Rice Krispie Clumps

I woke up at 03:00.  I slept through new year's day, all 24 hours of it.  It never existed.  I didn't even stay out that late the night before.  I guess I was tired, more so than usual.  Some people being the superstitious sort might say this was a bad omen to start off the new year like this.  A pattern will emerge and continue throughout the year.  Luckily I'm not the superstitious type.  I just enjoyed a good sleep.

It wasn't like I had big plans for the day or had to work.  Actually I had absolutely no plans. No plans at all.  If my blog in any indication the first few days of January are generally pretty dull and non-eventful.  Could be the winter blahs as I push off depression.

The main highlight of the day was to venture out and buy groceries. Yes, not that exciting, baby steps and all that.  I went out to go outside and to acquire the ingredients to make rice krispie clumps™.

The goal was completed, the day was a success!  Maybe doing small goals like this is a good start to the year?  Uh, yay me!


Rice Krispie Clumps™



Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups of marshmallows
• 3 cups of Rice Krispies

Directions

1. Melt butter in pot on low heat.
2.  Add marshmallows.
3. Stir until marshmallow butter mixtures is smooth and consistent.
4. Add Rice Krispies.
5.  Stir until rice krispies are evenly coated.
6. Transfer contents of pot into a casserole dish.
7. Let cool.  Eat.

At least the Chili smells good

Chili in a jar

Ever have one of those days where you get a choice between two or more doors, you pick one thinking it's the right one, then as you start to walk through it slams in your face?..  hard.  Life is like the "Let's make a Deal" game show, you get options, you choose and then for better or worse you live with the consequences.

That happened to me today. The door of life whacking me in the face that is. I had gotten three job offers, all of which started today. The job (or door) I picked would go until September, it was with a crew I liked working with, so it seemed like the obvious choice of the three. As it turned out the obvious choice isn't always the best choice as my job ended about five hours in. My boss called me into his office to say they had hired someone else to replace me. (Insert door slamming sound here)

While a bit saddened by the lost of a potential six month gig with a great film crew and a gig that could have potentially put me back to a healthier financial standing there was a part of me that felt relief as there usually is when a great responsibility is taken off one's shoulders.

After being told I was being replaced, I finished up what I had to do, sent off an email to the guy replacing me to bring him up to speed and went home. I think I felt more stunned than anything else as I've never lost a job in this fashion ever. I take my work pretty seriously which is why this seemed so out of left field.

Before leaving for work I had started a batch of chili in the slow cooker. It was the first thing to greet me at home and wow, did it smell good. Here's the recipe...

Basic Meat Chili

ingredients

• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 can of chickpeas (540ml, 19 fl oz)
• 2 cans of red kidney beans (540ml, 19 fl oz)
• 1 can of crushed or diced tomatoes (796ml, 28 fl oz)
• 4 tablespoons of crushed red pepper (or less if you're wimpy about hot spices)

directions

1. chop carrots, onions and bell pepper and place into slow cooker.
2. add crushed chili pepper and meat
3. add cans of beans (including water), chickpeas(including water), and tomatoes
4. stir
5. turn slow cooker on and let cook for at least 8 hours

While losing the job was kind of like being punched in the gut, I have to remember that just because things don't work out there are positive things that can still happen. Looking at the bright side, the first item to list in the "Hooray" column was that I wouldn't have to commute two hours every morning and two to three hours at night to return home. Yes, three hours! this was because the Mississauga transit doesn't run after midnight and depending on how late work went, the subway stops running, meaning I would have to walk and take the alternative night bus routes. While I did do this all last season when I wasn't mooching a ride from some crew member that felt sorry for me I can say without blinking that I did not enjoy the commute home. The mooching part while in good company was just that mooching. I hate leeching. The longest it took to get back home and to bed was three and a half hours. So yay, no commuting.

I also have to remember back to the time I didn't get work on Total Recall (the film). Had I gotten that job I would not have been free to work in Boston for five glorious months and I would have never met the amazing crew of R.I.P.D., never would have met Jeff Bridges, Kevin Bacon, or Kevin Bacon's dog. I would not be able to say I worked along side some of the amazing guys at Rhythm & Hues on one of their last movies or be reunited with the guys at Image Engine. It is something I will remember for years. Those guys at R&H by the way, Derek, Jeff, Adam were all great to work with.

