When I'm not at Work

Ok... so I thought that I didn't like Fennel!

Hmmm. Fennel.

I am not a licorice fan (please don't start in on me about my licorice aversion - it's not rational!) so as soon as a heard that fennel had an anise flavour I really just erased it from my mind. However, just a couple of years ago I saw a show on the food network by Giada de Laurentiis that got me slightly interested. It involved fennel with some cheese and some crunch. More recently Saveur's april issue featured food from Rome and a lovely fennel recipe was in it. Simple, tasty, cheesy, crunchy. It actually sounded appealing to me. Almost appealing enough to buy fennel. Then over at Lottie and Doof, they featured that exact recipe and it looked great (the photos on this site are so amazing!!!). The thing that pushed more over the edge was getting fennel in my first organic food box. I could have chosen to refuse it for another veg. but at this point I was kind of curious... I had this recipe in my head. They just sent one fennel bulb so it was a perfect trial...

Well, the trial was successful. So successful that I've ordered 3 fennel bulbs in this weeks food box! The anise flavour is there, for sure, but it really does take on a mellow butteriness (just like they all said it did - duh!) and I LOOOOOOVED the crunch. I was the only one who ate it in my house (which pisses me off but then it tastes good so I don't care anymore). I would love this along side something (well, now I'm trying to think about what wouldn't work!)... that tastes good! (there that pretty much covers it. Leave me some ideas for a nice mate for this dish howzabouts). Plus, I think that Fennel sound really cool in Italian - Finocchio (and, NO, I'm not going to make any reference to how much that word sounds like the name of the famous puppet).

Finocchio con Latte al Forno (Fennel with Milk, Baked)

(adapted from Sauveur and Lottie and Doof)

3 Fennel bulbs (fronds cut off)

Enough milk to cover the bulbs

2 large garlic cloves, coarsely sliced

a few dashes of freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 - 1/3 cup of parmesan

Sprinkling of herbed bread crumbs (optional)

Cut the fennel bulbs into halves or quaters. Place in a large, heavy bottomed sauce pan. Cover the bulbs with milk (or just to the top of the bulbs). Add the garlic and nutmeg to the pan. Simmer the fennel at low heat for 30 - 45 minutes (until the fennel feels tender).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Laddle into a baking dish. Put just enough of the milk in the dish to cover the bottom plus a little (about an inch or two up the dish). Sprinkle the fennel with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs if you choose.

Bake for about 20 min or until nicely browned on the top.

Brownies from Joy

I love these brownies. I don't always love brownies. I don't like it when brownies are like cake because then they are cake... not brownies (makes sense, right?). I don't like it when brownies are too gooey because then they are like pudding... not brownies. These brownies are just right... AND easy! What could be better. I've made them a few times and have never yet been disappointed by them.

They come to me from Joy the baker. Her website is great. If you haven't already checked it out, go over and give it a look. It is definitely not for those of you looking for some low-fat cooking alternatives but just good honest baking and lovely-to-read banter. She sounds like a fun girl to hang with! AND she's a baker!!!

But the real star of this post is brownies, let's not forget. These ones have cocoa powder in them which I always thought tended to dry things out but these brownies come out nice and chewy. I also added some chocolate chips and walnuts - just like the recipe said. These little gems last well throughout the week (well, let's say for four days or so) and I use them as my snack when I'm at work (no chemi-hard-to-pronounce-ingredients snacks!!!)

Old School Fudge Brownies

(from Joy the Baker)

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2 tbsp strong coffee

2 lg eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup (1 lg handful) walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup chocolate chips (I used about 1/2 a cup though)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease a 10 inch round or 9x13 baking pan.

In a heat proof bowl over lightly simmer water melt the butter and cocoa powder. Add the coffee and stir the melted ingredients together. Set aside.

In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a third bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and whisk until combined. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Add the flour and stir to combine. Throw in the walnuts and the chocolate chips and combine.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 18 - 25 minutes. (I always find that I'm taking closer to 30 minutes, probably my oven)

pizzette's aka little lovies

I'm finally doing it. This pizza dough thing has been on my mind for a while. After my recent success with yeast (ie. the Hot Cross Buns which didn't suck) I feel some positive momentum, buoyed by it, dizzy with it... even a little... maybe...

Well, as if you all haven't seen a pizza post from a foodie blog before *Yawn* I know, I can be a hater too! Nevertheless, I'm gonna try. Definitely, the yeast success is egging me on but also I recently discovered fresh mozzarella at a couple of my local supermarkets. It's probably been there for a really long time but for some reason (probably a grocery trip sans kids - meaning a grocery trip in which I can meander down aisles, pick things up and look them over, nobody actually distracting my brain with some kind of conversation/question - capiche?) I stumbled upon it recently and thought that it merited some special use at some point.

