When I'm not at Work

This Waffle is pretty Corny!

I have a book club that I belong to. We don't actually read books anymore! We used to. Now we get together for lunch once a month and we talk. We talk about anything and everything, nothing is off limits and there are no judgments (well, at least I don't feel any! ;-) One of the other Women in the group is also a foodie - in fact, she's probably more hardcore than I am. I have great respect for Ahea the kitchen goddess. She's a great source of knowledge and inspiration. For example, Ahea is the one who converted me to 'the best' quality vanilla forever... never going back. Ahea is the first person I met who made cookies that weren't just drop cookies (my favourite to date as you can tell by the posts) and hand decorated all of them... they looked perfect! I was in shock!

Today, being a book club day, we were sitting in the resto and I was telling my two friends how much my ridiculous/awesome Wafflemaker has been changing my life. Here's how the conversation continued (paraphrased!)

Ahea - So, how many recipes have you tried so far?

Wanda - One

Ahea - Didn't the wafflemaker come with some recipe ideas?

Wanda - Yeah

Ahea - Why don't you try another one?

Wanda - Because the buttermilk one blew my mind.

Ahea - I've got a couple of really good ones for you. These might blow your mind.

This very afternoon, after I getting home from the resto (and a pit stop at Godiva!) this recipe was waiting in my 'inbox'. The cool thing about this one is that it has cornmeal in it. Ahea has assured my that it won't taste like cornbread because that was my first thought. Admittedly, even cornbread when doused with Maple Syrup couldn't be that bad! The other cool thing about this recipe is that you literally dump every ingredient listed below into a blender and then you turn the blender on for a few minutes and then you make waffles. RIDICULOUSLY easy, m'peeps. I mean, come on - when does that ever happen in the kitchen. Not only was it crazy easy but it tasted great too. I totally got more than 8 waffles (I have written a doubled recipe below so it's totally easy to half this one) and they were crispy on the outside and fluffy an d perfect on the inside... Oh YEAH! These ones aren't going to last long... Thanks Ahea!!!

Blender Cornmeal Waffles

makes about 8 waffles (about 12 if you are me)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I'm wondering if I could use melted butter in future)

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

4 tbsp Cornmeal

4 tbsp baking powder

4 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat Waffle maker (I use '3' on mine).

Place all ingredient in a blender, cover and process at med-hi (I used 'mix' on mine) until dry

ingredients are moistened (I put in all the wet ingredients first and added the dry ingredients last - that way dry stuff wouldn't get caught at the bottom of the blender).

Do not overblend.

I let the batter sit for about 5 - 7 minutes before starting to use it (basically as long as it took for the Waffle Maker to heat up).

Use about a 1/2 cup of batter per waffle.

I'm going back to bread...

Ok folks, so this is it x2. I know that I just did a breaded recipe last week and I really have no excuse. Earlier I was in the process of getting a strudel put together (next post m'peeps!) when *Alas* I discovered that I had no onions. Not anything terrible right... just go out and get one for God's sake! EXCEPT that it's nasty raining outside and I had just gotten back from being out in it and I had determined that I was not going out in it again. SO... it's not happenin' tonight! Left with some chicken and dying Buttermilk, I thought of this little gem that I pull out far less often than I should. Admittedly, I do find that McDonalds has kind of wrecked breaded chicken for me (and this recipe tastes nothing like their 'chicken nuggets' so don't even try that argument on your kids - it doesn't work) because it's so unpleasant. Maybe if I make this more often breaded chicken will become elevated to something almost noble... something to aspire to.

The chips were an after thought. The two go together well and the kids like it. Plus, because they are baked in the oven with a small amount of olive oil AND I leave the potato skins on, it's actually quite nutritious. Really though, it's beyond easy AND this also tastes WAYYYY better than the other 'french fries' that 'you-know-who' gives you (I don't know why I'm raggin' on Ronald tonight).

We thoroughly enjoyed our little pub food at home, although my 9 yr old and I agreed that the breaded chicken needed a little more salt (which I've adjusted in the recipe below) and my 3 yr old wouldn't even have any!!! He'll learn.