Other things like experiencing my first Black Friday shopping experience, exploring the Freedom Trail, seeing the U.S.S Constitution, and the rest of Boston with it's history, culture, and food. Yes, the food, from the almost extinct Hostess Twinkie, to the lobster tail filled cream puffs at Mike's Pastry, to the best Clam Chowder at Cheers (I know, who would have guessed). All this because I didn't get hired to work on Recall.

So, Let's see what's behind door number two...

Pickled Eggs

Pickled eggs in a jar

ingredients

• vinegar (enough to fill jar)
• eggs (as many as you want that can fill jar)
• cloves (1 tablespoon)
• peppercorn (1 table spoon)
• chili pepper (1 table spoon)
• bay leaf (1 leaf)

Step 1: make the pickle mixture

• pour 1/2 of vinegar in jar, add cloves, peppercorn, chili pepper, and bay leaf. 
• Close jar with lid and shake to mix.
• Let sit.

Step 2: make hard boiled eggs.

• fill pot with water, add eggs
• place on stove until water boils.
• once water boils move pot off hot element and wait 18 minutes (the eggs will still be cooking)
• after 18 minutes cool eggs off by running cold water into pot replacing any hot water
• peel eggs
• poke eggs with a fork (to let pickle mixture seep into eggs)

Remember to poke your eggs

Step 3: Combine ingredients

• place unshelled eggs into jar with pickle mixture.
• add more vinegar to top off jar
• close lid
• shake
• place in refrigerator for 48 hours

Eggs will keep in the fridge for about a month.  To help me keep track of the eggs, especially if I make multiple jars, I use a dry erase marker to write the date on the jar so I know how long the eggs have been in the fridge.  If you look in the fridge and see a jar of black goo chances are the eggs have gone bad.  I highly recommend opening the jar (if you have to open it) outside as it'll stink pretty badly.  Remember due dates on containers are there for a reason.

Chestnuts roasting on an oven fire

Roasted chestnut

So you've heard the song that starts off "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." and maybe you're even  fortunate enough to live in a city that has a vendor that sells roasted chestnuts (like Boston, MA) but if you don't and you want to try sampling them yourself then this blog entry is for you.

First getting the chestnuts.

When shopping for chestnuts look to make sure they are not brittle.  Chestnuts that are brittle usually mean they've been sitting on the shelf a little too long.  The moisture that was in them has all dried up.  Buying chestnuts of this quality will result in a hardened, possibly blackened, inside turd and will definitely make you think that eating chestnuts is a sham if it's your first try.

If you squeeze the chestnut (at the store) and it breaks then it's brittle and really old.  You can also tell by the sheen on the chestnut.  As the chestnut ages it will get more dull looking.  As a novice chestnut eater you may not notice anything but over time this will become more apparent.

Ingredients
chestnuts (as many as you would like)

Directions

1. preheat oven to 350° F
2. cut each chestnut so there's a score that breaks the outer shell (this will prevent the chestnut from exploding while cooking) Also if you make an X it'll make breaking the shell easier after it's cooked.
3. place the chestnuts on a cooking sheet and place in oven.
4. cook for 50 minutes

Results
After cooking the shell should be brittle and should be able to crack easily simply by squeezing the chestnut.  You might want to wear oven mitts if the chestnut is fresh out of the oven as it will be hot (duh).  The shell may or may not come off easily but it should be brittle.

eat the yummy insides.


Additional notes:
There is a chestnut cutter that exists.  It makes it easier to cut the chestnuts and is great if you want to reduce the risk of cutting yourself with a knife.  I'm not talking about that old barbaric hooked blade that old italian ladies use, I'm talking about the scissor like blade on one side, chestnut scoop on the other.


Chestnut Cutter

You can buy this plastic one here (http://www.myitaliancantina.com/collections/frontpage/products/snips-chestnut-cutter).

There's a more impressive looking one here (http://www.chestnutter.com/). If you buy one tell them Bagelhot sent you, not because they know who I am or that you'll get a discount, but just because it'll make me laugh to think of these confused people wondering who Bagelhot is.  If you make a good product I'll endorse it (especially food gadgets).

Trivia:
chestnuts are gluten free.


I would like to thank Mike Zanette for passing on this information and for introducing me to eating these things way back in the Walmer apartment days.  I can still picture him burning his figures because he couldn't wait for the chestnuts to cool down once he took them out of the oven, hence the inclusion to this blog entry of the tip on using of oven mitts.