Lastly, I'm on the hunt for some interesting vegetarian recipes. I've just picked up a new cookbook (more to come on that later! - trust me) and there were some simple, rustic and completely divine looking pizzette's in the book. One thing that I hate about making pizza is stretching out that *&%$ crust. It always springs back, it gets holes in it. I've gotten so frustrated stretching pizza dough out over a whole big pan that I've resorted to using cans of beans to hold all the sides down. Making little pizzettes however, fixes a lot of that fuss and frustration. As the book says (the cookbook that is), keep these little lovies simple. I roasted some veggies (mushroom, pepper strips and zucchini) and put them on a couple of little lovies and on the kids own were pepperoni. Simple. Topped with fresh mozzarella (wow - what a difference people!!!!) and maybe you could top with a little parmesan if you were so inclined. After the oven and before going into my mouth, my pizzette got sprinkled with some hot pepper flakes too!

Pizza dough (from 101 Cookbooks)
makes 2 14 inch pizza (or 5 little lovies)

1 pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast (I used traditional)
1 cup warm water
1 tsp honey
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

Place warm water (about 100 degrees F), honey and yeast together in a bowl. Mix together lightly and set aside for about 10 min. or until the yeast gets foamy.

Put flour and salt into a bowl.
Mix with the water/yeast until it's all incorporated.
Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 min. (you could use your stand mixer here too - taking significantly less time I would imagine. However, the reality is I only kneaded for

about 5 min and the results were quite fine). Just make sure that the dough is both silky and stretchy.
Rest the dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Set it in a warm dry place for about 1 hr (until it doubles approximately).

Punch the dough down.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

On pizza baker, pizza stone or (in my case) cookie sheets sprinkle cornmeal (this prevents the pizza from sticking and makes a nice

little additional crunch on the crust). I spread my little pizza's into shape on a baking mat which seemed easier somehow - whatever way you do it, grab about a fistful of dough and shape to your desired thickness.

I topped mine with some simple passata (adding some salt, sugar), roasted veggies, fresh mozzarella. I think a white version would be lovely with something green and maybe smoked salmon. The possibilities are endless really but simple is key.

Everyone loved the pizzette's. Just what we needed today.....

Pecan Cinnamon Cupcakes

This weekend I accomplished something that has been on my list for a long time. No, not my taxes... those are still on my list. This was a lot more fun. I completely reorganized my recipe box. I received a special recipe accordion folder from my Mom one Christmas - probably at least ten years ago. It finally died - the bottom fell out. It was completely and utterly irreparable. So, I've had to move on. I bought a completely ugly but made of recycled material 3 ring binder and put all my recipes in the binder. What was fun about this little project was that I finally had a look at all my recipes. There is a lot of good stuff in there that I haven't taken the time to try as yet. Among some of those recipes I found this little gem. To be honest, I only put it in the folder a few weeks ago. It was recipe that I found in the spring issue of the Food and Drink magazine offered at the LCBO (liquor control board of Ontario - it's a long, sad story). This magazine is really worth checking out online. Some lovely offerings here.

I'm not quite sure what is particularly spring-like enough about pecans to merit this entry in the spring issue but who cares - it looks great and the caption under the title said that it was inspired by fresh cinnamon buns (much better than the stale cinnamon bun, I agree!). The cupcakes come together quickly and they give a lovely spongy texture. The icing can be a little finicky and sets quickly so I found that I had to make sure that I had the cupcakes cooled before make the icing. However, the icing tastes like a cross between caramel and maple syrup - beautiful! Who cares about taxes!!!

Pecan Cinnamon Cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

2 lg eggs

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups sifted cake and pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk, room temperature

1/4 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped

Icing

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup whipping cream

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Line 12 muffin tin cups.

Place eggs in small bowl and cover with hot tap water (to get them to room temperature)

Beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time and then vanilla. Thoroughly mix sifted flour with baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Alternately add flour mixture and milk into the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in finely chopped pecans. Divide the batter into the lined cups.

Bake for 18 - 20 minutes or until light golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Icing:

Melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and cream. Stirring occasionally, bring to a full rolling boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, cool 15 minutes on a rack without stirring.

Stir in icing sugar until smooth. Immediately ice cooled cupcakes because the frosting sets very quickly. Press a few pieces of pecan into the icing while it's still soft.

... and this is what kid #2 ate!

Carrot Cake....Cookies!