Breaded Chicken Strips
(serves 4 easily)

5 med. sized boneless chicken breasts (I actually used a combo of 2 breasts and some boneless thighs as well - the meat is a little more moist)
Buttermilk (enough to cover the chicken once it's cut up)
2 1/2 cups of bread or cracker crumbs
1/2 cup of oatmeal (yes peeps)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds (could use just about anything here)
1/3 cup mixed nuts
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
2 tbsp of lemon or orange zest (I used orange tonight)
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 - 1 1/2 cup flour

Cut up chicken in strips and marinate in the buttermilk for at least a half hour (you could do this overnight if you like)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Get a baking sheet ready, sprinkled with cornmeal (keeps things from sticking).
Mix the crackers, oatmeal, seeds and nuts in a blender until they are all of a similar consistency that's appropriate for breading. Pour into a shallow bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients in.
In another bowl beat the eggs until yolks are blended in. In a third bowl place the flour.
Take each piece of chicken and first dip it entirely in the flour until covered then in the egg mixture until covered and finally in the breading mixture until covered. Place on the baking sheet and repeat until the chicken is done.
Bake the chicken for about 30 min. until edges are crispy.

Oven Chips
(serves 4)

4 - 6 potatoes cut into strips (or however you like your french fries)
olive oil
coarse salt

I've done away with the pre-boiling unless I just don't have much time at all.

If you want to pre-boil. Place the cut potatoes in boiling water for a maximum of 5 min (they absolutely can't get mushy at all). Remove from boiling water and dry off ( I just use a dish towel).

Otherwise, place the uncooked potatoes on a baking sheet. Pour olive oil over top (let's say a 1/4 cup or so) and mix around so that all the potato strips are covered. Sprinkle with salt. Bake for 15 min. Remove from oven and turn things over a bit and bake for another 10 min or so. Once they are out of the oven, sprinkle with a little more salt.

People, you could make a quick plum sauce for the chicken, it's not something that we are in the habit of doing here but it would be a really nice addition. I'm not into all the additional additive crap in the store bought stuff but if you find something good and organic - go for it!!!

A Lotta Balls in the air

There is always that one meal that you reserve for when guests come over. That one thing that your kids request for their birthday meal over and over again. It's labour intensive (well minimally) but it's always so worth it. And you've found ways over time to make it less laboured. For our family that meal is Sweet and Sour Meatballs. This stuff almost tops dessert for us!

I got this recipe from another former roommate of mine in Montreal, Pat Lytle. I don't know where she is now - last I heard she was in the Ottawa area - and I'm sorry that we've gotten out of touch. However, this means that ultimately I have no clue where she got the recipe. It's a classic really. The recipe she used called for making the meatballs and then frying them all. Trust me, this is a time consuming and dirty endeavour. I've tweaked things a bit. I discovered that it's much easier if I make the meatballs and place them on a baking sheet,baking

them until they are just cooked through. When I discovered how well this worked it was like the heavens opened. I no longer had to wait for a day when I had nothing else to do but stand over a stove and get greased... meatballs could now happen anytime! Awesome.

I love to have this with buttered egg noodles and some kind of steamed vegetable but my husband loves it with rice and my kids really don't care... they just like it. This stuff is ol' skool peeps - we use ketchup in this one and I'm not apologising for it. The ketchup makes the recipe, completes it ;-) I also use Crix. These are THE BEST crackers in the world bar none. They are made in Trinidad and nowhere else AND we've been known to bring back kilo's of them on the plane... that was before we realised that we could get them here!!! Now they are available even at regular old Loblaws! Awesome... try them, you won't be disappointed.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

makes about 30 meatballs

Meat:
about 1.5 kilo's of ground beef -what's the conversion on that? just under 3 lbs?
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (I used Crix)
1/2 an onion chopped fine
3 cloves garlic crushed
1 egg
1 or 2 packets of beef bouillion
1 tbsp dried parsley and oregano (or any mixture that you feel like that day - get crazy!)
1 tbsp pepper sauce (you know that I never miss an opportunity)
1 tsp salt

Sauce:

2 - 2 1/2 cups of ketchup
1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup of white vinegar (yes, the plain old white vinegar kind - the same stuff you can clean your house with!)
2 tbsp mustard powder (to be honest, I've used regular dijon and it works just fine)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp pepper sauce or 1/4 tsp cayenne powder
2 cups of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Get a large baking dish or even a cookie sheet ready for the meatballs. In a large bowl put all the meat ingredients. Get ready now and roll up those sleeves because you need to get your hands in there and mix it all together. - I guess that you could wear rubber gloves if you were totally grossed out, but please! It's actually fun, like getting caught in the rain. Sure, you get soaked but it's a lot of fun in the process - just lose yourself in the gooey moment. Once all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed, start rolling them into little balls. I tend to do rather big ones but think about 1 1/2 tbsp size. Place each meatball in the baking dish. Once the dish is filled (if you need more than one dish, no worries) place it in the oven for about 30 min (might need less time if you've made small balls).