Grilled Cheese

Rye bread, Hollandia cheese, onion, and tomato

It's taken about two weeks for me to settle back in the Toronto apartment. Settle in equates to get rid of unknown stuff in refrigerator, replace with new food. I'm not sure why but I've had the idea of eating grilled cheese sandwiches implanted in my head.

I suppose that's why I went out and purchased some good cheese.

Grilled cheese sandwich

Ingredients

• Rye bread
• Hollandia cheese
• Tomato
• Onion

Directions

• On a frying pan place one slice of rye bread.
• Cut cheese into slices. Place slices of cheese onto bread on frying pan. Cover bread but leave space for cheese to melt without leaking off of bread slice (half a centimeter).
• slice tomato. Place slices on cheese.
• Dice the onion. Place onion on tomato.
• Cover onion, tomato and cheese with another slice of rye bread.
• Heat frying pan until cheese melts.

Congee reversed engineered

Congee version 1.0

While in Boston I spent about 4 months without a kitchen before moving into Patrick's luxurious kitchen equipped apartment to take care of the dog Phoebe (see previous fat dog posts). It was during this great stay at the apartment that I had time to go out to the nearby Macy's and pick up a slow cooker for a mere $17 bucks.

Kitchenware can be pretty inexpensive in the US and at the same time it can be difficult to find a single food storage container (for sale by itself as opposed to buying the mega value pack where you get more than 10 containers at once), or oven mitts made of fabric.

Anyhooo... The last couple of weeks I'd been going to Vinh Sun, a restaurant in Boston's china town specifically to have their congee. This leads us to making congee at home in a slow cooker because sometimes we're just too lazy to go out in the cold and eat it in a restaurant.

So after a few sampling visits to Vinh Sun, I made mental notes as to the taste and consistency of the congee and thanks to multiple tries of making the stuff at the apartment (more than you really want to read about) I am presenting my findings here.

Congee (version 1.0)

Equipment

• slow cooker
• large bowl or food bin that can hold slow cooker contents
• pot
• knife to cut ginger
• cutting board (depending on how barbaric you are you may not need this)
  

Ingredients

• 1 cup of uncooked rice
• 10 cups of water
• 1/4 cup rice wine
• 3 celery sticks
• 1 clump of ginger

optional

• chopped green onions
• crushed peanuts

Rice (you only need one cup for this recipe)

Celery sticks


Rice wine


Clump of ginger

Directions

1. pour the rice wine, rice and water into the slow cooker.
2. Add the celery sticks
3. take the ginger, peel it, then chop the innards into fine thin strands, add to slow cooker.
4. place the slow cooker on low and cook for eight to 10 hours
5. let cool
6. remove celery (the celery has done it's job by adding salt to the mix; you can eat the celery or throw it out. I suggest not throwing it out; why be wasteful? Where's the fat dog when you need her?)
7. pour the remaining goop into a food bin or a large bowl that you can put into the refrigerator.
8. leave in refrigerator overnight.
9. The next day you'll notice a layer of water over the congee. Pour the water out.
   
10. from the bin/bowl scoop out the portion you want to eat a place in a pot.
11. heat pot until glob portion becomes more liquid like
12. pour into a bowl, add chopped green onion or crushed peanuts.
13. eat
    

"Wait! Why not just eat the congee from the slow cooker? Why do I have to put it in the fridge and reheat wasting time and energy?"
As I mentioned before I went through a number of variations at the apartment. The reason you put the congee in the refrigerator is to let the water separate from the congee making the congee less watery. You're welcome.

You''ll note that this congee recipe has no meat. To add meat (chicken, egg, pork, beef, whatever) you can cook it separately then add to the congee when reheating (step 11).

As I get more data on congee making I'll update the recipe for version 2.0 but for now make some congee and enjoy it. Maybe even share it with the dog...


Phoebe gives me the guilty eyes as I eat the congee.


