Crockpot Baked Potato Soup

Once again, Tom and I seem to have managed to go for a rather excessively long time without eating - seven months or so? Ha. I suppose I only feel inspired to post in here when I make exceptionally delicious meals, and when I think to document said meals. Now, that's not to say that we've eaten nothing but rubbish since last June, but I've been a little bit...pre-occupied, shall we say, with a certain little someone!

Anyway. This week one of the meals I made was a wonderful slow cooker dish that I threw together in about ten minutes before heading out the door for the day. I used this recipe for Baked Potato Slow Cooker Soup from Thirty Handmade Days with only a few tweaks. I didn't use russet potatoes - I just used the yellow-flesh potatoes that I already had in our pantry, 8 or 9 mid-large sized ones. I used half cheddar cheese and half shredded Kraft TexMex cheese, and instead of mashing (I tried, it didn't really work that well), I used my immersion blender, which worked very quickly and did an excellent job blending everything all together quickly.

I also served this recipe for cornbread, from the same blog. Though also with some tweaks. Ha - would I be my mother's daughter if I didn't deviate from recipes? I didn't have/couldn't find canned chilis (I didn't look too hard, though - No Frills was INSANE on Saturday afternoon. Ugh.) so I threw in some black pepper and chili powder. I'd add more chili powder next time, and maybe a bit less sugar, as it was pretty sweet. Tom liked the sweetness of the bread, but agreed it could be cut down a bit.

It was a lot of cornbread for just the two of us, but thankfully neither of us is sick of it yet, even though I've been serving it all week haha. It's also on the menu as a side for tonight's meal of Impossible Taco Pie. I didn't get any pictures of the cornbread, but there are some on the link to the original recipe if you really want to see it. It's cornbread. What do you expect it to look like?

We garnished this yummy soup with sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon and green onions. 

Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 7/7 bowl-scrapes

Maple Chicken Drumsticks & Prosciutto-wrapped Asparagus

As per popular request, here's the recipe Tom's mom gave me for maple chicken drumsticks. We had it at a family dinner a few weeks back and Tom just goes crazy for it, so I knew I needed to get the recipe, stat!
I'm not sure what book she got it from, and I'll probably never see the book, since it was in storage in the shop during the move-out, tear down the old house, rebuild the new house, move back in phase and it got mouse poo all over it so I think she was going to throw it out after rescuing some key recipes. Whatever book it's from, it's an easy, delicious meat to make for company coming over. Or just to eat because it's so yummy....

Maple Chicken Drumsticks
Serves: 2-3 people
Total time: 1.5 hours


2 lb drumsticks (around 10)
1/3 cup flour
vegetable oil


1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp sherry, or water
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp pepper


1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Put flour in a shallow bowl and coat the drumsticks well with it.
3. In a large frying pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan until it is nice and hot*. Once oil is hot, brown the chicken, turning often - about 5-10 minutes. 
4. While the chicken is browning, whisk together the syrup, vinegar, water, soy sauce, ginger and pepper together in a small bowl.
5. Arrange chicken in a single layer in a baking dish and pour the sauce evenly over the chicken.
6. Bake, uncovered, at 375 for 30 minutes. Turn chicken pieces and bake for 45 minutes longer.


ENJOY!!


*You want to make sure the oil is hot enough so the chicken will start sizzling as soon as you put it in. Otherwise it'll just soak up oil instead of browning up nicely. If you're wondering how to tell when the oil is hot enough, I looked it up a tip that I've never actually tried myself (and probably should sometime) on About.com: 
"The easiest, and safest, method I have found is to stick the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If you see bubbles form around the wood and they start to float up, your oil is hot enough to cook with.
While a drop or two of water will work, a wooden utensil really is safest. I can never stress enough that water and hot oil do not mix."


You can see on the picture, there is also some asparagus on the plate. But what could possibly be wrapped around the asparagus? I'll tell you: prosciutto! Such a tasty treat, such a yummy meat to eat :)


I blanch the asparagus and then dump it in an ice bath to stop it cooking. I then spread a slice of prosciutto with some spreadable cream cheese and wrap it around 2 or 3 stalks of asparagus. I lay them out on a small baking sheet, put it under the broiler for a few minutes until the meat crisps up a little bit and then serve it up. Super easy and delicious.
I was planning to try it next time without the blanching step, to see how the asparagus turns out that way, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. 


Mmm, I almost feel like making a second dinner....

