Oven 350 degrees F
Lightly greased pan and bake for 30 minutes. Cool and chill before cutting. The oops, I forgot: Add 1/2 cup chocolate chips to the batter. So, I tried to do that thing where you sprinkle the chips on top and then smooth it out once it has melted – but apparently white and dark chocolate chips have different melting points and don’t play well together…
What happens when your foodie friend decides to make you a birthday gift?
and she goes onto your blog and finds your grandmother’s recipe you shared last year?
and then she makes it and brings it to you still warm?
Well, obviously, you melt and say thank you!!!
I’m letting it chill for now and will enjoy it tomorrow!
Today is this week’s Domestic Day/ Zero People Day/ 0CommitmentDay / Do Whatever I want Day.
So when I am not sewing, seeing clients for sewing, dancing, teaching dance, teaching sewing, and planning for either upcoming sewing or dance events, I like to cook and bake. Oh, I know – you know that already… Ok – here’s the Roasted Pepper Tomato Soup recipe. Roast a pile of peppers:
Lightly oil 2 cookies sheets for about 10 medium size peppers.
Oven = 400 degrees Farenheit
Wash the peppers, split in half, take out the seeds and toss them all in a huge bowl with a bit of olive oil.
Spread them out on the cookie sheets and get them roasting while you take care of the rest of the soup. Maybe 20 minutes… check ’em – see when they start to char. them take them out.
I leave them on the cookie sheet until I’m ready for them, then take them off and peel away any really burnt skin/ section.
In a large saucepan, start cooking the onion, and tomatoes: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat.Chop an onion – I used red and it was large so I only used half. toss it in and saute until it smells awesome. Add in one can of whole tomatoes, and cover and let simmer. < Purists are welcome to peel and seed fresh tomatoes, if that’s your prerogative.> If your peppers are ready, toss them into the pot and let it all continue to cook.
Add spices to your liking – salt and pepper, basil, oregano, I went italianesque for this batch.
I happened to have roasted a small pumpkin while roasting the peppers and could not fit all of it into my 2 cup container, so I added the remaining pumpkin to the soup too. Once the peppers are tender, or you are bored, do what you do to puree soup. I toss it into a big stainless bowl and use an immersion blender – as you can see. Jar it/ serve it/ find a friend who makes homemade bread and barter some in exchange for a fresh loaf…
Enjoy.
I spent this morning making a batch of my annual truffles, and remembered that I’ll be seeing some non chocolate eating friends…
I decided to try something new:
Basic truffle recipe:
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 ½ cups icing sugar
1/4 cup coconut milk or dairy cream
1 tsp vanilla
smush all of it together really well, chill it, roll it in cocoa. Oh and you can add booze.
Little Gurl Balls
Skip the cocoa , add a bit more icing sugar to make stiffer.
Use equal parts ginger and cinnamon- or add nutmeg and cloves if you got ’em- to roll the little balls.
nom-kick in the taste buds – nom!
Today’s party snack is based on my previous cheesecakelets recipe.
But no wontons in the house!
So instead I chose to lightly spray my muffin tins and go crust less – creating these thin slivers of cheesecake!
Recipe:
1 block of cream cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar
Make 11-12 in the basic and then add
– if desired- 1 tablespoon cocoa for the remaining 11-12.
Mix it all well.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Spoon 1 tablespoon or so into each lightly oiled muffin tin.
Add toppings if you like:
Basic- I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top.
Cocoa- I added coconut.
Bake for about 6-8 minutes- I was distracted…
Let them cool in the muffin tins then gently remove. They will be a bit sticky.
In prep for a social gathering tomorrow, I’ve made some of my Halyma’s Cheesecakelets, and then I had a pile of leftover wonton wrappers and decided to get simply creative again…
Halyma’s Applewraps are simple wedges of Macintosh apples, a sprinkle of cinnamon/sugar, wrapped individually in wontons.
Bake them on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes, until golden.
With all of the birthday celebrations going on lately, and the huge “CUPCAKE CRAZE” of 2009, I was thinking that I should explore some different options for those of us looking to indulge, without feeling the brutal waste of calories that come from those lovely cakes that abound. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE CUPCAKES, but I am trying to lose weight and know my own weaknesses, so I choose to find alternatives when I can!
Revisiting foods that I have always liked to make, I remembered the light, melt- in-your-mouthiness of meringues… lemon meringue pie, butterscotch meringue pie… yummy but still high in calories when you’ve got a crust and loads of sugar involved.
As usual, I decided to come up with my own variation of a couple of old stand by recipes, both based on the Betty Crocker cookbook recipes for merignues and cream filling but with less than half the sugar!
Enjoy these 25 calorie per meringue treats – I know we will today!
One thing to note: I baked mine the day before, but they are really best made the day of, or at least, assembled the day of, but I was expecting today to be busy and figured I would save time and store them airtight in the fridge until taking them to the #FridayOffice PARTAY. There will be comments later describing the resulting 18 hour later condition!