In the meantime, mix all the sauce ingredients (save the water) in a large mixing bowl. Be sure to taste this stuff to make sure things are to your liking. Also, remember that it is going to be watered down a little bit so if it's too strong adjust accordingly.

Once the meatballs are done, take them out of the oven (you could at this point cool the meatballs and freeze them for later use!) and place them in a baking dish large enough to hold them and also the sauce. Pour the sauce over the meatballs and then add enough of the water to cover everything. (I also save any leftover water just in case the sauce thickens too much the next day) Bake everything for another half hour or until everything is looking adequately bubbly.

As I said earlier, this works well with egg noodles, rice or even mashed potato. I also like to add some kind of green vegetable (nobody eats raw leaves here so the salad idea is out for me but would be great here on the side). As you can see from the pic, I've simply roasted some Aspargus (literally take the ends off the asparagus throw them onto a shallow baking dish, put about 2 tbsp of olive oil or butter - melted - over top and sprinkle with coarse salt. Roast for 10 min. at 350 degrees F) The dish also makes for great leftovers... Oh yeah... AND it will really impress your guests (provided they aren't vegetarian...then, maybe not so impressed! They'll like the asparagus though)

We'll be Blue without You!

We've had a house guest for the past few weeks. She has been the easiest house guest ever. She didn't ask to be fed (although we tried), bathed, taken anywhere, she didn't complain when the house was a mess (and that's sayin' something!) or when we forgot and left her at home by herself. In short, the BEST.

Flat J, as we've come to call her, is part of a class project that my Gr. 1 neice is doing in Calgary. It's based on the book called Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown. Every kid in the class sends out a flat version of themselves to some friend or family in another town and the recipients treat the paper version like it's a house guest, tourist. Well, it's time now for us to say 'Goodbye' to our Bestest Guest. So, I decided to bake a cake in honour of her flying away (via Canada Post tomorrow a.m.). Since we will miss her and we'll be 'blue' when she is gone, we thought that something with blueberries would be best (plus I had them on the cusp of rotting in the fridge! AND I'd had my eye on this recipe for a while now).

This recipe for blueberry coffee cake originally came from by newly beloved 'Magnolia Bakery Cookbook'. I love the simplicity of the Blueberry coffee cake thing but I've got some dying lemons that need using. 'Hmmm', I think. Can I add some lemony crap to this? Well folks we're gonna try. I discovered that there isn't a lot out there (in internet land) that combine these two flavours. Is it because they suck together? Anyway, to Flat J, the Real J and her Gr 1 class... this is for you!

Blueberry/Lemon Coffee Cake

(inspired by The Complete Magnolia Cookbook)

2 cups all-purpose flour (unbleached)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup vegetable oil (preferably canola which is what I used)

2 lg eggs (it says at room temp. I didn't do that so we'll see what we get!)

1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest grated

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup blueberries, lightly coated with flour

Glaze:

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla (if using the cream)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

Grease and flour a Tube Pan.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt togethe r in a small bowl (Mmmk - I totally missed the sifting part when I was doing this - let's see how it goes).

In a large bowl mix together the oil, sugar and eggs until light and thick (about 3 min if using an electric gadget and if not - just do it 'til it feels well mixed and light).

Add dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla (which I mixed together) and beginning and ending with the flour.

I have to tell you here that the batter felt very wet at this point. I'm crossing my fingers that this turns out b/c it was disturbingly watery.

Fold in the blueberries. I also placed some additional blueberries in the bottom of the tube pan. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 60 - 70 min. Test and see if the tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 1 hr.

Glaze

Place a bowl over some lightly simmering water if you are using cream. Combine the sugar, cream and vanilla in the bowl over the water and blend until everything is creamy. Allow to cool slightly and drizzle over the cake.

If using Lemon juice: Warm the Lemon juice slight and blend with the sugar until everything is creamy. Cool just slightly and drizzle over the cake.

The cake came out beautifully, all my glitches notwithstanding and despite the weirdly watery batter.

