program, found one near my house, and even made contact with the woman. Thank you thank you thank you!

As last week was a bit of a weather nightmare in the lower mainland, I waited until yesterday to walk by and take a peek at the space.

I am excited! The woman had mentioned that she doesn’t allow the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers (Win!). There are a couple of girls who used the garden last year who might come back, but there is lots of space for everyone, and it also means that we can take turns watering, as well as share whatever we grow (Win!). There is an odd-looking, but neat pyramid structure for peas and climbing beans, and a small raspberry patch (Win!). She even has a kiwi plant growing! (exciting win!).

I didn’t take any photos yesterday, because, well, I had kind of snuck into the backyard (she did say to come by whenever), and it does need a little work. There is a lot of weeding, soil turning and things that have to happen before anything can be planted. Parsley has more or less taken over one large patch, and there is a fair bit of hay covering another patch. You may think this would deter me a little, but pretty much the opposite. I can’t wait to get in there and dig stuff up. If it weren’t so cold and wet out there I might even be doing that right now. In honesty, it will have to wait a few weeks, but it is something that I look forward to!

MILK:

I got new milk this week, and haven’t died. Yay!

A GRUMPY NEW UNDERTAKING:

Something odd happened yesterday. I got back from the garden and doing a little grocery shopping, had just made some granola crumbly stuff and was outside on the fire escape smoking the last smoke out of my pack. I was thinking to myself “probably should have picked up another pack when I got the groceries. Too bad. I really don’t want to go out again”.

That thought morphed into “I don’t have to go out again. I wonder how long I could go without a smoke”.

A couple of miles down the track and the thought train was speeding along from “Well, I’m two hours in, I think I could do this” to “I must have at least one cigarette in this house somewhere” and back to “three hours.. three hours thirty seconds…”

I have looked up some cheesy videos made with the idea that they will help you appreciate the decision to not smoke. They are cheesy little attempted pats on the back that one minute feel like they are helping a little, and the next make me want to punch the guy who made them because there is no way that he can know what this feels like, then I feel guilty for wanting to punch him because he is, after all just trying to help, and probably made the videos because he himself had trouble quitting and really does know the weird half there state my brain is currently in. I have also downloaded this annoying counter thing that tells me how long it has been since my last smoke, how much money I have saved by not smoking, how many cigarettes I would have smoked in the time since I have quit (though this is flawed because it averages them out over the day, not the hours that I am awake), and how much time I have added to my lifespan since stopping. I love and hate this thing alternatively. I like knowing how much money I have saved, how much longer I am apparently going to live, and how many less cigarette buts there are in the world, but the clock is driving me nuts. It even counts seconds (though isn’t quite accurate because I found it two and a bit hours after stopping and guessed the exact time I took my last puff).

As I type this it has been 22hr., 3min, and 28 seconds (29, 30, 31….)

I have saved $5.85

I have not smoked 13 cigarettes (reminder: flawed because of the all day average thing)

I will live 1 hour,  5 minutes longer.

Also, Ihave about half the brain capacity that I had yesterday morning when I was still smoking. I have managed to misplace two of my bowls (probably containing some sort of life saving snack), I can’t stop wiggling my toes, have an attention span of about 7 minutes and I am sooo grateful that I can keep my fingers busy typing this blog entry (which currently sits at 2,411 words).

Thank you for putting up with this massive post, as well as the mood swings, which I am sure are apparent in this monster of a post. Thank you also for continuing to read (or scan, sorry guys, I know this is a long one), and for taking the time to think a little bit about what it is you are putting into your mouth (or not putting in your mouth, as the case may be).

Keep on reading, let me know what you think!

USEFUL LINKS:

Yardshare: http://www.sharingbackyards.com/browse/Vancouver,BC&welcome_box=3

Lefse: http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/113/Lefse/

Non Smoking Stuff: http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/12886/Video-guide-for-those-just-starting-their-quits#.TyRc7YEtvaF

(the counter thingies are called “quit meters”)

 

P.S. : something increduble: I have ZERO things to add to the cheat list this week: WIN!