To remedy this I take her for a walk


We end up at the Loews theatre near the park. N42° 21.187' W71° 3.871'


Not wanting to walk back to the apartment I take Phoebe on the 'T'. N42° 21.182' W71° 3.850'


Here we are on the GREEN line heading toward Lechmere (and the apartment) N42° 22.131' W71° 4.313'


Outside the apartment we wonder around a bit. N42° 22.285' W71° 4.466'

Go for Tuna

Mushroom broccoli tuna casserole

Last night I made a tuna casserole based on a recipe that I picked up in college. (Translation: It's fast and simple.) You can use whatever cheese you like. For today's ensemble I used Oka cheese from Quebec. I picked some up at the cheese store the other day. Last time I made this dish I used holandia, before that cheddar. If you're lactose intolerant you can forgo the cheese altogether.


gear

• pot
• casserole dish

ingredients

2 cups of uncooked macaroni
half a pot of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (optional)

2 cans of campbell's mushroom soup
1 branch of broccoli
1 onion
1 cup of grated cheese
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
1 can of tuna


directions

1. add salt and oil into pot of water and bring to a boil.
2. add macaroni to water, turn down heat and stir.
3. when macaroni is soft empty water then pout the macaroni into casserole dish.
4. cut up broccoli and onion into bite sized pieces.
5. add broccoli, onion, grated cheese, tuna, mushrooms, and mushroom soup to casserole dish and mix with macaroni until everything is evenly distributed.
   
6. cover casserole dish and place in oven for 30 minutes at 400° C
7. take casserole dish out to cool, then serve.

Nuke Someone Happy

It's a far cry from one of those little cakes that your cousin made for you as a kid using a device that harnesses the immense power of a 100 watt light bulb but it is quicker. It's the microwavable chocolate mug brownie and there's a recipe floating around the ether of the internet.

One of my facebook friends had a scanned image of the directions on making this concoction. Was it real, would it taste okay, would it even be edible? Thanks to me, the "I'll try any food at least once guinea pig", this blog entry will not only tell you how to make one yourself but will then rate this uber quick dessert.

ingredients

4 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of coca
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla


directions

1. pour ingredients into a mug and mix until smooth.
2. put in microwave.
3. set on high and nuke for 3 minutes.
4. when done take mug out of microwave, let mug cool, then eat.

Note: if the ingredients aren't mixed thoroughly there will be a bunch of crud on the bottom of the mug. To get around this you can mix the ingredients in a separate small bowl then pour into mug.


Critique

I would describe the resulting food as a dense chocolate sponge cake rather than a brownie. For the time it takes to make the "brownie", under 10 minutes if you have all the ingredients, it's not bad. Overall I would rate this as awesome college food right up there with instant cake mix. Not terribly great but not bad if you're in a rush to make something to squash a cake fix. With the world going GREEN is it even possible to get a 100watt light bulb anymore?

Pirogie Night in Canada

My first homemade perogie.

I've been craving perogies (pirogies) for the last little while. I saw a sign that had "Pirogie Night in Canada" on it a while ago and for the life of me can't seem to find the photo I took of it. But obviously it stuck and it got me to research various perogie recipes online. After a bit of experimenting, the recipe below is what I've come up with.

When broken down the perogie is basically mashed potato in a dough wrapper. You can buy them at a grocery store for only a few dollars a bag. Should you be located in the world where these things don't come easily, or you want to make them yourself from scratch to fully appreciate them read on for my recipe in this blog entry.

The last few days I've been perfecting my technique on the creation of pirogies. This got me out today looking for a cookie cutter that would allow me to cut dough to the size of a dumping mold I got a few years ago.

NOTE: You don't need a dumpling mold or a specific cookie cutter.

You can use a cup or glass as the cookie cutter and your hands to fold the dough wrapper. However, since I'm a fan of food automation and like the idea that making food can take less time than actually eating the food I use a cookie cutter and mold. Part of that could also be that I just like kitchen gadgets.


The dumpling mold and the cookie cutter.

To help avoid confusion I've broken down my recipe into two sections, the wrapper dough and the filling. When shopping for ingredients make sure you look at both lists otherwise you may forget some food items and have to go out again.

Also it helps to have some kind of automated mixer perhaps with a J hook specifically for dough. You can mix with a wooden spoon in a bowl but it'll take some work.

Gear Used

• frying pan (for onions, and cooking pirogies)
• pot (that can hold at least 5 potatoes, for cooking potatoes and/or boiling perogies)
• mixing bowl (for making dough)
• bowl (for holding cheese, can later be used to hold mashed potato mixture)
• container (for refrigerating dough)
• container (for made dumplings)
• mixer (for dough) or wooden spoon
• knife (for cutting potatoes, cheese)
• measuring cup
• cheese shredder
• cutting board
• cookie cutter
• dumpling mold

The Wrapper: Ingredients

• 4 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of sour cream

Directions

cut up the 1/2 cup of butter into small chunks
place all ingredients in bowl and mix.
Place dough mixture into the refrigerator to let butter harden (could be 30 minutes or over night or while you are making the filling).


