It’s a lot like love

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Harriet Van Horne, Quotes

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
― Harriet Van Horne

Good Morning, Glory!

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breakfast, morning glory muffins, muffin, sweet muffins

Vegetables in the morning can be hard to manage. That’s why I love Morning Glory muffins so much – the sneaky way you can incorporate carrots or even zucchini into the mix while still being completely breakfast appropriate. Bonus – using apple sauce in the place of oil makes these much lighter than using oil while still being wonderfully moist.

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup raisins (soaked in hot water to plump, drain before adding to mix)
• 2 cups shredded carrots (3-4 large carrots)
• 1 apple, shredded (a tart apple works best)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup flax seeds, ground
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup applesauce
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup orange juice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
3. Stir in carrots, apple, coconut and flax seeds
4. In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, applesauce, vanilla and orange juice. Add to flour mixture and stir until moistened evenly.
5. Add drained raisins and stir once more.
6. Scoop into greased muffin tin, filling each completely (a little heaping is okay).
7. Bake for 25-28 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Transfer muffins to cooling rack and let cool completely.

It came to me in a dream

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garlic muffins, savoury muffins, sides

Like the title says, I got the idea for Garlic Muffins from a dream. There are some key points of difference between the dream muffins and real ones. The most important one being that real muffins are baked in the oven while dream muffins are baked in the dishwasher.

After dreaming about these muffins, I knew I had to make them and they turned out better than I imagined (maybe using an oven had something to do with that). These are great to add to a bread basket for something a little different, but I love serving them on the side of a bowl of soup or chili.

Ingredients

For muffins:

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 4 – 5 cloves garlic, minced

For topping:

• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and grease muffin tins with cooking spray
2. Mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Set aside
3. In a small bowl, mix egg, milk, garlic and onion
4. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients and pour in butter and wet mixture. Mix gently using as few strokes as possible. You want to incorporate the dry and wet ingredients but only just – don’t over do it
5. Pour in to 12 muffin tins, filling each about two-thirds full
6. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
7. Cool slightly (about 10 minutes)
8. While muffins are cooling, make the topping by mixing butter and garlic salt
9. Brush butter topping over muffins

Chocolat chaud SVP

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beverage, hot chocolate, Paris

My Paris trip is coming up in May, so what better way to get ready than by practicing eating and drinking like a Parisian? I couldn’t think of a better way either. 

 

My favourite discovery so far comes from Diane, A Broad’s blog. It’s this unbelievably thick, decadent Parisian Hot Chocolate. I seriously have been making this once a week this winter. More if I have homemade bread for dunking.  

Ingredients

• 40 grams (1 1/2 squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Break chocolate in to small pieces
2. Heat milk in a small saucepan over a low heat
3. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth and chocolate has melted
4. Serve piping hot

Nearly as thick as ganache

This s*** is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S

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banana bread, breakfast, healthy, oatmeal, steel cut oatmeal

There are two things you should know about me,

1) I’m very particular about my fruits and vegetables. For me, there is a very, very small window for eating fresh produce before it’s only suitable for cooking and baking. Unfortunately that means that I end up with a lot of fruit in my freezer and I need to find ways to use it up.

2) I do very little cooking during the week. I work a lot of hours and the last thing I want to do when I get home is start prepping for a meal that won’t be ready for hours. I also like to hit the snooze button for as long as possible, so breakfast is usually rushed or eaten at the office.

What this adds up to is that I prepare a lot of my meals – breakfasts, lunches and dinners on the weekends. This weekend I had bunches of bananas that were just perfect for baking (not to mention the frozen ones), so I give you Banana Bread Oatmeal

When life gives you bananas . . .

Ingredients

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• bananas, mashed
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• dash nutmeg
• chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil and add salt and oats and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 – 25 minutes until thick (follow the package directions). Remove from heat.
2. Add mashed bananas, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and nutmeg and stir.
3. Sprinkle with walnuts and serve. You can also let it cool and portion out for breakfasts later in the week.

Thanks for the soup Frankenstorm!

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beef, comfort food, soup

I will not be the first (or last) person to say that cold, grey, rainy days scream “make soup”. So Frankenstorm has given me the perfect conditions to make one of my favourite soups – beef barley.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1/2 cup onion, diced
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. beef, cooked and cubed (I used leftover roast beef, but stewing beef would work as well)
• 4 cups reduced (or low) sodium beef broth
• 4 cups water
• 1/2 cup pot barley, rinsed
• 3 tbsp. brandy
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• oinch of oregano
• 1/2 cup frozen peas (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Sauté carrots, celery and onion with olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat until onions are almost translucent.
2. Add beef, broth, water and barley and bring to a boil.
3. Boil for five minutes before reducing heat.
4. Add brandy, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and oregano.
5. Cover and simmer for one hour stirring occasionally.
6. Add frozen peas (if you’re so inclined) and cook for an additional five minutes.

I find that this soup is best enjoyed with garlic muffins on a Sunday afternoon curled up on the couch. But to each their own.

Let’s give it a shot . . .

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Julia Child, Quotes

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.”
― Julia Child