Mooving Forward in the World of Dairy

I am not a huge dairy eater/drinker, but will admit that over the last year or so I have upped my intake a little. I have switched from the hot water and cheap hot chocolate mix to the milk and real chocolate hot chocolate mix, or sometimes just melt chocolate into my milk. I cook with more cheeses (please note that Kraft Singles are not to be considered cheese under any circumstance). I have started drinking lattes and mochas on a much more regular basis. The idea of drinking a glass of milk on it’s own still makes me cringe a little though, and I will not go near yogurt or most unmelted cheeses with a ten foot pole (in the case of cheese it’s a texture thing, and in the case of yogurt, well, it smells kinda gross and I’m picky). I’m getting better though, and yesterday was another big step up.

Yesterday I got something new. Something that I’m pretty pumped about.

Hint: it’s white, liquidy and contains no additives whatsoever.

Yup.. I got milk.

I took this new item home and tried it in some coffee. While I couldn’t really taste the difference, the fact that I knew my coffee contained four simple things (coffee beans, water, milk and organic cane sugar) made me a little giddy.

The next problem was what to do with the bottle of milk that I still had left over. I was craving something sweet (and really, when am I not craving something sweet?) so, I made pudding for the first time ever.

It was easy too! Take 2 and a half cups of milk, a third of a cup of sugar, three tablespoons of corn starch, half a teaspoon of salt and throw it in a pot.

Heat it over medium heat until it thickens (about 10 minutes), then stir in a whole bunch of vanilla. How much vanilla you ask? I don’t measure it, so I really couldn’t tell you. I added a little bit, smelled the stuff and added more. Then you put the pudding into a conatiner and pop it in the fridge. Lick the spoon, clean up, and you’re done.

When I got home from work this afternoon I was soaked and cold. I threw on my slippers and a hoody, and made myself a snack. A wonderful dairy filled snack.

I used the exciting new milk for a hot chocolate. While that was warming up I chopped up some strawberries and a banana, threw them in a bowl with some blueberries and scooped a bunch of vanilla pudding on top. Please note that this is a non-yogurt eaters version of a yogurt parfait.. just with creamy, sweet vanilla pudding instead of weird smelly yogurt.

MMMmmmmm Yummy!

I noticed a difference in the hot chocolate. It was creamier, and the taste was, well, different. I wouldn’t say it was worse or better, just a little different.

I was about three quarters through this delightful dairy-fest when the thought that I often get a little gugley when I eat too much dairy popped into my head. I’m the kind of girl who works well on one scoop of icecream, but two scoops  kind of puts me over the edge a little. Funny thing: it’s now three hours later and I’m feeling fine.  I can’t say for sure that it has anything to do with the new milk, because the pudding was made with the other stuff, but I am curious.

All in all, I’m considering ths a win.

Taco Night!!!!

Yup. Tonight I had taco’s for dinner.

Usually I pick up the El Del Paso Tako Kit, and that’s that.. just chemically seasoned meat and a hard, salty corn shell, but tonight was a little bit different. Tonight I made EVERYTHING from scratch.

First I made the tortillas (yeah, I made tortillas.. no biggie). I threw together some flour, butter, salt and baking soda (cutting the butter into the dry stuff until it looked like coarse cornmeal), then added about a cup and 4 tablespoons of water. Then it had to sit for 15 minutes before I divided it all up (I made 24), and rolled it into little balls (later to be flattened and rolled out with a rolling pin).

After they were all rolled out (this took some time) I threw them one by one into an ungreased frying pan until they got sort of brown and tortilla-looking. YAY! Next time I think I will try to roll them out a little bit thinner, as the are a tiny bit tough to fold into tacos, but overall I’m considering it a win (and, for the record: they also taste great warm with a little bit of butter).

While the tortillas were being paraded into the pans I started chopping for my salsa. Tomato, red onion and cilantro. Simple, easy and extremely tasty. I have used this one before for easy party dishes, and it’s also really yummy if you add some fresh pineapple. If you are going to whip this one up you should know that while it tastes great right away, it’ even better if you can do it the day before serving it.. it just gives all the juices a chance to mingle a little.