Sweet & Spicy Bacon Chicken with Crash Hot Potatoes

Food, ah food. It seems it's been since February since Tom and I have "eaten". Sorry about that. I usually only feel inspired to post if I make something new that turns out fantastically, whereas if I'm making meatloaf or something else that seems 'normal' to me, it doesn't seem Inspired enough to be worthy of The Food Blog. Besides, we went through a laptop crash somewhere in between then and now as well, so that doesn't help.


Well, I loaded pictures off the camera onto the new laptop this week and discovered some yummy looking meals that we've had in the past while. Today's recipes are for a yummy bacon-wrapped chicken and smashed baked potatoes. Very tasty - when I saw the pictures, I started craving right away, so guess what we'll be eating tonight? :)


Sweet & Spicy Bacon Chicken 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

Total time: around 45 minutes

What you'll need:
4 chicken breasts cut in thirds (12 pieces)
bacon slices

salt and pepper to taste

garlic powder

chili powder

brown sugar

(recipe is from this website)

Crash Hot Potatoes (recipe is adapted from this website)

Total time (using top-heat in the oven, not baking at 450): 30 minutes 

potatoes (as many as you like, cut in half)

3 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

herb of choice to taste (I think I used some basil, oregano and roasted garlic & red pepper flakes last time)

Boil potatoes in a pot of salted water until they are fork-tender.

Generously drizzle olive oil on a baking sheet and place the potatoes on it, leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher (I actually found a fork worked better), gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. You may find they sortof fall apart all over the place instead of just smooshing down. That's okay. They'll still taste good in the end!


Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil and sprinkle them with salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you feel like using.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. (or, as I think I did last time, I just put them on the top rack and set the broiler on them for 5-10 minutes - much faster, haha).

This results in potatoes that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Mmm, we loved them and couldn't stop gobbling them up!

Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad or: A Salad Convert's Testimony

Okay, so, growing up, I was never one for salads. My father didn't eat them, we didn't eat them in our house, and I turned up my nose at them at occasions which required me to end up with a plateful of salad in front of me. Thankfully, taste buds can change! My very first enjoyed taste of salad was at the East Side Mario's on Upper James. I believe I was there with my mother and one or both of my sisters. I tasted my sister's Caesar salad and I was hooked! Since that time, if a regular salad was offered, I would usually not eat it, but I would always take Caesar salad when offered the option. Little by little, other salads began creeping into my mouth. Usually what made it passable (tasty, even?!) would be a fruity vinaigrette dressing. 
I was totally unprepared for how deeply I would fall in love with salad when we went to our dear friends, Pete & Bri's, wedding last July (yes, I know the grammar was terrible just there - sorry, sorry). A honey-mustard dressing served over a bed of greens with pecans and roasted pears and, gasp, goat cheese. Oh. My. I have wanted to taste that salad again so many times since then I really couldn't count them.
The next best salad I had between now and then was a delightful concoction served to us at the Barbara Caffe, in Stoney Creek. Tom and I had gotten a discount voucher for a 5 course tasting menu at this fabulous, authentic Italian restaurant, where we had dined once before with his parents. The meal was fabulous all the way through, and I drank so much wine I was afraid of the high heels I was wearing. (No, I was not drunk, just feeling fuzzy - I usually only have maybe a glass or a half a glass, and that night I had 3 glasses of various wines!). But my favourite part of the meal? The salad. 
The description of this salad on their online menu is this:
Insalata Caprino: Mesclun salad topped with warm grilled vegetables, cherry tomatoes and soft goat cheese and tossed with a balsamic and sundried tomato dressing
Um, yum?
Again, it's the goat cheese that gets me. It looks all dry and crumbly but then it's warm and melt-in-your-mouth creamy-delicious. 


Anywho, Tom and I were discussing the possibility of me trying to make my own fruity vinaigrette dressing this weekend and when I asked him this morning what he wanted for dinner, all he requested was a salad with a fruity vinaigrette dressing. 
And this is what we had:

- Spring mix greens
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Grapes
- Chopped walnuts
- Warm crumbled goat cheese
- Strawberry vinaigrette dressing (which was sortof based off a recipe from allrecipes.com: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp (I added lots more) of mashed strawberries, mixed together)


I see now that usually the ratio is a bit different, with something like 3 parts olive oil to 1 part balsamic. But we love balsamic vinegar, so the taste of it in the dressing was something delightful to us. 
Maybe I'll learn to make proper salads that I can be proud of yet! This was surely a good start - it was sooooo delicious, we both probably could have just eaten that for dinner - all that fruit in there and then the goat cheese. Sigh....Delightful. My taste buds are still dancing, 2 hours later!