We thoroughly enjoyed our little send-off. Flat J was thrilled and everyone shed a little tear before she got into her envelop. The cake topped topped the whole thing off. Thanks to Real J and to her class for involving us in such a fun project!!!

xoxo

This little Piggie goes all the way home.

It's meat weekend here. This event is unprecedented at our house. I still not really able to take in how much meat it is for me but... it's a lot. I 'catch a vapse' as the Trini's say. For some reason I just had to make this. I swear to God that I've never made Pork Chops before... today was the first. But, here they are smiling at me, so happy to be a part of my kitchen table. Not only did I make them but they kinda turned out ok.

It was at my Mother-in-law June's that I first had these chops. She was good enough to bring some dishes over for us after our second child was born to keep us going AND seasoned, breaded pork chops were in the mix. I loved them, it was much like good fried chicken - they taste just as good cold. When you can say that about a food you know you've got a 'keeper' on your hands.

I've kind of mixed things up with some of my own stuff and some of the ideas in the recipe at Smitten Kitchen. As you can see from the pictures, I served this with Risotto al Limone which has become my new favourite food ever! (It's really embarassing but I can't get enough! Creamy, cheesy, lemony... ahhhhhh, gotta go get another spoonful). I'm always afraid of these kinds of dishes turning out to be too dry. In the case of these chops however, I think that the initial bath in brine helps a little bit. The results here were as moist as I could have hoped for.

Seasoned Breaded Pork Chops

6 pork chops (mine were pretty big, if you have smaller ones then maybe go for 8)

large bowl or pot full of water and about 1/4 cup of salt.

2 cups of crumbs (could be cracker, I used a Matzoh-like cracker. Bread crumbs work well too)

1 cup of Corn flakes (this could be just about anything - think ground nuts, oatmeal flour, etc)

1/4 cup of parmesan

1 tbsp Parsley

1 tbsp Thyme

t tbsp dark brown sugar (yes, I used

sugar)

salt and pepper to taste

2 - 3 eggs

1 tbsp dijon mustard

1/2 - 3/4 cup flour

preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Get some trays ready on baking sheets, consider using something on each tray to help keep the meat from sticking.

Soak the meat in the brine (salted water) for about a half hour.
In the meanwhile, make sure that all the crumbs and corn flakes are similar in size and mix together in a bowl or shallow thing (don't know what to call it really!). Add the parmesan, spices, sugar and salt and pepper and mix together.

In another bowl mix the eggs and dijon together well. Put the flour in a third bowl.

Once meat has soaked, use a towel or something to dry each chop as much as possible. Dip each chop first into the flour, then the egg mixture and lastly the crumb mixture. Make sure to get both sides of the chop. Beware, this is the truly messy part of the process - your fingers will get really yucky no matter what... just accept it and move on!

Place each finished chop on the prepared trays and place in the heated oven (just make sure that the oven shelf is approximately in the middle of the oven - oops, should have mentioned that earlier). Place the meat in the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 min.

Let the meat rest for a few minutes before cutting.

I'm Waffling just a bit...

It came. I finally clicked my way completely through an Amazon order and it has already arrived. I could hardly wait to rip it open yesterday and open my new.... WAFFLE IRON!!! I know... isn't everyone supposed to get one when they get married? We did not. Although, since the wedding occurred almost 14 years ago I don't know if it would be doing me any good even if we had gotten one (just so that you don't feel we were complete cheated, you should know that we did receive a toaster).

I'm thrilled. The Waffle Iron has been sitting on the counter, ready to be used since yesterday. It's waiting patiently but I am not. I've already got my first recipe ready to go thanks to The Wednesday Chef. After much research, this one looks just interesting enough. I don't want to get too crazy with my first attempt AND I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to some things... pancakes and waffles are just those kinds of things (and chocolate too, but that's another story). I have the strawberries all ready to go and could even whip up some cream if it seems like that 'should' happen with the waffles.

We've all got our friday off so the whole fam' is chomping at the bit to dig into some fresh waffles. I'm itching to see if I can make these things look like they do in all the pictures! Fingers crossed....

Waffles with Maple Syrup

via The Wednesday Chef via julia Moskins

2 eggs

1 3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tbsp brown sugar (it calls for light but I only had dark brown sugar and

it worked fine)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt (I use sea salt)

butter for the grill (although it says that mine doesn't need any)

Heat grill.