Easter weekend. It's warm, very warm, unsettlingly warm AND I've had the weekend off. What did I do over the weekend? I made hot cross buns, I went for two runs 8 and 12 km., I went biking with my kids and I tried Hot Yoga for the first time (pretty wicked BTW). My Mother-in-law has recently returned from her yearly sojourn in Trinidad which means that Derek and I get a little time to ourselves. Off to our favourite local and we even had a chance to try another spot (2 days later - no really we're not that piggy!) reported to have the best burgers in the East end. Lastly, I made these cookies. As promised, Carrot cake cookies!

Once again... Martha. Seriously though, this recipe looked so different that I couldn't resist. I love carrot cake and especially love the cream cheese icing. I don't love my carrot cake with too much extra crap. No pineapple, no coconut - more spice cake and moist carrots topped with the sweet and tangy white icing. A beautiful combination.
The cookies themselves have all the good qualities of carrot cake but the addition of oats makes them a cross between carrot cake and oatmeal cookies. Not bad at all. Nice and squidgy (I love that word!) and chewy. The cookies have been getting rave reviews all around - even from kid #1 and kid #2 (both asked where the chocolate was at first though). I changed up the filling a bit from Martha's original - just so you know, it called for only 1 cup of icing sugar (my filling was too runny with just 1 cup) and 1 tsp of vanilla (I just couldn't do it! Nothing should take the flavour away from the cream cheese).

Carrot Cake Cookies

makes about 3 dozen

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar (although I used dark with success)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 lg eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for flattening)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots (about 3 lg carrots)

1 cup raisins

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 - 2 cups icing sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to beat until well combined.

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Stir to combine. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Mix well until blended. Mix in oats, carrots and raisins. Chill until firm, at least 1 hr.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Shape tablespoons of dough into balls and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until browned and crisp, 12 - 15 minutes (rotate halfway through baking time). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Filling:

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add butter and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and stir to combine.

Once cookies are cooled, spread about 2 tsp of filling on the flat side of half the cookies. Sandwich together with the remaining cookies.

Mushroom Pasta al forno (baked!)

I'm really enjoying Mushrooms these days. I just heard recently that they are good for regulating blood pressure and they have high amounts of vitamin D. But, I don't care... they taste good. Funny, it's one of those vegetables which as a kid you just never see yourself eating (right up there with peppers for me... but I totally kicked that when at 9 I decided to pretend that pepper strips were just green french fries). They add so much body to a dish, even the low-rent button variety. I love them all!!! I'm also challenging myself to get more creative with veggie food (after our great visit with Brian and Civi, I'm double challenged) and this mushroom recipe fits the bill. With my new 'fresh box' from Front Door Organics I can pick and choose what I would like to get (but I think that there is a little bit of fun in getting something that I wouldn't normally pick up at the store - ya know?) so if they are not sending mushrooms this week I can substitute it for something that I don't want in the box or add it in addition to everything in my box (which is exactly what I did)... and did I mention that it gets delivered to my door... and that in most cases it's cheaper than buying it at the grocery store... and that they support local farms! Ach! I'm so excited about this... it must be annoying - I need to shut up!

Here these mushrooms are gloriously at the centre of it all. No playing second fiddle to something brightly coloured or something crunchy/crispy. Savoury, toothsome, one of life's earthy (haha, good one Wanda) pleasures. I added some Kale that came in our box as well and it's a fantastic accompaniment (I guess that it counts as brightly coloured though!). The recipe itself was inspired by a similar recipe from 'Feast' by Nigella Lawson but it's undergone enough of a transformation here to be barely recognizable to the diehard fan.

Mushroom Pasta al forno

serves 6

1/2 of a large bag of Rigatoni pasta (cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water for about 14 minutes)

Bechamel (here it is again!)

3/4 cup of unsalted butter

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp of unbleached, all-purpose flour

5 cups of warmed milk

1 cup of sour cream

1/4 c

up lemon juice (fresh)

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

1/2 - 3/4 cup of grated cheese

2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (ground is fine - use 1 tsp)

2 tsp salt

2 tsp mustard powder

1 tbsp bouillion powder (low salt)

pepper or pepper sauce to taste

Vegetables:

2 - 3 tbsp olive oil

1/2 red onion, chopped fine

1 rib of celery, chopped fine

5 cups of mushrooms (I used cremini and button but mixed is great) slic

2 - 3 cups of Kale (any leafy green will do) chopped small

3 large cloves of garlic, crushed

salt to taste

Cook pasta in boiling, salted water according to the package directions. Drain and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Make Bechamel:

Heat butter in a large saucepan or dutch oven. Add in the flour and whisk well together until the mixture is smooth. Graduall

y add in the warmed milk and little at a time until all the milk has been added.

