Bookmarked

Photo via Canadian Living

 I haven't done a bookmarked post for a while. Here's a few things I've come across in the last couple of weeks. Again, if you try out any of these recipes let me know in the comments how it turned out!

Spicy Sausage Cornbread Cobbler via Canadian Living I came across this while looking the for sesame snaps recipe. I may make this for dinner. Perfect for a chilly rainy day like today. Can you tell I'm on a diet? See food. Want food. 

Sesame Snaps via Canadian Living I saw sesame snaps at the store today and now I really want some. I didn't buy any, of course. I'm actually in the process of making these as I write this. Craving? What craving?

Lime, Lemongrass, Ginger, and Coconut Cheesecake via Nutmegs, seven Wow this looks so good. Would have been perfect with my Thai feast had I come across this recipe a couple of months ago.

Grapefruit, Lime, Ginger Juice via Lottie and Doof I seem to really be digging this flavour profile lately. In anticipation of spring methinks.

Spiced Pear Cake with Browned Butter Fudge Dribble via Dinner with Julie You had me at browned butter. This is another "quick make it before spring!" recipe.

Homemade Mascarpone via Vegetarian Ventures I saw a tub of mascarpone on sale at the grocery store this weekend. For $10. Yikes. I've made ricotta at home a few times and it's easy (no, it really is!) and this is the same process only using cream instead of milk.

Skillet Mac and Cheese with Spinach and Bacon via Dinner with Julie This is on the menu for this week. Looks yummy.

Bacon and Brie Potato Skins via Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice The brie with sweet potatoes is an interesting twist on potato skins.

Super Simple Scrumptious Supper

This is, hands down, once of the simplest and most delicious meals I have ever made. They always say that keeping food simple is best, and this is a fantastic example of that. The pork is 3 ingredients plus good old salt and pepper. The roasted vegetable side is thrown in the oven with the pork at the back end of the cooking time. Easy peasy.

My family was all abuzz about pork this weekend. Yesterday my step mom called asking if we wanted some pork from Costco. She had already bought a couple of pork loins and was going back for more. Because they were $11 bucks for just over 7 pounds!!! What!?! Of course I wanted some. So my step mom called my brother, my brother called me, and a few hours later I had 15 pounds of pork. Oh yeah.

Obviously a pork roast was in order for dinner tonight. A quick Google search turned up this recipe for Pork Loin Roast with Garlic and Rosemary. This one's a keeper folks. The pork came out perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, and incredibly juicy. I'm sure this is a testament to both the recipe and the meat itself (Costco's meat is so good, right?).

Okay, pork is in the oven. What will we eat with it? I had a few vegetable contenders- sweet potatoes, parsnips, or carrots. I went to my new go-to vegetable book Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule. This book is my new favourite. Beautiful photography, simple recipes, and witty commentary. I also love the fact that the author has organized the recipes by colour i.e. Yellow- there is a page for corn, one for pineapple, one for yellow onions. Each fruit or veg has a funny overview on the vegetable, a few suggestions on how to use it (not recipes but simple uses like Nectarines: Relish = diced nectarines + cherries + red onion + ginger), and then a recipe highlighting the produce.

The parsnip recipe won me over. The recipe in the book is for Roasted Parsnips with Pears and Thyme. I didn't have any pears, but apples with pork are classic, so I swapped apples for the pears. Now, I actually am just warming up to the sweet with savory deal. I have never had a pork chop with applesauce. It just weirded me out. BUT the apples were the best part of this meal and went perfectly with the pork, other vegetables, and thyme. I will make this again and again.

By the way, how do you like the alliteration in my post title? I enjoy it myself.

One Year Ago: Sriracha Devilled Eggs, Tomato Soup Cake

Two Years Ago: Creamy Mushroom Fettucine with Spinach

Three Years Ago: Ricotta Gnocchi

ROAST PORK LOIN WITH THYME PARSNIPS, CARROTS, AND APPLES

Vegetable recipe adapted from Ripe by Cheryl Sternman Rule

Serves 4

I used dried rosemary on the pork and it was great, but I bet it would be even better with fresh rosemary. Ditto for the thyme with the vegetables.

• Roast Pork Loin with Garlic and Rosemary via Epicurious
• 4 parsnips, peeled
• 2 apples
• 2 cups baby carrots
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Get the pork loin in the oven following the recipe linked above. Keep in mind that you will putting another pan in the oven beside the pork or on the rack underneath, so plan accordingly.

