Roasted Pears

Wow. Roasted Pears. Where have you been all my life?? These are seriously good folks, in a roasty carmelly sticky yummy sort of way. When I first read this recipe, on the Orangette blog,  I thought they would probably be good. After all, poached pears are good, my pear custard tart is tasty, pears in general are pretty darn scrumptious. But roasting takes these babies to a whole new level. I shouldn’t be so surprised, really. Roasting vegetables has elevated my favourites to delectable status. I don’t know why I wouldn’t assume it would do the same for pears. I just never thought of roasting them before. Oh silly me. This will be repeated , often.


If you happen to have any left, (I had to use every bit of will power to save some!!) save 2 halves for these Ginger Roasted Pear Scones. In a word, YUM.

Roasted Pears:

1 /4 cup( ish) vanilla sugar (see method at end of recipe)

7 medium ripe pears (I used Bosc, but I think any would do)

½ fresh lemon, squeezed and seeds removed

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Water

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the pears and cut them in half lengthwise.

 Core them with a melon baller. ( You can leave the stems on if you like, for presentation)

Place them cut side down in a large baking dish.

Drizzle with the lemon juice.

Sprinkle evenly with the vanilla sugar.

Place a piece of butter on each pear.

Add 3 Tbsp water to the dish.

Bake the pears for 40 minutes to 1 hour, basting every 10 minutes or so with the juices in the pan. Turn occasionally. They should be soft and starting to turn a nice carmelly brown when they are ready. Add a few tablespoons of water during the basting time if the liquid is evaporating to fast, I added about 6 more during the whole cooking time, 3tbsp at 30 minutes and 3 again at about 45minutes. (as you can see from my picture, I forgot the turning part...oops!)

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream, or yogourt, or sour cream.

We topped ours with some maple flakes and a dollop of sour cream, they were heavenly.

Vanilla Sugar

Method 1: Place 1 cup sugar in a small bowl. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds with the edge of the knife. Rub the seeds into the sugar with your fingers until well incorporated . Save the rest for another use.

Method 2: This method is not instant the first time, but once you make the inital batch, you will have vanilla sugar at your fingertips all the time. Once you have scraped your vanilla beans, place the rest of the bean pod into a jar, and fill with sugar. Let sit for a few weeks, shaking periodically, and the vanilla flavour will infuse into your sugar. I top it up with new sugar when it gets low, and add vanilla bean pods whenever I use them. I remember my grandma having a jar of vanilla sugar with vanilla beans in her baking cupboard when I was little. I think she was on to something!

Chicken Noodle Bowl

I love dinners that come together quickly, particularly when I am multitasking in the kitchen (which is most all of the time) They come in quite handy as well when you spend all afternoon browsing recipes and blogs on the computer, and realize that a ravenous teenager is going to come through the door at 6pm, and you need to find something to feed him FAST! I found this recipe on the Kitchen Cafe blog, and had all of the ingredients at hand, no grocery store trip needed. (actually, what I thought was mozzarella cheese in my fridge was in fact Monterey Jack, but it made a pretty good substitution) It also boasted being ready in the time it takes to cook the noodles, which it was, almost exactly. I upped the veggie content a bit, by doubling the peppers and adding some leftover steamed broccoli. Easy, quick, and pretty darn tasty. It doesn’t get any better! I changed the name from Balsamic Chicken Noodle bowl, because the name seemed to suggest a strong balsamic flavour, which I didn’t really get. Maybe it was the cheese substitution, the Monterey Jack is certainly a bit stronger of a flavour than mozzarella. Whatever it was, the balsamic flavour was in there, but definitely more in the background.

(I actually weighed my pasta for this recipe, I usually just eyeball it. I am really loving the scale that my wonderful guys bought for me at christmas)

Chicken Noodle Bowl

1 pound long pasta (I used spaghettini, the original called for linguini, use your favourite)

2 yellow peppers, cut into thin strips

1 ½ cups steamed broccoli, optional

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken

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1 1/2 cups shredded or cubed mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese (or use your favourite)

½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

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Dressing:

4 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar

5 garlic cloves, finely minced

½ teaspoons coarse sea salt

¼ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons dried basil (can substitute 1 cup fresh basil)

Heat a large pot of water to a boil. Cook pasta till el-dente, according to package directions.

 Drain and set aside until needed (pretty much right away!)

While water is heating, whisk together vinegar, garlic, basil, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk in the olive oil and set aside.

I love my garlic press!

While the pasta is cooking, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat and cook the bell pepper for a minute or two, just until tender crisp. Toss in the cooked chicken and broccoli if using, and cook for 1-2 more minutes, until they are heated through.

