By the psychotic look of my smile there, Snow White may not be an innocent as she seems!
Snow White and a (giant) Dwarf!
I’ll be back this week with some more posts! I was sick for the better part of the past two weeks, so I decided to rest up and come out strong!
R.
Here we are! Nearly Friday again!
The 5 Favourites for this week:
Grilled Poutine Pizza from FotoCuisine
For the Project Food Blog Challenge #5, the contestants were challenged to create a pizza recipe. These guys put together possibly the most incredible marriage of two of the greatest foods on earth! Poutine Pizza! My Canadian heart is all a-flutter!
Joe and Betsy: Project Newlyweds
This is such a great idea! This couple is trying something new together everyday for the first year of their marriage. The blog is a great read! A mixture of a food blog, art blog, healthy living blog with a dash of general awesomeness! Check it out! They also had a great entry for Project Food Blog Challenge #5.
Cheesy Clintons from Amuse Bouche
My friends and I have somewhat of a fascination with ridiculous over-the-top snack food. The more EXTREME the better. I was happy to learn this week that the Cheesy Clinton is a piece of pizza inside a grilled cheese. The story of how it originated is quite hilarious, and can be found on the Amuse Bouche entry. I’m pretty sure this would make a good entry on thisiswhyyourefat.com, but I’m also pretty sure it’s genius!
If you’re a bit of a space nerd like I am, this video is worth your 7 minutes. A father and son send an iPhone into space in a weather balloon… it actually ends up 19 miles in the air and still keeps filming. You can see the curvature of the earth! SO. COOL.
Curling in Costume!
Last weekend, a couple of friends and I participated in a curling tournament! The theme was Things That Start with ‘C’, so our team went as Canadian Stereotypes. I’m on the left as a hockey goon… complete with a black eye and missing teeth! Also of note: Curling is super fun!!
That’s all for me! Hope you have a great week!
R.
As I previously mentioned, last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. This one was extra special for me, because I decided to try my hand at making Thanksgiving dinner - all on my own!
My mom was a phone call away for all of my novice questions.. “Does the stuffing have to go in a bag, or can it go straight in the turkey?” (For those wondering, either works!)
Luckily, I avoided making any noob mistakes - though I narrowly escaped cooking the gizzards in the neck. Somewhat surprisingly, everything turned out great! The turkey was perfectly browned and moist, The stuffing was delicious (even though it wasn’t mom’s recipe), and I managed to get the mashed potatoes right. This is a feat given that I don’t actually like or eat mashed potatoes! Mom was there for guidance while working on the gravy, which was the most complicated part.
It was a great success!
I have to say though, the star of the show was dessert. Hands down.
I kept everything traditional for the dinner, but wanted to do something a little out of the ordinary for dessert. Being Thanksgiving, I didn’t want to stray TOO far from the standard pumpkin pie. The result was nothing short of amazing.
You know when you make some recipes you have such high hopes and the results end up being a little “ehhh.” This is not one of those recipes. This recipe was more delicious than I had anticipated. This recipe is super easy and, in my opinion, it is BETTER than pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin Pie Mousse!
Ingredients:
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix both packages of vanilla pudding with 1 cup of milk and stir.
Add the pumpkin. Whisk to combine.
Add the pumpkin pie spice and vanilla. Whisk to combine.
Fold in 2 cups of whipped cream.
Spoon into baked pie crust or tart shells.
Spread whipped cream over pumpkin filling. (I added dollops to the top of my tarts)
Sprinkle lightly with pumpkin pie spice over the top.
* The recipe I used said it serves 8, but I had a full bowl of leftover filling after making 12 heaping tarts. You could probably make 20 regular tarts with this filling.
If you’re looking for something a little different this Thanksgiving, try these! You can thank me later! ;)
R.
It’s Friday already! One of the best part of long weekends in the short work week that follows!
Time for my favourites of the week!
Candy “Apple” Donuts from duhlicious!
What a great idea! Timbits (for Canadians) or donut holes (for Americans), coated in syrup and dipped in sprinkles, toffee bits and… potato chips? That’s so crazy, it just could work!
I discovered this lovely blog this week, and I’m hooked! There are tons of great recipes, beautiful photographs and tutorials! She even has a baking ‘bucket list’, which I think it a great idea!
Caramel Apple “Pies” from Tasty Trials
I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t particularly like pie crust. I’ll eat it, but it’s usually as a means of getting to the more delicious center of the pie! I’m one of those people who eats the crust first to get it out of the way! But I do love me some puff pastry! I can’t wait to try this recipe, because it’s the best of both worlds! Delicious flaky puff pastry and apple pie filling, with no pesky pie crust in the way!
Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes from Liv Life
Sweet Potatoes + Chipotle Peppers + Lime = Happiness.
I saw this movie on last Friday, and it was fascinating! I did some research afterwards, and I think the movie took some liberties with the real story of the creation of Facebook. Nonetheless, it’s worth seeing!
Cheers,
R.
These may well be the best chocolate chip cookies ever! I love soft cookies, and these ones stay that way thanks to a secret ingredient… vanilla pudding mix! They got rave reviews!
Ingredients:
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.
*The recipe says 10 to 12 minutes, but I only baked mine for about 9 minutes (granted I am at high altitude). Please keep in mind that these cookies will not look done when you take them out. I just waited until I started to see a light browning on the edge of the cookie, and they were perfect!
Enjoy!
R.
It’s time for another round-up of my favourites of the week! Always an honourable mention in the list is the fact that it’s Friday! It’s a long weekend here in Canada too! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
Without further adieu, and it no particular order:
Fresh Apple Bread from Sweet Savory Planet
My co-worker was telling me that she had a laundry basket full of apples from her apple picking excursion, and didn’t know what she was going to do with them all! I printed this recipe for her when I saw it and MAN IS IT DELICIOUS. She added a little nutmeg to the mix, which was a nice touch! In her words (and I agree wholeheartedly)… “It’s a keeper!”
This picture found on yes and yes
Yes and Yes is one of my favourite non-food blogs. It’s full of interesting articles inspiring advice, and pretty pictures. Like this one! I love the picture and the message!
Bacon Cinnamon Rolls from Framed
Yes. You read that right. BACON cinnamon rolls! This woman may have unleashed delicousness of unspeakable magnitude upon us all! I haven’t tried these yet, but I’m fairly confident that when I do, I will never want to eat anything else ever again. Check out the rest of this blog too! I love the writing style, and the recipes are amazing and creative (*ahem* Mac ‘n Cheese Cupcakes and French Toast Muffins) if not a little hazardous to the waistline!
The name says it all. It is just pure glory!
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’m firmly on Team Soft and Chewy when it comes to cookies! The only time I really like crunchy cookies are when they’re dipped in milk! These cookies are where. it’s. at!
I made them for a charity bake sale at Mr. Aussie’s (my boyfriend) work, and the reviews I received are “the better than the ones from Cookie Occasion (a local bakery)” and “This is one of the best cookies I’ve ever had”. Funny story: The latter review was from a member of the Calgary Police Service who questioned my boyfriend when he saw him walking by with a tray of cookies. Mr. Aussie explained that they were being sold for charity, so 3 officers bought some of the cookies from him before they made it to the bake sale table! Of course, he gave the money to the organizers.
Now who knows, maybe Mr. Aussie is making this stuff up so that I keep baking for him! ;)
Don’t fret.. I’ll share the recipe this week!
Until next time! Cheers!
R.
Every once in a while, this dish pops into my head and I must have it right away.
I’ll admit. This is somewhat of a strange combination. Trust me on this though, it’s awesome!
Loco Moco is a native Hawaiian dish. It is rice, topped with a hamburger patty, topped with a fried egg and typically drizzled with some sort of sauce or gravy. My boyfriend had seen the recipe on a Food Network, so he had to try it when we visited Hawaii over Christmas!
The dish we had was topped with a sauce very similar to teriyaki sauce, so that’s what I do when I make it on my own.
Loco Moco!
Ingredients:
4 hamburger patties
4 eggs
4 servings of rice – I used brown rice. Basmati or sticky rice would be delicious as well.
2 tbsp teriyaki sauce
Sauce:
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/8 cup water
1 tbsp sesame oil
A few splashes of fish sauce
Prepare rice according to package directions. While rice is cooking, place the hamburger patties in the oven on a baking tray – frying them will work fine, I just didn’t feel like cleaning another frying pan! ;) After flipping the hamburgers, brush hamburger patties with 1/2 tbsp of teriyaki sauce.
Add all of the sauce ingredient in a bowl and whisk together.
As the hamburgers finish cooking, fry 4 eggs over easy. The best part of this dish is the combination of the runny yolk with the hamburger and teriyaki sauce, so make sure to leave the egg runny.
Assemble the dish with rice of the bottom, hamburger, egg and top with the sauce. I added some sesame seeds for garnish
Serves 4
Mmmmmmmm!
R.