Cut parsnips in half across the width. Cut the thinner ends in half again lengthwise. Cut the wider ends into quarters lengthwise. Cut the apples into wedges, discarding the core.

Place apples, parsnips, and carrots on a baking tray lined with foil. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss and arrange everything in a single layer, ensuring the apples are not sitting with the skin side down (you want the flesh to touch the tray so that it gets caramelized for optimal deliciousness).

After turning the pork halfway through cooking, put the tray of vegetables in the oven with the pork, either side by side on the middle rack if you can, or on the rack below. Roast for 15 minutes then flip the apples and veg with a spatula. When the pork is done let it rest as per the recipe, keep the apples and veg in the oven cooking until the pork has finished it's rest. Serve with ketchup if you are 2 years old, otherwise nothing else is needed.

Breakfast Smoothie

I forget which movie it is from, but there is a dialogue in said movie where the dad says to his daughter, "What are you drinking?"
"A smoothie," she replies.
"What's a smoothie, like a milk shake?"
"I guess so, only smoother," his daughter says.

Smoother, indeed. Smoothie is a strange word, isn't it? Think about it. Smoooooooth-ie. Anyway, I have one almost every morning. I pack as much good stuff as I can into my smoothies to set me up for the day. If lunch ends up being a pemeal bacon sandwich from the cafeteria downstairs (read: no vegetable to be found), oh well, I had my nutrition-packed smoothie for breakfast.

I don't have a recipe for my smoothies, but I do have a basic formula. A least one fruit, something green, something high in fiber, some protein, and some dairy. Sometimes on ingredient fills a couple quotas: black beans provide protein and fiber. Or berries give fiber and fruit.

Here is a list of stuff I've used for each category of my formula. Items with a * are the ones that usually make the morning cut, if you're interested.

Fruit and Veg:

• Apple (skin on, cut into chunks)*
• Banana*
• Mixed frozen berries*
• Pumpkin puree*
• Carrots
• Nectarine
• Fresh or canned peaches
• Fresh, frozen, or canned pineapple
• Mango
• Kiwi
• Cranberries

Protein:

• Protein powder (duh)
• Tofu
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils
• Nut butter
• Nuts
• Chia seeds
• Egg (I've never actually thrown in a raw egg, but I've thought about it. My Grannie used to make us "egg nog" with milk, raw egg, and vanilla for breakfast all the time before school and we were fine. But definitely follow guidelines for consuming raw eggs)
• Cooked quinoa*
• Whey leftover from making ricotta cheese (yep, I'm that "thrifty")

Fiber:

• Oats* (throw in raw, or cook in the microwave with some water for a smoother smoothie)
• Ground flax*
• Chia seeds
• Cooked quinoa
• Beans or other legumes- kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, lentils

Dairy or Dairy Alternative:

• Yogurt* - plain, vanilla, Greek, etc. Whatever was on sale that week, basically
• Milk
• Rice milk
• Almond milk

Something Green:

• Spinach*- fresh baby spinach or thawed frozen spinach
• Kale
• Arugula (in a pinch, but it's a very strong flavour)

Other Miscellaneous Add-Ins:

• Turmeric (doesn't really add any flavour but it's a super food that is good for inflammation among other things)
• Honey or maple syrup when using plain yogurt to sweeten it up a bit
• Fresh ginger
• Cinnamon*
• Pumpkin pie spice

There you go. Mix and match to a healthy breakfast and a hall pass to eat a greasy lunch. Also really good for tricking your kids and/or husband into eating spinach.

One Year Ago: Overnight Oatmeal,

Two Years Ago: Cranberry Coffee Cake

Three Years Ago: n/a

Superbowl Food

It's Superbowl Sunday. If I was a good blogger, I would have whipped up these recipes, photographed, and posted a week ago. But I just can't bring myself to make recipes in advance of the actual event. That would mean making all this food and then the three of having to eat it, only to make it all over again for the Big Day. Not happening.

And really, do you really need a special occasion to make Soft Pretzel Bites with Buffalo Cheese Sauce? That is a negative. Any random Sunday will do, thank you.

I have been trying to make great soft pretzels forever and the never turned out the way I wanted. I wish I had stolen the recipe from the movie theatre where I had my first job. I worked at Wetzel's Pretzels kiosk. We made the dough on premises (whereas at Pizza Hut the dough came in frozen) but it never occurred to me to make them at home. I've even looked for a copy-cat recipe online, but to no avail. What made these different is usually pretzels are boiled in a baking powder solution, but Wetzel's just baked them. I'd never tried the boiling method until today because it just sounded like too much work. But it was a success, and honestly not much more difficult that straight baking them. 