Toss the hot noodles and cheese in the skillet with the red pepper and chicken and mix quickly before the cheese totally melts. Pour the dressing over the top and toss well.

(I made a TOTAL mess of my stove top when I was tossing!)

 

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yummy leftovers for lunch!

BBQ Chicken Handpie Braids

I try very hard to take lunch from home every day for my Hubbie and myself. It goes along with trying to eliminate processed and packaged foods from our diet, and most fast food is about as processed and packaged as you can get. I also make lunch for the boys, and one day a week I make lunch for Greg, the cousin who drives our son Mac to guitar lessons once a week. When I can come up with a lunch that works for everyone, that travels well in a lunch bag, that is quick to eat between guitar lessons and school, and tastes pretty darn good to boot, I know I have a keeper. This recipe itself has two little cheats in it, namely a deli roasted chicken from the grocery store, (I didn’t have my usual bag of chicken or turkey precooked in the freezer for just such occasions) and store bought bbq sauce (I am working on a recipe for one that doesn’t involve ketchup for a base or include refined sugar in the ingredient list, but it is a work in progress, I will keep you posted on that one). Other than that though, this recipe fits the bill. Add some fresh veggies or a salad on the side and you are good to go.


I saw a rendition of this recipe in a recent post in a new favourite blog, My Kitchen Cafe. The original recipe made one large braid, which I seriously considered making. But, being as I had 5 people to feed lunch to in 3 different places, I wasn’t sure how well slices of this would translate. So, I decided to make individual ones, and they turned out pretty darn cool. They kind of reminded me of the sweet hand pies that are on my “things to cook list”, but a savoury bread based version (ok, it is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but the idea is sort of the same!) I used ½ a batch of my basic no knead bread dough for the braid part, the recipe for that can be found here. If you have a batch of that already in your fridge, these whip up fairly quickly. I intend to heat up ours in the toaster oven at work, but feel free to eat them right after you cook them. They smell amazing!

BBQ Chicken Handpie Braids:

Approx. 2 cups shredded chicken (I used 1 deli chicken, skin removed, legs, thighs and wings removed and set aside for another use. The leftover meat, shredded, was about 2 cups)

1 – 1 ½ cups bbq sauce of choice (our favourite store bought is a spicy and smoky chipotle)

2 medium onions, sliced, (I caramelized mine while I was getting everything else ready, I am not a huge fan of raw onions, but the original recipe used them raw)

1 ½ cup grated cheddar cheese (mine was marble, it was what I had in the fridge at the time, substitute cheese of choice!)

½ batch of no knead bread dough, divided into 6 equal portions

Place pizza stone on middle rack in oven, and broiler pan in bottom, as you would for baking a batch of no knead bread. (see recipe here for original technique).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, making sure it comes to full temperature before baking. The Stone needs to get nice and hot.

Take one of the portions of dough, and roll out fairly thin into a rough rectangle shape on a floured cutting board, or work surface, using as much flour as needed to keep it from sticking

 to your hands and the rolling pin.

Cut 5-7 slits along each long side of the rectangle, leaving about 1/3 of the dough uncut in the center.

(Oops! Can you tell I didn't use the same hand pie for all the pictures?)

Starting with the bbq sauce, layer your ingredients along the middle strip.

Then the chicken

Then the onions

Then the cheese.

Now start the braid. Lift the strips and gently stretch and fold them across to the opposite side, starting at one end, alternating sides until you get to the bottom.

Tuck the last two strips under to complete the braid.

Carefully lift and place on parchment covered cookie pan with sides.

(the parchment paper, while not necessary, makes cleaning up very easy, as anything that leaks out of the hand pies does not stick and burn to your pan!)

Continue with the rest of the dough til all 6 are complete. My pan is quite large, and fit all 6 quite nicely.

Fill a measuring cup with 1 ½ cups of very hot tap water. Place pan with hand pies on the pizza stone and quickly pour hot tap water into broiler pan in bottom of oven. Close door quickly to retain heat and steam. Cook in preheated 400 degree F oven for 30-35 minutes, or until nicely browned and bubbling.

Enjoy carefully! Filling will be very hot!

Quinoa Pudding with Strawberries

I came across this recipe in the same way as I come across most new recipes, while looking for something completely different. (actually I was searching for a recipe for a homemade Clif Bar, which I found, and may post about later, but that is another story, for another day—stay tuned!) Anyway, during my search, I came across a new(to me) blog called Cannelle et Vanille. It could be a new favourite. I blissfully browsed until I found this recipe, and promptly wanted to go for a picnic on the beach, and make this pudding, not necessarily in that order. The pictures were brilliant, and the pudding inspired. Being the beginning of March, in Southern Ontario, and no tropical vacation in sight, I had to make do with the pudding, and alas, no picnic. The pudding however, did not disappoint.