Keep at med. to low heat, whisking regularly. As the sauce thickens add in the nutmeg, salt, mustard powder and bouillion powder. Once sauce is adequately thickened (5 min. or so) add in the sour cream, lemon juice, pepper or pepper sauce, parmesan and grated cheddar. Whisk until mixed and cheese is incorporated. Set aside.

Vegetables:

In something large enough to contain the vegetables, saute the onion, celery and mushrooms until they are just wilted (about 4 - 5 minutes). Add in the kale and garlic and continue to saute until the greens are bright and wilted (I know I said there were no other bright colours - Sorry!)

Combine the drained pasta and the vegetables in a large baking dish. Mix well. Pour the bechamel sauce over everything and mix well, making sure that the sauce has gotten through to the bottom of the baking dish. Top with some more grated parmesan cheese and bake for 35 minutes or until bubbly and golden.

Yeast take 2 - Totally Trad Hot Cross Buns

I'm doing it again. I'm scared and I feel a little weak kneed. Yeast AGAIN! I really thought that my last attempt with the Cinnamon Buns was middling at best - I got a couple of good comments though that I haven't yet had the guts to follow through with but fully intend to (once I pluck up the courage).

It's Good Friday here (not Easter yet, as I've learned at the Cathedral School where I coach. Easter is on Sunday folks!) and it's totally trad to serve Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday (which wasn't really 'good' at all - go figure that one out!) for obvious reasons. Plus, on Good Friday I'm not at work, which means that I have time to wait around for these things to happen (hopefully happen).

I tried a recipe from the joy of baking website. I know that it's a crap shoot finding something on the net but this one looked pretty middle of the road AND I had all the ingredients. I'm using some more of those awesome mixed dried fruit packages that KT so kindly hands off to me (she doesn't eat them with her morning oatmeal from Starbucks). They look beautiful.

The Sultanas, the cranberries, the currants - lovely mix of colours. I also added some grated orange peel (I actually used the tangerines that came in my food box) to the recipe as well. Unfortunately, as I was going through the recipe I failed to see that I needed to add 1/4 cup of butter to the batter. So, I have no butter in mine BUT I've made sure to add it to the recipe below! With all the spices and the orange peel, this batter smells great even before it's been baked and it looks pretty too.

Hot Cross Buns (joyofbaking.com)

makes 12 buns

3/4 lukewarm milk (I used buttermilk just 'cause)

1 tsp granulated sugar

1 package of traditional yeast

3 1/2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup of light brown sugar (I only had dark)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp orange peel, grated (lemon, tangerine... whatever)

2 large eggs

1/4 cup unsalted butter @ room temperature

3/4 cup mixed dried fruit (I used dried sultanas, thompson raisins,

cranberries and currants)

Egg Wash:

1 egg white

1 tbsp milk

Glaze:

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tbsp milk or cream

Add the sugar and yeast to the lukewarm milk. Mix thoroughly and set aside for about 10 min. or until it looks foamy/frothy.

Mix the flour, sugar, spices, salt and grated peel together in a large bowl. Once the yeast mixture is ready add it to the flour and mix well. Once mixed, add the eggs and mix well. Lastly, mix in the butter.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for about 5 - 10 min (I'm doing this by hand) or until it feels pretty smooth and silky. After about 5 min. or so of kneading begin to add in the dried fruit and continue kneading to incorporate it well. Place the dough in a buttered bowl, I also put a little butter on my dough ball, cover with a clean cloth and place in a warm, non-drafty spot to rise for about 1 1/2 hrs. or until it's doubled in size.

Once doubled, punch the dough down (it should make a nice sighing sound when it's letting out the air) and form into twelve bun shaped lumps. Place each lump on a parchment or silicone sheet lined baking sheet with enough room for each bun to double in size. Brush eat bun with the egg wash. Cover again with clean cloth and put in a warm spot to rise for about 45 - 60 min. or until it's doubled in size again.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Once the buns have doubled and are ready to bake, brush them again with the egg wash and with a knife make a cross on the top of each bun. Bake the buns for about 15 min. Buns should be nicely browned and a toothpick should come out clean.

Cool on a baking rack.

Mix together the glaze till smooth. Place in a little bag and cut off the corner tip of the bag. Pipe the glaze onto each bun in the cross shape that you cut on them.

These came out just as one would expect a yeast bun to come out. The spices and dried fruit complimented each other beautifully. I guess, you could say, that just maybe these were a complete success!!! ... even without the butter!