The results of the mixed ingredients should look something like this


The Filling: Ingredients

• 5 potatoes
• 2 onions
• 1/2 cup of cheese (does not have to be cheddar)
• 2 tablespoons of butter (or to taste)

Directions

take cheese and shred into a bowl.

cut up the onions.
place in a frying pan with butter.
cook until onions are translucent.

Wash potatoes, peel them, then chop them up into small cubes (1 cm cubed is good).
Place in pot, add water so the potato cubes are submerged.
Place on stove and cook until potatoes become soft.
Drain out water.
Mash potatoes.

add the bowl of cheese and the frying pan of onions.
mix on low heat until cheese is melted.


Altogether now


Cutting the dumpling wrapper.

Take the wrapper dough out of the refrigerator.
Use a rolling pin to flatten. If dough is sticking to everything lightly add more flour to surface of dough.
Cut out dough circles using the cookie cutter (or cup).
Place a teaspoon (or approx 1 inch ball) of filling into wrapper and seal.
Repeat until you're out of filling or wrapper dough.


You should get something like this.


The time consuming part is now done. Now the easy part, the cooking of the perogies. There are two methods.

Method 1: Boiling

The first method is to boil the perogies in water. You know when they're done when they float up to the surface. I have not actually done this so you're on your own here.

Method 2: Pan Fry



I love crunchy food so this is the cooking method I've selected. Add butter to the frying pan until it's melted, then add the perogies until they're brown on both sides. (it took about 7 minutes per side on my stove top). You'll note that the perogie side being cooked becomes hard (but not black) and crunchy when it's done. When it is, flip over and repeat until the other side is the same.


Eating

I like sour cream on my perogies with chopped chives maybe even bacon and more fried onions. I've also eaten them with mayonnaise when there was no sour cream to be found. I realize this borderlines eating like a college student, but you've got to do what you've got to do.

Bacon Lettuce Tomato

Woke up this morning and realized I had the ingredients for making one of my favourite sandwiches, The B.L.T. Where B is for bacon not bread (I saw this in a movie or TV show somewhere; the B for bread).

It's a rare time when I have tomatoes sitting around... anyhoo... Here is how to make my sandwich "properly".

ingredients

• bread slices x 2
  
• bacon lots of it (at least four times the surface area of the bread, bacon shrinks when cooked)
• lettuce (fresh and crispy, the iceberg kind - yes probably zero nutritional value but yay in the crunch department)
• mayonnaise (personally I like Miracle Whip but that's me)

directions

1. place bacon in pan, cook on stove (medium heat until crispy, must be crispy but not black)
2. once cooked place bacon on paper towel on a plate to dry and lose some of the fatty oil.
   
3. toast bread slices (in toaster or non bacon greasy pan)
4. place a toasted bread slice on plate
5. place lettuce on bread slice
6. slice tomato so you have enough slices to cover lettuce and slice of bread.
7. add mayonnaise
8. add bacon
   
9. place other toasted slice on top... viola!
   

Note: it is important to place lettuce on the bread first before the tomato slices as it'll keep the bread from absorbing the moisture of the tomato. The mayonnaise will hold the bacon in place before adding the other slice of bread.

Do not let sit. Serve and eat. It's important to have the bread be dry and crunchy.

Pork chop express

A long ramp into the No Frills

The high light of the day was going to the no frills grocery store and buying a 3.5 pound picnic slab of pork for $4.75. For under the price of a Big Mac I could stuff my face with a large hunk of pork. A pork roast wouldn't be complete without apple sauce. I bought four apples (they were from the States). I generally like to buy Ontario apples to support our farmers but the no frills didn't have any.


The cooked pork slab with apples underneath.

To cook pork whey say to bake it at 350F for 20-30 minutes per pound. So if you have a pork piece that's 3.5 pounds, you'll want to cook it for 1 hour and 45 minutes approx. I cooked mine at 400F for two hours just to be safe. You can check here at the Ontario Pork site.

To keep the pork juicy I kept the lid on for the entire time in the oven. You don't have to add crazy amounts of spices to pork to have it taste amazing. But you don't want it dry and cooking without a lid and without basting on a regular basis would do that.