One tip though- don't boil the pretzel bites for more than 30 seconds. The first batch I made I boiled them too long, more like a minute and a half probably, and they are kinda ugly. Yummy, but ugly, as you can see below. The one on the right is the one that boiled too long, the one on the left was boiled for just 30 seconds.

You can thank Pinterest for the Cookie Brownies. I didn't even repin this, but they were stuck in my head. Brownie Cookies? Crookies? Brookies? Whatever you choose to call them, they are over the top and delicious. Definitely for sharing though. I wouldn't trust myself make these if I were home by myself one night. It's bad enough that whenever I make chocolate chip cookies I save a container of raw dough in the fridge for snaking on. Cookie dough dipped in brownie batter? Game over.

One Year Ago: Crunchy Sesame Cookies

Two Years Ago: Chocolate Beet Cupcakes

Three Years Ago: nada, Feb 2010 was a slow year at Four Seasons Kitchen

SOFT PRETZEL BITES WITH BUFFALO CHEESE SAUCE

• Ballpark Pretzel recipe from Chuck Hughes
• Buffalo Cheese Sauce recipe from Half Baked Harvest

Pretzel Bites:
Follow the recipe for Chuck's pretzels up to and including step 3. Rather than making large pretzels in step 4, rip a handful of dough and roll it out into a rope. Cut (a pizza roller works well) into 1/2-inch pieces and roll each into a ball. Continue with the rest of the recipe, however I omitted brushing the pretzel bites with egg wash.

When boiling the pretzel bites, work in small batches. I gather up and many as I can hold (gently!) in one hand and drop them quickly in one at a time, timing once the last one goes in.

Serve pretzels same day as they are made. If not serving immediately after baking, put them on a plate or in a container but don't cover or else they will get soft on the outside instead of staying crisp.

Cheese Sauce:
Make the buffalo cheese sauce following Half Baked Harvest's recipe. Keep warm in a small Crockpot if serving as a snack at a party. Or just eat it really fast, which shouldn't be too hard to do.

BROWNIE COOKIES

Method from Pin Cookie

You can use my favourite recipes that are linked below, or your go-to brownie and chocolate chip cookie recipes.

• Lentil Brownies
• Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix up a batch of cookie batter and brownie batter. Tyler helped me and made the brownie batter for me, but if you are making both yourself I would suggest making the brownie batter first as it doesn't contain any leavener.

Butter a muffin min, either a standard sized tin or a mini muffin tin (I prefer how the cookies made in the standard tin turned out). Drop a tablespoon of brownie batter in each muffin well and spread to cover the bottom. Take about a tablespoon of cookie dough and press it flat in your palm to about the size of the muffin tin and put that on top of the brownie batter. Bake 20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Bolognese Sauce

I have been meaning to post this recipe for Bolognese Sauce for a long time. It's been sitting in my drafts for two years, in fact. Oops.

Ground beef mixed with tomato sauce this is not. There are no hard bits of ground beef here. I don't know how to describe it except to say that the meat is soft, but "soft meat" sounds wrong somehow. Just make it and you'll know what I mean. This recipe makes a lot of sauce. It freezes really well, and since it takes all day to make (are you still reading after I said that? Good- it's made in the slow cooker) it's nice that you have lots to show for it. I always have some in the freezer for a quick meal, and as soon as I run out I make some more.

The sauce is great on pasta, of course, but I love it best on spaghetti squash. It is lighter and actually more flavourful, I find and the squash adds another dimension of flavour. I've made it before and then mostly forgot about this weird and wonderful vegetable until a girls weekend in October. One friend brought meatballs with tomato sauce and another made spaghetti squash in place of pasta. Even those who were sceptical went back for seconds and we didn't even need to make the back-up pasta. 

One Year Ago: Chocolate Lollipops

The Scoop on Chia

Schnitzel, Spatzle, and Sweet and Sour Cabbage

Two Years Ago: A Tale of Two Banana Breads

 Open-Faced Steak Sandwiches

 

Three Years Ago: Home Made Gifts 

 Man-Sized Salad

Baked Fish and Chips 

Olive Bread

Birthday Menu

Chai Tea Mini Cupcakes (with a must see baking fail)

SPAGHETTI SQUASH RECIPE

SLOW COOKER BOLOGNESE

from Best of America's Test Kitchen 2007

• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/2 onion, chopped fine
• 1 carrot, chopped fine
• 1/2 celery rib, chopped fine
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp tomato sauce
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 1/2 lbs ground pork
• salt and pepper
• 3 cups whole milk
• 3 cups dry white wine
• 2 28-oz cans whole tomatoes, pureed in a blender until smooth
• 1 tsp minced fresh thyme

Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, celery, carrot and cook until softened but not browned, about 6 minutes. Stir in garlic and tomato paste, cook about 30 seconds. Add meat, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and cook, breaking up meat, until crumbled into tiny pieces and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Add the milk, bring to a vigorous simmer, and cook until milk evaporates and only clear fat remains, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add wine, tomatoes, thyme and bring to a boil. Transfer mixture to a slow cooker. Cover, set the temperature to high, and bring to a boil.