Halyma’s Sunnyside Meringues
Meringues:
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 cup raw sugar
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with brown paper [ compostable] or aluminum foil [recyclable].
Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until fluffy. Add the sugar a spoonful at a time until fully beaten into the fluff. Use an electric mixer or get a workout with a large wire whisk – your choice!
Spoon out 24 blobs, about 2 inches/5cm in diameter, on the lined cookie sheets, creating a little dent in the centre of each.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes for chewy cookies, 40 minutes for crunchier, and if you have time, let them sit in the oven with the door open for another few hours to really dry them out if you want crunchy ones.
Creamy Custard Filling:
1/4 cup raw sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk [ 1%]
3 egg yolks, beaten well, in a metal or glass bowl
Mix the sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan and add the milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens to a gravy consistency.
Important step:
Pour the hot milk mixture into the bowl holding the beaten eggs and mix as you pour. This keeps the sauce a smooth texture as opposed to letting it get clumpy. Pour it all back into the saucepan and put it back on the heat to continue cooking – keep stirring – until it reaches an almost pudding thickness.
Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes – stirring every once in a while to keep it smooth.
When ready to assemble, spoon a bit of custard into the centre dent in each meringue, dividing the custard between them all.
Serve immediately if possible…
If you have leftover custard, you can drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and freeze it for “pudding pops”.
Hope you try these, and feel free to leave me some comments if you do!
I also made a chocolate butterscotch version, but they were not as good, so I’ll try that again and let you know sometime in the future!
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cups carob powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoons baking powder
⅓ cup coconut oil
¼ cup honey
¼ cup molasses
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup water [ you can use coffee if you like]
Method
Cream together the coconut oil [looks more like shortening to me than oil], honey, molasses, and cider vinegar.
Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl until well blended.
Alternately add the dry ingredients and the water to the coconut mixture, mixing well in between additions.
Make 12 cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes and bake at 375 degree for about 10 minutes. Check with a toothpick to confirm done,but they are vegan so they can be gooey inside too!
Sprinkle the top with coconut, nuts, seeds or whatever you like.
I had a great time – congrats to the organizers for a very successful day!
So, we are starting to contemplate the idea of actually making our meals at home again! Too much “take out food” when we get busy, and the grocery store barely sees us!
So, I was hungry and it was late and so I looked in the cupboard and fridge and found some bits and pieces to assemble into what was actually a fabulous little meal!
Here’s the recipe – until it gets posted onto www.vegweb.com!
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup corn, frozen or canned
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 small jalepeno, chopped
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp coriander
salt and pepper to taste
Heat a bit of oil in a large skillet and toss everything into it.
Let it cook, stirring occasionally, while you make up some rice/couscous/quinoa etc. as a side dish – approximately 20 minutes.
Along with sewing and dancing, Tracey – my everyday ego – enjoys cooking. I have been missing that lately with so many other deadlines, shows, sewing projects for clients on the go. Today, I was able to sleep in, make whole wheat pizza crusts to freeze for easy meals this week, start some 24 hour whole wheat, no-knead bread, and do some groceries.
We have an invite to go to some friends for supper – another luxury at this time of year – and I wanted to bring something light and fun as an appetizer. Even though I did buy groceries, I had not thought about what I wanted to make or bring. Upon arriving home and scanning the fridge and cupboards, I came up with these.
Based loosely on the concept of falafels – or perhaps simply inspired by falafels, I took the idea and ran healthy with it.
1 can of mixed beans [ included chickpeas, kidney beans, pintos and black beans I think], drained and rinsed.
1/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves [ organic from my back yard]
Dump it all together and use a blender/food processor/hand blender to puree it all together. Make balls on an oiled cookie sheet, and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes. If you prefer to fry them – go ahead. I don’t like to add too much extra fat, so I wanted to see how they turn out as a baked product.
Changes I will try next time:
Mine was very soft – as you can see in the picture, they did not hold their shape as balls. I had to make dropped balls from a spoon. I think I would add more beans or less tahini. Or possibly add some ground flax seeds or other seeds/nuts. They would have the consistency of cookie dough, and then can be rolled by hand.
I would suggest that if you have garlic and onion and like them, add some. I cannot eat these without spending the next day clearing my throat, so I avoid them, but for most people they would find them a standard addition. Say 1 clove garlic and 1/2 a small onion, both minced and then purees with the rest.
You can always use different fresh herbs too – cilantro, parsley, basil, hmm, whatever works for you.
We will be serving them with some garlic mayonnaise for those who want a dipping sauce tonight, but I have thoughts of these going really well as an alternative to meatballs in many recipes/meals.
If you try this, or create your own variation, I would love to hear!
What happens when your foodie friend decides to make you a birthday gift?