I also squicked some avacado, lime and black pepper for some guacamole. gain, this is a super easy party dish, and even better if you add some finely chopped fresh mango (I know, sounds weird, but trust me on that one).

Then came the meat. I found a recipe online for taco seasoning, but I didn’t have all of the spices, everything else was ready and I didn’t want to have to go out, buy the stuff, then come back.. dinner prep was already approaching the two hour mark and I was getting hungry. So I made do with what I had: chili flakes, cajun spice, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. In retrospect (actually, as of first bite) I think I put in too much chili flakes, but I am also a bit of a wuss when it comes to spice things.

I assembled it all, paused just long enough to take a photo or two, and wolfed it down. So yummy!!!!!

Falling Short on Shortbread

   This morning I woke up and was curled up reading in an armchair, in the morning sun, with my coffee. It was almost perfect – almost. I needed something to go with it all, something yummy and sweet, but the mandarin orange I has wasn’t cutting it. It was time to make me some shortbread.

  In years past I have always followed (or the closest I ever get to followed) a recipe. The result is a nice round little cookie with a maraschino cherry in the middle, golden with slightly browned edges and a soft melt in your mouth but slightly crummy texture. Yummy and definitely a December staple food.

 Problem was, I couldn’t find the recipe. I remember that it was simple: butter, icing sugar and flour, and for kicks I always added vanilla. I couldn’t remember how much of each thing though. I scouted out my favourite online recipe haunts: www.allrecipes.com and www.marthastewart.com.. All Recipes had shortbread recipes, but they weren’t my shortbread recipe and the Martha Stewart site was having some issues this morning and wouldn’t load her recipe (I’m pretty sure that she’s on to me and has ordered her henchmen to seek out my IP address and block me from using her recipes anymore, afraid that I will dethrone her). I checked the books: Better Homes and Gardens “Ultimate Cookie Book” and some Martha Stewart magazines that Debra had (you can try Martha, you can try), and again, there were recipes, but not the one that I remember.

  Sooo…. being me, and being cocky, I made it up. I threw a cup of butter, two cups confectioners sugar into the trusty Kitchenaid, added some vanilla (NEVER measure vanilla!), and added three cups of flour. It looked a little dry, so I threw in about another quarter cup of butter (because in my mind butter fixed almost anything). This time it looked right. I made a bunch of little balls, squashed them down and, being the dawn of a new era, added a dried cranberry to the top of each instead of the traditional half a maraschino cherry (there are so many things added to those things that they can barely be called cherries anymore..).

  I guessed that they should be baked at about 350, so threw them in for about 15 minutes. Guessing, guessing, guessing.

  The result is not bad, but not right either. There is too much butter, making them a little on the chewy side, and less than pretty. The taste is close, but not as sweet as the ones I made last year.

  I am a huge believer that there is a lesson in everything. Today’s lesson: Find a recipe, try to follow it, and maybe next time don’t be so cocky.

 

Still edible, kind of yummy, but not quite right

 

MMmmmmmmm..Marshmallows

     I have an addiction. Not a terrible one, but one that is destined to get me into hot water when I start this whole thing next month.

     I love hot chocolate. Like, really love it. If it was taller than me, had arms, legs and a heartbeat I would date it, marry it and live happily ever after.

     Luckily for me, the really good stuff is also the stuff that is made without all of the extra added ingredients.

Example:

No Name brand Hot Chocolate Mix: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, cocoa, coconut oil, corn syrup solids, salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono-and-diglycerides, silicon dioxide, natural and artificial flavours.

Cocoa Camino Drinking Chocolate: Chocolate (cocoa mass, golden cane sugar, cocoa powder), cocoa powder, golden cane sugar

The really good home-made stuff: Milk, cream, chocolate, maybe some honey if you feel like it

     I like the real stuff anyways, so that won’t be much of an adjustment.  I have been greatly inspired by a hot chocolate tasting at Cocoa Nymph and by Eileen, who writes a terrific blog called The Chocolate Apprentice (check it out – it’s delicious!)