Remove the lid and simmer until the sauce is very thick, 7 to 8 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: Sauce can be refrigerated up to 4 days, frozen up to 2 months.


Recipe can be made partially ahead of time by completing all steps prior to putting sauce in the slow cooker- refrigerate sauce in pot overnight, then bring to a boil again before transferring to slow cooker.


Place slow cooker on a counter or on the stove away from cabinetry as a lot of steam will rise from the sauce as it cooks.


If you will be out of the house for longer than 7 or 8 hours, set the lid halfway off the slow cooker rather than removing it entirely, then simmer for 10 to 11 hours.

Recipes of Four Seasons Kitchen Past

When I posted the Thai Feast post, I figured it was pretty lengthy already so I decided I would do a separate post for my usual "One Year Ago", "Two Years Ago" section.

Then I forgot to do that.

So here you go, Four Seasons Kitchens recipes you might have missed from November and December 2009, 2010, 2011 (I've been blogging over 3 years!!!! WHAT).

November 2009:
Hawaii (no recipes, nice photos though)
Bruschetta and Fresh Pea Spread
Pulled Pork Pizza inspired by Hawaii
Roasted Vegetables with Lemon Ailoi
Best Drop Biscuits
Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

December 2009:
Two Recipes in One: Spicy Cheese Dip and Antijitos
Spanakopita
Spaghetti with Spaghetti Squash
Tex-Mex Lasagna (ignore terrible photo)
Egg Nog Panna Cotta

November 2010:
Korean-Style Grilled Pork
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Chorizo Cheddar Squash Leek Bread Pudding
Potato Camembert Prosciutto Pizza and Farfalle with Tomato Mushroom Sauce 

December 2010:
Chicken Pot Pie with Super Flaky Crust
Crusty Crown Loaf
Sunday Lasagna

November 2011:
Cooking with Chinese 5-Spice
Homemade Chicken Stock
French Chocolate Cake
Roasted Flour Shortbread

December 2011:
Leek, Chicken and Feta Stuffed Pitas
Roasted Root Vegetable Puree
Slow Cooker Pulled Beef

Healthy Lunch: Quinoa Salad

Everybody gets on the healthy bandwagon in January, don't they? I am no exception. For two weeks in December I have this mentality that I have to eat every unhealthy thing in sight. I'm looking at you, bake sale at work. I spent $15 in one day on baked goods. And ate them all. Yikes. It also didn't help that it was cold enough that I didn't want to run outside (I draw the line below minus 5 Celsius) so therefore I gave up on fitness for the last couple weeks of December as well. Holy Hell, did I feel gross come January 1 (and not just because of the NYE champagne).

Usually I don't want salads in the winter. This salad however, with it's lack of lettuce, hits the mark. Plus, I don't have to get up from my desk to go upstairs to the lunch room to warm it up. Which I realize is counter-healthy resolution month but I'm just being honest here.

QUINOA SALAD

An Amy Original

Serves 1

• 1/3 cup quinoa
• chopped vegetables- I've done cucumber, tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli or shredded carrot, tomatoes, roasted peppers, etc. Use what you have.
• 2 tbsp reduced fat Feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• balsamic vinaigrette, store-bought or recipe below

Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the quinoa and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender- 10-15 minutes. You can tell it's cooked by looking at it- the grains will expand and be opaque throughout. Drain and rinse under cold water if making salad right away.

Toss all ingredients together, adding as much balsamic dressing as desired. Refrigerate until ready to eat.

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

Makes multiple servings. 

This is one of my sorta-recipes. A guideline if you will. I like more vinegar than oil in my dressings, but you can easily change it to suit your tastes.

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• a squeeze of honey
• a dollop of Dijon mustard 
• 1/2 clover garlic, grated on a Microplane or chopped very finely
• salt and pepper

Add all ingredients to a mason jar or other container with a lid. Shake well. Store any unused portion in the fridge.