Basic Pork Recipe

ingredients

3.5 pound pork roast
4 apples

directions

cut up apples into slices, getting rid of cores, line baking pan with apples.
place pork on to apples.
cook at 400F for two hours (or whatever time is specific to your pork weight - see Ontario Pork site).

Take out of oven serve with mashed potatoes or rice or nothing.

That was pretty simple huh?

Rice Crispex Squares

Ingredients

• 4 cups Rice Krispies cereal
• 2 cups Crispex cereal
• 250 gram bag of mini marsh mallows
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/4 cup of butter

Directions

1. melt butter in pot until liquid
2. add marsh mallows
3. add vanilla
4. stir marsh mallows until uniformly melted
5. add cereal, careful not to crush, by stirring into marsh mallow goo
6. turn off heat
7. pour mixture into glass tray
8. spread around so that it's even
9. let cool

Additional notes

You can pretty much use 6 cups of any type of cereal you want. Originally this recipe called for just Rice Krispies. Since I like Crispix I replaced two cups of the Rice Krispies with the Crispix.

Additonal additional notes
I was going for the sci-fi, X-files look with the above photo. The space age food container and lab like lighting. While the food may not look as appetizing with the dramatic sci-fi lighting, it is tasty. Especially just out of the pot. Trust me on this.

Off to get cheese but found Ginger

Ginger St. James shows her bandaged finger

There's not a lot to do while waiting for a computer to crunch through a bunch of numbers. I decided today I would make macaroni and cheese for dinner. Only the cheese I have is that cheap cheese that you get at the local grocery store. If you're going to use that cheese you might as well just make a box of Kraft dinner.

I've been a bit obsessed these last few weeks into making food from scratch (more or less). Common food that you can get in a frozen food section of your local grocery store or in today's case, from a box.

Living near Kensington means living near Global Cheese and Cheese Magic two really great places to get real cheese. The cheese with the real fattening flavours not that processed cheese that has plastics added to it to make it go further or last longer. It just seems wrong. Kind of like having a chocolate bar that tastes waxy. We'll save the chocolate bar blurb for another blog entry.


Ginger and Teddy

And so, with the computer on auto I ventured out in the afternoon to get some cheese. Maybe even take some photos. I was walking past Sneaky Dees at College and Bathurst and noticed, after doing a double take, that some one inside was smiling at me.

It was Ginger, who normally, I associate as someone who lives in Hamilton. She shows up at the occasional derby bout to sing the National Anthem. If you have not heard her sing you should see if you can get out and hear her. She may be petite but she's got a big voice.

I joined her and Teddy for a few minutes, chatted, then continued on my way to the cheese store.


Global Cheese in Kensington Market

I bought about $15 dollars of Hollandia and Smoked Hunter (currently my favourite cheese these days), went back home and started cooking and Macaroni and Cheese. What follows is the recipe I used.


Macaroni and Cheese in a casserole dish

Macaroni and Cheese

ingredients

• 2 cups of macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 2 cups Hollandia cheese, shredded
• 1 cup Smoked Hunter cheese, shredded
• 1 branch of broccoli, chopped
• 2 onions, chopped

directions

1. cook macaroni
2. melt butter in a separate pot.
3. stir in flour (butter and flour will begin to clump)
4. stir in milk and whipping cream
5. while stirring, melt in cheese
6. add macaroni, broccoli, onions and cheese mixture into large casserole dish
7. mix
8. put into oven at 350° F for 20 minutes

I ended up eating about half the dish and had to lie down. It's quite filling.

Not a creature was stirring...

Old spoon (broken) and new spoon (not broken)

While making a crockpot full of chili I broke a wooden spoon in the attempt to stir said chili. This circumstance resulted in my going out to get a new, and hopefully more sturdy, wooden spoon.


Corn bread, bowl of non-meat chili, and pink lemonade

ingredients

• 1 can of spaghetti sauce
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tbs chili powder
• 1 tbs tabasco sauce
• 4 cups of hydrated beans
• 1 cup of TVP¹ "ground beef" before hydration
• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 celery branches, chopped

directions

1. hydrate TVP¹
2. throw ingredients into crockpot
3. cook in crockpot on low for 12 hours

The cornbread was made from the recipe that can be found in the Joy of Cooking. I multiplied the recipe by two and used the Baker's Secret petite loaf pan to make eight small loaves of corn bread.