In a bowl mix together all the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and set the bowl aside.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, buttermilk and melted butter together and add to the dry ingredients. Whisk until smooth. Allow the batter to rest for a few minutes before cooking (I actually waited to heat up the grill until the batter was mixed and that waiting time for the grill to heat up was also my waiting time for the batter - perfect).

Ladle about a 1/3 of a cup of the mixture onto the heated grill and cook until golden. (This waffle iron literally beeps when the waffle is ready - how great is that???)

I served mine with Maple Syrup (really it has to be Maple Syrup - table syrup is just not ever the same) and strawberries for those that wanted.

People really!! Why did no one ever tell me that this stuff was absolutely divine. This beats the H#%* out of pancakes... light, airy, these things absolutely melted in our mouths AND the waffle maker made it pretty much pain free. I'm hooked, totally hooked!!!!!

Yeah for fridays off!!!!

A Not-so-Tart Tart

Ahhhhh (long sigh). This is what I love. I quiet day, the smells of baking through the house. The sound of the washing machine getting the clothing ready for the week. Kids getting ready for bed. And something lovely (hopefully) ready to be eaten when the kids are in bed and Derek and I can have a few quiet moments before the flurry of the week (which reminds me... I have to send out an email pronto!)

I've been eyeing a Rustic Vegetable Tart recipe for a while now but when Sweet Mary posted this gem yesterday I knew I had to give it a go. I've worked with puff pastry before (although, I've never made my own and as long as Tenderflake is out there I don't intend to) so I know that it's easy and yields impressive results.

I'll admit that given the other stuff on my 'to-do' list today I was rushing through this a bit and I would give it more time in future and take a little more care. However, I made sure that I used ingredients that wouldn't need much TLC to taste good.

I think that this little gem would make great appetizers if friends were coming for dinner or you were hosting a party. There are endless possibilities for this recipe. Heck, I might even try a pastry puff pizza - why not. I went a little uptown with this one today and made Smoked Salmon and Goat Cheese the star of this show although there are plenty of grilled veggies to balance out the richness. At the end of the day, Derek and I enjoyed nibbling on this while quietly gearing up for our crazy week ahead.

Wanda's version of the Savoury Tart:

Tart with Goat cheese and Smoked Salmon

1 pkg of puff pastry (I used Tenderflake)

1 sm. pkg of goat cheese

6 or so slices of smoked salmon (I cut each big slice down to small pieces)

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

5 thin slices of Havarti (got some at the market yesterday and I had to sneak it in)

1/2 - 3/4 of a zucchini (depending of the size), sliced on the thin side

1/2 - 3/4 of an eggplant also sliced on the thin side

1/2 an onion, sliced thinly

1 - 2 cloves of garlic, crushed

olive oil and butter as needed

salt and pepper to taste

handful or two of julienned basil leaves (slice them nice and thin) to sprinkle on at the end

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare two cookie sheets (or any flat surface) with a little bit of cornmeal sprinkled so that the pastry doesn't stick.

Heat a large pan (I used a large caste iron frying pan). Once heated, add the olive oil and/or butter (I used a mixture of both - butter tastes really good in this recipe) and add the zucchini and eggplant, lying each flat so that they can grill. Watch closely for when they are ready to turn over.

Once both sides of each veggie slice is grilled well (honestly, if you just sauteed the stuff it would probably work just as well and possibly not be as tedious) remove from the pan and add the onions, add more oil if needed. After a couple of minutes add the garlic. Once limp and looking a little caramelized remove from the pan and take the pan off the heat.

Roll out the puff pastry until it's about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch thick. place on prepared oven sheet. I made two separate tarts (because the pastry was divided in two - no other reason) but you could easily make it into one big tart. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese leaving an edge of about an inch. Add the veggies on top, spreading things out nicely. Add the smoked salmon, spreading the pieces around generously and repeat with the Goat cheese and the Havarti. Finish with salt if needed and the basil sprinkled over the top.

Here you have a choice. You can leave the edges flat as is or fold them up (as I have done in the pictures) to get a bit of a walled edge. Completely depends on how you're feeling that day and makes no difference to the recipe at all! (Nice eh?!)

Bake for about 20 min (if it doesn't look done give it a few more minutes but keep an eye on it. Don't despair if it looks like it's getting a big bump in it, that will settle back down once it's out of the oven. Once baked, let it cool slightly before cutting and then dig into this flakey crust and enjoy each morsel!