     The issue at hand is that hot chocolate and I are really more part of a threesome than a couple. Every once in a while we like to invite the marshmallow to join us. What is hot chocolate without marshmallows anywho? (I know that some of you are whip-creamers, and all the power to you. While I’ll give it a whirl, the marshmallow is really more my type).

Let’s do that ingredients list thing again.. that was fun:

No Name brand Marshmallow: Corn syrup, sugar, modified corn starch, dextrose, water, gelatin, natural and artificial flavour, tetrasodium pyrophosphate.

The Home-Made Recipe I mooched off of The Frugal Kiwi: Sugar, water, powdered sugar, corn starch, gelatin, honey, vanilla, cocoa powder, salt

      Hmm.. choices made easy, because who want’s to eat anything with the word “pyro” in it. Not to mention “natural flavour”. This one makes me angry. People aren’t stupid. If things were actually naturally say, raspberry flavoured, raspberries would be in the ingredients list.

    At this point, I want to give a thank you and a shout out to the girl that writes The Frugal Kiwi. It’s a good blog, check it out. The recipe is good too (though I made a double batch, was unsatisfied, so made another quadruple batch)

         I assembled my ingredients. Because I can’t follow a recipe to save my life, my first thought was to make a batch of plain vanilla ones (made by omitting the cocoa powder). I also added an extra amount of vanilla. I don’t actually ever measure vanilla – EVER (one of my childhood memories if of making cookies with my mom and just pouring some in. I think I remember her saying that you don’t need to measure it. She very well might not have said this, but I took it and have run with it ever since). I also doubled Frugal Kiwi’s recipe because I love marshmallows, and because my Momma raised me right and intend to share.

     This is my first gelatin experience, so I am excited. It will also be my first experience at boiling candy until it reaches firm ball stage (or any stage for that matter).

     Before my room mate left for the day I not-so-casually brought up the phrase ‘I just need to get it to firm ball stage which is of course…?” and she told me that it meant putting some of the candy into a cool glass of water and it should make a firm ball. Thanks Debra! This turned out to be a lot of fun. I repeatedly poured hot sticky spoonfulls of syrupy looking stuff (that kind of smelled like warm rootbeer) into water just to see what it would do. I learned that if the water just goes milky, it’s definately not ready. If the syrup drips on the floor your feet will definitely get sticky. If the syrup turns into a squichy mess in the water it is at soft ball stage and you are almost there. If the candy comes out still pliable but holds it’s shape you got it right.

     The next step was to put the hot bubbling boiling sugar stuff into the gelatin that was sitting in water, in the mixer. Hmmmm….

       This turned out to be not quite as messy as I thought, but still pretty sticky. I got it all (well, most of it) in there while the mixer was on low, and cranked t up until the stuff was fluffy and luke warm.

     Then came the fun of pouring it into the pan (which I had greased and coated with the corn starch and powdered sugar). Doubling the recipe was not enough. I filled the small pan maybe 1/3 to half way and that was that.

     So, I did it all again. This time I quadrupled the recipe, and before pouring it into the larger pan I took half of it out and added cocoa powder to the other half of it. Then, by holding the vanilla in one hand and the chocolate in the other I did my best to swirl them together. I ended up using a knife later on to make it pretty.

     After that it was all about cleaning up (I am a messy, messy cook/baker).

    …Then licking the beaters.

     Then waiting… and waiting.. and waiting. The recipe says that you should let it sit over night, or at least 3-4 hours. Boo. I entertained myself while waiting by writing most of this and watching my trays of marshmallow goo slowly firm up.

   Eventually it got there. I took some to a friends house for craft and hot chocolate night, and they were good. I didn’t have a camera though, so had to make myself a cup of hot chocolate this morning to try and get a picture.

  I mixed milk, a bit of cream and some honey and cinnamon in a pot and brought it to a simmer before adding (maybe too much..maybe) chopped white chocolate and some marshmallows.

 

Breakfast of champions!