---

¹ TVP = Textured Vegetable Protein

Easy as pie... chicken pot pe

The freshly made chicken pot pie ready to be eaten

For the last month I've had a seed planted in my head to make chicken pot pie. I've been looking around for recipes and in the end found one on epicurious.com that looked good. It had a three fork rating (out of four). Every dish I've picked to make off this site has given great results. Maybe it's just my luck with food.

Once the recipe was found the next step was to make sure I had the proper tools. By that I mean bakeware. Most chicken pot pie recipes that I found were of the single pie feed your whole family variety. I didn't want to make one big pie, I wanted to make individual sized pies en mass. This meant finding something to bake a bunch of pies in.

Whatever number of years ago when I used to go to the store to get frozen chicken or turkey pot pies as comfort food they were sized for one person. Sure you might eat more than one in a single meal but they were small pies. I couldn't and still can't imagine having a single big pie. It just seems wrong.

That said, eating chicken or turkey pot pies in pubs, I've noticed an ugly trend. The "pies" being served now tend to come out in a casserole dish. Instead of being surrounded by pie crust, it's got a single layer of pastry on the top and only on the top. Lame. Oh, so lame.

Today I was determined to make these individual pies.

The hard part was finding cookware that allowed you to make a bunch of pies together in one batch. Cupcake/muffin trays were too small. Small cake pans or Pyrex, Corningware dishes would work but you'd only have one pie at a time. You could buy multiple dishes but that just seemed nightmarish. Having a bunch of small dishes in the oven seemed less convenient and maybe even unsafe. Maybe one would knock over a pie while putting in another pie. Those oven rack wires aren't that close together after all. Goo all over, a cleaning nightmare, a pie lost. A pie lost (I'm repeating this for emphasis). Say 'No' to individual pie containers.

Doing some shopping for other things I stumbled across the texas muffin trays of the Baker's Secret line at Canadian Tire (They're more than just tires after all). The trays were the perfect size.

what follows is the recipe with my modifications...

bakes 12 "texas muffin" sized pies

Filling


The filler

It's the recipe on Epicurious.com the only additions I made was that I used 1 table spoon of starch in the broth to thicken it and added 1 cup of finely shredded carrots (mainly because there's an abundance of carrots in the refrigerator).

Pie shell

ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teasp0on of baking power
• 1 cup of butter (1 brick)
• 1 cup of cold water

directions

1. sift flour into bowl
2. add baking powder
3. add salt
4. mix
5. chop butter brick into 16 pieces
6. using fingers mix the flour mixture and butter, crumbling each piece of butter into smaller pieces
7. Using a large wooden spoon mix butter and flour, add water slowly until there are evenly mixed small clumps of dough
8. put mixture into refrigerator overnight
9. line the muffin pan with butter or some other non stick substance



10. make 12 balls of dough roughly 7 cm (2 1/2 inches) in diameter



11. flatten balls of dough so they are about 11 cm (5 inches) in diameter (if using a Tupperware mat just make sure the inner circle is covered)



12. insert each flattened ball of dough into buttered muffin tray (this makes the bottom of the pie)



13. Fill with chicken mixture



14. To attached top crust to pie poke a fork into the pie (see above photo) and push toward the edge of the pie (in the photo to the left). Not only will this create holes for steam but will hopefully attach the top crust to the rest of the pie.



15. A extra hole on the top for steam doesn't hurt.



16. Even if the tops of the pies don't stick, the crust on the sides should be thick enough to be able to pull the pie out in one piece barely unscathed.



17. Bake in oven for 35 minutes at 375 °F
    

yummy chicken pot pie!

A Pizza the Action

Pizza, uncooked

Once, I was asked if I was going to put the local fish guy out of business. It all started from telling local fish guy that I didn't need my fish scaled. The fish that I had just bought from him was going to be scaled by me with a fish scaler that I bought for camping. I never got around to using it before then. I assured the worried fish guy that I wouldn't go into the fish business much less put him out of work. Oddly enough that would be the first and last time I'd scale a fish and the last time I visited him for fish. Hope he's still in business.

Today, while not a fish, I decided to make a pizza from scratch. I imagined the local pizza guy saying "Are you putting me out of work?". In this case "Yes", but only if my pizza turns out better than your pizza. Also, is making my pizza more convenient then going outside and walking a block to the nearby pizza place on the corner in an Italian neighbourhood? Probably not. Then my answer is "No". However there will always be times that I'll want pizza and it's raining outside and I just happen to have all the ingredients, so "Maybe?". As if I was the only customer.