Christmas Cookies

It's finally December, which means I can finally decorate and listen to Christmas music. Tom and I have strictly imposed this rule upon ourselves to avoid getting sick of Christmas before it's even here. Of course, baking is one holiday task which Tom encourages me to undertake at any time of the year when the fancy should take me to do so. Today I made some yummy sugar cookies. This recipe is from my Company's Coming "Holiday Entertaining" cookbook, with a few small changes.

Sugar Cookies

Makes: I don't really know how many. It would depend on what size and shape cookie cutters you use. I'd guesstimate between 4 and 5 dozen.

Total time: An hour or so. With cookies, it's hard to say, since you have to keep doing different trays full of them, so that makes it take longer.

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1. Cream butter and sugar together well. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

2. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt. 

3. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and keep working in little scoops of flour until the dough will roll out the thickness of pie crust using a floured rolling pin. 

4. Cut into 3 inch (7.5 cm) rounds (according to the recipe). Myself, I used my new cookie cutters to cut out all kinds of different Christmas-y shapes. As you run out of dough to cut, pack it back into a ball and re-roll it out to keep cutting until you've used up all the dough.

5. Bake in 350 degrees over for 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Icing

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp butter or margarine, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

5 tsp water or milk (I use milk)

Food colouring (optional)

1. Beat first four ingredients together in a bowl, adding more icing sugar or water as needed to make proper icing consistency. 

2a. (the way I've done it) Spread icing onto cookies - I use a cake icing spatula to make it nice and easy. Scatter sprinkles over the iced cookies to add a nice festive touch.

2b. (the cookbook way) Tint the icing your desired colour and pipe designs on cookies.

The reason I haven't been piping them is because I hate my icing decorator bottles. I got them from Pampered Chef a few months back, thinking they would be fun. Sure. Whatever. I'd way rather have a regular icing bag with tips instead of these bottles. It's very difficult to fill them, very difficult to control the flow of the icing, and very difficult to get them clean again. Thankfully they didn't cost too much, so I didn't end up wasting too much money on them, but still. When I buy something, I want it to work well for me.

Savoury Pork Roast

So, in my weekly meal planning, I usually plan to do a meal with chicken one night, pork another night, beef another night, as so on. On Monday I wasn't sure what to make, but for some reason I was leaning towards pork, so I allrecipes.com'd "Pork", sorted it out by rating and chose this delightful recipe. It was ridiculously easy to put together and it tasted so good. So. Good. So, allow me to share:


Savoury Pork Roast
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour & 25 minutes


1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp dried marjoram
1 tsp salt
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 boneless pork loin roast


1. Combine the seasonings; rub over roast.
2. Place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 160 degrees F. 
3. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing.


My Thoughts:
- It could probably have used even less salt
- I didn't have a rack that would have fit in one of my baking dishes, so I just put it straight in the glass baking dish and that was fine
- It cooked faster than I thought it would. When I do this again, I'll probably check it a bit earlier to keep it from overcooking (it didn't go really dry, but I could've safely gotten away with less time and thus a juicier roast)
- Marjoram and sage: I'd never used them before but OH. MAN > they are soo good. 


Star-Reviewer Tom gives this recipe 7/8 lip-smacks

What was THAT all about?

THAT previous post was about some 'squares' that I made for the youth group bake sale that evening. They were supposed to be "double brownies" meaning that they had a layer of chocolate brownie, followed by caramel brownie, followed by icing, following by chocolate drizzle. Also: chopped walnuts. They were supposed to be delicious.


However, somewhere along the way I forgot to read part of the directions. I suppose that since I was making 'squares', I automatically assumed that the pan I baked said squares in should also be square. I poured the batter into a 9x9 dish instead of the called-for 9x13. No wonder they didn't bake all the way through.


I'm willing to try this recipe again, though, since the taste there was good, just the appearances weren't exactly beautiful.

See: they LOOKED good in the pan....

 ...until I removed a square and you couldn't really tell that I'd taken one out....

Mmm - don't they look delicious?

So, I'm not going to post this recipe until I make it again and they turn out wonderfully. Because that's what this blog is all about: making you people think that everything I make is fantastic. Of course, these last two posts may have destroyed all your previous confidence in my abilities....we'll just have to work at restoring that lost faith then, yes? Yes. I think so.