For those of you not familiar with quinoa, it is a tiny grain from south America, and has been around for some 6000 years. I have been enjoying it myself for at least 10 years, having experimented with it back in my vegetarian days for its high protein content. This, however, is the first time I have made a dessert type recipe with it, and I am very pleased with the results. Why did I not think of this before?? The grain lends an earthy flavour to the underlying familiarity of rice pudding, similar, but completely different at the same time. An old grain in a whole new light!

I changed it a wee bit, (quelle suprise) but the results were very yummy. In my quest to reduce the amount of refined products (ie: refined sugar, white flour, processed foods) from my family’s plates, I substituted maple syrup for the brown sugar, feel free to change it back if you like! The original recipe called for 3 cups of whole milk, and 1 cup of heavy cream, which was optional. I had 1% milk in my fridge, plus a cup of heavy cream lurking in there as well (doesn’t everyone???) so I used 2 cups of 1% plus the one cup of heavy cream, eliminating the 4th cup of liquid altogether. My resulting pudding was nice and moist, but not overly runny. Adjust the amounts of liquid to suit your tastes. I also left the chopped pistachios from the origional off the top of the pudding, as I did not have any. Again, feel free to add them back! The strawberries stayed, they were a great addition.

Quinoa Pudding, my adaptation. Original recipe here.

2 cups 1% milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean, sliced open and scraped (I only had a half of a bean, so I added a tsp of vanilla extract as well, you could just substitute 2 tsp vanilla extract)

1/4 cup maple syrup

pinch of salt

1 cup quinoa

Berry Topping:

1 quart strawberries

1 Tbsp maple syrup

Cut up the strawberries and toss with maple syrup. Let them stand at room temperature until they start to release some of their juices, 1/2 to 1 hr.  Set aside and use to top the quinoa once it is cooked.

Rinse the quinoa in a fine meshed strainer with cold water for a minute or so, and set aside to drain.

In a medium pot, combine the milk and cream.

 maple syrup,

and scraped vanilla bean, (and or vanilla extract)

and heat to a simmer.

Add quinoa, and stir to combine. (Check out the little black flecks of vanilla bean swimming in the pot!)

Reduce heat to medium low and cook for about 30 minutes (mine took more like 40 minutes, but I think the heat was too low, closer to medium would have been better) Stir every few minutes, until the grain absorbs most of the milk mixture and is tender.

It should go from this:

to this:

 As it cooled it absorbed all of the liquid, becoming quite thick and creamy.

Top with strawberries and enjoy!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are one of my favourite foods. I think I could eat them every day and not get sick of them. As long as they are cooked right that is...not the boiled, water-logged flavourless sort, or the ones dressed up with so much sugar and marshmallows that they become unrecognizable. No, just the plain simple sweet potato, baked or roasted in the oven, maybe dressed up with a wee bit of olive oil, fresh ground pepper and salt, or if I am feeling adventurous, a slight sprinkle of curry powder, but not much else. The oven is really all that is needed to bring out the flavour of this wonderful root vegetable. Baked used to be my favourite, in oven or the barbeque, wrapped in foil, it is one of the easiest (and healthiest) side dishes around. Being rich in complex carbs, beta carotene and vitamin c, it stands head and shoulders above most other vegetables on a nutritional scale. What is not to love?? But, I think the best way, my favourite by far, is roasting. When you chop them up and roast them, they reach new heights of flavour, carmeley and smoky sweet. My mouth is watering just writing this, I cannot wait for them to be out of the oven! I don’t peel mine, you can if you wish, but it is not necessary. Just give them a good scrub before chopping and you are good to go.


Roasted Sweet Potatoes:

3 lbs of sweet potatoes

Olive oil

Coarse sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 deg. F

Chop your sweet potatoes up in to chunks, and place on a large baking sheet with sides.

 Drizzle with olive oil (I usually drizzle a big “s” pattern over the pan, maybe 2 tablespoons ish?)

and sprinkle with sea salt

 and black pepper to taste (it is hard to use a pepper grinder and take a picture!)

Mix up to distribute oil, salt and pepper. ( I use my hands, it works better!)

Bake in a preheated oven for approx an hour, until the edges of the chunks start to brown. Stir once or twice during the baking time to loosen them from the pan.

I served these as a side with some jerk marinated chicken drumsticks and peas.  Even Inka the cat wanted a taste!