As for making pizza from scratch, I'm attempting to do so, at least, as much as you can make a pizza from scratch in the city. It's not like I'm grinding out meat to make my own pepperoni, making a wheel of cheese, or even growing wheat to make flour. I'm going to attempt to make a pizza using store bought flour, pepperoni, packaged cheese and even *GASP* jarred tomato sauce.

I suppose the line gets a little blurry when talking about making stuff from scratch. Let's just say it's a step above buying a frozen pizza and baking that. A step above? Well not trying to sound snooty (on purpose) but I am putting more work into this pizza than opening a single cardboard box and throwing the contents into the oven.

It's funny how if you're cooking and putting more effort into it, it sounds better, where as if you're programming some computer software, the less work you put in sounds better. Anyhoo, I digress.

The pizza dough recipe I'm using comes from here (Robert's recipes). After making said dough, I threw on some tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and onions, stuck it in the oven for 425 F. Like a frozen pizza waited for the cheese to melt and the crust to brown. Took about X minutes.

You may look at my pizza and say "But it's not round." that's where I reply "Pffttt. Can't you see I'm trailblazing?". This is not a case where looks matter, as I'm the one eating it, only taste matters. That and the pizza doesn't come out burnt (thereby making the taste meter go to "sucks"). Also I'm a lazy person who can't make a nice perfect circle from dough to save his life, but I won't say that out loud. Clearly there are better bakers out there than me... and really if you're looking for recipes shouldn't you be reading better food sites like Epicurious.com? (While you're there check out the Pumkin Cheesecake - amazing)


Pizza, cooked

And yes, the title "a Pizza the Action" is a take from the original Star Trek episode where Kirk and Spock beam down to a planet to find it's being run by mobsters.

It's crock pot month

If you've been poking around looking for updates on this blog lately you may have wondered if the blog has been put on hold or maybe even abandoned. This last month has been pretty non-eventful in that I've been staying at home for the most part playing WarCraft and cooking using the Crock Pot (the slow cooker I purchased just before Christmas).

Since the purchase of the crock pot I have not really eaten any solid non-mushy food at home. That's been a few weeks. Mainly due to experimenting with said crock pot and trying to find good recipes.

For those that don't know crock pots are a very forgiving kitchen device. Where baking may require objects to be in the oven for a specific amount of time (plus or minus 5 minutes), stuff in a crock pot has hours. Even some recipes say between 12 and 18 hours. A six hours difference! It's the perfect slacker cooking device.

person waiting to eat
"Is that pot roast ready?"

slacker cook
"I'll get to it after I level up my character in WarCraft"

....and surprisingly the food still comes out okay.

While this scenario is not far from true events, the food does tend to come out okay. Especially if you're making soups or stews. More experimentation is required for cooking meats however as I'm finding that the meats being made in the crock pot tend to be coming out a bit dry for my taste. More on this to come.

January has been pretty much a crock pot month.

Rice Pudding


Rice pudding in the crock pot

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cup cooked rice
• 16 oz half and half or light cream
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. cover crock-pot with thin layer of butter.
2. Place eggs in a bowl, add light cream, sugar & vanilla.
3. Mix until smooth.
4. add rice and raisins.
5. Pour into crock pot.
6. add a few dashes of nutmeg on top of rice goo.
7. Set crock pot on high for 30 minutes or cook on low for 2 to 3 hours.

My observation

This recipe turned out more like a rice custard than an actual pudding. It's tasty though. I think I've stumbled on how to make egg custard tarts.... yummy egg custard tarts. That may have to be my next cooking experiment.


Beef Burgundy

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds of beef stew meat cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 can of condensed mushroom soup
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• 1 can of sliced onions
• 1 package of onion soup mix
• 1 table spoon of minced garlic

Directions

1. Throw ingredients into crock pot.
2. Cook for 6 to 8 hours or until beef is tender.

The Experiment

I was wondering if searing the meat first would make the meat taste less dry so for half the meat I seared it in a wok, the other half I left alone throwing it into the crock pot. About 8 hours later I realized my experiment went wrong when I stirred around the contents to move around the mushroom soup. D'oh!

The meat sampled tastes a bit dry in some and not so much in other pieces. This could be due to fat content rather than searing. More research required.


BEFORE - the meat is in two sections, raw and seared


AFTER - can't really tell what is where thanks to stirring, d'oh.